Sunday Message - Pastor Brad Neuschwander (July 5, 2026) | Life Bible Church

Welcome to the Life Bible Church podcast. We

want to thank you for joining us today and we

hope you find today's sermon impacting as you

listen to it wherever you are in your daily walk.

To find service times and watch messages online,

see our website at lifebiblechurch .org. Now,

enjoy this week's message. left off in our communion

message the last time we took communion. I felt

a fresh breath of God just to expand some things

this morning about our understanding about communion

being the fulfillment of Passover because we

are really trying to take this journey very methodically

and truthfully and prayerfully and spirit -led.

seeing the connection, how God wanted to move

his people from Passover to Pentecost, but because

they didn't see the divine orchestration of participation,

they left many things undone. And they settled

for something that they could have had so much

more. And so if you would, this morning, I'd

like you to open your Bible to 1 Corinthians.

Jenny's going to play some 1 Corinthians 5 is

the excommunication chapter. So she's going to

play some excommunication music here. No, I'm

just kidding. You're good. Thank you. Maybe me

that's getting excommunicated anyway. All right.

Let's pray. Father, Lord, we want to thank you

this morning for how incredible you are. You

are our life -giving God. You are the life -giving

God. Not only do you give us your son, Jesus,

not only do you give us, Lord, your life, but

you continue, Lord, to meet us, to sustain us,

and to give us of what you said is part of your

nature, the Zoe life of God, the eternal life,

the very... Lord, the truth of life that is not

connected to anything on earth, but is connected

to the one who is our creator, our redeemer,

our helper, our hope, the author and the finisher

of our faith. Thank you for this wonderful life.

In Jesus' name, amen. All right. Fourth of July,

Fifth of July, I want to say a special thank

you to all the volunteers that helped the city

of Harrisburg yesterday. Thank you so much. Incredible.

Love seeing all the blue shirts around town celebrating

250 years and celebrating the freedom that God

has given us. Loved the fact that... So many

workers in the booths, from the chicken booth

to the elephant ears to the parade to the Iwana

float to the band. We had George Washington and

the revelers, and that was wonderful, and that

was great. Incredible, incredible times. All

right, 1 Corinthians 5, verse 7 and 8. This was

1 Corinthians 5:7

our theme verse last time we took communion.

Let's look at it. For Christ... Our Passover

lamb has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate

the festival not with old leaven, the leaven

of malice and evil, but with unleavened bread

of sincerity and truth. So we're to celebrate

with unleavened bread of sincerity of truth.

Now, we're going to dive into this because Paul

was talking to the Corinthian church, a Gentile

church that really did not have a full understanding

of what God was doing as he set up Passover.

allowed the blood to go on the doorposts of their

shelter, of their home, of the lentil in the

doorposts, but he inaugurated the Feast of Unleavened

Bread, which was their participation with helping

remove the leaven and eating that bread that

had no yeast in it, representing sin, for seven

days. It was an important... truth that they

had to naturally walk out that speaks to a spiritual

issue. And Paul is trying to, through the Holy

Spirit, get this into the New Testament church

in Corinth. And he says this specifically in

1 Corinthians 5, 7. He says, for Christ, our

Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. He declares

it once and for all. There is no more Passover.

It's done. Christ, the Passover lamb, he was

the fulfillment. Somebody say fulfilled. He was,

it was fulfilled in Christ. But the truths that

Passover carried in the core of that truth is

still supposed to be operating spiritually inside

the house of God today in the New Testament.

First John four verses. Nine and 10 says it this

way. By this, the love of God is revealed in

us that God has sent his one and only son into

the world so that we may live through him. Your

mission, our mission, anyone that's come to know

Jesus is this, that we may live through him.

Your mission, this morning. It's not just about

the altar call and only, I'm not messing with

y 'all, but maybe a little, only a third of you

responded. The rest of the two thirds is your

commission to live in him. And this is love.

