Communion Special – Part 2
Transcript of FLOT Line Episode 593 aired on January 8, 2017
Good morning and welcome to the FLOT Line. I’m your host Rick Hughes and for the next few
minutes, please stay with me. As always we’re going to have some time of motivation,
inspiration, education with absolutely no, I mean no trickeration. We’re not here to fool you,
we’re not here to con you, we’re not here to do anything like this, just to give you accurate
information that will help you verify and identify God’s plan for your life and if you can do this,
if we can accomplish this together, then you have the freedom and the privacy to orient and
adjust to the plan, that’s up to you. My job is to communicate accurately God’s Word to you. It is
a show about the Bible but no ranting and raving. Like we say, no jumping up and down here,
we’re just going to tell you the facts, give you the information. God the Holy Spirit can capture
this information if you listen, if you pay attention. I communicate it, He captures it, and you can
comprehend it. Then the big question is, will you convert it? Will you use it? Will you put it to
use in your life? As we go through this show I want to remind you that last week we started a
show dealing with communion and the essence of the communion table. What did the cup
represent? What did the bread represent? We talked about the virgin birth of Christ, His
celebrityship, His impeccability, the fact that He is King of kings and Lord of lords, the fact that
He’s undiminished deity and true humanity in one body forever called the hypostatic union. We
talked about when you take the bread that you should remember these things, that you should
remember these five unique things about the person and the work of Christ is the cup. The cup is
the work of Christ, that’s His spiritual death on the cross. The blood that is shed for you when He
went to the cross and died for you, we’ll talk more about this today. The five things we remember
when we sip that cup and we bow our head and we pray, we remember how He removed the
barrier between God and man. We remember that imputation of His righteousness imputed to us.
We remember that we are justified now. We are just as if we haven’t sinned at all. We are
sanctified and set apart to a royal family of God and redeemed. All these doctrines, hopefully
your pastor’s taught them to you. If he hasn’t, I feel sorry for you. You should know these things,
you should understand these things so that when you do take communion as the Lord Jesus
Christ said,
“This do in remembrance of Me,”
what exactly are you suppose to be remembering?
Most people kind of daydream through communion and it winds up being ritual without reality.
We don’t want you to do this, we want you to understand why you take communion, what’s
important about it. Today I’m going to attempt to explain to you how you can come under self-
inflicted discipline by taking communion the wrong way, not following the protocol plan of God.
Before we do this I want to say thank you to those of you that are listening throughout the
country, writing letters and calling. We’ll continue to broadcast throughout the year 2017 if the
Lord allows this. We’ve always believed if God’s in it, He’ll pay for it so you don’t hear us asking
for money. We pray and ask the Lord to provide our needs and He always has faithfully done this
without us having to go to you and beg you for any money. We would never do this. If He doesn’t
pay for it, we shut it down. So as we go through another year, we ask for your prayers and your
encouragement and if you want to write to us, you can always do this. You can always contact us,
go through the website. It’s rickhughesministries.org, there you can request any of our materials.
You can request any of the books that we’ve written. A friend of mine just completed translating
593-Communion-Special-p2-transcript.pdf
one of our books into Chinese and now we have a book in Chinese going out across China. We
have a lot of material available, it’s always free, no charge. All you have to do is take a look at it,
ask for it, even video messages where we have spoken in various churches around the country.
Now let’s dig into our subject here this morning if you’d like to hear it.
What does the Bible say
about self-inflicted discipline from doing communion the wrong way?
Is there a right way to
take communion and a wrong way to take communion? The answer is yes. Protocol, the protocol
plan of God demands that a right thing always be done in a right way. Can you do a right thing in
a wrong way? Yes you can. Is a right thing in a wrong way ever right? The answer is no it’s not.
Many times you’ve heard me say that prayer is a right thing, but there’s a right way to pray and a
wrong way to pray and so the Bible says,
“If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear
me.”
So regardless of how much you pray, if you have unconfessed sin in your life the Holy
Spirit is quenched and grieved and He cannot intercede for you in the prayer and this prayer is
not going to be answered. That’s one of the reasons that prayer is not answered. There are several
reasons why prayer is not answered. We’ve taught this to you before. In this passage in 1
Corinthians 11:23-31, you should read this for yourself, here’s basically what Paul says and he’s
talking to the church at Corinth.
“I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you
that the Lord Jesus 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. This do in
remembrance of Me.’ After the same manner also He took the cup, and when He had supped
saying, ‘This cup is the new testament in My blood. This do you, as often as you drink it in
remembrance of Me.’ For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you do show the
Lord’s death till He come. Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread and drink this cup of the
Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. But let a man examine
himself and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup. For he that eateth and drinketh
unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body. If we
would judge ourselves, we would not be judged.
