Why Do We Put Leaven Out?

Greetings to everyone. Last week, as you know, we had a video tape that put us a little behind on getting ready for the past sobering days of unleavened bread as far as sermons. So I thought today I would just give two. That way we could catch up. We'll shorten them a little bit. But be able to cover, I think, a couple of topics. As we all realize, there are topics that need to be covered, should be covered, before the holy days. Why do we put leavening out of our homes?

Is there a logical reasoning? Over the years, we've had members and some ministers leave the church. And I've talked to a few of them, and they imply, well, you're an Old Testament church. You're practicing an Old Testament religion. And one of the reasons they cite is the very fact that we observe the days of unleavened bread, and that we go to all the work of putting leavening out of our homes.

And the implication is, they are now in a spiritual church, and as a result, they don't need to do physical things. They're totally spiritual. And yet, when you examine the New Testament, you find that God requires of us to do a lot of physical things. What about baptism? There's nothing more physical than being dunked in water. But we find that everything that God gives that's physical teaches a spiritual lesson, doesn't it?

Baptism pictures the death and burial of the old man in the resurrection to live a new life. And baptism is not sprinkling. It's not pouring. It's dunking. It's immersion is what the word means. What about the laying on of hands? That's the physical thing that we do. We lay hands on you when you're anointed. We lay hands on people when they're to be ordained, elders and deacons, deaconesses. We lay hands on people after they've been baptized.

The laying on of hands acknowledges the authority in the church and our willingness to submit to it. Anointing, I've already mentioned. When you're anointed, we take oil, which is very physical, and we put a little drop on your head, and we lay hands on your head, and we ask God to heal you.

Now, what possible significance? I mean, the oil does not do any healing, I'll guarantee you. I rub oil on myself all day long, and it doesn't heal you. It is a symbol of God's Spirit, and it is through that Spirit that God heals us. What about the Passover? We take the Passover, and we eat physical bread, and we drink physical wine.

And guess what? We also do a physical ritual called foot washing. Now, I don't know of anything more physical than foot washing. You pull your socks off, you put your feet in the basin of water, somebody washes them. You take a towel, and you dry them, and then you do the same thing for each other. When you fast, that's very physical. Fasting is humbling your soul by going without food and water, and there's nothing that makes you realize, I am physical more than that.

The blessing of little children, same thing. You take little children, you lay hands on them, and you ask God to bless them. Now, couldn't we do all of these things by just praying to God? We could, but God commands us to do something else along with it. And by doing that, it shows our willingness to obey God and to submit to Him. Now, God also gives us many physical analogies in the Bible and physical examples, and these are there to teach us lessons again.

Romans 1, verse 20, tells us that we can look at the universe, we can look at the heavens, we can look at the earth, and that the physical creation helps us to learn about God's power, God's holiness, the fact that He is a creator, that He designed everything, and that everyone who has two brain cells up there should be able to discern this, and if they don't, God says they're without excuse, because He has given enough evidence in the creation around us to be able to prove that He does exist.

In the Bible, it also talks about eating compared to Bible study, that as we eat the Word of God, it helps to feed us. Water is compared to Bible study, or excuse me, to God's Holy Spirit. The church is called a bride. All of us understand what a bride is. We've seen many weddings.

The groom comes in, the bride comes, and they get married. And so God gives us these analogies because we are human, and the physical can convey to us a spiritual lesson. Christ is referred to as the husband in the church. Marriage is a type of Christ's relationship with the church. God is called a father. We understand all of these because we have human families, we have fathers, we have mothers, we know that our parents got married, and all of these things. You and I are to become like little children.

So again, you have the analogy in the Bible that we become as children. The church is compared to a temple, and each one of us, each one of our bodies, is compared to a temple. So there are many physical analogies, illustrations, comparisons in the New Testament. So is it any wonder? Is it unusual that during the days of unleavened bread that God has us to do physical things to teach us a lesson? Let's go back to 1 Corinthians. We'll read chapter 5, beginning in verse 1.

