Remembering the Savior's Sacrifice

Q: What does the Bible say about the Lord's Supper?

The Lord's Supper is a remembrance of Christ's sacrifice, symbolizing His body and blood given for believers. The Lord's Supper, as instituted by Christ, serves as a simple act of remembrance of His sacrifice. In Luke 22:19, Jesus instructs His disciples, saying, 'This do in remembrance of me.' This emphasizes that the elements—the bread and the cup—are symbols representing His body and blood, not the actual body and blood of Christ. It's meant for believers who recognize and remember the grace of God through Christ's work on the cross.

Q: How do we know the Lord's Supper is for believers?

Jesus specifically set the Lord's Supper for His disciples, highlighting it as a table for those who have faith in Him. The Lord's Supper is an ordinance given to believers and is intended as a reminder of Christ's atonement for sin. The command 'This do in remembrance of me' is directed at those who know and trust in Him. 1 Corinthians 11 instructs believers to examine themselves before participating, as the table is for those who recognize their need for Christ and the significance of His sacrifice. This communion is not meant for the unregenerate, as only those who are in Christ can rightly remember Him in this act.

Q: Why is the symbolism of the bread and wine important?

The bread and wine symbolize Christ's broken body and shed blood, essential for understanding salvation. The bread and wine in the Lord's Supper hold great significance as they represent the respective elements of Christ's sacrifice: His broken body and shed blood. According to 1 Corinthians 11:26, as often as we eat the bread and drink the cup, we proclaim the Lord's death until He comes. This act of remembrance encapsulates the believer's faith and reliance on Christ's atoning work. Understanding the symbolism helps to affirm the grace provided through the new covenant established in Christ's blood, which is distinct from any works-based observance of the law.

Q: What does it mean to participate in the Lord's Supper out of remembrance?

Participating in the Lord's Supper as an act of remembrance reinforces our recognition of Christ's sacrifice for us. To participate in the Lord's Supper out of remembrance means actively acknowledging and appreciating the significance of Christ's sacrifice. The phrase 'This do in remembrance of me' from Luke 22:19 encapsulates the purpose of the Supper: to look back on His atoning work and express faith in His finished sacrifice. As believers partake, they should reflect on their need for grace, recognizing that the elements symbolize redemption brought through Christ's blood. This remembrance is not just a ritual but a profound engagement with the essence of the gospel.

Q: Why is the Lord's Supper not a sacrament?

The Lord's Supper is not a sacrament because it does not have saving power; it serves as a remembrance of Christ's one sacrifice. The Lord's Supper differs from sacraments in that it is not an act that conveys grace or accomplishes salvation. Instead, it is a symbolic remembrance of the one sacrifice of Christ, who 'by one offering hath perfected forever them that are sanctified' (Hebrews 10:14). This distinction is critical: the Supper does not confer grace but calls believers to remember what Christ has already accomplished through His death and resurrection. The table serves as a celebration of that finished work, rather than a means to secure salvation.

