Let's turn again tonight to the
book of Leviticus chapter 23. Leviticus chapter 23. And the Lord spake unto Moses,
saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them
concerning the feast of the Lord, which you shall proclaim to be
holy convocations, even these are my feast. Six days shall
work be done, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of rest and
holy convocation. You shall do no work therein,
It is the Sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings. These
are the feasts of the Lord, even holy convocations, which you
shall proclaim in their seasons. And the 14th day of the first
month, at even, is the Lord's Passover. And on the 15th day
of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread unto the
Lord, Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. And 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. And the seventh day is an holy
convocation. You shall do no servile work
therein. We began three Wednesday evenings
ago looking at these feasts that God gave to the nation of Israel
and looking at them with these two verses of scripture in the
New Testament in mind. The first one in Hebrews 10 in
verse 1, for the law having a shadow of good things to come. We know
this law that we're looking at, the law which was given to Israel
at Mount Sinai, contained the gospel. But it contained the
gospel in shadows and symbols and types as we see in each of
these feasts. And another verse that we thought
about is Galatians 3, where the scripture says, wherefore the
law was our schoolmaster. to bring us unto Christ that
we might be justified by faith. That was one of the purposes
of the law as a teacher, but not to end with itself, but to
bring us always to Christ, to lead us to Christ, to picture
Him. Now tonight, we've already looked
at two of these feasts, the seventh-day Sabbath, which was a weekly day
of rest, And we saw that that pictured Christ. He is the believer's
rest. Come unto me, all ye that labor
and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. We look to Christ
for spiritual rest. This Sabbath was a day of physical
rest, but it pictured the spiritual rest that we find in him. And then the second feast we
looked at last time was the feast of the Passover. And tonight
we've come to the third, which is the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Now, the first thing we notice
about this feast, as we read here in Leviticus 23, the first
thing we notice is that it is connected with the Feast of the
Passover. The Feast of the Passover was
commanded to be observed on the 14th day of the first month,
and then the Feast of Unleavened Bread began on the 15th day of
the same month. Now, as I said last week, the
way the Jewish people looked at a day, it was 6 p.m. to 6 p.m. So think about it,
on the 14th day, they would eat the Passover. Well, the 15th
day would begin at six o'clock in the afternoon or the evening,
and that's when this feast of unleavened bread would begin. In the New Testament, I point
this out to us because in the New Testament, these two feasts
are pretty much connected together. For instance, I give us two examples. In Mark chapter 14 in verse one,
we read, after two days was the feast of the Passover and of
unleavened bread. And then in Luke chapter 22,
concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, now the feast of unleavened bread
drew nigh, which is called the Passover. So they were connected
together on the 14th day, the Feast of the Passover on the
15th day, the Feast of Unleavened Bread. In Exodus chapter 12,
we know that's where we read all about the Passover, when
God told Moses what he was going to do. He was going to pass over
Israel that night and where the blood of a lamb was not applied
on the doorpost, that death of the firstborn would take place
in those houses. But they were told, we saw this
last week, that the lamb whose blood was applied, they were
to roast that lamb and to eat that lamb that night and anything
that remained until the next day, the next morning, it was
all to be burned with fire. But they were to eat that Passover
lamb with bitter herbs and also with unleavened bread. So think
about it, they eat the Passover with bitter herbs and unleavened
bread and then at 6 p.m. they go into the feast of the
Passover. So they're all connected together. Let me just say this about the
bitter herbs. What was that? Why would they
eat the Passover with bitter herbs? It was to picture the
bitter enslavement. They were slaves that had been
in slavery for over 400 years. And their situation was bitter,
as the situation of a slave would be. And of course, it pictures
to us how that the blood of the Passover lamb delivered them
from that bitterness, that slavery. And that's what salvation is,
isn't it? It's deliverance from the slavery
of sin, the dominion of sin, the dominion of Satan. And that's
what the Passover lamb pictured to them, the blood of the lamb.
