 has nothing to do with my emotions. This morning, being the first Sunday of the month, it's our joy, our privilege, our blessing to partake of the Lord's table together. So turn with me in your Bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter 11, verse 23. 1 Corinthians chapter 11, verse 23. We'll be back in Deuteronomy in just a moment. But in 1 Corinthians chapter 11, we have Paul's record of the Lord instituting the Lord's supper, that which we observe each month on the first Sunday of the month. It says in verse 23, Paul says, for I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which he was betrayed took bread. And when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, take, eat. This is my body, which is broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me. In the same manner, he also took the cup after supper saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood. This do as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till he comes. Brothers, you can come forward to distribute the bread. The Lord's supper, as we see in 1 Corinthians chapter 11, is a time of joyful and a time of solemn remembrance. It's a time of joyful remembrance because we have been redeemed, amen. It's a time of joyful remembrance because we have been forgiven of our sin, reconciled to God. Thank you, brother. It's a time of solemn remembrance because we weren't redeemed with corruptible silver. We were redeemed with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. For that reason, the Lord's table is not to be approached like any other common traditional meal. It's not a common time or a common thing. Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter 11, whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. So then, for Paul's instructions to us, we're to eat the bread and drink the cup in an atmosphere as it were of self-examination. Examine yourself, right? What does it mean to take the supper in an unworthy manner, as Paul describes here? To take the supper in an unworthy manner is to take the supper thoughtlessly. Paul says it's to take the supper not discerning the Lord's body. So it's to take the supper thoughtlessly, not understanding the significance of Christ's sacrifice for sin, not acknowledging the significance of Christ's sacrifice for sin, not embracing through faith and repentance Christ's sacrifice for your sin, not turning from the sin for which Christ died to set you free. We're not to take the supper thoughtlessly. So you shouldn't take the supper as a lost person. If you've not turned from your sin to put your faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and are following him in faith, then it would be an unworthy. It would be unworthy of you. You'd be taking the supper in an unworthy manner. But you also shouldn't take the supper as a thoughtless, careless, unrepentant professing Christian either. We shouldn't be thoughtless or careless or unrepentant when we come to the Lord's table. Now, you could rightly say that the soil in which the Lord instituted the supper that we celebrate today, that soil is found in the types and shadows of the Old Testament. Turn with me to Exodus chapter 12, Exodus chapter 12. The soil in which the supper is instituted, we could say are the types and shadows of the Old Testament. And we see this in Exodus chapter 12. In Exodus chapter 12, after nine devastating plagues in Egypt, God's judgment of Pharaoh and God's judgment on Egypt's pagan gods will culminate in a 10th and final plague. God would destroy all the firstborn in Egypt as a sign for the angel of the Lord to spare the firstborn of those in Israel. The Israelites were commanded to slaughter a lamb and to take the blood of that lamb and spread it on the doorposts and on the lintel of their houses. Seeing the blood, the angel of the Lord would pass over those houses and spare the firstborn living inside. We see that in Exodus chapter 12, beginning in verse 21. So Moses called for all the elders of Israel and said to them, pick out and take lambs for yourselves according to your families and kill the Passover lamb. You shall take a bunch of hyssop, dip it in the blood that is in the basin and strike the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood that is in the basin. And none of you shall go out of the door of his house until morning for the Lord will pass through to strike the Egyptians. And when he sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over the door and not allow the destroyer to come into your houses to strike you. I praise the Lord that he makes a distinction between his people and the lost, the wicked of this world, amen. That is grace and mercy in Christ. Now there's so much about this account in Exodus chapter 12 that is type and shadow, a foreshadowing, if you will, of things to come. Jesus Christ now is our Passover lamb. First Corinthians chapter five, verse seven, Paul says Christ, our Passover was sacrificed for us. It's through the redemption that we have in his shedblood that we are not destroyed, right? But what is it that would be significant about the doorposts and about the lintel on a Jewish house? Turn with me back to Deuteronomy chapter six. Deuteronomy chapter six. What would it, what is it that would be significant about the doorposts, about the lintel? Why the mention of the doorposts and the lintel specifically? Look at Deuteronomy six in the text read