If you would, turn with me to
1 Corinthians chapter 5 and stick your marker there and then go
to Exodus chapter 12 with me. 1 Corinthians chapter 5 and then
to Exodus chapter 12. In Exodus chapter 12, verse 14,
we read, and this day shall be unto you for a memorial, and
you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord throughout your generations. You shall keep it a feast by
an ordinance forever. Seven days shall you eat unleavened
bread, even the first day you shall put away leaven out of
your houses. For whosoever eateth leavened
bread from the first day into the seventh day, that soul shall
be cut off from Israel. And in the first day there shall
be a holy convocation, and in the seventh day there shall be
a holy convocation to you. No manner of work shall be done
in them, save that which every man must eat. That only may be
done of you. And you shall observe the feast
of unleavened bread. For in this selfsame day have
I brought your armies out of the land of Egypt, Therefore
shall you observe this day in your generations by an ordinance
forever. In the first month, on the 14th
day of the month at evening, or evening time, evening, you
shall eat unleavened bread until the one and 20th day of the month
at evening. In seven days shall there be
no leaven found in your houses. For whosoever eateth that which
is leavened, even that soul shall be cut off from the congregation
of Israel, whether he be a stranger or born in the land. And ye shall
eat nothing leavened. In all your habitations shall
you eat unleavened bread. Now what does all that mean?
Well, I hope to show you that tonight. We saw in a lesson a
couple weeks ago in verse eight that unleavened bread was to
be eaten along with the Paschal lamb, the Passover lamb. And
the Lord here instructed Moses and Moses instructed the people
and how the feast of the Lord should be handled. And in verse
15, We read Israel was instructed to put away, to get rid of all
of the leaven in the house and eat unleavened bread for seven
days. To God, this was a serious matter. So much so that the Lord had
declared that anyone who ate leavened bread from the first
day to the seventh day, that soul would be cut off from Israel.
Now we no longer keep the feast of the Passover, because the
Lord Jesus fulfilled all that was pictured in that old covenant
ordinance. The night before his death, we've
discussed this, Christ ate the last Passover feast with his
12 apostles. And then at that time, he instituted
the Lord's Supper or the Lord's Table. And God's people today
observe that in remembrance of him. But yet there's another
feast. And this is what I want you to
consider. There's another feast that believers partake of every
single time that they assemble together. I hope that we partake
of that feast tonight. And that's the feast of Christ,
the bread from heaven. And we do that in the preaching
of the gospel. This is a continual feast for
the people of God. Isaiah 25 verse six tells us,
and in this mountain shall the Lord of hosts make unto all people
a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the leaves, of fat
things full of marrow, of wines on the leaves well refined. The
scripture also says that those who have been given a new heart,
to believe on Christ have acceptance from and with God. And this acceptance
is in Christ. We're accepted where? In the
beloved. No other place are we accepted. And our acceptance in Christ
gives the child of God a merry heart. Do you have a merry heart?
Solomon said, all the days of the afflicted are evil, but he
that is of a merry heart hath a continual feast. That's what
we're doing right now. We're feasting upon Christ and
his riches. And in order to partake of this
continual feast of Christ, the bread of life, we must be unleavened. And leaven, as you know, is yeast. And really, that's all that it
is. And I told you in a previous study that yeast with leaven
has a fungus that causes fermentation. And it's the same process of
fermentation that alcohol is made. And it's the same process
of fermentation that bread rises and puffs up and expands. Yeast, in and of itself, is nothing
sinful. But in the scriptures, yeast
is used as a metaphorical meaning. It has a metaphorical meaning.
It represents a tainting. It represents a corruption. It
represents an infection, a fungus, so to speak. Leaven in the scriptures
represents, now this is important, it represents any influence that
works silently and strongly to make a change in people and in
their opinions. Leaven is taken from a word that
means swelling or a rising, puffed up. And because of that, we see
why it's to be purged out. from the houses of God's people.
