Go ahead and take your Bibles, if you would, please, and turn to the book of 1 Corinthians, chapter number 11. 1 Corinthians, chapter number 11. Last Sunday evening, preached a message on the glorious church, and we're gonna be preaching several, probably a few different messages, at least throughout the summer, and on the topic of the church and the various various different things that we do. Tonight, you can see it out here, we observe the Lord's Supper about once a quarter is about how we do that here. And so we're gonna talk a little bit about that tonight, the church ordinances and God gave them to us and he gave them to us for a purpose and there's a message, a message in them and something that we need to learn. But in 1 Corinthians chapter 11, And let's start reading back in verse number 17, back in 1 Corinthians 11, verse 17. He says, now in this that I declare unto you, I praise you not. What a thing to say to somebody. He says, I'm gonna tell you something and I'm not happy about what you're doing. He says, I praise you not that you come together, not for the better, but for the worse. For first of all, when ye 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, everyone 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 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 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 supped, saying, this cup is the New Testament in my blood, this do ye as oft as ye drink it in remembrance of me. For as oft as ye eat this bread and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till he come. Wherefore, whosoever shall eat 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." So, lengthy passage there to read tonight, but it lays kind of everything out in front of us that I think helps us to understand what the Lord is calling on us to do with the Lord's Supper. Jesus gave two ordinances to observe, and I use that word on purpose. They're ordinances. They're different than a sacrament. The idea is completely different. And so he gave us two ordinances to observe. They are baptism and the Lord's Supper, the two things. Those two things he instituted while he was here with his disciples. during his earthly ministry, something that was very clearly, you look at the book of Acts, you look at the epistles, very clearly to be carried on even in his absence. And the ordinances are pictures that remind and teach us about the death of Christ. In baptism, a person going under the water and then coming up out of the water, that's a picture of the death the burial and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's also, of course, an identification with the death, the burial, and the resurrection of Christ. And that picture is there. I've said this recently, but it's good to appreciate this. The Lord is a master teacher. He knows how to take things and attach lessons to them and then apply those lessons to things that we can get and we can learn. Everybody in here can understand that basic concept. Every child, every person, somebody could be new and you can understand and see that picture in front of them, the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. In the Lord's Supper, The elements of the ordinance remind us of what Jesus did. There are two things. There's the bread and the juice, and it's on purpose. The bread's broken, and that is a picture of the body of the Lord Jesus Christ, that he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities, he was hung on a cross in open shame for us and his body, he gave his body to the scorners and he died in our place. And so the broken bread is a picture of his body and the juice is a reminder, he says, of the New Testament of the covenant that Jesus paid for with his blood. It's a reminder of the price and of what he purchased with his blood, and so that picture again is there as well. And in doing these things, in ordaining these things, God provides a very simple mechanism to keep all churches that hopefully are trying to obey the Lord, and so this is why we do them. You preach this morning about following Jesus. You know, that's for a church as well. We're to follow Him and every group of believers that join together to meet with Him that are a church that are trying to follow Him, you observe these things and He gave it to us on purpose and it keeps us moored to the very cornerstone of the Christian faith. which is between both of them, the death, the burial, the resurrection of Jesus Christ. These two things, these two fairly simple things that he ordained that we observe keep us attached to those very important things. It forces us, it compels us to think about the cross and to think about what Jesus has done for us. Now the church at Corinth, and here is why this passage is here in this letter to the church at Corinth. They had a lot of problems, and you can see that from the very beginning of the book. And he here references one of the key problems that was represented way back in the first chapter, which is there were divisions among them. They had apparently multiple different ways that they would divide themselves into factions. the personality groups. They had some that said I'm of Peter and others that said I'm of Apollos and some that said I am of Paul and then some that said I am of Christ and I think they were all driven by the flesh. Even the ones that said they were of Christ, I don't get any indication from the book that that they were being lauded from their stated allegiance. As a matter of fact, the way that I tend to look at it when I read about these people, that as Paul addresses them, that you had the group going, we're of Paul, and we're of Apollos, and we're of Cephas, and then that group, I always read it this way, they go, and we are of Jesus. You know, that kind of look down your nose, and you know, where, you know, that's kind of the way it seems. And so you had these factions there. Well, here he talks about another kind of division that was represented there, and it came out, it showed itself, and what they were at