And then they were to eat it with unleavened bread, which
pictured the haste in which it was to be eaten. They didn't
have time for their bread, their dough to leaven. When God told them to leave on
that night, and even the Egyptians joined in, let me read you this
verse. The Egyptians were urgent that
night upon the people, that they might send them out of the land
in haste They were desirous after all that God had done, all the
signs that God had brought upon the land of Egypt. And then that
night when, as I said, the firstborn in every house, and yes, every
house, there was death in every house, right? In every house there was death,
either the death of the Passover lamb or the firstborn in that
family. But there was death in every
house and the scripture says there was a cry that went up
in the land. I can just imagine what a bitter
cry that was that was heard that night as people realized their
oldest son was no more with them. God had taken that person. And it was all over the land
except where the blood was supplied. That's the way it's going to
be, isn't it? When the Lord comes again, when
he comes again and people may be very moral and they may be
very religious, but if they have not applied to the blood or had
the blood applied to them, they're going to be left and there's
going to be wailing and gnashing of teeth as the scriptures describe
it. But let's go on. The Feast of
Unleavened Bread lasted seven days. That's what we read here
in our text tonight. Let's look once again, beginning
with verse six. And on the 15th day of the same
month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread unto the Lord seven days. Seven days you shall eat unleavened
bread. On the first day, of this seven
days, they were to have a holy convocation. Now that word just
means an assembly. They were not commanded to assemble
in Jerusalem or where the tabernacle was, but wherever they lived
in the land, they were to have an assembly. And as I think about
that, God's people are sheep. They always have been. whether
they were saved in the Old Testament or in the New Testament dispensation,
God's children are sheep. The good shepherd gave his life
for the sheep. And that's one thing about sheep.
That's an animal that must live in a flock. They must assemble. There's a lot of animals that
can live by themselves. They can live alone, alone, you
know, a lone wolf or something like that, but not sheep. Sheep
are gregarious animals. That's the word they use, gregarious,
which means they must live in a flock because they need a shepherd. And we see here in this feast
on the first day and on the seventh day, they were to assemble. They
were to have a holy convocation. Let's read that again in verse
six. And on the 15th 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 so on the first of these seven days they met together
and on the seventh day they were to meet together As an assembly
a convocation Now The first day was the day
they went out of The day that they were delivered out of Egypt
Remember, we've got the Passover The death takes place in Egypt. Here's the 15th day. That's the
first day of this feast. It's a holy convocation because
it is in memory of God delivering them out of Egypt. And then on the seventh day is
another holy convocation. And on that day, that's the day
that God destroyed the armies of Pharaoh in the Red Sea on
the seventh day. And so these are commemorations,
no doubt, of God's deliverance and his destruction of the nation,
of the armies of Egypt. God has given us a commemoration
of his death, hasn't he? The Lord's table, the Lord's
supper. You know, I'm concerned that some people do not see this
as important as it is. I mean, it is important because
our Lord said, do this, do this. And you know, there's some churches,
Charles Spurgeon's church, they observe the Lord's table every
Sunday. And some people told him, well,
it'll become old hat to you. They didn't use that word, That's
what they meant. It just becomes so casual. You know, you do it every week.
He said, no, it had just the opposite effect on the congregation
where he preached. And there's some churches here
in the States that do that also. We don't. We have the Lord's
Supper once a month, God willing, on the first Sunday. But it is
important, isn't it? that we participate, this do
in remembrance of me. And they had to meet on that
first day and on the last day to commemorate what God had done
for them. Now you notice it says here in
verse eight, but you shall offer an offering made by fire unto
the Lord seven days. Well, He didn't tell him here
what that offering was to be, did he? He just said you're to
make an offering by fire every day of these seven days. Got to go to the book of Numbers,
if you will. Look with me in Numbers chapter
28. Numbers chapter 28, and here
we're told what these offerings by fire were to be, beginning
with verse 16. And in the 14th day of the first
month is the Passover of the Lord, and in the 15th day of
this month is the feast. That is the feast of unleavened
bread, 15th day. Seven days shall unleavened bread
be eaten, and the first day shall be in holy convocation. You shall
do no manner of servile work therein. Now, these two days
were different from a Sabbath. A Sabbath day, they could do
no work. It was a day of rest. On these
two days, they could cook their food. We're not going to look
at the passage which reveals that. It's in Exodus. But you'll
find out that for this feast, they could light a fire. But
on the Sabbath day, they couldn't cook any food. They had to prepare
their food ahead of time. There was no work to be done
on a Sabbath according to the law. But this was somewhat different. But let's read, and in the 15th
day of this month is the feast. Seven days shall unleavened bread
be eaten, and the first day shall be at holy convocation. You shall
do no matter of servile work therein, but you shall offer
a sacrifice made by fire for a burnt offering unto the Lord.
