Reverence, Regularity, and Elements (1 Cor. 11:17-34)

Communion as Sanctification in the Body of Christ

Just failed miserably at doing it, and almost there, thank you. Well, today, like I said, our message today is surrounding communion. Brothers and sisters, we just heard from the little ones talk about sanctification, and something that we've been talking about in our Bible studies, that sanctification, a lot of times, we see that totally and uniquely as an individualistic thing.

We see that as ourselves, and it is true. Ourselves should be coming more and more and more shaped to the image of Christ, molded to that which has saved us and redeemed us. This is very true. However, we also ought to be thinking about sanctification as a body of Christ, as a community of believers that have come together to worship Jesus.

In doing this, there's going to be things that we change or that we try to do differently in an attempt to worship God in a more pure and biblical sense. It's not saying that last week we were doing things 100 percent in error, it's that today we want to do things that are more and more biblical.

We want to be refined and reformed by the very fire of the word of God, and it should make us more pure in this sense, more to that which Christ has called us to do in our worship. So today's message, again, is going to be on communion.

We're going to be in, there's so many places that we could turn to with this, I would love to discuss with us. Let's start today's message in 1 Corinthians 11, and we're probably going to end today's message in here too.

1 Corinthians chapter 11, and we're just going to be looking at some things, considering some things, and going on from there. Now, let's go ahead and pray before we read, before we look at this text, before we consider things.

Let us pray. Lord God, I do thank you so much for the redeeming, effectual call that you have done in our lives as we come to know you, the one who has called us, the one who has justified us, the one that will glorify us.

Lord, we thank you for this. Lord, we ask today that the message would glorify you, that we would have a new found reverence and respect and desire to pledge the body and the blood of Christ. Lord God, as we looked at last week with the Christmas message and we considered how you are Emmanuel, God with us, Jesus, the word becoming flesh and tabernacling amongst us.

Lord God, let us consider what it means for the flesh to be broken and the blood to have been spilt. Lord God, let us do this in a way that we want to renew ourselves for this New Year's Eve. And we ask this in your name, Jesus, the Christ.

Amen. As I mentioned, there's so many places that we could go to for today's message to consider these things, to consider what communion is, what is the table? What is it that we are doing when we partake in the bread and in the wine?

So as mentioned last Sunday, we have a message on Jesus, the word becoming flesh. All that is God becoming all that is human and living for us, dying for us and arising again, truly God, truly man. And next week we are doing a message on specifically baptism in preparation for our dear sister in Christ, Lydia, who wants to take, who has the desire to take the new covenant sign that is baptism.

Brothers and sisters, I would ask you today, if you haven't been baptized and you have that same desire, we will have water to do that with. So please come talk with me and we will see what we can do about that.

But next Sunday we will have that particular moment for that day. But with the topic of that sign of the new covenant, when we talk about the sign, it's so important to also talk about the meal of the new covenant.

In the old Testament, in the old covenants, we had a sign of the covenants and we had a meal of the covenants. And the sign in the old covenant was circumcision. And what was the meal? It's Passover. It was this taking and eating that, which was the remembering of the sacrifice that was to save yourself and your children from that day in Egypt, the remembering of God bringing you out of captivity and bringing you into a promised land.

Brothers and sisters, what do we do when we take of the table? We remember in the form of a meal, Christ redeeming us from slavery and taking us from an evil corrupt generation and placing us in the heavenly places, the promised land.

It's this continuity and discontinuity that we have between the old covenant and the new covenant. The new covenant has a sign and it has a meal. The sign being baptism, the meal being the Lord's table.

And so let's go ahead and read over this again. The reason that we wanted to talk about these things today is that the elders of Valley Baptist have been very convicted by scripture to introduce some changes in the way of function at our wonderful church.

And brothers and sisters at New Year's Eve, what is the common thing that we as a nation, as people around the world try to do? Set goals, try to change, try to make ourselves better for the next year.

And so that's what we're trying to do here as a church. 2024 is set goals, set ways to make us be better at proclaiming the life, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. So again, this message today comes with humility and I would ask that it would be received in reverence and readiness to reform our actions, to line up with God's word.

So let's go ahead and read over this real fast and consider some things. So we'll be in first Corinthians chapter 11, verse 23 and on. And we're reading a plethora of texts today. For I receive from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus, the night in which he was betrayed, took bread.