least stating was their observance of the Lord's Supper. Now, I think in this, There is a lot of things that probably in the first century church, you know, where they didn't have nice church buildings like we have, and there were a lot of meetings and houses and things. I think there's a lot of that element that comes in here when he talks about when you come together and how they would meet. But suffice it to say, it's simple to understand really what the problem was. They were divided over the issue of how they were participating in what they called the Lord's Supper. And they took it to an extreme and they made it kind of a show. There were people that were turning it into a big gluttonous feast and they were doing so at the exclusion of others. Now, I like to, you know, we have fellowships every now and then throughout the year, and those are good. You know, sometimes we have things like a pizza night after a Sunday evening service, and that's a great thing. We have the Hawaiian luau in January, and all that's, those are fun things, and those are good things, but you know, those things are not anything close to the Lord's Supper. That's not what that's about. But they had these, some sort of, you know, party type atmosphere going on, and what made it worse, is they were flaunting their wealth over those who didn't have it as much. So you might have people that, if you just read what he says here, there were people that didn't have as much, and there were people that had more, and the people that had more, they would bring what they had, and they would kind of lay it out and show it off, and they wouldn't share anything with the other people that were involved. Down south, now I learned something when I moved up here that, you know, they call things like potlucks, right? I don't, that was a new term for me. Down south, churches had what they called dinner on the grounds. That's what they called it. And that didn't mean you were gonna eat it on the ground, it just meant that at church we were gonna have food. And it was interesting the way it all happened. And all these ladies would cook, and it would be spread, and there would always be way more food than anybody could ever imagine. And the reason it was is because people like my mom, would cook and would worry about other people not having enough food. And I remember whenever there was dinner on the grounds, as they said, we were going to church that morning with a clothes basket. You know, like the clothes basket? Because that's how she would put everything in that thing and we'd carry it in and lay it out and she wouldn't be the only one. There'd be all sorts of stuff there. But that was done in a way to make sure that everybody had some. And again, that wasn't the Lord's Supper. But they were doing some things like that. I just imagine them rolling up, they've got their clothes basket walking into wherever they're gonna, and they lay it out and there's, you know, this is for us. and over here there's a poor family and somebody who doesn't have a lot and they're struggling along and they're hungry and they're sitting there and they're being excluded from the proceedings. It seems when you read this that these types of things were happening and they were doing it also as some way in their mind attaching it to the Lord's Supper. And it wasn't good. As a matter of fact, it was very, very bad. It wasn't just not good. It was very, very bad what was happening, and there were consequences. We'll see that here in a little bit. So they turned this observance that was supposed to be simple and solemn, and I think we'll see that as we go, they turned it into something that allowed some members to flaunt their wealth over other members, and it went to the point, he even asked the question, and I don't think He makes a statement. I don't think he's just doing this to kind of exaggerate. I think he's probably alluding to some things that were happening. Verse 21, he says, He's like, that are without, and then there are some that are in excess, and it's not good, and he deals with it here. And so he uses this, and this is a classic passage that helps us understand what the Lord's Supper is supposed to be. We see, first of all, from this passage, the Lord's Supper, it is a serious observance. It's a serious thing. It's something that's meant to be carried out with a level of gravity, not a party. They had turned it into a party. But he makes clear, it's a serious matter. They had so misconstrued the meaning of the observance that they had even suffered a level of judgment. Did you notice in verse 30? Go look at verse 30. He says, for this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. Now, if I am understanding that he's talking about judgment that was coming as a result of it, I looked at an old author's opinion, just kind of seeing the different, and one attached it and said, perhaps that even This is a result of how they were observing the Lord's Supper, talking about being drunk and such, that there was consequences that had even come out of it. I mean, these folks had some struggles, it's very clear. But does it matter exactly how it happened? There was a direct attachment to what they were doing, to consequences that they were suffering. And you say that seems Drastic, that seems like an awful big deal was being made out of something, and there's a lesson in that. We ought to learn this lesson. Whenever God paints a picture, be very careful about corrupting God's message through that picture. You know, he's given us pictures. You know, Satan always likes to attack the pictures that God gives. He's done so with the Lord's Supper in various ways. He's done so with baptism in various ways. But, you know, there's other pictures. Last week we preached out of Ephesians 5 about the glorious church and how there is a likeness there that he uses, a likeness to the church, and it's a husband and wife, and he goes through that. And then later, if you go into chapter six, he's talking about children and obeying and honoring, and