I'll be there in a moment come down here to the the lectern for the for for instruction while we've used quite a few of those OK. All right. Let's put them here for now and you'll know when we need them. All right. First Corinthians. Chapter 11. And verse number. 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's pray. Father we thank you Lord for your word we thank you for the opportunity to open it tonight and to open our study and look at the doctrine here really the doctrine of the church but also. As we study the doctrine of the church we're looking at the ordinances and this particular one being Lord supper. We pray, Father, that you'd help us to understand these things and we pray that you'd help us to live them in the right way, not live the ones that are the negative examples. We just thank you so much for all that you do in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. All right. We're continuing here. This is the third message on the Lord's Supper. And we have looked at it quite a bit, so if you missed that, you're going to want to go back and watch those videos. Tonight, we're looking at the Lord's Supper being restricted as to its participants. I'm not going to give a full recap, but I'll just mention that number two of this particular part of the study. Is the question who may partake of the Lord's Supper and we looked at what the Lord's Supper was or is in part number one. What is the Lord's Supper and part number two is who may partake and so the first part. relating to who may partake. First, we looked at the different types of communion like closed, close, convenient, clinic, that stuff. And then we looked at the restrictions. We began looking at the restrictions. First, it is restricted as to the place. Remember, it happens at church, right? And second, tonight we're going to begin looking at it is restricted as to its participants. It is restricted as to its participants. who so church membership is not the only requirement set forth for participation at the Lord's table the New Testament not only specifies who may come to the table but also how they should come and I'm going to read our text again as well as the following verses down to verse number thirty two it says wherefore who so 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 not discerning the Lord's body for this cause Many are weak and sickly among you and may sleep for if we would judge ourselves we should not be judged but when we are judged we are chastened of the Lord that we should not be condemned with the world. So there are several key words in this passage that require definition and explanation or look at those. First of all the word unworthily unworthily This is an adverb not an adjective it refers to the way in which a Participant comes to the table it means in an unworthy manner All right in an unworthy manner our standing with God is not in question here No man is worthy in that sense, right? Except Christ. Except that in Christ we are accounted worthy through His imputed righteousness, right? So that's our standing. before God is worthy in that sense so we're not we're not talking about our standing before God says here the act of eating and drinking unworthily relates to the general context of the chapter and chiefly. Involves two issues. First of all gluttony and secondly despising the church. Evidently some members of the church. at Corinth had turned the Lord's Supper into an intemperate feast and an opportunity to flaunt their own supposed spirituality and means. All right remember we already talked about that Lord's Supper is not a fellowship dinner. It's just it's a it is a memorial moment it's not meant to be it's not meant to fill your belly. In fact, it's barely a taste. It's barely a taste. So, let's read on. The Lord's Supper is not a feast of charity or fellowship. It is not a church picnic. Nor is it to be a regular meal designed to satiate the carnal appetite. According to verse 29, eating and drinking unworthily means not discerning the Lord's body. The Lord's body is the church. a body of which is a body of baptized believers with Christ as its head as the body of Christ every Baptist church is supposed to be in unity right several passages tell us that first Corinthians twelve twelve twelve eighteen twelve twenty four and verse twenty five The selfish actions of some in the church at Corinth showed that they had no concept or concern for this spiritual unity. In their minds, it was obviously their church, not the Lord's church. That had violated Or they they rather had violated the great new commandment of Christ to love one another. Hence first Corinthians 13 goes into charity right. So. Number one. We looked at what what what word did we define. I know I'm moving quick y'all come on. Stick with me. Unworthily, right? Number two, we're going to look at the phrase, guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. This statement has troubled many but it cannot mean that partaking of the Lord's Supper in an unworthy manner somehow makes one personally responsible for the Lord's crucifix crucifixion. The fact is we are all responsible for that in the same sense that Christ died for our sins the just for the unjust right. Its meaning is tied in with verses 22 and 29 as it says despise ye the church of God and discerning not discerning the Lord's body. The elements of the supper are symbolic of the spiritual unity of the Lord's church. Now that's. along with His body and His blood, right? So it's bringing that context of unity back into play. As we've talked before, baptism is to bring you into the church. The Lord's Supper is to purify the church and unify in purity. And so here it says eating and drinking unworthily as and then in parentheses as some of the Corinthians were doing fractures that unity making one guilty of violating the communion fellowship or