In this section, the Apostle Paul is correcting the Corinthians for their practice and attitude concerning the Lord's Supper. Their practice is wrong, for they are treating the Lord's Supper like an ordinary common meal. And with this comes their social division. Their attitude is also wrong. They are not coming prepared or in a holy manner, but they are coming in an improper and careless manner. And it has become so degenerate that in verse 20, Paul says he can't even call it the Lord's Supper. In this we learn two lessons. Lesson number one, the Lord's Supper ought to be administered exactly as it has been received in the original institution. That's why Paul says in verse 23, I have received of the Lord that which I also delivered unto you. And this is why the Reformed Church believes that the second mark of a true church is the right administration of the Lord's Supper. Lesson number two regards the attitude towards the Lord's Supper. The Christian is to come in a worthy manner, discerning the Lord's body. So if we are not prepared or not ready, we cannot expect the blessing of the Lord. Now of these two lessons, I want to take up the second. The attitude of preparing so that we come in a way that's pleasing unto the Lord. So let us learn about preparing for the blessed feast. Now if we are going to know why we are preparing or how we're going to prepare, we need to know what we are preparing for. Think if you're invited yourself to a feast or to a banquet and you don't prepare, you just turn up. You may find yourself in a foolish position. It may be a formal occasion and you came casual or in fancy dress. It may be a fancy dress occasion, but you came in a casual clothing. If you do not know what you are preparing for, you may be found to be foolish. So what are we preparing for? We are preparing for the gospel feast. In verse 20, it tells us what this is. This is the Lord's Supper. Who is the host of this Gospel Feast? The Lord. It is the Lord's Supper. He is the host and He is present. And who is He? He is no common thing. He is no ordinary one. He is the Holy One of Israel. He is very God of very God. He is the mystery of godliness, God manifested in the flesh. He is wonderful, counsellor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. He is your Lord, your Saviour, your Christ, your Husband, your Shepherd, Your beloved. It is He who is present. It is He who is the host. Jesus Christ, it is the Lord's supper. And who are the guests at this feast? Every guest at this feast is undeserving. They do not deserve to be at this table. They do not deserve to be a guest. Why? Because of who they are. Sinners. Sinners in the hands of an angry God. Sinners under wrath. Sinners who are due everlasting punishment. Sinners who only deserve the bread of affliction and the cup of His indignation. But they are sinners saved by grace. They are sinners who have been given the greatest gift of all, even our Lord Jesus Christ. It has been granted unto these sinful guests the free gift of the gospel. They have regeneration and renewal. They have faith and repentance. They have faith in Christ and so they are declared righteous in the sight of God. Judicially, no spot, no blemish, but perfect because of the impuritated righteousness of Christ. These guests who are sinners by grace, they are children of God, loved of God. And Jesus Christ the host, he desires these sinners saved by grace to be at his table. He desires to commune with them, to feast with them, to bless them. And these sinners saved by grace, they thirst and they hunger for the bread and for the wine. They thirst and they hunger for the host of the heavenly banquet. And it's an amazing thing to consider that we do desire Christ at the table. Because without the grace of God, we would not desire Him. Outside of grace, there is only law. The law of condemnation. And Jesus Christ in the law is the judge on that day who will condemn you for eternity due to your sin. Outside grace, any single thing that you ever think, say, or do is condemned at the hands of a holy God. This is why the people in Revelation fear Christ, tremble at Christ, for He is the Lamb of wrath, and the only thing they desire is that high mountains fall upon them, but not sinners saved by grace. Sinners saved by grace say with McShane, my terrors all vanished before the sweet name. My fears banished. Banished, friends. And now what do they desire? to drink at the fountain, life-giving and free. Jehovah said, can you, as all things to me. Christ desires them. They desire Christ. And they come as welcome guests. But the host, the host is so abounding in grace. He offers it to all. to all who are sinners, to all who are wretched and to a low. He says, come. He says in Luke 14, 23, go out into the highways and the hedges and compel them to come in so that my house may be filled. There is a Savior for sinners. A Savior that cleanses from your sin. And if anyone repents from their sins, turns to the Lord Jesus in saving faith, then they are welcome guests. It doesn't matter what you've done. It doesn't matter how sinful and evil and wretched you've been. It doesn't matter about those secret skeletons in the closet. If you turn from your sins, and come to the blessed Jesus. He will cleanse, He will forgive, and He will welcome you at the Lord's Supper. But then thirdly, notice, well, what are we eating? What are we feasting in this Lord's Supper? We have common bread, and we have a cup of wine. That's our feast. And to the eyes of unbelief, it is a pitiful, foolish