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Look, tonight we're going to be sharing in the Lord's Table. It's also known as the Lord's Supper. In most churches that I've been part of, when they have the Lord's Supper, we have a tiny piece of bread and a little bit of grape juice and we remember the death of Jesus Christ. And there's nothing wrong with that in of itself. But there's a reason why it's called supper. Because obviously the word supper is synonymous with the word dinner. And so when we get together to remember the Lord's death and have the Lord's Supper, we're also going to meet together to eat and to share together, have a bit of fellowship and then we'll take a time to remember the body and the blood of Jesus Christ. But I want you to notice in 1 Corinthians 11 29, it says, For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. Title for the sermon tonight is, Discerning the Lord's Body. Discerning the Lord's Body. Now you can see here that if we partake of the Lord's Supper and we don't do it worthily, we are drinking damnation or condemnation, judgement, from God upon ourselves. And so it's important that we discern. You know, if you look up a dictionary definition for the word discern, you'll come up with something like having a good judgement or a good understanding of whatever topic at hand it is. And of course the topic at hand is the Lord's body. And so really what I want to do tonight is, you know, I want you to be able to discern the Lord's body. I want you to understand the importance of it and the difference, I suppose, between the body and the blood and the different aspects that this relates to in our understanding of his death, suffering and payment for our sins. Now we are going to come back to 1 Corinthians 11. But come with me now to John 6. Come with me to John 6 because I want to show you a group of people that did not discern the Lord's body properly. Okay, they were lacking understanding. And the first time that Christ really teaches on this topic in depth comes from John 6 and this is where even the Roman Catholic Church gets all mixed up. But in John 6, verse 53. John 6, verse 53. I'll give you a bit of context leading up to this. Jesus Christ was talking to the Jews about the manna that rained down from heaven when the Old Testament Israelites came out of Egypt and they wandered in the wilderness and they got hungry and the Lord God fed them with manna. Now they're talking about that manna being this miracle but Jesus Christ points out that even though they ate of that manna they still died. They still perished. And then he compares the manna with the food or the meats that he is able to offer us which gives us everlasting life. And so he says in John 6, 53 Then Jesus said unto them, 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. So Jesus Christ is making it very clear that we must eat of his flesh, we must drink of his blood or we don't have life in us. And of course the life that Jesus Christ is speaking about here is everlasting life. Now this is where the Roman Catholic Church you know, they don't understand. You know, they'll start teaching when they do communion when they do mass and communion they'll say when they do the magic prayer or the magic rituals, you know. They'll say that the bread or that little wafer has turned into Christ's literal flesh. So as you're eating of that wafer as it's going down your body you've actually taken a bite out of the arm of Jesus or something like that. And they believe as you drink of that grape juice that as it's going down it's actually the blood you're actually drinking the blood of Jesus Christ. And obviously they take this way too far. Okay? Way too far. In fact as we keep going I want to explain to you what Jesus Christ is teaching here. But he says in verse 54 Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life and I will raise him up at the last day. So if you have eternal life right now you know the moment you believe in Jesus Christ you're given everlasting life aren't you? If you have that right now then you have eaten of his flesh. You have drunk of his blood. Okay? Then he says in verse 55 Whoso eateth my flesh is meat indeed and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me and I in him. As the living Father hath sent me and I live by the Father he that eateth me even he shall live by me. So you know as you can see Jesus Christ is not at this moment he's not clarifying literal from symbolism. It's all very literal teaching. It seemingly seems like a very literal teaching from Jesus Christ. Then he says in verse 158 This is that bread which came down from heaven not as your fathers did eat manna and are dead he that eateth of this bread shall live forever. So everlasting life is based on the consumption of receiving Christ's body and his blood. Now as we keep reading I want you to notice this because the title of the sermon tonight is Discerning the Lord's Body. And I want to show you that the audience that Jesus Christ is teaching this to have not discerned the Lord's body properly. They've not understood what Christ is teaching. Cause it says in verse 159 These things said he in the synagogue as he taught in Capernaum many therefore of his disciples when they heard this