The Table of the Lord

Turn to 1 Corinthians 10, the New Testament, 1 Corinthians, and to the 10th chapter, please.

“I rest my soul on Jesus, this weary soul of mine.” Horatius Bonar was a godly Presbyterian in Scotland in the middle of the 19th century.

And you read of these great, eminent saints. You may at times imagine them to be somewhat invincible to discouragement, that they are different to you, but they are not. They had their trials. They had their temptations, their struggles, and they reflect that in their poetry, in their language.

“I rest my soul in Jesus, this weary soul of mine.” And you may be here this morning and you are exactly that. You’re weary, you’re tired, you’re exhausted. You have been beaten up by the devil, and you are not exactly—you wouldn’t describe yourself as being on the mountaintop today. And yet, you can rest. And I exhort you to rest, because Christ exhorts you to rest. “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” So don’t remain in unbelief. Don’t remain in disobedience. Rest. Rest in the Lord today.

I want this morning to take the opportunity to look at the subject of the Lord’s Table with you. And we’re going to read 1 Corinthians 10, the opening 22 verses. Take the time to read what we have here and then reflect upon some things before we come to the Lord’s Table itself.

So 1 Corinthians 10. There’s been an extended argument in which the apostle has been dealing with the subject of meat offered to idols. What is the significance of that? Should we reject such meat, and so on and so forth? He mentions that an idol is nothing. It doesn’t really matter in a certain sense, and yet there are real dangers to positioning yourself in a context of idol worship or at a table which is given over to religious endeavor that is not Christian.

1 Corinthians 10, verse 1:

“Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud and all passed through the sea; and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; and did all eat the same spiritual meat, and did all drink the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ.

“But with many of them God was not well pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things were our examples to the intent we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted. Neither be ye idolaters as were some of them. As it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. Neither let us commit fornication as some of them committed and fell in one day three and twenty thousand. Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed of serpents. Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer.

“Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples. They are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.

“Wherefore, let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. There hath no temptation taken you, but such as is common to man. But God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able, but will, with the temptation, also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it. Wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry.”

“I speak as to wise men, judge ye what I say.

“The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? For we being many are one bread and one body, for we are all partakers of that one bread. Behold Israel after the flesh. Are not they which eat of the sacrifices partakers of the altar?

“What say I then, that the idol is anything, or that which is offered in sacrifice to idols is anything? But I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils and not to God. And I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils. Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of devils. Ye cannot be partakers of the Lord’s table and of the table of devils. Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than He?”

Amen.

We’ll end the reading at verse 22. And what you have heard is the Word of the eternal God, beloved, which you would receive, believe, and obey. And the people of God said, amen.

Let’s pray.

Shut us in with thyself now for this time. Thy Word is precious. And I pray that the appetite of everyone here today would be one of hungering, hungering for Christ, hungering for the Word of our God. All the challenges and the distractions, the fears and the concerns, I pray, let them just be set aside. Give us help to set them aside and to hear from Thee. We’ve already heard from Thee.

But I pray for the Spirit to take now what we consider and drive home divine truth. Let what is of man perish; what is of God, let it flourish. Let it prevail. Speak, Lord, for thy servants hear. Lead us now and give the Holy Spirit in great measure. For we pray in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.

Many of you will know that the church at Corinth isn’t exactly the first church we think about when we consider positive examples given to us in God’s Word. There are many issues in this church, many. And as the apostle addresses the issues, he, of course, gives strong warning.

You’ll find, for example, in chapter 3, he warns about how we build. Indeed, he warns about the judgment that will come upon those who will destroy the temple of God, who will destroy the church. He warns also in chapter 5 concerning the one who is given to great sin in the church and for a time has been let just go as if this sin is no problem. He warns them that if they don’t address it, it will be destructive to the congregation. “A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.” He warns in chapter 6 about sexual immorality and idolatry and all sorts of other sins, that they which do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. It’s very blunt.

And he talks then about meats that are offered to idols and gives warning that such things may be destructive to our brethren. Now, while you may not be tempted, or it may not be a problem in your life, it may be a problem in the life of others, and therefore there’s a warning given concerning those who do such things, that they should pull back on what they believe to be their liberty because they may use their liberty to actually be destructive in the lives of others of God’s people. Such things are given as warnings.