feast. Who can be satisfied with a wee bit of bread and a wee drink of wine? No, not for the eyes of unbelief, it's foolishness. They want the finest. They want a table full of meat. Beef, steak, venison, fish. They only want the finest of wines. They want it in abundance. Why? Because they only want their bellies full. They only want carnal and sensual things. And so when they see a table, and when they see just a piece of bread and a wee drink of wine, they see foolishness. but not for the sinner saved by grace. For they see with the eye of faith. They see the bread, they see the wine, and they think they come to a feast. They see manna from heaven, the cup of salvation, and the wine of reviving power. Because when they see that bread, they don't see bread. They see the one who is being symbolized in the bread. As the Holy Spirit comes and unites the bread to the risen Lord at the right hand of the majesty of high, the faith sees the body broken for you. And the eye of faith doesn't see a cup. It sees Christ shed blood for you. Because when the eye of faith sees Christ, the eye of faith sees everything that's needed to feed, not their bellies, but their souls. John 6, 53, except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, ye shall have no life in you. You see, by faith, the bread is Christ and the cup is Christ. because we cannot have any benefits except for Christ. You see, too many people focus on the benefits to the exclusion of the person. They look to the Lord's Supper and think of righteousness and the atonement and communion, but they divorce the benefits from the person Christ. You can't do that. If Christ is not spiritually present in the elements, there is no blessing for you. None whatsoever. It is not an empty sign. It is not a bare memorial. Christ is spiritually really present. It is the person of Christ who obeyed the law, righteousness. It is the person of Christ who laid down his life as an atonement for sin, the person. You do not have communion and fellowship with benefits. You have communion and fellowship with the person who in return gives gracious benefits. Know that, friends. Because the eye of faith looks upon the bread and the cup and sees Christ. It communes there. And then when we have the eye of faith on Christ, and as we partake in faith, that's when the blessing is communicated to your soul. Because the Lord's Supper is a feast. It is a means of grace whereby Christ united to the elements by the Holy Spirit and the believer coming by faith partaking of Christ, Christ gives us himself and his blessedness. That's why it's a feast, my friends. It is a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined, because in there we have communion with Christ. Do you know fellowship with Christ? Do you know what it means by faith, by the Word, by prayer, to be in the very presence and to share. You share with your faith, your love, your joy. And he shares himself with you with his companionship, his truth, his blessedness. There's only one place on earth that's the Everest of communion. We do have communion personally in our homes in the closet, but it's not the highest. We do have communion with the Lord in public worship, but it's not the highest. The very tip, Everest, of communion with Christ is at the table in the Lord's Supper. feasting upon him by faith. That is the highest experience of fellowship with God. Why? Because it is in the elements he is especially promised to be present. This is my body. This is my blood. And because he has promised to be especially present at his table, it is the Everest in height of fellowship with God. That's why it says here that when you come to the Lord's table, you show forth You publicly proclaim the Lord's death because he's here, he's present, and we're proclaiming it. So here we have why we are to prepare for the Lord's Supper. Because Christ himself is host. The guests are here as sinners saved by grace. And in this supper is a spiritual feast. And then the Apostle Paul, after describing the Lord's Supper, what he's received, this is my body, this is my blood, et cetera, he says something in verse 27. Because this is what I've received, because Christ is present, and because you're proclaiming the Lord's death, therefore, Whosoever shall eat this bread and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. Who's present? What is the Lord's Supper about? Therefore, you must come in a particular way or else there is a curse upon you. Proverbs 23 verse 1 says, If the president was to invite you to a banquet at the White House, I'm sure you would diligently consider your actions. If Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth would have invited me or anyone else to Buckingham Palace, we wouldn't just turn up unprepared. I'm sure we would take diligence to whose company we are in. How much more to the Lord of Lords and the King of Kings, wherefore we are to come in a particular way. we are to come the negatively, not unworthily, or not discerning, oh sorry, we're not to come unworthily, and we're not to come not discerning the Lord's body, which means positively, we are to come worthily, and we are to come discerning the Lord's body. What do these things mean? First of all, what does it mean to come worthily? It is with great sadness this word has damaged the spirituality and faith of many Christians because of misunderstanding. They think it means, and it doesn't, that you as a person must be worthy in order to come to the Lord's table. And therefore, they have to wait until they have a