This morning's message, this final message as we complete the book of 1 Corinthians, is from 1 Corinthians chapter 16, verses 19 to 24. And the title for the message this morning is, Love Unites the Church. Love Unites the Church. From 1 Corinthians 16, verses 19 to 24. And the Word of God says, through the pen of the Apostle Paul as he completes this letter, writes this. The churches of Asia send you greetings. Aquila and Prisca, together with the church in their house, send you hearty greetings in the Lord. All the brothers send you greetings. Greet one another with a holy kiss. I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand. If anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed. Our Lord come. The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you. My love be with you all. In Christ Jesus. Amen. Join me in a moment of prayer. Our gracious heavenly Father, Lord, we pray that you would still our souls, that you would still our hearts and our minds. Father, we pray that you would cause us to be focused and riveted upon the glory of your Son and upon your Word. Lord, I pray that the people here this morning would not see me but would see past me and would see your Son, Jesus Christ. I pray that they would not hear my voice, but that they would hear the voice of God speaking to them through the living, inerrant, and authoritative Word of Scripture. Father, of all of the passages that we have gone through in this wonderful book, Lord, I pray that this passage, and I pray that the message from this text would be the message that this church never forgets, would be the message that radically transforms our lives, that radically takes hold of our heart, of our affections, of our mind, and of our soul. Father, I pray that you would do that for us this morning. And I pray this in Christ's name. Amen. Churches and Christians throughout the United States, and in fact throughout the world, are extremely fractured and splintered. Probably more so today than ever before. And there are likely many different reasons for this. We are certainly living in extremely hostile times against Christianity. Of course, not any more so than Christians living in first century Rome. But the world has always been hostile to Christianity. There has always been animosity toward God and toward His Word, toward Christ. So that certainly can't be it. One reason was given by a pastor and theologian, Tom Rayner, who wrote an article where he is discussing the problem happening in many churches. And he discusses in that article the ever-increasing frequency of church conflict and church splits. And he says that he believes that, at least in part, the reason for the increasing rate of church conflict and church splits, he says, and I quote, is yet another consequence of COVID. They have been around a long time. That is conflict and splits within the church. They have been around a long time. They are just more frequent now. And then he ends the article by saying that he believes most pastors and most churches will have to deal with extreme conflict within the church. And he says, he closes the article with these words, quote, my words are not meant to be fatalistic. It is simply the sad reality of congregations today. Close quote. Not long ago, I had the honor, the privilege of having a phone conversation with someone I greatly admire, pastor and author by the name of Jim Van Erpen. He is the author of a wonderful book titled Making Peace, A Guide to Overcoming Church Conflict, which I highly recommend. He is also the founder of Metanoia Ministries. which is an organization that has been around for over 30 years, and they specialize in going into churches when churches contact them, churches that are in turmoil, where there's a lot of conflict and strife. They may be on the verge of a church split. They reach out to Metanoia Ministries, and this ministry organization specializes in going into churches and helping them resolve whatever conflict they're going through in order to maintain peace within the church and to preserve unity. And he's been doing this for over 30 years. And when I had this phone conversation with him, he said to me on the phone, and this is a loose quote, but he said that since COVID, Church conflict has gotten dramatically worse. He says, I'm not sure what it is, but something changed in our culture because of that event where Metanoia Ministries, the phone calls that they receive from churches, he says, has grown exponentially in the last four years. Sadly, I believe that he's right. The church has always had to deal with conflict and strife within the church because anytime you gather sinful human beings together in one place, there's bound to be problems. There's bound to be conflict. But since COVID, at least in the United States, two things have dramatically changed that I've noticed in our culture. And that is, one, there is an increasing unwillingness to trust leadership. Whether you're talking about on the political level, at work, or within the church, within the culture at large, there is this ingrained suspicion of leadership. Now, COVID is not the first event that has caused that. To a certain degree, this happened after the Watergate scandal in the early to mid-1970s with Richard Nixon. People began to question their, question authority. Can we really trust him? Are they really being honest? But that really came down to questioning and trusting one party. It's gotten to the point where our culture doesn't trust anything that our political leaders are saying on both sides of the