The Lord's Supper in Your Heart — Danny Bond

The Neglect and Importance of the Lord's Table

Why do I start here today? Because of the pandemic neglect of of the Lord's table among Christians today. Notice that on purpose. I did not use the word epidemic. Epidemic is a big problem. Pandemic is epidemic multiplied for some reason today Christians just flat-out ignore the Lord's table as I read my Bible.

That's not an option Unless I want to live on the bottom end of the Christian life and so I have a great concern that Christians neglect the Lord's table and Only the Bible can show you its importance and that's why we're going to the Bible today.

And then we're going to come to the Lord's table. Thomas Guthrie back in the days of the great Puritans who were Redwood Giants in the faith. He said this if you find yourself loving any pleasure more than your prayers.

Any book better than the Bible. Any house better than the Lord's house? Any table better than the Lord's table? Any person more than Christ or any indulgence better than the hope of heaven? You have a great need to be alarmed.

Good words. Those are very good words. Far too many people love far too many things more than they love Jesus Christ today. There in your Bible take your Bible and turn it to 1st Corinthians chapter 11 to verse 23.

Paul’s Institution of the Lord’s Supper

The fact that 1st Corinthians 11 23 24 and 25 26 is here is a miracle all by itself. Paul the Apostle Before he was converted as Saul. He did not know Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ himself converted him on the Damascus Road by appearing to him personally.

So that what Paul writes here he writes because Jesus Christ came to him and showed it to him. Paul was not at the Last Supper. So when you read these words and some Bibles have it in red because it's the words of Jesus know that it was so important That the Lord Jesus Christ Gave him these words after he had risen from the dead so he writes to the Corinthians who were abusing the Lord's table and Communion and he says this verse 23 for I Received from the Lord there it is.

I received from the Lord That which I also delivered to you. He had already taught them on this but by now in a short time They're already abusing it. So he's got to take them back through it. I Received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you.

That the Lord Jesus on the same night in which he was betrayed Took bread and When he had given thanks, he broke it and said take eat. This is my body which is broken for you do this in What does it say?

Remembrance of me in the same manner. He also took the cup after the 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 in the last sentence in verse 25.

You have the word often in Verse 26 you have the word often for as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup. You proclaim the Lord's death until he comes so On the one hand you're to remember the cross on the other hand as you gather together and come to the Lord's table and partake Of communion with the Lord.

You're also looking forward To the second coming of Jesus Christ. So that is to be on your mind as well. The one who gave this command is the very one who went to the cross and died and he's the very one who's coming back.

So as often as you do this you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. It is in a sense the gospel in very simple form. You proclaim the Lord's death when you hold the cup and the bread. It's all about the gospel the cross and You do it until he comes back now.

The Lord’s Supper and Christ Our Passover

I want to talk about a few things in the Bible as it relates to the Lord's Supper and One is that there is a link in the Lord's Supper. The Eucharist communion whatever name you use for it to the Passover in the Old Testament.

You know that when they were taking the when they had the Last Supper with Jesus Christ He was keeping the Passover. It was the Jewish Passover meal. They were having he turned it in to the Lord's Supper.

He changed it because he was the fulfillment. So I want to show you there's a link to the Passover in the Old Testament to Christ who is our Passover now. That's the first thing then I want to show you there is a link to our minds involved when we come to the Lord's table.

Very directly then there's a link to our hearts and that's why we come. Let's talk about the link to our Passover. Turn your Bible to 1st Corinthians 5 7. 1st Corinthians 5 7. Paul writes to them and he says therefore Purge out the old leaven.

He's using Passover language from the Old Testament here. Therefore purge out the old leaven that you may be a new lump. Since you are truly unleavened for indeed Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us so there is the language of the leaven in the Old Testament, which they had to Clean out of their houses before they took the Passover every little tiny bit of leaven they had to get it out and That was a symbolic of sin.

Examining their lives before they came to the Passover and then he says right here indeed Christ our Passover He fulfilled all the types of the Passover. He is our Passover. He was sacrificed for us. So in him we can have an unleavened life.

He has forgiven the sin in our life and he can by his Holy Spirit Sanctify us and get practically speaking get the sin out of our lives as we walk with him. So here is a link right here in 1st Corinthians 5 7.

