Greeting from 1 Corinthians, the 11th chapter, 1 Corinthians chapter 11. This is our preparatory service to the observance of the Lord's Supper, which the apostle, inspired by God, the Spirit of God, does instruct us and speak to us of these things. 1 Corinthians 11. Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ. I praise you, brethren, that ye remember me in all things, and keep the ordinances as I have delivered them to you. But I would have you know that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is the man, and the head of Christ is God. Every man praying or prophesying having his head covered dishonoreth his head. But every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered dishonoreth her head. For that is even all one as if she were shaven. For if the woman be not covered, let her also be shorn. But if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be covered. For man indeed ought not to cover his head for as much as he is the image and glory of God. But the woman is the glory of the man. The man is not of the woman, but the woman of the man. Neither was the man created for the woman, but the woman for the man. This cause ought the woman to have power on her head because of the angels. Nevertheless, neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man in the Lord. For as the woman is of the man, even so is the man also by the woman, but all things of God. Judge in yourselves. Is it comely that a woman pray unto God uncovered? Doth not even nature itself teach you that if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him? But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her, and her hair is given her for a covering. But if any man seem to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither the churches of God. Now in this that I declare unto you, I praise you not, that ye come together, not for the better, but for the worse. For first of all, when you come together in the church, I hear that there be divisions among you, and I partly believe it. For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you. When ye come together, therefore, into one place, this is not to eat the Lord's supper. For in eating every one taketh before other his own supper. And one is hungry, and another is drunken. What, have ye not houses to eat and to drink in? Or despise ye the church of God, and shame them that have not? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you in this? I praise you not. For I have received of the Lord 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 break 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 in the New Testament in my blood. This do ye, as oft 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 till he come. Wherefore, whosoever shall eat this bread and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. Let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. For this cause, many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, and we should not be condemned with the world. Wherefore, my brethren, when ye come together to eat, tarry one for another. And if any man hunger, let him eat at home, that ye come not together unto condemnation. And the rest will I set in order when I come." So as mentioned, we do intend to observe the Lord's Supper, this Lord's Day coming. In times and in years past, we took note of and took consideration of what the scriptures would teach in our preparing to come to the table today, tomorrow, through Lord's Day morning, preparing to come to the table and what is required. And we use the larger catechism as a outline, as a guide. It's not the word of God. But in as much as where as much it did reference the scriptures, we saw these things to be true. And so at our last preparatory service, we began looking at those duties that are required of us, not in the preparation of, but when we are actually at the table, when we actually have the elements before us, when we do take that bread and eat thereof, or when we take that cup and drink thereof, What is it we are to do? We've considered the preparations before coming to the king's great banquet, his great feast, but what would we do while we are there? For it is more certainly than just the outward actions of the eating and drinking. And so our last occasion in a preparatory sermon, we began looking as with a guide, The Westminster Larger Catechism, question 174, which asks this, what is required of them that receive the sacrament of the Lord's Supper in the time of the administration of it? And here is their answer. Again, this is not the word of God, but rather than myself coming up with some things and looking at the scriptures of what to do, We see wisdom in this multitude of counselors the Lord has blessed greatly, and so using it again as an outline, and here is the answer. It is required of them that receive the sacrament of the Lord's Supper that, during the time of the administration of it, with all holy reverence and attention, they wait upon God in that ordinance, diligently observe the sacramental elements and actions, heedfully discern the Lord's body, and affectionately meditate on His death and sufferings, and thereby stir themselves to a vigorous exercise of their graces, in judging themselves, in souring for sin, in earnest hungering and thirsting after Christ, feeding on Him by faith, receiving of His fullness, trusting in His merits, rejoicing in His love, giving thanks for his grace in renewing their covenant with God and love to all the saints. And so, on our last occasion, noted that they lay out, at least by my count, 15 related but distinct things distinct actions, distinct medications, duties of what we are to do about the table. And we made it through the first five. And so I intend, Lord willing, today to make it through the next five. But just by refreshing your memory, the first one we considered was wait upon God in that ordinance. 