rden and CLE with Grace graise God Grace Grace that is great than all our s gra Grace that will paron and cleanse within Grace gra God’s Grace Grace that is greater than all our sin let’s pray father it’s with a deep sense of gratitude that we come to your throne this morning as quick quickly and accessible as that provided by the work of your son and our savior and to that end Lord we pray and commit the morning to you that’ll be time of encouragement and

learning and ultimately a time of praise back to you and to him who is our savior in whose name we pray amen all right can be seated lights come on John and Nancy let’s see your Bibles everybody your Bibles all right good you know I do that for a reason not just to irritate you although I just irritating You’ be enough for me I guess I do it because it’s important as we go through the scriptures that you and your mind works with the printed text

and at times thinking through the other texts that might children you can leave they’ve already left the other texts that apply at least I do that and secondly my pattern is different than Rob’s my Bible’s all marked up I’ve got events and comments and other sermons I’ve heard and to the extent that you hear things that are encouraging to you it’s not sacrilegious to write in the margins of your Bible it’s okay so it’s glad I’m glad you brought the book with you today today we’re

going to do something a little different maybe more unfamiliar to you but familiar to me we said last week that the church was not a brick and mortar institution it’s flesh and blood and we talked last week about the critical dynamics that come within the local church and that is as we come and assemble together in the building that we have we expect God to meet us there today we’re going to take this building and change it from a church structure to a courtroom today you

are sitting in a courtroom and let me set the stage for you God the father is in the high seat of the courtroom and his son Jesus sits beside him as an aside when I was an early attorney the judge asked us to come up he wanted to talk to us and as an attorney I went up and I put my arm on his desk like this and he slammed his note shut counsel in my office and he said don’t ever lean on my desk again

whatever but anyway God is on the throne Jesus is next to him and we are going to do what’s called a directed verdict today I’m not going to ask you to make a conclusion of guilty or not guilty but I’m going to swear you in as jurors okay you all are jurors this morning and what we call a directed verdict a a hearing that has to come to a conclusion and the challenge of the day is this has God entered into a contract with those who

believe in him if so how long lasting is it and what are the conditions I’ll repeat that the subject of our directed verdict this morning is has God entered into an eternal Covenant with those who believe in him and if so are there conditions to th to that hold up your right hand do you swear or affirm that based on the evidence today you’ll make a judgment that best allows you to conclude yes or no to the question before us if you agree to that say

I do I do very good couple of you rebels said you weren’t going to raise your hand on that but you’re part of the jury whether you did that or not and I I love Gus who sits back there bless his heart he and his wife were part of contributing this piano years and years ago I said Gus we’re going to turn this into a courtroom today do you understand and he said no so we’ll see if we can do that and we need a plaintiff

for this matter of a directed verdict we’re going to use Sheree as our representative plaintiff you could pretend she’s up here with me I thought about bringing her up here she says I’ve got a degree in administration of justice but she is the representative plff who is is representing the question that’s before us okay I’ve Bel labored it long enough let’s begin the hearing when we come to meet as Believers every Sunday morning there are certain challenges and joys that come with it but one of

the things that we guard against on a regular basis is familiarity or as Ray Stedman said you know we want to mold Our Lives after Christ but some of us are molder than the others and he’s right and particularly on the subject of the Lord’s table in communion if we’re not careful it becomes a techon I grew up in Baptist Churches where once a month we had communion and it was at the end of the service and it was routine and familiar but I don’t know

how much picked up in terms of significance but from time to time we need to re-evaluate our priorities in a way that says what does this mean and that’s why we’ve chosen to take the whole morning on this the first day of the month to teach on that subject you know priorities are a challenge there was a couple who in Atlanta was excited about seeing the Broadway show my fair lady so they bought their tickets months ahead of time and when it came time for the

Broadway show they flew to New York they sat in a packed Auditorium and enjoyed my fair lady at intermission they noticed to their surprise that there was an empty seat next to the man and a woman beyond that and so out of curiosity the man said I’m surprised there’s an empty seat here with as much as we spent months preparing for and getting these tickets and she said oh that’s my seat she said that belonged to my husband he said oh and she said he died

a few weeks ago and therefore he’s not here today and and the man said well couldn’t you have asked a friend to come and sit in that seat and she said no they all were at the funeral home she had her priorities and it wasn’t going to miss that Broadway play we have our priorities and it comes with this interesting procedure that in the historical church was called the Eucharist it was in the Bible called the Lord’s table it was called the cup of blessing it

