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Willey, RobertAfter Baptism 04 ~ The Breaking Of Bread

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And I want to read just a few verses here. Verse thirteen. Verse thirteen, John fourteen. And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask anything in my name, I will do it. If ye love me, Keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another comforter, that he may abide with you forever, even the spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him, but ye know him, for he dwelleth with you and shall be in you. And I will not leave you comfortless, I will come to you. Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more, but ye see me, because I live... ye shall live also. At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and in me, and I in you. He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he that loveth me. And he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father. And I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. Judith steth unto him, not Iscariot. Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us and not unto the world? Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words, and my father will love him, and I will come unto him, and we will come unto him and make our abode with him. He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings. And the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father's which sent me. May the Lord bless the reading of his own precious word. Shall we seek his face? Blessed God, our Father, we bow before thee now in worship. We thank thee for this great privilege of meeting in the precious name of thy beloved Son. And we ask thee, Lord, that as tonight we hear his voice speaking to us. our hearts might in a strange way respond to the desires of this heart. We seek thy blessing and ask thee that thou speak to us this night in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. A few weeks ago we had a baptism. Eight people were baptized in the lake. I'm saying that for the sake of you that were not here and perhaps didn't know this. We had a very wonderful meeting, which we all enjoyed. And the question of baptism has been very much upon our minds and hearts. And I have personally spoken about it several times. In fact, this will be the fifth talk on this subject. We talked about baptism. And then we took up this series we're trying to pursue tonight, which we called After Baptism. And we took our thoughts, our theme, from baptism. Acts chapter two and verse forty two. Acts chapter two, we'll read verse forty-one and forty-two. It says in verse forty-one, Then David gladly received his word, were baptized. Verse forty-two. And they continued steadfastly. Now this is the thing which is coming after baptism. They continued steadfastly. And there are four things in which they continued steadfastly. Here they are. They continued steadfastly in the Apostle's doctrine, fellowship, breaking of bread, and prayers. Four things. The Apostle's doctrine, fellowship, breaking of bread, and prayers. And we have talked here on the occasions when I have spoken in the evening since the baptism. about the Apostle's doctrine and we took as our theme that night the third chapter of Colossians and we saw there that he is speaking to those who in the second chapter verse twelve he says that they were baptized into his death and risen again. And then in the third chapter he says, If He's enduresen, and we saw that baptism is a type, a picture of being buried with Christ in death and then rising again in resurrection. If He's enduresen with Christ, seek those things which are about, and we talked that evening from the third chapter of Colossians. We talked about our new position risen with Christ and hid in Christ. We talked about our glorious future. When He who is our life shall appear, then shall we also appear with Him. We talked about our old nature, mortify therefore the old nature. He says, put to death the old nature. We talked about the new nature, put on the new man. And we talked about that new peace which he gives us. And about the new guide, the word of Christ dwelling in us richly. And about the new life. Verse seventeen, which goes down through the chapter, telling us we who now are dead with Christ and risen with Him. It tells us how all our life is given character by this very fact now, that we have witnessed to the fact that we're dead with Christ and we're raised with him in unit of life, and it gives character in our home life. It speaks of fathers, of parents and children. husbands and wives and masters and servants, and whatsoever he do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus. We call that the Apostles' Doctrine about fellowship, summed up in this thirteenth chapter. They continued in the Apostles' Doctrine. Of course, many other things we could take as the Apostles' Doctrine in the epistles, but we're trying to keep it to the subject of baptism. And then after that, we dealt with the question of fellowship. They continued steadlessly in the Apostles' doctrine fellowship. And we talked last time, I was speaking here in the evening, about the wonderful fellowship we had in Christ Jesus. Tonight I want to go one step further and talk about as a theme the breaking of bread. They continued steadfastly in the Apostle's doctrine, fellowship, breaking of bread and prayers. In the will of the Lord he spares us, our next talk will be on the subject of prayers. But tonight the breaking of bread. Now last time I spoke some people told me afterwards they didn't hear what I said. So if you don't hear the night, I'm