We Are Not All There

Here is short of a bushel, one egg short of a dozen, rolling with only one ore in the water. And by the way, I should mention, I don't have all of these in my memory. I actually found a website that listed hundreds of them. I thought this was amusing. It said, two clowns short of a circus. And since I spent several years working fast food, I saw one. I liked it. It said, this fella's got the burger and fries. No, he's got the burger and coke, but he's a few fries short of a happy meal. And one of the most succinct that we've often used is, he's just not all there. He's not all there, meaning something's missing in the thought process. And I bring that one out last because that particular phrase works as a joke. But we've also sometimes used it as an answer to a question that, if we think back to our past, we used to hear as part of an introduction to a number of sermons. Remember, there was a person who would introduce our sermons by saying, brethren, why are we here? A wise crack answer could come back and say, well, because we're not all there. And in the wise crack, it means only someone who can't think very clearly would be keeping Saturday for Sunday and eating these weird matzo crackers. But we made a joke of it in the past partly because you could take it as a bit of a double entendre, meaning that there's actually a great deal of truth in it. It just so happens that mankind in general truly is not all there. The human mind is naturally defective. It is lacking. It lacks something important and necessary for reaching its full potential. While I'm looking to the past, I thought I should throw in, we could say it's incredible human potential. And we could say that because man is not all there, he tends to behave badly. We're here today keeping this Holy Day in part because we want to make the point that God wants to make us whole. He wants to add, and actually, and for us, he has begun to add that missing ingredient, the thing that we need. Now, before I go further, we should address the question. Some people would say, well, what could be so wrong with people? What's so bad? Doesn't it say in the first chapter of Genesis that God created man in his form and likeness and said that all that he created was good? I'm not going to turn there, but also in Psalm 139 it says that man is fearfully and wonderfully made. And that is absolutely true. Our bodies are marvels. We could say marvels of engineering. Something that the best mechanics, the best designers look at the human body, and they're just amazed. And, of course, scientists try to say that it evolved by happenstance, and we could only laugh when you look at the intricacies. I didn't turn there to that Psalm, but let's turn to Psalm, the eighth Psalm. Psalm 8, beginning reading in verse 4.

Because here we can begin to see a hint that mankind, although created good and in God's image, in general, is not yet all that God intended him to be. Psalm 8, beginning in verse 4. This is a familiar passage, as most of them I'll read today will be. What is man, that you are mindful of him? We believe David wrote this speaking directly to God.

So God, what is man, that you're mindful of him? And the son of man, that you visit him? You've made him a little lower than the angels, and you crowned him with glory and honor. You made him to have dominion over the works of your hands, and you've put all things under his feet. And he goes on from there. You might say, that sounds pretty good. We're at the top of the food chain. All things are under us.

But then we look around and might say, well, not yet, or not quite. We're still a little lower than the angels, and we're a lot lower than God. I could probably be satisfied with that position. Being below God and only a little lower than the angels, that's hardly a bad thing. But I want to turn to the book of Hebrews. Hebrews 2, there's a passage that expounds on this and explains a little bit more.

And of course, while we're turning there, I'll mention that, as you've probably often heard, that that passage, the Hebrew, could be translated to say that man is a little while lower than the angels. So the difference seems to be as much or more about time than about status.

So if that's the case, then as time passes, we would deduce that God intends there to be a change. Now, in Hebrews 2, verses 6-8, quote the passage in Psalms that we just read, so I won't repeat all of that. But I'll pick it up partway through verse 8, where the author here, who we believe was the Apostle Paul, comments further. It says, For in that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that's not put under him.

But now we do not yet see all things put under him, but we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, that he by the grace of God might taste death for everyone. For it was fitting for him for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, and bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through suffering.

For both he who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of one, for which reason he's not ashamed to call them brethren. And I'll stop there. We could read this and say, well, it might be saying that we are not all there, but Jesus is all there. He has everything he needed. He gave up some of that to pay for our sins, and he's been raised incorruptible. He's now God the Father's right hand.

And the exciting thing is the plan is for us to become like him. That's something we look forward to. But mankind is not there yet. We're still a little lower than the angels. And we could say that the vast majority of people are seriously lacking. I'm going to just cite a couple of scriptures. Many of us have memorized Romans chapter 3 and verse 23. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. We've all sinned. We are all short of God's glory.

