Preparing for Passover

I guess you could call the sermon today a pre-passover sermon or preparation, but it's really more than that. It's for all times. One of the great chores in preparing for Passover is de-leavening our homes. Home is where we live, where we abide physically. The physical condition of our home and surrounding environment will influence our overall sense of well-being. A clean physical environment tends to improve a person's outlook on life in general. Or before a company comes calling, we generally want to run the vacuum cleaner, try to put things in place. The human mind desires a certain degree of order, unless the mind is conditioned to accept disorder. And only teens have that disease.

I believe that we all realize that the physical state of our surroundings will influence the way we think our emotional state and our general outlook on life. But when it comes to what makes a home ugly, and when it comes to what soils our clothing, it's plain old dirt, and a disheveled home with dirty dishes on the counter and in the sink, dirty clothes strewn all over the floor in the bedroom, things out of the place in the living rooms, cushions thrown here and there. So when it comes to a clean and orderly home, these things are a much greater problem than dealing with leavening. The physical leavening that we put out of our homes is inconsequential as compared to the dirt we vacuum up. We sweep and wash out on a daily basis, or a weekly basis, or whenever, and the putting on and cleaning up on a daily basis. So why would God use leavening as a symbol of sin? Why not use dirt? The leavening that we put out of our homes is in the form of powdered yeast and those things that contain yeast, and they make up only a tiny portion of the yeast that is present in your home. Yeast spores pervade the air that we breathe. The air we breathe saturated with yeast spores. There are yeast spores all through this auditorium. We're continually breathing in yeast spores. These have little effect on our system if our immune system is working correctly, not compromised. Yeast has some very unique qualities that causes it to invade and pervade everything that it enters. Physical leaven pups up and gives an impression of solidness or wholeness that is an illusion. A big fat roll, you just sort of squeeze it and it goes as they say, flat as a flitter. The yeast puffed it up. Spiritual leaven does the same thing. The leaven is used in the scripture to define mental, moral, and spiritual corruption. It is viewed in a way and described in a way that it has a tendency to infect others and cause them to become puffed up as well. Not only the person who initiates it, but those that he or she comes in contact with. Leaven is applied to that which, though small in quantity, yet by its influence thoroughly pervades the thing either in a good sense or in a bad sense. Let's look at Matthew 13 verse 33. In Matthew 13 verse 33, how leavening is used here. Here, Matthew 13 and verse 33.

In Matthew 13 verse 33, another parable he spoke unto them, the kingdom of heaven is like an 11. Here, leavening is used in a good sense, which a woman took and, well, I'm skipping something here. The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures and meal till the whole was leavened. And all these things Jesus spoke unto the multitudes. And he spoke in parables, and without a parable he did not speak to them. That it might be fulfilled, which was written by the prophets, I will open my mouth in parables. I will utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world. So the kingdom of God starts very small and then eventually grows and fills the earth as sand fills the shores of the seashore. So God's word truth will fill the earth during the millennium. So here, leavening is used in a good sense, but it is most often used in a bad sense of an insidious, insidious means more dangerous than it seems, an insidious influence. So we turn now to 1 Corinthians 5 and verse 4. 1 Corinthians 5 and verse 4. In 1 Corinthians 5 and verse 4, Paul takes the Corinthians to task for their toleration of the incestuous fornicator that was among them. And in verse 4 he says, In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together, in my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so the person would come to his senses, that the Spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. Your glorying is not good, know you not, that a little leaven leavens the whole lump. An incredibly little bit of leavening of yeast can leaven a loaf of bread and cakes and various pastries, as you well know. And so in the spiritual sense, leavening is used to link the teaching of the Pharisees with hypocrisy, and that's why Jesus warned, one of the main things he warned, the people of his day again. Look at Luke, the Gospel of Luke, Chapter 12. This is somewhat of a summary verse. This is not the only place this occurs, but this is perhaps a verse that summarizes all of it together. In Luke 12 and Verse 1, in the meantime, when they were gathered together, an innumerable multitude of people, and so much that they trode one upon another, he began to say to his disciples, first of all, because beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. In another place, he warned them to beware of the doctrine, the teaching of the Pharisees. The teaching of the Pharisees.

