We Can't Serve Two Masters

Well, here we are, brethren, and it's good to be here again, the start of God's Holy Day cycle for the year. We've come up to the Passover, which we concluded just a night and a half ago. I guess that would be a day and a half ago, more accurately, right? Two nights ago, and we had the night to be much observed last night. We're rejoicing in the first day of an 11 bread here together today, and we've anticipated these days for quite a while now, haven't we? We've talked about them, read scriptures about them in the run-up to these days, had our own personal time to get with God and consider ourselves.

We've prepared our homes, we put out the leavening. You know, a lot of emphasis has gone into the roll-up to these days, and now they're here. And they're a blessing, and we can rejoice in them together. And these days are exciting for us. They're exciting because of what they represent to the people of God. It's the living of unleavened lives in a reconciled relationship with Him. That's what these days of unleavened bread portray for us as the covenant people of God.

It is living unleavened lives in a reconciled relationship with Him. And when we consider that relationship, there's no better place to be. Truly to be at one with our Father, to have come under the sacrifice of our elder brother in this family relationship now, and to have one another here as well.

There's truly no better place to be. It indeed is God's blessing. The Passover we've just recently observed reminded us of the price that was paid for our sin, so that we can walk free. As Stuart was reading the Exodus accounts, and Israel's position coming up to, and observing the Passover, right? The staff in your hand, and your sandals on your feet, and your belt girded around your waist. This is ready for action. And now, these days of unleavened bread picture walking free.

Walking out of Egypt. Walking towards the Promised Land. No longer under the bondage of sin. Free from death. Free from the oppressor. Free from the slavery that would seek to stifle our ability to grow in God's service. And so, it's an unleavened and holy life that we've been called to now. And our service to God in these days very much represent walking out of spiritual Egypt, living unleavened and reconciled to Him.

But the reality then for all of us as we keep these days is we still live in this world, don't we? I mean, Israel walked out of physical Egypt, but we still live in this world. We've come out spiritually, but the distractions of the world are still here. After this first holy day wraps up, most of us are going to return to our normal routine, aren't we? Back to work, back to school, whatever it is. We're going to be in a position then now where our focus is going to be brought into competition with other focuses, with other interests.

We have our focus. We're here today to set our focus for these days of unleavened bread. But you know what? Throughout the next six days after today, your boss has a focus, and that's going to come into competition with your focus. Or maybe you are the boss, but you have customers and you have employees, and there's going to be focus as well that are going to seek to creep in and compete with the focus of these days and what it is that God would have us to remember.

Your paycheck is a part of your focus. Maybe it's your doctor appointments. Maybe it's your school events. Whatever it is for you, fill in the blank. The daily obligations we all face are still there during these days, and if we're not careful competing for our attention and what it is we're to be focusing on, it couldn't be at jeopardy, depending on all the other events in our lives. So we have to watch for that as we come out of here, and again, enter life, enter that slipstream of fast-moving traffic once again. The focus is in competition with the focus that God would have us have except, we'll say, except day by day.

We will be brought back into the reminder of these days by a little thing. It's a flat little thing. It might even be, oh, I don't know, might be a round little thing, but flat. Might be a crispy little thing, but flat. Again, what is going day by day to keep our focus? Crunchy, crunchy little thing. Crumbly little thing. Rolly-polly little thing, perhaps. What's its shape? What's its form going to be? What is it that's going to bring us back each and every day?

It might be a floppy, floppy little thing. This was Sheila and Mona's breakfast. Not this, but, you know, I asked them to bring me one. Whatever form, right, it may take during this week, your unleavened bread is meant to bring us back into focus of what it is that these days portray. I want you to do something for me because, again, our focus will be brought into competition during these seven days.

There's a concept I would like you to keep in mind as you eat unleavened bread each day. You know, at the Passover, we each took a little piece of that unleavened bread, and as we ate it, we were reflective of something, weren't we? We thought about the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and his life that was given for us, and we took that bread in remembrance of something very important and significant for us.

