Can anyone do Lord's Supper?

1. 0:00Heidelberg Catechism, Lord’s Day 30. How does the Lord's Supper differ from the Roman Catholic Mass? The Lord's Supper declares to us that all our sins are completely
2. 0:20forgiven through the one sacrifice of Jesus Christ, which he himself accomplished on the cross once for all.
3. 0:26It also declares to us that the Holy Spirit grafts us into Christ, who with his true body is now in heaven at the right hand of the Father,
4. 0:35where he wants us to worship him. But the Mass teaches that the living in the dead dead do not have their sins forgiven through the suffering of Christ, unless Christ is still offered for them daily by the priests.
5. 0:47It also teaches that Christ is bodily present under the form of bread and wine, where Christ is therefore to be worshipped.
6. 0:55Thus, the Mass is basically nothing but a denial of the one sacrifice and suffering of Jesus Christ and a condemnable idolatry.
7. 1:05Who should come to the Lord's table?
8. 1:08Those who are displeased with themselves because of their sins, but who nevertheless trust that their sins are pardoned, and that their remaining weakness is covered by the suffering and death of Christ.
9. 1:20and who also desire more and more to strengthen their faith and to lead a better life.
10. 1:25Hypocrites and those who are unrepentant, however, eat and drink judgment on themselves.
11. 1:31Should those be admitted to the Lord's Supper who show by what they profess and how they live that they are unbelieving and ungodly?
12. 1:39No, that would dishonor God's covenant and bring down God's wrath upon the entire congregation.
13. 1:46Therefore, according to the instruction of Christ and his apostles, the Christian church is duty-bound to exclude such people by the official use of the keys of the kingdom until they reform their lives.
14. 1:59lives. Lord’s Day 30 uses some strong language. Right there in the first question already, we have this distinction being made in question 80 between the Lord's Supper and the Roman
15. 2:13Catholic Mass. And so the catechism is implying that these are two different things. And we need to ask why would the catechism make such a claim? What
16. 2:24is the reason for that? And I think the answer to that question you'll find really close to the end of answer 80, where it says that the Roman Catholic Mass is basically nothing
17. 2:34but a denial of the one sacrifice and suffering of Christ. There are are many passages that we could refer to here but the catechism points to John 19
18. 2:46verse 30 when the Lord Jesus was on the cross and with his dying breath literally he said it is finished that's one Greek word tetelestai and that means paid in full and that's the gospel
19. 2:59in a single word. It's paid in full. So that's what the Bible says. That's what the Lord's Supper says, but that's not what the Mass says. The Mass says your
20. 3:10sins are only forgiven, you could say, as often as you participate in the Mass.
21. 3:16Your sins are forgiven to that point and after that you You need to participate again in order to be right in the sight of God.
22. 3:23So the Mass undermines people's confidence in the once-for-all character of Christ's sacrifice.
23. 3:32It says, "You know that the wafer and wine are said to turn into his body and blood."
24. 3:37They need to be re-presented on the altar.
25. 3:39Think again about that language, priests and altars and sacrifices.
26. 3:43Christ has to be sacrificed repeatedly to forgive the sins of believers in that case.
27. 3:52So we say by its very nature, the Mass being then not the Lord's Supper, is a denial of Christ's one sacrifice.
28. 4:03And that's really why answer 80 uses such strong language.
29. 4:06People will point out that answer was not in the catechism, in the original editions.
30. 4:10People are embarrassed sometimes by the language here because it's so strong, but the language is strong because the gospel's at stake.
31. 4:18Now answer 81, One talks about who may come to the Lord's table, who is eligible, you might say.
32. 4:28And the qualification is essentially, do you really believe in Jesus Christ?
33. 4:32And then not only do you profess this, but do you live this life?
34. 4:38It doesn't say you have to have perfect faith.
35. 4:39Our faith is never going to be perfect in this life, and we all know that sometimes it's a struggle to believe.
36. 4:44That's actually why God gave us the sacraments, to encourage us in faith.
37. 4:50But when we participate in the Lord's Supper, when we take the bread and we take the wine, that's a profession of faith in Jesus Christ.
38. 4:59saying I believe and I need to believe that my sins are pardoned me and that my ongoing, my continuing weakness is covered in the sight of God by that
39. 5:11perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ. When I partake of the Lord's Supper I'm saying with that action I grieve over my sin, I hate my sin, and I want to be strengthened in faith.
40. 5:26I want to live a better life, a godly life.
41. 5:29And if I lie when I do that, a hypocrite is literally an actor, a pretender.
42. 5:34He does that, he pretends to be what he's not.
43. 5:37And if somebody partakes of the Lord's supper, As a pretender, that's a very dangerous thing.
44. 5:43You put yourself in a dangerous position.
45. 5:45It's actually terrifying.
46. 5:46Paul says that if we sin in that way, if we eat the bread or drink the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, we will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.
47. 5:59of breaking a sacrament rule, question 82, doesn't deal with hypocrites.
48. 6:05We don't know who the hypocrites are.
49. 6:07They're actors, where they're pretending.
50. 6:09Answer 82, question answer 82, deal with people who openly live in disobedience.
51. 6:15And the question asks, are they to be admitted?
52. 6:18And that indicates that There is to be some kind of fencing of the Lord's table.
53. 6:24It's not open to all indiscriminately.
54. 6:27We confess in answer 82 that we are duty-bound by the Lord to exclude anyone who shows by his life or by his confession that he is ungodly, unrepentant, or unbelieving. And so when we honor the Lord's Supper, when we
55. 6:47protect that message of salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, we also uphold and preserve the glory of God in the life of the believer, in the in the life of the congregation.

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