Voddie Baucham - Means of Grace, or Guilt

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
If you have your Bibles with you, open again to
First Corinthians, chapter eleven. We are sort of wrapping up
this hiatus that we've taken. We're in the midst of
working our way through the book of Exodus. And as
we have worked our way through Exodus, we have come

(00:24):
to the Exodus itself, to the departure from Egypt, and
in coming to the departure from Egypt, we've worked our
way through that last plague, and in that last plague
we get the Passover. And it is the Passover that
serves as one of the main foundations upon.

Speaker 2 (00:47):
Which the Lord's Supper is built.

Speaker 1 (00:49):
And so we cannot fully understand the Passover without understanding
the Lord's Supper. And we cannot fully understand the Lord's
Supper without fully understanding the Passover. So we spent these
last several weeks examining the Lord's Supper and its relation
to the Passover, examining these key texts in the New
Testament that help give us a broader understanding of and

(01:14):
appreciation for what's happening there in Exodus. And so before
we go back, it's important that we look once again
at this text where we spent most of our time
here in One Corinthians, chapter eleven. And look now at
the warning. It's warning, the famous warning that Paul offers

(01:35):
in his instruction on the Lord's Supper. So we'll look
at verses twenty seven to thirty two, particularly today. Whoever
therefore eats the bread or drinks the cup of the
Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the
body and the blood of the Lord. Let a person

(01:57):
examine himself then, and so eat of the bread and
drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks
without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself.
That is why many of you are weak and ill,
and some have died. But if we judged ourselves truly,

(02:17):
we would not be judged. But when we are judged
by the Lord, we are disciplined, so that we may
not be condemned along with the world. How do we
know when a means of grace has become a means

(02:40):
of guilt? How do we know when we've turned this
ordinary means of grace into something that makes us even
more guilty before a holy God? Because that is precisely
Paul's warning that we can come before this table as

(03:02):
a means of grace, or we can come before this
table as a means of guilt. The Lord's Supper is
most assuredly an ordinary means of grace, one of those
ordinary means of grace. As Richard Barcelos is noted, the
cup and the bread are signs which signify present participation

(03:24):
or present communion in the present benefits procured by Christ's
blood and body. Grace procured procured by what Christ did
for us. That's redemption accomplished becomes ours through the Lord's Supper.
That's redemption applied. Coin and Ea or fellowship of the
blood and body of Christ means spiritual nourishment is brought

(03:47):
to souls. It is present participation in the present benefits
of Christ's death for those properly partaking. In other words,
the Lord's Supper is a means of grace. However, this

(04:08):
section in Paul's treatment of the subject introduces another idea.
It introduces this idea of this means of guilt. And moreover,
not only does this bring or can this bring guilt,
but it can bring severe consequences. Of course, this raises

(04:30):
a number of questions, and in order to answer these questions.
We have to look at the broader context. And if
we look at the broader context, it helps bring this
passage into closer.

Speaker 2 (04:43):
View, or at least clearer view.

Speaker 1 (04:46):
Now, the broader context is Paul's teaching in First Corinthians
eight to one through eleven to one. In eight to
one through eleven one, Paul is teaching on the issue
of of idolatry, and particularly he's dealing with this issue
of food sacrificed to idols and how Christians interact with

(05:10):
the food sacrificed to idols and with the culture wherein
food is sacrificed to idols. That happens an eight to
one through eleven one, and then we get to eleven.
There are issues concerning the worship of God's people and
the proper worship of God's people, But you cannot understand
that apart from this teaching in chapter eight. And so

(05:33):
we find in chapter eight, verse one. Now, concerning food
offered to idols, we know that all of us possess knowledge.
This knowledge posts up, but love builds up. Go to
eight four through six. Therefore, as to the eating of
food offered to idols, we know that an idol has

(05:53):
no real existence, and that there is no God but one.
For although there may be so called gods in heaven
or on earth, as indeed there are many gods and
many lords, Yet for us there is one God, the Father,
from whom all things and for whom we exist, and

(06:17):
one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and
through whom we exist. So there is this comparison. Not
only is there this comparison, but there is also this
historical reference. Once we get to chapter ten, we see
historical reference. If you look at ten one through thirteen,
we get a picture of this historical reference. Look at it,

(06:43):
for I do not want you to be unaware, brothers,
that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all
passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses
in the cloud and in the sea, and all eight
the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink. Again,

(07:05):
how do we read this and not connected to what
we see in the next chapter about the Lord's Supper.
So here's Israel, the people of God who have come
through the waters. By the way, baptism is our entree
into the Church.

Speaker 2 (07:21):
Amen.

