The Observance of the Lord's Supper part 1 - The What, Who and How

Thank you for that worship. I thank everything that we have just sung. It's been packed full of truth. And it really sets us up for where we are going this morning. Always appreciate, really, Keith's worship. Very thankful for his gift to the church. Well, if you would, go ahead and take your Bible and turn to two different places with me. You already know one by now, Matthew 26. We will start with verse 27 and then mark Matthew's gospel and turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 11 starting in verse 24. We will be in both places this morning as we progress through the message. We will start with Matthew and then we will go to 1 Corinthians.

Tonight we will be back in that 1 Corinthians 11 passage. Now, as you know by now, today we're setting aside both the morning service and the evening service to look at the Lord's Supper. I'll go ahead and give you a heads up as to how our services will go. This morning we will study a little more in depth, the supper. And then we will look at some preparation this morning for the supper. And then tonight we will look at how we relate to the supper. It will be more personal tonight. And then we will observe the supper. We will worship by partaking in the supper at the end of the service.

Now you know by now that we're in our break, in our small group Bible studies that we've had on Sunday nights. Last Sunday night you worshiped with Brother Keith as he led. When I was out on vacation and tonight we'll be back together for the supper. Now a question to help get us started this morning. And the question is why are we taking the extra time on the Lord's Supper? Many of us have seen other churches where the supper, the practice of taking the supper has been done down.

Many of us have seen churches approach the supper in a very casual way As a matter of fact I've seen people even be downright carnal as they approach the Lord's Supper. Many worship practices in many churches have been relegated to casual and carnal. As a matter of fact some of us have come from churches much like this. I'll give us a few examples that will help us. Many churches coming to faith in Christ has been relegated to the casual. What I mean is many churches are not careful in how they deal with souls. Many churches are inundated with decisionism and easy-believism.

And you know people can quote-unquote come to faith in Christ in a very casual, casual manner. In many churches church membership has been relegated to the casual. In many churches you can join the church at the flip of a hat. It's really easy. You come down and say a few things and fill out a little card and you can be declared a member of the church. I will say that that's gone from casual to the carnal. In many churches music or worship through music has been relegated to the casual and the carnal. So much music in the life of the church is based on feeling and emotion. It is very little biblical truth and so much of what is sung today.

I would say it like this, much of the music that's sung in churches, you can't tell if it's being sung to your boyfriend or to the living God. Most of it would be more appropriate to not being sung to the Lord. One more that's on my list. In many churches baptism has been relegated to the casual. People can be baptized for all kinds of reasons today other than what the scriptures say. I've used this example before, I'll use it with another example. I'll never forget I saw a lady, a minister's wife who should know better. She declared from the pulpit that she was being baptized because she was delivered from the idol of food.

That's not even remotely scriptural. I've seen people be baptized because they just wanted to make sure if they were saved. Well, none of these things are biblical. This is just casual and carnal. And then in many churches they do observe the Lord's Supper in a very casual way. In a very casual and even carnal way. Now I said it earlier, many of us have come from churches like this. Now some of us are very far removed from this type of worship practice. But some of you, it seems like just yesterday, you were coming out of churches like this.

And you might say to me this morning, Pastor, here at Nola Baptist Church, we do not approach the supper or other things in the life of the church in this manner. And that might be the case. But we all need a reminder of the biblical standard. At times, we all need adjustments. We even might need corrections. And in all matters of church life, we must work very hard to keep ourselves at the biblical standard in our attitudes, in our approach, and in our actions. We want to maintain the proper spiritual attitude towards the Lord's Supper. We want to maintain the proper approach to the Lord's Supper.

And we want to maintain the proper actions in observing the Lord's Supper. In a more simplistic manner, we just want to do this right. And this is why at different times, we may take a little more time to study what the Scriptures say about the Lord's Supper. Because here, we want to lead you to observe the Supper in the right manner. Now, this morning, we're going to study the Lord's Supper by asking three questions. Three rather simple, but these can be profound questions. I'll put them on the screens before you. The first question is, what is the Lord's Supper? The second question, who is to take the Lord's Supper?

