The Lord's Supper as a Means of Grace (6)

Introduction and Series Context

0:03 The following message was delivered on Sunday evening, February 13th, 1994, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey.

0:14 Now let us once again ask God's help upon the ministry of the Word, that the one who speaks may do so with the help of the Holy Spirit sent down from Heaven, and that as we have sung, we may know the Spirit's ministry by and with the Word, doing that work which only God can do of enlightenment, of moral transformation, cleansing the soul, and all of the things that we have sung. Let us together plead with God that they may be true in this hour. Let us pray.

0:50 Our Father, as we bow in your holy presence, we are mindful. We are mindful that there is no automatic or magical blessing in the mere proclamation of the Word. For we read in your Word that the Word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith. And again we read that when the Word is sown, then comes the evil one and takes away that which is sown in their hearts, that they may not be saved.

1:31 O Lord, these are sobering realities, and therefore we come in all of our weakness, in all of our felt need of your grace, and we pray that you would enable us by that grace to gird up the loins of our minds, and to give careful attention to your Word, to come to its public teaching and proclamation, with the spirit of the Bible, and with the spirit of the Bible, and with the spirit of the Bible, ready to receive that Word with willingness of mind, yet searching out the issues to see if indeed they are the teaching of Holy Scripture.

2:15 We pray for those who sit among us blind to the glory of Christ, in love with themselves, in love with this present evil world, in love with their own lusts. Lord, we cannot open their blinds. We cannot open their blinded eyes to see their danger, nor to show them the glory of your Son. But you are able to do so, for no word from you shall be void of power.

2:44 Come then, we pray, and work mightily in the heart of saint and sinner alike, and bless our meditation together, we plead, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. We met for prayer this Thursday evening. I announced that I purposed to be preaching another sermon in the series that I've entitled, Simple Signposts to the Celestial City.

3:19 And I had every intention of doing so, but as I prepared for this morning's message, it became evident to me that I would not be able to squeeze in material that I felt was vital into that one message. And since Pastor Sarver will be preaching next Lord's Day in conjunction with the Singles Retreat, dealing with the subject of self-denial and cross-bearing, ministries that I greatly anticipate, I did not want to carry over this last installment of our present concern for two weeks

4:01 and wait until that occasion to set it before you. Now, for any who are not generally with us in our morning hour of worship, let me state very briefly what we have been doing in the ministry of the Word. We have, for several years, been engaged in a series of studies entitled, A Manifesto of Trinity Baptist Church. And that series of studies has been calculated to set forth those Biblical distinctives which have marked the very beginning of our ministry.

4:34 They have marked the very nerve centers of our life together over the past quarter of a century. And our present focus in that series of studies is the ninth affirmation of that manifesto, namely that we are determined to maintain a balanced New Testament doctrine concerning conversion, the Christian life, and the mission of the Church. And under the heading of the Christian life, we are considering the fifth and final principle of what constitutes at least much, certainly not exhaustive,

5:15 but much of a balanced teaching on the Christian life, namely that there are no substitutes, no effective substitutes, for the God-appointed means of grace. And using Acts 2.42 as an outline concerning some of the major public means of grace instituted by the apostles in the life of the Jerusalem church, we come tonight to the last of our studies on that means of grace described in Acts 2.42 as the breaking of the bread or designated elsewhere as the Lord's table or the Lord's supper.

Review of Previous Sermons on the Lord's Supper

6:00 And in dealing with this, and in dealing with this vital subject, we have examined the biblical basis for the observance of the Lord's supper. Secondly, the biblical significance of the observance of the Lord's supper. And we saw from the scriptures that that significance can be reduced to three basic concepts. Recollection, this do in remembrance of me.

6:27 Participation, is it not a communion, a participation in the body and in the blood of Christ. And declaration, as oft as ye eat this bread and drink this cup, ye do proclaim, solemnly declare the Lord's death until he come. And then last Lord's day, we took up some biblical directives for the proper observation of the Lord's supper, concentrating on two areas of concern, namely who should come to the table and how should we come. And in the course of that latter concern,

7:09 we examined particularly the last part of 1 Corinthians chapter 11. Then this morning we began what I hope to conclude this evening as some concluding exhortations concerning the observance of the Lord's supper. And I said that these exhortations would be set before you in three distinct categories. The first was an exhortation concerning the most fundamental reason for observing the Lord's table.

7:43 And I had but one exhortation to set before you and it was this. Let a present response of loving obedience to the person and word of Christ always be the primary reason for your appearance at the Lord's table. And then the second category of exhortations concerned the details of the observation of the Lord's supper. And I laid before you two exhortations.

