Examining Ourselves for Passover

Thank you very much, Laura. We are blessed to have so much talent in this congregation. I'm wondering, did I mention that Sue had a head cold when I got a... In case any of you are wondering, I think she's on the cybercast, so she'll know any bad thing I say about her. Not that I would say anything bad about her, but... It's not one of those real bad ones, but she came out yesterday morning and said, I'm sick. You know how that is. You feel kind of down and a little bit off, and then it comes out. So she didn't want to come and share her germs with you. And Connor's not sick, so... She might appreciate prayer, not just that she'd get over the cold. That's not a big deal, but that she'll have the energy to take care of him. It'd almost be better if he were sick. Probably not. It'd just be better if he would slow down a little. And fortunately, I'm not sick at all. So far. I know. Watch what you say. I was having a discussion with some of the ladies downstairs about my old coffee cup. You know how you get your favorites. It's been my policy for years to never wash the inside of my cup. You get that nice stain. People said that was bad, but I said, well, it's good for hygiene because no germs could live in that. And I don't get sick very often. What's interesting is I had that cup without washing it for years and years and years. And I believe it was after we were married, the first time my mother-in-law came to visit, it was within five minutes of her coming in the house. I think that cup was washed. But anyways, I haven't got sick since it's been washed either. Well, not sick regularly. I'm going to shut up and give my sermon. That'd be much better. It says, Christians, we strive to preach the gospel to all the world. Naturally, that's our mission. We want to reach out. We would love for everyone to be called into God's church, wouldn't we? That's natural. We strive as individuals to be ready to give an answer to anyone or everyone who asks us a reason of the hope that lies within us. And some of you have been around a long time and might remember that although we preach to everyone very openly, there was a time when we were a little more hesitant about letting people know where we held services. But even that has changed a lot. We put it up on the website. We tell people, you're welcome to come. I've said many times, anyone that wants to meet peaceably with us is welcome to do so. So it might seem strange, though, to some people that we put a very definite restriction on who we allow to participate in one of the most important things we do all year. And I see some of you nodding your head, you know where I'm going in this, and of course it's that time of year. We are very... not very... we are particular, and we set this clear restriction on who partakes of the Passover. It happens once a year, and it's not for everyone. Now, what is that criteria? Well, we'll come to that in a moment, but let's see where it started, because it's not a decision by the administration of the Church. If you go to Exodus 12, let's go to instruction about the very first Passover, and we'll see that putting restrictions on it, not the idea of any modern man or any man at all, but God gave clear instructions.

Exodus 12, and we'll begin in verse 43.

Now, this, of course, is after God had given direction of what was going to happen, and later he'll give more instruction on how to do the Passover.

But beginning in verse 43, he says, And the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, This is the ordinance of the Passover. No foreigner shall eat of it. That is, no one that's not an Israelite. Except... Now, let's note there is a provision. Except... well, he doesn't say except, but it says, But every man's servant who is bought for money, when you have circumcised him, then he may eat of it. A sojourner and a hired servant may not eat of it.

Now, let's skip down to verse 48 to see a little more.

Verse 48, And when a stranger dwells with you, and wants to keep the Passover to the Eternal, Let all his males be circumcised, and then let him come near and keep it. And he shall be as a native of the land. So, once the males are circumcised, it's like there's no difference whatsoever. But no uncircumcised person shall eat of it. One law shall be for the native born, and for the stranger who dwells among you. Now, this is pretty clear-cut. And God made it plain. He said, Okay, those whose males are circumcised. And that's the one thing that might need clarification, although I think most of you are with us on this. You know, that the circumcision was for the males. Women are not circumcised.

But, of course, a woman had to either be married to a man who was circumcised, or be in the household of a father who was circumcised, to participate in the Passover. And if someone wanted to join themselves to the Nation of Israel, that was the criteria. Now, as the Church of God, we do not require members to be circumcised to take the Passover. And that might surprise some people, because here I just read it in the Bible.

