We begin at verse 2, actually, because verse 1 goes with the previous chapter as a conclusion to that matter. So we begin at 1 Corinthians 11, beginning at verse 2. Now I praise you, brethren, that ye remember me in all things, and keep the ordinances as I delivered them to you. But I would have you to know that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is the man, and the head of Christ is God. Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonoureth his head. But every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered, dishonoureth her head. But that is even all one as if she were shaven. For if the woman be not covered, let her also be shorn. But if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be covered. For a man indeed ought not to cover his head for as much as he is the image and glory of God, but the woman is the glory of the man. For the man is not of the woman, but the woman of the man. Neither was the man created for the woman, but the woman for the man. For this cause ought the woman to have power, that is a symbol of being under power, on her head because of the angels. Nevertheless, neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man in the Lord. For as the woman is of the man, even so is the man also by the woman, but all things of God. Judge in yourselves, is it comely that a woman pray unto God uncovered? Doth not even nature itself teach you that if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him? But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her, for her hair is given her for a covering. But if a man seem to be contentious, any man seem to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither the churches of God. Now in this I declare unto you, I praise you not, that you come together not for the better, but for the worse. For first of all, when you come together in the church, I hear that there be divisions among you, and I partly believe it. But there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you. When you come together, therefore, into one place, this is not to eat the Lord's supper. For in eating, every one taketh before another his own supper, and one is hungry and another is drunken. What, have ye not houses to eat and drink in? Or despise ye the church of God, and shame them that have not? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you in this? I praise you not. And now verses 23 through 29 are the text for the sermon. I will not reread that. 23 through 29. For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus, the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread. And when he had given thanks, he 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 unto condemnation, and the rest will I set in order when I come. So far we read God's holy word. Beloved in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Apostle Paul writes to a congregation that had problems, serious problems in the congregation. And the problems arose largely from the fact that this was a congregation that had fairly recently come out of paganism. These were first-generation Christians. They had not grown up in covenant homes, as many of us have. They had not received instruction from the Word of God, as we have. Therefore, they grew up not having the knowledge of God. the Creator, not having the knowledge of Jesus Christ, Savior. They had no knowledge of the horribleness of sin, that it's a sin against God, a holy God, and that this sin incurs a debt and that this debt must be paid for. They had no understanding of that. They grew up living as unbelievers in the lusts of the flesh. In the providence of God and in the direction of the Holy Spirit, the Apostle Paul and others had come together and they preached the gospel in Corinth. Paul labored there personally for some a year and a half. And it's understandable, but rather what happened when he came there to preach is that the Spirit opened up the hearts of the elect hearers and they believed. They believed in Jesus Christ. They confessed him to be their Savior. And they began to live a life of thankful obedience. But it is quite understandable that not all the instruction of the Apostle Paul would immediately sink in and simply change everything about their life. And there would be many times in their life when they would revert back to the way that they had been brought up. And so there were problems in the church. And Paul comes with some stern rebukes. Serious sins, party spirit. Chapter one, but this chapter refers to it as well, schisms, heresies. The word heresy is not the ordinary word for heresy that we take it as false doctrine, but divisions. There are schisms, there are divisions among you, he says. People that are following a particular minister, And then it's working out its way in the congregation. There are divisions among you. They were tolerating some horrible sins, even some horrible forms of adultery. And here Paul addresses a serious perversion of the Lord's Supper. And from the context of the text, it seems that when they came together, that they had a meal in advance, before the Lord's Supper. And as they came there, they exhibited some horrible unchristian behavior. Some came loaded down with food and wine, and they would go off and eat and drink and ignore those that didn't have anything to eat at all. And some who were doing that would overeat and overdrink even, and become drunk, while others had nothing whatsoever to