8:14 Number one, let it be conducted with sensitive flexibility, referring to the time, the frequency, the specifics of the day. And secondly, let it be conducted with stark simplicity, adding nothing to and subtracting nothing from the simplicity of that supper of remembrance as instituted by the Lord Jesus and reiterated by the apostle in 1 Corinthians 11. Now tonight we come to the third category of these exhortations and they were,

Exhortation 1: Enlightened Solemnity

8:55 they will be exhortations concerning the disposition with which we ought to observe the Lord's supper. The disposition with which we ought to observe the Lord's supper. Now when I use the word disposition, I am using it in one of its proper meanings. One's disposition is the customary frame of mind or heart.

9:24 We speak of someone having a very sensitive or kind disposition. We mean that the prevailing bent arching ethos of that person.

9:40 I am not at all suggesting that unless you can go home

10:35 at the end of an evening when you have come to the table and see that there was an equal measure of all four elements of this disposition, you were sinning. I am not at all suggesting that. I am not at all intending to bind consciences in that way. However, as you look back over your experience at the Lord's table over a period of several months, as we as a congregation assess the corporate disposition that is manifested at the table over a period of several months, we ought to be able to discern to some degree

11:16 each one of these elements as the prevailing disposition that marked us individually in our coming to the table and therefore could not help but mark the corporate climate with which we came to the Lord's table. Now with those matters of definition and qualification behind us, suffer these words of exhortation with respect to the disposition with which we ought to come to the Lord's supper. And the first is this.

11:56 The supper be observed with a disposition of enlightened solemnity. The supper be observed with a disposition of enlightened solemnity. And as I take up each of these strands, my outline will be very simple. I'll explain the use of my terms and then seek to demonstrate from the Scriptures why that aspect that I have designated ought to be present as part of our disposition.

12:32 What do I mean by enlightened solemnity? Well, I mean a solemnity rooted not in superstition such as is present with the average Roman Catholic when he goes to the Mass. It is generally great solemnity. But it's a solemnity born of superstition.

12:54 The same way a man who is superstitious and believes that walking under a ladder is bad luck and he has no other way to get from where he is to where he's going but to walk under a ladder, he will have a disposition of great solemnity as he walks under the ladder. But it's superstitious solemnity, not an enlightened solemnity. If he's enlightened to the fact that there is no such thing as bad luck by walking under a ladder, if he's whistling Dixie before he starts under the ladder, he can whistle all the way through to the other side and then repeat it.

13:37 So when I say an enlightened solemnity, I mean a solemnity not rooted in superstition, or a solemnity rooted in bad or distorted teaching about the table. There are some people who come to the Lord's table constantly with a disposition of solemnity. But that solemnity is rooted not so much in superstition but in bad teaching. They've been taught that the Lord's table is a time to rake over their hearts with great intensity, to take the searchlight of introspection and look into every nook and cranny of their own hearts,

14:20 at every motive, at everything that could in any way be displeasing to their God. And the whole climate of their coming to the table is one of solemnity, but a solemnity rooted in bad teaching in which the preoccupation at the table is not Christ and the virtue of His blood. It's their own mucky, foul, remaining, and enlightened solemnity. I mean a solemnity that is born of a biblically enlightened mind

15:04 with respect to the issues that God says should fill our minds when we come to His table. That's what I mean by the term an enlightened solemnity. Solemnity that is the inevitable, reflexive response of the soul to a mind that perceives what God says we are doing at His table. Now, at the table is calculated to produce solemnity.

15:42 Well, let me suggest three things. I could have a much longer list, but let me just set three before you. Number one, the folk upon the person of Jesus Christ is crucified for sinners. Surely, none would dispute that the Bible says that if we are coming intelligently, we are coming to obey Christ who said this do in remembrance of me.

16:11 Person is central, but not His person as pre-incarnate or as incarnate only for now exalted at the right hand of the Father, but His person particularly as immolated. The vile separation of body and blood in His death upon the cross. This is my body which is for you in remembrance of me. And how can anyone contemplate the Lord having come from the presence of the Father

16:56 and taken to Himself in Mary's womb a true human soul and body having lived out His life in this present cursed world and going on to the cross. There suffer vicarious curse. In the language of Galatians 3.13 being made a curse for us.

17:26 Institutionary penal satisfaction for sin. You ought to know those words and they ought to sound beautiful in your ear and warm your heart. For 2 Corinthians 5 tells us that He, Christ or God made Him, Christ who knew no sin to be in for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. Surely then the focus upon the person of Christ as crucified for sinners having before us the emblems of His body

18:08 given up in the cruel death of the cross His blood shed as the only price that could satisfy for our sins in the court of God. How can anyone contemplate those realities without a measure of godly suffering? Furthermore, the second element that lends to sobriety is our condition which demanded such a sacrifice. Why did He in that upper room on the night in which He was betrayed say, this is my body which is for you

18:52 this is my blood of the covenant shed for many? What was there about us that demanded a body broken? It was our wretched sinful condition so utterly abhorrent to God that nothing but the enfleshment of God and the immolation of the God-man Christ Jesus could answer and provide a just pardon and a righteous. You see, there is nothing flattering about us in coming to the Lord's table because we come.

