BY HAROLD LEE
By the time God’s people reached the first Holy Day of the year, which we know signifies the beginning of another cycle of observing God’s plan—I’m going to put my glasses on; excuse me—we know that there’s been a lot of preparation that’s already taken place, both spiritually—more importantly spiritually—but there’s been a lot of physical preparation.
This is not something that we just wake up and say, “Oh today is the beginning.” It’s a period that we think about, that we contemplate, that we prepare for in many different ways. We remove the leaven products from our homes. We went through a very intense self-examination and asked God to help us, to guide us through, expose those very deep, those hidden sins in the light of His scrutiny and showing us what we need to eliminate in our lives in order to be acceptable to Him. And, Brethren, we know that our only hope is in the lamb that was willingly set apart, that was sacrificed, and had the blood sprinkled on us so that we might be spared the certain death sentence that the firstborn are now facing.
Last night we gathered and celebrated as we remembered the start of the journey after being released from the grip of bondage that we were under. And we served with rigor a god of this world that wanted to take everything that we’re capable of producing and then to discard us when there was nothing left to take.
Look over in Exodus chapter 12 and we’re going to start in verse 29. Mr. Coulter read some of the earlier Scriptures and perhaps that will put us ahead of the game. It says,
Exodus 12:29. And it came to pass
Exodus 12:29.
Exodus 12:29b. at midnight
that the Lord struck all the
firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his
throne to the firstborn of the captive who was
in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of [the] livestock. 30) So Pharaoh rose in the night, he, all his
servants, and all the Egyptians; and there was a great cry in
And it’s interesting because remember the last time he said, “I’m going to see your face no more. Get out. I don’t ever want to see you again.” And now he’s summoning them again.
Exodus 12:31. [And] he
called for Moses and Aaron [at] night, and said, “Rise, go out from among my
people, both you and the children of
There was no conditions on this one. It wasn’t, “Okay, you can go three days. Oh, you have to leave behind….” It was “Leave!” Notice he says,
Exodus 12:32b. and be gone;
and bless me also.”
The Tanakh says, “may you bring a blessing on me.”
He knew that he had brought a curse on himself and
Exodus 12:33. And the
Egyptians urged the people,
Not only the Pharaoh, but all of them!
Exodus 12:33b. that they
might send them out of the land in haste.
For they said, “We shall all be dead.” 34) So the people took their dough before it
was leavened, having their kneading bowls bound up in their clothes on their
shoulders. 35) Now the children of
They made a hasty exit. This was not one where they stockpiled things. They left.
Exodus 12:40. Now the
sojourn of the children of
And The King James says, “a night to be much observed.”
Exodus 12:42b. to the Lord for bringing them out of the
And here we see is the summary account of the events that followed the setting aside of the lamb on the tenth day, the killing of that lamb, the application of the blood on the doorposts and the lintels. And as a result of what they had just experienced, they were commanded—and I found this interesting. I really appreciated the sermonette. They were commanded to do seven specific things as we will read.
It’s interesting as I was doing the sermon and I didn’t—normally you say, “Well, I’ve got seven. Let me make it fit.” I will tell you I wrote a specific thing and as I read on, I went, “No.” And I went up and I changed it to two. And I read on and I went up and changed it to three. And then I changed it to four and I said, “Well, let me just get all the way through it to come up with the final number.” But it wasn’t where I said, “Okay, here’s seven things and let’s do it.” It’s very obvious.
But these activities, these very seven specific things consisted of both internal and external actions. Let’s continue reading and take note of what they were commanded to do. In chapter 13 and verse 3,
Exodus 13:3. And Moses said
to the people, “Remember this day
And that word “day” is yom. It can mean from morning to evening. But it can also mean day-to-day. In other words, it wasn’t specifically
talking about the daylight. It was
talking about the twenty-four hour period, the night and the following day.
It says,
Exodus 13:3b. “Remember this
day in which you went out of
We sometime liken our activities to physical work. And in my opinion, we sometimes—I’m going to call it—internal activity like meditation and reflection, we maybe give that the shorter side of things.
