Whose Slave Are You?

The title for my message this afternoon, brethren, is, Who Slave Are You? Who Slave Are You? On this last day of Unleavened Bread, I believe it's a question we must be able to ask and answer clearly in our minds if we're going to be able to walk worthy of the calling with which we've been called. As I sat down earlier this week and started thinking through the process of what I wanted to speak about today, my mind went back to the recent messages that we've had in the run-up to the days of Unleavened Bread and the start of these days. And if you recall, we heard a message on the first day telling us that we must change. That, you know, change is not optional. It is, in fact, mandatory in our calling before God. We must change. We must rely on God. We must trust in Him. And that was Mr. Mickelson's message here just a couple weeks ago, that there's a distinction, honestly, between faith and trust. And we need to understand what that is and learn to put our trust as well as our faith in God. Mr. Swaggerty gave a message before these days on walking in the footsteps of Jesus Christ. I gave a message on being reconciled to God. And if we go back to the message that Mr. Light gave when we were, when he was here, he said we must choose to grow. That it just didn't happen accidentally or on its own, but it had to be a conscious choice and effort to grow. So in light of all those messages, I kind of started thinking about what was a common underlying theme. And what I came up with is that as God's people, our focus cannot be divided. Our focus cannot be divided. Let's notice Jesus Christ's words here in Matthew 6. If you'll turn over there with me, please, to verse 24. Matthew 6, verse 24. Because all these messages have reminded us that as God's people, we need to subject our focus to serving Him alone. That there cannot be any other. There can be no one or nothing that can come in and sort of override the focus and the attention that we must have directed towards serving God.

Matthew 6, verse 24. Here are the words of Jesus Christ.

He said, No one can serve two masters. For either we will hate the one and love the other, or else you will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.

And so the principle that Jesus is laying out here is that no man can serve two masters. Now, He takes that to the end of saying, using the principle in terms of God versus money, but it's a principle that can be applied across the board.

You cannot serve two masters. You will either hate the one. You will be dedicated to the one over the other. You will compromise for the one in favor of the other.

Again, our focus must be singular and fully dedicated to God alone. We began observing the days of Unleavened Bread, as Mr. Oliver said, putting the leaven out of our homes. For seven days, we've been hopefully leaven free. We sought to keep that out. And in some ways, it's a fight when that package of cookies, he describes, is right before your face. But God gave us a rather remarkable symbol in terms of what we could compare to sin. Because it's ever before us, ever present, and it's just so easy to go pick it up off the shelf and apply it into your life. So for the last seven days, we put those things out of our life. But in addition to that, we added in the Unleavened as well. We partook it the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. For seven days, we took in of that bread that symbolized Jesus Christ, the bread of life, living in us.

And so during these days, we did not partake of both.

And that's the point. We did not partake of both the leavened and the unleavened together. One had to be put out and the other consumed.

These days of unleavened bread have reminded us that we cannot be a slave to both sin and righteousness together.

They are two masters that are not compatible, and if we try to serve them both, the end result will be death.

That's a lesson God wants us to learn from these days of Unleavened Bread. It's a lesson that we can learn by looking at Israel, the people that God brought out of bondage.

1 Corinthians chapter 10 verse 11, you don't have to turn there, but it tells us that their example was written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the ages have come. And so the point is, we're to look at their example, how they lived their lives, how they responded to God or did not respond to God, and we're to learn valuable spiritual lessons that we can apply in our lives today.

The story of the Exodus is one of deliverance.

It's an accounting of the miraculous means by God, which God delivered his people from the bonds of oppression into a position where they could serve him.

It's a story of slavery versus freedom, of good versus evil, and it's a story that begs the question both of them and us today who slave are you? So, brethren, I would like to go back to the beginning of the Exodus account all the way back to Exodus chapter 1 in verse 1, and I want to walk through some principles today that we can hopefully apply in our spiritual lives as we answer that question.

Exodus chapter 1 Again beginning in verse 1, it says, Now these are the names of the children of Israel who came to Egypt. Each man in his household came with Jacob. And so you'll recall is as Genesis ended, Joseph was essentially right-hand man to Pharaoh and Egypt. Jacob had moved himself and his sons and their families there into Egypt in order to survive the famine that had taken place. And so Genesis concludes then with the death of Jacob and Joseph, and now we're moving into a new age for the people of Israel.