Also, Jeremiah 17 and verse 9. I remember commenting to the students at ABC on this. There are certain scriptures that take me way back to my youth. I've commented my grandmother was the first one in the church. And as she began learning this truth, she taught my sister and I and had us memorize scriptures. And this was one of the very first. Jeremiah 17 and 9 says, The heart of man is desperately wicked. Who can know it? Now, I want to clarify. I'm not saying that man is not all there because he's wicked and he sins.

But it's more the other way around. Man sins and he's wicked because he's not all there. In his thought process, I do want to turn to Jeremiah chapter 10.

Jeremiah 10 and verse 23. I do have a lot of scriptures today, so you'll bear with me. Or I'll ask that you bear with me. Jeremiah 10 and verse 23. Jeremiah seems to be talking to God about this situation where he looks and understands the nature of man while he's still missing that vital ingredient.

O Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself. It's not in man who walks to direct his own steps. We just don't have the capacity to determine right from wrong. Adam and Eve made that decision when they took of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They made the decision that they were going to try to decide for themselves what was right and what was wrong.

But without God's revealed knowledge, they couldn't do it. Mankind, as initially created, doesn't know the right way to live and can't figure it out. Let's turn back a little closer to the front to Isaiah chapter 59. Isaiah 59 will begin in verse 4. This is the state of the world with mankind missing that ingredient that he's lacking.

I'm not sure if ingredient is the right term, but we'll come to what that is, and I'm sure many of you are ahead of me. It says, Their feet run to evil. They make haste to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity. Wasting and destruction are in their plans. The way of peace they have not known. There is no justice in their ways. They've made themselves crooked paths. Whoever takes that way shall not know peace.

That sounds pretty bad. If you watch the news, pick up a newspaper, look around the world, and that's pretty much what's out there. Even when people seem to be trying to do right, it runs to wickedness. Mankind hurts and destroys other people. Hurts and destroys himself. I will note, there are plenty of philosophers. They're a secular humanist who will say, Ah, that's just a bunch of words. Mankind has done wonderful things. They say, the study of man is amazing. Look at the things that he's done. Consider the great artwork, the sculptures of Michelangelo, and the great paintings.

Listen to symphonic music and just the beauty that's there. The great poetry. Things like that. They would say that these words are just trying to intimidate people. Scare them of an ever-burning hellfire and bring them into control so priests and religious people can tell them what to do. But if man would be left on his own, he would be fine. I'm saying these are the philosophers, the people that don't believe in the Bible.

As I said, along with the art, they might look at our technology. Nowadays, in this country, most people carry in their pocket a computer that connects them to almost anyone else in the world, has more processing power than the rockets that went to the moon and back by a long ways. The astounding things that mankind has done. They say, how could he be so bad? But that's the philosophers, the apologists. As a history teacher, I say, you know, there's another side to that, especially focusing on military history.

You look back through the history of mankind, you see violence and bloodshed. You see what it says here in Isaiah. Mankind scheming to seize power and use it to rule over others to their hurt. There have been attempts at genocide over the years. I don't like those people. I want to destroy them from the face of the earth.

I'm not going to turn there, but the book of Esther describes an early attempt to wipe out the Jewish people. And of course, we're very familiar with, or most of us are very familiar with, the story of what happened during World War II, when the Nazis extended an evil empire across Europe and tried to exterminate the Jews. There has been precious little time in the history of mankind when there was not war going on somewhere on the globe. And in recent decades, the developments of nuclear weapons and biological weapons have made human extinction a real possibility. And we're probably familiar with what Jesus Christ said in Matthew 24, verse 22. I'll read it for you.

Many of you haven't memorized. Matthew 24, 22 is where, at the end of the Olivet prophecy, or near the end of it, he said, Unless those days were shortened, there would no flesh be saved alive. Mankind would just wipe himself off the face of the planet, blast ourselves out of existence. Yes, mankind has a problem. As a species, we're operating a few bricks short of a load. Is that really the case? Am I saying that just from appearances? Well, I'm not saying it just from appearances because it actually is the case. The Bible shows that the human mind is missing a necessary essence to be able to understand and live God's way.

But the Bible shows that God is called some now and tends to call everyone eventually to change. God doesn't want us to stay in that state. I'm focusing on that today, of course, because the days of unleavened bread are a time when we talk about a transformation. We symbolize putting sin out of our lives, and we symbolize putting something else in by this week of putting leaven out.