eat. And then after all of that, they would go and sit down at the Lord's table together. And that's why Paul says in verse 21, verse 20, when you come together, therefore, into one place, this is not to eat the Lord's supper. That is to say, you can't, you cannot partake of the Lord's supper. It is impossible. The way you have come together, the way you are acting together, you cannot come to the Lord's table. You are perverting the Lord's table. So how does this apply to us? That's what we have to see tonight. We have to be very careful not to be smug in our knowledge. We are not first-generation Christians. We have a lot of knowledge. And every year or two, the Heidelberg Catechism is preached, and it preaches through the sacraments. And so it explains the significance of the Lord's Supper. And we read the form for the Lord's Supper, and we'll read that tonight. And it will show us proper self-examination, how we need to come to the Lord's table. We have a lot of knowledge, and we might imagine then that really, This stern admonition of Paul is not something we have to be concerned about, is it? But 1 Corinthians 11 was written not merely for that church, but the church of all ages. And as we will see tonight, it's very really possible that some of these same rebukes come to us. It's possible for us, very really possible, that we eat and drink in such a way that we become guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. Yes, that is possible. We need this instruction so that we come to the table of the Lord not that way, but the way Paul admonishes us to come. So let's consider this under the theme, the proper partaking of the Lord's Supper Notice in the first place the sacrament, so we'll look at the sacrament of the Lord's Supper and see what it really is. Secondly, we'll examine the danger of partaking unworthily, the danger of partaking unworthily, and then finally the proper examination required. The sacrament of the Lord's Supper, we have again the Heidelberg Catechism so marvelous in its instruction, And the catechism says a sacrament is a sign and a seal of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It's a sign, a picture, a visible thing, and it is a seal that applies something, a picture and an application of the gospel of Jesus Christ. So let's look at that and see that that's exactly what the text teaches as well. The Lord's Supper is a sign, there's something visible about that. And you see that in a couple of ways, but especially in verses 24 and 25, when twice the expression is, this do in remembrance of me. This do in remembrance. There is something about the Lord's Supper that is supposed to remind us of something. Now, Jesus did not say this simply because he didn't want to be someone that was forgotten, out of mind. That's not what he has in mind. There are people that will contribute large amounts of money to a hospital or a college or even to a trail and put their name on it because they want people to remember them after they die and to remember their good deeds after they are gone. That's not what Jesus has in mind at all. But in the context here, when he says this do in remembrance of me, he's talking about taking the broken bread, taking it and eating it, and this do in remembrance of me. The broken bread is the picture. That's the sign that Jesus wants us to see. It's a sign of Jesus' body. It's a sign of Jesus' body being nailed to the cross. Of the fact that in His body, He bore the wrath of God against sin. A terrible wrath. A wrath that is infinite. A wrath that has no limits to it. You can't put it in a container. It is infinite. It is eternal. It is a terrifying wrath because it is the holiness of God breaking out against sin. What Jesus is saying is, I took your sin upon me. I took your sin upon me and became guilty in your stead, and the wrath of God came upon me. A wrath so terrifying, so dreadful, that when Jesus was in the garden of Gethsemane, and He stared down into the pit of hell, and He began to feel the weight of that wrath, He pleaded with God, if there is some other way, let this cup pass from me. So terrifying. The wrath of God. Jesus bore that wrath. He took it all. He finished it. It's gone. He died to pay for our sins. That wrath he bore. Call this to mind. Look at that broken bread. and do it in remembrance of me think of what i have done jesus says i went to the cross i broke my body for your sins to take them away take the bread remember remember it by faith believe it believe it And then the next verse is, this cup is the New Testament in my blood. This do ye as oft as ye drink it in remembrance of me. So in the cup of wine, we have a picture of the blood of Jesus Christ. And we think often of the fact that when Jesus was crucified and the soldier stuck his side with a spear, blood and water ran out and he was obviously dead. He had given up his life and that's certainly part of it. But Jesus said the blood of the covenant The blood of the New Testament, that's what this cup is, the New Testament in my blood. Testament, covenant, those are one and the same, the same word. Adam broke the covenant that God had established with him in his creation, but God maintained his covenant, and he would maintain his covenant through blood. through the shedding of blood, his covenant would be maintained. That was evident immediately after Adam and Eve tried to cover up their nakedness with leaves and God showed them that that's