2. Diligently observe the sacramental elements and actions. 3. Heedfully discern the Lord's body. 4. Affectionately meditate on His death and sufferings. 5. Stir up themselves to a vigorous exercise of their graces. which combines those four together, saying, thereby doing this, it is then your duty. And it is, in fact, a fruit of stirring up, of stirring up a vigorous exercise of their graces. We now come to the sixth one, in judging themselves. Not only in the preparation, but also at the time of the administration of the supper. We come As we're at the table, we would judge ourselves. Now, in order to do that, we must have a sight and sense of our sin. No one can, in through this examining process, this judging process, have any success except as, in a sense, a first step, so to speak, is a sight and sense of sin. not your neighbor's sin, your sin. And sin considered as sin, not merely the consequences of it or the danger of sin, but sin as it is the filthiness and odiousness of it before God. Against thee, And thee alone have I sinned, speaks David. Yes, he sinned against Bathsheba. He sinned against Uriah. But chiefly, what marked out his actions was not merely his transgression from man against man, creature against creature, but against God himself, God himself. And this brings about a conviction of sin. For not only do you have a sight and sense of your sin, you have a sight and sense of the one that you've sinned against, the holiness of God. And having such a sight of your own sin, you're brought into the courtroom of God. We read of judging themselves. And there is that analogy to a courtroom, where you're standing before a judge, and the judge, having heard the evidence, and the judge, having pondered the transgressions, does declare indeed your sentence, be it through a jury or not, declares your guiltiness, and your conscience also bears testimony in this regard. It's not merely perhaps me, the pastor, or a loving friend that bears testimony to your action, but your own conscience, that faculty of soul that God has implanted in you that is as a tribunal, as a judgment court, that will either excuse your actions as being right or accuse you in your actions that you are guilty. And we speak of those that are truly in Christ. For those that are wicked, they do not have a lively conscience, they do not have a spiritually a born-again conscience. Matter of fact, they may be as wicked and so wicked that their conscience is seared as a hot iron, and seared with a hot iron, and they can commit sin and feel no pains, no condemnation, no voice of their own conscience declaring them guilty. We speak of those who would have a tender conscience, those that are alive to the things of God and have a desire to please Him. And this is a conviction and a judging of themselves, not in general, that all men are sinners. but convicted in particular that you are. While we commune as a body, and while we have a communion and fellowship as a body, we speak now of particular sin, and your sin, and just as in repentance to not be satisfied with a general repentance, but I did this this morning, at this hour, I did this yesterday, I did this last week. Specific actions, not some nebulous idea. Most any worldling, most any person in the world will freely admit, at least most, I'm not perfect. I do things that are wrong. No. This is truly a conviction under the hand of God that it is you Thou art the man, your conscience says, as guided by the spirit, as wrought by the word. One says, God never cured a spiritual leper, but he caused him to fall down first and cry out, unclean, unclean. And that is the sentence that you will pronounce on yourself as you are of yourself. And from the root of corruption and your original sin nature, from inside out, from head to toe, you have, I am unclean. I am guilty. And conviction, and this conviction brought by the Word of God and the Spirit of God, or as we sing or read in the Psalms, are as arrows, and they pierce you deeply. Not these hurts and pains that the world would throw upon you or at you. These arrows of God, the Word of God, by the Spirit of God, piercing into your heart and soul. And we have this promise, as we looked at in 1 Corinthians 11, that if you would judge yourselves, you would not be judged. What is he speaking of there? But somehow outside of Christ, if you would just merely pronounce judgment on yourself, you escape all judgment from the living God? Of course not. That would contradict all of scripture. He is speaking as he refers to those who have been sinfully and so sinfully partaking of the Lord's Supper that it has lost all resemblance of the Lord's Supper. And he said it's not the Lord's Supper you eat, even though that's what they were claiming to do or thinking they were doing. but so many of them suffered even sleep, that is, death, or sickly among you. In the Lord's hand of providence, I would not pretend to be able to pronounce today that you have this and this illness because you did this particular sin. But God knows, and God has his dealings, and chastening them, and he's speaking about temporal judgments, not that eternal judgment in hell, but the chastisings of the Lord. And he said, if we would come to