Looking at 1 Corinthians 5, we
read verse 1 through 11, and then consider Christ our Passover. Paul says, it is reported commonly
that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as
is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should
have his father's wife, and ye are puffed up. and have not rather
mourned, that he that hath done this deed might be taken away
from among you. For I verily, as absent in body,
but present in spirit, have judged already, as though I were present
concerning him that hath so done this deed. In the name of our
Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together, and with my
spirit and with the power of the Lord Jesus Christ, to deliver
such a one unto Satan, for the destruction of the flesh, that
the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven,
leaveneth the whole lump? 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. Therefore, let us keep
the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice
and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity
and truth." I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company
with fornicators, yet not altogether with the fornicators of this
world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters,
for then must ye need go out of the world. But now I have
written unto you not to keep company if any man that is called
a brother be a fornicator, or covenant, or an idolater, or
a railer, or a drunkard, or an excarciner, with such a one know
not to eat." Now let's go back to verse 6 and verse 7. Know ye not that a little leaven
leaveneth the whole lump? In verse 7 he said, be a new
lump as ye are unleavened for even Christ our Passover is sacrificed
for us." Principally, that is our text of the morning. Now,
it is no secret that when Paul wrote to the Corinthian church,
they were beset with many problems, one after another, much confusion
and much carnality for which Paul had to address and give
them direction. I think this alone counts for
the length of the first Corinthian epistle because there were several
issues that Paul had to deal with. Paul takes them up one
at a time, one after the other. He gives them whatever is needed,
a rebuke or a correction in spite Of all their faults, however,
the apostle addresses them as being a church of God or a church
of Christ, and writes for them and wishes for them grace and
peace and mercy in the opening greeting in verse 1 through verse
9 of the first chapter. Now, as we have frequent occasion
to mention the city of Corinth, that it was a city that might
be called a cesspool of iniquity. It was a haven of vice, a seaport
city and a large city which is a magnet for all sorts of immorality. It also has been called a rich
and a famous city, and that adds to its vice. It was highly immoral,
the city of Ephesus was. And the two things that are especially
of note unto us that define the character of the city of Ephesus
are, number one, rampant sexual immorality. There was open prostitution
there, connected with the worship of the goddess Aphrodite. Secondly, the pagan feasts were
there and held in the pagan temple, where sacrifices were slain by
the heathen priests and the flesh was eaten in the feasts of the
temple. And let us know something that's
always true, and that is that whatever is about the church
in society, many of the practices of surrounding society also,
sooner or later, are brought into the Church. People bring
those things that are without, and they are far too often embraced
by the Church. They're even tolerated, and they're
even practiced by the Church, the evils of a society. Practice without conviction,
and Paul is addressing that. One of the faults, and we only
have time to look at it, one of the faults at Corinth is set
before us here very clearly in 1 Corinthians chapter 5. The issue was that there was
a person, a man, a person among them who was having or had had
carnal relations with his father's wife, presumably, no doubt, his
stepmother. And it is in dealing with that
awful situation that Paul gives us our wonderful text for the
study this morning. That in giving the church instruction
for handling the incestuous member that was there, Paul guides them
through the excommunication process that just when they were gathered
together, In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and as if
His Spirit was present there with them, they were to put away
that incestuous member from among them." Verse 5 and verse 13,
put away that person from among you. While we're on the subject,
Paul takes the occasion to use the simile here of Levin to impress
upon their minds a great lesson about the contagiousness of sin. Asking them in the end of verse
6, know you not, are you not aware, do you not know this,
sure you know this, a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. Lump is the metaphor here, and
it refers to a lump of dough. that might be rounded up in order
to make bread out of it. This, so some think, was a proverb
very familiar to Jews in that particular time. A little leaven,
leaveneth a whole lot. It is a good saying and has many
applications. It was recognized, it had both