So it's important for us to realize that. The Bible is pretty clear. It shows that God wants for everyone what He's offering to just a few now. John 6, 44, in that passage, Jesus Christ said that no one could come to the Father. No, let me say that correctly. No one could come to He Christ unless the Father draws Him. But He also made it clear throughout the Bible that eventually all would have that calling.

And we're called now to accomplish what's called overcoming. I'm going to turn to the early in the book of Revelation. In Revelation, chapters 2 and 3, we see the good that can come from overcoming. Overcome means change the way you are. Overcome the sin, the evil in your life.

I'm just going to hit on these because I want to show the rewards, not look at all these messages. But in Revelation 2 and verse 7, "...to him who overcomes I will give to eat of the tree of life." I'd like to eat of the tree of life. Down in verse 11, "...he who overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death." I definitely would like that. In verse 17, "...to him who overcomes I will give to eat of the tree of life." I'll give some of the hidden manna to eat.

And I'll give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name. I've always laughed at that. Well, I haven't laughed. I'm sure it will be a momentous event. I imagine you come up in the resurrection crisis. Here's a white stone. And I say, thanks. I always wanted a white stone. But I'm sure the symbolic significance is much greater, especially that new name, which I suspect is the family name of God. But we're not done yet. Let's look at verse 26. "...and he who overcomes and keeps my works until the end, to him I will give power over the nations." If we can overcome this problem that mankind has of not being all there, we're going to have eternal life.

We're going to have a chance to rule, and not just have power for power's sake, but to help the nations. Chapter 3 and verse 5, "...he who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot his name out of the book of life." Those white garments are symbolic of righteousness, of being able to live God's way, and having our name in the book of life. Looking down at verse 12, "...he who overcomes I'll make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he'll go out no more." That means a central part of the structure of God's temple.

And other places in God's Word show that the church is a spiritual temple. We are living stones in that. So to be a pillar means to be a vital part of this spiritual body that God is creating. And in verse 21 of chapter 3, "...to him who overcomes I will grant to sit with me on my throne, as I also overcame and sat down with my father on his throne." I'd like to have all of those things. So I guess I need to work at overcoming. For those who are called now, and who understand the Bible now, which most people in the world don't, we need to work at overcoming.

Overcoming sin. Overcoming the nature within us that rebels against God's way. We need to work at becoming something else, becoming whole. That was sort of summarized by Peter in Acts chapter 3 and verse 19. Acts 3 and verse 19. I'm pulling just one scripture out of this sermon that Peter was giving. If we want to call it a sermon, he spoke to so many people at different times, sometimes addressing the authorities who were putting them on trial. Here Peter says very clearly, "...Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that the times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord." I see this as expressing the idea that I've been trying to explain in three different ways.

First is repent, which we know literally means to stop going one direction and go another direction. Stop going the way of mankind that can't think properly, that runs to evil and minds that devise wicked plans. Stop doing that and go the other way. Also be converted. That means to change from being one thing into something else. Change from being humankind, from being a few bricks short of a load, to becoming like God. And I thought, repent and be converted. Another way we could say that is, put sin out of your life.

I thought that's appropriate for the days of Unleavened Bread. We put leaven out because it's a symbol of putting sin out. And then, of course, the last thing he says here is, the times of refreshing. It refers to a time of starting over, making things new again. What all is going to be made new? Of course, when Christ comes to this earth and rules, much will be made new. The government will be made over social systems, everything.

But no matter what else it might be, we God's people are to be made new. I want to turn to 2 Corinthians 5. We're not far. 2 Corinthians 5 and verse 17. Because we're beginning to turn to look at how we stop being not all there, to becoming all there. 2 Corinthians 5 and verse 17. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things have passed away. Behold, all things become new.

Paul liked using that phrase, new man. We can see it also in Colossians chapter 3. I want to turn back to there. Colossians 3 beginning in verse 9. Imagine, old things have passed away and we've become new. Colossians 3 and verse 9. Do not lie to one another, since you've put off the old man with his deeds. If we stop and say, his deeds, what deeds? Well, all the things that I was describing earlier in the sermon about wickedness and shedding blood and thoughts devising evil.

