Prepare Ourselves to Be a Better Habitation of God's Holy Spirit

Thank you very much. That was stunningly beautiful. Really, really appreciate that. Thank you. Reverend, as we are moving now in a period from the days of Unleavened Bread to Pentecost, it is interesting and worthwhile to actually meditate a little bit about this period of time. Just like it was mentioned in the sermonette, where we need to redeem the time, we need to consider the meaning of this period. So today I want to talk a little bit about this period of Unleavened Bread to Pentecost, and show you how we can use this time to prepare ourselves to gain total victory from sin and death, and as a preparation of the giving of the Holy Spirit. I know many of us, yeah, do already have God's Holy Spirit, but it is therefore meaningful that the day of Pentecost represents the time when Holy Spirit was first given, and therefore draws some lessons so that the Holy Spirit may live in us in greater abundance and glory.

So to do that, I would like to first look at some examples in the Old Testament. First, the Commandments, how the days are counted, and then I want to go to some examples of when they left Egypt, and see some of the trials they went through in that period in between, till actually the day of Pentecost. And we'll use some of those examples as lessons today to draw conclusions for ourselves. So let's first start with Leviticus 23, the 23rd chapter of Leviticus. And that's the Commandment about working out the time period to get to Pentecost. So let's look at that very carefully, and we'll start reading in verse 4 and 5. And it says, These are the feasts of the Lord, holy complications, which you shall proclaim at their appointed times. So these are the feasts of God. They are not one of the tribes of Israelites, as the world today calls it. These are the feasts of the Jews. No, it does not say these are the feasts of the Jews. These are the feasts of the Lord, the feasts of God. And so then it goes on in saying, which you shall proclaim at their appointed times. So there are specific days when specific things will be done. And on the 14th day of the first month, a twilight, which is when the sun is just set and the twilight is there, so it's still not dark, but the sun is just set. On the 14th day of the first month of twilight is the Lord's Passover. So that, as we observe the Passover on the 14th day, just after sunset, that's when we do it. That's also the night that the Lord was betrayed, as Christ said, and do it as He did it. And during the part of the day portion of that same day in God's calendar, which is from sunset to sunset, during the day portion of that same day, that's when Christ died, as we all know. So the Passover is on the 14th. And then in verse 6, a very far... yeah, in verse 6 says, And on the 15th day of the same month is the feast of the 11th bread, which means after the 14th of His list of the 15th, which means immediately the next day, as soon as Christ has died and has opened the way for God's plan to be possible, we therefore can have the Holy Days. And the first Holy Day that we have is the first day of a bread. And that feast is for seven days. Yes, it is a seven-day festival, but not all festival days are Holy Days.

The first Holy Day is the 15th, and the second Holy Day is the seventh day of the feast, which is the 21st. And He says, on the first day you shall have a Holy Complication, in other words, it's... you shall do no customary work, in other words, it's a Sabbath. But you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord for seven days, and the seventh day shall be a Holy Complication, shall do no customary work, which is also a Sabbath. So during this festival period of seven days, the first day is a Holy Day, and the seventh is a Holy Day. The 14th, by the way, is also a feast day, but it's not a Holy Day. So let's not confuse festivals with Holy Days. Some days are festivals that are not Holy Days, in other words, that are not Sabbaths. So anyway, what we have is we have the other period of the days of a bread.

For seven days. What we did this year... Now, there's something interesting, I will be continuing reading. Now, in my Bible, it's got a written commentary out of thoughts. It says, the Feast of First Fruits. Well, this is not the Feast of First Fruits. This is a man-written statement. This is the offering of the way of Sheath. It's not the Feast of First Fruits. Feast of First Fruits is the Feast of Weeks. That's the Feast of First Fruits. But anyway, that's a man-written statement that wrote at the heading there of verse 9. But let's read verse 9.

So that's on the... and you'll see...

In other words, the first day of the week. That's on Sunday. Clearly, it is the Sabbath, a weekly Sabbath. If any of you want a morning-depth study about that, if you're really talking about the weekly Sabbath, we can go into that at another time. But anyway, it's on the day of the Sabbath. The priest shall wave. Even it was the first day of the week. He was to wave the way of Sheath.

