Discrimination of the Lord's Supper (Quality: Poor)

[0:00] With the Lord's help, we will speak this evening from the first epistle to the Corinthians, chapter 11, verse 27.

[0:21] First epistle to the Corinthians, chapter 11, verse 27. Therefore, whosoever shall eat this bread and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.

[0:47] Let me say at the outset, this has been a seemingly heavy burden to me. I hope we need you of this text to realize the sacred reality of the way the Lord unfolds his truth.

[1:11] Paul had hard work and hard labor when he wrote to the Corinthians, first of all, for many disorders kept in, for many schisms, as he said, or divisions.

[1:36] Inconsistently, devil set to work by work of God, side by side, and rule not seeming heaven.

[1:46] Very consistently with God's purpose. It's the same in the Old Testament. We are astonished that godly men should fall into such awful trouble and pit, disaster, and be brought into such disgrace.

[2:12] And yet out of all this, the Lord delivered them in order to magnify his grace and make his purposes more validly clear.

[2:27] That he might, by means of contrast, show us how he was not only able to say out of nature's darkness, but also out of the corruptions of the heart of those who he had said delivered.

[2:57] So that scarce a name could be mentioned in the word of God for any who have not met a black mask. This isn't something for us to take pride in or to enlarge upon and do the devil's work by making it the subject of a sermon.

[3:21] There's a deep underline purposes. And you suppose for a moment that it wasn't there. Supposing there were no 50 personnel.

[3:36] And supposing there were no 9th of Daniel. And supposing there were no count of one who went out and went bitter.

[3:52] See the balance of these things? If the word of God were all on the spiritual high level, there were no blemishes or spots among his dear people.

[4:05] Well, where would you and I come in? How did we stand? Again, we are not too large, pleasing that grace may abound.

[4:20] Paul was always on the alert to preface many of his remarks with his caution. Shall we stand?

[4:30] Shall we sin that grace may abound? Shall we deliberately sin? You see, he deeply impressed the peril of this great temptation.

[4:50] Speaking this morning, as some of you know from the prophecy of Isaiah, we spoke of casting up the highway and gathering up a stone and lifting up standards for the people.

[5:06] And here, in this epistle, we have at least half a dozen examples of these laboring servants of God, Paul, Paul, the keepers, the polis, and the opposition they met with, and the strange trials that overtook them, which they couldn't possibly foresee.

[5:38] How could any of them foresee that some of the people would say, I am of Paul. Therefore, I am separate from you.

[5:50] Another would say, I am of a polis. And another, I am a cheeper. And how wonderfully, graciously, the God-given wisdom, Paul, chattered the whole concept.

[6:10] And asked them, who is Paul? Who is Caesar? Who is a father?

[6:21] This is how the first chapter commences. And how are we going to probe into these depths of the history of the Church of God a pump from the help of the Word of God?

[6:42] Why, have we not just read, it is necessary that heresies should come? That they which are approved, may be made manifest.

[6:56] But yes, how frequently we are overwhelmed by the experience, the experiences, the heresies, as those teachers, they look so harmless, that, er, we find a loved one, er, of her own kindred, er, pulled into these things, to her utter grief and amace.

[7:29] nothing can move them. Nothing can move them. And hearts bleed, all the, er, grief they cause. And the work of the adversary is not new.

[7:43] This was, er, some, er, sudden, er, drop in the ability, and deterioration of the work of the Holy Spirit in the twentieth century. History is so clearly written, as to make it, er, clear.

[7:56] There has been Jesus in his several parables, er, and the sheep and the goats, the cow from the weak, foolish and the wise virgin, and almost, I think, without exception, in every parable, it makes this division.

[8:36] the word of God is like a sheep. And, er, of course, a sheep is only effectful in the hand of a strong man.

[8:49] You can't give a child a sheep. But the shifting work of the word of God is very dividing and very soft.

[9:03] Now, in this chapter, we have some exceedingly questionable matters that Paul has to touch upon. And they are as current today as they were when he wrote them.