The title of this message tonight is Remembering the Savior's Sacrifice. I don't suppose there's any function
of the Church around which there's more confusion and more error
and more misunderstanding and more ignorance than the Lord's
table. And it ought not to be so. It
doesn't seem to me that it should be so at all. And yet I imagine
there are those here tonight who would say this, I know nothing
about what we're doing. I know nothing about why we're
doing it. I'm just confused about coming to the Lord's table. Should
I come or should I not come? Should we have it or should we
not have it? Who's invited, who's not invited? Well, I hope I can
clear up these questions and these doubts and these misunderstandings. I believe that I can if you'll
let me speak to you and if you'll listen to the things that I believe
God has instructed me to say. Now, if you'll take your Bibles
and open them again to Luke 22, I'm not going to speak long,
but I'm going to speak positively. I don't come into the pulpit
to speak on the Lord's table with doubts in my mind about
it. It's settled in my heart. And I say with all the confidence
in the world that the things I'm going to say to you tonight
are of the Lord. I hope you'll receive them as
such. Now in Luke chapter 22, the Lord had met with his disciples
in this certain place to observe the Passover. Now you're familiar
with the Passover, aren't you? You remember the Jews, the Israelites
were in Egypt, and God would deliver them. And the Lord told
Moses to have the family take a lamb, set it aside for certain
days. That's a picture of Christ. Christ
is our lamb. And this lamb was set apart.
It was the first thing of the flock without spot or blemish
and so forth. It was set apart for certain
days to make sure it was without blemish, sickness or spot. And
then the lamb was slain and roasted and the flesh was eaten and the
blood was put on the door. And after that, every year at
a certain time, the Jewish nation would observe the Passover. The
word Passover comes from that statement, when I see the blood,
I'll pass over you. I'll pass over you. Now you see
the picture there of Christ. Christ our Lamb was slain, His
body was broken on the cross, bruised, His blood was shed,
and the sacrifice has been made. And through the offering of Christ,
through the blood of Christ, through the broken body of Christ,
The judgment of God passes over all who by faith have received
Christ. The blood has been applied to
our hearts. Now the Passover was about to
be fulfilled. All of these Old Testament types
were pointing to Christ. Just like no longer do we have
an earthly priesthood because Christ, our priest, has entered
into the holy place, not made with hands, but into heaven.
No longer do we sacrifice a lamb because God's lamb has been sacrificed. No longer do we come to a tabernacle
with a holy of holies and a holy place and the altar of incense
and the table of showbread and the candlestick and the mercy
seat and all of these things because, and that's where God
met man and man met God because God has taken away the first
and established the second. Christ is entering into heaven
itself. put His blood on the mercy seat of glory in the presence
of God, and by one sacrifice He's perfected forever them that
are saved, or are sanctified. And He's finished His work and
sat down at the right hand of God, and we're redeemed. We no
longer have circumcision and Sabbath days and holy days and
feast days, the feast of the first fruits and the feast of
the unleavened bread and the feast of this, that and the other.
Christ is fulfilled in all. He is our Sabbath. He is our
rest. He is our priest. He is our atonement. He is our righteousness. He is
our meeting place where we meet God is in Christ. That's all
been fulfilled. It's put away. He taketh away
the first. And the Passover, When Christ
died, you see, that veil in the temple was written in twain from
top to bottom. That was done away with. The
Holy of Holies is open to any sinner who comes through Christ.
And the Passover was about to be fulfilled. This was the last
one. This was the last one. And our Lord took bread, and
He blessed it, and He break it, and He gave it to His disciples,
and He said, This is my body which is broken for you. In verse
19, he said, he broke the bread and gave it to them and said,
this is my body which is broken for you, this do in remembrance
of me. Well, you can readily see that that was not his body. That was an emblem or a symbol
or represented his body was right there. He hadn't even been killed
yet. He hadn't even died yet. So he didn't transfer himself
into that bread. That's obvious to anybody who
wants to see the obvious. But it's a representative of
his body. It's a representative. And then
he took the cup and he said, this is the New Testament or
New Covenant in my blood and which is shed for you. Now, in
verse 20, I want you to look at verse 19 rather, he said,
this do in remembrance of me. Now let's go back and see what
he did. He was right there with the twelve disciples, with the
believers, with his children, his people. And he took the bread
and he blessed it and break it and gave it to them and he said,
this do. I say two simple words there. This do in remembrance
