Lord's Supper

Acts 2 and verse 41, Then they that gladly received his word were baptized, and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls, and they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and that is the fellowship, in the breaking of bread and the prayers. Now Acts chapter 20, please, Acts 20 and verse 6, And we sailed away from Philippi after the days of unleavened bread, and came unto them to Troas in five days, where we abode seven days. And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow, and continued his speech until midnight.

And there were many lights in the upper chamber, where they were gathered together, and there sat in a window a certain young man named Eutychus, being fallen into a deep sleep. And as Paul was long preaching, he sunk down with sleep, and fell down from the third loft and was taken up dead. And Paul went down and fell on him, and embracing him, said, Trouble not yourselves, for his life is in him.

And when he therefore was come up again, and had broken bread and eaten, and talked a long while, even until break of day, so he departed. And they brought the young man alive, and were not a little comforted. Now, 1 Corinthians chapter 11, verse 17, Now in this that I declare unto you, I praise you not, that ye come together not for the better, but for the worse.

For first of all, when ye come together in the church, that expression is found seven times in 1 Corinthians, when ye come together in church, which would mean in assembly, that is, a particular meeting, I hear that there be divisions among you, and I partly believe it. For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you. When ye come together therefore into one place, this is not to eat the Lord's supper.

Or as the Revised Version correctly translates, it is not possible to eat the Lord's supper. And here's the reason. For in eating, every one taketh before his own supper, and one is hungry, and another is drunken.

What have ye not houses to eat and drink in? Or despise ye the church of God, and shame them that have not? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you in this? I praise you not. 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 broke it and said, Take ye, this is my body, which is broken for you.

This do ye 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 often as ye drink it in remembrance of me.

For as often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup, ye shall the Lord's death till he come. Wherefore, whosoever shall eat this bread and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup.

For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. For this cause many are sickly among you, and many sleep. For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.

But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world. Wherefore, my brethren, when ye come together to eat, tell ye one for another, and if any man hunger, let him eat at home, that ye come not together. And that particular expression, gathered together, coming together, is also found exactly seven times in 1 Corinthians, that ye come not together unto condemnation, and the rest will I set in order when I come.

And I trust God will bless to us his word. This is a wonderful subject, and there isn't a believer likely here tonight that doesn't appreciate the blessed privilege of remembering the Lord in his death. The outline tonight I hope will be helpful, and in as simple a way as possible I'll try to follow it.

The importance of 1 Corinthians to assembly teaching cannot be overemphasized. I'm certain that all of you know that 1 Corinthians is truly the charter of the Church, as J.R. Caldwell called it. It is the epistle of the assembly, of the local assembly, the local Church, the epistle of gathering together.

It is the epistle of the Lordship of Christ, and it is the epistle of the headship of Christ. It's the epistle of the Lord the Spirit, but it is an epistle of correction. And because 1 Corinthians is full of correction, in no way does it lessen its value.

Because the things that were wrong in Corinth are not wrong in every assembly, but the teaching that was given to correct what was wrong in Corinth is of tremendous value to us and has been to believers down through the centuries. The reason I read Acts 2 again tonight, and I have read it each night I believe, at least the last two nights, is that Acts 2 is truly the pattern of a local assembly. I think we mentioned last night that there are seven distinct features of a local assembly in Acts 2, verses 41 and 42.

And those seven distinct features are not only found in Acts 2. The link between 1 Corinthians and Acts 2 is just this, that the things that were wrong in Corinth were corrected. And they were corrected by the application to the assembly in Corinth of the pattern from Acts 2. If you want a very simple and crude illustration of how that works, it's like a lady making a dress from a pattern. And the material must conform to the pattern, and in any degree that she believes that the material is getting away from the pattern, she takes the pattern and applies it to the material again.

And that's exactly what you have in 1 Corinthians. The things that were wrong in Corinth needed correction, and Paul corrected those things by taking the pattern and applying it to them. You see, the Apostles' doctrine is the subject of 1 Corinthians 15.

The fellowship is the subject of 1 Corinthians 10. The breaking of bread is the subject of 1 Corinthians 11. And again, the prayers are the subject of 1 Corinthians 11.

