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All those that are going to their class are now dismissed, and if you'd like to move up a little closer, you may do so. While the others are going out, just a couple of announcements just to, uh, emphasize. October the eighteenth will be the last Sunday to be able to sign up for the adult small group fellowship. There, there's a list in the hallway, and if you have any questions, you can see Deborah Horton or Carolyn Henson. They're kind of working it out, so different ones can get together and have fellowship together. I think that's good. You know, the, the early Christians, one thing that was really significant about them, it says they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine, fellowship, breaking of bread and prayers.
I think that's very important, very interesting as Christians get together, meet together, stay together, pray together, eat together. I like that part, and we just have a nice time together, see, in fellowship, and I think it's important. We draw strength together when we do that, see, we encourage one another, and I think it's good. Might just, uh, again emphasize the, um, seminar they ask us to encourage you if you're interested in studying the Bible, walking through the Bible, the Old Testament, New Testament. There are some of these registration forms out on the, on the foyer, and it's being held at Emmanuel Presbyterian Church. Now, it's only being held there because they, they requested it. It has nothing to do with the Emmanuel Presbyterian. They wanted to make that clear.
They're not making any money off of it, but it is, there is a cost for the seminar, and it includes notebooks and, uh, things like that. So you might check it out, see if you'd like to. Otherwise, be here. Group participation. I thought groupies, I thought it was a fish that you ate, Neil. Yeah, all right. That's grouper. Oh, all right, grouper. Okay, right. Very good. Well, if you take your Bible this morning, and we would like you to turn to several passages. First of all, Genesis chapter fourteen. Let me see how glad we are to have those who are visiting with us this morning. Make yourself at home. There's information in the foyer, uh, concerning what we're doing here and the schedule of events.
Might just mention in passing too that we do remember our sister Blanche Duncan prayer. It's been about, uh, well, we go back fourteen, fifteen years now, more than that, uh, more than that, nineteen seventy, that's seventeen years, isn't it? When this little meeting had its start, Three families meeting together, remembering the Lord, and then reaching out to witness to the lost. And, uh, Blanche Duncan, we knew her in Durham, my wife and I, and that's, that's how we knew Robert and Blanche, and, uh, they were very instrumental in us coming down and very instrumental, along with Brother George Bowman and Brother Ralph Sampler and their families, and seeing this meeting start.
And it's just been a blessing through these years. So it's a sorrow, but not like those that have no hope that we go through concerning our brother Robert. So pray for the family, and let's, uh, encourage one another as the days grow shorter, the days the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ draws nigh. Genesis chapter fourteen. let's, uh, ask the Lord's blessing on our time this morning. He's our Father, we thank you for your son, the Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you for this privilege that brings us together around your word. We desire, our Father, to study it, to find out again today what you would have us to know concerning your son. We thank you for the spirit of God, the divine teacher who leads and guides into all truth, and we desire, our Father, that he might take the things of Christ and show them to us.
And for the word of God itself, our Father, the, the written word that tells us about the living word. We thank you, Father, for it, and we pray that what is said and, and done this morning will glorify yourself, glorify your son as we seek to understand your word. Now, Father, bless our time, bless the word to our hearts this morning, in Jesus' name, amen. There's several passages I want you to look at and read with me. We'll not make any comment just now on them, but in chapter fourteen, we'll start with verse seventeen. This is a time in the life of a fellow named Abraham. His name had not yet been changed, he was still Abram. But Abram went out to rescue his nephew Lot.
Lot had been captured by the five kings, and these five kings, of course, uh, wouldn't let him go, and Abram said, I'm going to go and set them free. Well, the king of Sodom was afraid to go, and so, uh, Abram went. And we read that, uh, in verse seventeen, the king of Sodom and went- Sodom went out to meet him after his return from the slaughter of Shalalamar and of the kings that were with him at the valley of Shaveh, which is at the king's, which is the king's dale. And Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought forth bread and wine, and he was a priest to the most high God, and he blessed him and said, Blessed be Abram, the Most High God, possessor of heaven and earth, and blessed be the Most High God who has delivered thine enemies into thy hand.
