Doctrine at the Lord's Table

[0:00] Doctrine at the Lord's Table is a sacred time. It's a precious time, a holy time. Our love feast as we get together as God's own people. And the Lord's Supper dates back 3,000 years really to the Passover.

[0:44] Our Lord then gave it new meaning and significance as he fulfilled its meaning at the Upper Room. And now for 2,000 years his church has met and broken bread together. That's what we're doing just now as his own church his own people. And as we gather here now, we have teaching here.

[1:04] We have teaching, we have doctrine here at the Lord's Table, at the Lord's Supper. And doctrine means teaching about what is true. That is what the Lord's Supper is about. It's teaching, it's doctrine, biblical doctrine, it's teaching about what is true.

[1:23] There's great biblical doctrine right here at the table. The Lord's Table is saturated with meaning, with eternal truth. For one, as we gather here, there's the doctrine of the incarnation.

[1:38] The doctrine of the incarnation. Now, calm has to do with flesh. It means that God in calm. God was manifest in the flesh. God was revealed in a human body.

[1:52] God came in human flesh in the person of his son. Incarnation. The Word was God. And the Word was made flesh.

[2:03] And dwelt amongst us and we beheld his glory. God became man. God manifest in the flesh. The Lord's Table teaches us of the doctrine of the incarnation.

[2:14] God made flesh. As we gather, there's the doctrine also of redemption. Redemption. The Word redemption tells of our deliverance from sin.

[2:29] It tells of our deliverance as the people of Israel were delivered out of Egypt, out of bondage and brought into freedom and liberty from their captivity.

[2:42] And as the children of Israel were set free, so too we by the blood of Jesus. Amen. By the blood of Jesus, you're set free. I'm set free.

[2:54] That's redemption. We're redeemed. Set free by the blood of Jesus. Set free from the bondage of sin. From the captivity of sin. Set free from the guilt, the penalty, the power of sin.

[3:09] Redemption. 1 Peter 2 it says who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree that we being dead to sins should live unto righteousness by whose stripes you were healed for you were as sheep going astray but are now returned unto the shepherd and bishop of your souls.

[3:39] We were like sheep straying and he has returned us to himself the shepherd of our souls. Redemption. Incarnation.

[3:51] Redemption. Now here's another big term. Vicarious substitutionary atonement. So write that one down and remember that one.

[4:04] I should have written that down on a board here as I have trouble even saying it to be honest. But as we gather here we bring to mind the great truth of the vicarious substitutionary atonement.

[4:18] Let me explain as best I can. So in other words vicarious it was for us. You know in some circles they talk about vicarious trauma where someone's a counsellor and they talk to someone who's going through a great traumatic event in their life and it so affects the counsellor himself or herself that they start to feel the pain.

[4:45] They feel the agony. They feel the hurt. They enter into the suffering of the one that they're talking to. That's vicarious. It means that he entered in to our very suffering.

[4:57] He entered into your pain. Vicarious. Substitutionary. He took our place. Substitutionary. He was our substitute.

[5:07] He was the one who exchanged your place with his. His place with yours. He took your penalty at the cross.

[5:19] He stood in your place and he took your death sentence, your guilty sentence and he suffered for us in our place instead of us.

[5:31] It was substitutionary. In 2 Corinthians 5 21 it says for he God hath made him Christ to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

[5:49] Substitutionary. He was made sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

[6:00] Christ was a substitute for others in that he took their place and suffered their punishment. This is what we are learning here and we are reminded of here as we come around the Lord's table.

[6:16] Vicarious substitutionary atonement. It was a legal act. It was a legal act that Christ fulfilled the law and lawfully paid the penalty of sin.

[6:28] Someone had to pay. You know I've heard a preacher say that someone is going to pay for your sin and either it's Christ or if you're outside of Christ it's you.

[6:46] Someone has to pay. It's a legal requirement. Someone has to pay for your sin. May it be Christ for you. that Christ pays for your sin.

[6:58] Say Lord I trust you dying in my place paying the penalty for my sin and I receive that payment. I ask you to save me.

[7:08] That's redemption. It's substitutionary in your place. And it's atonement being made at one with God. At one with God. We who are far from God are made at one.

[7:22] Atonement made one. the legal payment has been made. Who's going to pay for your sin?

