We're gonna break our normal, not our normal rotation. Justin's up this morning, Sunday school, but we're gonna deviate from our teaching from Genesis through Revelation this morning. Every two or three years, we just try to bring new members, new church people up to speed on why we do some of the things that we do. So just want to tell you in advance that you don't have to come to me and say, do you know what Brother Justin taught this morning? Because I do know what Brother Justin's, Teaching this morning and I'm okay with it. I believe you will be to just give him a good hearing and I don't don't Don't speak before you hear the end of the matter. How's that? What's this gonna be? I say that that draw you in so, okay, Justin come ahead Good morning So I will just make one thing by way of announcement. My wife is with child. Praise the Lord. See, now you can't be mad at me. All right, let's turn to John chapter four, and then we will pray. John chapter four. and then we will pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for this day. God, thank you for sending your son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to suffer and die in our place. God, thank you for this time together. Thank you for your people. God, I do pray that you would just help all of us. God, be of a right heart, right spirit. Thank you for your word. God, pray that you'd use it in our hearts, in our lives. We love you. We thank you most importantly for sending your son. And bless our time, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. All right. John chapter four, the Bible says in verse number 23, but the hour cometh and now is when the true worshiper shall worship the father in spirit and in truth for the father seeketh such to worship him. God is a spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. So I say that because it's good to have passion. It's good to have fervor. We should love the Lord. We should want to express that love for the Lord. But we shouldn't just make things up. We should follow the truth, love the truth, stick to the truth. Let's get another one by way of introduction, Psalm 119, let's go there. Psalm 119. Let's go. Psalm 119, verse 165. Psalm 119, verse 165. Great peace have they which love thy law and nothing shall offend them. Now, listen, I mean, You're going to come, your love might wax and wane, right? But if it's God's word, it's true, we should love it. But on top of that, if I do something or say something that offends you, you should have known that was coming anyway. I'm a sinner, right? If you do something, say something that offends me, I should have known that was coming because you're a sinner. Right? So I'm gonna love the word and I love the Lord. I wanna try and live in that love. And I'll give you a couple of things also by way of introduction. See, I'm delaying. But really, no, people come to our church and they say, man, this is the greatest church. I can't believe there's not a thousand people here. And this morning, you're gonna find out why there's not a thousand people here. But I would tell you, I would tell you that it is important that we look at all the truth, we love all the truth, stick with the truth. I was at, I think we were out to lunch with the Rileys, and we were at Sonny's, and there was a group of people from another church sitting at a table right next to us, and they're talking. And somehow they're talking about the people at Bible Baptist, or they're like, the Bible Baptist church. And they're like, somebody said it at the table. Nobody at our table, we didn't even tell them we're from Bible Baptist. They said, you gotta have a degree in the Bible just to go there. That's a good testimony. They know that the people here know the Bible. And I'll show you one more thing, and we'll dive into this. Job chapter 34. Job chapter 34. And verse number 32. This is, I believe, why people here know the Bible. Job chapter 34, verse 32. The Bible says, that which I see not, There are a lot of things in the Bible you don't see, you want to see. What he says, that which I see not, teach thou me. There's a lot in this book. It's a big book. God's a big God. God is of infinite wisdom and perfect in his understanding. His thoughts are not our thoughts. His ways are not our ways, right? So I want to look to God, and I want to ask God to teach me, and ask God to help me, and ask God to lead me. But look at what it says, colon, that which I see not, teach thou me. I want to learn from God, colon, if I have done iniquity, I will do no more. Now he's not saying you're never gonna sin again. What's your will? What's your desire? Is it your will to do right? Is it your will to turn away from iniquity? Is it your will to not sin? If God shows you something that's true, and you say, pfft, I don't need that. Is God therefore then obligated to give you more truth? I don't think so. I don't think so. If God shows you something, God deals with you about something in your life, and you're like, pfft, man, I'm not going to do that. Careful. What is God going to teach you? Anything more? I think God's like, nope, right here, buddy. You got off the path right here. You come back right here. We'll keep going. But God wants to teach us some things. and we should obey what he teaches. Now I'll tell you this, this is about Easter. This is the message for today. Jesus Christ, let's start with this. Matthew chapter 26, let's go there, Matthew chapter 26. Matthew chapter 26, verse number 26. 