Leavened or Unleavened

Beautiful special music. Certainly appreciate all the work that went into providing that special music and offertory music for us. All three selections were very well done and with tremendous meaning behind those messages. So certainly appreciate all of that.

Brethren, I did want to make one more prayer request, and that's for Chevy Volchev. Chevy was not doing well last night. And Denise said he may have walking pneumonia. Not for sure, but he was not doing well at all last evening. So please keep Chevy in your prayers. He's had a number of health issues that he's been struggling with recently, so we'd certainly ask that you remember him. Well, brethren, why are we here today observing the days of Unleavened Bread? Many of us have been observing these days for a long time, some over 50 or 60 years.

And the title Days of Unleavened Bread, I think it still seems a little strange to us, to some degree, although not so strange as it did the first time we heard of it.

But when we tell people about it, you know, I think that it's just natural. Most people aren't, you know, they're surprised. Days of Unleavened Bread, I've never heard of that, even though supposedly they've read their Bibles. But for some reason, they don't remember it very well. Or maybe they haven't read their Bibles. But brethren, what do these days picture? What should they mean to each and every one of us? What lesson should we be learning and reviewing these next seven days? Why did God center his spring holy days on bread? I mean, why would he call them the days of unleavened bread? And why make a distinction between unleavened bread and leavened bread? Leavened or unleavened, does it really matter? Well, I know that you understand it does really matter, and we'll talk about that today. God often uses something physical that is very common and well known as a symbol of something spiritual and much, much more important.

He used a slaughtered physical lamb without spot or wrinkle, a very special lamb, as a symbol of our spiritual lamb, Jesus Christ, who sacrificed himself for us and became our Passover lamb.

God has certainly used many symbols. He used many symbols of these holy days that we began last night by observing the night to be much remembered, the night to be observed, the night when God led the children of Israel out of Egypt, out of bondage, out of slavery. And we know that Egypt is symbolic of sin, Pharaoh being symbolic of Satan the devil, who tried to keep them in bondage and in slavery.

But God led them out with a high hand, with a mighty hand. So there are many, many symbols.

We put the leaven out of our homes. Last night there was absolutely no unleavened bread, at least hopefully. No unleavened bread anywhere near as we began the days of unleavened bread. We put the leaven out to show that we are serious about wanting to put sin out of our lives. Leaven is symbolic of sin.

Leavened bread is much more plentiful as a rule than unleavened bread. If you go looking for unleavened bread in the stores, except this time of year, you're typically not going to find very much. I mean, there are some few brands out there, Triscuits, and some different brands. Many different things they would qualify, but certainly many, much more in the way of leavened bread. Many, many varieties of leavened bread out there. So unleavened bread is much scarcer in general, but last night it was more plentiful, at least in the homes where we were keeping, or the restaurants, at least in our tables anyway. We stayed away from the leavened bread. So, leavened bread, as it is today, was very plentiful also in ancient biblical times.

Bread was even more important back then than it is today in many ways. It was considered the staff of life. It was one of the most essential mainstays of the ancient diet. The book, Every Day Life in Bible Times by National Geographic, says that around the time of Moses, there were 40 kinds of baked goods. In those days in Egypt, bread sustained the dead, as well as the living. That's what they believed. Nobles wished for thousands of loaves to supply their needs in the next world. Evidently, the nobles would have loaves and loaves of bread buried with them. Strange customs, certainly, but that's what took place. There's a lot of deception in the world, a lot of misunderstanding as to what really is true.

So let's ask ourselves, what are some characteristics of leavened bread, and how do these characteristics relate in a spiritual way?

First of all, leavened spreads, doesn't it? A little leaven leavens the whole lump. You've heard that before, Galatians chapter 5 verse 9. Let's read it together, Galatians chapter 5 and verse 9 talks about a little leaven being capable of leavening the whole lump. And certainly that's true from a physical standpoint. A little leaven will leaven a whole big batch of pancakes. It'll make things, it'll spread to all of that. So in Galatians chapter 5, Galatians chapter 5 verse 9, here it says again a little leaven leavens the whole lump.

