messages in Scripture. The first is Acts chapter 5. There are two ways we can respond to the cross. We can respond to the cross as if the God of the Old Testament has ceased to exist, and now we deal with the God of the New Testament. Tiger, tiger, burning bright in the forest of the night, versus little lamb who may be. You wear the contrast of the two points, the God of the Old Testament, the tiger in the forest, the God of the New Testament, the lamb. I think that most preaching in America presents the cross as if there is some kind of change in terms of God's dealing with all people. And I submit to you that most people today are under the Old Testament, and the only way you can get out from under the Old Testament is by getting into the New Testament kind of tricky way of putting it. But what I'm really saying is this, the God of wrath revealed in the Old Testament. Only becomes for us a God of grace and mercy when we repent of our sins and cast ourselves on His mercy in Christ. It isn't that God was one way in the Old Testament and another way in the New Testament, the popular conception. God is the same in the Old Testament as in the New. The Ten Commandments are apical in the Old Testament. They're still apical today. Are we under the law of love? Yes, how do you love your neighbor? You don't murder him. You don't steal from him. You don't steal his spouse. You don't bear false witness against him. Well, how do you love your parents? You honor them. You take care of them in their old age as Jesus taught us. You do for them what they can't do for themselves. You speak respectfully not only of your parents, but of those who are an authority over you. You're loyal to your leadership, this commandment. How do you show love the God? Well, you treat His name as holy. You have no other gods before Him. You worship Him one day a week whether you feel like it or not. I think that the greatest thing that happened to America isn't abortion or gay marriage. It's the loss of the fourth commandment. When I moved to Alexandria, stores weren't open on the Lord's day, but we treat the Lord's day like any day. Well, we're not under the law under grace. What does that mean? It doesn't mean that someone has some wag put it free from the law of happy condition. I can send as I want them to deliver a mission.
The fourth commandment is a profiling, important commandment. You're in sin if you don't assemble on the Lord's day with God's people. You're in sin. The note how to about it. Is it as sinful as murder? Who am I to say? Is it as sinful as adulterate? Let me tell you this. Under the Old Testament, if you believe in the death penalty and sum up you do, well, people who premeditated murder should be put to death. Under the Old Testament, people who had sex with somebody who was not their spouse were executed. Under the Old Testament, when people broke the Sabbath, they were executed. The human that God regards Sabbath breaking under the Old Testament as a capital crime, the same in his eyes as murder and adultery and homosexuality, which will all have capital offenses. Yes. Now, you may say, well, I don't accept the death penalty anymore and that's between you and God. But if you accept the death penalty, you have to understand that you can't say that it's unjust or unfair on God's part to have people executed for breaking the fourth commandment and for breaking the seventh commandment as well as for breaking the sixth. Now, we're not saved by law keeping. Remember the illustration. We're saved by what Jesus has done for us. But we do not get saved without repentance. No one has ever been saved by walking an aisle and saying a prayer and there are millions of people, Americans in hell right now who've walked iles and said a prayer. How do you get saved? You turn from your sins and cast yourself on God's mercy in Christ and you seek God until you find Him. Some people can find God in two minutes at the front of an altar in the church because they're broken over their sinfulness and they want to deal with their sin and they're desperate to get right with God and they pray and seek God's face and they're saved. We're saved by grace alone, received through faith alone in Christ alone but people aren't saved by malding a prayer. Any more than they're saved by crossing themselves or being baptized with water or kissing the Quran or bowing at the shrine of Krishna or the black colleague or kissing Buddha's belly or something. Rituals that we do do not save us. Christ has saved us but God's way of salvation demands that we turn from our sins and come to Jesus. Charles had in Spurgeon the great preacher of the 19th century Baptist preacher in London had a sermon entitled Turn or Burn. Turn or Burn. Why? Because there are lots of soldiers being killed in the wreck. We're going to hell who were baptized and evangelical churches and walked out but they don't know God but they have a presumption that they're right with God because they malved the sinner's prayer. Saying the sinner's prayer doesn't get you saved. Coming to the sinner's Savior will save you. Saying words with God is silliness unless the heart's in it. It's got to be a matter of the heart and I tell you that the religion of America in the early 20th century was a great departure from Christianity. I didn't say 21st I said 20th. The religion of your grandparents was a departure from the way of the Bible. Not just people who went through the 60s. Turn or Burn. Turn. When we fail to turn then we will deal with God as he is revealed in the Old Testament. How's he revealed in the Old Testament? Pretty mean God. You ever read the book of Numbers? Somebody you don't trifle with. Somebody you don't fool around with. We'll see that in a moment but I want you to see is that that God in the Old Testament is still around in the New Testament even in the church when people don't deal with their sin. Let's look at Acts 5.
