The Fourth Secret About Easter (04/30/2000)

And the fourth one is the one we're going to talk about today. But let me just review the three secrets about Easter.

First of all, Easter is not a true Christian holiday at all.

It is in fact a pagan holiday. Let me quote to you a little bit from any, you can pick any encyclopedia that you have and you'll find this.

Just look up Easter and read it. But I'm going to quote from Funk and Wagnall's encyclopedia and I'm reading a section called

Pre -Christian Tradition. The origin of its name comes from the 8th century

English scholar Saint Bede. And he says that Easter comes from the word

Easter which is spelled E -A -S -T -R -E, E -A -S -T -R -E, which was the

Anglo -Saxon name of a Teutonic goddess of spring and fertility, to whom was dedicated the month of April.

Her festival was celebrated on the day of the vernal equinox, keep that in mind, traditions which are associated with this worship of the fertility goddess

Easter were their Easter rabbit which symbolized fertility and colored

Easter eggs which were originally painted with bright colors to represent the sunlight of spring and so forth.

But such festivals and stories and legends that explain their origin were commonplace in ancient religions.

The Greeks, for example, had a legend about Persephone who was the daughter of Demeter, the goddess of the earth.

And from the underworld she came into light and this was symbolized by the ancient

Greeks with the resurrection of life in spring after the desolation of winter.

Many ancient people shared similar legends. The Phrygians, for example, believed that their omnipotent deity went to sleep during the wintertime and he went to sleep during the winter solstice and they performed all kinds of ceremonies and music and dancing at the spring equinox to awaken him.

The second secret about Easter is that it's not even on the resurrection day.

Easter is a pagan holiday, it is not a Christian holiday, and it's very seldom, if ever, actually on the date of the resurrection and the reason for that is because Constantine the

Great, the emperor of Rome who made Christianity quote the religion of the state, he is the one who actually set the date for Easter in the

Council of Nicaea. Now what's interesting about this is he picked the date this way.

He says that the Easter festival should be celebrated throughout the quote

Christian world on the first Sunday after the full moon following the vernal equinox.

The vernal equinox is the time period when all of the pagan religions worshipped Easter, the goddess of fertility.

So this is the day that he picked and also it's kind of interesting that at the same meeting we read this statement and that if the full moon should occur on a

Sunday and thereby coincide with the Passover festival, Easter should be then commemorated on the

Sunday following. Coincidence of the feast of Easter and Passover were thus avoided.

Why do you think they were avoided? Because Constantine was anti -Semitic and so he went so far as to say that if Easter did happen to hit on the

Passover, then we'll move it a week farther in the future so that they will not coincide.

So second dirty little secret about Easter is it's never on the resurrection day. Now the third secret is this, turn with me to Acts chapter 12 and verse 4.

If you were here last Sunday, you don't have to because you've already seen its review. But the third secret about Easter is that it's not found in the

Bible anywhere. It is not biblical, it's not a Christian festival at all.

It's a pagan festival. But you will find the word Easter in Acts chapter 12 and verse 4 of the

King James Version, but you will not find it in any Greek manuscript anywhere in the world.

And it was not obviously in the originals. In Acts 12, 4, and when he had apprehended him, he put him in prison and delivered him to four quantarians of soldiers to keep him, intending after Easter to bring him forth to the people.

Note the word Easter there, it is from the Greek word pasca, which comes from the

Hebrew word pesca, which means Passover. The word is found 76 times in 71 verses in the

Bible and each time it always means Passover. So the word Easter was inserted, it does not belong in the

Bible, it's the word Passover and the fact is it is the Passover that occurs at the time that the world now calls

Easter, and yet they don't have it on the resurrection day. The fact is if we want to celebrate

Easter, I mean I will probably not call it that anymore beyond this year, but if you wanted to then what you should do is realize that Jesus Christ was crucified on the

Passover day and he was resurrected three days later, that's going to hit sometime during the middle of the week usually, and that's when we should celebrate the resurrection of Christ.

