Communion
Service
[An Advanced Study]
I am sure that
most of you in the auditorium tonight have read our research and publication
entitled The Cross in the Broken Body or Healing in
the Holy Communion. [These publications are
covered almost completely in this teaching].
It was a
tremendous Revelation to my soul many, many years ago when we were in the
Ministry in Van Wert
And I believe most
of the people in most of the organized denominational churches today still
across our country except in those areas where we have been hearing, with the
hearing of our own ears of how they have studied our research work and they too
have turned to believe God’s Word. And
when they give holy communion, they give it in the
essence in which it’s given here at the Way Biblical
Therefore I turn,
very briefly tonight, but yet I turn to the great record in the book of
Corinthians which is addressed to the church.
Where in these great truths are summarized and set forth so
beautifully. Just to remind all of us
again, of what the Word of God really says it means, and that it means what it
says. So that all of us here as
individuals as family may come to this table of the Lord tonight and receive
absolute deliverance according to His Word.
In
the 11th Chapter of I Corinthians, in verse 23 of this great
chapter. We read:
For
I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, the Lord
Jesus the same [omit same] night in which he was betrayed took bread: -- I
Corinthians
And
when he had given thanks, he brake it [the bread], and
said, Take, eat: this is my body, -- I Corinthians 11: 24a
In plain literal
language, it would read, this is representative of my body because from the
original Greek texts, Aramaic texts, all of these verbs and pronouns. All of these has to agree with the number,
the cases, the genders and it is totally indicative that he did not mean that
they were literally eating his body, but that they would eat this bread, they
would eat this as representative of his broken body. Which is broken for you and
this we are to do in remembrance of me.
And
when he had given thanks, he brake it [the bread], and
said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken
for you: this do in remembrance of me.
-- I Corinthians 11: 24
This we were to do in remembrance of what Christ did. Well, if we’re going to do in remembrance of,
then we have to remember what he did.
You can’t say you’re remembering something and then forget it. Like I did, a little while
ago, when I opened the gates of the city. And Walter saying, it was simply opening the
gates of the temple. I forgot it was the
temple and I had to make room I guess to get them to the temple, so I opened
the city. I didn’t rightly
remember. The title of
that tremendous classical number.
This is how we can get off on God’s Word. This is we’re to do in remembrance of him and
if we do it rightly, then we are right in our remembrance. And it
says in verse 25.
After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped,
saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft [often] as ye
drink it,
in remembrance of me. -- I Corinthians 11: 25
So you have two things, the cup and the bread in remembrance of him.
For [verse 26], as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the
Lords what? Death. The word shew is the word proclaim. You do proclaim the Lords death. How do we proclaim it? As often as ye eat or drink, you
proclaim. You show forth by doing it
that you remember what he did for you.
And this is to proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. If this is written to the church and the body
of believers, then this is with us until his return. For we are to show forth the Lord’s death,
proclaim it, what he accomplished for us by our remembrance until he comes.
For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye
do shew the Lord’s death till he come. -- I Corinthians 11: 26
Wherefore, verse 27. Had you
only taken it down to verse 26, someone could come to you and say. Well, Paul
has only been giving by Revelation what Jesus Christ did on the night of his
betrayal and it is not applicable to the church of the body of believers. But when you get to the words wherefore, you
ask yourself, well then why for? Because
wherefore tells you why you have to do it for.
Wherefore whosoever, whosoever, and he couldn’t be
speaking back to the time of the death of the Lord Jesus Christ because it’s
writing to the church many years after the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he is saying, whosoever shall eat this
bread. Well if it had dropped out with
the beginning or the coming of the church, then these phrases could not be
here. Whosoever shall eat this bread,
whosoever and the whosoever includes every person in this auditorium tonight. It includes
every believer in the Lord Jesus Christ who was born again of God’s spirit
filled by the power of His Holy Spirit.
Whosoever shall eat this bread and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily
shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. To eat and to drink unworthily would be to
eat and drink without knowledge. And
ladies and gentlemen, if that is true, then there were many years in my life
when I ate and drank this body of the Lord, figuratively speaking, very
unworthily. Because I
had no proper knowledge or understanding of the greatness of His revealed Word.
Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup
of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. – I Corinthians 11: 27
Verse 28 says: But, so that we
may not eat this body and drink this cup unworthily. In contrast, it uses the word ‘but’, setting
this in contrast. Let a man examine
himself. It doesn’t say that I’m to
examine you. It doesn’t say that any of
my fellow clergymen or fellow believers in the ministry are
to examine you. Let a man examine
himself. You examine yourself in the
light of the Revelation of God’s Word. Let
a man examine himself
and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that what? cup.
But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread,
and drink of that cup. -- I Corinthians 11: 28
Verse 29: For he that eateth and
drinketh unworthily, without proper knowledge or understanding of it, eateth
and drinketh judgment, not damnation in the sense where you’re going to go to
hell because once you’re born again of God’s spirit, that’s an impossible
trip. But you, it brings judgment upon
yourself because you’re eating and drinking unworthily and you do not bring to
yourself the reality of the presence that God has made available. Because when you come to this table tonight,
if you come with a knowledge of God’s Word, and you believe, God has not only
promised, He is faithful to carry out that promise. And He will again in your life, as well as
and mine, His total deliverance to us as fellow believers. Eateth and drinketh damnation or judgment to himself not discerning the Lord’s what? body.
