It fills us up with pride, and
there's no substance to it. I was talking to my wife today.
She made some whole wheat bread, and she said it didn't rise well
enough. And it was kind of short and
squat. It didn't rise very well for
her, and she was a little disappointed. I wasn't. It was heavy. It was
full. It was good. Macho men like to
call rib stick and grub, you know. It was heavy, it was full,
there was some substance to it. Well, I tell you what, a little
leaven, a little self-righteousness will puff us up, make us full
of nothing but pride, nothing but pride. But unleavened bread
of Christ is the substance of our gospel. It's a substance. It's full. It's full of Christ. Leaven is full of holes. It'll
make a mixture full of holes. and full of hot air. Now, yeast
is made up from a mixture of things in order to make you women
make these. You've been passing around these
so-called starters, you know, they have this homemade yeast
into them. All yeast is is soured or fermented
mixture. It's a mixture, is what it is.
And Christ said this about leaven. He said a little leaven will
leaven the whole lump. It just takes a little bit, just
a little bit will go a long way. And I tell you what, self-righteousness
comes from a mixture of things. Self-righteousness comes from
a mixture of grace and works. If you really believe and trust
Christ and Christ alone, you won't be self-righteous. No,
you won't. We're talking about thinking
that you have your own personal righteousness, self, you yourself
have a righteousness or that is an acceptability about yourself,
which God looks upon with favor. No, if you trust Christ and Christ
alone, you cannot have any self-righteousness. But if you've got a mixture of
Christ and your faith, there is some self-righteousness. If
you've got a mixture of the grace of God, plus your works, your
obedience, that's self-righteousness. It's a mixture. A little bit
will live in the whole lung. A little bit will take away from
that 100% pure mixture of grace and grace alone, won't it? Just
a little bit. Salvation is 100% grace from
start to finish. Don't put any yeast in it. Don't
put in yourself righteousness. Don't put one bit of your works,
man's works in it, or you'll ruin the whole thing. You'll
take away from the complete glory of God Almighty. Now, let me
look at this making of bread a little bit. I know you ladies
could tell me a little, could instruct us all a little more
clearly on this, but this making of bread, Christ said, I'm the
bread of life. He said, I am the bread of life.
The first thing in this thing of making a bread, naturally,
is the planting of the seed. Right? We plant whatever we're
going to make. We're going to make corn bread.
Let's use that for an illustration. That's what Christ used. A corn
of wheat fall into the ground. You plant that seed into the
earth. The Scripture said the aims of
the Lord's came upon Mary. The angel of the Lord came unto
her, the Holy Ghost, and God said unto her, The Holy Ghost
shall come upon thee, and the power of the highest shall overshadow
thee, and therefore also that holy thing which shall be born
of thee shall be called the Son of God." In other words, that
holy thing was the seed of God Almighty. Mary said when she
heard she was going to have a child, she had said, how can this be?
See, and I've never known a man. See, for a woman to have a child,
she has to have the seed of a man. Women don't have seed, right? A man has to impregnate a woman
with his seed. She said, I've never known a
man. Well, the holy the angel said the Holy Ghost is going
to come upon you and that holy thing will be from God. The seed of God was implanted
in the womb of a virgin in the earth. OK, that seed is planted
and then the plant begins to grow. It begins to grow up as
a tender shoot. The scripture says he shall grow
up before God as a tender plant and as a root out of dry ground. And then that plant begins to
grow at the mature. And when it reaches maturity,
it begins to bear fruit. It begins to hang down with ears
of corn or wheat or whatever it may be. Christ had the fruit
of the Spirit without measure. He had so much fruit, Terry,
that he hung low. I said he was meek and lowly,
didn't he? The fuller the plant, you know,
you have corn, the fuller the plant, the lower those ears will
hang, right? They will hang over. Christ had
the fruit of the Spirit without measure. He was full of the fruit
of holiness and good works. He said, the works that I do,
they bear witness of me. I'm so full of the works of God,
they bear witness of me. His works were pure and holy,
with a pure and a holy motive for the glory of God. Good works. Good work. Now, let me tell you
this, too. Let me add this. Do you know that your bread is
only going to be as good as your ingredients? Your bread's only
going to be as good as your ingredients. And Christ was truly the Son
of God, without guile, without spot, without stain, without
sin. Perfect. He's the bread of life.
