Christ In You

There we go. You can hear me now? Good afternoon. Good afternoon. Let me just thank the choir. That was really a wonderful song, very wonderfully done. Very good. Very good. High commendations to all of you. I know that takes a lot of time and practice, and your service to the church is duly noted. It really adds to the Holy Day, so thank you very much. You know, we're here on the last day of Unleavened Bread, and as we think back over what we've done for seven days, it can become sometimes just rote to, you know, wake up in the morning and have the piece of matzo or unleavened bread or whatever it is that we eat.

We know that God commands us, you know, when we take that bread, think about it. Think about what you're doing. It's more than just a physical thing that we've gone through to eat unleavened bread. There's a purpose behind it. So I want to start in Exodus 13 to just remind ourselves of what, at the beginning of this feast, we probably read, so that when we take the unleavened bread, we're realizing what we're doing because God gives us physical symbols to remind us of what the deeper thing is that He wants us to do when we eat this unleavened bread for seven days, seven days here during this festival.

In Exodus 13 and verse 9, He says, "...it shall be as a sign to you," eating that unleavened bread, a sign to you on your hand. Think about it. It's supposed to change the way you do things when you eat this bread, when you're taking it into you. It's something that will change you. It's a sign to you on your hand.

As a memorial between your eyes, you remember what it is that God has called you to. You can also change the way you look at things, change the way you think about things, change your mind as we're eating that, that the Lord's law may be in your mouth, that it may be in your mouth, the type of thing that we speak of, the way we speak. I'm reminded when I read that every year of Christ's comments, what He says, out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. Now, that so often is true.

You can listen to someone's word and words and realize what they're about and who they're about. And God says, as you eat this unleavened bread, it's a symbol when you're eating it the rest of your life. For ancient Israel, it was those seven days. They didn't have a choice. They were leaving Israel or they're leaving Egypt suddenly. And so they had to eat that unleavened bread for those seven days. But God said, you know, when you do that in future years, this is what God wanted.

It wasn't just to eat unleavened bread, just to remember coming out of Egypt. It was there was a change that He wanted to see happen in Israel because He was taking them from one land and one life to a brand new life. Everything they knew before was left behind and everything, everything in the future was going to be new, completely different than the way they lived in Egypt.

Let's go to 1 Corinthians 10. Paul addresses this as he speaks of what Israel went through when they went out of Egypt and the lessons that we can learn from that. They left their lives of slavery behind, but we know for us, we left lives of slavery to sin, lives that had no future, no hope. We weren't going anywhere until God opened our minds to see what the purpose of life is, what the meaning of life is, what He has in mind for us.

In 1 Corinthians 10, we'll read the first five verses here, and then verse 11. 1 Corinthians 10, verse 1, it says, Moreover, brethren, I don't want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea. And you know, traditionally, we say the seventh day of unleavened bread is when Israel crossed the Red Sea. They had their backs up against the wall, got open to sea, they marched through it.

They all passed through the sea. Paul says they were all baptized into Moses, in the cloud, and in the sea. He completely delivered them. They had been wandering for those seven days, eating unleavened bread, and then he opened the sea. They marched through, and then the enemy was crushed behind them. They were completely out of Egypt. Egypt no longer had the power to conquer them or to overcome them. They didn't have to fear about Pharaoh coming with a new army. It was all gone. He had delivered them, and there was a new life as they marched forward into that promised land where they were going to wander.

They didn't know it for 40 years, but he was going to teach them his way, a new way of life. Just like when we are called, and when we repent, and we leave the world behind us, and we're baptized, we're leaving the old world, the old self behind. It's a whole new life God has called us to. Same thing for those Israelites in a very physical manner. Ours is a much more spiritual, but going on, he says, they were all baptized into Moses, into cloud, and into the sea. They all ate the same spiritual food. They ate the same thing.

For seven days they ate manna, but then for 40 years they ate, or they ate the unleavened bread, and then for 40 years they ate manna. I mean, how could any of them thought, you know, we're out here in the wilderness, God is giving us this manna every single day. We're not working for it. There's absolutely no way of getting food out here. It's the manna that's God giving us, and yet you saw Israel time and time again. They rejected God time and time again. They went and did what the lands around them did, and they didn't have trust in him.