As you know, symbolically, Christ resurrected at the end of the Sabbath towards sunset. In the morning, when they went to Luke, he was already resurrected. That was the first day of the week. And then, later on, he said to people, Don't touch me or don't delay me, because he had to go to heaven to present himself to God the Father, which was symbolic of the way of Sheath offering. The way of Sheath offering was the first of the first fruits, which is Christ, being ceremonially offered to God's throne, having the first human being that is actually...

the first being that had been a human being that was resurrected and therefore presented to the Father. And so, that is symbolic of the way of Sheath. So, we shall wave, verse 11, the way of Sheath... We shall wave the Sheath, that's the way of Sheath offering, before the Lord to be accepted on your behalf. On the day after the Sabbath, the priest shall wave it.

Just like Christ did that on the day after the Sabbath, the first day of the week. We know, we read the Scriptures, that's where we did it. During the first day of the week. And you shall offer it on that day, when you wave the Sheath a male lamb, or the first year of the lamb, which is then offering to the Lord. Its grand offering shall be two tenths of an ether, that's this portion of that offering, of fine flour mixed with oil, an offering made by fire to the Lord with a sweet aroma.

And its great offering shall be of wine and one-fourth of a hin. And you shall eat neither bread, nor potched grain, nor fresh grain, until the same day. In other words, you shall not eat the bread from the land of the new harvest, until you've done the wave Sheath offering. And we'll see later on, when we'll be reading this about Joshua, you'll see that they ate the bread, which meant that that day was the first day of an ever break. The first day of an ever break was on the Sabbath, but we'll see that when we go to Joshua later.

But anyway, the point here is, on the day after the Sabbath, that means on the Sunday, on the first day of the week, they went to wave with the Sheath offering. And it says it's a statute forever throughout the generations you all do well. So what? What has it got to do with Pentecost? It's got a lot to do with Pentecost, because it's from that day that we count Pentecost. It's from that day that we count Pentecost. And it says, verse 15, and it should count for yourselves from the day after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the Sheath of the Wave offering, seven Sabbaths. You know, it was seven full weeks, seven Sabbaths, seven weeks of Sabbaths.

In other words, that is the first day of the week when they wave, and therefore you go through that whole week until you have one Sabbath. And you go through a whole other week until you have another Sabbath. And you go through another week until you have another Sabbath.

So for instance, this year, let's look at 2012, this year. We had the days of a Niv and Bread earlier on this month. The Sunday this year in your calendar, in my calendar, was April the 8th. That was the day of the Wave Sheath. You did the Passover on Thursday night, which was the 3rd, so the 6th was Friday, so the 7th was Saturday, and Sunday was the 8th. Simple as that. On the 8th, there was a Wave Sheath offering, which would have been done. It's not done anymore because Christ is already saying it to Heaven.

So those offerings are not necessary. They were temporary, pointing to Christ. He fulfilled all the law. This is part of the law. He fulfilled the law. That was part of the law that he fulfilled. So he didn't just tell us that to do everything, but he fulfilled it in actually executing certain parts of the law like this, that were prophetic about him. So he fulfilled the law. So in this year, 2012, April the 8th, was the Wave Sheath. We count for one week till the 7th, which was April the 14th. That's one 7th. Then we've got the second week till April 21st.

It's the second 7th. Then we've got the third week till today, which is April 28th, is the third 7th. And you've got to count 7 Sabbaths. The 7th Sabbath will be May 26th. If you look in your calendar, May 26th. Seven weeks, seven Sabbaths. And go on, continue. You shall count 50 days to the day after the 7th Sabbath. So May 26th is the 7th Sabbath, the day after. The 26th is the 27th, which is Sunday, May 27th, this year, 2012.

It will be, you'll count 50, which means 50 costs. Count 50. That's what 50 costs stands. Count 50. All right. Then it goes on. Then you shall offer a new grain offering to the Lord. You shall bring from your dwellings two wave loaves, or two wave loaves of two tanks of an ephir. In other words, you'll bring two loaves of bread, and they shall be a fine flower. They shall be baked with leaven. Now, all offerings are made unleavened.

But yeah, it's one made with leaven. Because it represents God's people. And we are being offered to God, and we have had leaven in our bodies. We have had sins in our bodies. And so we've been offered to God. Some people say it's not quite clear why, too. Some people say it represents maybe the Old Testament, maybe the New Testament, or other people may say other things. It doesn't say in the Bible what it is, so I'm just going to skip it, too.

