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Us through the worst we roam.
The printer.
We are not far from all.
Is the cup of the Lord, and what is the table of the Lord?
I know I've heard these expressions for.
All of my life.
And yet this is the only place in scripture that we have the expression the Lords Table of the Table of the Lord.
And from scripture.
From Stretcher, what do we gather to be the table of the Lord?
I know it is.
Associated with back to 18 were two or three are gathered together. That expression especially gathered together in my name. There am I amidst of them.
Association.
Time little expression we have in Chapter 11.
I can find it here. Yes, verse 20 when you come together, therefore into one place.
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And perhaps there's other associations that are made with the Lords table, but.
I had a little challenge myself recently in.
Allow me to.
To express a rather great weakness. But the Lord has encouraged us, I think this morning to acknowledge our weakness and expect to bless them.
And that is if I were to pick up the Bible and the Bible only.
And to describe what the Lords table is.
I found myself wanting.
And I would like to leave this meeting this morning.
Filled with understanding.
I suggest we read some of the verses surrounding this verse. Bruce.
Perhaps from verse?
13 through 22, would that be suitable?
A question about whether the subject is suitable.
For a congregation this large.
Let me tell you what I was burdened about before we go on.
And the 11Th Psalm, verse three, if the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?
The Foundation.
The foundations are being destroyed.
I was thinking of quite different than Bruce's thoughts.
Genesis 1-2 and three.
The very foundation of our faith.
Is based upon God. Number one is the Creator.
And then as the Redeemer.
And I'm not suggesting we take that up this morning. Maybe this afternoon if the Lord still leads.
But.
There's no part of the Bible that has been attacked more than the 1St 11 Chapters in Genesis.
And if you destroy that?
Destroyed the whole word of God.
If the foundation is destroyed, what can the righteous do?
And it's so important with evolution being taught as an established scientific fact. And it's a, it's a, it's a lie.
And that we should, we should know from the word of God where we came from, how we got here. I think everyone does know this, but the young people are being flooded with error in their schools and so on over and over again being presented. I remember when I was a young believer, I was afraid to look into the subject of evolution because it was presented as a scientific fact.
And I was afraid that would destroy my faith in the Bible. With being the kind of person that I am, I had to look into it. And when I looked into it, I just gave a great sigh of relief. There was nothing there. It was a lie of the devil.
We've got the Word of God and the Lord Jesus. If the if the first chapters in Genesis aren't true, the Lord Jesus is a liar.
And all the references to that first book in the Bible in the New Testament is false.
So we have to, we have to realize it's not just that one portion, but what does that affect? It affects everything. Anyway, I'm just unburdening my my soul to you as I woke up this morning. That scripture that the foundations be destroyed. What should the righteous do?
I was talking to a young man on the.
The phone and he made some comment he was a Christian about Genesis 1, which I couldn't agree with.
But.
I don't know. I would say that if we do look into what Bruce brings before us, we shouldn't take a lot of time.
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Some things sometimes are better felt than tell, someone said. And So what a what a blessing it is that John was on the Isle of Patmos and he says I was in the spirit on the Lords day. And so on the Lords day, to be assembled and to be at the Lord's Table where the authority of the Lord is owned, and to partake of the Lord's Supper. I think I mentioned one time how that I saw an elderly brother.
Go to give thanks at the table, I thought to myself. Now I wonder if this has become commonplace within how many times and let's say he's 60 years old, Say he broke red 50 times a year and multiply them running these mathematics.
I was contemplating this. He got up and broke the bridge with tears streaming down his face. That's why I thought, well, it doesn't become commonplace.
Every Lord's day that we're there to remember the Lord in his death, it's just as though it was the first time we were over there to remember him in his death.
There are folks that we look upon as having left the Lord's Table and they themselves look at us as if we have left the Lords Table, so I think it's a good subject to take up.
We want to be sure.
Not that I'm doubting.
What portion would you suggest we'd look at to?
See.
It was suggested that we read it from the 11Th verse, First Corinthians 10.
Beginning 11 to 20 seconds.
1St Corinthians 10 of verse 11 Now all these things happened unto them, for example, and they are written for admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come. Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth. Take heed lest he fall. There hath no temptation taken you.
But such as is common to man, but God is faithful who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able.
But will with the temptation also make a way to escape, as you may be able to bear it. Wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry. 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.
For we are all partakers of that one bread.
Behold Israel after the flesh. Are they not they which eat of the sacrifices partakers of the altar? What say I then, that the idol is anything, or that which is offered in sacrifice to idols is anything but? I say that the things with the Gentile sacrifice, they are, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God. And I would not that you should have fellowship with devils. Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of devils.
He cannot be partakers of the Lord's table and the table of devils. Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than He?
You have Israel mentioned in verse 18. Behold Israel after the flesh. Are not they which eat of the sacrifices?
Partakers of the altar.
That is, those that brought the peace offerings and ate part of the peace offerings they were expressing.
A fellowship with the altar. That was Judaism.
The Lord's Table is Christianity in contrast with the tables of demons which are which were the Gentile tables.
The Gentiles in verse two of chapter 12, he says, Ye know that you were Gentiles carried away unto these dumb idols, even as he were led. They were idolaters and there were many tables, there were many Lords and many gods. In Christianity there's one God the Father, 1 Lord Jesus Christ and one spirit.
