I want to begin my message this
morning by reading three texts of Scripture, and I want you
to read them with me. Let's begin in Leviticus chapter
23. Leviticus chapter 23. Here the Lord God is giving Moses
specific instruction with regard to the keeping of his feast. by which the Jews' lives were
regulated in their daily, weekly, monthly, and annual functions
throughout their generations for the worship of God. The first
word of instruction is about the Passover, but the Lord actually
gives very little instruction about the Passover. It's so closely
connected with the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the two are constantly
intermingled. But let's look at just what he
says about the Passover this morning. Leviticus 23 verse 5. In the 14th day of the first
month at evening is the Lord's Passover. Now really This holy
convocation actually had its origin back in the land of Egypt
when the children of Israel, you'll remember, were brought
out of Egypt on the night when the Lord God passed through the
land. After 400 years of bondage, God
fulfilled his covenant. He fulfilled his promise, and
exactly as he said, every one of his people were brought out
of that land of bondage by the power of his grace because of
the blood that was sprinkled upon the doors of every house
in Israel. Now turn to Deuteronomy chapter
16. Here the Lord gives a little more detail about the Passover
feast. Deuteronomy 16. beginning at
verse 1. Observe the month of Abib and
keep the Passover unto the Lord thy God. For in the month of
Abib, the Lord thy God brought thee forth out of Egypt by night. Thou shalt therefore sacrifice
the Passover unto the Lord thy God of the flock and the herd,
in the place which the Lord shall choose to place his name there. Thou shalt eat no leavened bread
with it. Seven days shalt thou eat unleavened
bread therewith, even the bread of affliction. For thou camest
forth out of the land of Egypt in haste. that thou mayest remember
the day when thou camest forth out of the land of Egypt all
the days of thy life. And there shall be no leavened
bread seen with thee in all thy coasts seven days. Neither shall
there anything of flesh which thou sacrifices the first day,
and even remain all night until the morning. Thou mayest not
sacrifice the Passover within any of thy gates, which the Lord
thy God giveth thee. But at the place which the Lord
thy God shall choose to place his name in, there thou shalt
sacrifice the Passover at even or evening, at the going down
of the sun, at the season that thou camest forth out of Egypt,
And thou shalt roast and eat it in the place which the Lord
thy God shall choose. And thou shalt turn in the morning
and go under thy tents. Six days thou shalt eat unleavened
bread. And on the seventh day shall
be a solemn assembly to the Lord thy God. Thou shalt do no work
therein. Now, specifically with regard
to the Passover, in these eight verses, we see that it involved
these five things. A sacrifice of a lamb had to
be offered in God's holy place. It must be offered in remembrance
of God's work of deliverance in bringing Israel out of Egypt. It was meaningless to offer the
sacrifice, meaningless to keep the feast, If in doing so, there
was no remembrance of what God in his great mercy had done for
his people. Thirdly, it was a time of new
beginning. The keeping of the Passover was
required of God to be done on the 14th day of the first month
of every new year, because the Passover represented the new
beginning of all things, the new creation of grace by the
blood and power of Jesus Christ, our Redeemer, who has made all
things new for his people. And then fourthly, there was
a cessation from all work. To keep the Passover, you must
eat the unleavened bread of affliction, affliction to your soul, ceasing
from all work, because that's a picture of what it is for the
believer to come to Jesus Christ in faith, to come to God by him,
ceasing from doing to find acceptance with God. What an affliction
that is to our holy souls. And then fifthly, it was a time
of feasting. Oh, what a celebration. God has
conquered our enemies. The Lord Jesus Christ has taken
Satan as he did Pharaoh of old and drowned him in the sea of
his mighty wrath by the power of his blood. And he has delivered
us from bondage and curse and brought us into the place of
blessedness. All right. Now, what does all
this mean? Why did God command that the Passover be kept every
year, kept in a specific way, at a specific place, with specific
purposes in mind? Surely, there is more involved
here than merely the celebration of a great historical event in
the history of the nation of Israel. Now, I grant. It is reasonable
for men and women to celebrate momentous occasions. That's fine. But the book of God was not written
to give us holidays, as we call them. The book of God speaks
of holy days, which meant something. Holy days, which signified something
holy, something spiritual, something everlasting, something of the
