You're listening to Migito Radio. Migito Radio is a radio ministry of Migito Media. For more, visit our website at migitoradio.com. That's migitoradio.com. Welcome everybody, this is Paul Flynn with Magiddo Radio for this episode number 505. I think it is anyway. So on this program, we're going to be looking at questions from the Westminster Larger Catechism, going back to Westminster Larger Catechism, eventually going to hopefully get this series going through, gone through, and we're on question 168. And the Westminster Latter Catechism has 186 questions, and I don't know if we'll be able to get through all this in one program, not entirely sure, and would like to cover the Lord's Supper in one or two programs, not sure. We'll see how we get on. It's very, very important that we know what the Lord's Supper is. It's very, very important that we're not casual towards it. Often a lot of problems can arise in the church when there's kind of a casualness to whoever can come before the table of the Lord and who can partake of that cup and who can eat of that bread. So, and that it doesn't just become a tag on to the end of a service, and that the table is properly fenced, so that as far as is possible, as far as is possible, you know, the elders don't have infallible knowledge of the hearts of people who are coming before them. The table is fenced. You know, the person who's coming before the Lord's table needs to have a credible profession of faith and need to know they're a sinner and trust, you know, profess faith in Jesus Christ and Him alone. They don't have to be perfect or anything else like that or any perfect background or whatnot. And they the Lord's Supper is for everyone. I think in a lot of circles, it's kind of got this sense of, like there's two extremes when it comes to the Lord's Supper. One extreme is that it's for the super Christian, the one who's attained to a perfect level of assurance. And you can find texts that maybe support a certain extreme like that. The other one then is that there's no self-examining whatsoever. Or that it doesn't matter as long as you've got some kind of a connection with the church. Some kind of something. Very, very loose. But the Lord's Supper is also for the weakest among us. If you've got the faith of a mustard seed, That's the smallest amount of faith. Yet you're looking unto Jesus. You need Christ. And he is presented before you in the Lord's Supper. So, I think the danger is the people who need it the most stay away. Not understanding the blessing they rob themselves of. And you're almost saying this publicly that you don't belong to Christ. But then there's people who don't have any interest in Christ the rest of the time. They only come every now and again. That's the danger of having it weekly. Presbyterian churches, historically at least, would have, it'll vary, but a few a year, sometimes two, sometimes three. Now I know some people listening to this might think, how can a church only have it twice a year? But you have to realize as well, other churches are having communion seasons as well, and often, people from one church will visit another neighboring congregation or travel home or go somewhere else. So you often get people who might go to four or five communion seasons a year. So, um, And the wonderful thing about that is, and it's kind of largely a tradition found, a godly tradition, I believe, in Scotland, is it's quite Catholic small c, as in you get people from outside of the congregation coming together and they're involved in communion at the Lord's table together. And I think that's a wonderful, wonderful thing. So let's go through this. Question 168. What is the Lord's Supper? What is the Lord's Supper, or sometimes called the Lord's Table, or different things like that? Answer, in the larger catechism, the Lord's Supper is a sacrament of the New Testament wherein, by giving and receiving bread and wine, according to the appointment of Jesus Christ, his death is showed forth and they that worthily communicate feed upon his body and blood to their spiritual nourishment and growth and grace have their union and communion with him confirmed testify and renew their thankfulness and engagement with to God and their mutual love and fellowship each with other as members of the same mystical body So it's a sacrament, and we've spent quite a bit of time, I think it's episode number 486, where I looked at sacraments. I'm going to try not to go back over that again, but a sacrament is a sign. Think of a sign kind of points towards something else and a seal, almost think of a seal in a document, it authenticates, it gives confidence into that promise that has been given. So sacraments are holy signs and seals of the New Testament. where in giving of bread, receiving bread, and we've been given that example by Christ, and wine, a bit of a debate has arisen over the last 200 years, sadly, because of the invention of non-alcoholic grape juice, didn't exist before that, whether fruit of the vine is alcoholic wine or not. really a silly debate, but it is certainly alcoholic wine. That's all that was there for the first 1800 years of the church. I can't remember the exact time when Welsh's grape juice was invented, but you had no way, you had no way of preserving the grapes. It's just, that's kind of an extra biblical argument. Yes, the phrase fruit of the vine is used, but it's really to be understood anecdotally. And what I mean by that is, it's... I'm trying to