Events leading to the 1st Passover/1st Commandment

I did a long title to my sermon, so here it is. Events leading to the first Passover slash first Commandment. So, events leading to the first Passover slash first Commandment. Now, when we go through many, many scriptures in the Book of Exodus, we're going to find that God's big teaching, His big lesson, His big teaching was that He is God. He is the one God. And all the pagan gods of Egypt are just demons that are powerless in the power of God Almighty. Now, Passover is a mere eight weeks away. It is time to be getting our minds focused on this most important evening of the entire year. So, by way of beginning our spiritual preparation, I want to go through a few of the chapters of the Book of Exodus. I think I made it to three or four of the plagues in the morning services, so I'm sure I won't do any better than that as far as the number of plagues that we'll be covering. But a very important story that we have here, a very important lesson, because it applies to us today in more ways that we can probably count.

It is the story of redemption of Israel from the bondage of Egypt. So, therefore, it is our story of our redemption from sin. And as we walk through or read through the chapters of Exodus, we should be reading our story there. We should recognize our story there as well. Many, many lessons we can learn as we prepare for Passover. Now, Exodus is the Greek name, and the Hebrew name is, now these are the names. In many, I can't say all the books of the Old Testament, but perhaps that's the case. But the first few words of Exodus is the Hebrew title for Exodus, and those first few words are, now these are the names. Now, the Greek name is Exodus, and that's a great name, too, because Exodus means going out. If we wanted to leave the building, there's ex-it, okay? Ex, exon means out. So, Exodus, going out, going out of Egypt, and this name is full of symbolism for modern-day Christians as well. So, we know the types and the verses' anti-types. The Hebrews, the Israelites, they went by both names. They're the type of today's Christians. Pharaoh was a type of Satan and also inspired by Satan. Egypt was the, or is a type of the sinful pagan world in which we live. We haven't left the world yet. We're still in this world, and Egypt is a type of the sinful pagan world in which we live.

And then the slavery that the Israelites suffered is a type of the bondage of sin that we struggle with as well. Now, once they were delivered, jumping ahead of the story a little bit, they were led by the pillar of the cloud and by the pillar of fire. And the Lord was in that pillar, and the New Testament identifies the Lord as Jesus Christ.

I'll just read to you a couple of verses in Exodus 13 verse 21 and verse 22. Exodus 13, 21. So they were led. Sometimes they had to leave and they had to travel all night. Other times they traveled in the day. Verse 22 of Exodus 13.

He took not away the pillar of the cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night before the people. And, of course, Jesus Christ was central to all of that. God made him central to that. God made him, of course, central to our salvation. He is our Passover Lamb.

Now, another type that is very important for us is that Egypt was, I mean, I should say Israel, was baptized. And that's the type of Christians getting baptized. And we see their baptism right here in 1 Corinthians chapter 10. So if you want to go back and let's look at 1 Corinthians chapter 10.

Moreover, brethren, verse 1, I do not want you to be unaware that all of our fathers were under the cloud and all passed through the sea. Now, they passed through a dry shod, it says. They didn't even get their feet wet or they didn't even get mud on their sandals. And all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.

And they all ate that same spiritual food. That's a reference to the manna. And they drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them and that rock was Christ. And Christ was the Lord who was actually in the midst of that pillar of fire and pillar of a cloud. But they were baptized by crossing the Red Sea. By crossing the Red Sea.

And the point is, they were still in Egyptian territory. They were still in Egypt. And they were still in Egyptian territory until they crossed over the Red Sea. Until they crossed over the Red Sea. And quite frankly, today, we are not completely out of spiritual Egypt until we are baptized.

I mean, it took them a journey. It took them a journey to finally leave Egypt. And it takes us a journey to leave the Egypt of sin. So we're not completely out of sin until we are baptized, immersed in water. Now let's go to Exodus chapter 1. I'll just cover a few verses here and there to just try to review the story. And hopefully we all know it very well. Or it's good to review it as well. Now these are the names, Exodus 1 and verse 1, of the children of Israel who came to Egypt. Each man in his household came with Jacob. And so they're listed here. And then, of course, Joseph dies. And there's going to be a new program. But the children of Israel, verse 7, were fruitful and increased abundantly, multiplied, and grew exceedingly mighty. And there arose a new king over Egypt who did not know Joseph, who did not understand the character of that man. And he said to his people, look, these people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we get to verse 9. Come, verse 10, let us deal wisely with them, lest they multiply. And it happened in the event of war that they also join our enemies and fight against us, and so go up out of the land. And so they set taskmasters over them to afflict them and their burdens, and they built for Pharaoh, supply cities, Python, and Ramses.