You cannot be puffed up in the kingdom of God. Just can't do
it. Those that walk in pride, God
is able to abase. And I can assure you that He
does. He does. There's no room for
the personal swelling of pride. Not in the kingdom of God. There's
no room for personal exaltation in the house of God. And when
I say the house of God, I'm not talking about this building.
I'm talking about this body in which we live. God resists the
proud. And what else? He gives grace
to the humble. You can find that in James 4,
6 and in 1 Peter 5, 5. And the sign of true faith. is humility. There's not going
to be any proud people in heaven, I can assure you of that. What
Levin represents is so serious that Israel was to purge, they
were to clear it from their homes. And if one didn't, they were
cast off from Israel, cast from the people of God. Serious, serious
matter. So, we've established, I think,
that there's great danger in Levin There are six things that
God hates, seven things that are an abomination to him, and
the first thing on that list, you know what it is? You remember
what it is? Proud look, pride. That word proud is the same Hebrew
word as the word haughty, haughty, which is what Levin in the scripture
represents. being puffed up. Naturally speaking,
I'm telling you, we are so prone to being puffed up. We're so
prone to exalting ourselves against the knowledge of God. And because
of that, we must see to it that leaven is not found in us. Now,
look over at 1 Corinthians chapter five, where I had you to mark
your place. I want you to look at verse six. First Corinthians five, verse
six. Now notice what Paul says here. Speaking to the church at Corinth,
they had some issues. Larry brought that out in a recent
study. The church at Corinth had some
serious issues. And Paul said, your glorying,
your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven
leaveneth the whole lump. You see, self-glorification is
nothing less than leaven. Leaven. In verse seven, he says,
purge out, therefore, the old leaven, that you may be a what? A new lump, as ye are unleavened. Boy, I thought about those words
for quite a while in preparing for this. He says, as ye are
unleavened. Purge out therefore the old leaven,
that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ
our Passover is sacrificed for us. Now that old leaven is anything
and everything that we add to the work and the righteousness
of Christ by going back and relying upon anything in the old covenant
law and ordinances. Anything that we add to Christ
and Him crucified, you have leavened yourself. Salvation is in Christ
alone, not plus Christ, Christ plus anything, no, no. Salvation
is of the Lord, period, period. You add one thing to Christ and
you've leavened yourself. Look at verse eight. Therefore,
let us keep the feast, and that's talking about our feasting upon
Christ. Therefore, let us keep the feast,
not with old leaven, Neither with the leaven of malice and
wickedness. Now, where does malice and wickedness
originate? In the heart. We keep the feast of Christ.
We feast on Christ, our Passover lamb, with the unleavened bread
of sincerity and truth. That's what verse 8 tells us.
This old leaven is malice and wickedness, but the unleavened
is just the opposite. It's of sincerity and truth. The Greek word for unleavened
is uncorrupted. How are we made unleavened? How
are we made uncorrupted or made incorruptible, I guess would
be the correct way to say. Well, the last part of verse
seven tells us, for even Christ, our Passover, is sacrificed for
us. That's the only way that any
of us can be made unleavened, incorruptible, incorruptible. That's how we become unleavened
in Christ, our sacrifice and our substitute. And again, as
I mentioned a moment ago, we see that self-glorification is
nothing less than leaven, and just a little of it corrupts
the whole lump, the whole bean. We have to be made new lumps.
I don't have any problem being called a lump, do you? I've been
called that several times, big lump. I don't have a problem
with that, that's what we are. And it's the sovereign potter
that out of the same lump fashions one vessel to honor and another
to dishonor, Romans 9.21. And I know that we're all born
corrupt. Do you know that? We're born corrupt. We're born
corrupt and it's because of one man's disobedience and sin that
we are. And that's what Levin pictures
in the scripture. our sin, our disobedience. And just a little of that leaven
corrupts the whole being, the whole lung. And we're nothing
but leavened by nature. A child of God knows that. They
know that. They know that they're sinners.
They know that their heart is deceitful above all things and
desperately wicked. Well, I'm not that bad. Well,
compared to me, you're probably not. But I'm not the one you
gotta stand before in judgment. God Almighty, holy and righteous
is his name. That's who we have to stand before.