Speaker 1 (07:22):
And Peter makes it clear that this coming through the
water for Israel was a form of baptism of the
people of Israel. Jesus goes back to that same water
after coming out of Egypt, and he is baptized. He
is true Israel, faithful Israel. We are baptized and identify

(07:45):
ourselves with Christ and with the Body of Christ. And
then the other ordinance that we have is that of
the Lord's Supper. So we have baptism and the Lord's Supper.
And here in this first paragraph and first chapter ten,
Paul alludes to baptism and the Lord's Supper as it
relates to what we learn from Israel and their history.

(08:11):
For they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them,
and the rock was Christ. Nevertheless, with most of them,
God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness.

Speaker 2 (08:26):
Now these things took.

Speaker 1 (08:27):
Place as examples for us that we might not desire
evil as they did. Do not be idolators as some
of them were. As it is written, the people sat
down to eat and drink and rose up to play.

Speaker 2 (08:42):
By the way.

Speaker 1 (08:43):
When he condemns the Corinthian Church in the first part
of his instruction on the Lord's Supper, why does he
condemn them because of the way that they're treating the
love feast in conjunction with the Lord's Supper. There are
people who are actually getting drunk there at the Lord's Supper. Again,
that mirrors what he has already said in chapter ten

(09:05):
as it relates to.

Speaker 2 (09:06):
Israel and what we need to learn from Israel.

Speaker 1 (09:09):
We must not indulge in sexual immorality, as some of
them did, and twenty three thousand fell in a single day.
They send and some paid with their lives. What do
we have in our warning. Some of you are weak,
some of you are sick, and some of you have died,
again mirroring exactly what we see in chapter ten. We

(09:33):
must not put Christ to the test as some of
them did and were destroyed by serpents, nor grumble as
some of them did and were destroyed by the destroyer.
Now these things happened to them as an example, but
they were written down for our instruction.

Speaker 2 (09:51):
On whom the end of the ages has come.

Speaker 1 (09:59):
In the next part of this there is a section
that puts the Lord's Supper directly into this context. That
happens in verse sixteen. Verse sixteen is arguably the clearest
argument that the Lord's supper is actually a means of grace.
But let's begin in verse fourteen. Therefore, my beloved flee

(10:21):
from idolatry. Again, that's the key here, flee from idolatry.
In verses chapters eight and nine. This idolatry is connected
to food, these meats that are sacrificed to idols. Flee
from idolatry. I speak as to sensible people. Judge for

(10:42):
yourselves what I say. There's that judgment word that we
find a number of times in our text today. The
cup of blessing that we bless, is it not participation
in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break,
is it not a participation in the body of Christ.
So this is a participation. This is communion. This is

(11:06):
why we call it communion. We are communing with the Lord,
and we are communing with one another. And so we
cannot understand what we read here at the end of
chapter eleven unless we put it into that context. And
when we put it into that context, we see how
this means of grace can become a means of guilt.

Speaker 2 (11:28):
There are several things.

Speaker 1 (11:29):
That we need to know in order to know when
we've crossed that line and how not to cross that line. First,
we need to know the relationship between body, blood, bread
and wine verse twenty seven. Whoever therefore eats the bread
and drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy
manner will be guilty concerning the body and the blood

(11:51):
of the Lord.

Speaker 2 (11:53):
First of all, there's the fact of guilt.

Speaker 1 (11:55):
We need to understand the fact of guilt, the nature
of guilt, and then the consequences of guilt. Fact of
the guilt, here's the fact. When we approach this wrongly,
there is guilt. When we approach the table illegitimately in
an unworthy manner, we are guilty. The text makes that
clear that there is guilt associated with this. There is

(12:20):
guilt associated with what though, what's the nature of the guilt? Well,
got to understand two things. One unworthy manner, what does
that mean? To take it in an unworthy manner? And secondly,
guilty concerning the body and the blood. To take this
in an unworthy manner? What does that mean? Kiss The
Mocker and his commentary on this particular passage gives us

(12:43):
four readings and interpretations that are often given. One, a
person is taking the Lord's supper in an unworthy manner.
When the person believes that they are not worthy of
such holy food, they believe themselves to be unworthy of
such holy food. Secondly, when protectors come without repentance or

(13:08):
self examination. So those are two sides of the same coin.
You come and partakeure the Lord's supper with a woe
is me attitude, with an I'm not worthy attitude, I
can't be worthy attitude. Looking to yourself as opposed to
looking to Christ. That's taking the Lord's supper in an

(13:30):
unworthy manner. Or when you come without repentance or self examination,
that's taking the Lord's supper in an unworthy manner. This
is not to be approached lightly. The Lord's table is
not to be approached in that way. Thirdly, affluent Corinthians
revealed their contempt for the poor, and in its immediate context,

