Why the Days of Unleavened Bread?

Happy feast! Good to see all of you. Appreciate the special music. I noticed, by the way, that we had the 20-somethings group that was performing here. Her roommate just squeaked in. She was only she's 29 and a half, so she made it just barely. But anyway, wonderful to hear them and always wonderful to hear good music, beautiful flowers here on the stage. We are at a festival, the festival of God, a very prized and very holy time that we're here. I trust you had a good Passover. We were down in San Jose and had a very good one down there. I hope you had also a wonderful night to be much remembered. We were, you know, in the back 40 last night with barbecue and all of that really very splendid, wonderful opportunity to get together. Some I know gathered in homes and observed the night to be much observed. And I'm sure, wherever you may be, I want to say hello as well to our Hawaiian brethren that might be listening in to services here today, or others that might also be listening into the Holy Day service here on the first day of our love and breath. But, brethren, when we view the world today, when we view society, it seems like the world is getting more and more complex. I don't know if you've noticed that, about our world that we live in. It is interesting. The world has changed so much, so dramatically. You know, of course, you see that even just walking through the supermarket, don't you? How complex things can be. You know, you don't just go in and buy a box of cornflakes. There might be a hundred different cereals you might have. Every once in a while, my wife will spring a cereal on me, and I've never seen such a thing. She brought one home the other day that had chocolate in it, and somehow she likes chocolate, you know. And you know what? She's got me hooked on chocolate, too. And, unfortunately, I have too much chocolate sometimes. But, anyway, there's such a variety. And, of course, those are the nice parts about society that are good. But there are many other things that are not so pleasant because of the complexities. And the world and the society we live in has become so complex, in fact, some even wonder, you know, what is this book? How could it be relevant today, this book that we have, the Bible?

When we look, in fact, at the intelligentsia of the world we live in, in fact, it seems like the primary goal of some in this society is to show the Bible is not relevant. That it's just another book made up by a bunch of old men through history, and it's not relevant in a world that is fast-paced like we live in and enlightened. You know, put that in quotes, by the way. We think we're enlightened, don't we, in this world? And it seems that much effort goes into discrediting the Bible. I don't know if any of you saw the latest movie they had on Noah.

You know, what was biblical about Noah's movie? You know, all of it was made up. And, you know, the director's interpretation, I guess, of what the Bible said. But everywhere we're facing this, it's like everything that has been done is to discredit the Bible, even to the extent of some thinking that people like King David didn't really exist. Of course, they're beginning to see through archaeology that was not the case. Some have even gone so far to say that Jesus didn't exist. Of course, there are historical references to Jesus as well that make that, you know, very much not something that is acceptable by those that are scholarly. And certainly, there are many who think that the crucifixion didn't take place, and that if Christ was crucified, he didn't die, that he went on and he married his girlfriend Mary Magdalene and had children. And you probably, again, I'm sure, have seen in some of the literature, those children, of course, were some of the kings that emanated, you know, out of France. But anyway, a lot of that is amazing. But the whole idea is to discredit...the goal is to discredit the Bible, discredit Jesus Christ, not being the Son of God, and to cast doubt in people's minds. You see, Satan is very successful if he can cause you to have doubt, to put doubt in your mind. And the world is very good at that. Satan is an expert at doing that. But with all of these things, brethren, swirling around our heads, we struggle to keep focused, I mean, to keep our minds riveted on what God has commanded us to do. You know, what is within the pages of this book? It seems like there's so many things that can distract us. And we, as God's people, can be distracted by the physical and the mundane things of this life. And it's almost like society tries to do that. It tries to pull you away from the spiritual. And while God has called us to enlighten us spiritually, the world is working very hard. It seems, I put that very loosely when I speak about the world. I don't mean everybody in the world. But it seems like things conspire to take away any enlightenment we may have about the Scriptures, and any confidence we may have. And the society, in fact, does impact us negatively. So, brethren, we must become, as it were, like a horse. You know, you've seen some of these old-timey, you know, cowboy shows, like a horse with a blinders on. You know, they're all blinders, so he can't, the horse will go down the road. And he won't be distracted by something, and head off in a direction he's not supposed to be on. But we've got to be like that horse with blinders on, and be looking straightforward to the kingdom of God, and, you know, more specifically, and particularly today, looking at the meaning and the purpose of the days of unleavened bread.

So, brethren, as we embark upon yet another year, another cycle of God's festivals, we should know, brethren, why we're keeping these days. We should know what they knew, and we should know why the days of unleavened bread. I remember, you know, a white-haired man used to, you know, quite old, an old man used to talk about how that we need to see the big picture, and he would always preface the feasts of, why are we here? Why are we here? And I think that, frankly, that is more important than ever it was, as we, again, go forward in time. Here we are in 2015. 2015. Amazing, isn't it? But why are we here today? In this complex world, we can forget why we're here, and what is it all about?

