Bread and Body of Jesus Christ

I think one thing that we find out about human beings is that mankind is always desired to call us on own shots. He's always desired to rule himself. But the really big question is, will man choose to be governed by man alone, or will he choose to be governed by God? I really believe, I don't know what you feel about this, but I believe that deep down within mankind there's a desire to have a millennial type of world. Of course, this is the idea that seems to be put forth and set forth by people who talk about what science is going to do. It's going to bring a time of prosperity, a time when people won't have to work, won't have to spend any time laboring at all. But it seems like that everything that man seems to dream up, that he desires to design and to set forth, turns out to be a nightmare.

For instance, Adolf Hitler attempted to build a Third Reich. In his mind, I'm sure he was thinking in terms of building a world that would have a peace for a thousand years, of course, with the German Reich being at the helm of it. And their lifestyle would, of course, be the lifestyle that everyone would have in the world.

But, of course, we know what Hitler's idea of what the world should be raised the specter of war that occurred in the world. And it did not bring peace, but it brought a nightmare upon this planet that, in fact, today people still talk about. People talk about, again, how terrible it was during those days, and, of course, what happened to the Jews and what happened to many people in many countries. But every generation has thought that it would be the one where war would be abolished and everyone would prosper. I think every generation has thought that to be so. You know, you look back into the sixties, and a lot of the hippies sort of had this idea of what the world would be. It would be peace and love. Everybody would love everyone. And, of course, what did that turn out to be? You know, for the United States of America and all around the world? Would it turn out to be an SDV epidemic that occurred in the world? And, of course, ended up with other things, AIDS and different things like that, because of a free-love kind of movement that seemed to mushroom. And, again, it became a nightmare. Well, why is that? Why is that? That whatever man dreams ends up that way. It ends up as a giant nightmare for everyone. Well, let's go to Revelation 12 to sort of establish a little foundation here before we get into the message today. In Revelation 12 and verse 9, we know that there was a time when there was a great war that took place in heaven.

And we know that Satan fought against the forces of God, and he fought against Michael and his angels. And, you know, Satan did not prevail. He was not able to secure his place that he wanted in the universe. He wanted to be in the place of God. But in verse 9 it says here, so the great dragon was cast down. You know, Jesus said he beheld Satan fall as lightning from the sky. He was cast down that serpent of old called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world. And so here is the reason that man cannot achieve what he wants to achieve. He deceives the whole world, and he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. So Satan, along with his angels, became demons, were cast to this earth. And since that time, the problem with mankind has been that mankind has been blindfolded, as it were, from the devil. You know, he might as well not have any eyes, as a matter of fact.

You know, and if man has a deep desire for peace, he cannot see the way to peace, because, again, he does not have eyes to see the way. He is blinded mankind to the causes of war. You know, we don't even know what causes war.

You know, sometimes you go back and you try to figure out why this war started or why that war started. And it's really hard to determine why wars began. Some people are still arguing about how the Civil War began. You know, they will say it was because of slavery, or they will say it was because of some other reason that was the reason that civil war took place. So men are blinded to the causes of war, and they're blinded to how to achieve peace. Because peace can only be achieved by the enlightenment of the heart and the mind.

You know, it has to be illuminated in some way to see things from a different perspective. And thus, mankind gropes against the wall, blindly, in everything that he does, basically. And he does not know the way to peace. My question for you today, brethren, this morning, is, where will the ultimate battle line be drawn for us? What is the ultimate battle line for us? You know, how can we, brethren, overcome and change? What is the battle line for you and me?

You know, escaping the pull of the devil is not easy to do. You know, breaking free from him is not an easy thing to do. You know, how can that be done? When Jesus went to, you know, the Pharisees and the Sadducees and tried to preach to them, and you know, what the problem with the Pharisees and the Sadducees were, is they were concerned about the outside of the cup, how beautiful the outside of the cup was.

They weren't concerned with what was going on in the inside of the cup. Hopefully, brethren, we've learned the lesson in God's church, that it's not just what things appear on the outside to be that are important, but what is on the inside as well.

And we know that out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. And so, you know, from within, Jesus Christ is where all the envy comes from. From within is where the evil things come from. So, we need to be concerned not just with the outside of the cup, but the inside of the cup. Let's go down here in verse 11, in chapter 12.

And it says, and they, that's talking about you and me, brethren, they overcame him, that is the devil, by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lies to the death. In other words, they overcame him, number one, by the blood of the Lamb.

