Worthy, "i Am"

I'd like to take you back to your very humble beginnings. I don't know if you know who your grandmother was, but when your grandmother was pregnant out to here, you, at least the first part of you, was inside her. You were inside the baby that she was carrying. That baby was your mother. Inside your mother's ovaries was your egg. Each ovary had about a thousand eggs in it, and you were one of them. From those two thousand eggs that she carried, by the time she became a teenager, the number of those eggs had reduced to about 200 in each ovary. Your sibling eggs were being eliminated very quickly. Some four-fifths were gone, but you remained somehow.

When you were conceived, you began to mutate, to divide. You began to become an organism that, of and by itself, had no thought, no intelligence, no abilities, nothing whatsoever. Life, in fact, was something that was done to you.

How many eggs became people that were inside your grandmother, inside your mother's ovary? How many children were in your family? Did you have five kids in your family that you're one of, or two kids, or were you an only child? What happened to the 90-some percent of the rest of those potential children that will never see life, that will never have an opportunity to experience what you've experienced? If they could speak, what would they say to you?

What would they say as far as, wow, or you very blessed individual, or what are you doing with our potential life? What are you making of yourself? You know, when we think about it, the fact that we are here is a remote chance. It's maybe a one in a thousand chance. On top of that, those eggs that were fertilized, many, if not most, did not even make it to the state where the mother even knew she was pregnant in many cases. The fact that you are sitting here as a very skilled, able, cognizant being is remarkable. If we look in Psalm 139 and verse 13, we find a statement by David about our lives, about our being created. Psalm 139 and verse 13 says, For you formed my inward parts. We don't see inside ourselves. I know we generally know there's something in there, but we don't see in there. We just take for granted when we get up in the morning, we start sending things down during the day. And we're here. We're living.

We walk through the day and we think through the day. We don't tend to think that from that egg we were formed. Our inward parts were formed. The next phrase is, You covered me in my mother's womb. If you look in the margin, you wove me in my mother's womb. You made this tapestry of systems and veins and muscles and nerves and gooey things and stinky things and connected things and all manner of things and then laced it with all types of small and large and complicated systems. You wove me in my mother's womb. We were made into something extremely complex. I will praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

At birth, you would have soon died on your own. A human baby cannot continue to live of and by itself. It has no ability to feed itself, to warm itself, to cool itself, to bathe itself, to keep away from getting itself into all manner of disease and problems. You would have died very soon after birth on your own. It took you one and a half years to understand the language that was going on around you within your environment and also to have enough motor skills to be what is called a toddler because learning just to walk is more like toddling at that age. One and a half years it took. It took two years for you to develop some sort of bodily control of your functions. You were still filling your pants at two years. That's what we do.

It took one and a half decades to be able to understand and communicate and read at basically an adult level, to understand what adults were saying and to be able to communicate at that level. It took about one and a half decades to begin to enter that threshold. Not that there was wisdom or much understanding, but just the understanding of being able to communicate then, to read and to write information at that level. You and I take our life for granted and yet we are a system of resistors and toxins. At some point, that precarious balance between the resistance to toxins and the toxins themselves will get out of kelter to the point where we succumb to the toxins and we die. When we die, we will go through what's called corruption, the decay, the corruption of that which we have known ourselves. And even by ourselves, that is it. We will decompose and that is it.

Now, tomorrow is the Passover and I have a question for me. I'll share it with you. Are you ready to take the Passover? Are you and I ready to take this wonderful Passover that we're commanded to?

How should we be preparing at this point for the Passover and the days of Unleavened Bread that follow it? What should be in our mind? What should we be thinking about as we come up to that point? As individuals incapable and with life unsustainable and with bodies that were created by someone else that we often take for granted, what should we be thinking about? The title of the sermon today is Worthy I Am. What is our human condition of and by ourselves? If we really stop in the clear light of day and stop the electronics and stop the gadgetry and stop the driving and the fun that we have and the things we see and hear and do and just stop and realize, uh, none of this really is of me. Even when we walk out and take an orange off a tree, it should just be amazing that there is a fruit that never decays or rots until I decide to pick it off. It is air-conditioned inside. It is fully taken care of. It is all I have to do is peel it and the little sections are just waiting for my body to devour them in sweetness. And so it is with all the food that we eat. Even that is provided for us and the air we breathe is provided for us. The wonders that we take for granted, how should we be looking at ourselves? Of ourselves, we are told in Romans chapter 1, verses 29 through 32, of and by ourselves, we are sinners worthy of death.

