Cleansed

You know, we're here. We're here, and it's been a busy week, hasn't it? There's been a lot of things going on, and they've gone on exactly as God would have us do. So let's begin today, back in Leviticus 23. We're here for a very good reason in compliance and obedience to God's commands. In Leviticus 23, God talks about this time of year that we're in, and there's a lot that happens on the 14th of Abib, the 15th of Abib, that we're in today. Later on in the week as well. Even tomorrow has significance in the Bible as we read here in the verse. I don't know if you noticed the full moon last night. I woke up in the middle of the night, went out at like 4 a.m., and there was the moon shining bright. I always say and appreciate seeing the full moon, because when I see the full moon, I know that we are observing the time that God has set aside for us at exactly the time that He designated. But in Leviticus 23, of course, we have God's appointed times. They're called feasts, but it really comes from the Hebrew word moed, appointed times. You see in verse 2 there that the appointed times of the Lord, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, and that's a key thing to remember when God sets appointed times, He asks His people to gather together, and there's a reason that He does that. Down in verse 4, then He says, These are the appointed times, the moed of the eternal, holy convocations, which you shall proclaim at their appointed times. On the 14th day of the first month, that's why light is the eternal's Passover, a holy convocation.

You need to bear that in mind. When God says holy convocation, He has something in mind of the way that we gather together and observe His holy times. On the 15th day of the same month, that's the day we're on today, is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the Eternal. Seven days you must eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall have a holy convocation, and we are here in compliance and obedience to what God has ordered us to do.

On the first day you shall have a holy convocation, you shall do no customary work in it. Offer an offering made by fire to the Lord for seven days, and on the seventh day, that'll be this coming Friday, will also be a holy convocation, you shall do no customary work in it. And so we have had a busy week with Passover on Thursday evening. We gathered together as we remembered Jesus Christ's sacrifice, and we talked that night about how the reason for anything is Jesus Christ. These holy days picture Jesus Christ. They are all for His glory. It's only because of Him that we know what we know, we know what we know, we know we have a future, we have everything without Jesus Christ, the plan of God, without Jesus Christ's sacrifice, the plan of God would not go on. God created mankind for a purpose. That Passover night in 31 A.D. was a key, key component in that because Jesus Christ fulfilled His part in it, assuring that the plan of God would go on, and that mankind would have the opportunity for eternal life. Not guaranteed eternal life, because we have our part in that as well. When we accept Jesus Christ's sacrifice, as we do when we repent and are baptized, and we receive the Holy Spirit, and we observe Passover every year with Him, when we commit to God and recommit to Him our lives, our minds, our hearts and souls, we say that we accept that sacrifice for payment of our sins, and we will live and follow the example of Jesus Christ from then on. It's not just about what His sacrifice is. He did it, but then we, if we accept it, go on and do the things that we talked about on Passover. Last night we observed the night to be much observed, as God said. As the days of the 11 bread begin, be there. Understand what God did. Focus on Him. He's the one who brought us out of Egypt. It wasn't you, it wasn't me, it wasn't our own thoughts or minds. God opened our minds. Jesus Christ made it possible. In ancient Israel on the 15th, when they went out of Egypt, in Numbers 33, verse 3, tells us it was on the 15th that they left Egypt. They didn't leave Egypt on the 14th on Passover day. They were there on Passover day. After they observed that Passover, the night that YHWH came down and He killed all the firstborn of Egypt, spared the Israelites, who obeyed God directly, explicitly, and did everything He said. He delivered them, and on the next day, they left Egypt. And then God said, you know, eat on love and bread for the next seven days. Today we're here on the first day of unleavened bread, the Holy Convocation, the first day that God said, gather together, keep this feast. And there's a reason that this feast follows Passover so close. And we'll talk about that in a little bit.

Tomorrow, if you go on to Leviticus 23, we see that to the ancient Israelites, there was this wave-sheaf offering that would occur on the day after the Sabbath that occurred during the days of unleavened bread. That day, as we're observing it this year, is tomorrow. Tomorrow would be the day after the Sabbath. And you can see that Pentecost, which will be after the days of unleavened bread, the next holy day that we observe is directly tied into the days of unleavened bread, and what God is doing, and what his plan is here.

