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according to you and possibly in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour, Amen. Amen. Right, you're in Luke chapter 22, and for those of you that have been here or listening to our Wednesday night sermons, some of these passages are pretty familiar, as much of that is parallel to Matthew chapter 26, which we've done over two parts of Wednesday so far. But we're in Luke 22 today, and we're going to look from verse 19, so Luke 22 and verse 19, which reads, And he took bread and gave thanks and break it and gave unto them, saying, This is my body, which is given for you, this do in remembrance of me. Likewise also the cup after supper, saying, This cup is a New Testament in my blood, which is shed for you. And the title of my sermon today is The Importance of the Lord's Supper. The Importance of the Lord's Supper. I'd like to pray before we continue. Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for the gift of salvation and something that we come to think about and come to really focus on at this time of year. Lord, especially help me to preach what we believe at this church clearly and accurately. According to your word and boldly, Lord, and fill me with your spirit, please help everyone here to have open hearts to this, open ears, Lord, to want to hear what your word has to say, to just really focus on your word and not either mine or other people's interpretation, just what your word has to say. In Jesus' name, for all of this. Amen. Okay, so it's coming up to that time of year when we celebrate the Lord's Supper, which means that it's time to help you prepare for that. There's some certain things that we need to understand when it comes to celebrate the Lord's Supper at this church. And some of you might be sitting here thinking, well, isn't the Lord's Supper a weekly morning event, you know, where we all share some alcoholic wine and have an individual wafer? Well, no, that's not the Lord's Supper, unsurprisingly. Some might say, well, isn't it sort of a monthly thing for the more hardcore church members? You know, some churches, it's just for the hardcore, you know, and it's just a monthly sort of event. Well, the Lord's Supper has varying interpretations of how it is to be observed. Okay. And it's not just across denominations, if you want to call them that, but even for just what, you know, Baptist, you know, Bible believing, independent, fundamental Baptist churches, there are different interpretations of how the Lord's Supper is observed. I'm going to be showing you what our church, okay, remember, our church is Shaw Foundation Baptist Church UK. Okay, we are part of Shaw Foundation Baptist Church, and I'm going to show you what we believe, and it is not just, I'm not just parroting what our pastor believes. The first year we did this, at that point, I was sort of, it's something I hadn't studied out, and I just, look, we'll do what our pastor believes, but I've since looked into this myself in depth, and I'm very confident that what we do is the right way to do this, and I'm going to preach that today to you. I preached it also last year as well, so I'm going to be preaching a sort of similar message about what we believe, and how we believe the Lord's Supper should be observed, and regardless of how different churches teach about it, and many churches do teach different things, when to observe it, etc, no one can deny that the Lord's Supper is important. Okay, I don't think anyone can deny the importance of the Lord's Supper. If you're a disciple of the Lord, and I hope everyone here sitting in this church considers themselves a disciple, then this is a clear command, isn't it? Look at Luke 22 and verse 19. Luke 22 19 says, and he took bread and gave thanks and break it, and gave unto them saying, this is my body which is given for you, this do in remembrance of me. Okay, so that's a command, isn't it? This do in remembrance of me. Was it just the bread? No. Verse 20 then says, likewise, likewise, also the cup after supper saying, this cup is a new testament in my blood which is shed for you. So we're told to do it in remembrance of him. As with the bread, the cup after supper is to be done in remembrance of him. That's a pretty clear command, but the question then is, well, when? How? Why? Yeah, and these are kind of common questions around the Lord's Supper, and we're going to look at that in three points there. We're going to start with when. So we're looking at the importance of the Lord's Supper. It's a command to observe it. It's talked about at length by Paul in his first letter to the Corinthian church. We're going to look shortly at that, but when do we do it? Is it weekly? Is it monthly? Is it every three months? Is it randomly? Well, point number one, when do we observe the Lord's Supper? We're going to look down at Luke 22 and verse seven where it says Luke 22 seven, then came the day of unleavened bread when the Passover must be killed. And he sent Peter and John saying, go and prepare us the Passover that we may eat. And they said unto him, where wilt thou that we prepare? And he said unto them, behold, when you entered into the city, there shall a man meet you bearing a pitcher of water, follow him into the house where he enter within. And you shall say unto the Goodman of the house, the master saith unto thee, where is the guest chamber where I shall eat the Passover with my disciples? And he shall show you a large upper room furnished, their mate ready. And they went and found, as he had said unto them, and they made ready the Passover. And when the hour was come, he sat down the 12 apostles with him, and he said unto them, with desire, I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. What is it that is being described at this point? The Passover, isn't it? The Passover. What was the Passover? Well, keep a finger here and go back to Exodus 12 when we see the first Passover, its first institute in Exodus 12. And in Exodus 12, we've seen nine of the 10 plagues of Egypt. We've seen Pharaoh's heart getting hardened. Exodus chapter 12 and verse one, the Bible reads in Exodus 12 one, and the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, this month shall be unto you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year to you. And this is the month Habib, and this is sort of springtime. Seek ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, in the 10th month of this month, they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for an house. And if the household be too little for the lamb, let him and his neighbors 