And God says that none of us have done any good. No, not one. There's none of us that are righteous,
not a single one of us. We've all come short of the glory
of God, way short, way short. And just a little lemon corrupts
the whole lump. Yet over the years, there have
been many religious assemblies that have started out as true
gospel churches, preaching the true gospel of Christ and Him
crucified. But the leaven of false doctrine
got in and corrupted them. There are examples of that in
scripture. the church at Ephesus, the church at Laodicea, you know
not much more than a hundred to a hundred and fifty years
ago the majority of Baptist churches in the United States and abroad
believed and preached the sovereignty of God in the substitution of
the Lord Jesus Christ who came in the world to save sin. A lot
of folks don't believe it but it's true that C.D. Cole who
has written books on the election of God was I think interim pastor
at First Baptist Church here in Madisonville at one time.
That's been a while ago. It hadn't been that long. But
then what happened? Then the leaven of false man-made
doctrine and teaching crept in unaware, the scripture says,
ungodly men, turning the grace of God into lasciviousness, denying
the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ, according to Paul's
writings in Jude 4. And this leavened, corrupted
the whole lump And the Lord has written Ichabod over their door.
Oh, I'm telling you, you'd be hard pressed. And I don't take
any pride in saying this. I have people tell me all the
time, well, y'all think y'all are the only ones. Oh, I wish
we weren't. I don't take any pride in that.
But I don't know of anybody anywhere around here that's preaching
the sovereignty of God and the salvation of sinners by and through
and only through the substitution of the Lord Jesus Christ. I don't
hear anybody talk about God before the foundation of the world choosing
a people, setting his affection on them, conforming them into
the image of the Lord Jesus Christ, and saving them by his grace.
I hear a lot of people talking about what we got to do in order
to save ourselves, that God made salvation possible, and We have
to somehow lend God our will and our work and our way in order
to make it effectual. That's ridiculous. You'll never
be saved if that's the case. Oh, I'm telling you. Over the
years, I've known many men and women who seem to have a genuine
interest in the things of Christ. They attended the hearing of
gospel preaching. They seem to love the message.
They seem to love God. people and then leaven enters
into their hearts and for some reason they become puffed up.
Like the leaven bread rises in the oven their hearts and minds
are exalted and they become unteachable. Now turn back with me to Matthew
chapter 16. I want you to see this. This
was Somewhat an eye opener to me. Matthew chapter 16, start
reading with me in verse six. Matthew 16 verse six. Then Jesus said unto them, take
heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees. And they, this being the Lord's
disciples, reasoned among themselves, saying, is it because we have
taken no bread? When they thought of leaven,
they always connected it with leavened bread. In verse eight,
which when Jesus perceived, he said unto them, O ye of little
faith, why reason ye among yourselves, because ye have brought no bread?
Now look what he says here in verse nine. Do you not understand? And neither remember the five
loaves of the 5,000, and how many baskets you took up? You
fed all those people with five loaves and you took up more,
collected more at the end than what we had in the beginning.
Bread's not the issue. Neither the seven loaves of the
4,000 and how many baskets you took up. I'm not talking about
bread. I'm not talking about leavened
bread. Look at verse 11. How is it that you do not understand
that I spake it not to you concerning bread? that you should be aware
of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees. Verse 12,
then understood they how that he bade them not beware of the
leaven of bread, but of the what? The doctrine, the teaching of
the Pharisees and of the Sadducees. Now listen to me, this is so
important. Some people seem to think that
Well, we just, you know, with religion we just agree to disagree. You know, we basically, we all
love Jesus and we're all going to the same place. Are we? False
doctrine works as leaven. False doctrine always, always
has an evil motive behind it. False doctrine, false teaching
is always opposed to Christ. Oh, it may not sound like it
at first. And false doctrine is, it's fermenting, it's intoxicating
because it always concerns the puffing up of the flesh, and
it always has the intoxicating notion that man can somehow,
someway provide for himself what God demands. And it makes you
feel good. Makes you feel good. Oh, look what we've done for
Jesus. Haven't we, haven't we, haven't we? And the Lord said,
depart from me, I never knew you. In 2 Corinthians chapter
11, you don't have to turn there, verse 13, Paul wrote, for such
are false apostles deceitful workers. He puts false apostles
and deceitful workers right in the same boat. He said, transforming
themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel, why
should it surprise you? For Satan himself is transformed
into an angel of light. Have you figured out yet that
Satan is not that red guy with horns and tail and a pitchfork?