It says, I have confidence in you in the Lord that you will have no other mind, but he who troubles you shall bear his judgment whoever he is. And I, brethren, if I still preach circumcision, why do I still suffer persecution? Then the offense of the cross has ceased. I could wish that those who trouble you would indeed be cut off. There's a play on words here.

For you, brethren, have been called to liberty. We've all been called to liberty. We've been called out of bondage, out of slavery. Only do not use your liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word. Even in this, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. God puts a lot of emphasis on loving one another. He says, but if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by one another. And that is a type of leaven that will spread. When one person is a grumbler and a complainer, it's very negative, then that tends to rub off on all those around. A little leaven leavens the whole lump. So we need to be good to each other. We need to be careful that we are not spreading leaven. And there's all kinds of spiritual leaven out there. There's many ways to sin.

Anger is a sin. When we get angry with others, they often want to retaliate. You know, a little leaven leavens the whole lump. You have to really be converted not to respond in kind when someone is being angry with you or being, you know, just unbalanced in their approach toward you. It's very easy for you to slip into that same kind of attitude and approach, become defensive, become angry yourself. A little leaven leavens the whole lump. There is a ripple effect when it comes to sin. It permeates throughout the environment in which it's in. Leavening agents, yeast spores are microscopic. They're extremely small, but they have a big impact. Just like those little sins are not so little, are they? Not when they infect others, not when they cause discord and disunity among God's people. We are to love each other as God loves us. We're to love one another, love our neighbors as we love ourselves. So, leaven does spread. Be sure that you are not spreading any spiritual leaven. You've gotten the leaven out of your home. It's not spreading in your home right now physically. Let's make sure it's not spreading spiritually. Also, secondly, leaven puffs up. Those pancakes I was talking about, not only does it spread to all of them, it also puffs them up. Most people probably enjoy leavened pancakes more than unleavened ones. I've had both, and the puffiness does kind of add to it, but it's not what we want in a spiritual sense. Leaven spreads, it puffs up. Let's go to 1 Corinthians 5, where we read a spiritual example of how leaven was puffing up the Corinthians. Verse 1, it is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality as is not even named among the Gentiles, that a man has his father's wife, his stepmother. And you are puffed up and have not rather mourned, but he who has done this deed might be taken away from among you. They weren't dealing with this type of sin the way they should have. For I indeed, as an absent body, but present in spirit, have already judged as though I were present him who has done this deed. You know, Paul was mortified by what he had heard about what was going on here. He says, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together, along with my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. For your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? A little leaven does leaven the whole lump. It puffs up the whole lump, and pride spreads as well. Pride and vanity, it spreads to others. Matthew Henry had this to say about this particular passage of Scripture.

He says, note, Christian churches should be pure and holy, and not beards such corrupt and scandalous members. There are to be unleavened, and should endure no such heterogeneous mixture to sour and corrupt them. To each particular member of the church, it applies, and so it implies that they should purge themselves from all impurity of heart and life, especially from this kind of wickedness to which the Corinthians were addicted to a proverb. The Corinthians were known to Corinthianize. It had to do with sexual immorality. To spread that around, it says, this old leaven was in a particular manner to be purged out that they might become a new lump.

