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You can turn in your Bibles to 
the first letter of Paul to the Corinthians, the first Corinthians 
in chapter 11. When you do find yourself to 
that book. First Corinthians chapter 11. 
For our Lord's Supper meditation and sermon this evening, I'll 
read those portions that we commonly read when we do observe the Lord's 
Supper. Sometimes we may read from the 
gospel accounts of the institution of the Lord's Supper by our Lord 
Jesus Christ. Other times we will read from 
1 Corinthians 11, where Paul does reiterate and stress the 
words of our Lord Jesus Christ in the institution of that blessed 
ordinance. So I'll read in 1 Corinthians 
11, beginning at verse 17 and to the end of the chapter. Now, 
in giving these instructions, I do not praise you, since you 
come together not for the better, but for the worse. For, first 
of all, when you come together as a church, I hear that there 
are divisions among you, and in part I believe it. For there 
must also be factions among you, that those who are approved may 
be recognized among you. Therefore, when you come together 
in one place, it is not to eat the Lord's Supper. For in eating, 
each one takes his own supper ahead of others, and one is hungry 
and another is drunk. What? Do you not have houses 
to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the Church 
of God and shame those who have nothing? What shall I say to 
you? Shall I praise you in this? I 
do not praise you. For I received from the Lord 
that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus, on 
the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread. And when 
he had given thanks, he broke it and said, Take, eat, This 
is my body, which is broken for you. Do this in remembrance of 
me. In the same manner, he also took 
the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant 
in my blood. This do as often as you drink 
it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this 
bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till 
he comes. Therefore, whoever eats this 
bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will 
be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine 
himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. 
For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks 
judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. For this reason, 
many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep. For if we 
would judge ourselves, we would not be judged. But when we are 
judged, we are chastened by the Lord, that we may not be condemned 
with the world. Therefore, my brethren, when 
you come together to eat, wait for one another. But if anyone 
is hungry, let him eat at home, lest you come together for judgment. 
And the rest I will set in order when I come. Amen. Well, let 
us go again to the Lord in prayer. Our Lord and God, we rejoice 
that we can now engage in this act of worship, the preaching 
of the word. We do pray again that you would bless this act 
of worship, that you would help preacher and pulpit to proclaim 
your word, to proclaim it with precision, Lord God, knowing 
that the preacher is but a cracked pot disclosing the glories of 
gospel truth. And we just pray that you'd bless 
this act and that you would bless those in the congregation this 
evening, Lord God, that you would, by your spirit, edify those who 
are yours and instruct them in the things of Christ and in your 
word. And Lord God, for any who entered in those doors this evening, 
outside of Christ, in unbelief, whether young or old, that you 
would, by your amazing and victorious grace, cause them to believe 
in the Savior and to rejoice in the forgiveness of sins. We 
pray in Christ's precious name. Amen. While 1 Corinthians 11, 
24, and 25 will be our primary focus this evening, specifically 
the words do this in remembrance of me. They are repeated. That 
phrase is repeated twice in this section, verses 23 to 26. But 
just for introduction, for introductory sake, Paul is issuing here a 
corrective to the Corinthians for their abuse of and their 
improper approach to the observance of the Lord's Supper. So he does 
so by stressing the divine stamp of authority that comes with 
the institution of the Lord's Supper. For I received it from 
the Lord. For I received from the Lord 
that which I also delivered to you. They are not to that. One 
of the reasons they most certainly are not to abuse the Lord's Supper 
and to treat it as an improper thing is because it comes with 
the divine stamp of authority. the divine stamp of approbation. 