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Which you have in the 12Th chapter, unfolded over and over again, Spirit of God, the same Spirit, he gave different gifts and so on. So it's a contrast here between Christianity when he speaks of the Lord's Table, and Judaism, which was the altar that the Jews went to. We're not a part of that. And also the tables of demons.
We don't, we don't have the tables of demons in this country. I don't believe there might be. There's some instances, but this is largely a Christian nation in that sense.
So that's that's the second here the Lord's table is that speaks of now the Lord's Supper speaks the bread on the table. Lord's Day morning speaks of his body in which he suffered for our sins.
The bread in First Corinthians 10 speaks of the whole body of Christ of which we are members of.
1St Corinthians 10 gives us the collective truth of the one body. 1St Corinthians 11 speaks of His personal body in which He suffered for our sins. That's the supper, and you eat the supper. You remember the Lord in his death, and you do that. If you're scripturally gathered, you do that.
At this table I just want to add in X20.
Connection with this subject.
X20.
In verse 28 Paul speaks he says take heed therefore unto yourselves and to all the flock over the which the Holy Ghost that made you overseers to feed the Church of God, which you have purchased with his own blood speaking about to the elders there from that city.
Yes, but I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own self shall men arise, speaking perverse things. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. Therefore watch and remember that by the space of three years I cease not.
To warn everyone night and day with tears.
What? Who does he commend them to? He warns them about what was going to happen in the Christian profession. It's happened. We're in the midst of it. What a mess has the enemy created?
Now, brethren, I commend you to God and to the Word of His grace, which is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified. He commends us to God and to His Word. That's our resource. In the midst of the confusion, the enemy comes in, and he scatters the flock also of your own selves. Men arise, speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them. That wasn't true yet in the early church.
But he looks forward, he looks, he looks into the future as to what would take place and he says that.
In the 11Th chapter of One Corinthians he says verse 18, first of all, when he come together in the assembly, that is in assembly character, I hear there be divisions among you that that's an internal division, divisions among them. It hadn't resulted in an external break yet.
And I partly believe it, for there must be also heresies or sex or outward breaks. And we're surrounded with that many sex, many denominations over 1000 in this country.
There must be also heresies among you, that they which be approved, which are approved may be made manifest among you, that when you come together therefore into one place, this is not to eat the Lord's Supper. That's interesting. The only time the Lord's Supper is mentioned, he says the way you're going on, the way you're carrying on at Corinth, you're not eating the Lord's Supper, you're eating your own supper. They were. Some of them were even drunken.
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Not in a right state of soul.
To really recognize that loaf represents Christ and that cup represents his precious blood.
And to take it without realizing it. And I want to make this comment in the first in the 10th chapter of First Corinthians.
The loaf doesn't speak of his personal body, but of his mystical body, which we're members of.
And if you're a member of that body, if you are a member of that body.
If you're sheltered by that precious blood and you don't break bread, why don't you?
That table, the Lord's Table, is for every believer.
To break bread there, that's God's thought. Then you look at all the divisions.
We were talking at the reading at home in the Old Testament.
They knew where this center was. It was at Jerusalem. It wasn't at Dan or at Bethel, which which had been set up.
It was at Jerusalem.
But you look around in Christendom, where, where, where is it?
Second Timothy 3 says in the last days difficult times shall be there. That's the right translation. Difficult times. It's not easy to find a way. Find a way. I'll tell you how to find it, though, limits all the divisions that exist in Christendom. Follow the man with the pitcher of water. That man is Christ, and the pitcher of water is the word of God. And if he leads you by his word, by the Spirit and me, we'll be together.
That's as far as you can go to say to say I someone said, well, then where should I go? Tell me where is the place? I said, I can't tell you where the place is because I could make a mistake. I'm just a fallible person.
But I can tell you one that never makes a mistake, and that's the Spirit of God. That's the man with the picture of water using the word of God, he'll never mislead you. And if you follow him, and I follow him, and you follow him and you follow him, we'll be together.
I don't know how better to put it. Let's just go for a moment, Brother Chuck, since you bring up Luke 22 and look at some scriptures there in connection with what you've said and just get the setting. Because when you take up a subject in the Word of God, it's always good to go back to the beginning of something. And it's good to go back to the beginning of the OR the occasion where the Lord Jesus instituted the Feast of Remembrance.
That's the beginning of it. In Luke 22 is where the Lord Jesus first took a loaf in a cup and said this. Do in remembrance of me. Before we read this, maybe I'll preface my remarks too by saying that when the Lord Jesus asked his own to commemorate him after he had left them, he didn't leave it to their idea of how they were to commemorate him. If the Lord Jesus had just said, I want you to Remember Me when I go away.
Everyone of us would be left up to our own idea as to how to remember him, to commemorate him. But he didn't leave it up to us. He took a loaf and a cup and he explained very carefully the format and the significance of how he wanted his own to remember Him after he had gone to the cross and returned to the glory. So let's read some scriptures here.
In Luke chapter 22, and I'm going to back up to verse 7. Then came the Day of Unleavened Bread when the Passover must be killed. And he sent Peter and John saying, go and prepare us the Passover that we may eat. I might just say before we read further that what the Lord Jesus had in view first of all here was the keeping of the Passover because they were still on Jewish ground. But nevertheless, brethren, the Lord knew that this was going to be the very time and the very place.
Where after the Passover Supper was commemorated, He was going to set that aside and He was going to bring before them how they were now to remember him when after the establishment of Christianity on the day of Pentecost. And so he let's go on here.
