Let us turn in our Bibles this
evening to 1st Corinthians chapter 11. 1st Corinthians chapter 11 verse
23, 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 supped, saying, this cup is the New Testament
in my blood. This do ye, as oft as you drink
it, in remembrance of me." I want to call our attention to the
fact that the Lord Jesus Christ repeated the same words, do this
in remembrance of me. In verse 24, when you eat the
bread which represents my flesh, do this in remembrance of me. And when you drink the wine,
verse 25, which represents my blood, do this in remembrance
of me. We say that a very, very important
part of this service, that is of observing the Lord's table,
one of our Lord's commandments, is that we remember Christ. It's impossible, it's possible
rather to go through the ordinance and to be very precise in several
different points and yet to miss what is all important. That in
doing this we are to remember Christ. We would not think of
having unleavened bread because leaven is a type of sin. in the
Scripture. And we know that the Lord Jesus
Christ was sinless. We would not use white wine because
the wine represents the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ and
we normally think of blood as being red, crimson. We have no patience with those
who only give what they call the wafer and withhold the wine,
the cup, from the communicants and call it the Lord's Supper.
And we surely would never participate in what the Roman Church calls
an unbloody sacrifice, that is, the Mass, because this denies
a fundamental truth that is so dear to the hearts of all of
God's children. And that truth is stated in Hebrews
chapter 10, for by one offering he had perfected forever them
that are sanctified. But what am I saying? I'm saying
that we desire to do this according to the scripture. Paul says to
the church at Corinth that I delivered unto you what I was given. And
he received this from the Lord, the instructions concerning how
we are to observe the Lord's table. We desire to do this according
to the scripture, but let's not overlook this very important
point, and that is that we are to do this in remembrance of
Christ. We are to remember Him as we
eat the bread and drink the wine. Most everyone here tonight has
some loved one who has passed over the river of death that
we remember. A mother, a father, a brother,
a sister, our child, grandparents, and part of our remembrance of
them is their image in our minds. We remember them We remember
their physical characteristics, but we cannot remember the Lord
Jesus Christ in this way, because we've never seen Him. We've never
seen Him. If you look back with me to John
chapter 20, where the Lord Jesus Christ declared this truth. John chapter 20. And beginning with verse 20, And when he had so said, he showed
unto them his hands and his side. Then were the disciples glad
when they saw the Lord. Then said Jesus to them, Again, peace be unto you, as
my Father hath sent me, even so send I you. And when he had
said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive
ye the Holy Ghost. Whosoever sins you remit, they
are remitted unto them. And whosoever sins you retain,
they are retained. You say, Preacher, what does
that mean? It means you go out and you preach the gospel and
you tell everyone you see, whosoever believeth in Jesus Christ is
saved. Your sins are remitted. Your
sins are forgiven. That's what it means. But Thomas,
here's my point, but Thomas, one of the twelve called Didymus,
the twin, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples
therefore said unto him, We have seen the Lord. But he said unto
them, Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails,
and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand
into his side, I will not believe. And after eight days again his
disciples were within, and Thomas with them. Then came Jesus, the
doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be
unto you. Then saith he to Thomas, Reach
hither thy finger, and behold my hands, and reach hither thy
hand, and thrust it into my side, and be not faithless, but believing. And Thomas answered and said
unto him, My Lord, And my God, Jesus saith unto him, Thomas,
because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed. Blessed, happy,
happy. Blessed are they that have not
seen and yet have believed. We've never seen the prince in
his hands. We've never seen the mark in
his side. The Lord Jesus Christ said, Blessed
are they. You are one of these that the
Lord Jesus Christ. Does that thrill you? Does that
thrill you tonight that the Lord Jesus Christ said this to you?
