Church family, if you would take your copy of God's Word and open to Matthew's Gospel, chapter 26, as we continue our study and our series on the church. And as we keep looking week by week at various aspects of the functionality of the church, we turn this morning to Matthew's Gospel, chapter 26, and focus in on the doctrine of the Lord's Supper. And you can pick up with me as I read aloud, beginning in verse 26, and reading down through verse 29. This is the Word of God, and it reads as follows. Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it, broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, Take, eat, this is my body. And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. I tell you, I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my father's kingdom. And this morning I'm preaching on the subject of the significance of the Lord's Supper. And you may be seated if you would now join me in prayer together. Heavenly Father, what a privilege it is to gather on this Lord's Day to be able to worship with our church family, brothers and sisters in Christ, under the hearing of the Word read, to be able to sing the glorious gospel truth together, with glad hearts, and now to worship through Your Word. We ask that You would strengthen us and encourage us, build us up and convict us where necessary. We pray that we would be changed as we come to worship, even on this Lord's Day, and that we would be impacted by the truth and the significance of the Lord's Table. May You shape us individually. May You shape our families. May You shape us as a church through this sermon. And oh God, we pray, as we often do, if there happens to be one among us today, under the hearing of the word preached, that by your sovereign decree, and by your sovereign grace and goodness, that you would awaken them to their need of salvation, and that they would be turned from darkness to light, and that they would be, by faith, recipients of the grace of our God through Jesus Christ our Lord now. We ask all of this in Jesus' name. Amen. Throughout church history, we have come to see and read and learn that the Lord's Supper has been perhaps the most divisive aspect of the church's worship, which has resulted in division, splintering, ceasing of friendships, and even death. The Roman Catholic Church has burned Protestants at the stake for refusing to embrace their doctrine of transubstantiation. The first of the martyrs under Bloody Mary was a man by the name of John Rogers. After William Tyndale was hunted down by the Roman Catholic Church for his translating of the Bible into English, into the common man's language, the Roman Catholic Church was furious. And so they, of course, would bring him to a place of execution and excommunication. his partner in ministry, John Rogers, who was giving himself to help William Tyndale finish up all of the Old Testament, which was yet to be completed, would take all of the manuscripts and all of the work and would complete the Old Testament and then would compile the first Bible in the English language that would be translated from the original languages. But yet soon, John Rogers would also find himself led to the stake. He would be arrested, he would be tried, he would be excommunicated, and he would be burned publicly in the streets. And he was the first martyr under Bloody Mary. Now, why was he executed? Was it because of his help and assistance with William Tyndale and the translating of the Bible? No, that was not why he was executed. That's not why he was burned. In fact, J.C. Ryle explains the scene this way, the doctrine in question was the real presence of the body and blood of Christ in the consecrated elements of bread and wine in the Lord's Supper. Did they or did they not believe that the body and blood of Christ was really, that is corporally, literally, locally, and materially present under the forms of bread and wine after the words of consecration were pronounced? Did they or did they not believe that the real body of Christ, which was born of the Virgin Mary, was present on the so-called altar so soon as the mystical words had passed the lips of the priest? Did they or did they not? That was the simple question. If they did not believe and admit it, they were burned. Now Rogers, along with others, all agreed that it was blasphemy. And so, they did not care what the priest said or what the Roman Catholic Church believed. They were willing to give their lives for the sake of the true gospel of Jesus Christ that was profaned in every Roman Catholic Church's mass. Rogers would be led into the street He saw his family there on the street his wife his children his youngest child for the first and last time that day And if you travel to London, England, there in Smithfield, there's a plaque on the side of the wall. We visited it numerous times with the G3 church history tours. And you will see that that plaque commemorates the memory of men like John Rogers and others who would come after him, who would be burned there because of their refusal to embrace the false doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church regarding the Lord's Supper. The reformers divided off from the Roman Catholic Church on this very issue and others. But then, of course, within the reformed movement, there would be some splintering and some splits as well. You would have Luther and Zwingli who would have a