Christians should be careful to keep themselves clean, as well as purge polluted members out of their society. Someone that is blatantly sinning, such as this man was here in Corinth, they should not allow such a one to continue without dealing with that person. The whole idea is to cut them off from fellowship so they'll repent of their bad, sinful behavior, and so they'll be fit to come back into fellowship once they have repented and they've stopped that evil, sinful, bad behavior. It says, and they should especially avoid the sins to which they themselves were once most addicted. Again, the Corinthians came out of these types of sins, and the reigning vices of the places and the people where they live. They were also to purge themselves from malice and wickedness. If we read on a little bit further, it says, verse 7, therefore purge out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened, for indeed Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us. Thankfully, we do have a wonderful sacrifice. Our sins may be covered if we are repentant, but we have to be repentant. This was not a repentant man to begin with. He was blatantly going on with this type of sin, and the church was even allowing it to happen. And so it was a very destructive situation that was set up within the church here. So purge out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleaven, for indeed Christ was sacrificed for us. But we are to come out of sin, aren't we? It's not just enough to have the sacrifice of Christ and have our past sins covered, but we have to be repentant over comers. We have to be moving in the right direction. We have to be growing spiritually, making progress, fighting the good fight, enduring to the end, never giving up in that battle against sin, because sin is very pervasive. It's like leaven. It's difficult to root out the sin that easily besets us. That's how the scripture describes sin. It easily besets us. Don't think sin doesn't easily beset you. If you think that, you are badly mistaken. You are deceived.

Sin easily besets us. We have to always be on guard against sin. We have to be vigilant. And that's true in keeping the leaven out of our lives the next seven days.

We have to be careful. No donut shops for any of you. Some of your cars may be on automatic pilot. You know, they go into the nearest donut shop, Dunkin' Donuts. Well, you have to be careful. And remember that these are the days of unleavened donuts as well as bread. No leaven. It really puffs up those glazed donuts. You don't want to be eating those things. So therefore, let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. And we'll talk more about that as we continue on here. So we have to purge out malice and wickedness, all ill will. I'm back to reading from Matthew Henry's commentary now. He says, they should especially avoid the sins to which they themselves were once addicted. They were also to purge themselves from malice and wickedness, all ill will, and mischievous subtleties. This is leaven that sours the mind to a great degree. It is not improbable that this was intended as a check to some who gloried in the scandalous behavior of the offender, both out of pride and pique. Note, Christians should be careful to keep free from malice and mischief. Love is the very essence and life of the Christian religion. It is the fairest image of God. Of course, God is love. So that's as far as I'll read here. But it is very, very important that we do come out of this sin and we don't take it lightly for ourselves or for others who fellowship with us. We should want to help others overcome their sin and put sin out of their life. And if we have a good relationship with each other, we'll be able to do that. We'll be more able to help someone if we already have their trust, if they know that we are concerned about them, if we know that we truly do love them, then they'll realize that even though it may hurt, they'll realize it's for their own good, hopefully, and it'll be easier for them to stop those sins.

Let's go to 1 Corinthians chapter 4. Read a little bit more here. 1 Corinthians chapter 4, verse 6 and 7. Now these things, brethren, 1 Corinthians chapter 4 verse 6, now these things, brethren, I have figuratively transferred to myself and Apollos for your sakes, that you may learn in us not to think beyond what is written, that none of you may be puffed up on behalf of one against the other. So this is in the context that I just read 1 Corinthians 5. This was going on. They were being puffed up one against another in the congregation. For who makes you differ from another, and what do you have that you did not receive? Now if you did indeed receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it? You are already full. You are already rich. You have reigned as kings without us, and indeed I could wish you did reign, that we also might reign with you. For I think that God has displayed us, the apostles, last, as men condemned to death, for we have been made a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to men. They were certainly persecuted above the others.

We are fools for Christ's sake, but you are wise in Christ. Now of course he's being sarcastic here, as Paul has done on a number of occasions in the Bible. He says, we are weak, but you are strong. You are distinguished, but we are dishonored. To the present hour we both hunger and thirst, and we are poorly clothed and beaten and homeless. And we labor working with our own hands. Being reviled, we bless. Being persecuted, we endure. Being defamed, we entreat. We have been made as the filth of the world and all scouring of all things until now. They weren't really appreciated in many respects. They were persecuted. They were chased from city to city.