Verse nine. And they said unto him, Where wilt thou that we prepared? You know, I think that must have brought great delight to the heart of the Lord Jesus.
You know, they understood from the Old Testament Scriptures and the keeping of the Passover that it was never left up to them as to where they were to keep the Passover. God had made it very clear even before they entered the land that they were not to keep it in any place they chose, but that He would choose a place and that they were to come there. And we know that place was Jerusalem. And knowing this, that it was not left up to their choice. They say, where will thou?
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That we prepare. And so when there was this response, then there was very definite instruction given as to where they were to prepare. And rather that's what He wants on our part. If there's really a heartfelt response in connection with where the Lord Jesus would have us remember him, then He wants to lead us to the place. If I don't know the place or I'm not at the place, it's no hindrance on God's part or the part of the Lord Jesus. It's a hindrance on my part.
But let's go on verse 10. And he said unto them, Behold, when ye are entered into the city, there shall a man meet you bearing a pitcher of water. Follow him into the house where he entereth in, and you shall say unto the good man of the house. The Master saith unto thee, Where is the guest chamber, where I shall eat the Passover with my disciples? And he shall show you a large upper room furnished. There make ready. And they went and found as he had said unto them.
And they made ready the Passover. Now again, it's the Passover that's in view here. But the principle is the same. And I want to just, I don't want to read into Scripture, brethren, and I don't want to take illustrations too far, but I have enjoyed these instructions of the Lord Jesus because again, his brother Chuck said there was the man during the picture of water. You say, well, why do you say the man is a picture of the Spirit of God? Well, if you trace through Scripture, you'll find that often.
Especially an unnamed man is often a picture of the Spirit of God. I'll just give you a couple of examples.
One is where Abraham sent his servant to fetch a bride for Isaac.
That's a picture of the Spirit of God sent down on the Day of Pentecost to call out a bride for Christ.
In this very book of Luke, we find that there's another example of the man being a picture of the Spirit of God.
He's the innkeeper. When the Samaritan was brought to the inn, the innkeeper was instructed to take care of him. The inn is a picture of the assembly is in the assembly where we can be ministered to by the Spirit of God and our needs met with. Just one other example comes to mind. The servant sent out to compel them to come into the marriage. That's a picture of the Spirit of God because it's only the Spirit of God that can compel souls when its servants. Plural in another gospel.
It's you and me because we can bid them to the marriage. We tell forth the gospel and we bid souls to come to Christ, but it's the Spirit of God that compels them to come in. I just show that because you might say, well, why do you say the man here bearing the picture of water is the Spirit of God? Often I say an unnamed man in Scripture is a picture of that very thing. We know. We see very clearly the Word of God, The water is the word of God, the washing of water by the Word, and so on.
But I want to notice the other instructions. First of all, they were to go into the city. Now a city often in Scripture speaks to us of this world in its confusion. The first mention of a city, Cain went out from the presence of the Lord and builded a city. It's this world in confusion going on without God, and we're in this world. We're not of it, but we're physically here in a world of confusion. But then there was something else. They were to go into the house. Now I like, and this is just an application, brethren, but I like to think of this in connection.
For our day, as to what we have in Second Timothy, we have a great house where the House of God has become a mixture of profession and reality. And as Chuck said, these are difficult times. It's hard to discern the mind of the Lord in a state of utter outward confusion. Thank God the Lord knows them that are His, not confusion to Him. But outwardly things are fragmented in confusion. Now let me just say in that connection.
I have wondered this, brethren, if there weren't others in that house on that occasion, perhaps God fearing pious Jews who kept the Passover. But it wasn't just entering into the house. It was a specific room in that house. Because had they chosen any other room in the house that night, they could have kept the Passover, but they would have missed the Lord in their midst. And there was not only the entering into the house.
But a large upper room furnished, shown to them by the men, by the Goodman of the house. And it's upper, It's a place of separation. It's large because the ground is large. And when the hour was come, he sat down. That wasn't true in any other room in that house, or any other house in Jerusalem. There was a place where the Lord had appointed. And when they followed very carefully the instructions of the Lord Jesus.
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They sat down with the Lord Jesus in their midst and as a result, they not only kept the Passover with the Lord Jesus that night, but as I say, after it was done, then he takes a loaf and a cup and he says this do in remembrance of me. I remember being in visiting my daughter Jan in the Denver area and I was just listening to a conversation that was going on between.
Her and a young man that was there and he said to her, after a lot of discussion back and forth, he said, you think you're the only ones that are right.
And I couldn't keep quiet any longer. And I said, would you rather we thought we were wrong?
Is there anything wrong about wanting to be right?
Wanting to be where the Lord would have us to be. There can either be.
No table.
Or one table, but not two or three or four or five or six. It's got to be either one or none.
But what gives conviction to that Chuck is the word of God itself. And I think that's why it's so important that.
That sometimes we might say this is the Lord's table, but I might be mistaken. I've been mistaken before. And if there are young people here and they say, well, brother, so and says that this is the right place, is that going to stand, brother, that will not stand.
What will stand is, like Jack said, I commend you to God and the word of his grace. That's what's going to stand. And that's what faith is based on, the word of God, not what brethren say about the Word of God, but the Word of God itself. And so it's important to be established in what Scripture says. Going back to first Corinthians 10, brethren, it's interesting to see the context.
Beginning of this chapter.
Speaking about the history of Israel.
As well as verse 18, it speaks about Israel.
