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Preacher: Ross Macdonald
Scripture: Exodus 12:15-20; 13:3-10
Well this morning we begin chapter 12, however, we won't begin at the beginning of chapter 12 this is something that I went back and forth on a few different times, but I Decided that we'll focus on verses 15 through 20 Taking with that chapter 13 3 through 10 which both focus on the Feast of Unleavened Bread which technically Follows the Passover, but I want to preserve the event of the Passover and so next week we'll look at verses 1 through 14 with verses 21 through 30, so since the Announcements and instruction for the Passover and the event of the Passover are separated by this feast of Unleavened Bread.
We're going to address the feast first. And I hope there'll be some time with application this morning to explain how Important it is that we remember this one two step Movement that we begin with the Passover and then follow it through with the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
So chronologically, we're not following that order this morning in what we're addressing. But the point will be made clear by the end and I'm sure we made clear again next week. Very eager and I hope you'll have another seven days of building anticipation for the Passover.
Really in the context of where we've been since Genesis. There is perhaps no richer no greater Metaphor for the redemption of Christ than Exodus chapter 12. I remember Traveling through the highlands some years ago and or I should say that the beginning of the highlands in Perthshire and There's these moments where you pass these beautiful green hills and eventually you come to a clearing where you see what perhaps the Scots would call the glory of the Glen that the beauty this vista of the Valleys and everything becomes clear as you look so far beyond the hills that had been distracting you for Several minutes along the way and that's sort of what Exodus 1 through 11 is like you see so many wonderful things.
But the moment comes in chapter 12 where you see the glory of all that it points to of all that lies beyond it. Finding its yes and amen in Christ Jesus. So the preparation for the Passover is really occupying verses 1 through 20.
We'll be looking at verses 15 through 20, but notice the beginning of verse 12. This is the announcement of the 10th plague. I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night and Will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt both man and beast and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment.
I am the Lord. So the pass through of the 10th plague leads to the Passover of God's people beginning in verse 14. So this day shall be to you a memorial and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord throughout your generations.
You shall keep it as a feast by an everlasting ordinance. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread on the first day. You shall remove leaven from your houses for whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day.
That person shall be cut off from Israel on the first day. There shall be a holy convocation and on the seventh day. There shall be a holy convocation for you. No manner of work shall be done on them.
But that which everyone must eat that only may be prepared by you. You so you shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread for on the same day I will have brought your armies out of the land of Egypt. Therefore you shall observe this day throughout your generations as an everlasting ordinance.
In the first month on the 14th day of the month at evening. You shall eat unleavened bread until the 21st day of that month at evening. For seven days no leaven shall be found in your houses since whoever eats what is leavened that same person Shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel whether he's a stranger or a native of the land.
You shall eat nothing leavened in all your dwellings. You shall eat unleavened bread. You've known now that the way of emphasis for Hebrew writers is repetition. And we see all manner of repetition here in verses 15 through 20.
We also see the significance of this announcement and a development that we have not seen since Exodus chapter 6. William Ford in his wonderful monograph gone Pharaoh and Moses. He points this out. The call of Moses began with revelation from God.
Accompanied by signs that God gave and the corresponding need for Moses to act in faith. All right, so God calls Moses by giving Moses divine revelation. Accompanying that revelation with signs from his hand and then calling Moses to follow him or act upon this revelation by faith.
Moses then takes that revelation to the Israelites and they receive the same thing Revelation from God with corresponding signs and a call to act in faith. But unlike Moses Israel rejects that revelation all of the extra Burden that Pharaoh puts upon them causes them to lose heart and to lose faith.
It's enough. They say you've made our lives miserable enough and ever since. Narratively they have dropped out of view as actors. The only time we read of Israel is when God makes a distinction for them when in utter passivity.
They experience deliverance from every consecutive plague that he brings upon the land of Egypt. But we don't see them as acting in faith in any way until now. Here as we'll see in chapter 12, they receive once more Revelation from God in the midst of all of these Accompanying signs with the tenth plague to come and now they must act in faith if they would find deliverance and so you have this movement if I can put it this way a Movement that exhibits not only the faith of Israel, but the faith of the Christian.
The first part of what corresponds to our salvation is utterly passive on our part. But the second movement requires a great act in labor of faith. There's a movement that begins with the monergistic work of God and that will correspond as we'll see in the next week in the Passover to the event which Justifies us by faith we passively receive all that God has actively done for us.
But the second movement of our great redemption is our act of faith and our labor of love and a life consecrated to his will where we work out our Salvation in fear and trembling where as we'll see this morning.
We keep the feast. And so that's our focus. The command of God comes and it requires a strict timeline. Every year among the Israelites from this month forth. This month is called a beeb after the return from exile.
It's called Nissan and so be beneath son of the same month. If you read commentaries that might confuse you on the 10th day of a beeb Israelites were to select a lamb. We'll talk about the process of selection the the logic of selection.