That is what we are. We not only did not get ourselves here, we are not getting ourselves any further than what God has given us in our being here. Sinners worthy of death. But let's go to Romans chapter 5 and verse 8 and see the most amazing thing in this state of life in which we did not create, in life which we could not sustain, and a life in which is terminal, both physically and eternally, of and by ourselves, we have received gracious intervention. It says in Romans chapter 5 and verse 8, but God demonstrates His own love, His agape love, toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. He's brought us up to this point as intelligent souls, and a soul means a living, thinking, breathing human being. He's brought us this far, and His Son died for us while we were breaking and going against that which He has told us to do. That's where we have been. In verse 9, much more than having now been justified by His blood, now this is justified to the Father. The Father who does not interact, interface, accept sin or sinners or things that are corrupt, the Father now sees us as justified, as able to come boldly before His throne to talk with Him. Part of His family errs with His Son because of this blood that Christ died and shed for us.

We shall be saved, notice the phrase, we shall be saved from wrath when God comes and destroys the universe and rips apart the physical molecules. This great wrath and destruction, we will be saved from that, notice, through Him. That is the wonderful news. That is the great message that has come to us. Verse 10, for if indeed when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. Now how are we saved by His life? It's not something He did for us. It's something He's doing with us. You see, His life is being led in us through the Holy Spirit. He's not left us orphans. He's come to us. He lives with the Father in us via the Holy Spirit. So we're being saved with His life in a couple of ways. One is that He is the life giver. The Father has given Him the power of life. And the other is He is the bread of life. And if we eat that bread at the Passover, then we have life in us. And that bread will eventually lead us to eternal life. So this is a wonderful thing to be out of no thought of our own, to be given physical life. And then when we find ourselves with the prospect of losing that physical gift, to be brought in and given a spiritual gift of the opportunity to live forever with the Father and His Son.

Passover is an annual celebration of that event, of Him giving us that awesome opportunity through sacrificing Himself. Let's look over in 1 Corinthians 11 and verse 23. 1 Corinthians 11 and verse 23. And here it's going to talk to us about the partaking of the Passover symbols. But let's pause before we read this. Before Jesus Christ instituted the Passover symbols, He prepared His mind. And He set an example that you and I are also asked to do when we come to the Passover service. He took a towel and girded Himself. He took off the nice outer garments and He made Himself of no reputation. He humbled Himself as the lowest servant and got on the floor and washed dirty feet. And He did it in a public way, in an open way. It's the most public expression of humility that could be demonstrated at that time. It was private within a room, but it was public to those who were present with Him. And in doing so, He clothed Himself in humility, not through the event, but He was always humble. And He asked us to do the very same thing when we come to the Passover. Before He served, He humbled Himself. Before He bled, before His body was fragmented and shredded, He humbled Himself and showed, this is what I want to do. I want to help you. I want to serve you. And so before we come to the Passover and receive this amazing gift, we too are prompted to put on and be clothed with the mind of Christ, that humble mind of Christ.

And then we read in 1 Corinthians 11 and 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 took bread. And when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, now let's just pause right there a moment. The breaking of bread is not referring to the snapping of bread, okay? Because the bones of the righteous are never broken when the Scripture said, the prophecy said, in relationship to Jesus Christ. Not talking about our bones, talking about His bones, right? The lamb bones, if you go back to the first Passover in Egypt, the lamb bones were not to be broken, that were killed and the blood smeared on the doorposts. Unleavened bread isn't about snapping, it's about tearing or breaking bread. Breaking bread is a separation of bread. We are Americans and we're associated with the cracker culture. In fact, some of us are even called crackers. And we're okay with that because we like crunchy things. But if you step out of the United States, you'll find a world not so cracker-oriented, okay? I'll tell you why. Crackers or biscuits, salty, crunchy biscuits, are an invention of the United States in recent times. And these things eventually grew up through what's called the National Biscuit Company or Nabisco. And we're very familiar with salty, what we call crackers. The rest of the world would call biscuits. But if you step out of the United States, you're going to have a hard time finding something like that. I know. Because traveling around the world, getting a nice piece of cheese, I want a cracker to go with it. And if you don't like sugar and what we call cookies, it can be very difficult. Very difficult, indeed. Your choices are very few and sometimes no. But when we think of unleavened bread, especially in this country, we think of breaking. So we think of breaking, breaking bones. But if you make unleavened bread with a little bit of oil, a little bit of salt, a little bit of flour, it's probably going to be more like tearing, more like tearing. 1100 years ago, the Jewish culture, 90% of them were tearing their bread at Passover. Only about 10% had a bread that was made, I believe, without oil, and it would tend to break. There's discussion in the Jewish community today, you can go out and read about it, about the two different types of bread and how the one culture is kind of overshadowed the other now, and more breaking of bread is taking place. And some people in this part of the Jewish culture wish they were in that part of the Jewish culture because they have nicer bread.

