to 1 Corinthians chapter 11. 1 Corinthians chapter 11. This is of course the classic text addressing the Lord's Supper and that is going to be What we're going to be dealing with this morning, we're continuing in a series that we've entitled The Great Church Victorious, Commitments of a Strong Congregation. So we are thinking about those things that we should be committed to as a local body that will make our body strong in the cause of Christ. And as we have stressed so often, those commitments should be things that are based on the scriptures, not things that are based on our personal preferences or whims, not based on the things that the culture wants to see in the church. Rather, we are asking ourselves, what does Christ desire to see in his church? And that's what we desire to do. So we are dealing this morning with the discerning exercise of the Lord's Supper. So I want us to start reading this morning in 1 Corinthians 11, verse 17. This is actually a little bit earlier than the passage that is customarily read at the observance of the table, but I think it's important to see the context, which we will get into in due time. First Corinthians chapter 11, beginning at verse 17. Paul writes, 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, I hear that there be divisions among you, and I partly believe it. For there must also be 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. 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 to 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 I also delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus, the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread. And when he had given thanks, he break it and said, Take, eat, this is my body, which is broken for you, this do in remembrance of me. After the same manner also he took the cup when he had supped, saying, This cup is the New Testament in my blood. This do ye as oft as 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 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 weak and 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 tarry one for another and if any man hunger let him eat at home that ye come not together under condemnation and The rest will I set in order when I come Heavenly Father. Thank you for our redemption that has been accomplished on Calvary Lord we acknowledge that we are a people that are so forgetful we think of that as that we sometimes sing, lest I forget Yosemite, lest I forget thine agony, lest I forget thy love for me, lead me to Calvary. And Lord, that would be our plea this morning. Lead us to Calvary. Strengthen our appreciation for the ordinance of the Lord's supper to your Father. We thank you that you've ordained this ordinance of the church to accommodate us, Lord, in our weakness. And Lord, we pray that you would enable us to follow this ordinance in the way that the Scripture prescribes for us, Father. And we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. This morning, our church begins embarking on an experiment. The experiment is to replace our normal 6 o'clock evening service with a 1.30 afternoon service, and between the morning and afternoon service, a fellowship meal. Now it is fitting on this Lord's Day that we would come to 1 Corinthians 11, because this passage tells us of the ultimate meal, the meal of all meals, the Lord's Supper. Yet what you may not realize is that just as we are experimenting with a fellowship meal every Lord's Day, so the early church had a fellowship meal every Lord's Day. It was called the agape feast, we wanna put it in more understandable terms, the Love Feast. And the Love Feast that was observed was concluded with a celebration of the Lord's Supper. Now the title Love Feast was quite ironic for the Corinthian church because at this feast in the church at Corinth, there was very little love and a whole lot of selfishness and carnality. Problems with the Love Feast, unfortunately, in church history were not isolated to the church at Corinth. In fact, if you do a study in church history, you will find that there were actually multiple church councils that tried to ban the Love Feast. Of course, in this current day, it is rare to find a church that observes any kind of fellowship meal every Sunday. Of course, it's my hope that our fellowship meals that we enjoy here are not going to meet the same end as the love feasts. Now, the passage we just read is the definitive passage on the Lord's Supper. And my normal practice in this series has been to take a topical approach, examining each of these commitments of a strong congregation from a number of different passages. But in this case, I believe it is prudent to give an exposition of this passage because it is so foundational to our understanding of the Lord's Supper. And as we go along, we will fittingly receive some instruction that is pertinent to the fellowship meals that we are going to be observing at least over the next two months. But before we get to the text, I want to make some general comments about the Lord's Supper. Now, for some of you, some of these things may be familiar to you, but I know that we have people from a variety of different backgrounds, a variety of different levels of spiritual maturity, and I think it's important that we lay some groundwork in regard to the Lord's Supper. We call the Lord's Supper an ordinance of the local church. And most Baptist churches recognize two ordinances of the local church, baptism and the Lord's Supper. You will find a few Baptist churches that recognize a third ordinance, foot washing. Now the word ordinance appears in 1 Corinthians chapter 11. If you go back to chapter 11 in verse two, Paul writes