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Secret Sins

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Secret Sins

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Secret Sins

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It can take weeks to remove the leaven from our homes. We search high and low because we understand it represents sin. We want to get rid of it all. What about the hidden leaven that you can't remove or you miss?

Transcript

[Gary Antion] Let's hope you had a nice Night to be Observed. I hope you had a good evening and rejoicing because of Israel going out of Egypt. They left on the 15th, right? They went out on the 15th, which is today and it began last night. And as we ate our meals, as we enjoyed that time together with family and friends, it's awesome. Before that time, deleavening was taking place. I don't know about you, but to me, deleavening is a tedious process. And having been retired for the last few years, my wife and I shared a lot of those responsibilities and with her one wounded wing that's now healing her shoulder replacement and her right arm, she's able to do a lot more now but she's still a lot of it fell on me too. And I can tell you and going through and trying to find leavening and trying to get rid of it was a tedious job.

Unlike the Israelites of old, all they had to do is sweep out their tent or move it, take whatever, move it to several other places, you know. But take whatever's in there and fold it up and burn it the next day. I'm going to read to you something that I found online came from the article my… or the area, myjewishlearning.com, article "Leaven." And it's about searching for leaven and here's what it says, it talks much more than what I've excerpted. They start weeks in advance, so did I. Weeks in advance deleavening in one room after another after another, not taking any leavening into those areas.

Here's what it says though, "The night before Passover, immediately after sundown, one begins the search for leaven." It comes from the code of Jewish law. "The aim of the search is to be sure that no leaven has been left behind after the cleaning of the house.” So now they've got a search to make sure there's nothing left behind.

“The procedure includes these items: a candle, a feather, which acts as a broom; and a wooden spoon into which the pieces of bread will be scooped. First, the candle is lit, and the following benediction is recited:” they have it in Hebrew. But here's what it means "Praised are You, Adonai our God, Sovereign of the Universe, who's made us holy by His commandments and instructed us concerning the burning of leaven… The following morning, usually sometime between 10 and 11 o’clock, the leaven is burned, and again the formula for the removal of the leaven, hametz” it's called, “is recited, with slight variation:” and here's what they say, "Any leaven that may still be in the house, that I have not have or not seen, that I have not have or not removed, shall be as if it does not exist, as the dust of the earth." So “Anything that I miss please consider it gone.” That was their prayer. However, if that leaven is still there, it is still there.

A few years ago I thought we had all the leavening out I went through the pantry, went through the refrigerator, the freezer every which place. And I came out I grabbed this one briefcase and I opened the briefcase, well, guess what was in there? Yeah, it was a bar, a breakfast bar or energy bar read the label leavening. Now, what do I do with it? Already the garbage had already been picked up, now what do I do with this thing? So I put it in the bag and there was an empty field right next to us. So I wound it up and I threw it into that field, it was no longer in my house. Now, after Unleavened Bread, I did go over and retrieve it and throw it in the garbage. So let you know but I didn't want it in my garbage can in my garage or by my house so I got rid of it.

They burned it to ashes. One of my main duties has been taking care of the toaster every year. It's like it's not a toaster but its a very nice toaster. So we don't throw it out. Some people buy a cheap toaster and every year they just throw the whole thing out so they don't have to worry about cleaning it. I cleaned it very thoroughly not only what's in the tray, but I go through it and I try to have my pastry brushes to knock it down, vacuum cleaner to vacuum whatever it is there. So I make sure I do it and get it rid of it so I don't track any of that those crumbs throughout the house. So that's what we do. That's what I do. But that's my job to try to clean it to make sure I get rid of every bit of leavening I can. Now, I know and you know, when you clean a house, you know there's still leavening there.

If you have wooden floors, the little grooves in between, you know what, you can't unless you destroy your house, you can't get rid of it. Certainly in certain places even in the stove that you can't quite get to unless you are a mechanic and want to take everything apart. What about your automobile? What about your furniture? That you eat as if so, you serve people something crumbs come down into the furniture and you can't get into because there's no… And one of our sofas it's you can't take the bottom layer off. You can't take the seating area off. It's just it's sewed to the bottom, so you can't get rid of it. You can't get it off. So you know there's still hidden leaven in your home.