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. What does the lamb represent? Well, I don't think you have to be sort of the greatest Bible scholar to understand that lamb represents the Lord Jesus Christ. Now to turn there, John 1 29, sorry, says, the next day, John says, Jesus coming unto him and says, behold, the lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. Jesus Christ, the eternal lamb, the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Did they just get any old lamb here? Well, look at verse five. It says, your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year. Ye shall take it out from the sheep or from the goats. No, it was a male lamb and it was without blemish. What does that represent? The sinless Jesus Christ, the sinless Lord Jesus Christ. He was a lamb without blemish. Verse six then says, and ye shall keep it up until the 14th day of the same month and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening. And they shall take of the blood and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper door posts of the houses, wherein they shall eat it. This picture is the blood of Christ being applied to us. Some might say the doorpost of your heart. Verse eight says, and they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire and unleavened bread and with bitter herbs they shall eat it. Eat not of it raw nor sudden at all with water, but roast with fire his head with his legs and with the pertinence thereof. And ye shall let nothing of it remain until the morning and that which remaineth of it until the morning you shall burn with fire. For me, picturing Jesus Christ, three days is three nights in the heart of the earth. Verse 11, and thus shall ye eat it with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet and your staff in your hand. And ye shall eat it in haste, it is the Lord's Passover. For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast and against all the gods of Egypt. I will execute judgment. I am the Lord. And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you when I smite the land of Egypt. Picturing our deliverance due to the blood of Christ being applied to our account. Verse 14, and this day shall be unto you for a memorial and ye shall keep it a feast to the Lord throughout your generations. Ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance forever. So this was in the month of Eve, which I said, which corresponds to our springtime around the end of March, early April. Yeah, the Passover was to be observed yearly, but then Jesus Christ comes and fulfills the Passover, doesn't he? He was the eternal lamb. Yeah, he fulfills the Passover. Go back to Luke chapter 22 and verse 15, where it says here, Luke 22 15, and he said unto them, with desire, I have desired, sorry, with desire, I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. So they've been celebrating this, should have been at least since then. And obviously we see it reinstituted at times when they backslidden, but the Passover was to be done each year. He says, I've desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I say unto you, I will not in any more in, sorry, I will not any more eat thereof until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God. And he took the cup and gave thanks and said, take this and divide it among yourselves. For I say unto you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God shall come. And he took bread and gave thanks and break it and gave unto them saying, this is my body, which is given for you, this do in remembrance of me. Likewise, also the cup after supper saying, this cup is a new testament in my blood, which is shed for you. So they're meeting for the yearly Passover, right? That's what the disciples were told they were preparing. The physical lamb is off the menu, isn't it? But he shares the bread and juice and says, this do in remembrance of me, doesn't it? Now Shaw Foundation Baptist Church, and other churches do as well, believes that the Lord's Supper replaces the Passover. It replaces the Passover and is therefore to be observed once a year. Okay, that's what we believe at this church. And I'm not really fussed what other churches believe so much, you know, as long as it's not something heretical. But for me, I believe this is pretty clear. Yeah, this do in remembrance of me. Otherwise, well, when are we doing this in remembrance of him? Well, this do, what he's doing is sharing the cup and the unleavened bread at the time of year when they were celebrating the Passover up until this point. Now, we observe it just before we celebrate what? The resurrection of the Lord at Easter. And we also believe, by the way, that a once a year celebration of the Lord's Supper adds real significance to it, doesn't it? Okay, because I've been in churches where they're kind of doing it. I mean, I've been in false church where they're doing this in the morning every week, right? Okay, in the old C of E church and stuff. But I've been in church where they're doing this every month. And it just becomes a sort of, oh, yeah, yes, oh, yeah, this one's the Lord's Supper one, yeah. And it doesn't have anywhere near for me the significance that we have at this church when we do it once a year. And we build up to this and we think about it, and we dwell upon it. And for me, in the same way, the Passover was a big deal, wasn't it? Okay, it is a big deal. Okay, the Lord's Supper is a big deal. I'm going to explain that to you in a bit. We're looking at the importance of the Lord's Supper. Number one, when do we observe the Lord's Supper? Once a year just before Easter. We believe that it's replaced the Passover. We do it once a year just before Easter. Number two, how do we observe the Lord's Supper then? How do we observe the Lord's Supper? Keep a finger here and turn over to 1 Corinthians 11, where Paul is reproving the Corinthian church for how they're observing it. Okay, so the Corinthian church isn't doing things the right way. 1 Corinthians 11 and verse 17 says, Now in this that I declare unto you I praise you not, that you come together, this is 1 Corinthians 11 17, that you come together not for the better but for the worse. For first of all, when you come together in the church, I hear that there be divisions among you, and I partly believe it. For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you. So they're coming together as a body of Christ, partaking the Lord's Supper, but there are divisions in the church. Heresies which are false teachings. When you come together therefore into one place, this is not to eat the Lord's Supper. So he's saying that what they're doing isn't the Lord's