The Unleavened Bread of Sincerity and Truth

You know, annually, the week that we have just completed gives all of us much room for thought and reflection.

We've heard in the messages. I didn't hear you, obviously, your opening messages on the first day, but knowing the spirit of the times and the speakers, I know that they dovetailed very well with the sermon and sermonette this morning. But once Passover is passed, the remaining time focuses on moving away from a location.

Ancient Israel, when they were keeping these days purely at the physical level, and even to this very day in Judaism, see this as departing from a land where they had been held in bondage and in affliction.

We look at becoming unleavened, metaphorically, and it is still a moving away from something. And so every time we look at leavening, we are looking at something that we want to distance ourselves from. Just as Israel departed from a real Egypt, our task is to depart from a metaphorical Egypt. You know, it's interesting. There are a collection, a substantial collection of negative metaphors, which provide markers. They mark the things that we should move away from. As you walk through them and their introduction in the New Testament, Jesus Christ said to his disciples, which took them a little bit of time to wrap their minds around before they had the, oh, that's what he was talking about. But he told them to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. And they had guilty consciences, and they said, well, did he say that to us because we forgot to bring bread.

He told them that had nothing to do with it. But they were reminded that they should move away from a way of looking at the laws of God that were totally and completely wrong and toxic. You know, the one time Jesus Christ assailed the Pharisees on this particular issue, he said to them, you make null and void the commandments of God by the traditions of your fathers.

So when he was telling them, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees in regards to the Pharisees, it was to be aware of the fact that they represented a lifestyle that flew right in the face of the laws of God, contradicted them. He said, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. And all of us understand, of course, that that needs no explanation. So when it comes to life, this is an attribute that God finds absolutely totally repugnant. He told them to beware of the leaven of the Herodians.

Herod was probably the worst example of the worst example of current governance in the land of Palestine. His attitude, his approach, his murderous deeds, all represented things that were an anathema to God.

They were told, beware of the leaven that was represented by malice and wickedness, one of them being an intent. You know, when we look at people and we look at their conduct, every so often we can say, you know, that act was malicious.

And we have seen that somebody is doing something for the deliberate purpose of hurting someone else. Wickedness, that's a general state, just simply a place where people live that you don't want to live. The caution and the admonition, beware that a little leaven spreads and leavens the whole lump.

An admonition, to be aware of the fact that wrong in all of its faces, allowed to sit in the middle of you, simply corrupts out from a given spot and continues until it has corrupted everything that it touches and influences.

And last of all, of the metaphors that guided the Days of Unleavened Bread for the Apostles and the New Testament Church, was the comment in the first four to five chapters of 1 Corinthians repeated elsewhere also, both in the Gospels and later Epistles, that simply used the term being puffed up. And referencing that as a state of mind that was noxious, that was contaminating, and that they should move away from. So as I walk through all of these, there's no shortage of things not to do and not to be. If you take the Passover in the manner and the fashion and absorb it in the way that was so beautifully described in the sermon this morning, you have made a giant step in the right direction and then God asked you to keep right on walking.

But you know, among all of these metaphors directing us to move out from a point and away from it, there is one grand positive, something that we are admonished to strive for, something we are admonished to move toward, something in fact we are admonished to be anchored and rooted in. And that's the one we're going to concentrate on today. I'm going to take you right back to literally the very last words of the sermonette this morning.

Go back to 1 Corinthians 5, and we'll pick up with the last breath of the sermonette speaker.

1 Corinthians 5, verse 8, 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.

There's a positive that should direct where we go to and where we should stay. So with all the negative metaphors that were your cautions, avoid this, move away from that, do not become this. Here is the one that guides the direction that we were supposed to move toward as we moved away from all of the ones that I mentioned earlier.

1 Corinthians 5, verse 8, is the fulcrum point for our sermon. It's a positive that is nestled in a field of cautions. On the surface, the subject may appear very simple, but you will find as we walk through it, it is anything but simple. Sincerity, we will dispatch with this one relatively quickly on the front end, Sincerity, like hypocrisy, which are heads and tails of the same coin, do not require a great deal of elaboration. Just as we know and can sense and can feel in the tone of voice, in the look on the face, even the body language when someone is being hypocritical, so we can do the same thing when someone is being sincere. There is a certain transparency to sincerity that you can read, you can see, and that you can be confident that here is an individual who is genuine.

When we talk about sincerity, we look at two sides. You choose as you walk through life to do things without a motive, without the intent to deceive, and without maliciousness. Because if you ratchet up from deceit, guile is an uglier word than deceit. It has a degree of malicious intent behind it that goes beyond just simply being deceitful.

This is where we move toward.

