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Sing. Sing. Sing. Sing. Sing. Sing. Sing. Sing. Sing. Sing. Sing. Sing. Sing. Sing. Sing. Sing. Sing. Sing. Sing. Sing. Sing. Sing. Sing. Sing. Sing. Sing. Sing. Sing. Sing. Sing. Sing. Sing. Sing. Sing. Sing. Sing. Sing. Sing. Sing. Sing. Sing. Sing. Sing. Sing. Sing. Sing. Sing. Sing. Sing. Sing. Sing. Sing. Sing. Sing. Sing. Sing. Sing. Sing. Sing. Sing. Sing. Sing. Sing. Sing. Sing. Sing. Sing. Sing. Sing. Sing. Sing. Sing. Sing. Sing. Sing. Sing. Sing. Sing. Sing. Sing. Sing. Sing. Sing. Sing. Sing. Sing. Sing. Sing. Sing. Sing. Sing. Sing. Sing. Sing. Sing. Sing. Sing. Sing. Sing. Sing. physical, they do not get it. And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never hunger and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. Now, Jesus says in verse 35, I am, present tense, the bread of life. Was Jesus Christ literally tinapai? Was he literally a piece of bread? No. Right, he said, I am the bread of life. I mean, would anyone take that statement and say, well, I mean, I guess he's penned us all. That's ridiculous. Obviously, it's an example. I am the bread of life, right? And the example being that, hey, you know, you got bread from heaven, but you had to keep getting it over and over and it ran out, right? But I am the bread of life, that eternal bread, you eat it me one time, it's forever, right? It's obvious, it's an example, it's not literal. And this is the chapter that Catholics go to where they'll say, wow, see, literally, we got to eat the body of Jesus. When he was talking, he said, I am the bread of life. He didn't say, I will turn into the bread of life inside your mouth, right? That's ridiculous. I am the bread of life, right? It's an example. But I said unto you that ye also have seen me and believe not. All that the Father giveth me shall come to me and him that cometh to me I will know as cast out for I came down from heaven not to do mine own will but the will of him that sent me. And this is the Father's will which hath sent me that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing but should raise it up again at the last day. And this is the will of him that sent me that everyone which seeth the Son and believeth on him may have everlasting life and I will raise him up at the last day. So he talks about believing, believing because that's salvation, believe, believe. The Jews then murdered Adam because he said, I am the bread which came down from heaven. And they said, is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph whose father and mother we know? How is it then that he sayeth, I came down from heaven? Jesus therefore answered and said unto them, murmur not among yourselves, no man can come to me except the Father which hath sent me, draw him and I'll raise him up at the last day. It is written in the prophets and they shall all be taught of God, every man therefore that hath heard and hath learned of the Father cometh on to me. Not that any man hath seen the Father, save he which is of God, he had seen the Father. Verse 47, very famous verse. Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me hath everlasting life. What is this chapter really about? Believing on Christ for salvation, believing to receive everlasting life. There's nothing about the Lord's supper. I mean, he's using an example of bread, but even if he was saying literally that he is bread, that's not the Lord's supper. There's nothing about them taking the Lord's supper here. He just uses bread as an example of himself. But the context is verse 47, believing for everlasting life, right? Taking the Lord's supper, that's a work, that's an action you do. So how could he say it's just by believing to receive everlasting life, and then you also have to eat this bread? Well, that's not faith alone, right? Verse 48, I am that bread of life. See, here's the thing, verse 47 is famous, verse 48 is famous, but nobody ever attaches them together. Verse 48 is quoted by the Catholics, verse 47 is quoted by the Baptist. Well, here's the thing, the bread is symbolic of receiving Jesus. Eat of that bread, you get everlasting life. Those verses are side by side. He's not saying I'm literally a piece of bread. That is ridiculous, and that's strange. And this is what Catholics say, I mean, Catholic apologetics, well, this is why a lot of people didn't follow them anymore, because they thought it was too hard to say that you're literally eating the body and drinking the blood of Jesus Christ. I'm not a vampire. I'm not a zombie, I mean, that's weird, right? But even in the chapter itself, it's obvious, the bread represents, it's symbolic of Jesus, but Jesus is not literally bread. I am present tense that bread of life. Was he literally a piece of bread? We have the song in our hymnal, Under His Wings. Does that mean that he literally has wings or is it an example of his protection? It's common sense, right? Look at verse number, and you know what? It's not just bread as an example. This is another thing we can use as an example, soul winning. I tell people this sometimes, receiving Jesus is as easy as eating a slice of bread. Is it difficult to eat a slice of bread? No, it's