Supper. Okay, he's saying when you're coming together into one place, you're not really eating the Lord's Supper. And then he explains what they're doing is wrong, and I know people have said well this is because they shouldn't be coming together to do it, but then later on he then says when you come together this is basically what you should be doing. Okay, so it's not about because they're coming together, it's because what they're doing isn't the Lord's Supper. And we see why, verse 21, for in eating everyone taketh before our other his own supper, and one is hungry and another is drunken. Now drunken here is referring to being stuffed with food. Okay, look he's just given one is hungry, the other is drunken for those that want to go, oh look it must be all right, it must be okay to have a booze up with the church members, just don't do it at the Lord's Supper. Remember this is the same letter that he's just told him to kick out drunkards. Okay, we're a few chapters on in the same letter where he said if any man be a drunkard to kick him out. Okay, so here and you can be drunkard of food, anyone who can kind of has had gluttonous moments, and that's probably most people in this church at some point. Okay, knows the feeling when you feel a bit drunk with food, right. Okay, basically they're bringing their own personal food, okay, and some can't afford much it seems, and others are lording it over them stuffing their faces. So they're like bringing the packed lunch box with them, yeah. It's kind of like, you know, like we used to have here with the potlucks, or with kind of Sunday food, at least at the old church, where you'd have, you know, someone came along with something quick and simple and ate, and went out and another people it was like a four-course meal, you know, and it was like look what I've made from scratch, and look at this, and it's like, look that's what you, that's how you eat every day, sure, great, however you sometimes got the feeling it was just for kind of church reasons. But anyway, let's keep going, verse 22. 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. So how do we observe the Lord's Supper? Well, first we don't bring our own food with us, in case anyone's kind of gearing up for the second, and thinking, you know, let's start, let's start cooking up now, let's start preparing the food. No, we don't bring our own food with us. Verse 23. For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you. So he's already told them how to do it, okay, so Paul's already instructed the church how to observe the Lord's Supper. The Lord's Supper's important, isn't it? Oh well, there's only this place in Corinthians after the Gospels, you know, and maybe a couple of other references in the letter to the Corinthians. No, no, he's told this church how to observe the Lord's Supper, it's important, okay, that's why Jesus Christ said this to him in remembrance of me, yeah. Okay, he's delivered it unto them, now he's having to remind them, no, because they've been getting it wrong, 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. After the same manner also he took the cup when he had supped saying, this cup is the new testament in my blood, this do ye as oft as ye drink it in remembrance of me. How do we observe it? We break the bread before we pass it out as well, and you say, well that's pretty simple, isn't it? You'd be surprised how many places are giving kind of pre-packaged individual things out, no, he broke it and gave it out, yeah, we're breaking the bread and giving it out, okay, it's symbolic there, isn't it, it's not just, oh well here's some stuff that, you know, got kind of pre-manufactured into individual weird wafers, I mean, anyone seen that stuff, what are those things about? Anyway, okay, a sup is a sip, we give out a small amount of what though, okay, so it's a sip, it's not, you know, right, everyone glug back a pint of the juice, but what is it that we give out? Here he called it the cup, didn't he? Look back at Luke 22, or hopefully I did say to keep a finger there, where we started Luke 22 and verse 17 to 18, where Jesus refers to it first as the cup, it says, and he took the cup and gave thanks and said take this and divide it among yourselves, for I say unto you I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God shall come, and in Matthew 26 he called it the cup then the fruit of the vine, exactly the same in Mark 14, okay, these are the three gospel accounts of this, look, there could be no even just, well maybe the wine here was alcoholic or not, no, it's never even called wine, yeah, it's the cup and the fruit of the vine, look, this is important that you don't misconstrue this at all, okay, because what does leaven represent? Sin, yeah, if you're drinking alcoholic wine, which is meant to represent the sinless pure blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, that is heresy, right, what on earth is that all about, yeah, that's why we drink grape juice and we actually, you know, and again, I'm not going to say that it's heretical if you do it, but we actually drink pure grape juice when we do it here, because I don't think like grape juice drink, yeah, with all the kind of additives and aspartame and everything else is really a very good representation of the pure blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, yeah, so we drink pure grape juice here, in the same way that we also drink, use unleavened bread as well, okay, I don't come in with a loaf of Hovis when we have this, okay, we make unleavened bread at home for this, which is a picture of his sinless body, we use pure grape juice and simple unleavened bread, that's how we do it here, now, back to where you are in 1 Corinthians 11 and verse 25, it says, after the same manner also he took the cup when he had sucked saying, this cup is the New Testament in my blood, this do ye, as oft as ye drink it in remembrance of me, for as often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup ye do show the Lord's death till he come, now, the often isn't talking about every time you eat unleavened bread and drink grape juice, okay, every time you ever have any, oh no, was that unleavened bread, I'm representing, you know, the Lord's body here, oh, glass of grape juice, well, okay, well, we must be partaking in the Lord's Supper, no, it's as oft as you drink what was previously the Passover cup and bread, okay, that's what it's about, this bread and this cup of this ordinance, okay, which is what you're doing, which is your, you're doing what was just ordained by the Lord Jesus Christ, as oft as you do this, when did they do it, once