So we're pretty much done in the series, but I just wanted to close with just a few concluding remarks on just what is, in concluding, what is the Lord's Supper, and a couple questions that the confession didn't deal with that we sort of touched upon when we went through the early church and their view of the Lord's Supper. But I wanted to mention that because that is something that we practice that not a lot of churches practice. And I'll just say it now, but that's the frequency of the Lord's Supper. All the churches that I've been to, except for the one that I came from before I came here, all of them would do it once a month. That was the first Sunday of the month. the day that you do it. When I was in California at Christ Reformed Baptist Church, that was the first time that I was in a church where they observed it weekly. And then so here we're also doing that as well. So we're observing the Lord's Supper weekly and I'll give my reasons why. But, so as we look at the Lord's Supper and what we've gone through, what we've studied, we went through the Old Testament roots of it, from Passover to Lord's Supper, how it's connected, the historical development, we went through briefly the early church, the medieval church, and then the Reformation church, or you can say the modern church, and then theological and confessional view. And that was when we went through the confession. So, final conclusions or remarks we can say. So, and again, some of the, we spoke on a lot of things, but some things that I just really want us to really understand or take away from the series is that the Lord's Supper is a covenantal and a memorial meal. We know it's a memorial meal, but One thing that we really need to understand is that it is a covenantal meal. The Lord's Supper has roots in the patriarchal meals with covenantal significance. Those patriarchal meals established a profound relationship among those who shared in them. We see this, for example, with Melchizedek and Abraham, or when Abraham is visited by the angel of the Lord and the other two angels. The Passover or the Lord's Supper then has connection to the Passover. And that's one way that we can see it as a covenantal meal. The Passover is a memorial meal commemorating God's deliverance of his people from Egypt. The Passover is fulfilled in Jesus Christ providing salvation for his people. So that deliverance of God, of his people from God, or I'm sorry, God's deliverance of his people from Egypt was pointing to, was a type, a picture of God's ultimate deliverance of his people from sin, but not only his ultimate salvation and deliverance, but it was also a picture of God's ultimate judgment upon the nations, upon the world. And that deliverance led the people into the wilderness. It led them to that moment where God established his covenant with his people. He delivered them for the purpose of that covenant, for the purpose. I mean, when he sends Moses to Pharaoh, he says, tell Pharaoh to let my people go so that they may go into the wilderness and worship me. So the whole purpose of being delivered is so that we would worship God, not do what we want. And so it is for the purpose of this covenantal relationship, and the Passover commemorates that act that is covenantal in nature. And again, it points to the salvation provided for by God in Christ Jesus. And we see in the Gospels, then, the Lord's Supper as being instituted at the Passover meal. We see that in Matthew, Mark, Luke, although John doesn't actually mention the institution, but in John chapter 13, we see some other events that happened in that night. But again, it commemorates, the Passover commemorates God's deliverance of his people from Egypt. Sin, darkness in the world, but the Passover, or the Lord's Supper commemorates Christ's salvation of his people from spiritual Egypt. I'm sorry, that's what. from spiritual Egypt, which is sin, darkness, or the world. That's the Lord's Supper. That's what it commemorates, that's what it remembers, that's what it calls us to remember. And so both then, both the Passover and the Lord's Supper are covenantal meals. And then one thing I think I wanna add before we move on, because it is covenantal, It's corporate. It's not individual. So God is making a covenant with his people Israel in the Old Testament, and all of them are included in this covenant, and all of them are to participate as a people. In the New Testament, It's the same thing, this covenant is made with God's people, the true people, the true Israel, we can say. And so it is an ordinance for God's people. So it's a covenantal and corporate in nature. The Lord's Supper is a true sign of the crucified and resurrected Lord. And again, the key verse or section in scripture where, you know, from the early debates of the early church, all center on is Jesus' words, this is my body, this is my blood, when speaking of the bread and the wine. Because from that, The question is asked, how is it his body and how is it his blood? In what sense? Is it literally his flesh and blood or is it symbolically his body and blood? And so what we believe is that and what we saw in the confession is that the Lord's Supper is a true sign a token, a symbol of the crucified and resurrected Lord. Christ himself has instituted and said, he has instituted that the bread and the wine when it is, when we pray for it, when it is set apart for this purpose, it truly represents and symbolizes the body and blood of our Lord. There is a spiritual union between the crucified and resurrected Christ and the signs of the bread and wine. So there is this spiritual union between the two, so much so that we can, when we hold the bread and the blood, we can say this is the body and blood of Christ. not because the bread or the blood has somehow transformed into the body and blood of Christ, but because Christ has been united to that, he's represented truly in that, and because of that, then the Lord is really though spiritually present in the supper. So