Welcome to the Life Bible Church podcast. We
want to thank you for joining us today, and we
hope you find today's sermon impacting as you
listen to it wherever you are in your daily walk.
To find service times and watch messages online,
see our website at lifebiblechurch .org. Now,
enjoy this week's message. I'd like you to turn
in your Bibles this morning. We're going to try
to go several places if we can. Today, I'd like
you to turn to Exodus chapter 12 and put your
finger in there in the Old Testament. And I'd
like you to turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 5.
So those are the two major texts. We're going
to look at other scriptures along the way. But
I kind of felt pressed this weekend as I was
not of what to do, but I was planning on coming
back. this weekend and actually picking up where
Pastor Trent left the church last week. And the
reason it's so important to me is because I happened
to work with Pastor Trent on that message even
though I was away. I was very involved in the
theme and kind of directing some of where I believe
the Holy Spirit was speaking to me on Pentecost.
And as I sat down to just Fill my mind with prayer
and then the mind of Christ. I told Trent, I
said, I have 15 different books and things that
are open on this topic. And I've been reading
and just saturating myself. But I feel like the
Lord is just shifting gears. And I said, I'm
a little bit at twix because I had planned on
preaching an expansion of Pentecost. And I really
felt like the Lord. I came back in Friday. I
came back in yesterday. I really felt like the
Lord spoke to me this morning for Life Bible
Church. He said, I want you to expand on Passover
so that they can really understand Pentecost.
So this morning, I'm going to probably teach
on a dimension of Passover that maybe you haven't
connected in New Testament understanding. But
I'm hoping that by the grace of God, that we're
all going to be deepened and widened with appreciation.
Of what God did in the Exodus. And what he did
at Passover. That carries into this table. And
so if you would. Would you just maybe bow your
head with me. And let's just welcome the spirit
of God. Father. In Jesus name this morning. Lord
we come to the word of God. Lord to be fed. Lord
you told Peter. Before you left, Lord, and you
said you'd come again, but you said, Peter, I
want you to feed my sheep. I want you to feed
my lambs. Three times you emphasized the issue
of feeding. And I'm asking this morning, God,
that you would begin to break open the bread
of life. You are the living bread. Of heaven
that came down. I'm asking you to open the word
of God. That there would be an understanding.
That would be released. Let an illumination and
revelation. Begin to come now to our mind. Let
an appreciation for how simple. But yet how deep.
The love of God actually is. And what is written
in the scriptures. Is for us. We now Lord ask
that you would give us full attention. Lord keep
our minds alert. As we would take this in. And
that great. Worship would expand in our heart
for how awesome, how wonderful you really are.
In Jesus' name we pray and everybody said, amen,
amen. Thank you, Jackie. All right. Let's start
in the New Testament because that's where I'd
like us to look at first and then we'll go to
Exodus in a bit. But we're gonna start in 1 Corinthians.
First book of Corinthians chapter five. Now this
is, this is quite a unique approach to talking
about Passover. Because if you understand anything
about the book of first Corinthians, now you
guys are scattered all over the place. All right.
So if you understand anything about the first
and second book of Corinthians, You will understand
this because I know we've got some new believers
in the room. And so this is, I'm probably gonna
do more teaching -esque style today than I am
gonna be preached, but there'll be some of that
as well. Because remember, teachers tell it,
preachers yell it, right? All right, so the reality
is, if you understand Corinthians, Paul was writing
to a church that he himself pioneered, okay?
Now, you have to remember that Paul himself was
a ardent Jewish person. Before his salvation,
he was not only born of the tribe, he gives a
litany actually in the scriptures. He was born
of the tribe of Benjamin. He was a Pharisee of
Pharisees. He belonged to the sect of the Pharisees.
that had the stricter adherence to the law. And
when he says a Pharisee of Pharisees, which means
there was a strict adherence to the law, and
then there was a elite group of people that in
doctrinal pursuits of the law and understanding
the minutia of who God is and how to serve and
worship God, he was of the intellectual elite
and he was of the observance elite. And God turned.
someone that was a if you want to call him we
would call it today he would have a double phd
in the things of old testament understanding
god turned that phd double phd mind that was
against everything that Jesus was. He believed
Jesus was an imposter. Saul did before his conversion.
He believed that the gospel that was called the
way at that time, that was before Christianity.