a year, okay, how do we observe it, we eat unleavened bread and unfermented grape juice, he then says this, 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, 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, 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, wherefore my brethren, when you come together to eat tarry one for another, and if any man hunger let him eat at home, that you come not together unto condemnation, and the rest will I set in order when I come, okay, there are some strong warnings here so we're going to go through them and make sure that everyone here observes the Lord's Supper in the right way, verse 27 says 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, how do you do this unworthily, well firstly you need to make sure that you're saved, okay, first off you need to make sure that you're saved if you're going to partake in the Lord's Supper, in Luke 22 again in verse 14 it says this, just interestingly, and when the hour was come he sat down and the 12 apostles with him, I think when I preached this on Matthew 26 I couldn't remember whether or not Judas was involved in it, look Judas for me it seems he was involved with this, okay, the 12 apostles with him, verse 21 says but behold the hand of him that betrayeth me is with me on the table, yeah, then verse 22 and truly the Son of Man goeth as it was determined but woe unto that man by whom he is betrayed, woe unto that man, and back in 1 Corinthians 11 27 and I'm not saying woe unto Judas because he happened to partake of the Lord's Supper but it's interesting the terminology there because verse 27 says wherefore who spiritually eat this bread and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord and look for me if you're unsaved and you're partaking it's unworthy, yeah, woe unto you, don't be getting involved in the body and blood the representation of Christ if you don't believe the Gospel, yeah, if you haven't put your faith in Jesus Christ don't partake in the Lord's Supper, okay, now verse 27 he said wherefore who shall eat this bread and drink this cup of the Lord unworthy shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord, no other ways that you can partake unworthily though, he then says in 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, now that's talking about chastisement, okay, and using the term sleep instead of die I often use the Bible to describe believers physically dying, okay, verse 31 says 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, he's talking about chastening of the Lord, okay, so these are believers we're talking about here now, yeah, we're talking about believers doing this unworthily, okay, look if you're you're unsaved well at least your chastisement isn't going to really come in this life, you're not you're not judging yourself, you know, ourselves, he's talking really to what should be majority saved people in the church, he's talking about being weak and sickly, many sleeping, okay, so there are believers doing it unworthy, the first warning obviously in this is don't treat it like some sort of gluttonous feast and obviously the way we observe it it's a bit hard to do that, okay, unless you're trying to like dip your hand in and take a bit of extra bread, you know, or something else or get an extra few thimbles of grape juice, well that's not really going to happen, okay, however, look, Paul says in verse 33 to 34 wherefore my brethren when you come together to eat tarry one for another, so you could argue look don't just kind of like get stuck in and try and you know well forget everyone else let's just get what I can everything else we're going to do it all together otherwise we'll be observing it wrong verse 34 and if any man hunger let him eat at home that you come not together unto condemnation the rest will I set in order when I come, so a bit hard like I said with the small amount that we give but how else we should examine ourselves judge ourselves and make sure that we're worthy is interpreted in different ways, okay, misinterpreted in many ways and some of this has really bugged me in the past, okay, because some will say I've been in church I was at a church where I mean I was it really wound me up because and again this is a church which claimed to believe the gospel and claim to believe its grace through faith you know didn't add works didn't believe claim not to believe repent your sins everything else they added if you have any sin in your life if you have any sin in your life this isn't for you what if you have any sin in your life you can't partake in the Lord's Supper that's ridiculous because first john 1 8 says if we say we have that we have no sin we deceive deceive ourselves the truth is not in us so anyone who's saying that they have no sin in their life is deceiving themselves now now obviously there's different interpretations of what that means to have sin in your life but just that blanket statement can you imagine people they're sitting there going well I mean the other day I got a bit prideful I got a bit I had a foolish thought earlier I mean that's ridiculous isn't it if you have sin in your life okay so that is obviously nonsense and then they'll or they'll try this one if you have any unconfessed sin you have any unconfessed sin the Lord's Supper is not for you really because who who confesses every single one of their sins anyone here confess now I was talking to someone on the door last week who said to me she said well I just asked for forgiveness for all my sins every night because this was based on her kind of continual works to keep her salvation yeah I confess or I just kind of ask for forgiveness for every sin I've done today so if you've forgotten one night not to ask for like a blanket forgiveness for just your general sins that you can't even name and list and everything else then you're not worthy that's nonsense right absolute nonsense okay it's got nothing to do that and obviously you know she was talking about for salvation but then she was kind of you know twisting and turning everything else okay another one they'll say is if you're in sin if you're in any sin what does that mean I mean that's very subjective what does it mean to be in sin well it is you know when I was a little bit answered something a bit dishonestly because of the pride in me or something you know was I am I still in sin am I out of sin now because that was five minutes ago ten minutes ago was it is an hour out of sin again it makes no sense does it and it's very just it's just very ambiguous so people are then wondering and unsure and oh no that's why I tripped up and smashed my head