think of another phrase, you know, there's a... The fruit of the vine is wine. It's a drink. None of us would think we'd get a cup and we'd stick a few grapes in there and they're not crushed, they're not fermented. It's very clear what it's pointing toward. And even, we don't think when we say, and drink this cup, we don't think we're gonna melt down the cup and drink the, whatever, it's made of metal or whatever. You don't understand the silliness that goes into it. It's clearly alcoholic wine. It's recognized in the Westminster as such. And I think we lend ourselves to becoming elastic, highly equivocal. highly latitudinarian, where every phrase is open to any elastic interpretation, and you can really just drive a bus through things, and before you know it, you're using something that's not even a grape in the Lord's Supper. So you want to be as strict as you possibly can, follow what the Lord says, and don't be messing with that. And I think there's been too much of that in recent times because of the legalistic... the legalism of the temperance movement of the 19th century. That's what it all comes out of. But I don't really want to dwell too much upon that because I think it's... The Bible says what the Bible says and we must be obedient to that. By giving and receiving bread and wine, according to the appointment of Jesus Christ, his death is showed forth. So his death is showed forth. He's given us, Jesus has given us his life and his bread shows forth his body and shedding his blood in the wine. And they that worthily communicate feed upon his body and blood. And this is obviously spiritually feeding upon his body and blood to their spiritual nourishment and the growth in grace. Now, how do we feed upon Christ? By faith. Otherwise, we eat and drink damnation unto ourselves. And who is that person? You might look at it and say, worthy communicate? Worthy is someone in Christ. In ourselves, none of us are worthy. But in Christ, we have the righteousness of Christ. You must remember that. You have been washed. You've been sanctified. You've been cleansed by the blood of Christ, if you've trusted in Jesus Christ and Him alone. It doesn't matter how flawed your faith may be. You are a worthy, Communicate in Christ, not in yourself. Okay, in ourselves, none of us should come. No one. I heard years ago, one time, one person described it like this. You should come forward, but don't come forward if there's an unresolved sin in your life. That's sinless perfection you're seeking before you come towards the Lord's table. That's Nonsense. If you're looking for the point of sanctification, where nobody's wrestling with certain sin, maybe even a serious sin, look, there may be times when a person is falling into scandalous sin and may have to be removed from the Lord's table. and isn't allowed by the elders to come forward to the Lord's table. But the question is not, do you have sin in your life? Everybody's got sin in their life. And I'm not saying to take it glibly or lightly because you have sin in your life. No, be putting sin to death. But the weakest amongst us The one with the weakest faith needs, in a sense, they need the Lord's Supper more. I don't want to say somebody needs the Lord's Supper more, but you understand what I mean. They need it. If you're in a room and you've got somebody who hasn't got much food, that person doesn't have much food and can't do very much. I haven't done much to that. No, you eat. You eat. You need to be strengthened. You need to be built up so that you can grow. Don't seek to come to Christ for help when you've got everything cleaned up. Come to him immediately because you can't do anything without him. Because in the Lord's Supper, you feed upon Christ. He is your food and he is your drink. It says in the same questions, question 168, have their communion, have the union and communion with him confirmed? Confirmed. It is a seal. We talked about that. A seal. It says in 1 Corinthians 10 and 16, 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? Confirming and reassuring our souls if we're truly believers, by faith, strengthens our assurance that Christ is truly ours. He nourishes us. testify, you see, we are creature and we, here's the tokens of his love that he has set before us in the bread and the wine to what does bread do to the hungry soul, to the hungry body, to the weak body? It strengthens, it reassures, it reinvigorates. What does wine do to the heart? It gladdens the heart. That's what Christ does for the soul that sees Him as their food and their drink. Goes on to say, questions 168, testify and renew their thankfulness and engagement with God and their mutual love and fellowship with each other as members of the same mystical body. So when we're coming before the Lord's table, we come as one people. When we're coming toward the cup of the Lord, the cup of blessing, we come as one people to partake of that cup. Question 169. of the Larger Catechism. I'm going to, there's a lot to cover here, but I'm going to just be talking generally. If there's anything you would like me to cover in more detail, get a radio at gmail.com. That's M-E-G-I-D-D-O, radio at gmail.com. Question 169 of the Westminster Larger Catechism. How hath Christ appointed bread and wine to be given and received in the sacrament of the Lord's Supper? How hath Christ appointed bread and wine to be given and received in the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. The answer given, Christ hath appointed the ministers of his word in the administration of the sacrament of the Lord's Supper to set apart bread and wine from common use by the word of institution, thanksgiving and prayer, to take and break the bread and give both the bread and the wine to the communicants who are by the same appointment to take and to eat the bread and to drink the wine in thankful remembrance the body of Christ was broken and given and his blood shed for them. So question 169. So how is it to be given and received? Before we just talk about this, bread is bread. There's nothing special about the bread, but it's to be set apart for sacramental use. And so is the wine set apart for sacramental use. And it's ministers of the word, ministers of word and sacrament to minister it. And it's to be set apart by the word of institution in 1 Corinthians 11. I think that's what, verses 23 and 24. And by the way, we're an institution, thanksgiving and prayer. So there'll be praise given in prayer, praise in Psalms. To take and break the bread, notice how it's the bread, really should be one loaf, I think, to symbolize that oneness. To break the bread, and to give both the bread and the wine to the communicants who are by the same appointment to take and eat the bread and to drink the wine in thankful remembrance that the body of Christ was broken well, to do so solemnly, not in a casual way given and his blood shed for them so He is with his death He feeds us. He feeds our soul because without that death We would face eternal death without that death. We would be spiritually dead without hope And he nurses us by faith. Again, all of this is by faith, by faith alone in Christ. It's not faith alone in the bread or not faith alone in the wine. It's faith alone in what the bread and the wine signify and seal and point toward the body of Christ and how he died. He shed his blood. He lived the perfect life. He was the spotless, sinless lamb of God and was buried for three days. rose again and ascended to the right hand of the majesty on high. And he ever lives to intercede for us, his people. And he gives us, he has given us this holy meal, this, these tokens of his love, this expression to show us His people who have trusted in Him, how much He loves, how much He feeds. It's there to encourage. It's there to bless. It's not just to remember, it's more than that. It's a means of grace. It's to build up and strengthen. Now, because the believer really does, by faith, feed on Christ when he receives the bread and wine by faith. The unbeliever, what do they receive to themselves? Damnation. They pour more and more damnation upon themselves, which is why it's incumbent upon the preacher and the elders to fence the table to the best of their abilities, that as far as they can tell, as far as they can tell, this won't be done perfectly at all, that those who are coming to the table of the Lord are truly, are at least professing Christians. Because there's, you have in the preaching and you have it as well in the table addresses and things like that, that if you do not trust in Jesus, do not come. Do not come. However, no matter how imperfect your faith may be in Jesus Christ, as long as you're trusting in him and in him alone, no matter how weak or failing your faith may be, you'll feel at times, come to the table. Come. Christ seeks to bless his people. Come by faith. Come with a spiritual hunger. Come with a desire to find satisfaction and nourishment in Him. Come not for anybody else. Now, then again, there's also the expression of that unity in the body of Christ. We are one body. We partake of one bread, we partake of one cup. Question 170, and we might be able to get through all the questions, I'm not sure here how we go. Question 170, how do they that worthily communicate in the Lord's Supper feed upon the body and blood of Christ therein? the answer of question 170 as the body and blood of Christ are not corporally or carnally present in, with, or under the bread of wine in the Lord's Supper, and yet are spiritually present to the faith of the receiver, no less truly and really than the elements themselves are to their outward senses. So they that worthily communicate in the sacrament of the Lord's Supper do therein feed upon the body and blood of Christ, not after a corporal and carnal, but in a spiritual manner. Yet truly and really, while by faith they receive and apply unto themselves Christ crucified and all the benefits of his death. So how, going back to the question again, how do they, that worthily communicate, basically those with faith. in Jesus Christ alone. Those have been clothed in the righteousness of Christ. Those have been washed by the blood of the Lamb of God, that innocent, spotless Lamb of God who came and washed away the sins of his people by the instrumental cause that is faith, which is a gift of God, lest any man should boast. Ephesians chapter 2 verses 8 and 9. But how do they that worthily communicate in the Lord's Supper, that's them by faith, how do they feed upon the body and blood of Christ therein? How do they feed upon the body and blood of Christ therein? Now, the answer, it's very, the Westminster large Canada is very careful to try and deal with any misunderstandings that have arisen in church history that have developed over many, many centuries. These misunderstandings and misinterpretations of how Christ is present in the Lord's supper have not developed overnight. Sometimes they've started off, I