How Are You Doing with the Passover Covenant God Has Made with You?

Passover evening, Thursday, April 2nd. There's only a few more Sabbath left before we have the Passover service. I've not yet got the location for us. I'm hoping for it to be here. I'll do that this coming week. But, brethren, we want to take a look at something. I was asking God in my prayers to inspire what it is I should be discussing with you prior to Passover this year. And over the course of time, something came to mind that I believe He wants us to look at. I want to ask you a question today. The question is very simple. How are you doing with the Passover covenant God's made with you? How are you doing with the Passover covenant God has made with you? Now, you're not going to find anywhere in the Scriptures where it talks about a Passover covenant quote-unquote. But many times we'll talk about Romans 6 being a baptismal covenant chapter. And certainly, you and I have made a covenant with God at our baptism. And we want to examine that today. We know how well God has done with His end of the covenant, but how well have we done with our end of the covenant? Let's take a look at some of the writings of Paul here. Let's begin with 1 Corinthians 11.

1 Corinthians 11. And verse 28. 1 Corinthians 11. But let a man examine himself, or let a woman examine herself, and so let them eat of the bread and drink of the cup.

Part of the reason we do this is so that we can eat and drink properly of the symbols of the Passover. We don't examine ourselves so that we say, well, I'm not going to come. We examine ourselves to make sure we appreciate fully our need, our deep need, for the Passover service. Now, this year I'll be over in Ann Arbor for the Passover. You'll have Mr. McGuire here with you to take the Passover with you.

But we want to examine ourselves this Passover season. And then, as it says, and then, let us come to the service, and let us eat and drink. We go over to the next book, 2 Corinthians 13. 2 Corinthians 13 and verse 5. Where it says, examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Wow! There's a statement for us.

You know, Paul had his hands full with a church there in Corinth. None of them walked on water. There was all sorts of issues with that particular church. And yet, they were still the church of God. Which tells us a lot that we don't have to walk on water to be God's church. Examine yourself as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourself. Test yourself. Do you not know yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you? Unless, indeed, you are disqualified.

So here in 1 Corinthians, the Apostle Paul says, we need to examine ourselves. Are we even in the faith? So today, brother, we want to examine ourselves in the light of the Passover covenant that we have made with God. That we have made with Jesus Christ. Now, perhaps a good place for me to start is what exactly is a covenant. And as we go through a definition of what a covenant is, we're going to see some elements for us to examine as we go through the balance of the sermon today. The definition I want to give you is found in our booklet, The New Covenant Does It Abolish God's Law? You certainly can go online and read that for yourself. It's an excellent booklet. But I want to quote here, says, inherent in any covenant is a concept of a lasting commitment to a clearly defined relationship. So this is something that you and I, if you want to write down notes, if you want to think about preparing properly for the Passover, do you and I have a lasting commitment with a clearly defined relationship with God? Generally speaking, going back to the definition, generally speaking, a covenant is a long-term agreement between two or more parties that formalizes a binding relationship, a binding relationship between them. It defines their essential obligations and commitments to each other. For a moment, we're going to see where God fulfills his commitments. He is very faithful on his end to God and Jesus Christ on their end of the covenant. Continue on in the quotation from our booklet, rituals and divine covenants serve primarily as symbolic reminders and are intentionally given only as a figurative value. The real value is the substance of the commitment. The real value is the substance of the commitment you made to God when you were baptized. The greatest vow you ever make. We have our marriage vows. The greater than that is the vow we make to God when we are baptized. Going on, it says, In a divine covenant, God defines the basic obligations that he imposes on himself and usually on the other participants. Thus, a dominant feature of a covenant is a list of blessings that God promises to give to those who honor their covenant commitments. You and I have been showered with tremendous blessings by God the Father and Jesus Christ. Let's take a look at some of those. Let's take a look just for a moment. We're not going to spend a long time on this. Let's take a look at God and Christ pass over covenant with us from their perspective, on their end of the deal. Firstly, we see that we have been justified.

