Time to Leave – Pt. 2

Wayne Matthews

April 12, 2014

The title of this sermon is Time to Leave, and this will be Part 2.

In Part 1 we looked at the calling of Moses, where he was called by God to be a servant. He was called to fulfill a role, and that role was to lead Israel out of Egypt; and we also saw that he responded to that calling.

And so we're going to pick up, now, the sermon, where he had been going to Pharaoh, and now we're going to pick up an aspect of the sermon which is the beginning of the ten plagues that were going to come upon Egypt because of Pharaoh's hardness of heart, where he was stating things, but then not following through with what he had said. So we'll pick it up in the fifth plague, which is the death of the livestock, and here we see the main spiritual point.

We'll start in Exodus 9:1 – Then the LORD said to Moses, Go in to Pharaoh and tell him, Thus says the LORD God of the Hebrews: Let My people go, that they may serve Me. This is the main point of this sermon series. It is about letting us go to serve God, which is about a calling. Because the only way that we can be released from the captivity and the bondage, which is a "type" of Egypt symbolically, is that God has to release us. He must call us so that we can exodus Egypt, so we can exodus this way of thinking, the bondage of our mind, the thinking, our prejudices, and sin.

So this is all about our calling. It's time to leave sin to serve God in spirit and truth – and we are God's people, and therefore, we leave Egypt by repentance. And that is the key point: we can leave Egypt because God has called us into a relationship with Him and we do have God's spirit, we do have God's power living and dwelling in us; therefore, we have to choose to leave sin. And that's what it's about. It's about a choice that we have to make.

If we drop down now to verse 13, which is the seventh plague:  Then the LORD said to Moses, Rise early in the morning and stand before Pharaoh and say to him, Thus says the LORD God of the Hebrews: Let My people go, that they may serve Me. So we can see from this aspect that this is the main thrust of what God was saying to Pharaoh, which was, "You have to let My people go." We are God's people; they were God's people (physical Israel).  Well, we are God's people (spiritual Israel) and God requires us to serve Him, which is to be obedient to Him. And therefore, every time that we do sin – which is rebellion, which is not serving God – we can go and ask God to forgive us for that rebellion, for not serving Him because we do desire deep down to be like Him, to submit, to yield to Him, to serve Him. We can see that symbolically this aspect is about leaving sin, which is a spiritual delivery.

If we turn now to Exodus 12:1 – Now the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, This month, your beginning of months (the word "shall be" has been added there). So, This month, your beginning of months, it shall be (and the "shall be" has been added) the first month of the year to you. And we understand that is the month of Abib.

Verse 3 – Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying: On the tenth day of this month every man shall take for himself a lamb, according to the house of his father, a lamb for a household. It was about a person, the male of the family, making sure that they went out and selected a lamb on the tenth day. And of course, it was for a household – and as we understand, if there were only two people in that family that more would join in so that there was enough in the way of numbers of people to consume the majority of that lamb.

Verse 4 – And if the household is too small for the lamb, in other words, there wasn't enough people to consume the lamb because of the size of the lamb, let him and his neighbor next to his house take it according to the number of persons; according to each man's need you shall make your count for the lamb. So this, of course, we understand is about Jesus Christ. The lamb points to the very sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ was the Lamb of God.

Verse 5 – Your lamb shall be without blemish. Now, just looking at that brethren, this is about a lamb that was without blemish. It didn't have marks or scars on it. And we know this blemish is really talking symbolically about sin, because when we sin we blemish ourselves...we blemish ourselves. Now, this was pointing to Christ because Christ was without sin. So the lamb that they were to choose was "without blemish," which pointed to (in the New Testament) Jesus Christ not having sin ...a male of the first year. You shall take it from the sheep or from the goats. Now, this aspect is important because it is not a temple sacrifice where you could take a sheep or a goat or cattle. Here it is very distinctive that this is about Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God.

Hold your place there and we'll turn to 1 Peter 1:18 – and we're cutting into the flow of the thought process here ...knowing that you were not redeemed (which is "not purchased") with corruptible things, (which are "perishable things," which are physical things) like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers… Well, this "aimless conduct" of course is "a pointless conduct" which is just a way of doing things based on tradition. It's got nothing to do with honoring and worshipping God in spirit and truth. It is basically the way we were using the natural carnal mind and these traditions were passed down in families and by religions and they, therefore, just went through a ritual, which basically are "aimless conduct." It is all pointless exercises. And we're not redeemed because of those things, by money or gold or physical things, because that can't save us from sin. We can't be "purchased" by gold or by traditions; it just can't be done. It takes a sacrifice on a spiritual level.

Verse 19 – but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot. So we understand from the Old Testament that the lamb that they chose on the tenth day was pointing to a sacrifice that God would place on this earth in the name of Jesus Christ, and that His precious blood would redeem us, would be the price paid to "purchase" us, because sin means we are held in captivity, we are held in bondage, and we have to be "purchased" or "bought back" because we were slaves to sin, and therefore, our sins need to be covered, and the way they are covered is through the shed blood, "the precious blood of Jesus Christ." And it goes on and says... "as of a lamb without blemish and without spot," which points us back to where we are in Exodus.

Verse 20 – He (Christ) indeed was foreordained. Now, the word "foreordained" there is "known beforehand, predetermined by God the Father." So from this very foundation, this foundation of a plan that God has, Jesus Christ was first in that plan because of the process that needed to be followed. In the creating of mankind, the way man is with a natural carnal mind, God had already predetermined beforehand (foreordained) that Jesus Christ would be placed on this earth to cover, to be a Passover sacrifice for sin, for mankind, and that His precious blood would be shed.

Now, if we look at that in more detail, we realize that this is about a process and that God is outlining in Exodus (which is the very first Passover). He reveals now that whole process. Now, they went through it on a physical level and we, today, go through it on a spiritual level. And it's a beautiful picture if we understand it. Now, the world doesn't understand this whole process. They read Exodus as a story and they see the sacrifice of Jesus Christ as a freedom to just live their life any way they want using the natural carnal mind – because without a calling we cannot "see" the spiritual intent of a Passover sacrifice.

Verse 20, again, He (Christ) indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest, which was "revealed," in these last times for you. So this is the very purpose of the very sacrifice of Jesus Christ, which is when we're leading up now, to Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread. They have such great spiritual meaning, and yet the world has no understanding of their intent.

Back to Exodus 12:6 – Now you shall keep it (the lamb) until, and that is "up to," the fourteenth day of the same month, so the fourteenth day of Abib. Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at twilight. Now, we understand this to be a particular word: it's after the fourteenth has started "at even" time. The sun was down when it was killed. So it is "between two evenings." It's not a temple sacrifice that the priests would do. This was to be killed in a home (because the men had gone out and chosen a lamb without blemish for a household), for a number of people that would gather in a house, and these are the instructions that God is giving Moses to present to the children of Israel.

Verse 7 – And they shall take some of the blood, and that word "some" is actually added, They shall take of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses, where they're dwelling, where they eat it. So they are in the house...so in that particular house, not on every house, but where they were gathered to eat the lamb. So if there had of been more in a house and there were four or five other locations where people were and they had left those locations and come into that one area, that one house, well, the blood was only on where the people were eating the lamb. It wasn't on every lintel or every doorpost.