And so, beginning from tomorrow, the wave-sheaf offering day, we will count seven Sabbaths. And on the fiftieth day from then, we will be back together here to observe the day of Pentecost. Without going into the detail, because we've spoken about the wave-sheaf offering and how Jesus Christ was the perfect fulfillment of that wave-sheaf offering many times before. So you can go back and you can read. You can go back and listen to prior sermons that talk about that.

That Jesus Christ was the perfect fulfillment of the wave-sheaf offering. The ancient Israelites waved the first fruits before God to be accepted, then the harvest could begin. Jesus Christ, on the same day of that wave-sheaf offering, tomorrow, was accepted by God. He sent into the heaven. God accepted him as the first of the first fruits, as it says in 1 Corinthians 15, 23.

Then the harvest could begin. You and I are part of that first fruits harvest that God is working with. We'll talk more about that as we get into later in the Pentecost. But it's all laid out here in God's plan. And today we observe that plan, and we remember what the plan of God is.

Jesus Christ took the first step in reconciling man to God. He gave his life willingly, suffered immensely, was willing to do that so that our sins could be forgiven. We accept, when we accept Jesus Christ, as we do when we're baptized, as we commit to God when we are at the Passover, baptized members each year, recommitting to him. We commit to him. We will follow. There is one way to eternal life. Only one way. Only through Jesus Christ. Only his way. Just as Jesus Christ lived his life in complete obedience and submission to God, completely obeying the law of God, the lay of life that God has established.

So we do the same thing. And then we learn as we give our lives to God that we are new creations, as it says in 2 Corinthians 5, 17. We are there, and as we have buried our old selves, and so we no longer want me. We no longer want what I did before. Everything I did before only led to death. But now Christ has led us to life, but we have to eat the things of life. And so we are here on the first day of Unleavened Bread. We spent the time prior to this examining ourselves, identifying the sin, identifying the wrong attitudes, maybe the compromises that we've made and justified in our minds as God has led us to see that.

And have put those behind understanding what we must do is exactly what God says. The purpose for our calling is to become like Jesus Christ, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. That's the reason God called us, and that's what we do. And the Days of Unleavened Bread, and the instructions that God gives us today, helps us to begin to realize that.

Let's go back to Romans 5. Romans 5. So in these days of Unleavened Bread, we have Christ's sacrifice, we have the forgiveness of sins. Tomorrow, during the days of Unleavened Bread, in the time that Christ died, He was resurrected during that time. And that resurrection gives us the hope of eternal life. God never commanded that we observe the resurrection of Christ as a holy day. The world has added that and changed. They've done away with Passover, done away with the days of Unleavened Bread, and then tried to make a holy day out of something that God didn't say to do.

But we do recognize the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the hope that it gives us. In Romans 5 and verses 8 to 10, it reminds us of what the time that we're in here. Romans 5, verse 8 says, When we think of the days of Unleavened Bread, as we're here on the first day of Unleavened Bread, what do we think of? What's the purpose for these days? Why did God command that we keep these days? Probably the first thing in our mind is eat Unleavened Bread and everything that it pictures. And yes, that is significant. God had a purpose in mind for Unleavened Bread and what we eat. But that isn't the main purpose that he gives us for observing these days that we're beginning today.

If we go back to Exodus 13, we see what is an explicit reason for keeping these days is. In Exodus 13, beginning in verse 3, we read at the end of chapter 12 that Israel has departed from Egypt. We know that occurred on the 15th of Abib.

And on that evening that we observed last night, they were out of Egypt for the first time, free from the bondage and slavery and death that Egypt spelled for them. And in verse 3 of Exodus 13, we see God commanding these holy days. Moses said to the people, Remember this day in which you went out of Egypt. That's this 15th of Abib. Remember this day in which you went out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. For by strength of hand, the eternal brought you out of this place. No leavened bread shall be eaten. On this day you are going out in the month Abib.

And then he goes on in verse 6, Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there shall be a feast to the eternal. Verse 7, On leavened bread shall be eaten seven days, and no leavened bread shall be seen among you, nor shall leaven be seen among you in all your quarters. We've done that. We've gone through the physical de-leavening. I'm sure we were very judicious and complete and looking through our homes, looking through our cars, trying and examining for everywhere that leavened it might be, and getting it out.