sharp division on this very issue. And of course, The Lutherans would then follow in the footsteps of Luther, and they would embrace a doctrine known as consubstantiation, which is different than transubstantiation. Transubstantiation states that when the priest blesses the table, the elements turn into the actual body and the actual blood of Jesus Christ, which is a fresh sacrifice. Consubstantiation would say that the real presence of Christ is there, but just not in those elements. It's over, alongside, underneath, or beneath, but not in the actual elements. And of course, the Reformed position of the Reformed Baptists would move against that, and obviously would have a distinct position. Not just the memorial view that Zwingli would teach, that many and most Baptists today would hold to, that would state that it's just simply a memorial. That everything that happens at the table is nothing but remembrance. But yet the reformed position, which is the position that we hold to, is that there is a real presence of Christ with us. At this table, at the conclusion of this service, when we gather at this table, there is something that is extremely important and vital that happens at this table. And we must see that. It is not in the sense of the Roman Catholic false doctrine of the literal body and the literal blood and a literal sacrifice that is happening. But what is happening is that through the Spirit of Christ, the Holy Spirit, we are engaged in spiritual worship, recognizing that, yes, indeed, Christ is among his people at this table. We must see that. 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith, chapter 30 of the Lord's Supper, paragraph seven reads as follows. Worthy receivers, outwardly partaking of the visible elements in this ordinance, do then also inwardly, by faith, really and indeed, yet not carnally or corporally, but spiritually receive and feed upon Christ crucified and all the benefits of his death. the body and blood of Christ being then not corporally or carnally, but spiritually present to the faith of believers in that ordinance, as the elements themselves are to their outward senses. We have the real presence of Christ with His people in this service, at this table, as we engage in the table. And so we must see this and we must understand the importance of the Lord's table. I believe that the doctrine of the Lord's Supper has been perverted historically. Yes, we can see that. Just read through church history, you can see it. But it's also been greatly minimized, the importance of this ordinance, this time of worship has been so flippantly minimized in so many evangelical circles that it's tragic. We must see that. Really, the question that we must answer as we come to this very subject in this doctrine is simply this. Is this the Lord's table? Is this a supper to be set on a table to be served by a pastor? Or is it a sacrifice to be set on an altar to be served by a priest? That is the historic question that must be answered in this doctrine. Now, let this sink in. Historically, there have been all sorts of massive sacrifices over this very doctrine. I mean, you think that modern day worship wars have been something to behold? That's nothing compared to this doctrine. Men and women have given their lives for the sake of this doctrine. Let this sink in. that arguably the most brilliant scholar in American history, Jonathan Edwards, who followed his grandfather as the pastor, his grandfather was before him serving a church, and then he would follow in his grandfather's footsteps, he would serve as the pastor of that church for some 20 years. He would preach the most famous sermon in the history of this nation, sinners in the hands of an angry God. But after 20 years of pastoral ministry, after following his own grandfather as pastor, he would come to grips with the reality that the practice of his church was in error on the doctrine of the Lord's Table. He would start teaching about it. He would start writing about it. He would start lecturing about it. He would start preaching about it. But in 1750, Jonathan Edwards was fired from his church. as pastor and dismissed because he differed on the doctrine of the Lord's table. He was coming to a place to see that only believers should be welcomed to the table and not just anyone who shows up on the Lord's day. And for that reason, Jonathan Edwards was fired. Just let this sink in, church. What happens at this table is significant. And so let us move in the direction of this text to see and work our way through these verses to understand the importance and the significance of this doctrine. Now, here we are in Matthew's Gospel. Jesus is moving in the direction of the cross. If you just study Matthew's Gospel, you will see as every scene unfolds, much like we see in the other Gospels, specifically the Synoptic Gospels, And He prepares for the cross, but He not only prepares Himself, He prepares His disciples. And He's on the very eve of the cross, and so it was Passover, and He gathers His disciples together, and they engage in celebrating and remembering the Passover historically, and what God had done for His people. It's catalogued for us there in the Old Testament in Exodus chapter number 12. Now let us look at verses 26 to 29, and we're going to see the past significance. The present significance and the future significance of this doctrine of the Lord's