In the very next chapter, because of the manner in which they were observing the Lord’s Table and the carnality and selfishness that was going on there, he gives warning there too.

In fact, he says judgment has already fallen. For this cause, for this cause. Because of how you’re carrying on, many of you are sick, many sleep. Judgment has already fallen on this congregation. So the apostle is warning them. He’s grabbing them, because you know how easy it is to think lightly, to imagine that God will treat me in the manner in which I’ve been treated up to this point.

And of course, if you’re living and breathing and everything is going well in your life, then you might imagine that as it has been, so it shall always be. And the preacher is, under God, called to warn. No, no, God’s judgment, though it may not come as swiftly as we might imagine it ought at times, yet it will come. It will fall. And so, repeatedly, he’s warning this congregation. Strong language.

In chapter 10, as he continues to deal with the matter of meats that are offered to idols and the context of feasting in the presence of, or in a context of religiosity where you know that these idols are nothing, the meat is nothing, and so on, yet he warns concerning the fellowship, that being in that presence is a problem.

Now, he uses them, the Israelites, as a warning because he presents them at the opening of the chapter as having the same access to the privileges that we enjoy. Of course, some of the particulars have changed in the New Covenant era, but they are still being blessed with the spiritual meat, the spiritual drink.

They had Christ the Rock leading them through the wilderness. The Lord revealed Himself unto them. They had many spiritual privileges, and yet despite being in the presence of the privileges, many of them perished, many of them suffered, because their heart was given over to the things that were surrounding them. The idolatry that they had brought from Egypt, the idolatry that surrounded them and the nations around them, and so on. They began to have fellowship with things and participate in things and think in ways that were not biblical, not scriptural, not in accordance to the will of God, and as such, they were devastated.

He’s using it as a warning. Don’t imagine that you can be in the fellowship of idolatry, in the presence of idolatry, intermingling in idolatry, and yet you know that it’s nothing, you know that it doesn’t mean anything, and in a certain sense you know that there’s no real meaning in it, but you’re misunderstanding that your presence there can be, and often is, destructive.

And he uses, then, the Lord’s Table to drive home the point. He uses the positive to show the truth about the negative.

Verse 16: “the cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?”

Do you not understand? Don’t you realize that there’s fellowship here that we enjoy in the Lord’s Table? That being present there brings us into contact with that fellowship? And he is making the point that the same is true within the context of idolatry.

And so he’s calling them to pull back, move away, don’t fellowship. Don’t be in the presence of Gentiles that sacrifice to devils and so on, because such fellowship will taint, will harm, will be destructive to you as well.

The point is this, that a meal that is meant to be religious and have religious significance is not merely a meal. And your participation in it will have ramifications.

Now, there’s all sorts of application we can draw from that, but the point is simply understanding the significance then, taking the positive that he comes to in verse 16, and realizing that when we sit at the Lord’s Table, there’s a real fellowship that is being enjoyed.

And though he’s putting this in the context of warning, and he talks then about temptation and so on in verse 13, and he calls them in verse 14 to flee from idolatry, get away from it, don’t be in the presence of it, he comes in to make this statement in verse 16, which I’m using really as a springboard to look into thoughts about the Lord’s Table with you this morning.

Because we’re sitting here, the table is before us, and there are things we need to be reminded of in relation to its importance. Because while every time we sit at the Lord’s Table, I drive at the sense of fellowship with the Lord, sometimes we just need to be reminded of some of the particulars that relate to what is going on here and what am I doing?

And so this morning I want us to consider the table where we feed, forsake, and fellowship. The table where we feed, forsake, and fellowship.

And to note in the first place that at the table of the Lord, we feed upon Christ. We feed upon Christ. The language of verse 16: “the cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion,” the fellowship, “of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion,” or the fellowship, “of the body of Christ?” There is a real fellowship. We feed upon Christ at the Lord’s Table.

That’s a glorious thing, and it’s glorious in a number of ways. First of all, we feed upon Christ by beholding His incarnation. We feed upon Christ by beholding His incarnation.

In other words, when you come to the Lord, you’re not just thinking upon God. You’re thinking upon God-made flesh. You’re thinking upon what God did in sending His Son. You’re thinking upon the fact that He took your nature. You’re thinking upon the fact that He was very God, yes, but He was very man. He bore a true humanity. And we behold that incarnation. We think upon that incarnation that was necessary for Him in order that He might suffer, bleed, die, and conquer death for us, which He could not do without taking our nature.