Now a man named Ananias together with his wife Sophia also sold the piece of property. With his wife's full knowledge he kept back part of the money for himself. He brought the rest and put it at the Apostle's feet. Then Peter said Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land? Didn't it belong to you before it was sold? After it was sold wasn't the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied to men but to God. See the Holy Ghost is a person. Just like I'm a person and you're a person, cows are persons and dogs are persons. The Holy Spirit has a distinct personality. He can be lied to. He can be lied to because he's not an object. He said, well, the word for Spirit in Greek is a neuter man. Yes, Numa, but the word for Spirit in the Old Testament Hebrew is Ruaq, which is a feminine noun. Why? Because gender doesn't mean the same thing in other languages that it means in our language. The Holy Spirit is a person just as the father is a person and the son is a person and the archangel Gabriel and the archangel Michael are persons. Just as every sentient creature is a person. So God himself is a person who is father, a person who is son, a person who is Holy Spirit. Not three gods, one god. The Holy Spirit is a person and he can be lied to because he is a person.
You have not lied to men, but to God. Who do you lie to? Verse three. How does it that Satan has filled your hearts so that you've lied to the Holy Ghost, the Holy Spirit? Now, what are you to see? Is lying simple? Well, we have white lies, don't we? And we can justify lying. I know ministers have written and rebutted them who say that it's okay to lie. What do you do when the Nazis knock on your door and ask if you have Jews in the basement? I don't know what you tell them, but I tell you what you don't tell them. You don't tell them why. What if they kill the Jews? That's God's problem, not yours. I think I serve a god who is able to defend Jews in basements and able to defend me without my having to resort to sin. God never lies. He never lies. Is lying serious? Hold your hand there for a moment and read in the very last book of the Bible what we're told there. Andy says here in verse 14 of Revelation 22, blessed are those who washed their roads that they may have a right. The right to the tree of life and they go through the gates into the city outside of the dogs that were dog by the way going back to Hebrew and the Hebrew Bible is a word for homosexual prostitutes. Those who practice magic arts involved a new cult, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices a lie. Earlier in the book of Revelation he says that all liars will have their place in the like of fire. So what about you? It'll hold a lie. You're going to hell for it. It's serious as I can be. If you've told a lie, you're going to go to hell for it. Just as if you've committed adultery, you're going to hell for it. And you have no hope of escaping hell even if you walk a thousand miles and pray a thousand sinners prayer prayers unless you repent. Those are repentance me. I'm sorry God and keep on doing it. You turn from your lie and anyone that you have lied to you correct it with unless that correction would bring harm to the cause of Christ. But you correct it. You are correctly, correct the effective lie. Let me tell you a true story. One day I was at a youth camp and I had another pastor take a walk with me. God has given me a particular gift. It's not a gift that I necessarily am glad I've got. The gift is that I see through people into their hearts. And God enables people to not all the time. I don't mean that. But in those occasions God causes people oftentimes to begin to drop their guard and tell me their story. So I was with a pastor in my denomination and we were both doing a youth conference together and took a long walk with me. And along the way, Sadhana, I need to get something up like, yes, or with that, what is that? I'll call him Jethrow. I always like these old 50 shows, you know, because their names people don't name their kids, Jethrobo Dean and Belly May. Now I don't want to slip up. If I don't give a name, I'm liable to slip up and give the name.
