Days of Unleavened Bread and Preparing the Bride

Some of my happiest moments and memories were the five weddings that have taken place in my own family.

First, it was my own wedding with my wife, my dear wife, Cottie. And then, officiating and participating in the four weddings of my four daughters. And one of our responsibilities was preparing them for their own weddings. It actually took us a lifetime beforehand to rear them, to guide them, to point them in the right direction. But first, it took preparation for our own wedding and then that of our daughters.

We don't claim to have done everything perfectly, but very thankful of God's guidelines that we hopefully were able to apply in the balanced way.

And for our four daughters, it first took their formation under our household. How they were guided, the examples given, the encouragement provided, the support for each of them.

They were corrected when necessary in love, not in anger. And then, months before, it took a lot of planning and preparation. And may I say, a lot of money. Usually, it's a father that has to fund their daughter's wedding. I kiddingly said with what we get, I could only afford one wedding every five years. So the last one was really going to have to wait quite a long time. But of course, we said that kiddingly. But it did took a couple of years just to recover, to be able to help the next one with their wedding. There would be tests along the way about financing the wedding, choosing the place, about the people involved. And of course, my daughters had a decision along with the future husbands where to do it and how. And finally, when the wedding came and watching them going down the aisle with their arm on mine and then be able to leave them there next to the husband and then officiate each one of them. And of course, that was a very moving moment for all of us to give them away to their husbands, although our loving bond would remain firm and strong through the years.

Thinking about the bride reminds me of another one of Mr. Armstrong's mandates. I mentioned three, but looking back, there were actually four that he gave us. The first one I've mentioned in a previous sermon to prepare to reduce our standard of living, which is happening today. The standard of living of the whole country has drastically gone down. We don't know how much is going to be recovered and how fast, but he said, prepare to reduce your standard of living. In other words, don't get caught up in the rat race of accumulating things. Secondly, we need to come out of this world, the system, the false teachings, the false lifestyles. We have to come out of that false way of life, taught many times in ignorance by our parents and society as a whole. The third mandate was to prepare to become teachers, because everyone in the Church is preparing to rule under Jesus Christ for a thousand years. One of the important roles they're going to play is to educate those people that are going to still be alive when God's Kingdom comes back to the earth. Someone's going to have to educate them, and Christ already has signaled that it's going to be those that are part of the Church that will govern under him and educate the millions, if not billions, of people that are left at that time. And so we come now to the fourth mandate, and this was brought to my memory this past week when I was reading something that Aaron Dean, who had been Mr. Armstrong's personal assistant for 15 years, and Aaron Dean mentioned how Mr. Armstrong had emphasized in his last years this mandate, prepare the bride for Christ's coming. That was something he wanted the Church to remember to do, to prepare the bride for Christ coming. And now, as we have already partaken of the Passover, and we're here on this first day of Unleavened Bread, it highlights for us an element of the preparation of the bride, which is the Church to keep her pure through the process of sanctification and constant cleansing, because it is an ongoing effort. Notice what it says in Ephesians chapter 5, verse 25 through 27, and we're going to dwell here for a time to understand these verses very carefully because they are pregnant with meaning, and full of understanding. It says, husbands love your wives just as Christ also loved the Church and gave himself for her, that he might notice, sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the Word. The term Word here should be in capital because it's talking about the Scriptures, the Bible, that he might present her to himself a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing. You know, spiritually it's talking about a purified wife or bride, but that she should be holy and without blemish.

So this is an analogy, a comparison between two things. It mentions the bride as the Church, and of course we know that that is just a figurative language, but it describes all of us preparing to live under Jesus Christ forever as our loving leader and guide in a very close-knit relationship akin or similar to that of the bride and the bridegroom.

Notice what the Believer's Bible commentary says about this section.

It says, it has been well said that no wife would mind being submissive to a husband who loves her as much as Christ loves the Church. Someone wrote of a man who feared he was displeasing God by loving his wife too much. A Christian worker asked him if he loved her more than Christ loved the Church, and he replied, no, only when you go beyond that, only if you love her more than you love Christ, then it's a problem.

He says, only when you go beyond that are you loving your wife too much.

Remember, a wife or a husband can become an idol, something that you put over or in first place before putting God first.

