A Commitment in Meekness

But it was very nice, singing how compassionate and loving Christ is, and God is for us. And as we already are today on this first day of Unleavened Bread, how we remind ourselves that we only are because what Christ has done for us at the Passover, and now the next day we have a day in which we commit ourselves. It's very similar to baptism. You know, you think about it.

We're baptized, and the symbol of baptism is that we make a commitment to God. And these seven days of Unleavened Bread, in a way, are a commitment to God that we make as well. And it's interesting that Satan is the great deceiver. You just have to read Revelation 12, verse 9. And it says that he deceives the whole world. And the longer we start understanding the truth, and the longer we are in the church, we do get to comprehend more and more day by day that indeed he has deceived the whole world.

The whole world is deceived. But there's one falsification, let's call it that, that he doesn't falsify. I mean, he falsifies Passover with Easter, he falsifies the coming of Christ with Christmas, and all other things. But it doesn't falsify the days of Unleavened Bread, because they point to keeping God's law. And it is interesting that the day they left Egypt, the Israelites, was today, obviously at the beginning of the day, which in God's way of looking at is after sunset. If you turn with me to Numbers 33, verse 3. Numbers 33, verse 3. It's probably a scripture that is not looked at quite often, but it's so plain the way it puts it.

Numbers 33, verse 3. And it says, they departed from Rameses on the first month, or the fifteenth day of the first month, on the day after the Passover. So the Passover was on the fourteenth, and on the fifteenth, they departed from Rameses. That's the area where they started their journey, let's call it their track, to the Promised Land. So they left on that day with boldness in the sight of all the Egyptians. And so they were uplifted, they were encouraged. We are leaving Egypt. They were with boldness, which today is an anniversary thereof.

In fact, the day began last night with what we call the night to be much observed, which basically represents that initial departure. You, if you remembered, you probably saw it was a day of full moon, the moon shining in the sky, and as they departed on that day.

But I want to draw your attention to something interesting that again you might not have picked up, and that is in Exodus 12. In Exodus 12, that is the chapter where the Exodus leaving Egypt is actually described, actually the Passover initially, and then starting in verse 37. Verse 37 says, then the children of Israel journeyed from Ramesses. And we can see that Tysene with Numbers 33, they left Ramesses on the 15th day. And so it says they journeyed from Ramesses, and then it shows the very first stop that they had, which is Sukhov.

And there was 600,000 men. Now 600,000 men, there's a probably good guess there will be about 600,000 women as well, right? Fair enough. That is 1.2 million adults. Usually that's people say in adult age, whatever the age they counted. And then it says they left 600,000 men on foot besides children. Now assuming each family had two children, which is probably a conservative average to that age, right?

Then it means about another 1.2 million people. That brings 2.4 million people. And you read elsewhere that they left with them a mixed multitude. So people from other nations, Egyptians, that said, well, we want to go. However many, we're there. But just by the simple maths, we're looking at about 2.5 million people. Now the other day on TV, I was watching the news, and they were saying that there was about 1.5 million people displaced in Gaza. You've seen this terrible disaster that's happening there, and people have been displaced. And they said the minimum number of trucks, full load of food they need for them per day is those huge trucks that you've probably seen on TV, loaded of food, a minimum of 500 trucks a day just to keep them from starvation.

Now, we're talking about YAH, about twice that number of people that left Egypt, and God provided for them for 40 years. It is an amazing miracle. It is an amazing miracle. And talking about miracles, it may have been announced YAH lost Sabbath, maybe, but lost Sabbath, we had a huge miracle in Dallas. Avery McDonald's been for years suffering from terrible pains and handicapped, and over the last two months, one day she woke up, she couldn't walk. The pain was so big, she stopped walking.

They went to doctors everywhere they couldn't find anything. They even went to a specialist of scrambler. They went out with some technique. They went out for two weeks out there, and they came back, and the best she could do is move it to little toes. In absolute pain. She hadn't walked for two months.

