Beloved, let us turn together to Psalm 51. Psalm 51. Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Thy lovingkindness, according unto the multitude of Thy tender mercies. Blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against Thee, Thee only have I sinned and done this evil in Thy sight, that Thou mightest be justified when Thou speakest, and be clear when Thou judgest. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean. Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness, that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence, and take not thy Holy Spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation, and uphold me with thy free spirit. Then will I teach transgressors thy ways, and sinners shall be converted unto thee. Deliver me from blood guiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation. And my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness. O Lord, open thou my lips, and my mouth shall show forth thy praise. For thou desirest not sacrifice, else would I give it. Thou delightest not in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spear, a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion. Build thou the walls of Jerusalem. Then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt offering and whole burnt offering. then shall they offer bullocks upon thine altar. Let us together in our hearts make confession of our faith with God's church throughout the centuries. I believe in God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, his only begotten Son, our Lord. who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified dead and buried, he descended into hell. The third day he rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven and sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. I believe in the Holy Ghost. I believe in Holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen. Beloved in the Lord Jesus Christ, tonight is the third and last of these three messages on the Lord's Supper. The first of the three considered a number of blessings associated with the sacrament. Jesus' offering on the cross, spiritual nourishment for the weak and needy, pardon of sin, unity with Christ, and the assuring promises both seen and believed by faith. The second message focused more particularly on the body and blood of Christ, how he supports us, how he assures us, how he abides both with us and in us. Tonight, our focus shifts to those who partake of the Lord's Supper. How would scripture describe such a person? How would the Heidelberg Catechism describe such a person? And more importantly, can we identify ourselves with that person? Do we know something of these things personally? Now, it was difficult to find a history in Scripture to associate with this Lord's Day of the Catechism. We have the original Lord's Supper history. We have a brief mention of what appears to be a reference to the Lord's Supper in Acts 2. And then we have Paul's exposition of the Lord's Supper in 1 Corinthians 11. And so it's a bit difficult to find a history to go along, but then there is not a history, but a psalm. and particularly Psalm 51. And we're going to see that although not a history, it is a history of a man's soul. It's a history of a man's inward experience after a grievous fall and in the midst of deep repentance. And it describes, I think, beautifully and nearly perfectly the heart and life of what we will call tonight the true communicant. And that's our theme. Our text is Psalm 51. We'll be referring to a number of verses in that Psalm right now. Let me just read again, verse 14. David prays, deliver me from blood guiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation, and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness. We're also going to look at Lord's Day 30, of the Catechism, questions and answers 80 to 82. Those can be found on page 62 in the back of our Psalter. Question 80 deals with the difference between the Lord's Supper and the Roman Catholic Mass. Question 80 asks, what difference is there between the Lord's Supper and the Popish Mass? The answer, the Lord's Supper testifies to us that we have a full pardon of all sin by the only sacrifice of Jesus Christ, which he himself has once accomplished on the cross, and that we, by the Holy Ghost, are engrafted into Christ, who, according to his human nature, is now not on earth but in heaven, at the right hand of God his Father, and will there be worshiped by us. But the Mass teaches that the living and dead have not the pardon of sins through the sufferings of Christ, unless Christ is also daily offered for them by the priests, and further, that Christ is bodily under the form of bread and wine, and therefore is to be worshiped in them, so that the mass at bottom is nothing else than a denial of the one sacrifice and sufferings of Jesus Christ, and an accursed idolatry. Question 81, for whom is the Lord's Supper instituted? The answer, for those who are truly sorrowful for their sins and yet trust that these are forgiven them for the sake of Christ and that their remaining infirmities are covered by his fashion and death. and who also earnestly desire to have their faith more and more strengthened and their lives more holy. But