Alright, please open your Bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter 11. We're continuing to consider the Lord's Supper. This should be our last week in 1 Corinthians. What we've gone through as we looked at the institution of the Lord's Supper in Luke, we then looked to issues relating to admission of the table and discipline and removal from the table. We looked at Judas being a false professor and yet being present at the table. And so now let's review having gone through chapters 8 up to now. We started out by considering the fact that Paul talks about knowledge and how it can be something that puffs up, but that knowledge when used in love is used to edify. And that when knowledge is used to edify or build up other people, there is a sharing in a way that's meant to be useful as opposed to the idea of trying to use knowledge for the sake of asserting liberties that would damage our neighbor. And so then Paul goes through liberty and the idea of having rights and using them and laying them down in order to benefit our brothers. He goes on to then discuss the Old Testament as given to us as an example. And so let me remind you that's at the beginning of chapter 10. And so there's this tendency amongst the believers at Corinth to belittle the Old Testament. Let me read you that section briefly. It's verses 1 through 13 in chapter 10. It says, Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea, all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. All ate the same spiritual food and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ. But with most of them, God was not well pleased. for their bodies were scattered in the wilderness. Right. So look, before we look at the next part, he's talking about being baptized into Moses. He's talking about eating spiritual food in the Old Testament and the old administration. So then he talks about the spiritual drink that they received out of the spiritual rock. So the baptism into Moses is to remind us of the New Testament baptism, how the reality was present in the Old Testament. The spiritual food and drink, verse 4, it says spiritual food and all drank the same spiritual drink. Those spiritual food and spiritual drink are to remind us of the administration of the Lord's Supper. And the spiritual rock, being Christ and the doctrines that Christ has revealed, which there is an identity of, right? In the scriptures we have the mind of Christ and so we know Christ by knowing the scriptures. And so there is, we should not look upon the people under the old administration and say, look, they had nothing. All they had were types and shadows. They had no reality. So verse six, now these things became our examples to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted. and did not become idolaters, as were some of them. As it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. Nor let us commit sexual immorality, as some of them did. In one day 23,000 fell. Nor let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed by serpents. Nor complain, as some of them also complained, and were destroyed by the Destroyer. Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the ages have come. Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. No temptation has overcome you except such as is common to man. But God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape that you may be able to bear it. The whole of this book, there's two major themes. There's dealing with sexual immorality and there's wrong worship. And there's an intertwining of that throughout scripture, right? There's an interrelating. We talk about idolatry being a form of spiritual adultery. And so both issues being dealt with is kind of a common scriptural theme. So let me remind you that idols are false gods, but they're also able to be referred to as means that are used that are not appointed in the Word of God for worship. So wrong elements or wrong means of worship of the true God is a form of an idol. And we have that in the text that's being cited, right? It talks about the people sat down to eat and drink rose up to play and that's a quote from Exodus 32 in which the true God Yahweh is worshipped by means of a golden calf right and so this this wrong worship of the true God is used as an example but there's also The worship of false gods being addressed. An idol can be a false god or an unauthorized element or means of worship of the true God. An idolatry, committing idolatry, is the worship of a false god or the worship of the true God by means not appointed in God's Word. So that's what Paul is talking about. He moves on from there and talks about the importance of fleeing idolatry and that when we participate in sacrifices to idols, even though they are not real gods, it is participating in sacrifices to demons. And so there's this warning to be careful about false worship. At the same time, we're told at the end to eat and drink to the glory of God. And so we are then told from there an example of how to assemble to the glory of God and then how to assemble in a manner that dishonors God rather than glorifying Him. And so the first section we talked about gives an example of an outward form and talks about the reasons. And it's a discussion of the covering of the head and a discussion of of the idea of man's glory and woman's glory and God's glory. And then the section that follows is about the administration of the Lord's Supper. We're