And again, we see the parallel between people who become Christians and the Hebrews who finally became free people. The devil sets his evil spirits and his evil ways upon us as spiritual taskmasters to do what? To afflict us with their evil ways.

And so we see the parallel there. It's a very important parallel that we must be aware of. Okay, and verse 12, of course, the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew, dropping down to verse 14. And they, Pharaoh and the taskmasters, made their lives bitter with hard bondage, bitter with hard bondage, and mortar and brick and all matter of service in the field. And their service in which they made them serve was with rigor. So the spiritual type, the spiritual lesson that we must keep in mind is sin is bitter. And thank you for the sermonette. I think that tied right in with the message here. Sin makes our lives bitter. Sin brings hard bondage upon our lives.

And sin is terrible, with terrible results. And we see again the analogy over here. And bitter hard bondage, that's what sin brings. Sometimes people struggle with alcohol addiction, maybe cigarettes, maybe drugs, you know, those types of things. Many other types of addictions. And really, the result of those addictions are bitter hard bondage. Okay, now let's go down to verse 15. And the king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives of whom the name of the one was Fair. He looked up in the Bible, or I should say the brown driver and brig's lexicon. So shifrah means fair. Puah means splendid. So they had two wonderful names. And he told them to kill them. If it's a son, kill them and throw them in a river. But the midwives, verse 17, feared God, and they did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the male children alive. That's verse 17. And so the king of Egypt, he said, well, what's going on here? How come you're not doing what I'm told? And they said, well, the children, the Hebrew women, verse 19, are not like the Egyptian women. They're lively, and they give birth before the midwives come to them. Therefore, God dealt well with the midwives, and the people multiplied and grew very mighty. And so it was because the midwives feared God that he provided households for them. And verse 22 just repeats what Pharaoh had one of them to do. So now we come to chapter 2, and this chapter 2 covers the life of Moses. And a man of the house of Levi went and took a wife of the daughter of Levi. And the story drops down to the third child that we know of she had. She had an older daughter called Miriam, and she had a son called Aaron, who was three years older than Moses. And now the story here picks up with Moses. And we know the story quite well. I don't think we need to take the time to read it. But Pharaoh's daughter came down to wash verse 5, to wash by the river. Her maidens were with her. And here was this little ark that was waterproofed. It was made of some kind of reeds, bull rushes. Bull rushes, and they covered it with or they waterproofed it. And they put some kind of a cover on it. And so they saw this, and she opened it. She opened up the little ark. And in verse 6, there it was. And behold, the baby wept. So she fell in love right away with baby Moses. And he looked like one of the Hebrew children. It says, last part of verse 6. So I don't know if he was dressed in Hebrew clothes. Probably was. It's probably all mommy and daddy had. And then he had the facial appearance of a Hebrew child. And so Miriam, the sister, this smart little girl, said, well look, how about if I go call mom? I mean, what about go call a nurse for you from the Hebrew women that she may nurse the child? And Pharaoh's daughter said, well, that's a good idea. So the maiden went and called Moses' mother.

And Moses' mother was called to nurse and coup and cuddle baby Moses until he was, what, I don't know, year old, 18 months, two years old, two and a half. I don't know. But the child grew and was brought to him to Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son. So he became not only her son, but he became the prince of Egypt and could have become a Pharaoh. And had he not been obedient to his true calling, because of what he did something here, we could have a pyramid made to Moses. Well, we don't have a pyramid made to Moses. We have wonderful Bible stories about the man's righteousness, man's faith. Now, he knew he was Hebrew, and so one time he went to look for his brethren, verse 11, and he saw verse 11 in Egyptian beating a Hebrew, and he killed him. Right there, boom, killed him. And then he buried him in the sand. And then he finds out, verses 13 and 14, that everybody knows already. Everybody knows already. And the bottom last part of verse 14, Moses feared and said, Surely this thing is known. And sure enough, Pharaoh heard about it, verse 15, and he sought to kill Moses.

And Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh and dwelt in the land of Midian. Now, Stephen in the book of Acts, chapter 7, tells us that he was 40 years old at this particular time. He was 40 years old at this particular time. Well, anyway, he runs to Midian, and the priest of Midian had seven daughters, ends up marrying one of them, and has at least two sons that we know of. And in verse 21, Moses was content to live with a man, and of course he gave Zipporah, his daughter, to Moses. And then, of course, the son, his first son is called Gershom. And he said, Great, I'll be a happy shepherd the rest of my life. I'm married to the love of my life. I have children. Everything's going great.

Verse 23. Now, it happened in the process of time that the king of Egypt died, and then the children of Israel groaned because of the bondage, and they cried out, and their cry came up to God because of the bondage. And so God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God acknowledged them. In other words, in fact, God says, It's time. It's time. He's going to do something. He's going to do something mighty. And what he's going to do is not only establish the first Passover, but he's going to talk about the first commandment. The first commandment is, You shall have no other gods before me. So he's going to very plainly tell Pharaoh, Pharaoh's magicians, Pharaoh's armies. Moses already knew this, but the children of Israel, that there's but one God. And you're going to tell them quite effectively.

So Moses, in the next chapter, sees this burning bush. And verse 2 sees the angel of the Lord who appeared to him in the flame of fire. And again, Acts 7 tells us that that is Jesus Christ that was seen there. And that was there.

And Moses was curious as to why was this bush burning.

And so when the Lord saw verse 4 that he turned aside to look, God called him from the midst of the bush and said, Moses, Moses, and he said, Here I am. He said, Do not draw near this place, take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground. Moreover, he said, I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob.

And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God.

Now, there's a lot in verse 6.

One thing it tells us is that Moses knew the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He didn't say, Who's Abraham? Who's Jacob? Who's Isaac?

He knew Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. So he knew the story of the book of Genesis. The Israelites had not completely lost the knowledge that you and I know about as we read Genesis.

They knew the story of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The problem is, after being in Egypt for hundreds of years, after being in Egypt, they weren't... I don't know how long they were slaves, but they'd been in Egypt so long that they began to worship like the Egyptians worshiped. And they went to many gods. When God tells us in the first commandment, there is one God and one God to worship. So we'll get to that a little bit more as well. God said, verse 7 of chapter 3, I have surely seen the oppression of my people who are in Egypt. I have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. I know their sorrows. God's people today have a lot of sorrows. God's people today, well, look at the prayer, just the prayer request that we've just gone over today. Some of our teenagers are suffering with sorrows, Emma and Samara. And people are suffering the sorrows of loss of loved ones, the sorrows of sickness. But God knows our sorrows. And God's going to do something about our sorrows.

Okay, now let's continue on chapter 3. And we'll go to verse... So God is telling him, look, I want you to go to Pharaoh and tell them to let my people go. And it's time for them to go. And Moses said, indeed, when I come to the children of Israel... And then he says, you know, you've got to tell the brethren that too, or the Hebrews that. So when I come to the children of Israel, verse 13, and say to them, the God of your fathers has sent me to you, and they say to me, what is his name? And what shall I say to them? What will I tell them? And God, verse 14, said to Moses, I am who I am. And he said, thus you shall say to the children of Israel, I am has sent me to you. Now this is the one who later became Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is not a lesser God. Jesus Christ is not semi-God. Jesus Christ is God who is sitting at the right hand of the Father. That's what he is. John, and keep place here, and let's go to John 8 and verse 58. And there are many scriptures in the Gospels, particularly in John, where this particular phrase is found. John 8 and verse 58.

Verse 57, just for the background. Then the Jews said to him, you are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham? Oh, yes, he has. And Jesus said to them, most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.

