1 Corinthians chapter 11, and I will start reading in verse number 17, and we'll read down through almost the end of the chapter. This is one of the longer settings of this particular celebration that there is in Scripture, so we'll read it. Now in this that I declare unto you, I praise you not, that you come together, not for the better, but for the worse. I'm going to talk to them about how these people in Corinth celebrated communion. First of all, when you come together in the church, I hear that there are divisions among you, and I partly believe it. For there must also be heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest unto you. In other words, the line in the sand has been drawn. When you come together, therefore, into one place, this is not to eat the Lord's supper." That's not the way they were doing it. For in eating everyone taketh before his own supper, and one is hungry and another is drunken. What, have ye not houses to eat and to drink in? Or despise ye the church of God, and shame them that have not? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you in this? I praise you not." In other words, they were coming together and they were having a gorge. They were gorging themselves on food and wine and all kinds of food preparations, but unfortunately, there were many people who couldn't partake because they were poor, and also there were many of them who came just for that part of it and then left. They came and gorged themselves on the banquet, if you will, or on the potluck supper, and then when that was done, they went home. They didn't really stay and celebrate the Lord's Supper. So I 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 broke 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, And 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. For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. For if you would have judged yourselves, you would not be judged. But when you are judged, you are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world. Wherefore, my brethren, when you come together to eat, tarry for one another. If any man hunger, let him eat at home, that ye come not together unto condemnation. The rest I'll set in order when I come." So we've looked at this passage several times over the past few months, always in relation to celebrating communion, and we've looked at various aspects of this celebration taken from this passage. For example, we've looked at what in writer's terms you would call the preface comes before the actual book it's at the beginning kind of gives you an outline of what's ahead of what the book is about and so on well that's given here as well there's kind of a brief introduction into it and what communion is and it tells us who instituted it and for how long well the Lord Jesus instituted it and for how long till he comes an unknown time but a long time until he returns. We also find in here that communion has a purpose. There's a purpose for it. It isn't just something that we do kind of out of hand or just kind of on a whim, but there's a purpose to it. Jesus said, do this, practice this celebration to remember me. And so there's a purpose behind it. We also see in examining here, as I kind of alluded to briefly as we were reading the introduction part, that there are problems with it. Because there are some misunderstandings, there are misuses of it, and they're identified here. And so we've looked at some of those, what some of the problems are that are associated with this celebration. Along with it, we've noticed that in this passage, there's a way to prepare. not only how to prepare but also who it's for. And we're going to look just a little bit at that tonight in relation to our topic that I want us to examine tonight is the profit that you can receive as a believer in Christ from this celebration. Because it isn't just a meaningless thing that we do every now and then. You know some churches do it on the first Sunday of every month we do it and for a lot of people it just becomes kind of perfunctory. No, there's to be a benefit from it. There are reasons why we do it. There's a purpose behind it. But in addition to that, we can benefit from it. There is a profit to us from participating in this particular celebration. And that's what I would like us to look at tonight. And as we examine what the profit is for us, the benefits which can accrue to us I want to look at basically three areas. Number one, the errors or the false benefits that some propose for this celebration because there are some. The second thing I want us to look at is what is behind what causes us to accrue benefits. What is there in here that would cause or would produce benefit to us? And there's two of them that are mentioned here that I want us to see. One is the wonders of Jesus Christ himself. Jesus initiated and instituted this practice and he said very clearly, remember me. You're to do this so that you will remember me. What are we supposed to remember? And what are the things that especially we remember that cause us to benefit something? And the third thing I want us to see is what he accomplished. And the emphasis is on the past tense. Accomplished. It's done. What did he do? It's finished, he said. What was finished? And what does that mean to us? And because it is finished, What benefits do we then experience because it is finished? So I want us to see that from two verses here. But first, the errors. There are many who say that merely or simply participating in this ceremony, the taking of the wine or the fruit of the vine and taking