the home is a picture. There's a picture there that God uses to teach about his relationship with us, and my, don't we see it all around us, how Satan likes to attack homes. Why is that? Because homes that are functioning according to what God says in his word are gonna be homes that point people, point children, point others to the Lord Jesus Christ. And so Satan doesn't like that. And he will always attack one of God's pictures. If God has a lesson in it, Satan will always work to upend it. And in this case, something that was supposed to be carried out in a serious manner in a church and them not using it the right way and them turning it into something that was completely different than what God had intended, it meant that there were consequences for their actions. And so they took something that was supposed to be a solemn reminder and had turned it instead into a drunken party. There are many such things that we need to understand that when God gives it to us, it's a serious matter. You know, it's just a good reminder. We don't want to play around. You know me very well. You know I like to laugh and have a good time. I mean, we like to, it's kind of just part of who I am. I like to, I just sometimes I think I just see the world a little half tick different in some ways, and it's amusing. And you know, we kind of, even preaching and stuff, we laugh and we can have a good time in that. But you know, I think that's a gift God gives us, to be able to enjoy things, I really do. But at the same time, we need to understand there are, that what we're doing and engaged in is very serious business. The Lord's Supper is just a reminder of that. You know, when we come together, it reminds us as a whole, as a church, when we come together as a body of believers together, he made this promise, he says, where two or three are gathered together in my name, you know what he said? There am I in their midst. That's a serious matter. In other words, that's a weighty matter. That's something that we need to take seriously and we need to approach seriously. And he talks about that in 1 Corinthians as well, about the gathering together of the people and what that means and the significance of it. And he gives them some guidelines about it. And it reminds us that just in general, you know, church, If I can say it this way, and I think you'll understand what I mean by it, but church should be the most holy part of our lives. You know, what do you mean by that? You know, how many of you ever had your parent, your mom or your dad tell you, don't run in church? Did you ever have that? Oh, I had my mom tell me that many times. And I've had, you know, trying to teach me. Now, why is that? Was it because your parents had some sort of moral conviction against running? Was that why? Of course not. Now, there's a couple reasons. One, safety. You know, we need to be careful. We've got, you know, in the time you've got older people around, your kids need to be careful running around. But part of it, part of the lesson was because, you know, we need to respect what's happening when it comes to the church and when it comes to things. We need to be respectful about that. I never once thought, you know, with my mother telling me that or hearing other parents tell that, never thought that, you know, that same mom would be in the kitchen doing dishes and look out the window and see that child running around in the backyard and go, there they go again, sinners running around, you know. No, church though is supposed to be something that's special and something that's different. Why? Because we meet together with the Lord. And here they had missed that with their observance of the Lord's Supper and how they were carrying it on. It was not a good thing and it was the opposite of what he intended. So it was a somber observance. It was a serious observance. Secondly, I want you to notice that it was an ordered observance. It was an ordered observance. He lays it out before us. We'll read this again here in a few minutes when we observe the Lord's Supper together, but it was an ordered observance. The order was based on what Jesus did during what is known as the Last Supper, which took place at the end of his earthly ministry. You can go and you can read about when he instituted this with his disciples and he gave kind of an order to it. And you know, you say, well, why do you observe it the way that you do it? Go back to this morning, what's our job? Follow Jesus, right? He gave it to us. We're supposed to follow him and try to follow his order to things. The bread was broken first and then served, we see that. In verse number 24, it says, 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. So it was served and they partook of that. And then the cup was served in verse 25, he says, after the same manner also he took the cup when he had supped, saying, this cup is the New Testament in my blood, this do ye as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. And so there's an order to what he gave. And then there was an explanation given. All along the way, there was an explanation given. You know, it's a good thing. I like the fact that kids are in here when we do it. You know why? Because it's a teaching time. So, you know, I don't wanna, I don't know, I don't wanna upset them, I don't know, you know, maybe it's better if they're not here. You know what, I like having my kids, even before they were saved, they didn't participate, but they observed and they watched, and inevitably, you know what would happen? Can I get some of the bread? They look at it as like, you know, in the nursery, they get little Cheerios and tiny tots, they get goldfish. Hey, in big church, we get little neat crackers, you know, that's the way they looked at it. You say, well, you know, why isn't that a bad, no, that's not a bad thing because it gives you a chance to teach them something. You know, as parents and grandparents or aunts or uncles, if you've got little ones around you ever, take advantage of some of the questions