Well, it is certainly my privilege.
Rachel and I are privileged to be with you today.
It's wonderful to be here with our whole family.
It's wonderful to be here with so many from Oakdale and other
congregations that have been travelling through.
I hope you're not disappointed. You've got to hear me again,
some of you. But it is our honor to be here
today. And to those of you that make up
this is home here in Bakersfield, thank you.
Thank you for everything you've done for Kendra, for everything
you've sacrificed as she sought to make her way through nursing
school here. You've been a great blessing to
her, by extension to us. And I cannot thank you enough
this morning. I'd like to draw your attention
to Matthew 26 and verse 26 where it says and as they were eating,
Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it and gave it to the
disciples and said take, eat. This is my body.
Our goal this morning for this study is to better understand
the disciples perspective when this scripture happened, when
this happened, what was going on?
What would have been the disciples perspective in the
midst of this? I want a better understanding
what they were doing when Jesus instituted his memorial.
They were in the midst of something and I cats out of the
bag. They were in the midst of
another memorial and I was to. I want us to better understand
what they were doing when Jesus instituted his memorial, and by
doing so, better understand how what they were doing impacts the
Lord's Supper. What they were doing, what they
had committed themselves to for a week already impacted what
they were doing when Jesus instituted his memorial.
And when we do that, I want to better understand what we can
learn and apply today from all of this.
This really started out in my brain as what would it have been
like to be a disciple when all this started?
Before Jesus has died, before everything, What was their
perspective? What, what would I have thought?
What if I had been one of them and he did what he did on this
occasion my wheels would have been turning.
I would have been going over to John and Saint John.
You got to go find out what this is all about.
What was the disciples perspective in the midst of this
study and in the midst of presenting this sermon in a few
places this year I have learned there's another.
I don't know if it's a tract, a book, or if it was somebody's
sermon, but just you'll get it as soon as I tell you the title,
Mary's First Communion. Can we imagine the perspective
of Mary, the mother of Jesus, the first time she partook of
this communion? That's next level.
You're now coming to remember your son, his memorial with all
of that fresh in your mind, with all the affection and the
passion a mother can have for a child.
This is where this started in my brain is trying to understand
this the communion. So I want to back up to Matthew
26 and verse 17. It says no, on the first day of
the Feast of unleavened Bread, the disciples came to Jesus
saying to him, where do you want us to prepare for you to eat the
Passover? So now you know what this is the
meal they're eating. They're eating the Passover.
Where do you want us to pair it? He said, go into the city to a
certain man and say to him, the teacher says my time is at hand.
I will keep the Passover at your house with my disciples.
So the disciples did that. Jesus had directed them and they
prepared the Passover and when evening had come, he sat down
with the 12 What was the Passover and what did they
prepare? We just got through a
Thanksgiving and most families have a traditional Thanksgiving
dinner. It's not always Turkey.
I've come to find out, some people don't like it, but you
know what to expect when you go to grandma's or when you go to
whoever's house, There's been something for it.
What had they been? What did they prepare?
To understand that we have to go back to Exodus chapter 12.
We're not going to spend a lot of time here, but we are going
to try to understand what the disciples had prepared.
So he's told them in Exodus chapter 12, God said, speak to
the congregation of Israel, saying on the 10th of this
month, every man shall take for himself a lamb according to the
House of his father, a lamb for a household.
And if the household is too small for the lamb, let him and
his neighbor next to his house take it according to the number
of the persons, according to each man's needs.
You shall make your account for the lamb.
Your lamb shall be without blemish a male of the first
year. This phrase here, according to
the House of his father, they shall take a lamb for a
household. How many people does it take to
consume a lamb? I don't know the answer to that,
so I had to Google it. Those of you that may have
experience with lambs may be able to tell whether this is
right or not, but I understand one whole lamb will feed between
40 and 50 people. That all depends on how many
sides you have to go with it. We know on this occasion they
had some unleavened bread. Oh, cats out.
I didn't. I told that advance.
