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46 in the appendix.
Nsnoise.
Breathing.
Rainforest every day.
I am flying by grace. You've done the same. You don't understand.
Uh.
Free breathing in life.
Nsnoise.
1St Corinthians chapter 10 and verse 15.
I speak as to 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 and one body. Well, we are all partakers of that one bread. Behold Israel after the flesh. Are not they which eat of the sacrifices partakers of the altar?
What's AI then that the idol is anything or that which is offered in sacrifice to idols is anything but? I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice the devils and not to God. And I would not that you should have fellowship with devils. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of devils.
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You cannot be partakers of the Lord's table, and of the table of devils. Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than He? All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient. All things are lawful for me, but all things edify not.
Let no man seek his own, but every man and others well.
Whatsoever is sold in the shambles that eat, ask you no question for conscience sake, For the earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof. If any of them that believe not, bid you to a feast, and ye be disposed to go.
Whatsoever is set before you eat, asking no question for conscience sake. But if any man say unto you, this is offered in sacrifice unto idols.
Eat not for his sake that showed it, and for conscience sake. For the earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof. Conscience I say, not thine own, but of the other. For why is my liberty judge of another man's conscience?
Four or five, by grace, be a partaker. Why am I evil? Spoken of for that for which I give thanks.
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 in all things, not seeking my own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved.
A few minutes to go over a few points in this chapter. Uh, this is we, we said in the first meeting that this is a context. This chapter is in the about the Lord's table. And I like to look at some of these things in the chapter is that which would characterize a believer who is, is at the Lord's table and in verse one.
Going back over some verses, we see that there's a cloud, that cloud that represented the presence of the Lord. Well, in the assembly we have the promise of the Lord's presence, where two or three are gathered together unto my name, there are mine in the midst of them. And so we have the presence of the Lord, and it's the person of the Lord Jesus Christ who's there, who is the one who attracts the believers by the Spirit of God.
And to himself then, we have all were baptized unto Moses.
Uh, you, it's general generally wise that a person is baptized before they are received at the Lord's Table. In Galatians, we're speaking this the other day, Galatians 3 and 27, six or seven, it talks about putting on Christ. And so baptism puts on Christ.
And it identifies you with Christ. And so if you don't want to be identified with Christ, if you don't want to be baptized.
Then why would you want to be at the Lord's table? And so it's important for a person to be baptized baptism here, it's putting a person in relationship to Moses as their leader. Well, in Christian baptism, we are in relation with Christ as our leader. And then we then we have the spiritual verse three, we have the same spiritual meat. So we have the word of God. And so the things that represent the Lord's table should be.
Done in the unity of the Spirit, it should be done in accordance with the word of God. And then we have the spiritual drink has been mentioned about the Spirit of God and how he guides and directs. Then we have the spiritual rock to be the foundation of the assembly. And then we get down into verse 5 and it talks about with many of them. God was not well pleased for their overthrow in the wilderness and it goes on with several points that we went over.
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In the last meeting. And so I like to look at this as being a responsibility of the assembly to keep the Lord's Table clean. There's things here that don't belong at the Lord's Table. The evil things, the idolaters, the fornication, the tempting Christ and murmuring these, a lot of these things, they don't belong at the Lord's Table. And so if that's what characterizes a person who claims to be a Christian.
They don't belong at the Lord's table. And then we get down to verse.
Verse 13.
There hath no temptation taken you, but such is common to man. But God is faithful. And so these things we have in verse six through 10, there's 10 things there that would tempt a person to drag us away from giving glory to the person of the Lord Jesus and to dishonor his name. And they're the Wiles of the devil, those things that he would tempt us with. But God is faithful. God is faithful to be.
Be there to, to help us through these temptations and to overcome them. He gives, he gives us all the resources we need to be able to overcome those temptations. And then we get down into, into communion and the Lord's, the Lord's table. So I just want to make those few comments before we started.
In verse 15 he says, I speak as to wise men, judge ye what I say. He wants to awaken their thinking to take these things properly. And it is important to have a clear understanding of where we are, brethren, not just to speak about it, but to have a clear understanding about it.
And then he goes on in verse 16.
To 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 and one body, For we are all partakers of that one bread.
So here we have.
Brethren, what is characteristic of the Lord's Table? It's a place of fellowship, a place of communion, and it mentions first of all the communion of the blood of Christ before it mentions the communion of the body of Christ. Why is that?
Because that's our title to be there, the blood of Christ. That's really what gives us our place at the Lord's table. And so when he mentions here the Lord's table, we find that the cup is mentioned 1St and then the the loaf. When we go to the 11Th chapter and he takes up the Lord's Supper, it's reversed because there the the loaf has a little different significance than it does in our chapter.