nothing, that will never do it. I will cover your nakedness. He killed animals for them. He shed blood and he took their skins and gave them to Adam and Eve and they could be covered. But it was the shedding of blood. And so when Abel came with his sacrifice, it was the shedding of blood that was important. And Cain's sacrifice would be despised. And so Noah and Abraham all the way through, shedding blood. And at Mount Sinai, God established it in ordinance, established the priesthood of Aaron that would offer sacrifices and the daily sacrifices in the temple and sacrifices for every kind of iniquity. God said, this is what you must do. Shed blood. Blood was essential. Blood was removed from the animal before it would be offered on the sacrifice. They would cut the throat and catch the blood and pour it out next to the altar. Blood would be brought into the Most Holy Place once a year on the Great Day of Atonement and seven drops. Why seven? The number of the covenant. The covenant would be realized. The covenant would be maintained through blood. Right away at the beginning of the history of Israel Moses took a bowl and put in it blood and put in it water and took a bowl of hyssop and then he took that hyssop and dipped it in there and sprinkled it over the whole of Israel and Over the law the book of the covenant and over the tabernacle and over the altar and all the furnishings Everything had to be cleansed by blood That's what Hebrew says Hebrews 9 which describes that ceremony of Moses and then Hebrews 9 22 says and almost all things in almost you could say all Things are by the law purged with blood and without shedding of blood. There is no remission There had to be the shedding of blood the old covenant was maintained With blood now Jesus says this cup is the New Testament in my blood, my blood and Hebrews goes on from the verse I just read in Hebrews 9 22 now 23 says It was necessary for, therefore, that the patterns of things of the heavens should be purified with these, the temple and tabernacle, all those patterns of the heavenly, they had to be cleansed with earthly blood, with bloods of animals, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. And then it goes on to say, and that sacrifice is Christ's. That's the only way things could be cleansed, truly cleansed with the one sacrifice of Jesus Christ. So Jesus says, here's the New Testament. Here's the new covenant that God made. The old covenant was the covenant God made in the Old Testament with Israel. But now the New Testament, the new covenant is a better covenant. It's a better covenant because it is established with Christ and everybody that is in Jesus Christ. It is based upon the one sacrifice of Christ where he truly paid for sins. They are gone. They are remitted. This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Take it. Drink it. Do it by faith. And then you recognize, this is the covenant. This is my relationship with God. This is friendship with God. I am reconciled to God through this blood. That's the picture of the Lord's Supper. So as often as you eat this bread, said Paul in verse 26, and as often as you drink this cup, you do show his death. Literally, you proclaim it. You proclaim it. You're showing to the world, you're proclaiming to the world, the death of Jesus Christ is my full salvation. The death of Jesus Christ is the realization of the covenant, the unbreakable covenant. That's part of the symbolism. That's part of the pictures we see in the Lord's Supper. There's also the picture of unity in the body of Jesus Christ. There is a picture of unity. And this is exactly how the apostles started the rebuke of the Corinthians, that they were not showing unity, but quite the opposite. every man for himself or everyone in his own little clique and he supplying the needs for his own family and friends not caring about anybody else and then even living in our immorality and coming to the into the service drunk one of the sins over and again that the bible condemns warns us against and then the coming to the table of the lord where the lord says i gave my body For all of you. Nobody is better than anybody else. All of your sins need to be paid for. I did that in love for you. I did that to make you to be one. As you partake of my body. You become one. You're part of the body of Jesus Christ, and you are more knit together as a result of eating this. This is what you must see in the Lord's Supper. There is a sign of unity here. And that's why there are times if there is trouble in a congregation, the consistory might say, we can't have the Lord's Supper. Because there's disunity. It's a sign of unity. That's what we must see. One bread, one wine, the unity of the body of Jesus Christ. Those are some of the pictures that Paul brings out in this passage. But the Lord's Supper is more than a picture. The Lord's Supper is also a seal. It is an application There's something very really that happens in the Lord's Supper. That is to say, we eat his bread, we drink his blood. Jesus said, take eat, and he holds it out, take eat, this is my body. I'm going to give you to eat of my body. It's a seal of that. It's a real partaking. This, of course, has been an issue in the church. Huge controversy in the church. We can't go into all the details. There are basically four positions on this. The position of Rome, Luther, Zwingli, and the Reformed. Three of them insist that in the Lord's Supper there is