19:36 How can anyone contemplate what He was and yet is as a believing sinner without a sense of solemnity? And the third element that will produce solemnity if we come with a biblically enlightened mind is the possibility of incurring guilt in our very coming to the table. Did we not see last week in verse 27 of 1 Corinthians chapter 11 that the person who comes unworthily not discerning the Lord's body treating the Lord's supper as a common meal

20:18 is guilty of the body and blood of Christ? There is guilt if he comes unworthily. Later on in verses 32 and 34 there is the possibility of provoking God's chastening rod upon us and surely the thought of guilt heard at the table and the thought of provoking God's chastisement because of what we do at the table. If you are not sobered at those thoughts then you are so utterly out of touch with reality it's pathetic.

20:54 And so I say my brothers and sisters if we come to the table with a disposition that answers to the realities of that table then surely it will be a disposition of enlightened solemnity. And in the light of that reality may I urge you I cannot bind your conscience to do this but may I urge you as a pastoral counsel a word of pastoral counsel to attempt to take at least five or ten minutes before coming to an appointed communion service to let these realities

21:37 percolate afresh in your own minds and in your own hearts. To think what it means to come and take the emblems of Christ crucified. Come as one whose condition was such that nothing less than that horrible death on the cross could answer to our needs. That coming in a manner not warranted by God we could incur guilt and provoke his chastening rod then surely with that disposition there will be no flippancy no glibness no brashness

Exhortation 2: Joyful Doxology

22:19 but a gracious and enlightened solemnity. But then secondly the disposition which ought to mark us in coming to the Lord's table should not only be characterized by enlightened solemnity the exhortation is this let the supper be observed with a disposition of joyful doxology. Let the supper be observed with a disposition of doxology. Now again let me explain my terms.

23:02 Doxology is basically praise to God. Most of us know when we say let us sing the doxology and what we sing is praise God from whom all blessings flow praise him all creatures here below praise him above ye heavenly hosts praise Son and Holy Ghost and I've used the word joyful simply to underscore that that doxology though solemn because it is addressed to God it ought to be joyful praise that is suffused with true abiding exalting joy in God.

23:45 And I am exhorting you as God's people not only to let the supper be observed with a disposition of enlightened solemnity but with a disposition of joyful doxology. Having explained my terms I answer the question why should this be part of our disposition? And again I give three parts to my answer. Number one because the very important element of blessing or giving thanks for the bread and the cup necessarily involves joyful doxology.

24:22 Going to the passages in Corinthians and here I'm not just going to quote in your hearing I want you to take it through the eye gate as well as the ear gate. Notice in 1 Corinthians 10 in verse 16 a text we looked at previously the cup of blessing which we bless is it not a communion in the blood the cup blessing both a noun and a verbal form of this word from which we get our word eulogize the verb is eulogio

25:05 and the other form of the verb is eulogia and he says the cup of eulogia which we eulogio of blessing which we bless now the word eulogio means really one of three things to speak well of to praise or to thank and to confer blessing when we bless God we speak well of God when he blesses us he confers blessing upon us. but then there is also that blessing which is involved in the activities of praise

25:50 and thanksgiving and obviously it is this second meaning that is present when Paul says the cup of blessing which we bless that is for which we joyful thanksgiving now this is validated when we turn over to 1 Corinthians 11 24 or while in narratives

26:22 it is said that Jesus blessed and then broke using eulogio here we are told in 1 Corinthians 11 24 and when he had what not blessed it when he had given thanks is eulogio sound familiar where did the Lord's Supper ever get the fancy name Eucharist it is just a transliteration of the Greek verb Eucharistepho Eucharistepho means to give thanks now unless scripture contradicts itself what the gospel writer says

27:07 when Jesus blessed here we read he gave thanks so he blessed giving thanks and his giving thanks was the blessing and as scripture interprets scripture we see that one of the indispensable elements in the very institution according to 1 Corinthians 11 we are to seek to incorporate in the stark simplicity of the ordinance as handed down from our Lord and his apostle is when we gather we corporately through the mouthpiece of the one

27:52 leading us at the table we take the bread and what do we do we bless it and for that which it symbolizes and the great realities that stand associated with that bread and likewise with the cup we bless it we give thanks for it there is not a word in the bible about consecrating the elements let alone about transforming the elements into something other than what they are by giving thanks for them thereby blessing them

28:34 we designate and appoint them now symbols of his body given and his blood shed bread they were bread they are wine it was wine it is but having given thanks they are no longer to be regarded as associated with a little snack at the end of the Lord's day but symbols of the sacred realities of his body given up in the violent death of the cross and his blood shed on behalf of sinners but you see in the very institution as given by our Lord joyful doxology is inseparable

29:19 with the very format how can you give thanks how can you eulogize with heaviness no there must be joyful doxology giving thanks to God that the Lord Jesus was willing to say of body thou hast prepared me lo I come in the role of the book it is written of me do thy will O God sanctified once for all by the offering up of the body of we contemplate that

