Great Texts of The Bible | Communion Supper | Pastor William Hixson

I I saw a connection that I wanted to

use. 1 Corinthians chapter 11. If you

1 Corinthians 11 · chapter mention

turn there,

the city of Corinth is a rough place. It

was a military town. It was a sailor

town and all that went with that. uh and

Paul started a wonderful church there

and he's writing to these Corinthians.

This is a very early letter. This letter

is actually earlier in writing as you've

heard from me than the four gospels.

Four gospels were actually put to paper

after this. Very interesting. You don't

normally think about that. So this is a

very early letter and it teach it was

later in history. Of course, this was in

the 50s here, but uh uh the the gospel

events took place uh 20 years or so

earlier, but the gospel accounts were

written after this. But anyway, in Luke

in 1 Corinthians 11,

Paul's writing the church. He spent 18

months there in that city. Remember, God

said, "Don't be afraid. I got many

people in this city." And he did. and a

wonderful church began.

And in 1 Corinthians 11, Paul finds out

there's a problem. He's he's he's

dealing with problems. That's part of

life. It's part of ministry. It's part

of being a parent. It's part of being a

husband. It's part of being a wife. It's

part of being uh and whatever you do, a

teacher, whatever you're doing, you're

going to deal with problems, right? Uh

and so there was a problem in the

church. There was actually some

disorderly conduct

in the communion service. So there is a

way to conduct ourselves in the Lord's

supper and they were not doing it

properly.

Uh there was a lot of disrespect going

on for each other. Uh and we'll explain

that today.

But in 1 Corinthians 11, Paul writes

starts dealing with this problem. And I

remind you, and I'm going to be talking

about this, in the early church, for the

first couple hundred years, they had a

love feast and then they had the Lord's

supper right afterwards.

So, a lot of the problems were happening

in the love feast.

They weren't being very loving.

They were doing just the exa opposite.

And so, the love feast came first and

we'll we'll see that. And then they were

going to the communion with the problems

they were causing in the love feast

unresolved.

So part of the Lord's supper is to

confess those sins, repent of those sins

that have built up that we haven't yet

repented of and uh believed or and dealt

with before the Lord. And but anyway,

they weren't doing that. They were

rushing right into the Lord's supper.

So 1 Corinthians 11 is the standard

passage to deal with the Lord's supper

from the Apostle Paul. And we're going

to begin in verse 17.

Now in this I declare unto you, I praise

you not that you come together not for

the better but for the worse. Now that's

horrible. When we come to church, we

want to be better. We want to be the

better for it rather than worse. We

don't want to come to church and sin and

be worse for it than we're better. Our

whole point is to walk out of here this

morning. Better, not worse.

So they took all the trouble to get

together, but they were worse when they

left than when they came. And he says in

verse 18, "For first of all, when you

come together in church, I hear there

are divisions among you, and I partly

believe it." The word divisions is the

word we we have for schism.

A schism is an unjustified separation.

The Bible teaches separation.

There's a separation Christians should

be practicing.

But this is an unjustified separation,

an unjustified division.

So he says,"I hear there are heresies

among you or schisms among you uh or

divisions among you and I partly believe

it. For there must be heresies among you

that they who are approved may be made

manifest among you. When you come

together therefore in one place this is

not to eat the Lord's supper.

For in eating everyone takes before the

other his own supper, and one's hungry

and another's drunk." How about that for

conduct in church?

Somebody's grabbing all the food. Other

people are over drinking and get drunk.

That's how you worship God. Not a good

thing.

What have you not houses to eat and

drink in or despise you the church of

God and shame those that have not?

In other words, the wealthy people were

bringing a lot of food and eating it all

themselves in front of the poor people

that didn't have enough. The wealthy

weren't sharing.

What shall I say to you? Shall I praise

you in this? I praise you not.

Now, the problem here is the problem was

arising in the love field. It wasn't

very loving and then the problem was not

resolved when they started to take

communion after the love piece. They

went right into it. So the point of this

section is when we we when we've blown

it when we've sinned the sin of omission

or commission and we all have them we

should be confessing them before we come

to the Lord's supper. You say wait a

minute I didn't confess this morning.

Well you've got you got about another 45

minutes.

So whatever you haven't dealt with,

dealt with. I shouldn't have said that.