Next week and they were to watch it for four days on the 14th of the month. They were to slaughter that lamb roast it entirely and consume it entirely. Burning whatever was not consumed. The entire animal was to be utterly consumed and then They were to eat unleavened bread not only with that but the following day on the 15th of the month for seven days.
Consecutively they were to eat unleavened bread without leaven ever being found in any of their dwelling places. This is the feast of unleavened bread. Now sometimes Passover refers to both and sometimes the feast of unleavened bread refers to both.
If you open up to Luke chapter 22 he says now the Passover which is also called the feast of unleavened bread. So this is an autonomous term where you often get a package deal. The one event leads to the next and this is not the last time we'll see.
Such ritual festivities for the people of God. Why does God bring such festivals such rituals such memorials to his people. Well, it's to strengthen their faith first and foremost a Memorial a way of remembering a way of reminding God's people of what he has done for them is to strengthen their faith and their resolve to continue walking according to his will.
This perpetual observance would build their hope and their Expectation for what these very things were pointing to again ultimately finding their object in Christ. And of course we as Christians Though Jews still celebrate this feast of unleavened bread as they still celebrate the Passover.
We find direct benefit of the fact that they were called to remember. They were called to celebrate these things in this way. We on the other side of the cross see what it was all pointing toward and therefore we unlike them can truly Keep the feast can truly remember.
Acknowledge and celebrate what God has done, but notice with this memorial. There's also a warning. There's also a threat verse 19 For seven days no leaven shall be found in your houses. Since whoever eats what is leavened that same person shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel now cut off.
For not holding this feast for not keeping this feast. According to the purity that God demanded no leaven found among his people for that entire seven day period of the feast. The rabbis here are divided about what cut off means it certainly means something negative it could mean.
Being ostracized in a public way. You're no longer counted and numbered among the children of Israel. You're cut off from the covenant people as you've been cut off from the covenant promises. It could be more than mere Outcasting it could actually be death a form perhaps of premature death and here the rabbis assume There's some sort of divine intervention.
God will now judge now if that's the case we have an interesting parallel with 1st Corinthians 11 and how Paul says that some of the Members at the church at Corinth had fallen asleep. Because they had not kept the supper rightly perhaps here.
We're very close to what it means to being cut off. It's a common formula for divine Punishment and really we could say it's a representative of church discipline in Old Testament parlance. In as much Calvin says as this ceremony shows us the redemption of the people kept in their memory.
It was a gross crime not to observe whatever God prescribed and we must estimate the importance of the rights of the law from their object well said. We say well, what's the big deal. A little crumb here the dough is a little fluffy there why is God so concerned that he would cut people off for failure to abide by this cleansing right and Calvin rightly says we see the importance of it from its object from what it points to if Christ and his sacrifice and our partaking of that sacrifice is the ultimate object of the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
Now we can see why God gives such a warning and threat with it as Far as the feast itself. The main element is the unleavened bread the matzah. You can go to Haniford and walk by the aisle. They'll have.
Asian and.
Mexican Alicia's favorite little section at Haniford and then you have Jewish food as well and there you can find big bricks of matzah bread. It's not very tasty. I don't think you should buy it. Saltines and cheeses are way better.
But for the purposes of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, this is what God required according to verse 39 in this chapter. It's because they were driven out of Egypt and could not wait. In other words, the dough does not have time to rise bake what you've got.
The leaven has been added, but it hasn't been given time to rise. And so God says you'll remember that by having unleavened bread for seven days. This in chapter 13 verses 3 through 10 is called to remembrance now.
We're not going to have a sermon on Exodus 13 3 through 10. This is all sort of a package deal here. So this is two for one, but do pay attention to Exodus 13 3 through 10. So much of it is repetition, but there's some details that are very significant beginning in verse 3.
Moses said to the people remember This day in which you went out of Egypt out of the house of bondage. For by the strength of hand the Lord brought you out of this place. No, leavened bread shall be eaten on this day you are going out in the month of Eve 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 this service in this month. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread and on the seventh day there shall be a feast to the Lord.
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 and you shall tell your son in that day saying This is done Because of what the Lord did for me When I came up from Egypt.
It shall be assigned to you on your hand and as a memorial between your eyes. So that the Lord's law may be in your mouth for with a strong hand The Lord has brought you out of Egypt. You shall therefore keep this ordinance in its season from year to year.
Similar language in Deuteronomy 16 that you may remember the day in which you came out of the land of Egypt all the days of your life and you. See how personal and intimate this feast was for the Israelites.
This is what the Lord did for Me when he brought me up from Egypt. The central command is chapter 12 verse 15. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread the first day. Removing leaven from your houses whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day that person Shall be cut off.
Is there significance to the first and the seventh days being Sabbaths? Yes. We have here a complete circuit of time. The beginning of the week to the end the first act of creation to its dawning and here this cycle of creation redemption makes a lot of sense for our Understanding of the Lord's Day when we see the significance of this redemptive event Bookended by a first day and seventh day Sabbath go into more detail about that when we get to Exodus chapter 20 but it's very noteworthy that Exodus chapter 20 connects the fourth commandment to creation whereas Deuteronomy 5 Connects the fourth commandment to the redemptive event coming out of Egypt and the Feast of Unleavened Bread has a lot to say about the significance of a day unto the Lord.
