The Victory of the Passover

By approaching the Passover, there's something very special about the Passover. And obviously we all know, because it reflects on the painful suffering and on the death of Jesus, our Savior. But there is also another angle to it, which is very encouraging. And that is that it also reflects on Jesus Christ's victory over sin for us. And so today, brethren, I want to reflect on that side of the meaning of Passover. I have given a few sermons over the last few weeks about examining ourselves from the side of introspecting and changing and eleavening, quote-unquote, ourselves. But today I want to reflect on the other side, which is a positive side, which is an encouraging side, which goes so well with the sermon that we had, which is giving God glory and with the songs that we heard today as well for special music. You see, the Passover is part of a great plan of salvation that God asks for you and I as His children. And this plan of salvation is only possible by the undeserved, unmerited gift that God has given to us of the life and suffering of His Son so that we can share in that glory. There is a scripture which is often referred by many people, and I'm lucky to turn to it, which is John 3 verse 16, a very well-known scripture. I want to read today not only just verse 16 but 17 as well, because it forms as a good introduction to the theme that I'm talking about today, which is the Passover victory, or the victory that is reflected by Jesus Christ. And in verse 16 it says, For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. Now, you and I are also sons of God. You and I are also begotten sons of God.

But the word begotonia is the word monogenes, which is the only one that was begotten this way. And Christ was the only one that was begotten that way, by the power of God's Holy Spirit imbued upon Mary, and was the only one that was begotten this way by the Father. Sure, we're all begotten, but this way only Jesus Christ was begotten. And He did that, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish.

Now, the world takes this wall and says, well, all you need to do is just believe. Now, brethren, I've said many times, and I say it again, behind the word belief, there are actions that prove that belief.

We do what He says, because you believe in what He says we must do. That's what belief is. Behind it, there's action. And therefore, it's not just kind of our, well, you know, just lip service, but it's action. It's, as James says, I'll show you my faith by my works. That's what it is. That's what real belief is in Him. So, whoever believes in Him with that believing faith, which is real, which is living faith, should not perish. Now, the world reads this and says, oh, well, you've got an immortal soul. Come on! How can you have an immortal soul if you're going to perish? Perish means gone, finished, clar, as they say in South Africa, which means finished completely. Maybe, uh, Alfredian knows a bit of Dutch who will understand clar, which is probably a Dutch word as well. Yeah, over and done. Yeah, exactly. It's perish, but have a velocity life. Have immortality.

So, it's something we do not have. We don't have an immortal soul, but we will have if we believe because we have living faith. And then it says, verse 17, for God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world... Now, think about the world. The world means the society which is corrupt, with all its sorts. It's not just the few that God is calling today. He's talking about the world. Through Him might be saved. So, brethren, there is a big job ahead to get this world the way it is and to change these people. Wow! There is a job. It's only when you experience some of the evils that have been done, and you may be... You and I, we've lived through certain things and we've seen some of the pain and some of the things. And to say that these people are going to have to change, there is an enormous job ahead for that.

But God did not send His Son into this world to condemn it.

But that the world, through Christ, might be saved.

That is God's love for the world, not just for you and I, for the whole society.

So, God is a great plant of salvation. Because only when you start putting it together with God's great holy days, and you start practicing it, and living those holy days, do you start seeing. The light, over time, starts illuminating in your brain, and you start visualizing what this plan really is. Enormous!

But it requires a key to open it up. It's like, it requires a key to open up this door so it can go through this seven steps of the plan of salvation. But it requires a key to getting it. And that key, that starting, that start, that ignition, that starter, is the gift of the suffering of Jesus Christ, and of the death of Jesus Christ. It's true that suffering and death, just not the death, you have to suffer as well. And through that, He forgives us from our filthy deeds, as we did in the past, and the world one day will be forgiven once they repent.

And buying us back, making us right, making us clean, making us just. In other words, justifying us before God.

This, brethren, is nothing else than God's grace towards you and I.

In other words, you and I, we're in the gutter. We were in the grave. We were in the rubbish bin.

Dead, even though we could be living, but we were dead, spiritually speaking. We're in the gutter. But Christ, through His act, as we heard in this beautiful song we heard about, Isaiah 53, Christ opened the door, made it possible for us to be washed and to stand clean.

