The Unified Theory of Man

This is what a 50-year-old man could do when moving these big lecturers. I made a mistake with Dan Taylor, so I thought I would start a little... But anyway, beautiful special music. What a beautiful holy day we've had. I think jam-packed with good information, inspirational, instructive, and corrective as well, in the sense of, I don't think hard corrective, but corrective in the sense that we all need to change, we all need to overcome. I thought I would sort of raise your IQ here this afternoon, and I want to talk to you about Albert Einstein. You know, when I mention Albert Einstein, it sounds smart, don't I? You know, if you notice that you hang out with some people, you look smart, but if you mention his name, you sound smart. Albert Einstein, as you know, developed the famous theory of relativity. I don't think anybody that is here has not heard that particular theory. But there was another theory. Of course, he came up with E equals mc squared. We all know that one as well. You know, anybody's seen, in fact, the twilight zone. You know E equals mc squared, sort of floating out there in space. But he worked on another theory his entire life. And that theory he called the unified field theory. I think that's what he first called it, the unified field theory. It was a theory that was called by a number of names. It has been through the years, also called the final theory. It was referred to also as the ultimate theory, or the master theory, you know, with regard to the universe and how the universe functioned. Another name for it was the theory of everything. The theory of everything. Now, that would be some humdinger of a theory, wouldn't it? The theory of everything. I like, in fact, the theory called the mother of all theories. You know, remember Saddam Hussein, you know, during that time, it was the mother of all wars. It was called, well, the mother of all things, the mother of everything. And this was, you know, a theory that was basically referred to the hypothetical presence of a single, all-encompassing, coherent theoretical framework of physics, did I say that right, Dr. Forth, that fully explains and links together all physical aspects of the universe. And again, Einstein worked on this theory all of his life, but he was never able to develop this theory. And many others since, of course, that time have been working on this theory, this unified theory. The newest theory they have is called the string theory. Now, whatever that is, I guess just the universe is just a ball of twine out there. I won't even begin to try to explain it to you. But Einstein, like I say, never developed that unified theory that was the theory of everything.

As we close in on the final hours of this holy day, the last day of unleavened bread, of course we have strived to put the spiritual leavening out of our lives and the sin out, consequently. And that was, of course, the most important thing that we do, and to bring Jesus Christ in, to bring that unleavened bread of Jesus Christ into our lives. That's been the goal of these last seven days, beginning, of course, even with the Passover, that we begin to think about these things. I like to call, by the way, the Passover and the days of unleavened bread.

Really, it is a microcosm of life, if you think about it. From the time that we repent to the time that we, you know, are putting the sin out of our lives, and we're becoming more and more like Christ, to the time we come to the next holy day, which is Pentecost, which pictures the giving of the Holy Spirit. It really is sort of a microcosm of what this life is all about. But, you know, it made me wonder when I was thinking about this unified field theory of Albert Einstein.

I had to ask myself the question, okay, we've gone through the trouble of putting this physical living out of our houses. We strive to put sin out of our lives. We tried to bring Jesus Christ into our lives. And the next holy day we do will be the Feast of First Fruits or Pentecost. And then, of course, after that, trumpets. And then after that, atonement.

And then the Feast of Tabernacles. And then next year, we do it all over again. We keep doing it, and doing it, and doing it. The question is, where is all this going? Where is it headed? What is this physical life about that you and I have? Well, you guessed it. You know, I've come up with the unified theory of man. The unified theory of man. And I'm going to discuss that theory with you through the course of the remaining time in this sermon today.

And, of course, I use the word theory because it sort of sounds scientific. But it is truth. It is absolute truth. It is the truth of man in his purpose. The unified proof or purpose of man might be another thing you could call it. I call this sermon the unified theory of man.

So, let's discuss that through the remainder of this sermon. Over in Job chapter 1, in verse 3, it talks about that there was a man in the land of us. Now, he was a real man, by the way. He was not the man at the end of the Yellivik Road in Oz, which was fictitious, but he was a real man. A real man. And, anyway, it's kind of interesting the way it talks about Job over here. In the book of Job, if I can find it, my Bible here is resisting me.

But, I should be able to find chapter 1, I would think, especially. Yeah, here it is. Job chapter 1, of course, it mentions about the man in the land of us. And Job was a very great man, very great man, in every sense of the word. But, in verse 1, if you have a King James version, or a new King James, there's a slight difference here. But, it says, his name was Job, verse 1, and that man was blameless and upright. If you have a King James, it says perfect, right?

The word perfect is there. And he was one who feared God, as it says here, and shunned evil. And so, here was this remarkable man who God considered to be, by the way, perfect. Blameless is the word they use in the new King James. He was blameless and he was upright. And he was one who feared God, and he hated evil. He eschewed evil. And God doesn't say that about Job just once, by the way. Didn't say this once. He says it a number of times about Job, that he was perfect and he was upright. And by the way, he was saying this about Job before the book of Job ever happened, before the events that Job was going through ever occurred.

