Now I want you to open your Bibles
again to the book of 1 Corinthians. We're going to read a verse of
Scripture from chapter 10. 1 Corinthians, the 10th chapter,
and the two verses that I wish to read, verses 16 and 17. 1 Corinthians 10, 16, the cup of
blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood
of Christ? The bread which we break, is
it not the communion of the body of Christ? For we being many
are one bread and one body, for we are all partakers of that
one bread. Now the religious world, and
we are living in a most religious world, almost everybody is religious
to some degree, and many are most satisfied with the degree
to which they have attained in religion. But almost everybody
you know has some form of religion, and almost everybody you know
has some thoughts and opinions about this ordinance, the Lord's
Table. Now, opinion is not hard to come
by. Understanding is. Opinion is not hard to come by. Understanding is. One of the difficulties of pastoring
and preaching is being able to teach. And the problem is not with what
we have to teach or our own ability to teach, but finding somebody
who wants to be taught. That's the problem. Everybody wants to tell you what
they think. A good pastor is supposed to
be a good listener. Christ said he was a good teacher.
So opinion is not hard to come by. Understanding is. To some, this is a sacrament. Do you know what a sacrament
is? A sacrament is a means of grace. The Catholic Church has seven
so-called means of grace. Some of them are baptism, confirmation,
matrimony, the sacrament here of the Eucharist, I believe they
call it something like that. But to some people, the wafer
dipped in the cup of wine becomes, actually becomes, the body and
blood of Christ. And to receive that wafer dipped
in wine is to receive Christ. and is to receive the merits
of his sacrifice. Well, this is not true. This
is not true. The wine does not become the
blood of Christ. The wafer does not become the
body of Christ in any way. These elements are symbols. They're
not means of grace. And then to some people this
is a ritual. What is a ritual? Well, a ritual
is nothing more than a regular religious ceremony to be observed
at a certain time or on a certain day to derive from it some superstitious
benefit or power. This is not a ritual. It is an
ordinance. This is not a religious ritual.
To mechanically approach this table is to walk on dangerous
ground. to superstitiously approach this
table is to walk on dangerous ground. This is not a ritual. And then to some, it's a church
fellowship feast. If a church is observing the
Lord's table, many Baptists believe this, unfortunately, it is an
indication that everybody is in unity. That everybody's in
good harmony, everybody's serving the Lord in blessed accord and
fellowship. This is not a church fellowship
supper. This is a communion. That's what it says here. Look
at the text again. Verse 16. This cup of blessing
which we bless, is it not a sacrament? No. A ritual? No. A ceremony? No. A church fellowship
feast? No. It's communion. Communion. Is it not the communion of the
blood of Christ? This bread which we break, is
it not the communion of the body of Christ? This cup of blessing is communion. Now I'm going to see if I can
make good on that and see if we can understand what the Apostles
talking about here. Turn to Acts chapter 20, I keep
that place there, we're coming back, but I want you to look
at Acts the 20th chapter verse 7 a moment. And let's see if
I can find scripture for what I'm doing right now. It says
in Acts 20 verse 7, and upon the first day of the week, Acts 20 verse 7, when the disciples
the believers, and this supper is only for believers. No one
else is to partake of the Lord's Supper but a genuine believer,
a true believer. When the disciples, the believers,
came together to break bread, Paul preached to them. When they
came together for the purpose of breaking bread, not to eat
supper, that is to break bread at the Lord's table, Paul preached
to them, and he preached till midnight. That's when the fellow
fell out of the window, you know. Eutychus and then he when he
was healed Paul went on preach till the morning So what I'm
doing tonight is the same thing that Paul did when the people
assembled to break bread the Apostle preached to him and I'm
sure his subject was the sacrifice of Christ The Lord's table the
communion. All right. Let's go back to the
text now in 1st Corinthians 10 verse 16, let's start with the
first four words the cup of blessing and The cup of blessing. Now, this blessed supper of our
Lord, he speaks of the cup, but when he does, he's speaking both
of the cup and the bread. These elements. This cup of blessing. The blessed supper of our Lord
has two elements. There's the cup of wine and the
unleavened bread. First of all, the cup of wine. Now, my friends, Wine is wine
in the scriptures. It is so wearisome to me to hear
people try to prove from the Word of God that the wine which
they drank in the New Testament is grape juice. This is so ridiculous. To make wine anything other than