this table and judge ourselves and judge ourselves for our sins, we would not be condemned, as it were, with the world as an ultimate trajectory. So take your life before the judge of all men. Bring your thoughts, bring the habitual frame of mind before the bar of justice. Have the light of the word of God shine into the dark recesses of your heart and mind and soul, and pray to God that you would be able to see it. For not to see it is a fearful thing. The most fearful words in scripture, in my opinion, God gave them over. So pray, as painful as it may be. that God would allow you to see your sin as it is defined by the word of God. And that you would concur, you would concur with God's own judgment regarding your sin. As the psalmist says, as David says, as it were, pronouncing sentence against yourself and vindicating God's judgment. And there in the 51st Psalm in verse four, that thou, mightest be justified when thou speakest, that is, that thee, O God, would be justified when thou speakest and clear when thou judgest. In other words, it is a righteous and true judgment and we are concurring. Indeed, O Lord, I judge myself according to your own very judgment. And when your Spirit has come and convicted me of my sin and I bring judgment on myself, I am speaking only God's words after Him and concurring with that. This is a duty at the table. The sixth one. Now the seventh one. Sorrowing for sin. Sorrowing for sin. And you will find, and we will not get to that one this Lord's Day, but you have sorrowing for sin on one hand as a duty, but on the other hand as a duty, you have rejoicing in His love. Or being filled with the fullness of His grace. So these things will go together. They will go together. Indeed, the one that is aware of their sin and knowing the penalty thereof and sorrowing for it, knows what is the need and the experience of a gracious Savior. But the seventh one, they speak of sorrowing, grieving, sorrowing, being sorry for our sins. To evangelical repentance, of which they speak in part here of as sorrowing, it differs from worldly sorrow, sorrowing for sin. But what they speak is different from worldly sorrow. We have two very clear examples in scripture of worldly sorrow. Judas, his remorse, his sorrow was so great that he took his own life, a worldly sorrow. We have Esau and Esau's tears, sorrowing that he had lost the blessing of a grand inheritance. He desired the blessing, but not repentance. He would like the blessing without repentance and without a lively faith. That is a worldly sorrow. Many will weep like Esau, like him, because many lack faith like him. Many lack taking hold of the grace offered unto them. Some turn away from Christ and the promise weeping. and some turn away from Christ in reveling and rioting and riotous living. The apostle speaks of the difference between worldly sorrow and godly sorrow. 2 Corinthians chapter 7 and verse 10. He tells us how, in part, to determine or to see the difference between worldly sorrow, being sad that I lost something, or sad that I got caught, or just some general, or perhaps even common words of the Spirit bringing that upon their hearts. So 2 Corinthians chapter 7 and verse 10, the apostle says, for godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of. But the sorrow of the world worketh death. You see, that's how we know or why or what kind of sorrow Judas had. Did it turn him unto Christ, seeking forgiveness and mercy? Did it fill him with a godly sorrow, going unto the one that he sinned against? No. It turned away from Christ and what did it work in his life? It brought forth death. Worldly sorrow is a repentance unto death. It brings death in its train, does not bring any fruit of the spirit in it, does not bring indeed a lively grace with it. It is that which is in some ways merely acknowledging the sin and misery that is in the world. And many a person is rather adept at describing the sin and misery, but have no clue about the hope and glory in the Lord Jesus Christ. So it's a godly sorrow. One says, a small cross or loss in the world will draw tears, when sin will not draw a sigh from us. And ordinarily, our afflictions lie more heavy on us than our sins. What at one time looked like and tasted like and perhaps appealed to you as a very pleasant meal, you now loathe it. You find it disgusting and you're sorry you ever tasted of it. And you realize that in worldly sorrow there is death in the pot and you would have none of it. So you loathe sin as sin and sorrow over it. And the classic text that is given in relation to this duty, you're well familiar with, in Zechariah chapter 12 and verse 10. Zechariah chapter 12 and verse 10. The Lord speaks of the days of the Messiah, the days of Christ and the spirit wrought work. Zechariah 12 and verse 10. And I will pour upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and of supplications. And they shall look upon me shall look upon Christ, they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn." Now here we have described in its perfections or to its highest degree, the kind of sorrow we have as in losing your first born child. The child has died. It's not your car that has died. It is not your house that has been lost. It is your own very child. And here God says this is what will be the effect and fruit when he pours out his Spirit upon his people. And you and I, we most likely, and I would perhaps say most assuredly, have never sorrowed for sin to that depth or degree. And it is held forward unto us to show indeed what it is we would seek the Spirit to have