Sermon Transcript — April 4, 2004
Good afternoon everyone. It's good to be with you on this high day of Unleavened Bread that we are commanded by God to come before Him and worship Him in spirit and truth and this is a wonderful possibility for all of us called at this time because it does expound an awful lot as to what is happening in our lives now and why we've been called as men and women, young and old alike as family members to be together as a spiritual family and covenant with God in a very wonderful way as pictured by this festival. It's the second great festival in the plan of God. There are seven festivals and in the early spring; we've already experienced Passover and now we are experiencing the Days of Unleavened Bread. We realize that this has something to do with putting out a physical substance called leaven and we've all been busy doing that and getting that out of the way but there's something far greater than that; then just the physical putting away of a substance that God wants us to have ingrained in our thought process so that we never forget the real significance of these days because these days have a powerful story to tell. They go back all the way to the Old Testament and they carry on into the New Testament and that is a very important area for us to keep in mind.
So many today have been disconnected with the reality of what the word of God is actually saying because they've been sold a bill of goods that is told them that the Old Testament is done away; that it does not have any meaning to us because "we're now under some new covenant;" quote unquote and with that in mind the purpose of that comes to mind in so many people's basic understanding of scripture is the following: that as long as I have accepted Jesus, that is all that matters and really there is nothing else. If I have accepted Jesus, then I should be all right, shouldn't I? Many people have taken that very simplistic approach of studying scripture to come up with the conclusion as to what it is they're supposed to do, if anything in their service to the Living God. But you and I have been called to see a deeper understanding of what is required on behalf of all of us as human beings and not only for us now but ultimately all mankind will come to this understanding in the process of time in this good plan of salvation that God is working out with every human being and many just don't know at this time what it is that God is doing. They wonder, they're perturbed, they're frustrated, but the scripture gives us answers to these things and that's why we go to the word of God because it is the final authority that gives us the answers that we cannot find any other place in terms of what mean it fits.
Today we have many sincere, well meaning Christians in name only. We call them professing Christians. Professing because they do profess that they believe in Jesus Christ and that's fine and good and they believe that because they are now called "under grace" unquote; that somehow they have an exemption clause from anything or any other obligations other than just to "love Jesus" and somehow love your fellow man but it's very general; it's not specific, it doesn't get into the real as we say, the nuts and bolts of Christianity from a biblical prospective and that's what we want to do today. We want to look into this subject a lot more deeply.
We're going to evaluate what the bible addresses and this will be the title of the message I want to discuss today with you: "Sin's Heavy Price Tag" because the scripture during these Days of Unleavened Bread are driving home this message that there is a heavy price tag to pay for those who allow themselves to walk in a way that the bible defines as sin or lawless behavior. This is something again that you and I cannot afford to flirt with as human beings; really nobody can. But the vast majority of human beings today really are biblically illiterate when it comes to really knowing what the word of God says. They've never studied to show themselves approved to God. They only have a token understanding of what scripture says so therefore they really become very uncomfortable with you when you start to spell out certain basic things because there's no point of reference for them. Well this is where we have to come in and gently set an example in our life. Our job in life is not to be a loud speaker to try to convert people and force things down their throat. Our job is to shine like a light, to let the light of God shine through our lives so that by our example because they're watching everything we say, think and do. They're just watching to see how we function; well why do you do this, well why do you take the approach you do, why do you keep and do certain things that other people don't do?
Well, this is something that we want to examine today and let's begin this afternoon by going to the book of Romans where the apostle Paul begins to address a very important aspect of this question because you see, you and I have been called to be action oriented individuals. I say and I want to stress again action oriented individuals; not passive but action oriented individuals and that is a necessary and tackling the sin question that we all struggle with. If we are not action oriented then sin can overpower us. We have to take action to defeat the potential for what the scripture calls sin behavior or lawlessness and we are all guilty of lawlessness as the scripture says and we've all sinned and come short of the glory of God. We know that from Paul's writings and now he begins in Romans chapter 6 in verse 1 to address something that I think we all need to focus in on. This apparently was a question that arose back in his day and he addresses it and he wants people to understand it because of the attitude that was being embraced by the people at that time.
Romans 6:1 What shall we say then? (How shall we look at this particular question about sin?) Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?
