Unleavened Bread Basics

Happy Sabbath! Good to see all of you. Hope you've had a great week. Seems like it's gone mighty fast. It seems like so many things are going on. And as usual, here we are coming up the Passover, and it seems like different things happen. Like my losing my ability to send out emails is not a good thing, by the way. In fact, a quarter of those that received the prophetic times didn't receive them this week. My delist of prophetic times, about 54 congregations, did not receive it because I couldn't send it out. Yahoo kept sending me this notification that suspicious activity was going on at my website, or at my email. And of course, what was suspicious, I was sent out prophetic times. I guess that's suspicious. I don't know what exactly they mean by that, so Monday I'll have to find out about that. And you know, it seems like other things happen as well. But I hope that all of you, again, haven't had some of the little things that happen, the little glitches that occur like that. But it does seem like this time of the year they tend to come out. I want to thank, by the way, Doreen Gardner and Denise Hale for the flowers up here. Just a beautiful job that they do with this. It looks like a garden up here, and very beautiful. But it does add a bit to it, to the Sabbath today, and appreciate that extra effort that they made. Well, brethren, what have you been doing? What have you been doing? You know, God the Father and Jesus Christ are concerned about what you have been doing. You know, and we know that God is always watching us. You know, He's looking down and seeing what we as His children are doing. When Jesus Christ came, conducting His earthly ministry, He said this. He said, Who then is that faithful and wise steward whom His Master will make ruler over His household to give them their portion of food in due season? And He said, Blessed is that servant whom His Master will find so doing when He comes.

He said, Truly I say to you that He will make Him ruler over all that He has. So that's why I say, what are you doing? What have you been doing in your week, in the weeks prior to this week, in the days leading up to the feast that we're going to be taking up very shortly? Well, just as we are to prepare for the Passover, we're instructed to, of course, get in a right attitude, a foot-washing attitude, as the first message talked about. And we're instructed by spiritual messages prior to the days of unleavened bread and Passover. It's necessary, brethren, for us to have proper instructions prior to the days of unleavened bread as to what we should be doing, lest we take for granted what God has given to us. It's so easy for that to happen. When you've done something year after year after year to take it for granted. And to begin to think that you know it already, you don't need it. You know, woe to that individual, in fact, that ever gets into that attitude, well, you know, I've done this before. I don't need to go through this. I don't need to talk about this. You know, I don't need to attend church regularly because, I mean, I'm solid or poppycock. When people get into that kind of attitude, they begin to really have serious problems. And there's a lot of serious problems in the world that we see out there, brethren, in this society that grow worse and worse. And you know, when we do not prepare for those things that are the basics, then we begin to suffer more than we can realize. When I began pastoring in Alabama back in the 80s, there was a very famous coach you may have heard of. His name was Bear Bryant. Bear Bryant, of course, one of the greatest football coaches around. And he was very popular back in those days. If any of you remember seeing Forrest Gump, you know, actually Forrest Gump played on the team. And they were depicting Bear Bryant in that Forrest Gump movie as the coach. You know, remember when, in fact, Forrest Gump was running across the football field and he outran the football players and Bear Bryant said, we got to get that boy. You got to put him on the team. And so they did. And, you know, Forrest Gump was one of the best football players they had. Of course, that was all made up. But Bear Bryant, a great coach, another great coach I remember reading a great deal about. And we quote, in fact, in our speakers' club manual, Vince Lombardi of the Green Bay Packers. But you know what made these men great? And what makes any great coach, whether you're talking about football, basketball, anything with a ball in it, in fact, what makes a great coach is someone who is always extreme in teaching the basics. You know, if you were a player and you played with Vince Lombardi's team and you showed up late, you wouldn't play. You know, Vince Lombardi had a... He taught his men this. He said, when you are five minutes early, you're 10 minutes late.

And the reason he said is you should be wherever your appointment is, 15 minutes at least, before it begins. And he hammered that into, you know, the minds of his players. And that was not the only thing. Of course, it was just one of the many things that he taught. But he taught the basics, always going back to the basics. And you know, if you ever find yourself wondering why things are not going so well in your life, go back to the basics.

Prayer, Bible study, you know, doing those things that you know you ought to be doing. You know, keeping the Sabbath appropriately, doing those things that God commands us to do, but getting back to the basics. So, brethren, today I thought it was appropriate that we would cover the unleavened bread basics that we need to know. That we need hammered into our minds and we need to reiterate, in fact, every single year in our minds, that we don't take these things for granted. You know, God wants us to observe His feasts, brethren, with a sober-mindedness so that we can glean what He intended in the feasts.

