You can turn in a copy of your, does anyone need a copy of the confession? I've got the blue basket down here. Okay, we're in chapter 30, which is the chapter of the Lord's Supper.
Confession Study
So I'm going to read all eight paragraphs, and then we'll have a look at some things. We wouldn't have time, of course, to treat every clause, but we will have a look at the topic and the theme of the Lord's Supper. So this is chapter 30. 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 forth the sacrifice in his death, confirmation of the faith of believers and all the benefits thereof, their spiritual nourishment and growth in him, their further engagement in and to all duties which they owe to him, and to be a bond and pledge of their communion with Him and with each other.
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 of all possible praise unto God for the same. so that the Popish sacrifice of the Mass, as they call it, is most abominable, injurious to Christ's own only sacrifice and alone propitiation for all the sins of the elect. The Lord Jesus hath, in this ordinance, appointed his ministers to pray, and bless the elements of bread and wine, and thereby to set them apart from a common to a holy use. and to take and break the bread, to take the cup, and they communicating also themselves, to give both to the communicants. The denial of the cup to the people, worshipping the elements, the lifting them up or carrying them about for adoration, and reserving them for any pretended religious use, are all contrary to the nature of this ordinance and to the institution of Christ. The outward elements in this ordinance, duly set apart to the uses ordained by Christ, have such relation to Him crucified as that truly, although in terms used figuratively, they are sometimes called by the name of the things they represent, to wit, the Body and Blood of Christ.
Albeit in substance and nature, they still remain truly and only bread and wine as they were before. That doctrine which maintains a change of the substance of bread and wine into the substance of Christ's body and blood, commonly called transubstantiation, by consecration of a priest or by any other way, is repugnant not to Scripture alone, but even to common sense and reason. Overthroweth the nature of the ordinance, and hath been, and is, the cause of manifold superstitions, yea, of gross idolatries. Worthy receivers, outwardly partaking of the visible elements in this ordinance, do then also inwardly by faith, really and indeed, yet not carnally and corporally, but spiritually receive and feed upon Christ crucified and all the benefits of his death, the body and blood of Christ being then not corporally or carnally, but spiritually present to the faith of believers in that ordinance, as the elements themselves are to their outward senses.
All ignorant and ungodly persons, as they are unfit to enjoy communion with Christ, so are they unworthy of the Lord's table, and cannot, without great sin against Him, while they remain such, partake of these holy mysteries, or be admitted thereunto. Yea, whosoever shall receive unworthily are guilty of the body and blood of the Lord, eating and drinking judgment to themselves. It's a significant chapter with regards to the ordinance or the sacrament of the Lord's Supper.
Introduction
Just to give you a little bit of what, a summary of what these paragraphs are communicating, Dr. James Renahan's outline follows this way with regards to each paragraph. Paragraph one is a summary statement about the supper. Paragraph two, the spiritual essence of the supper as over against Rome.
Paragraph 3, the right observation of the supper. Paragraph 4, the invalid observation of the supper. Paragraph 5, the significance of the elements. Paragraph 6 is transubstantiation of false doctrine.
That wasn't a question. Paragraph 6 is Transubstantiation of false doctrine. Paragraph 7, the real presence of Christ, and paragraph 8, unbelievers and the supper. So largely, well not largely, in part what the Baptists are doing in our confession of faith is they're of course countering Rome.
In many of the paragraphs there, they're outlining the falsity, the error, the abominable reality of the Roman Catholic view of the Lord's Supper, and then upholding the biblical and Reformed view with regards to the Lord's Supper. Now, there are and there have been various approaches to the Lord's Supper throughout the history of the Church and, of course, in our present day.
Views of the Lord's Supper
From the abominable to the wonderful, we have the following approaches to the Lord's Supper. First, there is, as our confession outlines, transubstantiation, which is the view of the Roman Catholic Church, that Upon consecration by a priest, the bread and wine are transformed into the literal body and blood of Christ. In fact, they say body, soul, and divinity, while to the outward senses the bread and wine remain unchanged. Our confession here, you can see as we were reading it, calls that repugnant in paragraph six, not to scripture alone, but even to common sense and reason, and that it overthrows the nature of the ordinance and is the cause of manifold superstitions, yea, of gross idolatry.