said this is a hard saying Who can hear it? Many of them actually believe in him I don't understand what Jesus Christ is talking about. How can we eat of his body? How can we drink of his blood? They don't understand the teaching that Christ is saying here. Then verse 61 When Jesus knew in himself that his disciples murmured at it, he said unto them Doth this offend you? So what are you saying? This teaching is offending people. Could you imagine if actually salvation was literally in the body of Jesus? Was actually literally drinking his blood. It's like where do we find the body of Jesus right now to take a bite of his flesh and drink of his blood like a vampire? So look if we take it that way you know it is kind of offensive. How do I do that? Then he says in verse 62 What? And if you shall see the son of man ascend up where he was before. Now notice this Notice this He says in verse 63 It is the Spirit that quickeneth The word quickeneth is to make alive You know it's the Spirit We're born of the Spirit We're revived by the Holy Spirit of God the moment you trust on Jesus Christ Notice he's saying it's not his flesh like his literal flesh that quickeneth It's not that that gives you everlasting life It says the flesh profiteth nothing Like if you could get a hold of Jesus' flesh It's not going to benefit you It's got to be a work of the Holy Spirit within you It says the words Look at this, it makes it clear The words that I speak unto you They are spirit and they are life So how do we consume the body of Jesus Christ? By receiving the words that he speaks unto us Spirit, this is life Verse number 64 But there are some of you that believe not Now it makes it even clearer How do we receive the words? How do we receive the Spirit? By believing By believing on his body, his blood as the payment and sacrifice for our sins He goes but there are some of you that believe not So they've not been born again They've not eaten of the body of Christ They've not drunk of his blood Spiritually speaking Then he says For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not and who should betray him So We're talking about these students and the Lord's body These early Jews as they believed on Christ and some of them didn't believe on Christ You can see some of them here They struggled with the teaching Until Christ clarified, look, it's spiritual teaching The way you consume is by believing Believing the words, believing the message of his body and of his blood That's how we're born of the Spirit That's how we receive everlasting life You don't need to find some priest who's going to do a magic trick and turn the wine into literal blood of Jesus I mean they're making the same mistake You know They're taking this teaching from a carnal fleshly perspective That profits nothing But when you believe the words of Jesus Christ When you believe the gospel message You've received the spiritual life, the everlasting life So this is understanding the body of Jesus Christ Okay His body was a very physical body Yes it was a sacrifice But we eat of it, we consume of it When we believe on the gospel message of his sacrifice of his body Come with me to Luke 22 Luke 22 and verse number 13 please Luke 22 and verse number 13 Luke 22 verse number 13 Let's fast forward a little bit in the ministry of Jesus Christ This is obviously the night before he's arrested And This is when they come together for the Passover meal They're eating together And in Luke 22 verse number 13 Luke 22 verse number 13 It says 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 it unto them saying This is my body which is given for you This too In remembrance of me So this is known as the Last Supper I guess it is the Last Supper as far as the Last Supper the disciples shared together before Christ was taken and crucified But it's not really the Last Supper because what we're doing tonight is a continuation of that Last Supper or the Lord's Supper or Communion as it is known in the Bible Come with me to Hebrews 9 please And while you're turning to Hebrews 9 I want you to just remember the words of Jesus He says In remembrance of me This is the commandment This is something that we as a church body need to do from time to time People ask me the question How often do you do it? Jesus doesn't give us a commandment But he tells us that it is something that we ought to do And I personally think the best time to do it is leading up to Easter Because that is the time that he died And of course when we think of Easter On the Australian calendar It's always different It's in March this year I think it was in April last year Why is that? Because our calendar follows the solar cycles And of course the Jewish calendar The Passover is based on the lunar cycles And so it changes as far as the dates on our calendar system But it's good to remember This is the time when Christ had the Last Supper I believe it is a good time to have the Lord's Supper as a church around this time Sometimes I also have it leading up to Christmas And sometimes someone might say Pastor, I feel like we haven't had the Lord's Supper in a while Especially if they've missed it Then I might do one, just randomly another one during the year And some churches do it every once a month Some churches