You ladies generally engage in
a practice every spring that is sure to drive your husbands
to the field or fishing or something to get out of the house. It's
called spring cleaning. When the lady decides it's time
to start spring cleaning, we like to leave because it means
work we don't want to do. Did you ever wonder where the
term came from, spring cleaning? You'll find it in Leviticus chapter
23. It was in the spring. The Jewish
calendar started in the spring. And they were required to do
something. On the 15th day of the month, they were required
to clean every speck of leaven out of their houses. Clean it
out. Clean it out so you can keep
the Feast of the Lord. Clean it out. They would turn
the cushions inside out. To this day, the Orthodox Jews
practice cleaning just this way, getting rid of the leaven in
preparation for the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
Here in this 23rd chapter of Leviticus, the Lord God gives
instruction to Moses and to his people about these seven annual
feasts that they were to keep, holy convocations unto the Lord. They're called the Feast of the
Lord because they are feasts required by God for all who would
worship him. They're called the Feast of the
Lord because they are feasts by which many women ceremonially
and symbolically drew near to the Lord God in the place where
he required. And they are called the Feast
of the Lord primarily because they portray for us the work
of the Lord God in saving our souls by his matchless grace. These were material carnal feasts. We do not keep the material carnal
feasts. In preparation for this message
and others that I've tried to bring to you from this passage
of scripture, I can't tell you how many times I've run across
various things where people were trying to, you know, bring Judaism
and Christianity under a big umbrella so we will now try to
keep the Old Testament feast in a Christian way. It can't
be done. To go back to the Old Testament
is as much idolatry as it is to stoop and kiss the toe of
the Pope. It's just idolatry. It's just superstition. There's
nothing spiritual, nothing Christian about it, just paganism. We do
not keep the physical, material feast any more than we worship
at a physical, material altar. But we are to keep the feast,
as the Jews never did and never could. We are to keep these feasts
spiritually, keeping them by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, you'll notice that the feast
begins, or the feast began, rather, this word of instruction, in
verse 3 with the Sabbath rest. And the Lord God gives a very
clear reason for this. Christ is our Sabbath. So that as we worship him, the
very beginning of worship means that we cease from our own works
and find rest in Jesus Christ's finished work. This is where
Christianity begins. This is where the experience
of grace begins. This is where salvation, insofar
as our experience of it is concerned, begins. Man and women are persuaded
by God the Holy Spirit that they are sinners, that righteousness
has been finished by Jesus Christ the Lord, and we trust him alone
for righteousness. And ceasing from our works, we
rest in him. And then, of course, the chapter
describes the Feast of Passover very briefly in verses 4 and
5. The Feast of Passover is the basis of everything. It portrays
Christ, our Passover, who is sacrificed for us. I bid you
come now to Christ. Come to Him. Believe on the Son
of God. Cease from your works. Find rest
for your soul in the merits and blood and righteousness and power
of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Trust Him alone for all your
acceptance with God. And be at peace in your soul. Christ, our Passover, is sacrificed
for us. Everything finds its basis in
and arises from the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ
in this business we call Christianity. And then in verses 6, 7, and
8 of Leviticus 23, we're given instruction concerning the Feast
of Unleavened Bread. And I want us to look at this
passage this morning very carefully. Verse 6. On the fifteenth day
of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread unto the
Lord. Seven days you must eat unleavened
bread. In the first day you shall have
an holy convocation. You shall do no servile work
therein, but you shall offer an offering made by fire unto
the Lord seven days. In the seventh day is a holy
convocation. You shall do no servile work
therein." Now, you'll notice there is a very close connection.