gospel of God's grace. Now, turn with me to 1 Corinthians
chapter 5. And I'll show you in this 7th
and 8th verse what God intended by the Passover. I'll show you
what God Almighty purposed in giving this ordinance of the
Passover in the Old Testament. You'll remember our Lord Jesus
on the night when he was betrayed. had already sent his disciples
to find a large upper room and prepare the place for him to
keep the feast of the Passover with his disciples. And when
he did, he took the bread and the wine and said, this day is
this fulfilled before you. And he said, you eat the bread
and drink the wine. And then in doing that, he instituted
that which we celebrate in the Lord's Supper. The Passover was
not the Lord's Supper, and the Lord's Supper is not the Passover. The Passover ended when Jesus
Christ, our Passover, died for us. And now redemption is accomplished. And we celebrate redemption in
the gathering together every Lord's Day evening here and breaking
bread and drinking wine in remembrance of our Savior as we keep the
Lord's table. But the Passover is forever ended
because it is forever fulfilled. Look here in 1 Corinthians 5,
verse 7. Here is the Holy Spirit's commentary
on Leviticus 23, verse 5. And the Holy Spirit's commentary
is always the best one. Purge out therefore the old leaven,
that you may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. Now look what
it says. Purge out the old leaven, that
you may be Now watch it. As you are. That you may be as you are. Purge out the old leaven, that
you may be a new lump as you are, unleavened. For even Christ,
our Passover, is sacrificed for us. Don't miss the connection. For. You are now unleavened. So purge out the old leaven,
because Christ, our Passover, is sacrificed for us. Verse 8. 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, we'll come back to this,
Lord willing, tonight. This morning, I want us to look
at verse 7. And I want to speak to you plainly,
I hope clearly, I hope to your heart, for your soul's good,
about Christ, our Passover. As Israel was preserved from
death and destruction, and delivered out of Egypt by the blood of
the Paschal Lamb and the mighty stretched out arm of God Almighty,
so God's true Israel, all God's elect, have been delivered from
death by the sacrifice of Christ, who is our Passover. And all
God's Israel, none excepted, all to whom God made the covenant
promise of deliverance, all God's Israel shall at the time of God's
appointment be delivered from death and destruction by the
power of His grace, by the irresistible might of His Holy Spirit. Now
let's look at the context for a minute. We read earlier the
context in 1 Corinthians chapter 5. And I'm not going to spend
much time on the context, because that's not the most important
part. But it would be irresponsible
and negligent of me to ignore the first part of this passage. Purge out, therefore, the old
leaven, that you may be a new lump as you are unleavened. And the context, Paul, is dealing
with the matter of a horrible fault in the church of Corinth.
And this church had plenty of faults. All of us do. It was
indeed a church of Christ. It was indeed a church of God,
where Christ was worshiped, where his gospel was honored, where
the truth was proclaimed. But it was a church like Grace
Church in Danville, made up of sinful men and women walking
upon the earth, and they had their problems. They were terribly
divisive. Apparently a very large, wealthy
congregation, but terribly divisive, terribly proud. They were a congregation
that liked to show off. But they had a problem with regard
to one man who apparently was a prominent member of the congregation. who had committed fornication
openly, not some secret thing, not something that was questionable,
but openly. And everybody knew it, and it
got to be reported to Paul. It was fornication, not ordinary
fornication, as if You can call that ordinary. But this fellow
had taken his father's wife and moved her into the house with
him and slept, sleeping with him in the same house, sleeping
together as man and wife in fornication. Now, this was a matter that had
to be dealt with. The church at Corinth seemed
to ignore this. They think, boy, that's strange. It's not really so strange. You
see, in that day, as in our day, the religious world, the whole
religious world, looked upon fornication, adultery, even incest,
and for the most part, even pedophilia. That's a real pretty word for
ugly, horrid, beastly behavior. But they looked upon them as
acceptable things. Might not be what I want my son
or daughter to engage in, but no big deal. No real problem. In fact, in many of the pagan
Gentile temples, fornication and adultery, prostitution, were
actually actively promoted. They were looked upon as just
harmless things, indifferent things. Sound like anybody nowadays? Well, what can it hurt just two
adults consenting adults to do what they want to? What could
be wrong with that? God speaks. That's what's wrong
with it. That's what's wrong with it.
