Unleavened Bread in the Beginning & the End

Well, happy feast, everybody! Good to have all of you here. We have a small contingent here. We want to appreciate certainly the Knutson's for hosting this. I kind of think of the fact that in ancient Israel, when the Ark of the Covenant resided in the home of one of the people of Israel, that David wanted the Ark to be in Jerusalem.

David saw that the fact that the Ark was there in the home of that individual, that their household was blessed. We certainly pray that your home will be blessed and all that happens, that God will be with all of you. You know, we had a little bit of a discussion, my wife and I. We tried to obey the six-foot rule, but I thought it was going a little too far when Joan asked me to ride in the cargo area on the way in the van so we could maintain that six-foot rule.

I'm just joking. Actually, she didn't make me do that. She willingly did it herself. No, I'm kidding about that as well. But, you know, we've got to laugh during these times that we're living in, don't we, in order to survive these times. We, you know, like Mr. Kuduchen said, had a wonderful Passover and we had a wonderful night to be much observed.

You know, I think I washed my 104th foot this time, first time I ever washed my wife's feet. You know, during the years I've been, you know, keeping the feast, I stand before you very humble today.

So, God maybe is teaching us all a lot of lessons, right? That we need to all be humble through what we're going through. But again, to keep up most in our minds what we're doing, what this feast is about. Think about it, the coronavirus has paralyzed the world, the entire world. And just as the world was paralyzed in 1918 with the Spanish flu, where a whole lot more people died during that time, just as during 1347 to 1351, 75 to 200 million people died in the Euro-Asian area as a result of the Black Plague.

And of course, right now, as I mentioned to Mr. Kuduchen beforehand, I've been reading a book about James Madison, the fourth president of the United States. He was, I think, seven years old. It was the 1750s, and during his time, the plague on America was smallpox. And one half of everybody that got smallpox died. A whole lot worse than COVID-19. So, you know, there have been many things like this that have happened in the world.

And I believe that what we're going through right now is a shot over the bow of Americans who take for granted, you know, the way of God. They do not look to God. You know, we are void of understanding, in fact, of God as a nation. You know, we're rich on the secular things, the materialistic things, but we're very poor when it comes to the spiritual things.

We are living apart from God as a nation, and this nation needs to turn to God and to come out, again, of the materialism that is in this world. When we look at the complex world today, many wonder how relevant is the Bible. That's where we are in history. People begin to question the Bible. It seems the primary goal of some is to get rid of the Bible and to get rid of the spiritual basis of this country. And great effort has gone in to actually to try to especially discredit the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and His resurrection. I was reading an article many years ago about how in the Church of England, you know, that the archbishop did not believe in the resurrection.

Pray tell why is, in fact, he a minister. Who does he represent? He does not represent God. And of course, there are a lot of modern ministers today who simply don't believe what the Bible says. And what they say oftentimes is to cast doubt on the Bible and upon what the narrative of the Bible is. Well, we must not allow ourselves as Christians to be distracted by the physical and mundane things of this world.

You know, as was brought out in the the sermonette by Mr. Riel Knudsen. Very heartfelt message, very important message of how God sincerely wants us to be a part of His family. We need to keep our minds focused on the meaning of Unleavened Bread and the kingdom of God.

As we embark on another cycle of God's festivals, we should know and know that we know why are we keeping these days? You know, I frankly, I miss Mr. Armstrong's often asked question whenever we come to the Feast of Tabernacles, why are we here? Why are we doing these things? What do the Days of Unleavened Bread mean? Why does God command the keeping of this kind of a festival? Let's go to Leviticus 23 here to begin in verse 4.

Leviticus 23 in verse 4. But here He says, These are the feasts of the Eternal, holy convocations which you shall proclaim at their point in time. So there are convocations. Ordinarily, we would be meeting together. And right now, as was mentioned by governmental instructions, we are doing what we're doing. We're living, of course, through these days and meeting separately. And yet, you know, the Spirit of God welds us all together.

But we are to gather, and by the way, I think the time is going to come where we may have to defy government instructions if they do not coincide with what God commands us to do. So be aware of that now, unless we get into this idea that no matter what the government tells us, we have to do, or that we even should do.