That Sabbath, before Passover, she woke up. No pain, and she could walk. And you know, if you don't use a muscle for two months, there is what we call atrophy, right? And she just walked, no muscular atrophy. That was a miracle. Matthew, when he announced that he was in tears. That is a miracle. Now God is a God of miracles.

But as they left Egypt, nearly, or maybe three million people, they were provided with food. Oh, I know they complained, but they survived. They had food. I know they complained. They didn't have water, but they did end up having water. And you know, their shoes didn't even wear. Their shoes didn't even wear, walking for 40 years in the desert. God is a God of miracles. But the interesting thing, as you read, then, this is in verse 38, there was a mixed multitude that went with them, and flocks, and herds, and a great deal of livestock.

Now imagine, it wasn't just people. They were families. When you got at least two and a half million, there's bound to be somebody that was just about giving birth. Somebody that was pregnant. Somebody that had to walk very slowly. You have the sheep, etc. You've got to move slowly. You're not moving at the speed of an army. You know, you've got to move slowly with the weaker ones, and the ones that maybe were struggling with age, or whatever. They all went with the herds. And they had unleavened bread, as we know, because that was suddenly...

Now, the night before, they just had the Passover. Now they were told, get out. Three million people to get out. I know when we have a family of maybe twenty, or, you know, children, and cousins, etc., to get out of someplace, takes time. You don't get out just like this. Take time. And if you have to get three million people to get out, it did take fear one day, that portion of the day.

There is nothing. There is nothing to get three million people to move in an orderly fashion. So they left. But the interesting thing, Yezia, is... And then in verse 40, it says, Now the Sergion of the children of Israel, who lived in Egypt, and as we see in the Septuagint, that is, that they lived in the land of Canaan and Egypt, the Sergioning was 430 years. So there were a group of people that they so joined, they were pilgrims.

In other words, they were going around from one place to not only the children of Israel, but the fathers and that whole generation of generations of people. And it came to pass. Now note verse 41. At the end of the 430 years, on that very same day, if you notice that, on that very same day, it came to pass that all the armies of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt. They start sojourning when Abram was told to sojourn.

And that was on the same day, 430 years. If we tie that in with Galatians 3 verse 17, Galatians 3 verse 17, it says, Now I say this, that the law which was 430 years later, what law? Obviously it's the ceremonial law, because you can read that in verse 19. What purpose does the law serve? In other words, the ceremonial law. It was added, the ceremonial law was added, because of transgressions.

How can you transgress unless there is a law? So it was added, because they transgressed the law of God. Alright? Till the seed, which is Christ, should come to whom the promise was made. So, going back to verse 17, in this I say that the law, the ceremonial law, in other words, the sacrifices and all that, were added 430 years later. Later than what? Then the covenant, the promise, originally just the promise, leave the land, I will make you a great nation and you seed. That promise, that commitment was made to Abraham on the first day of 11 bread. That's quite significant, because we read in Exodus, on the same day they left, 430 years later.

And we can see that that's 430 years when the law was added, which was later after the day of Pentecost, but it was 430 years after. That's when the covenant was made, and the covenant was made with Abraham. And it says, which was confirmed by God in Christ. And the promise, you know, was made to Abraham and to his seed, which is Christ. So the promise was made to Abraham through Christ, and it's confirmed by what Christ did for us. So it's firm. But the interesting thing, brethren, is that this commitment, this promise was made on the first day of 11 bread.

So last night we had a night to be much observed, of which we celebrate our coming out of spiritual Egypt, which basically means for us celebrating when we were called our calling. But it also celebrates when they left Egypt, but it also celebrates when the promise was first given to Abraham. And which means that we are going to co-inherit that promise because we are Abraham's seed. You read in Galatians chapter 3 verse 29, if you are Christ, then you are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. Now, how can you and I be children of Abraham?