In other words can we continue to live the same kind of life style that we have lived prior to supposedly conversion and accepting Jesus Christ? Is that all that is necessary? You can just accept Christ and just carry on as you have been. The answer is emphatically no. That's what these Days of Unleavened Bread drive home this very, very powerful point. If you remember the story in the Old Testament when God began to work first of all with His people called the Israelites, the Hebrew people. What did He do? He set the stage for what we commonly refer to as the Passover and then He instituted the days following called the Days of Unleavened Bread. Now after the Passover was observed, how were they supposed to conduct themselves? Well if you remember the story, they were to have their shoes on their feet, their sandals so to speak, their staff in hand and everything was as we would say: "On your mark, get set, go!" Be ready to move out in haste when the word is given. Now they couldn't do that until morning when the sun arose and then it was time to finish out what needed to be done as far as getting rid of the last residue of the Passover lamb that they had observed the night before. Then they gathered all their materials together and then on the night of the 15th under that full moon, they moved out just exactly as God had said 430 years later. Now that's a very significant thing and God wanted the Israelites to remember in all their generations. In fact some translations say that these things when it talks about these holy days and these festivals of God, they are never to be advocated, you are never to do away with them, there is no reason to ever do away with them because they spell out in the Old Testament what you must understand about your calling in the New Testament; they go hand in glove together. If you leave one out, you have no way of comprehending what Paul is talking about in the New Testament. He's talking about things and then he keeps referring to something back in the Old Testament and you wonder why he's going back there if it's all done away. Well it's not done away. Let's take a quick look at this again as we move along back to Romans chapter 6, He says:
Romans 6:1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace (this wonderful gift of God) may abound?
And the answer in verse 2 is:
Verse 2: God forbid (or in the Greek it's Ginomai meaning be it not so, be it not so, that is not God's desire) How shall we (it goes on to say) who are dead to sin
Now what makes us dead to sin? It is when we are baptized into the death, burial and then Resurrection of Jesus Christ. When that transpires, now we're walking in newness of life the bible refers to it. So once that happens, if we are now in that state and we come out of the grave and we now, so to speak a watery grave and we are now walking in the footsteps of Jesus Christ to follow His example, then what are we supposed to do? Should we continue like we've always done? Answer: No! But rather that grace may abound? No!
Verse 15: What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace. When He uses that term under the law but under grace, He's showing a comparison here, that these people were locked in under this idea of God's wonderful mercy and grace which is wonderful because we couldn't survive without it. But he wanted to set the record straight because they had this idea that there's no need now to be worried about anything concerning the law of God.
Now when it uses this expression, verse 16 clearly shows that we must not yield to sin in our lives, we must not cave into it or surrender to it; that's the biblical admonition and so we have a serious responsibility when it says we are not under the law, it merely means we are not under the penalty of it as long as we continue in a state of grace by God's gracious hand. But allows us then to stay in a state of grace? Only when we then pledge our allegiance to God and determine now that we will do what we did not do prior to that with the help of God and that is; we will now walk in His ways, keep His commandments, do those things that are pleasing in His sight. This is very important because in Galatians it talks about the curse of the law. Well the curse of the law is not the law itself; the curse is the punishment that comes from violating the law.
You know exactly from man's law what would happen if you tried to go flying down an expressway at 100 miles an hour and pass a trooper here in the state of Georgia and you'd see his blue car and it would go whoos. All of a sudden, he sees you coming and guess what? He wants to strike up a relationship with you in a hurry. So he comes with his blue lights flashing at you and he says: "Hey, don't you know what you did? You violated the law, I caught you going 100 miles an hour." "Who me? I can do anything I want on these highways." Can you imagine telling an officer that? "You want to say that again? I'll give you two tickets next time." An officer is there to enforce the law and that's what God's law is. It's designed to enforce right behavior, to guide us and give us the direction that we need to travel. We know we have to do it in man's laws. Are God's laws any less than that? Do we take man's laws and put them above the laws of the living God? Not according to the apostle Paul. He says a curse is when you violate the law. You get a ticket when you break man's law. When you go down 70 miles an hour according to the speed limit, you can pass the trooper and he'll wave at you, he won't stop you and give you a ticket because you're not a law breaker and that is a very important thing that God is driving home now to the Israelites. They have lived a lifestyle in Old Testament times of law breaking. They were slaves, they could not do anything except what the Egyptians told them to do and when you're a slave to sin, that's exactly what happens. You cannot do anything except wrong things and this is part of what the New Testament then begins to show us and reveal to us that look back there at that role model. So Paul meant in Romans 15 when he said: "All those things back there were written for our learning."
