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56A. Talk before Communion

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  speaker icon   1. Hallelujah! What a Savior   (6:19)
  speaker icon   2. Talk before Communion   (32:30)
  speaker icon   3. He Has Surely Borne Our Sorrow   (4:36)
  speaker icon   4. All that I Have Is Jesus   (2:55)

Selected Verses:

I Corinthians 11:24.  And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me.

Psalm 103:2, 3.  Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: 3Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases…

Opening:

This service teaches us a wonderful lesson about praising the Lord.  “Whosoever offereth praise glorifieth Me, and to him that ordereth his conversation aright will I show My salvation.”  I like that German translation a little better: “Wer Dank opfert, der preiset mich; und da ist der Weg, daß ich ihm zeige das Heil Gottes.”  He means to say that our thanksgiving opens a way into the treasury of Jehovah and makes it possible for God to make us appreciate and receive all His blessings.

And when the Lord Jesus said, “Remember: this do in remembrance of Me,” He opened the treasury of His grace.  And He wants us to come to the communion table to remember all—not only all that He has done for us, but all that He is to us.  “He shall see of the travail of His soul” when He is able to manifest and communicate Himself in all His holiness, in all His majesty, in all His fullness to us—and not before then.

And so tonight we come to this wonderful table of the Lord with grateful hearts, with thanksgiving.  Why don’t we thank God more?  I remember one certain minister who told his people “Don’t praise the Lord unless you feel like it.”  It was after I had taught them to praise Him at all times, and so he tried to tear down what I had said.  He says, “Why should I praise the Lord when I don’t feel like it?  What shall I praise Him for?”  Oh, beloved, that’s unbelief; that puts the devil on the throne.  The Bible tells us that we ought to “give thanks unto the Father who hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light.” 

It’s done.  This wonderful covenant which God wants to ratify again among us tonight makes available to us all that Jesus Christ died for and all that His precious blood purchased for us.  “He hath made us acceptable in the beloved.”  “He hath made us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light.”  And O God, I pray that by the power of the Holy Ghost, Thou wilt “anoint our eyes with eyesalve,” Thou wilt give us the understanding what is the exceeding greatness of Thy “inheritance in the saints:” that we may not only be happy, and not only be thankful, but that we might be in faith tonight to receive all that God has for us.

Selected Quotes:

speaker icon Don’t blame the world for living the way they do, and don’t blame worldly Christians for being slaves to “the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.”  They can’t help it; they’re dead!  All of humanity is like a big corpse, the Bible says.  “All flesh”—even theological and religious flesh—“is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field.  It fadeth.”  It’s “cast into the oven.”  And all flesh is “dead in trespasses and sins.”  And the maggots walk away with this corpse.  And the Bible says, “We all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath.”  We had no other hope, but a “certain fearful looking-for of judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversary.” 

And since we know that one time we walked like that, we don’t blame the world, and we don’t blame worldly Christians.  How could we?  We would all be like that but for “the great love wherewith He loved us.”  God’s done something for us, thank God!  That’s salvation in comparison to what people call “religion.”  Oh, how dead can religion be without the power of God!  “Having a form of godliness” satisfies a lot of people—going to church, singing songs, going through the rigmarole of baptism and communion service, and getting nothing from God.  That’s why Jesus Christ says, “This do in remembrance of Me, until I come.”

speaker icon Everything depends what we do with God’s offer.  Here is the offer: “This is My body, broken for you.”  The Church has for centuries fought over that doctrine: “Is it, or isn’t it?”  Beloved, we don’t fight; we eat it, and we drink it, and we know that “this is My body broken for you”!  It’s as potent and it’s as powerful as God Almighty could possibly make it to the heart that receives it in faith.  “As many as received Him…”

speaker icon I need a powerful King in my heart.  One time, Satan reigned over my will and over my affections.  And how many dear Christians have never surrendered their will to Jesus Christ!  They wouldn’t even think of it!

speaker icon God Almighty has built for you a palace.  He’s got a crown of glory for you.  He has for you “a new heart,” and he has for you “a right spirit”—His own Spirit, hallelujah!  And He’s got for you a “King of glory.”  And He’ll “take His great power and reign” as soon as you give Him the permission to do so.  Oh, that’s gospel!

speaker iconFor in many things we offend all.”  And we think that by just saying, “O Lord, forgive me,” it’s all right—just wipe your mouth and say, “I’ve done nothing.”  And beloved, we allow that thing to get into our gas line and to stop the power of God.  “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.”  If ye forgive not from the heart other people their transgressions and their faults, “neither will your heavenly Father forgive you.”

Illustrations:

Another version of the story of an inheritance lost.  “Beloved, we lose it all if we do not come to Jesus Christ tonight in real faith and accept Him in the way He gives Himself to me.”    (from 10:09)

Faith answered to pay off the church mortgage.    (from 13:34)

Healings during a communion service in Stuttgart.    (from 17:44)

The story of a clogged fuel line in an Auburn.  “You can pray from now until doomsday for a revival, if you don’t blow that dirt…”    (from 20:42)

A story about the benefits of not judging.      (from 26:55)

A personal testimony of difficulty with bitterness.    (from 29:06)

The world’s diligence in rooting out impurity at a nuclear power plant.    (from 30:10)

German at 0:22:

Psalm 50:23.  Wer Dank opfert, der preiset mich; und da ist der Weg, daß ich ihm zeige das Heil Gottes.

“He who sacrifices thank-offerings honors me, and there is the way I will show him the salvation of God.”  The King James for Psalm 50:23 has: “Whoso offereth the sacrifice of thanksgiving glorifieth me; and to him that ordereth his conversation aright will I shew the salvation of God.”

German at 22:54 and 31:41:

From a hymn Eines wünsch ich mir vor allem Andern, by Albert Knapp (1798-1864) published in the Gesangbuch für die evangelische Kirche in Württemberg:

Ja, mein Jesu, laß mich nie vergessen Meine Schuld und deine Huld! — My Lord, don’t let me forget the abundance of Your grace and the abundance of my guilt.

Audio Quality: Fair

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