And I don't want these seven days to pass us by with just, oh, today's the flat bread, and, you know, makes it kind of hard to keep the jelly in the sandwich because you bite on one end and it squirts out the other, and, you know, I've had experience for my whole life in that. But it's to remind us of something, or to be reflective of something, and I want to give you something to consider as you eat your unleavened bread each and every day this year, and we are commanded to eat it each day of the seven days of unleavened bread.

I want to be clear on that point as well. But consider this. As you eat your bread, I have been bought with a price, and the only master I serve is God.

I've been bought with a price, and the only master I serve is God. No matter how chaotic, no matter how busy the next seven days may become, no matter what may happen, don't allow yourself to lose that focus, to keep that commitment in your heart. When you have a quiet moment, when you're maybe in the break room or you're in the vehicle if you're eating your lunch on the run or you're at home, and you have a quiet moment to reflect, as we did at the Passover when we took that bread, when you take of this unleavened bread each and every day of this feast, reflect on those words, I have been bought with a price, and the only master I serve is God.

I want to start today with a scripture that actually might seem to be an unusual scripture for the days of unleavened bread, but as we walk through this message, I think it'll be clear for you. Let's go to Matthew 6 to begin with. Matthew 6 and verse 24. Hear the words of Jesus Christ and a point that he illustrated, essential to these days, I believe. Matthew 6 and verse 24. Let me get it straight for you. Matthew 6 and verse 24. Jesus said, no one can serve two masters. That's interesting. People have tried. We've tried, perhaps, in our lives at one time or another, or perhaps there are certain things in our life that can raise themselves almost to the level of a master. But Jesus said, Matthew 6 and verse 24, no one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. Mammon, in this case, is essentially riches, money, or something that you would throw a life focus into pursuit. But the point he is making here is a man or a woman cannot serve two masters. He cannot have God as a master and something else as a master and say, well, I serve this master six days a week and this master, you know, fully on the Sabbath. You know, that's not what God has given us to do. Why? Because if you try to serve two masters, your loyalties will be divided. The priorities of your two masters will come into conflict with one another, and frankly, you could not serve either one of them very well. But Christ says you'll love one and hate the other, and the priorities of these two will be in conflict. And that principle plays out in a number of ways. Jesus used the illustration of money for that lesson, but it's a broad concept and it complied to a number of things. You can't serve God as a master and something else as a master. It simply will not work. And I believe, brethren, it's an important lesson for us to learn and remember during these days of Unleavened Brad. We began these days by putting the leaven out of our homes. Right? At sundown last night or before, this leaven was out. And in our house, it's been staged on a certain part of the countertop, you know, as days approach. Here's some leaven, here's some leaven. We're putting it here, and you kind of eat along on it. And then what's left as we're approaching now, this time, it gets gathered up, it gets thrown out and hauled off of our property, and it's disposed of. We put the leaven out, which represents sin during this time, and for the entire seven days of this feast, we will fight to keep it out, won't we? Because it's everywhere. God picked the perfect illustration of leavening. Because how many times during the days of Unleavened Brad, no matter how many decades you've kept it, you know, you hear stories of, well, I was just minding my business and went through the drive-thru and picked up my order and just, as I'm about to bite, I remember, I can't eat this. And it's a perfect illustration. Sin is everywhere, and we have to watch, vigilantly, for it at all times, and fight to keep it out.

