The Lord's Supper with James White (p4)

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Hey everybody, I'm Pastor Jeff Durbin with Apologia Church. I want to thank you all so much for watching the content right here on Apologia Studios channel.

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What you're about to watch is a sermon, a message from Apologia Church's worship service. And again, I want to thank you all so much for watching, for liking, for commenting, for sharing the sermon itself.

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So thank you again so much for watching these and sharing them. God bless you. Somehow we managed to sneak all of chapter 30 of the

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London Maps Confession of Faith into the bulletin. And it is the right chapter.

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So we are good on that one. So you might want to keep this one because I don't know that we'll always have time to get it in there.

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I only, I plan, Lord willing, I'm going to try to be disciplined and get through this in two two sermons.

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Now it is unusual for me to preach a sermon out of a confession of faith, but those of you who have been here know that we have already spent a fair amount of time looking at Matthew and looking at first Corinthians.

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We have looked at the biblical basis. This says Lord's Supper 4 and now that I'm thinking about it,

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I'm wondering if it isn't 5. Because I think we did 2 in Matthew and 2 in first Corinthians. I could be wrong.

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I'm traveling a lot. Some of you know Salt Lake's going to be insane. I don't know how

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I'm going to do three nights worth of debates in Salt Lake City. My concern is

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Saturday morning when we're out talking to the Mormons, I keep calling them Muslims or something like that because I, you know, forget which group

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I'm dealing with, you know. It could get really confusing. You couldn't have... There's some interesting parallels, but as far as their doctrine of God, you couldn't have much of a greater difference than you have there.

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But anyway, we have already looked very, very closely at the biblical information, at the biblical texts in regards to the subject of the

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Lord's Supper. And now we're going to be looking at what the confession says on specific aspects of the

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Lord's Supper. But before we do that, I want to read to you a quotation which will provide to you a lot of the background of the language that we will see in the confession.

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It is important that we understand the confession is not infallible. The confession is not inspired.

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We are thankful for it and we're thankful for the men who wrote it, but they had their battles that they were battling just as we do.

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And it's important to know what those battles were so we can make accurate connections to where we are today.

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But also to be able to understand the language that is being used. So I want to read to you from a man by the name of John O 'Brien.

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Many years ago when I wrote my, when I started writing books, everyone expected that my first book would be on Mormonism.

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Because that was what got Alpha and Omega Ministries going. Elders Reed and Reese, Mormon Easter pageant, driving up to Salt Lake City, standing outside the

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General Conference. Everybody expected, well, if you're going to write a book, you're going to write a book on Mormonism. Well, I eventually did, a couple of them in fact.

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But interestingly enough, my first two books were not on Mormonism. My first two books were called

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The Fatal Flaw and Answers to Catholic Claims. They were on the subject of Roman Catholicism.

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We've always been trying to make sure that Alpha and Omega would be a big popular ministry by always addressing the subjects that everyone wants you to address.

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Very popular to address Mormonism, Roman Catholicism, Islam. That'll make you popular with everybody.

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That's meant to be sarcastic everyone, just in case you're wondering. Those are not popular topics.

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There are many places I go today where I cannot even speak on Islam because the places we would even want to rent to be able to speak in would require us not only a huge amount of insurance, but a small army of private security.

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Not popular to talk about those types of things. But especially amongst evangelicals, Roman Catholicism?

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Come on, aren't we all just on the same, we're all on the same team. They just wear weird long robes.

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That's all, right? If you've been listening much to Pope Francis recently, you know, he's not even on their team anymore.

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There are some real issues there. But the reality is that much of the language of our confession and our theology was forged in the battle called the

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Reformation. And as a result, if we do not understand what

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Rome believed then, which may not necessarily be what Rome believes today, but if we don't know what

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Rome believed then, then we're going to have a hard time having an accurate understanding of what the issues were really about and hence really understanding our own confession.

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So I remember years ago as I started studying Roman Catholicism, challenged to do so by a friend of mine who has since passed away, who himself is a former

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Roman Catholic. As I began reading, I began to really understand how vitally important not only what the

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Reformation was, but the fact that most people today in evangelical churches have compromised on the very issues that give

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Reformed theology its great strength as a response to Roman Catholicism. And that is why you see many people today in what would be called evangelical churches who are very friendly toward Rome.

