The Passover (Part 3)

[0:00] Last week, you recall, we continued to see the instructions that God gives to Moses concerning the Passover.

[0:30] And he had spoken about the Passover lamb, not the pig, but the Passover lamb, that they, I should never have said that tonight, that they were to roast with fire and keep it whole.

[0:47] A picture of the unity, if you will, that comes with the relationship and the fellowship with God. Last week, we saw that in verses 8 and 9, the scripture said, They shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, with unleavened bread, and with bitter herbs.

[1:08] They shall eat it. Again, remember that phrase, with, is literally a pawn in the Hebrew definition, and represents the fact that it's not the Passover lamb, per se, that becomes the basis for what God is doing here.

[1:33] But it's the bitter herbs and the unleavened bread. Because, remember, the bitter herbs represented the difficulty, the harsh times that they had in their life in Egypt under severe bondage for over 400 years.

[1:50] And then, again, we mentioned the fact that it was unleavened bread, because it was tasteless, but that represented the same thing. But, again, we mentioned the fact that as the bitter herbs and the unleavened bread formed the basis of the meal, the sweetness, if you will, of the Passover lamb overshadowed and overpowered, then, the bitterness of the herbs and the tastelessness of that unleavened bread.

[2:20] I got to thinking about that unleavened bread when I got home last Wednesday night, and I googled it to find out how thick that bread was. You realize how thin our styrofoam pieces are, and even the little square things that we usually used to use.

[2:38] The readings that I saw said that the Passover cakes, if you will, remember, pressed together was the idea, could have been at least four inches thick.

[2:55] No thinner than the size of your finger or your thumb, thickness-wise. And so, it's not just some little wafer-type thing. You know, it was bread, but it had no yeast that would give it flavor, just flour and water to make dough.

[3:20] And so, that's the picture for the unleavened bread that they were to eat. And, of course, unleavened bread is the idea that there's no fermentation, thus no corruption, nothing that would defile the bread, the dough from which it was made.

[3:43] All right, that brings us to verses 10 and 11, where we left off last week. And, of course, we saw as well last week that that bitterness of the bitter herbs and tastelessness of the unleavened bread gave us a good picture of the bitterness of the bondage of sin that we were all in prior to our coming to know Christ.

[4:06] And so, we took a look at that as well. So, in verses 10 and 11 tonight, they say to us, And ye shall let nothing of it, that is, the lamb, the meat of the lamb, ye shall let nothing of it remain until the morning.

[4:21] And that which remaineth of it until the morning ye shall burn with fire. Thus shall ye eat it. With your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand, ye shall eat it in haste.

[4:35] It is the Lord's Passover. The lamb was to be completely consumed, if that's possible. Now, remember, we had spoken before about the size of the families and needing enough people there to be able to totally consume that lamb.

[4:53] But God gave provision here if that wasn't possible. So that if there was by chance any of that meat left, by the morning they were to burn that meat completely up.

[5:06] So nothing of it remains. That was to prevent putrefaction of that meat. As it would spoil in that hot temperature of that climate.

[5:21] So that, in essence, corruption does not set in. Because also recognize, if you will, what that lamb represented. That lamb was a foreshadow of the true lamb of God, Christ Jesus, that would be sacrificed for the sins of the world.

[5:39] So in Psalm 16, verse 9 and 10, Messianic Psalm here. Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth. My flesh also shall rest in hope.

[5:53] For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, or in Sheol, the place of the dead. Neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one to see corruption.

[6:03] All right? So, just like the Paschal lamb of the Passover, the body of Jesus, remember, was indeed a sacrifice unto God.

[6:15] And so it was not proper that anything sacrificed to the Lord would see corruption. All right? Including the Lord Jesus.

[6:25] So, not only were they to eat all the flesh of that lamb, but when they were eating that, while they were participating in that meal, they were already to have their shoes on.

[6:39] All right? To have their loins girded, their shoes on their feet, and their staff in their hand. Literally, they are to be ready in anxious flight, in traveling costume, if you will, with their loins girded, so that they will not be impeded in their travels.

[7:00] And you realize what he's talking about here. A lot of times back in those days, they wore long flowing robes. And have you ever tried to run in a long flowing robe?

[7:13] It's nigh on impossible. You may be able to walk fast, but you can't run. All right? And so, they were to bind those long robes up with what they called the girdle.

