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Bibleline Bibleline, here God’s Word on Bibleline, everywhere, every time. Here God’s truth on Bibleline. Welcome to Bibleline with Dr. Ralph Yankee Arnold, pastor of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida. Clearly declaring the gospel of Jesus Christ through the radio and the Internet. Your regular prayers and monthly support make it possible for Bibleline to continue on the air. You can reach us toll-free at 1-800-576-3771. Online donations may be made by clicking on the donations link on the BibleLineMinistries.org homepage. We pray that you will enjoy our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ and that today’s message will be a blessing to you and your family.

Well, it’s good to see y’all here this morning. And I do have a few things I wanted to share with you. So anyway, take your Bible and turn to 1 Corinthians in chapter 11. I hope that some of these things will enlighten you a little bit. So I do want to share a couple of these thoughts with you and hope that it’ll help you. 1 Corinthians in chapter 11, it makes the statement here in verse 17. Now in this that I declare unto you, I praise you not, that you come together not for the better but for the worse.

Isn’t that a terrible thing to say to a people at a church? You would be better off not coming together. When you come together to the church at Corinth, he says it’s not for the best. He says, among you, He says there’s bitterness and strife and envy and just one problem after the other. But here we was talking about a particular time when they came together in memory of the Lord’s Supper, which was supposed to be a great occasion, a precious moment, a solemn time where it demonstrated the love that people had for the Lord, and for what He’s done, and who they are now, what they have in Christ, the unity that they have among the brethren, and there was anything but unity.

So he says in verse 18, he says, but first of all, when you come together in the church, I hear that there be divisions among you, and I partly believe it. Now you know that there’s something out to these says here. In verse one, be you followers of me even as I also am of Christ. Now I praise you brethren, that you remember me in all things and keep the ordinances as I delivered them to you. I praise you that you’re doing it, but not the way you’re doing it.

So maybe there is a correct way of doing something. Sometimes we do, you know, the things that we know are right, but something else is missing. Did you know you can go to church and still not be right? You can read your Bible, and something’s still not right. And so there’s a lot of things we do that something’s still missing in it. And so sometimes it’s best to pause, to stop, to go back and take a look. look. And what I want you to notice was here in verse 19, for there must be also heresies among you that they which are approved by you, these people that don’t believe right, that they 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 take it before him his own Supper, and one is hungry, and another’s drunk them. What have you not houses to eat and to drink in or despise the church of God and shame them that have not? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you in this? I said, I praise you not because they were doing what they were doing without discerning the Lord’s body.

Not understanding why they did what they did, now they should have. But you We know how the Old Sinful Nature gets in and can stir things up, and it seems like it always happens. Take a Bible look there in Hebrews in chapter 10 very quickly. In Hebrews in chapter 10, and look there in verse 26. Verse 26.

Or says, for if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins. So he’s talking it about in reference to something he had just told them that they should do, and not to do what God says to do is to willfully disobey the Lord. Now you and I know as believers, we wouldn’t purposely disobey God, would we? Well, he says in verse 25, not forsaken the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is.

So it is the manner of some. It’s their habit that they don’t. So God says, I wanted to do this even so as you see the day of protein, how many of you believe that the Lord could come back soon? And if you believe that, then it should encourage us to be more faithful as faithful as we can be. Now, I know when you trust Christ as Savior, the Holy Spirit indwells you. As the Holy Spirit indwells you, He can teach you.

And so therefore, we simply are giving scriptures and tools by which the Holy Spirit can use to help you to see and understand. We don’t play God in people’s lives. That just doesn’t work. So, and we want to see what is the message of the Lord’s Supper and also have the grace to proclaim it, not only in part taking but understanding what it means. Now there’s no way possible to fully explain everything that happens in a Passover and the symbols that they had and what it meant in the representation.

We have a little bit of an idea and because of what the scripture says, but as time goes on and after a couple thousand years, you’d be surprised how things change in our mind and what they don’t maybe mean, what it should mean. And people today, you may have trusted Christ as Savior, but don’t think that, well, that’s not that important. I don’t need to have the Lord suffer to tell me that Christ died from my sins. I know that.

I remember that, so I don’t have to do it. I believe Christ is coming back. Okay. So why should I have to do it? You know, looking back and looking forward, since I already know that, I don’t have to do it. And you’d be surprised if people can live their lives as a Christian and never partake of the Lord’s Supper. They never come together. They just don’t do it. They don’t need it. If God says we need it, do we need it?