In fact, there is hardly a separation made here between the Feast of
Unleavened Bread and the Feast of the Passover. The Feast of
the Passover was on the 14th day of the first month of the
Jewish calendar, the month Abib. And the Feast of Unleavened Bread
began immediately after that on the 15th day. Why is that? Because the Feast of the Passover
and the Feast of Unleavened Bread are really one thing. They really
represent one thing, just two different parts of it. The Feast
of Unleavened Bread, like the Feast of Passover, represents
redemption and deliverance. The Passover speaks of Christ's
finished work of atonement as our substitute, as the Lamb of
God by whose sacrifice our sins have been put away, by whose
sacrifice we have been delivered from the curse of God's holy
law. The Feast of Unleavened Bread speaks of that which is
inseparably connected with, and always follows the sacrifice
of Christ. And that's the salvation of his
people. Now be sure you understand this. The Lord Jesus Christ died
to save somebody. And he who is the Christ of God
shall save those people he came here to redeem and save. There's
no possibility that he will not save them. These two feasts,
then, refer to two things that can never be separated, the death
of Christ in the room instead of his people and the deliverance
of his people from the curse of God's holy law and from all
things related to sin and death, ultimately. The Feast of Unleavened
Bread was just a continuation of the Passover. The Passover
portrayed the cause of deliverance. The Feast of Unleavened Bread
portrayed the experience and the effects of deliverance. The
Passover is a picture of redemption and pardon by the blood of Christ.
The Feast of Unleavened Bread portrayed the believer's life
of faith in Christ, our experience of the grace of God while we
live in this world. Now, the Holy Spirit makes this
crystal clear. Hold your hands here and turn to 1 Corinthians
5. 1 Corinthians chapter 5. This is not something we have
to guess about. This is what God tells us the Feast of Unleavened
Bread is. It is a picture of the believer's life of faith
in this world. 1 Corinthians 5, verse 7. You know the context. Paul is
speaking about the man, the incestuous man, professed believer, who
had taken his father's wife to be his own, and that even without
so much as marrying her, living in open fornication with his
father's wife. And Paul says this, you can't
tolerate this. That's intolerable. It's intolerable. Doesn't matter what the age we
live in says about it, that's intolerable. But then he says
in verse 7, Purge out therefore the old leaven, that you may
be a new lump. Now watch this, as you are leavened. For even Christ our Passover
is sacrificed for us. Therefore, let us keep the feast. What's he talking about? Well,
he's talking about the Lord's Supper. No, he isn't. There is
a relation to this in the Lord's Supper. Both are the remembrance
of Christ and the remembrance of deliverance by Him. But Paul
tells us plainly in 1 Corinthians 11 that the eating of the Lord's
Supper is not the keeping of a feast. It is just eating a
piece of bread, drinking a little cup of wine. It is not a feast
at all. This then is talking about the
various love feasts that the church is engaged in. Oh no,
those things are forbidden. What's he talking about then?
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." Now, this is what he's telling
us. Since Christ, our Passover is sacrificed for us. Since Jesus
Christ, the Son of God, has satisfied the wrath and justice of God
in our room instead as our substitute, since he has put away our sins,
we now both can keep this feast and ought to keep this feast
all the time. It is a feast of faith before
God our Father, a feast of faith in the experience of God's grace.
And back here in Leviticus 23. Let me show you five aspects
of this feast. I'll just mention these, and
then I want to show you three things about keeping the feast.
Carefully notice the specific words of instruction given in
verses 6, 7, and 8 about the Feast of Unleavened Bread. It
involved these five things. It began with the Sabbath day.
All the feasts did. It didn't matter whether the
Feast of Unleavened Bread, the 15th day of the month, fell on
Wednesday or on Saturday. It involved the keeping of a
Sabbath day. It ended with keeping of a Sabbath day. And if there
was a Sabbath day in between, it involved the third Sabbath
day. But the feast of unleavened bread always began with the Sabbath
day. These feasts, you see, speak
of worshiping God. And the only way we can ever
worship God is to cease from our works, resting in Christ. That's the next thing. No servile
work was to be done. A cessation of work. Stop working. Stop working. How can I say this and be heard? If ever you find rest for your
soul, you must cease from all work, all efforts of any kind
to make yourself acceptable to God. All of them. Stop working. Stop beating yourself. Stop improving yourself. Stop
wearing yourself out. Stop building yourself up. Stop
trying to get low enough or trying to get high enough. Stop working. Trust Christ. Trust Christ. But surely it just stands to
reason there's something I've got to do. That's your problem.
