The name of the sermon is the Lord's Supper in the book of Matthew, or the Lord's Supper in Matthew.
And this is not meant to be like I'm preaching and pounding the pulpit against Calvinism sort of sermon or anything like that.
I'm just kind of showing you what we believe as a church.
Now, here's the thing, a lot of churches practice things differently, and that's fine, okay?
There's different churches, and they can do things differently.
And I have many friends that believe different things about the Lord's Supper in all manner of topics, okay?
But when it comes to the Lord's Supper, what we believe is this is operated by the church, and it's important that we're unified.
Now, even if you don't agree with every single thing 100%, it is operated by the church, so we need to be unified in this.
We need to prepare for next week, okay?
The first point I want you to understand in what we believe is that the Lord's Supper replaces the Passover.
The Lord's Supper replaces the Passover.
In verse number 17, the Bible reads,
Now, the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the disciples came to Jesus, saying unto him,
Where wilt thou that we prepare for thee to eat the Passover?
Okay?
Now, this is before Jesus Christ died on the cross.
And obviously, in the Old Testament, they took the Passover one time per year, okay?
Now, turn to Exodus chapter 12.
I'll show this to you, Exodus chapter 12, Exodus chapter 12.
What we need to understand is Jesus is showing them a replacement for the Passover.
Because he says we're going to prepare the Passover, and yet we use this and say this is the Lord's Supper.
Why?
Because the Lord's Supper replaces the Passover.
Because the Passover was before Jesus Christ died on the cross, and the Lord's Supper or communion or whatever you want to call it,
that is after Jesus already died and rose again, okay?
Exodus 12, verse 3, Exodus 12, verse 3, verse 2, Exodus chapter 12, verse 2,
This month shall be unto you the beginning of months.
It shall be the first month of the year to you.
Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying,
In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb,
according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for an house.
What I want you to see here, the first part of the Lord's Supper replacing the Passover,
I want you to realize the Passover was taken at a specific time during the year, okay?
You notice there was a date given, okay, a specific time.
Verse 6, And ye shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month,
and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening, okay?
So we see that the Lord's Supper was taken at a specific time,
and so as a church, we believe the same thing about the Lord's Supper.
We believe the Lord's Supper was taken at a specific time.
Now, due to the coronavirus, we're not going to take it at that time, okay?
Because we believe that time is right around Easter,
because the Lord's Supper is remembering the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, right?
When you partake in the bread, that's representing the body of Jesus,
and the grape juice is representing the blood of Jesus Christ, okay?
And so we take it around Easter time because that's symbolizing the belief,
or right before Easter, of the fact that we believe that Jesus Christ died and paid for our sins, okay?
So we would have taken this several months back,
but you do see in the Bible that sometime Passover, although it had a specific date,
was done later on in certain circumstances, okay?
And the reason why we decided to wait as a church
is because we would only have like 10 people here to take the Lord's Supper several months ago.
So there wouldn't really be a point for that.
Now at the same time, we could keep waiting and waiting,
and I understand not everyone's able to be with us,
but you know, we decided we're going to take it
because we don't want to just keep delaying and delaying and delaying, okay?
So the Lord's Supper was done at a specific time during the year.
We believe that when it comes to communion,
or that Passover was done at a specific time,
we believe the Lord's Supper should be done at a specific time, okay?
Not only is it done at a specific time,
I want you to notice that it was done one time per year, one time per year.
Exodus 12, verse 14,
And this day shall be on you for a memorial, this day, a specific day,
and ye shall keep it a feast to the Lord throughout your generations,
ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance forever.
There is a specific day, and every single year they would keep it on that day.
See, a lot of churches, now go to 1 Corinthians 11,
A lot of churches take communion many times during the year, okay?
And I'm not against churches that do that,
but what we believe the best biblical practice is that the Lord's Supper is done at a set time,
one time per year, okay?
Because it replaces the Passover.
We see that pattern in the Passover,
and so we believe that pattern goes forward to the Lord's Supper
and remembering the death of Jesus,
so right before Easter would be that time.
So it's something we do one time per year.
Now obviously Easter is like a floating holiday, okay?
So I'm not saying that's the exact date that Jesus died because it changes every year,
but that's the day we remember the resurrection of Jesus,
and so three days before it or a week before it is right around the time when he died, okay?
This is a good time to do it.
Now 1 Corinthians 11, here's a verse where people say
we should take it as many times as we want or things such as that.
Notice what it says in verse 25.
1 Corinthians 11, verse 25,
because most churches I know actually practice communion many times during the year, okay?
Most churches I have been to,
we believe the exact same things as Verity Baptist,
and I believe the same things.
I believed this for a long time.
Actually, Pastor Mendez explained to me his view
like before I went to Verity Baptist,
like eight years ago or something like that,
and it made sense to me,
but most churches practice communion many times during the year
to remember the death of Jesus.
Now I don't think there's anything wrong with that.
I'm not against them.
It's just not what we do here
because we don't think that's the pattern,
but the verse they would turn to is 1 Corinthians 11, verse 25,
where it says,
after the same manner also he took the cup
when he had stopped saying,
this cup is the New Testament in my blood.
This do ye as oft as ye drink it in remembrance of me.