It is the Lord God, the Lord Christ, that has instituted this 
ordinance of the Lord's Supper. And the weight of the argument 
is seen in the repetition of the phrase, do this in remembrance 
of me. This was not to be a Paschal 
commemoration, as Gil notes. It was not to be a remembrance 
of the Passover. It was not to commemorate the 
exodus, but now the true Passover lamb having come and been that 
Passover lamb sacrificed for us, it was the remembrance of 
Christ that was to be central in this ordinance. And so Paul 
brings those words of the Lord Jesus Christ to the fore. Do 
this in remembrance of me in order to squash, in order to 
drive out this improper and approach of debauchery by those who were 
turning the Lord's Supper into no supper at all. We will, again, 
examine the phrase, do this in remembrance of me, and we'll 
do so under three points, three considerations. First, the command 
of the Lord's Supper. It is a command, the command 
of the Lord's Supper. Secondly, the character of the 
Lord's Supper. And then thirdly, The Christocentrism 
of the Lord's Supper, that simply means the Christ-centeredness 
of the Lord's Supper, contrary to anthropocentrism or egocentrism, 
that it's all about us. No, it's all about Christ. And 
so the command of the Lord's Supper, the character of the 
Lord's Supper, and the Christo centrism of the Lord's Supper. So first, then the command of 
the Lord's Supper, Paul rehearses Christ's words in which he said, 
do this. It is a command. The observation 
of the Lord's Supper are gathering together as saints of the Most 
High to observe this ordinance. We are doing it as an act of 
obedience to the living and true God, an act of obedience to Jesus 
Christ. the only lawgiver. Our confession 
of faith speaks this way. Baptism, this is chapter 28, 
paragraph one. Baptism and the Lord's Supper 
are ordinances of positive and sovereign institution appointed 
by the Lord Jesus, the only lawgiver, to be continued in his church 
to the end of the world. And Paragraph one of chapter 
30, specifically dealing now with only the Lord's Supper, 
says the supper of the Lord Jesus was instituted by him the same 
night wherein he was betrayed to be observed in his churches 
unto the end of the world. You see, when we come to the 
observation of the Lord's Supper, we are doing it as an act of 
obedience. But you see, it is a command 
that is joyful to obey, that we rejoice in, in God or with 
God's commands, with the commands and the positive sovereign institutions 
of Christ. We do not have or we are not 
the recipients of a heavy handed tyrant who arbitrarily imposes 
upon us hard to live with and hard to deal with things. But 
much rather, we have the simplicity, for example, in the Ten Commandments 
of love to God and love to your neighbor. We have in the Lord's 
Supper, we do not have a sacrament of C4 and detonators like other 
religions, where by their God, they are tasked to blow people 
up with a detonator and plastic explosives. But rather, we have 
a merciful and a blessing a merciful blessing in the sacrament given 
to us where we come and we get to a veil of bread and we get 
to a veil of wine. Oh, the heavy hand of Jehovah. 
No, oh, the blessed hand and kind hand of our great God in 
giving us this ordinance to observe. And we are to do so joyfully. 
It is always a mystery. It's always quite the conundrum. 
At least it should be to us. when those who name the name 
of Christ repudiate the idea that God commands his people 
to do anything. Of course, we know that our salvation 
is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ Jesus alone. Praise be to God. But this side 
of that blessed reality of having been saved, God gives us and 
hedges us in by these merciful commands, not tyrannical impositions 
by an arbitrary deity or a deity that imposes arbitrary things, 
but much rather kind, condescending commands where God keeps us and 
where God blesses us. And on that note, it is a comforting 
ordinance. It is a comforting ordinance. Have you ever considered this? 
In 1 Corinthians 11, verse 23, for I received from the Lord, that which I also 
delivered to you. And then this, that the Lord 
Jesus on the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread. And we'll pause on that verse 
for a moment, because have you ever considered the comfort that 
is in the recognition of that fact that it was on the night 
that Jesus Christ was betrayed that he instituted the ordinance 
of the Lord's Supper. You see, this isn't the Lord 
Jesus Christ and Paul now reiterating the words of Christ, but this 
isn't the words of the Lord Jesus Christ just or sorry, Paul here 
rehearsing a simple historical fact that It was just the case 
that the Lord Jesus Christ instituted the Lord's Supper on the night 
that he was betrayed. No, that is given to us for a 
measure of comfort as it would have first been a great comfort 
to his disciples at that time of chaos and madness coming by 
the way of the Jews and the Romans. So how do we see comfort in this 
particular text? Well, we see it first off in 
the fact that by this Christ is instituting an ordinance or 
in the original context, it would have been something of a disclosure 
of a visitation of love upon the disciples by God through 
Jesus Christ, the Lord that was before them. Gill puts it this 
way, and he's talking about Matthew 26, 23, acknowledging the betrayal 
by Judas on that night where the Lord's Supper was instituted. 