(13:52):
that's what Paul was talking about. So not considering the
others who are around you. The first part is not
rightly considering and understanding our communion with Christ, and the
second part is horizontal, not rightly considering or understanding our
communion with one another. And so you can be in
wrong relationship with the Church. One of the warnings that

(14:15):
we always give. Is that the Lord's table is for
people who are in right relationship with the Church. If
you are under the discipline of the church, or if
you are fleeing the church and fleeing the discipline of
the Church and then come here to take the Lord's supper,
you are taking the Lord's Supper in an unworthy manner

(14:38):
because your communion is broken with the people of God.
Your communion is broken with the Body of Christ. That
is taking it in an unworthy manner. This is not
for people who are fleeing from the discipline of another church.
This is not for people who have made a wreck
of their relationship in another church and are now trying

(14:59):
to find a clean start instead of cleaning up their mess.
You can't say amen. You ought to say ouch. That
is not what this is for. Finally, he says communicants
failed to express gratitude to Christ by turning the sacrament

(15:19):
into a feast. That's the other way that people partok
in an unworthy manner. And Corinth when they were just
turning it into a feast, they were turning it into
just a drunken free for all. That was for taking
to the Lord's Supper in an unworthy manner. But Paul

(15:41):
also kept this broad, so you can see where he's
pointing specifically to Corinth and what they were doing, but
you can also see where this can encompass any number
of things that we bring to this table. But what
does it mean to be guilty concerning the body and
the blood of the Lord. Understand this. Here's some second

(16:09):
London Confession Our Church's Confession of Faith, Chapter thirty, paragraph five.
The outward elements in this ordinance duly set apart to
the use ordained by Christ, have such relation to Him
crucified as that truly, although in terms used figuratively they
are sometimes called by the name of the thing they represent,

(16:31):
to wit, the body and blood of Christ, albeit in
substance and nature, they still remain truly only bread and
wine as they were before. Understand the relationship between body, blood,
bread and wine. Understand that when we gather that these
things do represent the body of Christ that was broken

(16:53):
and the blood of Christ that was shed. And so
what Paul is saying is that essentially, when we come
here in an unworthy manner, we go from being on
the side of those who were redeemed by the death
of Christ to being on the side of those who
are the murderers of Christ. We are not guiltless because

(17:16):
of the blood that was shed on our behalf. But
when we come in an unworthy manner, we are guilty
as though we shed the blood ourselves, as though we
are murderers of Christ. That is the kind of guilt
we bear when we come in a haphazard manner before
this table, when we misuse this table, when we misinterpret

(17:39):
this table, when we misunderstand this table, we are as
guilty of those who nailed him to the tree. We
are as guilty as those who spat upon him and
rejected him. That is the nature of this guilt, the
consequences of this guilt in MATI with God. But how

(18:03):
how can that bring enmity with God? I mean, we
don't believe in transubstantiation, right as Roman Catholics would teach.
We don't believe this literally becomes the body and blood
of Jesus. So if it doesn't literally become the body
and blood of Jesus, how can we become literally guilty
of the body and blood of Jesus. You know, I

(18:24):
learned an interesting thing through international travels. I've had the
privilege of being in a lot of different countries. And
one of the things that I like to do when
I go to different countries, especially when i'm you know,
in a capital city or something like that, I just
like knowing where the American Embassy is.

Speaker 2 (18:42):
I just want to know where it is.

Speaker 1 (18:44):
And sometimes people will tell me where the American Embassy is,
and then I have to admit, yeah, it's good to
know where the American Embassy is.

Speaker 2 (18:51):
I kind of like to see it. I just won't
see it. Why, I don't know, Just in case I
need to get there.

Speaker 1 (19:01):
Let's just drive by, see drive by the American Embassy,
and there it is, right here, on foreign soil, the
American Embassy.

Speaker 2 (19:09):
Flag flying high.

Speaker 1 (19:11):
And then I learned this little tidbit, that little piece
of property in the midst of somebody else's country is
actually sovereign United States soil. That's why if you get
in trouble, you're under the embassy because they can't come
get you. And to violate the sovereignty of the US

(19:32):
embassy is actually an act of war against the United States.
To burn our flag is actually an act of war
against the United States.

Speaker 2 (19:48):
Is it literally on our soil? No?

Speaker 1 (19:51):
I mean literally, the dirt underneath it is the same
as the dirt and the rest of whatever that country is.
But when that flag is flying high those gates, it
is sovereign US soil. It's America, just as real as
Texas is. It's America, folks. This is our flag as Christians.

(20:14):
This is our embassy as Christians. And when we sit
before this table, just like an embassy on foreign soil
raises a flag in order to identify itself as the
sovereign soil of that foreign country, this is the flag

(20:36):
that we raise.

Speaker 2 (20:39):
This is the Kingdom of God. We are the people
of God.