You can read about Paul's life. It was not an easy one. He was greatly harassed because of the truth that he believed in and that he stood for. If we drop down to verse 18, now some are puffed up as though I were not coming to you, but I will come to you shortly if the Lord wills, and I will know not the word of those who are puffed up, but the power for the kingdom of God is not in word but in power. What do you want? Shall I come to you with a rod or in love and a spirit of gentleness? So that's what he would have preferred to come in a spirit of gentleness, but sometimes it does take a rod of iron if people are not willing to repent and sin. Sometimes a stronger approach gets better results, and that has to be used at times, but certainly we would prefer love and a spirit of gentleness. Even love can obviously accompany a rod of iron. Christ is going to rule with a rod of iron. Christ is love.

So it depends on what's necessary, but whatever is necessary is something that needs to be followed through on and done. In Colossians chapter 2 it talks about how some were vainly puffed up by their fleshly minds. Have you ever been puffed up by your fleshly mind? Has that ever happened? I assure you it has. Colossians, let's go to Colossians chapter 2.

Read a few verses here. Colossians chapter 2.

Colossians chapter 2 verse 18 and 19.

Here he says, Let no one cheat you of your reward, taking delight in false humility and worship of angels, intruding into those things which he has not seen vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind. Some people think they have the answers. You know, they think they've got it figured out. When they're so deceived, they can't see it at all. And not holding fast to the head from whom all the body nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments grows with the increase that is from God. So we need to be careful that we're not vainly puffed up in our fleshly minds. Christ said, put on, or we are to put on the mind of Christ, is what Paul said. That's the mind that we're supposed to have. Christ is unleavened, right? He's not puffed up. That's the type of mind that we need to cultivate. Benjamin Franklin vividly remembered a visit that he'd made as a young man to see the Puritan preacher, Cotton Mather, in the life lesson that he learned. Franklin recalled that he was showing me out of the house and there was a very low beam near the doorway. I was still talking when Mather began shouting, stoop, stoop! I didn't understand what he meant and I banged my head on the beam.

You're young, he said, and have the world before you. Stoop as you go through it and you will avoid many hard thumps. That advice has been very useful to me, Franklin said. I avoided many misfortunes by not carrying my head too high in pride. So we need to be careful that we don't carry our heads too high in pride. Pride certainly puffs up. Lucifer was inflicted with pride. He was infected with pride and it was his downfall, largely it was his downfall, led to many other sins because leaven spreads and it puffs up. A third way in which leaven is sinful, this physical leaven is symbolic of sin. Leaven is deceitful. It's also hypocritical. Deceitful and hypocritical.

You wouldn't naturally think that a little leaven would have such a big impact, but it is very deceitful. It is a pretender, in a sense. Notice Luke chapter 12, what Christ says in Luke chapter 12. He says, beware of what? Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees. The Pharisees were greatly leavened. They were his biggest enemies, you might say. They were constantly after him, ended up leading the charge to have him crucified.

So in Luke chapter 12 verse 1, in the meantime, when an innumerable multitude of people had gathered together so that they trampled one another, he began to say to the disciples, first of all, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees. And of course, the Pharisees were envious. They were jealous of what was happening because many people were being led to follow Jesus Christ. So they were envious, and Christ says, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. Christ did not mince words about the Pharisees, for there is nothing covered that will not be revealed nor hidden that will not be known. So we are to be aware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. Hypocrisy is something that Christ spoke out against time after time. Let's go to Matthew chapter 23, and we could read the whole chapter. We're not going to read the whole chapter, but we could read the whole chapter because it's all about hypocrisy. Verse 12, and it's talking about whoever is greatest among you shall be your servant. That's the context in which we find this. Christ is telling us that we all need to learn to be servants. As Christ set that wonderful example for us himself, he says that our teacher should be the Christ, and he who is greatest among you shall be your servant. And whoever exalts himself in verse 12 will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. But woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you shall shut up the kingdom of heaven against men, for you neither go in yourselves, and you do not allow those who are entering to go in. Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you devour widows' houses, and for a pretense you make long prayers. They acted religious, but Christ said, How be it in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrine the commandments of men?