26 verse 26, and as they were eating, Jesus took bread and blessed it and break it and gave to the disciples and said, take, eat, this is my body. And he gave the cup and gave thanks and gave it to them, saying, drink ye all of it, for this is my blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. So Jesus Christ, he gave his body, he gave his blood, and that is represented to us in terms of remembering his death in partaking of the communion service, the eating of the bread and drinking of the cup, which is the fruit of the vine, nothing about alcohol there. But he died on the day of Passover. That would be the 14th day of the first month in the nation of Israel. So he died on the 14th day of the first month. He was three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. And then he rose from the dead. wouldn't change every year, but the Easter does. So diving into Easter, let's talk about this. First of all, the name, Easter. Let's go 1 Kings 11. 1 Kings 11. I don't know why this is giving me such a hassle there. All right, 1 Kings 11. Verse number. Five, for Solomon went after Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Zidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. Ashtoreth, known in other places as Estarte, known also as Ishtar, and in the British Isles, in particular, as Easter. That is also the queen of heaven, Jeremiah chapter seven. So the name Easter comes from this female goddess. It is the worship of a female deity, in particular with regards to fertility. You know, as a lost person, I always thought, like, what does eggs and bunnies have anything to do with the resurrection of Jesus Christ. As a safe person, I realized eggs and bunnies have nothing to do with the resurrection of Jesus Christ. But when you're talking about ancient fertility rites, there's a saying, they breed like rabbits. And eggs, I mean, come on. It's where the chickens come from. It's where the chickens come from, the ducks come from, right? All sorts of creatures lay eggs. It's where that new life comes from. And as far as people that are observants of those things, they would consider, say, man, this is like the source of new life. And it's the time of spring, right? Time of year. So it's the renewal of the trees and babies being born and all these things. Now, with regards to time, Easter, as we know it today, is celebrated, this is how they calculate it, on the first full moon, or the first Sunday after the first full moon of the spring equinox. Jeremiah chapter 10, let's go there. We won't go all the way down there, Jeremiah chapter 10. Verse number one. Nothing shall offend them if you love the law. Nothing shall offend them. Jeremiah chapter 10, verse number one. Hear ye the word which the Lord speaketh unto you, O house of Israel. Thus say the Lord, learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed, look, at the signs of heaven. for the heathen are dismayed at them. And what did God say? He gave the sun and the moon and the stars to be for signs and for seasons. And God said, the heathen, whom God wasn't dealing with, right, especially during this time, they look at the sun, they look at the moon, they look at the stars, and they say, oh, man, look at this. It's the spring equinox, right? in a globe around the sun situation, right? Where like that halfway point, as far as the max number of day and light or day and darkness, where that midpoint and equinox, right? Equinox, you're at that equal point at the midway of the year or midway through the extreme heat and extreme cold compared to the solstice. So they're looking at the signs of heaven. And they say, oh wow, look, this is the determination of a new season, and it's in connection with this fertility goddess, and so they're gonna do all these different things with eggs and bunnies that don't have anything to do with Jesus Christ. Exodus chapter 12, let's go there. Exodus chapter 12. Gonna show you, it's very, very specific, the way God lays this out, Exodus chapter 12. And let's go verse number six, Exodus 12, verse number six. Yeah, verse two. This month shall be unto you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year to you. Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for an house. And if the household be too little for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next unto his house take it according to the number of souls every man, according to his eating, shall make your count for the lamb. What a blessing, right? We have the Lamb of God. We have this Lamb that is more than enough for any man in every house. And if you got too much, you bring it to your neighbor. What a great picture that is. Your Lamb, verse five, shall be without blemish. No sin, no spot, no blemish, nothing. A male of the first year, ye shall take it out from the sheep or from the goats, and ye shall keep it up until the 14th day of the same month. And the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening. Now, how amazing is that? You got a whole nation of people, a million and a half people over there. How many lambs is that? And it says, kill it. The nation of Israel shall kill it, singular. Amazing. 