Well, because Christ is genetically speaking. Obviously, he pre-existed before, but when he became a human being, he was of David, which came from Abraham, right? So he was of that physical genealogy from Abraham. And the promise was made to Christ, Abraham's seed. Obviously, Christ was pre-existent. We know in John 1, he became flesh, but then he became a human being from the physical mother that came from Abraham, but the son of the father, which is in heaven. But Christ always existed.

So miraculously, he became a human being. So because we are baptized into Christ, we are baptized into Christ. Now, quite a lot of people don't understand the significance of being baptized into Christ. And they confuse that with being baptized in Jesus Christ's name. We need to understand it's two different things. Being baptized in Jesus Christ's name is being baptized by his authority. Being baptized into Christ, that means we are put into Christ's spiritual body, which is the church of God, which is held in the name of the Father, because the whole family is part of God's family and is kept in the Father's name.

And so we are baptized into the family of God when we receive God's early spirit, and we are to be changed to spirit beings as true, complete children of God at Christ's coming, which is at a resurrection, or if we're still alive, we'll be changed to spirit beings. But getting back to the point is we are Christ's children, or rather, we are Christ's. We are of his family, not Christ's children, but we are his family. I'll be your partner. I'm a spoke thing.

So we are Abram's seed. We are Christ's. We are grafted. You know the story about the wild olive grafted into the good olive. So we grafted into that family. Now, if you read Romans 8, verse 16 and 17, Romans 8, verse 16 and 17, Romans 8, verse 16 and 17, it says, the Spirit itself is witnessed with our spirit, and we are the children of God. It was God's spirit when we received God's Holy Spirit after baptism through the laying on our vans, we received God's Holy Spirit, we now are begotten children of God, not yet born again.

We'll be born again when we'll resurrect and become spirit beings. But in verse 17 it says, and if children then heirs, heirs of God, we're going to inherit the heirs, or members of the God family, and joint heirs with Christ. In other words, joint co-inheritors with Christ. And it says, if we indeed we suffer with Him, then we may also be glorified together. We are co-heirs with Christ for a promise, for a promise of a very special promised land, which is the kingdom of God, in that when we'll be changed to spirit beings, we'll be in a glorified state.

That's what it says. And we may also be glorified together with Christ. And so one of the very important reasons, as we celebrate the dies of Unleavened Bread, we are making a commitment to obey God. Because it's in a sense, the beginning of the days of Unleavened Bread is when that promise is made to us, but like on any promise, there's two sides to the promise. I'll promise I'll give you, but you do the following.

It's like any contract. You know, I will do this, but you do that. Like you buy a house. Okay, the bank says I'll give you X amount of dollars on the condition that you do something every month and pay him back the bank. You know, there's a duality now when there's a commitment. And so God sent His Son, gave His life for us, opened up the way for God's plan of salvation, which has got seven steps. And the first one is the days of Unleavened Bread.

Right? First day of Unleavened Bread and the last. So it's got different steps, and it represents us making a commitment to obey God so that we may be partakers of that covenant. And indeed, that's what we do at baptism. At baptism, we do a new covenant between you and God, between us and God. We commit to God that will obey Him. And then, as we commit, He gives us His Spirit. You see, this is a complete analogy to what happened to the Israelites.

The Israelites came out of Egypt. They should have made a commitment. In fact, they said, well, we'll do, yeah, we'll do all this. But they didn't. But they said, yeah, we'll do all this. And even God said in Deuteronomy 5, He says, how I wish that you would actually do what you promise. Because He knew it was a commitment made by carnal people and people that are carnal. And I don't mean anyway disrespectful, because even Paul himself says in Romans 7, he says, I am the Lord, spiritual, but I'm carnal. So Paul said, He's carnal. I mean, I can say we're all carnal, but we have to be overcoming that. But those Israelites were even more carnal because they really did not obey God.