wine is to reveal total ignorance. It's to use a lever of ignorance
to try to accomplish a purpose. Wine is wine. Listen to these
scriptures. The elder is not to be given to much wine. Now
why in the world would such a statement be in the word of God, Jay, if
it was grape juice? Let him drink all of it he wants
to. Let him keep it everywhere, carry
it around in a satchel. Not given to much wine. Here's
another. Be not drunk with wine. No man
ever got drunk on grape juice. No man living ever got drunk
on grape juice. This scripture, take a little
wine for your stomach's sake. Medicinal purposes, the alcohol
in the wine was good for the stomach because of the water
and the conditions of that day and probably could be the same
advice used today. Take a little wine for your stomach's
sake. And then they called our Lord
a wine-bibber, a grape-juice-bibber? Brethren, I mean, let's become
fools for Christ's sake, but not fools for foolish sake. I
don't mind being a fool for Christ's sake. I don't mind being ridiculed
for preaching the gospel, but I'm not going to be ridiculed
for being a plain old fool. When our Lord made wine at the
marriage supper, turned the water into wine, And they brought this
wine which our Lord made to the governor of the feast. And the
governor praised the host. He said, you know, usually at
a feast like this they'll serve the best wine first. And then
when everybody has drunk enough of that that their taste is not
quite as keen as it was at first, they're well drunken. Not that
they were drunk, but they had drunk enough that That it, you
know, their taste wasn't as keen and sharp as they'll serve the
bad one. But he said, you saved the best till last. Our Lord
made the best wine. Now the thing men need to learn
to do is take the Word of God as it is. The Word of God teaches
temperance. The Word of God teaches care.
The Word of God teaches good judgment. Paul said, if it offends
my brother to drink wine, I'll drink no more wine. Now that's
not grape juice, Russell, that's wine he's talking about. Who's
it going to offend to drink grape juice, or orange juice, or apple
juice? But if it offends my brother to drink wine, I won't drink
any more wine. If it offends my brother to eat meat, pork,
these things, that is an offense to him, that gives him trouble,
or meat offered to idols, I won't eat it. And this is a careful
thing, but I'm not going to I'm not going to tell a lie in order
to protect the Scripture. I'm going to teach it just like
it is. And I believe that the Spirit of God and the presence
of our Lord Jesus in a man's heart will teach him to be temperate
in all things and to use good judgment and common sense and
understanding. But the reason, I'll tell you
the reason why wine is being used here in this Lord's Supper
is because that's what it was in the Scripture, number one.
And number two, wine is the only thing that can properly represent
the pure blood of our Lord. Grape juice, you fill this glass
with grape juice and let it sit there two or three days and come
in, there'll be a rotten scum on top of it. Because there's
some form of bacteria in there that causes it to to be impure. But now you can fill this full
of wine and just leave it here sitting day after day after day
after day after day, it'll be the same one. Because it's pure. And our Lord's blood is pure.
And that's the one reason why we, the main reason why we use
wine at the Lord's table is it ably represents the purity of
His blood. And then the bread is unleavened. Now turn to 1 Corinthians 5.
Unleavened means bread made without yeast. Bread made without yeast
is unleavened bread. Now leaven is a type of evil
in the Bible. Leaven is a type of evil. He
says here in 1 Corinthians 5, verse 6, and here's where leaven
is compared to evil. Your glorying is not good. Know
ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? A little leaven
will make impure the whole lump. Now read on. Purge out therefore
the old leaven. that you may be a new love, as
ye are unleavened, pure without sin in Christ. For even Christ
our Passover is sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the
feast, not with the old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice
and wickedness, but the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth."
That's talking about our own spirits and attitude. But when
we keep this feast, the Lord's table, we do it with unleavened
bread. And it only takes a little more care to get unleavened bread. It only takes a little more effort
to get unleavened bread. And unleavened bread represents
the pure body of our Lord. Now, we get this unleavened bread
and we put it in there in the cabinet. And it's been there,
some of it, for years. The bread you're going to eat
tonight representing the body of Christ has been in there for
years, two or three years. It's pure. Nothing happens to
it. And this is the way our Lord's
body is without sin. Our Lord was without sin. He
was without leaven. He was pure. Now, I have no more
intention of observing the Lord's table without the proper elements
than I'd baptize without water. That's how strong I am on this.
