Tuesday, April 23, 2019

Christ In You (Unleavened Bread - Day 5) - 2017 "VIDEO"

by Michael C. Garrett


Hello everyone! Welcome to sunny Owensboro, Kentucky. My name is Michael C. Garrett. It’s good to have you with us here. We’re here today for part five and we’ll be talking about the meaning of Unleavened Bread. And the theme of this sermon is Christ In You! This week that we’re told in the Bible to eat unleavened bread, and to avoid leavened bread. That unleavened bread represents the unleavened Bread of sincerity and truth. It represents the unleavened Bread of which Jesus Christ said, ‘I AM the living Bread.’ And for a teaching point – for seven days we concentrate on eating unleavened bread. And unfortunately, the WCG never taught this well. In truth they never taught it at all. I’m not trying to be cruel to them, I’ll give them the excuse they just didn’t know better. They just didn’t know. But they were obsessed with “leaven-ing” – little crumbs, little pieces of bread on the floor, up in the corners. And they always equated it with sin. And they would say, “YOU MUST PUT SINNNN OUT OF YOUR LIFE!” So go find all that “leaven-ing.” And I’ve tried to say over and over again, you can’t put leavening out of your life – you can’t do it! Because yeast spores are everywhere! There are literally on me right now probably billion’s of yeast spores, and all of you are the same. It’s just omnipresent! We can’t put leavening out of our life on our own accord, we do not have the power, the understanding, the spiritual dynamism to put sin out of our life. However, Jesus Christ does! And we’re talking about taking in Jesus Christ, and what we’re really saying is that we’re asking that the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Jesus Christ, the mind of Christ, come and dwell with us. And by entering into us, we get changed from the inside out. And eventually, on Graduation Day – at the blowing of the seventh trump at the time of the Return of Jesus Christ – whether we are alive or dead, we will be changed instantly (so says the Apostle Paul) and that flesh part of us, with all of the inherent issues and problem’s that go with being human, that will disappear. And we will be changed into immortal Spirit. It’s really that Spirit which has already been dwelling in us - and hopefully growing – will just simply take over the entire picture and we become literally in the image of God! Just like Jesus Christ when He was in His pre-Jesus state, back in the garden of Eden made Adam. And, the discussion between God the Father and the One we now call Jesus Christ was, “Let Us [plural] make man in Our [plural] image.” So, eventually that process will be complete, and we will be totally within the image of God the Father and Jesus Christ, as son’s and daughter’s in Their eternal Family! Their Kingdom! And that’s what we’re all about – ‘Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness!’ And the only way that you can seek His righteousness is asking that His Spirit be poured out upon you. And that’s what Unleavened Bread represents. But the Worldwide didn’t teach it that way. They just boogered it up big time, and most of the remnant churches continue to talk about the same old ideas which are simply not valid. They’re not valid, not relevant, they’re not even biblical. Most of those old custom’s came from Jewish writing’s – the Jewish Talmud. And you’re never gonna learn about Jesus Christ practicing Jewish traditions. You’re never gonna learn about Jesus Christ!

I think about these two guys I baptized many years ago. I had never met them, I was simply told to go somewhere and meet them and baptize them. And after they were baptized – now one of them really gave me a start, because after we dunked him, he started doing back strokes in the pool. I had some real misgivings at that point! But anyway, we got up into the room where we were changing, and I saw that two of these guys put on Stars of David. And that shocked me! So I just strolled over there and said, “Fellas, why are you wearing these necklaces with Star of David?” One of these men looked like he could possibly have been Jewish, but the other man was straight from Liverpool, and he was just English through and through. And the one guy, who had done the backstrokes, said, “Well don’t we all want to be Jewish!?” And I said, “Well, not me, I desire to be Christian!” But they thought that by wearing the Star of David was somehow an emblem they need to wear to announce their faith. And, I never did figure that one out! And, by the way, those two men ended up getting into an argument over their mailbox – “Your mailbox is on my land!” They got to the point at one time where they weren’t even speaking to one other. 

