Numbers chapter 5, starting at verse 11, then the Lord said to Moses, speak to the Israelites and say to them, if a man's wife goes astray, and is unfaithful to him, by sleeping with another man, and this is hidden from her husband, and her impurity is undetected since there is no witness against her, and she has not been caught in the act. Now here is a wretched paraphrase in the New International Version. If anyone has a King James Version or a New American Standard Bible, I'd like somebody to read verse 14 for us. Ah, do you notice the difference? And that difference really goes to the heart of the problem in America today. And the heart of the problem in America today, indeed the heart of the problem in the world is that we have adopted suddenly without thinking about it an anti-supernatural bias, so that we automatically, even Bible scholars in reading the biblical Hebrew text, misread it, or rather let me put it this way, read into it a secularistic anti-supernatural bias and simply assume that the biblical language must mean what we think it means given the blinders of our truncated view of reality that we have adopted in the Western world. It isn't feelings of jealousy, that is the Hebrew text, it is a spirit, the Hebrew word is Rulak, a spirit of jealousy comes over the man. Now it's possible that that might be understood in a secularistic sense, or in a more naturalistic sense of a person's own human spirit, but I believe that if you compare scripture with scripture and you really read the Bible in the light of its historical and cultural milieu, it's context you come to grips with the fact that in the minds of the Hebrew people and of Moses, the world is governed in a fairly significantly different way than modern Western man used it as being governed. That's important as we'll see later on because I submit to you that people have a low view of the Lord's Supper, or the Eucharist, Eucharist simply based on the Greek word for Thanksgiving, what we're about to do this morning, that people have a low casual view of the table of the Lord, the Eucharist, the Lord's Supper, precisely because we live subtly with this prejudice in our thinking that keeps the blinders on so that we don't read the Bible the way the Bible was written in light of its own culture and meaning. And you don't get that simply by occasionally picking up the Bible and reading a verse here and there. That's important aside, let's get back to it. So with this wretched and biased paraphrase, which I'll read from the NIV, even though I like the NIV because it's readable and understandable, generally, it is sometimes misleading. And if feelings of jealousy come over her husband and he suspects his wife and she is impure, or if he is jealous and suspect her, even though she is not impure, then he's to take his wife to the priest. He must also take an offering of a tenth of an Efa of barley flour on her behalf. He must not pour oil on it or put incense on it because it is a grain offering for jealousy, a reminder offering to draw attention to guilt. The priest shall bring her and have her stand before the Lord. Then he shall take some of the holy water in a clay jar and put some dust from the tabernacle floor into the water. After the priest has had the woman stand before the Lord, he shall loosen her hair. That's significant, we'll see why in a moment. He shall loosen her hair and place in her hands the reminder offering, the grain offering for jealousy, while he himself holds the bitter water that brings the curse. Then the priest shall put the woman under oath and say to her, if no other man has slept with you and you have not gone astray and become impure while married to your husband, may this bitter water that brings a curse not harm you. But if you have gone astray while married to your husband and you have defiled yourself by sleeping with a man other than your husband, here the priest is to put the woman under this curse of the oath, may the Lord cause your people to curse and denounce you when he causes your thigh to waste away and your abdomen to swell. May this water that brings a curse enter your body so that your abdomen swells and your thigh waste away. Then the woman is to say, amen, so be it. The priest is to write these curses on a scroll and then wash them off into the bitter water. He shall have the woman drink the bitter water that brings a curse and this water will enter her and cause bitter suffering. The priest is to take from her hands the grain offering for jealousy, wave it before the Lord and bring it to the altar. The priest is then to take a handful of the grain offering as a memorial offering and burn it on the altar. After that, he is to have the woman drink the water. If she has defiled herself and been unfaithful to her husband, then when she is made to drink the water that brings a curse, it will go into her and cause bitter suffering, her abdomen will swell and her thigh waste away and she will become a curse among her people. If, however, the woman has not defiled herself and