And when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, this is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me. In the same way, he took the cup also after supper saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood.

Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes. Let's, let's go ahead and, and pray just specifically over this text.

We're going to be looking, like I said, multitude of verses today. Let's pray. Lord God, I thank you for what we have here in this short portion of scripture, this, this important, explicit portion of scripture.

May we hold it true. May we revere it for what it says and what it does in the hearts of those that believe in you. God, may we remember that bread that was broke for us. May we remember the blood of the covenant.

Lord, may we remember these things today, even in the partaking of the elements that we have before us set before us this morning. God, I ask this in the holiest name, Jesus, the Christ that saves. Amen.

The Regulative Principle and Worship by God's Command

So brothers and sisters, there, there's, there's a multitude of things that we have to discuss when it comes to communion and worship to God in general. There's two types of ideas when we talk about worship in the corporate, in the community setting, like we're in right now in church.

There's two forms of worship that people will argue for. That's either the regulative principle or the normative principle. And these might be new words for you. And that's totally understandable. The regulative principle is the teaching that we are to worship God in the only manners that God has commanded us to do so.

Meaning that we should not go beyond that, which God has told us to do. So we should worship him by prayer, by Psalms, by hymns, by fellowship, that which God has commanded us in his word to worship him as that's how we are to do it.

And we're not to go beyond it. That's the regulative principle. The normative principle is the teaching that we can worship God in every way, except the ways he tells us not to. So meaning that we cannot worship God with idols because there is no other God before him and so on.

But that teaching would be, well, it doesn't say anything about smoke machines in the church. We should put in smoked machines. It doesn't say anything about driving cars in the Bible. And so therefore we can drive cars to the glory of God.

And because that's the case, maybe instead of meeting at a church to worship God, we can go meet at the track and rally around this track, lap after lap after lap for the Lord's day service instead, because the Bible doesn't command us not to do such.

That is the normative principle. I believe that both in the regulative and the normative, there is some value to have. And I would personally argue that worship in the normative is to be done in our personal lives.

Brothers and sisters, the Bible doesn't talk about cars, but we know that we can glorify and worship God in all that we do. So can we drive a vehicle to the glory of God? I would say absolutely. And you ought to do that.

If you can do that in a clear conscience, you should go and glorify God by driving a car. But should we bring that principle of you being able to worship God by driving a car into the Lord's day service?

I would say absolutely not. There's a special uniqueness that comes about in the way that we worship God on a Sunday on the Lord's day. I would argue for worship on the Lord's day in the church setting ought to be done according to the regulative principle, meaning that our communion, our prayer, the Psalms that we sing, if we can worship God by these things, which God has told us to do, we should not compromise in those things, but we should follow those things.

And this is built upon the principle, brothers and sisters, that stems directly from the message from this last Sunday. Is Jesus God in flesh? Yes, he is. If he is God in flesh, should we hold onto every single word that he tells us to worship him as and do such?

Yes, we should. When we talk about communion, brothers and sisters, we need to, we need to think about this very biblically. I want you to think about the very night that Christ was betrayed. I want you to put yourself in at that table.

You can smell the lamb. You can smell the bread that was freshly baked. You can smell the wine and the pugnacious that is wine. You can smell it all. You're there at the table with Christ. Would you take his words seriously?

Would you listen to the words or would you say, how that doesn't really mean what you said it to me? We don't really need to do what he asked us to do in this time. Exactly. You're there with Christ. You see him die within 24 hours of that period.

And then in four days period, you see him rise again from the grave. Would you cast the words that he said to you that night to the wayside in lieu of some other worldly concept that teaches our communion?

I would hope that you would say, no, we should be doing exactly what Christ has commanded us to do because he is God in flesh. He rose from the grave. It's a severe thing. It's a, it's an important thing that he told us to do.

What does he say to do? We see in both Matthew, Mark and Luke, he says, I will drink this anew with you in my father's kingdom. What we do here today at the, at the table is so important that we will be doing this with Christ in his father's kingdom.

When we talk about communion, there's two arguments. There's two sides of this that we need to discuss and that's the opinion of closed communion versus open communion. Closed communion is the teaching that only those that are members that have been voted in by the congregation, those that have a uniqueness and have been identified in the church are allowed to take communion.