In Hebrews 2:14, “for as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same.” He took our nature.

And we come to the table that is put before you. It is being put before you that your God took your nature. That your God assumed your nature to deal specifically with your problem. I know the redemptive work of Christ and the impact of it will be felt in the renewal of the entire world itself. But it has a very specific focus in dealing with the problem of man, dealing with our sin.

And so we think upon that. We come, and you take the bread and you take the cup. What are you doing? You’re taking something that reminds you, here He took our nature. He took our nature. So be mindful of that.

What if God had not taken your nature? What if Christ had not come and assumed your nature? There is no salvation. There’s no evidence of His particular and peculiar love. There is no mediator. There is nothing to glory in.

We also feed upon Christ by remembering His death. Not just beholding His incarnation, but remembering His death. The Lord’s Table is about a communion with not just that which is our nature. It’s not just the bread that we take, but we take the blood as well.

And they are kept distinct, where you have the body and you have the blood. You have, yes, that real human nature is represented in the bread, but you have the sense of blood to show that there was a death involved. Now what we’re thinking upon is not just the fact that God took our nature, but God took our nature to die.

When we read the words that were given, they remind us of that body which is broken. And when it points us to the blood, this cup which points to the blood, it reminds us of that blood that was shed for a purpose. And so you’re thinking not just upon Him taking your nature, you’re thinking upon Him in His death. You’re considering Him.

Luke 22:19: “this is my body which is given for you,” Jesus said, “this do in remembrance of me.” This is my body which is given for you. It is given. Given in what way? It’s not just that He is given a human nature, but that human nature then was given in sacrifice. Given up to die.

And your mind then should be filled with that. Yes, He took my nature, but also He took my nature in order that He might die. My mind, my gaze, my faith leans upon not just a God who took the nature that I possess, but also then presented it as a sacrifice, died upon that cross in my place to pay my debt.

We also feed upon Christ by receiving the benefits of His sacrifice. We feed upon Christ—yes, He takes our nature; yes, He takes our nature in order to die—but we’re thinking about the benefits then of that death.

Why do we—do we just delight in His death as a blanket historical event? No. When we think about His death and we begin to think about the benefits of the fact He took our nature and He lived and He died, we think upon what it means for His blood to be shed. Put so explicitly by John in 1 John, that the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, cleanseth us from all sin.

Our mind, beloved, follow here, because your mind is going to the remedy. Yes, He takes in my nature. Yes, He goes to the cross and He dies, but He does so in order to procure benefits for me. He is dying a substitutionary death. It is an atonement. He is in my place. He is bearing my guilt and my shame. He is shedding His blood for the remission of my sin. He is making a way for me to be reconciled to God so I might be adopted into the family of God. He is doing what is necessary for me to escape the consequences of the fall and my own sin.

We think of the benefits of His sacrifice. In Romans 5:11, the apostle says, “we also joy in God.” We joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement. Received the atonement.

And what’s Paul getting at? We’ve received the atonement. We’ve received the historical fact that Jesus died. It doesn’t stop there. It doesn’t end with the history. The gospel is its application. The gospel is good news.

And that good news is encapsulated not just in the historical fact in the death of Jesus Christ, but in how that death procures benefits to the believing sinner, that today you might be forgiven. Fully, completely, entirely, definitively, eternally forgiven. You might stand as a child of God. You might reign with Him.

Yes, we feed on Christ. We feed on Christ, yes, because He took our nature. Yes, we feed upon Him by remembering His death. We feed upon Christ by receiving the benefits of His sacrifice, but also, we feed upon Christ by bringing guilt to His blood. We feed upon Christ by bringing guilt to His blood.

This is where we very, very consciously sit at this table and we see what’s being put before us in the gospel, right? You’re seeing what is being put before you. And it is, in part, an answer to a problem.

And your problem, the problem that you struggle with, the problem that greets you every morning, the problem that you feel within your heart, that war within your members, as Paul put it in Romans 7, that even when you would do good, evil is present with you—that problem that confronts you this second and is going to confront you when you sit at this table, that problem of your sin finds an answer. And what you do in the table is you bring your guilt to the blood. You bring it.