So that is the abominable Roman Catholic view. The Lutheran view is called consubstantiation, which means with. Trans is a change into. Consubstantiation is with.
Upon consecration, the body and blood of Christ are in, with, and under the bread and wine, while there is no change to the substance of those elements. the still, of course, erroneous and marked by falsity. The Eastern Orthodox view is called, and here you go for some terms, it's called mystical epiclesis or epiclectic consecration. What that means is, epiclesis has to do with an invocation, so a calling down of something. So their view is essentially that in the prayer of consecration, the bread and the wine, mystically, they don't explain it like the Catholics do in these categories of accidents and substance and that sort of a thing, but they say mystically that the bread and the wine change into the body and blood of Christ during the Eucharistic prayer.
There is, fourthly, what we could call Episcopal via media. That's a mediating position between transubstantiation by the Roman Catholics and the spiritual presence view of the Reformed churches, which which we'll see in the last place here before we move on. So some of those in the Anglican Church would hold this view. It's not quite transubstantiation, but it's not the spiritual presence view of the Reformed.
It navigates sort of this strange mediating position. There is, of course, sixthly, the exclusively, or I should say fifthly, the exclusively commemorative view, where it's only a memorial meal emphasizing the commemorative and proclamational elements of the Lord's Supper. And that view is the better of all of the views that are wrong, in that it recognizes simply the reality of what Christ says in the institution of the Lord's Supper, do this in remembrance of me. And also, the Apostle Paul's summary or recognition that the Lord's Supper is a proclamation of the Lord's death till he comes again.
So it's commemorative, that is, it remembers. and it's proclamational. That is, it proclaims the Lord's death till he comes.
Reformed Spiritual Presence
The view that we hold and the view that the Confession is setting forth, which we believe the Bible sets forth, is Reformed spiritual presence. And there's a subtle difference with regards to the Baptist, but this view is the Lord's Supper is a sacrament or ordinance in which believers partake of Christ's body and blood by faith, spiritually, not physically or literally, by the power of the Holy Spirit, the bread and wine remaining unchanged." Now, the Baptists would say that, properly speaking, the only lawful recipients of the Lord's Supper are those who have been credo-baptized. But of course, they extend grace under particular circumstances, and of course, to our Paedo-Baptist brothers.
Christian Necessity of the Lord's Supper
So moving on then, what I want us to do this morning for the remainder of the time is to look at the Christian necessity of observing the Lord's Supper by going to our Bibles and by treating some of the clauses of the Confession here with regards to that topic, the Christian necessity of observing the Lord's Supper. So in the first place,
First Point: Divine Command
the Christian necessity of observing the Lord's Supper is seen in its character as a divine command. its character as a divine command. Christ himself, in the institution of the Lord's Supper, says, do this in remembrance of me. If you turn just back to chapter 28 for a moment, we see this reality of the divine command of the Lord's Supper. 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.
That language is somewhat reiterated, but with a little bit of a change of of the wording in paragraph one of our chapter this morning, 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. So the the character of the Lord's Supper as a divine command. When we think about divine commands, or not us because we're Christians, we know that the commands of God are not burdensome, but From the outside looking in, the unbeliever may think, oh, the burdensome commands of God in Christianity. What a blessed command it is, do this in remembrance of me.
This divine command that calls us to a whole-souled recollection upon the glories of Jesus Christ and salvation by him. What a blessed divine command from a gracious God. The command is not burdensome, there are no heavy burdens of God imposed upon us, but much rather the gracious requirements of God, the delightful and favorable ordinances given by his commandment. Gil on the giving of divine commands writes this, they are good and amiable and lovely in their own nature and are cheerfully complied with And abundance of spiritual pleasure and delight is enjoyed in them by believers when they have the presence of God, the assistance of his spirit, and the discoveries of his love.