If God says to do it, should we do it? You see, you don’t need thousands of verses that says the same thing. All you got to have is one verse that God reveals His will and says, this do, this do, and remembrance of me. How many times should God have to tell me that? One time. I’m supposed to obey whatever God word tells me that I should obey. And faithfully partake of it as often as you do it. At Calvary Community Church we observe the Lord’s Supper at least twelve times a year, and there are seven reasons we observe the Lord’s Table.

And number one, and you’ve heard me say this many, many times, it is a divine suggestion. No, I’ve seen a sign one time. It says the Ten Commandments were not ten suggestions. Anybody ever seen that? This is not a suggestion. It is a divine command. And the celebration of the Lord’s Supper is a solemn obligation to assemble with the people of God to remember the Lord’s death. Anything that hinders you from coming must be put away in order that you may show His death until He comes.

There’s something that we show by the demonstration of what we do at the Lord’s Supper, and this is what makes it so very important. Is it possible that we can lose the importance of that because we just do it so many times? Or because we sing certain songs so many times, it’s lost its meaning to us, and we just sing out a rope memory, and little by little things lose their importance to us. That can also happen with the Lord’s Supper, and this is why it’s so important.

Number two is a blessed privilege. We welcome every opportunity to please Christ. If this is one thing that we could do that would please Him, I would say it would be one thing that I’d want to do. I’d want to do what it takes to please the Lord. We are invited to come and sit at His table and with Him as our host. I want you to take your Bible and look there in the book of Luke chapter 22.

Luke chapter 22. And notice just a couple of things that are mentioned here. Luke 22, look in verse 7. Verse 7 says, then came the day of unleavened bread when the Passover must be killed. And he sent Peter and John, say, and go and prepare us the Passover that we may eat. They said unto him, were without that we prepare. He said unto them, Behold, when ye are entered into the city, there shall a man meet you bearing a pitcher of water.

Follow him into the house where he entered then. And ye shall say unto the good men of the house, the master saith unto thee, Where is the guest chamber, for I shall eat the Passover with my disciples. And He shall show you a large upper room furnished, there make ready. And they went and found as He had said, and they made ready the Passover. When the hour was come, He sat down and all five of the apostles showed up with Him.

Wouldn’t it have been something that they’d had to Passover? And Jesus, well, where’s John? You know, he’s married. He wanted He wanted to be here, but he just wasn’t able to make it. Oh, well, where’s Peter? Peter. Well, he was talking to somebody there. You know, he just talked on and on and on. He just talks all the time. And he’s in an argument with somebody. Well, he wanted to be here, but he just told me to tell you that he’ll be there in spirit.

Now, these are things that I’ve had people tell me. So this morning, we have a lot of spirits. This is one spirit filled church. There’s a message here somewhere. And so you find out how many of the disciples do you think he wanted to be there for that? He had 12, how many do you think he wanted there? You wanted 12 there. Do you think he expected them to be there?

So it’s an important thing. It’s a God honoring thing. It’s what we do because God says so. You don’t always do what you want or like, is what God says. Just whatever He says, whatever God says. I learned a long time ago, I don’t want to fight with God, I don’t want to argue with God, I don’t want to debate with God. Why? I lose. Why argue with somebody you know you’re going to lose? Why argue with your wife?

You know you’re going to lose? You know that before you ever start? I didn’t need to say that. Well, I’m glad we’re having communion this morning. I can confess my sin. What in gratitude And when any of us fail to attend the Lord’s Supper, especially if it was possible to do so, it would be a shame if we think it’s not important or we have ingraded to toward the things of God or to the church because we just don’t think about it.

And so therefore it’s nonchalant. It doesn’t matter. So keep that in mind. It’s a necessary memorial. The Lord wants us to remember Him. a rebuke because sometimes you know if you study the Old Testament you’ll find out one of the biggest problems of the nation of Israel is they will always forget. He says you forgot, you forgot, you forgot. There’s things that I forget. We always seem to forget. I can forget where I’m going driving down the highway like I did the other night and almost didn’t make the turn.

I forgot. Because I’ll be thinking preaching. Sometimes I forget about the speed limit. I’ll be driving on the highway and that if the music is fast, I drive fast. But we forget. And God knows that we forget. So will God’s people forget the great price that was paid for their redemption? Don’t take it seriously. Did you know how you live your life reveals what his death means to you.