And the meaning, frankly, is from the basics. It's not terribly deep. And that's one of the problems. Sometimes we take those things that are not so deep for granted, but they are profound. I always find it very, very interesting that when you, you know, they would basically interview some of these men who were really great coaches, and they'd ask them, well, what's your secret? You know, expecting some almost like, you know, a tremendous explanation on a galactic proportion. But always these men, when you would talk to them, they get right back to the basics of everything. You know, and really, that's what really boils down with many things in life, whatever we do.

And being a Christian is getting right back to the basics in our lives. Let's go over to Leviticus 23. We're going to talk about, again, the basics that are within the Bible. But in Leviticus 23 here, of course, we have all of the holy days that are here, and we are shown in Leviticus 23 that, in fact, these are God's holy days. They're not our holy days. We've just been merely invited in to participate in them. And so we are to, of course, keep them God's way and not our way. But Leviticus 23 here, Leviticus 23 in verse 5, it says, on the 14th day of the first month at twilight is the Lord's Passover.

So we'll be observing the Passover when it comes around. It'll be the second of April, you know, just after sunset. But that will be on belonging to the 14th of Nicem. But it notices that this isn't on the 15th day of the same month is the feast of Unleavened Bread. So following the Passover, it is certainly appropriate that we would take the Passover before entering into the meaning of the days of Unleavened Bread and the purpose of that. But on the 15th day of the same month in the feast of Unleavened Bread to the Lord, seven days you must eat Unleavened Bread.

And so here again is the basic explanation to us about what we're supposed to do. Now, by the way, during the seven days you get to eat other things besides Unleavened Bread. Row two, that individual that reads that, you can't only, you know, eat Unleavened Bread. That'd be like eating crackers with no water, huh? But during the time, if you're going to eat bread, it should be Unleavened Bread.

But it says, and on the first day you shall have a holy convocation. A holy convocation, of course, is a commanded assembly. And you shall know customary work, it says, on that day. And it says, but you shall offer an offering made by fire to the eternal for seven days. And the seventh day shall be a holy convocation, and you shall do no customary work on it.

So the first day is a holy day, as we know, beginning the night before the the evening before sunset. And the last day, measured in the same way, is a holy day as well that we observe.

Now you notice here that we do not do an offering made by fire.

You know, at least I hope you don't. I hope you're not burning sacrifices behind your house, you know, or something like that. But the reason why this is an instruction is here in the book of Leviticus, brethren, is the word Leviticus means basically relating to the priests or relating to the Levites. So they would use this information to actually know when, in fact, sacrifices were to be made and offerings were to be made. And so that's why it is used in this way. And, of course, certain instructions were for the people, that the priests had the responsibility of teaching the people. I think we all understand, too, that, you know, the Bible, the Torah, was not available to everybody. And so the priests, as the educational arm, you know, in Israel, had that responsibility of teaching it, of conveying it to the people. And they had parts to play as well as the people had parts to play. But our sacrifice, of course, is the great Jesus Christ who gave his life for all of us. And he was offered one time, by the way, he was offered one time he died, as we know, on the cross or the stake, the stalruse, as it can be rendered in the New Testament.

And remember, we are saved by his life, though. So he did come down from the cross. He did come down from the stake. Unfortunately, some people never let him come down from the stake. And so after that, of course, we know he ascended to his Father in heaven. But again, we are to observe the days of Unleavened Bread for seven days. And God wanted Israel to be instructed in this, and this is again what the Levites had the responsibility of teaching. Now let's go over to Deuteronomy 16. Again, we're just talking about the basics, brethren.

I use my John Wayne voice. We're talking about the basics. I've missed it on that when I think partner. Pilgrim, I guess, is what you'd have to say. But Deuteronomy 16 in verse 1, and by the way, this is a second statement of the law that God has already given. You know, Deuteronomy is a second statement of the law. But in verse 1 to 4, it says, Observe the month of Abib, and keep the Passover to the Lord your God, for the month of Abib the Lord your God brought you out of the land of Egypt by night. Therefore you shall sacrifice the Passover to the Lord your God from the flock and the herd in the place where the Lord chooses to put his name. So God did not want this to be done at any place, by the way, but a certain place where his name was chosen to be there. But in verse 3, it says, You shall eat no unleavened bread with it. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread with it. That is the bread of affliction, for you came out of the land of Egypt and haste. Remember, they had to bake the bread hurriedly, so there was no time for it to actually be leaven. My mother used to make this kind of bread that we called a hardtack.