Passover, Remembrance, and the Lord’s Command

Now to understand then how important the Lord's table is in the New Testament. Because so many Christians today see no importance in it whatsoever. You can announce communion and people will just flat-out not come.

To understand the importance of it I want to take you to the Passover in the Old Testament because Christ took the Passover and turned it into the Lord's Supper. So let's find out how important it was in the Old Testament to keep the Passover and then we'll understand how important it is in The New Testament to keep the Lord's Supper.

Turn your Bible to Exodus chapter 12 to verse 14. Exodus 12 14 the Passover if you're not familiar with it is that night before they left Egypt. When the death angel came through Egypt and God commanded them to put the blood of the lamb on their doorpost and Those that had the blood of the lamb on the doorposts of their house on each side and up above which would have formed a cross.

Each one that had the blood of the lamb on the doorpost the death angel would pass by that household and they would live. He passed over them and they did not die very much symbolic of God and the blood of Christ applying to us and him passing over that we might live then they ate the Passover the meal there and they ate it dressed and ready to go and Then they fled from Egypt, but first they had that meal.

So forever after when they had the Passover meal. It was to commemorate that meal they had before God delivered them from all their bondage from the devil and everything else they had in Egypt and They did that all the way up until the Last Supper when Christ Fulfilled all the types and then changed it.

So Exodus 12 14 They're at Mount Sinai. They're Instituting now God has given them the law to keep the Passover meal. So we read so this day Shall be to you a memorial. What is memorial have to do with your memory?

Very good a memorial and You shall keep it as a feast to the Lord throughout your generations. You shall keep it as a feast by an everlasting Ordinance it will last all the way through until Christ comes and fulfills it all.

Verse 15 says seven days. You shall eat unleavened bread on the first day. You shall remove leaven from your houses. So you go through and sweep it all out. There'd be none in any place. For whoever eats unleavened bread from the first day to the seventh day.

That person shall be cut off from Israel on The first day there shall be a holy convocation and on the seventh day there shall be a holy convocation for you. No manner of work shall be done on them. But that which everyone must eat that only shall be prepared for you.

So they were to stop everything and just meditate on the Lord himself and Examine their lives for 17. So you shall observe the feast of unleavened bread. That's the way you will do it from the same day I will have brought your armies out of the land of Egypt.

Therefore you shall observe this day throughout your generations as an everlasting ordinance. Now we come to the New Testament and Paul brings all of that over to the New Testament and He says as we already read in 1st Corinthians 5 7 therefore then purge out the old leaven.

The you may be a new lump since you are truly unleavened for indeed Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us and in 1st Corinthians 5 8 Can you go back there? 1st Corinthians 5 8 He says therefore. Therefore let us.

What does it say keep the feast? The Lord's Supper. Therefore let us keep the feast not with old leaven. Nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness. He's directly using Say leaven as it was a symbol of in the Old Testament sin.

He's using that term really to talk about sin not with old leaven nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of Sincerity and truth. See the Corinthians were a mess they were coming to the Lord's Supper and They would bring the wine.

They would drink of the cup and they would drink it and drink it until they were drunk. They were getting drunk. They had turned the Lord's Supper into a wild bash, you know. So they just drink it all down until they were drunk.

They're coming without examining their lives. I mean the Corinthian Church was seething with carnality and one of the big reasons was They had completely disregarded the Lord's table. It was to be at the center of their life and what was at the center of their life was desecrated with sin.

So he's having to to cleanse their whole way of thinking about it. Really bring them to repentance about it and get them back on track with it. And so he says we should keep the feast or the Lord's table with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

The Passover as a Pattern for the Lord’s Supper

Okay in the Old Testament then You find that God put great emphasis on the Passover. He gave it to them with great detail on the night of the Last Supper. Jesus was very very serious when he said do this in remembrance of me from now on your Passover meal is not about what happened in Egypt and the deliverance that you got from Pharaoh who was a type of Satan and sin.

It's going to be about your deliverance from sin that I'm going to bring you by Going to the cross and shedding my blood for you. And so he passed around the cup it took on new meaning and the bread and it took on new meaning and it all was about his cross.

So very important. So you find the importance of Passover from God's perspective, but there are also similarities by God's design. There are similarities by God's design. Why do I want to point out the similarities.