So he actually takes the pattern from Acts 2 and applies it. Now, that's a simplistic way of telling you that, but you could go through 1 Corinthians and find very clearly every element of the pattern from Acts 2, all the way from salvation, for 1 Corinthians has a theme which we seldom speak about. The cross in 1 Corinthians is a major part of the epistle.

So even though it is an epistle to an assembly, it has a great deal of gospel truth in it. In fact, the cross in 1 Corinthians is a lovely theme to trace. And although we won't be doing that, I hope perhaps some will be concerned to look at it themselves.

So from salvation to the prayers of the saints, every one of the seven elements that are found there, the seven features of a local assembly in Acts 2, are also found in 1 Corinthians. 1 Corinthians is particularly the epistle of the Lordship of Christ. And as the outline will show you tonight, there are seven things of the Lord that are prominent throughout this epistle.

The name of the Lord is so prominent in the first ten verses, I think it is seven times in the first ten verses of 1 Corinthians 1 that you have the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. So the name of the Lord is a prominent theme of 1 Corinthians. In chapter 5 and verse 4, when it came to a matter of discipline, Paul says, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together.

And that's the first time of the seven times in the epistle that you have that expression, when ye are gathered together. Now what is so important about that is that nowhere else in the New Testament is that particular form of expression used. It is unique to 1 Corinthians, and it is found exactly seven times, and the first time it is mentioned, it is in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together.

So very clearly the name of the Lord is a prominent feature of 1 Corinthians. And of course the coming of the Lord is a prominent feature of this epistle. As you know, 1 Thessalonians and 1 Corinthians give us the major teaching regarding the coming of the Lord for the Church, and 1 Corinthians 15 deals with the great subject that those who are living, when the Lord returns, will not die, but their bodies will be changed in a moment, and they'll be made like the Lord Jesus as they're cut off to meet Him in the air.

So the coming of the Lord is, of course, the expectation of saints, and it is a great theme of the epistle. The table of the Lord of chapter 10 is a high spiritual truth, and that particular truth of chapter 10 is not too common in the New Testament, but there are many pictures of it in the Old Testament. Communion with the Lord at His table, to be able to enjoy that which God enjoys, that is really the thought of being at His table, to eat that which the heart of God appreciates, to feed, spiritually feed, I mean, upon that which God delights in.

So the table of the Lord is truly the communion of saints, but our subject tonight is the supper of the Lord, and because the supper of the Lord is such an outstanding feature of New Testament practice, of course, it has a very prominent place here. The account that we have in 1 Corinthians 11 is the very first written record of what happened in the upper room. In other words, 1 Corinthians chapter 11, from verse 23 to verse 30, was written before the Gospels were written.

There had been no Gospel record yet. So this is the very first account of what happened, and of course, Paul is very careful to tell us he received it of the Lord. He didn't learn this from the disciples that were with the Lord that night in the upper room.

He received this from the Lord Himself. It was revealed to him personally, so it was not second-hand. I would suggest to you that Paul was truly a prophet, in the sense of a New Testament prophet, that is, one to whom direct revelations from the Lord were given.

And there are a number of times throughout his writings when he mentions those revelations that were given to him. Even what we were just talking about, the coming of the Lord to the air. Paul says, this we say unto you in a word from the Lord.

So it was a distinct word he received from the Lord for that particular need. So this was revealed to him personally. And this is one of the most precious of the things of the Lord, the Lord's Supper.

In the outline you'll notice that a contrast is made in chapter 7 of 1 Corinthians between the things of the world and the things of the Lord. And I would suggest that that is one of the themes of the letter, so that the things of the Lord must be given their proper place, and the things of the world must be given their proper place. And I'm not referring now to sins, I'm referring even to the legitimate things of the world.

They must never be allowed to displace the things of the Lord. Matthew 6 and verse 33 is not a gospel text. Matthew 6 and 33 is the teaching of priorities, that which should come first in the life.

Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. And if you were to read Matthew chapter 6, you'll find that whether it is serving a master, or seeking material things, or living for God, that there is an order, a priority order, and the things of God must come in their first place. That's one of the characteristics of 1 Corinthians 11.