he's not there physically, corporally, or corporally, but he is there spiritually, truly, really spiritually there present. And therefore, the Lord's Supper truly nourishes the believer by faith. So we don't want to say that simply partaking of the Lord's Supper nourishes you. Rome sees that the sacraments work because of the work itself. So as long as the priest does the work of administering whatever sacrament, it works. whether the person has faith or not, and that's why it can cleanse an infant of original sin, because he doesn't need faith. He doesn't need to understand what's going on. The priest did the work, and it's gonna work. But that's not what we believe. We believe that it is when we partake of the Lord's supper by faith that all the benefits and blessings that are associated with Christ and his work for us, that we partake of those, we're nourished by him because of his spiritual presence as we partake by faith. So it does not work on its own, but through faith that bread and wine remain bread and wine, yet Christ is really present spiritually in the Lord's Supper. Partaking of the Lord's Supper by faith is partaking of Christ. This partaking nourishes our soul. So it's a true sign that nourishes the believer by faith. And then, This kind of goes along with the point that it is covenantal. If it is covenantal, it is for the covenant community, for the covenant people. And in the Old Testament, that was Israel. That was the Old Testament church. It was a typological church. It typified the true church or the true Israel, which is the New Testament church. And so just as it was covenantal then and for a people, the Old Testament church, and it was for them exclusively, it wasn't for the nations, so too the Lord's Supper is an ordinance, a sacrament given to the churches. the local church is the visible expression of the universal church. And I want to point this out because some people will, and I will mention this again, will say that simply being a member of the universal church is enough. As long as they're believers, they don't have to go to church or they don't have to be members of a church. But no, the universal church is made visible in the local congregation. They're the same church. It's the elect, as God gathers them, as God saves them, they are joined to a church and that is how we can see the invisible universal church is when it gathers in the various local congregations and they worship God. And that's going to be important for a point that I'm going to make later. But it's given to the churches. And the churches, again, ideally ought to be comprised of believers only. And that is why we ask for a credible profession of faith. But again, even that, we all acknowledge that that's not 100%, you know, sure that we're going to get everybody that are believers in the church, because there's always people that are hypocrites or people that, you know, they think they're believers. They act like believers, you know, but eventually, because of the cares of the world, because of persecution or whatever, they fall away, proving themselves to never have been true believers. But from our point of view, we need to ask for a credible profession of faith. We must see that there is some signs of true faith. That doesn't mean that we're gonna examine them and make sure that there's no sin and their life is completely in order. No, we're imperfect. We all struggle in different ways, in different measures. But one of the things that we do look for is how do you deal with that? I mean, if there's a person who's comfortable living in unrepentant sin, that's not a good sign. But when a person acknowledges their weaknesses and there's evidence that they truly are seeking to mortify those sins, they're grieved by them, they repent of them, they confess their sins, they're doing what Christ tells us to do when we sin, then that in itself is evidence that they are believers. So since the local church is the visible expression of the universal church, and since the universal church is comprised of the elect, the local churches must be comprised of believers, thus the Lord's Supper as an ordinance given to the churches is to be administered to believers who have been baptized and members of a local congregation, that is members in good standing of the local church. So entrance into a body of believers after you've been saved, converted is to become to be baptized and become a member and only then do you Are able to partake of this ordinance Because again, it is for believers So that is from our point of view members in good standing of a local church or of the local church Any comments or any anything you want to add or anything No, okay Okay, so this is one thing that I did. I wanted to do more on this, but I just want to mention this briefly because it does deal with the issue that has been asked by some about fencing the table and why we do it. We already kind of went through it with a confession, but I wanted to mention it again under these terms that have been used historically, open and closed communion. So what is open communion? The Lord's Supper is for believers. Therefore, the only prerequisite for the Lord's Supper is faith in Jesus Christ. So for churches that believe this, that would adhere to this view of the Lord's Supper, for them, as long as you're a believer, you're welcome to partake. You don't have to be a member of the church. You don't even have to be seeking membership in a church. As long as you're a believer, you don't have to be baptized. you know, the supper is for believers, and that's the only prerequisite, and so therefore, anybody who claims to be a believer is allowed at the table. Well, closed communion says that the Lord's Supper is for the churches, and that's what our confession says. Therefore, the prerequisite for the Lord's Supper is faith in Jesus Christ, baptism, and church membership. So that's... That's what close communion is, that it's reserved for those that are members of a