Your reason is wrong. No, no. As long as you keep trying
to do something, you'll never find peace with God. So cast
your deadly doing down, down at Jesus' feet, and stand in
Him, in Him alone, gloriously complete. Thirdly, throughout
the days of the feasts, every day, an offering was made by
fire and was to be brought to the Lord every day. And then
fourthly, The feast of unleavened bread lasted for seven days. You begin with rest, ceasing
from work, a Sabbath day. You stop working throughout the
feast. Every day you bring a sacrifice. Here I am. I beseech you, brethren,
by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living
sacrifice, holy, acceptable to the Lord. That's what life is
in Christ. It is a continual presentation
of ourselves to Him as He is. It lasted for seven days, the
full age of a man. Seven days representing the completion
of grace. Seven days representing that
which is complete and finished. And then it ended with another
Sabbath. This life of faith that begins
resting in Christ, ceasing from work, offering a daily sacrifice,
this life of faith that continues throughout the days of our life
here, this feast of unleavened bread ends in a glorious rest
with Christ in heaven. And that's the beginning and
the way and the end of all these feasts. Now, how does all this
apply to us? The Apostle Paul tells us to
keep this feast. But how do we keep it? We must
keep it spiritually, but how do we keep it spiritually? The
feast of unleavened bread typifies and represents the life of faith,
the believer's whole experience of grace. But how do we keep
the feast? Well, it certainly begins with
the experience of deliverance from the curse of the law by
the blood of Christ. Resting in Him, we are accepted
in the Beloved. And Paul tells us that we are
now unleavened in Christ. He said in 1 Corinthians 5, we
read it, you are unleavened. You are now without sin. Holy, being redeemed by the blood
of God's dear Son, we stand before God Almighty as His Son. As He is, so are we right now
in this world, unleavened. But there is more. The Lord Jesus
did not merely redeem us from the curse of the law and justify
us, but we are redeemed with His blood from our vain conversation. 1 Peter 1.18. Now listen to me. Listen to me. Have I got your attention? If you live Without Christ, your
whole life is just vanity. Meaningless. Useless. All those days spent in rebellion
to God is just vanity. Doesn't mean a thing. Oh, but my son, he's a, oh, look
what, he's a famous athlete. My boy, he got three doctor's
degrees. He's the head of a big firm.
He lives in the biggest house in the biggest town among the
richest people in the world. Nothing, nothing. My girl, she's
a great star. Folks hear her name, they know
who she is. I wouldn't wish any of that on
my worst enemy's children, much less my own. It's just vanity. It's just vanity. Our vain conversation. Christ
gave him for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and
purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. Give us a conversation, Rex,
that means something. Give us a manner of life that's
worth something. We keep the feast of unleavened bread as
those who stand before God unleavened in Christ. And we keep it in
a new life. Now, let's look at this passage
here and see what's involved. Number one, in this life of faith, we must
constantly purge out the old leaven of malice and wickedness. Now, when I wrote that down,
I thought to myself, that's a good trick if you can do it. And yet,
it must be done. Now we know we cannot cease from
sin so long as we live in this world. All who are born of God
know that. We cannot purge sin from our
members, not in our mind, not in our thoughts, not in our hearts.