And he said, I've told a story before because it's so striking. He said, you know, some weeks ago I was on vacation. And the last weekend of the vacation, I went to revival service at this church in another town. And the evangelist said, what do you want more than anything in life? And he said, you know, I immediately thought this used bookstore I've been in in my in the town where I'm a pastor. I saw this stack of pornographic material. And immediately, I thought as the preacher is giving beginning to give the invitation, I want that stack of pornography. I am not making this up. This is true story. This is a pastor. I believe he was a man who was a godly man who had a stronghold in his life. Godly people can get a stronghold. And it's like having a great battery in your car. But a cable from the battery has got the insulation off and it starts rubbing on the metal of your car. And before long, it's grounding. The car is grounding out the battery and say this great battery suddenly is drained of power.
This is a foghorn. And so what happens is this. This man hears in his own soul what he wants. What do I want? I want that stack of pornographic magazines. He said, Bob, when I got back home the next day, I lied to my wife. I did have to go to the hospital. I'm having to fill in some blanks here from memory gap. But he told his wife he was going to the hospital. And I don't know whether he said instead of or in addition to, but he drove his car by that used bookstore. And instead of going in the front because the place was locked up, it was nighttime, he drove around to the back, was in the alleyway caught out of his car, ripped open the screen, broke the glass, reached his hand in and stole the stack of pornographic magazines. And after he had consummated his lust on those magazines, he threw them away. But the next time he preached, brass walls, brass walls, his conscience is eating him up. And so what happens is what? He's got to get relief. So he told me. And I said, just throw. Let me tell you what you're going to have to do. First of all, you've got to make restitution. I'm not going to do that. I'm a well known pastor in that town. I can't do that. I said, you're going to have to. You're not going to get forgiveness, which is you ask them to move away from the door. How can I do that? I gave him away. I want you to calculate what those magazines were worth, the cost of repairing the screen and the window. I want you to get that amount of money and put it in an envelope. You do not have to use your name. You write this man a letter and you tell him that you are a Christian and that God has convicted you of your sin and that you want to make restitution. And you get that envelope to that man. Somehow another can be by mail. You make sure he gets it. Secondly, I said to him, and I would not always counsel everyone to do this. I would always counsel everyone to do the first thing, but not always counsel everyone to do the second. He indicated to me some other things. And so I said, you know, you and I don't live close to each other. So there's no effective way that we're going to maintain accountability because you need, you don't need telephone accountability. You need face-to-face accountability. So I'm going to ask you when you get home that you tell your wife, and that's going to hurt her because what you've done, the way that women react to sexual matters versus the way that men react, your pornography to her is exactly the same way to her that you would respond if you caught her in the arms of another man in bed. It's different how men and women react. So I said, rather than her reacting as if this is some, well, it's not right. It's bad. She's going to react in terms of the hurt as if she's caught you in the act of adultery with another woman. So it's going to hurt her deeply, but you're going to have to hurt her because you're going to have to have accountability. And God has given you your spouse as your wife's partner in this case. This was not an isolated incident. It's just that sin that's not dealt with always gets worse. And in his case, the sin of these things with pornography led him to stealing. And I said, I want your wife to call me. All right, no, I said, I'm going to tell my wife, and I want your wife to call my wife because she needs to talk to another woman. And he did that. And he got set free restitution. You remember the story in Jericho when Jesus is coming to town. And there's this crooked chief tax collector, all tax collectors were crooked then. They were all in collusion with the foreign government. Imagine that our country would be occupied by Muslim extremists, not as unlikely as you might think. And imagine members of the local Baptist Presbyterian Methodist Assembly of God, Pentecostal Catholic Lutheran, or whatever church who were in collutes with that government. And when you go to pay your taxes, they stiff you for a little extra. They want a little tip. And if you don't give them the tip, they've got those jihadis there to really teach you a lesson. How you'd feel? Well, he's in that position. His name is Zacchaeus. And he goes up and climbs into a sick and mortuary because he was not a tall guy. And he wanted to see Jesus. And Jesus looks up at him and he says, he says, Zacchaeus, come on down and go to your house because I'm coming home to eat dinner with you. And he's flabbergasted. And it's this act of kindness and acceptance on the part of Jesus that touches his heart because the goodness of God leads us to repentance. And there he comes to faith in Christ. Any repents? And the fruit of his repentance is this Lord? Today, he said, half of my possessions, I'm giving to the poor. And if I've defrauded any man, I'll repay him for full. Goes to the law. And Jesus says, today salvation has come to this house. For he also is a child of Abraham, restitution. A lie. Is it a light thing? A trivial thing? We read further in Acts 5. Verse 5, When Ananias heard this, he fell down and died. And great fear seized all who heard what had happened. God killed him. God kills people every day.
