The passage again is from 1 Corinthians chapter 11, verses 23 to 26, very familiar words if you come to this service regularly, for it's what we use is we set apart the elements and fence the table. Let's listen now to God's word. For I receive from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night when 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, in the same way also he took the cup 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. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Please be seated. Lord as we open your holy word, we pray that your Holy Spirit, God, would transform our lives to see a new. I ask Lord that you would transform every man, a woman and child who is here in this hour and in the two hours to come as we worship you, we will be made more like our Savior Jesus, seeing again, tasting again, feeling again. Knowing again, the beauty of the gospel, your gospel Christ, the good news that gives us eternal life, oh Lord, prepare us as we get ready to come and feast, that we would do so in a way that brings you glory. And Lord again, show us the covenant blessing that we have in our Savior. And whose name we pray, amen. I want you to open your Bible to Psalm 119 and I want you to go particularly to verse 129. If you did not bring your own Bible, as I said to the congregation the last week, start bringing one. If you don't have your own, go downstairs to our bookstore, pick a new one out. We need to be in the Word of God and you know that. Not just on Sundays and you know that, but throughout our days, we need to know and live his Holy Word. And so we're going to spend some time unpacking the doctrine of the Word of God over the next few months as we lead all the way up to Advent when we focus on Jesus, who is the Word, the Word became flesh. Psalm 119 is the longest chapter in the Bible. It is a chapter that's broken up into sections based on the Hebrew alphabet and in each of these sections there are eight verses. I will promise you that if you would take this section of Scripture in each day, along with other parts of the Bible that you're reading, just read one of these sections, almost like a little spiritual vitamin. The Lord will show you things about his Word and about your dependence on him to make his Word come alive in you. You'll see things you've never seen. You will think things you've never thought. You'll pray in ways you haven't prayed because you'll hear the Psalmist as he cries out for his zeal and affection for the Word of God. I'm going to read one section called, pay, beginning in verse 129. Listen as I read these following eight verses. Your testimonies are wonderful, therefore my soul keeps them. The unfolding of your words gives light. It imparts understanding to the simple. I open my mouth and pant because I long for your commandments. Turn to me and be gracious to me as is your way with those who love your name. You study my steps according to your promise and let no iniquity get dominion over me. Redeem me from man's oppression that I may keep your precepts. Make your face shine upon your servant and teach me your statute. My eyes shed streams of tears because people do not keep your law. What a great section of Scripture. Read a section like this each day and maybe take one verse out of that and make that your prayer for your own passion for the Word and the passion for the Word in your wife or in your husband or your children or your grandchildren or your pastors or your Sunday school teachers. This is an amazing journey where we're reminded of how great his holy Word is. I'm particularly struck every time I read it by verse 131. I open my mouth and pant because I long for your commandments. You know the world in which we live in and the journey between here and heaven. It's a difficult road and so often for Christians that statement isn't true. It's not true that we deeply pant for the Word of God but we should and only God can create in us that kind of zeal, that kind of passion, that kind of desperation for his holy Word. It's his power that sustains that in us. But it's a good thing to pause and say, Lord, is that how I enter worship Sunday after Sunday? Is that how I wake in the morning and open my Word that I'm panting for it? See panting implies desperation. It implies that I need that nutrient. I need that water. I need that bread and the Psalmist knows it and so this is the desire of his heart expressed in a longing, a panting. Another part of this Psalm that strikes me is the last verse in 136. My eyes shed streams of tears because people do not keep your law. How much time do you spend complaining about our country? How much time do you spend lamenting the condition it's in? But is it a true lament where your eyes are shedding tears because the people who lead are not abiding in Christ, they're not living according to the Word, they're not ruling according to the Word? That's just a powerful statement. How often have you wept over the condition that people aren't living according to the Word? Think about how many pulpits this very day and this city and this nation and around the world that aren't teaching the Word of God, they're teaching the Word of man, not the man Christ but of man, as they deal with all types of issues in one