This is an attempt, and I, and I'll be honest, I'm not for closed communion. Let me be very clear in this. Closed communion is an attempt to try to protect the unity of the body and to protect with the most holiness, the reverence that is to be the Lord's table.

And it's understandable when we understand that it's trying to protect those things, it's understandable why somebody would come to the conclusion of closed communion. On the other side of pun intended, the table, we have what's called open communion.

Open communion is the teaching that we put the table, the plate in the back. You take it whenever you want. You can take it home to your grandma, your grandpa. You can do it at home. In fact, if you watch online, you just bless it yourself and you take it yourself open.

There's no accountability with it. That's the two sides of the table closed or open. I think that there is a happy in between that I would call close. Hmm. Meaning that while it is understood that it is the individual that is to search their hearts and it is the due diligence of the officers that are administrating the cup of the new covenant to hold accountability with those that they are shepherding.

Example, brothers and sisters, and we can think of this, and this is a, this is a very potential action that might take place someday in Valley Baptist. If somebody was coming into our church in a service like today, I hope that you see it today.

Every Sunday, there's a call to repent and believe in the gospel. And so anybody is welcome to come in. And I invite people to come in all the time to our church and to hear the gospel message. But what happens when I talk or you talk to the drag queen telling them, come to church, repent and believe in the gospel and they actually take you up on that.

They actually come to church, but they're dressed in drag. I've had members of the LGBT threatened to do such for us as a church. Should that person be given and allowed to partake in the bread and the wine?

Somebody that is openly blaspheming God, one that is openly rebelling and in his sin, everyone can see it. Everyone can know it. Should that individual take communion? Should the officers of this church, the elders, the ones that are responsible for administrating that meal, just as when we talk about Lydia being baptized next Sunday, the officers, the elders are the ones that are responsible for administrating that sign of the covenant.

If Lydia wasn't a true believer, would it be a good thing if we baptized her? No, it's the due diligence of the officers. Lydia has faith. Therefore we say it's okay to baptize. Likewise, communion should be held in that same respect that we understand that it's, again, it's the internal person seeking out their heart, knowing if they are saved or not, and they're welcome.

They're invited. They're asked to come and partake at the table, the same very bread and the wine that everyone else takes in. But in such a case, I promise you this brothers and sisters, no elder of this church would ever karate chop the bread out of somebody's hand.

We would not see that take place. However, before the service, we would make sure to go and talk to that drag queen and say, you are to refrain from taking this because this is particularly meant for only believers.

And we would want it to be a call to believe in the gospel. There's three things I want to discuss today when we talk about communion. I want to talk about reverence. I want to talk about regularity, and I want to talk about the elements themselves.

The New Covenant Meal and the Sign of Baptism

For the reverence, I want to make reference. Let's just go read this actually. Jeremiah 31, 31 through 34. Jeremiah 31, 31 through 34. Reverence, regularity, and elements. We're coming into a new year.

Let's make new year's resolutions that are making us sanctified and being conformed to the very image of Christ. Jeremiah 31, 31 through 34. You've been attending our Bible studies. You know that this has been a on the record repeat verse that we've read for many, many months, even in the time of the book of Hebrews, which is where it says that this covenant has taken place through the blood of Christ, the blood of the covenant.

This is what we're talking about right here. Behold, days are coming declares Yahweh. When I will cut a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I cut with their fathers in the day, I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant, which they broke, but I was a husband to them declares Yahweh.

But this is the covenant, which I will cut with the house of Israel after those days declares Yahweh. I will put my law within them and on their heart, I will write it and I will be their God and they shall be my people.

And they shall not teach again each man, his neighbor and each man, his brother saying, no Yahweh, for they shall all know me from the least two of them to the greatest of them declares Yahweh for, I will forgive their iniquities and their sins.

I will remember no more. This is the covenant of grace. This is the new covenant. The cutting of this covenant took place at the death of Christ. When that blood was spilt is when this covenant was instituted.

Brothers and sisters in the old covenant who received the sign of circumcision, those that were born into the covenant, those that were born as children of Abraham received circumcision as a sign of that covenant with Abraham, who ate the meal, those that were a part of the covenant.

When we look at the new covenant, when we look at the covenant actually forgives our sins where sins are remembered no more and transgressions are forgiven. Who are the ones that are to receive the sign and the meal, the very meal that Christ himself instituted that night when he was betrayed.