Leavening here is equated with hypocrisy. As we shall see, dirt, of course, soils the outside, as we've already mentioned. If dirt is consumed, it is purged in the drought, as we'll see from the Scripture. But leavening pervades the heart and mind and corrupts the inner man, the man of the Spirit. The Pharisees were teaching the traditions of the elders, which Jesus condemned. Now let's go to Matthew 15. So we have seen that leavening can be used in a positive sense or a negative sense, most often in a negative sense. We have seen that leavening, little leaven, leavens all up. We have said that Jesus warned the people of his day to beware of the teaching of the Pharisees. And the teaching of the Pharisees is equated, they're leavening, equated with hypocrisy. In Matthew 15, verse 1, Then came to Jesus scribes and Pharisees, which were of Jerusalem, saying, Why do your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? For they wash not their hands when they eat bread. But he answered and said unto them, Why do you transgress the commandments of God by your tradition? I think we've sort of glossed over this in years past, but we shall get down, as they say today, to the nitty-gritty and brass tacks. The tradition of the elders meant something handed down from one to another by memory orally, precepts and customs that were not commanded in the written law, but which the scribes and the Pharisees held to be really, they elevated it over the law of God. They suppose that when Moses was on Mount Sinai, that two sets of laws were delivered. One, they said, was recorded, and that contained in the Old Testament. The other was handed down from father to son through oral tradition and kept uncorrupted until that very day. They believe that Moses, before he died, delivered this law to Joshua, who then delivered it to the judges and to the prophets, so that it was kept pure until it was recorded, and it was recorded in the Talmites. There is a Babylonian Talmud when the Jews were in captivity in Babylon, and there is a Jewish Talmud, a passage called it a Palestinian Talmud, that they wrote when they came back from their captivity in Babylon. Now, what is contained in the Talmuds, the Babylonian and the Palestinian Talmuds, are very meticulous and picky about various laws and what you can do and can't do. It is you can not only walk so far on the Sabbath day, you have to wash your hands meticulously up to the elbows before you eat. It just goes on and on with very meticulous, picky kind of oral tradition. Now, eventually the Pharisees made it a point of righteousness, that is, these laws, these traditions, and that's why the Pharisees and scribes asked Jesus, well, why do your disciples not wash before you eat? Why do you trample on the tradition of the elders? They had many foolish laws about respecting. Some of it had to do with the quantity of water in the pan, the way in which it should be applied, the number of times it should be changed, the number of those who might wash at one time, all of this written down meticulously in the Talmuds.

Now, let's notice verses 3 through 6 here.