the broken bread Just doing that provides salvation. There is some kind of saving merit just in doing it. It doesn't matter my frame of mind at the time that I do it. It doesn't matter what my pattern of life has been up to that point or after that point. I took communion. And because I took communion, I therefore have obtained, or it provides for me, salvation, remission of sin, forgiveness, pardon, eternal life. It's mine. Why? Well, I took communion. And I took it every Sunday. or I took it once a month, or whatever was your practice. It's especially important to some people to take communion before they die, because they say, well, it provides salvation, and at my moment of death, just to make sure I've got all my bases covered, church officials provides them with communion, they take communion and they die in peace. Sadly, it's not a true peace. Because in the taking of communion, just the mere practice of it provides no benefit other than the fact that you have a piece of bread or a cracker or something to represent the bread than a drink of juice or wine. In and of itself, there is no merit in them. And the mere taking of them provides no saving merit. There isn't one verse of scripture in all of the Bible that says that. Not one. It just simply isn't true. That being said, what benefit does it give, if any, and why can we anticipate or expect some benefit from it? Verse number 24 is a quotation by Paul of the Lord Jesus in the night that he instituted it. Jesus said, Take heed, this is my body, which is broken for you, this do in remembrance of me." Again in verse 25, after instituting the drinking of the wine, he says, "...this do in remembrance of me." We are taught by the Lord Jesus Himself that when we take this communion, when we participate in this celebration, we are primarily to remember Christ. Okay, what are we supposed to remember? Well, there's primarily three aspects to the life of Christ, all of which flow, contribute, play an important role in what it is He provided for us. We'll look at that in a moment. But those three aspects of the life of Christ are these, His person, His offices, and His works. So when we remember Christ, what do we remember? His person. Who was He? The God-Man. A lot of people choke on that. A lot of people choke on that. How can God become man? And now you're expecting a great answer from me. I don't know. I don't know how he does. We are simply told in God's word, repeatedly, over and over and over and over and over again, Jesus was not just an ordinary man like you and me. He was God incarnate. God-inhabiting flesh, as in no other person. He was the God-man. He was deity in the flesh. He was both. He was God. He was man. He was man, just like I am, just like you are. He was man. Will you read that? He got hungry. He got sleepy. He ate. He slept. He drank water. He had friends. which is also God. And that is the great defining doctrinal truth that separates Christianity from every other religion in the world. Every single one. When the push comes to shove, and it always does between religions, well I believe this, well I believe this, well I believe that, When it all comes around and is said and done, many times you can find some similarities between this religion and that religion and so on. And one of these nights we're going to look at that. It's called pluralism. We're going to look at that one of these days. I've been doing some research on it. But the one significant truth that always is the defining difference... Well, tell me what you think about the Lord Jesus. Oh, he's a good man. Great prophet. Wonderful person. Good example. Deity. Oh, no. Immediately. No. No. No. Hmm. Well, when we participate in this practice, in this ceremony, we are to remember Christ as deity. The God-man, man in the flesh, that is the one most primary doctrine that you must take by faith. Some of the other doctrines we can understand with some rational thinking and some deductive reasoning and some inductive reasoning and we can come together, oh yeah, I can see where that's true. The God-man, uh-uh. There's no way you're going to see that by reason. So it isn't reasonable. It just flat out isn't reasonable. It doesn't make human sense. There's no way you can deduct yourself into it. There's no way you can induct yourself into it. You just got to take it by faith. When we celebrate, we remember that Jesus was more than just a good man. In fact, if he wasn't who he said he was, he wasn't a good man. He was a liar. He was a deceiver. He was a fraud. You either have to take him for what he said he was, or you must disown him as a fraud. We remember his deity, his God-in-the-fleshness. That's one thing we remember. He's a unique person. The second thing we remember about Christ is His offices. Now what do we mean by His offices? Well, He was a high priest. He's a Savior. He's a Redeemer. He's our Advocate. He's our Mediator. And there are a number of others that are listed in Scripture. In His life, He performed things on our behalf, and on behalf of sinners down through all of the ages of history. And when He did them, He fulfilled an office He was a high priest. He performed offerings on our behalf. Himself. He was a high priest. He was a redeemer. When he died on the cross, he redeemed sinners. He was a mediator. The scriptures tell us there is one There is one God and one mediator between God and man. The man, Christ Jesus. He's a mediator. You don't get to the Father, but through Christ. You can't go around Him. You've got to go through Him. He's a mediator. He's an advocate. I