And he gave him one tenth of all that he had. We'll stop right there with that particular passage. If you'll turn to Exodus, Exodus chapter twelve. Now, if you don't find all these chapters, don't worry about it. We're not going to hold you accountable this morning. But in Exodus chapter twelve, the next passage we want to read is concerning the children of Israel as they are set free from the nation of Egypt, as they are set free from the tyranny of the Pharaoh. And in chapter twelve, verses twenty one, we'll start there. We won't read, uh, all about this being set free, but we know that the final, the final straw, so to speak, that broke the camel's back for Israel was the death of the firstborn of every person, including the Pharaoh, of every creature in Egypt, except for the children of Israel and their animals.
The only thing that saved them was the lamb that was slain. In verse twenty one, then Moses called for all the elders of Israel and said unto them, draw out and take you a lamb according to your families and kill the Passover. And ye shall take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood that is in the basin and strike the lintel and the two side posts with the blood that is in the basin, and none of you shall go out at the door of his house until the morning. For the Lord will pass through to smite the Egyptians, and when he seeth the blood upon the lintel and on the two side posts, the Lord will pass over the door and will not suffer the destroyer to come in unto your houses to smite you.
And ye shall observe this thing for an ordinance to thee and to thy sons forever. And it shall come to pass, when you be come to the land which the Lord will give you, according as he has promised, that you shall keep this service. And it shall come to pass, when your children shall say unto you, what mean ye by this service, that ye shall say, it is the sacrifice of the Lord's Passover, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when he smote the Egyptians and delivered our houses. And the people bowed the heads and worshiped. In First Corinthians, now we'll turn to the New Testament, to First Corinthians chapter five.
We're following a pattern, you can see here, and perhaps when we get to the last passage, you will have already surmised or guessed what we are interested in talking about this morning. We've been studying, as you turn to First Corinthians chapter five, let me say we've been studying the doctrines of the Bible. I was going to say the doctrines of the church, but sometimes there are those who are called the doctrines of the church and not doctrines of the Bible, so we better stick to what we know is, is accurate, the doctrines of the Bible. We've studied justification, we've studied sanctification, we've studied salvation itself, the assurance of salvation, eternal security, all these great doctrines.
Haven't got to the second coming of Christ. Want to get to that sometime and, and get into that and talk about the coming of the Lord and, and uh, why we need to be ready when he comes. But this morning we're looking at a different doctrine, and it's very important. Has to do with two ordinances. Now, only one we're going to talk about this morning. Tonight we're going to see one practiced. Baptism, believers baptism, and how important that is. The significance of it is very, very interesting. In fact, in some foreign countries to this day, when a person professes to be a Christian, when they say, yes, I believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, that really doesn't mean anything to anyone until that person is baptized.
And many a person who has trusted Jesus Christ, say in, in the Muslim countries, when they have taken that final step to be baptized, they have literally died for their faith, and some even today are in danger of doing that. When a person who is a Muslim decides to be a Christian, it's all right in name, but when they take that step to be baptized, it's such a dramatic step where you are renouncing the former life. You are renouncing everything that you stood for before, that it's very dramatic, and they, many of them, would lose their life. In fact, there are those, I remember hearing a broadcast on the radio Christian station in Atlanta not long ago, and they were talking about, uh, these Christian couples living in a town in Egypt, how they had become Christians.
And as this girl was working as a secretary in somebody's office, and as she was, as she was, uh, uh, going back and forth and doing, minding her own business, uh, they always had the daily, uh, prayers, you know, I think they bow toward Mecca about five times a day, and this girl wasn't doing it. And so some of the others were asking why not? And so she said, because I'm a Christian. I no longer worship Mohammed and Allah. Well, because of that, she was reported to the authorities, and because she had left her native faith, so to speak, and had chosen Christ, to put her in jail, and her husband, and I mean, these were well-to-do people. These were not just, you know, scum of the earth, so to speak, as as some would treat them, but they were intellectuals, lawyers, you know, these these, they didn't care.
And so it's a crime, you see, to become a Christian in some countries. And the badge of becoming a Christian is by being baptized. We have lost the meaning of it in this country. Christians are saved and baptized doesn't mean a whole lot. That's why here at the chapel, we go out of our way to make it special. We, we, we want people to be baptized after they're saved, but we want it to mean something to them. It's not joining the chapel, it's not joining some organization, it's complete devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ, person of Christ, and it's important. The second ordinance that was left for the church is called the Lord's Supper, and as we've already talked, we've seen the bread and the wine mentioned for the first time in the book of Genesis, there's a very great significance concerning it.
