Proverbs 27

I want to talk to people today who are in the habit of taking the Communion. All over this land and all other Christian lands, from time to time, those who profess to know and love our Lord Jesus Christ come together in various places and under various circumstances to obey the command of the Lord Jesus, this do in remembrance of me. But you know, I'm afraid there are a great many people who sit at the Communion table, who partake of the bread and drink of the cup, who have never yet entered into the reality of it all, who have never yet known for themselves what it really means.

And so I want to read a few verses from the 11th chapter of 1 Corinthians, verses most of you know well, and then say a few words on them. 1 Corinthians 11, 23 to 25, I have received of the Lord Jesus 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 broke 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 stopped saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood, this do ye as often as ye drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death until he come. This was the instruction given to the Apostle Paul by the risen Lord.

You see, Paul hadn't been at the Lord's supper when it was first instituted, he was at that time still an unbeliever. And so the Lord Jesus gave him a special revelation concerning it. And you'll notice this, that it made it very, very clear that the bread, which symbolizes the body of the Lord Jesus, and the cup which speaks of his precious blood, shed on Calvary's cross, in each instance set forth Christ as dying for us.

And we're to partake of it in remembrance of him. Now, just imagine one who doesn't know Christ, who's never trusted him, and yet carrying out this service just as a mere matter of poor. Can't you see the incongruity of it? You know, to go to the Lord's table and partake of the bread and the cup, and yet to reject the Savior thus presented, it seems to me, must be an awfully serious thing.

I can't imagine anything that would add to one's judgment and to one's bitter regrets by and by than this very thing. Think of looking back from eternity and remembering how on earth you used to sit at the communion table and partake with others of those elements, and yet you never trusted the Savior who was thus remembered for yourself. You see, the Lord's Supper was never intended to be a means of salvation.

It was never intended to work the miracle of grace in your soul. But it was to be a memorial feast. It was to be a remembrance of the Savior.

Well, you should know him first in order that you may remember him. You should be able to look back and say, I see him there on that cross dying for me, and I've trusted him as my Savior. And having trusted him, I love him, and I want to keep him in mind.

Then you go with a good heart and a good conscience to the table of the Lord. But to think of partaking of the communion as though in some mystic way it was going to help to put away your sins, as though it might in some way help to make you a Christian, is to miss the real meaning of it altogether. You know, there's only one thing that can make anybody a Christian, and that's the personal acceptance of the Lord Jesus Christ.

As many as received him, oh how I love to dwell on those words, as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the children of God. There's no other way, no other way by which you can become a child of God, no other way by which you can become a Christian, no other way by which you can be born again than receiving him. The Apostle Peter says, Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever, and this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.

The Lord's Supper is the perpetual memorial of the death of Christ. Whenever celebrated, it's a reminder of the fact that Christ died for sinners, that he gave his life on our behalf. But if men participate in this and yet reject him, it only adds to their condemnation.

Instead of being a means of grace, instead of being a blessing to them as the Lord intended it to be, it becomes the very opposite. It may even become a curse. It may be even the occasion of bitter, bitter memories in a lost eternity.

To think I used to sit at the table of the Lord, I used to take of the bread and of the cup, and yet I never took the Savior for myself. Oh, how foolish to allow oneself to be so familiar with the awkward facts of Christianity, and yet refuse the Savior. Trust him now for yourself.