Blessed are you. Blessed are you who have not
seen and yet have believed. He pronounces this blessing upon
all who believe. The Apostle Peter, he touched
on this same when he wrote in his first epistle, whom having
not seen, that is Christ, whom having not seen, you love. In whom, though now you see him
not, yet believing, you rejoice with joy unspeakable and full
of glory. So we cannot remember Christ
like we remember others that we have loved and others we have
known because we have never seen him. How then may we remember
Christ? He said, this do in remembrance
of me. Well, we may remember him by
remembering certain things that we know about him. And I want to mention just a
few of these before we remember him as we eat the bread and drink
the wine, which pictures to us his great sacrifice. First of all, let us remember
his willingness. His willingness, His delight
even, to be your Savior. His willingness to be your Savior. In that everlasting covenant,
it was agreed that a Savior would be provided for God's chosen
people. That God would magnify His love,
His grace, His mercy in providing a Savior for our fallen sons
of Adam. And we read several times in
the Scripture, God so loved the world that He gave. Here in His
love, not that we love God, but that He loved us and sent His
Son into the world to be the propitiation for our sins. We
read of the Father, His love, His willingness to give His Son. But let's remember that the Son
also. His willingness. His willingness
to come. into this world. In fact, the
Scripture says in Hebrews chapter 10, in the head of the book,
in the head of the book, all the way back, here?s the book,
the Word of God that you have in your hands tonight, here?s
the book. But all the way back in the head of the book, Genesis
chapter 3 and verse 15, just as soon As Adam had disobeyed
God and plunged himself and all of his descendants into depravity
and into sin, God said, The seed of the woman shall bruise the
head of the serpent. In the head of the book it was
written of me, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. The willingness of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And we know that included in
this willingness was his great condescension, that is, as the
eternal Son of God, pure Spirit as the Father and as the Holy
Spirit, eternal, that he willingly made himself
of no reputation. That's what Paul tells us, isn't
it, in Philippians chapter 2, verses 5 through 7. He made himself
of no reputation. Someone told me about a message
a friend of ours preached recently, and the title of the message
was The Self-Made Man. The Self-Made Man. And his text,
I'm sure, was Philippians chapter 2. But he made this point, I
believe. I haven't heard the message,
but I was told this. That any of us, if we had formed
ourselves, our bodies, We would have made ourselves a little
bit different than the way we look in the mirror. None of us would have made ourselves
like the eternal son of God made himself. A servant, he came in the form
of a servant and he humbled himself even to the death of the cross. Let's remember His willingness,
His willingness to come. You know there's a verse in Luke
chapter 12 that says this. He told His disciples, I have
a baptism to be baptized with, and how am I straightened till
it be accomplished? What does that word straighten
mean? He said, how am I straightened
till it be accomplished? Well, according to John Gill,
his comment was, the word means, he was eager. How am I straightened
until it be accomplished? Speaking of his death, the baptism
to be baptized with. And how am I straightened until
it be accomplished? And that's what I want us to
remember tonight as we eat this bread and drink the wine. That
is, this pitchers to us the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
let's remember His willingness, His willingness to be crucified
and slain. Second, let us remember His love,
His love for us. This memorial supper is all about
His death, His body being broken, His blood being poured out. But
what was His death when you stop and think for just a moment?
What was His death? I say unto you tonight it was
the greatest demonstration of the love of God that could possibly
be. The greatest demonstration. When
we sang that hymn just a few moments ago, when I surveyed
the wondrous cross on which the Prince of Glory died, my richest
gain I count but loss and poor contempt on all my pride. To me, just to sing that hymn
is very emotional. When I think about Christ, my
Savior, how he came and in love gave himself for us. The greatest demonstration of
the love of God. You and I, those of us who have
children here, we could never give one of our children and
yet God gave his only begotten son. We think about how this
was illustrated concerning the Hebrew slave. You remember a
man could be reduced to poverty and he would sell himself into
servitude. He was a Hebrew and he'd be a
slave to another Hebrew. But after six years, in that
seventh year, he's to go out free. He's to go out with what
he brought in with him. He's to go out free. But there
was this this stipulation, he could remain a slave forever. What would he need to do? He
would need to declare publicly, I love my master. I love my wife. I love my children. And so his ear would be bored,
wouldn't it? His ear would be pierced and
he would be marked forever. Anytime, anywhere anyone saw
this man on the street with that hole in his ear, they would know
that is a slave who made himself a slave willingly because of
his love, his great love for his wife and his children. The
Lord Jesus Christ, what did He show His disciples? His hands,
the marks in His hands and in His side. And then the scripture
there said, were the disciples glad. They were glad when they
saw those marks. What greater proof could there
ever be? What greater demonstration could
there ever be of God's love, of Christ's love than giving
Himself willing for us? Let me read a couple of verses
here in John chapter 10. This is the Good Shepherd, John
chapter 10, verses 17 and 18. He said, Therefore doth my Father
love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but
I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down,
and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received
of my father. He received this commandment
to lay down his life for his sheep. He is the good shepherd
who gave his life for his sheep. And in that commandment, not
only to lay down his life, but to take it again. On that third
day, he came out of that grave. And he lives today, after almost
2,000 years or more. He's living, isn't he? He's living
tonight at the Father's right hand, making intercession. for you and for me. And without
His intercession, now we're thinking about His death, and we do most
often, but let's not forget without His intercession there'd be no
salvation. We need Him every day, not only
every day, every hour, and not only every hour, every minute. We need His intercession. And
He ever lives, to make intercession for all those who come unto God
by Him. So let's remember, first of all,
His willingness. Let's remember His love. And
third, let's remember His untold agony. His untold agony. You say, what
do you mean by that? I mean that men, no man, no group
of men have the power in their tongue, in their mind, in their
heart to express the agony that the Lord Jesus Christ went through
for his people. We think about his death on the
cross, and rightly so. He suffered there. But have you
ever taken the time to look at the three, I believe it's three,
gospels that tell us about the Lord Jesus Christ in the garden? In the garden. When he left the
upper room and with his disciples went to the Mount of Olives.