think, with godly men who said maybe one unwise statement and then it's developed even further beyond what they would have taken it themselves. But whatever the case may be, it says here, as the body and blood of Christ are not corporally, that's the physically or carnally presence. So in a physical presence, Christ is not present because his physical humanity His physical body, where is it? Is it on every communion table? Is he in more than one place at one time, you could say? No, he can't be. We don't believe. There is a doctrine believed by the Lutheran Church, which is the doctrine of ubiquity. And in this doctrine, I'm no expert on Lutheran theology, by the way. So if you're a Lutheran and you're listening to this and I've made a mistake, please feel free to email me at getaradioatgmail.com. I wouldn't be the biggest fan of a lot of Lutheran theology, to be honest. And I don't know how much they actually agree with Luther today. There's been movements and changes, I don't think, and all that. But there is that doctrine of ubiquity, kind of maybe in seed form, maybe to a degree was seen with Luther, trying to think where it was developed even further. But the idea was, how could Christ be physically, physically now, corporally or carnally present in more than one place. And they believed, and they believe still today in this doctrine of consubstantiation. Consubstantiation, con meaning with. And it's different to transubstantiation. Transubstantiation is the doctrine believed by the Roman Catholic Church. And in transubstantiation, the Roman Catholic Church believes, and still believes to this day, that the bread is no longer bread. The wine is no longer wine. The bread becomes the physical body of Jesus Christ. The wine becomes the physical blood of Jesus Christ. And the way that Rome explains this is that the They use a flawed application of Aristotle's substance and accidents kind of understanding of it, but they'll say in substance it's the body and blood of Christ. but the outward accidents or appearance of smell or whatever is bread and wine. So the outward appearance of it continues to be bread and wine, yes, they'll say that, but in the substance of it, they'll say it's actually, this is actually Christ's body and blood. That's transubstantiation. And you hear some strange stories over the years of I think it was the reason too, I remember I was raised Roman Catholic, in case any of you don't know, listening to this, and we would not chew the host or the Eucharist, and you'd let it dissolve in your tongue. I suppose the idea is you don't chew, you know, the body of Christ, that kind of thing. Although there was no participation of the cup in Roman Catholic communion. Masses, we call it. And you'd hear some strange stories of, you know, children getting ill, maybe throwing up or something like that. And, you know, maybe Holy Communion, they'd eat too many sweets. And I think I heard a story years ago. This isn't somebody I knew or anything like that. I think I heard it from some other source, but that they had to pick up this leftover of the Eucharist because this is Christ's body. So they would get very reverential towards it, even so much so that when you go into a Catholic church, they would bow. We bowed, you know, because the monstrance was there with the host in the middle, because that's Christ's physical presence. Christ is there, apparently, in the physical building. So that's transubstantiation, which inevitably leads to idolatry. and superstition and irrationality of the grossest sort. Consubstantiation by the Lutherans is different. It's why I think the Westminster Divines are very careful to say not corporally or carnally presence in, or with, comma, like so in, with, comma, or under the bread and wine in the Lord's Supper. So you're dealing with really there, you're eliminating both the Roman Catholic explanation of it, but also the Lutheran explanation of it. So this is like, the Lutheran view of it isn't as bad as the Roman Catholic view, but it's still not, Fantastic. And look, Christ's body, his physical body, is at the right hand of the majesty on high. He's still in heaven. Now, you say, how is he present? Jesus is present in the bread and the wine. because his divine nature, his divine nature is, yes, there's the hypostatic union where Jesus is true God and true man, but his divine nature is not confined to the flesh, as in he is beyond the flesh. Or put it another way, Jesus's divine nature fills heaven and earth. His divine nature filled heaven and earth when physically in his human nature he was in Mary's womb, his mother's womb. So he's omnipresent, he's always been omnipresent. And it was something that later kind of got the nickname called the Extra Calvinisticum. I think it was a bit of a joke or kind of a slur of the right word. It's kind of like that extra thing that, you know, the Lutherans would say, but the Calvinists would say, well, that extra thing that the Calvinists believe, the Extra Calvinisticum. And I don't think it was a term that was used up until recently, but anyway, it's known as the Extra Calvinisticum today where Christ is beyond the flesh so that he is spiritually present in the Lord's Supper wherever it is partaken. And it says it here in the answer. Or under the bread and wine in the Lord's Supper and yet are spiritually present to the faith of the receiver. Answer 170. No less truly and really than the elements themselves are to their outward senses. So