He says you devour widows' houses instead of practicing true religion, which is to visit the widows and the fatherless in their affliction. They would take advantage of them. Therefore, you will receive greater condemnation. Verse 15, woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won you make him as much a son of hell as yourselves. So again, you have to really be true and honest and faithful and do it the way God says to do it. Otherwise, you do it in vain, and it doesn't count for anything that's worthy and good and lasting. Woe to you blind guides who say whoever swears by the temple, it is nothing, but whoever swears by the gold of the temple, he is obliged to perform it. Fools and blind, for which is greater the gold or the temple that sanctifies the gold? So Christ goes on to take to task those who were not giving greater attention to the weightier matters of the law—mercy, judgment, faith—they were not concentrating on the most important priorities. Instead, they were, as he said, a brood of vipers. They were serpents following Satan the devil.

Satan the devil was very deceitful, very deceptive, and the Pharisees were that way as well. They looked up to them as religious leaders. Instead, they were satanic leaders. They were not godly leaders. They were doing Satan's bidding. So woe do you scribes and Pharisees hypocrites. Levin is deceitful. It's very hypocritical.

Eighty years ago—you may remember, well, a little over 80 years ago, probably 90 years now—as Notre Dame was preparing to play the USC Trojans in college football, fighting Irish coach Newt Rockne was aware that his opponent had a far better team. He was going to go up against the USC, the University of Southern California Trojans. So he devised a plan to intimidate and deceive the opposing players. Newt Rockne scoured the city of South Bend, Indiana, where my sister lives. I have a sister that lives there. And this is Notre Dame's hometown. And he handpicked a hundred of the largest men he could find—big farm boys. They were all at least 6'5", and weighed over 300 pounds. He put the men in fighting Irish uniforms, and at game time marched them onto the field ahead of the real team. Obviously, this was before the days of limited rosters. They couldn't get away with that today. There were eligibility restrictions and so forth. You couldn't get away with that kind of deception. In fact, maybe that's one reason why they tightened the rules. Anyway, as USC, University of Southern California, watched those Giants line up on the sidelines, they forgot about their talent. They were actually the very best football team that year. They had an undefeated record, and they began mentally preparing themselves for a beating. You know, how can we beat these huge Giants out there? It kind of reminds you of what happened when the children of Israel, the spies, went in and saw the Giants, and they said, we're like grasshoppers before these Giants. That's what was happening with USC. Though none of the specially recruited men played during the game—they were not football players—their presence on the sidelines was enough to knock Southern Cal's concentration off balance. Newt Rockne's trick had worked. He had intimidated the Trojan players into giving up before the game even started. So Newt Rockne was deceitful to gain an advantage.

Others regularly practice deceit. Of course, symbolic of Levin, we need to be careful that we're not practicing such things to deceive others. It's not true. It's not right to do those sorts of things to take advantage of others in that way. So if you own a business, be careful how you represent yourself. It's important to be honest and true. Now, there was an article written in the Dallas Morning News—this goes back to 2005. It was on April 25th, and it's entitled, Cell Phonies Know How to Fake It. It said, the cashier had already rung up Kerry Wooster's items when she realized she didn't have her wallet. She dashed to her car and returned empty-handed to face the line of fidgeting customers she had kept waiting. A cell phone pressed to her ear, so she had her cell phone. She said, Jordan, did you take my wallet out of my purse? She asked in parental exasperation as she made her way back to the checkout counter. I'm holding up this line. You need to put things back where you find them. Wooster, who has no children, was not actually talking to a Jordan or indeed to anyone at all, but her monologue served its purpose, earning her sympathetic looks from the frustrated crowd at her local Walmart.