aisle. We struggle to trust what we read in the news or what we see on the internet. Is any of this real? Is any of this true? Can I believe any of this? And of course, the church is comprised of people who come in from the culture. And number two, There is this increasing unwillingness to extend grace. Human beings and Christians have always struggled with that, but in my opinion, in my estimation, it's gotten worse since the whole COVID debacle. Whatever side you fall on in that debate, Just the event itself, the disease and everything that happened after that. There is this increasing unwillingness to extend grace. It is my way or the highway. We see that in politics. They've always debated with each other. But one of the unifying ideas of our democratic republic since its founding was the idea of compromise. We meet in the middle somehow, where nobody gets everything that they want and everybody walks away not entirely happy with what they got. That is no longer the case. We now live in an era where a political party that is in control of Congress will remove its own Speaker of the House because he's not doing his job exactly the way I think he should. And then they try to do it twice. That way of thinking from the culture has crept into the church. When the pastor doesn't do everything exactly the way I think it should be done, We're leaving. Or worse, I'll gather support in the church, and once I think I have enough support, we'll get rid of him. So how do we avoid this? What is it that truly unites the church? It's not doctrine. It's not theology. Because churches, and I've seen this, a church can have all of their theology right. They can be sound. They can be orthodox. They can be a truly biblical, reformed church. filled with all kinds of conflict and strife and division, and they'll end up in a church split, and people will leave. It's not a right understanding of the gospel either, or even an embracing of a right understanding of the gospel, because I've seen that as well. You go to these churches that are biblical, that are solid, that are orthodox, that are reformed, and you ask them to find the gospel and they give you a right understanding of it? And they say we believe it? And yet they're a mess. It's not a shared vision for the church. Church can come together and we all have a shared vision. We all know what we want to be like. We know the kind of church we want to be. Until there are some who decide we no longer like this vision, we're going to try to pull the church in a different direction. And it's certainly not our cultural and economic commonality. Because in any given local church, we all come from the same culture. We all come from the same background. then what is it that unites the church? What is it that unites believers? What is it that keeps a church united? Love. Love. Love is what unites the church. Love is what is missing in many theologically sound churches who have right theology. They are orthodox. But there's no love. It's all up here. And there's nothing, there's nothing going on down here. Love is what is missing in many churches that embrace a correct understanding of the gospel. They have the doctrine of justification by faith alone right. And yet they're tearing at each other and they're hurting each other and they're abandoning each other because there's no love in the church. Without true and genuine love, the church Every church, this church, is destined to fail. It's simply a matter of time. Because a person can have all of the right theology. A person can read all of the right theological books, read through all of Calvin's Institutes, read through all of John Owen's writings. A church can have a perfectly biblical and orthodox statement of faith. They can have all of the right booklets on the back table. You can be the most theologically inclined person and church there has ever been, but without love, it doesn't matter. You can have a right understanding of the gospel. You can have a shared vision. But without love, none of these things will work. None of them will work. None of them will keep the church together. None of them will keep believers united. The apostle Paul understands this. And so he ends this letter by driving home the importance of love and affection within the church and for each other. Love and affection. Because love is not just a verb. I've heard it said that way. Love is a verb. Love is an action. And that is true. but it's not just a verb. And I think that idea has been driven home so much and so hard that Christians have convinced themselves that if I just do loving things, if I do things that appear loving, well, that's love because love is an action. That's not love. That's legalism. Love is an affection that will manifest itself in particular actions. But it starts here. And if it's not here, it doesn't matter what you do out there. That's not love. Love is not just doing. And so Paul wants to end this letter on this note. He wants the church in Corinth to get this. Because the theme of this whole book, right? You've seen it on the front of your bulletin every week. The church united. I mean, Paul writes this letter because here's the church that is fractured. They got all kinds of problems going on. And he wants to unite the church. He wants to see the church united. But the thing that's going to unite the church ultimately is love. Paul knows this. And so he wants to emphasize this at the very end, and he does this, he does this in three ways. Number one, so if you're taking notes, if you're a note taker, there's three main