A number of years ago, we were heading to the night-to-be-much-observed at some friend's house, and it was kind of a country drive out to their place, and the sun was setting. You know, we're kissing sundown the start of the days of Unleavened Brad, and we're in the car, and Darla, I don't exactly remember what prompted her, but she reached into a pocket or something in the car, a crevice, and said, oh, I forgot to check in here and look, and she pulls out this energy bar, protein bar. I'm always stuffing them everywhere. And she's sitting there, she's reading the directions, and suddenly there's this scream, and out the window it goes. Because I think she thought she was in race with sunset, you know, just like right on the edge. And I just looked at her and I said, well, you know, I think the birds would have appreciated if you at least took the wrapper off first. But the point is, right, we fight to keep this out. And you hear stories of friends that, oh, you know, I was out in the front yard, a friend of mine a number of years ago, he says, I was out there in the front yard, the days of Unleavened Brad, and a scavenger bird flew over and dropped the dinner roll right in my front yard, right in front of me. You know, I was like, here's a calling card, thank you very much. So, you know, God picked something that would remind us of putting out sin and working to keep it out of our lives. So we put out lemon, but that's not the only thing we do during these days. We also replace that leavening with something else that is our focus during these days. We replace it with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. And for seven days, we take in of that bread, which represents Jesus Christ in us.

In the book of John, he said, you know, you have to partake of me. I am the bread of life. Fathers ate the manna in the wilderness and are dead, and that was physical food, miraculous, yes, but it was physical sustenance. This is representative of spiritual sustenance of Jesus Christ in us through this unleavened bread, and we partake of it each and every day. And so in these days, we do not partake of both. Okay? And that's the point.

Remember where we started. We cannot serve two masters, and we do not partake of both. We do not leave the leaven in place so that we can partake of the leaven and the unleavened together. That's not what God has given us to do. Let's go to Exodus chapter 13 and verse 6. I want to at least incorporate one scripture into my message here regarding the disposal of the leavened and the taking of the unleavened. Exodus chapter 13 and verse 6. It says, seven days you shall eat unleavened bread.

Okay? You're going to eat it for seven days. This is part of the command each day. And on the seventh day there shall be a feast to the Lord. Many other passages tell us the first day and the seventh day are a holy convocation.

Verse 7, it says unleavened bread shall be eaten seven days, and no leavened bread shall be seen among you, nor shall leaven be seen among you in all your quarters. So you put out the leavened bread, you put out anything that has leavening in it that, you know, represents or could be leaven that you take, and now you gather that up within your quarters, within your gates, and you put it out.

You could be unleavened during these days. Leviticus chapter 23 verse 6 says, you must eat unleavened bread. And so as we go through this process, we do it by partaking of the unleavened. We do not take of them both, because you cannot serve two masters, and you cannot bring anything in competition to the calling of God. To put it another way, we cannot be a slave to both sin and righteousness together. Because that's what we're representing by the symbols, are we not? The leavened and the unleavened during these days.

You cannot be a slave to both sin and righteousness together. These are two masters that are not compatible, and if you try to serve them both, the end result will be death. It's a lesson that God wants us to learn through the days of unleavened bread. It's a lesson we can learn by the example of the Israelites. God gave them to walk through this in literal application, so that when we look at their story, we understand the spiritual lessons as we walk in it.

Frankly, in the footsteps that God had them walk in, but we do so spiritually. But we learn from their examples. 1 Corinthians 10 and 11 says that their example has now been written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the ages have come. So we look at their lives, we look at what was set before them, we look at their decisions, and we look at the consequences of their decisions. And we take those lessons then into our life today. And we incorporate them as to how we do or do not serve God.

The story of the Exodus is one of deliverance. It's an accounting of the miraculous means by which God delivered his people from the bonds of oppression into a position that they could serve him fully. Because Israel was in bondage. They were in slavery. They were in servitude. And God said, I'm going to bring you out so that you will be mine.

You can't serve Pharaoh and serve me. No one can serve two masters. And so the story of the Exodus is a story of slavery versus freedom, of good versus evil. And it impresses upon us, again, that reality of no one can serve two masters. Let's go to Exodus chapter 1 as we walk through some of the example that was set for us.

Long ago, there's incredible how it applies most directly. Exodus chapter 1, we're going to look at some of the examples and the events surrounding Israel's bondage and their release, and what it is that God purposed for them within the context of these days. Exodus chapter 1, when that book opens, Genesis, first book of the Bible, that book closes with the fact, now you have the sons of Jacob in Egypt.