very easy, right? All the kids in this room, I mean, if they're six months, they can probably eat a slice of bread by themselves. I mean, it was just recently, my daughter woke up very early in the morning, just like a week or two weeks ago and she was on everything. And then I was wondering, she didn't come over to me. I was reading the Bible, so she didn't cry or anything. So I figured she was okay. I looked in the dining room, she's sitting at the table eating a slice of bread. She had opened up the container, just eating a slice of bread, just kind of hanging out, relaxing. It's like, what are you doing? I was like, I didn't even know she could open the container, but she could, right? Just eating bread on her own. You know, it's very easy to eat a slice of bread. He said, I'm the living water, drinking water. Pretty easy to do, right? Pretty easy. He said, I am the door, opening a door. Pretty easy. Now our door is not always easy to open because sometimes, but you know what I'm saying, right? Usually, usually doors are easy to open, okay? It's very easy to eat bread, very easy to drink water. It's very easy to open a door, but how easy is it to always be patient, always nice, always humble, read the Bible for an hour a day? I mean, look, all of us realize, you know, we should wake up in the morning and spend some real time reading the Bible, but it's a fight every single day. I don't find it easy to wake up and read the Bible. It's difficult, right? And look, of course we would say we love reading the Bible. We love learning and everything, but sometimes it can be a painful thing. Sometimes you don't feel like reading it. You get to some of those major prophets and you're like, man, I'm so confused. What is Ezekiel talking about? Or you get to some of the books like Leviticus or some of the chapters of Numbers and you know what, some of that reading is tough. It's difficult, right? But see, you don't have to do that to get to heaven. It's as easy as eating a slice of bread. It's as easy as drinking a glass of water. So that's the example he's giving in John 6. It's just an example. And then he says in verse 49, your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness and are dead. He's saying you're focusing so much on the physical, your fathers, you know what, they ate bread and then they died because we all die, because food is only gonna help you last for so long. Right, I believe when the Bible says give us this day our daily bread, I think it is a template. We should eat bread every day. Rice would apply as well. I know, my wife's gonna say you don't eat enough rice, but I do eat bread, okay? Give us this day our daily bread. But you know what, even if you have a perfect diet, eventually you're gonna die. Eventually you get older even if you have a perfect diet, right? So look, he's saying, you know what, your fathers, they ate bread, they ended up dying. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven that a man may eat thereof and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If any man eateth this bread, he shall live forever. And the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying, how can this man give us his flesh to eat? Then Jesus said unto them, verily, verily, I say unto you, except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. And of course they turn to verse 53 and say, well, see, you got to eat the bread which turns into the body of Jesus, drink the juice that turns into the blood of Jesus. It's obvious it's just an example in John chapter six for them to understand, okay? He's telling them present tense, I am. Is he literally a piece of bread when he's saying that? Because that's how you would have to take it if you take away from this, that basically eating the Lord, eating his flesh is referring to actually the bread turning. I mean, he said, I am. Is he literally a piece of bread? No. And look, when we take the Lord's Supper next week, when you eat that piece of bread, it is not literally the body of Jesus when it's inside your mouth. Right now, I've never done this, but just because they say, well, inside the mouth, it's the body, outside it's a piece of bread. So it's bread, it's the body, bread, body. Well, do yourself a favor, get a mirror and then put the piece in your mouth and look at the mirror to see whether or not it's actually bread or whether or not it turned into actual flesh. Okay, I mean, this is ridiculous, okay? I guess once the mouth is closed, that's when it turns in. I don't know, just modern day, there's gotta be some sort of camera or something that can show, hey, it's still a piece of bread, right? Let's see, what verse are we on? Verse number 54. Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life and I'll raise him up at the last day. Okay? Look, this chapter to understand this, realize that there's many examples, many verses that talk about believing for salvation. That's the context of John six and that's the context of the book of John. Believe, believe, believe, believe, because that's salvation. So look, when it comes to the Lord's supper, next week as we take the Lord's supper, it's not literally the body of Jesus, it's not literally the blood of Jesus, but it is a picture or a symbol of the body of Jesus and a symbol of the blood of Jesus, because his blood was shed and his body broken for us. Right? And I believe it's an important symbol because the Lord's supper is something that's taken in the Bible. Okay? Now, when it comes, and actually let me just say this before I move on, I don't wanna go in too big of a rabbit trail, but this issue is actually very contentious in the early days of the Protestant reformation because kind of the two big leaders of the Protestant reformation before John Calvin were Martin Luther and Ulrich Swingly. These were kind of the two big guys and Martin Luther himself said he didn't even know if Ulrich Swingly was saved because he did not believe that the bread turned into the body of Jesus. For those that are big Martin Luther fan, I mean, he believed in transubstantiation. He believed it was literally the, and he said, if you don't believe that, then you know what, you're not. So like even in the early Protestant reformation, they weren't even on the same side. This issue was what separated Martin Luther and Ulrich Swingly where they said, we can't get along. This is too big of an issue. Does it literally turn into the body of Jesus Christ? It's ridiculous. And let me just say on a side point, I promise you there was good Bible believers that lived 500 years ago. It's not like the Protestant reformation was so great and they were such great men of God. They were heretics. They believed in a work salvation, right? They weren't saved, okay? And that was a big issue for them. Does it literally turn into the body of Jesus? It's so confusing in John 6. I guess if you're not saved, it's confusing. Because when I read John 6, verse 47 and 48, where it's just believed for everlasting life and I am that bread of life, common sense says the bread is an example, right? Believing is what gets you everlasting life. So believing on Jesus is what it means to eat the bread. Okay. John 6, verse 47. So the question is, point number one, unsaved people focus on the physical. Point two, the physical represents the spiritual. So the question for us is are we spiritually ready to take the Lord's Supper next week? And when I say we, what I'm trying to tell you is you individually ask yourself, are you spiritually ready to take the Lord's Supper next week? One aspect of being spiritually ready is simply are you saved? Right, John 6, verse 47. Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me hath everlasting life. So the question is, are you saved? Because eating the bread is a picture of the fact that you've already believed on Jesus Christ. It makes no sense to take the Lord's Supper if you don't understand salvation. You're doing it as a picture, as a symbol of what you believe. It's not literally the body and blood of Jesus, but it is a picture that you do believe that Christ died and paid for your sins, right? Now, of course, at least the majority of people in this room, I'm sure, are saved. Now, when it comes to this, let me just say that churches have different opinions. There's open communion, close communion, and closed communion. It's a big source of debate and everything, and I've talked about it before. And people have different opinions on what each of those means. I'll just say this, that you know what? If you tell me you're saved, then I'm gonna assume that you're saved. I'm not gonna stop everybody next week and spend five minutes to ask you tough questions on salvation to see if I think you're saved. It's kind of like you've been at a church, you've heard the gospel. If you know for sure 100% that you're on your way to heaven and you don't have any doubts, then you know what? By all means, take the Lord's Supper. If you're not sure if you're going to heaven, then a lot of people at this church would love to talk to you after the service because we want you to know that. Because honestly, the Lord's Supper is nothing compared to actually knowing you're going to heaven, right? So question number one is, are you saved? And look, if you've been at a church for a while and you don't know you're going to heaven, I don't know why you're here. Actually, I do know you're here to cause problems and you're just kind of acting nice now until the problems come down the road, right? I mean, that's the truth. If you're here and you've heard sermon after sermon on salvation and you don't know if you're going to heaven, I actually do know why you're here, right? You're just kind of going through the motions to cause problems later on, okay? And hey, if you wanna do that and see if God's mad at you when you take the Lord's Supper, then by all means, do whatever you want, right? Turn to 1 Corinthians 11. What I'm saying is, as far as I know, the people in this room are saved, right? Now, I have not individually asked every single person at this room about their salvation because honestly, that's pretty much impossible. And as a church grows, the reality is, you don't get a chance to stop every single person and know for sure what they believe. Visitors come, people have different opinions, and here's the thing, especially in 2022, if people come from