Hymn 186. I Corinthians
10, "Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be
ignorant, how that all
our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the
sea, and were all
baptised unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and did all
eat the same spiritual
meat and did all drink the same spiritual drink for they
drank of that
spiritual Rock that followed them and that Rock was Christ.
But with many of
them, God was not well pleased; for they were overthrown in the
wilderness."
Verse 16, "The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the
communion of the
blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the
communion of the body
of Christ." This chapter and the following two chapters teaches
us a great lot
about the breaking of bread. The most sacred moment, the most
hallowed
experience that we could ever possibly experience, concerns
the touching of the
bread and partaking of it. The most sacred moment and hallowed
experience of
touching the cup and drinking of it, there is nothing so
sacred, so soul
searching, and we could fail to understand what this means. If
we do not
examine ourselves before God and we partake, it will cause us
to be sick and
weak and asleep. We could be in a coma, sickly and weak. God
has arranged for
His people upon the first day of the week, a day of
resurrection, like the day
of Pentecost, we come together in remembrance of the Lord
Jesus, a time when we
would be brought back to the renewing of our covenant bringing
us in to learn
of the promises of God regarding salvation, and it is there
where the great
work of restoration takes place. It is not a matter of being
stirred in a
meeting or in a convention, because things soon settle down
and become as they
were. Peter writes about speaking a message, the word of God,
that will stir
their minds by way of remembrance, and this is necessary. God
revives,
quickens, and when things settle down, God makes us alive
again. We read here of our
brethren in the Old Testament, and how God revived them. They
were all
baptized, had partaken of spiritual bread, had all drunk the
spiritual drink,
this was the food and drink of our brethren before the coming
of Jesus. They
all participated, but with many of them God was not well
pleased. These things
are recorded so that we would not err in the same way. The
baptism in the sea
has to do with faith and trust. The water parted before them,
and at any moment,
the sea could close in again, and they would all perish, but
God prevailed and
took them all through to the other shore. I can't think of any
picture that
shows us more clearly the picture of salvation, as baptism of
the sea. The
water closed in behind them, forever cutting off the past, cut
off forever all
that belonged to Egypt, all the things that they were involved
with in their
past life. It is a wholesome thing in the breaking of bread to
give thought to
how we heard the gospel, how baptism separated us, the work of
God separating
us from the old life. Then the baptism in the cloud, when I
think of Jesus
being baptised, the cloud over shadowed Him, and God said,
"This is My beloved
Son, in Whom I am well pleased." He was brought to that place
where he had God's
acceptance and approval on His life. If we forget these
things, that we have
been purged from our old sins, we will lose our vision and
become blind, become
unmindful of the word of God, in having His acceptance and His
approval. The cloud also meant
their protection, it guided them, and the spirit of God leads
us. We do not
need to do great wicked things to be out of fellowship. We
could stay where we
are and the clouds carryon without us, and we could be out of
fellowship. As
the people were willing to take steps where the cloud led
them, they could
partake of the manna. This was only provided for them if they
journeyed where
the cloud went. The manna was not over the whole world, or
over the whole
desert, it was only in the place where the cloud was, and for
us to have bread
we must be willing to take steps in obedience to the will of
God. This will
give us spiritual food and drink. We might ask ourselves, "What
was so spiritual
about the manna?" This manna was not ordinary bread, it was as
the result of an
act of God. It came from Heaven. As we partake, this should be
the thought in
the breaking of bread, this is not an ordinary experience,
this is not like
eating a meal, this is a spiritual experience, a searching of
the soul
realising the greatness of God, and God's grace and gift to
us. Every Sunday
morning meeting is not an opportunity to express our
weaknesses and short
comings; this is not the time nor the place for such
expression. We are only
coming together to express the greatness of God, that in spite
of failure we
can know forgiveness and reconciliation. It is a time of
praise and
thankfulness to God, a time to search out in our soul, a time
of participating
and partaking of the bread, showing that we are totally
involved. There is no experience
that we can experience in life that is like this experience,
because this
partaking of the bread involves all five of our senses. We
look upon the
emblems, we hear of Jesus in the meeting, we touch with our
hands, and then we
taste, and with this comes the smell. We know that there is a
certain
satisfaction in seeing the bread, the emblems, but then there
is a greater
satisfaction in touching it. I have noticed this in women
shopping for cloth,
they might look at it, they might even speak about it, but
they are not
satisfied until they can touch it and feel it. God has so
arranged the breaking
of bread that we would not only see it, not only talk about
it, but we would
touch it, we would taste it and we would smell. We would have
a lasting
impression of the greatness of God's salvation to us, to
realize all that we
have entered into all that it means to have fellowship with
our brethren. As the
people gathered the manna, they ate it; as the water flowed
from the rock, they
drank. This was wonderful blessing, to remind the people of
God's favour and
blessing. With many of them, God was
not well pleased. Why was this? The answer is given in a few
words. It was
because they had an evil spirit of unbelief. We might say that
that is not such
a terrible thing, but it is something that provoked God for 40
years. It caused
people not to have any rest, it causes a restlessness, this
evil spirit of unbelief.