that they ask and kind of lean into them and understand this question is something that I can use to teach. Yeah, we know it's not the goldfish that they had in Tiny Tots, but we can explain to them why it's not the goldfish that they have in Tiny Tots. So it's a good thing. And so with this, an explanation was given with every Every element of it and and again, he gave it to us as that reminder and it is it acts as a continual reminder Yeah, this is what Jesus has done for us The timing of it though is not specified. He looks in verse 26 He tells them he says for as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup You do show the Lord's death till he come. I Here we do, I think it's just good to touch on this. Here we do about once a quarter. We schedule it in. It's something you need to do on purpose when you do it. Do you know, I know other churches that do once a year. I know some, I know churches that do it every week. They observe the Lord's Supper in some way. You say, well, you know, that's weird. The right way is once a quarter. I mean, God didn't say that in his word. What he said is as often as you do it. You know, I think he gives the church, he's given them the weight of determining, all right, how often works for you, what's the work? The key thing is that it's done and I think that it should be done on a regular basis at some level to act as a reminder and it should be done in a way where the seriousness of it is understood and that it's something unique and special and different. So it was an ordered observance and then thirdly, And I really wanna get to this, because I've been doing this long enough to know that there are probably people in here right now that need to understand this next part so that you're not living in knots over the observance of the Lord's Supper. The third thing, it was a contemplative observance, okay? I want you to look and I want you to think about what he says here, verse number 28. He says, but let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup. For he that drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. Back up even to verse 27. He says, 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. I have noticed that there are many people over the years, because I've had them come to me, that have grappled with these verses, and these are usually the people that kind of get it. What I mean by that, they understand it's a serious thing. And they understand that it's something that has a significance to it because the picture that's there and what it means. But they go, oh, I don't, I don't, I just feel so unworthy to take the Lord's Supper. I feel I can't, you know, I can't do it because I'm afraid that I'm not worthy. And here's what happens there in their mind. They take what is said in those verses and they attach it to the judgment of the following verses and they go, I don't wanna, I don't wanna die because I do it the wrong way. And I'd say, amen, I wouldn't want to die either because I'd do it the wrong way. Oh, I don't want to be sick because I'm not worthy of it. But I want you to understand what he's saying here. Just take him at his word and understand what he's saying. The word he uses, there are Several, this is something, if I'm ever talking to students about, and they're in school, so they're being reminded of things like English and such stuff as that, and I'll ask them, I'll say, what's the part of speech used here? And by the way, this carries all the way, this isn't just an English thing, it's here. What is the part of speech that is used? He refers to it in verse number 27. He says, unworthily. In verse number 29, he says, unworthily. And I'll ask them that, what's the part of speech used? And they kind of pick up on it really quickly. Now, for you, you say, I've not been in English class, Pastor Boyle, a very long time. I understand that, so I'll just tell you the answer, okay? It's an adverb, not an adjective, okay? In other words, it's describing in the language of it, it's describing the action of how you do it. So let's go back, what were they doing? Well, they were treating it like a big party. There were people perhaps even getting drunk. There were people that were excluding other people and in doing so, they were kind of mocking them and looking down their nose at them. There were people being left out. In other words, the manner in which they were observing the Lord's Supper, the Lord's table, the manner that they were doing so was not in a worthy manner. He did not say unworthy, it's the word there is unworthily. Now here is why that's important to understand. Are you worthy within yourself ever to engage in anything that the Lord gives us to do? Friend, I'll tell you right now, I'm not worthy to stand behind this pulpit as a man. I'm not worthy to be able to pray and talk to my heavenly fathers. We've been talking about last couple of Wednesday nights and even in the youth emphasis, that was the theme of the message. I am not worthy to be able to go, the Bible talks about my ability to go to the throne of grace and obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Do you think that I can do that because I am worthy? No. You know, He is not calling upon us to achieve some level of perfection or some level of holiness. And I have known people that are very serious, very sincere about this. And when it comes to approaching the Lord's table, it would just put them in knots. Why? Because they think, well, I know I messed up this week, I know I messed here and there, and I know I'm not worthy and I know I'm not right, but that is not the point of the observance. Now, if it's unworthily, we're having a big party about it, We're kind of doing things that completely distract from the picture that God intended for it to communicate. When we're doing that, then that's a whole different ballgame. That's unworthy. That is, in the picture, what that ends up doing is mocking the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ when we do so. The one who died so that all might be saved. And