Believers, members of the covenant. This is the continuity between the old and the new. It's to the members alone. Brothers and sisters, did you hear in this in verse 34, I will forgive their sins and I remember their iniquities no more.

If you believe in Christ and you think you are a part of this covenant, take and eat the communion, take and eat that which Christ has told you to do. How are you to do it with as much reverence, with as much intentionality, with as much seeking out of your own soul as possibly can be done.

Churches today do communion haphazardly. There's no care for it. There's no desire to want to do it often. It is just another thing to do that is wrong. Brothers and sisters, just as we have come here today to sing worship to our Lord and God, I hope that you do that with intention and believing in Christ as your Lord and savior, that you're not just doing it to do it, that you're not just doing it for it to be pretty, that you're not just doing it for tradition.

But you're doing it for the purpose to glorify God. Why do you take the table? To do it in the remembrance of Christ, to be obedient to him, to be covenant members. There's a reverence that is to be done in the meal of communion.

Now the next question, regularity, Matthew 26, 29, but I say do not drink this fruit of the vine from now on until the day when I drink it anew with you in my father's kingdom. I will be completely upfront with you about this.

There is no where in God's word where it tells us that we must do communion weekly. There is not. These are the objections. Doing communion on a weekly basis is not said in the Bible. There's no explicit command for such.

And if we do communion weekly, it will become traditional and not intentional. I want to refute this thinking in two things. Show me in the Bible where it says that we are to preach the gospel every single Sunday in those words.

Show me in God's word where it says to sing songs, to pray with one another every single Sunday. And I'll tell you, it's not there. It does not say it in those explicit terms. Should we have that, then that therefore that same reasoning for why we wouldn't do communion on every single Lord's day on anything else that we do every single Sunday?

No, that that's not a good reason to say such. And number two, if it will be traditional and not intentional, I'd say the exact same thing, brothers and sisters. Do you hear the gospel preached every single Sunday?

Is there a danger of it becoming more traditional and not intentional? Yes. That is not the message's fault. That is not the song's fault. That is not the prayer's fault. That is your fault if it has become traditional, not intentional.

This is something that each one of us have to be careful about at saying, I'm coming to worship the Lord. I'm not coming here because it's a habit. I'm coming here with intention to hear the gospel preached, the word proclaimed, the good news herald and prayers and communion and worship should take place.

So it's not a matter of something not becoming special anymore. It's because we have neglected to make it special. So regularity should be a frequency that is dictated by the church and brothers and sisters.

Rick and I would be under the assumption that we should do this weekly. And I want to be very clear in saying this. I want to repent to you right now for this. I have failed at this myself by saying that communion should be done once every month or once every two months.

I have neglected to make it special in my own life and in the life of you, Valley Baptist. And I'm sorry for that. Rick and I will talk about it on a Sunday. We'll say, we'll do communion next Sunday.

I'll see him on Wednesday. I'll say, we'll say we'll do communion next Sunday. And guess what Brayden Patterson forgets to do on Sunday. We don't take of the table. We can see how the error of saying that I don't want to make something not special can make something not special in of itself because infrequency will create that weekly observance is exactly what the early church did.

There's an, uh, there's a, there's a false idea that the week the early church didn't do a weekly communion. That is false. In fact, in the Roman Catholic church is where they started to teach infrequent use of communion, that communion itself be held as special.

So therefore we should start withholding it from people. The wine, the wine that would be carried down the middle of the floor is to be given. It would be spilt sometimes. So therefore we may need to meet, we need to make the priest eat and drink the wine off the floor and we should not pass it around anymore because there's a chance of spilling the wine.

So then it became infrequent and then it was being held from everybody during the days of the reformation. One of the reasons that we see it explode, the doctrines that are the five solas, one of the reasons we see it explode is because those Protestants churches were doing what communion every Sunday and the church, the believing church was neglected and didn't receive those signs and that mill and so they flocked to the Protestant churches.

They wanted to partake in that which Christ told them to partake in. This is a serious thing that we should consider church. The third thing I want to talk about, so we brothers and sisters, the way that we're going to be refining and reforming ourselves this year is that we want to have specific reverence for the table.