So, he was a righteous man, a remarkable man. I mean, how many people do you know that would be considered? God could say, now here's a perfect man. That's what God said about him, though. Now, I know again the new King James says blameless, but I want to mention a little bit more about that.

You know, the word, by the way, for blameless here, from the Greek, from the Hebrew, I'm sorry, and again, it's in the King James, it's perfect. The word perfect is the word tom. It's just spelled, by the way, tam. Pronounced, though, t-a-w-n-m. I'm sorry. T-a-w-m. And the word perfect means complete. It means complete. It means, usually, again, get the full extent of this, brethren, usually morally a person is complete. He was a remarkable man, a very moral, he was a complete man.

Specifically, gentle, dear. Another word for this is undefiled. Undefiled.

You know, he wasn't marked up and, you know, spindled and folded and creased like, you know, the old IBM cards, you know. But he was undefiled, and he was upright. Again, this is before the book of Job and the story that is there ever began to happen. God considered to be perfect and upright. I want you to keep that in your mind, by the way, here. But over in Psalm 37, let's go over to the book of Psalm now. And David's, much of David's writing is over here, but in verse 37, chapter 37 over here, here we are told, brethren, in verse 37 of Psalm 37, note, or mark, the word is used in even the King James here, the blameless man. Again, the word in the King James is perfect man. You note, you take note, you know, God is saying to the perfect man, I like the word perfect a lot more because it, to me, it instantly connotes completeness, complete individual. And it says, observe the upright, for the future of that man is peace.

Now I want to be that kind of person. Do you? I'd like to be this complete kind of person.

So the end of my life is peace. I don't want to go down to my grave and utter violence and turmoil and confusion and wondering what is going to happen, you know, the next split second after I die.

I'd like to go down in my, if I'm going to do it, I'd rather not die, by the way, if I could get around that. But if I can't get around it, I'd like to go to my death and peace, knowing that the future is going to be wonderful and beyond my imagination.

The question then I, you look at when you look at Job and you look at what the Bible says, and it talks about, you know, the perfect man, a number of places in Scripture. I ask myself the question, how do we strive for this perfection he's talking about? Because I'd like God to tell me, now there was a perfect man. You ladies would like when you, that God would say to you, now there's a perfect woman. You know, we think of perfect today, don't we? Though it was, you know, they got this perfect physique. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about the type of morality a person is and the completeness, you know, of an individual in their lives, the kind of people that they are. So how do we strive for perfection? And, brethren, are you, I'm going to ask you, are you growing toward perfection? Are you growing toward that perfect man or that perfect woman that I'm talking about here? The complete man, you know, the complete woman. Again, we're going to try to explore this unified theory, which is really truth of man.

Because I think that will really, really help us to really put all this together, to understand it all.

Because, brethren, if, in fact, this is the goal of human beings, you know, to be perfect, how do you want to attain this perfect state?

And when will we know we're there? It's like the little kids in the back see, are we there yet?

Are we there yet? You know, sometimes we wonder, are we there yet? How close are we?

Are we this close? Or are we from here to Alpha Centauri close? That kind of closeness.

So how close are we? And the other question I want to try to answer today, believe it or not, I've really chewed off a lot here for this sermon. When will you know when you're there?

I intend to answer that question today. And the unified theory of man.

I should have a 2001 Space Odyssey playing right now, but I couldn't, you know, do that, get that together. You know, probably you're thinking, as I know I think in this way too, I'm about a million light years away from perfection. But is that true about you? And is it true about me? Are we a million light years away from perfection? I know sometimes we wonder if we're losing ground. In fact, in our lives, we're not going forward, we're going backwards.

It sure seems that way sometimes doesn't seem like sometimes you go three steps forward and two back.

And sometimes more than that, you feel like you're pushing the same rock up the same hill all the time. Well, brethren, what do the days of Unleavened Bread have to do with this unified theory of man? Okay, let's prove, rather, what we... if Job was a perfect and Job was an upright man, is it our goal to be perfect in the church? Let's just face this thing head on. Is it our goal?

Well, let's go over to Ephesians, the book of Ephesians, and find out what the scriptures say.

