And now if you'll take your scriptures or not having them, if you will listen attentively as I read from Romans the 8th chapter, verses 31 through 38, Romans 8, 31 through 38. Hear the word of God as it is written and delivered to us by His Apostle Paul in the book of Romans chapter 8, beginning at verse 31. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all. How will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies who is to condemn. Christ Jesus is the one who died, more than that, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword, as it is written, for your sake, we are being killed all the day long. We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. No? And all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us, for I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord. The Lord blesses to us the reading of His holy word, into His name, be glory and praise. To the Father, and to the Son, and to the As it was, and the Lamb is now, her shall be. The word of the Lord, given to us through the teachings of Christ, recorded now in the book of Matthew, chapter 5, the first 12 verses, commonly referred to as the Beatitudes, Romans chapter 5, verses 1 through 12, listen for it as God who is speaking to us. Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him, and he opened his mouth and taught them, saying, blessed are the poor in spirit, but theirs is the kingdom of heaven, blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted, blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be satisfied, blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy, blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God, blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God, blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven, blessed are you, when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely, own my account. Rejoice and be glad for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you, and herein's the reading of the gospel. Let's use the today am lawtomous together to affirm our faith in Christ and what the Scripture teaches us to be true. Let's stand, and using this ancient confession of faith, let's affirm together as his church, the truths of Scripture. We praise thee, O God, we acknowledge thee to be the Lord, all the earth doth worship thee the Father ever lasting, to thee all angels cry aloud, the heavens and all the powers therein, to thee cherubim and seraphim continually do cry, holy, holy, holy Lord God of Sabbath, heaven and earth are full of the majesty of thy glory, the glorious company of the apostles praise thee, the goodly fellowship of the prophets praise thee, the noble army of martyrs praise thee, the holy church throughout all the world doth acknowledge thee, the Father of an infinite majesty, thine adorable, true, and only son, also the Holy Ghost, the Comforter, thou art the king of glory, O Christ, thou art the everlasting son of the Father. When thou tookest upon thee to deliver men, thou dost humble thyself to be born of a virgin, when thou hast overcome the sharpness of death, thou dost open the kingdom of heaven to all believers, thou sitest at the right hand of God, and the glory of the Father, we believe that thou shalt come to be our judge. We therefore pray thee, help thy servants whom thou has redeemed with thy precious blood, make them to be numbered with thy saints, in glory everlasting, O Lord, save thy people and blessed thine heritage, govern them, lift them up forever, day by day we magnify thee, and we worship thy name ever, world without end. All mighty God, as we have confessed the truths of the Scripture concerning yourself, your son, and the Holy Spirit. We pray, Father, that the meditations of these professions of faith would dwell mightily in our hearts even as they have emerged from our lips, and may not only our ears hear them Father, but may they resound from your church into the world, that every tongue would confess as every knee is bowed, that Jesus Christ is Lord, and that there is one true God who reigns in heaven above, and that this God who sent his only beloved son to die for sinners also has sent his Holy Spirit as a promissary note to us that we might experience life, to be raised spiritually from death to life. Bless, Father, that we might know these things, Father, we believe, but help our unbelief strengthen the knees that are weak. Father, we pray that we would abide mightily in you, in your Word, and through your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and now, Father, as we turn to your Scriptures, we ask that you would speak to us, not Father, as one who would deliver a lecture in a schoolhouse, but speak to our heart, speak, Father, and transform our mind, that we might be like Christ, that we might be imitators of God, that we might be holy, and righteous, and all of our thoughts, and all of our conduct, and that we might love our neighbor as ourselves, and that we might love the Lord our God with all our heart, and with all our soul, and with all our mind. Father, we turn to the Scriptures trusting in them that they have the words of salvation, and we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. I'd like to take a few moments and look together at Luke chapter 22, verse 19. You might ask what's the difference between a meditation and a sermon. A meditation is essentially just focusing on one idea, one point, one concern or one teaching of Scripture, rather than trying to, in good Presbyterian fashion, have three points and a point with a full sermon. A meditation is something that should train our mind, something that should focus our attention upon the table that is set before us, to help us to feel the weight of that not through emotional manipulation, but through being reminded of all that this table is intended to be, the means of grace which God has established for us, for the building up of our faith, to help us as we come to this table, to keep in mind some of the very teachings of Scripture regarding the atonement, regarding our Lord Jesus Christ, regarding our fitness and coming to this table, and the necessity of this table. A meditation should do all of these things if it were to be successful. Luke chapter 22, verse 19, and he took bread and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them saying, this is my body, which is given for you, do this in remembrance of me. A church seeks to be Christ-centered. We talk about Christocentric