By Rev. E. A. Rayner
Given after the action sermon and immediately prior to the administration of the Lord’s Supper, on Sabbath, 26th January, 1997, at the communion in the Gisborne F. P. Congregation, New Zealand.
WE now come to the more solemn part of the service, the commemoration of the death of Christ, and partaking of the Lord’s Supper at the Lord’s table. When the Lord’s table is for believers, and for their spiritual nourishment and growth in grace, we condemn the modern practice of passing around the bread and wine in the pews without discrimination. We heard of a clergyman in Gisborne Hospital who took the symbols of Christ’s broken body and shed blood and gave them indiscriminately to those who were in the hospital beds. Well, this is a very solemn matter because some of these people were not believers in the Lord Jesus Christ and did not love Him, as was shown by their never going to church. In partaking of the elements they were eating and drinking judgement to themselves, as the words of institution for the Lord’s Supper show us. So we have to try to distinguish between those who are eligible to sit at the Lord’s table and those who are not.
Sometimes, in fencing the table we go through the Commandments, and examine ourselves with regard to them, but at present we shall think about the sum of the Ten Commandments, that is, loving the Lord our God.
We therefore say that those who do not love the Lord cannot come to His table. If we love not the Lord Jesus Christ we are under the wrath and curse of God. On the other hand we invite to the Lord’s table all those who love the Lord. The question is, Do we love the Lord? No doubt it is a question even among the truly godly, as it was with John Newton when he wrote:
Tis a point I long to know,
Oft it causes anxious thought;
Do I love the Lord, or no?
Am I His or am I not?
* The “fencing of the Lord’s table” is the Scottish description of the scriptural practice required by The Directory for the Public Worship of God, in its section dealing with the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. There, it states that the minister, immediately before administering the sacrament, is, “in the name of Christ, on the one part to warn all such as are ignorant, scandalous, profane, or that live in any sin or offence against their knowledge or conscience, that they presume not to come to that holy table; showing them that he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh judgement to himself: and, on the other part, he [the minister] is in an especial manner to invite and encourage all that labour under the sense of the burden of their sins, and fear of wrath, and desire to reach out unto a greater progress in grace than yet they can attain unto, to come to the Lord’s table; assuring them, in the same name, of ease, refreshing, and strength to their weak and wearied souls.” Editor
This may be the question of the Lord’s people here this morning, and they may be having difficulty with it. Maybe it is a question which is keeping them from the Lord’s table, although it should not do so. It should not do so because:
“He the soul that longing is,
doth fully satisfy;
With goodness he the hungry soul
doth fill abundantly.” (Psl. 107:9, metrical)
If we hunger and thirst after righteousness we shall be filled according to His promise. Beware of Satan, who makes the most use of our fears.
Those who love the Lord have learned their lostness on account of sin. Others have never learned that they are lost despite the fact that they may have a knowledge of the gospel, and may even make regular, diligent use of the means of grace. Because they have never had any true knowledge of their sins, they have never fled from the wrath to come. But someone who loves the Lord may be saying, “I never had any deep convictions of sin”. That may be true; but you are not to stay away from the Lord’s table because you did not pass through the same depth of conviction as some experienced. Some believers, after their conversion, had a greater depth of conviction than they had at first; but the fact is that all the Lord’s people have come out of the City of Destruction (as we have it in The Pilgrim’s Progress). We cannot be convicted sinners and remain in the City of Destruction. Christ, the divine Physician, has not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. Those who are taught by the Lord are not at ease when they see the disease of sin in themselves. If we have never learned our need of the cleansing, healing blood of Christ, how can we remember His death? If we do not think about the value of the remedy He has procured; if we have never been brought to acknowledge that here is the only remedy, the only way of salvation, how can we commemorate His death?
We would also say that those who have peace, without having the peace of Christ, are forbidden to come to the Lord’s table. In the legacy that Christ has given to His church He has said, “Peace I leave with you.” Now, we can be very much at peace with ourselves and with the world because things are going pretty well with us, as far as temporal things are concerned, and we may not be really weighed down by any other concerns. We can have the Laodicean attitude that we are “rich and increased with goods, and have need of nothing”; that sin is not a plague and burden to us, and we see no need of going for peace to Christ, the Prince of Peace. Surely it is as we have a knowledge of ourselves as sinners that we, like Paul, will say, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death,” and will look to Christ for deliverance. Well, this is the experience of God’s people: that they are not left to the peace which is found only in worldly things. We need a greater peace than that. We need the peace which comes from the application to our souls of the peace-speaking blood. If we have never gone to Christ to speak peace to us, we ought not to come to the Lord’s table. The exercise of God’s people is, “I will hear what God the Lord will speak,” and one thing they want to hear is God speaking peace to them through the blood of the everlasting covenant. Those who desire to hear what God speaks, are at least waiting upon Him, knowing that from Him alone comes peace between themselves and Him.