I remember several years ago one man, he was an elder in our congregation. I won't say where and I won't say names to not be defaming anybody, it wasn't intended to defame. He somehow before Unleavened Bread he wore this suit that he never liked very much, but he did wear it to work. And his favorite meal for lunch was a peanut butter sandwich. He was eating his peanut butter sandwich trying to be diligent at work doing his work and he got a phone call. So he had the sandwich was he doing phone calls and he needs to write something down that he stuck it in his pocket. He then had other things going on, got distracted and went home. The suit that he never liked to wear, he took it off, hung it up in the closet. During the Days of Unleavened Bread, I guess we had several events where he had to use several suits. So the suit that he didn't like very much, he took it out, put it on, reached into his pocket. There was a stale peanut butter sandwich, right during Unleavened Bread.

Another man had started working on his car, he had put it up on lifts or hoist or whatever. And he was working on it and he was eating his lunch during that time the sandwich and something happened, he was distracted, maybe he needed both hands. So he took his sandwich and he put it on the frame underneath his car. And then he proceeded to do what he needs to do with both hands and then somehow he got called away and the car was finished. So we lowered it. Guess where that was? On the frame of his car all during the Days of Unleavened Bread.

So different areas you can have hidden leaven. Maybe you snuggle up in a nice, comfortable chair with your favorite book. And you'd like snacks while you're reading your book. So you take your crackers, your Ritz crackers, and you munch on them. And of course, as you chew, you're not perfect to getting every bit of it in your mouth. So some of it falls down into the pages of your book, which you then finish reading and put back on the shelf. We actually had one of our trainees give us sermonette about cleaning your home, and how you need to go through all of your books, page-by-page I guess, to get rid of leavening. But that works if you have about 10 books. But if you've got hundreds, which I do, there's no way you're going to do that. All right, so hidden leaven can come up in class probably another one.

What about pants that have cuffs on them? If you ever eat with your pants that have cuffs on them, and you are munching on it, it falls on your pant leg into your cuff. One man used to vacuum all of his cuffs to get rid of the leavening that is there.

Now, again, one final one. One of our ministers was on the train in a routine train ride up to his congregation, which was in northern England. And he was sitting in the train compartment and they come by with sandwiches, little sandwiches, tea, and everything. That while you're sitting there and all the times he goes up there he has a couple of sandwiches and tea so he's ready to go to preach. It's about a two hour two and a half-hour ride by train. Guess what? Unleavened Bread. He's sitting there they come in, they serve him. He takes two of his favorite sandwiches, puts some on this plate and proceeds to eat them partially. And “Ah!” he realizes what he did.

So leavening can be hidden in many different ways. And one time I had something in my briefcase, you know, you can have things in your briefcase that you forget. So this year I made sure I went through the whole briefcase that all my briefcases and make sure I didn't have any left leavening in there. It's something that we all search for and get rid of because we know that during these days, that, that pictures unrighteousness, that that pictures sin. It's beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees, get rid of that leaven because which is hypocrisy, which is likened to sin. So we try to get rid of it all. We know we won't get rid of it. We know there's some hidden there that we can't get out. Know it's there we can't get it out. Let me ask you a question.

Is there any hidden leaven still in your home or dwelling place? More importantly, is there any hidden leaven still in our lives? Do you still have leavening in your life that you haven't gotten rid of yet?

Maybe you don't even know it's there. Maybe it's like the man who put a sandwich on the frame of his car or in his pocket, different one, put in his pocket and didn't know it was there. Maybe. But let's take a look and ask ourselves the question, do we have any secret leaven or hidden leaven still in our lives? Do we have secret sins that we don't want to see? That we are tolerating or covering or not paying attention to. That we need to consider and do something about our secret or hidden sins.

Psalms 90:8, Psalms 90:8 I'm not going to give you very many scriptures on secret but you can find secret and hidden in the concordance and you definitely can find where secret or hidden talk about sins as well. But Psalms 90:8, I'm just going to give a few of these verses on this and then I want to give you some examples. But we ought to say, "Do we have hidden sins in our lives, sins that we don't want to see, sins that we don't know we have?” Psalms 90:8. "You have set our iniquities before You," iniquity is sin, "our secret sins in the light of Your countenance."