30:04 with how joyful doxology when we think of the blood that he shed of which John speaks saying the blood of Jesus Christ God sows on cleansing us from all and without the shedding of blood there is no remission how can we not help but experience a measure of joyful doxology so that when those who lead us at the table give thanks and thereby bless the bread and give thanks thereby blessing the cup there is a climate there is a corporate disposition of joyful doxology

30:49 necessitated first of all because of the very elements involved in the proper administration of the supper but there is a second reason because the blessing procured broken body and shed blood demand a response of joyful doxology what are the blessings procured in the giving of his body in the shedding of his blood well in first Corinthians 11 and verse 25 they are summarized in these words in like manner the cup after supper saying this cup is the new

31:34 covenant in my blood the new covenant will be enacted and all of its blessings imparted in the virtue of my blood shedding and what are the blessings of the new covenant you see them beautifully summarized in Hebrews chapter 8 again in Hebrews chapter 10 if you want the fuller description you go to Jeremiah 31 Jeremiah Ezekiel 36 the great blessings of the new covenant are these the full and irrevocable pardon of all of our sins God says this is the covenant I'll make with them

32:17 their sins and iniquities I'll remember no more sins and iniquities I will remember no more by one offering he hath forever put away the sins people now when David contemplated that what happened to him bless the Lord oh my soul and all that is within me bless his holy name bless the Lord oh my soul and forget not all his benefits and what's put at the top of the list who forgives who forgives

32:58 iniquities oh the blessednesses of the man to whom the Lord will not impute sinful and irrevocable pardon of all of our sins the law written on our hearts it is said I will write my law upon their hearts a heart that is no longer one massive clenched fist in the face of God saying I'm determined to defy God and do my own thing

33:38 in the face of remaining sin and the subtlety of the devil and the pressure of the world oh God as Peter could say you know you know that I want to I'm never more free I'm never more wanted to be than when I lie in loving hands at the feet of my God and my Savior that's the blessing sealed in the blood of Christ personal saving knowledge of God they shall no more say every man to his neighbor know the Lord for they shall all know me from the least to the greatest for this is life eternal Jesus said that they may know thee

34:22 the only true God in Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent dear people how can we come to the table take that cup which symbolizes the blood of the new covenant and contemplate the blessings of that covenant even for a moment without an infusion of desire to engage in joyful doxology and so I say our disposition must be one of joyful doxology not only because in the very words of institution doxology is an indispensable part secondly because the blessings procured by his body and blood demand a response

35:07 but thirdly because the anticipatory aspect of the table demands joyful doxology remember the apostles words as oft as you eat this bread and drink the cup you do solemnly declare the Lord's death till he come he come and at every Lord's table when those words are read God is saying look look these emblems certify not only all the blessings of my salvation you already possess but the best is yet to come

35:46 the thing we have a down payment honest money it's just a pledge that the best is yet to come now think for a moment of that time when you had the most conscious victory over your particular besetting sins you had the most liberty and freedom in prayer in the secrets when the Lord seemed so near you felt if you opened your eyes you'd see him standing next to you think of the times when your heart has seemed to be lifted above the petty concerns of this present world

36:31 and you wondered if indeed you were floating somewhere between earth and heaven in your spirit you take the most spiritual frame you've ever known and it is not the one thousandth part of what you will know with uninterrupted undiminished and ever increasing degrees of blessedness and that was all shedding of his blood he secured the totality of your salvation and that part which is the best to come is that which will be manifested at his second coming

37:16 when we shall be manifested with him in glory it's a marvelous statement in Thessalonians it says when Christ shall come not to be glorified by his saints but it says glorified in his saints when the Lord is done with us measures of his glory will burst out from us that will astound the entire moral universe and the anticipatory element in the Lord's table surely if even for thirty seconds at the table we think this is till he comes then what will be mine when he comes secured by his own blood shedding giving himself up to the death of the cross

37:58 that he shall be forever released from all of the impediments with which I must now carry it about as a body of death marked for the grave totally perfected into his moral likeness never again to have a wandering thought never again to have an unresponsive dull heart in the presence of my Savior never again to have any contrary principle dragging me in a direction away from the God I love and the Savior's whom I am and whom I long to serve well if those three things don't give you

38:41 some element of joyful doxology you're just plain lost man you just are eons away from the reality of what it means to you if those things don't touch strings in your heart at least cause you to say oh God if I cannot engage in joyful doxology when these things are true of me and maybe a Christian who has to say that but if you sit here saying what in the name of all common sense I'm a preacher getting excited about he's out of his tree no my friend I'm not out of my tree I'm in a tree you know nothing about it is real

39:23 God grant that you may sitting there saying I don't have a clue what he's talking about let that be a reminder you are dead and blind spiritually immune to these blessed realities I say at the Lord's table away with all carnal moroseness and all carnal morbidity and all unbelieving gloom yes there must be enlightened solemnity but no carnal morbidity

40:04 carnal slowness no unbelieving gloom listen to our own confession of faith chapter 30 paragraph 2 in this ordinance Christ is not offered up to his Father nor any real sacrifice made at all for remission of sins of the quick or dead but only for the good but only a memorial of that one offering up of himself, by himself, upon the cross, once for all. Now here's the term, or the phrase.

