Address—C. Hendricks
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One Spirit with the Lord Jesus the glorified esteems, the church for which he bled His body, and his bride, the whole hymn 210.
One Spirit.
Will help.
I never want.
Last word.
Forever.
Let's pray.
For Jesus.
We have Hadley before us during these meetings and.
By Church, by Body, thy Bride.
It means so much to thee.
We praise. We open Thy Word again that will help us and give that ministry which is profitable and a blessing to our souls, will guide us and direct our path and keep us in the way we ask it in our precious name, Lord Jesus. Amen.
1St Corinthians 10. We'll start with a verse there.
1St Corinthians 10.
Verse 31.
Whether therefore ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.
Give none offense, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the Church of God, even as I please all men and all things, not seeking mine own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved.
And the new translation in verse 32, it reads, give no occasion of stumbling.
Either to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the Church of God.
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We are to conduct ourselves in this world in such a way as to not stumble.
Cause to go out of the path, or hinder one from coming to the Lord, or from going on with the Lord.
From holding the word of God in high esteem and on all these things give none offense.
No occasion to stumble.
Now let's turn to the. Well, we're right here in the.
11Th chapter. So let's read from verse 23 those very well known verses.
But I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus.
The same night in which he was betrayed took bread and when he had given thanks.
He break it and said take heed, this is my body which is broken for you.
This do and remember himself, me after the same manner also he took the cup when he had supped, saying, This cup is the New Testament, the new covenant in my blood. This do ye as OFT as ye drinketh in remembrance of Me. For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till he come.
Here at Corinth in this chapter.
They were going on.
In a very bad way, he says in verse. In verse 20 he says, when you come together, therefore into one place, this is not to meet the Lord's Supper. We have in this chapter the Lord's Supper and in the previous chapter, which we'll read shortly, the Lord's table. But here let's dwell a little on the Lord's Supper. They were going on in such a way.
As to stumble, a young believer, they were eating and drinking to excess, bringing their own supper to the their love feasts and so on, eating it independently of others. All a denial of the truth that we've been looking at in the word of God as the one body. And they were really not eating the Lord's Supper.
It was their own supper. In verse 21 he says in eating everyone taketh before other his own supper, and one is hungry and one another is drunken. What have you not houses to eat and to drink in, Or despise ye the Church of God, and shame them that have not. There was some poor amongst them. Most of them here at Corinth were fairly well to do. But there were some that didn't have much, and they couldn't bring much, and others who brought an abundance of their food and they ate it. We don't do that in our love feasts.
Everyone brings what he can bring, and it's all spread out for everyone to partake of and that's you bring for yourself. And I bring for myself. And another brings for himself. That's the way they were doing it at current. And he says, what have you, not houses to eat and to drink in or despise you the Church of God, and shame them that have not those that didn't have much. What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you in this? I praise you now and then, those verses that we began with.
How that the Lord Jesus took the loaf and he break it, and then he took the cup and he gave it to them. He break the load, He gave it to them, and he took the cup and he gave it to them.
It's the only. It's the only expression that we have. It's an ongoing 1.
In the church there are only two ordinances in Christianity, 2 externals. The one is baptism, and it speaks of his death, were baptized unto his death. The name of the Lord is named upon us, and we're introduced into the Christian circle of profession by baptism.
Beyond him as the one that has done the work that can save our souls, and the only one that can do that and that's done once.
When our baptism takes place once, but it's it's his death that's brought before us and again in the Lord's Supper, which is an ongoing remembrance of himself. It's his death that is remembered, not so much his life, his birth, his life, his resurrection, ascension and all that they may come in. And the thoughts that are expressed, they're going to remember him in his death tomorrow morning, as we do every first day of the week.
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It's a sad thing to look about us in Christian circles and see how seldom Christians celebrate the very foundation of all their blessings. The death of Christ, The death of the Lord. It's the Lord's Supper, it's the Lord's Table, it's the Lord's cup, and so on. The Lord is prominent before us in these chapters.
But so few.