Exactly what God commanded to do. But as I've said before, if that's all we did, if all we did was the physical de-leavening, but at the same time we weren't looking at the spiritual de-leavening that God wanted us to have in our lives, then we've missed the point of these days. The physical de-leavening is absolutely important. It's commanded by God. But it has a greater meaning than just getting that baking soda and that yeast out of our house, and those cookies and the bread and everything.

It has a spiritual meaning that must be part of these days we will learn in the New Testament. In verse 8, God tells us why we keep these days, why He commanded these days to be kept. You shall tell your son in that day, saying, This is done because of what the Lord did for me when I came up from Egypt. It's recognizing Him. What did He do? He brought us out of Egypt. He, this whole holy-day season, is about what Jesus Christ did for us. And as we eat unleavened bread, it's part and flows directly from the Passover and the night to be much observed right into these days of unleavened bread. God said on the 14th, remember Christ's sacrifice. On the 15th, remember He brought you out of the world. On the 16th, you eat unleavened bread. You begin the rest of your life. You commit to God. But you do it because of what God did for us. That's important for us to remember. These days focus us on what God did. And then the unleavened bread lets us know how we please God, how we are grateful to Him, how we show our appreciation for what He has done. We see this in verse 9. He goes, When you keep these days of unleavened bread, it shall be as a sign to you on your hand, a memorial between your eyes, that His law may be in your mouth. Why? For with a strong hand, the eternal has brought you out of Egypt. It will be a sign between you and God. Eat unleavened bread for seven days. You recognize Christ's sacrifice. You recognize His only by His strength that you are out of the world and have life in front of you, rather than the hopelessness of life in the world and doing things according to our old way. Now eat unleavened bread as a sign between you and God. Now, for the Israelites, they left Egypt quickly and they just had the physical bread and they obeyed God. They just ate the unleavened bread. But we know that the unleavened bread stands for something more than just this flat bread that's going to be part of our homes for the next seven days. We just talked about unleavened bread and what it signifies at Passover. For those who were there, and even if you weren't there, you know what the New Testament talks about, unleavened bread. There is the time where Passover comes. And the first time that we're commanded in the Bible to eat unleavened bread is when? On the 14th at Passover. The same time that God commanded the ancient Israelites, with that Passover meal, you sacrifice the lamb and you eat it with bitter herbs and unleavened bread. And so when Christ observed that Passover and they kept the Passover meal, but afterwards, when the supper being ended, he instituted the new ordinances for Passover. And we eat the unleavened bread. We take that little piece of bread. What does it signify? Why would God say, that's a sign between you and me to keep these days of unleavened bread. You begin it at Passover, the first time you eat it, but then for the next seven days, you eat no leavened bread. You eat unleavened bread. And no leaven shall be seen among you. You can be turning over to John 6. But you know, as we put the leaven out of our homes, we know that what the physical leaven is, and Christ talks about what the spiritual leaven is that's supposed to be being put out of our lives as well.

We already mentioned that. The sin that can be compromised and justification for what we do, doing things a little bit different than what God said, and thinking that it's okay. It can be still being tied to the world or doing the things the way the world does. It can be attitudes that are not completely submitted to God and His will. And that just kind of still have that carnal nature that's in all of us. So we just want to resist God a little bit and think that it's okay if we do this or that.

All those things. Jesus Christ talks of the leaven of the doctrine of the Pharisees. And He says, beware of that leaven. Don't adopt the doctrine of the Pharisees. They may say that they have God's law, but they're not doing that. They've adopted something and they put their own traditions and their own ideas ahead of what God's clear command is. He said, don't do that. If you're doing that, put it out of your life. He said, beware of the leaven of Herod, the leaven of the world. It may seem okay. It may seem okay. It'll look okay. Come out of the world, He says.

He says, the leaven of hypocrisy. What do the Pharisees do? They said one thing, but they did another. Our words need to match our actions. We walk with God. Remember what that means. We take the due opportunities to follow God, as we discussed on a Bible study not too long ago. When we walk with Him, we follow Him. We do the things we take the opportunities to learn because He will teach us as we walk with Him. It's not just a leisurely walk. It's certainly a walk of joy. But we learn things along that walk.

It's not just about a nice stroll through life. It's all about preparing us for the time where God is leading us to His kingdom. But He says, come out of the world and the leaven of the doctrine, leaven of Herod, and the leaven of hypocrisy.