Christ is spiritually as present to the one who has faith, to the one who receives the bread and wine as much as the bread and the wine are there themselves to the outward senses. They're just as much there. Isn't that wonderful? So they are, they now worthily communicate in the sacrament of the Lord's Supper to therein feed upon the body and blood of Christ, not after a corporal and carnal, again rejecting the Roman Catholic and Lutheran understanding of it, but in a spiritual manner, yet truly and really, while by faith they receive and apply unto themselves Christ crucified and all the benefits of his death. All the benefits of his death, Christ died so that we no longer We don't longer have an eternal death sentence over our heads. It has been paid by Christ, paid in full. Now, it rejects not only the Roman Catholic understanding of transubstantiation and the Lutheran understanding of consubstantiation, consubstantiation with the bread. Lutheran understanding would say Christ's body is there with the bread and the bread remains bread. The wine remains wine, but in some way, they would say, I don't know when this exactly got developed, whether it was Melanchthon or somebody after Melanchthon, I'm not entirely sure, but a little bit Luther, I suppose. The, see, consubstantiation, but then you also have, which would be different to a Reform view, and I don't know if this has, this has been a big debate for years about what did Ulrich Zwingli, the early Reformer, really believe about the presence, Christ's presence in the Lord's Supper? So sometimes this memorialist view is referred to as the Zwinglian view. One researcher I saw kind of said, questioned whether Zwingli really had the time to develop the doctrine. Heinrich Bullinger really followed on in his work, and clearly did believe in the spiritual presence of Christ, so it can get a little bit messy. There is a view, and it's probably existed for a long time, of a purely memorial view of the Lord's Supper, where it's not really a means of grace, it's just there to remember Christ. So in that sense, you really don't benefit spiritually in any real special way from it. And this question, this answer here, really would disagree with that. The reform view is that we do, I don't really have time to go through a lot of the text, that would take a long time, Because there is a real implication of that, that we really do feed on Christ's body and blood. How? Not in a physical sense, but by faith in a spiritual manner. But there is a real presence of Christ there in the bread and in the cup. And we really are blessed and we truly do feed upon Christ, not physically, not carnally. while by faith they receive and apply unto themselves Christ crucified, He's their food and their drink, His life, the feed upon His life, which is given for His people and all the benefits of His death. In 1 Corinthians 10, verse 16, the cup of blessing which we bless is not the communion of the blood of Christ. The bread which we break is not the communion of the blood of the body of Christ. So the language of Scripture very much points out, yes, we do. feed upon Christ by faith, but we're not to apply any carnal or corporal way of understanding that because Christ is also true man. And that can also be lost as well. Oh, the need to return to Chalcedonian. Christianity, where we understand Jesus is true God in every sense of what it means to be God. He is one with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one will, one mind. He is one in being, one in essence, without body, parts, or passions. and yet assumed to himself a human nature. He became man. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Before Jesus was in his mother's womb, physically, as a man, as a baby, he was not man. He became man. But in His divine nature, there's no shadow of turning. No shadow of turning. All right, question 171, and we're getting on about 40 minutes in, and I think we may, we just may get the, well, we'll see how it goes. Don't wanna make too many bold predictions. Question 171, how are they that receive the sacrament of the Lord's Supper to prepare themselves before they come unto it? How are they that receive the sacrament of the Lord's Supper to prepare themselves before they come on to it? And this is something that is very, very important. And I think in your average evangelical church, there really isn't any preparation for it, especially if it's weekly. And I have some dear friends who do believe in weekly communion. God bless you, I disagree with you. But question 171, the answer, they that receive the sacrament of the Lord's Supper are before they come to prepare themselves thereunto by examining themselves of their being in Christ, of their sins and wants. of the truth and measure of their knowledge, faith, repentance, love to God and the brethren, charity to all men, forgiving those that have done them wrong, of their desires after Christ, and of their new obedience, and by renewing the exercise of their graces by serious meditation and fervent prayer. We are to especially prepare ourselves for the Lord's table. So they that receive, the answer again, how are we to prepare? They that receive the Sacrament of the Lord's Table are, before they come, to prepare themselves by examining themselves of their being in Christ. And it's one of the reasons why a lot of churches and a lot of historic Presbyterian denominations will still have communion seasons. Communion seasons. Now you