Matthew chapter 26. Matthew chapter 26. And we have the table set here for the Lord's Supper this morning. And we want to take just a few moments to consider qualifications for coming to the table. The first qualification is that you are born again, that you have repented of your sins and are trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ and in him alone, apart from any works that you have done or intend to do. in order to have a right standing with God. So all your faith is in the Lord Jesus Christ, which leads to a life of repentance. Then all those who are saved and born again are baptized and join themselves to a visible church. They identify with that church and the gospel testimony that is brought forth. So by partaking, you're saying that this is my church and I stand with the gospel that is preached in this place. then even though your name may be on the roll, it could be that you are in a situation where you're living in secret sin or unrepentant sin that you do not want to repent of, that you intend to hold on to, and that is a very dangerous place for a Christian to be. This is a place of self-examination, where you are to recognize that you are, even continually after you're saved, in a state where you're dealing with the old man, with the flesh, and struggling against sin. And so to examine, for a Christian to examine himself is to consider whether there are those things in your life that you refuse to let go of, even though you know that God forbids them. And then that you are currently a member in good standing of the church, or if you're visiting, of a reformed church, and that you have not been excommunicated or asked by your church to refrain from taking communion. So anyone who's under discipline, we respect the discipline of other churches and we want you to be honest and not partake if that should be the case. So that is in preparation for the Lord's Supper, fencing the table. and then also the preaching of God's word. The elements that are sitting before us are not sacred in and of themselves. We will ask God to consecrate the elements and set them aside for the holy use that Christ has given them to us. They are a means of grace, but only as they are accompanied by the preaching of the gospel to your souls. And so we're going to read, begin by reading Matthew chapter 26. And we're reading of the trial of the Lord Jesus Christ. We're going to begin reading verse 47. And before we do read, I want to remind you that we are dealing with one of those areas of the scriptures where this story, like many of the stories in the Gospels, is also told by the other three writers of the Gospels. And so there are different emphases in different Gospels. And so as we've been going through Matthew, sometimes I'll say, well, Luke brings out this, or John brings out that. And it's impossible to bring out all of the facts. I'll bring out a few of them this morning. It's impossible to just bring everything together, or else we'd have a year-long series, quite possibly. And so we're going to try to focus on the way in which Matthew presents these items. So if you go home and you have a harmony of the Gospels that lays everything out side by side, you will find that Matthew does not follow the same order of events as the other gospel writers. It doesn't mean it's wrong. It doesn't mean there's error in God's word. It's just that he presents them in a different order. And the gospels don't pretend to present things in a chronological order. Luke tends to more because he's the historian and you expect that from him, but the Holy Spirit just lays it on the heart of each of these men, lays it on the pen of each of these men to write in a particular way and present them in a particular order for a certain emphasis that is found in each of the gospels. So bear that in mind as we read together the word of the Lord. We're going to begin reading Matthew chapter 26 at verse 47. And while he yet spake, lo, Judas, one of the 12, came and with him a great multitude with swords and staves from the chief priests and elders of the people. Now he that betrayed him gave them a sign, saying, Whomsoever I shall kiss that same is he. Hold him fast. And forthwith he came to Jesus and said, Hail, Master, and kissed him. Jesus said unto him, Friend, wherefore art thou come? Then came they and laid hands on Jesus and took him. Behold, one of them which were with Jesus stretched out his hand and drew his sword and struck a servant of the high priests and smote off his ear. Then said Jesus unto him, put up again thy sword into his place, for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword. Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my father and he shall presently give me more than 12 legions of angels? But how then shall the scriptures be fulfilled that thus it must be? In that same hour said Jesus to the multitudes, are ye come out as against a thief with swords and staves for to take me? I sat daily with you teaching in the temple and ye laid no hold on me. But all this was done that the scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled. Then all the disciples forsook him and fled. And they that laid hold on Jesus led him away to Caiaphas, the high priest, where the scribes and the elders were assembled. But Peter followed him afar off unto the high priest's palace, and went in and sat with the servants to see the end. Now the chief priests and elders and all the council sought false witness against Jesus to put him to death, but found none. Yea, though many false witnesses came, yet they found they none. The last came two false witnesses and said, this fellow said, I am able to destroy the temple of God and to build it in three days. The high priest arose and said unto him, answerest thou nothing? What is it that these witness against thee? But Jesus held his peace. The high priest answered and said unto him, I adjure thee by the living God that thou tell us whether thou be the Christ, the son of God. Jesus saith unto him, thou hast said. Nevertheless, I say unto you, hereafter shall ye see the son of man sitting on the right hand of power and coming in the clouds of heaven. Then the high priest rent his clothes, saying, he has spoken blasphemy. What further need have ye of witnesses? Behold, now ye have heard his blasphemy. What think ye? They answered and said, he is guilty of death. Then did they spit in his face and buffeted him, and others smote him with the palms of their hands, saying, prophesy unto us thou Christ. Who is He that smote thee? Let us pray. Our Heavenly Father, we pray that we may have a good and a right understanding of the suffering of the Lord Jesus Christ as we prepare to meet Him at this table. We pray that Thou wouldst grant the power of Thy Holy Spirit in the preaching of Thy Word. Grant that we may see Christ aright, that we may understand Him as a Savior and receive Him as a Savior and the only Redeemer of Thine elect. O Lord, we pray that we may understand, not only with the eye and with the ear, but with the mind and the heart that these things may be brought to us in such a way that we will be brought closer to the Lord Jesus Christ. Hear our prayer. We ask in the name of Christ our Redeemer. Amen. Beloved congregation, we have read a very passionate account of the trial of the Lord Jesus Christ and this is in fact often referred to as his passion. It is something that happened in history and it is something that on a certain level tugs even at the unregenerate heart. there are things here that are just not right and people understand that they're just not right. And it's possible to have an emotional response to this without being saved, without really understanding what's going on here because it is possible to take a step back and to see this as a historical account and something very that you can have compassion for Christ in the circumstances of these things. I understand there's a website called Famous Trials, and even on that website, they show the injustices that were done to the Lord Jesus Christ. And it doesn't take a regenerate heart to understand that things were not right here. But beloved, this account ought to grip you as you see that these things have an involvement in your life even though they were done 2,000 years ago. That they have a relevance to today because you are in the place of these people that cried for the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus. So let us look at this passage together with the help of the Holy Spirit. We see that this trial is an ecclesiastical trial before the Jewish Sanhedrin. There's another trial that's still to come, that's the political trial that's held in the court of Rome. Not in the city of Rome, but the court that's overseen by the Roman emperor by the Caesar. This is purely ecclesiastical. It takes place really in the church of, we would say the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, the visible church. This is the only church that Jews can go to. They don't have denominations that they can, they have different schools that they can side with, but there's one synagogue where they gather for worship. And so this is taking place in an institution that has become decrepit. It has become decrepit by its leaders and by their continual rejection of Christ's ministry over the last three years. So we want to see in these verses two primary headings. We want to see justice mocked and we will see Jesus mocked. There was a great travesty of justice in this place. We see first his pre-trial hearing. I mentioned that, it's not mentioned by Matthew again, but it is mentioned by John that he was brought to Annas. John is the only one who mentions that he's brought to Annas. Annas is not the high priest, but he was the high priest at one point. He's an austere figure. He's respected and reverenced because of his age and because he was once the high priest. But his son-in-law, Caiaphas, is now the high priest. And it's always very dangerous to have two high priests living at the same time. The law said that you were to replace the high priest when he died. But here we have two high priests. Very interesting today that the Roman Catholic Church has two popes. Really only one is a sitting Pope, the other one is Benedictus' Pope Emeritus, and there are problems arising, very grievous and serious problems arising in that institution, which some have suggested may fall apart as a result of this. We'll see what happens, but they're at loggerheads very openly. And here we have a little bit of a different story, but you have people, two men that wanted to have a united front at the very least. So they bring him to Annis first to kind of have a pre-trial, most likely in Annis' house. Maybe Annis said, I want to have an interview with him as well. And then we have a house