hypocrites and such as turn not to God with sincere hearts eat and drink judgment to themselves. Question 82. Are they also to be admitted to this supper who by confession and life declare themselves unbelieving and ungodly? The answer, no, for by this the covenant of God would be profaned. According to the appointment of Christ and his apostles to exclude such persons by the keys of the kingdom of heaven till they show amendment of life. Our theme then is, has mentioned the true communicant. In four descriptors, first, he avoids idolatry. Second, he repents of sin. Thirdly, he trusts in Christ. Fourth, he strives for holiness. The setting, beloved, of Psalm 51 is found just beneath the psalm number. It is a very rare and a quite detailed description of the heart of a repenting sinner. Undoubtedly, it was left on record in Scripture for the encouragement of sinners. It teaches us that even the most heinous sins, the most grievous faults, can be and are, when dealt with in God's way, forgiven by Him. The psalm also teaches us, and more to the point tonight, what true repentance actually looks like and what it leads to. And this psalm shows us not only how horrific a fall into sin is, and we certainly don't look at this psalm to encourage anyone to either play fast and loose with sin or to remain in sin, but nevertheless to show that when the Spirit of God and the Savior of God join together their work in a deeply fallen sinner. He not only can be saved, but he can be restored. A backslidden believer can be restored completely into the favor and the kindness of God's dealings, and will live a life of thankfulness. even after such grievous falls and sins. So we're going to consider this psalm alongside of Lord's Day 30, in which we find the last of three messages, or Lord's Days, on the Lord's Supper. So in the first place, we want to consider how the true communicant, how he avoids idolatry. Unlike the ancient cultic practices of the Canaanites and others, idolatry can assume a very modern and a very subtle appearance today. In Psalm 51, the object of David's idolatry was obvious, and it was tragic. David saw the attractive wife of Uriah, Instead of turning his eyes and avoiding that gaze as all of us who are men are bound to do with God's help, instead he allowed his gaze to linger and he coveted this woman, brought her into his home and took her in adultery. And as if that wasn't wretched enough, boys and girls, I think you know that after David's horrible sin, he tried to cover that sin by getting Uriah to come home. He wanted him to spend time with his wife so that he might think that the child that David brought forth in her was his, but that didn't happen. And then David, out of an act of what must have been desperation, he had Uriah murdered. And it's interesting, Uriah is listed in the 30 valiant, most valiant soldiers that David had in all of Israel except for the first three and the second three, what are called worthies. But you know, idolatry doesn't always look like that. Idolatry can put on many different faces and it does more commonly than we may realize in our lives. Idolatry in its simplest sense is any time we think, we speak, we act in a way that is against what God has said is good and right in his word. So, for example, God gave to the first man and woman, Adam and Eve. He gave them so much. He gave them literally the entire world, except for one tree. But, dissatisfied with that ample supply, they were persuaded that instead of serving God, it would be much better to try to be as God. And so, they committed an act of idolatry. They set up what they thought would be best over what God said they should do. Now, how does that look in our lives? Well, we can think, for example, that friendship, or that wealth, or that anything So many different things. Even marriage will give us contentment, will give us security. And there's nothing wrong with desiring to be married, there's nothing wrong with seeking enough income to supply our family and all of that. But what happens is when we start to look to anything, to do for us what God says He will do, we begin to encroach in the territory we call Idolatry. We should have sought it from the Lord. He is our ultimate contentment. He is our ultimate security. Thinking that sin is more pleasurable than godliness is idolatry. Living for ease and comfort rather than being zealous for God's glory is idolatry. Elevating our opinions over the revealed will of God. Honoring a person more than we honor the Lord. These are all forms of idolatry. And sadly enough, even the Lord's Supper can be dealt with in an idolatrous manner. And it has been. Question and answer 80 of the catechism. says the Lord's Supper was meant to testify to us that we have a full pardon of our sins, alone by the sacrifice of Christ once offered upon the cross. The Lord's Supper was designed to comfort the weak, that when we are looking to Christ by faith, it is forever settled with God in heaven that our sins are completely forgiven. And it also points to the intimate relationship that we as believers have with God in Christ, how he is in us and we in him, much like the relationship of a married couple, only far deeper and of everlasting duration. So what happened