Let's turn today to 1 Corinthians
chapter 10. 1 Corinthians chapter 10 and reading
verses 14 through 17. Wherefore, my dearly beloved,
flee from idolatry. I speak as to wise men, judge
you what I say. The cup of blessing which we
bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread
which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?
For we being many are one bread and one body, for we are all
partakers of that one bread. Tonight, the Lord willing, we
will obey Our Lord's command to observe the Lord's table,
the Lord's supper. When he instituted this ordinance,
he said, this do in remembrance of me. And this is what the apostle
Paul has referenced to here in verse 16, when he writes of the
cup of blessing, which we bless and the bread, which we break. He calls it the communion of
the blood of Christ and the communion of the body of Christ. This ordinance
is called communion. We eat the broken bread, which
represents his body, which was broken for us. He was bruised
for our iniquities. We drink of the cup, which represents
his blood, which was shared. to take away our sins. The blood
of Jesus Christ, his son, cleanseth us from all sin. In doing this,
in eating the bread and drinking the cup, we have communion with
him. I have five points that I want
to make about communion with the Lord Jesus Christ. First,
the simple but important truth The word communion, we see in
the word communion, the word union. In the word communion,
the word union. This tells us that there cannot
be any communion with Christ unless there's first union with
him. There must be union with Christ
before there may be communion with him. Now this union is many
times called, by writers at least, a mystical union. That is, there's
a mystery about this union which exists between Christ and every
child of God, every believer. Now this term, mystical union,
it includes both the subjective and the objective union with
Him. Here's the second point I want
to make. The subjective union is established when a person
is born again. This subjective union, this union
that we experience in our hearts is established when a person
is quickened by the power of God and by the grace of God and
made a new creature in Christ Jesus. In the letter of Galatians,
the apostle Paul speaks of this as Christ formed in you. Christ in you, the hope of glory. Christ comes to live. Christ
comes to dwell. And Christ comes to reign in
every believer. He is our life. And because he
has life, we have life. He is in every believer. And
among other names that this union is called, is called a vital
union. A person must be vital. It's
vital. It's absolutely necessary that
a person be joined to Christ, be in union with Christ. There's
no life. There's no forgiveness of sins. There's no hope of eternal salvation
apart from Christ. He is our salvation. He is our
life. It's a vital union. Our Lord
spoke of it in John chapter 15 like this when he said, I am
the vine, you are the branches. And we see so clearly in that
example metaphor that a branch cannot bear fruit unless it is
in the vine. It's a vital union. We must be
in Christ. We must be in union with Christ
to bring forth the fruit of the Spirit. And the Apostle Paul
tells us that the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, long-suffering,
gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance, or
self-control. We must be in union with Christ. It's a vital union. And the Lord
Sermon which is called the sermon on the mount. He said make the
tree good and the fruit is good You don't make a tree good by
hanging good fruit on the limbs No, a tree is made good first
and then there's good fruit on the limbs. I And so a person
is born again of the Spirit of God, brought into union with
Christ, is one with Christ, and then by the Holy Spirit living
in us, we bring forth good fruit. The third point is this objective
union. Now that's a subjective union,
but the objective union between Christ and His people is from
eternity. It is an eternal union and it
is a love union. God's love for his people is
an everlasting love. One of the great attributes of
God is that he is immutable. He does not change. Men fall
in love one day and fall out of love the next day with a person.