Verse 2 through 4, I wander through here the names of the sons and their families that came in with Jacob. Verse 5, All those who were descendants of Jacob were seventy persons, for Joseph was in Egypt already. And Joseph died and all his brothers and all that generation. But the children of Israel were fruitful and increased abundantly. They multiplied and grew exceedingly mighty, and the land was filled with them. Already God was beginning to roll out his blessing upon the people, his blessing and promise unto Abraham that he would be the father of a great nation and a great multitude. Those small families were now building into a sizable number of people, into large tribes, and into a significant nation.

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 that in the event of war, they also join our enemies and fight against us, and so go up out of the land. And so they're recognizing what is actually taking place here with the children of Israel. And they said, Look, we need to exercise some control and some dominance, lest this get out of hand.

Verse 11, Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh supply cities, Pythium, and 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 made them serve was with rigor.

And so the Israelites became slaves unto the Egyptians. And it was a slavery unto death.

It wasn't like you could work for a number of years, earn your retirement, and go get a piece of land and enjoy life. No, the only way out of this burden and bondage was through death.

Now, if we jump forward to span of time, let's go to chapter 2, verse 23 of Exodus, chapter 2, verse 23, because now God is putting a plan in motion by which He'll bring His people out, by which He'll use Moses to accomplish His purpose in that way.

Exodus chapter 2, verse 23, says, Now it happened in the process of time that the king of Egypt died. Then 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, with Isaac, and with Jacob. And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God acknowledged them.

He said, God recognized them. He heard them. He acknowledged and remembered His covenant, and He recognized it was now time to act to bring His people out of bondage.

So, brethren, we know the story. God sent Moses to be His instrument by which He would do just that.

Going forward, I don't necessarily want to focus on the way in which they were brought out, in terms of the plagues and those events that took place, but I do want to focus on the why.

Why did God bring them out of slavery and bondage to Egypt? You know, was it just because He thought these people could use a break? You know, they're working hard, they're toiling, and difficulty, and it's a physical people, and they need a physical break? Or was there something more to that?

Well, as we've already seen, God's rescue of Israel has to do with His covenant, which He made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Let's go to forward now to Exodus 6 and verse 1.

Exodus 6 verse 1.

It says, 1. Verse 4 So God said he would redeem them. Israel had essentially been committed under slavery and bondage to the Egyptians. Pharaoh was their master, and God then was going to buy them back. It's his home. God was redeeming his people. Verse 7 God said, I will take you as my people, and I will be your God. Then you shall know that I the Lord am 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. And so, brethren, what God was looking to accomplish with Israel could not take place while they were slaves in Egypt, while they were under the oppression and the bondage of Pharaoh. What God was looking to do in their lives as their God and them as his covenant people could not be accomplished under that slavery. They could not stop for the Sabbath.

They could not observe what God wanted them to observe, worship him as their God in that condition. God had to bring them out. I think we get an understanding, pretty well, the typology that exists when we read through Exodus, kind of from our perspective as New Covenant Christians and through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. We understand when we look at Exodus, the typology that's in place. We understand what Egypt and Pharaoh and the redemption ultimately points to. Pharaoh was a god, small g, but he was a god among his people.

He was looked to and recognized and worshipped. The religion of Egypt worshipped Pharaoh as a god. And in type, he represents the god of this age, Satan the devil, that holds mankind in bondage and slavery of sin unto death. Pharaoh, in that way, represented a god. Egypt was a type of sin. It was a type of this world apart from God. It was an environment in which the ways of God could not exist in agreement with that, the condition in the atmosphere of that bondage. So if God was going to fulfill the covenant he made with their forefathers, he would have to bring Israel out of slavery unto Pharaoh and establish them as his servants, where he would be their god.

They would be his people. Passover, then, as we know, was the means by which God redeemed Israel out of Egypt. Now he brought them out. And likewise, it's the means by which God has redeemed us from the penalty of sin and death, brought us out of this world. Because prior to accepting that sacrifice on our behalf, we were sold under bondage to spiritual Egypt. We were slaves of sin, leading to death.

And only by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, then, were we redeemed from that, redeemed from bondage, so that then we could turn and acknowledge and serve God. So in that condition, you and I, brethren, could not be in a covenant relationship with God under the conditions of sin and death.