I shouldn't have done that. That's part

of Christian life.

And if we confess our sins, he's

faithful and just to forgive us our sins

and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

And confession is a normal part of the

Christian life.

So anyway, but they weren't doing that.

And so and then verse 23, we get into

the Lord's supper itself. But for I

received of the Lord which that which

also I delivered to you that the Lord

Jesus the same night in which he was

betrayed took bread. Now this is now

Paul's going back to the upper room and

when Jesus instituted the Lord's supper

right after the Passover meal

took Passover bread and Passover wine

and and did and changed the whole thing.

They were reme the Jews were remembering

coming out of Egypt and the redemption

out of Egypt that Jesus took Passover

bread, Passover wine and said, "Now

you're going to start remembering me

what I'm going to do."

And when he given drink thanks, he broke

it and said, "Take, eat. This is my body

which is broken for you. This do in

remembrance of me. You're going to have

something greater to remember than two

million of you being rescued from

Egyptian slavery."

And after the same manner also he took

the cup when he sucked, saying, "This

cup is the new testament in my blood.

This do as often as you drink it in

remembrance of me." Did you see that

twice? In remembrance of me. In

remembrance of me.

Or as often as you eat this bread and

drink this cup, you do show the Lord's

death till he come. And that word show

is literally preach.

So everybody here that takes the bread

and takes the cup and we do it together.

We do it silently, but we do it together

is preaching

by eating the bread and by drinking the

cup. You're we're saying to everybody

else, my only hope in this life or the

next is that Jesus died for me and rose

again. He shed his blood. He suffered in

his body and I'm remembering him. It's

an act of worship.

And so he says in verse 27, "Wherefore

whosoever shall eat this bread and drink

this cup of the Lord unworthily."

Now that's an adverb, not an adjective.

All of us are unworthy.

Are you worthy of heaven?

Are you worthy of being saved? I hope

you say no.

None of us are worthy. If this was an

adjective, nobody could take communion.

This is an adverb.

It's describing how we do it. Okay?

We're to do it in a worthy way. Honoring

the Lord, remembering the Lord,

rejoicing in the Lord.

But they weren't doing it in a worthy

way.

And so, he's very clear in verse 27,

"Whosoever shall eat this bread and

drink this cup of the Lord unworthily

shall be guilty of the body and blood of

the Lord." God takes the remembrance of

his son on the cross very seriously.

It's not a time to to uh do to enter

into lightly or irreverently.

But let a man examine himself. Not

examine everybody else.

Examine himself.

We're pretty good at examining other

people.

He said, "Examine yourself. Focus on

yourself."

You say, 'Yeah, but I know this

Christian and they're here and I know

what they said and I know what they did

and examine yourself.

Let God deal with them. Let them deal

with God.

And so uh it says

uh very clearly in verse 28, let a man

examine himself and so let him eat of

that bread and drink of that cup. For he

that eateth and drinkketh unworthily

eateth and drinkkeeth judgment. King

James says damnation means judgment.

You're you're eating you're you're going

to have some chastisement from the Lord.

You're going to get a pretty good spank

to himself not discerning the Lord's

body. For this cause many are weak and

sickly among you. In other words, God

made them sick. He's God's got ways to

deal with it. You know, your mom your

mom and my mom or my dad sent us to our

room or got the paddle out and you know,

but God's got his ways. You know now not

all sickness is because of a specific

sin but God knows how to get our

attention. For this cause many are weak

and sickly among you and many sleep.

Some people actually lost their physical

lives because of their irreverence

and their uh taking the Lord's supper in

an irreverent way. That's pretty

serious.

They didn't go to hell. They went to

heaven. They just went to heaven earlier

than if they hadn't done it. It was a

discipline. You understand what I'm

saying? to discipline.

If we would judge ourselves, we should

not be judged. But when we're judged,

we're chasened of the Lord that we

should not be condemned with the world.

So the whole point of the making you

sick or breaking your health or even

taking your life was that you God would

get your attention enough to to repent

of that.

Wherefore, my brethren, when you come

together to eat, tar for one another.

Try for one another. And if any man

hunger, let him eat at home. And you

that you come not together to judgment,

and the rest I'll all set in order when

I come. So the whole point, this church

was taking the trouble to gather

together and meet together and did all

the work that you had to do in those

days to get together.

that they were worse off than if they

stayed home.