do it once a week It really depends But there is no direct command how often that we should do it But the command is that we should do it It's something that is important for us to remember To contemplate, to have a memorial of what the death of Jesus Christ was 2000 years ago and his suffering on the cross But in Hebrews 9 Look at verse 15 Hebrews 9, 15 It says And for this cause he speaking of Jesus is the mediator of the New Testament And by means of death for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance Now when it says those that the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament we're talking about the Old Testament saints But notice that he is also the mediator which they are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance What it's saying here that even those that died under the Old Testament their salvation, their eternal inheritance was still Jesus Christ Obviously they had the system of the sacrificial lambs and the goats and the bulls and all that kind of it But all of that was to show them or to communicate to them that Jesus Christ will one day die on the cross pay for their sins and rise from the dead It says in verse 16 For where a testament is there must also of necessity be the death of the testator For a testament is a force after men are dead Otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator liveth This is essentially the same as how we think of a will My wife and I we put together a will some years ago that if her and I ever pass away, you know we had some instructions with what was to be done with our children some instructions what's to be done with our property and our money and all that kind of stuff But that testament or that will is not in effect while we're alive Don't tell my kids this But it's in effect after we pass away And then they get the benefits of it after we pass away When it comes to the New Testament it's the same It came into effect at the death of the testator which is Jesus Christ It says here in verse 17 Sorry verse 18 Whereupon neither the first testament was dedicated without blood So it's saying the first testament being the old testament it was dedicated with blood And then it says here For when Moses had spoken to all the people according to the law he took the blood of calves and of goats with water and scarlet wool and hyssop and sprinkled both the book and all the people So how did the first testament come into effect? By the death by the sacrifice of calves and goats then the blood of those creatures were taken mingled with water with hyssop certain herbs given upon the people I mean that's pretty gross I think if you're living in the old testament days and you're following after Moses he's taught us all the laws of God and we're like yes we'll become the people of God under this old covenants or under the first testament as it says here and then Moses went around sprinkling everybody with the blood of these goats and calves God man there's blood on me Yeah yeah yeah but again what is it showing? What is it testifying of? We've trusted on him His blood is put upon you His blood cleanses you from your darkness and sin before the almighty creator and he sees us cleansed by the precious blood of our Lord Jesus Christ Amen It says in verse number 20 saying this is the blood of the testament which God has enjoyed unto you Moreover he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry and almost all things that are by the law perched with blood and without shedding of blood is no remission without shedding of blood there is no remission It's saying here there is no other way that God could have remitted us of our sins There's no other way that God could have forgiven our sins except by the shedding of blood Now as we keep going we'll find out the blood of the bulls and the calves It's not enough, it's not good enough The only blood that could save us, the only blood was the blood of God Because you take my blood It's got a sinful condition I mean some of your blood might even be tainted with what kinds of issues Right, you know a lot of people have health issues because their blood's not good But it had to be the blood of God The blood of our Lord Jesus Christ And if we continue there in verse number 23 It was therefore necessary Now this is important That the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these But the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these The Bible's saying here that the first covenant the Old Testament was following a pattern that was in the heavens But on the earth, yes they used animal blood on the earth But it says here to sanctify the heavenly things with better sacrifices than these Better sacrifice, well what is a better sacrifice than the blood of bulls and goats and calves and all this We know it's the blood of Jesus The Bible's telling us here, you know just giving us a hint that the blood of Jesus Christ is in heaven You know that it was sprinkled on the mercy seat of heaven Which was a, you know what was on the earth was just a pattern of what was in the heavenly realms Chapter 24 For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands So what's the holy places made with hands? That's the earthly tabernacle or the earthly temple Christ did not enter