We turn this evening to Luke 22. Luke 22, let's read the first 20 verses this evening. Now the feast of unleavened bread drew nigh, which is called the Passover. And the chief priests and scribes sought how they might kill him, for they feared the people. Then entered Satan into Judas, surnamed Iscariot, being of the number of the twelve. And he went his way and communed with the chief priests and captains, how he might betray him unto them. And they were glad and covenanted to give him money. And he promised and saw opportunity to betray him unto them in the absence of the multitude. Then came the day of unleavened bread when the Passover must be killed. And he sent Peter and John saying, go and prepare us the Passover that we may eat. And they said unto him, where wilt thou that we prepare? And he said unto them, behold, when you are entered into the city, there shall a man meet you bearing a pitcher of water. Follow him into the house where he entereth in. And he shall say unto the good man of the house, the master saith unto thee, where is the guest chamber where I shall eat the Passover with my disciples? And he shall show you a large upper room furnished there make ready. And they went and found as he had said unto them, and they made ready the Passover. And when the hour was come, he sat down and the twelve apostles with him. And he said unto them, With desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I say unto you, I will not any more eat thereof until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God. And he took the cup, and gave thanks and said, take this and divide it among yourselves. For I say unto you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God shall come. And he took bread and gave thanks and break it and gave unto them saying, this is my body which is given for you, this do in remembrance of me. Likewise also the cup after supper saying, this cup is the new testament in my blood which is shed for you." Thus far we read the Holy Scriptures this evening. It is on the basis of those 20 verses of Luke 22 and all of Scripture that the Heidelberg Catechism sets before us the doctrine of the Lord's Supper in Lord's Day 29. Lord's Day 29 of the Catechism. Do then the bread and wine become the very body and blood of Christ? Not at all. But as the water in baptism is not changed into the blood of Christ, neither is the washing away of sin itself, being only the sign and confirmation thereof, appointed of God, so the bread in the Lord's Supper is not changed into the very body of Christ, though, agreeably to the nature and properties of sacraments, it is called the body of Christ Jesus. Why then doth Christ call the bread his body, and the cup His blood, or the new covenant in His blood, and Paul, the communion of the body and blood of Christ. Christ speaks thus, not without great reason, namely, not only thereby to teach us that as bread and wine support this temporal life, so His crucified body and shed blood are the true meat and drink whereby our souls are fed to eternal life. but more especially by these visible signs and pledges to assure us that we are as really partakers of His true Body and Blood by the operation of the Holy Ghost, as we receive by the mouths of our bodies these holy signs in remembrance of Him, and that all His sufferings and obedience are as certainly ours as if we had in our own persons suffered and made satisfaction for our sins to God. Beloved in the Lord Jesus Christ, if we lived in 1563, in the Palatinate of Germany in which the Heidelberg Catechism was written, the Palatinate being one of the provinces of Germany, then we would have a vital interest in and continuously discuss and debate the question of the real presence of Jesus Christ in the Lord's Supper. That was the controversial issue of the day. That was the cause of bitter controversy and much writing and speaking and even literal warfare in Europe, the Reformation had begun not quite 50 years prior. And there was a decisive break from the Roman Catholic Church. And among all of the Protestants who broke away from the Roman Catholic Church, there was basic agreement that salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, according to the scriptures alone, and for the glory of God alone. Nevertheless, although there was that basic agreement, there was also disagreement among the Protestants and The sharpest of the controversies came over the question of the presence of Jesus Christ in the Lord's Supper. There was, of course, the Roman Catholic view, but then among the Protestants, there was the view of the Zwinglians. There was the view of the Lutherans, and there was the Reformed or Calvinistic view. This was the topic of debate. Is Jesus Christ really present in the Lord's Supper? And if he is, how is he present? Now, it was at that time that God, by his providence, raised up a man by the name of Frederick III, who would become the ruler of that province called the Palatinate in Germany. Though he