And you know, it can be really literally hard. Sometimes it would be so hard it would break your teeth off, in fact, or at least it seemed that way. And sometimes you have to pull it when you eat it. But, of course, they make a little better bread, unleavened bread, than that. So we won't use that kind of bread that we're talking about at the Passover. Can you imagine how hard it would be? Tearing off a piece of your hardtack, but we'll have a certain kind that is broken prior to, of course, by the ministry. But, you know, God wanted them to remember that during the days of unleavened bread, they came out of Egypt. But no leavened bread is to be eaten seven days. You shall eat unleavened bread with it, which is the bread of affliction. Because in that time they came out of Egypt and haste, that you may remember the day in which you came out of the land of Egypt all the days of your life. And so God wants us to remember as well, brethren, our coming out of spiritual Egypt. But going on, verse 4, and no leaven shall be seen among you in all of your territory.

For seven days, nor shall any of the meat which you sacrifice the first day of twilight remain overnight until morning. Because we know that they were in fact to burn the whatever remained from the Passover, a lamb that was to be killed. But no leaven is to be seen.

And that doesn't mean, by the way, you put your leavening in a bag and you flip it over the fence.

But we discard it. We give or give it, you can give it to somebody, I suppose, give it to a gentile, you know, that won't be a spiritual gentile that would not know about it if you need to do that. But usually you can time your use of those types of things so that you don't have loaves of bread that you throw out. But you use it prior to, you know, the days of unleavened bread, so it's gone. So again, here we have instructions that were, you know, given a second time by Moses on the this side of the Jordan River before they even go into the Promised Land.

So Israel kept the law, this law, in fact, that we are reading here, for a long time. They kept that law over the lifetime of Moses and Joshua, which was a considerable time. We're talking about, you know, decades in which they observed these basic things, and they kept these laws also when those who had been taught by Joshua were alive. You know, the old-timers, if you will. You know, as long as they were around and the, you know, these people that were connected with it were there to teach them, to guide them, they kept the law of God. But when they were gone, when the old dogs were gone, if I can put it that way, you know, then people began to turn away. They began to drift away. It was a slow process so that when you come to the time of the Judges, you have, in fact, Israel that departs entirely from these instructions. And there are periods of time that pass where they were not observing them at all. They didn't have a strong leader that would come along and begin to teach again and would begin to take control and begin to guide people, and people would return. But when he was gone, they would drift away again. An example of that was Samuel. You know, and other Judges that came and went over time. There were certain kings that were very strong and powerful in that way. David was. Such a one is that. You know, very, very strong king. You have Hezekiah also, Josiah, and others were very strong kings, but made people begin to turn their hearts to God. They restored some of these things. But the problem is, people tend to forget very quickly. And that's why, brethren, we've got to keep pounding away at the basics. You young people that are going to someday inherit the responsibility of teaching within the Church of God, when you forget about the basics, forget reminding people about the basics, you will lose it, too. The same thing will happen. I hope we don't face that, quite frankly. I hope we are able to go into a place of safety, and then Christ is going to return. But we don't know. We don't know that.

But we've got to be careful we do not drift away, again, from these things that God has given to us. But we don't take them for granted. When Israel repented, they always return, though, to the feast. That's what they did. They always return to the feast. Again, back to the basics. As God's people. You know, I don't want to go over to 2 Chronicles 30, verse 11. And 2 Chronicles 34, verse 21. But you can, and review that about how people, when they return, they return to the feasts of God. And when God corrected Israel, when He corrected Judah, He said, Remember the Sabbath! Remember the Sabbath! Because, of course, they had even departed from the Sabbath. And so, getting back again to the basics. And during the days of Unleavened Bread, don't forget the basics again. Well, we know the New Testament Church observed the days of Unleavened Bread as well. Let's go over here to Acts 12. Acts 12.

Sometimes people, you know, when you read the Old Testament, they say, well, you know, that's the Old Testament. What about the New Testament? What does God require in the New Testament? They don't view, in other words, the Bible as a whole cloth. You know, they cut off part of it. Some people, in fact, don't even possess an Old Testament. You know, they have, all of them have the small New Testament. But, you know, if you only have the, just the New Testament, you really have half the story. You don't have the whole story.