In I Corinthians 10 and see again how the apostle Paul was driven back to these examples that we find in Old Testament times.
I Corinthians 10:1 Moreover brethren (he's talking to converted men and women, people in the Church of God who were called at that time in the Corinthian Church of God and he says) I would not have you ignorant how all that our fathers were under the cloud and all passed through the sea,
Verse 2: They were all baptized, (All in the figure so to speak. Then he goes on and he says:)
Verse 6: Now these things were our examples, to the intent (or for the purpose; and what is that purpose?) that we should not lust (or desire. Now this means inordinate desire, it doesn't mean lawful desire, it's inordinate desire) after evil things as (as they did because their human nature went after things that God said no. That's what's kind of shocking because when you look and see how they were thinking as a people and then you realize God brought them out according to the example of Moses leading them out of Egypt and then what ends up happening? They totally missed the picture of the freedom that God was giving them. He was giving them freedom to walk a new way of life; something they had never known as a people for so many years. Now the deliverer had come, a type of Christ just as the New Testament teaches you and I have a deliverer who came into our lives to bring us something that we could not achieve of and by ourselves.)
These Days of Unleavened Bread remind us of this very thing; that as the Israelites were told to get out in haste away from this sinful environment called Egypt because Egypt is a type of sin as pictured in scripture. You and I are told to be very much on guard and to avoid anything in terms of sinful surroundings, sinful situations that could bring havoc into our life. This is what we must constantly be alert to and we live in a world which influences us today just as much as that world influenced the Israelites of old. Notice what they ran into, some of the problems:
Verse 7: Neither be ye idolaters, as some of them were.
Not all of them but some of them and we could end up falling into the trap of idolatry today. "Oh well, you know, I don't bow down to idols." Well, people bow down to the way they look at things; that can become an idol. Idols in you mind and heart. People today bow down before things such as automobiles; it's their idols. Watch them sometimes and you see them as they wash them and scrub them and clean them and if you think it's not an idol, go up and touch it when they're there and watch them react. They will get on you very quickly to let you know: "What are you doing with my car?" It's their car because you see they have great and if you're sophisticated if you have one of these cars, you don't call it a Jaguar anymore you call it a Jag-u-are. That shows you have a higher level of sophistication with your God. I'm just being facetious obviously; you're with me enough and you know that it's the world we live in. In the advertising world we live in just bombards us constantly with this thing.
So we have idols today and we're warned in the New Testament: flee idolatry. That's just a valid reason for us today as it was for ancient Israel when they were coming out of a land that was filled with idols and I bought to your attention it is a real shame today and you know God does not look down with great happiness of heart when He sees in our country today as well as in England (modern day Israel) the descendents in the 21st century and what does He see? He sees all kinds of horrific edifices being raised to foreign gods, lavishly spent with all kinds of accruements to foreign gods which God says: "You shall not have any God before Me." It's happening right before our eyes. You've seen them; I've seen them. You can drive down the streets and there's one right on the corner with its edifice all sparkling array. What god does it represent? Well you've got Hindu gods, Buddhist gods, all kinds of gods running around out there today. But you see in our country we allow that type of thing. But in God's desire, He said His people are not to allow things of this nature to be running extent. But that is unfortunate in our day and age today. Then He said:
Verse 8: Neither let us commit fornication as some of them did.
(Please note dear brethren) twenty three thousand people died during that episode.