So that's no good. So every time we come

together, we want to come together for

the better, right? Not for the worse.

That's the point. And so we need to be

God focused and Jesus focused and uh let

the Lord do whatever he needs to do with

us uh when we do. Now the text talks

about examining yourself,

right? Let a man examine himself.

That's very important in this particular

text of scripture. It's part of the

Lord's supper is that self-examination.

Not looking to who the other person is.

Looking looking just it's verse 28. Let

a man examine himself and so let him eat

of that bread and drink of that cup. So

they weren't examining themselves. If

they were, they would have thought, I

shouldn't have said that at the love

feast. I shouldn't have done that at the

love feast. I shouldn't have brought

extra for other people. whatever they

did.

Now, that's part of our text. And now

I'm putting another text with it that

I've never put together. I I don't think

I ever put these two texts together. Go

with me to Matthew. Hold your place

here. Mark this section because we'll

come back to it.

Matthew chapter 7.

Matthew 7 · chapter mention

This is in the sermon on the mount.

Matthew chapter 7.

Matthew 7 · chapter mention

The sermon on the mount is contained in

Matthew's gospel and it is chapter 5, 6,

Isaiah 5 · chapter mention

and 7. There's three chapters that are

recording one sermon,

the sermon on the mount.

And my purpose this morning is to is to

deal with some verses right in chapter 7

and especially

verses three and four. But I'm going to

read 1 2 3 and four.

Judge not, Jesus said that you be not

judged.

Judge not that you be not judged.

That's a favorite verse of unbelievers.

Don't judge me.

Don't make any judgments. That people

misquote that verse all the time. Misuse

that verse all the time. We all make

judgments. But we sometimes we make

unjust judgments. And that's what he's

talking about. Judge not that you be not

judged. For with what judgment you

judge, you'll be judged. And with what

manner you measure be measured to you

again. And why beholdest thou the moat

in thy that's in your brother's eye? But

consider not the beam that's in your own

eye.

So your brother's got a stick in his eye

and you got a log in yours

and you're judging him.

That's what's that's the picture.

Or how will you say to your brother,

"Let me pull the moat out of your eye,

and behold, a beam is in your own eye."

What's that mean? It's easier to see sin

in somebody else than in yourself.

We're pretty good at seeing sin in other

people.

We're pretty bad at seeing sin in

ourselves,

right? I mean, seriously, we're all that

way.

And he said, "Thou hypocrite,

first cast the beam out of your own eye,

and then you'll see clearly to cast the

moat out of your brother's eye.

Okay,

that's as far as we're going to get. But

he does also go in verse six, which has

some bearing. Give not what is holy to

the dogs, neither cast your pearls

before swine, lest they trample them

under feet and turn again and lacerate

you. But I'm primarily interested in

verses two to five. Okay, that's our

purpose this morning. Let's get going

with it and see how these things fit

together. And my purpose is not to give

a full explanation of the text here in

the sermon on the mount. Uh that takes a

long time. I've actually preached one

verse at a time through the sermon on

the mount. It takes several months. I'm

telling you, a lot of verses to go

through. And I love teaching it that

way, but we're not doing that today. My

purpose this morning is not to give a

full exposition of our text of of this

famous section, but it's it's to examine

this and the Lord's supper thing

together.

And in the sermon on the mount here,

Jesus is saying, don't just be looking

at other people, look at yourself.

Right? Very clear. Deal with yourself,

not just others. And so, it's dealing

with the importance of dealing with

ourselves.

It's also important to deal with others

as well.

And so there is that other part that

we're to to remind oursel of. I can't

misdeal with myself or misdeal with

other people. And at the Lord's supper,

we kind of need to look at both.

Now, for those of you that are new to

the Bible, if you're here today and

you're fairly new to the Bible, the

sermon on the mount is one of the

greatest sermons ever preached. I think

it is all kinds of aspects to it

and what Jesus said what Jesus said here

is marvelous

and the Lord but here's I want you to

just while we're here I'm going to give

you a lesson on the sermon on the mount

over chapter five where it starts

Jesus had two kinds of people in front

of him

he had the crowds

and he had his disciples

He had people who were unsaved and he

had people that were saved.