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Do not think that becoming Roman Catholic is all that big a deal, sort of like just becoming a Lutheran or something like that.

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No, there are fundamental issues at stake. So when

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I began reading a book called The Faith of Millions by John O 'Brien, it was somewhat refreshing because O 'Brien represents old -time

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Roman Catholicism. I find it a lot easier, for example, to talk to Mormons today who are still

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Orthodox Mormons than to talk to the ishy -squishy, wherever the wind is blowing type

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Mormon that has developed over the past 30 years. And when it comes to talking to Roman Catholics, it is much easier for me to talk to an

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Orthodox Roman Catholic that says the Council of Trent was right and Vatican II was ishy -squishy.

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Vatican II took place back in the 60s. It made, it did not make doctrinal changes, but it made changes in what was emphasized and how it was understood.

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So up until the 1950s, you pretty much knew where Rome stood. And you pretty much knew what

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Rome believed. Today, like I said, the current Pope, I think he's a universalist. I think he thinks everyone's going to get saved.

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I do not think he's an Orthodox Roman Catholic at all. That is a problem for modern -day

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Roman Catholicism to deal with. I keep pointing it out to them for obvious reasons. But this is what historic

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Orthodox Roman Catholicism believes. Listen carefully to these words. When the priest announces the tremendous words of consecration, this is in the

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Mass, when the priest used to elevate the host and say, hoc es corpus meum, in Latin, this is my body.

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When the priest announces the tremendous words of consecration, he reaches up into the heavens, brings

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Christ down from his throne, and places him upon our altar to be offered up again as the victim for the sins of man.

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It is a power greater than that of saints and angels, greater than that of seraphim and cherubim.

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Indeed, it is greater even than the power of the Virgin Mary. While the

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Blessed Virgin was the human agency by which Christ became incarnate a single time, the priest brings

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Christ down from heaven and renders him present on our altar as the eternal victim for the sins of man, not once, but a thousand times.

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The priest speaks, and lo, Christ, the eternal and omnipotent

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God, bows his head in humble obedience to the priest's command.

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Of what sublime dignity is the office of the Christian priest, who is thus privileged to act as the ambassador and vice -gerant of Christ on earth?

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He continues the essential ministry of Christ. He teaches the faithful with the authority of Christ.

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He pardons the penitent sinner with the power of Christ. He offers up again the same sacrifice of adoration and atonement which

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Christ offered on Calvary. No wonder, then, that the name which spiritual writers are especially fond of applying to the priest, listening, is that of alter

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Christus. Alter Christus, Latin phrase, for the priest is and should be another

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Christ. That's what alter Christus means, another

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Christ. Now, some of you are sitting there and you're saying, he, he must be sort of out there on the edge, right?

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He, that's not. I think it was somewhere,

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I forget what year it was, somewhere around 2003 or 4, is my guess.

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I had a debate with Dr. Mitchell Pacwa. Now, Mitch Pacwa is one of the nicest

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Roman Catholics you'll ever meet. And he is a scholar. He speaks 12 languages.

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He's a Jesuit priest. We have debated, I believe, five times and I think of all debates

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I've done on Roman Catholicism, about 35 of them, I think those were the best ones. Because Mitch doesn't play games.

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He's not trying to, he's not, he doesn't use cheap debating tricks. He's there to actually say what he believes and he does.

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Without playing around like many of my other opponents would do. And so we debated the priesthood.

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The priesthood, it's an important subject. And here is a man who, well known, you'll find him on EWTN to this very day.

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We had debated justification, the mass, the papacy, and sola scriptura before.

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So this was the fifth one that we did. We did the priesthood. I'd love to do

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Mary and a few other things, but he's had a massive heart attack and I'm not sure he's really doing that kind of stuff anymore.

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But anyway, Mitch Pacwa stood in front of that audience, because I read these words and I raised the reality that in the ordination of the

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Roman Catholic priest, to this day, he is called

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Alter Christus. Another Christ. And what do you think he did? He stood in front of that audience and he defended that language.

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He said, yes, we stand in Christ's place.

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We are Alter Christus. Why would that be necessary?

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Because the central aspect of worship in the Roman Catholic worship service is the mass.