That's a lot more then the twin towers and the twin towers was a terrible thing. It shook us all to our foundation like a modern day Pearl Harbor; that there would be people out there who would do such things; fly airplanes into buildings and murder people in cold blood. Well here in this particular case, these individual Israelites of Old Testament times got carried away in their sexual immorality and God was so displeased that He put a punishment upon them that took twenty three thousand of them because of their behavior. Now do we have sexual immorality running rampant today in our society? I think you know the answer to that question. It's all around us. You can look up on the billboards and you have to check your mind carefully because there are insinuations and things that are on billboards that are not clean and healthy. You have to be very careful what kind of a magazine you pick up going to a simple place like a grocery store called Kroger because you would think it's normal but they have taken many of the covers on these magazines which are generic magazines but they are giving you an awful lot of bare clad women on the front of those magazines. You know they're there, I've seen them, you've seen them and little children grow up seeing this and think, this is the way the world is. It says normal, natural and God says: "No, that's how far you have sunk down the ladder into depravity and you have forsaken Me, the Living God and Living Waters and you've hued out cisterns that hold no waters. You lean to your own understanding in this area." Then of course in verse 10 it says:
Verse 10: They murmured like crazy back then.
They always had something to grumble, gripe and complain about and listen to our day and age today if we don't live in a grumbling, griping society. They grumble on the job, they grumble at school, they grumble you know, anywhere else. On the golf course, they've got to grumble; anywhere they go they grumble. Instead of giving thanks to God for all the many wonderful blessings we have, all we hear is more murmuring, more complaining, we don't have this, we don't have that and yet we have more than most people on the face of the earth will ever have in their lifetime. All you have to do to see that reality is either take a visual tour by a computer overseas, take pictures of what goes on in other countries or go to a third world country and you will be so happy to be as they say back in the good old U.S.A. There's no place like this wonderful place that God has so poured out His blessings and we have much to be thankful for.
Verse 11: Now all these things happened to them (God wants us to realize all that's recorded that God put down there happened) for examples and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages are come.
Meaning we are supposed to gleam from this and get the message of what happened to them and make sure it doesn't impact us.
Now the book of James, chapter 1 gives a very important clue of something that we must always be mindful of. We can never turn the gun on God and say it's all His fault. Notice what God says:
James 1:13 Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted by God; for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempts He any man; (or woman)
Verse 14: But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed.
Something happens in the inner sanctum of the very individual and knows that inner sanctum that is in the mind or the bible calls the heart. It's not taking about the physical organ of the body, it's talking about that inner sanctum area where a thought is born, in the mind and then we cultivate this thought and we work this thought and desires and that how do I implement this? Now this is what we are told in Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28. This is what happens in Satan or Lucifer's mind. He cultivated an idea that had never been thought of before apparently up to that time. What was that? The bible tells us: what would it be like if we stepped outside of God's guidance, His law, His rules? Wouldn't I be freer out there if I had no rules to guide me? I could just do anything I wanted to do by myself. Why do I have to stay here? Well the scripture goes on to tell us. It says: He abode not in the truth. That means he didn't stay living in the context of God's truth that is His word, His law, His commands. He stepped outside of that and when he did, God saw it. He says: There was iniquity that translates to lawlessness in your heart. You introduced a lawless style of living where you wanted to do it your way and even had the presumption to want to rise up and be above Me, your Creator. Well we know the rest of the story; that was his demise. He and the angels that fell for that wrong type of reasoning, it bought them down and so it says that when lust or this desire has conceived, it brings forth sin.
Now what is sin dear brethren? Sin is the transgression of the law of God. It's the lawlessness that comes forth when we do not submit our will to the will of God. At some point in time, Lucifer said: "I'm no longer going to submit my will to you, Almighty God." He would not do it to the one whom we know who became the Christ and as a result of that, he threw a tantrum if we can use that example and created an angelic sedition and rebellion that the bible gives us just somewhat of an overview and clue. It doesn't give us all the time factors, all the ramifications but it gives you enough to let you know how this did happen. People get fascinated something and say: "Well how did Lucifer get that in his mind?" Remember he was the greatest of the angelic creation and used his mind until his mind went against him. Now there are people today the same way. You can have some very brilliant people and they all of a sudden fall apart. Why? Their mind becomes their undoing. Their mind works against them and God does not want us to fall into that trap. He says then that lust when it conceives brings forth sin, the violation of God's law and when it is finished, it brings forth death.
What did it do after that rebellion of the angels? Well we know that it caused the death of the original universe that God had created. It wasn't created in chaos and confusion but it ended up that way because of a terrible space war and angelic creatures doing things that we have no way of fully grasping and comprehending. But then we're brought back on the scene, how God now reestablishes the earth, reestablishes mankind upon it and here we are as marvelous story that is conveyed in scripture.