You didn't know that, but you'll see.
I'll prove it in a second. So let's just say it's on the
low end. They're going to feed 40 people.
Fast forward a little bit to story and say the mass of the
exodus from Egypt of Israel. Then the slaves could have been
upwards of 2 million people. If 2,000,000 is the number,
there will be 50,000 lambs killed this night.
If each household had 40 people that was going to be fed by that
lamb. 10s of thousands of lambs, perhaps far more.
You're like, yeah. But look, there's more to more
than 40 in our family. My mom came from a family of 15
kids. I had like over 41st cousins.
We needed two lambs. Nope, can't do that.
Says for each man's house, you shall take out for lamb, but it
can only be in one house, one assembly, if you will.
This lamb should be taken in one house.
That shall be eaten. You shall not carry any of the
flesh outside the house, nor shall you break one of its
bones. Perhaps this is like Rachel and
I. We're empty nesters now.
And if we're at the Passover, look, we can't even this.
That'll feed 40. What are we going to do with all
that? So we go to our neighbors, the
Cosby's. Anthony Cosby lives just down
the street. We say, look, we need to combine
some households. Let's share a lamb, OK, we're
going to share this lamb, but you know, race and I'd really
rather take it back to our house because this is going to be kind
of a dramatic night and we're comfortable at home.
Can't do that. It's all got to be in one house
eaten wherever this has been to gather together.
You read through this, You're going to take the blood of this
lamb. You're going to put it over the
lentil of the doors. You're going to put it on the
doorposts and when the Lord passes by that night that when
the first born of every house that doesn't have the blood of
the lamb is going to lose the first born, it's going to be a
horrible night. When the disciples came together
with Jesus, they had prepared a lamb, 1 lamb for that assembly.
I know it because of this verse. They were going to consume that
and whatever they couldn't consume would wind up being
burned, would they? They couldn't just like keep it
for leftovers. No such thing as that.
They would take care of this one lamb, and they would stay within
one house for seven days. During this time no leaven
should be found in your houses, since whoever eats what is
leaven, that same person should be cut off from the congregation
of Israel, whether he's a stranger or a native in the
land. I don't care if they knew better
or not. They're cut off if for seven
days they don't get all the leaven out of their house.
So here's what I know. When these disciples prepared in
this upper room whatever they were going to eat with with the
Lord, they had prepared 1 lamb, and they if they had any bread,
it was not leavened. In fact, there couldn't even be
any leaven within the house as they prepared this.
No matter what they were. You shall eat nothing leaven,
and all your dwellings you shall eat unleavened bread.
If they could not have leaven, could they have seasoning like
say salt in their dwellings? Now I found out through giving
this sermon this year. This is actually a greater
question than I ever really thought it would be.
I didn't realize there was disagreement about that even
amongst those of us who love one another and and are brothers and
sisters. So what does the Scripture say
about it? God's law concerning salt and
leaven. We're we're about to to detour
for just a second. This is not about the Passover.
This is in number or Leviticus chapters 2, but it is about
unleavened offerings. So we can understand what God
considered leavening and unlevened.
Leviticus 2 and verse 11. No grain offering.
What you bring to the Lord shall be made with leaven.
None of these offerings can have leaven in them, for you shall
burn no leaven or any honey in any offering to the Lord made by
fire. And every offering of your grain
offering you shall season with salt.
You shall not allow the salt of the covenant of your God to be
lacking from your grain offering.
With all your offerings you shall offer salt.
Now real quick point here, I conclude, yes, they would have
had salt in the dwelling. If they had salt in their
dwelling before this I am not about to tell you.
And if you made the loaf this morning, don't get all nervous
and say, Oh no, what's he going to say?
They do it wrong. That's not my point to say
there's a certain recipe. But here's what I am trying to
say. We cannot take a position
against salt. That would not be consistent
with Leviticus chapter 2. If anything, if you had to take
a position, you'd have to have salt.