And he says this, the circumstance of Judas's betraying him is mentioned 
not only because it was in the night and a work of darkness, 
but being in the same night he instituted the supper shows the 
knowledge he had of his death by the means of the betrayer. 
and his great love to his disciples, his church and people in appointing 
such an ordinance in remembrance of him and his death when he 
was just about to leave them. You see, rather than having a 
pre-death emotional gathering of consolation and lamentation, 
we rather have Christ in his messianic composure instituting 
an ordinance for his disciples and for his church that is to 
be a comfort because he will be gone. But we will have these 
visible and tangible tokens where we know that he is near and that 
he will come again in glory to bring us with him to that blessed 
eternity. So it is a comforting ordinance. It is a command, most certainly 
a joyful one to observe, and it is a comforting ordinance. And we should pause just one 
more for one more moment at this point. You see, yes, there is 
a Godward trajectory in this command. We render obedience 
joyfully, I hope, and it should be joyful. We render joyful obedience 
in observing the Lord's Supper and God receives the glory and 
the praise for it. But you see, in this command 
and in this ordinance, if we already if we did not already 
get that from the comfort aspect, we do have God blessing His people. Christ institutes this Lord's 
Supper in order to bring a gift to His people, in the observation 
of it, that we might receive from on high the blessings of 
redemption, that means of grace. Our confession speaks about this 
reality. In chapter 14, that God, through 
His Spirit, strengthens His saints by way of means. One of those 
means is our gathering together for worship, where the Word is 
preached. And then it says also by other 
means such as baptism and the Lord's Supper prayer and other 
means ordained by God. And so we come here and yes, 
we are obeying a command of our Lord God, but is also a command 
wherein God blesses us and fills us with those great blessings 
of joy in Christ. So we have the command of the 
Lord's Supper. Secondly, we have the character 
of the Lord's Supper. Paul rehearses Christ's words 
in which he says, do this in remembrance of me. Do this in 
remembrance of me. So we have the character of the 
Lord's Supper as one that is remembrance. The character of 
the Lord's Supper is such that it is an ordinance of remembrance. The Lord's Supper is not only 
a memorial meal, but it is a memorial meal. And what do we mean by 
that? Well, we already said that God, by the Lord's Supper, grows 
us in our faith by the Spirit, strengthening us in the inner 
man. But you see, it is the character of the Lord's Supper is such 
that it is a memorial meal. Do this in remembrance of me. Our confession of faith again 
highlights this in contradistinction to a blasphemous, repetitious 
mass in the Roman Catholic Church. In this ordinance, Christ is 
not offered up to his father, nor any real sacrifice made at 
all for remission of sin of the quick or dead, but only a memorial 
of that one offering up of himself by himself upon the cross once 
for all. And a spiritual oblation, that 
is, an offering up or a sacrifice, of all possible praise unto God 
for the same, so that the Pope's sacrifice of the Mass, as they 
call it, is most abominable, injurious to Christ's own sacrifice, 
the alone propitiation for all the sins of the elect. We have 
this ordinance as a memorial of that one offering up of Himself 
by Himself. And you see, we are remembering 
a once-for-all sacrifice. That's why in a few moments' 
time we'll highlight this fact, that when we come together to 
gather for the Lord's Supper, it is not a remembrance that 
is introspective. It's not an egocentric remembrance 
where we are somehow drawn by the papist inside of us to look 
inside at the motions of the Holy Spirit and the impurities 
and all those sorts of things. But rather, our gaze is extrospective 
at the riches and the excellencies of Jesus Christ and his perfect 
redemption. And so it is a memorial meal, 
a memorial of that one offering up of Christ by himself upon 
the cross once for all. And this remembrance, this character 
of the Lord's Supper as remembrance, it answers man's natural tendency 
to forget. In other words, in this command 
that God has given us to observe this blessed meal, it is God, 
in a sense, remembering that we are but finite in our existence. We are but men at best, and we 
are men that can forget our Christ and can forget the blessings 
of gospel truth. A long quote, but listen to this, 
these words from Spurgeon, on the point of the Lord's Supper 
because I believe he does hit the nail on the head. It seems 
then that Christians may forget Christ. The text implies the 
possibility of forgetfulness concerning him whom gratitude 
and affection should constrain them to remember. There could 
be no need for this loving exhortation if there were not a fearful supposition 
that our memories might prove treacherous and our remembrance 
superficial in its character or changing in its nature. Where 
