Worship is fundamentally an act of giving to God, not receiving, and is the supreme meeting of God's people, characterized by the Lord's Supper. The Apostle Paul, addressing divisions and abuses within the Corinthian church, restates the institution of the Lord's Supper, emphasizing a backward look to its origin, an upward look to Christ, a forward look to His return, an outward look proclaiming His death, and an inward look of self-examination. True worship, exemplified by Mary's anointing of Jesus, flows from an overflowing heart and a proper spiritual condition, prioritizing devotion to Christ above all other activities.
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together again in the first epistle to the Corinthians chapter eleven. First Corinthians chapter eleven. And we'll read from verse seventeen. First Corinthians eleven, verse seventeen. Now on this that I declare unto you, I praise you not. that you come together not for the better but for the worse. For first of all, when you come together in the church, I hear that there be divisions among you, and I partly believe it.
For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you. When you come together, therefore, into one place, this is not to eat the Lord's supper. For in eating, everyone taketh before other his own supper, and one is hungry, and another is drunken. What? Have you not harnessed to eat and to drink in? Or despise you the church of God, and shame them that have not? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you in this? I praise you not. For I have received of the Lord, that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus, the same night in which he was 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. This do in remembrance of me. Now for the same manner also he took the cup, when he had sucked, saying, This cup is the New Testament in my blood. This do ye, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me. For as often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till he come. Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily shall be guilty of the blood, the body and blood of the Lord.
But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world. Wherefore, my brethren, When ye come together to eat, tarry one for another. And if any man hunger, let him eat at home.
That ye come not together unto condemnation. And the rest will I set an order when I come. Now the third subject that we want to speak about, the connection with this epistle, the first epistle of the Corinthians, is the subject of worship. it's something that's very greatly misunderstood today just exactly what worship is and we want in a very simple way this morning to point out what the bible has to say about it and the great expression of it the climax of it that we find at the lord's table and at the lord's supper the first thing i want to point out that in this section of first corinthians seven times we get the expression When ye come together, when ye come together, when ye come together.
From chapter eleven, from the portion that we have read this morning, to the end of chapter fourteen we get that expression seven times. So it's perfectly obvious that what we get here is the corporate gathering of God's people. It's not an isolated thing. It's not an independent thing. But it's something that's corporate. and here we get church teaching. It's something that has to do with the church of God. And I want to emphasize that. This great worship gathering is something that characterizes the church. And I would like to say too that the worship gathering, the worship meeting, is the supreme meeting of God's people.
Now, if we were to turn over to the Acts of the Apostles and other epistles, we would see that there are seven different types of meeting. among God's people, not as church gatherings. God's people gathering together in this corporate way. There are seven meetings altogether. And I would like to point out that in every other one except this one, not as the worship meeting, we come to get. Now someone might say, well, what about the prayer meeting? Well, certainly as far as prayer is concerned, the petitions and supplications that we make, that we offer to God. We come together to pray to God and we come to ask for something.
There's some special need. There's some special difficulty that we have and we come together to pray. Prayer and supplication, intercession, these are things when we come together to God and we come to get from God. But in this meeting, the worship meeting, it's the only one where we come to give. Now, if you look at the first occurrence of worship in the Bible, you remember Abraham, Genesis chapter twenty-two, read that he took his son, his only son Isaac, and he went up to Mount Moriah and he said, Let us go yonder and worship and come again to you.
Now notice that the first time that we find worship mentioned, it is in connection with that offering of Isaac. The old man, Abraham, his heart was broken, but he came to give. And that giving was the giving of his only son. And so the first time we find worship mentioned the Bible, it's giving. And I do want to emphasize that right at the very commencement. Worship is giving to God. And the worship meeting is the highest expression of that love and affection that we have to God. We don't come to get. but we come to give. I think that that is the root meaning of the word.
Now, before we look at the passage itself, I think it might be as well to give a little background again to the teaching that we find in First Corinthians chapter eleven. These things that God has given to his church, it's not by way of command at all, but we find example and preset in the Word of God. But you know, these things have a way of being obliterated. And as time has gone on in church history, these great simple truths that were given to the early Apostolic Church, they have a way of being misinterpreted and misapplied. Now, I think it would be as well, just at the commencement, to point out a few things in Christendom today that we feel are very, very far astray from the teaching that we get in this lovely passage.