Be you a servant of righteousness

So, the last time we met we were in the Book of Romans. And if you would, turn to Romans 6. We had just read verse 16 – “Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, [eventually] whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness?” – and I’ve tried to put this in a more practical sense for some of you at times. I’ve tried to say – who are you following!? What is your religion all about!? What’s the purpose, the aim, the bases of your religious thinking!? I know a lot of people whose ideas, “I must be loyal to my church organization.” And that loyalty goes so far where the leader’s of the church become venerated – practically worshipped. And so what ever the leader says, is like spiritual gold. And before long that organization takes on a culture. And the word “culture” is the word in which the abbreviation cult comes from. The word “cult” is just a shortened form of the word culture. And these organization’s take on a personality of their own, and if they’re not really careful, they forget about God or rather God takes on a very distant or secondary meaning to their life. Some of these organization’s become virtually ashamed of the name Jesus Christ – which it fathoms me, I don’t understand that. And I’ve talked about that a lot. And I’ve talked about some people who do that - and they’re making a terrible mistake. But what’s really worse is people who follow them! And that’s what I’m getting to. If you make your leader your god, you’re serving him! Now, let’s read that verse again in that light – “Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, …” – so, if your loyalty is fixated on your “church organization” and your “church leader” – that’s your god! Instead of God Almighty and Jesus Christ which should be the aim and the focus of your life! We also read in verse 17 – “But God be thanked that …” – ‘you were at one time in your life,’ and he’s writing to these Romans, the Church member’s – “…you were slaves of sin, …” – meaning they had no knowledge of Jesus Christ, they had no access to Jesus Christ. They were devoid of the mind and Spirit of Jesus Christ. But he says, “…yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine …” – or religious teaching delivered by Paul “…which you were delivered. 18) And having been set free from sin, …” – or the way’s of the world, however you want to say that. “…you became [servants] of righteousness.” – or servant’s of Jesus Christ. Again, Christ In You! The foundational true meaning of the Days of Unleavened Bread. And now we’re picking up a new verse, verse 19 – “I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. …” – alright, now it can mean a little weak or a whole lot weak, and can even mean sickness or illness. He’s talking about the weakness of your flesh – meaning you give into your human impulses instead of your godly impulses. “…For just as you presented your members as slaves of uncleanness, and of lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members …” – now what Paul was encouraging these people, and he’s encouraging us. And God made it a part of the Bible so that we also could share in this information. “…so now present your members as [servants] of righteousness for holiness.” Now, you can’t make yourself holy. You could fast four days a week, you could take out a little whip and slash yourself, and you could just do all these weird little thing’s - that many people in the world have done – and you would have zero righteousness for it! The only measure of righteousness is how much of God’s Spirit do you have!? Again, Christ In You! And a lot of people do a lot of silly thing’s – in my opinion. A lot of the churches of the world, a lot of  religions, they just make a lot of mistakes. They NEVER grasp the meaning of what Paul was trying to teach, and of what Jesus Christ was trying to teach – which ultimately can be called the New Covenant. The new agreement, the new contract. And the great High Priest of that New Covenant is indeed Jesus Christ! But he goes on to say, verse 20 – “For when you were slaves of sin, …” – God’s mind, God’s Word’s, God’s thoughts, did not direct you! “…you were free in regard to righteousness.” – you were detached from righteousness. Verse 21 – “What fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed?” – alright now, and I’m now trying to pick on anybody here, but some of the habits which people get into which are not healthy. Let’s start relatively minor – smoking. I don’t know if God views smoking as a sin or not, that’s beyond my pay grade – you’ll have to ask God Himself some time. But I do know this – in the course of my lifetime science and health professional’s have proved beyond any shadow of a doubt to me, that using tobacco in any form (and I think someday those e-cigarette’s will fall into the same category) produce many detrimental health effects! And I know a younger man who’s a sport’s official, and I was talking to him a while back, and I realized that he couldn’t go very long before he had to have a  cigarette. And I said, “Fred, how much do you smoke!?” And I believe he stated something like two packs a day. Which is forty cigarettes per day! Well, this relatively young man – thirty-five, thirty-eight – and I said, “Fred, you’re married aren’t you!?” He said, “Yes.” And I said, “You love your wife I presume.” He said, “Yeah, I love my wife!” And I said, “You have children!?” I thought he had children because I had seen him in a restaurant before with what I supposed to be his wife and what supposed to be his children. It looked like he was there with his family. And he said, “Well, they’re step-children.” I said, “Do you love them!?” He said, “O’ yeah! I love ‘em!” “Alright now, you say you love your wife, you say you love your children, and yet what’s gonna happen down the road when you fall prey to some really horrible health deficit’s!? How much will you be loving them then!?” And it’s as though it went in one ear and out the other. You know what his response to me was!? He said, “Yeah, yeah, yeah, but I just love to smoke!” Alright, he’s a slave to smoking, by his own admission. Again, I don’t know if that’s a sin or not – I don’t know. But I know this – he’s probably putting his health at risk at some time! I cannot comprehend what it would feel like to have a surgeon come to you after doing an examination and performed test’s and he says, “In order to save your life we must remove half of your face.” Can you imagine the horror of that moment!? That would be just horrendous! And yet there are people who get themselves into this situation. Now, I know that smoking isn’t the only cause of cancer. But it is a leading contributor to lung cancer, and cancer’s of the throat and the mouth. And you hear about people who are heavy smoker’s developing stomach cancer, because in that process of smoking they swallow a lot of the nicotine juices – as it were. It can just ravage a person! Well, that’s a low level problem. And, you can take all types of thing’s – alcoholism, drug addiction. Just everyday you open your newspaper, or turn on your television news and you hear about TRAGEDY! Horrible, unspeakable, unnecessary, tragedies, because lives have been destroyed and ruined because of the effects of excess alcohol and drug usage! Just think about automobile accidents – you know, there’s a family going down the road in their van and there’s a mom and dad, and they have the three children and the dog, and some fella in his big ‘ol red-neck truck (and I hope that doesn’t offend anybody; you know what I’m talking about – like Bigfoot) and he’s drunk, looses concentration, swerves across the lanes, hits this van head on and everyone in the van is killed. A family. A complete family just wiped out in the blink of an eye! And why!? Had they done something wrong!? Not a thing! They’re just going down the road – maybe to see grandma!? But somebody else, totally irresponsible in their drinking, and they cause these horrible death’s. Just totally unnecessary. I’m trying to sort of expand your mind of what he’s saying in verse 21 – “What fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed?” And this is a real tickly situation – but think about all of the horror. I mean the heartache, tears, and sobbing, and anger, and bitterness, because one member of a family (as they say, “steps out”) on the other member of the family. And when that eventually becomes known, often there are divorces. Or even if the couple stays together the marriage will never be the same. The one will never fully trust the other. And the marriage can become very cold and without love and without life, and without trust. And, that’s the easy part – think about when they actually divorce and the man, let’s say he’s a doctor. Got a lot of money, property, worked all of his life to be in that position, and then has to end up losing half of it or more! To pay for his foolishness. And, because he couldn’t control his urges there – whatever they were. Stories like this are a part of life’s fabric all the time. And what is so sad, and I find this even very insulting, you hear of situation’s where the woman becomes very unhappy with her husband – maybe one of these cheating situation’s – and she decides that she’s going to file for divorce. And let’s say there are three children in the family. And so often you hear - not always - that woman who’s trying to gain custody of the children is so filled with hatred and vengeance, she wants to remove her soon to be ex-husband – she wants to punish him – from having to see his children – ever again. And so what often do you hear!? The woman will pipe up and say, “Well, he molested our baby girl when she was two-years old.” And now his name gets dragged through the newspaper’s on that type of story.  I think most of the time when you hear these stories, you better be leery and weary because you’re probably not hearing the truth. And I’m not saying that it doesn’t happen. It’s probably not truth, it’s probably anger and bitterness, and revenge, and hatred, that causes these stories to be spread around.