The Bible does not call us to a bare awareness of the cross and the gospel. It’s not enough simply to know Jesus died for the ungodly, or to be able to say, “Jesus died for me.” There are particular things that are expected that mark those who truly understand and have received the benefits of the gospel. What marks them?

Well, in relation to our particular focus here at this moment, it is the confession of sin. “If we confess our sins,” He’s faithful and just to forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

You come to the table, and instead of being scared of the sins that you know you’re guilty of, and scared of the fact that you know there’s sins in your life that you’re not even fully cognizant of, in terms of the specifics, that you know yourself to be a greater sinner than you’re even aware of—the table doesn’t present a barrier and say, “You have no right to come here.”

The table invites the confession of guilt, the confession of sin, and presents to you the answer. And the joy of the table, the joy of the table is that it beckons sinners to come to dine and to eat as sinners who, by God’s grace, confess their sin.

This is the joy this morning, that though you cast your mind on a week of grief and sorrow over sin, and though you may be found even this moment in a backslidden state, feeling your heart far away from God and knowing that sin has seemed to get its tentacles around you for a season, and unbelief is real, and the struggle with sin is real, and the battles even over the things that are warned about in this chapter, the murmuring and so on and so forth, these things may have been arising in your life, as they did with the Israelites—they’re given as an example, and the encouragement is, there is a solution.

And you bring your guilt, you bring your sin to the blood put before you. This blood is the New Testament. It’s the new covenant which is shed for many for the remission of sins. That’s what Jesus said when He institutes it in Matthew 26:28. “This is my blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many.”

It’s not just a cup, the fruit of the vine. He’s charging it with gospel significance. He is ordaining it to be a sensible sign of the gospel itself. The blood shed on Calvary’s cross was shed for the purpose of putting away sin.

And you get to take that cup and you see it. You see it. That’s what you’re doing when you take it. You think, your mind is there, and say, praise God. There’s an answer for my guilt today. There’s an answer for all my sin. All of it. All of it. Praise Him. For many, for the remission of sins.

Yes, bring your guilt to the blood.

We also feed upon Christ by resting in covenant promises. The cup is the New Testament, the new covenant. The cup specifically, because it’s by the shedding of blood there is the ratification of God’s promise. It’s by the shedding of blood that He is confirming, He is ratifying, all that He said, that I will be your God and you will be my people. All He has promised in bringing sinful humanity unto Himself is ratified through the shedding of the blood of the Lamb. It is the answer for us.

And so all those covenant promises—how do you know that God is your God? How can you be absolutely certain that God is your Father and not the devil? Because Jesus said that about the seed of Abraham. He said to the seed of Abraham, he said, “ye are of your father the devil.”

Romans 8. How do you know that doesn’t apply to you? How do you know that the words of the Lord Jesus are not relevant to you? He turns to the seed of Abraham and He said, “ye are of your father the devil.” Here you are. How do you know it doesn’t apply to you?

And the way you know, the way any of us can know, is by looking to Jesus Christ and His shed blood and seeing there is a ratification of all that He has promised. That God isn’t truly my redeeming Father unless I trust in His provision through His Son.

That’s what He said to them. You know, if you’re really Abraham’s seed, you would believe as Abraham did. Abraham rejoiced to see my day and he saw it and was glad. Abraham’s heart would beat for the promised Messiah, the promised Deliverer. And he believed. But you don’t.

So make sure, make sure then you see that even as you take the bread and the cup, especially the cup, you see that shed blood, you see God. All the promises, all the things He has laid up for His people, He is ratifying it, and that’s signifying that this has been ratified. It’s been confirmed that the sinner, the fallen children of Adam, can be the very children of God. All the blessings of being the children of God are theirs. It’s right there. Communicated to you. I’m a child of God.

We also feed upon Christ by coming hungry and weak. We feed upon Christ by coming hungry and weak.

When you have the bread and the cup set before you, if you’re going to feed on Christ, then you need an appetite, don’t you? I mean, that’s—someone makes a meal for you and you have no appetite, right? That food is there and you have no appetite for it. You say, “I’m not hungry.” Then you don’t participate. Not hungry.

And there are people who could sit here this morning and there’s a sense in which that’s true, in which the bread and the cup are passed and you’ve no appetite for it.

