(The Aggressive Holy Spirit) What Do You Do With Immorality? — Jim Elliff

The Church’s Integrity and the Public Testimony of Baptism

Now, confession is good for us, right? And I have to confess that I'm the freight train that Doug Moo talked about the other day. So I want to get that off my chest. They took me out of that room and put me in another place, a padded room with reinforced rafters for last night, but at any rate, well, I want to take you today to the book of First Corinthians in Chapter 5, please.

Let's all turn to that passage. First Corinthians in Chapter 5. Some years ago, I read a book, an Oxford Press book by Greg Wills. It was his dissertation called Democratic Religion in the South. It's a valuable book, actually.

And in that book, I read the story of a baptism that took place in Eatonton, Georgia in 1837. And in this baptism, there were several people being baptized, but one girl in particular is noted by one writer who sort of journaled the experience.

I'm going to read that paragraph in just a moment. But this girl was named Caroline or Carrie for short. She had been a very worldly girl, and she said when she was converted to Jesus Christ during that period of time that she desired to even be more devoted to her Savior than she had ever been to the world.

She was soundly converted. And I want to read for you the paragraph written in a rather eloquent way, I think, that describes what happened at that baptism. So listen carefully to this interesting description.

Of course, everybody was there. The banks of that little stream were lined with crowds of interested spectators. Julia of Monticello, her bosom friend and companion in her worldly course, seemed loath to leave her even for a moment and clung to her till she reached the water's edge.

A hymn was sung, Minister C .D. Mallory made a few remarks and offered prayer when Minister John Dawson took Caroline by the hand and led her down the shelving bank into the limpid stream. They had attained about half the desired depth when she requested him to stop a moment, and turning to those on the bank, waving her hand, she said, Farewell, young friends, farewell, Julia.

The effect was electrical. The whole audience convulsed and tears ran from eyes unused to weeping. Upon coming out of the water, Julia rushed forward to meet her friend, embracing her and crying out in agonizing tones, Oh, Carrie, you must not leave me.

Mr. Dawson, pray for me. Mr. Mallory, pray for me. Now, that's a touching story to me. I always am a little bit emotive when I read that story. Here is a church and an individual, at least, who understood something of the impact of a public testimony through baptism, saying that there is now a very big difference in my life.

My old companions have been left behind. My new companions are those who are the believers in Jesus Christ. My closest friends will be those. And for the rest of our life, probably, during that period of time, when people didn't move as often, perhaps for the rest of her life, she would be living in that community with an entirely new circle or sphere of close relations to those people who were believers.

The Corinthian Church’s Open Door to Immorality

Now in the passage that we're going to look at in 1 Corinthians chapter 5, obviously, this demarcation between the world and the church, that line had been blurred and the world has now not just come under the door, but as in this case, the door has been flung wide open to the world in the Corinthian church.

And they have a huge problem on their hands, but amazingly, they are not really aware of the problem on the scale that they should be. I want to read the statement of the Apostle Paul to these people about this issue that he heard about by rumor, and I want to read the entire chapter, actually, of 1 Corinthians 5.

So you follow along, please, as I read. We're going to be making some observations in a moment about how to maintain the integrity of the church. And as I read through this, I want you to note, by the way, the strength of the terms or the action words that the Apostle Paul is calling the church to carry out.

So look at this. Verse 1. It is actually reported that there is immorality among you, an immorality of such a kind as does not exist even among the Gentiles, that someone has his father's wife. And you have become arrogant and have not mourned instead, so that the one who has done this deed would be removed from your midst.

For I, on my part, though absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged him who has so committed this as though I were present. In the name of our Lord Jesus, when you are assembled, and I with you in spirit, with the power of the Lord Jesus, I have decided to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough? Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are, in fact, unleavened. For Christ, our Passover, has also been sacrificed.

Therefore, let us celebrate the feast, not with the old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. I wrote you in my letter not to associate with immoral people.

I did not at all mean with the immoral people of this world, or with the covetous and swindlers, or with idolaters, for then you would have to go out of the world. But actually I wrote you not to associate with any so-called brother, if he is an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler, not even to eat with such a one.