All of us, at times, can see these reasons behind what someone does. In life, as you interact with people, you sense when someone has a motive to what they're doing. The motive may be very simple, and it may be non-malignant, but you can tell when there's motive.

I bought a gift for my older grandson. He's 11 years old. I knew that he greatly desired to have it. I'll be seeing him in a couple of weeks. I bought it a couple of weeks ago, and we had a conversation on the telephone. It was very, very easy for me, as we were talking, without a word being spoken directly on the subject, that he really wished I would put it in the mail so he could have it right now, rather than waiting for me to deliver it in three weeks. My wife chuckled because we could see the motive. As I said, the motive was totally innocent, and from a grandson, not an unwelcome. I told him, well, if I can figure out a way to do it, I'll do it. If not, when I arrive, I'll bring it with me. We can also tell when people are not being honest with us. And we can sense when someone has our ill at heart, when our best interests are not what they're concerned about. If we get injured in whatever they want done, well, that's just the consequence.

There are times where we can see people function this way, and worst of all, there are times when you can see people who live at that address all the time. That they truly have a dark side to them that cares not for anyone but themselves. Sincerity is a state of heart or an intent of the heart, which we have the power to control. So when we describe all the ranges of it and the manifestations of it, when it comes right back down to us, members of the Church of God, we can look in the mirror of life and say, you know what? Sincerity is something that I can control. I can be genuine, I can be sincere, or I can be the opposite. That's mind to control. And I'm accountable to God for that control. So when it comes to sincerity, with God, we're on the spot. With God, it's a case of, look, this is something within your bailiwick, something within your control, and therefore do it. Truth, on the other hand, is not in our control.

Truth is something we can seek to find. Truth is something we can seek to find, and once we find it, we have a choice to determine if we will live by it.

But that's our extent of control over truth.

Since truth is an element, you and I are not given the permission to control. We'll focus more strongly this afternoon on it than we will on sincerity. And we'll allow us sincerity to sort of tag along behind, and if or when there's an appropriate time, we will bring the focus back for a moment on sincerity.

What is truth?

You know what? I'm asking a question of the most knowledgeable body of people that I can imagine standing before. There are many audiences I could stand before and ask that question, and sincerely believe that the majority of the people in that audience would be clueless. In this case, I'm talking to an audience that I believe already know the answer to the question. In fact, in many regards, I expect the question is rhetorical, because I have an audience that knows the answer. You know, the cynical of all ages, our modern cynics are no different than the cynics that lived 100 years ago, or 1,000 years ago, or 2,000 years ago, and we keep marching back in time as far as we want. The cynical through the ages have scoffed at those who venture to define truth. You get a condescending smile and a pat on the top of your head at being so naive to think that you can define it.

We've entered a day-to-day that I, in terms of terminology, could not even have imagined 30 years ago, because a part of the vocabulary today is, if you put forward the question of what is truth, is yours liable to get, in terms of a response, this particular response is any other. And that response is, well, you have your truth, and I have my truth. And that's the end of it. We've moved to a point in time where truth is not concrete. Truth is relative. Relativity has ruled in our society socially long enough that people, for the most part, don't even look at truth as a singular that you explore to find. It's simply, well, you know, I have my truth, and you have your truth, and so you do what you think is right, and I will do what I think is right. John chapter 18.

John chapter 18, during the trial of Jesus Christ, Pilate asked of Jesus Christ if he was a king. He said, Are you a king then? Verse 37. And Jesus said, You say rightly that I am a king, and for this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears my words, or hears my voice. And Pilate said to him, What is truth?

It's always interesting to hear this particular verse addressed in a message. I think we're all emotionally inclined to answer for Pilate, where he was here and here, when he made that statement. But Scripture is silent on motivation. And so in reality, when Pilate said, What is truth? His reason for saying that could have gone the entire range. It could have gone from scoffing, as people do today, that you'd be naive enough to think there's a single truth, to the fact that he was in authority and Christ was under whatever sentence he was going to pass, and say it condescendingly. Or he simply, as a serious student of the philosophies of the day, could have been making a non-directional statement that this is an unanswered question, and I am one of those that doesn't have an answer. And I frankly don't know which of the three represented where Pilate's heart was, because it doesn't say where his heart was. But wherever it was, Pilate didn't know the answer to the question. So it doesn't matter where his heart was, the bottom line was, Pilate didn't know the answer to the question. You do. And you're reminded of it every single solitary year at Passover. When the service is finished, we've had the foot washing, the bread, and the wine, and then we go on to the Scripture reading. In the course of the Scripture reading, we repeat every single year the definition. John 17. And I can't help the comment that I will make before I have you turn to the verse, because this is one thing that strikes me every year at Passover. As soon as Judas had left the room, Jesus Christ now had an audience who were all on the same page. And in terms of his discussion, and in terms of his instruction, and in terms of his encouragement, none of that started until Judas had left the room. And so from the mid-part of chapter 13 through 14 and through 15 and 16, he is talking to and encouraging his disciples. But when chapter 16 ends, the disciples now get to move over into the grandstands and sit and watch. Because with the beginning of chapter 17, Jesus Christ is talking to his Father. And they simply get to watch. They simply get to listen. All of chapter 17 is a prayer of Jesus Christ to the Father. And he says in verse 17 on behalf of his disciples, Sanctify them by your truth. Your word is truth.