trying to speak up, but if you don't hear, put your hand up, and I'll try and speak louder. But we have the amplifier turned up. If we go any higher, it'll start to squeak and rebound and so on. So I hope you'll be able to hear what we're seeing. Now, I have been at Park of the Palms for four years and some months, and I know I have spoken many times. about the breaking of bread. I don't think I've ever spoken from this platform in a Sunday evening meeting like this, but many times at the Lord's table I've referred to the breaking of bread, and it may be many of the things I will say tonight I've said before, and you've heard them before. But let's stir up our pure minds by way of remembrance tonight as we go over again some of the Old, old truths that we've loved some of us from childhood, the breaking of bread. And I put it down under a number of little headings here. One of our hymns, others have been at it just now, written by Sir Edward Denny, a wonderful Christian who lived in the last century, who lost his life in a boat accident on Lake Ontario. Sir Edward Denny, he wrote this hymn, sweet feast of love divine. It is grace that makes us free to gather, to feed upon this bread and wine in memory, Lord of thee. He calls it the sweet feast of love divine. And I think if there is one word that would help to give character to the breaking of bread, it must be the word love. Sweet feast of love divine. You say the great word is remembrance, so it is. It's remembrance. But the thing that gives character to the remembrance feast is love. Sweet feast of love divine. So I've written down a few headings here I want to speak about. I want to speak first about what I'm calling love's request. Love's request. I've checked up on the occasions in which the Lord asks us to remember him in the breaking of the bread and the drinking of the cup. And it seems to me, as I read it over and over, and I've studied this subject for many years, I can only say it's the request of divine love. The request of love. Love's request. I've heard people say, Oh Lord, we've come here this morning because you have commanded us to come. I don't agree. I don't think the Lord commanded us to remember Him. I believe He commanded us to be baptized. But He didn't command us to remember Him. I'd like to know how you could command a person to remember Him. On occasions through our life, we've lived away from our homes in England for many years, many years out in the Middle East. Sometimes my wife used to go away home to see her people and I'd stayed behind, perhaps months, two months, three months, four months, and she was away. And I might have said to her before she goes, now listen, I command you to think about me sometimes. Do you know what she'd say? Well, you guess what she'd say. You command me to think about it. You can't do that, you see. I could say, my dear, sometimes when you're enjoying yourself over there, just think about me, will you? That would be a request, wouldn't it? Think about me. And I don't think the Lord commanded us, remember me. But I think the Lord's desire and the Lord's request is, remember me. And as I have read it through, Luke twenty-two, verse nineteen, he puts it so beautifully, he took bread and gave thanks and break, and gave unto them, saying, This is my body which is given for you, this do in remembrance of me. Likewise also the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the New Testament in my blood which is shed for you. Love's request, the Lord requested us to remember him. Oh, but people say, and they've said this to me so many times, huh, it's not necessary for me to gather there like you do. I can remember the Lord in my own bedroom. I can remember the Lord out in the fields, you know, under the trees. I can remember the Lord anywhere. Let me get back to our verse. He took bread and gave thanks and break it. He took bread and gave thanks and break it. and gave to them, saying, This is my body, which is given for you this. And I put a little square around, a little frame around the word this. This do. This do. What? Do what? Why, take bread and break it. Take wine and bless it. This do. Not walk out under the fields and think about the Lord. Not stay home. Or lie in bed and say, I can think of the Lord and remember the Lord. That isn't what he said at all. He said, this do in remembrance of me. This do. Break the bread and drink the cup. This do in remembrance of me. This is the Lord's request. Long, long years ago, King David... was hard pressed by his enemies. And we read in Second Samuel chapter twenty three David said this. David was then in and hauled and the garrison of the Philistines was then in Bethlehem. That was David's town, Bethlehem. And David said this. David longed. David longed, and he said, Oh, that one would give me drink of the water of the well of Bethlehem, which is by the gate. And three of those mighty men broke through the host of the Philistines and drew water out of the well of Bethlehem that was by the gate and took it and brought it to David. David longed in his heart and said, I'd long to get a drink of that well that I used to drink of when I was a boy in Bethlehem. And three brave men broke through the enemy ranks and got the water for King David. He longed in his heart. I sometimes think there's a longing in the heart of the Son of God. the Lord Jesus who died on Calvary's cross for us and gave his life and shed his precious blood and his body was broken. And he said amid the turmoil of that life that you're going to live, right down through the centuries, right down through the year nineteen seventy, you'll be pressed in by business and the home