us do. to look upon, while we're at the table, to look upon the one you have pierced. Look upon me whom they have pierced. Now certainly, according to the foreknowledge of God and his divine providence, Judas did what he did in the fulfilling of the decree of God. Or those wicked men did what they did according to the decree of God and took Christ, crucified him, pierced him. But here speaks of the agency, the agency of those, not particularly that Roman soldier that put the spear into his side, but the cause of it. Why? They have pierced. My people have pierced, and it is because of their sin, and to pay for their sin, and atone for their sin, that the Lord was crucified, was pierced. And so when we're at the table, when we're at the table, when you take the bread in your hand, consider the one that has been pierced, consider that hot oven of God's wrath that did prepare that bread. Consider when you take in your hand the cup. Know that Christ first drank from the cup of wrath so that you and I could drink of this cup of salvation, this cup of thanksgiving, this cup of the New Testament in His blood. That we would indeed be sorry for our sin that pierced Him. And as we'll see in subsequent duties, thereby receiving is fullness and goodness. But we have an eighth, an eighth duty that they speak to us of. And you'll notice this is also much the same as in the preparation. Eighth, they say, in earnest hungering and thirsting after Christ. Well, that's part of the preparation, looking unto that. But now the time of the meal is here. The time of drink is here. and that we would hunger and thirst. In Revelation 22 and verse 17, which they give. It's a proof, I believe. And the spirit and the bride say, come. And let him that heareth say, come. Let him that is a thirst, come. And whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely. The water of life. And we see Hagar in the wilderness, She puts her son Ishmael under a bush or a tree so as they are dying of thirst, she does not have to hear the poor child's cry. And she wept. Well, here in Christ, we have many promises in the scripture that the thirsty soul, when it seeks relief, when it seeks relief from that thirst, And when it seeks relief from that hunger, that indeed, in seeking and looking, the Lord is pleased to give. And so it is displayed before us in those elements, that bread given for our hunger and that wine given for our thirst. Oh, we sing in the Psalter and Psalter Psalm 63, verses 1 and 2. Lord, thee, my God, I'll early seek. My soul doth thirst for thee. My flesh longs in a dry, parched land, wherein no waters be. That I, thy power, may behold in brightness of thy face, as I have seen thee heretofore, within thy holy place, to hunger and thirst for Christ, Christ as the water of life, Christ as the bread of life. Do not hew out your own cisterns. Those vessels, those rocks would be carved out to drink up the rain and the blessing of that water. The scriptures tell us, do not hew out your own cisterns, but Christ alone is the one from whom the water of life flows freely. is Christ himself who is the bread of life. And as we are at the table, we see before ever partaking, we see this bread and we're hungry and we're hungry for Christ. And we see the cup and we are hungry and thirsting after the Lord Christ. And as the bread is being passed around Do not think merely of the external action of being passed from one person to another, but consider how I want Christ. I want to lay hold of Christ. I want to drink of Christ. This is not only a duty, it's a pleasure. It speaks if he desires after Christ. One says, and this was no mystic, but a well-respected Presbyterian pastor, he says, there is a sensible love to him. It is a communicant. There is a sensible love to him which is felt as a dart in the heart and makes a holy lovesickness in the soul arising from want of enjoyment. You've tasted of Christ. You've tasted of the goodness of the Lord. But you would have more. You desire more. And you're hungry and thirsty. And there is no higher thing that you can desire in heaven or on earth, but Christ and God in and through him. This is for which your soul has been made to live. This is that for which your regenerate soul has been made to commune with. and for which you truly are hungry and thirsty. And the world seeks to fill, as it were, that hunger and thirst with all types of worldly pleasures or worldly diversions. And those, so often in Christ, spend so little time in word and prayer, and they're so hungry and thirsty. But here, my friend, you may come to the table, hungering and thirsting after Christ, and we'll see and the points to follow how indeed he is pleased to so bring it unto you. The ninth they mention as a duty is feeding on him by faith. Feeding on Christ by faith. They have for us John chapter 6 and verse 35. feeding on him by faith, John 6, verse 35. And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. So when we're at the table, we do not only hunger and thirst, but we do believe. And we do by faith would look upon the bread As Christ's flesh is food indeed, and the drink indeed to be that which would feed us. One says this, there is a threefold act of faith to be put forth at a sacrament. So faith in its acting, feeding on him by faith, says there's a threefold aspect of that one faith to be put forth at a sacrament. Faith must look out for Christ. Secondly, faith must look up to Christ for grace. And thirdly, faith must take Christ down or receive him and grace. A feeding, not just the meditating on it, but an actual