So wonderful, there is no terrible, well now we are to have a reverential law before the God of heaven and earth, but his laws are not terrible and terrifying, they are of the nature that Gil presses here. They are of the nature of pleasure and delight. They are enjoyed by believers because of the presence of God, the assistance of his spirit, and the discoveries of his love that attend these giving of commands. You can turn to chapter 22 for a moment because I want us to see here the Lord's Supper is included in this list of the elements of worship And we ask the question, what is worship comprised of?
What is Christian worship, or what are those elements to be included and appreciated in Christian worship? Notice paragraph five of chapter 22. The reading of the scriptures, preaching and hearing the word of God, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing with grace in our hearts to the Lord, as also the administration of baptism and the Lord's Supper, are all parts of religious worship of God. Notice, to be performed in obedience to him with understanding, faith, reverence, and godly fear.
You see, well, first you see the reality that the Lord's Supper and all these elements of worship are divine commands, but notice the glorious character and depth of Christian obedience, to be performed in obedience to him with understanding, faith, reverence, and godly fear. When we come into this place and we engage in these acts of worship, when we, to our topic this morning, observe the Lord's Supper, we're not just doing it in some rote external obedience to a God who commands his creatures and his redeemed creatures, but rather we are to be marked by such who do this with understanding, reverence, faith, and godly fear. We see the nature of the command or the nature of the Lord's Supper as a divine command if you turn with me to 1 Corinthians 11 in your Bibles for a moment. Of course, you'll know that particular address of Holy Scripture as the location where we have the record of the Apostle Paul recognizing, reflecting upon, and sort of repositing the Lord's Supper. and the institution of it to his particular audience in order that they might observe it aright.
Notice in verse 23 of 1 Corinthians 11. For I receive from the Lord that which I also deliver 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 this, 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. So we see it as a divine command in more than one place there. First, of course, in the words of the Lord Jesus Christ that are repeated. do this in remembrance of me, but also by the weight of apostolic authority when we read, for I received from the Lord.
So Paul receives this from the Lord, and then that which I delivered to you. So with the apostolic reality of receiving from the divine commissioner, those things which are to be proclaimed and upheld in the church, and then also the apostolic deliverance of the Lord's Supper and the observance of it, to the churches. Gil writes this with regards to Christ's words of institution. He's speaking as if he's Christ here.
For this direction does not only regard the present time in action, but is intended as a rule to be observed by the churches in all ages to his second coming. He has by precept enjoined it on his apostles and disciples, and all succeeding ministers, and on all his followers to the end of the world. And of course, when we see Christ at the giving of the Great Commission, we should see when he calls upon the Church in their charge to go therefore and disciple the nations, that they are to observe all that Christ has commanded, which of course includes the Lord's Supper. Hansard Nolis writes this with regards to our obligation, what should be our joyful obligation to observe the Lord's Supper.
Hansard was a particular Baptist connected to our confession. The saints, when they sup with Christ, have meat and drink which others know not of. Those believers who slight or neglect any of the holy administrations and ordinances of God do want, that is, stand in lack of, or are absent of, that fellowship with the Father and that communion with Jesus Christ in the Spirit, which other believers do enjoy. Oh dear friends, be not wanting to your precious souls, either in slighting or neglecting the ordinances of God.
Why should you cry, oh my leanness, oh my barrenness? So what he's saying there is, imagine a believer, who is saying to someone, to you, I'm struggling with my spiritual walk. I'm struggling in my walk with Christ. I just don't feel, you know, feel the invigoration.
I don't have, I'm spiritually struggling. That's what he's saying, why should you cry, oh my leanness, oh my barrenness? In other words, this person's saying that and not attending the Lord's Supper and perhaps not coming to church regularly as they ought. How unkindly do you deal with Christ to slight and neglect or refuse his gracious invitations to heavenly banquets at his table.