into that temple and shed his blood there It says which are the figures of the true So what's the true in heaven? The mercy seat in heaven It says but into heaven itself Now to appear in the presence of God for us So Jesus went to heaven shed his blood okay put it there and there his blood testifies It's there in the presence of God for us Another reason why you can't lose your salvation is because the blood of Jesus Christ is testifying of his salvation to us in heaven right now before God So before God even is able to look down to earth and see our sins which we still commit to this day because we're not perfect the blood of Christ is saying no no it's all been paid for it's all been covered in heaven. Praise God for that Verse number 25 Not yet that he should offer himself often So Jesus didn't have to offer himself or die often for us As the high priest enterth into the holy place every year with blood of others For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world So it's not necessary for Jesus to continue suffering Otherwise he would have had to keep suffering since the foundation like every year we're going to have to crucify Christ over and over again Again when the Catholics get it wrong don't they? Because every time they have mass they're pretty much saying Christ is crucified all over again and again and again and again and again. Obviously their salvation is null and void They haven't discerned the body of Jesus Christ They don't understand the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ Verse number 27 As it is appointed unto men once to die but after this are judgments so Christ once offered to bear the sins of many and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many. How often? Once 2000 years ago Christ came to this earth lived a holy life He's the testator of the New Testament He came to offer his body his broken body that we may be able to consume his flesh and his blood, that we could receive everlasting life and everything before in the Old Testament would just be a picture, a pattern, an image of what truly would happen of the true of the true sacrifice, Jesus Christ truly in heaven, in the temple and tabernacle that is located up there in heaven. Come with me now to 1 Corinthians 11 1 Corinthians 11 So we had the reading there in 1 Corinthians 11 so let's just break it down a little bit and just like last night for New Life Baptist Church, I'm not really trying to preach a sermon so much I just want to look at the death of Christ and just the different aspects that the Bible speaks about So as we come, my point today is just to point us back to Jesus, particularly his death we understand a little bit clearer maybe if there's been any confusion I don't want you drinking damnation to yourself I mean I don't think you would anyway, because this is a smart church but anyway, we still need to understand we don't want to be like Catholics and think as we're drinking that juice it's become blood or something like that No, we need to understand correctly what the Bible teaches But in 1 Corinthians 11 verse 17 Now, actually before I keep reading We need to understand the context We need to understand what's going on When you read the Corinthian church Look, okay, let me say something to you guys If you're ever like I'm thinking about leaving blessed up Baptist Church I don't know, I don't really like the people so much Whatever reason people come up with to leave church Before you decide to leave, before you ring me and say Pass, I'm thinking of leaving church Please read 1 Corinthians Because then you'll realize Our church is really good You're going to realize that This was a messed up church A messed up church You know what, God used Paul to write two epistles to this church Because God cared about this church getting things right And so they're all fighting amongst themselves There's divisions Some people say, I'm of Paul I'm of Apollos, I'm of Cephas They've got their favorite preachers Paul says, you're all carnal, you're all babes What's wrong with you guys? It just fell apart The church fell apart When you get to this, then you understand why he's talking about the context of everything that's going on here He says in 1 Corinthians 11.17 Now in this, I declare unto you I praise you not This is not praise worthy guys That you come together Not for the better Better, but for the worse Now I don't know about you but when I come to church When we come together I want it to be for the better I want to walk away and go, you know what I'm a little better today after I went to church You know, I had some fellowship I feel lifted I learned something from God's word I sang his praises You know, I was encouraged by the brethren or whatever it is Or maybe I was encouragement How about you come to church and go Who can I encourage? Take the other view Alright? When we come together It ought to be for the better But when they came together for church They came for the worse It was worse They're better off just being homes By themselves than coming together Because it just makes things worse and worse As this church continued Verse number 18 For first of all, when you come together in the church I hear that there be divisions There must also be heresies among you That's