Word of Salvation – Vol. 22 No. 41 – July 1976

 

The Question Of Asking The Right Question

 

(Preparation Sermon for Lord's Supper)

Sermon by Rev. Henry Pennings on Lord's Day 30, Q & A. 81

Scripture Readings: 1Cor.15:17-34, Matt.7:1-5

 

Dear Congregation,

I have heard it said, "If Brother "so and so" attends the Lord's Table, I'm afraid I cannot see my way clear to attend myself."  I wonder if you have ever made statement like that... or thought like that?

The question is, of course what has happened when such a thing. occurs?

The catechism asks of us, "For whom is the Lord's Supper instituted?"  The answer begins like this: "For those who are truly displeased with themselves for their sins.....!"

Can you see NOW what has happened?  The Lord's Supper is instituted for those who are truly displeased with themselves for their sins.  With regard to the sort of statement I mentioned, this means that those who say, "If he is there I will stay away," in fact OUGHT TO STAY AWAY!  But for a different reason.  They ought rather to stay away because they are not displeased with their OWN SINS!

Strange, isn't it?  Strange things happen in a sinful situation.

If I stay away from the Lord's Supper because I consider another person too sinful to sit around the table with, I have counted myself more worthy than he, and I have shown that I am certainly more displeased with the sins of my neighbour than I am about my own sins.  Something is then TERRIBLY WRONG in my life.  For I have then appointed myself a judge of OTHER PEOPLE, whereas what I ought to have been doing was EXAMINING MYSELF.

Now that is bad enough!  But even worse, because I do not see that I am wrong, I do not do anything to improve the situation either.  I will continue to eat and drink happily around my own table at home, whilst forgetting that I have something against my brother.  Even although I am angry with him, I will let the sun go down on my anger time and again.  I will continually tell others, but will most likely never go to see him.

So, what a sad thing it is, when people ask the wrong question completely when thinking about attending the Lord's Supper.  The right question will make me ask things of MYSELF.  The wrong question will make me look elsewhere first of all — to ask if they, such terrible sinners(!) are worthy to sit at table with ME!  When I act like that, I show that I am not displeased with myself at all.  I look at the scales of judgement, as I ought, but make the wrong assessment.  That's very sad.

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Yes, congregation, when WE are acting most foolishly, the sins of other people will look enormous.  But at the same time our own foolishness is hidden from our eyes.  Thus Satan works in our midst.  That is the method he often uses with people whom he knows have great respect for right and wrong according to God's Word.  There is hardly a person who does not need to take these words to heart.

The question of displeasure is a very important one.  Who are we displeased with?  Whose sins worry us the most?  These are two very important questions.

(Note for readers: End of Part 1, please see suggested order of service).

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And yet, there is hope — even when we do a thing like that, there is hope.  For it is never too late to become displeased with our sins.  When we ARE so displeased — which implies looking at self FIFTY TIMES before looking at another — when we ARE DISPLEASED, we can still remember and believe.

We can remember Jesus' sacrifice — that, although we were not born in the time Jesus died on the cross, His sacrifice was firstly for OUR SINS.  Yes, firstly OUR OWN SINS —here too, we must look at self first.  Even although we have to our great shame MANY TIMES thought about the unworthiness of others, our sin 'has been completely covered by Jesus' sacrifice, IF WE BELIEVE.  It takes a lot of courage to do that — to believe that all our sins are covered by Jesus' blood.  It takes so much courage because when we look at ourselves carefully, and at the Word of God, we start to see something of the HUGENESS of what we have to believe.

Some just cannot do it.  Or, rather, they WILL NOT.  They consider that their sins are just too great.  Now that is really something!

These people want us to think we can do things which are too bad for God to forgive — even though we say we are WILLING to be forgiven, and are willing to humbly listen to the Scriptures.

Although God certainly requires HUMILITY from us about our sins, our humility is a SINFUL BUSINESS — it is not humility AT ALL — if we will not accept God's Word about forgiveness — forgiveness, through Jesus' blood, FOR ALL OUR SINS.

So, the table prepared for us by our Saviour is for believers.  It is for those who believe God's Word that they are terrible sinners, and who also believe His Word is truth when it comes to believing in the power of Jesus' cleansing blood.  These Jesus invites, and also commands, to eat the bread and drink of the cup until He comes again.