We have to have faith in the blood of the Lamb, faith in our Savior, Jesus Christ. And number two, the word of their testimony. And it says, and they loved not their lies to the death. And so, brethren, what the battle line is for each of us is the unadulterated truth of God, the unadulterated, pure truth of God that we would be willing to die for as God's people. And so, again, that, brethren, is the battle line for you and for me. Let's go over to 2 Thessalonians. 2 Thessalonians. 2 Thessalonians, over here, the Apostle Paul was dealing with things, quite frankly, that belong in our time.

Because there were some at that time that thought things were going to wrap up rather quickly. And, of course, they tried to convince others of that. But in 2 Thessalonians 2 and down in verse 9, it talks about the coming of the beast.

But notice here in verse 9 of 2 Thessalonians 2, it says, The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan. So Satan is going to be working in this being, this person. It says, with all power, signs, and lying wonders. And so these are going to be incredible things that this particular individual is going to do in the future, according to what we read here.

And it says, And with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, he's going to be a great deceiver. And we would expect that because he's going to be led by the devil himself, who is more subtle, in fact, as we're told in Genesis 3 when he appeared to Eve, he was more subtle than all the beasts of the field. And this is because they did not receive the love of the truth that they might be saved. And so this great deception, brethren, is coming which will reveal the inner wickedness of those who do not love the truth, who are not concerned about the inside of the cup.

You know, we need to be aware of what he's going to do, what he's going to attempt to do with us, all of us. He's not going to, again, leave God's people out. This is why he's coming to destroy us, ultimately. You know, that is part of the plan of God to wipe out God's people. But in verse 11, notice it says, And for this reason God will send them strong delusion that they should believe the lie. You know, is God going to test his people in the end of the age where he's going to allow such strong delusion to come along to see whether or not, indeed, we are his people? To see whether or not, again, that the truth it reigns within us, and not just on the outside, but on the inside. And it says that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness. You know, had pleasure in unrighteous behavior, unrighteous conduct, and, you know, of course, the strong delusion he talks about here is a Hebraic expression, meaning strong deceit. They do not love the truth, in other words. You know, do you love, brethren, the truth of God? You know, we can't assume that we won't be deceived. We need to take heed, brethren, lest we fall, because it will be a time of ultimate testing upon us at that particular time. You know, the Apostle Paul wrote to Timothy, I won't go to this verse, but in 1 Timothy 3, verse 15, and he said, But if I'm delayed, he says, I write so that you know how you ought to conduct yourselves in the house of God.

And here he's talking about conduct of a person. In other words, what they say and what they do. He says, I want you to know how to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and the ground of the truth. So the church of God, brethren, is a pillar and ground of the truth. The church is like a pillar that supports the truth, that holds up the truth, or holds the truth is a better word.

And the ground, which serves as the foundation of the truth. The church is built upon the foundation of the apostles and the prophets and Jesus Christ, we're told, is the chief cornerstone. So this is where the truth ought to be taught and preached to the world. That's what the church should be doing, brethren. And that's our role and our responsibility. It still is.

And we need to, again, remember that fact about the church. It's supposed to nurture us and feed us. It's supposed to make us stronger. It's supposed to prepare us for the future so that we can stand when others fall. But we can remain steadfast and know again these things in advance.

During the days of Amrafel, king of Shinar, he and other kings decided they were going to come down and attack the valley where Sodom, Gomorrah, and other towns were down in that environment. And they came. And as we know the story, let's go to Genesis 14.

Genesis 14. We know the story about how they took Abraham's nephew, Lot, captive. I'm not sure what Abraham would have done if they had not done that, whether he would have gotten involved in this particular battle or not.

But since they took Lot, then it became personal. It became something that he knew that he had to take care of himself. And the Bible says that he took 300 trained men from his own household that had been born in his own household, which is amazing to think about.

This man was very wealthy, obviously, and had many that were a part of his entourage that were there. I go back to Genesis because we see that when God begins to establish truth, he begins at the beginning. He begins at the very outset. And you see telltale signs of how God is going to bring about these things. And of course, we see them in hindsight because we wouldn't know if it weren't revealed to us. It's been written down for us today to read about. But let's notice here in Genesis 14. And so Abraham raises this army of 300 trained men from his own household.