He believed that that was a complete farce and
a complete form of deception and that he was
willing to give his life to eradicate the way
and any Christian that was trying to taint in
his mind what the true minutia and everything
that he had studied, he believed they were a
detriment to it. And how gracious of God to take
Saul, who was one of the elite that was part
of the national, if you will, blood. born, bought
sons of Israel that had become so exclusive,
God turned him and brought him back to an understanding
of who Jesus is as the Messiah and would use
an intellectual champion on Judaism to defend
the gospel. Now listen, to every nation. So rather
than moving to the exclusivity of the minutia
of the minutia of Judaism, God would take that
exclusive member that had in his own mind worked
and proved himself of Judaism and he would make
a wholesale change through salvation and then
make him the apostle to the nations. Now that
in itself is incredible. That you would take
a scholar of scholars that spent his whole life
researching texts, reading. Now, listen, we often
think, I just got to stop here because I got
to kind of just download on us, Eric, just a
little bit. We often think, Daniel, that all
these guys did was read the Bible. Well, they
read it a lot. The Bible for them was the 39
books of the Old Testament. They didn't have
any New Testament writing. So everything they
got was from the 39 books from Genesis to Malachi.
But what you don't understand and what we're
very ignorant in this in the Western culture
is they were very well studied of everything
else. So if I was to go and I was to peel back,
and Nathan, I'll use you as an example. If I
was to peel back just the head of a Jewish scholar
in second temple understanding, meaning this,
second temple means the time from Malachi to
the time of Jesus's birth or the disciples' birth.
If I was to understand what was their base level
of reasoning, I could just crack open their skull
and say, what did you read? only read Torah or
scriptures or scrolls, the answer would be, are
you ready for this? No. That and all they read.
Can't be. Fact is, it is proven history -wise.
If you look at the scholars, especially one of
the historians, Flavius Josephus, and there were
others, Roman historian, Phileo, I think that
was his name. They would write of history and
what was quoted, but Josephus specifically would
lay out what would have been the... the halls
of saved scrolls and books and Alexandria in
our Old Testament times would have been the known
place of all documents of the world that would
have been preserved, would have been like the
library or the Smithsonian of today, where everything
on scrolls would have been saved from every culture.
The fact is when Daniel went to Babylon, and
I'm getting way deep here. This is what happens
after second service. You give first service
and then all of a sudden I just think about all
these things and I get downloaded and I'm trying
to be good. I'm trying to be good, Chelsea. And
so in this reality, Daniel taken from Judaism
to, now I skipped from Paul here. We're going
back to Daniel. Notice what it says. That when
Daniel and Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego got
taken captive, they were educated in what? All
of the things of the known world at that time.
That meant every form of science, every form
of astronomy, astrology. That means every form
of art that was done even from the Egyptians.
Everything that was involved in every form of...
they would have studied to have a view of a world
perspective and even of foreign deities and how
to work witchcraft and magic and occult power
what Daniel had to study. You cannot read the
book of Daniel and not come with that understanding.
Because in him, remember the statements, in you.
is the wisdom of the most high God. There's no
one like you. Why? They were getting their other
wisdom from other deities that weren't gods.
So when you talk about Paul and you talk about
his understanding and you begin to dive into
his life, you need to understand that he would
have had depth. and breadth of many cultures
and much understanding fact is when you read
him from that perspective and he writes the book
of Ephesians he's going to write about principalities
powers rulers and authorities he doesn't take
that language from anywhere else other than a
type of Daniel and a type of understanding of
second temple understanding that they understood
that there were other deities that were if you
will lesser gods that had rule over nations how
do I get that? Daniel said what? The angel told
him, when I leave you, I was resisted for 21
days. The prince of Persia resisted me. But when
I go back, I'll have to wrestle the prince of
Greece. Paul talking about prince of powers,
rules, and authorities was picking up on that
understanding. Now, why am I saying that? Because
Paul would have had an understanding of everything.
Everything that was going on in a Gentile mindset,
even though he was raised in the strictness of
Judaism and was educated, remember he quoted
poets. When he sent them to Crete, what did he
quote? He told Titus. Put elders at every church
and remind them. One of their own prophets said
this. Cretans are evil beasts and lazy gluttons.
And their own have said this. Paul was quoting
secular literature that got in the Bible. Hello
somebody. Peter was quoting. Enoch, the book
of 1 Enoch that's not in the Bible, when he quotes
about the last days, Jude does the same thing.
He quotes 1 Enoch. They quote the book of Jasser.
There were other literature that surrounded their
culture that they would have drawn from that
the Holy Spirit picked up and used in the scriptures.
It doesn't mean it canonizes Jasser or canonizes
1 Enoch or canonizes the Book of the Watchers
or canonizes the Cretan poets. But it means that
their understanding of literature, of history.