But I want you to watch this. This will

really be helpful to you. He says, "And

seeing the multitudes, he," that's

Jesus, "us went up into a mountain, and

when he was seated, his disciples came

to him." Now on the sermon of mount on

the where the sermon on mount was given

uh there's some flat areas right up

there where hundreds of people could be

Catholics have even built a church up

close to where this is but it is high up

it's in a mountain but there's plenty of

places to for Jesus to sit plenty of p

places for crowds to be in a flat area

up there

but

Jesus is doing something very important

The crowds are there and they're

listening.

But Jesus is preaching to his own. He's

preaching to the disciples,

his followers,

those who were saved, but the unsaved

are listening too.

Okay? So the primary audience is saved

people.

The uh the other people are listening.

So there's both saved and unsaved that

heard what was said on the sermon on the

mount.

And that's very clear. Seeing the

multitudes, those are the unsaved.

Might have been some saved among them,

but a lot of them weren't. He went to a

mountain and when he was seated,

his disciples came to him. You see the

difference? There's the disciples and

there's the crowd.

and he opened his mouth and taught them.

Now the nearest anticedant for them is

his disciples.

So Jesus is teaching his disciples

but the crowds are listening in

and no doubt the crowds benefit from

this and Jesus knew they were

benefiting.

my roommate in seminary who's now with

the Lord. He later became a college

professor in California, had a doctor in

Christian counseling. He was unsaved. He

was in a bar

and he listened to what someone else was

saying, witnessing to somebody else. He

wasn't witnessing to Tim. He was

witnessing to this other person.

and he was overhearing what this fellow

was saying to somebody else in a booth

not too far from him and he was an

evolutionist. He was his O major at OU.

He had no use for God and he heard the

gospel and he had Christian parents that

prayed for him but he mocked them for

their belief in God.

Him heard what this fellow was saying to

another person. He overheard is the way

I don't even think that other person

even knew he was in the room.

He went home and got saved.

And so Jesus is talking to the

disciples. He's they they're he's

addressing them. But both they and Jesus

know other people are listening to them.

But what he's saying is applied

primarily to them, but the unsaved are

hearing it, too. So there's both saved

and unsaved. And that's that's good.

That's the way it ought to be. Bible

classes, church, there's saved and

unsaved people in it and you uh that's

what you do. So when Jesus says you're

the salt of the earth, he's talking to

the disciples, right? He's not talking

to the crowds. When he says you're the

light of the world, he's talking to the

disciples. He's not talking to the

crowds.

And so

that's what he's doing. So Jesus is

expounding God's law. He's dealing with

murder, adultery, divorce, oaths,

turning the other cheek, loving your

enemy, giving to the needy. He's doing

all kinds of stuff,

knowing that there's a circle of

believers there and followers that are

saved and are going to be leaders in the

ministry, but knowing the others are

listening.

So, never you never know how God's going

to work with a sermon, right?

You never know.

And so the application at the end,

building on the rock and building on the

sand, that's where Jesus is doing

evangelism.

Build on the sand, your house is going

to fall. Build on the rock, it's going

to stand when the troubles come. So he

he gives the invitation so to speak at

the end, the application at the end of

the wise and foolish elders.

So this is the picture

and uh in in the sermon on the mount

he's he's primarily dealing with

edification and exhortation to the

saved. That's his 12 apostles but the

others are listening as well. That's it.

Now so what's he talking about here that

irrelevant to us? He's talking to save

people

that have a beam in their eye

and they're they think that they

have a right to criticize somebody else,

some other believer with a speck in

their own eye.

He's talking to save people about that.

He's saying, "Get the log out of your

eye. And then you'll see clearly to get

the the smoke the the speck out of your

the stick out of your

friend's eye. Interesting thing.

Now all this has connection. What how's

this connect with first Corinthians?

How's this connect with first

Corinthians? Uh first Corinthians had a

love feast and they misused it.

So in here uh there is a connection. you

are not properly connecting with each

other

and you're going to be chasing for it.

God cares how church people treat other

church people. God cares how Christians

treat other Christians. We're pretty

good at stepping on each other's feet.

We're pretty good at hurting each other.

Anyone that's been in the ministry knows

that that happens. And we're pretty

awkward. We're like we we we we don't

always mean to do it, but we do it.