partnership right. That's what communion is communion is is commonality or fellowship or or partnership right. It's violating that. communion of the body and blood of the Lord. It clearly demonstrates one thing, the violator does not discern or understand the real nature of the Lord's church. Right? That's something to think on. Number three, examine. Participate to participation English come on participation in the Lord's Supper is to be preceded by a solemn self examination. Let a man examine himself. We are to judge ourselves it's what. Right there in that passage. There's it says examine himself and judge ourselves right right there in the passage that is vitally important for us to do to determine where we are. The church is also to exercise judgment over its members but here the Lord calls for personal judgment or examination by each member a church's members. Self-examination should focus on his personal relationship to Christ and the church. The question here, is my life a betrayal of my Savior? Right? Remember the first Lord's Supper, which was the Last Supper. The question that the disciples asked is, Is it I, Lord? Speaking of when he made the statement, one of you betrays me or is going to betray me. I said, is it I? That's the same question that we ought to ask. Am I the Judas in the room? Am I betraying you? Have I betrayed the Lord? Another question you can ask yourself is do my testimony and my actions betray the unity of the church which he loved and purchased with his own blood. Good good questions right. Lots of verses that go along with these. The first question you've got Colossians one ten first Thessalonians two twelve second Thessalonians one verses eleven and twelve. Revelation three verse four and first Corinthians ten twenty one the second question you have Ephesians four one through three chapter five verses twenty five twenty seven and acts twenty verse twenty eight but look here mark chapter number Fourteen verses eighteen and nineteen it says and as they sat at. Sat and did eat. Jesus said Verily I say unto you one of you which eateth with me shall betray me. And they began to be sorrowful and to say unto him one by one is it I. And another said is it I. Each member should seriously consider his horizontal relationships with the brethren as Matthew chapter number five. Verses twenty three twenty four address as well as Luke seventeen three and four. James five sixteen and Colossians three twelve to fifteen. So as as we often mention when we're having the Lord's Supper you know are you right with God. And if you think you're right with God, ask yourself, am I right with man? Because if you're not right with man, you're not right with God. And so, that has to be corrected. And specifically, man within the church, but then further, if there's someone else in your life that you need to get right with, then you need to get right with them. Number four, the term damnation. This word does not always mean the punishment of hellfire actually means severe condemnation or judgment which for the unregenerate ultimately is a Christless eternity in the lake of fire eating and drinking unworthily will not cause a church member to lose his salvation that would that would that would take away the sure promise that Christ made to his own as we're going to look at tonight after the preaching in John chapter ten as well as in first Peter chapters one chapter one verses three and four and other passages as well so in the context of the passage the damnation brought upon oneself refers to the judgment or chastening of the Lord as a father with his children right you could also look at verse number thirty two as it says, but when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world. You could also look at Hebrews 12 verses 5 through 7, there where it talks about the chastening of the Lord. So, I know, I'm sorry, this is a lot of reading, y'all, it's a lot of reading. You're looking at it and you're like, that's a lot of reading. This isn't bullet points, this is definitions. It's a little difficult, I'm sorry. If you need to stand up or something, slap your neighbor, whatever you gotta do to stay awake, or keep your neighbor awake, whatever. Help each other out. So, in the context of the passage here, right, so the Heavenly Father's chastisement is not something to treat lightly. In the Corinthian church, it resulted in serious health problems and in some cases an untimely death. For quite a few of its members as verse number 30 says right for this cause many are weak and sickly among you and many sleep And these folks they they received the chastisement of the Lord some of them are weak and sickly because of it and some of them are dead and or receiving the chastening of the Lord. Particularly in general but particularly in eating of the Lord's Supper unworthily. So now that the chastening there isn't that's not the only thing we're chasing for. It's not the only thing that God punishes us for he doesn't only punish us punish us when we've partaken of the Lord's Supper unworthily we get chastened when we choose to live in sin without repentance. That will always come. Now, there's a difference between when we've sinned against God and He's dealt with our heart and we get it right, there's still consequence to it, but there's not always direct chastening. Chastening typically will come when God says no and you do it anyways. Or when God says no, you've done it, and you don't. That's not a bug, that's a piece of lint flying around. God says, no, you've already done it and you won't quit. You just keep on, you've been practicing it. God's like, that's wrong. And you're like, oh, I didn't know that was wrong. I need to quit. But then you don't. And you keep on and you keep on and you keep on. God says, OK, I told you, I warned you. Now it's time for you spanking. I mean that's that's what