one would think that memory would linger and unmindfulness would 
be an unknown intruder, that is the spot which is desecrated 
by the feet of forgetfulness and that the place where memory 
too seldom looks. I appeal to the conscience of 
every Christian here. Can you deny the truth of what 
I utter? Do you not find yourselves forgetful 
of Jesus? Some creature steals away your 
heart. and you are unmindful of him 
upon whom your affection ought to be set, some earthly business 
engrosses your attention when you should have your eye steadily 
fixed upon the cross. It is the incessant round of 
world, world, world, the constant din of earth, earth, earth. that 
takes away the soul from Christ. Oh, my friends, is it not too 
sadly true that we can recollect anything but Christ and forget 
nothing so easy as him whom we ought to remember? While memory 
will preserve a poisoned weed, it suffereth the rose of Sharon 
to wither. And so you see, this giving of 
the Lord's Supper to us is God knowing our frame, that we are 
but men and prone to forget. that even as Christians made 
alive by the power of the Holy Spirit and regenerating grace, 
we can nevertheless in our lives as Christians forget the one 
who saved us and forget the verities of his saving gospel. And so 
in the Lord's Supper, we have this, the character of remembrance 
whereby God blesses us because we are naturally trending towards 
forgetfulness each and every day. They had a problem remembering 
that Paul has to do this again in 1 Corinthians 15. In 1 Corinthians 
15 at verse 1, Paul needs to do this again. You see, they 
forgot about the proper observance of the Lord's Supper. They had 
turned it into a supper of absolute selfishness. eating to gluttony 
and drinking to drunkenness. They had forgot that it was delivered 
to them by Paul already. That's what he uses, that language 
that he uses, and he uses it again in 1 Corinthians 15. You 
see, here in 15, they were to remember that it is most certainly 
true that the dead will rise. The resurrection of the dead 
is most certainly true, and it is vital to our Christian profession 
For if the dead do not rise, then how is Christ raised from 
the dead? And if Christ is not raised from 
the dead, then your faith is futile. It's empty. And our preaching, 
our preaching is folly and vanity. We'll notice the reminder in 
first Corinthians 15 one. Moreover, brethren, I declare 
to you the gospel, which I preached to you, which also you received 
and in which you stand by, which also you are saved. If you hold 
fast that word, which I preached to you, unless you believed in 
vain. For I delivered to you, first of all, that which I also 
received, that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, 
and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according 
to the scriptures. I declared to you the gospel 
which I preached to you." He had to come and remind them again 
what the gospel was so that they would not fall after these vain 
philosophies, negating or rejecting, denying the resurrection of the 
dead. So in 1 Corinthians 11, We read in verse 23, for I received 
from the Lord that which I also delivered to you. He had already 
instructed them. He had already given them instruction 
in the Lord's supper. And yet they were gluttons and 
drunkards abusing with selfish neglect, the proper observance 
of the Lord's supper. So the remembrance, the character 
of remembrance is such that it answers to man's natural tendency 
to forget. And this highlights The character 
of remembrance in the Lord's Supper highlights the Christian 
practice of historical retrospect. That simply means, everyone, 
historical looking back. That is, and it has to be, a 
mark of our daily Christian walk. What does Paul do? Well, actually, 
first off, what does the Old Testament show to us but that 
the people of God are always drawn back to a remembrance of 
the mighty works of God. Come behold the works of the 
Lord. Pastor Butler preached this morning 
in Psalm 46 in verse eight. We are always to be drawn back. We are always to be engaging 
in that exercise of contemplating the historical works of our great 
God. You don't necessarily have to 
turn there, but we see that in Deuteronomy 5.15. In Deuteronomy 
5.15, we read this. And remember that you were a 
slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you 
out from there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm. Therefore, 
the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day. The keeping of the Sabbath day 
is not some tyrannical imposition, again, by a God who just wants 
to impose his will upon us in an arbitrary and capricious fashion, 
but rather it is the blessing of God from on high, whereby 
the people are to remember their redemption physically from bondage 
in Egypt. We turn to a place like Psalm 
40, And we see the same thing, this Old Testament pattern, the 
saints of Christ, the saints of God, remembering the mighty 
works of the Lord. In Psalm 44, right at the beginning, 
verse 1, Psalm 44, we have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers 
have told us the deeds you did in their days, in days of old. 