Because. A close examination of the similarity shows the gravity of the issue the gravity of the issue. See, there's the same equality of reasons that believers under the gospel should receive the Lord's Supper as that of the Israelites under the law receiving the Passover meal.

Their duty was important. God commanded it and he was serious about it. In Fact follow this if you neglected The Passover and you didn't have a good reason like being out of town or being unclean. It brought about a reaction from God an actual reaction from God.

So that God commanded them this. I'll read it to you from numbers 9 13. But the man who is clean. The man who is clean and not on a journey. If he ceases to keep the Passover. That same person shall be cut off from among his people.

Because he did not bring the offering of the Lord at its appointed time. That man shall bear his Sin, what an interesting thing. If they refused to keep the Passover when God had commanded them to keep the Passover God saw it as a sin if God commands you to do something and you don't do it, what do we call that a sin that is Basic Christianity 101 that's as simple as it gets.

When God commands you to do something if you don't do it, it's a sin and yet how we tend to pick and choose with that principle. Because we're saved by grace. It is amazing to me how Fast and loose we play with the Bible in these days and the things that are important to the Lord.

So that there was guilt contracted by neglecting to obey the command of the Lord to keep the Passover. Do you think that God? Having commanded in Christ. For us to keep the Lord's table and to do it often.

They did it once a year. He commanded us to do it often. He didn't say every Saturday. He didn't say every Wednesday. He was gracious. He just said do it often. Do you think he sees? That as more important or less important than the Passover.

Both speak of the same thing the deliverance that God brought about but what was the greater deliverance? Was it going through the Red Sea and getting away from Pharaoh in Egypt to go to the Promised Land or was it being?

Delivered from the eternal hell that it awaits every unsaved individual. Covered not then covered by the blood of Christ. Is that the greater deliverance and then having a new life in the risen Christ?

What is the greater deliverance? Christ his cross his resurrection and your life in him. That is the greater deliverance. So which do you think is more important just on the pages of the Bible? Lord's Supper.

It's far more important but both were important to God both came from God. So there is a link to the Passover in the Old Testament to our Passover in the New Testament, which is the Lord's Supper and There we thank God that he has passed over our sins because we're covered in the blood of Jesus.

Remembering Christ Through the Lord’s Supper

Now, let's go a little farther. There is a link in the Lord's Supper to our minds and I thank God for this link because my mind Needs all the help it can get as it relates to my relationship to Jesus Christ.

I don't know about you. But my mind he's all the help they can get in fact God has spoken to me and given me a word about some of you and I would like to see you after no. I'm just kidding. But you see there's a link to our minds and and it's found in a very clear command.

Do this often in remembrance of me. That's a very clear command. You might say well, how seriously is it commanded? I've been trying to show you that it is a plain injunction. That we should do this in remembrance of him now in Luke 22 19.

The whole of it is commanded. He says do this all of it in remembrance of me in Matthew 26 and 27 the particular acts the cup and the bread Commanded the details of it take eat drink. So there it is. It is a very clear command.

Can you as a Christian? Read that and Say I see it do this often in remembrance of me, but I'm not going to do it. The answer is no. Let me ask you a question. How many here pray just do this? Why do you pray?

Where'd you get that idea? Well, well in the Bible the Lord tells us to pray. He says ask seek knock ask. The Greek is ask asking knock knocking. Seek seeking. In other words keep on seeking and asking and knocking.

We pray because he tells us to. And he tells us that there's a benefit in praying. Well, if you obey the Lord in that do you obey the Lord and everything else? He tells you to do understanding that there's the same kind of benefit.

I don't know what it is about the Lord's table that Jesus commands it very clearly and People just don't do it. I would wager That if you were to gather together every Christian around here. You could find and get us all in one place and do a poll and say how many of here how many of you here?

I've ever Taken a vow that you're never going to come to the Lord's table. I Would never do that Jesus said and they could quote it to you. I guarantee you Jesus said do it often in remembrance of me.

I would never say that I wouldn't come. But they don't ever come. So you see you may never say that. But if overall you never do it, it's just as bad as a clear command. Christ gave a clear command. Why.

