David Green's sermon, 'As Often As You Eat and Drink,' focuses on 1 Corinthians 11:17-34, addressing the Corinthian church's mishandling of the Lord's Supper. Green highlights the divisions and improper behaviors in the church, such as treating the Lord's Supper as a common meal, leading to spiritual sickness and even death among the congregation. Paul, under divine inspiration, urges believers to examine themselves before partaking to avoid judgment. The sermon emphasizes the importance of the Lord's Supper as a reverent act of worship, with unleavened bread and wine symbolizing Christ's sinless body and blood. Green stresses that while the frequency of the observance is not prescribed, it should be frequent enough to remind believers of Christ's sacrifice, looking forward to His return. The phrase 'till he come' underscores the promise of Christ's return and the church's enduring presence in the world.

If you have your Bibles this morning, let's go to 1st Corinthians chapter 11. 1st Corinthians chapter 11 and We begin reading of verse 17 We'll read on down to verse 34, the end of the chapter. First Corinthians chapter 11, beginning of verse 17, it says, 1 Corinthians 11, beginning verse 17 says, Now in this that I declare unto you, I praise you not, that ye come together not for the better, but for the worse. For first of all, when ye come together in the church, I hear that there be divisions among you, and I partly believe it. For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you.

Excuse me. Verse 20. When ye come together, therefore into one place, this is not to eat the Lord's Supper for in eating everyone taketh before other his own supper one is hungry and another is drunken what have you not houses to eat and to drink in, or despise ye the church of God, and shame them that have not? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you in this?

I praise you not. Praise you not. For I have received of the Lord that which I also delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread. When he had given thanks he break it and said take ye this is my body which is broken for you this do in remembrance of me. After the same manner also he took the cup when he had supped, saying, This cup is the New Testament in my blood.

This do ye as oft as ye drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup, Ye 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 blood of the Lord, but let a man examine himself, 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. For this cause many are weak, sickly among you, and many sleep.

For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. When we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world. Wherefore, my brethren, when ye come together to eat, tearing one for another, and if any man hunger, let him eat at home, that ye come not together unto condemnation, and the rest will I set in order when I come." There's a lot here and I will probably not take the time to exposit it all this morning. But like I said, perhaps in the future We'll do a series on the epistle. But for now I just want to do some background.

We'll take our text. Our text will primarily be coming from verse number 26, and we will get there shortly. For background though, To set the context, kind of tie it in with some of what was said this morning earlier. Understand the church at Corinth was in some trouble. They were misusing and abusing the Lord's Supper.

And they had some things going on within the body that had not been taken care of. Part of it did come from what was addressed some in chapter 5, what we looked at, the fornicator that was in their midst and so on and so forth. This is why Paul wrote such a straightforward blunt letter to them. He did so under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. I mean look there as he started out this, in 1 Corinthians chapter 11 and verse 17, he said, he said, when you come together, It's not for the better, but for the worse.

I don't praise you for this, he says. When you come together, it's not for the better, but for the worse. In other words, he's writing to a church of the Lord Jesus Christ and he's telling them you'd be better off if you didn't come together at all. That's how bad of a mess they were in. I mean if you read on down there in verses 20 to 22, 20 and 21, when you come together therefore into one place this is not to eat the Lord's Supper.

For an eating, everyone taketh before other his own supper, and one is hungry and another is drunken. They came together and they said we're coming together to take the Lord's Supper and Paul writes to him and says I know when you call it the Lord's Supper, but that's not what it is. You're not meeting for the Lord's Supper. When you come together, one is hungry and another is drunken. You see, it's hard for us to fathom what was happening there, but they made it into a great feast.

A celebration. Verse 22, What have you not houses to eat and to drink in, or despise you the church of God and shame them that have not? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you in this? I praise you not." Paul, as he writes to them, Again, I believe there's some mixed emotions here.

Some of it's aggravation, some of it is anger, some of it is disappointment, some of it is sadness. You have houses to eat and drink in. I know you do. I've been there. What have you done?

This is the church of God. Why do you despise it? Do you expect praise from me? He says, no, you're not going to get it. I choose this text and I try to, I try to choose a different text every time we come together for the Lord's Supper and not use the same text each and every time.

But I choose this text today just as a reminder to us, and I thank God that we've not made a mess of the supper the way that the church at Corinth is. And I thank God that I can't think in my mind of any church that I know of that has made a mess of the supper the way that these folks did. I'm glad to read this on paper and not be able to think of a church in existence today that has done what they did. I'm thankful for that. But I read this text before you today and I bring this up so that we may realize that we've got to get every detail of our worship right, including the Lord's Supper.