It's sin, deceitfulness, the selfishness that destroys ourselves and destroys others. But he's saying, you've put off that old man that does those things and have put on the new man, who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of him who created him. We might say that being renewed as referring to being the way God originally made mankind and the way God intended him to be, without sin. The way Adam and Eve were before they took of that tree of the knowledge of good and evil. When God finished the creation and he looked and behold, it was very good. We want to become renewed like that again. And of course, that's only possible with the sacrifice of Christ to take away our sin and take away the penalty for our sin.

We want to be made like Christ. That's why when we read in 2 Corinthians 5, 17, it says, A person is a new creation if he is in Christ. At the start of this chapter in Colossians, we see in verse 1, If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God.

I see that when is it that we're raised with Christ? Now we know if we die and we wait till Christ returns, we'll be raised. And of course, 1 Corinthians 15 discusses that. But I think Paul is probably, symbolically speaking of our baptism.

That's the one time when, symbolically, we go into a grave to leave our old sins behind, and we picture our sinful self being buried, and a new man coming up out of the water. Which, I've done more baptism counseling lately since I've been at ABC. We have those young students, and many of them feel that they're at that point of life. And one of the things I've tried to point out is, remember, going under the water is symbolic, but coming up out is also symbolic. It represents starting a new life, being raised with Christ. And that's what Paul is writing here. If you're raised with Christ, you're a new person. You start being a new person and being like Him. The ritual of Passover, like baptism, well, baptism reminds us of that, but once a year we come here and we keep the Passover, which also reminds us of that.

That Jesus Christ was not only our Creator, but He was also our Redeemer and our Savior.

I'm not going to turn to 1 Corinthians 15, but I like the way it says it in 1 Corinthians 15, verse 3. It simply says, Christ died for our sins. It almost couldn't be more plain and clear than that. He died so that we can be renewed and refreshed, so that we can be changed and become a new creation.

That's why we came and took of the bread and wine that symbolized His body and blood.

I wanted to turn to the book of Zechariah, chapter 3.

I was teaching this in class recently, and it struck me that it does fit with the meaning of these days in an interesting way. Zechariah had an interesting night.

An angel came to him, and he had visions, and he had eight different visions all in one night. They're described in the first few chapters of the book. I said, Wow! I've had some rough nights before. There's one point where I said he fell asleep, and the angel woke him up. You've got to keep looking at these things. He wrote it all down.

Here in chapter 3, he says, he showed me Joshua the High Priest. That was the High Priest who was living at his time when they were rebuilding or building the Second Temple.

But this is in a vision that he's Joshua as though he's on trial for his sins. Joshua the High Priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to oppose him. Satan, remember, is the accuser of the brethren. He points out to God our sins and how guilty we are all the time, and he wants us to be convicted. It's just like the story of Job, where the angels came before God, and God asked Job, you know, what have you been doing? Not Job, he asked Satan. He's walking around, and, hey, have you noticed Job? Satan couldn't wait to criticize him. Anyways, of course, Satan's opposing Joshua, who Joshua will hear we can see to symbolize not just himself, but us. The Lord said to Satan, the Lord rebuke you, Satan. The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you. Is this not a brand plucked from the fire? So, Joshua is there, and it's going to say in verse 3, Joshua was clothed in filthy garments standing before the Lord. So, he's wearing these filthy garments that represent a sinful lifestyle, which all of us could see ourselves in that way. But God says he's a brand plucked from the fire. He's like a piece of a stick that's in a campfire about to burst into flames, or maybe it's glowing, and you grab it and pull it out.

You don't let it burst into flames. Now, that stick can't pull itself out of the fire. It's helpless. Just like we can't save ourselves from our sins. We're all helpless. But he's there with the filthy garments, and he answered and spoke to those who stood before him, saying, Take away the filthy garments from him. He said, See, I've removed your iniquity from you. I've taken away your sins, and I'll clothe you with rich robes.

He said, Let them put a clean turban on his head. And they put a clean turban on him, and put the clothes on him, and the angel of the Lord admonished Joshua, saying, Thus says the Lord of hosts, If you walk in my ways, and if you keep my command, then you shall also judge my house. And likewise, have charge of my courts. I'll give you a place to walk among those who stand here.

I'll stop here, and it goes on to portray Joshua, the high priest at that time, as a symbol of the coming Messiah that they were looking towards. But I believe he's also symbolic of the people of God, all of whom have been clothed in filthy garments. We've all lived a sinful lifestyle, and we can't save ourselves from it.