But when we come to this, take eat. This is my body which is broken for you. If you think of what happened to Jesus Christ, he went down the mountain from the temple. He was taken down the hill from the Garden of Gethsemane, down to where the Roman garrison was, just below the city of David. And inside those walls, inside where nobody could see what's going on, the soldiers had their way with him, jeering and shredding his face and shredding his skin and cramping thorns on his head and spitting in his face. And they marred his visage, it says in Isaiah 53, more than any man to where he was unrecognizable, evidently. Most humans, it is said, would not survive what he went through right there before he got that post carried for him and nailed to it. And so, take eat. This is my body which is broken. It is, in a sense, shredded or it's torn. It's whatever you would do with bread, whether it crunches or whether it tears. It's broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me.

He humbled himself and then he was humiliated, but he did this for us.

And in verse 25, in the same manner he took the cup after supper, saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood. This is the covenant that you and I made with him at baptism. That blood is what forgives us, cleanses us, justifies us in the eyes of the Father in heaven when it applies to us. And you can see in Romans chapter 6 in the early verses how that blood applies to us at baptism when we are joined with him and death and we are to put off sin and not be slaves to it anymore, but come up to a new man, to a new way of life. He says, this too is often as you drink it in remembrance of me. So this is a time for us to remember and really reflect on not your sins, not my sins, it's not about us, it's not about how guilty we ought to feel. This is the time for us to reflect on the great gift, the wonderful gift that God designed and God rolled out for you and me. Now, here's a question. Are you worthy to take the symbols of the broken body and the blood of the one who created you as an egg inside your grandmother?

Are you worthy? Have you led a life that makes you worthy of taking those symbols? Worthy, in other words, of having the great creator come down, become a human being, live here, be maligned, be shredded and die bleeding for you. Are you worthy of that? Am I worthy of that?

In Genesis chapter 32 and verse 10, I think Jacob answers it very well for us. Here's what Jacob says, I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies and of all the truth which you have shown your servant. We are not worthy and I am certainly not worthy. I did nothing to get here. I've done nothing to justify my Lord and Savior being tortured by human beings to death.

So, no, I'm not worthy. Who is worthy? Who by himself is worthy? Can you think of someone who by himself is worthy? It says in Revelation chapter 4 and verse 11, who is worthy? Let's turn there. Revelation chapter 4 and verse 11. Now the four living creatures before the throne give glory and thanks to him who sat on the throne. Verse 9. The 24 elders, verse 10, fall down before him and worship him. And they say in verse 11, you are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power. For you created all things and by your will they exist and were created. That's where you and I came from. That's where environment came from. That's where the plan of God came from. It's from you, Lord. You are worthy. You created it all. The Father doing this with you and through you. The title of the sermon today is Worthy I Am and that I am is not me and it's not you. You know, it said back in Exodus the third chapter when God said to Moses, I want you to go to Pharaoh and here's the name I want you to use. I am that I am. That's who's worthy. It's the great I am worthy. We should never get it into our hearts that I am anything.

But remember who the great I am is. It's not me and you'll probably realize it's not you.

If we look here continuing on in 1 Corinthians chapter 11, let's move down to verse 27 right after he gave these instructions for keeping the Passover.

Paul says in 1 Corinthians 11, 27, therefore whoever eats this bread and drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner.

Oh, wait a minute. Didn't we just didn't we just figure out that we're not worthy?