So, we should avoid loving a husband or wife more than God, but I haven't seen in my years in the ministry that that is the main problem. The main problem is we don't love our husbands or wives enough. That's the big problem that I have seen.

The commentary goes on to say, Christ's love for the Church is presented here in three majestic movements extending from the past to the present to the future, that relationship of Christ with the Church as his bride. He says, in the past he demonstrates his love for the Church by giving himself for her. This refers to his sacrificial death on the cross. There he paid the greatest price in order to purchase a bride for himself. And remember, a husband in olden times had to pay a dowry, a certain amount of goods or money, in order to pay for the expenses that the wife leaving her family would incur. Because in a family, especially in olden times, that young woman, she had work to do. She produced something tangible in goods or whatever in what she did. And now, since the husband was taking her from the home, then the husband had to give something to the father and the family to compensate for the loss of that economic activity. But Jesus Christ didn't pay with money or goods. He paid with his shed blood. We are bought with a price. That's where the term redeeming means to pay a ransom to be able to buy back that person.

He says, there he paid the greatest price in order to purchase a bride for himself.

Just as Eve was brought forth from the side of Adam, at the beginning of mankind, so, in a sense, the church was created from the wounded side of the Savior. And that's a good Passover concept and symbol to consider. Notice what it says in Hebrews 10. Starting in verse 19. Hebrews 10. Starting in verse 19. It says, therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which he consecrated for us.

This is the new and living way. This is the way it is of the church. We're able to go directly to God the Father in prayer, in our presence, to go before him boldly like that through the veil that is his flesh. So, as he was cut and pierced with a sword, it's like the rending of the curtain in the temple which happened at the same time. And it opened up the axis to God the Father through his sacrifice. It says, and having a high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, without going back and forth, being steady, faithful, loyal. But, he says, for our hope, for of our hope, and going here, for he who promised is faithful as we should be, he certainly is with us. And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembly of ourselves together as it is the manner of some.

Even in those days, there was a problem that not everybody showed up on the Sabbath or in the holy days. He says, but exhorting one another, encouraging one another, and so much the more as you see the day approaching, the day of Christ coming. The commentary, going back to what it says, continues. At the present time, his love for the church is shown in his work of sanctification, that he might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the Word. To sanctify means to set apart. She is going through a process of moral and spiritual preparation, similar to the one-year course of beauty culture which Esther took before being presented to the king Ahasuerus in Esther 2 verses 12 through 16.

I'm not going to go there, but that's a reference how before she could become a queen, she had to prepare for a whole year. And we're preparing to be kings and queens. We know that being spirit, we're not going to have changes like we have human beings with all the sexual parts, one side of one part of the other, but it's talking about us all having to also take up the education to become those future rulers in God's kingdom.

The commentary continues. The process of sanctification is carried on by the washing of water by the Word. Again, capital W. This means that the lives of believers are cleansed as they hear the words of God and obey them. So even a commentary that's Protestant does use that word about obeying the words of God. Thus, Jesus said to the disciples, You are already clean because of the Word which I have spoken to you. John 15.3. And he linked sanctification with the Word in his high priestly prayer in John 17.17.

Sanctify them by your truth. Your Word is truth. The Word of God cleanses us continually from the defilement and pollution of sin by showing us our sins and then going to God for forgiveness. I added that part. This passage teaches that the church is being bathed at the present time, not with literal water, but with the cleansing agent of the Word of God. So how does the Word of God cleanse us? It's kind of like a soap that we have to use. Notice in James 1. It says, Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted Word which is able to save your soul.

So we have to have the right attitude to receive it with humility. We always mention that we are a humble and submissive people. We have learned that. And when we're wrong, we accept it and we change. If we get some doctrines that are wrong, we have the humility to recognize it and to change. There are things that Jesus Christ is going to reveal to us when He returns. And we said, Guess what? That wasn't the right explanation.

But now we have it and we change and we assimilate it. There's no pride. There are not churches like others in the world that, oh, even if they know they're wrong, they don't admit it because they're afraid of losing people. He continues on verse 22.