You know, is it just about the crumb that falls in the corner? And you've got to make sure you get that. I know we laugh about that, don't we? And sometimes we'll find, you know, bread in some of the funniest places. And sometimes they're very interesting, just again showing the foibles of this human flesh. But is it just finding that piece of bread in the corner? Or in the cup of your pants, or in the drawer that you forgot you put a sandwich in?

You know, or something like that. Is it? Or, as I know, in one case, one particular fellow. During the time of the days of Unleavened Bread, he, you know, went up to one of these places that you buy, you know, like hot dogs. And it said, you know, beef hot dog. And he thought, oh wow, they have beef hot dogs here. And, you know, here during the Unleavened Bread, he bought himself a beef hot dog. And he said it occurred to him when he got about halfway finished. Why he shouldn't be eating that beef hot dog. But isn't it the way it is? Sometimes you don't see the forest for the trees.

We get focused on something that distracts us. That can distract us, and we forget about what we're doing and why we're here. Well, but then why does God command us to keep this kind of festival? Let's go to Leviticus 23. I want to talk about the big picture today.

I don't want to talk about just the crumb that you find or something that has leavening in it. Of course, that's relevant. We've talked about those things already. But over here in Leviticus 23, these are the basics, as I mentioned in a message last week. I think I spoke in San Jose about that.

But in Leviticus 23 and verse 4 of this, again, we hear what it says here, and we must always keep this in mind. These are the feasts of the eternal. These aren't your feasts and my feasts. Hopefully we are claiming them as our own, but they're God's feasts. We always have to keep that up amongst our minds. Holy convocation, so that's why we're here today, because it is a commanded assembly, which you shall proclaim at their point of times on the 14th day of the first month at twilight as the Lord's Passover.

We've done that. And on the 15th day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread to the eternal. Seven days you must eat unleavened bread. And on the first day you shall have a holy convocation and you shall earn no customary work on it. And so that's why we're here today, and we're not to be working today and doing our labor, our plan, our trade.

And in verse 8 it says, but you shall offer, offer made by fire to the eternal for seven days. The seventh day shall be a holy convocation, so on the seventh day we'll gather again. That'll be... is that next Friday? I think it is... that we will have the last day of unleavened bread. And of course, as I've mentioned, to verse 8, talks about an offering made by fire. That was something the priest had to do in this particular case.

And we understand that Jesus Christ, of course, is the great sacrifice that is used by us in the event of wanting to go before God and ask His forgiveness. We don't have the blood of bulls and goats for our forgiveness. We have the blood, in fact, of God that remits our sins if we repent. So we're to remove leavening from our homes and eat our leavened bread when we eat that bread at seven days.

But why are we to do it? And what does it mean? In the big picture, I mean. The world ignores these days and consequently has lost its way spiritually. Most are not even aware of what we're doing today. You know, of course, you usually left, in fact, on the Sabbath and with some where anyway your neighbors probably knew.

But most people, most churches, don't teach, in fact, the concept of what sin is. Most don't know. If you were to ask an average person, what is sin? But they'd say, well, it's something wrong. Or it's a mistake. And so they don't really know, clearly, what sin is. Most people, most churches, have lost the concept, don't understand the concept, certainly, of putting sin out of their lives like we put leavening out of our lives. I mean, if you know the church that does that, I don't know of any solitary church that does that, except the church of God. So society has lost its way because of this. And I know, you know, it's hard for people to imagine, but because man did not listen to God, did not to have God's way in their thinking, man has gotten to the point where he cannot distinguish between right or wrong. You see it all around. I mean, it's all around us. Sexual immorality is a way of life. I mean, this is the way people live. And they look at you funny if you looked at them cross-word. Even you live in with that woman. Yeah, yeah, what's wrong with that? But sexual immorality, of course, far worse things. And I don't think everybody's that way, but far too many in our society, in this world that we're living in. In Isaiah 5, oh, Isaiah 5, let's go to Isaiah chapter 5. The prophet Isaiah, of course, was one who prophesied during the downfall of Judah and Israel. But in Isaiah 5 and verse 8, let's start with this.

I think it really shows, again, the situation we have in the world today. You know, I grew up, basically the nearest house to us, you couldn't throw a rock and hit it.