If we turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 10, verse 12 and 13, we see that as we make this commitment, we've got to be careful that we don't think, oh, I'm doing good, Jack. I'm okay. I'm really making my commitment. And we've got to be careful because it says, if you think you stand, be careful. And it says, no temptation has overtaken you as it's common to man, but God is faithful. We've got to remember that God is faithful. God never leaves us. God is always with us. He'll never leave us.

And which God being is always with us. It's the Son of God, Christ, is with us. Just like the one that followed them or was with them when they left Egypt was Christ. Oh, where do I get that? In that very same chapter. In that very same chapter. If you read verse 4, because it's talking about they were all baptized into Moses, and they all, verse 3, they all drank of the same spiritual food, and verse 4, they all drank of the same spiritual drink. And for they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ. Christ was with them. The God being that was with them that spoke to them.

Everything was created through him was Christ. And the Father delegated this responsibility to the Son.

But then God was not happy with them. And he says, you know, they did various wrong things. And then look at verse 9, for instance, Let us not tempt Christ, as some of them, that's the Israelites as they left Egypt, also tempted Christ. And we're destroyed by serpents. You see, God is faithful. He says, I will never leave you or forsake you. And that's why it says here in verse 13, God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able. In other words, God will not allow your test to destroy you.

At times, you may feel that it's really very close to destroying you and I.

Even Christ at the cross says, God, why have you forsaken me? One of the possible reasons he could have said that is that he was a fully human being with full human emotions like you and I have. And he may have crossed through his mind at that moment as a full human being, an emotion like you and I as full human beings feel. Sometimes when we are sick and we can say, why are you not healing me?

But God promises he will heal us. It doesn't say when.

Like in the case of Avery Macdonald, you know, two months ago, we prayed and prayed and prayed and it appeared God was not healing yet. But maybe he needed two months for the miracle to come so that nobody would say, oh well, that was just an accident. She just wasn't well for a day or two and then she was fine. That proved it was a miracle and proved because there was no muscular trophy, you know, the deterioration of the muscles. It just walked like that. That's a miracle. God is the God of miracles.

At the time that he decides to do it.

But what it says here, it doesn't say that he will remove the temptation. It doesn't say you will remove the trial. It says that he provide a way of escape that you may be able to bear it. So it doesn't say you remove the difficulty. He can if he wants to, according to his will.

But he will help you. The promise is that he will help you through it. That is the promise. And so, as we look at these days of uneven bread, one of the things that we need to remember is the time of commitment. That we commit to absolute trust God to have faith, because faith is trust. In fact, more than trust, because it's trust on someone that you can't see. So it's faith. And so, we have to be absolutely committed.

But think about a second, let's call, reason why the days of the 11 bread.

Because, I should have mentioned earlier, I want to look at three reasons why we believe and have value from the days of the 11 bread. One of them is, are we going to commit? Seven means complete, complete commitment to obey God, to trust Him, regardless. To go forwards in courage, in full courage, to not give up. I have encountered, regrettably, even some recently, that just lost the zeal and said, It's too much, I'm just going to give up. And it is said, it is said, I pray for them, I try and keep in contact with them. As a lost sheep, you know, you go after that one that is lost. But on the other, at times, it appears that a lost sheep does not want to be searched. Because, hey, leave me alone, don't bother me, type of thing, you know. But if you don't do your part, then they turn around later on and say, Well, nobody came and talked to me. So we gotta, it's kind of an equilibrium, but we gotta show compassion and love towards them, but not in a way that they don't feel smothered. Because it's got to come from them, but they gotta feel cared. So, a commitment is important, but there's a second thing that is very important from the days of the Living Bread.