He is the great I am. Jesus Christ is the great I am. Okay, now let's go back to verse chapter 3 again. And let's jump ahead to chapter 4, verses 1 through 5. And Moses answered and said, but suppose they will not believe me or listen to my voice. Suppose they say, the Lord has not appeared to me. Suppose they say, the Lord has not appeared to you. And so the Lord said to him, what is that in your hand? And he said, a rod, you know, a staff. He said, cast it to the ground. And he cast it to the ground. And it became a serpent. Obviously, a poisonous serpent because Moses fled from it. And then the Lord said to Moses, reach out your hand and take it by the tail. And that took a lot of faith to do that, to grab a poisonous snake by the tail. And he reached out, and they're long enough to turn around and bite you. Let's put it that way. He reached out his hand and caught it, and it became a return to being a rod in his hand. That they may believe that the Lord God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you. So the Hebrews themselves had some kind of an idea of the book of Genesis.

They knew about the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob. They knew who these people were. So it wasn't like everything brand new to them. However, the problem is they had been spending too much time worshipping idols, pagan idols, idols of Satan. And it cost them dearly for that. Now, the serpent was one of the many pagan demonic gods of Egypt. God is beginning to show Moses that he's just about to strike all the demon gods of Egypt. I want to read to you here Exodus 12 in verse 13.

For I will, says God, I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the first morn of the land of Egypt, both man and beast, and against all the gods of Egypt. I will execute judgment. I am the Lord. So, God is going after false religion here. He's going after pagan religion and pagan idols. The word judgment means sentence. I will go against, I will pronounce sentence upon all the gods of Egypt he's saying. So, the demon gods of Egypt are going to be rendered powerless against the great God. This is all pointing, brethren, to the first Passover and pointing to the first commandment.

That's where the sermon is going. We're going towards the first Passover. We won't get there totally, of course. We're going towards the first commandment as well. Okay, chapter 4 and verse 28. So, they have a little meeting with the leaders. Moses and Aaron, verse 28, and all the words of the Lord which sent him, chapter 4, 28, and the signs which he had commanded him.

Then Moses and Aaron went and gathered together all the elders and children of Israel. And Aaron spoke all the words that the Lord had spoken to Moses. Then he did signs in the sight of the people. And so the people believed, the elders believed. And when they heard that the Lord had visited the children of Israel, and that he had looked upon their affliction, then they bowed their heads and worshipped. Now, this is like, oftentimes, like a new person coming into God's church.

A new person, you know, heading for baptism. So, they get the booklets. They read about the kingdom of God. They read about the millennium. They read the heaters, no rapture. They read about the Sabbath, you know, the Holy Days. They get all excited. People believe. And they hear these things. And they, you know, maybe they start praying for the first time. They bow their heads and they worship. So, this is a lot like new people coming into the church.

How long does it last sometimes? We get on a high while we begin our spiritual journey. But how long will it be before the trials and temptations set in? Okay. Afterward, Moses, chapter 5, verse 1, went in and told Pharaoh, Thus says the Lord God of Israel, Let my people go, that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness. And Pharaoh said, Well, who is the Lord?

That I should obey. He thought He was a God, by the way. He thought He was a God. That I should obey the voice to let Israel go. I do not know the Lord. Boy, that was a true statement. He did not know the Lord. Nor will I let Israel go. So they said, The God of Hebrews has met with us. Please let us go three days journey into the desert and sacrifice to the Lord our God, lest He fall upon us with pestilence and with sword.

And then the king of Egypt told Moses there, Why do you take the people from their work, get back to your labor? And the rest of chapter 5, perhaps we know it pretty well, Pharaoh said, Look, you've got too much time on your hands. Your people have got too much time. You're spending too much time thinking and not working. All right, no more straw. We're not going to give you straw for the bricks. You want the straw, go get it yourselves. And then on top of that, we want you to put out more bricks, more bricks than before.

And you go get straw, verse 11, where you can find it, let none of your work be diminished. And so he doubles down, as we say today, he makes life more miserable than before. So the officers, verse 16, of the children of Israel came and cried out to Pharaoh, saying, Why are you dealing thus with your servants? And there is no straw given to us, and so on, verse 17. But he said, You are idle, you are idle. And that's your problem. And they had to suffer for a while, of course.

And even Moses had a problem with it, with what was going on. Verse 22, Moses returned to the Lord and said, Lord, why have you brought trouble upon this people? This isn't the way I thought it was going to be. Why is it you have sent me? For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has done evil to this people. Neither have you delivered your people at all. Why these trials? We're not supposed to have trials. We're supposed to have blessings. Everything's supposed to go our way.