Speaker 1 (20:45):
And when we partake in the Lord's Supper, it is
as though we are raising a flag saying, this is
God's sovereign territory, right here in the midst of Earth,
right here in the midst of the United States, right
here in the midst of Texas, right here in the
midst of North Houston. This is it right here. No
one else owns this territory. And when you infringe upon

(21:07):
this territory, it is a direct violation.

Speaker 2 (21:10):
Of Christ himself.

Speaker 1 (21:16):
Just as real as going to our embassy somewhere and
attacking it and burning the flag is an act of
war against the United States itself. And so when we
abuse the Lord's table, we become guilty enemies of God,

(21:41):
violating his very son. This is serious business. This is
not to be taken lightly. Second thing we have to
know is we have to know the relationship between the
sinner and savior Verses twenty eight and twenty nine. Let

(22:07):
a person examine himself then, and so eat of the
bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats
and drinks without discerning the body, eats and drinks, judgment
on himself eating and drinking three times.

Speaker 2 (22:21):
Play on words there in the Greek.

Speaker 1 (22:23):
We don't quite pick up also with this idea of
judging and discerning and the idea of discerning the body.
It's very unfortunate. But there are a number of words
that we have just sort of stretched beyond recognition in
our culture, and one of them is discernment. And when

(22:45):
I say our culture, I mean Christian culture. When many
Christians talk about discernment and they say, you know, I
have the gift of discernment, what they mean when they
say I have the gift of discernment is the same
thing that a medium or a soothsayer means when they
say I have second sight, it's actually mysticism to which

(23:09):
they refer. Many people say I have to give the discernment,
and what it means is I can look at a
person and know things about that. That's the occult. That's mysticism. Okay,
that's mysticism. And right there, when we're using the word

(23:30):
that way, we need to go back to our foundation
of a little Princess bride theology. You keep on using
that word. I do not think it means what you
think it means. It means something different. Discernment doesn't mean
the ability to look at something and see what is beyond.

(23:53):
Discernment is actually more akin to the word discrimination. It's
the ability to make an assessment of things. That's what
it means. To make an assessment of things. Not to
have some sort of secret knowledge you know in the
back of your mind or burning in your belly. That's

(24:16):
not that's not Christianity. That's something else. The gift of
discernment is not something you fall out of bed and acquire.
It's something that's developed through discipline. And so when we
talk about discerning the Lord's body, there's a couple of
things here. One, there is a call here to self examination. Obviously,

(24:40):
let a person examine himself. We do not examine ourselves, however,
in search of personal worthiness. That's not the examination. When
we go and examine ourselves before the Lord's supper, when
we have our time before the Lord's supper. It's not
navel gazing, you know, to see you know, how am
I doing. It's not even it's not scorekeeping either. It's

(25:04):
not Okay, let me go over my week, you know,
let me see if I did more good stuff than
bad stuff, and let me make sure. That's not examining yourself.
Here's the problem with that. I've said it before, I'll
say it again. There is a huge problem with that.
When people say, well, you know, I'm not going to
take the Lord's supper this week. Why Well, because I
examined myself and I just don't feel like I'm worthy.

(25:27):
That's hugely problematic, not for this week, but for last week.

Speaker 2 (25:36):
Huh. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (25:38):
The problem is last week you thought you found worthiness
in yourself, and so you took the Lord's supper because
you thought you found worthiness in yourself. You took it
in an unworthy manner, because you thought you were worthy.
What Yeah, When we examine ourselves, what we look for

(25:59):
is faith and dependence upon Christ, because that's the only
way that we're worthy to come to the table, not
because of what we've done, but because we find ourselves
trusting and believing and hoping in Christ and Christ alone

(26:20):
for our salvation and our righteousness. So what we look
for is trust. What we look for is faith. What
we look for is repentance. That's what we're looking for
when we're examining ourselves. And so ironically, there are many
who turn this around and go through a self examination

(26:43):
only to put themselves in a position of being unworthy
partakers of the Lord's table and guilty concerning the body
and the blood. Why because I checked my heart and
this week I'm good.

Speaker 2 (26:57):
Last week not so much. This week I'm good. The
great irony in that is that's a surefire.

Speaker 1 (27:05):
Way to take the cup and to take the bread
in an unworthy manner, because you actually believe that you
can perform well enough throughout the week to make yourself
worthy to come here and take these elements. And nothing
can be further from the truth. Our self examination is

(27:33):
all about funding ourselves, trusting in Christ. We examine ourselves
in search of repentance, in search of faith, and in
search of communion, communion with Christ through our repentance and faith.