And as we looked at the Passover, we see there blood shed, we see the body of a, of a little sheep, lamb taken, his throat slit, died, his blood was shed. Again, a picture of what we see in the New Testament as we, as we go along. But notice in First Corinthians chapter five, in verse, starting with verse six, we'll read for context sake, because the Apostle Paul is having to straighten out some problems at Corinth, some sin that's going on, some difficulties among Christians. He, he goes on in chapter eleven. we'll not read that just now, but uh, and gives us the institution divinely given to the Apostle Paul, as well as to the, as he did it in the book of uh, one of the book in the Gospels.
But notice in verse six, your glorying is not good. Know you not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? Sin, leaven is picture of sin in the scriptures. Purge out, therefore, the old leaven, that you may be a new lump as you are unleavened. For even Christ, our Passover, is sacrificed for us. Therefore, let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. The primary portion is in verse seven, the last phrase, for even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.
Now we go back to Luke chapter twenty two, and it'll be the last time you have to make a, uh, look at another passage just for a moment. In Luke chapter twenty two, we have the institution of the Lord's Supper. And I'd like for us to spend some time considering the importance of it, see? And the importance of the Lord's Supper is, is centered in the person who instituted it, the Lord Jesus Christ himself. So let's look at it. Let's read the passage, chapter twenty two. We begin with verse fourteen. And when the hour was come, he sat down, and the twelve apostles with him, and he said unto them, with desire, I have desire to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.
Now, this is the Passover supper itself. This occurs before he institutes the Lord's Supper, all right? But still, we can, uh, we can see in application as well that the Lord had a desire to sit down with his disciples and eat the Passover, how much more he has a desire to sit down with us at the Lord's table and have fellowship with us as we drink the bread and the wine, or the grape juice, as it is here, in remembrance of him. He goes on to say in this passage, verse sixteen, this is why you, you have this, for I say to you, I will not anymore eat thereof until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God.
And he took the cup and gave thanks and said, take this and divide it among yourselves. For I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God shall come. Now, verse nineteen is where he institutes the Lord's Supper. That's the Passover that has just been mentioned in verses fourteen down through verse eighteen. Verse nineteen, and he took bread and gave thanks and brake it 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.
That's all we want to read just now, but as we look at these passages, as we go back over certain ones, and I won't ask you to have to turn again, but I'm going to read different ones. In fact, uh, we're going to, I want to turn a minute to First Corinthians eleven, if you'd like to turn there as well. If you like to study your Bible, you'd like to find it, then turn to 1 Corinthians eleven. But the first thing I want you to notice, though, is that the person who institutes the Lord's Supper is not, it's not a man, is not the head of some ecclesiastical organization. It is the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, who is he? In fact, in First Corinthians eleven, as I was going to point out, you have the institution of that passage starting, of that feast starting down in verse twenty three.
Now, we will not get into the difficulties they were having. They were obviously having difficulties. Some were getting drunk at the Lord's table. Some were getting eating and getting full before they ever came. There were difficulties going on, and they weren't discerning the body of Christ, and because of it, some of these Christians were dying because they refused to obey the commandments of the Lord. They refused to, to keep themselves unleavened, as it were, to keep the sin out, confess, keep sin confessed before they come. They didn't do that, and they weren't examining themselves. Well, that's another lesson for another time. What we're interested is in the institution of it, the importance of it. But it's the Lord Jesus Christ, that the highest possible authority is, is in, in view here, the eternal Son of God.
Here in First Corinthians eleven, you'll look at verse twenty, verse twenty, verse twenty three, verse twenty six, verse twenty seven, verse twenty nine, and verse thirty two, and you will find seven times the word Lord. When you come together, therefore, in one place, this is not to eat the Lord's supper. Now, what he's saying to them, you think you're coming, but you're not really coming to break bread. You, you really don't know what it's all about. You are missing the point, he says. That's what he's getting on to the Christians here, say, at Corinth. In verse twenty three, 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.