You know, everything is great. We thought. So Moses is wondering, you know, what is going on here. Now, God does respond. Chapter 6, let's drop down to verse 6. And I count, maybe even, the way you would group this, you could count it either 6 or 7 promises here from God. Chapter 6, verse 6.

Therefore, say to the children of Israel, I am the Lord, I am the Lord, I, number one, will bring you out from under the birds of the Egyptians. And number two, I will rescue you from their bondage. And number three, I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments. And number four, I will take you as my people. Number four, God taking these slaves, turning them into his people. Verse 5, I will be your God. Then you shall know that I am the Lord your God, who brings you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. Number six, I will bring you into the land, which I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

And number seven, I will give you, I will give it to you as a heritage. I am the Lord. So I count here, then, 7 promises. Now, what was their response? How did they respond, I should say? Well, verse 9, So Moses spoke thus to the children of Israel, but they would not heed Moses because of anguish of spirit and cruel bondage. They said, nah, this is just too good to be, you know, we don't believe this.

And they just couldn't believe the sevenfold promises of God Almighty. And, you know, sometimes our problems, by analogy, sometimes our problems can get to us, right? Sometimes our problems can weigh us down. But, brethren, we must never get to the point of verse 9. We must never let verse 9 get to us. God will deliver us. God will bring us through all of these problems, no matter what they are. Okay, chapter 7, we'll go to verse 4. And again, God is saying, talking to Moses, But Pharaoh will not heed you, so that I may lay my hand on Egypt, and bring my armies and my people, the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt, by great judgments, and the judgments he's going to bring upon the demon gods of Egypt, and the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I stretch out my hand on Egypt.

You know, we will read, not today, but there was a place where even the common Egyptians said, Send these people out of here, their God is killing us all. They got it before Pharaoh got it. Verse 6, then Moses and Aaron did so, just as the Lord commanded them, so they did. And of course, Moses' age of this type was, the time was, you know, was 80.

He was 80 years old. Now, let's drop down to verse 20, chapter 7 and verse 20. And Moses and Aaron did so, as far as striking, this is the first plague, the river, and it became blood, chapter 7, verse 20, the Nile River became blood. And, you know, the Nile River itself was worshiped as a deity. And I want to read here from the Bible reading program about the waters being made blood. Each of the plagues of Egypt was an assault on multiple Egyptian gods. For instance, the plague on the waters was the slap at Kunum, the giver of the Nile, at H-A-P-Y, the spirit of the Nile, at Sodpet, the god of the Nile flood waters, at Osiris, whose bloodstream was the Nile, at Edjo, the goddess of the delta, at Hottmetz, guardian goddess of fish and fishermen, and the various other deities that should have been looking out for the Egyptians.

The idea is, okay, all these pagan gods were powerless against the mighty power of God. Now, verse 22, let's take a look at verse 22. In this case, it says the magicians of Egypt did so with their enchantments. Pharaoh's heart grew hard, and he did not heed them, as the Lord had said. The lesson for us today, dear brethren, is that false ministers can appear as true ministers. Why, these guys were working miracles, too. False ministers today can appear to be true ministers.

God also allows this test upon us, as well, to see if we are going to listen to Him and obey Him. Okay, chapter 8, verse 1, the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Go to Pharaoh, and say to him, Thus says the Lord, let my people go, that they may serve me.

But if you refuse to let them go, behold, I will smite all your territory with frogs. And again, this was something that the Egyptians were able to copy somehow. They somehow were able to copy verse 7, but they couldn't get rid of the frogs. They couldn't get rid of them. It took the word of God to get rid of the frogs. Now, frogs, of all things, one of the gods worshipped by the Egyptians was Hechet, whose image was a frog.

They worshipped a frog. Or it was a woman with the head of a frog. And her name was Hechet, the goddess of birth, midwives, and safe deliveries. Frogs in moderate numbers being seen as signs of life, renewal, and happiness. And so, Pharaoh said, verse 8, even though his magicians could do something, they couldn't get rid of the frogs. So, verse 8 of chapter 8, Moses said to Aaron, Entreat the Lord that he may take away the frogs from me, and from the people.