But now, that's only the beginning, because now we've got to do our part. It doesn't mean now, well, I can go back and do the deeds of the gutter. Now, we've got to, hey, He did that for us. He redeemed us. In other words, He brought us back. Now it's our accountability and responsibility to use the gift of the Holy Spirit. It was God's tool, God's power, God's strength in us. And change. And it's true, you and I are not changed like this. It takes a lifetime of overcoming, of persevering, till the end. In other words, He's a sanctification by the Spirit. So, God's grace, which is this undeserved gift of genuine love and kindness towards us. Completely unmerited. Completely undeserved. Of genuine care and sacrifice and loving kindness. Which, I don't know how to explain it.

So that you and I can understand what that care and love He has for us. But maybe the best explanation that you and I may understand is that when you have a tiny baby and as a mother, this little baby is so defenseless. And as a mother, you just quote-unquote mothering and care for Him or her and loving or her. And it's just this precious motherly and fatherly love. It's so special. It's maybe only a little tiny glimpse of the emotion and the feeling and the love and the care and the genuine, outgoing concern the Father has for us.

That's the grace that He has for us. That is His gift of love. And because of that love that He has for us, He gave us His only begotten Son.

What He had most precious, He opened the door for us. It was Him made it possible that for us now we can change. We have now been justified. Now we can work in being sanctified through the Holy Spirit. We can overcome till the end. Till, ultimately, we will receive eternal life at the resurrection. And that's all revealed or unfolded by the beautiful plan of salvation, which is explained to us clearly by God's Holy Days.

It's just so beautiful. But it's only possible with that starter, which is the Passover, which then unrolls immediately after that with the days of the Lamb of Bread and the plan of salvation.

So turn with me, please, to 1 John 4. 1 John 4. Because Yahweh sees John again describing this act of love that God has for us. And we're going to start reading in verse 9. See, for God is love, and in this night, this is the love of God. Or, beg your pardon, in this, the love of God was manifested towards us that God sent his only begotten son, the only monogenous, the only one that has begotten this way into the world that we, that you and I, might live, obviously eternal life, might live eternally through him. In this is love, not that we loved God. It wasn't us that started this. We were in a gutter, and some of us had our backs towards God.

But he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation. It was to make peace, to reconcile, to atone us for our sins.

Beloved. Verse 11. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. As we heard in the sermon, so we have to reflect that same character.

We have to show that same light.

I think it is important for us to understand a little bit better what actually the Father and Christ did for us.

Really to understand a little bit better and to meditate about it. And I recommend you to meditate about this deeply, because some people do not believe what Christ did for us. Their approach to the Passover, in a sense, is in an unworthy manner. If they don't, really believe and understand the depth of the meaning of the sacrifice. So, let's look at 1 John, John 1. John 1. John 1. We'll start in verse 17 and 18. We'll go back a few other verses as well. But let's start in verse 17 and 18. John 1. verse 17 and 18. For the law was given through Moses. Yes, the law, the instructions, what is right and what is wrong, was given through Moses. But grace and truth. Thank you, Jesus Christ. The grace of God. This genuine love, care, desire, just the best for us, to give us of everything that is good. This loving kindness, this sacrifice, sacrificial love, that's what His grace is for us. Didn't come from Moses. It came through Christ. Grace and truth. It came through Christ. So continuing in verse 17. Or rather verse 18. No one has seen God at any time. No one has seen the Father at any time. Now that is significant, which means no one, I think it means no one. Right? It doesn't say accept. It says no one. Which means Israelites in all testament never saw the Father. Right? Then it says the only begotten Son. But if you look in some Bibles, it says the only begotten God.

The only begotten God. He was the Son of God. He was in the form of God. This is important for us to understand. He always said the Father is greater than me. So it's not a question of Him being greater than the Father. No. But it's a question of understanding He was divinity. He was divine. And He gave that up to become human. And not only that, He gave up physical life for you and I. So in fact, He gave up eternal life. He was in divinity in eternal life. He gave that up, became human. He gave that up for you and I. Now that's what I mean. Do we really understand the depth of the meaning of the Passover?