So I told you there were four secrets though. The fourth secret is this, and this perhaps is the most devastating of all.

It is the fact that so many secrets have been kept from us because the feasts have been removed not only from Judaism but also from Christianity.

Now, we'll discuss through the weeks what these feasts are. One of them is

Passover that we talked about last Sunday, but I want to read you a couple of verses before I get into today's message.

You don't need to turn to these for sake of time, but make note of them in Romans chapter 15 and verse 4.

For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.

Anything that we remove from that which was written before will just give us that much less hope.

And what's interesting to study the history of this, if you go back to Constantine, you find that he removed all of the feasts from the church.

And we're left with only two things, and you've heard it taught before that this is all we're supposed to have is the

Lord's Supper and Baptism. And where'd we get that idea? Because someone told us that, someone told him that, someone told him that, someone told him that, and Constantine told him that.

And we won't have time this morning to get into this entire study, so this will take a couple of Sundays, but we're going to eventually ask the question, did the early church keep the feasts?

But when we don't keep the feasts, what do we lose? What do we miss?

And that's really the question we're asking this morning. One thing is we lose a lot of hope that we could have had.

You know, God is the one who placed within the hearts of human beings the love for stories.

Don't you think that's one of the major reasons that when Jesus taught, he would tell parables, he would tell a story?

Usually it was an agricultural story, because even today we still understand those. It's hard to believe we do, we live on cement, but we understand agricultural stories even today.

And he would teach us these beautiful, deep spiritual truths with a very simple truth of nature sometimes.

Why did he teach us in stories? Because God himself knew that the best way to teach our children and ourselves is through object lessons.

And so don't you think it's odd that Constantine removed so many of the object lessons from the church?

And I pick on him, and really we know that we battle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers and spiritual wickedness in high places.

And so Constantine was just a tool in Satan's hand. Look at 1

Corinthians chapter 10 in verse 9 for a moment. It is obvious that the feasts have been removed from the church, and with them much that they typify.

Later, we're going to ask the question, did the early church keep the feasts? But for now, we're going to ask the question, what happened to Israel when she refused to keep the feasts?

1 Corinthians 10, 9 says, neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted and were destroyed of serpents.

Now this is referring to a story, obviously a story in the Old Testament. Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured and were destroyed of the destroyer, obviously teaching an

Old Testament history that happened and showing us we should learn some things from it.

But look at verse 11. Now all these things happen unto them for in samples, and they are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world or the ends of the age are come.

Wherefore, let him that thinketh he standeth take heed, lest he fall. I really believe that the church is prideful.

I believe that the Gentile church of today thinks she has everything, knows everything, that she's full of gold and fine raiment and apparel, and that she's spiritually rich.

And yet the Bible teaches us here that all the things which happen in the Old Testament were given as in samples.

This Greek word means a type, which follows that in the New Testament, then we would have what we call the antitype.

And what we spend most of our time studying are the antitypes, the fulfillment of the type.

But what sometimes we forget today is that without the Old Testament, all we would have in the

New Testament are the generalities, the principles. It's the

Old Testament that gives us the detail, and the color, and the beauty, and the depth of what's going on.

So when we remove anything that we ought to still have, then we're losing a part of what

God gave us. And so probably with the rest of the time we have this morning, we're going to ask the question, what happened to Israel when she decided to take some things out that God had given her?

Turn with me to Lamentations chapter 1 and verse 4. Even the name of the book gives you a clue of what happened to Israel when she removed the beasts.

And I really wish, you know, that we could do like the Jews, Brother Russ, and have a two -hour service.

Sometimes I border on that, and everybody here knows about it. Fortunately, they laugh about it, at least outwardly.

But this study on whether or not the early church kept the feasts is fascinating, so please come back next

Sunday so we can study that together. We won't be able to get into that today. But in Lamentations 1 and verse 4, what

I want you to see from this verse and a couple of verses following it is this.