Because you don't believe what I say. At least, I hope you don't. I hope you believe only what the Bible says. It's like HWA used to say so often, blow the dust off your Bible. And he said, don't believe me, believe the Bible. But, you know, let's look at the Bible, because that is the ultimate truth. But in Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 11, talking about the purpose of the ministry of Jesus Christ. But chapter 4, let's begin in verse 12, talk about the ministry again. For the equipping of the saints, you know, Mr. Crow mentioned this morning, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, and notice here going on, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God to a perfect man. There's that word again, to a perfect man. Does that describe again you and me, brethren? You know, sometimes when I read that, I think, how could I possibly be included in this statement right there? But to a perfect man, to the measure and the stature of the fullness of Christ. And then he says in verse 14 that we should no longer be children. And we should no longer be children. You know, a child, by the way, becomes an adult. And we know in among Jews, basically, when a child was 12 years of age, he was really beginning to be a man at 12 years of age. And so, of course, he's not fully mature, but he begins to be a man. He considers being considered to be a man. And, of course, at a certain age, a young girl becomes so she grows into a womanhood. And what it means, brethren, when somebody becomes an adult after they have grown from childhood, when they, you might, down south, by the way, oftentimes I'd go visit people out in the country.

And I'd say, well, you have any children? And occasionally you would talk to some people way back in the the sticks of Alabama, and they would say, oh yeah, we got kids that are fully grown.

You know, they're grown children is what they meant. You know, they were old, they they out of the house, or they they had their own children. They were fully grown children. But a child grows again into adulthood, and they become mentally and hopefully morally matured.

You know, that's the goal that that Jesus Christ has for you and me, brethren, to become fully matured, to become full adults, to be able to take responsibility as adults. And of course, that means that we take the major things of life that Mr. Meees talked about seriously.

You know, we're not playing around anymore. These are important things, in other words. And we treat them accordingly in our lives, as though they're important things. And we, of course, know that if we ever think that our goal is not high enough, all we got to do is be reminded who our model is.

And that is none other than Jesus Christ. He's the model. You know, it's easy, isn't it, for us to compare ourselves downward. It's amazing how good you and I look, brethren, when we start comparing ourselves downward, isn't it? Or at least who we consider to be downward, which is a bad problem to have anyway. But God wants us to grow and mature and come to the major and the full stature of Jesus Christ. He's the Roma. Let's go to Colossians chapter 1. So we see, again, Ephesians 4, that the very purpose of the church is to help us to become perfect men and women.

Adult, matured, in fact, to measure up to the measure and the stature of our Lord, Jesus Christ. Colossians 1 over here won't go to too many scriptures here to show that this is the goal of our human life, really. But in Colossians 1, verse 27, here Paul says, "...to them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory," it says, of this mystery, "...among the Gentiles, which is Christ Jesus, or Christ in you, the hope of glory." But verse 28, "...him," we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom. You try every way you can.

You go with a theme of a rap sheet. You go with a theme of the United Theory of Man.

You talk about how full is your jar. You talk about all kinds of things in order to try to use as much, at least, from the standpoint of wisdom, to get the message across, that we may present every man and woman, of course, perfect in Christ Jesus. That's what here Paul is saying. This is what we preach. This is why we breathe. This is why we exist, to present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. But notice what Paul goes on to say. This is a startling statement here. I've read it a thousand times, but when I was working on this sermon, this stuck out in my mind so far. It was just hard to ignore it. "'To this end,' he says, I also labor, striving according to his working, which works in me mightily." This is to this end, this purpose.

You know, Paul was traipsing around the known world at that time, and he was running for his life. He had Jews chasing him, trying to kill him, you know, being let down in a basket by a rope.

You know, maybe, very, very maybe Paul said, no, I need to get a life.

This is what is this life? This is what it's about. But it all, to this end, that had to do with perfecting the sense. They could present every man, every woman, perfect before Christ.

I sometimes wonder if we really see the lofty goal that is set before us.

I know sometimes, brethren, I can feel like, you know, especially when you get through to somebody, you feel like you've really helped them. You can feel like you're on top of the world.

And you think, well, maybe something I said actually worked. And God used me as a tool, but let me tell you, maybe those feelings are dashed about two seconds later if something happens that's more negative. But the entire mission, brethren, of the Church of God in the ministry of Jesus Christ is to present everyone here in this room. What a formidable task.

Perfect before Jesus Christ. You know, incredible, isn't it? But let's notice over here, in what is even more incredible is God asks imperfect men to do this.

Imperfect men and imperfect women who are part of helping in this process a great deal, having a part in helping the process, brethren, to do it. And I feel like sometimes I'm trying to tell you or to give instruction to you, and I'm the one that needs the instruction.

I'm the one that needs the boot, you know, up against the proverbial backside.

And I think that any of us, of course, who have stood up here before you in any way realize we're not a paragon of virtue and perfection.

And I say a million light years from perfection. I really mean it. I really mean it. It seems like the more you learn, the more you realize that you're a long way off yet. But maybe we're closer than we think. Philippians 3, verse 12, over here. Paul himself felt that way about himself.

He said that, remember, I think Mr. Crow was talking about the day Paul, you know, talking about those things he wanted to do, he didn't do, and the things that he didn't want to do, he did.

And, you know, he cried out, oh, wretched man that I am.