The Israelites would have celebrated this as they were being led out of Egypt. They celebrated it again when they were wandering in the wilderness. Numbers nine speaks to that. We read of it again when they enter into the land.
The first thing they do in Joshua 5 is they celebrate this Passover and keep this great feast. It was an annual reminder of God's saving act in which he brought his son out of Egypt commemorated by both blood and bread and therefore we see the significance of us remembering by both blood and.
Bread.
Symbolically speaking our great redemptive event in Christ. So let's talk about leaven and move to application. Leaven in Scripture functions, of course. Metaphorically, but it's often been claimed that leaven always everywhere in Scripture has a negative connotation.
Which is easily disproved. Leaven was used with a variety of senses in the ancient world. You have positive uses and all sorts of targums by various first century rabbis. You have Philo you have Plutarch for a Greco-Roman writer.
They can all use leaven in all sorts of ways to speak both positively and negatively. Anything that had a metaphorical function of something small rapidly increasing or rising. Leaven was often the metaphor that was employed is yeast small.
Yes, very small. The typical yeast cell is a proximate approximately equal in size to a human red blood cell. It takes 30 billion yeast cells to make a gram of yeast 30 billion yeast cells. It was first observed by Anton V Leeuwenhoek in 1680.
Louis Pasteur a great hero among some of our Jonathan Park fans theorized the role of yeast in fermentation in the 1870s interesting history of the Scientific advances that come through understanding the process of leaven.
However here in Exodus 12 and throughout the Old Testament leaven and yeast are not synonymous. There's two different Hebrew terms that are used. So technically we're not talking about yeast. We're talking about the batch of dough that was referred to as Leaven and that leaven was used to be kneaded into a dough and in other words a starter for you bakers.
By the way, did you know I only found this out recently? Do you know what that drawer is underneath your oven? It's not how we use it, which we stuff all our pots and pans. It's a proving drawer. You're meant to put your leavened dough and the warmth the residual warmth of that drawer will increase the the speed of the leavening Process.
It's a proving drawer not a storage drawer. Who would have known? Well here you have a starter you have a Chunk of leavened dough and a little piece would be broken off and it would have been kneaded into the dough.
For perhaps that week or however long you were baking in advance to eat and so you have something analogous to a small almost invisible substance that when it makes contact Eventually inevitably permeates the whole.
That's the significance of the metaphor of leaven. Now as I said, it can be used both negatively and positively. Let's briefly look at examples of that first negatively. We have famously the leaven of the Pharisees.
Mark chapter 8 verse 13. We read Jesus left and got into the boat again and departed to the other side. Now the disciples forgot to take bread and they did not have more than one loaf with them in the boat.
So he charged them saying take heed beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod. Now what's the leaven that Mark is referring to? He doesn't exactly make clear. Luke in his example in chapter 12 says.
He began to say to his disciples beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy, so Luke says this leaven. That Christian believers aren't to beware of his hypocrisy. Matthew, of course doesn't deny hypocrisy.
But associates it more with false teaching coming from false teachers. Matthew 16 verse 6 Jesus said to them watch and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees verse 12. They understood that he did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread.
But of the teaching of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. So you see you have this example of false teachers who are already called Hypocrites in the context of the gospel and their influence as these hypocritical teachers.
So subtle and yet it inevitably Permeates the whole and I think Mark is capturing that central idea he's already described the coming of Christ in his kingdom as something new a New wine that does not comport with an old wineskin a new garment that will tear an old garment.
And at the same time we have this new batch of leaven that cannot be mixed with or Affected by the old leaven the hypocrisy and false teaching that has permeated the homes among the Israelites. Beware of that leaven cast it out.
Jesus is saying. Paul can use this Metaphor in a similar way Galatians chapter 5. He says to these Galatian believers you ran well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth. This persuasion does not come from him who calls you a little leaven leavens the whole lump.
We have this phrase we see it again in 1st Corinthians 5 a little leaven leavens the whole lump. It's like our saying a rotten apple spoils the whole bunch. So that's negative use leaven of the Pharisees a leaven a pernicious influence leavening the lump.
We also have a positive use Luke chapter 13 again Jesus teaching to what shall I like in the kingdom of God? It is like leaven which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal until it was all Leaven most likely the woman they're figuratively representing the church taking this agent or perhaps even the church being led by the Spirit of Christ and so there's this almost minute invisible dynamic where Yeast or leaven is being hidden in measures of meal and yet the process leads to the whole being leavened.
This right here Luke 13 the parallel Matthew 13. That's enough to say there's a positive use. Unless you're a dispensationalist. They say even this is negative, which is mind-boggling. But here we see a metaphor for the positive use of the increase the the rapid fermentation that comes through leavening.