But they were told to take stock of what they had just come through and how that that affected their individual lives. They were to recount the events and what it meant to them. In the days leading up to the Passover, we consider and evaluate ourselves in this self-examination period. But do we also spend time considering our salvation from the bondage that claimed our lives?
If you want a title for today’s sermon, it is Remember This Day.
God clearly wants us to reflect on what not only happened to the Israelites and what they experienced, but on our journey through this life as well. They had a Night to be Much Observed as they started their journey. But they were also commanded to remember the entire day. Do we think back to the time when we were called and we were given the opportunity to escape? The events that led up to our being called out? I want to come back to that for a moment.
But let’s continue reading in verse 3 of chapter 13.
Exodus 13:3. And Moses said
to the people, “Remember this day in which you went out of
At first glance this looks like a non-activity. You just don’t do something. They were instructed not only to remember, which was an internal process, they were also instructed to refrain from eating leavened bread, which is a physical process, a physical external process.
Verse 4,
Exodus 13:4. “On this day
you are going out, in the month of Abib.
5) “And it shall be, when the Lord
brings you into the land of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites
and the Hivites and the Jebusites, which He swore to your fathers to give you,
a land flowing with milk and honey, that you shall keep
There’s a verb. There’s an activity.
Exodus 13:5b. you shall keep
this service in this month.
Not only were they to remember all of the events surrounding their rescue, they were to refrain from eating leavened bread. They were also commanded to commemorate on an annual basis the same month and the dates that it originally occurred. So we have three activities so far.
Continuing on,
Exodus 13:6. “Seven days you
shall eat unleavened bread,
Not only were they commanded to refrain from eating leavened bread, they were commanded to eat unleavened bread. This is activity number four.
And, as an aside, just like God’s commands that prohibit certain activities, we always maybe tend to look at what we can’t do. But God’s commands are always things that we should do and the proper behaviors. And here’s a case where He says, “Look, don’t eat this, but do eat or partake of this.” So it’s not just a list of “don’ts,” but there’s also a list of acceptable “do’s.”
Verse 6,
Exodus 13:6. “Seven days you
shall eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there shall be a feast to the Lord.
And we know from this set of Scriptures that in addition to the Passover, there were two very specific Feast Days that were commanded, the first day and the seventh day.
Hold you finger there and go back to Deuteronomy 16. Deuteronomy 16 verse 1, it says
Deuteronomy 16:1. “Observe
the month of Abib, and keep the Passover to the [Eternal] your God, for in the
month of Abib the Lord your God
brought you out of
Brethren, when we come out of sin, when we’re called, we
take no provision with us. We don’t drag
along things. We are baptized. We go in and we leave everything behind
us. Remember when Christ gave the
invitation to the one man and he said, “Well, look. I’d like to do that, but I’ve got these
things I need to do. I’ve got to go back
and take care of a few things.” No! We take a hasty departure. We leave behind those things that are not
acceptable and, of course,
Verse 6,
Deuteronomy 16:6. “But at
the place where the [Eternal] your God chooses to make His name abide, there
you shall sacrifice the Passover at twilight, at the going down of the sun, at
the time you came out of
So the First Day and the Seventh Day of the Spring Holy Days are commanded assemblies. We’re here today appearing before God on the High Day.
Continue holding your place in Exodus 13. Just go over to John chapter 19. John 19 and verse 30. John
John 19:30. So when Jesus
had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit.
And the Greek word for that is pneuma or breath. I think we
would say today, “He breathed His last breath after He said that.”
It says,
John 19:31. Therefore,
because it was the Preparation Day,
that the bodies should not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath
was a high day),
And that’s talking about the First Day.
John 19:31b. the Jews asked
Pilate that their legs might be broken,
So again very clearly the First Day and the Seventh Day are both commanded assemblies. They’re both to be kept as Sabbaths. And they are considered High Days.
Okay, back to Exodus 13 and we’ll start in verse 6. It says,
Exodus 13:6. “Seven days you
shall eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there shall be a feast to the Lord. 7) “Unleavened bread shall be eaten seven
days. And no leavened bread shall be
seen among you, nor shall leaven be seen among you in all your quarters.