So we need to keep those things in mind. But it's us on the 14th day of the first month at twilight at the Lord's Passover. We all did that already. And in the 15th day of the same month in the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the Eternal.

Seven days you must eat unleavened bread. So during this festival, we are to eat unleavened bread. We've cast out the leavening, as it says over in Exodus 12, 19. We are to put it off of our properties. We are to get rid of it. And in fact, it was so important that God says that anyone, whether they are of Israel or a stranger, will be cut off from Israel if they do not do these things. So they're very, very serious matters. So the first day it says, shall be a holy convocation.

You shall do no customary work on it. And 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 on the seventh day, of course, we will observe the last day of unleavened bread. But again, why are we doing these things? We are commanded, again, to do these things. But why do we do it?

Why do we do it? And what does it mean? You know, the world ignores these days. And as a result, what has happened, they've lost their way spiritually. You know, they don't really understand the really big questions of life. Most churches don't teach what sin is. You know, they want to use every word imaginable except the word sin.

They have no concept of putting out sin out of their lives, like we put leavening out, and we're commanded to put sin out of our lives. And they don't, as a result, distinguish between what is right and wrong and good and evil. They don't have a concept of that as we can knowing about God's festivals. Go with me, if you will, to over to Isaiah chapter 5. So I think it really over here describes the world we live in, the society that we are living in. But here in chapter 5 and verse 8, it says, Whoa to those who joined house to house. I mean, look at the world today. We're crowded into cities and it seems like it gets worse and worse. I remember when we went to Budapest, you know, you have these high-rise apartments, you know, just bland-looking apartments where people are stacked on top of each other. And we have that in the United States as well. They add field to field till there's no place. There's no place where they may dwell alone in the midst of the land. And so it says, Whoa to us when that happens, when we do these things. And down at 11, Whoa to those who rise early in the morning, that they may follow intoxicating drink who continued till night till wine inflames them. You know, people again are crowded into cities at the time of the end as we're living here, where sin has increased, where sin has multiplied. And as a result, disease epidemics have spread so rapidly. You know, they come like from these markets that are in Wuhan, where they basically eat any kind of an animal, and they're not meant to be put together. These animals, they have different diseases, and in close proximity, they pass these diseases between themselves, and then you have mutations that result in diseases like COVID-19. These big cities where they have this sort of thing, and which should be outlawed, are unsanitary a lot of times. The cities are crowded. You know, what happens in a society where people are crammed together, you know, and alcohol is an issue, drugs is an issue, all kinds of substance abuse, so that the moral base of society is destroyed, the family is destroyed, marriages are destroyed. The world is turned upside down, you know, for what it should be. And that's all being eroded in the United States as well, and in the Western world. No matter where you go, it's that way in the world. Let's go down to verse 12 here in chapter 5 of Isaiah.

But it says, the harp and the strings and the tambourine and the flute and the wine are in their feasts. You know, so they have these feasts, and it's all centers around alcohol, and dancing, and of course not the proper kind of dancing, and you know, all the rejoicing that goes on, not the proper kind of rejoicing that you can be thankful for later, but regret in your life. And these feasts it's talking about here are not God's feasts, they're their feasts. It's what man has made. But they do not regard, it says, the work of the Eternal. They don't look to God in these things, nor consider the operation of His hands. They don't consider what God is even doing, what God's trying to accomplish. And it says, therefore, my people have gone into captivity. Because they rejected God, God allowed them to go into captivity. Because they have no knowledge, their honorable men are famished. Honorable men are famished spiritually, and of course the time comes when they're famished physically, too, as well. And their multitude dried up with thirst. Therefore, she'll, and in the Hebrew, that word merely means grave or pit here, she'll has enlarged herself. The word enlarged meaning that it's made broad its way. It's like Christ said, you know, that broad is the way that leads to destruction. And that way will broaden as much as it needs to, to receive any and all who want to go that way. But God's way is the narrow and difficult way in this world where you have to swim upstream. And opened its mouth beyond measure, their glory and their multitude and their pomp, and he who is jubilant shall ascend into it. You know, it's not that God doesn't want people to be happy. He wants to be happy in the right way. They're happy to disobey God. And God wants mankind to obey Him for the benefits that can come to it. People shall be brought down, each man, verse 15, shall be humbled, and the eyes of the lofty shall be humbled. But the eternal of hosts shall be exalted in judgment. God is going to be exalted, brethren. He's going to be exalted. He's the creator of all, and man will have to give an answer for what he does.