God speaks. It's destructive. It's just many
things. Now, this command to purge out
the leaven refers to the incestuous man. It's certainly, if that's
what Paul's command here refers to, It certainly simply means
this. Separate yourselves from him
as a church body. Paul says, with such a one, one
who is called a brother. He didn't say, now, you fellas,
y'all go live like hermits, and y'all don't ever have anything
to do with God, but don't buy groceries from a fella who doesn't
go to church with you, don't go to this store because they
sell that, or they do that. He's not talking about it. He
makes it very clear. But he says, if a man calls himself a brother,
And he behaves in his way. Don't you eat with him. What
do you mean? Don't give any approval to his behavior. None. None whatever. None whatever. Boy, that's mean. That's hard.
No. No, no, no, no. Not if he's your brother. Not
if he's your brother. You see, I'm concerned for our society. But I wouldn't spend five minutes
I wouldn't spend five minutes trying to stop the sale of alcoholic
beverages in town. I wouldn't spend five minutes
trying to shut down porno shops. I'll leave that to the religious
folks who like to hoot and holler about that stuff. But I'm concerned
for you, for my brethren, for you. I had a friend who wrote
to me some time back in another country. And matter of fact,
it was when Faith and Doug were planning to get married, he said,
you know what? In our society, it has become
common even for Christians to just live together and try it
for a while. I wrote him back, and I said, not Christians. Not
in your society, not in mine. These things had to be dealt
with. Paul said, separate yourselves. Now, Paul is not here teaching
what men and women call church discipline as it is practiced
in our day. I say that for these reasons.
Number one, there is no man who has apostolic authority. Neither
Don Fortner nor Grace Baptist Church can turn a man over to
Satan for the destruction of the flesh. That can't be done.
You might say, well, we need to put him out of the church
so we can keep the church pure. That ain't going to make you
any more pure. That ain't going to happen. You need to put him
out of the church for a testimony to the world. The world ain't
going to understand. Now, children of God. Grace Church, individual believers,
Don Fortner, you, me, all of us, listen to me. Don't do anything
to make the world see you different. Every act you do, every gesture
you make, every word you speak, every piece of clothing you put
on, every function you engage in, by which you will have the
world say, look at yonder. Now, they're different. They're
godly folks. There's nothing on this earth but self-righteousness. Our Lord said, don't do it. He
said, don't do anything but be a sinner man. Don't do it but
be a sinner man. Well, what's the purpose then?
We want to maintain a good testimony in the community. Live blamelessly
before men. Live blamelessly. Don't give
them any reason to condemn you for anything. Live blamelessly
before them. Somebody says, well, I want folks
to see Jesus in me. They didn't see Jesus in Jesus.
They ain't going to see Him in you. Ain't going to happen. Well, why did Paul say separate
yourselves? Not to punish this man, but because you're lucky. Because you love Him. Because
you love Him. You don't want to see Him destroyed. The hope is to restore Him from
the evil. And that's what happened. In
2 Corinthians, Paul writes back to these fellows, he said, now
He's seen the evil of His ways. You take Him back now. Receive
Him as a brother. Don't be hard. Don't be mean.
Somebody says, How do you deal with evil? I don't consider myself capable
or having the ability or the background to give anyone advice
on raising children. When I didn't have any, and I
was 20 years old, I had plenty of advice. Well, I had one, but
she was just a baby. I had lots of advice. I didn't
mind a bit telling you exactly how you ought to raise your kids,
what you ought to do. I know what I'd do if I was in that
situation. No, you don't. No, you don't. But what you do with your family. He just said, now, honey, this
ain't going to be tolerated here. It ain't going to be tolerated
here. How come? Because I want you to understand,
this will destroy you. It'll destroy you. And it's not
going to be tolerated here. It's not going to happen. And
that's how we must deal with such things in our day. And there's a bigger reason than
you. There's a bigger reason than
Bobby Estes or Don Fortner. Paul says, from such a one, separate
yourself so that you can isolate him and keep him from influencing
others to evil. What can be wrong with this? Your children are watching you.
Children are watching you. And they ain't going to let you
destroy the children. And that's what Paul says. He said, now,
if the thing is to be taken with regard to this man, he's saying
to you and I, don't you give approval to such ungodly behavior. Don't you give a nod of approval. So how can you do that? Let me
see if I can illustrate it for you in another way. I sometimes
go places to preach where things are less than what I would want
them to be, where the pastor may be less than what I would
want him to be. My intention is to be of help.