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And the mass is understood to be a propitiatory sacrifice. It is not a new sacrifice, but it is a representation, which is different than representation.

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I know they're spelled the same way, but you put the, you put the dash in there. It is a representation of the one sacrifice of Christ, but it is propitiatory.

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Which means you can come to the cross over and over and over again in Roman Catholic theology and still die impure.

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This is one of the primary differences in what we believe about who

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Christ was and what he accomplished on the cross. That concept of transubstantiation, when the priest holds up and says, and he doesn't say it in Latin anymore.

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There are still some Latin right churches around. You're allowed to do it in Latin, but you're supposed to primarily do it in the vulgar language, the language of the people.

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This is my body or the old way hocus corpus meum. This is my body. According to Roman dogma defined a thousand years after the last apostle died, you have a change in the substance of the bread and the wine.

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The accidents, that is what it looks like, do not change. But the substance which makes them what they are changes into the body, soul, blood, and divinity of Jesus Christ.

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So that it is a true and propitiatory offering.

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Now how many modern American Roman Catholics believe this? I'd estimate a quarter.

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I'd estimate a quarter and that's including the leadership. Does the leadership know they're supposed to believe this is real?

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Yes. But Rome has been deeply infected by humanist philosophies that have gutted its ability to even pretend to deal faithfully with the text of scripture, let alone with the history of its own dogmas and teachings.

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And that is seen again, very plainly in Pope Francis. That concept is what the reformers were fighting against.

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In the 17th century when our confession is forged, Rome has for quite some time been engaging in a counter -reformation.

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And they have been successful. They begin at the Council of Trent, the founding of the

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Jesuits. They have taken back large areas where the

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Reformation had made headway. They have attacked our faith and they are continuing to attack our faith.

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It is an ongoing battle. And so it is fully understandable why it is that in our confession of faith, there is such a concern about this particular error.

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And our language reflects the reality of what was going on.

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Now today, as I've said before, the vast majority of non -Roman

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Catholics who have met in what we would call Bible -believing churches today.

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First of all, the vast majority have not partaken of the Lord's Supper today. The Lord's Supper is something that is done maybe monthly or quarterly on a

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Sunday night if they have a Sunday night service any longer. It is not central to what many people believe in regards to what

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Christ has commanded his church to observe. And part of the reason for that is because we've seen the over -emphasis from Roman Catholicism and hence there has been a pulling back the wrong direction, an imbalance, so that the

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Lord's Supper is truly not nearly as important in the thinking of many people as a fair reading in the

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New Testament would indicate it should be. But what's more is the theology of the

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Supper. Very few people in our valley had any idea when they partook of the

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Supper today, if they did, how this fundamentally differs from what's going on down the road of the

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Roman Catholic Church. Yet this is central to the gospel. Absolutely central to the gospel.

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Keeping that in mind, I would like to read chapter 30. That's a lot to read. No, not really. It's not that long.

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We'll only get through the first couple sections, hopefully the first three. But I want to have the whole reading in your ears so that you can understand where we're coming from on this.

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And if you were raised in a fundamentalistic style church, this section says a whole lot more than what you were raised with.

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Says a whole lot more than what you were raised with. Listen carefully. The Supper of the

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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 of himself and 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 unto him, and to be a bond and pledge of their communion with him and with each other.

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Number of things laid out. 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.

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Why is that said? You understand why that's said. But only a memorial of that one offering up of himself by himself upon the cross once for all.

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And a spiritual oblation of all possible praise unto

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God for the same. So that the popish sacrifice of the mass as they call it is most abominable, injurious to Christ one, one own, that's right again, own only sacrifice, the alone propitiation for all the sins of the elect.

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I have to really wonder if we were writing this today, given our society, would we be willing to speak that strongly?

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I would hope that we would, but I understand why many people find that strange.

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Do we really have to talk like that? Let me just say,

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I've seen the Roman gospel destroy many lives. I've seen the emptiness of the sacramental system.

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And if you truly understand what Rome teaches, there is only one way to describe it.

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It is abominable. Number three, the

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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 the communicants.

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Now just in passing, the reason for the line they communicating also themselves is because in Roman Catholicism, the priest is doing his own thing.

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He's not a part of the congregation. Now that has changed a little bit, but still he has a special place and the emphasis here is we are celebrating this as a body.