But be doers of the Word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the Word, and talk about God's Word here, and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror. For he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. In other words, he didn't do any good. What he read, he knew he should do, but then he forgot it, and he didn't do it. He says, But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty, it's a spiritual mirror that shows us what we need to change, and continues in it. It's something that we do constantly, and is not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work does what God's Word tells us to do in those instances. This one will be blessed in what he does. And so, here we see God's Word is a cleansing agent because it takes us to God, and we understand what we should do before him, and apply that repentance, and a change, and a betterment of our attitudes and actions.

Now, another way the church is being cleansed is by participating in the Passover and these days of Unleavened Bread. It's a yearly cleansing, and did you know that this is not only for a spiritual benefit, but also a hygienic or sanitary benefit. In other words, it applies with the health laws that we find in the Bible. I'd like to quote from our booklet, Is the Bible True? I hope you have that booklet. On the section about epidemics, it says, talking about the Black Plague, the plague revisited Europe periodically for several hundred years. It was common practice in the cities of the Middle Ages to allow garbage and sewage to accumulate on the streets. This filth provided an abundant food source for a burgeoning rat population, which served as host to the fleas that bore the bubonic plague organisms. However, the people who practiced the sanitary guidelines described in the Bible were affected much less severely. And here I add from what I studied on the subject, what some medical historians put the rate of the Jews being affected at this time. And we would have to include Jewish and Gentile Jews, because they were applying the food laws and the sanitary laws. Those, they were only affected 5% during all of those plagues that went through several centuries of the bubonic plague.

Brother, we just removed the leaven from our homes. And we know in other homes there are a bunch of bread crumbs that are there for the whole year. And mice and all kinds of vermin feed on those things. And they bring disease into our homes. But because we have this annual house cleaning, we're also avoiding a lot more of the plagues. So, the Jewish population, which was much better acquainted with the scriptures during that time, suffered far less because it practiced biblical principles of cleanliness.

Another saving practice that this booklet mentions during the plague was that of quarantining those suspected of being infected with it. Because 1346 mentions how people that had these infectious diseases, and they had to be quarantined, separated. They couldn't assemble with other people. Sometimes people not knowing the reason said, oh, that's cruel. But actually what you're doing is you're isolating that person until they recover. So they don't infect everybody. As we know, now we have a global infection because there wasn't enough quarantining at the source and at the beginning of this plague. So, one of God's instructions about the first Passover and Days of Unleavened Bread was to remove the leavening from their homes and not carry leavening with them as they left Egypt. You see chapters in Exodus 12 and 13 about this instance that we have read in these past days.

For seven days, they were to eat unleavened bread without any leavening in it. Now, God could have said, well, you're leaving Egypt. I don't want you to eat leavened bread, but you can take the leavening with you. No, he didn't say that. It had to be eliminated and removed.

Why? Because it symbolized sin. Paul brought out that lesson as he prepared the Corinthian church to participate in the Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread. Notice in 1 Corinthians chapter 5.

1 Corinthians chapter 5 in verse 6.

Paul says, because they were tolerating sin in the congregation, there was one person that was committing fornication with someone else there, and they were just looking the other way. So he says in verse 6, do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? If you allow sin to be there that is known about public sin and you don't do anything about it, it's going to give leeway and freedom for others to say, well, I can do it too. So that's what he was concerned about. He says, therefore purge out the old leaven, that old sin, that you may be a new lump since you truly are unleavened.

For indeed Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us. Yes, Passover, it symbolizes Christ's sacrifice for us. And when we've been baptized and received God's Spirit, that all that leavening in the past, the sins of the past, those are all buried. Those are all eliminated. And so he says, you are unleavened. What are you doing allowing the leavening to leaven all of you again? So he goes on to say, Therefore let us keep the feast, talking about the days of unleavened bread, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

He goes on to say, I wrote to you in my epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral people. That's what was happening in the congregation. Yet I certainly did not mean with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters. Since then, you would need to go out of the world. But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother who is sexually immoral, or a covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner, not even to eat with such a person.

For what have I to do with judging those also who are outside? Do you not judge those who are inside, but those who are outside God judges? Therefore, put away from yourselves the evil person, the person that was committing fornication. So we see here again the comparison between leavening and sin during these days of unleavened bread. We are all preparing ourselves as a church, which is an analogy, as the bride of Christ, and to participate in that celebration of something similar to a wedding feast when Christ returns and establishes the kingdom of God. Notice in Revelation 19 verse 6.