14th day, though, of the first month, they were to kill that lamb. We saw Matthew chapter 26. Let's go Luke chapter 24. Luke chapter 24. Luke 24 and verse number seven, six, six. He is not here, but is risen. Praise God. Remember how we spake unto you when he was yet in Galilee saying, the son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified. and the third day rise again. Same chapter, verse number two, let's go, 17. And he said unto them, what manner of communications are these that ye have one to another as ye walk and are sad? And one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answering, said unto him, Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things which are come to pass there in these days? And he said unto them, What things? And they said unto him, Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death, and have crucified him, But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel. And beside all this, today is the third day since these things were done. So if Jesus Christ died on the 14th day of the first month, he rose again from the dead three days later, right? Should be 14, 15, 16, 17. 17th day of the first month. Not really complex. It should be a set calendar day. The 17th day of the first month is when he rose from the dead on the Hebrew calendar. Now, we could get into all sorts of history about calendars and changes and calendars and where it all came from, but I figure that might not be as profitable. But I'll read you this. This is some interesting material. because people have added all sorts of pagan things to this time of year. One of those is the festival known as Lent. It ought to be known, said Cassianus, now this is, I should give you this, this is from History of Two Babylons by Alexander, The Two Babylons by Alexander Hislop, printed originally in 1916, 1943, and second edition, American edition, 1959. All right. It ought to be known, said Cassianus, the monk of Marsalis, writing in the fifth century and contrasting the primitive church with the church of his day, quote, that the observance of the 40 days had no existence so long as the perfection of that primitive church remained inviolate. Whence then came this observance? The 40 days abstinence of Lent was directly borrowed from the worshippers of the Babylonian goddess. Such a Lent of 40 days in the spring of the year is still observed by the Yazidis or pagan devil worshippers of Kurdistan who have inherited it from their early masters, the Babylonians. Such a lent of 40 days was held in spring by pagan Mexicans, for thus we read in Humboldt, his Mexican Researches, Volume 1, page 404, where he gives account of Mexican observances. Quote, three days after the vernal equinox began, a solemn fast of 40 days in honor of the sun, S-U-N. Such a Lent of 40 days was observed in Egypt, as may be seen on Consulting Wilkinson's Egyptians, volume one, page 278. The Egyptian Lent of 40 days, we are informed by Lancier in his Sabean Researches, was held expressly in commemoration of Adonis, or Osiris, the great mediatorial god in Egypt. So, Lent. Let me say this. Len, the idea is they have a sin in their life. They're going to give up on that sin for 40 days and then go right back? Does that sound like the God of the Bible in any way? He wants you to have victory over sin. He wants you to flee from unrighteousness. He wants you to put it away. He wants you to be done with it. He doesn't want you to return to it at the end of 40 days. That's absurd. The God of the Bible is holy and pure and clean and just, and he says, be ye holy as I am holy, sayeth the Lord. Right? So God wants us to be holy. He doesn't want us to take a break from sin for 40 days and then return to it. Though I also thought it interesting, lots of cultures have this tie to the idea of 40 days. Say, where'd they get that? Well, they knew God reigned on the earth for 40 days. and brought death and destruction to the whole human race. So 40 days holds a significance to every ancient culture of being because they know. They know that there was a flood. They all talk about it. There was a flood that killed pretty much everybody on the earth, but a few people. And that part of what, at least what brought that was 40 days of water from heaven, which had never happened before. So anyway, that being said, the God of the Bible is holy. He wants you to just forsake sin, quit, leave it alone, never come back to it. Nowhere in Bible Christianity would we come up with the idea that it's okay to return after 40 days. All right, now let's go to Acts chapter 12. Let's see what the Bible says. Acts chapter 12. Because Bible critics, don't like this passage. They think translators got it wrong, but let's see. Knowing what we know now. Verse number one, the Bible says, now about that time, Herod the king stretched forth his hands to vex, vex, that would be to trouble, to distress, to persecute, it's not a pleasant thing, it's not a happy thing, to vex certain of the church. Verse two, and he killed James, the brother of John, with the sword. That's one of the 12 apostles. Killed him with the sword. Verse three, and because he saw it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to take Peter also. Now this is very key. Then were the days of unleavened bread. Keep Acts 12, let's go back to Exodus chapter 12. Keep Acts 12, we'll go to Exodus chapter 12. Let's go down to verse number 12. 