was married to a Lutheran and had strong Lutheran convictions, God led him to the Calvinistic understanding of theology. And amid the bitter controversy and division in his realm there in the Palatinate, Frederick devoted himself to the careful study of the scriptures so that he could come to his own personal understanding of the presence of Jesus Christ in the Lord's Supper. By the grace of God, he became convinced, this is the ruler, the civil ruler, the ruler of the Palatinate, he became convinced of the Reformed or Calvinistic view. He also became convinced that the only way to unite all of the Reformed believers in his realm and the only way properly to have a manual of instruction for the youth so that they could come to agreement in the faith is if there were a catechism So he commissioned the Reformed men, Zacharias Yersinus and Caspar Olivianus, to write what we now have as the Heidelberg Catechism. Unsurprisingly, in the Heidelberg Catechism, the Reformed or Calvinistic view of the Lord's Supper is made known and set forth. Also unsurprisingly, The Heidelberg Catechism is very detailed and thorough in its treatment of the doctrine of the Lord's Supper. The Catechism treats the doctrine of the Trinity in a few lines, and the doctrine of the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ in a few lines. The Catechism treats the doctrine of the Lord's Supper not in the space of a few lines, but pages. That's because the question of the presence of Jesus Christ in the supper was the controversial issue of the day, and the Reformed believers needed a united creedal position, and they were given it in the Heidelberg Catechism. Everyone said, this is what the Bible teaches. Catholics said that. No, this is what the Bible teaches. Lutherans said that. No, this is what the Bible teaches. The Zwinglians and the Reformed. Well, what does the Bible teach? Our Reformed heritage is the Heidelberg Catechism, which sets forth for us the teaching of sacred scripture concerning the question of the Lord's Supper. And this is not a minor issue. It was not then, of course it wasn't. The cause of bitter controversy, but it's not a minor issue today either. For to err on the question of the presence of Jesus Christ in the supper has profound implications for the doctrine of Jesus Christ himself his person, his nature, his works, how he saves, to err in this question has implications for Jesus Christ himself. Jesus Christ is really, spiritually, effectually present in the Lord's Supper. That's the truth of scripture and the truth of the catechism. Let's consider then the truth of Lord's Day 9 under the theme, Christ's presence in the supper. First, real. Second, spiritual. Third, effectual. The question is this, is Jesus Christ present in the supper? And if he is present, how is he present? Question 78, the opening question of Lord's Day 29, do then the bread and wine become the very body and blood of Christ? And if the answer is yes, then it's very obvious that Christ is physically present in the supper with his physical body and blood. But the question is answered in the catechism, not at all. Which raises the question, if he's not present with his physical body and blood, is he present at all? And if he's not present with his physical body and blood, why, question 79, then doth Christ call the bread his body, and the cup his blood, and so on? Is he present in the supper? Really, the question concerns that word of Jesus recorded in Luke 22, verse 20, Or rather, verse 19, this is my body. What does Jesus mean when he says, this is my body? Is Jesus present in the supper? That's the question. The Zwinglians had their answer, and basically their answer was no, for the Lord's Supper is a memorial service. Now, the Zwinglians, those were the Protestants who followed the great Ulrich Zwingli, the Swiss reformer, the Zwinglians did not forthrightly deny the real presence of Jesus Christ in the supper, but they so emphasize the nature of the supper as a memorial service that, in effect, they did deny the real presence of Jesus Christ. Now, of course, the Lord's Supper is a memorial service. Jesus said, this do ye in remembrance of me. But the Lord's Supper is not merely a memorial service. If it is merely a memorial service, then Jesus Christ is not present, does not need to be present. Suppose, for example, a man loses his wife, and every year on the anniversary of her death, he goes to the cemetery, and he looks at the gravestone, and as he stands there, he remembers her, her love, and devotion, her sacrifice, and all the memories they shared together. And as he remembers his wife, his heart is moved, and he begins to tear. Now that might be real, and God be merciful to such a man or woman. But back to the illustration. That's a memorial service. He's looking at the monument and he's remembering his wife, but she's not really there, nor does she have to be there for him to remember her. According to the Zwinglians, that was really what