I want to talk to people today who
are in the habit of taking a 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 too, in remembrance of me.
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.
You follow the read of two 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, was bred.
When he had given thanks, he broke it
and said, Take, eat, this is my body
which is broken to you, this too in
remembrance of me.
After the same manner also he took the
cup and he said, This cup is the
new testament in my blood, this do you
as often as you drink it in remembrance
of me.
For as often as ye eat this bread
and drink this cup, ye will show the
Lord's care until he comes.
This was the instruction given to him.
Now, you will notice that it is made
very, very clear that the bread which symbolizes
the body of the Lord Jesus, and the
cup which speaks of his precious blood, seven
thousand strong, in each instance set forth Christ
as dying for us, and with the 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 knapper-porn.
Can't you see the incongruity of it?
Do 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 regret 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 as a
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 in that cross
dying for me, and I 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 all together.
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 his 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
a corruptible seed, but an 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 man participates in this and yet
rejects 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
up the bread and eat some, and yet
I never took the savior for myself.
Oh, how foolish to allow oneself to be
so familiar with the outward facts of Christianity,
and yet refuse to take it such in
now for yourself.