So, yes, you had your go with sin, but in the end it’s horrible! It might lead to your physical death, and it might lead to your spiritual death. “…For the end of those things is death.” Verse 22 – “But now …” – he’s talking to people who are Church members. He’s talking about people who have heard the truth of God, they’ve changed their life around, they’ve gone in a new direction. They’ve learned about the truth of God, they have asked to be baptized, they’ve been granted that gift of repentance and the gift of baptism, and then with the laying on of hands, they receive the gift of God’s Spirit – the mind of Christ. “…But now having been set free from sin, and having become [servants] of God, you have your fruit to holiness, …” – now the other lifestyle is going to lead to pain, misery, and eventual death. But then the lifestyle where you walk with the New Covenant in Jesus Christ, it leads to the ‘fruit to holiness.’ “…and the end, …” the end game, the goal, “…everlasting life. 23) For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life …” – and how!? How does it all come about!?

https://owensborocojc.blogspot.com/2019/03/in-hope-of-eternal-life-video-series.html
     
THROUGH JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD! Paul was never ashamed to focus His teaching’s on Jesus Christ! I have said that I would love to go out and get a Bible sometime, and pick a certain color for a marker – like red – go through the writing’s of Paul and every time he refers to Jesus Christ mark it. So that when you open up Paul’s Books you would be just overwhelmed by how much color you were seeing! Because Paul’s main focus was talking about Jesus Christ, and talking about the principles, the particulars, of the New Covenant. He continues in chapter 7, verse 1 – “Or do you not know, brethren (for I speak to those who know the Law), …” – now again, which law is he referring to!? I think he’s referring to the Ten Commandments right there. Because just a few verses later – verse 12 – he mentions, and we spoke of it last sermon, he states quite boldly, “Therefore the Law is holy, and the commandment [or commandments] holy and just and good.” I think he’s referring to the Ten Commandments. I do not believe he’s referring to the law of the Old Covenant. I said in the last sermon, when you read Paul you have to understand that at times, he’s talking about the Old Covenant mentality – when he says “law” – and sometimes when he says the word law, he’s talking about the Ten Commandments. And you have to use a little wisdom and discretion and research to find out which one he’s referring to. Here I think he’s referring to the Ten Commandments. “…that the Law has dominion over a man as long as he lives?” – that is our RULE BOOK. That is our standard of behavior. 

The TEN COMMANDMENTS

You know, we haven’t done this in ages. Let’s just take a look at this basic contract. Exodus 20. Also, you can find the same thing in Deuteronomy 5. This is the outline, the game plan, which God Almighty and Jesus Christ put before us. This is how They expect us to conduct ourselves. This is the instruction’s They have given us. We won’t read every verse, but we’ll hit the highlights here.