1 Corinthians 5, beginning in verse 1. Paul says it's actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you. In such sexual immorality, it is not even named among the Gentiles, that a man has his father's wife. You're puffed up, or as the margin says, you're arrogant, and have not rather mourned that he has done this deed and may be taken away from you, from among you.

He said, for I indeed, as absent embodiment present in spirit, have already judged as though I were present him who has so done this deed. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together, along with my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. It's better for him to have trials and tests in the flesh, and to repent, and be in God's kingdom. He says, your glorying is not good.

Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? A little sin will leaven the whole church. Here was a church who became proud themselves. They thought they had such understanding, such compassion, and mercy. They were willing to put up with this man and the sin that he had. Paul said that it was absolutely wrong. So we find here that a little leavening is a type of sin. That a little leaven will leaven the whole lump, just like you put leavening, baking powder, soda, into bread. It puffs the flour up, and you get a nice fluffy loaf of bread.

So sin puffs us up and makes us arrogant and vain, cocky and conceited and relying upon ourselves. You find an attitude like this can infiltrate a congregation. Locally or maybe even worldwide. A church can have a certain attitude. Look at the lay of the sins. They have a lukewarm attitude. You find there have been different ages and stages of the church where various attitudes have been very prevalent. Now in verse 7 he says this, Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump. He says, since you truly are unleavened. Now this verse doesn't make sense unless they were observing the days of unleavened bread.

Because notice, he says, purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump. He wanted them to be this way spiritually, since you truly are unleavened. They were unleavened physically, but they had forgotten to become unleavened spiritually. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast. So we're told to observe the feast. Not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

So the days of unleavened bread were being observed as late as 55 A.D. Remember, Christ ascended to heaven in 31. So 24 years later, the church was still keeping the days of unleavened bread. Their spiritual approach needed to match their physical actions. Now in Acts 12, beginning in verse 1, we'll notice this. About that time, in Acts 12.1, Herod the king stretched out his hand to harass some from the church. Then he killed James, the brother of John, with the sword. And because he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to seize Peter. Now it was during the days of unleavened bread.

And when he had arrested him, he put him in prison and delivered him to four squads of soldiers to keep him, intending to bring him before the people after the Passover. This was 42 AD. So here's just another example, another historical reference in the New Testament, that the Passover and the days of unleavened bread were being observed. Chapter 20, verse 6. In chapter 20 and verse 6, notice what it says here. It says, But we sailed away from Philippi after the days of unleavened bread.

Notice, after those days were over. And in five days we joined them at Troas, where we stayed seven days. Now the reason why I think this is important, let's go on to verse 7. Verse 7 is quoted by many writers who claim that this is proof that the early New Testament church was keeping Sunday. Because it says here, Now on the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul was ready to depart the next day and spoke to them and continued his message unto midnight.

And so they say, See here, Paul was meeting with them, they were having a Sunday service, they went to midnight and they broke bread. And breaking bread is sometimes interpreted to mean keep communion. But I want you to notice, if verse 7 can be cited as proof that you should keep Sunday, why isn't verse 6 likewise cited that you should keep the days of unleavened bread?

I think it's more clear than verse 7. Now again, they try to explain that break bread means to keep communion or to take the Lord's Supper. And since it's so often mentioned, it is claimed that you can take communion whenever you want to. Because you'll find that breaking bread is mentioned several times in the Bible. And obviously, it's not mentioned always on the Passover. Now again, in verse 7, here, this was after the days of unleavened bread. Now, I think you and I, this is just something that I think you and I understand, that we keep the Passover, but the Passover comes before the days of unleavened bread.

This breaking of bread here in verse 7 occurred after the days of unleavened bread. Now, it's interesting, if you'll read on, what happened is that Luke and Paul's party left after the days of unleavened bread. And then Paul decided to stay on because he wanted to strengthen the church and build them up.