We have been justified through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. That means we have right standing before God. Justification is one of those religious-sounding terms. All it means is that we've got right standing before God. We've got right standing before God because our sins have been forgiven. That's one of the great blessings that we have from God. Another great blessing is that we've been sanctified. Again, that's one of those religious-sounding words. To be sanctified means we have right living. We're living properly before God. The reason we're living properly before God is because God has opened our hearts and our minds to help us understand what weighs up, spiritually speaking. How should we be living? What does God require of us? God has been very good to all of us, to each and every one of us, to show us and to put our feet on the right path. We've been blessed. Another part of the blessing from their end of the covenant is that God has given us His Holy Spirit. His Holy Spirit, the beginning spark of eternal life. You're going to live for all eternity. Hopefully I will live for all eternity, all of us in this room, hopefully, looking at us from a very positive perspective. But it all started back in a day when you were baptized. When you were baptized, and when I baptized somebody, we put the person down into the water, we completely immersed them, we come on up out of the water, and I'll put my hands on the individual's head, I'll ask for God to give that person His Holy Spirit. That happened to most of you in this room. And when I'm doing it, I also say, Father, please at this point write their name in your book of life. What does it mean, brother? How much does it mean to you to know that your name is now in a very important book, the book of life? If you were to die right now of a heart attack sitting in your chair, if I were to come right here standing up in front of you to a heart attack and die, my name's in that book, your name's in that book. As long as our name's in that book, by the time we die, we're going to be in that resurrection. God is faithful in that. We can rely upon that.

Another great blessing that God and Jesus Christ have given to us as a part of the Passover covenant is they have placed us in the body of Christ. You and I don't join a church. I mean, we can walk through these doors here, but we don't join anything when it comes to God's church. If you want to be a part of the true church of God, God Himself has got to put you into the church.

And you're only in the church if you've got God's Holy Spirit. And you only have God's Holy Spirit, as it says in Acts 5, verse 32, God gives His Spirit to those who obey Him. Don't have the Spirit? Not a Christian. It's as simple as that. We can sit here all day long, but if we don't have the Spirit of God, we're not a Christian. But again, most of you have been baptized in the room. The rest of us, I hope at one point, will get baptized. And God will place you as well, into the church. And lastly, and this is not an exhaustive list by any means, I'm sure that you can add many other things. I just wanted to hit some of the highlights. One of the other greatest benefits we have in terms of our Passover covenant is the fact that you and I have been given an opportunity to be a part of God's work. Brother, when you see what's happening around the world, and we've got little ones in the room here, so I can't go through in detail or any sort of a colorful way what's happening. Your stomach couldn't stand it anyway. But when you see what's happening around the world with the terrorists, what you see almost every night on the news, you realize, I realize, we live in a very sick world. We live in a very, very sick world. But you, you more than all these people out here, you know, we live today over in Ann Arbor. You mentioned about where we meet here in Detroit. I said, you know, I talked about the nice big glass wall, the wooded area outside, how beautiful it is, how pretty much none of us in this room can afford to live here in this area. But look how gorgeous it is. And yet, we live in a very ugly world. And yet, you have an opportunity to make a difference. If you and I are doing what we're called to do, and we get the gospel message out, Christ said, once the gospel message out is out, He will return. And all the suffering we see can come to an end. So you and I have a very much of a part of that. So, brethren, that's God's, a portion of God and Christ's end of the covenant. You know, the Passover covenant with us, the blessings that they have delivered and continue to deliver to us. But the question again is, how about us? How about our end of the covenant? How are we doing? We're in the process of examining ourselves. Let's take a look at Galatians chapter 3. Galatians chapter 3.

And verse 27, Galatians 3, 27. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ, you were baptized. You went into a special covenant with Christ.

You have put on Christ. You have put on Christ. And the idea here is, just as you have put on a jacket, you have put on an article of clothing, we want to be viewed as Jesus Christ, because we have put Him on.

Brethren, discipleship is not just a matter of bending your will or my will to Jesus' will.

It's as if you and I took our hearts, our minds, and we melted them down. And we melted them into a whole new shape that was configured like Jesus Christ.

Discipleship is not someone who simply sets a new priority. Discipleship is a brand new identity.

We've got people who go on the witness protection program. They're given a new name. They're given a new place to live. They're given a new occupation. They're given all sorts of new things so they can start a life anew.

Well, in the Scriptures, it talks about how we are new in Jesus Christ, or how our minds need to be renewed.

How everything we think should now be in conformity with what God would have us think.

Now, there's one Scripture in particular that I feel is a Hallmark Scripture that I want to go through today, and take a look at the beauty of the various facets there in this Scripture. We're talking about how are we doing with our Passover covenant with God.

There's one Scripture I've made mention of the Scripture on numerous occasions, but I don't think we've ever gone through it in great detail. Today I want to do that. The Scripture is over here in Ephesians 4 and verse 13.

Ephesians 4 and verse 13. Let's take a look at this. Let's read this.

Ephesians 4 and verse 13. Until we all come into the unity of the faith, of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

Now, brethren, when I take a look at that Scripture, I'm sure we probably can parse that in a number of different ways. You might divide the Scripture up a little differently than I would. Though I look at that Scripture, I see three main areas for us to consider.

