What Are You Really Eating?

You know, we've entered the spring holy days, and there's already been momentous things that we have commemorated as we're here on this first day of Unleavened Bread. A couple evenings ago, we observed Passover, the baptized members did, and we commemorated and in somber ways remembered what Jesus Christ had done for us and realized that without His sacrifice, none of us have any future at all. And He went through an enormous amount to sacrifice not only His life but being humble enough to and wanting what God and He had planned before the foundation of the earth to give up being God, to come down and live as flesh and blood that we might have our sins forgiven and that we might have the opportunity to eternal life. And then last night we celebrated as we recognized what God had done. He had won the victory over death. He had won the victory over Satan. He destroyed the works of the devil. He finished what God had sent Him to do, and the plan was assured it was going to go forward. And we have over the last several days, weeks maybe, been putting leavening out of our homes and all that that means, and we're here together on the first day of Unleavened Bread. And the first day of Unleavened Bread has a lot of meaning. The whole seven days of Unleavened Bread do. And you know, the events of that week didn't end with Jesus Christ's death. The disciples, I sometimes put myself in their shoes and what they had to be thinking that time during that week when the last Passover was given, and Jesus Christ was there. And even though He warned them many times, I will suffer, I will die, I will be resurrected in three days. They just didn't get it. They didn't understand it. And as they were there on that first day of Unleavened Bread, they were still confused, probably. How did this man, this good man, this perfect man, this Son of God that we knew Him, how did He die? And they would recognize later what had happened. And all the words that Jesus Christ said to Him that last night of the Passover would really come home and make them realize what had happened and would make them believe in Him even more. You know, as we read through the other night some of those words in John 14, and we could be turning back there, Jesus Christ talked about a lot more than just His death. He had given them the institution of the Passover the way that it should be kept going forward. The foot washing, the taking of the bread, the taking of the wine, the deep meaning of each of those things that we do physically, but the spiritual impact on them for the rest of the time until Jesus Christ would return, the Passover would be taken. But He also set the standard for some of the other holy days that we observe here. Let's look at John 14. John 14 and verse 19.

John 14. John 14, verse...

Let's pick it up in verse 15 and read down to verse 19.

If you love Me, He said, keep My commandments. Very straightforward. Comment that I will pray to the Father, and He will give you another helper, that it may abide with you forever. The Spirit of truth, which the world cannot receive, because it neither sees it nor knows that Spirit, but you know it, for it dwells with you and will be in you. Well, 50 days later, from the Sabbath, the day after the morrow of the Sabbath, the disciples would be gathered together on the day of Pentecost. They would feel that Spirit of God, that had been with them, that would now be in them. They didn't really fully grasp what Jesus Christ was saying at the time He said this, but 50 days later, they would. And 50 days from tomorrow, we'll be gathered together at the day of Pentecost, and we'll be celebrating the feast of first fruits and that day of Pentecost, where God gave His Holy Spirit. I will pray to the Father, verse 16, He'll give you another helper, that it may abide with you forever. The world, the Spirit of truth, which the world cannot receive because it doesn't see it nor does it know it, but you know it, for it dwells with you. And when we repent and when we're baptized, and when one hands are laid upon us, the Spirit will be in you. I will not leave you orphans, I will come to you. A little while longer, and the world will see me no more, but you will see me, because I live. You will live also. He would die. He would lay in the tomb for three days and three nights, and He would be resurrected, just as He told them that He would be. Back in Luke 9, verse 22, and in Matthew 16, they didn't grasp what He was saying then, but that resurrection occurred during the days of unleavened bread. And He says, because I live, you will live also. He died, that our sins could be forgiven, God resurrected Him, and in Him we have hope for our eternal life as well. It happened during the days of unleavened bread. Later, the Holy Spirit would, the disciples would go back, they would think on these words. And as God inspired the Apostle John to record these words years later, they understood then what Jesus Christ was telling them. They didn't even understand what the foot washing service was about. The taking of the bread and the wine. They did it, but they understood later, and they understood later what He was doing and how He was showing the plan of God and what would happen through the plan as we'd see in His holy days for mankind. He spoke about bread a lot too, didn't He? Let's go back to Mount John 6.