I suppose the greatest sanction of Christendom today is Roman Catholicism. And if I were to ask a Roman Catholic just what is implied by the Mass, as they call it today, or the Lord's Supper, or the Lord's Savior, they would refer right back to the dogma that was formulated in twelve, fifteen by one of the popes, and that was later ratified, unexplained, and formulated at the Council of Trent. in the sixteenth century. Now the Roman Catholic Church today believes in what they call transubstantiation. It's the development of what we find here, but it's the development along an entirely false line.
If I were to ask again my Roman Catholic friend just what is implied or what is the teaching in the Mass, well he would tell me that transubstantiation, and it's called today, that when the priest elevates the host, as they call it, that is the bread. And by the way, the cup is reserved for the priesthood. It's only the lady. It's only the ordinary common man and woman that's allowed to partake of the bread. But it's called the host. And he would tell me that when the blessing is given and the host is elevated, that it's no longer bread. But by a super miracle, it has been transformed into the actual body and blood and sinews of the Lord Jesus.
And the word that's used in the formulation of the dogma at the Council of Trent is this, it's a true and proper and a propitiatory sacrifice for the living and for the dead. Now that means to say that the priest, when he elevates the host, he holds in his hand, The actual body and blood and sinews of our Lord Jesus Christ. And it is a true and proper sacrifice for the living and for the dead. Now that means to say that every time that the sacrifice of the Mass, as it's called, is offered. That that priest who stands beside the altar is offering the actual body and blood of our Lord Jesus.
Now that has been called. the greatest blasphemy and Christendom. And I want that to sink in. One reason why I never, never could become a Roman Catholic or have any fellowship with that system is this fundamental dogma of the Roman Catholic Church connected with the person of Christ. I have had a good deal to do with Rome, both in the country in which I was born. I have already told you that I am an Irishman. And in our country, in the southern part of the country, ninety-three percent of the people are practicing Roman Catholics. And I don't suppose that any part of the world where there are more practicing Roman Catholics in the north south of Ireland.
I don't need to tell you that. You know that as well as I do. That is my background. And for over forty years, I lived in Angola, under another country where Rome was in complete control. I have studied the doctrine. I don't say this in any prejudiced way this morning. Someone might say, do you believe that such a thing is a true believer in the Church of Rome? I do. I could tell you stories about that. People who don't know the foundations of their own church and the history and some of the things that's connected with it, I believe that they're truly born-again believers in Rome today. But at the same time, as far as the system is concerned, I never, never could become a Roman Catholic, and I never could have any fellowship with that system on account of the dogmas and the doctrines that have been formulated.
Now, I think that we should understand that. There's some people today speaking about this ecumenical movement, And they say, after all, Rome has changed. She hasn't changed. There are a few little things that she has changed. And instead of reading the Mass in Latin, it's being read in English today in the English-speaking world. And they're relaxing a little bit on birth control. And also, whether a person is able to eat meat on Friday, on Atlanta. They're relaxing a few little things like that. But as far as the basic dogmas of the Church of Rome is concerned, she has never, never, never given up one iota, and she never will.
As a matter of fact, the slogan of the Roman Catholic Church is Semper Edom. And that means always the same. She will never change. Why believe that God's people today should understand that. Rome has not changed. She never will, and she never can. And I believe that every true evangelical believer should know just what she teaches. The basis of her dogma and her doctrine today is the dogma of transubstantiation. Now, I know that some of the priesthood are immoral men. I have been with them in their company, men who drink and smoke, and at the same time are immoral in their lives.
Now, I say that advisedly. And I could give my proof for it. And at the same time, a man of that type to actually take a wafer in his hand. And profess to be able to transform that wafer by this super miracle into the actual body. And blood and seniors of the Lord Jesus Christ himself. And offered in sacrifice upon the altar. That is something that I will never, never of any fellowship with. It's a complete denial of the truth of the Word of God. Oh, I believe that we should understand these things today, not only transubstantiation, but that about half a dozen other doctrines and dogmas that I'm not going to speak about this morning is not along the line of what we want to speak about.