All right, we have to be mindful that our heart plays a very important part. Romans 3 again if you'll turn back with me please. The apostle Paul asked this question?
Romans 3:31 Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid; yea, we establish the law.
So the law of God is established and here Paul, way after the death, burial and
Resurrection of Jesus Christ is still establishing the law of God. He's not doing away with it. Christ didn't do away with it and so it's important for us to keep that in mind because again all this is driving home a very important point during the Days of Unleavened Bread. You must execute quickly whenever any element of sin arises in your life. You must get away from it fast. Don't play with it. Two of the critical areas that the bible warns you and says you will not stand no matter what you think; if you flirt with idolatry and if you flirt with immorality. You force yourself up against those two and you can think you're the greatest person on the face of the earth but you will find you will fall because the scripture says if you think you stand in your heart, take heed lest you fall. There are people who say: "Oh that won't happen to me." You've got to know that anything can happen to you. That ought to scare the daylights out of you as a human being to realize we are but dust of the ground. It is God who is supreme, it is God who is the source of our strength and if we're not crying out to Him for that help then we're trying to do it on our own strength and we don't have very much, being dust. We just don't have it. But God has everything to supply our every need and that's exactly what this whole holy day season is all about. He is the one who has provided the Savior for us in Christ our Passover and now He's commanded us to keep the Feast and come out of her my people and get on the road, get on the road, just like Egypt; don't stick around here My Israelite people, get out and so they were hustling during those next seven days to get out of there until they came to that final seventh day and it was the Red Sea situation.
Now all of this becomes very, very important to us on a yearly basis to review because there is an individual that came to Jesus Christ. You know now that if Jesus sees as the term He says: "My sheep hear My voice." Now do we? When He speaks do we take note of what He says? According to scripture in Matthew 19, verse 16 we have the following:
Matthew 19:16 And, behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?
Now that's a good question because we all deep down in our hearts want eternal life. God has put eternity in our hearts and if an individual does not want to live forever then it's usually because there are extenuating circumstances that may be depressing them or causing them to want to forfeit life when in reality a sane thinking person wants to live forever. A sane thinking person does not like contemplating that we have death in this world. You know that and I know that and it touches us all from time to time in one way or the other and we don't like thinking about it. But we have to deal with it and the only way we can deal with it rationally and intelligently is by listening to God and how He is going to conquer this enemy (death) once and for all and deliver the sons and daughters of God unto glory, honor and immortality, eternal life. That's what you and I hunger for and then in the meantime we certainly want God's blessing in this life to the very best of our ability.
Well, this man came to Jesus and in verse 17 he answered back and he said the following:
Verse 17: And he said unto him, Why are you calling me good? There is none good but one (and he sets the record straight, that one individual who is good is God and God only and then he goes on to say) but if you will enter into life, (notice what Jesus said) keep the commandments.
I won't go into the rest of the story there, but it says, He answered back: "Well which?" Then He said: "Well I've got all those." It showed He focused in on the ten commandments; the moral underpinning of all of God's commandments; the commandments that basically tell you how to love God with the first portion thereof, and how to love your fellow man with the latter portion thereof. Those all together summarize what the bible means when it says the love of God. This is the love of God that we keep His commandments and those commandments are not grievous; they were never designed to be grievous but a blessing if they will adhere to, but nobody has ever adhered to them prior to conversion and the bringing about of a wonderful transformation in the life of a man and a woman called conversion by God's hand. It's a work that God is doing and He does it through the power of His Holy Spirit. It's to the glory of Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God who is the author, the beginning One and the finisher of our faith.
Now how do we conquer and how do we do all this in terms of the reality of our every day life? Well we're told in scripture that the commandments play a very important part and so when someone says you can accept Jesus but there's nothing else you have to do, this individual is not telling the whole story properly. One will be very cautiously wise not to be taken in by that. The bible makes it very plain that Jesus understood that He had to keep His Father's commandments and He asked us to keep His commandments and to follow in the same footsteps.