there, now I praise you brethren that ye remember me in all things and keep the ordinances as I delivered them to you. The word ordinance, the word that is translated ordinance is often translated tradition. And we are inclined, I think, to see that word tradition in a very negative light. We think, for example, in Mark chapter seven, when Jesus rebukes the tradition of the scribes and Pharisees. He says in verse nine in Mark seven, full well ye reject the commandment of God that ye may keep your own tradition. But tradition is not always a bad thing. When Paul refers to traditions or ordinances, he's referring to church practices that were instituted by the Lord Himself and subsequently passed down to us through the apostles. This is what Paul is referring to in our text. Notice in verse 23 here in verse Corinthians 11, Paul writes, for I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you. Paul received this tradition from the Lord himself. And then Paul delivered this same tradition to the churches that were under his care. Now many Christian denominations refer to the Lord's Supper as a sacrament. Now you say, Brother Nick, do you believe that the Lord's Supper is a sacrament? And my answer to that would be, it depends on what you mean by the word sacrament. Encyclopedia Britannica gives this definition of a sacrament. They say that a sacrament is a religious sign or symbol especially associated with Christian churches in which a sacred or spiritual power is believed to be transmitted through material elements viewed as channels of divine grace. Now, if that's how you're understanding a sacrament, I would have to categorically deny that the Lord's Supper is a sacrament. Scripture does not teach that a sacred or spiritual power is transmitted through material elements, nor does it teach that those material elements, the bread and the juice, are themselves channels of divine grace. Certainly we do not teach, as the Roman Catholic Church does, that the Lord's Supper is one of seven sacraments that are necessary for salvation. Scripture is very clear in Ephesians 2, 8 and 9. For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. And it doesn't matter whether you partake of the Lord's supper one time or hundreds of times throughout your life. The bread and the juice will not impart any saving grace to you. In order to be saved from your sins, in order to have eternal life, you must personally trust in Jesus Christ alone for your salvation. Your own works, even religious works, such as being baptized or participating in the Lord's Supper, these works cannot save you. And so I wonder, friend, have you put your trust in Jesus Christ alone to save you from sin? If you are going to be saved, you must abandon all other hopes of salvation other than the Lord Jesus Christ and his work on the cross. Isaiah chapter 45 and verse 22 says, look unto me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth, for I am God and there is none else. That is how we are saved, friends. We are saved by looking to Christ. And if we're going to look to Christ, we have to look away from whatever other things that we may find ourselves trusting in. We have to look away from our church membership. We have to look away from our observance of the Lord's Supper. We have to look away from our baptism. Look away from our deeds of kindness. And we must look to Jesus Christ alone. That imagery in John chapter three, Jesus connects the crucifixion back to the days of Moses, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness. You recall that the children of Israel were grumbling against Moses. And as a judgment, God sent fiery serpents to bite the people. And so the people, they were mournful over their sins. They came to Moses and God instructed Moses to set up a brass serpent on a pole. and anyone that would look at that serpent would be healed from his snakebite. And so it is, friends, that for us to come to salvation, we must look to the Son of God. That's a precious truth that has been, of course, given in several of our great hymns of the faith. Come every soul by sin oppressed. There's mercy with the Lord and he will surely give you rest by trusting in his word. Only trust him. Only trust him. Only trust him now. He will save you. He will save you. He will save you now. And you know, friend, that right there in your seat this morning, you can call on the Lord Jesus Christ to save you. You say, Lord Jesus, I'm a sinner. I have broken your law, and I cannot save myself. Dear Jesus, I turn away from my sins. I trust in what you did on Calvary's cross. I trust in the fact that you are risen from the dead. Friend, if you will turn from sin and trust in Christ this morning, you can be gloriously saved and your life can be transformed. Now, coming back to the Lord's Supper, the ceremony that we call the Lord's Supper is called by various names in Scripture. Now, we consider, first of all, the name that we've been using in this sermon thus far, the name the Lord's Supper. This term appears in verse 20 of the passage that we just read. Notice, Paul writes, when you come together therefore into one place, this is not to eat the Lord's Supper. Now, very interestingly, that word that is translated the Lord's, it appears only one other time in scripture. You don't need to turn there, I'll read it to you. In Revelation chapter one in verse 10, the apostle John writes, I was in the spirit on the Lord's day. In both Revelation 1.10, 1 Corinthians 11.20, the expression the Lord's means belonging to the Lord. Sunday is the Lord's day. It's the day that uniquely belongs to him. And so the Lord's Supper is a meal that uniquely belongs to the Lord. There's