Now, this was, of course, for protection. It is the same today, this protection, because Passover is a spiritual protection for us. When we take of the Passover in the New Testament we are under God's spiritual protection. Because Passover actually reveals much about our attitude, of what we are in, which is in spirit and truth, being and desiring to be a servant of God because we are willing to obey God. Because it's through that obedience that we take the New Testament Passover in spirit and truth. And we understand that the New Testament Passover has conditions based to it, and that condition is about our attitude – whether we take it in "a worthy manner" or not, because it's about our attitude towards others. If we hold any ill will towards anybody we should not be taking the Passover! And that is one of the spiritual conditions that God has placed in His Church, for us to examine ourselves to make sure that we do take the Passover "in a worthy manner." And to be "in a worthy manner," of course, is that willingness to serve...the willingness to serve. Hence, the foot-washing service is about our desire (a declaration) of our humility and our desire to be a servant and that we're willing to serve anybody... we are willing to serve anybody. And by that humility we will then, and have demonstrated through the foot-washing service, our desire to serve, to be a servant of God, and a servant of the brethren and of mankind.

Verse 8 – Then they shall eat the flesh on that night; roasted in fire, with unleavened bread, "unleavened" means "without sin." So there is no sin involved, because unleavened bread points to it not being leavened. Now, we understand, brethren, that leaven points to sin and that being unleavened means it has no sin ...and with bitter herbs, well, the bitter herbs points to a difficult life that we'll have in this world because we have been called out of this world to not serve ourselves any longer but to serve God. Continuing on there... they shall eat it.

Now, the New Testament outlines the correct way to keep Passover in 1 Corinthians 11:23-30, and in this sermon series we will get to that in a little bit more detail, of going through that to understand it more on a spiritual level.

Verse 9 – Do not eat it raw, nor boiled at all with water, but roasted in fire—its head with its legs and its entails. You shall let none of it remain until the morning, and what remains of it until the morning you shall burn with fire. Well, that means that they would have eaten the lamb, the time that they had killed it on the day of the fourteenth, and then they had actually roasted it. You're talking about it being a little bit later into the evening. Then they had to consume it, and you remember that they were fully dressed at that time so they then had to consume it and they would have eaten it over a period of time. They were actually to get it and consume it all; it was going to be burned. And that points to a complete sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ's sacrifice for mankind to cover sin was complete. There was nothing left out. So all sin can be forgiven upon repentance. All sin can be forgiven upon repentance. The only time sin cannot be forgiven, because somebody refuses to accept the very sacrifice of Jesus Christ to cover their sin, which means they are unrepentant. An unrepentant sin – something that is willful and deliberate – is what is called "the unpardonable sin." It's somebody that has chosen not to repent. They refuse to repent...because that is a choice they have made and they’re "holding their integrity" and they just refuse. It's willful and deliberate and now they have turned against the very purpose of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

And we understand that the purpose of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ was to cover sin, which then enabled God the Father and Jesus Christ to live (to dwell) in a person. And that is such a wonderful picture, such a beautiful picture that is not understood by mankind, hence, they don't keep the New Testament Passover in the correct way. They then move to a daily or weekly service that is actually a blaspheme against the beauty of God's Passover for us, the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

There was nothing that was not fulfilled and completed by Jesus Christ.

Verse 11 – And thus you shall eat it: a belt on your waist, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. So you shall eat it in haste. For it is the LORD's Passover. So it's the Lord's Passover; it's the Passover that God has provided for mankind. So Jesus Christ was the Passover that God provided for us. This points to our willingness to leave Egypt, so the process of them being girded, ready to leave. They've got their sandals on their feet; they've got their staff in their hand – in other words, they're partly packed – they've got their belt on their waist; they're fully clothed; they're ready for a journey.

Well, this is the same for us, brethren. We have to be willing to leave, ready to leave Egypt, to leave sin behind. And we need a calling first to be able to leave sin behind, and as God reveals sin to us and it's seen within ourselves (by the power of God's holy spirit in us God reveals it to us), we have to have this willingness, this desire to put it behind us, to change, to be converted.

Now, when God reveals sin to us we then have to come to the point of seeing it within ourselves; therefore, we want to change, and therefore, we turn to God and we ask God to apply the very Passover sacrifice that He provided to cover our sins. And then when that happens, we ask for forgiveness. We raise up and walk again "a new man" because for that period of time we are sinless, we are clean, we are without blemish at that particular time. And therefore, that process is the process of conversion, which is changing the way we think. From the time we are called and baptized and have God's spirit placed in us, we then have that potential to repent and to leave Egypt for the rest of our life. And it never stops! This journey of leaving spiritual Egypt (leaving sin) is the process of conversion.

So conversion is a process of repentance. Ongoing repentance is leaving Egypt. Every time we repent we are leaving Egypt a little bit further, one step at a time.

Now, if we ever refuse to repent, we actually are returning back to Egypt, because Egypt is holding us captive by sin. But as we refuse to repent, as we "harden our hearts" against sin, we actually are being drawn back into Egypt where it comes to the point where somebody may leave God's Church and they become antichrist; they're not allowing Christ to live in them any longer. They, actually, in fact, are back in Egypt. They are back in sin, and the sacrifice of Jesus Christ that was paid for them, this Passover sacrifice that God provided, will have no meaning and cannot be applied to them because this Passover sacrifice is all about repentance. It is about repentance in the New Testament.

Now, when they're fully girded here, they "have a belt on their waist, and their sandals on their feet, and a staff in their hand," this really points to a spiritual attitude of being watchful on a spiritual level, ready to leave sin spiritually. We are ready to leave sin spiritually. This being watchful can be a complicated thing because in this world, and the way that we are built with our natural carnal mind and the selfishness that's in us, it can overtake us without us even being aware of it. We can walk with a particular sin in our mind that we're not even aware of. God has not revealed it to us yet on a spiritual level, the depth of the sin.

So we could look at pride, for example. Pride is a sin that we all have, and we're going to go to our graves with pride. We're going to have an element of pride in our life because it's natural. That's the way the natural carnal mind is; it's selfish and its proud-filled, it's right in its own eyes, it likes to make its own judgements about what is right and wrong. Well, when we are called God starts to show us the way to leave this behind, to leave on a spiritual level, and of course, we have to be willing and wanting to leave Egypt. We have to be willing and wanting to leave sin in our life. So God will then reveal an aspect of our pride to us. Well, then it comes to the point of the choice that we make. We see it on a spiritual level and realize, "Oh, I've had this sin of pride for a long period of time," and then we can work on it because we are willing to leave. We're willing to leave it behind. We don't want to be that person. We don't want to be that way, to reveal that selfishness to others in our life that we do by our pride.

Now, pride is a terrible sin that is penetrated in the natural carnal mind, and therefore, to get rid of pride, to leave Egypt on a spiritual level, it takes a long time. It takes a process of a lifetime because there is always an element of Egypt in us. There is always an element of Egypt in us.

If you look back at that previous scripture where it says, "the worthless traditions of your fathers," well, the natural carnal mind is a "worthless tradition" of carnal thinking that we've been given. Well, we have to learn to leave that behind. The most important thing is we must be willing and desiring on a spiritual level to leave. We don't want to be in Egypt. We want nothing to do with Egypt. We want nothing to do with sin. And the moment that God reveals any aspect of Egypt in us, any aspect of sin in us, we are ready to leave. And how do we leave? We leave by repentance.

So the moment that we see any of Egypt in us (any leavening in us), we are willing to leave, we are willing to repent, and therefore, we turn to God and ask for that very Passover sacrifice to be applied to us because we have a desire to leave Egypt behind, leave it out of our life.

Now, the Passover sacrifice was God's sacrifice for mankind. God provided Jesus Christ as a sacrifice for us so sin could be covered. And that is just a beautiful thing if we understand it on a spiritual level, how beautiful the very sacrifice of Jesus Christ was for us so that we could be freed from Egypt.