And down in verse 16, notice that it says, so he goes and he brings back all the goods and also brought back his brother Lot, or really was his nephew, and his goods. It says, as well as the women and the people. And notice it says, And the king of Sodom went out to meet him at the valley of Shabbah, that is the king's valley, after his return from the defeat of Shaddo L'Marr, and the kings who were with him. And it says, Then Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought out bread and wine. He was the priest of God most high.

You know, who is, by the way, next to God in heaven prior to the time that Jesus Christ came to this earth in the form of a man? It was the Word of God, wasn't it? The Word of God, as we are told in the book of John, became flesh and dwelt among us and became Jesus Christ. But this particular priest, we're told, is the priest of the most high. That should send us some signals here about who this is talking about, because when we go over the book of Hebrews, we find the Apostle Paul strongly indicating that Melchizedek was manifested, you know, that he was a manifestation of the Word of God. And Melchizedek, in other words, was Christ. These were one and the same with one another. But here we see that Melchizedek, King of Salem, brought out bread and wine, and it says, he was the priest of the most high. And very probably, although there's no indication necessarily here that they kept the Passover, but, you know, I think it's an interesting thing that he brought out the bread and the wine. Maybe he was telling Abraham, and you might say, in a way that is kind of prophetic, of what eventually was going to happen, and how the New Testament church would begin to do this at a particular time in the future. It may be a way of heralding the coming, eventually, of the Messiah that was going to come on the scene in the future. It's interesting to think about that he was given, again, these signs in his time. Let's go over to Genesis 19. You know, of course, Abraham met with the eternal on the plains of Mamre, as it says in chapter 18.

And then, of course, he was coming to check out what was going on in Sodom. And so he sent his two angels, or two angels go into Sodom. It says, now when the two angels came to Sodom, in verse 1, in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom, when Lot saw them, he rose to meet them, and he bowed himself with his face toward the ground.

And he said, how now, my lords, please turn into your servant's house and spend the night, and wash your feet, that you may rise early and go on your way. And they said, no, but we will spend the night in the open square. And it says, and he insisted strongly, so they turned into him and entered his house, and then he made them a feast, and bate, unleavened bread, and they ate.

You know, some commentaries, by the way, state that this time was the beginning of the days of unleavened bread. It's kind of interesting, again, that we see this juxtaposition, you know, in relationship to the fact that Sodom and Gomorrah were going to be destroyed, and that Lot and his family were going to have to leave Sodom and Gomorrah to escape. To escape, you might say, to a place of safety in this particular case. But, you know, it's interesting, again, these things were acted out. But we see this very often, by the way, in the Scriptures, where things are acted out to show us what is to come, almost in a prophetic sense. Now, let's go to a quite obvious place. Let's go to Exodus 16. As we get into this, we begin to get into the more obvious of what God is saying about what is going to happen in the future.

You know, here in Exodus 16, in verse 4, you know the story, the account of where God rained down bread from heaven. And it says, Then the Eternal said to Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you. And the people shall go out and gather a certain quota every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in my law or not. And so God gave to Israel bread from heaven, bread out of heaven. We know that the Israelites called it manna, and that means, what is it? And, of course, they used it for all manner of things.

But rather than this, look forward to, prophetically, to the time when another being would come on the scene, and he would be manna out of heaven. Not physical manna, but a spiritual manna that would come down out of heaven. And so, again, we see these things that look forward to the future for us. Let's go over to Exodus 12. In Exodus 12, when Israel was given the Passover institution. In Exodus 12, in verse 5, he told them that they had to kill a lamb that was without blemish.

But in verse 5, he says, Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year. You shall take it from the sheep or from the goats. In verse 6, it says, Now you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month. Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at twilight.

And they shall take some of the blood out of it. It says, On the two doorposts and on the lindle of the houses where they eat it. And then they shall eat the flesh on that night, roasted in fire with unleavened bread, and with bitter herbs they shall eat it. And so, you know, here this, of course, looked forward to the time when Jesus Christ would be the lamb.

But they were to eat this lamb. And as they were instructed, there were other, by the way, offerings that were made by the priests. And they were to eat the lambs or the calves that they ate or that they offered and partake of it. They were to imbibe of it. And, of course, this looked forward to the time that we would imbibe of Jesus Christ, that we would partake of Jesus Christ and eat of Him. And notice in verse 10. And you shall let none of it remain until morning, and it says, and what remains of it until morning, you shall burn it with fire, so that nothing would be left of that lamb.