false beliefs That they which are approved may be made manifest among you Then he says in verse number 27 When you come together therefore in one place This is not to eat the Lord's supper So it's saying here, look This is what I believe it's teaching here That when they are coming together They're not eating the Lord's supper They might be calling at the Lord's supper They might even be Breaking the bread and drinking the grape juice But what they've been doing Because of their divisions It's not the Lord's supper Cause he says this in verse number 21 For in eating Everyone taketh other Sorry, before other his own supper And one is hungry And another is drunken He goes, you don't care about each other You know when the food's been offered There are some that are just so selfish They'll eat it all I don't care if there's anything left Right, it's like people are going for seconds or thirds Before someone's even had their first Okay, and it says look Some of you guys are hungry Other of you's are well drunken You've eaten well and you've drunk well But others are hungry like There's divisions, you don't care about each other This is why it's not the Lord's supper What, verse number 22, what Have you no hazards to eat and drink in Or despise you the church of God And shame them that have not Shall I say to you, shall I praise you in this I praise you not So when we come together to eat, we want to share We want everyone to, you know, eat together We don't want to be like okay pastor You get all the pizzas and the rest of us go hungry Well that's not the Lord's supper The Lord's supper is communion It's being together, fellowshiping together Serving each other Putting others before ourselves Like Christ put others He put a sinful mankind Before himself To sacrifice, lay down his life For you and I So when we come together to eat We ought to be remembering the mind of Christ And thinking about our brothers and sisters In the Lord as more important than me I'm going to serve them I'm going to let them go first And grab their slice of pizza or whatever we're going to eat tonight Now To give a little bit further context, we're in 1 Corinthians 11 Come with me to 1 Corinthians 10 Previous chapter 1 Corinthians 10 verse number 15 Obviously 1 Corinthians 10 comes before 1 Corinthians 11 So let's just get a bit of understanding here Let's understand what the purpose of the Lord's table Of the Lord's supper is 1 Corinthians 10, 15 The Bible says I speak as to wise men Judge ye what I say The cup of blessing Which we bless Is it not the communion Of the blood of Christ The bread Which we break Is it not the communion Of the body of Christ Now the Catholics use the word communion There's nothing wrong with the word communion itself The word com is like the Latin gone with Union, you know what union is Together United Communion, okay When we think about the blood and the body of Jesus This is what ought to unite us You know sometimes we're going to have Difference of opinions Sometimes we're going to look at passages People come up to me with the most cryptic passages Pastor, what do you think about this? And I'm like, what do you think? I'm not going to fight you over it If it's that cryptic and some secondary or tertiary issue You know But sometimes people get very emotional and heated up Did Adam have a belly button or whatever And then all of a sudden we're arguing amongst ourselves That's not communion We're coming for unity We're coming for unity together And what brings us together as a church If anything's going to bring us together As a church It's remembering the body and the blood of Jesus Christ That should be number one Okay It shouldn't be Pastor Kevin Sepulveda that brings us together Okay It shouldn't be You know, this is a post-trib church Post-trib pre-wrath, therefore I'm going to be part of this church You know, what should bring communion, togetherness Is the blood and body, the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ That's the most important thing in this church I don't care if you believe in the pre-trib rapture If you have the body and the blood of Christ with me We're together, we're communion with my brother and sister and the Lord We are to love each other That's what brings unity in our church Anytime there's division You know, this brother didn't say hello to me Or whatever it is I don't know what people fight about What's there to fight about with church brethren? I don't know I don't know why people have fights at church I don't get it I seriously don't get it But anytime we feel a certain dislike one for another You know what? I'm a sinner that was saved by grace By the blood of Christ, broken body And so was my brother who we just had an argument with And I'm going to love them because Jesus Christ loved them You know We're going to get along, we're going to have peace We're going to have unity In remembering the death of our Lord Jesus Christ Communion, being brought together That's why it says in verse 17 For we be many Are one bread And one body, one united Together For we are all partakers of that one bread Behold Israel after the flesh Are not they Which eat of the sacrifices Partakers of the altar What say I then? That the idol is anything? Or that which is