certain level of assurance, a certain height of holiness, a certain height of Christian experience. And until you make this measure, you're unworthy. And therefore, they may be converted for decades and may never come. That is wrong. That is destructive. that may be plain as day, not a single person who's ever come to the Lord's table has ever been worthy. The point is, it's a gospel table for sinners, for the unworthy, where Christ alone is worthy to receive the reward of his salvation in you and me. A famous preacher, John Rabbie Duncan, he was once administering the Lord's Supper. And as the cup was going from person to person, he caught his eye, a woman, a sister in the Lord. She was weeping, uncontrollably weeping. And he knew she had doubts and fears and lacked assurance at times. And as she received the cup, she looked at it and was about to pass it on. He went straight to her and says, take woman, it is for sinners. And she drank and it was blessed to her soul. No one in their person is worthy, for we are sinners. What it means is we come in a particular manner. It's the way in which we come as to be worthy. Worthy means to come in a careful, considerate, proper way. That's what it means. So negatively, if you come in a careless, improper, unprepared way, then you're not to come as this. Positively, if you come in a careful, proper, prepared way, you come. And the discerning of the Lord's body. Discerning means to judge. What you're doing is you're judging with knowledge what the Lord's Supper is. And you're judging its value. Therefore, you're coming to it in a way that shows it has value. So put these two things together. Worthy means to come in a careful, proper, prepared way. discerning, you're judging and knowing what it is, and you're valuing it. What does it mean, therefore, to come aright to the Lord's Supper? First of all, it means you understand. You understand it's a table of blessing where Christ is present. It's a holy table. You understand you can only receive a blessing if you have faith and you exercise that faith. And therefore, you come in a way that's fitting, with no scandal in your life, with no unrepentant sin. You come valuing it as communion with Christ, and therefore with faith, love, and desire, you come to a spiritual place where you want Him, and you desire Him. This is what it means to come worthily and discerning. And here Paul attaches a warning. Remember what we've said, that the Lord's table is the Everest of communion with Christ on earth. Therefore, not to come in the right way, gives the greatest warning. You see, the Bible doesn't give general other warnings about not preparing for worship. It does, but not this particular. What happens if you come unworthily? And what happens if you come not discerning? 27, 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. Just as the Jews crucified Christ, that's the kind of guilt that will be laid upon you. Charles Hodge says, it's like a flag. When you disrespect and dishonor a flag, you're not just disrespecting a bit of material, you're disrespecting that nation. As someone was to spit upon and burn the U.S. flag with, oh, it's only a bit of cloth, you know, I burn cloth all the time. No, you're dishonoring this nation. Well, if you don't treat the Lord's symbols where he is present the right way, You are offending the Lord. And therefore, if you don't come in a worthy way, guilty of the body and the blood. This is not me saying this. Read 27 for yourself, brothers and sisters. Guilty of the body and the blood. Verse 29. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body." Now clarification, when we understand damnation, we think like reprobate. Damned, lost your salvation, cannot be saved and held forever. It doesn't mean that. It means condemned for your guilt. Condemned for your guilt. which means the Lord will punish them, chasten them. And as you read on, we see how the Lord punished and chastened them. Some were sick. Some became weak. God put some to death. Another list of salvation. This is a chastening. But do not consider the chastening of the Lord a like thing. Uzzah was a godly man. He desired to stop the ark touching the ground. He put his hand on the ark. We think, well, he's trying to do good things. No, he disobeyed God. And he chastened that man by putting him to death. These people were not coming worthily or discerning the Lord's body. He put condemnation over them. And he chastened them and punished them. Fearful, fearful things. Why is it not, ministers of the gospel are not teaching people this when it comes to Lord's Supper? Just take it as ever you want. Come, examine yourselves. Just come. Do people, do ministers not love people? What sort of sick person knows 1 Corinthians 11, guilt, condemnation, and just lets anyone willy-nilly come to a table? Absolutely not. For the love of people, no. And therefore, every Christian in every era must be prepared and ready to eat the Lord's Supper. we must come in a worthy and discerning way. How do we do that? Well, Paul tells us in verse 28. Examine yourself. Test yourself. Dig deep and see what's truly inside you. And look at what the purpose and the outcome of this is. Let him examine himself and then eat. So the purpose says for Christians not to, oh, I'm going to examine myself and not come, though that may happen. There may be a time after self-examination, for whatever reason, we can't go into detail now, that you will not partake of the Lord's Supper. Maybe there's scandal. Maybe there's unrepentant sin. Maybe there's a