For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Do you not judge those who are within the church, but those who are outside God judges? Remove the wicked man from among yourselves.". Now, obviously, this is a key seminal passage, really, about the issue of church discipline.

Five Situations Requiring Church Discipline

I think you're aware, I hope you're aware, that there's more than one way to deal with people who are needing to be disciplined in a church. There are varieties of situations demanding varieties of activities.

Not everything is Matthew chapter 18. This is a mistake we often make. In the little book that I gave you, and if you haven't gotten a copy, I hope you will get a copy, for every pastor, or missionary, or vocational leader here in this room, Our Church on Solid Ground, in the back of that book there is a statement of discipline.

And in that statement we look at five situations that demand attention in the area of discipline. First of all, minor faults, which in themselves need to be overlooked, but may come to a point through persistence of the individual to be a disciplinable matter.

And then there's the category of unverifiable sins. One person sees another person do something, some illicit behavior, but you cannot find any actual proof to bring to the table about that issue. How do you deal with that kind of situation?

Then there's the situation of personal offense, which is where Matthew 18 comes in. This is a problem between two people, and how do you handle that kind of situation? The fourth area is in what we call public sin, and then the final area, which is the one covered by this passage in 1 Corinthians 5, we've called insufferable wickedness.

And the writer, the Apostle Paul here, obviously deals with this sin in a much quicker, decisive way, or at least he persuades the church, attempts to persuade the church to act quickly in the area of insufferable wickedness.

The Call to Preserve the Purity of the Local Church

What I'd like for us to do in these next few minutes is to walk through this passage verse by verse and simply make some observations which help us understand how we can maintain the integrity of our churches.

I think this is absolutely critical information for us, and if we are not going to be the men, those of us who are pastors and leaders here, if we're not going to be the people who will practice what the head of the church, in this case through the Apostle Paul, but what the head of the church has commanded us to do, then who will?

And we must stand for the purity of the church, I'd say. We must do this, and of all days, this is a day in which we need to recover this great doctrine, so I hope it will stimulate you. I'm praying, really, that in some way, by looking at this passage, we will push back the kingdom of darkness in a way in our churches, and something vital will happen with you as you lead your church.

So let's look at this passage carefully for a few minutes, then, and see what we might be able to discover about the integrity of the local church. First of all, let's read, then, the first couple of verses again.

It is actually reported that there is immorality among you, an immorality of such a kind as does not exist even among the Gentiles, that someone has his father's wife. You have become arrogant and have not mourned instead, so that the one who has done this deed would be removed from your midst.

And the simple observation I want to make here, which is kind of an overarching observation as we introduce the passage, is this. When an individual comes into the church, the local church, and becomes a member of a local church, he or she is joining a society with rules.

There are boundaries in the church, and the boundary that is mentioned here is the boundary of no sexual immorality. It is not permissible for a person to join a church, and according to the head of the church and the greatest apostle of the church, it is not permissible for them to join the church and also practice sexual immorality.

And this, of course, is not the only sin mentioned here. If you'll go on down in verse 11, you will see that he does bring in some other boundaries in the church. He says, but actually, I wrote you, verse 11, not to associate with any so-called brother if he is an immoral person, that's the case being covered here of a sort even the Gentiles didn't practice, but immorality, or a covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler, not even to eat with such a man.

So there is to be no sexual immorality, no covetousness. There is to be no swindling, or drunkenness, or reviling, or idolatry. And these are just some of the boundaries of the church. Now you can see in the first two verses that the apostle Paul is actually shocked by what's happening.

It's like he's dropping his jaw down and his mouth is agape and he's saying, I can't believe this. And it's not just immorality. It's a type of an immorality that the Gentiles consider abhorrent. Even the world considers this abhorrent.

And what you're doing is nothing. Instead of mourning, as you ought to be doing, and removing the person from your mess, you are tolerant of this individual and arrogant that you have such tolerance. Now of course we see this as a current problem, don't we?