And I know that oftentimes in the church we have people that are sort of sitting on the fence.

Well, I think it's important for us during times like this, you know, when, you know, this country again, and I mentioned the entire world, is paralyzed by this tiny little COVID-19, that whoever is on the fence, it should be a shot over the bow to get off the fence, and to begin to do something with a knowledge and the understanding that somebody's been given.

So I would like to see a lot of people out there that are in this world right now that have kind of went back to the world after 1995 to reawaken the reality of what they were taught prior to 1995, to remember those things and return to the truth before it is too late. You know, this particular COVID-19, I can assure you, is going to subside. It will eventually be forgotten, probably, by people, but I do believe God is giving a warning shot to this nation, and next time, though it may not be that way, it may begin and it may never end, because the tribulation is going to be far worse than we could even imagine. But how it will begin in earnest, you know, we don't know when it will happen, but we don't want to, again, be trapped in the world, you know, with no one to contact, no one to talk to. You know, for that to happen, it's best to respond now in our lives, again, to get off the fence and to get on with old bang God. Let's go on to notice here. So God says He's going to be exalted in judgment, verse 8, and God, who is holy, shall be hallowed in righteousness. Then the lamb shall feed in their pastures, and in the waste places the fat one strangers shall eat, but woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of vanity.

They can't let go of iniquity. And sin, as if we're a cart rope, it's like they got to drag their wrong way of life behind them. You know, in a wagon, wherever they go.

And it says that, say, let him make speed and hasten his work. You know, this is a statement of people who disbelieve that God will punish the wicked, because people don't think God's going to make people accountable. But, brethren, God will make us accountable. We have to give an answer somewhere along the line. We're going to have to give an answer for how we lived, whether it was right, or whether it was wrong. Every man's going to have to stand before Jesus Christ. You know, in the final analysis, either they're going to do it in the time of the first resurrection, or they're going to do it in the second resurrection, or the third. Everybody's going to have to give an account.

And it says, let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw near and come. Again, this is by somebody who disbelieves that we may know it. Woe to those who call evil good and good evil. Who put darkness for light and light for darkness. Who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and prudent in their own sight. You know, we don't want to do that. We don't want to rely upon our own wisdom, brethren. You know, people are defiant against God. They don't think He again is going to punish for their sins, and many scoff at Jesus Christ ever returning to this earth. You know, they just simply don't want to be subject to God. They do not want the kingdom of God.

This is why the society we have today, brethren, is where it is today. Because man has turned his back on God. Well, I hope that people will remember this pandemic in 2020 that we've had here. I thought about the fact that, in fact, hindsight is 2020. It's interesting it's 2020, isn't it? Is God telling us something? To remember these things right now, what's going on, things are going to get much worse down the line. People are void in the world today of understanding what God is even doing. They do not understand the purpose for human existence, for human life. They don't understand that God is not saving the world right now, like we do in the church. The gospel is a witness of the coming kingdom. And we'll come whether we believe it or not. You don't even have to believe in the kingdom, but it's going to come anyway. And it's going to come for a lot of people as a tremendous shock. Most people don't know that you must build godly character by overcoming sin. In fact, most don't even know what sin is in the world today. Like I say, they try to avoid the word sin. We know that as 1 John 3, 4 says, sin is the transgression of the law. And it may be further elucidated, it's missing the mark, not hitting the target, bullseye. The world teaches that the law is abolished. It's done away. There are no absolutes, no right or wrong. Everything's a gray area. But there are absolutes, brethren. They don't know that only the overcomers are going to be a part of the kingdom of God. You know, it's in the Bible. It's all through the Bible. Only the overcomers are going to be in the kingdom. And only the overcomers are going to be kings and priests out of this time and age that we're living here, leading up to the first resurrection. So we have to rededicate ourselves during this time. And that's what the purpose of the Days of Unleavened Bread is, to rededicate yourself, to never forget why you were called, why God awakened you spiritually, so that you could see the truth. The world, though, has lost, again, understanding. They've lost understanding about the truth. They teach the pagan doctrine of immortality of the soul. They think, in fact, that they already have eternal life. Nothing could be further from the truth. But the Bible says the soul that sins shall die over in the book of Ezekiel. They've lost the Sabbath. They've lost the holy days, which teach God's plan for salvation for all mankind. And then they observe days that they created themselves. They made themselves Christmas and Easter and all the other holidays that they celebrate, while ignoring those festivals that God commanded. This is the way of man, isn't it? To forget about what God says, and then they use the Word of God to prove their point.