Number one, the unity of the faith. Part of our covenant, Passover covenant with God is that we need to be unified in the faith and of the faith. Secondly, it says here, the knowledge of the Son of God.

If we are to fully keep our end, the Passover covenant, we need to be growing in the knowledge of the Son of God. And I'm not just talking about technical, academic knowledge. I'm talking about how we know Jesus Christ. How because of our knowledge of Him, our intimate knowledge of Him as a friend, that we move through life asking ourselves at all times, what would Jesus Christ do? Well, how would He handle this? And we look into very Scriptures as to case studies as to how He thinks, how He would handle this opportunity or that opportunity. He is not only our Savior, but in many ways, He is our hero. We look to Him. He is our example. And we want to have, you know, we can't, we should have the mindset that we can't get enough of reading about Jesus Christ.

And thirdly there, it says, To a perfect man or a mature man or woman, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. Now, that last section really speaks to maturity. If we want to properly keep the Passover covenant that God has made with us, we want to be growing into spiritual, mature men and women in the faith.

Now, I'm sure I can give several sermons on this same topic. Today I just wanted to choose this one scripture and highlight this one scripture. Again, this is not an exhaustive concept at all. But let's begin with part one here. Unity of the faith. Unity in the faith. Our part in the Passover covenant. You know, on Passover evening, as you're well aware, those of you who've been going year after year after year, the Passover ceremony basically is divided into three portions. We've got the foot washing portion, we've got the bread portion, we've got the wine portion. And bread, as you think about that, in terms of unity, all three of those picture our unity with God the Father and Jesus Christ.

Foot washing, for example. We tend to think about foot washing in terms of our relationship with our fellow men, and that's good. We need to do that. We need to be able to sit down or kneel down and wash various people's feet. And not just people in the church here.

Jesus Christ washed Judas' feet. Somebody that was about to betray him to be tortured, horribly tortured. None of the men, the Jesus Christ, the feet he washed, none of those men were converted. Technically, none of them were in the church.

And yet Jesus Christ was willing to kneel down and do that for them. Now, you probably can think about people in your life right now, in your mind's eye, who have been hard on you, harsh on you, indifferent towards you, unloving towards you, and it'd be very hard to wash their feet. But that's the whole point, isn't it? The whole point is we want to think like Jesus. We want to be like him. We want to be able to go to anybody and wash their feet. We want to be unified with Jesus Christ. And the same thing is true in terms of our humble approach toward God the Father.

Remember, our whole idea is where we've got a new identity. We've got a whole new way of thinking. We've got to get rid of the way Randy thinks, or you put your name in the blank there. We can't think, you know, I've got this against this person, or what have you. We've got to be thinking, you know, Christ wouldn't think that way. Christ wouldn't hold a grudge. Christ wouldn't give people the cold shoulder. Christ would work with people. You know, Christ wasn't a doormat. He would work with people. But, you know, he wouldn't just deny them, I'm going to deny them my being. I'm just not going to be with them. I won't talk with them. I'll kind of freeze them out. No, Christ didn't do that.

The bread portion of the ceremony, obviously the bread represents the body of Jesus Christ. And, you know, as you're sitting there, I pass over the evening, and you're given that little piece of bread that comes on a tray, and you take that little piece of bread, and you say your prayer over that, and you put that in your mouth, and you start crunching that in your mouth. It represents the fact that Jesus Christ was tortured on your behalf, so your sins could be forgiven. But the bread also represents the body of Christ, the Church of Christ, and how we need to be at one and unified with our brothers and sisters in Christ. Of course, you've got the wine portion, the last portion of the ceremony, which pictures the blood of Jesus Christ, the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus Christ. But he did that for what reason? Because of his love for God, because of his love for a fellow man. He wanted to fulfill the plan that God has, and he wanted to make sure that we made it into the Kingdom of God. 1 John 1 1 John 1 1 John 1 3 That which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us, fellowship with our members in the faith, but notice, and truly our fellowship was with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. So there's an interesting idea here in this particular verse, brother. The implication here in this verse is that if I have a close relationship with God the Father and Jesus Christ, and you have a close relationship with God the Father and Jesus Christ, and it really is just that, if everybody in this room has a close relationship with God the Father and Jesus Christ, then why can't we have a close relationship with one another? Now, I know, brethren, we don't. I know that in our church culture we have got more schisms and more divisions that I can count. I know that God looks upon that, I believe God looks upon that, and it brings sorrow to his heart to know that his children cannot come to the same table and eat together. You and I can't do anything about the church of God culture. We can't even do anything about the Detroit church culture. But we can do something about our individual relationship with God. We can do what it says here in 1 John 1.3, and have that fellowship with the Father and Jesus Christ, and allow that fellowship to internally change the way you and I look at life, our perspective, how we handle adversity, and so forth. 1 Corinthians chapter 1 and verse 9. 1 Corinthians chapter 1 and verse 9. God is faithful. Of course, he's faithful. God is faithful by whom we were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. When you were called, and I was called out of the world, you were called into a fellowship with God the Father and Jesus Christ. There is unity that we were called into. As a matter of fact, I didn't turn to this over in Ann Arbor I was thinking about. Let's turn over to Ann Arbor. Turn over to Ephesians chapter 4. Ephesians chapter 4, verse 1. I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, Paul wrote this in jail. I, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called. That's one of the essence of the things we want to talk about today, brethren, our Passover covenant. Are we walking worthy of the calling with which we were called? Verse 2. With all lowliness and gentleness, with all long suffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit.