My intention is to help the congregation, to help the pastor, to lead folks
into truth, to lead them into following Christ and preaching
the gospel. But if the time comes when it's
obvious that I'm not doing anything to move them Godward, by associating
with them in any way, Larry, all I'm doing is saying to the
world, I give my approval here. And you can't do it. You just
can't do it. But in the context, it seems obvious to me that Paul
is talking about something else altogether. He's talking about
something higher, something greater than the moral evil of this man
and how to deal with that. In the passage here in verse
7, he seems to move to something higher. It seems to me that Paul
is referring to the responsibility of each believer to walk circumspectly
with God. Reading the command in this way,
Paul's meaning is simply this. When he says to you and me, purge
out therefore the old leaven, that you may be a new lump as
you are unleavened. This is what he's saying. He's
saying, Bob Duff, you put off the old man. All the corruptions
and lust of your heart. All false doctrine. All insincerity
and hypocrisy. Because these things gradually
influence, corrupt, and destroy your life. You see, the religious world teaches us to watch others. The religious world, and it's
real natural to us. We love it. We just love it.
We love to watch one another. Did you hear what Bob Pontius
said? You know what I think he meant? Did you know what he was doing?
We love to watch each other, talk about each other, degrade
one another, look down on one another so we can thump our chest
and swear with pride. And Paul is not suggesting that
at all. What he's saying is, you purge out the leaven right
here. Right here. Purge it out. And
the night of Israel kept the Passover, it was not the responsibility
of David Peter Stein to come over to Don Fortnerstein's house
and sweep the leaven out of my house. That was not his responsibility. It was your responsibility to
sweep the leaven out of your house. And my responsibility
to sweep the leaven out of my house. Now, children of God,
see that you take it just this way. We are to put off the old
man and put on the new. Now watch what it says. That
you may be a new love. That we may be what we profess
to be. A people purified unto our God
by the blood of Christ. A people cleansed by the power
of His grace. A people delivered unto God out
of bondage and darkness. Now watch what he says. As you
are. What a strange way to put things,
as the world views it. But not strange at all, as we
understand the Scriptures. He says, you purge out the leaven. the old leaven of malice, the
old leaven of wickedness, the old leaven of insincerity. You
put that away. Put off the old man so that you
may be as you are unleavened, so that you may walk before God
in sincerity and truth, worshiping Him serving him as one who is
indeed made pure before him by the sacrifice of his darling
son and by the power of his grace. The Lord Jesus Christ has not
only chosen us and called us, but he has purified us unto himself
a peculiar people, zealous of good works. We are before God
by him, holy, unblinkable, and unreprovable. Let us then behave
as such. And then this is the reason.
For even Christ, our Passover, is sacrificed for us. We are not in any way tied to
the Old Testament laws and feasts and holy days. We are not in
any way tied to or commanded to keep old Sabbath days. to observe such in our day, to
observe any holy day, to observe any Sabbath day, to observe any
Old Testament ritual, even if we just sort of pretend we're
doing it. Now, sometimes you'll see folks that talk about Baptist
churches keeping the Passover. They talk about celebrating the
Day of Atonement. It is nothing short of base idolatry. It is to declare that Christ
has not yet come, that sin has not yet been put away, that justice
is not yet satisfied, that somehow something must yet be done by
us by which to find acceptance with God. The practice of these
things then is idolatry. We worship God in the spirit. Rejoice in Christ Jesus and have
no confidence in the flesh God is spirit they that worship him
must worship him in spirit and in truth Now, let me wrap this
up with this one statement Christ is our Passover Christ is our Passover He is
the sacrifice by which God Almighty has delivered us from the curse
of His law, the sacrifice by which the Lord God has purged
our souls from all ungodliness and uncleanness, making us white
before Him, giving us a new nature in Him. He is the sacrifice. by which God accepts us. He is
the sacrifice on which the Lord God looks and smiles at us and
declares us to be as he is. The purpose of the Old Testament
scripture was and is to set forth the Lord Jesus Christ in his
glorious person and work as our substitute and savior. And he
is set forth in the Old Testament in prophecies, in pictures, in
types, And without question, one of the clearest of these
types was the Passover. He is the Lamb of God by whose
death God's elect are delivered from sin, delivered from bondage,
delivered from death, and delivered to glory. Paschal Lamb by God
appointed, all our sins on thee were laid. Thy almighty love
anointed, thou hast full atonement made. All thy people are forgiven. Through the virtue of thy blood
opened is the gate of heaven. Peace is made to its man and
God." Christ, our Passover. is sacrificed for us. Therefore, we are unleavened
before God. Let us then continually purge
out the old leaven of malice and wickedness and serve our
God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. Come, feast upon
the Passover. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Trust the Son of God and live
forever. Amen.