So here's Jesus' answer, but he, Jesus, answered and said unto them, why do you also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition? For God commanded, saying, Honor your father and mother, and he that curses father or mother, let him die the death. But you say whosoever shall say to his father or his mother, it is a gift. In Hebrew, it is Corban, K-O-R-B-A-N, spelled C-O-R-B-A-N in Luke chapter 7. Luke, I mean Mark, Mark chapter 7 has an account of this as well. Whoever says it is a gift or Corban, by whatsoever you might be profited by me. And honor not his father or his mother, he shall be free. Thus have you made the commandment of God of non-effect of your tradition. Which commandment? The fifth commandment. You shall honor your father and your mother. And it is a commandment with promise that your days may be long upon the earth. Now here's what Barnes writes about this, and of course I've edited it, but some of this came from Barnes' commentary. Gift, once again, it's a Hebrew word, Corban, K-O-R-B-A-N, spelled in English. It can just denote a gift, but if you declare it a gift to God, then it was a binding thing. So here in the scripture it means that which is dedicated to the service of God, and therefore cannot be used or appropriated to another person. If you declare it a gift to God, that's where it has to go, that's where it has to stay. The Jews were in the habit of making such dedications. They devoted their property to God for sacred use as they pleased. In doing this, they used the word Corban or gift, or some similar word, that it is a gift to God. It is sacred, and therefore I can't help mom and daddy because I've dedicated this land, this property, this gold, this money, whatever, to the service of God. The law required that when a dedication of this kind was made, it should be fulfilled. Vow and pay unto the eternal your God, is what it says in the book of Psalms. The law of God required that a son should honor his parent, among many other things, that he should provide for his needs when he was old and in distress. Yet the Jewish teachers said that it was more important for a man to dedicate the property to God than to provide for the needs of his parents. I'm afraid that some have taught that you may be starving, but you take care of this, that, or the other. If it is in relationship to God, then you ignore this fifth commandment and do that. Well, Jesus saw it a different way, as we shall see. Hopefully we are seeing. If it had been devoted property, once said it was Corbin, or a gift of God, cannot be given to support the parents. If a parent was needy and poor, and if he should apply to a son for assistance, and the son should reply maybe in anger, oh, it's devoted to God, this property, what you need, and by which you might be profited, by me, it's Corbin. I've given it to God, so I can't help you giving it to God. So the Jews said the property could not be recalled, and the son was not under obligation to aid a parent with it. He had done a more important thing in giving it to God. The son was free. He cannot be required to do anything for his father or mother, thus he might in a moment free himself from the obligation to obey his father or mother. The Jewish son deprived his parents of the support under the plea that the property was devoted to the service of God or religion. There are other religions that have had a similar kind of system, but actually this practice was a violation of the law of God, as Jesus says clearly here.

Yet the Jews said that though in anger, oh I can't give it to you, that he was still obligated, that his whomever had said this is a gift to God, couldn't do anything about it. It had to remain there. Now Jesus's condemnation of the Jews tradition did not obviate, it didn't do away with, the practice of giving. You remember the story of Jesus commending the poor widow that put the mites in the treasury box at the temple, that she gave everything that she had, and he commended her for that. So this is not to be taken, that it does away with tithing. It's not meant to be taken to do away with your service to God, but it does prioritize what's important and what really constitutes righteousness. Jesus condemned the practice of declaring that something was a gift to God in order to avoid their duty to their earthly parents. He said, you make void the commandments of God by declaring that it is a gift to God. The emphasis on giving according to a misunderstanding of the Mosaic system was also extended in the church, that is the misunderstanding of the Mosaic system, to agricultural laws, land sabbaths, no chemical fertilizers, no pesticides, no crossbreeding, and on and on it went. And it was practiced to some degree here on the big sandy campus, on the farm, for a while. There was crossbreeding evident in the Old Testament, and of course, there's no need to go through all of that. But any elements of Old Covenant imposed upon New Covenant, and you're trying to live under both, Jesus set some things straight here. So, a problem in the church for decades, in many areas, the Mosaic laws were imposed and emphasized more than the spiritual laws, and people who really were meticulous about those kind of things that were contained in the Mosaic law seemed to gloat in that to view it as a point of righteousness. So their action was misapplied, outward signs of righteousness, instead of the condition of the heart, as Jesus taught in Matthew 15. So let's continue reading here in Matthew 15. We left off in verse 6. In Matthew 15 and verse 7, In Luke 12, the teaching of the Pharisees was equated with hypocrisy.

But their heart is far from me. God is far more interested in what you're becoming than what you're doing in the terms of what may be visible with regard to outward signs of righteousness, so called. But in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines, the commandments of men. And that's what these were. To avoid helping their parents in obeying the fifth commandment, they said, Oh, it's Corbin. It's a gift to God. It's for sacred use. I can't touch that.

And he called the multitude and said unto them, Hear and understand. So here's Jesus's explanation. Not that which goes in the mouth defiles a man, but that which comes out of the mouth thus defiles a man. Now, of course, these verses in here and also Mark 7 have been used by some to try to say that Jesus purified all foods and that you can eat pork and snail and octopus and all of that. Now, what this is about, it started with washing. Why do your disciples eat not washing their hands? Of course, they washed up to the elbows and had to be exactly in a certain way. We'll get to why they taught that in just a moment. So Jesus is setting them straight on several things here.