might be saying, what's a communion season? Historically, years ago, at least this would have been a lot more common, I think, communion seasons would have been Thursday, Friday, Saturday, twice on Sabbath, and then once on Monday. Today, there are still some churches that do that. I don't know if it was ever longer than that or variation of that. I think there were some variations in some places. But there would be what we would call preparatory services or pre-communion. Like some churches today will have communion seasons, but it'll be like, for example, typically in the Reformed Presbyterian Church of Ireland, you'll have pre-communion service And then you will have two Sabbath day services, the communion service itself, and then in the evening you will have Thanksgiving service. And then there are, there'll be different practice I think some RPCNA, Reformed Presbyterian Church in North America, I think that some of them have, I don't know if they have longer communion seasons. In the Free Church of Scotland continuing, a number of their churches, I think most of them actually, if not all of them, bar a few, will have pre-communion on Thursday, Friday, another on Saturday, Lord's Table, Sabbath morning, and then Sabbath evening will be kind of an evangelistic service, and then Monday, there's a Thanksgiving service. So starting on Thursday, ending on Monday. There are variations of that as well. But the idea is before coming to the Lord's Table, to prepare themselves thereby by examining selves of being in Christ. So typically in the first night, on the Thursday night, you'd have something about sin and the need to repent. And then maybe the next night, on the marks of grace. So those would be about examining ourselves as preparing, coming towards the Lord's supper. of their sins and their wants, with regards to that. So we have to see that we're sinners if we're going to come towards the Lord's table. Of the truth and measure of their knowledge, faith, repentance. So to see that true repentance really has this person repented. And so in some of these preparatory services you'd have that. Love to God and the brethren. Charity. These would be probably brought out on the proprietary service with regards to the marks of grace. love to God and the brethren, charity to all men, forgiving those who have done them wrong. And that would be a mark of grace. If we forgiving, though it's in the Lord's prayer, as we forgive those who trespass against us, that's an evidence of saving grace, of the desires after Christ and new obedience. By renewing the exercise of these graces, by serious meditation and for prayers. Now also you gotta make sure you balance that, you know, when we're talking about, okay, you gotta see yourself as a sinner. Is there fruit in your life? But I suppose you always have to, we do realize that there are certain people who do that maybe too much and need to not take any, if you're just looking at yourself, of course you're gonna be miserable. You need to see your sinner. There needs to be some evidences of life that the Holy Spirit has done a work in you, and there's some degree of fruit. The fruit doesn't save you, but some degree of evidence of life. And a desire after Christ and their new obedience, And then some kind of encouragement in that, because sometimes when you look at that thing, you kind of go, should I be going, I better not go to the Lord's table just in case. You need to be encouraged as well. There has to be that encouragement of no matter how imperfect your faith may be, it is Christ that makes us acceptable, are accepted in the Beloved. It's Christ and Christ alone. Nothing in my hands I bring, simply through the cross-cycling. And where we have fallen short in these graces, we seek to repent and be renewed in those, and to grow. This is all about growing. When we feed upon Christ, we're seeking to grow in these graces and to leave sin more and more behind and have, and when that happens, we're gonna have greater sense of assurance. Now, I don't, I also wanna be careful and just say, I'm not saying if you do, just make sure you see yourself as a sinner. Then the next night, make sure you see yourself having a little bit of fruit and then make sure you're a little bit encouraged. Then go to Lord's Supper and all your problems with assurance will be over. I'm not saying that at all. It's a struggle. It's a struggle. And we will all have doubts and struggles from time to time. And it's hard. And especially, I don't have this experience. I don't. But I do have a lot of sympathy towards people who have grown up in a Christian home and struggle with assurance. They've never had that major, massive change in their life. Because it's easy sometimes to think, you know, you read those things about, in the scriptures, you know, the examples of Judas and other people like that who self-deceived and ended up in hell. People who looked like they were converted, like Saul. And you kind of go, have I deceived myself? Now, it happens less with someone who's had a major change in life, someone like me. But even still, you might have the odd stages of doubt and things like that and whatever. So I really do have a lot of sympathy towards those people who've never had a huge change. They grew up in a Christian home. Maybe it's you listening. And you grew up in a Christian home. And you don't remember a time when you didn't believe. Like I'm talking about I'm talking to a genuine believer now. Maybe