First Corinthians 11:27-34 Warning about partaking of the Lord's Table

We're talking about, last week we did verses chapter 11, 23 through 26, which everybody's really familiar with because we do it once a month, and it has to do with the performance of the Lord's table. So what's interesting about that is how striking it was and how plainly the Lord has revealed His mind about that.

He's made it really clear and really simple. But what you find as you look around, that a lot of denominations today fail to uncover the essence of the Lord's Table. Why do we do it? The first thing that I've noticed is what they've done is they've individualized it. The Lord's Table is for the body of believers. It's for all of us coming together. That's what it's for. It isn't an individual thing necessarily. And the second thing they've done is they've made it, quote unquote, for you, rather than for Christ. We're to remember Him. This isn't a remembrance of Mike. It's a remembrance of Christ and what He did.

They don't seem to think or see the one body concept of what the Lord's Table is all about and the one Spirit in the middle of that to join us together. They haven't received the truth about Christ's body. The church is really Christ's body, all of us together. They've regulated this unity to the church in heaven rather than here on the earth. The one body has an existing relationship in which believers, the believer belongs to right now. an existing relationship in which a believer is destined to continually act as being together, and this is little known as a present reality in most churches when it comes to the Lord's Table.

So, in the slide before you, there is little apprehension or expression of the one body when you see the Lord's Table. The reason, I think, is pretty obvious. They do not take into consideration all believers and all of the faithful who belong to the Lord Jesus. Taking the Lord's table, there can't be but one Spirit who exalts Christ. My opinion and their opinion doesn't matter. It goes out towards all saints, not just some. Nor is the world at all involved in such a worship.

The one body united to Christ is holy, it's gracious, and deep meaning of the Lord's Supper, and in no way are the elements or the one performing the service adding to the value of the blessing. Donna looked at this sentence, she said, I don't understand what it means. the elements, the bread and the wine, and the person conducting the service don't add anything to it. There's no extra grace because the guy performing has got a cassock on or a black thing or maybe the black robe or whatever they call it. In Catholicism they call it a cassock.

The issue about the Lord's table is the Lord. It isn't about who performs it and it isn't about the bread and the juice. It shows that Christ is in the middle of his own to give them the enjoyment of His love right now in present power. The Lord's table is to recall our hearts to the sacrifice of Christ Himself for our sins and to place us without charge or without question before our Father. The bread still remains the bread, so does the fruit of the vine. But Christendom has infringed on this institution, which is Christ's institution, not only by weakening the grace of God in the Lord's Supper, but by letting the world as we have seen in, but insisting that for the most part of an authorized official administration of it.

Roger and I had a talk about this a couple weeks ago. I said, you know, from the study of these verses, I'm thinking that we should just say, OK, the elements are up here. Come and get them. You know, whoever wants to read the First Corinthians 11.23, Mike can do that this week. The thing is, is that to get this idea that it takes some sort of elder to do this to make it official.

That's not what the Lord's Table is about. There's no denial, though, that of ministry or, you know, there should be order involved in the taking of it. But you have to understand that those who are performing it aren't important about it. It doesn't add to it. Yet the Lord's Supper, not only is it instituted as it was instituted at first, but as it was revealed to Paul by the Lord in its final shape, none of those kinds of things appear. You'll notice that he doesn't criticize the elders. He doesn't say, well, what you need is better bread, or a bigger loaf, or maybe it needs to be gluten-free. Even the gifts of the Spirit that we're going to talk about in the upcoming chapter are introduced separately and later on in this epistle.

Elders, if any, are ignored. Paul doesn't talk about elders here. And this is more remarkable as the occasion might have seemed exactly one to have reminded them that the disorder in the Corinthian church, if it had been their duty to preside over the supper. Why didn't he go after the elders and say, you guys need to fix this? That isn't how he approached it.