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The catechism takes us a little further however.  For it tells us that to participate in Jesus' body and blood implies that we must also seek to participate in discipleship with Him.  To say, “I BELIEVE", is to say nothing worth saying.  But to say, "I believe, and Lord, please strengthen me to overcome my remaining unbelief, and please help me to show my love for you by loving my neighbour," is a prayerful belief, exactly what God requires.  It is very important that our prayers look forward to tomorrow as well as looking back to Jesus' sacrifice.  Both are connected to the Supper.  The future is important, and we must see the future as being in God's hand.  We must desire every day anew that our faith becomes stronger.  And that means doing something about it.  More knowledge of God's Word, more understanding of how it applies to every-day things, and more prayer, too.  You are urged to come to the table LOOKING TO TOMORROW for then you are expecting great things from the God who will never lead you to do things unlovingly, or unjustly, or with sadness and doom written all over your face.

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However there is another possibility.  It may be you are not always so displeased with your sins.  Maybe you are not always living so faithfully.  You may be living a continually crippled Christian life, and are not always seeking to have your faith strengthened so you can act differently tomorrow.

Yes, just consider the possibility: Even after 20-30 – even 40 years! — you fall into the same sins.  What then?   Are we then told to stay AWAY? — that we have NO RIGHT to come?

The point is this.  You and I make SO MANY PROMISES.  Surely there comes a time when what we SAY must also become what we do!

Something is assuredly very wrong, brothers and sisters, when our WORDS and our ACTIONS don't ever agree with each other.  When non-Christians wish to give an excuse for living outside of Christ as they do, they will often call all of us HYPOCRITES'  "You Christians have a lot to say," they will tell us, “but your actions prove that your words are worthless.  You're all hypocrites!"

That's only an excuse, and not even a good one, of course.  But that's not our point now.  The point is this — are HYPOCRITES invited to the Lord's Supper?

The catechism's answer is clearly, “No!”

But we have to be very careful here, for most people use the word 'hypocrite' in a completely non-biblical way.  OF COURSE we often cannot accomplish all the good we really want to.  We acknowledge the plain fact of our sins.  We fall FAR short of God's standard of perfect holiness and Jesus' standard of everyday discipleship.  And yet, sinners are indeed invited to the Lord's Supper!  We may even say that ONLY sinners are invited.  For, you cannot rightly confess that you are a sinner, according to the Scriptures, without also confessing SALVATION FROM SIN according to the Scriptures. Only sinners will seek forgiveness and only sinners may come.

 The catechism is correct: sinners, please come — hypocrites, please stay away.  The catechism uses the word 'hypocrite' in the same way the Bible does.  A hypocrite, Biblically, is an ACTOR — a stage player who plays the role of someone not himself.  We see them on TV every day.  There are many people joined onto the Christian church who are ACTORS — they are acting the part of a CHRISTIAN PERSON in their outward actions as a stage player or a film star — but are inwardly COMPLETELY UNCHANGED BY THE WORD OF GOD.  And they are hard to pick, oftentimes, because there are probably more good actors in the churches than on the stage.  The catechism implies that actors come to the Table as a matter of course IT IS A PART OF THEIR ACT! — but that they are not invited by Jesus Christ.  It tells us furthermore that when they eat of the bread and drink of the cup they eat and drink JUDGEMENT to themselves.  Though their act may not be seen for what it is on earth, it fools no one in heaven.  It doesn't even fool Satan whose children they are.  For, in their acting, they are following him, Satan, who dresses himself up as an ANGEL OF LIGHT when he is really an ANGEL OF DARKNESS

So hypocrites ought to beware!  But of course, they will not, for then God would not know them by that name.  They ought to beware that they do not add even MORE GROUND for judgement to themselves as they fool around with what God calls holy.  The catechism here uses the words which Paul wrote to the Corinthian church Anyone who eats and drinks without RECOGNIZING THE BODY OF THE LORD eats and drinks judgement upon himself.