Something was missing. Paul's saying they all ate the same spiritual food. They all drank from that same rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ. They did all that, and yet they didn't follow God. They didn't become the nation that he wanted them to become, because the lesson for us is there's something missing. The carnal mind can't do it. The carnal natural mind can't do it.

Romans 8, 7 is very true. Without God's Holy Spirit, it's impossible for us to follow God. We need that, and Israel didn't have it, even though they had every single other physical thing of God they could have. They all ate the same spiritual food. They all drank the same spiritual drink, for they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ. And then he talks about how they sank and returned back to Egypt, which represents sin, as Mr.

Nan said this morning. They went back into idolatry, and to all these other things that they did. In verse 11, Paul summarizes, and he says, all these things happen to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come. Lessons for us. God gave them everything. They ate the unleavened bread. They did that seven days. They ate the manna, physical man, every morning. They drank the water that they saw came from God. But they never changed.

It was all physical. It didn't affect what their hand did. It didn't affect what their eyes saw, and what they thought. It didn't affect what came out of their mouth. Shouldn't be so. Shouldn't be so for us. Let's go over and look a few verses back in John that we would have read on Pass Overnight as well, just to refresh our memory on what we talked about. The bread. As we took the bread and then the wine on that night, a symbol of what Jesus Christ did for us. In John 6, verse 35, before that Pass Overnight, Jesus Christ, well, before it was talking to the disciples there, he said to them, I am the bread of life. I am the bread of life. He who comes to me shall never hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst. Words that they didn't understand at that time. You and I understand them. If you eat this bread, I am the bread of life. If you eat that bread, you will never hunger, you will never thirst. Verse 38, I have come down from heaven, he said, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. This is the will of the Father who sent me that of all he has given me, I should lose nothing, and I will raise him up at the last day. My will is everyone, God says, everyone that I call would listen, would repent, would endure to the end, would learn the lesson of eating the bread of life. Of eating the bread of life. If we drop down into verse 48, Christ said, I am the bread of life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, they're dead. That's the bread that they would have thought of. They ate that manna for 40 years, but they're dead. This is the bread which comes down from heaven that one may eat of it and not die. I am, he says, the living bread which came 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. Eat that bread. He says the same things down in verses 55 to 58 as well. Repeating it. This is the bread. This is the bread to eat.

This is the bread of life. Eat it and live forever. In John 14, Christ was speaking to his disciples before he was arrested that night.

My turn. Nance was here this morning, but let's look at verse 19 in John 14.

He's speaking, he says, a little while longer. The world will see me no more, but you will see me because I live, you will live also. At that day, at that day, you will know that I am in my father and you in me and I in you. I'm in my father, you're in me, and I am in you. Eat the bread of life.

Eat the bread of life. Be in me and I'll be in you. John 15, verse 4. Abide in me and I in you. As the branch can't bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, verse 5. You are the branches. He who abides in me and I in him bears much fruit, for without me you can do nothing. Let me abide in you. Let me be in you. Eat that bread of life that I may be in you. John 17, his prayer before being arrested.

I know, I'm going to... As he's praying to God, as he's faced with the stress that we can't even imagine that he must have been going through that night, he says, all mine, Father, are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. If we drop down to verse 17, he says, set them apart. Sanctify them by your truth. Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I've sent them into the world, and for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they may be sanctified by the truth. In verse 21, my prayer is that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they may also be one in us, that the world may believe that you sent me.

And the glory which you gave me, he says, I've given them. Be one with God. Let him be in you.

Eat that bread of life. There's an old saying, you are what you eat. You are what you eat.

Christ says over and over again, let me be in you. The apostle Paul in Colossians makes quite a statement that summarizes that. In Colossians 1, in verse 27, he talks about the mystery that God is working out in you and me in the verses leading up to this. In verse 27, he says, To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles. What is that mystery? Christ in you. Christ in you, the hope of glory.