a real partaking of Christ. Three of the four say there is a real partaking of Christ and one says there is not. There is no partaking. You remember what they are. Rome says you partake of Christ physically, because the very elements become the body and blood of Jesus Christ. They become that. They're transformed into it. And so everyone who partakes of that wafer in the Lord's Supper is actually chewing on the body of Christ. Luther said, no, that's not true. But nonetheless, we are partaking physically of the body of Jesus Christ, because in the bread, though it remains bread, in that bread and under the form of that bread and with that bread is the very body of Jesus Christ. The body of Jesus Christ which is crucified but when he was exalted it can become everywhere present and so in that bread is the body of Jesus Christ. You are chewing it. Every single person who picks up that bread and eats it is chewing on Jesus Christ. The Zwinglians said No. None of that is true. It's a picture. It's a beautiful picture. It's a picture that's important for us. It will help strengthen our faith if we look at that and we celebrate what Jesus has done. But you do not actually partake of the body of Christ. Well, that leaves the Reformed. What do you believe? Are you partaking of Christ when you partake of the bread or not? Or is it only a picture? It is not only a picture. You are partaking of Christ, but not physically, not physically. That you are not partaking of Christ physically is evident from a number of things. First of all, when Jesus said to his disciples, this is my body, he was standing there in his body. So it doesn't make any sense to say that then at that moment they began to chew on his body. He was standing there in his physical body. So we didn't mean that. Besides that, Rome's whole system is totally wrong in that they have a sacrifice of what they say is the body of Christ, and that he has to be sacrificed week after week, day after day. And Hebrews is so strong. There is one sacrifice. By one sacrifice, he has forever removed our sins. And besides that, that it's not a physical eating. Christ is in heaven. His body is in heaven. And his body did not become everywhere present. His body remains a human body. And just as our body does not become everywhere present when we are glorified, so Jesus' body can only be in one place at one time. It's in heaven, not on the earth. And then finally, keep in mind, these are symbols. Bread and wine are symbols. They're not the reality. If Jesus' bread is really that, if his body is that, then it isn't a picture anymore, then it's the reality. No, the Lord's Supper is something with symbols in it, pictures. And yet I say, three out of the four said we partake of Christ, and you're Reformed, and you partake of Christ. You do. The Belgic Confession, probably says it the strongest of all of the descriptions of the Lord's Supper and partaking in Article 35, a very long article, because this was a huge controversy in the time that the Belgic Confession was written. But on page 52, you have Article 35, where it speaks of the Lord's Supper and partaking of the Lord's Supper. And in the, what I have here is the third paragraph. The third paragraph says this, that he might represent unto us this spiritual and heavenly bread, hath instituted an earthly and visible bread as a sacrament of his body, so there's the sign part, and wine as a sacrament of his blood, to testify by them unto us that as certainly as we receive and hold this sacrament in our hands, and eat and drink the same with our mouths, by which our life is afterwards nourished, our earthly life, We also do as certainly received by faith, which is the hand and mouth of the soul, the true body and blood of Christ, our only Savior in our souls, for the support of our spiritual life. Now go on. Now as it is certain and beyond all doubt that Jesus Christ hath not enjoined, he has not commanded us the use of his sacrament in vain, So he works in us all that he represents to us by these holy signs, though the manner surpasses our understanding. So at the end of the day, at the end of this worship service, there are going to be things that you and I are not going to understand. The manner of this will surpass our understanding and cannot be comprehended by us. as the operations of the Holy Ghost are hidden and incomprehensible. In the meantime, we err not when we say that what is eaten and drunk by us is the proper and natural body and the proper blood of Christ. Do you believe that? What is eaten of us is the proper and natural body and the proper blood of Christ. But the manner of our partaking of it is not by the mouth, but by the Spirit through faith. All right, how does that, how do we understand that? What does this mean? We partake of the Lord. We partake of Him in the Lord's Supper. It is more than a mere remembrance. It is a remembrance. but it is more than a mere remembrance of Jesus' death. We partake of Him, very really. We partake of Him as we partake by faith, and the Spirit makes a connection. We need physical food to keep this physical body healthy and strong. The bread and wine are physical things. that will not keep our souls alive and well. We need a spiritual food for our souls. And the Spirit makes the connection. So that as a believer, by faith then, takes that bread and partakes of that bread, the Spirit is making a connection in such a way that He is feeding our spiritual