Because he knows how quickly we forget him. His cross and all the benefits. He knows how quickly we forget. You know what happens to us. We forget his great work in our lives. We do. Turn your Bible to Psalm 106.

Verse 13. Psalm 106 13 Speaking of the children of Israel. These people who saw all the miracles in Egypt. So the miracle can you imagine they walked across the Red Sea on dry land? They saw walls of water up on either side.

These people it says of these people Psalm 106 13. They soon forgot his works and they did not wait for his counsel. In verse 14 Psalm 106 it says. But lusted exceedingly in the wilderness and tested God in the desert.

Did he get did they get a reaction from God? Oh, yes. You always get a reaction from God. It's a relationship. We're in here. This isn't religion. This is a relationship with the Living God. You always get a reaction from God.

He gave them their request and he sent what does it say? The leanness into their souls. If you ever take an inventory of your life and find you have leanness in your soul is for a reason. Because Jesus said I've come that you might have life and that more.

What? Abundantly. Leanness sometimes God will give you what you want in your rebellion and It's to send leanness to your souls because you will not obey him and what he wants for you. He sent leanness into their soul.

Look down at verse 21. They forgot God their Savior Who had done great things in Egypt. So when it says they soon forgot his works. It's talking about his saving works and we have the same problem. We soon forget his saving works in our lives.

We're too apt to forget his saving works in Jeremiah 232 you know where Jeremiah is if you do turn there if you don't. Just hold yourself in a pause and I'll read it to you. But this is worth marking in your Bible.

If I didn't know this verse, I would certainly Turn the page down and Make it so I could find it again. Jeremiah 232. Can a virgin forget her ornaments God says or a bride her attire. Yet my people have forgotten me days without number.

God's heart is broken and grieved that his people after he's Bestowed and lavish so much love on them would forget him. Days without number. Not it doesn't say yet. My people forgot me that time. But my people have forgotten me days without number.

Spiritual Indifference, Apathy, and Mechanical Religion

You know what it is. We have a problem of indifference stealing over our souls. D Martin Lloyd-jones Used to say it all the time. If you if you read his writings if you have a chance to get a hold of his tapes, he's in heaven now.

But he has a way of always reminding you that there's a devil. If you hear him preach or you read his books, he's always saying may I remind you my friend? There is a devil. Because we tend to take one of two approaches with a devil we think about him way too much and we give him way too much credit or we don't think about him at all and All we see is the people around us or the circumstances.

May I remind you my friends that there is a devil and That a lot of what happens in terms of forgetting being distracted being preoccupied with everything. But Jesus has to do with the fact there is a devil and we all have a problem with indifference stealing over us.

So that you find yourself. Oh, you'll you'll pray you don't give up private prayer. It's just that it becomes a ritual. Lord, I'm here. Good morning. How are you? And Lord Please bless me now and we tend to flip out our need list, you know.

It's a mile long. Hi Lord. Good morning. Please help me. Oh god. Help me. Oh god. Help me here. Oh god. Help me, please. Oh god. Oh god. Oh god. Oh god. Oh god. Oh god. Oh, you're so good Lord gotta go to work.

See ya, and so often our prayer is like that just because mechanical like that Rather than just sitting Waiting upon the Lord. What I'm just here. When was the last time you just said Lord, I'm just here.

But I'm here to sit in your presence. Whatever you want to do in this time. I'm just here. Be still and know that I am God. I read that in your book Lord. So I'm here to be still I want to know that you're God in any way that you want to make that manifest to me but we will so we won't give up private prayer, but we'll let it become a mechanical operation and Very often we won't stop going to church.

But when we're in church, all that we bring is our body. Just our body. Bodily presence and our hearts and our minds are a million miles away it becomes a thing of indifference and it's even worse I think when it comes to the Lord's table because so many just ignore it completely and Then even if you can Share a few scriptures and get them to see the importance.

They'll come but they'll be indifferent. I know that My God is a living God and in our active God and his name is love. I cannot obey even one of his commands without him reacting and working in my life.

I know that. So I don't want to forget his great work in my life. God knows the tendency. I have to forget his great work and of Saving me and all the benefits of knowing him turn in your Bible to Psalm 103 verse 2.