But we don't have that restriction. We do have the clear restriction on who can take it. And most of you have heard this plenty of times before. We only allow baptized members of the Church. And by baptized, of course, and I should clarify, and this came up on the elders forum, I think.

Somewhere I've read it recently. Of course, a person is baptized into the body of Christ, not into our particular Church denomination or corporation. Many of us were baptized when we were attending a Church that had a different word before Church of God. And that's fine. You're baptized into the Church, into the body of Christ. But there is the baptism as a requirement. And you might wonder, why is that? And why the change? Why not circumcision? Well, I think it's appropriate that we look into the Scriptures to make sure we're clear on why we do what we do. I don't mind going back to some of the fundamentals, and it's been good for me.

So let's look into the Scriptures to see why do we have that practice. Now, we want to go into talk a little bit about the change in the requirement for circumcision. And I'll just mention, I know we, I believe we have some nurses in the congregation, that Sue and I went through a fair bit of research a few months ago when we had a, when we found out we were going to have a baby boy about circumcision.

Because it's interesting, the American Pediatric Association now says it's a toss-up on whether or not there are health benefits. I don't agree with them on that. I think there's plenty of evidence, and there's been a lot of research, that there are plenty of good health reasons for baby boys to be circumcised. And perhaps even for adult men, although adult men are always wishing they'd been circumcised when they were babies, and... I don't know if they're always wishing that, but I mean, if it comes up, you're wishing that. Anyways, let's look at why it's not a requirement for religious reasons. Like I said, health benefits, those are great. But you don't have to be circumcised to be in God's church or to take the Passover.

Let's go to the book of Romans, chapter 2. Romans 2, and we'll begin in verse 25. The Apostle Paul speaks... or he spoke, and of course he wrote a great deal about whether or not circumcision was required. It was a big issue during his day. Some were in the church and said that the males did continue to need to be circumcised, and so Paul had to argue against that to show what was the truth. Romans 2, beginning in verse 25, he says, For circumcision is indeed profitable if you keep the law. And I'm going to have a sermon coming up about the law, but I believe he was talking about all of the ritual sacrificial law here.

But he says, But if you are a breaker of the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. Therefore, if an uncircumcised man keeps the righteous requirements of the law, will not his uncircumcision be counted as circumcision? And will not the physically uncircumcised, if he fulfills the law, will not judge you, who even with your written code and circumcision, are a transgressor of the law. Sorry, I'm looking ahead. For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward of the flesh. Now Paul is, you can tell he's getting into metaphor here, because circumcision is of the flesh, but Paul is saying the circumcision that matters is not of the flesh, it's not outward.

And in verse 29, he says, But he is a Jew who is one inwardly.

And circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter, whose praise is not from men, but from God. So circumcision is of the heart.

That's where we know we're talking metaphorically, and we'll discuss that in a moment. But keep your hand here, and let's turn back to Jeremiah chapter 4. We're going to come right back to Romans, but I want to establish the fact that Paul didn't originate this idea of circumcision being of the heart.

He didn't make it up, it came from God himself. God always wanted circumcision of the heart. Jeremiah 4 and verse 4.

God brings this out in speaking through Jeremiah the prophet, but it's written in the first person.

Jeremiah 4 and verse 4, and I'm breaking into a thought where God is telling the people of Judah, and of course Israel had already gone into captivity, but telling them what he really wanted them to do.

He says here, Circumcise yourselves to the eternal. Take away the foreskin of your hearts. Take away the foreskin of your hearts. He's not as concerned with male genitalia. I wanted to make hoping I could get through the sermon without discussing those things. We all know that we have different parts, and hopefully if you don't know what circumcision is, then I think we've got some old copies of Mr. Armstrong's book, The Missing Dimension, and sex that can explain that. But here God is saying, Circumcise the foreskin of your heart. That's what really matters. And the Apostle Paul is saying that. Let's go back to Romans to see a little bit more about this. Romans, and we'll go to chapter 4. Romans 4, beginning in verse 7.

Say, Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.

