and First Corinthians, we run into this statement several
times. This do in remembrance of me. This do in remembrance of me. We shouldn't have any difficulty
remembering our Lord, should we? There's so many things to
remind us of his existence so many things to remind us of his
power, of his wisdom, of his righteousness, of his holiness,
of his grace, of his mercy, of his love. David wrote in Psalm
19, 1 through 3, the heavens declare the glory of God. How
can you look at a sunrise and not think of God? How can a believer
see the raindrops fall and freshen the ground and not think of God?
How can a believer look at the snowflakes on the window, not
a one of them alike, billions and billions and billions of
them, all different, all those marvelous little designs? How
can a believer look at a flower and see how perfect, its color
is so brilliant and beautiful, and I think of God. I was out
digging in my tulip bed this afternoon, and that old hard
ground, frozen through the winter, laying under a blanket of snow,
the leaves and dead grass out there peeping up through the
ground of those little tulip green leaves, you know, just
pushing their way through the clods of earth. Just pick up
a big old clod of dirt and throw it aside, Bob. Just so tender. And I was digging around there
and I broke one off. It breaks off so easily, but
God gave it life. I don't see how we could keep
from thinking of God. David said, Whither shall I flee
from thy presence if I take the wings of the morning and dwell
in the uttermost parts of the sea? Thou art there. by descending
to the grave there. God is everywhere. God is in
everything. Know everything's in God. In
Him everything lives and moves and has its being. In Him all
things consist. The animals remind me of God. Our Savior said, not a sparrow
falls to the ground without your heavenly Father. Does he not
feed the birds, the fowl of the air? They're not worth much,
but our Father feeds them. Close the lily, Solomon in all
his glory was never arrayed like one of these. And I heard something
last week that showed me the hand of God and the wisdom of
God in teaching the birds. I think about them flying from
their home up here in the cold north down to the warmth of the
south They don't carry a roadmap, but they know the way, and they
know the way back. Who taught them? Who taught the
bird to build a nest, where to lay its eggs, how to get food
for its young? Who taught the squirrel to stow
up the nuts in the winter? And I heard something last week.
I've always seen I guess, I don't know whether you say geese or
goose or gooses or geeses, but I see these animals up there
flying south, you know, and they're flying a wedge. Did you ever
notice that? And I'm, see, we're smart. I
never knew why, but I know why now. They're flying a wedge because
flying in a wedge, they break, the one up in the lead, you know,
breaks the wind curl. And they can fly that way like
a streamlined airplane or a sharp nose, a cone of a spaceship,
because it cuts the air. And that's the reason they fly
that way. And they can fly and save 60% to 70% of their energy. They know that. And they switch
off. The lead one, he'll come back
to the back and he'll move up. Did you know that? That's right.
They move up. The same one doesn't fly. in
the nose position all the time. He gets tired, he breaks the
wind, he does the work and saves the other 60 to 70 percent of
their effort because they fly that way. So marvelous what our
Lord, and you read the book of Job, it tells you how God taught
the animals these things, how to care for their young. And
then here's law written on the heart. Paul wrote in Romans 2,
14 and 15, when the Gentiles who have not the law of God do
by nature the things contained in the law, these show the law
of God written on their consciences. Even the little baby, God Almighty's
taught it, taught it right from wrong. It has a conscience. You
have a conscience. The heathen hot and tight in
the heart of the jungle has a conscience. He knows it's wrong to steal.
He knows it's wrong to murder. He knows it's wrong to do these
things, and his conscience hurts him when he does these things.
God has written his law. There's a light that lighteth
every man that cometh into this world, and that light is the
light of conscience and the law of God written on the heart. And then the mystery of reproduction.