(27:56):
Because therein is my worthiness. I am indeed communing Christ.
I am trusting in Christ alone. From my salvation. I
am found in Christ. I am clothed in His righteousness,
sinful though I may be. And then secondly, communion with
the brethren. Communion with the brethren. In terms of this

(28:21):
communion with Christ. Listen to this again from the Confession
paragraph two. In this ordinance, Christ is not offered up
to his father, nor any real sacrifice made at all
for remission of sin for the quick or the dead.
Now this is important. This statement in the Confession is important,

(28:43):
and this theological reality is also important because not only
does Roman Catholicism bring in the doctrine of transubstantiation, the
argument that the elements actually become the literal and physical
body and blood of Jesus, but you need to understand
that in Catholicism, the priest is calling upon Christ to

(29:07):
be crucified afresh and anew, and to be offered afresh
and anew. And it is said that when the chriest,
when the priest demands this of our Lord Christ bows
his head in humble submission, so that the priesthood even

(29:29):
has authority over Christ.

Speaker 2 (29:33):
This is blasphemy. This is blasphemy.

Speaker 1 (29:38):
The Roman Catholic celebration of the Mass is not a
different way to take the Lord's supper. It is blasphemous paganism,
and it is insulting to Christ and injurious to the Gospel.

(30:01):
The confession continues, but only a memorial of that one
offering up of himself by himself upon the cross once
for all, and a spiritual ablation of all possible praise
unto God for the saying, so that the popoush sacrifice
of the Mass, as they call it, is most abominable,
injurious to Christ's own and only sacrifice the alone propitiation

(30:25):
for all the sins of the elect. And so we
look for communion with Christ, and we look for communion
with the brethren. And so those same commands about forgiving
one another and loving one another, and putting down your gift,

(30:51):
and going and being reconciled with your brother, these sane
things apply. And this is why we have moments for
that between the sermed and the Lord's Supper, not because
we need to go and check off those boxes so
that we can make ourselves worthy, but because when we
prepare ourselves for this table, it is all about communion.

(31:13):
And so when there is sin in me that is
not confessed and dealt with, and I'm about to take
the Lord's Supper, what do I do? I confess and
I repent when there is brokenness between me and my brother?
What do I do? I repent and I confess. If

(31:34):
you've been here at GFBC for any length of time
and you take the Lord's table, seriously, you understand what
I'm about to say. The regular and right application of
the Lord's Supper does wonders for repentance in personal relationships.

(31:58):
There's just something about not get and along with your
spouse on Saturday night when you know you've got to
take the Lord's Supper on Sunday morning. Amen, somebody, And
not that I know this from personal experience, but there's
something even more significant. Stephen told me one time about

(32:19):
trying to be ready to present the Lord's Supper and
preside over the Lord's Supper when things aren't right between
you and your spouse. That this is what I heard okay,
but no, in all seriousness, when you take the Lord's
supper seriously, you can't help but have that check in

(32:42):
your conscience when there is a sin that is abiding
in you, a sin that you are cherishing, and you
know you're about to come before the Lord's table, or
when there is brokenness in those close and intimate relationships
and holding on to those things and refusing to let

(33:03):
those things go. Right before you come to this table,
participate in this communion and fellowship and offering of worship
up to Christ for having forgiven us and made us

(33:23):
right through his broken body and his shed blood. We
respond with humble repentance and solemn rejoicing. But then there's
this call to discern the body. First, this call to
self examination, and then this call to discern the body.
Let a person examine himself then, and so eating the

(33:45):
bread and drinking the cup. For anyone who eats and
drinks without discerning the body, what does it mean to
discern the body? What this means, quite frankly, is that
you understand that these things have been set apart from
their ordinary use, and that you treat them as such,

(34:06):
That you treat these things as though they have been
set apart from their ordinary use for a sacred use.
That you don't treat these things. It's just not ordinary bread,
ordinary wine. No, it's not. It's not the same thing.
It's not the same thing. Why why is it not
the same thing? Because Christ himself has set apart this

(34:30):
occasion to make them something other than the same thing.

Speaker 2 (34:38):
It's not ordinary.

Speaker 1 (34:40):
This is why he tells tells the corinthe if you're hungry,
take care of that at another time. You're thirsty, take
care of that at another time. Because this is not
just to bite the bread and a sip of wine.

Speaker 2 (34:52):
It's not.

Speaker 1 (34:55):
And this is the danger when you know you react,
You react to the sacramental sacerdotal treatment of the Mass
by Roman Catholicism, and you react to transubstantiation, and you
run headlong in the other direction, and all of a
sudden all you have is just empty memorial, no meaning,

(35:17):
and no sacredness at all.

Speaker 2 (35:19):
There's a ditch on both sides of the road. This
is a means of grace.