So the Christian necessity of observing the Lord's Supper is seen first in its character as a divine command. It was instituted by Christ, the only lawgiver.
Second Point: Remembrance
Secondly, it's seen in its character as a remembrance. And we see this stated twice. We see this stated in paragraph one, just shortly after the beginning, the Lord's Supper was instituted by him for the perpetual remembrance and showing forth the sacrifice in his death. So in fact, we could say the Christian necessity of observing the Lord's Supper is seen in its character as a remembrance, but also in its character as a proclamation.
It preaches the gospel. It is a, it is one of those living symbols, to use Calvin's language, that the church of God has that sort of in a portraiture way proclaims the gospel to those who are in who are in the churches. But in its character as a remembrance, remember Christ says, do this in remembrance of me. Some of the first movements of the Christian soul upon conversion are you know, reflections, perhaps more near to memory, reflections, yes, about the fact that they are sinners, but remembrances of the fact that God brought them forth from deadness of sin to life in Christ, and the remembrances of Christ, their Savior, who gave himself for them.
The motions of the Christian soul are joyful reflections upon the things done in the past for him. And, you know, that same Christian, 50 years later, we'll have many more remembrances of the gracious condescensions of God and providentially watching over them and the many times of, multitudinous times of coming into churches and availing of the exalted Christ who sends his spirit to build us up in our most holy faith. But that same Christian, 50 years later, casts his mind upon remembrances of the Savior, walking those same steps as he or she did when they were saved by amazing and victorious grace. Our Christian souls are to be stirred to a historical retrospect, a looking back upon the mercies and the graces of God who has saved us for his glory.
In fact,
Remembrance in the Psalms and Scripture
remembrance as a natural exercise of the Christian soul we find very predominantly in the Psalms. You can turn there with me. You can turn first to Psalm 77. Psalm 77.
Notice in verse 10, and I said, this is my anguish, but I will remember the years of the right hand of the Most High. I will remember the works of the Lord. Surely I will remember your wonders of old. The psalmist very, very frequently calls upon his audiences to remember the works of the Lord.
You see this as well in Psalm 97. just to take a few examples here in Psalm 97. Notice in 97 at verse 12, rejoice in the Lord you righteous and give thanks at the remembrance of his holy name. Psalm 111 and verse four. Psalm 111 verse 4, he has made his wonderful works to be remembered.
The Lord is gracious and full of compassion. The works of the Lord are to be remembered. This is why we were talking about the Christian necessity of observing the Lord's Supper in its character as a remembrance. God by his word calls upon his people to remember his holy name and to remember his mighty works.
In the New Testament, just for one single example, you can turn with me to the book of Ephesians for a moment, Ephesians chapter 2. Notice in Ephesians 2, beginning at verse 11, Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh, who are called uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision made in the flesh by hands, that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now, those wonderful words in the Bible, but now. But now in Christ Jesus, you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
The command here, the apostolic command is therefore remember. And so remembrance is central to the Christian. Remembrance is central to the religion of Christianity and therefore it does not surprise us that remembrance is central to the Lord's Supper. If we were to consider for a moment the old covenant people, the covenant people of God in the Old Testament, we have verses like, Exodus 13.3, you need not turn there.
And Moses said to the people, Remember this day in which you went out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, for by strength of hand the Lord brought you out of this place. No leavened bread shall be eaten. Now, when we move to the New Covenant, our topic of the Lord's Supper, it's very similar to this. Remember when the Lord, by a mighty arm, brought you from out of the deadness and darkness of sin to life and light in Jesus Christ.
This physical deliverance from out of bondage in Egypt pointed forward to the redemption that God would work Through His Son, Jesus Christ, very God and very man, yet one Christ and the only mediator between God and man, points forward to that spiritual deliverance, Christ's victory over sin, death, and the devil. So remembrance is central to Christianity.