Because when it says, well, many a man will die for another. Yeah, but they still think, quote unquote, they've got an immortal soul, quote unquote. You know, top of thing, you know that. Christ had the faith in the Father to give up divinity for you and I. Give up physical life to be maltreated like we heard in Isaiah 53 in the song. For you and I, that is the love of God for us.

Of the Father to allow His Son to go through it and of the Son to willingly empty Himself. That is their love. That is their grace for us, their graciousness, their care, their love, their unmerited love towards us. The only begotten Son, verse 18, who is in the bosom of the Father, it was His in a close, intimate, personal relationship, one on one with the Father. He has declared the Father. He has declared Him the Father. You see, this is the one that became the Word. He was the Word of the Father that became Jesus Christ. He was the Word. Look in verse 14, what he talks about.

He says, and the Word became flesh. So this is the one, there was the begotten God, and the Word became flesh and wealth amongst us, verse 14, and would be all His glory, the glory as the only begotten of the Father. Again, every time he's talking about this, it refers to this very special meaning of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth, full of this genuine, outgoing, undeserved love towards us.

And absolute truth. There is no taint of deception in Him. And so, who was the Word? Well, in verse 1, it's very clear, it says, who was the Word? In the beginning was the Word. In the beginning was the Word. This being existed in the beginning. And the Word was with the God, as it is in Greek, the definite article is there. So, and the Word was with the God.

It was with the highest, with the Father. And the Word was God. In other words, was divine of the God family, like you and I are human, human beings. He was of the God-being level of, or kind of beings. Verse 2, He, the Word, was in the beginning with the God. He was in the beginning with the highest. All things were made through Him, Jesus Christ.

It says that also in verse 10, the Word was made through Him. But it says, all things were made through Him, which means even angels were made through Him. And the planets and all things were made through Him. Nothing was made that was made. And without Him, nothing was made that was made. In other words, think about it. Let me give you a very simple analogy that you can try and understand.

Say, for instance, you work for company XYZ, and you are a representative of that company. And the directors of that company send you on a mission to do something. And you do, as a representative, as an agent of that company, XYZ, whatever, incorporated, you do this, this, this, this, this. Is it incorrect to say it was the president that did it? No. Because you, as the agent, acted in name of the president. But you were the agent.

You were the representative of that executive. And you did all the acts. Was the president a human being? Yes. Was the executive the agent a human being? Yes. That's in an analogy I'm referring to. God, the highest, the father, quote-unquote, His God, is the God, is the president, the Supreme, the highest.

He's agent. He's messenger. He is representative. That He delegated all the actions from A to Z, from Alpha to Omega, was Jesus Christ. He's the author of salvation. But they're both of the God-kind. And they are one. They are one mind, they're one purpose, they're one, there's only one God. There's no other gods that come into it. They are one. They work together as one in absolute unity. There's no conflict in this. But it's important for us to understand what they did for us. That's their love, their grace, that He came and died for us.

It's just amazing. So everything was made, so it says, everything was made through Him, and without Him nothing was made and was made. Nothing. So let's understand a little bit more about this gift, the sacrifice that He did. And another scripture which explains it a little bit more is in Philippians 2.

So let's read from verse 5. Philippians 2. And we're going to start reading from verse 5. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, in other words, reflect the same mental attitude as we heard in the sermon. Reflect the same character, reflect the same love, reflect the same humility and attitude of service, reflect the same grace. It says, who, which was in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God.

It was Jesus Christ as the Word was in the form of God, was of the God kind. It was in the form of that kind, that gene, let's call it.