points to this message. Paul drives home the emphasis of love in three ways. Number one, Paul reminds the Corinthians that they are loved by all of the saints and by himself. He reminds them of that. Notice how he begins, verse 19, he says, the churches of Asia send you greetings. The Greek word for greeting is the word aspasomai. Aspasomai, that's just a fun word to say, aspasomai. And its root, its root meaning carries the meaning of to embrace or to kiss or to be affectionate towards. They are sending you their affections, their love. If they could embrace you, they would. They are embracing you in prayer. They are embracing you in their emotions. The churches of Asia send you greetings, espousamai, their love, their affection for you. It's an important word. It has a lot of emotional meaning to it, positive emotional meaning to it. And now notice how many times Paul uses some form of that word in the first three verses. The churches of Asia send you greetings. Aspasimai, Aquila and Prisca, together with the church and their house, send you hearty greetings, much greetings in the Lord. All the brothers send you greetings. Greet one another with a holy kiss. I, Paul, write this greeting in my own hand. And then he'll go on to say in verse 22, if anyone has no love, no affection for the Lord, let him be a curse. And then he ends by saying, my love be with you all in Christ Jesus. Paul wants them to know they are greatly loved. There is an affection for them. He doesn't want them to know the church is just thinking about you. The church is praying for you. They love you. And so do I. It's important for Paul that they know this. That the churches in Asia love the church in Corinth and Paul has a great affection for the church in Corinth. And it's important for Paul that they know this for two reasons. Number one, admittedly, Paul has written a difficult letter. He has said some very difficult things to the church in Corinth. He has rebuked them in some really harsh ways. And so he wants to end by letting them know and reminding them, look, I do love you. I wrote these things not because I'm cruel or harsh, but because I care about you. I love you. I have an affection for you. And as I end this letter, I want you to know that. But the second reason he ends with this really sticky, sweet, loving, kind of gushy ending Because love is the dominant theme of this entire letter. Some form of the word love appears in the book of 1 Corinthians 17 times. 17 times he mentions love in this letter. Throughout, from beginning to end, it is peppered all through the book. And nine of those occurrences, over half, appear in one chapter, chapter 13. An entire chapter on love. Just to give you a flavor of this, I want to look at a few of those you can follow with me. Just let me read them to you. We're not going to read all of them, but I want to just go through a few of these. Early on in the book, chapter 2, verse 9, Paul writes, or chapter 2, verse 9, Paul writes, But as it is written, what no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love Him. Heaven is prepared and is waiting not just for those who have theologically accurate knowledge, not just for those who attend a theologically accurate church, not just for those who engage in theologically accurate activities. Christ awaits as the reward for those who love God Truly love Him. That's what heaven is for. That's who heaven is for. He'll say in chapter 4, verse 21, right at the end of that chapter, he writes some difficult things in that chapter. And then he says in verse 21, what do you wish? Shall I come to you with a rod or with love in a spirit? of gentleness?" Well, it's a rhetorical question. And by asking the question, Paul is giving his own answer. I want to come to you in love, not harshly. Chapter 8, verse 1, he'll say, Now concerning food offered to idols, we know that all of us possesses knowledge. This knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. That is so important. Paul says knowledge is important. Yes. Study your Bible. Yes. Read through a systematic theology. Yes. But here's what you got to be careful about. Knowledge puffs up. It can make the most theologically astute person of scripture and theology arrogant and self-righteous. Because I know what's best. I've read all of Calvin's institutes. Knowledge puffs up, but love, love builds up. You wanna build up your family? Love is how you do that. You wanna build up your friends? Love is how you do that. You wanna build the church? Love is how we are going to do that. Then he says in verse three, two verses later, but if anyone loves God, he is known by God. Love. He doesn't say if you want to be known by God, you got to have all your theology right. Now don't misunderstand me. There's a certain degree of theology you do have to have right. But knowing God is not about stuffing your head with theological information. If anyone loves God, has an affection for God, a desire for God, loves God with all of his heart, mind, and soul, and strength, and what goes with that? Loving your neighbor as yourself. because you can't keep one without keeping both. If you are not loving your neighbor as yourself, listen, friends, you don't really love God with all your heart, mind, and soul. It doesn't matter how many times you say that. Simply saying it does not make it true. If you don't love your neighbor as yourself, then you don't love God. And if you don't love God with all of your heart, mind and soul, you can't possibly love your neighbor as yourself. That's what Jesus meant when he