of me. This do. Not something else. This do. Not more or less. This do. But the mind of man, the religious,
twisted, complicated, self-righteous mind of man with all of its works
and methods and means and all of this has perverted and twisted
and warped this table. It's a plain supper. It's not
a grand display. Man dresses up in a gaudy robe. I got an article in the Bulletin
Sunday I want you to read about being critical of religions of
this day. But I'm critical of them because
they're misleading people. And I see this Pope and these
priests of Rome, and they're doing it in Episcopal churches
and Methodist churches so-called Christian churches. Fellas are
dressing up in robes, and they're burning candles, and they're
forming processionals, and they're waving cups, and doing all of
this sort of thing, you know, mumbo-jumbo, and magic formulas,
and trying to change the elements into something which they can
never be. It's just a simple thing. Our Lord took bread and
He break it and He said, this do. Don't dress up in a uniform. Don't light a bunch of candles.
Don't form a procession. Don't go through a lot of magic,
mysterious formula. Don't do this. Just this do. And He took the cup and He said
it in a very simple fashion, this do in remembrance of me.
And then the Lord's table has become a church supper. And I
regret that many Baptists, I have people all the time asking me,
what do you believe about closed communion? My friends, this is
not a church supper, this is the Lord's table. I wish we could
get that across to folks. This is not a fellowship supper,
this is the Lord's table. This is not a Baptist supper,
this is the Lord's table. There may be Baptists who are
lost, church members who are lost, who do not know Christ.
They shouldn't come to the table. The table is for people who know
Christ. Let a man examine himself, and
so let him come. Not let the pastor examine him,
or the Board of Deacons examine him, or him examine someone else.
This is for believers, this is the Lord's table. This do in
remembrance of me. You can't remember one whom you've
never known. You can't come and take the bread
which represents his body broken for you if it wasn't broken for
you, or drink the wine that represents his blood shed for you if it
wasn't shed for you, if you don't have faith in him. The thing
that opened my eyes on this more than any single thing that I've
ever read in my life, and God teaches us in strange ways, but
I was pastored at a little church in Chattanooga, and then I pastored
the Pollard Baptist Church. And we had had the Lord's Table,
and I just fell into the ritualism of the Pollard Baptist Church,
and for peace and quiet, I accepted some things that I shouldn't
have accepted. And one of the things over there was closed
communion. In other words, the only people
who could come to the Lord's Table and serve at the Pollard
Baptist Church when I went there as pastor were those who were
members of the church. Baptists, missionary Baptists,
members of that particular church. And I was reading the works of
Roland Hill, some of his writings, and I came across an experience
which he had. He went to preach to a certain
church, I forget where it was, but he was sitting in the congregation
and they were observing the Lord's table. And the deacons were lined
up like our deacons here, and the pastor prayed, and they took
the bread, and they gave it to the deacons, and they started
up the aisle. And when they went by Rolling Hill, and I remember
this man, Rolling Hill, one of God's servants, a child of God,
believed on Christ, and had been invited by this church to preach
for them that Sunday. And he was sitting there as the
guest minister, a child of God, and when the deacon came to him,
he reached for the bread, and the deacon pulled the plate back.
And Roland Hill looked up at him and he said, I'm sorry, sir,
but you can't come to our table. And Mr. Hill said, oh, I beg
your pardon. I thought it was the Lord's table. I don't want to come to your
table. And I don't want you to come to my table. But brethren,
if we can, by God's grace tonight, meet at the Lord's table, wouldn't
it be something? The Lord's table. So this is
an error. But the twisted minds of men,
oh, how we take the simplest thing, we take the gospel which
is, I know it's profound. I know it's profound in its planning
and profound in its execution. profound in its reach and profound
in its depth and all that, but in the stating of it, it's simple. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. And I know that the Lord's table
and all that it represents, I'm not trying to oversimplify it
at all. God deliver us from that. And
I know it's profound in its representation and profound in its meaning and
profound in its And it's symbolism, but brethren, it's simple. It's
simple. The Lord is here, His people
are here, and these elements which represent His broken body
and shed blood are here. Take, eat, and do it. This do. No more, no less, just this do. In remembrance of me. And then
I want to look at these four simple words. In remembrance
of me. This clearly states the purpose
of the tape. Now he didn't say, now listen
to this, he didn't say this do as another sacrifice. The Lord's table is, represents
a sacrifice, it's not a sacrifice. Don't ever call this a sacrament. It's not a sacrament. And if