had an understanding and a framework that when
God breathed on them and used their particular
personality that God would breathe and write
the scriptures in, they had the breadth to pull
things in into the cultures that they would be
speaking to. Are you there? So it's important
that when the apostle Paul starts writing in
Corinthians, He has a very vested interest in
the fact that he pioneered that church. Through
the Holy Spirit, of course, we can't do anything
on our own, but God sent Paul to pioneer the
Corinthian church. He spent 18 months in Corinth
pioneering that church. So he's writing this
letter and Corinthians, without going too deep
into it, Corinthians was different than most
other cities. that Paul would go to in all of
his three missionary journeys. Fact is, the very
nature of the Corinthian city itself was built
on rebellion and debauchery different than other
Roman cities. Corinthian was the one seaport
that they didn't have a city there that was actually
started by sailors and those that were kind of
the rude and outcast of society. Now just think
of this. How many have ever gone to a coastal
port? You ever been to Newport or Depot Bay or
Lincoln City? Anybody ever just... Okay, three
of you, wonderful. Do you live in the state of
Oregon? Okay, if you've been to a port city,
how about Yahats? If you've been to a port city,
what do you feel? Do you feel this overwhelming
sense of just, oh, this place is so airy and
so light and so wonderful. It just feels so like
it's godly and sanctified. Why don't you feel
that? Because your spirit is witnessing that
port cities often carry with it a form of evil
based on a lifestyle of debauchery. What do you
find in most port cities? Why do American servicemen
and women, what are port cities known for for
sailors? A place to gamble, to drink, and have
sex. All right, let me just come down here and
make sure you're getting this. Do you understand
that? That port, when the ship pulls into port,
nobody's just running to Sunday school. Right?
I mean, more babies were born during the Korean
War. Why? American servicemen. Same with the
Vietnam. I mean, that's wonderful. in the fact
that we have wonderful people but the fact of
the the sin issue of it from the disease of it
from the sin of it from the carnality so when
you just understand port level city and you understand
debauchery you understand that if the founding
fathers were sailors themselves that the whole
city was built on a form of corruption It's kind
of like a little bit of, I mean, I'm not advising
you to go home and watch a bunch of Johnny Depp's
pirate shows, but the whole point of it is if
you couldn't trust a sailor, why? Because he
could be boughten with grog and with winches.
And that's your founding fathers of the city?
That's the level? of competency, and that's the
level of integrity. What it says to be, in fact,
is it was a term in all of the land. Well, I
hope you're not getting Corinthianized. The term
in their day meant, it's like would be today.
I'm going to be careful here. But if we say,
well, What they do in San Francisco, we know
what that means. For them to say, well, we hope
you don't get Corinthianized. It meant what?
That you move into a place that had no boundaries,
no barriers to carnality, to immorality. It would
be a cross between San Francisco and Las Vegas
on a port city. That was the foundation. of the
city of Corinth that Paul, by the Holy Spirit,
Holy Spirit put Paul and put him there in the
midst of all the temples that were there. He
wrote against the sexual immorality that happened
during worship. He wrote a lot of things. So
here, I know that was a deep explanation. I gotta
keep moving here. But Paul becomes the one who
brings the gospel. He said, I don't, preach the
gospel on other people's work. He was sent to
preach the gospel where no one had laid any foundation
stones. And Paul was the first one to bring the
gospel to Corinth. So when he's writing to the
Corinthian church here, he is writing, not just
as an invested interest that he preached the
gospel as an evangelist, did his work and left.
He preached the gospel as an evangelist, but
he carried them in his heart as an apostle type
father, wanting them to grow and deepen in the
things of God. So when he writes this here, he's
going to bring a Gentile church. And this is
what's so important for us to understand this
morning. He brings a Gentile church. And most
of us here are Gentile, right? Is there anybody
here that is? has full Hebrew or Israeli, not
the nation Israel, but Jewish blood. Is there
anybody here that has that? I had a few in the
service, first service. Any else? Some of you
might be half, but I'm talking full. Yeah, I
mentioned you already, Tiff. You're not, well,
yeah, you're pretty full. So I just said, her
dad was in the first service and I said, outside
of Steve and outside of Tiffany, Most of us in
this church are Gentile. We're the other nations,
right? We represent everything outside the Jewish
nation, the nations of the world, every tribe,
every kindred, every tongue. The reason this
is so important is the Gentile church, by nature,
our nature, and our Western culture, we have
bought the understanding that we really don't
need to know many times what was written in the
Old Testament. We can just read the English and
figure it out. We can just think that the translation
that we have here that's from the Greek and from
the Hebrew is good enough. The problem is it's
good, but it's not the best. And in order to
really have a full understanding of what is actually
placed in here and get, if I could say, get more,
in the words of Nacho Libre, get some more nutrients
out of the scriptures, okay? The fact of the
matter is that sometimes you have to look up
things. You have to go into the Hebrew. You have
to go into the Greek and understand what... they
would have known and what they would have accepted
culturally in their day. Just like we could say,
well, you know what they do in Vegas, what's
done in Vegas stays in Vegas. If you were to
say that 2000 years ago in Jerusalem, nobody
would have a clue what you were saying. And so
sometimes we have to pick up on the cultural
idioms that are actually written in the scripture.
Because even though it's divinely inspired, there
are cultural mindsets that would have given practicality
in order for you to understand it in its fullness.
So Paul is now one of the learned of the learned
is now God is sending to the nations. And it's,
of course, everything God does is brilliant.