When you and I were baptized into the body of Christ, we were not baptized into the United Church of God. Most of us who were baptized were baptized in a former association. That didn't count either. We weren't baptized into that. We were baptized into the body of Jesus Christ. Not into the worldwide Church of God. Not to the United Church of God. I don't care what group, what organization you want to talk about. We were baptized into the Church of the Living God. Not an organization, but into what God has. And it says here, we are to keep the unity. So we were put in a position of we were already unified with God the Father and Jesus Christ. And if we're not unified now, whose fault is that? It's not God the Father and Jesus Christ's fault, is it? It's our fault. It is our fault. So we want to make sure that we take a look, and if we're going to put on Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ is a being that believes strongly, firmly, fervently in unity. Let's take a look at John 17. Here's something that we read every year at Passover Time. John 17, talking about unity. Jesus Christ gives us some interesting information about how we attain this unity.

John 17, verse 20. Red lettering in my Bible. I do not pray for these alone. I do not pray for these alone. When you're hurting, when you're ill, when you have issues, you'll give me a phone call, or you'll talk to other brothers and sisters in the faith, and you'll ask for prayers. Sometimes we put it on a phone hotline, sometimes we put it on an email hotline, sometimes we discuss it in services, sometimes we do all of the above. And we want to pray one for another. But, brethren, here it says, Christ prays for us. Jesus Christ prays for you. How big of a thing is that to understand and appreciate the beauty of that?

I do not pray for these alone, but for those who will also believe in me through their word. So, it's talking about how with each generation of Christians, from the time of Jesus Christ till today, till the second coming, Jesus Christ prays for us. He's there with us, there for us.

That they all may be one, as you the Father are on me, and I in you. So here we see how unity is achieved as we melt into the thinking of God the Father and Jesus Christ. As each of us does that, and we do the best we can with that, then we can have unity through the Spirit of God and the mind of God. Now, that's easy to say, and it's very hard to do.

Easy to say, but very hard to do. They may be one, as you the Father are on me, and I on you, that they also may be one in us. Brethren, how are we? Are you individually, am I individually at one with God the Father? Am I at one with Jesus Christ? Are you? How are we doing with that relationship, with that Passover covenant relationship, that the world may believe that you sent me?

So here Jesus Christ raises the stakes, he raises the ante. He says, you know, if my people, my children are doing what they should be doing, my brothers and sisters are doing what they should be doing, and the whole world will recognize they're a whole different group of people. We should have our, you know, the people we work next to at work, our next door neighbors, others, say, you know, I'm not a Christian, but if I wanted to be a Christian, I'd want to go to your church. So I watch your life, I watch the fruits of your life, and truly, you're an exceptional individual in terms of following the writings of Jesus Christ.

Hebrews chapter 1, verse 3. Hebrews chapter 1 and verse 3. Christ was praying that we be unified in the faith, that we would have a relationship with God the Father and Himself like He had with God the Father. Take a look at this.

Hebrews chapter 1, verse 3. Who being in the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person. Now that's a discussion about Jesus Christ and His relationship to the Father. The express image of His person. We want to be that. We want to be unified with that. We want to put on Christ. Each of us has a responsibility to deepen our fellowship with the Father and the Son. To get our mind where it should be there.

And as we deepen and increase that fellowship with God the Father and Jesus Christ, hopefully that deepens our relationship with one another, brother and sisters in the faith. We promote unity. Now, in terms of our church culture, some people think, well, you know, if we just were all together, if all the churches were together, then things would be so much better.

You know, as I look out at the room here, I've known a lot of you a lot of years. I've been your pastor here since 97. I've known you a lot of years. And before that, I've known some of you since the mid-70s. Back in the old days, brethren, when we had 150,000 people around the world and all the various churches, were the various church congregations, were they all at peace with one another? We want the different organizations, the United Church of God, Living Church of God, Church of God International, Philadelphia, all the various ones.