a religious background, sometimes they can sort of sound saved, but you're not sure, or they might be confused on repentance and things like that. I'm not gonna preach a whole sermon on that now, but if you say you know you're going to heaven, it's faith alone, then I'm gonna assume you're saved, okay? If you're not sure, just ask someone. They'd love to talk to you to make sure that you know you're saved. But number two, are you spiritually pure, spiritually pure? 1 Corinthians 11, verse 20, and this is gonna take some time to explain here. 1 Corinthians 11, verse 20. When you come together, therefore, into one place, this is not to eat the Lord's Supper. Now, let me just say this in passing, that churches do things differently, and that's perfectly fine. People have different opinions. I would say at Verity Baptist Church, what we believe is the Lord's Supper is taken inside the church. Everybody comes together to take the Lord's Supper. It's not something you do apart from the church. It's actually something administered by the local church. And so what we believe in verse 20 is when he's saying, when you come together into one place, this is not to eat the Lord's Supper. He's not telling them that when you come together, you should not take the Lord's Supper. He's saying what you're actually doing is coming together, but not taking the Lord's Supper. And he's saying you should be taking the Lord's Supper. And the context shows us that here, okay? For in eating, everyone taketh before other his own supper, and one is hungry, and another is drunken. What, have ye not houses to eat and to drink in, or despise ye the church of God, and shame them that have not? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you in this? I praise you not. And he said, you know what? You have houses to eat and drink, but if you're in the local church, you're not here to just grab your food and not wait for everybody. No, the Lord's Supper is done at the same time. You'll notice this when the Bible speaks about it, that everybody should have the bread at the same time and partake at the same time. What the Bible's saying is this church was so disorganized, people showed up, they saw some bread, and they just started eating. They saw some grape juice, they started drinking. Now look, I love grape juice. It's probably my favorite drink, okay? But don't show up next week and see the Welch's grape juice and just start downing it like, oh man, right? It's like you wait as we're gathered together as one, okay? And what he's rebuking the church of Corinth for is being disorganized, and basically they're coming to church, and they're basically not taking the Lord's Supper together, and he's saying, if that's the way you're gonna act, you shouldn't have even come, just stay home, okay? Now let me also say this. I believe when it comes to the Lord's Supper, there is a moment specifically where you eat the bread. Okay, that's what we see with Jesus Christ. There's a moment when you drink the juice. I will say this, that sometimes what you see in the Bible is they do it in the course of a meal, but it doesn't have to be as part of a meal, because there is a specific moment where you eat the bread and you drink the juice, okay? This would be an example of why it could be dangerous to make it like a free meal, because if it's not organized, people are not even gonna wait to basically eat the bread together. They're gonna be like, oh wow, you know, I'm hungry now, and then they just start eating, and that would be one of the problems. And of course, as a church gets big, I think it would be pretty impossible to do it as a meal. I believe like a specific moment would be easier. What we will do next week is take the Lord's Supper and then eat the food afterwards. You know, eat the food that we bring afterwards. I think that makes the most sense, but I'm not against if churches do it differently, okay? Verse number 23, For I have received in the Lord that which I also delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he break it and said, Take, eat, this is my body which is broken for you, this do in remembrance of me. So even in verse 24, when Jesus handed them the bread, he said, this is my body. Is his present tense. He does not say, this will become my body inside your mouth. He says, this is my body. And look, if you believe in the Bible and pay attention to every word, that's a big difference between this is versus this will be. I don't think it's a coincidence where he says this is my body. So here's the thing, when he handed them that bread, he already said it was his body. Was it literally his body? I don't think so. I think it was just an example. I mean, if it looks like bread, right? If it walks like bread, if it talks like bread is bread. So I believe it was bread because it was obvious. They're like, oh man, it's not like this is your body. I mean, they'd be kind of grossed out about that, okay? This is my body which is broken for you because his body was broken on the cross. This do in remembrance of me. So remembrance is something we look back toward, okay? We remember the fact that Jesus died for us. 