feeding. So when at the table, we are to exercise a lively faith to feed upon the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you find it interesting that they would list feeding on Christ or feeding on him by faith as a duty? It's also a great privilege, isn't it? Sometimes we think of duties or orders as children eat your Brussels sprouts. We sometimes think of duties as those things that we know we must do, but they are quite unpleasant or quite difficult. But here, the duty with the joy and the delight are all together. But it is something we ought to do. We ought to do. Ordinarily, do you have to remind your children to eat their dessert? Ordinarily. I know there are some children that prefer Brussels sprouts to ice cream, but ordinarily, you're not having to say, eat your dessert. This is that kind of duty. It's so rich, a rich feast there, a gospel feast laid out before us that we would feed on him. Indeed, the renewed soul desires to draw from Christ the life-sustaining influences that he would bestow. But it is also faith in the acting that will feed, and faith in the working needs stirred up and put to use at the table. And so the 10th duty listed, which we will end with, receiving of his fullness, receiving of Christ's fullness. Now this is a prayer of ours, isn't it? This is a delight to be receiving Christ's fullness, but it is something by faith that we would look upon him and believe and have our duty to receive what he is pleased to give. John 1 and verse 16, of his fullness, that is of Christ's fullness, have all we received. Grace for grace. We're reading the scriptures that in Christ the fullness of the Godhead dwelleth bodily. We would not have, as it were, grace just in part. God is pleased in his sovereign will to dispense as he would, but our desire is and our duty is to look to have that fullness in receiving Christ. One speaks of the sacrament regarding fullness or regarding that life that is in Christ and that life which is not a converting ordinance in the Lord's table, but that life in Christ which is confirming and feeding and receiving. He says, the true nature of the sacrament goes beyond a meditating upon Christ, or our attention, or affections, our self-judgment, and so on, but it consists mainly in our cordially receiving Christ and his purchased benefits as they are tendered in the covenant of grace and sealed and applied in this sacrament that is the Lord's Supper. And in our believing that Christ's broken body and shed blood here represented with all his merits and graces are as truly applied to us for curing and saving our souls and become ours by faith. as the consecrated bread and wine do enter into our bodies and become ours by feeding thereon. A fullness. Christ tells us that he has come that not only may you have life, but have it abundantly and in a fullness. And so when we're at the table, we are to believe that as it is offered, that we would receive that grace and fullness in the Lord Jesus Christ and that he is not as it were a stingy or a short of hand in giving and helping. There is a gospel feast set before you and I at the table and we would by faith receive of that fullness. So there's those duties, the second set of five numbers 6 through 10. Now, as we did in our first installment to this, we spoke a word concerning the manner of our going about each duty. And prior to mentioning each aspect of our communing or communicating or our various duties, each one or all together are to be done they say, with all holy reverence and attention. With all holy reverence and attention. This is how we are to go about receiving of His fullness, with all holy reverence and attention. This is how we are to go about in judging ourselves, with all holy reverence and attention. We looked at the first a few months ago, with all holy reverence, with all attention. with all attention as much as lies within us and to continue to focus that all our attention is set upon God. All of our attention is set upon Christ. All of our attention is not set on our deadness while we are aware of it. All of our attention would be set upon what we are to do and commune with the living God. It's Christ and all his faculties. according to his human nature and mind, heart, will, and soul, was set to go to Jerusalem and die for you. So we are to set our attention, our faculties, our mind upon this ordinance before us. And not about various aspects of business through the week, or not about various aspects of some external things that were around and about us, but set upon this ordinance. You may have noticed that a number of the duties speak of the manner of which they do. For example, the second one was not just observe the sacramental elements and actions, but they tell you what manner to do so. They say, diligently observe. Not just discern the Lord's body, the body and the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, but they say, heedfully discern. They add these descriptive phrases, or not just meditate on his death and sufferings, but affectionately meditate. All of these speak to the manner in which we are to go about our duties at the table. May God be pleased. May God be pleased to help you and I in this work that is before us. May the Lord be pleased to assist us in this grand gospel feast that will be before us next Lord's Day. May he help us to prepare ourselves to labor, to be in a frame of mind that is Christ-honoring, Christ hungering. Christ feeding. May indeed the Lord be with us at the table. In his name be given all the glory. Amen. Concluding Psalter