40:41 And a spiritual oblation, a spiritual sacrifice of all possible praise unto God for the same.

40:53 You see what the framers of our confession were saying? That in this memorial supper, the people of God are to offer a spiritual oblation. The language of Hebrews 10 and verse 15, by him let us offer up the sacrifice of praise to God continually. And it says, of all possible praise unto God.

41:19 The element of joyful doxology is there in our confession. But someone says, how can you have it? In light? In solemnity?

Solemnity and Doxology are Not Mutually Exclusive

41:30 Or into joyful doxology? Mutually exclusive? Well, turn to Psalm 2. God's answer.

41:40 No, they are not mutually exclusive. In fact, if we have any appreciation of who Christ is, and what God has purposed to do through his Son and for his Son, for that's the great theme of Psalm 2, though the great ones of the earth gather together to seek to frustrate Jehovah's plans, and the plans...

42:03 and the plans of his anointed, Jehovah's purposes will be realized in and for his Son. And the conclusion of all of that is given to us in the last stanza of this four stanza hymn concerning the reign of the Lord's anointed. Now therefore, verse 10, Psalm 210, be wise, O you kings, be instructed, you judges of the earth, serve the Lord with fear,

42:32 and rejoice with trembling, enlightened piety. The Son, lest he be angry and ye perish in the way, for his wrath will soon be kindled. Blessed, perfectly happy, perfectly fulfilled, perfectly suffused with the blessing of Jehovah, are all they that take refuge in him. No, there is no contradiction but a beautiful...

43:15 There is no contradiction but a beautiful interpenetration. All joyful...

43:24 with enlightened... and all believing enlightened solemnity will be suffused with joyful doxology.

43:34 Now you see, at any given experience at the Lord's table, one may dominate more than the other. And I don't want you to go home with a guilty conscience and say, well, at this particular time I was just so conscious of this, that the element of the solemnity...

43:51 No, we're wrong. No, no, I don't want to put you in bondage. No, that's not my purpose. Don't take the bread and turn it into your own poison.

44:02 But if you go two or three communion services, ever a time when you feel, man, if I don't put my hand over my mouth, I'm going to jump up and raise my hands and beller out a hallelujah.

44:15 And there isn't at least a swelling up within your breast. Element of joyful doxology. Sing that hymn, glory be to Jesus, who when we come to that last dance of love, still yet love, everything within you wanting to just jump on those words and open up all of the stops and the bellows of your lungs and praise the Lamb, then I say something is tragically wrong, if that's a pattern of your experience. The disposition that ought to characterize us at the table

Exhortation 3: Prayerful Dependency

44:58 is not only that of enlightened solemnity, but of the solemnity, but of joyful doxology. And then more briefly, let me touch upon two other elements. These first two were most critical, but now, more briefly, the latter two. In the third place, let the supper be observed with a disposition of prayerful dependency.

45:24 Prayerful dependency.

45:28 Now again, I explain my terms. I'm speaking of a conscious dependence upon God as opposed to confidence in ourselves. The confidence that says, well, I'm a Christian, I'm coming to the table, I'm coming in the right way, I'm coming because Christ bids me, therefore, it's automatic, blessing will be received. No.

45:49 Jeremiah 17.5 says, Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his arm and whose heart departs from the Lord. Then he describes him. He says, he shall be like a heath in the desert.

46:02 He shall inhabit a salt and barren land where no water is. God says you can come. Come to his table. And if you come in a spirit of creature confidence, you'll experience barrenness.

46:17 Blessed is the man whose trust is in the Lord and whose hope the Lord is. And then God describes it by way of contrast and speaks of him being fruitful. So a conscious dependence upon God, I'm using that term as the opposite, confidence in ourselves and a dependence manifested in prayer for the assistance. For the assistance of the Holy Spirit.

46:43 Prayer is essentially the language of dependence when it is focusing upon petition. When it is praise, it is something else. It may be the language of gratitude and admiration and wonder. But when it comes to petition for one's own needs, the language of dependence, it is inseparably joined to the operations of the Holy Spirit.

47:11 Luke 11.13 How much more will your Father, Father give the Spirit to those who ask him? Philippians 1.19 This shall turn to my salvation through your prayer and the supplies of Jesus.

47:26 What I'm saying is part of our disposition at the Lord's table should be one of prayerful dependency. The consciousness as we think of coming to the table and while we sit down at the table that there will be no automatic blessing. The Holy Spirit, alone can take the things of Christ and reveal them with fresh power to my heart and therefore that sense of dependency in its reflexive response finds as its outlet.

