Means of Grace, or Guilt

If you have your Bibles with you, open again to First Corinthians, chapter eleven. We are sort of wrapping up this hiatus that we've taken. We're in the midst of working our way through the book of Exodus. And as we have worked our way through Exodus, we have come to the Exodus itself, to the departure from Egypt, and in coming to the departure from Egypt, we've worked our way through that last plague, and in that last plague we get the Passover. And it is the Passover that serves as one of the main foundations upon. Which the Lord's Supper is built. And so we cannot fully understand the Passover without understanding the Lord's Supper. And we cannot fully understand the Lord's Supper without fully understanding the Passover. So we spent these last several weeks examining the Lord's Supper and its relation to the Passover, examining these key texts in the New Testament that help give us a broader understanding of and appreciation for what's happening there in Exodus. And so before we go back, it's important that we look once again at this text where we spent most of our time here in One Corinthians, chapter eleven. And look now at the warning. It's warning, the famous warning that Paul offers in his instruction on the Lord's Supper. So we'll look at verses twenty seven to thirty two, particularly today. Whoever therefore eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and the blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined, so that we may not be condemned along with the world. How do we know when a means of grace has become a means of guilt? How do we know when we've turned this ordinary means of grace into something that makes us even more guilty before a holy God? Because that is precisely Paul's warning that we can come before this table as a means of grace, or we can come before this table as a means of guilt. The Lord's Supper is most assuredly an ordinary means of grace, one of those ordinary means of grace. As Richard Barcelos is noted, the cup and the bread are signs which signify present participation or present communion in the present benefits procured by Christ's blood and body. Grace procured procured by what Christ did for us. That's redemption accomplished becomes ours through the Lord's Supper. That's redemption applied. Coin and Ea or fellowship of the blood and body of Christ means spiritual nourishment is brought to souls. It is present participation in the present benefits of Christ's death for those properly partaking. In other words, the Lord's Supper is a means of grace. However, this section in Paul's treatment of the subject introduces another idea. It introduces this idea of this means of guilt. And moreover, not only does this bring or can this bring guilt, but it can bring severe consequences. Of course, this raises a number of questions, and in order to answer these questions. We have to look at the broader context. And if we look at the broader context, it helps bring this passage into closer. View, or at least clearer view. Now, the broader context is Paul's teaching in First Corinthians eight to one through eleven to one. In eight to one through eleven one, Paul is teaching on the issue of of idolatry, and particularly he's dealing with this issue of food sacrificed to idols and how Christians interact with the food sacrificed to idols and with the culture wherein food is sacrificed to idols. That happens an eight to one through eleven one, and then we get to eleven. There are issues concerning the worship of God's people and the proper worship of God's people, But you cannot understand that apart from this teaching in chapter eight. And so we find in chapter eight, verse one. Now, concerning food offered to idols, we know that all of us possess knowledge. This knowledge posts up, but love builds up. Go to eight four through six. Therefore, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that an idol has no real existence, and that there is no God but one. For although there may be so called gods in heaven or on earth, as indeed there are many gods and many lords, Yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist. So there is this comparison. Not only is there this comparison, but there is also this historical reference. Once we get to chapter ten, we see historical reference. If you look at ten one through thirteen, we get a picture of this historical reference. Look at it, for I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all eight the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink. Again, how do we read this and not connected to what we see in the next chapter about the Lord's Supper. So here's Israel, the people of God who have come through the waters. By the way, baptism is our entree into the Church. Amen. And Peter makes it clear that this coming through the water for Israel was a form of baptism of the people of Israel. Jesus goes back to that same water after coming out of Egypt, and he is baptized. He is true Israel, faithful Israel. We are baptized and identify ourselves with Christ and with the Body of Christ. And then the other ordinance that we have is that of the Lord's Supper. So we have baptism and the Lord's Supper. And here in this first paragraph and first chapter ten, Paul alludes to baptism and the Lord's Supper as it relates to what we learn from Israel and their history. For they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ. Nevertheless, with most of them, God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things took. Place as examples for us that we might not desire evil as they did. Do not be idolators as some of them were. As it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. By the way. When he condemns the Corinthian Church in the first part of his instruction on the Lord's Supper, why does he condemn them because of the way that they're treating the love feast in conjunction with the Lord's Supper. There are people who are actually getting drunk there at the Lord's Supper. Again, that mirrors what he has already said in chapter ten as it relates to. Israel and what we need to learn from Israel. We must not indulge in sexual immorality, as some of them did, and twenty three thousand fell in a single day. They send and some paid with their lives. What do we have in our warning. Some of you are weak, some of you are sick, and some of you have died, again mirroring exactly what we see in chapter ten. We must not put Christ to the test as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, nor grumble as some of them did and were destroyed by the destroyer. Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction. On whom the end of the ages has come. In the next part of this there is a section that puts the Lord's Supper directly into this context. That happens in verse sixteen. Verse sixteen is arguably the clearest argument that the Lord's supper is actually a means of grace. But let's begin in verse fourteen. Therefore, my beloved flee from idolatry. Again, that's the key here, flee from idolatry. In verses chapters eight and nine. This idolatry is connected to food, these meats that are sacrificed to idols. Flee from idolatry. I speak as to sensible people. Judge for yourselves what I say. There's that judgment word that we find a number of times in our text today. The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ. So this is a participation. This is communion. This is why we call it communion. We are communing with the Lord, and we are communing with one another. And so we cannot understand what we read here at the end of chapter eleven unless we put it into that context. And when we put it into that context, we see how this means of grace can become a means of guilt. There are several things. That we need to know in order to know when we've crossed that line and how not to cross that line. First, we need to know the relationship between body, blood, bread and wine verse twenty seven. Whoever therefore eats the bread and drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and the blood of the Lord. First of all, there's the fact of guilt. We need to understand the fact of guilt, the nature of guilt, and then the consequences of guilt. Fact of the guilt, here's the fact. When we approach this wrongly, there is guilt. When we approach the table illegitimately in an unworthy manner, we are guilty. The text makes that clear that there is guilt associated with this. There is guilt associated with what though, what's the nature of the guilt? Well, got to understand two things. One unworthy manner, what does that mean? To take it in an unworthy manner? And secondly, guilty concerning the body and the blood. To take this in an unworthy manner? What does that mean? Kiss The Mocker and his commentary on this particular passage gives us four readings and interpretations that are often given. One, a person is taking the Lord's supper in an unworthy manner. When the person believes that they are not worthy of such holy food, they believe themselves to be unworthy of such holy food. Secondly, when protectors come without repentance or self examination. So those are two sides of the same coin. You come and partakeure the Lord's supper with a woe is me attitude, with an I'm not worthy attitude, I can't be worthy attitude. Looking to yourself as opposed to looking to Christ. That's taking the Lord's supper in an unworthy manner. Or when you come without repentance or self examination, that's taking the Lord's supper in an unworthy manner. This is not to be approached lightly. The Lord's table is not to be approached in that way. Thirdly, affluent Corinthians revealed their contempt for the poor, and in its immediate context, that's what Paul was talking about. So not considering the others who are around you. The first part is not rightly considering and understanding our communion with Christ, and the second part is horizontal, not rightly considering or understanding our communion with one another. And so you can be in wrong relationship with the Church. One of the warnings that we always give. Is that the Lord's table is for people who are in right relationship with the Church. If you are under the discipline of the church, or if you are fleeing the church and fleeing the discipline of the Church and then come here to take the Lord's supper, you are taking the Lord's Supper in an unworthy manner because your communion is broken with the people of God. Your communion is broken with the Body of Christ. That is taking it in an unworthy manner. This is not for people who are fleeing from the discipline of another church. This is not for people who have made a wreck of their relationship in another church and are now trying to find a clean start instead of cleaning up their mess. You can't say amen. You ought to say ouch. That is not what this is for. Finally, he says communicants failed to express gratitude to Christ by turning the sacrament into a feast. That's the other way that people partok in an unworthy manner. And Corinth when they were just turning it into a feast, they were turning it into just a drunken free for all. That was for taking to the Lord's Supper in an unworthy manner. But Paul also kept this broad, so you can see where he's pointing specifically to Corinth and what they were doing, but you can also see where this can encompass any number of things that we bring to this table. But what does it mean to be guilty concerning the body and the blood of the Lord. Understand this. Here's