Table. First, the past significance. Notice verse 26. Verse 26 says, now as they were eating. Now, historically, there's something happening here. We need to understand the history of what's happening here. would celebrate numerous different feasts every year. They would celebrate the Feast of Pentecost. They would celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles or Tents. They would celebrate the Feast of Atonement known as Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. They would celebrate the Feast of Dedication. And they would celebrate the Feast of Trumpets and the Feast of Passover. The Passover feast was the great feast of the Jewish people every year. It was the oldest of the Jewish feasts. It was older than the tabernacle, and it was older than the priesthood of Israel. If you go back to Exodus chapter number 12, what you will see is that Yahweh had commanded Moses, his servant, to go before the most powerful man on planet earth, Pharaoh. And he was to go and he was to demand with a spirit of authority that this man was to release God's people. He was not sent by Yahweh to go in before Pharaoh and to ask with a nice voice and to make a simple request. No, he was to go in and to say, thus says the Lord God, and to demand that all of God's people were to be released. Yet Pharaoh would refuse and Yahweh humiliated Pharaoh, humiliated his throne, humiliated his power, humiliated all of Egypt with plague after plague after plague. And yet it was the 10th plague that would be the most severe. It would be the tenth plague that the death angel would pass over and would enter the home of every single household and take the life of the firstborn if the blood sacrifice was not on the doorpost and the lentil. And so, God specified the way in which that night was to be approached. And, of course, the specifications of how God's people were to obey God. and how they were to engage in this feast. Every man was to take a lamb for every single individual home. The lamb was to be a male, one year of age, and without blemish, not to be a sick or sickly animal. At twilight, according to the specifications there in Exodus 12, it was to be killed. The blood was to be placed on the doorpost and on the lintel. And that evening, when the death angel came across the land, the death angel would spare the firstborn in the home where the blood was present. But, where the blood wasn't present, there would be great judgment of God. God would take the life. And so that tenth plague was severe. And it resulted in much weeping and wailing and pain because the judgment of God had visited the homes of those people who refused to obey. And yet, Exodus chapter 12 verse 14 says, This day shall be for you a memorial day. And you shall keep it as a feast to Yahweh throughout your generations. As a statute forever, you shall keep it as a feast. Yet, the people of God would be sent out from Pharaoh, and then of course, he would change his mind, and then there would be this pursuit that would take place, and the unfolding of the great miracle of the crossing of the sea on dry land, and the salvation of God's people, and the judgment of God that would come upon the army that was following. Yet, as they would be on their way, the marching army would be pursuing, The thundering chariots would be pursuing, but there would be behind them, yes, the chariots, but before them a raging sea. And it would be that God would do something miraculous. And He would cause the waters to part. Dry land would appear, which should have been wet and should cause the people to sink. And all of the people should be sinking there in the sand of the wet soil beneath the waters. But no, it was firm and it was hardened. And this was a miracle of the Lord. The people of God would pass. The judgment of God would come upon Upon the army of Pharaoh and all of those people would be consumed by the wrath of God. The people of God were to remember this forever. And this feast of Passover was to be a means of a memorial. So when Jesus came to eat the Last Supper before His crucifixion, it was Passover. Nearly two and a half million people would have walked the crowded streets preparing for Passover. There would be money changers setting up around the temple to do exchange of currency Jewish people would flood the city for this feast. The animals would be there, and all of the stench. In AD 65, according to Josephus, 255,600 lambs were sacrificed at Passover in Jerusalem. And along with all of this would come all of the filth and the noise and the smell, and they would turn the temple into a den of robbers instead of a place in a house of worship. Yet, with all of the abuse that would take place historically. God instituted this feast to be something that was good, to be a reminder of God's grace, and of God's sovereignty, and of God's plan to, and His capability of, and His promise to preserve His people. Yet, the Jewish people had historically perverted the worship of God. When Jesus came to Passover, right before the crucifixion, what you see is that Jesus puts emphasis on the right worship of God. So what does He do? Well, He gathers His disciples and He makes preparation for them to observe Passover. That's exactly what they did. And that's the scene where we find ourselves here as Jesus is breaking bread. He's eating with the disciples. He is remembering and the people are