a literal and then a mystical or a symbolical application in
this particular play. Literal leaven. Literal leaven
was fermented. A dough, as it were, it was sourdough,
as I believe what my granny used to call it, when she set the
biscuits the night before and let them rise overnight. Some
say in a high state of fermentation, brethren, a small amount just
injected and mixed in with a lump of dough worked or kneaded its
way throughout all of the lump of the dough, and it caused the
whole lump to ferment. cause the whole lump to become
sour and to rise as it were. Today, you just buy a cage of
yeast at the store and you get the very same thing. But leaven
works deliberately when it is injected till the whole lump
is then fermented by a little part that is put in. And it only takes a small amount,
according to Paul, 1 Corinthians 5 and verse 6, Galatians 5 and
verse 9, you have that same proverb again, a little leaven, leaveneth
the whole lump. But then in verse 7 of our text
in 1 Corinthians 5, Paul gives an exhortation unto them, and
that exhortation is grounded upon with, and this is the ground
upon which the exhortation saying, here is the exhortation, since
a little leaven leavens the whole lump, purge out therefore the
leaven that you may be anew and an unleavened lump. And indeed the exhortation is
based upon verse 7, the last part, for even are indeed Christ's
Our Passover is sacrificed for us." Or literally the tense would
be, Christ, our Passover, has been sacrificed for us, which
as Stephen Charnoff wrote, these words are a reason for the apostles'
exhortation to the Corinthians, and that with a double end or
intent. Number one, he says unto them, guilty of the great sin that
is among you. This is a leaven. And number
two, live sanctified lives as being unleavened, as being without
leaven in your own personal heritage. Now, if I mistake not, this is
the only place in the New Testament where Christ is specifically
and absolutely referred to by this designation Passover. He is our Passover. Paul does not call Him our Passover
Lamb or our Passover Offering, but he calls Him our Passover
in the fullness and the totality of the sin. Paul speaks of two
things together here, which are Passover and then the law concerning
leaven in Israel. And this sends us back to the
Old Testament. We have to go there to make up
the measure of our study. To the Old Testament, where the
Passover was instituted by the Lord God Himself and given unto
the people of Israel. You'll find its institution in
Exodus chapter 12 and verses 1 through 11, that when God would
deliver Israel out of their bondage by the hand of Moses and avenge
his people by smiting all the firstborn in the land of Eshub
and the house of Pharaoh, smite all the firstborn, including
Exodus chapter 12, 29 and 30, the firstborn of Pharaoh the
king to the firstborn of the prisoner locked up down in the
dungeon, and all the firstborn of cattle were also smitten with
death upon that occasion. And when the night was ended,
in verse 30, not a dwelling in the Egyptian community, was without
one dead. Every house had a death where
there was not the blood. Now you're no doubt familiar
with the nature of the Passover. Each Israelite life house was
to take unto themselves a lamb or to share a lamb with another
house. They were to keep it up four
days. They were to kill it in the evening. They were to cook
it and they were to eat it. and they were to sprinkle the
blood upon the doorposts or the entrances of their house. It was a type of the Lord Jesus
Christ who is our Passover. Now, how many ways the Passover
lamb was a type of Christ is a wonderful study indeed. I will give some shortly and
then move on. Number one, the lamb to be slain,
cooked and eaten by each family, was chosen ahead of time. It was chosen days before. It
was single taken out of the herd. It was chosen. It was appointed. It was brought to the house to
be theirs. It was appointed unto death and
that ahead of time. Second, it always, in every case,
was to be a male, a male of the first year, in the prime of its
life, and it was to be without any blemished, scurvy, spot,
or injury. Verse 5, that's in Exodus 12. Thirdly, it was chosen for a
set number of people. Verse 3 and verse 4. Nothing
was to be left over in verse 10. None for the Egyptians. And this pictures, I think, the
particular and special redemption of the Lord. And while it's not
a lamb for everyone to partake of, it was strict and particular
for the chosen race, the chosen nation. Number four, it wants
to be killed at an appointed time. They did not kill it as
soon as they brought it home, or even the next day. because
there was an appointed time in the sixth verse on the fourteenth
day of the month. The lamb was to be killed not
in the morning and not in midday, but in the evening. Fifthly,
it was both a sacrifice and a feast to the people of Israel. They
feasted, they ate upon the lamb whose blood covered the doorposts
of their houses. God's wrath entered not into
that house when the blood was there. There was no death when
the blood was applied. And the sixth thing to be known,