trial, and Luke says that Jesus was brought to the home of Caiaphas, Caiaphas the high priest. He's still not in the Sanhedrin. First in the home of Annas, and they may have been in the same building, they may have dwelt in the same palace, but first the home of Annas, and then the home of Caiaphas. And the scribes and the elders, it seems, were assembled there as well. And we don't know, again, exactly the order of how many people were there. The Sanhedrin had its own rules. We have rules for holding meetings in our church, in our presbytery, in our senate, that you have to give so many days of notification so that everyone is aware of the meeting. You can set aside that date on your calendar, make sure that you can attend. The Sanhedrin had similar rules. So they may have just been biding their time trying to get together as early as they possibly can, apparently is in the morning, chapter 27, verse one. When the morning was come, all the chief priests and elders of the people took counsel against Jesus to put him to death. So here is, for whatever reason, he is now in the home of Caiaphas with the scribes and elders assembled there. So they're kind of making their case. They're trying to put things together. And then the Sanhedrin trial, which seems to be described in this place. And Luke 22 verse 66 says, as soon as it was day, the elders of the people and the chief priests and the scribes came together and led him into their council, which looks like a parallel verse to 27 verse one. Again, it shows that things are not in the same order in each of the gospels. So the first thing they did was they sought witnesses. Well, isn't that admirable? Because they're a Jewish council, they pretend to be governed by the law of God, and so we better find not just witnesses, what did they need? No, they needed two witnesses, because that's what the law requires. You must have two witnesses to put anyone to death. And that's what it says in Numbers 35 verse 30, whoso killeth any person, the murderer shall be put to death by the mouth of witnesses. But one witness shall not testify against any person to cause him to die. You need two witnesses. Well, they couldn't find any witnesses that agreed, verse 60. They sought false witness against Jesus to put him to death, but found none. Yea, though many false witnesses came, yet found they none. So they came together, and it's not that they didn't have false witnesses, it's that they couldn't get any two of them to agree. So here they're desperate, just say anything, and they seem to have some measure of integrity. It looks like they have integrity, and that's the way injustice often works. It has the appearance of integrity, there's rules to be followed, there's procedure there, there's protocol, there's all these things, but really they have no regard for the ninth commandment. They're just determined that we're gonna be able to tell a lie in order to put Jesus to death. That's how much they hate the Lord Jesus Christ. So the two false witnesses finally came forward at the end of verse 60. At last came two false witnesses. So one of them said, this fellow said, I am able to destroy the temple of God and to build it in three days. Mark says that the other witness says, we heard him say, I will destroy this temple that is made with my hands, and within three days I will build another made without hands. So these two Witnesses are not even agreeing with each other, but no one is there to really testify what Jesus said. Jesus actually said in John 2, destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. John explains, but he spake of the temple of his body. So John explains it, but, These two, this is good enough. These two witnesses that have something to say about destroying the temple and building it up again, that's close enough. This is our holy place, it's not going to be destroyed. Why would this man come and destroy this temple? And we think of the prophecy in Psalm 27 verse 12, where David says prophetically, Deliver me not over unto the will of mine enemies, for false witnesses are risen up against me, and such as breathe out cruelty. So we know that false witnesses rise up against Christians. Not to be surprised, because they did the very thing to the Lord Jesus. If these things be done in the green tree, what then shall be done in the dry. And so we ought not to be too surprised, although it's very painful, when false witness is brought against you, when people under oath swear that something happened or that you did something that you did not do and that you know that you did not do. That's the kind of, witness that people will have against the Lord's people. And it's a difficult thing when you know what has happened and you know that people are lying and you know that you have no recourse. Now generally we have recourse in our nation but not always. And it's very sad to say that in our land we are more often than not found or considered guilty until proven innocent. And the law normally says that you're innocent until you are proven guilty. And we find more and more cases where accusations are brought against someone and they're not allowed to face their accuser. They're not even allowed to know who brought the accusation against them. there's a complaint against you. That's all that needs to be said. And it puts you at a great disadvantage because that complaint could be made up, it could be