chastening means chase and means to spank in. Hebrews chapter twelve it says not only does it use the word chase and it uses the word scourge scourges that carries with it like a like a beating or it's a it's it's a pretty it's it's a pretty forceful concept here. that you don't just get away with sin and you don't you definitely don't get away with willful sin or continued sin with no repentance and as first John tells us that there is a sin unto death and we're not talking about lost people in that context we're talking about save people who refuse to get right with God and because of it their sin takes them to the grave a sin unto death and so anyhow we could do a whole whole bunch of messages on chastisement but practicing convenient or open communion circumvents this requirement How could a church possibly know the spiritual state lifestyle or doctrinal beliefs of a stranger who happens to be present at a time when the Lord's Supper is to be observed. You can't. Not always anyways. In some cases you might be able to you know somebody that you know but in general you can't. That man may seek to participate on the basis that he has judged himself worthy, but all judgment, including self-judgment, must be made in light of God's word, which mandates baptism and faithful church membership as a prerequisite for the supper. He may profess to be saved and claim to be this or that, but no one has the ability or the right to judge his heart's true condition. That's his heart's true condition. All that can be judged are his words and his actions. as Matthew 7 verses 16 and 20 say, and Colossians chapter 1 verses 5 and 6. And that takes time. That doesn't typically happen when somebody shows up for the church service that you're having the Lord's Supper. You kind of have to know him for a while. The practice of close communion is it also makes it difficult to obey the Lord's teaching on this point a brother may claim to be a member in a good stand and in good standing of some Baptist church elsewhere but such an assertion could not be readily proven especially if you have church services at the same time as that church can't just call the pastor up say hey brother so and so is here we're having Lord's Supper is he in good standing can he have Lord's Supper with us. Because the pastor is probably not going to answer because they're having service to. Typically. So. says even in this fast paced technological age. Who would really know if the brother was actually in good. Standing with his own church or not. Could anyone be certain he was not under the sanction of church discipline. Some try to get around this difficulty by discreetly inviting only visiting or guest preachers. known members of other Baptist churches to join them at the Lord's table that that could be really. Challenging. There are two answers to this practice one it is a church ordinance not a denominational ordinance and two it makes the church become the risk a respecter of persons like well we know you we can yeah come on but you we don't know you Keep your hands in your lap. You can't touch the elements. Just leave them alone. That's why we just specify our members. We have a list of members in our bulletin. That may not always be if we keep growing. We're gonna run out of room in the bulletin. May have to have another place for a list of members, but anyhow. Let's see here. Lost my place, there we go. Inviting some and shunning or forbidding others. Being a respecter of persons there. Scripture is not arbitrary on this point. The church that comes to the Lord's table must also first examine himself corporately. It may not... I'm sorry, not examine himself, examine itself corporately. The church examine itself corporately. It may not gather at the table of the Lord to observe the supper if there are divisions and heresies present. First Corinthians eleven verses seventeen through twenty say church at Corinth was roundly rebuked for their coming to the Lord's table in such a. He says slipshod manner or a nonchalant type manner or a loose you know. Disrespectful manner. They may have said they were having the Lord's Supper but Paul told them this is not to eat the Lord's Supper. This is not eating the Lord's Supper regardless of what you think that is. He's saying that is no matter what you think you're not you're not having the Lord's Supper when you're doing so unworthily or and corporately unworthily. Now you all know corporately when we use that term we're not talking about like the incorporation of some organization. We're talking about corporately means as a group as a whole. So that a church's condition is of great concern to the Lord is verified by his letters to the seven churches in Asia. in Revelation chapters 2 and 3. The Lord is very attentive to his body. It must be fitly joined together, as Ephesians 4.16 says, without any schism or impediment, as 1 Corinthians 12.25 says. The Lord is very particular about his building. These three points here is particular about his body. He's particular about his building and he's particular about his bride. He's the Lord is very particular about his building. It must be fitly framed together as Ephesians chapter two in verse number twenty one says. It's going to be gone in a minute. It must be fitly framed together. It makes for a good bell when I don't have one. Bang it against the pulpit there in case anybody's snoring or having a hard time staying awake. So it must be fitly framed together as a holy temple suited for his presence. The Lord is very jealous over his bride. She must be fitly arrayed, as Revelation 19, 8 tells us, as a pure-chaste virgin awaiting her bridegroom, as 2 Corinthians 11, verses 2 and 3 tell us. Number five, the word divisions. What is meant by the word divisions? And I'm trying to get through all these definitions so that we can get down to the, well, down