They definitely would have had salt in the house and these
offerings they could not offer without salt when it was the
grain offerings to the Lord continuing back then.
Now, salt is not a leavening agent in God's eyes.
No matter what you read when you Google it, salt will have a
prop, an impact on the leavening process as I understand it, but
in and of itself it is not yet. They could have had some
seasoning, they could have had salt.
In Leviticus chapter 12, verses 21 through 24, more specifics
are given about the blood of the Lamb and how it's to continue
through the generations. Picking up In verse 26 it says,
and it shall be. When your children say to you,
what do you mean by this service?
Oh, all these little kids run around the branch family houses
right now, probably a lot like yours.
They start having a lot of questions around two or three
why, why, why? And it's all about the same
subject and it's all about the answer you just gave.
They got lots of questions. God said, Israel.
When your kids ask you about this, when they say, what do you
mean by this? You tell them it is the Passover
sacrifice of the Lord who passed over the houses of the children
of Israel in Egypt. When he struck the Egyptians and
delivered our households. So the people bowed their heads
and worshipped, why did was it important for him to tell?
When your kids ask, explain it to him.
Why was that important? Because every one of us who have
raised our kids and they're now moved out, no, there comes a
time in their life they stop asking you questions.
While they are asking us questions, let us give them
answers that God has given us. Let us take the time.
It may not be convenient in the midst of whatever we're doing,
but do it. Then He gives us answers.
Let's give it to them because they're going to get at a point
in their life they're not going to ask us anymore.
They're asking somebody, but they may not be asking us.
We have our chance now. While they're asking, give them
the scriptural answer. The people bowed their heads and
they worship in light of this and the lamb that they were told
about in the Passover. I just have to pause for a
second consider John 129. John saw Jesus coming toward him
and said, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the
world. What went through their mind
when he said that's the Lamb of God.
Did any of this flashback? Who knows interesting facts in
Exodus 12 before we get back to as they were eating in Exodus
chapter 12, we find it's a night of solemn observance to the Lord
for bringing them out of the land of Egypt.
This is that night of the Lord, a solemn observant for all the
children of Israel throughout their generations.
So I know that these disciples as they prepared in this upper
room, they have now we've had one lamb, we have if there's
bread there, unleavened bread and I'm convinced it wasn't
sweetened. They weren't supposed to have
honey in those unleavened offerings, and now we find out
that they're solemn. This first Lord's Supper as it
was instituted was not like a party for delivery from slavery.
Why not? That seems like something would
be good to party over to celebrate.
But this was a solemn observance.
We can come up with all the reasons we might think it could
be, but I am convinced this first one, when it was
instituted, was, as he says, a very solemn 1.
And it would be that way throughout their generation.
So it surely was on this occasion.
The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, This is the observance of
the fat Passover. No foreigner shall eat it, but
every manservant who's bought with money, when you circumcised
him, then he may eat it. If you have a servant, somebody
that's come over your household, can they eat it?
Only if they're circumcised. In fact, when a stranger dwells
with you and wants to keep the Passover, the Lord somebody is
is coming through and you're housing them.
They want to partake of it. Let all his males be
circumcised, then let him come near and keep it, and he should
be as a native of the land. For no uncircumcised person,
she'll eat it. This wasn't just for anybody.
This was for Israel or somebody who was willing to take on
circumcision amongst their males.
It was a big deal for an adult to be willing to do that, but it
had to be done if they would partake of this.
Now let's go back to Matthew 26. A little short, brief look at
what was going on there and we're going to back up as they
were eating. Just something that happened
before our original reading. As they reading, he said, Surely
I say unto you, one of you will betray me.
You know what the next verse says.
And they were exceedingly sorrowful.
And each one of them began to say to him, Lord, said I, my
brain immediately goes to the one who's like the center of
attention here, every one of them all 12.
This is the cream of the crop, the apostles.
I said, Lord did I? Am I?
Is it me? And they were sorrowful about
it. They were serious.
It wasn't that, you know, You ever been there?