But over in Acts 12, in verse 1 through 3, it says, And now about that time, Herod the king stretched out his hand to harass some of the church. So, you know, as usual, it seems around the Passover time, the church gets persecuted. Then he killed James, the brother of John, with a sword. And because he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to cease Peter also. And it says, Now it was during the days of unleavened bread. You know, why would he even make a statement about that?

If, in fact, Luke was not observing the days of unleavened bread.

And so they were observing the days of unleavened bread. And, of course, this was not the only place that it's mentioned in the Bible. Let's go over to Acts 20. Acts 20.

Acts 20 and verse 6. You know, if you were trying to get people to forget about that old law, to forget about God's feasts and all of that, they surely go about it in a strange manner.

But in Acts 20 and verse 6, it says, But we sailed away from Philippi after the days of unleavened bread. And in five days, join them at Troas, where we stayed seven days.

So he's wondered if they weren't keeping the days of unleavened bread. Why didn't Paul sail away during the days of unleavened bread? You know, if you wanted to really be blatant, in fact, he could have said, We sailed away on the Sabbath on the first day of unleavened bread. If I wanted to send a message that you didn't have to keep the Holy Days, the fact is, he waited, he observed the days of unleavened bread, and he sailed away after it was completed. And Luke does not call it the days of unleavened bread, the Feast of the Jews.

Because the church was observing the days of unleavened bread. They were observing the Passover. Even Gentiles up in the Corinthian area were observing the Passover and the days of unleavened bread. So they were observing these things. First Corinthians 5, let's notice this again.

This is all about the Passover season. It's all about the days of unleavened bread. But here in 1 Corinthians 5 and verse 6, here Paul was having to correct the church because of a problem that they had, a very serious problem. They had permitted sin to reside in the congregation, and it did nothing about it. And Paul writes in verse 6 of 1 Corinthians 5, it says, your glory is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?

A little leaven leavens the whole lump. Therefore purge out the old leaven. And that's what we should be doing, brethren, spiritually. We ought to be purging out the old leaven, which is of course sin, that you may be a new lump. So he's saying that we need to purge out that old leaven since you truly are unleaven. You know, Paul is telling the Corinthian brethren, look, since you have gone ahead and you have cleaned out the physical leavening out of your house, you're physically unleavened, go ahead and do that spiritually, too. Get rid of the pride and being puffed up as they were over the sin. Because the sin was getting back into their lives, and it is very much something that can come very, very rapidly upon a congregation. If you permit one thing, then another thing's going to happen. And pretty soon somebody's saying, well, you didn't do anything about that individual. Why didn't you do something about, you know, this other individual? Now you're wanting to deal with me? So things could get out of hand pretty quickly, and we don't want to allow that to occur, but they had allowed that to occur. So he says, since you truly are unleavened, for indeed Christ our Passover will sacrifice for us. And Christ, of course, was sacrificed so that, in fact, the spiritual leavening could be cleansed from us. That sin that is depicted by the leavening. And then he goes on to say, therefore, let us keep the feast not with the old leaven. Nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. So clean out that leavening, that old leavening that is there.

You know, the reason that Paul had to write them is they were puffed up, as I mentioned earlier. And let's read in verse 1 and 2 about this, but he says, it is actually reported there there's sexual immorality among you. Now this is a quite an addiction people can get into, and was quite prevalent, by the way, in the culture of the Corinthians. In fact, the word Corinthianized meant to prostitute. In the temples there was prostitution that was there that was going on. The, you know, the priestesses were prostitutes. And so sex was a part of the culture. I don't know if any of you have ever seen a statue of Diana. But there's one statue we saw when we were in Vienna one time, because they had an Ephesus, you know, exhibit there, and we toured that. There's a stature, she's got all these mammary glands all over her body, you know. And of course, Diana was this very sexual worship-oriented type of religion as well. But a lot of the artifacts that were there, right there at the, you know, in Vienna, you know, at the Summer Palace when we were able to visit there and visit the Museum there. But he says there's immorality among you. Such sexual immorality is not even named among the Gentiles. But a man has his father's wife. You'd think people would have been aghast at that today. People today barely yawn at things in the world, you know, that they seem to go on, more or less all the time. You know, if you ever watch any of the programs on television, it seems like they're all, you know, oriented sexually in some way or another. But in verse two, it says, and you are puffed up and have not rather mourned that he which has done this deed might be taken away from among you. So Paul had to toss him out of the church.