You know, you can't, in fact, hear the words of amazing grace, but without realizing it, God's been very graceful and gracious to all of us. But verse 12 of Philippians chapter 3, in verse 12, he says, not that I've already attained or am already perfected.

He said, I'm not there yet, Paul was saying, but I press on that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Now, in other words, here we see once again the purpose, the goal of human life is to become perfect. And God, brethren, sent his very Son to be sacrificed for humankind for this very reason, for this purpose of bringing us to before Christ perfect. You know, Paul was being perfected, but he did not feel he had come to that in his life. Now, what do we do at the days of unleavened bread that helps us to become perfected and helps us to become complete?

What is it that we're doing, brethren? The goal of these seven days of unleavened bread, brethren, denote completeness and perfectness, perfection. In fact, the number seven means complete.

It denotes perfection. That's why there are seven days of unleavened bread, by the way, and not six. Or one, for that matter. God wants us to be perfected. He wants us to come to perfection. Now, the question is, how do we attain to be called perfect? How do we attain to that?

You know, where God says of you and me that we're perfect before him. How do we strive to attain this perfection that would be pleasing in God's sight? Well, brethren, in order for each of us to be perfected of God, first of all, we have to have... He has to have our full cooperation and our submission to Him. So, are you holding anything back? That's the question. And if it is, if there's something you're holding back that you're not willing to give up, you know, you better examine that between now and the next days of the leavened bread.

And in fact, a good deal, unless that little leaven, as the Bible says, leavens the whole lump.

What are you holding back, brethren? Why are you... Why am I sometimes not giving God the full cooperation and submission that we need? You know, this is why, by the way, that the Scriptures tell us to love God with all of our heart and all of our soul and all of our mind. We know God love does, like the special music, God so loved the world. Beautiful rendition of that. Very beautiful song here on this special holy day. But Matthew 22, let's go to Matthew 22.

Here was a lawyer trying to tempt Christ, to try to somehow to confuse the situation, not for good, in other words. But Matthew 22, sometimes you can have, you know, a hotshot lawyer who thinks he knows better. And in this particular case, this was the case, verse 35, then one of them, a lawyer asked him, this is Matthew 22, verse 35, asked him a question, testing him, and saying, teacher, what is the great commandment of the law? And Jesus said to him, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.

He said, this is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all of the law, he says, in the prophets.

In other words, we're talking about here that two little parts of that entire law, the book of the Pentateuch, hung two great principles. You ever notice anything about these two great principles here? These two great principles, brethren, are about relationships. First, our relationship with God, and second, our relationship with one another.

This really provides us great opportunity in dealing with each other, and certainly in dealing in our lives to come in line with God's way of life. And so he's saying here that we have to give God our full cooperation. First and foremost, we have to love God. Then, secondarily, and sort of akin to that, there has to be one other element that has to be a part of this process if we're going to be attaining to becoming perfect. You know what, brethren? We have to love all human beings.

We need to get rid of the hate, get rid, brethren, of prejudice, get rid of attitudes, get rid of all those things, brethren, that cause us, that rob from us, the love we ought to have for our neighbor. Now, I know we used to talk about here this, you know, you see somebody that maybe is down and out on a park bench. You know, how people can look down their noses at that kind of person. We shouldn't, we should see that as a potential son in the kingdom of God, son or a daughter, in God's kingdom. We should not harbor any feelings ever of resentment.

We should not harbor any hatred toward our brother. So we get, we've got to love God with all of our heart and our soul and our mind. And, brethren, let me submit to you, we have to do our neighbor the same way. But to love them with all of our heart and soul and mind. And, after all, we're supposed to love them as much as we love ourselves.

And the Bible says, I've never met it. You know, Paul said, you know, there's no one that doesn't love himself. Now, there are a lot of people that claim, I don't love myself, but we do love ourselves, don't we? No matter how badly when they treat ourselves, we love ourselves.

But we ought to love other people the way we love ourselves. But on these two principles, brethren, hang everything. So, in a way, we're almost to the unified theory of man already, aren't we? Well, because we've got it down to two. But, again, I'm talking about one theory that describes them all. But, you know, God once again learned to get those relationships right. There are many, many people that just don't have those relationships right. You know, God says, to do one thing, they do another thing. You know, Christ comes along and says, don't think I've come to destroy the law and the prophets. What does the world teach?

The law is done away with. I mean, it's like the gentleman that wrote in, or who, a woman who wrote in saying that the Feast of Tabernacles is paid. And you wonder who's not been reading the Bible? You know, but, and it's not us. We've been reading our Bibles, but that person is not. You know, over in 1 Corinthians chapter 5 over here, here Paul had to write to the Corinthian brethren, and their relationships were really not so good. Because they were tolerating a man who was having a fair with his own mother-in-law.

And, you know, what an incredible thing. You talk about, you know, a first century Peyton Place.

