I want to thank the Lord. Some of you have seen on Facebook about Brother Sullivan, the missionary that was kidnapped in South Africa. We have met in passing. I know his pastor. And Lord, miraculously, he was rescued. And we thank the Lord for that. And they're on their way back to the States for some time to rest, obviously. But the funniest thing I thought about that whole thing, and if you're not cultured and you don't appreciate the final things of life, this won't mean nothing to you. Brother Josh is a big Tennessee fan. Now, Jesus loves him anyway, but he's a big Tennessee fan. And so when they got him, they told him, you know, small talk, don't talk about the trauma, small talk. And so they said, you know, Niko left Tennessee and that's what he was upset about was Niko leaving, Tennessee Niko was their quarterback at Tennessee that wasn't no good and he left but apparently Josh liked him so I found that found that funny and But that is the answer to prayer that Lord worked that miracle out And I was standing in the hotel lobby Thursday night getting a cup of coffee before I was going to preach. And I looked, and it had come on the Fox News, Brother Josh had been rescued. I looked at the lady behind the counter. I said, ma'am, do you believe in the power of prayer? She said, I do. I said, well, if you don't, I said, that missionary right there should have died. And God's people prayed, and he's home. She said, thank you, Jesus. I said, hallelujah. Give me my coffee. And so I'm glad for the power of prayer. First Corinthians chapter 11 verse 17 tonight, and we're going to preach a few minutes, about 20-25 minutes, and then we'll observe the Lord's Supper together this evening. And once again, I do appreciate your faithfulness being here tonight. First Corinthians chapter 11 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. For first of all when you come together in the church I hear that there be divisions among you. And this phrase always, you know, kind of made me laugh a little bit. Paul said, I hear there be divisions among you and he said, and partly I believe it. That just sounds like something a preacher would say. I have no trouble believing that. Verse 19, For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be manifest among you. When you come together, therefore, into one place, this is not to eat the Lord's supper. For in eating every one, take it before his own supper, one is hungry and another is drunken. What? Have ye not houses to eat and 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 I also delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus, the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread. And when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, Take, eat. This is my body, which is broken for you. This do in remembrance of me. After the same manner, he also took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the New Testament in my blood. This do ye, as oft as ye drink it, and remember it to me. For as often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup, ye do show for 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. But 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 would not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that 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 into condemnation. And the rest will I set in order when I come." Paul is continuing here in 1 Corinthians 11 to answer some questions that were asked of him. And he began this in chapter number 7, and that will go all the way through to chapter number 14, 15, somewhere in that neighborhood. He's answering some questions they had. Of course, he's talked about marriage. He's talked about purity before marriage. He's talked about meats offered to idols. And here there was an issue with the Lord's Supper. We have preached this text every time we have the Lord's Supper, and we'll continue to do that, so I'm not apologizing. But I did try to go through a little more this afternoon and deal with the context of it. So I want to say about three things about this tonight very quickly about the Lord's Supper. and how important it is. First of all, in verses 17, 18, and 19, I want you to note the disorder. There is a disorder going on. Now in this I declare unto you, and I praise you not, that you come together not for the better, but for the worse. For first of all, when you come together in the church, I hear there'll be divisions among you. Partly I believe it, for there must also be heresies among you, that they which are approved may be manifest among you." Now in this disorder, there are two things I want to emphasize in these three verses. First of all, there is disapproval in verse 17. Paul said, what I'm about to say to you is not a good thing. He said, y'all have And it's going to lead into this. He said, but y'all have so much disunity, which he's already addressed in this book. He said, but y'all have so much disunity in the church. He said, when y'all come together, it's not for the better, but it's for the worse. He said, it's not edifying, it's not helping. And he said, I want you to know, I'm not pleased with that. I praise you not. That is not a good thing when you come together for the better. for the worse and not for the better. I want to remind us all that Psalm 133 says, Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. Now, unity don't mean we all agree, but it means we put aside our differences for the sake of the gospel and for the Lord Jesus Christ. We're not going to agree. Some of you will not admit that