in your hearing during our call to worship, verse four. Hero Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. These words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand. They shall be as frontlets between your eyes. Verse nine, you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. What are they to write? They're to write verse six. All these words which I command you is the words of the law. A Jewish house would have written upon the doorposts and upon the lintel, the very law of God. These reminders in the book of Deuteronomy are very important, exceedingly important, so important that Moses tells the people to write them on the doorposts of their house. Written upon the doorposts and the lintel of the Jewish house would have been the law of God. So in the years to come, think with me, in the years to come, as the Jewish people then celebrated the Passover of God's deliverance, they would take the blood of that sacrificial lamb and they would spatter it, spread it over the inscribed law of God on the doorposts and on the lintel of their house. Now remember what the law was for. The law shows us how we're supposed to live as image bearers of God. We have an obligation to obey the one who made us, the one in whose image we have been made. The law also shows us how far short we fall of living according to that standard. We are all sinners. Romans 3, verse 20, by the law is the knowledge of sin. Lastly, the law is to point us to God's provision for sin, His grace and His mercy in Christ. Ultimately the law, Paul said, was our tutor to bring us to Christ. So at the Passover then, at the Passover, the Jews would see the blood stains covering the law, written on their doorposts as they entered their house. It would be a reminder to them of their obligation to keep the law. It would be a reminder of the fact that they had failed to keep it and could not keep it, could not love the Lord with all their heart, soul, mind and strength. Ultimately it would be a reminder of the blood sacrifice that was necessary for their deliverance. And it would point them forward, wouldn't it? It was meant to point them forward to their need for a full and final sacrifice for sin, a sacrifice for sin that would only be found in the Lamb of God, Christ, our Passover. The one who gave up his body in death, the one who shed his own blood, a sacrifice for sin, having wiped out, as it were, the handwriting of requirements that was against us, that was contrary to us. He has taken that handwriting out of the way and has nailed it to his cross. And if you have placed your faith in Christ for that blessed deliverance, then you have the blood of the Lamb spattered across the doorposts of your heart this morning. And we are here to remember that sacrifice as we take the meal together. Eat the bread with me, Father in heaven. So we take this bread together as your covenant people. We remember how you, Jesus Christ, God the Son, deliver up your own body in death for us. We praise you and thank you that you would so willingly and voluntarily lay down your life to ransom us, or you are the only one who could your life, a perfect, sinless life, your sacrifice, a perfect, wrath-satisfying, propitiatory sacrifice. And we are forever grateful to you, Lord, for the forgiveness of sin that we have in you and that we are covered in, clothed in the blood of the Lamb, washed by the blood of the Lamb, clothed in the righteousness of the Lord, Jesus Christ, that we might be passed over as it were for destruction. But beyond that, Lord, adopted into the household of God, thank you for these glorious blessings that we now remember as we partake of the Lord's supper together. May you be glorified in our worship in Jesus' name, amen. As the men come forward to distribute the cup, then like the Israelites enslaved in bondage to Egypt, we ourselves, brothers and sisters, are enslaved to our bondage in sin, enslaved and in bondage to sin. Christ's body was delivered up in death, his blood shed because we are incapable of keeping that law. Thank you, brother. And like the Israelites, we too are incapable of loving the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, with all our strength. The law that is written upon the doorposts of our heart stands, brothers and sisters, as a testimony against us. So Jesus Christ offered himself as a sacrifice that the wrath of God that you and I deserve would be poured out on him and would pass over you and I. See this table, this supper is rooted and grounded in the Old Testament types and shadows concerning the Passover. The picture established at Passover is no coincidence. However, the blood shed at Passover was not merely a wrath satisfying sacrifice. It wasn't simply to cover their sin. The sacrifice, that Passover was also necessary to secure their freedom. And to secure their freedom from bondage in Egypt. The children of Israel were led out of Egypt and brought to a land that God had promised to give them. Deuteronomy chapter six, look at verse 10. So it shall be, when the Lord your God brings you into the land of which he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give you large and beautiful cities which you did not build, houses full of all good things which you did not fill, hewn out wells which you did not dig, vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant and when you have eaten and are full, then beware. Lest