And the third question, how should we take the Lord's Supper? You see those questions are really bound up in the title of the message. I like titles. Titles kind of help us get our mind around what the Lord wants to bring to us. The title of the message is, "The Absorbance of the Lord's Supper," the "What," the "Who," and the "How." Again, simple questions, but I believe they will help us to elevate this to the standard that it should be. Now, I'm going to depart from my normal practice.

You all know when I go verse by verse, we're in our verse by verse studies, or even our topical studies, most of the time, this is at the place of the message where I'll read a passage. But I'm not going to do that. As we progress through the message, we will refer to the passages. So as we get started, don't be afraid. Don't say to yourself, "Oh, no, Brother Chris is leaving the verses." Now, I'm not going to do that. So let's start with our first major truth in our outline. It's in the form of a question.

So you could say our first major question this morning, "What is the Lord's Supper?" "What is the Lord's Supper?" Now, we need to see that the Lord's Supper is one of two ordinances that are instituted by Jesus and given to the church. The ordinances are as such. The first is baptism. And then the second is the Supper, or the Lord's Supper. Now, there are some in Christian circles they call these sacraments. Now, this is not an error. This is not to be confused with sacramentalism. And I know that's a long word, but you need to have in your mind what sacramentalism is.

Sacramentalism teaches that a right relationship with Christ can be attained by pertaining or participating in these events. This is one of the errors that our Roman Catholic friends have embraced. Now, there's an important difference between the ordinance of baptism and the ordinance of the Supper. Baptism is practiced one time in the believer's life. Baptism takes place at the beginning of the Christian life. Or you can say it like this, "When someone comes to faith in Christ, or they're converted to Christ." But participating in the Lord's Supper is to be repeated. It is a repeated practice all throughout the life of the believer.

Now, what about this term, the Lord's Supper? Most of you have heard this term all throughout your life and the life of the church. The term the Lord's Supper is found only one time in the New Testament. It is found in 1 Corinthians 11, verse 20. Now, that is a few verses up from where we'll start this morning, but you might want to note that. Now, the Apostle Paul uses a similar term, and this term, the Lord's Table, it is found in 1 Corinthians 10, verse 21. Now, the institution that the Apostle Paul calls the Lord's Supper here in Corinthians, it is spelled out in four different places in the New Testament.

Matthew 26, starting in verse 26, we looked at that earlier in our scripture reading. Mark 14, starting in verse 22. Luke 22, starting in verse 12. And then in 1 Corinthians 11, starting in verse 23. Now, we do not see the Lord's Supper explained in detail in the Gospel of John. We saw that in our study in the Gospel of John, but that's just the way the Lord inspired his scriptures. Now, in asking the question, "What is the Lord's Supper?" It would be good for us to see the background of the Lord's Supper. The background of the Lord's Supper. So, I'll refer us back to our Matthew passage.

Matthew chapter 26, I will refer to a few verses and read some, so you just follow me in your copy of God's Word. I want us to see the background here. Verse 17, "Now, on the first day of unleavened bread, the disciples came to Jesus saying, 'Where do you want us to prepare for you to eat the Passover?'" See, the background of the Lord's Supper is the Passover. And then in verse 18, he gives explicit instructions as to how to prepare for the Passover meal. They celebrate the Passover meal. Then there is a transition.

As a matter of fact, some of your English translations, above verse 20, it might say, "The last Passover," and then above verse 26, it could read, "The Lord's Supper instituted." See, they celebrated the Passover. Then there is a transition into what we call, "The Lord's Supper." So, here in Matthew, we see that Jesus instituted the Lord's Supper. He celebrated his last Jewish Passover meal with his disciples and then transitioned into the Lord's Supper. Now, this can lead to another question for some of you. What is the Passover, or what is this Passover celebration?