So there has to be a horizontal

dimension where we realize I got to be

careful how I treat other brothers and

sisters in Christ.

I I I see something bad in their life

and I'm going to rip and stem to stern

and I'm missing but I got something

worse in my life. How's that going to

help them?

That's not going to be helpful.

So there's a horizontal thing that Jesus

is working on here. And but in and

there's also a vertical thing. Our

relationship with God. If our

relationship with each other is not

right, our relationship with God's not

going to be right.

And so in the Lord's supper, when they

go in there with the love feast and

they're not treating each other right,

they weren't being able to

fellowship properly with the bread and

with the Lord. Everybody following that?

think that that's helpful.

So in fact he said you come together in

Corinthians not for the better but for

the worse. That's that verse has always

struck me. Why go to all the trouble to

travel to church, sit down, spend time

and you're worse off than when you came.

We should always come together for the

better. And not just for our better, but

for everybody's better.

You say, "I didn't get much out of the

sermon today." Well, maybe somebody else

did. It's not just all about you.

Maybe God will hit you next time.

We should come together for the better.

Every service has a goal.

A goal is upward to be right with God

and to be pleasing him and giving him

pleasure. But every service should

always be how can I be a blessing to

other people around me. Now, some days

we're so busted up, we just want to

sneak in the back and sneak out the back

door. We're having a rough time. God

understands that. Uh but uh there's

something about being God's with God's

people that can really be a blessing.

Now, with those two things in mind, the

vertical and the horizontal, I need to

be right with the Lord. I need to be

right with each other. If I'm not right

with each other, I can't be right with

the Lord. That's

very, very important.

So now let's go back to 1 Corinthians 11

in our minds and think about the love

feast that preceded the Lord's supper.

You see, I've never heard of the love

feast. I didn't even know there was such

a thing in Christianity. I'm not

surprised.

If you know church history, you know

that they stopped it

because all the problems it was causing.

It actually caused so many problems.

Christians couldn't love each other

properly. They just thought we're better

off not doing this.

It's a very interesting story.

And it uh the the uh the Bible

dictionary I had describes the love

feast, a meal shared by early Christians

when they met together for fellowship

and the Lord's supper. Uh and it says

because of such abuses those described

in the New Testament 1 Corinthians

1 Corinthians 11:7–34

11:7-34

and 2 Peter 2:13

2 Peter 2:13

and probably for reasons of convenience

the meal and the eukarist became

separated in uh in the second century.

They just gave up on doing it. We can't

do it right. We just won't do it. still

remember the Lord's death, but you just

have trouble with the love feast being

loving. That's terrible.

But the early church met, they met in

the beginning when they had a fresh view

of Jesus and a fresh view of his

resurrection and a fresh view of

themselves. Turn to Acts chapter 2 and

Acts 2 · chapter mention

verse 46.

This is the day of Pentecost. And

afterwards, Acts 2 46.

I'm going to go back to 44.

All that believed were together and had

all things common. Had all things

common.

And sold their possessions and goods and

parted them among all men as every man

had dee. a lot of persecution going on.

So the wealthy people would help out the

people that were not so wealthy and

needed help. And and it says they sold

their possessions and goods and parted

them to all men even as he had need. And

they continued daily in one accord in

the temple, breaking bread from house to

house. Did eat their food with gladness

and singleness of heart, praising God,

and having favor with all the people.

And the Lord added to the church daily

such as should be saved. So they they

Jerusalem was a city of about 50,000 in

the first century and it grew when they

had a holy day but that was the regular

population. So they would meet with each

other and they would eat with each other

and they the love feast was a regular

thing.

But then problems started coming in just

like Paul's talking about in 1

Corinthians 11.

People got to where they were just not

sharing their food.

and eating they were they were eating

steak and the other guys got a hamburger

you know and so it wasn't too good right

so they they weren't sharing they

weren't uh uh being aware of others need

the early in in the early church in

Jerusalem there's a lot of persecution

people lost their jobs they lost their

family

you become a Christian

goodbye

and so there there was a lot of needs

And so this dictionary article says

because of such abuses, those described

in the New Testament and probably for

reasons of convenience, the meal and the

Eucharist became separated in uh around

the second century.