It's brilliant. It is brilliant. Why? He takes
the most educated man in Judaism. He takes one
of the men that were the enemy of the gospel.
transforms his life, pulls him out of a dark
mindset of his own pride and deception that they
had been twisted in and brings him into a revelation
of Jesus to now take all of the truth that he
studied, bring it through a right filter and
explain the God of the Bible and Jesus, his son,
the Messiah, who's now come. And now, Paul, your
assignment is to take this to the world. And
so as he's writing the Christian, as he's writing
to the Corinthians, he's having to explain some
things that we're looking at here in the Corinthian
church. And we realize out of all the churches
that Paul writes to, the Corinthian church was
really good in some things. They excelled above
some of the other churches. in good gospel things,
but they also excelled in absolute foolishness
and debauchery, thinking they were being spiritual.
So they were kind of like the good, the bad,
and the ugly, as he's writing this to the church
to try to straighten some things out. And we're
gonna pick up this morning. I know that was all,
that was pre -introduction. Now we're gonna get
to my introduction. Okay, he writes this to straighten
some thinking out, but he starts in a very obscure
place. And I don't know if you've ever started,
I'd have never started a communion message in
1 Corinthians chapter five. But here we go. 1
Corinthians chapter five says this. For Christ,
Our Passover lamb has been sacrificed, sorry.
For Christ, our Passover lamb has been sacrificed.
Let us, therefore, celebrate the festival not
with old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil,
but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and
truth. Now, First of all, I want us to just focus
in on the first part of verse 7. For Christ,
our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. The Apostle
Paul is making it very clear because God is making
sure that the... Corinthian church does not miss
this point because they were not actually bringing
this scripture and this truth into their personal
setting in their corporate gatherings. So Paul
is making several announcements here. He's saying,
number one, Jesus Christ has fulfilled every
part of Passover. He has become the Passover
lamb. He is the meat, His blood, every part of
Passover is now fulfilled and has been sacrificed
and it's been summed up in Jesus Christ. Why
does a Gentile church need to know that? as Paul
would write to other churches, there would be
other people that were more connected to Judaism
and they would try to draw people back to doing
things in a natural setting when Christ had already
fulfilled the natural and what we were to glean
from it is to be spiritual. So he was setting
the tone right off the bat. There are spiritual
truths in Passover that you need to understand.
And Corinthian church, if you don't understand
these spiritual truths, you're going to miss
the essence of how God actually wants to build
your faith. So the whole point of bringing you
back to Passover is to connect you with the largeness
of what God did to start your journey in spiritual
understanding. Does that make sense? And so we
see here that the Holy Spirit does this. Moses
is... by most all scholars is credited with compiling
and maybe even writing the first five books of
the Bible representing the Torah. And the Holy
Spirit brings Paul to the Corinthian church to
bring an understanding of truth and power and
the source of victory that God did for his people
in Exodus. So when I say Passover, I need you
to connect. Passover, lamb, the blood applied
to the doorpost, not only is cross, but it's
also connected to Exodus. Why is it connected
to Exodus? Because what God is going to do in
Passover actually establishes this meal. Let
me just teach it this way. Oh, my God, my God.
Help me. Okay, one of the great truths of the
book of Exodus, and there are many, but the whole
point of the book of Exodus is what? It was to
get the people of God that were in slavery, slavery
physically, in their minds, in their emotions,
in their values, in their thinking, to begin
to transfer that slavery and bondage that was
under another nation, under another power, under
another value system, authority system, and the
rule of the gods. Please, you're getting a little
bit of Bible college history today. If you haven't
connected, The fact that every plague that God
brought on the nation of Egypt was actually in
direct confrontation to one of the 10, the 10
plagues. Every plague was in a direct confrontation
to one of the Egyptian deities that they served.
You can trace absolutely each plague, whether
it was lice or... flies or gnats or frogs or
hail. All of it was connected to certain deities
in Egypt that claimed power over that. To the
final one being the death angel that passed over
was after who had the power of life and death.
And Pharaoh claiming himself as a God among the
gods confronted by the God Jehovah. Every one
of them. And any scholar that's worth his weight
will absolutely connect those. We forget that
in Western culture because we're so removed.
We're not removed from the idea that there are
powers and principalities and rulers, but that
was part of the culture that for 430 years. the
what? The people of God lived under not just
the pharaohs and the taskmasters, but lived under
the authority of the rule of who they served
and how they worshiped. And so part of the blood
that would be applied on the life was connected
not only to the cross representing The blood
of Jesus, for our day, that represents what?
Apply the blood and it does what? It removes,
if taken by faith and taken in seriousness, it
removes my connection to sin. It removes the
handwriting that was against me called the law
of God. It removes, through repentance and faith,
it transfers what was death to me off of me and
onto Jesus and I receive what was Jesus. pure
right standing, his righteousness, his work comes
to me by faith. The same principle was true now
that God is going to actually do this in Egypt.