Simplistically, the Passover commemorated the nation of Israel's deliverance from Egyptian slavery. We see this in Exodus chapter 12 starting in verse 1. What is important to see is that the Passover celebration, specifically the Passover lamb, it was a picture of Christ, and it was a picture of Christ's substitutionary death on the cross. I like something I ran across this week from John MacArthur. He helps us see how the Passover is different from the Lord's Supper, and also he helps us see how the Lord's Supper relates to the Passover.

So, I'm going to read his quotation, and I quote, "The Passover looked back at the temporary rescue from physical bondage, and the Lord's Supper commemorates the eternal and spiritual deliverance provided through the new covenant. The lamb slaughtered during the Passover merely foreshadowed the sacrifice of the spotless Lamb of God who died on the cross to redeem sinners once and for all." Now, all of this information is helpful. We see where the term "the Lord's Supper" comes from. This is biblical. We see the background of the Supper, which is the Old Testament Passover celebration. It was just a picture of Jesus.

And we see the very important differences in the two. The Passover celebration looked back. It went back to a temporary deliverance from physical bondage, and the Lord's Supper commemorates the spiritual and eternal deliverance through Christ's sacrifice on the cross. But the question again, what is the Lord's Supper? The Lord's Supper is an ordinance. It is given by Christ to the church, whereby believers remember the atoning sacrifice for sin that was made by Christ on the cross. The bread of the ordinance is symbolic of the body of Christ, and the wide of the juice is symbolic of the blood of Christ.

Simply, the Supper is a perpetual memorial for Christ's followers so as to reflect on the significance of Christ's death on the cross. Now, I want to share with you quickly something that's very important. Some of you might have problems with this from your past, but we need to see what this is not. The Lord's Supper does not possess any saving qualities. Theologians might say it like this, "The Lord's Supper is not salvific," meaning that no one can attain salvation by participating in the Lord's Supper.

So if we revisit these two ordinances, baptism and the Supper, if we participate in baptism and in the Supper, it does not guarantee our salvation. It does not bring about salvation. It never has, and it never will. Now, in application, what should we take to heart in the mind in dealing with this question, "What is the Lord's Supper?" We should make sure that we see the Supper for what it is. Now, I don't say that to degrade it in any way. No, I want to elevate it to its biblical place. It is symbolic. It represents to us the atoning sacrifice of Christ on the cross.

And all throughout church history, there have been great debate as to the meaning of the Supper. We do not have time to get into the historical debates. We'll save that for another day and another time. But we need to have it affixed in our minds and our hearts and this is a symbol of what Christ did on the cross for us. Let's move on. Let's notice our second question, or the second question in our outline. That's before you. Who is to take the Lord's Supper? You might substitute the word "participate" with that word "take." Who is to participate in the Lord's Supper? Either way.

Now, to answer this question, we must look at two places in the Scriptures. We'll start off in Matthew 26 and then we'll move over into 1 Corinthians 11. Again, I hope that you've marked your places in your copy of God's Word so we can go back and forth easily. Now, to answer this question, I will make two observations out of these verses. These can be called subpoints in our outline. So two observations. First, Jesus gave this ordinance to the disciples. Jesus gave this ordinance to the disciples. Look back at Matthew 26, starting in verse 20.

"Now when evening had come, he was reclining at the table with the twelve disciples." What do we have here? They're celebrating the Jewish Passover. They're remembering what God had done for their forefathers. And of course, we know the remainder of the verses deal with Judas, traitor Judas, who betrayed Christ. But then notice verse 26, the transition. "And while they were eating, Jesus took some bread, and after he blessed it, he broke it and he gave it to the disciples and he said, 'Take it and eat it. This is my body.'" Again, that is a symbol of his body.

Verse 27, "And when he had taken the cup and he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, 'Drink from me at all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, or new covenant, which is poured out from me for forgiveness of sins.'" So here we see that after the Passover celebration, Jesus leads his disciples into the supper, the last supper, the Lord's supper. He first takes the bread and he gives it to the disciples, and it was a sign of his broken body. Second, he gives them a cup, and this cup was a sign of his blood, the sign of the new covenant that was spilled out for the forgiveness of sins.