God killed him. God kills people every day. God's never murdered anybody. God has given assist commandments and God observes His own commandments because the commandments reflect His character. God never murders. God never steals. God never lies. So when we lie, when we steal, when we murder, those things are wrong for one reason, they go contrary to God's own character. God killed him. We're out to give him our secularistic velter chewing that is our way of looking at life through modernistic spectacles that remove everything supernatural to think of it was a psychological impact. The guy probably had a bad ticker. He probably had need of three-way bypass surgery and I probably had high blood pressure anyhow. And when Peter publicly embarrassed this man calling him out in front of the whole assembly to confronting with his sin, just too much, he had a cerebral hemorrhage he had a heart attack, my cardinal infarction and he kicked the bucket. But we read into that all these things because we are prejudiced by an anti-supernaturalistic bias that we inherited in the 18th century from the enlightenment which is that philosophical system that's erected so dreadfully. God killed him. I want you to see something else. In verse 6, the young men came forward, wrapped up his body and carried him out and buried him. About three hours later his wife came in not knowing what had happened. Peter asked her, tell me, is this the price you and Emma and I asked out for the land. What kind of hour was Peter? Peter had just seen God kill this woman's husband. He could have said, you know, sister Sophia, we just had a funeral. You weren't even here for it. Your husband lied and God killed him for his life because God takes line very seriously, very seriously.
Look at what he does. He tricks her. He entraps her. Me and trapper. This is this entrapment. Can't we get this thrown out of court for entrapment? Tell me, is this the price you and Emma and I asked out for the land? Yes, she said, that is the price. Peter said to her, how could you agree to test the spirit of the Lord? The feet of the men who buried your husband are at the door. They will carry you out also. Now the money was there. They didn't have to give God any of that money.
Or they could have given God a portion of the money and said, this is a portion of what we got for selling our land. You know, go back to verse four. Didn't it belong to you before you had the soul? And after the soul wasn't the money at your disposal, they could have given part of it. What they did was so small, how can God be such a mean old God as to take something so trivial and kill somebody for it? Here's all they did. They sold the land for a certain amount of money and they decided they would give a portion of it to God. And at the together we build dinner, they gave the money that they had received for the sale of the land, but it was a portion of it and they said, Pastor, God has blessed us and we just want to share our blessing with the rest of the church. Wow, it sounds like Bill Clinton. Actually, it sounds like Rush Limbaugh's imitation of Bill Clinton. And the only thing wrong with what he did was, he said, this is the whole amount. It's so small. I mean, it's tenancy. It's the kind of stuff we justify every single day in dealing with other people. Talking to our husband, talking to our wife. I can remember Mama.