But I think that we should understand that every true evangelical believer must, if they want to be faithful to the Word of God, have no fellowship with this great travesty of God's truth and God's precious Word. Now at the Reformation, there was a man called Martin Luther raised up, a man for whom I have the greatest honor and the greatest respect. Now Martin Luther, he saw the terrible travesty of the Word of God in connection with transubstantiation. One great mystery to me is why Martin Luther died in his bed.
He was able to stand up. against the whole of Europe at that time and the whole of Christendom, and that the diet of worms, when he stood there like a man, and told them what he believed, and said, so help me, God, he said, I can do no other. I take off my hat to Martin Luther. God did a wonderful work, and I believe the Holy Spirit wrought in a remarkable way at that time. And when Martin Luther nailed his ninety-nine theses to the door of the church in Wittenberg in Germany, those hammer blows were heard around the world. He was a great man. But you know, there's some things he didn't understand.
And there were some things that he brought with him out of the church of Rome. Now, he did not believe in transubstantiation. But he believed in a modification of the dogma. And he believed in what he called consubstantiation. Transubstantiation, of course, it means to transform. Transubstantiation. But he called it con-substantiation. And the way he formulated the doctrine was that in and with and under the bread, there was the actual presence of Christ. Now God raised up other man, and among them was a man in Switzerland called Ulrich Zwingli.
He too was a reformer. This dear brother, Zwingli, he had his eyes open to the teaching of the word of God concerning the Lord's Supper and the Lord's table. And he decided to go and have a conversation with Martin Luther. He was a Swiss reformer. Zwingli was. And so he made the long journey to Germany. And he had an interview with Martin Luther in the castle of Marburg. And before they started the conversation, Martin Luther was a very blunt, forthright type of a man. Before they started to talk about this question of the Lord's Supper, the Lord's table, Luther took a piece of chalk out of his pot.
And on the Green Bay's tablecloth, where they were having the conversation, he wrote these words, This is my body. He wrote it in Latin. The four Latin words he wrote on the green-based tablecloth, this is my body. Now I said, Zwingli, before we start to talk, I want to tell you that this is the Word of God. He said, I don't want reason. I don't want common sense. He said, I don't want mathematics. He said, the Word of God is beyond reason and common sense and mathematics. He said, this is what the Word says. This is my body, and this is what I believe. Zwingli was a very gracious man.
He said, My dear brother Martin, he said, I'm perfectly willing to admit that that is what the Word of God says. But at the same time it says, I am the door. It also says, I am the true vine. And I said, You know, there is such a thing as metaphor and illustration. And he said, When the Lord said, I am the door, it didn't mean a wooden door. But what he was speaking about was something... along the line of metaphor. He was the door of salvation and the door of the sheep, the door of the sheepfold. He said he was speaking metaphorically. He was using an illustration. And when he said himself, this is my body, it was a symbol.
It was an illustration. Martin Luther lost his temper. And he shunted at the top of his voice. He said, Zwingli, he said, you're twisting the word of God. He said, I don't want reason or common sense or mathematics. He said, this is what the word says and this is what I believe. And when Zwingli saw he wasn't getting anywhere with him and he couldn't do anything to change his mind, he walked around the other side of the table and he put out his hand. He said, dear brother Martin, he said, I see we're not going to agree about this point, but he said, at least we're brethren in Christ. He said, give me your hand. And Martin Luther, he put his two hands behind his back. and he shouted at the top of his voice, You're no brother of mine.
And he turned on his heel and he left the room. The two men never met. One of the saddest pictures in church history to me is those two good men. Martin Luther, a giant. Ulrich Zwingli, a giant. And the two men couldn't agree about this matter of the Lord's table and its meaning. They parted company that day. And from that little scene in the castle of Marburg in Germany in the sixteenth century, there came the Lutheran churches of Germany and Scandinavia and the rest of the world. And from that same meeting, there came the Presbyterian churches of Switzerland and Scotland and the rest of the world.
Oh, as we look at these things, it has been repeated again and again. And I think that what we need to do today is not to go back to the church of Rome. certainly not to go back to dear Martin Luther or Ulrich Zwingli. These were outstanding men, these two men. But what we need to do is to just get back to the complete simplicity of the Word of God. And that's what we would like to do this morning. We're not here to decry other people or here for to run other people down. What we're here to do is to try to show what the Word of God has to say about this lovely gathering together of God's people at the Lord's table to observe the Lord's Supper of what it has to say.