This is the first time in the Bible that Lord is an adjective. There's only one other time that that's true. In Revelation chapter 1 and verse 10, John tells us that he was in spirit on the Lord's Day.

And that's the only other time in the Bible that Lord is an adjective. So you have the Lord's Day, and here in verse 20 of 1 Corinthians 11, you have the Lord's Supper. It is the Lord's Supper when it is the dignity of the remembrance that is in view.

And it is the breaking of bread when it is the simplicity of the remembrance that is in view. So the Lord's Supper is observed on the Lord's Day. This is, as I've said, the first account of its institution.

And in verse 23, you have the first account of the rejection of one who is unfit. If you'll notice the language of verse 23 of 1 Corinthians 11, it says, 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. Now the form of the expression is really this, while he was being betrayed.

And if you remember the account in the Gospel of John, after Judas had received the sop that was dipped in the wine, he went out, and it was night. And immediately the Lord began to speak to his own that were left there. And then he instituted the remembrance of himself after the Passover Supper by taking the bread.

And it's very touching that in the Gospel of Matthew, where you have the account of the Lord taking the bread after supper, it says Jesus took the bread. But whenever Paul is giving the account of it here in 1 Corinthians 11, he said, the Lord Jesus took bread. Now the difference is very obvious.

In the Gospel of Matthew, there's a man on earth, and the Spirit of God tells us that it was Jesus that took bread and break it. But Paul is well aware that this one who is the despised and rejected Savior on earth, that God has exalted him to the highest pinnacle of glory. And Paul, in keeping with that resurrection of the Lord Jesus, he said, the Lord Jesus took bread.

But Judas had gone out, rejected as an unworthy participant at that supper. You know, the Passover is not the remembrance of the Lord. The Passover and the Lord's Supper are distinct and different.

But there are features of the Passover which help us a great deal. You see, when the Passover was observed, the time of it was given by the Lord himself. And the order of it was given.

The guests were all under his control. It had to be one born in the land, or it had to be one purchased with money to partake of the Passover. Both of those truths are true of believers.

We have been born into the family. We have been purchased by redemption at tremendous cost. And those who have been purchased, those who are redeemed, have the blessed privilege of being guests at the supper of the Lord where he deigns to take his place in the midst of his own.

Now, it has a priority. It is the first thing. It is the first day of the week.

And that particular truth is very precious throughout the word of God. There was a woman in the days of Elijah who was starving. And she and her son were going out to gather a few sticks to bake a cake with the final meal that she had in the bottom of the barrel.

And then she said they were going to die. And Elijah said, Make me first a little cake. And the woman might well have argued, If I do that, that means that we'll die all the sooner.

But she didn't. She went first and made a cake for Elijah and gave it to him. And you'll know the rest of the story of that barrel, that meal did not fail until the famine was relieved.

Now, that simple principle of first things really is related to the Lord's Supper. It is the first day of the week. And that great principle of the first day goes back, as you'll see in your outline, I think.

I put that into the outline. It goes back all the way to Leviticus chapter 23. The morrow after the Sabbath, in Leviticus chapter 23 and verse 15, you have the blessed new meal offering, which, of course, in those seven festivals of Israel tell of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus.

It was on the morrow after the Sabbath. It was truly what became in the New Testament the Lord's Day. Now, I wouldn't try to base teaching on Matthew 28 and 1, but Matthew 28 and 1 is a remarkable scripture.

It says, Now, you see, Matthew's gospel is very clearly a dispensational gospel. If we had the time, we could show you, for instance, that in Matthew chapter 8, the very order of the events that are given is a dispensational order. And it is not the order in which they happened, according to the gospel of Mark, which is a primary gospel.

So in the gospel of Matthew, you have clear dispensational teaching. We mentioned the other night the significance of the order of Matthew chapter 10, 11, 12, 13, 16, 18. There's distinct order there.

And at the end of that gospel that deals so clearly with the purposes of God for this age and the purposes of God for the nation of Israel, it says at the last chapter, in the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week. And, of course, that first day of the week we read in Acts 20 was the day that the disciples came together to break bread. And you remember in 1 Corinthians 16 and 1, it was on the first day of the week.

