BY THE LATE REV. PROFESSOR JOHN DUNCAN, LL.D., EDINBURGH.
(Hitherto Unpublished.)
TABLE SERVICE NO. II.*
Address before Distribution of Elements.
THE Lord God, having in the beginning created the heavens and the earth, made man—formed him of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul. “In the image of God created he him, male and female created he them.” And He gave man a command, which man, tempted by the serpent, the devil, transgressed. And God “drove out the man,” having given a word, at once of threatening to the serpent and of promise to the man. And so from that time forth hath begun a dispensation of God toward man in which is manifested His grace. Men, having multiplied on the earth, and all flesh having corrupted its way, God brought down the waters of the flood, and destroyed the world of the ungodly. And afterwards, when men began again to be corrupt, and that corruption was also universal, God called Abraham from the land of his nativity, to go into a land which God would give him; and made him many promises, specially this one: “In thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.” “And Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness.” And God confirmed His covenant to Isaac, and Jacob, and to their seed after them. He sent a famine in the land of Canaan where they dwelt, but sent a man into Egypt before them, Joseph, by whom they should be fed.
* This Table Service was delivered in Free St. Luke’s, Edinburgh (Rev. Dr. Moody Stuart’s), on Communion Sabbath, 28th January, 1865.
And when another Pharaoh, that oppressed them, rose up, He sent them His servant Moses; and after signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, He brought them out after the celebration of the passover, in which Israel acknowledged themselves guilty as well as Egypt. He brought them to the Red Sea and to Sinai, where He spake to Moses, saying, “Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel—Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto myself: Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people, for all the earth is mine: And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests and an holy nation.” And Moses reported these words to the elders of Israel and to all the people: and all the people said, “Amen; all that the Lord hath spoken we will do.” So He entered into covenant with them, giving them the law of the ten commandments, written with His own hand on the two tables of stone; and many other commandments and ordinances by the hand of Moses He gave unto them. And when Moses had made an end of speaking every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and of goats, with water and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book and all the people, saying, “This is the blood of the covenant which God hath enjoined unto you: Moreover, he sprinkled with blood likewise both the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry.” “And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.” That sacrificial blood connected the book and the people, the book of the Lord and the people of the Lord. And that sacrificial blood connecting the book and the people, connected the vessels of the ministry, the tabernacle and the whole sanctuary; all were connected with the tabernacle and with Jehovah. God hath said, “The wages of sin is death,” but He gave the children of Israel the blood of the animal slain in sacrifice, to be a propitiation for their sin outwardly, and typically, to give assurance to them for the covenant made at Sinai. But the people transgressed, and God sent many prophets, and at last sent unto them Jeremiah about the time of their captivity in Babylon, who said, “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah.” Israel, returned from captivity, were many days forsaken. There was no prophet or seer in Israel.
At last we go to Jerusalem, and in an upper chamber, Jesus of Nazareth with His disciples is met for the celebration of the passover. After the paschal feast, Jesus takes the bread, and breaks it, and gives it to them, saying, “This is my body,” and takes the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood,” the new covenant promised by Jeremiah, “shed for many for the remission of sins.” “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for he hath visited and redeemed his people, and hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David.” And this ordinance of Jesus was delivered in His commission, “Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.” And Paul says to the Corinthians, who were mostly, if not altogether, Gentile, “I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you.” Well, this is one and the same feast. “Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you, and lo! I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.” Jesus is at the head of this Table. Jesus speaks the same words, “Do this in remembrance of me. As often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup ye do shew the Lord’s death until he come.”
“He is therefore the Mediator of the new covenant.” Jesus, the Christ, the Anointed—Jesus, the Son of the living God—God’s Son whom He sent—”made of a woman, made under the law”—God’s Son, being His Son before He sent Him, and therefore eternally, whom God sent to be “the Saviour of the world”; Jesus Christ, the Son of God and the Son of man, the Son of God of the second Psalm and the Son of man of the eighth—”Lo! I come,” says the Son of God, “to do thy will—a body hast thou prepared me.” “Forasmuch as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same.” The angel announced His birth to the virgin Mary. “That holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God”—because He was the Son of God. God and man, the one Mediator between God and men; having a body, that He might be a sacrifice; having blood, that it might be the blood of the new covenant, wherewith the book of God and the people of God, and all the instruments of the worship of God, the tabernacle on earth, and the better tabernacle into which He has entered, were sprinkled; all consecrated with that blood.
Well, Jesus, who was the institutor, and as the institutor was and is at the head of His own Table, is also the food. “Take, eat,” says He at the head of the Table; “this is my body, broken for you; this cup is the new covenant in my blood; drink ye all of it.” The priests did eat of the things wherewith the atonement was made; and as Israel in the first covenant, so, in the new covenant, the sprinkled with the blood of Jesus are consecrated priests to God, and eat of the things wherewith the new covenant atonement was made. “My flesh,” said Jesus on a former occasion, “is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.” My flesh is meat in reality, and my blood is drink in reality. Man lives by bread; he is connected with the outward world; he is not sufficient to himself even as regards his body. He stands connected with this world, and must take in part of this world, in the form of fruits, vegetables, and animal produce, because he is not sufficient to himself as regards his corporeal life. And man, as a spirit, is not sufficient to his own spiritual life; the fountain of life remains with God; the whole source of supply remains with God. “That eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested unto us, which we have heard, which we have seen, which our hands have handled.” He, who was the Living One, became dead; and this life having died, Jesus, having given His life as the Mediator of the new covenant and as a ransom for the souls of many, this fountain of life, this “eternal life which was with the Father,” eaten by us, drunk by us, becomes to us the source of an eternal life. “As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father, so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me.” Yes, Jesus is really present, and His words are really true, “This is my body, this is my blood.” Not, indeed, after a corporal or carnal manner, but by the divine appointment connecting the signs with the things signified, which divine connection is a reality, Jesus who is present to faith in the Word is also present to faith in the Sacrament. Ah, how costly a feast is this! It is precious. How precious! the body of the Son of God, the blood of the Son of God. But how costly! It is the broken body and the shed blood of the Incarnate Word, of the only begotten Son of God. Precious and costly.