Blessed is the man to whom the internal shall not impute sin. Paul's quoting here, but what a great blessing it is. And then he asks, Does this blessedness then come upon the circumcised only? Can only those circumcised have the blessedness of being forgiven? Or upon the uncircumcised also? Can it come on those who are not circumcised? Well, he pulls out a perfect example.

Paul then was it accounted, while he was circumcised or uncircumcised? Think, Abraham is the first one that God gave the instruction about circumcision, too. But God called Abraham out while he was not circumcised. And it says here, He received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness, of the faith which he had, while it was still uncircumcised. That he might be the father of all who believe, though they are uncircumcised. That righteousness might be imputed to them also. Right, I'm going to stop there. But here, he's just making the point. There's one place in Genesis where it says God made these promises to Abraham, and Abraham believed, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. And Abraham wasn't circumcised yet, but it was accounted for righteousness. So we're reminded here that circumcision is a sign. It was a symbol. It was not the relationship itself. It symbolized a relationship. So what was the substance of that relationship? We can see that if we turn to 1 Corinthians, chapter 7. 1 Corinthians 7, that's going further back in the Bible, not towards the front. 1 Corinthians 7 and verse 19. A very straightforward verse, but one that's been taken and misused in the past. Here, Paul writes, Circumcision is nothing. And uncircumcision is nothing. But the keeping of the commandments of God is what matters. Now, I'm reading in the New King James, where is what matters is added. And, of course, if you have the New King James, you'll see that's in italics. Because it wasn't there originally. If you have the Old King James, I keep... I need to just memorize who has it and who doesn't. I'm surprised not a lot of people do. How many of you are reading the Old King James, where it just says, Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God and stops? And some people have read that and said, well, see? It's only about keeping the commandments of God, and since we don't have to do that anymore, it doesn't matter. What they don't understand is, the way Paul was writing, he intended what we call an ellipse at the end of that sentence. An ellipse is where you have the dot, dot, dot. And we had a controversy in the church a couple decades ago about a booklet that had dot, dot, dot, but that's not what we're referring to. Dot, dot, dot is where you're leaving something out, but everybody should know what it is. So I thought, well, Paul was a Jew, as he said. If we read this the way a New York Jew might say, it becomes very clear. He would say, Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the law! And it's this... The implication is clear. Circumcision is nothing, uncircumcision is nothing, but keeping of the law is everything, as the translators correctly said. That's what matters. So Paul left that out on purpose because he knew his audience would be leaning forward, saying, well, yeah, go ahead and say it. And he left it unsaid to underline it in their minds. Keeping the law is what the substance is, the obedience to God.

Okay, well, coming back to where we started, the restriction on people. Does that mean now, since we're all striving to obey God's law, that anybody and everybody can take the Passover? You might say, well, we're taking circumcision away as what makes the sign, so are we taking away any restriction on who can keep the Passover? Well, the answer to that is no. Circumcision is no longer the distinction that matters, at least physical circumcision, but circumcision of the heart still matters. God originally wanted circumcision of the heart. Now, circumcision of the heart, of course, is a figure of speech. It doesn't mean open-heart surgery and remove something from the heart. And that reminds me, I was going to put in the announcements. Last week we had a prayer request for my, uh, Sue's brother, Tim, by that his surgery went very well, and he's recovering, and actually is home with his parents now. So, that's an aside. But you don't have to actually cut anything physically from your heart. It's a symbol. But let's see all these tied together. We'll go to the book of Colossians. Colossians chapter 2, and we'll begin in verse 8.

Colossians 2 and verse 8. . I'm breaking in partway to a thought here. See, beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.

So, we want to focus on what matters to Christ. For in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And you are complete in him who is the head of all principality and power. And in him, you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands. That's the circumcision we want. It doesn't require any human hands, because it's a spiritual thing. By putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ. Note, sometimes when you're writing, which the Apostle Paul wrote long sentences. And a lot of times when you're doing a list, you separate things with a comma to show you're saying the same thing again in different words.