And so when it says as oft as ye drink it,
many people interpret that to mean as often as you want to, okay?
I don't think that's what it's saying though, okay?
I think he's saying that as oft as ye do it,
every time you take the Lord's Supper,
what you're doing is you're remembering me.
You're remembering the death of Jesus Christ, okay?
Now I believe the pattern for how often we do it
was already decided.
I don't think that changed, okay?
So I believe when he's saying as oft as ye do it,
what he's saying is,
hey, every year when you take the Lord's Supper,
you're doing it in remembrance of me, okay?
Now you can believe differently and that's fine.
I know many people do,
but what we believe is this, as oft as ye drink it,
that's referring to one time per year
and we remember the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now I know this,
if you were to take the Lord's Supper every week
like the Catholic church,
it wouldn't really have any meaning at all, right?
And so look, I'm not against churches doing it more than once
if they believe that's a pattern in the Bible,
but you know, if you were to do it every day or every week,
now the Catholics do that
because they say it's part of salvation, okay?
So you take it every single week,
but is there any real meaning behind it
if it's something that's done every single week?
No, it's just a vain tradition the Catholic church does, right?
And so we believe it's done one time per year.
Verse 26, for as often as ye eat this bread
and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till he come.
I believe there's a specific day during the year
we remember the Lord's death, okay?
So right before Easter is the time
that we usually partake in it, okay?
Now turn in your Bible to Matthew 26, Matthew chapter 26.
And so the first thing we saw is this,
that the Lord's supper replaces the Passover.
The Lord's supper replaces the Passover.
Secondly, let me say this about the Lord's supper,
that we believe the Lord's supper was for the local church,
okay?
That the local church operates
and administers the Lord's supper.
There's a lot of different opinions
and some churches practice it at home
and things such as that, and that's fine.
I mean, if that's what they believe,
then by all means do it, okay?
What we believe is it's done at the church, okay?
Notice what it says in Matthew 26, verse 18.
Matthew chapter 26, verse 18.
And he said, go into the city to such a man
and say unto him, the master saith, my time is at hand.
I will keep the Passover at thy house with my disciples.
And the disciples did as Jesus had appointed them
and they made ready the Passover.
Now when the even was come, he sat down with the 12.
So Jesus sits with the 12.
Go back to Exodus chapter 12, Exodus chapter 12.
Exodus chapter 12, Exodus chapter 12.
Let's look at what it says in the Passover
because the Lord's supper is replacing the Passover, okay?
Exodus chapter 12, Exodus chapter 12.
What it says in verse number three is this,
speaking unto all the congregation of Israel saying,
in the 10th day of this month,
they shall take to them every man a lamb
according to the house of their fathers,
a lamb for an house, okay?
So lamb is taken for a house.
And if the household be too little for the lamb,
let him and his neighbor next unto his house,
take it according to the number of the souls,
every man according to his eating
shall make your count for the lamb.
And so people would say, well see,
the lamb was partaken and eaten in the home.
I would agree with that.
But we don't eat a lamb at the Lord's supper.
You say why?
Because Jesus already died.
See the part that was eaten in the home was the lamb.
We don't take the lamb anymore
because Jesus already rose again.
But when you read this passage,
and I don't have time to go into it,
unless you want another two hour sermon or whatever,
we could, last year I preached a longer sermon.
I'm just kind of giving a quick overview, okay?
But in Exodus chapter 12,
I believe when you pay attention to the dough
or the bread that's being mentioned,
that actually is eaten collectively, not individually.
What's eaten in the home is the lamb.
And what the Bible is trying to say is this,
salvation is an individual thing.
And when it comes to the Lord's supper,
what the Bible teaches is you need to be saved
to partake in the Lord's supper,
which means you need to have partaken in the lamb
at your own home.
You believed on Jesus Christ,
and then you can take the Lord's supper with the church, okay?
So when it comes to, and I'll look at this later on,
but for example, my kids,
my kids will not be partaking in the Lord's supper next week.
You say why?
They don't believe yet.
They're too young, okay?
And so look, if you're here and you bring kids to church,
and we got a lot of kids that are church,
you know, if your kids are too young
or they don't believe this,
then as a parent, I would suggest
not having them take the Lord's supper
because you need to partake in the lamb at home first, okay?
Turn to Matthew 26, Matthew chapter 26, Matthew chapter 26.
And I would say this,
that when it comes to the Lord's supper being administered
and what the Bible says in first Corinthians
and things such as that,
one of the really important things in a big problem
with the church of Corinth is they had no unity, right?
I mean, isn't that a big problem?
It's like a free for all in the church of Corinth.
And I would say this,
that the Lord's supper is meant to be something
that's uniting the church as one.
We all believe this.
We're together as one.
Now, if this is just being taken in people's homes,
I don't really see that uniting taking place, okay?
The Lord's supper was meant to be something of unity
that they did together.
That's why he's so mad at them in first Corinthians 11,
because you see them at the church,
but the problem is they weren't following
what the Bible said because there are divisions in church.
I'm of Paul, I'm of Apollos.
And so he's saying these divisions,
rather than just saying, hey, you know what?
We're together as one, okay?
Matthew 26, verse 21.
And as they did eat, he said,
verily I say unto you that one of you shall betray me.