Verse 12 – God speaking here... For I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night, and that is on the night of the fourteenth of Abib, which is the Passover night, and will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, so that is all the firstborn, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt, so this way of false religion that they had or false worship and their false gods (because they had many). They worshipped snakes. They were and there were different birds and it was different animals that they worshipped and they had made idols to them. But they used to turn to these idols and they would worship them – which is to put their trust in them. They were then turning to these animals, these created things that they had made, these idols. They were seeking information from them and they were giving themselves over to these idols. And God is saying that He's going to destroy man and beast; against all the gods (everything that they worshipped in Egypt). So it's going to be pulled down and it's going to be destroyed ...I will execute judgement, which means "death," I am the LORD.

Verse 13 – Now the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you; hence, the word "Passover," the Passover sacrifice. Because it's because of the blood that God would go and see this blood that was on the lintels and on the door places – God didn't have to actually "see" it, of course, He knew where it was, but this is saying that, well, this is the sign. So the blood is the sign... and the plague shall not be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt. So it all points now to something that is spiritual.

The blood (the wine) of the New Testament Passover is a sign of a spiritual relationship we have with God and Christ. We understand that "the wages of sin is death." Now, the "sign" (the blood), which is us partaking of the wine, is a sign on the houses, which is a sign on us, brethren. It's in us. It's a sign of our attitude, and when God sees the blood, He sees our attitude towards the Passover, God says He will Pass-over our sins... He will pass over our sins and the plague will not destroy us. What's the plague? It's called "death on a spiritual level." It's called the second death in the end, but it's actually a spiritual death that we can die. Well, God says that He will cover over that, that we will not be subject to this plague of death on a spiritual level, that we will remain alive. Because? By accepting Jesus Christ as our Passover sacrifice and allowing sin to be covered God can live and dwell in us; therefore, by God living and dwelling in us we cannot have death dwelling in us. Because sin leads to death. Sin and death are connected. God and God's spirit and life are connected. So it's either one or the other – we either have God and life living in us or we have sin and death dwelling in us, because "the wages of sin is death."

Death will not strike us on a spiritual level as long as we accept the shed blood of Christ into our lives by partaking of the Passover in spirit and truth. And that's the important part. To partake of the Passover service now, it has to be done in the right attitude. And of course, it talks in the New Testament about being in "a worthy manner." So it's all about our attitude. Are we in a state of non-repentance? In other words, have we got a sin that we won't repent of? Are we holding any grudges or any ill will to anybody? Well, we shouldn't be taking the Passover! There is scriptures that talk about, "You should leave your gift behind at the altar and go off and verify and rectify a situation with a brother." If there is anything we're holding against anybody else, in other words, any ill will towards another person, and we have that issue, it's unresolved, we need to make sure that that matter is at least resolved before we come back to God, because the scripture as we read in Part 1, that to be forgiven of sin by God requires us to be forgiving. If we are not forgiving, if we're not willing to rectify a situation of any ill will that may exist between two people, God is saying we should not be partaking of the Passover because we're doing it in an "unworthy manner." We are not worthy of taking the sacrifice of Jesus Christ because we are willing to hang onto sin. And yet this is all about forgiveness of sin and being at-one-with God and allowing God and Jesus Christ to live and dwell in us because of the very sacrifice of God, which is the sacrifice of Jesus Christ (His shed blood) for us.

Verse 14 – So this day shall be to you a memorial, so Passover is to be a memorial, and (as well as Passover) you shall keep a Feast, and it's talking about Unleavened Bread, because Passover is not a Feast, but a memorial, to the LORD throughout your generations. You shall keep a Feast (of Unleavened Bread) by an everlasting ordinance. So this day, this Passover, of when God is saying He is going to pass over and He is going to destroy the firstborn, the firstborn of animals, and He's going to destroy the false religious idols that they have put up, it's actually a memorial – it's once a year. It's an annual memorial of what God did in passing over Israel, and of course, because of the very lamb (because of the blood on the lintels, on the doorposts), God would pass over and wouldn't destroy them.

Well, this same principle applies to us, brethren. We have the Passover sacrifice of Jesus Christ and God says He will pass over our sins, which means He'll forgive us our sins, and we don't have to face the death penalty. We do not have to face the death penalty because of that Passover.

And then this scripture goes on and talks about the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Now, Unleavened Bread and Passover are connected, because Unleavened Bread, of course, we understand, is about leavening, removing leavening, which is like removing sin. And we're going to go into that in more detail in the future.

Exodus 12:21 – Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel and said to them, Pick up and take lambs for yourselves according to your families, and kill the Passover lamb. Now, that had to be on the fourteenth as previously instructed by God to Moses. And you shall take a bunch of hyssop, dip it into the blood that is in the basin, because when they killed it they cut the throat of the lamb and then they drained the blood (they bled the animal), and the blood was placed into a basin, then they were to get this hyssop, which is like a plant, and they were to dip it in it and they were to strike the lintel's of the two doorposts with the blood that is in the basin. And none of you shall go out of the door of this house until morning. So they were to go through that process, to kill the lamb, to get the blood, and they were to strike the doorposts, the lintel over the top of the doorposts – and we understand that is a "sign" for God that He would not strike that household and strike the firstborn.

Now, we are not to leave fellowship of God or the brethren by leaving the Body because this is what it points to. If we have accepted the very shed blood of Jesus Christ and we have been baptized and our sins have been forgiven and we've been raised up out of that to walk anew, and a true minister of God has laid hands on us, then we are not to leave. We are not to leave His House – as it says here – "none of you are to go out of his house." Well, we aren't to go out of God's House – because it is God's House. The Church of God–PKG is God's House and we shouldn't leave it. Because if we leave it what will we face? Death. That's what was going to happen in Egypt, and where Israel was. If they had the blood over the doorposts, if they remained in their house, they would not have to face death.

Well, brethren, this applies on a spiritual level. We are not to leave the fellowship of God's Church, and we're not to leave fellowship with the brethren. Because if we leave this Body, if we leave this "House," we will die on a spiritual level ...we will die. We face death because we're going to be cut off, and therefore, we're going to be cut off from God, because it is God that keeps us alive on a spiritual level.

Obedience to these instructions means life! Obedience to these instructions means life. To remain under God's government in our life means life, because we have to have God living and dwelling in us.

If they did not follow these instructions (they did not yield to these instructions) the outcome was death. Well, that same principle applies to us, brethren, today – exactly the same principle. We must remain under God's government in our life, and if we do, that means "life" lives in us, life dwells in us. If we will not follow, we will not yield to the instructions God gives us, we will die.

Verse 23 – For the LORD will pass through to strike the Egyptians; and when He sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the LORD will pass over the door and not allow the destroyer to come into your house to strike you. Here it is, God is the one that provides the protection. We are protected spiritually if we remain under the sacrifice of God, have the blood (the sacrifice) of Christ in our life. And now this is the real beauty of Passover. To understand this on a spiritual level – and of course, we know that people aren't called to understand it – but this is an incredible time of the year for us because we can get into this and understand it, of what God has done for us. God's great plan! Sometimes when you go over these things and start to meditate on them you realize how incredible God's mind really is, the fact that He has planned this out and the beauty of it. And it all points to something for us and for the rest of mankind.

To go through this process of bringing Jacob and his sons into Egypt, to hold them there for a period of time, to allow them to multiply, to allow them to then be turned on by Pharaoh because of his fear of what they are growing into and what they might do if they out bred the Egyptians – to see what God did in calling Moses and then providing Moses and Aaron to come back to the children of Israel and to place all of the plagues on Egypt (but at one point, of course, we know that God left Israel alone and it was only the Egyptians that really suffered in that period), to understand that God did all of that, planned it all out – it was all pointing to one particular point of time, and that was the death of His only begotten Son. That's incredible to understand it! And it was all done for you and for me. Isn't that amazing? And for all mankind when they are called for that very purpose, to accept the very sacrifice of Jesus Christ. But to understand that God did all of that, all of that thought process, all of that planning, and that Moses and Aaron and the Israelites and Pharaoh and his army all went through these sufferings, went through all of this... all for my benefit, all for your benefit on a spiritual level, that one day we would understand it.