remembering what God had done. And what's the purpose of this? Well, they were to never forget it. It was such a significant feat. It was such a significant scene that the people of God were to never forget this. And so Jesus does exactly what he should have done, and he remembered. He gathered the disciples together, and they ate, and they drank, and they remembered. This was the purpose of Passover. The second thing that we see in verses 26 to 28 is we see the present significance. Notice what it says there. It says, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it, broke it, gave it to his disciples, and said, Take, eat, this is my body. And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for their forgiveness. of sins. Every single year, the Jewish people, when they would gather together in their homes and they would go through the observance of Passover, they would basically go through the same liturgy every single year. And so for hundreds of years, there would be very little, if any, change in the way that they would be observing Passover until this very Passover. And Jesus does something that was unique. And Jesus then takes the bread and he breaks it and he makes a statement and then he takes of the cup after blessing it and then he makes another statement. This is my body. This is my blood. This was the blood of what did he say? Covenant. He is instituting and bringing to pass the new covenant. He is bringing to the eyes of the people, the disciples on that very evening, the change, if you will, from old to new. The fulfillment had come. Christ had come. And so Jesus, in many ways, He changed the way in which the supper, this feast, would have been practiced. But what was the purpose? The purpose was this. The purpose was that he would, yes, worship God the way that God had prescribed and the way that God had called His people to worship by remembering and by observing the Passover. In fulfillment of the Passover, Jesus Himself would change things, and He would institute a new supper, which was the Lord's Supper, the Lord's Table. Bringing to end an era of the need to celebrate and to remember Passover, because the fulfillment had come, and now, in perpetuity, the church would be engaged in worship at the Lord's Table. Now the frequency. You can go to other places throughout the gospel accounts of this very scene, and you can of course read elsewhere in the scriptures, as often as you eat of this bread and drink of this cup, the language there. The frequency, as often as you eat of this bread and drink of this cup, has been taken to mean, well you don't really need to do it very frequently. In fact, Among evangelicals today, it really doesn't matter how infrequent you do the Lord's Supper, typically speaking. What really becomes controversial is when you want to move from less frequent to more frequent, to then every week. That's when you get people's attention. But if you read and if you study the Scriptures, I believe a case could be made that you see the practice of God's people Every single time they came together on the Lord's Day, breaking bread and observing the Lord's table. I don't know if you remember when we moved from the observance of the... Some of you have been here long enough to remember when it was once a quarter. And then when I came as pastor, we would move to once a month. And then some of you remember in recent years, we moved to every single week. And perhaps some of you felt a little bit of a rub there. And maybe you'd heard people embrace certain ideas like, well, you know, if you observe the Lord's Supper every week, it's going to detract from the importance of the Lord's Supper. Maybe you perhaps are one of the people that thought that way in years past. Maybe you felt that when we moved to the observance of the Lord's table every week. But yet, if you if you stop and pause to think about that for a moment, what are the other aspects of our worship service on the average Lord's Day? Would we ever make an argument like that for? In other words, when we say, well, preaching should be primary in the church, and the primacy of preaching should be central for the church, but it's going to make it less special if we do it every week. So maybe we should just do it once a month. Or maybe singing. Singing is something that the corporate church should gather, and we should engage corporately and sing. We see this. God has prescribed this. But some might say, well, and who would actually say this, by the way? Well, you know, I mean, singing, you know, if we do it every week, it's not going to be as special and maybe guarded as it should. If we do it every week, so we should just do it once a month. Well, beyond the arguments for it, let's turn to the Word of God and see. If you go to Acts chapter 2, right after Peter preaches at Pentecost, you see a glimpse of the functionality of the early church, which I preached on a couple of weeks ago. But the interesting thing is there, it doesn't say that when they gathered after the 3,000 were baptized that they did not observe the Lord's Supper. What do you see? You see them breaking bread, and engaging in the worship of God at the Lord's supper table. Well, that's really important because that's the first glimpse of the functionality of the early church that we have in the book of Acts. And then if you go to Revelation chapter number 3, remember when Jesus sent that letter to Laodicea? Do you remember what he said about that church? Well, he said some stinging words about them being lukewarm. And then there's a statement that's made there and it says this. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him and he with me. Now that verse is one of those verses that's been ripped out of its context so often throughout church history and applied to just meaning that Jesus is there just begging the sinner. He's just there knocking on the door in the hearts of the sinners. If they would just open that door, He would come in and He would save them. That is not what that verse teaches. What is the verse teaching? That this church was guilty of being a lukewarm church, and they needed to have restoration of worship of God. And so, the point is, is if the church would repent, so it's written to the church, not to unbelievers, first of all, that's the context, that what, Christ would come among His people and there would be what? Fellowship restored, but the interesting thing is, when Jesus wrote the letter, He expected them, when they gathered to be doing what? Breaking bread for what? The Lord's Supper. Acts chapter number 20, you see in verse number 7, this language. On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul talked with them. intending to depart on the next day, and he prolonged his speech until midnight." Now, for those of you that are looking at your watch already in this sermon, I just direct you to this passage to see the length of Paul's sermons. Thank you, dear brother. I'll take that under consideration. As we consider this text before us, what do you see? The churches gathered on the first day of the week. That's the Lord's day. That's this day. That's Sunday. And what were they doing? Breaking bread. Which is what? This is not potluck we're talking about here. This is the breaking of bread. This is the observance of the Lord's supper table. And again, you go to 1 Corinthians chapter 11. These are some of the key texts in the scripture that point to the reality that when the church was gathered together for worship, they were doing what? They were breaking bread and observing the Lord's table. 1 Corinthians chapter 11 gives us those words that direct our attention to how the church at Corinth was functioning. And yes, there was abuse that was there, but what was there? The Lord's supper table was there. And so we must see that. We must also see this, the symbolic language that's used by Jesus. Jesus took bread after blessing it and broke it and gave it to the disciples and said, take, eat, this is my body. And then in the very next verse, in the following two verses, he then does the same thing with the cup, explaining to them to drink it, all of them. And then he says, this is my blood. Now here's the issue. Back to the Roman Catholic Church. Roman Catholic Church says, see there, you want to interpret the Bible literally. There it is. Jesus said, this is my body. This is my blood. So you can't change it. That's what it means. The problem with that is that we always interpret the Bible in the way in which the author intended the word to be interpreted, and that's the literal meaning of the text. In other words, there are symbols that are used in the Bible from time to time and symbolic language. We don't. We don't disagree with that, if you an honest reading of the scriptures, like in Matthew 1338, the field is the world. OK, is that field the field, literally the whole world, or is that symbolic language? Symbolic language. The rock was Christ. First Corinthians. Is that to be taken literally like Jesus was a rock? Obviously no. What about I am the door of the sheep? John 10 verse 7. Is that to be taken literally or is that symbolic language? We can see that there is symbolic language being employed there. I am the true vine. Was Jesus really a vine or is that symbolic language? We can see it for what it is. It's symbolic language. This is my body. This is my blood. And Matthew 26 should be seen for what it is. Why? Because the Roman Catholic Church says when the priest makes the mystical blessing on the table, that the elements transform into the actual body and the actual blood of Christ. When Jesus broke bread that night with His disciples, and then He blessed it and said, This is my body and this is my blood. Guess what? The bread and the wine, they were on the table. And Jesus was right before it. There was no transformation that took place. Jesus was still there bodily. And He wasn't in the bread and He wasn't in the cup. There was no transformation that took place. So it's quite obvious that the doctrine of transubstantiation does not stand when it's under the scrutiny of God's Word. Now, this is my body. This is my blood. When King Josiah celebrated Passover, he slaughtered more than 37,000 sheep. It's like your Chronicles 35 tells us. According to Josephus, the Jewish historian, several hundred thousand lambs were herded through the streets of Jerusalem every single Passover. Lambs herded down the streets to celebrate Passover. then Jesus would come and He would celebrate Passover and then He would break bread and He would point to the bread and He would say, this is my body. Passover lamb was to be without blemish, was to be a male, and was, of course, to have the blood of that That lamb was to be placed on the doorpost and the lentils so that there could be this Passover of the death angel that would take place. Over the course of time, as the Jewish people would worship, they would go through this symbolic exercise of taking a goat, and then the priest would place his hands on the goat. And it was to be a symbolic act, whereby he was symbolically making a statement, visibly so, before the people, that all of the sins of the people were then transferred to the animal. And then the animal was sent off into the wilderness, never to be seen again. It's no accident that when Jesus said, this is my body, the following day he would be crucified, where? On the outside of the city. Because Jesus is the fulfillment of the Passover lamb. He is the fulfillment of the scapegoat. Jesus' body was betrayed and beaten and crucified and murdered on a Roman cross. 