[7:24] All right? And bind those up so their legs would have freedom of movement in their quick journey out of Egypt. This was not going to be a slow procession like we see in the Ten Commandments.

[7:37] Amen? They're to get out of there. Get out of there as soon as they can. But think about it just a minute. Have your loins girded.

[7:48] All right? Your garments girded with that leather girdle around your waist. What a picture that we have here, if you will.

[7:58] Turn to Hebrews chapter 12, if you will, just a moment. God gives us a pattern here for even our life in this New Testament day of grace.

[8:10] So many times God does that in the Old Testament for us. And here's one of those times. In Hebrews chapter 12, verses 1 and 2. Now, we're going to see more of this and more of something else we're going to look at later if we get a chance.

[8:24] When we pick up a study and redo the study we did seven years ago. I looked it up. We did seven years ago. That study in the book of Esther.

[8:35] And so we're going to revisit some of this then. But for the meantime, Hebrews chapter 12, verses 1 and 2. Reading out of the Amplified. Therefore, then, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses who have borne the testimony of the truth, let us strip off and throw aside every encumbrance or unnecessary weight.

[8:59] And that sin which so readily or deftly and cleverly clings to and entangles us. Let us run with patient endurance and steady and active persistence the appointed course of the race that is set before us.

[9:17] Now, again, notice here. He said we need to run the race. But to run that, we can't have anything that will impede our progress. And so that's why he says strip off and throw away, throw aside every encumbrance and the sin that clings to and entangles us.

[9:37] And then he says, continues on, he says, in doing that, looking away from all that we distract, looking to Jesus, who is the leader and the source of our faith, giving the first incentive of our belief and is also its finisher, bringing it to maturity and perfection.

[9:56] He is for the joy, he for the joy of obtaining the price that was set before him, endured the cross, despising and ignoring the shame, and is now seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

[10:11] And excuse me, that was of obtaining the prize, not the price, the prize. All right. So you see the picture here. Again, the writer is saying, don't let anything at all hinder you.

[10:26] King James Version speaks of the idea, let us lay aside the weight and the sin. That weight, remember the word translated weight in the Greek is the word that means a swelling, superfluous flesh.

[10:40] All right. In other words, go on a diet. All right. Get rid of the unnecessary weight. And that's the idea. You know, distinguish that from and the sin.

[10:53] We know what sin is. We've determined that weight is all that unnecessary stuff that clutters up our lives, that in and of themselves are not necessarily sin or sinful, but they just get in the way.

[11:13] You ever stop to think about how many things, how many times we do things that are good things, busy things, but we get ourselves and they get in the way of really are being able to satisfy the will of God and serving him.

[11:32] Now, then also in first Corinthians chapter nine, verses 24 through 26, the apostle Paul here addresses some things that really first Corinthians nine.

[11:48] Again, in the amplified, do you not know that in a race all the runners compete, but only one receives the prize. So run your race that you may be whole lay hold of the prize and make it yours.

[12:06] Okay. That stands to reason, right? Uh, every runner that's lined up at that starting line has one purpose in mind. All right. That's to win. Yeah.

[12:16] Oscar knows all about that. Oscar, do you ever line up on the starting line, realizing and thinking, okay, there's somebody here that's really, really, really good. He's probably going to beat me.

[12:28] The idea here is they're striving to win that race, but notice what else he says here. All right. Now, every athlete who goes into training conducts himself, conducts himself temperately and restricts himself in all things.

[12:48] All right. In other words, back in the Roman, back in the Greek games. All right. Back in the day of Jesus and the apostle Paul and all those, there, if they were going to run in the, what we would consider the Olympics today, if they were going to run in those races, they had to, they had to, to observe a strict standard for those that are going to be participating in that race.

[13:14] Included in that was dietary regulations. You can eat this, but you can't eat that. All right. Very strict. If you're going to run the race, you've got to obey all those regulations and restrictions.

[13:29] All right. And that's what he's saying here. Every athlete who goes into training, conducts himself temperately, restricts himself in all things.

[13:41] And they do it to win a wreath that will soon wither. That's the victor's crown. But we do it to receive a crown of eternal blessedness that cannot wither.

[13:52] All right. Therefore, I do not run uncertainly without a definite aim. All right. So that's the way we are to be. We are running the race that God has set before us, looking unto Jesus.