Whatever it is, of course, you can't prove in the Bible to do away with the holy days and the laws which God Himself gave. And mankind is confused as a result of all of these things. But if he had kept the holy days, he would understand. He would understand what God is doing upon the earth right now. The holy days teach us God's plan of salvation for all humanity. Now, what does Easter teach? Have you ever thought about that? You know, what does it really teach? We know it's a pagan custom. It's condemned in Ezekiel 28, but what does it teach?

Not much, really, because it's man-made, and not only it's condemned in the Bible.

You know, there's not much vision is there? There's not much vision in buying new clothes for Easter. Everybody gets dressed up and they got these new clothes for Easter. There's not much vision. I remember as a kid, I really never liked Easter egg hunting.

You know, I just never did. I don't know why I did not. I wasn't in the church, and that was a big deal in our family. My mother went to Great Lakes to color all these eggs, but I never liked. You know, I figured, look, you have the eggs. Now you want to hide them. And how do you know if you can find them? And if you find them, would you want to eat them? You know, you hide these things, you know, under leaves and trees and whatever, then you go and you find them. But what vision is, again, in Easter egg hunting? What did it teach? Now, did anybody ever say, now, son, this is what it means? I never heard one word of it when I was growing up about any of those kinds of things. What do sunrise services teach us? Climbing up hills and looking at crosses on a hill.

You know, what is sitting in the lap of an Easter bunny teach you? What do you learn from that? Or Santa Claus? Or what is talking about merely the person of Jesus Christ teach us? Why we deny the message he brought about the gospel of the kingdom of God? The world doesn't even know what the gospel of the kingdom is because they talk primarily about the person of Christ. So what are these things? They don't have vision of the future. Jesus Christ came to give us a vision of the future. He came to give us hope for the future. Now, this is why our keeping, brethren, unleavened bread is so very important. It's so very important in this world, which now is cut off from God, its meaning stretches from the creation to the very return of Jesus Christ. How so? Well, I'm going to tell you how so. How important this is. God's plan is to reproduce himself. Now, man was made in the image of God. Adam and Eve were made in the image of God. Male and female, as it says in the book of Genesis. God is building a family. And this is why humans were created in the first place. Why Adam and Eve had the breath of life breathed in them and came into existence was to begin the process to add multiple billions of people to the family of God. The true destiny of man is to become members of God's spirit family.

Let's look briefly over the book of Genesis in Genesis chapter, over here in Genesis chapter 2. In Genesis chapter 2, we used to go to these verses a whole lot more than we do now, but we do, of course, from time to time go to them, but maybe not enough. But in Genesis 2, in verse 7, notice it says, The Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. And man became a living being. If you have a King James, a living soul. He was a soul. Nefesh, as we understand, which is the same Hebrew word used for animals as well, but it means a living creature, a living being. So man is a soul. He doesn't have a soul. He is a soul. And the idea of an immortal soul is false. Man does have a spirit of man, which the Bible speaks about, but that's not the soul. The spirit of man returns to God who gave it, as the Scripture says. And it's not a matter of man getting confused about that. You know, the world is not just simply confused about it. It's purposeful in a lot of ways for people to have understanding. The old ideas from Plato, I'm sorry, they go back to the time of Plato about the immortality of the soul. But again, remember, Ezekiel 18, 4, and 20, the soul that sins could die. So the soul is not immortal. So God breathed into Adam the breath of life, and he came a living soul, as it says in verse 7 here. In verse 8, And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground the Lord God made every tree grow that is pleasant of the sight and good for food. The tree of life was also in the midst, it says of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of the good and evil. And so God put these two trees there in the garden of Eden. And these two trees are a key, brethren, to our understanding of why we keep the days of unloving bread. Yet you're not going to find the word unloving bread here in the book of Genesis. But it's key to it. In verse 15, let's go down to here to verse 15 of chapter 2, Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. And the Lord commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden, He says, You may eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die.