worship, we talk about Christ-centered ministries, when we say Christ-centered, aren't we also saying atonement-centered? Isn't that what we are intending to say, actually, that we are people who are atonement-centered. Atonement is everything for the Christian. Without atonement there is no merit, there is no blessedness of being in the church except to receive by common grace the blessings of being in God's presence, but for salvation without atonement we are without hope. A gospel-focused church is a cross-focused church. A Christ-centered church is an atonement-centered church. Why make these distinctions? The atonement is becoming less and less popular in preaching and in teaching and even in evangelism today. We find that people are all willing to discuss Christ and praise be to the Lord for that, but when it comes to the atonement there is a shyness or there is an even a sense of shame in the atonement, that we would be a place or a church or a people so focused on the death of our Savior. When we talk about being washed in the blood of the Lamb, we struggle in the modern technological context to make that sound sophisticated, and so the atonement with its bloody cross and with the death of an innocent man doesn't seem to sell the church as well as it used to, but the atonement and the cross are what the church is all about. First Corinthians 1, 22 and 23, for Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified. The Jews seek signs, the Greek sequasdom, but we preach Christ crucified. In Luke 22, 19, Jesus instructs His people, His church, His disciples, to do this in remembrance of me. Those might be the best known words in the church. Now you might reply, well John 3, 16 is probably the most memorized verse and it's a wonderful verse. It certainly is the gospel in one verse, but think for just a moment when you were tender in years and perhaps when you first began to walk and the Lord's table was just about eye-level for you and in blazoned or engraved or written across the front of most of the Lord's supper tables in sanctuaries you will find in remembrance of me. And then as you began to read, keeping this image always in your mind as the static display of the table in the front of the church remains there for most of our childhood, if we aren't moving from church to church, but even in that case, there usually is a table that occupies that place with the same writing across the front. Do this or this do in remembrance of me. When you can read these words remain before you, perhaps as a child and you begin to drift off during the sermon and you start counting bricks and squares and tiles, perhaps you begin examining the table and again you read those words, do this in remembrance of me. So it's not an uncommon saying to us, it's not a mystery to us that I would say to you, we should do this in remembrance of him, but what does it mean to do this as a perpetual remembrance of the Lord Jesus Christ? He gave this command before he was crucified to his disciples that they would forever do this in remembrance of him and his church has honored this command and has continued to perpetually remember him and the Lord's supper. But what now two thousand years removed? What would we understand in these words? Do this in remembrance of me? What I would ask, are we to remember? What is it that is to come to our mind when we take the Lord's supper? First Corinthians 11, 24, Paul wrote the same of the bread and the cup, Jesus left us instructions to keep as a reminder that we should take the bread and we should take the cup and remembrance of him. Is there a risk that we would forget? Would we perhaps forget when we take the Lord's supper to do this in remembrance of him? And our day-to-day life, we have a tendency to elevate all other things besides the concerns of our Lord, besides attending to this table and importance. Not by way of condemnation, but simply by way of illustration. But if we look around us tonight, the service of the Lord's table, which has been ordered by the session, had was announced in advance and yet our numbers were three times this much in this morning service. What is the priority in our lives of observing the Lord's table according to Christ's own command? Christ commanded his church, come to this table. But what priority do we place on it? When we say we will do this in remembrance of me, we also would say we will neglect it as we forget our Lord as well. Again, please don't interpret that. I feel I must say as judgment against our brothers and sisters. But I think the condition of the church wherever you go would find that if there is a service that is set just for the observance of the Lord's supper where perhaps it is a little more liturgical than you would find the numbers to thin out. Now I might say, conversely, had we had a string quartet here this evening, or if we had had a men's choir, or if we had had some other presentation, perhaps of a missionary speaking that was well known, what would our population be? Perhaps it wouldn't be everyone, but I would imagine the priorities would change. Is there a risk that we would forget the Lord? Isn't that what the table is to remind us of? It doesn't point to itself and it doesn't point to the church. It points to Christ. And we have been invited by Him to His table. And so would we neglect His invitation and fail to come and remember the Lord? How do we know? How do we know? How do we know if we would forget? How easy would it be to have simply forsaken this supper tonight if you think about it? This morning is so long ago, but keeping this observance is commanded by Christ. The early church set the pattern for keeping these commandments. The early church had four ministries that were listed for us in a passage in Scripture X242. We find there the life of the church, which is outlined for us in Acts 242. You'll find those four functions of the church listed as teaching, fellowship, the breaking of the bread, which is understood to be the celebration of the Lord's supper and prayer. Teaching, fellowship, the breaking of bread together and prayer. How great is the number of priorities today for the church? How many important activities we have as the church? So many things to do, but unfortunately we might also say how distracted is our mind and how diffused is our energy because of all of the important ministries and important activities within the church. So what are we to remember then? Those of us who are gathered