Paul taught these Corinthian believers that they were to lay by them in store, as God had prospered them, that there be no gatherings when I come. The first day of the week was the day when believers came to meet with the Lord. And that I take to be the meaning of Acts chapter 20 and verse 7. Now, the supper in Acts chapter 20 and verse 7 isn't so obvious to some as what we would think.

You see, it says in verse 7 that on the first day of the week the disciples came together to break bread. And if you look at verse 11 of Acts chapter 20, and I'll give you time to turn back to it if you will because I would like you to see this. Verse 11, when he was therefore come up again and had broken bread and eaten and talked a long while, even to a break of day, so he departed.

Now look at verse 7. And upon the first day of the week when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow. Now here's the question. When did they actually break bread? Is verse 11, when they broke the bread, is that the same thing as is in verse 7? Or is that something different? Well, there is a key that will help us.

In Acts chapter 2, we read in verse 42 tonight that they continued steadfastly in the apostles' teaching, the fellowship, the breaking of bread, and the prayers. And I take it that that breaking of bread in verse 42 is the remembrance of the Lord. That is the Lord's Supper.

But if you look down in verse 46 of Acts 2, you have another statement. It says in verse 46 that, and they continuing daily with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house did eat their meat, their food with gladness, and singleness of heart praising God. Verse 42 is the Lord's Supper.

And I'm using that so you'll clearly understand what I'm talking about. The breaking of bread of verse 42 is the Lord's Supper. But the partaking of food in verse 46 was the eating of a meal.

And I do not believe that verse 46 means they broke bread from house to house daily. The breaking of bread was the usual term used for the taking of a meal, but there is a key to help us. Rather than having to be confused at all, whenever you have the breaking of bread linked with eating a meal, with eating food, then it's a meal.

But the breaking of bread that you have in verse 42 of Acts 2 and in verse 7 of Acts 20 is not linked to the eating of a meal. Now, that's very important because, you see, Paul came to Troas and stayed there for seven days. And yet he seemed to be in a great hurry to get to Rome.

So why did he stay there for seven days? It is only speculation. I couldn't prove it, but it would seem that his desire was to meet with the believers when they gathered together to break bread. So verse 7 actually tells us that the purpose of that meeting on the first day of the week was to break bread.

That was the purpose of it. And I take it that they did that. And so when Paul preached to them, he preached to them after they had remembered the Lord in the breaking of bread.

And his preaching was long, and he went on, and the young man fell down out of the window asleep and was taken up for dead, and so forth. And then when Paul was about to leave them, it says that they broke bread and had eaten. And that's a meal.

So it seems to me that in verse 7 they broke bread to remember the Lord, and that was the purpose of the coming together. Now, that's very significant because the Apostle Paul was there. And if you read the whole chapter, it was certainly a great honor for the assembly of Troas to have Paul among them.

And you would have thought that seeing Paul was there, it would say that they came together to hear Paul. But they didn't. They came together to break bread as believers.

And of course there's great emphasis on the fact that it was on the first day of the week. Paul might have argued that he was going on his way, and he was in a hurry, and perhaps they could just break bread on some other day. Maybe it wasn't necessary that it be the first day of the week.

But that wasn't done. He tarried there until the first day of the week when the disciples came together to break bread. Now we believe that this is a great principle, that we should give the first place the priority to worship, to gathering together, to carry out the command of the Lord Jesus, to remember Him.

The first day of the week for the breaking of bread is of course practiced throughout Christendom. The only thing is that many of them say every fourth first day of the week is often enough. And some say that every twelfth first day of the week is often enough.

And some even go further than that and say that it's alright on every twenty-fifth first day of the week to remember the Lord, but the others aren't necessary. But you would hardly think that that's what the disciples did in the early church, in the early assemblies, and certainly they did not practice any kind of a spasmodic occasional thing. It was the regular habit on the first day of the week to gather together to break bread.

Now I know this is very simple, perhaps suitable for the very youngest believers, but it is vitally important. I always remember a man I preached with years ago using this kind of a simple illustration. He said in those days, and it was true of course before we had automatic washing machines, that people did their laundry on a Monday.