Christ in you, the hope of glory. Now, sometimes as I read through the Bible, I'll read words and they'll jump out at me and I think, wow, we read those words maybe hundreds of times in our lives. Do we focus in? Christ in you. You in Christ. Christ in you. Him actually living his life in you. Eat the bread of life. Take that bread. Make it you. Have him living in you, literally, as he would say. Christ in you, the hope of glory. If he isn't in you, there is no hope of glory. If he isn't in you, there is no hope of the kingdom. If he isn't in you, there is no hope. We could be thankful to God that he makes it possible for all of mankind, some of us who he has blessed us richly to call us in this lifetime, he's given us that opportunity now. Others, it'll be in the second resurrection, to the opportunity to have Christ in us. That's where all the joy is. That's where all the purpose in life is. That's where all the settlement and peace comes from.

Not completely separate from the world. Christ in you, the hope of glory. Go back a couple of books, and Peter, not Peter, Paul, talks about the same thing in Galatians. Galatians 2. Galatians 2, in verse 20, he says, probably a memory verse for many people, I have been crucified with Christ.

I put myself to death. Isn't that what we do when we are baptized? I put my old self to death. I don't want to be me anymore. I want to be what God wants me to be. I don't like who I was before. I realize everything I did before was for a wrong purpose. I discount. I discard that life so that I have this life going forward. I am been crucified with Christ, Paul writes. It's no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. I live not my life anymore, but Christ lives in me. Next chapter, chapter 3, verse 26, he says, all of us, for you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you, as were baptized into Christ, have put on Christ. Now you wear him. You don't wear those old clothes anymore of what you used to be. You're working on some new garments, right? They're not the old garments that we have worn all our lives. Those have to disappear. If you've been baptized, you're putting on new garments. Let's go back to a parable that Christ gave back in Mark 2, where he talks about these garments that we have. A few parables here that he talks about the garments that we are to be putting on, that we put on Christ when he lives in us, when we look, when we're dressed like him, when we have all that about us, that when people say there's something different, he's not the same person he was before. It happens over the course of a lifetime, not immediately when we're baptized, but it is the road that we're on as we look toward the kingdom, as you heard this morning, as we focus on that. And there is a process that we go through, if indeed we are letting God lead us through his Holy Spirit. In Mark 2 and verse 18, I'll read through. I won't read through. I'll drop down to verse 21.

They're asking Christ, how come your disciples don't fast? He says the bridegroom is with them. You don't fast when the bridegroom is there later when he leaves. And in verse 21, he says, No one sows a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, or else the new piece pulls away from the old and the tear is made worse. So I don't know how those things are done, but I believe what Christ says, and probably the ladies in here who are seamstresses would tell us, yes, if you put new patches on old clothes, they're not going to match up well. They're going to pull away. They're going to fall apart. They don't match. And so you don't put a new piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment.

What is Christ talking about there? Why does he say you can't put the new on the old?

You have to have a brand new thing. You can't wear. You can't mix the old and the new. You can't mix truth and error and have truth. You can't mix the old ways and the new ways of life. It doesn't work.

They have to be completely new. Purity. Purity is the goal, right? 1 John 3, verse 3, anyone who has this hope in him, well, Christ is in you. But that hope depends on us purifying ourselves. That doesn't mean we do it ourselves. It means we make the choices in life to put off the old garment, put on the new garments that define us with the hope of the Holy Spirit, something ancient Israel couldn't do, even though they heard God say those things, even though they heard God thunder those commandments from Mount Sinai. They just couldn't do it because there was something missing. Jesus Christ, when he came to earth, when he died, when he was crucified, and he shed his blood that we could have forgiveness of sins and all those things happened at his crucifixion, the temple or the veil torn in two, that we had access to God, that it made possible God's Spirit to be in us so we could do what God always wanted mankind to do. As we read in Exodus 13, verse 9, that what he gives us to eat becomes us. We just don't do it because here's the day, April 12 to 19, we eat 11 bread, let's just check off the seven days and be done with it. No, we eat it because it changes that, it becomes us. Not something we just do and forget about, but something we do the rest of our lives, always eating that unleavened bread, always becoming that becoming us, so that what comes out of our mouths are of him. The way we think up here becomes more like him as we let Philippians 2.5, that mind of Christ be in us, as we do the things and do it in the way that God said.