And I think it's helpful to see that. So as Bob said, we have here the Lord's table. Our title to be at the Lord's table is the blood of Christ. That is when someone comes and wants to remember the Lord Jesus in the breaking of bread, partake of the Lord's Supper at the Lord's table. The first thing we want to make sure is that they are redeemed by the blood of Christ, that they are saved, that the blood of Christ has been applied in their in their life and that that the number one criteria.
And so we have the cup, but then here in our chapter where he takes, he's taking up the Lord's table, the loaf here it has to do not so much with the physical body of the Lord Jesus, but it is the body of Christ made-up of every believer alive on the face of the earth at a given time. So tomorrow morning when we sit down to at the Lord's table, we're going to find not more, not two loaves on the table.
It's not gonna be wafers or crackers. It's gonna be one loaf. And why is it one loaf? Because that one loaf to the to God and I trust to us, represents every believer alive on the face of the earth at that time. There is one body as fragmented as things have become outwardly with Christians in various pockets and fellowships of Christendom and divided outwardly. It does not change the truth of Ephesians 4. There is one body. And brethren, tomorrow when we look at that loaf, we need to look at it the way God looks at it so and the way the Lord looks at it, because that loaf will not just represent those of us who are here in this room.
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Nor will that loaf represent just those who practically express the truth of the one body in the breaking of bread. That loaf will represent to God and I trust to us, every believer alive on the face of the earth. And if we don't see it that way, we become narrow and sectarian in our view. So that is the context of the loaf in our chapter. Now just to complete the thought.
The loaf in the 11Th chapter, where it's a question of the Lord's Supper.
There when we break the bread, it is to be a reminder of the Lord's body given in death for us. And there we find that the loaf is given 1St and then the cup, because on the cross the separation of the blood from the body was the proof of death. And not only that, but this is the way the Lord instituted it, the low 1St and the cup separate. And that is the way we always celebrate it. So I think it's helpful to see those little differences.
And why the the cup is mentioned first in our chapter and the significance of the loaf being different from the significance of the loaf in the next chapter?
Uh, behind Bob there, Sorry with the name, I can't pull it up, but spoke about moral and by basically chronological, I believe would be the other term and I believe wouldn't that also fit here because in Chapter 11.
The body was first before he had given up, and then the flood blood flowed out from the spear. That chronological and this one here is moral. Am I correct in my line of thinking?
Could put it that way. I I agree. I just reiterate what's been said. The blood comes first here because that is what.
Qualifies us to be at the table. I think we need to recognize too that this is a part of Paul's doctrine. It's unique to the teaching of the apostle Paul, and God gave the apostle Paul this as revelation. We might turn to 1St Corinthians 11 and just read that he says in verse 23.
For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you. And then he goes, and he gives us those details. Now we have historically this.
The Lord's Supper, given to us by the Lord Jesus himself. He instituted it, and historically we're told in different aspects of it in a sense in those three gospels that we have. But Paul tells us the doctrinal significance.
Of the loaf and of the cup, as we have here, and the basis of our fellowship and the cost of our fellowship, the restoration of fellowship between man and God, and our fellowship at the Lord's table. It cost God the blood of His Son to bring us back into fellowship with Himself and on a righteous basis, as those that are redeemed with the precious blood of Christ and a part of the body of Christ.
Now we are in suited to be in fellowship with him might just point out as a little bit of a an outline so that we don't get confused as versus 16 and 17. Take up the fellowship of those that are Christians and at the Lord's table and he speaks as Bob began in when he spoke of those verse 15. I speak as to wise men, those that are believers.
Those that are indwelled with the Spirit of God and that have wisdom. There were, and it was alluded to this morning, possibly those that were lost did not have Christ as Savior and they were there and in a religious way perhaps. And but he spoke to those that had discernment and were wise and they could understand what he was saying. But there's a Christian communion spoken of here. And then in verse 18, he speaks of the Jewish communion.
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The Jewish altar, the means of approach that the Jews had when they came and offered their sacrifices to God. But then he also speaks in verses 19 and 20 of the Pagan sacrifices and that whole scheme of things, and none of them were to be mixed. Christianity is unique and is not an addition or an improvement on Judaism. It's entirely unique.
And so that's the apostle Paul. It's a part of Paul's doctrine, and we never get it in Peter's doctrine or anyone else's, anyone in the other apostles in connection with the doctrinal significance of these emblems and what they mean to the believer. And so we ought to distinguish it in that way in our own minds and enjoy it for what it is. So everyone that is voiced with that precious blood of Christ.