Kim kwang-chan, I've been reading a lot about the church in China lately in this chapter in an edited volume By Kim kwang-chan called the Christian community in China. And this is what he said the biblical imagery of leaven.
Perhaps best describes the political influence of the Christian community in China. Leaven is a quiet agent and yet it can transform the very nature of a lump of dough. The Christian community in China a somewhat silent social group together with many other newly emerging Elements of society has been growing steadily and seems to have an increasingly significant impact on the formation of the country.
One cannot see the yeast clearly, but we can see its power in the rising dough. That's exactly right. You cannot see the actual yeast clearly. But you can see the effect of the yeast in the rising dough.
One man travels to a village with a Bible in his hand and speaks the words of God. That impacts and affects everyone in that village in an invisible yet clear way. Gradually, perhaps some come to faith and because of that there's even more effect more rise more warmth more light.
We know this from salt that just a small amount of salt 1 of salt can prevent 99 of a piece of flesh from putrefying and so one small light bulb a Christmas light bulb a nightlight can fill a Dark room an utterly dark room with some sense of luminous such that you can find your way around and such is the kingdom of God.
Such as that salt that light that leaven among the people of God. Jesus said this to the Pharisees later on in Luke 17 the kingdom of God does not come with observation. Nor will they say see here look there.
We've got it in other words We've got the stadium that's full. We've got the platforms look at the kind of institutions with belt look the kingdom of God has come. Jesus says no. That's not how the kingdom of God comes.
That's not how salts or lights or leaven works. It's not by the big spectacles and all of the buzz. But it's a quiet Patient blessed work. It comes through the blessedness of those who are poor in spirit who mourn for their sin who have meekness in their soul who have?
Purity in their hearts who hunger and thirst after righteousness because they can't find righteousness around them to feed upon. The peacemakers the mediators you can't see those graces. They don't stand out in your face.
But you see the effects.
All around.
So, how do we.
Keep the feasts.
Main application as we Consider the Feast of Unleavened Bread. How do we keep the feast? Well, I recall your memory the Feast of Unleavened Bread began the very day God's people were led out of bondage.
The Passover event is their saving event. They're spared from death from the wrath of God and they're led out of their bondage and captivity Out of that dark realm out of that kingdom of darkness under the serpentine ruler Pharaoh and on that day of liberation.
On that exodus of redemption. They keep this feast From the beginning to the end from the first to the last from the first day to the seventh. They keep this feast with no leaven being found in their midst and what's found at the beginning must be Burned part of the ritual of the Passover itself ch Macintosh generally not Worthwhile quoting he was a dispensationalist and he was prone to I think misreading certain things in the Old Testament, but A .W. Pink in his gleanings in Exodus highlighted this passage from Macintosh and here I think you know I'll give Mac some credit.
I think he hit this one out of the park and it's rubber-stamped by pink. Macintosh says this the feast spoken of in this passage in the life and conduct of the church Corresponds with the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
This lasted seven days again a complete circle of time and the church collectively and the believer Individually are called to walk in practical holiness during their days right during their from their first day their day of redemption until That dawning new redemption that final Sabbath.
The church collectively and the believer Individually are called to walk in practical holiness the entire period of their course here below and moreover. This is the direct result of being washed in the blood and having communion with the sufferings of Christ.
All right, that's the logic of the Passover leading to keeping the feast now as we'll see in a moment. This is how Paul understands the significance of the feast in the Passover event in first Corinthians 5.
So what are we saying when to quote Macintosh? We say the church collectively and the believer individually are called to walk in practical holiness. What is that describing practical holiness? Sanctification if the Passover as we'll see next week primarily displays to us the Justification that comes by faith through the sacrifice of Christ and the Feast of Unleavened Bread primarily displays to us Sanctification that comes also by way of that justifying blood of Christ.
That's the the basis and the motive for it and yet Sanctification involves this act this labor this intense examination this careful walk and way of What you eat and how you dwell and what you will or will not do and that describes the life of sanctification.
1st Corinthians 5 will be here for the rest of the time. 1st Corinthians 5 beginning in verse 6. We'll come back to the context. I trust you're all familiar with it, but let's just begin here. 1st Corinthians 5 6.
Your glorying is not good. Familiar proverb. Do you not know a little leaven leavens the whole lump?
Therefore.
Purge out the old leaven that you may be a new lump since you are truly unleavened. Okay. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump. Therefore purge out the old leaven that you may be a new lump Since you are truly unleavened.
So a couple applications just stemming from these initial thoughts. First Believers are no longer Gentiles no longer strangers no running no longer running in the same flood of dissipation. Their conduct now is held to an entirely different standard.
First Peter 4 for if you have time to look that up. Secondly The church body is a many membered body and the conduct for individuals is also a standard set by the conduct for the group. Paul could say the same thing to the Individual purge out the old leaven that he could say to the church and that's the context of 1st Corinthians 5 Purge out the old leaven so the church both Individually and communally is held to a standard of holiness and must be accountable to the communal discipline in accord with that holiness.