Our words must match our actions. But in John 6, we put all that out. We put all that out, and through the rest of our lives, we learn things about ourselves that we weed out as we come before God once a year to remember Christ's sacrifice and to recommit to Him. I hope I don't need that, but it'll be nice if I do, if that is there. We do that once a year. And in John 6, we read last on Passover.

Let's read it again. What the unleavened bread is. When we take that unleavened bread at Passover, we talk about what it signifies. It signifies many things. It signifies Christ's broken body, broken for us, that we can be reconciled to God. It signifies the unity that we're supposed to have with one another. One bread, one body, one God, one faith, one doctrine, one spirit, one baptism. It signifies what we eat. And Jesus Christ here in verse 48 of John 6 says, I am the bread of life.

Well, He certainly wasn't a loaf of bread. He's talking about what is going on here, who He is. And when we take that bread on Passover, we're taking of the body and life of Jesus Christ, making Him part of us. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness. They're dead. This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven.

If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I shall give is my flesh, which I give for the life of the world. Deep significance in the unleavened bread. Verse 56, he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him. We want Christ to dwell in us. If He doesn't dwell in us, we're none of His. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so He who feeds on me will live because of me.

This is the bread which came down from heaven. Not as your fathers ate the manna and are dead, He who eats this bread will live forever. Now, even the people in Christ's time, they couldn't really grasp what He was saying, but you and I do grasp what He's saying. If we want eternal life, if we want what God has offered to us, if we believe in Jesus Christ our Savior, if we believe He is the Son of God, then we do and we eat of that bread. When we eat physical bread, what happens?

Whatever we eat, it becomes part of us, right? The old saying is, you are what you eat. Sometimes people get sick. Sometimes we maybe need to not think of what medicines are out there, but look at the things. What are we eating? Because whatever we're eating may have led to that sickness. You can't heal sickness if you just keep doing the same thing over and over and over again. There has to be a change in life.

Whatever we live, whatever we did before in our prior lives, before God called us, and we yielded to Him, and we said we will follow you wherever you lead and whatever it takes and whatever trial or tribulation is in the way, whatever we were doing before only led to death. It has to be done away. It has to be put aside.

We have to ingest and we have to make part of us the things that lead to life. What does Jesus Christ say to life? He is the bread of life. We feed on Him.

And so there's a spiritual component of these days of unleavened bread. Paul addresses it many, many years after Christ was resurrected and ascended into heaven and at God's right hand in 1 Corinthians 5 when He's talking to the church at Corinth, He makes a specific statement that shows that He is the bread of life.

And it's the spiritual implications of the bread that we eat. In verse 7, 1 Corinthians 5, He says, Therefore purge out the old leaven. Get rid of it. Notice that word purge because we're going to see how unleavened bread, eating of the unleavened bread, the bread of life, helps us purge out the old. It's not just a matter of knowing. We have to purge out the old, the scrubbing that goes on with it. Therefore purge out the old leaven that you may be a new lump. Putting on those new clothes that we talked about a few weeks ago. Putting new wine into new wineskins. Since you are truly unleavened, for indeed Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us. Therefore, let's keep the feast. Not with old leaven, not with the leaven of malice and wickedness. There you go. That's that old leaven. That's the old self. That's the way that we did things. Not with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

You know, Jesus Christ said, Father, set your people apart by truth. Set them apart by truth. Where's truth? Truth is in the Word of God. In that Bible sitting on your laps. That's the only place where pure and unadulterated truth is today. Is in God's Word. That's where the bread of life we can read and we can digest.

So Jesus Christ said, Feed. Feed on me. Feed on me as you become a new creation. And part of what we do through our course of our lives is we renew our minds. Our minds, the way they were before we came into the church, were all set in one way.