In verse twenty six, for as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, do show the Lord's death till he come. It's the lordship of Christ that's emphasized in this passage. In fact, in the entire chapter, starting with verse one all the way through, but I, I want us only to focus on these last few passages of scripture. It is the Lord's supper. He is the central object. He is the host. He is the one who invites you to come, and it is his supper. Now, why do we have it in the morning? Well, that's a question for another time. Obviously, it was in the evening here, and when you go to other passages, for instance, in Acts chapter twenty, you'll find them doing it in the evening, and there's no reason for not doing it in the evening, except that, uh, some are used to doing it in the morning.
It's nice to do it first day of the week, or bright and early before you do anything else. It's nice, but there's nothing says you can't do it in the evening either. Do it on Tuesday morning if you want to, Tuesday night or Wednesday night. That's all right too. There's no scripture says you can't do it other times, you see. But the point is, it's called the Lord's Supper, whatever. You'll, you'll forgive me for this illustration, but I couldn't, I, I remember, um, an Augustus, a young fellow, when he was just about four or five, maybe six, he went with his father to, to a place where they had the Lord's Supper in the morning rather than at night. So he went up to one of the elders. He said, how come you don't have it at night? It's called the Lord's Supper. You have it in the morning. Why don't you call it the Lord's breakfast? I thought that was kind of funny.
I don't think that elder thought so, but it was kind of cute, you know, call it the Lord's breakfast rather than, well, anyway, you know what I mean. It's the Lord's supper. Whatever it is, it belongs to him. It's instituted by the eternal Son of God. Now, obviously, since he is the one who instituted it, he's the one who invites us, so it's, so it's important then to pay attention to it. It's important not just for obedience. You know, one thing, it's one thing to be obedient because you have to, it's another thing to do it because you want to, and I think that's far more important than having to do it because you have to to show you're Christian.
It's got nothing to do with it. The Lord invites us, a very gracious invitation. I got an invitation to go to a camp once, and I couldn't go. I never got another invitation back yet. I was sorry, you know, I couldn't go because I had other things to do. You know, it's, uh, that's one thing about the Lord, though. If I got an invitation from the president, I'd probably drop everything. Be there at a moment's notice. Well, how come we can't be where the Lord of the universe invites? You see what I mean? You get the point, you know, the importance of it, the lordship of Christ. Now, the circumstances surrounding the Lord's Supper is the Passover.
And I dare say that, uh, many of us this morning, and I include myself, don't really understand all the implications of the Passover. We're not, we're not going to go back over and study it, but let me just, just suggest a few things to you this morning. First of all, this is the last Passover that God recognizes in the scriptures. Do you know that? This is the last Passover for the Jewish nation that God recognizes. We don't hear of another Passover after the death of decided, well, no, suppose your husband invited you before you were saved, before you were married, before you were married, suppose he invited you to have a dinner with you.
You know, I want, I want to take you out, but I can only afford to take you out once a month because I got other things to do. I'm too busy. You know, I- I've got this to do, and I got that to do. So why don't we set a date? Let's see, this is January third. I'll see you in February. Now, how long would your relationship have lasted? Not long. Once a month don't do it, does it, girls, fellas? You say you can find you somebody else. I'm looking for a better relationship than that. Well, see, it's the same thing. Here's a relationship between the lover of our souls, the Lord Jesus Christ, and us who are his beloved. We belong to him.
He wants to have fellowship with us. He wants to have an intimate relationship with us. Now, I believe it occurs most often at the Lord's Supper around those emblems, as we consider him who loved us and gave himself for us. But the Passover, as we look at the Passover, let me, let me suggest to you this. The Passover was a memorial of a great event. What greater event can you think of than being delivered out of the, out of the tyranny of the Pharaoh? Here they were slaves. They, they were under bondage. Why, at one time in their history, when Moses was born, they were killing the babies, the children.
Talk about abortion. They were having a real problem, see? They were delivered from all of that. And when they were, it was by the blood of the Lamb. And when they were set free, Moses says, now listen, we want God to know that we appreciate what he's done. And from now on, according to his ordinance, we're going to celebrate the Passover. Every year we're going to do this. That doesn't say the Lord's Supper should be done every year because of that. The Lord's Supper, Brett, Paul says as often as you do it, you do show the Lord's death till he comes.