There's a great famine in the region, and they had the journey from Canaan to Egypt to survive. Of course, we remember Joseph had gone there ahead of them. He had been sold into slavery and by God's blessing and mercy and God's plan, frankly. Joseph had risen up in the ranks then to where now he is second to Pharaoh over Egypt and is able to provide what it is that then would sustain his family in that time. So they come into Egypt, and as Genesis closes for us, Joseph has died, Jacob has died, and the sons of Jacob, their children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren now are in the land of Egypt.

So let's open up this story in Exodus chapter 1 and verse 1.

Verse 6, and Joseph died, and all his brothers and all that generation. It says, but the children of Israel were fruitful and increased abundantly. They multiplied. They grew exceedingly mighty, and the land was filled with them. Just everywhere you looked, it was an explosion in population by God's blessing. Right? Members, promise to Abraham and bring from you great descendants, nations of peoples. Shall come from you. Verse 8, now there arose a new king over Egypt who did not know Joseph, and he said to his people, Look, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we.

Come, let us deal shrewdly with them lest they multiply. And it happened in the event of war that they also join our enemies and fight against us, and so go up out of the land. The point was we need to exercise some control over these people. We need to reign them in. We need to put them under a level of suppression under our authority. Lest they rise up against us.

Lest they join our enemies. Lest they get the idea to go out of the land. Verse 11 says, Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them, and they put burdens upon them, and they built for Pharaoh supply cities, Pythium, Ramses. But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew, and they were in dread of the children of Israel.

So the Egyptians made the children of Israel serve with rigor, and they made their lives bitter with hard bondage and mortar and brick, and in all manner of service in the field. All their service in which they were made them to serve was with rigor. So we have the Israelites now becoming slaves of the Egyptians, and it was a slavery unto death. This wasn't a service of 20, 30, 40 years, and you're throwing all you can into your 401k, and Egypt's giving you a matching contribution.

There was no retirement plan in this. This was servitude unto death. That was the only way out of bondage. And in that position, their lives were ruled over by a master. And that was Pharaoh. Pharaoh owned them. Pharaoh directed their steps. Pharaoh called the shots in their lives, and if Pharaoh said, jump, they said, how high? And if Pharaoh said, make bricks without straw, they said, how many?

And that was the oppression of their lives in that place. Exodus 2 and verse 23. Now it happened in the process of time that the king of Egypt died, and the children of Israel groaned because of the bondage, and they cried out, and their cry came up to God because of the bondage. So God heard their groanings, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and with Jacob. And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God acknowledged them. Acknowledged them.

He acknowledged them. God acknowledged it was time to intervene. It was time to step in on behalf of his people because of the covenant he had made. It was time to deliver them out from under Pharaoh's dominance, and to bring them unto himself as his own special people.

He says, it is time. You're not going to serve that master any longer. You're going to serve me. Could they do that in bondage to Egypt? Could they do that under Pharaoh's direction, serve God?

No, there had to be a change of scene completely that would take place. As the story goes on, God calls Moses, an outcast from Pharaoh's house, who was actually an Israelite. And we remember the story. Moses was great in the land of Egypt. Josephus writes that Moses was a general in the land of Egypt. He was a military general. He was great. He was reared in Pharaoh's house. But you see, one day Moses went out and he saw an Egyptian beating an Israelite.

He knew who his people were, and he intervened, and he killed the Egyptian. And that action became known. And now Pharaoh said, I'm going to kill you, Moses. And Moses went on the run. And he ended up in the wilderness of Midian for 40 years, tending Jethro's, his father-in-law's sheep, out in the wilderness of Midian, when God got his attention. And we know the story, brethren. God appeared to him in a burning bush, and he commissioned Moses to go back to Egypt.