It's like what? You don't think I did it, did
you? Me.
It wasn't like that. It was like they were sorrowful.
Lord, did I do it? You know, as I contemplate that,
actually, it makes me relaxed a little bit.
We can put people on a pedestal till they're not even human
anymore and think, oh, they were like, perfect.
I wish I could be that way. And nobody's that way.
Jesus was the only one that way. All 12 of them realize there was
something in their life that they could have been convicted,
that they were the ones who betrayed Jesus.
I know you guys have heard Wade's sermon on the guilt
gauge. Many of us have some.
Some of us, you know, have a personality that no matter what
happens when somebody's in trouble, we think, what did I
do? Even when we did nothing but all
11 of the others? This tells me they were
introspective people and they weren't perfect, but they were
trying and it sorrowed them to think they might have done
something that would cause them to be betraying Jesus.
But Jesus didn't leave him with that.
He answered and said he who dipped his hand with me in the
dish would betray me. The Son of Man indeed goes as
just as written of him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of
Man is betrayed. It would have been good for that
man if he had not been born. Not the subject of this lesson,
but there is an afterlife even for people who are condemned.
Do not allow anybody in any relationship, religious
institution or in our brotherhood that wants to say I,
you know, I don't believe God can punish people all that the
one that this has talked about be better if he had not been
born then Judas who was betraying him answered and said,
Rabbi, is it I? And he said to him, you have
said it. And as they were eating, this is
all going on, why they eat. You ever had those conversations
while you're eating when you just lose your appetite?
I feel like I would have lost my appetite, but we'd still be at
the table picking around at things as they were eating.
Jesus took bread. So now we know they have bread.
What kind of bread is it? Unleavened bread.
You're right. Time out real quick.
Do you know how difficult it is to get to unleavened bread
needing to be on this table? You better know your Old
Testament. And yet there is only one
institute, religious institution in the world that I'm aware of
today that does not use unleavened bread in their
observance of what they call the Lord's Supper.
As I understand it, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day
Saints will use, They don't care if it's leavened or not.
They'll use leavened bread, raise bread, puppy bread, before
you line up too close with that. They don't care if it's root of
the vine. They'll use water.
Every other religious institution uses some type of
unleavened wafer or cracker or bread.
You kind of go pretty back into the annals of history to figure
this out, but they took the time to do it and they hold to it.
But the fact that over and over in scriptures when it says Jesus
took the bread and they all protect of it and it's all
singular and 1st Corinthians 10 like blows it all out of the
water and says we being many are partakers of that one bread.
And they were like, oh, you're just being legalistic.
We all agree it's unleavened and you got to go back in the annals
of history to agree with that. But he says they took one and
we're legalistic for saying there's one.
They'll say, well, if there's one, then if you think this has
to be one right here, there's got to be one for the whole
world. I'll time out.
Our little history lesson taught me something about that.
Do you realize in Exodus chapter 12, there were, what did we say
could have been 50,000 lambs killed that night?
Yet the Scriptures always refer to it as it The whole nation of
Israel rose and killed it. Now how can God say 50,000 Is it
because he had one per household?
It meant something. And dare I say He had one per
assembly of people? And this morning as we meet
around this table, there will be one loaf, because Jesus took one
loaf when he instituted it. And in case you think, well,
that's not good enough for me, hang with me, we're not done
yet. We can take one.
That's what He did. And when God looks at that, I
don't think there are 50,000 congregations that we know of in
the world today. If God could see 50,000 lambs
and say they killed it, it represents this lamb, the Son of
God, the lamb that takes away the sins of the world.
Then he can look at however many are being offered today and see
it the exact same way. He says take, eat, this is my
body. Then he took the cup.
If he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, Drink from
it all of you, for this is my blood of the new covenant, which
is shed for many for the remission of sin.
But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the front
and vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you
and my Father's Kingdom. He is instituting his memorial,
a memorial that would have been one loaf for his body,
unleavened bread. And this drink offering that we
will find is the fruit of the vine.