Now can you imagine what it would be like to accept the Passover and then not come out of sin as pictured by the Days of Unleavened Bread? What do you end up having? You've accomplished nothing. You've had your sins forgiven and then you go right back to sin. You see why God ordained: Come out of her My people, Israel, get out of Egypt fast. This is what is very paramount for all of us to keep in mind because today in modern Christianity what you normally hear is this heavy influence or heavy emphasis is the word I would choose. The heavy emphasis is on accepting Christ. You know if you've accepted Christ, you're o.k. Well, accepting Christ is mandatory for all of us as human beings. Nobody will ever achieve their destiny as God purposed without accepting the Son of God. But, there's a very important aspect. Jesus own words said that there was more to it; that if you will enter into life, keep the commandments.
So this plays a very, very important part as a substantial addition to our every day life. We don't worship the commandments; we worship God who gave us the commandments. It guides us and keeps us in mind why His Sabbaths are important, why His Holy Days are important, why the health laws that many people today disregard and yet modern day medical science is coming on line and they're telling us that many of those things that even the bible talked about are correct; to stay away from certain elements that are going to do havoc to your bodily systems and so God has said there are certain things that He just merely put in simple terms; this one is clean, you can eat this stuff; this stuff is unclean, it's going to do havoc to your physical constitution. So God doesn't want you to mess with it and so those health laws are just as viable today as it was back in the days when God gave the Israelites those laws when He brought them out of the land of Egypt. We have the tithing laws, and all the others; the ones that changed now are the ceremonial and sacrificial laws. Ceremonial and sacrificial laws changed because again, you don't have the physical temple and you don't have sacrifices any longer. The Levitical system is past. We're now under a Melchizedek system according to the New Testament in reading the book of Hebrews.
So this again shows how if something changes, God is going to spell it out. Otherwise there's nothing that changes, you carry on but now you carry on with a spiritual emphasis rather than the physical emphasis that was brought out in the Old Testament examples.
Now Revelation, chapter 18; bringing this up into our day and age today. The book of Revelation, one of the last visions the apostle John received to emphasize the importance of events that were yet to take place and would happen very quickly. He said:
Revelation 18: 1 And after these things I John saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power and the earth was made bright with his glory, (literally lit up with his glory).
So you can see how this one engine is just so absolutely radiantly beautiful that it has this almost lighting up the whole area by His presence. It says in verse two:
Verse 2: And he cried mightily with a strong voice saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen and is become the habitation of all these things.
Now as it moves on down talking about this Babylon and how it waxed rich, it's talking about a system that is going to influence all mankind in these end times in which we find ourselves living so we have to be alert to this system is what the scripture is telling us. Then notice:
Verse 3: For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication,
Now some people like to say that wine always means grape juice in the bible but I'll tell you this folks, you get drunk on wine, you do not get drunk on grape juice. I've seen an awful lot of people sick on grape juice, but never drunk on it. If you've seen something contrary please let me know but in this particular case God says they literally just take an alcoholic beverage to excess, they are inviting in this spirit of the world and it seems in the term fornication showing immorality the relationships deal with spiritual violations of God's law and in many cases physical violations as well. It goes on:
They wax rich through these abundance of delicacies.
Verse 4: And I heard another voice from heaven saying: Come out of her my people.
This influence is tremendously damaging to anybody who just throws himself in line with it and He's saying like the ancient Israelites, you have to get away from it so in this case He says:
Come out of her my people, that you be not partakers of her sins.
What are sins? Lawless living in violation of the commandments of God. What does that translate to?
That you do not receive of her plagues.
God says there were plagues in the Old Testament that God used to break the back of ancient Egypt, a type of sin. He brought them down and set His people free and He's commanding those who hear His voice today through this prophetic word to come out of this system. We say, well how can I pastor, I'm stuck right in the middle of it, how do I come out of it? We are in it but we don't have to be a part of it. We don't have to subscribe to the mental frame of mind that says: hey, everything that's going down out there is A.O.K. We can resist in our minds. We can say no. We can make a choice in our hearts and minds eye that God says: " I see where your heart is. Your heart is with Me, not with the spirit of this world." So it goes on and He says that you receive not of her plagues. Warning! More plagues are coming!