Not that we have loved God, but that he has loved

us. And he has sent his son to be the atoning

sacrifice for our sin. Notice everything in the

language here, as he's talking about, has been

done past. God sent, Christ has been sacrificed.

That sacrifice and that atoning, the price has

been paid so that what? You now can do something.

There's no longer a waiting period. You're not

waiting to show God that you're approved. You're

not waiting to feel like you've earned enough

chips or enough righteousness. All of that has

been satisfied with the atoning sacrifice of

Jesus. You can't add anything to your salvation

and it has been activated and is now supposed

to be operating inside of us. And that's why

this is so important that we get this because

if we're waiting for something more, we stay

what? In neutral. We keep giving ourselves preset

timings where we'll then, well, when this comes,

I'll do it then. No, no, no. It's already come.

It's already been done. Now, in saying that,

I want to take us to one of the, the most, well,

there's so many puzzling things in the Bible,

but one of the most interesting passages in the

scriptures is found in 1 Corinthians chapter

1 Corinthians 11 · chapter mention

11. And no, I'm not talking about women and head

covering. Let's move on. 1 Corinthians 11 verses

1 Corinthians 11:27–32

27 through 32. In the same passage, As God is

dealing with covering and he's dealing with alignment,

he's now also dealing with how to approach this

meal. And this is radically important because

if you understand that in 1 Corinthians 5, he's

dealing with the unliving bread and he's dealing

with a mindset of saying, listen, there is a

righteousness. That has to be participated with.

You can't add to Christ's righteousness. But

you can't live. As though you had no responsibility.

Let me say that again. That's the whole part

of 1 Corinthians 5. Is you can't. Take advantage

of grace. Continue to do and live as though you

are not holding the hand of Jesus. Jesus expects

you to do what? Live like unleavened bread as

you really are. And then he moves us from five.

the way through a bunch of stuff. I mean, six

is don't sue one another. Don't you have people

that can actually make competent decisions and

judge some cases? Seven was dealing with marriage

and that whole process. Eight is dealing with

how the gospel is preached and how Paul brings

the He begins to move forward and he starts going

to 9 and 10. 10 deals with the journey of the

Israelites and how they kept missing the picture

of what God was doing 10 different times through

the journey of the wilderness because they would

not mingle their hearts with faith. They stayed

in unbelief. And as they get toward the end of

10, he starts dealing with the altar. And he

starts dealing with sacrifice. And he starts

letting you know that what you eat at the altar

of where you're worshiping, you're joined with.

Let me say that again. What you eat at the altar.

Now listen, it's not like where he's talking

about going to a buffet. He's talking about the

ideology that you ingest. Now in their case,

they would go to certain temples and they would

take of what was presented. But for you and I,

the Bible also talks about that we are to eat

and drink the word of the Lord. Well, how do

you eat and drink? You ingest the truth and the

ideology that is written in the scriptures. And

he's saying, whatever you actually take into

yourself through thinking and processing and

holding, you are eating and you are drinking.

And you cannot eat, he says, you cannot eat of

the table of demons because whatever's done to

an idol or to an ideology, that's where idol,

ideology, hello. Whatever is eaten at that altar,

you can't now eat of Christ and his ideology.

Because you do what? You provoke the Lord to

jealousy. If you're really his, there is a conflict

that should be taking place. It's not that you

couldn't eat. When Paul expresses this, and I'm

not going to go into a spiritual warfare here

topic, but when he's saying this, he was not

saying that you cannot as it was impossible.

It means that you should not. And the Holy Spirit

is telling you, you have to make a distinction

between what you're eating on which altar, because

you are a participant of whatever you eat. So

he draws the analogy in chapter 10 as he's getting

ready to come to this table about your eating

now, what this represents. You're eating bread.