to the end of, down to the strife, huh? Divisions, yeah, it's like a strife, yeah, similar. Yeah. Yeah, I think that's pretty clear. So. Yeah, so the three just real quick so that everybody understands so. The church's condition is of great concern to the Lord, and that's what those three points were covering, that he is very attentive to his body, which is the church. He is very particular about his building, which is the church, and he is very jealous over his bride, which is the church. So, there you go. Now, divisions. Churches can be divided over many things, like an aisle right down the middle. No, I'm just kidding. Churches can be divided over many things. Most of them usually are minor and inconsequential to the work of the Lord. Divisions result from carnality when the flesh that old Adamic nature wants its way when man rather than the Lord is exalted, right? Lots of passages deal with that. Church unity is a prerequisite for the Lord's Supper. You can also consider Philippians 2 verses 2 through 4 and 1 Peter 3.8, also Psalm 133 verse 1, which I believe is going to be capitalized next week. So, divisions, make sense? Splits, things like that, right? Number six, man, I could preach on every one of these things. I'm just trying to give you the definition and read what he's got here and not get too far off into the weeds. Heresies. A heretic is someone who causes division over doctrine. He is one who holds and promotes a teaching that is contrary to the Word of God, therewith drawing away some of the brethren after him. There has to be an intent for this person to So here's the thing. Sometimes people hold to a false doctrine unknowingly. Okay. That happens sometimes. That person's not a heretic. They're just wrong. So someone who is a heretic is someone who holds to a false doctrine and continues to hold to that false doctrine when it is brought to their attention. That it's here's the thing let's say for example. Because from the side of the heretic their opinion is that their doctrine isn't false it's correct and that the doctrine of that church is false. So, here's the easy answer for that. Go somewhere else. Now I'm not trying to say that people just leave because they disagree with the church statement of faith. But if you cannot come to an agreement on the church statement of faith, then you need to be in a church that you agree with their statement of faith. Now, if there's something that you don't agree with, but you're willing to submit to, that's one thing. If there's something that you don't agree with, but then you begin to try to influence other people about it, you are now a heretic. You are sowing discord and you are working to cause division among the flock of God, contrary to the doctrine that the church has agreed that we believe. Right? And so, that is the difference between someone who is just mistaken on their doctrine, or wrong in their doctrine, and someone who's actually considered a heretic. That's someone that says, you know what? Y'all are wrong, and I'm going to prove it, and I'm going to change this. Now, there have been times when I felt like the wording of our statement of faith was unclear, or needed to be updated so that we could cover something from another angle or something, and I would present it to the church and say, hey, this is what our statement of faith says, this is what I suggest that we change it to. When we did our Constitution last year, we changed the Statement of Faith. The section on... well, I don't want to get into all that. There was a particular section, and if you want to know the details, I'll let you know after the service, but there was a particular section where the Statement of Faith primarily focused on the negative aspect of a particular doctrine. And not that we don't I mean we certainly want to condemn sin we do but our church statement of faith instead of focusing on the negative aspect we defined we're talking about marriage and human Sexuality. We'll just put it that way. So, rather than focusing on, you know, we believe that this and this and this and this and this and this and this and this is wrong, and name all the things that we think are wrong until somebody comes up with something else that's wrong that we have to add to it to name. Instead, we said we believe that this is how God defines marriage, and this is how God defines human sexuality, and anything outside of that definition is sin. And then it just, you don't have to talk about this particular thing and that particular thing and the other thing and something else that some pervert came up with. Instead, you just say, this is what God says, the rest is sin. And so, we changed our statement of faith in that sense. But, did we actually change what we believed? No, we just changed how we presented it. That's it. Semantics. So there's a difference between that. And sometimes people argue over semantics. That can get to be, semantics is words, you know, the way you say something. And so there is a difference between somebody saying, well, I like to say this, and then another person saying, well, I like to say this, but at the end of the day, when you really evaluate it and tear it apart and put it back together, they're saying the same thing. It's, they're just using different words to say the same thing. So it's, and then, There's divisions and all this kind of stuff. So anyhow heresies here says this begs the question how can a Baptist church open up the supper to all who claim simply to be Christians. How could there be doctrinal unity and harmony in any and in such a scene. One only has to perform a casual survey of Christendom everything they're right calls themselves Christians to realize an open supper would violate the command to maintain true spiritual and doctrinal accord. For example. The Bible says there is one body. Yet, an open supper could likely