in the Middle Ages? We can be charitable and say some misguided, I think if we're honest we would say some deviously clever clergy taught that the bread and wine are literally transformed into the very body and blood of Christ. And that newly transformed bread and wine is sacrificed over and over and over to appease God, to please Him, to atone for sin. And we saw last time how a misreading of scripture could lead a person to that error, but that error was misused even further as a means of control over people. Because now, instead of depending and relying on God Himself, they were taught to rely on people, on intermediaries, on priests and bishops and popes to intercede and to sacrifice on their behalf. And that is why our fathers rightly call it idolatry, a gross idolatry. No such transformation takes place, and the ugliness of the Mass is that it really teaches, at bottom, that Christ's once-only sacrifice is not sufficient, that it has to be repeated endlessly in order for people to be confident in God. And I can assure you, by personal experience, there is no confidence, because you never know when is enough, and how many masses are enough, and how many sacrifices are enough, and how good is good enough, and so no assurance. So people, instead of turning to God, turn to people. And yet, are we altogether different? Are we so different than these people? Do we place our trust in God? Or, maybe without even thinking, are we relying subtly on things less than God? On persons in place of God? On other things in place of God? That would make us worse than pagans. Pagans don't know any better. We have the Word of God. We have the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, David, had his moment of gross idolatry. He thought for a split second, I have to have Bathsheba, even though he was already married multiple times. And that moment of sinful pleasure and the sordid things that he did following cast a long, long shadow on his life, on his family, on the kingdom of Israel, and most importantly, on the honor of God. but then we have to ask ourselves the same questions. Have we ever lusted in our hearts? Have we ever coveted in our desires? Whether after another person, after another thing, after people's acceptance, after people's attention, their praise. The only difference, the only difference is our attitude toward idolatry. What do I mean by that? The unsaved live in idolatry and live for idolatry, whereas the believer, by the grace of God, learns to hate, to see, to flee from the clutches of this sin. But as David himself shows, even the godliest of people are not, so to speak, out of the woods yet. We need the keeping of the Lord regularly lest we fall as he did. So the question, the first question that comes to you and to me tonight, where do we stand actually? Where do we stand? Must we not ask the Lord to expose our idolatry, to show it to us, The reason I say that is we can get so used to our idols, we can become so comfortable with our idols that we're blind to them. And so we all need, every one of us need, His light, we need His grace to actually see these things and to lead us, and that brings us in our second place, to repent of such sins. And we may ask ourselves, boys and girls, you may be wondering, how do we know that David actually repented of what he had done? Well, we know he did for sure by the time he wrote Psalm 51, because at this point in his life, he doesn't deal with his sin as so many people do. He doesn't deny it, he doesn't try to bury it, he doesn't minimize it, He doesn't justify it and, thankfully, he doesn't persist or continue in it. And yes, it's true, at first, David was unwilling to acknowledge his sin. God sent the prophet Nathan to him to confront him about it. But we should be doing the same. We should be thanking God for people who confront us, who show us the blind spots, who have the courage and the love to address the idolatries in our life, the things that are taking us away from the Lord or things that are keeping us from ever coming to Him. And so David comes right out with it and speaks plainly, no justification, no excuses, no minimizations, no persisting in sin, So how do we know he repented? Well, let's look carefully. Let's follow this trail of repentance, so to speak. His first words, his very first cry is for what? He cries for mercy. Well, you don't ask for mercy if you're not convinced you've done something wrong, especially crying out to mercy for God. How else do we know? He says, blot out my transgressions. Boys and girls, when you see the word transgress, think of the word trespass. When you go on somebody's property that you're not supposed to, you're trespassing. When we transgress, we're going into places, we're doing things, we're saying things, we're thinking things that are off limits, that are out of bounds, that God says, no trespassing there. So he is crying out to God about his trespasses. But then he also not only saw the sin itself, what he had done, but he felt the filth of that sin. You know, it's like when you're out playing and you come in and you feel all dirty and sweaty. He felt so awful about his sin. And you can see that in verse 2. Not actual dirt, but the filth of iniquity. He wanted