Now the Apostle Paul here, he goes into it in this chapter. And I'd like to point out five looks that we have in the passage that we have read together. But before we do that, Before we look at the actual passage itself, just look for a moment at the circumstances it called it forth. You know, at Corinth, there are all kinds of problems and difficulties. And as far as Christian people are concerned, even those that are born again, you know, there's weakness and failure everywhere. And certainly at the Church of Corinth, there's a good deal there to give heartache and headache to God's dear servant. We have been pointing out that at the commencement of the Epistle there was moral trouble.
A man actually living in the grossest form of immorality that was allowed to partake at the Lord's Supper. He was there in the church. And yet he was living with his father's wife. At the commencement of the Epistle Paul has to deal with moral difficulty. And then at the end of the Epistle it was doctrinal. The activity was found there at Corinth who denied the bodily resurrection of Christ. And the apostle in that long chapter, in that magnificent chapter, chapter fifteen, he has to show that the great prototype of bodily resurrection is the person of Christ himself. And he lays down the doctrine there connected with the resurrection body.
At the beginning it was morals. At the end it was doctrine. But in between there were practical things. And in this central section of the epistle, the Apostle deals with him. Now, we have been speaking about fellowship at the end of chapter ten, where we get the word six times. Yesterday morning we were speaking about headship. The threefold headship, first of all, the headship of God, the headship of Christ, and then the headship of man. And the implications that we find in church life today concerning this threefold headship. And then our section here this morning, it's occupied with worship.
Fellowship, headship, worship. But before the apostle deals with it, he points out that there was a twofold abuse of their observance of the Lord's Supper. Now the first one he has to take them to task about, and he said, by the way, he said, I don't praise you about this. You know, it was so easy for a preacher. When he goes into a new place, People that he has never met before, to say pleasing things, and to try to please people. But if there's one man that I have no respect for at all, it's the man who preaches to the gallery. Or the man who gets up and preaches to try to please people. Or if we did that, we wouldn't be the servants of Christ.
We must keep the Lord before us on the Word of God, the plain, simple statements of the Word of God. This is the important thing. If people are pleased, that's very nice. Oh, we're just so glad when people are pleased. But if they're not pleased, well, we can't help it. We try to do it in as gracious a way as we possibly can. But the great fundamental fact today is that there's such a tremendous lack of plain, simple exposition of what the Word of God says. And I believe if he only understood it and would be willing to obey it, all our difficulties would disappear. Now the Apostle twice here in speaking about the Lord's Supper and his exposition of it, now I said, I don't praise you about this.
There was a two-fold abuse there. And the first one was that they were separated. There were affections as they were sitting at the Supper. Now I suppose each of us this morning understand that when they gather together on the Lord's Day, Before the Lord's Supper was observed at all, there was a little love feast. The word that's generally used is anagape. They gather together. And before the Lord's table was spread, before the Lord's Supper was observed, they first of all had a communal meal. It's called anagape. And the Apostle in speaking about it, he said, you're divided among yourselves. He said, I have heard that.
And he said, I know it's true. Apparently there was social distinctions. among them. There were those who came with their lunch basket, they were going to spend the day. Those that were rich, those that had everything along material lines, they brought their lunch basket. But on the other hand, there was the slave, a person who at some great cost to himself came to the meeting, but he was just a poor slave. And he came hungry. And he sat on the corner, this poor individual sat on the corner of the slave, whereas the wealthy merchant, or the person who had everything that this world could provide, he sat on the other corner with this luxurious lunch basket, and he ate, and he over-indulged, and the Apostle says, some are hungry and some are drunken.
Now there's a two-fold abuse here, and the first one is social distinction and cliques and parties among God's people. Oh, beloved friends, let's never, never allow our gatherings together, even a social gathering, ever to deteriorate into anything of the kind. You know, some of God's dear people are among the most humble of earth. I could tell you about some that I have known during my life, men who came from a very, very humble origin and to have been my dear friends. Many of them have suffered severely in various ways. I know people who are hungry. I know people who at various times in their life pass through experiences of that kind.