For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and
drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body. -- I Corinthians 11: 29
And there again, the history of our society, of our times stands before
God’s judgment bar. Because it is the
Lord’s body which is not rightly divided.
As far as the cup is concerned, the forgiveness and the remission of
sins, that is covered. But what about the body?
The body of the Lord Jesus Christ represented for us our physical
healing. By his stripes, we were
healed. Who forgiveth all thine
iniquities, who healeth all thy diseases. It is in that right dividing of the Lord’s
body that we get our deliverance physically.
And then he goes on:…………..
For this cause,
because of these things, many, not a few, but many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. And the word sleep in the text is ‘die
prematurely’. Because
we’re not rightly dividing the Word to get the knowledge. Therefore, many of God’s people are first of
all weak, living below par. They are
sickly and many die prematurely because had they rightly divided the Word and
believed that Word, they would have lived.
But they did not rightly divide that Word. They did not appropriate unto themselves that
great reality of what God made available and so they died prematurely. They died before their believing should have
run out. The reason they couldn’t
believe is because they hadn’t been properly taught. And therefore, Satan destroyed them
physically and this should be a tremendous revelation to the body of believers
today. We need to come as loving,
humble, honest believing Christians, not only in our prayer life, in our Bible
study reading, but to the table of the Lord.
And to do this in remembrance of him. Well what are we remembering? We’re remembering when he died upon the
cross. He shed his blood. Yes.
But before he even died, all through his ministry, he was physically
suffering for us. But very especially
when they led him before Pilate, before Caiaphas,
when they led him into the judgment hall, put the crown of thorns upon his
head. Dressed him in a
purple robe. Took the whips or
the scourges and hit him and said, please guess who hit you. When they nailed him to the cross and drove
that wooden spike through his hands. With
all that sacrifice of that body, the Word of God says it is for the healing of
our bodies.
And when he shed
his blood, and the shedding of a blood is a figure of
speech. It does not mean he literally
bled his blood out. You could cover this
whole group with blood tonight. That
would not be efficacious. But the
shedding of the blood means he laid down his life. Nobody took it from him. As she sang tonight
and as you know it was accurate from the Word, he had 12 legions of angels at
his command. I want to tell you those
little soldiers couldn’t have done a thing if those 12 legions would
appear. They couldn’t even do anything
when on the day of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ,
the angels came and rolled the stone away.
And I don’t know if it took more than one angel because I know that it
didn’t take any more than two on what we call Easter Sunday to sit down in that
sepulchre and to speak to Mary Magdalene and to tell
her what was going on. And a few angels was all that it took to roll the stone away and to declare
it. What would 12 legions have
done? Man, oh man. He could’ve walked off of that cross any time
he wanted to. You know that. He was God’s only begotten son - always did
the Father’s Will. I and the Father are
one. I asked the Father, the Father
gives it. Perfect
alignment and harmony. But he
kept hanging on that cross because he loved you and he loved me. As John so beautifully declared, for God so
loved the world that he gave, he gave, he gave, not an Indian giver, he gave
His only begotten son. He gave him.
For
God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever
believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. -- John 3: 16
Jesus Christ so
loved us that he allowed himself to be nailed to that cross in spite of all
that excruciating pain and everything else.
He kept hanging on that cross because he knew that down here at the Way
Headquarters this Sunday night, we needed what he was
making available.
Oh, people, this
is a present reality, it’s a now time.
It is God ministering to His people now.
And it’s still that same great love.
That wonderful matchless what?
And because of that greatness of that love, you and I have a right to
come. And just relinquish ourselves, just
give ourselves completely, totally to Him and say Father, here I am. I want to take that bread which represents
Christ’s broken body and everything you’ve accomplished for me in your
wonderful name of your son Jesus Christ and I thank you for what he did for me.
I want to take
that wonderful cup which represents the shedding of his blood, the laying down
of his life for me making available to me remission and forgiveness of sins and
I thank you Father for Jesus Christ who accomplished it for me. And very deeply in your heart, presently you
must be as effervescent as I am tonight.
To realize that the only life we have in the greatest of the reality of
our being is the life of the presence of the might of the Lord Jesus Christ,
our Savior. That is eternal life. That’s why that tremendous hymn “My Jesus, I love thee, I know thou
art mine, for thee all the follies of sin I resign. My gracious Redeemer, my Savior art thou, if
ever I love thee,
my Jesus it’s now.”
Tonight’s the night,
today is the day of salvation. This is
the hour when God through Jesus Christ meets the needs of believers.
Almighty God our
heavenly Father, we lift up our hearts in thanksgiving for the beauty of holiness which we
have again seen manifested here this night.
We thank you Father how you’ve blessed our people. How it’s been such a joy to see parents come
with their little children to teach them the greatness of your Word and your
power, Father. How we’ve been blessed as
individuals have come, as a couple has come. And how we have been blessed to see these young clergyman holding forth the greatness of your
Word to your people, Father. And surely,
we thank you this night because of your wonderful greatness and power unto all of us through Christ Jesus our living Lord.
Our heavenly
Father we thank you for such a tremendous night. For blessing your people so mightily for you
are truly a great big wonderful God and we certainly praise you and thank you
for what you wrought for us through Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen and amen and good night. God bless you and I love you.
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