John 6, verse 38, we read these words the other night. He told us who He was as He came down from heaven, born as man. He says in verse 38, I have come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of Him who sent me.

And so, like Him, we pray thy will be done, Father. This is the will of the Father who sent me, that of all He has given me I should lose nothing, which would raise it up at the last day.

The Father will call. You can only come to Me if the Father calls you. If you repent, if you heed that call, if you turn to Him, if you're baptized, if you receive the Holy Spirit, if you endure to the end, this is the will of the Father, that you would be given eternal life, and I, Christ says, will raise it up at the last day. And on the Feast of Trumpets, at that 7th Trump, we talk about the resurrection of the first fruits, as it talks about in 1 Corinthians 15. Jesus Christ talked about it at that time. And this is the will of the sent me in verse 40, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him, and remember what the New Testament word believes is, to stoil a very deep, life-changing, action-changing, thought-changing process when we truly believe Jesus Christ and believe in Him. They have everlasting life, and I will raise Him up at the last day, that promise that's there if we follow, when God calls, if we endure to the end, if we let the Holy Spirit lead us and guide us. And He said all those things to the disciples, all those things to the disciples, on that last night before He was arrested, before He was crucified, words that later would come back to them, and they would realize exactly what He was saying, words that should resonate with us as well. Over in John 12, I'll get to the bread in a minute. I've got a little bit ahead of myself here. Over in John 12, in verse 47, let's pick it up in verse 45. We'll read down to verse 50. 45, He who sees Me, Christ said, sees Him, speaking of God the Father, who sent Me. I have come as a light into the world that whoever believes in Me should not abide in darkness. And if anyone hears My words and doesn't believe, I don't judge Him, for I didn't come to judge the world but to save the world. He who rejects Me and does not receive My words, has that which judges Him. The word that I have spoken will judge Him in the last day. The things that God has opened our minds to see, the things that we have heard, the things that we've understood, will be accountable for that. Verse 49, For I have not spoken of My own authority, but the Father who sent Me gave Me a command, what I should say and what I should speak, and I know that His command is everlasting life. Therefore, whatever I speak, just as the Father has told Me, so I speak. So Jesus Christ told them, these are not My words, these are the words of God the Father. I am here to just speak what He has spoken, and He wanted them to receive those words, to receive those words.

Many things that He told them, who He was, who He was, and the things that He did and who, whose will it was that He was serving and whose words He was speaking. Now let's go back to Exodus 12. With that preface in mind, let's go back and read the command of the Holy Day that we're on here, the days of Unleavened Bread that we're in here. Exodus 12, verse 15. Jesus Christ talked about the plan of God, and He talked about the days of Unleavened Bread, too, as He did the Passover. In verse 15, it says in Exodus 12, Seven days you shall eat Unleavened Bread. On the first day you shall remove Unleavened from your houses. That would have been the day before the sunset of last night that began these days. For whoever eats Unleavened Bread from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel. On the first day, that's today, there shall be a Holy Convocation. And on the seventh day, that's next Friday, there shall be a Holy Convocation for you. No matter of work shall be done on them, but that which everyone must eat, that only may be prepared by you. In verse 19. For seven days no leaven shall be found in your houses, since whoever eats what is leavened, that same person shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he is a stranger or a native of the land. And he repeats it again in verse 20. We know those verses. We know that during these days of Unleavened Bread, they picture something very, very significant leavening. And in the Old Testament, you know, we remember that the Israel left, they didn't have time for their bread to be leavened. They couldn't puff up. And we've talked in years past of what are some of those elements of leavening does. I mean, leavening, as I just said, puffs up. The Apostle Paul talks about people being puffed up. We know that when leavening enters that dough, it begins to ferment and a decay process begins. And so when you have leavened bread, it's not going to last nearly as long as unleavened bread. You could keep your unleavened bread that you had this year, and probably next year you're going to be able to eat it just as well. Couldn't do that with a loaf of bread that had leavening in it. And of course, the spiritual application to us is the same. Unleavened leads to life, leavening leads to death and decay. And God wants us during this time to put the leavening out. His will is that we have eternal life. But we can't have eternal life if we have that decaying agent in us. And so as we walk with him and as we follow him, he wants us to become pure and be perfected. Let's talk a little bit about leavening because Jesus Christ talked about leavening as well. Let's go back to Matthew 16.