Now, you’re a professing Christian, so you’re going to take it, but ask yourself whether you have an appetite for it. That bread, when it comes, when it’s passed around you, you look at it and say, do I have an appetite for this? This is Christ. It’s pointing me to Christ. It is, in a sensible way, it is communicating to me. And the question needs to be asked, do I have an appetite for it? Am I hungry for it?

Do I feel the weakness of my own flesh? Yes, those temptations, “there hath no temptation taken you, but such as is common to man.” And you’ve had it in recent times. Common temptations. Common temptations. Temptations that if you were to air and share, others would say, “I know what it’s like to be there.”

While God makes a way of escape, while there is deliverance by His grace, we don’t always experience that deliverance, do we? And so we come today by the admission of our sins. We are also, by implication, suggesting, indeed underlining, our own weakness.

“I have the strength to overcome this temptation.” It’s good to be there. It’s good to know that you don’t have the strength to overcome temptation, because this is what the table is for. Let me pull you in with me again. Make sure you’re following here.

When the meal is made, some of you are going to sit at the table and time will go on, and your tummy will begin to tell you that it’s time to eat, right? It might even happen before I’m finished the sermon, but you try to suppress those hunger pangs just for a moment. You’ll start to feel that hunger.

Even now in your mind’s eye, you can be thinking about what it is. You could smell it maybe before you were leaving this morning. Or you know what it was that was bought and what’s being prepared and what you’re going to enjoy, and you’re ready. You’re like, looking forward to it. That’s great. And there’s a sense of appetite for it. Why? Why? Because you feel the weakness in the body should you not eat. You don’t want to enjoy that. And some people, of course, experience this more than others.

Very early in our marriage, very early in our marriage, we had a short trip a couple of months after—I don’t know, it was a few months. It was the same year we were married. 2005. So we’d had our honeymoon in May, and then this was later in the year. And we took five or six days, and we drove around Ireland, south of Ireland, all the way down to Cork, and up Ring of Kerry, and so on and so forth.

And it was on that trip where I discovered that there was a real difference between my wife and I, because I could drive and I could go for hours and hours and not feel any real sense of hunger. Whereas every 90 minutes or two hours, it was like a little bird that needed to constantly be feeding on something, just constantly grazing, right?

So I was, I guess I’m more—I’m not going to describe the different animals that eat in different ways, because it’s probably not going to be very complimentary to either of us. But there’s a sense in which I could go on and feed and I’d be done and then go on. And she was wanting to graze all the time, so there was always a need to stop. And we just stopped, like, you know, two hours ago. Why do we need to stop again?

So there are different ways in which our appetite may express. But here’s the thing. You take this bread and you take this cup, there needs to be an appetite in you, an appetite for Christ. Don’t just reach over and take the bread and cup mindlessly. Say, “Oh, look at this. Here’s my soul hungers for the strength He provides, for deliverance from temptation, for power to live the Christian life, to overcome the devil, to strength to endure, faith to rise amidst the trials, amidst my fears. I have an appetite. I need strengthened.”

You take the bread and the cup, signifying your need for the strength of the gospel. “Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters,” says the prophet.

So we feed upon Christ.

In the second place, we forsake every idol. We forsake every idol. The context of this is encouraging the forsaking of idols. You see that in verse 14 very explicitly: “Flee from idolatry.” Get yourself out of the presence of it. Remember like Joseph and Potiphar’s wife, he didn’t stand around and bargain with her. He didn’t try to explain his reasoning. He stayed for a minute, and then he was gone. He was out of there. Flee from it.

And there’s a sense in which when we sit at this table, we are to do the same thing. We forsake every idol.

To forsake every idol, we must remember whose table this is. This is the Lord’s Table. And so I have no right to bring other gods to it. It’s the Lord’s Table.

It’s like showing up—it’s horrendous as this is, but maybe it’ll stick with you—showing up to your wedding, anticipating marrying the bride, but you bring another bride along with the intention to be married to both. No consent, no agreement from the other. You’d be horrified. You think she’s going to go through with it? No way. Not a chance.

And in a similar fashion, this is what we do. We sit at the Lord’s Table, and we profess our allegiance to Christ alone. And we need to remember this is His table. I don’t bring our idolatry, excuses for our sins and our compromises, where we’ve given ourselves to the world, and we expect Christ to make provision in the face of a conflicting love. It’s not going to happen.