Christ would tell us what it is. And that's enough for me. I'm not going to come to any conclusions what they are. Christ will tell us what it is. Because nowhere in the Bible explains exactly clearly what it is. We can make various assumptions, various speculations, and they're interesting. But that's okay. And it says they shall be baked with leaven. They are the first troops to the Lord. We are the first troops to the Lord. And we will be offered to the Lord symbolically on this day. And Christ showed us, and we know through Scriptures that's the day, that we have God's only Spirit. And because we received God's only Spirit, we now are the first troops.

We are the first begotten by the Holy Spirit symbolically on the day of the Christ. So we offered. It doesn't mean that's the day we're going to be resurrected, because it says that's the seventh trumpet. And that symbolically probably means on the day of trumpets. But it is that we are now the first troops. We are the first troops. We have received God's only Spirit, and we're being offered symbolically to God on the day of thinking of Christ. So that's the day of the first troops.

So that's the background, the technical background there. And then on verse 21, it says, you shall proclaim on the same day that it is a holy complication to you. You shall do no customary work on it. You shall be fetched forever in holy dwellings throughout your generations. In other words, this day of Pentecost, which in our calendar this year, 2012, will be on May 27.

It will be a second. It is a holy, the day of a holy complication. So Pentecost, as you can see, is different than all the other God's annual holidays. Why? It is different because we have to count to determine the day that is to be kicked. All the other holidays are a fixed annual date on God's calendar. Pentecost is not a fixed date. It is a date that you have to count.

Jewish tradition today, they don't count this way. Jewish tradition, they count from the day of a leavened bread, the Sabbath of a leavened bread. It's not the Sabbath of a leavened bread, it's the Sabbath, the weekly Sabbath that is supposed to count. And as I mentioned, if any of you want to study that in more detail, I'm happy to address that with you individually.

And they are booklets of the church that cover that as well. So it has to be counted. Otherwise, if it was done from the days of a leavened bread, you do not need to count because it was a fixed day on the covenant. The mere fact that you have to count, it proves itself that it has to be done from the day of the weekly Sabbath so that you can count. So anyway, the point here is, we've gone through a leavened bread, and we have a period which we now in between a leavened bread and Pentecost, which is a period in which, yes, as it was mentioned in the sermon, we've done our meditations, our self-examination before and during the day of the leavened bread, and so in a sense we surmote ceremonially clean.

But now we need to remain in that way and use this period in preparation to build an habitation for God to dwell in, which represents God's Holy Spirit being given to the nation, to the people. So in this road, let's call it in this road, from a leavened bread to Pentecost, symbolically, which is a road of from understanding that we surmonially clean till actually we become God's children and receiving God's Spirit and growing, therefore, every year within that God's Spirit.

But in this period, in this road, some have gained victory and some have failed. So again, we're talking about physical and spiritual symbolism. We see from the history of the Israelites that during this period they left on Passover. The very first problem they encountered, as you remember, was Pharaoh chasing them. Then they encountered the Red Sea. Then they encountered other problems in the wilderness, as you remember. And then they didn't want to go into the Promised Land. They said, no, no, we don't want to go. And then for that, they were punished for 40 years before they went into the land, when it says, when you get into the land, you're way of the sea.

They had to delay that for another 40 years before they actually got to the day of Pentecost, which Jewish tradition states was the day when the Ten Commandments were given. So during that period from Unleavened Bread to Pentecost to the Nation of Israel, many things happened. And many, as I said, many gained victory, or some gained victory, for example, and many actually failed in that test. And spiritualism is a lesson for us as well, this period between Unleavened Bread and Pentecost. So let's look at some of the things that happened to the Israelites.

And therefore, let's look at Exodus 12. Exodus 12. And we're going to start in verse 40 and verse 242. So I want to go through these things carefully and concisely to make sure that you all understand it clearly. Exodus 12.40-42. Now, the Sir John of the Children of Israel who lived in Egypt was 430 years. That's Isaiah in Revelation 3.17.

And it came to pass at the end of the 430 years. On the very same day, it came to pass that all the armies of the Lord went out of the land of Egypt. What do you mean on the very same day? On the very same day that God spoke to Abraham and He said, Go, leave your land and go and Sir John.

On the very same day that God spoke to him and said, Go out and leave, that day was the same night that they led Egypt to the same day. It was on the 15th, the first day of whenever bread. God has everything on time. Really God does everything on time. Don't worry. It'll all be exactly right. So, again, as we heard in the sermon, we need to redeem the time, but we need to rely absolutely in God and put things in His hands because He does everything on time.