I know I did. So now it's saying if you eat the bread and drink the cup, but you're unworthy. Well, that doesn't fly, right? No, not right. Not right. The word unworthy here in the English comes from the Greek word anaxios. And what the Greek word anaxios should say is irreverently. Irreverently. You can look that up in a lexicon or strongs. If a person takes these symbols irreverently, without reverence, without honor, humility, appreciation, without revering what Jesus Christ did when he washed feet, what he did when he came down to earth, what he did when he invented you and this plan, and of course what he did when he was finally scourged and then crucified, and what he continues to do in you now. If we don't have the reverence for that, but somehow think of ourselves as, oh, I'm alive and I'm this and I'm that and I'm I'm I'm I'm. Then that's irreverence.

Paul had to tell the group at Corinth there that they were taking the Passover irreverently. They weren't thinking about these symbols and what they stood for. They were coming at it from a very selfish point of view, self-centered point of view. So in verse 27 here, we see that it would be an individual without forgiveness who would approach the Passover in such a way. Because he says, whoever does it in an irreverent manner will be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord.

However, verse 28, we're encouraged then within this context of coming up to the Passover that a man should examine himself.

To examine here is the word doki-mazo. Doki-mazo means to probe, examine a thing to see if it is genuine, see if it really is what it is. You could doki-mazo this gold ring and you would find that it's not what you think it is. It's mostly something else. There would be some gold in the bottom of the molten metal, but there's some other stuff floating up on top that's not so important.

And so we would then also examine ourselves in a similar way to see whether the thing is really genuine. You know, it looks, oh yeah, that's gold, yeah, that's really, that's gold. Maybe you say, well that's a diamond, yeah, that's a diamond. Maybe under closer scrutiny you'd find it's a piece of glass. I don't know whether it's a diamond or not. I paid a diamond price for it years ago. I have no idea what it is, but we could test that, couldn't we? And we could find whether it's the real thing. Now you and I look on the outside like nice white buildings. Are they white wash sepulchers? Or are they temples of God's Holy Spirit? We don't know. We only see the outside, so we need to really examine. We need to test. We need to open the door, get God to open the door, so we can look inside. So we need to examine, to test, to see if something is really what we think it is. Examine Himself. And once He examines Himself, and maybe some repentance is in order, then it says, go ahead and so let Him eat of the bread and drink of the cup.

We are to do that, but we are to do it reverently. And so, once again, it's so important for us to put on the mind of the foot washing before we even come to Passover. To have the heart of a servant, a humble one who would do just what Jesus Christ said, do anything for others to see that they got into the kingdom of God. Anything. Now, to you and me, when you wash somebody's feet tomorrow night, if you're a guy, probably the worst thing you'll find is a piece of black sock fuzz. That's about all it gets. Back in Christ's day, you'd get the whole mud, you'd get whatever was in the mud or on the mud. The animals took the same paths as the humans took and it could be very interesting. It usually was very interesting, but you'd do anything for others, just like He went on to do. So, we need to put that mind in us, not just the little, oh yes, I'll wash somebody's feet, try to pick a favorite person in line and make sure that it's not very inconvenient for me, but rather to really examine, to scrutinize myself and realize, you know what, I'm not like the master. In verse 31, we find if we would judge ourselves, the word judge there means to test, means to examine once again. If we would examine ourselves, if we would judge ourselves, if we would pray out to God and say, show me my sins on a daily basis, not just before Passover, every day, and then forgive us our sins as we forgive one another, and be in that process of self-judgment, not judging others, but judging me. If we would judge ourselves, then we would not be judged by God. But you see, if we don't judge ourselves, then we have to be judged by God. God loves you and me. You can be the one to be finding your sins and putting them out, or if you back off a little, you can expect him to bring about circumstances to where those sins will rise up in your mind, and he will judge you. He will examine you.