And when we come into God's church, we ask Him, renew our minds. Romans 12, verses 1 and 2 says that, right? Be transformed to God. Renew our minds. Ephesians 5 verse 23, or 4 verse 23, says we're here for the renewing of our minds. Old ways, old thought patterns, old ways of reaction, old attitudes, old ideas, old compromises, old ways of thinking, hey, we're really good, we don't need to change. All that goes, our minds are renewed, how do they become renewed? Certainly with the promise of the Holy Spirit. But we have to use the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit leads us into understanding. The Holy Spirit leads us into truth. We have something to do with it and show that we want that as well. Christ made an interesting comment to the disciples on that night of Passover in John 15. In John 15, as they went out into the garden and he spoke to them before his arrest, he talked about, of course, he instituted the unleavened bread and the taking the bread, taking the wine, doing the fault washing service, signifying you're willing to serve whoever and God and however we are. He pictures the agape that he would like us all to develop. I won't say like us, but he requires us all to develop as part of his church. But in John 15, verse 3, he says this to the disciples, he says, You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. You're already clean because of the word I've spoken to you. Well, at this point, they had not received God's Holy Spirit. We know that didn't happen until the day of Pentecost. But they had been walking with Christ for three and a half years. They'd been listening to his word. They knew he was the Son of God.

John 14 tells us the Holy Spirit was with them, not yet in them, but they listened to his word. And the word of God, the bread of life, has this power of cleansing us. Christ said, You're already clean. You've paid attention to me. You've received my word. You're clean because of the word you've heard and you've accepted. You haven't fought it. Now, remember at the Passover service, when Christ says, when he starts the foot washing service, and Peter makes the comment, Christ, you're not going to wash my feet, and he says, then you have no part with me. I have to wash you. And he says, But you are all clean because they'd heard. But one there hadn't received the word. They were still of the opinion that their way, what Christ had said, what he stood for, didn't affect them at all. They were talking the talk. They weren't walking the walk. And Judas Iscariot, even though he had the same opportunities to hear Jesus Christ and hear his words, he never let go of what his will was and his desire and his covetousness for money. And so Christ said, You're not all clean. One of you haven't heard my word. You haven't paid attention to it. You haven't ingested it. It hasn't become part of you. It hasn't changed your mind. It hasn't changed the way that you think, the way you act, the way you respond, the way you do things. He was still doing it the old way, but the apostles weren't. And so there's this cleansing that comes as we eat unleavened bread. Now, a few years ago, I didn't go back and look at the thing. I mentioned that there's many properties of unleavened bread, the actual substance of unleavened bread. And one of them that a nutritionist wrote is that when we eat unleavened bread, it has a cleansing effect on our body. And so you may notice that later on in the week as you eat unleavened bread and only unleavened bread for seven days. Now, when God commands physical things to us, it's always for our good. He never asks us to do anything physically that's going to harm us, just like on the day of atonement. We fast. It's good for us to fast. It's good to refrain from food and water for a time. We learn spiritual lessons from it, and it's good for our body as well. So it's good to eat unleavened bread and only unleavened bread for seven days. There is some physical benefit to that. But the spiritual benefit is even more important than that because unleavened bread does have a cleansing effect on us. Jesus Christ said, you're clean because of the word that you've heard. Back in ancient Israel, hyssop. Remember, it was part of the Passover in Exodus 12. And it's interesting. Hyssop is a cleansing agent. And God said, when you spread that blood shed from the Lamb on your doorposts, take hyssop and just dip it in the blood.

Hyssop was part of Christ's sacrifice while he was being crucified. David, in the Prayer of Repentance that I know you've read before you came to Passover, what does he say? He says, purge me with hyssop. Purge me with hyssop. Cleanse my mind. Erase all these things from me. Give me a pure mind that I can serve you. Purge me with hyssop. There's a cleansing. There's a cleansing that must come. There's a purification that must come. That purification can only come through the bread of life. That purification can only come through the Word of God. And ingesting it and making part of us throughout our lives. In 1 John 3, we're all here today because we believe Jesus Christ. We're all here because we know the sacrifice that he made. I hope we're all here because we know we have to do it God's way and only God's way and exactly God's way. And if it's not God's way, we won't be in the kingdom. We have to learn and we have to do what God said to do. In 1 John 3, if we have the hope of eternal life, if we accept God's sacrifice, if we really believe him, then we'll be called to become pure. And that's a lifelong process. So we eat unleavened bread, not just for one day, not just at Passover, but the seven days signifies the rest of our lives. We eat unleavened bread. 1 John 3, verse 2, says, Beloved, now we are children of God. If we have God's Holy Spirit, he sees us as children, not yet born into the kingdom, but he is looking for us to be born as his spiritual children. If we continue to walk with him and continue to allow him to develop us and mature us to the point that we can be born into his kingdom. Beloved, now we are the children of God. It hasn't yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when he is revealed, we will be like him. Same thing that it says in Ephesians 4, for we shall see him as he is. And everyone who has this hope in him, everyone who has the hope of eternal life, what do they do? They purify themselves just as he is pure.

