may turn in your Bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter 15. 1 Corinthians chapter 15, probably a review message for some here, but one that needs to be reviewed very often. If anyone ever asks you what is the gospel, it is very helpful to turn here to 1 Corinthians chapter 15. The context, the larger context is Paul is arguing for the future resurrection from the dead, for those who are in Jesus Christ. He is rebutting a false doctrine that had affected the church.
In verse 12 of chapter 15, you'll notice, now if Christ is preached that he has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? That's sort of a controlling thought in this chapter. Again, the apostle is rebutting this heresy. He is refuting this idea, and so he is setting forth a positive treatment of the resurrection.
Well, verses 1 to 11 lay the foundation for all that follows, the very gospel itself, those events connected to the life, the death, and the resurrection of our Lord Jesus. Essentially, what Paul proclaims is that because Jesus rose from the dead, that secures the future resurrection of all those in Jesus. So that's sort of an overview of the context. We're going to focus in primarily in the first section here, in 1 Corinthians 15, verses 1 to 11, just to make four observations on the gospel itself.
For if, as we take the bread and we drink the cup, We are proclaiming the Lord's death until He comes in that visible corporate manner. It is helpful for us to review those redemptive truths, those redemptive facts, as they are specified here in 1 Corinthians chapter 15. So I'll just pick up reading in verse 1. Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preach 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, and that he was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve. After that he was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep. After that he was seen by James, then by all the apostles, then last of all he was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time. For I am the least of the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.
But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain, but I labored more abundantly than they all. Yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. Therefore, whether it was I or they, so we preach, and so you believed. Amen.
Well, let us pray. Our Father in heaven, we give you thanks for this passage of scripture. We give you thanks for the event. We thank you so very much for what Christ did.
And our Father, we pray that you would just fill our minds now with understanding, guide us by your spirit. We crave illumination from on high, and we crave, Lord God, a proper understanding of the gospel of free and sovereign grace. How we thank you and how we bless you for the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. How we praise you for what Paul indicates here in this passage concerning Him.
And God, as we remember him tonight at the supper, may we do so in an informed manner. May these things truly be an encouragement to our hearts. May they confirm our faith. May they strengthen us and may they nourish us.
And we pray through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Introduction
Well, as I said, we'll look at four observations from this particular passage and then make some practical applications, specifically with reference to the Lord's supper or the Lord's table. Kind of goes along with some of the things that we considered this morning. But the first observation,
The Gospel Is Rooted in History
the first truth is that we need to notice that the gospel is rooted in history. The gospel is rooted in history. Notice that the gospel is not our feeling. The gospel is not our transformed life.
The gospel is not an experience. The gospel is not a warm and fuzzy feeling that we get once in a while. The Gospel, strictly defined, is the record of the redemptive activity associated with the person and the work of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Gospel is Christ-centered, not us-centered, and the Gospel is rooted in history.
Notice Paul's emphasis. Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. Christ was buried. Christ rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.
When we preach the Gospel, we are not preaching self-help. We are preaching help from on high, salvation from above, the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are preaching something that is supernatural that answers to the man in sin. We don't need feelings.
We don't need experiences. We don't need mysticism. We need a bleeding, crucified, risen Savior to save us from our sins and from our desperation. I remember many years ago, those of you who have been here for some time, I'm sure have heard this illustration.
I oftentimes worry that people are getting weary of my illustrations. I'm sorry I have a limited experience. I only know so many things. But if you remember early on in the life and ministry of Chris and Shirley Santiago, I remember they sent a prayer update, a prayer letter.
They are ministering in the Far East. And they sent an update and it came just after Christmas time. And Shirley reported, or Chris reported, something that happened unique in the life of Shirley. She was doing a lady's Bible study on the events associated with the incarnation.
And the people that she was speaking to had never heard these things. So I think we often forget, in communist China, or in the Middle East or in atheistic lands, they don't, you know, walk into Walmart at this time of the year and hear, you know, Christ the Lord is, you know, Christ the Lord coming through the loudspeaker. Don't know that we often consider just how in darkness much of the world is. But Shirley was explaining the incarnation to these ladies and they were just amazed.