Third. Believers need to be aware of what corporate holiness entails for their own individual walk. This is one of the reasons brothers and sisters. That we have a feast and we recite the covenant with one another.
Because this is not just about me and myself in a cabin in Vermont. This is also about us and our corporate holiness. The corporate lump that God is leavening. Fourth the church body is truly Unleavened in Christ as the believer is truly unleavened in Christ and yet still that old leaven must be purged.
And then fifth. When that church discipline comes the purpose though, not always the result ought to be repentance toward reconciliation and never vengeance. Ligon Duncan recalled he doesn't give a lot of props to Baptist.
But he said one of the things I love about Baptist in the 19th century is often when they wrote about exercising church discipline in Their sort of last-ditch efforts to restore and reconcile someone who had aired and if excommunication passed they would say this Church, we no longer call him brother.
So now we call him friend. We no longer call him brother. So now we call him friend now we call him neighbor. Now we begin all over with the sowing influence of the gospel and the prayerful hope that they will come to repentance in faith.
So those are some initial thoughts stemming from 1st Corinthians 5. And you get the significance of holiness. Removing all of the leaven from the house would have impressed the necessity of a holy life upon the Israelites as the Ongoing Levitical laws were keen to do this.
Not that nothing mixed this not that a separation of what is common or vulgar from what is holy what is sacred and Israelites life and all of their practical day-to-day acts would have been Corresponding with a sense of what is sacred and what is vulgar?
What is holy and what is filthy what is ritually cleansed and what is ritually unclean? Removing leaven corresponds to this holiness code. Think of the process we've already said it's not the invisible dust of yeast, but it's the actual starter cake.
But every time you tear some off a few crumbs end up here or there. There's some dried out scraps underneath the dishwasher. Who knows what's in the corners of the cabinets? It would have been quite an effort to cleanse these things out the other day.
I took a shop vac to our minivan. I Made the mistake some weeks ago of giving the girls muffins on the ride. We're on the way to an appointment here. Never give your children muffins in a car. It's like they exploded like what did you do?
Did you eat them or did you just try to pull them apart into microscopic pieces and I was vacuuming every corner I I don't know that I would have made it out of Egypt. I had so much vacuuming to do and they didn't even have shop vacs, but you get this picture the call to holiness.
The Feast of Unleavened Bread is a call to holiness. Based in memorial upon what God had done to save his people. Let me say that again. The Feast of Unleavened Bread was for the Israelites a call to holiness Based on the memorial of what God had done to save them through the blood.
Spurgeon writes beloved. Many a Christian man has not found out the sinfulness of some actions for years after his conversion. I'm very conscious that certain matters, which I thought very light of years ago would greatly trouble my conscience.
Now as I have obtained light upon certain sins I have through grace put them away and I expect as long as I live to find something which Viewed in a brighter light and from a higher standing will be discovered to be sinful and I desire to be done with it.
We must not hesitate for a moment. We must not retain even a crumb of leaven. We must earnestly desire to sweep it all out. That is what befits the Christian who is rightly remembering what the Lord has done with the blood.
That is what the Feast of Unleavened Bread signifies. There can be no compromise. There can be no middle ground. There is no good enough. Well, we got most of it out. Anyway, that is not keeping the feast that is to be cut off.
There's an earnest desire a willingness an Urgency to cleanse the entire dwelling place from anything that would cause such offense. The evil presence of leaven. There can be no middle ground. There's actually a program called middle ground That I came across this this week.
I've seen it in years past. The whole idea of the program is they have some Hot-button issues some especially politically divisive issue and they'll bring two or three people from opposite sides of that spectrum and they'll pose questions and ask them to come forward and then they'll have dialogue and it's meant to be as civil as it can be and it's meant to give you a Sampling of kind of where the ends of the spectrum lie.
Well, they had a very interesting.
Atypical.
Episode where they had conservative evangelical Christians three of them against progressive Christians. I strained to use the term notice my my scare quotes. Brenda who is one of the progressives said toward the end in a conclusion as to whether.
The other side was misrepresenting Christianity. Brenda said I often say that the evangelical Conservative Church has built an idol to purity and integrity. Which is why the gay issue is so high on the agenda and even the pro-choice pro-life issue.
You see. For Brenda we make an idol out of purity and integrity. If we would just not make an idol out of things like holiness and purity and righteousness. Then of course we could allow all sorts of manner of these things that we've made righteousness and holiness and idle.
What a fascinating insight from Brenda or Kurt. Who's a pastor? Speaking as a progressive. He says of his own life. I had a revelatory moment. Because the church was mean to me. They said put him over here kick him out.
No one showed me the authentic love of Christ. But you want to know who showed me the authentic love of Christ. All of my friends who were gay. I had to go to counseling because of what that church did to me and the counselor was not a Christian.
But she helped me to understand that people in the church had hurt me not God. And so because God did not hurt me I could stand up in a church and get married to a man. Do you see the significance of the Feast of Unleavened Bread?