Where I live right now, you can look out my back window, and I can see probably half a dozen houses. And I could break the window out of probably about four of them with a rock, because I'm a nice guy, I wouldn't do that, but I could do it. But I grew up in that kind of an atmosphere. You know, if I wanted to get away from things, I'd walk down the path through the very patch, trying to avoid getting stickers on me, you know, on the way. And I'd make my way down through quite a few acres to a stream where I'd sit to think, you know. My brothers and I would go and play in the back 400 acres, something like that. Now, we didn't own 400 acres, but we played on. It may have been more than that, actually. Somebody else's farm during those days. We didn't worry about insurance in those days, by the way. We were pole vaulting across the creeks with saplings and, you know, climbing up to the tallest tree, you know, when we were really too too young to do it. But that was the way it was. But that was my upbringing. That's what I was brought up that way. Last night, we had a problem. I wanted to... I don't drink coffee that much. A very occasional... I'll have a cup of decaffeinated coffee, but I like a little cream. I'm really sort of petite when it comes to that, you know. Sissy, somebody might say, but I wanted some cream with my coffee. And anyway, they didn't have any cream. And I... I forget who it... I think I was talking to Fleur McKeelan, and I said, you know, if they had a cow, they wouldn't run out of milk. You know, that's the nice thing about a cow, you know. If you gotta haul your milk with a truck, you run out of milk, don't you? But you got a cow, I guess, if I wanted a cup of coffee, you know, I could go back and, you know, do it that way if I wanted to, if the cow was given any milk. But in Isaiah 5, we're saying, we live in, again, a world that is changed grammatically.

But Isaiah chapter 5 and verse 8, I lost my place here for some reason. Oh, yeah, here it is. One of those who joined house to house. That's where we are, aren't we? You go down here to San Francisco as one. There's not even a way to get to the back. You gotta go through the back door to get out the back, in the backyard. They add field to fear, so there's no place where they may dwell alone in the midst of the land. Can't go and sit by a creek somewhere.

We're not here, and the Lord of hosts said, truly, may houses shall be desolate. All these houses, God said, are going to be desolate someday. Great and beautiful ones, without inhabitant. Nobody living in these monstrosities, you know, the mansions that people have these days. For 10 acres of vineyard will yield one bath, in other words, it's not going to yield as much, and a hammer of seed will yield one epip. And it says, woe to those who rise early in the morning that they may follow intoxicating drink, who continue to unite, to wine-reflames them. And so, they conk out, you know, as a result of it. It's like Mr. Coaster was talking about. Today, the world doesn't... people don't live on farms anymore. They don't live... we didn't live on a farm, but we live in a country setting. But most people don't live on farms, or in country settings. They live in 98% of the people who live in cities. I was reading an article recently about how China, now, is moving people out and into cities. And how they're building these cities, actually. They'll build a city with nobody that lives in it. 20, you know, 50-story apartment buildings. And then they move the people in. And so, they're doing that in China. They're moving people out of the rural areas into these high-rise places. So, this is what's happening. Things are changing, very rapidly. The world is becoming, again, increasingly complex. And, frankly, as we gather, more people gather into the cities, people become more vulnerable to dramatic things to happen and to occur. But people are crowded in the cities in the end of the age, though, what we read here in verse 11 talks about, you know, because of this, because people get involved in drinking a lot. In other words, what happens when people crowd in to cities, then sin tends to increase more. And society today is increasingly riddled with drug abuse, alcohol abuse, and other substance abuse problems. And even, you know, today, people, of course, are pushing to legalize, you know, some of these things in the past that were illegal. Now, same-sex marriage, it seems, is on the front burner of this nation. I don't know about you, but I get the feeling that somebody's trying to cram, you know, homosexuality down my throat. They're trying to cram all of this down on its throats. And I don't know if you heard about that pizza place, you know, that, in fact, somebody boycotted because they would not serve, you know, pizza to a gay wedding. And a cake place, I guess, it did it. But apparently, people got together to raise money for this pizza place. And the last I heard, they collected $750,000 for this pizza place. And the guy will never have to sell another pizza, probably when it's all said and done. But I think it really shows again in our society that the moral base of everything is being eroded. The moral base of marriage and family is being destroyed more and more in our society. We were discussing about some of this, in fact, last night about how some of our brethren live in circumstances now, you know, where you have a couple of men, they're getting married, or, and they expect you to congratulate them, you know, for their marriage, their gay marriage. In other words, you've got to join in this, and what's wrong with you? You're a bigot if you don't. You know, you're a bigot if you're not going to do, you know, treat me like you would treat any other nice and happy couple. Bring on, let's notice what God continues to say. Music oftentimes is a part of all of this that swirls around in our complex society. The harp and the strings, the tambourine and the flute, and wine are in your feasts. Wine, they're in your feasts.

And they do not regard the work of the eternal. Don't think about God.

So they have these feasts, but they don't really regard God. It says, therefore, by people have gone into captivity. It happened to Israel. When it went into captivity to Assyria, it was going to happen to Judah as well. Because they have no knowledge, and their honorable men are famished. This is sort of a metaphor that they're hungry for knowledge, for wisdom. They speak as fools. And their multitude dried up with thirst. And therefore, sheil, this word sheil, by the way, is the word that just means grave, translated hell in the King James often. But it says, therefore, sheil has enlarged itself, and opened its mouth around measure, and their glory, and their multitude, and their pop, and he who is jubilant shall descend into it. And all the happy people that are in this world, or supposedly happy people that are in this world, are going to descend into it. But here God says, your feasts are this way. Their feasts, like in our feast today, or what He means by that, they're holidays. And this is one of those weekends, isn't it?