[9:24] And they bring with them the same commendation or the same condemnation as when he wrote them. They can't be altered, adjusted, amended.

[9:41] There is no possibility, whatsoever, the divine mind coming down at what men call a lower level.

[9:52] and in this particular verse, which I have, er, that perhaps you'll notice, as it's likely to read, lest I should perhaps, right away, er, hurt the feelings of any young friend, er, in this evening.

[10:14] Nothing of the time. But here, er, is the great question of, er, this eating and drinking, er, unworthy. And I doubt not that what others of you, have, er, dwelt around this scripture, more than once. that the enemy of souls is, outwitted in his own work, and by God's decree, in the writing, that the enemy of souls is, outwitted in his own work, of, er, and by God's decree, in the writing of, of, his soul.

[10:42] And if we read this chapter, a lot of other people, have, er, dwelt around this scripture, more than once. And the enemy of souls is, outwitted in his own work, and by God's decree, in the writing, as a, of, his soul.

[10:55] And if we read this chapter, a right, and, er, there is nothing complicated in it, as regards the ordinance, of the Lord's Supper, we see that the enemy, er, brought into the church, and go, as I know you say, the misuse of the ordinance, which Jesus, er, instituted, er, in one of his last acts, upon us.

[11:31] After the Passover, he quietly, without any, er, sound, or, trumpet, spoke to him, any particular emphasis on it, so do is this, if we go from the whole Passover, which he told his disciples, you'll go ahead of him, you'll find a, you'll find a man carrying a picture, you'll follow him, and led him, or he led them, to a large upper room, first, just suitable for the purpose.

[12:13] of the Passover, and it was at his time, so it was wonderful, and you need to look very closely, and see how, the transfer of the nurse, on the old Jewish path over, to the, er, the, er, the, er, the, er, the, er, the Lord's table.

[12:37] And there was one, er, er, er, a great thing about it, that he passed the government, himself.

[12:49] And I sat around, er, this table, when, er, he just made the total announcement, at, er, one of you from this time.

[13:05] It must have brought, a tremendous, the testers. And, er, you know, that, they say that, thanks, did I?

[13:23] Thanks. Under such, er, formal circumstances, therefore, Judas was discouraged.

[13:34] He, it is, that, if it is, with me in the bowl. the truth of the man who made Christ. Now, how many, how many, I say, have been kind, lest they should be like him.

[13:56] And yet, have they not read their Bible, er, sufficiently well, or been on their knees sufficiently long, to realise that, they have not read their Bible, or been on their own, to realise that, there was only one news.

[14:14] And, had the matter not be, absolutely clear, the Holy Ghost, made it absolutely certain, that, I have lost none, save, the son of the different, that the scripture might be fulfilled, you, who have thus tested, might well go home, and, well go home, and give up all hope, and rest your profession, upon your flesh, and say, no, I am lost, and lost forever.

[14:52] But, you see, the devil, is attacking, er, on ground, where he must, eventually, lose the death.

[15:04] But, this is one, of those, of those, humbling blocks, that I spoke of this morning, those boulders, in the way.

[15:16] And, isn't it a boulder too? And, why should you be so ready, to say that, er, it is I? And, why should you not be offended, with this temptation, and, er, and this anxiety, and, er, and, er, and this anxiety, and, why should you not manage it, because your mind, is saying, can't be made.

[15:42] Because, you are an unworthy sinner. And, you know it. Because, their example proves, that, in your heart, lies, every, if there is an evil, er, you are not, cannot, possibly, the one, whom the, adversary, should enter into.

[16:13] that, you should, er, betray your master, with a kiss. And, would you? Would you? Would you?

[16:24] This, should soften, your heart, as it did the heart of the, hymn writer.

[16:36] you might, er, you might, humbly answer, no. No. Here, is one mark, therefore, which we have, of the, casting up of the highway, raising up of the standard, standard, of the, uh, standard of the, uh, Lord Jesus, as I said this morning, but, er, furthermore, the standard of divine truth.