You can eat food that has dirt on it. It's really not going to hurt you that much unless the dirt is filled with germs.

No telling how much dirt we've all eaten, but more importantly, it's no telling how much yeast we've taken in, and we're taking it in right now, but it's not bothering us. So Jesus is saying, look, it's a heart. That's what matters. So he called them altitude and said unto them here, and understand not that which goes in the mouth of a man is that which defiles, but that, I mean in the stomach, but that which comes out of the mouth, that which comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man. And then came the disciples and said unto him, Know you that the Pharisees were offended? I heard this saying, oh, tough luck. I mean, the Pharisees were offended. But he answered and said, Every plant which my heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up. Was this what the Father had taught him to teach? No, it's what the Pharisees had made up. Let them alone, they be blind leaders of the blind, and if the blind lead the blind, they shall fall into the ditch. Then answered Peter and said unto him, Declare unto us this parable. What does it really mean? And Jesus said, Are you also yet without understanding? Do not yet you understand that whatsoever enters in at the mouth goes into the belly, and is cast out into the drop. The subject has to do with dirt, not whether food is clean or unclean.

Verse 18, But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart. In other places it says, Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. And that which is in the heart is what God is really concerned about. That's what defiles the man, for out of the heart proceeds evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornication, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. These are the things which defile a man, but to eat with unwashing hands defiles not a man.

In the late 1970s, I was pastoring Big Sandy and Tyler. We had many widows in the area, probably 40 or 50. Big Sandy was sort of like the ground, the national place to send the widows. Widows wound up here from all over the country, and many of them were on third-tide assistance. And many of them were really concerned about them paying third-tide. And I said, look, you're on third-tide. Church assistance is for the poor and needy, not for the purpose of making a person poor. And yet some really, it was so ingrained into their thinking that some would have difficulty with it. Now let's look at 1 Timothy chapter 5. 1 Timothy chapter 5.

1 Timothy chapter 5. I think we need to read the whole chapter. It will be brief. You'd have to do more study, of course, on anything like this. Rebuke not an elder. In this case, it can be elder. A great word can apply to a person who has the office of an elder, ordained person, or it can refer to simply one that is aged. In this case, it's more talking about the aged. Rebuke not an elder, but entreat him as a father and the younger men as brethren, the elder women as mothers, the younger as sisters with all purity.

Honor widows that are widows indeed. Now from this, there was some kind of way of taking care of widows indeed in the church or churches that Paul, writing to Timothy about, because Paul was in prison. It is a prison epistle. But if any widow have children or nephews, let them learn first to show piety at home and to requite their parents. In other words, if you've got relatives, they need to take care of you, for that is good and acceptable before God.

Now she that is a widow indeed and desolate has no relatives, has no one to take care of, and she trusts in God and continues in supplications and prayers night and day. And we have had several like that in this area. I call him Prayer Warriors. I miss two of the great Prayer Warriors here greatly, Mrs. Pyle, Mrs. Carlisle.

But she that lives and pleasure is dead while she lives, and that is spiritually. But these things give in charge that they may be blameless. But if any provide not for his own, and especially for those of his own house, he has denied the faith and is worse than an infidel. You can't obey one commandment at the expense of the other, but Jesus' plain teaching in Matthew 15 and Paul under inspiration here saying, look, you take care of your household first.