And they were exceeding sorrowful
and began every one of them to say unto them,
Lord, is it I?
And he answered and said,
he that dippeth his hand with me in the dish,
the same shall betray me, okay?
Turn to Mark chapter 14.
Mark 14 is gonna give you more information.
Mark chapter 14.
And I want you to understand something.
The Bible is very clear that he ate the Lord's Supper.
There's the 12 with him, right?
It refers to them as the 12.
Here's what I would say about this though.
And I don't know,
because I don't think the Bible is explicitly clear.
I don't think that necessarily means
that there is nobody else there.
The 12 were there.
I don't think that means that nobody else
was there automatically though.
Like for example, if I told you after the service,
you know, I had lunch with the Ortega family.
That's gonna be a true statement, right?
Does that mean I didn't have lunch with any of you?
No, it just means I had lunch with the Ortega family.
But I also had lunch with a lot of people, okay?
He specifically mentions he ate the Lord's Supper
with the 12.
I don't think that means that there is nobody else there.
I mean, obviously some of them were married
and had kids and things such as that.
And see what we believe about the Lord's Supper,
there's three kind of main opinions,
open communion, closed communion, and close communion.
You say, what are all those things, Brother Stuckey?
Open communion basically means it's open to anyone, okay?
And what we would say to that is closed communion
means it's only open to people that are members of church.
Close communion means member of church
or a like-minded church, okay?
Now, what I would say to this
is we don't have an official membership, okay?
To me, if you show up next week, you're a member, right?
I mean, if you show up next week, you're a member, okay?
And so if you're here next week,
we believe in open communion in the sense
that if you're here and saved, you can take the Lord's Supper.
But as I mentioned, my kids,
although my son loves grape juice,
he's not gonna get any next week, okay?
Maybe if there's extra after the service,
we got some to use up, but during the Lord's Supper,
my kids will not partake in it
because of the fact they don't believe this yet, okay?
So anybody who's here next week, you're part of our church,
if you believe and you're saved, then you can take it.
Now, here's the thing.
When we baptize people,
we will ask people if they believe beforehand.
We're not gonna ask every single one of you
and grow you on salvation
to make sure you got it before next week, okay?
That's for you to determine and know.
And I would say, if you've been at our church,
I take a pretty hard line on salvation.
And so look, if you're not saved,
you're probably a deceiver
just pretending to be like us, right?
Because I make it very clear what we believe.
And look, you say, Brother Stuckey,
I'm not really a member of this church.
I'm just kind of being here.
You're welcome to take it with us
if you're here next week and you're saved.
That's what we believe.
But it's up to you.
Nobody's gonna force you to take the Lord's Supper.
It is totally up to you.
But let me show you here in Mark chapter 14
where it gives more information.
Verse 17, and in the evening, Mark chapter 14, verse 17,
and in the evening, he cometh with the 12, okay?
Now, as I said, I do not necessarily think
this means only the 12, although it could mean that, okay?
But it says in verse 18, and as they sat and did eat,
Jesus said, verily I say unto you,
one of you which eateth with me shall betray me.
And then they began to be sorrowful
and to say unto them one by one, is it I?
And another said, is it I?
And so basically these people are wondering,
am I the one that's gonna betray you?
And you know, they're not sure, they're worried, okay?
That they're the bad person or whatever, okay?
And so look, they're worried about this.
And I want you to notice the next thing Jesus says,
and he answered and said unto them,
it is one of the 12 that dipeth with me in the dish.
My opinion is that would be a very odd statement
if there's only 12 people there.
When everyone's saying, is it I, is it I,
he would say, is it, it's one of you, okay?
To me, when he's saying it's one of the 12,
what he's saying is he's narrowing it down
to it's one of the 12, one of the select people.
I personally think there's probably more people there.
You might not, you could have different opinions,
that's fine.
When he says it's one of the 12,
I believe he's narrowing it down to 12 people.
Now, the reason why this is important for this sermon
is I'm explaining to you why we're saying
anyone can take communion,
because we're not gonna say,
well, we're only picking like 15 of you
to take communion next week.
If you're here, you're welcome to take communion.
I believe that the Lord's Supper found in 1 Corinthians 11
is for the church, okay?
Anybody who's saved is able to take the Lord's Supper
if you're here next week.
If we have somebody who's from just visiting our church
next week but they're saved,
they are welcome to take the Lord's Supper with us
because we do not have a membership here, okay?
If you're at this church, we look at you as being a member.
Now, in Sacramento, they have a membership,
but it's for legal purposes, okay?
So it's actually a thing of wisdom,
but not a thing of the fact that I've been
at churches before.
I was at a church in West Virginia for like a year,
a really long time, and the pastor wanted me
to start preaching and stuff like that.
He's like, yeah, I want you to, but he's like,
you've never become a member of our church yet.
I was like, what do you mean I'm not a member?
I'm like, I'm here three times a week
every soul winning time.
And I was like, I had no idea I had to walk down the aisle
and say I'm joining the church.
I had absolutely no idea.
I just figured I come here every service.
I'm here soul winning and everything like that.
I'm one of like 15 people here every week.
I thought I was a member, but at the church,
they had like an official membership thing.
Now here, we don't have an official membership thing, okay?