Jesus said, "Come unto Me all ye that labour and are heavy
laden and I will give
you rest. You come and learn of Me, not about Me, learn of Me,
let Me touch
you." There is soul rest when He teaches us. Our brethren had
an evil spirit of
unbelief and God was not pleased. What was it that was causing
this unbelief?
The first thing was that they lusted after evil things, and
what are the evil
things that this refers to. It was that soon after they left
Egypt they went
and lusted for what they had an appetite for in Egypt. Manna
to them was vile,
they wanted what they had in Egypt - flesh. Any time that we
are not satisfied
with the simplicity in Christ, when we desire something in our
hearts that we
had back in Egypt, then we are lusting after evil things. God
gave them flesh
to eat. There were feathered fowls that fell, one meter deep.
As they went a
day's journey on one side of the camp, and a day's journey on
the other side of
the camp, in every direction, this would be an area square of
40 miles, one meter deep. If they wanted flesh, they
had it. They were
standing in it up to their hips. Could you imagine trying to
prepare to eat
them? They ate them for one month, and lots of people died.
They were wanting
more than Christ, and what was in Christ, it says they loathed
it. Then it tells us that
there were some who were idolaters, they sat down to eat and
drink, and rose up
to play. The two tables of stone was the instruction of God
given to His
people. He had been speaking to Moses and wrote with His own
finger. Then when
Moses went down, he saw the golden calf and the people had been
eating and
drinking. This was the most sacred word and teaching of God to
them but they
were looking for something else. They were looking for
something different to
the living word of God, and Moses broke those two tables of
stone, because they
had broken the first commandment already: "Thou shalt have no
other gods before
Me." We need a Godly reverence for the word of God, for His
teaching, for His
guidance. We have to remember that these things were happening
while they were
eating spiritual food and spiritual drink. Their hearts
affection was drawn out
to idolatry. Their affections were alienated from God. In
their hearts, they
were in love with other things, and they were committing spiritual adultery. The
Lord wants to be
a husband to His people. Then it tells us that they tempted
Christ, and they
were destroyed of serpents. They were not tempting God, they
were tempting
Christ, in those days when Christ as yet had not come. They
were bitten by
fiery serpents. A snake bite is very deadly. Adam and Eve were
affected by the
serpent. People are not aware that a snake bite is so serious,
and it is
possible to be bitten and not be aware of it. The people of
God were affected
by unbelief. They were not aware that they were discouraged
because of the
length of the way. They were still partaking of the bread and
the drink, but it
was not having any affect upon them. It did not enlarge their
experience it did
not make them become more thankful. We have much to be
thankful for in every
way. Then we read that they
murmured. The spies went out to see the fruitfulness of the
land and they
brought back an evil report. They were full of unbelief, and
they rebelled, and
they wanted to go back. This was not long after they had begun
the journey, it
would only be 18-20 months when it happened. They had been
partaking of the
bread and the drink and instead of this making them full of
enthusiasm, they
murmured, and they provoked God, and these things are written
to admonish us,
to know the seriousness, the sacredness, the holiness of
breaking of bread. We
need to examine in our soul before we partake, because of the
purpose we want
to have in those moments, the spirit of fresh consecration,
being prepared to
lay aside the things that hinder us. We should not have an
unbelieving heart.
We could believe in a right ministry, we could believe that it
is right to meet
in homes, that this is all the will of God, but it could be
that we don't
believe what Jesus told us. Jesus told us there would
be problems, and in Matthew 18 it tells us that offences must
come, they are a
part of life. This matter of trespassing, someone we offend or
someone offends
us, and Jesus has given us divine instruction as to what to do
when this
happens. We are slow to do this, because we do not believe
that it is workable.
When something happens and there is offence, the first thing
we should do is go
to the person alone, and you must go in the spirit of a little
child. But so often
what does happen, because we are human, we go aside and go to
our sister, our
brother, and before long there is a whole team working on this
problem. This is
because the sin of unbelief. Jesus said, "Go first alone. For
where two or three
are gathered together in My Name, there am I in the midst of
them." Sometimes
this verse is misunderstood, it is spoken about as a little
meeting in a remote
place where there are only two or three together and Jesus
will be there, and
we know that that is true, but Jesus was not dealing with that
here. This is a
meeting when difficulties arise, when you go in the spirit of
a little child,
alone, to the other sermon, in that meeting He will be there.
