The title of my message this
evening is A Continual Reminder. And I want you, if you will,
to take your Bibles and look with me at several passages of
scripture, beginning in Matthew, chapter 26. Matthew, chapter 26. And here, we will read verses
26 through 28. And as they were eating, Jesus
took bread, and blessed it, and break it, and gave it 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
ye all of it, for this is my blood of the New Testament, which
is shed for many for the remission of sins. Now if you will turn
to Mark chapter 14. Mark chapter 14 and beginning
in verse 22. And as they did eat, Jesus took
bread and blessed and break it and gave it to them and said,
take, eat, this is my body. And he took the cup, and when
he had given thanks, he gave it to them, and they all drank
of it. And he said unto them, this is
my blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many. Now, if you will, go to Luke
chapter 22. Just read two verses here, Luke
chapter 22, verses 19 and 20. And he took bread and gave thanks
and break it and gave it unto them saying, this is my body
which is given for you, this do in remembrance of me. Likewise, also the cup after
supper saying, this cup is the New Testament in my blood, which
is shed for you. Now, one other place in 1 Corinthians
chapter 11. 1 Corinthians chapter 11, and beginning
with verse 23, here we have the words of the
Apostle Paul, For I have received of the Lord that which also I
delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus, the same night in
which he was betrayed, took bread. And when he had given thanks,
he break it and said, take, eat. This is my body, which is broken
for you. This do in remembrance of me. After the same manner also he
took the cup, when he had slept, saying, this cup is a new testament
in my blood. This do you as oft as you drink
it in remembrance of me. We refer to the time between
our Lord's baptism and his death as his earthly ministry, his
earthly ministry. He has a heavenly ministry, and
since he ascended back to the Father, he has exercised that
ministry. We have a great high priest,
whoever liveth, to make intercession for us. During this time, when we read
the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, we find that during
his earthly ministry, on three occasions, he spoke to his 12
apostles and told them about his death, that they would go
to Jerusalem and he would be betrayed, crucified, and rise
again from the grave. And they understood nothing. His 12 apostles, they understood
nothing that he told them about his death. In fact, you remember
the first time Peter tried to correct the Lord. That's when
the Lord told Peter, get thee behind me, Satan, for thou savest
not the things that be of God. Peter couldn't believe that the
Jews, the religious leaders, would call for his crucifixion. He couldn't believe that. You
know, they had been taught, like most of the Jews at that time,
to look for an earthly kingdom a Messiah who would come and
set up an earthly reign. And they were in the dark when
it comes to the true reason, purpose of the Lord Jesus Christ
coming into this world. He said, for the Son of Man is
come to seek and to save that which is lost. His purpose to
save those people, his sheep, who were given unto him. We fell
in our head at him, but he came to seek and to save that which
was lost. And we know that by the work
of God the Holy Spirit, he continues to seek and to find, and he will
find each and every one of his lost sheep. no question about
it. But this night, these texts that
we've read about before this night, our Lord had spoken of
his death as a ransom. And he had also spoken of his
death as meat or his flesh, crucified flesh as meat indeed. But now
we say on the eve on the eve of his death, of his crucifixion,
he instituted this memorial service. And we see in the Apostle Paul's
record here in 1 Corinthians 11, that it is to be observed
until the Lord comes. And I see two things there that
especially encourage me tonight and I know encourage you. The
first is, He's coming again. Verse 26, for as often as you
eat this bread and drink this cup, you do show the Lord's death
till he come. He is coming again. This same
Jesus that you have seen go up into heaven, the angels told
his disciples on the day that he ascended, he will come again. And I believe he comes for all
of his children at death. For he said, let not your hearts
be troubled. You believe in God, believe also
in me. In my father's house are many
mansions. If it were not so, I would have
told you. But I go to prepare a place for you, that where I
am, there you may be also. And if I go and prepare a place
for you, I will come again. And when a child of God, when
a child of God breathes their last breath here in this world,
closes their eyes in death, the Lord comes for his children,
the angels. Take them, take the soul, the
body remains here, of course, waiting the resurrection, but
the person, the person, the soul, goes to be with the Lord. The
Apostle Paul said to depart and to be with Christ, which is far
better, far better. But that should encourage us
right there. He said, this do, for as often
as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you do show the Lord's
death till he come. Now tonight as we eat this bread
and drink from the cup, we are showing forth his death until
he comes. And we are assured tonight that
he will come, just as he said. And a second thing that encourages
us, the Lord will have a church here when he comes again. I know
sometimes it seems like his little flock becomes even smaller. And
there are few that trust in him. and worship Him and serve Him
and love Him. But still, there is a remnant
according to the election of grace in this world, just as
there was in the days of Elijah when he thought he was the only
one. Oh, no. Oh, no, Elijah. God said, I've
reserved unto me 7,000 who have not bowed the knee to Baal. There's always an election of
grace in this world, and will be till he comes, till that last
one comes into the fold, brought to know Christ as their Lord
and Savior. He will have a church here, and