you're wrong and I'm right. We won't agree on that, but that's okay, all right? We come together on the basis... I'm preaching to my wife right there, but it didn't help anything. I don't see her moving towards the altar, so I'm going to move on. My whole point tonight is the fact that we're not going to see eye to eye on everything. We're not going to agree on everything, but when we come in those church doors, we set those things aside for the sake of the gospel and for the sake of worshiping the Lord Jesus Christ. There's disapproval, verse 18 and 19. That disapproval is because of the divisions. For first of all, when you come together in the church, I hear that there'll be divisions among you, and partly I believe it. He said, I have no problem believing that this side don't like this side, and this side don't like that side. And I mean, Brother Sister Wigglejaw and Brother Telltale, they don't get along and all that kind of stuff. He said, you know what? I have no trouble believing that. I'm gonna tell you something. When you get people and personalities in a church, people plus personalities equals problems. But let me let you know something. It happens on the job. It happens at the school. It happens in your family. It's going to happen in the church. Well, I just don't want to go to church where people have differences with me. Well, you're not going to find a church where everybody agrees with you. If you do, don't join it. You'll mess it up. There is a perfect church, though, in Atlanta, Georgia, right outside of Turner Field, where the Braves used to play. It is called, the name of the church is The Perfect Church. And it has a barbed wire fence around it, not lying, to keep all the imperfect people out, I guess. My whole point, you're not going to find the perfect church. But I will, but I'll say this, I have found the perfect will of God to go to church at. Amen. So there's this, ain't it amazing? We make exceptions for our family when I know they're a deadbeat, but we're family, we're going to love them anyway. Well, why don't we do that same thing with the church? Because they are family. And yeah, there might be deadbeat Christians, but we got to love them to Jesus and pray for them, amen. Well, that always goes over real well. Somebody says, I ain't got no deadbeats in my family. Well, winner, winner, chicken dinner, we might have found the one. Every family's got at least two. Amen. My whole point tonight is there shouldn't be divisions. In fact, watch verse 19, for there must also be heresies among you that they which are approved may manifest among you. The word for divisions here, John Phillips said, is schism. where we get our schism, where we get our English word schism. The word picture is a rent, something that was tore apart. Something's supposed to be together, but it gets ripped apart. Can we just be honest for a second? My wife has done declared this, and I don't know if it's going to fall through. She said, next year we are not buying Easter clothes because it never works. I'm like, I'm happy with my outfit, but I'm low maintenance, and I won't tell her what she said after that. But, you know, you buy all these clothes. They don't have to be Easter. They can be Christmas. And your youngins are going to find every mud hole from the front door to the vehicle. I mean, they are. It's just natural. It's like new clothes. Mud hole. I mean, it's like a magnet. It's just a magnet. And something's going to get ripped. Something's going to get torn apart. And here's the problem. You had a design. You had a plan for all those. I'm going to let you know, all those people on Facebook, we tried to take pictures today. And Daxton's like, he's, you know, all right. I don't know and then and then I mean it's just we all look funny, but you know what it's real I like brother grab would say this is gonna be real good or real bad either way It's gonna be real all right, but that perfect life you see on Facebook that perfect church. They don't exist Sometimes there are divisions sometimes are and that shouldn't be here's the thing you can't help those division there in your church But you can help being a part of it That word rent there gives the idea of renting a garment. That's not how the Lord wants His church. The word heresies here is an interesting word. It refers not to, we would say Calvinism is heresy. Well, we'd say that, okay? That is not the same word in this text. This word heresy, and I read this today, I don't know how I missed it, it refers to a self-willed opinion which opposes truth and leads to division. In other words, people have their own opinions. There's nothing wrong with having an opinion. Everybody has an opinion. But you shouldn't allow your opinion to cause division in the church. Amen? The Bible is the doctrine in this. So, there is the disorder. Now, here are the directions, verses 20 through 22. Most of the time, when we preach on the Lord's Supper, we skip those three verses. I have. But that's very important because there's division in the church. The Lord's Supper is to bring the body together and to cleanse the body, not just individually, but as a church body to make sure that the church is right with God. And so, if we are having schisms and divisions and things like that, in fact, He said there must be heresies among you that they which are approved may manifest among you. In other words, you've got to find out the truth in all this. Now, notice the directions, verse 20. When you come together into one place, this is not to eat the Lord's Supper. Notice