You know, when the ritual of what they were instructed to do was done, all was to be eaten, and nothing was to be left behind. And that which was left behind, you know, was to be burned. And Jesus Christ was pictured by that lamb that they ate, or that goat that they ate. And remember when Jesus Christ Himself came to be baptized of John the Baptist, what did He say? He said, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world. So these verses that we read here, brethren, look forward to the time when Jesus Christ was going to come along. And it wouldn't any longer be a symbol that it would be a reality that would come to pass. Let's go to 1 Corinthians 5, 1 Corinthians 5 in the New Testament. 1 Corinthians 5 in the New Testament.

You know, here they are to be aware of the fact that a little leavened leavens the whole lump in verse 6. But it says, therefore purge out the old leaven. You know, that's how we live before, in other words. The old leaven that you may be a new lump. And since you truly are unleavened, in other words, since they had cleaned and put out the leavening for the days of unleavened bread. For indeed, Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us.

So Christ is our Passover. And again, those things that have been written about in the Old Testament tie into these things that we're reading here that Paul references, you know, here in the New Testament. And in verse 8 it says, therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity, of pureness, in other words, and truth.

We ought to be, again, the unadulterated truth of God that is what really is important for us. And we know that Jesus Christ was that Lamb, as we read in Exodus 12, and Jesus Christ was that manna that came to the people of Israel out of heaven. You know, it's a lot more difficult, brethren, to put spiritual leavening out of our lives than it is to put physical leavening out.

Not only how you prepared for the days of unleavened bread, we've had to be done today, as a matter of fact, with putting our leavening out.

But it's kind of interesting, the cleaning that we do, I was cleaning the car yesterday and vacuuming it out, and saw a number of people, in fact, in Britainwood that were cleaning their cars yesterday. I wonder if they may actually be keeping the days of unleavened bread, too. I didn't ask anybody. But I was vacuuming the thing out. I took the seats out of the back and put them on top of the car. I've got all the doors all open, all the carpet all out, and everything. I'm down there trying to get all of the leavening that is there.

There's quite a bit in our car, because we use it on the Sabbath to eat, going to services in San Jose and elsewhere. But anyway, after I'd done everything, I thought I'd gotten everything out of that car. I looked right between the seat, and I saw what looked like just a crumb.

I stuck that vacuum down in there. I almost destroyed the seat, trying to get it out of there. That might not be too wise thing to do. But I thought, how am I going to get that crumb? It bothered me. Anyway, I had a straw in the car, and I licked the end of it.

Here I'm down on the side, and I'm sticking it between the seats. I stuck it to that little crumb, and I started lifting it out, fell down. I said, I only got one straw, so I licked the other end of the straw, and God was merciful, and it came up. But even though that was hard to get that out, and I'm sure I still didn't get everything out of the car, because there are places you just can't get into.

You have to demolish the car. I'm taking the bumper off, you know, or whatever. But it's easier to take physical leavening than to take the spiritual sins out of our lives. So the battle line, brethren, is, are we willing to live by the truth? And sincerely, put sin or error out of our lives. You know, Jesus Christ fed 5,000 people on one particular occasion, and He used five barley loaves and two fish. Now, that's what I call somebody who knows how to cook a meal, you know, to go with the five loaves and two fish, and you feed 5,000 people. But it was a tremendous miracle for that to happen.

Now, think about that. What a miracle! I mean, if I handed my wife, you know, an olive and said, prepare the meal. And she came out with this incredible meal, you know, five-course meal, whatever. You know, to me, I think she was a miracle worker with regard to that, although she does a very good job with our meals. But it was a tremendous miracle, and they took up basketful. You know, it talks about how they took up basketfuls of bread and the fish that remained afterwards.

But, you know, it was a miracle, you might say, like manna was a miracle that came to the children of Israel. Let's go to John 6. You know, there were people that probably followed Jesus Christ around and said, I've got to see this again. Or I want to have some of that bread. I don't know. Maybe the bread that was, in fact, multiplied by Jesus Christ was better bread than any that they had ever eaten before.

Remember the wine, the water that he turned into wine? He said, this is the best. You weigh into the best. Probably the best that people ever had. The fish the best that they had ever had. But let's go to John 6 now in verse 24 down here. It says, And when the people therefore saw that Jesus was not there, this is after again he fed the five thousand, nor his disciples, they also, it says, got into boats and came to Capernaum, seeking Jesus.

And when they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, Rabbi, when did you come here? Who knows? He may have strolled across the water himself. And Jesus answered them and said, Most assuredly I say to you, you seek me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. Because you were filled with food. And what they sought would not give them more than temporary life.