It can't be done. While we live in this world,
we live in this body of sin, and there is nothing we ever
think, say, or do that is not sin. Nothing. We're aware of
that. But Paul says in 1 Corinthians 5, 7, purge out therefore the
old leaven, that you may be a new lump, as you are a new lump,
as you are leavened. For even Christ our Passover
is sacrificed for us. What does leaven mean? What is
it? Purge out the leaven. Purge out
the leaven. Leaven, you ladies know, is just
yeast. And yeast is what makes dough
swell up. And there's something in us that
makes us swell up. Something natural to us that
makes us swell up. The religious world capitalizes
on it. Makes you swell up. Makes you
swell up. A medical doctor once made this
statement. I thought it was good. He said, strangest thing about
the human body is that when you pat a person on the back, his
head swells up. Why is that? Why is that? Because there's a principle at
work in us constantly driving us to self-sufficiency. You mamas. And grandma and grandpa
know what it is for a child. You try to teach them something.
I'll do that myself. I can do it. I can do it. I don't want any help. Leave
me alone. I can do it. And they start as soon as they
start to learn to speak. And it continues right now. We like to think ourselves self-sufficient. We've got it made. We don't even want to talk about
our needs. We don't want any help. We don't
want anybody to think we need help. We like to think we can
handle things. And if you look at it like we
need help, we'll give you a look back that says get lost, drop
dead, I just don't need you. Oh, Levin. Levin comes in a lot
of forms. Our Lord warns us in Luke 12
to beware the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. Hypocrisy. About everybody I read on that
says that's talking about pretending to be what you're not. Well,
it sort of is. But it has more to do with something
inside than it does with play acting. Hypocrisy is the pretense of
being good when you know you ain't. It's the pretense of being righteous
when you know that you're unrighteous. Hypocrisy, the leaven of the
Pharisees, is that doctrinal heresy of self-righteousness. And then our Lord warns us to
beware of the leaven of the Sadducees in Matthew 16. He spends a little
time on it. The Sadducees. were people whose
leaven represented something like rationalism and the self-sufficiency
I spoke of earlier. The Sadducees denied the supernatural. The leaven of the Sadducees is
that proud assumption that everything can be explained and understood
on human terms. It can be explained and understood
by what you see and taste and touch and smell and feel. And
it is the notion, the proud notion, the proud assumption that there
is no power beyond me, no power beyond man. Man is sufficient
to himself. It is the proud assumption that
we don't need God, we don't need grace, we don't need a savior. And then our Lord warns us of
the leaven of the Herodians. You remember what I said about
vain conversation? The Herodians, the leaven spoken
of, of the leaven of the Herodians is the leaven of materialism. The Herodians lived for pleasure, for comfort, for luxury, for
status, for prestige. They live to be seen and recognized
and applauded by men. The leaven of the Herodians is
that horrid pride. Now listen to me. Beware this. Beware of the hypocrisy. Beware
of the materialism and the presumption that everything is in your hands,
but oh, this matter of materialism. The care of this world, the deceitfulness
of riches, choke out the word. This leaven of the Herodians,
is that leaven? I'm not necessarily talking about
desiring great position and power. That's certainly included. But
Bob, it's the notion that the world revolves around me and my pleasure and my happiness. I get so sick and tired of hearing
grown human beings say, well, I'm not happy. I'm so sorry you're
not happy. I didn't know the sun rose and
sat on your happiness. Not happy. Life doesn't revolve
around me. Life doesn't revolve around you. We ought to make it our business
to seek to it that our lives revolve around somebody else's
happiness, somebody else's pleasure, somebody else's desire. And then Paul speaks, of course,
of the leaven of wickedness and malice over here in 1 Corinthians. The leaven of malice is that
leaven Inside us that swells our heads with pride called enmity
against God Me and hate each other cause
they hate God that's the nearest they can get to God Is that what the book teaches
sure it is you mentioned it just a little bit ago Ron If we love
God, we love each other Just that simple. It's that simple
If you don't love your brother whom you have seen, you sure
don't love God whom you haven't seen. And if you hate your brother,
so I don't hate him. Sounds like hate to me. Hate your brother, wish him evil,
don't work for his good, it's called hate. If you hate your
brother, it's because really you hate God and your brother's
just the closest thing to God you can get hold of. the leaven
of wickedness. Of course, he's talking about
the immoral degeneracy that arises from all these other things. These other things don't come
from the immoral degeneracy. Oh, no. You don't raise children
to be profligate, immoral, ungodly, vile, base. rebels without any
sense of moral decency. Oh, no mom and daddy does that.