We also forbid from the Lord’s table all those that have a merely legal outlook with regard to their souls. That is, you are well enough pleased with your attendance in church. You may also have some religion in your home, asking a blessing at meals maybe, even having family worship. But if you are relying on the mere outward performance of duties to appease God, who is holy and just and of purer eyes than to behold iniquity, you are no better than the Pharisees who went about to establish their own righteousness. Those who think that nothing more than the mere ritual of performing religious duties is necessary, and who are not relying completely upon the blood of Christ and His righteousness, ought not to come to the Lord’s table.
Also, all those who are careless about the cause of Christ are forbidden to come to His table. You see, if we love the Lord, we will have a regard for the cause of Christ, because the church itself is “one body in Christ”. We must remember this. The cause of Christ, as expressed in the church of Christ, is the body of Christ. Well, if we have no real interest in the body of Christ, how can we have a real love for Christ, who is “the Head of the body, the church”? If we have a regard for the body of Christ, which is the Church, then we will make diligent use of the means of grace publicly, as well as privately. If we are not endeavouring to do this, how can we say that we love the Lord, and love what He has appointed?
When we see, in the day in which live, the cause of Christ to be languishing, weak and very low, surely, if we love the Lord, we will rise up for its support. We see the situation becoming serious as far as the witness of the Church is concerned. The people of God are becoming fewer and the question has to be asked, “Who is on the Lord’s side?” We invite to the table those who are seeking to stand up on the Lord’s side, and striving to give His cause full-hearted support.
The Lord has appointed “one whole day in seven, to be a holy Sabbath to Himself,” and with regard to that, the late Reverend William MacLean* used to ask, “How can we love the Lord and commemorate His death, if we do not love the Lord’s Day which is the commemoration of His resurrection?” It cannot be said that we love the Lord if we do not observe what He has said: “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.”
Well, if we have love to the Lord, we will love His cause. When the church of Christ is in a low and languishing condition, those that love the Lord will be seeking that He will raise it up and establish a witness on the side of truth. They will try to do their utmost to be supportive and to be the greatest help in every way possible. We live in very discouraging times; terribly discouraging times. If we have a heart interest in Christ and His cause, we will be trying to give every possible support and encouragement.
In our day and generation people are taken up too much with temporal things. In the days of the prophets Haggai and Zechariah, Haggai said to the people, who were not getting on with building the house of God, “Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts saying, This people say, The time is not come, the time that the Lord’s house should be built. Then came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet, saying, Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your cieled houses, and this house lie waste?” So, if we find that the cause of Christ among us is low, and that there is a very great need, we should seek in the strength of God to do what we can to help. The problem in the days of Haggai was that the people were busy with all their worldly responsibilities, spending their money on their houses and businesses, while the house of God was lying waste and no money being given for the building of it. Well, if you love the Lord, you will seek to be doing your part for the advancement of His cause, however small that part may be; and we invite you to His table.
In the time of the prophet Malachi, the cause of God was in a very low state, the people were not bringing in the tithes to the temple storehouse, and there was a lack of the blessing of God. Rev. William MacLean used to refer to this very often in my hearing when we were young people, and when there was a good work of reviving among us here in Gisborne in those days. He used to quote from Malachi, chapter 3, “Even from the days of your fathers ye are gone away from mine ordinances, and have not kept them. Return unto me, and I will return unto you, saith the Lord of hosts. But ye said, Wherein shall we return? Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have ye robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation. Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse,
* Rev. William MacLean (1907-85) became the minister of the Ness congregation in Lewis in 1948. He was translated to the Gisborne congregation in New Zealand in 1962, to the Grafton congregation in Australia in 1973, and re-inducted to the Ness congregation in 1976, where he remained until his death. Under the pen-name of Ergatees he wrote Arminianism – Another Gospel; Christ or Antichrist – Facts for Enquirers; and several other useful pamphlets, published by Westminster Standard Publications. See The Free Presbyterian Magazine, Vol. 90, No.12, December 1985, page 378.
that there may be meat in my house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.” Bring all the tithes into the storehouse! Well, I think there is a message for us here! If we love the Lord, and see the need of Christ’s cause among us, we will do what we can to help, and you who seek to do so are welcome to His table. It may not be within your power to do much to alleviate the situation because you have not the wherewithal to do so, but you will be willingly doing what you can: and the Lord loveth a cheerful giver. Mr. MacLean used to say, and I quote him again, “When the Lord has opened the heart, the purse is opened.”
