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A small lifeless waves.
Our Holy Land.
Of God.
Everything was in my favorites.
As those strange.
In my life.
Verse 11 to verse 30. Luke chapter 22.
Luke 22. Luke chapter 22, verse 11.
And you shall say unto the Goodman 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. When the hour was come, he sat down, and the 12 apostles with him.
And he said unto them with desire, I've desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I say unto you, I will not anymore eat thereof until it be fulfilled in the Kingdom of God. And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and said, Take this and divide it among yourselves. For I say unto you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the Kingdom of God shall come. And he took bread, and gave thanks, and break it, and gave unto them, saying, This is my body which is given for you. This do in remembrance of me.
Likewise also the cup after supper saying this cup is the New Testament in my blood which is shed for you.
Behold, the hand of him that betrayeth me is with me on the table, and truly the Son of Man goeth as it was determined. But woe unto that man by whom he is betrayed. And he began to inquire among themselves which of them it was that should do this thing. And there was also a strife among them which of them should be accounted the greatest. And he said unto them, The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and they that exercise authority upon them are called benefactors. But you shall not be so.
But he that is greatest among you, let him be as the younger. And he that is chief is he that doth serve. For whether is greater he that sitteth at meat, or he that serveth? Is not he that sitteth that meat? But I am among you, is he that serveth year they which have continued with Me and my temptations. And I appoint unto you a Kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me, that you may eat and drink at My table in My Kingdom, and sit on the Thrones, on Thrones judging.
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The 12 tribes of Israel.
You'll notice in this passage of scripture that there are two questions that are raised.
One in verse 9 says, Where wilt thou that we prepare, and then where we begin? Here in verse 11 you shall say unto the good men of the house, the Master saith unto thee.
Where is the guest chamber where I shall eat the Passover with my disciples? And so both questions are necessary. Where wilt thou that we prepare? It was the will of God.
And it's the purpose of God to have his people in his presence. And that's why division among the people of God is of such a serious nature. God calls the in principle we find in first Kings chapter 12 Chapter 13 Jeroboam, the son of Nibat that made Israel the sin. Why was it? It was because Jeroboam set up and idolatrous system.
And it was in competition with the divine center and it allowed for man to have a choice.
One altar was in Dan, the north of the country, one was in Bethel. And so it was an imitation set up and it perpetuated the division among the people of God and prevented the majority of the people of God from coming into the presence of the Lord at the divine center. And so it was a wicked thing in the sight of the Lord. And so all through the.
Kings and the Chronicles, you hear this.
Statement made by the Spirit of God Jeroboam the son of Nebat made Israel the sin. So here you have where is the guest chamber where I shall eat the Passover with my disciples and so it was they were being introduced to another place. It was verse 12. He shall show you a large upper room furnished.
They were responsible and you are responsible. I am responsible to be in the place of the Lord's appointment, the Lord's choice, and he gives this.
Question. Where is the guest chamber? And you and I need to ask that question when we first are young and we first are searching for the truth of God as to where we should be gathered to the Lord's name. And so he says.
He gives this question they were to ask. The master saith unto thee.
Where is the guest chamber? I want to ask you. Have you ever asked the Lord that question?
You know we read in our family Bible reading.
At home years ago in Deuteronomy chapter 12, we were reading through Deuteronomy and we came to Deuteronomy chapter 12 and one of my children said Dad.
Where is this place?
That it says, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God in the place which he shall choose. Where is this place?
I said to that one, I said, I can't tell you where it is. You have to ask the Lord where it is and He has to show you. I cannot show you, but the Word of God will lead you and the Spirit of God will lead you as we have had this morning will lead you to that place. If you ask, He will show you. And so God is as good as His Word. He shall show you a large upper room.
Burden, I want to make another comment if you'll allow.
It was an upper room.
It's a place characteristic of separation from the street level of this world.
And so to get into an upper room, you have to climb stairs. You have to climb and step one step after another step. And so it speaks of separation in our lives.
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From that which is inconsistent with the life of Christ, with the testimony that would be give him honor. How do we separate ourselves? What do we separate ourselves from? Some people are afraid of that word, but.
Really. God uses it, and he uses it throughout his word coming apart. He's separate, saith the Lord. And I will receive you, he says in Second Corinthians chapter six. Well, we need to exercise separation in connection with our moral issues, you know, it says.
A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. So we read that in First Corinthians chapter 5 this morning.
In second, in Galatians, the second time that phrase is used, a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.
It's in Galatians. It has to do with more, with doctrinal level. Both are necessary. We need to be separate from moral evil, but we also need to be separate from doctrinal evil. And then two, we need to be.
Exercise separation ecclesiastically of put it this way, not everything that names the name of Christ, not every group that names the name of Christ.
Is going on in all of the truth of God.
Not everyone that says.