If you want one of the simplest definitions in all the Bible, there are simple definitions for sin. Sin is the transgression of the law. There are simple definitions for multiple things in the Bible. This is one of them. In fact, this is one of the shortest and simplest. Four words. Your word is truth. It's the grand overarching definition. If Pilate had been able to be there and hear that, he would at least have heard with his ears the definition of truth. If he had been there and listened to what preceded and followed it, he would have gotten a much broader picture. Look at verses 13 through 17.

Jesus Christ is saying to his Father, But now I come to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not pray that you should take them out of the world, but that you should keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them by your truth. Your word is truth.

In that simple, flowing comment Christ made in prayer to his Father are some important gems of spiritual wisdom, the one that we've already described. And that was, you have given them your word. And by definition, that word is truth, and truth is that word. He asked that they be sanctified. Sanctify them. You know, with different translations, when he gets to that particular place where he says to sanctify them, different translations will provide us with a different preposition. New King James says, sanctify them by your truth. There are other translations that will say, sanctify them through your truth.

And some of the more critical commentaries will say, sanctify them in your truth. They all speak to very fine points that are a part of what Christ understood as the whole mechanism in moving disciples. It is certainly appropriate to say, by or through your word, as a vehicle for moving something from one place to another. And I certainly wouldn't argue if somebody said, well, you are sanctified by the truth. I would have not known right from wrong to steal a few thoughts from one of the biblical writers.

Had God not said, this is right and this is wrong. So my movement away from wrong to right has been through an education provided by the word. Four or five of the highly respected versions and multiple commentators, as they come down to the fine point of what preposition belongs there, have said the one that is probably most meaningful is in. Sanctify them in your truth. Because as long as you stay within the sphere of influence of God's word, like a cow and a corral, like an animal and a stable, as long as you stay within the sphere of influence of God's word, you are set apart.

You stray beyond it. You move outside of it and you are no longer set apart. You are now simply a part of the herd and the crowd that mills and goes wherever it seems to want to go. And so it's very valid, brethren, to think of the fact that your sanctification rests upon whether or not you dwell within the sphere of influence of God's word. Step outside of it. Dwell outside of it.

You're no longer apart from anything. God's word is the medium. As we said earlier, as we looked at through or by, it is the medium of sanctification. We all know the process. You pick up this book and you read it. As we do among ourselves, especially when we don't know each other and we're initially meeting one another, it is so very much a part of our culture to go back to our conversion stories.

How did we get here? What brought us here? What was it that captured our attention? What was it that convicted us that something about where we were was wrong and something about what we were reading was where we should be moving toward? And so we all have a conversion story. But it begins with either reading or hearing.

You either read a booklet, you heard a radio broadcast, you saw a TV program. Your mediums were very simple. Somebody either arrested your ear or your eye or both through a print medium or a visual medium.

As you continue to read it and say to yourself, what I am reading is true, then God's spirit became involved. Even as Christ said to his disciples at a pivotal point in life, in fact, that pivotal point was passed over evening, he said the spirit had been with them, but now it was going to be in them. I don't know the number of times with new prospective member visits over the years we've made the point as they try to wrestle with, okay, you say I have to be baptized, and then you say it is by the laying out of hands that I received the Holy Spirit, but I feel that the Spirit of God has been with me for quite some time.

And we say, well, there's no contradiction. The Spirit of God has been with you or you wouldn't be where we are now. But there's a difference between being with you and in you. And so we read, and by God's Spirit, we begin to understand. We then begin to make those critical choices in life, choices that may involve everything from what we eat to where we work, what we do as a career, the times that we celebrate or don't celebrate.

And as we make each of those choices, we find ourselves getting farther and farther and farther and farther from where we started. We probably, at the time, don't spend a lot of time thinking, where I started out was the world. And I am moving a step by step by step by step away from it. When you have made all the steps that God requires for you, you are in the physical, mechanical sense of the word sanctified.