Did not consider it robbery to be equal with God. Did not consider it identity theft to be called God. It was not identity theft. Now, you can't go and say that you are George the Campus because they'll say that's identity theft, right? But he did not consider it robbery to be called God, to be equal with God. Now, does it mean that he had equal power? No. But he was equal of the type, of the form of God. Using fearing power, that we know, he always said, my father is greater than I. So he did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made himself. Now, him and the father talked about it. They planned this. They discussed it. They agreed. But you know what? He did it voluntarily. He made himself of no reputation. In other words, he, think about it as if he had a suit on, and his suit was called divinity. And he took that suit off, and he was normal divine, in a physical sense, let's call it that way. In other words, he was still divine, because that is a mental attitude. He was always divine. He's divine. He's divine, he's approach. But he took that power, that strength, he emptied himself of that power. He became a human being without that divinity power. But his mental, he was always divine. He was always divine. He was divinity in the flesh. He was perfect. His mind, his character, he was never changed. But he emptied himself. He made himself of no reputation. He just let that power go. And instead of being of the God power, he became of a human power. He was of human strength. He emptied himself voluntarily. I'm trying to explain this, so we can actually see the grace of God, what is done for us. And then he says, he was taken the form of a human being. He was taken the form of a bond servant and come into likeness of man. In other words, he became humanity. He then, what we had is a human being with a human nature that was never corrupt, because we had divine nature inside this human being. But it was not corrupt human nature, because he was never corrupt. It was divine. So he had divinity inside a human being. And verse 8, and being found in appearance as a man. So he was now a human being. Now he did not have the power that he had, because he had emptied himself of it. So as a human being, he could not do anything. He had to pray and ask the Father to do it for him.

When he was the word, he could do it, because he had that power, but he emptied himself of that power for you and I. And this is Yama himself, and became obedient to the point of death. Even the death on the cross, or on the pole.

He became obedient to the point that he died. Therefore, God has highly exalted him, and given him the name which is above every name. And that the name of Jesus, every knee should bow.

And that comes out of Isaiah 44, I beg pardon, 45. Isaiah 45, that every knee should bow of those in heaven and those on earth and those on earth. And I've referenced that in Isaiah 45, it's so interesting, because it says, the Lord, every knee will bow down to the Lord, and it says that he's only one God, and the Lord is God. And this is the very scripture that you say, oh well, Christ could not be God, but he's saying, every knee will bow, and it says, it's to him. Verse 11, and that the every tongue, every tongue, and you know, brethren, every tongue means every tongue, physical and spiritual, means even the angels will bow down to him. Every tongue should confess that Jesus is the Lord, the Yahweh, to the glory of God the Father, as we heard in the sermon, the glory of God. Brethren, this is the grace of God, he has for us. This is a great gift of his love, he has for us, his loving kindness, completely undeserved. By you and I, whatever I've done, whatever you've done to deserve it. That the God, the Creator, gave up everything for you and I, and not only for you and I, he's doing it for the whole world, as we heard. He did it not to condemn the world, but to save the world. So there is a great plan of salvation for those that are now in the Gator. But one day you'll get them out of the Gator. Thank God for his grace and mercy.

Now this is very similar. A little bit of understanding of this loving kindness and grace of God is shown in the book of Isaiah. So let's turn to Isaiah, but in the book of Isaiah, he's actually talking about a physical, a physical nation. And in this case, he's talking about Israel, not Judah. And in the book of Isaiah, chapter 1, and let's start reading from verse 2, and he says, Now the Lord came and speak to Isaiah, and he says, Go and take yourself a wife of harlotry, and children of harlotry, for the land is committed great harlotry by departing from the Lord.

So you went and took Gomor, the daughter of Diblaen, and conceived in Bori Masan. And then the Lord said to him, Call his name Jezreel. In other words, God will disperse or scatter. Call his name, God will scatter.

God will scatter. For in a little while, I'll avenge the bloodshed of Jezreel on the house of Jehu. And that was a king of Israel. And bring an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel. Now understand that at that time was the time that the northern kingdom was Israel, and they went to slavery by the Assyrians.

It was not the time that the kingdom of the south, which was Judah, was the time of the kingdom of the north, Israel. And Israel was scattered. And he's still scattered today. And still they don't know themselves, they are Israel. They're still scattered. It will come to pass in that day and it will break the power of Israel.

Israel, not Judah, in the valley of Jezreel. So, Yah is some very important point to understand that God will scatter, will disperse the Israelites. Then look at verse 6 and 7. Now this is looking at from a physical point of view. So we now look at an example of God's love from a physical point of view. Look at verse 6 and 7. And she conceived again and bore a daughter. And God said to him, colonized, lo, ruamah, which means no mercy, no compassion. In other words, I will scatter you and I'll have no mercy, no compassion for Israel.