The world was brought into the worship services in Israel at this time.

We see the world being brought into their worship. In Lamentations 1 and verse 4, it says, the ways of Zion do mourn because none come to the solemn feasts.

So they've stopped having their feasts. Now we're going to read a little bit of this section, but let me just tell you what to look for before we read it.

Number one, you're going to see that the adversary is now spreading his hand upon her pleasant things.

Now that picture could be, an entire sermon could be preached on that phrase from this passage, because we're living in a country now, and the reason

I gave you the verses in Romans 15 and 1 Corinthians 10 to show you that the things that happen to them are end samples for us is

I want you to relate everything we read in the Old Testament to right now in the church, to right now in this generation.

Right now we live in a country where the thing to do is to give our daughters to the world.

We know that now as early as sixth grade, the young people know things that they shouldn't know and do things that they shouldn't do, and they go about playing house.

And I'll promise you that when God uses this as a reference to the temple of God, and he says that the enemy, the adversary, spreads his hand out upon her pleasant things, there are more pictures than one in that, and I don't think

I need to go any further. You know what I'm saying. But I know this, there was a place in that temple called the

Holy of Holies, and I know this, God says that right now your daughter's body is the temple of the living

God, and when the enemy is allowed to spread his hands upon God's temple, that nation is in trouble.

That's just a little trail I went off on, it's not in the notes, but it's a fact. So what you see in this passage, the adversary spreads his hands upon her pleasant things, the enemy prospers.

How would you like to have your life to a place where the world and the flesh and the devil are having their way with you and your family?

They are actually prospering. Their influence is growing in your own life, in the life of your family, in the life of your church.

This is exactly what happened in this place where they were no longer keeping the solemn feast.

There was mourning. None came to the feast. The people then went into captivity, which to us pictures, what would you say?

What would that picture when they're dragged off into Babylon? Slavery, and to us, what does it picture?

Slavery to what? Sin? What else? The world?

What else? Did I hear someone say the flesh, and then the devil?

These are our enemies, and then came economic disaster.

So now they find themselves absolute slaves to the enemy. The enemy is prospering and having his way.

Do you see any parallels in the church in America today? Verse four says, the ways of Zion do mourn because none come to the solemn feasts.

All her gates are desolate, her priests sigh, her virgins are afflicted, and she is in bitterness.

Her adversaries are the chief. Her enemies prosper, for the Lord hath afflicted her for the multitude, or because of the multitude of her transgressions.

Her children are gone into captivity before the enemy. Do we live in such a country? Look at the young people in this nation.

Are they in captivity to the evil one today? Have you ever seen a time in your life where disobedience to parents was given clinical names?

Have you ever seen a time in your life when the young people go to school packing weapons and shoot one another and don't even understand what they're doing because they don't understand the value of life?

And we read about the Old Testament saints, and we think they're so stupid, the things that they let happen.

Why in the world did they stop having these feasts? Why in the world didn't they just do what

God plainly told them to do, and he so plainly said, if you'll obey, I'll be with you. Aren't they stupid?

Stupid as people. We would never do anything like they did, would we? Her children are gone into captivity before the enemy.

Praise God that we have a Christian school in this church, and one that just is to minister to your young people, not to the whole world.

I'm so glad it's that way. The adversary hath spread out his hand upon all her pleasant things, for she hath seen that the heathen entered into her sanctuary, whom thou didst command that they should not enter into thy sanctuary.

Do you think that the enemy has come into the churches today? Do you think he's brought the world right in with him?

And all her people sigh. They seek bread, that picture is the word of God.

They have given their pleasant things for meat to relieve their soul. See, O Lord, and consider, for I am become vile, the prophet says.

Now, let me tell you a second thing that happens. When the feasts were removed from Israel, the first thing that happened was that the world came into their midst, into their worship services, right into the temple, spread his hands right upon the things of God.