And there are people who would put on a show, do this, that, or the other in the church, and yet at the same time, their families were in need. Some get caught up into what's clean, what's unclean, do I tie this or do I tie that? All kinds of questions and arguments that really go nowhere. And the very basic things of Christianity go begging. Let not a widow be taken into the number under three score years old, 60 years old, having been the wife of one man, well reported out for good works, if she has brought up children, if she has lodged strangers, if she washed the saint's feet, if she has relieved the afflictions if she has diligently followed every good work. But the younger widows refuse, for when they have begun to wax wanton against Christ, they will marry. Well, that's a polite way of saying they really want a husband. I could say more, but I mean, they want a husband and they get married, having judgment because they have cast off their first faith. And with all they learn to be idle, wandering about from house to house, not only idle, but toddlers also and busybodies, speaking things which they ought not. Of course, a great warning. We had a speech today, a good speech in the club about gossip. Gossip is really taking over the world. Celebrity worship. Inquiring minds wants to know. People magazine, national toddler, or national inquirer, whatever it is. And as the speaker pointed out, it is a multi-billion dollar industry of digging up the dirt and spreading it abroad. And with, as I said in club today, and with Twitter, they want to know if they went to the bathroom or what they ate or whatever else it was, let the world know. I will therefore that the younger woman marry bare children, guide the house, give non-occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully, for some already turned aside after Satan. For if any man or woman that believes have widows, let them relieve them. In other words, take care of them. And let not the church be charged that if any relieve them that are widows indeed. Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially they who labor in the word and doctrine. For the scripture says, you shall not muzzle the ox that treads out the corn or the grain, and the laborer is worthy of his hire. Against an elder receive not an accusation, but before two or three witnesses. Them that sin, rebuke before all, that others also may fear. And so those are the strong instructions, coupled with Matthew 15, Luke 7, about taking care of your mother, your daddy, or those who are related to you. The Pharisees puffed themselves up and debased others. Look at Luke chapter 18. Luke chapter 18.

Instead of the attitude of helping others achieve their God-ordained potential, they boasted of what they were doing and how important and righteous they were. In Matthew 18 verse 9, he spoke this parable under certain, which trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others. Oh, why did they despise? Well, they weren't doing what they were doing. They didn't have the outward signs of righteousness that they had. Two men went up in the temple to pray one a Pharisee, the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank you that I am not as men as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week. I mean, you can fast until you die, and many have died fasting. It didn't make them righteous in and of itself. Yet, at the same time, fasting is a powerful spiritual tool. But if you think that in and of itself will make you righteous, it won't. So I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess, and the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes, and to heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me a sinner. He judged himself, and he cried out. He was convicted of his sins. I tell you, this man went down to his house, justified rather than the other, for everyone that exalts himself shall be abased, and that he that humbles himself shall be exalted.

And they brought to him little children. Of course, you know the story. You have to humble yourself as a little child become converted if you hope to enter the kingdom of God. Apocracy leads people into focusing on the outward symbols of righteousness. Look at Matthew 23. Apocracy leads people into focusing on the outward symbols of righteousness.

Jesus also took the Pharisees to task in a similar way in Matthew 23. We'll read here, to begin with, the first six verses. Then Jesus spoke to the multitude and to his disciples, saying, Matthew 23, too, saying, The scribes in the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat. All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that you observe and do, but do not you after their works, for they say, and do not. Of course, any time any commandment is given to you from anyone, regardless of their office, that conflicts with the law of God, you're not to do it.

Acts 5.29, We ought to obey God rather than man. For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be born, and they lay on men's shoulders, but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers. But all their works they do for to be seen of men, they make broad their phylacteries and enlarge the borders of their garments, and love the uttermost runes of feast and the chief seats in the synagogues. He continues down in verse 16 and comes back to this point of what is righteous, not righteous.

Woe unto you blind guides which say, Whosoever shall swear by the temple it is nothing, but whosoever shall swear by the gold or the gift on the temple he is a debtor. What this means is they were swearing by the gold or the gift on the on the temple, not realizing that it was the altar of the temple that was holy, and it was by placing things on the altar that made the gift or the offering or sacrifice holy.

It was the altar, not the gift itself. You fools and blind, for whether it's greater, the gold or the temple that sanctifies this word sanctifies as hagia'udso, which means to make holy, that sanctifies the gold by being placed there. And whosoever shall swear by the altar is nothing, but whosoever swears by the gift that is appointed, he is a debtor. Actually, it is the temple that made it holy.

You fools and blind, for which is greater, the gift or the altar, which makes it holy? Of course, it is the altar. Whosoever there so for shall swear by it, and by all these things there upon, and whosoever shall swear by the temple swears by it, and by him that dwells therein. The glory of God filled the tabernacle. The glory of God filled Solomon's temple when it was dedicated. And he that shall swear by heaven swears by the throne of God.