If you're at our church, we consider you a member, okay?
Now turn in your Bible to Matthew 26,
Matthew chapter 26.
You say, why is it that we practice it this way?
Because we believe the Lord's Supper is,
it's done once per year at a specific time,
but we also believe it's a unifying thing within the church.
Okay, now let me speak a couple of minutes
as you're turning to Matthew 26 on something.
We're actually gonna make a slight change in our church,
not with the Lord's Supper, but something else, okay?
Now when our church started,
we probably had about 25 solid members from day one, right?
Of people that were like, I'm part of this church,
I wanna be part of the soul winning and everything.
And the reason why is because some of you knew who I was
and knew who Pastor Menes was several years ago, right?
You were listening to sermons online
and you knew a church was gonna be started here
and you were excited.
And so we had like 25 people that were like,
knew IFB from day one, right?
Now look, when people say, brother Stuckey,
are you new IFB?
I'm not embarrassed to say I'm new IFB in terms of the fact
because a lot of you say, I don't even know what that is
and that's a good thing, you know, okay?
I'm kind of giving you a brief understanding of this, okay?
But the reason why it's a good thing
is because we're a local church, right?
I've got, when it comes to being new IFB,
what that means is basically there's a lot of churches
in the US that are like-minded,
they have the same sorts of beliefs.
And I don't have a problem with that
because I can honestly say,
someone like outside of Pastor Menes,
Pastor Anderson is my personal friend, okay?
Many times he took me out to eat and things such as that.
You know, I'm friends with Pastor Anderson,
I'm friends with Pastor Thompson,
I'm friends with Pastor Shelley,
Pastor Mejia, Pastor Joe Jones.
I know those people personally.
It's not just someone I've actually listened
to sermons with.
Some of them I was members at church together
and things such as that.
Those people are my personal friends
and look, I support them.
I think it's great what they're doing,
it's great what their churches are doing
and praise the Lord for it.
You know, I'm not against any of those guys, you know?
And some of them I don't know as well as some of the others,
but there are some that I'm personal friends with
I talk to even on a regular basis, okay?
They're my personal friends.
And so I'm not against that,
but the culture we want at any church
and I'm sure they would feel the same way
about their churches is that we're an individual church.
We're a local church here.
We're not, well, we got new IFB members
and non new IFB at this church.
No, we got one church, right?
We're all together as one.
And you know, one great thing I've seen over the last,
in 2020, is our church has really kind of changed
in that regard.
See, some of you guys were here from day one and you say,
man, I love this preaching, the soul winning and everything,
blah, blah, blah.
Hey, that's great.
And look, I will defend, you know,
Pastor Jimenez, Pastor Anderson, Pastor Thompson,
Pastor Mejia, you name them
because they're my personal friends.
I'll defend them and say, I love those guys
and I think it's great what they're doing,
but we are a local church, okay?
And we wanna be united as one,
not where we got new IFB and non new IFB members,
but that we're just one as a local church, okay?
Now I understand when this church started,
kind of the culture was this is what we believe
and other people believe differently.
And I understand that because obviously
I do believe those things and we're like-minded
in that regard.
But you know, the goal is for any church
to reach their area and bring new people to the church.
And I think it's great when new people come
and we're united as one and not separate, okay?
When it comes to the Lord's Supper,
everyone's invited who's saved, you know?
And praise the Lord for that, we're united as one.
And I know there's a lot of Baptist churches
that would criticize people I just mentioned.
And when people criticize them, they need to understand,
these people are my friends.
I know these people, right?
Well, here's what I'd say the one change we're gonna make
and it's something I probably should have done a while ago
and things such as that.
But when our church started,
the best way for me to stay in touch with everyone
is we kind of started a Facebook group chat, right?
And the purpose was I could relay information quickly.
Does anybody wanna go soul winning at 10 a.m. or whatever?
And I can relay information really quickly.
And I think it's good and I wanna keep it,
but I wanna change it quite a bit.
You say, why?
Because I want it to be something
where everyone at the church can feel like,
okay, I'm a part of this.
Now here's the thing, one thing I noticed
and we don't really have this culture as much anymore,
but it used to be that group chat
was like railing on these false prophets,
this guy's of the devil, et cetera, et cetera.
Here's the problem with that.
Somebody who's new to our church
is not gonna understand that, right?
When I preach sermon, and I preach against false prophets,
but you know what I do?
I use a lot of Bible to prove it and I spend a lot of time.
And I'll tell you what,
it comes better through the preaching of the word of God
than just individually, okay?
We will drive people away from our church
if we have that sort of attitude, right?
Now I'm all about preaching hard sermons.
I mean, good night.
Have you heard the sermons on Calvinism recently?
It's like, man, I rip from the pulpit and I preach hard.
But you know, we need to be united as one,
not where we got new IFB and non-new IFB
or here are the people at the beginning of the church
and here are the people that came later on.
No, we're one.
We're Verity Baptist Church Manila.
We're one.
And so what we're gonna do here in the next few weeks,
we're gonna start a new group chat
and we're gonna have rules of things
that we can say and can't say.
And what we need to understand is this,
that look, when you become a pastor and preach sermons,
by all means, preach what you want.
But one thing we don't wanna do
is use that as an opportunity
where I'm gonna preach my sermon
about what I think about vaccines.