to be thoroughly washed. He wanted to be cleansed. from sin. Verse three, it's a very clear aspect of repentance. He confesses it. I acknowledge my transgressions. My sin is ever before me. Now that's key. Everybody knows what it's like to feel guilty. Everybody knows what it's like to have their conscience speak. A momentary conscience pang, but here today, gone tomorrow. His sin, he says, was ever before him. It was aggravating his conscience ongoing. But unlike fake repentance, where we're only concerned about the guilt we feel, the suffering that we're under. David goes on to say, against thee, speaking to God, thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight. And sure, he sinned against Uriah, absolutely, against Bathsheba, no question, against that little baby that he brought into this world, all of that was true. But nevertheless, At the very core of it, David realized that everything he was doing was an offense to God, was an offense to God, the real and the living God. Now, when we talk about fake repentance, fake repentance is not interested in God, doesn't concern itself with God. Oh yes, we might call upon God, to make us feel better, to take away the guilt, maybe to straighten out the mess we've made in our life or the lives of others, but not because we sinned against Him. It's all about me, it's about self, it's what I want and how I feel, but genuine repentance. It comes from the heart of a person who knows, who loves, who wants God. From the heart of somebody for whom God didn't just become real now, when I'm in trouble, and then disappear again. No, this is the God who loved me, who gave His Son for me, and who gave me the grace to love Him in return. I've offended him, David says. And at the end of verse 4, David goes in a place that you hardly ever hear anymore. He literally justifies God. In my own words, he says, you would be right to condemn me. You would be right to judge me. I see it. It's clear. I'm guilty. And he justifies God, not himself. but then he goes in a place that we all need to go into. He doesn't just dwell on the act, but the act that he had done leads him to the heart that produced it. Behold, he says, I was shapen in iniquity. In sin did my mother conceive me. So David traces, as it were, these wretched deeds into the wretched heart that was within him. This sin didn't come out of nowhere. He isn't just lamenting the results of his sin. He's repenting over a heart that would actually do this. And Jesus says this, that out of the heart comes adulteries, fornications, thefts, and all manner of wickedness. And so, as David is repenting, as we are repenting, we also bring our hearts to the Lord. We bring the very inclinations that we feel in us to him. Did you ever grieve over the sinful tendencies of our heart? Some people only repent when they're caught. Some people only repent when it costs. But how many of us repent over the very fountain of iniquity that lies within us, that we actually see this bent of our heart translating into a way of life that's sin? There are many people who feel very sad and are very sorrowful because their plans were destroyed or interrupted or delayed, because they have this disaster in their life that their sins created, but as soon as things are straightened out, as soon as things are back to normal, that's the end of repentance. No connection with God, no connection with the heart, just something got in the way and we need to fix it all up. That's not repentance. The hypocrite, the nominal believer is satisfied as long as people think I'm okay, as long as my reputation is now intact, as long as people think I'm a fairly decent or good or maybe even a godly person. I'm satisfied, but that does not cut it for the true communicant. The true believer says what David says in verse 6. Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts, in the hidden part, the part that nobody sees. Thou shalt make me to know wisdom. This is a desire to be thoroughly changed, to be utterly transformed, not reformation. Transformation from the inside out. Can you identify to that? Can you relate to that? Not just once, but an ongoing desire to be renewed, to be transformed. Desiring after, longing for, praying for, laboring for, change of heart, yes, change of life, change of desires. Question 81, of the catechism for whom is the Lord's Supper instituted? Answer, for those who are truly sorrowful for their sins. It's my hope and prayer that any superficial sense of repentance might be put to flight tonight by this song, that as we see what it really looks like, that sorrowing over sin looks like this. It's God-centered, it's heart-exposing, it is a deep lamentation. What's the alternative? Jeremiah lamented over the Israelites, and he writes, They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace! when there is no peace. God forbid that any of us should shed a tear, should have our conscience speak, and then we confuse that for genuine repentance, for godly repentance. For if we are only slightly, slightly convicted, slightly convinced of sin, then we will have a very slight repentance. Our desire and esteem of Christ will be as superficial as our need for Him and our acquaintance with sin. These all go together. If