That circumcision without hands means the same thing as the circumcision of Christ. And here we can say, comma, buried with him in baptism. I believe, once again, also, comma, another way of saying the same thing. In which you were raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised you from the dead. And you being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, he is made alive together with him, having forgiven all your trespasses.

Having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And he's taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. Most of professing Christianity wants to focus on just that last bit. And they think that what was nailed to the cross, or crucifix, was the Ten Commandments. Really, we could explain just that. Really, what was nailed to the cross was the handwriting of ordinances. The death warrant that we earned from breaking that law, not the law itself.

But we want to focus on what was beforehand. Paul is making...he's showing an equivalency. He said, we don't need physical circumcision. We have the circumcision without hands, that of Christ. And he equates that with baptism. I think we can see a balance here. The Passover Lamb was a symbol of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the ultimate sacrifice. Okay, now only those circumcised were allowed to take of that Passover.

Now we see baptism described as the symbol of accepting Christ's sacrifice, as payment for our sin. And so, being baptized and accepting that sacrifice now takes the place of the requirement for circumcision. Now, it was really clear when I was writing that out, but I thought I'm saying it in words could get it confused. But before you had the Lamb, a physical Lamb, and you had physical circumcision. Now we have the real thing. We have Jesus Christ, and we have a symbol of circumcision of the heart, which is being buried symbolically under the water and coming back out again.

And because of that, rather than require physical circumcision, which we see clearly we don't have to do, we do restrict participation in the modern Passover to those Christians who are baptized, who have taken that step, who have studied and understand and made that commitment. That is, they have been symbolically buried and had their sins taken away and rise with Christ. And of course, I didn't write in my notes, but in Galatians 2.20 Paul said, I live, but the life I live is not mine, but Jesus Christ lives in me.

That's what we start afterwards. Now, let's go back to Acts 2.38 to tie a couple loose ends here. Acts 2.38, I just want to note what Peter said in that... the sermon that he gave in what we sometimes call the first Pentecost. It was the first Pentecost after Christ's crucifixion. This, of course, after he'd given the sermon and people were cut to the heart and said, What shall we do? Peter said to them, Repent and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and you'll receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. So, baptism leads to receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit. And let's go ahead to Acts 8 to make this very clear.

Acts 8 and verse 18.

This is the case where Simon the Sorcerer wanted to... He offered the apostles money because he wanted the gift of giving people the Holy Spirit. Of course, he didn't realize how ridiculous that was, but he did notice something. In verse 18 it says, When Simon saw that through the laying on of the apostles' hands the Holy Spirit was given, he offered them money. So, I wanted to clarify this. We always immediately after baptism, an elder will lay hands on a person and pray and ask God to imbue them with the Holy Spirit. So, the baptism is the symbol with the understanding that someone would receive the Holy Spirit afterwards.

And of course, Mr. Warren very well noted in Mark 1 chapter 8, we can call that the baptism of the Holy Spirit. I didn't have that in my notes, but I thought I want to make reference to that because I'm glad he mentioned that scripture. Having God's Holy Spirit is of vital importance to us. That's what makes us different. Let's go a few pages back to Romans chapter 8.

Romans 8 and verse 9.

The Holy Spirit is of vital importance to us. The Holy Spirit is of vital importance to us. Here Paul writes, But you are not in the flesh, but in the spirit. Not in the flesh, meaning you don't need physical circumcision because we're not focusing on the flesh. But you are in the spirit if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now, if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he's not his. Here you could say he's giving the definition of a Christian. The definition, to be a Christian you have God's Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ. And of course it's not a different spirit. The Spirit comes from the Father through Jesus Christ and dwells in us. And I did have a note. I do want to make note. And I think there's also an interesting parallel because we've said you are a Christian if you have God's Holy Spirit in you. We do make the note, the point, and we talk about it at summer camp a lot, that our children have a calling to be in God's church. They are part of the family, part of the household. But they have to progress and take that step of being baptized to be fully part of the church and to participate in the Passover. Where I saw the parallel was back in Exodus. We read that if you bought a servant, a servant who wasn't part of the Israelites, they came into your household just as our children are part of our household. But the servant would partake of the Passover once their males were circumcised. And our children, being part of our household, part of the church, still only partake of the Passover once they've been baptized, receive the Holy Spirit.