We want to have a specific regularity for the table. We want also to consider the elements for the table. Let's turn back to first Corinthians 11 on your way there. Just stop with me in Mark chapter 14, Mark chapter 14.

Bread and Wine in the Institution of Communion

Again, the very night that Christ Jesus himself would be betrayed by Judas, the very same night that all the high priests that were working against our Lord would come together and start doing this. This is what Jesus instituted to you and I to proclaim his death, burial and resurrection.

Verse 22 and on it says, and while they were eating, he took some bread and after it, after a blessing, he broke it and gave it to them and said, take this is my body, take it. This is my body. And when he had drinking or when he had taken a cup and given thanks, he gave it to them and they all drank from it.

And he said to them, this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many. Truly I say to you, I will never drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it anew in the kingdom of God.

And after singing a hymn, they went out of to the Mount of Olives and we could keep on reading. And it talks to them about the prophecy of every sheep going astray, just like we see with the 12 apostles running away after Christ is crucified.

Brothers and sisters, I asked you earlier to put yourself in those shoes of the disciples in that day and hearing the words of Christ. Here's the bread, break it. Here's the wine, drink it. We live in a culture today that has disregarded the words of Christ in such a way, in such a way that I would fear that many Christians would sit in that room with Christ and say, Lord, no, it's not grape juice.

I'm not going to drink the wine, Jesus. There could be drunkards in this room. What a weak church that we live in in the 21st century. What a malnourished church that we are a part of as a whole in the universal body of Christ that has started to have this view in communion.

Brothers and sisters, let's look here at 1 Corinthians 11 again. What are the elements that Christ himself implemented there at that night? Bread and wine. When my wife and I started doing communion here, when we started to first come here, we started to try to make the bread as biblical as we possibly could.

I don't know if some people in here might like it. Some of us might not. It's this dry, it makes your mouth just absorbs all the liquid in it and it's this non-unleavened bread that would have been pine piece era correct.

That's what we were trying to do, was trying to be as correct with the bread as we possibly could. That's what we're talking about now. The wine. What is the fruit of the vine? Let's look here at verse 17 to 22 of chapter 11 of 1 Corinthians 11, but in giving instruction.

So this is an instructional thing from Paul. I do not praise you because you come together not for the better, but for the worse. So this is a church, the Corinthian church is being rebuked in the way they're handling communion.

Very first century, the Corinthian church has messed up. For in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that division exists among you. And in part, I believe it for there must be also factions among you so that those who are approved may become evident among all.

Therefore when you meet together in the same place, it is not to eat the Lord's supper. For in eating each one takes his own supper first and the one goes hungry and another is drunk. For do you not have houses in which to eat and drink?

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 will not praise you. Brothers and sisters, Paul is saying, has the Corinthian church taken communion into their own hands to make it into what they desired it to be?

Yes. The men and the women, they were coming with their own food and they were eating and they were getting full while others went without. They were bringing in the wine and they were getting drunk off the wine instead of celebrating the blood of Christ that was spilt for them.

They took communion into their own hands. And what did they do that we see all believers throughout all times do when they take the command of God and they put it in their own hands to make it into the way that they want it to be?

Idolatry, sin, and blasphemous to what Christ first said it was to be. There's an interesting thing, brothers and sisters, in the year of 1869 there was a man named Dr. Welch who created grape juice. And you want to know why he created grape juice?

He created grape juice because he believed that no Christian should ever drink alcohol. He believed that no Christian should ever drink wine. And therefore he thought it was inappropriate that in wine is what we are celebrating the blood of Christ.

That's how the invention of grape juice came about. Brothers and sisters, what was the command for 1869 years prior to the invention of grape juice? Wine. What was the church using for 1800 years to commemorate and to pledge allegiance that is to Christ?

What were they using? Wine. Does the Bible say to get drunk off this wine? Absolutely not. Not to be a drunkard. First Corinthians chapter six rebukes the drunkard. But what were they to celebrate the death of Christ with?

Bread and wine. The immediate objection, and I'm just going to put this up front. Dr. Welch and the great invention that is pasteurization of grape juice was done in a idolatrous, blasphemous, steering away from the word of God.

Is grape juice delicious? Absolutely. It's wonderful. Love it. My kids love it. Is it a bad invention? No. But if the invention and the purpose is to take wine out of communion, we have done no better than the first Corinthian church.