And so he stayed on, and he preached until midnight. You'll find in verse 8 there were many lamps in the upper room where they'd gathered together. And then a window set a certain young man named Eutecus, who was sinking in a deep sleep. I think I would be, too, going to midnight. Some of you sleep into a deep sleep, and we don't go to midnight.

And he was overcome by sleep. And as Paul continued speaking, he fell down from the third story and was taken up dead. But Paul went down, fell on him, embraced him, said, Do not trouble yourself, for his life is in him. Now when he had come up and had broken bread and eaten. Now the question is, did he break bread twice that night? Did he keep communion twice that night? Did he pass over twice that night? Did he keep the Lord's Supper twice that night? I don't know if anybody really claims that, but that's actually what took place. But I want you to notice, he said, they broke bread and they ate.

The term break bread, anciently, simply meant to eat a meal. Because they would normally bake what we would call a pone of bread. Any of you familiar with corn pone? My mother used to bake corn pone all the time. That's just, you make maybe a little skillet of corn bread, pour it out. Instead of cutting it, you just break it off and eat it. It's like baking a loaf of bread today. If you bake bread in your own oven and you get it out, unless you cut it into slices.

And sometimes when you try to do that, some slices are thin, some are thick. What if you just took the bread and broke a chunk off and started eating it and passed it around the table. And everybody else breaks the chunk off and eats it. Well, that's breaking bread. And it's actually talking about eating a meal. Verse 12, the young man came out and he was alive. And so they were comforted by this. Now in chapter 27, we have another incident where bread was broken. Now the reason I'm citing these is to show you that breaking bread does not mean keeping communion or taking the Lord's supper.

In verse 9, you remember Paul had been arrested. He was being sent to Rome. He's on a voyage to Rome and his ship is about the same. Verse 9, when much time had been spent and sailing was now dangerous because the fast was already over, Paul advised them, My margin says the Day of Atonement. And I think almost every commentary will explain that the fast, when you have the definite article in front of the fast, is talking about the Day of Atonement. Paul kept the Day of Atonement. Now, they had rough weather. It looked like the boat was going to sink. They started throwing gear overboard. They started throwing some of the produce overboard. Verse 21, it says, After long abstinence from food, then Paul stood in the midst of them and said, Men, you should have listened to me and not have sailed from Crete and incurred this disaster and loss. Now, verse 33, As they was about to dawn, Paul implored them all to take food. Now, notice, take some food. He says, Today is the fourteenth day that you have waited and continued without food eating nothing. So they had gone fourteen days without eating. Therefore, I urge you to take nourishment, for this is your survival, since not a hair will fall from the head of any of you. Then, when he had said these things, he took bread, gave thanks to God in the presence of them all, and when he had broken it, he began to eat. They were all encouraged and also took food themselves. And all there were two hundred and seventy-six persons on the ship, so when they had eaten enough, they lightened the ship and threw out the wheat into the sea. Now, were they keeping communion here when Paul broke bread? Had gone fourteen days without eating, did Paul pass a little wafer around to them to eat? Does that give them nourishment? Does that give them strength to swim from the ship into shore? No, Paul knew what was about to happen. All two hundred and seventy-six of these people certainly were not keeping communion. I think I can prove that, because as you read through the context, there were Roman soldiers here. There was a centurion. There were seamen. There were all kinds of people. Only Paul, maybe one or two others, were actually converted. Paul and a few in his party. Otherwise, the rest of them were not. Anyway, the Passover is not fourteen days after the Day of Atonement. So they couldn't have been keeping the Passover, and they certainly weren't keeping communion. In Acts 2, you find, verses 41 through 46, that when the early New Testament church first began, they had all things in common. As verse 41 says, there were three thousand of them baptized on this one day and added to the church. In verse 42, they continued steadfast in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayer.

