Considering what it is to have a guilty conscience, I want to zero in on one aspect of the Lord's Suffer that we don't talk about a lot here, and I'll explain why we don't. And that is 1 Corinthians 11 and verse 31. where Paul says, for if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged. And in verse 28, where he says, but let a man examine himself, and so let him eat the bread and drink of the cup. Verse 29, for he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. For this reason, many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep. Paul is saying that if you partake of the Lord's table unworthily, You're in danger of being struck with sickness or even death, and that had already happened at Corinth. And many of us grew up hearing the interpretation of this, that that means before the Lord's Supper, you need to make sure that there's not one sin this past week that you forgot to confess, or else God might strike you dead. And you come with fear and trembling, and you come more like attending a funeral than you do a joyous remembrance of Christ's death. And I want to explain this theme, this thought, that the Lord's Supper is nothing to fear for sincere Christians. I want to give you several reasons that this is the case. First, consider the context of the Lord's Supper institution. It is a New Covenant ordinance. The New Covenant wherein God promises all these glorious benefits for His people in Christ, and none of them based on our performance. Gift to us in the new covenant is not a reward for our merit, but it's of the free grace of God in Christ. And Jesus calls it the cup of the new covenant in my blood in Luke 22 20. And in the new covenant, remember what God said in Jeremiah 31, 33 to 34. This is the new covenant Jesus is talking about. When you take this cup, this is the cup of this new covenant. He says, but this covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord, I will, or this is the covenant. He says, I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts and I will be their God and they shall be my people. No more shall every man teach his neighbor and every man his brother saying, know the Lord, for they shall all know me, From the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord, for I will forgive their iniquity and their sin. I will remember no more. That's the context of the Lord's Supper, the promise of forgiveness in Christ. Another aspect of the institution of the Lord's Supper is Jesus' disciples on that night that he instituted it, they were a mess. They were still full of remaining sins. They were a work in progress just like all of us are. And in Luke 22-24, just after the supper, it tells us, Now there was also a dispute among them as to which of them should be considered the greatest. That's how narcissistic and egotistic and prideful they were, and yet that's the very people that Christ gave the supper to. Not only that, in Matthew 26, 30 and 31, Listen to these words, it says, and when they had sung a hymn, that is in the institution of the Lord's Supper, they went out to the Mount of Olives. Then Jesus said to them, all of you will be made to stumble. All of you will be made to stumble this night because of me, for it is written, I will strike the shepherd and the sheep of the flock will be scattered. That's what happened to His disciples the very night He instituted the Lord's Supper. They were full of indwelling sins. They were in danger of falling, and to a degree, they were going to fall that night, but the supper was for them, and that's who Christ gave it to initially. He gave it to us as His church as a means of grace. Grace, not condemnation. Secondly, not only the context of the giving of the Lord's Supper, consider the context of Paul's warning to the Corinthians. The context of the verses we read, examine yourselves and beware because God might strike you dead. It's not that they still had indwelling sin, otherwise nobody would be able to partake. Remember Paul himself who is writing this is the one that said, Oh wretched man that I am who will deliver me from the body of this death. He himself couldn't have even partaken of the Lord's supper if he meant you can't have any indwelling sin. But rather the context is there were divisions among them, there were factions among them, they were aligning with their favorite preachers instead of around Christ. They didn't discern rightly the body of Christ, the church. They were coming to the table drunk, getting drunk on the communion wine and gorging on the bread, and the poor would get there and didn't even have any bread and wine left to partake of the Lord's Supper. That's how lightly they were treating it. And Stephen Sharnock put it like this, imagine if a king invited a beggar to eat at his table. The beggar in himself is not worthy, but he invites him to come. That's us coming to the Lord's table. We're not worthy in ourselves, but we come in Christ and he invites us. But imagine if that beggar came to the table and then he's mocking the host and he's getting up, imagine like walking on the table and kicking his feet up on the table and just being gross and rude. That is an unworthy partaking of that meal. It means that the Corinthians here are making light of the Lord's supper. So if you're not getting drunk on the communion wine today and gobbling up all the bread before somebody else can eat it, you're not in the same kind of danger that the Corinthians were. So what does it mean to partake unworthily? It means to do it in a way that's not suitable to the dignity of it, not discerning the Lord's body. What does it mean then to examine ourselves? Well, it means that we are making sure that we approach the Lord's Supper as a sacred meal, repenting of sin, trusting in Jesus Christ, and looking to Him. That's how you rightly approach the Lord's Supper. So in this, this is four things. These are four things it means to examine yourself. First, make sure you understand the meaning of it. He says that they need to discern the body. Make sure you're coming to the table with reverence and respect. Third, make sure you're coming to the table with love for one another. And fourth, make sure you're coming to the table with a repentant heart by faith looking unto Jesus Christ. And for all you described by that who examine yourself in this way, I extend to you the invitation to partake of this supper. And I'll read the words of institution. As Paul said, for I received from the Lord that night, or for I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which he was betrayed took bread. And when he had said, had given thanks, he broke it and said, take, eat. This is my body, which is broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me. In the same manner, he also took the cup after supper saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood, this do as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.