problem between a brother and a sister, or a brother and a brother, or a sister and a sister, and it's not resolved, so you should stay away. But the general norm is examination and then partaking of the Lord's Supper. How do we examine ourselves exactly? Well, just to make it concise, the Westminster Larger Catechism question 171, How are they that receive the sacrament of the Lord's Supper to prepare themselves before they come unto it? They that receive the sacrament of the Lord's Supper are, before they come, to prepare themselves thereunto. by examining themselves of their being in Christ, of their sins and wants, of the truth and measure of their knowledge, faith, repentance. love to God and the brethren, charity to all men, forgiving those that have done wrong to them, of their desires after Christ, and of their new obedience, and by renewing the exercise of their graces by serious meditation and fervent prayer. Before we move on, notice the positive attitude. Now, it is to be solemn. It is to be done in the fear of God. High warnings here, guilt, condemnation, okay? But it's positive here. It's renewal. It's reviving. It's quickening. Every time the Lord's Supper comes, because it's the highest point of Christian communion with Christ, yes, we are to prepare, but the point is it's a time of spiritual renewal. We should be excited about that. Because you're just like me, no doubt, sometimes you become a weary pilgrim. Your prayer life just loses its fervor. Your Bible reading loses its zest. Your desire for fellowship with the saints is not as strong as it could be. This is a time in preparation to renew your spirituality. And you examine yourself, first of all, privately. You want to see your heart. Am I a Christian? Have I deceived myself? Or am I a real Christian? Paul says later, let everyone examine themselves, will they be in the faith? Whose righteousness are you really trusting in? Myself, or is it all in the Lord Jesus Christ? Am I really living consistently with my profession of faith? What are my personal besetting sins? Find them, hate them, confess them, repent from them. You also want to see in yourself positively Christ working in you, graces. Do I love the brethren? Do I long for the word of God? Do I consider it a joy that I have access with God through prayer? Is the worship of God my chief delight? Is the company of the saints the greatest company on earth? What is the greatest content that I enjoy in conversation? Is it the things of the Word of God? Where am I right now in my spiritual desires for the Word? Can I really say I'm like a child, sincerely desiring the milk of the Word? Can I say, as the heart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God? Can I really say at this point in time, early will I seek after thee? My soul is a thirst for thee, my flesh longs for thee in a dry, parched land. Can I really say these things? Be honest. You can't lie to God, so don't lie to yourself. And if you're not, There's repentance and there's renewal. And so, then, with the word and prayer, you start to read the passages about the Lord's Supper. What is it about? Christ. Christ crucified. I want to increase my faith. I want to increase my love. I want to increase my longing for communion with Him. So you go to the passages in the Bible that speak of the person and work of Christ. For the person, you're going to maybe Matthew 1, Emmanuel. Jesus, full of meaning, meditating. You're going to the graciousness of Christ. You're reading Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Look how compassionate He is to sinners, how loving. You want to know His desire for communion. You're going to go to Psalm 45. You're going to go to the Song of Solomon. You're going to read of Christ's love towards you, the bride. You're going to go to the atonement. You're going to go to Genesis 22 for Abraham and Isaac as a type. You're going to go to the tabernacle, and the burnt offering, and the peace offering, and the grain offering. You're going to go to Isaiah 53. You're going to go to a weak old sword against my shepherd. You're going to go to the Gospels. You're going to go to Paul in Romans 3, and 4, and 5, and so on. And then your faith is alive. Your desires are desiring. And you want Christ. But you don't just do this individually. You do it corporately. You see, elders have the keys of the kingdom. Elders bind and loose. Elders deny or accept credible confessions of faith. And it's the elders' responsibility as undershepherds to make sure the people are prepared. In Calvin's day, in Knox's day, you had to have a meeting with an elder before you could partake. Then they understood with large congregations it's not exactly feasible, therefore they did corporate worship services and fellowships. So the people who work hard, who have to look after their family, have to do the things they have, they have limited time, they'll still examine, they'll still feast, but then we can help them with the public worship of God. That's why we do what we do here, because we want no one to be condemned before God. Because we don't want you guilty of the body and blood of Christ. And so we offer you public services to prepare. Do you appreciate these things, brethren? Do you value why we're doing these things? I don't want on the day of judgment, God comes to me and says, Craig, You and your ministry over, I don't know, say 40 years of the Lord Spares Me, you ministered the Lord's Supper hundreds, thousands of times. And so many were unprepared. And I judged them, and I chastened