Call Wooster a cell phoney. She is a part of a growing number of people who are using their cell phones to carry on fake conversations to deceive or manipulate those around them. I would hope none of you would stoop so low as to do that. Some cell phonies use their cell phones to avoid contact with annoying co-workers or supervisors. Some pretend to be finishing a call when they arrive late for a meeting. The fake phone call has a technique all its own.

Inexperienced cell phonies risk exposure with their limited repertoire of sophisticated simulators achieve authenticity by re-enacting their side of an actual dialogue. So it takes some practice to really get good at doing this. Or they call voice-activated phone trees so it sounds as if someone is talking on the other end. So they become pretty sophisticated in ways to deceive one another. Another article that was entitled, For Liars and Loafers, Cell Phones Offer an Alibi, it reads, As if cell phones couldn't do enough already, now they are being used to create alibis.

Alibi networks are emerging in the United States, Europe, and parts of Asia. Each club is a network of strangers willing to receive text messages on their cell phones requesting help and providing excuses for all sorts of situations. Kenny Hall is one of those who used the American version of the club. In his case, it was to help him cheat on his girlfriend. His text message went out to 3,400 other members of his Alibi and Excuse Club. Within moments, a complete stranger offered a phone Hall's girlfriend with a ready-made lie. The European Alibi Club grew to 4,000 members before being shut down by founder Cale Hansen. I got a new girlfriend, and she wasn't too keen on it, said Mr. Hansen. She thought it was immoral. It is immoral. That kind of deception and using that type of dishonesty and lies to carry on more sins, leaven does spread.

Okay, let's go on to a fourth thing about leaven. It represents malice and wickedness. The Bible shows that leaven represents malice and wickedness. We already read that in 1 Corinthians 5. Sin is malicious, it's wicked, and it's evil. We need to come out of sin, don't we? We want no part of sin. That's the attitude that we should have. It should truly bother us when we sin, when we break one of God's laws, either in the letter or in the spirit of the law. It should bother us. We should feel ashamed of what we've done. It should make a difference in how we live our lives. We should repent, seek repentance, and pray that God would grant us repentance. Certainly, if we're seeking repentance and we're truly sincere, God is going to grant it.

But there are many things that people do. I have another article. I'm not going to take the time to read it, but it's about how a lot of restaurants will claim that they're feeding you red snapper.

But it may not be red snapper at all. There are many deceptions out there.

They talk about how a skate, a bottom-feeding fish, was used to deceive people. People thought they were scallops or clam strips when they were skates. Not that we eat any of that stuff. So we're better off not eating any of those types of things. But there's a lot of deception that goes on in the world, and we don't even know it. It's going on, and we're oblivious to what's happening around us. Hopefully you've never eaten any unclean foods masquerading as something else. So it is important, again, that we come out of sin. We become unleavened during these days of unleavened bread, and we become vigilant and realize that sin is all around us. And we have to be careful, or we will be brought in to those sins. I mean, it's easy enough to sin on our own, but then when we have others contributing and causing temptation, Satan is the great tempter, he will certainly try to bring us into sin.

So what are some characteristics of unleavened bread? We've talked about unleavened bread. Let's talk about unleavened bread, because, you know, it's interesting, but in the old days, back when ancient Israel began keeping the days of unleavened bread, there really wasn't a lot of leaven around. You know, they put the leaven out, so it was easier in many respects to stay away from leaven, wasn't it? You know, if you're not around it, like last night, it was easy to stay away from leaven, because our host had put leaven out of the home, and everyone had just brought unleavened bread. You know, they didn't bring leavening, so we were able to stay clean and pure, from that, at least from that physical standpoint. And so it's much easier when everyone is unleavened around you, but when we go out in the world, it's not always the case. Many of you, you know, you work, you go outside your home. Okay, that's when you're most susceptible to eating leaven, isn't it? When you forget, and someone offers you a cupcake, and after you sink your teeth into it, you're like, ah! What am I gonna do now? I'm right in front of these people. Am I gonna go spit this out in front of everyone? Well, that's what you should do. Go spit it out and tell them why. That's what I think I'd do. I'd say, oh, shouldn't have eaten this. You guys are tempting me to sin. No, I don't know if you want to do that, but balance, my friends. Balance.