Easter weekend. Yesterday was what they called Good Friday. And of course, Sunday will be the Easter that people will observe. Of course, we go back. It wasn't long ago that they were observing New Years, and before that it was, you know, Christmas, and before that it was Halloween, and it seems like there's never a lack of these festive times, these holidays that man has. And what do they do oftentimes? I'm not saying everybody does this, brethren. But what do many people do? Well, they party, don't they? They get drunk. Sometimes mindless music is involved. But what God is saying, what He said to ancient Israel and ancient Judah, is they are willingly ignorant of my plan. They're willingly ignorant of God's plan for mankind. You know, we're preaching the true gospel in this world today to an unwilling people. That's what our problem is. Sometimes we wonder why people don't listen. It's because they're unwilling to listen.

And Sheol is enlarging itself because people are unwilling to listen. It's almost like, brethren, it's like metaphorically, mankind is like a captive society, held captive by the falsehoods that they believe, and they're being herded along to the grave, to Sheol. And Satan is the one that's the, you know, the cattle rustler, who's kind of pushing them forward into the grave. And so people today are parving their hearts out to their final destination of death and destruction, and Sheol, or hell, enlarges itself.

Now, when Jesus came along, he talked about how narrow was the way that leads to life, but he said broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many go in there. They go in that particular way of the broad way that leads to destruction. This is where people are hitting.

Again, we need to see that big picture, brethren, of where the world is going, en masse. But verse 15, let's go on down here, and it says, people should be brought down, and each man shall be humbled. And I want you to think, in fact, brethren, this is going to happen to the United States of America. It's going to happen to Britain. It's going to happen to Europe, and it's coming. And many people really sense it's coming.

We're just waiting for the other shoe to drop in the world, and the society we live in.

And it says, the eyes and the lofty shall be humbled, and the eternal host shall be exhausted in judgment. And God, who is holy, shall be howled in righteousness, then the lambs shall feed in their pasture, in the waste places of the fat ones strangers shall eat. But what are those who draw a nucuity? It says, with cords of vanity.

They're out of their pompous attitudes. They're drawing sin along with it. They don't change. They refuse to change. And sin, as with a cart rope, you know, they got this way of life that they're dragging around everywhere they go. Let's say, let him make speed and hasten to his work. You know, it's like somebody stands up and says, you know, the time of reckoning is going to come.

You got some people who are out there saying, oh yeah, time of reckoning. Let him, let him go and come on back and do something. Let him make speed and hasten his work, that we may see it. We want to see him change the course of the way we're going, that we may see it. And let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw near and come, this flippant attitude toward God, that we may know it.

What are those who call evil good, though God says, and good evil? Who put darkness for light and life for darkness? Who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter? What are those who are wise in their lives and prudent in their own sight? So this is the world we're living. And men, people, humankind, they're defiant against God. And I know that many professing Christians consider themselves very humble, and they think they follow this book. But I tell you what, if you try to change them for what they believe, they will come after you with a venom. And they will do all they can do to destroy you, just as they tried to destroy Jesus Christ. Of course, they could not, because he could not be herald by the grave.

The world is defiant against God, and they don't think God's going to punish you. In the heaven of the attitude, well, yeah, I'd like to see him pull that off.

Many today scoff at Jesus Christ returning, being subject to God and His kingdom in the world tomorrow. And this is why the society is as it is now, brethren. Most don't know what sin is. You know, when I say, what is sin, what comes to your mind instantly?

How many had first gone three-four come to your mind? Would you raise your hand? I'd like to know that. Okay. How many of you thought transgression was law? Okay, I hope everyone would raise their hand to that, or lawlessness as it is in the New King James. But today, again, because the world is drifted away from God, and this is the big picture, brethren. We need to see people don't have an understanding what God's plan is for humanity. They do not understand the purpose for human life. Why human beings were put on this earth? Because they don't believe God put man on earth. Then we just kind of popped out after, I guess, a couple of amoebas got together way back when in the world that was quagmire and soup back in those days. And I guess they mated. You found two that could really mate. And so you and I are the product of basically some strange soup that eventually evolved into, voila, man! But, of course, they don't believe in God, and they don't believe that God created human beings. They don't understand God is not saving the world right now. They don't understand that concept. They don't understand that the gospel of Jesus Christ Himself brought the gospel of the kingdom of God is a witness of that coming kingdom.

And not everybody's going to be a part of that kingdom when it is set up.

And many, again, don't believe it. They don't know that a Christian must build holy righteous character by overcoming sin. That's what the overcoming of sin is about. It's not about finding the crumb in the corner. It's about overcoming the sin.