[16:59] Because, this is where it is, it isn't a suggestion on my power. You can go home and search it out, from holy wits yourself, aren't you? Right?

[17:09] The, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, unless you did, if you've got any doubt about it, or the devil is taken in his own net, should this?

[17:38] And I don't know, in your particular, that they say, I know it is known as many did. Now, with regard to the ordinance of the Lord supper, the enemy introduced into this some exceedingly solemn things.

[18:06] But whereas this was intended to be as was the original, that large upper room turning in the quiet sanctity of that place of worship, where Jesus met with them, they met in their own houses.

[18:26] And that can pass through. Drunken here in this chapter that we read doesn't mean inebriated, but it does mean, as wine was their chief drink, that they had enough of it.

[18:47] Some eat, it says, and some are drunken. But there was no reverential atmosphere. They couldn't be in your home, could they?

[19:01] Not round the tea table, the dinner table. Could you turn to your friends and say, let us have an ordinance for the Lord's house?

[19:16] I know it is celebrated in cottages. And I've done it with a new friend at Inford many times.

[19:28] And they had no trouble. So I've got many other people. But it needs a reverential atmosphere, apart from that ordinary chatter, till I call it in the house.

[19:46] Till I call it in the house, where we are light. And alas, like good Beric said, sometimes grave in peace is cool, sometimes light and playful.

[20:02] And that's not the place for the ordinance of the Lord's table. But it was done.

[20:14] And with what horror the apostle Paul must have heard of it. With as much horror as Ezra, years before, heard of the marrying of the daughters of Israel, a guiding of the windling tribes around.

[20:33] A flock to lift up his sight. So appalled and so honored in the church of God hear of these in his precoctulism as it were brought to death.

[20:55] with all its following attitudes, actions, imitations of the sacred spirit of truth. Which makes one tremble.

[21:09] And to see those that he knows or practices. And hear what they have to say about it. And how enamored they are of it.

[21:21] This is one thing. And this is new. Now, could you enter into such a company as that?

[21:43] Don't let self-righteousness rise up, will you? Will you? And say no, coldly and hazily.

[21:57] That him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall. But how strong these imitations.

[22:13] And how they make one tremble to departure from the simple truth of the gods. And how many devotees there are to follow it.

[22:30] Who are so quickly deceived. All our hearts aches. But ours is the only heart to ache it.

[22:45] Ah. You mothers and fathers, you know what this heartache is, don't you?

[22:56] But here, at the subject world, the Lord Humphrey and the enemy attacks him.

[23:08] He says, now you may hold this when, where you lie. Right. But when you're all gathered together, come together into, er, er, one place, for in eating and drinking, everyone came in before others.

[23:27] His own supper, and one is hungry and another is drunkard. And so on. How his heart must have, as with so many of his, er, fellow ministers, I, er, be the strongest to see the cunning crafty work of the devil.

[23:56] But this is the point. That out of this comes a clear definition of what is to be done.

[24:14] Had this not transpired, we cannot try to what channels this sacred ordinance, Jesus instituted, er, would have run.

[24:28] Under the folly of man, it's bad enough now. It's easy enough to point the finger at, er, so many, who make it, er, what it is not.

[24:49] And, er, others make it not what it is. Either way of hypocrisy or dissembling, the ordinance of the Lord's table is attacked.

[25:06] The elevation of the host by the papacy is regarded as the peak of the service. The masses fall down in their power.

[25:21] You might run in their power. You might rise either. So they are the people, like, them passed on into commonως. These are the people to the people with God called Valer kriegen. And now, they have been saved on the man, and then they haveeducated, and.

[25:33] Stand in their age. What victory for the devil. What a mass of self deceit for these poor peoples who were like left, in religion darkness, as well as native.

[25:44] But what a time of retribution, judgment for the blind leaders of the time.