the Lord regenerated your heart when you were one or two or, you know, before you were even born. I don't know. Like that happened with John the Baptist. That can happen. And in his love and mercy. You've never had a time. At least you can't remember a time when you didn't believe, or whatever the case may be. And it can be particularly hard. Assurance can be a real struggle. And I say can, it doesn't have to be for everybody, but can be a real struggle for you. And I would say to you, the Lord's Supper is particularly important to you that you taste and see more and more that the Lord is good. There's a sense in which you may need it. More than that other person you may see down the road and whatever. No, no, you need Lord's Supper and you need that strength and reassurance. So I do think the struggles which a person who's come out from the world will have, someone like me, bad habits or whatever, versus the struggles of somebody who grew up in a Christian home. We all have our things. We all need our reassuring. We all need comforting this side of eternity. We all need strengthening and feeding. And I think we should come to the Lord's Supper with a great sense of our need for Christ. And the more we have that sense of our need for Christ, the hungrier we will come, and the more thirsty we will come, and the more satisfaction we will have in Christ as he's set before us in the Lord's Supper. how much we'll love more and more even and have a greater appreciation for that one body of which we're part of and that is the body of Christ. Question 172 now. May one who doubteth of his being in Christ or of his due preparation come to the Lord's Supper. This brings us nicely actually onto this. One who doubteth of his being in Christ or of his due preparation to the sacrament of the Lord's Supper may have true interest in Christ, though he be not yet assured thereof. And in God's account hath it, if he be duly affected with the apprehension of the want of it and unfatedly desires to be in Christ and to depart from iniquity, in which case because promises are made and the sacrament is appointed for the relief even of weak and doubting Christians. He is to bewail his unbelief and labor to have his doubts resolved and so doing he may and ought to come to the Lord's supper that he may be further strengthened. And I'm gonna, this is kind of reiterating a lot what I said earlier. The Lord's Supper is not for unbelievers, but it is for doubting and weak Christians. And, but they're not just to be content with that weakness. We're to bewail our unbelief and to labor to have our doubts resolved. And see, you know, we shouldn't just stay where we are and just be content with that. I know what I say as well, call me even if you have the, You have the faith of a grain of mustard seed, but don't stay and be content with that. That's not a good sign. You should bewail the fact as well. Come that you have, praise God you have faith, even the grain of mustard seed, but don't stay there. Bewail of your doubts and your struggles and have your doubts, labor to have these doubts resolved. And so doing, he may and ought to come to the Lord's supper, that he may be further strengthened. It's not like turning on and off a light switch. I guess there's almost like, okay, I have all these doubts, but are you seeking to have these, are you laboring to have these things resolved? I'm not saying, Not looking for perfection, but are you seeking to have these doubts resolved? And in laboring to do it and bewailing your unbelief toward God, come to the Lord's Supper. Don't stay away from the Lord's Supper. Do you have faith in Jesus Christ? That is what is needed to come. You come by faith. You do not come in unbelief. Do not come in unbelief. Come by faith. And if you do have doubts and struggles, that you will seek to have those resolved. You're never gonna have them all resolved, by the way. And we'll also say that. Question 173. May any who profess the faith and desire to come to the Lord's stable be kept from it? Answers such as are found to be ignorant or scandalous without their profession of the faith and desire to come to the Lord's Supper may not be kept from the sacrament by the power which Christ has left to His Church until they receive instruction and manifest the Reformation. And one of the references that he gives is 2 Corinthians 2, verse 7, "...so that, counterwise, ye ought rather to forgive him and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow." That's somebody who was disciplined, but he's to be received. Once again, part of church discipline can be keeping somebody from the Lord's table. Now, So somebody who professes the faith, may any who profess faith, so people who say, I'm a believer, so of that group and desire to come to the Lord's table, be kept from it. Can any of that group, just say there's 100 people before you, and they all profess faith in Jesus Christ, but you have two people living with each other outside of marriage? Or is somebody else doing something else scandalous? And that would depend on their stage of walk. If somebody grew up in a Christian faith and is involved in the sin that they know is wrong, that's scandalous. But if you've got somebody who's a babe in Christ, it's a different situation. But such as are found to be ignorant or scandalous, into something that really denies the Christian faith and desire to come to the Lord so it may and ought to be kept from the sacraments by the power that