Exodus 20:1 – “And God spoke all these Words, …” – and the God, the personality is the One we now call Jesus Christ. He’s the One speaking to Moses. And a lot of people get confused about that. They think – “Well the God of the Old Testament was that mean ol’ vengeful God, you know, the One with the long beard and the eye’s sort of piercing, getting ready to throw a bolt of lightning, like some picture of Zeus in Greek and Roman mythology.” ‘A vengeful God!’ ‘MEAN GOD!’ And then the same people go, “But I believe in the little Lord Jesus.” “The little baby.” What they don’t understand is the God you’re reading about in Exodus 20 is the same Being that we now call the Savior! It’s the same personality! Just in different era’s of time. “…saying: 2) ‘I AM the LORD your God, who brought you …’” – He’s speaking to the Israelites, “…’out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.’” – well, some people say, “Well, that’s ancient history! That’s thousand’s of years ago, how does that relate to my life!?” Well, all of us in one form or another – in our past – have lived metaphorically in the land of  Egypt. Did Egypt know the true God!? No. Did Egypt know the true religion!? No. Did Egypt know the true Word’s of God!? No, they were devoid of all of that. Moses, basically had to introduce pharaoh to a concept that pharaoh had never thought about before. And it even took Moses some education early on - for Moses to really figure out, ‘to whom am I speaking to’!? And the One speaks back to him and says, “I AM that I AM.” Meaning, it’s like the verb “am,” talks about, ‘I was,’ and then, ‘I AM,’ and ‘I will be.’ All of those are derivation’s of the verb “to be.” And it talks about existence.  When God said, and Jesus Christ repeated it - because it was the same Being who repeated it – when He said, “I AM that I AM.” He was saying, ‘I AM the God which has always existed far back in time. I AM the God right now, and I AM the God which will control everything for all of the future.’ It’s a much more powerful phrase than most people understand or appreciate. But we all in our physical life have been a member of the society of Egypt devoid of God. The true God! Oh, we may have had a form of religion. Like me when I was a young boy and teenager, adolescent, I sort of got dragged off, as I’ve said, to the United Methodist Church. It wasn’t my decision to go to that church, it was just Sunday morning I was awakened and was told, “Mike, get ready, we’re going to church.” I had no choice in the matter. So I went, I experienced, and even in my young mind – and as I got older my mind was maturing and understanding thing’s – I realized that this religion was vaporous. Meaning it was like smoke. It had nothing to it. It was just misty word’s and picture’s and stain-glass, and organ music. How many of you feel closer to God when you hear organ music!? Well, I just see a big ‘ol organ! I don’t think it’s godly. It’s just music to me. But in that little church there they had this organ and the pipe’s were on the back wall! I mean the place would vibrate with that organ! And stain-glass! They had it everywhere! Silly little pictures of so-called patriarch’s with those little halo’s on! Have you ever seen a halo flying around somebody’s head!? Where did they come up with that!? Halo’s!? I mean, all that folderol. And, minister’s wearing these long robes and all the ceremony, and the candles. I remember at one point in my life, on certain celebrations – like on Easter – I performed as an acolyte. I was to walk down with this long metal stick that had in it a waxed rope, and there was a little lever, and as you pushed the lever up, the little rope would extend some more. So, as it burned, you could make it longer and longer, where the flame wouldn’t go out. And we had to walk down the isle holding these things forty-five degrees or something. And then we got to the front and the guy in the robe would light the flexible candle. And then we had to go over and light these candelabra’s. And for some reason, that was supposed to be holy. And Mr. GTA always joked about the fact that religion’s seem to think that God loves the smell of wax. I don’t think God necessarily cares about the smell of wax. It’s not holy. It’s just burning deposit’s. It’s just a candle. But they have all this ceremony. And in one church – the Catholic Church – you walk into some of their churches and down near the front there are all these little glasses with a candle in the middle, and they’ve got those all lit up. And they’re saying prayers for their departed friends or loved one’s!? So, imagine that you grew up on the planet Mars. And magically you are transported to the Earth, safe and sound, and you’re walking around society, trying to figure out – what are these thing’s, these people’s, these human’s! What do they do, how do they think!? And you would wander into a so-called church, what would you think!? What is going on in here, why are they doing what they’re doing!? How is it relevant!? How is a candle relevant to God Almighty and the Kingdom of God and to the New Covenant and Jesus Christ!? Now, when you really just stop and analyze it, it means NOTHING – other than it’s ceremony. It’s religious folderol! 