another's lives, they're not pointing people to the Scripture. A few Sundays ago, I wasn't here in the pulpit, I was in the balcony. Our pastor Paul Gobel was preaching and during his sermon he said something about the condition of the world and how America has really drifted and it's a sad place and it's a sad condition. He talked about how sociologists would describe it as a post-Christian America. You've probably heard that and you lament the condition that it's in, but something happened that morning in the life of one of the people in this church, a ten-year-old boy. A ten-year-old boy called me a week or so later. The message came through his mother, my son would like to talk to you about your sermon. A ten-year-old boy, I love that, it happens sometimes. So I called him and when I spoke with him on the phone, he asked me this question, pastor, why did you say that America is no longer following Jesus and I thought for a moment, oh he's thinking of Paul's sermon, but I knew I shouldn't say, oh I didn't say that, you need to contact another pastor. I simply explained the history of the people of God and that there are seasons within history and we see it clearly in God's word in which they reject God, they do not live according to his word, they turn their backs on him, they flee, they make that terrible decision to not seek the face of the Lord and so I told him that and I thought in a way that was easy to understand, but deep and then he said to me, pastor, I lost my tooth last night and I giggled thinking that's so funny, a child just wanted to ask me a question and move on with the details of his life, but it wasn't a disconnect. He said, I would like to give the money that I earn from losing that tooth to the church so that we can give vials to people, a ten-year-old boy and then, and I'm not saying this in any way that would be using the use of hyperbole, this is what happened, he began to sob, I want people in our country to read God's word, he wept, God is doing what only God can do and that is he is putting profound truths and even the youngest of our believers, what my God do through that young man's small donation, not small to him, he told me he had saved up about $180 and he wanted to give it all, that's awesome, praise God, praise God, this young man is weeping because people do not keep the law of God, and this morning is we come to this table, we come because of God's word, Jesus, we come because of God's holy word, that which he has given us, we come by grace and we sing about it in that beautiful hand, because he is the one that has drawn us to himself, don't ever forget that, don't never forget that you're so smart, so deep, so bright, so intellectually powerful with the things you know of God's word, the somehow God feels like you're extra special and that's why you come to this table, we come by grace alone, every one of us, his word tells us that, and I don't know if you've noticed this before, I'm sure many of you have, but here at the foot of this pulpit, in the cast iron you see wheat growing up, and that wheat symbolizes the word of God that is stone, that is thrown out, seeds that fly, the holy word red, praying, preached, believed, applied, and then this table behind me, here in this one leg, the roots growing out of the ground, showing fruit that's being born, but how was the fruit born? You remember this series this summer, only one way, by abiding in Christ, the word, by abiding in Christ, his word, the fruit in us through the work of the Holy Spirit is born, and so the word of God feeds us, Jesus, the word himself feeds us, and so we come collectively as the body of Christ to confess our sins, we come to lift our voices and praise, we come to offer petitions, we come to learn and listen, and then to leave, and seek by God's grace and power for the light of Christ to shine through us, and come weekly at this service for the sacrament. The reason I take such time to introduce the sacrament is because the sacrament is the reformer said often, the sacraments are visible words, the sacraments are visible words of the gospel that remind us of the word of God himself, Jesus, and remind us of his holy word, which has been given to us, and that as the Holy Spirit moves and carries us along, we see what we hadn't seen before. We taste again the wonder of the gospel, and we're reminded again of his grace, and so this morning we're looking at this passage in Corinthians, the one in which each Sunday we use to describe why it is we come to the table. So this morning I want us to focus just for a few minutes before we come, on three aspects of the table. I want us to talk about the past and the present and the future reality of this table. Throughout scripture, the word reveals God's plan of redemption. That's what the Bible is. The Bible is the history of redemption, and it's alive, it's active, it's sharper than a double-edged sword, it penetrates deep into the person separating Bonamero, it's profound what the word of God is. We're told it's the sword of the Spirit, and through this from the beginning of Genesis to the end of Revelation, we see this profound picture of the table fellowship with God. Not just here in Corinthians, but throughout we see this profound picture of table