Remember him very often. It says in this chapter. As often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you do show the Lord's death till he come, not as seldom, but as often. The early Christians remembered him in his death every day for a while, and then it settled down into a the habit of the early church in Acts 20, verse 7 on the first day of the week.
When the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them. Now they didn't come to hear Paul preach, they came together to break bread. But then they seized upon the opportunity, Paul being there, and not being with them very long, to hear his ministry, which is fine, But ministry is not worship. And they came together to give to the Lord the praise, the adoration, the worship of their redeemed hearts.
In the remembrance of himself.
Isn't it sad, beloved, that this is done so seldom in Christian circles, sometimes once a year, sometimes twice a year, sometimes three times, sometimes four times a year?
Isn't it fitting that the Church settled down into remembering the Lord on the day?
When he rose victorious over death, and conquered Satan, he destroyed him that had the power of death and delivered them, who through fear of death for all their lifetimes subject to *******. He let captivity captive the power that had held us captive. He let it captive, and gave gifts to men. It was on that day, the first day of the week, when he rose triumphant, and was the victor over all the power of it, the enemy that they remembered.
That wonderful death that had secured their eternal redemption and salvation.
Isn't it sad as we think, how few who are the Lords do that?
Week after week after week, rather, they come together to hear a sermon.
It's the most wonderful privilege that we have.
The thought in this chapter is largely individual.
We do that for the Lord.
We each one remember him, and the common thought in the church world, of course, is. I remember him for myself, and it doesn't concern me about the one that is next to me. Well, we'll see when we look at the previous chapter, chapter 10, that it is extremely important with whom we break bread. But we do remember him individually. We think of his love, we think of all that he endured and suffered.
In order to put our sins away, bearing the judgment of a holy God, a stroke upon stroke fell upon him on that cross, and he cried out. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? We look back and we remember with tears flowing down, oftentimes very appropriate that it is so as we remember what he endured to save our souls.
This feast, it's a beast of remembrance. The Lord's Supper is a feast, and he has invited us to contain to remember him. I wonder if there's anyone here that is the Lord.
That does not answer to his desire to remember him.
In his death, he wants you to. Maybe you're maybe you're going on with something that you know is unsuitable for his presence, and so you stay back. You you're hindered by your by your life. Maybe that's it. Maybe you're just timid and afraid to ask. But he is invited you. Maybe you're waiting for the brethren to ask you, but it's not for them to ask you. It's not their table.
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It's his table, and he's already asked you to remember him. You don't need another invitation. He's given it, He said to his own this, do Remember Me. And he instituted that on the night of his betrayal. Oh, what love in the heart of the blessed Savior. You notice the order in the 11Th chapter is bread first. This is the order in which we partake of the supper.
And then the cup comes later, and he broke the bread and he distributed it, and he took the cup and blessed it, and then he distributed it. He is the it's his table and it's his supper. As he dispensed it a turn back with me one chapter to the 10th chapter, which is what I really want to talk about.
Verse 15.
I speak against two wise men. Judge ye what I say. The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion?
Of the blood of Christ. The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the Body of Christ?
For we, being many, are one bread in one body, for we are all partakers.
Of that one grade notice in this chapter.
It's not the Lord that breaks the bread. It's not the Lord that distributes it, as you have recorded in Matthew, Mark and Luke and referred to in the 11Th chapter. But it's the bread which we break.
It's a corporate collective thing.
He has a body.
And in the 11Th chapter especially.
That body was represented by that loaf on the table as representing the body that he took when he became a man. The body that was prepared him. The body in which he suffered for our sins, He bare our sins, Peter tells us in his own body on the tree.
And that most speaks of that body.
Given in death for us.
And the cup, of course, is precious blood, shedding for the remission of our sins.
But here the loaf speaks of not only his physical body in which he suffered.
But.
His body composed of all the leaders.
The church which is his body, the fullness of him who filleth All in all. Now, Paul's the only one that brings this out. He's the only one that speaks of the Lord's table. In fact, the Lord's table is only mentioned in this chapter in the New Testament.
The Lord's Table. That's the place at which the supper, the feast, is eaten. We eat the Lord's Supper at the Lord's Table, and the Lord's Table speaks of fellowship. It brings before us that we're not there just as individuals.