was most often called the breaking of bread and the cup of blessing with the breaking of bread and as we get into into that in the scriptures and I’d like you to turn to 1 Corinthians 11 which is the fullest description of it in 1 Corinthians 11 we find in verse 17 this instruction in the following directives I have no praise for you for your meetings do more harm than good that’s pretty staggering right there right out of the box this church is in trouble they’ve

taken something which is sacred and made it non-sacred in the first place I hear that when you come together as a church there are divisions among you and to some extent I believe it no doubt there have to be differences among you to show which of you have God’s approval when you come together it’s not and when you come together it’s not the Lord’s Supper you eat for as you eat each of you goes ahead without warning and anybody else one remains hungry another gets drunk

don’t you have homes to eat and drink drink in all you do you despise the Church of God and humiliate those who have nothing what shall I say to you shall I praise you for that certainly not so these Believers were coming to these Sunday assemblies which were house churches in the first century for the most part met on Sunday night but occasion when the when this majority of the congregation which were slaves had time off but historians tell us sometimes it was on the early

Sunday morning but in coming together they often came apparently many of them having missed meals or hungry and as such they act like what I say to my waitresses my my weight staff at the end of a meal when I’m served in a restaurant and she says how is it I say happy hogs in a full trough they acted like happy hogs in a full trough no no less than that they gobbled up the food they drank the wine some of which at least was to

be saved for this breaking of the bread and Paul was a gas at that for I received from the Lord what I also passed unto you the Lord Jesus on the night he was betrayed took bread and when he had given thanks he broke it and said this is my body which is for you do this in remance of me in the same way after supper he took the cup saying this cup is now the New Covenant in my blood do this whenever you drink it

in rembrance of me for whenever you eat the bread and drink the cup you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes there therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner there’s our second danger flag in the passage the first one was you do more harm than good the second danger flag is you do it in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord that’s pretty staggering a man ought to examine

himself there’s the modus operandi before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup for anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing ing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself that’s why many among you are weak and sick and a number of you have actually fallen asleep meaning they’ve died but if we judge oursel we would not come under judgment for whether we are judged by the Lord we are being disciplined so that we will not be condemned with the world

so then my brethren when you come together to eat wait for each other if anyone is hungry you should eat at home so that when you meet together it may not result in judgment and when I come I’ll give further directions there are two rather dramatic explanations of the dysfunction of the first century church this is one of the two it was kind of a potlock chaos for lack of a better term and the focus on the bread and the cup the breaking of the bread

and the cup to remember Jesus that comes back was lost in the melee the other chaotic scene we get is in John chap James chapter 2 where in the early church if there were wealthy that came into the assembly they hustled them up front and to the poor they kept them in the back and James ripped into the church and said that’s a dis that’s a disrespect to him who is our Lord and savior and it doesn’t even meet the standard of loving the neighbor your

neb neighbor as yourself so there were problems in this first century church this priority got switched around real quickly so we have to ask ourselves this morning in this hearing what is this Covenant or I’m going to call it a contract or an oath that God has with us and how does it apply to the death of Christ we look first at Genesis chap 12 in Genesis this is what we call the abrahamic Covenant and it may be one of the most important sections in the

Bible in my judgment because of its longlasting effect the Lord said to Abraham go from your country your people in your father’s households the land I will show you I’ll make for you a great nation and I’ll bless you I’ll make your name great and you’ll be a blessing I’ll bless those who bless you and curse and curse those who curse you and all the peoples of the earth will be blessed through you the abrahamic Covenant expanded out for Abraham that the blessings of God would

follow his name and his genealogy as far as the stars of the sky and that in fact is what we see unfolding in the Old Testament that in the genealogy and Heritage of Abraham and his progyny This Promise began to be true and it was Blended throughout the the law of the Old Testament there’s a second Covenant which we won’t go into detail on so much today it’s called the Mosaic Covenant but that’s the law that’s the 612 rules of the Old Testament whereby those that

were Believers in Yahweh of the god of the Old Testament followed those rules to maintain a Sanctified and unrestricted relationship with God and those rules included sacrifice of animals the bringing of offerings the celebration of the different the seven different festivals of the Jewish Nation all with an eye to the Future all with one looking to him who would come on their behalf who was the Redeemer who job says I know that my redeemer lives and in the end I’ll see him so salvation in the