It's important. It's important. There are those who say it's not. There's those who say that worship doesn't matter. That you can worship God, just a couple of you can get together at Starbucks and, well, if you want to have the supper there, you can go up to the counter and get a sweet roll and a coffee and that's good enough.

That's not. That's not. We've got to get it right. There are those others who say, well you've got to meet properly in a building like this and well you can have any kind of chaos, whatever. No, no, no.

There's got to be order. God is not the author of confusion. There is, and while God does not tell us in His word every single detail of the worship service, every single detail of every little thing that we do, there are some things that he gives us much detail about, and the supper is one of them. There were some consequences, yay beloved, some real consequences to the church for the things that they were doing as members of that church. And I don't believe that God has changed.

Notice. If you skip on down a little bit, verses 27 through 30, he says, Wherefore, whosoever shall eat this bread and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily shall be guilty of the body and 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 For this cause many are weak and sickly among you in many sleep All the church there was in such a mess. There was doctrinal divisions and schisms in the church. Remember this was the church that had a fornicator on the roll. Not only did they have the fornicator on the roll, but they were bragging about it.

This was the church that was divided. One said he was of Paul and another of Apollos and one of Peter. There was division amongst the people in that church. People in that church. This was the church.

Then when they came to the supper, They came at it like as if it was a common meal. Paul said to them, Let a man examine himself. For whosoever eat this bread and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. Blood of the Lord. What was it we read earlier this morning?

There was sin in the church. They were puffed up. It was open, unrepentant sin. These arrogant believers were coming to the table, eating and drinking unworthily. And Paul uses this bold language as they came to this solemn supper, what should have been a solemn occasion.

They came to it as if it's just a common meal of celebration to where those who had a lot were drunk, those who didn't have much hungry. He said in his bold way of saying it that they were guilty of the body and blood and blood of the Lord, eating and drinking damnation to himself." Those phrases mean that a person who comes to the table and partakes is unworthily is guilty, guilty of disrespecting the body and blood, profaning the symbols of the body and blood of Christ. What does, what's the result of this? Some of those church members, okay, they were members of the church. Understand this.

Some of the members of that body of Christ at Corinth, They were sick, they were weak, and some of them were dead. How did Paul know that that's why that they were sick, weak, and dead? He got that from the revelation of God. You and I, we don't know that sort of thing. We don't get divine revelation now, but Paul knew it because he got it under the revelation of God, under the inspiration of God.

While I can't judge any individual cases these days, I do suspect that that sort of thing still happens sometimes. I believe that's why I believe that's why this is still written for our admonition, our examples. Some folks misunderstand all of this. And I've known people who have sat out of every time that the church that they're a member of, every time that the church comes to the table, they've sat out of it. Because they say, I'm not worthy.

Well let me tell you something, you've made a mistake if you believe that. None of us are worthy in and of ourselves. We're made worthy through Christ. You see, the word there is not worthy. He doesn't say unworthy, he says unworthily.

Unworthily is an adverb, not an adjective. It refers to the action, not the actor. Unworthily then speaks of the wrong action, not the unfit person. In other words, you and I, we ought never to come to the Lord's Supper. We ought never to come to the table, as it were, and treat it As if it's a common meal.

We're not coming to grandma's dinner table. We're not coming to old times buffet. We're not coming to Kentucky Fried Chicken folks. Those are some great places to go But that's not what this is That's not what this is You see to come to the table unworthily is to treat it like it's a common meal or to not appreciate its symbolism. We're to examine ourselves to be sure.

To be sure. To be sure of our motives. What's going on? Are we coming? For the right reasons.

When we think about it is, we're not coming for show. We're not coming for any reason. We're not coming. We don't treat it like a sacrament. It's not that.

It's an ordinance. Worship to our Lord. Worship to our Lord. We're not coming so that we can keep saved or get saved. Paul, as he addressed this, the seriousness of it.

May we always keep in mind the seriousness of it even in our own church, in our own lives. And So as we look at our text there in verse 26, this will be my outline. He says, for as often As you eat this bread and drink this cup, you just show the Lord's death till he come. For as often, for as often, The Bible does not tell us anywhere how frequently a church is to come together to observe the Lord's Supper. We typically observe the Lord's Supper on the fifth Sunday service, but sometimes that fluctuates a little bit due to sickness or sometimes weather or whatever.

But if a church wanted to have it quarterly or wanted to have the observance of the Lord's Supper in a different form or fashion either more frequently or less frequently. There's no law that says it has to happen more or less. It just says as often, as often. In other words, if you're ever in a discussion with another brother or sister about how their church observes and you find out it's a little bit different than the way we observe, we can't get into a big argument about it because the Bible doesn't say well on this the this is the pattern the way that how often you should have it while God does not tell us how frequently we're to eat and drink to observe the Lord's Supper, may it be often. May it be often.