Third Point: Remembrance of Christ
Now thirdly, and just more specifically, the Christian necessity of observing the Lord's Supper is seen in its character as a remembrance of Christ. The confession in paragraph two speaks to that heavily. In combating the Roman Catholic Mass, one moment, In combating the Roman Catholic abomination of the mass, where they say that there is a real sacrifice of Christ that is repeated every time a priest engages in the mass, that it is an unbloody sacrifice, that Christ is offered up again upon the altar for a real sacrifice of the quick and the dead, so the confession, And to our point that the Christian necessity of observing the Lord's Supper is seen in its character as a remembrance specifically as Christ, Confession says, paragraph 2, in this ordinance, Christ is not offered up to his Father, nor any real sacrifice made at all for the remission of sin of the quick and dead, but only a memorial of that one offering up of himself by himself upon the cross once for all. So the Lord's Supper in its character as a remembrance of Christ testifies to the Christian necessity of observing this.
Remember, Christ says, do this, it's a divine command, in remembrance, generally, Christianity marked by historical retrospect, but do this in remembrance of me. And it's always amazed me, just the genius of redemptive history, the genius of the Bible in its entirety, as it narrows its scope, as the weight of all testimonies narrows its scope, I might have pluralized wrong there, but terminates upon Jesus Christ. All of those streams of revelation, converge upon Christ. And with regards to the context of the institution of the Lord's Supper in Matthew 26, where it's given in the context of the Passover meal, we have the strange and glorious reality that the Lamb of God, who is also the great shepherd of the sheep, In the context of a ceremonial feast that remembered the slaying of the Lamb for Israel's escape and pointed forward to Christ as the Passover sacrifice, institutes a religious observance for a remembrance of His work as the Lamb of God who gives the life for His sheep.
There's a lot of lamb and sheep and shepherd convergence there that speaks to the glorious reality of Christ as both great shepherd of the sheep, but also the lamb slain before the foundation of the world, who in time gave himself as that Passover sacrifice for us. We are to, of course, in our remembrance, when we engage in this aspect of the Lord's Supper as a memorial of that one offering up of himself upon the cross, we do well in that remembrance to do a number of things, or to have our remembrances rest upon a number of things.
What to Remember at the Table
We should remember first Christ in his person. the perfection of his unmitigated deity, the glory of his assumed and perfect humanity. We remember Christ in his person, who he is. Again, very God and very man, yet one Christ and the only mediator between God and man. We remember Christ in his life as a were partaking of the Lord's Supper and engaging in this act of remembrance, it's good for us to think back upon the fact that he was that babe wrapped in swaddling cloths lying in a manger, that his condescension was such that he was found in a vessel where livestock eat and drink.
We can fast forward to his baptism where he goes into the waters and he perfects all righteousness. He brings to an inaugural reality the perfection of his saving work and communicates righteousness to His people. That is, not that their righteousness would avail, but that His obedience unto cross-death work is that which would avail for His people. Which brings us, of course, specifically to what the Lord's Supper is calculated for people to remember.
That is, remembering Christ specifically in His work, culminating in His death. The confession again says a perpetual remembrance and showing forth of his sacrifice of himself in his death. And then again, a memorial of that one offering up of himself by himself upon the cross. You can turn in your Bibles with me to the book of Hebrews for a moment because this is a glorious passage and reality that we want to touch upon from the Apostle Paul writing to the Hebrews.
I look at Joanne of the Apostle Paul writing to Hebrews. But what we have here in Hebrews 10, 1 to 11, is something interesting that should cause us to glory in the Lord's Supper, and ultimately in what it represents and what it captures and what it is seeking to glorify. For the law, Hebrews 10.1, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never, with these same sacrifices which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered?
For the worshipers, once purified, would have had no more consciousness of sins. But in those sacrifices there is a, notice, a reminder of sins every year. Let's just pause on that for a moment. The old covenant was marked by a reminder of sins every year.