The problem is you're gonna run away good people
that are new to church, okay?
And I'll say this, you know, and here's the thing,
I should have made this change a while ago
and look, under the rules, things that I've said before,
I'm not gonna say either, right?
About some false prophet or whatever,
but I don't really wanna have an atmosphere or a culture
where we're just trying to always rip other people.
I don't want that culture.
I want a family-oriented culture
where you can raise kids in this church
and not just teach them,
because here's the thing,
if all you ever do is rail on false prophets,
the result is that's gonna be the result in the church, okay?
And is there a time for that?
Absolutely.
There's a time to love and a time to hate.
But unfortunately, the balance sometimes a little bit off, okay?
And so I do wanna make that change.
And look, that's my fault.
I should have done it earlier,
but I wanna be united as one as a church
because I don't wanna be like the church of Corinth
where we have this church and this church and this church
within one church.
We're one church, we're united as one.
I have no problem if somebody says,
Brother Stuckey, you're a new IFB,
because all those pastors are my friends, like-minded.
And if I was in the US,
I'd probably be preaching at their churches
from time to time and things like that.
They're my friends.
But we need to be united as one at the church
and not have this culture, this attitude,
hey, there's new IFB and non-new IFB.
It's like, look, you're not gonna find new IFB in the Bible.
We're one as a church, amen?
I mean, we are one as a church.
We need to be united as one.
And the reason why that's important
is if we don't have that culture being presented,
we will run off new people.
That's the reality.
When people meet us and join our church,
you know, let me explain something to you.
The reason why people that are new to church
will come to a church like this and stick around
is if they realize the church actually cares about them.
Did you realize that?
Most people, when they're looking for a church,
they're not looking for a church that's post-trib,
this and this and this and this.
You say, Brother Stuckey, that's what I was looking for.
Yeah, you're an exception.
You've spent years listening to sermons online.
Most people, though, that you get saved at the door,
you mention names like Jack Hyles, Pastor Steven Anderson.
They're like, who?
They don't know who that is.
Pastor Roger Hernandez, they don't know who that is.
They've never heard them preach.
They know nothing about them, okay?
And look, I wanna reach those people
because they can live for God as much as any of us.
And here's the thing, before the new IFB ever existed,
I was an independent soul-winning fundamental Baptist,
and I was not raised
as a soul-winning independent fundamental Baptist.
I became that because I joined a church
and they taught me how to go soul-winning.
And look, the same thing can happen in today's world.
And one great thing we've seen over the last six months,
we're seeing that in action, aren't we?
We're seeing lots of people join our church,
and we need to be united as one, as a church.
Unity's important.
And one thing about the Lord's Supper
is it's a way to have unity as a church, okay?
Matthew chapter 26, Matthew chapter 26.
Number one, we believe that the Lord's Supper
was done at a specific time, a specific once a year.
It replaces the Passover.
Number two, it's something of basically unity,
and also it's for the church.
Number three, realize the Bible teaches
there will be bad people among you, bad people among you.
Notice what it says in Matthew 26, verse 21.
Matthew chapter 26, verse 21.
And as they did eat, he said,
"'Verily I say unto you that one of you shall betray me.'"
One of you shall betray me.
Now we know that this is referring to Judas Iscariot.
But I want you to go to Jude chapter one,
or the book of Jude,
and I'm gonna show you a verse that's pretty interesting.
Jude chapter one, verse 12, or Jude verse 12.
Jude chapter one, verse 12.
It says this in Jude chapter one, verse 12,
the second to last book in the Bible,
right before the book of Revelation,
Jude chapter one, verse 12.
These are spots in your feasts of charity
when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear.
Notice how it says the feasts of charity
and feasting with you.
I believe it's referring to the various feasts of the Lord
throughout the Bible, basically special occasions.
And here's the thing, a lot of those were done away
when Jesus rose again,
but the Lord's Supper is a continuation of the Passover.
And so I believe when we look at this, the Bible says,
you know what, there are gonna be people feasting with you
without fear, no fear whatsoever.
And Judas Iscariot was just among the 12
and just there having the Lord's Supper,
not a fear in the world until Jesus kind of said,
one of you is gonna betray me.
And then all of a sudden it's kind of like,
oh, it's the one who dips with me in the dish.
Then all of a sudden they kind of hit home to Judas,
but Judas was there, no fear in the world.
And what you're seeing is, you know what,
there are sometimes bad people.
Now I hope that's not the case at our church,
but as our church goes on,
we will have people that are bad people
that pretend to be like us.
And they might leave one day and say, you know what,
I'm a five point Calvinist,
or I'm a hardcore Roman Catholic.
And you're like, what in the world?
It's like you were here for years hearing this preaching
and now you're enrolled to become a Catholic priest.
It's like, you know what that tells you,
they didn't believe.
And let me tell you something,
you say, what happened to Judas Iscariot?
He never believed.
The Bible teaches that, he never actually believed.
Turn to Matthew 26, Matthew chapter 26.
You say, how is it that Judas Iscariot never believed?
Well, for one, he had ulterior motives.
He stole them.
He was using the church for money, right?
Doesn't it say he was a thief?
He was there just stealing money from the church.