And I want to look at the example of Christ first. And that is in Philippians 2, verse 2 and 3. Philippians 2, verse 2 and 3. Because in Philippians 2, verse 2 and 3, we read, There's a lot here in this verse. But one of the biggest problems that we have is thinking of ourselves more than what we should think. I am so clever, I'm so smart, I know the way, kind of a self-assurance, which is pride. And that, quite often, is the cause of a lot of division. You think about it. And the ones that are more susceptible to it are, in fact, the leaders. Because you can get what we call a big head. You know, everybody shows me respect and this and that and that, you know. And then that head gets big, gets swollen, gets puffed up, gets livened.

And what it says here, we've got to be like-minded of the same love of one accord of one mind. Let nothing be done through selfish ambition, me, myself and I, but in lowliness of mind, which is humility. And meekness. Meekness means somebody that is malleable, willing to be guided and taught by others.

But if you've got a big head, you're not going to be taught by others, because I know it all. You're not going to teach me anything. So, but it says of like mind. Whose like mind is that? It's Christ, because you read in verse 1. It's talking about Christ. And then you read in verse 5, Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. So Christ's mind was one of humility. How do we see that? Look at verse 6. Who being in the form of God.

Christ, before He was a human being, He was of the God-kind. He was of the God-kingdom. He was a God-being of the God-kind, of the form of God. The not considered robbery to be equal with the Father, with God.

Now people say, whoa, whoa, whoa, but now there's only one God. Yes, there is only one God, because God is a family.

So there's only one God-family. We read that even in Hebrews, for instance, it says, The Father said to the Son, We read that in Hebrews, let me just turn to it, so I quoted correctly, in Hebrews, let me just get it, Hebrews chapter, chapter 1, verse 8, To the Son he says, Your throne, O God.

The Father says to the Son, Your throne, O God.

And in verse 9, He says, Therefore God, Your God has anointed you.

But just focusing on the Father, He says, Your throne, O God. And in verse 9, He says, Therefore God, Your God has anointed you.

And in verse 9, He says, The Father is speaking to the Son and saying, Your throne, O God.

And you read in verse 2 of chapter 1, and it says, He says, All things, He says, Yeah, the Son is the appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the walls. God made the walls through Jesus Christ. He delegated to Christ to the creation. And there are many other verses that say something, but going back to Philippians chapter 2, we're talking about the humility of Christ.

What is that? That He, being, as it says, Yeah, in the form of God, do not consider robbery to be equal of God. And what do you mean robbery to be equal of God? Well, let me give you a simple example that makes sense to you.

If I went to your bank, where you are banking, I'm not saying your bank that belongs to you, but where you bank where you've got your money, and I went there and I say, I am so-and-so, and put your name in there, that would be robbery. That would be identity theft.

But Christ says here, do not consider robbery to be equal of God. It's like He had a checkbook and He could find us God. That was not identity theft.

You see, because there are two different beings, but they are one in mind, in spirit, in purpose. That's why Christ, on the night He was betrayed, after changing the symbols, in John 17, on His prayer, He says, I pray that they may be one, like you and I, Father, are one. You read that during the Passover. Then we may be one, then we may be one in unity, because He and the Father are one, just like we need to be one. How? In unity.

And so, one of the points here is that Christ was humble. He left God-kind, being of the God-kind. He became of humankind. That's why He says, being in the form of God, do not consider robbery to be equal to God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a servant and coming in the likeness of man. You know what? So He left the God-kind, and He became mankind. Voluntarily. Now, the best analogy that my mind can understand is, imagine that you had the power to create an ant. A little ant. Now, you can try and draw one, and it probably looks pretty bad, but try and make one and make it live. And now you say, I'm going to stop being a human being, and I'm going to become an ant.

Wow! You wouldn't want to do that, would you? In analogy, I know it's a bad analogy or a poor analogy, but Christ, being of the God-kind, emptied Himself voluntarily, became of the humankind. And not only that, but you were subject to die like an ant. Somebody just squashed it, and that's it.

Christ did it voluntarily for you and I. One of the beginning points of true Christianity is humility.