We want all to be together as one. Were we ever one back in the worldwide days? I remember as an ambassador college student coming home from an ambassador in 1974. Back in those days, we all met at Murphy Junior High. Remember Murphy? We had about 600 strong of us. We had one church in the Detroit area, 600 people there at five mile and telegraph. Finkle and telegraph. In 1975, we formed the Detroit East Church. And a lot of you in this room were charter members of that church just like me.

And I remember so clearly when we had this wonderful youth movement. We had our WOWU basketball games, and we had all that activity. And we would have the Detroit East. We were about 350 strong. That's us. And then on the other side, we had Detroit West and Ann Arbor. And to this day, I remember times when... Not the kids! The kids were the good ones. But I remember adult men on the basketball court with clenched fists because they didn't like the way the game was going. Baptized converted, Passover observing. Men with clenched fists.

When have we ever been together like we should be? Now that's an indictment to us as a group of people. But you and I as individuals don't have to be there, do we? That's not unity. Not just basketball, not just guys. Remember the cheerleading? Oh man, cheerleading coaches? They would go at it. Tooth and tongue. The girls weren't so bad. It was the adult cheerleading coaches.

Well, my girls are going to do a little more bump and grind, and the other ones would say, well, no, we don't want to do bump and grind because it doesn't look good, but the girls want to do it. It got to be something else, didn't it? So if we want to take our Passover covenant with God seriously, we want to work on unity. Unity in the faith, unity of the faith. Let's go back now to Ephesians chapter 4.

Take a look at the second portion here. Ephesians chapter 4. Verse 13. Until we all come to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God. How are we with the knowledge of the Son of God? Do we know Jesus Christ's thought patterns backwards and forwards? Do we find ourselves coming home from work, or start before we even go to work, getting up in the morning, and we want to read and drink in deeply about how he thought, and how he lived his life, and how he would approach various situations? Do we study the life and teachings of Jesus Christ as we read the Proverbs?

First Corinthians chapter 2. First Corinthians chapter 2. Again, we don't want to just have head knowledge, we don't want to just have academic knowledge of Jesus Christ. We want to have real deep, you know, just like you know people who have been there for you and they inspire you, they bring tears to your eyes because of their leadership abilities, you wish you were like them in so many ways.

That's the kind of feeling we should have about Jesus Christ. First Corinthians chapter 2 verse 1. And I, brethren, when I came to you did not come with excellence of speech or wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God, for I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Now, what does He mean by that? He means a lot by that. What did Jesus Christ, what did His life stand for? What did He die for? These are all things that are a part of Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

He had a message He taught. He established a church. He wants us to attend church. He wants us to be a part of a worldwide work. He wants us to get the gospel out.

He wants us, as we heard in the sermonette today, to be willing to give it all up in terms of our life and need be. Brethren, you remember a sermon I gave not that long ago talking about how do we prepare for the end of the age? And I said, you know, so many times soldiers, they go into battle, and the ones who do the best realize I'm just going to view myself as being dead already so I can function as a soldier on a battlefield.

Now, we have scriptures in the Bible that talk about God protecting His church at the time of the end. I certainly don't want to discount that. I look forward to that. But as your pastor, I tell you, as you heard, I think, Eric brought out as well in the sermonette, you and I don't have an individual guarantee that no harm will ever come to you.

The apostles were men of great faith. All but John experienced an awful death. You take a look at the people in the 11th chapter of the book of Hebrews. Wonderful people. Salt of the earth people. And yet, Isaiah was sawn in half. Some of them had to live in caves. Do you want to live in a cave? No, you don't want to live in a cave, drafty old cave. Yet, you know, some of our people, our brothers and sisters in times gone by, they were forced out of their homes.

They were forced into financial ruin. So the point is, brethren, that there might come a time where you and I will have to give it all up in terms of being a martyr. So they're in the 6th chapter of the book of Revelation. So we need to make sure that we have a knowledge that will get us through all those difficult times. We need to make sure that we've got a friend.

We need to make sure that we look to him and he is something we cling to and hold onto because we know that he is true in his promises. He's faithful. We want that kind of maturity. Luke 24. Covered with this with you not that long ago. But let's take a brief look at it again. Luke 24. We've got...well, actually, no, we didn't cover this with you.