And they don't know that all of the overcomers are going to be the ones to rule with Christ when He does return. And they're going to rule as kings and priests with Jesus Christ in the kingdom. And they're going to be like Him because the Bible says we're going to see Him like He is, or as He is, and we're going to be like Him. You know, in the world today, people are taught, for the most part—not everybody does—but for the most part, people are taught that the law is abolished. You don't have to keep that own law. You'll just be a good, decent person. That's all. Most people are taught there are no absolutes.

That basically things are situation ethics. What's wrong now might not have been wrong at other times or in the future. They teach that the pagan doctrine or the immortality of the soul, that death is actually life. And that's all through. I mean, all through, you know, things that are said in society. And yet the Bible says in Ezekiel 18.4, in 20, the soul that sins shall die. They've lost the Sabbath. They've lost all of the holy days, which teach God's plan for man's salvation. And they observe days that have no meaning.

And ignore the clear commands that God has given to keep these days.

Now, man is confused. And the Bible says that Satan is the author of confusion. But if man had kept God's Sabbath, if man had kept the holy days and obeyed, and he would understand the holy days, and he would have an understanding of what God's plan is and what his purpose is. Now, think about this, brethren. The custom of Easter, what is the purpose of Easter? You know, can you explain that to me? What the purpose of Easter is?

If you were to give me a message on what is the purpose of Easter, what would it be? You know, I've never seen very much in it. Why? Because it's man-made.

And it's even condemned. You can read it for yourself in Ezekiel 8. It's condemned in the Bible. God condemned, in fact, ancient Israel for worshiping the sun that rose in the east. And that, of course, is very much what people will be doing on Sunday morning. Same stuff. And God lambastic the elders of Israel at that time that turned away from him, he said they worshiped the sun as it rose in the east with their backs to the temple. In other words, symbolically turning their backs on God. And that's what the world has done. But in Easter, there's no vision. There's no mooning.

You know, if somebody asks me about Easter, well, you know, you buy new clothes. You know, everybody gets spiffed up in these colorful clothes. You buy these baskets, our next-door neighbor, by the way, she sells Easter baskets.

And, you know, for a church, there's the green plastic grass, you know, you put in these little baskets. And then you put these colored Easter eggs. And then you go and hide them.

And, you know, sometimes you find them. It takes a long time to find these things. I used to do it when I was a little kid. And I frankly never did like it. You know, I mean, you had the eggs, and you went in and hid them. You know, how old, what's his name? He used to, Bill Cosby used to talk about, like the golf ball, you know, he hit the golf ball. Why would you hit it? You had it. But you hit it. Well, people, you know, had the eggs, and they hid them.

And, of course, on Easter, you sit on the Easter bunny's lap. Now, I never understood how bunnies related eggs, either. That's another thing. And, of course, we all know the sunrise service is tied into it. But also, I think, to be fair, they do focus on the person of Christ. They focus on the person of Christ. But, you know, they have no concept of what he said.

Where did Christ come talking about? You know, right there in Mark 1, verse 14 and 15, he came talking about the gospel of the kingdom of God. And he said, we've pet and believe the gospel.

And, of course, they've got all kinds of ideas about what the gospel is, none of which, you know, actually line up with what the Bible says about what the kingdom is going to be.

So, brethren, this is why you and I need to know and understand the importance of why we're doing what we're doing today. Right here at the beginning of the days of unleavened bread, we need to understand it. It has a meaning, in fact, that stretches from the creation to the return of Jesus Christ. What we're doing right now today, it has great meaning. Because God's plan is to reproduce Himself. He's building a family. And this is why humans, in fact, were brought into existence. And Adam and Eve were created to begin this process by adding multiple billions to God's plan. And the ultimate destiny of mankind is to become a part of God's family as eternal beings. That's what God's goal was for Adam in the Garden of Eden. And it is very clear in the Scriptures. Well, let's go back to the beginning, brethren, of the Bible.

Go back to the book of Genesis over here and recount what it says over here.

So God, of course, created all things, as we know. And that was done by the hand of Jesus Christ. And, interestingly, He created the Sabbath that chapter 2 talks about here. So that's why He's called the Lord of the Sabbath. But in Genesis 2 and verse 7 here, let's start us here. Genesis 2 and verse 7. And the Lord God, the eternal God, formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. And man became a living being. If you have a King James, a living soul. But He became a living being when He breathed into the breath of life. And by the way, that word being that is translated here in the Hebrew is vepesh. It means a living, breathing creature. But verse 8, let's go on.

And the eternal God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man who needed form. And out of the ground the Lord God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And so, to get the big picture, brethren, we've got to go back to the beginning of the Scriptures. And the really big picture is coming to understand that man is a living being. He's a living soul. He doesn't have a soul. He is a soul. And the true trees are key to it all, to seeing the big picture of why we're here today and what we're doing. Let's go over to chapter 15, or verse 15, I should say.