Instead of criticizing anyone who neglects it, who might be essentially responsible, Paul deals with the hearts and the conscience of all the saints, all of us. And he brings out its true meaning, its object and its protection for the instruction of the entire church. So to discern the body, to appropriate the infallible grace of our Lord in His death for our sins is the true corrective for all that have faith in Him, who consents to be in their midst as a result of their gathering together in His name. To introduce a human order, however reverent it may appear, without divine authorization for the purpose of shutting down the Corinthian excesses or any others is more offensive to the believer and who is awed by the word of the Lord than it would be the abuse of the supper itself. Send in the cops. So I wanted to make that clear about this because it's fairly basic stuff. And the Lord's Table is really a special thing that we as believers are privileged to do.

So now, having reminded the brethren of the true character of the Lord's Table, which is verse 23 talks about, he now turns back to the scandals that existed in the middle of them. Even under the circumstances, if you'll notice, Paul doesn't add anything to 11.23 through 26. He doesn't take away anything, and he corrects nothing of that institution in which we are called to announce the Lord's death until He comes.

So the verses we're going to talk about today Therefore, whoever eats the bread and drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But a man must examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink the cup. For he who eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not judge the body rightly. For this reason, many of you are weak and sick, and a number of you sleep.

But if we judge ourselves rightly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged, we are disciplined by the Lord so that we will not be condemned along with the world. So then, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for one another. If anyone is hungry, let him eat at home, so that you will not come together for judgment." And he ends this by saying, the remaining manners I will arrange when I come.

So, verse 27, Therefore, whoever eats the bread and drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner shall be guilty of the body and blood. So he's warning them against taking the supper in an unworthy manner. I want you to notice something. Those taking the cup or the bread aren't unworthy. It's the manner in which they're doing it.

It doesn't mean to take part in the Lord's table. What does it mean to take part in the Lord's table in an unworthy manner? Macaulay said, It has nothing to do with the personal worthiness of the one who takes part in the Lord's Table. That's true. It doesn't. What were they doing?

They were treating the Lord's Table as a common meal, almost having a great party. The Lord's Supper demands dignity and sobriety and reverence. They were eating unworthy because they were taking the supper without judging their ways, and without discerning that for which the bread and the cup speak, the Lord's body and blood. They did not discern between an ordinary meal and that which was a memorial for the Lord's body given for us and His blood shed for us." So we are accordingly warned against taking part in an unworthy manner. It's essentially as members of the body of Christ that we are connected. So nothing has such unifying power as the Lord's table. The bread and the cup are symbolical of His death so that in eating and drinking, we do not announce the Lord in His life here, nor in the risen life, but we announce His death.

That's what it's all about. It's important that we should call the Lord to mind and connection with what comes out in His death because it's the greatest expression of love ever. Christ is in the middle of His own to give us enjoyment of His love and present power. That's what it's about.

It recalls to our hearts the sacrifice of Himself for our sins to place us without charge or without question before the Father. We were studying righteousness in Sunday school this morning. What does it mean to be righteous? It means that you and I can stand or sit or be in the presence of a holy, righteous God. And you don't have to hide. You don't have to feel inferior. He's made you righteous. You belong there.

And that's what the Lord's Table is about. And it's about the love that was expressed that remains livingly in himself when he says, do this in remembrance of me, do this in remembering what I did. It's himself as having gone to heaven. Now, the consequences of sin. Therefore, whoever eats and drinks the cup of the Lord and an unworthy shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. So there's a consequence here.

What's the word guilty mean? That's kind of an interesting word. It just means to be liable to a charge of violating the body and blood of Christ, to be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of Christ, or put it another way, dishonor the body and blood of Christ. If you dishonor the elements, you dishonor what they represent. Their actions were an insult to the person of Christ. William Kelly says, but the more precious the Lord's Supper is, as the gathering of Christians' affection to focus in the remembrance of his death, the greater the danger if the heart is careless or the conscience is not before God.

It's not a question of allowing unworthy persons to take part in, low as the Corinthians might be though, their unjudged carnal thoughts and worldly desires. But they hadn't fallen that far. They hadn't gone down to inviting anybody to come. They had not yet learned to make excuses for admitting unrenewed or open enemies to the Lord's table.