And likewise, in Egypt, Israel could not be under that covenant relationship in terms of what God would expect from them as his people. God had to call us out of this world, deliver us from the bondage of sin, so we could serve him as slaves of righteousness. And so it doesn't work to have one foot in the world, okay, and one foot in the kingdom of God.

You cannot serve two masters who either love one and hate the other. And in like manner, it did not work for Israel to have one foot in Egypt and one foot in the Promised Land. If they were to be God's people, truly holy and completely committed to him, God had to bring them out. They would be slaves unto God. He would be their master. They would be his people. This is essentially what was at the basis of God's message to Pharaoh. Each time that a plague took place and then Moses would approach Pharaoh, he says, God said, let my people go that they may serve me.

God was bringing them out into his service. Well, as we know, God did deliver Israel out of the bondage of Egypt with a high hand. Following the plagues that took place and it concluded with the death of the firstborn, Israel was released from bondage. They were free now to follow God, to serve him, to be his servants. And that's exactly how God viewed them in that relationship. He had paid the price. He had redeemed them. He was their master. They were his servants. Let's notice Leviticus chapter 25. I'm going to take a side trip here quickly, but I want to look at how God did in fact view the people of Israel following their release.

Leviticus 25 verse 39. Here, this chapter essentially sets a standard for the year of release and the year of jubilee and how the nation of Israel was to deal with one another in terms of servitude to each other. God said, be very careful. Leviticus 25 verse 39 says, And if one of your brethren who dwells by you becomes poor, he sells himself to you, you shall not compel him to serve as a slave. As a hired servant and as a sojourner, he shall be with you and 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. He shall return to the possession of his fathers. For they are my servants, God says, 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 them with rigor, but you shall fear your God. And so God very much viewed Israel as his servants. He redeemed them from the bondage of slavery in Egypt as his own, and in the ultimate sense, he owned them. He was their God, but he owned them. They were his servants, they were his people, and they were to be very careful in the manner in which they subjected themselves then one to another. As his special people, they belong to God.

Now, if we turn to Exodus chapter 14, we begin to see that, unfortunately, Israel did not always see themselves and see God in that same light. They didn't always recognize that God was their master. He was the one that had true control over their lives, and they were subject to him.

They could not see that, and we'll acknowledge that as we come up to their first challenge. Exodus chapter 14, beginning in verse 1, which is following their release. Verse 9, so the Egyptians pursued them. All the horses and chariots of Pharaoh, his horsemen, and his army, and they overtook them camping by the sea beside High Hiraath before Baal Zephon. And when Pharaoh drew near, the children of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians marched after them, so that they were very afraid. And the children of Israel cried out to the Lord. Then they said to Moses, Because there were no graves in Egypt, have you taken us away to die in the wilderness? Why have you so dealt with us to bring us up out of Egypt? So here, Israel's sort of in a, I guess, like a box canyon type of a situation, and to see at their back Pharaoh coming through the opening, he's coming to round them up to take them back to Egypt, maybe to destroy those that would resist. And Israel's crying out. They're looking to Pharaoh. They're looking to the 600 chariots that are coming. They're looking to his soldiers and his army as that power that still very much has control over their lives. And in that way, they were literally submitting themselves to the will of Pharaoh, rather than submitting themselves to the will of God, who was their deliverer. Israel had this problem of continually taking their eyes off of God, and looking back to what they perceived as power and strength and control over their life.

Carrying on, verse 12, they said, Is this not the word that we told you in Egypt, saying, Let us alone that we may serve the Egyptians? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than that we should die in the wilderness. Can you imagine that, brethren? Can you imagine telling God it would have been better if you just left me alone?

If you had never called me out of this world, then to bring me out and have me face these trials or these obstacles, that comes as a result of living according to your call. That's essentially what Israel did. They said it would have been better to stay there than God to be here in this situation with you. Israel still considered themselves very much subject to Pharaoh's will rather than considering themselves subject to the will of God. Israel looked to Pharaoh as the one who still, in that sense, owned their lives. They not yet looked to God as their true deliverer. Verse 13, and Moses said to the people, Do not be afraid. Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will accomplish for you today. For the Egyptians, whom you see today, you shall see again no more forever. The Lord will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace. That's a good answer. That's good advice.