Second thing that's happened is found starting in Lamentations chapter 2 and verse 5.

What you're going to see in this passage is, first of all, the Lord, when the world came in, the

Lord went out. When the world came in, the

Lord went out from the worship services. The Lord became as an enemy to his own people.

We have such a misunderstanding of God's love today. God's love today is depicted as some kind of a ooshy -gooshy thing that just overlooks everything, and God's love is not permitted to overlook anything because of his justice.

He's never overlooked sin. He sent his son, and he gave everything he had to pay for sin, but we think that the

Lord, because of his love, just overlooks everything, and that we can do pretty much anything we want to in the church, everything will be fine.

We can do pretty much anything we want to in our families, bring anything into the home. Since he loves us so much, everything will be fine.

Since he indwells our bodies, everything will be fine, but I'll tell you this, he indwelled this temple, didn't he?

And you know what he did? He left it. Now, I'm not preaching some doctrine that you can lose your salvation or that he will literally leave your body.

That's impossible because he's sealed within you, and we know that, but can the candlestick leave the church is the question.

The Lord became as an enemy. Is that possible? Can the Lord become that way with his own children?

Well, did he not say he gave these stories as us for in samples? He increased the mourning and the lamentation.

Did you know that when they let the world in, they began to have mourning and they began to lose their joy? Did you know that God came later and increased their mourning?

He took the natural mourning and lamentation that they were having because of their sin, and he brought it and made it worse.

He increased the mourning and lamentation. The Lord caused the solemn feast to be forgotten.

Did you know that they had chosen to stop keeping these feasts, which we're going to study what they typify and what they picture, and you'll see why it's so important that they not stop, but they chose to stop.

And so now it says the Lord in his sovereignty caused them to forget the feasts.

It's as if he just totally removed them at that point. And then it says at that point, the

Lord despised both the king and the priest, both the secular leadership and the religious leadership.

And then he caused the law to be hidden and the prophets could not find a vision from the

Lord, so they just rattled. They just said anything they thought sounded well. Lamentations 2 .5,

the Lord was as an enemy. He had swallowed up Israel. He had swallowed up all her palaces. He had destroyed her strongholds and had increased in the daughter of Judah mourning and lamentation.

He had violently taken away his tabernacle as if it were of a garden. He had destroyed his places of the assembly.

The Lord had caused the solemn feast and Sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion and had despised in the indignation of his anger, the king and the priest.

The Lord hath cast off his altar, he hath abhorred his sanctuary, he hath given up into the hand of the enemy the walls of her palaces.

They have made, now this is the enemy, the enemy has made a noise in the house of the

Lord as in the day of the solemn feast. We talked about that last Sunday. There's noise being made in our churches all over America by the enemy.

And we think it's worship. God's removed the true worship.

We don't even know what it is. I mean what happened today probably scared half of us. You ought to see a

Jewish worship service. They're singing. And the Jews have a way of playing lively music without it being worldly.

Isn't that amazing? We try to do it. It sounds like Led Zeppelin or somebody.

It says that in verse 7, the Lord hath cast off his altar and he hath abhorred his sanctuary, he hath given up into the hand of the enemy the walls of the palaces and the enemy begins to make a noise in the house of the

Lord as in the day, playing like it's a solemn feast. And verse 9 says, the law is no more.

The word of God is no longer the emphasis. For prophets also find no vision from the

Lord, so they're just speaking from their own flesh. That's a solemn passage of scripture, isn't it, when we consider that these were given as examples for us to learn from.

And yet we think we can bring the world into the church in order to bring more people in and we consider that to be a good thing.

And so therefore the means justifies the end in our perception. But you notice what

God did? He said, when you bring the world into the feast, then

I despise the feast. Did you see that? When you bring the world into the worship, then

I despise the worship. So the second point is, first point was they brought the world into their worship.