and the family and the affairs of this life. I want you to stop. and think about me. I'm laying down my life and shedding my precious blood. I want you to go back and think about what I'm doing for you. This do in remembrance of me. To me that is love's request. Love's response. How do I respond to the request of the Lord? Well, you see, as I said just now, oh, I think of the Lord very often. These people that were baptized on the day of Pentecost, they continued in the Apostles' doctrine, fellowship, breaking of bread and prayers. That was part of their life. It wasn't for this Sunday and then forget it. They continued steadfastly in the breaking of bread. And this to me is love's response that we continue steadfastly in this thing which he requested. John, verse fourteen, it says, If ye shall ask anything in my name, I will do it. Now let's reverse it, shall we? If the Lord shall ask anything, what's the response? The Lord says to us, if ye shall ask anything in my name, I will do it. Now he's asked something of us. We asked something of him, he says, I'm going to do it. He's asking something of us. What's the answer? I will do it. Are we replying that way? I will do it. Lord, on the Lord's day, I will give the Lord's table. Is that why we're responding? Are we saying yes, I will do this, Lord? Do this, break bread and drink wine together. That's what the early disciples did. They continued in this thing. Love's response. John, verse twenty-three, Jesus answers and said unto them, If a man loved me, he will keep my words. Now further up he says, if he loved me, keep my commandments. But we said just now, this is not just a commandment. This is a request. And it goes to me deeper than a commandment. The Lord is not saying, you must do this. He's saying, if you love me, see the difference? If you love me, you keep my words. If a man loves me, he will keep my words. And the Father will love him, and we will come unto him and make our abode with him. Love's response. If you love me, keep my words. Then I got another word. Love's rendezvous. This is a French word. Love rendezvous. And I turned it up in the dictionary, in the English dictionary, and this is what it says, coming from the French it says, in the dictionary, rendezvous. An appointment or engagement made between two or more persons to meet at a fixed place or time. A rendezvous. An appointment or engagement made between two or more persons to meet at a fixed place or a fixed time. Do you think that describes the Lord's table? I think it does, you know. A rendezvous. Loves rendezvous. An appointment between two or more persons to meet at a fixed place at a fixed time. Loves rendezvous. Where is the rendezvous where we meet the Lord Jesus? He says, remember me. Where can we meet to remember him? All of us have been back as we look back over the years to those old, thrilling, wonderful days when we fell in love with somebody of the opposite sex. And there were certain spots that we just loved. We'd say the rendezvous will be at that place. Because we'd love that place. Some little restaurant, or some walk by the seashore, or some place somewhere in this great world that seemed to be the rendezvous where we love to meet and express our love to one another. Where is the rendezvous? Where we can express our love to the Lord Jesus? Where is it? Listen. When God gave commandment to Moses to build a tabernacle, he described what he had to build in Exodus twenty-six. And then he said, I want you to make an ark. And you know the ark. It's the ark that was covered by the mercy seat. and on the mercy seat the blood was sprinkled and the two cherubim looked down with their eyes upon that blood and God came down into the midst of his people and dwelt between the two cherubim. And this is what he says, there will I meet with thee and will commune with thee from above the mercy seat from between the two cherubim which are upon the ark of the testimony of all things which I will give thee in commandment. There will I meet with thee. Long ago God met in the midst of his people Israel, right in the midst of the camp. And I like to think of that camp, you know. There were three tribes on the east side and three tribes on the west side and three tribes on the north side and three tribes on the south side. Now, I don't agree with the way the artists show the tabernacle. And three tribes along here, three tribes along here, three along here, three along here, because there are sixty-six thousand people in the first tribe anyhow. And if they stretched out this way, this crowd couldn't come at all this way. And I believe the three tribes were stretched out this way, Judah and so on and so on. Sixty-six thousand and all the thousands out this way to the east. the east, we say, this way for you, and three out this way, and three more to the north and three to the south. And when God looked down in the wilderness with all the tents of Israel, as Balaam looked down and he said, how beautiful are thy tents, O Jacob, what did he see? A great big cross in the desert. down there upon the sand of the desert the tents were spread that way and that way and that way and that way and they formed a great big cross and right in the middle of that cross was a tabernacle and right in the midst of that tabel tabernacle was an ark and a blood-stained mercy seat and God dwelt there that's where he dwelt there will I meet with thee where did he meet with us today Matthew eighteen verse twenty where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst. It might be in a great cathedral, It might be in some little schoolroom. It might be in a chapel like this. It might be in a home. It might be in a cave somewhere, as they often did. Down in the catacombs of Rome they met like this. But the Lord says, where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst. Where is the rendezvous where God meets his people and the Lord Jesus wishes us to remember him? Anywhere where we can meet in his name. Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst. Loves rendezvous, the spot with Jesus in the midst. Loves rendezvous. Loves remembrances. I've kind of made this word up. Loves remembrances. What does love give us? What does the Lord give us that we might remember him? You see... Let's go back to the question of some loved one going abroad, going away. A soldier going out to the war, and his wife gives him some little momentum, I don't care what it is, maybe a pen to write with, maybe some little jewel or something, I don't know, maybe a ring to it. And he says, that's the thing, though. When you see that, you just think about me. The remembrance, when you see that, think about me. What did the Lord Jesus give us? Something that we could look at. And every time we look at it, it'll bring our minds back to that central focal point, the place called Calvary. What did he give us? Oh, we say only bread and only wine. Yet the pledge of love divine. Only bread and only wine. But I notice in each of the three Gospels, the Synoptic Gospels, which tell us about the Lord's request, John doesn't mention it. But in the other three, Matthew, Mark and Luke, they all emphasize this and they all say this. This is my body. Every one of them repeats these words. This is my body. This is my blood. That's the remembrance, sir, that God has given us. A loaf of bread and a cup of wine. You say, well, what in the world has that got to do with the Lord? Well, he says, this is it. This is my body. This is my blood. That's what he gave us. Now, I don't want to break any hearts here tonight, but I remember many years ago I was given a wonderful little booklet. And somewhere amongst my treasured possessions, I've got that booklet still, unless I've lent it to somebody, but I don't, I couldn't put, maybe in this office here, I don't know, I've got most of my books there, but I've got a little book. It's called The Lord's Supper. It was written by a man called C.S. Jennings. Some of you knew him very well years ago. I only met him once. He came to England, I would say in the year, nineteen thirty-four perhaps, and I met him, and he gave me this booklet, The Lord's Supper. And it's one of the most wonderful things I've read on the Lord's Supper, but this is what he says. He said the Lord was going to leave his disciples. He was going to die. He was going to heaven. He was going to leave them. He gives them something to remember. Now he said, we go through this. Our loved ones die. And our hearts are wounded and sore and broken. And week by week we go so regularly to the cemetery. But he said, thank God God heals that wound. It must be. Life must go on. Then we don't go so often to the cemetery. And we don't go so often to the cemetery. But he said, one day we open the door. And out of that drawer we pull a glove, just a glove, and we look at that glove and we see the very shape of the hand that we love and something in us wells right up. We don't need to go to the cemetery. That glove is reminded us of the hand we love so much that's gone to glory. We also pull out the drawer and we see a letter and we see the very handwriting of that loved one and that wells up in our heart. All love and affection for the one that's gone on to glory. What did God give us that could take the place of the glove or take the place of the handwriting to make us think about the Lord Jesus? He said, I'm going to give you loaf and I'm going to give you wine. And I've traveled a good bit in this old world and I've never found a place yet where you can't find bread and you can't find wine. Simple, common things of life, bread and wine. Why did he choose bread? Well, we've mentioned it so many times. The loaf of bread not long ago was growing in the fields, the wheat. And when it was ripe it was cut off and the Lord was cut off in the midst of his days. And then the bread was taken and flashed to divide the husk from the corn and the Lord Jesus when he stood before Pilate was scourged. And that bread tells me that that flour, that bread, that once corn, was beaten and the Lord Jesus was beaten before Pilate. And then that bread was taken and put in the milled and it was ground to powder. The corn was ground to powder and the flour was made. When I was a boy, I used to go and see an uncle of mine who lived in the south of England, and he was a miller, and he worked the old-fashioned mill that was run by a water wheel, you know, a water wheel going around, and there were two millstones, another millstone, the bottom millstone, flat, horizontal wheel going around, and the upper millstone. He used to drop down on it, and he would put on a pair of goggles, and he could dress the millstones, you know, chip away with a chisel and dress them so as to grind the flour. And the corn came down in between the stones and the millstones ground around and turned the corn to flowers. And the Blessed Son of God, the heavenly wheat that fell into the ground at the place called Calvary was ground in the mill, between the millstone of the wrath of man and the upper millstone of the wrath of God. He was ground there. And that bread tells me of how the Lord Jesus suffered for me. And then the bread was taken, we refers to it this morning, It was made into a loaf, and the loaf was put in the oven. I had another uncle, and he was a baker. He didn't