open the following week it's because I was I was in sin look look okay it's nonsense look what do we believe here though first you should be baptized okay we do believe that you should be the first thing to do if you're saved is to get baptized I would find it very strange to partake in a lord's supper without having had believer's baptism okay let's just make it clear it's believer's baptism if you got baptized when you didn't believe the gospel you're not baptized okay you know what what does hinder me to be baptized if thou believeth is all thy heart thou mayest okay you need to believe with all your heart to get baptized so if you got baptized where in your you know in your false church days if you got I mean you got sprinkled as a baby you're not baptized why are you partaking the lord's supper why have you not done the first thing you're told to do which is get baptized okay so look if you're saved get baptized it's the answer of a good conscience toward God I would say look you got that that look that is that's a big sin you know you're just going to forget that not interested in the baptism but then I've got to be basically I've got to humble myself and go yeah actually when I got baptized before I was unsaved and look if you're not accepting that if you're going well I think I was probably saying you look you've got issues you've got to start questioning you need to start checking yourself am I even saved I even accepted that I needed salvation if if I'm still clinging to the baptism I got when when I clearly wasn't saved the baptism I got in the whatever the pentecostal church in the whatever church in the look it's nonsense so first you need to get baptized okay what else do we what else do we believe well this passage is in the middle of a letter where one of the main subjects is church discipline kicking people out for fornication isn't it okay there's a big theme of of first corinthians obviously that they kick him out we then see it talked about in second corinthians as well okay so turn to first corinthians five because when dealing with it paul uses a comparison to the passover and the lord's supper and in first corinthians five in the first few verses paul's saying that there's this guy that has been fornicating with his father's wife now some people have tried to question well how does that work isn't it adultery well for me it occurred before they were married okay so he had been fornicating with this woman who then got married to his to his dad he's either divorced or you know or widowed or something like that yeah okay so so because it's fornication and people try and use it go see fornication can mean adultery and suddenly we've got grounds for divorce for all these different reasons no it's fornication that's why it says fornication okay that's why it doesn't say adultery okay so for me before they were married he then tells them to kick him out and he says in verse six your glorying is not good know ye not the little leaven leaveneth the whole lump 11 by the way is is what we would call i suppose sourdough starter but basically yeast yeah it it represents sin and how eventually it affects the whole church okay the reason we have church discipline the reason that if you don't follow church disciplines as a church you're mad because it will ruin your whole church okay if we're not kicking people out for what the bible says to kick people out for then we're going to end up with a little leaven leavening the whole lump okay so here he says he says your glorying is not good no you're not the little leaven leaveneth the whole lump purge out there for the old leaven that you may be a new lump as you are unleavened for even christ our passover is sacrificed for us 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 what's he talking about keeping the feast because the passover has been fulfilled so what's the feast well it's the lord supper isn't it it's the lord supper which replaces the passover and it's the feast it's not well let's you know kind of meet up weekly or let's do our monthly thing it's keeping the feast which has replaced the passover okay he's saying to get rid of this guy and this sin in the same way that the passover was observed by getting rid of leaven wasn't it okay now he then says to he then says after that to keep the feast not with the old sin or by replacing it with malice and wickedness because it's going to happen can't it whether whether it's because you've kicked someone else someone out or many of the other reasons around this and or even instead of but that it should be observed with sincerity and truth okay and and we want to be observing we want to be observing the lord supper with sincerity and truth right okay we therefore with that in mind believe that the following list of sins to be in would make you unworthy of the lord supper okay that's what we believe because the bible says to kick out these people they shouldn't be in church let alone partaking in the lord supper so look on that you go well but they haven't been kicked out so why are you even going to read this yeah because we don't necessarily know no i don't know i look i i've stopped putting hidden cameras in your house a long time ago i'm kidding all right okay i needed that once okay look we we look i don't know i don't know what you do okay eventually look god's going to reveal it to me if you don't sort yourself out yeah but i don't know what you're going and doing okay so look it's up to you that's why you're told to examine yourself that's why you're told to judge yourself on the back of this list of sins which should get you kicked out of church so for me it would be madness then to be partaking the lord supper if you shouldn't even be in the house of god yeah so let's have a look at this this list and by the way you could also say that if we as a church ignore this stuff then we would be unworthy too wouldn't we if i knew if i knew and i had evidence and when i say no like when you know for sure and that people are involved in this sort of stuff and if i'm going oh don't worry then i'm i'm an issue here as well aren't i because i'm basically partake of this but you could also say the same with everyone else here so if you're if you're look if your buddy at church is involved in this stuff and you think well we're such good mates you know i'm showing what a good friend i am by not saying anything to the church well look firstly you should be you should be coming to the church you should be coming to me and saying look because a little leaven leaven's a whole lump if you love the rest of your church but secondly look you shouldn't be taking