anyone talks to you about taking the sacraments, you just tell
them, we don't take sacraments, we observe the Lord's table.
This is not This table has no saving power. People come to
this table who are saved, not to get saved. There's one sacrifice. Turn to Hebrews 10, verse 12.
The thought is really blasphemy. The thought is really blasphemy.
By one offering. Look at Hebrews 10, verse 12.
It says here, In Hebrews 10 verse 12, But this
man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat
down on the right hand of God. Verse 14, For by one offering
he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. You see
that? Hebrews 10, 12, and 14. One sacrifice. This is not a
sacrifice. This is not an offering. Christ
is our sacrifice and Christ is our sin offering. One sacrifice. Secondly, he did not say this
do as a sacrifice. He did not say this do as a means
of discipline for the Church. I believe every believer ought
to be at the Lord's table, but I don't believe that the Lord's
table is meant either to receive members or to dismiss members.
I don't think the discipline of the Church ought to be conducted
around the Lord's table at all. This is a precious time. This
is a holy time. This is a time of rejoicing and
meeting with our Lord. It's not a time for us to be
judging or condemning or censoring or disciplining or excluding
members or taking them in. It's not a means of discipline.
This do in remembrance of me. And then he didn't say this.
And this is prevalent in our day. He didn't say this do as
an indication of church unity. I've had pastors say to me, I
say, when's the last time you had the Lord's table? Oh, it's
been a long, long time. Why? Well, there's division in
the church. You mean you don't take the Lord's
table because there's division in the church? That's right.
Well, strange that the Apostle Paul should give the most vivid
account, an accurate account of the Lord's table to the church
at Corinth. Doesn't that strike you as strange?
If there's any church, Charlie, that's divided, it was the church
at Corinth. If there's any church misusing the gifts, just so many
things, divisions and schisms, yet this was the church to which
Paul gave this vivid account of the Lord's table. No, our
Lord didn't ask us or command us to come together around his
table to indicate our unity. or indicate our worthiness or
indicate our merit. I'm here tonight to indicate
my guilt and my need for God's mercy. I'm here because I am
a sinner, not because I'm not a sinner. I'm here tonight because
the blood of Christ cleanseth us from all sin, not because
I have no sin from which to be cleansed. I need the mediator
more now than I needed him then. And I expect to need him more
next year than I do this year. He doesn't say, this do in order
to be saved. This table is no more a way of
salvation than baptism is a way of salvation. This do in remembrance. Those words are so simple, this
do. This do. He took the bread and
he blessed it and he break it and he gave it to them and said,
take eat this do in remembrance of me. And he took the cup and
he blessed it and he distributed it to his disciples and he said,
this do in remembrance of me. But the way of natural man is
always to distort and to complicate and to confuse the way of life
because the way of man is the way of works. If I can make it
elaborate, if I can make it impressive, if I can make it mysterious,
if I can make it strange, it'll appeal to the natural man. But
to appeal to the child of God whose whole attention and whose
whole heart and whose whole heartbeat and life is wrapped up in Christ,
well, you'll offend him with your fanciness. Because all he
wants is Christ. The simpler, the straighter,
the better. Three things in closing. First,
the object of the supper. The object of the supper. Secondly,
the elements of the supper. And thirdly, the attitude of
those who come. Now, the object of the supper.
It's summed up in this word right here in Luke 22, 19. This do
in remembrance of me. It's to remember Christ. This
table, the object of this table is to remember. Paul said, and
you show forth my death till I come. It's to remember Christ
and to show forth His death. How do we remember Christ? Well,
I wrote down some things that are on my heart as I come to
the Lord's table, and I trust that you will agree with this.
I remember Him with gratitude as my representative. He said,
this is my body. My what? My body. My body. The Lord Jesus Christ as my representative
one day took on himself a human body. Isn't that something? That's
the incarnate God. The Word, the Word of God was
made flesh and dwelt among us. He was made of a woman. He was
made under the law. He was numbered with the transgressors. He lived in a body, a human body
right here on this earth. This is my body. And I remember
with gratitude my Lord who came down here and was made in the
likeness of sinful flesh and took on himself a human body
and was tempted and tried and tested in all points as I am,
yet without sin. I remember him with gratitude
as my representative, a man, the man, Christ Jesus. He was
on this earth in a human body. You see, we don't have a high
priest who cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities.
Our Lord can be. He knows what it is to be tried. He remembereth our frame. He