And then it says, verse 42, It is a night of solemn observance. In the King James Version, it says, There is a night to be much observed, to the Lord, for bringing them out of the land of Egypt. This is that night of the Lord as solemn observance for all the children of Israel throughout the generations.

That is the night to be much observed, that we observe this year and on Friday night. So, actually, there are two celebrations. One is a Passover night and the other one is a night to be much observed. It's two evenings. There's two. There's no questions. Look at the game as well while we're looking at that.

Remember, this is the night they left Egypt, says Yah. On that same day it shall come across that all the armies of the Lord went out of the land of Egypt. They went out of Egypt on that same day and was not on the 14th because, says Yah, they left at night. It is a night because it's the night that they left. Now, they did not live on the night on the 14th because... why? Number one, they had to kill the land.

Number two, they had to cook it. Number three, they had to put the blood on the doorposts and on the lentil of it. Number four, they had to wait till midnight for the enter of death to pass over. Number five, it says, you shall not leave your homes till the morning.

And number six, it says, they obeyed it. So that means they did not leave that night the 14th. So it had to be the following night the 15th. Then Pharaoh told them, leave, leave, and imagine about three million people to get it. It gets three million people organized to leave, who take a little while. And man, they did it fast because in 12 hours they were ready to leave and go.

So they were all prepared and they left. And that night, the 19th and 15th, they left. Look at Exodus 13, verse 3. In verse 3 of Exodus 6, the Moses said to the people, Remember this day in which you went out of Egypt. This is the day they left Egypt, out of the house of bondage. For by the strength of the hand of the Lord brought you out on this place. No leaven shall be eaten on this day that they left Egypt. That is the first day of unleavened bread. You see, so it was on the first day of unleavened bread that they left. Also, look at Exodus.

Exodus 12, verse 22 and 23. Exodus 12, verse 22 and 23. This is when they were, that night, where they would put the blood on the door post. That was the evening on the 14th. And he says, You shall take the punch of Egypt, dip it in the blood, at his inn of vices, strike the lentil, and the door posts with the blood in his inn of vices, and none of you shall go out of the door of this house until morning.

So they were not to leave on the 14th. That was an instruction from God. For the Lord will pass through and to strike the Egyptians, and when he sees the blood on the lentil and on the door posts, the Lord will pass over the door, and that was about midnight as we read elsewhere, and not allowed to destroy it to come into the houses to strike you. So they did exactly as it is.

Look at verse 28, and it says, And then the children of Israel, on the same chapter, verse 28, And the children of Israel went away, and did so, just as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did. Means they stayed put in that house, and they did everything.

They did not leave till the morning of the house, which means they did not leave Egypt that night to the 14th. They left Egypt on the following night to the 15th. So that's clearly from the scriptures. So now, now they left Egypt. So they're now walking out, during the times of the But now, they brought them through an wilderness between mountains and right to the Red Sea.

So they got to a point where they had a mountain on one side, a mountain on the other, a valley that they walked through, and when they got to this area, the beach area, there was a sea in front of them. And then a taro came behind them. So they were stuck, quote unquote, in those ways. So look at 14, verses 1 and 2. Now the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the children of Israel, that they turn and camp before the Ahar-Hiroth, between Midol and the sea, opposite Baal's ephron, and you shall camp before it by the sea.

Interesting, before Baal's ephron, because Baal is one of the gods of the Egyptians, so they were still partly in Egypt. They left their land, the area where they lived, but they were still in Egypt until they crossed the Red Sea and they left. And that, in a sense, was kind of one of the Egyptian gods there, that God had to destroy with Pharaoh's army and all that.

So that's just an interesting point there. So let's, we can see now, that their hearts were tasted. Because imagine, you and two million, 199,000, 199 people, or whatever the number was, you are looking, and you see the sea in front of you. You see one mountain here, one mountain there, so you can't go out there. You can't go out this way. You can't go out there because there is a sea.

And you can't go beyond, because Pharaoh and all men with their chariots and all that are coming to charge on you. And you panic if you don't have fight. You see, God brought them through difficult circumstances. Not to tempt them to sin, but to test their hearts, to prove their hearts, whether they really trusted and believed in God. Our Christian life, brethren, is not easy. Our Christian life, likewise, is between mountains and seas, and pharaohs and red seas and difficulties.