some second London Confession Our Church's Confession of Faith, Chapter thirty, paragraph five. The outward elements in this ordinance duly set apart to the use ordained by Christ, have such relation to Him crucified as that truly, although in terms used figuratively they are sometimes called by the name of the thing they represent, to wit, the body and blood of Christ, albeit in substance and nature, they still remain truly only bread and wine as they were before. Understand the relationship between body, blood, bread and wine. Understand that when we gather that these things do represent the body of Christ that was broken and the blood of Christ that was shed. And so what Paul is saying is that essentially, when we come here in an unworthy manner, we go from being on the side of those who were redeemed by the death of Christ to being on the side of those who are the murderers of Christ. We are not guiltless because of the blood that was shed on our behalf. But when we come in an unworthy manner, we are guilty as though we shed the blood ourselves, as though we are murderers of Christ. That is the kind of guilt we bear when we come in a haphazard manner before this table, when we misuse this table, when we misinterpret this table, when we misunderstand this table, we are as guilty of those who nailed him to the tree. We are as guilty as those who spat upon him and rejected him. That is the nature of this guilt, the consequences of this guilt in MATI with God. But how how can that bring enmity with God? I mean, we don't believe in transubstantiation, right as Roman Catholics would teach. We don't believe this literally becomes the body and blood of Jesus. So if it doesn't literally become the body and blood of Jesus, how can we become literally guilty of the body and blood of Jesus. You know, I learned an interesting thing through international travels. I've had the privilege of being in a lot of different countries. And one of the things that I like to do when I go to different countries, especially when i'm you know, in a capital city or something like that, I just like knowing where the American Embassy is. I just want to know where it is. And sometimes people will tell me where the American Embassy is, and then I have to admit, yeah, it's good to know where the American Embassy is. I kind of like to see it. I just won't see it. Why, I don't know, Just in case I need to get there. Let's just drive by, see drive by the American Embassy, and there it is, right here, on foreign soil, the American Embassy. Flag flying high. And then I learned this little tidbit, that little piece of property in the midst of somebody else's country is actually sovereign United States soil. That's why if you get in trouble, you're under the embassy because they can't come get you. And to violate the sovereignty of the US embassy is actually an act of war against the United States. To burn our flag is actually an act of war against the United States. Is it literally on our soil? No? I mean literally, the dirt underneath it is the same as the dirt and the rest of whatever that country is. But when that flag is flying high those gates, it is sovereign US soil. It's America, just as real as Texas is. It's America, folks. This is our flag as Christians. This is our embassy as Christians. And when we sit before this table, just like an embassy on foreign soil raises a flag in order to identify itself as the sovereign soil of that foreign country, this is the flag that we raise. This is the Kingdom of God. We are the people of God. And when we partake in the Lord's Supper, it is as though we are raising a flag saying, this is God's sovereign territory, right here in the midst of Earth, right here in the midst of the United States, right here in the midst of Texas, right here in the midst of North Houston. This is it right here. No one else owns this territory. And when you infringe upon this territory, it is a direct violation. Of Christ himself. Just as real as going to our embassy somewhere and attacking it and burning the flag is an act of war against the United States itself. And so when we abuse the Lord's table, we become guilty enemies of God, violating his very son. This is serious business. This is not to be taken lightly. Second thing we have to know is we have to know the relationship between the sinner and savior Verses twenty eight and twenty nine. Let a person examine himself then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body, eats and drinks, judgment on himself eating and drinking three times. Play on words there in the Greek. We don't quite pick up also with this idea of judging and discerning and the idea of discerning the body. It's very unfortunate. But there are a number of words that we have just sort of stretched beyond recognition in our culture, and one of them is discernment. And when I say our culture, I mean Christian culture. When many Christians talk about discernment and they say, you know, I have the gift of discernment, what they mean when they say I have the gift of discernment is the same thing that a medium or a soothsayer means when they say I have second sight, it's actually mysticism to which they refer. Many people say I have to give the discernment, and what it means is I can look at a person and know things about that. That's the occult. That's mysticism. Okay, that's mysticism. And right there, when we're using the word that way, we need to go back to our foundation of a little Princess bride theology. You keep on using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means. It means something different. Discernment doesn't mean the ability to look at something and see what is beyond. Discernment is actually more akin to the word discrimination. It's