knoweth that we're dust. He knows what it is to thirst
and to hunger and to be weary and to know sorrow and tears.
He knows what it is. And then I remember him in faith
as my substitute. He said, this is my body. And
he said, this is my blood. And I'll tell you this, the presence
of the wine in that cup, separate from the bread, two containers,
indicate that that blood was separated from that body. He
died. He shed his blood. Jesus Christ,
our Lord, shed His blood. He was wounded for our transgressions
and bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon Him, and by His stripes we're healed. He shed His blood
for the remission of our sins. He's my substitute. I remember
Him as my representative. I remember Him as my substitute,
and I remember Him with joy as my mediator. Turn to Hebrews
4. Here's a verse I want you to
look at, Hebrews chapter 4. Now then, back in the Old Testament
days, they had a priest, a high priest, and the priest brought
the blood, and the priest offered the sacrifice, and the priest
prayed for the people, and the priest was the mediator, the
high priest before God. The priest represented the people
to God and represented God to the people. Well, what are we
going to do? We don't have a priest. Brother
man, are you our priest? No sir. No sir. But we have a
priest. Look at Hebrews 4 verse 14. Seeing then we have a great high
priest. But where is he? He's not in
Rome. He's not clothed in funny looking robes. He's not wearing
a silly looking hat. He's not going through a lot
of mumbo jumbo. He's passed into the heaven.
Who is our great high priest? Jesus, the Son of God. Seeing
we have a high priest, in verse 15, and we don't have a high
priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities,
but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without seeing.
Let us therefore, me and you, people of God, believers, come
boldly, not timidly or shyly or confused, but boldly unto
the throne of grace. That's God's throne. And it's
a throne of grace because of Christ. That we may obtain mercy
and find grace to help in time of need. We got a high priest.
Yes, sir, we do. He's a high priest in every sense
of the word. A whole lot more than those fellows
that were back in Moses' time. More than Aaron. You see, Aaron
had a limited priesthood. Christ has an eternal priesthood.
See, Aaron died. Christ ever lives. See, Aaron
offered sacrifices, the same sacrifices over and over again.
Christ offered one. Aaron offered the sacrifice of
animals. Christ offered his own blood. Aaron offered sacrifices which
could put away sin. Christ offered a sacrifice able
to perfect forever them that are sanctified. Aaron offered
for his own sins. Christ didn't have any. He even
brought blood and put it on a metal mercy seat. Christ took his blood
into the presence of God himself. Oh my, we have a high priest,
goodness gracious of life. Yes, we have a high priest. We
don't dare come without him. I opened my mouth and used God's
name, he'd send me to hell. Because no way I could give Him
the glory that's due unto Him, but when I call His name, Christ
calls it for me. And He represents me. And then
I remember Him as my coming Lord. The Lord's Supper one day will
be no more. Be no more. For hope's going
to give way to reality and faith's going to give way to sight. Just
like the Passover served its day, this will serve its day
when I stand in His presence. All right, let's look at the
elements. He says in verse 20, this cup is the new covenant,
New Testament covenant. Let's use the word covenant in
my blood. It's doubtful. Now listen to
me and I'll be as, make this as simple, plain as I can. It's
really doubtful that we can know Christ as we ought to know Him
unless we have some understanding, some understanding of the two
covenants. This cup is the new covenant in my blood. This cup reminds us of the new
covenant. What are these two covenants?
First of all, there was a covenant made with Adam. There was a covenant
made with Adam in which we were included. This do and live. Now that covenant was broken.
And Adam lost the blessings, and we lost the blessings. It's
broken. And no use coming to me with a covenant that says
it has anything to do with me doing, because anything I do
is imperfect. So that covenant is shattered
and broken and put away. There was a new covenant. Why
is it called a new covenant? Because it followed the Adamic
covenant? No sir, it was before it, but it was newly revealed.
That which was first was not revealed first. The everlasting
covenant. You see, Christ's blood is the
blood of the everlasting covenant. He's the surety of a better covenant. But this new covenant, the covenant
of grace, is called the new covenant because it's newly revealed.
It's been revealed. God didn't come to Adam first
and say, you're going to fall and be a sinner, but I'm going
to make a covenant with my Son and Savior. That wouldn't have
made any sense to Adam. But God came to Adam first as
a man, created holy and upright, and gave him a covenant. Now,
when He made that covenant with Adam, He made the covenant with
the whole human race. Agreement, compact, covenant,
call it what you will, testament. But He made it with Adam, and
when He made it with the head of the race, He made it with
the father of the race, He made it with us because we were in