we have superficial views of sin, if it never got to the heart, if we never grieved over the very heart of sin, our esteem for Christ will be, as I said, as superficial as our esteem of his ways. So let us pray together for a thorough going repentance, a daily repentance, so that we might even more deeply profit from the Lord's Supper. that we might come to the Lord in all His magnificent display of grace and pardon that is the Lord's Supper, that we may come to Him as we are, sinners, and that we will find there and in Him time and time again that fountain that is open for sin and for uncleanness, symbolized in the broken red and poured out wine. Of course, if we never get beyond remorse, regret, sorrow and guilt, then we remain lost. No amount of conviction of sin can ever save us. And we must not fall into the trap of thinking that, well, if my convictions are from the Holy Spirit, That means He began a work in me, and therefore, He that begins the work in me will bring it to a good end. Scripture teaches otherwise. Yes, Scripture does say that He that begins a good work will perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ, but Scripture is also clear, crystal clear, unmistakably clear. that apart from faith in Jesus Christ, we're lost. Conviction of sin is only helpful if it brings us to Christ as a lost sinner. If it brings us to despair of trusting in ourselves, trusting in anything apart from Jesus Christ. Repentance never, ever exists alone. John Calvin taught these things are inseparable, faith and repentance. You can never truly repent without faith. You can never truly have faith apart from repentance. And we actually see this clearly in Psalm 51. Have mercy upon me, O God. David's faith not only believed there was a God, but he believed that God is merciful, which is precisely why David turns to God for mercy even in the midst of an unspeakably wicked deed. We also see that repentance accompanies faith. Verse 7, purge me with hyssop, I shall be clean, wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow." He not only acknowledged in heartfelt desires what he had done, he not only confessed his sin from the bottom of his heart, but he trusted, he knew that God would forgive him. And answer 80 of the Catechism says the same thing this way, The Lord's Supper testifies to us that we have a full pardon of all sin by the only sacrifice of Jesus Christ, which he himself has once accomplished on the cross, and that we, by the Holy Ghost, are engrafted into Christ. Answer 81 goes just a step further. When we ask, for whom is the Lord's supper instituted? Yes, for those who are truly sorrowful for their sins and yet trust that these are forgiven for the sake of Christ and that their remaining infirmities are covered by his passion and death. Do you see then how repentance and faith are inseparable? If you do not believe in a merciful God, to whom are you repenting and why? But, if you say you believe in God and you never repent, what could you possibly know of Him? because the more we know of him, his greatness, his glory, his holiness, the contrast over against ourselves becomes greater and greater, and we will repent. I have known people who separate these things. There are people who are so weighed down, they are so burdened by their sins, their burdens to themselves, and yet they can never seem to come to faith in Christ and become unburdened. And then there are others who speak so easily of faith in Christ that they are saved, and yet they say nothing or little about the burden from which they've been delivered. They don't talk about repentance and how sin is a daily battle. Beloved, what God has joined together, let not any one of us pull asunder. Faith and repentance are together. But that's fine to talk about others. Let's talk about ourselves. Again, where do you stand? Where do I stand, personally? Can we honestly say in the presence of God that sin is a daily burden, that sin is a dearly enemy, does it in fact cause self-loathing? Does it engender in us a desire for God's cleansing? And not just once, but as sin rears its ugly head in our hearts time and time again, But then, have you also been taught by the Lord to take refuge with all of our sins and with our pernicious wicked heart and our failures to Christ? Has He truly become, we often hear the word, indispensable. What does that mean? We can't do without Him. Is your burden such that you just can't brush it off, that you just can't go on, that you just can't just pretend like it doesn't exist, that it drives you, that it draws you to the Lord Jesus Christ, that you must have Him? Has He become precious to you? Those are vital questions and they have eternal consequences. Answer 81 teaches us one more thing. that we also find in Psalm 51. Notice how David says not just that he's seeking salvation, not just he's seeking forgiveness, he already was a saved man. He is seeking restoration. Make me to hear joy and gladness, that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. Verse 10, same thing. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Verse 11, cast me not away from thy presence and take not. Verse 12, same thing. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation. with thy free spirit. So when we even grossly, repeatedly sin against the Lord, when perhaps as a believer, we wickedly backslide and fall, we are not to conclude that we were never a believer and despair. Neither are we to cavalierly go on in sin out of a sense of hopelessness. Neither of those are the godly scriptural response. We are to repent. We are to confess honestly our sins to the Lord. We are to express our deep sorrow for having offended Him. We are to turn to Him for pardon and for cleansing and for grace to be different. And we are to trust, to trust His promise to forgive the truly penitent. He says so plainly, when we return unto the Lord, he will have mercy upon us and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. And the Lord's Supper, beloved, underscores, emphasizes, points to that very truth. It is meant to strengthen our resolve not to run, not to despair, not to bury, not to justify, not to minimize, but to come with everything to the feet of the Savior who gave everything so that we could be unburdened of all of our sins. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation. Uphold me with thy free spirit. Well, there's a lot more that could be said about trust in Psalm 51, but let's now turn in the last place to the reality that the true communicant also and always strives for holiness. If everyone who professed to be a Christian was as zealous for a godly life, was as excited about striving to be holy as they are about pursuing comfort and ease and entertainment, the churches would be salt and light again. I don't like to say it that way, But it's my calling to be honest. If everyone who professed to be a believer was as zealous and as excited about pursuing godliness as we are for pursuing A, as in comfort and entertainment and material gain and whatever, the church would be a force in this world again. The distinction, beloved, between the godly and the unbelieving, between the church and between the world, is sometimes painfully thin, almost indistinguishable. But the Lord's Suffering is designed, it is designed to stir up our desires to be holy. How? by reminding us of the unbelievable, the infinite cost that He paid so that we could be godly. Do you realize what I just said? The Lord's Supper is to remind us of the infinitely tremendous cost that Jesus Christ paid, not just so that we could be saved, but so that we could be godly. We could be godly. It's like unlocking the reservoir of grace that enables us to be godly. The middle of the answer 81 in the catechism says that very thing. this, it goes on to say, and who also earnestly desire the true communicant to have their faith more and more strengthened and their lives more holy. How does the Lord's Supper do that? Not only does it remind us of the cost, but look at the elements. Broken body, poured out blood. Why? For what? For the very sins that we're bringing to the table. The very sins over which we're repenting. The very sins that are breaking our lives and burdening our consciences. It's as though he says, bring it here. The latter part of that answer is a warning, timely and grave. But, it says, hypocrites and such as turn not to God with sincere hearts, eat and drink judgment to themselves. What's a hypocrite? A hypocrite is either a pretend Christian, someone who knows that they're really not a Christian, but tries to make people think they are, or A hypocrite is somebody who really believes he's a Christian but has no real scriptural reason for believing that. And this is a painful question. Are you a hypocrite? Do you love the Lord? Do you love spending time in His Word? Do you love the Lord Jesus? Do you need the Lord Jesus? Are you a praying person who sees prayer as a privilege more and more rather than just a duty to be dispensed with? Are you striving to be holy? Do you love the public and private worship of God? Do you love to be with His people, other believers? Is it your heartfelt desire to become Christ-like? Is your battle against sin characterized as striving and warfare or wishful thinking? I hope so. Are you willing to stand against family and friends if they tempt you to hide your faith, to compromise godly principles, to wear a mask? I ask it again in all seriousness. Are you a hypocrite? And don't think somehow, well, I don't profess anything, so I'm off the hook. You're worse. Because there's no maybe about where you're headed. There's no maybe about the fact that the wrath of God rests upon you as we speak. He that hath not the Son hath not life, and the wrath of God abides on him. If you're not sure whether you're a hypocrite or not, if you're not sure, whether you're lost or not, ask the Lord to show you. And even if you're sitting here tonight thinking, well, I know I'm not a hypocrite, just ask the Lord anyway, just to be sure. Because if we're mistaken on this point, we are eternally ruined and lost. This is an area of life we simply cannot afford to be mistaken? Question and answer 82 addresses this in greater detail. Are they also to be admitted to the Lord's Supper who, by confession and life, declare themselves unbelieving and ungodly? For by this the covenant of God would be profaned, his wrath kindled against the whole congregation. Therefore, it is the duty