Corinth probably was that kind of place. But it says, do not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump. Therefore purge out the old leaven. And, of course, this is what we were supposed to do here at this feast. That you may be a new lump, since you are truly our unleaven. Now, I assume by now that you probably found all the leavening in your house you're probably going to find. And let me assure you, you haven't found at all. I was talking to somebody after services this morning. And, you know, and I was mentioning to them, you know, that there are leavening spores in the air right now. You're breathing them in, brother, right now. Whether you want to or not. So, but at least you've tried that which you could get. That which you could get out, you got out, didn't you? But it says, for indeed our Passover was sacrificed for us. Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. But verse 34, but let's keep the feast. That's what we've done. Not with the old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. That word, sincerity, is worshiping God, brethren, with all of our heart, and all of our soul, and all of our mind. He could have said it that way if, in fact, he wanted to, but he said, sincerity and truth. And, of course, the question then is, what is truth? And Christ answered that question. The word of God is truth. That's what truth is. That's what truth is about. So we are to keep the feast of unleavened bread, brethren, with sincerity and truth. In other words, total conviction and desiring with all of our heart, and soul, and mind to live truth in our lives from this time on. Are you committed to that, brethren, to live truth from this time on in your own personal life? Let's go over to John 6. John 6.

John 6, in verse 31, you know, for ancient Israel, God, as you know, He gave them nana from heaven. He fed them that way. And, of course, the children of Israel, anciently, though they ate this heavenly food, they died. And, you know, during the days of unleavened bread, we learned that we are to certainly eat unleavened bread. But that unleavened bread, as we know, depicts Jesus Christ. And the symbolism of it is quite elementary, nothing complicated about it. And that we ought to be, again, eating of Christ, but we ought to be putting leavening out of our lives, but eating Christ and bringing, through repentance and through change in our lives, God's ways, bringing His ways into our lives. You know, Thomas asked Jesus Christ, you know, there in John 14, he said, he said, Lord, tell us where you're going, and it'll suffice us. Because how can we know, you know, how to get there, unless you tell us where you're going? And you remember what Jesus Christ said to him?

I'm sure that Thomas didn't get it right then, but he probably did later.

I am the way, and the truth, and the life. We know that Jesus Christ was not going to go up and sit around in outer space, but he was going to go back to the Father and sit next to the Father's right hand. And God dwells in another dimension, a spirit world. The Bible says He occupies eternity. But Christ said, if you want to be where I'm going to be, and of course, He wasn't saying by that, that you're going to get to go to heaven, and be in heaven, but if you want to be where I am going to be, I am the way, I am the truth, and I am the life. You remember when God allowed Israel to go through the wilderness, as I mentioned, He gave them manna. He gave them manna for 40 years. He rained it down from heaven. You remember what He said to Israel? Through Moses there, in Deuteronomy 8, in verse 3.

Moses said to him, look, God has made you do all that you've gone through, wander in the wilderness and all of that. First of all, that He could prove you. Then he said, next, what did He say after that, brethren? That you would learn what? That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. Who was the Word of God? Jesus Christ.

All right. We know that in John, the Word was with God. Verse 14, the Word came down and tabernacled with us. So Christ is the Word of God. And so, that we would learn that we should not live by bread alone, this physical sustenance, but we should live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. And that was Jesus Christ, rather than Jesus Christ, brethren.

In their day, in the time of ancient Israel, God rained down physical manna. In our day, brethren, God is raining down His Son, Jesus Christ, who is the true manna from heaven. But going on down through here, let's notice verse 31. This is what it says here. It's, He said, our fathers ate the manna in the desert as it was written, He gave them bread from heaven. Who eat? Verse 32 of John 6. Then Jesus said to them, Most assuredly I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but my Father gave you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is He who came down, or comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. And of course, that was Jesus Christ.

Who played that role and had that responsibility. You know, on down here in verse 35, I am the bread of life. He that comes to me shall never hunger. He who believes in me shall never thirst. On down in verse 51, I believe it is down here, yeah, verse 51. He said, I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever.

You know, when I read that, it scares me half to death.

Because I know it's imperative, brethren, that I eat of this bread. I must have this bread.

To have eternal life within me. You have to have this bread. And the bread that I shall give is my flesh which I shall give for the life of the world.

You know, God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son for us.

So Christ, brethren, was that manna that was rained down from heaven for you and for me in our day. But, brethren, as the Word of God, what was Christ like? If I asked you that question, what would you say?

If somebody were to, you know, after you talked about Jesus Christ, they'd say, well, what was he like that I should be like him? What was he like? What would you say, brethren?

If, say, we had a silent jeopardy period, you know, we played the music at this time, had you write down five, you know, five things that Jesus Christ was, could you do it?