But they were in danger. of reducing its observance to a form themselves of taking part in the supper without exercise of soul, either as to their own ways or as to his unspeakable love for them. Therefore, reminding them of his death, they were thinking about something other than that.

So consequently, the admonition is Wherefore, whoever eats and drinks the cup and takes the bread in an unworthy manner, he's guilty of the body and blood. To be guilty means to eat and drink and think of it as an ordinary meal, as just a common thing.

Or, well, it's just something we do once a month at the church. If you grew up in Catholicism like I did, they have, quote unquote, communion every single day. And even though they believe in the doctrine of transubstantiation, still there wasn't anything special about it. It just got to be a routine thing.

And of all men, the believer should feel most what he owes the Lord and what the Lord expressly brings to his remembrances at that moment. It is to be guilty of an offense, not merely against Christ in general, but in respect to His body and His blood, if they treat this memorial with indifference.

Indifference is a really interesting thing in Christianity. The incredible truths in the Word of God are so magnificent I don't know, to be honest, I don't know how you could get indifferent about them as you grow in the knowledge and grace of the Lord. But there are a lot of people that are believers that, well, they don't have understanding maybe for one thing, or maybe they weren't taught how precious these truths are, to think that God would condescend to do what He did to save us. One of the guys that led me to Christ, he used to say, well, man is kind of like a virus. on a planet floating around in the universe, and we are a virus, and yet God chose to come and save us. And there's nobody that even could approach being worthy of God doing that. Well, how do you treat that with indifference? I don't know that people do.

Now, this next part, but a man must examine himself, and in so doing, he's to eat the bread and drink the cup. So Paul says to correct the unworthy ways, he exhorts each one that should prove himself. And this is that great word documento. When we talk about examine or proof, there's the other word that compares with this is prosmas.

Prosmas means that something is tested in order to get it to fail. You know, they'll test machinery that way. They'll run it on until it fails. And the whole purpose is for it to fail. DocuMas is a test for approval. And that's what he's talking about here. He said we to approve or to come out And you got rid of the dross and the real stuff floated to the top, and that's the approval. So we're all tested that way by the Lord all the time. It's called child training.

The proving or the self-judgment of everything inconsistent with the death of Christ is an individual act. So what does a believer do? If the Lord's table is about the Lord and not about me, I think the focus sometimes goes here rather than on Christ. Am I worthy? Well, I think we used to call it, I have to examine my conscience and think about all the bad stuff I did. No. What the examination is, is that what do I think about the Lord's table? What do I think it is? And what's it for? And it's not for me, it's to remember Christ.

And I get that thought process in my head and look what he does. He says, having proved myself for himself, he's not to refrain from the supper. He's to come and eat. So there isn't hurdles to jump over. There's just a quick examination. Where's my head? What am I thinking about? I need to just sit quietly for a second and understand what I'm doing here.

This is a remembrance of the Lord's death and come on ahead. There isn't, well, you know, go out and do walk around the church on your knees. That's enough penance. And then you get to come back in, you know. So it's really cool. This is how grace works. Examine yourself and come and eat. The Lord would have his own to come, but not carelessly. of the Spirit or in lightheartedness as though they were at a party.

Both to his own dishonor and deep evil of his followers. He just wants a right frame of mind. We must remember that the disorder of Corinth was what? Setting aside both the Lord's Supper and the gathering together of believers. The wrong was forgetfulness of the Lord's self-sacrifice and love. He instituted the supper to remind us of doing it continually to remember the Lord's death until He comes. So for this reason, let a man prove himself and so let him come.

I don't know if you've noticed, but in all of the way we believers live under grace, when we sin, what do we do? of sinning is that we lose fellowship with the Father and the Son. So we have this long involved ritual we've got to go through to get back in the graces like the Jewish people did. We've got to go find a goat someplace, and we've got to get down to the temple, and we've got to get at this, and we've got to get at that, and we've got to sacrifice, and then maybe we're holy. You know, as I think about the way the temple was organized, I sinned so frequently that number one, I wanted to be a rancher, so I had plenty of goats or animals. And number two, I wanted to be a Levite because I was right next to where we could do the sacrifice, because I couldn't make it from the sacrifice out the front door without sinning again.