And so this is what God told man he should not do, take of that tree. And we look over to chapter 3 here in verses 1 through 3, and we see that the serpent, who was of course the devil, and I always thought, by the way, that it was a snake curled up in a tree that represented Satan here. It doesn't indicate that. You know, it doesn't say that in the Scriptures, but it does say the serpent who is more subtle. So this may have been an upright walking type of a being that talked to Eve in this case, but Eve was suckered in to all of this, as it says in chapter 3, and she took of this tree. In verse 4 it says, And the serpent said to the woman, You shall not surely die, if you take of this tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And of course, she believed that lie. For God knows that in a day that you eat of it, your eyes shall be open, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. Of course, to express it that way, you know, you've got this knowledge you'd ever had before, but what Satan means, of course, is entirely different. He meant you weren't going to die right away. He meant that you'll know good and evil, but what he really meant is you'll choose for yourself what is good and evil. And that's what, in fact, man has been doing since that particular time, that time. But let's notice over here in verse 16, what resulted in Adam and Eve taking of this tree. Of course, Eve was deceived in all of this, but Adam was not deceived. Adam knew what was going on in terms of that tree. He knew that God said, don't take of this tree. The Bible says that Adam wasn't deceived. But as a result of taking of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which means they would make their own decisions about what was right and what was wrong, this is what resulted. Verse 16, let's go over here.

And to the woman, he said, I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception. In pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you. You know, Eve may have changed the course of human events right there. You know, no pain and having children would be a wonderful thing, wouldn't it?

And in fact, you know, women have wrestled with the concept of their place in society ever since. It's been a vague thing for people. So the woman was going to suffer greatly. In verse 17, then to Adam, he said, because you have heeded the voice of your wife and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, you shall not eat of it, curses the ground for your sake.

In toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall break forth for you, and you will eat the herb of the field. And in the sweat of your face shall eat bread till you return to the ground. Out of it you were taken, for dush you are, and to dush you shall return. And so God tells man the troubles that he was going to face because he made the decision to take of the wrong tree, of deciding for himself what was right and what was wrong. It was not a tree that was all evil, that was good, but even the good was tainted because of its source. And the troubles of the world faces now stem from what happened 6,000 years ago in the garden. Hard for people to grasp it, but that is the truth. You know, often students are asked the question in literature classes and humanities. I remember being asked this when I was at Northeastern State University when I was studying some of these esoteric papers. The teacher would get up and pontificate, and he would say, what can we surmise from what this author has written? What was he really saying? What was the heart and core of what he was really saying? Well, brethren, we're in that situation now. We're reading the Bible, it mentions the tree of life, and then it mentions the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

What does it mean? Well, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is man's and Satan's way apart from God walking contrary to God or sin. That picture is sin. Ultimately, man choosing to go contrary to God's law. The tree of life symbolizes also a knowledge, but it symbolizes God's revealed way, God's Holy Spirit guiding the way to righteousness and peace and everlasting life. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil could be called the tree of death. And so you have, again, the literature interpretation of what it means again. And as students, do we see this, brethren? The fact that man has been eating from the wrong tree is a root cause for all human problems in the world today. It has been for the last 6,000 years. Do we really grasp the significance of this simple but profound truth? The world doesn't. It doesn't seem to bypass man's understanding. But Satan has swayed man in deciding for himself what was right and wrong in his own eyes. And this pivotal time set the course for the last 6,000 years of human history. It's a root cause of sin in our own natures. When God created Adam and Eve, he said it's very good. Well, human nature is not good. But here is where the human nature came in, because sin entered the picture. I won't go and read verse 22 of chapter 3, but God put man out of the Garden of Eden. And he blocked the way with caribim, with flaming swords, to the tree of life. So man was cut off from that tree and has been for the last 6,000 years. Man has not had access to revealed knowledge. And if you understand the truth, it is only by God's Spirit.