Turn to Genesis 1. I want you to look at this here,
and this is repeated over and over again, and I don't know
why the people who argue with the evolutionists and all these
other folks don't use this more, but there's a statement in Genesis
1, verse 24. Verse 24 of Genesis 1, and God
said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his
kind, cattle and creeping things and beasts of the earth after
his kind. It was so, and God made the beast
of the earth after his kind, and the cattle after his kind,
and everything that creepeth upon the earth after his kind. Now, you can have a bulldog and
a sheepdog and a shepherd dog and a collie dog, but a dog will
never give birth to a cat. And you can have a Shetland pony
and a Tennessee walker and a third-bred racer, but no dog will ever bring
forth a cow. There's no crossing. No crossing. God says everything will bring
forth after its kind. It's done that ever since God
made the first one. All the way down the line, after
his kind. I see God in everything, don't
you? And David said how fearfully and wonderfully I'm made. Our eyes are the most perfect. camera. There's no camera. There's
something wrong with everything we invent, but God made the camera. And the hearing organ, the ear,
is so marvelously finely tuned. God, you'll never make a recorder
like that. And the brain, with all of its
cells, and the heart that just keeps on working year after year
after year after year, supplying the body with all, and the human
hand. I read a book one time that Talked
about the animals with their paws and the fish with their
gills and the different kind of animals. Only one, only one
of God's creatures has a hand, and that's man. And he can play
a violin. He can work on the most delicate
instruments. He has a hand. Marvelous. Everything how wonderfully, how
fearfully and wonderfully David said, I made, God made And you
know, every time I see a little baby born, I marvel and I thank
God that he's God. How marvelous it is, how marvelous
it is. And then this book, this book
here, this book is special to me. This Bible, this is God's Word. I don't worship the Bible, but
I I don't know exactly the word
that I want to use here. The Bible, to me, is special. It's holy. It's sacred. It's God's Word. This Bible has
crossed the boundaries of years and years and years. 3,500 years
ago, God inspired the first man to write. And it's just as fresh
and new and vital and vibrant as it was when he wrote it 3,500
years ago. And God Almighty used 40 men
over a period of 1,500 years to write this book. Holy men
of God spake as they were inspired, and God breathed into them His
message, His Word. And they wrote as they were inspired
by the Holy Spirit of God. 1,500 years. Many of them never
knew one another, never met one another, never did compare notes,
and yet when the book was brought together, told the same story
from Genesis to Revelation, the story of redemption through Christ. And this book has crossed the
barriers of nationality. It's just as blessed to an American
as it is to a Hindu. It's just as blessed to a Chinese
as it is to a Russian. It's just as blessed to a black
man as it is to a red man. It's crossed the barriers of
time, of custom, of nationality. All of these things. It's God's
Word. And it's just as fresh and new. I read a poem one time. Somebody said God made the world
and made the Bible to speak to his world. We need to make a
little less of what men have written and a little more of
what God's written. I always recommend that when you read
a book, read it remembering that God didn't write it, a man wrote
it. When you read this book, read it remembering God wrote
it and a man didn't write it. And it means what it means. It
means what it means. And God doesn't do something
because it's right. It's right because God does it.
And let the Word stand that way. But I stood beside the blacksmith's
door, and I heard the anvil beat the vesper chime. Then looking
in, I saw upon the floor old hammers worn out with the beating
years of time. How many anvils have you had,
said I, to wear and batter all those hammers so? Just one, he
said. And then with twinkling eye,
he said, the anvil wears out the hammers, you know. And so
I thought the anvil of God's Word for ages, skeptics and infidels
and agnostics, blows have beat upon. The anvil is unharmed and
the hammers are all gone. They're all gone. I think about
this poor woman, so poor and so ugly, and so filled with venom
and her hatred for God and his word that spoke down at our university
just yesterday or day before yesterday, this O'Hara woman.