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The denial of the cup to the people, worshiping the elements, the lifting of them up or carrying them about for adoration, which if you've never seen that happening means you've never been to certain places in Mexico, which is still done to this day, and reserving them for any pretended religious use are all contrary to the nature of this ordinance of the institution of Christ.

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Go into any Roman Catholic church in this valley today and normally over in the corner that direction you will find a monstrance, a pix saboreum, tabernacle, different terms are used for different forms and different functions.

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There's always a light on and what you find in there is a consecrated host.

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Jesus is present in the church. That's where Jesus is. That's what is being referred to here.

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Reserving them for any pretended religious use, carrying about for adoration, etc, etc. Number four.

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Number five. 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.

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Why would you have to say this? Because of Rome's doctrine of transubstantiation and because of the defense that Rome offers of transubstantiation, the pretended defense from scripture, which we'll look at more.

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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, overthrows the nature of the ordinance and has been and is the cause of manifold superstitions, yea of gross idolatries, and I'll tell you some stories about that when we get to it.

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Worthy receivers, 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, this is this, this is a section by the way,

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I should, I'm sorry, section seven is what you did not get in your fundamentalist church. And what you will not get in any church that would specifically say we are thoroughly and convictionally

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Zwinglian and Zwinglian only. We'll talk about Ulrich Zwingli, probably have some time to talk a little about he and Luther and a few things like that as we go along.

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This is a section you didn't get and we won't get to it today, but so that you're aware of it, this is fundamentally

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Calvin's doctrine of the supper. This is John Calvin's doctrine of the supper. This is where the connection is.

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I know many of our Presbyterian friends don't think we are really reformed, but it's funny to me that many of them don't really have

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Calvin's doctrine of the supper any longer, but we do. Were the 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.

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We're obviously going to have to unpack that one a bit. Finally, all ignorant and ungodly persons, as they are unfit to enjoy communion with Christ, so are they unworthy of the

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Lord's table and cannot without great sin against him, while they remain such, partake of these holy mysteries or be admitted thereunto.

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Yea, whosoever shall receive unworthily are guilty of the body and blood of the

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Lord, eating and drinking judgment to themselves. The eight paragraphs of chapter 30 of the

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London Baptist Confession of Faith, which is our Confession of Faith.

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Now, obviously, there are entire commentaries that you can purchase on the

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London Baptist Confession of Faith that go into more depth, though I was interested that I consulted probably the best known of those and was a little interested to see that it was rather sparse on this particular chapter in comparison to others.

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I find that interesting. I do wonder if it is because of the background and because of the hesitancy that many people have of going in depth on this particular subject, because of what, especially if you've come out of Roman Catholic background, you've seen the superstition, you've seen the centrality of the mass, you've come to understand the gospel, you want to focus upon that primarily.

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I get that. I understand that. But it's been commanded to us to partake.

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We need to understand what we're doing, what we're not doing. I think it's very, very important. So, section one, the

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Supper of the Lord Jesus was instituted by Him.

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Let me stop for a moment. It is important for us to emphasize that we believe that the ordinances of the church, and sometimes these are called sacraments.

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I am fully aware that many of the early

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Reformed Baptist leaders and writers, even framers of the 1689, utilized the language of sacraments.

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So, I understand that there is an orthodox utilization of that terminology. I don't use that terminology.

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And the primary reason I don't use that terminology is because I have to constantly be dealing with people who are using that word in an unbiblical way.

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So, I want to use a different term simply so as to be clear in what is being discussed.

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And sometimes the term sacramentum carries with it the concept of an automatic attachment of grace in speaking to a

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Roman Catholic. I'm not talking about an automatic attachment of grace. So, you can use that.

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You will read some of our forefathers in the faith that used that terminology.

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I will almost always be using the term ordinance because it is something instituted by Jesus.

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Commanded by Jesus. Rome, of course, expanded that greatly into the seven sacraments they have today.

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But Jesus didn't command any of those. The five, the five expansions.

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And of course, they've changed the meaning and intention of both baptism and the supper. But the point is that the reason we do what we do, the reason that that is back there while we're here, and that we fill the thing up and hope it doesn't leak, is because Jesus commanded us to engage in baptism.

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The reason that we will have the Lord's Supper is because Jesus commanded this be done until he returns.