He knew well the days of unleavened bread. He knew how Israel was keeping that. And he was helping us to understand that there is leavening in life, not just leavening in bread. It has a spiritual application over in Matthew 16. In verse 5, one of the lessons that he taught them, he said, Now when his disciples had come to the other side, they had forgotten to take bread. And Jesus said to them, Take heed, and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees.

They were talking physical bread, but he was showing them the physical or the spiritual application. And they reasoned among themselves, saying, It is because we have taken no bread. But Jesus, being aware of it, said to them, Oh, you of little faith, why do you reason among yourselves, because you have brought no bread? Don't you yet understand? For remember the five loaves of the five thousand and how many baskets you took up? Not the seven loaves, or nor the seven loaves of the four thousand and how many large baskets you took up? How is it you don't understand that I didn't speak to you concerning bread, but to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees?

Ah, there's something other than physical leavening. Beware of what they're doing. Beware of what you see around them. That leavening has a greater meaning than just that yeast, that baking soda, those other names that you were looking at ingredients this week. It has a spiritual application, because Christ's will for us, we'll turn there later, but in 1 John 3, verse 3, he's willing that we become perfect. And if we have that hope that he's given us, our desire is to be purified and have his leavening out of us. He was giving them some instruction here on what leavening to look for. Verse 12, Then they understood that he didn't tell them to be aware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

They were preaching something different than Jesus Christ preached. They were doing things differently than what it really said in the Old Testament. They had added layer after layer after layer after layer of things onto the law of God. They had made great burdens, and they had made their law more important than the law of God. It was more important that you followed exactly what their standards were than what God's law was. And he said, that's a leaven doctrine. There's a little bit of good in there, but you know what? It's leaven! Be aware of it! Don't fall prey to it! We could say the same thing to all of us today. We live in a world that has a doctrine. I could go out, as I said before, on the street corner of Orlando, or Jacksonville, or any major city in America, and ask how many people, do you believe Jesus Christ died for your sins? You know what? Almost all that go to church would say, yes, they do. Yes, they do! Yes, we believe He was risen from the dead. Yes, we believe He wants to give us eternal life.

But it's a leavened doctrine they preach. It's not what the Bible says. Just like what the Pharisees and Sadducees were not doing, what the Bible said and what the Torah said, then, and He told us, He told them, He told you and me, beware of the leaven of the doctrine. Don't fall prey to it. We have to know the Word of God who was speaking the Word of God, Jesus Christ. He was the Word of God. In John 1, verse 1, the Logos, in the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He told us, the words that I speak are from the Father.

Believe His words, not the leavened doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadducees, or the religions of this world that claim they know God, but then they preach something totally different than what the Bible tells us to preach, or to believe, or to live. And remember, a little leaven, as we'll read in a minute, leavens the whole lung. When God calls us, He expects us to learn over the course of our life, to truth and live by that truth and more year by year to be living it, and for it to become part of us and define us. So that leaven, the leavened doctrine that we grew up with, or the leavened doctrine that we see around us, that we might think, oh, it's not a big deal, or whatever.

He expects us to be putting that leaven out, just like He was making the apostles, the disciples, and you and I are disciples of Christ if we're here today. We want to learn and be like Him. Be aware of the doctrine, the leavened doctrine of the world.

Let's go over to Galatians 5.

Apostle Paul spoke the same thing to a church that was being troubled by those who would challenge the doctrines that he taught them. He said in 1 Corinthians 11, we read it on Passover night, that which he received from God, he gave to them. What he was taught by God is exactly what he taught other people. But on Galatians 5, we have a troubled church that is being beset by those who would have them believe something else or question what it is they have been taught. What did I say? Galatians 5. Galatians 5 and verse 7.

In the ensuing verses here, in the really old chapter, he talks about and he says in verse 7, you ran well! You were doing very well! Who hindered you from obeying the truth?