Not one taint of sin in Him. A perfect manna from heaven.
And after that bread, after that That plant bears much fruit. It's finally it's cut down. You
cut the fruit from it and cut the plant down, it's cut down
when it's fully ripe. The scripture says in the fullness
of time, God sent forth his son made under the law to redeem
them that were under the law. How did he do that? By making
him a curse for us, by cutting him down in the prime of life,
by killing him, by killing him, Christ was cut down in the prime
of life when he was in the full fruit of his bloom. As a man,
he was cut down, a perfect man, in the full ripeness of his age. And then that grain that's taken
from that plant is ground to powder. It's ground into a powder. The Scripture says he was wounded
for our transgression. It says he was bruised under
the millstone of God's wrath He was bruised for our iniquity. Christ was that bread corn. Remember,
He said, except a corn of wheat. He is that bread corn that fell
into the ground and was, as it were, under the foot of God Almighty,
which we should be. God is going to put His foot
upon the neck of His enemy. And Christ took that in the stead
of His people. And He was ground to powder.
He was bruised under the hand of God Almighty. And then what
you have left after you bruise and crush up this grain, what
you have left is a pulp. You have a pulp substance. A pulp. Christ, the Scripture
says, his visage was marred more than any man. People have these
pictures of a man hanging on a cross in their living rooms,
you know. Folks, if we had a true replica
of what Christ really looked like, it would sicken us. We wouldn't have that hanging
over our table. He was a bloody mass. He was unrecognizable. He was swollen. He was bruised. He was beaten. He said his visage
was marred more than any man. He was beaten to a bloody pulp,
is what he was. And then that pulp is taken and
cast into an oven. And Christ upon the cross for
six hours under the hot sun, not just the sun of this earth,
but under the fiery indignation of God's wrath, he bore our punishment. God's indignation and anger against
sin. It pleased the Lord to bruise
him, the scripture said. And it said he made his soul
an offering. What kind of offering did they
make back then? A burnt offering, right? He made his soul a burnt
offering for sin. He was cast into the oven of
God's wrath. And then what you have, after
so many hours, and in the case of Christ, three days, What came
forth, what arose to fullness was sweet bread. Bread. Bread. And the Scripture says,
Now is Christ risen from the dead and become the firstfruits
of them that slept. Christ is that holy manna sent
down from heaven that all who partake of by faith will nourish
their souls unto everlasting life and never die. Christ is
sweet bread to a believer. Sweet bread, corn bread, and
milk with honey. Sweet bread. He said something
about oil here. Let me deal briefly with this
thing of oil because it's not in the elements here, but it's
mentioned here in our text. The oil here, you ladies, when
you make bread, you add shortening, right? You add vegetable oil
or something of the sort. What you do really is you put
that in the vessels, don't you? Don't you grease the pan? Sure
you do. You grease the pan with oil or
shortening or something. That earthen vessel, that vessel
you're going to make the bread out of, is covered with oil.
Well, this represents the anointing oil of the Holy Spirit, which
Christ was anointed with without measure. Christ, the bread of
life, was filled with the Spirit. He had that earthen vessel which
was covered with and filled with the Holy Spirit of God. Alright,
let's look at the next element that we partake of in this table.
Let's look a little more in depth into this. The wine. The wine. Why do we use wine
in the Lord's table? Why do we use wine? Look over
with me at Genesis chapter 14. Genesis chapter 14. Why do we
use wine? Well, I'll tell you why. It's
a good idea, whenever you're looking and studying something
in the Scriptures, to go back to what my pastor always called
the law of first mention, of first usage. Wherever you see
a word or something used first, that's generally the principal
usage of the term. OK? Now, the reason why we use
wine is because God served it. God served it and he commands
us to serve it. He said God served wine. Yes,
he did. Look here, Genesis 14. Do you remember this? When Abraham
came from the valley of the slaughter of the kings, you remember who
met him? Melchizedek. Do you remember
who Melchizedek was? King of Salem, Prince of Peace,
without mother or father, without beginning of days, without ending
of days. That's Christ, right? That's the eternal Son of God.
That's an earthly appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ. In
other words, that was God in human flesh in this Melchizedek
who came to Abraham. And verse 18, And Melchizedek,
king of Salem, is the king priest, he brought forth bread and wine,
and he was the priest of the Most High God. See, God first
served wine. He first served wine in blessing
Abraham. And you know, we were in the
loins. You remember our study back there in Hebrews? We were
in the loins of our father Abraham when he was blessed of Melchizedek.