Now I want to change gears a little bit and note that baptism is a relatively early step in the process of conversion. All of you who have been baptized for a while know that. You don't come out and you're done. You've begun at that point. You begin to change. God's Holy Spirit begins working in you and it's a continual thing that goes on and on. It's a long process. And we like to consider the annual Passover ceremony as an opportunity to remind us of that process. And we think of it sometimes as a recommitment to the commitment we made of baptism.

Considering that Christ died so that we could be converted, so that we could have access to God's Spirit and have our sins forgiven, you might think, well, for a person who has begun that to then disregard the process of conversion, if they said, eh, it's not so important to me anymore, but yet come and take the Passover, that would be somewhat disrespectful.

What I'm leading to is that would be taking the Passover in an unworthy manner. Let's go to 1 Corinthians 11.

In some ways I've been leading up to this, although I believe all these points tie together, but it's about this time of year every pastor feels they need to come here and make this reminder to people.

And I wanted to comment on it as well. 1 Corinthians 11, beginning in verse 26, where that phrase, unworthy manner comes in, or in the Old King James, unworthily. Beginning in verse 26, He eats and drinks judgment to Himself, not discerning the Lord's body.

Now, the main way I take this to read is it means examine yourself, confirm that you are still in that process of conversion. You don't have to have completed the process. Naturally, none of us are going to have completed it while we're still breathing. It's a lifelong process, and we hope we're getting closer and closer. But make sure you're still on that road, in that process. But you don't have to be perfect. And that's the other thing I want to emphasize, where He said, examine yourself, but let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. Do partake of the Passover. You should take the Passover. Even if you look and say, boy, I haven't been progressing in that conversion as much as I should. That should be a warning bell, but not a warning to say, well, can't take the Passover this year, not good enough. It's not at all about that. It never will be about that. Paul's instructions here in 1 Corinthians 11 are something we should take seriously. But they are not intended to keep Christians from taking the Passover. And I don't know of anybody that's read that into it. Well, I don't know of any minister that's ever stood up at the lectern and said that. But I do know sometimes we sit in the chairs and we go, ooh, maybe, you know, should I be coming and taking the Passover? I don't want to do it in an unworthy manner. Well, that's not what Paul's intent was. It was to remind us that the Passover means something real, something very serious. Don't ever treat the Passover as a small matter. Don't ever take it lightly. But don't, in the same manner as don't take it lightly, don't think you can just skip it and it's a small matter. I've got a clear memory, and I don't remember how old I was, probably a young teenager, and I remember a pastor talking about this subject. And he mentioned that once he came across a church member the week after Passover, and he said, oh, I didn't see you there at the Passover. You know, were you sick or whatever? And he said that it was a lady who came and said, well, I got there late, and the doors were closed. I didn't want to cause a disturbance, so I just stayed out in the hall. And he said, I couldn't believe it. You know, you don't want to chastise him. He said, if I were in that position, I got there late, and the doors were closed, I'd come in. If the door were locked, I'd get a block or a two-by-four and bash the door open, but I would get in there and take the Passover. I remember him very vividly, and that stuck in my memory. As I said, it's been decades since I heard him make that point. I thought, boy, keeping the Passover must be something important. You know, when I'm old enough to take it, I'm not going to sit out in the hall. You make sure you're there. So you do need to examine yourself, yes, but then take the Passover.