And I think about she'll just be one of the hammers on the
floor someday, and when she's dead and in her grave, this whole
book will be going right on, you know. Some poor old preacher
will be out in the pulpit some Sunday preaching it, and she'll
be dead and gone. But it'll go on. Not a den in
it. You see, he said, I never had
but one anvil. The anvil wears out the hammers,
you know. And I thought, he said, the anvil
of God's Word, for ages and ages and ages skeptics' blows have
beat upon, the anvil is unharmed, and don't you forget, The hammers
are all gone. And it's still right here. It's
still right here. Still rich and full and, as Peter
said, precious. And then another thing, turn
to Ezekiel 36. We shouldn't have any trouble
remembering our God. I don't know why that the Lord
had to remind you and me, this doing remembrance of me. Is it
possible we could forget our Lord? Even for a moment, He's
our life. Maybe it's like breathing. We
cherish it, but we take it for granted. But the little nation
of Israel, the little nation of Israel is a memorial to God's
existence and power. In Ezekiel 36, it says in verse
21, Ezekiel 36, But I had pity for mine holy name, which the
house of Israel had profaned among the heathen, whether they
went Verse 22, Ezekiel 36, Therefore say unto the house of Israel,
Thus saith the Lord God, I do not this for your sake, O house
of Israel, but for my own holy name's sake, which you have profaned
among the heathen, whither you went, I will sanctify my great
name, which was profaned among the heathen, which you have profaned
in the midst of them, And the heathen shall know that I'm the
Lord, saith the Lord God, when I shall be sanctified in you
before their eyes. For I will take you from among
the heathen and gather you out of all countries and bring you
into your own land." And he's done it. That little nation,
if it had been any other nation, the Medes and Persians and the
Babylonians and all the rest of them have disappeared from
the earth. But that little nation after 1,900 years is still right
there where it started. God brought them back. So many
reminders. I'm not setting any dates, not
making any prophecies. I'm just saying that God's moving
in everything. And if you've got a heart tuned...
I heard a story one time, years ago, there was an old man down
in South Kentucky that had a fiddle. And this is supposed to be a
true story. Somebody look it up and find out if it's true
or not. But it's years and years and years ago. He played a fiddle.
And he lived, he's a farmer, and he lived for Saturday night,
Grand Ole Opry time. And he'd tune on his little old
radio the Grand Ole Opry from Nashville, Tennessee, WSM. And he'd sit in there in his
living room, and as soon as they'd come on, he'd get his fiddle,
and he'd play. Everybody played, he'd play with
them. His fiddle got out of tune. And he wrote to whoever was in
charge down there, and he said, my fiddle's out of tune. He said,
I just can't get it tuned with you fellas. You play too fast.
And he said, if you'd just give me an A on Saturday night at
8 o'clock, just get somebody to sound me an A. He said, I'll
tune my fiddle. And lo and behold, they stopped
that whole grand old opera one Saturday night. And at 8 o'clock
for Mr. So-and-so up in the mountains
of southern Kentucky, they tuned his fiddle. They kept striking
that 8 for about 30 seconds. And they said, get your fiddle
tuned, George, now. Get it tuned so you can play
with it. And they tuned that old man's
fiddle that night. He got in tune with the station. And I believe this, if a believer
is in tune with the Father's glory, and with the Father's
will, and if the desire of our hearts is to glorify Him, that
believer will see God in everything. I believe throughout the day,
I believe at his work, or in his home, or out there on the
streets, or wherever he might be, on vacation, never gets away
from the presence of the Lord. He thinks on the Lord and he
sees God in the rippling brook. He sees God in the dark clouds. He sees God in the lightning.
He sees God in the storm. He sees God in the flood. He
sees God in the birth of a child. He sees God in all these things. And he's awed. And he's overcome
with the power of his God. He sees the grace of the Lord
in all things. But we're on this tonight, this
memorial. There's no memorial, there's
no object lesson, there's no reminder quite like the one we
observed tonight. He said this due in remembrance
of me. It's a memorial. Our Lord Jesus
Christ ordained it himself. It says the Lord himself took
the bread and break it. It says the Lord himself poured
the wine and gave it to his disciples. The Lord himself blessed it.
The Lord Himself ordained it. The Lord Himself presided over
it. And what I deliver to you tonight,
Paul says, I have received of the Lord. That's where it came
from. It was not planned in some church
council. It was not decreed by some ecclesiastical
synod. It was ordained of the Lord Jesus
Christ. It was ordained by the Lord Jesus
Christ. It was blessed and commanded
by the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, you do this. It's a
royal command from the King of Glory. And he presided over it. And he said here, this do in
remembrance of me. It's not do something else. It's
do this. It's do this. It's not do something
else. It's not remember my birthday. It's not celebrate this, that,
it's do this. Not do something else, do this.