church, that are members in good standing, have a credible profession of faith, have been baptized. Those and those alone are allowed to partake of the Lord's table. It wasn't until the 19th century that open communion began to become more popular, although even before this, you had some notable figures that accepted this view of open communion, for example, John Bunyan. John Bunyan, the author of The Pilgrim's Progress, he held to open communion and in 1671 published a defense of open communion and open membership, which means you don't even have to be baptized to become a member. But both general Baptists in England, which were Arminian Baptists, and the particular Baptists, which were the Calvinistic, or as we would call them now, Reform Baptists, held to the view of closed communion. That is their historic position. But again, in the 19th century, the doctrine of open communion started to become more popular. with men like Robert Hall, an influential Baptist, and then of course, C.H. Spurgeon also practiced open communion. But there are problems with open communion. It assumes an individualistic view of the ordinance, and in so it denies the role that the church plays in administering of the ordinance, and thus it denies a biblical ecclesiology. as we saw, because it is given to the churches and it needs to be administered properly. And that needs to be done through the elders of the church. And the elders of the church are held accountable. They have the responsibility of taking care of the flock of Christ. So they must know who is part of the flock. So there needs to be membership. in order for there to be accountability. But when you kind of just have anybody, whoever wants to partake, you don't have to belong to this church. Not only does it do an injustice to biblical ecclesiology and the nature of the ordinance, but then also the command to be worthy partakers. You don't know if these people that are coming to your church that are not believers, or claim to be believers, if maybe they got kicked out of their church or excommunicated from their previous church because of some unrepentant sin that they still have not repented from. And so therefore, when we partake, we tell people that if you are a member of another local church in good standing, not underdisciplined, then you can partake. you may be a member of another church, you may be baptized, but maybe you're not there because you were excommunicated or you're under discipline because of some unrepentant sin. And so in that case, you would not be able to participate in the world supper. So there are problems. And of course, I think that it's just it's unbiblical to to hold this position, given the nature of it, given what Christ commands to the church, and in 1 Corinthians 11, Paul's instructions there. And one more thing, there is another view of this, of the closed communion view that we would hold, that is a little bit kind of on the extreme side, and I used to attend to a church that held this, and basically it was that you needed to be a member of that particular congregation to partake. So, for example, let's say you're a member of one of these churches that holds to this doctrine, you're a member in good standing, but for some reason you have to move away. So you move away with your pastor's blessing and he recommends you and everything. A year later, you're back, you're visiting that church, you have great fellowship the day before, you're not under discipline, you're still a member in good standing of the new church that you're at, so you attend their services on Sunday, they would not allow you to partake of the Lord's Supper because you're not a member of that church anymore. So it's very, like it's just gotta be art-rich. And I think that's taking it a little bit too far. I think that... Yes, it's for the churches, it's for members that are, the universal church that has, that gathers together in local congregations or baptized, but it is, again, an ordinance for the churches, and the churches really are one body in Christ together. We see that in scripture, when Paul talks about the churches in Corinth, the church of Corinth, there was more than just one church in Corinth, but he refers to it as the church. It's one body of believers. when seen corporately. So what we would say is that, yeah, if you're a member of another true church, you're not under discipline, you're visiting this church for whatever reason, you are welcome to partake because you do meet those qualifications. But what if, though, you have moved away and you are currently not a member of your previous church, but you are seeking membership in another church. I think that would be an instance where there could be an exception because you're not simply just kind of church hopping and not planning to join a church. You're in the process of seeking a new home to worship in. And so in such a case like that, I think that there could be an exception, though you may not technically be a member, you were a member or you're a baptized member at a previous church. So that would be an exception. But in general, our view is that baptism, church membership in good standing is prerequisite for participating in the Lord's Supper. Okay, so the question then is, how frequently should we observe the Lord's Supper? And without getting too much into the regulative principle of worship, because that's a big, that would be a big series in itself. But the regular principle of worship, what is it? This is from our confession. It says, the acceptable way of worshipping the true God is instituted by himself and so limited by his own revealed will that he may not be worshipped according to the imagination and devices of men, nor the suggestions of Satan under any visible representations or any other way not prescribed in the Holy Scriptures. This part here, visible representations, that's in reference to the Eastern Orthodox or Roman Catholic that have images all over, and they worship those images. But the