is free from impurity, she will be cleared of guilt and will be able to have children. This, then, is the law of jealousy when a woman goes astray and defiles herself while married to her husband or when feelings, that is, literally, when a spirit of jealousy come over a man because he suspects his wife. The priest is to have her stand before the Lord and is to apply this entire law to her. The husband will be innocent of any wrongdoing but the woman will bear the consequences of her sin. May we pray. Almighty God, our Heavenly Father, we pray in the mighty name of Jesus Christ, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, that you would help us to understand this scripture, that you would give us by the Holy Spirit to apply it to our lives individually, and Lord, that as we come to take from the table of the Lord which is open in this church for every professing Christian, Lord, we pray that as we do so, we may per take of this supper with blessing for you say in Holy Scripture, the cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? We pray that we would find it so for us to the nourishment of our souls, to the quickening of our hearts by your grace, that we might be more and more what you want us to be in this world, light bears of the truth of Jesus. Lord, anoint me, Lord, fill me, Lord, restrain everything that is carnal and fleshly within me, and grant that the words that proceed from my mouth may do your people much good for Jesus' sake, Amen. First thing I want to direct your attention to has to do with how we understand the loosening of the hair. So turn with me, if you will, to 1 Corinthians chapter 11. 1 Corinthians chapter 11, starting in verse 2. 1 Corinthians chapter 11, verse 1, because that's really the context. 1 Corinthians chapter 11, verse 1, page 1783. Follow my example, says St. Paul, as I follow the example of Christ. I praise you for remembering me in everything and for holding to the teachings just as I passed them on to you. Now I want you to realize that the head of every man is Christ and the head of the woman is man and the head of Christ is God. Every man who prays or prophesies with his head covered dishonors his head. And every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head. It is just as though her head were shaved. If a woman does not cover her head, she should have her hair cut off. And if it's disgrace for a woman to have her hair cut or shaved off, she should cover her head. A man ought not to cover his head since he is the image and glory of God but the woman is the glory of the man. For man did not come from woman but woman from man. Neither was man created for woman but woman for man. This reason and because of the angels, the woman ought to have a sign of authority on her head. What I want you to understand is this. In the days of the Bible and until the 1950s, people followed this basic pattern of worship. In the days of the Bible and in the Christian church until the 1950s, you need to understand that the post-World War II generation was the earthquake, and we're now in the tsunami, that this pattern was there in all Christian churches for all practical purposes. And what was that? The Christian church recognized that the Bible taught that there is a difference in males and females. And the Bible teaches, I believe, from the time that I first worked through this passage in Greek and I have read it many times in Greek, that that difference has some kind of symbolic thing that says to God and to the people in the congregation and to the supernatural forces that are always present in worship, I am rightly related to male authority. So here's what I want you to understand. When the priest went to the woman whose husband suspected that she had been unfaithful to him and he loosened her hair, he's removing whether it was a large covering or a small covering, her head covering. She's no longer under the authority or the protection of her husband. She is standing before God in an ad hoc way, that is for that moment, for that specific thing. She is standing before God ad hoc with regard to the matter of the accusation of adultery without a mediator. This is important to understand that. In other words, you and I, if we have come to the Lord Jesus Christ, you and I, if we have put our trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, never stand before God without a mediator. I always have my attorney with me. And like OJ, I'm always going to get off because I've got the dream team. And they're the best that money can buy, but it isn't they, it's Jesus. And Jesus is a free lawyer, but not without great cost, because it costs Jesus his precious blood to be my lawyer. You and I, who have fled for refuge to the Lord Jesus Christ, are never without a mediator, without a go-between, without a representative. We do not stand before God ever naked and bare and defenseless. However, in the Old Testament, in this trial by ordeal, this water ritual, part of what was involved was that the woman would stand before God as it were