That's where God abides in the heavens, third heaven, and by him that sits there on, on that throne. Now, one of the greatest verses in the Bible. Woe unto you scribes, Pharisees, hypocrites, for you pay tithe of men, anise, and coming, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law. In other words, you focus on the outward signs of righteousness in your mind, in your teaching, in your religion. But you have really omitted the weightier matters of the law.

Judgment, mercy, and faith. These ought you to have done, and not to leave the other end done. So he's not saying, hey, you don't give gifts, you don't give offerings. But which is more important? It is the immutable spiritual law of God. It is more important than the outward manifestations. But as we have seen here, it is not to say that the outward manifestations are not important. Now, the name Pharisee means those who separate themselves. Literal, those who separate themselves.

The Pharisees developed an artificial religion, a man-made religion, not a reveal religion from God, a man-made religion that emphasized form over substance. In God's revelation to Israel, he made known to them that the priests were to come from the tribe of Levi. Now, of course, all priests are Levites, but not all Levites are priests. The priesthood was an inherited position. Descendants of Aaron. In addition, worship and ceremonial rituals were to be conducted at the temple in Jerusalem. That's where the offerings were brought, and that's where they were given. And the book of Leviticus describes that in great detail. Leviticus, that he is in, God is in his holy temple, and you bring the offerings to him in the temple.

But the Jews had turned this upside down. Now, Jesus had condemned the practice of the Jews of saying it's Corbin instead of giving it to their parents. I'm going to get my notes straightened out here, so I keep this in order. I don't know how they got messed up. One of us had done that here in Clark. Okay, I think I got it straight now. So once again, the priests were to come from the tribe of Levi, and all priests were Levites, but not all Levites were priests, though. The Levites, though were not priests, also served in the physical service of temple worship. And of course, they were divided into courses. Then the other point is, in order to be a priest, you had to be a descendant of Aaron, and that temple ritual and ceremony took place at the temple. Not in your home, but in the temple. It's a very important distinction there. The fact that the priesthood was limited to the tribe of Levi, and that there was more narrowly limited to the descendants of Aaron, eliminated most people from being priests. Not even all Levites were priests. The sect of the Pharisees developed the unscriptural position of declaring that all Pharisees were priests, and their home was the temple. Now, this is the crux to a large degree of Phariseeism. Really, they should have viewed their body, especially their heart, as a temple of God. Based on their declaration that all Pharisees were priests in their homes for the temple of God, they applied all the ceremonial laws to themselves and their household. Thus, the emphasis on washings and ceremonial cleansings, because of priests, before they could do the service in the temple, they had to be cleaned up, their bodies physically washed, and a certain kind of clothing that they were put on, especially the high priest. The ceremonial law became more important to them than the spiritual law. The Pharisees emphasized those things that had an outward show of righteousness. If the law of God conflicted with their serving practices, they changed it to suit their desire. So, declare it Corbin, instead of helping the parents or relatives, declare it Corbin. However, we understand that even obedience alone does not make a person righteous. Now, if you would, turn to Romans 3. In Romans chapter 3, and before we read there, I want to make this point clear. Contrary to popular belief, the Pharisees were very liberal in their interpretation of the law of God. I'm talking about the immutable spiritual law of God. They were liberal with that, as we note, declare it Corbin, instead of helping the parents. But with their oral tradition, they were very strict with that. And if anyone did not follow it, they were accused and criticized, as in the case of the first two or three verses there in Matthew 15. Why did your disciples not watch before they eat? Not obeying the traditions of the fathers.

So they were very strict with their man-made doctrines. This is one of the principle reasons that Christ aviamently condemned their doctrine, that of believing that righteousness could be achieved through perfectly keeping their traditions. Now we're in Romans chapter 3.