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And so, these are institutions that have divine authority.

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They have Christ's authority. Not the authority of the London Baptist Confession. They have

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Christ's authority. It was instituted by him the same night wherein he was betrayed.

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It took place in history. Took place in history. That was a specific day. We may not be able to identify that exact day in the calendar, but we can get pretty close.

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It was a specific day. To be observed in his churches, unto the end of the world.

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There are some people today that don't do this. They figure it's all, it's all done. It's all past. They've missed it.

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For the perpetual remembrance and showing forth the sacrifice of himself in his death.

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That's its first and foremost purpose. It has many others. They are great benefits.

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We should be thankful for them. But first and foremost is the perpetual remembrance and showing forth the sacrifice of himself in his death.

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Remember we've looked at the term anamnesis. Remembrance. Do this as an anamnesis of me.

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We have a remembrance of what Christ has done in burying our sins. Not a remembrance of our sins.

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That's the first and most important aspect. So that's number one. Number two, confirmation of the faith of believers in all the benefits thereof.

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So we are called to remember what Christ's sacrifice has accomplished.

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That it took place in history. That he was truly buried. That he rose again the third day.

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That he conquered death. That he is now King of kings and Lord of lords.

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Death does not reign over him. The last enemy that will be vanquished will be death because he has defeated it in and of himself.

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So confirmation of the faith of believers and all the benefits thereof. Their spiritual nourishment.

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Their spiritual nourishment. We can become far too accustomed to the freedom we have of gathering with other believers to partake of the

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Lord's Supper. There's no question about that. But when you see others coming forward and they are saying

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I believe. They take the bread. They take the wine.

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He gave his body. He gave his blood. I am redeemed. I have peace with God because of what he did.

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Others doing the same thing that you are doing. You are encouraging them. They're encouraging you.

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We're doing this as a body. This is why you do not do this with Ritz crackers and soda pop on the beach.

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This is a church ordinance. The body gathered together with a purpose together.

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To encourage one another. Spiritual nourishment.

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Believe me if you ever find yourself in prison separated from other believers, you will understand this within at a greater level than you ever could right now.

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Because I can assure you those believers, those fellow believers of ours this day that languish in prison cells in China and North Korea and certain

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Islamic countries would give anything to stand in this line in a few minutes with fellow believers and partake of the supper.

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Anything. Spiritual nourishment. Growth in him.

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Further coming to understand the great cost of our redemption. What he gave for us.

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Their further engagement in and to all duties which they owe unto him.

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If he gave so much represented here for me, how can I ever complain at the duties that he places upon me?

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How can I complain of what he calls me to do and to be a bond and pledge of their communion with him and with each other?

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When you walk forward you are saying I fully trust only in Jesus Christ.

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I trust in him. I look to him like the disciples in John chapter 6.

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Obedience to him. He is the bread of life. I do not add him to something else.

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It is him and him alone. If he will not save me, I will not be saved. I don't have a backup plan.

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He is enough. But communion with him and with each other.

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It is a communal thing. That's why it's called communion. It's a communal thing.

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Yes, there is of course a personal aspect. But that personal aspect is insufficient if we do not see the communal aspect that you and I together are coming to the table.

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You and I are professing our faith together. In this ordinance,

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Christ is not offered up to his Father. How could he be? He's already seated at the right hand of the

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Father. He's seated. You realize why that's important?

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Think about the holiest place. Think about what was in it. Yeah, I know that's

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Leviticus and who reads that? Well, we all should. We all should.

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Because if you think about what was in the holiest place, sometimes called the

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Holy of Holies, that's just simply a bad English translation of the holiest place. Where the

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Ark was. When you think of what was in there, there was no place to sit down.

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There were no chairs. The high priest didn't go in there and relax.

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He went in there to do one thing and then he had to leave. Jesus has entered into the holy place once for all, having accomplished eternal redemption.

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He doesn't have to go in and out, in and out. And he is now seated at the right hand of the

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Father because his work is finished. Oh, he's representing that work and those united to him.

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But he's not standing like the old priest because he's gonna have to get out of there eventually.

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He is seated at the right hand of the Father. So Christ is not offered up to his

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Father. In what we are doing. This is a picture of what he did and accomplished.