I have a job for you. You're going to bring my people out of bondage so they can serve me. Pharaoh will no longer be their master. I will be their master. Moses, you will be my servant. I don't want to focus so much on the plagues and the manner in which God brought them out. I want to focus on the why.

Why did God have to bring them out of that place? We've already seen the rescue has to do in part with the covenant. Actually, that is what it's about, is the covenant, okay? With Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And he said, after a period of time, once they're in captivity, this time will pass and I will bring back your people to this land, and they will be mine.

But I want us to recognize in that process the relationship that God is going to establish and what that means in terms of him as their master and no one else. Exodus 6, verse 1. Exodus 6, verse 1. The Lord said to Moses, Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh, for with a strong hand he will let them go, and with a strong hand he will drive them out of his land.

Verse 2, And God spoke to Moses and said, I am the Lord. I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as God Almighty, as El Shaddai. And frankly, that name related to the relationship that God had with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. El Shaddai, he said, But by my name, Lord, or Yahweh, I was not known to them. Verse 4, I have also established my covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their pilgrimage, in which they were strangers.

I have also heard the groaning of the children of Israel, whom the Egyptians keep in bondage, and I have remembered my covenant. God says, Therefore say to the children of Israel, I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. I will rescue you from their bondage, and I will redeem you. It's a very important word. God says, I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments. God said he would redeem them. Redemption means to buy back. They were in slavery to Pharaoh, and God says, I'm going to buy them out of that place, and they will be mine.

As we consider the Scriptures we went through at the Passover, the redemption through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, does this not sound familiar to us? This whole circumstance of God saying, my people are in bondage, and I'm going to buy them unto me. A price will be paid, and indeed they will walk free, and they will worship me. Verse 7, God says, I will take you as my people, and I will be your God. Then you shall know that I am the Lord, your God, who brings you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will bring you into the land which I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and I will give it to you as a heritage.

I am the Lord. So what we understand, brethren, is what God was looking to accomplish with Israel could not be accomplished while they were slaves in Egypt. God's purpose for them, what it is He was going to covenant with them to fulfill, could not be accomplished while they served Pharaoh, while they were under His thumb. God said, I will bring them out, and indeed they will be mine. Exodus 8 and verse 1, the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Go to Pharaoh, and say to him, Thus says the Lord, Let my people go, that they may serve me.

Notice they're serving you, and the directive is, They will serve me. And that is what I am bringing them out to do. But again, they couldn't do that in bondage. Pharaoh was their master. God says, I am bringing my people out, that I would be their master, and they will be my servants. But then no one can serve two masters. None of us can serve two masters.

Israel could not serve two masters. It's actually a principle God has designed from the beginning. And if you try to serve anything other than God, the end is bondage and death. And if there's a master in your life that you're holding up as a master, that would affect your decisions, that would take you away from full ability to worship God as your master, then you are living in conflict.

You're living in bondage. You're living in servitude. And God says, Come out of her, my people, you are mine. I'm your God, and you are my people. I think we all understand the typology that exists in the Scripture as it pertains to Egypt and to Pharaoh and to the redemption of which God provided. Pharaoh was a god. Smolji. But he was a god to the people of Egypt. They had many gods, and Pharaoh was a god. And they worshipped him, and they held him up as a god.

And in type he represents the god of this age, Satan the devil, who oppresses the world in bondage unto death. Egypt was a type of sin. It's a type of the world apart from God, and it was an environment that was in conflict with the ways of God. People of Israel could not live the ways of God in the land of Egypt. God said, I have to bring you out, and then I will be your master in all things.

The Passover was the means by which God ultimately redeemed them from bondage, allowing Israel to walk free and leave Egypt behind as free and unleavened. And it's the parallels to our life today, is it not? God, through the Passover, delivered us from bondage to the sacrifice of his Son so that we could walk free and we could walk unleavened. And it is indeed with these days of unleavened bread, or tray.