The fifth activity is to observe these Days as commanded assemblies in order to obey God to keep the First Day as commanded as a Sabbath convocation.
There’s another activity that is specifically commanded regarding this period. Continuing on in verse 8
Exodus 13:8. “And you shall
tell your son in that day,
Now what “day?” That’s referring to the seven Days of Unleavened Bread.
Exodus 13:8. “And you shall
tell your son
It’s sometime in the future.
Exodus 13:8b. saying, ‘This is done because of what the
[Eternal] did for me when I came up from
In other words, there is a very contemporary object lesson that is intended to be passed from generation to generation to generation. Parents teaching the children in perpetuity! It wasn’t just for a hundred years or two hundred or five hundred. It was in perpetuity.
Just go back up to the previous chapter to verse 21, just 12 verse 21, just to flesh this out a little bit. It says,
Exodus 12:21. Then Moses
called for all the elders of
Verse 24,
Exodus 12:24. “And you shall
observe this thing as an ordinance for you and your sons forever.
In perpetuity! That word “forever,” I think I’ve given this definition. It’s Strong’s 5769, olam. And it means the vanishing point. In other words, when you look and you see the railroad tracks come together or in a drawing when the things—you look out into the desert and everything tends to merge. It’s time out of mind. It’s beyond what you normally think. It means in perpetuity. It literally means perpetual, without end.
Verse 25,
Exodus 12:25. “It will come
to pass when you come to the land which the Lord
will give you, just as He promised, that you shall keep this service.
Notice before they ever did it the first time, they were instructed to do it forever and to pass it on, to teach their children regarding it. Continuing on in verse 26,
Exodus 12:26. “And it shall
be, when your children say to you, ‘What do you mean by this service?” 27) “That you shall say, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice of the Lord, who passed over the houses of the
children of
In other words, there was to be specific teaching during that.
Exodus 12:27b. So the people
bowed their heads, and worshiped.
Okay, skip back down to verse 9 for the seventh specific activity.
The sixth is to train and to teach our children, to pass on those object lessons. In this day and age we tend to look to something else, someone else to teach our children. We send them off to school and there, hopefully, they come home with their heads full of knowledge. God said we as parents are responsible, especially for their spiritual training, especially to teach them about Him and about His ways.
The seventh activity is actually a summary of all the previous six. Let me just preface this with the statement—and these are my words: As a result of you observing these previous and verse 9,
Exodus 13:9. “It shall be as
a sign to you on your hand and as a memorial between your eyes,
And remember we said there are both internal and external or physical activities which we just read that are commanded and they’re all necessary. Why?
Exodus 13:9b. that the Lord’s law may be in your mouth; for
with a strong hand the Lord has
brought you out of
So the seventh activity is not only should we have this knowledge, we should act on it. We should teach our children. But also our lives should reflect that. It should be a memorial between our eyes in the very seat of our intellect. That should be our guiding light—if you will. And also the way we act, the way we behave on our hands. So both internal and external. We should live. We should understand. We should believe and we should live. The seventh is to keep all the previous on an annual basis in order to remember, Brethren, that we belong to God, that we strive to obey Him, and most importantly, we are under His authority.
Just like the original Israelites, we had no hope. We had no future except to live a miserable life, die a miserable death in bondage. Did our forefathers truly remember that Day as they were commanded? How long did it take them to forget? And what lessons should we take? And, Brethren, I’m going to just go through two very specific ones because it’s not over yet. And there is a very specific, very powerful lesson that is directed to us, the end time Church, just before the end, as we’ll see. I want to spend the remainder of the sermon talking about, putting this under close scrutiny and see the important lessons that we can take from our forefathers to help us remember this Day.
We don’t necessarily see God and what He’s doing on a constant basis. That doesn’t mean that God’s not involved. I remember Steve and his sermon and maybe he’s even said this more than once. I would just like to for one day understand how many times God intervenes just on a daily basis.
Remember God promised Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and their descendants that He would deliver them. And He would give them the Promised Land for an inheritance. It was four hundred and thirty years after He made the covenant with Abraham that He started to fulfill that promise.