don't know how many of you have ever had events in your life where you needed an advocate. Unfortunately, in Diane and my life, we've had way too many opportunities to make use of an advocate. But I'll tell you, it's awfully nice when you go into a courtroom setting and you don't have to rely upon yourself. I did that. Been there, done that. Don't ever want to do that again. I remember the difference. Walking in, no briefcase in hand, no satchels, no papers, just going with my Advocate who spoke on my behalf, who defended me, who stood before those who accused me wrongfully and defended me, an Advocate. That's Jesus. He's our Advocate. He's an Advocate before the Father. The Father has the right to judge us and to condemn us because of our sin. And then Jesus steps in and says, wait a minute, I'm Tom Hill's advocate. Let me tell you how he stands before you. And he lays out on my behalf and defends me. He's our advocate. So the Lord Jesus performed these varieties of offices on behalf of sinners like you and me. The third aspect of the life of Christ is His works. His works. Well, what did He do? He lived a sinless life. We tend to forget that. But had He not lived a sinless life, He could not have been our Redeemer. Had He not lived a sinless life, He could not have been our High Priest. Had He not lived a sinless life, He could not have saved us. and paid the penalty of our sins. He had to live a sinless life in order to do that. He did. As he stood before Pilate and the judges and the crowds were curling assault against him, he says, Of what crime do you convict me? There wasn't any. They just hated him. And that was enough in their eyes. He lived a sinless life. What else did he do? Oh, we know about his miraculous works. And again, we have a tendency to choke on those. You mean he actually walked on the water? Yeah, he walked on the water. You mean he actually raised Lazarus from the dead, after he'd been dead for three days, and he was wrapped in all his grave clothes, and he was in a tomb, and the grave was sealed? And besides, it was three days after, which in the Jewish eyes, that was past death. He was stinking. Yeah, he called Lazarus, come forth, and he came staggering out in his grave clothes. You mean you believe that? Yeah, I believe that. It's a matter of faith. I believe that. Just as much as people believe things that I think are ridiculous. But Jesus performed miraculous works. They were a proof, a confirmation of His deity, of who He was. Well, we remember Christ. We remember Him. And the fact that He performed these offices was the person that He was, as described, and that He performed the varieties of miracles that He did, and in His death on the cross, His resurrection, His ascension into the heavens with the Father. All miraculous things. They had a purpose. And in fulfilling them, Christ was able to provide for sinners, like you and like me, certain salvation. We'll look at that in a moment, in more detail. The second thing I want us to see here, that we are to remember, is found in verse number 25, Jesus says, This cup is the New Testament. Your Bibles, unless you're Jewish, have an Old Testament and a New Testament. Why? Why do we divide them up like that, where there's an Old Testament and a New Testament? Because there was an Old Covenant and a New Covenant. The Old Covenant was the one that God instituted on the Mount with Moses. Actually, before that, He instituted it in very simplified form in the Garden, when He provided provisions for Adam and Eve and their sin, and foretold of a Savior coming. But the Old Covenant had to do with the law of sacrifices, the sacrificing of animals. when someone in the Jewish community sinned, they had to make a sacrifice. And depending on what sin they committed, and also depending somewhat on their economic status in life, would determine the kind of sacrifice they would make. If they were more well-to-do kind of people, they would provide a lamb. If they were not so well-to-do, they might provide a dove. But they had to provide sacrifices. to atone for their sin, to make up for the sin that they had committed. Now, if you stop and think about that, and just think through your own life of today, how many sacrifices under that program would you have had to make today, just to atone for today? A lot. A lot. That was the old covenant. That was the covenant that God made with his people. You make the sacrifice. I will accept your sacrifice as an atonement for your sin. And I will then blot out that sin that it atones for. And at the end of the year, there would be the annual sacrifice that would atone for the sins for the whole year. But every year, they'd have to do another one. And they'd have to continuously provide sacrifices of animals and birds and such to atone for their sins. That was the Old Covenant. But thankfully, God made provision for a New Covenant. And the New Covenant is, first of all, pictured, and in a sense promised, in the Old Covenant. Because the Old Covenant spoke of a Lamb that would be spotless, that you would provide as a sacrifice for your sin, that would atone for your sin. What was Jesus called? The Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. He was the spotless Lamb that the Old Covenant pictured. While we could take a long time studying the Old Covenant and how it pictures the New Covenant. We won't take our time to do that tonight. Hopefully you will trust me and accept the fact that it is a picture of the New Covenant. But there was an Old Covenant, and man was constantly living under that law. And at no time did any man, person, child, ever find relief from their sin. They never did. Because they could not provide sufficient enough numbers of sacrifices. And it was constantly having to be done, again and again and again. You would just make a sacrifice, and on your way out of the tabernacle area, you should have gone back and done another one. What a life, huh? What do we live? With that constant guilt and pressure and dread and oppression of the law upon you constantly. That's the Old Covenant. Jesus said here, this cup is the cup of the New Covenant. Well, I want you to see where God promised the New Covenant and what that new covenant would provide. Jeremiah 31. Verse 31. Chapter 31, verse 31. 