the ability to make an assessment of things. That's what it means. To make an assessment of things. Not to have some sort of secret knowledge you know in the back of your mind or burning in your belly. That's not that's not Christianity. That's something else. The gift of discernment is not something you fall out of bed and acquire. It's something that's developed through discipline. And so when we talk about discerning the Lord's body, there's a couple of things here. One, there is a call here to self examination. Obviously, let a person examine himself. We do not examine ourselves, however, in search of personal worthiness. That's not the examination. When we go and examine ourselves before the Lord's supper, when we have our time before the Lord's supper. It's not navel gazing, you know, to see you know, how am I doing. It's not even it's not scorekeeping either. It's not Okay, let me go over my week, you know, let me see if I did more good stuff than bad stuff, and let me make sure. That's not examining yourself. Here's the problem with that. I've said it before, I'll say it again. There is a huge problem with that. When people say, well, you know, I'm not going to take the Lord's supper this week. Why Well, because I examined myself and I just don't feel like I'm worthy. That's hugely problematic, not for this week, but for last week. Huh. Yeah. The problem is last week you thought you found worthiness in yourself, and so you took the Lord's supper because you thought you found worthiness in yourself. You took it in an unworthy manner, because you thought you were worthy. What Yeah, When we examine ourselves, what we look for is faith and dependence upon Christ, because that's the only way that we're worthy to come to the table, not because of what we've done, but because we find ourselves trusting and believing and hoping in Christ and Christ alone for our salvation and our righteousness. So what we look for is trust. What we look for is faith. What we look for is repentance. That's what we're looking for when we're examining ourselves. And so ironically, there are many who turn this around and go through a self examination only to put themselves in a position of being unworthy partakers of the Lord's table and guilty concerning the body and the blood. Why because I checked my heart and this week I'm good. Last week not so much. This week I'm good. The great irony in that is that's a surefire. Way to take the cup and to take the bread in an unworthy manner, because you actually believe that you can perform well enough throughout the week to make yourself worthy to come here and take these elements. And nothing can be further from the truth. Our self examination is all about funding ourselves, trusting in Christ. We examine ourselves in search of repentance, in search of faith, and in search of communion, communion with Christ through our repentance and faith. Because therein is my worthiness. I am indeed communing Christ. I am trusting in Christ alone. From my salvation. I am found in Christ. I am clothed in His righteousness, sinful though I may be. And then secondly, communion with the brethren. Communion with the brethren. In terms of this communion with Christ. Listen to this again from the Confession paragraph two. In this ordinance, Christ is not offered up to his father, nor any real sacrifice made at all for remission of sin for the quick or the dead. Now this is important. This statement in the Confession is important, and this theological reality is also important because not only does Roman Catholicism bring in the doctrine of transubstantiation, the argument that the elements actually become the literal and physical body and blood of Jesus, but you need to understand that in Catholicism, the priest is calling upon Christ to be crucified afresh and anew, and to be offered afresh and anew. And it is said that when the chriest, when the priest demands this of our Lord Christ bows his head in humble submission, so that the priesthood even has authority over Christ. This is blasphemy. This is blasphemy. The Roman Catholic celebration of the Mass is not a different way to take the Lord's supper. It is blasphemous paganism, and it is insulting to Christ and injurious to the Gospel. The confession continues, but only a memorial of that one offering up of himself by himself upon the cross once for all, and a spiritual ablation of all possible praise unto God for the saying, so that the popoush sacrifice of the Mass, as they call it, is most abominable, injurious to Christ's own and only sacrifice the alone propitiation for all the sins of the elect. And so we look for communion with Christ, and we look for communion with the brethren. And so those same commands about forgiving one another and loving one another, and putting down your gift, and going and being reconciled with your brother, these sane things apply. And this is why we have moments for that between the sermed and the Lord's Supper, not because we need to go and check off those boxes so that we can make ourselves worthy, but because when we prepare ourselves for this table, it is all about communion. And so when there is sin in me that is not confessed and dealt with, and I'm about to take the Lord's Supper, what do I do? I confess and I repent when there is brokenness between me and my brother? What do I do? I repent and I confess. If you've been here at GFBC for any length of time and you take the Lord's table, seriously, you understand what I'm about to say. The regular and right application of the Lord's Supper does wonders for repentance in personal relationships. There's just something about not get and along with your spouse on Saturday night when you know you've got to take the Lord's