So, unleavened bread is flat. It's not puffed up. It represents humility and sincerity.

It does not represent pride and arrogance, as leaven does, but it represents humility. It represents sincerity. So, we need to come out of that pride and that arrogance and be unleavened. We need to be pure, sincere, honest. Unleavened bread is true. You wouldn't expect it to be puffed up. In fact, I remember times when it looked like it was leavened, but I guess there are some ways to puff things up without actually having any leaven. I remember one time we were in Oklahoma, and it was on a holy day, and they had this chocolate cake, I think it was. And several times we asked them, are you sure there's no leaven in this? Because it sure looks leavened. And they assured us a number of times that there was no leavening at all in that cake. So, hopefully there wasn't because most of us ate it.

But sometimes it can be very deceptive. Unleavened bread represents truth and honesty.

You know, here's another article I'd like to read from. It's called, Lips Can Lie, But Your Brain Will Spill the Beans. This is from the Chicago Tribune.

Lying takes serious thought. That's the conclusion of neuroscientists at Temple University. According to the Chicago Tribune, and I quote, with brain imaging technology, they can see how a lie sparks activity deep in the limbic system, the center of emotion and self-preservation. The lie gathers support from the memory banks in the left and right temporal lobes, and then makes a dash to the frontal cortex where a decision is made to suppress what the brain knows to be true. Researchers see this technology eventually replacing the polygraph, the lie detector, the lie detector test, which is only about 90% accurate. It is based on an accelerated heart rate and breathing rates, which some liars can control.

Brain activity would be much harder to mask. Dr. Scott Farrow says lying is a complex behavior. There's more activity and more interactions that occur during a lie than in truth-telling.

It should be easier to tell the truth, but it doesn't seem that way. In fact, some people become pathological liars. They become so good at it, they've deceived themselves, and they even believe their own lies. God made telling the truth natural to us that ever since Adam and Eve, our minds have been working overtime in an attempt to lie. Well, I don't know exactly if that's a completely true statement or not, but it's from the article, Lips Can Lie, But Your Brain Will Spill the Beans. Also, Maureen O'Sullivan is a deception expert. This is from an article entitled, Human Lie Detectors. This came from Reuters.com. Maureen O'Sullivan is a deception expert. She says that even though most people believe they can easily detect when someone is lying, they are wrong 50% of the time. But some people are unusually adept at sniffing out a lie. O'Sullivan has found a special group who detect lies nearly 90% of the time.

People with this ability make up only 1% of the population. After screening thousands of people for their ability to catch a liar on videotape, 14 ultimate experts were identified. We called them wizards, O'Sullivan said. Interesting. But the point I'm making is, unleavened bread is true, and we need to be true. We need to tell the truth. We need to be honest.

We need to be careful how we live our lives.

A third thing about unleavened bread is it's symbolic of love, because love is not puffed up. You know, 1 Corinthians talks about that, how it's not puffed up.

That's in verse 4. Love is not puffed up. It represents Jesus Christ, of course, who is the unleavened bread that comes down from heaven. So, love is something that we should all strive to become. That's one of the fruits, the first fruit mentioned, the fruit of God's Spirit. God is love. Love is the fruit of God's Holy Spirit. You should be known as a loving person. In fact, if every single one of us was known as a loving person, we would have a much more solid group of people. If everyone was really practicing love and becoming love, and we could all do better, I know I could do better when it comes to being more loving and expressing more love, more concern, more compassion.

That's something we should pray for. Pray for one another that we can all learn to love each other more than we do. So, love is not puffed up. It's humble. It's the way we need to become.

And then, lastly, unleavened bread is symbolic of Jesus Christ. John chapter 6. Let's go there.