They were baffled. They said, is this stuff true? Well, Shirley was able to walk over to the map and point to Jerusalem. She was able to go to the map and locate Bethlehem.
These things are not a cunningly devised fable. This isn't a myth that somehow makes you feel warm. and fuzzy. This isn't Scientology, where they just make up concepts, and they make up ideas, and they make up things to try and bring salve to the conscience of the recipients. This doctrine, or this gospel, is rooted in history.
In Galatians 4.4, the Apostle says, in the fullness of the time, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman. born under the law to redeem those under the law. The gospel, the good news, strictly defined, has to do with Jesus Christ, the Lord. Do not make the mistake of living the gospel. No, you live out the effects of God having applied the gospel or the good news of Christ in your life.
You live in such a manner as to let your conduct be worthy of the gospel, but your life, dear brothers and sisters, will never lead anybody to eternal salvation. You follow me around for the day, you are not going to learn enough to get saved. We need the truth. We need the redemptive events.
We need the historical record. You know, the Bible is uniquely historical. The Bible doesn't hide facts. It doesn't hide data.
It doesn't obscure things. God is very clear with reference to what the gospel is. I already kind of vaguely mentioned this, but Peter says we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty for he received from God the Father honor and glory when such a voice came to him from the excellent glory this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased and we heard this voice which came from heaven when we were with him on the holy mountain the transfiguration happened The miracles happen. Some of the neo-orthodox or the liberals in the early part of the 20th century said, it doesn't matter if it's true.
It doesn't matter if it actually took place. What really matters is the event. What really matters is how it makes you feel. What really matters is the existential benefit it has in your life.
Whether Jesus rose from the dead or not, that's incidental. That's what neo-orthodoxy and liberalism taught. The Bible doesn't teach that. The Bible teaches us that the gospel of Jesus Christ is about a historical event.
Those things connected to the life, the death, and the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. He grew, he worked, he ministered as a real man among real men, and he was ultimately delivered up, he was crucified, and he rose again. So that's our first observation. We are not here for experience.
That could be a byproduct when you hear the truth and your heart is aflame with it. There's nothing wrong with experiencing the love of God, the power of God, the joy of the Lord. Hopefully we all have that. But we don't go for the experience at the expense of truth.
The Puritan said we go through the mind to the heart. You have to have the understanding. Because if you're just caught up in the mystical event or in the experience, you're no better than a Baal worshipper.
The Gospel Is Revealed by God
Secondly, second observation, the Gospel is revealed by God. The Gospel is revealed by God. Probably all of you, at this point, can tell me the two types of revelation. There is general revelation wherein God reveals himself through the created order.
The heavens declare the glory of God. The firmament declares his handiwork. Romans chapter 1. God reveals himself through the created order.
But that created order and what we see when we behold a beautiful sunset or a landscape does not lead us to blood atonement. It does not lead us to understanding the Christ of God who died for sinners and who rose again. The gospel is revealed by God. This is why it's so important.
We talk about evangelism. People want to evangelize. Well, your good life doesn't do the trick. Yes, live a good life.
It's part of the strategy. Shine as lights in a crooked and perverse generation, but hold forth the word of truth. That's what evangelism is. You have to tell sinners about God.
You have to tell sinners about themselves, and you have to tell sinners about the Christ who saves to the uttermost all who draw nigh unto God through Him. The Gospel is revealed by God. Notice what the Apostle says. I deliver to you first of all that which I also received, that Christ died for our sins, here it is, according to the Scriptures. and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day, here it is, according to the Scriptures.
It is the written revelation of God. It is special revelation that makes known these redemptive events. See, Christ died. The scriptures tell us not only the fact of His death, but it gives us the theological interpretation of the death.
Why did He die? For our sins. Why was He raised up? For our justification.
So the scripture, special revelation, reveals to us the event itself and then gives us the theological interpretation. And it's very interesting here that Paul is referring primarily to the Old Testament scriptures. At the time of Paul's writing 1 Corinthians, the New Testament was not complete. The New Testament canon was not finished.
And so when Paul says Jesus died according to the scriptures, what passage do you think he has in mind? I hope you'd all say Isaiah 53. Remember that? We read it way long time ago.