Exodus 12, this is following the plagues. Let's go there. Exodus 12, God had already sent them a number of plagues. Israel was actually under some of the plagues to start with, but then they came fully upon Egypt, and there was a separation between the land of Goshen and the land of Egypt. But if you go through the plagues, there was the plague of water turned to blood. There was the plague of the frogs, which came out and covered everything, and when they die, it stank. If you can imagine what the land of Egypt smelled like and looked like after all of these plagues. The lice, which got into everything. The flies, the plague of the livestock, the pestilence, the boils, the hail, the locusts that ate every green thing that was left in sight, and then the darkness. And when you go through each and every one of those plagues in detail, you see that God was striking against the gods of Egypt. You think this is a God? This is not a God. I am God. They will know that I am the Lord, he said. So every God that was held up as a God in the eyes of Egypt had a plague, at least the plagues that were brought against those gods. And we have one more plague, then, that remains in Israel's deliverance, and it's the plague against, perhaps, the greatest God in the eyes of Egypt. Exodus 12 and verse 28 says, I can't even wrap my mind around that concept, frankly. The terror, the horror, the grief that would have come upon Egypt in this, and God struck at the house even of Pharaoh.

The firstborn of the one that people looked at as God, and the point is, he is not your God. He is not your master. I, the Lord, am God. Verse 31 says, Verse 37, Verse 40, Verse 40, This is a night of solemn observance to the Lord for bringing them out of the land of Egypt. This is a night of the Lord, a solemn observance for all the children of Israel throughout their generations. So what we find is that through the Passover, God released his people from bondage, bondage to Pharaoh, and he no longer owned them, did he? He was no longer their master. He was no longer one who could exert control and force over the people of God. God said, I will set you free. I will be your God, and I will be your master. They could walk out of Egypt on the first day of Unleavened Bread, free from the oppression of that world towards the Promised Land. And they could say those words, I have been bought with a price. And now the only master I serve is God.

That was the lesson of the days of Unleavened Bread. It's the lesson that they should have held to from that point forward. I've been bought with a price. And the only master I serve is God. Exodus 13, verse 21. Exodus 13, verse 21. And the Lord went before them by day, and a pillar of cloud to lead the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so as to go by day and by night. And He did not take away the pillar of cloud by day, or the pillar of fire by night from before the people. God was leading them. God was literally in their midst. He says, I am your God who sets you free, and I will lead you in the paths of righteousness. I will lead you to the Promised Land. And if they followed faithfully, that blessing would be theirs. And the cloud moved, the people moved. The cloud stopped, the people stopped. They pitched camp, and they remained until the cloud moved again, and they were to follow God as their master. Brethren, we cannot serve two masters. No one can. And Israel could not in that place. And God had to deliver them out of Egypt in order to bring them to Himself. Now, an interesting note about Egypt is that it was a leavened land. Right? Egypt was a leavened land. And we probably would all say, yes, it was leavened. It was full of sin. It was full of idolatry. It was full of false gods. But what's interesting about the land of Egypt, though, is that it was literally leavened. Have you ever heard of Trona? T-R-O-N-A? Trona?

Go research Trona this week, if you have an interest to do so. Trona is defined by the Encyclopedia Britannica as an evaporite mineral. Evaporite mineral means it's water-soluble. It'll dissolve in water. So, Trona is an evaporite mineral known also as hydrated sodium bicarbonate. Baking soda. Right? Baking soda. Hydrated sodium bicarbonate. And some of the world's most major deposits of Trona are found in Egypt. You can Google photos of Trona residue in Egypt where a lake has evaporated and the minerals left behind, and it's a ring of white seashore. Or areas where the Nile has flooded the delta banks and the waters... I still have to unlock your device. I did not ask Google, but she responded anyway. Where was I? The delta... delta banks. Thank you. The Nile delta, it floods its banks and the waters recede and it evaporates in the residue of the white remains. You can Google and research those things. Again, Trona, hydrated sodium bicarbonate. Israel is covered with it. We have big deposits in the U.S. too, but some of the major deposits are in Egypt. Excuse me, I think I said Israel is in Egypt. Hydrated sodium bicarbonate. And they used it for a number of things in ancient Egypt. Trona was used for the preservation of mummies. As they brought them out now and kind of opened and unwrapped them, they were packed in Trona. For preservation, they used it for cleaning teeth, which is interesting. We put baking soda in our toothpaste yet even today. They used it for food preparations and additives and what do you suppose it did in their food? And for a number of other uses, God literally brought Israel out of a leavened land in order to walk unleavened before him.