But my dear friend, let's never look at the texture of a man's coat, but let's look at his heart. That is the important thing. But there was these social distinctions and pleats and parties among them, and the Apostle has to take them to task about it. And then secondly, there was this abuse that actually some of them were sitting there intoxicating. Can you imagine in any company of God's people such a thing being tolerated? But yet it was happening there. And the Apostle has to take them to task about the fact that there were actually some sitting there prior to the Lord's table, prior to the observance of the Lord's Supper under intoxicated.
This is the two-fold abuse. Now, to correct this abuse, the Apostle gives us a restatement of the doctrine. And I would like to point out that what we get here are five great looks. The way I want to divide it is in that way. First of all, there is the backward look to the institution. The same night in which the Lord was betrayed, he took bread. He points them backwards to the institution. And then secondly, he gives them an upward look. And that upward look is what the Lord said, remember me. Remember me. And then thirdly, we get a forward look. Read here, it's till he come.
We get the anticipation, the forward look. And then we get an outward look. Ye do show, you do proclaim the Lord's death. Now I believe that that word show, it indicates that there is not only a visible representation of the Lord's death in the bread and the cup that's on the table, but at the same time the word means to preach. Now I think that at the Lord's table, while we gather together, there's always the place for the reading of the word and the explanation of what it really is. So we get that outward look, the proclamation, the telling forth of the Lord's death, not only in symbolism in the bread and the cup that's in the table, but by the reading of the word too, while we're sitting at the Lord's table explaining just exactly what it is.
And then finally there's the inward look. The apostle uses seven times a very, very severe word here. The word in the original is the same. The Apostle uses it seven times, but it's translated so differently in so many passages here that sometimes we're confused about it. The word is judgment. If a man would judge himself, he would not be judged. And so here we get the inward look, the preparation for sitting at the Lord's table. Now, just a word or two about the first one, the backward look to the institution. If we were to take the time this morning to turn back to the four Gospels, we would find...
that in the three synoptic Gospels, Matthew and Mark and Luke, we get the account of what the Lord did in that night in which he was betrayed. It would be interesting to turn over to the three passages and point out the differences we find in them. Now, we're not going to take time to do that this morning, but there certainly is a wonderful body of teaching in Matthew and Mark and Luke, the three synoptic Gospels concerning the institution of the Supper. It was the night in which he was betrayed. Now in looking at Matthew and Mark, we would find there a tremendous similarity, both in the wording and in the termination.
You remember that after the breaking of the bread and after the institution of the supper were eaten, they sang a hymn. Now both Matthew and Mark tell us about that hymn that was sung. What do you think it was? Well, Dr. Edersheim, in his exposition of these synoptic Gospels, he pointed out that at the Jewish Passover, there were always a number of Psalms that were sung. It was a part of the ritual. And he suggests that the hymn that was sung just before the Pyrrhic and Vandar Ars de Gethsemane was the latter portion of the one hundred and eighteenth Psalm.
They were called the Hallel Sands. The termination of the Hallel. It was the latter portion of the one hundred and eighteen psalm. And if you would turn over and read it, it throws a floodlight on the thoughts in the heart of our Blessed Lord that night when he took the bread and he took the cup after they had sung on him. We were talking about the Lord Jesus being the leader of praise. He will be in a coming day. But the only time who were read about him singing was at the Lord's table in the upper room. Oh, I would love to have heard the way he sang. I'd love to have heard the words that he used.
He had used them again and again on that last week. The stone which the builders refused, the same has become the headstone of the corner. This is the Lord's doing, and it's marvelous in our eyes. And then that other word, Hosanna, blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. And then at the end of the passage, we'll read these words.Bind the sacrifice with cords, even to the horns of the altar. Oh, I'd love to hear him sing. We'll read about him preaching, on teaching, on praying. But this is the only time recorded in the Gospels that he signed. on a sign of the supper, and then they went out into the night.
Now Matthew and Mark give us the fundamental facts concerning the institution. In the Gospel according to Luke, Luke makes a very fine distinction between the Passover and the Lord's Supper. Again, it would take time to turn over to the passage and to point out the different cups that are used there. But Luke is very careful to make the distinction between the Passover ritual and then the institution of the supper. The two are divided and separated in the Gospel according to Luke. Someone might say, is there anything about it in the Gospel according to John? Well, John, he doesn't tell us about the institution, but he does give us a fact that's very often misunderstood today.
