July 26 – LD 30, Day 4: Hypocrites and Such as Do Not Turn to
God With Sincere Hearts, Eat and Drink Judgment to
Themselves
by Rev Arie den Hartog
Read: Psalm 50:16 - 23
The apostle Paul in I Cor 11
speaks of how serious it is when a person comes to the table of the Lord and
does not truly repent of sin. They become guilty of the body and blood of
Christ. They eat and drink judgment to themselves.
The Lord intended that the Lord’s Supper should be the source of great blessing
and encouragement for His people. But when one comes with a sinful attitude to
the Lord’s Supper, he eats and drinks judgment to himself. How awful this is!
God’s Word warns us about this, and we must take this warning seriously. When
one partakes of the Lord’s Supper with an evil heart of unbelief and sin, he
makes himself guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. What could be more
serious than this! Who would deserve a more severe judgment than one who is
guilty of crucifying the Son of God afresh?
The Heidelberg Catechism warns us about hypocrisy. In Jer
17:9 - 10, we read, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately
wicked: who can know it? I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to
give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his
doings.” A hypocrite is a sham. He pretends to be what he is not. Before the world,
he tries to show himself as some great saint, while in his heart and life, he
is really evil and refuses to repent at all.
God exposes the hypocrite. He cannot hide before God. God knows the heart when
it is evil. Man cannot escape His condemnation. God searches the heart of man
through His Word which is “quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged
sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the
joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the
heart.” Heb 4: 12.
The ungodly must be warned not to come to the Holy Supper of the Lord lest he
be condemned. The Lord’s Supper is a sacrament of holy fellowship with God and
with Jesus Christ. The impenitent man who does not turn to
God, as we all should, will be judged by God. Many professing Christians
today do not want to hear anything negative. Serious warnings from God’s own
Word must be sounded forth and listened to.
These warnings are not intended to frighten us or to discourage us from coming
to the Lord’s Supper. We must examine our own hearts, repent and turn again
unto the Lord. In the spiritual activity of examining ourselves, we must
earnestly pray that God will help us. A proper prayer in preparing ourselves to
come to the Lord’s Supper is the humble prayer of Psa
139:23 - 24. “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my
thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.”
As fearful and necessary as these warnings are, no sincere Christian should be
terrified by them. God will receive in mercy all those who come in humble and
sincere repentance to Him. Those who come to the Lord with humble and sincere
hearts, genuinely repenting of their sins, will be blessed by partaking of the
Lord’s Supper. After all, the Lord gave us this sacrament not to turn us from
Him in fear and dread, but to assure us that all our sins are forgiven us for
the sake of Jesus Christ and His sacrifice on the cross. We receive this
assurance with humble faith and thankfulness to God.