That was the general thing. In fact in the state of Iowa, Mr. Oliver Smith never had a gospel meeting on a Monday night because it was the day to do the laundry, and so he just didn't have a meeting that night. But that's not true anymore.

But this preacher used to say, if someone said, what date does your wife do the laundry? And you answered Monday. And then the next week that person came and said, what date does your wife do the laundry? You said, I already told you. Oh, but that was last week.

No, but she does it on Monday. Monday. And of course that would simply mean that it was done on this Monday, the following Monday, the following Monday, and on and on.

That's exactly the kind of expression you have in Acts 20 and 7. On the first day of the week the disciples came together to break bread. The preciousness of it we well know. It is possible of course for Christians to come in an unjudged attitude and try to remember the Lord when their spirit is not right.

And that is part of the solemn warning of 1 Corinthians chapter 11. But let us give to it the very first place. Seek ye first the kingdom of God.

You'll well remember the words of the Lord Jesus to Ephesus. I have this against thee, I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. And that's not the love they first had.

That's the love that has first place in their hearts. I've often heard Christians talking about getting back to the early days of their Christian experience. They would love to have the joy they had in the beginning.

They would love to return to those first days of zeal and love to Christ. I've always been a little baffled at that. I would scarcely want to go back to the first days.

For I hope today I have far more appreciation for the Lord Jesus than I had then. I hope I understand His word a little better. And I hope I understand His person a little better, know Him better.

Surely after many years of Christian experience, you'd scarcely want to go back to the days of infancy. And that's not what the Ephesian, the words of the Lord to Ephesus in Revelation 2 mean. It was not the love they first had that was their first love.

It was the love that had first place in their hearts. The love that was given preeminence. Love to the Lord Jesus.

And that principle of first things is seen in the remembrance of the Lord on the first day of the week. Nothing else should displace it. One of the first principles I learned as a young believer was that I could do things that would please God.

In serving my fellow men, I could be pleasing to the Lord. In carrying the gospel to the lost and needy, I could be serving Him. But there was one form of service that was of far higher value than all else, and that was to worship.

Not just to serve God in service to men, but to come to God through the Lord Jesus and to engage in holy worship, in spiritual worship. The great truth that the Lord Jesus taught the woman in John 4, they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. Worship has priority.

It should have first place. It's the reason we were saved. It will occupy us for all eternity.

We will be engaged in spiritual worship for eternity. What a blessed privilege it is to be engaged in it now. The supper was never observed in the New Testament apart from a permanent assembly testimony.

It never was used as a convenience. When people were on board ship or when they were in some far distant land, they just didn't sit down with one or two and break bread to remember the Lord. It was always associated with an established testimony.

There's very good reason for that. Because you'll notice in Corinth there was disorder, and that disorder had to be corrected. And it was corrected by the Word of God coming to them as an assembly.

There had to be control. There had to be an acknowledgement of the Lordship of Christ. It was not just some kind of a haphazard meeting when people came together to break bread at their convenience.

It was a distinct function of a local assembly. And I would suggest this to you very simply, that the seven features of Acts 2 verses 41 to 42 are not to be divided. They are to be kept together.

Every one of those seven features are necessary. In other words, you do not have the breaking of bread without the other features. So the breaking of bread is a privilege of an assembly gathered together.

We never reach to the supper. There is nothing like that in the New Testament. You know, some of our practice has lent some kind of credence to the idea that we do receive people to the supper.

Because when we come to remember the Lord, we have a back seat. Whereas in a meeting like this, in a prayer meeting, there is no such distinction at all. And of course, people who are in the fellowship of the assembly, who are within, and that is the language of 1 Corinthians 5, those who are within the fellowship, they have the privilege of remembering the Lord.

Those who are without, they do not participate in the bread and the cup. So the natural thing would be to think that people are received to the supper. But that is not true.

People are not received to the supper. They are received to the fellowship of the assembly. The order of commendation in the New Testament, and we have all kinds of examples to draw from, it was a commendation to a company of believers, an assembly in a particular locality, to a church of God that met in a particular place.