We could ask ourselves the same thing. Who hindered us? Was it God? Are we simply doing what he says? Or is there some one, some thing, some relative, some TV show, some Internet thing that we read? Who hindered you from obeying the truth? This persuasion does not come from him who calls you. We have the words of Christ. We can go back and see exactly what he said. This persuasion that's hindering you from obeying the truth doesn't come from him who calls you a little leaven. Leaven is the whole lump. Clean it up, just like we did during the days of unleavened or leading up to the days of unleavened bread. Clean our houses of leaven. The spiritual application is God wants us to be putting that leaven out of our lives. When he sees it, when he reveals it, or we see it when he reveals it, put it out. Don't hang on to it. Don't hide in the cabinet and say, eh, no one will know that's there. Put it out. Put it out. Over in Luke 12.

Luke 12 verse 1.

Christ talks about leaven again. In the meantime, when an innumerable multitude of people had gathered together so that they trampled one another, he began to say to his disciples, first of all, Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees. Beware of that leaven. Don't let that be found in you. And if it is in you, weed it out. Throw it out. Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. They look one way when they're around people, but what you see, what they do in private is far different. They say one thing, but they do another. Hypocrisy. It's the leaven of the Pharisees. Hypocrisy can mark us, too. It's leaven. God wants us to be who we want us to be 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Not just at Sabbath services, not just at Holy Day services, not just one more in each other's homes, but every single day on the job, in the neighborhood, in the grocery store, in the community, in whatever associations we might participate in. Always the same, not hypocrites. That was leaven of the Pharisees, you say. Don't be like them. Don't be like them. Yield your entire heart to God. Follow Him. Yield to Him. Let Him guide you in everything and let Him, through His Holy Spirit, help you see that leaven and then you make the decision to put it out of your lives. Because unless we're growing, unless that leaven is out, there won't be any leavened people in God's kingdom. He is in the process of unleavening or deleavening us as we go through life.

But we have to make the decisions along the way. If we reject Him, as Christ said, then we've taken judgment to ourselves. We know what the answer is.

Paul talked about leavening as well and specifically mentions the piece that we're in over in 1 Corinthians 5.

1 Corinthians 5.

There's actually, of course, individually we purge out the leaven of our lives. He's looking for a pure church as well, as he has a body that is joined together here, and that he is called and made us part of. In 1 Corinthians 5, there's a well-known passage here as well, an incident that says in verse 1, it's actually reported to this Corinthian church that there is a sexual immorality among you. Such sexual immorality is not even named among the Gentiles that a man has his father's wife.

And this was going on in the church, and the church was tolerating it. There were people who knew about it, but they didn't feel at all compelled to put that leaven out. They just kind of learned to live with it. Paul says, you're puffed up. You're leavened. You've got this pride among you. You should have mourned over what was going on, that he who has done this deed may be taken away from you. Do you know what the purpose of your life is? If you have this hope, everyone who has this hope, it says in verse 3, purifies himself. And he expects his body to be pure as well.

For I indeed, as absence and body, but presence and spirit, have already judged as though I were present him who has so done this deed. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together along with my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. So what he's saying is you're tolerating him.

You think in your minds that, oh, you're kind of protecting him. He's still here. We'll just kind of live with it. We won't deal with it. And that's kind of a human thing to do, right? It's kind of kind. We don't want to upset anyone. We don't want to have anyone be mad about anything. And oftentimes, rightly so, we think, well, why should we be the one bringing something up that, as this Corinthian church did here, but he said, you're doing it to service.

If you really love this person, it needs to be weeded out. He needs to see that leavening in him. So if he needs to disappear for a while so that he begins to see who he is, then he can come back so that he will be saved. He says, so they do. They follow what Paul said. And over in 2 Corinthians, we find that the man did repent, and he came back. And so he became de-leavened. You're glorying, it says in verse 6, isn't good. Don't you know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?

There's this one thing in your church, or this one thing in your life, but you need to weed it out. When you see that leaven, you know, when you go through your house, if you find a loaf of bread sitting somewhere, don't ignore it. Throw it out. Don't think, oh, there's only one day left of unleavened bread. Get rid of it. And that's what he's saying. A little leaven, leavens the whole lump.