naked and defenseless, and her mere guilt or mere innocence would be known without any protection, without any covering, without any authority, without any representative or mediator between her and God in that one matter. That's why the priest unloosed her hair. He removed whatever it is that was causing her hair to be covered, her head to be covered. And so she stands, and that's significant, you see. And we wouldn't understand that unless we compare Scripture with Scripture. When we compare Scripture and Scripture, we understand that this pattern was that women always had significantly longer hair than men. And in addition to that, if you read it in Greek, and you ignore the spacious arguments of people who try to get around the politically incorrect statements in the Bible, you see that it teaches that a woman should have noticeably longer hair than a man, and that a woman in addition to that longer hair should cover her hair. And that was the practice until the earthquake hit in the 50s, and it isn't that way anymore. The point is what? Trying to get you to do that? You know, there are a lot of things in Scripture that are not a fundamental importance. And I'll just have to say to you, you study the Scripture for yourself, and if God, the Holy Spirit, convicts you, change what you do. And if he doesn't, that's between you and God, I won't think less of you. So, what happens is, as we turn back to Numbers chapter 5, page 212, the priest unties her hair. He loosens her hair, verse 18. Numbers 5, 18. After the priest has had the woman stand before the Lord, he shall loosen her hair and place in her hand the reminder offering, the grain offering for jealousy. Now comes something that is pretty bizarre. What the priest does is this. We will assume that this is a ceramic pot, which it isn't, and it would be very awkward for me to do what I'm about to do, were at that. The priest then goes and he gathers some dust from the tabernacle floor, and he puts it in this water that's been consecrated to God. Here we go. And then he does something else. Having done that, he takes a piece of paper, parchment, and he begins to write. He begins to write in Hebrew. The words of this curse, let's see what they say here. The words of the curse are found in verses 21 and 22. May the Lord cause your people to curse and announce you when he causes your thigh to waste away and your abdomen to swell. May this water that brings a curse enter your body so that your abdomen swells and your thigh waste away. Now that's what that looks like. That curse written out in Hebrew, which obviously didn't just do that. I printed it out, but that's what it looks like in square block Hebrew script. Okay, so then he takes this, and he takes the water, having put that tabernacle dust in there, and this is what he does. He takes the curse, and he pours that water with tabernacle dust across it, and what happens is that he has a cup that now contains the ink from the parchment with the curse written on it. Pretty solemn ceremony. You've got a woman with a bare head. You've got the dust from the tabernacle, because every aspect of the tabernacle was holy, that is set apart to God, including the dirt on the floor. And you've got the ink from the curse in the cup. Got the picture? Then there's an offering made. And the whole thing of this is that the woman in essence is called upon in a fact to take a severe oath before God that she's innocent. Of course, if she's guilty, simply the psychological pressure of this alone is going to cause her to say, wait a minute here. You see, but we probably wouldn't do that in our day. And the reason we probably wouldn't do that today is the same reason we don't understand what's going on in the Middle East. It's because we have a different worldview. We have a different mindset. We have a different understanding of reality than other people in other places have. And our understanding of reality is surely God doesn't work that way in the world. Surely there would not actually be presence in the water of that cup, not only tabernacle dust and ink, but that it would be supercharged with malignant carcinogenic force to cause a woman's body simultaneously in the female organs to shrivel up and as well. I've seen not a few people after they were dead with cancer. That's exactly the symptoms that you see here. Serious business. The very part of the body that's involved in this becomes the object of the curse. You got to picture this. This is serious business here. The woman in effect is drinking something that if she's guilty as charged is going to cause her to have some kind of uterine or cervical or other kind of cancer that's going to cause her slowly, slowly, slowly to die. To shrivel up, waste away at the same time as to swell. It's pretty graphic, isn't it? Think about you're being in that situation. Your husband suspects you of having committed adultery. Why does he do that? Well, in the text, it has to do with a spirit of jealousy. And maybe that spirit of jealousy is a lying spirit