Unleavened bread. What does it mean? What do we do? Well, it cleanses. We can read a few verses. Let's go back a few books to Ephesians. Ephesians 5.

Ephesians 5 and verse... let's pick it up in verse 25.

As you read through the book of Ephesians, we've been talking about it on our Bible studies. Chapter 4 and the first part of chapter 5 that we read is what we put out of our lives. And God shows us when we put out of our lives what we need to replace it with. And as we come into the last part of Ephesians 5, he talks about some of the things that we do in our lives and how our lives need to change in the spiritual application of some of the just everyday things that we do in life.

In chapter... well, we'll begin in verse 24. In verses 24 down through 33 he talks about marriage. Marriage pictures something. It's a commitment between each other, the most important commitment we make in life, except for the commitment we make to Jesus Christ and to God the Father. And if we look at verse 25, he says, Now, we can pause for a moment because we've read those words over and over again.

Husbands, love your wives. That's agape. Love your wives just as Christ loved the church. How did Christ love the church? We've just talked about it. His will was to give the church, the body that he places you and me in, eternal life. His will is that we would become like him, that we could dwell with him forever, that every... well, it says that later on in Ephesians 5 here... that every spot and wrinkle would be erased. And that at the time of his return, those who yielded to him, and followed the goal that he set for us, and leads us along the path to purification that they would be there in fine, linen, bright, and white.

How did Christ love the church? He sacrificed himself for the church. He loved the church. He loved you and me, beyond anything that you and I can even fathom. That he was willing to die for us because he loved the church that much. I want them, Father, to be with me where I am. Remember he said that in John 17? And he was willing to go through everything he did because he loved the church that much.

Husbands, love your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her. Did Jesus Christ compromise with the wife? Did he say, well, this is what you want, so I'll just kind of do what you want, and blah, blah, blah? No! Jesus Christ is the spiritual head of the church. He is the head of this body that he has placed us in.

He doesn't compromise on God's law. When he lived his life, he never compromised and thought, I am this person and I am that. He did it exactly the way God said, following everything explicitly. So husbands, how did Christ love the church? He set the standard of spiritual strength in them. The husband is the one who is supposed to be the spiritual head of the family, leading the wife because he loves his wife and he wants her to have eternal life with him, doing the things that Jesus Christ did.

Not saying, it's okay, we'll do it your way, we'll compromise on that. And sometimes marriages have to remember that. Now, wives have a responsibility, too. When you marry, what do you do? You submit to your husband. Just as the church submits to Jesus Christ. We don't come into God and say, you know what, I accept Jesus Christ, but you know we're going to do it my way.

I'll choose where I'm going to submit. No! The commitment we made to God is we will submit fully to him. We believe you, we love you, we trust you, we have faith in you, we will follow you.

Jesus Christ never leads us to compromise. He never says, that's okay. And wives, the wife of Christ in Revelation 19, isn't going to be one that's battling. I'm saying, I don't want to do that. I don't like this, I don't like that, that makes me mad. She will have learned through the course of her life. Follow him, trust him. That's the way to joy. That's the way to peace. That's the way to life.

That's the way to eternity, where there is peace that surpasses all understanding. When that's in marriages today, people get that. When we live our lives that way today, we see the joy that is inexpressible in human terms. The world doesn't understand it, you can only understand it when you're living God's way.

So husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her. I'll back up to verse 22 here. So again, wives, have a responsibility to submit yourselves to your husbands. If he knows the truth, and you believe he knows the truth, and when you commit to him, you're becoming one. Just as God the Father said, my will, or Jesus Christ said, my will is, they, Father, become one with each other.

One with God the Father, one with Jesus Christ. That should be what happens in marriage as well. Submit to your husbands. But husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church. Why in verse 26? Why did he love us that way? That he might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the Word.