And I will let the people go, he said. And so, the frogs were taken away. I mean, they died, and they were just tremendous. It says here, verse 14, They gathered them together in heaps, and the land stank. I can't imagine what a stinky frog would smell like. But not piles and piles and piles of heaps of frogs. But no, they actually worshiped frogs. So, going on, the court of happy, I call it happy, but H-A-P-Y, mentioned above, included crocodile gods.

So, they called crocodiles gods and goddesses, and frog goddesses. And so, then there goes on and talks about various demons and so on like that. But, as I was going through researching on this, here's something for our archeologist friends. They have unearthed crocodile mummies. This was in 2019. Crocodile mummies from a tomb in Egypt. Archeologists made the discovery during an excavation near the city of Aswan. The tomb contained five skeletons and five skulls of large crocodiles dating back to before 304 B.C. The crocodiles are thought to be from two different species. Archeologists believe the remains were buried as a part of a ritual honoring an ancient Egyptian god linked to crocodiles.

Okay, so that's as far as I'm going to go with the plague. So, I got as far as, I guess, the first two plagues. So, let me skip all these goodies here for now. I'll try to get back to them later. But, God is taking them somewhere. He's taking them to Mount Sinai. He's taking them to the Ten Commandments.

So, let's go to Exodus 20. Exodus 20. This is where God is taking them. God spoke all these words, saying, God's doing talking. Moses is not doing the talking. Moses is doing the listening. He's up on top of the mountain with God. Moses is doing the listening. God spoke all these words, saying, I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Now, there's a parallel between that and Christians today. The land of Egypt was a land of pagans. Pagans and deities and false gods.

We've just mentioned a few names of the many, many false gods. So, I've taken you out of the land of false gods. And I've taken you out of the house of bondage. In those days, bondage was slavery to the taskmasters. Today, bondage is the bondage of sin. The bondage of sin. Then he gives this great command, chapter 20, verse 3, You shall have no other gods before me. You shall have no other gods before me.

The great first commandment. Now, later on, Christ expands it to me. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength. This is the first commandment. So, we have, you shall have no other gods before me. Let's turn to Exodus 23. Let's turn to Exodus 23, and we'll look at verse 13.

And then all that I have said to you, be circumspect, and make no mention, make no mention of the name of other gods, nor let it be heard from your mouth. And then he says, in verse 24, Exodus 23, 24, You shall not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do according to their works, but you shall utterly overthrow them, and completely break down their sacred pillars. Whenever there was a revival in the land of Judah, the king Hezekiah or Josiah would just clean out all the pagan statues and pagan idols that were in the temple and surrounding area.

This is what they were told to do, completely break down the sacred pillars. Now, in this sermon that I'm giving today, I'm trying to make us remember, hopefully make us remember, that we are in a battle against paganism.

We are in a battle against paganism. And it's more than what we think. It's more than what we think. Paganism, I mean plain old paganism, is becoming more and more popular. Here are some of the things that are current, okay? People, when it comes to paganism, people are interested in learning more about them. People think paganism is harmless fun. And some people want to dress up like a pagan and go pagan. People pray to pagan gods and they seek help from witch doctors.

Now, here's the headline. Now, God was taking Israel out of paganism, but modern Israel today wants to go back into paganism. So here's one headline. Why paganism and witchcraft are making a comeback. And here's another headline. Paganism is the oldest, newest religion. And so I want to read from this article. Paganism is the oldest, newest religion.

When Christianity switched from a persecuted fringe sect to the state religion of the Roman Empire, those in the new monotheistic mainstream came up with an insult for the polytheistic hicks. So anybody who was a polytheistic hick was called a pagan. Now, little did they know that these polytheistic hicks would someday turn the tables on them and become the main religion of the day.

While most of the rites and the practices of pagan belief systems died out centuries ago, some modern spiritual seekers have recovered these ancient wisdom. And I wouldn't use the word wisdom because there's no real wisdom in this. And they now proudly identify as pagan. By some measures, modern paganism is one of America's fastest-growing religions, with an estimated one million followers of various pagan sects. So it goes by neo-paganism, contemporary paganism, and so on. And it gets their traditions from Samaria, Egypt, Greeks, Roman practices, Wicca, worship of Norse gods, goddesses, land spirits, and the Druids.