the principle. Now, what is the Lord's Supper? I'll run through this quickly. First of all, it is an ordinance of the church given by the Savior. The word ordinance means an establishment or a command. Two ordinances in the church. Baptism and the Lord's Supper. We don't foot wash. That's not a church ordinance. Of course, it wouldn't hurt some people to hum themselves and wash somebody else's feet, but we don't operate in foot washing. Jesus, somebody said, well, how do you know that? Jesus instituted baptism in the Lord's Supper in the New Testament, and then Paul confirmed it in the epistles. He never confirmed foot washing. That's why the church never made it an ordinance. It is an ordinance to the church given by the Savior. It is ordered to the church by the Scriptures. In four of the five accounts that give us the Lord's Supper, Matthew 26, Mark 14, Luke 22, John 13, and 1 Corinthians 11, we are commanded to observe it. It is to be operated by the church under the leadership of the shepherd. In Paul's writing to the church, he is giving instruction to a local church to observe the Lord's Supper. Now, Brother Ritchie is ordained. I'm glad he's here tonight. Brother Ritchie is ordained out of this church as a preacher of the gospel, as a missionary, as an evangelist to preach. But he is not permitted to, when he goes in those prisons, to constitute or institute the Lord's Supper. Why? Because that's not a local church. And of course he knows that and Rock of Ages knows that, but I'm making that point. The Lord's Supper should only take place within the local church. It should only take place in that. And then... Notice what he says. And some people say, well, how often should you have the Lord's Supper? Well, the Bible does not give a calendar. It does not say y'all do it on, and I know some churches do it on the fifth Sunday. That's fine. That's fine. The Catholics do. Of course, they have it perverted, obviously, but they do it every week. And I think if you do that, it loses its meaning a little bit. if you're not careful. In fact, that was the issue here in our text because they were doing the Lord's Supper every week and people began to take it for granted and profane the Lord's table, which that leads, then it is, last of all, it is to be observed by the church to the saved. Now, we, you've had to deal with this. I've had some conversations with folks, somebody, I wouldn't embarrass them, I said, uh, can, can my family member come back to church tonight for the Lord's Supper because they're not a member? I said, yes. We are not closed communion. C-O-L-S-E-D. Closed. We are closed communion. If you're saved and you're right with the Lord, then you're welcome to partake in the Lord's Supper. Guys that fight over that, they... I don't find it in the Bible, but a lot of the things them guys fight over, they're not in the Bible anyway. But I'll tell you this in a parenthetical. Brother Richie has had that question on questionnaires before they would let him come and present their Word. Are you open, closed, or closed communion? I said put yeah, I am what my preacher is Right. Okay. No, okay, man If they want to fight with it, that's fine But we're not that way if somebody's saying and loves the Lord and trying to live for the Lord They are welcome to partake of the Lord's table with us tonight. It's not like, you know secret handshakes You know, you got to be in a certain club. I will say this all those guys that say it should be closed What are they gonna do with Jesus given to the Judas Iscariot? Looks like Jesus might have been open communion So I'm messing them guys up. But moving on. Ain't it amazing how the Bible just messes up stuff like that? I love it. I love it. This is a good book. I'm going to keep preaching it. So there's the principle. There's the profaning, verse 21. For in eating, everyone taketh before his own supper. One is hungry and another is drunken. What, have ye not house to eat and a drink in? Or despise ye the church of God and shame them that have not? What shall I say unto you? Shall I praise you in this? I praise you not. The word profane means to be irreverent to anything sacred. In other words, here's what was happening. I'll say this quickly tonight. Here's what was happening. The Lord's Supper in the early church was more than what we will serve the congregation tonight. We'll serve a little piece of unleavened bread and a little cup of grape juice to represent the fruit of the vine. It was a full meal in the early church. And here's what was happening. People were coming and treating it like a homecoming. Now, I like homecoming. I like eating. We enjoyed that last week. So I said, we ought to do that once a month. I agree with that, amen. As long as you cook and help me clean up, we'll do it, amen. But my point is, they were coming in and treating it like it was a buffet and making it a party, and they were disrespecting the whole point of it. I'll say this tonight. This is a sacred time tonight. When we get ready to observe the Lord's table, it's not something to be laughing and cutting up and being irreverent. It's something that's very, very important. They were profaned by their actions, by their attitude. Verse number 27, Wherefore, whosoever shall eat this bread and drink of this cup, unworthily shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord." Now this verse doesn't mean if you had a fight with your spouse today or you had a bad thought that you can't observe the Lord's Supper. This gives the idea of living in continual rebellious