And the visitor was received to the assembly, to the hearts, to the homes, to the fellowship of the assembly. And then they were able to take part in the privileges of that assembly. And also, in some degree at least, even though they were visitors, to participate in the responsibilities.

So we do not receive to the Lord's supper, but we receive to the assembly, to the fellowship of the Lord's people. Now I'm going to go through something I have not had time to do on other nights. I'm going to go through the verses that we have read in 1 Corinthians 11.

And they are most familiar to us. In the outline that I've given to you, you have the institution of the supper, you have the injunction for it, the intention of it, the inclusion in it, and the investigation for it. But I would like you to look at chapter 10 of 1 Corinthians just for a moment, and verse 16.

The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break. Now there's a great deal of truth in verses 16 and 17 of 1 Corinthians 10, and I'm certainly not going to have time to go through all the meaning of these verses tonight. But I would like you to notice that expression.

The cup which we bless, the bread which we break. There have been those who have thought that the breaking of bread is an official act. That the bread and the cup were upon the table, and a brother goes forward to the table, and he breaks the bread, and that that is the breaking of bread.

Now I do not believe that that is the breaking of bread. The brother who goes forward to the table and takes the loaf into his hands and divides it, is doing that simply for the convenience of the company. He's doing that so that each believer can partake personally of the loaf.

That is not an official act. If you are thinking back to the night in the upper room when the Lord Jesus took bread and broke it, there is no one today to take the place of Christ in the company. Why doesn't anyone need to take the place of Christ? Because He is present.

No one needs to take His place. He is not absent. He is present.

So there is no thought that the brother who is going forward to the table is taking the place of the Lord Jesus in the breaking of the bread. What is the breaking of the bread? The bread which we break? Each believer partakes of the loaf, and in so doing is actually saying, I caused this suffering. I caused the agony of the Savior.

It was for my sake that He was bruised. It was for my sake His blood was poured out. And the breaking of bread is an individual thing.

Each individual partakes of the bread in remembrance of the Lord. That is the breaking of bread as far as I understand it. Now in chapter 11, you notice that we read that, verse 23, the Lord Jesus, the same night in which He was betrayed, took bread, and when given thanks, He drank it.

I think this is most amazing, that the Lord Jesus, knowing the cross that lay before Him, and knowing the agony that He was to endure, He took that bread into His hands, and He broke it. After He had given thanks for it. He actually gave thanks for the bruising, the suffering of His own body.

And as He broke that bread, He well knew that it was an emblem, that His own body would be bruised and crushed upon the tree. That particular fact, that He gave thanks for it, is being emphasized by Paul here. When He had given thanks, He'd break it, and said, take it.

This is my body, which is broken for you. This do in remembrance of me. Now that particular expression in verse 24 and verse 25, in remembrance of me, that's how both those verses close.

I take it that that's absolute authority for meditating before the breaking of bread upon the person of Christ. Now, I know this is what we practice, but we should know the reason why. When we come together to remember the Lord in the breaking of bread, there are two outstanding features of it.

One, we remember Him. Secondly, we proclaim His death. And in remembering Him, we are meditating.

We are actually bringing our basket of firstfruits. And that, of course, is the principle of first things. That's Deuteronomy chapter 12, and Deuteronomy chapter 16, and Deuteronomy chapter 18.

We bring to the Lord that which we have gathered, the firstfruits, the best of our thoughts. You see, Hebrews 13 says it's the fruit of our lips giving thanks to His name. Fruit is not a seed.

Fruit is the result of careful pruning and of careful tending until finally the fruit is produced. So what we bring to the Lord is not just seeds, not thoughts that are like seeds, but we bring fruit. That which has been developed, that which through the week we have meditated upon and mused upon about the loveliness of His person, the glories of the Lord Jesus, and we remember Him.

So it is perfectly right to speak of His worth, to speak of the perfections of His manhood, the sinlessness of His walk, the loveliness of His character. All those lovely things about Christ are remembering Him and it is perfectly scriptural. But then it is also a declaration.

We proclaim the Lord's death until He comes. It's not a display. We're not preaching to those who are in the back seat.