That represents the life of God. The one who

was the word. The one who was clean. The one

whose body was broken for you. The one who paid

the price. So that you could be. Back to 1 Corinthians

5. Because he's building the legal argument.

You see when you read Paul's letters. You have

to think. Great attorney. And what do attorneys

do? They build their case. And if you just read

the Bible as just a pluck and pick and just take

and pass it, you're missing the whole oral argument

of the case of what Paul was declaring through

the Holy Spirit. And what Paul was saying is,

you now are, and we're going to read it here,

you now are to eat of the un... leavened bread

of sincerity and truth, which means now you have

a responsibility to be sincere. How do you know

when someone is sincere? Their devotion doesn't

wane. If I offer you, just think of it in this

way. Adam, if I offer you a sincere apology,

I'm doing what? I'm bringing myself to a place

to acknowledge that where I wavered and where

I erred, I come back to a place of devotion and

make that right with you. It's sincerity. Why?

Because something in me is pushing me to get

aligned and to get right so that you and I are

right. And truth being what? Taking all that

was said about who Christ is and in that process,

we're to live as bread, the unleavened bread

of sincerity of truth. Meaning what? Our responsibility

is to know what is written and to engage with

what is written about Jesus and to have sincerity

in all that's been of him revealed. Well, that's

a, That's a big deal. Does it mean that we have

to be, that we're perfect? No, Christ makes us

perfect, but he puts inside of us a desire to

live in sincerity and truth. Let's look at this.

Now he goes to 1 Corinthians 11 and he deals

with alignment. He deals with headship and then

he begins to deal with Just things that happen

in groups of people among Christians. He deals

with what? Mindsets that divide rather than include.

And if you look at it holistically, they were

what? They were eating and drinking and they

were showing preference. There were some people

that were... not even getting a meal. There were

other people that were feasting. There were some

people that were actually drinking wine, even

to a form of drunkenness and other people not

even invited. Fact is, then they went on and

said, and you showed preference to the guy that

had the gold ring and to the guy that had none.

You left alone. Why? Because they couldn't help

you. You wanted influence. And Paul was, can

I just say this as, as he was the the one that

the Lord used to found that church, he was incensed

about it. But then he brought them back again,

reminding them of the truth of this meal. The

reason they had to get rid of a person in the

first place was because they missed the understanding

of being unleavened bread. He had to bring them

again, 1 Corinthians 11, to the table of the

Lord. And this is where we pick it up in verse

27. therefore eats the bread and drinks the cup

of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty

of profaning the body and the blood of the Lord.

Now, this weekend, I already received our next

communion message and it's that verse right there.

So I'm gonna do some of the other verses. Let

a person, verse 28, examine himself then and

so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For

anyone who eats and drinks without discerning

the body eats and drinks judgment on himself.

Notice what it says. Anyone who eats and drinks

without discerning the body. Do you notice it

doesn't say who eats and drinks discerning the

blood. Notice what he focuses on. The body. What's

the body? The bread. Right? Notice how he is

bringing it all back down here to discernment

on bread. Why? Because Jesus' body His broken

body is the bread, which we now become the body

of Christ. So notice discernment now doesn't

come with his blood. Why? Because there is no

need for discernment in Christ's blood. Why?

It's holy. It's the blood of God. And every time

you take of the blood of God, you are actually

reminding yourself of what? His covenant with

you, not anybody else's covenant. When you take

of the body, you're now reminded of multiple

things. You're now reminded that not only is

it his word that's bread, man shall live not

by bread alone, but every word that proceeds

from the mouth of God. It brings you back what?

To 1 Corinthians 5, that you shall what? Live

in pursuit of sincerity and truth. Knowing the

word of God and living by the word of God is

actually what creates a sincere pursuit of the

truth. Next thing is, where do our issues come

from? Our issues never come from, you rarely

find anybody that gets offended at Jesus' blood.

Why'd you leave the church? I just, the blood

of Jesus was just too loud. It was too powerful.

It was too cleansing. I mean, who likes to live

that clean? Nobody gets offended at Jesus' blood.

Where does offense take place? In the body. Anyone

who eats and drinks without discerning. Notice

where discernment should actually happen first.