Lord, Lord is a real believer. It speaks of profession. And so ecclesiastically we need to be exercised of being separate from that which dishonors Christ. And so we also need to have practical separation, practical things of life to say, to walk in a principled way and not to be found in the bars of this world, in the movie theaters of this world and you name it.
There's all kinds of lures and Satan has the most just have to try it once and you're hooked. And so there's to be found in that large upper room requires the climbing individually into those steps, those stairs, if I could put it that way into the upper room to be above the street level of this world morally.
And spiritually.
To be found in the presence of the Lord. That's the picture that he's giving to us here.
We mentioned Abraham alone this morning. Perhaps that would enhance.
The what was said in regard to separation turn with me to Genesis chapter 22.
Read just a few verses here. Beginning of verse three. Genesis chapter 22. Beginning at verse three. And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and saddled his *** and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and clave the word for burnt offering, and rose up, and went into the place which God had told him.
Then on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place afar off. And Abraham said unto his young man, Abay ye here with the *** and I, and the lad will go Yonder and worship, and come again to you. We see the energy of faith here, that when Abraham was told to to take his son Isaac to be an offering.
There he rose up early.
We need that energy too, don't we, from the Lord? You know, when there's something that we like to do, it's easy to rise up early to do it. There are things that we dread and we don't do that. So here we see that he rose up early. He was obedient to the Lord's word and to His ways without questioning. And yes, he needed help. He took the *** out of it and two young men to help things the *** in Scriptures speaks of.
And clean things is an unclean animal.
Young man, I see many young men here. Scripture said you're strong, you have physical energy. But here I believe it's a picture of worldly strength. So there were two things that Abraham sort of needed those that unclean beast, and the young man had the strength. But when they get to the place, he said he has to lift up his eyes first.
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We can just have our eyes down, looking down on the earth.
Being filled with earthly things, we have to look up. He looked up and that's when the Lord showed him the plays afar. The Lord told him. Now he showed him the plays of far off and that is set on the third day. I believe three days speaks of the number three speaks of manifestation. Things got manifest on the third day. The third day too should remind us of death and the resurrection.
So to understand a word of God, we have to have death and resurrection before us as well, don't we? He lifted it up and then it said, then there's something difficult in a sense to do now. He said to his young man, this worldly energy as if it were you, stay back here.
Separation, the unclean beast, you know, that has to stay back here too, and that he and his son has to separate from that to go on where the place that was appointed for them. And I trust that could be a good example for us to leave the unclean things. There are many things in the world that defiled our thoughts, our communion with the Lord. We have to leave those.
And the energy that we depend on, if it's not from the Lord, we need to leave that behind you.
Would it be a picture of this and?
What you're Speaking of with Mephibosheth in Second Samuel Chapter 9, just in consideration of.
What's been said and how he will guide us to that place? I was thinking of David here.
In verse 3, two Samuel 9, and verse three. And the king said, Is there not yet any of the House of Saul, that I may show the kindness of God unto him?
I feel like the Lord Jesus says that about you and I. And he goes on, and Ziba answers them. And he said unto the King, Jonathan hath yet a son which is lame on his feet.
And the King said unto him, Where is he?
Where is he? I feel like, well I believe the Lord Jesus says that where are you today? Where is he? And so he gets an answer. He says, so I was said unto the King, Behold, he is in the House of Maker, the son of Emile, and I wonder if that was really the place.
Where the king would have Mephibosheth to be. And so he says. Then King David sent and fetched him out of the House of Maker, the son of Emil from loaded bar. Now here's the action on our part. Verse six. Now in Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul was come unto David. And so he expects that return unto him, doesn't he? He fetched us out of it. He expects us to go to him.
And when he does, he fell on his face and did reverence and so on, he says.
Number of places here that he would eat at the King's table. But verse 13 So Mephibosheth dwelt in Jerusalem, for he did eat continually at the King's table and was lame on both of his feet. I'm sure we could address that as well. But what a beautiful picture of what He expects us to do in reverence to him, in honor to him as we remember him in his death, that we would eat at the King's table continually. You might consider your lame feet on your own, but.
Really is how he'd have us to be, isn't it?
He shows us the way to get there.
Yes, this chapter really brings before us the reconciliation of man to God, and the work begins with God. Nothing in connection with our salvation begins with us. We were dead in trespasses and sins. There are two lines of truth that go throughout the scriptures, and I would encourage you. I know there's young here if you don't have your own copy of the synopsis of the books of the Bible.
If I was deserted on an island.
Somewhere a shipwreck, I would want to have my Bible and the synopsis of the books of the Bible. I mean, I could make a couple of other choices as well, but I would love to have those volumes and the Word of God. But in Mr. Darby's just at the beginning is his comments on Genesis. He says, you know, there are two lines of truth that go throughout the whole of the Scriptures, and that is the responsibility of man and the sovereignty of God.
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Now you and I cannot understand and grasp the interface between those two things.