So God served us wine then, and he's serving it to us now. Look
over with me at Genesis 27. Genesis 27. Look at this. Do you remember
this story? How that Jacob was disguised as his brother Esau?
In order to get the blessing from Isaac, you remember the
story, we preached on that. Jacob disguised himself, his
mother disguised him as Esau, in order to get the blessing
from Isaac, his father. And look at what Isaac, his father,
blessed him with. Now this is a picture. Isaac
is a picture of God the father. is a picture of the Holy Spirit
who told Jacob what was necessary in order to be blessed, how he
must look, how he must smell, how he must feel in order to
get the blessing from his father. You remember that story? And
Jacob came in before his father to be blessed of him, and look,
of all things, what Isaac blessed his son Jacob with. Now, remember,
Isaac represents God the Father, and Jacob represents the church,
always has. Throughout the scripture, Jacob
is called, is a picture of the church. Look at verse 27, verse
26. And his father Isaac said unto
him, Come near now and kiss me, my son. And he came near and
kissed him, and he smelled the smell of his raiment, and he
blessed him and said, Ah, it's a smell, a sweet smelling savor
of my son, as the smell of a field which the Lord hath blessed.
That's a picture of Christ, and you following? You following
with me? Therefore God give thee, now look at this, look at his
benediction, his blessing upon Jacob. God give thee of the dew
of heaven, that's the Holy Spirit, and the fatness of the earth,
the riches, the unspeakable riches, and plenty of cornbread and wine. He blessed him with wine. And
even over in verse thirty-seven, When Esau came up there and he
heard what had happened, Isaac answered and said unto Esau,
verse thirty-seven, Behold, I have made him your lord, and all his
brethren have I given to him for service, and with corn and
wine have I sustained him or supported him. I tell you, when
Jacob got that blessing, it sure made his heart glad, didn't it?
That wine was the sweetest tasting wine he'd ever put in his mouth.
It represented the blessings of God. And I tell you what,
folks, this wine right here represents the greatest blessing of all.
It represents the blood of Christ. The blood of Christ. The greatest
blessing. It'll be the sweetest wine you've ever had, if you
know what it represents. And listen to this. Why do we
use wine? Well, wine is called the juice
of grapes. It's the fruit of the vine. You remember Christ over and
over talked about drinking of the fruit of the vine. He was
talking about one thing. He was talking about wine. Wine. He was talking about wine. Now,
here's some things to note about this thing of a grape vine. Listen to this. Now, grapes are
used only in the making of wine. I know country folk make Watermelon
wine, every kind of wine you can imagine, you know, and they
call it wine. It ain't wine. There's only one kind of wine
that scripture refers to, and that's grapes, from the juice
of grapes. It's a grapevine. There's a reason
for this in the wisdom of God. Listen. A grapevine is the strongest
vine of any vine on the face of the earth. You know that?
A grapevine will grow larger in circumference than any vine
growing plant upon the face of the earth. Nancy and I recently
talked to a vintner, that is someone who makes wine, and she
greatly enlightened us on this subject. And she told me, I talked
of of possibly transplanting some
grapevines. They had some older grapevines
in their vineyards, some great big ones. Some of them were that
big around, huge. And I wanted to transplant some
of them. They were thinking about cutting them down. And she said,
there's no way. You can't do it. The roots are
too deep. It's too big. She said some of those roots
would go 20 feet into the ground. It's a huge vine. It's capable
of growing into a tree, a grapevine. Capable of growing into a tree. And I tell you what. I tell you
what. The gospel and what I said just
a minute ago. Is that grapes are only used
in the making of wine. The gospel is only of Christ's
blood and his righteousness. That's the only gospel and men
have come up with all sorts of different concoctions and called
it gospel, haven't they? Watermelon gospel, a mixture. There's no substance to it at
all, you know, a mixture of this and that and the other, all manner
of whatever they come up with, whatever sounds good, whatever
they think about, they'll try to make a gospel out of it, won't
they? And call it gospel. Did anybody read that blasphemous
article in the paper today about they took a survey of people's
thoughts of God? Anybody read that in the paper
today? Did you read that about it? They
asked several different people's opinion, hundreds of people,
who they thought God was. Unbelievable. Unbelievable. But men will take anything they
can imagine, all manner of thoughts and imaginations, and make it
gospel. Try to make it into a gospel.