That's what we opened worship with. Hopefully you would remember Psalm 22, the psalm of the cross. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Hopefully you would all consider Daniel chapter 9, where it speaks of the 70 weeks and Messiah being cut off with a specific end in view.
You see, Jesus Christ crucified was not an afterthought in the mind of God. It was prophesied in the Old Testament, it was fulfilled by Christ, and it is commented on, interpreted for us by the Apostles in the New Testament. The texts as well that would come up in the mind and the heart of the Apostles, 16 refers to the burial, refers to the resurrection. This is what Peter cites on the day of Pentecost in Acts chapter 2.
So you see the gospel itself is revealed. That's why you need to pray that God will raise men up to preach the gospel. All our good deeds won't win men to Christ. They might see something good.
They might say, you have a nice life. Why do you have a nice life? Well, it's just the way things go. No, it's because Christ was crucified and rose again from the dead.
We got to tell people. We gotta go out as the hymn says and sing, Jesus saves, Jesus saves. We need to pray that God will raise men up and send them out into those Muslim nations. That God will raise men up and send them out to proclaim the special revelatory word that focuses in upon and is rooted in the work of Jesus Christ in history.
The Gospel Is the Record of Christ's Work
Third observation, the gospel is the record of Christ's work. The gospel is the record of Christ's Word. Now, the triune God is actively involved in salvation. The Father chose us in Him before the foundation of the world.
In fact, turn there for just a moment to the book of Ephesians, just so you can see that I'm not making this up. Ephesians 1, 3, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. just as He chose us in Him, before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him. In love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved. You see, it's not your free will that brings you into salvation.
It's the powerful, sovereign, omnipotent, glorious will of God Most High, who chooses, who predestines, who elects, and who does it in the context of love and places us in His sign. The Father is certainly involved in the Gospel. The Spirit, to be sure. Notice in verse 13, In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession to the praise of His glory." So certainly, Father and Spirit are involved to be sure.
In fact, I believe there was a pact made in eternity past between the persons of the Godhead, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, to redeem the elect. Theologians call this the Covenant of Redemption, or the Covenant of Peace. And then that covenant is fleshed out in history in the Covenant of Grace, wherein Christ comes as the messenger, as the mediator, as the surety, and as the Lord, to save His people from their sins. The Father gives a people to His Son, the Son covenants to come to live on their behalf, to die on their behalf, and to rise on their behalf.
It's a beautiful and wonderful macrocosmic structure that we find in the scripture. But the focus in terms of the gospel is on the death, the burial, and the resurrection of Jesus. I'm not suggesting you never tell people about the new birth. I'm not suggesting you never tell people about election.
I'm not suggesting you never tell people about predestination. Those are all biblical truths, biblical doctrine that we most certainly propound to the people. But what does Paul say in 1 Corinthians 1? He speaks of the message of the cross.
He says that Jews seek after signs and Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified. The focus, the primary emphasis in terms of the gospel is the doing, the dying and the rising of the Lord Jesus. He died, He was buried, He rose again. When you follow the apostles in the book of Acts and you ask the question, what did they preach?
They preached Christ. They were conspicuous. They were obvious. They were positively about that activity of setting forth before their hearers a crucified and a risen Savior.
Peter, on the day of Pentecost, Peter in Acts chapter 3. We see it in Acts 4, Acts 5. We see Philip in the Ethiopian unit. What does Philip preach to that unit?
He preaches Jesus from the prophet Isaiah, specifically chapter 53. Again, don't leave here saying, Butler says we're never to talk about the Father or we're never to talk about the Spirit. certainly talk about the Father and the Spirit to be sure. But when Paul comes to tell us what the gospel is about, he says that it's about Christ died for our sins, Christ was buried, and Christ rose again the third day. Preach Christ and Him crucified.
Spurgeon said this, I believe that those sermons which are fullest of Christ are the most likely to be blessed to the conversion of the hearers. Let your sermons be full of Christ from beginning to end, crammed full of the gospel." Now, this is Spurgeon's observation. This doesn't mean God can't save in a sermon from Romans 9 to 11. In fact, there's a man by the name, I think it was Ian Campbell, wrote a little essay about Or it might have been that Don Kistler one, now that I think back to it.