You drove out the nations with your hand, but them you planted. You afflicted the peoples and 
cast them out, for they did not gain possession of the land by 
their own sword, nor did their own arm save them, but it was 
your right hand, your arm, and the light of your countenance 
because you favored them." You see, remembrance is to be the 
mark of a Christian, one of the marks of a Christian. We are 
to have that historical retrospect, that historical looking back. 
We are to Drive out the introspective aspect of our selfishness in 
our humanity and we are to look with extra spectrum upon the 
riches and the excellencies of our triune God and of his truth 
and we are to look with Retrospection upon the mighty works of our 
Lord. Isn't this what Paul does in 
the New Testament in one of those? In one of those well-known passages 
to hopefully each and every one of us Ephesians 1 3 to 14 That is historical retrospect 
in the blessed garments of doxology. Blessed be the God and Father 
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every blessing, 
every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just 
as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, 
that we might be holy and blameless before Him in love, having predestined 
us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to himself. You see, that 
whole, that whole sentence from Isaiah or from Ephesians 1, 3 
to 14 is one long doxological retrospection. Paul glorifying 
God in looking back and surveying the beautiful landscape of triune 
salvation. And Christians are to do the 
same. approach to the Lord's Supper is one of remembrance, 
wherein we glory in the saving immensity of our Jesus Christ. 
Well, lastly then, and finally, the Christocentrism of the Lord's 
Supper. The Christocentrism of the Lord's 
Supper. Paul rehearses Christ's words 
in which he said, do this in remembrance of me. Do this in 
remembrance of me." The Christocentrism of the Lord's Supper. This, of 
course, excludes this then, that it is to be remembrance pointed 
back towards ourselves, that we are to be remembering ourselves. You see, it is sometimes a wholesome 
exercise to engage in introspection. In fact, the Apostle Paul here 
says, but let a man examine himself. So there is a place for that, 
and Paul most certainly commands that and exhorts the Christians 
to do that. But you see, the Lord's Supper 
is a remembrance, though, of the Lord Jesus Christ. We can 
at times, As Spurgeon had once said, let us peruse the diary 
of our memories, for there the witnesses of our guilt have faithfully 
recorded their names. But you see, he then says, but 
we are not to linger there, but rather quickly to fly with eyes 
of faith, casting a gaze upon the one who is the Lamb of God 
who takes away the sins of the world. You see, we do not linger 
long on guilty, vile, and helpless we. but rather we quickly move 
on to spotless Lamb of God was he. And so remembrance, the remembrance 
in the Lord's Supper is the remembrance of me. That is not Cam Porter, 
but the Lord Jesus Christ. Do this in remembrance of me. It is not a remembrance of our 
sins. That is the falling and the madness. of the Roman Catholic Mass, but 
rather it is a remembrance, because Christ has offered up himself 
once for all for the sins of his people, it is a remembrance 
of that blessed and perfect work of salvation. So it is a remembrance 
of Christ, and if it is the remembrance of Christ, then it is not a bad 
thing to engage in a remembrance of Christ, generally speaking. Is it ever? In that sermon by 
Spurgeon, and you have to, you have to read it, you have to, 
you don't have to, but if you can read it, beautiful sermon 
called The Remembrance of Christ, just on the Christians historical 
retrospect and remembering our savior. And you see, he traverses 
the whole life and ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ with beautiful 
language. You see, when we engage in remembrance 
of Christ, there is nothing that is not wholesome or glorious 
to remember. We see him in the incarnation. 