But the fact is, what we've read here in Second Samuel Chapter 9 shows us that nothing happens in our lives apart from the sovereignty of God. And so God in His grace quickened us, gave us divine life. And then when He gave us divine light, He gave us faith to believe. And we believe. When we heard His word, we believed because we had given us the faith. It all started with Him. Yes, we're responsible to believe the gospel of the grace of God.
And it's the same thing in connection with being gathered to the Lord's name.
Why am I gathered to the Lord's name? I'm responsible to be there, to be in the place of His choice. But why am I here, really? It's the sovereignty of God.
Except for the sovereignty of God. Except for the action of Christ Himself.
The work of the Spirit of God.
I wouldn't be gathered to the Lord's name. It's a sovereignty of God. And so here what we have is this fact that it's.
They were to follow. They would never find the place themselves.
Was impossible, and so they were to follow the leading of the Spirit of God.
And the master perhaps here the.
Exercised oversight in the upper room. They were to ask where is the guest chamber and so it was a work of God to save the soul. It's a work of God to gather us to his precious name. And so this is being brought out here. I might just point out to in Luke's Gospel chapter 10. We have another in mentioned there.
And it says in verse 34 of Luke 10, he went up to him and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast and brought him to, it should say, to Beacon, and took care of him. So here we have in Luke chapter 10, the Lord Jesus himself, the Good Samaritan bringing 1 into the end, bring him to the end. And so it's a work of God.
To save a soul. But it's a work of God to bring us into his presence. How thankful we should be.
We should not take it lightly in any sense of the word, to find ourselves on a Lord's Day morning in the presence of the Lord. In His sovereign grace and goodness. We could be somewhere else, but we find ourselves in His presence.
I think it's important to this line of truth to remember that we are gathering to a person. Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach without the camp.
Is separation certainly from the world, but also from all the ecclesiastical confusion there is imprisoned them, but it's to a person.
And our hearts are to be attracted to that person either.
I think there's that, that side of responsibility here. The truth is presented to us of a divine ground of gathering.
We are responsible what we do with that truth.
I've often used that verse in Galatians chapter 2. If I build again the things that once I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. So there's the danger of drifting away from that divine ground. That's what Satan would like to have, and it's happening, drifting back to the systems of men or or the denomination.
This is, this is a danger, certainly a danger in Brazil, the danger in Canada too. And so we have Second Timothy, chapter 2.
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Often referred to that is an individual separation. Chapter 2.
Verse 19 The Lord knoweth them that are his, but here's our responsibility, let everyone that name it the name of Christ.
Depart from iniquity. We're in a great house. There are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and of earth, and some to honor and some to dishonor. If therefore, if a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honor, and so on. So the purging there is an individual responsibility.
Purging from the vessels to dishonor from what is dishonouring.
Doctrinally or could be morally in relation to the Lord Jesus. Let us remember that we're gathered to a person, the person of the Lord Jesus in our midst. Is that right? You love it? Yes.
And so we have that in our chapter, the end of verse eight, Peter and John were told.
And go to prepare the Passover. I'd like to emphasis on this last little phrase that we might eat. What were they to eat?
It was the Passover.
If we turn back to Exodus chapter 12, we'll read just briefly.
What they were to eat.
Exodus chapter 12, verse 8.
Speaking of the lamb, they shall eat the flesh, and that night rose with fire, and unleavened bread and bitter herbs.
That's Christ.
He is the lamb.
The unleavened bread. He's the lamb. He's the unleavened bread. Bitter herbs. That speaks to Christ as well they were to be.
On the Lord Jesus.
I bring this up is.
When we gather.
What is the purpose?
The purpose should be to feed on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Occupied with him.
And dear young people.
If that's not the focus.
Then we missed the whole thing.
If it's not to be known in Christ, then we've missed the whole picture. We've.
Missed the whole reason that God would have us to be around his Son.
Thank you for that. I think that's a very, very important statement that what is the purpose. You know, sometimes we use the phrase we're going to meeting tomorrow.
Some would say they go to church.
Are you going to meeting on Lord's Day?
And while you there as the word of God request as the Lord Jesus requested us. This dude is simple 2 letter word DO do what happened when you do.
In remembrance of Maine, we're there to remember the Lord.
This portion we have before us is the foundation of this. It doesn't give us the I don't believe this gives us the authority on how we're to break bread. We learned that in First Corinthians Chapter 11 because in this portion it is for his own. It was the Passover that he had first. But then when they were at the First Corinthians Chapter 11, the apostle Paul said that he received that of the Lord, which in turn is that he gave it to us.
That's the authority that we are to be there. This do in remembrance of me. So now that raised another question too. So we come to remember the Lord, how do we remember Him?
Do we come with the thought that this is all about me? He saved me from my sins. I believe that's good. He did this for me, it's good. But do we also think about him, the price that our blessed Savior have to pay to bring you and I unto God for wait a minute now do we even think about how God things of his own Son?