And our life, from 11 bread to Pentecost, symbolically, our whole life, in this, until we were a rector, and we came out of this body, but our life, but this, symbolically, shows trials and difficulties and tests. And we have to prepare, or use the time to prepare to gain total victory from sin and death. A victory in absolute faith, because the only way you and I will cross our spiritual Red Sea is by trusting in God. There's no other way. There's no other way. We all have to have trust in God fully, otherwise we will not cross the spiritual Red Sea, which is ahead of us.

So Christian life is not easy. Why? Because God is testing our hearts. The usual lives, we're at the Red Sea, and there were challenges. And look at that time in verse 10, starting in verse 10. Chapter 14, verses 14, starting in verse 10.

Moses, it's your fault. You, Moses, you, God's minister, you have taken us to the giving team.

Why have you so dealt with us to bring us out of Egypt?

Is this not the word that we told you in Egypt, saying, that is a long that we may serve the Egyptians, for it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians. Wow! Is that what really they wanted? Of course not. They were trying to be free. But now, when they're in a corner, oh no, it's your fault. You know, I would have, I would have been there. It's human nature. We all do that one day or another. We all do it. It's human nature.

That's why we've got to have faith in God. We must not allow our human nature to run amok. We've got to have absolute faith in God. And so he said, and then Moses said to the people, don't be afraid, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will accomplish for you today.

For the Egyptians, whom you see today, you shall see again no more forever. The Lord will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace. And the Lord said to Moses, why are you crying to me? Why are you wasting your time crying to me and pouting about your trials and problems? Why?

Tell the children of Israel to go forward. Go forward. Brethren, when we have trials and we've got the Red Sea in front of us, God says, don't waste your time crying. Go forward. Mr. Red Sea, go forward. That's life. That's our Christian life. We've got to go forwards. Yes, they're difficult. Yes, they're trials. We've got to fight and go forwards. Brethren, when we have trials, we don't like certain things in life.

Must we draw back? Must we say, no, no, we're not going to do that. Let's go back to the old way. Or must we go forward in faith that God is in charge? Or must we say, no, no, I know this is impossible, or whatever. No? Or do we humble our pride, our arrogance, our whatever, and swallow it, that pride, and submit to God? You see, God says He gives grace to the humble. He resists the proud. And that's what we need to have.

We need to have that humility, submit to God in absolute faith, and go forwards. It's not easy, brethren. I know it's not easy, but it does intervene. It does help us in these times of difficult. There's no questions. It does. And then in verse 19, jumping a little bit ahead, the same chapter, page 14, and the angel of the Lord, who went before the camp of Israel, moved and went beyond them. So people say, how well, who's this angel of the Lord?

Well, which way do I say who's the angel of the Lord? And most straight out is the hand over the sea, and the Lord calls the sea to go back. It was God! It was God! In fact, we can read in 1 Corinthians 10, verse 4, that says, They drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was crushed. In 1 Corinthians 10, verse 4, it says, it was Christ.

He was the Lord. He was with them. And Christ, He was not yet Jesus Christ. He was the Lord at that time. He was the Lord at that time. He wrote them out there and was with them. So the Lord is yesterday, the sign yesterday to die in forever. And He helped them out. And then continuing in verse 27, the same chapter, And they both stretch out His hand over the sea, and when the morning appeared, the sea returned to its full depth while the Egyptians were fleeing.

And so they opened up the sea. They walked through the sea. They got to the other side when they walked out through the night. This was during the lost day of when they were bred. We understand it.

The lost day of when they were bred, they walked out and then he waved the sea. And the sea closed on top of the Egyptians and went by Egyptians. And both stretch out, and when the morning appeared, the sea returned to its full depth while the Egyptians were fleeing into it. So the Lord overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea. Then the waters returned, covered the chariots, the horsemen, and all the army of Pharaoh that came into the sea of the them. So not much, so not much has one of them remained.

Not one Egyptian of that army remained. They all walked out. Like God said, you won't see them again. Bang! You won't announce. It requires faith. It requires faith to go forwards. And then it goes on and says, so the Lord signed Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the sea shore. Then thus Israel saw the great work which the Lord had done in Egypt.

So the people feared God and believed the Eternal and East servant Moses. Yes, they feared the Eternal and they believed the Eternal. But their fear and their belief was so shallow that they required a miracle every day.

Do you know that? They required a miracle every day because their belief was so shallow. What was the miracle every day? Can you remember? The miracle every day is that they needed a cloud by night and in a column of fire, a big word, a cloud by day, and a column of fire by night.