To forsake every idol, we must remember whose table this is.

To forsake every idol, we must recognize threats to our loyalty. Recognize threats to our loyalty. I don’t think many Christians ponder this. Like really go through your life, and at least on occasion give thought to the fact, what in my life is a threat to my professed loyalty to Jesus Christ?

John warns—this is his last, this is his parting words in his first epistle. You remember his parting words in 1 John? “Little children, keep yourselves from idols.” Your last words, you often will leave them because you want them to—they’re the easiest to remember. If you ever try to memorize a passage, you will know this. The opening words you remember, the last few words you remember, and there’s a bit in the middle that you kind of lose track of. John wants to make sure that those before him don’t miss out.

Keep yourself from idols. They’re a constant threat. This is the Christian church. Idols are a constant threat. And we should be examining, you should be examining, your heart even now should be assessing, what are the threats to my loyalty to Jesus Christ? What are they?

“Flee from idolatry,” this passage says in verse 14. “Keep yourselves from idols,” John says. Oh, may the Lord search. May we ask Him to search. Recognize the threats to our loyalty.

To forsake every idol, we must be prepared to separate from what dishonors the Lord.

I’m sure what the apostle is calling these Corinthians to do, some of them are going to feel like this is going to not go down well with family and friends. Paul doesn’t care. It’s not his first priority. There must be a need, a preparation in the mind to separate from what dishonors the Lord. There’s a need of holy separation.

It doesn’t matter that you’re sincere. If you’re trying to mingle things that don’t belong, then it is sin. Deuteronomy 6:14, God warned, “Ye shall not go after other gods, of the gods of the people which are round about you.” That’s always been the problem, you see. You’re living in this world and not everyone’s a Christian. And you have all these other gods around you.

You know, interests and loyalties, loves. There are some people you work with and they have a similar interest to you, right? Maybe it’s a particular sport. And you have an interest in it, and they have an interest in it. But their interest goes to the point of idolatry.

And you have to be careful being around them, because while you appreciate it the same way they do, when you’re around them, you will find your fellowship with them will actually bleed in so that it becomes idolatry. And you have to be aware of that.

You can talk politics with some people, and you may align politically with certain people that you work with, or you live around, or you’re friends with, but they have elevated the subject and persons and parties to the place of idolatry, and you have to be careful.

Every idol, in order to do so, must be prepared to separate from what dishonors the Lord. And then to forsake every idol, we must dedicate ourselves wholly to God. This is the Lord’s Table. It is the Lord’s Table, and it requires a dedication to Him.

Right? Go back to chapter 6. What does he say? You’re not your own. You’re bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s. There is a need for that kind of commitment to Him. Dedicating yourself wholly to Him, you’re coming to His table. Come dedicated to Him.

So, feed upon Christ, forsake every idol, and then fellowship as one body. I’ll be very quick with this. Time is pushing on.

Fellowship as one body. There is in the Lord’s Table fellowship. That’s really the undergirding argument of verse 16 of chapter 10, that in the Lord’s Table, “the cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ, the bread which we break? Is it not the communion of the body of Christ?” There is a fellowshipping.

It is, in the first place, a fellowship of unity. Verse 17: “we being many are one bread and one body, for we are all partakers of that one bread.” It’s a fellowship of unity. The communion with Christ creates communion among Christ’s people, a fellowship of them. And we profess then that we are part of this one bread and this one body. Ephesians 4: there is one body and one spirit, one Lord, one faith, one baptism.

This is not a table where you sit out and say it’s me and the Lord. It’s not just you and the Lord. It’s you and the Lord’s people with the Lord. We’re all together. A fellowship of unity. And we should understand that. Understand that you can’t separate yourself from the Lord’s people if you want to be joined to Christ.

It’s not only a fellowship of unity, it’s a fellowship of love.

Yes, the entire arrangement of the Lord’s Table was around that context of the disciples and the Lord reminding them of their love in John 13, reminding them to love one another, “as I have loved you that ye also love one another.” You’re sitting at a table. And there to express that sense of love to one another, this is how the world would know that they are His disciples, if you have love one to another. It is a fellowship of love.

Peter writes, who sat at that same table, he said, “see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently.” John, who sat at that same table when it was instituted, said, “beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.”