Verse 15, I'll go down through here. Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. So he was there in the garden. And in turn, God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat. For the day that you eat of it you shall surely die. So Adam was told not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And what Adam and Eve did with these two trees, by the way, set the course for all events from that time. These decisions that they made at that time impact us to this day. Chapter 3 over here. Let's notice here. Satan, in verse 1, it says, was more subtle than any beast of the field. And, you know, he reasoned with Eve and caused her to doubt God. So again, we see how Satan works here. Because he said to the woman, Has God indeed said, You shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And a woman said to the serpent, We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden. But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, You shall not eat of it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die. God had not said everything, in fact, that she had said. At least we don't have record of that. Then the serpent said to the woman, You shall not surely die.

So then he put doubt. The word, the operative word here, by the way, surely.

He knew that they were going to die, but it's just a matter of when they were going to die. For God knows that on the day you eat, yet your eyes are going to be open. Your mind is going to be open, in other words, and you will be like God. Knowing good and evil. In other words, He's saying you'll get to choose for yourself what's right and wrong. You can figure it out yourself. And so when the women saw that the tree was good for food, it was pleasant in the eyes, and if the tree was desire to make room for eyes, she took her that's fruit and ate, and she gave to her husband with her and he ate. So Adam just followed along after his wife. It did as she had done. And again, this set the course of events that have occurred since that time. Over in continuing in verse 7, you know the story, then the eyes of both of them were open, and they knew that they were naked. Okay, we began to have our minds open to different things that we're not focused on before. In verse 8, when they heard the sound of the, the kind of God walked in the garden in the cooler of day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees. And then when he turned, God called Adam and said, Dan, where are you? Then he said, I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, and I hid myself. And he said, who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree which I can manage you, that you should not eat? Then the man said, the woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate. And the Lord God said to the woman, what is this that you've done? And the woman said, the serpent deceived me, and I ate. A lot of buck passing here, right? Like they say, you know, God chasing Adam, and Adam said, well, God, the woman you gave to me, she's the one that, you know, enticed me to do this, and I did it, and I ate. And then God faced Eve, and Eve says, well, the serpent did it. The serpent enticed me to do it, and I did it. And, of course, then the serpent didn't even have a leg to stand on, so he didn't have anything. But...

So God said to the serpent, because you've done this thing, you were cursed more than all cattle, and more than every beast of the field, and on your belly you shall go, and you shall eat dust all the days of your life. And now put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed, because this has prophetic significance in itself. It is the big picture as well. And he shall bruise your head, which is a more permanent condition. By the way, enmity shall bruise his heel. You're going to have a lesser impact upon him, in other words. To the remedy, he said, I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception, and pain you will bring forth children, your desire shall be from your husband, and he shall rule over you. Then to Adam, he said, because you have done, he did the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree from which I commanded you. So you shall not eat of it, cursed is the ground for your sake. In coil, you will eat of it all the days of your life. And so he was going to earn his bread by the swiveth of his brown. This is when man's trouble began. His trouble began to multiply from this very time. You know, often students of literature are asked to understand the symbolism and meaning of things. You know, if you ever read Homer or, you know, some of the writings of Shakespeare, there's a lot of symbolism, a lot of metaphors. And frankly, I don't like that kind of literature, you know, but it is sometimes a good way of teaching. But, you know, of course, Samson, all of us are familiar with Samson's riddle. Again, this is what I mean by metaphors that have meaning. But, you know, what God is talking about, when he's talking about the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he's talking about metaphors of what they mean, what they picture. The tree of life as well as a metaphor of what it pictured. And the tree of the knowledge of good and evil pictured, basically, man acquiring knowledge by himself with, of course, the influence of Satan. That's how it worked. The man was, in fact, influenced by the devil, and that's why we have the knowledge that we have in the world today that is a mixture of good and evil. And hence, it was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The tree of life, on the other hand, pictured God-given knowledge. In other words, knowledge that God gives us that would have been pure, that would have been white. And also, the tree of life pictured the Holy Spirit. It was denied man right there. And so, the man did not know the right way after that point.

And the fact is that man has been eating from the wrong tree since that time, ever since that time. And that's the root cause of all the human problems of the last 6,000 years. Do we fully grasp, brethren, the significance of this profound truth that is here? All of the problems stem from this point in man's history. All your problems, all my problems, come from this. This is where it started. When Satan swayed man to decide for himself what was right and wrong, this set the course of the last 6,000 years. Notice in verse 22 down here, Then the Lord God said, Behold, the man has become like one of us. In other words, he's going to start deciding for himself what's right and wrong. To know good and evil, now lest he put forth his hand and take also the tree of life and eat and live forever. Therefore, the Lord God sent an hour the garden of Eden to tear the ground from which he was taken. So he rolled man out and put an angel with a flaming sword there to keep man from the tree of life.