So the Lord makes it real simple for us. If you confess your sins, He's faithful and just to forgive your sins and cleanse you from all unrighteousness. Here's the same principle right here. What do you do? You examine yourself and you come. You don't wait. That's the way grace is.

It appeals as nothing else can to the believer's heart as well as to his conscience and therefore Paul doesn't criticize or stigmatize the Corinthians fault so strongly. How much For there in our prophet does he stay calm. Grace is in this way maintained.

But through righteousness as ever, each is to put himself to the proof, and so eat and drink. Even now, he invites all to come. He urges the trying of our ways. Self-judgment is with a view to coming, not to staying away. is a question of those whom grace counts worthy, whatever their past or personal unworthiness is. We are washed, we are sanctified, we're justified in the name of the Lord Jesus by the Spirit of our God. Grace strengthens a man who proves himself with integrity and embolds him to come. That's why it's set up this way. for he who eats and drinks eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not judge the Lord's body rightly."

I would refer to the bottom of the chart first. The word Lord that I put in red isn't in the Greek. The reference is probably to the one body of which all Christians are members, while back in verse 27 the Lord's actual body is in view. And some of your translations don't have the word Lord's body rightly in there.

But to discern the body, to judge, is to appreciate the unfathomable grace of the Lord in His death for our sins, is the true corrective for all that have faith in Him, who consent to be in the midst of those gathered in His name. It's to appreciate the grace.

Eating and drinking in an unworthy manner will result in divine judgment. Judgment is inevitable at the Lord's table. We judge ourselves before we take part and then participate in a worthy manner. Or God will judge us. This is really a good thing. You think about this. God doesn't leave my self-judgment up to me. No, He's too gracious for that. If I can't get my act together, what does He do? He's going to step in, and He's going to get my act together. Boy, do I thank Him for that. Because there are times that I don't want to get my act together. And so what happens? Here comes the child training.

See, He's so gracious that He won't even let me be me. stupid as I am, you know, sinning. For this reason, he says, look, many of you are weak and sick, and a number of you sleep. So what's the Holy Spirit teaching us here? Where the true and holy aim of the Lord's Supper is slighted, and the partaker does not discern the body, that is, he doesn't discriminate between the memorial of Christ's death and an ordinary meal, and he eats and drinks judgment as a present thing, he brings it on himself. And what does he bring on himself?

Condemnation? No. Child training. Child training is a really cool thing. We all need it. And it's at the hand of our Father, and it vindicates His honor, and it vindicates His love. Because when He tells us about how things should be, He means it. He doesn't sweep anything under the rug just because He sweeps. And the reason you know that, that He is not a sweeper under the rug kind of a God, is because He sent His Son to die. That's why. He sacrificed the most precious thing He had to solve the sin issue so that we could come.

For this reason, many are weak and sick, and some sleep. The disorder existing among the Corinthian believers had brought the chastening hand of the Lord upon the church. As a direct outcome of his chastening, many were weak, and this word weak means just strengthless in figuratively, morally, application. Sickly means it could be physically sick, or many slept. This is a term that Paul uses for believers who go to home to be with the Lord. He never uses the word death. He always uses the word sleep. They were removed by death from the assembly on the earth.

Now, let me ask you a question. Is that a bad thing? If I was being an idiot at the Lord's table and the Lord took me home, is that a bad thing for me? I'm not suggesting that you start acting like idiots so you can get home early. But the point is, is that nothing the Lord does for us and to us is bad. It's always good. And for Him to take a believer off the planet, it's like if you did something really terrible.

And the Lord said, well, I'm going to take you home. And He takes you home. And the next instant in your existence, you're standing before Christ. What is Christ going to say to you? Boy, you're an idiot. I brought you home because you're being a jerk. No, you know what He says?