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 he drank it in remembrance of me. For as often as he eat this bread and drink this cup, ye do ye show the Lord's death till he come. Now verses 25 and 26, people kind of debate about this and I'm okay if people have different opinions and that's fine. What we believe and teach is the Lord's Supper should be done basically one time per year. And a couple of reasons why, number one, and the reason why we're doing it right around Easter is because of the fact they took the Lord's Supper right before Easter, okay? And I understand Easter oscillates every year. It's different. They got a weird formula and that just is what it is in 2022, but it's when we choose to celebrate Easter. And so basically right before Jesus rose again, a few days, three days, what happened? Well, he died, right? The Lord's Supper is remembering the fact that he died and his blood was shed. So ideally we would take the Lord's Supper actually three days before we celebrate Easter. We choose to do it a week beforehand and the reason is because we would just have a lot less people that could take the Lord's Supper if we did it three days beforehand. So I'm not saying the day is incredibly important because we changed the day a little bit. And also when COVID took place, we changed the day a lot because nobody was gonna be able to take the Lord's Supper. We kind of just waited for the lockdown to end and eventually it's just like, okay, right? Lockdown now along hung on. So I guess we'll just take it down, right? Saying the day is super important. If a church does it at a different time, it's not the end of the world. Even in the Old Testament, they do change the date for specific situations. So I think that's okay. We choose to do it a little bit before Easter to just kind of remember the death of Jesus Christ. Seems like the perfect time. It's what they did. You say, well, why do you do it once per year? Well, the Lord's Supper is a continuation of what Old Testament event? The Passover. How often did they take the Passover? One time per year. And so how often should we take the Lord's Supper? One time per year. Once a year, you remember the death of Jesus Christ. In our modern day, we celebrate Christmas one time per year. We understand that it is one in 365.25 that Jesus was born on December 25th or whatever, right? It probably wasn't the date. But it's kind of a good time to remember the birth of Jesus Christ. We don't do that every month because you're born once, right? Once per year, we remember it. Or once we celebrate Easter, one time per year, okay? So we believe the Lord's Supper should be done once per year but people would look at this phrase in verse 25 and 26 and they say, well, as often as he drink it and as often as he eat this bread and they take that to mean that basically as often as you wanna do it, you know, that's fine. I'm not against churches doing it more than once per year but I don't think it's saying do it as often as you want. I think he's saying as often as you do do it, basically every time you do it, you're doing it in remembrance, okay? I don't think he's giving them a template for how many times to do it. I think he's stating every time you do it in this manner, you do it once per year, you're doing it in remembrance of the death of Jesus Christ. Now, I'm okay if people interpret some of these verses differently or have a different opinion on the Lord's Supper. What I would not be okay with is if you take the Lord's Supper at your house and gather together other people at our church that don't agree with me. That's not acceptable because we believe that the Lord's Supper is administered by the local church so if you're not gonna do it as part of the local church, don't do it at home, kinda like baptisms. I believe baptism is done by the local church. If you get somebody saved, great, don't baptize them because it's done by the local church. I mean, if you show up next week, I'm so excited. I got somebody saved. Look at this picture, he got baptized. In what church? And look, if you have a different opinion on that, that's perfectly fine, but what would not be okay is just kind of going against what the church does. It's like, you know what, just live with the fact you can disagree with some of the things the church does and that's fine, right? Nobody's gonna agree 100% on everything that I say, right? The Lord's Supper, we believe it's done in the local New Testament church and so it's not something done outside but we actually do it together and next week when we come together, we are going to wait until everybody has the bread and then I'll make some sort of statement and then we will all partake in the bread at roughly the same time, right? We will wait for everybody, which means we'll wait for everybody in the mother-baby room if there's any ladies there to get their bread and we'll make sure everybody's ready. Why? You wanna do things decently and in order. You wanna be organized, right? We do it at the same time and this is what he's rebuking the church of corn for because they're not doing it systematically and organized. It's a pre-for-all, right? And then he says in verse 27, wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. Now