11Th chapter emphasizes our individual participation, but the 10th chapter emphasizes the fact that when we break bread, we do so as members of the Body of Christ.
Not just so many individuals. In many of the churches throughout Christendom, I've never been in one, but in many of them I understand they have individual biscuits or crackers or pieces of bread, but not a loaf.
That is, they do not understand.
The truth of the 10th chapter. They don't understand the truth of Paul's ministry. The mystery of Christ in the church. That one loaf on the table represents himself and his body. All believers, every believer on the face of the earth.
That knows Christ as Lord and Savior, that's been born again and sealed of the Holy Spirit and brought into that baptized body by the Spirit of God, is a member of the body of Christ and represented on that table. So when we break bread, we express, and it's the only time that we do something that expresses this truth. We express the truth there is.
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1.
And that is something that God has established, and we can't change it. We have failed to keep the unity of the Spirit in the uniting bond of peace, sad to say. But the unity of the Spirit was formed by the Spirit of God on the day of Pentecost, uniting all believers into one body and to the head in heaven. And we express that truth.
Every Lord's Day Morning.
When we break bread, it's not simply an individual thing that we do as individuals. We don't exclude that, but it's a corporate collective thing. We do it as members of the body of Christ. And that's why when someone is received to the table.
It's not as a family they've received, but each one individually is received and owned to be a member of the Body of Christ.
He's speaking to wise men and he says judge ye. What I say this first epistle to the Corinthians is largely corrective ministry, and again in this chapter he has to correct.
A practice that they were going on with, but he says it's totally inconsistent with the truth of the Lord's table in the 11Th chapter. He had to correct the inconsistency they were going on with by eating and drinking to excess and not being able to discern when they were took of the loaf and the cup his body there.
And His precious Blood that was shed for them. Some of them were even intoxicated because of excessive drinking at their love piece. And This is why, a little bit later on in the history of the Church, the Christians never preceded the Lord's Supper. With both these they wouldn't do anything that would make them.
Not able to to realize who he is and what these the emblems signify and express.
It was so serious in the 11Th chapter that some were sick among them, and some had even died. The Lord had taken them away because they were eating to his dishonor of the Lord.
We're not to do anything to give an occasion of stumbling to the Jews or the Gentiles or the Church of God, not to do anything that would stumble our brethren. The way they were going on at Corinth is a shame. It was shameful. It was so shameful that he said you're not, you're not.
Celebrating the Lord's Supper? You're celebrating your own supper.
And it was a shame.
Now here the question was. Another one was the question of fellowship and how important this is. Now let's look at it carefully. Verse 16, the cup of blessing. Oh, why is the cup 1St and then the loaf comes second? That's not the way the Lord instituted it. That's not the way we have it in the 11Th chapter and in all the Gospels. It's the bread first. That's the chronological order. He became a man first, He took a body first, the Word became flesh first, and then he shed his blood.
On the cross, so we get the order in the.
11Th chapter. But in this chapter, the blood is first, the cup is 1St. And that's because the main theme of the chapter is fellowship. Fellowship at the table. We know what fellowship is. We have our own tables at home, and we have our friends over with us, and it's a time of fellowship, is it not? We eat together, we eat the supper that's prepared by the wife, and we have fellowship. We know what that is.
And there are there are things that the head of that table and that house have established as proper conduct. The children are not to come to the table with dirty hands. The children are not to come to the table with unclean clothing and things of that nature. There are things to be observed in order to be observed there because of the one who's the head of the table. But who's the head of the table that we'll sit at tomorrow morning? Who's ahead? The Lord Jesus.
It's his table and he's invited us.
There to remember him very precious, the couple blessing which we bless. Now the Lord isn't the one that's blessing the cup. Here in the 11Th chapter He is and in the Gospels he is, but it's the cup which we bless.
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Is it not? We're the body, We're the bride. And now we're doing the blessing, We're doing the Thanksgiving.
Is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? It shows that when we bless that cup that we have part in its value. It has cleansed us from our sins and removed all that stood against us and kept us at a distance. By His blood we have access by 1 Spirit unto the Father.