He took a grape juice. He says, I'm not going to do
this from now on. When you when I say I'm not
doing this anymore, what does that mean?
I just did it. He partook with them.
In Corinthians it says when he had sucked.
It's a verb. The action that he did.
This was a solemn assembly. I believe it was a solemn
assembly because it started as a solemn assembly, because that's
the way it was supposed to be done through all their
generations. And now they're doing something
they've never seen before. And whatever I'm like, trying to
take in something I've never seen before, it's just as solemn
because it doesn't make sense and we're still trying to make
sense out of it. And when they had sung hymn,
they went out to the Mount of Olives.
Can you imagine what they were thinking walking out of that
room? What did we just do?
What's going on? Can you imagine the first Lord's
Day Communion service after Jesus has died, after they have
seen him mercilessly beaten, after they have seen him shed
his blood, and then now to know he's risen from the dead?
What did this mean? After all that, you know, we
know it wasn't very long until some brethren digressed changed
what he had done. You can read about that in First
Corinthians 11/17 through 22. Instead of being something that
was a joint participation, it became something very
individualistic and even just like Mills, common things.
And so Paul had to write to the church at Corinth about this to
get it corrected. He reinstructed the church at
Corinth on the proper memorial observance.
Now, here's a note. If it was OK to change this in
any way, wouldn't now be the time?
You're like, well, sure, the first one, there's like 12 of
them. I mean, they can eat and drink
after each other. It's not going to take that
long. And besides, you know, it's not
that many people. They probably shared stuff
before, but now the church has grown.
On the day of Pentecost, thousands obeyed the gospel.
I mean, how many people are in the church?
How big are these congregations? If there was ever a chance to
say, OK, you know, you guys got off here, we need to reinstate
how it should be done. But because there's so many of
you, we're going to relax on some of this.
What happened? Remember, Paul was not at the
Passover feast when he was instituted.
Remember, Judas was there. Judas died.
Matthias replaced him. They have 12.
Paul is even one born out of due time.
He wasn't there to know what Jesus said, but in verse 23 of
first Corinthians 11 he clarifies all this.
He says, For I received from the Lord Paul, though he wasn't
there on the night he was instituted, Jesus had talk to
him. And he received from the Lord
that which I delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the same
night which he's betrayed, took bread.
And when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, take, eat.
This is my body which is broken for you.
Do this in remembrance of me. In the same manner also he took
the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in
my blood. This do as often as you drink it
in remembrance of me real quick timeout that word after supper.
It kind of comes out as a noun in most translations.
Yet in the Greek it's a verb. There's only one translation
that actually keeps it in verb form says when he had sucked.
That's an important. This was an action that took
place that Jesus is talking about when he instructed Paul.
We can talk about more of that later.
I don't want to get bogged down in it.
Do you notice a striking similarity to what Jesus did
what were found in Matthew and Mark and Luke's accounts?
It's like word for word, he still took one.
He didn't say you guys have grown now the churches are
bigger. Here's what you can do.
You can change this so it makes it either more sanitary or more
quick or more whatever you want it more of.
No, he backs up and he says you do it just like this.
For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you
proclaim the Lord's death till he comes.
He went back reinstituted, exactly like Jesus had
instituted it. And he says, you know what
you're doing as often as you do this, you are proclaiming the
Lord's death till he comes. Do you ever ask yourself in this
congregation what? I don't know what my role is
here in Bakersfield. And if you're not from
Bakersfield, apply it to your congregation.
I don't know what my role is. I don't know what I do.
I mean, I'm not a teacher. I'm not a song leader.
I'm really not not that outgoing to tell you the truth.
Wait, have that many friends. You know one thing you do for
the church when you commune this morning, you proclaim the Lord's
death till he comes again. Can you imagine if that was just
the teachers that did that, Just the song leaders?