But the Passover, though, was so wonderful event. He said, now I want you to be sure your children are there. Be sure they're there, because when they see this, they say, what do you mean by this, Dad? What are you doing? Why are you doing it? You could tell him that God delivered you out from under the bondage of Pharaoh and set you free, gave you something to rejoice about. It's a celebration. That's what the Passover was. Of course, it degenerated. Instead of being the Lord's Passover, it became the Jews' feast. The Jews' Passover became a man in a manipulated particular memorial. But it, in, in the beginning, though, it is a memorial of a great event, and the Lord's Supper is meant to be a memorial of his death, the greatest event for mankind.
I don't know where you stand this morning, whether you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. I don't know whether you have trusted him as your savior, but I want you to know something. The death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ is the greatest event ever on the face of the earth. It supersedes anything else that God ever did for the nation of Israel. In fact, in the book of Hebrews, as you study it, you'll find the Lord Jesus Christ is superior to everything that ever occurred in the nation of Israel, the temple, the priests, everything. He is our great high priest. He is our savior. In fact, it goes even further. The scripture tells us there's no other name under heaven whereby we must be saved.
Why? Because he died for us. And the one outstanding evidence of the validity, the truthfulness of his salvation is that believers meet together as often as they can to remember the Lord. I mean, can you imagine? I don't ever recall hearing about the Muslims gathering around a loaf of bread and a glass of wine to remember the death, burial, and resurrection of Muhammad. Have you? I've yet to hear about any Buddhist gathering around in the name of Buddha to remember him and his death, burial, and resurrection.
Won't happen. And how silly it would be for us to do the same unless he was alive. See, he's alive. He's raised from the dead. And those early earth, those first early days of Christianity, we read in the book of Acts how they went house to house, breaking bread and eating their food with gladness of heart. They were happy, they were excited. You know, every chance they got, they would sit down and say, come on, let's remember the Lord. Finally, it became once a week pattern, no doubt set by the Holy Spirit in Acts chapter twenty. But it was a memorial, you see, a remembrance feast to this great event, the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus.
Christ died for our sins, was buried, and rose again the third day. The greatest event ever. And listen, if you're going to be saved, if you're going to be a child of God, you're going to be in God's heaven, it's going to be because you believe that, that Jesus died for you. Because that's what the pa- that's what the Lord's Supper is all about. We come to remember him in his death. In fact, in in uh the book of First Corinthians chapter eleven, the Apostle Paul says, as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you do show the Lord's death till he comes. What a great truth it is. What a tremendous opportunity.
You know, i- if more Christians would see this truth and see this privilege that's theirs and come together and say, let's break bread, let's let the world know that we love our Savior, because that's the greatest tribute you can give to him. That's the greatest opportunity you have to witness to a lost and dying world. He's alive! He died for sin. He, he was buried, but he's alive. He rose up from the dead because death could not hold him. Sin had no hold on him. He was sinless. He died for me. He died for you. The third thing about the Passover, which can be tied in with the Lord's Supper, is that the Passover was designed only for Israel.
Only for Israel. Only Israel could celebrate the Passover. I'm not sure even the proselytes into the Jewish religion could. You had to be born a Jew to be a part of the Passover. And so it is with the Lord's Supper. You may wonder why we don't advertise any more than we do here at the Lord- at the chapel. It's only for believers. It's only for you who know the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior. You're the only one who can remember him and his death, burial, and resurrection. The unsaved can't do that. You're here this morning. How can you remember somebody who saved you if you haven't been saved yet? You can't do it, can you? But I'll tell you one thing, my dear friend.
If you're not saved, you're welcome to come and sit and watch and see how it's done. I've heard of more than one peop- one person getting saved during that, watching, looking at it. Wow. This is the songs. Look what he did for me. He died for me. Take away my sins. Boy, you gotta try it sometime. You might enjoy. It'd be good for you. Well, the Passover also look forward to a redeemer. John one twenty nine tells us the, as as John the Baptist looked out and he saw the Lord Jesus come, he said, behold, the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world. Here he is, here's our redeemer.
This is the one we're looking for. This is the one that we've celebrated Passover for all these years, waiting for the one who would actually take away our sin. The Lord's Supper looks back to that event. The Lord's Supper looks back to the Lamb, the Lamb that was slain from before the foundation of the world for us. The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses from all sin. So our memorial goes back, we look back toward it, while the others look, the the Jews look forward to his death on the cross, although they didn't understand. Another thing the Passover does, and I want you to turn to Hebrews chapter ten. In Hebrews chapter ten, the Passover always reminded the children of Israel of their sin, of their sin.