31 Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah. Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers, in the day that I took them by hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, which my covenant they broke, although I was an husband unto them, saith the Lord." Even though I was doing all of these things to them, they just blatantly broke that covenant. But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel. After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts, and will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord, know the Lord, for they shall know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more." The promise of the New Covenant coming. Well, who fulfilled this New Covenant? Jesus. When Jesus hung on the cross in his last dying moments, his last gasps of air, he cried out, it is finished. What was finished? Oh, we could go a long list of things that were finished. One of which were all of the requirements necessary to institute the New Covenant. The New Covenant. This new relationship that God was going to have with His people, where He would put His law in their hearts. And we read in Ezekiel 36, He explains it in this fashion. He says, I will put My Spirit within you. I will put My Spirit within you. And you will walk in My ways. You will obey My law. So we find that as Christ fulfilled this new covenant and made it available for us, no more sacrifices to be made. Finished. No more offerings would we have to bring because of the sins of the day. Finished. No more wondering at the end of the day, boy, should I have taken that offering? Man, you know, when the day ended, it ended on a bad note, and I was angry, and I did things that were wrong, I violated the law, and now I'm going to bed with this. Finished. The guilt is gone. The provision is made. The sins are atoned for in Christ. He fulfilled them. I want to read just a couple of verses that confirm this truth, that help you to see that it isn't just somebody's fantasy and wild imagination. The book of Hebrews, if you just want a basic understanding of the book of Hebrews, it is a book that shows you how Christ fulfilled the Old Testament. That, in a nutshell, is what the book of Hebrews is about. It goes through in minute detail, telling how Christ fulfilled everything that was in the Old Testament. I'm just taking out a few verses here that pertain to this covenant aspect that we're talking about here. If we look in Hebrews 8, verses 11-13, it says, And they shall not teach every man his neighbor. Does that sound familiar? I just read it. And every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for all shall know me from the least to the greatest. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness. and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. In that he said, a new covenant he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away." That's gone. That old covenant, that old set of laws, that's gone. We have a new covenant. And then over just a couple of pages to Hebrews chapter 12, we read further as it states here in verse 24, "...Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel, see that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escape not, who refused him that spoke on earth, much more shall we not escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven." whose voice then shook the earth, back in the Old Testament, on the mountain, it did shake the earth, but now he has promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. And this word, Yet once more, signifying the removing of those things that are shaken as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. Wherefore we receive a kingdom which cannot be moved, Let us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. That new covenant is one that cannot be shaken. It's an invisible kingdom spoken from heaven. Now, the accomplishments that Christ fulfilled on the cross covers the atonement of sin for sinners like you and me. Pay for it. Provide redemption. That term redemption is a term used where someone would go into the marketplace where they're selling slaves and would go in and would purchase a slave and buy that slave out of the marketplace so that that slave is now the possession of the one who bought the slave. Christ redeemed us. He bought us out of the marketplace of sin and bought us to be his own peculiar possession. We're his now, not our own. We've been bought with a price, the Scriptures say. We are now his slaves. Provide salvation. That was the prophecy that the angel gave to Mary and to Joseph. He shall call his name Jesus. Why Jesus? He'll save his people from their sin. He's the Savior. He saves sinners. As a consequence of the Lord Jesus paying the price, atoning for our sins, we now can have acceptance before God. That's the whole design and purpose of it, is that we might now