Someone would say, you know, the fact that Judas was present. at the institution, that would give license to anybody at all to walk in and sit down at the Lord's Supper. I've heard that again and again. Judas was there, and he partook, and we should judge yourselves and not judge anybody else. And therefore anybody at all has a right to come in and sit down at the Lord's Supper. I think that John, he makes it perfectly plain that before the Lord's Supper was instituted, that Judas was excluded. You remember what John says? I believe the reason that he gives that fact is supplemental to what we get in the Synoptic Gospels.
He points out that while they were sitting at the table, Jesus said, For I say unto you, One of you shall betray me. And one after the other said, Lord, who is it? Is it I? Who is it? Is it I? He said, He it is to whom I shall give the sot. Now again, to quote Dr. Eaterstein. who was a Hebrew believer. Dr. Edith Scheim, in his exposition, he points out that the sot was given to some honored guest as they sat at the table. It was composed of a portion of the Passover lamb, some of the bitter hairs on the on-leavened bread, and then the host at the table, the one who was there at the head of the table, he would take this portion from the Passover, and he would dip it in the dish, and he would hand it to an honored guest.
It was an act of courtesy. It was an act of kindness. And the Lord Jesus said, He it is to whom I shall give the supper. Now remember, it's the Passover. And read after Judas had received the supper, he went out immediately. And then the dramatic words, and it was night of the Passover. I personally believe that what we get in John chapter thirteen is the exclusion of the traitor. And after he was gone, the cloud was left it. And the Lord, he takes the bread and the cup and he institutes the feast. There are many, many lovely details in the Gospels concerning the institution, the backward look that we just have to leave for the sake of our time. The one I want to speak about particularly, just for a minute or two, is the upward look.
Remember me. Remember me. do we come together on the Lord's day? Why do we sit at the table? And why do we take the bread and the wine? You know, it's an act of worship. And again, I want to point out, and I want to emphasize it, that it's the only activity in the life of a believer when he has the opportunity of coming to give and not to get. In our prayer meeting, we pour out our hearts to God, and we ask him for something. But when we come to the Lord's table... We come to remember Him. Remember Me. We get the upward look. Where is He today? He's at God's right hand.
Oh, we're so thankful He's not on the cross. We're so thankful He's not on the tomb. We were speaking about this burial last night. But thank God we come together to remember a glorified man. Over in Africa... We have a little custom among the Africans. Some of our dear African Christians were taken off by force in forced labor, taken away for a couple of years. I don't want to talk about that or tell missionary stories, but just by way of illustration, we had a man there called Sakaya. He was a lovely Christian, and he was dragooned one time to go away.
for two years' spell of forced labor. And I think I can see him yet. Just before he left home, he called his wife, lovely girl. We had the opportunity of marrying them. And just before he left her, he took some little thing, some little insignificant thing, and he gave it to her and said, remember me. And that little thing that he gave her was called an Anjival we saw. That is a lovely word. It means a remembrance. And that girl she took it and she wrapped it up on her cloth. He said, if ever you feel lonely, if ever you feel in difficulty of any kind, he says, just look at that. And he said, that will remember me.
It will be a remembrance of me. It was called the Anji Valwisa. Now it's exactly the same with that. The Lord Jesus was going up to the throne and before he left, now he said, here's an Anji Valwisa. Remember me. Oh, it's not the dogma. It's not so much a doctrine, but it's a glorious person. And that person is the Lord Jesus himself. Remember me. We get the upward look here to the throne. Now, it is perfectly true. We come to remember his death. And I think that any instructed, intelligent believer while we sit at the table, the outstanding thing that we remember while we're there is his death upon the cross.
You know, sometimes one would get up. on given exposition of something that doesn't tend in that direction, we just can't help but feel we wonder whether the brother who does that is in the mind of the Lord or not. We think that everything that should be said, undone. While we sit at the table, it should be the remembrance of Christ. And not only that, but the outstanding fact is what he did for us upon Calvary's cross. And as we think of him and what he did, there's something spontaneous happens. What is it? Worship. I wonder if anyone here this morning could really define worship, what it really is. You know, it's something that's very, very difficult to define.
There are at least three or four illustrations on the Bible, and one is the burning heart. We mentioned that last night. Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked with us by the way? And while he opened up onto us the scriptures, the burning heart is a picture of worship. Another is a springing well. You remember Psalm forty five, my heart is undiving, bubbling over a good matter. It's the bubbling heart. And then the psalmist, in Psalm twenty three, this is what he said, my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy has followed me all the days of my life.