In chapter ten, this is what we read. Chapter ten of Hebrews. For the law having a shadow of good things to come. See the law, the law was given to Israel to tell about things to come. The tabernacle was a picture of things to come. They believed in the second coming. They didn't quite understand everything about it, and they didn't believe it when it came, when the Lord Jesus came, but they were looking forward to it. These, the, the, the law having a shadow, having a shadow of good things to come and not the very image of things, can never, with those sacrifices, those Old Testament sacrifices which they offered year by year, continually make the comers thereunto perfect.
In verse two, he says, if they could, they would have ceased, they, they wouldn't offer any more sacrifice. I mean, after all, if I could have offered us, if I was a Jew in the days of Moses and I committed sin, and if that, if that sacrifice of that lamb could make me perfect, I'd never had to offer it again. That would be the end of it. That's what he means in verse two. But look at verse three: But in those sacrifices, there is a remembrance again made of sins every year, for it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. The Lord's Supper, on the other hand, oh, this is beautiful. It reminds us that our sins are put away.
Every time we come to Gaza, we see that loaf, we see that cup, it tells us that we've been forgiven. How come? Because in that loaf, and we want to look at the symbols here very quickly, in that loaf we see the suffering Savior. We see our sin being put away. We see the Lord Jesus dying in our place on the cross. For instance, looking at the symbols now. What about the symbols? Bread and wine. We saw that in Genesis chapter fourteen. Bread and wine there is a little bit different symbol, although it fits right in with the Lord's Supper. It's interesting to note, and I picked this up from someone else, I didn't know this, but there was a practice among the Jews of gathering together in the honor of a deceased friend to eat bread and to drink wine in their memory.
You'll find that in Jeremiah sixteen seven and also in Hosea chapter nine and verse four. I didn't know that, but that's what they did. That's the reason why they would do that. That's why the Lord Jesus took the bread and the wine, and he said, look, we're going to celebrate my decease and my resurrection in advance. By the way, that'll tell you something about the symbols, won't it? That'll tell you why it is a symbol. The Lord Jesus is still alive when he said, this is my body, which is given for you. Obviously, it's a symbol because he didn't die until about the next day or so. The wine, he says, this is my blood, which is shed for you.
He obviously hadn't died. He hadn't shed his blood yet, so it was a symbol. But it represented a tremendous truth, a celebration, you see, of his death, burial, and resurrection. In Genesis chapter fourteen, however, there's something interesting there, and I like this. Have you noticed? Here's Abram. Here he is. He's rescued his, his nephew Lot. Now he's on his way back to Sodom to take his, his, his nephew Lot back. Now Lot chose to live in Sodom, and you, you know what happened to Sodom and Gomorrah. They were destroyed because of sin. I don't know why in the world Abram took him back, but I guess he wanted to go back. He didn't have any choice. He had free will, so he'd do, do as he pleased.
But here's the point. He'd won a victory. He was victorious! He had the victory! And all of a sudden, here he is before, before the king, before the king of Sodom could get to him, the king of Salem, the king of peace got to him. Melchizedek. And Melchizedek is a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ in scriptures. And as it were, here's the Lord Jesus Christ meeting Abram on his way back from victory. He's a victor. He's, he's, he's completely the conqueror. They sit down together, and Melchizedek says, here, here's bread, here's wine.
Let's have a little feast. Let's have a little celebration of victory. Two reasons, I believe, that that meeting occurred. Number one was to encourage Abram to celebrate victory because of his obedience to God. We have victory because of his death, burial, and resurrection. We have victory over sin. We are victorious because of what Jesus Christ did for us, you see. When we trust him and ask him to be our savior, we are victorious over sin. That doesn't mean we're sinless, but it means that the penalty of sin has been put away. We're free. We've been set free by the blood of Christ.
But something else occurs there too. I believe that we see here not only a celebration of victory, but also a fortification concerning temptation. I think the Lord's Supper, even though we don't use it, we don't come to the Lord's Supper for this reason. I'll tell you one thing that it will do. I believe it will keep you clean. Over the years, it's been my experience before I ever came in contact with Christians that meet simply in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ alone, like we do at the chapel, ever before ever I heard about breaking bread, the Lord's Supper, and the emphasis put on it here.