Old Testament was more undefined but it happened the same way as Abraham said and the text says about him Abraham believed God and it was counted to him his righteousness at that point that quickened Spirit of that Old Testament Saint said I am exchanging my dilemma and condemnation before God because of my sin for him who will come and will be the Eternal sacrifice on my behalf and the law became a foot stol holy and good but temporary means by which these Believers could say I

want to continue believing in God and believing his promises for me and our nation for the future the second Covenant that gets more attention is the davidic Covenant and that’s in 2 Samuel 7 vers 12- 17 Again within the line of Abraham the text says when your days are over and you rest with your ancestors I’ll raise up your Offspring to succeed you your own flesh and blood and I’ll establish his kingdom he is the one who will build a house for my name and I’ll

establish the Throne of his kingdom forever that again was a promise looking ahead to Jesus and the work he would do on the cross and then Samuel reverts back between the lineage of David and the promise to David when he says I’ll be his father and he’ll be my son in other words there’ll be a familial relationship between the Believers who followed the promises of God to him who is their father when he does wrong I’ll punish him with a rod wielded by men with floggings

and inflicted by human hands that was the warning to David and his progeny that his sins would not go un God would respond with discipline to his sins but the promise is reaffirmed my love will never be taken away from him as I took it away from Saul when I removed from him from before you your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me your throne will be established Forever The abrahamic Covenant and the davidic Covenant in the old test wound themselves through the law

of the Old Testament to not only point to him who would ultimately be the Eternal Redemption for those that believed in God but also the measuring Rod by which our faith continue from the Old Testament we get into Jesus who came as one predicted by the prophets and who would die and fulfill the promises to Abraham and and to David in that regard we’re back in 1 Corinthians 11 in this service there actually was a number of things going on that led these these Believers these

Christians to act in a way that the text says was unworthy it was certainly a weekly meeting we know from Acts chapter 20 and verse 7 they met every week and every we week when they met they met for the breaking of bread so rather than in our vernacular someone might say are you going to church in the first century they’d say are you going to the breaking of the bread meeting it became the banner under which the Believers met together and in that breaking of

the bread and in the weekly meetings it was designed for two principal things amidst the instruction and fellowship of the church it was first of all to lift up Jesus I don’t know about you but maybe it’s just because of the Hollywood eyes side of it I often when we sing some of these great hymns that I was raised with like today my mind goes to a Heavenly setting where the father is on his throne and Jesus is beside him and we’re we’re all lined up

in a corridor and Jesus is well not beside Jesus is coming down that Corridor and we’re giving praise to him for what he’s done in on our behalf but in this meeting they were mixed up they had first of all Blended Pagan ritual with Christian ritual 1 Corinthians chapter 10 tells us that they followed the pattern of those who gave offerings to demons and they threw that into the church meeting and Paul was horrified by that and said that has no place in a meeting where

our celebration is with Jesus in fact in Galatians chapter 3 Paul would later write in verse 10 when I saw that they were not when I excuse me when when Peter came to Galatians chapter 3 and verse 10 yeah he wrote that when when the law when the Jews came back there was by them H hypocrisy but when I saw that they were not acting with the truth of the Gospel I said to Peter in front of them all you are a Jew yet you live

like a gentile and not like a Jew how is it then that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish Customs so they not only were mixing in Pagan rituals into the Lord’s meeting but they were mixing in Old Testament rituals and that became the blowup of Acts 15 and the Jerusalem Council where the in the teachers and Disciples of the church had to appreciate the value of the law but say it’s over it’s done with Jesus has put an end to the law so this dis this

this pattern of acting in an unworthy manner in these meetings had really three parts to it first of all it was a disregard for others as I said they merely were pushing in front of each other and eating and drinking the food and elements they were in the meeting in a way that had no disregard for others who might benefit more by them but also leaving portions of elements for the Lord’s table the second thing they did was they were actually destroying the meaning of the

table and the elements because as Paul said they were ones who were acting in an untour or disregarded manner in terms of the bread and the cup so as a result Paul said you might wonder why some among you are ill or weak or have even died and the answer is in part because you’re not handling the Lord’s table properly we don’t ever get that message on Sunday morning but I think it should be a warning because in fact this text says in verse 28 a

man ought to examine himself wherefore he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup now we have other passages that Jesus taught about where he said if you’re going to the Altar and you have something with your brother leave your gift at the alter go and make it right with your brother that’s not this case that’s a more protracted disunity or disconnect with Believers and others in the community that that Jesus says before you follow through in your worship to me make sure your Affairs