On the Apostle, and speaking about the feeling that he had, he said, My cup runeth over. While we're sitting at the table and meditating upon the work of Christ and the person of Christ upon the cross, so to speak, our heart is just a little golden chalice. On God he pours in, and he pours in, and he pours in, and he pours in, and then the cup is full. But he still continues to pour in, and then it spills over the edge. It is the overflowing heart. My cup runs over. Do you ever feel like that? Many a time I have. And as I sit at the tables, many, many times I never open my mouth. But I have the opportunity of sitting, thinking about the Lord.
And having the on-jeeval we saw, the bread and the cup. And as we look at that and think of what he did and then meditate upon the one at God's right hand, the cup overflows and we worship. I think it's illustrated too by Mary. Oh, that lovely scene, John chapter twelve. Read of Mary, she brings her alabaster box of white men. And while she sits at the table, she brings that alabaster box and she breaks it, she pours it upon his head and upon his feet and reads that the whole house, was filled with the odor of the ointment. I heard a Roman Catholic many years ago describing how this is what he said.
I'll never forget it. He said that when Mary sat at the feet of the Lord and poured her alabaster box of ointment upon his head and upon his feet, the whole house was filled with the odor of the ointment. And then she did a beautiful thing. She takes the hair of her head, her glory. that we were speaking about yesterday morning, she takes her glory on using it as a towel. She wipes his feet. You know, for many a day afterwards, our blessed Lord, as he went down into death, as he went to the cross, as he was in Gethsemane, he had the joy of having that fragrance upon his person.
But Mary, as she walked up and down the streets of Bethany, people would be sniffing and saying, where's the fragrance coming from? that was coming from Mary's glory. She got it on her hair and possibly she got more on her hair than actually the Lord Jesus got upon his person. Now that's worship. It's the overflowing heart. It's the fragrance that comes from the heart of the believer to that blessed one who died for us upon Calvary. Now it's a good thing to sing hymns and it's a good thing to read. We have it right here in the passage. An excellent thing to read the Word of God. But you know, the important thing is that my heart overflows. The worship that goes up from my heart.
And I want to say this. It doesn't take an awful lot of gift to get up and read a passage. And if anyone has a glib tongue, and a facile mind, it's quite easy to get up and give an exposition. But to worship, that's something different. A man needs to be in a good spiritual condition before he can worship. On any spiritual believer, anyone that knows anything about God and His Word, you can tell right away whether the man is in a good spiritual condition or not. I believe that this is the reason. I believe that this is the reason today why there's a reluctance as we sit at the Lord's table to pray and to worship.
We can read and read and read and sing and sing and sing and sing and so on. That's good. But the important thing is, do we worship? That's what we come for. And you can tell right away whether a man is in tune with God or not. You need to be in touch with God if you're going to worship. This is the upward look. And then there's the outward look. You do show the Lord's dad. Now, the word actually means to preach. And I think it's a good thing while we sit at the table to open the Word of God and read. I have been at breaking of bread meetings, as it's called, many, many times, and never is the Word of God opened and read. Now, personally, I feel that that is a mistake.
I think that the passage here, preach or show, proclaim. The actual original word here, it means to proclaim. You do proclaim the Lord's death. I think that there should be some reading of the word, always tending to the exaltation of Christ, intending to explain just what we're doing while we sit at the table. I know a young man, sixteen years of age, his father was an evangelist over in my native land. He wasn't a Christian. As a matter of fact, he was a rebellious teenager, very, very rebellious against his father and against his mother. And one Sunday morning he came to the breaking of bread meeting.
He came to the worship meeting, and he sat at the bank as an observer. And while we were sitting at the table, there was a preacher who got up and read the word. And would you believe that that young man, sitting, observing what was going on, God reached his heart and saved him while he was sitting at the Lord's table? Ye do show, ye do proclaim, the Lord's dead. Oh, what a wonderful thing it is when everything that's done there, it tends to the exaltation and the honor and the glory of the Lord Jesus. And then secondly, the exposition of the word concerning his death upon Calvary. And then is the forward, Luke.