Israel will be scattered. For I will no longer have mercy on the house of Israel. Understand, it's the house of Israel. But I'll utterly take them away. I'll utterly scatter the Israelites, the northern tribe. Yet I'll have mercy on the house of Judah. You see, the house of Judah still stayed. It was the house of Israel that was scattered. So this was talking about the Israelites. And then let's jump to verse 8.

And now when she had weaned lo, ruamah, it was no mercy, she conceived and bore a son. And then God said, call his name lo, amin, which means not my people. And it was the Israelites and no more my people. That's why they're the lost ten tribes of Israel, quote-unquote, because people don't know as if they're still today, not these people in that physical sense. Even though God is intervening and has fulfilled many other prophecies, I'm just... there's a lot more into it than I'm covering, but just generally speaking. But look at then in verse 10. Now in verse 10, it starts bringing a different angle to it.

Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sign of the sea. You see, they'll be dispersed. God will have no mercy. They'll not be his people. Nonetheless, there'll be many of them, which cannot be measured or numbered. And it shall come to pass in the place where I said to them, you are not my people, in the place where I said to them, you are not my people. That is in the area of where we're today, in Palestine, in that place. They shall be said to them, you are the sons of the living God.

Then the children of Judah and the children of Israel shall be gathered together in the place where those people will be resurrected. They'll be brought there. And they'll be together again. It's talking about the second resurrection. It's talking about amazing things that it's going to happen that God will fulfill. It's talking about the eighth day, the last great day of the feast, of this plan of salvation.

Physically speaking, it's showing that God will have mercy, even though he had no mercy. And you can read a bit more of that in the story, but it is just an amazing story of showing God's mercy and grace, undeserved, to these people. Look in chapter 2, verse 14, for instance. Therefore, behold, I will allure her. I'll bring her into the wilderness and speak comfort to her. I'll give her vineyards from thee, and the valley of my core as the door of hope she shall bring thee, as in the days of her youth, as in the day when she came out of the land of Egypt.

And it shall be in that day, says the Lord, that you will call me my husband, and no longer call me my bio master. The word is bio. They worship bio. And no more will you call me bio master, but you'll call me my husband.

My husband. Who's going to marry? Isn't Christ? Isn't Christ?

And no long... it says, For I will then make, I'll take from her mouth, the names of the boughs, the balem, and they shall be remembered by their name no more. In that day, I'll make a covenant with them. I'll bear power for them, with the beasts of the field, with the birds of the air, and with the creeping things of the ground. In other words, you'll make a covenant with mosquitoes, and with different viruses and bugs. They'll be gone! These diseases that we have, they'll be gone! Creeping things of the ground, bow and sword of battle, I'll shatter from the earth. I'll make them lie down, safely.

I'll betroth you to me, forever. Yes, I'll betroth you to me.

In righteousness and justice, in loving kindness, it was in His great grace and mercy. I'll betroth you to me, in faithfulness. You shall know the Lord! You shall know! In other words, these people that have died, they'll be resurrected, and they'll still have their chance, which they never had, at the sacred resurrection, after the millennium. And they will know the Lord. And they'll then know Christ, and be able to be baptized, and repent, and persevere till the end. It shall come to pass, in that day, that I'll answer, says the Lord. I'll answer the heavens, and they will answer the earth. And the earth shall answer with grain, with new wine, with oil. They shall answer Jezreel dispersed, and I'll show her for myself in earth. I will have mercy on her, who had not obtained mercy. And then I'll say to those who were not my people, you are my people, and they shall say, you are my God. And this physical Israel, how much more spiritual Israel that we are, and the grace of God that it has for us. So it is possible, brethren, for us to have hope, because of His grace. We've done nothing to deserve it. Nothing.

This is His enormous love. His motherly love, like death with a tiny baby. He just wants to love, to give, and it's very difficult for us to comprehend that. Very difficult. And it's made possible by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and His victory for you and I. And therefore, you and I need to reflect that same glory, that same joy, that same light, that same victory, by being an example, by changing. And that is something to meditate and think about as we partake of the Apostle. That is, in a sense, the other side of the coin, a very positive angle. Look how Paul explains it to Titus in Chapter 2.