He was now going to ask people because every
plague that was given, it changed in the last
plague. God didn't ask the people of Israel to
do anything, plague one through nine. Fact is,
I'll get to this another time, but plague number
five through nine, God said specifically, I will
show the difference between those who follow
me and who are true to me and those that are
of Egypt. And God, by his own power, divided
the people in their own land. If this section
is Egypt, there was a little place called Goshen
at the far end of it that was still under Egypt's
authority and dominion. And God separated Goshen
out where most of Israel lived. And all the plagues
happened over all of Egypt except for here that
was still in Egypt. But what? Covered by God,
by his power and his strength. Until we get to
plague number 10. And plague number 10 was a
direct shot now at Pharaoh and Pharaoh's firstborn
son. It was a direct shot between Yahweh or Jehovah
and who would be his firstborn son. One that
had the power to lay life down and to take it
back up again. Verse one, that had the power
only to yield to death and there was no power
to raise. God was confronting Pharaoh's ignorance,
Pharaoh's pride, Pharaoh's power to say that
he was like an Elohim, he was like a God. He
wasn't. And when the death angel passed over,
anyone that refused to put the blood on their
doorposts, the death angel took of men, of rulers,
even of cattle and of sheep and of donkeys. If
there wasn't, A firstborn was extracted. Now,
that's where most of us have an understanding.
But you have to go a little deeper because there
are other things that are connected to Passover.
It wasn't only just about the blood. The blood
was the first key element and you can't bypass
the blood. But the other elements of Passover
showed elements of faith for you and I. Meaning
what? They were told after you apply the blood
on the lentil and the doorpost, you are to make
a lamb and you are to eat it roasted with fire
with bitter herbs and you're to have everyone
in the house eat it. You take a lamb for a household.
It means that in all the nation of Israel, For
430 years, now please get this. For 430 years,
here are the 12 tribes of Israel, they're scattered.
They had not been pulled together in unity for
430 years. The last plague. The last thing that
God's going to do to establish the difference
between all of the other gods, all of the other
religions, all of the other stuff, there's only
one God and he has a people. He would now do
something that would be absolutely beyond Israel's
comprehension. He would now take you in your
slavery and just trying to survive and take you
out of the tribes and he would pull you together
and... bring you around even though you sat in
your own homes he would bring the spirit of unity
to the whole house of God meaning that at the
table remember why because Christ is a Passover
lamb he would start this unity of the table clear
back at Passover, that wherever you were at and
however you had come, whether you'd been disillusioned,
disfranchised, you'd been hurt, your family had
been hurt, all the promises of Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob seemed to be at a loss. Right before
the death angel plague, God would say, now I'm
going to require partnership. It's incredible
that God would wait until the last plague. And
before he would have you apply the blood, you
would have to gather all of your family and you
would sit around the table and there would be
things that would be done. You would have to
what? Be dressed. The Bible says in Exodus 12,
you'd have to be fully dressed. You'd have your
sandals on. And for those that were the head
of the families, they would have their staff
in their hand representing what? it would represent
that they were about ready to take a journey.
It was the first expression, minus some other
things that God did with Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob prior to that, from Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob to the 430 years, nobody had expressed
a faith dimension. Think of that. The last dimension
is what we hear in Genesis 50 about the prophecies
of take my bones out of here when you go up.
That's my last thing. And then what happens?
About 400 years, or 380 more years out of the
70 years when the last one died. 380 years passed.
That was the last expression of faith. Kind of
sounds a little bit like what happened between
Malachi and Matthew that went through the 400
years, silent years. It means the last expression
of faith was almost lost on the nation. Folks,
we're a nation. America is celebrating 250 years.
Just add another 100 years onto that level and
that's about how long distanced they were from
their freedom. Look how far we've come from ours
originally. Are you thinking that through for
a second? How much different identity is our
nation right now at polar opposites of what they
think freedom actually is? So can you imagine
adding another 100 years down the line on America?
That's exactly what happened to the children
of Israel. The Abraham, the Isaac, and the Jacob
seem so far off. Why? Because they were engulfed
now. Engulfed in every aspect of life. The women
were engulfed. by Egyptian rule, even their babies
now, were under mandated abortion and termination.
Read the language for what it is. If every boy
you shall put to death that's born on the stool.
That was the what? That was the mandate for the
Egyptian midwives. They were Hebrews, but they
were keeping their life. It says you kill every
male. If you understand that the framework of
the children of Israel had almost been evaporated
from their mind, they were in slavery. They had
developed another cultural perspective. They
did not look, even when you read the Exodus account
and Moses' account when he comes back from a
word from God, they did not read it or have faith
to even believe it. And anything that disrupted
their lives and made it worse, they could not
look through faith. All they looked through was
depression, discouragement, and that God was
just a fairy tale. So that when God says in the
last plague, he wasn't just dealing with Egypt.