But in his mercy and love, Jesus Christ pulls us back from that death and takes away our sin, takes away the filthy garments, and gives us the white robes of righteousness. And he starts making us whole. And that's one of the reasons I want to say we don't stop with what we do at Passover. We come and we participate in Christ's sacrifice, symbolically, by eating that bread that represents his broken body. And drinking the blood, or we drink the wine, we don't drink blood, but the wine that symbolizes his blood that paid for our sins. But that's not the end. We follow right after the day of Passover with a seven-day festival of unleavened bread, the first day of which is a high holy day, and the seventh day is a high holy day, to show the process of not only having our sins forgiven, but of starting to live a new life, of changing, becoming a new creation. We don't want to be satisfied with just having our sins covered and forgiven. We want to become people who don't sin anymore, people who don't even want to sin. In that regard, I want to read Galatians 2 and verse 20. This is another scripture that many of us have memorized. If you have it memorized, you don't have to turn, but I'm going to turn there because I find myself in class, often trying to cite it from memory, and I say it wrong. I don't get it totally wrong, but I'm often a little bit off, so I'll read it here. Galatians 2, 20, Paul says, I have been crucified with Christ. Now, we aren't literally nailed to a beam or a cross, but when we take of that Passover, we're saying we're symbolically being crucified with Christ. So it's no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. And the life that I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

This is saying a lot. It's easy to read over quickly, but what I'm saying again, we symbolically participate in Christ's crucifixion. We symbolically participate in His death. We do so when we're baptized, but also every year at Passover. But then we invite Christ to participate in our lives. We symbolically participate in His death, but He really participates in our lives. That's why Paul writes, Christ lives in me. And I stopped in my notes. I said, can I say that Christ lives in me? Can you say Christ is living in me?

I think more or less all of us can. We might hesitate because that seems very presumptuous, but that's exactly what God wants. We should be able to say that. And we can see further explanation in Romans 5.

Romans 5 will begin in verse 8.

Romans 5, beginning in verse 8, says, And that's to say, we're not just saved because Christ is alive, but we're saved because He lives in us, as we read in Galatians 2.20. So that's how we're saved by His life. We could have our sins covered, but we'll go sin again. Until we're spirit beings, we don't have the power to resist that. But Christ living in us makes us into a new creation. He makes us someone that doesn't want to sin anymore. Paul elaborates a little bit more further down. Actually, I think that's Romans 8, verse 10. Yes, Romans 8, verse 10. I had that wrong in my notes. I said further down in the chapter. I should have said further down in the book. And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead, but if the spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit, which dwells in you. So that tells us, when Paul said, Christ lives in me, when I say, how is He doing that? It's by the Spirit. The Spirit is the essence and the power and the presence of God. So the Holy Spirit being in us is how Christ lives in us. That's how it's done. So as I said, symbolically, we participate in Christ's death, first at baptism and then every year at Passover. Then Christ, not symbolically, but in actuality, participates in our life by the continual supply of the Holy Spirit. His Spirit being put in us, flowing through us, hopefully coming in and then coming out by our works and our thoughts and our actions. That relates to the idea of humans being not all there. Remember, human beings on their own, before they had that spirit, there are a few clowns short of a circus. Let's see what they are in 1 Corinthians 2. This is another basic scripture. 1 Corinthians 2 will begin in verse 9. But I think I hadn't been in the church that long when Mr. Armstrong was coming to an understanding of what this was saying, and it opened our eyes greatly. That's what led him to write the incredible human potential and then Mystery of the Ages. It's informed our understanding of how God is working in mankind ever since. Let me begin reading in verse 9.

We can send men to the moon, we can slice genes and do amazing surgeries and save lives. But that's it! We can perceive the things of a man. It stops there without God's Holy Spirit, finishing that verse. Even so, no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Now, we have received not the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit that is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.

These things we also speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man doesn't receive the things of the Spirit of God, but their foolishness to him, because he's not all there. Nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he who is spiritual judges all things, and he himself is rightly judged by no one. And that's with that Holy Spirit in us. That's when we become a new creation. I'm going to turn back to 1 Samuel 10, because this is one of the places where we see a dramatic description of the Holy Spirit changing someone into a new person.

I'm going to see just the beginning of God working with Saul, who anointed his king. I've always kind of liked this story. I don't like where Saul's story ended up, but how it started is kind of neat and kind of fun. 1 Samuel 10. Actually, I'm going to skip through this. I'll follow Mr. Bumgardner's example of skimming over the Scriptures to get to the heart of what I wanted.