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Not what's going on right now. Nor any real sacrifice made at all for remission of sin of the quick and the dead.

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Because that has already been accomplished. That one term, that one word in Hebrews.

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Ephipox. Once for all. Never to be repeated. But only a memorial.

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Now this was the term, this was one of the key controversies between Luther and Zwingli.

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So I go ahead and tell you the story right now. You remember your church history?

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You know that in those early days of the Reformation there was a tremendous amount of force coming against the

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Reformers. From outside, from governments. They didn't know that they'd live the next day.

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There were assassins out hunting for them. The entire

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Empire could turn against them at any second and threatened to do so. And so finally, finally, this would be 12 years after what we would call the beginning of the

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Reformation. We have something called the Marburg Colloquy. The Marburg Colloquy.

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And Philip of Hesse gathers together most of the leaders.

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Calvin isn't even, Calvin might be converted by them, but he's not a leader yet. Not even really known yet.

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The two big names are Luther and Zwingli. Martin Luther, you know.

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Ulrich Zwingli, if you're not familiar with the term, was the Reformer in Zurich. And Zwingli liked to say that he was already doing what he was doing before Luther came along, but most probably he was influenced by Luther.

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But it was right around the same time. Brilliant guy. Read Greek and Hebrew. Debated Roman Catholic priests out of the

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Greek and Hebrew text. Wiped them out. Well, it was like that part of it. But Zwingli emphasized that the

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Supper was a memorial only. A memorial only.

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Luther, well, Luther was Luther. And if you don't know

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Luther, Luther was a theologian of the heart more than that of the mind.

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Consistency and coherence was not Luther's goal. Was not Luther's aim.

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He was a brilliant man. Every bit as intelligent as Calvin. But Calvin was a systematizer.

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Zwingli was too. Luther was not. And Luther did not mind holding to two different propositions that were contradictory to one another.

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So he preached on justification by faith, but he also continued to hold to infant baptism as a sacrament that in essence communicated the peace of God.

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And there are Lutherans today who very firmly believe in baptismal regeneration.

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Now, how do you hold those two things together? Well, Luther came up with this idea of infantile faith.

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And so we have some little babies down here. There's a beautiful little baby right there.

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You're a little baby sleeper. But if you find some little baby nearby, and there are a few, and that little baby is looking up at mommy and daddy with that beautiful little gaze.

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Hopefully it doesn't mean that you need to take them out because they need changed. But that other gaze, Luther said, that's faith.

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The faith that little child has that you're going to love them and feed them, that's the same thing as faith to God.

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And so I can believe in justification by faith alone and also in baptism alone.

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It doesn't work. It doesn't fit. But Luther was trying to hold together two different worlds.

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And unfortunately the person who succeeded him in the Lutheran movement, Philip Melanchthon, went the wrong direction in interpreting even that, to be honest with you.

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So Luther, when it came to the supper, there are entire books written about what he really meant to communicate.

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Some people have described his belief as consubstantiation. Other people say no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

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But many Lutherans have the idea today that they've adopted the idea of the ubiquity of the body of Christ.

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Now I'm not going to go into a lot of detail on this, but the idea is because Jesus was the God, man, this is almost, to be honest with you, since it's a catechism question, this is almost a violation of the hypocrisy of Jesus.

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It's a hypothetic union. But there are Lutherans, and there is a part of Lutheran theology that believes that some of the attributes of the divine are communicated to the human.

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Almost sounds a little bit like Utopianism to me, but anyway. So that Jesus's resurrected body is as ubiquitous, omnipresent as God himself is.

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And so if Jesus's resurrected body is omnipresent, then it exists above, below, and around the bread of the supper.

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So that you can say, hoc es corpus meum, this is my body because Jesus's body is there, because it's ubiquitous.

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And so Luther detests Zwingli's doctrine of the supper as a memorial.

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That's not enough. Now, to be perfectly honest with you, even though Zwingli was a persecutor of Anabaptists, as was

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Luther, when it comes to the Marburg Colloquy, Zwingli was gracious, clear, biblical.

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He absorbed the insults that came his direction. He was only going to live another three years.

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He died at the Battle of Capel in 1532, but he acted as a

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Christian man at the Marburg Colloquy. He really did. And he convinced many who had been on the fence of his position there at the

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Colloquy by his biblical argumentations. There is a huge painting in the castle where this took place.