have these modern electric bakeries. He had a, he would look in a small hole, and the bread was put in on a long, like a spade, they used to call a peel, and it was put in and placed all in a great big flat area, and then they turned the heat on, and the flames came up around, and the door was shut, you know. And the flames came up around and scorched, and baked the bread. And when the bread came out of the oven, it bore the marks of the flames. It was browned and scorched by the flames of the furnace. And the Lord Jesus, he said, this is my body. I'm going through the furnace. God's going to shut the oven door. And the old earth will be covered in darkness for three long hours. And I'll go into the oven. And I'll endure the wrath of God. And the flames of the judgment of God are going to look around me at the place called Calvary. And for all eternity, just like that bread is marked. And that bread is scorched. And shows the signs of the oven. for all eternity in my hands and feet. I'm going to show the signs of the oven when I went through the furnace and endured the wrath of God and was nailed to a cross for you. Take this breath, he said. These are the remembrances. This is what you look at to think about me. A simple loaf of bread. And then he gave them a cup. He gave them a cup of wine. And as I said many times here when I lived in the Middle East, I used to see them out in the vineyards gathering in the grapes, of course. and treading the wine press. They brought the grapes in on the donkey's backs and they throw them into a great stone trough and a man would get in there and trample them. He probably put on six pairs of socks, you know, because the wasps and the bees all came stinging around his legs and he'd trample up and down on the grapes and the juice flowed out. And the juice was the wine. And the Lord Jesus said, this is my blood. What does he mean? He meant that he was going to pass through the wine press of the wrath of God at the place called Calvary. And he's going to be trampled by the wrath of God and crushed and crushed at the place called Calvary. And his precious blood would flow out. This is my blood, he says. Take this. Do this in remembrance of me. Love's remembrances. Only bread. and only wine. I don't think there's any connection between the sixth chapter of John where he says, this is my flesh, except a man eat my flesh and drink my blood. He has no part in me. I don't think there's any connection between that and the Lord's table. That's salvation. That's assimilating Christ as my Savior, eating his flesh and drinking his body. But the breaking of bread is another thing. And he gives us these remembrances, bread and wine, that we might think of him. So we spoke of love's request, of love's response, of love's rendezvous, of love's remembrance service. Now, love's repetitions, love's repetitions. You know, some people say to me, what do you want to break bread every Sunday for? What do you have a communion service every Sunday for? Well, we have it once a month. Some say, well, we only go once in three months. I've heard people say, you know, I go to the communion on Easter Sunday and that's enough. In the Acts of the Apostles, it says, the disciples came together on the first day of the week to break bread. It doesn't say on the first Sunday in April or the first Sunday in March. It says, on the first day of the week they came together to break bread. Love's repetition. Love's repetition. Acts two, forty-two, they continued steadfastly in the Apostles' doctrine, fellowship and the breaking of bread. Acts ten, verse twenty, on the first day of the week, The disciples came together to break bread. Love's repetitions. And Paul tells us, in one Corinthians eleven, as often as he do this, as often as he do this, he'll show the Lord's death till he comes. Love's repetitions. Now my final point, love's responsibility. What do I mean by love's responsibility? Two weeks ago we made mention here one Sunday morning. I believe it was here. Perhaps it was when I was in England I made mention of this at the Lord's table once. You know, in the seventeenth chapter of Matthew, we get the story of the transfiguration of the Lord Jesus. And it's put this way. After six days, Jesus takes Peter, James and John, his brother, and brings him up into a high mountain apart after six days. And in Mark, I think it's put the same way, after six days. But Luke says, about eight days after, he took them up into a high mountain. Now how do you reconcile six days and eight days? I'll tell you something. The Lord says, Six days shall thou labor and do all thy work. There are six working days in a week. We come together to remember the Lord Jesus on the first day of the week. And then we have six days of work. And six days after, he took them up into a high mountain, and he was transfigured before them, and they gazed upon his radiant countenance. Oh, what a thrill it is to me, and has been all through life, after six working days, to gather on the first day of the week, and to find oneself taken up into a high mountain apart, and to gaze upon the face of the Lord Jesus. as we remember him in the breaking of the bread and the drinking of the cup. Ah, but Luke says, about eight days after, what does that mean? Well, eight is a resurrection number. There's a seven-day week, and the eighth day is the first day of another week. Eight is resurrection. Eight is the first day of another week. That's just what we do. On the eighth day, the first day of the week, we remember the Lord Jesus in the breaking of the bread. And he's transfigured before us. In John twenty, the first of all the first days, the