“You see them, God, they're brightest clear, it's like that candlelight finds it.” And by the way, some Jews before that, on that night, the parents, they take some obvious pieces of leavened bread, pieces of bread. And they put it in different parts of the house so that then their kids go searching with a candle obviously, in very easy places to find. They go through and they pick it up so they could find something to get rid of. That's their custom. And also, by the way, did you know that Jews can sell their leaven products to Gentiles? They could sell them to others and then afterwards, buy them back. So that's the way their rules state. But God sees them.

And the word for secret is alam, A-L-A-M, 5956 in Strong's. And some of the meanings of it is very interesting. Some of the meanings of secret, is blind, disregard, hide, conceal, pay no attention, pretend, and avail from sight. You can't see it, you cover it up. It means to hide as well. Hide, conceal, cover it over.

Look, Jeremiah 23:23-24. We read another scripture, can we hide from God? Can we hide anything from God? Jeremiah 23. And by the way, Mr. Clint Porter, and myself we both play trombones, so that's nice and he gave a talk about getting rid of the leavening, so that's also good. But anyway, Jeremiah 23:23.

Jeremiah 23:23, here's what Jeremiah wrote from God saying, “'Am I a God near at hand,’ says the Lord, ‘And not a God afar off? Do you think you could pull the wool over My eyes? Do you think you could get rid of… you can hide things from Me?’ He says, 'Can anyone hide himself in secret places, so shall I not see him?’"

Can you hide? And the word here's a different Hebrew word, but it means here to hide, conceal, to cover, to be in secret, and to be undetected. So there can be sins in our lives that we aren't willing to see that we can't see, that we can't look at, that we don't know they're there. Are we willing to try to get rid of them? Let's take a look at some examples in the Bible. And I've summarized this so I don't take so much time to read them all the way through. Let's start with Adam and Eve, our forefathers, the ones who are the founding fathers and mothers of the world. Genesis 3:8-11.

What did they do? They sinned. They took of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Eve did and she gave it to Adam and they both ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. What did they want to do after that, because they were naked, and they were the only human beings in the world, it was okay for them to be naked. They felt somehow they needed to cover themselves up. And they covered themselves. And so when God came to reckon with them He said, "Where you covered? Who's told you there's any shame in being naked with your husband or wife? Who's done this to you? Where did you get this idea?” And they said, "Well, we wanted to cover up, we were afraid. We were afraid.” "Why do you get afraid?" They were trying to cover over their sins. They thought they could hide from God, hide themselves because he had to find them, "Where are you?" After they had sinned. So sometimes sin can cause us to want to hide from him.

The example of Jonah is a great one. Get out of town. Hide from God. That was a theme of the book of Jonah. God called Jonah to go east. "Go to Nineveh. Deliver a warning message of destruction." Instead, he boarded a ship headed west to Tarshish or Spain. He felt relief when he got onto the ship. You know, actually how you would feel God told you to go this way and you're going the opposite way. And he was going down to buy his passage ticket or whatever he had to get on the ship. And as he was getting on this ship, he must have been wondering, "When am I… is God going to zap me because I'm doing the wrong thing, but on the ship, I'm safe." And sometimes people even think he may have thought God's only a territorial God if I could just get out of town, go the other direction God's not going to notice me. So he felt relief and he slept feeling he was out of God's sight. God can't see me now.

The ship experienced great winds and roaring waves, and the Gentile captain and his crew prayed to their gods for deliverance. Because they knew this was not any normal type of passage over the seas. And then he found Jonah and he woke Jonah well, Jonah wasn't praying, Jonah was content. He was away from God. He got over this, got through this. And he woke Jonah and asked him to pray to his God. And then Jonah told him, "I'm a Hebrew. I'm running from God." God sent a fish to give him a ride back to shore. He went to Nineveh and delivered a message of doom. Except God had mercy seeing their response. Jonah's reaction was not good. Remember, Jonah said, "I could just die. You didn't do what You said. You're a gracious God. I knew you were gracious. I knew You were forgiving. I knew You were merciful. You wouldn't follow through. That's why I didn't want to go.” That wasn't why he didn't want to go. “But You're gracious,” now God's gracious to him, gracious to the peoples of Nineveh… weren't but then they had difficulty, didn't they?

He, when he had this plant grow up over him and give him some shade during the hot siroccos or whatever they were having the East winds. And then he finally realized that God was merciful to them, but the book ends with you not knowing whether Jonah was in a good attitude or a bad attitude because Jonah did not in that book say, "I'm sorry, I was wrong." No, Jonah obviously repented because God uses him as an example of his time in the grave, three days and three nights.