Speaker 1 (35:28):
Calvin comments on this, says, they handle the sacred body
of Christ with unwashed hands mark seven to nay more,
as if it were a thing of naught they consider
not how great is the value of it. They will
therefore pay the penalty of so dreadful a profanation.

Speaker 2 (35:56):
Do we believe this or has it just become empty ritual?
Do we believe this? Or have we moved so far away.

Speaker 1 (36:09):
From the unbiblical side of this that we now make
it empty memorial and pay no attention to the fact
that this is communion Christ with his body, with his blood,
with his people, that we are partaking in those real benefits.

Speaker 2 (36:36):
He goes on.

Speaker 1 (36:37):
Then Calvin does to list eight ways in which this
profaning is taking place. And you know, I kept saying,
you know, maybe I'll take one of these and use
them as an example. And I was going, now, yeah,
we need that one. Yeah, that one too, Yeah, that one.
So I have all eight listed here, and then a

(36:57):
few for us. And this is in Calvin, And granted,
most of this he's saying in reference to Roman Catholicism.
And so he's writing here in the sixteenth century about
the way that Roman Catholicism Sacramental Sacerdotal transubstantiation abuses the
Lord's table. And I want you to listen, because most

(37:20):
of these things today are true of us and our culture.
He writes, if in Paul's time an ordinary abuse of
the supper could kindle the wrath of God against the Corinthians,
so that he punished them thus severely, what ought we

(37:43):
to think as to the state of matters at the
present day? And I would argue again, we have situation
here that's just as bad, if not worse. We see
throughout the whole extent of popery, not merely horrid profanations
of the supper, but even a sacrilegious abomination set up

(38:04):
in its room. In the first place, there is number one,
it is prostituted for filthy lucre and merchandise.

Speaker 2 (38:13):
That's number one.

Speaker 1 (38:14):
Secondly, it is maimed by taking away the use of
the cup. Again at times, and sometimes even today, the
people get the bread but not the cup. Thirdly, it
is changed into another aspect by its having become customary
for one to partake of his own feast separately, participation

(38:39):
being done away. I'll say more about that in a moment. Fourthly,
there is there no explanation of the meaning of the sacrament,
but a mumbling that would accord better with a magical
incantation or the detestable sacrifices of the gentiles than with
our Lord's institution. There's no explanation of it. It's just

(39:04):
empty ritual and we go do it. We don't know
what is this? What does it mean?

Speaker 2 (39:09):
I don't know. Just do it. This is what we do.

Speaker 1 (39:12):
Fifthly, there is an endless number of ceremonies, abounding partly
with trifles, partly with superstition, and consequently manifest pollutions. Sixthly,
there is the diabolical invention of sacrifice, which contains an
impious blasphemy against the death of Christ. That's what I

(39:37):
meant by that whole idea, that Christ is called upon
by the priest to offer himself once again in that moment. Seventhly,
it is fitted to intoxicate miserable men with carnal confidence,
while they present it to God as if it were
an expiation, and think that by this charm they drive

(39:58):
off everything hurtful and that without faith and repentance. Name more,
while they trust that they are armed against the devil
and death and are fortified against God by a sure defense,
they venture to sin with much more freedom and become
more obstinate.

Speaker 2 (40:21):
With this one. I can't help but think about you
know the.

Speaker 1 (40:24):
Old Mafia movies, you know where people who are engaged
in the most horrendous forms of sin and crime, and
yet they come.

Speaker 2 (40:34):
To the church for all of its rituals.

Speaker 1 (40:38):
And this is what happens when you turn it into
something like this eighth lely an idol is there adored
in the room of Christ. In short, it is filled
with all kinds of abomination. But what about our day?
What are the ways in which we fall short in

(41:00):
this regard? What are the ways in which we profane
the Lord's Supper? Well, first, failure to observe it at all.
Failure to observe it at all. There are a number
of you, and I've had conversations with some of you
who have been at churches where you literally could not

(41:21):
remember the last time that they partook of the Lord's Supper.
This is a way that we profane it by considering
it a thing unnecessary. The top two arguments for not
doing the Lord's Supper on a regular basis. Number one,
we don't have time. We have time for a thirty

(41:41):
forty five minute concert, smoke and lights and everything else,
but we don't have time for the Lord's Supper. We
got time for a skit for a drama, but we
don't have time for the Lord's Supper. The second argument
is that we don't want it to become jaded. We

(42:02):
don't want people to become jaded. We don't want it
to become empty ritual because we do it over and
over and over again. You mean, like you have a
thirty forty five minute concert every week, like your alter calls.

Speaker 2 (42:20):
Amazing.