Why do we have all of these different ceremonies and rituals and celebration
and neglect this when he said do this? Not do that, not do
something else. And it's not a church fellowship
supper. He said do this in remembrance of me. Not to build a kingdom
or to build a congregation or to build a fellowship. You do
this in remembrance of me. That's what it's all about. It's
not a church fellowship supper. He said if you want to have a
church fellowship supper, have it at home. You have houses to
eat and drink in. Don't make a banquet out of the
Lord's table. It's in remembrance of me. And
it's not a certain day or a certain hour. He didn't set a certain
time. He said as often as you eat this bread and drink this
cup. As often as you do it, you show
forth my death until I come. And it's not for all the sons
of Adam, for his disciples. He said this is the wine, this
is the blood shed for you, shed for you. He said this is my body
broken for you. You can't say that to the other
sons of Adam, to the unbeliever. You can't say that to the man
who has no faith in Christ. You can't say, this is my body
broken for you, this is my blood shed for you. You say that to
the believer. This is the new covenant in my
blood. This is a new covenant in my
blood. This is God's covenant, the covenant
of grace, the everlasting covenant, the covenant of which I'm the
surety, of which my death is the blood. It's for you. in memory of His cross and shame. I take this supper in His name. This juice of grape, this flower
of wheat, my outward man doth drink and eat. Oh, may my inward
man be fed with better wine and better bread. May Thy pure flesh
and precious blood supply my spirit's daily food. I thank
Thee, Lord, who died for me. Oh, may I live my life for Thee. the main object of the Lord's
table. It's not a ritual. It's not a ceremony of religion.
It's not an ordinance to make us feel holy or pious. It's not
a sacrament. It's not a means of grace. It
has no saving power. There's no magic in the elements.
This bread is bread and nothing else. This wine is wine and nothing
else. And this bread is eaten and this
wine is drunk as a symbol. These elements represent something. They are not that something,
they represent that something. This broken bread represents
his broken body and this wine represents his shed blood. It's
done in remembrance of me. It's not done as another sacrifice. It's not done as another crucifixion. It's done in remembrance of the
one sacrifice and the one crucifixion. The bread is eaten and the wine
is drunk, representing not only what Christ did, but it represents
what we do in receiving Christ. We receive him within. We eat
his body and drink his blood. You see, there's a twofold thing
here. It represents the act of faith
by which we have received Christ's broken body and shed blood. He
said, he that eateth not my flesh and drinketh not my blood hath
no life in him. Well, how do I eat his flesh
and drink his blood? I do it by faith, the same way
that I see the Son. He said, he that seeth the Son
and believeth on him hath life. How do I see the Son? I can't
see him with these eyes. I see Him by faith. I see Him
with the heart. I see Him in His Word. I see
Him in His promises. I see Him in His gospel. I see
Him in the things He's made. I see the Son. And the same way,
when I eat this bread tonight and drink this blood, I'm showing
not only what Christ did for me, in dying for me and his body
being broken and bruised and mutilated and torn on that cross
for my transgression and his blood being shed for the remission
of my sin, but I also show something else. I show that this sinner has not just joined a church
or made a profession of religion or accepted some doctrines, but
I've received a person in my life, in my heart. I've received
him. I've eaten his flesh. and I've
drunk His blood by faith. I have received Him as my Lord
and my Savior, my Prophet, my Priest, my King, my Substitute,
my Mediator, my Representative, my Servant. I have received Christ,
the person Christ, and the work of Christ. So we show the Lord's
death, we show our dependence upon Him, and we show publicly
our reception of Him. We take Christ. We receive Christ. Christ is my life. Christ is
my nourishment. Christ is my food. Christ is
the water of life. Christ is the bread of life.
When we remember Him, we remember Him as our eternal surety, the
Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. We remember Him
as our sin offering. By His stripes we're healed.