But God had intended, brethren, he had intended to actually give Adam and Eve eternal life. That's what he intended to do. But because of what man did, that had to be delayed. Because man was going to have to now be somehow reconciled to God. You've got to change the way Adam and his descendants think about God. And so those problems have been embedded the last 6,000 years for a reason. And man could not be reconciled, by the way, to God unless something very dramatic happened, or that we celebrated, in fact, or observed, I should say, a Passover. Even though sometimes it seems like in the world today that all the troubles, all the traumas, it's like somehow God has sort of walked off in the universe and forgotten about his creation. But the fact is that God hasn't given up on the world. But he has a plan. And he's planned and involved, in fact, when Adam sinned and Eve sinned, it says that Jesus is the lamb slain from the foundational world. Jesus Christ knew he was going to have to come and die that day for man to reconcile the two back together. To reconcile man back to God. But in the interim, the last six thousand years, basically what God says, he drove him out of the Garden of Eden, kept him from the Tree of Life. He said, okay, you go from your own ways, you decide for yourself. You prove for yourself. It's like a lot of times a young person, you know, they just, they've got to prove it to themselves. They've got to fall down and break their, you know, skin or knees and sometimes they break their legs, you know, to find out where he is not the way to go. It's like, you know, one boy, one time was in his grandfather's blacksmith's shop. His grandson came in there and he was looking around, saying, you know, kind of inquisitive young boys can be. And anyway, he walked over to, he noticed there was a horseshoe sitting on the table. Been sitting there for a little while. And so he picked that horseshoe up that had been, in fact, you know, heated up to an incredible, but he picked that horseshoe up and slapped it back down. And his grandfather says, what's wrong? Is that hot for you? And the young boy said, no, grandfather. He says, it's just been taking me very long to cook a horseshoe. But, you know, mankind has to burn his fingers sometimes before he gets the message.

But God hasn't given up on man. He's just allowing man in every way possible to prove that his way does not work. To prove that he doesn't know the difference between right and wrong, and that everything he does is going to end up at, you know, the address of death. That where he's been hurt by the devil is into the grave. And what God was going to do was going to take time. It couldn't be done just like that by instant fiat. You know, God knew that mankind would only run by experiencing every option that you could think of. You know, someone would think, you would think, after the whole world was destroyed during the time of Noah. Now, think about this. Only eight people were asked on the earth. You'd think after such a debacle that took place in the world, that everybody was wiped out. That we wouldn't be dealing with wickedness today, would we? That man would have finally learned this lesson with eight people. You'd think that. And now, with seven billion people up on the planet, you know, we're back probably worse than we were prior to the flood.

A man didn't learn, did he? But, you know, you can imagine where people, well, God, if you'd have just given, allows us to start all over again. Well, God says, okay, I'll let you start over again. So he used Noah. You know, some would say, well, you know, God, I know dictatorship doesn't work, but let's try some other government. Maybe that would work. So man has tried algarchy.

He's tried monarchy. He didn't have monarchies on the planet today. We have democracy, republic, and we've even tried anarchy. And none of them work. Everything ends in violence, doesn't it? In death. You told me one government that man has ever had that worked out. Even the theocracies of this world, the theocracies of whatever religions it would be. And the world has only experienced a wall in the war we call peace.

And all kinds of human-derived knowledge and education has resulted in misery in the world. It hasn't taken from the misery that people have today. In every form of government, as I said, every form of religion has been tried. You've got some people that are into religions of just sitting on top of a post somewhere. And on a column, staying away from human beings, that doesn't work. And you know, there's every kind of religion. You know that there are 12 to 1500 different denominations of the world. And it seems the confusion multiplies more and more. Now what we might ask, brethren, is why did God give free reign to man, such creation, to live out his own way? Why did he do that? Why six thousand years? Why so much suffering? Why so drawn out and painful? Didn't it give Satan all the time, all that time to deceive man? Kind? Well, brethren, yes, it did. He gave man time. So, again, to prove that his way does not work.

And all of it was necessary because man, kind, still has not yet come to repentance, you see. Well, along the line, if we we wifed up, we've repented. We haven't, have we? No matter what period of time you look at, you could look at, you know, 100 years after the flood, probably, they had not repented. And brethren, it will be much worse than we imagine as we near the time of the Tribulation. And the Tribulation, again, well, of course, that's another topic.

So, brethren, what significant problem came early after the creation of Adam and Eve?

What was the first thing that came after God created Adam and Eve? Anybody know? Sin, right? The sin. God commanded, and man disobeyed, and he sinned. This is the very first thing that man did. So, here we are, the first day of Unleavened Bread, and we're focusing on removing leavening, which depicts sin, which Adam and Eve, hopefully, you know, have been wonderful, and they'd never done it before. So, that's God's perfect logic. Okay, we're going to begin by eradicating the sin. So, first we have the Passover, where we have the opportunity to be forgiven of our sins by Jesus Christ.