We see God, if you will, in a feed trough coming into this world 
to redeem guilty sinners. Is that not something glorious 
to remember? Though we were not there, yet 
by the word we can, in a sense, remember that our Lord Jesus 
Christ came into this world born of a woman, born under the law 
to redeem those who were under the law. God in a feed trough. not there so that we could have 
fond notions of a cuddly baby, but to come in and to do that 
blessed work that he would, 30-some years later, speak of when he 
said, the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve 
and to give his life a ransom for many. We glory in the fact 
of Christ entering into that mission, that messianic mission, 
whereby he perfectly performed the law in our stead, obedience 
to the law so that we might have a righteousness to avail with 
him. Spurgeon, in indicting men, indicting men in our natural 
tendency to forget, says we have reason to suspect at his baptism 
that the conscious water trembled at the fact that it contained 
the deity. In that water, Christ goes down, 
He comes up, and before having done that and before receiving 
that approbation from the Father, He said, it must be so that I 
might fulfill all righteousness. It was His meat to do the will 
of the Father. Have you ever considered that 
from the birth of Christ to the death and resurrection and ascension 
of Christ, that whole messianic mission was one large and giant 
act of substitutionary obedience to the Father. From his first 
breath as a babe in Mary's womb, where he was breathing in the 
amniotic fluid, to his last breath as a breathing human, to that 
point where he is ascended to the right hand of the Majesty 
on high, that is all one giant and immense and perfect act of 
vicarious obedience in the stead of all those who believe. We 
remember a massive and a glorious savior. We remember him and we're 
drawing near an end for all, including me, who are hot. We 
remember his kindness in his earthly ministry. Go and sin 
no longer. He doesn't come with the venom 
and the vitriol that so many of us would come to an adulterous 
woman. Throwing figurative fire and 
brimstone at someone who could do such a thing. Go and sin no 
longer. After indicting those who were 
seeking to put her to death unlawfully. But you see, we also see our 
blessed Savior with his wholesome severity. His wonderful wholesome 
severity. Those Pharisees and those scribes, 
you hypocrites. brood of vipers. You are witnesses 
against yourselves that you are the sons of those who murdered 
the prophets. Indicting those who would seek 
to cast under their muddy sandals the law of God and the perfect 
and just one who came to fulfill all righteousness. So we see 
Christ and we rejoice in a remembrance of him generally. But you see, 
the text, and as we draw to a close, has something specific in view 
for when it says, take eat, this is my body which is broken for 
you. When it says this cup is the 
new covenant in my blood, it is saying what is summarized 
at verse 26. For as often as you eat this 
bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till 
he comes. So we come and yes, a wholesome 
remembrance of that whole scope of Christ's messianic work. But 
specifically, we come and we remember and we proclaim his 
death till he comes again. This is what is immediately in 
view when we read those words of institution. And when we read 
the summary, Jesus Christ, the cross, substitutionary atonement. Notice the simple language. Take 
eat. This is my body, which is broken 
for you. It wasn't an exemplary sacrifice 
to the exclusion of any redemption or atonement. It wasn't just 
Christ doing the highest moral act of self-sacrifice for persons, 
but it was an act of sacrificial substitutionary atonement. having 
his body broken for us, for all those who believe this cup is 
the new covenant in my blood and the gospel narratives we 
read that blood which is shed for you for the remission of 
sins. So we remember Christ and in 
that remembrance of Christ, we remember him in that bloody massacre, 
bloody massacre upon Calvary's tree. You see, there was an old 
boy back in the second century, Melito of Sardis, who would use 
language to indict his audience for a lack of proper remembrance, 
for their forgetfulness in rightly recognizing and appreciating 
the sacrificial work of Jesus. He would say things like, he 
who fixed the stars in place is fixed in place upon a tree. He who set the galaxies rolling 
in their orbits is set in place upon a Roman implement of execution. Woe to the one who would not 
tremble before such a condescending act of redemption and salvation. 