Immediately the objections can be heard in our minds and in our thoughts. Well, how, Braden, the idea of grape juice is what happens if there's a drunkard in the house today? Isn't it not a stumbling block for them?

Brothers and sisters, for 1800 years, there existed drunkards in the church that were invited to do what? Drink the wine. Don't get drunk on it. Don't drink the wine. 1800 years. In the first Corinthian church, drunkards are rebuked.

And they said, the drunkard will not inherit the kingdom of God, but you've been washed. You've been sanctified. Meaning the drunkard has now come to a newness in life and they should be able to sit in a church and hear the gospel preach, knowing that their chains of addiction have been broken through Christ himself.

Therefore, I will drink the wine in freedom without addiction. Brothers and sisters, this is the, this is the importance of communion. We are to have reverence. We are to have regularity and we are to be obedient to the elements that Christ Jesus himself told us to be obedient to.

Put yourself back in those shoes of the early church, the apostles there when they heard those commands from Christ Jesus himself and think to yourself, would any of us have the gall to say, Jesus, that's not grape juice.

I'm not drinking it immediately. Our minds would think, Peter, stop saying that silly stuff. Your whole body has needed to be washed. Why are you saying that? I'm not allowed to wash your feet like what happened at that table.

That is the pride of man that is getting in our ways. When we consider these things, should any of us be drunkards? Absolutely not. The drunkard will not inherit the kingdom of God, repent and believe in the gospel, but is wine to be used for communion?

Yes. There's no doubt in my mind that that is what God has commanded us to do. That's what the church used for 1800 years. Use, use wine for communion for I receive from the Lord. Look at this with me in verse 23, for I received from the Lord that which I deliver to you was Paul in the room when he heard the words of Christ that night, he wasn't, he was persecuting the church that night.

And he's saying, I received this from the Lord, meaning that Paul himself in the church services and the revealing of the grace of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, he's saying this command was given to him in that same means that we are receiving it today.

Take the bread and drink the wine. Why would we do this? Because the Lord commanded it. He delivered it to us. And the Lord Jesus in the night, when he took, when in which he was being betrayed, took bread and which he had given thanks, he broke it and said, this is my body, which is for you do this in remembrance of me in the same way.

He took the cup also after saying, this is the cup of the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink of it in remembrance of me for as often as you eat this and eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes.

What day is particular for us as Christians that we celebrate the death, burial and resurrection of Christ the day that we proclaim it. It is the Lord's day that we celebrate these things. It is the day where we gather for hymns, songs, and prayer.

And for the hearing and the preaching and the teaching of his word, what day should the day be that we do communion? The same day. Is it not a reasonable thing to say that the command for us to eat the bread of that day is to remind us of the bread that came from heaven, the bread that was broken for you and I, is it not a reasonable thing to think that the fruit of the vine, which is why it's in man's heart and was traditionally used in guess what ceremony, engagement and marriage.

What does Christ himself say when he institutes this blood of the covenant? I will not drink this till with you until it is a new in my father's kingdom engagement and marriage every day, every Sunday, every Lord's day that we meet together and we proclaim the gospel and we take communion.

What are we proclaiming to the world that we're his bride, that we long for the day that Christ Jesus will come again and will renew us fully and we'll be glorified. Therefore, what type of obedience should we be doing?

Should we drink Oreos and milk on a Sunday? Brothers and sisters, if you were stranded on an island and all you had access to was Oreos and milk, I would put it forth that that would probably be the acceptable means to do communion.

But in a day where you can go and buy Oreos or wine at the grocery store, what is the preferred thing to do? So be obedient to Christ or to drink grape juice. It's to be obedient to Christ. That's the reason that we have seen it necessary to have reverence, to have regularity and to have the element of wine for us even today on the Lord's day.

Now in doing this, I want to just be quick in saying this, brothers and sisters, we know this is a challenging topic. We know this is one that is debated in every church across the United States today.

And Rick and I would love to talk with us. If we have any questions about this today, please come talk to us. But today what we have as an option, since this is completely new, this is completely put forth, we don't want to have something bind your conscience in a way that would hurt you.

And so we have grape juice and wine today. We have enough for the whole room in here for both elements, both grape juice and wine. There will be a day in February where we stop doing grape juice though.