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That's the remembrance, isn't it, His death. So we were able to look back to the cross and also as far as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you do show the Lord's death.
Here we come. Then we can look forward to when you come to take his home to be with himself. Now, let me backtrack a little bit. The word gather was mentioned numerous times and I think many of us assume that word we use that I believe there's some translation, or perhaps I should say paraphrase, use the phrase that come together. I believe there's a big distinction between gathered and come because this afternoon I came here.
It is me who decided to be here. I came, but to be gathered, we have no strength. Someone picked you up, you were gathered and put in the right place. That's the Lord, that's the Spirit of God who gathered us and we must be there. As you will find, the gospel doesn't give us authority, but it builds a foundation as the Lord Jesus after the woman of the well, he said, here's something you're going to learn, He's going to change.
Is no longer Jerusalem or this mountain you're going to worship. Remember, we emphasize many times that there was a place for Israel vote. Jerusalem is the place, there's no question about that. That's the center. But now he said to her, a true worshiper must worship in spirit and in truth. And our brother already mentioned, we are gathered not to something, but someone to the Lord himself, and he noticed through the place.
There was a guest chamber.
It's not like I have made a beautiful building for you to be gathered in Noah's temporary because it's not about things of this world. We have gathered to a person. We use the phrase we gather to the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
I trust this is in line with what you're speaking, but it reminds me much of the two on the road to Emmaus in Luke 24 and a couple of pages over. And surely those ones were there in that day. And we think about him being on the cross. He quite well witnessed it. And yet it says, but we trusted that it was him. And so they went away. They got discouraged and they went in a different direction. And so to be in the way of Emmaus is not what the Lord would have for us, but.
You know by the Spirit that one in whom we say we gather around as the person of Christ.
He comes along with them. You'd have to read it all in Luke 24 from verses 13 down to the end, but.
He says to them.
Verse 25 Then he said unto them, O fools and slow of heart, to believe all that the prophets have spoken, not, not Christ, to have suffered these things.
And to enter into his glory, and beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them, and all the Scriptures, the things concerning.
Himself And they drew nigh unto the village, whether they went, and He made as though He would have gone further. But they constrained him, saying, Abide with us for His toward evening, and the day as far as spent. And He went into tarry with them. And it came to pass, as He sat at meet with them, He took bread, and blessed it, and break it, and gave to them. And their eyes were opened, and they knew Him, and he vanished out of their sight. And so it was he that was, that one Himself it was Christ.
That they were drawn to and so they said one to another. Did not our heart burn within us while he talked with us, by the way, while he opened us the Scriptures? And I can only think of what Stephen said. And, you know, when we have an opportunity to be in his presence like this on Lord's Day morning to remember him, do we ask ourselves, did not our hearts burn within us?
And if they didn't, surely we've missed it.
I've often said the remembrance of the Lord.
Is a request, not a command, But it's like a picture of the Lord in death. I have a picture of my mother in my home in Ottawa. When I look at that picture, I remember my mother when she was with me. He's with the Lord many years now. When we partake of the emblems on Lord's Day morning, it's a picture of the Lord.
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In death not so much occupied with His glory, now at the right hand of God, which is a wonderful truth.
But occupation with his death, Mr. Darby said. I never remember the Lord, but I think of a dead Christ. That's important.
We don't want to be legal about it, but let us contemplate.
The magnitude of that work of redemption and.
Call in wandering thoughts that we might have.
Meditate upon the sacrifice of the Lord.
What it meant for he the Holy One who knew no sin to be made sin for us. You know, Satan is very active on Lord's Day morning and our thoughts can be 100 miles away. We have to.
Gird up our loins.
Brother mentioned the bitter herbs there, probably another thought along that line.
You know, it was our sins that caused the Lord that suffering, those filthy sins that I had committed.
That caused the Lord that agony of those hours of darkness. How serious it is if I am going on with anything.
That is, contrary to God's mind, anything sinful habit.
Or whatever it is and I come to break bread.
That is serious. It's Hippocratic. It's a hypocrite because I'm saying that I'm remembering the Lord in his death and his sufferings for the very sin that I'm going on with.
How serious that would be. So we have in First Corinthians Chapter 11.
Much teaching along that line because the Corinthians were a careless group of believers they were going on with. There was division among them, there was immorality among them, there was confusion in their meetings, disorder. But the Lord was still in the midst, and the apostle gave them an admonition.
That.
If I we better turn to it first, so I get the words First Corinthians Chapter 11 familiar to us. It says, let a man examine himself for 28 Let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup, for he that Egypt and drinketh unworthily in an unworthy manner, that perhaps we could say unjust sin.
In the life eateth and drinketh judgment, damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep.
God had had acted in a governmental way in the assembly in Corinth because of their carelessness.
Yet, being at the Lord's Table, some of them were taken away by the article of death.
