Showing the Lord's Death Till He Comes

Now the Lord's table means nothing
to us unless we can partake of it in a spiritual fashion. We
must understand what we're doing and we must do it with faith
and with love and with sincerity. To come to the table of the Lord
in a mechanical way would be to make a mockery of this very
precious and sacred feast. And we all know how mechanical
we can get. I've many times found myself
singing a hymn and paying very little attention to what I was
singing. We bow our heads in prayer, but do we always pray? We read the Bible and one minute
later we cannot remember what we have read. We have even been
guilty of preaching the good news of redemption, not with
our hearts, but with our mouths. But when we come to the table
of the Lord, we must bring our hearts with us. We must observe
it, partake of it, in a spiritual fashion. And then the table of
the Lord is a memorial. Our Lord said in Luke chapter
22 when he instituted this table of the Lord, this do in remembrance
of me. It is a memorial to keep alive
in our hearts and in our minds that the Son of God came into
this world, wrapped himself in human flesh, and died for our
sins. Now, great men of past days have
had statues erected in their memory. They lived and they died,
and after they died, someone raised a statue in their memory. Others have had bronze plaques
put in public places, and for others, memorial buildings have
been erected with their names attached. But our Lord Jesus
gave to his church, to his people, this perpetual memorial. It's
not a statue. It's not a plaque, it's not a
building. It is a supper, a perpetual memorial to our Lord's sacrifice
on Calvary's cross. And then the Lord's table is
more than a memorial. It is a definite communion with
Christ. That's not a church fellowship
supper. It is a fellowship supper with
the Redeemer. We not only show his death, but
we actually, by faith, enter into the results of his death.
We feed upon what Christ has done. He said, this is my body
broken for you. He said, this is my blood shed
for you. His death, Paul said, was our
death. The cross of Christ, in which
I glory, is not only his cross, but my cross. by which I died
and the world died unto me. Our text tonight says as often
as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you show the Lord's
death until he comes. I have three statements that
I'd like to deal with in the message this evening before we
partake of the table. The first is what does the table
show? The second one is how does it
show it? And then thirdly, how long will it show it? Now what
does the table show? Our Lord said here in 1 Corinthians
11, verse 26, as often as you eat this bread and drink this
cup, you do show the Lord's death till he comes. I've heard people
say that we dwell too much on the crucifixion, on the blood
of Christ, on the death of the Son of God, that we ought to
spend more time on the life of the Son of God. Well, we have
a reason, I do, for making much of the death of Jesus Christ.
Several reasons. Number one, the death of Christ
is what the apostles preached. John the Baptist came as the
divine forerunner sent by the Father. There was a man sent
from God whose name was John. What was his message? His message
was, Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world.
That was his message. After our Lord died and was risen
from the tomb and ascended to the Father, Peter stood on Pentecost. On that day of Pentecost, what
did he preach? Him being delivered by the determinant
counsel and foreknowledge of God you with wicked hands have
crucified and slain. Yet the Father hath raised him
up and exalted him. Peter preached the death of Christ.
The Apostle Paul said in his writings, I am determined to
know nothing among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified. He said we preach Christ and
him crucified. That's our message. For other
foundation can no man lay than that which is laid Christ the
Lord. The second reason why we make
much of the death of Christ, it was the message of the apostles,
it was the message of the prophets. For Luke said in the book of
Acts, to him give all the prophets witness. But his death, secondly,
is the very essence and heart of the gospel. Turn with me to
1 Peter chapter 3. 1 Peter chapter 3 verse 18. This is the heart of the gospel.
Now, if you leave out the vicarious sacrifice, if you leave out the
sufferings of Christ, you don't have any gospel. There are some
things that ought to be preached, that's true, preached in proportion
to other things. But if these things are not preached,
people can still be saved. I hesitate to name anything because
these things ought to be preached. And many things that ought to
be the subject of our message and the subject of our sermon.
But these things can be left out and still people can be converted,
can be brought to the knowledge of Christ. But if we leave out
the death of Christ, there's no hope for anybody. If we leave
out the cross, there's no salvation. If we leave out the blood, there's
no remission. If we leave out the sacrifice
of the Son of God, there's no help for the sinner. This is
the essence, the heart of the gospel. Peter wrote in 1 Peter
3, verse 18, For Christ also hath once suffered for sins,
the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God. That's
why he suffered, that he might bring us to God. That's what
it's all about, that he might bring us to God. That's why he
died, that he might bring us to God. There are a lot of things
I need, but the chief need is for somebody to bring me to God.
And that's the reason Christ suffered. He once suffered for
sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God.
If he'll bring me to God, all these other things can be added.
That he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh,
but quickened by the Spirit. That's our message. That's the
essence and heart of the gospel. And then thirdly, we make much