That doesn't mean that some people still

didn't do it, but a lot of people just

basically stopped. And uh and now by the

way um

there's other signs that some people

kept it up. The dash is not an inspired

scripture was written in 100 AD but they

were still there were still people

celebrating the love feast then. And u

you see the same thing in Ignatius in

110 AD and Justin Martyr 150 and

Tertullian in 200 there were still

people celebrating the Lord's supper. If

you read the early church fathers,

Justin Martyr and others.

So

what does it mean in first Corinthians

to not come to the Lord's supper and

what was the problems? Carelessness,

thoughtlessness, frivolous, selfishness,

everything but love.

Everything but love. Remember early in

Corinthians one said I'm a Paul, one of

Apollos, one of Cphus. There was

divisions

following men rather than following the

Bible.

I hope everybody here reads the Bible

more than any other book.

I have thousands of book in my library.

I'm a book guy and I try to read from

people in different denominations and

stuff their comments on this book and

that this subject and that. I believe in

being edified by the whole church. But

if you love any book more than you love

that Bible, you love that other book too

much. This is God's word and you need to

read this. You need to be focused here

more than anything else.

And so may God help us. This church had

its problems. It was a pretty big

problem. God didn't appreciate it. So

what happened was they had the love

feast and then just jumped right into

the Lord's supper and they they weren't

confessing any sins they did in the love

feast.

So part of the Lord's supper is Lord, I

shouldn't have said that. I shouldn't

have done that. That's part of it.

This doesn't mean you have to say it out

loud to us. You just have to say it

quietly to God. But that's an important

thing.

Now, that's where this section uh if you

want to get the beam out of your get the

beam out of your eye so you can get the

mode out of your brother's eye. Don't be

focused on others.

Focus on yourself. If you really hate

sin, you hate it in yourself, not just

in other people. Right?

If you hate sin in other people, but you

don't hate it in yourself, you don't

really hate sin.

That's not a good deal.

JC Riyle is one of my favorite writers

in the Bible. He's an Anglican bishop of

Liverpool. My favorite thing of

Liverpool was not the Beatles. It's JC

Roy.

He was there a long time before the

Beatles.

He has a book called The Practic

Practical Religion.

He wrote it in 1878.

I got it in my library 100 years 101

years later

in 1978

or 79.

And in that he has a chapter going to

table

talking about how do you take the Lord's

supper

and he focuses on all these things

and he says the very ordinances was

which was meant for peace and profit

became a cause of discord and sin.

He said when scripture speaks plainly

why cannot men be content with it. Why

should we mystify and confuse a subject

which in the New Testament is so simple?

You know what's happened with the Lord's

table? Churches argue over it. What does

it mean? This is my body and my blood.

And the Catholics and the Lutherans and

the Reformed, they all argue. They got

their own thing. I'm not saying we

shouldn't study that or have our own

view. I'm just saying, is that all you

can do with the Lord supper is argue

about it?

So, God help us. Right? And that's what

he was an Anglican. That's what he's

talking about. And so he has four things

that he's talking about in this article.

Why was the Lord's supper ordained? Two,

who ought to go to table and be

communicates?

Those two. Why was the Lord's supper

ordained? It was to remember the death

of Jesus, right? That's the whole point.

Focus on Jesus. Focus on who he is.

Focus on what he did. That's why as

often as you drink, eat this bread and

drink this cup, you do proclaim, that's

the word. You preach a non-verbal

sermon, the Lord's death till he comes.

That's what it's all about.

And so very that's the place of the

Lord's supper, but we it is his supper,

but it's a supper we are to take with

other people. So this other's this other

side

and we admitting we're a sinner when we

take the Lord's supper, right? I need

the body and blood of Jesus. We're

confessing that non we're confessing

that.

Now, if we're not a Christian yet, we

shouldn't take the Lord's supper because

we haven't put our faith in Christ. You

just kind of sit there quiet and just

let the bread and cup go by. I did that

in my early life. I wasn't saved. I knew

it wasn't saved. I didn't I just let let

it go by. Let it and so did other

people. That's the proper thing for a

non-Christian in in in a service.

Nobody's going to examine you. The Bible

says, "Let a man examine himself and and

then let him eat of that bread and drink

of that cup."

So that's all kinds of important

and but JC Ralph said it's nonsense to

profess we desire to remember Christ's

death while we cling to the oursed thing

which made it needful.