the lord's supper either right okay so he says this i wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators this is verse nine yet not all together with the fornicators of this world or with the covetous or extortioners or with idolaters for them must your needs go out of the world but now i've written unto you not to keep company if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator or covetous or an idolater or a railer or a drunkard or an extortioner with such a one no not to eat for what have i to do to judge them that also that are without do not ye judge them that are within but them that are without god judgeth therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person and of course i've gone through this stuff at in depth at length in the series sins that get you kicked out of church that was quite a long rough series wasn't it you know but it was needed you know for a lot of people look look this isn't you know this isn't like baptist church belt in the uk yeah and when i say baptist church i mean like proper baptist church you actually want to follow the bible yeah look most people don't have a clue about half of this stuff most people don't turn up to a church going oh yeah i know that you shouldn't be involved in this and people should get kicked out for that most people have no idea okay so that stuff does need preaching we need reminding stuff a lot of people just need training into how to be part of a proper church life a bible believing church's life because most churches just like bring them in fornicators get him in because that's that's loving isn't it that's a love of christ sodomites get him in just get them all in you know because then we can show how much more loving we are than jesus christ but that's not what the bible says the bible says kick them out okay so we kick them out but again we kick them out when we have reason to kick them out okay and we're not looking to kick people out we want people to get right the idea of this is for you to look at it and go i don't want to be on this list because then i'm not right with god i want to get right and i want to be a part of church life and that's what we ultimately want here but if not if you look at this you go yeah whatever as long as they don't know etc etc get out then because we don't want the rest of the church being leavened with that with that little bit of leaven okay so verse 11 he says but now i've written unto you not to keep company if any man is called a brother be a fornicator or covetous or an idolater or a railer or a drunken or extortioner with such a one no not to eat so what's the fornicator for those of you that are unaware a fornicator is someone who's basically having a physical relationship outside of marriage okay if you're having a physical relationship outside of marriage and when i say outside of marriage that's if neither party is married otherwise it's adultery then you're in fornication okay if you're in fornication then you're not welcome in this church okay now just to just a heads up on this because we've had this before where someone gets saved and it's like right you're not allowed look let's talk about a brother okay a brother someone we call the brother is someone who really is a part of our church so if someone visits our church we're not going right uh usher better go through the list of checklist on on the door okay no we want people to come in we want to get people into this church we want to encourage however if they want to start coming regularly to our church then they better cut this out and we're going to give them a short and when i say a short amount of time because no one needs to have the the the barbie doll wedding nonsense you know 50 60 70 grand you know get yourself in debt for the rest of your life you know we need a year to plan it nonsense yeah either get married shotgun wedding or break up yeah or we don't want you in the church okay but again we don't usually do that with a new visitor we're gonna if someone starts to come more than once twice three times the church then we start then we want to make sure yeah okay and that's how it works with that so fornication covetousness okay covetousness is someone who basically is has an inordinate desire for money for things for other stuff and we've again i've preached about this at length if you're unsure about any of this stuff if you're silly you're going i don't know i could be on this list please just go onto our youtube channel it's really easy yeah just go on look under playlists and you'll see sins that get you kicked out of church and we've got every single one of these and we've got probably on some of them an hour and 15 minutes of preaching because there's so much to say about it on on each of these sins okay and explain to you exactly what we believe here does constitute it doesn't constitute that and i can't do that in this sermon um you know without it being a very long sermon okay so the covetous covetous people again people will covet things that doesn't make you covetous okay people will covet now and again to be what's described as a covetous person again that sermon will explain that to you it's someone who's who's just basically constantly thinking and making it really because it's idolatry as well is putting money thing stuff here and god here okay and there's many ways people do that like for example coming into church trying to trade and make money out of people and all that weird stuff we've had going on here before okay idolaters now some go oh well that's for like india or something isn't it that's well well no for me if look if if all the if all the gods of the heathen are idols if you're worshiping any other form of god then you're an idolater okay so that would include people that maybe you know if someone comes to our church once a month but the rest of the time they're at repent of your sins baptist i for me i would call that person idolater if they're worshiping if and when i say out there if they've got no idea they've got no idea they're like well i think i'm at an all right show but if you're worshiping a false god you're worshiping an idol aren't you and you're you're an idolater okay and if i have evidence of that you're not welcome in the church okay we don't want idolaters here right now you might be unsaved and come to the church but again if you could settle yourself a part of our church then we want to make sure that you're not an idolater and and if we have evidence of that then then and and that can be obviously worshiping statues and images and things like that as well railers anyone ever heard preaching railing before i don't