part of us. He's feeding our souls with the crucified body and blood of Jesus Christ. Again, not a physical thing, but that is to say all that Jesus earned for us in the cross through his crucifixion, by the breaking of his body, by the shedding of his blood, all those blessings the Spirit is conveying to us as we partake by faith of the bread and wine. Something is happening when we partake of the Lord's Supper. It is not a mere commemoration. We are partaking of the Lord. God is applying it. That's the seal part. The symbol part is the pictures. The seal part is God applying it to us. making us to be spiritually stronger as we partake by faith. Faith is the mouth that is partaking of Jesus crucified. You understand then, because it's a real thing, a real partaking, and again, that's why Rome and Luther are wrong because not everybody that picks up the bread is eating Christ. It's by faith. Only by faith that you are truly partaking of Christ, but you are partaking. Because of that, he warns us about the danger, the horrible sin of partaking unworthily. Unworthily. And the text identifies what it means to do that unworthily in verse 29 when it says, for he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. Not discerning the Lord's body. And that means someone comes to the table of the Lord, and he sees the bread and the wine, and he does not discern the spiritual connection to the Lord. He sees bread and he looks at it as bread and it's just like anything that he could buy from the store. He sees the wine and he says, that's ordinary wine. I can buy that wine from the store. And he's not recognizing that there is something special. Not because the bread is something special, but because the Spirit is making that connection between the bread and the body of Jesus Christ. He doesn't discern the Lord's body. He doesn't recognize it. So he's eating. Everybody else is. And he's eating too. but it doesn't mean anything. It's a mere, at best, a mere commemoration. This is how the church in Corinth was understanding it. This is why they could act the way they did, with a total lack of love, with a total lack of concern for each other, and demonstrate all of this division among themselves, and then come to the table of the Lord, and Paul says, do you understand You are guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. You understand that you're bringing the wrath of God upon your congregation? So that in verse 30, Paul says, for this cause, because this is happening among you, many are weak and sickly. God had sent some kind of an affliction. There were diseases in the congregation. There were people dying in the congregation, physically dying. They were sleeping. God's wrath was on that congregation because they were desecrating the Lord's Supper. Profaning the table. They were not seeing that these were signs and symbols that were more than that. They were not being reminded forcibly that Jesus died for their sin. They didn't see the need for their sins to be paid for. They didn't need to see this. They didn't see the need for forsaking their sins before they would come to the table of the Lord. They didn't see the need to have a life of love that would would be the fruit of Jesus work, a life of love for each other in the congregation. I'm a Christian. Christians partake of the Lord's Supper, so I come to the Lord's Supper. It reminds me of the cross, of course, but I could be reminded by looking at that symbol. That reminds me of the cross. Probably a little better to have the Lord's Supper, but it's just a reminder, just to remind me of what Jesus has done. That's how they were looking at it, as a mere reminder. So you see how easily we can be guilty of this. If we come to the Lord's Supper in that casual kind of way, well, this is what a Christian does. Every three months in Byron, we have the Lord's Supper. So, the Lord's Supper is next week. I'll go to communion with everyone else. We must come understanding, first of all, the significance of the broken bread, the horror of sin, what Jesus had to go through to pay for our sins, the wrath. If we think we may live in hatred and envy, we may live a life of stealing and lying and desecrating the Sabbath day and disobeying those in authority, living in adultery and fornication and still come to the Lord's Supper, then sin doesn't mean anything. We don't see the horror of it. If we can turn on the television and watch all these sins glorified and enjoy their programs, if we can go on the Internet and watch with our eyes what we click on all of the immorality of the world there, If we live separate from the church and we have no concern about anybody, we don't care about the old, we don't care about the sick, we only care about ourselves. Then we come to the table of the Lord. We're not discerning. We're not recognizing what that broken bread means. What that wine poured out means. What Jesus has done. And we're not discerning that there's a real partaking. The seriousness of this is not merely that, well, we come to the Lord's table, but we don't get as much out of it as we could. If we understood it better, it would probably strengthen our faith more. It's not that. Paul says, no. You're guilty. You're guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. That's the seriousness of it. despising the cross of Jesus Christ, accounting it to be of something of no value. Hebrews again, Hebrews chapter 10 now, verse 29, speaks