Over the years of being in the ministry, I get

the biggest red flags for the last 33 years when

somebody comes up to me and they meet me for

the very first time and says, I'm here to attend

your church. I have the gift of discernment.

I think they're going to be gone. Why? Because

discernment doesn't start with an outer. it starts

with an inner voice. If you're gonna grow in

discernment, you better have a real understanding

of how to partner with the Holy Spirit of what's

askew and afoot and not right inside of you.

Then, remember, isn't that what Jesus says? Why

do you look at the speck in your brother's eye

and not see the beam in your own? Discernment

starts in here. This is why, are you ready for

this? This is why many of you are weak, why some

are ill, and why some have died. But if we truly

judged ourselves, we would not be judged. When

we are judged, it is by the Lord, we're disciplined

so that we may not be condemned along with the

world. Do you understand that that was the same

logic that the Holy Spirit was applying in first

Corinthians five, just six chapters prior? What

was he doing? He said, turn this brother because

he refuses to repent and let go of the sin that

he's operating in a sin that even the Gentiles

know is sin. Turn him over to Satan. that his

soul may be saved. When Paul writes back in his

second letter, 20 months, 24 months later, he

does what? He said, restore such a one for the

punishment has now been severe and has done its

work. Why? What happened? That when there was

a turning over, it wasn't unto, you betrayed

us. You're out of the church. Don't let the door

hit you, sucker. That's not what it was. Sorry.

Troy, that's not what it was, okay? It was with

great lament and sorrow knowing that the covering

of grace was going to have to be lifted to allow

now what was supposed to be the canopy of the

Lord's grace and protection lifted off of that

person so that what? The enemy could come and

ravage but couldn't take his soul. So that discipline

would come. How did it come? We don't know. How

many have ever experienced the discipline of

the Lord, the real discipline of the Lord when

you were off track, you knew you were off track,

you wouldn't listen to the Spirit of God, and

you started to forge ahead? Has anybody ever

experienced a divine takeaway? Have you noticed

that in the divine takeaway, he doesn't just

start with a 10 %? He always begins to remove

things that you didn't think you could lose.

Because in your sin, you didn't think that they

were worth that much and still he started removing

them. What we do know in 2 Corinthians. the letter

to the second Corinthians, that they restored

such a one. And Paul was thrilled. Why was he

thrilled? He said, I'm more thrilled, not just

about the repentance, but about the fact that

you understood spiritually and that as I brought

you the truth, you actually obeyed the work of

the Holy Spirit so this could be done to save

this man's soul. Had they not obeyed, he would

have been lost. Think about that. Had they not

obeyed and done the right thing, that man would

have been lost. Now, fast forward six chapters,

the Holy Spirit is speaking now to the Corinthian

church and he's saying, listen, I need you to

understand the revelation that's in this meal.

I need you to understand the reality of what

is sacred and holy and that this really does

have spiritual impact on you. And so if we could

put the slide up there, it says, eating bread

and drinking the cup at the Lord's table is partaking

of the Lord. Before I get to the next part there,

defining it. Because he had already laid out

what eating a meal at an altar dedicated to God

is. He says, is not the communion we have with

the cup sharing the blood of Christ? Is not the

bread we eat sharing in the body? He already

made the case a chapter before that what you

take into you at this moment of time, even though

it's a simple cup and a simple piece of bread,

it's way more. than symbolic. Now here's the

deal. It's not transubstantiation, which is a

large $12 word, which means it actually becomes

Jesus's real flesh and Jesus's real blood. It

means that you are partaking of something that

has spiritual. charged to it that when you put

your faith and you recognize what you're coming

to as a holy altar, you are receiving what? The

life of God, life of Christ, his righteousness,

his holiness, his grace, his glory, and his love.