include universalists. The body says there is one spirit. Yet, an open supper would not forbid charismatics with their false assertions of the spirit. The Bible says there is one hope. Yet, an open supper might well include mid and post-tribulationalists. Bible says there is one Lord. But Jesus said Why call you me Lord Lord and do not the things which I say and then Paul says that there's. Those who preach another Christ which is not another Christ right. Fellas in the in the sound booth right. Some people preach other Christ's right. The Bible says there is one faith yet an open supper would permit all kinds of Bibles and creeds to be present. Bible says there is one baptism. But an open supper will accept those who were sprinkled or poured and I'm adding or quote unquote spirit baptized. The Bible says there is one God and father, yet an open supper would conceivably include one with another father. You know, as Jesus said, you're every father of the devil. But it could also include those who believe that Jesus... You do an open supper and you say, any Christians, you're a believer, you believe in Christ, and you're in good standing with the Lord, you can partake. That's an open supper concept. If they do such a thing, there are some who believe that there's no Trinity. There are some quote unquote Christians apostolic Pentecostals believe that Jesus is all there is that the Holy Spirit is a force from God not a person they believe that the father is Jesus Christ that he is the father. There's a whole bunch of stuff in your Bible that makes it very difficult to understand why they would think that but. There is one God and. one father right and the father. And. So anyhow that's a that's a whole. Man that's a whole mess that people don't really think about so you're you're a believer you can. You can have communion with us. Even though our doctrine is not in communion. Even though your belief system is not in communion with the Word of God. So the moment a church begins allowing those who are not invited to sit at the Lord's table. It embarks on a path of compromise that will ultimately lead to its destruction as a true church the church in Pergamos comprised itself. Or rather compromised itself by admitting heretics spiritual fornicators into its ranks. The church at Thyatira corrupted itself when those same kind of heretics seduced its members into becoming spiritual fornicators. as is always a down or it is it is always a downhill course a church must also judge among itself in preparing for the Lord's Supper consideration must be given to the external condition of the testimony of the membership or rather and testimony of the membership the church at Corinth had sin in the camp as first Corinthians five reveals A matter of great wickedness. The case of a church member living openly in gross immorality. The church was admonished to deal with the erring brother in a decisive way in verses four and five of first Corinthians five. I'm sorry four through six of first Corinthians five church discipline ultimately invokes removing a brother from membership. While that's ultimately in the sense of when it doesn't. In my opinion, church discipline, when it doesn't work, involves removing a member from membership. And when I say when it doesn't work, church discipline always works. It either works to disciple or discipline a member into the disciplines of their master, to be a disciple, or it disciplines the member And proclaims that member to not be a disciple of Christ and there thereby removing them from the membership doesn't mean they're not saved. There's a difference between being saved and being a disciple. I know some people confuse that like they'll go to a passage and they'll say. Jesus said here if you don't do this you can't be my disciple. Some of the things that he says are not included in salvation. They're things that you must do in order to be a disciplined servant of your Master. That's what a disciple is, right? A believer is someone who's trusted Christ as their Savior. That's a Christian. That's a believer. A disciple is one who follows their Master and is disciplined in the ways of their Master. Where were we here. While such an act will open the way for divine judgment or up to and including physical death verse number five its ultimate goal is to bring about the brother's repentance and full restoration the church fellowship as in 2nd Corinthians chapter two tells us how Paul tells him let him back except him. Until that point those who are set apart under discipline are not to be afforded the blessing of church fellowship as as he says there in first Corinthians five eleven and thirteen but now have written unto you not to keep company if any man that is called a brother Be a fornicator or covetous or an idolater or railer or a drunkard or an extortioner with such and one no not to eat therefore put away from you from yourselves that wicked person. An excluded brother cannot come to the Lord's table. The command of Second Thessalonians 3 6 makes it very clear that church fellowship must be extended to a brother who is I'm sorry Things are very clear that it must not be sorry extended to a brother who is disobedient and out of order. The Lord's Supper. Sorry I'm trying to get through this. We're we're a few minutes later than I wanted to be. Lord's Supper is a symbol of church fellowship. Church discipline is or has a diminished import if it does not require exclusion from the Lord's table. If all the supper means is the communion of an individual with Christ, then a church has no grounds to keep anyone from it. Self-examination and church examination are vital precursors to coming to the Lord's table. How many times has a mother said to her children as they arrive at the family meal table, have you washed your hands? Are you coming? Clean. If not, go back. Get clean and come.