Precious Blood of Christ has brought us into this place of blessing, the bread which we break, not the Lord. Now we break it. It isn't, is it not the communion of the Body of Christ? Sometimes there's a lot of discussion and sometimes heated discussion among Christians whether Judas Iscariot ever partook of the Lord's Supper. I don't believe he did. I think John 13 shows that he did not.
But whether he did or not, and I don't believe that he did, the truth of First Corinthians 10 clearly shows that no one who is not a member of the body of Christ and not cleansed by the blood of Christ, and he has any part in taking the Lord supper and sitting at the Lords table. This is, this is a family thing. This is, this is that which belongs to those who are inside and members of the body of Christ. And we give expression to that truth, do we not? When we break bread, the bread which we break, is it not the communion?
Of the blood of Christ. For we being many, are one bread and one body, for we are all partakers of that one bread. In those early days, those press dying days, the churches, history on earth, everyone that was saved and a member of the body of Christ, and in 12 of the Holy Spirit.
Took the Lord's Supper at the Lord's Table.
There weren't some that didn't.
They all protect. That's what it says. Here we are all partakers of that one bread.
Verse 18 is an example. He draws upon it to bring forth a principle, and he draws upon it from the Jews.
A peace offerings connected with their altar, he says. Behold, Israel after the flesh are not they which eat of the sacrifices partakers of the altar. And I'm going to have to correct that the word partakers is not the same as the one in verse 17.
It should read, Are not they which eat of the sacrifices in communion with the altar?
Those Jews that brought their peace offerings, and some of that they the offer, had a part of it, an eighth Some of it was put on the altar, some of it was eaten by the priest. It expressed fellowship. But as that Jew brought his peace offerings, his sacrifices, to that table at Jerusalem, there was only one he was expressing fellowship with that table at which he brought his sacrifice.
And we'll just hold your place here. Turn back to Malachi Chapter One and see how that the altar is called the Lorde Table.
In Malachi chapter one and verse 7, the Lord says you offer polluted bread upon mine altar, and you say where and have we polluted thee. And that she say the table of the Lord is contemptible again in verse 12. But ye have profaned it in that she say the table of the Lord is polluted. This was the altar on which the sacrifice was given, and it was Jehovah's table.
It was spoken of as his table.
You get that also in Ezekiel. I'll just read it in Ezekiel chapter 44.
And verse 20.
Excuse me. Ezekiel 41 and verse 22. The altar of wood was 3 cubits high, and the length thereof 2 cubits, And the corners thereof is describing the altar, and the length thereof and the walls thereof were of wood. And he said unto me, This is the table that is before the Lord again in the 44th chapter.
Verse 16 They shall enter into my sanctuary, They shall come near to my table.
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To minister unto me, and they shall keep my charge. So even in the Old Testament the altars referred to as Jehovah's table. Now let's look at this principle in verse eighteen of our chapter 10 in First Corinthians. Behold, Israel after the flesh. Are not they which eat of the sacrifices in communion with the altar. Every Jew that brought his sacrifice to that altar of Jerusalem was expressing fellowship.
With the Lord's table, that was where the sacrifices were to be brought. In the prophet Hosea, the sin of Israel is mentioned as having multiplied many altars unto sin. They had many altars. The sin of Jeroboam, the son of Nibak, who made Israel to sin, was to set up two rival centers at Dan and at Bethel, and set up two altars there, denying the basic truth that the Israel is united.
And there's one altar, There's one center.
Denying that. So he skipped with that altar, expressing communion with the Jewish system of worship. He wasn't a Gentile. He was a Jew. And there's three tables in this world. There's the Jewish table, the altar of Jehovah Jerusalem. There's the idol table, table of demons that we're going to read about the Gentile table. And then there was the Lord's table.
Where God's people were and where they remembered the Lord in his death.
Verse 19 He's moving very quickly in his spots. Verse 18 he refers to Israel. Now verse 19, he refers to the Gentiles. What say I then? That the idol is anything or that which is offered in sacrifice to idols as anything. Verse 19 establishes the truth that the idol is nothing and the meat that's offered and sacrificed to idols is just me. It's nothing special.