That's not true about God. God's love is eternal. It never
changes. It is everlasting. In Jeremiah
chapter 31 in verse 3, God speaking there said, yea, I have loved
thee with an everlasting love. Therefore, with loving kindness
have I drawn thee. He draws us to Christ. No man
can come to me except the Father which has sent me draw him. He
brings us to Christ, not against our will, but we come willingly
to Christ, but he draws us by his spirit to Christ. But this
objective union is an everlasting union. It is a love union. In
Romans chapter eight, the apostle finishes that chapter the way
it's divided by saying, nothing shall separate us from the love
of God. which is in Christ Jesus our
Lord. Nothing, nothing. When we fell in our father Adam,
God's love continued. When his people, when his people
fell in our father Adam, his love didn't stop, his love continued. Nothing shall separate us from
the love of God. Nothing in the days before we
were called, before we were brought to Christ, when we were living
in sin, reveling in sin. His love didn't change. His love was constant, never
changing. When Saul of Tarsus was making
havoc of the church, trying to do everything he could to stamp
out the name of Jesus Christ, he still was one of those that
God loved. God's love didn't change, it
didn't vary. And since we've been saved, since
we've been called, how many times have we fallen? How many times
have we failed? God doesn't change His love. His love is eternal. His love
is forever. All of our backslidings, nothing,
nothing, nothing, not in heaven or earth, anywhere else, no created
thing can separate one from the love of God which is in Christ
Jesus our Lord. This union is a love union. Now, Dr. Gill points out there's
four branches of this love union. First of all, there's a branch
he called an election union in Christ. In other words, God's
election flows from His love. And those chosen are blessed
with all spiritual blessings in Christ before the world began. This is what the scripture says
in Ephesians chapter 1. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as he has
chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and without blame before him in love. There is this election
union. And with this election, there
begins a near, a close relationship between Christ and believers. They're both considered to be
a body. He's the head, he's given to
be the head, and all of those chosen are members of his body. Now, he was chosen first in the
order of nature as the head, but all of his members were chosen
at the same time in him. I like the way that the Puritan
Thomas Goodwin said this, or illustrated this. When a woman
conceives a child, When a baby is conceived in the womb of a
child, the head is not consumed and then the members conceived. Both are conceived at the same
time. They're one. And so Christ and
his church, Christ and believers, Christ and his elect were all
chosen at the same time in what he called the eternal womb of
election. So there is this branch called
an election union. Now remember, this is an objective
union. The subjective is when we come
to know Christ, when Christ is formed in us. But this objective
union is an eternal union. The second branch, he called
a marriage union. I want you to look with me in
Ephesians chapter five, just a moment. The marriage union
between Christ and his people. In Ephesians chapter 5, and Paul is speaking to husbands
here in this passage, beginning with verse 25. Husbands,
love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church and gave
himself for that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing
of water by the word, that he might present it to himself a
glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing,
but that it should be holy and without blemish. So ought men
to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his
wife loveth himself. How's that possible? To love
your wife is to love yourself. Because when two people get married,
they're no longer two, they're one. They're one. For we are
members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. For this cause
shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined
unto his wife, and they too shall be one flesh. Now notice this. This is a great mystery. We talk
about this union as being a mystical union. Paul says this is a great
mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. Yes, there
is this union between husband and wife, but Paul is bringing
out the fact that there is this union, this marriage union between
Christ and his chosen people. There are two words, here are
two words in the Bible used in relation to marriage. Betrothal
and espousal. Those are archaic words that
we don't use anymore. But let's think of them as engagement
and marriage. The engagement or the betrothal,
that comes first. That always comes first. And
then the marriage or the espousal. Now concerning Christ and His
bride, the betrothal took place in eternity. He, being in love
with His bride, asked them of His Father, asked them of His
Father to be His bride. And it was because of this marriage
that He became their surety. He became their surety. And he
shed his blood to cleanse his bride from her sins, that he
might present her to himself a glorious church without spot
or wrinkle, as we read there just a few moments ago. Now,
I want to point this out when we think about this marriage
union. When two people marry, they both take the same name
or have the same name. My wife, her maiden name was
Savelle until we married. And now after all these years,
67 years, her name has been Pledger. The same is true with Christ
and his church. And these two names are given
to us in Jeremiah. Let me read you these verses.
Jeremiah chapter 30, or 23, first of all. In his days, Judah shall be saved,
and Israel shall dwell safely. Now listen, and this is the name
whereby he, he shall be called. What's the husband's name? Here
it is. He shall be called Jehovah Tiskanu,
the Lord our righteousness. And then just a few chapters
later, In Jeremiah 33 and verse 16, we read, in those days shall
Judah be saved and Jerusalem shall dwell safely. And this
is a name whereby she shall be called. Now, what is she going
to be called? The bridegroom, his name is the
Lord our righteousness. What is her name? She shall be
called the Lord our righteousness. Two people married, they have
the same name. And so in this marriage union,
we have the name of Christ, the Lord, our righteousness. And then third, there's a branch
he called a federal head union between Christ and his elect.
Now in Romans chapter five, beginning with verse 12, the apostle shows
how that God has dealt with mankind in two men. Both of them are
named Adam, the first Adam and the last Adam. The first Adam
was the father of all men. He's the man that God created
and placed in the Garden of Eden. The second Adam is the Lord from
glory, the Lord Jesus Christ. And the head, Adam was the head
of all of his posterity. He represented all of us. All
men were represented by Adam. And that's the reason the scripture
says, for by one man sin entered into the world. How did sin come
into this world? By one man, by Adam. He represented
all of us. And the guilt of Adam's sin was
imputed unto all of his posterity. We don't come into this world
to and become sinners because we sin? We come into this world
and sin because we're sinners. We were conceived in sin, shapen
in iniquity, the scripture says, because Adam represented us.