said, these two commandments stand or fall together. You either keep them both or you violate them both, but you can't keep one and not the other. That simply will not work. Then of course, chapter 13, To emphasize the importance of this theme, Paul spends an entire chapter on love. begins that chapter, as many of you know, by saying, look, if I can speak in the tongue of men and of angels, if I have all faith so as to remove mountains, if I have the gift of prophecy so as I know all mysteries, Paul says, you would have all of those amazing gifts, but if you don't have genuine, heartfelt, affectionate love for God and for your fellow man, Paul says, you're wasting your life. You're wasting your life. And then he ends that chapter, verse 13. So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three, but the greatest of these is love. Love above faith. We tend to think faith, that's what matters, right? You gotta have faith or hope. I'm in a life without hope, my goodness. Paul says the greatest of these is love. The greatest of these is love. And then he begins the very next chapter by saying, pursue love. That's what you chase after. Not spiritual gifts, not theological knowledge, not greater academic education. Pursue love. Love for God and love for people. Why? Because love is what unites the church Love is what unites the church. A person can have a head full of accurate theological information, but listen, without love, they will damage the church. They will damage the church. A church A local church can be a bastion, can be a bastion of accurate, reformed, theological information, but without love, that church will be filled with strife and conflict. This is why Starting next week, some of you may be wondering what we're going to do next week, and I've shared with you what I thought we were going to do. I thought we were going to do. Starting next week, I'm going to walk us through a 14-week topical series titled, Love, the Heart of the Gospel in Christianity. And we're going to slowly walk through 1 Corinthians 13, verses 4 to 7. Because if we are going to survive as a church, we have to have love in this church. And it's not enough just to be able to define love, to be able to explain what love is, to be able to go to scripture passages and show people this is what love means. If we are going to survive, we have got to have true affectionate love in our hearts for one another and for God. Because a church without love is not a church. It's not a church. A group of people can come together on Sunday morning, every Sunday, and the pastor can get up and preach the most biblically sound, theologically accurate message that has ever been preached. They can come together and sing the most theologically accurate and God-glorifying songs that there can possibly be sung. And they can have a liturgy. that is completely biblical, and they can have all these great and wonderful prayers, and they can look all shiny and beautiful on the outside, but without love, listen, that church is a stench in the nostril of God. Paul doesn't want the church in Corinth to end up being described the way the church in Ephesus ends up being described in the book of Revelation. Remember that? Jesus has a message for seven churches of Asia. One of those churches is the church of Ephesus. Interestingly enough, the church in Corinth is not mentioned. They're not rebuked. Maybe they took Paul's letters to heart and said, oh man, we better listen. But the church in Ephesus is one. And here's what Jesus said to the church in Ephesus in Revelation chapter 2, beginning in verse 2. He says, And so, Little compliment there. Here's something they're doing right. They don't tolerate false teaching. They don't tolerate false teachers. They weed them out. They identify them and they will not put up with them. And Jesus says, that's a good thing. That's a good thing that you're doing. He goes on to say in verse Three, I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my namesake and you have not grown weary. So, there's a second compliment. They patiently endure suffering for the name of Christ. They endure suffering. They're not going to give up. They're going to maintain their faith. They're not going to deny Christ in the face of persecution. But now listen to verses three or four and five, but I have this against you. Here's a church that doesn't tolerate false teaching. Here's a church that is willing to endure suffering for the name of Christ. And then he says, but I have this against you. You have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember, therefore, from where you have fallen, repent and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place unless you repent. And if you look at the passage before this, Jesus identifies the seven lampstands as being the seven churches. So, he says, this is what I have against you. You're a loveless church. Yes, you weed out false teachers. Yes, you stick to biblical theology. Yes, you patiently endure suffering for the name of Christ, but you're a loveless church. And unless you rekindle that fire that you had at first, I'm gonna remove your lampstand. In other words, Jesus says to them, I'm gonna close you down as a church. And guess what? The church in Ephesus is not there. And so, Paul wants to end this letter by emphasizing the importance of love. He's already mentioned the importance of it back in verses 13 and 14. Remember that? He says there, Everything you do, Every word you speak, every action you take, every way in which you interact with people around you, do