Today we hear about HIV plagues. We hear about all kinds of health problem plagues with the social diseases. They have to put a fancy name, social diseases; that's called immorality diseases. That's what it's all about. They like to talk about adult something, let's call it what it is – adultery something because they're flirting with the spirit of adultery and it's going to hurt and really do havoc upon those in the lives of so many people who get involved in it.
But He says that there are other plagues going to come. Remember what those are? They're called the seven last plagues. The book of Revelation addresses that and it says it's coming down on a God rejecting world that when God out of love even tries to reach out and help mankind, He sees what they're doing and He allows a hailstorm to come down and all they had to do was call and say God I'm sorry, please, please stop the hail and He would have done it. What did they do? They cursed the God of heaven it says. They're so bent out of shape and gotten so wrong in their thinking, they cursed the God who could stop it and deliver them. So God has to punish mankind because He cannot give them His mercy because they had hardened their hearts against Him. That's what you read about here.
Now we're getting down to some very important areas. Let's take a look at Hebrews chapter 11. Here we have a case of Moses and Moses as the servant of God, after he had been trained, after he had been brought to a point of prominence to serve God now and the people of Israel, it said he had to make a choice; he had been called Pharaoh's son and he was actually the son of Pharaoh's daughter. Notice what it says:
Hebrews 11:25 Choosing rather to suffer the affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasure of sin for a season.
He had all the amenities of the day, he had everything Egypt's prominence could give and what does it say here? It says he chose to leave that behind and join with the people of God. Now why did he do that? Because he knew they were the people of God, that God had revealed to him that these people were going to have a special mission in life. Just like God has revealed to us; why are we here today? Because God has revealed to us that we have a mission in life. That mission is to preach the gospel to the very best of our ability in arc of what is a body of believers and to prepare a people for what? The coming Kingdom of God and that return that Jesus Christ promised would be in a coming period of time of great upheaval. We see many of those prophetic signs happening right now.
Verse 26: Esteeming the reproach for Christ and greater riches than the treasures in Egypt; for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward.
In other words he appreciated what God was going to do for the people of Israel and what He was going to do for Moses.
Now, you and I are commanded in Revelation 2:26, I won't turn there for sake of time. We're called to be over-comers and as over-comers the only way we can do that is with the help of God. But we have to make sure that we don't fall into a very dangerous trial.
We're told that our faith and confidence in God; it's in I John, chapter 5 verse 4 tells us that our faith is the key to overcoming the world. See, how do you deal with this? You come out of this world in faith and confidence in God. You look to God and say: "God, without You I'd dead, there's nothing I can do without You and I give You the credit, I give You the glory, I take nothing for myself, I could not even save myself if it were not for You and it is Your mercy that has given me the ability to stand because I've solidified myself to You. You've given me the ability to resist the devil, to flee from him, to get away from these things because I don't want to go back there. I don't ever want to go back nor have been." That's something we always have to ask ourselves because God's got to know our heart, He's got to know deep down inside what makes us tick and if we aren't committed to that, then we have this admonition as I Corinthians 5 verse 8 says that since Christ is our Passover sacrifice for us;
I Corinthians 5:8 Therefore, let is keep the feast, not with old leaven,
Don't come into the feast and bring all this garbage and baggage with you that are simple things that are hanging on you or causing you trouble. Make sure that stuff is buried beneath the blood of Jesus Christ and then take every day, one day at a time and walk with God and ask God to help you make it the best day possible. When you stumble and when you falter which we all will do at some time or another, then cry out and ask God in the multitude of His mercy to forgive us and He will. We have countless examples of one after another given in the scriptures when individuals like David, when even a wicked King like Manasseh cried out to God, God was willing to forgive them when they really meant it, when they were really were wanting to change. So there becomes a very powerful story of the Days of Unleavened Bread and it goes on to say:
neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
He brings this in showing from the Old Testament, unleavened bread; the New Testament church understood; they put physical leaven out but there was spiritually leaven they had to be mindful of and they had to make sure that they were operating with sincerity and truth.
Now the Passover and Days of Unleavened Bread are very powerful in their meaning to us in our lifetime now. But can you imagine how so many others today have been led to believe that by accepting Jesus Christ which is fine and good, yet they still have somehow the idea that they are going to reap the rewards of all that God has said and some even come forth with ideas like, once saved always saved and yet that is not what Jesus said, He said: "If he will enter into life and why do you call Me Lord, Lord and do not the things which I say."