It's like when Peter was blurted out that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God. You know, Jesus said, "'Lest that are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, because flesh and blood does not reveal that to you.'" You see that by the Spirit of God.

And the only way that the Holy Spirit is open is to the church today.

And of course, as such, God decides who He's going to give His Holy Spirit to, to reveal His truth to. The Bible says you don't cast the good things to swine.

We want to realize that the truth of God is a good thing that comes down from heaven. But God has said, basically, in Hebrews 9 and 27, that heaven is appointed unto man once to die and then to judgment, that God made a decree, basically, to man. Okay, your salvation will come later.

But I want you to the next 6,000 years to prove your way does not work.

I want you to prove that your governments, your laws do not work. I want you to know that I love you greatly. You know, just as Mr. Knutzen said, God loves us greatly. But He has not given up on humankind. He hasn't by a long shot. But He wants to reach people, to change people. Man has not known the way to peace. He has not known the way to true happiness. You know, God knew mankind would only learn through experiencing. And we're all bullheaded that way, aren't we? We've got to learn by our own experience.

And so God allowed man every option you could think of in this world and day and time that we live in. All forms of government. You know, you could go through, again, the list, the long list of the kinds of governments that men have tried. Monarchy, even anarchy. None of these have tried, been tried. Democracy has been good, but it's not been around that long, frankly. The United States, of course, what we have here in the United States is rather ephemeral or short-lived at this particular point in time.

You know, God's allowed man to do that. And we do not know, again, the way to peace. We've only known a lull in the war. Wars that have taken place. And it's building up right now. You know, the time is coming when the shots are going to be fired in the time that you and I live in. And we'll forget Vietnam. We'll forget the Gulf Wars and Afghanistan when this war breaks out. Because we're probably going to be in the time where nuclear weapons are going to be unleashed. We've tried every kind of human-derived knowledge and education that has resulted in the misery of the world. Every kind of religion. The more that, in fact, the religions multiply, the more the confusion increases. We've tried our own medical system. And look, even during this COVID-19, our system is not really capable of taking care of what is going to come in the tribulation. We think that it's bad now. If we had, in fact, the smallpox epidemic without some of the solutions that we know today, imagine the havoc that would wreak on every nation upon this planet.

And so man has been able to do all he wants to do. God has allowed him free reign since creation to live out his own way. To prove it doesn't work. That it leads in happiness. And again, it's going to get much worse in the future when the bad things begin to happen. But we're seeing again the results of man's way of life. What is significant with the creation of Adam and Eve is the very first problem mankind had. The very first problem. What problem? What was the first problem that mankind had after Adam and Eve were created? God commanded and Adam disobeyed. In other words, Adam committed a sin. And this is the very first thing. So why do we start the Holy Days with the first day of unleavened bread, focusing on removing leavening which symbolizes sin? Well, it's kind of obvious, isn't it? In God's perfect wisdom and logic, the very first thing we should then focus on after the Passover is defining sin and removing sin. This is why leavening depicts sin, and it does in so many ways. And it has to be put out. It has to be rejected. Why do we do seven days of unleavened bread? Well, the number seven means that we have to completely come out of sin. Not partially. We can't, in other words, drag the sin behind us. Or we can't take the leavening, you know, right before sundown on the first day of unleavened bread, tie it in a bag and throw it over the fence and then retrieve it after the feast. I don't know anybody who's going to eat such leavening as that, but I think it's a pretty good analogy, isn't it?

We have to confront sin first. This is why Passover is given before unleavened bread. Got to confront sin first, because Christ's sacrifice is necessary, brethren, to put sin out and away from our lives, and we need the forgiveness that comes through the sacrifice of our great Savior, Jesus Christ, who did so love the world that He gave Himself. You know, the Father made a great sacrifice, as Mr. Goonsen said, giving His Son.

But Jesus willingly gave Himself. He willingly came, and He laid His life down for all of us. So that is a great example, didn't He? That we should lay our lives down for each other.