Because God's principles do not change. Even though we live in a different time, in a different dispensation, still the principles are the same. And when He takes up this question of the Lord's table, what kind of people is He talking about in this chapter? Look at it, brother.
Those that were brought out of Egypt, what kind of people were they? Verse 6.
They lusted after evil things. Verse 7, idolaters. Verse 8, fornicators. Verse nine. They tempted Christ. Verse 10, murmurs.
You get the picture, brother. You're not going to see the Lord's Table by looking at the people.
And that's what happens so often. We get looking at the people and say those people, how could that be? You're not going to get the picture clear if you look at the people.
We're not any better than they were back then in Israel.
Not a wet feather, brother, but it's not the matter of who we are as people.
It's a matter of the Lord, and His table is the place where His authority is recognized, and He has given His place of authority. That's what I like to think of when I speak of the Lord's table. It's the place where His authority is recognized.
Brother Tom Roach may invite me to.
His house for a meal. I sit down at his table. This is Tom Roach's table. If I don't honor you, brother, you have every right to say, brother, there's the door. You can go out. I hope I won't do that, but that's the truth. You have authority. And when I sit down there, I should recognize this is the place where Tom Roach is an authority. And when we speak of the Lord's Table, it's the place.
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Where the Lord has authority. Is this a mere theological term? A mere doctrinal thing we talk about with no practical reality?
God doesn't give us things like that, brother, when there are things that are taught, it's because there is a place in this world that is called, and here it is called only once. Like it's been said, the Lord's table. And if I submit to His authority properly, you submit to His authority properly. We're not going to be divided in our fellowship together.
We're going to be one because there's only one table. Doesn't say the Lord's tables.
Only the Lord, The Lord's Table. I enjoyed what Brother Dave Hagel mentioned one time, that he liked to view this as a table that was so large its circumference goes all around the world. It's not a bunch of tables of the Lord around the world, the Lord's Table. It's one table.
Last Lord's Day I broke bread in Spain. The Lord's to be foreign Portugal.
Tomorrow we hope to break bread here.
It's just one table, brethren. It's not a bunch of tables.
Sometimes in our expressions we're not real clear, brethren, and we need to challenge ourselves because we give the wrong impression. I want to clarify one other thing that has been said to me many times.
You people think you have the Lord's Table.
I said.
We do not have the Lord's Table.
The Lord has his table.
It's his, not mine.
My desire, my exercise to be there. But brother, let's keep the focus, right? We live in the days when humanism so permeates our thinking that we like to make ourselves the reference point. And that is where we go wrong. And speaking about this precious truth, the Lord is the reference point. It's His table.
I'd like to go on just to simply make this comment brethren. In chapter 10 the Lords table is mentioned. In Chapter 11 The Lord's Supper is mentioned. And like Chuck was mentioning, they weren't doing it the way they should have done it in Chapter 11. So he tells them what he received of the Lord and how it's to be done until he comes.
So it's something we know that will be done until he comes again.
But when we speak of the Lord's Table, it's the place where we show fellowship, the fellowship of the blood of Christ and the fellowship of the body of Christ. When it's the Lords Supper, it's the place where we show his death until he comes. Again, important points of contrast, but I like to put it this way in simplicity.
The Lord's Table is the place of His appointed appointment.
Where we celebrate the Supper, the Lord's Supper, the Lord's Supper is what we celebrate in that place. Now let's just look at 2 verses in First Corinthians 10 connection with what's been said, verse 20.
I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons, it should read and not to God. And I would not that you should have fellowship with demons. These Gentiles at currents that that have gotten saved, that are now Christians had come out of that. That worship of demons and false gods, idolatry, they come out of that. So he's contrasting Christianity with what they had come out of in paganism.
Then he says he cannot drink.
The cup of the Lord, verse 20. I'll read that again. I say the things which the Gentiles sacrificed. They sacrificed the devils or demons and not to God. I would not that you should have fellowship with demons. 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. Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than He? He was, He was.
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Refuting he was correcting their error that thought that they had liberty.
To remember the Lord at his table and also to go to the demons table, he says you can't do that, you cannot do that. Those are two completely contradictory systems.
The one speaks of Christ and the other speaks of idolatry and so on. But in Acts 20.
Where it says the enemy would come in from without and do his evil work, and then also of your own self shall then arise speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them. Now let's just suppose that no division had taken place and there was the Lords table and nothing else. It wasn't a table of demons. And by the way, don't ever make the denominational tables sex tables the table of demons. It's not the table of demons that's idolatry.
But is it, is it, does it answer to the Lord's table where the Lord has complete authority? All right, they're all breaking bread. And then also of your own cells shall men arise, speaking diverse things to draw away disciples after them. So then they set up another table elsewhere. Is that the same table that they were at the previous week when they break bread there at that other table, Is that the same table? Is that the Lord's table, or is that the table of men?
Now, you don't have the table of men in One Corinthians 10 because it's Christianity versus idolatry and paganism. But in Dax 20 you have the Lords. It's not called the Lords table, but they're breaking bread there. And then some rise up and draw away disciples after them. And that's what Christendom is all about. It's it's everywhere.
Tables of men, Where are you? Are you at a table of man, or are you at that? Which is the Lord's table? It's not our table. It's not brethren's table. It's not ours, it's his. It's not our supper. It's his supper, the Lord's Supper, and the Lord's Table. And we should be careful that we don't make ourselves the center of our thoughts. That's wrong.