Christ has left to his church. And that power it's speaking about here is in reference, well really to the keys to the kingdom. The power, and this is the elders, the elders of the church, until they receive instruction and manifest the reformation. Incredible profession of faith. If it, you know, something like that, it's just something, it's something scandalous in their life and, you know, you think that's not a Christian. I'll give you a very black and white example. Somebody's a professing believer, says they believe in Jesus Christ, but they're part of the LGBT community. They should be kept from the Lord's supper. Be not deceived. People who walk in such a way will not inherit the kingdom of God. Question 174. I think we're almost finished, I think, the Lord's Supper questions. I think there's two more left. Question 174. So that's the fencing of the table, really, mentioned in question 173. Question 174, what is required of them that receive the sacrament of the Lord's Supper in the time of the administration of it? I think some of this I've already covered already. Answer, it is required of them that receive the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, that during the time of the administration of it, with all holy reverence and attention, they wait upon God in that ordinance, diligently observing the sacramental elements and actions, heedfully discerning, discern, the Lord's body, and affectionately meditate on His death and sufferings, therefore stir up themselves to a vigorous exercise of their graces, and in judging themselves and sorrowing for sin in earnest hungering and thirsting after Christ, feeding on Him by faith, receiving of His fullness, trusting in His merits, rejoicing in His love, giving thanks for His grace in renewing of their covenant with God and love to all the saints. So what is required of them that receive this? So they're there, they're receiving the sacrament, they are to receive by faith. They are to discern the Lord's body, to meditate upon his death and sufferings, to disturb themselves, the exercise of the graces, think about, you know, bewail sin. Unbelief is sin. Feed on him by faith. Thirst after Christ. Hungry and thirsting after Christ. and renewing the covenant with God and have a love towards your fellow saints, which you share the table of the Lord with. In fact, all the saints. Finally, question 175, we actually got there. Because it kind of changes a little bit. The question 176 kind of changes a little bit. And I may just tag those on to the next section. Not sure exactly. Yeah, we'll finish off any question 175. So I don't want to rush through this too much. Question 175, what is the duty of Christians after they have received the sacrament of the Lord's Supper? The duty of Christians after they've received the sacrament of the Lord's Supper is seriously to consider how they have behaved themselves therein, and with what success. If they find quickening, that's livening, gonna give me quicken grace, and comfort to bless God for it, beg the countenance of it, watch against relapses, fulfill their vows, and encourage themselves to a frequent attendance on that ordinance. But if they find no present benefit, more exactly to review the preparation to encourage at the sacrament, in both which, if they can approve themselves to God and their own consciences, they are to wait for the fruit of it in due time. But if they see that they have failed in either, they are to be humbled and to attend upon it afterward with more care and diligence." It's basically to see, have they, in their preparation for the sacrament, in preparation for the Lord's Supper, how they have behaved themselves, have they received quickening and comforting? They're to watch against backsliding away from that. They are to keep the promises before God. They're to encourage themselves. And if they find no benefit, because it can become a ritual, more exactly to review, you should look into how you prepared for it. because we can come coldly to the Lord's, to the service of worship, to the Lord's table. And to meditate, where did they fall short? Maybe there's something wrong in the preparation too. But if they see they have failed in either, that they are to be humbled. So we examine ourselves. There's a degree of examining ourselves and where we've fallen short. It can be uncomfortable. It's hard to look at ourselves, but it's necessary. rather than shutting our eyes to these things. They are to be humbled and to attend upon it afterward with more care and diligence. Basically, have you grown in grace, by participation in the Lord's Supper. And in some way you have grown either in encouragement or in some way, shape or form. Now, the longer you're a Christian and the more you've grown, it can be harder to see that. But at the same time, there should be some degree of extra comfort. And if you haven't, if you see no benefit whatsoever, perhaps there's something wrong with how you're preparing your heart for what you've come to. So hopefully that's been a blessing to you. And we're, Lord willing, next Tuesday we'll be back with something different, probably not the Westminster Larger Catechism. And we're getting closer to the end of the Westminster Larger Catechism. If there are other topics you would like me to cover, MegiddoRadio at gmail.com. That's M-E-G-I-D-D-O, radio at gmail.com. If you have any questions and comments, you can email me there. It's been Paul Flynn. May God bless you all.