King Saul. Self will. When he was first called, he was humble. He said, "Me, I come from the smallest tribes. I'm nobody special," even though he's head and shoulders above everybody else. But self will, he didn't pay attention. God told him, "Go and wipe out the Amalekites, everybody, sheep, oxen, everything." And then he didn't do it. He saved some of them. So God called Samuel and said, "Samuel, I'm rejecting Saul as king over Israel. He doesn't listen." He refused to see his sin. When Samuel came he says, "Oh, Samuel, praise the Lord. I've done the will of God." Samuel said, "What is that bleating that I hear from the sheep over there? And who's that man hanging around there, that Amalekite?" But you know what Saul said, "I've done the will of God. I've done it.” And he sang. And then he had, he said, "I've kept the animals to sacrifice to God. I've kept the king so we could make fun of him," or whatever. But he said, "I have obeyed." And then he blamed the people. "Well, they wanted to save him. Well, they wanted to do the sacrifice."

Gehazi, another example of hidden sin. Gehazi was the assistant to Elisha. General Naaman, a Syrian, came because he had leprosy. And his aides told him, "There's a man in Israel who can heal you. If you just go to him he can heal you." And so he said, "Okay," decided to go, a letter was sent from the Syrian King to the Israelite King, to please accept this general coming to be healed by Elisha. And so he brought expensive gifts, which Elisha refused to accept for doing a godly miracle and healing Naaman's leprosy after he told him to dip in the sea, he said, “What? Dip in the Jordan? We got better rivers in Syria we can dip in." No, then he finally was convinced by his aides to dip in the water and he was healed.

But afterwards, Gehazi the assistant eyed all these wares something to the account… to the amount of about $32,000 in silver and gold. That's only one talent and another talent 32. So he just said, "Oh, by the way, my master changed his mind." So he lied. He went in he tried to sneak, he went behind the back of Elisha. And he followed Naaman and his group and Naaman stopped because he could see him coming. So he stopped and he said, "Was anything wrong?" "No," he said, "We decided to get some of the gifts."So he gave him some of the gifts and then he lied to cover up. He was sneaky. He acted in a manner that dishonored his leader, Elisha, and God. God placed leprosy upon him and his descendants forever. Because he tried to hide his sin.

Ananias and Sapphira, Acts 5. By the way, Gehazi you could read about him in 2 Kings 5:20-27. Ananias and Sapphira, Acts 5, they plotted how to look good and yet held back… and yet hold back the price of the property they sold to help the poor stay in Jerusalem. So everybody who had extra houses and extra means of property they sold it so that they could help the rest of the Israelites, or the rest of the Christians rather, stay there. And when it came to them they said, "Let's plot. We'll tell them we sold it all, we'll tell them here it is, all the money." Now, they said, "You know what? You didn't have to give us all the money. You didn't have to do that. But you tell us you do that, you're lying." So they misled the apostles, sought to deceive, and both were struck dead for lying to the Holy Spirit. Again, what were they doing? They were covering up their sin.

Finally, King David. King David in 2 Samuel 11:1-17 and 12 verses 1-14 saw Bathsheba bathing on her rooftop from his home which undoubtedly was higher than her rooftop. And he looked and he lusted. He could have looked and turned away, he could have said, "That's a beautiful woman down there," and turned away. Or he could have said, "Oh, there's somebody's bathing down there, I better not look." But he didn't. He looked. And he kept on looking. And he kept on thinking, and he sent his servants to find out “Who is that woman anyway? She's beautiful. Who is she?” Invited her up here to have tea with the king or whatever his reason for having her come up, of course, an invitation from the king would have been pretty awesome.

Then he found out that's Uriah's wife. Uriah, one of his strong military soldiers, one of his strong military men. But he still went ahead and seduced her. And they had a romantic interlude. And several weeks later, she said, "I'm pregnant with your child." Now, he could have said, "I did wrong. I'm sorry, I sinned." What did David do? He quickly called for Uriah to have a furlough, "Come home. Come over." So he came, met with the king. The king said, "Oh, how's everything going? Everything's going good in the war? Okay, good. Why don't you go home to your wife? I'm sure you're anxious to see her." To try to get a cover-up. Uriah didn't go. He slept outside the palace.