and or to take this in remembrance of him? What? Are we to remember when we come to this table? We are to remember his vicarious atonement and I'll discuss that. We've discussed vicarious atonement already in the past and we are to remember his penal substitution. It is that he took God's wrath and punishment on our behalf. What does vicarious mean by way of simply reminding you it means in place of? The satisfaction of justice was for others and not himself. Christ vicariously stood in our place. That's what a vicarious one who stands in the place of another. Christ vicariously atoned. He atoned for our sin, not for his own, but for ours. Man is the transgressor and the bill is ours to pay. He owes atonement, man does, but Jesus is the one who actually makes it. Jesus said this cup is the new covenant in my blood which is shed for you. My blood shed in place of yours. That's vicarious atonement. This cup as a new covenant which is in my blood shed instead of your blood. God is the offended party, but God made the atonement in His Son, Jesus Christ. God the offended becomes God the atoner. First John 410. This is love that God sent His own Son to be the propitiation of our sins, but this atonement is not just a legal accommodation in Leviticus chapter 4 verses 13 through 20.
If the whole congregation of Israel sins unintentionally and the thing is hidden from the eyes of the assembly and they do any one of the things that by the Lord's commandments ought not to be done and they realize they're guilt, when the sin which they have committed becomes known, the assembly shall offer a bull from the herd for a sin offering and bring it in front of the tent of meeting and the elders of the congregation shall lay their hands on the head of the bull before the Lord and the bull shall be killed before the Lord. Then the anointed priests shall bring some of the blood of the bull into the tent of meeting and the priests shall dip his finger in the blood and sprinkle it seven times before the Lord in front of the veil and he shall put some of the blood on the horns of the altar that is in the tent of meeting before the Lord and the rest of the blood he shall pour out at the base of the altar of burnt offering that is at the entrance of the tent of meeting and all it's fat he shall take from it and burn on the altar thus shall he do with the bull as he did with the bull of the sin offering so shall he do with this and the priests shall make atonement for them and they shall be forgiven the essence of the atonement in this ritual sacrifice in Leviticus the essence of the atonement is in the suffering of the bull it must be bled it must agonize and it must die and its blood must be spilt and expended for atonement the one offering of the bull gets no joy out of it there's no joy for the bull there is no joy for the one who is offering the bull it must be a loss and it must be a suffering for him the one who gives the bull suffers the loss of the bull and Luke 922 the son of man must suffer many things the forgiveness is in the lack is not in the lack of suffering inflicted on the actual transgressor the the forgiveness comes and the suffering being not inflicted upon us but inflicted upon Christ and 1 Peter 3 18 were reminded that Christ suffered once for sins the just for the unjust and Galatians 3 13 Christ was made a curse for us in Isaiah 53 5 a manual was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities and 2 Corinthians 5 21 he has made him to be a sin offering for us who he who knew no sin not all of God's creatures are blessed with a vicarious atonement however not all are blessed with a vicarious atonement having Christ sent for them 2 Peter 2 4 he spared not the angels that sinned but cast them down to hell the angels suffer a personal atonement but we do not we do not suffer a personal atonement we are blessed with a vicarious atonement in Christ but the suffering of Christ which we should well remember is described for us in detail by the prophet Isaiah let these be the meditations of your heart tonight as you take the bread and as you take the cup he was wounded for our transgressions he was crushed for our iniquities upon him was the chastisement that bought us peace and with his stripes we are healed all we like sheep have gone astray we have turned everyone to his own way and the Lord has laid upon him the iniquity of us all it was the will of the Lord to crush him he has put him to grief when his soul makes an offering for sin and in Isaiah 52 as many were astonished at you his appearance was so marred beyond human semblance and his form beyond that of the children of mankind how great a wrath is poured out on account of our transgression a body so beaten a body so abused by discipline and by wrath and justice as to be marred beyond recognition to where those that were around him would look at him and not even seeing as resembling a human being anymore and he says do this in remembrance of me remember the suffering your sin has required and your Lord has asked you to take this supper in remembrance of that suffering remember the man Jesus whose body absorbed every blow every lashing all the humility that properly belonged to you and take time to come to this table and remembrance of him remember that death has passed over you because the Lamb of God took all the venom death had to offer into his very own body and he's asked us to come to this table to remember that he has done this for us remember the love the Savior has shown by willingly satisfying divine justice and his penal substitution and come to this table and remember the Lord remember the God who has delivered you and brought and brought you from a cross that was to be your very own you will not have to mount across Jesus Christ mounted for you and he has taken you from the cross to the table of victory this is the Lamb's victory feast the Lamb's victory celebration at this table you feed on Christ in your heart by faith this table is God's pledge to you that you will be saved by faith alone in Christ alone by grace alone as real as the bread and the wine are so is his salvation as you taste the bread as you taste the cup as you taste the wine or the juice may you also be reminded that just as real as those tastes are so is the salvation which has been purchased for you our Lord Jesus Christ suffered in my place not in the abstract but for my actual sins he was beaten and he has asked his people purchased by his own blood