You know, we talk about garments. Let's look at Matthew 22, just briefly another parable where Christ is quite dramatic in the parables that he gives. It all ties together. We put on Christ. We eat the bread of life. In Matthew 22, as we look at verse 11, we have this wedding banquet that's there. Some people come in and they're not ready to be at that wedding. But in verse 11, you know, you see that God, when people, they just don't count important to wedding invitation, that they just go out and they do something else. The other things are more important to them. And God keeps calling people because that wedding is going to be filled up. If we reject it, he'll call someone else. He knows who he wants. He calls us and gives us the opportunity. If we say, no thanks, he'll find someone else because his first fruits, the ones that he is preparing, they will get done with or without us. Verse 11, it says, when the king came in to see the guests at this wedding supper, he saw a man there who didn't have on a wedding garment. He just didn't look right. He hadn't, as Paul would say, put on Christ.

He was there with his old clothes and he just looked out of place. So he said to them, friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment? And the man was speechless like, whoa, yeah, I'm here. You know, I don't know what to say. And the king said to him, to the servants, bind him, hand and foot, take him away, cast him into outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth for many are called. Many are called the fewer chosen. Many are called.

Many hear the word. Many, God gives the invitation too, but there's few, comparatively, who really do what God said, who really eat the bread of life, who really put on the garments of Christ, who put on Christ. You know, I didn't turn to 1 Peter 5 verse 5, but just popped into my mind there. Peter says, be clothed with what? Be clothed with humility, an absolute requirement to be in God's kingdom. Be clothed with humility. If your former clothes was not humility, that has to be discarded and humility has to be put on. If your former garments were not of God, and what he says to do that we do out of love for him, agape love for him, not just because it's a requirement, it's because we love him and as we become like him, we just do the things of God, put those away, and put on the garments of Christ. And so he tells us, you know, he gives many of the opportunities, many are invited to the wedding, but only those who truly eat the bread of life, those who truly let and do the things, giving their heart to God, heart, mind, and soul, that Christ is in you and you in him, that who really are looking for that glory and have that hope of glory, which is the kingdom of being where God wants us to be, then we won't be. We would be one of the many who were called, but not those who are chosen. That choice is up to us. What do we do? God gives the call, but it's up to us what we do with it. Of course, wrapping this up, we know in Revelation 19, you don't even have the turn there, we know the marriage supper of the Lamb, who's going to be at that marriage supper, and what will they be dressed in?

Revelation 19, verse 7, Let us be glad and rejoice and give him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and his wife has made herself ready. She got herself dressed. She picked out the garments by the choices she made in life, by the heart that she gave to God. Heart, mind, and soul, not just, I'm checking off a box for seven days. Yep, I go to Sabbath every service, every Sabbath or every Saturday. The whole heart Christ in you, his mind in us. To her, verse 8, it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. That's the clothing, new clothing we put on. Put on Christ, wear the clothing that Christ wants us to wear, that he will clothe us with. If we completely yield to him and let our minds go there and not just go through physical aspects like ancient Israel did, I realize we were called for a far different purpose and God gives us the Holy Spirit now that can train us to do that. The Holy Spirit now that can transform our minds into who he wants us to be.

There's another part to that parable as well. If we go back to, well, this time let's go to Luke 5 and Luke's version of the rest of that parable about putting untrunk cloth on old garments.

In Luke 5, Luke 5 and verse 36.

In verse 36, you see where Luke is recounting the one about the garments. And in verse 37, Christ goes on and he says, and no one, no one puts new wine into old wine skins or else the new wine will burst the wine skins and be spilled, and the wine skins will be ruined. But new wine must be put into new wine skins and both are preserved. And no one, curiously he says, no one having drunk old wine immediately desires the new, or he says, the old is better.

There's a lot in those verses. You know, the same concept of new wine can't be put into old wine skins. Rings true. It's like the old garments. The new wine will burst the old wine skins.

So we know the new, we have this continuing lesson, the new and old can't be mixed.

There's something new that we've been called to. Old ways, old thoughts, old religious ideas, old things of the world, old way we conducted ourselves in business or whatever it is.

All that goes. And we become, as it says in 2 Corinthians 5, 17, a new creation.

A new creation. The old has passed away. The old has passed away. We made the choice to follow God, bury the old self, let him mold you into a new creation. A new creation. Him in us. Us in him.