You know, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. See what God will perform in service of helping to bring you out of bondage today. Don't look to Pharaoh. Don't look to the army. Look to God and hold your peace. That's the answer. So we know the story, brethren. God parted the Red Sea, took Israel through on dry garam. The armies of Pharaoh came after them in pursuit, and as Israel cleared the water, God brought the waters back in on the armies of Pharaoh, and they died in the midst of the sea. It was an incredible miracle of deliverance by the hand of God. And as a result of that miracle, Israel never thought of Egypt again.

Right? Wrong? Exodus chapter 15 verse 22. Exodus 15 verse 22. So Moses brought Israel from the Red Sea. Then they went out into the wilderness of Shere, and they went three days in the wilderness and found no water. Now when they had come tomorrow, they could not drink the waters of Maro, for they were bitter. Therefore the name of it was called Marah. And the people complained against Moses, saying, What shall we drink? So we cried out to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a tree. And when he cast it into the water, the waters were made sweet. And there he made a statute and an ordinance for them, and there he tested them. God was testing Israel. He wanted to see what was in their hearts. Did they have the faith and the trust to believe in him and follow him completely or not?

So he provides them a test. He needs to see. Israel's problem was that they really only trusted in what they could see, as opposed to truly trusting in God. You know, you could see Pharaoh. You could see the chariots. You could see his army. But maybe it took a little faith to trust in God's deliverance. Verse 26, and he said, If you will diligently heed the voice of the Lord your God, and do what is right in his sight, and give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord who heals you. Then they came to Elam, where there were 12 wells of water, 70 palm trees, so they camped there by the waters. So again, God provided a miracle.

Now, this event, in addition to the others, again, should have been enough to push Egypt farther and farther than the minds of the Israelites. They should have had enough experience at this point to understand that God had the power to survive, or to provide, that they would survive following his lead, and that, you know, if they just looked to him in faith, they would make it through. The problem is, they never were really able to push Egypt out of their mind. Chapter 16, verse 1, they journeyed from Elam, and all the congregation of the children of Israel came to the wilderness of sin, which is between Elam and Sinai on the fifteenth day of the second month after they departed from the land of Egypt. Then the whole congregation of the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. And the children of Israel said to them, O that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat, and when we ate bread to the full. For you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger. You know, Israel said, O God, if only you had actually killed us in Egypt, where life was good, where we had what it is that we needed. Why have you brought us out here to perish in such a despised and terrible manner? Unfortunately, Israel's inability to forget Egypt plagued them all the way to the promised land. Now, as we carry on, God performs another miracle for them. Verse 4, Lord said to Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather a certain quota every day, that I may test them whether they will walk in my law or not. So again, God is providing, but there's another test. Are they going to have faith? Are they going to do it according to what he said? Or are they going to maybe try to store it up for the next day where it's going to stink, as opposed to going out and collecting the manna each day and double before the Sabbath?

It was a test. How are they going to look to God? Was it going to be in doubt or trust and faith? Verse 13, so it was that the quail came up at evening, covered the camp, and in the morning the dew lay all around the camp. And when the layer of dew lifted there on the surface of the wilderness was a small round substance as fine as frost on the ground. So when the children of Israel saw it, they said to one another, What is it? For they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, This is the bread which the Lord has given you to eat. So again, God provides for his people. And of course he would. He was their God. They were his people. They were his servants. God was bringing them to the Promised Land. He would obviously provide.

Now, unfortunately, Israel's inability to forget Egypt plagued them all along the way. God had separated them from Egypt so that they could serve him fully. But in their minds, they were still very much slaves to that Pharaoh, to that culture, to that nation from which they had come out.

The real problem wasn't getting the Israelites out of Egypt.

God was all-powerful. He performed what needed to be done to bring them out. That wasn't the problem. The problem was getting Egypt out of the Israelites. There were just certain things they couldn't seem to let go of. Certain things that they held on to in their hearts as significant, as a master that they continued to serve.

I receive an email update that contains Randy Stiver's Sabbath focus to his congregations, and it generally comes rolling in on Friday nights. This last week, his update was titled, When Israel Out of Egypt Went. As I read through that commentary of his, there was a portion of it that struck a chord with what I'm talking about today, and it caught my attention in this regard.