You can read that in Exodus 13, 21, and 22. And every day that was a miracle. That was a daily miracle. And then they had another miracle was the man that later on. Every day they had a miracle. And even then, they still murmured, they still complained, they still groan. Brethren, we're not any better. We're just human beings. Read the same thing. And if we leave our current mind free, we'll do the same thing. We're not any better. We've seen it many times. People that we thought were in the church. And this period where we should be using to prepare ourselves to gain total victory from sin and death and display fighting God, people are fighting. And so, symbolically, during this period, we need to think about it. Are we using this time, redeeming the time, to actually understand and get some meaning out of these lessons? And look at ourselves to say, hey, we need to have faith throughout our Christian life. We need to have that faith. Continuing chapter 15, verse 1, Then Moses and the children of Israel sang the song to the Lord and spoke, saying, I will sing to the Lord, for he has tried to gloriously divorce and his rider, he has thrown into the sea. The Lord is my strength, his song and song. He has become my salvation. He is my God, and I will praise him. Reverend, if you happen to have an old King James Version Bible, it doesn't say, I'll praise him, it says, I'll prepare him a habitation. The Hebrew is actually preparing a habitation. Now, that's exactly what God is doing with the people, and they did, and the rest of Exodus is helping them to prepare an habitation, which was a tabernacle. But you know what? We are the habitation of God, so is Spirit. We are the temple of God, and he is preparing us to become an habitation of the temple of God, so that God may dwell in us.

So let's look at 1 Corinthians. Keep your finger there on Exodus, because we're going to come back to it. But look at 1 Corinthians chapter 3. 1 Corinthians chapter 3. 1 Corinthians chapter 3, verse 16 and 17. Do you not know that you are the temple of God? Brethren, we are the temple of God. Our bodies are the temple of God. That is habitation with the Holy Spirit resides in us. That is the tabernacle for God's Holy Spirit.

And it says, if and that the Spirit of God dwells in you, if anyone defiles himself, defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him for the temple of God is holy. Which temple you are? We are the temple of God. Our bodies is where God's Holy Spirit dwells. If we are being duly baptized and according to the instruction being duly laid on our hands and received the Holy Spirit, God knows the hearts and he knows that. So the point is, we are the temple of God. And the symbolism between unleavened bread and Pentecost, with Pentecost, as you know, is when the Holy Spirit was given. It was preparing a time period to prepare for them to receive the Holy Spirit. In fact, physically, it was when they received the law. Because God's Holy Spirit is what helps us to obey God's law. So they left unleavened bread, Egypt at unleavened bread, and they only reached the point in a promised land to fulfill the meaning of Pentecost 40 years later. Because they got delayed because of the unbelief. You know, the spies went out and only Joshua and Caleb had the faith. And so you can see trial upon trial upon trial they had until they actually reached the day of Pentecost symbolically when Exodus 20, when the law was given to them. Let's go back to Exodus 15. Exodus 15, verse 13. Verse 13, you can see it. You in your mercy have led forth the people whom you have redeemed. You have guided them in your strength to your holy habitation. God has guided us so that for the physical Israelites, that was so that they would be and be able to worship in the tabernacle and later on in the temple. But for us, He's guiding us so that God's Holy Spirit can be in us and therefore we can be His holy habitation. So, very significant that we need to learn these things. Now, these points were for us to learn some lessons.

If you have there on Exodus, let's go back to 1 Corinthians. I'm sorry to give you some physical exercise. They turn back to 1 Corinthians chapter 10. 1 Corinthians chapter 10. We're going to start reading in verse 1.

Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud. Yes, they were under the cloud by day, remember? They were under the cloud. All passed through the sea. All passed through the Red Sea. All were baptized into Moses.

They were baptized into Moses. Just like we are to be baptized into the name of the Father, the Son, and Holy Spirit. It's the same Greek word, EISH, baptized into Moses. It was into that body, into that body of people, which we are to be baptized into the body of Christ.

They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. All ate of the same spiritual fruit and all drank the same spiritual drink. And they all drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ, as I mentioned earlier on. But with most of them, God was not well pleased. God was not pleased with those of His alightish people.

Are we drawing a lesson for our lives? Is God pleased with our walk today? Is God pleased as we walk in that road, symbolically, towards Pentecost, in that road, to prepare ourselves and to have a holy adaptation of the Holy Spirit, to have greater glory of the Holy Spirit in our lives? But God was not pleased with them. For their bodies were scattered in the wilderness. They all died, all the adults died there for 40 years. The only one, two, there were adults that survived which are showing technicals, you know. Now these things became our exiles. These things are there for us.