But there's only one gospel, and that consists of the blood
and the righteousness of Christ. There is no blood from any other
fruit but the blood of grapes, the fruit of the vine. That's
what we use here. And it's planted. This thing
of a vine is planted by a husbandman. You remember the parable Christ
used of the husbandman who planted the vine, the vineyard? It's
planted by a husbandman, a great land owner. And God Almighty
planted the vine. I want you to turn with me to
Psalm 80. Psalm 80. God Almighty The Scripture
says sent forth his son. You remember where it says that
he called he said I'll call my son out of Egypt. You remember
that that Scripture he said I called him out of Egypt. God Almighty
planted a vine a righteous branch. Scripture said look here at Psalm
eighty verse eight thou has brought a vine out of Egypt. You see that. And thou hast cast
out the heathen and planted it. Thou preparest room before it."
That's what John said, didn't it? John the Baptist. Make straight
the paths of the Lord. He prepared room before it, and
it's caused it to take deep roots. See, it'll never be plucked up.
"...and filled the land. The hills were covered with the
shadow of this vine, and the boughs thereof were like the
goodly cedars." This is the very same passage you remember where
we read down in verse seventeen. It talks about the son of man. Let thy hand be upon the man
of thy right hand, the son of man whom God made strong for
himself. That righteous vine. That vine. He was planted by God Almighty.
Christ said, I'm the vine. I'm the vine. So a great vine
is planted and then it grows up. It grows up just like that
corn of wheat. This vine grows up. as a root
as a root out of dry ground and then it begins to bear fruit
just like that that bread it begins to bear fruit. Now listen
to this. Listen very carefully to this
verse. If the first fruit be holy. The larks holy. This is Romans 11, 16. If the
first fruit be holy, the lump is also holy. If the root be
holy, so are the branches. Did you catch that? Anybody?
If the root be holy, so are the branches. I said in John 17,
he said, I sanctify myself that they also might be sanctified.
As He is, some might have finished it. So are we in this world. If the root is holy, that's the
only way the branches are going to be holy. We're grafted into
the vine. Christ said, I'm the vine, you're the branches. And
God grafts us into Christ. Like we said this morning, He
puts us into Christ by faith. If the vine be holy, we're holy. Is He holy? Yeah, He's holy.
altogether lovely and that makes us holy. We're holy, we're sanctified
because Christ was sanctified. Christ is our sanctification.
Now listen to this. We found out that the reason
for this pruning process is that the grapes might grope thee of
the vine. You know why good bentoners prune
their vines way back? They cut them way back. That's
in order for the grapes. The grapes need to be close to
the vine. The closer to the vine, the better
the grapes. The more grapes, the more fruit,
the closer to the vine. Christ said, I'm the vine, you're
the branches. He that abideth in me, close to me, and I in
him, the same, bringeth forth much fruit. Much fruit. The further you get away from
Christ, the less fruit. Because he said, without me,
you can do nothing. Try to make it out on your own
there. Here goes a little spiny branch out by itself. Might have
one grape on it. But the closer to the vine, the
more grapes. And buddy, we got some grapes,
didn't we, Nancy? We got some. I mean, the best, the most beautiful,
the best tasting grapes I've ever laid. Makes me want some
right now. Beautiful grapes. Lovely grapes.
Wasn't a bad grape in the bunch. They were all huddled right near
that vine. Right near that vine. And then a vine is cut back after
it produces fruit. Like I said, it's cut back severely
after 33 fruitful years, after 33 God-honoring years, after
bringing, the Scripture says, many sons to fruition, to glory,
to God, after bringing many sons to Himself, many who were unfruitful. He caused to bear fruit until
life. Christ was cut off. out of the
land of the living, Isaiah 53 says. That is, from the earth. And he went back to the Father
and sat down to intercede for us. Now that's the vine. Now
let me quickly tell you how wine is made. The making of wine. It's like
the vine. The vine is planted. The vine
is planted. Christ was like a root out of
dry ground. That is, one green shoot in the
midst of a great wilderness. That's what a root out of dry
ground. I picture one of these little stalks of corn down in
Mexico where they go out in this field full of rocks and thorns
and thistles and they plant. They move all the rocks out of
the way and plant one seed of corn and one green thing in the
midst of all that death. John 1 says he was life. Life was on this dead planet. Life. One green shoot among all
the deadness. He grew up as a root out of dry
ground. And then that vine is planted,
and then the grapes begin to grow. Once the vine reaches maturity,
then the grapes begin to grow. And the Scripture said of Christ
in Luke 2, it said He grew in wisdom, He grew in age, and He
grew in favor with God and man. He began to mature. Christ did.