Mr. Stiver said, The funny, pitiful, aggravating thing is that the Israelites, on their way to freedom as God's nation in the Promised Land, constantly wanted to go back to their slavery addiction whenever life got tough. He called it a slavery addiction, something they kept wanting to return to, wanting to fall back into, something they felt that they had a need for. He then went on to equate their condition with what we would call the Stockholm Syndrome today. I thought, well, that's interesting. I gave it a little thought. I knew a little bit about the Stockholm Syndrome, but not a lot, so I did a little research. Let me share with you just a couple of paragraphs off of Wikipedia under the heading of Stockholm Syndrome. It says, Stockholm Syndrome is named for a particular bank robbery in Stockholm, Sweden. During the crime, several bank employees were held hostage in a bank vault from August 23rd to 28th, 1973, while their captors negotiated with the police. It says, during the standoff, the victims became emotionally attached to their captors. They rejected assistance from government officials at one point and even defended their captors after they had been freed from their sixth day ordeal.

It almost sounds a little familiar, doesn't it? It says, Stockholm Syndrome, or capture bonding, is a psychological phenomenon in which hostages express empathy and sympathy and have positive feelings towards their captors, sometimes to the point of defending and identifying with their captors. These feelings are generally considered irrational in light of the danger or risk endured by the victims. It went on to say, when a victim believes the same values as the aggressor, they cease to be perceived as a threat. It's an interesting thing to consider. When Israel considered Egypt in light of their circumstances, it almost seemed like a nice place to be. You know, you come up against the Red Sea, you come out into the wilderness without water, without food, and suddenly the bondage of Egypt made sense. Maybe going back there didn't seem like such a bad idea at all. You know, the reason they could make that connection in their mind was because a big part of their self-identity was still tied up in that culture. You know, yes, they wanted to be free. Yes, they wanted to land unto their own, but maybe they wanted to be like the Egyptians as well. Maybe there were just some things that they thought, hey, that's kind of nifty. I'll bring that along with me. Remember the golden calf? Whenever Israel faced difficulty, challenges, and serving God, they would revert back to Egypt, to that bondage, to that culture that still had, in that sense, they were slaves unto that in their own mind. Brethren, that's not a mindset. That's not a mindset that can be used in service to God. No one can serve two masters. The generation of Israel that came out of Egypt could not, and we cannot either. If we're suffering from some form of spiritual Stockholm syndrome, you know, if this world is a place that we readily identify with when the going gets tough, maybe we're facing a trial or some obstacle in service to God, if this world is what we look to for the answer, or we consider that maybe it was better out there, maybe we should go back, then, brother, it's time for us to go back to the drawing board and assess our life, and to assess what it is we need to do to align our thinking with God. He is our master. We are His servants, and there is no other. God brought Israel out of Egypt to serve Him. He's called us out of this world for that reason as well. Now, unfortunately, Israel couldn't seem to get past that point in their head, and it would be their undoing. We don't have time to look at every example of their dysfunction, but let's go forward to the end. Numbers chapter 14. Numbers 14.

At the end of the day, Israel walked right up to the brink of the Promised Land, and they refused to enter. You'll recall the story, brethren. The spies went in, spied out the land for 40 days, and all of them returned and gave a negative report, except for Joshua and Caleb.

They said, you know what? There's walled-up cities. There's giants.

We cannot do this. We are nothing compared to what awaits us ahead. Numbers chapter 14, verse 1. This takes place right after that report.

So all the congregation lifted up their voices and cried. And the people wept that night, and all the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron, and the whole congregation said to them, If only we had died in the land of Egypt, or if only we had died in this wilderness, why has the Lord brought us to this land to fall by the sword, that our wives and children should become victims? Would it not be better for us to return to Egypt? So they said to one another, Let us select a leader and return to Egypt. After all God had done in their midst, after all the miracles He had performed by the strength of hand by which He brought them out of Egypt, He opened the sea before them and removed the army as a threat, gave them water, gave them manna, gave them quail. After all these things, they still did not look to God as their master.

So let's select ourselves a leader and go back to Egypt. Verse 5, Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel. But Joshua, the son of Nun and Caleb, the son of Jafuna, who were among those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes. And they spoke to all the congregation of the children of Israel, saying, The land we pass through to spy out is an exceedingly good land. If the Lord delights in us, then He will bring us into this land, and He will give it to us, a land which flows with milk and honey. Only do not rebel against the Lord, nor fear the people of the land, for they are our bread. Their protection has departed from them, and the Lord is with us.