Now if all you consider is the actual exodus, you could think, “Well, maybe God set an alarm clock and went to sleep and four hundred and thirty years woke up and said, “Okay, now it’s time to do it.” But if you go back and look, God was actively involved in that process long before those things that happened.
Let’s just rewind the story a couple hundred of years. Go back to Genesis 50, Genesis 50. The book of Genesis, a third of mankind’s history is contained in Genesis. So obviously it’s got to be compressed somewhat. And sometime we can maybe lose a little of the perspective of the timelines of it.
But remember, and I’ll just sort of skip ahead. Remember the story where Joseph and his
brothers and they sold him into slavery.
Did Joseph—now remember he was thrown in a pit, was going to be
killed. His older brother
intervened. He was brought down to
Notice what he said to his brothers. Genesis 50 and like I say, we’re just going to skip to the end, 18.
Genesis 50:18. Then his
brothers also went and fell down before his face, and they said, “Behold, we are your servants.”
Carnally speaking, here was the chance to get back at his brothers. Right? But notice Joseph saw God in all of it.
Genesis 50:19. Joseph said
to them, “Do not be afraid, for am I
in the place of God?
He wasn’t pointing to himself. He clearly saw everything that he experienced including those thirteen years in prison as being from the hand of God, not for destruction but for salvation. Joseph knew God’s hand was in it.
Genesis 50:20. “But as for
you,
Verse 20,
Genesis 50:20b. you meant
evil against me; but God meant it for
good, in order to bring it about as it is
this day, to save many people alive.
God was already—and this was a couple of hundred years earlier—he was already working out and making preparations. He wasn’t off working on something else.
Let’s look at another place at this part of history that’s
been summarized. And let’s see a common
thread. Turn over to Acts 7. Acts 7, as you know, is when Stephen was
called to testify before the council.
They had made some false accusations about him blaspheming Moses and
Acts 7:1. Then the high
priest said, “Are these things so?” 2)
And he said, “Brethren and fathers, listen:
the God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in
Mesopotamia, before for dwelt in Haran,
3) “And said to him, ‘Get out of your country and from your relatives,
and come to a land that I will show you.’
3) “Then he came out of the land of the Chaldeans and dwelt in
So in other words, he came to the Promised Land. But notice,
Acts 7:5. “And God gave him no inheritance in it, not
even enough to set his foot on.
Now God had promised it to him, brought him to it, but He didn’t give it to him at that point.
Acts 7:5b. But even when Abraham had no child,
Did you ever think that God made promises that were humanly impossible to bring about?
Acts 7:5 cont. He promised
to give it to him for a possession, and to His descendants after him. 6) “But God spoke in this way: that his descendants would dwell in a foreign
land, and that they would bring them into bondage and oppress them four hundred years.
It’s part of the plan. God wanted them to grow to a certain size and then God was going to rescue them.
Acts 7:7. ‘And the nation to
whom they will be in bondage I will judge,’ said God, ‘and after that they
shall come out and serve Me in this place.’
Again, God didn’t just make the promise and then go off and say, “Okay, I’ll come back at some point later.” He was actively involved.
Verse 17,
Acts
The parents gave him up!
Acts
According to Josephus, Moses was a great general in the
Egyptian army. He had conquests. He actually went down to
Acts
So here they are. Moses is born. He was called “I drew him out.” Okay, here it comes. Forty years later, here’s Moses still there.
Acts 7:23b. it came into his
heart to visit his brethren, the children of
Verse 29 for sake of time.
Acts
I was thinking about this.
Here Moses was born. A
generation’s about thirty-five years is what they look at. Here were a couple of generations that went
by and you go, “Well, wait a minute!
What’s God doing? Has He
forgotten? Did He just, ‘Oh, I
know. There was Moses’?” Brethren, God was doing this. And if you think back—I think it was
yesterday, John McCain went back to
Verse 34,
Acts
At that point it was God’s time. But you can see that He was dealing with Moses. He was bringing events about. He was very involved in that process even back to when He made the promise to Abraham, the promise to Isaac, the deliverance of Joseph, the preparation of Moses for eighty years. God was involved. Did they see God’s hand in what was being done to deliver them? Brethren, do we see what God is doing to save us and to deliver us from destruction into His Family? Or have we sometime fallen into the trap that God is far off, He’s somewhat uninvolved, perhaps He’s lost interest in His plan, maybe He’s put it on hold, maybe He’s just letting it coast?