And one way or the other, you need to overcome, and I need to overcome, and so what he will do is he may have to scourge us. You know, God loves and scourges a child that he wants in his family in order that we will overcome our sins. Verse 32, when we don't judge ourselves or examine ourselves, when we are judged by God, we are chastened by the Lord. Just like Paul said in Hebrews 12.5, we are scourged sometimes because he loves us. He doesn't want us to fail, and he does that so that we may not be condemned with society. He really wants us to make it. He wants us to grow and to overcome and to really live the righteous way. So observing Passover properly, coming up to it, is an individual that is judging. Judging himself and not having God have to be the one to bring that to our attention in a hostile manner, but rather God bringing that to our attention as we ask him to on a regular basis. And as we, just as we're putting leaven out of our homes this time of year, we should be putting, looking for, and getting leaven out of our lives all through the year. It involves a combination of what Jesus Christ called the weightier matters of the law. You know, he said over in Matthew 23, he said, you really need to pay attention to the weightier matters of the law. Judgment, mercy, and faith. Those are the important things. And he said, don't leave the other undone. These are the important things. What is judgment? Judgment involves the law. We should be keeping the law, and we should be judging ourselves, as we've just seen right here in 1 Corinthians. We should be judging ourselves. Judgment, that is important. That's a weightier matter of the law. To be righteous and performing righteousness and obeying all of what God told us. That is the point of the commission to the church. The point is, disciples who do those things I command.

Okay, so we should be judging ourselves. Am I doing those things that Christ command, that God and the Bible commanded? So there's judgment. And guess what I find? Like Paul, don't always do those things. So judgment is necessary. That takes me to the next step, should take us all to the next important thing. You know, if we don't judge ourselves, like it says in verse 31, if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged.

That is important. That's just the vital component of life. We need to do that in order to observe the Passover, just to come forward to the Passover. We need to do that.

You know, what it boils down to is, if we don't do that, we're going to die.

Paul talks about the law. And he says, you know, the law is holy. It's just and good. He says, the law is spiritual. That means the law goes on forever. The law is spiritual. It doesn't end. It doesn't die. Jesus didn't remove a fleck of it. But I am carnal. Now, carnal just means I'm flesh and blood. And I've got a date with some worms. Sorry, but I do.

Okay. And I'm closer to that side of things than I was when I was in my grandma's belly.

Paul's saying, I'm physical. The law is spiritual. I'm physical, sold under sin. And the person that sins is going to die. So we've got to pay attention here with the weight of your matters of the law. We need to judge ourselves. We need to know what that law is. We need to be living that law. We need to be putting the leaven out.

Again, in 2 Corinthians chapter 13, let's go on to the next book. 2 Corinthians 13 verses 5 and 6.

What does it tell us here? Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. This is judgment. This is the first of the three weightier matters of the law.

Do you not know yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you through the Holy Spirit, that bread is in you, that life is in you, or you indeed are disqualified? Ouch. So we need to be looking at that. Do I love God's law? Am I living God's law? Am I applying God's law? Or am I in some grace fantasy where I don't have to do it, he did it for me, or he took the law away, or he removed the rules, or he knows I can't, so I won't try, but he's doing it for me. We need to judge ourselves. The law is spiritual. It will remain. The only question is, will I remain?

In verse 6, but I trust that you will know that we are not disqualified. Not because we're perfect at it, but we're trying, we're struggling, we're running the race, we're fighting the fight, and we will till the day we die. If so, then the judgment aspect is working well.

How do we do this? How do we judge ourselves? Well, Hebrews chapter 4, verses 11 through 13 really speaks to this. Hebrews chapter 4, beginning in verse 11. Let us therefore be diligent to enter into that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience. If you want to get into the rest of the kingdom of God, don't be disobedient. Judge yourself. Pay attention to the rules and to the law.

I'm very concerned about this point, and don't take it that somebody thinks that you can earn your salvation, but ask yourself a question. Will those who are not obeying the law of God be in the kingdom of God? Certainly not. Just read Revelation 21, verse 7 and 8. You'll see. It's the righteous. It's the obedient. And the lawless, the lawbreakers, will not.

Pay attention. Don't let yourself fall into some excuse of disobedience. Why? For the Word of God, the Word of God living in you, the living bread of life, and the written Word is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of the life and the spirit and the joints and the marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. That's how we examine ourselves. We get God to help us. God, the Word of God, the Spirit of God, the mind of God, will help us go in slice and dice and lay the parts out. Full examination.

It's not like looking from the outside and saying, oh, you know, the body looks, you know, pretty together. We don't know what goes on inside.