Okay, so that brings up the question then. How do we examine ourselves? What are we looking for? Now, if we were in ancient Israel, which I just explained that we're not, but if we were, it'd be pretty easy. Am I circumcised? I mean, it just takes a quick glance. Yes or no? I wasn't sure if I should play that for humor or not, but... Okay, it was easy for them to know. It's not so easy for us. Am I circumcised at the heart? Well, I can't see it. Well, it's a symbol anyways, but the question is, do you have God's Holy Spirit dwelling in you? Well, you can't see that. But think of this. If you repented and were baptized, you should have the Spirit in you. There's no reason to think that it's probably not there. Now, I'll make it a point. 1 Thessalonians 5, 19, without going there, it says simply, quench not the Holy Spirit. Or I think some translations say, do not extinguish the Holy Spirit. Now, the only reason Paul would have written that is if it were possible to extinguish the Spirit. So it's not that once you're baptized, have hands laid on, it's there, and you can't get rid of it. Boy, it just crossed my mind. I'm saying, I wonder if it's not as hard to get rid of as a tattoo, but I've never had a tattoo. I just hear that's hard to get rid of. But getting rid of the Holy Spirit is something that doesn't happen quickly or easily, but it can be done.

One way of doing it is if you're habitually sinning and not repenting. That's a way to extinguish the Holy Spirit. So I ask you, look at yourself. When you examine yourself, am I doing that? And if the answer is, you seem to be going that direction, well, there's a clear-cut answer to what to do. Repent. If you've been sinning and not repenting, well, then repent. Change. Stop that behavior and start doing the right behavior.

Now, and I'll mention this, anyone who's worried that they might have sinned too much for God to be able to forgive them and to renew the Holy Spirit, well, you're demonstrating by that concern that that's probably not the case. Because remember, the limitation is never on God. God can forgive all kinds of things. You just have to have a willing attitude and say, go to the Father and say, yes, I'm wrong. And sometimes, and I've been in this position, I'm fortunately not any time lately, but sometimes the first thing you repent of is not being very repentant. Say, God, please forgive me. I haven't been in the right attitude. Please grant me repentance. Help me to want to change. And He can do that. But you have to take that action of repenting and asking God's forgiveness. Now, that's if you examine yourself and you see, boy, I'm off that way. Normally, it'll have been more than one Passover is passed to find yourself in that situation. Another means that some people find they can extinguish the Holy Spirit is if they're neglecting their relationship with God. We taught, and once again, Mr. Warren mentioned God renewing the Spirit, and He renews it by our interaction with Him. So, have you been neglecting your relationship with God? If so, if your examination says, yeah, I'm drifting, the Spirit seems to be dwindling, well, there's the answer. Start praying. Start studying your Bible. Build that relationship with God. And if it seems...well, I shouldn't say if it seems bad, but when it's bad...that didn't come out. What I wanted to say is set aside time to fast. I didn't want to make it sound like you only set aside time to fast when things are really bad, because that's not the case. Fasting is always a good tool to help us to put down our own human nature and relate better to God. So, fasting is something you do when you really need help, but it's also something you do when you don't need that much help, but you still want to grow closer to God. I've been working on a sermon coming up and thinking about fasting, and none of us ever like to do that. Well, I don't know. Some of you like to fast. I'd like to know your trick, but then it might not be as beneficial.

But anyways, build your relationship with God. Study His Word. Spend time on your knees praying. That way, He'll build up the Holy Spirit. It'll flow through you. Again, if a person realizes he has a problem and feels he needs to fix it, then it hasn't gone too far to fix it. And then, of course, you go to keep the Passover.

And one of the reasons I wanted to address this early on, the examination that we do before the Passover doesn't necessarily have to be a long and difficult thing. It's not going to be as easy as it was for the physical Israelites. As I said, that's a quick glance. But I don't want us to beat ourselves up, unless we need to be beaten up. And then it's better for you to beat yourself up than someone else.

That could be taken two ways, too. Better to beat yourself up than you beat someone else up. But better than someone else beating you up. What I was getting at, though, and I talked to Sue about this. I've heard sermons in the past where it made me feel like, Oh, I must have to put myself through an excruciating ordeal. I've got to put myself through the ringer before I can keep the Passover.