Supper on Sunday morning. Amen, somebody, And not that I know this from personal experience, but there's something even more significant. Stephen told me one time about trying to be ready to present the Lord's Supper and preside over the Lord's Supper when things aren't right between you and your spouse. That this is what I heard okay, but no, in all seriousness, when you take the Lord's supper seriously, you can't help but have that check in your conscience when there is a sin that is abiding in you, a sin that you are cherishing, and you know you're about to come before the Lord's table, or when there is brokenness in those close and intimate relationships and holding on to those things and refusing to let those things go. Right before you come to this table, participate in this communion and fellowship and offering of worship up to Christ for having forgiven us and made us right through his broken body and his shed blood. We respond with humble repentance and solemn rejoicing. But then there's this call to discern the body. First, this call to self examination, and then this call to discern the body. Let a person examine himself then, and so eating the bread and drinking the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body, what does it mean to discern the body? What this means, quite frankly, is that you understand that these things have been set apart from their ordinary use, and that you treat them as such, That you treat these things as though they have been set apart from their ordinary use for a sacred use. That you don't treat these things. It's just not ordinary bread, ordinary wine. No, it's not. It's not the same thing. It's not the same thing. Why why is it not the same thing? Because Christ himself has set apart this occasion to make them something other than the same thing. It's not ordinary. This is why he tells tells the corinthe if you're hungry, take care of that at another time. You're thirsty, take care of that at another time. Because this is not just to bite the bread and a sip of wine. It's not. And this is the danger when you know you react, You react to the sacramental sacerdotal treatment of the Mass by Roman Catholicism, and you react to transubstantiation, and you run headlong in the other direction, and all of a sudden all you have is just empty memorial, no meaning, and no sacredness at all. There's a ditch on both sides of the road. This is a means of grace. Calvin comments on this, says, they handle the sacred body of Christ with unwashed hands mark seven to nay more, as if it were a thing of naught they consider not how great is the value of it. They will therefore pay the penalty of so dreadful a profanation. Do we believe this or has it just become empty ritual? Do we believe this? Or have we moved so far away. From the unbiblical side of this that we now make it empty memorial and pay no attention to the fact that this is communion Christ with his body, with his blood, with his people, that we are partaking in those real benefits. He goes on. Then Calvin does to list eight ways in which this profaning is taking place. And you know, I kept saying, you know, maybe I'll take one of these and use them as an example. And I was going, now, yeah, we need that one. Yeah, that one too, Yeah, that one. So I have all eight listed here, and then a few for us. And this is in Calvin, And granted, most of this he's saying in reference to Roman Catholicism. And so he's writing here in the sixteenth century about the way that Roman Catholicism Sacramental Sacerdotal transubstantiation abuses the Lord's table. And I want you to listen, because most of these things today are true of us and our culture. He writes, if in Paul's time an ordinary abuse of the supper could kindle the wrath of God against the Corinthians, so that he punished them thus severely, what ought we to think as to the state of matters at the present day? And I would argue again, we have situation here that's just as bad, if not worse. We see throughout the whole extent of popery, not merely horrid profanations of the supper, but even a sacrilegious abomination set up in its room. In the first place, there is number one, it is prostituted for filthy lucre and merchandise. That's number one. Secondly, it is maimed by taking away the use of the cup. Again at times, and sometimes even today, the people get the bread but not the cup. Thirdly, it is changed into another aspect by its having become customary for one to partake of his own feast separately, participation being done away. I'll say more about that in a moment. Fourthly, there is there no explanation of the meaning of the sacrament, but a mumbling that would accord better with a magical incantation or the detestable sacrifices of the gentiles than with our Lord's institution. There's no explanation of it. It's just empty ritual and we go do it. We don't know what is this? What does it mean? I don't know. Just do it. This is what we do. Fifthly, there is an endless number of ceremonies, abounding partly with trifles, partly with superstition, and consequently manifest pollutions. Sixthly, there is the diabolical invention of sacrifice, which contains an impious blasphemy against the death of Christ. That's what I meant by that whole idea, that Christ is called upon by the priest to offer himself once again in that moment. Seventhly, it is fitted to intoxicate miserable men with carnal confidence, while they present it to God as if it were an expiation, and think that by this charm they drive off everything hurtful and that without faith and repentance. Name more, while they trust that they are armed against the devil and death and are fortified against God by a sure defense, they venture to sin with much more freedom and become