Huh? He looks a lot like me. standing
behind the pulpit. That's what he's saying here.
He's able to transform himself into an angel of light or a messenger
of the gospel. Therefore, it is no great thing
if his ministers also be transformed into some ministers of righteousness,
whose end shall be according to the works. Paul told the church
at Ephesus in Ephesians chapter four, verse 14, he said that
we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro and carried
about with every wind of doctrine by the slight, by the slyness
of men and cunning craftiness. That's just deceit. It says in
which they lie and wait to deceive. Their motivation, false prophets'
motivation is always to deceive in slightness and cunning craftiness,
deceitful methods. Did you know, and I didn't know
this, but that in every epistle in the scripture, I think except
for one, God gives us warning concerning false prophets. In
Matthew chapter 7, the Lord Jesus said, straight is the gate, narrow
is the way that leadeth unto life, and few there be that find
it. And his very next words were,
beware of false prophets. They'll keep you from that narrow
way, that straight way. Beware of false prophets which
come in what? In what? Sheep's clothing. They
come in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravening wolves.
Why, they look like sheep. They talk like sheep. They act
like sheep. And more than not, a false prophet
can be identified not by what he says. Oh, they'll use all
the right words. Salvation and righteousness. substitution and sanctification. They'll use all the right words,
but they're not best identified by what they say, but what they
don't say, by what they miss, by what they don't say, but what
they leave out. You're in Matthew 16. Look over
at Matthew chapter 23. Actually verse 23. The Lord Jesus said, woe unto
you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. You see that? You hypocrites. For you pay tithe, the mint,
and an ice, or I don't know how to pronounce that, and cumin,
and have omitted the weightier matters of the law. You've omitted the weightier
matters. They left out, that's what that
word omit means. They omitted, they left out,
they didn't preach or teach how that the law condemns us and
exposes our guilt before a holy God. They omitted telling sinners
how that the law was really their schoolmaster to bring them to
Christ. The law was given to keep because
no man can keep it. The law was given to show us
our inability of keeping it and bringing us to Christ, our schoolmaster,
to teach us some things. They omitted how the law exposes
that inability and shuts us up to Christ alone as our only right
standing before God Almighty. That's why the law, God gave
the law. The scribes and the Pharisees made the law all about
works of righteousness that they had done. And there's only one
problem with that, but it's a big problem. We don't have any works
of righteousness. None. The law was given to show
us that we have no righteousness and can only be made righteous
by the precious gift of grace in and by and through Christ
Jesus. These are the weightier matters
of the law. Now look, here he mentions several
of them right here in this verse. Notice next that they had omitted,
they had left out the preaching of judgment. How that God will
by no means clear the guilty. How that the soul that sins,
it shall die. How that the wages of sin is
death. They had omitted the teaching
of judgment and the justice of God that is upon every man and
woman for the law clearly states and shows us that all have sinned
and come short of the glory of God. You're not gonna get in
heaven by your own righteousness. You're not gonna do it. Let's
just make that point right up front. It's not going to happen. Notice next that they had omitted
the weightier matter of the preaching of mercy. how that God had mercy
on the sinners that he chose before the foundation of the
world. They left out the heavier matters of how that God sent
his son as the perfect lamb, a perfect substitute to die in
the chosen sinner's place, paying their sin debt and making them
the very righteousness of God in him. They left that out. They
omitted that. These are the weightier matters.