Tolerance, Sexual Immorality, and the Corinthian Pattern

We know that the overarching virtue in most people's mind these days, at least the one most people think that Christians ought to have, if anybody should have, is this idea of tolerance. We should tolerate every possible behavior, especially in the church.

Now I see this in church after church. I have been in many, many churches, just as you I'm sure have, and I'm a bit amazed myself sometimes at what I see. One of our prominent churches in our area, perhaps one of the two largest churches, just a few years back some prominent men came to discuss the fact that a man who was a homosexual was teaching in one of the classes, but the pastor of that church was unwilling to deal with it.

It was a secret church, and he wanted to give the impression that we will receive anybody in this church, and he would not deal with the situation. Now this happens over and over again. There's a kind of a boasting that takes place even among otherwise evangelical churches in saying that we can tolerate any kind of activity and behavior that goes on because after all we're the loving church of God, and for the sake of evangelism particularly we want to be able to say our doors are open to every kind of person.

So when we talk about the tolerance as a virtue being the principle thing that people expect of us now in Christianity, we're really not talking about a brand new problem at all, are we? We're talking about the old Corinthian problem.

It's been around a long, long time. Now one of the reasons that we have a difficulty sometimes in putting our foot down and dealing with somebody who is illicit in their behavior is because of some wrong views I think of grace.

Of course on the one hand say that God will receive any man if he comes repentantly to him, and he will take any man because of his grace and accepts any man no matter what his background might be if he will put his trust in Christ, that's of course true, he may come just as he is, as the song goes, just as I am, he certainly might come that way.

But he comes of course, what we fail to remember is he comes because of his sin and though he is a sinner and in his sin, but he comes repentantly to the Lord Jesus Christ when he becomes a believer. So there is no intentionality on the part of the individual when he enters into a relationship with Christ of continuing his sin.

But some people of course make wrong transference about that idea of grace and they believe it mitigates against the idea of actually being decisive about people's behavior. And it is critical for us I think to explain the difference between those two things.

Now are you puffed up about that? Is your church one of those churches that does not take action on behavior that you find in your church? I remember one pastor that I talked to, an associate pastor of a church who had a lot to do with counseling in the church, and he said concerning this large church, he said Jim, if we practice the church discipline that you would say the Bible says we must do, we would destroy our church.

I know of several immoral people in our church and it would literally decimate our church if we had to do this. Well there you have it, see there is another reason people do not practice church discipline.

Church Membership, Attendance, and Discipline

They are actually afraid that it will be destructive to the church. One of the things that churches throughout our earlier history in the States and of course in Europe where many of our churches denominations began, etc. One of the things that they practiced was the idea that if a person withheld his attendance from a church it was a disciplinable matter.

I actually agree with that. I think that is true and I think every pastor ought to consider that idea who is here. That failure to contribute your gifts and life to the body of the church of course is indicative number one of a person who is really not a believer.

He loves the environment of the world rather than the environment of God. He is uncomfortable among the people of God and he does not love the brethren. So these are of course indications that he is really a non-believer if this is a persistent problem.

So we practice that and as people have and I suppose some of you practice the same way. One church that I read about had a policy on it and I am going to read this policy. It is a short paragraph. Not because it is my favorite way of dealing with people who do not contribute their life to the body, but I have just a further comment afterward.

Just listen however to what was said by this one church concerning church membership and activity and failure to do that. Any member, they said in their bylaws, any member who does not have registered attendance, identified financial support, definite service contribution and or expressed interest and loyalty within a six month period shall be notified by the board of directors in writing within 30 days prior to any congregational meeting that he or she has been placed on an inactive member list and is not eligible to vote in any meeting of the church.

Again, I am not saying this is a good policy, perhaps it is not. I think there are some deficiencies in it. But would you like to know what church this is that has this policy? This was in the bylaws of the Metropolitan Community Church of Los Angeles, the famous gay and lesbian and bisexual, transsexual church, if I can use that word.