[14:07] All right. That, that idea of the, of the tunnel vision while we're running that race, keeping our focus on the Lord Jesus, not to the peripheral, looking at the other runners or looking at, looking at the crowd cheering us on to look at the Lord Jesus and, and, and thusly being able to follow him in everything.

[14:31] He shows us to do. All right. Now, also, they were to wear their shoes while they're eating that meal, which normally would not occur.

[14:44] They would not normally wear their shoes indoors. And it even appears from the pictures of monuments and engravings of monuments that we see that the Egyptians never wore shoes, especially outside.

[14:59] All right. But they're to have their sandals on. The Jews are to have their sandals on, their feet shod to be ready to, to walk upon those rough roads and rough terrain instead of barefooted as they usually would.

[15:15] Then the instructions there close with the words, it is the Lord's Passover. Literally, the Passover to Jehovah.

[15:27] What is prescribed is a Passover appointed by Jehovah and kept for him. Now, the word Passover is the Hebrew word Pekosh.

[15:38] It's derived from the word Pekosh. Now, remember that because that's on the test when we're done. Pekosh is arrived from the word Pekosh.

[15:50] All right. Literary, to leap or to hop from which the two meanings arise to limp and then to pass over. All right. Used figuratively, figuratively here to pass by or to spare.

[16:06] So in this case, we see the meaning here to pass by as the destroying angel would do when he saw the blood applied to the post of the doorway and the lintel of the door.

[16:21] All right. Then as time goes along, the word Passover came to use for that lamb that was seemed to be the central figure of that meal, which wasn't really the case.

[16:35] And then it came to be used for the preparation of the lamb. And then, as we know, the whole Passover became the word Passover came to mean the entire meal or feast of Passover.

[16:49] All right. So you've got that information for you there. Probably. I don't remember if I put those in your notes or not. Verses 12 through 13. For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night.

[17:02] Now notice this night we're getting there, getting close. I will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment.

[17:16] I am the Lord. I am Jehovah and the blood shall be for you to you for a token upon the houses where you are. and when I see the blood I will pass over you and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you when I smite the land of Egypt.

[17:33] Now, let me remind you. We've seen this before when God gave this to Moses. Now we see, remember, Moses expressing this to the elders of the people of Israel.

[17:48] All right. Now, so he explains in verses 12 and 13 what the Passover really means. Now, notice the statement that he makes here that we have not seen before.

[18:01] All right. He said, I will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast, and against all the gods of Egypt.

[18:12] Wow. Now, if you have not read your notes, because I don't know if I put this in there or not. What do you think he's alluding to here in the idea that he's going to smite all the gods of Egypt, knowing, of course, the gods were not real gods, but things that they worship.

[18:35] What do you suppose he intends to say there? Or what he means there? How is he going to smite all the gods of Egypt? He's destroying their confidence or their belief in their gods.

[18:51] Yeah, and that's what it is. All right. It's not the idea of tearing down all the statues, because the gods of Egypt really were a spiritual grip, if you will, upon the Egyptians.

[19:09] They were demonic. All right. You have to realize that demonism was paramount in Egypt.

[19:20] It was rampant in Egypt. And Satan used the worship of all these things that they labeled as gods to trap them and control them in their spirit.

[19:33] So, these gods, if you will, of Egypt, if you read Egyptian history, you realize that, first of all, some of these gods that they worshipped are tied, if you will, well, let me put it this way.

[19:54] The death of Pharaoh's son is tied to some of these gods. Likewise, realize that when the animals, first born of all the beasts of oil, if you will, all right, are being destroyed as well, that some of these animals, the bull Epsis, Epsis, E-P-I-S, and the goat Nendis, how would you like to worship a goat?

[20:26] The goat Nendis were actually smitten themselves. All right. Now, think about that just a moment. I mean, we've seen, we've seen some of the plagues that gave indication to the Egyptians, or should have, that their gods were being dealt with here.

[20:53] And there's no way that they can be real because of what we see here. All right. Now, it goes even further. Pharaoh's son is dead.

[21:06] Pharaoh, a god. The animals are dead, first born. They're dying. They're dead. How can this be?

[21:18] These are what we worship. So, they're impotent.

[21:30] They're worthless. All right. So, what did it do? No doubt, it really created a great deal of confusion and worry in the lives of the people of Egypt.