fellowship with God. It is an important element of the covenant blessing that we as believers possess. When two people are at odds with each other, and it happens, doesn't it? It happens in our homes, it happens in our workplaces, it happens in boards that we sit on, and even ministry boards, it certainly happens in the church, it happens between pastor and parishioner, it happens between elder and elder, it happens between women, it happens all the time. When there is two people or more at odds with each other, they need to be reconciled, and as Christians we know that, and our reconcilations can often be well, quite superficial. We say the right things because we're supposed to, but it's not as deep as it ought to be. And then there are moments when reconciliation is so deep and profound that when it's true and it's complete, the two individuals or the two groups that were at deep odds finally see themselves and have the ability to be at a table dining together. At one moment in their life, the thought of them having a meal and sharing a meal seemed impossible, but then suddenly, through the power of real reconciliation, they're able to feast, they're able to together. Well, throughout scripture, we see this profound picture of God's feast with us. God's feast for us. Take in your Bible and turn to the book of Exodus chapter 12. Here we have the story of the Passover thinking about the past. Go with me to verse 13 and first 12 verses describing what has to happen. Verse 13 of Exodus 12 says this, the blood shall be assigned for you in the houses where you are, and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt. This day shall be for you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord throughout your generations. As a statute forever, you shall keep it as a feast. This is what the Lord does, a people, a people that needed redemption, a people that could not save themselves, an act by God that seemed so profound and amazing. The shedding of this blood and the blood painted over the door and a feast that takes place, and that feast goes throughout history so that the people of God remember the past, they remember the Passover, they remember the blood that was over the door, they remember the stories of what God did to preserve His people, and then again the cycles of sin, turning their backs on God, the one who saved them, the cycles of deliverance, often culminating with a feast, and it moves in to the people of Israel at Mount Sinai in the day of assembly when the Lord calls the elders to come up on the mountain, and what does He tell them to do to eat and to drink and to feast, even as Moses is receiving the tablets, and then there is the man that the Lord gives on the long journey. Think about the years of that journey in day after day, the Lord providing the food for His people, and then we move into the New Testament, and it's not the first time we've heard of Jesus as it, from the beginning of Genesis all the way through the end, pointing to this person, our Savior Christ, the Word, and here's Jesus, having this Passover mill with His disciples, the very words that He speaks of the words Paul's referring back to in there, Jesus speaks of one who will betray, and there one of his says essentially, I will lay down my life for you, but not long after. Peter three times says, I don't even know the man, and after Christ dies, Peter witnesses what takes place. What does it like for him after the resurrection? When the Lord he sees on the shoreline, cooking breakfast. Imagine the sounds, the sights, the smell of all these meals that the Lord has prepared. Imagine his Peter is swimming towards his Savior, what always going on in his heart and mind, so broken by the three times he said what he thought he could never say, and then he meets with his Savior at a meal, and Jesus says, Peter, do you love me? Yes, Lord, you know I love you. Peter, do you love me? Yes, Lord, you know I love you. Peter, do you love me? And he was sad the third time, and he said, Lord, you know all things, you know I love you, and what did Jesus tell him? Is he's restoring him each time, feed my sheep, feed my sheep, feed my sheep, feed him what? The word of God, in thousands of years later, some churches aren't, and they're not church churches, and some churches are by God's grace, this is one, and the word goes out, and we do love him. And then in Revelation, we have this great picture of Jesus standing at the door, and what is he doing? Behold, here I am, I stand at the door knock, and whoever hears my voice and opens the door, let's me in, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me. Do you see that profound picture of a meal of the Lord knocking on your heart and by the work of God in your life which you really probably couldn't have seen, there is a thing being born through the word called irresistible grace, and you at 15 or 5 or 55 said yes, and the Lord entered into you, and union with him, and so when we come to the table, we remember the past, we come to the table remembering the past of the history of redemption, and all that God has done to draw to himself, to feed us, but we don't come to this table just to remember, we also come to this table to receive nourishment, there is nourishment because we are