You raise them to be proud and self-sufficient and self-righteous
and self-serving, centering everything around themselves. And that's
what you get. That's what you get. The life
of faith, true Christianity. involves something other than
putting out, saying no to this letter. His life of faith involves
a continual offering made by fire unto the Lord every day,
seven days throughout your life. Trusting Christ means giving up my life to Him. It is the surrender of Lordship
over myself. It is giving myself up voluntarily
and willingly in the totality of my being to the rule and will
of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Now let's see if I can make good
on that. Turn to Mark chapter 8. Mark chapter 8. Our Lord Jesus would have flunked
every soul wedding course that ever taught in any seminary in
the world. You remember in Luke 14, multitudes came to Him, pressing
Him, wanting to be His disciples. And He turned and looked at them
and said, if any man come to Me, If any man come to me and
hate not his father and mother and wife and children and brothers
and sisters, yea, in his own life also, he cannot be saved. That's what the word means. He
can't be my disciple. And whosoever doth not bear his
cross and come after me, he cannot be saved. So likewise, whosoever
he be of you, that forsaketh not all that he hath. That's
what it means to bear your cross. For sake of not all that He has,
He cannot be saved. Look in Mark 8, verse 34. When
He called the people unto Him, with His disciples also, He said
unto them, Whosoever will come after Me, let him deny himself,
take up his cross, and follow Me. Oh, I wonder what that means. Let's get somebody to give us
a series of messages on focusing on the family and denying self
And self-denial, let's write some books on it. Get a book
out of it. I've seen books that big on self-denial,
and they don't come that close to getting what it is. What you
talking about? Read the next line. You'll find
out what it is. Whosoever will save his life
shall lose it. Now, hear me, rebel. That's your
problem. Your problem is not that you're
not convinced that Jesus Christ is Son of God. You're a liar
if you say that. You can scrap with me afterwards
if you want to. You're a liar if you say that. Your problem
is not that you're not convinced this book is the word of God.
You're a liar if you say that. Your problem is not that you're
not convinced of heaven and hell and eternal judgment. No, sir.
You know those things. You know those things. Your problem
is you're not going to give up the rule of your life. That's
your problem. That's every rebel's problem.
I want to be my boss. Nobody's going to tell me what
to do. Oh, yes, they are. And you're
going to obey. You're going to obey. Christ
is your Lord. And you're going to bow to Him
either now and delight in it, or in eternity and hell and suffer
the consequences. But bow to Him, you will. Now,
what are you going to do with your life? You know what I did with mine?
I wrecked it in rebellion. And wrecked everybody I touched. I wrecked it. Because I will
be my own Lord. And then the Master came. And threw his saddle on his wild
ass and broke it. And he's still got his bit and
bridle in here and he's still breaking it. He says, you give up. You give
up. Give up what? Everything. You mean you'll take it? Give it up. And the sweetest,
most blessed freedom in the world is giving up the rule of my life
to Him. And you know what? It's an everyday
struggle. It's an everyday conflict. It's
an everyday battle. This most reasonable thing in
the world. Brother Henry Mahan, years ago,
was preaching in a city, staying in a home. Never will forget
the story. And this young lady kept talking
so admirably of her daddy, who had been dead for some time.