Now, one thing that's interesting,
and I actually heard a good sermon
from brother Corbin Russell recently,
he was a man of God out in the US,
but he kind of explained with Judas Iscariot
and kind of clicked with me,
which I hadn't necessarily realized before.
And it's like, I agree with him.
I don't really think Judas really knows what he's doing.
Cause what you realize is Satan enters into Judas Iscariot
and then he does this,
and then all of a sudden he feels bad about it.
Like, what have I done?
It's like, I betrayed Jesus.
Because when you're possessed,
you don't really know what you're doing, okay?
And I'll tell you this,
I believe sometimes bad people,
they don't even realize they're bad.
Bad people can be in a church and they can basically,
they don't believe though,
but they can be in the church
and think they're helping out or whatever.
In reality, they're actually hurting the church
and it's actually the devil using them in that church.
But they aren't necessarily always aware of that.
I think that's what it was with Judas Iscariot
where he didn't believe and he was a thief.
I'm not sure if he thought he believed or not,
but I don't think he really intended
to betray the Lord Jesus.
And it just kind of happened.
Say why?
Satan entered into him and just kind of took over.
That's what took place.
Matthew 26, verse 24.
The son of man goeth as it is written of him,
but woe unto that man by whom the son of man is betrayed.
It had been good for that man if he had not been born.
Then Judas which betrayed him answered and said,
master, is it I?
He said unto him, thou hast said.
What's interesting is Jesus says it's Judas
and everyone's like, I don't know who it is.
It's like they don't figure it out.
You say, why?
Everyone loved Judas.
They trusted Judas.
They have no idea it's Judas Iscariot.
And look, I'll be honest.
I don't really think Judas Iscariot
really planned to betray him,
but it just kind of happened
because the devil kind of just took over.
When people get possessed,
they don't even know what happens, right?
I mean, I've never been to a Pentecostal church before,
but look, there are people that actually think
they're speaking with tongues, not just faking it.
And yeah, they're basically just babbling.
They basically, the spirit of the devil
or the spirit of a devil enters into them.
They start speaking like a madman
or start shaking, like, you know, whatever.
And they hit the deck and they're just out
and shaking and everything like that.
They wake up and what do they say?
What happened?
They don't even know.
And let me tell you something.
I understand a lot of Pentecostals are faking it,
but I have seen in action where they're not faking it, okay?
I've said this story before when I was in Guyana
and there wasn't a big crowd.
It was just this kid where this Pentecostal preacher
touches him and he hits the deck.
I believe this Pentecostal preacher basically cast a devil
out of himself into this kid and the kid hits the deck.
And it looks like he got in a boxing match.
Like he's, you know, I don't know how Pentecostals
think you're being healed.
I mean, they wake up like they've just got done
being drunk or whatever.
And it's like, oh, I've been healed.
It's like, what in the world?
It's like, I'll skip that, okay?
I'm good on my own.
But I believe basically the devil entered into that kid
and look, he didn't even realize what happened.
He literally had no idea.
It's just like, you know, almost like a concussion.
Like where am I, what happened?
And so with Judas Iscariot, I believe the devil enters in
and he doesn't even really know what's going on
or what he did, okay?
So point number four, I want you to understand something.
The bread must be unleavened.
The bread must be unleavened, okay?
Matthew 26, verse 26.
It says, and as they were eating,
Jesus took bread and blessed it and break it.
And gave it to the disciples and said,
take, eat, this is my body, okay?
Now in this passage, we see that it's bread,
but it does not tell you specifically that it's unleavened.
Turn to 1 Corinthians 5, 1 Corinthians 5.
Now, if you remember in the book of Exodus,
it talks about the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
The Feast of Unleavened Bread,
meaning the bread had to be unleavened.
And the Feast of Unleavened Bread's kind of a continuation
on that Passover, but you're seeing that the bread
is unleavened and the reason why is leaven
is a picture of sin in the Bible, okay?
1 Corinthians 5, verse 6, 1 Corinthians 5, verse 6.
Your glorying is not good.
Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?
Purge out there for the old leaven
that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened.
For even Christ our Passover sacrificed for us.
Now, realize this is the book
about a man sleeping with his wife,
and in this chapter, it talks about kicking people
out of church for terrible, gross sins, okay?
And it gives you a list of those things.
Now, he talks about here the Christ our Passover,
and I think there's also an indication
of how to take the Lord's Passover,
because it's gonna be in 1 Corinthians chapter 11,
but remember, the Lord's Supper replaces the Passover,
because Christ is our Passover, it becomes the Lord's Supper.
Right after this, it's gonna be talking about sins
that get you kicked out of church,
and I believe one of the dual meanings is this,
that when it comes to taking the Lord's Supper,
you better not be partaking in the sins
that get you kicked out of church, okay?
Because here it's gonna talk about people
that are drunks and railers and extortioners
and things like that, and if you are guilty in sins
where you deserve to be kicked out of church,
look, you know in your own heart and in your own mind
when you've heard this preaching
that you're not welcome here according to the Bible.
Now, we're not talking about someone
who drinks alcohol from time to time.
That doesn't make you a drunk.
What makes you a drunk is when you wake up
and you long after it and you drink like 20 beers in a day.