They must have been believers, because no unbeliever is spoken of as in sleep, only a believer is spoken of in that way, the body being asleep, while some of them they were taken away. So the apostle says, if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged, but when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world. Is that right, brethren?
I just, I appreciate that.
Brother John, just to make a comment with regards to that further down.
In the 15th verse.
Because sometimes we're very occupied with with ourselves and our state.
At the remembrance which is is needful and we can look at this whole subject from our standpoint as well, but it's it's good for us to see it from the Lord's viewpoint too. So here in the 15th verse we read he said unto them with desire, I have desire to eat this Passover with you before I supper. So it was the Lord's desire to be to have them around himself. It's it's wonderful for us to to think about going into the presence of the Lord. That's wonderful, but just think of it from the Lord's standpoint.
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If we go back to Mark's Gospel for a moment in the fourth verse of the 4th chapter.
We see the.
We see the Lord.
Selecting his disciples.
We have the disciples. There's four different lists of them, but this one here in in Mark's Gospel, I'm sorry, the third chapter.
Mark's Gospel, chapter 3.
And verse 14.
Here Dean, 12.
Now here we find first and foremost why.
That they should be with him.
Afterwards we read and that he might send them forth to preach and that power heal sicknesses cast out devils and so on. But first and foremost is he ordained the 12 That they should be with him. He wanted their company and in the same way he he wants our company and I I think you think of Lord's day morning we're going to have if the Lord leaves us here, this this privilege of coming into the presence of the Lord. But he his desire is is he wants our company.
He wants us to be with us. And you know, that's such a humbling thought to consider. You brought before us, Brother John, that that concept in in in in Corinthians of eating unworthily. And it's needful for us to to.
To have a clean vessel, you know we were speaking about.
Separation and thought to say this, but maybe let's look at it in we really get the full concept of it in the book of numbers. Go back to the book of Numbers.
Numbers the 5th chapter.
The whole thought of Numbers five is separation from evil time and time again. So here you have the Lord speak unto Moses, saying, Command the children of Israel, that they put out of the camp. Every leper, everyone that has an issue, whosoever is defiled by the dead, both male and female, shall ye put out the fourth verse. The children of Israel did so, and put them out without the camp. As the Lord spake unto Moses, so did the children of Israel. And so you have this whole chapter that takes off the thought of separation from evil.
Putting it away, but how different the next chapter. The next chapter is the law of the Nazarite. And so we read in the Lord, spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, whether either man or woman shall separate themselves, avow the vow of the Nazarite to separate themselves unto the Lord.
It's a completely different concept. Look at the fifth verse.
Down towards the end.
He separated himself unto the Lord. The sixth verse, all the days shall he separate himself unto the Lord, the eighth verse, all the days of his separation, He is holy unto the Lord, the 12Th verse, he shall consecrate unto the Lord, the 14th verse, and so on. There's many, many times. So you have this, this 5th chapter, which is separation from evil. But now we have the law of the Nazarite, it's separation unto the Lord.
So we have a place in the Old Testament. We have a person in the New Testament. I appreciate brother Dave, you're bringing out that the gathering power is not on ourselves. It's a serious thing to gather people together in every way, shape or form. We we have it here now we've the Saints here have have invited the Saints and they they gathered. That's that's the concept of whether it's last night, the young people, they gathered together and they played, they played capture the flag. Regardless, it's a serious thing to gather people together. But.
That which we're speaking about in Matthew 18 is where two or three.
Are gathered the the force is completely out of ourselves and it's it's it's a beautiful thing to realize that it's the Lord's desire and that's what we have with desire. I have desire to eat this Passover with you before some his desire was those that he had he had ordained to himself that that they would be with him. Oh, he wanted to eat the Passover with him. He wanted their company and he wants our company too. He wants it not only tomorrow morning, but he wants our company.
00:45:23
All through our lives this week, now we want to, we want to surround the occasion with fear. We want to leave that impression, but it should be with self judgment. I think of that verse. Let him drink and forget his poverty and remember his misery no more.
It is not only does it give us.
Encouragement, but it brings joy to the heart of God, the heart of the Lord, because He remembers also the sufferings that he passed through there at the cross for our redemption.
It's also mentioned in connection with this.
This His desire for our company in verse 28, I think is our chapter. Ye are they which have continued with me in my temptations to the blessed Lord, went through all kinds of trials, and suffered the reproach of men who came unto His own. His own received Him not so in the time of His rejection. We have the privilege of being companions of His.
During the time of his rejection, and that's during the time that we're living. But it's interesting, you know, as we speak of these things, there are two things that are normal to Christianity.
It is normal Christianity to remember the Lord Jesus in his death.
And it is normal Christianity to be baptized. Perhaps I have the order backwards, but let's just look at Acts Chapter 9.
It's Paul, as you know, was a model Christian and how a Christian is saved, how a Sinner is saved and how a Sinner is gathered and so on. And so it says.