And I have heard many intelligent brethren say that the declaration, the proclamation, and that is the word that is here, the word Yidusho is better translated that's the revised version of 1885 to whom are we proclaiming it? Some have said to the people who are sitting back. Now I do not believe that that's what this means. That may be true, but that's not what is being emphasized here.

We proclaim the Lord's death. To whom do we proclaim it? I think very simply we proclaim it to God. Does God not know about it then? Oh yes He does, but He loves to hear about His Son.

There's no subject so delightful to His ears. And so we proclaim to God and of course in doing so we proclaim to our own hearts the death of our Lord. And I think that's a remarkable language because usually whenever it is the death, the sufferings of Christ, it is Jesus who suffered.

Even in 1 Thessalonians 4 Paul says since we believe that Jesus died, so whenever it is the death of the Lord Jesus, He is suffering upon the cross. He is the lowly man who suffered. But did you notice that in the supper we proclaim the death of the Lord? It is the Lord's death.

You know that's the characteristic of 1 Corinthians. In the assembly there is the acknowledgement that Christ is Lord and so great is the dignity of this remembrance that we are proclaiming the death of the Lord, the Lord's death till He comes. Now it is still only bread.

That is very obvious as you read on. It is still only a cup of wine. It has not changed.

It has not been transformed. The Roman Catholic Church has a doctrine, a dogma, that is called transformation. The country that I came from, from my earliest memory, I heard Catholic students in school talking about Le Bon Dieu and they were referring to the wafer.

The good God was the name they gave to the little wafer that the priest put on their tongue when they took the communion in the church. But the doctrine of transubstantiation is not found in the scripture. Of course Protestants have not really departed as far from that doctrine as they should because the Lutheran Church for instance believes in consubstantiation and it literally means that it is bread and it is wine but along with it you have the actual body and blood of Christ.

But dear believer, they are just emblems. The Lord is present but it would be a very great superstition to say he is present in the emblems. That would be from Romanism.

It isn't in the emblems he is present. Now I can prove that to you very simply. The Lord's presence is here tonight.

He said where two or three are gathered together onto my name there I am in the midst of them. The Lord is here. There is no bread and wine here but he is here.

So in the breaking of bread the Lord is present himself and by faith we recognize amidst us our beloved stands. But the bread and the cup are emblems and they are still bread. They haven't changed but they are the simple emblems that he has chosen.

Tomorrow night if the Lord will I'll try to show you the five physical things that the Lord has chosen that are so closely related to an assembly testimony. But I'd like you to notice what you have in verse 27. Where for whosoever shall eat this bread and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord.

Verse 29 closes with the fact that those who eat and drink unworthily are not discerning the Lord's body. Now the question is what is that body? Look back again at verse 27. Guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.

Whenever you have the body and the blood linked together it refers to his actual body. The body in which Christ suffered. You notice he had said this is my body which is for you.

In verse 24. That's the body in which he was nailed to the tree and the body in which the Savior suffered. So verse 23 is the body in which he suffered and certainly verse 27 is the body in which he suffered.

What about the close of verse 29? I would have the greatest difficulty to change the body there to mean something mystical or spiritual. And I take it that not discerning the Lord's body actually means taking the bread and not recognizing in it that this is the emblem of the body in which the Savior suffered. Could we do that? Yes, we very clearly could.

There must be an investigation before we partake of the supper. There has to be an examining of our own hearts in the presence of God. Because he that eateth and drinketh unworthily eats and drinks judgment to himself.

Many years ago when I was preaching in Ohio we came across a large group of people who believed in the falling away doctor. They believed you could be saved and then if you sin... I never have been able to get from those people just the degree, the nature, the number of the sins that would mean they would be lost. Because they all have some different kind of a standard.

And of course it's their own so it's not uniform at all. But I remember one night we had a number of them at our meeting and after the meeting that night they all stood around and this one man was to be the spokesman and he was to prove to me that a believer could be saved and lost again. And so I let him speak and said to him what would happen to these people that are lost again? What would become of them? What would happen if they died? I said they would go down to hell because they've lost their salvation.