Therefore, purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. That's the process God is working with us. For indeed, Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us. Therefore, let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. And that's how we should keep the feast, with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

Just as diligent as we are in making sure the crumbs are out of the toaster and the car is swept out and we've gone through the freezer and looked under the refrigerator and gotten all that, we should be looking at our lives through God's eyes and the eyes of His Word, and be willing to get rid of all those crumbs and all that leavening in our lives.

And making sure that we're marching toward the goal that God has set for us. Matthew 5, 48, he said, become perfect. That means unleavened. Unleavened in the spiritual sense. Become perfect just as your Father in heaven is perfect.

Well, let's go back to 1 John 3 and read what the Apostle John recorded. He was with Jesus Christ for three and a half years. He kept the faith until the end of his life. 1 John 3, verse 4, he talks about sin.

He talks about sin.

Verse 4, whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness. I like the way the old King James says it better. Sin is the transgression of the law. Sin is the transgression of the law. When we break one of those commandments, we sin. Verse 5, and you know that he, speaking of Christ, was manifested to take away our sins. And in him, there is no sin. He is perfectly unleavened.

Whoever abides in him doesn't sin.

Whoever follows him, whoever lets his Holy Spirit, whoever walks with him in sincerity and truth, doesn't sin. Whoever sins has neither seen him nor known him. Now, we all sin, but he's talking about our attitudes of becoming perfect. We all slip up, but when we do, we repent and we get back on the road to where he is taking us and what he wants for us.

Verse 7, little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as Christ is righteous. He who sins, who continues in that lifestyle, is of the devil. For the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose, the Son of God, was manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil. And that he did.

Now, let's go back up to verse 1 of chapter 3. Behold what matter of love the Father has bestowed on us, on you and me, that we should be called children of God. Therefore, the world doesn't know us because it didn't know Him.

Remember, Christ said that in His last prayer. He said, Father, the world doesn't know them, just like they didn't know Jesus Christ and what He was about.

John says the same thing here. Beloved, now we are children of God, and it hasn't yet been revealed what we shall be. But we know that when He is revealed, we will be like Him, for we will see Him as He is.

Everyone who has this hope in Him purifies Himself, just as He is pure.

If we really believe, if we really have faith, if we really understand, and if we are really repentant and yielded to God, that will be our goal. Purify ourselves. De-leaven ourselves. Unleaven ourselves. Now, we can only do that with God's Holy Spirit, with Him showing us where that leavening is in our lives and giving us the strength, giving us the strength and determination to weed that out. And if we want to be in His kingdom, if we want what He offers, we have no choice. There is one way, and that is to become unlevered.

Colossians 3.

So, as we are here on the first day of unleavened bread, now we've read that we are not to eat, well, we have put the leaven out of our houses, and no leaven shall be seen among you.

In Colossians 3, and there's a parallel verses in Ephesians 4, we read about putting out the old and putting in the new.

Colossians 3.

Let's start 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. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth, for you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you will appear with Him in glory. Therefore, put to death your members which are on the earth. Fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil, desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. Put those things to death. Nail them to the cross. Bury them. Put them out of your lives. Because of these things, the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience, in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them. But now you yourselves are to put off all these as you unleaven your life. Put off anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. Don't lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds.

And when God calls, and when we repent, and when we make that eternal commitment to Him through baptism, we're telling Him we're burying that old man. We are putting that leavening out. Unleaven us. Create in us. And God says He sees a new creation in us. Create that new man.

Verse 10. You put off the old man with his deeds, and you have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge according to the image of him who created him. Put off the old. Put on the new.

Put the leavening out of your hoses and out of your homes.

It's part of what we do during these days, right? Part of what God has commanded us to do. But that's just part of what He's commanded us to do. Put out the leaven, but what else must we do? Let's go back to Exodus 12. Exodus 12 and verse 20.

We read through verse 19 a few minutes ago.

Exodus 12 verse 20 says, You shall eat nothing leavened. In all your dwellings, you shall eat unleavened bread.

Put the leavening out, and don't eat anything leavened. But eat unleavened bread.