In Chapter 9, let's read verse 18. Immediately there fell from his eyes, as it had been scales, and he received sight forthwith, and arose and was baptized.
That doesn't say whether Paul said, OK, I'm saved now I need to be baptized.
But the one that had been used of God to speak to him were not told everything that Ananias said to us.
And I spoke to him. We have very little recorded of what was said, but he says brother Saul.
Inverse a little bit earlier, verse 17. And then he was filled with the Holy Ghost. So he was engulfed with the Spirit of God, sealed with the Spirit as he understood.
The facts of salvation and said Christ died for me immediately. He was sealed with the Spirit. He speaks of this in Ephesians chapter one. He goes over that doctrine, but it was normal to be baptized.
The scripture doesn't see a believer. Someone that really knows the Lord Jesus as Savior is not being baptized.
And so, you know, there may be someone here that's not baptized and they went, well, you know, it's kind of got to be kind of a ritual. And the brethren are going to read a bunch of scriptures and there's going to be a public thing. And boy, I can't take that. But, you know, in the Scriptures, these things were done privately. I'm not saying that we don't want to have a public baptism and so on. We have them in different places, but.
You know, in a very quiet way, the Ethiopian eunuch in the wilderness.
Was baptized by Philip, just the two of them. There was some water. He was baptized in the name of the Father, the son of the Holy Ghost. The Philippian jailer was saved at midnight, his whole household, he says. I don't want any heathens in my household. I want everyone to be on Christian ground, identified with Christ. The whole household was baptized in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. But for a believer, it's normal.
And then it says a little later on in Chapter 9 of Acts that.
He says, it says in verse 26, when Saul was come to Jerusalem, he is saved to join himself to the disciples. But they were all afraid of him and believe not that he was a disciple. But Barnabas took him, brought him unto the to the apostles, and declared unto him unto them, how he had seen the Lord in the way, and they had spoken to him, and how he had preached boldly at Damascus in the name of the of Jesus. And he was with them coming in and going out at Jerusalem.
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So it's evident that that Paul was received into fellowship. I believe that Damascus, many went to Jerusalem. We read of it in Galatians. I think it's chapter 2 went up for 14 days.
And.
So we tried to join the brethren and he said, I'm a Christian too, but he wasn't received on individual testimony. They said, no, you're not we, we know you. We heard about you. You're not coming in here. And but Barnabas, you know, had acted, you might say, as his letter of commendation. And Barbara said, no, I, I heard him preach. I, I can verify that he truly is a believer.
And so those two things I believe we need to recognize are necessary.
Baptism and remembrance of the Lord.
Now we might say, well.
That's you know what, maybe I'm not ready for that. Well, you know, it doesn't give us any ages of those that were to be gathered to the Lord's name, those that were to be remembering the Lord in his death, but they were to be responsible, it says in our chapter here.
That they were to make ready, so they were to exercise self judgment I believe is the thought and it says in verse 13 they went.
On that lovely.
You'll never be happier in your soul.
Than to obey the truth of what you hear and read in the word of God.
To simply obey it and to walk in submission to the will and the Word of God.
You'll never be at peace without it, and you'll never have the joy of the Lord as you He would desire you to have.
If you just go.
To the point that has been brought out regarding the loose desire to be with us, there's a distinction in our chapter here between verses 15 and 18. That's the Passover supper. And then versus 20 or 19 and 20 says the Lord stop the House of her supper didn't bring us to God. It provided shelter. The blood on the door actually kept God out. That sheltered those that were in the house when they got the angels.
But that was the Lord's consensus, and the Lord's Supper brings us ancient communion of himself. First Corinthians, chapter 10.
Says in verse 16, the cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? Is it not the communion of the body of Christ? And so it introduces the new thing that brings us into fellowship with himself, fellowship with his suffering. You know, when the Lord was on the cross, you look for something to take pity. I found none but you and I provide him to a place where we can have communion with himself, and we consider His suffering his work.
Person, and we can worship that person that we've been brought in to fellowship with.
Some might wonder, well, we have the Lord's Supper spoken of in Scripture, in Mark Matthews Gospel, Marks Gospel.
Gospel. Why do we have to have it in First Corinthians?
First Corinthians Chapter 11. Why is it there?
Well, we might say that in the Gospels it's historically is given to us.
In the historical record and from a Jewish perspective, it's a seed plot. The Lord you, the Lord Jesus always gave the seed law himself of Paul's doctrine of church doctrine. He gave the seed plot of it. But because the disciples were not indwelled with the Spirit of God, he didn't unfold the whole of the revelation of Christian doctrine himself, and so the remembrance of the Lord Jesus.
In his death is part of what we call Paul's doctrine. Paul's doctrine has four main parts to it. One is the remembrance of the Lord. Peter doesn't speak of it. John doesn't speak of it. It's not a part of that ministry. It's church doctrine, and it's what the apostle had revealed to him. Let's read it in first Corinthians 11.