You know, this is why God, again, has the organization of things in the festivals that we observe. What will Jesus do when He returns to the earth to intervene in world affairs? The very first thing that will be, in fact, addressed at the beginning of the world tomorrow, or in the beginning of the thousand year reign of Christ, let's read about it over in Jeremiah 31. Jeremiah 31, in verse 31, in Jeremiah, Jeremiah shows us again what is going to occur during the time of the millennium. But on down here in verse 31, Not accorded a covenant I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand and led them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant, which they broke. Though I was a husband to them, says the Eternal, but this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord. I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God and they shall be my people. No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for they will all shall know me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Eternal. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more. Think about that. God's going to put away the sin of mankind. This is how Jesus Christ introduces the millennium. I'm not going to remember your sin anymore. It's going to be blotted out. Like David said, God's going to put it as far as east is from west. He will put it far from us.

And Isaiah echoes, in fact, what Jesus Christ is going to do. And I'll just simply read this from Isaiah 2, in verses 2 through 3.

In the book of Isaiah it says, It shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the eternals, how shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow unto it. And many people shall go and say, Come, you, and let us go up to the mountain of the eternal, and the house of the God of Jacob. And he will teach us his ways, and we will walk in his path, for out of Zion shall go forth the law. The law is going to go out to teach people the way to righteousness, to teach people to turn from sin. And you know, we're going to be there. And the experiences that all of us have, we've been hearing the gospel sometimes for, you know, 10, 15, 20, or even longer, 30, 40, 50 years. We're going to do that. We're going to turn people to righteousness and cause them to repent of sin. And Satan's way, right at the outset of the millennium, is to be removed in the world, but we'll begin to do the D11 process. We're going to get rid of sin. Men will at last be eating from the tree of life. So, brethren, let me tell you, Unleavened Bread is very fundamental to God's plan of salvation for humankind. It addresses what started with Adam and Eve. It addresses how it's going to end, as well.

The days of Unleavened Bread remind us of the need to remove sin and self-will out of our lives. I'm reminded of when ancient Israel, God made a covenant with them. You know, what they did, interestingly, one of the scriptures tells us this, that they first said they would obey before they heard what God was going to say. And it says, then they listen. Well, brethren, have you made a commitment to obey God? That you would live by God's law? And that you would live by whatever you heard? That you would have a willingness to listen and to apply in your life? Maybe I can tie that in a message of the future about the law of God. About the law of God. What kind of commitment have we made? Have we made a commitment, again, when we take of that bread and that wine, to obey God? To follow Him wherever He leads. This is what the wife does, the bride of Christ, if she follows Him, you know, the Lord wherever He leads. So we have to, again, brethren, remove leavening from our lives and begin to walk in righteousness in our personal lives. Like we put out the physical leavening, we put out the spiritual leaven of sin.

It's important because the Holy Days reminded us of these things that we need to, again, put these things out of our lives and we need to go forward to the King of God. Unleavened bread is key to how God's way will be implemented in the world tomorrow. That's going to be done. This is why we overcome and remove sin from our lives now and why it's such a big deal. It is a big deal. Now, this is not something that is, you know, insignificant. This is a very big deal unleavened bread is. The Passover, of course, somebody doesn't participate in the Passover and they consider themselves members. You know, if they do not keep the Passover purposely, well, you know, the Bible does talk about the time coming where there's no more sacrifice for sins. You know, if we reject God, then God obviously will not accept us. But God hasn't called us to fail. He's called us to succeed. We're called now to prepare to be teachers in the world tomorrow, to rule with Jesus Christ. And we're going to affect millions upon millions of people. It's hard to believe for us, you know, measly human beings that we're going to affect millions of people in the future. But we will if we have that vision of what the scriptures tell us. Are we able to grasp again that truth, brother? Why we need to to do it ahead of everybody else? Because we're going to be teachers in the world tomorrow. That is the big picture. That is a big picture that we always need to keep, brother. Also, Satan knows his time is about up. And you know, I don't know what's going to happen in the future. You don't either. All I know is if I'm obeying God and I'm doing what I should be doing the time of the future, Satan is going to increase his persecution on you and me. That's just, you know, what the plan is on his part. That's Satan's plan. He's going to step up his persecution when he realizes he has just a short time left. And just maybe, brethren, this pandemic is a signal that it's not that all that far off. You know, that maybe things will begin to break open. And we don't want it to happen quickly, necessarily. But it may happen that way. This may just be, again, the first shot over the bow. The Bible talks about how things get worse and worse over the book of Leviticus. You know, God intensifies as, you know, people do not respond. Let's go to Revelation 12 in verse 9. It shows what Satan is going to do and what he is. So, the great dragon was cast out, that servant of old called the devil and Satan, who deceived the whole world. And he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

Then I heard a loud voice saying, in heaven now salvation and strength, and the King of our God, and the power of his Christ, have come, and the accuser of our brethren, who has accused them before our God, day and night, has been cast down. You and I, brethren, have an accuser that is there, you know, before God, accusing us every day.