They're not just a nice story in Old Testament. They're there for you and I to learn some spiritual lessons. To the intent that we should not, and then it lists a number of errors they committed, and it'll be a nice, interesting study over the next few days or weeks or whatever, that's all Pentecost, to look at some of these examples and see what they did, and then raise those physical examples to a spiritual level and see how we're doing with how we use our mouths and how we think and how we do certain things and how we desire certain things. Because it says to the intent that we should not last after evil things as they also lasted and do not become idolaters and do not do this and do not do that and do not do the other. So, use those examples. Go back to those examples of their walk through the wilderness and draw some examples until Exodus 20 when they actually really kept Pentecost in a sense. Because it took them 40 years between 11 bread and Pentecost.

So, in verse 11, now all these things happen to them as examples. That they were written for our admonition. They were written for us, for you and I, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.

We are at the end of this age. The new age is coming where Christ is going to rule and God's Kingdom is going to rule on earth. Therefore, verse 12, let him who thinks he stands take heedless before. Therefore beware.

So, these lessons are for us and particularly use this period to draw some of these lessons and to look at ourselves. So, let's go back now to Exodus. Now we're going to go to chapter 19. Chapter 19. So, we're going to go a little bit further into the story.

And we're going to go towards the end of the 40 years. And they've crossed now to the promised land. There's also the story of Jericho and other stories there that are very interesting. You can draw a lot of lessons. A lot of lessons. Remember the story of Jericho? Where, in fact, the story of Jericho is when they went into... they crossed the ridge, the Jordan, and it was flooding at that time.

And then you can see, you can read, it was on the 10th day of the first month. The 10th day of the first month. There's that ring of bells somewhere. And then, on the 14th, they actually crossed the sea. Then, that same day, it says that same day, they did the first circle around Jericho. And they did that for seven days. Exactly. The days of 11 bread. And the 7th day of 11 bread, they did it seven times, and then they were shouted, and the wolves fell down. You can read that. Very significant. Very significant. And then, after that, you read about the story that it went to another city. The city of Ai. And then, they went to 3,000 men. They were chased. And then, some 36 or 35 or so, 34 people got injured or killed. And then they went to Moses and said, What's happening? What's happening? And they accused the guy in Moses. And even Moses then accuses God. He says, Why, God? Why are you doing this? And then he said, There is one man, one man amongst you. If I remember correctly, it was Aiken. They had taken of the word it uses, the wicked thing, the cursed thing. So it just shows one man, one person, one person. It's something wrong. It affected the whole congregation. Here was the whole church.

One person. So, we have to be very careful, brethren. Look at the spiritual lessons of this and say, What are we going to learn from it? It applies to us today. It really applies to us today.

And you can see, for instance, in Exodus 19, in the third month, after the children of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt, on the second day, they came to the willows of Sinai. Now, on the third month. So they have gone and... Okay, now I'm jumping a little bit, I know, and understand. But they now got to Mount Sinai. On the third month. What's the third month? The third month is basically Pentecost. Because you work, the first month is Passover. When you count 30 from there, you end up in the third month. So basically they got there and God gave them the law.

The law for them to be an example to other nations.

Now, did the Israelites succeed at the national level as an example to the other nations?

Did they succeed? Simply, the answer is no. They did not succeed. They fight.

They fight. That's why elsewhere it says, I'll make a view of people that is not a people.

A play on words based on Isaiah. You read that Isaiah and you read that that play on words, so that the two go hand in hand.

But what was the purpose of Israel?

Was Israel's purpose to be God's preferred nation above all the others? No.

The purpose of Israel was to be an example to the other nations, to show them a way how to live, to point them proper ways, proper laws, proper behaviour, proper conduct, so that they could be a light to all the other nations, order the nations to follow the example and therefore lead into the Kingdom.

They failed.

You see, the nation of Israel was probably one of the healthiest nations out there. Think about it. For 40 years, none of them got sick. None of them had swollen feet. None of them were living. None of them had problems. They all cross their healthy.

So, physically speaking, was a nation which had very strong genes.

Genetically speaking, physically speaking, they had God's law, they had strong genes, they had all of the best. And they had God's knowledge.

What does mankind say? Give us enough time, we'll solve the world's problems. Oh, give us another president. Give us another leader, we'll solve the world's problems.