And then he says in verse 39, I think we get that concept. We'll talk about that a little bit more. But then he says in verse 39, well, people will say, having drunk the old wine, no one wants the new first, right? And the old is better. Now, that's a curious thing for Christ to say, but what he's saying there is, but you heard this morning, don't go back to Egypt.

It's easier, we might say, it's easier to do things the old way. Oh, I don't want to do it that way. What's the difference if I do that instead of that? Isn't it the same thing? The world does that all day long. Does it make any difference if it's Easter, Sunday, and all these pagan things, as long as I'm honoring God? Yes, it makes a difference. You don't mix the old and the new. You don't mix the old ideas, and yet people will say, oh, the old is easier. That's what we're used to. And was it that bad? Yes. Wash it away. Wash it away. You know, the apostles, well, the Israelites, you know, they just resisted God, didn't they? They just kind of resisted anything he said they wanted to. It made truth to them. It made sense to them that he would give these commandments, but then they didn't do that. Well, we didn't keep your finger there in Luke, but you know, Stephen, as he was talking to the Pharisees, Stephen, you know, the deacon who was stoned to death because he made them so mad by the words he says, he says something that is really what Christ was talking about. As he was talking to the Pharisees there in that long discourse that he gave them, he was proving that Jesus Christ is the Messiah. Down in First 51 of Acts 7, he gets a little excited, I think, as anyone would when he's trying to talk to the Pharisees and get them to understand Jesus Christ is the Messiah. Eat of this bread. He didn't come to just add himself to the old Jewish ways. He came to preach a new way. Go back to the way the Bible read it and leave that behind and follow him. And he says in verse 51, you stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you. Man, resistance is just part of the human nature.

Eh, I don't want to do it that way. It's Romans 8.7 again, isn't it? The carnal mind is enmity against God. We don't want to do it his way. Kind of want to just do it my way. And maybe we start off after baptism, yes, everything God's way, but then as time goes on, whatever, we find ourselves slinking back into old ways, letting things unsettle us, and we find ourselves resisting.

As you heard this morning, the message was, go forward. Don't look back. Don't go back to the way you were. Don't go back to Egypt. Don't go back to the old self. Don't go back to the old garments. Always look forward and continue marching in that way that God leads you. Not the new wine in old wineskins. Not the untrunk cloth on old garments. Not the new creation of 2 Corinthians 517 in the old man. It doesn't work. God is looking for everything to be of us. We must become the way He wants us to become, and desire that with all of our hearts, minds, and souls who become like Him. To become like Him. Him in us, and us in Him. Doing things from the heart, not just being able to recite the principles of the Bible, but actually doing the truth. Not just coming to Sabbath and saying, I'm okay, but understanding that that Sabbath is so important to God and how we keep it as a delight before Him. As part of our daily life. Not just something we do one day a week. So we have these things that God says, put on the new. And of course, you know, if you went through the Bible reading that we had on the homepage of UCG, you read those things in Colossians 3. Put off the old man that is this. Put on the new man that is this. Put off the work to the flesh of Galatians 5.19, and let God develop in you the fruits of the Spirit that are listed in Galatians 5.22 and 23. Put off the old. Throw it away. Put on the new. Take in the bread of life.

Eat to that bread of life. Always.

So that you become who God wants you to be. He tells us the new way is better.

The new way is better. The new way that God calls us to is continually going forward.

When Mr. Nance read to you this morning the lesson of Exodus 14 and what tradition says happened on this day with Israel crossing through the Red Sea, they were panicked.

What was their first reaction? Forget it. Just take us back. We'd just rather go back to Egypt. We don't like this new way. It's too scary. It's too many things we have to have faith in. Too many things we have to think about, and that will be us going forward as well, the trials that confront us. The mark of the beast when you read that. What would we do? Oh, you know what? It's just easier to go back to the old way.