[verse 30 says]
Because of this, many are weak,
many are sick and many sleep.”
Let me read 1 Corinthians 11:29-31 one more time
. “For he
that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning
the Lord’s body. Because of this, many are weak, many are sick and many sleep. For if we
would judge ourselves, we would not be judged.”
Here is a mighty strange passage concerning
communion. How many times have you taken communion this last year? How often does your
church serve communion? Here’s a question I must ask you. Does your pastor explain to you
what you’re doing or is it just a ritual that has no reality to it? It is imperative that any pastor who
offers communion to the congregation must tell them number one, what is expected of them
during this communion and number two, what they are doing. It’s not just a ritual. In this
particular passage that I read to you, 1 Corinthians 11:23-31, Paul the apostle is addressing the
disorder in communion services in the church at Corinth. He recognized the Corinthian believers
had been making this more of a drunken feast and showing rudeness in the eating of the meal. He
went on to give a detailed report of what happens to those who abuse the communion service.
My question that you must answer is, have you ever abused the communion service, and if so,
has this been a source of divine discipline in your life? Could this be the reason right now that
some things are not right, some things are wrong, why you’re suffering right now? Could this be
the reason why? Notice how Paul recaptured what the Lord did with the disciples on the night of
593-Communion-Special-p2-transcript.pdf
their communion. Here’s what he said, 1 Corinthians 11:23,
“For I received of the Lord that
which I delivered unto you.”
In other words what he taught the church at Corinth is what God the
Holy Spirit taught him. He understood this and he’s re-teaching it to them. So our very first
principle is that any pastor worth his salt must first learn the Word of God before he can teach the
Word of God to other people. A pastor must know doctrine before he can teach doctrine and
pastors must be careful to teach accurately what Paul is about to discuss in this passage, it’s
critical. It’s my experience it’s not being taught today and in my way of thinking this is the reason
for much of the suffering in the local church today. There are a lot of right things that are being
done in the wrong way. Things like church prayer, things like communion, things like giving, all
legitimate things but they all can be done in the wrong way and a right thing done in a wrong
way is always wrong. Ritual without reality is exactly why the church today has so little impact
in society in some circumstances, some situations, not always. Paul goes on to say this,
“And
when He had given thanks
[talking about the Lord Jesus Christ]
He
[Christ]
broke it and said,
‘Take and eat. This is My body which was broken for you. This do in remembrance of Me.’”
Then he went on to say in 1 Corinthians 11:25,
“And in the same manner also He took the cup,
and when He had supped saying, ‘This cup is the new testament in My blood. This do ye as often
as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.’”
“For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup,
you do show the Lord’s death until He comes,”
looking back at His sacrifices and looking
forward to His return.
Let me give you some principles here. Communion involves two
elements. It involves the bread, the cracker, the wafer, however you do it and it involves the
drink, the little grape juice that you drink in the little cup. These two elements are symbolic of
our Lord’s substitutionary death on our behalf. That cup is symbolic of His spiritual death or
what I’m calling His association with our sins by means of a judicial imputation. In other words,
God judicially imputed all of my sin to Jesus Christ on the cross and He judicially imputed all of
your sins to Jesus Christ on the cross and that’s why 2 Corinthians 5:21 says this.
“For He
[that’s
God]
made Him
[that’s Jesus]
who knew no sin to be sin for us so that
[or in order that]
we might
become the righteousness of God through Him.”
The only way you can have equal standing with
God is to have equal righteousness with God and the only way that you can have equal
righteousness with God is to have the righteousness of Jesus Christ imputed to your account.
Romans 3:22,
“Even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe,
for there is no difference.”
You cannot have a self manufactured righteousness, that’s relative
righteousness and it does not impress God. The only thing that can impress a perfectly righteous
God is perfect righteousness. That’s the only way you can get it, through believing in the Lord
Jesus Christ and believing in His sacrificial death on your behalf. Now we have a mandate in 1
Corinthians 11:24 you will see the words,
“Take and eat, this do in remembrance of Me.”
Listen
again, 1 Corinthians 11:24,
“When He had given thanks, He broke it and He said, ‘Take it, eat it.
This is My body which was broken for you. This do in remembrance of Me.’”
Take is the verb
lambano
in the Greek New Testament and it’s an imperative mood verb. In the morphology of
this word, that means this is a command, this is not a request. Eat it, the word
phago,
another
command, another aorist active imperative. These verbs, both of these verbs are critical because
this is the mandate for those disciples to do this and it’s the mandate for you and I as well to take
communion. Why?