Second point is when they did, God left. Now the third point is found in Hosea chapter 2 in verse 10.

This is what we're going to find when we read this passage. When God left the worship, joy was removed from God's people.

When the feasts were abandoned, so was the joy lost. Now remember, sometimes they pretended to have feasts, but God wasn't there.

So they had no true joy. It was just something they went through. Just as the thing to do, we just go do it.

We're supposed to go to worship, we'll just go do it. There's no joy. We're very close to losing some of the joy,

I think, in our churches. I think even in our church, which I mean, we stress the word, we study together, and we do have a lot of fun together.

We were in Sunday school this morning, we were laughing quite a bit. Not at you,

Brother Otis, but with you. And so we do have a good time, but we have a much more difficult time having joy in our worship services, because we're afraid.

And I know a lot of the reasons why. The Pentecostal movement and so forth, it got us so afraid to do anything.

I mean, I had to check on Sharon for a minute. I was afraid she was going to be clapping back there during the music. See there, we didn't, you know.

I almost, she'd almost lost it. God forbid. The joy was removed.

My dad used to tell me this when I was growing up, he said, quit smiling. Someone's going to think you're happy.

And that's what we do in church. And a lot of times, it's because God's not here.

A lot of times, he just doesn't show up. Because he chooses not to participate in a feast that has the world or some unclean thing joined with it.

But in this passage in Hosea, we're going to see that the joy was removed when the feasts were abandoned.

It's interesting also that these people were then removed from the promised land. Who can tell me what the promised land pictures for us?

What is the Old Testament idea of the promised land? What is that to us as Christians? Say it again.

Heaven? Well, not exactly. It is in a way. It's heaven now.

It's exactly, I mean, you go into Matthew chapter, where are our parables?

I just drew a blank. What chapter? 13? Okay, it talks about the kingdom, the mystery kingdom,

Brother Richard. That's the kingdom in our heart right now. Even though the real kingdom's not here. So it's victorious Christian living, isn't it?

Victorious Christian living was removed from these people when they ceased to have the feasts.

Now, we're making a correlation here as we go, is these feasts are very, very important because of the object lessons that they taught.

And of course, to the Old Testament before the cross, they were even more important because they brought atonement.

A covering over until the Lord Jesus would come. To us today, they would be memorial, looking back and picturing all of Him.

And we've just thrown that out. So they were taken from the promised land, and then separation from the world became unimportant to them.

And then they went into captivity. Look at Hosea 2, verse 10. And now

I will destroy her lewdness in the sight of her lovers. And none shall deliver her out of mine hand.

I will also cause all of her mirth to cease. Her feast days, now notice that joy and mirth was associated with the feast days.

So if you were Satan, wouldn't you love to remove that? Wouldn't you love to remove anything that had to do with that from God's people?

Her new moons, her Sabbaths, all of her solemn feasts, God says, I'll remove those because of her lewdness.

Chapter 9, verse 1 says, rejoice not, O Israel, for joy has other people.

For thou hast gone a whoring from thy God. Thou hast loved a reward upon every corn floor.

Their economy was more important than the God who gave it to them. In verse 3 says, they shall not dwell in the

Lord's land. As we said, they're removed from the promised land. But Ephraim shall return to Egypt, which is a picture of what?

The world system. And they shall, look at this, eat unclean things in Assyria.

Can you imagine a Jew doing that, Brother Russ? We've had a few debates about that.

You don't even think the Jew would do that. Well, I'll tell you what, he did do it.

He did it in Assyria. And you know what that picture's? Lack of separation.

The Baptist church has not preached the doctrine of separation for years. Be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers.

Come out from among them. Be separate. Come out from among the unclean.

God says, I'll be a God to you and you'll be my children. We don't worry too much about that, do we?

Fellowship with the world, fellowship with the lost. It's not that big a problem.