spilt out in agony on the cross that they would simply come to this table and remember him do this and remembrance of me our him of preparation 248 we have sung this before 248 all holy Jesus how has thou offended let's stand together to sing this as our elders come forward to prepare the table 248 as we come to this table tonight it is necessary that there be a warning which is also given to the invitation if you are a believer in Christ if you have confessed of your sins repented and follow the Savior if you are a member of Christ church and not under church discipline then this table is set for you if however you find yourself unsure of your faith in Christ if you are unrepentant committed to living in a particular sin desiring not to turn away from that and not to live to Christ if you are under church discipline then you are instructed by the scriptures to abstain from this meal tonight for the warning is clear to take this meal this cup and this bread in an unworthy manner would be to eat and drink judgment upon yourself but the Lord has given us an invitation we do not need to be perfect in the flesh to take this meal it is here to strengthen us in our faith it is here to commune with Christ he knows our infirmities and our weaknesses and he instructs us to bring those to him and for those of you who like me labor on seeking the mortification of sin and the flesh desiring to honor Christ in our bodies finding that we are still weak and we are still frail depending upon him this table is open to you for incoming to this table you confess your need of his grace in your life you confess that you are still dependent upon Christ and that you need to feed upon the Lord for your faith here are these words of institution for I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you that the Lord Jesus in the night in which 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 and the same way he took the cup also after supper saying this cup is the new covenant in my blood do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me for as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes pray with me Almighty God our most gracious heavenly Father we thank you Father for your word which has instructed us tonight for reminding us Father of the Atonement of our Savior of reminding us of just how precious and how reserved are the places at this table you've invited your children to come and so Father we pray then in our coming to this table you would welcome and receive us as repentant believers in Christ calling out upon Christ with the voice of faith asking that the salvation of our souls has would have been purchased by his blood shed on Calvary we pray Father that you would receive us at this table as your guests as your children we have harkened to the voice of God and we have come to dine with our Savior lift our eyes Father from this table that we may not see and focus upon these simple signs and seals of our salvation but instead that we would see that which these signs point to the heavenly reality of the covenant of grace and of the of the atonement of our Savior we thank you Father for this meal and we pray that you would take this ordinary bread and the ordinary drink and that you would set them aside Father and sanctify them for your own extraordinary use bless them Father that that we would feed in faith upon our Lord Jesus Christ this night we pray this in Jesus name Amen the Lord with his disciples in the upper room celebrated a Passover a festive meal in which they recalled the angel of death passing over those Jews who had painted their doorpost with the lamb's blood and they understood that they had been delivered from death in the Passover and they rejoiced in God's deliverance of them and Jesus on this night as we reflect upon his bicarious atonement particularly the suffering in his body he took the bread and as we take the bread reflect upon the wrath of God and the punishment upon his body as we tear this bread as God's justice and wrath was satisfied expended upon the Lord rather than upon me rather than upon you he took the bread and after giving thanks as I have also done in his name he broke it and he said this is my body which is for you take and eat in remembrance of me Jesus also took the cup and a covenant is not in force until there has been the shedding of blood and Jesus knowing the nature of the ceiling of this covenant that it would be his own blood that would seal the covenant of grace for our salvation took the cup is only the one who was God and man could do and again after he had blessed it he poured and he said this cup is a new covenant which is in my blood which is given for you and to us likewise he says take and drink and remembrance of me the covenant of grace Almighty God and this is love not that we have first loved you but that you have first loved us Almighty God the manifestation of love which we have experienced together tonight to renew and refresh our faith to encourage us to teach us again of the love of Christ which has been shown to us of our absolute dependents upon him for any hope of salvation for he has done what we cannot he has suffered the penalty for sin and he has risen again from the grave so father at this table as we remember Christ we remember all that he has done and we also remember the promises of Scripture that there is life anew and that there is a kingdom which has been built for us and that we will arrive in that kingdom and that we will sup and we will dine with the Lord Jesus Christ and as we remember the Lord we also remember the teaching of Scripture that he is present with us even now as we walk through the highways and byways of life as we struggle in our in our war against the sin which would ravage us as we walk through the valleys of the shadows of death we have no fear for our Lord is with us and the Holy Spirit resides in us and nothing can steal us away nothing can shorten our days from those which you have appointed and nothing can keep us from our task according to your design we thank you father that all of these lessons of faith are offered to us in this simple meal such a small morsel of bread such a small cup taken and concert together and yet father it was in this one man but not only a man this man who was also God who gave himself for his people and from that point on our history has never been the same bless us as we depart let us father savor the taste of your salvation we pray this in Jesus name Amen