Verse 13, and there is no creature. There's no person, in other words. Whenever this word creature is used, it's referring to a human individual. In almost every case, I believe there's one sentence or one use of the term, to my interpretation, in the New Testament, that refers to the creation. It's talking about humans, souls. There is no human hidden from his sight. But all things are naked and open to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

And that's the bottom line, brethren. You and I have to give account. We have to give account every day. And we will have to give an ultimate account as to whether we are given life or eternal death. So, judgment is very important. Now, judgment can be a heavy thing because none of us are going to be righteous of our own. But we have to struggle and wrestle like we're fighting for winning that particular race, of becoming Christ-like and throwing off satanic mindsets.

How do we do that? Second point of the weightier matters of the law is mercy.

We're coming to the Passover and we're celebrating the mercy that God has. Now, God is not merciful to the unrepentant, but to the repentant, he is merciful, gracious, and slow to anger. He is a wonderful God. And we can celebrate the mercy that God has.

The sacrifice of Jesus Christ being applied for my sins and your sins is a wonderful thing to accompany judgment, our own judgment and God's judgment. Mercy is mercy triumphs over judgment, doesn't it? It triumphs, but it's only given to those who are struggling and trying. It's not given out to any and everyone that's not trying. In 1 Corinthians 11 and verse 29, let's just go back for a moment, 1 Corinthians 11 verse 29, it says, for he who eats and drinks in an irreverent manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. Really does you and me no good to be able to slice and dice and see ourselves as we truly are, if we have nothing to compare it to. I mean, we see it, maybe we think that's normal. Well, look at all that sin and ugliness and self stuff. Yeah, that looks pretty cool. Jump in there and be all I can be, every man for himself. See, if you have nothing to compare it to, what does that do for you? You need something to compare it to. Here it says, not discerning the Lord's body. It's as it were an invitation to do the same thing to Jesus Christ. The Greek word for discerning is diatrino. Diatrino, where you have dia, it's talking about through in the middle, in the depths of. Like, if you take diameter, it's through the middle, it's the meter or the measurement through the middle.

If you take almost any word with a dia in it, you're talking about the real heart of the matter.

If you look at, say, the term diatrino, it means to take apart, to disassemble the heart of the matter, the whole thing. You look at the body of Christ and you take that apart and you look at it and you say, oh look, that's perfect, it's humble, it's sacred, it's holy, it is serving, it's agape. Now let's look at my body parts over here. What are those like?

Is there any similarity? No, and mine stinks. It's like leavened bread. It looks so good to us.

But leavened bread, these nice leavened breads, they all mold in seven days.

They putrefy, they disintegrate, they die in rot, that's what they do. But here's the unleavened bread that is pure and it is clean and it is perfect and the ingredients remain intact and it goes on and on and on and on. Have you ever heard of unleavened bread getting mold on it?

I don't know of any that's possible. In fact, when crackers were invented in the United States, unleavened bread, they became what was called, I've got to think of the term here, sea biscuits.

Because suddenly the people who sailed the oceans had a form of bread they could take with them that wouldn't mold. And the ships just filled up with them and suddenly guys could have something besides salty fish that you had to salt down and take with you and dried things. They could actually have bread. You know, stuff endures, it lasts.

So my point here, and I'm sure I'm making this in an imperfect way, but my point is, when we look at this diatreno and we're supposed to really examine and really come to appreciate what Jesus Christ is, as we examine ourselves and see the great contrast, we should be on our knees begging for mercy. And it's a wonderful thing to have that mercy. And God is very gracious to an individual who is wanting to become like Him.

And that leads us to faith. Faith. Faith is an enduring trust that goes on and on during this struggle that will never end as long as we are humans, that will be tested, we will be tempted, we will be tried, we will be put through every imaginable condition before the seventh trumpet. And yet, those who have faith and that faith that endures until He stands, will there be faith on the earth when I come? He's not talking about society. They never had faith in the beginning. He's talking about you and me. Will there be faith on the earth when I stand on the Mount of Olives and the first resurrection takes place?

That's the question. Well, if we're in and love the law and we're judging ourselves and we appreciate with reverence the mercy that God has given, we can have the absolute trust and faith. It is very important that that faith goes back to judgment and involves works. As James says, you know, faith without works is dead. It's a cycle, isn't it? It's the faith. You do the judgments. You keep the laws. You appreciate the mercy.