How are we cleansed? How does every spot and wrinkle disappear over the course of our lives? We follow God's Word. We read His Word. We listen to His Word. As we understand more and more of it, we adopt His way into our lives. We do things the way He said. Strength comes from God's Holy Spirit to do that. The determination comes from God's Holy Spirit to do that. He'll give us what we need to do. That He might sanctify. Sanctify what is Jesus Christ's Father? Sanctify them by truth. Your Word is truth. How are we set apart?

By His Word of truth. That He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the Word. That Bible. God's Word sitting in your lap. Your Bible that we read through every time we come before Him on Sabbath services. Every time we have a Bible study, we read God's Word. When you do your own personal Bible study, day by day, eating of that bread, that unleavened bread.

Let me make a comment on that, too. Sometimes I have heard people say that you don't need to eat unleavened bread every day of the seven days of unleavened bread. You don't ever eat leavened bread. But let me repeat what God said in Leviticus 23. You must eat unleavened bread. There is a lesson to be learned in that. The lesson of the days of unleavened bread is we eat the unleavened bread of life every day of our life. That's what sustains us. That's what guides us. That's what cleanses us. That's what purifies us. That's what becomes us. So during these days of unleavened bread, when you eat that bread every day, I should have read verse 9 in Exodus 13, God says that though the word, His word may be in your mouth, it guides what you do.

It guides what you think. It guides what you speak, heart, mind, and soul. That's what the goal is. And that's what these days picture when we accept Christ as our Savior, when we commit to Him to follow Him, we commit to His word cleansing us and purifying us for the rest of our lives.

As well as Exodus 5, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word. Why? That He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. That's what God's will for us is. That's what He will lead us to if we let Him, if we submit to Him, if we don't hold on to our old ideas and say, I'm not doing that, but we learn because we trust in God, yield to Him and do what He says to do. 2 Corinthians 7 And verse 1. 2 Corinthians 7 verse 1.

Therefore, Paul writes in the second letter to the church in Corinth, Therefore, having these promises, we know what the promises of God are, Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit. Let's cleanse ourselves, putting away the leaven of the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the world, the docked leaven of Herod, the leaven of hypocrisy. Let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. Where do we learn the fear of God? Wisdom is the beginning of the fear of God, the Word of God. When we do God's commandments, He says He will give us a perfect understanding of what it's like, but we have to do them. It's not enough to just know them, you have to do them. In Hebrews 9, we'll look at verses 13 through 15. Hebrews 9, verse 13, How much more his blood shed for us, his blood, his flesh that we eat of, that we partake of, that we said will become part of us, that we ask God, live in us. How do things get in us? We digest. We eat. Eat the flesh. Eat the bread of life. And for this reason, verse 15, He's the mediator of the new covenant by means of death. Why? For the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called, as you and me, may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance. These days of unleavened bread, a significant part of God's plan for mankind, you and I, know what it means now as firstfruits, the whole world, when God determines their time, they will go through the same process you and me do. They will have to accept Jesus Christ or reject Him. They will have to commit to Him or say, no, they will have to commit to Him fully, or if they reject any part of it, they will have their part of death because that's what sin leads to. They will have to become pure in their minds and hearts, just like you and I do now, when God has that in mind. So, eating unleavened bread, eating the bread of life, does cleanse us, does purify us. Among the other things that it does, bind us together, all those other things we talked about. Back in Psalm 119, David, under inspiration of God, talks to young people about that, because the young people in this room, they know the truth of God. They've been taught by their parents. They know who God is. They know who Jesus Christ is. They know who the truth is. It's their choice, too, to reject God and bring upon themselves death, or to yield themselves to God and follow the way that leads to life, the only way that leads to life. Again, life doesn't come from the world. Death comes from the world that's under the sway of Satan. Life only comes through Jesus Christ and yielding to Him. In Psalm 119, verse 8, verse 9, David writes, How can a young man cleanse his way? Well, how can a young man cleanse his way? What do we do? If God calls us to be clean, what do we do? How do we live our lives? And his answer? By taking heed according to your word. Living by every word that comes from the mouth of God. Just like Jesus Christ lived by, just like he said in Matthew 4.4, just like it says in Deuteronomy as well, live by every word of God. How do you cleanse your way? Take heed to his word. Eat the bread of life.