That's a second thing. If I'm

if I've got if I've got sin in my life

I'm just no not even interested in

fighting it or giving it up.

I'm not ready to take the Lord's supper.

Right.

I mean, we all got sin. We all got sin

we don't even know about.

We all do. And we all hide our own sins

from ourselves.

But the point of the Lord's supper is,

Lord, I shouldn't have done this. I'm a

Christian. I need your grace to not do

this again. And I thank you for the

blood of Jesus. But if we're not a

Christian, just let it pass by. That's

much better than taking it at that time.

The best thing is to get saved and then

take it. You can do that right where you

are. And I was reminded as a young

person in church, every time I let the

Lord's supper bread and I I I'm not

saying spoke to me, preach louder than a

preacher sermon.

So, but the other thing is we need to

have the vertical of my relationship

with the Lord, me and the Lord, and not

just the horizontal.

We have to have both. Am I am I am I uh

did I treat somebody or did I mistreat

somebody? I confess to them and confess

to the Lord.

So we must if a man doesn't want to do

that, he's not ready. And then he comes

with the last thing. Self-righteous

people who think they are to be saved by

their own works have no business to come

to the Lord's supper.

If you don't need Jesus cross, why would

you take the Lord's supper? The Lord's

supper is saying, "I need the cross.

Can't save myself."

Strange as it may sound at first, these

persons are the least qualified of all

to receive the sacrament. The least

qualified. They're more they're they're

le they are they are qualified less than

the drunkard or the adulterer or anybody

else or the thief

because they think they're good. They

think they're better than other people.

And so that's what he says. They're the

least qualified. Strange as it may sound

at first, these persons are least

qualified to receive the sacrament. They

may be outwardly correct, moral, and

respectable in their lives, but so long

as they trust in their own goodness for

salvation, they're entirely entirely in

the wrong place at the Lord's Supper.

For what do we declare at the Lord's

Supper? We publicly profess

that we have no goodness, righteousness,

or worthiness of our own, and all our

hope is in Christ. That's what we're

doing when we take the bread and the

cup.

So,

let's go back in our minds to Matthew 7.

In Matthew 7, we're dealing with the

what? The horizontal.

I got to be careful how I'm treating

other people and thinking about other

people in relation to myself. In in uh

1 Corinthians 11, we're thinking of the

horizontal and the vertical.

If I don't treat people properly,

then I'm not ready for the Lord's supp.

It's very easy for us to be misfocused.

We imagine ourselves often better than

we are. And that can actually be a

problem after you've gone to church for

a while.

When I was a kid in the 1950s, that's

how old I am. Talking about the 1950s,

World War II was just over. My dad was a

veteran.

And we kids, the the little boys, not

the girls, they didn't care about it,

but we always wanted to play war.

And so the kids in the neighborhood,

they all played at our house. My mom

said, "I'd rather grow grass than kids.

I'd rather go kid than grass." Excuse

me, I misquer. So the neighborhood

played in our yard

and she always knew what we were doing.

And most of the time it went pretty

good. But we would divide up and some

guys got to be the Americans and others

got to be the Germans or the Japanese.

That's that was the way we did it in the

50s. I'm not saying that was right. I'm

just saying nobody wanted to be the

Germans or the Japanese. They all wanted

to be the Americans.

Why? They all wanted to be the good

guys. They all wanted to be the guys

that won. Nobody wanted to be the the

guys that lost.

We had that view.

And the Russians were the bad guys as a

little later. And I actually had a

perverted view of Russian people because

of the Russian government till I went to

Russia and met a couple of Russian

people that were really really good

people and nice people and that blew

that that blew that away.

But anyway,

we all want to think we're on the right

side,

but the fact is sins put us on the wrong

side. We were born on the wrong side.

We were born fallen

according to Romans chapter 5. And the

Romans 5 · chapter mention

Bible says, "All have sinned and are

coming short of the glory of God." All.

No exceptions. There's no good guys.

We're just all We've all failed. We've

all blown it. That's the whole book of

Romans. It's not just the atheists or

the Muslims or the communists or the

liberal churches or they're bad and

we're good. No, we're all have sinned.

And the are coming short. Present tense.

That means we still come short even

after we're saved.