“Broken for you,” sinner; for you. And why? “He is therefore the Mediator of the new covenant, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first covenant.” It is for transgressors. For transgressors; but all Jerusalem and all the nation were transgressors. It was for transgressors; but it was for John leaning on Jesus’ bosom; it was for Peter to whom had been revealed these things; it was for all the others who had forsaken all and followed Jesus. For transgressors; but for such transgressors, for those who had received Jesus’ words, and had known that He came out from God and believed that He had sent Him. And not for those present only, but according to the prayer of intercession, “for them also which shall believe on me through their word.” What a feast is provided! It begins at Jerusalem and goes out to the ends of the earth; for “Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.” “In this mountain will the Lord of Hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things.” And, as precious as it is, and as costly as it is, it required the mission, the incarnation, the obedience, and the perfecting of the obedience by the atoning death of the Son of God. It is given heartily, “Take, eat, drink ye all of it.” “Eat, O friends, drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved!” Receive and be blessed, and let Him, who is at the head of the Table, have the enjoyment of that privilege of which He tells us in the words preserved by Paul, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” “On that night in which he was betrayed,” etc.
Address after Distribution of Elements.
How closely, believing communicants, does Jesus give Himself to your appropriating faith! “Take, eat, this is my body.” “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, drink ye all of it.” “That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith.” That body, which you have eaten, that blood which you have drunk—not after a corporal or carnal manner, but by faith; that body, which was broken, is risen again; that blood, which was shed, Jesus hath entered with it into the holiest of all. What a connection between Him who dwells in heaven, and Him who dwells in the heart!
But now remember the Lord’s priesthood; remember the Lord’s vineyard; remember the Lord’s race; and remember the Lord’s battle.
Remember the Lord’s priesthood. “Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood” (I Peter ii.) Remember your sacerdotal office. Remember your kingly and sacerdotal office, and remember your prophetic office, “that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light.”
Remember the Lord’s vineyard. For sitting at the Lord’s Table as the Lord’s disciples and servants, we receive the living bread, “the bread which came down from heaven, and gives life unto the world,” for life’s purposes. We live by eating and drinking, and by eating and drinking we live that we may work. And so having sat at the Lord’s Table, we have bound ourselves to the Lord’s work, to labour in the vineyard of the Lord, to be “steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as we know that our labour is not in vain in the Lord.” Bountiful provision; let there be hearty work.
Remember the Lord’s race. Jesus, “for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame,” and let us run with patience and perseverance the race set before us, looking unto Him. “Giving all diligence, add to your faith, virtue (courage); and to courage, knowledge; and to knowledge, temperance; and to temperance, patience; and to patience, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, charity, for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall.” And for running the race, take the use of this meat, as God enabled His servant Elijah to go in the strength of the meat He gave him many days.
Remember the Lord’s battle. The battle is against the devil, the world, and the flesh. About this battle, especially against the flesh, we have been hearing much. Ah! it is a heavy trial when a man’s enemies are those of his own house; worse still, when they are those of his own heart; and when that heart is on the side of the legion of enemies: when a man’s flesh connects him with the world against which he has to fight; and the world against which he has to fight connects him with the devil. But let us fight the battle out, against the devil, the world, and the flesh, in the strength of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
And when remembering the Lord’s death, we shew it “till he come.” This feast is in prospect of a coming one; it is the feast of espousals, not that of the consummated marriage. The espousals indeed are sure and certain, but then the terms are that we be for Him and not for another, and the ground on which this is claimed is surely good, that He has given Himself for us.
Jesus instituted this supper, and died. We also must die. Nay, “He that believeth in me shall never die; he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.” Jesus will come again, and “We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed.” “If we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.” And that sleep is awaiting us, or the state at the second coming of the Lord—when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, when “the dead in Christ shall rise first, and we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them to meet the Lord in the air.” Till that be, our death is a departing to be with Christ, which is far better. Therefore, for life, and the work of life, let us ask, and the Lord will give us the living bread.
There would not be every day in the prodigal’s father’s house the fatted calf, but the everyday home provision; and we are to count not on the supply of the Sacramental Table, but on the everyday fare of the home. Yet these two are substantially the same, for His flesh is meat indeed and His blood is drink indeed. Let there be a daily eating and a daily working, and a daily running and a daily fighting, and a daily prospect of the blessed end, so as we may be able through grace to say at last, “I have fought a good fight; I have finished my course; I have kept the faith.”
“For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry.” “Amen, even so; come, Lord Jesus.”