of the Christian church, according to the appointment of Christ and the apostles, to exclude such persons by the keys of the kingdom of heaven, till they show amendment of life. This is serious. If we attend the Lord's Supper as a hypocrite, If we attend the Lord's Supper as an unbeliever, we're not just affecting ourselves negatively, bringing God's judgment on ourselves. We're just like Achan in the Old Testament, who by his willful disobedience brought judgment on the entire people of Israel until it was exposed and dealt with. But I need to remind you, Christian discipline by the elders can be used to try to reach those who are sinning publicly, openly, or repeatedly, or have been warned by others, witnesses and so on, and refuse. these admonitions. But we are not given the authority, nor are we given the ability, to root out all hypocrisy. We cannot sit in judgment of those who attend the Lord's Supper, and neither should any of you. If you are concerned about someone, Do the Christian thing and speak to them. Don't speak about them. Don't speak in general terms, well, you know, the people who go to the Lord's Supper, I don't want to hear a word of that. And I do hear it. I'm concerned about those who go to the Lord's Supper. Well then, go to those people. Help them to see what they're missing. But if not, pray for them. but don't go talking about them. That's not the Christian scriptural way of dealing with such things. And maybe God will use you for such people. As we come to a close, let's sort of take all three Lord's Days and wrap it up this way. The Lord's Supper is a precious gift of the Lord Jesus. The blessings that it holds forth to us are many. The infinitely valuable offering and sacrifice of Christ. The spiritual nourishment for the weak and for the needy, for the beginners in grace. The pardon of each and every sin through the precious blood of Christ. the incredible unity of Him in us and we in Him, but also we together forming one body. And then the precious promises with which He assures us of these things. We've also seen how through the sacrament He supports us, He holds us up and the battle against self-will, against sin, Satan, the world, all of it, and how he assures us in this sacrament of his love and of his faithfulness on our behalf. And that even when we sin, like David did, he doesn't abandon us, but he draws us afresh to see what we've done, to have broken hearts over sin, and to come to him again with confession and contrition. So I'd like you to lay the following questions beside your heart as we leave. Are you truly weary of your idols? Of whatever it is that's stealing your heart that's stealing your peace, that's stealing your time, are you weary of your sins and willing to bring them in repentance to Jesus Christ? Are you trusting, notwithstanding all that you are, in all that you're not, in all that you've done, in all that you haven't do, are you trusting? that what he has done is enough to pardon every sin. Is Jesus enough for you to pour your life into him, to take shelter in him, to flee to him, to abide in him? Has he produced in you? whether suddenly or over time, a hunger and thirst after righteousness. And I'm not now talking about the righteousness which he gives to believers by faith. I'm talking about daily, actual living a life of righteousness. That you yourself long to live more holy, more godly, and are willing to fight for it. that you are no longer content to halt between two opinions, a little bit of religion, a little bit of the world, a good reputation among church friends, but a whole other life that few people know about. Are you done with that? Or are you done with what's worse? All world, all sin, all me, nothing for God. The Lord's Supper is a gift. It's a gift to be used with humility, with gratitude, with faith. It is a sin both to misuse the Lord's Supper as a hypocrite and to neglect the Lord's Supper as an unbeliever. If you sit in your seat You are making a confession as loudly and as clearly as those who attend the Lord's Supper. You are saying, in essence, I know nothing of a love for Christ. I know nothing of a love and desire for true godliness. I have no intention of being any different than a worldly person I am now, or the decent person I am now, or the respectable person I am now, or the lost person that you most certainly are apart from Christ. Quite content with life in the world and life for the world. That's the confession you make. So it shows you this night whom you will serve. If sin is God, serve it with everything in you. Have your fill of it. But if God be God, follow Him. Sin, if we follow it, leads to destruction. When we follow the Lord, it leads to life. But do not think that you have long to choose, because it may well be that before the next Lord's Supper, some of our seats will be empty and the day of grace will be past. It may well be that this very night some of us may stand before the judgment seat of Christ and then our dilly-dallying, foot-dragging, someday I hope so, life of sin will come to an abrupt end and all hope will be lost. The day of grace is now. Turn to the Lord with all that you are, and he will abundantly pardon for the sake of Jesus Christ and what he has done. Amen.