somebody actual, it could be somebody lying, and here's somebody taking their word and not yours. So it's a very difficult thing. In this case, Jesus is called to answer but he says nothing. So here he hears this lie. He's already explained what this means to anyone who has asked him, first of all. He'll be sure to explain that's the nature of the Lord Jesus. But these people are out to get him. He knows this is a done deal. The verdict has already been decided. They're just trying to figure out exactly how they're going to get there. So Jesus says nothing. And he's following the counsel that he gives to you and me that there are times when we're not to cast our pearls before swine unless they trample them under their feet and turn and rend you. What if Jesus would have declared the gospel and told them how to be saved and They would have just made mincemeat out of that, twisted his words to their own destruction, and made a further mockery out of it, out of the gospel and out of him. And as we read, they've already made enough mockery of him. So we, again, read the fulfillment of that prophecy in Isaiah 53, he was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. So here's the lamb led to the slaughter, it's going to be meat. in just a few hours, and the lamb just goes along where it's led, and it just assumes that everything is going to be fine. Now, Jesus is not doing this ignorantly. He's not dumb in that way. The word dumb here means without speech. He knows what's happening. He knows why he's keeping his mouth shut. And don't you think that the silence there was deafening? Don't you think that as Jesus said nothing at all that they got more and more nervous? Don't you think that they felt an anxiety and felt like something needs to fill this empty, empty space? And that need, that compulsion was their guilt. They knew that what Jesus said was true. They knew why he wasn't answering, but they wanted him to say something, why? Because they were going, whatever he said, they were going to use against him. So the high priest adjures him and requires him to speak. And what does he say in verse 63? It says, but Jesus held his peace and the high priest answered and said unto him, I adjure thee, I require you by oath, I adjure thee by the living God that thou tell us whether thou be the Christ, the son of God. What does Jesus say? Thou hast said, you said it. You declared the words of truth. What you say is accurate. And then Jesus says something very interesting. He says, nevertheless, verse 64, nevertheless, I say unto you, hereafter shall ye see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of power and coming in the clouds of heaven. So here he is in the end of his earthly life, and he's pointing to his second coming. That's kind of a curious thing for Jesus to say at this point. And interestingly, we were looking at that in Ezekiel this morning in Sunday school. Reminded that the Jews very much sought an earthly kingdom. An earthly glory. A glory that was tied to the land and not to the promise. We're going to look at that this evening about the promise, the law, and the promise. And that was what Jesus is addressing here. He is addressing their hope. Jesus was their big failure in their minds because He claimed to be the Messiah, he presented himself as the Messiah, he fulfilled many scriptural prophecies of the Old Testament, but there was no glorious kingdom attending this kingdom. And so they were discouraged. What's the part where we conquer the Romans? Where's the part where we have the ascendancy and we become a global power? That was what the scribes and the Pharisees wanted. And you can argue, I think, in a sense, they wanted that for the glory of God. But they didn't want it in God's way. And so they were fighting, fighting against every truth that they knew, that Jesus actually was the Messiah, that he continually fulfilled prophecy. but they were not going to submit to him because they had a righteousness of their own which they were not willing to abandon. That's the very heart of the gospel. Pursuing God's way of salvation instead of your own wonderful ideas because your ideas all seem so glorious and wonderful and perfect and surely they're better than God's and we even have clever ways of making them look like they come from God's word. But the scribes and the Pharisees were resolved not to follow the Lord Jesus Christ, not to confess him as their Messiah. And so here he is saying, yes, the kingdom is going to come. It's going to come in power and great glory. And there is a kingdom hereafter. He says, nevertheless I say unto you hereafter shall ye see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of power and coming in the clouds of heaven. My kingdom is being established. It is going to come in power and great glory. But you refuse to look for it with the eyes of faith. You only want to see a political kingdom. You only want to see something in the here and now. And so you need to trust in me But if you don't, there's a great judgment coming. And that judgment is going to take your soul and cast it into hellfire, into eternal judgment and perdition. And still they were steadfast. So he presents to them a glorious hope, really the hope that's there in all the prophets of the Old Testament, but it just becomes a riddle to them. What can that mean? J.C. Ryle says, almost the last word spoken by our Lord to the