another term that's often used for the Lord's Supper, not so much in our circles, but if you look in the text at verse 24, and when he had given thanks, he break it. Those words had given thanks are translated from the Greek word eukaristeo, which is the basis for the English word Eucharist. Now I don't know that I've ever seen a Baptist church advertise an observance of the Eucharist, but it is a legitimate and biblical term if it is rightly understood. Another expression that we sometimes use for this ordinance is found back in chapter 10 in verse 21. here in 1 Corinthians. Paul writes, you cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of devils. You cannot be partakers of the Lord's table and of the table of devils. So we have the Lord's supper in 1 Corinthians 11, 20. We have the Lord's table in 1 Corinthians 10, 21. Another word that's very common for this ceremony appears in verse 16 of 1 Corinthians 10. Notice, Paul says, 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? The Greek word for communion is often translated fellowship. The idea is of a mutual sharing, a close association. When we observe communion, we are communing or fellowshipping, first of all, with one another as fellow members of the body of Christ in the local church. That is why, when we observe the Lord's Supper, we ask unbelievers to refrain from participating. Why is that such a big deal? Well, if you turn a few pages over to 2 Corinthians 6, you'll see exactly why that's important. Second Corinthians chapter six in verse 14, notice what Paul writes here. He says, be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light with darkness? Now, of course, this verse is often applied to marriage, and that's a fitting application. Of course, there has been untold agony the believers have gone through when they've knowingly entered into a marriage relationship with an unbeliever. But really, the main thrust of what Paul is emphasizing here is spiritual endeavors. Just as it would be foolhardy to try to put two different types of animals together on a yoke, so it is completely foolhardy to enter into spiritual endeavors with unbelievers. Now, if you're without Christ this morning, we're glad that you're here. We're glad that you've come into this service. But we would ask you not to partake of the bread and the juice when they come by in the observance of the Lord's table. This is not an ordinance for you. Scripture indicates that spiritual fellowship or communion can only take place between fellow Christians. I should also mention that it is impossible to observe communion simply as individuals, because that defeats the entire purpose of the ordinance. Notice in 1 Corinthians 11, this is a wording, if you go back to 1 Corinthians 11, this wording comes up over and over again in this text that is addressing the Lord's Supper. Notice verse 17, now in this that I declare unto you, I praise you not, what? That ye come together. Verse 18, for first of all, when ye come together. Verse 20, when ye come together, therefore, into one place. Verse 33, wherefore, my brethren, when ye come together to eat, If we want to put it just very simply, we would say that communion with a big C requires communion with a little c. That is to say it requires a coming together. If you don't have a group of assembled believers, you can't have communion. And that was the folly of what many churches tried to do during COVID when they had individual believers sitting in front of their computer screens, partaking of the elements of the Lord's table. That is not scriptural. Now, not only is there communion among believers in the family of God, but there's also communion between believers in Christ himself. Now, as we mentioned that, we have to make sure that there's no misunderstanding. You are likely aware of the fact that the significance of the Lord's Supper has been one of the significant points of debate in the history of the church. And along these lines, there are four different views that have been held concerning the nature of the Lord's Supper. The first is called transubstantiation. And that is the view that is held by the Roman Catholic Church. Transubstantiation is the belief that the bread and wine of communion are actually transformed into Christ's body and blood. Accordingly, Catholics believe that communion, or what they call the mass, is, as one scholar wrote, a true and proper sacrifice. Every time the Catholics observe the Mass, they believe that Jesus is being re-sacrificed for our sins. The Roman Catholic belief in transubstantiation created somewhat of a crisis in the history of the Church. As recently as the early 60s, when Vatican II was held, the Catholic Church refused to administer the wine to the laity out of fear that they might spill the blood of Christ. Friends, I tell you on the authority of the word of God that transubstantiation is entirely unbiblical. And I want to consider a number of passages in the book of Hebrews that tell us the nature of Jesus' sacrifice for our sins. Look with me first of all at Hebrews chapter one. Hebrews chapter one and verse three. Hebrews chapter one and verse three. The author here as he's beginning the book, he's speaking here of Christ. He says in chapter one in verse three, who being the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high. Notice that there's a sequence. Jesus purged our sins and then he sat down. For Jesus to sit down indicates that the work is complete. Unlike the Old Testament tabernacle, which didn't even have a chair for the priest to sit down, Jesus signified the completion of his sacrifice by sitting down when it was done. Lifted up was he to die. It is