may the Lord bless our congregation, our church family, and use us
in reaching others with the gospel. Now, he did not leave, think
about this, He didn't leave the teaching and the institution
of this memorial service to his apostles to teach. Let me say
that again. Before he left, the night before
he was crucified, this is a very important matter, isn't it? He
didn't leave this to the apostles. He could have. They were inspired. They could have taught this this
truth about the Lord's table, but the Lord taught this to us,
gave this to us, and it shows forth his death, which is the
very heart of the gospel. The very heart of the gospel
is the death, the sacrifice, the vicarious sacrifice of the
Lord Jesus Christ. We sing of his death. We preach
about his death. We celebrate his death and we
trust in his death. We trust in his one sacrifice
which he offered. And by that one sacrifice put
away all the sins of his people. His death is the heart of the
gospel. And in heaven we will all join
in singing the same hymn, worthy is the lamb that was slain and
redeemed us unto our God with his blood or by his blood. Now there are two parts, two
parts in the Lord's words that I want us to think about briefly
tonight before we partake of this supper. First part, his
body was broken or his body was given. We find both of those
words. His body was broken, and his
body was given. He broke the bread, and this
declares that this bread fittingly represents to us his body, which
was broken, and then he gave it to the apostles, and we know
that he was given for us. When we think of him broken for
us, It reminds us of his awful, awful, awful suffering, indescribable
sufferings that the Lord Jesus Christ experienced. That verse
in Isaiah chapter 52 tells us that he was more marred than
any man, more marred. You know, you see these drawings
of the cross and Calvary, and we shouldn't have them to begin
with, but the artists try to make it look somewhat beautiful. There was nothing beautiful about
that. It was a gory scene. No doubt
there was even a nauseous smell in that very place because it
was a place where they crucified people and sometimes didn't even
bury the bodies called the Place of the Skull because the hill
looked like a skull some say and some say no because there
was skulls from others who had been crucified in that place. There's nothing beautiful about
the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm talking about physical beauty.
His body, naked, exposed between heaven and earth as though man
would say to God, this is what we think about your son. This is what we think about him. We won't have him. Nothing beautiful about the scene
there at the cross. He was broken. And I mentioned
this morning, the mercy seat and the cherubim. Uh, and I was
thinking about the fact that when you forge metal, they put
the metal in the, in the heat or heat the metal, and then they
beat it, don't they? And they make it expand. And
that, that mercy seat there was beaten. That was gold, yes, but
it was beaten to where it fit exactly, exactly the same dimensions
as the Ark. That broken law, that law that
you had broken, I had broken, had to be covered. And those cherubim representing
God's people. But the fact is, it was beaten. And the Lord Jesus Christ, his
body was broken. It was beaten. And then when we think of him
given, he was given for us. This reminds us of God's love
for his people. His everlasting love. Yea, I
have loved thee with an everlasting love. His love is eternal. I know when we talk about these
attributes of God, we quickly get into deep water, don't we? God loves you tonight. There's
never been a time when he has not loved you. Never. There's never been a time when
he hasn't loved you, and there will never be a time when he
stops loving you. When we think of him being given,
he gave the bread to his disciples, reminds us of God's great love. God so loved the world and his
chosen people were part of the world. They are from every kindred,
every tongue, every people and every nation. He so loved his
people that he gave his only begotten son and the son of God
incarnate. coming into this world, taking
into union with his person, his deity, that body that was prepared
him. So loved he his people that he
gave himself. He said, no man taketh my life
from me. I've received this commandment
from my father, both to lay it down and to take it again. He freely, freely, freely gave
himself out of his great love for his sheep, for his people.
We can't enter into that, really can't. We can't even imagine
that kind of love, that kind of love. He said, this is my body which
is given for you. I give myself for you. It's one
thing to give your money for a person, maybe you want to help
someone and you've got some money or some means and I'll give you
what I've got, give you my money, that's great, but to give yourself? To give yourself? And yet that's
what he did, he gave himself. This is my body, which is given
for you. I give myself for you to be an
atonement for you, a covering. That's what that mercy seat did.
It covered that law that we had broken, as I said. And that blood
was sprinkled on that mercy seat. I give myself to be an atonement
for you. I give myself to answer to that
type, that Passover Lamb. Paul said, Christ, our Passover
is sacrificed for us. How many lambs, how many lambs
must have been slain on that first Passover night when they
were slaves in Egypt? How many lambs? And yet the scripture
always speaks in the singular, doesn't it? The lamb. The lamb. And over the years,
how many animals, bullocks and goats and sheep, lambs, doves,
blood had been offered and shed in sacrifice, and yet not one
sin was ever taken away with the blood of an animal. Not possible. The writer of Hebrews tells us
that. It was used as a type, as a pitcher, but it had no power.
Oh, the power in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. As long
as we continue in this world, He will be our spiritual food. He will Except you eat my flesh,
you have no life in you, he said. Now he's not talking about this
bread when he said that. He's talking about his sacrifice.