of Life are right as best you can this is something different it is examining yourself for any sin that is part of your life that you haven’t addressed properly with God you’re carrying it with you and Paul says watch out first of all examine yourself now that is as simple now that we’re past the law it’s as simple as first John 1:9 that when we confess our sins he’s faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness I don’t know

about you but in the course of my week as often as I sin at times I know it at times I don’t but when and I know it I can’t quick enough acknowledge to God Lord that was dishonoring to you that was wrong and I I admit it I acknowledge it I receive your forgiveness and I want to do better that happens in the snap and step of a Believer on a daily basis and Paul says here before you come to the table make sure you’ve

kept a a short account with God make sure that if there are things in your life that you have cleaned those up in a way that says I acknowledge that’s a barrier between me and you God I confess it and receive your forgiveness examine yourself the text says you know the standard that we have at times for Life takes definitions that are pressed on us by the world instead of instead of the Bible at times I’ve been told for example that communion isn’t significant to you

until you can look into the cup and see the cross I don’t know where my father got that but it’s not right you don’t have to Envision the cross in the cup and sometimes we misunderstand the elements in that way a missionary was sitting on a window s on the second floor of her home in the third world country and she got an envelope and it said for your ministry she opened it in addition to a note there was a bill and as she took

the money out she noticed that down below her was a clearly a man that was homeless he was a vagar he was clearly in need so she went downstairs and she put that bill in an envelope and wrote Don’t Despair and gave it to him and he left thanked her and left came back a week later and he handed her a l of bills and she said what’s this he said that’s the 60 bucks you won lady don’t despare paid five to one you know

sometimes we listen to the wrong definitions and the text here says we are to be people who understand that the bread and the cup are a measure of the work of the cross on our behalf so where does that leave us if in fact the contract has been offered and a contract has three parts to it the offer for God to love the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believeth in him shall not die but have everlasting life the second element of

the contract is acceptance and the thief on Thief on the cross said remember me you get to your heavens and Jesus said today you’ll be with me in Paradise there’s the offer and the acceptance acknowledging I am desperately apart from God and I am fallen in my Heritage with Adam and Eve and I need the redeeming and perfect work of God through his son in Christ and the third part of a contract is something we call consideration if I walk past you in the hallway and

say hey see you tonight at the Blazer game and we do a high five we don’t have a contract we may have a potential agreement but it’s binding because there was no consideration consideration in a contract is an offer an acceptance and each side gives something of value to make it a contract and in fact that’s happened because of Jesus who died on the cross for us and for us who have surrendered Our Lives to him by believing in him we’ll talk next week no two

weeks Brad butcher next week we we’ll talk in our next time together about what it means to believe and what is not belief and what is lordship and belief which I think is going too far we’ll do that in two weeks but for today the contract is out there it’s what the Bible calls a New Covenant it says this New Covenant according to Jeremiah is one that’s not made with blood it’s made with the spirit and it’s not made made to continue with regular sacrifices and

offerings but it’s sealed in us with the spirit of God we received when we believed in him so the Bible would say that when we come to the table we come as contractually bound people to God himself Steve has often said that the Lord’s table for him is kind of a unique time when he feels like we get lifted up into the heavens and I think that’s pretty accurate that it is a time when we settle our minds to say I’m gonna clean up my walk

with you Lord I’m G to make sure I’ve examined myself and in examining myself I’m going to come back and praise you for what you’ve done in our life in my life Pilgrim’s Progress which was written by John bunan in 1768 had as it central feature chrisan and Christian as you remember had struggles and travels as he moved toward the celestial City and by the time he got close he was not only weighed down by the burden of what he was carrying but he was exhausted

and bunan Likens in that analogy that as he staggered up the hill chrisan reached the peak and he saw a wooden cross and just below it an empty grave as to the cross a miracle happened the straps binding the massive weight to his shoulders loosened and his load tumbled away into the grave waiting his mouth never to be seen again a delicious feeling of lightness boyed Christian’s body and joyous tears and relief streamed down his face three shining ones came to Christian and approached him and

the first said your sins are forgiven the second Stripped Away his rags and dress and and put him in Splendid clothes and the third handed him a sealed scroll and said give this to him at the celestial City by the way parenthetically I more often than ever in my life now am using James Kennedy two questions to people to help them examine their place with God I was yesterday I I was at Alberta’s service it was wonderful she had a crown on and a sash but