And a member of the body of Christ has a place at the Lord's table. Whether they are there or not is another matter, but they have a place there. And, and it's to be something that we should be exercised about. If you are a believer in the Lord Jesus, you have been washed with that precious blood. The price of redemption has been paid, and you are a member of that body.
That one body of Christ. It's a significant truth of this dispensation. By 1 Spirit we are all baptized into one body. In Chapter 11 in the Lord's Supper, we show the Lord's death till he come. In chapter 10 at the Lord's Table, we show our fellowship as members of the body of Christ.
How do I show that I'm a member of the body of Christ?
Tomorrow, as we break bread and that loaf is broken and passed from one to another, I take a piece and I eat it. I am saying in that way that I am a member of the body of Christ. That's why we say sometimes, brethren, that there's a testimony in a certain place, because in the breaking of bread we show the Lord's death until he come in the Lord's Supper, and we show our fellowship as members of the body of Christ.
In the Lord at the Lord's Table, it's a place of fellowship, wonderful place of fellowship, rather than I often think if you were invited to the White House to have dinner with the president, wouldn't that be a tremendous thing? We're talking about something far greater than that. The Lord of Glory has said he wants us to remember him until he comes again.
I say to you young people who perhaps haven't taken your place at the Lord's table, do you understand the wonderful place that has been?
One for you. What would you think if I went into the president's table? He had invited me. I have the letter of invitation and I go in and there's my place set at the table and I take my seat and I pull it off into a corner.
And I sit down over there.
What would you think of me?
Maybe I'll say I just don't feel worthy of this place. That would be a pretty serious thing to do. What are you doing? The Lord of Glory has said this Do in remembrance of me until I come. But it's to be done in fellowship and as such it needs more than one to do it. It is. And like the look it says in Matthew 18, where 2.
Or three, the minimum of plurality, because we are one body. It's a collective thing, brethren, that we are showing.
There is a wood throughout this portion of two woods that are very important, and the word is translated communion, partaker, and fellowship. And in the Greek there's two different words. One means simply to share in the other is a much stronger word. It's a means to have fellowship with. And as we mentioned that every true believer has a place at the Lord's table, but there are things that can disqualify us from being there.
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And one of those things is to have fellowship with things that are contrary to the Lord's table. So 3 examples are given the Lord's and, and Bob, uh, mentioned this already, the Lord's table, the, uh, the Jewish altar, in particular, the peace offering where the offer also partook of that offering and then an offering to an idol. In each case, you simply had to be a partaker. That was a weak expression means sharing in it.
But in sharing in one of those things, you had fellowship with what that altar stood for. This is something that is completely lost upon people in Christendom. They want to remember the Lord as an individual thing, something that they do.
For, and it could be expressed in a variety of ways because the Lord asked them, because I, I, I want necessary put words into their mouth. But as is being said, the the remembrance of the Lord is a collective thing. In the next chapter you find ye do show. It is plural. It is ye show and is much less a remembering as it is a remembrance. November 11Th. And I've said this before and I always feel like I sound like a broken record when I reiterate things.
But November 11Th is Remembrance Day. It's a day about remembering fallen soldiers and and honoring them. And that is the sense of which it is a memorial. We have a remembrance and in it we do remember for ourselves what the Lord has done. But it's a showing as a let me just read from the next chapter because it makes it easier. It says for as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till he comes.
Umm.
There's another expression which I'm not seeing right now, but I think it's so important we understand that when we partake, simply share it.
That low we're identifying with those that we are remembering the Lord with. Eating is an expression of fellowship. The man of God and 1St Kings chapter 13, he was told not to eat or drink, to deliver his message and leave because to eat or drink was an expression of fellowship and he was not to have fellowship with that which was contrary to the message which he was delivering. And just one other point that was disconnected. Tell us what happened to him when he did that.
Umm, if I remember rightly, the lion ate him. He killed him anyhow.
Yeah, excuse me, sorry. Uh, just one other thing that I found helpful. We had Ezra before us in the meeting before Haggy. I strictly, but it was the time of Ezra. Umm, the book of Ezra, I should say. We find there that as I said, I don't remember the number you you said Bill, how many came back at that time 50,000 roughly 50,000 and yet when they offered to the Lord.
Umm, it says there.
And again, I'm probably not going to be able to put my finger on it. Well, chapter 6, verse 17 says.
Says and often at the dedication of the house that got 100 bullets and 200 Rams.
400 lambs and for a sin offering for all Israel 12 egos according to the number of the tribes of Israel, even though all the tribes of Israel were not represented. I don't know how many times I have been told that we cannot give expression to the one body unless we invite everyone to be in fellowship. Or do we have to be in practical fellowship with everybody? Numbers are not what count.