They found her, Brother Mahan, and asked her, said, you have
such high regard, love, and esteem for your daddy. I said, tell
me something about him. What makes him so special in
your mind? And she said, Brother Mayhem,
my daddy died for me. I said, what do you mean? She said, when I was a little
girl, we were at the beach, and my dad had a terribly, terribly
weak heart. And he knew he couldn't take any strain, the least bit
of strain would kill him. But I got out too far in the
water, and my daddy saw me drowning. He, without a moment's hesitation,
ran, dove in the water, swam out there and got me, brought
me to shore, and fell over dead. My daddy died for me. What makes
Christ so special? He died for me. All right, here's the third thing. Living in this world by faith
in Christ. This life of faith in Christ
is portrayed as a constant, continual eating of unleavened bread, a
continual feast of unleavened bread. Now, I must confess, this
is where I had trouble with the passage. What is this talking
about? And I got some help this week
over in Deuteronomy chapter 16. Turn over there, if you will.
Deuteronomy chapter 16. The Lord is giving the same instruction
a second time. Actually a third time. And in
Exodus chapter 12 too. And He's giving us this instruction
about the feast of unleavened bread. Keeping the Passover and
the feast of unleavened bread. Now look at verse 3. Thou shalt eat no leavened bread
with it, Seven days shalt thou eat unleavened bread therewith.
Now watch this. Even the bread of affliction. Oh, that's what he's talking
about. The bread of affliction. Because
I brought you out of Egypt. You were bondmen in Egypt. But
why does he call it the bread of affliction? Well, unleavened
bread. It's thick and heavy. It's unsavory. There's nothing
in it that appeals to the taste buds. And it's hard to digest. It's not good for the flesh.
It'll keep for a long time. But anything keeps too long is
not very good for you. It'll keep for a long time, but it's
not good for the flesh. Now certainly all those things are true, but
there's more to this than physical characteristics of unleavened
bread. This bread of affliction represents
the very same things involved in those bitter hours with which
the Passover lamb must be eaten. It involves repentance. And this doesn't begin at conversion
or doesn't end at conversion. It begins there. Most everybody's got the cart
before the horse. Say, I want to repent and come to the Lord.
Come to Him. You'll find repentance. I want to feel my sin. Come to
Him. You'll feel it. The believer's life, the life
of faith, so long as we live in this world as an inward affliction
for our souls. Yes, we rejoice in Christ. We
are to live in this world in the joy of faith. It's not anything,
it's the bread of affliction. It doesn't have anything at all
to do with doubting whether or not we've been delivered. These
folks knew they came out of Egypt. What's it talking about? Under
the weight of Holy Ghost conviction. We confess our sin with mournful
hearts. Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are they that mourn. To this man will I look, even
to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word. But there's more to this than
the remembrance of our sins. more than looking to the hole
of the pit from which we are digged, to eat this bread of
affliction. This keeping of the feast of
unleavened bread involves the unceasing, growing, bittersweet
remembrance of the price of our ransom. And nothing so humbling as this. Nothing that will get hold of
your heart like this. Nothing that squeezes from us
the leaven like this. Nothing that compels consecration
like this. Turn to Zechariah 12, I'll show
you. Verse 10, And I will pour upon the house
of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace
and supplications. That's what happens when God
saves the sinner. The new birth happens to you
when God the Holy Spirit comes into you. causes you to have
the spirit of grace and supplications. And when I pour out My Spirit
upon you, then they shall look upon Me whom they have pierced." When will you look to Christ?
When God pours His Spirit on you. When God puts in you the
spirit of grace and supplication. They shall look on me, whom they
have pierced. Now watch this. And looking, they shall mourn
for him. For him. As one mourneth for his only
son, and shall be in bitterness for him. as one that is in bitterness
for His firstborn. Look under what it cost Him to
have me. He who knew no sin was made to
be sin. and suffered all the hell of
God's wrath to the full satisfaction of justice for me. Now, this is the bread of affliction
which I eat gladly every day. Oh, that I might know Him in the power of His resurrection. Know Him in the absolute free
forgiveness of all sin demonstrated by a resurrected Redeemer.