1 Peter 2.24 says, He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By His wounds you have been healed. This is my body. And he took a cup, verse 27, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them saying, drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. Every single year, the Jewish people would celebrate Passover. And they would remember, and they would remember, and they would remember. When Jesus was born, they were celebrating Passover. Every year from the time of His birth until He reached about the age of 30 and His public ministry began, every single year, the family would gather together and they would celebrate Passover. And yet, Jesus would become the fulfillment of all of the things that took place there in the original Passover, that sacrifice, and all of the sacrifices, if you will, of the Old Testament and the Old Covenant. But in order to be the fulfillment of the Passover lamb, Jesus could not do what? Well, He couldn't just eat the meal with His disciples. He literally had to become the Lamb. He had to die. And so, at the very moment when the heads of the houses took the head of the Lamb, pulled it back, and slit the throat of that animal to offer up their sacrifice to God at Passover, Jesus' blood would be flowing from His face, from His brow, from His hands and from His feet. At the very moment when the lambs were squealing under the knife in Jerusalem, Jesus was hanging on a cross, crying out, My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? At the very moment that the high priest was preparing the lamb for Passover of Israel, Jesus, the great high priest, The priest that is greater than Melchizedek was presenting a better offering, namely himself. Hebrews chapter 9, verses 11 and 12 says it this way. But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, than through the greater and more perfect tent, not made with hands, that is, not of this creation, he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves, but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption." What a wonderful truth. This is why 1 John 2, 1 and 2 says, My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins. The propitiation for our sins. And not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. is my blood. And without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin. Notice this text before us. And notice what it says. Very specifically there in this text, we read as he says that this is my blood. What does he say? He says that that this blood would be poured out for many for the forgiveness of sin. Right here, in the institution, the fulfillment of the Passover Feast, in the institution of the Lord's Table, in the glorious truth of the Gospel, and all the fulfillment thereof in Christ, in this glorious celebration moment we have Jesus teaching the doctrine of limited atonement. Now, the Arminian position says that Christ's death was designed to make salvation possible for all people. Christ's death made salvation possible for everyone, but it did not actually secure or guarantee the salvation of anyone. Fallen man determines whether or not Christ's work will be effective by his faith. The Calvinist position says Christ's death was designed to actually secure the salvation of all of God's chosen people. Christ's death secured and actually accomplished the salvation of all of God's chosen people. God has determined that for all, for whom Christ sacrificed himself, not might be saved, not could be saved, But we'll be saved. Now get this straight. This is a controversial doctrine. I'm going to limit my comments for the next 90 seconds or more. But what I will say to you is that every single, true, evangelical, orthodox Christian limits the atonement at some level. Either the scope or the efficacy. But everyone limits it. You say, no, no, I don't think so. Everyone limits the atonement unless you become trapped and fall off into the abyss of the false doctrine of universalism. But every single orthodox Christian limits the atonement at some level. But, let's not worry about the opinions of man and what some blog site says. Let's see what God's Word has to say. From Old Testament to New Testament, this doctrine is clear. Isaiah 53, hundreds of years before Jesus was born, speaking of Jesus' sacrifice, in verses 10 through 12, there are three occurrences, verse 11 and two times in verse 12, where we see a reference to Jesus offering himself and being crushed by God for many. Not for all, not for the world, those words could have been used in the Hebrew vocabulary, but for many. That's what it