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Verse 23, it says I have received of the Lord. That's the revelation that he received from the Lord, the risen Christ on five. And so he reveals this from a Christian perspective. He gives the teaching of the emblems in chapter 10. Why? What they are, what they mean and so on. But he says this do in remembrance of me at the end of verse 24. And then he says he reveals to us as well in verse 26.
As often as you eat this bread, ye eat this bread.
Let's us collectively and drink this cup. Ye collectively do show the Lord's death or announced the Lord's death till he come. So it was revealed to the apostle Paul that this would take place until the coming of the Lord.
We have the confidence that we're going to be able to remember the Lord Jesus and his death until he comes. Another part of Paul's doctrine is the coming of the Lord, he says.
That I would not have you to be ignorant. And so he he had that revelation from the Lord, and then all those things that we have that are in Christ.
And he speaks of really in the mystery.
Christ's in the church.
It's all Paul's doctrine. Those four parts of those are the four major parts of what God, what the Spirit of God brings out in Paul's ministry, the coming of the Lord Jesus for his Saints, how it will take place, the sequence of events and the breaking of bread, what we can do while we're here, and the assembly, how the assembly is to be ordered, and so on. And then all of those blessings that we have, heavenly blessings.
That we're heavenly citizens and that we're blessed in Christ and to the great mystery of Christ and the Church, the relationship that we have with Christ.
Just a.
A note in reference to him I have received of the Lord First Corinthians and Romans, and 2nd Corinthians were written before the Matthew, Mark and Luke and John.
We didn't have that reference because we kind of received it directly from the Lord.
So the First Corinthians is written, we might say, from a Christian perspective. And so that's why on a Lords Day morning, a brother will stand up and he will sometimes read First Corinthians Chapter 11, verse 23 down to the end. And he doesn't read it in Matthew, his Gospel. He doesn't read it in Luke's Gospel. Sometimes he might. But really if we read it intelligently, he reads that Christian portion.
And it gives us the doctrinal significance of what took place.
On that night in a Jewish setting, but from a Christian perspective.
Or how thankful we can be for the accuracy of Scripture and to tell us that the basis of our fellowship with Christ is the blood that was shed.
And so when we take that cup, let's read it in, as we're talking of this doctrinally, First Corinthians chapter 10.
He he says in verse 16, chapter 10 and verse 16, the cup of blessing which we bless, it doesn't represent the judgment that Christ bore on the cross. That's not what it's Speaking of. The cup, when it's a cup of wine on the table, that represents a cup of blessing, the blood that was shed to bring us into blessing, the greatest blessing that God could possibly bestow upon man.
That we could be brought into a relationship, reconciled to God, made sons of God, heirs of God, joint heirs of Christ. Could you be better blessed? You couldn't be better blessed. It's a cup of blessing. The cup of judgment was born on the cross. It's a different cup.
And so the Lord Jesus.
Bore the judgment for our sins, not waiting. Then in verse 17 it says we being many are one bread or one loaf.
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One body, for we are all partakers of that one bread or that one loaf. And so when on the Lord's Day morning, you take part and the loaf comes by and you take a little piece of that loaf, you're publicly confessing that you are a member of the body of Christ.
And in fellowship with the Lord, as it were, you're responding to his request that you would eat and remember him in this way. And so it's a public thing, but it's a public profession that you belong to Christ.
I would say, Robert, that the truth of the one body.
Of Christ developed in First Corinthians 10 is the one loaf on the table. When I look at that one loaf, I see there represented every member of the body of Christ, wherever he is.
He's in that loaf.
Not those that have passed into the presence of the Lord, They are not in that vote. But every living member of the body of Christ is in that loaf. When it is broken, then the symbol changes. Then it is the remembrance of the death of Christ, of His precious body being broken, given in death. So the aspect in First Corinthians 10.
Is is the collective side, I thought, the communion of the blood of Christ the way I have understood it.
Where it speaks, there communion of the body, the blood of Christ. I thought it thought of it as.
Recognizing God's thoughts as to the value, the preciousness, the efficacy of that blood that was shed. God's thoughts having common thoughts with God.
As to the value of that precious blood, the 11Th chapter is individual. It's the Lord's Supper, not the Lord's Table, it's the Lord's Supper. We partake of the Lord's Supper at the Lord's Table. But but as I said, the Lord's Table is, is the divine ground of gathering, and we are looked upon as always being at the Lord's table. Is that right, Robin? Well, in First Corinthians 11/20.
25 It speaks of ye. That's plural, isn't it, John?
Ye this do ye collectively.
As OFT as ye collectively drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as ye collectively drink, eat this bread and drink this cup, ye collectively do show the Lord's death till he comes. So it's a wonderful thing the Lord gathers two or three or more or fewer. You know, it's the lowest number is the two or the three.