The next day the king said, "Did you have a good night?" No, he was here all night. "Oh, let's supply him with some wine. Hey, let's have a little bit of wine and celebrate that you're here, the war's going good, drink." Hoping that he would get drunk and find his way home again. He didn't. When he was asked the next day, "Why didn't you?" He said, "How can I go and enjoy company with my wife when all my brothers in arms are sitting out there fighting the Philistines… or fighting the Amalekites, whoever, fighting the enemy. How can I do this?" David said the only one way to deal with it. He sent a letter back by Uriah, to the commander of the army there saying, "Put Uriah in the front line and when you're heavy in battle withdraw, retreat." And of course, the guys who are the front line are the ones are going to get shot at as they retreat and he was killed.

David wouldn't see his sin. David didn't see his sin until Nathan had to come to him and tell him what had happened. Finally, Uriah carried a message, of course, he was killed. The child… Nathan came to David and said to David, "There's one man, this man had lots of sheep. And he took the one sheep that this other poor man had for himself, and sacrificed it." And David said, "Who is that man, I'll kill… who's that man? I'll make him pay." And Nathan said, "The man is you, David." And David said, "I have sinned," when he was confronted by Nathan.

So even David, a man after God's own heart, tried to cover up. What about us? Do we cover up? “I don't want to see that sin. I don't want to know it's there.” And God is getting exhausted at us. I said, "You know what I shouldn't have to worry. No, I better do it." So we looked in the garbage can, or inside garbage cans or trash can right in the kitchen. We have bags in there. So that's protected. We take the bags out, everything is fine. We looked in the bottom of it, and there was some leavening some crumbs and things. So I had to take the vacuum cleaner, vacuum it all out and then wash it all out. And so that it's not there, but I didn't want to do it I was tired, “I don't want to look, I better look in there.”

We have to be careful in our own lives, that we don't do that with our sins. These are the days after Passover, Passover pictures are the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. And as it pertains to us sacrifice of Jesus Christ to wash away our sins. We dare not let them creep back in. And if there are still some there, we dare not cover them. Are there secret sins in our lives?

Psalms 139. Psalms 139. And we also both use this scripture, Psalms 139. But I'm going to go beyond that. So verse 7, Psalm 139:7, I'll read this to you. "Where can I go from Your Spirit? Where can I go from You, Father? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend into the heavens, You're there; if I make my bed in hell, behold, You're there.” Can I go to the sky? Can I go to a spaceship? Can I go in underground caverns? No, You're still there. "If I take wings in the morning, and dwell on the uttermost parts of the sea, even there Your hand you will lead me, and Your right hand shall hold me. And if I say, ‘Surely the darkness shall fall on me, darkness will cover it.’ Even the night shall be light about me."

So God even can deal with the dark. In verse 12. Even the night he said, "Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from You, but the night shines as the day; and the darkness and the light are both alike to You."

You see, just as well, in the light. Now, why do so many murder… criminals like to prey at night? Because people can't see them. People can't see them in their nefarious activities, but who sees them? God. Do we believe we can get away with it because nobody sees or are we aware that God sees? The psalmist realized he couldn't fool God if he's hidden or secret. Numbers 32:23, I won't turn there. You may want to know it, 32:23 you know what it says? "Be sure your sin will find you out."

I have had things… I've had circumstances come to my attention that I wasn't looking for in any way. And it was like a little birdie came and told me it wasn't somebody ratting on somebody. It just happens that somebody brought it up in conversation. It wasn't even… they weren't trying to hurt anybody. And it came up. A little birdie told me. Sometimes these things happen because God can make them happen. If we don't get rid of our sins because in other scriptures that say, "That which is hidden will be made known and will be shown to everyone."

So let's take a look at Psalms 51, David's prayer of repentance. David was pretty thorough about this and he was very remorseful over what he just did. His prayer of repentance says, "Have mercy on me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness; according to the multitude of Your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions." Forgive me, he was clear. He said, "Wash me thoroughly or throughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. Clean me up. For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me." I see it until you get rid of it. "Against you and you only have I sinned and done this evil in your sight that you may be found just when you speak and blameless when you judge."