In Romans chapter 3 verse 21, but now the righteousness of God, that is, his faithfulness in keeping his promise that he was going to send a Redeemer all the way back to Genesis 3.15, the law is manifested that witness by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God, which is by faith in Christ Jesus, and upon all them that believe, for there is no difference. And it's no difference between Jew and Gentile. Now if you look up there in verse 10, where it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one. Of course, that includes the Pharisees and everybody else. There's none righteous, no, not one. There is none that understands, there is none that seeks after God. They're all unprofitable, and the righteousness of man is as filthy rags in the sight of God.

So now back down below, all of sin, verse 23, comes short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His divine favor, grace, through the redemption, buying back power that is in Christ Jesus, whom God has set forth to be a perpetuation that is a go between He went and arsed dead, through faith in His blood to declare His righteousness. He kept His word, He kept His promise that He would send a Messiah. There's more prophecy directed toward Messiah than any other being in the Old Testament. For the remission of sins that are passed through the forbearance of God, His patience, His long suffering. To declare, I say at this time, His righteousness that He might be just and to justify of Him that believes in Jesus. So where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? A works? No, but by the law of faith. You could perfectly obey the Mosaic law. You could perfectly, if nobody did it, accept Jesus, obey the spiritual law. That would not justify you from sins that are passed. All are sinned. The wages of sin is death, Romans 6, 23.

So where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? A works? No, but by the law of faith. Therefore, we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law. Now Paul makes it clear in Galatians chapter 2 verses 15-16 that you have to repent of breaking the law, otherwise God is the minister of sin. And in fact, you look at verse 31, do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid, yea, we establish the law. And if I ask anybody in here, and hopefully there would be some good answers and right answers, how do you establish the law through faith? Through the fact that it is through Jesus Christ that your sins are remitted. If the law were not in effect, there would be no need for a Messiah. It would be a farcical tragedy to send Jesus Christ to die for the sins of the world if there were no sin, because sin is a transgression of the law. Thus, you establish the law by the fact that you have to repent and have faith in Jesus Christ in order for your sins to be remitted. Of course, the Pharisees did not grasp that.

Now you look at Romans chapter 5 verse 6. For when we were yet without strength in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die, yet for adventure for a good man, some would even dare to die. But God committed His love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us, much more than now being justified by His blood, His life essence, symbolized by the blood. We shall be saved from wrath through Him. For when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. So after repentance and faith in the sacrifice of Christ, being reconciled to God, we can now be baptized, symbolizing that we're putting the old man to death, raised the newness of life, received the laying on of hands and the Holy Spirit. See, the Pharisees' form of righteousness centered more on their man-made doctrines than on the immutable spiritual law of God. From the time a Jewish boy was six years old, he was taught the law and the prophets. Those boys who developed a particular zeal for God's law could, as a young man, join the exclusive group of Pharisees who wanted to be legally pure before God by strictly following the 613 commandments in the Torah. And there were many more in the Talmud. Since all of the Pharisees claimed to be priests, they probably based their teachings on a misunderstanding of Leviticus 21 and 22. So let's look at Leviticus 21 and 22. Turn, please, to Leviticus 21.

I'm going to read the first couple of verses in Leviticus. Of course, Leviticus, now the sanctuary has been built in Exodus 40. God's glory fills the sanctuary. Leviticus is about God being in the sanctuary and what you do in offerings and sacrifices to come before Him. In chapter 1, Leviticus says, In the eternal call unto Moses and spoke unto him out of the tabernacle of the congregation of Israel saved. And all of these instructions about how offerings are to be offered and about what the priest should do. In Leviticus 22, verse 1, Speak unto Aaron to his sons, that they separate themselves. Remember that Pharisees means the separated ones. So maybe a take-off from this. From the holy things that the children of Israel and they profane, not my holy name. In those things which they hallow before me, I am the eternal. And so, God gives them a lot of instruction with regard to how they are not to profane different things. Most of these instructions focus on physical things. I'm going to go back now to chapter 21, and it's similar. And the Lord spoke unto Moses, speaking unto the priests, the sons of Aaron, and say unto them, There shall none be defiled for the dead among his people. For his kin that is near and unto him that is his mother, and for his father, and for his son, and for his daughter, and for his brother. And he goes on and on with these various instructions of how the priests should avoid being profaned, and how they should avoid being ceremonially unclean. And so, a whole list of things are going through. Imperfections that profane the priest, defilement in the eating of the priest's food, those who are entitled to eat the priest's foods, what are acceptable offerings. And they go through a whole list of things. Now, the striking thing about this is that it focuses on, to a large degree, that which is physical, to avoid things that would defile them in the physical sense. And perhaps the Pharisees took up on that. But the Pharisees misunderstood what really makes things holy. It wasn't just the fact. I mean, one of the things that's interesting to read about burying the dead, that the high priest could not attend the funeral of the nearest of kin. Now, the lesser priests, I guess you would say those who were not the high priests, they could attend, but there were various requirements for them. The high priest could not marry a widow. And it goes on and on with the various requirements that might defile the priesthood. And mainly, they were physical things. But the main thing that they overlooked, look at Leviticus 21 and verse 8. Leviticus 21 and verse 8.

