In a few minutes we will be conducting the Ordinance of the Lord’s Supper. It is a tremendous visual display of the love and work of Christ for us.
Jesus did not only give us insightful teachings, and incredible miracles --- He demonstrated His love. He put the message into action on the cross. Jesus combined talk and action into one wonderful message. In most sermons I give to you I use words to paint visual pictures in your mind. I use stories to relate the truth to life and try to help you grasp the principle or truth I am teaching. Sometimes I use video clips because I want you to understand the principle. With the Lord’s Supper we move into another level of teaching because we can add the senses of taste, touch and smell to the learning experience.
When we come to partake in the Lord’s Supper we are emphasizing the sacrifice and death of Jesus for OUR sins. It is a historical undeniable fact that Jesus died on a Roman cross. Why He died becomes a matter of faith. For some people they believe He died by being in the wrong place at the wrong time. For others they believe Jesus was a militant or revolutionary and got what He deserved by trying to change the Jewish religion or Roman government. What I believe Jesus did on the cross of Calvary was to pay the debt of my sins by dying. I believe Jesus is the promised Messiah of the Jewish religion and that as the Messiah He was fulfilling something that only He could do and that was to be the perfect Lamb of God and die a sacrificial death for mankind’s sin. For MY sin and for YOURS.
How does the sacrifice of Jesus death become your gift of salvation? To answer that questions turn to Romans 5:8 READ
“While we were yet sinners” is the simple truth I want to emphasize to you today. God did not wait until we became good enough to get saved. God knew we would never become good enough, so God took the initiative to provide a way for us to be made right with Him through the death of Jesus.
Occasionally I meet someone who feels they have sinned so much God cannot forgive them. When a person feels that way, it shows a lack of faith in the power of God to forgive and cleanse a person of sin. Understanding this truth is so essential, I am going to illustrate it to you in three ways.
1. Earlier we played the great hymn of the faith Amazing Grace. Turn to that song in your hymnal #330.
At the end of the first line is the phrase “that saved a wretch like me”. The dictionary defines “wretch” as a miserable person, a vile or base person. I can’t be positive, but it is very likely that John Newton who wrote the song may have read Romans 7:24 “what a wretched man I am!” In our society we don’t like using words like this because we don’t want to injure our self-esteem. However, in protecting our self-esteem we have insolated ourselves from honest evaluation of our unrighteousness before God.
I did some research on John Newton’s life to see why he would describe himself as “wretched”. He was a sailor beginning with his father from the age of eleven. At the age of 19 he became a Midshipman on a British man of war. Because of intolerable conditions he deserted and was captured and flogged and demoted. Later he became a slave. In 1748 through the help of friend of his father’s he was restored to become Captain of his own ship. Quoting from a biography by Al Rogers (found on the internet):
Although he had had some early religious instruction from his mother, who had died when he was a child, he had long since given up any religious convictions. However, on a homeward voyage, while he was attempting to steer the ship through a violent storm, he experienced what he was to refer to later as his “great deliverance.” He recorded in his journal that when all seemed lost and the ship would surely sink, he exclaimed, “Lord, have mercy upon us.” Later in his cabin he reflected on what he had said and began to believe that God had addressed him through the storm and that grace had begun to work for him.
For the rest of his life he observed the anniversary of May 10, 1748 as the day of his conversion, a day of humiliation in which he subjected his will to a higher power. “Thro’ many dangers, toils and snares, I have already come; ’tis grace has bro’t me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home.”
I think we can see where Newton could feel he was wretched. Maybe you can identity with what he felt.
2. Another hymn writer Isaac Watts in his song At the Cross originally used the words “Would He devote that sacred head for such a worm as I”. #139. In our Baptist Hymnal the wording has been changed to “For sinners such as I”. When I think of a worm, I think of something that is dirty and lowly. Do you feel dirty with your sins today?
Do you feel lowly and unworthy of God’s grace? This is why it is called “grace” --- we don’t deserve it. We can’t earn it! It is God’s gift to us because of His tremendous love.
It is only when we recognize that God has the power to forgive “wretches and worms” that He can forgive me. The truth is “while we were yet sinners Christ died for us”. Say that phrase with me.
3. Testimony of Sherman Whitfield (from on the internet)
Let me share with you the story of Sherman Whitfield was from Arkansas, working in England for a chemical company. His story, as he told it, was that he was from a family of six children and that his father had walked out when he was young. No one in his family went to church, although his grandmother was a faithful Christian. He’d fought his way up through school and college, earning a good degree followed by a well-paying job. He became proud of his achievements: “I felt pretty good about Sherman Whitfield,” he said. “I felt that I had pulled myself up by my own bootstraps, that I was the captain of my soul, that I was the Man.”
He married two years after leaving university and his work prospered, but then things started to go wrong. His marriage broke up, he began drinking heavily all day every day, and his work performance deteriorated. The self-assurance that had built steadily over the years was rapidly eroding. “I no longer felt in control of the ship. I no longer felt in control of my life. I was devastated. I was hurt. I was broken.” It was then he remembered things his grandmother had told him about a Jesus who could heal the sick, raise the dead, and give sight to the blind. Could this Jesus do anything for Sherman Whitfield? “I told my running buddies that I was thinking of going to church and they said, ‘No Sherman, it couldn’t have got that bad.’”
He set out for church, still unsure that he was doing the right thing. “There was a mind telling me, ‘Sherman, you don’t have to go tonight. Don’t go. Go back home.’ There was another mind saying, ‘No, you must go.’ So I went into church that night and I heard the word of God preached and at the end of the sermon the choir got up and they started singing the song:
Amazing grace! (how sweet the sound) That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found, Was blind, but now I see.
“When it got to the ‘wretch’ part of it, I said, ‘Wait a minute! He’s in the wretch-saving business?’ I said, ‘I qualify. I qualify!’ I was not used to going to church and so I didn’t understand all the protocol of how you get saved. When they got through singing the song I was sitting right at the back and I stood up and raised my hand. The preacher looked at me. I don’t know if he thought the church was on fire or what but he said, ‘Sir, can I help you?’ I said, ‘I want that Jesus that you’re talking about. I want the one that can save a wretch.’ So he asked me to come on down. I gave my hand to the preacher and I gave my heart to God.
“Since that time ‘all things have become new.’ God has sent me a new wife, sent me a new life. Only Jesus can make that kind of difference.”
Conclusion:
It is only when we recognize that God has the power to forgive “wretches and worms” that He can forgive me. The truth is “while we were yet sinners Christ died for us”. Say that phrase with me.
This is why we call it grace because it is so amazing. God wants to give to you the gift of salvation today. He is waiting for you to ask for the gift. Some people are too proud to ask for it --- please don’t make that mistake.
Come and talk to me during this song if you want to receive God’s forgiveness of your sins.
Prayer
Invite people to come forward for salvation or prayer.