not a bone of that lamb was to be broken. They were to be very
careful that no bone was broken, and John 19 shows the significance
of that, that they break not the Lord's legs, because it is
written, the bone of him shall not be broken. Now, in Exodus
12 and verse 14, God said, the blood shall be unto you for a
token, or a sign, a covering upon the houses where you are,
and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the pledge
shall not be upon you to destroy, for a destruction it was indeed
in the night of the Passover." And Paul mentions another thing
for us here, and that is the Lebanon. For a yearly Passover
memorial, was instituted by the Lord, and every year Israel kept
that Passover, and they were doing it when our Lord was upon
the earth. Exodus 12 and verse 14, 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 as an ordinance
forever." And in connection with the feast, they were to eat unleavened
bread seven days prior unto the Passover. During this time, they
were to search and put all leaven out of their dwellings, Exodus
12 and verse 15, not only so, but any that ate leaven during
the days of unleavened bread, which lasted, by the way, seven
days, that soul was to be cut off from Israel. Exodus chapter
12, verse 15, the last part of the verse. You can see it again
in Numbers chapter 9 and verse 13. That soul who ate leaven
during the days of unleavened bread, was cut off from the nation
of Israel. Now, in the New Testament, of
the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which was come in conjunction
with the Passover, you see in Matthew 26 and verse 17, where
both are mentioned together in one and the same verse, it's
again in Mark chapter 14 and verse 1, the leaven and the Passover
mentioned together. Thus when Paul mentions the leaven,
and then Christ as our Passover, and Him being sacrificed for
us, he is standing upon the truth of Colossians 2.17, that Old
Testament things, holy days, new moons, Sabbaths, feasts,
were but shadows and types of things that were to come. Hebrews
10 and 1 calls them, were shadows of good things to come. They
were types, they were figures, they were not an end in themselves. They foreshadowed good things
to come and which would come in and with and only with Messiah. And one of the greatest types
of the Lord Jesus Christ in the Old Testament is that of the
Passover lamb. And the great type of redemption
out of the bondage of Egypt is a great type of our redemption
and deliverance from the bondage of sin. So Paul writes, Christ
our Passover. And this brings before him and
before us the image as the Lamb of God, that our
Lord is the Lamb of God, that Lamb of the Year, that Lamb in
the prime of life, that Lamb without blemish that spoke of
the impeccable humanity of Christ our Lord. Now, since the Old
Testament sacrifices could not take away You remember that,
right? They were not actually taking
away the sins of the people. And because they could not take
away sin, they must have been instituted primarily or upon
another cause. And I believe that cause is,
as Charnot wrote, for no other end than to prefigure some sufficient
sacrifice able to appease the wrath of God and pacify the consciences
of sinners." The words of Sarnak, end quote. Thus Christ, the Lamb
of God, the antithete of that Paschal Lamb slain in Egypt that
night and yearly throughout their history. We know that Christ
is never called by the names of any of the other animals that
were as legal sacrifices in the old covenant, which were often
lambs, such as the Passover. Numbers chapter 28 and 3, two
lambs of the first year without spot, day by day, for a continual
offering unto God. Isaiah, in his grave prophecy
of the Lord's righteous servant, set Messiah forth under what
image? under the image of a lamb. Isaiah 53 and verse 7. Also a sheep donned before her
shearer. John the Baptist in John 1 verse
29 and again in verse 36 calls Jesus the sin-bearing Lamb of
God. The Lamb of God who bears away
the sin of the world. It's referred to in Act 8 and
verse 32. In 1 Peter chapter 1 verse 19,
he speaks of him as a lamb without spot and without blemish. Revelation
5 and verse 6, as a lamb having been slain. Say it all, Christ
our Passover, our lamb. He is to us in true identity
what he was to Israel in tithe that night. Whether they knew
it or not, their lambs or their Passover foreshadowed the coming
Lamb of God who would bear our sin and die for them by His death
and judgment, and the wrath of God is stayed off of the elect
of God. He would smite the Passover when
He saw the blood. He would smite every house in
Israel, every firstborn in Israel, but pass over where there was
the blood. Even so, there is no condemnation
to them which are in Jesus Christ. He is our Passover. His blood is our covering. For those that He is a Passover,
the wrath of God shall not and cannot come upon them. They are sheltered in the only
safe place, covered by the blood of Him that died upon the cross. Did you notice what made the
great difference between those in Egypt? Not nationality. It wasn't their nationality that
made the great difference there. It was not their personal worth.