offered in sacrifice to idols is anything? But I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice They sacrifice to devils And not to God I would not that you should have fellowship with devils So look, when we come together for communion We come together for church It ought not to be to bring in the ungodly Gentiles And their false religions And their idol worship And their false gods No, no, no We're coming together as the people of God Remembering the true God of the Bible And that's why it says in verse number 21 You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of devils You cannot be partakers of the Lord's table You cannot be partakers of the table of devils Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he? So communion, coming together to remember the Lord's death It's for believers Believers who make up one body The church The body of our Lord Jesus Christ It ought to bring us unity And you know what? I don't know I hate gossip If you ever want to try to turn me against the brother system of the Lord You're going to fail I'm not that kind of person that says These are my friends and if you guys don't get along I can't be your friends I'll be friends even if people are fighting I want unity I want peace and I want unity If you have any division Any arguments, any bitterness To what a brother system of the Lord today Before you take of that juice Before you take of that bread I want you to be able to forgive them Forgive them in your heart Then later on in the week Come back with me to I Corinthians 11 I Corinthians 11 Verse 23 I Corinthians 11 Verse 23 I Corinthians 11 Verse 23 I Corinthians 11 Verse 23 I Corinthians 11 Verse 23 I Corinthians 11 Verse 23 Verse 23 I Corinthians 11 Verse 23 Then he says For I have received of the Lord That which I also delivered unto you That the Lord Jesus 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 So you can see he's quoting what we read there in the book of Luke In the book of Luke And he's saying that you know the Lord Jesus Christ Told Paul these words in his teaching the church once again That we do this in remembrance of Jesus You know when it comes to certain religious holidays I guess in Australia The two ones are Easter and Christmas aren't they And nothing wrong with Christmas I think it's fine if you want to remember The birth of our Lord Jesus Christ But as far as a commandment from Jesus What we are to remember What we are to commemorate It's his death It's the Easter Like that's vastly more superior Than remembering the Christmas And now Christmas is wonderful don't get me wrong I'm not talking about the presents I'm not talking about the trees and the lights I'm talking about Jesus Christ's birth in Bethlehem's manger But Yes he came and was born praise God he had to But he was born to die He was born that he would be crucified And sacrificed for you and I To be all sufficient Before our Heavenly Father That we may receive by him And then it says in verse number 25 After the same manner also he took the cup And when he had stopped saying This cup is the New Testament in my blood This do ye Look at this as oft as you drink it In remembrance of me He doesn't say how oft often He just says as oft So really at the end of the day We as God's people we as a church are kind of up to Decide up to us how often we want to have that But again Jesus Christ says this is in remembrance of him So when we have the bread And we have the juice We're going to follow the same procedure We're going to give thanks I'm going to ask two men That can give thanks one man to give thanks For the bread One man to give thanks for the Grape juice that signifies or Testifies of the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ And look at verse number 26 For as often As ye eat this bread And drink this cup Ye do show the Lord's death Till he come So this is something we're going to continue Doing until he comes Until the second coming of Christ This is something that we must continue to do But see how in verse number 26 This is how we show the Lord's death So when someone says to you Show me the Lord's death What is that? What's the significance of the Lord's death? He says well this is the significance His broken body And his shed blood This is how we show the death of our Lord Jesus Christ And we do this till he comes Verse number 27 Wherefore whosoever shall Eat this bread And drink this cup of the Lord Unworthily Shall be guilty of the body and blood Of the Lord So notice after we have our dinner together And we break the bread and we drink the juice We need to drink of it Worthily Because if we drink of it unworthily The Bible says we're going to be guilty before the Lord Now You say what does that even mean pastor Number one The only way you can be worthy before God Is to be saved Let's just start with that Our righteousness is never worthy Enough for the eyes of our heavenly father So that's why it says in verse number 28 But let a man examine himself And so let him eat of that bread And drink of that cup So I can't examine you I can't say Brother so and so You're not worthy Step outside Sister yeah you're worthy You can participate It's not up to me It says let a man examine himself If you know you are saved You can drink worthily Of this