know okay railers again people who are just basically slandering dishonest you know making up lies about people etc okay again if we have evidence of that um drunkards okay and people what's a drunkard so you know basically if if and there are a few different interpretations of this a good rule of thumb is this look because one if you're regularly getting drunk you're a drunkard what's regular well look if if if the way i see it is is like this if you come to a church like this and you still feel the need to go and get drunk i would probably have you down as a drunkard now some go what exactly is drunk well again it's open to interpretation you could say but i think the way that maybe uh i know verity baptist church looks it like this if you're if if you're uh if you have like a drink driving conviction yeah you get you you you've had a drink driving and you're what they would consider someone who is potentially a drunkard yeah so if you're still drinking and you got issues right okay if you if you um uh here's another if you're drinking on your own if you go home and you have to crack open a beer or a glass of wine or whatever it is at home on your own that's not social drinking and don't get me wrong i'm not advocating social drinking it's all wicked okay however look you're a drunkard okay and again look at this look at the sermon on that but you know an easy way to avoid any any suspicion of being a drunk don't drink yeah like what a wicked sin that is and that can't be preached enough from behind the pulpit and in this country how many people just wreck their lives in this nation alone through alcohol through boozing drunken nights out drunken nights in drunken rows drunken breakups drunken weirdness drunken perversion drunken everything yeah let's just just make sure we don't have it in this church yeah um extortioners and again have we got any extortionists in this church well you know again i preached a sermon on this and looked into at length and here's one that we have had here okay and we will probably you know sadly have in the future is people that try and pull on the heartstrings of someone and coerce them into giving them handouts giving them cash giving them money and and they'll they'll act like oh god bless you you've been such a blessing to me and my family and everything else what on earth you're just taking handouts off someone in in our church just just claiming you you're just so neat you know when you're when when like what on earth is that in a country where we have a benefit system in a country where the church doesn't need to provide for you it's ridiculous anyway and there's other versions of extortioners and we'll add causing divisions and offenses and he talks about that earlier didn't he just in first Corinthians 11 anyway causing divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine and there there's again there's a few interpretations of that i preached at length about that but people that are trying to preach little things you know little little whispers here and there again not not a not welcome and b not welcome in the lord's supper and obviously what what i preached on sodomy and similar vile affections okay because then we just go back to well you're unsaved you shouldn't be taking the lord's supper yeah let alone just let's not even go there okay so anyway we've gone through that we've got a long list obviously matthew 18 doesn't really kind of apply because if we have a matthew 18 situation that person's getting kicked out if they're not dealing with with you know what they've been told to do in matthew 18 but so that's not something you're going to be doing secretly but all of these things look you'd be amazed because you could sit there and go well look we're a salt-winning church bible believers bible readers you'd be amazed what goes on behind clothes you'd be amazed sadly what what will go on when people shut the door behind them of this church get in their car and drive home you'll be absolutely amazed okay and what's my point my point is look we're about to celebrate the lord's supper here okay we're told to examine ourselves we're told to judge ourselves we're told to not do it unworthily on the back of a letter to a church where he's just given a list of things to kick people out of the church for okay so something you need to examine yourselves about it's not for me to examine you okay last point that we don't police the lord's table okay i'm not going to go around going you know brother so and so so where are you last night at five of nine o'clock you know okay he didn't say pub okay uh whatever okay that's it's not that's not my business you examine yourself you judge yourself okay right we're looking at the importance of the lord's supper number one when do we observe the lord's supper once a year just before easter number two how do we observe the lord's supper we don't bring our own we break and eat unleavened bread and sip unleavened juice we do it worthily by judging and examining ourselves okay number three why do we observe the lord's supper why do we observe the lord's supper now we've already seen the command in luke 22 19 this do remembrance of me it's repeated here where we are in first corinthians 11 and verse 24 go back to first corinthians 11 so in 24 where it says and when he had given thanks first corinthians 11 24 he break it and said take eat this is my body which is broken for you this do in remembrance of me after the same manner also he took the cup when he'd stopped saying this cup is the new testament in my blood this do ye as oft as you drink it in remembrance of me and really that should be enough shouldn't it okay that should be enough he told he told us to do it but he tells us to do many things in life that we still don't do right he commands us to do many things and many people don't do those things he commands him to do and we should obviously try our best to everything that god commands to do but there's something extra special about the lord's supper isn't there look at verse 26 it says for as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup you do show the lord's death till he come so every year when we observe the lord's supper we're not just talking about our salvation okay we're not just talking about heaven about being saved from hell and look these are great things to talk about we're not just talking about the resurrection which we then do soon after at this time of the year no we're showing the lord's death we're showing the lord's death we're focusing and dwelling on the lord jesus christ dying for our sins that he gave his life a ransom for all okay and