[25:55] So that we have a clear definition that to entertain this ordinance in our own homes and to practice it there in an ordinary way of eating and drinking is in conformity with this text to eat and drink in an unworthy manner.

[26:20] And this is bolder. And this is what I pray that I might have prayed for this time in your way, any of you who have taught me that.

[26:33] Our person, our conduct, our conversation, that we come to the Lord's table.

[27:10] It cannot be fair. Otherwise we should need no bread nor wine. We should need no body to discern, as Paul speaks of here.

[27:27] The root of the matter is that they did not discern the Lord's body. The solemnity surrounding the circumstances which necessitated this ordinance.

[27:44] And the purpose of remembering it till I come. So that to see this in the light of the gospel is to walk humbly, freely.

[28:05] Either to eat it and drink it unworthy or in this unworthy, irreverent manner.

[28:23] Now is it not abundantly clear therefore that this is the meaning of the teaching of the apostles and that among so many other things he was correcting an evil.

[28:44] And pointing it out to them in a gospel spirit that this was the way that the ordinance was defined.

[28:58] And that the ordinance was to be eaten in a manner of quietness. The house of God is in a manner of quietness.

[29:13] The house of God is in the company of the Lord's people in the open areas of life. It matters not what the surrounding circumstances are in disrespect, but as he says in the last verse, and the rest will I set in order till I come.

[29:36] Now to speak of wordliness therefore in the scripture, which is one of the hallmarks of grace.

[29:53] That strange inward teaching to the flesh. That is flesh crucifixion. And you who feel unworthy.

[30:07] And you've got to find this from the word of God. Whence comes it? However long you might have been familiar with your Bible in the house of God, and you've got to find this question in the end.

[30:29] Am I worthy or unworthy? Am I going to present to the Lord Jesus, the great church in that day, a certificate of worthiness?

[30:43] Are you? Are you, I say? Can you? Can you? Can you? Can you?

[30:58] Jacob, when God first met with him, was brought to this happy state. It was an expression of truth from his lips in his early boyhood.

[31:22] Boyhood, I said. And he came to the poor Javik at the time when he met Esau.

[31:36] He, very briefly and very humbly, said, Lord, I am not worthy of the least.

[31:54] See, this goes with unworthiness. You look at the least mercy, if you could find the least one. They're all great, really.

[32:07] I am not worthy of the least of all the mercy and the truth which now is shown.

[32:21] How he was near his dying bed then. He had a good many more miles to travel, had they? And he had a good many more miles to travel.

[32:35] But what a good beginning. And you young friends, and our young friends generally in the churches of the denominational wise, and our young friends this evening, if this heart trembles at his unworldly death, what a good thing.

[32:55] Not because I've come here to flatter him, or any of this. God forbid. But because he says it in the word of God. This wonderful price of unworthiness, has nothing to do with the unworthiness in this first text.

[33:08] That the world is not worthy of the same. And I have a good friend. And I have a good friend. And I have a good friend. And I have a good friend. And I have a good friend.

[33:20] And I have a good friend. And I have a good friend. And I have a good friend. And this is what we call that is today. So I have me give the Lord's incredible barley jer�ed maleness. And the world's ever been took unless you are a authorised side.

[33:50] that you're a poor unworthy sinner, you've heard it said that Christ Jesus came into the world to sign sinners. Sinners!

[34:06] And why are you unworthy? What is it that makes you smile upon your friends? What is it that prevents you lifting up your eyes so much to heaven?

[34:24] What is it? You think you can sit down in your sermon and go home at house and pray?

[34:38] You can't stop in your own path, you can't give yourself spirit of repentance, God is sorrow-tend. This unworthiness is the gift of God.

[34:55] And leaving Jehoshaphat, look at the characters that you could pick up if you travelled through the Old Testament. Who would be fabulous friends if these are the ones that were actually unworthy.

[35:21] And what are we going to say of Peter? Peter? Could he ever say that he was working? Why did he go out and weak-tick of it?