John chapter 6. We know that Christ had a lot to say in the book of John. John chapter 6, verse 32, and we read this at the Passover service.

Then Jesus said to them, most discerately, I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven.

Okay, well, there was manna that was sent to the children of Israel when they needed food. Jesus said to them, Christ is symbolic of the manna, the true unleavened bread that comes from heaven. Verse 33, for the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.

Then they said to him, Lord, give us this bread always. And Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. He who comes to me shall never hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst.

But I said to you that you have seen me, and yet you do not believe. All that the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me I will by no means cast out. You know, Christ is on our side. Christ loves all of us. Christ is our intercessor. He intercedes on our behalf when we do sin. Satan is the accuser. He accuses us, but Christ says, well, God, look at their heart. You know, they're down there repenting, they're praying and asking you to forgive them of what they've just done, of their sin. Okay, that stifles Satan the devil. If we draw near to God, he will draw near to us. If we resist Satan, he will flee from us. So we all need to be practicing that this week.

Resist Satan the devil and know that he will flee from you. But you have to continue. As long as he's assaulting you, then you have to continue to resist him. Eventually, he has to leave you alone. And Satan made it clear that he will try to come back at an opportune time. That's what he says, I think, in the book of Luke in relation to when Christ was being tempted by Satan. Christ was not giving in at all.

He was quoting scripture back to him. Satan left him for a time. He was looking for an opportune time. He never found an opportune time with Christ, but I guarantee he'll find one with you if you allow it to happen. And we've all done it. We've let down on our prayer. We've let down on studying the Bible. We've allowed ourselves to be tempted. Some of us have strongholds that are very difficult to break away from, addictions that bother us, that hold us captive.

And we have to fight back against those strongholds. With God's help, we can overcome all things. We can do better. So I hope that we will use these spring holy days as a springboard to putting sin out of our lives. That's what these days are all about. Is putting these sins out of our lives. Being stronger, overcomers. Truly overcoming the sins that so easily beset us. So we have to fight the good fight. We must never give up because when we give up, then it's over.

And that's what Satan's looking for. That's what Satan wants all of us to do, is give up. So even if you do sin this week during the days of Unleavened Bread, that's even more reason to seek God's forgiveness. To seek the sacrifice of our Savior Jesus Christ. To claim that wonderful sacrifice.

Yes, we should strive not to sin this week. Wouldn't it be wonderful if none of us sinned a single time this whole week? That there was not a single sin in this whole body of people. 265 people here, by the way, which I think is a record. I don't remember ever having 265 people here for a holy day. So it's up to you, of course. How willing are you to submit to Christ and to God the Father and become unleavened? How badly do you want to be unleavened? How much are you going to seek to become like the unleavened bread that comes down from heaven?

Christ was sinless. He never sinned, and not just for one week. He never sinned his entire life. In the human flesh, for 30-plus years, Christ never sinned. It would be nice if we could go for one day, all of us, without sinning. Let's strive to put sin out of our lives this week. Let's remember what leaven represents. Let's do our best to stay away from the physical leaven, but most importantly, let's stay away from the spiritual leaven.

The spiritual leaven that wants to overtake us, and in a sense, it does humble us, doesn't it, when we sin. That's the only good thing, I guess, is that when we sinned, if we're truly humbled by our sins. I know I've been humbled by my sins, because I would think I should do better after so many years in God's church, but sin still easily besets me. It's not easy for any of us to become unleavened, and that's what's so wonderful about Christ's sacrifice.

It's bigger than all of us, but we can't take it lightly. We can't take sin for granted. We must not. If we do, then we may eventually commit the unpardonable sin. If we take it lightly, if it doesn't move us, when we sin, it should humble us to our very core. We should get on our knees and pray that God will be merciful and forgive us for whatever it is, whatever leaven that we've allowed into our lives.

So, brethren, I hope you will take these words to heart and live by them, not just this week, but for the rest of your lives, and that you will truly become unleavened.