Revelation 19 verse 6.

When Christ comes down and those that are resurrected are with Him in the cloud, in the cloud, He is going to land in Jerusalem there in the Mount of Olives, which is right there, and He's going to establish His kingdom. And there's going to be a feast where all Abraham and Moses and David and the prophets and all the people throughout the ages that were part of that first resurrection, there's going to be a great wedding celebration. And again, it's an analogy. It's a comparison because it pictures something similar to that great celebration during a wedding. And it's all going to be consisting of the bride of Christ, those that are members of the body of Christ.

So it goes in it says in verse 6, And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude, these are angels crying out, as the sound of many waters and as the sound of mighty thundering, saying, Hallelujah! For the Lord God omnipotent reigns. So finally, the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of God the Father and Christ. Let us be glad and rejoice and give glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come. In other words, it hasn't happened yet. Some people think, no, you're going to be taken up in the clouds and then taken up to heaven, and that's going to be the time. And then Jesus Christ is going to come down again, but that would be a third coming. No, Jesus Christ only has a second coming, and He's not going to go on a detour. He's coming down because God the Father says it is time to take charge. And so He's going to fight a battle, and the saints are going to be resurrected at that time, and they're going to witness as the battle takes place. Then He's going to establish His kingdom there. Zechariah 14, the whole chapter there gives you a good inkling and idea of the sequence. Doesn't say anything about being taken up to heaven and then being brought back. So He says, let us be glad and rejoice and give glory for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife, the term should be bride, as some other translations have it, because not a wife yet. That happens after the wedding. And His bride has made herself ready. And to her it was granted to be a raid in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. So we see that it's important to have an obedient church, a church that carries out, just like the Passover. That is a righteous act because God establishes what is righteousness, not man. He establishes when to keep the Passover, when to keep the days of unleavened bread, when to remove the leavening from our homes, when is that going to finish? These are people that obey the bridegroom and the Father. Verse 9, then He said to me, write, blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb. Notice, in the future, because Christ now is establishing that. That's the time of the resurrection. And He said to me, these are the true sayings of God.

Notice, it says here, the garments are given to her. So the church does her part, and God does His part. So it's not a matter of us earning it. Nobody deserves it. But guess what? God expects us to do our part, because if we don't do our part, He's not going to do His part. He says that whoever breaks His commandments and sins willfully, and it's not obedient to Him, He's not going to reward that person, no matter what the person did in the past.

Notice in Revelation chapter 3 verses 4 and 5. Revelation chapter 3.

We're talking here about one of the churches, and we do believe these are eras that are concurrently going through history. It says in verse 4, He says, You have a few names, even in Sardis, which we believe was the church age before the Philadelphia age. We feel we still are part of that. Although it seems like that layer to see an attitude is infecting, just like the coronavirus physically infects people. Well, we have here a spiritual virus that weakens and infects a person. He says, You have a few names, even in Sardis, who have not defiled their garments. In other words, they're still obeying, they're faithful, and they shall walk with Me in white, for they are worthy. So again, worthy because they're doing their part, not because they're going to fill God's part. Only God can do that. He says, He who overcomes, so that's part of our responsibility. He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out His name from the Book of Life, but I will confess His name before my Father and before His angels. And so again, we see those garments means we're doing our part. We are faithful. We're constant. We're dedicated. We're committed to God the Father and Jesus Christ.

Notice in chapter 7, talking about those garments that are given. Here's an important scripture as well, starting in verse 13. It says, Then one of the elders answered and saying to me, Who are these arrayed in white robes, and where did they come from? And I said to him, Sir, you know, so he said to me, These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. So here's a mixture of similes, which has to do that you can actually wash yourself in the blood of Christ, accepting His sacrifice, and you become white. Your garments become white because of Him. Doesn't say because we deserve it. We can't do Jesus' part. We can't do God's part, but He expects us to do our part.