Jews was a warning prediction about his own second advent. He tells them plainly that they would yet see him in glory. Isn't that remarkable? It's one of the last things that Jesus says to the Jewish leaders on the earth. So then Caiaphas pronounces the sentence. Then the high priest rent his clothes, saying, he has spoken blasphemy. This is just what I wanted to hear. And he is so angered, he tears his clothes. What further need have we of witnesses? Let's just get to it. Behold, now ye have heard his blasphemy. What think ye? As if they're the ones gonna make the final decision. They answered, and he said, he is guilty of death. He stepped on our toes, let's just get rid of him. Let's finish this off and proceed. So beloved, let's take a moment to consider where you are in this trial. That there is in the natural man, in every natural man, a desire for personal justice but not true righteousness. And true righteousness is found in the Word of God. It's found in the Ten Commandments that we read. That's a summary of God's character. It's a summary of what he requires. It's a picture of his holiness. And the natural man rebels against that. You do not like it. And we don't even have very many laws in our country that require us to obey the Ten Commandments. They've all been thrown and cast aside, and generally, Canadians and even many Christians are willing to follow and say, you know, if I don't have to tell the truth all the time, why should I? If I'm not gonna get in trouble, if I'm gonna advance myself by telling a lie, I think I'll do that. And they don't even feel guilty for it. Thievery, sexual immorality, These things are all about us, and the temptation to compromise is no little thing. So we do often feel very indignant when justice is denied, and yet we often make up excuses to disobey the Lord. Are you really that different from Adam? Adam, where are you? I went and hid myself because I was naked. Who told you you were naked? Well, it's like this, the woman whom you gave me, she gave me to eat of that fruit, and I ate, and look what happened. So if you wouldn't have given me that woman, he was blaming God, wasn't he? If you wouldn't have given me that woman, she wouldn't have given me, and I would have been fine on my own. I would never have touched that fruit. See, that's his little backhanded compliment to himself. but he wants to blame Eve, and then he ultimately wants to blame God. And God will have none of it. It's not an excuse. It might be a reason, but it's not an excuse. Beloved, every time you look at God's law and say there's a reason why I don't obey this law, there's a reason why I'm exempt from it. And that's easy to do, isn't it? You have, you know God's law, and you even say that others ought not to, are disobeying that law. Look at that person, he's disobeying that law. And then even when the Holy Spirit comes back and, don't you do something like that yourself? Well, yeah, but I have a reason for doing that. It's different for me. It's not, it's so clear when he does it or she does it, it's not so clear when I, I have a reason. And really, I have a very good reason. And the heart tends to do that, judge others and vindicate itself. You know what we call that? Self-justification. And that's a very dangerous place for you to be because then you're no longer being justified by Christ, are you? You're justifying yourself. Your justification is in yourself, not in Christ. As a conscious way, I'm saying you can never have the justification taken away from you. It's a gift from God. Do you understand what I'm saying? What a dangerous place it is for you to justify yourself, justify your actions. and say, well, I've got a good reason for that. There's a young man here earlier who had car troubles outside and came in to warm up and grab a cup of coffee and said he was going to stay for church, but he didn't. Every time I talked to him about the need of his heart, he had a comeback. I'm going to reform my life. I know I've been wicked. I know I've lived in drunkenness. I know I've been stupid with my life. I've had a hard life. I lost my wife. I lost my dad at an early age. And on one level, he recognized that those weren't excuses, but every time I confronted him, He said, your actions aren't the problem. You are the problem. Your nature is the problem. You inherently are the problem. God does not like you because of your sin. And how did he respond? More good deeds. He didn't get the picture. More good deeds. And we're praying for him. The seeds were planted. But every time he was confronted with a sinful heart, he justified himself. I know what you're saying is true, but have you been in conversations like that? Oh, I know. I know the gospel. I know what you're saying. I know that it's God's Word, but I'm not like that. But I'm different. But I'm in a different circumstance. Tons of excuses, one after the other, and the heart is desperately wicked and deceitful above all things and very clever at creating those excuses. And they just keep coming and just keep coming. And they're very repetitive. You know, to the Christian here, you just hear the same thing over and over again, but they think they're being clever by creating new excuses. Beloved, the gospel is the same for everyone. We so easily defend our own actions. I know it's only the Spirit of the Lord that will make you honest before God to admit I do sin daily. I do