belonged to the Lord's Supper. It's a memorial service. We come to celebrate the Lord's Supper, and we have these monuments, the bread and the wine, and we look at them and contemplate them, and we start remembering the cross of Jesus Christ and His love for us and His devotion and His sacrifice. And as we remember Him through those elements, our hearts are moved, and we say, Christ, my Savior, But he's not really present. He doesn't have to be present. He's not there in the supper, for the supper is merely a memorial of him. That was fundamentally the Zwinglian position. So the answer of the Zwinglians to the question, is Jesus Christ really present in the supper, was no, he's not present. Secondly, there is the answer of the Roman Catholic Church, which was and still is and we have good reason to believe, will be their answer throughout all time. If the Zwinglian position can be described in one word, memorial, then the Roman Catholic position concerning this question can be described with that one word we learned in catechism, that big doctrinal term. Remember it, it starts with a T. Transubstantiation, that's the Roman Catholic position. Transubstantiation refers to a transformation of substance. That is, a change of substance. One substance changes into another. So in the Lord's Supper there's bread, and when the priest blesses the bread, then the bread changes into the substance of the literal, physical body of Jesus Christ. And when he blesses the wine in the cup, then that wine changes into the physical blood of Jesus Christ. That's transubstantiation. And you say, but it sure looks like bread, and it tastes like bread, and it feels like bread, and it tastes like wine, and it looks like wine. The Roman Catholic will say, yes, That's because transubstantiation is a change of substance while the attributes remain. So the bread changes into the physical body of Jesus Christ, a change of substance, but the attributes of the bread remain. So that's why it's still gonna look like bread, taste like bread, feel like bread, but it's not bread. It is the literal body of Jesus Christ. So the priest holds in his hand the bread or the wafer, and he puts it in the mouth of the participant, and the participant is chewing in his mouth the physical body of Jesus Christ, and the literal physical blood of Jesus Christ is taken into mouth. Does not this seem a bit preposterous? No, says Rome. Do you take the scriptures literally or not? Isn't that your confession as Reformed churches? Interpret the Scriptures literally. Don't you do that? He's not here for He's risen indeed. Literally. He bodily arose from the dead. Don't you take the Scriptures literally? And now when Jesus says, this is my body, must we not take that literally? So that He's holding His body and He gives it to His disciples. This is my body. The bread changed into the very literal physical body of Jesus Christ. 78, do then the bread and wine become the very body and blood of Christ? The Roman Catholic says, yes, indeed. Therefore, Christ is really present in the Lord's Supper. Thirdly, there's the position of the Lutherans, which, if it can be known by one word, then it is known by that other big doctrinal term we learned in catechism that starts with a C, con, substantiation. The Lutherans could not tolerate the Roman Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation. However, their own view of consubstantiation is fundamentally no different than the Roman Catholic position. Con means with, with or in. And the idea is the physical body of Jesus Christ is with or in the bread. and the physical blood of Jesus Christ is with or in the wine. So the Roman Catholic says, after the priest blesses the elements, this isn't bread anymore, this is body. And this isn't wine anymore, this is blood. The Lutheran says, no, that's bread. It will always be bread. And that's wine, it'll always be wine. But in that bread, In it is the physical body of Jesus Christ. And in that glass where you see wine, it's really wine, but in that wine is the physical blood of Jesus Christ. Consubstantiation. Then you see, therefore, there's no fundamental difference between the Lutheran and the Roman Catholic views. For when someone takes a piece of bread into his mouth, whether it's con- or transubstantiation, he's eating In one way or another, the literal, physical body of Jesus Christ. 