No. That's what you're developing now, the ability and the strength and the faith and the trust in God to say, no. I'm going forward toward the kingdom of what God wants me to do, what he has called me for, and that I said, yes, I will follow you wherever you go and do whatever you do and serve you in whatever way you want to be served. That's what we said we would do. Not get kind of lay of the seed if I can use the term and think, ah, I'm good enough. I don't have to worry about that anymore. Yeah, we have to. The new is going forward. That's what Jesus Christ did. That's what the Pharisees, they wanted to hang on to the old. Let's just do it that way. We're not going to change.

He said, no. The new is better. If we go to the book of Hebrews, the book of Hebrews we see over and over. Hebrews is just a really interesting book to take some time and study through every verse of it and take the time to digest it, not just read through it, but to see what God is talking about as he bridges the sacrifices of old into the way of life that God has called us to now. But in the book of Hebrews, over and over and over again, it will talk about the new being better. Let's start off in Hebrews 1 and just look at a few of those things where God says the way of Christ is better than what we were than what was before.

Jesus Christ, you know, better. We see it here in a... let's just read through the first four verses here, since it's the whole... that's a whole sentence. God, verse 1, who at various times, in the various ways, spoke in time, passed to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by his Son, whom he has appointed heir of all things, through whom also he made the worlds, who, being the brightness of his glory and the expressed image of his person, meaning he is exactly like God. They are one. The same thing that God wants you and me to become just like them.

The express image of his person and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high, having become so much better than the angels. So much better. He gave up being God to become human. He's the forerunner, it tells us in Hebrews 6, I think it is. He set the way for us. We see how to get there. He did it by the power of God's Holy Spirit and complete trust in him. The same thing we can do, the same spirit God gives us if we let him, if we're cognizant of what we're doing. And Jesus Christ was focused on his mission his entire life. And that's what we need to be focused on what our mission is. Yes, we go about our daily jobs. Yes, we do them very well. Yes, we're honest. Yes, we're examples in the workplace, in our schools, in our neighborhoods, in our homeowners' associations, and all those things that we belong to. The people say there's something different about that person. That difference should be the garments we're wearing, the bread of life we're eating that they haven't been made aware of yet. But they see a difference and they like that, right? It says that in Galatians 5.23, all those fruits of the Spirit, the world likes them. They have no idea why you are that way, but they appreciate seeing that in people. But he's become so much better than the angels. He made himself lower than the angels, but then through their his life and his resurrection, better than the angels. You know what God has called us to?

If we follow through and endure to the end, it's better than the angels, if we can say that.

It's not angels. Every once in a while, I'll turn on something. It'll talk about an angel in heaven. This person died and they're an angel in heaven. I think, no, well, the real purpose of man is to, you know, first fruits, pride of Christ, but to be sons of God. That's better if we can do that. That's a better thing, God says. If we go to Hebrews 2, we are already in Hebrews. Hebrews 2, you know, David mused about that as he was out in the shepherd fields. Verse 6 recounts what he said. It says, What is man? What is man that you're mindful of him or the son of man that you take care of him? You've made him a little lower than the angels, but you crown him with glory and honor and set him over, you have crowned him with glory and honor and set him over the works of your hands. You put all things as subjection under his feet. You put man and gave him dominion over the earth, for in that he put all his subjection under him. He left nothing that is not put under him, but now we do not yet see all things put under him. It's a better calling that God has given us. The new is better than whatever our old life would produce, right? If we just go there, our old life was nothing. And if we never change and, you know, even if God didn't call us now in the second resurrection, eternal death. No matter what God has in mind for us, if we yield him, it's better than that. It's better than that. Hebrews 6.

In verse 1, it says, therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, those are those things that we when we first are being called, he says, where do we go?

We don't just stop there. Let us go on to perfection.

That's a new creation. That's that 2 Corinthians 5.17, that he has made in us a new creation, Christ in us, living in us as we take of the bread of life. And he says, don't lay again the foundation. Of course, we live a life of repentance because we all sin and we have to, you know, we need to repent and change and throw off that old garment and realize we had a stained garment that we were wearing that we needed to discard. Hebrews 7 verse 19. Start in verse 18.