And then we vote for another president, we'll solve the world's problems. We don't.

Because God has given us enough time to ask it to a point and says, we can't solve it. And mankind cannot say, oh, had you given us your laws, and had you given us a healthy body, and had you given us the best genetic code, quote-unquote, we would have succeeded.

Because they had all that. And it's not because they're better, it's because God is teaching mankind a lesson that you cannot achieve success, you cannot achieve victory unless you have God's Holy Spirit in you.

Full stop.

So, we need God's Holy Spirit. We need God's Holy Spirit. Only with God's Holy Spirit can we succeed. But if God dragged the Israelites through the desert, failed to subcede, they were murmuring, they were worshipping, they had the wrong idols.

You read time and time again, they had idols amongst them. Don't say that Israelites were all, they had all these things. Please. They had idolatry from idolatry to idolatry, even in the days of the kings and all that, they had idolatry all over the place.

They mixed Baal and Balaam and other things. All the time, even when they left Egypt, they had idols with them.

So, they were about His own. But God dragged them through all this, to the promised land, and He fulfilled His promise.

He fulfilled His promise.

You look at the example of the apostles. Look at example of apostles. On the very day of the wake-ship, okay, let's look at that. In John 20 verse 19, let's look at that. John 20 verse 19, which is the day of the wake-ship.

The day that Christ presented Himself to the Father. John 20 verse 19. Then, the same day that evening, being the first day of the week, Christ had already gone, presented Himself as the wake-ship to the throne of the Father.

When the doors were shut, when the disciples were assembled for the fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst.

So, the doors closed and suddenly appeared. Right there. Right there.

Don't ask me how. God knows. It's the power of the new body that you and I will have.

And He said, Jesus came and stood in the midst of the city, and said, Peace be with you.

And when He had said this, He showed them His hands and His side, and the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord.

And Jesus said to them, Peace be with you, as the Father has sent me, I send you.

And then He says, Receive the Holy Spirit. Now, obviously, you and I know that they did not receive the Holy Spirit then.

But it's kind of saying, Are you ready to receive the Holy Spirit?

And then you can see later on. You can see later on, you can read a story.

Later on, they say, Oh, well, it's so fishy. You know, it's so fishy. You can read. I'm not going through all the Scriptures now.

Because they still hadn't got it. They still hadn't got it. And Christ had to be with them for forty days, showing them and encouraging them and pointing them in the right direction.

Before they got it, even the apostles had to be dragged to the Diopentacost, so that by the time the Diopentacost came, they were all together as one.

You see, the Old Testament Church, let's call it the Church of God in Old Testament, they had to be dragged to the Promised Land.

We, like the apostles, are being dragged as well, because we still have that Old Man in us. The Old Man in us, we're still not quite right.

And thank God, with His mercy, with His Spirit, we need to be working ourselves to say, Are we preparing our body for a better habitation for the Holy Spirit?

And that is what I want to leave with you today. We have completed the Unleavened Bread. We are, quote-unquote, ceremonially clean.

But either dies in here, from now, to Pentecost. We need to cleanse ourselves further as a Church of God, so that God's Spirit can dwell in us in greater glory and abundance.

And brethren, thus takes fighting. Because you and I are going to encounter red seas and pharaohs, and I don't know what else. Difficulties. We are. And requires faith.

So, in conclusion, I want you to turn with me, please, to Hebrews, the 10th chapter. Hebrews 10. Hebrews 10, verse 36 through 39. Hebrews 10.

For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise.

We need endurance. We need to endure in this road. It's a road of faith, and we need to endure. For yet a little while, and he who is coming will come and will not tarry.

Now, the just shall live by faith. We have to live by faith. We're going to have trials. We're going to have red seas. We're going to have pharaohs. We're going to have almonds. We're going to have difficulties. We have mountains on the left and mountains on the right, and I don't know what else. And we have to go forwards. Go forwards. And shall live by faith. We go forwards by faith.

But if anyone draws back, if you lack faith and you draw back, and you go back, my soul has no pleasure in him.

But we are not of those who draw back to tradition, but of those who believe to the saving of the soul. You and I have to endure to the end, because our spiritual land is the kingdom of God still coming, and that will be of Christ's return. But in the meantime, we have to walk by faith and use this time between the leavened bread and Pentecost to prepare ourselves better for an habitation of God's Holy Spirit in us.