Let's open our Bibles this evening
to Matthew chapter 26. I want to read three verses here. Matthew chapter 26, beginning
with verse 26. Matthew 26, verse 26. And as they were eating, Jesus
took bread and blessed and break and gave to the disciples and
said, take eat, this is my body. And he took the cup and gave
thanks and gave it to them saying, drink you all of it. For this
is my blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many for the
remission of sins. would like to remind us this
evening that Matthew, Mark, and Luke, they all record the Lord
instituting the Lord's Supper. Now, there's some differences,
but there's never any contradictions. They tell me that if you had
an eyewitness or a witness, two or three witnesses to stand on
a witness uh, stand in a court of law and each witness said
the same exact words that their witness would be, be thrown out
because people see things a little different and each one would
have a little different, uh, testimony to give. And like I
say, in these three synoptic gospels, They all record the
words of the Lord Jesus Christ the night before he was crucified
when he gave to his church, to his disciples, this ordinance
of the Lord's table. There's a little difference but
no contradiction in anything that is said. Of these three,
Matthew, Mark, and Luke, only Luke records the fact that the
Lord Jesus Christ said at this time, this do in remembrance
of me. He's the only one. Matthew didn't,
Mark didn't, but Luke. This do in remembrance of me. In 1 Corinthians chapter 11,
when the apostle Paul is writing to the church at Corinth concerning
the Lord's Supper, he tells them, or he wrote, that he gave them
what he had received from the Lord. For I have received of
the Lord that which I delivered unto you. And in Paul's account,
he wrote that two times the Lord Jesus Christ said, this do in
remembrance of me, both when he took the bread this do in
remembrance of me. And when he took the cup, this
do in remembrance of me. And I say this to us tonight
to point out that this is a memorial service. That's what the Lord's
Supper is. It is a memorial service. And I have jotted down these
five things that we could think about tonight as we remember
the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, this do in remembrance
of me. First, we remember his person,
his person, that he is the eternal son of God made flesh. He is the God man. no other creature,
no other individual like Him. He is both God and man, fully
God and fully man. As John begins his gospel narrative,
he says, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with
God, and the Word was God, and then the Word became man. flesh and dwelt among us." So
as we remember the Lord Jesus Christ, we could preach the whole
message tonight on just His person, remembering His person, that
God came into this world to save His people. And then secondly,
we remember His life, His life that He lived here upon the earth,
a sinless life. A life without sin, never being
guilty in any way, holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners. And I believe that means separate
from sinners. He did not partake of Adam's
transgression. He was the seed of the woman,
not the seed. of the man." And so he could
say, which of you convinces me of sin? And no one could respond.
No one could say, well, I know this. Even as judge pilot, he
had to confess. I find no fault in this man.
We could remember that especially about him tonight, his sinless
life. or we could remember his death,
especially we do that, because his death is set forth to us
tonight on the table, the bread and the wine separated, the life
of the flesh is in the blood, and the blood was separated from
the bread tonight before us, reminding us that he poured out
his life unto death. And we think about his death,
his death was a sin atoning death, a sin atoning death. His death was also a substitutionary
death. He died in the stead, in the
place of his people. And his death is a victorious
death, a victorious death. And by victorious, I mean in
the sense that he accomplished The Lord Jesus Christ, in His
death, He accomplished everything that He intended to accomplish. Not anything was faulting. His
victorious death. He suffered death on the tree,
the just for the unjust, that He might bring us unto God. And you know it was prophesied
of Him when we think about His death, we remember His Isaiah
lived, what, some 700 years, I believe, before the birth of
the Lord Jesus Christ, and in that chapter 42 of his prophecy
that speaks of, behold, my servant, mine elect, whom I uphold, speaking
about Christ, and it was prophesied of him, he shall not fail, nor
be discouraged. He shall not fail. What he intended
to accomplish by his death, he accomplished. His victorious
death. And then we remember, of course,
his resurrection. Remember, he said, destroy this
temple. Speaking of his body, destroy
this temple. And in three days, I will raise
it up. And on the third day, he did
rise from the grave, conquering death, the grave, and sin, and
hell, his resurrection. So that we may say, oh grave,
where is that stain? We may see that in our head in
Christ that we have the victory over sin, death, the grave, and
hell. And fifth, we might remember
his ascension. That is, he ascended back unto
the Father after showing himself alive by, as Luke says in Acts,
by many proofs, infallible proofs that he was alive from the dead.