Listen to what this offering was. Two young bullocks, one
ram, and seven lambs of the first year. They shall be unto you
without blemish, and their meat offering shall be a flour mingled
with oil. Three-tenths deal shalt you offer
for a bullock, and two-tenths deal for a ram. A several-tenths
deal shalt thou offer for every lamb throughout the seven lambs,
and Now notice this, and one goat for a sin offering to make
an atonement for you. Now, these offerings, look in verse
23. I didn't read that, but look
there. And you shall offer these beside the burn offering in the
morning, which is for a continual burn offering. Every morning,
a lamb was offered as a burnt offering. Every evening, a lamb
was offered as a burnt offering. Now, during the Feast of Unleavened
Bread, God tells them that they're to offer these animals besides
that lamb. Can you imagine how many animals
were sacrificed under the law? And yet the blood of all those
animals could not take away one sin. It could not remove one
sin. But yet the blood of these animals
could picture the blood of the Lamb of God, whose blood takes
away the sins of his people, completely removes the sins of
all his people. Now this says, and one goat for
a sin offering. Not one goat every day, but one
goat during these seven days was to be offered for a sin offering
And most of the writers believe that this one goat that was offered
for a sin offering for an atonement was offered on the first day
of the feast. I want you to listen to what
John Gill said concerning that, this sin offering, this one goat.
And I quote, for notwithstanding all their services and sacrifices,
and though this day was an holy convocation, Yet there was need
of a sin offering to expiate their guilt, typical of Christ,
who takes away the sins of our holy things as well as all other
sins. What does he mean by our holy
things? What would we call our holy things? Our prayers? Our fastings? Our repentance? our tears, even
in all of these things, we need a sacrifice to make them acceptable
unto God. Why? Because just like when God
said to them, when you build an altar, make it of stones,
don't you lift up a tool on those stones. If you take your hand
and chisel that stone out, you've polluted the altar. What polluted
it? The man, me, you. We need the Lord's grace and
mercy and Christ's blood to cleanse us and all of our holy things. When we come to worship, what
if God were to judge us just on the thoughts that sometimes
go through our mind when we're here, sitting here, worshiping
God. We need cleansing, don't we?
We need this atonement, and thank God we have it. And notice there in verse 24
of Numbers, after this manner you shall offer daily throughout
the seven days the meat of the sacrifice made by fire of a sweet
savor unto the Lord. It shall be offered beside the
continual burnt offering and his Drink offering. These sacrifices
were unto God a sweet smelling offering. Let me read that again. Sweet savor unto the Lord. Look with me in Ephesians 5.
Ephesians chapter 5. Verses one and two, be you therefore
followers of God as dear children and walk in love as Christ also
hath loved us and have given himself for us an offering and
a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savor. These sacrifices,
animal sacrifices, they picture the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Some people would tell us, and
some people teach, well, Christ was a good example, and he serves
as an example, or he died as a martyr for his cause. No, he
didn't die as a martyr. He didn't die as an example.
He died as a sacrifice for the sins of his people, to atone
for the sins of his people, for you and I. All right, we've looked
at the shadow now. We've looked at the shadow. Let's
look for just a few minutes at the body. At the body, what do
we see here? How does this apply unto us especially? We'll look in 1 Corinthians chapter
5. 1 Corinthians chapter 5 and verse
6. Your glorying is not good, Paul
writing to the church at Corinth. And we know they had a problem
in this church, had sin in this church. There was a man there
living with his father's wife, not his mother, but his father's
wife. And they went on, you know, well,
where grace abounds, where sin abounds, grace doth much more
abound. Paul said, no, your glorying
is not good. Now watch it. Know you not that
a little leaven leaveneth a whole lump? You know that, don't you? I don't know anything about baking.