I had to leave because I had to be across the city at a memorial service and those are always fun because you get a combination of people that are praising God and others that are terrified and and so afterwards in my conversation with some of the people at that memorial service I did the Kennedy things and said if you die tonight you know whether you go to heaven and regardless of their answer the second question is if you died ton night and went to heaven and

Peter met you at the gate and said why should I let you in what would you say it’s a great question because it strips everything away and says someday each of us will stand before God and he’ll ask us only one question to those who have believed in Jesus he already knows the answer what do you think of Jesus so Christian as these three shining ones came to him and affirmed that he was near the end of his journey wrote In The King’s English of the

1700s the following overwhelmed in his freedom christian sings thus far did I come Laden with my sin nor could ought ease the grief that I was in till I came hither what a place is this must here must here be the beginning of my Bliss must he the burden fall off of my back must hear the strings that bound it to me Crack bless cross bless slicer blessed rather be the man that was put to shame for me that’s communion examp EX in yourself clear it

out your your account with God and then celebrate with the bread and the cup okay jurors case has been put out there that God has entered into an eternal Covenant with man to those that believe in him and to the first question are we a fact in fact in a contractual Covenant relationship with God the Father through our belief in Jesus if so thumbs up second question are you listening Miss plaintiff second question does that OB does that relationship that Covenant that contractual that New Covenant

with God and his people bring with it conditions and obligations if yes thumbs up the answer is yes the eyes have it when you believed in Christ you were brought into an etal Eternal binding unconditional relationship with God the Father through Jesus you’re indwelled by the spirit and the spirit and the person of Christ in a way that he set your feet on the ground to make a difference in this life that counts for eternity and as followers of Jesus we now have the obligation we

have the duty to live in a way that honors him so we examine ourselves before we take of the cup let’s pray Lord I acknowledge in humility that you’ve asked each of us to examine our hearts today and show us anything that’s not pleasing to you to reveal any secret Pride any unconfessed sin any Rebellion any unforgiveness that may not be hindering my relationship with you I know I’m your child I believed in Jesus I received him into my heart and I accept that his death

is the exchange as penalty for my sin the price he paid for me and my desire is to live for him so as I take the bread representing his life that was broken for me I remember and celebrate his faithfulness to me and to all who will believe in him your word says even though I’m faithless he remains remains faithful and so it’s with praise and adoration Lord that we lift him up and you as the recipients of the work of redemption predicted from the Garden

of Eden promised to Abraham and David spoken of by the prophets fulfilled and realized in the life and death of Jesus and as we partake of the table to celebrate him who is our life who is the Risen one we give you the praise in Jesus name amen if the people providing the elements will come forward by way of summary the Apostle Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 3 the following now if the ministry that brought death which was engraved in letters on Stone speaking of the

law came with Glory so the Israelites could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of its Glory transitional though it was will not the ministry of the spirit even be more glorious if the ministry that brought condemnation was glorious how much more glorious is the ministry that brings righteousness for what was glorious has no glory now in comparison to the surpassing glory and if what was transitional came with Glory how much greater is the glory of that which lasts you were born in the

right age you get to celebrate the ending Glory the celebration of the finished work of him who is our savior so Jesus instructed that on receiving from the Lord was passed unto you the Lord Jesus on the night he was betrayed took the bread and when he had given thanks he broke it and said this is my body which is for you do this in remembrance of me and in the same way after supper he took the cup saying this cup is the New Covenant in

my blood do this whenever you drink it in remembrance of me for whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes until Jesus returns let’s drink of the cup Lord we are overwhelmed with gratitude today for the work of Christ on our behalf of which you’ve given us the privilege of participating in the elements in a way that says he’s done a finished work and we praise and follow him until he returns in Jesus name amen could you

be free from your burden of sin there’s power in the blood Power in the Blood would you GL evil of Victory win there’s wonderful Power in the Blood there is power power Wonder working Power in the Blood of the Lamb there is power power wonderwork power in the Precious Blood of the Lamb who you be free from your passion and pride there’s power in the blood Power in the Blood come for a cleansing to calvary’s tide there’s wonderful Power in the Blood there is power power

wonderwork power in the blood of the Lamb there there is power power wonderwork power in the Precious Blood of the Lamb would you do service for Jesus your king there’s power in the blood Power in the Blood would you live daily his praise is to sing there’s wonderful Power in the Blood there is power power Wonder working Power in the Blood

Transcript machine-generated from the sermon audio, so it may contain errors. 5,824 words.