And could you prove it? Could you prove it? What was Christ like, brethren? Well, we know he sought to learn, didn't he? He was 12 years old when he was in the temple asking questions of the doctors of the law and also telling them things, teaching them things. I wish I, you know what, I had that capability to do that. But, you know, like I say, when a child became 12 years old, he was a man. He began to be a man. And what was it? Joseph and Mary were so worried, as any parent would be, where is this boy? Boy, I'm going to give him a licking of his life when I get it. But, you know, they found him there in the temple. And, but he was ready to be a man.

Now, I want you to think about this, brethren. Think about this. By the time he was 30, he was more man than anybody that would be 100 or 200 or 500. It wouldn't matter. He was, if I can put it this way, brethren, complete. He was really complete. Sometimes I think about that, brethren, when I think of how old Mr. Crow is. Not me, but how old Mr. Crow is. Is he here still? Yeah, he's here. But, you know, I always pick on Mr. Crow because he's about, you know, he's a little older than I am by about two, three minutes. But, you know, I think, though, of my own personal life. And I'm thinking, how long, how come it's taken so long for me to get this, to understand it? The trek has been long, hasn't it, across the wilderness?

We certainly haven't gone the King's Road. We've gone in the wilderness in a lot of ways ourselves. But again, let's get back to the characteristics of Christ, the way of Christ. Christ ought to learn. Do we do that, brethren? Do we mimic that in our lives? Do we really want to learn? Are we here to learn? You know, do we take every opportunity in the church to learn?

You know, do we avail ourselves of services that we have? Do we avail ourselves of Bible studies that we have? We have Bible discussion right before services here, every Sabbath, at nine o'clock. Do you avail yourself of that? You know, if you don't, you know, it can really spur your thinking before you even get into services and you're all revved up, you know, ready to go. But are we availing ourselves of opportunities to learn? Christ was a learner. Another thing about Christ, I don't think I have to go too far to demonstrate this to you. He resisted Satan the devil.

He resisted temptation. Remember Matthew 4? You know, over there, talking about the challenge that Satan laid down before him. And so he resisted Satan. And if you can add to it, he did so through fasting. He was fasting and he was praying as well. So that we know about Jesus Christ.

We know that Christ also, brethren, kept the law. I mentioned to you Matthew 5, 17, you know, think not, I came to destroy the law of prophets. I didn't come to destroy Christ, said, and I came to fulfill or to magnify as we understand that means. So Christ kept the law of God.

And so if we want to eat the manna that's fallen down from heaven, brethren, we've got to do that, don't we? Are we keeping God's laws? Another thing about Christ, I think that probably most would put down as a characteristic of Christ, is found over in Matthew 11. Let's go to Matthew chapter 11. Matthew chapter 11. In verse 28, over here, Christ says here, Take my yoke upon you and learn from me. Learn from me, Christ challenges to do. Again, He's the way, the truth, and the life. For I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

And so Christ was gentle and He was lowly of heart. He was humble. He was a humble man.

And He wasn't somebody who was always trying to go pushing people around, unlike the suns of thunder. You know, Lord, do you think we ought to just call down fire from heaven and block this city out? And Christ said, you just don't know what spirit you're of.

Let's go to 1 Peter chapter 2, just quickly over here. 1 Peter chapter 2, to show again the kind of characteristics Christ had. You know, again, this manna that if we eat of this manna, we can have eternal life in us if we're mimicking it, if we're living it.

You know, in Christ, by the way, there was no sin of presumption on His part.

He never claimed that which was not given to Him. You know, and the responsibility which He had.

There were times when people came to Him and said, Master, could you settle this particular problem between me and my brother? You know what Christ said? What does that have to do with me?

You see, He was not presumptuous to resolve something that was not His to do. Of course, He could have claimed that if He wanted to, but that was not why He was sent. But 1 Peter chapter 2 in verse 21, it says, To this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that you should follow His steps, who committed no sin, nor were deceit found in His mouth. Again, you see, characteristics of Christ. He wasn't deceitful. He never sinned. Who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return. When He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously. That is the Lord. That is the Christ, brethren, that you and I served.

This is the manna from heaven. The manna that we need to be eating right now.

No, Christ Himself also said some other things over here in Matthew chapter 5. Let's notice over here.

So Christ was not the type to revile another person. He wouldn't lash out at somebody else and try to hurt them because they hurt Him. He wouldn't do that at all.

But here, in the book of Matthew, let's notice this.

In verse 43, chapter 5, in verse 43, go.

He says, you have heard that it was said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those that hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you. So here's a characteristic of Christ. Brethren, how do you react if somebody does you wrong? You try to lash out at them? You show them the same anger that they showed you? Brethren, that's not godly. That's not the man of from heaven.