So he'd have an opportunity to be saved, actually, that perchance he might repent.

Now, I think it's very important for us to realize from this, brethren, that sin has a quality of puffing up, just like leavening, you know, has that quality of puffing up the bread.

And really, you know, I've given the analogy before of cornflakes. If you ever buy a box of cornflakes, it's mostly air that's in the box. And of course, you don't want to eat them if you crunch them down, you know. Then I guess it becomes brand, doesn't it? Almost. But you know, because there's a lot of air in it, things that, again, tend to be puffed up, are puffed up by air. You know, sometimes when people are full of themselves, we call, you know, somebody needs to let the air out of that guy or knock the wind out of him because he's full of himself or she is full of herself. The Greek word, by the way, puffed up means inflated. We could have an inflated sense of worth, and sin has that quality about us.

You know, if somebody ever notices that, you know, when somebody has a few beers or whatever, it's amazing how much courage people can have. You know, they get the courage from a bottle, sometimes. Well, fools rush in, as the old saying says, where, you know, angels fear to tread.

Somebody overdrinks, begins to do things that you just unbelievable what they'll do. And the same, of course, happens when people get on drugs. You know, they do things that are just outrageous. But sin has that quality about it, whether what a reform that might come in, either where a person's not being moderate, they're not, you know, drinking in a moderate way, which a Christian should do, you know, or they're involved in something illegal, you know, it puffs up. It causes the vanity to come in. And with the case of the Corinthians, they were puffed up because they permitted this person to be there. They thought they were spiritually superior to others. Now, I've been in circumstances like that, by the way, where people have done terrible things and there are members that, you know, that somehow think, well, you shouldn't do anything about that, you know. And if I listen to them, you know, that person who had committed the sin would have never repented.

But sin has that quality of puffing up, of inflating and making us proud. You know, the Corinthian church wasn't sad, and Paul calls them, you know, what he does, he calls them carnal. In 1 Corinthians chapter 3, he calls them carnal. He said, are you not carnal? You know why? Because he had to treat them with kid gloves. It is amazing to me that more liberal-minded people become, almost like you've got to walk around them so gingerly. Because you're always afraid you're going to offend them.

I don't know if you've noticed that. It seems like in our country now, we have more liberals than ever. And I would say it's well over 50% of our country that is that way. But, you know, I don't have any way of knowing absolutely that, but it just seems that way in the society that we're living in. You've got to basically handle everybody with kid gloves. But, you know, somebody who tends to be very conservative, you don't. You can just basically speak to them face-to-face. You know, I was listening, in fact, to Arnold Palmer being interviewed on one of the programs. And, of course, Arnold Palmer is one of the greatest golfers that ever lived. You know, Arnold Palmer used to have what they called Arnie's Army, because everybody would follow Arnold Palmer around when he played golf. But he was going to hire a, you know, business manager. And the man who was asking about, you know, representing him exclusively said to Arnold Palmer, he says, well, look, I'll drop a contract and we can sign it. Then Arnold Palmer said, well, I don't need a contract. We don't need a contract, he said. He says, what we need to do is you just look me in the eye and tell me that you're going to represent me to the very best of your ability and exclusively. And, you know, after that, this man, by the way, who was going to represent him was an attorney. He pointed that out. He said, I'm an attorney. You're asking me to do it on a handshake and looking in the eye? And basically, Arnold Palmer said, well, that's the deal. And so he had the manager that there was a manager, in fact, until the time that the manager died. A long time relationship. A people's word that is a bond, you know. Again, that person, you know, you can speak forthrightly to them. They don't get offended. The Bible tells us, brethren, great peace are those that love Thy law. Nothing shall offend them. Nothing will cause them to be offended. But again, when people get carnal, you've got to treat them with kid gloves. You're always afraid you're going to offend them. They're going to be gone. But remember, again, what causes people to be that way is sin.

And leavening is a type of sin. And leavening, during the days of Unleavened Bread, depicts and pictures sin. Also, during the days of Unleavened Bread, brethren, Egypt is a type of sin. It pictures sin. Pharaoh, on the other hand, is a type of the devil.