It was not how much money or possessions they had. It was
not their social standing, whether they were leaders and looked
up to buy others. But the one factor was, when
I see the blood, I will pass over you. Not when I see a rich
man. Not when I see a noble man. But
when I see the blood, I will pass over you. Paul says here
in our text, Christ was sacrificed. He uses that word sacrifice. Now what is a sacrifice in the
sense, in the meaning of Paul as he is using it in our text? It is the word tosia, a sacrifice. Now the Old Testament sacrifice
is the one to be slain or to be killed was brought by the
priest before the altar. where its throat was slit, and
the flesh burned upon the altar, and the blood caught in a basin
to make an atoma. That beast was subjected to the
burning fire of the altar, where its flesh sizzled as a pipe of
God's wrath against our sin, a sacrifice in the scriptural
sense. was offered for only one reason,
and that is for sin. It spoke not only of sin, but
also showed God's hatred of sin and showed what sin deserved
how to be punished. His wrath against sin and against
sinners is seen in every smoking flaming altar. It is seen in
that lamb that night in Egypt, as it is sizzled upon the fire."
Again, in reading Sharnoff, he said, God is infinite in His
justice, and He cannot let any sin go unpunished, unquote. There is a true statement of
the Scripture and theology. And so, since sin is an infinite
offense against an infinite God, It must have an infinite punishment
or an infinite sacrifice. It must receive an infinite stroke
from the hand of God whose sin is again. It cannot be overcome
except by an infinite sacrifice able to destroy sin. Nothing else will put it away.
No need to try. The putting away of sin, then,
required the incarnation of the eternal Son of God, and even
that He be made in the likeness of sinful flesh." Romans chapter
8 and verse 3. Not sinful flesh, but only the
likeness of sin's flesh. In the incarnation, and this
is so blessed, in the incarnation of the Son came close enough
to His people to be able to bear their sin, but not close enough
to be deprived. He took our sins by imitation,
not by nature. For though He was true man, He
also was true God, and since if He had not been man, He could
not have been a sacrifice for us. If he had not been God, the
sacrifice had not been effectual and powerful to save. Other theologians
would reason in this manner. God prepared him a body to bear
the stroke of sin and a union with a divine nature to sustain
it as he came in that blessed union. And therefore, if he had
not been true man, he'd not been a true sacrifice. If he had not
been true to God, he had not had the proper work to put away
our sin. Still, let's draw not a wrong
conclusion here, let's be careful, concerning the two natures of
the God-man. It was his human nature, get
that, it was his human nature, including his body and human
soul. Isaiah 53 and 10, his soul shall
make an offering for sin. That was the sacrifice for sin. It was in his body that he suffered,
and in his soul that he suffered as well. 1 Peter 3.18, being
put to death in the flesh. 1 Peter 4.1, Christ has suffered
for us in the flesh. 1 Peter 2. And verse 24, who
in his own body bear our sins there upon the tree. It was his
body that was made of a woman and made under the law. Should
I say his humanity? Galatians 4 and 4. It was in
his human nature that he was made sin, or God imputed sin
to him. 2 Corinthians 5 and verse 21. Sin was not and cannot be imputed
to the divine nature of the Godhead. It cannot be made of a woman
and it cannot be put under the law. Nor is it possible for the
divine nature to suffer and to die. Nor does the divine nature
have blood that it might shed as a sacrifice for sin. But still
we hasten to say, it was the divine nature that gave such
infinite worth to the suffering and death of the humanity of
Christ our Lord. And still the human nature of
our Lord, which suffered upon the cross, was sanctified by
the divine, even as it must have been from the moment of the incarnation. this wonderful hypostatic union. Consider what Paul said in Ephesians
5 and verse 3, he has given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice
to God for a sweet smelling savor. He gave himself to God, gave
himself into the hands of God as an offering. Most pleasing
was that offering unto God. Most satisfying was that offering
unto God for the purpose for which it was given. He gave Himself,
or in the place, or in the stead of others. He did not die for
His own sin. He died for the sin of others. He had no sin. God received from
Jesus Christ. a propitiatory sacrifice in behalf
of sinners, and specifically elect sinners, whereby they are
discharged from their debt of sin, him being our surety answering
the debt. Thus says Paul, he has been,
he was, sacrificed. It is accomplished Oh yes, according
to Isaiah, the Lord God has bruised him and has put him to grief. And the essence of sacrifice
for sin consists in two things. That which is the sacrifice is
put to death. In fact, under the old economy,
it was destroyed upon the altar. It is put to death. Secondly,
it is an offering unto God with regard unto our sin. Both of