And of course, this is a sign of what was to come, because right here in Matthew 26, Jesus had not gone to the cross yet, but this was a sign of his atoning sacrifice on the cross. Now, I mentioned earlier that the New Testament gives us four detailed accounts of the supper. Matthew, we're reading right here, Mark's account, Luke's account, and 1 Corinthians 11. Now, in Luke's account, we see two specifics that help us here. They help us see that Jesus gave this ordinance to the disciples. Luke shows us that Jesus commanded his disciples to continue in this supper.

Luke 22, 19 reads, "And he took the bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and he gave it to them, saying, 'This is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.'" So from Luke's account, we see that this is not a one-time ordinance or one-time event. Then Luke also shows us who was a part of the group. You might say, "It was the disciples, pastor." That's very obvious. But I want you to notice who is a part of the disciples. Traitor Judas, chapter 22, and verse 21 of Luke, "And likewise the cup after he had eaten, saying, 'This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant of my blood.

But behold, the hand of him who betrays me is with me on the table.'" Luke gives us this detail on purpose. This was part of God's predetermined plan, that Judas would be there at the table. This was not a mistake. So, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, we see that Jesus gives the ordinance to his disciples. And then our second observation, still answering the question, "Who is to take the Lord's supper?" We see that Paul teaches this ordinance to the New Testament church. If you would, turn over to our 1 Corinthians passage. 1 Corinthians, chapter 11. I will start with verse 23.

Paul says, "For I receive from the Lord that which I also deliver to you, and that the Lord Jesus in the night in which he was betrayed took bread." And now he transitions to the supper. "And when he had given thanks, he broke it, and he said, 'This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.'" In the same way, he took the cup. "Also, after supper, saying, 'This cup is the new covenant in my blood.

Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.'" And then he says, "For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes." Here we see that Paul, he gives to the Corinthian church what he had received from the Lord Jesus. Go back to verse 23. "For I receive from the Lord that which I also deliver to you." What do we see? Paul is giving to them what he had gotten from the Lord Jesus. But notice what Paul is giving them. He is giving the Corinthian church exactly what is seen and taught in the Gospels. He is giving them the ordinance of the Lord's Supper.

Now this is more significant than you know. Most Bible scholars believe that this letter to the Corinthians was written before any of the Gospels were put on paper. So most likely this account in 1 Corinthians is the first written record of the Lord's Supper being given. So in 1 Corinthians we see that the Apostle Paul gives the New Testament church this ordinance which was given by Christ to him. Again, this was not a one-time ordinance, just for the disciples. This was for the New Testament church as well. Now all of this information is important. We see who is to take the Lord's Supper.

This would be individuals who have been converted to Christ. First in Matthew's account, the disciples. And then in the Corinthian letter, the church. But this brings us to a question. Do we see a problem here in Matthew's account and do we see a problem with the Corinthian letter? Was it Judas lost? Wasn't he an unregenerate man? Yes, that's the case. Were all of these Corinthians here in the church saved? If you know the rest of the Corinthian situation, you know that Paul challenged them to evaluate their salvation. Because there were many in the church who were not converted. So how do we account for this?

What do we see with this reality? The Lord's Supper is for the church. But within the church on earth, there are those who are not redeemed. The church on earth is not perfect. We work hard to perfect the church, but it never will be perfect. There are tares among the wheat. There are goats among the sheep. And the church will always have those within her walls that are not truly of the church. They are not truly born again. Now, an application, what must we take to our mind and to our hearts? With this question, who is to take the Lord's Supper? We call you not to take the Supper if you do not possess peace that you are truly converted.

I say this repeatedly every time we come to the table. We ask you not to take the Supper if you do not possess a peace that you are truly converted. Romans 8, 16 says that the Spirit of God, capital S, Holy Spirit, bears witness with our spirit that we are truly children of God. It's the Spirit of God that tells us if we are born again or if we are not born again. Now, I know that this is a difficult thing for some. There are some that wrestle with their spiritual condition. And for some, this takes a great deal of time. Salvation is not like the flip of a switch on the wall. But what do we see?