finished was his cry. Now in heaven exalted high, hallelujah, what a savior. If you go over to chapter 7 and verse 26 of Hebrews, this is just, it's delightful because this comes up again and again in the book of Hebrews. Hebrews chapter 7 and verse 26. Hebrews 7 and verse 26. For such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens, who needeth not daily as those high priests to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the people's. Okay, you have a reference here to daily sacrifices being offered. But notice what it says about Christ's sacrifice. For this he did what? once when he offered up himself. Contrast between these ongoing Old Testament sacrifices that had to be offered for sins over and over again with the one-time sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now if you go over to chapter 9 and verse 12 of Hebrews, Hebrews chapter 9 and verse Again, speaking of Christ, His work as our priest. Hebrews 9 and verse 12, neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood, He entered in, how many times? Once into the holy place. having obtained eternal redemption for us. And friends, if Christ has obtained eternal redemption for us, his sacrifice doesn't need to be repeated. That single sacrifice has eternal ramification. Now if you look down at verse 24, For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us, nor yet that he should offer himself often as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others. A reference there to the high priest going into the holy place on the day of atonement. It was done every year. But notice the author says that Christ didn't go often. He didn't offer himself often. Verse 26, for then he must often have suffered since the foundation of the world. But now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment, so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many. And unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation. We certainly can't miss it, can we? Once, once, once. And once is a lot different than often. Chapter 10, verse 10. by the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices which can never take away sins. Again, the contrast here between the once for all offering of Jesus Christ versus the daily and oftentimes sacrifices of the Old Testament priests. Verse 12, but this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God. There you have it again. One sacrifice offered, and then what does he do? He sits down. The work is finished. Verse 14, for by one offering, he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. Now friends, it is impossible to square all of those passages with the Roman Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation. These passages are inconsistent with the idea that Christ is being re-sacrificed every time the Lord's table is observed. You might think that I'm being awfully hard on the Roman Catholic Church. But I'm not just trying to pick on the Catholic Church for the sake of picking on the Catholic Church. There might be a lot to pick on, but really I can think of few truths that are more encouraging than the once for all sacrifice for sin that Jesus offered on Calvary's cross. One of my favorite hymns. Free from the law, oh happy condition, Jesus hath bled and there is remission. Cursed by the law and bruised by the fall, grace hath redeemed us once for all. Now we are free, there's no condemnation. Jesus provides a perfect salvation. Come unto me, oh here is sweet call. Come and he saves us once for all. Children of God, O glorious calling, surely His grace will keep us from falling. Passing from death to life at His call, blessed salvation once for all. Once for all, O sinner, receive it. Once for all, O brother, believe it. Cling to the cross, the burden will fall. Christ hath redeemed us once for all. You know, in one sense, the Lord's Supper is a sobering time as we reflect on the immense cost that was paid to procure our salvation. But at the same time, the Lord's Supper is a joyous occasion. It brings us face to face with the reality that we don't need to keep bringing sacrifices over and over again to atone for sin. We don't need to pray through rosary beads, climb up steps, make pilgrimages in order to wash away our sins. Rather, we can rest in the once for all finished work of Jesus Christ on Calvary. Now that puts an entirely different perspective on our service in the local church. We have several people who work in this church, who work very hard to serve the body of Christ. Several of you work very hard to prepare the meal we're going to enjoy in a few minutes. People in this church often go above and beyond the call of duty, laboring to clean up well after the last dish is served. But can I ask you a question, friend? If you're involved in this kind of service, why? Why do you do it? Well, I volunteer for everything I can think of in the church. I come early, I stay late, I scrub the dishes, I mop the floors, I greet every visitor, I prepare the meals, and maybe one day God will see all these good things that I did and let me into heaven. It's not the way it works. We ought to labor not in order to receive grace, but because we have received grace. We ought not labor to be forgiven, but because we are forgiven. Vast difference between the two. It's the power of Jesus' words, it is finished. When you labor not to be saved, but because you are saved, that's when you can really labor from the heart. You know, those of you here that are children, it's vitally important that you understand this. And I confess, we adults can be awfully hard on you kids, right? Obey your parents, clean your room, brush your teeth, write your letters neatly, play