Now what I am saying to you is this. These people are stricter than you are. And it is a great shame, I think, for us to not act in this way decisively. I am well aware, I am well aware that in the final analysis it is the church as a whole that must discipline and there sometimes is an education process to bring the church where it needs to be.

But my brothers, you who are pastors and leaders in your churches, if you are not leading your church aggressively toward this, then you are certainly, most certainly disobedient to God. This is the teaching of God's Word for every church.

It must be. You are not just some amorphous group, you see, with no boundaries at all. God has given you boundaries and you must uphold those boundaries. Not in a legalistic spirit, obviously, but in a loving way you must deal with people who are disobedient.

Covetousness as a Church-Discipline Concern

By the way, in that list of things that I mentioned, there is one word that we have in verse 11, one word particularly that we have a problem dealing with and that is the word covetous. He says we are not to associate with any so-called brother if he is an immoral person or a covetous.

Now there is a difficult one for us because this is a pet sin of our age, isn't it? And how many covetous or greedy people are there among us? Now one of the most famous non-theologians said this, this is Dwight L. Moody, but he said this, trying to be descriptive about the power of covetousness in people's lives.

He said covetousness enticed Lot into Sodom. It caused the destruction of Achan and all his house. It was the iniquity of Balaam. It was the sin of Samuel's sons. It left Gehazi a leper. It sent the rich young ruler away sorrowful.

It led Judas to sell his master and lord. It brought about the death of Ananias and Sapphira. It was the blot in the character of Felix, what victims it has had in all the ages. It's a helpful reminder, isn't it, that covetousness is not just some sort of sin we, again, just tolerate, and none of us will be experts at detecting this all the time.

But I want to say we have to grapple with this tension here. We have to grapple with this issue that we have among us sometimes people who are covetous. When we know, when we know with plenty of biblical evidence that what God does when he brings a person into relationship with Christ is he changes, he decentralizes the self, and the person really, the old greed, the old focus on self has actually been dramatically changed, not perfectly.

We are definitely not perfect, but there's a huge change. By the way, Moody went on to tell a story. He said there was a man who was very wealthy in New York State who had been converted. He'd been known as a miser.

He was a very selfish man. But he had been converted to Christ, and one day a family came, a man representing his family came who'd been burned out of his house and had no provisions whatsoever, and he asked for some help.

And the man decided that he would take him to his smokehouse and he would give him a ham out of his smokehouse. And so as he was walking over to the smokehouse he said the devil spoke in his ear and said give him the smallest one.

And the man, in order to attack his, the potential of selfishness in his life now that he'd become a believer, gave him the biggest ham in his smokehouse. And after he'd done that, the tempter said, you are a fool.

And the man said, if you don't shut up I'm going to give him every ham in the smokehouse. There is something, isn't there, that happens to us when we become believers in Jesus Christ. God really does change us, and we are constituted in a different way.

This is a sin, apparently, that must in some ways be recognizable because it is mentioned in various places in the scripture as one of those issues that we're to take note of and to actually discipline.

Judging Members and Delivering the Unrepentant to Satan

Now let's look at a second observation in verses 3 through 5. For I on my part, though absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged him who has so committed this as though I were present.

In the name of our Lord Jesus, when you are assembled, and I with you in spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus, I have decided to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

And I simply want to say then, as an observation concerning these verses, that the church is a society that judges its members. It does not only have boundaries, but it's a society that must judge its members.

This passage, where he actually uses the word, I have already judged him, should forever dispel the idea that Christians are never to judge. Of course, we know the difference between the Matthew passage and the Sermon on the Mount, when Jesus says, Judge not, lest you be judged, and the idea that a spiritual man judges all things, and that, in fact, we even may at times have to set up many courts in our church to deal, to judge situations.

There's a judgment with love that seeks the best for the individual but acts for the integrity of the church and the final analysis and the purity of the gospel and our behavior. So the church judges its members.

Now, this is a very interesting and colorful section of the text that we're looking at. It's as if, as Hendrickson says, it's as if the Apostle Paul were there in the meeting with gavel in hand. I don't know how you make decisions in your church.