None of us match up to what we should

be.

And uh we just have to accept that.

We're all broken. We're all broken in

different ways, but we're all broken.

God doesn't have any unbroken people.

His toolbox just has a bunch of broken

tools.

And that's what we are. So don't be

surprised if Pastor Hixon messes up or

you mess up. We're just all broken.

So what are we to do? Examine ourselves

and then eat. That's what it says in

Corinthians.

We're not examining others. We're

examining ourselves and we exalt the

Lord, not ourselves.

We're not trying to call other people

out when it comes to their sins at the

Lord's supper. We're to call ourselves

out.

James says the word of God's a mirror.

You ever thank God for mirrors?

You know, you would never know what your

ears look like if it wasn't for a

mirror.

You can't see your ears.

You can't see your teeth.

I can barely see my nose. I got a pretty

big nose. But there lot there's things

about you you can't see without a

mirror. So, thank God for mirrors.

Mirror shows you can't see your eyes

without a mirror.

So you can only know yourself from a

mirror if it's a good mirror.

And the word of God is that mirror that

shows us to ourselves things about

ourselves that we need to know. And one

of them is I'm broken.

Broken.

So we have to examine ourselves. It

says, "And so let him eat of that bread

and drink of that cup."

Uh, I hope this has been helpful to you.

Hope this has been challenging to you.

It's challenging for me to preach on

this.

And uh,

we don't want to be overoccupied with

other people's sins. We want to be

occupied with our own.

And neither do we want to be so occupied

with our own we can't get occupied with

Jesus.

The whole point is confess and then get

to Jesus and enjoy him.

And so God help us to do that.

Uh and when we fellowship with God's

people, the one others ought to be

engaged. And we are going to have

fellowship today. By the way, we have a

meal after the service and we we're

going we pray uh we have a prayer

meeting every second week. We eat and

then we pray and uh but then some the

other times in the week we meet eat and

meet for everybody where we're don't ne

necessarily have to pray. It's good for

God's people to be together. We need to

be together and uh it's a challenging

thing.

Here's some questions as we come to the

Lord's supper.

Have I loved my fellow Christians

biblically?

Have I loved them the way God wants me

to love them?

Do I see them and their problems, but I

don't see myself in my problems?

Part of being a church and being a

collective group is we have to deal with

our own problems.

It's part of it so other people don't

have to live with it.

And the other part is there is that

horizontal but there's the vertical.

Am I totally enraptured

with Jesus Christ?

I love celebrating him who he is and

what he's done.

The greatest privilege of my life is to

celebrate him publicly

and talk to others about him who he is

and what he's done. Now, our practice

here is to pass the bread, wait for one

another, partake together. We all eat at

the same time. Then we pass the cup, uh,

partake together. And as we do, we're

looking at Jesus.

But but before you ever get the bread or

the cup, uh there's a sin to confess.

This is the time to do it.

You don't have to be at the Lord's

supper to confess sins, but Lord, I

shouldn't have said that. I shouldn't

have done that. That's part of what this

is all about.

And uh so we will proceed with that.

Father, we thank you for what we've

looked at in your word. Forgive us,

Father, when we've been harder on others

than we are on ourselves.

Help us, Father, to come humble

how much we fail you every day, every

week of our life, but humbled that the

creator of the universe would love us

and pay for our sins, take our hell on

himself.

An infinite person paying an infinite

penalty we could never pay.

We thank you for visitors here this

morning. They're welcome to join us if

they know the Lord as their savior. It's

his table, not our table.

But they're also welcome to just let it

pass. Anyone here that wants to do that,

that's okay, too. We're not going to

look at them or judge them or ask them

anything about it. We're just That's

between them and the Lord. Sometimes we

just haven't had sufficient time to

confess things that maybe we said

something or did something

But may this moment be used for that.

And it's all between folks and the Lord.

If there's anyone that's not yet saved,

we pray they come to know the Lord even

today.

They'd realize the God of heaven.

Took my hell

could have his heaven. Took my sins so I

could have his holiness.

Be with him forever. A new heaven and

new earth.

Oh father speak to our hearts today in

Jesus precious name. Amen.

Lord as we go from this place

loving you more

trusting you more.

May the power of your love and the light

of your word shine

to a sin darkened world as we go from

this place.