[21:47] Now, on the other hand, verse 13, the Israelites were not touched. All right. They had the blood upon the doorpost and the lintel of their houses.

[22:01] And that would be a sign and a pledge then that Jehovah would spare them from the work of the destroyer. And nothing in their household would be touched.

[22:14] Now, verse 14. This day shall be unto you for a memorial and ye shall keep it a feast to the Lord throughout your generations.

[22:26] Ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance forever. All right. That day or this day, that's the evening of the 14th. Remember the two evenings of the two nights in the Jewish economy that we looked at before.

[22:46] All right. The evening of the 14th, Israel was to keep as a commemoration and as a feast to Jehovah, this feast of Passover. It's to be consecrated for all time as an eternal ordinance in your generations.

[23:04] In other words, for all ages down through their history. All right. Succeeding generations of future time. Now, all of this Passover feast now, remember, is to be held now from this point forward every year as long as Israel should exist and as long as the redeemed people are redeemed, which is forever.

[23:37] All right. Now, the blood of the Passover lamb, think of it as atoning blood because by it the sins of the people were forgiven and God would not bring death to them.

[24:02] All right. All combined together in that Passover feast plus the idea of now a fellowship with their God in a way they've never had it before.

[24:17] Now, all this is a picture of the reconciliation of the people of Israel to Jehovah. Now, so, if that's the case, in the eating of the flesh of the lamb, what is that a picture of?

[24:42] Eating of the meat of the lamb is a picture of grace, God's grace. Now, literally, here's what the definition of grace is in the Greek definition of it. in the Greek economy, grace was a favor that was done for someone who is usually a friend without any thought of recompense.

[25:08] In other words, nothing in return is expected. When you put it in the scriptural sense, it's the same thing except it's not done for a friend.

[25:18] it's done for an enemy. Grace is a favor done for someone or upon someone that is an enemy without any expectation of return.

[25:36] That's what grace is in the Greek. Alright? Now, think about this a moment. Where was that Passover lamb to be eaten?

[25:49] This first, well, whenever. This first time in the three-half generations. Where was it to be eaten? And don't tell me the kitchen.

[26:01] In their house. In their In their house. What did Jesus say? In my father's house there are many mansions.

[26:14] If it were not so, I would have told you. I go and prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself that where I am there ye may be also.

[26:26] Beautiful picture of the wedding ceremony, if you will. Now, that's the picture there. All right?

[26:40] Now, we talked about this a little bit last week. Think about it when we as the church together observe the Lord's Supper.

[26:52] All right? In unity together as part of God's family. All right? And the picture at the Passover was now they were to eat that as a picture of grace in the family of God, in God's house, if you will.

[27:12] You know? So think about that when we observe the Lord's Supper, that we are together as part of God's family, in God's house.

[27:23] All right? We're God's dwelling in us. to commemorate redemption that He's provided for us through His Son, Christ Jesus.

[27:38] Now, seven days, verse 15, seven days shall he eat unleavened bread, even the first day you shall put away leaven out of your house.

[27:50] For whosoever eateth leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel. Now, there's connection here between the Passover and what becomes the feast of unleavened bread.

[28:06] It's here introduced for us. Now, again, later on in verse 17, let me just read that to you.

[28:18] Verse 17, and you shall observe the feast of unleavened bread, for in this selfsame day have I brought your armies, your hosts, out of the land of Egypt. Notice, I have brought you out, I have brought out your hosts.

[28:34] So that gives us the idea that though Moses introduces it here in the scriptures, he did not receive the instructions for that until after the Exodus, after Israel comes out of Egypt.

[28:53] all right? Now, the significance of the feast then is tied to the Exodus. It was the eating of the pure unleavened bread, of course, bread being thought of as the principal means of preserving life.

[29:15] Man shall not eat by bread alone, and then regard it as the symbol of life. So, the picture is the eating of the bread symbolic of the new life then that Israel is entering into in their new appointment as the people of God that comes as a result of the Passover.

[29:44] All right? So that's what the unleavened bread speaks of. Israel being brought out of Egypt but also introduced into new life in a new relationship, if you will, with Jehovah God.

[30:05] So that's what the unleavened bread is. All right? Same thing. It picks up with the Passover feast. They're kind of intermingled together after the Exodus.