I have no more intention of observing the Lord's table without wine
and unleavened bread than I have the intention of baptizing with
a glass of water. You say, what if you're out in
the desert and there's no place to baptize? We ain't going to
baptize. And if I'm where there's no wine
and unleavened bread, we're not going to take the Lord's supper.
This is not a means of salvation. This is a means of remembering
Christ. We're going to do it right. Let me show you something
in 1 Samuel 15. Now, it's not my prerogative
to change the commands of our Lord. You say, well, they started
sprinkling people because they didn't have enough water. Well,
we're not going to start burying people on top of the ground,
are we, because we run our cemetery space? If you're going to baptize
someone, you've got to bury them in baptism. They've got to go
beneath the ground. And to bury someone in baptism,
you've got to go beneath the ground. And if we're going to
observe a supper which represents the body of our Lord and the
blood of our Lord, we're going to use the elements that the
Scripture commands. And the elements which rightly
represent our Lord's body and blood. Pure, without leaven. Saul, you remember King Saul,
1 Samuel 15, 18, the Lord sent him down. Samuel is talking to
him here, verse 18, he said, Lord sent you on a journey. 1
Samuel 15, 18, it said, you go utterly destroy the sinners,
the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are consumed.
Now wherefore then didst thou not obey the voice of the Lord?
But just fly up on the spoil and did evil in the sight of
the Lord. Now here's what Saul did. He went down there and he
killed everybody but the king and a few others and saved the
sheep and the cattle and took the gold and silver and brought
it home with him. God told him to wipe out the whole place.
The whole place. He brought... Oh, here's his
excuse. And Saul said, yes, I observed
the voice of the Lord. I've gone the way which the Lord
sent me and I've brought Agag, the king of Amalek, and I've
utterly destroyed the Amalekites. I saved the king. And the people
took of the spoils, sheep and oxen, the cheap of the things
which should have been utterly destroyed, we brought them back
to sacrifice unto the Lord thy God in Gilgal. Samuel, we brought
these things back to sacrifice unto God. And Samuel said, hath
the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices
as in a man obeying the voice of the Lord? Better to obey than
sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. For rebellion
is as a sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and
idolatry, and because you've rejected the word of the Lord,
He's rejected you from being king." That's strong, isn't it? This cup of blessing, let's look
at it again, verse 16, this cup of blessing, Now, the cup is
spoken of several times in the Scripture, in the New Testament.
There's the cup of suffering. There's the cup of suffering.
You remember, James and John's mother came to Christ and said,
let one of my sons sit on your right hand and one on your left.
And our Lord said, are you able to drink of the cup of which
I shall drink and be baptized with a baptism with which I shall
be baptized? And they said, we're able. He
said, you shall indeed. drink of the cup that I shall
drink. You shall drink of the cup of suffering. Every believer
will. It's appointed unto those who
know Christ to suffer with Christ. All that know Christ shall suffer
with. There's the cup of suffering. The cup of suffering. Then there's
the cup of service. Turn to Mark 9 verse 41. There's the cup of service. Mark
chapter 9 verse 41. The cup of service, he said here
in Mark 9 verse 41, for whosoever shall give you a cup of water,
we're not talking about only literal water there, we're talking
about the cup of works and the cup of service and the cup of
good things. Whosoever shall give you a cup
of water to drink in my name because you belong to Christ,
I say unto you he shall not lose his reward. And then there's
the cup of wrath. Turn to Revelation 14. The cup,
you see, is mentioned several times in Scripture. The cup of
suffering, the cup of service. Even our Lord, talking about
His own suffering, He said, let this cup depart from me. Nevertheless,
not my will, but thy will be done. And here in Revelation
14.10, It says, Revelation 14, 10, The
same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is
poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation. And
he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence
of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. And the
smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever and ever, and they
have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast in his image,
and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name." The cup of indignation. This is the cup of blessing.
Blessing. What is this blessing? All the
blessings that we have in Christ. Remission of sins, wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, Pardon. Acceptance with the Father. Turn
to Psalm 103. Here's what it is. He says in
Psalm 103, verse 1 through 5, here are the blessings. This cup is the cup of blessings.
Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget, and all that is within
me, bless His holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and
forget not all His blessings, all His benefits. He forgiveth
thine iniquities. He healeth our diseases, He redeemeth
our life from destruction, He crowneth thee with loving kindness
and tender mercies, He satisfies thy mouth with good things, so
thy youth is renewed like the eagles. This cup, this cup, the
body of Christ, the blood of Christ, is the cup of blessings,
blessings, blessings, blessings, blessings, eternal blessings,
spiritual blessings. All kinds of blessings, material
blessings, all blessings. Everything we have is in Christ.
Back to the text. This cup of blessings. Look at
the next three words. Which we bless. This cup of blessings
which we bless. We bless it. How do we bless
it? Well, first of all, we bless
it in that we set it apart. Now this is no ordinary cup.
Not by any means. And I don't mean to indicate
that it is. This is no ordinary meal. This is no ordinary meal. This is no ordinary time. And
while I say that this cup does not become the blood of Christ,
and this bread does not become the body of Christ, there is
a sense in which He is present. And it's no ordinary time. I
don't know how to explain that. But I know for the believer,
this is no ordinary time. This is a special time. This
cup of blessing, which we bless, we bless in that we set it apart.
When the firstborn son, Jay, received the blessing, he was
set apart. He's special. It didn't mean
that the father loved him any more than he loved the other
son, but he's special. He's set apart. And this is no ordinary
cup. This is special. This cup which
we take tonight, this cup of blessing is special in that it
represents our Lord's sufferings. It represents our Lord's satisfaction
and sacrifice. This, he said when he held up
that cup, this is my blood which is shed for you. You know what? This is my blood. Now he didn't mean that his blood
was in that glass. for he hadn't then shed his blood. But that wine was not to be poured
out, it was not to be taken lightly, it was not to be regarded lightly,
it's special. We bless it in that we set it
apart. And he said this, he said, back
over there where Jay was reading a moment ago, he said, when you
eat this bread and drink this cup, You show the Lord's death
till he come, wherefore, verse 27, whosoever shall eat this
bread and drink this cup in an unworthy manner shall be guilty
of the body and blood of the Lord. In an unworthy manner. What can be an unworthy manner?
I'm an unworthy person. You prayed that way tonight.
We never become worthy to take this cup. Any man who thinks
he has become worthy to take this cup has just now excluded
himself from the privilege of taking it. Any man who ever feels
that he's worthy to drink this, eat this bread and drink this
cup, right then becomes a person that is not supposed to take
it. We come. But here's what he's talking
about, verse 28. But let a man examine himself. Let a man examine himself. Now
what's the examination? See if he can find out if he's
holy, if he's righteous, if he hasn't sinned today, if he hasn't
thought anything impure today, if he hasn't said anything unrighteous
today. No, sir. You never will come
that way. You examine yourself as a candidate
for the Lord's table in the same way that you come to God for
salvation in Christ. Do you discern the Lord's body
and blood? That's what he said, read on.
For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh
damnation to himself, not discerning." You know what the word discern
means? It means to judge. It means to judge. It means to
understand, discern. We talk about discerning the
spirits. That means understanding, being
able to judge. Being able to know what is of
God and what's not of God. So I come here myself. Now here,
Jay prayed a moment ago, let us examine ourselves. We'd better.
He commands us to. So here's my examination as I
look at this cup of wine, which represents my Lord's pure blood.
And as I look at this bread, which represents the Lord of
Glory's broken body. Have I come to Calvary, have
I seen Christ like you prayed a minute ago? Who He is, the
Lord of Glory, what He did, died for our sins, why He did it,
to satisfy the Lord's justice and righteousness, where He is
now at the right hand of God, and He's my Savior and my Lord
and my hope. I believed on Him, I've received
Him, I've trusted Him. I know He died for sins and for
sinners. And I discern. I discern why
his body was broken. I discern the purpose for which
it was broken. I discern that. I understand
that. And I believe it. Then, Charlie, I have a right
to come. On any other basis, I have no right to come. But
if I can discern the Lord's body, if I can judge and understand
that His body was broken for my sin, and His blood was shed
for my sin, then I have a right to come. And now notice, we bless
it in that we set it apart. We bless it by faith. We bless
it by faith. Let none come but believers who
discern the Lord's body and blood, who lay hold of Christ by faith. I can lay hold of this cup. because
I've already by faith laid hold of Christ. I've got a right to
put this bread in me because by faith I've received Christ
into me. You see that? I have a right
to put this blood in me and this wine in me because I have by
faith received His blood into myself. He that eateth my flesh
and drinketh my blood hath eternal life. And he that eateth not
my flesh and drinketh not my blood hath no life in him. And
so we set this apart, this cup of blessing. All that God has
is in Christ. All that God has for the sinner
is because Christ died for the sinner, and Christ's blood was
shed for the sinner, and Christ's sacrifice and sin offering was
made for the sinner. This is the cup of blessing.
