I want to talk to people today who
are in the habit of taking the Communion.
All over this land and all other Christian
lands, from time to time, those who profess
to know and love our Lord Jesus Christ
come together in various places and under various
circumstances to obey the command of the Lord
Jesus, this do in remembrance of me.
But you know, I'm afraid there are a
great many people who sit at the Communion
table, who partake of the bread and drink
of the cup, who have never yet entered
into the reality of it all, who have
never yet known for themselves what it really
means.
And so I want to read a few
verses from the 11th chapter of 1 Corinthians,
verses most of you know well, and then
say a few words on them.
1 Corinthians 11, 23 to 25, I have
received of the Lord Jesus that which also
I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus,
the same night in which he was betrayed,
took bread.
And when he had given thanks, he broke
it and said, Take, eat, this is my
body which is broken for you, this do
in remembrance of me.
After the same manner also he took the
cup when he had stopped saying, This cup
is the new testament in my blood, this
do ye as often as ye drink it
in remembrance of me.
For as often as ye eat this bread
and drink this cup, ye do show the
Lord's death until he come.
This was the instruction given to the Apostle
Paul by the risen Lord.
You see, Paul hadn't been at the Lord's
supper when it was first instituted, he was
at that time still an unbeliever.
And so the Lord Jesus gave him a
special revelation concerning it.
And you'll notice this, that it made it
very, very clear that the bread, which symbolizes
the body of the Lord Jesus, and the
cup which speaks of his precious blood, shed
on Calvary's cross, in each instance set forth
Christ as dying for us.
And we're to partake of it in remembrance
of him.
Now, just imagine one who doesn't know Christ,
who's never trusted him, and yet carrying out
this service just as a mere matter of
poor.
Can't you see the incongruity of it?
You know, to go to the Lord's table
and partake of the bread and the cup,
and yet to reject the Savior thus presented,
it seems to me, must be an awfully
serious thing.
I can't imagine anything that would add to
one's judgment and to one's bitter regrets by
and by than this very thing.
Think of looking back from eternity and remembering
how on earth you used to sit at
the communion table and partake with others of
those elements, and yet you never trusted the
Savior who was thus remembered for yourself.
You see, the Lord's Supper was never intended
to be a means of salvation.
It was never intended to work the miracle
of grace in your soul.
But it was to be a memorial feast.
It was to be a remembrance of the
Savior.
Well, you should know him first in order
that you may remember him.
You should be able to look back and
say, I see him there on that cross
dying for me, and I've trusted him as
my Savior.
And having trusted him, I love him, and
I want to keep him in mind.
Then you go with a good heart and
a good conscience to the table of the
Lord.
But to think of partaking of the communion
as though in some mystic way it was
going to help to put away your sins,
as though it might in some way help
to make you a Christian, is to miss
the real meaning of it altogether.
You know, there's only one thing that can
make anybody a Christian, and that's the personal
acceptance of the Lord Jesus Christ.
As many as received him, oh how I
love to dwell on those words, as many
as received him, to them gave he power
to become the children of God.
There's no other way, no other way by
which you can become a child of God,
no other way by which you can become
a Christian, no other way by which you
can be born again than receiving him.
The Apostle Peter says, Being born again, not
of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the
word of God, which liveth and abideth forever,
and this is the word which by the
gospel is preached unto you.
The Lord's Supper is the perpetual memorial of
the death of Christ.
Whenever celebrated, it's a reminder of the fact
that Christ died for sinners, that he gave
his life on our behalf.
But if men participate in this and yet
reject him, it only adds to their condemnation.
Instead of being a means of grace, instead
of being a blessing to them as the
Lord intended it to be, it becomes the
very opposite.
It may even become a curse.
It may be even the occasion of bitter,
bitter memories in a lost eternity.
To think I used to sit at the
table of the Lord, I used to take
of the bread and of the cup, and
yet I never took the Savior for myself.
Oh, how foolish to allow oneself to be
so familiar with the awkward facts of Christianity,
and yet refuse the Savior.
Trust him now for yourself.