You are now set apart. The spiritual side that was covered this morning in the sermon about the sacrifice of Christ, the remission of your sins, that's the powerful spiritual side, and the two of them work together. God isn't offering the one, the spiritual, unless you have been willing to act upon the physical. God doesn't come and yank you out of the world and say, alright, I'm going to put you in a full Nelson until you stop doing everything you shouldn't be doing.

We all know it doesn't work that way. You make a series of moves that show good intent. God offers the assistance of His Spirit to continue to help you to understand and learn. Eventually, you arrive at the place where, in terms of who you are, you simply do not function any longer up here or here as the world around you. Whether you found a church or not, whether you're still searching for where it is, you're not the same person. God, through Jesus Christ, finishes that whole process by the ordinances of baptism, following repentance, obviously, the laying on of hands. This is the definition of how truth works.

Many years ago, my wife and I, in building a library, that had to do with counseling. I don't know which one of us bought the book. It was one of our marriage counseling libraries. The title of the book was, Love is Something You Do. It was a valuable book because we live in a world where love is an emotion. Love can be very hormonal. It can be very emotional. The people don't stop to realize that people that love each other for 40, 50, 60 years have more substance there than hormones and emotions. And it involves conduct, the way you live and the way you treat each other. A valuable book. You know, truth is the same. Truth is something you do. It isn't something that resides up here that you pontificate about, that you argue about, that you go back and forth within scriptures and say, Well, here's my scripture. What's your scripture? Well, my scripture is a more powerful scripture than your scripture. That's not where it resides. Our attitude toward truth drives our conduct. Or to reverse it, our conduct tells God our attitude toward truth.

Turn with me to the classic in all the Bible demonstration of what happens when truth is rejected. And we dipped in here this morning. So we'll go back, but this time, rather than dipping in, we're going to take a full bath. Romans chapter 1.

Romans chapter 1 beginning in verse 18. The apostle Paul is giving a commentary on humanity for all centuries when humanity chooses to reject truth. And he starts in verse 18 by saying, And your margins will say, Hold down. So in other words, I'm going to put truth, figuratively speaking, in a can. I'm going to put a lid on it, and then I'm going to tighten down the screws on it so that no one can get to it.

He goes on to say that they're without excuse because what may be known of God is obvious or evident, both definitions of manifest. Because what may be known of God is manifest, evident or obvious, among them.

We're in a society that have no excuse for not being able to see God's hand. My wife and I were recommended a television program a month or so ago that we started looking at, and I won't mention names, but it was put on by a world-renowned organization in nature and nature studies. And personality was the moderator for it all, and it was going through series by series by series natural phenomenon. My wife and I sat there, and it was like you wish you had a filter. You could stick on your ears, and it could just filter out one side, all the nonsense, and allow the beautiful to go in. Because here are people who are showing you some of the most awesome wonders of God that your mind can wrap itself around, or not, graphically displayed by one of the best producers in the world, and mucked up all the way through by, isn't that quite a coincidence? Isn't it amazing what nature can do for itself? Isn't that fantastic? And you want to sit there and just...

But what Paul said 2,000 years ago has never died, and it's never gone away.

Because what may be known of God is obvious among them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world, His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead. In other words, it's not a single solitary thing in nature that isn't screaming.

There is an Almighty God, creator and maker of things beyond man's wildest imaginings.

And he ends that verse by saying, you know, because of all of that, they don't have an excuse.

There is no excuse for being an atheist or an agnostic. As far as God is concerned, I have put so many billboards out on my highway of life that you have to be deaf, dumb and blind not to see me everywhere. Because although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools. You know, if that is not the simplest definition of evolution, I don't know what is.

They changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image of things like corruptible man, amoeba, electrical impulses into primordial soup creating single-cell life. That is where everything starts and then goes on to the birds and the four-footed beasts and the creeping things.

So what is the consequence? As I said, this is not all up in a person's head. Therefore God gave them up to uncleanness in their lusts of their heart to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator who was blessed forever. Amen. For this reason, God gave them up to vile passions, for even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lusts for one another, men with men committing what is shameful and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error, which was due. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind to do those things which are not fitting. Being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness... I might stop right there because we just covered with one filler in between two of the leavened products, didn't we? The leavening of malice and wickedness. So he's even listing some of the leavens of the Corinthians here as consequences for rejecting the truth. Envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness, whispers, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, and unmerciful, who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, not only do them, but approve of those who practice them. That is the most phenomenal commentary on the consequences of rejecting truth that I believe exists in any form of literature in man's history. Paul was phenomenally eloquent, obviously guided by God's Spirit, to say, here is the whole cascading, tumbling consequence of denying and rejecting the truth.