Somebody was bringing their unconverted daughter, an older adult daughter, to the church and the minister wanted, if it was Don Kistler, make sure you preach the gospel. Or no, it was Ian Campbell talking about William Still. And William Still was not in the habit of departing from what he had prepared. He happened to be in Romans 9 to 11.
The mother of the lady is quite irritated that her daughter's sitting there needing, you know, a double-barrel shot of the gospel and we're getting a lecture on the Jews. God save the daughter. So, this isn't a hard and fast, this is always the way it ought to be. I am suggesting to you the gospel isn't about us.
The gospel is about the triune God to be sure But specifically, it's about the doing and the dying and the rising of God the Son. Spurgeon said, let your sermons be full of Christ, from beginning to end, crammed full of the gospel. He says, as for myself, brethren, I cannot preach anything else but Christ and His cross. For I know nothing else, and long ago, like the Apostle Paul, I determined not to know anything else save Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
People have often asked me, what is the secret of your success? I always answer that I have no other secret but this, that I have preached the gospel, not about the gospel, but the gospel, the full, free, glorious gospel of the living Christ, who is the incarnation of the good news. Preach Jesus Christ, brethren, always and everywhere, and every time you preach, be sure to have much of Jesus Christ in the sermon. That's a good observation.
That's a beautiful observation. There's a trend that I'm noticing among the young. They're not restless. The young and the restless, not necessarily reformed.
There's a couple of guys that are big-name preachers today, probably guys that wouldn't be in our radar, so don't, you know, get to, well, what about these guys? But they sound just like these prosperity guys, but in different guise. Remember the old prosperity guys who come up in their suits and their boastfulness, and it's all about health, wealth, and prosperity, and it's all about what Jesus can give you and what Jesus can do for you? That's going on today with a class of younger men.
The dress is a little bit different. The emphases are not exactly the same. But it's about the gospel bringing greatness to you. The gospel making you better.
The gospel doing this in your life. That's the prosperity gospel, which is no gospel. It's about Christ. It's about the Lord Jesus.
It's about His death. It's about His burial. It's about His resurrection. That's what the Gospel centers in upon.
That's what the focal point is. That's what we need to preach. And then
The Gospel Is Received by Faith
the fourth observation is that the Gospel is received by faith. It is received by faith. Notice Paul's emphasis in verse 2. By which also you are saved if you hold fast that word which I preached to you unless you believed in vain.
It's not about your performance, it's not about your works, it's not about your righteousness, it's not about your ability, it's about the grace of God moving you to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ so that you may be saved. Verse 1, Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, by which... The whole idea there in the context is the reception is via faith. And then he ends this segment in verse 11, Therefore, whether it was I or they, so we preach, and so you believe.
This message is received by faith. This goes along with what we studied this morning. Doing the will of the Father in heaven is to believe proper theology. It is to believe the truth.
It is to believe concerning Jesus Christ the Lord. The gospel isn't self-help. The gospel isn't health. The gospel isn't wealth.
The gospel isn't prosperity. In fact, when you take up that cross and you follow Jesus, you may find just the opposite. The absence of health, the absence of wealth, and the absence of prosperity. Ask those brothers in Hebrews 11.
Ask Isaiah as he's being sawn in two. Are you being unleashed? Is your greatness being achieved? Ask those men who are wandering around in goat skins if they have become all that they can be.
Jesus isn't the army. That's the army slogan in the United States, be all you can be. The gospel is all that Christ is. That's Paul's emphasis in this particular section.
Application
Let's move finally to some practical application. The first flows out of our text, the first two. And the third is specifically connected to the Lord's table.
The Gospel Is Essential
The first is that the gospel is essential. The gospel is essential. Paul emphasizes in verse 1, "...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." What is Paul's implication? Without this gospel you're not saved.
Without faith in this truth, you're not saved. Without belief in this truth, you are damned to hell. Paul is simply asserting what he does elsewhere and what the other New Testament apostles indicate, that there is no other name given under heaven among men by which we must be saved. Paul says in Romans 1.16, I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it alone is the power of God unto salvation.
You say you add it alone. The emphasis is there. The stress and the accent falls upon the gospel as the power of God. Because only in the gospel is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith.