We must work hard to know that we are converted if we are going to take the Supper. And I urge you, I urge you. Do not take the Supper if you do not have a peace and a confidence that you've been converted to Christ. And then our third question, it could be said, the third question in our outline. How should we take the Lord's Supper? How should we take the Lord's Supper? Now, all of these questions have been imported. The first one, what is the Lord's Supper? The second, who is to take the Lord's Supper? Most likely, we relate to these questions differently. And that's normal.

For some here, the question, what is the Lord's Supper was needed. There was some valuable information that was brought to you. For others, the question, who is to take the Lord's Supper really, really helped you. As a matter of fact, some of you seeing that we never can have the stage set perfectly really did help you. But this last question really needs to capture our attention. Truthfully, this is where many pastors and churches run the train right off the tracks. Now, we're going to answer this question. How should we take the Supper from the first Corinthians passage, really the remainder of the verses?

So let's go back to first Corinthians 11. We left off earlier at verse 26, but let's start with verse 27. We'll go on down to verse 34. The transition here, Paul says, "Therefore, whoever eats the bread and drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself, if he does not judge the body rightly.

For this reason, many among you are weak and sick, and a number have fallen asleep or died." Verse 31, "But if we judge ourselves rightly, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are disciplined by the Lord in order that we may not be condemned among the world." Verse 33, "So then, my brethren, when you come together to eat, wait for one another. If anyone is hungry, let him eat at home, so that you may not come together for judgment. In the remaining matters I shall arrange." In other words, sit straight when I come. Now, before we continue, I need to give us a little background to this Corinthian church situation.

Now, some of you know this, some of you might not know, but the Corinthian church was in a terrible state. They had allowed worldliness in the church. They had gone out into the world. There was lots of sin that Paul had to set straight. That's why he wrote two letters, and that's why he says, "I will come back to you to set some of these things straight." But specifically here, they had turned the Lord's Supper into a drunk fest. They were eating together, and the more wealthy and affluent were eating at the expense of the poor. That's exactly what is taking place here.

Verse 27 tells us that they were taking the Supper in an unworthy manner. They had a big celebration. They were drinking, even to the point of drunkenness, and the poor were being pushed out or relegated off into the corner. Verse 29 tells us that they were bringing judgment on themselves. Go back to verse 29, "For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself." Verse 30 tells us that some were sick, some were dying, and some had even died from this sin. That's what it means at the end of verse 30 when he uses this word "sleep." And verses 33 through 34, it's a summary of Paul's correction to them.

So we see the Corinthian situation. They were abusing the Lord's Supper. They were eating and drinking judgment on themselves. But out of the remaining verses here, we will see how we should take the Lord's Supper. Two observations out of these verses. First, they should have examined themselves. Look at verse 28, "But this but interjects this situation with the instruction, 'But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup.'" Here we have a key word, this word "examine." The old King James uses this word "examine." The modern translations use this word "examine." This word means to prove or to test.

And there is a word picture here. The picture here is of a metal worker who tests a metal to see if it is genuine or not. Paul is calling these people to examine themselves at many levels. He's calling them to examine the genuineness of their faith. He's calling them to examine the sincerity of their repentance in their supposed walk with God. He is calling them to examine the purity of their motives. But specifically, he is calling them to examine themselves and how they are participating in the Supper.

He is calling them to examine their attitude towards the Supper, their approach towards the Supper, and their very actions and how they are partaking of the Supper. The second observation, Paul says they should have judged themselves. Look at verse 31. Here's this "but," again, again, Paul is interjecting some instruction, but if we judged ourselves rightly, we should not be judged. Again, we have another key word, this word "judge." This word can mean examined or discerned. Paul is saying that if they had examined themselves or judged themselves and come to the correct judgment before, then they would not be under God's judgment now.