And how he lay there on the ground and cried as we saw a few minutes
ago, and then he comes back. When you compare the history
in the Gospels, you see that he went back, and then he came
back, and then he went back, and he prayed the same prayer.
Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. And he
swept, the scripture says, like great drops of blood. The cup
The cup which his father gave him to drink, which I am convinced
held all the sins, all the iniquities of his people in that cup. He drank that cup and he drank
it dry. Let's go back here to the psalm
just a moment, Psalm 110. Psalm 110, the Lord said to my
Lord, sit thou at my right hand until
I make thine enemies thy footstool. The Lord shall send the rod of
thy strength out of Zion. Rule thou in the midst of thine
enemies. Thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power. and the beauties of holiness
from the womb of the morning, thou hast the due of thy youth. He never changes, does he? Jesus
Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever, the due of youth. The Lord has sworn and will not
repent. Thou art a priest forever, after
the order of Melchizedek. The Lord at thy right hand shall
strike through kings in the day of his wrath. He shall judge
among the heathen. He shall fill the places with
the dead bodies. He shall wound the heads over
many. He shall drink of the brook in
the way. When the Lord Jesus Christ, that
night when he left the upper room and went to the Mount of
Olives, he crossed over the brook Kidron. He shall drink of the
brook. The Brook Kidron was what we
might refer to as a septic system. All of the garbage,
refuse, filth from Jerusalem was carried out by the Brook
Kidron. All the blood that had been spilled
in sacrifices, animals washed, It all flowed through that brook. It was a dark brook. It was a
filthy brook. The Lord passed over it. I'm
not saying that he drank physically, but he drank that cup, which
was greater than that filth in that brook. Because the cup he
drank contained all of our filthy, wicked, evil sin. his untold agony that night in
the garden. And lastly, let us remember his
accomplishment, his success. We love to think and preach about
the suffering Savior, but just as much, I love to speak about
the successful Savior, don't you? Suffering, amen. untold agony. Amen. Success? Absolutely. Absolutely. He willingly came. He loved us
to the death of the cross. He suffered untold agony, and
he accomplished the redemption of his people. When he said,
it is finished, words could not be clearer. It is finished. The death which he should accomplish
at Jerusalem. That's what he spoke to Elijah
and Moses about on the Mount of Transfiguration. The death
that he should accomplish. And what did he accomplish? He
accomplished the salvation of his people. There's not one sin
of God's people that the justice of God can ever charge one with. He paid the sin debt. The Old Testament prophet, minor
prophet by the name of Micah, he speaks of our sins as though
they are cast into the depths of the sea. That's pretty deep, isn't it?
That's pretty deep. Remember a couple of years ago
when that airliner disappeared, they believe, out over one of
the seas, one of the oceans. They never did find it, did they?
Never did find it. I want to tell you something. They'll find that airplane, parts
of that airplane, but they'll never find your sins. They'll
never find your sins. No, they're gone. They're cast
into the depths of the sea. They're cast behind His back.
You say, well, where is His back? Well, there is no place. In other
words, they're gone. As far removed from you as far
as the east is from the west. Thank God they're gone. Our sins cast into the sea of
Christ's blood are drowned. Just like those Egyptian soldiers,
when they tried to go through the Red Sea, they got out there
in it, but they didn't make it across. Everyone was overthrown. God's people were safe. All their
enemies were gone. Bless the Lord, the psalmist
said, bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me. Bless
His holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and
all that is within me. And forget not all His benefits,
who forgiveth thine iniquities. Bless the Lord, O my soul. I'm
going to ask the men of our church, the deacons, if you will, to
come now at this time. And let us, as we eat the bread
and drink the cup, let us again, let us thank, let us remember
our blessed Savior.