sin. Because to be honest with you, all of us have sinned enough today to go to hell. All of us have, from the pulpit to the last person in the building, we've all done that. But it's talking about living in a lifestyle, living a hypocritical lifestyle, saying you're one thing and not being that truly. Paul said you need to be very, very careful about that. Verse 28 and 29, But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthy, and he that drinketh damnates to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. The word examine here means to prove. In other words, you ought to look at your life. We'll have a time of prayer here in just a few minutes. You ought to take that time in prayer. You don't have to come to the altar. Whether you come to the altar or you pray in your pew, I do encourage everybody to take the time to pray and say, Lord, I want to make sure I'm right with you, that I'm not living in rebellion. You know, the psalmist said, search me, oh God, and try me and see if there'll be any wicked way. I think that's a good prayer to pray every day. God, search my heart. There may be something that I don't even know is there. Boy, that's happened to me before. Might have had something in my heart I didn't realize was there. Didn't realize it was an issue and God put his finger on it and said, you know what, you really need to deal with that. Keep an open communication. Notice the punishment, verse 29 through 34. For he that eateth and drinketh, I've already quoted that, verse 31. For if we judge ourselves, we should not be judged. You know what that means? Here's what Paul said. Paul said, if you'll deal with your sin, God won't have to. If you'll repent of it, you won't have to be a judge. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world. Wherefore, my brethren, when ye come together to eat, tarry for one another. And if any man hunger, let him eat at home, that ye come together, not in a combination. The rest will I set in order when I come." Here's what he's saying, don't make light. of the Lord's table. Don't look at it as something that, well, that don't mean anything, that's not special, and that don't, it's just a ritual we go through. This is not a ritual tonight. This is something we are doing in remembrance of the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. Years ago, I had a gentleman who's no longer here that got upset that we didn't have the Lord's Supper enough. You know what his argument was? Somebody in the church had bought the Lord's Supper utensils, and we wasn't using it enough, and they got offended by it. That's irreverent. It's not about the furniture. In fact, Jesus did not have these nice pieces of furniture to serve the Lord's Supper in that night. It's not about the furniture. It's not about the ritual. It's about the meaning. And that leads me to the description of the Lord's table, verse 24, 25, and 26. And when He had given thanks, or let me read verse 23 for sake of context. For I have received the Lord, and that which I also deliver unto you, that the night that the Lord Jesus, the same night in which He was betrayed, He took bread. And when He had given thanks, 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. And after the same manner he also took the cup, and when he had stopped saying, This cup is the New Testament in my blood, this do ye as often as you drink in remembrance of me, for as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you do show forth the Lord's death till he come. What does it represent? We know this tonight, but we need to be reminded. Verse 24, the bread represents the broken body of the Lord Jesus. Matthew 26, Jesus quoting. And speaking this verse, rather, the Bible said, Jesus took bread and blessed it and gave it to them and said, take, eat, this is my body. The Gospel of Mark account reminds us this was the day of unleavened bread. So the bread the Lord served that night was unleavened bread. Leaven is a picture of sin in the Bible. Thus, that unleavened bread picture is the sinless nature of our Lord Jesus Christ. We do not believe that this bread and this drink tonight literally becomes the literal body and the literal blood of Jesus Christ. We don't believe that. But it is a representation. It is a symbol. It is a reminder that He was despised and rejected of men. He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with griefs. We hid where our faces from Him. He is a spy. We assumed not. Surely He had borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. Jesus suffered like no man ever suffered. He was beaten like no man was ever beaten. Why? To pay our sin debt on the cross of Calvary. The bread represents the broken body, but then the blood, the fruit of the vine represents the blood that was shed. Verse 25. Now, I was reading this this afternoon. In Matthew 26, let me read these to you, I'm almost done. Matthew 26, Jesus said, He took the cup and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it, for this is my blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. Mark 14, 24, and He said unto them, This is my blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many. But I love what He said in Luke 22. This is the cup of the New Testament in my blood, which is shed for you. I'm glad it was shed for many, but I'm glad Luke reminded us that it was shed for you. Well, preacher, in the context of it, he's talking to the disciples. Oh, yes, it is. But when I read that, I'm reminded that his blood was shed for me. The Bible said we were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold from the vain conversation received from the tradition of your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ as the land without blemish and without spot. The Bible said in Hebrews 10, and every priest standing daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifice which would never take away sin, but this man, after he'd offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand. God Colossians 1 20 and having made peace through the blood of his cross Romans 5 9 much more than being now Justified from his by his blood we shall be saved from wrath through him acts 20 28 take heed yourself Therefore to yourselves and all the flock or which the Holy Ghost has made you overseers to feed the church of God Which he has purchased with his own blood You're you're in a church tonight We still preach that the blood of Jesus Christ is the only payment for sin. Our songs mess us up. Every time a sinner gets saved, the blood's not applied to their account. The blood's not reshed and put back on the altar. He did one sacrifice, four sins, four ever. The sacrifice has been made. We're not Roman Catholics tonight. We don't believe in the perpetual atoning that every time somebody gets saved. There are people who believe that. People believe that every time somebody gets saved, the blood's applied to their account. No, the blood's been applied. It's applied on the altar. The wrath of God has been satisfied. Here's where the ball comes in your court. You, by faith, have to accept the fact that Jesus has paid your debt with His blood. I don't know why it's so hard for some preachers to get that. It's very simple. But when you read books and don't read the Bible, it's easy to come to bad conclusions. So the bread represents the broken body. And the fruit of the vine represents the blood that was shed. And then verse 26, For as often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup, ye shall for the Lord's death till he come. That's the blessed hope. We're looking for that blessed hope Paul said, and the glory and the great God and our Savior, Jesus Christ. Now let me read you a verse in Matthew 26. I'm almost done. I'm going to be at my 25-minute promise. Here's what Jesus said in Matthew 26. By saying to you, I will not drink his forth this fruit of the vine until that day, praise God, until that day when I drink it new with you with my Father, with you in my Father's kingdom. Boy, that verse gets overlooked, but you know what Jesus just said? One day all of us is gonna protect the Lord's Supper with the Lord Jesus himself. Boy, I've missed that for years, but apparently in that Father's Kingdom, which Matthew talks about the kingdom, I don't know how it's gonna work, I think that's different than the marriage supper of the Lamb. He said, in my Father's Kingdom, marriage supper of the Lamb takes place in heaven. The kingdom's on earth. So somehow, can you imagine how big that table's gonna be? When all the ransomed church of God be saved to sin no more, we all sit down with Jesus. Well, hallelujah. Amen. Jesus is a Baptist. He likes to eat. We're going to eat in the, we're going to have a marriage supper with the lamb, and then we're going to observe the Lord's table on the earth. What about that? I tell you, I'm glad I believe this Bible. It's reality. I look at the beauty of this creation. I'm getting all pumped up. I look at the beauty of this creation, and boy, it's lovely. We've seen all the flowers. I'm going to tell you, when that millennial reign, that kingdom age kicks off, and we get to finally see this earth with the curse lifted, wow, what a day. And we get to sit down with Jesus. And personally, oh, I thanked Him here, but personally, face to face, thank Him for the body that was broken and the blood that was shed. You know what that tells me? That tells me even after the tribulation period and sometime in that morning of rain, we still will not be able to forget Calvary. Because Israel will come up and say, where did you get them wounds in your hands? And Jesus said, I got them in the house of my friends. We'll get to see the price. I don't know, Brother Rich, how the Lord will do that. He might serve the bread. When He gets to me, that robe will come back. And I'll see that wound in His hand and realize He did it all just for me. You may not believe that, but that's for believers only. Amen? Y'all remember them jackets? For members only. This is for believers only. I'm glad I believe that tonight. Why do we observe the Lord's Supper? Three things. To remember. Jesus said, you do this in remembrance of me. To rejoice. To never forget the price that Jesus paid. But to remain. What I mean by that is the Lord's Supper It ought to be a time of examination, repentance, confession, that we might make sure that we're not perfect, but we're not living an open rebellion against God. This is due in remembrance of me. I'm going to ask Brother Matthew to come to the piano. We're not going to sing Brother Clayton, but we're going to have heads bowed and our eyes closed. And Brother Matthew, if you want to take a moment before you begin to play, that's fine, because we're all going to pray together. But we're going to have a time of prayer and examination. When I say examination, I'm not going to come by and ask you, have you done this, this, and this, this week, but you need to search your own heart. Have a time of prayer, and then we'll get ready to observe the Lord's Supper. Brother, whenever you want to play, if you need to pray, that's fine. We'll have a time together.