idea of the regular principle of worship is that God is the one who regulates his worship. He is the one that tells us how he wants to be worshiped. And throughout the Old Testament and even in the New, God reveals to us how or that he cares about his worship and that he is the one who says how he is going to be worshipped. When we see God giving instructions to Moses on how to build the tabernacle and just all the detail that goes into, not just that, but then the priesthood and what they are supposed to do. There is great care that God gives, great detail that he gives to Moses in how he wants to be worshiped. And when Aaron's sons do something that is not in and of itself sinful, but something that he did not call for, what does he do? He burns them, yeah, he kills them. As an example, so God is the one that commands us, that regulates his worship, that tells us how he wants to be worshiped, and that is the general principle of the regular principle of worship. And there are two main categories, although there's others, but there's two main categories within this regulative principle of worship, and that is the categories of elements and circumstances. So elements are the things in scripture that God has commanded his people for public worship. So this could be like preaching, prayer, reading of God's word, singing, and of course, the sacraments. So there are certain elements that must be part of the worship service. But then there are also circumstances, and these are the things pertaining to worship, but that are incidental, not unique or necessary to worship. So for example, we are commanded to meet on the Lord's Day to worship. That is commanded in scripture, right, on the Lord's Day. But the circumstance related to this asks, well, what time do we meet? And where do we meet? The Bible doesn't tell us that we should meet on the Lord's Day at dawn, right? Or in the middle of the day. There's no specific time given. It doesn't tell us you must meet, you know, out in the open. It doesn't say you must meet by a river or whatever. You know, it doesn't give us these specifics. And so these are relegated to circumstance. And our confession says, there are some circumstances concerning the worship of God and government of the church common to human actions and societies which are to be ordered by the light of nature and Christian prudence, according to the general rules of the word, which are always to be observed." So the word gives us general rules which should guide us in our working out of the circumstances. Nevertheless, these are ordered by what it says, the light of nature and Christian prudence. So when is it convenient? If there's people, if our congregation, most of them happen to live close by, then it would be feasible to have maybe an earlier worship. But if people come from far away, really far away, like if it literally was far away and most of them came, then it would be more beneficial for the church to have it later in the day for them to be able to meet and gather. So it's guided by the light of nature, by circumstances that would affect the worship of God, the people. It would affect the people in worshiping God. So the element then commands us to partake of the Lord's supper. So we see this in the gospels. This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me. In the same way, he took the cup also after supper, saying, this cup is a new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. So the Lord's supper. itself is a proper element in the worship of God. It must be present in the worship of God. Circumstances asks how, how often? Well, what does the scriptures teach? What does the scripture say? In Acts 2, 46-47, it says, day by day, continuing with one mind in the temple and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart. praising God and having in favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day, those who were being saved. And then in Acts 20, verse seven, on the first day of the week, when we gathered together to break bread, Paul began talking to them, intending to leave the next day, and he prolonged his message until midnight. So Acts chapter two is early, early on. when God sends the Holy Spirit to the church on Pentecost. It's early during that time. And so it says that day by day they were continuing with one mind in the temple and breaking bread from house to house. So we see that there was a frequency in partaking of the Lord's Supper. But by the time you get to Acts 20, it's on the first day of the week when we gathered. So the assumption there is that when they did gather on the first day of the week, they partook of the Lord's Supper. So it seems to imply that it was, at the very least, weekly. There was weekly observance. What was the practice of the early church? The Didache, which if you remember was a first century document, says, now on the Lord's day, when you are assembled together, break bread and give thanks after confessing your transgressions in order that your sacrifice may be pure, but let no one that hath a difference with his friend come together with you until they are reconciled that your sacrifice may not be profaned. But here, the Didache says, on the Lord's Day, when ye are assembled together, break bread. So, the Didache, if you remember, was an instruction manual on how to perform certain things in the church. And so, they're teaching you how to administer the Lord's Supper, and they're saying, on the Lord's Day, when you gather, do this. So, again, it seems to be weekly observance of the Lord's Supper. Justin Martyr in the second century, and on the day called Sunday, all who live in cities or in the country gather together to one place, and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read. Then we all rise together and pray, and as we before said, when our prayer is ended, bread and wine and water are brought, and the president in the like manner offers prayers and thanksgivings, according to his ability and the people assent