And when he fell, we fell. But now this second Adam, the
Lord Jesus Christ, he too is a representative man, and he
represented the men, the people that God had given him. He's
the head and representative of all the chosen race. And number four, there's a branch
he called the legal union between Christ and his elect. So we have
an election union, a marriage union, and a federal head union,
and number four, a legal union between Christ and his elect. This means that in the eyes of
the law, in the eyes of the law of God, we're one. We're one
with Christ. He's our surety. The surety,
the apostle said, of a better covenant. The Lord Jesus Christ
freely, freely obliged himself to become one with us and to
become liable By being one with us, he became liable for our
debts, the debt that we owed, the debt of sin that we owed.
He became liable to pay that debt. God looked to him. God looked to him to pay the
debt for his people's sins. This is the ground and the foundation
of how The sins of God's people are imputed to Christ. When we
say imputed, that simply means they're charged to Christ. If
you're one of his children today, your sins were charged to your
representative head, to Christ, your surety. He came into this
world duty bound to pay the debt of his people, the sin debt of
his people. And he paid that debt. Not only
did he come to pay that debt, but he came to establish a righteousness,
a righteousness by which we are justified before his people are
justified before God. And the apostle Paul says, God
justifies the ungodly. Many people have the idea, well,
I've got to clean up my life, I've got to make these changes,
and then God will justify. No, God justifies the ungodly. We don't bring anything. We don't add anything. We receive
everything. Christ is all. This is what the
word of God declares. And salvation is by grace. This is the reason the apostle
could write For He, that is God, hath made Him, the Father hath
made Him, that is Christ, who knew no sin to be sin for us. The sins of all of His chosen
people, all of those who are in union with Him, were imputed
to Christ, were laid upon Christ, and His righteousness, His perfect
obedience, is imputed unto His people. And we are made the righteousness
of God in Him. This is what 2 Corinthians 5,
21 tells us. Here's a fourth. This is a very
simple but important question. Very simple but important question
and important point. Am I in union with Christ? Now that's important, isn't it?
That's important. Am I in union with Christ? Turn with me to 1 Corinthians
1. 1 Corinthians 1, the apostle, of
course, is writing to the believers in the church at Corinth. In
verse 9, he says, God is faithful by whom you were called unto
the fellowship of his son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Now that word,
which is there translated fellowship, is the same word translated communion
in our text. God is faithful by whom you were
called into the communion or the union of his son, Jesus Christ,
our Lord. So the question is, am I in union
with Christ? Have I been called? And we recognize
this is that subjective union here. It's not the objective
union that we've looked at, but the subjective union. Am I in
fellowship with Christ? Am I in communion with Christ? And once again, we see the importance
of this matter of calling. Look at that verse again. God
is faithful. By whom you were called, who
does the calling? God does. God does. God calls. And he's the one who
calls men into this fellowship or this communion of his son,
Jesus Christ, our Lord. That's the reason preaching is
important. I know many people today think
preaching is outdated, but it is still what God has chosen
to use in calling His people and saving His people. If you
look down, Peter said, make your calling and election sure. You never reverse that order.
Some people say, well, if I knew I was elected, then I would believe. You'll never know you are elected
until you believe. When you believe, make your calling
sure. That makes your election sure.
Have you been called? If you've been called, then you
are chosen of God. Don't try to reverse the order
there. Now look down further in this
chapter, 1 Corinthians 1 to verse 21. You see, people haven't changed. People like to think, well, you
know, there was a time when people were hungry for the gospel. No, the only time anyone's hungry
for the gospel is when God makes that person hungry. You can cross
out of this country and go into another country, a third world
country, a second world country, and people tell us, well, people
over there are just hungry for the gospel. That's not true.
That's not true. Men are the same everywhere,
all over this world. And we're the same at every time
in this world. And that is, man is enmity with
God, and God must do something for us. He must do something for us.
Man will come into this world, and he may never think this about
himself, but he hates God. And he may live a long life,
80 years, 90 years, 100 years in this world, and every day
of his life he hates God. You say, well, What does that
mean, he hates God? He will not bow to God. He will not bow to the Lord Jesus
Christ. It's his will, not God's will,
my will. And go out of this world lost,
and go out of this world to be separated from God throughout
all eternity. God must do something for us.
And how does God do this? He uses the preaching of the
gospel. You see that in verse 21 here
in 1 Corinthians 1. As I said, people are no different.