sin daily in thought, word, and deed. If I don't commit an actual offense, I've been having troubles in my mind, even entertaining thoughts that shouldn't be there. I've said things I ought not to say. I've spoken unadvisedly with my lips, things that I can't take back. I have done things that I ought not to have done. Every day, every day you need the grace of God. Every day you have sins that need to be forgiven. And it's the wickedness of Satan that says, no, you're good, you're good. And that conviction of sin arises out of a sense that you've offended your heavenly father. Our catechism question talks about that. Our Father, which art in heaven, you're part of this family. You've been adopted. You've been brought in. And now you're going to sin against the beauty of being brought into a family of perfection, a family of holiness, a family of salvation. a family of glory? Are you going to sin against your Heavenly Father? You have to strike your heart deeply that those sins are present still in your life and that you don't want them to be there. You want to strive to be more like the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, beloved, let's take a few moments to consider Jesus mocked. Justice was clearly mocked there. And we'll see in Matthew as well as in the other Gospels repeatedly, watch for this, Jesus is declared innocent. He's never, he's said that he's guilty of death, that declaration is made, but repeatedly we'll see Jesus is innocent, Jesus is innocent. And the scriptures say that the ungodly, his tormentors, his accusers say that he's innocent, but he's innocent. to die, and he's going to die because he loves his church. But we do see Jesus mocked, and this is a very grievous, grievous thing. It's grievous to see someone treated this way who isn't the Son of God. It's grievous for any human being to be treated in this way. They spit in his face. That's kind of the ultimate insult, isn't it? Someone was to spit in your face, and here he is. He's bound. We haven't even mentioned that. He's handcuffed in modern speech. His hands are bound together. He can't move, as if he's some great criminal who's going to attack everybody around him. And he could have broken those bands, couldn't he, the way Samson did? He could have just broken them and sundered, but he didn't. They meant nothing physically, but he was bound. And as he's bound, he can't even lift up his arm to shield his face from the spit. They spit in his face. They hit him with their fists. The word buffeted means hit, and probably means hit repeatedly, just in his face. Or hit him with his fist, sorry. And then they smote him with the palms of their hands, just a slap across the face, or just pushing him around. The inhumanity here is remarkable. And then with their tongues, they lash out at him. Prophesy unto us, thou Christ, thou anointed one, thou Messiah. Prophesy unto us, thou Christ, who is he that smote thee? Yeah, there's lots of us around here. We're all around. And you said to that woman that had the issue of blood who touched me. You're supposed to know everything. You're a prophet. And who's the one who hit you? Make a game out of this. So the inhumanity here is insufferable. But Christ permits it. Christ suffers it all for the sake of the gospel. And again, wouldn't your heart just be gripped if you saw a video of that? We've got videos of all kinds of things nowadays. If we saw that, the human rights tribunals would jump up and attack whoever, try to deal justice to whoever is doing these things. But here's the savior. You can think of somebody who's unjustly accused and you can think, Yeah, even though I might not deserve this, I don't deserve a perfect life either. We could kind of bring it down to that level. But Jesus was completely innocent. He hadn't done anything, anything that they had accused him of. He was completely innocent. And here he just suffers these things. Hands behind his back, his mouth is zipped. He just takes it all. They throw him around, they slap him. They spit in his face. A big crowd around him. He's all alone. His disciples have fled. There's nobody standing with him, nobody standing for him. He's all alone. And he's suffering these things, beloved, because he loves his church. He's suffering them because he knows he's going to die. He knows he has to die. He knows there's no way around it. He struggled with it already in the Garden of Gethsemane. So we can be very indignant. We ought to be indignant at those abuses. Your heart ought to rise up and just say, this is wicked and evil. And yet, do you have faith, beloved, to say that it is within my natural heart, not within my redeemed heart, but within my human nature, my fallen nature, to have done those very things. It was my sins, my own sins, that nailed Christ to the cross. And apart from the work of the Holy Spirit, I would side with Caiaphas, I would side with Judas, I would side with the scribes and the Pharisees, I would mock Jesus, I would spit in his face. It's only grace that has kept me. But beloved, in all of these scenes of the passion of the Christ, we don't identify with Christ, we identify with those who put him on the cross, because it is your sins. If your sins, if you're not a sinner, if you're not guilty of these things in some level, then why do you need a Redeemer? We come to the table this morning because we're aware that that is what our heart