Remember, the children of Israel had come to Samuel, who had been judging them and leading them, and they said, Your sons aren't following your ways. We've got trouble. We need a leader. Make us a king, like all the other nations have. Now, Samuel was pretty upset at that, but God came to Samuel probably in a dream or some way and said, Look, they're not rejecting you, Samuel.

They're rejecting me, God, that I shouldn't be king over them. But go ahead, appoint them a king, and I'll tell you who it should be. And so he does. Anyways, and of course, it picks up with Saul's story of going out as a young man looking for some lost donkeys, and he came to Samuel. 1 Samuel 10 and verse 1, Samuel took a flask of oil and poured it on his head and kissed him and said, Is it not because the Lord has anointed you to be commander over his inheritance? So suddenly Saul's looking for help finding donkeys, and he's told, You're going to be the king.

And he gets oil poured on him. This is totally aside from the sermon, but I've told people. I still remember when I was a teenager, the first time I got anointed for an... Actually, it was an injury, and I never had a minister anoint me, but I'd read this. So we went back in the clock. I thought for sure he was going to take out a vial of oil and pour it on my head.

So I was greatly relieved when it was just a little dab, and he laid hands on. But anyways, after he anointed him and poured the oil, Samuel started telling Saul what was going to happen on his journey home. And I won't read all of it, but he tells him, Oh, someone's going to tell you and say, Oh, those donkeys you were looking for, they've been found.

Don't worry about that. You'll meet up with some other travelers who are going to have some extra food, and they'll give you some bread. And then you're going to meet a group of prophets. And we don't know exactly what they were doing, but many people think they were singing and praising God. And he said, you're going to join in them. And let's read verse 6. Then the Spirit of the Eternal will come upon you, and you will prophesy with them and be turned into another man. And so it happened. You know, everything that Samuel described came true, but I just love the particular way it said, you're going to get God's Spirit, and you'll be turned into a different person.

That's what happens to each of us. You know, except for the little children in the room, we've all gone through that. We've been baptized, and we didn't come out of the water and suddenly walk across the water. But we were different, and we've grown up becoming a new person, becoming more all there. I'm not sure if that's the right phrase, but becoming less and less someone who's a few bricks short of a load, and God's been adding the bricks.

I've got to watch how I mix my metaphors. I could get in trouble here. Now, sadly, Saul later turned away from God. There's a sad cautionary tale that we can cut off the Holy Spirit if we resist it. But that's not... I don't want to consider the rest of that story today. I just wanted to look at the start. And we need to continue to submit to God and realize that He'll continually supply His Spirit. One way that it's easier to understand perhaps the need for continual supply is to think of... you know, compare it to having something to eat. All of us know what it's like to go without eating. Christians fast at times. And how does it feel when you don't eat for a while? It feels pretty bad. You start feeling weak and disoriented. And we start realizing that we don't eat. We'll die. We need to... God made us to take in food on a daily basis except for rare occasions. That's why we call it our daily bread, as in, give us this day our daily bread. And that's a big reason why Jesus Christ compared Himself to bread in an important metaphor. Let's go to John 6. We actually read some of this during the Passover ceremony. But it'll be good for us to read again and review.

John 6 and verse 48.

I could read just this one scripture. I'll add a little bit more. But there, plainly, Jesus told the crowd that He was speaking to, I am the bread of life. I'm the bread of life. He said, Your fathers ate manna, which was a special type of bread in the wilderness. And they're dead. This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he'll live forever. And the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I'll give for the life of the world. And we discussed, and we saw during the Passover ceremony, that Christ, it seems almost certainly, had the Passover symbols in mind. And a little bit later, He said further in verse 53, And later on, it doesn't say these words, but the people were aghast. They thought He was talking about cannibalism. They said, How could this guy give us his body to eat? They were grossed out, we would say, in modern terms. But we understand that we symbolically eat and drink of Christ when we take the Passover. And there I want to say, just as the Passover is immediately followed by the days of Unleavened Bread, so we follow up repentance and forgiveness of sin through Christ's sacrifice with what we call the process of conversion. We need to more than just be baptized to acknowledge Christ's sacrifice. We have to do that stuff that I was talking about before. We have to overcome. We have to become a new man, live a new way of life, and become a new person. We overcome sin, we put sin out of our lives, symbolized by a week of leaven being put out of our lives.