We just bring them right into the church. And I'll tell you where we bring them is right into our youth groups. We've gotten the impression in these last days that the youth group is there to be the evangelistic arm of the church.

Find that in the Bible for me. And then maybe we'll practice it, but you won't find it. So we take our little lambs and we throw them out to the wolves.

And I'll tell you what, some of you adults, we live in our sheltered homes, which is wonderful, and we live in our sheltered churches.

And some of us have Christian schools, and we do not know how much it changed out there. But I'll promise you, if you go out to evangelize and bring in teenagers from the world and you bring them into your youth group, you're going to destroy your youth group.

If you want an illustration, put a good kid on the ground and put a bad kid up in a chair.

Can you tell the good kid, I've got that backwards, put the good kid in the chair.

Put the bad kid on the ground. And tell the good kid to pull the bad kid up in the chair with him and see if he can do it.

You know what'll happen? He's going to end up on the ground every time. And that's what we do with our youth groups.

The youth groups, I'll tell you what they're for, Brother Russell, as you well know. For the edification of God's children, not for the evangelization of the world.

Who do you think is supposed to reach the lost youth in America? The parents that you reached.

When you reach the parents, the parents will reach their children. The truth is, you can't reach them anyway, only

God can. So if you will take the precious seed and throw it everywhere, it's going to hit in the right place.

It's going to hit in some wrong places, too. But it's going to hit those families, and those parents will certainly teach their children.

And that's God's way, if you'll just simply look at the methodology in the scripture. But we're so used to doing things the way that the old

Jews that we mock did things. And now here we find them in Assyria eating unclean things, which to a

Jew was just amazing. You wouldn't even think they would do this. But they've lost their sense of separation.

They've lost the fact that God had separated them and made them to be a peculiar people, different from the world, and unto himself.

And the first step was they stopped having the solemn feasts. They shall not offer wine offerings to the

Lord, neither shall they be pleasing unto him even if they offered him. Their sacrifices shall be unto them as the bread of mourners.

All that eat thereof shall be polluted. Can you believe that God at one time, now

I know this is the Old Testament God. God at one time felt like this.

If you bring the world in to what we're doing here, even though you worship and do everything you think is right to serve me, it pollutes you.

Aren't we glad that he's changed and he's not that way today? Just trying to see if you're awake out there.

Does God change? Is God immutable? Yes, he cannot change.

If God hated the pollution of his things then, he hates it now just as much. Boy, that sure hurts me though, because it kind of fond of my

Easter basket, doing those kind of things. It hurts me, but I have to face it, that if God didn't like mixing paganism with his things then, he does not like it now.

For their bread, for their souls shall not come into the house of the Lord. What will you do in the solemn day?

And then the day of the feast of the Lord, isn't that an interesting question? If you've lost it and you no longer know how to do it

God's way, then what will you do? Isn't it frightening that Jesus said, when

I come will I find the faith on the earth? Will there be true early church

Christianity anywhere on this earth when I come? Do you not believe his coming is soon?

Then look around you and show me where you find the faith, if you can recognize it when we see it.

He says, what will you do in the solemn day? What are you going to do in the feast day if I take it away from you?

Well, you're going to fake something. You're going to make up something to do and God is not going to accept it.

This is what's happening here. For lo, they are gone because of destruction.

What's gone? The feast days. All of the things that people are supposed to do to please God, they were gone because of destruction.

Egypt shall gather them up. Memphis shall bury them. The world is going to bury them.

If the Lord didn't come back, he said this, if he didn't come back, even the very elect might be deceived.

Isn't that amazing? So we see then that the world comes into their worship. Secondly, the

Lord goes out of it. And thirdly, then the joy is removed as the feasts are taken away.

Now, let me show you a fourth thing. Look at Amos chapter 8 and verse 9. This is frightening.

Amos 8, 9, and it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord God, that I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the clear day, and I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation.