And so the these Corinthians were were reasoning from this and they said, well, we know the idle stopping, it's just a piece of water, piece of metal, and this is just meat and we can eat it and we can sit there, we know that there's no other God but one and so on. And what Paul is telling them here is this, Yes, that's true, but there's a human behind the idol, there's an evil power that is controlling these Gentiles in their idolatrous worship.
Away from the One, and only through God, so he goes on to say.
Verse 20 But I say that the things that which the Gentiles sacrifice.
They sacrificed the devil so literally to demons and not to go. And I would not that you should have fellowship with demons.
You cannot. This is what they were doing, He's telling them you cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons.
You cannot be partakers of the Lord's table and of the table of demons.
The Demon's Table representing.
The Gentile kind of worship system of worship, and it was, it was hateful to God. The Jewish table, the alternate Jerusalem represented Judaism. The Lord's table, where the Christians were, represented Christianity. You can walk into a town in those early days.
And you could say, where are the Christians? And they'd say, well, they meet over there. Where are the Jews? Where they meet over there? Where do the Gentiles meet? They meet there. There were these three tables. They were.
At issue one with another.
Well, at the serious sense when we break bread.
We break bread in fellowship with the table at which we break the breath. Can you say there's no demons tables today? Not in this land where they don't find anyone worshipping idols here. There are lands that they do that.
And we don't go to the Jewish synagogue or the.
The temple, as they did back then and not Jews, saw someone going to a synagogue. You know he was a Jew. You saw another going to the idol temple. The idol peace. You know, he was a heathen, OK?
Saw someone going through the large table. We knew he was a Christian. He was expressing fellowship, fellowship of the one body.
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Well, these these Corinthians, they were reasoning here in this chapter.
That the contract in the 11Th chapter is the Lord's Supper and their own supper, and here it's the Lord's Table and the table of Phoenix.
And so he says to them in verse 21, he cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. It doesn't mean they weren't able to do it, they were doing it, he said You can't do it with a due sense of what these two tables and these two cups represent. They are mutually exclusive, the one from the other. You cannot be partakers of the Lord's table and of the table of demons.
What we associate ourselves with does matter. It's a very serious thing. We're to give none offense to the Jews or the Gentiles of the Church of God.
What do we have today?
What has happened in that circle that we call Christianity? Kitchen does.
Well, we were looking at it in X20, and let's just turn back there for a moment.
In Acts chapter 20.
Who's 28?
Take heed therefore unto yourselves as Paul is speaking to the Ephesians elders.
And through all the flock over the which the Holy Ghost that made you overseers to feed the Shepherd, the Church of God which you have purchased with his own blood.
But I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves entering among you, not sparing the flock. That's the enemy coming from without, the enemy coming from without, and scattering the flock of Christ.
Also verse 30 Of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them.
That has happened, beloved. There are thousands.
Of sex parties in Christendom.
Calling themselves Christian.
Many drawing away disciples after them.
Can we say that all these divided tables that are out there today?
Can we attach the name of the Lord to all of them?
Is Christ divided? Paul asks the Corinthians. No, of course not.
And so we're faced with.
Discerning. I speak as to wise men judge you what I say. We're faced with the problem of discerning where is the Lord's table today?
Does it? Does it still exist? Yes, it does. It's his table. He maintains it. It must still exist.
The next question we have to ask ourselves is the table at which I break bread, which I express fellowship with, is at the Lord's table. That's the only one I want to be at.
It's not my table, it's his table. He disposes of everything there. He's the head.
He is the director in the spirit of God, guides and directs through all the members.
That's his favorite.
This idea?
This awful, I might almost say blasphemous idea of go to the Church of your choice is to totally ignore all these divisions and these different tables at issue with one another and they doesn't matter.
That's the attitude that Israel had in Hosea. They had multiplied altars to sin and it didn't matter.
Ephraim is a Cape, not turned.
And if we go here and there and various places, we are causing to stumble young ones in the fly by an example that is in direct contrary, it's directly contrary to the truth that there is.