You have that spirit and the process develops more trust and faith and it makes you want to do the law and keep the law more and judge yourself as you go forward. If we look in Hebrews, well, let's go to John chapter 5 and verse 24 first. John chapter 5 and verse 24. Let's listen to what Jesus says here. Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears my word and believes in him, who's him, the Father, is a trust and belief in the Father.

Him who sent me has everlasting life. That belief with works, see? He's listening to the Word. He believes with works. He has everlasting life through faith in the Father when the judgment comes, right? And shall not come into judgment or condemnation, but has passed from death into life. That status, as that individual is doing those things, is in a life-living situation with life as the ultimate reward, gift, prize, other terms that the Bible uses, or mercy, it is said in one place.

Most assuredly, in verse 25, I say to you that the hour is coming and now is when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live. You and I began as an egg that had nothing of and by itself to do with its own existence. We will go through life and we will die. Let's give it unto men once a die, and we will suffer corruption.

That is the normal course of things, unless the return of Christ should intervene before we reach that point. Now, at that point, we're back about where we were with the egg only a little worse off. The egg couldn't do anything, but when you're corrupted and decomposed, you got nothing. You got no hope. Zero. Now we read here, most of you surely, I say to you, the hour is coming, 7th Trump, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live.

That's done to us as well. That is the gift, based on whether you hear. Remember, he said, those who hear. And in the previous one in verse 24, he who hears. Are we hearers? Are we listening to Christ? Are we listening to what he says in Revelation 2 and 3? He who has ears to hear, let him hear. In chapter 1, are we listening to him? In chapter 21 and 22, are we hearing? Are we doing? Verse 26, For as the Father has life in himself, so he is granted the Son to have life in himself, and has given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man.

Do not marvel at this, for the hour is coming in which all who are in the grave, not just the righteous, not just those who hear, everybody will come forth. Those who have done good, notice, they're not those who have received grace. Jesus does not use that term. You look in here in Revelation through the Gospels, he doesn't use some term of, oh, as long as you just believe, you'll be under this dome of grace. It's not what he's pushing, it's not what Paul's pushing, either.

And when I say grace, I'm talking about this concept of a grace which does away with obedience, which does away with personal judgment, which does away with doing the will of God.

Jesus is very different than that. All of his parables tell us, we need to be doers, and in the doers are building their house on a rock. The hearers only, they're building on sand, and their fall is going to be great. So he says in verse 28, those who have done good, consider our Lord and him making his decision about you, done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of condemnation, that's what's coming.

Now, judgment with mercy for those who are repentant and are trying to do good is a very wonderful thing. Very, very wonderful thing. We need to have the faith that this is the process underway. We need to fully believe in it and fully participate in it. Let's look at Hebrews 12 and verse 28. One verse that the Apostle Paul wrote, Hebrews 12 and verse 28.

Now we come to this wonderful gift that's available because of what Jesus Christ and the Father have done for us, that we are celebrating at Passover, deeply moved by at Passover. Hebrews 12 verse 28 says this, Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace. Grace is the word charis, C-H-A-R-I-S, charis, charis, whatever you want to say, Greek word. Let us have grace. If you look at the church booklet on the covenants, you'll find that this little abbreviated word that the Apostle Paul uses means something very big. It means a process where God created you as a little egg after planting you from the foundation of the world when he decided his son must come and die for us and let you live and be called as one of a very small part of humanity to enter into a covenant whereby he would give you faith, followed by repentance and understanding of what sin is and what his righteousness is, followed by baptism and the forgiveness of sin, followed by receiving of his Holy Spirit and him living in you as the bread of life and opening this book to you so that you could walk and you could journey with him to become part of his family. Let us receive that. That's what Paul says. Let us receive that wonderful opportunity. Let us receive that by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. We have to serve God acceptably the way he wants, obeying all of his laws, doing his will. That's serving him acceptably and notice with reverence. It's with irreverence that the Corinthians were taking the Passover. We are to do it with reverence, deep honor, deep respect and appreciation and with godly fear. For our God is a consuming fire. The Passover is a time of great, deep appreciation for all that has been done, all that is being done. We are being saved, not by grace. We are being saved by graciousness is what the Hebrew word, I'm sorry, the Greek word charis translates into. By that process we are being saved. Through being invited into a process and participating in that process in which a God is very gracious, slow to anger and full of mercy and it is through his life that we are saved. That process through his life. Let's go to Ephesians chapter 2 verses 4 through 10 as we wrap this up. Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 4 talks about God. God the Father who is rich in mercy. That's a wonderful thing about God because none of us would, we wouldn't make it even with a free life and being created. We just wouldn't go anywhere on our own. Thankfully, we serve a God and a Father who is rich in mercy because of his great agape love with which he loved us. Even when we were dead in trespasses, he made us alive together with Christ. In parentheses, this is mistranslated. You can take your pen out if you want and make it read correctly. By grace, you are being saved. You have not been saved.