Welcome home, my good and faithful servant. And I've prepared a place for you. I'm so glad you're here. And by the way, you don't ever have to think about your unworthiness or whatever you did ever again, because you're here because of me, not because you were so great. So you see how gracious God is even when we are not performing like we think we should? We live under grace.

It's really interesting that He would do that. He would take a believer home because he was involved in the Lord's table in an unworthy manner, and he wouldn't correct. He wouldn't self-judge. Well, from an earthly standpoint, this is the ultimate punishment. This is not punishment. This is to vindicate God in his righteousness.

So, of course, I want to go through and talk about Corinthians is full of warnings. And so, in 1 Corinthians 8, we're warned against wounding the conscience of our brethren and thus sinning against Christ. In chapter 9, we found out that we were warned to keep under the body, unless having priests to others, we ourselves are rejected. Paul said, I keep my body under control.

In chapter 10, there's a warning to take heed lest we provoke the Lord to jealousy. It's a solemn thing to ignore the conscience of one's brethren. It may be a fatal thing to provoke the Lord to jealousy. Fatal in the sense you get to sleep. So we find in chapter 11, the Lord being provoked to jealousy acts in his own glory with the result that many were removed.

So, sin and sickness and death. I think probably if you talk about this issue with other believers that everybody has a story about someone who was either sick because of their sinfulness or went home early or appeared to be going home early because of something going on in their life.

But at this point, what Paul is going to talk about next, this verse leads to an important principle of further instruction. And here's the instruction. But if we judge ourselves rightly, we wouldn't be judged. To make a distinction, judgment means to make a distinction. It means to decide, especially judicially, to decide a dispute, to give judgment. where church members are warned against procuring decisions by litigation in the world courts. That's not what I was talking about.

Every believer has this responsibility to examine ourselves and to make self-judgment about, well, how's it going today? And I've noticed a lot that that there are times that believers, especially me, that I will be involved in some sort of sinful behavior in my mind, or planning or scheming something that the Lord wouldn't have me do. And I thank Him every day for the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit seems to always whisper in my ear, How's it going there, big guy? How's this working out for you? And it's like the light goes on and you think, tracking down this road and I shouldn't even be on that road.

Self-judgment. I'm going to turn around. Now, if you want to look at verses where Paul talks about self-judgment, I think the best place is Romans chapter 7, verse 14 through 24. Paul says he's trying to live under the law and live under grace at the same time. And he's learning through self-examination. Watch what he says. For we know that the law is spiritual. Okay, that's pretty good, Paul. But I'm flesh, soul, and bondage to sin. Self-judgment.

For what I'm doing, I don't understand. For I am not practicing what I would like to do. But I'm doing the very thing I hate. But if I do the very thing that I don't want to do, I agree with the law. Did that shut off up there? That's good because I'll be reading for a while. But if I do the very thing that I don't want to do, I agree with the law, confessing that the law is good.

So now it's no longer I, the one doing it, but sin, the sin nature that dwells in me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me." Boy, you talk about self-examination. How long does it take a believer, through the work of the Holy Spirit, to come to the realization that in Him, in Him, there's no good thing? If you're like me, I've been judging that for a long time based on percentages. 70%? The percentage gets better all the time. I'm 80% good now, 20% bad. But no good thing, not anything in me is good. Self-examination.

For the good that I do, for the good that I want, I don't do. But I practice the very evil that I don't want to do. But if I'm doing the thing, I don't want. I'm no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. My sin nature is responsible, but whose sin nature is it? It's mine. I'm responsible for what it does. I find then that the principle of evil present in me the one who wants to do good. So he's discovered through self-examination that there is this principle within him that always wants to do evil. And we know what that is. It's the sin nature. It doesn't change. You can't improve your sin nature. It won't accept and change the requirements that God has for those who live under grace.

So he says, I've joyfully concurred with the law of God in the inner man, but I see this other law within me, in my body, in my members, waging war against the law of my mind or the principle of my mind, making me a prisoner of the law of sin and death. Now those verses will teach you more about self-examination than any of them.