Do not fear them. And all the congregation said to stone them with stones. So the glory of the Lord appeared in the tabernacle of meeting before all the children of Israel. Then the Lord said to Moses, How long will these people reject me? How long will they not believe me, with all the signs which I have performed among them? God says, I will strike them with the pestilence and disinherit them, and I will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they. You know, God said, Moses, I'm going to wipe them out, and I'm going to start over with you. Now, that'll be an obedient people, hopefully. But we know Moses' response. He pleaded with God, Please spare the people. God heeded Moses' desire in that way. Verse 20, Lord said, I have pardoned according to your word.

But truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord, because all these men who have seen my glory and the signs which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have put me to the test now these ten times, and have not heeded my voice, they certainly shall not see the land of which I swore to their fathers, nor shall any of those who rejected me see it. Verse 28, say to them, as I live, says the Lord, just as you have spoken in my hearing, so I will do to you. The carcasses of you who have complained against me shall fall in this wilderness. All of you who are numbered according to your entire number from twenty years old and above, except for Caleb the son of Japhunath and Joshua the son of Nun, you shall by no means enter in the land which I swore I would make you dwell in. But your little ones whom you said would be victims I will bring in, and they shall know the land which you have despised. But as for your carcasses, they shall fall in this wilderness, and your sons shall be shepherds in the wilderness forty years, and bear the brunt of your infidelity. God called it an infidelity until your carcasses are consumed in the wilderness. God actually considers Israel's rejection an act of unfaithfulness. It was an act of hortom because Israel was desiring another. They rejected God and desired to return to Egypt. Let them be our master. We will happily be their servants. Verse 34, according to the number of the days in which you spied out the land, forty days for each day, you shall bear your guilt for one year, namely forty years, and you shall know my rejection. So that generation of Israel rejected God. God was rejecting them. As a result, they wandered forty years in the wilderness, to all those twenty and above died, except for Joshua and Caleb. Brethren, it's a very sad commentary. It's tragic. God brought Israel out of physical bondage, but they died very much as slaves to Egypt. We don't need to turn there, but in Acts 7, verse 39, Stephen describes Israel's spiritual condition this way. He says, in their hearts, they turn back to Egypt. That's the consequence of a divided focus.

That's the consequence of serving two masters. It simply doesn't work. Again, you'll either hate one and love the other. It simply is not an option we can entertain. At the end of the day, a divided focus only leads to one true master, and it is not God. God will not share His greatness, His authority, His worship with another. We must serve God alone and no other.

Brethren, in our service before God, halfway doesn't cut it. We are either all the way in, or we are all the way out in terms of our dedication to Him. We cannot partake both of the unleavened and the leavened. We cannot be both slaves of sin and righteousness together.

Those two masters, they do not complement each other. They are opposed to each other. We must make our choice. Again, I ask the question, who's slave are you? Let's go to the book of Romans 6 and verse 16. Here, the apostle Paul lays out the options for us.

What is your choice going to be? Romans 6 and verse 16. Paul says, Do you not know that whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one slave whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death or of obedience leading to righteousness?

You can't have them both. You have to make your choice. Israel's problem was that they never really chose God. He was never truly their master. They liked what he had to offer. It sounded pretty good to them, especially after being slaves of Egypt, but they never truly dedicated themselves to serving God as their Lord and Master. What about us? What have we chosen? Are we serving two masters? Again, in the end, it does not work. Ultimately, it leads to death.

We've been given a choice, obedience leading to righteousness or sin unto death.

Now, obedience leading to righteousness is what we committed ourselves to at baptism.

It is a covenant relationship with God. When we went under the waters of that watery grave, it was symbolic of putting off the old man, putting off the sin, leaving Egypt behind. We came up in newness of life, again now in dedication and service to God.

We dedicated ourselves as slaves of righteousness. 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. So through that baptism, through that covenant relationship, we were able to walk out of Egypt into God's service. Verse 19, 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 which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now, having been set free from sin, having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness and the end everlasting life. Israel's end, at least that generation, was unto death because they never submitted themselves in service to righteousness and unto God.