You know, there's an end-time consequence. I don't know about you. It is a natural proclivity as a first instinct for people to have a certain immediate fear or apprehension about whether or not they would be counted worthy by God at certain critical times in the prophetic future. Not stopping to realize that it is your daily life, seven days a week, 365 days a year, as you live in the truth that tells God where you are. 2 Thessalonians 2 describes a famous prophetic figure. It is in 2 Thessalonians 2 that the man of sin is identified. And if we talk about certain individuals of high visibility at the end of the age, the beast, the false prophet, the man of sin would all be a fearsome threesome in that particular sense. 2 Thessalonians 2, verses 1-3 says, Okay, so we have certain markers.

And with those particular markers, we will come down in a moment to the verses that tell us that this man of sin will have such powerful influence that he will deceive and have the power to deceive if we couple 2 Corinthians with those comments in Revelation. All but the very elect. And you say, Ooh, all but the very elect. Well, I think I'm elect, but am I very elect? Let's read from verse 9 through verse 12.

So in other words, he is going to be able to do things that absolutely sell what he's bringing.

I was going to say to millions, but I'm not sure that we could go beyond millions. With all unrighteous deception among those who perish because they did not receive what? Why are they vulnerable? Why can they be deceived by lying wonders, by signs, and by miracles, because they would not receive the love of the truth?

That they might be saved.

What's the vehicle of immunization?

The love of the truth. What removes your vulnerability to the man of sin? The love of the truth.

That is the element that will divide between those who are deceived and those who are not. The definer, the determiner, will be the love of the truth. You see, God has designed it as such that those who love the truth will see through the man of sin like a glass window. They can see that what he does and what he stands for is not consistent with what God teaches. When God has given you the truth and you have decided to live in the truth, when somebody brings a counterfeit along, you can see through the counterfeit.

A world which embraces sin, which is the world in which we live, will be ripe for deception.

Truth will be the salvation of members of the church when that day and time comes. So when it comes to the natural apprehensions and wonderings about certain times, understand that it's not a one-time event, not a one-time stand, not a charge up San Juan Hill. It is a life. It is a life that is consistent. And when it's there, things that look very fearsome are not fearsome at all.

Now, you know the point that he makes about the man of sin and his power and the deceivability of people, because they did not have a love of the truth, is not just something we read in the Scriptures in its academic.

I don't know about you. I love history. And I don't love history because it's dry and full of statistics and dates and times and geographical locations. I love history because how human beings conduct themselves and act have never changed. It doesn't matter how they dressed, it didn't matter what language they spoke, which continent they lived on. How human beings address life and its issues and how they respond to it has never changed. And so I love history because it exposes the reality that people are people are people, and those things never vary. One generation may look at another and say, man, I can't imagine somebody dressing like that.

But put all the, you know, put all the paper doll clothes aside and let the mouth and the mind speak. And that person, despite the weird clothing of the 14th century or the 10th century or whatever century or whatever country, nothing's really any different.

This is not academic for us because not only do we look at history, study history, but if you're truly, truly aware, we make history. Nobody lives without making history. I've heard at times the ponderings about whether or not chapters will be added to the book of Acts, and that makes a nice table of topics because Acts is just left dangling. Well, I tell you what, there are many, many, many, many chapters that will be added to Acts. Whether they're ever added to the canon is really immaterial. The point isn't whether the canon will change. What is important is the stories that exist in Acts are going to be told over and over and over again by every generation of faithful people from the time that John disappears off the scene at the end of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd John in Revelation until the time that Jesus Christ returns. And if you're aware of it, you're making history, and you have been making history. If you're aware of it, you have already made some of the most significant history in the history of the Church of God. And because of the sincerity of your love of the truth, you probably don't spend much time sitting around even dwelling on it. Dinah and I were in Tacoma for the first day of Unleavened Bread, and I stood up in front of Tacoma, and I said, you know, this is the first time I have addressed you on this day since this day in 1995. And I watched the wheels roll, and then they began to smile because they remembered the first day of Unleavened Bread in the Tacoma Dome in 1995. It was a day, in terms of gatherings, it was a day that defined those who loved the truth from those who didn't love the truth. To the shock of those who loved the truth and loved it so automatically, they never even thought of options. It was beyond their capacity to grasp and understand, and so it became legendary conversation that there were people that went out between services and got a ham sandwich because they were free, they were liberated. They no longer had to be under this burden. You've lived through the choice to love the truth or not love the truth. This is not just something you pick up Old or New Testament or read about. You've been there. You've, as they say, done that. Truth in the context of the church can take us to the polar opposite location in terms of intent from Romans 1. It was very easy to see what Romans 1, verses 18-32 had to say, but let's turn the coin over as it were. It's important for us to understand that truth, well, let's put it this way, just for the sake of catching your attention. The truth about the truth is that you have to live it or it isn't true.