It's like the man that fell down from heaven from God only gave Israelites temporary life. You know, even though it was rained down from heaven, we know probably, you know, that there's a lot more about that that we don't understand of how God did that. But, you know, it was from heaven and yet it was not a food that one would eat that would sustain them any more than the normal man's life is sustained by food that they eat.

And he says, So that's why you came. And it says, Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on him. And so God had called Jesus Christ to that job and had set Him for that job, as we know.

He became flesh and dwelled among us according to what the Scripture says. And so he says, Don't, you know, labor for the physical food he's talking about here. In verse 28, Then they said to him, What shall we do, that we may work the works of God? So what are we supposed to do, they're saying? And Jesus answered and said to them, This is the work of God. Now, what you're seeing is the work of God that you believe in Him who has sent, or whom He sent here. And so this, brethren, is the work of God. What we are doing today, right now, brethren, is the work of God.

God is working, brethren, with us in the same way He was working with them through Jesus Christ right then. This is the work of God. And, brethren, Christ is our Passover. Christ is the one who has come and died for us for the opportunity for us to be a part of the family of God in the future.

Let's go down now to verse 30. And it says, Somehow they lost God in the process of seeing this. It's like Moses gave us this bread, and it was like manna from heaven, or it was like bread from heaven. And this seems to be the way that they were conveyed.

And then they said to Him, Lord, give us this bread always.

And so Jesus Christ is our Passover, brethren. Jesus Christ is the true bread out of heaven. If a man eat, he will live forevermore. You know, Israel, by the way, was in ancient times about ready to enter in the Promised Land, which symbolized, as we know, the monem, the Promised Land, symbolizes the 1000-year reign of Jesus Christ. Let's go over to Joshua. Again, what is recorded here, brethren, foreshadows what we are doing today, or what we should be doing today, is God's people, as we're about ready to enter into the days of Unleavened Bread and the Passover season. But in Joshua 5, verse 10, let's notice here, here are the children of Israel, and we're on this side, you might say, of the Jordan. But in verse 10, it says, I think that should be quite interesting here, that they kept the Passover at twilight of the 14th day here, which is the day that we're observing the Passover on Sunday night. And it says, in verse 11, So that manna that was being given out of heaven ceased on the day after they had eaten produce of the land, and the children of Israel no longer had manna, but they ate, it says, the food of the land of Canaan that year. Now, the New King James does not word this very well. Verse 12, I want to read to you out of the Revised Standard Version. The Young's literal translation actually has it the same way. But in the Revised Version of the Bible, it says, And again, the Young's literal translation says the same thing. The old corn, brethren, or grain, if you will, from which they made the bread, and so forth, represented the word of God. And Jesus Christ was represented by the future bread that they ate in the Promised Land. And so these things, again, look forward to these things that were going to happen in our time.

And so, again, the old grain represented the word of God, but Jesus Christ is represented by the Promised Land of what is going to occur. We know that it talks about how there remains a rest for the people of God over the book of Hebrews. And, you know, in type, Jesus Christ is that rest for us. And, of course, Jesus Christ himself looked forward to the time of the millennium when he would rule upon this earth. And so they ate the old, in other words. And then they ate the new. And the new, brethren, is representative of the unleavened bread that we eat during the days of unleavened bread, picturing the unvarnished truth, the unadulterate truth and word of God, as we, again, become immersed in it as God's people. Throughout the Bible, you have the expression bread. And, of course, in the New Testament, we see the body of Christ, those two things. The bread and the body of Christ represented three things. Number one, if you want to write these down, the literal body of Jesus Christ.

So the bread and the body of Christ represent these three things. Number two, the word of God. The word of God. And number three, the church. And so the bread and the body of Christ represented these three things. Now, let's go through each one of these, brethren, so that we can see this clearly in the Bible. There are some astounding things that come out as a result of these three things here that dovetail, brethren, and show a very beautiful picture of the plan of God that is within the Scriptures. So the bread is the literal body of Jesus Christ. Let's go to John 6. John 6. And of course, if the bread pictures the literal body of Christ, it means that when we partake of the Passover, brethren, that that bread is very precious in our sight. We know only at the Passover does it picture that. And, you know, that it represents that. That God wants us to eat it as though it were the flesh of Christ.