Salvation in sin is not possible. Only and always Salvation is from sin. Purge your dwelling place of all Leaven for if anyone has what is leavened they will be cut off. That is what God says and this flows off the heels of that once for all sacrifice.
There's a correspondence between what God has done in Christ and what that must mean for the life of a believer. It does not mean that we can make God out of our imagination out of our sinful fleshly Imaginations that we curtail his commands by appealing to our own Idolatry in the heart it must be what God has commanded what God has called to be purged.
That is what we must be sanctified by. Purge out the old leaven. Paul writes that you may be a new lump. Since you are truly unleavened for indeed Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast.
Not with the old leaven. Not with the way you were before. Nor with the leaven of malice nor wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. So that's the first thing I'd like to highlight three three things about keeping the feast.
I know it's always a little scary when I say that's number one and we've got like, you know, 15 minutes left.
We'll see how we do.
First thing keeping the feast. With sincerity and truth sincerity is purity. It's transparency. Charles Hodge said it's something through which the Sun may shine without ever revealing a flaw. You hold the glass up and there's no bubble.
There's no distortion. It's perfectly clear. That is sincerity. Transparency it accords with truth. That which conforms to the law which conforms to the character of God. That is what is true. It's interesting in Luke chapter 12.
We already said Jesus describes the leaven of the Pharisees as hypocrisy. And Paul says don't don't have that leaven. Don't be hypocritical malicious wicked have the unleavened bread of Sincerity the very opposite of hypocrisy of truth of integrity being what you seem to be.
To guardrails for the walk of a Christian sincerity and truth. Not speaking out of half of our mouth not living out of half of our lives. Sincerity and truth. It's the amazing thing about leaven, isn't it?
If you failed to get leaven if you failed to sweep the yeast out of your home in due time, it would show Everyone would have these flat saltine like Matzah spread and then you'd come out with this, you know, three foot tall loaf.
Phil. I thought we were keeping the feast of unleavened bread. Well. It shows the dough will rise and so the unleavened bread speaks of purity which corresponds to sincerity not the contamination the contamination of Seductive influence by the world or the flesh or the devil and you have that language here in first Corinthians 5.
Purging out the old leaven. It's a very specific word. It's not used very commonly in the New Testament at kathira. We have cut the reeds. Oh, which is purified that's used a lot. But kathira is very rare at kathira to utterly purge to utterly clean.
It's a complete cleansing. Paul says utterly Purge or cleanse your midst from this influence cast out the old leaven. You are a new lump in Christ. So live and act like a new lump in Christ. Paul says the same thing in 2nd Timothy 2 21 the only other place the verb is used if anyone Cleanses that is purges utterly purges himself from these things.
He will be a vessel for honor. Sanctified useful to the master prepare it for every good work. Flip that upside down what happens when you don't purge when you're not cleansed. You're a vessel for dishonor.
You're not sanctified you're in filth you're not useful to the master you're useless. You're not prepared for every good work. You're unable to do any good work. That's the significance of what we're talking about as Thomas Brooks The great Puritan says a humble soul knows that even little sins if I could call any sin little cost Christ his blood and Clouded the face of God and wounds our conscience and grieves the spirit and gives Satan joy.
A humble soul knows that even little sins are dangerous because a little leaven leavens the whole lump a little poison may Kill a man and a little leak in a ship when it's left alone will eventually Sink it.
What difference does this make to our daily walks? What difference would it make for you to wake up each morning and say today I will keep the feast. Today I will begin by remembering what God has done for me in Christ what that sacrifice means for my life and Therefore from that great love and mercy of God I will cleanse and purge all the leaven that comes at me this day.
Anything that I have done anything that comes my way I will cleanse it with view to that cross and walk as new leaven as a new lump made holy by Christ. So that's keeping the feast with sincerity and truth.
Secondly, the most important point keeping the feast because of Christ if you want to go Off the path as a Christian keep the feast without Christ. Satan will let you keep the feast. He'll let you purge and cleanse and discipline and beat your body and submission all day long.
So long as it's Christless. Because if it's Christless, it will be ineffective. You won't be feasting on Christ. You'll be feasting on your pride feasting on the effects of that discipline of that work and that labor.
There's a big difference between Feeding on carnal ambition and success and feeding on Christ. And so keeping the feast must be keeping the feast because of Christ. Remember the context of 1st Corinthians 5 that they were glorying because of their tolerance of a man who was an open Immorality and Paul says I've already judged them hand him over to Satan from the destruction of his flesh the equivalent of let him be cut off from among the congregation 1st Corinthians 5 being a lot like Exodus 12, which is perhaps why Paul goes to Passover in the feast in 1st Corinthians 5 and Here he begins to connect the purification of this unleavened feast With a Passover event and all that that means for a believer Jesus is in fact our Passover.
Paul says he is the Lamb whose blood was shed. So that the judgment of God would pass over us and Paul understands This is the strongest the exclusive reason for you to purge sin from your life not only because of the effects and the consequences of sin not only for the fear of Condemnation or discipline upon that sin, but because in effect you are staining the sacrifice.