And we remember, the best way to put a bad thing out is often by putting something else in. Let's turn to 1 Corinthians 5.

1 Corinthians 5, and we'll begin in verse 7.

We're almost certain that Paul was writing this letter to the Corinthians at the time of the days of Unleavened Bread, which tells us, of course, they were still keeping it after Christ's sacrifice. He told them, 1 Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened, for indeed Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us. 2 Therefore let's keep the feast, not with the old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

Unleavened bread can be symbolic of sincerity and truth. I was looking at some scriptures where you can do some connections. If I had a board, it's not mathematical, but sometimes I like to do mathematics. If you say, unleavened bread equals truth, and John 17 and verse 17, Jesus said something else equals truth. That's where he said, God's Word is truth.

So the words of the Bible are truth, and like bread, they provide spiritual life.

Well, we're here... no, we're not in John anymore, are we? John 6 verse 63. I'll turn there quickly and read it.

God's Word is truth. Here, John 6 verse 63, Jesus said, The Spirit gives life, the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are Spirit, and they are life. God's Word is Spirit and provides life. That's why it can be likened to life-sustaining bread in a spiritual way. The Word provides life.

And there's where I want to add to one other thing. What else is the Word? It's written in print here, but at the beginning of the book of John, we know Jesus Christ was the Word. He is the Word that was with God and that was God.

Now, I might be stringing this out a bit, but I also want to put that Jesus Christ is the Word. He is also the bread of life. So the Word of God can equate with the bread of life.

And the bread that we eat needs to be unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. I think I just made a circle. Maybe I'm talking in circles.

But I'm wanting to make that point as we're taking this unleavened bread in, it's symbolic of having Christ living in us. He wants us to eat His flesh, and I want to make the point that at Passover, the broken unleavened bread represents His broken body, His sacrifice. But I think we could say during these days of unleavened bread, taking that bread represents Christ's life coming into us. That we need Him living in us continually by His Holy Spirit. We can't just have our sins forgiven, we need to become new people, a new creation. And that's possible by God's Word. We study His Word every day, but we also want a continual supply of the Holy Spirit, of God living in us. And so that's one of the things I always pray. Is that me bouncing? Sorry about that. I pray, God, please renew Your Spirit in me. Please dwell in me by Your Spirit. I want Christ to live in me by the Holy Spirit. And every time I eat unleavened bread during this week, it helps remind me of that. As I said, it's symbolic. The unleavened bread doesn't give us life, although it helps sustain our physical bodies. And I don't mean to downplay or to slight the traditional meaning that we keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread to picture putting sin out of our lives. Of course it represents that. And as we put sin out, we put righteousness in. Just like the children of Israel left behind a life of slavery in Egypt, after we came out of the waters of baptism, we leave behind a life of sin and we strive to become like God. These are two perspectives of about the same thing. We need to not live a life of sin. We need to live a life of righteousness. And neither of those are even remotely possible for us to do on our own. Why isn't it possible? Because without God's Spirit, we're not all there. God made us to need that something more. And I know Mr. Armstrong used to talk about the creation in two stages. God made the earth and then put Adam and Eve there to dress it and keep it. He made mankind good, but still lacking the Holy Spirit. The one thing that would raise us up to understand things spiritual. And we need the Spirit of God to empower us to comprehend the things of God. And that is Christ living in us. That's what makes it possible to understand God's Word and to live by it. And as much as we probably wish that happened instantly at baptism, we all know it doesn't. Conversion is a lifelong process. And although the Bible doesn't specifically say so, I still wonder if that's why the Days of Unleavened Bread are a week-long festival instead of one day like Trumpets or Pentecost. Maybe God wanted to remind us that overcoming sin and becoming righteous is going to take the rest of your life. But we're early in this week. We're not eating our normal cakes and breads and such, and instead eating unleavened bread. I meant to bring a matzo up with me, but you've seen them all. We're going to eat some in a little shortly. We can consider that when we eat that, we're symbolizing a life without sin. We're symbolizing the process of becoming whole. And we become whole by Christ living in us through His Holy Spirit. That gives us the vital element that mankind has been missing. That's the reason we're here. We're here because we used to be not all there. But by the power of God and by God's Spirit in us, we are becoming the children of God.