more obstinate. With this one. I can't help but think about you know the. Old Mafia movies, you know where people who are engaged in the most horrendous forms of sin and crime, and yet they come. To the church for all of its rituals. And this is what happens when you turn it into something like this eighth lely an idol is there adored in the room of Christ. In short, it is filled with all kinds of abomination. But what about our day? What are the ways in which we fall short in this regard? What are the ways in which we profane the Lord's Supper? Well, first, failure to observe it at all. Failure to observe it at all. There are a number of you, and I've had conversations with some of you who have been at churches where you literally could not remember the last time that they partook of the Lord's Supper. This is a way that we profane it by considering it a thing unnecessary. The top two arguments for not doing the Lord's Supper on a regular basis. Number one, we don't have time. We have time for a thirty forty five minute concert, smoke and lights and everything else, but we don't have time for the Lord's Supper. We got time for a skit for a drama, but we don't have time for the Lord's Supper. The second argument is that we don't want it to become jaded. We don't want people to become jaded. We don't want it to become empty ritual because we do it over and over and over again. You mean, like you have a thirty forty five minute concert every week, like your alter calls. Amazing. Things that we don't find in scripture were absolutely committed to at all costs. And this thing that we do find in scripture, we don't have time for, and we don't want people to become jaded. Secondly, when we do it, it becomes a production. So first we don't do the Lord's Supper. Secondly, when we do the Lord's Supper, the lord Supper becomes a production, and in essence it's no longer an ordinary thing. And so then we make it a special ceremony. Then, so there's ordinary worship and then there's this special ceremony. So now, for example, someone's about to die, someone's about to die, we come in and then we bring the Lord's Supper, because that's the heavy duty stuff. When things get real serious and you need something more than the ordinary. No, this is an ordinary means of grace. This is not extraordinary. Somebody's about to go off to war. Now we're going to have a special service and a special communion, And all of a sudden, instead of being part of the ordinary means of grace, it becomes something else. It becomes something extra. And when we do that, unwittingly, what we've done is we've reduced the significance of worship itself. Because now we've said that when we gather here these ordinary means, when we're reading the scriptures, and when we're praying, and when we're explaining the scriptures, and you know, when we're when we're singing, you know, these these songs the faith, when we're doing this, when we're doing these ordinary things. Yeah, that's that's one thing that's kind of you know, run of the mill sort of stuff. But there is another level that you can go to. There is another. Notch that you can bump it up, and that is you can actually have a Lord Supper service. This turns the Lord Supper into idolatry, and it also reduces the significance of what we do when we gather the together each and every Lord's day. This is unacceptable. This is unacceptable. And there are other ways that we profane the Lord's Supper. I told you on last week when we talk about talked about the elements of the Lord's Supper. You know that we talk about the u using bread and wine, and how there's a story, a literal story, a true story of a church in California that had a service on the beach and for the Lord's Supper they served coke and chips. This is profaning the Lord's Supper. This is completely and utterly unacceptable. Let a person examine himself then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For everyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment to himself. Discerning the body means recognizing the significance of these elements because of what they refer to, because of the meaning that Christ himself has poured into them. Thirdly, we have to know the relationship between sin and judgment. Verses thirty to thirty two. The very difficult part of this passage. This is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world. And that judgment that is being used there again and again and again. So we're not talking about condemnation that happens to us, because the condemnation is what happens to the world. There is this judgment that is discipline for us and not condemnation for us who are believers. Several things we have to understand. There is not a one to one correlation here, So there's a way that we can sort of go off and wander off into error in that regard as well. And so you. Leave here and on Sunday evening you develop a fever and a stomach ache, and you immediately say, there, I must have profaned the Lord's supper because God gave me this fever and this stomach ache. Because there's not a one to one correlation here. Paul is not saying that, you know, for every instance wherein you've taken this the wrong way, there is an instance wherein God directly links a sickness to your That's not the point that he's making here. It's not a one to one instance, this is an allusion to the fact that sin affects our whole person. Sin affects our whole person. And I was thinking about this and running through this, and it's interesting you talk to people about this, and we have kind of an aversion to this. We have kind of an aversion to the idea that sin can make you sick, and aversion to the idea that there are other things that we can suffer, other physical maladies that we can