On the other hand, we forbid coming to the Lord’s table those who don’t care what happens to the cause of Christ; who don’t care if the church in Gisborne goes bankrupt; who don’t care if all the old people just die out. One of the pillars of the church [the late Mr Jim MacPherson, an elder in the Gisborne Congregation] has been taken away from our midst. Godly, diligent people, who were doing everything they possibly could, using every ounce of their energy and often burdened with cares about the cause of Christ, have been taken away. Are you among those who simply say, “We don’t care if the church in Gisborne goes out of existence.” You are forbidden to partake of the Lord’s Supper if you also don’t care about being diligent in your attendance upon the means of grace, if you don’t care if there is anything left of what God set up in our midst so wonderfully and so graciously in the past, if you don’t care if you have a minister anymore, and if you don’t care what the financial state of the church is.
My dear young friends here, it is time for you to think seriously about the future of the cause of Christ among us. The older people have devoted their hearts and their lives to it because they loved Christ. What about yourselves? Well, if you do not have a heart or mind for these things, it means simply that you are breaking God’s commandments. You are being idolatrous in putting other things before Christ, the altogether lovely One. He is most precious! If you are giving yourself to idolatry, you are not fit to come to the Lord’s table.
It is all very well for ministers to give a general invitation, as is done in many churches today, “All who love the Lord, come to the Lord’s table,” but how many love the Lord? Where is the evidence that they love the Lord? Where is their respect to the commandments of the Lord? These are the real, practical issues with which we are confronted. We are trying to see the difference between those who love the Lord and those who are just nominal in their profession.
Well, a division is being made here this morning between those who love the Lord and those who do not love the Lord. If you do not love the Lord, and cannot come to His table, you are in a very solemn situation. If we are not fit to come to the Lord’s table, we are not fit to die! We are not ready to stand before the Judge. It is of no use being careless or indifferent about these matters, saying, “Maybe sometime or another I will give attention to them.” We are brought face to face with the reality that a division is being made now. And we cannot tell how soon the final division between the living and the dead will be made with regard to ourselves. We cannot say that we are going to have another year, or another week, or even another tomorrow. So we must always be ready; we must not be indifferent; we must not have the careless attitude of those in the parable who said that their Lord was gone and delayed his return, and that therefore they could do what they liked. If you are saying, “God is sparing me, so I am just going on as I was for a little bit longer,” you are not fit for the Lord’s table and you are not ready for eternity. You are still unconverted and you do not love the Lord. You are still under the curse of God.
My friends, this is something that we should lay to heart on this special occasion this morning. Oh, that the young people would have their hearts exercised about these things. If they be not converted, and do not begin to love and serve the Lord, there will be no witness left here. There will be no minister. There will be no Church as we know it today. It is time to consider these matters as we think of the difference between those who are invited to the table of the Lord and those who are forbidden, and as we commemorate the Lord’s death.
Finally, we invite to the Lord’s table all who know their folly; all who confess with the Psalmist, “My wounds do stink and are corrupt, my folly makes it so:” all who have been brought to acknowledge, “Christ is all my salvation and all my desire.” We invite all those who feel themselves to be guilty, saying, “Against thee, thee only, have I sinned,” and who employ the language of the penitent prodigal and the penitent publican. Come to His table, all you who have learned that in Christ alone you have righteousness. You may not be able to say, “I can come happily with assurance;” but can you say with trembling, “God be merciful to me a sinner.”? Well, if you can say so from the heart, even though you are lacking that confidence and assurance that you would like to have, you are invited to the Lord’s table, because just as the man who prayed that prayer was justified, so are you. We invite all those who see themselves filthy and full of wounds and bruises and putrefying sores, having some knowledge that the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked; who seek cleansing by the precious blood of Christ and in the fountain opened for sin and uncleanness; who cry to the Lord to create a clean heart and renew a right spirit within them.
Perhaps you cannot see the way ahead; the way is dark; but still you must go on, leaning upon the arm of the Beloved, trusting in the only Saviour. Therefore you are invited to the Lord’s table. Are you finding yourself in darkness, and yet you are waiting upon the Lord to send forth His light and His truth? Well, you are invited to the Lord’s table.