Verse 23, for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life and Christ Jesus, our Lord. So it's a very encouraging word for us to consider as we think about the grace and the mercy that God's extended to us through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. God's released us from sin through that sacrifice, but we have to keep walking. We have to keep putting one foot in front of the other towards the kingdom of God, never turning and looking back. And it takes vigilance. It takes constant effort on our part not to grab the package of cookies off the shelf during the days of Unleavened Bread, not to grab hold of sin that is ever before us in this life.

We're expected to avoid sin and temptation because that leads once again to bondage. Ephesians 4, verse 17. Ephesians 4, verse 17. This I say therefore and testify in the Lord that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk in the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their heart, who being past feeling have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness and greediness. But you have not so learned Christ. That is not the message that you have received. It's not the doctrine. It's not the covenant which you've committed yourself to. You've not so learned Christ. If indeed you have heard him and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus, that you put off concerning your former conduct the old man, which goes corrupt according to the deceitful lust, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, that you put on the new man which is created according to God in true righteousness and holiness. Therefore, putting away lying, let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor, for we are members of one another. Be angry and do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your wrath, nor give place to the devil. Being slaves of righteousness means we put off of those things that lead to spiritual bondage, that lead to unrighteousness. It's a spiritual, deleavening process that has to take place in our life each and every day.

We put the leaven out for seven days, but spiritually, it's a type of the process that we should walk through each and every day of our life. 1 Peter 1, verse 13. 1 Peter 1, verse 13. Peter says, Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully on the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lust as in your ignorance, but as he who has called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct. For it is written, Be holy for I am holy. Verse 17. And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one's work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear, knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things like silver or gold from your aimless conduct received by the tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ. As a lamb without spot, and without blemish and without spot, he indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you.

Brethren, being slaves of righteousness means we put off the old way of thinking. Our response to what God has done in our life should be to live lives of faithfulness, of obedience, and of service to him, because we were not brought out of bondage and purchased from that slavery by some simple monetary means. We were bought from that by the blood of his son, Jesus Christ. So in light of that, what ought our response to be? Our response, again, should be dedication, obedience, and faithfulness. Now in this life we do stumble. We are seeking to move ever away from Egypt, but we still stumble, we still make mistakes, we still on occasion fall back into sin, but that does not remove us from being slaves unto righteousness as long as we are willing then to come before God in repentance, to seek the blood of Jesus Christ, to recognize our sin, and to grow and to change.

Repentance is actually the means by which we can keep one foot in front of the other towards the kingdom of God and remove unrighteousness from our lives.

Final scripture, 1 John chapter 1 verse 5. 1 John 1 verse 5. It says, This is the message which we have heard from him and declare to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him, and we walk in darkness, we lie, and we do not practice the truth. You know, if you're sort of tagging along following God's lead, but you're dragging your heels, and you'd rather be back in Egypt, then it says it is a lie, and the light is not in you. You do not practice the truth. Verse 7, it says, Again, repentance keeps us moving forward as slaves of righteousness, because God in his mercy through his Son has provided the means by which we can wipe away, or he will wipe away, but we can have that unrighteousness cleansed from our life. But we have to ask. We have to seek God's mercy. We have to repent before him when we do stumble. The danger comes is if we ever turn from that, if we ever think, well, you know, my sin is just too big for the blood of Jesus Christ.

What sin is bigger than the blood of the sacrifice of the Son of God?

Maybe a sin you won't acknowledge and repent of, but certainly a sin that we lay before God, and we repent and we change our way. Certainly, the blood of Christ covers that, cleanses us from all unrighteousness. Brethren, we are God's people. He wants us to cast our cares on him.

God is leading us. He is not a harsh taskmaster. He does not abuse or beat or hurt those whom he has purchased. He loves them. And as David said in the Psalm, he leads them in the paths of righteousness for his namesake. As we go forward from these days of unleavened bread, let us never forget whose slaves we are. Never forget who owns us, who our master is, who it is that we serve. We've been admonished to change our lives, to become reconciled to God, to walk in the footsteps of Jesus Christ. We must do all of those things, but the only way we can do them is if we keep our focus fully on God's lead. He cannot serve two masters. Israel and their hearts turn back to Egypt. Brethren, let you and I purpose in our hearts never to look back, never to return to that bondage from which we've been delivered, always putting one foot in front of the other on our journey to the kingdom of God.