78, do then the bread and wine become the very body and blood of Christ? The Lutheran says, well, become the very body and blood? No, no. But the very body and blood of Christ are in or with the bread and wine. So Jesus Christ is really present in the supper. Zwinglians, no. Roman Catholics, yes, he's present. Lutherans, yes, he's present. In opposition to the Zwinglians and in full agreement with the Roman Catholics and the Lutherans, we the Reformed insist that Jesus Christ is really present in the supper. However, in opposition to the Roman Catholics and the Lutherans, we insist that though he is really present, he's not present physically. Consider a few truths. First of all, consider the sacrament of baptism, says the catechism. Answer 78. Do then the bread and wine become the very body and blood of Christ? Not at all. But as the water and baptism is not changed into the blood of Christ, neither is the washing away of sin itself, being only the sign and confirmation thereof, appointed of God, so the bread in the Lord's Supper and so on. Not change in the very body of Christ. Look at baptism. That's our first consideration. Look at baptism. What happens when the Roman Catholic priest takes a little water and he says, I baptize thee in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Does that water become the very blood of Jesus Christ? No. Nor do the Roman Catholics teach that. Why don't they teach transubstantiation in the doctrine of baptism? The sacrament of baptism. It's not there. And that's our consideration. Even as the water of baptism is not changed into the physical blood of Christ, so also in the Lord's Supper there's harmony and agreement between the sacraments. So also in the Lord's Supper, the bread does not become the physical body, nor the wine the physical blood. There's agreement in the sacraments, baptism in the Lord's Supper. Secondly, consider the nature of a sacrament. The last phrase in answer 78 says, though agreeably to the nature and properties of sacraments, it is called the body of Christ Jesus. It belongs to the very nature of a sacrament. It belongs to what a sacrament is that we call the sign by the name of the reality. That's what we do. That's part of a sacrament being a sacrament. Christ does the same thing. Christ says, Luke 22 verse 19, this is my body which is given for you. So he takes bread in his hand and he says, this is my body. Now, of course, he doesn't mean what I hold in my hand is my body. That's absurd. His body is that collection of flesh and bones that's standing there, sitting there, including the extension of that arm with that palm and those fingers. That's all part of his body, and in that hand is bread. He says, now this is my body. He doesn't mean what I hold in my hand is my body. For it belongs to the nature of a sacrament that you call the sign by the name of the reality. Christ understands that. So he holds the bread and he says, this is my body. He calls the bread, which is the sign, by the name of the reality, which is his body. That's what we do in sacraments. He means this symbolizes my body. Now we all do that every day. We always call the picture by the name of the reality. We're not even conscious of it because we do it every day. Our children do it. It's so frequent an occurrence that we're not even conscious of it. For example, suppose you're sitting by the dining room table with a toddler in your lap and there's a picture book opened up on the table and you're looking at it with a toddler. And you point to the book. You say, what's this? And he says, that's a rooster. What's this? That's a cow. Well, if you want to be technical, that's actually not a cow. If that were a cow, you would have 1,500 pounds of stinking, mooing mammal on your kitchen table. That's not a cow. That's a piece of paper with ink on it. in the shape of a cow, to be very technical, that's a picture of a cow. But that's not how we talk. You say, what's this? We call the picture by the name of the reality. We do that all the time. I don't know, where is Jerusalem? I'm not sure. So Father opens up the Bible, he goes to the back, looks at the map, and he puts his finger on a black dot and says, this is Jerusalem. That's not Jerusalem. Jerusalem is thousands of miles to the east. That's a black spot of ink on a piece of paper. But we say that's Jerusalem. We do that every day in our life, and so do Roman Catholics, and so do Lutherans. We call the picture by the name of the reality, and so we do in the sacraments, and so does Jesus. He says, this is my body, meaning this symbolizes my body, agreeably to the nature of sacraments. We call the element by the name of its reality. Third, Consider the words of the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 11, 23 and following, where he quotes the words of institution. 1 Corinthians 11. 23, for I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus, in the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he break it and said, take, eat, this is my body, which is broken for you, this do in remembrance of me. And after the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the New Testament in my blood, this do ye as oft as ye drink it in remembrance of me. So there he's quoting Jesus' words in the upper room where Jesus says, This is my body. And those are the words used in the celebration of the Lord's Supper. This is my body. As soon as those words are spoken, the Roman Catholic would have us understand that the bread has changed into and become the body. And if that were true, then we would expect to read in what follows, and where the apostle considers the significance of the supper, we would expect to read, for example, verse 26, for as often as ye eat this body, Christ just said, this is my body. And we're supposed to believe the bread changed into body, so we would expect to read, for as often as ye eat this body. But that's not what the scriptures say, for as often as ye eat this bread, because it's still bread. 