That's not the way of God at all. God doesn't want us to have that mentality at all. We ought to be praying for those who spitefully use us and persecute us. Pray for our enemies, even. And it says that you may be sons of your father in heaven. You want to know the pathway to where Christ is going to be, which is going to be in the kingdom of God, ruling upon this earth. Brethren, that is the way. That is the way. And, brethren, there is no other way. There is no other way. That's how transformed we as God's people must be. Another thing about Christ, brethren, is that Christ came to serve others. He came to serve others. So you're making up this list of things that would have to be in it. I'm not going to go to it, but in Matthew 20, in verses 27 through 28, Christ was teaching his disciples that, you know, the Gentiles or the other nations, he said, like the Lord is over people. He said, you shouldn't be that way. But he said, rather, the greatest one among you, let him be your servant.

Let him be your servant. And he talked about how the Son of Man did not come to be served, but he came to serve. And so that's your Lord, our Lord, in the manna from heaven, brethren, to learn to serve. You know, when you're a part of the church, brethren, you try to seek things to do within the church, to serve others, to help others, to encourage others, even if maybe physically you're not doing anything. Are we doing those things that serve others, that serve to the good of other people? Another thing about Christ, brethren, that is that manna that is reigning down from heaven upon us today, brethren, that has to be inculcated into us, that we could become a complete person, all of us. And there's many things we could go through. I won't go through even a small amount of those today. Christ loved people. He really loved people. That second part of the two great commandments, He loved people. And you know what? He had compassion upon people.

He loved them, and He had compassion upon them. In fact, when He fed, you know, the five thousand with the vicious and loaves, it was because His disciples were ready to send the people away hungry. But Christ did the miracle because He had compassion upon those people at that time.

He loved people. The very reason He came, in fact, was for our salvation and the opportunity to be in His family, in His kingdom. And of course, the Church itself is to marry Jesus Christ.

But let's notice Matthew 9. Matthew chapter 9. There's so many scriptures I could turn to with regard to that. But Christ did tell, by the way, His disciples, He says, that I've loved you, now love each other the way I've loved you. I've loved you, love other people the way I've loved you. How did Christ love us, brethren? Well, you know, He laid His life down for us. If you want to read about love and what love God has shown us, and the love of the Father and the love of Jesus Christ, read John 15. That whole chapter is about loving.

One another is Christ loved us, and the Father loved us. But Matthew chapter 9, here, and down in verse 55 here... Oh, wrong! I put the wrong chapter here, didn't I?

How did I do that? I'm not in the wrong book, am I? Oh, no, it's 35. I don't know why.

What did I put? Oh, I did put 35. See, another example of where I thought I made a mistake, and I did.

But, because I'm being facetious. But verse 35, then Jesus went about all the cities and villages teaching in the synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. And when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd. And that's when he told his disciples the harvest truly is plentiful, but the labors are few.

Another way he could have said it, fellas, we got a big job ahead of us.

And we need more. We need more reinforcements to get this job done, to get this job accomplished.

But Christ loved people. Do you love people, brethren? Are you showing love toward people in your life? I know sometimes when people come to the church, and I have to admit, I was sort of a loner when I first came to the church. You know, if you look for me, I'd be in the corner somewhere, usually, hiding out from people, afraid somebody'd find me. And I still have a hard time with that, you know, believe it or not. I am a shy person, a bashful person. But now, some people may not think so, but I assure you, it's an act. If you think I'm not, but an act. No, I'm not acting for you, but you know, you just try to do differently than you feel inside.

But, you know, Christ loves people. We've got to love people, but we have to have compassion upon people. And you know, if you don't have compassion, and I know we all need more and more compassion, all you've got to do is get sick and you have a little more compassion for other people that go through the same things in their lives. You know, I learned a lot when I went through the period I went through. It really helps you understand that everybody's on their separate journey. Hopefully we're on the same path, but we're on a separate journey, and you're not me, and I'm not you. And God is the judge of every man. And the Bible says, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. So, you know, another thing about Christ, traits about Christ, is He agonized with great trials in His life. There was no one that knew trials more than Christ.

He was acquainted with sickness. He was acquainted with all these things. I don't think I need to, you know, show these through Scripture. But, you know, He was one that, again, was acquainted with these things. And if that was enough, then He faced His own scourging and His own crucifixion for all of us, brethren. But, you know, here was the Word of God. It's rained down from heaven, as I mentioned here. Let's go over to Hebrews chapter 5. You know, this is what really, I guess, got me to start thinking about this unified theory of everything with regard to man.

Because, first of all, I saw what it said about Job. He was a perfect and upright man. Now, was Job perfect? No. But by the time the 40th chapter of Job comes around, how much closer do you think he was? I think he was a whole lot closer. I almost certainly wouldn't say that about me right now, that I'm perfect. You know, maybe he would say he's driving to be perfect. But but Job was perfect. And then what he went through even perfected him more.