I just remember Mama. She was a lovely Christian woman, but she had trouble with line. But never bald face line. Nice line. Mama was raised in Alabama, Union Town, Alabama. She had this thick Alabama accent. So Mama could tell some Alabama line. This is how it went. She'd buy some new clothes or maybe buy me clothes. And then she said, now, Robert, don't you go telling your daddy that I bought that? She said, I'm going to tell him, but I'm going to tell him my way. I'm going to tell him my way. Well, in a nice and safara told the church about the proceeds from their property sale, their way. That's all it was. I mean, it's not a big deal. It's really small. I mean, they did give God a big sum of money. All they did was this. They presented the sum of money as if it were the whole thing, when it wasn't the whole thing. And Peter issues a death sentence. You know, the power of death is in the tongue. The life, life and death is in the tongue. Listen to these words. He killed her. God used the apostle Peter to kill safara. Verse nine, Peter said, there are how could you agree to test the spirit of the Lord? Look, the feet of the men who buried your husband are at the door and they will carry you out also. Wow. That's the God of the Old Testament. Yeah. Because you're only under the cross. If you're under the cross, you're only on this side of Calvary. If you're under the cross of Calvary, you're only dealing with the God and Father of Jesus Christ when you have been adopted into his family by the sovereign work of the Holy Spirit and adoption. You're only under the blessings of the new covenant when you've turned from your sin, renounced it and come to Jesus. Otherwise, you're dealing with the God of the book of numbers, with the God of the book of judges, with the God of the book of Genesis who wiped out Sodom and Gomorrah, who sinned by the way was not first homosexuality. It was living a luxurious life because they had a lot of idle time and a lot of money. Their sexual perversion grew out of their tremendous financial prosperity and in the failure to understand that God gives prosperity in order to give it away to other people who need. So that's how it began. But the God you're going to deal with if you don't repent, is the God that destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. And who when lot's wife leaves the city and God had said explicitly through the two angels, don't look back as she turns to look back. She turned into a pillar of salt. That myth, well, that happened. That's real history. It happened that way because that's the God people deal with if they don't repent. There's sins and come doing. And so, verse 10, at that moment she fell down at his feet and died. Then the young man came in and finding her dead, carried her out and buried her beside her husband. Great fear sees the whole church and all you heard about these events. Turn with me if you will in closing to 1 Corinthians chapter 10 and then quickly chapter 11. Look at chapter 10 verse 14, 1 Corinthians 10, 14. Therefore, my dear friends, flee from my Dollar Tree. I speak to sensible people, judge for yourselves, what I say is not the cup of thanks giving for which we give thanks, a participation in the blood of Christ. What is he saying? He's saying it's a sharing in the blood of Christ. What does that mean? I don't know what that means. Can I concoct some medieval theory about transubstantiation or consubstantiation of that know? But he says the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks is a participation in the blood of Christ. What does that mean? Well, it means that you are drinking grape juice, but you're somehow another coming in contact with the blood of Christ. I don't know how. Don't ask me to explain it. Put a serious business to take communion. The cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks. He says is a participation in it's a sharing, it's a giving and receiving. The Greek word is Coenania. That's why we call this holy communion. You are communing with the blood of Christ. He shed his blood once for all time two thousand years ago. This isn't a re-sacrifice of Christ. And this isn't literally the blood of Christ, but somehow another, when you drink this, you're coming in contact with blood that was shed two thousand years ago by the means of the Holy Spirit who lifts us up and seats us in heavily places where Christ is at the right end of the Father. He's not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks, a participation in the blood of Christ. Then he goes on and he says, and is not the bread that we break, a participation in the body of Christ. What does that mean? I don't know what it means.