I wanna talk about this verse 27 where it talks about unworthily drinking or eating of the Lord's Supper. And a lot of people are afraid of verse 27 through 30 because here's what it says if you do it unworthily. Verse 28, but let a man examine himself and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. For this cause many are weak and sickly among you and many sleep. And what the Bible says being many are weak and sickly, meaning getting very seriously sick, getting very seriously ill for not taking the Lord's Supper worthily. And the Bible says many sleep. People actually die by not taking the Lord's Supper. Now let me just say this on a side point that pretty much every church I've been to, there are always some people that choose not to take the Lord's Supper. And honestly, that is perfectly fine. It's up to you. Some people are afraid of these verses specifically and they don't want to risk getting killed, okay? That's the reality. There are people that don't take the Lord's Supper because they're afraid God will strike them down dead because the Bible speaks about taking the Lord's Supper unworthily. And it does say people get sick and sleep as a result of this, okay? Now I'm gonna explain what I believe it means to unworthily take the Lord's Supper. And I'm okay if you have a different opinion. I'll just show you what I believe the Bible teaches. Go to 1 Corinthians 5, 1 Corinthians 5. And actually keep your finger in 1 Corinthians 5, go back to 1 Corinthians 11, okay? I'll preach it differently than I did yesterday. Not different doctrines, but a different order of these. I think it makes more sense to do it this way. One of the hardest things when you preach sermons is to get everything organized in a good way when you preach sermons. Sometimes you got good information, but it's a bit magulo. 1 Corinthians 11, verse 31. Right after he talked about unworthily drinking the Lord's Supper or taking the Lord's Supper, he says in 1 Corinthians 11, verse 31, for if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord that we should not be condemned with the world. So it talks about taking the Lord's Supper unworthily, and then it talks about being judged, right? Now go to 1 Corinthians 5, 1 Corinthians 5. And the idea is that, you know what? If we would judge ourselves, we wouldn't have to worry about God judging us and determining we're unworthy and people getting sick and dying, is what the Bible's saying, right? So if we would judge ourselves, we're not gonna be judged by God, okay? 1 Corinthians 5, verse 16. The Bible reads, your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leavened leaveneth a whole lump? And if you're familiar with the church of Corinth, there is a man in this church that is in some very, very serious sin. This is a man that is sleeping with his father's wife, okay? The Bible says it's something that the world wasn't even doing. Because I mean, in 2022, that would be considered bizarre, right? And he's doing this grievous and wicked sin. And you know, the church is doing nothing about it. It's no big deal to them. And he says, your glorying is not good. Purge out there for the old leaven that you may be a new lump as your unleavened. For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us. So notice what it says in verse seven. It says, Christ our Passover. There's a reason why he says Passover. You say, why is that? Well, he's gonna speak about the Lord's Supper here, I believe in 1 Corinthians 5. And of course he does that later on. And look, the Lord's Supper is the Passover. The only difference between the Passover and the Lord's Supper, one difference is the Passover was, and the Lord's Supper we remember, right? The other thing was in the Passover, what did they eat? They ate a lamb. Why do we not eat a lamb in 2022 at the Lord's Supper? Because the lamb of God already died for us. What we're doing is remembering at this point, so the lamb is not something that we're killing, okay? We just eat the bread, eat the juice, drink the juice. But it says, for even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us, therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. So it talks about keeping the feast. And what's interesting is you look at all these feasts of the Lord in the Old Testament, gone, gone, gone, because they don't really mean anything anymore because Jesus rose again, right? We've talked about recently about how a lot of the things in the Old Testament, the holidays or holy days are kind of done away. But the Passover wasn't really like that because the Bible said it was everlasting. And so how is it everlasting if it ended? Well, it never really ended. It became the Lord's Supper. That is what the Lord's Supper is. So he mentioned the Passover, and he tells us that we ought to keep this feast. You say, why? Because of the fact we will take the Lord's Supper next week. Verse number nine, I wrote unto you an epistle not to company with fornicators. So right after he talks about the Passover and the Lord's Supper, then he talks about church discipline. You know, sometimes, you know, sermons are preached and we don't tie everything together into