It would be the height of contradiction to sit at a table of love and hate the brethren, or any one of them. Put it away.

It’s a fellowship of unity, a fellowship of love. It’s a fellowship of reconciliation. Christ’s body was broken to bring together a body that is not. Reconciliation, that those pardoned would find freedom then to pardon.

Ephesians 4:32, “be kind one to another, tender hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you,” applies here.

“Even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye,” Colossians 3:13. This table, it urges it upon you. It says if you’re not willing to reconcile, you’ve no business at a table of reconciliation.

Now I know at times there can exist issues between Christians, and every effort has been made to reconcile. If you can say before God, “I’ve made every effort, and I’ve tried sincerely”—maybe not every effort, but at least you can say, “I made an effort.” But make sure you can say it.

Don’t cherish any resentment.

It’s a fellowship of humility as well. We all sit here together. There’s no higher spots, right? We’re all the same. We’re all sinners, saved by grace. We come to the same Christ, needing Him. We have no elevated places of importance.

This church was struggling with unity. And part of it again was people thinking they were better. “I’m of Paul,” “I’m of Apollos,” “I’m of Cephas,” and so on and so forth. And some thinking they were better than others, and so on.

And he gets to the end of chapter 1, and he talks about everything is—it’s all about that no flesh should glory in his presence. God’s not interested in glorying, man. So in lowliness of mind, let each esteem other better than themselves. We all benefit from the same Word of Christ. Its sufficiency is enough for us all and necessary for us all. You don’t get to sit here and say, “I’m a better sinner.” You’re not a better sinner. It’s the sinner saved by grace.

This is a fellowship of humility, and it’s also a fellowship that is satisfied in Christ. This table, again, like meals generally do, they have the intent of satisfying.

The host of a meal is greatly offended, or one of their great fears when they put a meal before people is that maybe it’s not enough. The danger that they might go away hungry. Those who have made meals for others, and sometimes maybe didn’t get to the store, or you’ve added additional people into it, and you start looking at it and going, “I hope these people don’t have big appetites, because I’m not sure this is going to stretch today.”

You’ve had that fear. It’s like the number one fear, really, apart from burning something or messing something up. But you have this real strong fear that there’s not enough, the awful feeling that people go away still hungry.

And this table, this table promises to satisfy every last one of us. Are you feeling afraid today? This table can satisfy, alleviate your fears through the knowledge of a loving God who guides your footsteps and has everything in control, working it all together for His good.

Is your fear the power of the devil, who seems to be turning you into his plaything and overcoming you? It will satisfy. It will satisfy. It will give strength. The strength is Christ. You’re looking unto Him. You’re feasting on Him. You’re drawing from Him, depending on Him. And as it has provided sufficient strength for Christians throughout the ages, so it will supply strength for you. Christ is enough.

Are you wondering about how to navigate some of the things you’re going through, what decisions to make? You’re wondering about guidance. You’re fearful of making a wrong step. You don’t know exactly what way to turn. You’re struggling with some of these things.

There is provision here. “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want,” is His promise. He guides us, leads us in green pastures and beside still waters. I am telling you, beloved, this is made of satisfaction. It meets the need. If you go away hungry, it’s because you don’t have the appetite for Christ. If you go away fearful, it’s because you won’t rise up and believe His promises. And whatever your issue is, it can be met here through Christ, who hosts this whole thing and offers Himself to you and says, “I’m enough.”

Come to me. Just come to me.

Let’s bow together in prayer.

It’s a table where we feed, forsake, and fellowship. You remember those things. You come to the table. You use them as hooks for your memory. What am I doing here today? I’m coming to feed. I come to forsake. I come to fellowship. Oh Lord, help us.

We’re thankful that thou hast made the provision we need, but we lament how little we have the ability to make full use of thy provision. Our hearts are riddled with unbelief. Our arms and hands are reluctant to stretch out and take all of Christ. The lies of the enemy will tell us that we’ve out-sinned grace. Some other lie may exist within our mind.

I pray, Father, give deliverance. Set thy people free. We’re glad we have a Lord who fights for us. Come and fight for us today and make us to enjoy the full provision of this table. Thou knowest every heart, the concerns and the fears, the guilt and the shame. Meet the need, Lord, here today. Show thyself. We pray in the name of our Lord Jesus.