Insulting the Savior who died for you showing no regard for the sacrifice and what he endured upon the cross even for the least of your sin. And so Paul doesn't begin with the feast of unleavened bread.
He doesn't begin with sanctification. Doesn't begin by saying purge sin out of your life. He begins by pointing every believer to the blood of the cross. Behold the glorious one who descended from heaven above to earth below.
Took the form of a slave and died a death that none of us could die. Bearing the wrath of God on our behalf behold that Paul says and in light of that Why would you want any leaven in your life? That same blood which has spared you that same blood which has saved you is the same blood that will sanctify you.
So purge out the old leaven he's saying don't leave a crumb. Don't leave a scrap behind. Stop going back to the old ways. Don't be like an Israelite trying to go back to the bondage of Egypt In Christ you've been made a new creation.
Everything that was is now passed away. Something entirely new has come the old leaven has been burnt Utterly to a crisp now a new leaven new Potentiality new rising and giving to life. New fermentation has come.
So sanctification.
Sanctification the process by which we conform to the holiness of our Savior. Sanctification derives its motive From the objective sacrifice of Christ. Sanctification derives its motive from the objective sacrifice of Christ.
Listen Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us.
Therefore let us keep the feast.
We don't keep the feasts because we know we should and we feel really bad that we haven't and it's high time and things are Falling apart. So let's try harder to keep the feast which is a way to set yourself up for failure.
What does Paul say? Christ was sacrificed for you.
Fixating on that dwelling and focusing on that therefore keep the feast. It's a memorial witness and it sounds very familiar to these words that we read from Exodus 13. This is done because of what the Lord did for me.
Why are you trying so hard? Are you trying to be holier-than-thou? You know all the other guys at the workplace find it really hard to relate to you. You're so high and mighty the Pope the Holy Roller, you know, we get it, you know.
But you should loosen up a little, you know. We don't want to cry with the Saints when we can laugh with the sinners. And you really you're just estranging yourself. Is that really loving your neighbor?
What do you say to to that kind of accusation that kind of criticism that those kinds of thoughts butting up in your mind?
In other words the.
Challenges, why are you doing this? Why are you making your life so challenging so difficult. Why are you struggling to get by in this way? Why are you cutting off from all the pleasures of Vanity Fair, why would you do this?
This is done Because of what the Lord did for me. That's what you say. This is done this life this sanctification this purging this labor this wrestling this mortification. This is done because of what the Lord did for me.
It's a response not a merit not a earning not creating a tab. I'm not sending an invoice. This is strictly exclusively done because of what the Lord did for me. Can you speak experientially in that way?
I trust if you've been a Christian for any length of time. You know exactly how fatiguing and exhausting and impossible it is to walk in holiness when you're trying to do it from your own flesh. Or from a sense of guilt.
We can easily take warning passages viceless and turn those into a whip and crack it at you All Sunday morning and you can be filled with tears Sobbing under the crushing weight of guilt and say never again today henceforth.
I purge and Then here comes Monday morning and you're right back at it in the same bondage with the same indifference in the same cold heart. Why? Because guilt Does not motivate in the way that grace Motivates in the way that the gospel fuels holiness in a believer's life.
It comes down to this central insight. It's because of what the Lord did for me. Christ was sacrificed for me. Therefore I will keep the feast. Can you speak experientially about that? Is it mom and dad's rules?
To this weird enclave in the center of Barry and you can't wait till you're 19 and you can slowly but surely start to distance.
From it.
Can you speak experientially of This great longing this bursting desire in your heart to purge every unfitting thing in your life because The Spirit has given you eyes to see and taste buds to taste what the Lord has done for you in Christ.
Or have you grown cold in your heart? Or have you taken it for granted? Have you even forgotten? Paul says It's like you have basically progressives in the church at corn their tolerance of all manner of immorality.
Aren't we loving and Paul says you were so focused on your own sense of your own love? That you forgot about the cross and what that immorality costs. For the Christian we can never forget what our immorality or the unrighteousness and filth around us costs our Savior.
Because of what the Lord did for me that is the very heartbeat of sanctification. That is the very heartbeat of sanctification. So you keep the feast because of Christ now third last and briefly. We keep the feast with sincerity and truth.
We keep the feast because and only because of Christ. And we keep that feast with joy. We keep that feast with joy. God doesn't say I've delivered you now by the blood of the Lamb. And so gather in sackcloth.
Put dust over your foreheads.
Gather a few stray kernels of corn and wheat. Begin to mourn and sing the laments so you shall remember this feast. No, no. This is a feast. This is a jovial occasion. This is one of the three times that you and all your friends would be Making a Walmart checklist.
Who's got the sleeping bags in the tent and we need an industrial sized box of granola bars. We're going to the Holy City. We're going to keep the feast one of the greatest times of the year and this joy this this Celebration accords with what God has done on behalf of his people.
He's brought salvation from judgment. He's brought liberation from slavery. Of course, there must be joy of course the purity that befits this salvation is something to rejoice about not something to mourn about and so keeping the feast as a Christian is a perpetual feast of joy of celebration of awe of thankfulness of delight.