Psalm 103 verse 2 says bless the Lord. Oh my soul and Forget not all his benefits. Bless the Lord. Oh my soul and forget not all his benefits. They starts listing them who forgives all your iniquities.

Who heals all your diseases. Who redeems your life from destruction. Who crowns you with loving kindness and tender mercies. Who satisfies your mouth with good things? So that your youth is renewed like the Eagle see God has so much to give us if he can just get us to come.

And sit before him. He has so much to impart to us and we forget. Jesus Christ told us to do this often in remembrance of him because he knows our tendency to forget him and Because he wants to live currently in your thoughts.

He wants to live in your thoughts and he wants to live in your memories. So that your relationship with Jesus Christ is real and it's current. Sometimes I want to tell people as they tell me all these old stories, you know about their Christianity.

I remember when God did this. I remember when God did that. I want to say why don't you get current brother? You know, why don't you tell me something? He did in the last five years instead of 80 years ago.

Why don't you tell me what he did this week because that's Christ living in your thoughts. He wants to live in our thoughts now. He says do this often in remembrance of me so I don't need to do it. I can remember him anyway, no you won't.

Because he knows more than you do. How your brain and your heart works? Would you dare to go to Christ if you were to stand before you right now and say you know what Lord? I can remember you without going to your table.

I don't need to come off on and remember you. Would you dare to tell that to Jesus? No, you wouldn't. No, you wouldn't but you would live as though he never said it and it's the same thing. Not you, of course but those that Don't come for the Lord's table.

You understand that so I thank God that he has said to do this often in remembrance of him because I Need to understand how important it is. It's why I need to understand what happened with the Passover the Last Supper.

I need to understand there's a link to my mind remember and Then I need to understand the reason is is he wants to get to my heart. There's a link to my heart. It is an affectionate remembrance. When we come to remember him, it's an affectionate remembrance.

Affectionate Remembrance and the Love of Christ

Go back to 1st Corinthians 11 24. 1st Corinthians 11 24. I want to go through a few things quickly that have to do with what kind of remembrance it involves. 1st Corinthians 11 24. It's an affectionate remembrance.

It says and when he had given thanks he broke it and said take eat. This is my body which is broken for you do this in remembrance of me. Now verse 25 in the same manner. He also took the cup after the supper saying This cup is the new covenant of my blood.

This do as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. What is the difference in those two verses? Do you see it? There is a difference. The difference lies in the words in verse 25 in the same manner.

Why is that in there in the same manner? Because it speaks. It says so much about the manner in Which he was speaking to them in which he brought this about as an ordinance in which he passed the cup around.

Can you imagine in your mind if you will what what time it is. It's getting late. They have the Passover meal. He turns it into the Lord's Supper. He gives them some teaching then they leave they go out.

He stops to pray. He goes to the garden. He's in agony. They arrest him and through the night they try him and by 630 in the morning He is railroaded out and put right in front of pilot. Pilot sends him right over to Herod.

Herod sends him right back To pilot and by 9 o 'clock in the morning. He is on the cross by 3 o 'clock in the afternoon. He's dead. So what is on his mind as he passes these things around? Everything he's about to go through.

I Am amazed that even kept his composure. On his mind is the fact he's going to have to bear their sin and what that's going to be like. He knows that when he gets to the garden, he's going to go through such agony.

He's going to bleed through his pores. He knows the the whippings the torturing he's going to go through and yet he knows he's going to do it for the great love he has for them and for us and. So the manner in which he did it speaks so much to me in the same manner.

The love of Christ. Why did Jesus give us the bread and the cup to hold and partake of? Because he wanted your eye to be involved and He wanted your eye then to affect your heart. Your eye is involved your hand is involved and then your taste is involved and then you bring it down into you.

He wanted it to go into you and affect your heart. The eye would affect the heart. It has been well said that nothing can be more nourishing and satisfying to the soul than the doctrine of Christ making atonement for sin and the assurance that You have a part in that atonement.

To stop and think about the blood of Jesus and what it means in your life is so nourishing. Vance have no one said the question is still the same Do you love Jesus? He said affection is the answer to apathy.

And that's right. It's loving him. It's cultivating that love. Matthew Henry said the surest evidence of our love to Christ is obedience to what Christ has asked us to do. He said love is the root and obedience is the fruit.