He is the 2nd and he's the one that has the authority and we should be exercised. Is where I'm breaking bread where I should be? Is that where I should be in the midst of all this confusion? Well, that's up to to each one of us. We trust that it is. So I trust it. So I bring credit to Warren's table. I think I am. But the question is others think they are and they're not where I'm I'm at. And the Lord knows them that are his thinking of idolatry.
Just who Justice exit. It's an exam. It's like God presents some things to us and show the folly, the foolishness of idolatry.
And I like to turn to Psalm 1:15 to read a few verses there, which the psalmist says to show the very foolishness of this idolatry, that the heathen went on with and had their idols, and Psalm 115.
First three will begin with, but our God is in the heavens. He has done whatsoever He has pleased. Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men's hands. They have mouths.
But they speak not eyes have AIDS, but they see not. They have ears, but they hear not noses have they, but they smell not. They have hands, but they handle not feet have they? But they walk not neither speak they through their throat. They that make them are like unto them. So there's everyone that trusted the folly of idolatry. It's not a question so much of whether.
We're dealing with the tables of idols, demons, tables, or the tables of men. But the principle is here that eating in Scripture is always a sign of fellowship. And so here in Corinth, if a man was in fellowship at the Lord's table, and he went and ate at a table of an altered set up to idols, where something was worshipped to idols, a table of demons, the two tables were now connected. The man might say, well, I don't believe in all that idolatry and so on.
But someone just offered me a good piece of meat and I was hungry. Eating at the alt table of the table of demons and coming back and partaking of the Lord's Supper at the Lord's table. The two things were connected. Eating, I say in Scripture, is always a figure of fellowship. The Lord's table speaks of authority. But partaking of the Lord's Supper at the Lord's table denotes fellowship. Fellowship with himself and fellowship with one another.
00:45:18
And we are They were exhorted not to connect the two things. What fellowship hath light with darkness? Now, brethren, we don't deal, as Chuck said, perhaps in this country, with the table of demons. But the principle is still the same. If a person partakes of the Lords Supper in fellowship with a system that holds doctrine contrary to the person and work of Christ, or in a system that is set up in independence by men, the two things are connected.
And that's why when someone comes and desires to remember the Lord Jesus at the Lord's table, we seek to make it clear that we can't float back and forth between different fellowships that have, as I say, either doctrine that is contrary to the word of God or that have been set up in independence, sometimes in rebellion. And so I think it's helpful to see that the underlying principle here is that eating shows fellowship. I want to just say this too, in connection with the expression that Chuck.
Alluded to in the end of the in First Corinthians 11, after talking about the Lord's Supper, he says, ye do show the Lord's death. I want you to notice this till he come. I want to stress this because I've heard people say, well, you know, these are the last days and perilous times and so on. And there's no discerning where the Lord's table is now. And perhaps it's just wherever Christians meet and wherever we desire to have fellowship. Brethren, he wouldn't have said till he come if he wasn't going to maintain a scriptural ground on which to do it.
The Lord never asks us to do something that he himself isn't going to maintain a scriptural ground on which to do it. And if we find ourselves at the Lords table to partake of the Lords Supper, that is only the grace of God. Is there a difference in being gathered to the Lords name being at the Lords table? Yes.
But is it anything of ourselves? No, brethren, it is only the grace of God. And if we by grace find ourselves at the Lords Table to partake of the Lords Supper, that oughtn't to puff us up. It ought to humble us and make us very thankful. And it ought to make us seek fresh grace because it's grace that brought us there, and it's only grace that's going to preserve us there till He comes. Notice verse 16 of our chapter 10.
The cup of blessing which we bless.
Is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? Notice when the table is before Him, He puts the blood first. Why? Because that's not the way the Lord instituted the Supper. Of the Supper the bread is first, and then the cup, and that's the way we do it. But here the blood is mentioned first. Why? Because this is the foundation for the body.
The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? Everyone that is at that table has been washed in that precious blood and has a right to be there. The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? That's not referring to His physical body, that's referring to His mystical body. The next verse proves that. For we being many are one bread, one loaf, one body, but we are all partakers of that one bread.
That is what you have in first Corinthians 10 is the corporate collective truth that's expressed, which is not done in system. I don't know anywhere in system where the truth of the one body is even understood. When they break bread that that I'm breaking bread not only as an individual. That's the 11Th chapter, what I remember the Lord. But when I break bread, according to 1St Corinthians 10, it's a collective thing. I break bread as a member, not as just an individual saved Christian, but as a member of the body of Christ.
Is that is that displayed? Is that understood and recognized in in system? I don't think so. Let's make this very clear. Let let's just think about tomorrow morning. If the Lord leaves us here, there's going to be a loaf on the table, the cup, yes, but there's going to be a loaf.
It's not going to be crackers, it's not going to be 12 loaves like Israel had, but it's going to be one loaf, one bread, as it says here. And brethren, when we look at that loaf tomorrow morning, we need to realize that that loaf not only represents those who are here on this occasion, nor does it just represent those who practically express the truth of the one body in the breaking of bread, but that loaf, as Chuck says, represents every believer alive on the face of the earth.
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Everyone on the face of the earth who's washed in the blood of Christ is a member of the body of Christ.
And if we lose sight of that, brethren, we become narrow and sectarian. In our view. The ground that we meet on is the broadest ground possible. That's why, as I said earlier, in Luke 22, it was a large upper room. It didn't need to physically be large on that occasion.