They were no different when Paul was preaching than today. The
Jews, what did they want? We want a sign. We want to see
something. What did our Lord tell Thomas?
Blessed are they that having not seen, believe. But man wants
to see a sign. And then the Greeks, they seek
after wisdom. Oh, tickle our intelligence. Make us understand and realize
just how intelligent we really are, how smart we really are. That's what he says. For after
that in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching. And every time I read that verse,
I have to stop and say, he didn't say the foolish preaching. There's a lot of foolish preaching
that goes on. That's not what God uses. The
foolishness of preaching the world calls preaching foolishness,
but It's not foolish preaching, get up and tell a few jokes and
a sad story at the end. No, we must preach the word of
God. Men are begotten again by the
incorruptible seed, the word of God, the scripture says. For
the Jews require a sign and the Greeks seek after wisdom. Well,
what are you going to do, Paul? He was an apostle. He had the
signs of an apostle. You going to show some signs?
No. He was a very intelligent man.
I remember reading years ago that of the great minds of the
world, the apostle Paul would be right up there at the very
top in his day. What are you going to do, Paul?
Are you going to try to work some miracles and show some signs
so people will believe? Are you going to try to show
people how intelligent you are, how smart you are, how that you
can explain the unexplainable? Are you going to do that? No. But we preach Christ crucified. That's our message. It's Christ
who is. And the fact that he was crucified
on a tree, that he shed his blood to save his people, to cleanse
his people from their sins. But he didn't stay dead. He didn't
stay dead. He died, yes, but he came out
of that grave on the third day, showing that his sacrifice had
been accepted by God. We preach Christ crucified. Well,
it's a stumbling block under the Jews. You expect us to believe
that a person who died outside the walls of Jerusalem, a felon's
death, a servant's death, crucifixion, you expect us to believe that
that is our Savior? That that is our Messiah? That
that is the one who had been promised through the ages? And under the Greeks foolishness,
that's crazy. How can one man, how can one
man satisfy for thousands of people? How can the death of
one man pay the penalty for thousands, yeah, maybe millions of people? That's foolish. That's crazy. Well, it is until you realize
who this man is. This is a God man. It's not just
any man, this is the God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord
from glory. The Jews require a sign, the
Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, unto
the Jews a stumbling block, unto the Greeks foolishness, but,
I sure like that word but, that interjection. But God, who is
rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he hath loved
us. But God. But God. And that's always the case, isn't
it? We come into this world, we're
dead in trespasses and sins, and we will spend our time in
this world and go out of it dead in trespasses and sins unless,
but God. But God do something for us. But God, but unto them which
are called, both the Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of
God, and the wisdom of God. Now, the fifth point I wanted
to make is this. We have communion with Christ.
But we also have communion with others who are called. This is
a church ordinance. Our Lord instituted the Lord's
Supper when he was alone with his 12 apostles. This is something
for the church that we do. And our communion is first with
him. We have union with him, therefore
we have communion with him. When we eat the bread, when we
drink the cup, We have communion with Christ, but we also have
communion with other believers, don't we? Our church family.
And why shouldn't we? We all are indwelt with the same
spirit, the same Holy Spirit that lives in you, lives in her,
lives in him. I mean the same Holy Spirit lives
in every believer. We all are loved with the same
love, that eternal love, that will never change. We all rejoice
in Christ and have no confidence in the flesh. Our rejoicing is
in Christ and his person and in his work. We all believe the
same gospel. There's only one gospel that
saves. There's only one gospel that
saves. And all of God's people believe
that gospel. And we all contend for the same
faith, the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. Our
faith is not an evolving faith. It's not a faith that every generation
adds to it and adds more to it and adds more to it. And before
long, it's kind of like that game they used to play Children
would sit around in a circle, you know, and they'd whisper
in somebody's ear something, and they'd whisper it to the
next person, they'd whisper it to the next person, and by the
time he got back around to where it began, it was completely different. That's not like, the gospel's
not like that. The gospel's the same today as
it was 2,000 years ago, 4,000, 6,000 years ago. God doesn't
change. Man doesn't change, sin doesn't
change, and the gospel doesn't change. And we have fellowship,
communion with those of like faith, and we contend for that
faith. And we have communion with one
another because we are all going to the same house. We're all
traveling to the same house, aren't we? Our Father's house.
The Lord Jesus said, 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. Yes, we have
communion with Christ, union with him first, but we have communion
with our brothers and sisters in Christ. May the Lord bless
his word to all of us here.