[30:15] Now, if the unleavened bread is to show forth the new life into which Israel was placed and the relationship with God, anyone then that eats leavened bread at that seven day period during the feast would in essence be renouncing this new life that God gave him, or that's pictured here, and that he then would be cut off from the congregation of Israel, and we see that in verse number 19 later.

[30:50] Now, in verse 16, in the first day there shall be a holy convocation, and in the seventh day there shall be a holy convocation. So the first and the seventh, beginning and the end.

[31:03] No matter of work shall be done in them, save that which every man must eat, that only may be done of you. So only what work is required to fix the meal, prepare the meal, and then to eat it.

[31:15] The only work to be done on those two days. Now, on the first and seventh day there's to be a holy convocation, and labor suspended.

[31:28] A holy convocation is a holy assembly of the people. People are called together by the blast of trumpets.

[31:39] Numbers chapter 10 verse 1 through 3 later on says, The Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Make thee two trumpets of silver, of a whole piece shalt thou make them, that thou mayest use them for the calling of the assembly, and for the journeying of the camps.

[32:04] And when they shall blow with them, all the assembly shall assemble themselves to thee at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. Of course, that's later on, after all of this takes place, after the exodus.

[32:19] But that's the idea here. Trumpets blown so that people will come together. No work is to be done on those two days.

[32:30] Now, verses 17 through 20, You shall observe the feast of unleavened bread, for in this selfsame day have I brought your armies, what King James says.

[32:42] The word armies there can speak of the word hosts or multitudes of people. Out of the land of Egypt, therefore shall you observe this day in your generation, generations plural, by an ordinance forever.

[32:57] In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at even, ye shall eat unleavened bread until the one and twentieth day of the month at even. Seven days shall there be no leaven found in your house.

[33:10] For whoso eateth that which is leavened, even that soul shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he be a stranger or born in the land.

[33:24] Ye shall eat nothing leavened, in all your habitations shall ye eat unleavened bread. Alright? Now, notice if you will with me.

[33:39] Even your stranger, alright, and those born in the land, if any of those eat leavened during those seven days, they'll be cut off.

[33:54] Now, back up just a moment because I'm getting ahead of myself and there's something here I want us to see. again, remember, the Feast of Unleavened Bread commemorates bringing out of Egypt the people of Israel on the 15th of Abib, alright?

[34:20] The 15th of the first month of their new year. So, they were to keep that for seven days. Not just a commemoration, but it forms the groundwork for the seventh day feast here concerning the exodus, if you will.

[34:37] And I think more so. Again, got to remember that the real impetus of that exodus, that moving out of Egypt is the fact that not only moving out of Egypt, but moving into a new relationship with God.

[35:04] They are now, at this point, as they leave Egypt, becoming the covenant nation of God. Because soon after, God does something to signify that.

[35:19] Alright? But this is where it begins. And this is what the feast of unleavened bread is picture of. Now, they are to put away leaven.

[35:31] Can I ask you, the unleavened bread was after they left because the double ways of the seminaries was incorporated?

[35:43] Yeah, it was incorporated. Yeah, Moses gets those instructions after they leave. Right. Yes, it was a seven-day period.

[35:55] The Passover is a seven-day period as well. Unleavened bread becomes incorporated with the feast of the Passover. Yeah. Yeah. You're welcome.

[36:05] Now, take note. Why was Israel, everybody except John, he's got his notes open here. Why was Israel to eat the unleavened bread?

[36:25] What's another picture there? I know we said before it relates to the bitterness of their bondage in Egypt, but there's something else here. No time to pour it to rise.

[36:38] They've got to be ready to dance. Do you realize how hard it is to chew a four-inch thick piece of dough? Why was it unleavened?

[36:58] Why was it to be unleavened? Yeah. Leaven represents corruption, which represents sin. All right.

[37:09] The eating of that unleavened bread in this feast of unleavened bread speaks of the putting away, if you will, of the sinful, the sins, the work of the sinful nature.

[37:25] All right? For us, again, we mentioned before, 430 years is a long time to be in a pagan land. bread. It represents the idea of putting away all that sin that they incorporated in their lives in that 400 years in Egypt.

[37:44] Okay? You can't live in a pagan land without your place of worship and not be tainted by the sin and corrupted by the sin of the nation.

[37:58] So, eating leavened bread represents the idea of putting away that leaven of the Egyptian nature. All right?