For us, brethren, the Passover is the means by which God has redeemed us. Again, by the blood of His beloved Son. And He has brought us out of bondage, out of slavery and servitude, and He has set us free to be unleavened as well. And we can confidently say, I've been bought with a price. I'm no longer bound to spiritual Egypt. I'm no longer under the God of this world's direction. I have been bought with a price. And the only Master I serve is God.

In Leviticus chapter 25, we find a passage that clearly declares how God viewed the people Israel, whom He delivered. What was His view towards them? We understood how they were to view Him. What was His view towards them? Leviticus chapter 25 and verse 39, this is within the context of your release and the jubilee and how you were to treat slaves and servants in your midst, okay? As the nation of Israel. Leviticus chapter 25 and verse 39, God says, And if one of your brethren who dwells by you becomes poor, and he sells himself to you, you shall not compel him to serve as a slave. Okay? So if you were to buy a fellow Israelite, there's a certain code of standard by which you're to treat them. And God says, you shall not compel him to serve as a slave. Verse 40, As a hired servant and as a souljourner, he shall be with you, and he shall serve you until the year of jubilee, and then he shall depart from you, he and his children with him, and shall return to his own family, shall return to the possession of his fathers. And I want you to notice why. For they are my servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt, they shall not be sold as slaves. You shall not rule over him with rigor, but you shall fear your God.

God very much viewed the Israelites as his servants, because God had bought them. God had redeemed them from bondage to be his own, and he owned them. And he said, you be very careful how you, number one, submit yourselves one to another. You be very careful. An Israelite could sell themselves into servitude to someone else, but God says, that is my servants, and you be careful how you treat them, because they are mine, and I'm their master. You're not their master. So God brought his people out to be his special possession. 1 Corinthians 6 and verse 18 express as much the same wording in regard to us.

Notice the Apostle Paul's words here. 1 Corinthians 6 and verse 18. God would bring us out for a purpose, and we have to be careful, number one, how we conduct ourselves, because recognize who it is that truly owns us. 1 Corinthians 6 and verse 18 says, flee sexual immorality. For every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. Or do not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own. That's an interesting terminology, isn't it? You are not your own.

Well, that doesn't quite fit with our mental perception of freedom, does it? Surely not as American. I'm free to be who I want, what I want, where I want, how I want. But God says, I have set you free, but you are not your own. And notice why, verse 20, for you were bought at a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. Israel belonged to God after he freed them from Egypt through the Passover. And brethren, you and I belong to God too, because he has freed us from death through our Passover, Jesus Christ. And as we look at the Old Testament accounts of Israel, and we look at the New Testament accounts of the Church, the point we come to understand is God is our Master. It is God who has bought us, it is God who owns us, and he is the one who has total control over our lives. And we serve him completely. We cannot serve two masters. We cannot serve God and something else. We serve God alone.

Sadly, Israel really never understood this concept. Because, as you would read forward in their story, we won't go through that today, but again, time after time after time, they forgot who it was who was their Master, who was the one with the control over their lives. Whenever they came to an obstacle, they cried out for something they thought was better. They cried out for Egypt. They cried out for the bondage they knew rather than looking to God as the one whom had delivered them. They did it at the Red Sea. They did it in the wilderness. And they did it at the border of the Promised Land. You can go and read all of those accounts. And whenever Israel considered Egypt in light of their challenges, it was almost like Egypt seemed like a pretty good place. Like, somehow, back there, back in bondage, back in the servitude, was a place of comfort and security, rather than looking to God as the one who had delivered them as their Master.