Because people read these things now and see them just as stories. Well, we read them knowing God's plan. And that is incredible in itself! The fact that we know what the Creator of the universe is doing and why He is doing it is just amazing!

Verse 24 – And you shall observe this thing as an ordinance for you and for your sons forever. So this was going to be something that was required as an observance (as a memorial) forever. While man existed this was going to have to be kept. It was supposed to be taught to the sons of the children of Israel.

Verse 25 – It shall come to pass when you come into the land which the LORD will give you, which is talking about the "promised land," which was going to be another forty-odd years before they're going to get there... just as He promised, which God had promised to them. They didn't know at that time that it was going to be forty years before they entered, but God had promised them "the promised land" and that when they went into the promised land that you shall keep this service. So they, then, during that period (when they get into the promised land), they were to take a lamb on the tenth day and they were to cut its throat on the fourteenth – on the 14th, not before, not after, but "between the two evenings" – that they were to cut its throat and roast it and eat it. They were to keep the Passover sacrifice (the observance) as a memorial while they were in the promised land and from that point forward.

And of course, we understand that a lot of that was lost by various aspects of various tribes lost that knowledge and that Judah kept that knowledge right up until the very time of Christ and that Christ on the very night, on the fourteenth of Abib, fulfilled the Old Testament Passover and introduced the New Testament symbols so that we no longer have to sacrifice a lamb, cut its throat, etcetera...

Verse 26 – And it shall be, when your children say to you, "What do you mean by this service?" "What do you mean by putting a lamb aside on the tenth day? What about the killing of the lamb on the fourteenth and then eating it? What does this all mean?" And of course, they were looking at this on a physical level ...that you shall say to them, "It is the Passover sacrifice of the LORD," so it's God's sacrifice for us (God the Father's sacrifice for us) is what they would have to say... "who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt when He (God) struck the Egyptians and delivered our households.” So the people bowed their heads and worshiped. So they understood the instructions.

Now, for us, brethren, it is the same. On a spiritual level we should, if we have younger children in our family, we should be instructing them or advising them about what the Passover service is about, understanding that younger children would not be attending a Passover service because Passover is for somebody that is baptized and that is actually a member of the Body of Christ and can understand Passover on a spiritual level. And that's the key to it. There is no point in somebody being at a Passover service if they don't know what they're doing. If they don't have God's spirit they cannot know what they are doing. If they do not have God's spirit they cannot know what they are doing, because this is spiritual in nature. The Passover service that we partake annually as the Church of God is a spiritual sacrifice. We understand what it's really about. It's about a spiritual matter. So it's about explaining to the younger people what it's about on a physical level, but then explaining it; it's spiritual in nature. Now, they won't grasp the real meaning of it, but they'll understand aspects of the very sacrifice of Jesus Christ covers sin.

So this is the time that we partake. We renew our commitment to God and Jesus Christ by taking the symbols of the Passover.

God has the power of life and death. And that is something to understand on a physical level, but also on a spiritual level, because this is what Passover is about; it's about life and death. If we do not partake of the Passover on a spiritual level annually, in the right attitude, in a worthy manner, we face death ...we face death. But to have life is to partake of the Passover in a spiritual attitude that is correct or in a spiritual way. God the Father offers His only begotten Son for us. Isn't that amazing to understand what the Old Testament Passover was about? It all pointed to a sacrifice that God would make on our behalf, the Passover sacrifice of Christ for us so that sin could be covered. It's a beautiful thing if we understand it.

Now, our role in the Passover service is one of having the right spiritual attitude, to partake of this, Passover symbols, in a right attitude, which is one of no ill will, which is to partake of it in a worthy manner, which is humble and not being raised up, desiring to be a servant, and wanting to be a servant, and be willing to serve. And that's what it's about.

Verse 28 – Then the children of Israel went away and did so; just as the LORD had commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did. And it came to pass at midnight that the LORD struck the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne, to the firstborn of the captive who was in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of the livestock. So anybody that was not in a house as instructed by God, and didn't place the blood over the lintel and on the doorposts, the firstborn died. God had struck the firstborn in the land of Egypt right through to the firstborn of the livestock. So Pharaoh rose in the night, he and all his servants, and all the Egyptians; and there was a great cry in Egypt, well, there would be. There would be great distress to see the firstborn dead within a household, for there was not a house where there was not one dead. Now, death on a physical level strikes, and particularly the firstborn would strike very hard at anybody, because this is exactly what Moses (Moses and Aaron) had told Pharaoh would happen. And of course, Pharaoh begins to say, "Yes, you can go...and no, you can't," and he keeps swaying backwards and forwards because he was not really willing to let them go because he knew the consequences of it – which was, he was going to lose his slaves. He was no longer going to be able to produce a country as wealthy as Egypt was because he didn't have the workforce anymore. So there was no way he's going to let them go, and as far as he was concerned he was doing the right thing (in his own mind) for Egypt.

Then he (Pharaoh) called for Moses and Aaron by night... now, this is really not really what actually happened, if you read it in the sense that "he called for them." He actually sent them a message. And there are scriptures that show that – I'm not going to go into that today – that clearly say that Moses and Aaron said, "Well, this is the last time you will see us." And that's exactly what happened. That was the last time that Pharaoh saw Moses and Aaron. But here it says, "He called for Moses and Aaron by night." He actually sent a message and said, Rise, go out from among my people, both you and the children of Israel. And go, serve the LORD as you have said. So this whole point was, and if we look back at the first sermon and the beginning of this sermon, was about what God had asked. God had said to Moses and Aaron, "Go and say to Pharaoh, 'Let My people go that they may serve Me.'" Well, finally Pharaoh has come to the conclusion, because of death, that it's time to go, serve the LORD as you have said. So now he's going to say, "Well, go!" And it's only through death; it's only because of death and being struck very physically (because a death does strike physically), and the tension and the emotion in the mind of death was so overpowering that Pharaoh reneged. He said, "That's it! You go!"

Verse 32 – Also take your flocks and your herds, as you have said, and be gone; and bless me also. Now, this is interesting because this just shows you how the natural carnal mind works. He's saying, "Well, you go. Be gone!" and the reason is, "Because you've caused so much problems to me and it's so difficult now, that I'm going to allow it, and 'bless me also'!" So he's still thinking of himself. He's thinking, "Well, just bless me. Make sure that I'm still looked after." Because he could see that Moses and Aaron had a "power" that he didn't and he wanted to make sure that he was blessed as well so no more damage or no more destruction happened to him. We can refer back to (we're not going to turn there) Revelation 18:4, because it is about the destruction. Pharaoh didn't want any more destruction to happen to him. Well, brethren, we don't want to be in a position where we might receive the plagues from God, and it's all about this "exiting Egypt."

In Revelation 18:4, I'm just going to refer to it: "And I heard another voice from heaven saying, Come out of her, My people," because if you don't, "lest you share in her sins and lest you receive of her plagues." Now, this, of course, is a time yet future that is coming, which is about the Day of the Lord. Well, brethren, we are to come out of "her." We're to come out of "Egypt"; we're to come out of sin. And the reason is because we are God's people... we are God's people. And we want to serve God. We want to leave Egypt and serve God just as God has called us out of Egypt (just like He did the Israelites here). God has done the same for us on a spiritual level. He's called us out. And God is saying, "Come out of her! Come out of this system – Babylon – Egypt – the bondage, the captivity – come out of it My people!" And if we don't, if we're not willing to follow the instructions that God has given by taking Passover annually in spirit and truth, we will share in the sins of Egypt and we will receive her plagues. And the plagues are going to lead to death.