“This do in remembrance of Me.”
“
Remembering Me,”
to remember or to
recollect what He is and what He did. How can you recall something that you don’t even
593-Communion-Special-p2-transcript.pdf
understand? How could you do this if you don’t understand His virgin birth, His celebrityship,
His impeccability, the fact that He is the only King of kings and Lord of lords, the fact that He is
hypostatic union? How could you remember how the barrier between God and man is removed
and how imputation and justification and sanctification and redemption, how all of these relate to
you? You say, “That’s not important for me, that’s for the preacher to know.” No, it’s for you to
know. Everything in the Bible is for you to know, not just for the preacher to know. No preacher
is set apart any higher to God than you are. They’re not any closer to God than you are. You are a
believer-priest, you are a member of the royal family of God. For you to think that some pastor is
closer to God than you are is goofy. If he’s in fellowship and you’re in fellowship, you’re both
spiritual. Spirituality means he’s in fellowship, you’re in fellowship. Now maturity is a different
story. Maybe he is a more mature believer. This means he has more knowledge of God’s Word
than you do but this doesn’t mean he’s closer to God, it has nothing to do with this. So when Paul
said, “Jesus said to do this, take it and eat it and remember Me and as often as you do this,” you
show or you teach by analogy. That’s what communion is.
Communion is a teaching seminar.
It’s teaching by analogy the Lord’s sacrifice on the cross and the fact that He will return for
His saints.
Now here’s the problem. In 1 Corinthians 11:27 Paul writes these words.
“Whoever
shall eat this bread and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and the
blood of the Lord.”
The word unworthily means in an unworthy manner or an unfit manner. It’s
the Greek word
anaxios
and it means in an unfit way. How do you take communion in an unfit
way? It’s very simple.
If you have unconfessed sin in your life, you are taking communion in
an unfit way.
Remember this, that we are mandated to be filled with the Holy Spirit in
Ephesians 5:18. When I sin, remember that we quench the Holy Spirit and we grieve the Holy
Spirit and so if I’m in church and I’m going to take communion and I have unconfessed sin in my
life, then the Holy Spirit is quenched, the Holy Spirit is grieved, and I’m about to do a right thing
which is taking communion, but I’m about to do it in a wrong way, which means I’m about to do
it in the energy of the flesh. I am not filled with the Holy Spirit. I have quenched the Holy Spirit.
I have grieved the Holy Spirit and now I’m going through a ritual without any reality to it
because I’m doing it in the energy of the flesh.
Any pastor must warn his congregation before
they take communion. Do not do this out of fellowship.
Do not put that piece of bread in your
mouth and do not drink this cup if there’s unconfessed sin in your life. There will be a problem if
you do. “What do you mean?” What I’m going to show you here, you must be in fellowship
when you take communion. The pastor must give you an opportunity. Now let me ask you a
question, does your pastor do this? Does he say, “Ladies and gentlemen, before we have this
communion service we’re going to bow our heads, we’re going to close our eyes, we’re going to
give you privacy and you have a few moments now to look to the Lord and name any sin that
might be in your life?” Well suppose deacon Jones hates deacon Smith and they’ve been in an
argument and somebody shafted somebody in the business deal. Or sister Margaret hates sister
Mary over there because her cake was better than her cake or whatever, you know. When this
person goes to God in prayer and admits their sin,
“Father, I have been angry with my brother,”
“Father I have been angry with my sister, I’ve been out of fellowship because of my attitude
about this,” then they are restored to fellowship. They are filled with the Holy Spirit and taking
communion will not be getting under discipline. Now they may after communion is over and
before they walk out the door get out of fellowship again. They may sin again before they get out
593-Communion-Special-p2-transcript.pdf
of the church house but at least for that minute if they will go and admit this sin to God, they will
be in fellowship. This doesn’t mean they’ll never do it again. It just means they will be in
fellowship. Eating the bread, drinking the cup unworthily means you drink the cup, eat the bread
with known sin in your life. Remember the problem in Corinth was the people were making
communion, or the Lord’s supper a time of over eating, getting drunk rather than a time of
reflecting on the sacrifices of Jesus Christ. And protocol demands that you do a right thing in a
right way, it has to be this way.
Taking communion while you have known sin in your life is
grounds for divine discipline,
even more so it appears then coming to church with known sin in
your life. Yes, if you come to church with known sin in your life you’ve quenched the Holy Spirit
and you’re going through the ritual with no reality. If you take communion, well that’s a different
story, you do it unworthily. What does he say about this? When you do this unworthily,
“You are
guilty of the body and the blood of our Lord.”