What? Lord Stable, just as there was one.
Alternate rooflight that represents Judaism. This represents Christianity. What is the characteristic feature?
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To be found at the Lord's table.
It is that those who break bread there.
Confess and seek to uphold the truth. There's one body.
And we're all members one of another.
And it's his table. And the Spirit of God is there, and He is the Holy One and the truth.
So that which is not holy and true must be excluded from his favor.
I want to ask you.
Do you take the Lord's Supper at the Lord's faith?
I'm not questioning that many of our brethren in Christendom in system take the Lord's Supper bearing unto the Lord, And you say.
I don't believe they know. Most of them don't the truth of the Lord's table.
The truth that when we break bread at 8 tables, we express fellowship with that table. And if what characterizes that table is not the truth of the one body, it's not the Lords.
How can it be an expression of that truth? When we break bread tomorrow morning, may we remember we are giving expression to the truth that there is one body.
And I'm privileged to sit at his table and take his supper.
That he has given to us to faith.
What a privilege that is, and how solemn it is, and how ought to search our hearts, everyone of us. Am I there where he presides? At the table.
Does this book.
The truth of it. Characterize. That table where I break bread are those who break bread that are not imperfection. None of us is perfect, and we're not going to be while we're here. But is the desire of our hearts to honor him and to glorify him, and to give expression to the truth. There's one.
We're all together.
If someone should arise from amongst us and draw away disciples after them, and set up another table.
Is that the Lords table or is it the table of a man?
Who has set up an independent table to what was to what is the Lord's table?
Today we have the tables of men they are reaching throughout Christendom.
You have a beautiful type in Luke 22, where he said, prepare the Passover before I suffer. Where wilt thou that we prepare? Go into the city, and there you will find a man bearing a pitcher of water. Follow him into the house very soon. He's a beautiful type of the spirit of God, the man the spirit of God. The picture of water is the word of God, the Spirit of God using the word of God to lead and to guide us to the place where the Lord will sit down with his own.
And celebrate the Passover, many instituted the Suffolk.
Let me get that. Don't you want to be there where he is?
I do. I'm sure we all do the desire of our hearts. But to see that the principle of Scripture is that when we break bread at any table, we break bread at, we're expressing fellowship at that table, and all the principles upon which that table has been, has been established and set up.
Is it truly the Lord's table? Does it give expression to the truth of the one body? Does it maintain holiness and truth and righteousness?
Does it magnify and glorify him? Is there the liberty of the Spirit of God to lead and guide and direct anyone in worship and praise and adoration, and getting out of him in reading the Scripture? Is it his table? Does he preside there? And are we all there under the guidance and leadership of the Spirit of God? That's where I want to be.
I'm sure that's what we all want to do.
You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You can't go to this idle table and take that cup and this idle table and the demons table and then go to the Lords table. These are mutually exclusive systems. The one is that which expresses the truth of God and the other is the lie of the devil. You can't mix those two.
00:45:10
And that principle applies to all the divided tables all throughout Christmas. No, I'm not saying those tables are demons tables. No, no, no, no, no.
Go downstairs.
Some of them set up with good intentions.
Well, he says in verse 22. And then we call. Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than He? If they would continue to go on in the practice that they were practicing, the Lord would have to come in and discipline, as He did in the 11Th factor, the way they were going on connection with the supper.
Well, let's just try.
Our God and Father.
We thank you for Thy word. Thank you for the principles of Thy word.
Thank you. There is one Lord's table.
One center of gathering our Lord Jesus Christ. One gathering sent power, the Spirit of God.
And one infallible guide for all of us, thy word.
Without giving us all that is needed to know where we are and why we are there, so we pray thy blessings in each of these dear ones here afternoon, if there's any, who is a member of my body. No, Jesus, friends, by thy precious blood and not breaking bread, they just exercise them that thou is requested that they do so, and express this wonderful truth. Not only the remembrance of himself in death, but how infinitely precious that is.
But the truth that he has a body here, united to himself, on high to the expression of this wonderful truth, there is one life. So we ask that blessing now, giving thanks, and Jesus waiting for that.