What makes you a drunk is when everybody that you know
knows you're a drunk, when it's basically known
and it's a shame to the church
because people are aware about it.
When the man had his own wife, everybody was aware of it,
and so it became a major, terrible sin,
and look, if you know you're guilty
of some wicked sin right now and you're hiding it
and just going through the motions
and pretending you're right with God,
let me just say, for your own safety, I recommend
just pretend to be sick next week.
Because when the Bible talks about people being sickly
and dying, it's because people are committing wicked sins
and they just brazenly say, well, you know what?
I don't even care.
It's like, now you know in your own heart
if you're committing wicked sins.
Now, look, we're all sinners,
so I'm not saying you have to be perfect.
Here's what I'm saying, though.
If like right after church today,
you know you're gonna get drunk
and then wake up the next day and get drunk
or just go home and just sleep around
with a bunch of people, it's like, you know,
I don't know why you like the preaching at this church.
I really don't know, but the Bible says
those are sins that will get you kicked out of church.
So I recommend you read 1 Corinthians 5
and you decide for yourself.
And look, that shouldn't be anyone at our church.
I hope nobody's committing really wicked sins
where you're not even able to take the Lord's Supper.
Now, I believe the Lord's Supper is a time for reflection
to look at your life and to get your life right with God
and to remember these things, okay?
But look, if you're committing some wicked,
terrible sins in your life,
you're committing adultery on your wife
and you just don't even think anything of it,
like God doesn't care or nothing's gonna happen to me,
I'm just saying you'd be better off just skipping next week.
Now, as far as I know, that's nobody at our church,
but you never know, right?
I mean, you never know.
This is something for you individually to decide that.
Because notice what it says in verse eight.
Therefore, let us keep the feast, not with old leaven,
neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness,
but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
Go back to Matthew 26, Matthew 26.
We'll close up here.
Because here's the thing, as a church,
we are united in the fact
that we believe the same things in general, right?
If you're at this church,
the main beliefs and doctrines of this church,
you're probably not gonna like this church
if you're a Calvinist, right?
Probably not gonna like this church
if you believe you can lose your salvation.
You're probably not gonna like this church
if you believe in speaking in tongues,
because you know what we believe.
Now, non-denominational churches,
they get a little bit of everything,
because the sermons are very vague.
We're very specific with what we believe.
So if you're here, you're generally gonna believe
the things we're teaching, right?
But part of the unification is the fact that, you know,
in general, people are not committing these wicked sins
that will get them kicked out of church.
Because from time to time, we do have to clean house.
Now, it's not something that happens very often,
but look, if people are causing major division
in the church and they're causing fights with everybody,
that's something where it's like,
hey, you gotta get it right or you gotta get out.
Say why?
We're united as one at this church, okay?
Now, I understand church fights happen from time to time.
It's part of life.
We're around each other.
Things like that happen.
We get mad at each other and things like that.
You might get mad at me from time to time, okay?
But look, if you're going around this church
and you're just bitter towards people and you hate people
and you can't stop but just want people to fall
and to mess up, there's something wrong with your heart.
And if you don't get it right,
eventually you're gonna end up out of church,
either because you'll get kicked out
or basically your sin's gonna get you out of church.
That's the reality, okay?
And so look, we need to be united in the fact
that we care about one another, that we love one another.
So if you have someone in your church and say,
I hate this person, you need to get that right.
Because look, we're united as one at this church.
We need to put aside all bitterness and malice
and everything it says in Ephesians.
Actually, turn to Ephesians four.
Let's go to Ephesians four.
Well, let's just look at Ephesians four, then Matthew 26.
You say, why?
Because the Lord's Supper is about unity as well.
We're united as one.
That's why we take it together, okay?
As one as a church.
We're united as one.
And notice what it says in Ephesians chapter four.
Ephesians chapter four.
And it says in verse 30,
and grieve not the spirit of God
whereby you're sealed onto the day of redemption.
Realize this is written to a church, the book of Ephesians.
Verse 31, let all bitterness and wrath
and anger and clamor and evil speaking
be put away from you with all malice.
And be kind one to another, tenderhearted,
forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake
hath forgiven you.
See, the Bible says we need to put aside all of our sin
and anger towards people and forgive one another.
If somebody does you wrong and they say they're sorry,
forgive them and move on.
Don't hold on to bitterness inside of your heart.
There's a friend of mine I had back in Sacramento
and I remember he was a good friend of mine
and I knew he had become bitter.
And I had dinner with him one time
and I told him to his face,
because he's a good friend of mine.
I said, you are bitter.
You're gonna destroy your life.
He doesn't go to very Baptist church anymore.
And he tried to ignore what I said.
No, no, no, I'm not bitter, et cetera, et cetera.
And it's like, well, I mean, there's a reason
why you're not in church anymore.
And it's just like, you know, I told him, you know what?
You're bitter, you need to get your heart right, okay?
And bitterness never destroys the person you're mad at.
Look, if I hated, let's say, who should I pick?
Who do I, if I hated brother Timothy, right?
If I said, I hate brother Timothy, I can't stand it.
I mean, he had to stand right in front of me.
I got to see him.
It's like, I hate this guy.
And it's like, I just have bitterness towards him.
Do you realize me being angry
and wishing for him to be destroyed?