That's why, oh, I'm going to steal my next month's

communion. That's why not discerning this table

and the Lord's body, his blood, means that you

don't stay equipped and spiritually operating

in what this table is meant to do. You see, this

table works both ways. It works, number one,

to strengthen your faith. in healing, in the

grace of God, strengthening your inner man, strengthening

your hope actually. putting into you the reality

of victory that Jesus took your place. The body

took the bruises. The body took the blows. The

body took the beating. The body carried it. The

blood cleansed it. You take this table. You are

saying to God, I am standing in a covenant that's

been ratified, that is still here. I, every time

I take this, I declare victory over everything

that's around me. And at the same time, You have

a participatory right to make sure that the leaven

is out of your life. Not that you can cleanse

it. Only the blood can cleanse it. Only your

Savior can deal with it. Your right is to what?

Go through and make sure you're right in body,

body. So when you come to this table, It is supposed

to be, number one, an absolute energizing release

of every spiritual virtue that Jesus Christ fulfilled

is now available to you by faith. And it is to

be the great revealer that I treat it with sacredness

because I will not take it when I know I'm knowingly,

that's the key, knowingly living in sin. Because

if I knowingly am violating something that is

clear in the scriptures, I have said to God at

this table, your power, your authority, your

victory, I'm greater. That's what it's saying.

I'm greater. My needs, my wants, My desires are

greater than me having to submit to your will

and your word. You see, when I come to this table,

I'm eating his life, his life of obedience. I'm

eating his allegiance and faith in the father.

That's why when I eat of this bread and drink

of this cup, I am saying I am eating of the very

nature of Christ who was completely trusted,

depended on the father and knew the father and

there was no breach. That's why Mark 11, 22 could

say, have the faith of God. That faith, when

I take the communion table is strengthened because

I'm pulling from his life. It goes on. His righteousness,

his holiness, his grace, his glory, his love,

all is available at this table. Why? The same

way, how do I receive it? By the revelation that's

in the word and faith. That's why. When you come

to this table, you might not, even though all

is available, what is God wanting to do? The

key of it all here is to highlight in you and

in your personal relationship with Jesus, what

part of his life, his righteousness, his love,

his obedience do you need that by revelation

of what you need can actually be pulled down

today? Because if you really, we talked about

this a couple weeks ago, if you really believe

him as source, when you come to the table, it

is one of the most important meals that you're

eating. Why? Because you're pulling from the

very source who's the author and the finisher

of your faith to say, strengthen my inner man.

Strengthen the spirit of God in me, my soul to

believe, to trust. God, help me. I pull your

life. for those that are needing healing. God,

you took that in your body so I don't have to.

I can stand in victory and begin to say, I enforce

what you did. We doing okay? So when we look

at the truth of Passover and we look at communion,

The blood, the bread, what you have to see is

you have to see separation. If you miss this,

we talked about oftentimes in Passover, we focus

so much on the blood and we should. But then

we spent time last week talking about the bread

and we're still there. But the key here of why

the bread was introduced with the unleavened

bread and your participation of what removing

the leaven was what? Separation. separation for

what? Unto God. Not separation for separation's

sake. It's quite the opposite. Everything in

the New Testament was to remove you, to draw

you to himself. What does the anointing of God

do? Whenever you read the Old Testament, why

was oil and blood had to be put on every vessel,

on every utensil, on every minister? Why? He

was taking them out of the common and bringing

them in to a separation unto God. Everything

about... Passover and communion, and that's why

chapter 11 in 1 Corinthians is so important,

is he's reminding you of your separation unto

God. Not a separation of all that I've lost.

If you stand at the communion table or during

a worship service and you stand there and say,

I've lost what I used to do. I used to be in

drugs. I used to be a drink. I used to have hair.