By grace, you are being saved. By grace, what is grace? It goes back to the process.

God created you. Now he's called you. He's given you faith. He's given you repentance. His Holy Spirit washed you clean at baptism. He's living in you. He's a very gracious God. By grace, are you being saved. And, verse 6, raised or is raising us, isn't he, up together and making us or will make us to sit in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. I know there's probably a metaphorical interpretation there that now we have access to the throne, but we're not actually sitting on the throne. Like Christ promised there in Revelation chapter 3 to the successful church, you will sit with me on my throne. He says, you're not sitting with me now. You will sit with me. So he will make us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. That in the ages to come, notice, in the ages to come, he might show the exceeding riches of his graciousness. That's what that Hebrew word, terris, means graciousness. Grace is not a primary meaning in any lexicon I've found yet of the word charese. The riches of his graciousness in his kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. That's where his kindness, his graciousness, his love, his mercy comes from. Those are wonderful, wonderful words. Something that you and I can really appreciate. And as we come to the Passover in a foot-washing service, humble mood, then we can see a perfect man in the bread. We can see that which we appreciate and that which during unleavened bread we will want to follow the example of, try to become. But that night it's about him. It's not about you and me. That doesn't represent us. That, well, that represents him as well as representing the body of Christ, the church, as well as representing the communion that we should have, that stitching together of the elements that are elsewhere in the Bible used as holy things. For instance, the grain, the oil, the salt, the water. All of those combined within unleavened bread inform a whole bond, an unbreakable bond. When we come to the Passover, we see the agape love that the wine portrays. We see the pouring out of everything he could do for us in giving his life so that we could live, so that we could steal his inheritance, so we could be co-heirs of everything because he has received everything, and he wants to freely give us everything. He wants that. He wants you to have everything he has. Let's notice here in verse 10 of Ephesians 2, for we are his workmanship. We're not doing this on our own. It's not by my works or your works. He's doing it through us. He is creating disciples or essential spiritual clones of each of us, trying to. Notice, created in Christ Jesus for good works. What were you created for?

To receive some notion of somebody's done it for you? Or you were created for good works? We're to be doing good works like he did good works and is doing good works through us. We're all to be doing good works. We're called to be the bride, to do good works in the millennium, to raise up the rest of the world and do good works for them and with them. Ultimately, we will all serve God, the Father, and Jesus Christ forever doing good works in his kingdom. We are to become disciples like the Master.

James 2 verse 26 says, For as the body, my body, or your body, without the Spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. You and I have to come believing, trusting, appreciating, respecting, honoring our Lord and our Master and fully participating in the covenant that they have created with us. In conclusion, we came into this world, each of us, as a gift of God.

We will find a resurrection fully as a gift of God if we get involved in doing what we're here for, striving to become fully perfect as our Father in heaven is fully perfect.

I AM is worthy of all honor, and we will come here tomorrow to give honor to the I AM.

He is calling us to the Passover to remember Him, not two thousand years ago only, to remember Him as our daily bread, as our life, as our Savior, as the one through whom our salvation and eternal life depends, because it is life through Him. It's not through any other means, but we do have to be big participants. So as you prepare for the Passover, realize that your life is God's gift. Your calling is God's gift. Examine the calling that God gave you and see what you are doing with that calling. What is your response to that calling? Focus on the weightier matters of the law, judgment of yourself, depending on the mercy after forgiveness, and the deep faith in God that leads you back to more judgment and mercy and more faith.

Reverence that. Do the works. And if you do that, Jesus said in Luke chapter 20 and verse 35, you will be counted worthy to obtain the resurrection through Him.

I wish you all a very meaningful Passover.