Notice the feasts. God is dealing with their feasts now. And I will bring up sackcloth upon all loins, and baldness upon every head, and I will make it as the morning of an only sun.

And the end thereof as a bitter day. And look at verse 11.

Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the

Lord. And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from north even to the east.

They shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and they shall not find it. And in that day shall the fair virgins and young men faint or thirst for the word of God.

It gets to the place where so many false interpretations of the scriptures abound in our bookstores, and so few churches are willing to be the pillar of the truth that no one knows what the truth is.

No one really knows where the word of God is. I talked, Russ and I talked with a man last week, told us, and he had been to Baylor University and graduated from Baylor University and Southwestern Seminary, two largest

Baptist schools in the world. He says the word of God is not really important to God himself.

He just gave us the vague general ideas. The words are not important. He said he could care less about the words.

And then he went on to say some things I will not even repeat in here that were so blasphemous. It's amazing our car didn't get exploded off the road.

We got out of the car as quick as we could, didn't we? He said, you'll probably disagree with me on this too.

I don't believe in a literal hell. I just believe in annihilation. He said, in fact, I would blank a

God's blank that would create a place like that. Russ and I looked at each other, and we both said at the same time, you know what?

You are going to get the opportunity to try that someday. He didn't even hear us when we said it. This is a seminary -trained

Bible scholar in the Baptist faith. When I come, will

I find faith on the earth? What a question. Can people find the word of God?

I mean, they got one on every coffee counter, don't they? But can they find

God's word in it? Can they read it and hear God's voice? Only if the

Holy Spirit teaches them. The next thing that happens, Amos chapter 9 verse 1 says,

I saw the Lord standing upon the altar, and he said, smite the lentil of the door, and the posts may shake.

And cut them in the head, all of them, and I will slay the last of them with the sword. He that fleeth of them shall not flee away, and he that escapeth of them shall not be delivered.

Though they dig into hell, thence shall mine hand take them. Though they climb up to the heavens, thence will

I bring them down. Isn't this amazing, an amazing picture that God uses the lentil and the doorpost, which we found in the

Passover last Sunday as we studied, as they slew the sacrifice and they dipped that hiss of weed, which pictures our faith, in the blood, and they applied that to the doorpost and the lentil, what happened?

When they applied the blood to their family's life, what happened?

The death angel passed over and they were saved. Notice the vivid picture that's given here, that in this place where they've stopped keeping the feasts, they've brought the world into the church, they have sent a message to God that they prefer the world, they've gone a -whoring after the world, and so God has left and now the joy is gone and now the word of God is not found in their worship service.

All of a sudden, you know what's taken away? Salvation. There's no salvation in that kind of message.

The very lentil and doorpost that pictures the salvation, God says, strike it that it may shake and then cut them in the head and not one of them will escape, they'll all be killed.

So that tells me, since the lentil and the doorpost is mentioned, that these people were still perhaps trying in some incorrect, wrong way to keep these feasts, even the

Passover, but they were not doing it God's way. They're doing it their way.

And they put whatever they were doing and then they go to bed that night, confident that they have pleased

God with their works. Even though they did it and constructed it the way they wanted to do it and they'd forgotten the right way because God took it from their memory because they quit doing it by will, now they're just throwing some fake thing up there, some counterfeit religion up there, and God says the very place where you put that counterfeit religion,

I'm going to strike it and I'm going to shake it and you're going to die. There is no Passover. There is no salvation in false religion.

That's the fifth thing that we see. In Malachi chapter two, verse one, it talks about the preachers.

The sixth thing that we see happens is that the preachers became impotent. They had no power.

They had no vision from God. They did not know the word of God. They had invented what they say the word means.

In Malachi chapter two, verse one, it says, and now, O ye priests, this commandment is for you.

If you will not hear and if you will not lay it to heart to give glory unto my name, saith the

Lord of hosts, I will even send a curse upon you and I will curse your blessings.