to the people of God at that time and warns them Those who despise Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses. Verse 29 of chapter 10, How much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden underfoot the Son of God, hath counted the blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, a common thing, something of no special value, and hath done despot unto the Spirit of grace. who simply say, I can live as I please and still come to the supper of the Lord are guilty of that. They're guilty of despising the cross. They're no better than those who in Jesus' day who thought, I don't need this Jesus, away with him, crucify him. That's how you are become guilty of crucifying him. I don't need him. My sins aren't that bad. I don't have to be delivered from them. This is the seriousness of it. God's wrath comes on us if we approach the table of the Lord in that way. And so the Lord not only warns us, but says, but there is a proper way to come. And that's by examination. A careful self-examination. Let a man examine himself, we read in verse 28. Let a man examine himself and so let him eat that bread and drink of that cup. The idea of the word examined is literally to prove and the idea certainly is not that Paul wants us all to go home and examine whether or not we are believers. There are some strains of the Reformed faith in the past that have gone in that direction and say, you need to go home and examine yourself to see whether you are really a Christian. And if you are not convinced that you are a Christian, then do not come to the table of the Lord. Well, that's absolutely wrong. And there's two things that show that. First of all, if you're not a Christian, you don't have to think about it for more than two seconds. You know you're not a Christian. You know you don't believe in Jesus. You don't want Him. You don't believe in Him. You don't love Him. You know that immediately. You don't have to prove that. You don't have to examine yourself. So that is not the idea. The other thing that shows it is the very word examine means to try or to prove something with the intent, with the expectation that whatever is being tested will be approved. It will be approved, not condemned, but it will be approved. That's Paul's expectation when he uses this word. It's the word that would be used, for example, if you had some gold, and you're pretty convinced this is gold, and so you run it through a test. And you put it through the fires, but the expectation is it will come out in the end as gold. You will see it. This is my expectation. That's Paul's expectation. He is not going to the Church of Corinth and saying, I want to instill all kinds of doubts in your minds about whether you're really Christians or not. That's not what he's trying to do. He's not saying, I want to chase everybody away from the Lord's table, but only a handful of really good, solid Christians. He's not trying to do that. But he does want them to be aware of how terrible a sin it is to come casually to the Lord's Supper and thereby to profane it. That's his concern. Without a deep understanding of sin, without understanding their own unworthiness, without understanding what Christ had to do to pay for their sins. So examine yourselves. See your sin. Start there. See your sinfulness. See that you are worthy of hell, of being cast away eternally from God and perishing in hell. And then when you see that, be sorry for those sins. Humble yourself before God. See the cross for what it really is, the horrible suffering that Jesus had to endure in order to pay for your sins. Paul wants them to see that. and see the cross as the only hope that you have of salvation. That's what Paul exhorts us to do. The only hope. Not because you're a good person. Not because you're a nice person. That's not what makes you to be saved. Not because you have a good family or you go to church regularly. You can do all of those things and still be guilty of the body and blood of Jesus Christ and be liable. That's the word guilty. You're liable for that. You must pay for that. That's a terrible sin. So examine yourself and see that the cross is the only hope that you have of salvation. that you are saved by the blood and spirit of Jesus Christ alone. And in that exam, he says, see the evidence of the saving work. The love of Jesus Christ must govern your life. You must see that, that you are living a godly life, that you are hating sin, that you are loving God, loving the neighbor, concretely demonstrating a love for the neighbor. and then come, take, eat, and drink. So let him eat. With the Apostle Paul, I am in no way trying to drive you away from the table of the Lord. I am in no way trying to instill all sorts of doubts into your mind that maybe I shouldn't come, maybe I'm not worthy, Maybe I shouldn't be here, but I am warning you and I'm warning myself, do not come to the table of the Lord casually, without thinking, without that deep awareness of our own sins, without a genuine heartfelt repentance and a godly walk of thankfulness. If that isn't found as we examine ourselves, Then stay away. Then stay away. Because we eat and drink judgment to ourselves. But examine yourselves. And then come. Then come. Take. Eat. Drink. All of you. That's the call of Christ. All of you come and drink. But this is the manner. This is the way you come. And you understand that examining yourself is not the ground, then, for your coming. The