Does this bread cease to be bread? Using Aristotelian philosophy, do we say, well, it appears under the accidents, Aristotelian term, under the accidents of bread, but it doesn't bread any longer. It's the actual literal flesh of Jesus. Where do you get that from? You get it from Aristotle. You don't get it from the Bible. It's just bread, but it's not just bread. It is just bread, but it's not just bread. It is a what? It is a participation in the body of Christ. It's a sharing in the body of Christ. Somehow, another, when you eat this bread, you come in contact with Jesus in a way beyond the way you come in contact Jesus through the ministry of the Word. Do you come in contact with Jesus through the ministry of the Word? Yes. The Bible indicates that Jesus himself speaks to his church when people open up the scriptures and declare the scriptures to the church. We receive Christ through our years
by hearing the Word. We receive Christ in our hearts by faith. I submit to you that we receive Christ somehow in some sense. That means of the bread in the wine. All I'm saying is what the Bible says. I'm not adding some denominational theory to it. You think about it. It's what he says. And in light of what he says that it's a participation and it's a sharing and it's a communion and it's a receiving of the body and blood of Christ. In some sense, then we look over at chapter 11 and we hear these words, verse 23, verse 15's 11, for I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you. The Lord Jesus on the night that he was betrayed took bread. And when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, this is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me. What did Jesus mean by those words? I don't know what he meant by those words. Did he mean that the bread was turned into the body of Christ? I don't see that in the Bible. But neither is it simply an object lesson. If it's merely an object lesson, then we could take a flannel graph and we could take a felt picture of a cup of wine and a felt picture of a loaf of bread and we can put them up there and we'd get just the same thing out of looking at the flannel graph. But it's not that. It's more than that. How much more than that? I don't know. Maybe we ought to be silent where scripture's silent and not speculate. Somehow another, when we take communion, we're touching something supernatural and not merely natural. I want you to understand that. Yeah, you can go off the deep end to say, doing some denominations, making it more than it is. But we can also go off the deep end the other way, which is the place of most American Christians today, making it less than it is. I want to show you, verse 25. In the same way after supper, he took the cup saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood. That's Paul's account and it reflects also the account of Luke, but Matthew and Mark give us another account. This cup is my blood of the new covenant, which is right. If you don't say the words right, then you mess it up and turn it into rat, flesh and prune juice. No, that's just foolishness. It's not the words that we say over the sealing ordinances. It makes no difference if you're baptized in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, or if you're baptized in Jesus name. It's not the words, it's the intent of the heart of coming to Christ. It's not the words we say over this. There's a new testament, it gives us a lot of different ways that people were baptized. Anybody that reads the New Testament understands they didn't have just one way to do baptism. It's not because it contradicts, it's because as the church is experiencing the power of the Holy Spirit in the first decades of Christianity, they didn't have the Bible in this complete form. So they did things different ways at times. So what words are to be said? It's not the words that are said. It's what happens. What does happen here? Do this whenever you drink it in remembrance of me. It has a remembrance. It's a memorial. It points us back to the death of Jesus, but it's more than a memorial. Remember scripture is generally a both-hand book rather than an either or book. It's both a memorial and its communion. Now listen to this verse 26, for whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. It's a visible word of God. But now listen to verse 27, and you understand that it's not just crackers and juice. It's not shot glass is a great juice and oyster crackers that we're eating and drinking. It's somehow another something in contact with the supernatural. Listen to what he says. Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sitting against the body and blood of the Lord. You never say that about the Sunday school teacher, a vacation Bible school teacher, who in teaching a little children about communion puts the felt cup up there and the felt bread up there and somehow another doesn't in an unworthy manner. He's talking about eating this with unconfessing in your heart. He's talking about eating it in a careless way. He's talking about drinking it with unconfessing in your heart. He's talking about drinking it in a careless way. He's not saying worthy. You're not worthy to take communion. Listen, St. Paul wasn't worthy to take communion. St. Peter wasn't worthy to take communion. If you talk about human worth, our worth is in Christ. He's not saying who's worthy to take. He's talking not of an adjective but of an adverb. What's an adverb? It deals with verbs. It's not who is worthy. It's how you do it. There were people who drank too much of that grape juice and got drunk at the Lord's supper. Verse 21, verse 15-11, one remains hungry and another gets drunk. That's unworthy. It's unworthy to treat this lightly. Treat it lightly. It's very serious to take communion. It's serious business. Why is it serious? Let's go on. Because when you do take it lightly, you're guilty of sinning against what? Using Christ's words, when you take it lightly, when you do it in a worthy way, you're guilty of sinning against the body and blood of Christ. Are they literally the body and blood of Christ? It's literally bread and literally one. But somehow another Christ is present when two or three are gathered together in his name. Therefore, it's serious business and we actually commune with Christ. We actually commune with his body and blood. Somehow another in this meal. Don't ask me now. But we do. And so we're guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. If we do it, then we're to listen further. Verse 28, a man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup. Why examine yourself? Because I imagine there are three or four anonymists and suppliers here today. Really? Grace Christ, yeah. I think there are people here who got things in your life you need to deal with. Who are you? Shall I name names? How about the Holy Spirit naming names to you? Not my brother, not my sister, but it's me, O Lord, standing in the need of prayer. I need prayer. All is not well with my soul. That's what we should be saying. God, I understand you can't know yourself. That's the great mythology of rationalistic thinking. Philosophers thinking that we can know ourselves. That there's such a thing as humans being able to come to object to truth apart from the Spirit of God. Because our minds have been blinded by the sin of our first parents. And every sin we commit, blinds us. Every sin is like the fullest and the first thing sin does is blind our eyes. So you need the Holy Spirit to show you your heart. You need to pray in the words of 139th Psalm. Search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts. See if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way of life ever lasting. That's where we begin. I can't who can discern as errors says the Psalmist in Psalm 19. Keep me back from presumptuous sins and hidden faults. You got hidden faults? Ask your wife. Ask your husband. They're probably least hidden from them. But they're still hidden. Their things about you, your husband doesn't know. Their things about you, your wife doesn't know. But there's nothing about, and their things about you that you don't know. But there's nothing about you that God doesn't know. I'll tell you something else in our pride. We project an image of ourselves. That isn't true. But the comedic, sadly comedic tragedy is the most people see through us. So why don't get real with God right now? Let a man examine himself and stay away from communion? No. God never wants us to stay away from communion unless we're unwilling to deal with our sin. He wants us to examine ourselves and deal with our sin. Can you deal with us in right here in this room? Yes, you can deal with any sin. But what if I stole a bunch of pornography and you say I'm going to have to figure out a way to make restitution? If you say to God right now, God, I'm committing to do what I need to do, even if it takes me the rest of my life to do it, because I don't have the money to do it now. By your grace, I'm going to do it. Can you prevent it? Do you intend to deal with it? Then come, come to the Lord's suffer. Therefore whoever reads the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an worthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord, a man ought to examine himself before he eats and drinks the cup. Verse 29, for anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord, wait a minute. In most American churches today, we don't recognize what we're holding in our hands. There's something supernatural when we eat communion. Do we recognize it? Oh, I didn't believe that. Fine, it doesn't make any difference. Whether you believe it or not.
What if I told you that I had put arsenic in one of these cups? I don't believe you do that.