But notice here John, John 6, verse 47. He says here in verse 47, he says, Most assuredly, most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in me has everlasting life. Of course, we understand that believing in Jesus Christ is more than just saying, yeah, I accept it. He exists. It's more than that. But in verse 48, he says, I am the bread of life. Bread is called the staff of life, you know, in the physical sense.

But he said, I am the bread of life. And it says, Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness and are dead. And they're dead. You know, the people who ate the bread that Jesus Christ multiplied, you know, for the five thousand and others that were there when he did those miracles are dead. When they ate the bread and the fish, they lived out their lives and they died. And it says, this is the bread which comes down from heaven, that manna from heaven, in other words, that one may eat of it and not die.

And it says, I am the living bread which came, it says, down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I shall give is my flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world. So Christ gave his flesh, brethren, for us. And so this bread that we eat pictures the literal flesh of Jesus Christ that he gave for the life of the world. Now let's go to verse 52.

Just go on here. And the Jews therefore quarreled among themselves, saying, how could this man give us his flesh, Dave? And so they murmured among themselves, and Jesus said to them, most assuredly, most assuredly, He said, I save you unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Most assuredly.

Now what that means, brethren, is indeed, or truly, or surely, I mean, I don't know how you can spell it out any more than that. The bread pictures the literal body of Jesus Christ. Now, when Jesus Christ died, brethren, He did not die for broken physical sin, or physical loss, I should say. Sin isn't categorized as physical or spiritual, but it's just sin. A person commits sin, and of course the law of God is what defines what sin is. And in Romans 7, 14, it would be good to note this, for we know that the law is spiritual.

But Paul says, but I am carnal, sold under sin. And so the law is spiritual. And it says the law of gravity, then, I think we extrapolate from this, is a physical law, but it doesn't define sin. We know that gravity, if you don't believe in gravity, if you test gravity, then you will find it does have a penalty of its own. It used to be when I was trying to learn how to fly, I asked an instructor, how do I know if I'm flying in a cloud or whatever, that everything is copacetic. I'm not flying upside down. He said, well, all you have to do is throw a duck out the window.

And if he goes up, you're upside down. So, of course, you don't carry ducks with you when you're... He was a finlander, and I could barely understand him anyway, but he was funny sometimes when he tried to be. But anyway, God does not... He's not talking about physical laws. There are a lot of physical laws. Body and motion tends to keep in motion. Obviously, you're going toward a wall, you better put the brakes on, or you're going to run into the wall. So, there are penalties that go with breaking those laws, those physical laws, but they're not, again, spiritual laws, like the laws of God.

Again, sin is not defined as being spiritual or physical. It's just sin. The law is spiritual. Now, let's go to 1 Corinthians chapter 3. Again, the bread is the literal body of Christ. Now, people again have questions about, again, as we used to believe in the church, the idea that if the reason why people get sick is because they break the physical laws of health and they sin.

And there may be some physical laws that are involved, and they do have their penalties. The penalties are their own, brethren. But, you know, from a physical sense, if a person does something accidentally, they haven't sinned. But here in 1 Corinthians chapter 3 and verse 16, and again, accidentally I mean if it is a physical law, and frankly, if it is a spiritual law, we know we do have to ask God's forgiveness. But the body that we have, brethren, is something that's very important to uphold and take care of, because notice here in 1 Corinthians 3 and verse 16, it says, It says, Even though we're physical, brethren, we have to take care of the physical body and not do physical things to it to destroy it.

And the reason is because we are the temple of God. So we're dealing again here with physical laws, but they have spiritual ramifications.

You know, so that is why, brethren, the physical body and how we treat the physical body is important to God, because we have the Spirit of God within us.

Again, there are certain laws of man that are physical that do not define sin, but where we are destroying the temple of God, then that has spiritual ramifications.

You know, Mr. Armstrong used to say to us often, he said that the trouble with the world is that the world has spiritual problems.

And the world, you know, has these problems because it is breaking God's spiritual law. The reason why this world has this trouble, let's go to Isaiah 3.

Isaiah 3, over here. In verse 12. Isaiah 3, in verse 12.

It says, You know, I was reading this the other day when I was looking at the leaders, our leaders, who stand before us and tried to tell us how they're going to straighten up the mess that is in the United States.

And it's like they are, like the blind groping the wall. They don't really know how to do to correct the problems that are going on in the United States with our economy, let alone spiritual problems.

But God says to them, the problem with you is that women are old of you, and children are your oppressors, and those that are leading you are causing you to err.

And it says, Look at what has happened, brethren, in the United States of America.