after all. Remember this. Satan loves to stir up trouble between you and other people. Satan wants to make you a suspicious person about your husband or your wife. It doesn't make any difference if your wife or husband's guilty. If you believe they're guilty, it's going to destroy your marriage. In other words, the husband and a wife have to trust each other and where there's been a breakdown of trust, it's important to rebuild that trust because you've got to have unity in a marriage. And so this was a remedy, it's not for us today. This was a remedy under the Old Testament to protect the integrity and sanctity of the marriage. And it involved a supernatural thing. Think about it for a moment. Assume for a moment that you are living in the 13th century before Christ. Before Christ died on the cross. Assume that in a moment of weakness, while your husband was away, you became involved in a brief twist. It was an empty and unfulfilling thing when it was over. But you've done it, and now you feel ashamed. And furthermore, because the one flesh relationship in a marriage involved always a supernatural dimension. The tie between your soul and the soul of your husband has been severed to some degree. And a new tie between your soul and the soul of another person has been formed. And so your husband immediately senses that. Just as if you're a man has done that, your wife begins to have feelings about it. There's suspicion that's there. And I say again, those suspicions are oftentimes ill-founded or unfounded. Those suspicions many times are wrong. But nevertheless, usually when an affair has taken place, because there is a compromise of that one flesh relationship fiddly, what happens is there's stress and tension in the marriage. There's alienation of affection. There is the beginning of a rip. And the husband senses it, and the wife senses it. And so God provided this supernatural remedy under the Old Testament to deal with that. Why? Well, the Bible says in the 133rd Psalm, that it's a blessed place where brothers dwell together in unity. Their God commands his blessing. Unity between people who trust in Jesus is an essential part of the blessing of God. That's why I'm trying to recruit each of you to be on my team to accomplish the goal by December 31st, 2007, that we see the spinning off of a daughter congregation. Why? Because where there's this unity, God withdraws his blessing. For example, again, take it more specifically to the husband and wife relationship. Where there is bitterness between a man and his wife, between a woman and her husband, our prayers are hindered. Read 1 Peter 3. Husbands don't become embittered towards your wife, less your prayers be hindered. You've got to maintain unity with your husband and wife in order not to have your prayer centered. Now, this also just seems bizarre to us in modern times, because we trivialize human sexuality and think of it as a mere body function like the elimination of waste, where the Bible tells us plainly that the act of sexual intercourse actually joins two people together in a de facto union, not a de jura union, but a de facto union. In other words, marriage requires the act of marriage of sexual intercourse as well as the public oath or public vow to join oneself with another person. And so what the act of sex does is to bind a man and a woman together, even if they're not married, and read 1 Corinthians 6, and you'll see how Paul lays that out quite clearly, where he says that even in the case of a man who coborts with a prostitute, he has become one flesh with her. In other words, there's a tie between them. There's a bond between their souls, even in the case of commercial sex. So God takes unity between a husband and wife very, very seriously, because everything that we're going to get in this world, we're going to have to get through prayer. You realize that? Are you secure in social security? Oh, I hope not. That means you're delusional. I'm secure economically because my God shall supply all my needs according to his riches in glory and Christ Jesus. And let me tell you, if you're looking to Christ and believing the promises of God, you may not have one penny in the bank today, but you're financially secure. But if you've got $10 million in the bank, because Ed McMahon came to see you, and that's the worst thing could happen to you, and I know you don't believe it, and I don't really believe it either, but I know it's true. You've got $10 million in the bank. You're not secure unless you're laying hold of the promises of God. So unity between a man and a woman is so essential in marriage. Trust in a marriage between a man and a woman is so essential that God gave this weird ritual in the Old Testament. So now, picture yourself. You're a guilty person. You're standing before God. The tabernacle dust has been put into the water. The curse has been washed off from the parchment into the cup. The offerings have been made on your behalf, but there is no mediator between you and God and this matter because your hair