He was going to make sure that he dealt with
his own people. So he says what? Every person
has to put the blood on their door. And every
person, now household, has to come together.
And you're gonna eat the meat of the lamb that
provided its blood. You're gonna eat its life.
And in addition to being ready, which represents
faith and expectancy that God was going to do
what he promised years ago, guess what he added
to it? Now this becomes the kicker of all kickers.
And I'll come over here to this side. Kyle, this
is what he said. He said in Exodus chapter 12,
verse 15, if you could go there. Exodus 12. Verse
15, and throw it on the screen. It should be
in the notes. Seven days. Now, at the putting
of the blood, in the midst of Passover, he started
what? He started what we would also know as interchangeable,
the feast of unleavened bread. You cannot, and
here's what we don't understand in Western church.
You cannot separate Passover and unleavened bread.
And we do. Why is it so important? Listen, seven
days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first
day you shall remove, listen, here's your responsibility.
You shall remove leaven out of your houses. For
if anyone eats what is leavened from the first
day to the seventh day, are you ready? That person
shall be cut off from Israel. Do you understand
that's how the Holy Spirit now pulls Passover
into 1 Corinthians 5, which is what? The excommunication
chapter. He's dealing with how Israel got cut
off from the life of God. the protection of God,
the grace of God. He pulls it all the way from
Passover. He brings it all the way into 1 Corinthians
5. And he says to the one that's still doing
this. I'm sorry, I'm picking you. Let me just
pick over here on Scott. Because I can see him
tomorrow and I can apologize for what I'm about
to do. All right. He picks this man. That the
Bible clearly says in 1 Corinthians 5 is operating
in a sexual sin that is contrary to the nature
of what God allows. And he now, the Holy Spirit,
pulls a passage of personal responsibility within
the blood now to a New Testament church. We never
preach on this. I've never heard a message on
this and I've been in the church for over 50
years preached like this. And I felt like the
Lord spoke. He says, it is time to bring an understanding
of personal responsibility back to the table
of the Lord. You see, that's what was happening
in Corinthian culture. The Corinthian culture
was thinking the way all of the other gods thought.
In regard to eating at the altar and at their
sacrifice. And God says, no, no, no, no, no.
I'm not going to have the Gentile nations take
any charge from what any other so -called demonic
God is. They're going to have an understand that
my altar and my food always points to that which
it represents and it's holy. It's righteous.
It's pure. And that's why it has to connect back
to Passover. You did what? You had to take a
perfect lamb. It had to be inspected by the priest.
Now you can't have perfection in an animal. It
only goes so far. And God knew that. That's why
every year under the Old Testament system, they
couldn't just say, well, Lord, we did it last
year. We had a really good lamb. We'd get it
to you last year. No. Every year, the flock had
to be gone through and a perfect lamb had to
be found to offer at the time of the festival,
not only of Passover, but also at tabernacles.
Why? Because God in the Old Testament could only
put off sins. There's a big difference between
fulfilling it and satisfying the penalty for
sin versus putting it off and waiting. It was
kind of like God's layaway program in the Old
Testament. I mean, if you're thinking about it,
I'm going to actually lay away my forgiveness
and fullness of this gift. And I'm going to keep
making down payments until I bring the final
payment that will be in my son. It's exactly
what he did. So every year under the old covenant
from the time of Moses, of the writing of the
law here, as we look in Exodus, every year, a
lamb that would be brought to represent Passover
would represent another year of putting off sin.
And God would say, it's a down payment of grace
for the fullness that's coming. And in the very
beginning of that statement, he would do what?
He would say, if you're now going to live, I'm
going to apply the blood. You're taking the hyssop
and you're striking the lentil and you're making
marks of smeared blood on your door. That doesn't
stop there. And what we've done is that we've
been a Corinthian church in American culture.
And we've said, if we have the blood, we're okay.
It doesn't matter how we live. It doesn't matter
what we do. There's really no responsibility.
And God says, go back to how I instituted it.
Go back to the place where I brought the children
of Israel out that were fragmented, that were
discouraged, that were without hope, that was
really without faith. And they simply did it
because they had a remnant of belief that God
still was the God that covenanted with them.
And what did they do? God, now this is the beauty.
God by his blood actually situationally If I
could say spiritually, does everything we receive
today in grace, when they weren't, it's not by
their own works. He called them what? You come
under the blood, the death angel passes over.
That represents what? The penalty of sin. The
penalty that you and I could not ever pay for.
So Israel, even in their mind, they obeyed to
the point that God God superseded their level
of obedience because that's the scripture. God
supersedes our level of obedience and aren't
you grateful? Come on. Now in grace, here's the
wonderful thing about the cross. Before Paul
ever starts correcting them in 1 Corinthians
5, what did he call them? He starts chapter one
by saying, beloved. To the saints of God in Corinth.