[38:08] That have become a part of their life and their living, no doubt. Now, that reminds us of something that we really don't have time for tonight, but we'll break the bread here or break it open.

[38:21] Look at Romans chapter 6. And again, we'll, you know, in our study in the book of Esther will be dealing with this in a more thorough way.

[38:32] But in Romans chapter 6, again, you remember what the Apostle Paul is saying here. You know, then the question, you know, what shall we say if grace abounds, you know, should we continue in sin so that grace may abound or super abound is the idea.

[38:54] And he says, God forbid, how shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein? Know ye not that so many of us as we're baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?

[39:07] Now, the word baptized there, the word baptismo, has two different uses. It's a mechanical use and a ceremonial use. Ceremonial usage of the word is what we know of as water baptism.

[39:21] All right? The mechanical usage of the word has the definition of being placed into a new environment, relationship, whatever.

[39:34] And that's what he's talking about here. He's talking about the fact of the Spirit of God placing us into union with Christ. All right? Is the idea here.

[39:45] So, know ye not that so many of us were placed in that union with Christ by the Spirit of God, we'll put that in there, into Jesus, were baptized into his death, oh, I didn't bring that with you.

[39:59] I was going to read this out of the Amplified. Let me do that because it expresses it better. We don't have to take so much time to, to, to, yeah, here we go.

[40:11] We were buried therefore, verse 4, buried with him by the baptism into death so that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, so we too might habitually live and behave in newness of life.

[40:29] All right? Just as Israel was placed in a new relationship, new life in God, in the relationship to Jehovah, we are placed into a new living relationship, newness of life in Christ Jesus.

[40:46] For if we have become one with him by sharing of death like his, we shall also be one with him in sharing his resurrection by a new life lived for God.

[41:00] For we know that our old unrenewed self was nailed to the cross with him in order that our body, which is the instrument of sin, might be made ineffective and inactive for evil, that we might no longer be slaves of sin.

[41:20] Alright? That's all the farther we need to go there. Again, the idea is when Christ was nailed to that cross and died on that cross, everything we were in the old Adam was nailed there too.

[41:41] Nailed with him. Died with him. Okay? So that we would have the capacity to live in newness of life because not only were we crucified with him, but our sins having been nailed to his cross, we rose with him in newness of life, a new creation in Christ Jesus.

[42:07] Alright? Now, all of us with that in mind can say, woe is me. because we have to recognize and ask ourselves the question, how closely to that newness of life are we actually living?

[42:26] Okay? Yeah. Now, with that in mind, I've got 20 more minutes to go, right? Alright. Quickly, Ephesians chapter 4, verses 22 through 24.

[42:43] here's what Paul says. Strip yourselves of your former nature. Put off and discard your old unrenewed self.

[42:59] That's Haman being hung. Okay? Those of you might remember that. Which characterized your previous manner of life and becomes corrupt corrupt.

[43:11] And the idea there is it becomes continually more and more corrupt through lusts and desires that spring from delusion. So, you've put that off because of the work of Christ.

[43:25] Christ. So, then, be constantly renewed in the spirit of your mind. Alright? And be constantly renewed in the spirit of your mind, that is having a fresh mental and spiritual attitude, and put on the new nature, the regenerated self, which is created in God's image in true righteousness and holiness.

[43:52] Now, that idea of being created in God's image literally means according to what God is in himself.

[44:05] In other words, created after the pattern of what God is. Yeah. So, when we say we are to be Christ-like, means that we are to be like what God is.

[44:24] Made after the pattern of what God is. Yeah. That's what we're to be. Let's pray. Father, again, thank you for your loving kindness.

[44:37] Thank you for your goodness and grace to us and the privilege of being back together to look in your word, to study your word together, to allow you to speak to our hearts through it.

[44:48] So, Father, thank you. Thank you for the parallels you give us in all of these things and the patterns that we see in that, that give us the indication more and more of what you're doing in our lives as your people.

[45:02] So, Father, we just pray that you will continue to make us mindful of that and thus then give us the impetus to yield and surrender more and more to what the Spirit of God is endeavoring to do within our lives.

[45:17] Thank you again for these precious folks and their love for you and your word. Ask your blessings upon them as they continue to seek your word and seek your will in their lives. Thank you for it now.

[45:27] Bless the remainder of the evening we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you.