you forget the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt from the house of bondage. These feast days Passover being one among them, three times a year the Israelites, Jewish men were required to make the journey to Jerusalem to participate in the feast. The feast days, the Sabbaths, we're all about remembering the Lord their God. We are prone to forget, we're prone to wander. We need to be continuously reminding ourselves of these truths, of grace, of mercy, of the Lord Jesus Christ. We have to continuously remind ourselves otherwise how quickly we forget, right? You tell me if it isn't so, if this isn't your experience, as well as mine, you go a couple of days when things haven't gone as you think they should, maybe you haven't had the time in prayer that you think you should, maybe not at all, maybe you haven't done your daily devotions as you should, haven't been reading the Bible, how soon we forget and the Lord's day comes and what a refreshment that is to our souls every day. That should be a refreshment to our souls, right? We need to remember the Lord our God. God gives them a warning, beware, lest you forget the Lord who brought you out of bondage to sin, brothers and sisters. Out of the house of bondage, verse 13, you shall fear the Lord your God and serve him and shall take oaths in his name. You shall not go after other gods, the gods of the peoples who are all around you, for the Lord your God is a jealous God among you, lest the anger of the Lord your God be aroused against you and destroy you from the face of the earth. Until we reach the promised land, until we reached our promised land, the promised land that this promised land was meant to point to, until we reach our promised land, let us not forget the Lord who brought us out of bondage in Egypt, out of bondage to our sin. Let us do this in remembrance of him. As we, according to his promise, look for a new heavens and a new earth, a city whose builder and maker is God, right? In which righteousness dwells, an eternal city. It's interesting that Moses continues. Look at verse 20 with me. And verse 20, when your son asks you in time to come saying, what is the meaning of the testimonies, the statutes and the judgments which the Lord our God has commanded you, what is the meaning of this supper that we take on the first Sunday of the month? What is the meaning of this time of remembrance? Then you shall say to your son, verse 21, we were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt. We were. The Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. Tremendously mighty. The Lord showed us signs and wonders before our eyes. Say it isn't so. Great and severe against Egypt, Pharaoh and all his household. Then he brought us out from there that he might bring us in and give to us the land of which he swore to our fathers. And the Lord, it's interesting in Romans 4, Paul says that Abraham was to inherit the earth, not just that little piece of territory on the east coast of the Mediterranean, west coast, east coast of the Mediterranean. He used to inherit the earth. The Lord commanded us, verse 24, to observe all these statues, to fear the Lord our God for our good always, that he might preserve us alive as it is this day. Then it will be righteousness for us if we are careful to observe all these commandments before the Lord our God as he has commanded us. Praise God that Jesus Christ is our righteousness. We're unable to keep the law. We're not here remembering the law in that way, celebrating our deliverance by the law, rejoicing in the salvation that's been provided in the law. No, no, in the Lord Jesus Christ, in all that Jesus Christ has done, in all who he is, we celebrate him. We rejoice over him. We remember him and we remember the sacrifice that he has made for sinners. His blood avails for us. And when you take the cup, we're remembering that fact. If you are trusting in Christ for his righteousness, not your own, then take the cup with me. Father of heaven, as we now take the cup in remembrance of the shed blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, we are sobered by the thought of the price of our redemption, but Lord as we take the cup and taste the sweetness of the vine together, reminded of and drawn to the sweetness of that sacrifice on behalf of wretched, undeserving sinners and the love that was poured out there for us. And we praise you and we worship you and we thank you. I pray, Lord, that not one of us would take this, would observe this in a cavalier manner, in a flippant way, treating the blood of the covenant a common thing, but that we would with sober mind and rejoicing in our heart remember and we were not redeemed with corruptible things like silver and gold, but with the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ and that we would worship and praise you and remember you always for these things. Lord, I pray that you would keep them at the front of our minds, keep them in fullness in our hearts that by your spirit we might endure to the end and be saved and that forever we would be testimonies of your grace and mercy as we worship you in the land that you have promised those who are partakers of the inheritance of the saints and the light. Thank you for this time of remembrance. Be with us now, Lord, as we continue to worship you and may your name be magnified. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.