Do you understand what he was saying? He said
because the blood has been applied to your hearts.
Because by faith you've accepted Jesus. I'm now
calling you a saint. Before he ever went to move
into correction. Change their thinking. Adjust
their thinking. Shift their thinking. Discipline
their thinking. He reminded them that they were
under the blood of Christ. And they were saved.
Positionally they were saved. But there were
some things that needed. to be changed in their
thinking. I don't know about you, Kevin, but
have you found yourself that even though you're
saved, you've thought wrong about some things?
Okay. Only a few. Okay. Praise God. Okay. That's
most of us in this room. You can be absolutely
saved and have wrong perspectives in multiple
categories of your life. And it's the grace of
God that comes by the reading of the word and
by the atmosphere of the Holy Spirit and by prayer
and by your willingness to surrender that does
what? Renew your thinking by putting on the mind
of Christ and by putting on the new man of what
you found to be the nature, character, and the
qualities of Christ and surrendering your life
to the pattern that is Christ and the Father
and the Holy Spirit rather than what you were
before. born with right you found this working
right now right me too it means that we're always
have a responsibility to have the washing of
the word of God over our conclusions we are not
called to have the hardening of the categories
just because you're saved does not give you the
right to have the hardening of the categories
Your job is to remain what? So that the blood
of Christ, the grace of God can constantly instruct
you and teach you in further understanding of
who he is in the scriptures. The Jesus I believe
saved me 50 years ago. I'll be 57 in August.
Saved me almost 49 years ago. But I thank God
that I know more about Christ, know him deeper,
and the revelation that I have now is way, way
different than what I started with. And things
that I was taught in the beginning had to yield.
to further revelation of more scriptural understanding
that brought that narrow piece into a wider piece
that gave me an understanding of, oh, that clicks
with this now and this and this because I only
saw it this big because I only had so much understanding.
But I was still saved. And that's what the Holy
Spirit was doing through the Apostle Paul. Shoot.
We're still in our introduction. Okay. And why
that's important is this, because the Corinthian
church, because they were saved, they were zealous
to move forward and be spiritual people. The
problem is some of their character had not been
developed. Their appetites had not yet been sanctified,
but it didn't lose their salvation. But Paul
was about ready to address things that if carried
on was going to remove them from fellowship with
the Holy Spirit. So Paul writes here, and I'm
just going to say it this way for you guys this
morning. He writes here and says, listen, verse
six. Your boasting is not good about this issue.
Do you not know that a little leaven leavens
the whole lump? Cleanse out the old leaven that
you may be a new lump for you really are unleavened
for Christ, our Passover lamb. You really are
unleavened for Christ, our Passover lamb has
been sanctified. Let us celebrate the festival
not with old leaven. with the leaven of malice
and wickedness, but with the leaven of sincerity
and truth. Here's the deal about leaven. Leaven
is an Old Testament word that means yeast. So
Paul was talking about bread. He was saying,
listen, you have to understand that the blood,
remember we're talking Passover represents communion.
The blood of the lamb on the doorpost represents
what? The blood of Christ. Why is the bread part
so important? Because it's connected to the blood.
The bread, the unleavened bread feast was connected,
mean what? This becomes the participation part
of where I decide whether or not how sincere
and true I'm going to live with my faith or am
I just gonna focus on my freedom in the blood
and not have anything to do. with actually taking
inventory internally. You see, the mandate was,
go through all your house and sweep out the leaven.
Notice it doesn't say, and God will send angels
and they will come and do your housework. Now,
you might have little house cleaning teams today
called angel housework, but that's not scriptural.
Now today you can get somebody to pay somebody
to do your housework, but when it comes to this
house, who the Bible says you're the temple of
the Holy Spirit, it isn't angels that come and
sweep you clean. It is actually in partnership
with grace that you begin to ask the Lord, turn
the light on me and show me internally my values,
my choices, the things that are in me that are
different than what would be with you. Paul directly
took this because in 1 Corinthians 5, there was
a man, Antonio, I'm going to use you here for
a second. There was a man that took his father's
wife and was having intimate sexual relationship
with someone that his dad had had intimate relationship.
We don't know from scripture if it was a step
wife or a second marriage, or we don't know if
it was his birth mom. It doesn't say either way.
Guess what Paul was doing? Guess what the Holy
Spirit was doing? It was taking the church back
to Leviticus 17 and saying, anyone that uncovers.
His father's nakedness is sin. And those who
uncover a father's nakedness, it could be your
sister. It could be your wife. It could be your
aunt. It could be the wife of your father. That
person shall be cut off from the children of
Israel. Paul was taking them back to Leviticus
17 to the law. And in addition to the law, he
was saying, it's not just about the removal for
the debauchery of sin. It's about the issue that
this person was now taking communion, living
in fellowship with all the church, clearly having
his father's wife and the church said nothing
about it. The church did nothing about it because
they, that's why Paul said, do you know that
you're puffed up? You should have mourned. Why
did he use the word puffed up? Because that was
what leaven does. Leaven causes what? Bread to
rise. And so instead of actually having a clear
understanding of that should have pierced them
to the heart and saying, how could someone who
says they love, and I'll use, I'm upgrading you
right now, that say they love Jesus. and have
the hand of Jesus and the love of Jesus, how
could they hold the hand of Jesus and hold the
desire to have something that's forbidden at
the same time and say, I profess loyalty to God?