You look at the Beatitudes in Matthew 5. Starting in verse 3, the first beatitude is humility. On top of it, you got mourn, which is basically your mourn for what you've done, what you are, in other words, you repent. And then you have meekness or teachability, which is an extension of humility, but it's being malleable. And then you seek for God's righteous, not your own self-righteousness, but God's righteous. So the beginning point of true Christianity is humility. That's what it says here in Philippians 2, verse 5. Let this mind be in you, which was in Christ Jesus, that being in a form of God was not a robbery to be equal with God. He humbled Himself, not only to become a human being, but to die for us. That's humility.

And that's the thing we've got to watch ourselves, humility.

You see, the biggest enemy of humility is exactly what it says here, right? Which is selfish ambition, being conceited, being big-headed, being proud, being arrogant. And so humility is like unleavened bread, which is flat. It's not puffed up. The spiritual meaning and intent of us having unleavened bread is to remind us that we must not be puffed up. So we should really consider the days of unleavened bread from the point of view of not being puffed up. So the first point that I mentioned to you is that we've got to make a commitment. And second is we've got to be humble and meek. Now, what is the biggest test of humility?

What is it that in you and I is like a great evil, like fire? It's this little member between your lips and my lips called the tongue. You read that in James. The tongue is like fire because with it you can bless and with it you can curse. And then you read a little bit further in James chapter 3 and says, But work on having the meekness of wisdom. Turn with me to James chapter 3. James chapter 3.

You see there he talks about the tongue, how it's a fire. But in verse 13, 1-3, James chapter 3 verse 13, Who is wise and understanding among you, let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom.

This is a profound little phrase, meekness of wisdom. You really, I meditate quite often on it, and I encourage all of us to meditate on it quite often. Meekness of wisdom. In other words, wisdom that comes in with a certain degree of meekness. And meekness is nothing else than humility and teachability. In other words, being malleable. I don't know if you ever played with clay. I'm sure you have. It's malleable. You can shape it. But if that clay gets brittle, hard, you can't shape it.

The analogy to us, spiritually speaking, is that when our minds become hard, conceited, we are not malleable in God's hands. Because God is the Master Potter, and He's shaping us to His image. And you and I need to be humble and meek and malleable and not proud. And that's why, in chapter 4, as you read chapter 4, it says, Why are there fights and wars and wars and fights among you? Now, brethren, James is talking to the Church of God. He's not talking to the world, and why are there fights between Israel and Gaza? It's talking about between members of the Church. Why are there quibbles and fights?

Because we think about it, because we don't control this little thing between our lips. It's because we've got a carnal mind. That's why it says, the Spirit which dwells in us yearns jealousy. The Spirit of man in man, without being molded by God's Spirit, jealous, wants self.

There's a carnality in us. That's what we are, and that's what we've got to repent all the time, repent of what we are. And that's why it says, in verse 7 of James chapter 4, submit to God. And then later on, draw near to God, and cleanse your hands, purify your hearts, lament and mourn and weep.

You see, because it says, God resists the proud. You read that in verse 6, but gives grace to the humble. We have to be humble. We have to be meek and teachable. And so one of the reasons of Unleavened Bread is to help us to understand that we're going to make a commitment. And the second reason is we're going to make a commitment to be teachable, meek, malleable before God, submitting to God. That is the same mindset as Christ has. And then the third reason is that we need to be one. One. By Christ and the Father are one. I made a reference a moment ago to John 17. But let's now look at John 17. John 17 verse 20. John 17 verse 20. I think of John 17, John 17's prayer. I think of it like Christ's lost will. You know what a lost will is? You have a will and then... It's Christ's lost will in a sense. Just the way I look at it, you know, as an analogy. That Christ's, in a sense, lost public prayer. I mean, yes, we know he prayed afterwards privately three times. We know that when he went to the garden of Gethsemane. But Yah is in a public statement for us to see Christ's prayer. And the first he says, look, I've done the job. I've completed it. I've fulfilled my duty. And then he says, Father, you read that in verse 5 of John 17. Glorify me with you yourself, with the glory which I had with you before the world was. It's such a clear statement. That clearly states that Christ was with the Father before the worlds were created. And he had a glory with the Father. They were together. They were two separate independent beings.