When we are
meeting together, in that way there is the spirit of
quietness, and Jesus is
able to negotiate. He makes the meeting workable, and things
are always
resolved and rest is restored. We want to believe that with
all our hearts.
This is God's way of resolving difficulties that arise. Jesus
has left us the
absolute solution, and we must believe and trust in Him that
it is right. In the breaking of bread,
we must partake worthily. We have to understand what it means
to partake
worthily. Worthy just means sinless, pure, and when we go to
the meeting we
often have feelings about our own understanding. When we come
together to
partake of the bread, Jesus is our great High Priest and
because He is so
worthy, we present our lives to Jesus as a willing offering,
then He takes our
lives and offers them to God as a sacrifice, and God accepts
us because Jesus
is worthy, not because we are worthy. It is not a matter of
human effort of
trying to be worthy, not a matter of will power of us becoming
worthy, but
Jesus and His sacrifice makes us worthy. When we present our
lives to Him, it
causes us to rejoice, because we are accepted because of Him.
It tells us that
the gospel was preached to these people, our brethren, but the
word preached
did not profit them because it was not mixed with faith. The
teachings of Jesus
were not mixed with faith. Faith is a catalyst. Sometimes you
have two
solutions, and you need to put one or two drops into the other
solution and it
sets, and it works. The word of God is like that when it is
mixed with faith,
the catalyst comes into the word of God and we believe, that
is faith that is
mixed with the word of God. This makes a strong solution, and
it fixes it. I
like to think of men who had a living faith, and in preaching
the gospel we
have the greatest opportunity to see this faith working. One time in Alaska, on an
island, there was an Indian man who received help and it was a
miracle. There
were unusual events occurred that got us there. We were
walking down the street
in this village and in a few moments this man sought us out,
and he told us of
the message that his mother had given him. His mother had a
dream that he would
receive a message in his old age that would change the
remainder of his life.
His mother died when he was young. He did not have any family,
his mother and
father both died and he said, "I have been without a family
until the gospel
came." When this man came to his first gospel meeting, there
were about 6 or 7
coming, and one morning after a meeting, he came and said,
"There is only one
person coming to those meetings." We said, "What about Moses? He
is coming." He said, "I have known him all his days, and he is only looking
for place, he
will never receive this." Then I said, "'What about David? He is
coming." "No, he
will not understand, because he always wants to be chief. It
is only those who
are childlike who will receive this message of salvation, and
God has sent you
two men, the servants of the living God, to me, and will you
go on having
meetings, if there is only one?" We said, "Yes," and we stayed on
for a brief time.
Then we left that man, without a Bible or hymn book, because
he could not read
or write, and there was no one for him to meet with, but we
left him with the
confidence that we would have had in Job or Abraham, and we
knew that God could
sustain such a person, who had such faith. He was now in
advancing years, but
he has love and zeal and living faith. When he turned 90, he
moved to another
place in a most unusual way, and the effect of his life and
testimony in the
church where he meets where 1 girl and 3 boys have gone from
into the work, his
faith is like a catalyst in the word of God. It gave him such
trust and
confidence in it and it gives us joy to see those who are full of
belief in Jesus. When I read I Corinthians 10 and I read of the Lord's table, the one day of the week, the day of rest, the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit was given, when all were gathered at the Lord's table, all enjoying communion, they were participating in the bread and the cup. This is the effect that it should have, realising the honour of being invited to the Lord's table, to be partaking. God has intended that this should do this for us, that we should not be weak and sickly, but that we would be full of faith, God's word working by faith in Christ. Before Jesus came face to face with Calvary, God arranged that Jesus would institute the breaking of bread. This is the most sacred moment of our life, being at the Lord's table, participating, when all doubts, all uncertainty is dismissed, partaking in all honesty, God's word working in us, producing joy and gladness. When we give our lives to Jesus, because we are not worthy to present our lives to God, He presents us to God and God accepts us because He is worthy. He is our High Priest and is worthy. We should not whip ourselves because we are not feeling worthy, but should rejoice that Jesus is worthy, and He can offer an acceptable offering. Rejoice in Jesus rather than in our own failures. God knows we are only human and we cannot make ourselves worthy through our own will power. We try, and we do our best to be honorable, to live for God, but then the rest we leave to God.
|