That's what it means to feast on the sacrifice of Christ to feed upon his flesh to acknowledge who he is and what he's done. There's a sense of joy a newfound sense of freedom, that's what it means to feast on him.
I wonder brothers and sisters if we go with stone faces and we just nibble on the edges of his cloak when we could be feasting on him a Joyless Christian that's an oxymoron. Why are there so many of them?
May it never be if we've Tasted and seen the Lord is good in ways that an Israelite could never imagine. We should keep this feast with joy. Anything less is a dishonor to our Savior for 400 years. Groaning in slavery the Israelites crying up to heaven and this great salvation wrought after ten plagues of God.
Miraculously bringing his people up imagine as they're walking out of Egypt that they're just like. Yeah, you know just case of the Mondays slogging it on. Yeah, you know the Christian life is in all daisies and roses.
I Mean nothing again. I'm one of my favorite preachers is Paul Washer as I'm sure many of you are but I whenever I look up a Paul Washer sermon to listen to with great benefit. Every image of him, especially the earlier messages.
He's always just has a sour pained face like he's passing a you know, kidney stone. And I know that's the Jeremiah fire in his bones, it's the burden and the concern that he has to win souls. I get it.
But you know 30 pictures and they're all like, you know this pained expression. There's something to say about the joy of Feasting on Christ you you come among co-workers and family members. You're in places where you're breathing different air.
You're speaking the language of Canaan and Vanity Fair. People cannot relate they cannot see they cannot hear but at least they'll see that difference. For you. Why are you so happy? It'll frustrate them.
Why are you so happy? Just stop smiling already. You're either deranged and there's a good shot. Or you know something that I don't know and you have an experience that I haven't had. You believe and have found something that I have not found.
It's a perpetual feast. Because it's a new life. It's a new lump and it came at a great cost. It came by the precious blood of our own Savior. Keep the feast with joy. He died on the cross so that we would feast.
Not so that we would mourn so we're to keep it. Not as a lament not as a dirge. We're to keep it as a feast. Our walks may come with thorns. They may come with storms. They may be replete with trials as our brother was reminding us to pray.
Many are the afflictions of the people of God. We must endure many tribulations to enter into the kingdom and yet even in the midst of these thorns and storms and trials. We're meant to experience.
Unending.
Perpetually abiding and ever Increasing joy other joys will pale and fade. This joy will only increase. This light only gets dialed up. Why? Because Christ is our Passover and keeping the feast is all about feasting on him.
It's about consuming the lamb. It's about our union with him our participation in him by the spirit. Which means it's ever more intimate ever closer ever more full. Is that your experience as a Christian?
Five more years of walking with the Savior has given me five more years of tasting and consuming and partaking of him. Five more years of growing more intimate and seeing he's a friend for sinners and he's a Physician and he's a shepherd and he's the lover of my soul.
Is that your experience? Nominal. Christianity will never save you. You're either feeding on your own will your own effort your own exertion your own attainment. Or you're feeding on Jesus on who he is on what he does.
On what he has done. That is the basis of the feast that is the basis of our sanctification. That is why we keep the feast with joy. Close with this quote from a W pink. The basis of the feast of unleavened bread was what the Lord had done for Israel.
He delivered them from the land of bondage. In other word. Its foundation was redemption.
Accomplished entered into known enjoyed.
No soul can really feast upon Christ if he's in doubt about his own salvation. Fear has torment first John 418. This is the opposite of joy. This is the opposite of salvation of which feasting speaks an actual partaking.
Little wonder then. That there are so many joyless Professing believers, how could it be? Otherwise rejoice said Christ to his disciples that your names are written in the scrolls in heaven. Until this joy of assurance is ours.
There will never be any feasting upon Christ. Do you have the joy of assurance. Do you know have you tasted and seen as the Spirit made it a real? Understanding and experience in your life that Christ is your Passover.
Sacrificed for you.
Well, if that's the case brother sister keep the feast with sincerity and truth.
Because of him.
With great joy.
Let's pray Father we thank you for our Savior Lord. We thank you for this event that draws us closer and closer to the cross. May we abide in its shadow? May we claim its cleansing blood? May we praise you and just rejoice for the part in that we have so freely and graciously received.
May that give us every atom of motive. To purge our life from anything that's unbecoming that's evil. That's foolish and blind and wicked. However, small Lord, let us remember it cost your blood. However, great.
Let us remember there's power in the blood. Let us remember we purge because of you and even by your spirit Lord for apart from you. We can do nothing. And if there's any in this room this morning Lord who have been eating the filth of Leavened bread in their life so to speak Who have not purged care not to purge wouldn't know how to purge Lord.
May your conviction lead them to repentance and faith. May that faith bring forth a great liberation. May they to be like those whom Peter marveled at whom though not having seen you.
Yet love you.
May you show us your spirit in that way and increase our love for you. We pray in your son's name.
Amen.