And just as Israel came out of Egypt, Israel came out of sin, as it were, during the days of Unleavened Bread, it pictured there coming out of sin, you know, from time immemorial. In fact, during this time, brethren, we ought to be recounting the fact that we have come out of the world, or the spiritual Egypt of the world, and we're coming out of sin. We're coming out of the bondage of sin in this world. And we've got to free ourselves from the shackles of this world and this society and get rid of the leavening. Got to continually be tossing that out. In fact, we'll be doing that until Christ returns. You know, if you ever think you have arrived, let me tell you, you just started. If you think you've arrived, that you've accomplished everything you've got to accomplish. You just started if you come to that particular point in your life.

But each year, in fact, at the night to be much observed, we celebrate coming out of the world. That's what it's about. Because Israel came out of Egypt the night to be much observed.

And so we, as God's people, you know, ought to be putting out, again, the leavening of our lives, again, throwing off the effects of spiritual Egypt, and putting that spiritual leavening out of our life. Now, why is leavening, brethren, a type of sin? Why does God use it as a type of sin? It has many, many qualities, in fact, that make it a perfect representation of sin. We already pointed out, you know, that it puffs up. It causes that vanity and pride. And that's the chief attribute. That's why you put it, you know, leavening in a dough, isn't it? Because it's a rise. But sin emboldens us not to be humble before God and teachable before God. I think it's important, again, to have that foot-washing attitude and to put it into action in our lives, brethren. Not only by washing feed and having our feet washed, brethren, by how we think about our brother and our sister in Christ. So that's one thing we would want to contemplate. We would want to meditate on, brethren, is the many qualities of leavening that make it like sin and has the effect of sin in our lives. That's a good thing for you, in fact, to write down and to study, you know, as we approach to the days of unleavened bread. As you're cleaning the leavening out of your house, as you begin to, you know, go into the cupboards, as you, you know, begin to vacuum out the car, as you begin to clean up those areas where there have been food and so forth that has been eaten, think about those things and how you need to get sin out of your life. You know, God, of course, wanted Israel to again, to clean the leavening out because He wanted to teach them and He wanted to instruct them. And as long as they were observing these days, brethren, they were teachable. And unfortunately, though, in the time of the Judges, they were up and they were down. And, you know, some people became very liberal in their approach. They began to invite other gods into the, you know, the worship of other gods. Pretty soon, they were worshiping those gods. But let's go here to Exodus 12. Exodus 12. The first part is about the Passover, but in Exodus 12 and down in verse 15, it says, seven days, Exodus 12 verse 15, you shall eat unleavened bread. And of course, by that, let's explain, brethren, that if you are during the seven days caught where you don't have any unleavened bread, you know, it's not saying you got to carry a pocket full of unleavened bread with you all the time. But, you know, when you eat bread, it should be unleavened. But I think it's certainly very good for us to do it every day to remind us about what these days are about. On the first day, you should remove leaven from your houses.

And so we hopefully are beginning to do that already so that by the first day, they're gone. It's gone. So after the Passover, during that day, before the sun sets that evening, we're supposed to have rid our homes of leavening. And it says, for whosoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel. Now remember, with God's Word, there's always a duality. There's a physical and there's a spiritual. They were cut off from physical Israel. For us, brethren, if we disregard what God's Word says, we will be cut off eventually from spiritual Israel, which is the church or the Israel of God. And by the way, it won't be what the church does. It won't be necessarily what the ministry does, because the ministry doesn't know. We don't know whether you're eating, you know, what bread you're eating, unless you're at services. Somebody brings a loaf of bread to church, obviously, we'll point that out to them. You're in the wrong place. There's a bread-eating place down the road. You can go to that. But on the other hand, nobody knows, but it's between you and God. But God can put us out of the church before the church has any knowledge of it. So let's make sure that we're aware of that and what God says.

But whoever eats 11 bread from the first until the seventh day, that person's going to be cut off from Israel. On the first day, there shall be a holy convocation. So after the Passover, on that first holy day, that evening prior is the night to be much observed, the next day, of course, we will have a holy convocation, which will be here at the Masonic at 1 p.m. on the first day of 11 bread.

And it says, no matter of work shall be done on them. So on these holy days, you don't work, but that which everyone must eat, that only may be prepared by you.

And so they were to do these things. So you shall observe the feast of 11 bread. For on this same day, I have brought your armies on the land of Egypt. Therefore, you shall observe this day throughout your generations as an everlasting ordinance.