And I'm going to show you that now. But some of you, when you
bake bread, I know you do this. You've got to have leaven in
that bread, in that dough, and then it rises. You just take
a little bit of leaven and put in there, and just a little leaven
before long, the whole lump of dough will be leavened. Isn't
that right? Okay. That's what Paul, just
a little leaven. Now, as far as I know, in every
place in the scripture except one, leaven is a type of sin. It's a picture of sin. When these
Israelites, when they observed this Passover, this feast of
unleavened bread, when they got into the land, They were very
diligent to search through their houses and clean out every little
nook and place in their cabinets to make sure there was no leaven
in their houses. I said there's one place and
I just believe it in our Lord's parable in Matthew 13 in verse
33. He gave this parable and he said,
the kingdom of heaven is likened to leaven. I don't believe it's
a picture of sin here, but everywhere else. He said, the kingdom of
heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took and hid in three
measures of milk till the whole was leaven. The gospel began
very small, very small, but it's grown. And the three measures
of wheat could well represent the three sons of Noah. Remember
when Noah came out of the ark, and all of us, all of mankind,
every person here in the world today is a descendant of one
of those three sons. And the leaven, the gospel, has
permeated and continues to grow and permeate all around the world. But here in 1 Corinthians 5,
as in Every other place, I assume,
it represents sin. Leaven does. It represents sin. Now, I have three observations
I want to make. Let me read two more scriptures
here. Let's read this again, beginning
with verse 6. 1 Corinthians 5 and verse 6. Your glorian is not good. Know
you not that a little leaven leaveneth a whole lot? Purge
out, therefore, the old leaven. that you may be a new love as
you 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. Now, three observations I want
to make on those verses. The Feast of Unleavened Bread
immediately followed the Passover. The Feast was connected, actually,
with the blood of the Passover. Your life as a believer, as a
child of God, your spiritual life begins with the blood of
the Passover. When you trust Christ, when you
look to Him and are cleansed or washed in His blood, your
life begins with the Passover, with Christ, our Passover. That's
where we receive the spiritual life that we have. I want you
to notice what Paul said there. You are unleavened. Look at that in verse seven.
Purge out therefore the old leaven that you may be a new lump as
you are. That's present tense, isn't it? As you are unleavened. Every believer, every child of
God before God Almighty is unleavened, has no sin. No sin. That's one of the promises of
the covenant of grace. Their sins and their iniquities
will I remember no more. Paul said to this church here
that they are, you are unleavened. Your sins are gone. But then
my second observation is this feast of unleavened bread consisted
of seven days, and that's a complete time period, seven days of one
week. This must represent the life
of a child of God. Even though we are unleavened
and before God, all our sins are gone, yet we are to purge
out, he says, purge out the old leaven. You're unleavened, but
purge out the old leaven. Before God, what I'm saying here
is before God, we have no sins. But as we live in this world,
our life here, a complete period, if it's one year, 10 years, 50
years, no matter, the seven days represent a complete time period. And during our life, We are to
be engaged and putting off the old man and putting on Christ,
putting out the leaven of our lives. And my last observation
is the leaven that is named in the scripture. The Lord Jesus,
he warned of the leaven of the Pharisees, the leaven of the
Sadducees and the leaven of the Herodians. The leaven of the
Pharisees, of course, is hypocrisy. Hypocrisy. Wanting or trying
to appear to be something that we're not. Hypocrisy. Put that
out. The leaven of the Sadducees was
denying the miraculous. They didn't believe in the resurrection. They didn't believe in angels.
Our God is a God of miracles. I know we're tempted sometimes
to think, well, that's all past and over. No, no, it's not. Your life is a miracle. God continues,
he's still able and continues to work in his world. And then
the Herodians, 11 of the Herodians was worldliness, no doubt, worldliness. material materialism. That was
the leaven of the Herodians. But notice here in the text,
the apostle says, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity
and truth. That's. To put out the old leaven,
to purge it out, and we are to serve the Lord with unleavened
bread of sincerity and of truth. One thing that should be true
of you and I, and I know it is, of God's people, that we're sincere. We're not playing church. I trust
we're not. We're sincere. And that's what
Paul is speaking about here. And we're people of the truth.
We love the truth. The Lord Jesus Christ, he is
the truth. I pray the Lord would bless these
thoughts to all of us here tonight.