In.
The Lord's Table.
In what we have in our chapter in First Corinthians 10, that loaf is what gives expression to the one body, and in partaking of it we.
Uh, give an expression to the one body. It's not about numbers.
And and someone else can.
Help me out on these things and explain it no doubt much better.
The body of Christ is a wonderful reality, the unity of the body of Christ, and as you say, we express it in that one loaf that's on the table.
But, uh, I just wanted to say for the sake of the young people, not to be critical of other groups of believers, but there is a, uh, fellowship of believers that we know as the open fellowship. Many real true believers in that fellowship. I know many of them.
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But the principle they meet on is that every assembly is independent and autonomous. That is in their doctrine. That's what they teach. I've seen it in their booklets. And that is a practical denial of the unity of the body of Christ. What is true about the body is its unity. And when we sit down to break bread.
There should be unity based on what the apostles doctrine is and fellowship. And then comes the breaking of bread when we show that unity. And so I can't say to my finger here, I'm going to chop it off and you should work over there independently. That's not the truth of the body of Christ.
We are. I like to use the word we are interdependent, not independent. Brethren, there is no such thing as independence in the body of Christ. We are interdependent. And when it comes to questions of discipline and an assembly, God has set authority in the local assembly to deal with problems and we re recognize that, but it doesn't mean that they are.
Independent of us. And that's why when there are problems, we feel it.
And we should pray for that. We should try to be a help in whatever way we can. So it's not independence, brother. And they can't say keep out of here. I have my own thoughts about this. No, we are interdependent, brother. And these are things that are very important as to the testimony as we go on together in the fellowship of the body of Christ. And that's what we have here.
Fellowship of the blood of Christ, and then the fellowship of the body of Christ. And verse 17 makes it very clear.
How we show that fellowship by being partakers of that one bread. Remember one time.
That quite a number of years ago in Toronto, Canada, we had a conference and I think they said there was 1200 present. That was quite a large group and I still remember on the table the largeness of the loaf. It had to be large so that all there could partake.
And show that fellowship of the body of Christ wonderful privilege, brethren, that we enjoy together.
Just a comment or two again on the cup, because it's called a cup of blessing here and we don't want to confuse it with the cup that the Lord Jesus spoke of that he drank. You know, the Lord Jesus when he instituted the Feast of Remembrance, he didn't drink of the cup that he passed to the disciples because it was a cup of blessing and joy and the Lord Jesus was going, was going to face the cross and that awful, the awful reality.
Of not just what he was going to suffer at the hand of man, but what he was going to suffer at the hand of God.
In those hours of darkness. And so he said, The cup which my father hath given me, shall I not drink it?
But don't confuse it with this cup. This is a cup of joy. And sometimes, and, and I think sometimes it's just a slip of the tongue or it's just not fully understanding when a brother gives thanks on Lord's Day morning. Sometimes there's a little fuzziness in connection with the mention of these different cups. The cup that the Lord Jesus drank on Calvary's cross was a cup of judgment, and it was indeed a cup of sorrow.
But this cup that represents to us the blood of Christ, it's a cup of blessing because as Robert said earlier, all our blessings depend on the blood of the Lord Jesus. God has always taught from the very beginning of man's history of sin.
That the way of blessing and fellowship is based on the death and the shedding of blood of an innocent victim.
And in John's epistle he takes up this subject of fellowship and communion.
In one John chapter one and verse three, he says truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.
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Then in the seventh verse he says, we have fellowship one with another, so we are brought in to fellowship.
With the Father and the Son, and as a result in fellowship with one another. And what's the basis? And the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. That's the real context of that verse. We often pull out the end of that verse and use it in the gospel, and rightly so. But in its context, what he's saying is the basis for fellowship with the Father, the Son, and with one another is the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And so it is a cup of blessing, brethren, we never want to forget that. The ground of all our blessing and fellowship.
Is the fact that the Lord Jesus shed his blood on Calvary's cross and it's gonna be the the theme of the eternal song?
Perhaps, uh, make one more comment on the uh.
For the Lord's Supper, umm, it's not in our chapter here, but in the following chapter just to make this.
Plain to each of us what it means to the Lord.
For us to remember him and his death, uh, Lamentations chapter 3, I'm going to read from the Darby's translation. Just, uh.
Uh, free verse this year?
Sorry, 2 verses Lamentations chapter 3, verse 19. You don't. You missed the thought in the King James, but I'll read it here.
Uh, probably. Uh, sorry. Limitations Chapter 3, verse 19, remember?
Thou mine affliction and my wandering, the Wormwood and the gull.