I believe it should be frequently enough So that we can remember, so that we can be reminded, but not spread out so far that We can't remember the last time we observed it. And so, you know, there is something to say about that. And the fifth Sunday is kind of a good rolling pattern there. How we ought to look forward with great anticipation the supper when we can unite with the rest of the church and remember the Lord's death in the observance of the Lord's Supper. It is a joy when the entirety of the body can get together, but we understand that it's hard for everybody to get together, especially with some of the folks living out of town and folks being sick and that sort of thing.

But it is a joy when we can all get together and observe the Lord's Supper. He says, he says, for as often, as you eat this bread and drink this cup, note well the wording here. This was written by Paul to the Corinthian Church and by implication this is for all churches. Every one of the Lord's churches is given this same kind of design and command kind of design and command for as often as Ye eat this bread and drink this cup He doesn't say, for as often as we. He said, for as often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup.

He was writing to a church that he wasn't a member of. And the reason he worded it that way is because he, when he observed the Lord's Supper, he did it with his church, the church he was a member of. At this point it would have been the church at Iniyak. But he wasn't a member of the church at Corinth, and so he was giving them directions. For as often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup.

It is a local church ordinance limited to the members of that particular church. It's not for all Christians. It's not for sister churches to come in, even if they're like Faith and Order. We're not saying that you're not saved. We're not saying that you're not a good brother or sister.

If you're here and you're not a member of this church, you can watch, you can see us observe the Lord's Supper, but you can't partake with us. The rule is if we can't exclude you, we can't include you. That's just the way it is. And that's the pattern. That's the pattern.

When the supper was first instituted, there were many who could have been there, multitudes of people, but the Lord limited it to his... There were 12 there at first. I believe Judas left before the supper, but it was limited. That's the pattern that happened here, too. We're given the element.

We're given the elements. The elements. He says, as you eat this bread and drink this cup. Now this morning, this morning I'm, you might have been like me, you might have had a cup of coffee and maybe you had some sort of a Maybe a sweet roll or something like that. Is that suffice for the Lord's Supper?

Well, no, it doesn't No, it doesn't there's specifics There's specifics we use unleavened bread in the scripture leaven is always used to represent sin. Christ's body was sinless. It's important. Why? Because this is not just a meal.

Again, going back to what the Church of Corinth was guilty for. Sweet rolls, Hawaiian rolls, all those sorts of things. They have their place, but unleavened bread is important. It's important in the Lord's Supper because it's a picture, a picture of the Lord's body as he gave himself on the cross, unleavened, because he was the sinless sacrifice. And drink this cup.

Drink this cup. We use wine. The night that supper was given, It was on Passover. The Jews used wine at Passover. That's a good reason to use wine, but there's a deeper reason.

There's a much deeper reason. Some good brethren use grape juice. They say well that's a that's a good thing to use but grape juice contains leaven. Again there's a problem with leaven. A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.

Leaven throughout the scripture, all through the scripture. Leaven is a picture of sin. Jesus' blood was not like our blood in the sense that his blood was sinless, pure. The pure blood of Christ, the Messiah, the Sinless One the Lamb of God will shed on the cross for us there on the cross And so in the supper what you have is this unleavened bread that is broken, picturing how the Christ died on the cross and the wine poured out picturing as he poured out his blood for sinners. Sinless, sinless blood, sinless body, taking our sin debt and dying because guess what?

Sinless, sinless people. What's the Bible tell us? The wages of sin is death. He died not for the sins of himself, he died for the sins of his people. And so, in that picture, in that picture, for as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you do show, what are we doing?

You do show the Lord's death. Jesus is the object of the Lord's Supper. He is to have the preeminence of all our worship. He's to have the preeminence in our preaching, our singing, our prayers, particularly The reason why we gather for the Lord's Supper. It's not all about the bread, the wine.

It becomes just a meal if we forget what it's all about. If we lose focus, sure someone's gonna go away hungry and another drunken. If we lose the focus, sure someone's gonna end up sick, weak, some dead. It's a terrible tragedy. Terrible.

But it's all about the Lord, folks. It's all about the Lord. When we eat that bread, drink that wine, It's all in worship of our Lord, remembering what He did for us. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you do show the Lord's death. And I love this last part, till he come, till he come.

Come till he come. Praise the Lord we are celebrating and observing the death of one who is alive. Understand this beloved, that Jesus is coming back. One day He will return bodily, bodily. Folks, this isn't the physical body, the physical blood of Christ that we have here.