And then once the vine is mature, after so many years, you can't
have grapes the first year. No, I've got a little spiny little
grape vine in my backyard. Been there a year now. Don't
be looking for any grapes on it. Nancy's got one in her backyard. Been there how many years? A
long time, hasn't it? And it had some grapes on it. You've
got to have some years. You've got to be some years under
the vine to have a fruitful crop. And so after many years of maturity,
those grapes can be plucked from the vine by the vintner. Plucked
from the vine. Christ was hand-picked, hand-picked
by the Father. Psalm 80, altered, God exalted
one, what? Chosen. Hand-picked out of the
people. Hand-picked. And then after those
grapes are picked, they're crushed. They're taken in by the vintner,
by the landowner, and crushed, crushed until the juice of the
blood of that grape comes out of it. Now, God is the great
landowner. He's the Lord over heaven and
earth. He's the ventner. God is the Lord of the harvest.
God is the Lord of salvation, the harvest of men's souls. God is the Lord. He is the Lord
of salvation. God is the one who planted the
vine. God is the one who sent Christ. God is the one who grafted
in the branches. Stay with me. God is the one
who chose His people, who elected His people and grafted them or
placed them in the vine. God is the one who nourished
the plants, brought His people to faith, to faith in Christ,
to fruition, to that fruit that glorifies the Father. That is
faith. God is the one who handpicks us from the earth in the fullness
of time, takes us to His Son. He is the one who bruised his
son for the making of that bloody wine which shall nourish our
souls unto salvation. Now, another thing to know quickly
about this thing of making wine, and this is great, this is great. The higher the
quality of grapes, the better your wine is going to be. I hope
nobody in here has any problem with me talking about wine. The scriptures are very clear
about this, very clear about it. The higher the quality of
grape, the grape vine, the higher will be the quality of the wine.
The higher the quality of the grapevine, the less need for
additions to make a good wine. Right, Nancy? You don't need
to add anything to a good grape. If you've got a good vine, a
high-quality, mature, well-aged vine that produces some vintage
grapes, now you don't have to put a thing in that mixture or
in that juice. Not a thing. You don't have to
add a thing to it. It's pure. It's perfect like
it is. Sugar in it. This homemade wine
people make, they add sugar to it, pound after pound. That's
the reason none of it's any worth drinking. And people add things
to the gospel, don't they? They try to make it sugary. God said to him, who was it? My mind escapes me. He told somebody,
I think it was Isaiah maybe, to eat that roll. No, it was
John. He told John to take the roll and eat it. Eat it. He said it will be bitter to
your taste, but sweet in your belly. No, it's the other way
around. It will be sweet to your taste, but bitter in your belly.
Good wine, folks, you don't have to add anything to it. The Gospel
of Christ doesn't need any of our sugary sweetness added to
it. It doesn't need any mixtures added to it. The preacher doesn't
have to smile effectively, saying, God loves you and so do we. You
don't have to go through all of this. Just preach the gospel
in its clarity, in its fullness. Preach this bloody gospel. Preach
about the blood and the righteousness of Christ. Don't add anything
to it. Don't try to sweeten it up for anybody. It's a bitter
thing. It really is. It's a hard thing. It's a bloody, old-fashioned
religion, isn't it? Yeah, it is. But preach it like
it is in all its purity. You don't need to add any yeast
to it. Especially don't add any yeast to it. It will ferment
on its own. It'll make wine on its own. You
don't need to add the yeast, the leaven of yeast, to make
this wine. It's self-contained. It's self-contained. It's perfect and it's pure. The
Christ of Scriptures, the gospel concerning Christ, is pure 100
percent. of Christ. Christ is all and
in all. He is the sole ingredient in
the gospel. When He had by Himself purged
our sin, Christ is the only ingredient of this gospel, we pray.