Then he speaks of himself, my soul have them constantly in remembrance, and it's humbled in me. The wound and the Lord Jesus his hands and then inside and then his feet.
The pain and suffering that he went through on that cross is going to be forever fresh in his mind.
And he asked you, and I remember him.
Not just to remember him in our minds, but to have this little testimony.
It's not a worship meeting, it's a remembrance meeting, but there's three things that should flow from it when we get them in First Corinthians 11.
And, uh, first.
24.
I'll get the first one.
OK, OK, we see in verse 24 here it says, uh, the end of the verse, this due in remembrance of me. This is the person of the Lord Jesus himself.
When a true believer who's been born again and has been dwelt with the Holy Spirit.
When they see Jesus for who he is, response in the heart worship.
There's another thing.
It says in uh.
Uh verse UH-26 For as often as he eats his bread and drink his cup, either show the Lord's death till he comes.
This is what He has done. When we see what again, as a believer, he's been born again, He's been dwelt with the Spirit of God. When we see what the Lord Jesus has done in perfection to the glory of God the Father, response will be praised and will be praised coming in the remembrance meeting. And there's one more thing and that has to do with you and I.
If this doesn't touch you.
If if we've been safe.
We've been washed by that blood.
Each one of us.
Have part of this. It says verse 24 just above what I read before. It says this is my body which is broken for you.
There ought to be Thanksgiving coming from us because you and I would have no place. We would have no place here.
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You would have no hope ever if it were not for what that worked with the Lord Jesus sit on that cross did to redeem you and I. And he's asking us to remember it. And he's telling us that He Himself will always have this in remembrance before him. The Creator of the universe will not forget the day where He went to that cross and shed his blood for your sins.
Look at, uh, one more verse in Revelations chapter 5.
Umm, I'll look at the few different verses here. Umm, verse 9, Revelation chapter 5. And verse 9. Thou art worthy to take the book and to open the fields thereof, for thou wast flame, and hath redeemed to God by the blood out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation, and so on. And verse 13.
Uh, there's a new, uh, there's a new, there's a new song here and it says every.
Preacher, which is in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I say, blessing and honor and glory and power be unto him that sitteth upon the throne and unto the Lamb forever and ever. It's going to be our joy and privilege to bring honor and glory to the Lord Jesus forever for that worth that he did on the cross, and he's given us the privilege to start now.
And it's a privilege we only have for this life, isn't it? It's not something we're going to do in glory because, as you say, we're going to see unhinderedly the Lamb as it had been slain. We're going to view those wounds in his hands and his feet and in his side. And it was mentioned, I believe, in the first meeting when we took up the subject of baptism, that God has given us two things. Or let me, let me back up. God always gives us a way that we can give expression to what is in our hearts.
Because I might say I want to follow the Lord and own the Lordship of of Christ in my life, but I've never been baptized. I have. God has given me a way in the institution of baptism where I can give expression to that.
As to as to testimony, and then in the breaking of bread.
Again, people say, well, I can remember the Lord in my heart. Well, that's true. We ought to remember the Lord in our heart every day of our lives. But I've often wished that in our Bibles, in the verse that has been referred to in the 11Th chapter, the 26th verse. I often wish that the word eat and drink were printed just a little bit bigger and perhaps in capital letters. Because God has given us something that we can do to show, to give testimony to this world that cast him out and spit in his face and still hates him.
That we desire to honor the dying request of the One who loved us and gave himself for us. There's something He has asked us to do, and that is to eat and to drink. Tomorrow morning, if we're left here, a loaf and a cup are going to be passed down the rows. And you might say, well, I remember the Lord in my heart, but are you going to, in loving response to the Lord Jesus, eat of that loaf and drink of that cup?
He, he desires that we would not only be present tomorrow when the breaking of bread takes place, but his desire is that we would eat and drink. And as Bob said at the end of the last meeting, it's till he come. God never asked us to do anything that he isn't going to maintain a scriptural ground on which to do it because as we said earlier, sometimes people say, well, it doesn't matter and there are many who break bread.
There are many who remember the Lord, but there is a place where we can, I believe, give expression to more than that. A place where we cannot just break bread, but we can partake of the Lord's Supper at the Lord's table. And sometimes I hear people say, well, I trust I'm where the Lord wants me to be. It would be better to say I want to be where the Lord is because as soon as I say where the Lord is.
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I recognize in my soul that there is already a place established, a place where He is in the midst, a place referred to as the Lord's Supper. And as soon as I realize that there is a place on earth where the Lord Jesus is in the midst and where I can sit down at His table, then He wants to bring me there. If I truly recognize this and have the desire to be there, then there's the man bearing the picture of water to lead me to that very place.