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We need to pause for a moment at this point.  We must understand as clearly as possible what it MEANS to bring yourself into judgement.  Is the cup really Jesus' blood, and the bread Jesus' body?  No, of course they are not.  If they were, we who partake of them would surely know it.  It is bread and it is wine, nothing else: there has been no miraculous change.  Therefore it is both unscientific and unbiblical to suppose that, as you eat the bread and drink the cup, it is a kind of SPIRITUAL HEALTH FOOD for those who partake worthily, and a kind of SPIRITUAL POISON for those who partake unworthily.  The Bible nowhere means us to understand that those participating unworthily somehow still participate with the body and blood of our Lord.  As Adam and Eve were shown out of the Garden of Eden when they sinned so that they could not eat of the tree of life and live forever, the ungodly have no chance of participating with God in any way.  If they could, they would immediately receive eternal life!

The seriousness of presenting yourself at the table of Jesus when you really belong to Satan must be understood more Biblically.  For the letter written to the Hebrews tells us that God reveals Himself to some people in a most remarkable manner.  He gives them to understand both His offer of complete salvation and something of His own glory and grace.  But when these people willingly go on sinning, their judgement is very heavy indeed!  It is so heavy because God has offered them so much, and they have rejected it so utterly.  They pretend to have accepted forgiveness for sins, but in reality glory in them.  And though they are the best of actors before God's people, before God they keep on adding to their judgement.  They are never invited to the Supper even although they attend that feast a thousand times.

It is a most serious offence to keep on with your old way of life in your heart after you have heard the Word of God, and it becomes more serious when you pretend, outwardly, to be His children, and therefore eat and drink at His table.

Thus it was with the Corinthians Paul addressed in chapter 11.  We should remember that during this early history of the Christian church many had special GIFTS from God.  The gift of tongues, for instance, and the gift of prophecy — the gift of HEALING, too.

Some of the Corinthians, however, treated the Lord's Supper in the most shameful way.  Though they PRETENDED to recognize the body of the Lord, they really only recognized their OWN BODIES.  So what happened?  God's special gifts also had a counterpart — GOD'S SPECIAL JUDGEMENT.  So we read of how a lot of those who partook of the SUPPER unworthily became ill — a certain proportion DIED!  Exact figures are not given us by Paul, but the number must have been large enough for the rest to immediately recognize that Paul's warning was not just silly talk.  Well, though this might not happen so today, the seriousness of partaking unworthily should not be allowed to escape us.  Hypocrites — the actors within the churches — DO eat and drink judgement upon them- selves.  God will require them to answer for things which PLAIN UNBELIEVERS — those who have never heard the good news of salvation from sin — will never have to answer for.

More than that we are not told.  But it is most plainly revealed to us that it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the God of justice, ESPECIALLY for the ACTORS within the Christian churches.  They have heard, but not heeded — they have hardened their hearts, and rejected the calling of God's Holy Spirit

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Congregation, listen please!  Are you thinking of other people again now?  It's so easy, isn't it?  But you may not, and should try with all your might to overcome this weakness.  Should you not rather be questioning YOURSELVES?

Indeed, some must not be ALLOWED to come to the table of the Lord.  But that is the business of the church's session.  Some must not be ALLOWED to come, else the whole congregation will suffer.  Yet the individual should look ONLY TO HIMSELF.

Then you will KNOW yourselves.  That is a great blessing from God.  For, sinners are ALWAYS welcome at the Supper, because the Lord of the Supper invites them.  If we are displeased with ourselves we may always consider ourselves invited.  Whilst we can look back with sorrow, and then JOY, to Jesus' sacrifice, we may come to the table.  If we keep on acknowledging our weaknesses we may ALL THE TIME come.

Even the sins of tomorrow should not stop us from accepting God's forgiveness today.  What good news that is.

Dare we doubt these things?  The promises are so big, aren't they we have surely not earned such treatment from God.  Dare we doubt it all?  No, we dare not.  For there is nothing else!

Amen

Note to readers: You might consider it helpful to follow the order of service set out below.

Votum and Salutation

Hymn of Praise

Prayer of thankfulness

Bible Readings

Sermon (part one — up to 'note')

Hymn of repentance

Assurance of pardon

Offering

Hymn

Ten Commandments

Sermon (part two, repeating the last short paragraph)

Prayer of intercession

Hymn of response

Benediction

Doxology