suffer that are related directly to our sin and the way that we handle our sin or don't handle our sin. But some of the. Same people who have a problem with that have absolutely no problem with the idea of stress related sickness. Isn't that interesting. So the doctor who doesn't believe in God tells you, well, you got too much stress in your life. You need to relieve your stress, and you'll go out and start taking a yoga class. Rooted and grounded and grossly unbiblical mysticism. But somebody tells you that sin could be related to sickness, and you go, yeah, I'm just not sure that I'm with all of that. Again, if you can't say hey, man, you ought to say out isn't that ironic. We're trying to do everything that we can. We need to get closer to work. Why, Well, because you're commute is stressful and that's not good for you in the long run, and there could be sicknesses related to that. So you need to get closer to work. We're trying to exercise more. Why. Why do you want to exercise more? Well, because when you exercise, you reduce your stress, and we know that stress can contribute to a lot of the sicknesses that you have. We're trying to find ways to reduce the clutter in our lives. Why, Because that clutter in our lives can be stressful, and we know that stress can contribute to sickness in your life. We're trying to avoid other sort of stressful situations because we know that elevated levels of stress can contribute to sickness in your life. But when was the last time that you thought about your sin in this way? Isn't it interesting? Because you know your sin is stressful, Amen, go sin and try to hide it for a while. That was rhetorical, by the way, not exactly the kind of experiment your pastor really wants you to go and conduct. But here's the fact, you don't have to conduct an experiment, because every one of us in this room has already conducted that experiment. You told the lie, and you had to cover it up with another lie, and you had to cover up that lie with another lie, and all of a sudden, you didn't want to be around people. You didn't want to look them in the eye. Food didn't taste good to you anymore. How ironic, the medical community tells us about stress related illness, and we will go readjust our entire lives and never blink. But the Bible tells you about sin related illness, and all of a sudden you want to start rereading the scripture so that you can explain that away. James five verses thirteen to sixteen. Is anyone among you suffering, let him pray? Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise? Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power, as it is working right there. It's right there. You cannot separate these things. We are whole beings, and sin in your life affects you physically, spiritually, and emotionally. And that's true when it comes to profaning the Lord's table, because when you're taking sin lightly, you're taking the table likely you're walking in sin, you're walking in deception. And you come and you sit before this table, unrepentant, and you partake and this ordinary means of grace, and this communion with Christ and his blood, this communion with the people of God. And over and over an over again you do this, and over and over and over again. You stuff down and hide that sin that you love so dearly, and you will not turn away from. Don't you dare think for a moment that that won't affect you. It most assuredly will, it, most assuredly does. God is not mocked. Whatever a man reaps, that will be also sew. This is a warning to the profane and the insincere, insincere Paul is not saying here that there's a one to one correlation and that this is the way that you know that you're doing this the wrong way. No, No, that's not what he's saying here. He's simply making an allusion to the fact that this is that serious and that there is a link here and our walk with Christ and our walk with one another. Okay, then what's the right use of these means? Dot he be scared? Do need to be nervous? Well? Yes, and no, listen to this. Zecarius eu Sinius in fifteen sixty three wrote this, Those who are displeased with themselves because of their sins, but who nevertheless trust that their sins are pardoned and that their continuing weakness is covered by the suffering and death of Christ, and who also desire more and more to strengthen their faith and to lead a better life. Those are the ones who partake hypocrites, and those who are unrepentant, however, eat and drink judgment on themselves. The difference in the worthy and the unworthy partaker at the Lord's table is not that one sins and the other doesn't. It's that one acknowledges sin and repents of sin and trusts in Christ's and knows that there is no worthiness in himself, but the worthiness that he finds in Christ. And the other one believes that he's just fine. He's better than most people, and that's good enough. Besides, it's just bread and wine. That's the one who profanes the table. So we're to come to the table sober, not afraid, reverent, not trembling, rejoicing not smug, humble not beaten down. That is how we come and partake of the Lord's table in a worthy manner. Let's break, Father, as we bow before you, and as we consider what we are about to do, Grant by your grace that we might consider it in humility and reverence, repentance, thanksgiving, come with overwhelming gratitude and joy. Thank you for the worthiness that is found not in us, but in the person and work of Christ. Grant by your grace that we might commune with him through the bread, through the wine, through our remembrance of his sacrifice, and through our participation in the body and the blood, our coynanea with the body and the blood. Grant this we pray and Christ's name and for his sake. Amen,