Now, it says, many fears came on every soul. Many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. Verse 44, they had all things in common. They sold their possessions, divided them so that everybody's needs could be met. Again, you have to realize the situation. The church is just starting. People were converted. They had come from all over the Roman Empire to keep the Day of Pentecost. They were wanting to hear the truth and learn more. So those who had it and could afford it sold possessions so that they could buy food, and people could be able to stay there and hear. So they continued daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house. Does that mean that they went from house to house keeping communion? No. They ate meals from house to house. They broke bread, and they ate their food. See again, break bread, eat food. Not break bread and keep communion. They were eating food with gladness and simplicity of heart. And you find that God added daily those who were called. Now in 1 Corinthians 11 and verse 23, 1 Corinthians 11 and verse 23, let's notice here that on the Passover Day, and many of you who have kept the Passover know, we do break the unleavened bread. But I don't read in the Bible that's called breaking bread. That's called, yes, you break the bread, but it's not talking about eating a meal. It's talking about breaking the unleavened bread into little pieces and then passing it around for everybody to participate in. Now in verse 23 it says, I'm in wrong chapter, chapter 11 verse 23.

It says, For I received from the Lord that which also I delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which he was betrayed took bread. And when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, Take heat, this is my body which is broken for you, due in remembrance of me. So, you know, that's very clear. In verse 33 you find that they were keeping the Passover together as a group, not in individual homes at this time, just as we do. We come together as a congregation. This is one of those congregational meetings where we meet together. Therefore, my brethren, when you come together to eat, wait for one another. But if anyone is hungry, let him eat at home. Eat your meal at home first, lest you come together for judgment. And the rest I will set in order when I come. And notice back in verse 20, Therefore, when you come together, chapter 11 verse 20, in one place, it is not to eat the Lord's Supper. The Passover is not the Lord's Supper. We don't keep the Lord's Supper. Christ ate what is called the final Supper, Passover meal. We no longer eat a meal. We take the bread and the wine, and we observe it that way. In verse 21, they had a problem there for an eating. Each one takes his own supper ahead of time, and one is hungry, and another is drunk. So Paul had to correct them on how they were keeping the Passover, because some were hungry, some were full, some were drunken, and that's not the proper attitude to come and take the Passover in. Okay, with that in mind, brethren, let's go back to when God ordained the Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread to see how he tells us to observe them and to keep them. In Exodus 12, verses 5 and 6, you find where the Passover was ordained. Exodus 12, verses 5 and 6.

The Lamb, God told them to set aside a lamb, and the Lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year, you shall take it out from the sheep or from the goats.

Now you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month, and then the whole assembly of the congregation shall kill it at twilight, or between the two evenings. They killed a lamb. Now Jesus Christ, when he kept the last Passover with his disciples, changed the symbols to the taking of the bread and the wine instead of the killing of a lamb. Jesus Christ, we know, is the Lamb of God, and he died on the Passover day. The Passover was observed once a year on the fourteenth day of the month of Abed. The Passover, as we all know, is a festival, but it is not a Sabbath day. You can work on the Passover day, the daylight portion of the Passover, you can go to work, and you can get the last of the leavening out of your house on the Passover day, if you want to. I remember one year my wife and I were really very diligent in getting everything cleaned and ready, and we were just about ready to leave for the Passover. We were going up to Pittsburgh from Wheeling, and we remembered that we forgot to empty our vacuum cleaner. So we hurriedly emptied our vacuum cleaner, but where to put it? Well, it was in our car as we headed up the road to Pittsburgh, and we kept watching the sun. It kept getting lower and lower. We didn't want to just throw it on the side of the road. That wasn't cricket. And we kept looking for a rest stop, someplace to pull off. And just about the time the sun went down, we found a barrel on the side of the road, and we dumped it in that barrel and went on. So you'll find that the Passover is one of the seven festivals. There are seven festivals, but it is not a Sabbath. There are a total of nineteen days during all of the seven festival periods, if you count them. There are seven festivals, and there are seven high days within those festivals. Now, let's notice in chapter 13 of the book of Exodus.

Exodus chapter 13, beginning in verse 3. Concerning the days of unleavened bread, Moses said to the people, Remember this day in which you went out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. For by strength of hand the Lord brought you out of this place. No leavened bread shall be eaten. So for that seven-day period, no leavened bread is to be eaten.