ground is the cross of Jesus Christ. And the access to the table is not because you've done a good enough job of examining yourself. Your access is faith alone. But this is the manner. This is the way in which, the only way in which, we may approach the table of the Lord. Take hold of the promise of God. He says, Jesus says, take eat. This is my body. I will feed you. I will nourish you. That's his promise. Amen. Let us pray. Father in heaven, we thank Thee for the Lord's Supper. We thank Thee for the instruction of Thy word. as it instructs us not only as to the significance of the Lord's Supper, but the great blessing that is there. Lord, we want that. We want our faith to be strengthened. We want our lives to be made more holy. And so, prepare our hearts. And by the Spirit, work in us so that we examine ourselves. And so, come. In Jesus' name we pray this. Amen. Let's read now the form for the administration of the Lord's Supper. The examination part found on page 91 in the back of the Psalter. The true examination of ourselves consists of these three parts. First, that everyone consider by himself his sins and the curse due to him for them, to the end that he may abhor and humble himself before God, considering that the wrath of God against sin is so great that rather than it should go unpunished, he hath punished the same in his beloved Son, Jesus Christ, with the bitter and shameful death of the cross. Secondly, that everyone examine his own heart, whether he doth believe this faithful promise of God, that all his sins are forgiven him only for the sake of the passion and death of Jesus Christ, and that the perfect righteousness of Christ is imputed and freely given him as his own, yea, so perfectly as if he had satisfied in his own person for all his sins and fulfilled all righteousness. Thirdly, that everyone examine his own conscience, whether he purposeth henceforth to show true thankfulness to God in his whole life, and to walk uprightly before him as also whether he hath laid aside unfeignedly all enmity, hatred, and envy, and doth firmly resolve henceforward to walk in true love and peace with his neighbor. All those, then, who are thus disposed, God will certainly receive in mercy, and count them worthy partakers of the table of his Son, Jesus Christ. And the contrary, those who do not feel this testimony in their hearts, eat and drink judgment, to themselves. Therefore we also, according to the command of Christ and the Apostle Paul, admonish all those who are defiled with the following sins to keep themselves from the table of the Lord, and declare to them that they have no part in the kingdom of Christ, such as all idolaters, all those who invoke deceased saints, angels, or other creatures, all those who worship images, all enchanters, diviners, charmers, and those who confide in such enchantments, all despisers of God and of His Word and of the Holy Sacraments, all blasphemers, all those who are given to raise discord, sex, and mutiny in church or state, all perjured persons, all those who are disobedient to their parents and superiors, all murderers, contentious persons, and those who live in hatred and envy against their neighbors, all adulterers, whoremongers, drunkards, thieves, usurers, which would be, I'm sorry, usurers, robbers, gamesters, which is gambling, covetous, and all who lead offensive lives. All these, while they continue in such sins, shall abstain from this meat which Christ hath ordained only for the faithful, lest their judgment and condemnation be made the heavier. But this is not designed, dearly beloved brethren and sisters in the Lord, to deject the contrite hearts of the faithful, as if none might come to the supper of the Lord but those who are without sin. For we do not come to this supper to testify thereby that we are perfect and righteous in ourselves, But on the contrary, considering that we seek our life out of ourselves in Jesus Christ, we acknowledge that we lie in the midst of death. Therefore, notwithstanding, we feel many infirmities and miseries in ourselves, as namely, that we have not perfect faith. and that we do not give ourselves to serve God with that zeal as we are bound, but have daily to strive with the weakness of our faith and the evil lusts of our flesh. Yet since we are, by the grace of the Holy Spirit, sorry for these weaknesses, and earnestly desire us to fight against our unbelief and to live according to all the commandments of God, Therefore, we rest assured that no sin or infirmity which still remaineth against our will in us can hinder us from being received of God in mercy, and from being made worthy partakers of this heavenly meat and drink. So far we read the four. We sing Psalter number 365. Stanza 4. With the Lord's tender mercy and redeeming love, Israel looked for full salvation from above. ♪ Come to our own life ♪ ♪ Hear, O Lord, my song and wisdom when I cry ♪ God, the God-tried, hear my mercy, love me just. For I always will, I promise, Lord, and we who watch for morning light to see. When the Lord is dead, It trembled at the thought of salvation. La, la, la, la, la, la, la. Praise ye God. And bless the Lord these days, we know, who in his grace denied. By all his riches let his name be honored, The Lord bless thee and keep thee. The Lord make his face shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee. The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee and give thee peace. Amen.