So on a spiritual level, brethren, we should be "coming out of Egypt." That is the process of our life. And it's done through repentance. We should be leaving Egypt every day of our life. Whenever sin is revealed to us within our thinking – we know when we sin. Now, often, we sin and we don't pick up on it very quickly, but later on the thought may come in and think, "Well, I think I handled that wrongly. I think I sinned. I think I was selfish in the way that I handled that." Well, that's the time to "leave Egypt." We don't want to be held captive. We don't want to be in bondage. "Come out of her, My people." Talking about it on a spiritual level, we're to repent every day. We are to be in a process of repentance. We are to be girded with our sandals on, being spiritually aware all the time about the potential to be held captive in Egypt, to be held by sin. We're to be aware of sin, to be aware of sin in our life, in our thinking. Because that's where it all comes from. Sin comes from the mind, from our thinking. And we don't always have control. We're not always "girded and ready," aware that sin is there. Sin can pop up in various ways, in various situations, when we least expect it. So when we lower our guard, when we're not "girded up and ready" that's when, normally, we get attacked. And guess what? We fail; we will sin.

Well, the beauty is we can repent. So we can come out from this world through repentance and we don't want to share in the penalty of sin, which is death. We don't want to receive the "reward of sin." We do want the opposite. And we can do that through repentance, by turning to God.

Now, that's what Passover's about. It's about having our sins covered as a memorial, because it points to something. It points to something that we are willing to do the rest of our life every day. Passover is only an annual event, but every single day we can actually use the aspects of Passover, which is repentance. Humility through the foot-washing service – it's a sign that we are willing to serve, we're willing to serve God, be servants of God and serve the brethren. We have no ill will to them, and hence, from the Passover service, by partaking of the bread and the wine we demonstrate other signs. They are just symbols, but they demonstrate something; they demonstrate our willingness to "come out of Egypt," our willingness to come out of sin. We desire to be forgiven every time we slip, every time we "miss the mark," every time we err (which is what sin is), every time we break a spiritual principle in our life and hurt ourselves or hurt others through that sin, we are willing to repent, we are willing to "come out of Egypt."

Exodus 12:43 (drop down to verse 43) – And the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, This is the ordinance of the Passover: No foreigner shall eat it. Now, we're going to cover a spiritual principle here of why only baptized members of the Body of Christ take the annual Passover, the New Testament Passover, in a spiritual manner.

Now, this principle really states about "only baptized members." Now, the reason is – it covers it here now, we're going to go through it – about circumcision. Because circumcision is not what is important on a physical level. It's a spiritual matter. It's a circumcision of the heart. Now, that can only take place once we have been baptized and received God's holy spirit through the laying of hands. Now, when that takes place we are then "circumcised of heart." We are then "circumcised of heart." So if we're not "circumcised" we cannot partake of the Passover.

Now, in the Old Testament the physical principle was an uncircumcised person couldn't take the Passover, only a circumcised one. Well, on a spiritual level it's exactly the same.

Verse  44 – But every man's servant who is bought for money, when you have circumcised him, then he may eat it. So circumcision was the "sign" that a person could partake of the physical Passover. Now, "circumcision of the heart," which is a spiritual matter, is what now counts. The physical circumcision counts for nothing. It's the spiritual circumcision that counts with God.

Verse 45 – A sojourner, a hired servant shall not eat it. So somebody that was a "hired servant," which is like a "slave" really (same thing), or a sojourner (somebody that would come into it from another nationality), and they had not been circumcised, they weren't able to eat it. They had to actually be circumcised.

Now, this is the principle today, that somebody that is outside of the Body, and someone that is a "hired servant," in other words, not part of the Church of God–PKG on a spiritual level, in other words, baptized and received the laying of hands, not a member of the Body on a spiritual level, they cannot partake of the Passover. And if they did, that would be sin, because they're raising themselves up against God's instructions.

Verse 46 – In one house it shall be eaten, which is God's Church. This is the one House where Passover can be eaten, can be taken on a spiritual level. It is His "called out ones." We are the called out ones of God, and therefore, we become part of the Church of God. Because the Church really is "a group of called out ones," called out from this world, called out to "leave Egypt."

In one house you shall eat it; you shall not carry any of the flesh outside the house. So it can't go outside of God's Church. The way that God's Church keeps New Testament Passover, that's how it should be followed, exactly as it is stated, not putting up our own rules, not going outside to some other "way." It's only one way. It's the way that God has instructed His Church to keep it in New Testament times for this time … nor shall you break one of its bones. Now, we understand it's about simply following the exact instructions that we've been given. We're not to go out and do something different. There is no other "way" to take the Passover. There is one way to take the Passover and it's the way that God has outlined and given instructions to keep it.

Now, in the future there will be variations, I'm sure, to the way some of our services are carried out. For example, the Sabbath service; we do it in a particular way because that's what God has given to the Church at this time. It doesn't mean to say that it's always going to be exactly like that. And it's the same with the New Testament Passover. There's elements of the New Testament Passover, which is the foot-washing, the taking of the bread and wine, but exactly all the other aspects of it, we don't know how long it's going to be and exactly what it will be. We do know today what we have been given. And the point is that is the way we are to keep it. We are not to vary a different way or have it outside of the way that the Church is keeping it today, because that will be doing something based on our own reasoning.

So there is a way to keep the New Testament Passover and the Church of God has those instructions and that's the way Passover should be kept because that's the way God has instructed it in His Church today.

Verse 47 – All the congregation of Israel shall keep it. All baptized members of the Body of Christ, the Church of God, should keep Passover. Now, if they're not baptized, they shouldn't keep it.

Verse 48 – And when a stranger dwells with you (unbaptized) and wants to keep the Passover to the LORD, let all his males be circumcised, in other words, he has to have gone through the state of repentance, he has to have been baptized, and he has to have hands laid on him by a true minister of God to enable God to dwell in him through the power of His holy spirit, let him come near and keep it, so he means that a person has to have been baptized before they can keep the spiritual Passover today ...and he shall be as a native of the land. For no uncircumcised person shall eat it.

I just wanted to now outline something that took place, and the member of the Body will know this particular example, but I think it's relevant to just discuss it briefly. There was a time when a particular person wrote in an email and said that they would desire to keep the Passover. And at that time, I was answering emails on behalf of the Church and I wrote back to that person saying that if he was not baptized he was unable to take the New Testament Passover.

Now, he had a desire to obey God and he wanted to keep the Passover, so he understood. I explained to him, I believe (if I remember rightly), these particular scriptures and saying, basically, Passover in the New Testament was only for baptized members of the Body of Christ. Now, he could not come and get baptized at that time because he was in another location, and he wrote back in saying, well, when he was baptized, which was going to be after the first Passover, could he then take the second Passover, because he was baptized in between the first and the second? And I did explain to him at that time that the answer is, "No." Because the second Passover was only designed for those that could not partake of the first Passover, even though they qualified it – in other words, they were circumcised before the first – that there was a reason, because they were considered "unclean" or they couldn't make it because they were "unclean" (in other words, they were outside of the camp), but they were in a position that they had qualified for it. They had been circumcised; therefore, that's why the second Passover was designed and was given. It wasn't given for the point of somebody that was then circumcised between the first and the second, that they could automatically take the second.

So that principle applies today, that the second Passover is for a purpose of those that cannot keep the first Passover. They qualify for it because they've been baptized and have God's spirit, but they are not able to partake of it due to (now days it would be), health (would be the main reason).

Back to Exodus 12:15. Now we're going to go through the aspect of the commandments that are given with regards to Unleavened Bread. Exodus 12:15 – Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On (or before) the first day you shall have/removed leaven from your homes. So we have now this opportunity, and we do it today, is we remove leaven from our homes for that seven day period. And the purpose of that, of course, is to remove leaven – which is to remove something that puffs up, a leavening agent that affects, or infects cakes or bread, that will make them rise up. Now, that is a "sign" for us, something on a physical level that we do, but it points to something spiritual.

For whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel. We understand leaven is symbolic of sin. Sin is what cuts us off from God. Sin will cut us off from God's people in the sense we cannot have a true spiritual relationship with them. Why? Because we are no longer in unity of spirit. So we remove leaven from our homes on a physical level for that seven day period, and we look for that leaven, we go through, we try to find it, and then we remove it from our properties. We completely remove it from our properties. Well, that is simply an outward physical "sign" of something internal, something spiritual in nature which goes on in our minds. We are to remove leaven – we are to search our minds for sin. We're to look for sin. While we are removing leaven on a physical level we should be doing it on a spiritual level in our minds. Because there is no point in us removing leaven from our homes if we are not trying to remove spiritual leaven from our minds. Because one's just a physical exercise.

There are other cultures and other religions that remove physical leaven from their homes for a seven day period. But what good is it if we haven't attempted or we're not striving to remove leaven (sin) from within our own "homes," within our own minds where our thinking dwells? And that's what this is about. And that's what this is about. These Days of Unleavened Bread are spiritual in nature. It's designed that we are searching out leaven within our lives, sin within our lives, to remove it... to remove it.

Now, one of the greatest sins, one of the greatest parts of leaven that exists in any human is pride – and then, of course, that drives selfishness. Because we are selfish by nature in ways that we just can't understand, we just don't "see." But God reveals it over time, to realize that the way we express ourselves, the words that we use, the way that we think are all expressions of selfishness. They are all expressions of pride, and therefore, we need to reign them in. We need to search our words, we need to search our thoughts to see where sin is, where leaven is in our life. And when we find it, we are to remove it from our thinking. We are to remove it. And how do we remove it? By repentance. We are to repent. We are to confess to God that we have found leaven in our thinking and that we don't want it. And we ask God to remove it from us, to forgive us as we forgive others, and that we don't want to have that leaven in our life.

Now, I know from experience that I have gone about with my wife and we have deleavened our home and been reasonably confident that I have removed, and we have removed, all the leaven from within our car, within the house. We've gone through and I'm pretty sure that we have got all the leaven. And therefore, you strive on a physical level to do that, only to find that maybe in half way through the year that you come across, and in a corner of a cupboard somewhere, there can be leaven, there's a pack of leaven. And it sort of shocks you because you were reasonable confident that you had searched the home to remove the leaven and while you were doing that you were searching your own thinking and you were finding leaven – you know there is leaven in all of us. When you're doing Unleavened Bread you go through that period of removing the leaven from the home and you're thinking about, "Well, I've got to think about the way I speak and my opinions and these things..." and you find leaven while you're examining it, but you don't really realize that the actual physical leaven can still be there.

Well, it's the same for us on a spiritual level – leaven is always there; it's just a matter of whether we "see" it, whether God reveals it to us, and at what level God reveals it to us. But leaven is always in our life, every single day because of our nature.

I know also that I have tried really hard to not actually physically partake of leaven during that seven days and I have eaten my small piece of unleavened bread for the whole seven days – I have a small piece to make sure we do, that we are demonstrating to God that we don't want to be leavened, that we want to be unleavened so we eat the unleavened bread – but there's been often in various events that I've been to and you get caught up in the social event or the work event (whatever it is) and all of a sudden you realize you're eating a piece of cake or you're eating a bit of a sandwich or something. It's easily done because we just simply slip and we make a mistake. Now, that can actually be a good thing. You might think that that's a bad thing, if somebody ate a piece of leaven during unleavened bread, but in actual fact it can be a good thing because it's a good reminder. It burns in the brain when you've got that piece of cake in your mouth and you're just swallowing it and you realize, "Oh no!" Because it's something physical... it's something physical, and what it really does is in the mind on a spiritual level, how easy it is to slip up, to err, to make an error, to miss the mark! How easy it is to sin! How easy it is to sin! Because we are so conscious on a physical level not to eat leaven, and then we do it, and you're disappointed in yourself that you could even go down that path, to have even eaten it or almost eaten it. Because I've known examples where we've almost eaten it and we've seen it, and we've caught it in our thinking, we think, "Oh, hang on, that's wrong!" Well, it's much more important on a spiritual level.

So to "see" a sin, to "see" the leaven just before it goes into the mouth, to "see" that sin before it comes out of our mouth is a great blessing! It's one of the greatest things that can happen to us on a spiritual level. To "see" sin that's coming out of us or about to come out of us is a wonderful, wonderful blessing, to be able to "deleaven ourselves" there on the spot... to "deleaven ourselves" on the spot. Because leaven hurts others, sin hurts others. Sin that comes from us hurts others. Not only does it hurt ourselves it actually hurts others.

So it's the same with leaven. We need to be on guard. We need to be looking for leaven in our life every day of our life. It's not just a seven day period. These seven Days of Unleavened Bread, it's a concentrated period that God has given us something physical that points to the spiritual.

Exodus 12:16 – On the first day there shall be, and those words have been added, On the first day, a holy convocation, and on the seventh day there shall be a holy convocation for you. No manner of work shall be done on them; but that which everyone must eat—that only may be prepared by you. So this is saying that they are "holy convocations," they are commanded assemblies, they are High Days. They are High Days where we don't work on them. And it's saying there that we shouldn't do any work – and this would be heavy baking, etcetera – but we could do some minor preparations, outside of preparation day, those extra things that needed to be done, which is meals.

Verse 17 – So you shall observe (keep) the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and the word "Feast" there has actually been added, but it is a Feast of Unleavened Bread. This is the first of the Feast days as Passover is not a Feast day. But these Days of Unleavened Bread, they are actually Feast days. Why? Why are we to observe them? Why are we to keep them? ...for on this same day I will have brought your armies out of the land of Egypt. So "it's on this day," the very First Day of Unleavened Bread, which is the fifteenth of Abib, "I (God) will have brought your armies out of the land of Egypt." So, now this is actually pointing to when they are going to be leaving Egypt.

Therefore you shall observe this day, the First Day of Unleavened Bread, the time they started to leave Egypt, throughout your generations as an everlasting ordinance. We are to remember the time we started to "leave Egypt." So this points back to our calling that we covered in a lot more detail in Part 1, which was Moses' calling. Because it was the time that he was now to start to work towards leaving Egypt. Well, a calling is exactly the same, it's a starting of a time "to start to leave Egypt." Now, we can't "leave Egypt" in its true sense unless we have God's holy spirit, because God has to do it. So a calling is a start of a "time to leave Egypt," and this is saying here that we should remember this, we should observe the Days of Unleavened Bread, the First Day of Unleavened Bread in particular – we should remember our calling. And we understand about a "Night To Be Remembered," and hopefully in this sermon we'll get time, we're going to go through that, and if not, it'll be in Part 3.

So it's "time to leave Egypt." It's about a time to leave sin, and we should remember the time we started. And I remember many aspects of my calling with great fondness. And I remember them because of often the mistakes that I made on a personal level. But I made a lot of mistakes thinking that I knew what I was doing when I didn't have a clue, making decisions based on old knowledge, not knowledge of God or from God (based on my human reasoning). So I made judgements and decisions based on what I thought was right and what God would be pleased with, but wasn't necessarily right because I was still using my natural carnal mind. Because with a calling we have the aspect of God "with" us. He's not dwelling "in" us on a permanent basis, but God is "with" us, but we still have all this natural carnal mind and our predisposition towards our old thinking, what we think is right in our own eyes – old religious beliefs that we may have or family traditions that we may have. So as we begin to leave there is always difficulty. There is always difficulty leaving because we are still in sin. We have all this sin, we have all this wrong knowledge, but we start with a calling from God, which is a requirement to begin to prepare to "leave Egypt."