says. He bore the sin of many. That's Isaiah. The angel declared in Matthew 1.21 to Joseph in a dream as he was preparing to give his wife a bill of divorcement, his betrothed wife, Mary, she will bear a son and you shall call his name Jesus for He will save His people from their sins. He doesn't say that. He will save the world. He will save His people. That's limited atonement. Mark 10.45, For even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give His life a ransom for, not the whole world, not for all, for many. In John chapter 10 verse 11, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the world. No, not the world. For all. No, not all. For the sheep and the goats. No, not the sheep and the goats. For the sheep. Jesus is the good shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep. So back to the text here. For this is my blood of the covenant which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sin. Now, when it comes to the Lord's table and you see the language of covenant, you just have to right off the bat say a covenant is limited. A covenant is limited only by the parties that encompass those that are bound by the covenant. And so Jesus taught that doctrine here at the institution of the Lord's table. And when we come to the Lord's table every week, we should see that it's limited. It is not for the whole city of Atlanta, not for the whole city of Douglasville, not for just anyone who comes. But there will be a fencing that takes place to say it is for God's people alone. And then last of all, the future significance. Not only the past significance of Passover fulfilled in Jesus, and then the present significance of Jesus' institution of the Lord's Supper table, but then the future significance. He says in verse 29, I tell you, I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it with you in my Father's kingdom. As often as you eat of this bread and drink of this cup, you show forth the Lord's death until he comes. Every time we come to the Lord's table, there should be this reminder. Yes, we look back and yes, we remember. We should sense a memorial of remembering the very body and blood of Christ. We should feast on Christ spiritually at the Lord's Supper table. But we should also be looking forward, anticipating one of these days, Christ is coming for His bride. One of these days, Jesus is coming again. Stand at ready, church, for the return of Christ. Come to this table joyfully and worship Christ. Historically, the tabernacle. Remember the blueprint laid, God's people constructed, and when it was all said and done, something extraordinary happened. The kind of glory of God descended on that tent. And God met with His people in a tent. Then you fast forward. Tabernacle worship. Temple worship. Continuing the same process year after year after year until one day something different happened. When a little virgin girl in her womb was conceived very God of very God. The Son of the Living God. And in John 1.14, and the Word became flesh and dwelt You just do a word study on the word dwelt in John 1 14. We don't have time for the sermons coming to a close. But it means to tabernacle. Then Jesus comes to the Passover. He points to himself. And it's all been fulfilled. And then He institutes. And by the way, the disciples would never forget it. He would institute something that is continuing to this very day, to this very hour, in our presence, set before us this morning, that we long. We long to worship, and yet we long and look forward anticipating that one of these days, Christ is coming. And what does Revelation 21 say? What does Revelation 19.2 say? What? The marriage supper of the Lamb. When we will have communion with Him. He's going to wipe away every tear from our eyes. And death will die. Death will be no more. For the former things have passed away. And what does Revelation 21 say? That God will be with His people. And God's people will be with Him. And that is what we are to be doing at the Lord's table every time we come together. And may that be so. I want to just give you four quick things that we should be doing at the Lord's table every time we come, starting today. May 2024 be different for us as we come to this table and worship, considering what we learn and what we see and what we understand from the pages of God's Word concerning the doctrine of the Lord's Supper. First of all, we are to be worshiping God. I know that sounds rather simple. But we should be worshiping God. Not thinking about what's going to happen down in the gym or the Family Life Center. Not thinking about what's going to happen next week. Not thinking about whether the Cowboys are going to win their football game this afternoon. Not thinking about whether or not it's going to take too long for us to go through the whole process of the state of the church address. Thinking about trivial things. We are to be engaged in the worship of God. And worship always involves a response. People say, well, you know, back in the old days they did altar calls. They sure did. They did altar calls back in the old day. Think about the language that you've just now used. Altar. Where does that come from? Roman Catholicism. Now, I'll give it to you. They at least understood this. Finney, all the way to Billy Graham, understood this. After the preaching of the word, you don't just have the announcements and leave. Something has to