[35:40] What's the word bitterly got to do with it? Everything. Everything. Everything. Everything. Everything. Everything. All those favourite times of weeping bitterly on account of our sins are not valleys, but mountains in our lives.

[36:04] Yes. The more we have them, the better for us. The more his glory strikes our eye in our own worthiness, the humbler we shall die.

[36:22] So if you've been down there, you will know that the standard is to be lifted up.

[36:35] And glad it is. And want it to be. And pray for it to be. Look at that strange case of the Gentile Centurion.

[36:55] I say strange because it was strange. I am not worthy, he said, that thou shaltest come under my roof. Well, that's a strange thing to try, isn't it?

[37:17] Yes. It comes to us straight from death. It's got all the marks of divinity about it.

[37:31] God has so enclosed that beautiful admission of this prime tent period dealing with an actual matter that has brought the spiritual concern.

[37:47] Now, if you see I'm worthy, then, if you know something about, some of you, please, don't... Let us put it literally.

[38:01] If it were possible, the Lord Jesus, to come into your house, if it were, could you not say, Lord, I'm not worthy that thou shaltest come under my roof?

[38:29] This is the unworthiness of the Lord's table. This is where the Spirit accrued is.

[38:44] Of course he was. But he knew it. And who told him? There can be but one answer, and that was the Holy Spirit taught him.

[38:57] Yet he was the most unlikely character, and a man of ability and authority, very used to being obeyed.

[39:08] So should this text before us have proved a stumbling block to you, the good Spirit take it out of your way this night, and show you the setting of it.

[39:26] Won't it cast up the highway? Won't you be able to look at that enemy of yours again who said, Ah, you Judas. Won't you be able to say concerning this when he charges you with your influence?

[39:46] And it is so clear the Apostle was doing in this England's chapter what he was doing in the first and second and third and fourth and fifth.

[40:00] He was charging home the arrows, clearing the ground, setting things in order, doing the work of an honest labourer of Christ, warning every man and teaching every man.

[40:19] For this aim, therefore, the Apostle writes, Wherefore, who shall ever shall eat this bread and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.

[40:42] For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh a damnation of itself.

[40:54] Here again, we need to ponder this word damnation. It is not eternal damnation.

[41:07] The alternative rendering of it is condemnation. He condemned itself. Now this affected those living souls who were caught up in a snare.

[41:27] And there are those of whom we've been speaking, whom we hope to see one day return, put in penitent, from their victim into an evil.

[41:47] And their eyes are opened to see what they've been doing. The awful nature of the solemn departure.

[41:59] Look at it as regards our millionism. That great terror that is spread so thoroughly.

[42:11] How many eyes have been opened to see the folly. As piles of love of trusting himself? And repented fully lekker, confessing their filth. And as they have returned fully penitent, confessing that they have been.

[42:29] And being brought to that place where they hated, call themselves a fool. Good Bur Labour student, who went for fifteen years here ノ years he preached self-rightness, the Lord opened his eyes, showed him what a foolish man he was, then after his ministry absolutely rang a clear, didn't he? So with regard to the Church of God here, not discerning the Lord's body, this is where I made a mistake. Now discerning the Lord's body, seeing it by and with the eye of faith was indeed a matter that was from above, and cleared away all this folly and sin, and all these evil gatherings together with the Holy Auditant. This is the point, not discerning the Lord's body, eat it and drink it, but it's not a damnation or condemnation to himself. Look at the stones that are in the way.

[44:12] neither got the few of them are we are more concerned this evening perhaps, at least I am and have been much troubled lest I should ever have suggested I should peer a gap here today but whatever this purpose is I know not all I can say of it is this as I said this morning the laborers have hard work crucifying work and yet it's casting up the highway gathering out the stone lifting up a standard for the people all things are for your sakes and for the honor and glory of God thank you and therefore the blood into the burden is to the principal for the mission it is there and how it is to reach the surgical mission will be elsewhere