Yes, Paul giving instruction to one of the ministers here, and he's saying in Titus Chapter 2, starting on verse 11. Titus Chapter 2, verse 11. For the grace of God that brings salvation, the grace of God that brings salvation. That's deep, brethren. That is deep. That's that genuine, unmerited love and care for us, that makes possible God's plan of salvation. Has appeared to all men.

That grace manifested by Jesus Christ, but it's appeared to all... Teaching us. Teaching us what? Oh, that you stay as you are? Oh, just believe and stay as you are? No! Teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts. We've got to change. We've got to deny our old ways. We should live in a work in a new way, soberly, righteously, righteously, and godly. In verse 8, now, now, now. We've got to reflect that now. Looking, verse 13, for the blessed hope. What is that blessed hope?

The hope of being in the kingdom of God and having eternal life and being glorified with the same glory as the Father and Jesus Christ. Obviously, much lower in brightness, quote-unquote, but representing that same glory that we have to represent today. And so, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our God, our great God, and Savior Jesus Christ. Oh, when I was in Portugal, I had somebody tell me, no, we're in a Bible called Jesus Christ God. Let's read that. It says, our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. This is here. Right here.

Looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing. Here was the second coming of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.

Obviously, He's the agent, He's the executor, He's the representative that did all the work in the name of the Father. And so, the Father created everything through Jesus. It's the Father that did it all, but He is the executor, the executive agent, let's call it that, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us, you know, He might buy us back from the gutter, from every lawless deed, and purify for Himself. You know, as He purifies us, He makes us pure, He washes us through His blood, which is done at baptism, but it's reminded and recalled every year at Passover ceremony, as a reminder of that covenant that we made at baptism.

Purify for Himself His own special people. We are a special people, zealots for good works.

Therefore, verse 15, speak these things, preach these things, preach this, exhort, rebuke with all authority.

Let no one despise Him. Don't be afraid. Cry aloud. Spare not. Exhort, rebuke with all authority, because true. It's God's grace.

Brethren, this passes all human understanding. It just passes all human understanding.

And the lesson we learned, for instance, remember that story about the woman that was a sinner, and they were caught in adultery, and they were always trying to stun her, and then they all went away.

And then Christ said to her, where's your accusers? Oh, they're all gone. And so, I don't accuse you either. Just go and sin no more. That is our job. God has forgiven us, undeserved, on the condition that we repent and believe in Him. In other words, follow Him. Does the conditions, repentance, change, stun no more?

And therefore, when we have this as a frame, as a mental setting, let's now turn to Paul's instruction, inspired by God, about the Passover, in 1 Corinthians 11. So turn with me to 1 Corinthians 11.

And we're going to start in verse 23. Paul says, For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the same night in which He was betrayed. Now, the night He was betrayed was the night of the 14th, not the 15th. Therefore, we keep the Passover on the 14th, and don't let anybody deceive you that's otherwise. It was the night that He was betrayed. Full stop! Don't come and tell me that to our light is before sunset, because it isn't. Right? Don't play with words. Don't create disputes about words. The night in which He was betrayed. He took bread. He took the Passover. And when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, Take it. This is my body, which is broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me. Now, obviously, it was symbolic. It's a symbol that we partake of taking the bread, reminding us of Christ's body that was broken, that was beaten, that suffered. Broken. The body was broken. Suffered. That's why I said there's two symbols in the Passover. It's the suffering of Jesus Christ and the death of Jesus Christ. The suffering for our sins, because sins cause suffering. Sins cause pain. When your children or somebody else causes you things which are sinful, you suffer. You have pain. And it's painful. It breaks the body. It's suffering. So it's the suffering of Jesus Christ. So the body was broken for us because of sin. So we take that bread and we do it in remembrance of what He's done. In the same manner, verse 25, He also took the cup, that little cup with wine, after supper. Yeah, this was after supper. After the all-testament part had been completed, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood, because the life is in the blood. So He gave up His life. That represents His death. So it's the suffering, the bread, and the wine, the death, the blood. Do this as often as you drink it, and how often do you do it? On the 14th, once a year, and annual remembrance. That's how often you do it. Do it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread, which is annually, and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till He comes.