is loose. And now, the priest causes you to say, that I'm right. Are you sure? I'm mean. I'm mean. That's what you were to say. And the woman will say, I'm mean. I'm mean. See, some people get into a big fight over whether you should say I'm in or amen. And both are wrong. Amen. Amen. Let it be firm. Let it be firm. Let it be established. Let it be established. Amen. Amen. And then what happens? Here you go. Thank goodness for cloring. I can taste it. What happens? If you're guilty, not perceptively at first, but little by little, the malignancy grows. And you slowly waste away while your abdomen swells. It may take weeks, months, it may take a year to complete. It will be slow, it will be debilitating, it will be painful, but you will die. If on the other hand, here you are, and even if you've never been able to have a baby before, it's your innocent. And some demon from hell has stirred up jealousy in your husband about you, and he believes all these terrible things about you. And you're innocent when you've said, I'm mean, I'm mean. And you drink that water. What happens? The next time you and your husband have relations, you can see the child and you give birth. Isn't an amazing thing. Look at it because it's a very important thing. Page 213, number chapter 5, number chapter 5, page 213, verse 28. If, however, the woman has not defiled herself and is free from impurity, she will be cleared of guilt and will be able to have children. Now that's an interesting thing. In other words, if we look at the Old Testament, there was a cup of cursing that was intended to bring a curse, a judgment, sickness, and death, but if the conditions of the curse were not met, the drinking of the cup had the opposite effect. A cup of cursing and judgment and bitter death became to the person who didn't meet the conditions of the curse, a cup of blessing, pregnant with blessing and pregnant with light and producing a physical literal pregnancy in the woman who drank it. I want you to meditate on that for a moment, and I'm going to pause while you think about it. A cup that was explicitly designed by God in numbers 5 to curse somebody. When the conditions of that curse were not met, had the opposite effect. It brought blessing, it brought life, and it brought life in such a way that life reproduced itself. What does it make you think of? Well, it makes me think of another cup. It makes me think of the cup of the Lord's Supper. Now, these two cups are radically different. Current cups. This is a cup pregnant with the curse. This is a cup pregnant with the blessing. In this cup is cancer, sickness, wasting away, and a shameful, ignominious death. But in this cup, there is a blessing. This cup brings blessing and brings life. The psalmist says, I will take salvation's cup and call on the name of the Lord. This cup is spoken of in 1 Corinthians 10, I believe, verse 16. If somebody will read it, as what? 1 Corinthians 10, verse 16, somebody read that. Is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? Is it not the communion of the body of Christ? So, this cup is called a cup of what? A cup of blessing, read it again so everybody can hear it and I'll stand here where the mic picks it up. The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? So, you see what's being said here is that this cup, the cup of holy communion, is a cup of blessing. This is a cup of curse. This is a cup of blessing. However, when the condition of the curse or not met, the cup that full of curse becomes a cup of blessing. Now, I want you to see the inversion of that in what St. Paul tells us. The cup of blessing, first Corinthians 10, 16, that we bless, is it not a communion end? And that word can be translated a participation end, a sharing end, a communion end? Why do we call this holy communion? We call it holy communion because we communion with Christ in the supper. Not simply figuratively or metaphorically, the word of God always brings about the reality of the thing about which it speaks. You ever thought about that? It really solves all of the debate in the middle ages about the significance of the real presence of Christ. Of course, Christ is present in the supper. Of course, He's really present in the supper. Of course, that's what the Bible teaches. Medieval theologians debated what that meant. And then churches in the 16th century began to harden their position into this position or that position. The point is that the church has always believed in the real presence of Christ in the supper. Why? Why does the church always believe that? Because when God speaks, what God speaks becomes a reality. When God says, let there be light, there was light. When God speaks the waters of creation and the material universe into being, it happens. Because God's Word is never an empty word. God's Word changes matter. God's Word more importantly changes our hearts and people can be full of unbelief, atheism, depression, discouragement, doubt. And the Word of God comes home to them. The light bulb turns on. They are changed and they become believers. God's Word produces the reality about which it speaks. When we speak the Word of promise, we commune with the blood of Christ. When we speak the Word of promise, we don't simply eat bread. We also commune or participate in the actual body of Christ. How? I don't know. But we do. And that's what the church has confessed for 2,000 years going back to think Paul's teaching. Cup of blessing by product. If you don't meet the conditions of the curse, a cup of blessing instead of a cup of curse. Well, what about this cup of blessing? Does it have a byproduct or a side effect or an indirect result? And as a matter of fact, it does. Let's look at the scriptures in 1 Corinthians chapter 11. 