There is a place I don't wanna be just where the Lord wants me to be. I trust, I desire to be where the Lord is and that He will lead me or has led me to that place.
To you there you touched on 1St Corinthians 11 and verse 28. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat.
Uh, many younger Christian will ask questions and I've often said that this scripture does not say.
Let him manage, examine himself, and stay at home.
Yes, we heard this morning very good passage earlier this afternoon. I guess it would have been in the address And, uh, consider your ways here to examine. And, uh, we have to remember that if we confess our sins that God is just insured to forgive, isn't he? And that's why it says and so letting me it doesn't say examine yourself and stay at home, does it? And, uh, so therefore I look sometimes at the words quote this do and remembrance of me UN quote.
As a direct command, the same as be baptized. In other words, he only gives me two direct commands.
Being baptized in this doing remember to me, yes, my heart has to be with the right way and lamentations chapter three of the.
Verse it is.
The the verse is about waiting, Uh.
Different chapters in three and then the patients. My soul is we have waited for thee. And maybe I'm thinking of a different passage and I can't afford it right now. I'm sorry that I just slipped on that.
And then and what you mentioned in in First Corinthians 11, we examine ourselves, but when we come back to chapter 10, we examine those that are in fellowship. And I think that's a important difference between the two chapters as well. So when we come down to verse 18, he says, behold, Israel after the flesh, are not they which eat of the sacrifices?
Partakers of the altar. What say I then? That the idol is anything or that which is sacrificed in I in uh, offered and sacrificed to idols is anything but. I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice the devils to demons and not to God. And I would not have that. You should have fellowship with demons in connection with idolatry if you go back to Second Chronicles chapter.
11 I just wanna point this out because it's something that we perhaps in the Americas or in North America at least, don't, uh, catch always. But in Second Chronicles, Chapter 11, speaking about Jeroboam, who split off with the 10 tribes and set up to calves, one in the north and one in the South, and set up an altar there.
Notice what it says, uh, verse 14 in the middle of the verse, Jeroboam and his sons had cast them off from being, from executing the priest's office unto the Lord. And he that's Jeroboam, ordained him priests for the high places and for the devils or the demons and for the calves which he had made. In Scripture, idolatry is connected with demons.
And demon worship, it's a very serious thing, and we don't sometimes grasp the seriousness of it. Now, in Corinth there were idle temples.
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And, you know, the Greeks were famous for their array of different gods, and they had their idol temples and the idol perhaps up in the front of the temple with an altar in front of it and then a table inside where they could eat of the things sacrificed, those idols. It wasn't merely idolatry. There was demon influence in connection with it, very serious. Could there be fellowship between demons and the Lord?
Supposing a brother in fellowship in Corinth was going down the street one day and passing by a de uh, idle temple, he sees one of his work, work companions sitting at the table in there. And he calls out to him and said, I know you're an evangelical, but you, you don't have to bow down to the island. Just come down, come in here and sit down. I'll give you a nice piece of meat to eat.
Could he do that?
No, he couldn't. Why not?
Because in sitting down there, he was showing fellowship with everything that went on in that place with demons. Now it comes to the Lord's Table and he comes to the Lord's Table. If he's going to come to the Lord's Table having partaken of the table of demons, what is he saying in effect? That there's fellowship between those two tables? Is that possible?
Impossible. So these are things we need to think through, brother.
It's not that every table in Christendom is a table of demons. Demons tables are where there is idolatry. Yes, there are sectors of Christendom where idols are in existence.
But there's a principle there that we want to get a hold of that going from one table to the next shows fellowship between those two places.
Last weekend I broke bread in in uh Montero, Bolivia. In the weekend before in Santiago, Chile.
I carry my letter of commendation if there's any question, how can I break bread? I hope to break bread tomorrow here in Saint Louis, because it's the same fellowship, the fellowship of the body of Christ, the fellowship of the blood of Christ, wonderful privilege.
But it shows that we need to be careful.
Who is partaking?
I know a very evangelical group here in the United States. In their Sunday school curriculum, they definitely teach that the Lord Jesus could have sinned if he would wanted to.
Well, there are people that may come from that denomination and want to break bread with us. What are we going to say if we allow them to break bread? We are saying that we are in full fellowship with them. No, brethren, there has to be distinctions made, and these are principles that help us to see why we don't receive on a moment's notice just anybody. There has to be evidence.
That doctrinally, morally as well that there's purity and their connections are not disqualifying them. These are principles here in this part they Paul takes this from the Old Testament scripture of Jeroboam and he says they that eat of the sacrifices are partakers of the altar and when Jeroboam set up those.