See, it was God who made things holy. Look at verse 15.

Look at Leviticus 22 and verse 9. Leviticus 22 and verse 9.

Look at verse 16. Verse 16.

Look at verse 32. Verse 32.

So there were many physical requirements, but even there, it was God who made things holy. The priests may keep all the commandments, but it is still God who makes them holy. The primary mistake of the Pharisees is that they did not understand that it was God who would make them holy. It is God, through Jesus Christ today, that makes us holy. Do we have to obey God and repent? Yes, we do. But if we think just doing those things will justify us, we are sadly mistaken. Some people get hung up more on names. The sacred names thing is always, seems to be always present somewhere in the Church of God. You have to call Jesus Yeshua, or you have to say this or that, whereas on the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit was sent, and cloven tongues of fire on their heads, and they began to speak, and each man heard them in their own language.

And some say, well, they were speaking Hebrew, so... So, at the Tower of Babel, I ran across an expression recently, the digital Tower of Babel, and that's what we have sort of a digital world today in the digital Tower of Babel. At the Tower of Babel, they were all of one language. God went down, and He confounded the languages and separated them according to the Table of Nations, and they had to go, and they went to their various inheritances. God is the Father of languages. In addition to that, in Zechariah 8, it talks about, in the Millennium, that people will grab hold of a Jew, a Jew used in the figurative sense for someone who knows God and is converted. Of all the nations or languages on earth, they'll grab hold of the skirt of a Jew and say, show us your God.

And some people who get caught up on such things, neglecting family, neglecting this, that, and the other, maybe having some pet kind of symbol of righteousness, and the weightier manners of the law, go unnoticed. Look at 1 Peter 1, verse 1. 1 Peter 1, this first couple of verses here, we covered this in the class, the online class, this week. A summary, really, of sanctification, of what sanctifies, what separates the Pharisees, say they're the separated ones, they separated themselves from their own traditions and demanded that others obey their traditions. Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, who the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, elect according of foreknowledge of God the Father through sanctification, hagazos, to make holy, of sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience, sprinkling of the blood unto Jesus, grace and peace be multiplied. Now this is in reverse order, as it were. It begins with repentance and faith in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the blood of Jesus. That is the first sanctification point of setting aside. And then sanctification of the Spirit, hagazos unto obedience, and then after receiving God's Spirit to continue to be led by the Spirit of God.

Religions of whatever denomination have stripped not only the ceremonial part of the law from Christianity, and the Mosaic law has been abolished, as it says in Hebrews 9 verses 8, 9, and 10, but they also have stripped Christianity of God's immutable spiritual law. And now it's the only belief. In the Church of God, some have emphasized the outward symbols of righteousness more than the conditions of the heart. Now we'll close with this scripture in Isaiah 66. This is a summary of everything that's said to some degree here today. What is God looking for? What does He want? What is true sanctification? In Isaiah 66 verse 1, Thus says the Lord, The heaven is my throne, the earth is my footstool, where is the house that you will build unto me? And where is the place of my rest? For all these things has my hand made. He didn't make an idea, he says, and all these things have been, says the Eternal. But to this man will I look, even him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembles at my word.