Exodus 32:1. We’re
going to go forward. This was after they
came out. They had come to
Exodus 32:1. Now when the
people saw that Moses delayed
And I want you to remember that word “delayed” because it was their perception that he delayed. It wasn’t God, said, “Oh wait a minute! We forgot.” The people said, “He delayed.” But remember that.
Exodus 32:1. Now when the
people saw that Moses delayed coming down from the mountain,
In other words, Moses didn’t meet their expectations. “We expect Moses to be here and he’s not. He’s—who knows what’s happened to him!”
Exodus 32:1b. the people
gathered together to Aaron, and said to him, “Come, make us gods that shall go
before us; for as for this Moses, the
man who brought us up out of the
Brethren, did they remember when God by a mighty hand
delivered them from the destroyer? Did
they remember the day they crossed the
Brethren, do we see what God has done and is doing in our lives? Look over in Matthew 24, Matthew 24 and verse 45. Just remember Matthew 24 is the prophecies of the end times. Matthew 24 verse 45.
Matthew 24:45. “Who then is
a faithful and wise servant, whom his master made ruler over his household, to
give them food in due season? 46)
“Blessed is that servant whom his
master, when he comes, will find so doing.
47) “Assuredly, I say to you that he will make him ruler over all his
goods. 48) “But if that evil
servant says in his heart, ‘My master is delaying his coming,’
He gives up. He no longer sees God in his life. He no longer thinks that God is active. God is no longer meeting his expectations. “Well, I expected this. And why is God not brought it about?’ Brethren, who are we? But there’s an action that follows that heart.
Matthew 24:49. “And begins
to beat his fellow servants, and to
eat and drink with the drunkards,
The end time generation is especially vulnerable to this. And there’s a reason that we’re vulnerable to this. Look up in verse 12. Just go back to verse 12. Notice the reason! Matthew 24:12.
Matthew 24:12. “And because lawlessness
will abound, the love of many will grow cold.
13) “But
And I’m going to add the words, “Those that remember, those that see God involved.”
Matthew 24:13. “But he that
endures to the end shall be saved.
Just because God doesn’t do something in the time frame that we think He should, just because God doesn’t meet our very limited expectations of what we think God should meet, doesn’t mean He’s uninvolved. It doesn’t mean He’s lost interest. That God doesn’t care. That God has forgotten us.
At the time we made the commitment to place the blood on our lives in order to be spared from certain death, we also made a commitment to follow Him and to trust Him. You wonder why God didn’t bring them directly out because He could have. He hardened Pharaoh’s heart. He could have brought them right out, took them over to the Promised Land. We could the day after we are baptized and we make that covenant, God could turn us into spirit.
But let me tell you something: It is through our life’s trials that we learn that God is absolutely faithful, that we learn that He is true to His Word, that we learn that we can depend on Him regardless. If we don’t have that experience with Him, how will we know that? How will we not a million years from now go, “I wonder if He really always tells the truth. I wonder if He always follows through. Has there ever been a time?”
Brethren, we have to go through this. It has to be this way, because in doing this, we are learning that all men are liars and only God can be depended on. Only God will keep His Word. Only God will follow through. And we can take that to the bank. I believe a lesson we’re going to need for all of existence, because at no point will anything come along and say, “Well, maybe that’s not quite true.” We have our lives to prove that God is always ….
Now did He do it in our expectations? No. And it’s a good thing He didn’t. In remembering this Day, let’s not forget that God’s timetable is different from ours. And we have to have absolute trust in Him that He has a view because we’re just children. We’re just infants. God has a view that none of us have. And a trust that God is out to save us and to deliver us not to destroy us. And we have to have absolute confidence in that. And if we will, then we will learn the lessons of this Day when God tells us to remember what happened.