The Old Covenant, not being the covenant of life, that's the covenant of grace, but the Old Covenant was marked by, in its ceremonies, in its sacrifices, it was marked by a reminder of sins. Part of the glory of the New Covenant is that there is now therefore no reminder of sins, but what we're talking about now, a reminder of or a remembrance of Jesus Christ, the one who came into this world to die for sinners. There is no longer a reminder of sins when we engage in our New Covenant worship. There never was in New Covenant worship.
But again, unlike that Old Covenant worship, now we have a reminder not of sins, but a reminder of of the blessed forgiveness of sins by virtue of the doing, dying, rising again of the Son of God. You can turn to Isaiah 43 with me, just some Bible here on the topic of remembrance. There are sort of... Two remembrances, if you will, that we can think of connected to the Lord's Supper.
One is our remembrance of Jesus Christ. Do this in remembrance of me. The other remembrance is the glorious reality of Isaiah 43 and verse 25. "'Even I am he who blots out your transgressions "'for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins.'" That's a blessed, you could say, non-remembrance, if you will.
The blessed reality of the Lord's Supper, in our remembrance of Jesus Christ, is that our Christian souls are to be reminded of this blessed reality, that the one who is the living and true God will not remember our sins. By virtue of that Christ who gave himself for us perfectly upon Calvary's cross and rose again as a vindication of the perfection of his work. So we remember Christ specifically in his work culminating in his death. On what is remembered chiefly, the Baptist John Gill wrote, it may be observed that the Lord's Supper, which is a feast, is a commemoration of the ratification of the covenant of grace.
That is, it's confirmation, it's perfection, it's conclusion, it's efficacious power. What is it that ratifies? It's Christ ratifying the covenant of grace by the blood of Christ, and wherein and whereby the faith of God's people is strengthened and confirmed as to their interest in it. It is a high remembrance that we're engaging in when we participate in the Lord's Supper.
Let it never be just a rote exercise. First of every month, at the end of the preaching, we have this religious observation that we engage in. There's bread, there's wine, we take it and we leave. Slighting and neglecting the Lord's Supper is bad, but so also is treating it in such a rote and a low manner.
High and Worshipful Remembrance
Spurgeon on the high remembrance that should obtain in our remembrances of Christ on the Lord's Supper, and here he's speaking of the Christian remembering Christ, having our minds reflect upon Christ in Gethsemane. He preached, oh my soul, Praise Him when He knelt down in agony and sweat. Sweat because he wrestled with God. Sweat because he agonized with his father.
My father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Oh, Gethsemane, thy shades are deeply solemn to my soul. But ah, those drops of blood. Surely it is the climax of the height of misery.
It is the last of the mighty acts of this wondrous sacrifice. Can love go deeper than that? Can it stoop to greater deeds of mercy? Oh, had I eloquence, I would bestow a tongue on every drop of blood that is there, that your hearts might rise in mutiny against your languor and coldness and speak out with earnest burning remembrance of Jesus.
It's not a rote exercise. It ought to be marked by that earnest and burning remembrance of Jesus that, you know, we would have something of what those disciples had on the road to Emmaus. Did not our hearts burn within us when we had engagements with the King of Kings. So we remember Christ specifically in his work culminating in his death.
It's a high remembrance and it's a remembrance that is also at the same time an exercise of worship. We are acknowledging the worth of God in our worship. We are observing and recognizing in serving God by gratefulness, by thankfulness, and by understanding faith, reverence, and godly fear, marking His glory and His majesty. You can turn to Exodus 12 for a moment. somewhat connected here because there is a relation between Passover and the Lord's Supper.
Notice what ought to mark the people of God with regards to the taking of the Lord's Supper. In this context, it's the Passover. Notice in Exodus 12 at verse 26. And it shall be when your children say to you, what do you mean by this service?
That you shall say, it is the Passover sacrifice of the Lord, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when he struck the Egyptians and delivered our households. And notice, so the people bowed their heads and worshiped. When we are partaking of the Lord's Supper, and we take the bread, and we take the wine, you'll remember that we bow our heads in worship. When Pastor Butler, or after the bread is passed out, and after the wine is passed out, he'll call upon the congregation to pray, and we bow our heads and we pray.