On this day you're going out in the month Abib. And let's notice verse 6. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there shall be a feast to the Lord. Unleavened bread shall be eaten seven days, and no leavened bread shall be seen among you, nor shall leaven be seen among you in all of your quarters.

So whatever your quarters are, your domicile, you're to get all of that bread out. In chapter 12, verses 15 through 17, you find in chapter 12 of the book of Exodus, verse 15, that seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, on the first day you shall remove leaven from your houses. Whoever eats leavened bread from the first day to the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel. On the first day there's a holy convocation, and on the seventh day there was to be a holy convocation. Those were commanded assemblies and Sabbaths. So rather than we're to put all leavening out of our houses.

Now that's a type, as we know, of learning the lesson of putting sin out of our lives. God doesn't have us to go to all this trouble, just to go to trouble. No, He's trying to, let's say, ingrain a lesson in our minds, in our hearts. Now, I'd like to read to you from a write-up that's been written dealing with the days of unleavened bread, because it basically outlines the three Hebrew words for leavening. As we know, God uses leavening as a type of sin. There are three Hebrew words, and the first word is mekametz, and it refers to any type of leavening agent. Any substance that you put with end bread or anything else that causes it to ferment or to rise up or puffs it up.

Things like yeasts, bicarbonate of soda, which is baking soda, baking powder are such substances. In other words, you put them in dough, and they will cause it to ferment and rise. There's another word, which is the most common word in the Old Testament, and that is S-E-H-O-H-D, and that means sourdough. Sourdough was a naturally fermented, yeasty batter, and that was the most common leavening that the Israelites had. Now, these leavening agents cause food to be chametz, C-H-A-M-E-T-Z, which means to cause food to be leavened. In chapter 12, verse 19, you find this word is translated leavened bread, or that they were not to eat anything that was leavened, but they were to eat the unleavened bread. And so you find that this is talking about anything that has been leavened. This would refer to bread, all kinds of bread, cakes, crackers, cookies, certain cereals, pies, anything that's got leavening agents in it would be chametz. Now, we are told that we are not to eat unleavened bread, so that means that during this seven-day period of time, you must be very careful to check the labels. I've known people go out and buy matzos and have a big stack of matzos. Not all matzos are clear of leavening. Some matzos have leavening in them, so you've got to check them ahead of time to make sure that they don't have leavening in them. Now, some people have asked about, well, can you use egg whites? Can you cook with egg whites? Over the years, we have said that egg whites are not leavening, but if you try to use egg whites as a substitute for leavening, I think perhaps you're breaking the spirit of the law. But there's nothing wrong with beating egg whites to use the meringue, other desserts, because they are not a leavening agent. Yeast extract is not a leavening agent. It's a derivative of yeast, and it cannot cause things to rise. A guy's brewer's yeast is a totally dead yeast, so you don't have to throw your brewer's yeast away. Cream of tartar by itself is not a leavening agent, only when it's combined with egg whites. So you get cream of tartar mixed with egg whites, and now you've got a leavening agent. So that's not the route to go. Some people worry about drinking beer during the days of unleavened bread. You open beer, and it bubbles and fuzzes, and gets ahead on it. Nowhere in the Bible does it say it's the days of unleavened beverages.

It just doesn't say that. Let's say any yeast that might be in there has already worked. Same thing is true of wine. People worry about wine. You don't have to worry about wine. The Israelites drank naturally fermented wine, and they drank it during the festival period. And God didn't say anything about the days of unleavened wine. It's the days of unleavened bread. What we eat. So Leviticus 23 verses 4 through 6, I'll just refer to that, says that you must eat unleavened bread, and not the leavened bread. What you should do is simply this. You should eat unleavened bread when you would normally eat bread during the days of unleavened bread. You eat a meal, and you'd normally be eating bread. That's when you would eat the unleavened bread. As I said, remember that not all matzos are unleavened. Now, how do you go about putting leavening out of your homes? Well, the best way is just let your wife do all the work.