27, wherefore, whosoever shall eat this bread, it's not body, it's bread, so it's called bread. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that body, let him eat of that bread, and drink that cup. Fourth and finally, consider the bodily ascension of Jesus Christ. How can the body and blood of Jesus Christ be physically present in the Lord's Supper, whether by con or transubstantiation, when we believe and confess that Jesus Christ, 40 days after his resurrection, ascended bodily into heaven? Luke 24, verse 50, and he led them out as far as to Bethany, and he lifted up his hands and blessed them. and it came to pass, while He blessed them, He was parted from them and carried up into heaven." That's our confession. Jesus is in heaven, in the body. The disciples saw Him go up in the body. Therefore, it is impossible that he be present in the Lord's Supper physically. He's in heaven at God's right hand. And therefore, I said at the beginning of the sermon in the introduction, to err on this matter has fundamental implications for the doctrine of Christ himself. And in one way or another, to teach the literal physical presence of Jesus Christ in the supper is to deny the ascension of Jesus Christ. He's in heaven. in the body. Christ is not present physically, but he's present. He is present. He is really present. When we celebrate the Lord's Supper, and Lord willing, we will in a couple of weeks, Jesus Christ will be here. He's really present in the Lord's Supper. Our confession is that we belong to Him in life and in death, in our bodies and in our souls. And when we come to the Lord's Supper, He is with us in the supper. He is really present. Christ is present in the Lord's Supper, really. Christ is present in the Lord's Supper, spiritually. This was the position of Calvin, Frederick III, it is the position of the Heidelberg Catechism, and it is the position of Scripture. Christ is really present in the Supper, spiritually, and spiritual is real. Physical is real. Everyone agrees, physical is real, but so is spiritual. You're real, I'm real, real. We human beings are composed of two fundamental aspects or dimensions. We have a physical dimension and we have a spiritual dimension, and we're real with respect to both dimensions. We have a body and it's real, and we have a soul, though we can't see it and you can't see any man's soul, you can't touch the soul, but it's real. And if we don't have a real soul, then we're just animals. Physical is real. Spiritual is real. When we say Jesus Christ is really present, we mean He's really present spiritually. And that's real. First of all, He is present spiritually through the Word. of the ordained office bearer who administers the sacrament. Christ is present through the word. The minister takes the bread and says, the bread which we break is the communion of the body of Christ. And in our congregation, then the bread is distributed. And the confessing believers take a piece of bread. Then the minister says, take, eat, This is my body, which is broken for you. This do ye in remembrance of me." Now, of course, the minister is the one speaking those words, and the sound you hear in your ear comes from the voice of the man who is administering the sacrament. But if that's all you hear in the Lord's Supper, then you are missing the significance of the supper. Christ is not present in the supper with His physical voice that the disciples heard in the upper room when He said, according to Luke 22, verse 19, this is my body. But the voice of Jesus Christ is really heard through the ordained office bearer, by His Word, Jesus Christ is really present in the Lord's Supper. He is prior to the Lord's Supper when the Word of the Gospel is preached, the sheep hear the voice of the Good Shepherd, they hear Him calling them by name, and by faith they come unto Him, but not only in the preaching, in the administration of the sacrament, when we hear Take, eat, this is my body which is broken for you. We hear Jesus Christ. Secondly, Jesus Christ is present in the supper as the true meat and drink of our souls. Answer 79, Christ speaks thus, not without great reason, namely, not only thereby to teach us that as bread and wine support this temporal life, so is crucified body and shed blood are the true meat and drink whereby our souls are fed to eternal life. Our souls are spiritual and they need food. but not hamburger, that's physical food, and not the physical body of Jesus Christ. That's not going to do our spiritual souls any good. We don't need his physical body because our souls are spiritual. We need spiritual