Two calves, one in the north and one in the South. Let's suppose a godly Israelite in the north.
Says, well, it's time to take my sacrifice to the Lord. And on the way to Jerusalem, which is a long way off, he passes this other sack, this other altar that Jeroboam set up.
Well, maybe it's too far up to Jerusalem. There's an altar here. Maybe I can offer my sacrifice here. I don't believe in that idol that I just offered my sacrifice to the Lord here. Could he do that?
No, why not? Because if he offered his sacrifice and partook of the altar, there he was connecting himself with all that took place in that in that place. Brother, these are principles that Scripture speaks about clearly, and they're extremely important in connection with the Lord's Table. When it comes to the eating of food offered to idols, perhaps it's all very clear.
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So the Lord gives another example and that was an Israelite that ate at the altar who established that who God established that that wasn't false. That was established by God that had been set aside in Hebrews 13, it says there in verse 10, but we have an altar where they have no right to eat which serves the Tabernacle had been set aside. So it was not right even though it had was right in its time. You could not eat a Jewish also and then remember the the Lord that the Lord's table, it was umm putting.
Bringing those things together into fellowship, that which had been set aside and that which had now been established. Because the Lord Jesus, when he presented himself to that Jewish nation, they basically said we have no place for you in our system. And they took him outside the camp of Israel and they nailed him to the cross. And so we are called out of that Jewish system.
Two cups, a cup our Lord drank and a cup of blessings. The distinction between them. Matthew 26. Our Lord is going to drink a cup in the coming Kingdom, isn't he? They'll be the King's cup. I will not drink until he comes. Now that's beautiful to see that he's gonna drink a different cup in the future. The verse I was looking for was in Isaiah 26. It was the desire of our soul is to thy name and to the remembrance of thee. Quite often read.
But I couldn't think of a few minutes ago. So what we are to exclude from our lives and from collective fellowship at the Lord's table is evil and that which is not according to the mind of God. You know, I'll say this and I I believe it's a true statement. I want to say it carefully. We are never told in Scripture to separate from true believers. What we are told to separate from is that which is evil or sin. And if that means there are true believers, I can't go along in full fellowship with.
Then so be it. But it is not that we exclude. Sometimes we're called exclusive brethren. It's not that we exclude individuals from the Lord's table that are truly saved. We ex we are to exclude evil. It's like my children. I remember sometimes they would come to the dinner table and their hands were filthy or their shirt was dirty and they'd say, well, Dad, it doesn't really matter. Well, yes, it did matter to me.
It wasn't that I excluded my children from my table, but I did send them off to change their shirt. I did send them off to use some soap and water and then tell them their place is back there. And so brethren, these are serious things. They're God's principles. The great, the great spirit of the age today is tolerance, and it seeps in amongst the Christian for the believers, whatever the spirit of the age is.
It tends to eventually, if we're not careful, affect the people of God and even those gathered to the Lord's name.
We cannot tolerate evil, we cannot tolerate ecclesiastical connections where there's sin is unjudged or there's false doctrine that is held and taught. And so we must exclude sin. God has always taught that the basis for fellowship is that sin is put away. God cannot dwell with his people where there's indifference to sin and sin is allowed. And so at Corinth they were allowing these things that the Lord's table.
And they were too, yes, Put away that wicked person from them. Why? Because he was connecting himself. He was connected with evil. I believe it was moral evil here. But the principle stands with ecclesiastical and doctrinal evil. So it is evil if we're accused of being exclusive? Yes, we are, in the sense that we are to exclude evil if we are going to claim to have the Lord's presence at the Lord's table. And brethren.
It is normal Christianity for a Christian to be at the Lord's Table, and yet how few there are, are are there. I'm going to tell you a little story that really touched my heart. On more than one occasion my wife and I have had the opportunity and privilege of standing in the evening at the meningitis Belgium and the men in Georgia on the men and gate on stone tablets are on the the fringe of Flanders fields.
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Are engraved engraved 56,000 names of men and women that were never found to bury in Flanders fields from the Great Wars. 56,000 names. But what is remarkable is that every night they missed two nights during the Second World War because there was fighting so close it wasn't safe. But since the First World War, every night. I'm not talking about once a week or on a special occasion.
But every night there is a ceremony held and they say there's never less than about 300 people for that ceremony. And I remember one time we were there on a special occasion when there was a contingency of, of folks from Britain and they were laying some wreaths to commemorate some special battle and, and victory and so on. And I looked around, I saw quite a few elderly people in the audience. And the tears were coming down their faces. And they weren't, they weren't ashamed.