And so it's to be done forever. In verse 18, in the first month, on the 14th day of the month of evening, you shall eat on 11 bread. So again, the leavening has got to be out by the time sunset arrives until the 21st day of the month at evening. For seven days, no leaven shall be found in your houses. Since whoever eats what is leaven, that same person shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he is a stranger or a native of the land. Now here's actually two statements on this very topic, showing the urgency of this brethren and the importance of it. I know you see that, you understand that.

Maybe, though, we need to be reminded of it every year of how serious it is, unless we let down. So, leavening is to be cleaned out. It's not just symbolic. It's to be cleaned out.

By the way, in our former association, it was beginning to gradually get to that way with some, oh yeah, just symbolic. You don't have to, you know, do anything. Again, the problem of not adhering to the basics. Rifting away from those things that God has instructed us to do. So, God expects us to contemplate brethren and think about and ponder the need to put sin out of our lives when we're doing this physical removal of the leavening.

Now, the Jews, by the way, they get out on their knees and hunt with a candle, you know, for leavening. Quite a different world, of course, but to make sure you get the leavening out. And leavening can be in mighty strange places. Men used to have cuffs on their pants. Some of you still may have them, but if you're eating, sometimes crumbs would fall down in those cuffs.

So, you think you cleaned out all the leavening out. Here you are walking around with it on the Sabbath and in the holy days. Sin has a way, doesn't it? And we can miss it. We can miss it. So, we want to be careful. It's one man, by the way, I told this story many times over the years, but one man that thought he had done really well and he, you know, had a new car, he decided he was going to pull the seat out. And he cleaned out all the leavening and pulled the seat out. And here was a sandwich that was painted onto the frame of the car. I guess a workman had actually put a sandwich on the frame, you know, under the seat and the machine had just painted right over it.

I don't know whether it was a, you know, a rye or what it was, but I'm just kidding with you. But, you know, so there are different things that happen. They can creep up on you. But leavening shall not be found, the Bible says. Strong says that the word leaven, by the way, comes from the Hebrew word, it comes from the Hebrew word seor, seor. So that word leaven comes from the Hebrew word seor. And if you look at the definition, it means barm, b-a-r-m.

Barm or yeast cake. And yeast cake, of course, Strong says, as swelling by fermentation.

So no leaven product is to be found in your home that will cause something to rise. And, you know, barm, by the way, is that yeasty foam that rises the surface of a fermenting process. That's what the the barm is, by the way. And it happens with wine and beer, when you're making wine and beer. But that which is leaven, the word leaven, by the way, in the Hebrew is chametz. It's spelled c-h-a. I guess you could be pronounced clometz, but c-h-a-m-e-t-s. And it means the ferment.

Figuratively, extortion, leaven or leavened bread. The word chametz, by the way, is translated leavened bread in a number of places. And it refers to all foods that leaven is caused to rise. All foods that leaven is caused to rise. Now, let's go to Exodus chapter 12 verse 15 here, where we are. But it says, seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first stage, you shall remove leaven from your house. Well, that, of course, again is the word seor. You'll move leaven from your house. For whatsoever eats leavened bread, that's the word chametz, by the way, shall be cut off from Israel. And so, you know, this is an instruction that God has given to us.

And whoever eats any leavened bread is going to be, you know, summarily cut off as far as God is concerned, especially if they do something like that out of rebellion. So what should we be putting out of our houses, brethren? Well, obviously, we ought to be putting breads out of our houses.

You've got a loaf of bread in your freezer. If you've got it in your refrigerator, either eat it up before the sun goes down, you know, after the the the Passover takes place. The day part of it before sunset, or, you know, you're in violation of what the Scripture says. So we would naturally throw cake away as well. So if you want to go ahead and give that to me, you know, maybe it'd be good for us to go ahead. Next, we can bring all the cakes that we have leftover, and we can all just consume them before you have a problem with that, because we wouldn't want to cause you any problems that way. And we wouldn't want you to have to eat the whole thing yourself. But, of course, pies also, certain cereals. Now, some cereals don't have leavening in them, but you want to be careful about that, because a lot of them do. Some candies have leavening in them as well.

Always check the labels. Read very carefully on the label.

My motto, brethren, is when in doubt, throw it out. When in doubt, throw it out. You know, why don't you want to take a chance on sin? Well, this might be sin. Well, you might as well throw it out.