David realized he couldn't get away with it. David realized he had to open himself up and say, "God, I'm sorry. I did this, forgive me, clean me up, wash me and I'll be whiter than snow." He later on says, and he said in verse 10, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me." David's prayer of repentance in verse 16 he says, "You desire not sacrifice, or else I would give it." It will be easy to go buy a chicken and sacrifice it, burn it on your grill. “There, now I feel better.” A lot easier than having to confront ourselves. He said, "You desire not sacrifice, or else I would give it. You don't delight in burnt offering." That's not what you want. What do you want? What does God want? "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit and a broken and contrite heart, these, O God, you will not despise." “I'm broken up. I'm sorry.” Great attitude and a great heart that David had. That's why God says he was a man after His own heart, didn't mean he was perfect. But if God  were a man and he did that, that's the way God would react.

God knows our thoughts, Psalms 94:11. He knows our needs, Matthew 6:8, sometimes before we ever asked. He even knows the number of hairs on our head, Matthew 10:30. And that changes for some of us very often, and by big numbers. Anyway, God knows us. Hebrews 4:3. God sees us. He sees how we are. He sees our sins. He sees what we do with them. Hebrews 4:13.

Hebrews 4:13, “And there is no creature hidden from His sight,” nobody, “but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.”

They're right open, they're bare, God sees them clearly. Though we may not see, he sees them clearly. And if we have hidden sins, it's important that we get rid of them. So how, and what may we do about secret or hidden sins?

I have three points. And I'll summarize these quickly for you so we don't have to keep you sitting beyond too much time. I'm going to ask for maybe 10 more minutes overtime. I'd like to finish it four but I'll see if I can do give 10 more minutes overtime.

Number one, search for them. Search for our hidden sins. Take a look at our lives. That's what we've been doing. As we deleaven our houses we've been trying to search for any leaven, any hidden leaven to get rid of it. What about in our own lives and again, searching ourselves especially for these Days of Unleavened Bread. But Psalms 139:23, going back to that same Psalm. Here's what the psalmist said, Psalm 139:23-24. Here's what the psalmist, I think this was David. Let's see if it says at the beginning, yes, I'm sorry. Yes, The Psalm of David. So David says in verse 23, "Search me, O God, and know my heart." Ask God for help to see yourself. "Try me, and know my anxieties," verse 24 "And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting."

God has called us out of sin and into righteousness. God has called us to come out of what we've been. God has called us to come out of covering up. Now, there are times you cover up, you should cover up your neighbor's sin. You shouldn't try to expose it to the world. You don't know if they repented or not. Do you? Maybe they already repented to God. So He talks about love covers a multitude of sins. And it's important for us to realize that but for your own self, you better cover it… Not cover it, you better have God cover it with the blood of Jesus Christ. So he says, "Try me, search me that I may walk in your ways." It's a time of redirecting our lives. It's a time of walking toward the Kingdom with a pure heart, undefiled and that's what it's about in these days, so search for them.

Ephesians 5:12-13. We read what the apostle Paul wrote, verse 12, "For it is shameful even the speak of those things which are done by them in secret." Don't even want to talk about what garbage goes on in secret. Verse 13, "But all things are exposed are made manifest by the light.” How can we search for our sins? Light. Jesus Christ, God is light. Search for our sins.

Romans 7:7 he talks about “I had not known sin unless I look to the Bible,” God's Word, God's law. Compare, how are we doing? Compare ourselves to Jesus Christ, the true light that came into the world. But when you hold our sins up against the light, they shine darkly but they shine out, for sure. So use the light as verse 13 "But all things are exposed as manifested by the light, for whatsoever things makes manifest,” makes clearly seen “is the light." So if we want to get rid of our hidden sins or secret sins, use the light of God's Word and the light that God Almighty can provide. Search for them, number one.

Number two, despise those sins. Despise those secret sins and despise all sin. All sin is opposition to God. All sin is walking against what God wants you to do. All sin is going east when God tells you to go west, or west when He tells you to go east. God wants you to walk with Him and follow Him, despise those sins.

Proverbs 8:13. We should hate our sins, not coddle them, not keep them around, not pat them on the back, "Okay, good little buddy. Good little partner." Proverbs 8:13. "The fear of the Lord is to hate evil; pride and arrogance and the evil way and the perverse mouth I hate."

Once we discover that hidden sin, hate it, I didn't want that bar on my property, but I didn't know what to do with it. So I don't want to put it in my car and take it somewhere else to get rid of it. So I put in this plastic bag and I flung it into the field into the other people's lawn, it wasn't on my lawn anymore. Get rid of those sins right away. Hate them. Get rid of them. Proverbs 12:9. Sorry, not Proverbs, Romans 12:9. Romans 12:9, we read this. "Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor hate, what is evil. And cling to that which is good."