So we have to keep the leaven out and put righteous deeds in. We have to keep sin out of our lives and instead works of justice, works of doing what God expects, and do those things that are pleasing in His sight. Notice in 1 John 5, verse 3, this is the way God wants to be loved by us. It says in verse 3, For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. That includes the way we're keeping this day today, one of God's holy days. And His commandments are not burdensome. They are not something that we do reluctantly, that we do against our will. No, we're very thankful and grateful for what we are doing. So again, it's very important not just to know what we should do, but do we do it? Do we carry it out? Or are they just good intentions that never go that any farther? We're going to be judged by our deeds, not by our intentions. Remember.

So we have to keep the leaven out and put the righteous deeds in. That's in an attitude of love, service, and obedience. One way to have that attitude, to be vigilant and not careless, is to watch out for the company that we keep and the actions that they do.

If we're always involved in frivolous, vain, foolish, or empty-headed things, those things can lead to sin. We need to take things seriously, although not ourselves too seriously. We know not to think that we're better than others, or think highly of ourselves. That's something the Bible tells us not to do. We need to take time to pray, to study God's Word, to meditate occasionally, fasting, to keep spiritual strength, to keep spiritually strengthened, not to weaken. There's nothing wrong with having a good time, but do not let your guard down. Have a good time, but don't let that lead to sin. Notice in Ecclesiastes chapter 7 verses 2 through 5. I'm going to read it from the Good News Bible version. It says, it is better to go to a home where there is mourning than to one where there is a party because the living should always remind themselves that death is waiting for us all. We don't want to be caught doing the wrong things, and then death catches up with us.

Sorrow, it says, is better than laughter. It may sat in your face, but it sharpens your understanding. Someone who is always thinking about happiness is a fool. A wise person thinks about death. In other words, a reckoning and giving account before God. It is better to have wise people reprimand you than to have stupid people sing your praises. James also has the same concept. Notice in James chapter 4.

James chapter 4.

In verse 1, it says, where do wars and fights come from among you? Is there contention in your life? Is there conflict?

He says, do they not come from your desires for pleasure, that war in your members? In other words, the ego, the false and deceptive desires. He says, you lust and you do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war, yet you do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive because you ask amiss that you may spend it on your pleasures. In other words, you're not pleasing God with those attitudes. He says, adulterers and adultresses, because we're all mixed up with the same false values of the world. Do you not know that the friendship with the world is enmity with God when it has to do with leading a person to sin?

Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. We can't do things that we know are wrong. Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, the Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously? God's Spirit is weakened when we yield. But He gives more grace, therefore He says God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. Therefore submit to God, resist the devil, and He will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Lament and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and He will lift you up. So it's talking about taking things seriously. Don't fiddle around and play around with sin, because it's going to trap you. It's going to beat you. Some last scriptures before we finish. In 1 John 2, verses 15-17, this is the Passion Translation. It says, Don't set the affections of your heart on this world, or in loving the things of the world. The love of the Father and the love of the world are incompatible, for all that the world can offer us. The gratification of our flesh, in other words, satisfying of evil desires. The allurement of the things of the world, in other words, wanting the sinful things we see. And the obsession with status and importance. None of these things come from the Father, but from the world. This world and its desires are in the process of passing away. They're not going to be there in the kingdom of God. We're not going to be doing those things. But those who love to do the will of God will live forever. So we have seven days of unleavened bread, and let's hope that spiritually, they will make a difference in our lives. To take advantage of this extra time that we now have at home. To occupy ourselves in things that are spiritually edifying. To draw closer to God. To help purify us as the Bride of Christ.

So we are being prepared as the Bride, and as I had the chance to prepare four daughters to be Brides. But it's nothing in comparison. Those moments of joy that are etched in my memory, and cotties as well. Those things are insignificant and pale into insignificance with that wedding feast when Christ comes back. And so let's go to the last scripture in Revelation 22 verse 17. Last chapter in the Bible, and it talks about the Bride. Revelation 22 verse 17. I'm sorry, it should be...

Yes, I do have the right verse. Verse 17, notice this is kind of the end of the Bible, and the Church, the Bride, is still looking forward to that coming wedding feast. It says, And the Spirit which is in the Bride, and the Bride itself, Say, Come, and let him who hearsay, Come, and let him who thirsts, Come, whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely.

And then in verse 20, it says, He who testifies to these things says, Surely I am coming quickly. Even so, come, you can say the Bride says, Lord Jesus. So that's what we're looking forward to, and these days are the preparation of that Bride.