But he's cast down. Again, we don't know if this has happened yet. It may very well have happened. We don't know. But going on, it says, and they overcame him in the blood of the Lamb. Certainly fitting that we just kept the Passover. You know, when we drank of the wine that symbolized the very blood of Jesus Christ.

So we overcome again by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death. Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them. Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea, for the devil has come down to you having great wrath because he knows he has a short time. So there will come that time where the persecution will begin to be very strong. You know, Satan's way, if you were to describe it, Satan's way is division. Satan's way is accusation. Satan's way is confusion. He's the author of confusion. Satan's way is justification of the self. And ultimately, Satan's way is destruction. Everything leads to destruction. That is his goal for the church, and that is his goal for the world. He wants to take as many with him as he can take.

Satan is trying to scatter us right now. Are we wide open-eyed enough to see that? That Satan's trying to scatter God's people. That's why I said the time may come where we may not be able to obey government edict, whatever is made. God's way, on the other hand, is the antithesis of Satan's way. Satan, of course, is a way of death. God's way is humility. His way is peace, joy, righteousness, happiness. You know, fun that is fun now and forever, and fulfillment in life. So, brethren, we must put sin out and Satan's way out and bring in God's way. Bring in the bread of life, who is Jesus Christ.

God wants us to comprehend, brethren, the overview of his plans. You know, Jesus Christ said we are his friends, and he's revealed to us, his plan to us. We read that, of course, those things, you know, from the book of John. You know, and covered some of those things related to it, how we love each other, and how Christ loved us as well, and still loves us a great deal. But he wants us to see his plan. He's not kept us in the dark. We're not just servants. We're God's family.

God wants his people to be a people of understanding. Let's go to 1 Corinthians 5 for final scriptures here. 1 Corinthians 5.

One of the fundamental scriptures, again, showing the New Testament church was observing the Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread. But in verse 7 here of chapter 5 of 1 Corinthians, Paul writes, Therefore purge out the old leaven.

Now, of course, he means the spiritual leaven out of our lives, because the people had already thrown out, you know, the physical leavening. But he's saying, purge out that old leaven that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. You've already cleaned out the physical leavening. So put it out of your life.

As he says here, For indeed Christ our Passover were sacrificed for us. We should be able to rejoice that when we partake, you know, the Passover, because we have repented of our sins and the sacrifice of Christ has been applied to us, that we are pure. We have no sin attributable to us. That God has taken it away from us. And indeed, He is our Passover for us. Therefore, let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice or wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. So, brethren, let's put the sin out. Let's bring in the sincerity and truth, which pictures the bread of life, who is Jesus Christ into our lives. The world will be doing this in the millennium, in the future, just as we're doing it right now. Life won't be different for them than it is for us, except they won't have the world to fight against, as we have today. The Bible says the whole creation groans and prevails until now, waiting for the revealing of the sons of God, the children of God. The world is stressed right now. We see the evidence of that every single day. Stock market, we see the problems that are inherent there in the financial markets, and everywhere on the planet. It's like creaking and groaning, like a house of cards that is about ready to topple down. And why is it that way? The horrible effects of Satan's misleading mankind and man walking headlong into sin. And eventually, the house of cards will fall down.

Never forget, brethren, there's a great purpose for what you and I are doing these days of unleavened bread. As we begin the days of unleavened bread today, this first day of unleavened bread, 2020, let's keep the big picture. Let's really know why we're doing this. It's not something we play act. We're doing this for real. There's no dress rehearsal. This is the real thing.

And life and death are in the balances. So let's keep the big picture in our minds, because this is why the days of unleavened bread are kept. And, brethren, never, ever lose that. Never lose that.