I'll be covering this with you next week. So you'll get this week and next week. Next week we want to talk about spiritual conversation. How so many of you have said that you would like...you yearn for having spiritual conversation in church. How you can come to services, listen to the various messages, sermonettes, sermon, and you want to talk about the things of God. And instead of talking about the things of God, too many times you talk about, those tigers. Hey, how about those lions? Who cares about lions and tigers? And yet we want to have a good, solid spiritual conversation with one another.

We're going to talk about that in depth next Sabbath. But here in Luke 24 we see a story about two men that are walking down the road to a place called Emmaus. Jesus Christ that had his ministry, he at this point had been crucified, resurrected from the grave. Jesus Christ is walking down the road and he catches up with these two fellows.

And they're talking about all the events that had taken place and how discouraged they were. Because they thought Jesus Christ was going to knock off the shackles of the Roman Empire, that Israel would become a free nation again. And they were thinking about all those scriptures that you and I think of when we think about the return of Jesus Christ to the millennium.

They skipped the whole portion of the scripture because they were looking at the future fulfillment, not the fulfillment in Christ's day. And they were down in the mouth. And so Jesus Christ comes and he says, well, what's wrong, guys? And the one fellow says, well, where have you been? Don't you know things have been happening around here? He says, what things? That shows you how to have conversations with people. Did Christ know what happened about his crucifixion? I think Christ was intimately aware of what happened when he was being crucified and tortured.

And he said, well, what things? He was drawing them out. He wanted to have a deep conversation with them. And so they began to say, man, you must be, I don't know what rock you were under, but here's what took place. Now, with that all in mind, let's go to verse 27.

And, brethren, we need to have an intimate knowledge of Jesus Christ and who he was and what he was. Not just an academic, let's say Bible trivia type of thing, but the kind of thing where, you know, he is our leader. We are going to follow him. We are going to emulate him. We're going to be just like him because we admire him, stand in awe of him.

And, brethren, we need to have an intimate knowledge of Jesus Christ and who he was and stand in awe of him. And we can go through Scripture after Scripture and why that is so. People come to me and they say on many occasions, I just don't know what to study. There's so much to study. Brethren, every book of the Bible, every book of the Bible, in some way, shape, or form, points to Jesus Christ. You know what you might want to do if you've not read the Bible through from cover to cover in a while? Just pick up Genesis 1 verse 1 and start going through and read the Bible like a novel.

You're not going to be taking notes. But you're just going to read for flow. And as you're going through each book, ask yourself, okay, how is Jesus Christ portrayed in this book? How does this book point to Jesus Christ? Because I can go through every book of the Bible does. Even a book like Esther. Not for a long time, but there were those scholars who said, Esther should not be in the Bible.

Why? Because God is not mentioned one time in that book. Not one time. And yet, when you read the book of Esther, you see the working in the hand of God over and over and over in that book. You see how Christians should rely upon the intervention of God. How Christians should rely upon the courage that God gives us in a really difficult position. But God is never mentioned in that book. Not once. Let me give you a couple examples here. Genesis. In Genesis chapter 3 and verse 15, you see the very first prophecy of Jesus Christ.

Genesis chapter 3 and verse 15. We see in the book of Genesis how the Messiah would be a descendant of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. You see in the book of Genesis, Jesus Christ in the form of Melchizedek. When you study even the various individuals, for example, what we hear today in the sermonette, Isaac. Isaac was a type of the sacrifice son. As was pointed out in the sermonette, he wasn't sacrificed. But Abraham was willing to sacrifice his son.

Just as God was willing to sacrifice his son. And just as brethren, you and I may have to sacrifice our children. You've got Joseph, the rejected brother. There's so much more in the book of Genesis that talks about Jesus Christ by type or by literal prophecy or what have you. The book of Exodus. You've got Moses.

Moses was a type of Jesus Christ. He was a deliverer. Deliverer people. He delivered the Israelites out of Egypt, out of sin. Away from Pharaoh, type of Satan. You've got the Passover lamb in the book of Exodus. You've got the manna type of Christ in the book of Exodus. You've got the rock of Horeb. We follow that rock.

That rock is Jesus Christ. So, brethren, we want to have a deep, abiding knowledge of God the Father and Jesus Christ. It's so very important. Acts 4, verse 12. Acts 4, verse 12. I've given the eighth day message at the feast or the last great day message at the feast on numerous occasions. And this is one of the scriptures you just simply must turn to on the last day of the feast.

The last great day, the eighth day. Acts 4, verse 12. Nor is there salvation in any other, for there's no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. We can't be saved if we're good Buddhists, or good Taoists, or good atheists, or good Native Americans, or you name the group. No, we have to have a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.