1 Corinthians chapter 11. And if you're using the Bibles in the pews, you'll find this on page 1785. Verse 26. The Lord's Supper is, among other things, but more than this, a memorial. For whoever or whenever you eat this bread, page 1785, 1 Corinthians 1126. Whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. Proclaim is a word. The Lord's Supper, in the words of the Italian reformer, Peter Martin Vermighly, the Lord's Supper is a visible word of God. A visible word of God. When you see it, when you drink it, when you eat it, there is a proclamation going forth. And remember what I said again. God's word is never an empty word. God's word produces the very thing about which it speaks. Ever and always, God's word is effectual. It produces change. So he says, after that, since the Lord's Supper is a visible sermon, he says, notice the therefore, since the word is powerful and not empty, since the word produces the blessing or conversely when the condition isn't met occurs. Therefore, verse 27. 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. The body and blood of the Lord. That's serious. The body and the blood of Christ. How? I don't know. The Bible never defines it. And I believe in having a profound reference whenever the word of God is silent. I know that Christ is present, the whole Christ, His body and His blood. But how Christ is present other than by means of the Holy Spirit, I do not know. But using biblical language, I can say, this is the body of Christ. This is the blood of Christ. It really is Christ we commune with. It really is the body of Christ we participate in that we receive in communion. It really is the blood of Christ that we share in communion. Therefore, what? Is that a good thing? Yes and no. Yes and no. Living as we do in our fast-file age with our truncated understanding of reality limited to only what we can perceive sensually, we need to take seriously before we take holy communion that we are receiving Christ Himself. Really and truly present, the whole Christ, His body and His blood. That serious business, the body of Christ, the blood of Christ, listen to what He says. Because God's word always produces the reality about which He speaks and this is a sermon in itself from God. Therefore, verse 27, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sitting against what? The body and blood of the Lord. Wow. Do you mean that if you come this morning in an unworthy way, you will be guilty of sitting against the body and the blood of the Lord? That's what He says, dear ones. But it just doesn't fit in with our modern Western delta showing Allah and manual content. Because we separate reality in a lore story, an upper story, a nominal realm up there and a phenomenal realm down here. But the word of God unites the nominal and the phenomenal if you follow me philosophically and most of you won't, but for the one or two that do. The word of God unites the nominal and the phenomenal body and the blood of the Lord. Very significant. We read further. And so I may gesture without ruining my suit for the fruit of the vine is a big stainer. He says further, verse 28, a man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup. What does that mean in verse 28? It has something to say about what's called paido communion. That is little ones participating. It's very important that our little ones not only trust in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ before taking communion, but that they are able to examine themselves. Why? Because when we fail to examine ourselves before we come to see if we're ready to come or not, we're touching something very powerful, very dangerous. For I say again, the body and the blood of Christ, while the greatest blessing to humble sinners in the entire universe, is dangerous, dangerous stuff. Let's see further what he says. Verse 29, for anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing what? The body of the Lord, now some people like to get around that by saying recognizing the body of Christ here, you know, other believers. That's not, that's in the context. It doesn't fit in the context. The context is what? The real actual body, the real actual blood of Christ. The whole Christ, who by the Holy Spirit is present with us as the Spirit lifts us up to heaven. Listen to what he says