Therefore, who eats this bread, and drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. So, today I'm trying to give you a deeper understanding of what the grace of God is. So that you and I can take this symbolism in a worthy manner. So you can meditate from a different angle of His graciousness, and His love towards us, and what the degree of size of sacrifice that this is, so that you can really take it in a way that becomes worthy of the sacrifice that is done. Because whoever does it in a worthy manner will be guilty of that body and blood. But let a man therefore examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink the cup. Now brethren, it does not say, let a man examine himself, and therefore do not eat.

He says, examine yourself, and therefore eat. Take the parsela, obviously if you baptize, and you... But examine yourself so that you analyze, and you repent, and you change, and you get the right worthy attitude, the worthy manner, so that you partake it in the right manner. Eat the bread and drink the cup. In other words, take it. Take the parsela. For he who eats and drinks in a worthy manner, it was if we hadn't done this examination, self-examination, we prepared ourselves, we don't really appreciate the meaning of this. He says, whoever drinks in a worthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord's body.

Now comes real deep meaning, brethren. Real deep meaning. Because, typically, when you talk about the Lord's body, you would think of his physical body, which is right and correct.

But what is the Lord's body, spiritually speaking?

The body of Christ is the Church of God. And if you are taking the parsela in a worthy manner, you are not discerning not only the physical body of Jesus Christ, but also the spiritual body of Jesus Christ, which is the Church of God. Therefore, the reason of the next verse. For this reason, many are weak and seek among you, and many have died. Because many have not respected and honored and loved one another in the Church of God, and, of course, the vision in the Church of God, many have gone seek and had stress and got whatever, and some have had artifacts because of the division that some people in the Church of God caused one upon another, because they have not discerned the body of Christ, which is the Church of God. Verse 31. For if we judge ourselves, if you and I discern ourselves, if we evaluate ourselves, if we examine ourselves, if we, therefore, by examining ourselves, if we correct ourselves, and we do self-correction, self-examination, self-judgment, therefore, getting ourselves in the right path. We would not be judged. In other words, if we do it ourselves, then Christ does not have to correct us, because we are self-correcting. You know, it's like a thermostat. If a thermostat kind of self-adjusts the temperature in the house, you set it for a separate temperature, you don't have to keep there and modify the temperature, because it's self-correcting it. It's got this self-governance. So if you have self-governing yourself from this, you don't need to be now governed, or God does not have to come in and say, George, get back on the right way, this way. Not hit you down the head, but kindly, gently, come, come, come this way, come, come this way. And then if you still don't get it, that knock might be a little harder. And then if you still don't get it, it might get a little harder. Why? Because He loves you and loves me, and He wants me to go the right path.

So He says, if we judge ourselves, we'll not be judged. But when we are judged, but when we are corrected by God, because we're not judging ourselves, because we're not self-correcting, we are being chastened. In other words, when God corrects us, He chastens us. Why? For our good, so that we're not condemned with the world. It's for our good. It's for our good. So, brethren, as we examine ourselves and prepare for the Apostle, it is good also to consider the loving-kindness, the grace of God towards us, and what it means, that sacrifice. And give God thanks for it, because there is a positiveness in it. There is an encouraging positiveness on it. So it is also a time of great internal joy, the Passover. And it should be, because Christ has done it for you and I. And so, when we examine ourselves to reflect about preparing ourselves for the Passover, as we reflect on the painful suffering that Christ went for us because of our sins, there is suffering, and therefore He suffered for us. And because of that, we have to suffer for others as well, because we're going to reflect the same attitude. Because He died for us, for our sins, so that we can be justified and be made clean. So we'll reflect on that side of the coin, but look at the other side, which is the positive encouraging that reflects on Jesus Christ's victory, on His example for us of sacrifice and of giving to others, and therefore do as He did, as we read early on. Look at what manner of love God has for us, so that we should love one another the same way. So brethren, in preparing for the Passover, look at both sides. Don't forget to give God thanks for His grace, multitude, enormous, unmeasurable grace towards us, which brings us to eternal salvation, which is completely undeserved, and is because He loves you and I deeply. May God, brethren, richly bless you.