of the death of Christ because it was the message of the apostles,
because it's the heart of the gospel, and then because his
effectual sacrifice is the point where the gospel is really being
attacked. Paul called it the offense of
the cross. This is where the offense is.
The offense is in the cross. Don't let anyone deceive you.
This is where the offense is. To the Jew, he said, it's a stumbling
block. To the religious, it's a stumbling
block. To the Greek, it's sheer nonsense. To the Greek, it's foolishness.
The preaching of the cross, that's the offensive message. Men will
rally around good works, they'll rally around denominations, they'll
rally around organizations, they'll rally around humanitarian efforts,
they'll even rally around doctrine. But they resent the cross. The
cross, it standeth fast, hallelujah. Defying every blast, hallelujah. The winds of hell have blown,
the world its hate has shown, yet the cross is not overthrown,
hallelujah, for the cross. And when we come to this table
tonight, if we come rightly, we confess that by the death
of Christ we live. By the blood of Christ we are
forgiven. By the sacrifice of Christ, we
are brought to God. By the atonement of Jesus Christ,
we are justified. If we reject the cross, we reject
the Christ of the cross. If we reject the cross, we reject
the true meaning of this table, and it has no meaning whatsoever.
Now, we rejoice in God's covenant mercies. We could spend the whole
year on God's covenant mercy. We delight in God's covenant
mercy. He is a covenant God. He worked
with Adam through a covenant, with Abraham through a covenant,
with Noah through a covenant, with David through a covenant.
We rejoice in God's faithful prophets and leaders. We could
spend hours just talking about men of God of past days. We could
go back to the Reformation. We could talk about the divinity
and the doctrine of these great men. We hold dear the verbally
inspired word from Genesis to Revelation. This is the word
of the living God. It not only contains the word
of God, it is the word of God. Unbroken, inerrant, verbally
inspired. We hold to the virgin birth of
Jesus Christ, to the perfect life of the Son of God, to his
obedience in every jot and tittle of God's law. We believe his
miracles, we accept every one of them, his gracious commandments
and all things that are written in this word. But it is his death
for sin in which we rejoice. It is his blood which was shed
that we treasure. That God came to this earth in
human flesh and died on Calvary's cross and by his stripes we are
healed. This is pure poetry to the redeemed
child, and this is his hope, his help, his refuge, and his
salvation. That's why we make much of the
death of Christ. Now the second thing. Our Lord
said here, writing by the Apostle Paul, as often as you eat this
bread and drink this cup, you show the Lord's death until he
comes. How does this broken bread and this wine show the death
of Jesus Christ. First of all, we take the bread
and the wine separately. Death separates the blood from
the body. When our Lord died on the cross,
his blood was shed. He said, this is my blood which
was shed for you. When they drove the nails in
his hands, the blood came out. When they put the crown of thorns
on his brow, the blood came out. When they lacerated his back
with a cat of nine tails, the blood came out. And finally,
when they drove the spear into his side, the blood came out. All of the blood came forth from
his body. So when we take this bread, we're
taking a type, an emblem, a symbol of his body which died, and his
blood which was shed. Now here's an interesting thing,
secondly. How does it show his death? Because
it's separated, the wine and the bread, the blood from the
body. But here it says, the same night in which he took bread,
when he had given thanks. Now brethren, when we take this
bread, which is symbolic of our Lord's broken body, and this
wine, which is symbolic of his blood, We do the same thing that
Christ did, we give thanks. For what? If our Lord's death
is not sufficient, we have no thanks to give. If his blood
is not efficient to save, then we have no reason to give thanks.
But when we hold this bread, which is Christ's body, we can
say, thank you, Lord, this body was broken for me and in being
broken it satisfied all of the justice of God on my behalf and
I'm complete in him. When I take this wine which represents
his blood, I can give thanks. I can say thank you Lord for
saving my soul. Thank you, Lord, for making me
whole. This blood is sufficient to put
away all my sins. The blood of Jesus Christ, God's
Son, cleanseth us from all sin. I am in the sight of God in Christ,
holy, unblameable, and unreprovable. We give thanks." Thirdly, how
does it show his death? The wine is separated. It's separate
from the bread. we give thanks, as our Lord gave
thanks. And then he said, verse 24, he
had given thanks, he broke it and said, take eat. Now did you
ever see the ritualistic observance of the Lord's table? When I was
in the Navy overseas in World War II, I attended a communion
service which was offered to the Army and the Navy when we
were together at this particular place, presided over by a Catholic
priest. And when we came in to receive
the wafer, we didn't receive bread, we received a wafer, all
of the boys knelt in front of the priest with their hands behind
their backs or at their sides, and they opened their mouths
and stuck out their tongue, and the priest came by and dipped
the wafer and put it on the tongue. And in other pictures I've seen
of ritualistic observance of what they call the sacraments,
the priest would take the wine and give it to the one participating
in the Lord's table. Now this is not representative
of what our Lord is doing at all. Listen to what he said.
He said, you take and eat. We don't put it in your mouth.
This represents faith on your part. In other words, here's
what I'm saying. We come to you and preach to
your ears. We say, as Christ said, this