They talked about tithing. They talked about giving. They
talked about dedication to the church. They talked about keeping
the Sabbath. They talked about abstaining
from certain foods. But they had omitted faith. Next thing on the list of things,
he gives their faith in Christ, the gift of faith that God gives. How do God's people live? The
Jesher lived by faith. Faith in Christ, trusting, relying,
adhering, depending totally upon Him for our right standing before
God. Are you doing that? Am I doing
that? We better be. We better be. They omitted to speak of the
gift of grace and faith in God's Son that enables the sinner to
trust in Christ alone as the only mediator between God and
me. Christ said, these ought ye to
have done and not to leave the other undone. Preachers who are constantly
telling sinners what they should do and what they shouldn't do
are putting those to whom they preach under a burden that they
cannot keep. No need to tell me how to live,
because I can't live like I ought to. I can't live like God demands
me to. So how am I going to be saved?
Only one way. And to leave out the weightier
things is nothing but leaven. Isn't that what he said? Beware
of the leaven of the scribes and the Pharisees. In Luke chapter
12 verse 1, the Lord said, beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees.
And then he told us what it is. He said, which is hypocrisy. Leaven comes in many forms. It
comes as false doctrine and it comes as hypocrisy. Now I told you also in a recent
study what the word hypocrisy means. It means acting. It means
an actor. It means pretending and claiming
to be something that you're not. You know, Greek actors were actually
called hypocrites. Hypocrisy is leaven. Hypocrisy
is being puffed up when there's absolutely no reason to be. What do you have that you didn't
receive? And if you received it, why do you glory in it? No
reason to be puffed up. The child of God, the scriptures
declare that the elect of God are unleavened. And that is only established
and accomplished by Christ's sacrifice for us. And that's
exactly what the Passover lamb pictures. The shedding and the
covering of Christ's blood that God sees and passes over us in
judgment. God says, when I see the blood,
I will pass over you. Not when you see the blood, not
when I see the blood, but when God sees the blood, because God
has to do something for himself before he can do something for
us. What does he have to do for himself? He's got to fulfill
his law, and he's got to satisfy his justice, and he's got to
punish our sin. Only one way to do it, and remain
just. And that's the death and the
shedding of the blood of Christ. And it's applied to the heart
of a leavened sinner, and it's the only thing that can make
them unleavened. I'm beginning to see that what
the Lord commanded Israel to do there in Exodus chapter 12
is simply to trust in Christ, the Passover lamb. There's no
room for leaven, no room for pride, no room for being puffed
up in the house of God's people. It's got to be purged and put
out. Now you have 1 Corinthians chapter
five marked. Go there again and turn back
just a few pages to 1 Corinthians chapter four. 1 Corinthians chapter four and
I want you to look at verse five. Paul writes, therefore judge
nothing before the time until the Lord come, who both will
bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest
the counsels of the hearts. And then shall every man have
praise of God. Now listen to me, it's only when
God shows men and women that sin within. Paul calls them here the hidden
things of darkness. And they are hidden until he
shows them to us. They were hidden within me for
a long time before God revealed them to me. I'd be the first
one to tell you, hey, I ain't perfect, but I ain't that bad.
But now I see that, yes, I am. I am that bad. I'm worse. I'm
worse. Hidden things of darkness. And
that's when our leaven, that's when our sin will be brought
to light. And with that, what Paul is saying
here is that every man and woman should praise God for His mercy
and His grace to them. Isn't that why you praise God?
For what He's done for you. why he's put your sin upon Christ
and made you the very perfect righteousness of God in him.
I'd say he deserves our praise, wouldn't you? Look at verse six, and these
things, brethren, I have in a figure transferred to myself and to
Apollos for your sake, that you might learn that in us not to
think of men above that which is written. that no one of you
be what? Puffed up. Puffed up, one against
another. Now in the beginning of this
letter, Paul had called the church at Corinth out on their contentions
with one another concerning who was their favorite preacher. One said, I am a Paul. Another
said, I am a Peter. Another said, I am a Paulus.