How you live is revealed about his death, how precious that was to you. Your whole life should be one big thank you to the Lord for all that is done for you, unless you forget. Will they forget whom they belong? Can we become unthankful for our salvation? You see, know when you’re unthankful for your salvation when you’re not thinking about somebody else’s salvation. When you have no concern to tell anybody else about their salvation, you’ve forgotten something. Do you realize where you were going?

Do you realize how wonderful it is to know you have eternal life, to know that you’re going to heaven when you die? And there’s others that don’t know that, and you have absolutely no concern. There’s something missing. Oh, you may know Christ is saved. You’re going to heaven, but you’re losing something along the way and sometimes don’t even know it. So, lest we forget there is a tender rebuke to keep our love a flame and our hearts are globe for the Lord.

A willing testimony. Every time we break bread, we’re testifying. When you do that, you’re saying something because it means something. Everything has a meaning. Now, when they did the Passover, I assure you it’s a lot more involved than what we do, but it’s still important what we do. But you and I know that everything has a meaning to it when it’s something that God says to do in remembrance. So there’s things that God wants to trigger our mind because if He can get us to think right, He can get us to live right.

Do you think that’s important? I think it’s important. And if everybody does it, and everybody thinks about it, and then everybody will have of the same mind and live like it, because it’s a demonstration. We witness to the fact that we are saved by faith, by the cleansing power of His precious blood. But it’s a message that we proclaim. And by our participation, we are revealing how we think that is important to us. If none of God’s people would partake of the Lord’s Supper, what would that tell you?

Would it say anything? Just the absence might tell you something or cause you the question, and you don’t want that. We declare the Lord’s death with witness of our personal walk with Christ, and we testify of His soon return. So it has meaning. The past and the present and the future. This is what God says to do as we look back and as we look forward It’s a humbling confession because you’re admitting to God something that Reduces the pride in an individual you see the Bible talks about when you’re lifted up with pride pride cometh before a fall and And always remember, God is going to test your pride.

So how’s he going to test my pride? See how quickly you can get hurt. See how quickly you can get hurt. You hurt my pride. Can your pride be hurt? What would it take? And if you get your pride hurt, did you know your hurt can lead to bitterness? And the bitterness is like a root that springs up and defiles other individuals. Now you won’t try to do it, but it will happen all because of P-R-I-D-E. So God wants us to remember the Lord’s Supper and the payment He made.

Why did He have to do that? Because you and I are supposed to understand our helplessness, our unworthiness, and as you look back you will see that. I am saying that my sin was so great, my iniquity was so vile, my transgressions so wicked and my guilt so heavy, and that my offense so terrible that nothing but the death of the blessed Son of God could set me free and wash me clean.” When a man gets saved, it’s because he has to trust Jesus Christ and Him alone is His only hope of salvation because there is nothing in Him that can produce any righteousness of his own that God can use as the foundation you deserve to be saved.

Which one of us can God point to? You deserve to be saved. You deserve it. Now you don’t deserve it, but you do not. And so whenever you remember about you remember about I’m not worthy. I’m not worthy to be saved. It was all because of the grace of God, His love for me. And it should help you to understand that as you live your Christian life, the one thing that the devil will do in every individual life is to produce the pride.

You don’t need God. You don’t need church. You don’t need the preacher. You don’t need communion. You don’t need this. You don’t need that. You’re going to be your own self-mate man. Yeah. And God’s going to deal with you. And so that’s one of the biggest reasons why you examine yourself. Because you’re looking for pride. You see, one of the things that they did in the Passover is that they would, before they got started, sweep the floor as though they were trying to find a little bits or crumbs of bread that might have some yeast in it, some lemons in it.

And make sure you get it all out. The same principle is in the man’s heart to search the cleanse to get that taken care of. Look there in the 139th Psalm real quick, the 139th Psalm. 139th Psalm, there’s a statement by David that kind of makes it clear and could be a little bit about what he’s talking about. You see there in verse 23, Psalms 139 verse 23, he says, search me, oh God, and know my heart. Try me, know my thoughts.

And the reason is so that you can reveal it to me. I won’t God to search my heart because there might be things that I don’t see. Maybe I have blinded myself. Maybe I have deceived myself. And Lord, I want to be honest. I want to be clean. I want to be truthful. I want you to reveal to me something in my own heart that maybe is not right. And you don’t do that unless you have within you the desire to want to correct what’s there.