Eat the eleven bread of sincerity and truth, Paul said. With my whole heart, David writes, I've sought you. Oh, let me not wander from your commandments. Don't let me go astray. Yours is the way to life. This is the only way to life. God, don't let me wander. Don't let me look at the world and say, Hey, that's a better way. No, it's not a better way. It may look attractive. It may look appealing. It is not the better way. It's the way that leads to death. Trust and reliance in the world never will lead to life. Only God's way leads to life. Don't ever forget it. Don't let any clever talk or any clever doctrine or every clever little internet thing ever lead you astray. Believe the Bible. It's the word of God. With my whole heart, I've sought you. Don't let me wander from your commandments. Your word I've hidden in my heart. How did he get there? David read God's word. David absorbed God's word. David digested God's word. It became part of him. That's why God said he's a man after my own heart. He understood it. He lived it. He made it part of him by the things that she chose to do. Your word I've hidden in my heart. Why? That I might not sin against you. Blessed are you, O Lord. Teach me your statutes. Teach me the way that I should go. Teach me what you want. I know my natural mind and my natural inclination is to go somewhere else, but give me the strength and teach me what I should do, because I have my eyes clearly focused on you. With my lips, I've declared all the judgments of your mouth. I've rejoiced in the way of your testimonies, as much as in all riches. It was that important. Nothing more valuable than the Word of God and the truth of God. Nothing in the world more valuable than that. I will meditate on your precepts. I will contemplate your ways. When I'm daydreaming and everything else in my leisure time, I'm going to think about what you said. I'm going to look at life from both ways, and I'm never going to discount you. I'm never going to let you out of the picture. I'm going to meditate your precepts and contemplate your ways. I will delight myself in your statutes. I will not forget your Word.

Oh, eating the 11 bread of life. The Word lends to the cleansing that we need. Romans 10, 17 says, what? Faith comes by the hearing of the Word. We do our own personal Bible study at home, but you know God, He knew what He was doing when He proclaimed His appointed times, and He said, Holy Convocations. I want people together on the Sabbath days, on those appointed times, I want them hearing the Word of God as my body, the people that I have placed in there who have said they want to be there, I want them there in front of me to hear the Word of God. I hope we take that seriously. It's God's words, not mine, not the churches. Well, it is the churches because it's the Word of God, because it is Jesus Christ's words. It is God the Father's word. They're one, exactly one, and we're supposed to be one with Him. Jesus Christ was at every appointed time that God gave Him. Do we measure up to that same standard?

Faith comes by the hearing of the Word. Do we take the opportunities that God gives us as we walk in life to hear the Word of God? We have Sabbath services, we have Holy Day services, we have Bible studies. Are we that attentive to it, or did God really mean something when He said, Don't forsake the assembling of yourselves together? Give us a clue. Be in my body, God said. Follow me and let you be cleansed by that. Well, there's a lot as we go through these seven days of Unleavened Bread, and as we're gathered together here next Friday on the seventh day of Unleavened Bread at the Holy Convocation that God commands for that day, we'll talk. Well, I don't know if we'll talk. But you need to contemplate some of the things that we learned during this week, because the days of Unleavened Bread are just not a physical exercise. They're a spiritual exercise for us. And we shouldn't let that out of our mind and just think, Oh, I can't have my piece of toast with my eggs this morning. I have to eat this Unleavened Bread. Every time we take that bread, think about what God is teaching us. Think about what He wants us to do because it has a spiritual effect and a spiritual direction He wants in our lives. If we take it for granted, if we make it for common, we'll get nothing in return. We don't go through this just for the physical adherence to it. That's important. Vote for what God will teach us. So let's conclude here. And as you go through the days of Unleavened Bread, and as I go through the days of Unleavened Bread, let's contemplate what God has called us to. What this part of His plan for you and me means, that we are to be putting in the Unleavened Bread of sincerity and truth, that we are to be becoming one with Him, one with each other, that we are digesting and we are ingesting Christ, the bread of life, every time we do that. Let's conclude with Paul's words in 1 Corinthians 5. And we'll just read these because I think his words are a very fitting conclusion to this first day as we go from here. Verse 6, last sentence in verse 6. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Our job through our life is get rid of all the leaven. Can't tolerate any of it. As God opens our minds, get rid of it. Sacrifice it to Him just as Jesus Christ left nothing on the table, He gave it all for us. Therefore, verse 7, purge out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened, for indeed Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us. Therefore, let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, not with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but let us keep it with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.