Lords Day 30

Lords Day 30 of the Heidelberg Catechism, presented here in poetical form by David Croft, continues to instruct us regarding the Lord's Supper, as well as reminding us who should partake of the the Lord's Supper, according to the instructions given to us in the Word of God.

Lords Day 30

The Holy Supper of Our Lord

The Holy Supper of our Lord
Through Scripture’s sacred looking glass
Appears in substance...manner...word
In what way different from the mass?
The Royal Feast declareth first
Unto the chosen of the earth
Who pant in parched and longing thirst
For Him Who gives our spirits birth

That all our foul and fallen host
The sins of present...future...past
Of which the world and devils boast
Are plunged forever to the last
Beneath the Lamb’s atoning flood
He finished on the cross for all
Who saves by His own poured out blood
The sons He gathers from the fall

The table of the Living One
Arrays in humble mortal lines
That we with the Immortal Son
Are grafted though from wild vines
By that same Spirit now Who lifts
Our eyes to God’s right blessèd hand
Where sits the Author of all gifts
To kiss Who holds our wedding band

But in the mass the Christ is blurred
While men are turned to mortal priests
Who, by the prince of devils stirred,
Oblate the Son as if a beast
And worship the immuted King
As common table bread and wine
To serve in this their offering
An idol for the True Divine

April 14, 1998
Lords Day 30 Heidelberg Catechism
Question & Answer 80
(Part 1 of 2)
© 1998 David L. Croft

Then Who Should Dine Amid the Grains

Then who should dine amid the grains
And quaff the cup whose Substance hath
The grace of Our Lord’s finished pains
Propitious power over wrath?
But all the poor and ill of rest
Reclined upon a chastened bed
Who smite their sorrowed sinning breast
And trust the Lamb no longer dead

Whose warring spirits daily rise
To gird their faith’s unfinished score
And crave a life more holy wise
Until they wake forever more
But hypocrites partake alas
And unrepentant sinners dine
Although they lift the Sovereign’s glass
Unto a punishment divine

Are Israel’s shepherds to admit
Who show by simple shifting lays
The wayward to the sacrament
To trample Whom we only praise?
Nay, that would call down heaven’s curse
So Zion’s watchmen bar the way
To honor Him for Whom we thirst
Until they’re birthed of better clay

April 17, 1998
Lords Day 30 Heidelberg Catechism
Questions & Answers 81 & 82
(Part 2 of 2)
© 1998 David L. Croft

Lords Day 30 remind us that it is important to note that the Lord Supper demonstrates that the sacrifice that the Lord Jesus Christ made on the cross was made once and for all, never needing to be repeated again. Nowhere does the Bible teach that Christ must be offered again and again for each and every person every time they sin.

We also need to remember that the table of the Lord is open to all who are truly sorry for their sins and have trusted on the Lord Jesus Christ as the Savior who offered payment for their sins. The Bible warns that those who are unrepentant or hypocrites, professing to believe one thing while believing another, should not partake of the Lord's Supper, remembering that God knows the thoughts and intents of our hearts. What we may be able to conceal from men, is laid open before our Holy and Righteous Father God.

Just as the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, spent His life to save a people for Himself, so should we take seriously the commandments He gives to us in His Word.

Let us remember the words of this familiar hymn:

Were the whole realm of nature mine
That were a present far too small
Love, so amazing, so divine
Demands my life, my soul, my all!

Lords Day 30

Lords Day 31

Lords Day 29

Heidelberg Catechism Poetry

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