We are like these so many years ago, but With regards to a better Passover and a better sacrifice, we are bowing our heads and we are worshiping. We are serving God. We are engaging in gratefulness, thankfulness. We're engaging in hopefully a whole-souled service to the one who has called us forth from the darkness of sin to life in Christ.
It is a remembering worship. It is a worshipful remembrance.
Fourth Point: Means of Grace
And lastly, The Christian necessity of observing the Lord's Supper is seen in its character as a means of grace. Its character as a means of grace. Dr. Barcelos defines means of grace this way.
The delivery systems God has instituted to bring grace, spiritual help, and fortitude to our souls. We have this reality in paragraph one and in paragraph seven. Notice in paragraph one where we have already read that the Lord's Supper is for the perpetual remembrance and showing forth of the sacrifice in his death. It's for the confirmation of the faith of believers and all the benefits thereof.
And then notice their spiritual nourishment and growth in him. The Lord's Supper is not only a memorial meal, but it is an ordinance, a sacrament given by God for the spiritual nourishment of believers and that those same believers would grow in him, in the Lord Jesus, who is the antecedent one in view there at the beginning of the paragraph. So the delivery systems God has instituted to bring spiritual help and fortitude to our souls. Notice as well in paragraph seven, this amplifies this reality even more than that spiritual nourishment and growth in him clause.
In paragraph seven we read this with regards to the Lord's Supper as a means of grace. Worthy receivers, outwardly partaking of the visible elements in this ordinance, do then also inwardly by faith, really and indeed, yet not carnally and corporally, but spiritually receive and feed upon Christ crucified and all the benefits of his death. Let's just pause there for a moment. Think about Dr.
Barcelos' quote there for a moment. The delivery systems God uses to bring grace, spiritual help, and fortitude to our souls. This language here that we feed spiritually upon Christ crucified and all the benefits of his death. So what does that mean?
The benefits of Christ's death come down to us from above, by the Spirit when we partake of the Lord's Supper. It is a delivery system. We are remembering Christ and we are availing of the communication of the benefits of Christ's redemption as we take the bread and as we drink the wine. It is a glorious reality.
The confession goes on to say, the body and blood of Christ being then not corporally or carnally, so just, you know, not physically or materially, but spiritually present to the faith of believers in that ordinance as the elements themselves are to their outward senses. I want us to get the weight of this, not in some sort of, I don't want to do this in some sort of a weird way, whatever that way may be, but as you take that bread and you're engaging in an act of, a physical act of taking in the bread, and as you're drinking that wine, engaging in a physical act of taking in the wine, at the same time, I want us to realize that as those elements themselves are to our outward senses, so too are the benefits of Christ's death, his body and blood, spiritually present to the faith of all of us. And so it's not just that we're physically partaking of bread and wine, but that we are spiritually receiving redemptive benefits from on high as we engage in the Lord's Supper. Barcelos writes as well, the Lord's Supper is a means of grace at which Christ is present by his divine nature, and during which the Holy Spirit nourishes the souls of believers with the benefits wrought for us in Christ's humanity, which is now glorified in heaven at the right hand of the Father.
You can turn with me as well to paragraph 1 of chapter 14. This is, in fact, it's been a paragraph that we often go to in many of our studies because it captures much with regards to the worship of the church, the activities of the church, the elements of worship, the sacraments, all of those things. Notice. specifically with regards to the Lord's Supper as a means of grace. The grace of faith, whereby the elect are enabled to believe to the saving of their souls, is the work of the Spirit of Christ in their hearts, and is, notice, ordinarily wrought by the ministry of the word, by which also and by the administration of baptism and the Lord's Supper, prayer and other means appointed of God, it is increased and strengthened.