food. And the spiritual food is Christ himself. That's his doctrine. Jesus says in John 6, 51, I am the living bread. which came down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever. And the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. He says in verse 53 of John 6, Verily, verily, I say unto you, except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Jesus says, you must eat me. He's not talking there about cannibalism. His disciples understood that. You must eat me. We must eat Jesus Christ. He is the true meat and drink for our souls. We need forgiveness of our sins with God, and that's in Jesus. We need true joy and delight in God, and that's in Jesus. We need true peace and quietness, that's found in Jesus. We need saving knowledge of God, that's found in Jesus. We need love for God, that's found in Jesus. We need hope of everlasting life, that's found in Jesus. We need comfort for life and death. That's found in Jesus. We need forgiveness and joy and peace and knowledge and hope and love and comfort for our souls. That's the food for our souls. If we do not get that food, we will starve and die spiritually. We need to eat and drink Jesus. and Jesus only because he's the only one who suffered and obeyed. The Catechism says, but more especially by these visible signs and pledges to assure us that we are as really partakers of his true body and blood by the operation of the Holy Ghost as we receive by the mouths of our bodies these holy signs in remembrance of him. and that all his sufferings and obedience are as certainly ours as if we had in our own person suffered and made satisfaction for our sins to God. Only Jesus can be the true meat and drink of our souls because only Jesus suffered for all of our sins and made satisfaction with God and perfectly kept the law and therefore earned all of the blessings of salvation. Only Jesus. So we must eat Jesus Christ. And that's what we do in the preaching. Jesus Christ is set forth as the meat and drink of our souls and we eat him. That's what we do in church. We eat him and we drink him by faith. And then in the sacrament, we take that piece of bread and as surely as we put that bread in our mouth and chew it with our mouths, we are assured that we are eating Jesus Christ with our souls. And as certainly as we drink that wine, we are assured we are drinking Jesus Christ into our souls. He is really present in the supper, present spiritually. as he speaks to us and gives us assurance that we do eat and drink him. That he's present spiritually has two important implications. Number one, the Holy Spirit is necessary. That's brought out in the catechism by that parenthetical remark in the middle of answer 79, by the operation of the Holy Ghost. If you take the Holy Ghost away from the Lord's Supper, then there's really no spiritual benefit. There's a little bit of benefit. We got a little piece of bread that might stave off hunger for a few minutes. We got a little bit of wine that will make the soul a little glad, but that's it. if the Holy Spirit is absent. Because Christ is present spiritually in the Lord's Supper, we need the Holy Spirit operating or there will be no benefit. We will not hear Jesus and we will not have assurance of our salvation. The Holy Spirit can stay outside of the Roman Catholic Church. The Holy Spirit can stay outside of the Lutheran Church. For Christ is present physically, and therefore the Holy Spirit's not needed. You just show up, you put a little bit of bread in your mouth, and you're eating Him. The Spirit is not required. But because He's present spiritually, we need the Holy Spirit. Send forth thy Spirit, O God! Fill us with the Spirit, so that we can hear Christ and receive Him by faith. And there's the second implication. We need faith. There's no benefit in the Lord's Supper without faith. In fact, without faith, there's condemnation in the supper. If you do not have faith, then all you will hear is the voice of a man. By faith, you and I hear Jesus. If we do not have faith, all we will hear are some words that are coming out of the mouth of the minister, that's it. But we will not hear Jesus say to us, take, eat, this is my body, which is broken for you. We hear those words by faith. I broke my body for you. And we hear Jesus Christ say that. By faith I believe that. He broke his body for me. He died for all of my sins and earned for me everlasting life. And he says that to me in the supper. I embrace that by faith. Again, If there's no faith, there's no assurance for us in the Lord's Supper. We will not be assured that as we are eating this bread, we are eating Christ himself. And as we drink this wine, we are drinking Christ himself. That will not be true unless we have faith. Transubstantiation and consubstantiation do not require faith. They only require a few teeth, a mouth, some swallowing mechanism, and a digestive tract, and there you ate Christ. And that has profound implications too. If tran or consubstantiation