But then you get to Romans 8.2 and he says, but here's the solution. The solution is there's a brand new principle of life. Where is that principle? It's in Christ Jesus, who has already set me free from the principle of sin and death. What is he told? He's told, look, because you're in Christ and because you have the nature of the resurrected, glorified Christ, you have a new life.

And that life is totally acceptable to the Father. And you have it. What does it force you to do? It forces you to live by faith. To trust in what He tells you in His Word, rather than what your sin nature may be thinking or doing or trying to get you to do. Or even this confusion.

Let's see if this will work. It doesn't. But when we judge ourselves, We are disciplined of the Lord so that we will not be condemned along with the world. So if we fail in this self-judgment, he's not going to fail in his watchful care for us. And he deals with us, but even such judgment flows right out of his love. That's where it comes from. And it takes the shape of chastening. And the word chastening means child training. See if I can go to 32. I can't. And why does he do it?

So that none of us would perish with the condemnation of the world. Because the world is guilty and isn't redeemable. Even so, chastening is of grace. and it's in the present rather than condemning sinners for condemnation in the future, it resolves issues today. So it's conclusive. The express aim of the Lord in inflicting child training or sufferings at the present time is in order that His faulty saints can escape damnation. Isn't that something?

The Lord Jesus has borne the sins of the faithful, but if they are light about that grace, they come under his censure now, that they may be spared condemnation by and by with the world which they so far resemble. Condemnation awaits the world. Why? Because they rejected the Lord Jesus. It must bear its own doom. So it's grievous on the part of believers to sin. How gracious and holy on the part of the Lord. But it is evidently an only present judgment that may not fall into future condemnation. That is, we're not going to get condemned with the world.

What's interesting here, I may, because of my behavior, be taken out of the world. But before that happens, the Lord is going to come in and grace and love, and He's going to try to correct me through child training. I may resist that. And consequently, because I don't manifest His glory anymore, He may take me home. But He does it out of love. So then, brethren, When you come together, wait for one another. So he closes out this part with censure and instruction with an exhortation for wait for one another. And you know, when I read this, I thought, well, that's just being polite.

You know, you go before me, I'm not going to start eating until you do. I guess they didn't have any table manner classes in Corinth. I don't know. The point is, is that think about your brother before you think about yourself. He says, if anyone's really hungry, let him eat at home. Don't show up to this meal really hungry, even though you brought your own food and you're going to eat it all so that the guy sitting next to you who's poor doesn't have anything. He doesn't get any. We should introduce them to what a potluck's all about. So don't come together for judgment is what he's telling them.

This kind of behavior just indulges the flesh. If one provokes the flesh in another, that the Lord must then judge more than the one who first dishonored him. If some of the Corinthian Christians were too hungry to wait to eat, They should eat something before they come to the service. It's such a simple solution. It's very important to the Lord that we put the needs of others before our own. That's the way the body of Christ functions.

Philippians 2.3 in the New King James says, Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself.

So Paul clearly, at this point, hadn't said everything he wanted to say to the Corinthians. Because the last phrase he says, the remaining manners will I arrange when I come. It would not be in the best interest, I think, of the assembly if he laid down everything now. So he's going to come and talk to them about other issues that they brought up that he isn't going to write about. So in closing, a guy sent me this week a quote from J.B. Stoney. And when I saw it, I thought, oh, this is a great way to close this teaching out. So I'm going to read it to you. It's only a paragraph.

It starts out, Christ must govern. And he imparts the beauty and strength of his own grace to every act Whether we eat or drink or whatsoever we do, we do all to the glory of God. If I'm occupied with the mere act, I am affected. Affection is occupation with the one's own acts and therefore with the effort to obtain approval. But if I'm occupied with the object and the Lord of my heart, I do the things that please Him, the one most grateful to my heart, because it pleases Him.

May you so yield yourself in heart and purpose to Him, for it is with a humble and contrite heart He dwells, that in every little thing there may be evidence and color of the great central power, and therefore far superior to the artificial flower which never has any perfume.