He is showing them that they had a responsibility to examine or judge themselves correctly, which should have led them to what? A great deal of repentance. He is showing them that they should have judged themselves before God had to judge them. Now it is necessary to see this Corinthian situation. Background and context is always important. This helps us see the outcome of not approaching the Supper correctly. They were guilty of approaching and taking the Supper in an unworthy manner, according to verse 27. They had a great feast, and yet judgment was upon them, according to verse 29.

"Therefore many in the congregation were weak, many were physically sick, and there were many who had even died. And they were under the judgment of God, according to verse 32." But we also see the grace of God here. God, through the Apostle Paul, is calling them to examine themselves in verse 28. He is calling them to come to a correct judgment in verse 31 concerning all of these matters. Simply, God is calling them to repentance. "Man, application, what must we take into our mind and heart and into our lives?" Our application is simple, but yet it is weighty.

We should examine ourselves as a metalworker would examine the genuineness of a metal. See, in that day, they would put the fire to a metal, and it would come to a liquid state, and the dross would come to the surface, and they would skim the dross off of the surface. They would take off the impurities. And we should allow the fire of God's Word and the fire of the Holy Spirit of God to examine our lives as well. We should examine our own faith against God's Word to make sure we are genuine. We should examine our own faith if we are truly in the faith.

If we go all the way to the end of the second Corinthians letter, chapter 13, we see that Paul calls some of them to examine if they were truly converted. And there are some here today that desperately need to examine themselves in light of God's Word. We should examine the sincerity of our repentance towards God and towards other people. After we're converted to Christ, we have to live a continual life of repentance. And we find ourselves from time to time having to make repentance, having to bring about a work of repentance in our life to God and also to man. We should examine the purity of our motives.

See, we can easily see actions, but motives are in the secret and hidden places of the mind in our heart. We should evaluate and examine our motives as we relate to others and our motives as we relate to God and our motives even as we come to the Lord's table. And we should examine our attitude, our approach, and our actions with the supper. And we should make sure that we have judged ourselves correctly. Isn't that what we see here in this 1 Corinthians 11 situation?

Paul is saying you should have judged yourselves correctly and we should make sure we judge ourselves accurately and correctly so that we do not find ourselves under the chastening and correction of God. I've known individuals who let the cup go by. They let the supper go by because they did not want to be in sin. So this is how we should take the Lord's supper. Now, in bringing the message to a close, what have we seen here today? What have we examined? It's simple, the title of the message, the observance of the Lord's supper. Tonight we will participate. We will observe the supper. But we've looked at the what, the who, and the how.

What is the Lord's supper? Who is to take part in the Lord's supper? And how should we take the Lord's supper? Now, in concluding the message, moving away from these passages, I want to make 3 points of application for you, for me, for all of us. And this is for the remainder of the day before we come back tonight. This afternoon, maybe it would do you some good to spend time in the Word, to spend time in prayer and reflect on what the supper truly is. Christ Himself came down from heaven, put on flesh.

He walked this earth, not as a sinner, but among sinners, taking one more step, every step towards the cross, as that substitutionary death on the cross, bearing the wrath of God for your sin and mine. And listen, the supper is a symbol of what Christ did. And maybe we should go and spend some time in prayer, time in the Word, reflecting on what the Lord's supper is. Now, I do not mean a casual reflecting. I mean time. I pray you have a secret place, a quiet place, a time away from the hustle and bustle, the ring of the phone, the busyness of home life.

I know that all of us have things that are calling our attention this afternoon, but I believe it would do us some good to just get before the Lord and read these passages, start with Matthew, look at Mark, examine what Luke says, go into these passages in 1 Corinthians 11, spending some time in prayer, meditating on these verses, and just reflecting on what the Lord has done for us. That's worship. Second, this afternoon, maybe some of you need to spend some time examining who you are. God brings people into the life of the church who are not converted. That's the way God operates.