In the end, that entire generation of Israel, 20 years and above, perished in the wilderness. All except for Joshua and Caleb. They never received the blessing. They never received the promise that God held out for them, because they never allowed themselves to truly walk free and unleavened. The deacon Stephen in the book of Acts describes Israel's condition this way. Acts 7 and verse 39, he says, And in their hearts they turned back to Egypt. In their hearts they turned back to Egypt. It's a very, very sad commentary, brethren. God brought Israel out of physical bondage to Egypt, but they very much died as slaves of Pharaoh.

They never could really let that Master go.

God brought them out to be his own, and they died as slaves of Egypt. A major lesson of the days of the leavened bread is no one can serve two Masters. The generation of Israel could not, and neither can we. You will either hate the one and love the other, or you will be loyal to the one and despise the other. During these days of the leavened bread, we do not partake of the leavened and the unleavened together.

And we cannot be slaves of sin and righteousness together. God brings us out of the one in order to serve him as Master.

Romans 6, verse 16. Romans 6, verse 16. Brethren, we are either all the way in, or we are all the way out in terms of our service to God. And again, the question for us is, which Master do we serve? Romans 6, verse 16. Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey? You are that one's slaves whom you obey. Whether it is of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness. The point is, you're going to serve something, and you can't serve them both. God says, make your choice. Make your choice.

Verse 17. But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. Can you understand the parallel here of Egypt and us? Because through the baptism, through the blood of Jesus Christ, you and I have been set free. The wages of sin is death. But we have now been made slaves of righteousness. And God is watching to see if our service indeed is dedicated faithfully to that end. Verse 19. Paul says, I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh, for just as you presented your members as slaves of uncleanness and of lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves of righteousness for holiness. For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. What fruit did you have in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now having been set free from sin and having become slaves of God, that is who in you and I are, brethren, we are slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness and the end everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. These are very, very encouraging words when we consider the grace and the mercy that God extends to those who look to Him completely as their master, as those who have turned their back on spiritual Egypt, as those who have walked out of bondage free men and women and said, You are our God. We are your people. And indeed, our life is unleavened before you. I want to conclude in 1 Corinthians chapter 5.

1 Corinthians 5. I've read this a few times, actually, in the lead-up to these holy days. It's the instruction of the Apostle Paul during this actual feast, the Feast of Unleavened Bread. And we'll probably read it again before this feast is over. But let's just again remember what it is that God is looking to be produced in us through this observance. 1 Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 6. Paul says, Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened, for indeed Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us. 2 Corinthians 5. You cannot keep the leaven of sin mixed in with the dough of righteousness. It has to be unleavened completely.

3 Corinthians 8. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. And this must be our focus. This must be what it is our attention is zeroed in on. As we keep the days of unleavened bread, a heart dedicated to sincerity and truth.

4 Brethren, as we partake of the unleavened bread each and every day of this feast, let us remember the price that was paid for our freedom. Let us remember who it is, indeed, that we are called to serve fully. And let us dedicate ourselves to putting one foot in front of the other, following the lead of the pillar of cloud and fire in our life. God is there. God says, I have bought you at a price in your mind, and I am your God, and I will lead you in paths of righteousness. And indeed, it will be a blessing. The calling for us is to remain leaven all along the way. And the calling is to make God our master above all others. Brethren, Jesus said, you cannot serve God and man. You can't serve God and money. You can't serve God and your employer as master. You can't serve God and fill in the blank. Whatever it is in your life as master, God must always be our one true master. We still earn a living. We still raise our families. We still do these things in this life that God has called us to do day by day by day. But we do them in direction to His service and according to His standard. God is our master and no other. And if we truly live that life, then indeed we will walk day by day, unleavened, to the kingdom of God.