Not only do we hate the sin and get rid of it, we want to also put in the righteousness of God which is taking the bread, unleavened bread. I was munching on some egg and onion matzo today. And this morning I was thinking, "You know, it's like putting righteousness into your system, putting godliness into your life." That's what we ought to think about during these days, you're not only getting rid of the unleavened as the old leaven but you're also putting in the righteousness of God. Ask God for the help and strength which this sermonette covered very well.

Abhor it Psalms 119:104, 128. You can write them down. We read “hate every false way.” "I hate every false way." That's what we need to do. Get rid of it, abhor it, hate it. Not just put up with it, not just say, "Well, I know, it's there, but I can't." Yeah, you're right there's some things you can't get rid of in your home or else you destroy it. And we're not asking you to do that. You can say a prayer like this, "I've searched diligently and I hope if there's anything left you will not lay it to my account." That's number two, hate sin.

Number three, conquer those sins. Don't just search for them. Don't just say, "Oh, there it is." Don't just say, "I hate that, but I can put up with it." Do something about it. Conquer those sins. Psalms 32:5. We don't have a confessional booth here. We ask you to confess to God, you have confessional booth anywhere you are. Psalm 32:5, verse 1, he talks about blessing as the person whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. But now verse 5, "I acknowledge my sin to You," said David, “‘I acknowledged my sin to You, and my iniquity I have not hidden. I'm not trying to hide it anymore.’ I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the Lord. And You, that's You Lord forgave the iniquity of my sin. I'm not going to cover it up. I'm not going to cover over. I'm not going to go past it. I'm not going to turn my head away. I'm not going to be blind to it. I'm not going to put a veil over my face. I'm not going to conceal it. I'm going to repent and change.” That's what he said.

1 John 1:5-10. Mr. Myers read this last night 1 John 1:5-10, the apostle that Jesus Christ loved more than the others, special affection He had toward him. But notice what he writes 1 John 1:5, you know what I was struck, sitting and listening to the reading of chapters 13-17? Was how much love was there. And love conquers, and love overcomes because if you have love in your life, you have God in your life because God is love.

So in 1 John 1:5, we read this, "This is the message we've heard from the beginning from Him and declare it to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness." There is no darkness in God. "If we say we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sins." Including our secret and hidden ones. “If we say we have no sin,” "I don't have anything, I'm all clean." “We deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And if we say we have not sinned,” "I don't have any hidden sin," “we make him a liar, and His Word is not in us.”

So conquer those sins. It is through Jesus Christ, Romans 8:37 talks about how can we do this? “We're more than conquerors through Him who loved us.” Isaiah 55 tells us to forsake our ways, because our ways are not his ways, and His ways are not ours and accept and follow the way of God.

Ecclesiastes 12:14, it is important that we search for our secret sins. It's important that we ask God to help cleanse us from all unrighteousness because look at Ecclesiastes 9:14. I'll get to that in a moment as soon as I get my mind and gear here, Ecclesiastes after Proverbs. You're probably there already I'm still going, Ecclesiastes 12:14. "For God will bring every work into judgment." Everything we do, good things, bad things, evil things, righteous things, bring them all into judgment. "Including every secret thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil."

So God is looking and God will see, and God knows what we're up to. So it's really important in these Days of Unleavened Bread, that we get rid of sin, and that we remember to also look for and get rid of those hidden sins. So we've renewed our commitment with Christ last night, to walk with Him, to follow Him. Now let's renew our fight against sin, especially hidden or secret sins.

How can we do it? By searching for them, by despising them, by conquering them.

In 1 Corinthians 5, my last scripture, 1 Corinthians 5:7-8. We read this, "Therefore purge out the old leaven, including the hidden leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you are truly unleavened." You want to be unleavened. You've already accepted Jesus Christ, you're already walking with Him and following Him, but you want to stay that way in getting rid of leavening that is hidden. "For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us." Now verse 8, "Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness.” Stop carrying these things into the… over into our lives. "But with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth." And I would add righteousness. Put Jesus Christ in, put the hidden leaven out, put righteousness in, put sin out and may we all have a wonderful Feast of Unleavened Bread as we walk forward to the Promised Land.