in chapter 11. And the examination of the self in the Lord's Supper. Okay, so there's an outward element and inward element. And so let me There are a couple more things I want to remind you of. We've gone through a lot and so let me explain those and bring them back to mind. Last time I talked about how there are four ways of trying to approach the inward and the outward when it comes to the worship of God. One is called antinomianism, which just means anti is against and namas is law. And so antinomianism is against lawism. It's the idea that there is no law that we should recognize. And in an antinomian view, you'd say, well, I'm free from the law. I don't have any obligations to have outward forms that are imposed by God. And I don't have any obligations about my attitude inwardly. So there are no constraints on my inward attitude or my outward behavior. Another incorrect view is called formalism. Formalism would be, well, as long as I have the right forms, as long as I have the right externals, the inward attitude does not matter. And you see this rebuked repeatedly in the Old Testament, where you have people coming and doing this formal worship but not having the right attitude, not doing it in faith, not believing the truths that the outward forms represent. And so formalism with right externals but wrong internals is not acceptable. Sentimentalism is the idea that the outward forms don't really matter. This is very popular in our day. Formalism is the great bad guy. Sometimes antinomianism is a significant problem in our day. But sentimentalism is really the dominant view, especially in the evangelical churches. And so what you'll see is what matters is having a right attitude as you approach God. And they'll say, eat and drink to the glory of God, which means as long as you've got the right attitude about how you're eating and drinking, then you're eating and drinking to the glory of God. But we have instruction from Paul about how to have the externals be right. And so there's a concern both about internals and externals. And so God has given us external forms that we are to follow, but we're not to put our trust in those forms as though being baptized will save us. Baptism without faith is simply greater responsibility that you will be judged for. So, not antinomianism, not formalism, not sentimentalism. The Bible teaches that we are to have sincere knowledge of the truth. Not a hypocritical professing, but that we have the truth in our minds and We profess it with our mouths, but that profession is sincere, that we believe internally the truth. It calls us to a righteousness that is a desire to do what is right and an external obeying of the law of God, doing things in the order with the externals that God has commanded. A sincere holiness, which has to do with a desire to be separate unto God, but also externally separating ourselves from things that we ought not participate in. And so Paul has in these previous chapters said, don't go eat a meal in a temple that's a sacrificial meal to idols with the excuse, well, an idol is nothing and therefore this is sacrifice to nothing. And so I can eat this because I have knowledge. That's a damning verse against sentimentalism. Now, Paul calls us to imitate him at the end of chapter 11, just as he also imitates Christ. And he calls us to certain external things. In verse 2 he says, Now I praise you, brethren, that you remember me in all things and keep the traditions, just as I delivered them to you. So these traditions are preserved for us in Scripture. And this first part about glorifying God in the assembly is followed by a statement now in verse 17 that says, now in giving these instructions, I do not praise you. Notice the contrast. Now I praise you. But in verse 17, now in giving these instructions, I do not praise you. The first one is here's something you're doing and you're doing it right. The second part is, here's something that you're doing wrong. I do not praise you for what you're doing, and I'm going to offer you correction about how you're doing it. So he has talked about imitating him, using knowledge to build up in love. And he talked about liberty existing to serve, that we can sacrifice our lawful rights for the sake of avoiding stumbling blocks. This makes it so there's time to work through difficulties. Paul is dealing with a lot of difficult matters here, a lot of hard rebukes. And so let's look now through verse 17. We'll be looking through the end of the chapter. And it ends at verse 34. now in giving these instructions i do not praise you since you come together for the not for the better but for the worse for first of all when you come together as a church i hear that there are divisions among you and in part i believe it for there must also be factions among you that those who are approved may be recognized among you therefore When you come together in one place, it is not to eat the Lord's supper. For in eating, each one takes his own supper ahead of others, and one is hungry and another is drunk. What? Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and shame those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you in this? I do not praise you. For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus, on 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. Do this in remembrance of Me. In the same manner, he also took the cup after supper, saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood. This do as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till he comes. Therefore, whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. And let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep. For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world, Therefore, my brethren, when you come together to eat, wait for one another. But if anyone is hungry, let him eat at home, lest you come together for judgment. And the rest I will set in order when I come. Okay, back to verse 17. Now, in giving these instructions, I do not praise you, right? So he's talking about how do we glorify God in everything that we do? Well, in the assembly, there are ways to deal with the glory of God, the glory of man, and the glory of woman. And there are external things, and there's also internal things about attitudes. And so Paul gives us an external, and he also gives us reasons. Now in verse 17, we're transitioning to as opposed to head coverings, we're talking about food and eating rightly. So now in giving these instructions, I do not praise you since you come together, not for the better, but for the worse. For first of all, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you. And in part, I believe it. Now notice the word for, we're going to see it repeatedly. We're also going to see an important word therefore. For at verse 18, at verse 19, at verse 21. We're also going to see it continue on as we read throughout. If you read throughout the letter you just see that every time Paul writes he uses the word for and the word therefore a lot to connect things. There's a reason for it. So, he's saying he doesn't praise this church because when they gather together it's not for the better, instead it's for the worst. And here's the reason why it's for the worst and not for the better. First of all, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you and in part I believe it. This word divisions is the word schism, or the root of it is the word schism. I don't remember the exact pronunciation of the Greek there, so forgive me. The word is schism. There are schisms among you, which divisions is a good translation of. There's breakings, there's perhaps parties. Earlier on in the letter, there are names being used to refer to these parties. They have men's names being attached. So they have, I'm a disciple of Apollos, I'm a disciple of Paul, whatever. And these factions inside of the church, these schisms, are a result of something. People don't just divide up for no reason. Why do they divide up? Well, we're told in verse 19, and this translation is not very helpful. It says, because, or for, there must also be factions among you. So that's saying there are divisions among you because there must be factions among you, which if you look, you think about what's a faction, it's a division, right? When you read this in the New King James, you're thinking there are divisions among you because there are divisions among you. Thanks, Paul. That's a helpful analysis. But Paul was actually more helpful than that. So he says, for there must also be factions among you that those who are approved may be recognized among you or made evident among you. The factions, that word is actually heresies. So heresies. So there are schisms because there are heresies. All division is a result of thought. Now those thoughts can be wrong thoughts about the law, right? Practical things. They can also be wrong thoughts about the gospel. And so doctrinal differentiation, whether it's about the more basic realities of how do you know or what's real, or whether it's the less basic about what's good and moving to ethics, right? In any of those cases, heresies, false doctrines are the cause of divisions. So he's saying, you know, there are divisions, there are schisms among you. And in part, I believe it. Why say that? Why say, in part, he believed it? Because he's not ready to hear a bad report. Paul wants to be ready to hear a good report and to be slow to accept a bad report. He says, listen, I've received this bad report. And even though it's a bad report, in part, I believe it just on the report. And the reason is because I would expect that there are heresies in every visible church. There are going to be errors in every visible church. And honestly, there are going to be errors in every one of our minds, right? So every one of us, every visible believer is going to have heresies in their own mind. Now the word heresy is when used in scripture is not used in the same technical way that we hear it often used in church councils or in other debates, right? Heresy, when we think of heresy and we go, this is a damnable error. This is an error that if I believe this thing, I'm going to hell. Well, every error in a certain sense, if you believe it consistently and remove truth in response to trying to follow this heretical idea consistently down, it will ultimately destroy the truth. at its most basic level, right? Because no matter what error you're getting, it's ultimately a statement that God's Word is false. Whenever you believe something that's false, you're not believing what God's Word says, instead you're believing something else. And by believing something else, what you're doing is denying the authority of God's Word. Now the reality is that a believer, when a believer understands that the belief they've got is different from what God's Word says, They're believers