During these Days we put leaven out of our houses and we are to focus on putting it out of our lives. We strive to put it out. And as was mentioned last Sabbath, we look in the nooks and the crannies of our houses and of our lives to eliminate it. Sometime it’s a crumb in the toaster. Sometime it’s very large. It’s a bag of bagels hiding under a turkey in the freezer. But there’s one insidious thing about this leavening and that is, like sin, it grows and it spreads.
When the children of
Let me just repeat what we read earlier in Exodus
Exodus 12:34. So the people
took their dough before it was leavened, having their kneading bowls bound up
in their clothes on their shoulders.
And verse 39.
Exodus 12:39. And they baked
unleavened cakes of the dough which they had brought out of
Two weeks ago I gave a sermon and I referred to two incidents that happened to the Israelites on their journey. And I related how sin can start as one form and it can morph to another. And I used the example of David’s sin with Bathsheba that started out with coveting and it morphed into and went to adultery, and then to lying, and then to murder. And I said I was going to cover an additional aspect of those incidents.
Turn over to Exodus 32 and verse 1. And I think, Brethren, if there was anything that was directed to God’s people today, this is the lesson that we can take. Exodus 32 verse 1.
Exodus 32:1. Now when the
people saw that Moses delayed coming down from the mountain, the people
gathered together to Aaron, and said to him, “Come, make us gods that shall go
before us; for as for this Moses, the
man who brought us up out of the
Remember, again, they were on their timetable and they had already forgotten that God had delivered them. They had already forgotten that they made a covenant.
Exodus 32:2. So Aaron said
to them, “Break off the golden earrings which are in the ears of your wives, you sons, and your daughters, and
bring them to me.” 3) So all the people broke off the golden
earrings which were in their ears,
and brought them to Aaron. 4) And he received the gold from their hand, and he fashioned it with an engraving
tool, and made a molded calf. Then they
said, “This is your god, O Israel,
that brought you out of the
See they were deciding how they were going to worship God.
Exodus 32:6. Then they rose
early on the next day, offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings;
and the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.
See they had already abandoned what they had just been instructed. What they had just covenanted with God that they would do.
Look over in Numbers chapter 25, Numbers 25. I want to fast forward a little bit. We know from that incident many people died. Numbers 25 verse 1.
Numbers 25:1. Now
Remember the original incident when they built the golden calf, God said the same thing to Moses. And He said, “Moses interceded and He spared them,” although many died. And here is a similar incident with similar consequences. Twenty-three thousand died and God was going to—had it not been for Phinehas—God would have destroyed all of them. Twenty-four thousand!
Remember after the golden calf incident, God did take the
children of
Now we see that it was later that they committed harlotry
with the Midianite women. Now who were
they? Who were those that committed this
harlotry? Well, we’ve already read that
Phinehas was Aaron’s grandson. So here
was Aaron’s grandson. So some amount of time
had passed because now his grandson had become at least thirty and he was
serving as a priest. So it was later in
their journeys that this happened. It
was when they were camped in Acacia Grove in the
Look over in Numbers 33. I think this is nothing short of astounding for us. Remember Numbers 33 is a list of all the places that the Israelites camped during their forty years of wandering in the wilderness. Numbers 33:1, it says,
Numbers 33:1. These are the journeys of the children of
So in other words, this says this is a chronicle of all of the places that they went.
Numbers 33:2. Now Moses
wrote down the starting points of their journeys at the command of the Lord.
And these are their journeys
according to their starting points:
And somewhere in there we’re going to find Acacia Grove in
the
Verse 3,
Numbers 33:3. They departed
from Rameses in the first month, on the fifteenth day of the first month; on
the day after the Passover the children of
So here is the start of their journey. And it goes on to list. Skip down to verse 38. This is, we will see, a period later. Numbers 33 verse 38.
Numbers 33:38. Then Aaron
the priest went up to Mount Hor at the command of the Lord, and died there in the fortieth year after the children
of Israel had come out of the land of Egypt, on the first day of the fifth month. 39)
Aaron was one hundred and
twenty-three years old when he died on
Of course, this was near the end of their wanderings that
Aaron died. Of course, it’s the fortieth
year after they went out. So subtract
whatever time it took them to go to originally and refused to go in and it
could be a year or so. So this was right
at the end. By the time Aaron died,
remember almost all of them that had come out of
Skip down to verse 48, Numbers 33.