what were they doing? Based on social status, they were excluding some people the one who was beaten and buffeted on our behalf. And what were they doing? Turning it into some sort of a drunken party as a result. They were doing that in a way that was bringing reproach to the cross of Christ and what he did, not honoring, not remembering, not contemplating its meaning in the right way. But here is what is meant by it. In verse 27, he says, this is what you do. He says, wherefore, whosoever shall eat this bread and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily shall be guilty. But verse 28, he says, but let a man examine himself. It's not party time, it's examination time. It is time to think and time to reflect and time to listen to the still small voice of the Holy Spirit as he takes the significance of what the picture means, and he applies that to our life in some way and goes, you know what? You need to think about this. You need to correct this. You need to get serious about this area or that area. You need to really ponder what you should be doing in this manner and in this way, and that is the point of it. It's not, you say, well, I am not perfect enough, or I'm not sinless enough to participate in the Lord's Supper. Listen, that's kind of the point. It's a somber time, it's a solemn time, it's a serious time. that makes us think, what does God want of me? Where have I been? Maybe I'm cold in some area of my life. Maybe I'm indifferent in some area of my life. Maybe I've been backsliding in some area of my life. And he gives us this picture and he helps us in this wonderful way. to be reminded in light of the cross and allow the light of the cross and his death for us and what he did for us allows us to examine us and the Holy Spirit to go to work within us and think, you know, Jesus did this for you. And what about this attitude? And what about this thought pattern? And what about this action? And what about this? And that's what it's supposed to be for, a time of self-examination, a time of contemplative observance. It's for, that gets us to who's it for thinking about this. Who is examining? He's talking about saved people. This is for saved people. The Lord's Supper is for people who've been saved. I think that the best candidates saved and baptized and in good fellowship with the church that you're a part of. I, you know, again, so, you know, I got my kids here, and they ask questions. I used to, this is what, I'm just telling you what I did. You can do it another way, I guess. This is what I did, you know, my kids made a profession of faith, and that thing would come, you know, Lord's Supper would come and pass it out. They hadn't been, you know, baptized. We just, you know, we'd say, hey, just, you know, not right now, and inevitably would get questions. And again, those are good things, to get questions. And you know what eventually it did? It helped to keep in front of them the next step they needed to take as a believer. Now, the way we do it here, we're not the Holy Spirit, we're not the Gestapo. The men going that serve the Lord's Supper, they're not checking papers at every pew. But I think that is the goal. And when we're joining together, because we see also it's a unifying thing. There was a divisions that were there as a result of this. And the candidate, the ones that should be saved, baptized in good standing with the congregation that's here, and doing so in a way to examine oneself and go, you know what, in light of the cross, what would the Lord have me to do? As we contemplate what Jesus has done for us, we should examine ourselves in the light of what he has done. This is the purpose of the ordinance. It does not impart grace to the participant. You can participate in the Lord's Supper tonight. and you're not gonna hear angelic voices, and you're not gonna see a bright light, and you're not gonna feel cleaned by some special work that it does to us. That's not the point of it. It does not do that, but it does cause the participant to be examined in the light of the cross. You know, I think that probably, inevitably, from culturally what they dealt with versus what we deal with. We're left with some gaps. All right, how do we do it? I mean, there's nothing that says it's gotta be in plates that look like that and things like that. But the way we do it kind of leads itself to contemplation. What do you do? Men serve it. Our deacons help us out with that, and they serve the Lord's Supper, and it takes a little bit of time. That time is not just meant for awkward silence. That's where we should examine. More importantly, I think we should be talking to the Lord, asking the Holy Spirit, Lord, is there something that I need to consider? If there's something that ain't, you think, well, I don't know if I'm right with God enough. Remember, if you need further help, there's some great English teachers in this room. I'll point them. They can get into an adverb with you a little bit and help you. I'm joking. I know you understand what I mean here. Don't live in angst over something. The Lord is the one that's worthy. And he is the one that has made us worthy. because of Him and not because of us. And so there's time to think. Let's pass out. There's time to think as we pray. There's time to think and pray quietly ourselves to the Lord. And there's time to do business with Him during that time. And I would encourage us to do so. So it doesn't impart grace to us, but it does cause us to be examined in the light of the cross. It's an important matter, isn't it? We've come together in a meeting The Bible says in something, a way that we can't fully grasp. We try to keep it in front of us, but we can't fully grasp. Two or three are gathered. We're here meeting with him. Do you believe what he said in his word? He said, there am I in their midst. We're meeting with him. And then he's given us this picture. And that picture is to remind us of what he has done for us, to cause us to consider What do I need to do as I follow Him? As we pray here.