We tremble. We cast, we should or we ought 
to, or Melito of Sardis at least did cast malediction on anyone. who would thumb their nose and 
turn their nose upon such a mighty act of God and such a glorious 
act of a Savior. To consider and to examine and 
to read what the Lord Jesus Christ had done and to leave flying 
the banner of those who would say, crucify him, crucify him, 
give us Barabbas is an absolute proof of the total depravity 
of man. May God come, may God fly upon the wings of amazing 
and victorious grace and cause sinners to know the truth of 
this blessed Christ who gave himself for the forgiveness of 
sins. In two minutes then, as we close, 
first we need to hold in high regard preaching and the ordinances 
of our Lord. Hopefully in some small measure 
we get that from these hot 40 minutes. That we are to hold 
in high regard the preaching and the ordinances of our Lord. 
Because have you ever wondered why in our church we don't have 
ornate stained glass windows? We do not have a large wooden 
crucifix behind us with a blasphemous violation of the law of God spread 
out upon it. Why we don't have ornate and 
bedazzled and bejeweled crosses of gold, silver, and emerald, 
and diamond, and all of those sorts of things. It is for these 
reasons, says Calvin. Paul declares that by the true 
preaching of the gospel, Christ is portrayed in a manner crucified 
before our eyes. Of what use, then, were the erection 
in churches of so many crosses of wood and stone? Silver and 
gold if this doctrine were faithfully and honestly preached Christ 
died that he might bear our curse upon the tree That he might expiate 
our sins by the sacrifice of his body wash them in his blood 
and in short Reconcile us to God the father from this one 
doctrine that people would learn more than from a thousand crosses 
of wood and stone As for crosses of gold and silver, it may be 
true that the avaricious give their eyes and minds to them 
more eagerly than to any heavenly instructor. When I consider the 
proper end for which churches are erected, it appears to me 
more unbecoming, their sacredness, than I well can tell, to admit 
any other images than those living symbols which the Lord has consecrated 
by his own word, I mean baptism and the Lord's Supper. blessed 
words from Calvin because it speaks to the absolute necessity 
and this truth that is not pictures that are worth a thousand words, 
but it is fitly spoken words that have the value of a multitude 
of pictures. Because God commands to preach 
the word, to preach Christ and Him crucified. God forbid that 
I should boast save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. We 
preach Christ crucified. And this Lord's Supper is a remembering 
of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, and that blessed cross 
work. So believer, remember your Savior. Remember your Savior. Why is 
it? Why is it that we can spend so many minutes and so many hours 
downloading grumpy cat videos to the exclusion of reading the 
blessed word that point to the Savior dying for sinners and 
rising again. Why is it that we can spend so 
much time googling trampoline fails, and we can go days upon 
end without availing of that one who to believers is supposed 
to be precious, according to according to the Apostle Peter, 
to those who believe he is precious. Remember your Savior. Third, 
Unbeliever remember this Savior you reject this ordinance now 
In your unbelief There will be a time though when that eschatological 
judgment comes if you have not closed with your Savior with 
our Savior Where you will not be able to reject The sacrament 
of judgment that will be given to you where he will cause you 
to eat wormwood and where he will cause you to drink gall. 
You see, you will not have bread on that day. It will be the bitterness 
and the wretchedness of wormwood. You will not have the blessing 
of wine on that day and remembering a savior perfect in all things, 
but rather you will drink the gall of bitter judgment. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ 
and you will be saved. All have sinned and fall short 
of the glory of God. There is this savior that we 
remember here tonight, given himself for sinners who has risen 
again for sinners and who has said all who believe in me shall 
have everlasting life. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, 
we thank you for your holy word. We rejoice in this freedom to 
gather together unhindered to worship you, to avail of your 
word, to pray to you, to sing hymns. We just pray, Lord God, 
that you would have blessed this evening and that you would bless 
this evening, that you would cause your saints to rejoice 
and remember Christ to write, to rejoice in him, to remember 
him. And we do pray, Lord God, that by your grace, you would 
cause those who do not know you. to know you by your grace, for 
your glory, that they would have come in this place, yes, enemies 
of God, but that they would leave this place by grace, singing 
the praises of our Savior, singing along with us. Hallelujah. What 
a Savior. And it is in Christ's name that 
we do pray. Amen.