What has almost brought us to the point of total destruction is utter greed on Wall Street.

You know, utter greed among the major bankers of this country. And it's still going on.

Goldman Sachs, by the way, these things are still going on.

You know, they are grinding down the people.

You know, think about your house right now. I don't know what your house is worth. Probably half of what it used to be.

But this is because of leadership. And again, you go back to why we're facing problems as a people is because of greed, it's because of jealousy, lust, and envy that fills the whole earth. But it says, The headdresses, and the leg ornaments, and the head dent. I guess God doesn't care an awful lot for those things.

The way that people can go overboard, you know, in their dress and almost practically give their lives to it.

And in verse 24, So this is what's coming to America. You know, not too far off. I don't think the way things are moving in this world. Because again, all of our problems are basically spiritual in nature, brethren, because we do not want to keep the spiritual law of God.

We don't want to live by that.

Well, Jesus Christ, brethren, has told us. He's instructed us, brethren. He said, I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever.

You know, man has been eating off of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil for the last 6,000 years. And look what has come about.

He said, Let's go to Hebrews 10. Hebrews 10.

Hebrews 10.

Down in verse 5.

Here Paul says, Notice this, brethren. But a body you have prepared for me.

In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin, you have no pleasure.

And then I said, Behold, I have come. In the volume of the book it is written of me.

Again, you go back to the time of Abraham. You go to the time of Lot.

You go to Exodus and see, again, what God has said about the Passover.

In the volume of the book it talks about the coming of Jesus Christ.

And he says, you know, going on to do your will, O God.

And it says, And then he said, Behold, I have come to do your will, O God.

He takes away the first that he may establish the second, talking about the second covenant.

And it says, And so through the body of Jesus Christ, once for all, brethren, was offered up for us.

You remember, brethren, in the Old Testament times how the high priest entered once a year the holiest of all. Well, Jesus Christ, brethren, was offered up.

And so that Jesus Christ went, as it were, to the throne of God, into the Holy of Holies, one time.

And one time only for all of us.

So he was that body, brethren, that was sacrificed for us. Verse 19.

Verse 19.

Through the veil, that is His flesh.

And having a high priest over the house of God, he says here.

So that is that wonderful way that Jesus Christ has opened up for us.

He says, That pure water, of course, is the Word of God.

We're talking about that in just a few moments here.

So we have to have ourselves washed in that pure water, which is, in fact, the Word of God, where we are washed.

And it says, You know, God is faithful to us, brethren, and we ought to hold fast ourselves based upon the tremendous sacrifice that Jesus Christ gave to us.

And He gives to us.

So, again, number one, brethren, the bread is the literal body of Jesus Christ that was given for us.

And when we eat that bread and when we drink that wine on the Passover evening, it is symbolically, you know, does picture the flesh of Christ that we're eating. And the blood of Jesus Christ that we're drinking in this new covenant that God is establishing with each of us.

I said also that the bread of life is the Word of God.

The words of God are very special. These words are very, very special, brethren, because they are truth.

You know, Jesus Christ came bearing the words of the Father in heaven.

Remember how many times, brethren, He said openly, these words are not my words. These words are the Father's words.

What I say is true because they're not my words, He said, because of the Father's words.

And, of course, we know Jesus Christ spoke the same as the Father did.

You know, He openly said, again, very often that He could do nothing of Himself.

All He could do is what the Father had given into His hand.

And Christ said He was the bread sent down from heaven.

And, you know, in John 6-63, you might just note that, but I'll just quote it to you.

Jesus said, it is the Spirit which gives life. The flesh profits nothing.

The words that I speak to you are spirit. The words I speak to you are spirit, and they are life. You know, it's hard to believe, isn't it, that the words that Jesus Christ spoke.

And this is the inspired word of God right here.

Sharper than any two-edged sword, as the Bible says.

These words, brethren, are very special. They are life to us.

And, of course, we have to grasp what they mean.

Remember when Jesus Christ had been fasting for forty days and forty nights?

And how he was tempted of the devil, the Bible says in Matthew 4, verse 4, he said, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.

And what did he say? These words are not my words. These words are the Father's words.

In other words, man shall not live by bread, physical bread alone, but he should live by the spiritual manna, who Christ represented.

So the bread, brethren, of life is the word of God.

If there's ever any words, brethren, that you listen to, if there's ever any words that you listen to and put into practice, it should be these words right here in the book.