these are met in the Lord Jesus Christ. He was not a martyr. He was not a role model. He was
a sacrifice for sin. And so to shift gears just a
little bit by observing that the atonement of Jesus Christ
occupies a middle station, if I may say it that way, is that
the first sort of spiritual blessing, which are described in Ephesians
1, 6, 3 through 6, were ordained to us by virtue of the persons
of Christ, such as election, coordination, and adoption. While the second sort of blessing
in Ephesians 1, redemption, regeneration, reconciliation, conversion, pardon,
justification come to the elect by virtue of the atonement of
Christ in whom we have redemption. Ephesians 1 7. So we can say
with the old Puritan, it is upon the sacrifice of Christ that
all saving blessings depend. By the atonement that they receive
their validity to be imparted to the elect. It is the ground
of all the peace of God and all the comfort that the saint will
ever have comes from the atonement of our Lord. Let us seek to consider
how much depends upon the sacrifice or atonement of our Holy Christ,
such as, for example, he has never been brought up from the
grave unless his atonement had been pleasing and acceptable
and all-sufficient in the eyes of God. Never has our surety
been let out of prison except the debt is settled in full and
God is completely satisfied having received of His Son the price
of our redemption. The resurrection after three
days says to us, the atonement is accepted and is effectual. As soon as the old high priest
came back out of the holy place, soon as the people saw him come
out the front, they knew that the atonement had been completed. That he had gone in and put the
blood upon the mercy seat between the cherubim. So when the Lord
Jesus took up his life again, it declared our justification. Romans 4 and 25. It also declared Jesus, or manifested
Him to be the Son of God with power. Romans 1 and verse 4. Again, Christ sacrificed His
dying on the cross, laying in the grave, were preparatory to
His great exaltation to glory yonder in heaven. To put it bluntly,
an expiatory sacrifice on earth was necessary to perceive his
ascension into heaven." He declared in Luke 24-26. In Philippians
2, 5-11, 2 and 36, so deeply did our Lord humble himself so
highly as God exalted him because He humbled himself even to the
death of the cross and even to lay in a grave. God has raised
him up and exalted him higher than any other. As a high priest,
he must enter with blood. Heaven would be shut up against
him except he came with sacrificial blood for the sins of his people. What's more, his sacrifice of
himself. is the ground of His intercession
for those He died for. For those He died for, He is
an advocate and an intercessor. And when He pleads for an advocate,
it is based upon the atonement. When He pleads as our advocate,
it is the atonement that is the ground of that. Upon what other
ground could our Lord plead? Could He plead our goodness?
Our obedience, our worth, our merit that we deserve. Could
he plead for a suspension of God's strict justice in our behalf? Nay, he pleads for the effect
of the atonement. He said in John 9, 17, I pray
for these. I pray for them. All redemptive
blessings, therefore, swim to us in the blood of Jesus Christ,
saving grace, and all the grace that we ever will receive comes
to us by means of him who loved us and gave himself for us in
the death of the cross. His death is the ransom, the
ransom which freed the captive, the blood the fountain opened
for sin and for uncleanness. Christ, our Passover, has been
sacrificed for us, that we might be delivered from our Egypt and
brought into the heavenly Canaan. Now, in closing, notice an application
or connection which Paul makes here in the eighth verse of our
text. Therefore, let us keep the feasts,
not with whole leaven, neither with leaven of malice and wickedness,
but with a unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. Now he is
not exhorting them to keep the old Passover, but speaks figuratively,
and it seems a stretch to make this the Lord's Supper, as John
Gill favored doing. It is an allusion to the Passover,
couched in figurative language. See the words in verse 7, ye
are unleavened. Verse 8, not with old leaven,
nor with a leaven of malice. and of wickedness, but with the
unleavened bread of sincerity and of truth." That is, the Passover
is kept without leaven. The Passover is celebrated with
all leaven cast out. So because Christ is our Passover,
has been sacrificed for us, let us put away the leaven of sin
and live a life Free from these leavening influences, for you
are to understand, lead a life, a pure life. Purge out the old
leaven, first in the Church, and then personally in your own
life. Because Christ is sacrificed
for us, let us purge out the old leaven, and the unleavened,
a lump of sincerity and in truth. Figurative language, sure. But
because Christ is our Passover and was sacrificed for us, all
leaven needs to be purged out that we might be a pure lump
unto Him. Not perfection, that's not what
we talk about or believe, but that these great vile sins be
purged out and that it be a work of the child of God. All right,
let's stand together please for a word of prayer.