in the word of God. They believe the words of God. And so what happens when they recognize the contradiction is they reject the falsehood and instead believe God's words. And that's the sanctification process, right? More and more, you're replacing false beliefs with true beliefs as your own heresies become revealed. Now, when we talk about heresy, a lot of the time we're talking about damnable beliefs and ultimately, that can be unhelpful as a way of referring to heresies. And so when you talk about heresies, it's important to recognize, I think a more useful way of referring to them is material heresies and formal heresies. Material heresies would be direct denials of the gospel or of the authority of scripture, the most basic things, right? Because by believing the gospel, by believing the work of Christ in our place, that's the saving news. And rejecting the word of God implication of rejection of the gospel. It's more basic. But that's material heresy. A formal heresy would be any falsehood. Any falsehood. And when you get pressed on it, you can be pressed to the point of becoming a material heretic. You can begin to deny the basic matter of the Christian faith, like the word of God's authority or the gospel proper. But so when I'm referring to heresy in this text, Paul is talking about error. So for first of all, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are schisms among you, and in part I believe it, for there must also be heresies among you, that those who are approved may be recognized among you or made evident or made manifest among you. The idea is that when people get pressed on their error, that it causes greater clarity of who actually believes and who does not. And we've been talking about church discipline earlier on here. And the goal of church discipline is when people make it manifest that they reject the word, or reject the gospel, that they are to be removed. Or they are to be persuaded by the Holy Spirit, which is what we obviously hope for. But there is an importance of church discipline that's laid out back in chapter five, which we looked at. And so This is an important part of that process. So this is the purpose of God in having heresies. He uses heresies to purify the church and he uses heresies to push the church to do work that it wouldn't otherwise do because we are lazy. I'm lazy. We're lazy. We're lazy. We don't want to think hard. We don't want to think about the truth. We don't want to clarify the truth. We don't want to remove error. And so what heresy does is it manifests itself, and when we don't deal with heresy, it manifests itself in division and in different practice. And so you end up with open public sin in the church like happened in 1 Corinthians. You end up with that not being disciplined. You end up with factions that support certain teachers and factions that reject certain teachers. That's all because of heresy. When heresy is not dealt with, it bears that fruit. When heresy is dealt with, it helps to avoid schism, factionalization. It helps to make it so that you have right practice, and it makes it so there's unity in the truth. Unity in the truth leads to organizational unity and unity of practice. So that's the central thing. So he said, first of all, this division inside of the church is why there's not a praiseworthy eating. And think about how basic that is to the Lord's Supper. The Lord's Supper is a meal that demonstrates unity, right? We call it communion. It's with, com, union. With union. And so when we eat it, we're displaying our union with each other, having the communion of the saints, sharing together in goods and doctrine. And we are also displaying a sharing together of life and institution. There's also a display of union with Christ. And what's that union with Christ? It's a union that's intellectual, because we think Christ's thoughts, and it's a legal union. We have Christ as our federal or covenantal representative. And we are together covenanted in that. This covenant is central, right? Because this whole meal is a covenant meal. It's the new covenant in Christ's blood. That's what the meal represents. That legal union is represented there, not just the legal aspect of it, but the parties of the covenant, Christ and us, the promises, our salvation, the conditions, which is everything Christ does on our behalf, and even his giving our faith to us by his spirit, the benefits of the covenant, and the fact that it's a sign of all of that. So, verse 20. Therefore, when you come together in one place, it's not to eat the Lord's Supper. Whoa. Right, these people are coming together as a church. There's divisions among them, there's schisms among them, and there's heresies among them, but they're eating together. They're eating bread and wine. And so first of all, first of all, first in importance, the divisions which are caused by heresies are the reason why it's not. Therefore, because of these previous things, when you come together in one place, it is not to eat the Lord's Supper. And then, just to clarify, because you might say, well, maybe they're getting together and they're not eating anything. Maybe there's just no food and wine. Maybe that's why. Even though Paul gave us a reason. He says, 4. In eating, each one takes his own supper ahead of others, and one is hungry and another is drunk. This is now a second reason. The first reason was the divisions and the heresies. The second