Now, you can play with that for a moment as you turn to 2 Peter.

Turn to 2 Peter, the first chapter.

2 Peter, chapter 1, verse 12. Peter says to his audience, he says, a classic place that we've heard before. He said, Therefore I will not be negligent to remind you always of these things, though you know them, and are established in the present truth. Now, he's not saying the present truth as in, well, there was a truth in the past and there's a truth today and there's a truth in the future. He wasn't doing that you have your truth and I have my truth. He was just saying that you are established in the truth. So I don't have to go back and teach you what truth is because you're already there and you're rooted. He said, But I think it right as long as I am alive, I'm in this tent, to stir you up by reminding you. So in other words, yes, I'm speaking to an audience that knows the truth. But as with Peter's words, though I know you know it, it is never wrong for me to stir you up by reminding you. Reminding them of what? Well, the what preceded what we just read. What we just read was what he said after he had reminded them. So let's start with verse 2. Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. As his divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us by glory and virtue. By which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. Now, if your mind isn't already there, let me give you a kibbit. He's walking through the whole package until he gets down to the place where he says, you know it wasn't wrong for me to remind you of the present truth. So he's walking through the whole package. He just hit one of the Days of Unleavened Bread scriptures because leavening we often look at as puffing up a vanity and that is half of the picture. But one of the stronger biblical pictures was that of simply corruption. Leaven is a corruptor. It takes a totally clean, pure lump of dough and when it's finished it has corrupted the whole thing.

He goes on to say in verse 5, but also for this reason giving all diligence. So in other words, what's the reason? Verse 3 deals with our calling.

So God has given us knowledge. He has given us a calling. Those elements are in verse 3. Now that knowledge and that calling produced verse 4, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises.

I grew up headed to heaven or hell.

God gave me exceedingly great promises that so far exceed and excel because the best that I was offered in what I grew up in was if I made it to heaven, then I got to float on a cloud for the rest of eternity taking harp lessons.

I'm really not much of a musical instrumentalist and I hate boredom.

And the thought as a child of sitting on a cloud forever playing a harp was almost as bad as the picture they painted of hell. And so God gave us exceedingly great and precious promises when He gave us the knowledge and the calling.

And through Jesus Christ and His sacrifice and His redemption, He provided us an escape from corruption. There is the overview of the salvation package.

So because we have that, what do you do with it?

Use it as a seat cushion to put on your rocking chair so it's more comfortable as you sit and rock?

He said, no, because you've got all of this, because it was handed to you and because of the value that it has, then you go to verse 5. For this reason, because you have been given all of this and it is so precious, then it is your obligation to give diligence to add to your faith. You know, if you go back to the basic doctrines in Hebrews 6, the whole thing starts with faith.

When God called us, every single one of us had to step out into something we really didn't know. One piece of something caught our attention. And we said, you know what? That sounds right. Or it may have been just the opposite, because in the early days in radio, Mr. Armstrong was one to goad, and he may throw you a challenge and say, you're dead wrong in what you're doing religiously. And here's the proof. Open your Bible and look at it. So he threw down the gauntlet. He says, you're wrong. Here's a scripture that says you're wrong. Open your Bible, look at the scripture. And there are people who said, no, I'm not wrong. In fact, many of us said, I'm not wrong. Open the Bible? Well, what do you know? I am wrong. You move from that point by faith, because you have no idea where it's going. You know, the Bible describes two ways to go through life, by faith or by sight.

Those of you who are first generation did not come into this church by sight.

You learned piecemeal, and as you learned piecemeal, you had to make a decision whether you're going to do it and live with it or not. And God fed you like a child in a high chair with a little jar of baby food. He put a spoonful in, and if you ate it, he put another spoonful in. If he put one in and you went, spit it back out, he put the spoon down. And he waited till you either said, I'm hungry again.

Or if you never did that, he put the lid on the jar, let you out of the high chair, and you walked off, and he went his way. As they say, many are called, but few are chosen. The opportunity to sit in the chair and to be fed was given to far, far more than would cooperate. And if you didn't want it, God didn't force it. So we start with faith, and he says, add to this virtue.

We're not going to do a full study on virtue, but we know what virtue is. It's a coupling of integrity and honesty. It is living at a high standard and holding that high standard. So he said, add to your faith virtue and add to virtue knowledge.