happen. They just got it wrong. It's not an altar call that should be there. It's a table that should be set for us to come and feast upon Christ like we were singing about just a moment ago. Worship God. God delivered Israel from the slavery to Egypt, but God has delivered us from the slavery of sin and the slave market of sin. Let's come and let's worship God passionately. Second of all, come to the Lord's table to worship. In other words, engage at the Lord's supper table. Don't excommunicate yourself from the Lord's supper table. Listen, I'm going to remind you. I wrote an article on this years ago. You can go search for it online. Just Google it. Don't excommunicate yourself from the Lord's Supper table. Bias, you'll find it. Here's the thing. Here's the point. It should be a very, very, very rare circumstance for you to ever say, I'm going to bar myself from the Lord's Supper table. Very, very rare. Number three, prepare yourself. And don't just start when I'm landing the airplane at the end of the sermon. Start early in the week, preparing yourself for the Lord's table. Think about it on Saturday evening. Come to the service and prepare at the time of confession of sin. Put away division and be eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace. Come together for worship. And then number four, joyfully engage in communion. This is not a funeral. joyfully engage with reverence and awe among the people of God at the Lord's supper table. And why fence it? Because it's not for everyone. Calvin understood this well. Years ago, a controversy had arisen among Calvin and the council of the city of Geneva. about who should or should not be allowed and welcome to the Lord's supper table. He was barring certain individuals who were engaged in open perverse sexual sin in the city of Geneva. And the city council overturned his decision and said they were permitted. He finished his Lord's Day sermon. He came down to fitz the table. And when he finished with his prayer, there was a rush from those open, perverse sinners to make a show that they were going to be the first. Not only were they going to come to the Lord's table, but they were going to be first. Calvin threw himself over the top of the Lord's table. And when Calvin threw himself over the Lord's table that day, he basically said, you can lop off my arms, you can take my life, but the Lord's table will not be profaned. And when he said those words in that place, according to Beza, Calvin's biographer, he said, The sacred ordinance was celebrated with a profound silence under solemn awe among all who were present, as if the deity himself had been visible among them." Because he is among them. But they that day understood almost as if he wasn't. Almost as if. He were visible. So may the Lord add blessing to the reading and preaching of His Word, and may we be called to action to repent of sin, and to engage joyfully at the Lord's table on this Lord's Day. Rejoice, church, in the fact that God has delivered you from the slave market of sin, and that He has redeemed you by the blood of His Son, and gather in worship at the Lord's table with a joyful heart. To the unbeliever who might be here today, And undoubtedly, in this room, there is an unbeliever. So hear these words. Don't partake of the Lord's Supper table. Listen. Remember what was just preached to you. Pay close attention to what's happening around you, among your family, or those who are members of this church. And then consider yourself in light of what this represents. The very body of Christ broken. The very blood of Christ that was poured out. And consider your own need for saving grace that comes only through Christ. This is the only sacrifice that God would receive. He won't receive your good works. He won't receive your good deeds. He won't receive your morality. You must come to him. You must bow to him. Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. So repent of your sins and trust Christ. Let us now prepare ourselves to worship at the Lord's table. If you're a baptized follower of the Lord Jesus Christ as a member of this church in good standing, then we want you to worship with us at the Lord's table. If you're here today and you're not a member of Praise Mill, but you're a member in good standing within your church as a baptized believer of the Lord Jesus Christ, then we want you to worship with us as we celebrate and remember and feast upon the Lord Jesus Christ, as our faith is strengthened through this means of grace. You're here today, as I stated before, and you're not a Christian. We would just simply ask, not that you would just up and abruptly leave. The worship service doesn't end until the final word from God's Word. The benediction. So just sit and meditate upon the gospel. See your need for Christ and repent. This table is not salvific. It doesn't save anyone. So there's no need for you to take up the elements. What you need to do is you need to have a broken spirit and a contrite heart, and turn to the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Bible says, you shall be saved. May God add to this church, even on this occasion, even as we celebrate the Lord's table, by unbelievers who might be in this room under the hearing of the gospel, that you would turn to Christ and God would be gracious and merciful to you, a sinner. and that you would be saved today. Let us pray together.