48:09 Two reasons why it's appropriate. Number one, because there is no automatic conveyance of grace in the supper. You see, the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church and the teaching in some Lutheran circles is, is that grace is automatically conveyed in the sacrament.

48:29 And the Roman Catholic position is only if you have an intent at the time you take the sacrament that would neutralize its efficacy, it will be efficacious. If you are a believer, whether you have any knowledge of the gospel is totally irrelevant. God deposits grace in the sacrament and it operates automatically. And the teaching of the word of God is no.

48:54 No, it does not. It does not bring any automatic blessing. Like every other means of grace, it is only a means of grace that becomes effectual by the operation of the Holy Spirit and by the response of faith. How does a sinner initially lay hold of the saving virtue of Christ?

49:19 He must believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. May we initially lay hold of the virtue of Christ in His life. His death is by faith and that is true. Step along the way.

49:33 We not only are saved by faith, we live by faith. Galatians 2.20 Paul says, I live in faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me. And if we are convinced there is no magical, there is no mystical, no automatic conveyance of grace in the supper, but though the Lord, instituted it, and though the apostles repeated that word of institution, we are utterly dependent upon the Holy Spirit to make that means effectual to our hearts.

50:12 That will of course then bring us in a prayerful dependency. But then there is a second reason. Because of the reality of indwelling sin which would hinder us in our most devout exercises. Because of the reality of indwelling sin which would hinder us in our most devout exercises.

50:31 In Romans 7 verse 21 Paul said, I find, I discover that to me who would do good, evil is present. And John Owen in his usually perceptive treatment of this text observes that no one discovers more to his shame the power of indwelling sin than when he sets himself to the most spiritual activity. If you should go home tomorrow night at the end of a day of work and say, well, I think I'll pick up the paper and see what's happening in Bosnia and see what's happening on Wall Street.

51:16 Do you think you'd feel a powerful stirring up of your indwelling sin creating an indisposition to pick up the paper? No. But you go home at the end of a day's work and you've had supper and family worship and say, you know, I haven't really sunk my teeth into that good Christian book I bought at the bookstore three months ago. I think I'll sit down and read several chapters and what will happen?

51:34 All of a sudden you get tired your mind will be distracted and you'll say, oh well, I'm in no frame. What happens? I find that to me who would do good at the point of determining to do good you discover frightening power. That principle is true and I believe it is and I believe this text bears the weight that Owen puts upon it.

52:02 One of the most concentrated spiritual exercises a child of God can engage in is coming to the table where you're not alone. Where every other consideration of the manifold duties of the Christian life, the manifold spectrum of biblical doctrine and all the rest, that growing corpus of understanding of God's provisions, of who God is, of what he requires of us, and all of that. These things in a sense are not suspended or rejected but they are concentrating on that which is the very heart of our life and salvation.

52:45 Christ crucified for sinners is the very life and heartthrob of true, vital, spiritual existence. Where will indwelling sin be most active?

53:04 But at that table where we've come to have that life in Christ refreshed, intensified, renewed, refocused, indwelling sin will be most active at the table. You may have some of your most foul thoughts at the table. Some of your most unbelievable, disgusting doubts at the table.

53:29 Therefore, do not come in preaching.

53:33 You're no match for what's left in you.

53:37 You're no match for what's left in you. You by the Spirit do mortify the deeds.

53:50 If ye live in the Spirit, ye shall not fulfill the lust. Therefore, let the supper be observed with a disposition of prayerful dependency because we recognize there is no automatic conveyance of grace in the ordinance. The Spirit must take that ordinance in all of its stark simplicity and make it beautiful and make it effectual. Our enabling, enablement to feed upon Christ afresh must enable us to deal with this reality

54:33 of indwelling sin. And then fourthly and finally,

Exhortation 4: Believing Expectancy

54:39 I exhort you with regard to the disposition that should attend us at the Lord's table. Let the sin, the supper be observed with a disposition of believing expectancy. With a disposition of believing expectancy. Explaining those terms should be relatively simple.

55:02 Expectancy, that is a confident looking forward to what God will do in the ways of His own appointment. There is anticipation of spiritual good. The Lord has not said this due in remembrance of, me, just to fog up the framework of the new covenant church with a ritual. He intends that He Himself shall be glorified and that we shall be strengthened and edified and that we shall go away from the table not only conscious that we've given praise to our Savior but that we ourselves

55:45 are strengthened in our resolve to serve the Savior, strengthened in our confidence of the Savior's power to effect in us all the salvation that He purchased with His own blood. And I say we ought to come then with a believing expectancy. That kind of expectancy that is not rooted in presumption but is the expression of present faith. Without faith it is impossible to please Him.

56:18 For he that comes to God, Hebrews 11, 6, must believe that He is and that He is the rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. Now why is this element of the disposition appropriate? Well let me give a couple of reasons. Has not Christ promised to be present when we're gathered in His name to do what He has bidden us?