further. For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks what on himself. Judgment on himself, when that woman had her hair unloosed and the curse on that parchment was washed into the cup along with the dust of the tabernacle floor. What was that woman doing? What was she doing? She was eating or she was drinking judgment on herself. You see that? She was drinking judgment on herself. She was calling God to witness by means of drinking from the cup that she was not guilty. Ah, we've got a problem, don't we? Because guess what? There isn't a person present in this room, including your pastor, who isn't guilty. Maybe not of adultery, maybe not of first-degree murder, but what about an unclean thought or an envious thought? I wish that my husband were as courteous as Mrs. Sohanso's husband is. Wow. Is that a form of mental adultery? Sure it is. Coveting other people, people, and other people's property is sin. The problem with us as human beings is that our sense of what is sin tends to be quite cloudy to help us feel better about ourselves. The fact of the matter, if we were really walking all of us all the time in Holy Spirit sensitivity, we could never hold up our heads before others, except for what's about to happen. Go back with me in time. Think of yourself as that woman suspected of adultery by her husband and his suspicions are correct. Think of the idea that the offering has already been offered by the priest on your behalf. Think of the fact that now the headship of your husband is symbolically removed as the covering is taken from off your hair and you stand bare-headed before God without a mediator. Think of having seen that priest right on the vellum, the words of the curse in Hebrew and seeing that holy water with the tabernacle dust poured across the vellum into the cup and the cup is now thrust into your hand. A cup that is pregnant with carcinogens, supernatural carcinogens, they're going to cause you to die of cancer and then think of this. There comes a figure into the tabernacle and he takes the cup out of your hand and he puts it to his lips and he drinks it down to the last bitter dress. And he turns to you and he says in effect, neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more. This trial by ordeal in numbers five resonates in a scene in the garden of Gethsemane, some millennium and a half later as the Lord Jesus rustles with God in the garden. Over the cup, you remember his words. Father, if it be possible, take this cup for me, take this cup for me, what cup? A cup that's pregnant with curse, pregnant with judgment, pregnant with thickness, pregnant with defilement and death, eternal death. We think of those words in the book of Revelation at the very end where we find in Revelation 1410, the line of God's wrath poured full strength into the cup of his anger. The cup that the woman had thrust to her lips reminds us of the terrible curse at the day of judgment, the line of the wrath of God poured full strength undiluted into the cup of his judgment and I want you to understand something. When the Lord Jesus was in the garden of Gethsemane, he was thinking about you, he was thinking about me. He was pleading with God, he wanted to see you spared from drinking that cup. He didn't want you to be there without a mediator with your head uncovered and that curse that is in the cup coming into your body, bringing not just cancer but eternal death and hell, and he pleased with the Father. Father, Abba, Father, if it be possible, take this cup for me. Nevertheless, not my will but thine be done, and the Lord Jesus drinks it down to the last bitter drags. So it is reenacted for us today, and we go back to 1 Corinthians chapter 11, page 1785, verse 29 again, 1 Corinthians 1129, for anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself. Look at verse 30, this is a cup of curse but for the person who doesn't meet the criterion of the curse, it becomes a curse of blessing. This, on the other hand, is a cup of blessing but for anyone who does not meet the criterion of the cup of blessing, notice what follows, it becomes a cup pregnant with a curse. Look at it, it's very plain. Verse 30, let's read this together, that is why many, let's do it together please, that is why many among you are weak and thick and a number of you have fallen asleep. Wow, and what does fall asleep mean in the New Testament, to fall asleep is a euphemism for kicking the bucket, for dying, for the heart stopping, and the lungs not breathing anymore. What's the saying? You understand that the Lord's Supper is sort of like the mirror opposite of the cup of numbers five, the cup of numbers five is the cup of cursing. The cup of first Corinthians 11 is the cup of blessing, but when the criterion is not met for the cup of cursing to become a curse for you and me, what happens is it becomes a cup of blessings, the woman gets pregnant. But on the other hand, the cup of blessing in the New Testament, when the condition is not met for it to be a cup of blessing, becomes a curse of judgment bringing