Numbers 33:48. They departed
from the mountains of Abarim and camped in the plains of
And “Abel” means a meadow.
Here they were on the east side of the
Numbers 33:50. Now the Lord spoke to Moses in the plains of
Brethren, there is a strong stern warning to the end time
Church because that’s us! The little
ones that are left right before the end comes!
And what did they do? They
started mixing back. They started to eat
and drink with the drunken. They started
to commit harlotry. This was not the
forefathers. These were the little
ones. And they carried that leaven with
them from the time their forefathers came out of
Forty something years later right before they’re to cross over, they gave up. They forgot that Day they were to remember. What a grievous mistake they made! Twenty-four thousand died and that was not twenty-four thousand of those knot-headed forefathers. That was twenty-four thousand of those that were just about ready to step into the water and cross into the Promised Land. What a strong stern example for us! At the end time, at the end of the journey right before the end and look what they did. There’s some very important lessons in that.
Look over in 1 Corinthians 5. This was read in the sermonette. 1 Corinthians 5 verse 1. The first New Testament Church carried that leaven with them and we do too. 1 Corinthians 5 verse 1,
1 Corinthians 5:1. It is
actually reported that there is
sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality as is not even named
among the Gentiles—that a man has his father’s wife! 2) And you are puffed up, and have not rather
mourned, that he who has done this deed might be taken away from you.
Remember God was—if it hadn’t been for Phinehas—God was
going to wipe them all out right there on the shores of the
Verse 6,
1 Corinthians 5:6. Your
glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens
the whole lump?
Sin, like leaven, will spread. And it will infect others. Our sins will be passed on and hurt not only ourselves, but those that are around us, those who follow us, those who look up to us, those who come after us, our children! Brethren, if you think about sin, there is no sin that a person can have inside that will not eventually spread and hurt others. Sin, whether it’s putting a god before the true God, disrespecting parents, stealing, lying, whatever, are very selfish acts. And they damage not only the perpetrator, but they damage others. Sin is extremely selfish. It’s only focused on what I want, when I want it, how I want it. And it disregards the damage. We’re told that we must search out and destroy and discard them.
Verse 7,
1 Corinthians 5:7. Therefore
purge out the old leaven,
Put them out of your lives.
1 Corinthians 5:7b. that you
may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was
sacrificed for us.
We’ve been washed. We’ve been cleansed. We’ve been spared, but not to continue on and do what we want. We’ve been spared to be taken to the Promised Land, to see God as our Master, to see Him as what He is, always there for us, always working on getting us there even though at times we’re not aware of it. We don’t see it. One day we will.
1 Corinthians 5:8. Therefore
Verse 8,
1 Corinthians 5:8b. let us
keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and
wickedness, but with the unleavened bread
of sincerity and truth.
Brethren, the other extremely important lesson for us the
end time generation from a timeline, we are—I believe—we’re encamped on the
western shore of the
Brethren, we need to realize just how vulnerable we are. The lessons of our forefathers can show us that we can be right there ready to cross over. Twenty-three thousand perished in the sight of the Promised Land, because they had not purged out the leaven that followed them and they became infected with it.
Skip down to 1 Corinthians 9 verse 24. 1 Corinthians
1 Corinthians 9:24. Do you
not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it.
25) And everyone who competes for
the prize is temperate in all things.
Now they do it to obtain a
perishable crown, but we for an
imperishable crown.
The stakes are much higher. They’re much more real. They’re much more lasting.
1 Corinthians 9:26. Therefore
I run thus: not with uncertainty.
“I wonder if God really is going to be here for me. I wonder if he’s kind of left me alone. I wonder if I’m on my own.” If you can’t—and anybody in sports will tell you this—if you can’t have faith in your coach, you can never be a good athlete. And, Brethren, let me tell you we should develop and we are developing to have absolute faith in our Coach.
1 Corinthians 9:26. Therefore
I run thus: not with uncertainty.