Speaker 1 (42:21):
Things that we don't find in scripture were absolutely committed
to at all costs. And this thing that we do
find in scripture, we don't have time for, and we
don't want people to become jaded. Secondly, when we do it,

(42:42):
it becomes a production. So first we don't do the
Lord's Supper. Secondly, when we do the Lord's Supper, the
lord Supper becomes a production, and in essence it's no
longer an ordinary thing. And so then we make it
a special ceremony. Then, so there's ordinary worship and then

(43:04):
there's this special ceremony. So now, for example, someone's about
to die, someone's about to die, we come in and
then we bring the Lord's Supper, because that's the heavy
duty stuff. When things get real serious and you need
something more than the ordinary. No, this is an ordinary

(43:24):
means of grace. This is not extraordinary. Somebody's about to
go off to war. Now we're going to have a
special service and a special communion, And all of a sudden,
instead of being part of the ordinary means of grace,
it becomes something else. It becomes something extra. And when

(43:47):
we do that, unwittingly, what we've done is we've reduced
the significance of worship itself. Because now we've said that
when we gather here these ordinary means, when we're reading
the scriptures, and when we're praying, and when we're explaining
the scriptures, and you know, when we're when we're singing,
you know, these these songs the faith, when we're doing this,

(44:08):
when we're doing these ordinary things. Yeah, that's that's one
thing that's kind of you know, run of the mill
sort of stuff.

Speaker 2 (44:16):
But there is another level that you can go to.
There is another.

Speaker 1 (44:19):
Notch that you can bump it up, and that is
you can actually have a Lord Supper service. This turns
the Lord Supper into idolatry, and it also reduces the
significance of what we do when we gather the together
each and every Lord's day. This is unacceptable. This is unacceptable.

(44:52):
And there are other ways that we profane the Lord's Supper.
I told you on last week when we talk about
talked about the elements of the Lord's Supper. You know
that we talk about the u using bread and wine,
and how there's a story, a literal story, a true
story of a church in California that had a service
on the beach and for the Lord's Supper they served

(45:12):
coke and chips. This is profaning the Lord's Supper. This
is completely and utterly unacceptable. Let a person examine himself then,
and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup.

(45:32):
For everyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body
eats and drinks judgment to himself. Discerning the body means
recognizing the significance of these elements because of what they
refer to, because of the meaning that Christ himself has

(45:52):
poured into them. Thirdly, we have to know the relationship
between sin and judgment.

Speaker 2 (46:03):
Verses thirty to thirty two. The very difficult part of
this passage.

Speaker 1 (46:08):
This is why many of you are weak and ill,
and some have died. But if we judged ourselves truly,
we would not be judged. But when we are judged
by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may
not be condemned along with the world. And that judgment
that is being used there again and again and again.
So we're not talking about condemnation that happens to us,

(46:29):
because the condemnation is what happens to the world. There
is this judgment that is discipline for us and not
condemnation for us who are believers. Several things we have
to understand. There is not a one to one correlation here,
So there's a way that we can sort of go

(46:49):
off and wander off into error in that regard as well.

Speaker 2 (46:53):
And so you.

Speaker 1 (46:56):
Leave here and on Sunday evening you develop a fever
and a stomach ache, and you immediately say, there, I
must have profaned the Lord's supper because God gave me
this fever and this stomach ache. Because there's not a
one to one correlation here. Paul is not saying that,

(47:19):
you know, for every instance wherein you've taken this the
wrong way, there is an instance wherein God directly links
a sickness to your That's not the point that he's
making here. It's not a one to one instance, this
is an allusion to the fact that sin affects our
whole person. Sin affects our whole person. And I was

(47:43):
thinking about this and running through this, and it's interesting
you talk to people about this, and we have kind
of an aversion to this. We have kind of an
aversion to the idea that sin can make you sick,
and aversion to the idea that there are other things
that we can suffer, other physical maladies that we can
suffer that are related directly to our sin and the

(48:04):
way that we handle our sin or don't handle our sin.

Speaker 2 (48:08):
But some of the.

Speaker 1 (48:08):
Same people who have a problem with that have absolutely
no problem with the idea of stress related sickness.

Speaker 2 (48:16):
Isn't that interesting.

Speaker 1 (48:18):
So the doctor who doesn't believe in God tells you, well,
you got too much stress in your life. You need
to relieve your stress, and you'll go out and start
taking a yoga class. Rooted and grounded and grossly unbiblical mysticism.
But somebody tells you that sin could be related to sickness,
and you go, yeah, I'm just not sure that I'm

(48:40):
with all of that. Again, if you can't say hey, man,
you ought to say out isn't that ironic.

Speaker 2 (48:51):
We're trying to do everything that we can. We need
to get closer to work.

Speaker 1 (48:55):
Why, Well, because you're commute is stressful and that's not
good for you in the long run, and there could
be sicknesses related to that. So you need to get
closer to work. We're trying to exercise more.

