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To: D-fendr
" In your view, were Christians were making the error as early as St. Paul's first letter to the Corinthians:

For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body."

No.

Having heard sermons on this passage many times over the last 35 years, perhaps the easiest way is to quote a sermon. This is from John MacArthur, whose sermons are available online in transcript form. If I wanted to do the same from the church I attend, I'd need to remember the name of the sermon and give you a link to a 7MB file to listen to...

"...Let's see number three, the preparation for the Lord's supper. And we'll look quickly at this. The preparation for the Lord's supper, verse 27, "Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread and drink this cup of the Lord anaxios or unworthily shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord." He says, "Look, it's serious, it's important. If you treat this uncommon thing commonly, you become liable, that's the word guilty, for the body and blood of the Lord." If you come to this table wrongly, you're guilty of it.

What do you mean unworthily, John? Well, I'll tell how you can come unworthily. The Corinthians did it. You can come...here's...here's the way you can treat the table of the Lord unworthily. Number one, by ignoring it rather than obeying it, by just not doing it. You're saying it's irrelevant, it doesn't matter, it's unimportant. Is that right? No, it's wrong. That's unworthy of you and unworthy of Him. Second, you can treat the table unworthily by making it a performance rather than something meaningful, by just doing it rather than understanding it.

I'll tell you another way you can pervert the table and come unworthily is by making it into a saving thing rather than a communing thing...by thinking that it saves you to do it rather than understanding that it only causes you to make a fresh commitment and a fresh communion with Christ.

Another way that you can come unworthily is by treating it as a ceremony rather than as a personal experience. And another way you that you can come unworthily is by treating it lightly rather than treating it seriously. If you come to this table with any bitterness toward another Christian in any way, shape or form, with any unconfessed sin, living in any kind of sin that you will not repent of and turn from, if you come with any less than the loftiest thought about God, Christ and the Holy Spirit and the Word of God, if you come with anything less than total love for the brothers and sisters in the body of Christ, you come to this table unworthily.

And you say, "What's the result?" Look, you are liable for the body and blood of the Lord. You say, "John, what do you mean I'm liable for the body and blood of the Lord?" You contact guilt in reference to Christ. You literally are treating Him in an unworthy manner and you become guilty of that kind of ill treatment. You are treating the totality of Christ's life and death unworthily and you'll get guilt from that. In other words, God says you're guilty of that. You become culpable, liable, guilty. For example, a man who tramples the flag doesn't just trample the flag, he insults his country. He becomes guilty of dishonoring a nation. And somebody who tramples with the feet of indifference or sinfulness, the body and blood as represented in the elements of communion, is guilty of dishonoring, mocking, treating with indifference and hypocrisy the very person of Jesus Christ. How you treat this table, beloved, is how you are treating Jesus. That's what he's saying.

And that tells me that it's a very real encounter with Christ here. In fact, it's so real that failure to acknowledge the reality and seriousness of it brings about judgment...."

From "The Celebration of the Lord's Supper Part 2" available here:

http://www.gty.org/Resources/Sermons/1847

156 posted on 08/25/2009 6:21:15 AM PDT by Mr Rogers (I loathe the ground he slithers on!)
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To: Mr Rogers

Thank you. But I was referring to “not discerning the Lord’s body.”


157 posted on 08/25/2009 6:59:41 AM PDT by D-fendr (Deus non alligatur sacramentis sed nos alligamur.)
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