Any leavening, by the way, that can activate should be cast out. Any leavening product that can activate, hopefully you understand what I mean by that. Use that principle, by the way, to determine what to throw out. For instance, baking powder. You've got to throw that out. If you've got a container of it, you throw it out. What do you do with it? Baking soda. Same thing. Yeast. Little packets of yeast, obviously. By the way, yeast extract, sometimes you see that on a label.

And that's derived from yeast, but it's not an active leavening agent. So you don't have to throw yeast extracts out.

Brewers yeast. You know, it used to be people took a lot of brewers yeast.

This is a dead yeast and it's not considered leaven.

Pity you, if you take a live brewer's yeast, or any yeast and eat it whole, would be an uncomfortable feeling, I would think. What about beer? What about beer? I mean, isn't that fermented? How about wine?

Well, remember, it's not the days of unleavened beer.

It's not the days of unleavened wine, for that matter. Let's go to Exodus 12 in verse 39 over here. Exodus 12 verse 39.

Here in Exodus 12 in verse 39, it says, "...and they baked unleavened cakes of the dough which they had brought out of Egypt, for it was not leavened because they were driven out of Egypt and could not wait, nor had they prepared provisions for themselves." So this only mentions, by the way, they made unleavened cakes from the dough here. So again, it is the days of unleavened bread.

Chapter 13 here, notice down in verse 6, "...seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there shall be a feast to the eternal. Unleavened bread shall be eaten seven days, and no leavened bread shall be seen among you, nor shall leaven be seen among you in all your quarters." So you can't move it out to the barn, out of sight, not of mind, but you've got to send it, you have to toss it out.

But there's no reference, by the way, to here, to invisible yeast spores that are, obviously, that are as a result of either beer, wine, or beverages.

In fact, fermented wine was customarily consumed by the Israelites during the festivals. When we observe the Passover, we use real wine. You know, some people that might have alcoholic problems, we do sometimes allow them to have a, you know, a grape juice product that's not fermented, but because of the principle. But we use real wine, and during the festivals, wine was used.

And what about leavening, for instance, a dog food, or cat food?

Well, unless they become a staple of your eating habits, remember, the principles, it is not the days of unleavened dog food or cat food. Although I've seen some advertisements of cat food, I think they eat better than we do.

What about toothpaste with baking soda? What about that? Sometimes people put, you know, baking soda and salt together and brush your teeth with it. Same principle. You know, you can't and you won't take that to bake bread.

So some toothpaste, toothpaste, by the way, you're not going to put that in the dough to make bread, are you? Even though it may have baking soda in it. Now, if the container is just baking soda with a little salt, you should toss that out because you can actually use that to make bread with.

So you'd have to toss that out. But if it's mixed in with other paste, obviously, in that way, that's a different story. But if it's just baking soda, you know, and maybe a little salt in it, you should toss that out because it can use it to bake. What about using egg whites? Some people are really good at using those egg whites, aren't they? Egg whites are not leavening, even though they can puff up, by the way.

Like with meringues or on pies and other desserts, you know, so you don't have to, again, referring from doing that, it's permissible. It's amazing. Some of the ladies that come up with the different recipes for cooking. I'm always intrigued about desserts, by the way.

Although my wife doesn't let me get near them very much anymore. I have to actually sneak a cookie here or there. And I love coming to church because she can't keep an eye on me.

Eating the cookie. I'm a cookie monster, you know. But so anyway, we got egg whites are fine. If you don't know about something or have faith in it, the best thing to do is not do it.

Because it says in Romans 12 verse 23, whatsoever is not of faith is sin. And we're trying to put sin out. We're trying to get rid of sin.

And so if it seems to be that way to us, don't do it. Don't do it.

So, brethren, when we observe the days of unleavened bread, we remember are observing these to God. And though we don't want to become pharisaical, brethren, on the other hand, we don't want to fall in the other side of the ditch and take for granted God's way of life. The days of unleavened bread. Because God is concerned about what we're doing. And blessed is that servant that is going to be faithfully doing those things that God has commanded us to do when he comes. Because he's going to give him the opportunity to be ruler over all things. So, brethren, let us not forget to always remember the days of unleavened bread basics. Remember success. Success in anything, brethren, is practicing the basics. We keep going back again and again and again to the basics. And we don't forget those. And if we do that, brethren, we'll hopefully be there when Christ returns. And we'll be able to escape the trouble that is going to happen in the future. And to be able to stand before Jesus Christ and to be a part of his wonderful kingdom. So don't forget the basics.