We are to remember the time we started to "leave Egypt," the time we started to become unleavened. And it is a beautiful thing to understand that we are leavened and that we are to become unleavened, and that journey of leaving Egypt goes on for our whole life. It's a wonderful concept that God has placed into His Church for us to understand, and the world has no idea of the beauty of Passover and the Day's of Unleavened Bread. But we do, brethren. We have that knowledge and it's exciting to understand it.

Verse 18 – In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at evening, so now this is at the end of the fourteenth. The sun has gone down, the fourteenth is now finished and the fifteenth has now started ...you shall eat unleavened bread, till/until the twenty-first day of the month at evening at the end of the twenty-first. So this is a complete seven day-period. For seven days no leaven shall be found in your houses. Now, we know that's on a physical level. Well, on a spiritual level that's what we are to strive during these seven days of Unleavened Bread, we are to strive that we do not have sin in our life. Now, if we do find it, the way out of it is repentance. If we find spiritual leaven in our minds, in our thinking, the way out of it is repentance. That's how we "leave Egypt." That's how we get rid of leaven out of our "homes," out of our thinking. It's through repentance ...since whoever eats what is leavened, that same person shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he is a stranger or a native in the land. Well, the same on a spiritual level for us. If we sin, we are cut off from a relationship with God and a relationship with the brethren. Because while we are in sin, unrepentant sin, we cannot have a spiritual relationship with Israel, with the Church of God. We might think we can. We may turn up with sin (unrepentant sin) in our life and have a "fellowship," a relationship with the brethren, but it's all physical. It's all physical and it is not spiritual. It's impossible to have a spiritual relationship while we have sin (unrepentant sin) in our life. It's impossible because we'll be acting selfishly. The relationship will be selfishly based.

Verse 20 – You shall eat nothing leavened; in all your dwellings you shall eat unleavened bread. So during this seven days we are to consume unleavened bread into our lives. We're to consume a small piece of unleavened bread as a sign of our willingness to be unleavened.

Now I'll just go across to Exodus 12:29 – And it came to pass at midnight… Now, that word "midnight" is interesting because on the Roman calendar we think midnight or mid-night is actually 12:00. Well, that's using a Roman calendar; it would use a mid-night. It's the middle of the night based on a Roman calendar. But in actual fact this word is "middle" or "half of the night portion." So it may not be exactly 12:00. It's probably more than likely later than that. So it's in the "mid of the night." It's in "halfway portion of the night," that the LORD struck all the firstborn of the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captives who was in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of the livestock.

Verse 30 – So Pharaoh rose in the night, he and all his servants, and all the Egyptians; and there was a great cry in Egypt for there was not a house where there was not one dead. He (Pharaoh) called, he "recited or proclaimed" that word really means. So when it says, "Then he called," it's really "recite" or "proclaim" for Moses and Aaron in the/by the night, he sent a message to them and said, Arise, go out from among the people, both you and the children of Israel. And go and serve the LORD as you have said. It's time to leave. And that's what this sermon is about. Here it is, it was a time to leave. Well, we have been called to serve God in the wilderness, which is in this world. We have been called to serve God. So it is time to leave, brethren. It's time to leave sin behind, but we still have to be in the wilderness. We have to be amongst this wilderness of confusion of this world, but we are the camp of Israel. We are the children of God, we are begotten sons of God, and we are leaving Egypt. And we're leaving Egypt for the purpose of serving God. But we still have to live in this world. But we are to come out of the world on a spiritual level.

Now, the people here, of course, have seen the death that is all around them. They cannot understand what has happened to the people. They just don't know what has happened. "Why has this all really happened?" Because I know Pharaoh would have understood an aspect of it, but the general people probably didn't understand what is really going on, hence, the crying. Well, the same happens to us today, brethren. People cannot understand what has happened to us, the people that they love and they know. They find it difficult to have a real relationship with us now because we now serve God and place God first in our life. So someone that may have been first before we were called – it might have been a wife or it might have even been a girlfriend, or it might have been a boss, it could have been somebody else, that we've placed, that we are serving (by placing somebody first, we are serving them, we become their servants), and they are first. They're a high priority to us and we put ourselves out to serve them, to be their servants. With a calling, by us leaving sin, by "leaving Egypt," and as we leave it, we then place something else first. We are now "leaving Egypt" and we are now serving God. We've been called out to serve God. Just like the Israelites were, same as happened to us.

Well, as we do that people can't understand it, because we now place something else first, and that something else is God. We place God first. Now, people can't understand that because they are second...and they feel it, and they sense it.

Verse 32 – Also, take your flocks and your herds, as you have said, and be gone; and bless me also. And the Egyptians urged, and that is "strengthened and encouraged" the people, that they might send them out of the land in haste. For they said, We shall be dead. So they had a great fear.

God uses Satan's way of broadcasting thoughts to our minds as a way of strengthening us on a spiritual level, if we understand God's purpose for us. And God's purpose is? To transform our thinking, to "deleaven" us so that we can become unleavened. Because by nature we are "leavened." We have sin dwelling in us. But a calling by God is to leave the leavening behind, to become unleavened. So Satan broadcasts to our thinking. Well, God uses that because this is the way that we can be strengthened, because it's about what choice we make. Will we choose to follow God and put God first? Will we follow God's lead and go and serve God? Or will we follow our selfishness and serve our selfishness?

So these broadcasting, or the broadcasting of Satan's ways and his thoughts to our mind has the potential to strengthen us on a spiritual level because of a choice. We can either say, "Yes, I will eat the leaven." Or "No, I won't eat the leaven." That is the choice in our mind. We have a choice of what we will do and how we will do it and when we will do it. So that's what this is about; it's about leavening and unleavening.

So during these Days of Unleavened Bread that we are approaching it is important that we focus on the spiritual aspect of being unleavened. Because this broadcasting is leavening coming in – we can consume it in our thinking or we can reject it – hence, whenever we are tempted or we look like we're making a mistake and we pick up the pie or the bit of toast, or whatever it is, we have the choice now, once we are aware of it, to make a decision. Will we consume it or won't we? Well, that is exactly the same on a spiritual level. Will we consume the broadcasting or won't we?

Verse 34 – So the people took their dough before it was leavened, having their kneading bowls bound up in their clothes on their shoulders. Now the children of Israel had done according to the word of Moses, and they had asked from the Egyptians articles of silver, articles of gold, and clothing. Because God had told them that's what they should do. And the Egyptians were willing to get rid of them. They just wanted to see the backend of them and get them out of the place because they had already suffered greatly by the death of their firstborn.

Verse 36 – And the LORD had given the people favour in the sight of the Egyptians so that they granted them what they had requested. Thus they plundered the Egyptians. "They plundered the Egyptians" during the daylight portion of the fourteenth of Abib. Now they started to leave Egypt during the night portion of the fifteenth of Abib.

Numbers 33:1-4 – These are the journeys of the children of Israel, who went out from the land of Egypt by their armies under the hand of Moses and Aaron. Now, "by their armies," it's talking about by their families. So they went out in an organized, structured way because they went out after they had plundered the Egyptians (after they had requested things from the Egyptians and the Egyptians had given it to them) in the afternoon portion of the fourteenth of Abib, which is the afternoon part of the daylight portion. So they "plundered" them, and from that point when it goes into the fifteenth they then leave by night. They then went out in an organized manner led by Moses and Aaron.

Verse 2 – Now, Moses wrote down the starting points of their journeys at the command of the LORD. So God had asked him to write down these particular locations. And these are the journeys according to their starting points: They departed from Rameses in the first month, on the fifteenth day of the first month, by night. Because we understand, brethren, that a day that God has created starts with an evening. So it's an "evening and the morning of the first day." So they left "on the fifteenth day of the first month," on the day after the Passover, which the fourteenth had finished ...the children of Israel went out with boldness in the sight of the Egyptians.