That as it is written, the just shall live by faith. The gospel is crucial. If you are here tonight and you have not believed the truth, if you have not believed on the Lord Jesus, you are outside of Christ. You are under the wrath of God.
The Baptist says this in John 3, 36. He that believes the Son has everlasting life. It's beautiful. You ever stop and think about that?
You've got a bad day. It's a trying day. There's difficult people in your life. But by God's grace, you are believing the gospel.
So what is true of you? You have, presently, everlasting life. That'll hopefully make that frown turn upside down. Right?
I love when I've heard a certain man in this church pray. about the gospel and about its effects. This man has prayed thus, put a spring in our step. Gospel does that. That's not the gospel, the spring in our step.
The gospel, the truth, it sets us free, puts the spring in our step. Right? He that believeth the Son has everlasting life, currently, right now, already possesses. It's not yet been realized, the blessing, the beauty and the fullness of it, but you are a current possessor of everlasting life.
Whatever you may have in this world, if you have Jesus, you have everything. But the text goes on in John 3.36, but he who does not believe the Son shall not see life. What's their current possession? What's their current inheritance?
John says, but the wrath of God abides on him. So wherever you go or whatever you do in a given day, you may have fun, you may have good food, you may have good friends, you may have a loving wife, you may have a loving husband, you may have a minivan, you may have a good car, you may have gold in your bank, you may have a portfolio, but if you don't have Jesus Christ, what God through John says is that the wrath of God abides on you. It's terrible. This gospel is absolutely essential.
A second practical application flowing from our particular passage is that
Gospel Power for the Worst Sinners
the gospel is powerful for the worst of sinners. I like that one. The gospel is powerful for the worst of sinners. Is it worst or worse?
I don't know. The really bad ones. The terrible ones. Wasn't this Jesus' emphasis?
Isn't this what Jesus said? It's not the healthy who needs the physician. It's the sick. It's the diseased.
It's the ailing. That's not an exact parallel to what he does in the gospel. We're not sick, diseased, and ailing. We're dead. gone, buried.
But based on that statement, in terms of the physician and the sick man, Jesus said, I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. In our text, notice what Paul says in verse 9. For I am the least of the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God, I am what I am." He was a bad man.
He was a terrible sinner. In 1 Timothy 1.15, he describes himself as the chief of sinners. He was the CEO in Centerville. That sounded really cheesy, but I'm looking at Cam.
Something Cam might say. Dictionary.cam. I'm sorry, brother. I don't mean to pick on you there.
He's going to beat me up later. Give me noogies. That's what Paul says, isn't it? That means crack dealers.
It means murderers. That means self-righteous, professing Christians have hope in the gospel. You should love what he says there. Paul doesn't play games, does he?
He's not a power pastor. He doesn't always look polished. He's not the kind of guy you come up to and he's always great. How you doing?
I'm great. It's a great day, sun shining, great. Great day, clouds over us, raining. Great, great.
Everything's great. Great, great, great. Great, great, great. Everybody's great.
Not Paul. 1 Corinthians chapter 2. 1 Corinthians 2 verse 1. And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom, declaring to you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling.
And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God." You see, Paul understood this all too well. God takes gospel treasure puts it in earthenware vessels, which really means cracked pots, so that when people actually get saved, they don't give credit to Paul. They say it's of God. He used that man who hobbled in here with weakness, with fear, and with much trembling, and God saved my soul.
Praise be to God, not praise be to Paul. 1 Corinthians 15 verse 9, I am the least of the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle because I persecuted the church of God. Remember that incident in Acts chapter 7? Remember that martyr for Jesus, that man named Stephen? Remember what his tormentors, his murderers did with their outer garments?
They laid them at the feet of Saul of Tarsus. Remember what Saul of Tarsus was busy doing in Acts 8 and Acts 9, specifically Acts chapter 9? He got extradition papers so he can go into other regions and take people forcibly out of there and bring them back and throw them into prison. That Paul persecuted the Church of God, but that Christ came and saved him by His grace and for His glory.
Never believe that you are outside of hope or you are devoid of hope. There's always hope in the Gospel. There's always hope in Jesus Christ. There's always hope in Him whom God has sent.