Not wandering. Not continually looking behind me. Not wondering if He’s really there.
1 Corinthians 9:26b. Thus I
fight: not as one who beats the air.
“I’m not just going through the motions.”
1 Corinthians 9:27. But I
discipline my body and bring it into
subjection, lest
And again, here is Paul, because I think every Christian that’s been called, that has God’s Spirit has been standing on that shore. And, of course, many of them have died, but that didn’t change it. And Paul did. Paul sees this as well.
1 Corinthians 9:27b. lest,
when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.
Now there’s no chapter breaks in the original. We can stop there and then go into chapter 10 as if it was a different thought. I don’t believe because he’s still following the thought of becoming disqualified. In verse 1, he says,
1 Corinthians 10:1. Moreover,
And my interpretation of “moreover” is “as a consequence of” what he just read or “in addition to.”
1 Corinthians 10:1b. brethren,
I do not want you to be unaware
So in other words, he just used the statement: “Look, I’m going to run because if I don’t, I’m going to lose out.” And then he goes right into “our forefathers.”
1 Corinthians 10:1 cont. I
do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud,
all passed through the sea, 2) All
were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, 3) All ate the same spiritual
food, 4) And all drank the same
spiritual drink. For they drank of that
spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ. 5) But with most of them God was not well
pleased, for their bodies were
scattered in the wilderness.
And, Brethren, we can see this during that whole time. It wasn’t just the ones that originally rebelled. There were others. Twenty-three thousand in one day of the little ones!
1 Corinthians 10:6. Now
these things became our examples, to the intent that we should not lust after
evil things as they also lusted. 7) And
do not become idolaters as were some
of them. As it is written, “The people
sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.” 8) Nor let us commit
And notice he’s bringing it right up to the event.
1 Corinthians 10:8. Nor let
us commit sexual immorality, as some of them did, and in one day twenty-three
thousand fell;
And, Brethren, those twenty-three thousand were just about ready to cross over.
As we go through these next seven days, God in His wisdom has commanded us to focus on our relationship with Him. Let’s approach the Spring Holy Day Season determined to obtain the greatest spiritual benefit by rehearsing the actions of our forefathers and, Brethren, avoiding their mistakes.
Look over in Colossians chapter 3. Colossians 3. We’re told to discard the old leaven that so easily besets us. Colossians 3 and we’ll start in verse 8. It says,
Colossians 3:8. But now you
yourselves are to put off all these:
In other words, just as we discard the leaven, just as we put that out of our homes, there’s certain things that are inside us that we are to put off.
Colossians 3:8b. put off all
these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy,
filthy language out of your mouth. 9) Do
not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds,
In other words, we’ve eliminated those from our lives. And yet, just like leaven, they will creep back. And as we see them, they need to be rooted out. Just as we are told to get rid of the leaven and take in something else, we’re also to replace the void. Those things we throw away, we are to replace that with something else.
Continuing on,
Colossians 3:10. And have
put on the new man who is renewed in
knowledge according to the image of Him who created him,
So not only are we to discard just as we’re to get rid of the leaven, we are to put on just as we are to eat the unleavened bread for that seven days.
Final Scripture, go to Galatians chapter 3. Galatians 3 verse 26, it says,
Galatians 3:26. For you are
all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.
27) For as many of you as were baptized into Christ [Notice!] have put
on Christ.
God’s timeline is different from ours. He is working a perfect work in us. He hasn’t forgotten us. He is in the process—Brethren, and never forget—He’s in the process of bringing many sons to glory. We’re at the finish line. We’re just about to cross. Time is short and, Brethren, it’s no time to let down.
As we continue through the next seven days focusing on the need to remain unleavened by putting off the old man and by putting on the new man which is Christ, let us consider our forefathers. Let us consider our actions and the dangers that we face right here just before we cross into the Promised Land. Many forgot and many died within the sight of their goal.
Brethren, God is actively working on His plan and He will bring it to fruition. As we strive to remain unleavened in our lives, let’s learn the lessons that we are to get from these Days. Let us all, Brethren, remember this Day!
Transcribed by kb