reason, to be clear, that they were actually eating, is when they are eating, they're not even eating together. I've seen churches. I've walked into churches where people eat at different times. They'll just have bread and wine in the back and people are eating at different times. Paul explicitly condemns the idea that eating and drinking should occur at a separate time because it destroys the unity of eating together. The purpose is, it's an act of worship where you all together eat the bread and drink the wine and it's a visible sign of unity. Doing that together. It's a meal together. You don't have a meal together by having one of you show up at the restaurant an hour from now and the other one showing up two hours from now. Probably because it's the Sabbath. But if it were another day, right, you wouldn't have a meal with somebody by showing up at different times. Verse 22. What? I like his reaction while writing. What? Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and shame those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you in this? I do not praise you. So the second reason why this isn't the Lord's Supper, actually the second reason he doesn't praise them and also why it's not the Lord's Supper, is because they're not eating together at the same time. And in fact, that is destructive to the use of the church as a whole, because your household is an economic institution. Your household, the word economics is based upon the Greek word oikos, which is house. So economics is the law of the house. And so the household is where dominion work gets done. It's where productivity occurs. It's where food gets earned. It's where the basic necessities are met. And so the household is where material provision is obtained. And so if you're going to just have an institution that's about eating and drinking for the maintaining of the body, then the household is where that happens. Don't you have houses? Why are you coming to the church to eat your fill and to drink your fill? Your household is for that. It's a misuse of the church. The eating and drinking here is not about filling your bellies. The eating and drinking here is about the meaning. It's an act of worship. So do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and shame those who have nothing? So okay, let's pretend for a minute you're not doing this because you fail to have a house to eat and drink in. Let's say you recognize that you have a household. So what are you doing? You're coming and you're eating and drinking without regard to the other people and perhaps eating more than others, drinking more than others, making this into a thing about feeding your body. What does that do? It shames those who have nothing. Because one of the reasons they're able to eat and drink at different times is because they're just bringing it in themselves and say, hey, if you don't have your own, It's bring your own communion. B-Y-O-C. Do you not have houses to eat or drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and shame those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you in this? I do not praise you. So there's an act of dishonoring our brothers. We're supposed to outdo one another in honoring each other. So the church of God buys this food for the common use, but the church of God is not an institution. It's primarily about feeding people, right? At least not feeding people material things. It's to feed them the word of God. Feed my sheep is what Christ tells Peter. Verse 23, for I received, there's that word for again, for I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you. Now notice earlier he said he praises them for keeping the traditions which he delivered to them. Here he's saying, here's something I received that I delivered to you, but you're not keeping it, right? And so this was delivered, but they're not keeping it. That the Lord Jesus on 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 do this in remembrance of me and so we've talked about the views of the lord's table and we talked about transubstantiation consubstantiation remembrance real presence the eastern orthodox and We talked about how there are different views here, and so we understand that Christ is really present by faith, but it's all by faith. His humanity is present by faith. His divinity is everywhere present all the time, and so that doesn't change with the Lord's Supper. But His humanity is present in our minds by remembrance, and that's real. So, take, eat, this is my body which is broken for you. It's not literally his physical body, right? It's a covenant sign and seal. Do this in remembrance of me. In the same manner, so we're supposed to think about Christ and his work when we have this bread. In the same manner, he also took the cup after supper, saying, this is the new covenant. Okay, so doesn't he say that this is his blood. This cup is the new covenant in my blood. So the bread is the new covenant in his body. The cup is the new covenant in his blood. Notice it says the cup, by the way, here's another figure of speech. With transubstantiation, if you wanted to take it as literally as possible, wouldn't you have to say that the cup is what changed into the blood, not the wine in the cup. It says this cup is the new covenant in my blood. So the cup represents what's in the cup, right? It's a figure of speech called a synecdoche, where a part represents something else. And so this figure of speech teaches us that the blood of Christ is represented with the wine in the cup. And so this new covenant is symbolized, it's signified. The parties of the covenant, the promises of the covenant, the conditions of the covenant, the benefits of the covenant. That's what the sign signifies. This do as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. Both parts, we're told, to remember Christ in doing this. We're to remember the meaning of the symbols. Symbols by themselves are not the reality. They are symbols of the reality. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till he comes. That work of Christ to die for us is one of the conditions that's met in the covenant. We needed to have death to pay for our sin. In Christ's death, we remember his death in the Lord's Supper. It's the central thing, the payment. Therefore, whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord, in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord." The majority text has the word the before blood. So that obviously doesn't change the meaning, but your text may not have the word the there. The majority of manuscripts have the word the. So the body and the blood of the Lord. So this covenantal meal, even though it's signs and symbols taking it wrongly by those signs and symbols causes you to be guilty of the reality. So that's a call to think, Hey, this seems kind of important. 28, but let a man examine himself. And so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. This self-examination is following after a group examination, right? In the beginning here, it talked about how as a group there are factions, as a group there are heresies. It talks about how some are eating before others, that the poor are being shamed. This is group activity about wrong administration. This is external. There's always a relationship between the internal and the external. The heresies cause the division, but the divisions of the external, the heresies are internal. And so now we've looked at the external and the group, the forms that need to be maintained, the word of institution and how it's said to eat first and then to drink. So there are all sorts of errors of form. In some Presbyterian churches today it's becoming common to do a practice called intinction, which is to take the bread and dip it in the wine and then have them together. That's not how Christ instituted it. He gave bread and then he gave wine. The two separate acts, the division of time as a sequence. So now we move to the internal. Let a man examine himself. And so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. If you examine yourself, that's supposed to make it so you can then eat and drink, which is why we do not have children come to the table. Right, we have, we baptize children. And the reason we baptize children is because we believe that baptism replaces circumcision. We see in Scripture the connections of the meanings of baptism and circumcision. We look at texts and we see what circumcision signified. Baptism also signifies. There's a change of administration. The new covenant replaces the old administration and gives us a new one. So we have baptism and it's expanded as a opposed to in the past it being just men who converted and men who were born into believing households. Now it's men and women who convert, are baptized, and men and women who are born into believing households receive baptism. And so we have examples of that in the New Testament. But here, with baptism and circumcision, children do not examine themselves When the law of Moses said to be circumcised on the eighth day after birth, those infants were not examining themselves. But with the institution of the Passover meal, there was a requirement that the young should ask and be instructed, they should be catechized before they come to the Passover meal. And here we have with the Lord's Supper requirement to examine yourself. And so there's a need to demonstrate the ability to examine oneself. Which requires a profession of faith. The ability to discern the Lord's body. Look at verse 29. For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. So what's the unworthy manner? It's in a manner that doesn't discern the Lord's body. Not discerning the Lord's body is, in particular, not understanding the way in which the bread represents the body of Christ and the covenant, and not understanding the way in which the wine represents the blood of Christ and the covenant. Not understanding the meaning. Not understanding what Christ did. Now, there's also a need to be able to discern which meals are idolatrous and which ones aren't. And so the externals matter. You look at the externals because you don't want to eat a meal that's a religious meal that's not the Lord's Supper. Didn't Paul just say, here's a church that he's rebuking, that he's calling a church and saying, hey, you're saints and you need to be doing better than what you're doing right now. And he said their meal was not the Lord's Supper. Think about that. There are real churches that eat bread and wine in their worship services, like the church at Corinth in the first century, and that meal is not the Lord's Supper. What does that make it? If it's a religious meal and it's not in accordance with the institution of Christ, that makes it idolatry. And he's been warning us to not partake in idolatry. So there's a need to discern, is this a true church or not? And there's a need to