And then Paul said this, and I'm telling you it's true. Who
is Paul? Huh? Who is Paul? Who is Apollos? Paul said, we're nothing but
ministers, servants, by whom you believe. Well, you know, preachers get
puffed up. God's preachers don't. God has a way of keeping them
humble, trust me. Paul said, I planted, Apollos
watered, but God gave the increase. He that planted is nothing, he
that watered is nothing, but God that gave the increase, oh,
he's something. The Lord Jesus Christ who gave
the increase, oh, he's something. He's something. Verse seven,
for who maketh thee to differ from another? Well, God does. And what hast thou that thou
didst not receive? Nothing, we don't have anything
that God didn't give us. Now if thou didst receive it,
why dost thou glory as if thou hast not received? And I'm telling
you, it's nothing but leaven being puffed up, exalting oneself
to glory in anything that we think we can do, or that we do. That we do, think we do, or that
we can do. God says, get that out. Get that
living out. Get that out of your house. Get
it out of your heart. Get it out of your mind. And
feast upon Christ, the living bread from heaven. That's what
we're doing. We're feasting on Him. I take
it very serious to prepare a meal for you each time we meet in
order for you to feast upon Him. We're to cast down every imagination
and every high thing, the scripture says, that does what? Exalteth
itself against the knowledge of God. Anything that puffs itself
up or puffs you and I up against the knowledge of God and we're
to bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ,
2 Corinthians 10 five. How do we do that? Well, we can't. in and of ourselves, God does
it for us in and by and through the Lord Jesus. Hebrews 9.14
says, how much more should the blood of Christ, who through
the eternal spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your
conscience from dead works to serve the living God? Dead men
do dead works, but dead men do no work. But one who's been made
a liar, oh, you know what they do? They trust in Christ and
His work and in His righteousness only. Not unto us, O Lord, not
unto us. They discover that in this new
creation that God has caused all things have passed away and
God has caused all things to become new. And that's not all. They've learned that all things
are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ. God did that. The only reason
right now, if you're a child of God, trusting and clinging
to Christ, is because God made it so. A child of God will never
attempt to add the sinful, self-sanctifying works of the flesh to Christ's
work and righteousness. You know what that is? It's old
leaven. The child of God is unleavened
by the sacrifice of Christ for him. That's what we read. We take of this feast and truth
by resting in the faith or the faithfulness of Christ our righteousness. Child of God, you are unleavened. Christ has made you so. And we
keep this feast and truth by resting in Christ and what he's
done for us according to the scriptures. We don't keep this
feast any other way. Our flesh certainly had nothing
to do with it. Paul said, made that very clear
for what the law could not do in that it was weak through the
flesh, our flesh. God sending his own son in the
likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in the
flesh. You know what that means? It
means you're unleavened. If Christ is your righteousness,
your doctrine is unleavened. If Christ is your righteousness,
there's no acting, there's no hypocrisy. You're unleavened
by your union being one with Christ Jesus, the unleavened
bread of sincerity and truth. Now have you ever heard such
good news? We look nowhere but to Christ for salvation. And
this is how God's elect are made unleavened by the substitution
and the satisfaction that Christ has wrought for them. Now in
closing, I want you to turn back with me to Exodus chapter 12. And I think you're gonna like
this. Back in Exodus chapter 12, right in the middle of verse
16, God says this, no manner of work
shall be done in them. No work. You know why? Because the work's been accomplished.
The work's finished. No manner of work shall be done
in them, save or accept. Now watch this. No work is to
be done except every man must eat. Every man must eat, that only
may be done of you. What do we do? We feast on him. We just feast on him. Only one thing we can do. We
do nothing but feast upon Christ. We do nothing but partake and
eat of the bread from heaven. And that's exactly what the Lord's
table pictures in remembrance of all that He's done for us. Paul said, take and eat. This
is my body. Christ said that. Paul quoted
that. Take, eat. The body is broken
for you. Take it in remembrance of me.
Eat it in remembrance of me. In remembrance of Christ putting
away our sin by the shedding and the covering of his blood,
we drink the wine which represents the blood, that precious blood
that God sees when he passes over us. Let us keep the feast
of the unleavened bread. Christ is the unleavened bread
from heaven. Let us feast upon him in sincerity
and truth. Let us drink from that fountain.
That fountain filled with blood that was drawn from Emmanuel's
veins. Let's feast upon him. May God
be pleased to make it so.