And I said would you like to turn with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 11? I'd like to read something to you. And they didn't know of any particular verses in 1 Corinthians 11 dangerous to their teaching so they quite gladly turned to it. And I showed them that there were people in Corinth who had sinned so grievously.

Some of them were sick and some of them had died. For this cause many are weak and sickly among you and many sleep. And then I went through the New Testament and I showed them each time it speaks about a person sleeping it is a person who is saved.

In fact that's the very teaching of 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 in verse 13. Those who have are the fallen asleep ones. And verse 14 of 1 Thessalonians 4 says they have fallen asleep through Jesus because he slew death by his dying.

It's only a believer who falls asleep. A sinner dies but a believer falls asleep. There were people in Corinth and they were so disobedient that the Lord said to them I can't trust you on earth any longer.

He took them away but he took them to heaven. So very very clearly of course there are many verses in the Bible that show the security of believers but it is remarkable that people so disobedient that God took them away in judgment he actually took them to heaven even though they were so disobedient. Now the body that we read about at verse 29 of chapter 11 the reason that that's so important is that in 1 Corinthians 10 11 and 12 you have the body of the Lord Jesus mentioned a number of times.

And I want you to look back with me in chapter 10 just for a moment in verse 16. The cup of blessing which we bless is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? And I would hardly think that anyone would question that that is the actual blood that flowed from the body of the Lord Jesus. The blood of Christ.

The bread which we break is it not the communion of the body of Christ? And in keeping with what has just been written about the blood of Christ I would take it that the body of Christ here is the body in which the Lord Jesus suffered. So the cup is the communion of the blood of Christ the bread is the communion of the body of Christ. But look at verse 17 For we being many are one bread and one body for we are all partakers of that one bread.

So in verse 16 you have the actual blood and the actual body in which the Lord Jesus suffered. But in verse 17 you have a spiritual body and we are all partakers of that one loaf and one body. Now very clearly that is spiritual.

So in those two verses you have a change. Now the same is true in chapter 12. At a most difficult place in chapter 12 we have just a change very similar to that.

In verse 12 of chapter 12 we read For as the body is one and you'll have to trust me now for what the context says you'll look at it yourself if you want to check it. The context is dealing with a human body. The apostle is using the human body as an illustration.

And verse 12 says For as the body is one and has many members and all the members of that one body being many are one body now he compares it so also is the Christ. Now you see he can't have been speaking about the body of Christ at the beginning of verse 12 or he couldn't have used it as a comparison. He's speaking about a human body as an illustration.

And it has many members but it is just one body. So also is the Christ. And then in verse 13 he goes on to speak about the body of Christ For by one spirit are we all baptized into one body whether we be Jews or Gentiles whether we have been bond or free and have been all made to drink into one spirit.

So while verse 12 at the beginning of it deals with a human body at the last of it it is comparing that human body to the Christ and then verse 13 deals with the spiritual body into which we were baptized at conversion. But verse 14 remarkably goes back again to the human body. For the body is not one member but many if the foot shall say and so forth.

So you see you are going back to the illustration again of a human body. And when you get to verse 27 of chapter 12 now he are the body of Christ there is no article there as you likely know and don't put an indefinite article in or you'll have many bodies with one head which is a monstrosity. So now ye are body of Christ and members in particular.

Now that sounds kind of confusing but maybe I can go over it with you simply. In 1 Corinthians chapter 10 and verse 16 you have the body in which Christ suffered. In 1 Corinthians 11 verses 25 and 29 you have the body in which he suffered.

But in 1 Corinthians 13 you have a spiritual body or 12 and 13 and in 10 and 17 you have a spiritual body. But I believe very clearly now that not discerning the Lord's body means to come in an unexamined spirit. To sit down and go through a form and not truly discern the Lord's body.

What a solemn warning that is to every one of us. In the assembly in Corinth Paul said to these people because of their condition you cannot you cannot keep the Lord's Supper. So the Lord's Supper is a spiritual thing as well as it being physical as well as there being bread and wine it is also spiritual.

And I must come in a right spiritual condition with an examined heart and life and to be able to discern in the breaking of bread the body in which the Lord suffered. Shall we pray.