Verse 18 says, for on the one hand there's an annulling of the former commandment because of its weakness and unprofitiveness, for the law, just physically keeping the law, made nothing perfect. On the other hand, there is the bringing in of a better hope, a better hope through which we draw near to God. A better hope, not just of a physical promised land, but the kingdom of God for eternity, bride of Christ. What created being ever had that hope put before him? Only man, only us. No other angels, none of the 24 elders, none of the four living creatures, none of the archangels, only us. A better hope is what he's called us to. If we remember that, if we focus on that, if we think on that and live our lives that way, going on in verse 22, continuing on from a sentence there that begins in verse 20, says, by so much more Jesus has become a surety of a better covenant. It's better than the old one. The new is better than the old. It requires something of us, require of us of us, Romans 12 verse 1, to become a living sacrifice, giving our entire mind, soul, and heart to God over the course of time. It doesn't happen immediately, but that's what the rest of our lives are. We continually yield to God, continually eat at that bread of life, continually ask Him, more of the Spirit, please, that I live more like you, that I please you more, more of the wisdom. So it's not my words that are being spoken, but your words are being spoken, so that I understand more of the mysteries that you have put in here, what you have called me to, the vision that I need to have to keep me going in the direction that you want me to go. It's a better hope, it's a better covenant, the new one, Hebrews 8 verse 6. But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry inasmuch as He is also mediator of a better covenant, which is established on better promises. The new is better. Why would you look back when the new is better? Don't put new wine in old wineskins. It doesn't work. Don't put new cloth on old garments. It doesn't work. Don't mix it. Come out of the world, is what Paul says. In 2 Corinthians 6, 14, come out of the world, leave it behind.

Keep your finger there in Hebrews 6. Let's turn back to 2 Corinthians 6.

I think it's always instructive to read these verses again.

Second Corinthians 6. Let's begin in verse 12. I think it's a very notable verse, as Paul is talking to a Corinthian church that has similar problems and lives in a similar time to what we do today. In verse 12, he says, you are not restricted by us. You know what Corinthians? It's not us who's holding back. You're restricted by your own affections. You're restricting yourself because you just won't let go of the old. You just will not let God show you what needs to be done and what you need to do and what you need to change in yourself. And that's a process. And we can ask God, you know, I'm always Psalm 139.23 when David said, you know, search my heart, O God, if there's any wicked way in me, because he definitely and he wanted to be completely the way God wanted him to be. He recognized his old self and thought on his old self, no, I was formed in iniquity. He says, I don't want any part of that. I see what I'm about. I want to be like you. Search me and let me know I'm ready to give it all up to put on the completely new garment. But anyway, you're not restricted by us. You're restricted by your own affections. You just won't let that go. And so when we drop down to, you know, verse 12, he talks about old and new. Don't be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. What fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? Can't mix the two. Got to be all one way. What communion has light with darkness? We're called to be light, just like Jesus Christ was the light of the world. What accord has Christ with a belial? None. And what part has a believer with an unbeliever? Doesn't mean we don't talk to them in the world, don't work with them in the world. Paul makes that very clear in 1 Corinthians 5, but he says, you know what? They, you know, believe. What agreement has the temple of God with idols?

Drop down to verse 17. Therefore, he says, come out, come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. And this verse, do not touch, and I might even put the adverb in there, do not even touch what is unclean. Come that far out of the world. Come that far out of it. Don't touch what is unclean, and I will receive you. And I'll be a father to you, and you'll be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty. Look to the better way. The new way, it's better. Can be easier to say. The old way was a little more comfortable. That's not the way you want to go if you stop and think about it. There's nothing back there. There's nothing back there to go to. That's of any worth whatsoever. The new way. Let's go. If you kept your finger there in Hebrews, let's do a couple more verses, and then we'll, I think, wrap it up in Hebrews as well. Hebrews 11. Faith chapter, you know, it says here, without faith, it's impossible to please God. We can keep the commandments all day long physically. If we don't have faith, it's nice that you did it, but you don't please God.