There were only a handful 12 or 13 present on that occasion. It didn't have to be large, but I believe that the Lord Jesus chose a large upper room, and the Spirit of God recorded the description of it to show us as we are. We're saying that the ground on which we meet embraces every blood bought St. every member of the body of Christ. Their place is there whether they're physically there or not, whether they recognize it or understand the truth of it or not.
They are seeing in that loaf, brethren. Let's never forget it. It's an upper room. Yes, many. Go ahead. Doug, I'd like to comment a little bit more about the Lords Table. It's not our pronouncement of it that makes it the Lords Table.
We, we tend to fall back on that a little bit, maybe brethren, rather than the obedience of faith as those that are guided by the Spirit of God to find the place where the Lord establishes his table. The Lord is the Lorde table. He must have necessity be the one who establishes this. It was that way in the Old Testament too. We have an illusion here in our chapter to the tables of demons in contrast to the Lord's, and no doubt that's an illusion to Jeroboam's tables that he set up in Bethel.
At least they degenerated and became that and.
So what is it, brethren, that should characterize us when we speak about this subject? It's not standing boldly and saying we have the Lords Table that makes it the Lords Table. It's our obedience to the Word of God that will prove by our submission to the authority of the Lord and the midst that will give power to any testimony that we may have.
Which is very weak in our days. And so brethren, I think when if we want to emphasize this truth of the Lords Table the the the best way to emphasize that is in the practice that we maintain there recognizing the basis of it, the one body.
Separation from evil becomes a necessity in a time after declension comes in for the honor of the Lord. It's not separation because we're better. It's separation because who we recognize is there and in our in the measure that we do that, I believe it will have power.
To properly portray the Lord, and souls will detect the Lord there.
So going back to what was mentioned in Acts 20 where Paul gives those instructions, there he commends them to God and the word of His grace. That was what the disciples were to cling to as they followed the Aunt Pauls doctrine.
His Word. And so, brethren, when we take up the Word in our obedience to it, I believe that will lead us.
In submission to the Lord and the spirits guiding it will lead us to that table.
Again, the two parts of it, we're Speaking of the Lord's side and our side, the Lord establishes His table. We are the ones who are led and find it regardless of when. When it was even in the Old Testament, it was. So why was Jerusalem the center in the Old Testament? Because God came down in a fire there when Solomon built the temple and previously with the Tabernacle, the same.
It was God's presence that came down that constituted that place where He met with his people.
So what was in the New Testament? The Lord gave the basis of it there when He celebrated the Passover. It's interesting in that 11Th verse of the Luke 22 That it speaks of, they came and they find a place furnished. The disciples didn't have anything to do with that part of it.
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The Lord had sent someone and prepared a furnished room, a large upper room.
Then it says there make ready now that was their side of the truth to practice to do and so there's that for us to to do brethren, is to discern there's there's something to do to find the Lords table to be obedient, to be led. When you have those two together, the Lord guiding by spirit, submissive souls lead and obedience to his word, the two will come together.
I thought to make a comment.
He respected the table of Jeroboam. And I noticed in the first Kings 15 there where we had, there was reading from verse 16 and there was war between ASA and Asia, Israel all their days. And Baisha king of Israel went up against Judah and built Rama, that he might not suffer any to go out or come in to ASA king of Judah.
Now we know Isa was a good king and he was king of Judah and he was at God's divine center. And so we see it's the work of Satan to.
Divide the people of God to deny Christians the privilege of remembering the Lord Jesus Christ and his death that the Lords table we see the activity there of Satan. God would let all his people gather together in Jerusalem and so we see Barsa said no, I don't want that to happen. I'm going to build drama to stop it happening. And if we just click over the page later on in the in the chapter it said verse 22, then king ASA made a proclamation throughout all Judah. None was exempted.
And they took away the stones of Rama and the timber thereof.
Acer broke armor down. Acer had the Lords mind. He wanted to see all the Lords people gathered together in Jerusalem. But it's Satan that would deny Christians the privilege of so gathering. Now I appreciate, brethren, that he needs the last days. We have responsibilities and we have to be careful. But where there's a sincere desire to remember the Lord Jesus Christ, it is death at the Lord's table. Let's be careful we don't make obstacles.
Because that's what Marsha did. He made an obstacle.
I'd like to say too that.
The in the Old Testament, like you were mentioning Doug, when Solomon built his temple and also earlier in the Tabernacle, there was an outward.
Thing that was seen that showed the presence of the Lord. It was the Shekinah glory cloud that came and filled the holy place. But the time came and because of the declension and.
Israel and Judah that the pillar of cloud lifted and left.
God later gave a restoration to the place of the Lords appointment which was Jerusalem, but he never gave back that glory cloud. How were they to tell them what was the right place they'd like to read in Haggai chapter 2?
This was written at this time when there was a restoration.
Agai Chapter 2.
And.
Verse three. Who is left among you that saw this house in their first glory?
How do you see it now? Is it not in your eyes in comparison, as if it has nothing yet? Now be strong Ozer rubble, saith the Lord, and be strong, O Joshua son of Jose, deck the high priest, and be strong, all you people of the land.
Saith the Lord and work for I am with you, saith the Lord of hosts. Notice this part verse five according to the word that I covenant with you when you came out of the out of Egypt. So my spirit remaineth among you hear ye not so brethren, what is going to lead us is the Spirit of God by the word of God, you look around.