And we bless it in that we set it apart by faith, we set it
apart by prayer. Before we'll take this bread,
I'll call on one of these men to set it apart by prayer, to
sanctify it by prayer. Lord God, by Your grace, accept
through Christ Jesus, receive our worship. Our Lord did that. He broke the bread and then He
says, He blessed it. That is, He prayed. He blessed
it. He gave thanks. He gave thanks. We bless it in that we set it
apart. It's special. It's a special
time. We bless it by faith. We bless
it by prayer, by thanksgiving. Thank you, Lord. Oh, thank you
for the blood of your Son. And then we bless it by meditation. Sit down and be quiet and contemplate
His person and His Word. Contemplate. The devil has blinded
the eyes of religious people in this day by leading them to
believe that much noise is evidence of communion with God. It's not
so. In the scriptures, listen, listen, the Lord's in his holy
temple. Let everybody whoop it up. No
sir, that's not what it says, is it? Let all the earth be silent. That's what it says. The Lord
is in his holy temple. Let all the earth keep silent."
Job said this when he saw the Lord. He said, I put my hand
on my mouth. Isaiah, when he saw the Lord,
complained about his babbling, unclean lips. And then the Scripture
says, when you come to the house of God, let your words be few. So we set it apart by meditation. Meditation. And then back here
in chapter 10, We set it apart by godliness in spirit, attitude,
words, and works. Look at verse 20. Listen to me,
Paul said, I say, 1 Corinthians 10, 20, that the things which
the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils and not to
God. And I would not that you should
have fellowship with devils. You cannot, you cannot drink
the cup of the Lord and the cup of devils. You cannot be partaker
of the Lord's table and the table of devils. You can't do it. What
communion hath darkness with light? What communion hath Baal
with God? What communion hath the world
with our Lord? None. You can't come to both
tables. Can't do it. Got to be all of
Christ or none of Christ. All right, last of all. Let's
go back to the text, verse 16. This cup of blessing, everything
we have, every blessing from heaven's throne is in Christ
because of what this represents. That's every blessing, every
benefit, every joy, every happiness, all glory is in Christ because
He loved us and died for us. If He hadn't died for us, no
blessings would be ours. And we blessed this cup. We set
it apart. We set it apart by faith, by
prayer, by thanksgiving, by godliness, by meditation. We thought on
what we're doing. We thought on what we're doing.
And then here's the question now. Is it not the communion
of the blood of Christ, the bread which we break, is it not the
communion of the body of Christ? What does the word communion
mean? It has a threefold meaning. It means, first of all, participation. Participation. We are united
to Christ by God's eternal election, covenant of grace, but we're
united to Christ by his sacrifice with him to participate in all
that he is and all that he has. We actually are one with Christ. I in them and thou in me. that
they all may be one. We're one with Christ. When God
looks at Christ, He sees me. When He looks at me, He sees
Christ. I'm one with Christ. It's like a woman being married
to a man. She takes his name. The two become one flesh. The
law looks upon them as one. His debts are her debts, her
debts are his debts, his inheritance her inheritance, his blessing
are her blessing. Brother Walter told me down there
in Mexico that one of the reasons why those men do not want to
marry their common-law wives is because when they do, she's
got a claim on the property. You see that? In other words,
they just live with them. They have their children cook
and wait on them and serve them and all this. But they can put
her out any time they want to. And you say, be gone. Nobody
can do anything about it. If he died, somebody else gets that
property, his brother or daddy or something. She doesn't get
it. She's not his wife, you see. And when he marries her, it becomes
hers too. And this is the thing, that we're
married to Christ. We're one, we're united to Christ.