That's not what Paul was getting at. He said, Examine yourselves. Make sure you're of the faith. Do you have the circumcision of the heart? Sometimes you might look and say, No, I seem to be on track. I'm not perfect, but I'm not doing so bad. Sometimes you might say, Oh, I really do. Sometimes you need to put yourself through the ringer. But there's no point in just beating yourself up spiritually and emotionally if you don't have to. There's where encouragement is good. And remember, God provides the power and the strength, not us. If you're in that situation, you could have a long, tough road, some soul-searching ahead.

But you know that what is ahead is well worth it. I'm just saying, as I said, it doesn't have to be that way. Examining yourself before the Passover doesn't necessarily have to take so long, but it's a good idea to start on it early. This is only about a month before the Passover. It's amazing how fast it's gone. But you might turn up, and looking at your life, you might find something you didn't expect.

If you will, go with me to Matthew 5. Matthew 5, and we'll begin in verse 23. One of the things that might turn up is that there is something that's holding you back, not in your relationship directly with God, but God cares about our relationships with others. And so we might have to deal with something like this. Matthew 5, verse... Okay. Oh, no wonder I'm looking in the wrong chapter. It says, That's an interesting thought. Christ is saying, God wants us to come to Him, and worship spiritually, but He doesn't want us coming when our brother has something against us, or we have something against our brother.

So be reconciled. Be willing to put away other people's sins, and get it away from there so it doesn't hinder our relationship with God. That's why it's good to look early. There might be something you need to go take care of. And there are sometimes things you might have to resolve it in your mind, even if your brother hasn't fully resolved it. And that's getting into a whole other issue. But just give yourself time to deal with things that can come up. But keep in mind that you should deal with those things, and then take the Passover. Deal with them, and then be there.

Participate. If you've taken that step of baptism, God expects you to stay on the road that you entered, and He wants you to stay on it. It's a good road. It's the way to be. Passover is the only annual ceremony that's so important, God gave us a backup plan. I find that interesting. Let's go look at Numbers 9. Numbers 9, beginning in verse 6. Say, if you happen to be deathly sick of the flu on the Day of Atonement, well, you might not want to eat anyways, but He doesn't say, well, keep the Atonement later, or the Feast of Tabernacles.

There's only one of all the other things, but for the Passover, it was so important He wanted to make sure His people took it. Numbers 9 will begin in verse 6. Now this, if I remember correctly, was the second Passover that the Israelites had come to. He says, now there were certain men who were defiled by a human corpse. That meant they touched a dead body so that they were ritually unclean and couldn't keep the Passover on that day.

So they came to Moses and Aaron. These men said to him, we became defiled by a human corpse. Why are we kept from presenting the offering of the Eternal at His appointed time among the children of Israel? And Moses said, well, stand still and I'll see what I may hear of the Lord, what the Lord will command concerning you. So that's important.

And the Eternal spoke to Moses, saying, speak to the children of Israel, saying, if any one of you or your posterity is unclean because of a corpse, or is far away on a journey, He may still keep the Eternal's Passover. On the fourteenth day of the second month, at twilight, they may keep it. And they'll eat it with unelivement bread and bitter herbs.

So God made an alternative. As I said, He didn't do that for any other symbol or ritual in His worship. Go down to verse 13. We'll see, He does put a... I'm not sure if he called this a disclaimer, but He says, okay, there's this backup date. But it's not for something that's a matter of convenience. Don't say, ah, I'm busy, or, you know, I want to go see a movie that night.

Here in verse 13, He says, but a man who is clean, or is not on a journey, and ceases to keep the Passover, that same person will be cut off from among his people, because he did not bring the offering of the Eternal at its appointed time. That man shall bear his sins. So don't just blow it off. If you've got a legitimate reason, God provides a backup date. But if you're just skipping it because it just seems convenient, He says, you're going to bear your sin.

It seems that not keeping the Passover for a legitimate reason could prevent forgiveness of sin.

That makes sense, because a person who's treating it lightly is not repenting of his sin, and therefore won't be forgiven.