Which God must give us. So, this is something that we want to grow in that knowledge, the depth and the maturity of that knowledge, the various layers of understanding in the scriptures. First Peter, chapter 2, is a section we go through every year at Passover. And I'm about to go through something I've covered with you in times gone by, numerous times, but I'm going to do it again. First Peter, chapter 2, verses 21 and 22.

Actually, I think I'm just going to stay with chapter 21, verse 21, chapter 2, verse 21. First Peter, 2, 21, talking about the knowledge that we have that helps us so much. First Peter, 2, 21, for to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that you should follow his steps. Leaving us an example that we should follow his steps.

I want to read to you a couple of passages from Barnes Notes on the New Testament. Barnes Notes. Where it says, leaving us an example, Barnes says this, the apostle does not say that this was the only object for which Christ suffered, but that it was an object, an important one. The word rendered example occurs nowhere else in the New Testament. It means properly a writing copy, such as set for children, or an outline, or a sketch for a painter to fill up, and then in general an example, a pattern for imitation.

Over the years I've been your pastor, the way I've discussed it, because I got it from here, is with the children we raised, how many times have we taken kids and said, let's draw, what should we draw? Let's draw your hand. You put their hand out, you put it on a piece of paper, you outline their hand, take your hand away, take their hand away. Oh, daddy, look what I got there, I've got my hand.

Well, that's like Jesus Christ, and we are supposed to trace Christ. He is our example, He is our pattern, and when Christ walks away, people look at it and say, well, that looks like Christ to me. It looks like the hand, it looks like Christ. Continuing on in verse 21, again from Barnes and Oates, talking about following the steps, it says this, and I quote, that we should follow Him, not as we trod exactly along behind Him, excuse me, that we should follow Him as if we trod exactly along behind Him, and should place our feet precisely where His feet were.

So as I've told you in times gone by, it's like that old story about walking on the sand, you see one set of footprints, and you put your right foot where His right foot is, you put your left foot where His left foot is. I'm doing that right now. You're probably doing it right now, too. For me to get to my mailbox, because my mailbox is so packed with snow, I've got it as ice where there's no snow up to my chin, there's ice everywhere, so I find myself putting my feet where the other, like I've been previously, I kind of creep up on my mailbox, putting my feet where the other ones had gone, and opening that box, and kind of backing back, you know.

But that's what God wants from us spiritually. That's what God wants from us spiritually. So the second part of the covenant is a knowledge, a real knowledge, a heart knowledge, not just an academic knowledge, a knowledge of Jesus Christ.

Let's go back to Ephesians chapter 4 one last time, and see that time is moving along here, and the food out there is smelling good. You want to crack at that potluck. You know, we were trying to get the Weckelys here for that, they're going away party, and we're unable to get them here, so I think we've got their cake. Poor Kathy could only have so much room in her freezer for that cake, so we're going to dust that thing off, bring it out, and we'll have to have the Weckelys here sometime this summer.

Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 13, till we all come to the unity of the faith, the knowledge of the Son of God. Now here's the last part, to a perfect or to a mature man or woman, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

So we're looking at here, the third part of this Passover covenant, our end of the Passover covenant, is maturity. How mature am I? How mature are you? Where does maturity come from spiritually? Romans chapter 8 and verse 14. Romans 8, 14. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God. How easy is it for God to lead you? How easy is it for God to lead me? Does God kind of knock us down? You know, Randy, leading you is like trying to pull a mule. How easy it is for God, because God is not going to drag us.

God is not going to possess us. God is not going to drive us. It says God is going to lead us. If we're mature, it's very easy to be led by God. If we're not so much... The harder it is for God to lead us, the less maturity we have. As simple as that. Go back to Romans chapter 2 and verse 13. Romans chapter 2 and verse 13. For not the hearers of the law are just in the sight of God, but the doers of the law shall be justified.

The doers of the law. We are to allow God's Spirit to lead us. We are to be mature enough so that that's not a real difficult thing for our father and elder brother. And then we are to... as they lead us, we do what they show us.

You know, when you're a child, you want to do all sorts of things that may not be the best for you. I remember when I was a kid, I thought, boy, when I'm old, when I turned 19, I'm going to go swimming every day. Well, I go swimming every day if I want to. I've got no desire to go swimming every day. When I was a little kid, boy, when I get older and have a good job, I'm going to get lots of candy.

Well, unfortunately, I've done too much of that. I can't admit to that. More than the swimming thing. But you know, when you're mature, you realize, well, you know, I don't need to have whatever every day. You don't need a Hershey bar, or I don't need an Eskimo pie, or a ding-dong, or whatever these things are that people buy.