In fact, one man's written a book, a fellow named John Reed, who is a very able Bible expositor. His son teaches at Emmaus Bible College. He's written a book called The Chief Meeting of the Church, the Lord's Supper. Very good reasons for it too. But before ever I heard any of those things, I remember in the service when I was in the Air Force, the Lord's Supper was precious to me. Now, I was raised in the Baptist Church, saved and raised in the Baptist Church, and I thank God for that. And they would have the Lord's Supper once a month, and I remember that. But I remember in the service not being able to go off base to church, and I remember going down a little snack bar, and and and uh, if you'll, you you'll probably laugh at this, and I don't know if I'd ever do it again now, but maybe I would too, but the the intent was this.
I wanted to remember the Lord. I didn't have any way to do it, but I had a bottle of grape pop and a package of crackers, and I sat there and I thanked the Lord for his death, burial, and resurrection. And when I got into the, got into the service, went on into the, went to Europe in the service at the chapel on the base, they had communion service once a month. You know, I couldn't wait for that to come. It was almost as if I could be cleansed of my previous sins of the month by observing the Lord's Supper. Now, you don't do that. Now, let me make it clear. That's not what the Lord's Supper is for. You don't get a cleansing. But you know, though, it seems that the Spirit of God would speak to our hearts concerning this special time of worship and love for him.
Obviously, you're not going to do it if you're not clean. And we are told in First Corinthians eleven to examine ourselves and so eat. Doesn't say examine ourselves and don't eat, it says examine ourselves and so eat. So the encouragement, you see, in that, in this is that it's a very precious time. It's a time of fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ, the Father, and the Spirit of God. Well, these are some thoughts. We've got to stop. We didn't get to the, uh, symbolism of the wine. We'll get to that next time and move along with some more thoughts. But listen, let me ask you a question this morning. If a person has to know the Lord Jesus Christ to be eligible to remember the Lord, if we had the Lord's Supper now in the next five minutes, could you participate?
Would you take part? If you, the answer to that is no, because you're not a Christian. How come? Have you not heard enough yet to be saved? Would you like to hear more? Would you like to be a child of God? Would you like to have that fellowship with the Father and the Son? He desires your fellowship. He would like to have you in fellowship with him. Not just to break bread. I mean, that's, that's, that's the outcome of it, see, baptism that proves you, you have done that. But I'm talking about the, the real thing, you know, eternal life, forgiveness of sins. Do you have it? If you don't, let's talk about it. We'll be here this morning. We're not going anywhere too far.
If you have a question or you have a concern we can help you with, we'd like to take the scriptures and show you how to be saved with Brother George, Ralph, myself, we're here, others that can show you how to be saved this morning, so that you can join this celebration of victory, this celebration of faith, as it were, around the Lord Jesus. Now, the next time we're together, we'll go a little further. We'll talk about how frequent it ought to be. I mean, should you have it every Sunday? Should you have it once a month or once a year, or should you have it at all? Because, you know, there's some that don't have it at all. I'll give you a clue as to whether you should have it at all. An old professor told me this a number of years ago, not just me, the whole class.
You know, it's like I was the only student there. But he said this, he said, what Jesus said in the Gospels, and what is practiced in the book of Acts, and what is taught in the epistles, you can be sure is for the church today. Now take the Lord's Supper, instituted in the Gospels, practiced in the book of Acts, taught by the Apostle Paul in the book of First Corinthians. Need I say more? So we at least know it ought to be practiced. It's a memorial till he comes, till he comes, till he comes. Shall we pray?
Our Father, we thank you for your son, the Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you for the eternal life that's ours through his death, burial, and resurrection. And we ask, Father, that you just make him precious to us this morning as we think about the price he paid to take away our sins, his desire to have fellowship with us around the bread and wine. Father, we pray for our friends here, perhaps who are not saved, that they may fall in love with him today because he loves them, and he desires their fellowship. We pray for them. We pray for those, Father, who are believers who love thee. We pray that you will encourage and increase their desire to love you more, even in the breaking of bread.
Now, we thank you for this time together. We ask your blessing, depart us with your blessing for those who are visitors, our Father. Encourage them, meet their needs, and bring them back to us again another day. We thank you for the baptism tonight. We pray your blessing now as we get prepared for that, and we pray that all things might be done to glorify you and glorify your son. Now, save souls, we ask in Jesus' name. Amen.