first of all the resurrection days, the very day of his resurrection, that evening the Lord, the same day at evening, being the first day of the week when the doors were shut, he came to the disciples and made himself known to them. And then if you go down to verse twenty six, he says, After eight days again, his disciples were within. and cometh with them. Then cometh Jesus. The door is being shut and stood in the midst and said, Peace be unto you. What am I saying? What I'm saying is this. On the first of all the first days, the Lord appeared in the midst of his disciples. And eight days after, the next Lord's day, the second Lord's day in history, the disciples were gathered together. And the Lord says, We're two or three, gather together in my name, there am I. Here's the rendezvous. And the Lord acquires after eight days in their midst and reveals himself. And what happens? A doubting one. One that could hardly believe the wonder that the Lord was written. Thomas, he bowed at the Lord's feet and he said, My Lord and my God. Isn't that what we did this morning? As we gaze upon the wonder of Calvary, the place around these emblems, We gaze upon Him and with adoring hearts we say, My Lord and My God. Let's go over Acts twenty. We refer to it. Acts twenty verse seven. And it says here verse six of Acts twenty. We sailed away from Philippi after the days of unleavened bread. and came unto them at Shoraz in five days, where we abode seven days. And on the first day, that was the eighth day, on the first day, the disciples came together to break bread. That's just what we do. This was a New Testament practice to come together on the first day of the week to break bread. Now, what does that do for me? I'm talking about love's responsibility. What does it do to me? To me it's of vast importance. You see, first of all I cannot enter the Lord's presence on this holy occasion when we remember him, unless I'm clean, I can't come in dirty. We're washed for the blood of the Lamb. And there's such a thing as the washing of the water of the word. And let me tell you, beloved, every one of us, when we come to the Lord's table, we should have been first. We should have met the man with a pitcher of water before we go up into the upper room, we know. And here's the water. And we should know something of the washing of the water of the word. And during those six working days, we've had thoughts that were not his thoughts. We've had desires that were not his desires. We've said things that he wouldn't have us say. And we've done things he wouldn't have us do. What do we do? We come to him and tell him all about it. And if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And we come into his presence as holy priests, cleansed. That Sunday morning or Sunday evening or whenever we break bread on the first day of the week. Now if I do that Sunday and I'm in that holy atmosphere and my mind is filled with the thoughts of Christ and my lips are singing the praises of Christ, What am I going to do on Monday? Whose praise will I sing on Tuesday? Will I sing the sound of the devil or the sound of this world? Will these hands that have touched that holy thing, that bread and wine, will I touch the unholy things of this world? Oh, to me there's a cleansing, a sanctifying, a purifying effect about remembering the Lord on the first day of the week. And I believe that Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, my life will have to be conforming to the fact that I was in that holy place on Sunday. And if I know that next Sunday I'm going to remember the Lord and be again in that holy place where he says, I will meet with thee. I'll be minding very much what I'm going to do on Thursday. and Friday and Saturday. And to me the whole week long, those six days, after six days, they are sanctified and they will have a preserving effect upon me. Because I'm going to be in His presence again next Sunday morning. Love's responsibility. I will be responsible that my life, during the six working days of the week, my life is consistent. with the fact that I remember the Lord on the first day of the week. Now, these are my thoughts. Maybe you don't agree with all I've said. To me, the remembrance of the Lord is the greatest thing of all the week. I would not miss it for anything. I can't find anything in my life so important. as the remembrance of the Lord. Nothing but the direst illness ever keeps me from being at the Lord's table on the first day of the week. We went to England last month. We had five Sundays there. We were at the Lord's table every Sunday and in a different city every time. But we were there. We were there. Because I've heard the voice of the Lord Jesus say, do this in remembrance of me and I'm going to do it. As long as I've got strength, I'm going to respond to His love and His request and be at His table. What do you do on Sunday? Does this mean anything to him? Does his desire mean anything to you? His request, can we not respond to his request, and meet at that rendezvous that he's arranged to remember him? I trust that God will speak to our hearts and make this feast more precious. The early disciples continued steadlessly, amongst other things, In the breaking of bread. Shall we pray? Blessed God, our Father, we bow before thee. We thank you for these truths thou hast brought before us. We thank you for the desire of our Lord Jesus Christ. This do in remembrance of me. We pray, Lord, that this might ring a bell in our hearts. And that we might respond week by week. And remember thee, Lord Jesus. Till thou shalt come again. We pray thou bless thy word in our hearts, in the name of the Lord Jesus.