And if all you can think about is what you've

lost, you've missed the whole purpose of why

you got saved. The whole purpose of salvation

was to stand at the place and say, I have been

stripped and by the grace of God of everything

that's tried to keep me under the law of death,

I've been separated unto Jesus Christ and I could

never have obtained it except by his love and

his grace. And we often don't see this. In Passover,

because we start too far down in the Passover,

we start in Exodus 12 when we should be looking

at Exodus 8. And Exodus 8 was kind of the, if

you want to, means we're dealing with the 4th

of July and the preamble and all of the wonderful

things that we know, you know. The preamble was

this, God in the midst of the plagues, leading

them to the reality of the power of the blood

and the eating of the lamb said this in Exodus

eight, from that day, I will set apart the land

of Goshen where my people dwell so that no swarms

of flies will be there that you may know. Let

me say this, that you may know that I am the

Lord in a ready. In the midst of the earth. If

you miss that line, you keep God up there. And

you do not see the activity of the Holy Spirit

in the earth. And then it says, thus. And because

I'm the what? When you read a thus or like a

therefore, it means it's connected to the statement.

He's saying, listen, that you may know that I

am the Lord in the midst of the people on the

earth. Is God not in the midst of his people

today? Yes, he is. So this is not just an Old

Testament thing. This is a will of God, purpose

of God, truth of God. Thus, I will put a division.

between my people and your people. This becomes

now the caveat in which everything that we begin

to walk in by faith should take place. We don't,

we should never pride ourselves in any form of

self -righteousness ever. That's what religion

does. Religion marks what we do. Well, we now

do this. That's what Jesus indicted the Pharisees.

Well, we tithe, we fast, we do this, we do that.

And they were vocal about it. And they looked

down on those that were not operating at the

level they were. That's not what the division

is about. The division is about the difference

between those that are separated unto God and

those that are still not separated to him. That's

why. Exodus 12 then says, listen, seven days

you shall eat unleavened bread. You will remove

the leaven out of your houses. If anyone eats

what is leavened in those seven days, that person

shall be cut off from Israel. That's where 1

Corinthians 5 got its text. Chapter 20, or excuse

me, chapter 12, verse 20 says, you shall eat

nothing leavened. In all your dwelling places,

you shall eat unleavened bread. Meaning, who's

now the dwelling place of the Lord? You are.

You're the dwelling place of the Lord. Guess

what we're supposed to do? We're not to eat anything

leavened. I'm not talking about natural pastries.

Okay? Okay. Some people say, no, not the Mennonite

bakery. No, okay, that's not the point. The not

eating anything leaven is the whole New Testament

verbiage of this is what you used to be. Put

away all these things. You used to be this, but

now you're this in the Lord. So the whole principle

of what? I don't eat or what? begin to go and

feed myself from anything unleavened, or excuse

me, leavened like I used to live. I used to live

with what? No distinction. That's the difference

of the people of God. The people who don't know

Jesus live with no distinction. The people who

know Jesus live with what? A holy distinction

inside of them. That's why discernment was so

important of what Paul was actually getting to.

He was saying you must have discernment because

discernment is connected to the Holy Spirit that's

actually inside you. And if discernment from

the Holy Spirit is working, its first place of

working will be in you, not in somebody else.

And if your first place of discerning something

is in somebody else, you have a religious spirit.

Moving on. Now, the distinction is to be what?

A people separated unto the Lord. Jenny, that

would be a great time. Why don't you come up

and play some distinction music? The distinction

of a people separated unto the Lord. Notice what

Exodus 19 says. Now, guys, if I'm... I hate that

clock. Okay. If you understand what takes place

now from, we looked at Exodus 8. We looked at

Exodus 12, which is now the place where the blood

is applied on the doorpost and where we eat the

lamb that's roasted in fire and the bitter herbs.

And we are now committed to the week of unleavened

bread. And as they move through to the mountain,

When you get to Exodus 19 and 20, you're doing

what? You're getting ready for the giving of

the very nature of the moral law of who God is.

That's 20. But 19, before God ever gives the

message that Moses and the Lord would write with

his finger, first set of tablets, before he ever

gives the law. The very first thing that he does

at the mountain is does this. And this is why

it's so important that you understand where we're

going in Pentecost because the law was given

after technically what Pentecost was supposed

to be. Pentecost was 19. What's 19? You yourselves,

verse four and six, you yourselves have seen

what I did to the Egyptians and how I bore you

on eagle's wings. When someone bears you on eagle's

wings, what do you feel? The wind. So I fly like

the wind. Fly like the wind. All right. No. All

right. Okay. Okay. I bore you on eagle's wings

and I did what? I brought you to myself. Do you

understand why Exodus 8 and 19 are connected?