It's an affectionate remembrance. I come and I do it because I love him. If I didn't come for any other reason to the Lord's table I would come because I love him and he asked me to do it, but it's also something more.

Sorrowful Remembrance of Christ’s Sacrifice

It's a sorrowful remembrance. It is a sorrowful remembrance. It's designed so that your heart should break and your eyes should weep. Because you stop and you remember that it was your sin. That was the Judas that betrayed him.

It was your sins that were the nails that put him up there. It was your sins that formed the spear that pierced his side. It was your sins and mine that formed the crown that went down on his head. And in that sense, it's a sorrowful remembrance.

It's it's you take time to contemplate what he did and why he had to do it. How often we forget that. You can go days on end and never think about the fact that Jesus died for you because there was no other way.

No other way. He said father if there is another way what this cup passed for me, but there was no other way. So we come and we contemplate what he did and it moves your heart. You know when David was sorrowful for his sins he sat down and he wrote Psalm 38 a Psalm to bring to remembrance.

That's why he wrote it. When you find your heart is getting callous. Indifferent and you want to renew your sensitivity to what the Lord did for you. Coming to the Lord's table and just sitting before him is a very good way to do it.

To bring a fresh sorrow to your heart for the remembrance of your sins to put him on the cross. It's sorrowful in that sense. It's affectionate. It's sorrowful. But further there's also a joyful and a thankful remembrance.

Joyful, Thankful, and Trusting Remembrance

It's a joyful and a thankful remembrance. I look upon My sin and I look at the cross and I'm troubled. That he had to do that for me. But at the same time as I continue to gaze upon Christ I come away rejoicing that by his death my sins are taken away.

The very sins that put him there are dealt with and atoned for and then taken away. I come away rejoicing. It is a joyful and a thankful remembrance. I Thank God that I can come and contemplate what he did for me further.

It's a trusting remembrance. If he would do that for me and I come and I sit before him and I gaze upon my Savior dying for me bearing My sins that I that he could secure my eternity for me. I Can trust him?

With the cares of this life right now if I can trust him with my eternity. Surely I can trust him with the cares of my life right now. That is why Peter said in first Peter 5 7 cast all your anxiety on him because he cares.

For you the Lord's table is a great place to come and just say Lord. Take it. Take it all. Take it all Lord. I know that you love me. And so it's a trusting remembrance and further. It is a sin loathing remembrance.

Sin-Loathing Remembrance and Holiness

That's not a very user friendly term. Is it sin? Loathing remembrance. But you know what? It's a very godly term. It's a very godly term because you will not only mourn for your sin and coming to the Lord's table.

You'll learn to loathe sin because sin. Put Christ on the cross you come to abhor this sin that put your Lord through that kind of a suffering. And we cannot have a fresh remembrance of Christ without partaking then of the Lord's Supper.

We just can't that's why he asked us To do it. Do you believe that what I just said? You cannot have a fresh remembrance of Jesus Christ in the cross without coming to the Lord's Supper. You can't that is why he told us to do it.

If you don't believe that Then you will not come to the Lord's Supper if you believe it you will and you will come gladly. So it is a sin loathing remembrance. You know what happens then it has a great effect on what lives in your thoughts a Great effect on what lives in your thoughts and who lives in your thoughts.

Who do you delight to remember in your life who do you delight to think about right now most. I Hope it's the Lord Jesus Christ. He wants to live in your thoughts. Does he. And How will you remember him if you don't do what he said to do to remember him?

He has a great desire to live in your thoughts and live in your heart. When Charles Spurgeon was dying and he was writing some of the last materials he wrote He was able to say honestly. I Have not gone more than 10 or 15 minutes at the most In a day without talking to him.

I have not gone 10 or 15 minutes Without talking to him since the day I met him. Can you say that that's a way to live. That is the way to live. That's Christ living in your thoughts. That's what he wants.

The Lord’s Table as a Means of Silencing Satan

Not only is it a sin loathing remembrance. It is a silencing remembrance. This is the last one. Silencing in one way it will be one of the greatest ways for you to silence Satan in your life. Satan is in Revelation 12 10 called the accuser of the brethren and The Lord's Table is a great way to silence Satan in your life.