Fortieth Meeting
(March
8, 1964 P.M.)
Will you
please turn to the First Letter to the Corinthians,
chapter ten, at verse sixteen, "The cup of
blessing which we bless, is it not a communion of the
blood of Christ?" Chapter eleven, at verse
twenty-five, "In like manner also the cup, after
supper, saying, 'This cup is the new covenant in My
blood."' The cup of blessing which we bless, is
it not a communion of the blood of Christ? This cup is
the new covenant in My blood. In the few times that I
have been with you at the Lord's Table, I have sought to
show something of the fuller and deeper meaning of this
table. And that is what I want to do tonight.
I want
to say just a little about the cup of the Lord. In the
two passages which we have read, two things are said
about the cup. Firstly, that it is a communion in the
blood of Christ. The real words are these: Is it not that
which we have in common with the blood of Christ? So that
in the first place, it is something which we have
together in the blood of Christ. And the second thing is:
That the cup is the new covenant in His blood. I am going
to take the second first: The new covenant in His blood.
Perhaps we have not recognized the real meaning, the deep
meaning of the covenant in the blood of Jesus. It is
something which has made us absolutely one with Christ. A
covenant is something which brings two people together in
absolute agreement. In a covenant, they both put their
hands down on the document and say, 'We are absolutely
one in this matter. We commit ourselves together to the
terms of this covenant. As long as we live, we stand
together as one person in this covenant.'
Jesus
says, "THIS CUP IS THE COVENANT IN MY BLOOD."
And He says, "For those who enter into this covenant
with Me, I will lay down My Life for them. I will live
for their interests. All their interests will be My
interests. And I will give My Life for them." This
blood is a new covenant. But there are always two parties
to a covenant. And in principle what applies to one party
applies to the other. Jesus says, "This is the token
that I lay down My Life for you." He says,
"Will you lay down your life for Me? Will you come
onto the common ground of this covenant? Will you take
this cup and mean, when you drink it, what I mean when I
shed My blood?" Of course, there is a difference, He
died for our sins; we cannot die for our sins. By His
blood, He atoned for the sin of the world. We can never
do that.
But at
the same time, this covenant means the same thing for us.
It means that we have entered into a covenant with the
Lord. In His blood, we have been made one with Him. And
now, forever, we live only for Him. His interests are our
supreme interests. We will live for Him and we will die
for Him. Do you know, dear friends, every time we take
this cup, that is what it means? That is the deeper
meaning of the cup of the new covenant. On His side, He
has committed Himself to us. If we dare to take that cup,
we mean that we commit ourselves to Him. We have been
joined in an everlasting covenant in His blood. As we
have partaken of His blood, so we have been made one with
Him in life. I trust that we shall all remember this
every time we come to the Lord's Table. When each one of
us takes that cup, let us stay for a moment, and ask
ourselves the question: What does this mean? What do I
mean by this? What does Jesus mean by this? It means that
He and I are one in a Life covenant forever. As His Life
was for me, so my life is for Him.
I
remember an incident some years ago in India. We were
gathered around the Lord's Table; and sitting on the
front seat were two young Indian men. They were a very
fine type of young man. And I was speaking about the
Lord's Table. I was saying something about what it means
to partake of the cup and the loaf - how it requires an
utter committal to the Lord. And I asked everybody to
face this matter again. Then we bowed in prayer. And the
brother brought the cup, and he took it from one to
another; he brought it to one of these men. I noticed he
took it in his hand, and with his eyes closed for a
moment, he waited quietly, evidently thinking very hard
about this, and then as though he came to a decision, he
lifted the cup to his lips and drank. And then it was
passed to the other young man next to him. He took it in
his hand, and I saw his face was going through some
terrible struggle, and he was thinking hard about this,
and then at last he shook his head like this, and passed
the cup on.
He had
made his decision. He had said, "I cannot enter into
this covenant. I cannot let Jesus have my whole
life." He was honest with God. I admired that young
man. Although I was very sorry that he did that, that he
went away from that meeting a man who refused to let
Jesus have his life, I did have to say, well, I admired
him for being so honest. Many will just take the cup and
drink it. It is a matter of form. It is what Christians
do. It is what we do every time we come to the Lord's
Table. We never pause for a moment, before we drink, and
ask ourselves again the question: Has Jesus really got
the whole of my life? Do I mean to be as wholly for Him
as He has been for me? Do I put my hand to the covenant
again, and say, "For life, for death, for eternity,
I am the Lord's?" That is what it means, dear
friends. This is what the Lord means by it. And that is
what He wants us to mean by it. "This cup is
the new covenant in My blood."
Now the
time has gone, I cannot say anything about the other
passage. It may just be that I have another opportunity,
I do not know. But remember this, if I never say any more
to you, this is a blood covenant between the Lord Jesus
and us, between us and the Lord Jesus. We have entered
into an eternal understanding with the Lord Jesus.
Because He has given Himself so absolutely for us, we
give ourselves absolutely to Him and for Him.