death. Let's look at it again, one more time. Verse 30, what does he say? He says in verse 30, that is why many among you are weak and thick and a number of fallen asleep. Are you sick? Are you enjoying health? And I'm not saying in every case that if you got the sniffles, it's because you're in sin. That's not what I'm saying, and that's not what this is saying. But let's not pick some ridiculous extreme and try to discount what's actually said here, because what's actually said here is very clear. If you take the suffer of the Lord in an unworthy manner, you're drinking down death. It may not kill you today or tomorrow, neither did the tabernacle dust and the ink from the curse parchment bring death immediately in the Old Testament, but it's going to make you sick. Maybe in your soul, maybe in your spirit, maybe in a sense of astrangements, maybe mental illness, maybe cancer. I don't know. I don't know. I just want you to be honest with the text. What does the Bible say? The Bible says that Christ is present in the bread and in the wine. So present that if we fail to recognize this, we become guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. And if we do, we're drinking judgment on ourselves. And the result in verse 30 is that is why many among you are sick. We can think and a number have fallen asleep, but notice verse 31. But if we judged ourselves, we would not come under judgment. Whoa. We've got a privilege that that woman in the Old Testament didn't have. She couldn't cry uncle. She couldn't cry mercy. She had no mediator to flee to under the Old Testament curse, but you and I do. And if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged. Isn't that an amazing thing? What does it mean to judge yourself? It takes us back to verse 27. Whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner. What is that name? Here's the heart of the matter. God resists the proud, but he gives grace to the humble or from the psalmist. The wicked in the pride of his countenance will not seek God. What is it to take the cup of the Lord in a worthy way? It's simply this. May a culpa, may a culpa, may a maxima, culpa. Through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault. It's not my brother, it's not my sister, but it's me, O Lord, standing in the need of prayer. It's coming with a posture of humility. It's coming with brokenness. It's acknowledging in the words of a gust of top lady. What a name. Rock of age is cleft for me. Nothing in my hands I bring simply to thy cross I cling. It comes back this way. The vast majority of people in the United States believe that they can in some sense drink this cup without harm because they think that God grays on the curb and they believe they're pretty good people. But in order to drink this cup and have it become this cup you gotta let go of all of your facade of religiosity and sense of self righteousness and simply abandon yourself at the foot of the cross. Come to Jesus just the way you are. The Lord suffer is the great revival service of the church. Do you ever think of it that way? In the Lord suffer we have a revival service. It's the time when we are summoned to come to Jesus just the way we are. I want you to do that with me this morning. I want us to linger because he says there in 1 Corinthians 11 to Terry. I want you to linger and ask the Holy Spirit to examine your heart. We're going to have some music in a moment and as we do I want the elders to begin to come forward and then in a few minutes as you feel led I want you to get up wherever you are. When you're ready and if you're not ready please don't do it. I don't want to have to call the ambulance. But when you're ready I want you to come and take of the body and blood of the Lord. And I want you to find it to be the most special communion you've ever had in your whole life because I need to tell you something. I put poison in it and there's only one antidote. I know he plays practical jokes. Is that real or is it memorized? The antidote, the antidote is faith in Jesus Christ. If you have faith in Jesus Christ then the poison that's in the cup and the bread will become blessing for you. Potent with power to change you and bring life and health and peace and joy. So I want you to come. I want you to think about what we're about to do because I'm going to pray over this bread and this wine and I'm going to ask God to let you eat of this bread in a new way and I'm going to ask God to let you drink of this wine in a new way and I'm going to do that right now and I want you to know one last thing. In a very personal way because Jesus drank down to the last bitter dregs this cup, this cup is extended to you. Whomever you are, no matter what you've done, if you will turn from whatever it is that's got a hold of you and come to Jesus humbly, he will forgive your sins and he will bless you. Lord, we lift to you this bread and this wine and pray that as we eat of it and drink of it we may do so with blessing through your word of promise by faith in Jesus Christ. Amen.