Paul says, no, no, no, no, no. You with my spirit
that's there. Why? Because I am the covering.
As an apostle of Christ over that church, my
spirit is there. You bring that person that refuses
to repent. Now, we're not talking about somebody
that's repented. We're talking about somebody
that was pushing the envelope. And he says, now
in the church, you turn them over to Satan. He
said, because do you not know that a little leaven
leavens the whole lump? Meaning. that if I put
yeast in just one corner of the pan of bread
that I'm going to bake, it will move automatically
through the whole bread. And because you're allowing
this thing to take place, it's not just a physical
thing. It's not just a thing that the man and
his father's wife had. It was a spiritual thing.
That I now could actually live like the Gentile
nations that had a whole bunch of gods rather
than actually give my life and bring my life
under the direction of lordship in every area.
And if I'm going to eat this bread and I'm going
to drink this cup, this bread represents... The
holy body of Jesus and the life that now actually
is meant to bring impartation to me. I can't
bring life into me while holding on to death.
Because now what? If I do that and the congregation
does not judge within it. Now, if it's repentance,
it's different. But if I, the eldership team,
or the people just allowed whatever to come in.
It means that the atmosphere will change. You'll
feel the port city. You won't have the cleanness
that you feel when you come in here. Why? Because
when you take this meal, and Paul writes again,
about this in 1 Corinthians 10. He writes again
about it in 1 Corinthians 11. He said, we have
to what? Judge ourselves before we take this
meal. Otherwise, many are sick, many are ill,
and many fall asleep, which is the word for dead,
prematurely. And it doesn't mean that God judges
them. I'll judge you if you continue sinning.
He says, no. He said, you open yourself up. to
the curse of what you're eating. And I bring,
I allow that curse to come upon you. Why? So
that you'll turn so that you won't be judged
with the world and wickedness. You'll actually
have something that will bring you to your senses.
It's a really incredible passage. But he starts
by bringing it back to Passover. And as the ushers
are getting ready to come now, We're going to
pray over the elements and then we're going to
take it together. Just give me a second as you
guys come. Go ahead and come on down. The key
of Exodus and Passover is this. That if you're
going to have blood, then you got to have unleavened
bread. You can't just have blood without the
bread. This table has two elements. The bread.
And the cup. The cup and the bread. The bread
means what? Now here, we're dealing with, I'll
just pick from the gluten -free pile. Okay? Is
it unleavened in the natural? No. It's supposed
to be unleavened in the spiritual. Why? Jesus
fulfilled the Passover. So the principle of eating
unleavened bread is not about what I'm getting
ready to eat now. It's am I eating? Remember
what he said in that verse? Am I eating from
sincerity and truth? Or am I eating still having
malice and wickedness in my heart? The key is
I gotta allow the light of Christ to search me.
Can we do that right now for this table? Father,
in Jesus' name. Lord, I ask now, Holy Spirit,
I'm gonna grab this while I gotta. I ask now,
Holy Spirit, that you would begin to shine a
light on every single one of us. Lord, this is
not about judgment. This is about recognizing
who we are about to partake of. You are the living
bread that came from heaven. And as you said
in John chapter six, you said the bread that
your fathers ate were manna, but yet they died.
But whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood,
they shall live. Lord, we're coming to the table
of life. It's holy. It's righteous. It's true.
It's pure. And there's nothing else in this world
that compares to you. And there's nothing I'm
willing to hold onto that represents sin or any
form of pleasure that's contrary to your will
that I want to keep holding onto. Your hand is
the only one that matters. I grab your hand.
And I ask, Holy Spirit, that you begin to show
me, evaluate me inside. This is not judgment.
This is love. And we say, Lord, help me sweep
out the leaven in my heart and in my mind. I
don't want any mixture. I don't want selfishness.
I don't want... A hardening of the categories.
I don't want to keep offense against anybody.
How do I approach the table? I forgive those
that offended me down to the core. I forgive
it. I release it. I begin to ask you, Lord, as
I approach the table, Lord, if there's anything
that I'm doing that isn't pleasing to you, I
want to know out of love's sake. Because I've
come now to receive an impartation of the living
Son of God. I'm coming to the table of life.
I ask you to bless this meal. And I ask you to
bless the bread and the cup. In Jesus Christ's
holy name. Amen. Would you stand with me? Thank
you for taking the time to listen to this week's
message. We are so grateful for those who tune
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