[7:35] Now some people think well when the time comes God's going to put in a scale and weigh up all of the good things that I've done are going to outweigh all of the bad things that I've done.

[7:47] You know I've done this, I've done that, I've done the other. All the good that I'm going to do and have done is going to outweigh the bad that I've ever done. It's not how it works.

[7:58] It's not how it works. It's not anything that you can do. It's everything that he has done. Everything that he has done. And he's legally, lawfully paid the penalty for our sin.

[8:12] That's the truth of it today. And just as the ram was offered in place of Isaac, Christ was offered for you. Christ died for us, taking our penalty as our substitute for sinners.

[8:28] And just as surely as Christ suffered, he suffered for us. He was our substitute as making that legal payment that had to be paid.

[8:43] And so 1 Peter 3 18 says, for Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit.

[9:00] He was put to death, but he was made alive in the Spirit, by the Spirit. Christ hath also once suffered the just for the unjust.

[9:12] He was perfect. He was without sin and he died for us, for our sin. Atonement, vicarious, he entered into our suffering, he took it, substitutionary, in our place.

[9:31] Atonement, to make us at one with God. Atonement describes the act that pays for or erases, blots out, and takes away one sin.

[9:45] It's got the basic meaning of reconciliation, that we who are torn away from God, separated, we're joined together, reconciled, brought back, brought into fellowship with him.

[9:58] And so this doctrine that we're reflecting on, that we're reminded of at the table, reflects on the all-time, once-for-all-time sacrifice made by Christ.

[10:10] The once-for-all-time and we express our closeness to Christ, this reconciliation here, we who are enemies are made as friends because of his work.

[10:22] And this is an expression of our closeness to Christ as we come to this time. And as we gather here also, there's the doctrine of the church, the church, the fellowship, the precious fellowship that we have as brothers, as sisters, as family.

[10:42] And this is a church ordinance. The Lord Jesus has come to build his church. And as we gather as one body, we are that church, we are that body, and we recognise it, we discern that body, that one body, that is the church, the church of God.

[11:03] As it gathers in local gathering places all around the world, the church, the church of the living God. And as we gather as one body, we recognise the Lord's body, beaten, bruised, pierced, buried, and risen again.

[11:22] And as his body, which we are all members of by faith, we that know him are the church. church. So we've seen the doctrine of the incarnation, God in flesh.

[11:38] God incarnates. God become man, manifest in the flesh. Incarnation. We gather and we recognise the doctrine of redemption. Deliverance from sin.

[11:51] Just as the children of Israel were delivered and rescued, set free, we recognise redemption, freedom from the guilt, penalty, and power of sin.

[12:01] We recognise the doctrine of the vicarius, substitutionary, atonement. Vicarius, he entered into our suffering. He took it. Real suffering.

[12:14] Real punishment. Real pain. Vicarius, substitutionary, in our place, as our substitute, as the one standing in and taking the punishment for us.

[12:27] Substitutionary, atonement, so he can be brought into reconciliation and fellowship with God. Made at one with God, who were torn aside from him.

[12:38] We recognise the church, the fellowship, is in this love feast time. And we recognise, lastly, the doctrine of separation. Separation.

[12:48] He's taken us out of the world. Out of the world. Out of sin and darkness. And brought us into his glorious kingdom of light. We're separated.

[13:00] Not to be partakers of the devil's tables, as it talks of in 1 Corinthians 10. We cannot be partakers of the this table and the table of devils.

[13:14] Make your stand. He's called us to be his own precious people. He's called a people out for his name. Make up your mind. Who is on the Lord's side?

[13:25] Who is on the Lord's side? And so there's separation here at the table. We're separate from false communion. We're separate from false doctrine. From false brethren.

[13:36] From false gospels. There's a separation here from sin and error and a separation unto. A separation unto God. Because there's a precious holiness that we know in Christ as his holy and set apart people.

[13:52] So there's a precious truth of separation here. And lastly, there's a significance at the table as there's also the doctrine of the return of Christ.

[14:04] There's the return of Christ touched on here. Because how long are we to do this? He says do this, this do, until his returning.

[14:15] There's a time limit. And when we consider the doctrine of the return of Christ, Christ, it should prompt us to reflect, are we ready?

[14:26] Are we ready for them? I pray we'll be encouraged in these truths. Thank you.