represents my body, this bread. This represents my blood, this
wine. Now you hear that. You know you're
a sinner. You know you need help. You know
you need grace. You know you need forgiveness.
You know you need Christ to die for you. We're not going to put
this in your mouth. God's not going to make you take
it. You're not going to be saved against your will. You're not
going to be taken by the hair of the head and dragged into
heaven. This salvation is not going to be put within you. You're
going to take it. When the plate is passed in front
of you, you've heard the message with your ears and with your
heart, if God the Holy Spirit's done anything for you. And when
that is put before you by an act of faith, Believing what
Christ did, discerning the Lord's body, understanding what happened
on the cross, you're going to reach and take that breath. And
when you take it, it is an act of faith, it is confession of
Christ. It is saying, I believe his body
was broken for me, I believe his blood was shed for me, and
we're not going to put it in your mouth, you're going to put
it in your mouth. The Bible says, with the heart
man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession
is made unto salvation. If you confess me before me and
I'll confess you, but no priest is going to do it for you, and
no preacher is going to do it for you, and no presider at the
Lord's table is going to do it for you, you're going to do it.
You see what I'm saying? That's what our Lord said to
those disciples. He gave thanks and he handed
them the bread. No sir, he said, you take it
and you eat it. You take it and you eat it. This
is my body which is broken for you. This is an individual thing.
Absolutely individual. When I take the Lord's table,
when I take the bread which is his body and the wine which is
his blood, it's me and God. It's me and Christ. It's my confession. It's my memorial. It's my fellowship. It's my communion with him. It
is the Lord dying for my sin, bearing my transgression. It
is my confession. You see what I'm saying? All right, the fourth thing.
How does it show his death? Now, listen carefully to this.
It says in verse 28, let a man examine himself and so let him
eat of that bread and drink of that cup. This table is for believers. Those who do not believe have
no right to come. Isn't that what the word of God
says? For a man to eat this bread and drink this cup in an unworthy
manner, not discerning the Lord's body, not discerning the Lord's
blood, not believing it, not receiving it, is to eat and drink
damnation to himself. He has no right to come. There's
nobody here tonight that doesn't understand that. That's understood
by every preacher in America. That's understood by every church
in America. That's understood by every believer
in America. That's understood, I believe,
by every person. That a person who does not believe
Christ died for his sins, does not believe the blood was shed
for his sins, has no right to come. Isn't that right? Well,
let me ask you a question. If Jesus Christ's body was broken
for the sins of every human being, If his blood was shed on the
cross for every human being, then don't they have a right
to come? Huh? Think about it a little bit.
If we preachers preach a universal redemption, If we preachers preach
a universal sacrifice, if we preachers say that Christ's body
was broken for the whole world and his blood was shed on the
cross to save every son of Adam, then I say every son of Adam
has a right to take that body and that blood because it was
broken for him and it was shed for him. Let's go out in the
highways and the hedges and call everybody in tonight and say,
now we're commemorating the Lord's table. This body was broken for
you, that's what preachers preach. This blood was shed for every
son of Adam. Then I say, if every son of Adam
is a participant in Calvary's sacrifice, every son of Adam
ought to be a participant in the Lord's Suffering. But that's
not so. Our Lord died for believers.
Our Lord's blood was shed for those who believed. Our Lord
suffered this effectual sacrifice and sin offering. He made this
effectual sin offering for believers. And for an unbeliever to participate
in this broken bread and poured wine is to eat and drink further
condemnation to himself. How does it show his death? It
shows a particular, sufficient, effectual sacrifice for every
believer. That's what it shows. Christ,
this is my body broken for you. This is my blood shed for you. You take it and you eat it. You're
welcome to it because you participated in that death and therefore you
have every right to participate in this supper which is a memorial
to our Redeemer. The third statement is this.
How long will the table show his death? He says as often as
you eat this bread and drink this cup you show the Lord's
death till he comes. When our Lord returns We shall
no longer observe the Lord's table. But while we're in a world,
someone said, where men forget. And as long as we're in a world
where men have to be reminded, we must keep this memorial. This
signpost must be renewed. We must not take away this memorial
till we need it no more. Someday it'll be replaced by
his presence, but till it is, Until it is, the feast of love
is spread. Drink the wine and eat the bread. Sweet memorials to the Lord cause
us to His heavenly abode, some from earth, from glory some,
separated, divided only till He comes. As often as you eat
this bread and drink this cup, you show the Lord's till he come.

Showing the Lord's Death Till He Comes

Sermon Transcript

About Henry Mahan

Comments

Joshua

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

Showing the Lord's Death Till He Comes

Sermon Transcript

About Henry Mahan

Comments

More from Henry Mahan

Related Sermons

Same Scripture

Articles by Henry Mahan

Books by Henry Mahan

Joshua

Where this book stands in the tradition

Plato

Augustine

The Western Christian Tradition

This Book