This is all picture. It's all picture. It's all picture. But one day, perhaps even today, Jesus is coming back in the air to come for his people. And until he does, we observe this supper.

But that's not all that this thing, that this tells us, this phrase, till he come. This is also a promise of church perpetuity. This is a promise that, you know, things are looking pretty bad right now. Things are looking pretty rough. There's not very many of us here today.

There's churches are looking kind of slim and the world's getting kind of ugly against Christians and all of that sort of thing. People don't really like churches. I mean, man, there's all sorts of things going on in this world, but guess what? My Bible, my Jesus, he promised that there would always be churches, his churches, in this world, observing His Supper till He come. I don't know how it's all going to work.

I don't know how, But I just know He will preserve us. He'll preserve His churches until He comes. What a joy that is. May we be faithful in that as long as we're here. And so with all that being said at this time I'll invite the members of this church up to the front rows there for the observance of the Lord's Supper.

Isaiah, you might want to clear up that. In In Mark chapter 14 verses 22 through 26, As they did eat, Jesus took bread and blessed and break it, gave to them, and said, Take eat, this is my body. He took the cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, and they all drank of it. He said unto them, this is my blood of the New Testament which is shed for many. Verily I say unto you, I will drink no more of the fruit of the vine till that day that I drink it new in the kingdom of God.

When it sung and hymn, they went out into the Mount of Olives." We now come to the observance of the Lord's Supper, given to us to commemorate the memory of our Lord's broken body and shed blood. The night that he was betrayed at the conclusion of the feast of the Passover, which he and his disciples were celebrating, he took the bread, and having blessed it, break it, gave it to his disciples, said, This is my body which is given for you this do in remembrance of me. That's what we're here for. So we have here before us one loaf of unleavened bread. It is one loaf picturing the fact that we have just one Savior.

It's unleavened picturing the fact that Jesus Christ, our Savior, was sinless. There wasn't even a hint of sin within him. Of sin within him. No, no. And as it is broken or reminded that he willingly came to the cross and gave his life for us.

Our Father in Heaven, we are thankful for our Savior. We're thankful for this, this supper, this observance. Lord, we thank thee for this this. Suffered this observance Lord, we thank thee for this bread Lord, we thank thee most of all. For the symbol.

That it shows that Lord, even as we partake of it, we thank Thee that we're reminded of what our Savior means for us. Lord, I pray that you'll bless and Lord, draw us closer to you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Matthew chapter 26 and verse 26 says, and as they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed it, On that very same night, the Lord took the cup, Having blessed it, gave to his disciples and said, This cup is the New Testament in my blood which is shed for you.

We have here, we're down here on this side. We have here one cup of grape wine. It is also grape wine is also unleavened. It's one cup, picturing the fact that we have just one Savior. It has no leaven in it, picturing the fact that our Lord had no sin, none at all.

He came in this world like human flesh, but there was a difference. That difference was that he was born of a virgin, And as such, he did not inherit the sin nature that we all have. There was a difference in his blood. There was a difference in his body. There was a difference in him.

He went to the cross and bore our sins, died in our place for us. His blood was shed for his people. As the wine is poured out into the individual cups, we're reminded that he didn't just come to make salvation possible. He came to die for his people, a specific number of people. This is a church ordinance and we are here as one of his churches.

We have the exact number of cups laid out. We're reminded that Jesus died for Sovereign Grace Baptist Church. He died for others outside of this church, yes. I understand what I'm saying here. But What I'm trying to point out is that he died for a specific number of people.

But understand that he died, that this church is a blood-bought church. Father, we take this cup of this. Take about blood that was shed upon the cross. Permission of our sins, Father. Let us not forget the great price that was paid for this forgiveness.

How you sent your Son to take our place. The only one who could do it, the only one who could fulfill that for us. He willingly went to that cross and shed his blood for us. We thank you for this. We thank you for his sacrifice.

We thank you for the grace of mercy that we have received from the forgiveness of our sins. Father, help us to always be mindful of these things and forgive us even now In In 1 Corinthians chapter 11 and verse 25, after the same manor also he took the cup, when he had sup saying, this cup is the new testament in my blood, this do ye as oft as you drink it in remembrance of me. Of course, they're again in our text, for as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup you do show the Lord's death till he come. After our Lord, his disciples ate the bread and drank the wine, observing the first supper, is written they sung hymn and went out. So let's now stand and sing Amazing Grace.

Just the first four verses there of I believe it's a 203 in the book if you have one closed but most of us remember it. Of us remember it. Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a rich like me.