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That brethren in general, you're not going to see the place that way. Yes, you'll see a lot of nice brethren. You might see some brethren with problems too. That is not going to guide you. Look at the Word of God. That is what is going to make it clear to you. I I notice it so often, brethren start looking at brethren and their problems and the whole picture gets fuzzy and hazy.
Where in the world are we? No wonder.
Turn a different direction, young brother and sister. Look at the Scriptures, look at the Lord Jesus and you'll find that the picture gets clear. That's what I want to point you to. I don't want you going home and saying those brethren said this is the right place, No.
Look into the scriptures. Be grounded on what God says here.
You're going to find that it will, it will stand in the times that are perilous, difficult times that we live in.
Like to go back to the 10th chapter of First Corinthians again because.
So important this point in verse 16, brethren.
Already been mentioned, but I think it's good to go over it. So we get it, brethren.
What we show is the fellowship, first of all, the blood of Christ. Blood of Christ is our only title to be there. No other title can we show that I have a certain amount of knowledge you might have, you might not have, but what gives you titles to sit down at the Lord's table is that precious blood of Christ. It's the fellowship of all those.
Who are washed in that precious blood, and therefore.
Also the fellowship of the body of Christ. The bread which we break is the fellowship of the body of Christ.
Now all believers are in the body of Christ, but all believers do not show the fellowship of the body of grace. There's the difference.
I sometimes give the illustration supposing there's a father and mother and they have ten children.
And so when the table is set, there's twelve places set at the table, father and mother and the 10 children. When the time comes for the meal, only five children are there with their father and mother.
Aren't those other five that didn't come? Are they still members of the body or of the family? Yes, they are still members of the family. Nothing has changed there. But what are they missing? They're missing the fellowship of their father's table. That's what they're missing. And so that bread on the table speaks of every single member of the body of Christ around this world. What a precious thing.
To enjoy brethren. No sectarianism in that thought at all. It excludes no believer in the Lord Jesus.
But when that loaf is broken and it is passed, it comes to me and I break off a piece and I eat it. I am expressing in that simple way that God has showed us that I am a member in part of one body. And so if you are out there, you say you are a believer in the Lord Jesus, I want to say to you, you have a place at the Lord's table too. If you do not partake of that loaf, you are not expressing.
That to which you have a privilege.
Not so much a right, brethren, because He has the rights. When we talk about the Lord's table, it's he that has the rights, not we. It's our privilege to be there.
There might be one of the sons in the family that's under some discipline, and the father doesn't exclude a plate being sent to him in his room. He's not there at the table where the father is, but he's he. He's eating the father's supper, same as those that are at the table and those in system are eating the Lord's Supper. They're not maybe at the table, but they're eating the Lords. They're remembering the Lord in his death. That's what the supper is.
And they do it as individuals. But the collective thought is the one body which most Christians don't understand. They don't understand that and see it. They're not exercised about it because they haven't. They haven't been exposed to that truth.
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It's very important to see that, that there are many who partake of the Lord's Supper. A son may even be at father's table, and there may be some controversy, and he may decide on his own to take his plate and to go up to his room or to go in the other room and eat. Now he's not at the father's table anymore, but he's still eating the same supper that the others are eating, even though he's eating it, having separated himself.
From his his siblings and from his parents.
I just want to say this too, while we're talking about the Lord's Supper, that in the verse we read earlier in the 11Th chapter, it's not just till He comes, but it's as often and isn't it interesting as you trace through the Acts and the early history of the brethren, that it very quickly after the institution of the Supper and the dissent of the Spirit of God on the day of Pentecost, it very quickly became the exercise and the joy.
Of the early believers to partake of the Lord's Supper every first day of the week.
And so in Acts 20, it says on the first day of the week, the disciples came together to break bread. It's interesting that when they came together there, that was their first and foremost motive for meeting. It wasn't just to enjoy a happy time together, although they did. It wasn't to listen to the ministry of the apostle Paul, although they also had that privilege on that particular Lord's Day as Paul was visiting and others with him. But the Spirit of God expressly tells us why they came together on the first day of the week.
To break bread. And so the apostle Paul, in reiterating what the Lord instituted in Luke 22, he says as often because the Lord Jesus, when he instituted the feast himself, he knew not only what the hearts of the disciples on that occasion were like, but he anticipated what my heart would be like. And he knew that I was going to need a reminder and that I was going to need it often. I think it's one of the most precious things about being gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus.
And that is that we have this privilege of breaking bread, not just on a special occasion, not just once a month or twice a year or something like that, but we have this privilege and we have it often. Brethren, we need that reminder. We need our hearts recalled to Calvary. W was already said. We look at that cup, it pictures to us this precious blood. When we break the lobe, it pictures figures to us His body given in death for us. Don't we need that reminder? And don't we need it often?
It's not that it becomes just something familiar because we do it so much. No, we ought to sit down every Lord's Day with fresh exercise and joy to realize that we have once again, the privilege of remembering Him and the privilege of breaking bread. The privilege of partaking of the Lord's Supper at the Lord's Table is something that's only given to us for this life. We're not going to need it when we leave this world. We're going to see those wounds in his hands and his feet and in his side, and they will be a fresh reminder for all eternity.