one chapter and realize the context. We just kind of preach topical sermons and you don't realize in verse nine. Yet not all together with the fornicators of this world or with the covetous or extortioners or with idolaters for then must he needs go out of the world. But now I had written unto you not to keep company if any man that is drunkard or an extortioner with such in one know not to eat. Now, I do believe that you could take verse 11 and talk about eating as in just fellowshipping and eating a meal with someone that was kicked out of church for grievous sin, you know. But that's not really the context because honestly I believe the context is associated with the Lord's Supper, the Passover, and within the church. Now, the Bible does teach that if someone gets kicked out of the church, you know, people at the church should abide by that decision and decide to have no fellowship as well. That is what the Bible teaches, but obviously you have your free will to do what you want. But I do believe that eating is primarily associated with the Lord's Supper here in verse 11 because that's kind of the context, okay. For what am I to judge them also that are without, do not ye judge them that are within, but them that are without, God judges. Therefore, put away from among yourselves that wicked person. And when the Bible says without versus within, without means outside of the church. So basically if somebody got kicked out of a church for something, it's basically in God's hands at that point. It's up to God what he's gonna do with that person. It's up to God how he deals with that person. But within the church, that is something the church does. And see what the Bible teaches is churches make decisions on various things, and the Bible says that God honors the decision of that church because he gave the judgment to us within the church. And if somebody is without the church, God judges them. Right now, obviously kicking people out of church is not a fun thing to do. It's not something I enjoy, but it is something that I have done before when necessary. And people that were kicked out of the church, sometimes people ask me about them and stuff like that. Well, it's in God's hands. That's the way it works. What is God gonna do with them? I mean, maybe God will be long suffering for them or whatever, but it's like once they're without the church, it's not something we judge. And what the Bible is saying here is that maybe you have a coworker that's a fornicator. Well, you don't have to worry about going to lunch with your coworker and trying to give them the gospel as being guilty of eating with them. Because the Bible says don't worry about those that are without, like don't worry about those that are the fornicators of this world in verse 10. You're gonna be around people that are unsaved and living in sin and doing wrong things. But the Bible is saying within the church, it should not be that way, okay? I'm not telling you to quit your job tomorrow morning because there's somebody at your church or somebody at your work that is a drunk. You're not gonna be able to find a job then. I mean, I guess start your own business and just only allow people to buy your product if ask them, hey, are you guilty of any of these sins? I mean, it wouldn't make any sense. You can't go to the grocery store because there's gonna be fornicators and drunks and everything. I mean, even if you order and have the groceries delivered, who knows about the delivery driver? Right, you must needs go out of the world. It's impossible to avoid it, right? Then let it go, God judge it, okay? If you're really concerned about it, then it's like next week, pretend to be sick so you don't actually get sick, right? And I get the excuse everyone always has, you know, I don't feel well today. None of us ever feel well. Just say that, just say next week, I don't feel well, right? Or just come to church and don't take the Lord's Supper, right? If you're guilty of a major sin presently in your life, then basically don't take the Lord's Supper. And look, if you have a major sin in your life, get it right before next week. And you know, one good thing about special events like this that's once a year, it's sort of like a refresher and a reminder to us that we need to get right with God. Not that I'm worried about God striking me down dead, but at the same time, when you do something spiritual, you know, you often feel guilty for various sins you have and you wanna get right with God. An example in the Bible is you see people getting baptized and when they're getting baptized, they're confessing their sins. They're not getting saved when they're getting baptized. It's just the fact that when I got baptized, it's a very spiritual event, it's a big event, and you look at your life and it's just like, God, forgive me for everything I've done wrong. Not for salvation, but you just feel bad about not being fully right with God. Same thing with the Lord's Supper. Whenever I take the Lord's Supper, I feel like, man, I really need to make changes in my life, right? I really wanna get right with God. God, forgive me, help me really be thankful for your death, your burial, your resurrection, and