He saw more, you know, in the experiences he went through. But Hebrews chapter 5, I keep talking, I need to turn. But Hebrews chapter 5 and verse 1, we'll just sort of set the stage here. But chapter 5 and verse 1, it says, For every high priest, taken from among men, is appointed for men and things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices. Now, the introduction of the fact that here of a high priest, you know, is what this topic is about, what this chapter is about. But let's go on down here to verse 4. And it says, So also Christ did not glorify himself to become high priests. Christ didn't glorify himself. He didn't lift himself up to be high priest. But it was he who said to him, You are my son, today I have begotten you. It was the Father who did that, who elevated Christ to be the high priest. And he is our high priest at the right hand of the Father today.

But the next few verses really reveal some of the most striking things, by the way.

As he also says in another place, you are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek.

And it says, Remember when Christ was in the garden of Gethsemane and prayed two times before, and the final time, I'm not going to go to this particular passage, but the final time he was praying, his disciples remember had fallen asleep and he asked him, Why couldn't you wait for me at least one hour?

You know, but and of course then came back and found they were sleeping. He said, Sleep on.

You know, after a while. But you remember what happened? He was so earnest in his prayers, right? He was agonizing in his prayers that apparently the blood vessels, the capillaries of his forehead burst, and it said he sweat great drops of blood.

Brother, have you ever prayed a prayer like that? I'm not talking about bleeding, you know, into the carpet, but I'm saying, have you ever been that intense in your life in a prayer?

I didn't say I haven't been. Have you ever prayed so hard, brethren, you sweat?

It's sweat pouring off you because you're so intense, and you're agonizing within yourself. This is what Jesus Christ did, brethren, and this is the kind of being that Jesus Christ was. But remember, he was flesh and blood when he was doing that. He was God in the flesh. He was a manual, as we know the word a manual means God with us, but he was also flesh and blood.

But again, we see here, brethren, in the days of his flesh, when he offered up prayers and supplications with vehement cries and tears to him, who was able to save him from death and was heard because of godly fear, though he was a son, yet he learned obedience by the things which he suffered. And having been perfected—now, there's that word, brethren—having been perfected, he became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey him. Incredible. He learned through his experiences, brethren, to be a faithful high priest so that he could be perfected. I thought Christ was already perfect. I thought he was already perfected. Now, think about that. Think about that. A lot. And we know that Jesus Christ now sits at the right hand of the Father looking down from heaven right now, and I assume he sees what's going on right here in Oakland. He's what we're talking about here right now.

But, brethren, next and final question is, how do we know when we have what we seek? How do we know that? Well, you remember that Jesus Christ—let's go to Matthew 3, and I'll begin to wrap this thing up quickly here. But in Matthew 3, you remember this account that John had been baptizing in the Jordan River area. But notice in verse 13 here, then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. And John tried to prevent him, saying, I need to be baptized with you. And are you coming to me? You know, John was intelligent enough to know that Jesus Christ should have been baptizing him rather than vice versa.

And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Now, what is interesting to me, if Christ was perfected by the things he suffered, you'd think that would be a signal that you're done.

But Christ was perfected by the things he went through after this. This is the beginning here, the book of Matthew. It's interesting, like Job was considered to be perfect, upright, at the beginning. But it was more perfected by the end. Christ was sinless, brethren, at this particular point. The only thing that was lacking, perhaps, is the human experience, and the character in the human experience for him to be a faithful high priest.

And, brother, I wonder about Job. That God looked down from his throne, he said, he saw Job, and he said, Job, you know, you're perfect. You're complete. You're blameless as far as I'm concerned.

And, you know, we're upright. But you know what? For what I got in mind for you, you need a little more experience, and you need to be perfected. You need to be perfected. So, brethren, when will we know when we have attained, when we've gotten there, brethren? Let me tell you when you will know.

You want to write this down, by the way? Because you probably never hear this again, but when God, the Father, and Jesus Christ say to you and to me, brethren, well done, you good and faithful servant. Enter into life, brethren. Then you will know that you are done, at least from the standpoint of becoming a part of God's family, and be growing, of course, after that. Remember what, in fact, in the parable of the talents that we read about in the Bible? You know, what the rich, nobleman says? Well done, now, good and faithful servant. Because you've been faithful over a few things, I'll make you ruler over many things. Well, brethren, this is how we will know, because then we will have been perfected, will be changed out of this human flesh, and we will enter on into the family of God. So everything we're doing right now, brethren, keeping the Days of Unleavened Bread, seven days to, like I said, some microcosm, Passover, Days of Unleavened Bread, and then the Holy Spirit, and growing as God's people. So, brethren, this is the unified theory of everything.

It is the unified theory of man. And, of course, it's not just the theory. It is the truth, and the whole truth, in fact, and nothing but the truth. I hope that we, as God's people, in fact, make sure that God can complete us so that, in fact, when Christ does return and we're changed out of this human flesh, you know, God can help us to enter on into his family, and we will be perfect men and women able to enter into the family of God.