Well, bondage! I was in the bondage of the United Methodist Church for eighteen years of my life! And so many people live in bondage. There’s all types of bondage. I know men who live in bondage to their wives. Marriage is supposed to be a state of equality between two different people. And the two different people in love they help one another. They make life easier for one another. But I know marriages where the women totally dominate the men. And the men, if you ever bring it up go, “Well that’s just the way it is!” I know one sports official, and he’s all the time worried about keeping his wife happy. He would say, “If the wife isn’t happy, nobody’s happy!” Have you heard that expression!? And he was very fond of saying it. It was his excuse for saying, “Yeah, my wife dominates me, but I do it so that everybody else could be happy.” Well, I will remind you, which side was created first!? It’s just a historical truth. The man was created first. We read in the writing’s of the Apostle Paul, the man is to be the head of the family. However, now, anymore, in this 21st century mentality, men are subjugated and made like little pawns. I know one fella who’s treated like he’s a little boy. And his wife is his mommy. Folks, it was never meant to be that way! But there is so much bondage in this society and most of the people who are involved in the bondage don’t know how to get out. Remember, we were talking about smoking, excessive drinking, drugs. More and more in American society drugs are just being accepted as ‘the way of life.’ And you hear about more and more state’s passing laws that liberalize drug usage, marijuana, and other thing’s. And then the more these laws become loosened the more trouble’s we have as a society! And nobody can stop and go, “Well I wonder if there’s a correlation!?” 1 And people say, “Well I should be allowed to smoke marijuana because it’s natural. It’s a plant.” Well folks, ever so often I find along my back fence some poison ivy, and never once have I thought – well you know it’s natural, I’ll use it for a message oil. Well folks if I was to do that, in a few day’s I’d have to go to the hospital. I would be that ill. Well, fire is natural. But I never once thought that I was gonna set my head on fire. It’s natural, why all of a sudden, my skin turning black!? Just try to understand what I’m trying to say. Just because it’s “natural” doesn’t mean that it’s healthy for you! PEOPLE ARE IN BONDAGE! And the older I get, the more I see that!

1) Verse 3 – “’You shall have no other gods before Me.’” – this is número uno in the order of the commandments. And this is in effect, the MOST IMPORTANT COMMANDMENT! ‘Thou shalt have no other gods before Me.’ And men, if your wife dominates you – she is your god! Or if your job dominates you – your job becomes your god! Or whatever it is you serve, other than God you have allowed another god to take over in your life. And so often, I’ve even talked about today, religious groups who look upon their leader as actually he’s more important than God, because he’s accessible. “I can hear him! I can see him! I can shake his hand! Where as I can’t shake God’s hand, or I can’t hear His voice as it were!” Well, ‘no other gods before Me.’

2) Verse 4 – “’You shall not make for yourself [any graven] image …’” – well, you know, the people who carve out their little Buddha statutes, their totem poles. I’ve heard people say, “Oh, the wonderful Native American people up in the Northwest and they have their totem pole. It’s so religious.” Well, in the eyes of God I don’t think He looks upon those totem poles as really something He appreciates. I know the Hopi Indians have these little dolls – the Hopi Kachina figures – big time in their religion. And they festoon their homes with these little dolls, and you get the feeling that you’re in some type of religious sanctuary. Speaking of that, a few times I’ve had to go to funeral’s at the Catholic Church over in Rockport, Indiana. And the last time I did this, I was sitting in a pew about ¾ of the way back, and I just happened to start looking around, and everywhere there was like gargoyle’s. These little statutes, these little images, and I just thought it was creepy! And I’m thinking to myself – how did this become religious!? Obviously, these are ‘graven images’ - that have some type of spiritual significance in that group! But it’s troublesome to me!

Verse 5 – “’you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, …’” – Well, you can upset God! You can cause Him to become angry with you by doing some of this – following false gods. And, notice what He says after, ‘am a jealous God.’ “…’visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me.’” – it is possible for a family or a city, or a country, or a church organization to become so obnoxious in the nostrils of God, that in affect, people for three and four generations end-up being cursed. That’s what it says! Verse 6 – “’but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.’” – so again, ‘the wages of sin is death.’ The wages of righteousness is eternal life! It’s the same thing expressed here.