I'm separating you from those who worship other

gods and want to stay in the life of darkness

that they want. And I'm bringing you unto myself.

And I bring you by the wind of my spirit to who?

So that you would encounter me. I brought you

to myself. Verse 5. Now therefore, if you will

indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant. Listen

to the language. you shall be my treasured possession

among all peoples for all the earth is mine.

Verse six. I love what the ESV says. You shall

be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.

Don't we hear that again? Yes, we do. That was

a rhetorical question. We hear it again in first

Peter. You are a. Royal priesthood, a holy nation,

a special people, my own treasure. Notice what

God was doing. He was bringing them to the mountain

that he would visit with what? Fire and smoke

and what? And his voice would be heard by every

person. Before he ever gave the law, he wanted,

before there was ever a giving of the law, he

wanted what? an encounter unto separation to

take place. You see, the whole Old Testament

was marked. You could go to Deuteronomy 27 and

28, the blessing and the cursing. You could go

to Joshua at the rolling off in Joshua chapter

five of a place called Gilgal, which is a place

where they had to circumcise the next generation.

Why? Because the people of God lost the understanding

of being separate under God and Joshua under

new leadership had to again do what the people

should have known to do. My whole purpose of

being the people of God is to be separated unto

him. It doesn't make me better than any person.

I come from the same stock as every person. I'm

sinful. I have a sin, a flawed nature. The only

reason I'm coming here is because of divine grace

and the election that God wants all the world

to receive his son. And it's by that grace that

I come to encounter him. You see, God's desire

for us in Jesus Christ. Listen to what it says

in 2 Corinthians. Therefore, come out from among

them. This again was writing to Christians. This

was not writing to unbelievers. Come out from

among them and be separate. Do not touch what

is unclean and I will receive you. I'll be a

father to you. And you shall be my sons and daughters,

says the Lord. Colossians 3. We're getting ready

to receive communion. Ushers, if you'd get ready

to come forward. Listen to what he says. Colossians

3, 5. So now, to us, put to death, therefore,

what is earthly in you. Sexual immorality, impurity.

passions, evil passions, evil desire, and covetousness,

which is idolatry. And on account of these things,

the wrath of God is coming. In these you once

walked when you were living in them, but now

you must put them away. Anger, wrath, malice,

slander, obscene talk. Do not lie to one another,

seeing that you've put off the old self. With

its practices. And you have put on the new self.

Which is being renewed. In the knowledge. After

the image of your creator. Now listen to what

it says here. We blow past this. Verse 11. If

I can say it. Here. There is not Jew or Greek.

Circumcised or uncircumcised. Barbarian, Scythian,

slave. but all is Christ and Christ in all. What's

the here? Where's the here? You see, the Holy

Spirit was writing. He says, listen, there's

only one place where barbarian or slave or free

or circumcised or uncircumcised. Sorry. Just

making it real. There's only one place. There's

only one place where here they become all in

Christ. You know where that is? In the putting

off of the old nature and the agreement of taking

on the new. It is in that place. that the body

of Christ now has no division and no distinction.

It's in that place where however you were born,

wherever you were born, whatever you were born

into, whatever you've done, the place where your

identity becomes a chosen race, a holy nation.

a priesthood is in what the shared responsibility

of grabbing arm and arm with brothers and sisters

and saying at that place where we have determined,

we put off the old nature because of what was

done for us by the blood of Jesus and by the

body who Jesus suffered for us. And we put on

the new nature. And that's why Paul brings us

back to first Corinthians five. No longer share

the bread of malice and wickedness, but now be

the bread of unleavened bread in sincerity and

truth. In sincerity and truth, we share the meal

at this table. Would you stand with me this morning?

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