Oh my goodness, have you thought about this? Do
you understand why it’s so important for some pastor to warn the congregation? “Don’t do this if
you’re out of fellowship. Let’s bow our heads. Let’s close our eyes. Let’s confess any known sin
to God before we take this.” Protocol says it has to be done in the right way. No one should ever
take communion until they’re sure they’re filled with the Holy Spirit and the pastor must make
this clear. 1 Corinthians 11:28,
“Let a man examine himself and then eat of the bread and drink
of the cup.”
Let a man examine himself,
dokimazo,
the Greek word. Let you test yourself,
scrutinize yourself, and then recognize whether or not you are genuine after the examination. It’s
like looking at a gold coin in the ancient world to make sure it’s the real deal, not something
counterfeit. You’ve got to make sure you’re in fellowship, examine yourself, look at yourself.
Here are three things to do. First of all, before communion, rebound. Rebound is problem-
solving device number one in the protocol plan of God. It’s the number one problem-solving
device on the FLOT line of your soul.
“If we confess our sin
[1 John 1:9 says]
He’s faithful and
just to forgive us of our sin and to purify us from all wrongdoing.”
Rebound is critical for every
believer. There’s not a day in your life that you won’t use rebound and you don’t do it just when
you go to bed at night, that’s crazy. When you sin, don’t put it off until 10 o’clock at night, get
down beside your bed and say, “Now Lord, forgive me for all of my sins I did today.” That’s
crazy. When you sin you break fellowship. When you sin you become carnal. When you sin you
quench the Holy Spirit. You confess sin immediately. Before communion, it’s very possible on
your way to church you and the wife got in an argument, you and the husband got in a
disagreement, you and the kids got to yelling and shouting at each other. Maybe someone in
traffic drove you nuts and cut you off and did something obscene. You got all angry. Now you’re
in church and now they’re about to give you communion and here you are, out of fellowship, sin
in your life. Rebound, even if the pastor doesn’t tell you to do it. Even if he doesn’t have enough
common sense to teach his congregation this, you bow your head and you rebound before you
take that communion.
Check to see if you have unconfessed sin in your life, it’s easy to do.
I
do it all the time. I just bow my head and say, “Father, if there’s sin in my life, reveal it to me.
Show it to me. Let me know what I am.” The Holy Spirit will just pull the shade up and you’ll
see it and you’ll go, “Yeah, You’re right. I did this.” You must keep a short account of sin and so,
rebound. Look and see if there’s any unconfessed sin in your life and then clear the decks. Let’s
get it clear, let’s get it out of the way because if you fail to do this, it can result in divine
discipline. 1 Corinthians 11:29,
“For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh
593-Communion-Special-p2-transcript.pdf
damnation to himself because he does not discern the Lord’s body.”
Damnation, the Greek word
krima
or from
krino.
It means to judge, to declare punishment, to judge someone like,
“Don’t
judge lest you be judged.”
When you take communion with sin in your life you are judging
yourself. You are placing a sentence upon yourself. You are declaring yourself guilty and you’re
going to get whopped.
1 Corinthians 11:30,
“For this reason many are weak, many are sick
and many sleep.”
The weak,
asthenes
is the Greek word. It means feeble, sick, without strength.
That’s warning discipline from God. It always comes in three stages, warning, intense, and dying.
Warning discipline,
“For this cause many are weak,”
taking communion out of fellowship.
“For
this cause many are sick,”
arrostos,
sickly, constantly under the weather, that’s intense discipline,
always sick, can’t seem to get well.
“And many sleep,”
koimao,
it means to be dead or to be
deceased.
Perpetually taking communion out of fellowship can take you to an early grave.
When’s the last time a pastor told you this? Never.
1 Corinthians 11:31,
“For if we would judge
ourselves, we would not be judged”
[by God].
Judging yourself is critical, you must understand
this. Don’t wait around for someone to point it out. You name your sin to God. Bow your head,
close your eyes, admit your sin to God. Then when you take communion,
when you put that
piece of bread in your mouth, you can remember His virgin birth, His celebrityship, His
impeccability, the fact that He’s King of kings and Lord of lords and He’s hypostatic union.
When you put that cup to your mouth you can remember imputation, justification,
sanctification, redemption, you can glorify God celebrating the death and the resurrection
of Jesus Christ, the anointed Son of God, our Lord and our Savior.
Don’t embarrass yourself
by taking communion unworthily, you will bring discipline to yourself if you do. Until next
week, this is your host Rick Hughes saying thank you for listening to the FLOT Line