And then he says, you know, that keep them together. But look at verse 20 in John 17. I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who receive, who believe in me through their word. In other words, I'm not just praying for these apostles that are now Yah, but I'm praying for the brethren Yah in Lawton and the brethren maybe in Dallas, wherever they are, wherever you are, wherever the brethren are, the brethren in South America, in Chile, in Brazil, in Germany, in South Africa, whatever the brethren maybe, I'm praying for all of them. And then he says, because they'll believe it through the word of the apostles, which is Yah in the Bible, in the New Testament. We have the apostles of Paul and others that give us that word that we can believe. But Yah is His will. And it's building up, it's a building up statement of what His will is. Because He says that they may be one as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they may be one in us, that the world may believe that you sent me. Now, what is this unity? Because for them to be one, and it's very clear, and the glory which you gave me, I've given them, that they may be one just as we are one. So it's a unity. And I in them and you in me, that they may be perfect in one, that the world may know that you've sent me. Now, clearly unity and being one in unity is the goal. But what binds us as one? What is the glue that binds us as one? Have you thought about that? Keep your finger there in John 17, because we're going to come back to it. But I just want to look at a scripture, yeah, in Colossians chapter 3.

In Colossians chapter 3. And in Colossians chapter 3 says, seek the things above, be like Christ, let your mind be on the things of God like Christ, put to death your old man, put on the new man, take away wrath, be in the image of God, be like God is. But what is God? God is in one word. God is love.

What great a love is a man for another man to die for him. Well, that's what Christ did. You look at the foot washing, he says, just what I've done, do the same thing for others. It's love. Christ and the Father loved us. You read, he says, the Father so loved us that sent his only begotten son. It's love.

What binds them together? Love. Absolute trust in one another, which is love. And so it's talking in Colossians chapter 3, put on mercies, verse 12, kindness, humility, meekness, long suffering, bearing with one another, forgiving one another. Now read verse 14, and it says, but above all these things, put on love, which is the bond of perfection. It's the glue. It's the bond. It's the super glue, let's call it that way, of perfection, of unity. And so when we go back here to John 17, where a moment ago, and we were reading in verse 23, I and them and you and me, that they may be perfect in one.

The bond of perfection, of being one, is love. That's why it says that all may know that you've sent me and I and we have loved them as you have loved me. So what his lost will, Christ's lost will, as he's building it up for us to be one, like the Father and the Son are one, and it doesn't mean for us to be one, that we stop being different human beings and we just become one big blob. No, we continue being human beings, but we love one another. And so that unity is love. And that's why it says, and we have loved them and you have loved me for a desire that they also, whom you gave me, may be made with me, may be with me where I am. And it says, my glory, which you've given me for you loved me before the foundation of the world. And look at verse 26, and I have declared to them your name, and I'll declare it, that the love in which you loved me may be in them and I in them.

The bond of perfection is love. So, brethren, as we think of the dies of 11 bread, there are three important reasons that I'm leaving with you. They're not only ones. I'm sure there are others. But I want you to think about one is a commitment. It's a commitment to absolutely trust God, to have faith, to obey Him, to be without sin, to be de-leavened completely. Two is to have the same mind of humility that Christ had, which is de-leavened, which is not proud, which is humble, which is meek, which is teachable. And thirdly, is that we need to be one with Christ and God, with Christ living in us as the bread of life, that we have the same mindset of outgoing concern of godly love. Brethren, as we move on to the next few days, as we keep the Feast of 11 Bread, let's keep in mind that in the end, the goal is that we become like God, committed to His way, meek and teachable and humble, and that we become one with them in genuine godly love.