So they went out with this confidence and this boldness because they had seen what God had done for them. Now, they didn't understand it on a spiritual level by any means. They would have seen this all on a physical level, that God had fulfilled what He had told Moses and Aaron, that He was going to deliver them and that there was going to be death of the firstborn in Egypt and they were to go through the Passover process, which was the pulling of the lamb aside on the tenth day, the killing of the lamb on the fourteenth, the roasting of the lamb, the eating of the lamb, the destruction of whatever was left over, and to be fully dressed on that day. And then in the morning (it was in the morning) they could actually leave their homes. And now they had "plundered the Egyptians" that day and now they were leaving. So the children of Israel left with boldness! So they were confident and they were motivated and they were given direction and they were walking out now in an organized way and the Egyptians were left behind seeing all this. And the Egyptians were glad to see them go, you know, "Let's get rid of them!" Because they didn't want any more death and destruction.

Verse 4 – For the Egyptians were burying all their firstborn, so they were occupied now with burying all of their dead. And this would have been a time of great distress for everybody in the land of Egypt, because to lose a firstborn, to lose anybody, whether it's a husband, whether it's a wife, whether it's a child is a distressing thing on a physical level, and it is upsetting. Now, for them to see everybody doing that would have been quite distressing and there would have been a lot of wailing and emotion involved. (Verse 4) For the Egyptians were burying all their firstborn whom the LORD had killed among them. Also on their gods the LORD had executed judgements. So the gods that they had were now perceived by the Egyptians as being powerless and worthless. And the exact level of destruction that God had poured out on the statues and all those things, we don't fully comprehend, but we do understand that God did destroy them in the land of Egypt at that time.

The term "Passover" can mean "the lamb of the fourteenth" and also "the temple sacrifice on the First Day of Unleavened Bread." Passover is often stated in scripture as "a season." Before we read Deuteronomy 16 we need to cover Leviticus 23 to ensure we establish what God clearly instructs as far as keeping the fourteenth day and the fifteenth day because they are completely separate.

Leviticus 23:4 – These are the appointed times of the LORD, holy convocations which you shall proclaim at their appointed times. So these are set times. They are appointments with God. They are times that God has set aside. On the fourteenth day, it says, On the fourteenth of the first month at twilight, so this is "between the evenings," between the thirteenth and the fifteenth. It all takes place on the fourteenth and in the fourteenth, the evening and the morning is the LORD's Passover. So it is a period of time between two evenings. And, now the next part of it which is now the fifteenth day. (Verse 6) – And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the LORD; seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. Unleavened bread points to the way Christ lived – sinless. Unleavened is to be without sin. Leaven is to have sin.

Now, we're born with "leaven" and our process, our calling, is the fact that we are striving to be "unleavened." Pride is symbolic of leaven. They're connected because leaven puffs up. Well, pride puffs up the mind; it's in the thinking, and pride is sin.

Verse 7 – On the first day (on the fifteenth) you shall have a holy convocation (commanded assembly); you shall do no customary work on it. So we won't work to earn a living.

Verse 8 – But you shall offer an offering made by fire to the LORD for seven days. The seventh day shall be a holy convocation; you shall do no customary work on it. Now we can see that there are two distinct instructions between the two days.

So now let's look at Deuteronomy 16:1-8. Now, some people have got Deuteronomy 16 confused, believing it's talking about the Passover sacrifice of the fourteenth, but in actual fact it's talking about the First Day of Unleavened Bread.

Deuteronomy 16:1 – Observe (keep) the month of Abib, and keep (and that is "do") the Passover to the LORD your God in the month of Abib, and the LORD your God brought you out of Egypt by night. Now, so what it's really saying is... because of the term "Passover Season" this is talking about now a sacrifice in the temple, because it's done on the fifteenth, because, it says here, "The LORD your God brought you out of Egypt by night," which was the fifteenth.

The night of the fourteenth they stayed in their homes and ate the LORD's Passover which they killed. Then on the night of the fifteenth they left Egypt. So there are two distinct time periods.  Now, there are two distinct animals being killed here. One is the Passover of God, which they killed in their homes, and another one is a temple sacrifice, and that's what Deuteronomy 16 is covering.

Verse 2 – Therefore, because God brought you out on the fifteenth, you shall sacrifice. It is a temple sacrifice done by the priesthood, the Passover to the LORD your God. So "Passover" is a term used to cover the seven day Feast of Unleavened Bread ...from the flock, which is a sheep or the goats, and the herd, now, we know that this cannot be the Passover lamb because it says here that it can be taken from the cattle. Well, they were not allowed to use on the fourteenth, cattle. They could only use the sheep or the goat. So now this is clearly saying this is a sacrifice to be done on the fifteenth, and it is not the Passover of the fourteenth, because the Passover of the fourteenth could not be of the cattle ...in the place where the LORD chooses to put His name. Well, where does God place His name? Well, we know that we carry God's name on the spiritual level today, but here it's talking about the temple. This is a temple sacrifice. God did not place His name in their homes; He placed it into the temple. Well, we, brethren, carry God's name today, so we are that very Temple of God, of course, on a spiritual level.

Verse 3 – You shall eat no leavened bread with it – why? – because it is part of the seven days of Unleavened Bread, seven days you shall eat unleavened bread with it. So now it's talking about a time that they weren't to eat any leaven during that seven days but they were to eat unleavened bread with their sacrifice, during the temple sacrifices, because they could consume of it. The sacrifices of the First Day of Unleavened Bread is what this is referring to ...that is, the bread of affliction (for you came out of Egypt in haste), that you may remember the day, which starts at the evening and then in the morning, in which you came out of the land of Egypt, all the days of your life. We are to remember our calling. This is the day we "left Egypt," was the day of deleavening. The day we "deleavened our homes," brethren, is the day we started to come out of sin, the day we came out of Egypt.

Remember the day we started to leave sin, which started with our baptism, because that's when we started. We started to leave sin behind when it was covered, when it was got rid of, when we left Egypt. They left on the night of the fifteenth. Well, we leave, brethren, on the day of our baptism. Then to always remember that we have to fight to continue to leave sin. We have to continue to try to remove sin from our thinking, and we do that through repentance.

Verse 4 – And no leaven shall be seen among you in all your territory for seven days, nor shall any of the meat which you sacrifice the first day at twilight remain overnight until the morning. So this very sacrifice that they are to do, the temple sacrifice on the first day, which is the First Day of Unleavened Bread, they had an instruction that they were not to leave any of it, also, to be left over in the morning. It had to be completely consumed, whatever they had of the sacrifice that they had been given.

You shall not sacrifice the Passover within any of your gates, not in your home, which the LORD your God gives you; but at the place where the LORD your God chooses to make His name abide, the temple, where you shall sacrifice the Passover, which is the Unleavened Bread sacrifice, which is the First Day of Unleavened Bread sacrifice, at twilight, at the going down of the sun, at the time you came out of Egypt. Well, when was that? Well, that was the night portion of the fifteenth. So that's when they were to do it.

Verse 7 – And you shall roast and eat it in the place which the LORD your God chooses, which is the temple, and in the morning, in the morning of the fifteenth – so we had the evening of the fifteenth when they were to eat it and consume it, on the fifteenth, which is the First Day of Unleavened Bread, and in the morning of the fifteenth you shall turn and go to your tents. Now they had to go back to their homes. On the morning of the fifteenth they were to go back to their homes.

Verse 8 – Six days you shall eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there shall be a sacred assembly to the LORD your God. You shall do no work in it.

So we will leave the sermon there, brethren, and we will pick up Part 3 next time in Exodus 12:37.□