We've seen this all throughout the journey of the Lord in the Gospel of John, all throughout Jesus' earthly ministry. There were all types of people who followed him. Sometimes they professed to know him, but they were not converted. And so there could be people here, and you need to examine who you are. You need to draw near to the Lord for God's salvation. See, the problem in our church culture today is we have been flooded with decisionism and easy believeism. Everybody that we run into has prayed a prayer and gone through the baptistry, but not many. So few are in Christ.

See, the question is whether we are a new creation in Christ, whether we have been born again, born from above. It's not enough to come sit on the pew. It's not enough to assimilate into a life with God's people. It's not enough to know all of the Bible answers. It's not enough to lead a good, clean, moral life. We saw that in the story of Nicodemus. Jesus cut straight to the chase and said, "Nicodemus, you must be born from God. You must be born again. You must be born from above." In all of my years, I've seen people come and sometimes spend extended periods of time among God's people and in the workings of the church.

And all along, God is bringing them to that place, bringing them to that place. Now, here's my instruction. Seek the Lord while He may be found. Now, I do not understand the mystery of that. The Scriptures teach that lost men are dead, dead in their trespasses and sin. And there's no way that a dead man can seek Christ, but, oh, the only way a dead man can seek Christ is when Christ is seeking Him first. Isaiah 55.6 says, "Seek the Lord while He may be found." As I was finishing up this morning, I was reminded of an example. I have mentioned this famous American missionary a few times in my years of preaching here.

His name was David Brainerd. He was a missionary to the American Indians. He lived a very short life. You can purchase his diary. It's rather difficult to read. I have an abbreviated version. And to be honest with you, this is a book I never put on the shelf. I always keep it somewhere on my desk. I want to read some excerpts from his diary. And I want you to notice this is before he's converted. No one leads him in a cheap prayer, but listen to his heart.

February 1738, I set apart a day for fasting and prayer and spent the day in almost incessant cries to God for mercy, that He would open my eyes to see the evil of sin and the way of life in Christ Jesus. God was pleased that day to make considerable discoveries of my heart to me. But still, I trusted in all of my duties. What is he saying? I'm still trusting in my efforts, though there was no manner of goodness in them. Yet God was pleased to make my endeavors a means to show me my helplessness. Sometimes I was encouraged and imagined that God was pleased with me and that I thought that I should soon be reconciled to God.

And if I continued to read, what you would see is the heart of a lost man seeking to be made right with God. Now, why do I spend a little more time here? God always has lost people among us. God always has people among us who are trying to see if they are right with God, and I encourage you to seek the Lord while He may be found. Seek the Lord, yes, in prayer and fasting, and look to heaven because you'll never be made right with God unless God brings about the new birth. But the last bit of application for this afternoon, I believe all of us should spend an extended period of time examining our lives, passing judgment on ourselves.

Isn't that strong language? Maybe it's more palatable to say "examine," but to say to pass judgment, isn't that what the Corinthians were urged to do? Isn't that part of the correction? Paul said, "You should have examined and judged yourselves rightly." I believe that it would be good for us to expend an extended period of time examining and ultimately passing judgment on ourselves. Now listen, not according to man's standards, but according to God's Word. And listen, if you were born again, you have God's Holy Spirit living within you.

And look, if you were honest before God and honest before His Word, God will show you where you need to make repentance. God will show you where you need to make restitution. And God will show you what you need to do to bring about restoration. Because listen, this is relational. When the Spirit of God lives within us, the Spirit of God is quenched by our sin. So when we examine and when we pass judgment and then we make repentance, guess what? That relationship is renewed and it is restored. So in light of all that we've looked at this morning, the observance of the Lord's Supper, the what, the who, and the how, how do we leave the message?

We should reflect on what the Lord's done for us. Some need to examine themselves and seek the Lord for salvation. And we all need to examine our lives and pass judgment according to God's standard and seek repentance and restitution where it is needed. May the Lord help us to come to His table tonight spiritually ready to commemorate and celebrate what He did for us on the cross. Let's pray.