Now, there are a lot of men that I know of who've done that over the years. Just let the wife, little wife, you know, it's her job. Her home's her castle. Everything out here is mine. And so, therefore, a man doesn't help. Let me say it up front. That's not the right way to go about it. This should actually be a family project where dad, mom, and all the children are involved in it. All of us need to learn the lesson of putting sin out of our life. Now, as you go looking for crumbs, as you go looking for leavening, it's a type that we begin to look at ourselves, and we see where we need to grow, overcome, put sin out of our lives. Don't wait until the Passover Day to put all leavening out of your house, either. By then, it's probably going to be too late. Don't kill yourself putting leavening out so that you don't have time to concentrate on the spiritual. See, one is supposed to teach us the other. Many do spring house cleaning during this period of time. You clean the kitchen, you clean the toaster, clean the couches and chairs, the stove, the refrigerator. The other day, I was in the back part of the house, and I heard this bang, bang, bang, and it kept going on and on. I thought, my wife is falling, and she's beating on the cabinet to get my attention. What's going on here? I went in, and I watched, and the toaster was going up and down like this. She was trying to get all the crumbs out of that toaster. She banged it, and banged it, and up and down. We vacuumed it, we ran water through it, and we did everything. I'm not quite sure we got everything out of it. Everything that appeared to the eye. You could bang, bang, bang on it, and occasionally a crumb would fall out. But I think it shows that it doesn't matter how diligent we are, you're still going to find sin in your life. You're still going to find things that you need to work on, areas that you need to overcome. Make sure you empty the vacuum cleaner and get all the leavening off of your property. Don't stick it in your garbage can, and four days later the garbage is picked up. You'll get it off of your property. Now, what if you have a non-member mate in your family? You're in the church, your mate is not. What should you do during the days of unleavened bread? Well, you always force them to eat unleavened bread, right? No, it doesn't work that way, I think, as you know. I say that facetiously. A lot depends on the attitude, obviously, and the cooperation of your partner. In many cases, I've known many who are not in the church, who are very agreeable to go along with the days of unleavened bread, and sometimes even will help. If not, there's still no reason why you can't, in the spring, clean the house. Just say, hey, this is house cleaning. And so you're in there, and you're cleaning the house, and you need to clean it at least once a year. Give it a good go-over, and try to get all the crumbs out. Now, if the non-member mate demands leavening, well, you can give it to him, but you shouldn't eat it.

You cannot force him to comply with your religion. It doesn't work that way, as we know. You cannot force anybody to do what God says. What I would suggest, if you have a non-member mate, try baking ahead of time. Unleavened bread recipes all year long. There's some wonderful recipes out there. My wife makes an almond loaf that's just out of this world. We've been eating it for the last week and a half. And I think we're on about loaf seven or eight now. Because our house is almost eleven. We just don't want to spread leavening around the house anymore. But there are a lot of delicious recipes that are just totally out of this world. You might be able to serve those throughout the year. And then, when the days of unleavened bread come, you start serving some of these special things. Something special every day. And your husband is going to thank you for loving them. Because you're going out of the way to bake things and give them to him. And, you know, just really a special time. You're going to all of this trouble for him. So, brethren, there's a reason behind everything that God asked us to do. It's not just a matter of a ritual. It's not a matter of doing something to please God that has no meaning behind it whatsoever. God does use the physical to teach us spiritual lessons. After all, we are physical. It helps us to grasp the spiritual requirements.

Now, a caution. You can do all of the physical and fail to do the spiritual. If you do that, we've missed the mark, haven't we? If you do all of the cleaning, you get that done, and then you fail to clean yourself up, then you have missed the mark. The great lesson, I think, that we learn is that we have a great Savior who died for our sins. He made it possible for us to be forgiven, and he gives us the spiritual power to come out of sin, to put sin out, to overcome the flesh, and to resist Satan the devil. So, brethren, we do need to focus on not only putting sin out, as we will see, but on putting righteousness in during the days of Unleavened Bread.