discern, do I understand what this means or not? There's a need to examine the reality For this reason, many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep." The sleep there means dead. He's calling back to remembrance what he said in chapter 10. That the Jews were an example to us. The Old Testament people were an example to us. They became idolaters. And they committed sexual immorality as people in Corinth were. And what happened? He lists out. 23,000 fell in one day. They were destroyed by serpents. They were destroyed by the destroyer. Now he's saying, for this reason, many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep. God uses external judgments on our bodies for the sake of calling us back. They're a form of admonition. there's sickness, there's death, there's actual material harm that occurs in the providence of God based upon spiritual realities. Verse 31, for if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged. And so he talked earlier about church discipline. And so there's, first of all, we need to judge ourselves to avoid discipline of God. We need to avoid the discipline of God on the church by as a church judging ourselves as a body, right, but we also need to judge ourselves as individuals in order to avoid the judgment of God and to avoid the judgment of the church, because the church is to exercise judgment on heresy and unrepentant sin. For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged. But when we are judged, We are chastened by the Lord. He disciplines. He calls back. He gives discipline. When we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world. So why do these temporal judgments happen? These temporal judgments happen for the sake of preventing us from dying unrepentant. There are no more callbacks after death. The suffering that exists in this life is for the purpose of reminding us of our need to seek our happiness in the Lord. And if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world. Therefore, my brethren, when you come together to eat, wait for one another." So now he's calling, he's going back to the externals, right? This is the external forms. He's saying, therefore, because of this, he just talked about examining yourself. Now he's coming back to the externals. Saying, therefore, to avoid this judgment, do the externals right. Wait for one another. Obviously, the motive is supposed to be to honor each other. The motive is supposed to be to be concerned for each other's well-being. The motive is supposed to be to glorify God. The motives are important. But he doesn't end with just have the right motives. He says, do the right external thing. But if anyone is hungry, let him eat at home. lest you come together for judgment. And the rest I will set in order when I come." And so there are other details that he wants to help them to deal with, but he has given here instruction that is sufficient to remove the judgment. So, I have tried to do what I can to help you to be able to examine yourselves. Let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. My goal has been to give you the whole counsel of God about the Lord's table. Because I do not want anyone to eat unworthily. But let me tell you what else. I do not want you to fail to come to the table because you think that you have to be sinless. The table of the Lord is for those who believe they are sinners. The table of the Lord is for those who have sinned The table of the Lord is a covenant meal that reminds us of the death of Christ for our sins. The table of the Lord is a meal where we recommit ourselves. We renew covenant. We are swearing again to abide by the commandments of our Lord and to seek to love one another. And so when we take the Lord's Supper, when we have some sin that we're in, what we are doing by taking it is swearing again to repent, to stop. And it's for our good. We need renewal of covenant, which is why Christ instituted a renewal covenant meal. We need it because we sin again and again and again. but we should be growing. We should be growing in knowledge. We should be growing in practice. And we shouldn't be doing the same things over and over again. This meal feeds us. It gives us spiritual nourishment. It gives us spiritual food and spiritual drink when we believe the truth. When we remember the truth. The Word of Christ is the food for the soul. Man does not live by bread alone. but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. And this supper symbolizes, in part, the benefit of that nourishment that we receive over and over again. We need the word on a daily basis. We need to hear it preached on a weekly basis. And we need to renew covenant with this meal. that symbolizes the unity that we have with each other in doctrine, and the unity we have with each other in covenant, the unity we have with Christ in doctrine, and the unity that we have with Christ in covenant. All that's His is ours. His thoughts are our thoughts. So let's not make light of that. There is no deeper intimacy than the intimacy of shared thoughts. Let's pray. Father, I ask that you would use this word to build up your church, that you would cause us to know the truth, and that you would cause us to reject error. I ask that you would build us up and help us to love one another and not to use our knowledge in a puffed up or arrogant way, but to use it in a manner to serve each other. Father, I pray all of this in the name of Christ. Amen.