That's the only way anyone has life and that sacrifice gives
us life and it maintains us, our spiritual life. Every day
we feast on Christ, don't we? Every day we think about him.
And when our conscience troubles us and we are made aware that
we've done something and wish we hadn't have done it, you know,
but we know that the blood of Jesus Christ sprinkled upon the
conscience gives us peace, doesn't it? Peace with God. Now notice
the second part. His blood. His blood is that
of the new covenant. The blood of the Lord Jesus Christ,
the sacrifice of Christ is the basis of the covenant. It was
a condition of the covenant, the new covenant. When God made
a covenant with the nation of Israel, when they came out of
Egypt and came to Mount Sinai, remember God made a covenant
with them and It was made with blood. Moses sprinkled the book,
the book of the covenant, with blood and he sprinkled the people
with blood. That's the way the covenant was
made. But it was the blood of animals. And Moses said at that
time, Behold the blood of the covenant which the Lord hath
made with you concerning all these words. That is all the
law of Moses. But then he promised a new covenant,
Jeremiah. We read about that new covenant
that he would make with the house of Israel. And it is the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ that is the foundation of this new
covenant. In Hebrews, also called a better
covenant. Three things that I call our
attention to in our Lord's words. Number one, his blood was shed
for many. I believe he said that in each
one of those passages. This is my blood which is shed
for many. The Lord Jesus used the word
many when he spoke of his death. For even the son of man came
not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give his life
for many. Now one thing, one thing that
cannot be denied, the word many, it doesn't mean all. It doesn't mean all. Many, maybe
a great number, no doubt, a number John saw that men cannot number. It's a finite number. God knows
the number. He knows each and every one.
But many is not all. You say, Preacher, do you delight
in in preaching and telling people that Christ did not die for everyone,
I delight in preaching the truth about the death of Christ. That
it accomplished exactly what God purposed. No doubt about
it. And for everyone that he shed
his blood, he atoned for their sins, for our sins. There's no
question in my, I delight in preaching that, that he was not
a failure. What he intended, he accomplished. Those he represented, he saved. Just as the first Adam represented
all mankind and we all fell in him. So the second Adam, the
Lord Jesus Christ, he represented all of his covenant people and
he redeemed his people, the many, the many. In his prayer in John 17, he
defined that word many when he said, that he, speaking of himself,
should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. Speaking to his father, that
he, the son of God, should give eternal life to as many as thou,
the father, had given him. And the apostle Peter, I think
he explained it very well also, don't you, on the day of Pentecost
when he said, preaching for the promises unto you and to your
children and to all that are far off, even as many as the
Lord our God shall call. Number two, his blood not only
was shed for the many, his blood was shed for the remission of
sins. The word that is translated remission,
actually it means deliverance and forgiveness. This deliverance
is from the punishment due to us for our sin. One writer said, the great term
rendered remission points out much better than our English
word, the immediate effect of the atonement, implying that
the sin was canceled and no more found. and that the person upon
whom the sentence of acquittal is pronounced is again without
guilt or charge because it is put away and therefore annihilated. I like that word, don't you? Annihilated. The sins of his
people annihilated by his precious blood. So that when search is
made for them, they cannot be found. They're gone. Amen? They're gone. And number three, it is good
news. Amen. His blood is the new covenant
in the sense that it It constitutes the foundational condition, the
fundamental condition of the New Covenant. On the obedience
of Christ shedding His blood for the remission of our sins,
we are in a New Covenant relationship. And the blessings of that New
Covenant are ours. They're yours tonight. The blessings
of this New Covenant, because of the blood of the everlasting
covenant, his blood. These blessings are yours. What
are they? I will put my laws into their
mind and write them in their hearts. God does a work of grace
in a person's heart, gives him a new nature. A new man is created in righteousness
and true holiness. Yes, that old nature remains,
I understand that, and there's that constant warfare in the
heart of a believer. But still, there's a new man.
There's a new creation. I will put my laws into their
mind and write them in their hearts, and I will be to them
a God. If God tells you he will be your God, you don't need anything
else. You couldn't need anything else
if God is your God. What could you need? He's everything,
has everything, owns everything, controls everything. I will be
thy God, and they shall be to me a people. And they shall not
teach every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying,
Know the Lord, for all shall know me. Do you know God? If you do, you know him through
Christ. There's no other way to know
God except through his son. For I will be merciful to their
unrighteousness and their sins and their iniquities will I remember
no more. May the Lord bless his word to
each one of us. I'm so thankful that we have
the privilege, don't you? Aren't you thankful tonight rather
that we have this privilege of coming together as a church family? And those of us who have, or
who are in union with Christ, then we have communion as we
eat this bread and drink this cup. And I would remind us it's
still bread and it's still wine. There's no hocus-pocus or anything
like that to somehow turn it into the actual flesh and blood
of Christ. No. It represents His body that
was broken for us. It represents His blood that
was poured out for us. I'll ask the man, if you will,
to come at this time. And it is the