nicely with your sister. But don't think for a moment that because you do those things that you're gonna make God love you more. Don't think that because you do those things that you can somehow earn your right to get into heaven. No friend, we get to heaven because of the once for all work of Jesus Christ. He's offered himself once for all. And we get to heaven not by our works, but by resting in the one time sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Have you done that? Are you resting in him? Are you trusting in him? Now, transubstantiation, that's, that whole matter. But the second view of the Lord's Supper is the Lutheran view. The Lutheran view can be traced back to Martin Luther himself. Now Luther rejected the practice of transubstantiation. He did not believe that Christ was being re-sacrificed every time the Lord's table was observed. But nonetheless, Luther argued that the human flesh and blood of Jesus Christ were ubiquitous. That is, they could be multiple places at once. So for Luther, communion does involve the real presence of Christ's body. The way the Lutherans express it is that the body and blood of Christ are in, with, and under the elements of bread and wine. but the elements do not literally become the body and blood of Christ. Often this view is called consubstantiation, though that's a term that Lutherans themselves tend not to prefer. Now this view is also lacking biblically, and the reason that I oppose this view is theological. Now this is a bit technical, so you just have to stay with me a moment. But in the fifth century, the church held a council at the city of Chalcedon. And they developed a creed. You could think of it kind of like a doctrinal statement that we might have in our churches. And this creed has been, it's really stood the test of time. Churches down through the centuries have treasured this creed as a definitive statement about the person of Christ. Because at that time, there were many misunderstandings about who Jesus was. and his natures. There's one very memorable line from that creed that says this. One and the same Christ, Son, Lord, only begotten, recognized in two natures, without confusion, without change, without division, without separation. And when the creed there speaks of two natures, it is speaking of Christ's human nature and his divine nature. And what the creed indicates is that Jesus is truly man and truly God. Jesus' humanity is a true humanity. If we say that Jesus' human body is ubiquitous, we're saying that it's totally unlike every other human body. And it is to confuse his divine nature with his human nature. And that we cannot do, friends, without compromising those natures. Jesus is God but He is also man. And you can be encouraged that His humanity is not some abnormal type of humanity. You're in Hebrews, if you go back to chapter 4, the author of Hebrews addresses this so beautifully in Hebrews chapter 4 and verse 15. He writes, for we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Now maybe we don't always think about this, but do you realize, friends, that when Jesus took on human flesh in the womb of Mary, that Jesus became a man and he remains the God-man now for the rest of eternity. That's a glorious reality that in heaven, we don't just have the triune God, but we have the second person of the Godhead, Jesus Christ, seated at the right hand of the Father, who understands us. He's been tempted. He knows what it is to be tired and hungry and weak. And yes, he's in a glorified body now, but that glorified body still bears the scar. from Calvary, the nail prints in his feet and hands, the print on his side. Jesus even now identifies with us. He knows what it is to be human. And it is on this basis that the author of Hebrews then urges us in verse 16, let us therefore come boldly under the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. You don't need to be timid when you come to God in prayer, because you know that you've got that great advocate there at the Father's right hand, interceding for you. And he knows your weakness. He's been there, he's experienced it. And so as we think about this, yeah, it's easy to throw the darts at the Lutherans, right? But there's a blessed reality here. The blessed reality is the full humanity of Jesus Christ. And certainly we can't adopt some view that says that these elements somehow involve Christ's physical body being present among us. Now, a third view has been suggested concerning the Lord's Table. That is the Reformed view, or the Calvinist view, so named because it was held by the reformer John Calvin. Calvin rejected transubstantiation and he rejected the Lutheran view. Calvin's view was that Christ is spiritually present to all who receive the Lord's Supper by faith. And this view continues to be held to those who identify themselves with Reformed theology, such as Presbyterians and Reformed Baptists. Now, I'm not going to throw stones at those who hold this position, but I would ask a question. How is Christ's spiritual presence at communion different from his spiritual presence at any other time? We know, of course, the believer already experiences the joy of Christ in you, the hope of glory, Colossians 127. And so the view that I take is the fourth of these views, which is called the Zwinglian view. sometimes called the memorial view. The Swiss reformer Ulrich Zwingli drifted away from other views that try to locate some mystical presence of Christ in the supper and focused on the underlying purpose to remember Christ. And so the way that I would express it is this, that in the Lord's Supper, the Christian does indeed enjoy communion with Christ. But the elements of