3) Verse 7 – “’You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.’” – now, I’ve got to be careful here that I don’t upset anybody. There are a lot of word’s in the English language, and I’m sure in other languages, and I know some of those word’s in Spanish, that are, shall we say, colorful. Many of these word’s actually can be found in the Bible. Now, these are biblical word’s, such as, ass. How many times in the Bible do we see the word ass!? Now, normally they’re referring to a jackass or a donkey. But in modern society you hear the word ass quite a bit. And there are religious people who go, “Oh, you’re cursing!” No, I just said a word that I saw in the Bible last night! “Oh, you’re so naughty, you’re so evil.” No. And, there’s a lot of word’s, and I won’t go through all of them, because you probably would get upset with me! Most of these word’s do not bother me. Now, part of that is my background. I’ve been an athlete when I was younger, I’ve been a sports official in different sport’s starting at age fifteen. I’ve been around a lot of coaches and a lot of players and a lot of fans, and sometimes they do not talk real nicely to official’s. I’ve heard all those words. It doesn’t affect me! I’ve been in locker rooms where guys have used them in anger. I’ve been in the locker room where people have said them in jest and in joking, funning around. The word’s don’t bother me, they truly don’t! Now I realize that some of you can’t take those words, so I try to keep them to myself. However, there is ONE PHRASE that makes me uncomfortable. When I hear somebody misusing or profaning the name of God or Jesus Christ. That makes me uncomfortable. I don’t like to be around those people. But this also has another meaning. The word “take” there – in the study that I have done in concordances and lexicons – it has the connotation of applying - as it were -  of taking this phrase and applying it to yourself as a label. It’s an identifying label. So, He says there, ‘You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, …’ – another meaning of this, with the different level’s of meaning is, God does not like it when people claim to be Christian and are doing thing’s that make the true religion of God look bad. One thing just entered my mind – over the years, off and on, you hear of churches, back in eastern Kentucky and West Virginia – the Appalachian mountains -  which have a practice of the minister handling snakes. And, ever so often you hear about one of these guy’s getting arrested, or even more ironic, you hear about one of these guys dying! Now, they’ve got these venomous snake’s – and I’ve seen a few film clips of it – and it’s just creepy to me, it just upsets me to no-end! I don’t really like watching it – where they’re holding these snakes, maybe three or four in every hand, and they’re dancing this funny little jig, and turning around in circles! I mean – demonic! That’s the only phrase that I can come up with – demonic to the core! And yet, those people say they’re worshiping Jesus Christ! Now, if I was Jesus Christ sitting on the throne of God – which I’m not; and I’m sure I don’t have the beginning understanding to know – however, I think if I was up on the throne next to God the Father and I look down at these people, these idiots, dancing around with snakes tempting a snake bite, and they call it by my name!? – I don’t believe that would please me! And yet, even within the structures of the churches of God – listen to the phrase churches of God – churches of God. They put the name God on them! And yet many of them know nothing of the New Covenant! And yet they claim to be of God! I think that’s a dangerous situation to get into! There was a time when a whole lot of folks - and I was probably one of them, I was young, I was inexperienced, I had a certain naiveté about me. But there was a time when I thought the WCG had all the answers. I thought it was the place to be! I thought it so much that I picked up my root’s – as it were – as a teenager and went out to Pasadena, California to attend AC and to be a part of the WCG! I greatly angered my family and caused them upset and to this day there are ramification’s from that. I thought I was doing right. And, I think I was supposed to be there to learn some thing’s. But I think I was supposed to learn as much of the negative  - the don’t do it this way – as I was the positive – do it this way. Well, where is the WCG now!? GONE! It’s utterly, completely, remotely, disappeared off the face of the earth! And I think the main reason is that God the Father and Jesus Christ looked down upon it and said, “We are just getting sick and tired of how they take Our name in vain! They say they’re worshiping Us, but in fact they’re worshiping people. They say they know the truth of God, and yet they know nothing about grace and love and patience and understanding!” I think They just got tired of it and said, “Wipe it out!” My theory, my thought. “‘Thou shalt not [use as a label to yourself] the name of God in vain [in worthlessness], for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.’” – do you hear that!? The LORD just doesn’t let it slide! That is an offensive thing to God!

4) Verse 8 – “’Remember the Sabbath day, …’” – I like to call it “Church day.” It’s the seventh-day of the week. Which is what we in Western society call Saturday. So, why does 99% of all “church going” Christian people go to church on Sunday!? Good question! Why do they do it!? God says go to church on Saturday, most of the people of the world go to church on Sunday. Those people who keep their Sunday worship services in their mind’s and their heart’s they think they’re doing what God wants them to do. And they do not understand, He never sanctioned weekly Sunday church service! Never – ever! Nowhere in the Bible can you find that!

5) Verse 12 – is commandment number five – right in the middle. “’Honor your father and your mother, …’” – and this is the one commandment that has a promise as a part of it. “…’that your days may be long upon the land which the LORD your God is giving you.’” – and I think by extension, honor all of the people in your family. And then go out another ring – honor all of the people who are close friends. Show those people honor, particularly your parents and your grandparents. And, I’ve told this story – how I was there when my Mother took her last breath. I was with Dad up until the end. And it just about wore me out taking care of him, and I’m still recovering. But that’s a long story. But I can say – I can stand before God in the future and say, “Well, I may have screwed up a few times, but I did the best I could.” But, ‘honor thy father and thy mother.’ And yet, in today’s society – I’ve gone through Wal-Mart where a mother has a couple of children running around the basket, and the mother will say, “Johnny, come over here!” And I’ve heard Johnny call his mother name’s, which if Johnny were a member of my family – not necessarily my son; if he’d been my nephew - I tell ya, I’d pull his pants down right on the spot and whacked him several good ones! I took my Dad as he was starting to decline – but he was still aware – he said, “Michael, I want to see a big fireworks display.” I think what he was actually saying was, ‘before I die, I want to see one more time a big time fireworks demonstration.’ And we were approaching the Fourth of July. So I took Dad down to the river here in Owensboro where they have a big annual fireworks display. A nice display. And I took him early so we could get a real good seat, right up on the fence. And we’re there, and eventually a mother and about a nine-year old boy were to our left. And the mother, in a very calm voice, just asked the boy to do something, and the little boy ripped off some jim-dandy cuss word’s aimed at his mother. I gotta tell ya folks, I had the urge – I didn’t do it because I knew I’d get in trouble – to pick up that child and toss him over the fence and hope he rolled right on down to the river. And I thought – you little smart-mouthed blankety blank, how dare you talk to your mother that way! Now, if this is society as it grows up, oh my, maybe it’s good we’re over sixty! Because I don’t know if we could take another twenty-thirty years of seeing these types of abhorrent, disrespectful, hateful behavior! And against whom!? The child was cussing out his own mother! “’Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the LORD your God is giving you.’” Well, just something to think about.