And everything that Christ has is ours. We participate in the
mercies of God because we're united to, intimately, personally,
with Jesus Christ the Lord. We died in Him, we were buried
in Him, we arose with Him, we are in Him, we are seated in
Christ. In Christ. This is what you talk
about in your article. In Christ. I am in Christ. God can no more
send me to hell than He can send Christ to hell, if I am in Christ. Well, God Almighty can no more
cut me off than He can cut His beloved Son off, because I am
in Christ. Participation. This is communion
with Christ. This is not just looking back
at a deed that happened a long time ago. This is communion right
now in a personal, vital, living union with Christ. That's the
reason it's not a sacrament. It can't add anything to me that
I don't already have. And if I don't already have it,
I've got no business eating it. It cannot add anything to me.
It cannot contribute anything that I do not have. Therefore,
it's not a ritual. It's my very last blood, what
this cup represents. The second word, communion, means
partnership. Partnership. Turn to Romans 8.
Romans chapter 8, verse 17. If we're children, we're heirs. Heirs of God and joint heirs
with Christ. Partners. Partnership. Christ Jesus the Lord, He's the
heir, but I'm a joint heir with Christ. This is partnership. My participation and partnership,
and then thirdly, it means fellowship. A sweet, blessed, precious fellowship. Listen to what John says about
that in 1 John 3. You want to turn over there?
You're familiar with it. But turn over there anyway. John
says here in 1 John 3, verse 3, that which we've seen and
heard declare we unto you that you also may have fellowship
with us. And truly, our fellowship, our
communion, our intimate relationship, is with the Father and with His
Son, Jesus Christ. This cup of blessing which we
bless, is it not, isn't this what it is? Participation in
Christ. Isn't this what it is? Partnership,
joint heirship. Isn't this what it is? A personal
living relationship and fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ. Isn't
this what it is? Why do we observe it then? This
cup represents the means of that fellowship. This cup represents
the means of that communion. It's by His blood that I live.
It's by His broken body that my sins are forgiven. And this
cup not only represents the means of that fellowship, but it's
a sign. Christ said, as oft as you do
it, you show something. What do we show? We show His
death until He comes. We show it. And then it's a witness. It's
a testimony. And then something else. Look
at the text now. I'll close this message. It also
is the means and the sign and the witness of our fellowship
together. You see verse 17, for we being
many, I don't know how many are here tonight, but there are many.
They're old and young, people from all walks of life, vocations,
participations. But we're, while many, we're
one bread and we're one body. Why? Why are we one bread and
one body? We're partakers of that one bread
and that one cup. We're drinking as one in Christ. This is a family. I feel this
more keenly all the time with the passing years. There's a
fold and everybody else is outside that fold. They're outside that
fold. And this is the communion. This is it. This is what it's
all about. There's no way that you can get together around a
denomination. No way. That's not the communion. There's
no way you can get together around an ism, whether it be Pelagianism
or Catholicism or Calvinism, any other ism. There's nothing
there to join you. There's no foe. There's no communion.
There's no way you can get together around a theology regarding prophecy
or a way to worship. It's not there. This is it here,
one bread, one body, one sacrifice, one Redeemer. Boy, I tell you,
that's one foe, one family. Christ the head, one body, one
body. That's the reason when we observe
the Lord's table here, I invite every unbeliever to
leave it alone. Every unbaptized unbeliever,
for I believe if you're a believer you'll be baptized. That's the
confession of Christ. That's a sign, that's a seal,
that's a witness. That's just like an Israelite
claiming to love God and being uncircumcised. It was unheard
of, wasn't it, back in those days. So I tell people who are
unbelievers and unbaptized unbelievers to leave it alone. But I say
this, if you're one fold and one brain and one body, and you
belong to Christ, and you see this wine and this bread here
tonight as being the broken body and shed blood of your Lord,
if you're going to praise Him in glory, you'll praise Him tonight.
And take it with thanksgiving. You'll bless it. This cup of
blessing which we bless by faith, by prayer, by thanksgiving, I
wouldn't pass it up unless you hog-tied me and drug me out of
here, because it's special. I didn't make it special, Christ
did. It's not special because of where it is, it's special
because of whom it represents. He's mine and I'm his, and we're
one. And if you're his, we're one. And all the devils in hell can't
separate us. They may separate us by miles
and they may separate us a lot of other ways, but not this way.
We're one. We'll always be one. Russell,
you can serve the table if you want.