Anyone that you bless is going to be cursed. Anyone that comes under your ministry is going to be cursed.

Yea, I have cursed them already because you do not lay it to heart.

Now, how'd God know that? It's already been done.

He's sovereign. He says, you're really cursed already because I know where you're headed.

Behold, I will corrupt your seed, he says. What does that mean, seed of the priests?

Does that mean that maybe the next generation of preachers is going to even be worse? And the next generation worse and further from the truth?

And more and more imaginary, vain, counterfeit interpretations of God's word are going to come out and that the very people under these people's ministry will be cursed, he says.

Behold, I will corrupt your seed and spread dung upon your faces, even the dung of your solemn feasts.

And one shall take you away with it. Now the feast that used to be so beautiful to the

Lord, and you do realize that all through the feast, God calls it the Lord's sacrifice. It's not ours, it's his.

It's become detestable to the Lord. And he says it's as if it has dung on it. He says, this is all the priests have to offer.

Wouldn't you hate to live in an age where all that a preacher had to offer was dung? That couldn't happen today, though.

That's Old Testament stuff, isn't it? The last thing is this.

Amos chapter 5 and verse 20. Judgment comes from God when the feasts are abandoned.

In Amos 5 20, shall not the day of the Lord be darkness and not light, even very dark and no brightness in it?

I hate, I despise your feasts. I will not smell in your solemn assemblies.

The sweet -smelling savor means nothing. In fact, it offends God. He won't even smell. He doesn't want to smell it.

Though you offer me burnt offerings and your meat offerings, I will not accept them. Neither will

I regard the peace offerings of your fat beasts. Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs, for I will not hear the melody of thy viols.

But let judgment run down as waters and righteousness as a mighty stream.

Have you offered unto me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness, 40 years old house of Israel, but ye have born the tabernacle of your

Moloch. Notice he called it your Moloch, your God, the God you want to sacrifice your children to.

You've offered not only to me and you mixed it and you brought Moloch in here and you have my feast and then you go into the places, the high places and you worship

Moloch and Chion, your images, the star of your God, which you made yourselves.

You're worshiping gods that you created with your own hand, which really makes you God. Does America have a problem with secular humanism?

Does America have a problem thinking that we are gods? Russ, our friend who didn't believe in the word of God or in hell also said we're all gods, didn't he,

Russ? No, we're all gods. He said God's nothing more than just slightly better than we are.

We're talking about trying to get out of a car fast. Russ and I were, man, you ever tried to get out of a car going 60 miles an hour?

I mean, it's tempting. God says that's what you do.

You call them your gods. Judgment is coming, he says.

Therefore, will I cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus, say of the

Lord, whose name is the God of hosts. Has God changed?

What would happen to us if we mixed something of paganism with worship of God? How many of you are going to hide

Easter eggs next year? But we don't think it matters, do we?

We don't think it matters. We don't think it matters when we mix paganism and idolatry with Christmas and have

Christmas on December 25th, which is the birthday of the sun god. It's not even when

Jesus was born. I'm not sure anyone knows when he was born because God didn't emphasize his birth.

He emphasized his death. And on his death, we take that away and have Easter. Something September.

But we don't know. But I'll tell you this. Next Sunday, we're going to ask the question, what have we missed?

What have we missed when we don't understand the Passover? What have we missed when we don't understand the first fruits, which happened on Pentecost, which was the birthday of both

Judaism and the church? And it pictures that we celebrate things like Easter, pagan

Easter, when we could take our children for a few days and celebrate these feasts, which would picture the resurrection of Jesus.

Have your children ever heard of the Feast of the Trumpets? Then how are they going to be expecting his return?

These have all been removed from our homes by a pagan Roman Catholic, the originator of it, named

Constantine. And so next Sunday, we're going to come together. We're going to ask the question, did the early church keep the feast?

I want to do some homework before you come. This is going to be fascinating. Let's stand and have a prayer together.