He ascended back to the Father, and he is seated at the Father's
right hand. And we know tonight, think about
that, the man, Now as God, He's always been on that throne. He's
always reigned and ruled as the eternal Son of God, but as the
God-man, you read about the throne in the book of Revelation, it's
the throne of God and of the Lamb. The Lamb, the Lamb of God
which taketh away the sins of the world, that the scepter is
in His hand. He rules and reigns tonight in
every place, at all times, over everything. And nothing transpires
in His creation apart from His purpose and will. That's amazing,
isn't it? We remember that. We like to
remember that. And I could, as I said, I could
bring a message, and probably have, and will, the Lord willing,
maybe, on each one of those truths, but I want to do something else
tonight, something that I thought of as I was looking over this
text. In verse 28, he said, this is
my blood of the New Testament. Now, you're familiar with the
scripture enough to know that the word that is translated testament
is the word covenant. Sometimes in the King James translation,
it is covenant. Sometimes it is testament, same
word. And so he said here, this is
my blood of the new covenant. In other words, he sealed the
new covenant. He ratified the new covenant
by his death, by shedding his blood. Now as we think of the
various covenants that we read about in the word of God, we
know, we read that most all of these covenants had a token,
had a token. Let's look back to Genesis chapter
9, this covenant that God made with Noah when he came out of
the ark. Genesis chapter 9, beginning with verse 8. Well, yes. And God spake unto
Noah and to his sons with him, saying, And I, behold, I establish
my covenant with you. and with your seed after you,
and with every living creature that is with you, of the fowl,
of the cattle, and of every beast of the earth with you, from all
that go out of the ark to every beast of the earth. And I will
establish my covenant with you, neither shall all flesh, now
here's the covenant, neither shall all flesh be cut off any
more by the waters of a flood. Neither shall there anymore be
a flood to destroy the earth. God made a covenant. He had destroyed
every living thing outside the ark. He did that. God did that. But now when Noah
and his three sons and family, they come out of the ark and
build an altar, offer sacrifice unto God, God makes a covenant
with Noah and with you and with me. And his covenant promise
is that never again would he destroy the world by water, would
he destroy every living creature by water, as he had done. And
he gives a token. Notice that next verse. And God
said, this is the token of the covenant which I make between
me and you and every living creature that is with you for perpetual
generations. Here it is, here's the covenant,
the token rather. I do set my bow in the cloud. And it shall be for a token of
a covenant between me and the earth. A token of the covenant,
the rainbow. You know, as old as I am, And
don't laugh, some of you are almost as old. There's just something
still special about seeing a rainbow, isn't there? I mean, you know,
when you see one, if you are near someone, you'll say, look,
there's a rainbow. There's just something special
about that token, those beautiful seven colors in the rainbow. And that's a token, and it reminds
us every time we see one, or it should at least, that God
has promised, covenanted, that he would never again destroy
all flesh by flood. All right, let's look at another
one. In chapter 17 of Genesis, he made a covenant with Abraham. Genesis chapter 17, beginning
with verse one. And when Abram was 90 years old
and nine, the Lord appeared to Abram and said unto him, I am
the mighty God. Walk before me and be thou perfect. And I will make my covenant between
me and thee and will multiply thee exceedingly. And Abram fell
on his face, and God talked with him, saying, As for me, behold,
my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many
nations. Neither shall thy name any more
be called Abram, but thy name shall be called Abraham. For
a father of many nations have I made thee, and I will make
thee exceeding fruitful. and I will make nations of thee
and kings shall come out of thee and I will establish my covenant
between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations
for an everlasting covenant to be a God unto thee and thy seed