the bread and juice are not connected in any way with Christ's mystical presence. But I do think this is a truth that's worth meditating on. Sometimes in our zeal to avoid error in regards to the Lord's Supper, sometimes we have neglected the really robust biblical teaching that there is a communion that is enjoyed between the believer and Christ at the Lord's table. And I would suggest to you that this is a unique type of communion that is not experienced in other situations. If we come back to 1 Corinthians, If you go to 1 Corinthians 10, and I think that this communion, the nature of this is indicated in the context of 1 Corinthians 10. Here Paul has been addressing all throughout chapters 8 through 10 the idea of meat offered to idols. And he's talking here specifically about the prospect of these Christian believers entering into idol feasts. Notice what he says in verse 20. But I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils and not to God, and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of devils. You cannot be partakers of the Lord's table and of the table of devils. What Paul is indicating is that to participate in those idol feasts is actually to have fellowship with demons. So it stands to reason in the context here, that to enter into the Lord's Supper observance is to have a unique fellowship with Christ and with His people. And I would suggest to you, friends, and this may be something we're not inclined to think about, but that this communion that we enjoy in this observance of the Lord's Supper is distinct even from the communion that we experience while praying or while reading our Bibles. Though those, of course, are very important practices. Now, there are a couple of other matters that we should discuss as we close here in regard to the Lord's Supper. First of all, let's consider the elements themselves. It is our practice here at this church to use unleavened bread. The Lord's Supper was originally instituted at the Passover, and the Passover used unleavened bread to signify the haste with which the children of Israel had to leave Egypt. But unleavened bread also has importance for believers under the New Covenant. If you go back to 1 Corinthians 5, notice the language that Paul uses here. Paul says, your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump as ye are unleavened, for even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. In the context, Paul is speaking about church discipline, but it seems that he is alluding to a practice that was engaged in in the churches where they continued to use unleavened bread for the observance of the Lord's table, just as was done in the Passover. Now, I should also mention that it is our practice here to use unfermented grape juice for the blood of Christ. Now, on this front, we do have to be honest. It is highly unlikely that the disciples consumed Welch's grape juice at the Last Supper, but we have to understand the consumption of alcoholic beverages in cultural and historical context. Alcoholic beverages in the ancient world generally did not have the same volume of alcoholic content as beverages that are consumed today. Wine was often a necessity in the ancient world because of the poor quality of water. And so you have, for instance, Paul instructing Timothy to use a little wine for his stomach's sake. I would suggest that we are in a completely different place in the 21st century than believers were in the first century. Ancients would probably look at many of our alcoholic beverages today and say that they're poison. There is also, of course, a massive advertising and media apparatus that is constructed around the consumption of alcoholic beverages, led by multi-million dollar corporations that are profiting from all of this. It's not just wine that is coming from private family vineyards. And so in this environment, we don't want to place any stumbling block in a believer's path that might cause him to become addicted to wine. That, of course, would be a devastating outcome. Now, we also have to think about the way that we observe this ceremony, the way we serve the bread and the juice. Some churches observe a practice that is called intinction. And in tinction, the bread and juice are passed together, and the congregants dip the bread in the juice, rather than eating the bread and drinking the juice separately. Now I'm not going to suggest that that's heresy, but if we look at the text, back in 1 Corinthians 11, it is painstakingly obvious that the original ordinance of this Lord's Supper ceremony Indicates that the bread and the juice are to be served separately You have in verse 24 when he had given thanks he break it. That's the bread and said take eat This is my body which is broken for you this do and 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 you have a separation between the distribution of the bread and the distribution of the cup which suggests that they should be observed separately and We should also say a word briefly about the participants in the Lord's Supper. We've already mentioned that unbelievers should not partake of the Lord's Supper. In some churches, unsaved children of Christian parents are allowed to participate in the Lord's Supper. But our reasons for refusing that practice here are the same for our reasons for refusing any unbeliever from partaking of the Lord's Supper. We'll talk more about that when we talk about baptism in a future message in this series. Now, Baptist churches generally advocate one of three approaches to the participants in communion. The first approach is called open communion. Open communion allows anyone who is trusted in Christ to participate in the Lord's