If there are any words you take seriously with all of your might, brethren, and apply in your life the words of the Bible, the words that God breathed, that are inspired by the Spirit of God.

This is why the Apostle Paul, brethren, says to the Corinthian brethren, he says, let us keep the feast with the unleavened bread of sincerity.

That word sincerity means purity, pureness, and truth. Let's keep it with that.

Again, let's be concerned about the inside of the cup, not just the outside, but the inside of the cup.

Someone is certainly bound to say, what is truth? What is truth?

What did Jesus Christ say in John 17, verse 17? He said, your word is truth. He's praying to the Father. He says, your word is truth.

And he said, sanctify them by your truth.

So, brethren, we need to again know the truth, and we need to hold fast to that truth. I said also that the bread and the body of Christ represent that third thing, that is the church. That is the church, brethren. You and me. That bread represents you and me.

So, the bread and the body pictures the church of God. Let's go to Colossians 1. Colossians 1. Over in the book of Colossians chapter 1 and down in verse 18, we notice, and He is the head of the body, the church.

So, here we see that Jesus Christ is the head of the body. And of course, the body is called the body of Jesus Christ.

He's the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.

So, Christ, brethren, represents the true bread out of heaven, but He is the beginning.

He is the beginning of what God is going to do. He is the firstborn among many, as the Bible says in another place here.

So, Christ is the head of the body, and He is the firstborn of many.

And when we look over in the book of Ephesians, brethren, in the book of Ephesians, we see that marriage, we're told, is a mystery.

He talks about how the wife symbolizes the church, and the husband symbolizes Jesus Christ, and the union of the two of them is to produce one.

One. That's what the church is about. We're going to marry Christ, and we're going to become one.

Just as in a marriage, brethren, a husband and a wife are to become one with one another.

And so, if Christ is the bread, brethren, we become the bread as well. We become the bread as well.

And I think it's important for us to realize that one of the reasons why Paul wrote to the Corinthian church was because they were divided.

They were divided on so many levels.

One of the chief levels where they were divided was the Passover itself.

Remember, they had come together, and they were eating this big meal.

Paul had to instruct them. It is not that we come to eat the Lord's Supper.

He says you have houses where you can eat in. You've got places where you can go and you can eat. But we are here to observe what Jesus Christ instructed on this night.

He said the same night in which he was betrayed. He took bread and he broke it.

And he talked about the wine. He gave that as well.

And then he talked about how they were taking the Passover unworthily.

In other words, they weren't respecting the bread and the wine as what it pictured.

You know, Paul asked the question a number of times in the book of Corinthians, 1 Corinthians.

Doesn't he say, is Christ divided? What's your answer to that, brethren?

No. Christ is not divided.

Let's go to 1 Corinthians chapter 10 now in verse 15.

1 Corinthians 10 in verse 15. Paul says, It says, We're one bread.

The church is one bread.

We are one bread.

So you see how the bread symbolizes the church?

We're one bread and one body, for we all partake of that one bread.

So we're one bread, brethren, and we're one body. And again, the reason why Paul wrote to the church is because they were very divided.

Very divided. They didn't have love for one another.

They really didn't, the way that they should.

Brethren, when we partake of the body of Christ, represented again by the bread and his blood, represented by the wine, what we are saying, brethren, is that we are one bread with Jesus Christ.

So, brethren, when we partake of that Passover tomorrow night, when you observe that Passover tomorrow night, let's be not divided.

Now, we've had some that have left the church and gone elsewhere.

Of course, that's the choice they need to make. But, brethren, when we partake of the Passover, let's be one bread.

Let's be one with one another, and let's be one with Jesus Christ.

You know, brethren, we must realize that any prospect of a world being at peace cannot come through man seeking to bring about a millennium of peace on his own.

Mankind does not know the way to peace, because he is rejected the only way.

God is telling us the way, brethren.

We are a remnant of people upon the face of the earth that God is showing the way to peace.

And eventually, we're going to be that seed that is going to be planted in the world tomorrow that will overtake the entire world.

You know, God is showing the way to eternal life. Jesus said to his disciples, He said, I am the way. I am the truth. I am the life. And He says, no one comes to the Father except through Me. And so Christ said, I am the way, I am the truth, I am the light. When mankind is willing to eat the body and drink the blood of Jesus Christ, they're going to find a way too.

They're going to find a way too.

To be at one with one another and with Jesus Christ. And then, brethren, we'll have the world that man truly wants in the world tomorrow.