Do you realize that doesn't affect him?
It affects me though.
Bitterness only destroys the person who's bitter, okay?
And so look, if you're bitter in your heart,
you need to get it right.
Or you know what?
I've seen it happen many times in church.
People end up out of church
because they can't control themselves.
And look, as a church, we need to be united as one.
And we cannot have divisions.
Now that does not mean that people always get along
or everybody's your best friend.
Here's what that means though.
It means if you're paired up together, soul winning,
and then all of a sudden, right afterwards,
you have to come up to me and say,
hey, I can't go with that person because I hate him.
Well, there's a problem.
It's like, you know what?
You ought to be able to care enough about someone
that you can put aside your differences
and just go soul winning with them.
And look, I have seen it happen in churches.
People get paired up, soul winning together,
and it's like a World War III fight.
And I'm just like, how can you be doing something
so spiritual and just inside,
you just hate each other's guts?
It's like, what in the world?
It's like, man, I've saw that before.
And I'm just like, you know, how is that possible?
Okay, look, you know what?
We need to be able to get along with one another.
And even if someone rubs you the wrong way,
because people will rub you the wrong way.
It is what it is.
We have different personalities.
It's like, some of you probably don't like me, right?
My personality rubs you the wrong way,
but you have to be able to at least get along with people.
I mean, it can't be something where it's just like,
there's a conversation here,
and you have to leave to go to the other side of the room
because you hate them so much.
There's a problem with you, and you need to fix it then.
Okay, go to Matthew 26, and we'll close up here.
Matthew chapter 26.
You say, why?
Because unity is very important.
To the building of a church, unity is very important.
One of the big things that is building our church right now
is the fellowship we have of lunch right after the services.
You say, Brother Stuckey, is it all the preaching?
No, it's not.
The large part is just the fellowship.
We're talking to one another, we care about one another.
Now, that's part of soul winning too,
because you're fellowshipping with one another,
you're getting close to one another.
But look, a large thing that builds the church,
I mean, if you read in the book of Acts,
it's not just the soul winning, it's the fellowship.
And those must go in tandem with one another,
and that builds the church.
That's talking about unity and caring about one another, okay?
And so number one, we saw that the Lord's Supper
replaces the Passover.
Number two, that we saw the Lord's Supper is for the church.
Number three, bad people might be among us.
Number four, the bread needs to be unleavened.
And number five, the juice needs to be not alcoholic, okay?
You say, why?
Because leaven's a picture of sin.
And see, what is leaven?
Leaven is something that spreads, right?
And so the Bible says unleaven,
leaven is something that spreads everywhere.
And the Bible says unleavened, okay?
Now here's the thing about this.
When it comes to the juice, it must be non-alcoholic.
Why? Because alcohol is a sin, okay?
It's supposed to be, and here's the thing,
we just quoted from John Cowan a few weeks ago where he says,
hey, it doesn't matter if it's red wine or white wine.
I mean, I think it goes without, I mean, yes,
the grape juice needs to be not white grape juice too, okay?
It needs to look like the blood of Jesus Christ
to some degree, okay?
Yeah, it matters that the bread is unleavened bread.
It can't be Skyflakes, okay?
It can't be baked potatoes, okay?
It can't be chicharron, okay?
It's unleavened bread, my friend, okay?
Now I think it's very obvious in the Bible,
but you know, you gotta say it because you never know
when a John Cowan obsessed fan might be among you, right?
And so Matthew 26, verse 27.
And he took the cup and gave thanks and gave it to them,
saying, drink ye all of it,
for this is my blood of the New Testament,
which is shed for many for the remission of sins, okay?
And so look, the juice we partake in,
it's supposed to represent the blood, so you know what?
It's not white grape juice.
It's not Coca-Cola, it's not Dr. Pepper,
but here's the thing, it is non-alcoholic juice, okay?
Because alcohol in the Bible is wrong.
And I get it, some of you say,
well, what about Jesus turned water into wine?
He didn't turn it into alcoholic wine, my friend,
when you read that passage.
That's a whole nother sermon,
I don't have time to go into it.
But look, the bread is unleavened, it's not sin,
and the juice is non-alcoholic, okay?
Now here's the thing, at the Catholic church,
I think it's always alcoholic, isn't it?
I mean, I didn't grow up Catholic.
I mean, the Protestants, you know,
I don't think it was alcoholic in my church, I don't know.
But in the Catholic church, it's alcoholic.
You say, why do they do that?
Because priests like to get drunk.
It's like, I've heard the stories of the Catholic churches
where it's just like, you know,
people are partaking in the Lord's name.
It's like, wow, we gotta finish it.
And then he just downs the rest
and he's just plastered and drunk.
You say, why?
Yeah, because priests like to get drunk.
It's not because it's biblical, my friend.
Let's close in with a prayer.
Dear Heavenly Father,
thank you for allowing us to be here today
and just getting to see what you have to say
about the Lord's Supper and help us just before next week,
help us to prepare our hearts and our lives,
help us to realize it's an important time,
help us to be unified and to care about one another
and to love one another,
help us get major sins out of our lives
or major problems if we have them, God,
and help us just be united as one
as we have the Lord's Supper next week.
We pray these things in Jesus' name.
Amen.