it's a spiritual event, it's a big event. Now go back to 1 Corinthians 11, we'll close up. 1 Corinthians 11. The other thing to realize is a lot of these things are a bit borderline, right? When it says a railer, it's like, well, none of us are perfect. Probably all of us have gossiped from time to time or whatever, so some of these things can be a bit of a gray area, and you know what? Maybe I may make a decision on someone and say that, you know what? I would give the benefit of the doubt or not deem them worthy of that sort of judgment, but you individually should look at your own life and make a decision for yourself, right? And so that's a decision you should make, and so look, next week is not really our push to have the most attendance. I mean, if you wanna bring first-time visitors next week, you know, that's fine, but I wouldn't necessarily say that's the best Sunday to bring first-time visitors because it's more of like an event for the church itself, right? You're welcome to bring visitors, and that's fine, and I honestly don't think that if someone is unaware of these things, it would be held against them by God, but the best Sunday to invite people would definitely be on Easter, coming up in a couple weeks. So the question is, are we spiritually ready? So let's go back to 1 Corinthians 11, verse 31. For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged, but when we are judged, we are chastened in the Lord that we should not be condemned with the world. So basically, if we judge ourselves, we should not be judged, and it just makes common sense if you're guilty of something in your life and you judge yourself and say, man, I need to make changes, then God's gonna be lenient on you when it comes to judgment. The idea is someone that has a major sin and they're aware of it, and they just brazenly say, I don't care what God says, and I'm just gonna do it anyway. Verse 33, wherefore, my brethren, when ye come together to eat, tarry one for another. So once again, wait for one another, and if any man hunger, let him eat at home, they come not together unto condemnation, and the rest will I set in order when I come. So what we talk about in this sermon, number one is people that are unsaved, they often focus on the physical. Number two, realize the physical symbolizes the spiritual, and number three, the question is, are you spiritually ready? Now, when I talked about being saved, I said, I don't think you have to be concerned about if you're unsaved and unaware, personally, but let me just say this, that if you're a parent and you have kids, don't let your kids that are unsaved take the Lord's Supper next week. You're responsible as mom and dad for that. My son and my daughter are not gonna be eating the bread and not drinking the juice during the Lord's Supper because they're not saved. Now, I don't believe that I'd have to worry about God striking them down if one of them happens to grab juice when I'm not looking and drinks it, but I'm personally, my wife and I, we're not gonna let them take the Lord's Supper because they're not saved, and of course, there's kids at various ages in this room, and when it comes to the salvation of your kids, especially as they're very young, I leave that up to mom and dad, whether or not they're saved, and of course, when it comes to a child being five, six, seven years old, I mean, sometimes, I mean, they can be saved at that age, but at the same time, I know from preaching to a lot of kids that oftentimes it goes over their heads, so I would just suggest if you're not fully confident on the salvation of your kids, then they shouldn't take the Lord's Supper, right? There's gonna be leftover grape juice, and they can drink the juice afterwards. They'll be leftover bread. They can eat the bread afterwards, but during the Lord's Supper, they should not take it, right? As the mom and dad, you are responsible for your kids to make sure that they are saved, and of course, individually, make sure you're saved yourself as an adult, but are you spiritually ready? Do you have a major sin that you need to get right to take the Lord's Supper? And if you have a major sin in your life, here's the thing. I do believe God is long-suffering with people. It could be that someone has a major sin in their life, and I'm not aware of it, or it's something where basically God is being long-suffering, but realize this is kind of the reminder once a year, let's clean up our lives and make sure that we're pure and we don't have some major sin that would prevent us from taking the Lord's Supper. You say, why? Because the Bible says don't take it unworthily. Let's close in a word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us to be here today and getting to see your word on this topic, and I ask you to help us really take next week seriously, help us all try to live clean lives this next week, and try to get right with you, God, and help us get sins out of our lives, and help us make changes, God, and I ask you to help us always be remembering your death and what you did for us. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen. Amen. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Amen.