Leviticus 23, where God lists His holy days, it specifically talks about putting the unleavened in. Leviticus 23 and verse 6.

And on the fifteenth day of the same month, that's where on the fifteenth day of Aediv, as God's calendar is today, on the fifteenth day of the same month as the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the Eternal, seven days you must eat unleavened bread.

Put out the leaven, eat unleavened bread, seven days. Two parts. We've done that. We've done, and we continue to do that the rest of our lives, put the leavening out of our lives as we see it. But the other part of the commandment is to eat unleavened bread during this time.

What are we eating, really, when we eat unleavened bread?

Whether it's matzo, whether it's unleavened bread that you've made, whether it's whatever other brands of unleavened bread there are, what are we eating? Hell, we know what we're eating, and when we get up in the morning and we put butter on it or whatever we put on it, but what are we eating?

Let's go back to John 6, because Christ had a lot to say about bread, unleavened bread, and what we're eating.

John 6, verse 48, He says, I am the bread of life. Now, we know He's perfectly unleavened. He's without sin. I am the bread of life. Your fathers, He said to those gathered there today, ate the man in the wilderness. They're dead. This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die. Ah, eat of this bread, and you won't die. I am the living bread, He says, which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I shall give is my flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world.

Ah, eat the body of Christ. Yes, bread! Eat of this bread, He said. The Jews didn't know what He was talking about. They quarreled among themselves and said, How could this man give us this flesh to eat? In verse 53, Jesus said to them, Most assuredly I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you.

Well, there's the Passover service.

Physically, but also spiritually, we do it. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on me will live because of me. This is the bread which came down from heaven. Not as your fathers ate the manna and are dead. He who eats this bread will live forever.

When we eat unleavened bread, the crackly matzo, the crisp bread that you make at home, that's physical, but what is the spiritual bread? What are the spiritual applications of that bread? Christ says, eat this bread! Eat of my flesh! Eat me, basically, if you want to live forever.

What are we really eating when we eat those matzos every morning?

Sign of verse 63 of the same chapter here.

Christ said, it's the Spirit which gives life. The flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.

He spoke the words that He was given by God. He is known as the Word of God. The words that He spoke, He says, they're spirit and they're life.

Eat the unleavened bread of life. Eat.

John 17 and verse 17.

In His final prayer, Christ says, sanctify. Set them by... set them apart by truth or by your truth. Your Word is truth. The words you speak, God, are truth. They lead to eternal life. Those are the words that men live by. Those are the words that they should eat every day.

Christ Himself said in Matthew 4.4, man doesn't live by bread alone. He lives by every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.

This is His Word. This is what He says we should be partaking of. His body, Christ who is at perfect one with Jesus Christ.

Fast forward to Revelation.

His words, the words He spoke that He received from God the Father, they are spirit and they are life. Revelation 19.

At the end of this age, at the time that Jesus Christ is returning to earth to claim the kingdoms of this world as His own, it describes Him beginning in verse 11 of Revelation 19.

So, as I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse, He who sat on Him was called faithful and true, and in righteousness He judges and makes war. His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns. He had a name written that no one knew except Himself. He was clothed with the robe dipped in blood, and His name is called the Word of God. Christ that eateth my flesh. He who eats this bread will never die.

Eat the unleavened bread.

1 Corinthians 1. We see other things that Jesus Christ is to us.

Paul writes 1 Corinthians 1 in verse 30.

He says, But of Him, you are in Christ Jesus, and you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.

He is to us the Word of life.

He is for us wisdom from God. He is for us righteousness. He is for us sanctification and redemption.

That, as it is written, lit he who glory, or he who glory is letting glory in the eternal.

Romans 5 verse 17 says the same thing, that Christ is righteous.

When we eat of Him, we eat of righteousness. Romans 5 verse 17.

For if by the one man's offense, speaking of Adam and his sin, for if by the one man's offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the one Jesus Christ.

Verse 18, therefore as through one man's offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one man's righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life. And then in verse 19 he repeats the same thing and says by one man's obedience, many will be made righteous. God wants us to become righteous.

Jeremiah 23. There's an interesting verse.

Jeremiah 23.

In verse 5.