Oh, it wouldn't be as powerful as having the whole congregation
come together and proclaim the Lord's death till he comes again
another time out. I'm going to give you a little
insight into Greg's brain and maybe why Wade is some of the
ways he is. I read this verse and if it
weren't for some other passages in the Bible, you know what my
brain would start doing Every time I sinned, every time I was
disappointed with myself, I would need this break and stop
and commune. A matter of fact, once I did
that, I'd be thinking, you know, there's a, we had this 2nd
birthday for Charlie and, and of all the things we're excited
about was we should commune too, because none of this would be
important without Christ. And then if we had a wedding,
we'd do it at our weddings and, and then at funerals because you
know, it's the last thing you're doing before you put somebody
away. And we'd have a communion.
You know what, there's a religious institution on the
face of this earth that does that.
Should we do that? Acts 20 and seven to some people
is a passage that just binds them because it says on the
first day of the week, the disciples came together to break
bread. And some people say, you mean
every week. Really?
Do we have to do it every week? And Greg Branch reads that.
And I'm like, thank you because I do do all the time.
I gave this sermon about a month ago and literally the Tuesday
following I got a text from somebody that we've been working
on trying to work with and get them to Grandma is pretty sick.
She's been sick for a long time and they've tried everything.
They got a book that was written by some famous money making
preacher and he said what people needed to do is if you've had a
disease for a long time, you need first thing you get up in
the morning on Monday morning before you eat, before you do
anything else, you commute and then you can have your breakfast
and at lunchtime before you eat lunch, you commute and then you
go back the rest of your day. And at night before you eat
dinner, you commune. And then before you go to bed
that night, you commune. And you do that telling people
they need to commune more and more.
And so this text was, is this right?
I've been trying to get a study with these people for a while.
I'm like, how about I come over Wednesday and we start studying
this and I'll let you read it in the Bible.
We've had a study going for two months now.
No, communing by yourself is not communing.
It's a joint participation. It's something the congregation
does. This isn't something I do alone
and this isn't something I just add and do more times because he
says as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, well
then I should do it more often. But that's really not the point.
The frequency is that we've come together on the first day of the
week to do this. And as long as we keep this up
and do not forsake this assembling of ourselves together
as the matter of some is but exhort one another, and so much
the more as we see the day approaching, then we're
proclaiming the Lord's death until he comes.
But you know, he didn't stop there.
He says, therefore, in light of what I just told you, whoever
eats this bread or drink this cup of the Lord in an unworthy
manner will be guilty to the body and blood of the Lord.
But let him out, examine himself, whatever This unworthy
manner is something that Greg Branch needs to worry about this
morning. And you insert your name there.
Because when we start communing, we need to examine ourself.
I am done working on you as an audience.
Or mice, anybody else? And I'm examining myself.
Let a man examine himself. And so let him eat of the
bedroom bread and drink of the cup.
For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner, eats and drinks
judgement to himself, what's the unworthy manner?
Not discerning the Lord's body. That word discern means to
investigate or determine the excellence or defects of the
person or thing. In this context, we are to
examine the Lord and our self and discern the Lord's body in
that way. For this reason, what reason
that some are not doing this? Many are weak and sick among you
and many sleep. This book, this article I was
telling you these people had read he had flipped to this one
and applied it to anybody with a disease.
It was a long time and they needed to do it more often.
I believe what's being taught here is the reason many are
weak, many are sick and many sleep.
Whether you take this spiritual or physical is because they've
we failed to examine the Lord's body and our self.
Do you find yourself spiritually wondering is this really worth
it? I mean, I'm coming, but I don't
know you know what's happening when I get to that point.
When any of us get to that point, we need to be back up and
remember where this started. The Lord is good.
Lord has given everything he possibly can, including the very
blood out of his veins, to show us that our faith can get us
through whatever it is that we're fighting.
Little quick advertisement this morning at or this afternoon at
2:00 we're going to study a sermon entitled Faith Through
Life Seasons From childhood till the end is coming.
Faith is where it's at. It doesn't matter if you're
talking about God or if you're talking about atheism.
