How fitting to take the Lord's supper this morning. Not doing so might have been like writing a cookbook while you're fasting. When God made covenants, he very often gave signs for those covenants. Signs that bring them to our remembrance. God never forgets his covenants, but you know what we do? We forget them all the time. We're forgetful people. And so we need tangible things to remind us. And this is more familiar to us than maybe we realize. Not every culture does this, but our culture has a sign of the marriage covenant. What is it? It's a wedding ring. I have a gold ring on the third finger of my left hand. And not every culture uses that particular symbol, but I'm thankful ours does. Many times when I'm typing or doing something at my desk, I'll look down and I'll notice my ring. I don't notice it much because I've had it on for 32 years almost. But when I notice it, you're going to think I'm silly, but sometimes I kiss it because it reminds me I'm bound to someone. and she's bound to me. And when I'm out and about, and I'm walking around shopping or doing whatever I'm doing, and other people see me who don't even know me, but they see this on my hand, what do they know? They know he belongs to somebody. He's off limits to other women because he belongs to someone, and that person belongs to him. It's a reminder to me that I'm in covenant with Angela, and I love that reminder. Even so, God gives reminders to us to remind us of the covenant, because we're so prone to forget. He's given us a perpetual reminder of the covenant with Noah in the rainbow. Every time you see the rainbow, what you should do is not think of the LGBTQ, whatever initials they've added lately, group, you should think of God's covenant with Noah. I will never destroy the world again with a flood. And he's not going to, he'll destroy it with fire, but not with flood. The Old Covenant, there was the blessings of the covenant signs of circumcision and of the Passover. The New Covenant, there are two covenant signs, there's baptism and there's the Lord's Supper. This is a covenantal meal. If you're to partake with us with the Lord's Supper this morning, you must first of all be a regenerate, baptized disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. Second, you must be an active member in good standing of a gospel-preaching Protestant church. Third, connected to that second requirement, you must not be under the censure or the discipline of this church or any other church. We recognize the authority of our sister churches, so if you are censured or excommunicated, I don't know of anyone here who is, but you need to go repent, submit yourself to the church and be restored to it, and then come take the Lord's table. And fourth, if you're qualified according to these first three requirements, you must examine yourself and confess your sins to both God and men so as to have a conscience devoid of offense. If you're not qualified according to these standards, please let the elements pass by you. But as we think about examining ourselves, 1 Corinthians 11 tells us every time we take the Lord's Supper, we're to examine ourselves. And every time you examine yourself, you're gonna find what? you're going to find sin every single time. You're supposed to. Examining yourself is not making yourself worthy by self-examination. It's looking inside and realizing how unworthy you are. But then after you've examined yourself, and if the Lord puts something on your conscience to confess to him, do so. If he points out something to you that you've sinned against a brother or sister in this room and you need to make it right, amazing how often we spouses sin against each other on the Lord's Day morning on the way to church, whatever it may be, go and seek forgiveness. But then my encouragement is stop examining yourself and examine the Lord Jesus Christ. and fix the gaze of your soul upon him. For every one look at yourself, give a thousand looks to Jesus. Because this bread and this wine is a reminder of what he did for you. The bread is without leaven to remind you of his act of obedience, that he perfectly obeyed the standard of God's law. But it's also a reminder of his passive obedience because it's broken. because his body was broken for you. And from those wounds poured out his blood, another reminder of his passive obedience. The Bible says without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sins. And so it's a reminder that his blood was shed for you and therefore your sins are covered and they have been paid. So let's take a few moments to examine ourselves this morning as we prepare to take of the Lord's table. Father, we commit sins every day, every hour of omission and commission. There are duties you've given us that we neglect to do, whether it's prayerlessness or failure to share the gospel with a neighbor. Many things that we just leave undone. But then there are transgressions as well, things that you've told us not to do, and we do them anyway. And Lord, how often in the morning I pray for you to help me overcome and put to death the deeds of the flesh, and the next morning it seems I look back on all the things I asked your help for and have to confess all the ways I fell short. Lord, we sometimes groan within ourselves, woe is me, for I am undone. I'm an unclean man who needs the cleansing blood of Jesus applied to me afresh. And I suspect my brothers and sisters feel that often themselves too. But we thank you that there is fresh cleansing available when we will confess and forsake our sins, because you cover our sins and hide them from view. You cover them with the blood of Jesus. We praise you and bless you for this wonderful covenant meal that is a reminder of what Jesus has accomplished for us. Please call it actively to mind by your spirit that is communing with you even as we take of these elements. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.