after thee. Well, this covenant also had
a token. If you look down to verse 10,
this is my covenant which you shall keep between me and you
and thy seed after thee. Every man child among you shall
be circumcised and you shall circumcise the flesh of your
foreskin and it shall be a token. a token of the covenant betwixt
me and you. So we've got this covenant that
God made with Abraham and his seed. You and I, as true Israelites,
spiritual Israelites, make up his seed, not only those who
are ethnic Jews, but we believers, he is our father. And this covenant
was made with him, and a token was given. All right, let's look
at another one, if you will, now in Exodus. This is a covenant
that God made with the nation of Israel. When they came out
of, Egypt, God delivered them out of Egypt, Exodus chapter
19. They came to Mount Sinai. Exodus 19, let's start reading
in verse three. And Moses went up unto God, and
the Lord called unto him out of the mountain, saying, Thus
shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children
of Israel, You have seen what I did unto the Egyptians and
how I bear you on eagles' wings and brought you unto myself. Now therefore, if you will obey
my voice indeed and keep my covenant, there it is, covenant, then you
shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people, for
all the earth is mine. And you shall be unto me a kingdom
of priests and a holy nation. These are the words which thou
shalt speak unto the children of Israel. And Moses came and
called for the elders of the people and laid before their
faces all these words which the Lord commanded him. And all the
people answered together and said, all that the Lord hath
spoken we will do. And Moses returned the words
of the Lord, or the words of the people unto the Lord. Now the next day, the covenant
was given. The covenant was written on two
tables of stone. The Ten Commandments, that's
the covenant that God made with the nation of Israel. Remember
what that ark? was called the Ark of the Covenant. And what was placed in the Ark?
The two tables with the Ten Commandments. Now with this covenant, God also
gave a token. And the token was one of the
Ten Commandments. It was the Fourth Commandment. Thou shalt remember the Sabbath
day to keep it holy. That was a token of that covenant. If you look, let me show you
this. Look over a few more pages in Exodus chapter 31. In Exodus chapter 31, verses 12
and three, 12 and 13. And the Lord spake unto Moses,
saying, Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying,
Verily my Sabbaths. Now that was the fourth commandment,
the commandment concerning the Sabbath day. Ye shall keep. Now notice, for it is a sign,
a token. That's what the word token means,
a sign. for it is a sign between me and
you throughout your generations that you may know that I am the
Lord that doth sanctify you. Why do we not worship on the
seventh day? Why is it that believers from
the New Testament on have always gathered on the first day of
the week, obviously, or evidently. Why is that? Why is it we don't,
we're not seven-day Baptists? There are some, seventh-day Baptists. They're seven-day Adventists,
right? And what are they doing? They're
trying to earn salvation by keeping the law. Why is it that we do
not worship The day of our worship is the Lord's day because we're
not under that covenant. We're not under that. That was
a covenant that God made with the nation of Israel. And it
was a conditional covenant. They agreed to it. And of course,
you know, when Moses came back down from the mountain, they
had already broken the covenant. And anyone and everyone who would
be saved who believe that they may be made righteous and justified
and adopted into the family of God by their works will find
the same thing, failure, failure, because God demands perfection,
perfection. The Lord Jesus Christ, he's a
perfect savior, isn't he? And he's our Sabbath. You know,
the Sabbath was not a moral commandment. We look at those 10 commandments
and nine of them, we say those are moral commandments. Yes,
not the Sabbath. The Sabbath was part of the ceremonial
law. is one. Let me just say that.
People today, and I've been guilty of this years ago, dividing the
law up into moral, ceremonial, and civil. But we shouldn't do
that. The law was one. It was complete. It was entire. And the seventh
day, the Sabbath day commandment was not a moral commandment.