We need to, again, define sin, that that is progression of law, and we see that, again, there's a consistency from beginning to end of the Bible, that the commandments, judgments, and the statutes, you know, Abraham was keeping them, 2000 BC, by the way.

And so, we need to remove, we need to define sin in our life, and we need to remove sin from our lives. And this is why we are keeping the days of Unleavened Bread. It depicts sin, it must be put out. In the seven days, we observe, symbolize, completely putting it out. And that is a long process for us of overcoming our human nature.

This is why Unleavened Bread is given to us, the big picture of why it's given us, through us to confront sin first. This is why the Passover, again, was given to us, so we could put sin away by repentance and God's subsequent forgiveness.

So, we need to confront sin first. You know, in the case, for instance, of the angels, when the angels actually sinned, they became demons. And so, God, when created human beings, it seems to have been a part of His plan. Maybe it was a plan B, but a very strong argument that it was going to happen. And maybe a plan A, or even was if it didn't happen. I think God knew that man would sin, by the way. But the plan will be the way that man will.

So, God wants us, brethren, to overcome sin. He wants us to confront sin first. So, when God created the angelic world, He gave them eternal life. Okay? What God has said with us, I'm going to cause you. You've got to confront sin before I give you eternal life. Because God is not going to create another devil. Let's go to Jeremiah 31. Jeremiah 31 over here. Jeremiah 31.

The prophet Jeremiah over here talks about a time coming where something dramatic is going to happen. And it's already happening with us. If we're confronting sin in our life right now, that God is writing His laws within us in our minds. But this is the prophecy of what's going to happen for all mankind, ultimately. But in Jeremiah 31, verse 31, Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, over the house of Judah, not according to the covenant I made with the fathers in the day, that I took them by the hand, to lead them out of the land of Egypt. My covenant, which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the Lord. But this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord, I will put my law on their minds and write it on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no more shall ever their teachers neighbor, and every man his brother, say, no, the Lord, for I also know me from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord, and I will forgive their iniquity. And their sin I will remember no more. God's going to forget again the sin of mankind. Of course, mankind is going to have to repent like we have in order for that law to be written in their hearts. God's going to set up his kingdom. And you know, Isaiah 2, we have the imagery of God's ways being taught. A man coming to Jerusalem to hear this way. There's going to change a heart, a change of attitude. And man's in Satan's ways going to be completely removed. And so, the beginning of the remaining, we're going to start the 11-hour process. And man will begin to eat from the tree of life.

It's going to lead to eternal life for mankind. And so, the days of 11 bread are significant to that, brethren. And it reveals what God began with Adam and Eve in the garden. And it also reveals, through the days of 11 bread, how it's going to end. See, in other words, it goes from Genesis to Revelation. It goes from the creation of man to the return of Jesus Christ. And in fact, past that, you know, for the millennium as well, for a thousand years. So, days of 11 bread reminds us, brethren, to remove sin. It reminds us to remove selfishness from us, of being self-willed, having a self-willed approach to life. You see, having self-willed was the kind of problem that Adam and Eve had. They wanted to fulfill their will and not God's will. It's a time to overcome and to remove sin from our lives and to put God's way into us. You know, some might think, well, if all are going to be doing it in the world tomorrow, why is overcoming and removing sin from our lives such a big deal now for us?

You know, why don't we just wait till the world tomorrow?

Well, because we're called out of the world in advance of all mankind because God always trains the teacher before He calls them the class. And that's what the kingdom of God is going to be an opportunity to teach others. And Revelation 5, 10 shows that we're going to be kings and priests then, assisting Christ, and that the law is going to go forth from Zion to the world. So, really, are we able to grasp this overall big picture truth? And why we need to do it ahead of others? We're going to be teachers in the world tomorrow, and this is the big picture, brethren, we need to see as God's people. There's a verse in Psalm that really sticks in my mind, and I think quite often, is Psalm 111 verse 10. It says, "'A good understanding have armos that keep and do His commandments.' All those that obey God's commandments have a good understanding. You see, why the world does not understand. So, brethren, God wants us to comprehend this overview. Of why we're here. Of why we are observing the days of Unleavened Red. God wants His people to be people of understanding. And the Bible says that the whole creation groans and prevails until now, waiting for the revealing of the sins of God. And the whole earth, brethren, is stressed, is cracking because of the horrible effects of Satan and sin in this society. And they're all over this globe. So, never forget, brethren, there's a great purpose of what we're doing and why we're here. And as we begin here, the days of Unleavened Red, today, let's keep this big picture in our minds. Because that is why we are here today, during the days of Unleavened Red. During the days of Unleavened Red. And let's go forth the next seven days and begin to really apply it enough in our lives, to embed it in our lives, that it affects us and impacts us, you know, all year round as God's people. But that's the big picture. Let us, again, never forget that and how important it is. When we forget the big picture, we've lost it all.