Because they either had family members who had suffered and died in in in the war or some connection with the war and there they were to remember those who had died. And it happens every night of the year.
That morning that we were there on a Lord's Day evening, that morning we had sat down in men in Belgium and remember the Lord with six brothers and I thought what a contrast.
I thought of that incident, little story in Ecclesiastes about the poor wise man who delivered the city, and no one remembered that poor wise man. Is that going to be you and me tomorrow? Is there someone here? And you've put away evil in your life. You're not going along with any moral or doctrinal evil. You're not connected with an ecclesiastical system that would hinder you from being there. You're going on for the Lord, but you're gonna sit here.
Tomorrow as we we sing hymns concerning the death of the Lord Jesus, His person and work as Scripture is read, as things are expressed in worship and praise and Thanksgiving.
And you're gonna let the loaf and the cup go by. No one remembered that, poor wise man. Hundreds of people will show up at Cenotaphs on November 11Th. Hundreds of people every night at the Menengate. But no one remembered that poor wise man. Brethren, I trust that as we have taken this, these verses, that very feebly we've scratched the surface. But brother, and I trust that it has spoken to your heart and mind and for those of us.
Who have remembered the Lord for many years in the breaking of bread.
I trust that as we sit down tomorrow, it won't be just something that's routine. You know, it can be something that's just routine, something I just do because another Lord's Day has rolled around. But I trust it will truly touch our hearts again. Like to make one other comment about the loaf in the cup. When the Lord Jesus chose a loaf of bread and fruit of the vine, he chose two things.
That he knew would be accessible at very little cost, with very little difficulty in any age, in any part of the world. Now, I've had the privilege of sitting down and remembering the Lord Jesus in the breaking of bread with my brethren in various pockets of the world. And some have, others have here too, and we have broken bread with a loaf. Doesn't always look like the loaf we break bread with here in North America. But in some form, the brethren as poor as they are, they've been able to obtain a loaf of bread.
In some form they've been able to obtain fruit of the vine, and I remember the Lord with a number of things that are fruit of the vine, but perhaps, again, not exactly what we'd have. Just tell you a little story. I know there's Egyptian brethren here, but in Egypt very difficult in a Muslim country to get wine. So what do they do? They boil raisins and pour off the syrup, and that's what they remember the Lord with. But I say again, he's made it accessible.
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To us, even at this late date, and I know it's a little bit out of context, but I think of the verse raised by Naeem and servants so long ago. If he had asked thee to do some hard thing, what he would thou not have done it? Brethren, has he asked us to do some hard thing? Has he asked us to obtain emblems that are difficult and costly to secure? No, He's made it so simple and his request is then.
This do in remembrance of me Chapter 11. We've spoken of the need of judging ourselves. Uh, verse uh.
Verse 31 if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged. Chapter 10 As I say again, we judge those we have fellowship with and I I know that that is something that is shield away from in today's world, you shouldn't judge anybody.
Brethren, we are responsible to judge, not inward things.
Motives, it says in chapter four of First Corinthians, judge nothing before the time until the Lord come, who will show the kitten things of darkness and bring to light the motives of the heart. Those things we do not judge, but we're talking about outward things that are very evident. I see a tree with apples on it, I make a judgment. That's an apple tree. And so we should judge those things.
That are not right. And when it's in connection with something that is uh, connected with idolatry, we should shy away from it. Why do we do that? Because of some norms that we have.
No, brethren, it's because we're talking about the fellowship of the Lord's table. What a privilege that it is for us, the Lord of glory. Brethren, I honestly believe when we get home to glory, we're gonna look back and we'll say the greatest privilege we enjoyed in this life.
Was sitting down at the Lord's table to remember Him in his death. What a tremendous privilege, but its responsibility too. And to not allow that which brings dishonor to His precious name. Because He is the Lord. He is the one that sets the norms at this place, not we, but He.
And what excuse will we give the Lord if we didn't remember him? When you look into his face, if you haven't remembered him in the breaking of bread, what are you going to say to him? He's going to say I provided everything it was available. Are you going to have the joy of knowing that while you were here you answered to that request, or are you going to have to hang your head, say, Lord, I didn't do it, but it you'll give him no good reason when you stand at the judgment seat of Christ. And so.
It's a tremendous privilege, as we've been saying, and again, it's a privilege that's only given to us for this life. We won't need a loaf and a cup on the table when we get to heaven. But in the meantime, he says this, do in remembrance of me you do show the Lord's death till he come. That is stable.
#40.
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Uh, but I mean, uh.
Nsnoise.
Is our place #21 just the second verse to the same tune?
We also sing just the last verse of 146, verse 3 of 146.