Supper. It doesn't matter what denomination or what church that person belongs to. He or she may participate as long as there is a credible profession of faith in Christ. The second approach is called closed communion. A church that practices closed communion only allows members of that assembly to participate. Someone who advocates this view once told me that your practice of communion should go no further than your practice of church discipline. Now, I think that's an interesting point, but I'm inclined to think that a closed communion is too restricted. If we had a guest speaker here, wouldn't it be unusual if we didn't allow the guest speaker to participate in communion because he wasn't a member of this church? Our church constitution lays out a mediating position. between open communion and closed communion, we could call it close communion. Our Constitution states that the Lord's Supper is open to anyone who is trusted in Christ, who has been baptized by immersion subsequent to salvation, and who belongs to a church of like faith and practice. Now that's the official position that is laid out in our Constitution. But it's important to emphasize that I'm not the Holy Spirit. Our practice here has largely been to leave participation in the Lord's Supper up to each person's individual conscience. Now certainly, I would be compelled to address it if we had a known unbeliever or somebody who was underdisciplined from another church trying to partake of the elements. And thankfully, we've not had those scenarios here since I've been pastor. But I do think that there's wisdom in what the Constitution lays out. We recognize that there are good and godly people that belong to other denominations, that perhaps were sprinkled as babies rather than being baptized by immersion. But nonetheless, it's important for us to communicate that baptism is not some optional add-on in the Christian life. It's a vital step of obedience to our Lord. And so hopefully you can understand, even if maybe you don't see it the same way, why our Constitution advocates for this position. Now finally, let me say a word about the frequency of the Lord's Supper. And on this point, you find that churches are all over the map. There are churches that observe it weekly. There are churches like ours that observe it monthly. There are churches that observe it every quarter, some that even observe it once a year. Scripture gives us no direct command for how often to observe the supper. The language in our text simply says, as oft as ye drink it, but there's no indication of how often that should be. My reading of scripture suggests that the early church probably observed the Lord's Supper every Lord's Day. That seems to be implied in our text, that the Lord's Supper was observed whenever the church gathered together. Notice what we read in Acts chapter 20 in verse seven. Upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them. And that seems to suggest that that was a regular practice on the first day of the week. Now many churches have opted to observe the supper less frequently simply to avoid the dangers of the ordinance becoming old hat routine. People will get used to it so that they don't give the ordinance the reverence that it rightly deserves. And we must confess that that's a very real danger. We never want to see this observance as some routine old hat ritual. rather than a special communion with the living Christ to remember his atoning sacrifice. But one thing I would observe is this, anything in the life of the church can become old hat if we're not careful. But yet, we don't see this type of reasoning being used for other things that we do in the church. Well, if we preach every Sunday, preaching will become old hat, so let's just preach once a month. Or, well, you know, singing hymns, that's gonna become routine and become a ritual if we're not careful. So let's just sing hymns once every quarter. Now, don't be shocked, friends, if there comes a day that we move to doing weekly communion here at Grace Baptist Church. I'm not saying that that's going to happen anytime soon. Certainly it's not at the top of my list of priorities for this congregation. But I do believe it was the practice of the early church, and I believe it is a good ideal for the modern day church. So, all of that is introduction, and you might be wondering, where's the sermon? Well, the sermon is this afternoon, so you have to come back, right? So you can see how all of this plays into the Corinthian church. My apologies. Karen did such a good job of laying out the bulletin. It says that we're gonna be talking about Ezekiel, but we've had a change of plans because I just got so immersed in this text this week, and there was no way I knew that I'd be able to do it in one sermon. But I want us, as we've thought about all of this, to take a moment to remember why we're here, We are here to remember Christ. And so friends, let's examine our hearts. Let's ensure that we're in fellowship with the Lord. And let's rejoice as we contemplate what Jesus did for us on the cross of Christ. And as we fellowship with our wonderful risen Lord. Father, we thank you for this time. Lord, we pray that you'd quiet our hearts as we come to the observance of the Lord's table. May we examine ourselves, may we treat this ceremony with reverence. May we not be like the church at Corinth. Strengthen us through this time, bring us closer together, bring us closer to Christ. And we ask this in Jesus' name, amen. As we move into our observance of the Lord's table, as is our custom, we will have a moment where you can examine yourself quietly there in your seat. That, of course, is what first