cup And then it says in verse number 29 For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily Eateth and drinketh damnation To himself Not discerning the Lord's body Like I said the title for the sermon tonight Was discerning the Lord's body I want you to be able to understand What this is all about What this is symbolic of What it represents That you have been saved by our heavenly father And look at verse number 30 Look what the drinking damnation might look like in your life Verse number 30 For this cause or for this reason Many are weak and sickly among you If you ever participate at the Lord's table After this you just had this sudden sickness Or something For a moment for you to think hold on Did I drink of this worthily? And many sleep Many have passed away Because they have not participated of this worthily Now I don't know I've gone back and forth over this Over the years whether Judas Iscariot Partook of the Lord's table or not Some say he didn't some say he did When you read the book of Luke it appears that he did But I also know that the book of Luke is thematic And is not always in chronological order But let's just hypothetically Let's just say that Judas did eat Did partake of the last supper Maybe he didn't but let's just say he did The fact that he, not the fact because I'm saying hypothetically But if he did What was his end result? He ended up committing suicide He lost his life So we want to make sure Number one that we're saved Now it continues in verse number 31 For if we would judge ourselves Like we're going to examine ourselves If we would judge ourselves We should not be judged Okay God's not going to judge you It says but when we are judged We are chastened of the Lord That we should not be condemned with the world Okay So being condemned with the world is of course The world is dying without Jesus Christ They're going to suffer for all eternity in hell And so if God chastises you So this speaks of another layer of being worthy We know that as believers Positionally We are righteous In the eyes of our Father Because we're dressed in the righteousness of his Son The Lord Jesus Christ Positionally that will never change But we also know that As we walk In our spiritual life In our fellowship with our Father That as we walk through life When we commit sin And we're in darkness The Bible says in 1 John That we break our fellowship with our Father Because in our Father there is no darkness in him at all If we're walking in darkness We can still be saved but we're walking in darkness We're walking in sin We have unconfessed sin in our life Then we're not in fellowship with our Father So I believe it is just as important We're not going to be condemned with the world But we should examine ourselves We should judge ourselves And say Lord have I confessed my sins before you today Because I guarantee you've sinned this week There's probably sins that you've not even confessed to the Lord Because sometimes we sin and we forget You know We just forget Many times when we confess our sins before the Lord They might be the major ones The things that we struggle with the most But sometimes the smaller things The little bitterness The little hatred The little things that we might have toward people Or whatever it is We forget to mention it to the Lord Don't be surprised if right now we have some Unconfessed sin in our life And so before we do partake of the Lord's table I'm going to give you guys a moment To have a minute's silent prayer Again, positionally you're saved Nothing's going to change that You're not going to be condemned with the world But our walk might be a little dirty We want to make sure that we confess our sins before God That we're worthy not just in position But that we're worthy in our fellowship And walk with our God And then we can partake of that bread And that juice It says in verse number 33 Wherefore, my brethren, when ye come together to eat Tarry one for another, wait for each other So we can share together Verse number 34 If any man hunger, let him eat at home That ye come not together unto condemnation And the rest will I set in order when I come Paul is just saying, look, I'll fix you guys up when I come Because I had so many issues Other issues He's obviously trying to fix some issues in his epistles But he says when I come, I'll sort out everything else in the church But brethren, you know, obviously As we partake of the dinner after this service Let's wait for each other Then just jump in and eat Hey, let's give thanks to God for the food we're going to share together Let's enjoy Our fellowship one for another You know, remember the reason we can fellowship The reason we're gathered here to gather tonight Isn't because we had nothing else to do on a Thursday night We're here to remember our Lord We're here for our Lord Jesus Christ That's the communion, that's what brings us together And if we can do that We can do that as we share in fellowship Remembering our Lord Once we're done eating I'll start to prepare things for the Lord's table But the whole point for tonight Is to just simply remember The death, the body, the blood The sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ We're going to show the Lord's death Till he comes Okay, let's pray