Now we're committed to want to do the things thatJesus said. We want to be His sheep, we want to hear His voice, we want that ear to be cocked and listen to so that we understand what He is saying. One final scripture, let's go to the book of Hebrews up front to chapter 3 and see how this comes down to our day and age today as member of the Church of God.
Hebrews 3:7 Wherefore, as the Holy Spirit says, Today
Now it says capital letters, that takes you back to the Psalms and it shows that it is a reference to the Sabbath day. Now we're on a high Sabbath day today so let's apply in that context.
If you will hear His voice
Notice, you've still got to be listening to that voice and if you're part of the sheepfold, it says My sheep hear My voice and it also goes on to say it is imperative that what we must not do.
Verse 8: Harden not your hearts
Did I say earlier that the title of this message was what? Sin's heavy price tag and this is what it is all about. It is a warning how that when sin is involved in our lives it hardens us. When you become a law breaker to the word of God and you do not desire to submit to what God's instructions are, your heart becomes hardens and if it goes too far it can become an unrepentant heart.
In this world we have what are called hardened criminals. We have a lot of people who are criminals. They step across the line, they break the law, they go to jail for breaking the law. But we don't call them hardened criminals. They've paid their duty to society, they're back out on the street; they're good citizens, they've learned their lesson, they say: "I don't want to go back there, never want to go back there." They learn their lesson in a hurry. That's what God wants us to learn. If I learn my lesson in a hurry, I don't ever want to go back to Egypt. I don't ever want to go back to those things.
Hardened criminals are different; they are a different breed. Any law enforcement officer will tell you this. The Bureau of Admissions knows that 1% of a 10% area and 1% are vicious hardened criminals. They would slit your throat and never bat an eyelash, that's how hardened they are. They have no sensitivity to the precious gift of human life. They'd wipe you out in a flash. They're hardened. This is what God is warning about, He says because hardness of the heart does something to a human being's spirit. We all have a spirit, the spirit of man and when that becomes hardened, then we have trouble, big time.
Notice how He said, how He brings back again the Old Testament example of the Israelites.
Verse 8: Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation,
You hear the word today provocation, you know, there were provocation by the Israelis, provocation by the Americans, provocation by the Iraqis, provocation by the Communist.
It really means in your face. It means somebody is accusing somebody of doing something or stirring up a hornet's nest. In this case the Israelites had a provocation, they were in God's face. They were stirring up a hornet's nest of lawlessness and it says:
In the day of temptation in the wilderness.
So here God begins to lead them and what they end up doing:
Verse 9: When your fathers put me to the test, proved me and saw my works forty years.
They want to push at God. God knows how to push back. We don't want to tempt God.
Verse 10: Wherefore, I was grieved with that generation and said that they do always err in their hearts
Where is the problem? Where do the difficulties come? Notice. In their heart. In the thought process, they get out of whack, out of sync.
And they have not known my ways.
Verse 11: So I swore in my wrath. They shall not enter into my rest.
What were they promised? The promised land. A land flowing with milk and honey. Man, coming out of the brick pits of Egypt and all that sin and now you have the opportunity to come over here in a land flowing with milk and honey and what ends up happening? Well, they never made it and they never made it because they created this problem for themselves. They stiffened up their hearts; they stiffened up as we say, their will against God.
Verse 12: Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.
Verse 13: But exhort one another daily, while it is called Today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.
What does sin do? It hardens you through the deceitfulness of sin. Sin has a deceitful quality. This is the terrible price tag of sin and why God says we must stay away from it.
Verse 15: While it is said, Today if you will hear His voice
That's double emphasis to show the importance thereof.
So what we see here is that the ancient Israelites lost the promised land because they didn't put sin out of their life. They never made it. The ones that thought they'd never make it, God made them cross over.
Now you and I are told that the Kingdom of God is before us all and you and I want it desperately but we'll only have it by God's grace. We have to let Him know we really want to be there and if we tell Him we really want to be there, be rest assured as we strive to come out of sin in our own personal lives that God will bring us ultimately to the Kingdom of God to His glory and to His honor.
Happy Feast everyone.