we're focusing and dwelling on that we're symbolizing his body that was given for all and his blood that was shed for the remission of sins yeah so we're really when we when we focus on the lord's supper when it's not just like a sort of monthly sort of just oh yeah that's what we do you know last sunday of the month or whatever they do in some of these church stuff look we're really like for me i know i know doing it like this and once a year look we really think about it we really dwell upon it we we kind of we're thinking about it as we prepare for it when we partake in the lord's supper we're focusing on we're showing the lord's death aren't we his death we're thinking about that death with and we then soon after we'll focus on his resurrection right we're thinking about what he went through and we we've been going through uh the gospel of matthew and in our wednesday evenings in matthew 26 we were just looking at you know jesus christ he's he's praying in the garden and just it's heart-wrenching what you know just thinking what jesus christ went through for us and he you know he he died a horrible death for for sinners such as myself and all of you out there look it's amazing really isn't it and it's something that we dwell on at this time of the year turn of romans 5 john 15 13 while you're turning there says you turn of romans 5 john 15 13 says greater love hath no man than this than a man that a man lay down his life for his friends and look you know he died for us before we're even friends right and he's done amazing things for us and it's something that we want to focus on we want to remember we want to recognize romans 5 and verse 7 says for scarcely for a righteous man will one die yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die but god commendeth his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners christ died for us and sometimes i think when we go through the gospel and other things we kind of you almost gloss over that don't you the fact that he died he died he gave his life willingly a ransom for all he died for us since for for while we were yet sinners while we were yet sinners christ died for us okay and that's some love that he that he gave for us isn't it and that's amazing and that's something that we think about it is a sombre respectful time that we have here but it's an essential one isn't it such one and just to to remember how big that you know what a massive price was paid for everyone here's salvation and everyone out there's potential salvation and and the other thing is it's one of only two ordinances really major ordinances in the new testament along with baptism it's it's hardly a hardship is it okay so oh man you've got to do that lord supper look try living in the old testament yeah okay you've been doing a lot of ordinances right okay and look it's one of two one of two major ordinances and what both of them doing is showing that death at least with baptism burial resurrection and really of course you can't separate the the resurrection from the from the death of christ but we're specifically just focusing on his death and then straight after we're then going to celebrate his resurrection okay and and it's not exactly a big hardship it's hardly you know ah just look and i'm going to talk about this in a second but before i do just to remind you why do we observe the lord's supper number one because we're commanded to number two because we're showing the lord's death and number three because it's only one of two major ordinances to keep and here's the thing if if you examine and judge yourself okay and and you've gone through this and you're like yeah okay i've gone through i'm over the next and that's something we should do and we should think about are we harboring issues for people it's actually did talk about division as well we don't have division in our church we want to make sure that we feel right you know towards our fellow church members etc then please be here on sunday april the second it's been in our bulletin for a while now i didn't want to leave it too long to preach this okay it's one evening one evening in the whole year because for some look for for you know for reasons you have you might not be able to always make evenings you might not be able to always make sundays you might not be able but and you might go oh well i don't want i want to come down when you know and i think it's going to be a really fiery sermon or maybe not i want you know i want to come when it's just like uh when we've got like the soul winning day the day before whatever else look this should be in your calendar okay this should be in your calendar this should be the evening that you make sure that you where possible you can come to yeah because look it's a big deal it's once a year it's an important event okay the importance of the lord's supper and we're going to be celebrating it on sunday the 8th april the second at 4 p.m on that let's pray well thank you for uh your your death your you know burial resurrection you know god in the flesh came and died for us and just it's amazing it's amazing that the lord jesus christ did that that um that you know he he gave himself willingly that he went to went to hell for us that you know something that none no one here deserves was given freely lord we we you know it's amazing that you know that what went on you know a couple of thousand years ago for all mankind um and and help us to to want to really recognize that with this coming lord's supper help us to to you know get right to be able to to you know observe it help us to to to you know judge ourselves help us to make sure that we're you know that we're we're right that our hearts are right that we want to just just want what's best for this this church for you for the body of christ help us to just you know come here with a with a clean heart with all those things that we've just talked about no none of us are sinless no none of us can get sin out of our lives but help us to to at least get those those big major things which which can and should disqualify us from church attendance help us to make sure we're right on those things lord and help us to to therefore then then you know come here and be able to with a clean heart just just think in depth and focus on your um you know what what was done for us your son dying on that cross and um just just what that means for us help us to focus on that um in the build up to it as well help us to preach that loud and clear as we go out this afternoon help us to get many people saved lord and help us to to uh return here for this evening's service in the just name progress amen