You know, X number of bags of chips, and so forth. Maturity says, well, you know, there's fruits, there's vegetables, there's grains, there's all the food groups. Of course, chocolate's a part of that, so we're happy about that. Matthew 25, there's a principle here. Matthew 25. We've always talked about Matthew 24 being the Olivet prophecy, but Matthew 25 is also a part of that prophecy. Matthew 24 tells us what's going to happen in prophecy. But Matthew 25 tells us how we should respond to that. Matthew 25 tells us how we should respond to that.

Matthew 25, verse 14, for the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling to a far country. So this is like Jesus Christ. He's about to be crucified, go back to heaven, who called on his servants, talking about you and I, and delivered his goods to them, gave us his Holy Spirit. And to the one who gave five talents to another two and to another one, to each accorded to his own ability, and immediately he went on a journey.

So just as Jesus Christ is now in heaven with God the Father, there's an interval of time from the time he was crucified until the time he'll return to second time. You and I have been given spiritual talents. We've been given his God's Holy Spirit. Some more, some less. Verse 16, Then he received the five talents, went and traded with them, and made another five talents.

Likewise, he who had received two gained two more also. But he who had received one went and dug in the ground and hid his Lord's money. So the question is, brother, in terms of our maturity, what are we doing with what we've got? When I stand before God, he's going to say, well, Dele-Sandro, you knew my you knew the Scriptures. You were in a church X number of years. Whatever you didn't know, and the large part of you didn't know it's because you didn't work hard enough to dig the gold out of the Scriptures.

I don't want God saying that. I don't want God or Jesus Christ saying that to me. I don't want Jesus Christ to say, well, Randy, you hid your talent. I gave you this tremendous opportunity, and you squandered the opportunity. Verse 19, but after a long time, the Lord of those servants came and settled accounts with them. Verse 20, so he had received five talents, came and brought five other talents, saying, Lord, you delivered me five talents.

Look, I have gained five more. Verse 21, Lord said, and well done, good and faithful servant. You're faithful over a few things. I'll make you rule over many things. Enter into the joy of your Lord. He also had received two talents, came and said, Lord, you delivered me two talents. Look, I've gained two more talents beside them. Same thing. You know, God said, I'm really happy with that. So the idea here, brethren, is you and I have been given a gold mine.

God has opened up our hearts and our minds to His truth. We have got on our website, if you've got the internet access, you can go to our website to members.ucg.org, and there are 12,000 sermons there. On any number of subjects, 12,000. If you go to feast.ucg.org, we've got over 500 sermons that just come from the feast. From all the feast sites around the world for about the last four or five years, you want something encouraging, you want to hear a feast sermon in July, go to feast.ucg.org.

And they're all catalogued there for you. We've got Beyond Today programs. We've got a website that is just unbelievably good. I wish I could have gone to Ambassador College. Well, you've got the website right now. You can get an education. You just have to put the time into it. If you want gold, you've got to go mine for it. You've got to dig it. You've got to put some sweat into it. The same thing is true.

I remember years ago when I first went to the feast in Squall Valley, California. My very first feast, my parents would not allow me to go to church, and finally I was accepted to Ambassador College. I went to church on Sabbath. The next day I was in California. 18-year-old kid, hardly been out of the state of Michigan. Now I'm in California. I'm looking out my bedroom window, and there's a palm tree.

I think I've arrived. You've got an 18-year-old kid. I remember just a month later we pack up lock, stock, and barrel and go up to Squall Valley, California for the feast. I remember sitting there in Squall Valley. It was cold. I liked it out today. There wasn't any sunny feasts. It was cold, snowy, ice. But I couldn't get enough of it because back in those days we had services twice a day, every day.

Twice a day, every day. I remember sitting in my seat, listening to the sermonette guys. I thought, man, those guys know the Bible. I wish I could know the Bible that well. Maybe someday I'll be able to give an opening or closing prayer back when I get back home to Detroit. But you know, the fellows who spoke at the feast that year, they had to put their time into the Bible. No one just handed them a rich Gerald Waterhouse.

No one just said, hey, Gerald, here's the rich understanding of the Scriptures. Herbert Armstrong, Herbert, here you go! All you ever need right here is just hand it to you. Just give it to you. No. He had to study. He had to work. He had to sweat. Brother, we've got to do the same thing.

We've got to do the very same thing. So the point is, we are coming up to the Passover season. God has made a tremendous covenant with us. He has been very faithful on His end of that covenant. Today we've taken a look at just a few things, a few elements of our end of the covenant. I probably can give a number of sermons like this. But I thought this would be a good place for us to start.

Our getting ready for the Passover by asking, how are we doing with our end of the Passover covenant we've made with God?