Everybody on the face of this earth has put their faith in
something for this reason. Many are weak and many are sick
and sleep among you. Contextually, it is clear to me
that the unworthy manner receiving judgment is directed
at the Crispin Christians disposition in this.
But there's a question that comes up and some of you may
have wondered why I didn't cover it back when we read it.
What about a non Christian partaking in communion?
Can they do that? I mean, or is that are they
condemning themselves? Well, what you mean double
condemnation? Now I think what he's been
talking about in First Corinthians 11 is to the
Christian and how we partake, how the church should view this.
But what about the non church? What about the visitor?
You're here today. Perhaps I don't know everybody
here. I know there's faces I don't
remember from before. Maybe you're not a member of the
church and and you're like, I don't know, when this comes
around, am I supposed to eat you do my best to answer that
question. You remember Exodus 12.
This was a solemn observant throughout all generations.
No foreigner was to eat it. But every manservant who's
bought with money, when you circumcised him, then he may eat
it. The stranger that came in all
his males that had to be circumcised, then he could eat.
You're like, yeah, but Craig, that's like the old law.
We don't have circumcision in the New Testament.
Really. Are you sure?
Colossians 2. Beware lest anyone cheat you
through philosophy and empty deceit, according to traditions
of men, according to basic principles of the world, and not
according to Christ. For in Him dwells the fullness
of the Godhead bodily, and you are complete in Him who is the
head of all principality and power.
You know I have heard this verse used against us as a church
because we require baptism. You know the biggest problem
with that is they literally stopped 2 verses too soon in
Him. You were also circumcised with
the circumcision made without hands by putting off the body of
sins of flesh by the circumcision of Christ.
So there is a circumcision under the new covenant, but it's not
made with hands. The old one had to be done
physically. This one is made without hands.
What is this buried with him in baptism in which you also were
raised with him through faith in the working of God who raised
him from the dead Today. If I were to answer your
question whether someone who's not baptized should they partake
of the communion, I'd say why would they want to?
But if you do want to partake of because you want to part in
this, then you should submit to the circumcision that's made
without hands. It's so much easier than the old
all circumcision that cutting in the way of the flesh on an adult
man. People say, I don't know that's
just too much to ask people to be baptized and say no, it's too
much. That's maybe circumcised, but
not the circumcision without hands.
It's not just for men, it's for women, it's for all people.
Now you see how all are brought together in one blood.
The cutting of the way of the flesh replaced by the cutting
away of sin. I'll take that trade on every
level. Will you accept Jesus Christ?
Circumcision through faith? That's the question for us
today. Hebrews 11 and 6.
Without faith it's impossible to please him.
For he that comes to God, let's believe that He is.
He's a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
Today. If you have that kind of faith,
I ask you, are you willing to change your life?
That's repentance. Luke 13 and three, Jesus said,
unless you repent, you'll all perish.
Of course we want to repent. Would we confess Him before men
with the heart, man believes unto righteous with the mouth.
Confession is made unto salvation.
Galatians 327 as many of you have been baptized into Christ,
have put on Christ today. It's as simple as I can make it.
As we prepare to meet around the Lord's table.
If you're here and you're not a Christian, you desire to be 1
today, then we'd love to assist you.
If you're like Greg, nothing against you, but I really don't
even know you. I've been studying with somebody
else here. Praise God, I'll let them do it.
The key is that you do it because this is the working of
Christ, the circumcision made without hands.
If you're a Christian today, you don't have to be re baptized
just because you've sinned. You can confess your faults one
to another, pray one for another that you may be healed.
The effective fervor prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
If I understand Acts chapter 8 right, you can pray to your for
your own sins first. John 18 and 9.
He is faithful and just forgive us and cleanse us of all
unrighteousness. But maybe like Psalm in the
sorcerer in Acts chapter 8 you said would you pray with me too?
This family of believers here today will pray with you.
Want to be their class? Won't you come as we stand the
same?