How long do we take? We were talking at lunch, and the figure of two years came up from the time of, the light bulb came on to the time of baptism. And I thought, as we were talking at the lunch table, I thought, you know, in my experience, that's very common.

The time it took for people to handle the big decisions and choices in life that God throws at you are not instant. As one who has counseled dozens and dozens of new people a couple of years, very, very common. It's a slow and deliberate journey because it's a dead serious journey. And so you're adding knowledge, continually adding knowledge. To that knowledge, you add self-control.

You learn perseverance, don't you? I think God chums. You know, He puts the bait out there, and He gives us just enough to see that we continue down the stream, swimming. And as we do unbeknownst to us, in some cases, we're learning to hang in there.

We're getting that first look at, I don't have to understand everything perfectly to continue going the way that God has called me. And you add to the perseverance godliness.

You add to the godliness, brotherly love.

You have that time where you realize that not only is this about finding God, but as I find God, God says, My commandments are wrapped up in two packages. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your mind, and all your soul. And the other is like it. Love your neighbor as yourself. And so you start out saying, I've been living a life that, according to this book, does not gel. It does not coincide with what God teaches, and I need to change that. And the light bulb eventually comes on and says, well, if I'm following it, it must mean I'm beginning to care about what God thinks. I must be developing a regard. Love may come a little later, but God is now important to me. And, oh, by the way, God says, my fellow man needs to be there also.

And then I add to brotherly kindness, love.

And then Peter stops, and he says, If all these things are yours, and they abound with you, you'll neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

If they're there, you're a fertile field, and the crop is growing. He says, on the other hand, for he who lacks these things is short-sighted. In fact, he's so short-sighted, he's blind, and he's forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. So he's contrasted. You are growing. You can see you're moving forward. The person that neglects all of this, he's going the opposite direction. Therefore, brethren, be diligent. Make this calling and election that you've got secure.

And he says, if you do that, you'll never stumble. And he said, Through this an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

That's why he said, Therefore, all of this was what led up to the therefore. Therefore, I will not be negligent to remind you always of these things, though you know them and are established in the present truth. You know, that present truth is still the present truth, isn't it? Did I read anything to you that is not as applicable right now in 2019 as it was when Peter spoke it? No. It wasn't a single solitary word that I read to you that isn't as absolutely, totally necessary today as it was at that point. We have churches speak within our church. Not unusual.

We ask each other, When did you come into the church? Now, that's not church speak. That would be asked by anybody in any church, no matter what the denomination. But you can't distinguish between our asking, When did you come into the church with, When did you learn the truth? When did you come into the truth? We use truth as a location. When did you come into the truth? You know, someone outside our fellowship would look at us and scratch their heads and say, Man, that's a weird way of saying things. No, it's not a weird way of saying things at all. It's a very accurate way of saying things. When did you come into the truth? As I said, it is a sphere of influence. Inside of it are all the good things that God described, and outside of it are all the things in Romans 1. And you get to choose which one you will dwell within. Peter 2 and Romans 1 are North Pole and South Pole. They're heads and tails. They are night and day. They are all the terms for opposites you can imagine. One is all the beauty that exists within the truth, and the other is every form of ugliness that proceeds in demand's life outside the truth.

Turn to John 14.

John 14. We're back now within the Passover service.

We're in the conversation with the disciples section of it all. And in John 14, you know from the time Judas left, Jesus Christ continually, over and over and over, I'm not going to leave you on your own. I'm not going to abandon you. I'm going to send help. I will send, and he said, I'll send a helper. He says, I'll send the comforter. I'll send the spirit. But over and over, he reminded them, you're not on your own. I'm sending reinforcements. John 14 and verse 15 is one of those occasions where he said, for I have given you, oops, I'm in the wrong chapter. Let me get in the right chapter. Verse 15 of chapter 14, if you love me, keep my commandments.

Now we're back into the sphere of truth, aren't we? And I will pray the Father, and he will give you another helper, that he may abide with you forever. Who is the helper? The Spirit of Truth.

He says, I'll send you a helper. Oh, and by the way, the name of the helper for this conversation is the Spirit of Truth.

Now, they were already told, he will lead you into all understanding. The only understanding we're talking about is the truth, the commandments of God, the way of life that God has called. So he said, I will send you another helper, that he may abide with you forever, even the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.

He said, you know, when it comes to the truth, first of all, I expect you to pursue it. Secondly, I highly respect and regard those who do. Thirdly, I know that there is only so much power and strength within the human spirit, and it needs help. And I will give you reinforcements. I will send you the help that you need so that you can continue to move in that particular direction. Look at 1 John chapter 3. I mentioned to you earlier that truth is not academic, it's not mental, it's not cerebral. Truth is something you do. And God will judge every single one of us, not on how much truth we know. He will judge us on how much truth we do. In 1 John chapter 3, verse 18, John wrote as an elder statesman, he said, My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. For by this we shall know that we are of the truth and shall assure our hearts before him. You know, verses 18 and 19 are an interesting couplet because truth is mentioned in each verse, but in one of those verses, truth is truth, and in the other verse, truth is sincerity.