Used to be in the England two or three thousand. Then perhaps when Dave Mearns and I were younger it was 2 or 300.
Now in some places it's 20 or 30.
Many places you'll go, it's two or three. Sometimes it's two.
Nevertheless of the Lord, though Amen.
This point of.
In remembrance.
There is opposition to this remembrance of.
A greater significance than we can grasp. And that opposition comes from the God of this world, Small G. There's nothing he wants more than to erase this event from the minds of man. And so it is.
It's important and it's precious that we seek to announce his death, that.
On that regular basis, Acts 20 and seven, the first day of the week, the disciples came together to break bread. And we have a seed of it all the way back in Genesis. And I'd like to look at that Genesis chapter 50 and verse 25.
And Joseph took an oath of the children of Israel, saying, God will surely visit you, and ye shall carry up my bones from hence. So Joseph died, being 110 years old, and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.
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Joshua 24, verse 32.
And the bones of Joseph, which the children Israel brought up out of Egypt buried, And Shechem, and a parcel of ground which Jacob bought of the sons of Hammer, the father of Shechem, for 100 pieces of silver, And it became the inheritance of the children of Joseph.
The coffin of Joseph, 40 years. They carried that coffin through the wilderness.
Let's not, let's not count this as an unnecessary impediment in the Christian path. It's a.
It's a final part of the Christian path and.
Sadly, some just become.
From the side you can discourage and give up this precious privilege of remembering him also in Christendom that that.
Practice of taking communion viewed as.
We gotta we gotta move it off to the side because there's more important things that are need to be done. And but the of this principle to to carry that coffin all the way through and bring it into the land of Shechem Joseph who who died that was was given of God to provide life.
It's not a means of grace, um.
As it has been interpreted in denominationalism, we're not better before God because we remember the war. It's.
As Robert brought out this the body of Christ, if we remember the Lord intelligently, I think what you were referring to is that we remember the Lord as members of the body of Christ.
Yes, that that is the thought I think and I didn't mean to cut you off there on that thought, but in First Corinthians 10, it's the collective aspect there.
Is very appropriate timing in a sense too that we read. We heard various comment of this passage tomorrow morning.
We have the real practical practice as if it were.
What these words affect our hearts, our thoughts as we are gathered tomorrow morning?
And with the express purpose of remembering him in his death force he just.
Trust that the Spirit would move our hearts. It's not a praise and prayer meeting as some people will call. It's not a a Thanksgiving meeting is the remembrance, although praise and prayers often flow out from it. So we have to remember this dude in remembrance of me. And one more thought to that too is it's not those brothers who often take part is not about knowledge.
It's about your priesthood, your responsibility as serving priests. So all brothers are able to offer Thanksgiving, and the sisters have an equal part in that meeting, don't they? We ask. The silent part.
Their holy priests, the Sisters, our holy priests, as well as the Brothers.
And there they certainly have a contribution to the remembrance in in their by their.
Silent participation.
I was wondering in in our chapter here I just asked him the question that the Lord did not partake of the.
Of the Passover Cup, although he did partake of the Passover.
With the disciples.
But it mentions in the 18th verse, I say unto you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine.
Until the Kingdom of God shall come.
Verse 17 He took the cup and gave thanks and said, take this and divide it among yourselves. That was the Passover cup, was it not? And the Lord did not partake of that cup.
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He didn't partake of that cup because it speaks of the establishment of the Kingdom and earthly joy when the Lord will have his rightful place and he was rejected when when this Passover was celebrated as Anyone have a thought on that?
He was the perfect Passover lamb. He fulfilled the Passover requirement in every way. So we find in the Passover scene, they had to choose a land on the 10th day of the month, and they had to keep it until the 14th day between the evenings. So he entered Jerusalem on the 10th day of that month. We perhaps followed the phrase from the Catholic again, the Palm Sunday, that's the 10th day of the month. On Thursday, that's the 14th day of the month. This is the passage we're at that they had as if it were the last Passover.
Now the Passover lamp can be killed between the evening. So from Thursday evening, that's three o'clock Thursday afternoon to 3:00 on the 15th, which is Friday.
Is is the time set aside when it can kill the lamb? So the Lord had the Passover with the disciple. He Himself, being the perfect Passover lamb, was offered up. He yielded up his ghost at 3:00 the next day.
And then we find that he fulfilled the others. I failed to mention. We mentioned about the Passover, the unleavened bread, the feast of the first fruit, which is on the 17th day of the month, a few days later, that's resurrection. And then the remembrance that we have in Corinthians, really before the seven feasts is 50 days afterwards, the feast of Pentecost when the Holy Ghost descended and everything changed from there on. Then we all.
Become, or I should say that we the believers then become intelligent one because we're indwelled by the Spirit of God.
We sing 245.
#146 what I have in mind.
We bless our Savior's name.
Ourselves.
I do make.
Enough.