And then
The Supper as a Means of Grace
a final practical application flowing more out generally with reference to the supper. Our confession 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 for the perpetual remembrance and showing to all the world the sacrifice of himself in his death. It goes on to specify this isn't a sacrifice, it isn't atonement, rather it is an emblem of that particular activity. But it then designates or highlights the benefits accrued by believers.
It says, for confirmation of the faith of believers in all the benefits thereof, their spiritual nourishment and growth in Him, their further engagement in, and to all duties which they owe Him, and to be a bond and pledge of their communion with Him and with each other. All that to say this, we need the supper. I talked to a young man recently who went to church And it was the Lord's supper. And he said, you know, I really didn't feel worthy to take.
I said, that's good. That's a good thing, right? He says, but I took anyway. I said, that's good.
Now, let me just make a couple of qualifications. Do not take the supper if you're not a Christian. That's just bottom line. It is not a converting ordinance.
It is not given to you so that you may get saved. It is for Christians. Okay? So if you're not a Christian tonight, no harm, no foul.
Just don't take it. But one of the things I think we as Christians fall prey to is that we treat the supper as a reward for a good week. And if we didn't have a good week, we shouldn't take the reward. No, the supper is for spiritual nourishment.
When do you go to the dinner table? When you're stuffed? No, when you're hungry. This is a means of grace to nourish God's people.
This is a help, this is a benefit, this is a blessed thing that the Lord Jesus instituted, that he has given by positive institution for the good of his church, so that we can feast the very metaphor that is used, the idea behind it. He uses bread and wine. Why? Because we relate to that three times a day.
We understand what it is to have need. We understand what it is to search out food. We understand what it is to be destitute and need to be filled. This is not a reward for your positive behavior.
It is an ordinance given to help you. It is an ordinance spread out before you by God the Lord Himself to feed you and to quicken you and to nourish you and to strengthen you. To say, you know, I've had a bad week, I've had a bad few months, I'm not doing well spiritually. If you are believing in Christ, you must go to the table.
You must take. This is wherein nourishment lies. This unworthy manner means you have sin you're not dealing with. It's not the general ebb and flow of, man, I've got this remaining corruption.
I'm trying to kill sin. I'm trying to put to death these deeds of the body. I'm seeking the blessed influence of God. What do you think of that particular sin?
Would you like to get rid of it? Yes, I want to be done with it. Well, with that attitude, come, take and eat. It's the guy who's harboring sin.
It's the guy who's got an axe to grind against God or against his brethren. That's the unworthy partakers in the passage. Specifically, vis-a-vis in the context, in terms of Corinth, you've got people gathering together to eat and drink together, and the haves are excluding the have-nots. Don't do that.
It's wicked. Eat at home. Come here for worship. This is a time for refreshment, a time for blessed ingestion, a time so that we are strengthened in the faith.
I think Baptists can fall prey to this idea that it's a memorial only. It is a memorial to be sure, but our confession highlights some things there probably some Baptists aren't comfortable with. Confirmation of the faith of believers in all the benefits thereof, their spiritual nourishment and growth in him and their further engagement in. and to all duties which they owe Him, to be a bond and pledge of their communion with Him and with each other." So do not take if you're not a Christian. If you are a Christian and by the grace of God you're seeking to, you know, pull out eyes and cut off hands and you're trying to deal with your sin the way God calls you to, then by all means take.
I missed my Bible reading on Thursday. I'm going to punish myself by not taking. That's how we treat it. We treat it like it's a holy horseshoe, or it's a lucky charm, or it's something designed with some magical powers.
That's not it at all. Just as much as we need 1 Corinthians 15 preached, and we need to understand the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, that's what this shows forth. As much as you need to hear the gospel as a Christian, so you need to feast on the gospel as a Christian. Well, let us pray.
Closing Prayer
Our Father, we thank You for Your Word, and we thank You for this section in 1 Corinthians 15. We pray and ask that you would cause us to understand these truths, cause us to embrace these truths, and cause us to delight in them. We just thank you for this opportunity now to come together as the church and to proclaim corporately the death of our Lord Jesus Christ. And it's in his most blessed name that we pray.
Amen.