What if I did? It makes a difference whether you believe it or not. If you drink it, you're going to die. You're going to die. What do you believe it or not? Your theory of communion has nothing to do with what communion is. Listen to what he says. For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself. Now look at verse 30. You want to know why this is not just shot glasses of grape juice and oyster crackers, why it's more than a flannel graph picture of a cup of wine and a loaf of bread. Here it is, verse 30. That is why many among you are weak and sick and a number have fallen asleep. Take verse 30 seriously. It's a scary thing to take communion, but Emma's bias and supplier weren't taking communion when God killed him. They were just presenting a lie to the Church of God. It's a serious thing. What kind of preacher am I? I'm a preacher that lives in fear. I betray you by not telling you the truth. I know preachers very well. I've counseled lots of preachers who were adulterers and homosexuals over the years in various denominations. It's that gift I've talked to you about. I don't know why. I have that gift that people come to me and tell me their sins. I've heard things I would to God. I'd never heard. I'm telling you America's puppets are full of liars. America's puppets are full of liars. That's why we're in the mess we're in. That's why we're in the constitutional crisis we're in. Where we have troops and harms way. And we have a divided government. We're going to be set up in the them. They're going to be hung up to try and die or nothing. Just like what our government did to our boys. When it let 58,000 American soldiers die in Vietnam or nothing because of politicians. My brother Air Force Academy graduate, B-50 Duke pilot in that war told me the politicians lost that war. Why do we have crazy people running our government? Because we're under a curse. You're going to wake up. This is a word of God. America's under a curse. You don't take God out of public institutions. You don't say you can't pray out loud. You can't use Jesus name as our
Chaplain's Corps. Recently dealt with a naval chaplain. You can't remove the Bible from the public institutions of a nation and not incurred a judgment of God. You're God judges. He gives you rules. He gives you a foolish mind when the sun against them and you don't repent. The problem with America is not the Republicans or the Democrats. It's the pulpit because we don't take seriously the God with whom we have to deal. And communion is very serious. To take the Lord's Supper is a call to self-examination. It's a revival meeting. It's just as I am being played for 25 stances to be finally deal with your hard heart. That's what it is. And Saint Paul says, not few notice the words. Not few people put many are weak, chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, brine disease, deep depression. I'm going to tell you something about middle illness. Except for organic things. All middle illness is rooted in sin that's not dealt with. That's been my experience of decades of dealing with people. You won't forgive somebody who's hurt you. You're bitter at God because he won't allow you to do something. You're bitter at God because of your circumstances. You've got something in your past you won't accept the blood of Jesus to cleanse you from. You won't repent of your sins. You won't accept yourself the way you are because God created you with the tendency to put on weight, the tendency to have the hair color and the bone structure and all the things you made here. It's all these failures to deal with this basic spiritual stuff that leads people to embrace middle illness. Middle illness is a choice. It's the result of choosing not to allow the Holy Ghost to heal me. The blood of Jesus has healing in it, not just forgiveness. There's nothing wrong with you today that the blood of Jesus can't cleanse. So I'm asking you to deal with yourself for this reason. Many, he's writing the church in Corinth. He says, many, many among you are weak and sick. Do you mean some of the people in Corinth were sick because they weren't coming to the Lord's Supper dealing with their business first? Yeah, that's what it says. And then he uses a euphemism for death, falling asleep because in the Bible we have our future hope of the resurrection of our body. So when the body is laid in the grave, it's sleeping in the grave. The body will rise again. Soul doesn't sleep. It goes to be with the Lord. And many are dead. Do you mean to tell me that there were actually people who died as a result of taking communion in the church in Corinth? Will I swear to God? That's the truth. Our language makes no sense. That's what Paul said. They did not say it. It's not correcters and Jews. It's not a flannel breath picture. It's coming into contact with the supernatural. And just as Asa reached forth his hand to study the ark and God struck him dead, you can't handle the supernatural lightly without the severest of consequences. For this reason many among you are weak and sick and some have fallen asleep. My brothers and sisters in Christ, our God is a kind and merciful God and He loves you. And He wants you to come to Him. He doesn't want you to look back at your supposed past conversion because if you're not living for Christ today you need to question whether you were ever converted at all. They went out from us as John and first John to 19, but they were not office. For if they'd been office they would no doubt have continued with us, but they went out that it might be manifest that they're not all of us. Come to Jesus today just the way you are. Just the way you came to Jesus when you were 16 years old with a heart that wanted to get right with God and deal with everything. And if you do, you will find the cup to be the cup of blessing. You will find the bread that we break to be a participation in Christ Himself who wants to bless you today. He wants every single one of us to go out of this place today, blessed, full, healed, restored, let's pray. Lord, we pray that you would give us by your spirit to examine ourselves, not to stay away, but in the sanctuary of our own heart to take communion with you, for Jesus sake. Amen. I'm going to give you an opportunity