We probably have a variety of ways that we make decisions. But at any rate, Paul is inserting himself into, as an Apostle, as one who does not have, has basically the power of persuasion over the church.

He cannot act for the church, for the local church, but he has the power of persuasion. And the way he's persuading people is this. He's saying, I'm right there. Just think of me as right there with you.

Think of me as right there in the meeting with you. In spirit, though, not in body. I'm right there with you. But then he enforces it even more because there's another guest in the meeting. And the other guest is Jesus Christ.

And he says it this way. I'm coming in the name of Jesus Christ. My presence with you in spirit is in the name, that is, as a representative of Jesus Christ himself. And then he mentions, secondly, this.

Look at it. He says, in the name, verse 4, in the name of our Lord Jesus, when you are assembled, and I with you in spirit, with the power of the Lord Jesus. So he's emphasizing here that there is more than Paul there in spirit.

This is a matter which greatly concerns Jesus Christ, greatly concerns Christ. And he is there, of course, with them in this decision that is being made as they discipline the church. What a significant thing that is, isn't it?

Now, when he says here, verse 5, I have decided to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. Here's an interesting passage, of course, because now some people take that idea, deliver such a one to Satan, to be something rather spooky, that there's something almost like sorcery that takes place when you do that.

But I take a different view myself, and I suppose many of you would agree with me, that really all he's saying here is this. He's simply talking about excommunicating the individual and leaving him there in the world where Satan has his control.

And leaving him there in the world, rather than his profession that he's a Christian, removing him from any of the meetings of the believers and sending him out into the world for the destruction of the flesh.

He is expecting that the sin of this man will actually bring great corruption to the man, so that, he says, his day will be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. Now, I'm of the opinion that when he says his soul will be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus, I do not believe he's considering this man to be a true believer, but rather a non-believer.

He's not saying we're going to send this man as a true believer out into the world, so that God will kind of take care of the part of his nature that is prone to sin, and he will be saved, at least his spirit will be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus, though his body experiences a great deal of corruption.

I don't think he's saying that, because in just a few chapters later, in chapter 6, he makes it very clear, doesn't he? Maybe you could glance over there a moment and see what it says. He makes it very clear in verses 9 through 11 that those who are immoral are not part of the kingdom of God at all.

Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Apparently, there were people who were deceived in believing that they could become a professed Christian in Jesus Christ and then live an immoral life and still go to heaven, still be part of the kingdom of God.

That's not true, of course, is it? Do not be deceived. He wouldn't use those words otherwise. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

Such were some of you, but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and in or by the Spirit of our God. So, I don't believe this man would be considered by the Apostle Paul, when almost in the same breath he says, you see, that immoral people will not inherit the kingdom of God.

I think that the Apostle Paul sees this man as a non-believer. Indeed, when this level of discipline takes place, that is almost certainly what we're saying. We're turning a person out into the world under, without our influences now, we're sending him out there where he lives his life, basically, in his mind.

And we're going to send him out there under Satan for the destruction of his flesh in hopes that, I think that's the intent here, in hopes that he will be saved. Sort of like the prodigal son, that he would, by experiencing such the awfulness that sin brings, there would be at least, I think, the hope that having had some of the gospel, having heard some of the truth of God, he might come to Jesus Christ, in fact, be saved, and the Spirit would be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

So, I don't believe that's the way we ought to view this passage, at least as I see it. Now, you remember that this phrase, to be delivered over to Satan, is used in another place in the Scripture, and I think it would be good for us just to take a moment to look at that as well.

Delivering False Teachers to Satan: 1 Timothy and 2 Timothy

So, why don't we go to 1 Timothy chapter 1 for a moment and just glance at these ideas and see the Apostle Paul using the same term with another type of sin. 1 Timothy in chapter 1 and verse 20. Actually, we should get the context by going back to verse 18, if you don't mind.

Chapter 1 of 1 Timothy. This command I entrust you, Timothy, my son, in accordance with the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you fight the good fight, keeping faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and suffered shipwreck in regard to their faith.