So he says, try me and know my heart. See if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting. Anyway, I think it’s a tremendous verse. I am to examine myself, judge myself, and acknowledge my sin, my failures, my shortcomings, between me and my Heavenly Father. We are so quick to point out all the faults in everybody else, but we sometimes can’t see the ones in our own life or in the crevices of our own mind.

that we’ve swept into the closet. Maybe it’s time to come out of the closet. The Lord’s Supper is for accountability, and we must be honest before the Lord. Do you think God knows the truth? You see, it’s sometimes, it might be that some people are afraid to take communion because they know they’re not right and have no intentions of getting right and know that if they do that without judging it, the Lord may chase them. But did you know whether you do the Lord’s supper or you don’t?

The Lord can still what? May He thought tar out of you. An act of faith. The Lord’s Supper not only looks backward to the cross but forward to the crown. You see you and I right now we’re bearing our cross and one day because of how you bear your cross will depend on whether not you get a crown. There’s rewards that God’s going to have in heaven for us. But remember, Christ suffered before the glory. You and I are suffering now in this present world, in this present body.

But one day we’re going to have a new body and we’re going to be rewarded with the Lord. And we will be together with Him forever. But you see, our memorial services till He comes. Whether we will forever go, I don’t know. I know that God told the children of Israel, and this shall be done to their generations forever is a sign, but that’s another message. It’s a celebration from the coming to the coming. It’s a memorial that is only for the time of his absence.

The Lord suffers for identification, demonstration, encouragement, and hatefulness because if God tells you to do something and you don’t do it, Are you faithful? You see, by the faithfulness of our presence here today, our faithfulness to come whenever we can, our faithfulness to study the Word of God, our commitment to explaining the gospel to people and to live a clean life. It’s all a sign of our faithfulness, but it reveals our faith in the Lord. What we really believe, it’s James chapter two in action.

Faith without works is dead, no profitability to it. There’s no rewards for it. It doesn’t profit anybody. So therefore you and I have a responsibility as a child of God to serve the Lord and to be found faithful. A solemn warning, we are not to partake of his body and in blood carelessly without a heart searching self-examination. Do not be guilty of the body and the blood of Jesus by partaking of the Lord’s Supper in an unworthy manner or by purposely missing Holy Communion.

It’s not wise. It’s something that God wants us to do, and therefore we do it. Not to be saved, but because we are saved. You see, we believe that when Jesus Christ came into the world, He died on the cross and paid for the sins of every individual that’s ever been born into the world. And by that payment, He made, He made it possible for everybody in the world to have the free gift of everlasting life. but the wages of sin is death.

So Jesus Christ was born into the world. A body was prepared. And the Son of God, the second head of the Trinity, was indwelled in that body. And He lived a perfect life. He had no sin, didn’t have to die. And His blood was not contaminated with an old sinful nature. Therefore, he had precious blood. His precious blood was incorruptible blood. His blood, I believe, lasts forever. And I believe his blood that he shed in order to give his life, because the life of the flesh is in the blood.

And he says, I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your sins. Leviticus 1711. And because his blood was then taken, I believe, into the throne room of God and placed upon the altar. There’s a temple there. The one that Moses made was only a pattern, not the one that he saw. So we have someone who loves us enough that was willing to give his life. And the reason he did so for every individual, because not one person could save himself.

And because he loved him all, he died for all. And whenever he came back again from the dead, he said, if we would believe that he did it for us, he would give us as a free gift everlasting life and we get to go to heaven on what Jesus Christ did for us. And we’re to do this because it’s the will of God so that you can be clean as you ought to be. No, we’re not perfect in ourselves.

We know that. But it’s something God wants us to do to confess things to him. First John 1, 9, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and nickmanages from all unrighteousness. This is the Father to the child. Do you and I? You’ve been listening to Bibleline, a teaching ministry of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida with Dr. Ralph Arnold. We pray that you are blessed by today’s message. If you have enjoyed our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ, you can reach Bibleline and pledge your support to keep us on the air in your area by Dye-Link Tool 3, 100-576-3771.

That’s 1-800-576-3771. To listen to today’s message again, or to obtain a free download of any of our Bibleline programs, just go to our homepage at BibleLineMinistries.org and click on the Radio Broadcast link. If you are in the area, we welcome you to visit us. The address for Calvary Community Church is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. Our Sunday morning services begin at 10-30, and at 6 o’clock on Sunday evening. Live broadcast of our services may be seen by clicking on the Calvary Community Church link at BibleLineMinistries.org.

Thanks for joining us on Bibleline, and now a closing thought from Pastor Arnold. Friend, one day it will happen. The trumpet will sound, and we will be changed. Cut up to meet the Lord in the air. So live today and every day, believing that the Lord is coming soon and just keep looking up.