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Got to see it a few years ago on our Reformation tour. It is a huge painting, and Zwingli is sort of facing, he's facing

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Luther, but you only sort of see him from the side. Luther is facing toward the perspective of the person painting, so you can see him much more fully.

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And they're standing next to a table, and on the table, it's sort of on a green tablecloth. Some of the stories said that he removed that and he wrote it right on the wood, but written in chalk on the green tablecloth, in Greek, is the word estin, is.

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And that's the term from Jesus' own words, this is my body.

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And the reports of the debate were that no matter what

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Zwingli would say, no matter where he would go, and the applications he would make, and the consistency of the theological arguments he would make,

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Luther would just point to the table, estin, it is, this is my body, and he'd just pound on the table.

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Not exactly the best way to win debates. I've had a few people try that, it didn't really work all that well.

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That's why a lot of people were not overly impressed with Luther's argumentation at that point. They had been called there to try to come up with a confession of faith that would hold the

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Reformation together. Because of that one point, they agreed on everything else. They managed to find language to agree on everything else, but they could not find language to agree on this.

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They failed. They failed. Despite what it could mean, they failed.

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So, how important is it that right here, in our own confession of faith, we have but only a memorial of that one offering up of himself by himself upon the cross?

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Well, we clearly embrace Zwingli as a father in the faith, as a believer, and we recognize the importance of the emphasis that was his in light of what

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Rome was teaching about the mass as a perpetuatory sacrifice. So the language is there.

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The language does come from scripture, remembrance, memorial, but historically it has a background.

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And if it just stopped there, then you would say, well, we're Zwinglians, but it doesn't just stop there.

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It agrees that Zwingli was right to emphasize this, but because there are a number of more sections, we go beyond a mere only memorial.

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Because when it says, but only a memorial of that one offering up of himself by himself upon the cross once for all, the point is that it is a remembrance of that historical act.

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And it's not just rough English that's here, by the way. When it says offering up of himself by himself upon the cross, that is purposeful.

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That is very purposeful. Why? Because Jesus is our high priest. He is both the offering and the offerer.

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That's why he had to be the God -man. That's why the deity of Christ is not something you just put over on the shelf and say, eh, whatever.

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That's something made up hundreds of years later. No. If he is not the God -man, then the people of God cannot be united to him.

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If he is not the God -man, he cannot be both the one who offers and the offering. So it's not just stilted language here.

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There's a reason why it says one offering up of himself by himself upon the cross once for all.

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One time. It cannot be repeated because of its nature. And a spiritual oblation of all possible praise unto

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God for the same. Now, here's where he goes. I don't think that Zwingli would have said, no, no, no, no, we're not praising

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God in the supper. I don't think he would have gone that far. But there was a great concern.

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Remember, Zwingli was a tremendous musician. He loved music, but he oversaw the destruction of music in the church in Zurich.

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Because he had seen the abuse of it, the bringing in of idolatry, and he wanted purity of worship of God.

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So we can stand back and we can, hopefully, we can have some perspective and judge that and at the same time go, if he had not been in the context he was in, would he not have agreed?

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And a spiritual oblation of all possible praise unto God for the same. I think he would have. But the assertion is it is a spiritual act of worship, a spiritual offering up to God.

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Not an offering like a priest makes to assuage

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God's wrath, but a spiritual offering up to God of all possible praise unto

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God for the same. And as soon as it says that, what does it immediately have to say?

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What we're not saying is, so that the popish sacrifice of the mass, as they call it, is most abominable, injurious to Christ's own, only sacrifice, the alone propitiation for all the sins of the elect.

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Now we could have, honestly, done an entire sermon on that one sentence.

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Really could have. Don't panic. We're not starting sermon number two.

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But notice everything that is there. It would be well worth our time to consider, is it wise to use such strong language?

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And in this case, I say it is. All I ask you to do, if you question whether it is appropriate to call the mass abominable, consider two things.

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A, go read Galatians chapter one, and listen to what Paul says when the

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Judaizers add a single act to faith in Christ. And ask yourself the question, did

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Paul overreact? There's a lot of people that'll say he did. You and I don't have that option. That's not within the realm for us.