Among these are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan, so that they will be taught not to blaspheme. So, of course, blasphemy means to speak against God in some way, and Hymenaeus and Alexander were, similar to the 1 Corinthians 5 men, were then handed over to Satan.

What is this all about? Let's go to 2 Timothy chapter 4, and I think we can find out a bit more. 2 Timothy chapter 4 and verse 14, where we see the name Hymenaeus again, and he says this in verse 16, With either another man, by the way, Alexander, it's difficult for me.

I'm not sure who this man Philetus is, whether it's another name for the man Alexander. It's one possibility, I guess, or another man entirely. But Hymenaeus is there again. Look at this. But avoid worldly and empty chatter, for it will lead to further ungodliness, and their talk will spread like gangrene.

Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, men who have gone astray from the truth, saying that the resurrection has already taken place, and they upset the faith of some. We're prone immediately to say, are these the first hyper-preterists, as we look at this passage.

That's not actually provable. I don't think you can demonstrate that fully from this passage. We know too little, really, about what they were saying. We're not even sure about what they meant by the resurrection having already taken place.

Did they mean that Christ's resurrection had taken place, and that was the only resurrection there would be? That's one possibility that some people bring forward. I'm sorry, 2 Timothy. Did I give it to you, 2 Timothy?

Chapter 2. There you go. See, I'm not only a freight train. I can't get to the scripture right. I'm sorry, not chapter 4. Thank you so much. Chapter 2, then, verse 16. Now, do you see it? Do I need to read it again, or are you okay?

All right, you're okay. All right, verse 18 says this. Let me just read that. Verse 17, their talk will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, men who have gone astray from the truth, saying that the resurrection has already taken place, and they upset the faith of some.

So, again, we don't know whether this is a form of hyper-preterism. Some would say, then, Christ's resurrection is the only, what they meant was Christ's resurrection is the only resurrection. There's not to be any other resurrection, and that's taken place.

Some would say perhaps they mean this, that there is a spiritual resurrection of the believer. He's raised, and we know that to be true, don't we? But that's all there is. There won't be any bodily resurrection in the future.

Some others might say that there's some kind of bodily, that they were meaning that there's some kind of bodily resurrection that takes place in the heavenly realm that's not in the way that we imagine it at a future date out there.

We're not sure really what was meant by that, so we don't want to make this a statement about hyper-preterism necessarily, although it's very tempting, isn't it? But we know that the problem here was that they had a doctrinal aberration on a very cardinal issue about the resurrection, the bodily resurrection of believers.

And for that reason, they were dangerous people in the church, and they were actually upsetting the faith of some of the people. It was affecting the people in the church in a very serious way, and it was gangrenous, if that's the word.

It was like gangrene creeping up into the body, turning parts of the body green, and really affecting deeply the thinking of the people. So these are the people then that Paul felt necessary to, again, use that same phrase, to turn over to Satan or to hand over to Satan.

Basically, he felt like that doctrinal aberrations of this level were indicative of persons who were actually non-believers, and they needed to be turned over to Satan, from which that doctrine came.

It was a doctrine of demons. It was not a doctrine of the Lord Jesus Christ, as we know and believe. So the church is a society then that judges its members, and we should never forget that. People who enter into our churches should know this from the outset.

In fact, I believe it's very helpful in our litigious age for them actually to sign on the dotted line in a way, knowing that they really will be faced with this if there's aberrant behavior or doctrine that is indicative of an undergenerate lifestyle.

So this is something you want to make absolutely clear with people as they come into the fellowship of your church. Now, a third observation. Verse 6, Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough?

The Permeating Effect of Sin and the Unleavened Church

Clean out the old leaven, so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed. Therefore let us celebrate the feast, not with the old leaven nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

So we see thirdly that the church really has good reason to expect members to conform to these rules. The church has good reason to do it, and the reason is this, that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough.

We have to act because there is a permeating effect to evil. Now he uses this beautiful picture of the Passover, and you're well aware that in the period of time when the Passover was taken in the Old Testament, of course, God required that all of the leaven be taken out of the house.