it in love. Meaning, having genuine care and concern for the other person more so than you do for yourself. Everything you do should be done in love. And so here, Paul, is ending this letter with this really mushy, affectionate ending. And then he writes in verse 21, I, Paul, write this greeting, espasime, write this greeting with my own hand. Now, very likely Paul dictated this letter to someone. We know that that seemed to be his practice. We get that from other, he ends other letters this way as well. He says this in Galatians 6.11. He says it in Colossians 4.18, 2 Thessalonians 3.17, Philemon verse 19, where he says, I write this ending or I write this greeting with my own hand. Paul did a lot of writing. And so he apparently would dictate his letters to someone else who would write it down. But at the very end, With this closing, very loving, affectionate ending, Paul says, give me that pen. I want to write this myself. I want them to see that I am writing this in my own penmanship. so that they know this isn't something that the scribe or the writer just sort of inserted there for me. I didn't just say at the end, oh, write some nice, lovely closing for me. Paul says, I want to write that myself because I want them to know how much they mean to me and how much I love them. The second thing that Paul does in this ending to drive home the importance of love is that he gives them one final strong warning. In verse 22, he says, And this is where, you know, the Greek can be helpful because I was shocked to see the word that Paul chooses. It is the Greek word anathema, which literally means to be damned by God. That is the strongest language. Paul is literally saying, if anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be damned by God. Let him be damned by God. Now, while this is a negative statement, obviously, it still emphasizes the importance of love. Because if you're gonna end a letter, if you're gonna end a letter this long with one final word of warning, Why not, if anyone teaches false theology, let him be. If anyone is a false prophet, if anyone is a heretic, if anyone is divisive, whatever the case may be, Paul says, if anyone does not have love, if anyone does not have true, genuine, heartfelt, affectionate love for God. Let him be damned by God. Distance yourself from him, because that person is dangerous. That person will damage the church. If anyone has no love, avoid them and let them be damned, Paul says. Let them be damned because they're already damned. That's what the Apostle John says in 1 John 4, verses 7 and 8. Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God. And whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God because God is love. How can you claim to know the God of love if you yourself are not a loving person? John says, anyone who does not love, and you can tell that. It doesn't take a rocket scientist You can see people who are genuinely loving toward others, loving toward God, loving toward people. John says, anyone who does not love does not know God. They're fooling themselves into thinking that they are saved. They will be one of the ones who will stand there at the day of judgment, as Jesus says in Matthew chapter 7, and say, Lord, Lord, look what we've done in your name. We've prophesied, we've performed miracles, and even the demons obeyed. And Jesus will say, depart from me, you worker of iniquity, for I have never known you. Something else he might say if we were going to add something on to that. He might say, because you did not have love. You did not show love. You did not demonstrate love. Yeah, you did all of the Christian things. But as Paul said in 1 Corinthians 4, no eye has seen, no ear has heard what God has prepared for those who love Him. Those who love Him. The third thing that Paul does to drive home this so important point is that he concludes, he concludes with three short but very powerful prayers. He says at the second half of verse 22, our Lord come. It's a prayer. It's actually two Greek words, which I found interesting. Marana and tha. Marana tha. Sound familiar? Maranatha. I know that when I was a young believer in the late 80s and 90s, almost every church that sang contemporary music was Maranatha worship music. And that's where that word, that's where that name comes from. And it literally translates, our Lord come. It is a prayer that Christ will return soon. It's interesting that Paul would pray that, considering that he's a missionary, considering that he knows that there are many people yet in the world who have never heard the gospel of Jesus Christ. But Paul prays that prayer because those who love Christ long for his return because they have no love for the things of this world. Those who truly love Christ cannot wait to be with Christ. Yes, there are people in this world that they love. Yes, there are things that maybe they want to do. But if Christ came tomorrow, joy! I am ready to be done with this life, to be with Christ. He then says in verse 23, the grace of our Lord Jesus be with you. He pronounces a benediction upon them, a blessing. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you. Because of his love and affection for them, he is praying that God would fill them, fill their church, fill their lives, and envelop them and surround them with his grace. That prayer acts as an inclusio for this book because he began this book with a similar prayer in chapter 1, verse 3. There he prayed that the grace of God be upon them. And then he ends by saying, the grace of our Lord Jesus be with you. He begins the book and he ends the book with this prayer of God's grace be upon you. That's what he's praying for. They would be filled to overflowing with the grace and the love and the joy, the peace of God. And then he says, my love, here's the third prayer, my love be with you all in Christ Jesus. Paul ends by expressing his personal great and deep love for the Corinthians. Because again, despite all of the harsh things that he said to them, the very last thing that he writes and the last thing he wants them to remember is that I wrote these things because I love you. Paul did what every good pastor does, is that he was willing to say the difficult things because he loves them and wants what's best for them. Love. Love is what unites all believers. Love is what unites the church. If the gospel is the very heart, if the gospel, and it is, if the gospel is the very heart of Christianity, then love is the blood that flows through that heart. Love is the blood that the heart pumps. And without blood, the heart stops beating. There can be nothing wrong with the heart itself, but without oxygen-rich blood, without love-saturated blood flowing through the heart of a church, that heart will die and it will stop beating. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, Lord, as I prayed at the beginning, I pray that we would not walk out of this place with just more theological information stuffed into our heads. That we would not just nod in agreement and say, oh, what a wonderful message. and then go out and live the same way we've always lived. Go out and treat people the same way we've always treated people. Lord, I pray, I plead with you, that by your Holy Spirit, you would apply this truth to our hearts and to our lives. that we would go home and fall on our knees and pray, Lord God, help me to be a loving person. Help me to truly love you, to love Christ supremely with all of my heart, with all of my soul and strength and might. God, help me to love people in the way that Christ loves people. Help me to love my spouse in the way that Christ loves people. Help me to love my children in the way that Christ would want me to love them. Help me to love my parents in the way that God would want me to love them. Help me, Lord God, to love my extended family, to love the people in my church, in a selfless, sacrificial, God-honoring, Christ-exalting manner. We pray this, Lord God, for ourselves. I pray this for myself. We pray this for our church. We pray these things in Christ's name. Amen. As we go to the Lord's Supper, The, you know, it's always amazing to me how God providentially puts these services together. Because again, the two scripture readings were about love. And I just, I have a list that I just go through, what's next in line. And the first one, the reading of the law was, by this we know love. that he, Christ, laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. And then the assurance of pardon from Romans chapter 5. For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. This is what the Lord's Supper reminds us of. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die. But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." That is such an amazing truth. While we were still sinners, in our unbelieving, sinful state, while we were still breathing cursings at God, while we were shaking our fist at God, Christ said, I love you, and I'm willing to die for you. That's what Christ was willing to do for us. What should we be willing to do for Him? Yet sadly, so often, Christians are not only not willing to actually lay down their physical life, you know, in the theoretical, it's easy to say, oh, sure, I would do that. I doubt it. Because I know, have known in the past, many Christians who were not even willing to lay down their own personal preferences. They weren't willing to lay down their own opinions. They weren't willing to lay down their own pride. let alone lay down their own life. In light of what Christ was willing to lay down for us, the Lord's Supper every morning asks the question, what should we be willing to lay down for Christ and for His bride, for His church, for the body of Christ? Love. Love is why Christ did that. Love is why he stepped out of heaven. Love is why he lived a life of perfect obedience to the law on our behalf. And love is what God calls us to. The Lord's Supper beckons us to love God more and to love people more. The Lord's Supper is open to all believers. If you've placed faith in Christ and are trusting in Christ alone for your eternal security, then the Lord's Supper is available to you. You know, let me add to that just in light of our message. It's not just if you've said the right words, you've said the prayer, you've been baptized. If you love God, and I don't mean perfectly, I understand we all sin. Don't sit there and think, oh boy, I know I don't love God with all my heart, mind, and soul. Right? None of us really does. But if that is your heart's desire, If your heart's greatest desire is to love Christ with all of your heart, mind, and soul, to love your neighbor as yourself, if you love God because of what He's done for you, then the Lord's Supper is available to you. But if that does not describe you, then please don't come forward and take the Lord's Supper because you can't fool God. He can see whether you truly love Him, truly desire to please Him in every aspect of your life. And if that describes you, the Lord's Supper is available to you. But that is, obviously, we leave that up to you and your conscience that is between you and God.