With such a diversity of religious traditions and rituals, modern paganism defies easy definition. The religious scholar so-and-so has identified this as being dedicated to reviving polytheistic nature worship of pagan religions of pre-Christian Europe and adapting them for the use of people in modern societies. They're flocking to that direction. So contemporary pagans feel a strong connection to the past and look to those pre-Christian practices and cultures and spiritually as inspiration for what they're trying to recover, bring back, recover, find again, or create anew.

And they're seeking in plain language, they're seeking demons. That's the plain language. So here's a couple of more headlines. Pagan practice and rituals. Wicca and women's empowerment, whatever that means. The rise of heathenry. And then it goes on to say that the three-part structure setting the stage, cleansing the sacred area, drawing a circle around it, communing with the gods through dance, music, guided meditation, or returning then to reality because they're in a trance, thanking and dismissing the spirits or gods, and perhaps sharing food and drink with the other participants.

The world, the country, America, modern day Israel, brother, is going back into paganism. And now that brings me to the subject briefly of Valentine's Day. And Gary Petty has written quite an article on St. Valentine Cupid and Jesus Christ. And I want to start out the story of Valentine's Day, or just one story. When I was working for the state of Missouri in the Department of Family Services, I was in a class. And it was around February the 14th, and we were in a class, and all of a sudden there's a knock on the door, and somebody comes in and says, I'm looking for her, and then gave a name.

Okay, come with me. So she had to get up and get out, walk down to the main floor, and then she came back with this great big bouquet of red roses. So she sits right next to her. To me it's kind of comical, because there she was with this giant bouquet of red roses. Okay, maybe 20 minutes go by, knock on the door, and the lady comes in and says, okay, I'm looking for her. Okay, come with me. So she came back down, a few minutes later she comes up with another gift. I think it was roses.

It might have been a huge box of candy, a big box of candy. Anyway, she has two Valentine gifts. So I was kind of wondering, well, is this two guys chasing this lady? Or is it one guy trying to really wow her and impress her? So, and the idea is, what is so wrong, as Gary Petty is saying here, every year in mid-February, millions of people express romantic desire for each other by exchanging heart-shaped boxes of chocolate, flowers, and Valentines.

Valentine's Day is as popular as ever with children and couples. It is definitely one of the biggest money-making days for florists, candy makers, and gift shops. And God's people, the point I'm trying to make is God's people, some are being tempted to go along with Valentine's Day. Some are being tempted to go along with Valentine's Day. I would really encourage you to read this article from Mr.

Petty. I think we have some copies there. Information table, we can always make more. Okay, let's just read this one quote. The various Valentines eventually evolved into one. Lovers, quarrels come under his jurisdiction, whoever he is. Naturally, he is the patron saint of engaged couples and anyone wishing to marry.

So this history of Valentine's Day actually came from the editors of Hallmark Cards, which makes sense. They want to sell as many cards as they can on Valentine's Day. Birds and lovers in the Middle Ages. That goes on and talks about how Valentine's Day had its roots in Lupercalia. Lupercalia was a weird, strange demonic pagan custom.

One of the popes is said to have eradicated Lupercalia from Christian observance in the last decade in the 5th century. But in reality, the intermingling of paganism and Christianity had become inseparable in much of the Western world. Saturnalia and Mithraism came into the church by claiming a December birth for Jesus Christ.

So these people called themselves Christians, but they mingled the pagan ideas with them. But, brethren, sadly, we're still fighting that today. Mr. Petty does quote chapter 12 of Deuteronomy, verse 29.

I would encourage you to read this article. I don't know if I've ever talked that much about Valentine's Day, but I certainly feel that there is a need to warn people of that. Let's turn to Jeremiah chapter 10 and look at verse 1. I'd like to read this from the New English translation. The Lord says, I want to read it here. I am the Lord your God, then drop me down to verse 3. You shall have no other gods before me. We have our beautiful system of Holy Days. We have the Holy Days. Then right after the Holy Days, here comes Halloween, then Christmas, then New Year's, then Valentine's, then St. Patrick's Day. Maybe I missed one. I don't know. But let's make sure that our young people will not get involved with such foolishness as Valentine's Day. Let's go against the pagan ways of this world. Let's make sure we have no other gods before the true God.