Behold, the days are coming, says the Eternal, that I will raise to David a branch of righteousness. A king shall reign in prosper and execute judgment and righteousness in the earth. In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will dwell safely. Clearly speaking of the time ahead of us when Jesus Christ returns, now this is the name by which he will be called, the Lord, our righteousness. He's our Savior. He gives us word in Him as redemption. He is our righteousness. Psalm 119.

The longest chapter in the Bible where David, over and over and over again, extols the virtue of God's law. How he meditates on a day and light. How he day and night. And how it has become Him and how magnificent it is as he thinks about how the application of his life, God's laws, would be. He says this in Psalm 119, of course, verse 72.

My tongue, he says, shall speak of your word, for all your commandments are righteousness. Well, if we do God's law, that's the definition of righteousness. Follow Him. Do what He says to do. When we're yielded to Him and when we're led by His Holy Spirit, He wants us to become righteous.

Jesus Christ is righteousness to us. The commandments are righteousness. Verse 142 says, your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and your law is truth.

Think of them by truth. Your word is truth. Your righteousness is truth. Your law is truth. Christ said, eat of this bread. Eat of these things. When you are eating the unleavened bread, think about what you're eating. Because once we put the leavening out, once we tell God, the old man I bury, the old man is gone. I believe you, I'm committed to you, I want to follow you, and I intend to follow you the rest of my life. We eat the unleavened bread the rest of our lives. If we believe and if we want what God has to offer, and over in Exodus 13, we find in the commands to Israel the reason we eat unleavened bread during these seven days. Exodus 13. Let's begin in verse 3.

Moses said to the people, Remember this day in which you went out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. For by strength of hand the Eternal brought you out of this place. No leavened bread shall be eaten. Here they were, free at last from the bondage they had been in all their lives. On this day you are going out in the month A. Verse 7. Unleavened bread shall be eaten seven days.

You put the leavening out, but you're going to be eating unleavened bread. And no leavened bread shall be seen among you, nor shall leaven be seen among you in all your quarters. If you want Christ abiding in you, if you want to abide in Him, Christ said, Keep my commandments. Eat the unleavened bread. He said, If we living by Christ, sin won't be among us, we'll fall, but we will be on the path toward perfection. We won't let sin overtake us and continue in it.

Verse 8. And you shall tell your son in that day, saying, This is done because of what the Eternal did for me when I came up from Egypt. It will be assigned to you on your hand, and as a memorial between your eyes, it will guide what you do, it will guide what you think, that the Eternal's law may be in your mouth.

Eat unleavened bread. Seven days. And this is what you tell your son.

This is what God did for me. This is where God is leading me. This is what we do, and we do it that the Lord's law may be in our mouths.

That's what we eat. When we crack off that piece of masa or that bread that we've made, that unleavened bread we've made, think about the Lord's law. The law is righteousness. Christ said, Eat the bread of His flesh. He's righteousness. God wants us to become righteous. Eat the unleavened bread. It will be a sign to you that the Eternal's law may be in your mouth, for with a strong hand the Eternal has brought you out of Egypt. You shall therefore keep this ordinance in its season from year to year.

Follow Him. Eat the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. Eat the unleavened bread of righteousness. Eat the unleavened bread that Christ said, Take, Eat. Eat it all the days of your life. Commit to Him.

In Matthew 5 and the Beatitudes, Matthew 5, verse 6, Christ said, Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for what? For righteousness. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.

We need to be hungry and thirsting for that bread that Christ advised us, admonished us, to eat. And if we eat it all the days of our life, if we eat that unleavened bread, the righteous have a great future if they truly eat that unleavened bread. In Matthew 13, Christ says something that's repeated in Daniel 12 as well. Actually, Christ says in Daniel 12. And as He talks about the, as He has some kingdom prophecies here in this chapter in verse 43, He says, Then the righteous, those who eat that unleavened bread, will shine forth as the Son and the kingdom of their Father. Do you want to shine forth in the kingdom of your Father? Learn the lessons of the days of unleavened bread. Christ says, He who has ears to hear, let him hear. We'll have a good rest of the days of unleavened bread, and we will see you here next Friday on the seventh day of the unleavened bread.