Speaker 2 (49:06):
Why.

Speaker 1 (49:06):
Why do you want to exercise more? Well, because when
you exercise, you reduce your stress, and we know that
stress can contribute to a lot of the sicknesses that
you have. We're trying to find ways to reduce the
clutter in our lives. Why, Because that clutter in our
lives can be stressful, and we know that stress can
contribute to sickness in your life. We're trying to avoid

(49:27):
other sort of stressful situations because we know that elevated
levels of stress can contribute to sickness in your life.
But when was the last time that you thought about
your sin in this way?

Speaker 2 (49:47):
Isn't it interesting?

Speaker 1 (49:54):
Because you know your sin is stressful, Amen, go sin
and try to hide it for a while. That was rhetorical,
by the way, not exactly the kind of experiment your

(50:16):
pastor really wants you to go and conduct. But here's
the fact, you don't have to conduct an experiment, because
every one of us in this room has already conducted
that experiment. You told the lie, and you had to

(50:36):
cover it up with another lie, and you had to
cover up that lie with another lie, and all of
a sudden, you didn't want to be around people. You
didn't want to look them in the eye. Food didn't
taste good to you anymore. How ironic, the medical community

(50:58):
tells us about stress related illness, and we will go
readjust our entire lives and never blink. But the Bible
tells you about sin related illness, and all of a
sudden you want to start rereading the scripture so that
you can explain that away. James five verses thirteen to sixteen.

(51:24):
Is anyone among you suffering, let him pray? Is anyone cheerful?
Let him sing praise? Is anyone among you sick? Let
him call for the elders of the church, and let
them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the
name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will
save the one who is sick, and the Lord will
raise him up.

Speaker 2 (51:43):
And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.

Speaker 1 (51:47):
Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for
one another that you may be healed. The prayer of
a righteous person has great power, as it is working
right there. It's right there. You cannot separate these things.
We are whole beings, and sin in your life affects

(52:13):
you physically, spiritually, and emotionally. And that's true when it
comes to profaning the Lord's table, because when you're taking
sin lightly, you're taking the table likely you're walking in sin,

(52:35):
you're walking in deception. And you come and you sit
before this table, unrepentant, and you partake and this ordinary
means of grace, and this communion with Christ and his blood,

(52:55):
this communion with the people of God. And over and
over an over again you do this, and over and
over and over again. You stuff down and hide that
sin that you love so dearly, and you will not
turn away from. Don't you dare think for a moment
that that won't affect you. It most assuredly will, it,

(53:24):
most assuredly does. God is not mocked. Whatever a man reaps,
that will be also sew. This is a warning to

(53:47):
the profane and the insincere, insincere Paul is not saying
here that there's a one to one correlation and that
this is the way that you know that you're doing
this the wrong way. No, No, that's not what he's
saying here. He's simply making an allusion to the fact
that this is that serious and that there is a

(54:13):
link here and our walk with Christ and our walk
with one another.

Speaker 2 (54:19):
Okay, then what's the right use of these means? Dot
he be scared? Do need to be nervous?

Speaker 1 (54:29):
Well? Yes, and no, listen to this. Zecarius eu Sinius
in fifteen sixty three wrote this, Those who are displeased
with themselves because of their sins, but who nevertheless trust
that their sins are pardoned and that their continuing weakness

(54:52):
is covered by the suffering and death of Christ, and
who also desire more and more to strengthen their faith
and to lead a better life. Those are the ones
who partake hypocrites, and those who are unrepentant, however, eat
and drink judgment on themselves. The difference in the worthy

(55:14):
and the unworthy partaker at the Lord's table is not
that one sins and the other doesn't. It's that one
acknowledges sin and repents of sin and trusts in Christ's
and knows that there is no worthiness in himself, but
the worthiness that he finds in Christ. And the other

(55:35):
one believes that he's just fine. He's better than most people,
and that's good enough. Besides, it's just bread and wine.
That's the one who profanes the table. So we're to

(55:58):
come to the table sober, not afraid, reverent, not trembling,
rejoicing not smug, humble not beaten down. That is how

(56:31):
we come and partake of the Lord's table in a
worthy manner. Let's break, Father, as we bow before you,

(56:55):
and as we consider what we are about to do,
Grant by your grace that we might consider it in
humility and reverence, repentance, thanksgiving, come with overwhelming gratitude and joy.

(57:28):
Thank you for the worthiness that is found not in us,
but in the person and work of Christ. Grant by
your grace that we might commune with him through the bread,

(57:52):
through the wine, through our remembrance of his sacrifice, and
through our participation in the body and the blood, our
coynanea with the body and the blood. Grant this we

(58:14):
pray and Christ's name and for his sake.

Speaker 2 (58:18):
Amen,