Without faith, it's impossible to please God. What was counted to Abraham for righteousness was, yes, he did keep all the commandments, but he had faith in God, and he did all those things because he trusted and believed in God and let God put in his mind how his life should be. Hebrews 11, talking about better, the better things. Hebrews 11, if we go down to verse 15, talking about those who have given their lives up, verse 13, they died in faith. They didn't receive the promises before they died. Verse 15, if and truly if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out of, they would have had opportunity to return. If you really, really, really want to go back to Egypt in your old life, God will let you. He's not forcing you to live this way of life. He wants you to, but if you choose, hey, I'd rather give it all up for the momentary pleasures of this life, you have the opportunity to do it. They would have had opportunity to return, he says, but now they desire a better, that is a heavenly country. Therefore, oh, there's the word better. That's what I was looking for. Now they desire a better, that is a heavenly country, better than anything this life has to offer. Better. Better. Verse 35, speaking of those who died, says, women received their dead, raised to life again. Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance that they might obtain a better resurrection. Is the first resurrection better than the second resurrection? Absolutely. The Bible says it. That's what he's given you and me and everyone he calls that opportunity to. Most of the world, the vast majority of the world who's ever lived, never had that opportunity, you and I do, to have that we might obtain a better resurrection by completely yielding ourselves to God. Hebrew, or not Hebrews, Romans 12, 1, right? Our body's a living sacrifice. Christ gave it all for us that it might be possible. We talked about that at Passover. We eat the bread of life during these days of unleavened bread and all through our lives. He gave it all for us and he just asks us, give me your heart, mind, and soul. Eat the bread of life and let me live in you and you live in me. You keep attached to that vine, as we heard this morning. You do that. That is what God has called us to. Let me just close here by reading some verses in Hebrews that I think are quite inspirational for us. Hebrews 10.

Excuse me. Hebrews 10. Let's start in verse 19. You know, we're all part of a body. We all pray for each other. We're not just a bunch of individual people passing in the night. You know, all over the world, God has called people. They are all our brothers and sisters. They are all part of the family that God has called. We pray for them. Just like we pray for the people in Haiti, all over the world, you know, who live in much more dire straits than you and I do. And sometimes that's a blessing to live in them because you can see the faith in them as they don't have like everything at their fingertips. And they do pray, thy kingdom come because they know it's better than the lives they have now. But in verse 19 it says, therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the holiness, the holiest, by the blood of Jesus. That's what we now have the opportunity to come before God day and night. He will be there to help. He will provide the strength we need. And of course, the Holy Spirit that we absolutely have to have.

The holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which He consecrated for us through the veil. That is His flesh. And having a high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water, a new creation. Let us hold fast the confession of our new and better hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works. Stir it up among each other, help each other to keep focused on what it is God has called us to. Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another and so much more as you see the day approaching. And certainly, as we look at the world around us today, we can see that day approaching. We don't know how far, but certainly closer, a lot closer than we might have thought four or five years ago. We move over to Hebrews 12, verse 1.

We, we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, all those who went before us, Jesus Christ who went before us and set the set away for us, that we know it's possible. We just follow Him. We just do things the way He did. He will be there to help us. He will be there to guide us. He will be there to lead us. We just look to Him. We, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, the sin, that old life which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. And He says in verse 3, consider Him. You know when life gets tough and you think this is a little hard? Consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls. Drop down into verse 12.

Verse 12, therefore, therefore strengthen the hands which hang down and the feeble knees. Make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed. Pursue peace with all people and holiness without which no one, no one will see the Lord. Looking carefully, lest anyone fall short of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up cause for trouble, and by this many become defiled. Many, by letting things upset them and get in the way because they lose sight of the new life, the better life, the better everything that God has called us to.

Verse 22, you, you and I, you have come to Mount Zion into the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God, the judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel. And a caution, all those things are better! That's what God has called us to, don't lose sight of it. Mr. Nance said, and I echo, as the days of unleavened bread end with sunset tonight, don't lose sight of the lessons. Don't forget about eating the bread of life daily. Don't forget about having Christ in you and putting him on, and putting on the clothing of humility, and not mixing the old with the new, but getting rid of the old more and more. And he says that in verse 25, see that you don't refuse him.

See that you don't refuse him who speaks. He's called us. He's called us to a tremendous, tremendous calling. Every single one of us is here, and every single one around the world.

Thank you. Thank you for inviting us here. I want to thank the Nances for hosting us here while here. It's been wonderful to meet all of you, and we haven't met any of you yet. Please come up and say hi. Our prayers will be with you. Our prayers and your prayers and all of ours are with each other. Thank you.