saying amen and there is a distribution to each and a participation of that over which thanks have been given and to those who are absent a portion is sent by the deacons." So again here from Justin Martyr from his kind of description of what goes on on a regular Lord's Day and one of those things is that they will partake of the Lord's Supper. Everett Ferguson, he's a Baptist. He's written on so many issues of the early church, including baptism and the Lord's Supper. And in his book, Early Christian Speak, Volume 1, he says, the Lord's Supper was a constant feature of the Sunday service. There is no second century evidence of the celebration of a daily Eucharist. The Eucharist was the climax of the Christian worship service and that which distinguished it from the Jewish synagogue service. If you remember, Eucharist means, what does Eucharist mean? Does anybody remember? Thanksgiving. Yeah, it means Thanksgiving. Because if you remember, the early church saw the Lord's Supper as a Thanksgiving offering. So God is presenting himself to us, but in partaking of that, we are partaking as a Thanksgiving offering. We are thanking the Lord for Christ's sacrifice for us. So it was called the Eucharist, the Thanksgiving offering. And so this was the climax of the Christian worship. When the worship began on the Lord's Day, it was moving towards the preaching, and then the Lord's Supper was a climax. So it was observed weekly. So why do many partake infrequently? There were many wrong views held about the Lord's Supper, as we have seen, for example, the Rome. that they had these superstitious views of the Lord's Supper. And because of that, they did not hold to, or they did not give the wine to the people. But then also there were other people who held to views of the Lord's Supper that included really strict examination of oneself. It was so, such a huge deal to participate and you really truly had to be worthy. So there was this really strict, prolonged even self-examination that they would reserve this supper, the supper to be done or taken only once a year. We see this as an example with the Scottish Presbyterians. They used to have what were called communion seasons. And it was done once, maybe twice a year. It began on Thursday with the person would have to all day be self-examination. You would have to really be in prayer and meditation, examining, trying to get every single sin that you've ever committed and up to that point and really be in repentance of it. The next day, then the ministers would then examine you, questioning you and really drilling you on, you know, and so there was that. And then on Saturday, there was just preparation, spiritual preparation. And then on Sunday, you finally got to partake of the Lord's Supper. And that was once a year, sometimes twice. But again, it was a wrong view held because of 1 Corinthians 11 on being a worthy receiver. But also because there was a shortage of ministers during the Scottish Reformation and during some of these times, there was a shortage of ministers. Churches weren't able to participate or have a minister that could administer the Lord's Supper, and so it wasn't done all the time. They were planned, so they were maybe done monthly or every two months, but it began to kind of be spread throughout the year in order for these traveling ministers to be able to you know, do it in one church one month and then travel and do it in another church another month. So there are other reasons, but there are many reasons, but these are just some of why over the years It was not done weekly. But then another thing, if you think about it, for those that believed in open communion, I mentioned that they thought that it made it more individualistic, something kind of subjective, something that was not necessary for the churches to participate. It's individualistic. When you have this mentality, sometimes you can see it as, well, it's not something that needs to be done weekly. I can do it once a year. I can do it every two months, every month. And so for, again, many reasons, but centering around not seeing the nature of the Lord's Supper as a covenantal meal, as a meal for the body, for the churches, and as a meal that nourishes us, that Christ has instituted to nourish and feed and strengthen his people, just like preaching. We wouldn't neglect the preaching, we would want more preaching, right? Because we know that it's through God's word that he established as a means of grace to benefit us, to strengthen us, to nourish us. And so too, baptism and the Lord's Supper are means of grace that God has instituted to bless, to nourish, to strengthen his people, to confirm the grace that is present, So why then do it frequently rather than infrequently? Again, the testimony of scripture gives us good grounds to do it as often as we meet. Although it wasn't explicit, there's no explicit command to do that. We do see examples of that in Acts. The testimony of the early church gives us an example of observing it as often as we meet. The nature of the Lord's Supper gives us theological and experiential grounds for observing it as often as we meet. Because again, what is the nature of it? Christ is present, Christ is there spiritually, and it's meant for our edification, for our nourishment. And so all these things, and the fact that if the Lord's Supper is a proper element, it makes sense that whenever we, if it's a proper element for that worship of God, then it makes sense that when we gather to worship God, that we would include that as an element to, that we would partake of. So. Again, though scripture does not explicitly teaches a practice of the Apostolic Church and of the early church and the nature of the Lord's Supper should be observed weekly or in support that we should do this weekly. So we do need to close early, but are there any questions before we close? You can always ask me after as well if you'd like. It doesn't have to be during this time, but, Erin, any questions? Okay.