56:43 Matthew 18, 20. Where two or three are gathered in my name there am I in the midst of them. In the context, He's in the midst of them, His church gathering, they're gathered to effect church discipline. They're doing what He's mandated.

57:02 They are met in His name. And where they meet in His name at His bidding to do what He has commanded in the way of His appointment, He pledges presence. You see, we do not gather at the Lord's table to remember an absent Christ. We gather to remember an invisible.

57:29 Revolutionize the way you think about coming to the table. We do not gather. We do not gather. To remember an absent Christ.

57:38 Yes, in His bodily presence He's at the right hand of the Father. His body is not ubiquitous. It is not everywhere. But He said where two or three are gathered in my name there am I in the midst of them.

57:53 Person and ministry of the Holy Spirit Christ is present. So we gather to remember an invisible but present. Present in the bread and in the cup. Oh, but present by His Spirit.

58:16 We are coming in our hearts. Psalm 317 by...

58:20 And since He has commanded us... This do in remembrance of me and He has said in John 14, 21.

58:35 He that hath my commandments and keeps them. He it is that loves me. And he that loves me should be loved of my Father and I will love him and will manifest myself to Him. When we come you see, going back to that first exhortation.

58:51 Let our primary motive in coming together be to rather love one another. No, no, no. Let our primary motive in coming together be to rather care about one another. to the table be that of present loving obedience to the word of christ we have the promise which we do in obedience to the word of christ puts us in the way of the fuller revelation of christ to our hearts will manifest myself the supper can be observed with the disposition of believing expectancy because number one christ has promised to be present in the gathering of his people secondly because christ has promised to manifest himself to his people in the path of obedience to

59:36 his commands now while the felt measure of his presence will vary as it does whenever we pray we do what the writer to hebrews says we draw near with boldness to the throne of grace every true act of prayer that is not hypocritical does not come from someone grieving the holy spirit regarding iniquity in his heart is a

60:06 drawing near to god in degree of felt no beads and hues in the whole spectrum of the color of christian experience but if on a given day i've had very little sense of god's nearness when i prayed if i have come in faith i don't go away saying god didn't hear me because i didn't feel my friend we don't walk by feelings

60:46 feelings are one of the most elusive intangible commodities that you have in your possession and to seek to live your christian life on the basis of feelings is to consign yourself to instability now we don't live apart from our feelings or ignorant of our feelings if god is pleased on a given day to give you an overwhelming sense of his felt presence you don't despise that you rejoice in it but remember it's not your felt sense of his presence that is the ground of your being heard

61:25 when you pray let us draw near why because we have a great heart the ground of our being heard is outside of us and in christ therefore if we are given enlargement and a sense of divine nearness we thank god for we treasure it up as a precious of our christian experience but we recognize that a number of factors can control us and we can't control our feelings and our sensibilities no matter how 합 tha yet settings yet at gr Tyler

62:10 committed disciples we plan the 0 that while promise and therefore of the people with being leaving expected and measure of his felt presence at a given communion service, we thank him. If we should have very little felt sense of his presence, we still thank him. Nothing that really counts is changed. Everything symbolized by the bread is bound up in what Jesus did, not what you feel.

62:54 Everything symbolized by the bread is bound up in what Jesus did, not what you feel. And perhaps never is your faith more pleasing to God than without a twitch of feeling you believe everything he says about the body and blood of his Son. It's easy to believe it all when your spirit's floating near to angels' wings, but when you feel like you're

63:36 glued to the earth and you still believe, which kind of faith glorifies God more? That may be for some of you, I hope. A divine instrument to cut a chain of bondage to your feelings, leaving expectancy that Christ will be present as he's promised, and Christ will manifest himself as he is promised. Well then, what ought our disposition to be when we come to the table? I exhort you as

The Lord's Supper as One Means of Grace

64:14 I do myself, dear people of God, let it be a disposition of enlightened solemnity, of joyful joy. Prayerful doxology. Prayerful dependency. Believing, realizing that the table is not a means of special grace. The table is not

64:40 like a pool into which God has put some unique grace to be found nowhere else but at the table. And over here is another pool where he has all the grace, out of which pool the streams of prayer and study of the word and preaching and fellowship all flow, and you can get that grace out of Christ by those who are not in the table. And that's the reason why we're here today. He's given many means to acting out of grace. Look, first of all it's 1 pool of grace.

65:03 If you see this form of grace you must know how it works! You must know the words that discerning and void relives. And when you really look at the items that he gives us, you'll find that it is just the God who vibrates in His grace. Just as God always gives us grace, there's a special grace that takes away the grace of God's grace.

65:15 We have nothing that we can not hear without a question. And only these two things allowed us to become�reful, the right hand and the left hand, the sky blue, and the right-handed when we stage our prayer. You may have come to one こwww Parce in iniquity. 2 means of grace.