6) Verse 13 – says in the King James English – “’Thou shalt not kill.’” The actual word in the original Hebrew to the best of my knowledge, means, ‘Thou shalt not commit murder.’ Murder is different than killing someone. Of course the one who was on the receiving end might debate that! But, alright, murder, like what we read in the newspaper. A man is angry with his ex-wife, he goes to the house, pulls out a gun and shoots her multiple times. That’s murder. And then for good measure he murdered himself. So, he went out on two really big one’s! As opposed to  - your in your house, somebody tries to break in the front door with a weapon with the purpose of trying to hurt you or a member of your family, and you defend yourself. And even our laws recognize that murder is one thing, and killing someone in self defense is another thing. And I just will say, if you break into my home, we’re gonna have a gun fight! And I hope that I’m more quicker and more accurate than you are. Well, remember Michael Dukakis – he was running against President Reagan – and they’re having a presidential debate. Dukakis was a far-left leaning mamby pamby liberal. Don’t get mad at me if you don’t like that, but that’s my impression of him. And, this is national television, and the moderator – I think it was Bernard Shaw – said, “Governor, if Kitty Dukakis [his wife] were raped and murdered, would you favor an irrevocable death penalty for the killer?” Now, first of all, that’s a pretty obtuse question to ask at a presidential debate. But that was the question! And Michael Dukakis said, “No, I don't, and I think you know that I've opposed the death penalty during all of my life.” Many people think that lost him the election. Many people say – if you go back to that time – he came across as such an unbelievable wimp. And quite frankly, if I were Kitty, I think I’d start sleeping with a gun because I  realize my husband ain’t gonna protect me! It was a horrible answer! He was trying to be so nicey nice, and what he didn’t understand was, the Bible doesn’t say you can’t defend yourself. The Bible says don’t go out and overtly plot cold blooded murder! That’s what it’s saying!

7) Verse 14 – “’You shall not commit adultery.’” – we talked about this a little earlier. All of the problems, divorces, the two people are scarred, the children are scarred, the inn-laws are scarred, all the family members are scarred. I have a relative, a young lady. And she had a husband, and they had three children, and all of a sudden, he leaves her because he found a nice young thing at the office. And, I’ve removed all of his photograph’s from the house. Or, there were times where he had been photographed with the family, and I put like a magnet right over his face, so I wouldn’t have to look at him. I don’t even want to see his face! Because he caused so much pain. And I always thought – it’s one thing if you hurt your wife, but what you did to your children is absolutely inexcusable! Because you wanna have a fling!? Well, ‘Thou shalt not commit adultery.’ That’s what the commandment says.

8) Verse 15 – “’You shall not steal.’” -  which means, don’t take something that isn’t yours. I think we all know what that means. But it reminds me of a story way back when I was a school teacher in Arizona. And, I had a room full of 5th or 6th graders – I forget which. We were about an hour away from lunch time. And a little girl came up to me and – a lot of the children back then, and maybe they still do – like these little plastic boxes, some are clear, some are red or blue, pretty. And they keep their stuff in there, pencil’s, pen’s, what-not. And this young girl had put a ten-dollar bill in there – that was her lunch money. And the little girl walked up to me and said, “Mr. Garrett, my money’s gone!” I said, “What do you mean!?” “I had ten-dollars in my pencil box, and I looked wallago and it’s gone!” Well, the money’s in here somewhere folks! So I started an investigation. And I made all the boy’s turn their pocket’s inside out. And sure enough, one of these pocket’s came inside out – and now laying on the desk is a folded up ten-dollar bill. And I said, “Fred, I think that came from her box. Don’t you!?” And he blurted out, “YEAH!” And you know what he told me!? He said, “Well, if she’s not going to protect it better than that she deserves to lose it!” That’s what he said! Wasn’t his fault. He wasn’t wrong! It was her fault – ‘she made it too easy for me to steal her money!’ And after that, I had a chance to talk to my principle, who was a very liberal wishy-washy – whatever person. By nature he was a “tree-hugger.” And I said, “Pat, we’ve got a problem. We’ve got a society – we have children, and it’s not that they know what’s right and they know what’s wrong, and they’re having trouble’s with that. We have people who at our school who don’t even know what is wrong. They don’t even know that it is wrong! We need to have some institution, or some type of class or teaching where we teach them right from wrong, or standards or ethics or morals – whatever you want to call it!” And he stiffened his body up, and said, “Mike, you know the Supreme Court said we can’t talk about the Bible!” That’s exactly what he said! I said, “Who mentioned the word Bible, I didn’t!? I didn’t say Bible, I didn’t say Ten Commandments! I just said, ‘what is right and what is wrong.’ Just the laws of the nation!” And, he let out a huff! He was offended that I would even mention such a thing. And then you wonder why your school districts go downhill, because of people like that, who are in charge. And that taught me something! After he left my room after that chat, I said to myself – this is a profession I need to vacate. And I made up my mind and said, “Barring starvation, I will never again in my life work under an ungodly man.” Not gonna do it! I’m done with it! I’m done with people like that! And, guess what!? Except for a time when I was performing sermon’s with the ICG, that hasn’t happened! There’s a joke in there – did ya get it!? But I didn’t even say his name – did I!?