doing what Christ ordained that we are to do, we come to this table because he is the one who instituted it, we come to this table because he is the one who told his disciples to continue this pattern of using this sacrament as a means of grace to show the sign and the seal of his deep covenant with us, and sometimes when we partake of it regularly, we are tempted to forget the significance of what's taking place, that indeed we are being transformed by this means of grace, being reminded of his death, being reminded of his resurrection, being reminded that even now he reigns as our king and he intercedes on our behalf, and so no matter, no matter, the sins that we have committed, recent as this day, and you have, and so have I, we come knowing that by his blood, the perfect sacrifice, by his body, we are forgiven, we are covered in the righteousness of Christ, even more than the covering, he is in us, we are in union with Jesus, and so as a body we come and we feast, receiving nourishment, made different because this means of grace was what he ordained, but we don't just remember and receive, we also anticipate something, and this is where I think we ought to spend much time brothers and sisters,
it doesn't feel like it in Dallas, in mid, early to mid-September, it doesn't feel like fall is just around the corner, it doesn't feel like November and our great holiday of Thanksgiving and Christmas, the celebration of Advent, when many families gather to feast, it seems like such a long ways up, but it's not, and as it gets closer, there's an anticipation that begins to grow in us, and no matter how elegant, how perfect you can make your Thanksgiving dinner, how perfect you can make your Christmas dinner, it is just a small picture, very, very small, of a banquet that we buy his grace, buy his grace, buy his blood, buy his irresistible invitation, we will be at, we will feast for all eternity at the great banquet, and this is just an anticipation of a day when we will see more than we can even begin to imagine, where we'll be perfect in his presence, no more hunger, no more tears, no more thirst, but they're in glory, gazing at Jesus, that's coming, isn't it, isn't it, because he's coming, we don't know when, but he's told us until he returns, this is something that we, his body are to participate in, I'm grateful for the wisdom of God, I'm grateful that in his wisdom, he knew we needed this, and grateful that in his wisdom he knew that we needed each other, the fellowship of believers, the church, coming together to feast, because you see my friends this morning, we are so much alike, but there are also differences, some of you this day have a panting for God's word that you've never had, and you're so thankful to God, keep eating, keep drinking, drink long and hard at this oasis, some of you, you're confessing, it's not there as it once was, there's a dryness in your soul, and your appetite seems to be dull, God knows, and that's why he died for you, some of you are somewhere in between, some of you are battling pride in your own understanding of God's word, and the need for grace seems somewhat foreign, he knows that, and that's why he died, some of you were afraid you'll never know enough, and you feel so inadequate, you feel ashamed that you should know more, he knows that, and it's why he died, and it's why he continues to give us this meal, you see this meal is not centered on your faithfulness, it's centered on his, it's not centered on the idea that you one Sunday or in a better position with him than you were the Sunday before, because of something you've done, it's his faithfulness, it's his grace, for even your best week and my best week is still tainted with sin, but we come in him, we come by him, we come for him, and as a result of that we remember, and we receive, and we anticipate, the day when those battles that we're all facing will be no more, because the great battle of Christ, his death on the cross, his resurrection has been for you, one last thing before we come, it is possible that there are people in our midst even this day, at this very hour, certainly at 930 and 11, who don't know the Lord, they have not sensed that irresistible knocking on their heart, they have not yet trusted in Jesus as their Savior, if that is you today, I just cannot imagine why else God would have you here, other than he's beginning to make his powerful presence known, maybe this would be the very day and hour when you said, Lord, I need you, I confess my sin and brokenness, you are the Savior of the world, John 316 is true, maybe that will be the prayer that you pray even as we come to the table, but if this day, that is not true of you, that I want to invite you to stay in your seat, less is this first Corinthians, passions continues, you would eat and drink judgment on yourself, instead, think about the things that have been spoken and sung and prayed, witness these men and women coming forward who are not perfect Christians, but they have a perfect Savior, and whom they are covered by His blood and righteousness, brother and sister in Christ come, and as you come, remember, and as you come, receive and be fed, and as you come, anticipate the great banquet where together God's people will be for all eternity.