65:32 Grace means special working minutes. About grace, his grace means permanent from the night of theurism. two fools. Therefore, if you're providentially hindered from coming to the table, are you cheated of Christ? No. There is nothing qualitatively different of Christ in the closet of prayer

65:45 when in faith you lay hold afresh of the virtue of his body given and his blood shed. Stand in the confidence that you're a forgiven sinner and you'll one day be a glorified saint. You don't get a different grace in that act of faith than you do when in faith you come to the table and with the help and the fruit of the vine, you believingly appropriate Christ to yourself afresh. It's the same Christ and it's the same grace. It's just one more help

66:18 that God has given. He's given the private reading, the public reading of the scriptures, private prayer, family prayer, interaction with the saints. These are all means of grace and the Lord's Supper is but another, not a holy other, extinct means of grace. Therefore, as we come by the grace of God with a disposition free of all superstition, all tyranny of subjectivism, hoping somehow to get a divine zapping if we just get the inner stuff of our soul lined up right, we come with this principled commitment by God's

67:03 grace to say, I'm coming primarily because my Lord bids me to come. I am coming. I am coming by the grace of God to his table in obedience to him. And I certainly will come with solemnity. It's his body and blood that will be set before me vividly in these

67:26 emblems. The realities of those things pertaining to his death, his death for me a sinner, his death for one who deserves to be in hell. But in that death, all the blessings of the new covenant. All the blessings of the old covenant were procured and their certification to me is pledged.

67:47 How can I not have joyful doxology, yet recognizing no automatic blessing? Oh Lord I come with a heart dependent upon you and cry to you for the spirit to attend his own ordinance with grace and power and Lord believing you, have not bid us come and draw me out to trust you to mock me. I come with belief in you. I come with belief in you.

Pastoral Application and Invitation

68:13 Now for you, dear children, please look carefully, some of you, you don't yet come to the table. But do you see now why when mom and dad and the rest of us sit here, this is serious? And yet at the same time, maybe you've not been able to figure it out. You've seen a peculiar joy.

68:35 Perhaps you've seen one of the older men and women in the midst of the supper, and though their face has been glowing with joy, a tear has been trickling down their face. Do you see why, children? The realities symbolized by that bread and the fruit of the vine in those cups have become precious to the people of God, and we pray they will become precious to you. I leaned over at one of the young lads at the last communion service, and I said to him, May the day come when together we can partake.

69:18 And oh, dear children, that's just to say, may the day come when the Savior who's precious to us will be precious. And my unsaved friend, we do not invite you tonight to come to the Lord's table, but we urge you, we graciously command you in the name of Christ to come to those realities set forth in the table which are just a visible representation.

69:49 In the invitation of the gospel, Christ dies. Christ now invites sinners as sinners to come to him. He delights to receive sinners. It's one of the things that got him in trouble with the religious crowd at his day. This man receiveth sinners. Hallelujah. He receives them still, and anyone who'd want to reproach him for it, he glories in it.

70:21 Go to him for what you are, a sinner, and you'll find him to be what he claims to be, a welcoming Savior. Well, trust that God will use these meditations to help us in the weeks and months to come should the Lord spare us in delays coming, that in our coming to the table, more and more of God's grace will be imparted to our hearts as we come in the light of these things we've considered together. Let us pray. Our Father, we thank you for your holy word. We thank you that it is a lamp unto our feet and a light to our pathway.

Closing Prayer and Benediction

71:04 And we pray that you will take the things we have considered today and in recent weeks concerning this wonderful, simple ordinance of the Lord's Supper, strip away from it all of the mystery and all of the superstition and all the traditions of men, and may we sense when we come to the table that there is no wadding of men's thought between us and the stuff that we touch and we taste and we eat and we drink at that table.

71:45 O God, we pray that our hearts will have direct and blessed dealings with you and with your Son by the enablement of the Holy Spirit. We mourn this night, O our God, that that simple supper has been changed into a soulful, destructive charade.

72:10 O Lord, we grieve that in those who name themselves with the name of Christ, the very Christ whose name they bear by their doctrine of the Lord's Supper, have mercy upon poor, blind, deluded sacramentalists who place their hope of salvation on what they put in their mouths when they come to the Mass. Amen. Amen. Amen.

72:39 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

72:39 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

72:39 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

72:40 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

72:40 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

72:40 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

72:40 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

72:41 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

72:42 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

72:44 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

72:44 Amen. Amen. Amen. Have mercy and bring many to see that until they stand in the nakedness of their guilt and wretchedness and cast themselves upon Christ as he is offered in the gospel, they have no hope, though they should come to the table a million times.

73:05 O Lord, have mercy and help us to be faithful in our witness to loved ones and neighbors. and take the things we've considered in these days and seal them to our hearts with power. Be pleased now to dismiss us with your blessing. Help us to go forth from this place into a world that reels with the heady wine of its own so-called wisdom and arrogance and help us to be light and salt in this crooked and perverse generation.

73:40 Hear us, we plead, and receive our praise for this day in your courts through our Lord Jesus Christ.