be accepted before God. Then we find before God that we can stand because of what Christ has done. Now, how does that produce benefit? What benefit do those truths provide to those who believe them? If you don't believe them, they're not going to provide you any benefits. It's to those who believe. So that when we cast our faith and our confidence upon Christ to fulfill in us redemption, salvation, right standing before God, What benefits do we accrue? Oh, there are some wonderful ones. Let me suggest just a few of them. First of all, there's comfort. And the comfort that we enjoy comes in a variety of aspects. We have comfort because now we are certain. We are certain We stand before God without doubt, without fear, without question. It is certain. Why? Because I can point to Christ. I can't point to me, because there is nothing in me that would cause God to accept me. In fact, because of me, He has rejected me, and I am now separated from God, because of me being me. So if there's any way I'm going to stand before God, it certainly isn't anything inherent in me. It's Christ. So I can now, with certainty, stand before God, my Father, and say, there's why I can stand before you, certainly. I can be certain in my stand before you, because everything that had to be required for me to be able to stand before you, Father, has been fulfilled right there in Jesus. He fulfilled it on my behalf. I'm trusting his provision for me. That's how I stand here, Father." And he says, yes, I accept it. I accept it. So we can have certainty. That brings comfort. That brings encouragement. We are accepted by the Father because of Christ. The second aspect of this comfort that we enjoy is fearlessness. We no longer have to fear God. Before our trust in Christ, we have every reason to fear God because we're guilty. We're guilty. And we stand before Him guilty. And those pangs of guilt that you felt before you come to Christ, they were very worthwhile. Because you're guilty. Oh, but once we place our trust in Christ, our Advocate, our Savior, our High Priest, our Redeemer, Our mediator. We no longer fear God. Why? We're accepted in Christ. The debt's been paid. Pardon's been bought. We stand before Him, complete, without fear. Now there are a number of references I could give to you that would show that, but for sake of time, we won't go through and read those. So the first benefit that we enjoy that comes to us through the celebration that we will do in a few moments of communion, comfort, because of who Christ is and because of what He accomplished on our behalf. The second thing that we benefit, that is of benefit to us, is restraint from sin. The devil is a devil. and all of his works are evil. They produce joylessness. They produce bondage. They bring fear and death. They bring destruction. Look anywhere in the world you want to look, where there is a people who reject God and follow the devil, that's what you will find. I don't care where you want to go on the earth. I don't care if you want to go to the remotest tribe in Africa, South America, New Zealand, Indonesia, whether you want to go up to the ice caps in Northern America. I don't care where you go or right here in Lansing. Those people who reject God and instead live their lives under the influence and the control of the devil, you will find fear. You will find destruction. You will find sin of the grossest and of the ungrossest sort. Oh, but when you know Christ, when you know the Lord Jesus and when you come to faith and trust in Him, you find a new restraint. You don't live like you used to. Those habits begin to disappear. And the scriptures tell us that those who are in Christ are a new creation. Old things pass away. All things become new. Now, given the choice, would you rather live that kind of a life than a life of constant doubt, disappointment, destruction, fear? That's a benefit. That's a joy that we experience. Well, I have some others. I won't go into those. Time is running short and I don't want to make it long and ponderous. But those are the benefits and the implications to us that we can experience as we partake of the communion celebration. Because they remind us of Christ and who He is. And they remind us of what Christ accomplished on our behalf. And they lead us to come and to trust Christ. He alone is the Savior. He alone is the Redeemer of sinners. He alone is the one who can bring us to stand before the Father faultless. He alone. And this celebration that we enjoy reminds us of that. And in the remembrance of it, it produces joy. It brings comfort. It strengthens us in our faith in Christ. It reminds us of it. Those are all profitable things and they are because of Christ. We'll close with prayer and then we'll have a time to partake of the celebration. Dear Heavenly Father, how grateful I am tonight of your wondrous, unexplainable grace and mercy for sinners like me. who would make provision out of your own heart's desire, a person, the Lord Jesus, your Son, to come and to make provision for me that I might stand before you faultless. Thank you. What joy and comfort that brings to my mind and heart as I contemplate those truths and know the certainty of them. Thank you for your wondrous provision. I pray for my friends who are here tonight. I pray that in the examination and thought of these truths as we look at them from scripture, I pray that they would produce in them faith, trust, confidence in the Lord Jesus, encouragement, comfort, I ask these things, Father, in the name of the Lord Jesus, your Son, and the Savior of sinners like me. Amen.