It was part of the ceremonial commandments, because it wasn't
just the seventh day Sabbath. It was a seventh year. It was
a 49th and 50th year, all included in that commandment. A token. So tonight, as we observe the
Lord's table, I want us to think especially of the bread and the
wine as being tokens to us of this new covenant, this new covenant. And let's look at the new covenant,
if you will, as it is given to us in Hebrews chapter eight. Hebrews chapter eight. Beginning
with verse 8, you know this new covenant is given both here in
Hebrews 8 and also in Hebrews 10. It was given in Jeremiah
31. It was given in Ezekiel, I believe it was 16. No, not
16, but anyway, it was given in Ezekiel. This new covenant,
that old covenant that God had given to the nation of Israel.
And that old covenant of works that God had given to Adam. We
might say it had a token of that covenant, and that token was
that fruit. Thou shall not eat the fruit
of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And of course,
they broke the covenant. That was a covenant of works. But we have a new covenant, and
it's always new. Doesn't mean it's new in the
sense that God had plan A and then that didn't work out, so
now we've got plan B. No, no. No, no. Everyone who's ever been saved
have been saved through this new covenant, this new covenant. There is no other way of salvation.
Verse eight of chapter eight. For finding fault with them,
he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make
a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house
of Judah, not according to the covenant that I made with their
fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them
out of the land of Egypt. Because they continued not in
my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord. For this
is the covenant that I will make. Now listen, before we read on.
This is the covenant that the Lord Jesus Christ ratified. This is the new covenant in his
blood by his death. For this is the covenant that
I will make with the house of Israel. The spiritual Israel
is what it means here. Believers, the true seed of Abraham. This is a covenant that I will
make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord.
First of all, this new covenant promises an inward work. That old covenant that he has
reference to, the covenant that God gave to the nation of Israel,
Those stone tablets had the covenant written on them. But this new covenant, God writes
his law upon the heart. It's what we call regeneration,
the new birth. He writes his word, his law,
his gospel upon our heart. upon our mind and also upon the
tables of our heart, not on tables of stone. The second thing about
this new covenant, and this really says it all, is I will be to
them a God, and they shall be to me a people. That just says
everything. If God is my God, and that's
what he's promised to be, And that's what the Lord Jesus Christ
ratified, this covenant, that God might be my God, that he
might be your God. What else could you ever need? What else could you ever want? If you have God for your God,
you have everything. Everything. What more could he
give than himself? And they shall be my people.
The third thing about this covenant, this new covenant, as we read
here, and they shall not teach every man his neighbor and every
man his brother, saying, know the Lord, for all shall know
me from the least to the greatest. Everyone included in this covenant,
whether he's a babe in Christ or what John calls a father in
Christ, we all know him. We all know the Lord. That knowledge is given unto
us by God the Holy Spirit. He said, this is life eternal
that they might know thee, the only true God in Jesus Christ
whom thou hast sent. Every child of God knows God,
knows him. We have an anointing, the Apostle
John said. Why was it, when our Lord gave
that parable of the sower that went forth to sow, remember there's
four types of ground. The same seed, the gospel. The same preacher, the Lord Jesus
Christ. But why was it in that one particular
type of ground that it brought forth fruit? God made the difference, didn't
he? He makes the difference. We have an anointing of the Lord. And the fourth thing, this new
covenant promises the forgiveness of all our sins. I will be merciful
to their unrighteousness and their sins and their iniquities
will I remember no more. This is my blood of the New Testament,
which is shed for many for the remission of sin. So tonight,
as we remember our Lord, as we eat the bread and drink the cup,
let's especially remember that he, he ratified this new covenant. This covenant, it's an everlasting
covenant. It is a covenant of grace. and
how we rejoice in Jesus Christ our Lord. I'll ask the men, if you will,
to come at this