Adam's loins. Every man, woman, child that's
ever been coming to this world came from that man. We were all
in his loins. When God made that covenant with
him, just like Isaac was in Abraham's loin when he paid tithes to Melchizedek,
or Levi was in Abraham's loin. So God said to Adam, this do
and live, before God ever said that to Adam, there was an eternal
covenant already in the purpose of God. Christ was a lamb slain
before the foundation of the world. There was a people chosen
in Christ before the foundation of the world. There was a people
given to Christ before the foundation of the world. There was the blood
sacrificed in the mercy and grace of God. There was a surety of
everlasting covenant before the foundation of the world. But
it was in God's purpose, in God's mind, in God's plan. But God
gave this covenant to Adam. He broke it, fulfilled it. Christ
said, this blood, is the new covenant, the everlasting covenant,
the covenant of grace, the covenant of mercy. And this covenant is
the everlasting covenant which the Father made with the Son.
It's the covenant that God made with himself that he would redeem
a people, and we are in it, we're included in it. by virtue of
our union with Christ. You see that? We were chosen
in Christ. We were loved in Christ. When God made the covenant with
His Son, gave Him a people, we were that people. And by one
man's disobedience, we were made sinners. By the obedience of
Christ, we were made righteous. As in Adam we died, in Christ
we live. And this blood and this broken
body are the foundation on which we're saved, on which we're cleansed,
on which we're pardoned, on which we're seed into the good favor
and into the mercy of God. The bread and the wine, the law
is satisfied and justice is satisfied. You see that this is the new
covenant. This is not the old covenant of works. This is not
the covenant made in Eden's garden. This is not the covenant made
with man. This is the new covenant in my
blood. And my blood is the is the terms
and my sacrifice and my righteousness are the terms by which God receives
sinners, by which that covenant is ratified, by which that covenant
is fulfilled, by which that covenant is put into operation, by which
that covenant is able to give the blessings of the covenant.
The blessings of that covenant come through this broken body
and shed blood. It does not come through church
membership and through the law and through obedience and through
works and through man's decision. The blessings of the covenant
of grace, the everlasting covenant made with the Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit comes through the blood of Christ and through the
broken body of Christ. And that's what we're saying.
The object of this table, this due in remembrance of me, And
the elements of this table represent the broken body and the shed
blood of our Lord. That's the way that the blessings
of the covenant come our way. This cup is the covenant in my
blood. There's no other way. And I'll
tell you, he that hath the Son hath life, he that hath not the
Son hath not life. He that hath Christ And I know
we want to say, well, I know, but they're fine folks, you know.
I know, but this doesn't say, he that's fine folks, it says,
he that hath the son. The blood, the justice of God
has to be satisfied. The law of God has to be obeyed.
The sacrifice has... You see, that's the same thing
as making a way for Cain. No way you can make a way for
Cain. Abel comes through the blood, and God receives his sacrifice. And you can't twist it, change
it, make it any other way for God to receive sin if the covenant
has been established. And that covenant is in His Son,
in the broken body and shed blood of His Son. I don't care whether
it's my mama or your mama or my daddy, your daddy, my brother,
your brother, my aunt, my uncle, my cousin, my sister, my close
friend, goody-goody preacher, pope, whoever he is, it doesn't
matter. Cain was Adam and Eve's firstborn. Firstborn. But he missed Christ. He brought his works and God
turned him away. God turned him away. And his
brother bought the blood. And that's the only way to come.
Now you just make up your mind. You can't twist and turn and
change. God Almighty's character, and
we're talking about the character of God here. We're talking about
the attributes of God here. God's law and holiness and righteousness
and justice have got to be satisfied. The sacrifice has got to be,
say, slain without the shedding of blood. There's no remission. No remission. No remission. That's clear. That's clear. Now, the attitude of those who
come. I hope I've made this clear to you. I want to so desperately.
We talk on all night. God has to reveal it. The attitude
of those who come. Now, the bread and the wine at
the Lord's table are received the same way that Christ is received.
How is Christ received? So as to save our souls. First
of all, Christ is received freely. Now let me look around about
here. We're going to eat some bread in a moment. We're going
to drink some wine. That bread represents the broken
body of our Lord. That wine represents His blood.
And it was given to us in a covenant before the world was made. God
says this is the basis on which I'll receive sinners. This is
the basis on which my blessing shall flow to sinners, Adam's