them, and not once did you prepare them. I don't want that over me on Judgment Day. And I fear most Reformed ministers today are going to be judged by Christ because they do not publicly prepare their people. Woe unto a man who doesn't love his sheep so much as to prepare them. But my friends, these are times of spiritual renewal. Our forefathers would do everything for the communion seasons because it was fellowship. People's homes were open and they'd invite other congregations, other churches from other areas of the land. They would travel 20, 50, 100 miles to travel to other communions. There was an open invitation. You didn't need to wait. You turn up, there's always a room. People had barns in those days. They would sleep in the barns. And there was always food, there was always fellowship, there was always psalm singing and praying for the power of God, for the Spirit to come. They had people who were unconverted and they would pray with the services Christ crucified would open their hearts. And then there was the public preaching. They yearned for the humiliation, the wrath of God, the judgment of God, the law of God to put them low, so that Christ would come in the balm of Gilead and raise them from the dunghill. They wanted the sermons on the marks of grace to give assurance to themselves, I'm not what I should be. I should be better at this, so I should grow in this, but I know my beloved is mine and I am his. They sought the person of Christ, his compassion, his grace, and oh how they could not wait for the action sermon. When the work of the atonement was laid out in all its glory, and they said, that's my Christ. He loved me, and he gave himself for me. And after days of fellowshipping, and singing, and worshipping, and preaching, they were all gathered round one table. And the Lord met them. And they had their Mount Everest experience of communion with Christ. And then the last sermon was always Thanksgiving. Thank you, Lord, for what you have done for me. Help me to live and respond in a way that's pleasing. Is that you? Is that me? I question it because our Friday night fellowship has been so empty at times. I think the last one there was literally only three people. The Saturday night preparation service has been so low. Do you hunger for Christ? Do you really, really desire Christ? Do you really love fellowship with the saints? Do you actually like being in the presence of other Christians, opening your mouth and actually speaking about spiritual things? I know many of you do. I know you do. And I'm so blessed to know you do. But when it comes to our communion season, it seems like we are nearly dead at times, spiritually speaking. It's a wonderful thing to hear saints talk about Christ. It's a wonderful thing to speak of faith and growth and prayer. You see other people's struggles. I struggle with that too. I struggle with that too. And then we help each other. How do we conquer these difficulties? How do we climb over these hindrances? And you come away so joyful. It's amazing to have a group of Christians, 15, 20 in a room, and you're just sitting all squashed with no space. I love it. You've got a cup of tea or coffee in one hand, you've got your Bible open in the next, and you're talking about Gethsemane. You're talking about Isaiah 53. You're talking about the cross. And Christ comes, and he meets us, and he sets the place on fire, and you have hearts burning, because the Lord is near. I love to hear sermons on a Saturday. There's times when I would work, and I would be so low, low, low, nowhere near in the right spiritual frame of mind, and I would come on a Saturday, and I can remember sermons. And by the time that sermon finished on the Saturday evening, I'm going to Mount Zion tomorrow, and I'm meeting my Lord. Friends, heed the words of Paul. Preparation is essential and necessary. It's a good, positive thing. It's a time of renewal. So this coming week, privately, open up your Bibles and pray. Look for your sins. Repent of your sins. Look to your faith in Christ. See the marks of grace that you are Christ. Be encouraged. And then seek, am I really desiring these things, these spiritual things? Well, go to the word of God and say, God, give me holy desires. And he'll answer your prayer if you're sincere. And then know what the Lord's Supper is about. Discern, value it. Come on Friday. Come to my home. Come prepared. Whatever questions you've had about the Christian life, or the Lord's Supper, or the atonement, or the person of Christ, or a text you've been reading, or read good books. Read good books on these things too, brethren. Read good sermons. Come with questions and let Christ feed us one-on-one, two-on-two multitudes on Friday. Come on Saturday. Come on Saturday and hear the person, grace, and love of Christ. come on the Lord's Day and hear the action sermon. Christ and his atonement and what he's done for you. And even if you're not a believer, maybe you're not even a member of the church, the best place for you is still on the Friday night fellowship, the Saturday service, and the Lord's Day. Because you're gonna hear Christ, Christ, and Christ. My friends, this is a warning to me. This is a warning to you. This is an encouragement for me. This is an encouragement for you. Let a man examine himself. And so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup. And be blessed as Christ personally dwells and communicates his love. May we all come and say, he brought me to the banqueting house and his banner over me was love. Let us pray.