Look at verse 18. Let us not love in word or in tongue, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But let us love in deed, and you could say in truth or in fact or really. You could put anything there, but he was saying with a double whammy, like a verily, verily. I'm not interested in your loving by the words that you speak, the language in which you speak, by the deeds that you do and the sincerity of those deeds.

And when the deeds are there and they are sincerely there, then by this we will know that we are of truth. Truth is something you do, not just something you think, not just something you study, and not just something you discuss.

Paul to the Corinthians, when we started in 1 Corinthians 5 verse 8, told them as a positive that in terms of something to aim at, they were to aim at the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

If you look at them as a package, one of them is what you do. The other one is how you do it.

There was a catchy tune in the 1940s. It passed through my mind when I was preparing the sermon, and my mind went somewhere else, and I never went on Google to find the lyrics. But even from my childhood, I can remember the lyrics. The song was an upbeat 1940s, I think, big band song, and it said, It's not what you do, it's how what you do it. And so in their bad grammar, they made a very valid point. It's not what you do, it's how what you do it. One is what you do, truth. The other is how you do it, sincerity.

I want to take you back to the same ground that I mentioned when I brought up the Days of Unleavened Bread of 1995.

When we talk about the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth, and I said the two of them are coupled. One is what you do, the other is how you do it. I will never live enough years, and I don't think you will either, to fully wrap your head around how someone, some ones, plural, you've loved, you've lived with, you've been friends with, you've walked with, you've talked with, you've shared the Word of God, you've gone to feasts together, you've done all the things that make up our way of life.

Who reached that pivotal point when an option is provided them, and they say to you, you know, I never really believed.

And they take that portion of what we've all lived. Different people, it would be a different conversation and a different point. But you think, I've lived with you in dormitories every day of the week. I have eaten with you, I've worked with you, I've walked beside you, I've been to services with you. And now, a fork in the road comes and somebody says, let me offer you an option.

This is the road you've been going. I'm going to offer you a fork. And you take the fork and you look back and you say, you know, I never really believed that to begin with.

Did they practice the truth in sincerity? If their words were honest words, they had practiced the truth maybe 5, 10, 15, 20, I know people, where it was 30, 40 years. But I can only judge by the words that came out of their mouth if they said, you know, I never really, ever fully believed it. That all those years of living truth had not been coupled with sincerity.

So you see what Paul means when he says the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth?

No reservations. No reservations. Sincerity is an interesting word in the New Testament. It's not a common part of the Greek language and they even argue about what its etymological root was. Some of them said it comes from alloy and purity. So if you had, you know, you see little one ounce silver ingots that say 9.999% pure. That's unalloyed. That's sincere. Or they say, well, it was a combination of a word that meant under investigation in pure sunlight. Either way, genuineness was what they were moving toward. I told the members in Tacoma on the first day of Unleavened Bread, I said, you know, I'm one of those who can fully completely understand the second of those meanings. Needing to be investigated under pure sunlight. Because a part of the aging process is your eyesight is not as keen in identification of color. And once in a while, I'll put on my black suit and I will head out the door and my wife will say, you got blue socks on.

And I'll look. Upstairs in the dim of the bedroom, dark blue and black both look the same. Until I'm out in pure sunlight, I couldn't tell navy blue from black. God says we need to examine under pure sunlight. And that will tell us whether or not this is genuine, whether it is sincere. So the Unleavened Bread of Sincerity and Truth is a package. It's the belief of what God says and how He directs us to live. It is the actual doing of what He says we are to do, not just agreeing academically that it ought to be done. And it is doing what God says because we genuinely believe with all our hearts. It is the best possible way to live and the only right way to live. That package equals sincerity coupled with truth.

You know, brethren, I know of no better, more fitting conclusion to the sermon than to go back to 3 John. John was considered by some to be in his 90s.

Whether he was at that age at that time when he wrote 3 John, he was the elder statesman, the last survivor of the apostles. He was the aged patriarch and beloved as such. And he cared about the church with the same love that he had cared about things in earlier life. And he said this to Gaius, and all of those who are going to read this letter, these words, To the beloved Gaius, whom I love in truth. Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health just as your soul prospers. For I rejoice greatly when brethren came and testified of the truth that is in you just as you walk in the truth. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.