son. through the blood of my son,
through the obedience of my son, through the sacrifice of my son.
Now we're coming to take this bread. Any of you got any bread
in your pocket? Anybody bring any wine with you?
Nobody. You came empty-handed, didn't
you? It's already here. It's already prepared. And that's
why you have to come to Christ. To receive His mercy and His
grace and His blessings, or through His broken body and shed blood,
and you come empty-handed. You don't bring nothing. Not
a thing. You see that? You don't bring
a thing. In my hands, no price I bring. Simply the cross of Christ. It's
already prepared. Don't even bring anything. You
better not have in your pocket anything in association with
this. I don't care. You might have a knife in your
pocket and some change and a billfold and some pictures. You better
not have anything to add to this. You see what I'm saying? Freely.
Receive Him freely. Secondly, how do we receive Christ
freely? How do we receive this bread
and wine? Well, I'm not going to sprinkle it on you. I'm not
going to surround you with it. It's not going to be held by
you. It's going to be eaten. It's going to be put inside. And that's the way Christ is
received. He's received freely and he's received in you. In
you. God was pleased, Paul said, to
reveal his Son in me. That's what Christ is talking
about, eating his flesh and drinking his blood. This is symbolic of
it. We're going to eat the broken
body and drink the blood. or the elements or the representatives
as we have already received Christ in our hearts. Religion's not
a show. Saving faith is not a profession,
it's not a doctrinal position, it's not a church affiliation,
it's not a regimented life, it's an experience. It's a union. It's a vital living
union with the living Lord. It's Christ in you, the hope
of glory. And then thirdly, we're going
to receive this bread and wine freely. You didn't bring anything,
it's here waiting on you. You came empty-handed. You came
with a need, and that need will be met. You receive it internally. That's the way we receive Christ.
And then you receive it personally. And that's the way Christ is
received. You can't receive it for somebody else. It wouldn't do any good, but
I know some of us think about it so often. I'd love to do this
for somebody else, wouldn't you? And that's just humanly speaking.
I'd like a relative or a loved one or a man you work with. Wouldn't
you like to just take that bread and wine and say, I'm doing this
for Joe, I'm doing this for Bill. That's not the way, personally.
I know your dear wife sitting beside you. Remember Lot's wife,
Christ said, Remember Lot's shortest sermon he ever preached, three
words, remember Lot's wife. Lot was delivered, she was damned.
And yet she was with him, she heard the angel, she saw the
angel, she heard the warning and started on the journey. But
you can't do anything for anybody else, but you can do something
for yourself. You can come personally to Christ. And you have to dismiss,
we don't do this. That's the reason I say this
is the Lord's table. It's not a church supper. It's not a fellowship
supper. It's not we doing anything. It's
me doing something. That's what Paul said over there
in Corinthians. He said, let a man examine himself.
And this is what I'm saying to all who are here tonight. If
you have freely, intimately, personally, inwardly, willingly,
lovingly received Christ, Come to the table. It's you and the
Lord, as if nobody else were here. Thank you, Lord, for saving
my soul. Thank you, Lord, for making me
whole. I got a hymn they used to sing at the tabernacle in
London before they came to the Lord's table. This cup of memory, Lord, I take,
and thus I remember Thee. When to the cross I turn my eyes
and rest on Calvary, O Lamb of God, my sacrifice, I remember
Thee. And when these lips grow dumb
and my mind and memory flee, when Thou shalt to Thy kingdom
come, O Lord, remember me. Our Father, bless this table. We wait before Thee. Make it
a precious and personal time for each one of us. For Christ's
sake, Amen.

Remembering the Savior's Sacrifice

What does the Bible say about the Lord's Supper?

How do we know the Lord's Supper is for believers?

Why is the symbolism of the bread and wine important?

What does it mean to participate in the Lord's Supper out of remembrance?

Why is the Lord's Supper not a sacrament?

Sermon Transcript

About Henry Mahan

Comments

Articles

Featured Authors

Podcast

Sermons

Featured Preachers

Books

Browse by Format

Music

Recent Comments

About

Legal

Subscribe

Account

Articles

Featured Authors

Podcast

Recent Comments

Sermons

Featured Preachers

Books

Browse by Format

Collections

Music

About

Legal

Subscribe

Remembering the Savior's Sacrifice

What does the Bible say about the Lord's Supper?

How do we know the Lord's Supper is for believers?

Why is the symbolism of the bread and wine important?

What does it mean to participate in the Lord's Supper out of remembrance?

Why is the Lord's Supper not a sacrament?

Sermon Transcript

About Henry Mahan

Comments

More from Henry Mahan

Related Sermons

Same Scripture

Articles by Henry Mahan

Books by Henry Mahan

Where this book stands in the tradition

Plato

Augustine

The Western Christian Tradition

This Book