Now, I'll make a point here, and we don't have to use the second Passover very often, because any time we're on a long journey, we're probably not that far from a congregation. We prefer to come together. And I'll make a point for everyone here. We're going to have the Passover here on Passover night, down in Prestonsburg, there in the room, and in Athens. All three congregations will be meeting, and we'll keep the Passover. I've got it scheduled at 8 o'clock, which is right after sundown. And I believe it's the evening of April 5th. I know I've got it on the calendar of the right date, it's just sticking to my memory. I will mention, for those who are unable to attend, and there are people with physical health difficulties, we have instructions. I've got a copy of the printed instructions. I've had these in my briefcase for about 15 years, of how a person can keep the Passover at home. That can be done sometimes. And something that I actually wasn't aware of, the home office now has a DVD presentation that someone could use, I believe, with the minister reading the scriptures and leading through the procedure. So if someone doesn't want to go through the written process, I kind of like the...well, I haven't done the DVD. I'll mention this, I kept the Passover with my grandparents in their home several years, when they became too infirm to travel out. And they asked me if I would come and do that, and the pastor said, yeah, that would be appropriate. So we sat down there with three of us, and it's interesting, we did a three-way foot washing. I washed one, and they washed the other. If you're all by yourself, that's the one part of it you don't do. Because there's no sense in washing your own feet. You do that every day. That doesn't show great humility. But it's ideal if there are two or more, so you can humble yourself and wash another person's feet. And you can go through the scriptures there, read the scriptures, break the bread, pray to God, and the symbolism is the same. We do not have to have an ordained elder to lead the Passover. We prefer that. And it's a high honor for me to be able to lead the Passover. I'm still humbled every time I do it. But it's a special, it's a something that's between you and God. Jesus Christ is our high priest. So if you're in the position where you can't come and join the congregation, you can take it at home. And I printed the announcement, I forgot to read this in the announcements, but if you do need to have the DVD or you want that, please get in touch with me and I can ask the home office to send one to you. They noted, though, that it's the same one from last year, so if you have one from last year, you could use that. And I'm looking at all of you. Most of you will be here, I'm sure. If there's someone that's watching on the computer and you need that, please give me a call.

Now, we want to keep in mind, the Passover is a solemn assembly, but it's not an unhappy one. That's another thing that's been discussed. We've always wanted to keep it solemn. We don't have the same conviviality and fellowship. We never have a potluck meal. But it's not meant to be something where we're disappointed and we can't express some joy. There's such great joy at knowing that our sins can be forgiven, that our sins are forgiven. So we can have that joy within us, and we come... It's okay to smile at someone. We're not going to have backs lapping and telling jokes and such, but we can enjoy the fellowship that we have, and we're glad to be here. I want to wrap all this up. I'm a little beyond where I wanted to go, but Passover is coming again. It comes every year, 14th of Abib, and all baptized members of God's Church are to participate, to take the symbols of the broken, unleavened bread and the wine. Now, I made a note. Baptism... Taking the Passover isn't a reason to rush through baptismal counseling, but it's not uncommon for counseling to finish up about that time. It did for me. I remember, and I've told people about this, I've been counseling for, I think, seven months. And it was basically because my pastor wanted to make sure I was doing this for the right reasons. He knew me through all my teen years, and I was like, okay, let's see... Is this just a momentary... Well, we stretched it out, and I remember the last thing he had me do was write him an essay. He said, write an essay on what is your value to God. That was interesting. I didn't know where it was going with that, but it did make me think, and I can tell you more about that later, but I handed it to him one Sabbath. The next Sabbath, I came up to him after services, and he looked at me and said, how about coming over to my house tomorrow? At about one o'clock, I think. Okay. And he had the baptismal tank filled up, and that was, I think, within a week of Passover. So I had already said on my mind, well, I'll look forward to the next year's Passover. So, you know, it can happen, and we're excited. All of us... You remember your baptism. I'll bet every one of you were thinking of when it happened to you, right? It's a good memory. We're called to be part of the body of Christ, to be circumcised in our hearts. So let's examine ourselves to make sure that we are part of that body, and then, on that day, the 14th of Abib, let's come and let's take the Passover.