9) Verse 16 – now folks, it says in my King James English Bible, “’Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.’” – now, I’ve got a couple of neighbors on one side, and they’re getting older and their health isn’t really good anymore. They’re slowing down. And I’ve got two neighbors on the other side who are the nosiest, most anal-retentive people I think I’ve ever met. I call the wife "Gladys Kravitz" from the television series Bewitched.  I like the people on the one side, I feel empathy for them. But the couple on the other side – if I was to go to law enforcement and say, “I saw Abner strangle a child and bury the body in his backyard.” Now, Abner would never do that, but I would be bearing false witness against my neighbor! Now, for the first day of Unleavened Bread we went down to Alabama. I did not know it at the time – it took awhile before I received the information through various conversations – but Don was not feeling well. So at one point early on I said, “Don, how ya doin’!?” And Don said to me, “I’m fine.” Now folks, Don lied to me! But, did he bear false witness against somebody!? No, he didn’t. He just didn’t want to tell me the whole story - or Don doesn’t share a lot of his issues. He was just gonna tough it out. And he did. And he was very helpful. The trip would have really been a burden without Don’s help. And I’m really glad he went, but he actually lied to me – as some people would say. Now, the commandment says, ‘Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.’ Like accusing them of something they haven’t done. Spreading gossip is ‘bearing false witness against thy neighbor’ your fellow human being. And when you gossip in an evil way, your breaking the ninth commandment – whether you know it or not!

10) Verse 17 – “’You shall not covet …’” – which means, “to desire.” To desire with unchecked feeling. ‘Thou shalt not want, lust, desire …’ “…’your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his [ass] …’” – now, there we are! See!? Right there in the Bible! Ten commandments, word “ass.” What do you think about that!? Now, that goes back to what I said earlier. “…’nor anything that is your neighbor’s.’” – now Paul in Colossians 3:5, and the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 5:3 said that covetousness is equal to the same as idolatry. Which means, if you break the tenth commandment, you’re right back breaking the first commandment. You have a false god and a false idol. First and second commandment.

So, those are the actual commandments. 

Conclusion

These commandments – these outline of behavior’s they control your life, whether you know God or not! They are a controlling factor in your life, whether you are obedient to God or not! They are omnipresent. And they are  forever – they are eternal. As a second series I gave of the Owensboro Church of Jesus Christ – 20-parts – The Eternal Relevancy of the Ten Commandments. So, ten-thousand years from now, human beings on the earth will still be using these guidelines to show them what is right and what is wrong. 

And I know that we’re out of time. So, we will continue. The great thing is that next week we get to come back here and pick it up right where we left off. As we continue to go through these ideas, and it’s all about CHRIST IN YOU! So, dear friends, thank you for being with us, and I hope you stay with us for the Days of Unleavened Bread until the end. I hope you will come back and read additional articles. I hope that you will go onto our website, or our YouTube channel, or our Godtube channel, or even our Facebook page. But be sure to check out our sermon’s, study them, take notes, have your Bible! I think you’ll find they’ll be very educational! And hopefully inspiring! And, elucidating! So, thank you for being with us. If you want to help us financially, we will willingly accept it. We don’t have a whole lot of overhead, but we do have some expenses. It would help out. And, we hope you come back. So, our prayer’s go out to all of you, and I hope that your prayer’s flow forward here for all of us. And our love is with you, and I hope that your love is with all of us. So, until next time, I say, thank you and goodbye my friends.

1. “Researchers at Victoria University of Wellington and Harvard University found that medical marijuana laws essentially have a null effect of crime rates, with one big exception: A nearly 20 percent reduction in violent and property crimes in California following the legalization of medical cannabis there.”  Medical Marijuana Laws Don’t Increase Crime, New Study Says. Kyle Jaeger. Marijuana Moment, 23 Aug. 2018. Retrieved 1 April 2019.




https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL20W0FKk8Bd36b8OwQvcYMjt-0JWvTzvY
             
Have the Ten Commandments been replaced by some new commandment? Have they been "nailed to the cross"? Have only part of the Ten Commandments been approved in the New Testament? Have some been altered or changed? Here is the surprising answer from God's inspired Scriptures.
Minister Michael C. Garrett's 20-part series - The Eternal Relevancy of the Ten Commandments.

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