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That's scripture. Look at what Paul does. Look at the language he uses. And secondly,

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YouTube will be your friend. Go watch some of the worship that takes place, especially in places like Southern Mexico, Central America, South America.

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When it comes to the carrying about of the monstrance, the priest marching through the streets, holding the consecrated host in a sundial type thing, and the people bowing down, the carrying of statues behind it.

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Most of us don't really even understand the level to which this goes. If you would, you would understand the superstition that separates precious people from the message of the completed work of Jesus Christ.

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It is abominable. Injurious to Christ's own only sacrifice.

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That's really tough to say, but both words are meant to be there. It's his own sacrifice, but it's his only sacrifice.

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He doesn't do it over and over and over again. It is injurious to that, because it's saying it has to be done over and over again, and it never perfects anyone.

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No one has ever been perfected by Rome's version of the cross. That's horrific.

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It's horrific. Sadly, many evangelicals have such a shallow doctrine of the atonement that they don't have anyone that's been perfected by the cross either.

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That's why our confession can then conclude by saying, this is as far as we're going to get today, the alone propitiation for all the sins of the elect.

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Folks, what we believe about particular redemption is not just something that's fun to argue about on Facebook.

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I actually don't find it fun to argue about on Facebook. What we believe, that there is perfect harmony between the

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Father, the Son, and the Spirit in the redemption of God's people, so that the

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Father elects a certain people, the Son dies in their place, the Spirit comes and makes application to them, raises them to spiritual life, the consistency and harmony of the triune

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God in accomplishing the salvation of God's people is not just simply something that's over on the side that's something fun to debate about once in a while.

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When it comes to responding to Rome, the first book I wrote in 1989 argued that it is our understanding of particular redemption that gives us the strongest, most consistent response to what

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Rome teaches about the mass. And that was happening at the very time that there were numerous men leaving

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Reformed seminaries and joining Roman Catholicism because they didn't understand this.

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And it still happens and it's still important. That still happens and it's still important.

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And we need to understand that we have a message of a finished work to deliver to Roman Catholic people.

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I know there are many Roman Catholics that don't even know what they believe about this stuff and you may have to enlighten them.

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That's fine. But for those who do, we are the ones who are going to be able to bring them the clearest and strongest message.

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That is vitally important. All right. That's actually a good stopping point because the third section, well, we need to talk about it because well, let's just say at the elders, we've been talking about some things and so we're gonna have some things to explain at that particular point in time.

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And I think it's a very good place for us to conclude our sermon today and to then partake of the

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Lord's Supper. Now I would say that's probably the most instruction we've ever had before partaking of the

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Lord's Supper. You've heard pretty much everything by now. But you will notice in the confession we were exhorted to partake worthily.

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That this is for believers. This is for followers of Jesus Christ.

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It has no meaning for anyone else and to partake of it is not for anyone else.

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The only thing that was not specifically mentioned there that we now mention and have for the past number of months is that we desire to honor the discipline of other churches.

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And that means if you are under discipline from a like -minded church, do not use our offering of the supper as a means to get around the fact that you have been excluded from the table until your repentance is brought forth by another church.

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We do invite those who are not members to partake if you are a believer in the

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Lord Jesus Christ and you are not under discipline from another church. And so we invite you in light of everything that we have just been saying examine your heart, give thanks to God for the righteousness that is yours, give thanks to God for the gospel that makes this possible, and then stand, come forward, the bread and the wine proclaim before all, this represents that which has given me life.

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This is the only hope I have. If Jesus will not save me,

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I will not be saved. He is my all. I trust in him.

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That's what you're saying when you come forward. And so I'm going to pray and then we're going to partake.

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Let's pray together. Our gracious heavenly father, we have considered once again the tremendous grace you have given to us in the gospel.

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The great price you have paid for our redemption and how we have such an incredible privilege now in these moments to partake of the supper and to do so in remembrance of him who loved us and gave himself for us, in remembrance of you father who loved us, you holy spirit who indwells within us and loved us.

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O our triune God, we are thankful. Lord, if there be any in the hearing of my voice that came today, but does not know you,

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Lord, may you show them their need of Jesus. May they talk to the elders afterwards.

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May they get right with you. May you draw them to yourself for those of us in whose lives you've already done this.

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Be with us now. Use this time to conform us ever closer to the image of our lord and savior