is true, then you don't need faith, which means an ungodly unregenerate, reprobate man can eat Jesus Christ. All he has to do is put the bread in his mouth. Well, it's not bread, according to the Catholics. Put it in his mouth. An incarnate devil could eat Christ. A dog could eat Christ. And that's well nigh blasphemous. Because if an unregenerate, reprobate man can come to the supper and eat Jesus Christ, because it's physical, then you have a man who receives Jesus Christ and still goes to hell. That's not our Christ. That's not the Christ of the Bible, who is received by someone and they still go to hell. He is not present physically. He's present spiritually, and therefore, we need faith to embrace him, believe in him. Now, it's even more pointed than that, beloved, because the teaching is that we must not merely be believers as to our identity, but we must be believers who consciously, actively exercise our faith. And only in that way is there a benefit. you could conceivably be a believer and come to the Lord's Supper and not be benefited. Because someone comes to the Lord's Supper and he's just looking around at everybody else. He's thinking about the game. He's thinking, this bread's kind of stale. But he's not consciously embracing Christ. See, there must be an active faith And that's part of the reason why a week of self-examination and preparation is so necessary. We have to be prepared to come to the Lord's Supper because it is a profoundly spiritual act. We can't just show up at the Lord's Supper. We have to be prepared, and that includes the fervent prayer, including when we sit down in the pew right before the service. Lord God, fill me with the Holy Spirit. and give me an active faith so that I can hear Jesus Christ when he says, I broke my body for you. And I can receive the assurance that I truly eat and drink him as the meat and drink for my soul. Faith, oh God, give us faith, the same faith we need to hear the preaching. Really present. spiritually present, effectually present. Jesus Christ is not only present in the Lord's Supper as the object to be believed and enjoyed, He is present in the Lord's Supper as the effectual power by the Holy Spirit so that we do receive benefits in the Lord's Supper. We come to the Lord's Supper longing for assurance. We do, don't we? We've examined ourselves, and that's painful. A mighty stream of foul transgression prevails from day to day, even this morning. Sunday morning, before I came to church to celebrate the Lord's Supper, I had all kinds of wicked thoughts and desires. I'm so full of sin, and I'm fully aware of the truth that because of my sins, I deserve the curse of God and everlasting damnation. I understand that. That's part of my preparation, says the child of God. But I come to the supper having faith in Jesus Christ, and because Jesus Christ is present in the supper effectually, I leave the supper with assurance. He died for me. I am one of his sheep, and I am on the way to everlasting glory. I know that. I believe that. I have that assurance. Christ is present effectually, so we leave the supper with assurance, we do. He's present effectually, so we leave satisfied. We come to the Lord's Supper hungry. We leave full, don't we? We leave the Lord's Supper saying, God is good. He's good. I love God. I love Jesus Christ. I love his church. I love him. I'm satisfied. We come hungry, we leave satisfied because He's effectually present in the supper. And we come to the supper longing for fellowship and communion. We need communion. It's not good to be alone. In any sense of the word, it's not good to be alone. God made us for fellowship. He made us for communion with others. especially with him. It's not good to be alone. We need fellowship. And we come to the Lord's Supper with that consciousness. I need the fellowship of Jesus Christ so that I can have fellowship with God. I long for that. And because he's really present in the supper, spiritually present, effectually present, we leave the Lord's Supper saying, I was brought near unto God. Through Jesus Christ, I had communion and fellowship with the living God. My one desire is that I may dwell in the house of God all the days of my life. And I dwelt with him this morning in communion with God. Lord God, grant it. May Jesus Christ continually work effectually in his supper for our salvation. Amen. Father in heaven, we thank thee for the battles that our fathers endured. sometimes losing blood itself, and hours and hours and struggle after struggle during the days of the Reformation to come to a clear understanding of what Jesus meant when he said, this is my body. We thank Thee for the fruit of all those struggles and controversies so that we can have a clear understanding today. Lord, do not allow us to minimize or take for granted Lord's Day 29 and our understanding of the supper, but impress it upon us, bind it to our hearts, and may we love Christ for who He is to us in His supper. In His name we pray, amen.