If you want a confessional definition of what the means of grace are, it's chapter 14 and paragraph 1. the work of the Spirit of Christ in our hearts at the Lord's Supper is such that our faith is increased and strengthened. And it's not only by the Lord's Supper, but also, of course, centrally and ultimately by the ministry of the word, but also baptism in the Lord's Supper prayer, and then other means, which is probably the chapter 22 fastings and times of thanksgivings. But there we have the character of the Lord's Supper as a means of grace. Our faith is increased and strengthened by it.
A verse that speaks to this that we would go to would be 1 Corinthians 10 verses 14 to 22. We won't go there, but on your own time, you can have a look at that. Paul is countering what could be communion with demons. He's countering that by the reality that at the Lord's Supper, we have communion with God.
Why would you entertain communion with demons at pagan meals, when at the Lord's Supper, at a feast, at a meal that remembers the death of Christ, we have communion with the living and true God? God communes with us and we commune with God at the Lord's Supper. Gill writes, it is for not only believers by the act have communion with his mystical body, the church, but with his natural body which was broken for them. They in a spiritual sense and by faith eat his flesh as well as drink his blood and partake of him, of his sufferings and death endured in his body and of all the blessings of grace consequent thereon.
The Apostles' view in this instance, that is, in the 1 Corinthians 10, 14-22 passage with regards to communion, The Apostle's view in this instance and his argument upon it is this, that if believers, by eating the bread and drinking the wine in the Lord's Supper, spiritually partake of Christ, of his body and of his blood, and have communion with him, then such who eat of things sacrificed unto idols have in so doing communion with them, and partake of the table of devils, and are guilty of idolatry, which he would have them avoid. So you can see the weight of that. Don't have communion with devils. In the Lord's Supper, you have communion with the triune God and you partake spiritually of the body and the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
So with all of that in view and with, of course, much unsaid, we are to obey Christ, we are to remember Christ, and we are to be nourished by Christ in the Lord's Supper.
Closing Prayer
Well, why don't I pray and then if there are any questions, you can ask away. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this time studying the wonderful blessing and command of the Lord's Supper. We thank you that you have given it to us as a perpetual remembrance and proclamation of the Lord's death till he comes again. And we thank you that by it, we are spiritually nourished, that we are increased and strengthened in our faith.
We do pray that you'd go with us into this forthcoming time of worship, May we worship you in spirit and in truth. Do help us wholeheartedly, whole soul, to approach you with reverence, with understanding, with godly fear, and with much faith that you might receive all glory in this place. And we pray in Christ's name, amen.
Questions and Answers
Any questions about anything related to the Lord's Supper? Yep, Leslie and then Jim. That would be largely one of the chief texts, yeah, 1 Corinthians 10. Is that the same issue of difference between the two?
Like just that verse? Or just that concept? Oh, that concept, yeah. The difference would be, it's kind of like they have half of the puzzle.
They've got the remembrance view, but they're lacking that spiritual nourishment view or it as an actual means of grace. So that, that would be the difference between the two views. Yeah. Yeah.
I did. Yeah. Yeah. Just briefly at the, at the beginning of the approaches.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, uh, we'll go silence in the name of this, um, other area.
Not that I know of. I think in my remembrance of a church that I used to go to, there are some charismatic churches that though they're marked by charismaticism and other things, and mystical things and other things, it would be, I know some hold to a memorial view. I think maybe IFB churches, like fundamental Baptist churches, I don't know, but I'd rather think all non-reformed churches. Yeah, that's a good observation.
But none specifically, but that's probably the case. Andy? No, there's not. There are churches that do it weekly.
There are churches like ours that do it monthly. There are churches that do it quarterly. I don't know of any that do it annually. Well, it's not a church, but the Jehovah's Witnesses do it annually.
But yeah, there's nothing in the scriptures. I think some would say the weight of the reality of the words as often as you do this But he says something like, Christ didn't say, as seldom as you do this, do this in remembrance of me. So some would say, Wheatley makes sense when you gather together for worship, because, hey, why would you not want to avail of spiritual nourishment from on high every week when you gather together as a church? But there are no express commands or express statements in scripture with regards to the frequency.
All right. Thanks, everybody.