It's till he comes. You know that some of us are getting on in this life. We don't know how long we're going to the left here. We know the Lord is coming soon. Coming very soon. And if he were to come today, we would have no longer the bread on the cup. We wouldn't need it. The bread, of course, symbolizing his body, the cup, symbolizing his precious blood. We would no longer need that. It's only till he comes. Oh, let's have the opportunity while we can. Now, I want to say this, just in passing, and I don't say it in any proud way at all. I've been a Christian for fifty years.
On three weeks after I became a Christian, I was baptized, and I observed that ordinance of believers' baptism. And immediately afterwards, I came into fellowship with the company of God's people on the other side of the Atlantic. And during these fifty years, I have never been absent. Now, I don't say this in any bragging way, but I have never been absent on the Lord's Day. at the Lord's table for any reason whatever, unless I was on the broad of my back and wasn't able to get up. Now we're not bragging about that, but to me the important thing in life is to have a little interview with a man of Calvary on a Lord's Day morning.
And if it happened, I don't suppose it ever would happen, that I were given an invitation to go to St. Paul's Cathedral and preach at the coronation of the Queen of England. or in any of these great structures of Christendom today, at the same time when the Lord's Supper is being observed, I wouldn't hesitate for a moment. I have a higher function to perform, and that function is worship. I believe it's the important thing. And I do hope that each one of us realizes the tremendous importance of worship. You remember the angels, the seraphim, Isaiah chapter six? Leave with two wings, they cover their face. With two wings that cover their feet and with two that did fly.
Our people are very active today. They love to fly. On service is put on a pedestal today. Oh, it's so important to be in the King's business and to be quick and doing it and be occupied from morning till night in service for the Lord. Now, it's a good thing to be occupied with service. I think any of you that know me, they recognize that we have been in the Lord's service for many years, but the important thing. Two to one, six wings, with four occupied in worship, and two occupied in service. This is the important thing I believe today, or to give everything to Christ and to put Him on the pedestal, and to worship and honor Him from day to day, and from large day to large day.
So here we get the outward look, and then we get the forward look. But the final one is just in closing. The final one is the inward look. Let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup. Now, the reason for that was those that were at Corinth. Actually, they were despising the importance of this tremendous meeting of God's people. Some were hungry, some were drunken. Can you imagine anyone intoxicated sitting at the Lord's Supper? I don't think we can. But you know, I have seen some things that have disturbed me. I was at a meeting some years ago and there was a man sitting in front of me.
I don't know why, but while we were sitting at the Lord's table, he was fast asleep. Now, I can imagine anybody maybe through physical weakness or some other reason falling asleep. You remember what the disciples did in Gethsemane? While our Lord was sweating great drops of blood, he was fast asleep. They were fast asleep. The same thing in the month of Transfiguration. But actually, when the bread came around, somebody had to give him a poke to waken him up as the bread came around. Oh, I felt awfully sorry when I saw that. On another time, I saw a young person sitting at the Lord's table chewing gum while the bread was going around.
I don't say this to amuse anybody. But I do believe, as our brother prayed in his prayer at the commencement of this meeting, God of the Holy God, is the God of holiness on a expanse. We who worship him to do it in spirit and in truth. And I believe that all the respect should be shown as we come together for this vital function, the greatest function in the life of any believer. May God bless his word. to each one of our hearts for his names. Shall we pray? Our God and Father, we again bow before thee in worship and prayers and thanksgiving.
We thank thee for that one who came down to this scene and who tabernacled among men. We thank thee that he manifested thy heart. Once again we thank thee for his love, his compassion, his mercy. And yet at the end of his life, how he died that ignominious death upon the cross. Now, Father, we thank thee that thou hast given us the opportunity of serving him a little while down here. And not only this life of service, but thou hast given us the opportunity too of worship. And we do pray thee that when we put it in its proper place, and we ask of thee that the greatest ambition in our life would be not only to serve thee, but to worship thee.
And this praise and thanksgiving may spontaneously come from our hearts to thyself as we gather together. Bless thy dear people here this morning. Remember those that are not able to come, we pray thy special blessing upon them. Each home represented here, we pray thy blessing. And to work here at part of the palms, we ask of you to give thy blessing upon it from time to time. Not only in the building up of thy people, but also in the salvation of precious souls. We ask of them in the name of the Lord Jesus. Amen.