We remember Him as our buried scapegoat who bore our sins away. We remember Him as our risen
justifier. We remember Him as our mediator. I cannot speak for others. I
can only speak for myself. And that's what the Scripture
says, let a man examine himself, and so let him be. We're not
to examine anyone else here tonight but ourselves. Have I believed
on Christ? Have I received Christ? Have
I trusted Christ? Is Christ my Lord and my Savior?
Who is He? Who is He? Is He very God of
very God and very man of very man, the God-man who bore my
sins in His body? What did He do? By one offering
he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. Where is
he now? We have a great high priest who is seated at the right
hand of the majesty on high, whoever liveth to make intercession
for us. And by his life I live, and by
his death I live, and by his intercession I live, and by his
blood I am cleansed, and by his Spirit I have life. Some important facts about the
table. It's simple. It's not complicated. It's simple. It's not ceremonial. It's simple. Only broken bread and only poured
wine. To complicate this simple service
with words, with motions, with uniforms, with burning candles
and soft music and exterior means is to destroy it. It's simple. because the gospel
of Christ is simple and uncomplicated belief. Not march, not resolve, not work, just look. No means added, no complicated
systems and no complicated organizations, no complicated uniforms and motions,
in your nakedness, in your need, just look. Look unto me and be
you saved. And that's the simplicity of
this supper. Just bread and just wine, nothing
else. But oh, what it represents. It
represents a body broken for sinners and blood shed for the
remission of sin, and it's universal. It's not sectarian. It's not
just for the priest or the preacher. It's not just for the mature
Christian. It's not just for this organization, it's for all
baptized believers. He said, drink ye all of it. Drink ye all of it. We have no right to turn any
of the Father's children away from the Father's table. He polices
His table, not me. He hedges it about, not me. The
children of God, I'll tell you this, if his body was broken
for you, he's talking to you. If his blood was shed for you,
he was talking to you. If you have received him as your
Lord and Savior, if you have willingly and earnestly and honestly,
lovingly bowed to Christ and confessed Christ, then you ought
to remember Christ. You ought to do this, he said,
do this, this do in remembrance of me. And then it's a memorial. As I said, it's not a sacrament.
The word sacrament means a means of grace. This is not a means
of grace. It has no saving power. It has
no power to save. It's not a means of grace to
accomplish anything. It's a memorial of what's already
been accomplished. You don't come here to get saved.
You come to this table because you are. It's just like baptism. You don't come to the water to
be saved. You come to the water to confess that you have been
saved. You can't remember Christ if
you've never known him. He said, this do in remembrance
of me. You can't remember one you don't
know. So you've got to know him before
you can remember him. That's the reason he said, don't
eat this bread and drink this cup in an unworthy manner, not
discerning the Lord's body. I discern. this bread and why
not perfectly and to any degree. You know, I know this too, the
Lord invites all believers. Peter, are you listening? Peter comes to the table and
he will shortly deny Christ. But he still came. Our Lord didn't
turn him away. I've had churches say to me,
well, we never take the Lord's table because we're not in fellowship.
Well, Coming to the Lord's table depends on my fellowship with
Him most of all. I'm in fellowship with Him. If
you're not in fellowship with Him, you're walking in darkness.
If I wait till everybody in this congregation is in perfect unity,
we'll never, never take the Lord's table. Because we're human. And humans are imperfect and
filled with infirmities. And our Lord, Peter, Charlie
was going to deny Him in just a matter of hours, but he still
came to the table. Why? He was one of God's own.
Thomas, dear Thomas, he was going to doubt Christ in just a few
hours, and yet he came to the table. All of them were going
to be offended and forsake him in just a few hours, but that's
the ones that sat around the table, imperfect sinners. And
I come to the table tonight as an imperfect sinner to eat this
bread with other imperfect sinners, filled with infirmities and needs
and doubts and all of these things that go with the flesh. But I'm
telling you this, we've got a common salvation, and that's Christ
our Lord. His blood is pure. That's the
reason we use wine. His blood is pure. And his broken
body was without sin, and without error, and without taint. That's
the reason we use unleavened bread. His pure body, broken
for us, and his precious blood, the blood of God himself, was
shed for us. Come, though weak and unworthy,
come to the table of the Lord, and this do in remembrance of
me.