Of what he accomplished at Calvary. We're not going to need a loaf and a cup on the table when we see him face to face but isn't that a challenge brethren, how much longer are we going to be left here? How many more Lord's days are there going to be before the Lord Jesus comes? Are we going to be found amongst those who buy his grace have sought to break bread. Remember him until he comes. I'd like her Jim. You know I think that portion you referred to an axe. They are a is emphasizing the first day of the week because Paul was there throw us for seven days.
He didn't happen to be there on the first day of the week. He was there for seven days, but they chose to break bread on the first day of the week, which seems to focus on that just exactly what you said and I like to think just before Chuck makes this. I like to think of it this way. Why did Paul remain there so long in troas so that they one reason was so that they would have the privilege of remembering the Lord Jesus with those gathered to the Lord's name intro as and so they remained a whole week so they could have that privilege and brethren.
When we travel or whatever our lifestyle, is there an exercise to be where we can remember the Lord at the Lord's table on the first day of the week and the Lord's Supper consists, and we have no right to change it, of eating the bread and drinking the cup. If you eliminate either one of those, it's not the Lord's Supper. The Lord's Supper is eating the bread and drinking the cup. Now I want to read in Acts 2IN connection with your comments, Jim.
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In X2 verse 40 and with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, this is Peter, save yourselves from this untoward generation. Then they that gladly received his word were baptized.
And the same day that they were added unto them about 3000 souls and they continued steadfastly. Now this is, I believe this is a beautiful picture of, of the functioning of a true assembly. They continued in the apostles doctrine, the geoteaching of the apostles and fellowship. You can't sit at home and do this. You have to be with your brethren. Apostles doctrine and fellowship. Yes, you can read the ministry of the brethren and you can read that get the apostles doctrine and by yourself in your living room or wherever.
Not going to have this fellowship, the apostles doctrine, the fellowship, and in breaking of bread and prayers. Now if there's not the breaking of bread, it's it's not really a proper assembly carrying out what it should do. And fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles, And all that believed were together, and had all things common, and sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need. Now notice.
And they continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house. They didn't evidently break bread in the temple. This was a time of transition. But they they continued daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, to eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart. Daily they broke breath. But in Acts 20 that you referred to.
That finally became a habit among the church, to break bread on the first day of the week. Beautiful because that's the resurrection day. That's the day of his victory, and that's when we remember him and his death. But initially they did it every day. And I think the brethren when they came together.
And the truth was being recovered. It's like going back to the early chapter of Acts. They broke bread every day before they, they, they opened the scriptures because they wanted to have his death, what he suffered for them before them. They wanted to be in the right state of souls so that when they looked at the Word, they could get the teaching of the Spirit of God. So they broke bread every day for a while anyway.
And that's the way the early Christians did it, but it settled down to on the first day of the week and I and that verse in First Corinthians 11 as often so many in systems should read that as seldom as you break bread. Remember the Lord. It's a privilege. Tomorrow we'll have that privilege. There's no higher privilege that we have, beloved, than to remember Him and his death. We do it on the day of his victory over the power of death. And there's something physical that he has asked us to do.
He's asked us to eat and he's asked us to drink. Amen. And I say that because I've heard people say, well, the Lord knows what is in my heart, and I can remember the Lord in my heart. Well, brethren, I trust we do remember the Lord in our hearts every day that there is some remembrance of what the Lord Jesus suffered for us on Calvary's cross. But he has asked us to eat and to drink. And tomorrow morning when the loaf and the cup are passed here, are there going to be those who truly know the Lord Jesus are washed in the blood of Christ, Love the Lord Jesus.
And you're not going to eat and drink. I sometimes wish the word eat and drink in the 26th verse of the next chapter, the 11Th chapter, we're in capital letters. As often as you eat, as often as you drink. It is something physical He has asked us to do so that we can show forth his death till he come. It says this do.
Yeah, in remembrance of me, and I was thinking that X 242 again, that those four things mentioned there are really like the assembly, aren't they? And the doctrine defines the fellowship, doesn't it? And the breaking of bread expresses the fellowship.
And the prayer maintains. The fellowship tries to think of it that way. It's nice. Could we sing the second and third verses of #22?
2nd and 3rd versions of 21. I'm sorry, 21.
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One size Friday.
In our world.
Maybe read a verse in closing.
Psalm 137.
Verse 6.
If I do not remember these.
Let my tongue.
Cleave to the roof of my mouth.
If I prefer not Jerusalem.
Above my chief joy, if I prefer not Jerusalem, about my chief of joy, shall we defend ourselves?
Aggressius Garden Father, we do thankfully that we can take these questions.
And open up the Word, and we thank you for the power by Holy Spirit.
Can reveal these things to us.
When we think of Daniel that we're reminded of this morning, he purposed in his heart.
And he sought to understand.
We do pride our gracious God and Father. It's that we make purpose in our heart and seek to understand by Thy Holy Spirit.
Don't give us.
By tape. We do pray that the enormity of this privilege in these the last days of the church's history.
Of being able.
Through thy grace.
To be found gathered at our table. We do pray that this should have a place in our heart.
Should be our chief joy.
As we wait for the Lord Jesus Christ to come to plague us to be with himself. And so we do pray that the things that we've heard this morning.
This ministry from thy word in the power of the Holy Spirit, maybe that which will guide our pathway and take our feet Lords day by Lords day under the power of my Holy Spirit.
To that place by table, that we may honor and glorify thee, Lord Jesus, in the remembrance of thyself. And so we ask these things now, as we were just a bit silly and gifty. Thanks in the most worthy and precious name of the Lord Jesus, Amen.