might be if it wasn't for the grace of God in Christ Jesus. Specifically, the work of Christ we're looking at. Not just God's sovereignty in electing and appointing you to salvation, but Christ's loving, passionate work on the cross to redeem your souls and to deliver you from eternal damnation. This is the work that we remember when we come to this table. It's a place where there's a great mixture of emotions. We're to remember Christ's death. We're here on this day because we remember his resurrection, the first day of the week. We're at the table because we remember his death. We remember that there is sin in my heart that needs to be forgiven. and that there's only one perfect one, there's only one Redeemer, there's only one who has purchased my salvation, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. Is that your testimony? Do you come and say, well, everything's good with the Lord and me, we're all just good, and I'll have a little snack and go my way, or is the cross of Christ precious to your soul? Because it was your sin, not the sin of your neighbor, not the sin of your husband or your wife or your parent or your child, it's your sin, my sin, that Jesus died for. And even the very specific sins that even the Holy Spirit may be drawing to your attention right now, those sins that He calls on you to abandon and forsake and repent of, those are the sins that you bring to the cross and say, God, forgive me for Jesus' sake and for His sake alone. Call on Elder Donnelly to come and assist in the distribution of the elements this morning as we open our Bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter 11. 1 Corinthians chapter 11. There the Apostle Paul writes, for I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus, the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread. And when he had given thanks, he break it and said, take, eat. This is my body, which is broken for you. This do in remembrance of me. After the same manner also he took the cup when he had supped, saying, This cup is the New Testament in my blood. This do ye as oft as ye drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till he come. Wherefore, whosoever shall eat this bread and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. This is a very serious and ominous table. It is a table in which we remember that our sins are grievous to the Lord, and remission must be made for the sins only by blood. And only the blood of Christ gives eternal satisfaction to a holy God as we come before him. But oh, what joy there is when you take the cup by faith and say, by the blood here represented, my sins are cleansed. I have a right standing with the Lord. By the bread that's broken, the body that was broken, the Lord Jesus has died for my sins and given his life. There's a joy that's intense. It doesn't always result in singing and great hallelujahs, but there is also a great hallelujah, isn't there? My sins are forgiven. A holy God receives me. That's what it is to partake by faith, to understand that there's meaning in these connected with the gospel that's been preached. So we want to come before the Lord and thank Him for the elements, thank Him that Christ has given us this supper and ask His blessing upon it. Let us pray. O gracious God, we see the evil of our sins and our iniquity. Our sins are ever before us. Lord, we thank Thee that there is forgiveness with Thee, that Thou mayest be feared, that that forgiveness is found in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. We thank Thee that our dear and precious Saviour gave us this bread and this wine as a token of His dying for our sins. Lord, we confess that we're prone to forget. Now we thank Thee that Christ has made provision for our forgetfulness, that we may have this continual reminder, not just in the hearing of Thy Word, but in these sensible signs that we can touch and taste. We pray that we may understand more the reality of Christ's death and the reality of our own sin that needs such a death, even of the Son of God. Lord, will Thou forgive us our sin and cleanse us. Give us a holy desire for pleasing Thee and serving Thee. We pray that Thou wouldst teach us to pursue all Thy Word. We ask, Lord, that Thou wouldst bless these elements which Christ has ordained that we use this day, and bless each one that partakes by faith, we ask in Jesus' name. Amen. So when he had given thanks, he did break the bread, signifying that he would give his life in atonement for sin. The Lord Jesus said, take, eat, this is my body, which is broken for you, this do in remembrance of me. To the same manner also he took the cup. Lord Jesus said, this cup is the New Testament in my blood. as do ye as oft as ye drink it in remembrance of me. Our Heavenly Father, as we have partaken of the body and the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ by faith this day, we pray that we may be, that we may do so in anticipation of His coming kingdom, His return again, His gathering up of the saints in power and great glory. And we pray, Lord, that Thou would ready us for that day. Thou wouldst uphold us and sustain us with great joy and gladness, knowing that our sins are fully covered by the precious blood of Christ, so cruelly shed upon the cross of Calvary. Bless to us the partaking of these elements, Lord. Strengthen the souls of Thy people, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.