13 Bible says in the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where you are when I see the blood praise God I will pass over you and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you when I smite the land of Egypt and This day shall be unto you for a memorial and ye shall keep it a feast to the Lord throughout your generations You shall keep it a feast by an ordinance forever Seven days shall ye eat on leavened bread. We believe the Bible this morning. Amen. For in this selfsame day have I brought your armies out of the land of Egypt. Therefore you shall observe this day in your generations by an ordinance forever. So God says after the Passover, the 14th day of the first month, we have seven days of unleavened bread. Right? Okay. Back to Acts chapter 12. Bible says in verse number three, and because he saw it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to take Peter also. Then were the days of unleavened bread. And when he had apprehended him, he put him in prison and delivered him to four quaternions of soldiers to keep him, intending after Easter, Easter, to bring him forth to the people. So people can say Greek this and Paschal this and Greek that, I don't care, right? First of all, anybody alive today doesn't know Greek like the men that translated this Bible. First. Actually, second. First, I believe God gave me this book. Does everybody believe that? Praise the Lord. God gave us this book. These are his words. It is perfect. It is without error. It is without contradiction. And so God wanted that word there. And it says that Herod, the king, When he had apprehended him, verse four, he put him in prison and delivered him to four quaternions of soldiers to keep him in tending after Easter to bring him forth to the people. Would a murderous, heathen king, would he want to show respect? to Christianity by waiting to kill Peter until after Easter as if it was the resurrection of Jesus Christ? I don't think so. I don't think a heathen murderous king would be like, well you know what guys, let's not kill him just yet. I know we just killed the other guy and it got my poll numbers up, you know. So before we kill this guy, I want to get my poll numbers with the Christians up too, so we'll wait until after the resurrection of Christ is celebrated by the churches. I don't think that's how that went. I think based on what we've read, Easter is a pagan festival in which the Romans also observed. Plenty of history on that. And for Herod, this is like just another upcoming holiday. Like say he captured Peter on December 20th, and he's like, well, I'm going to go on vacation for a week. Just kind of keep him in prison. When we get back, we'll do this thing. That's how that worked. And so you could say Greek this and Greek that, but that's what God put there. This heathen king is waiting until after Easter to put this Christian to death. He cannot be, both by context and by the words that we have in English, he cannot be waiting to show respect unto the Christian beliefs by pausing for the resurrection of Jesus Christ as far as it may be celebrated. It's certainly not the case. So I think God's pretty clear on that. I think God gave his word. We have it very clear. After Easter, Herod was gonna put Peter to death. Praise God, Peter didn't die, but at least not at that point. Came a little later. So if we believe God's word, we would believe that it was a pagan holiday celebrated by the Romans, and of real no connection to the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Now, read you something else here. When I was younger, I grew up in a secular house. We did Christmas and Easter and Hanukkah, because that was my mom's thing and my dad's thing. But I always thought, what if bunnies and eggs have anything to do with the resurrection of Jesus Christ? If that's what Easter is about. And I was an unbeliever and a young man. And I didn't argue with people about it. But inside, I just thought, how silly is that? Why would we paint eggs? All right. Yeah. The origin of the PASH eggs, however you want to say that, P-A-S-H eggs, is just as clear. The ancient Druids bore an egg as the sacred emblem of their order. In the Dionysia, or Mysteries of Bacchus, as celebrated in Athens, one part of the nocturnal ceremony consisted in the consecration of an egg. Hindu fables celebrated their mundane egg, but made it a golden color. The people of Japan made their sacred egg brazen. China this hour dyes and paints eggs and are used in sacred festivals and of course even in your own country. People hard boil the eggs and dye them in different colors. I say, what does this have to do with Jesus Christ? Absolutely nothing. In ancient times, eggs were used in the religious rites of the Egyptians and the Greeks and were hung up for mystic purposes in their temples. It's very clear that eggs have nothing to do with the resurrection of Jesus Christ. You can eat them. They're good. It's okay. Thank you, Brother Ken, for all the eggs that you give away. but I'm not going to celebrate them and I'm not going to color them. I'm not going to give honor to the egg. Romans one, we're almost finished guys. Just hang tight. Romans one, Romans chapter one. Romans 1, let's go, it's my favorite verse, we'll start here. Romans 1, verse 16, for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it, that be the gospel, is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, even if you color eggs, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. Now, God doesn't want you to color them, but that's okay. Verse 17, for there, I can't, you say, why aren't there 1,000 people in this church? Because we say things like that. For therein in the gospel is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith as it is written, the just shall live by faith. Now how do we get faith? Faith cometh by hearing, hearing by the word of God, not ancient pagan fertility rites. Just got to leave those things alone, I guess, if you want to have a thousand people. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith. As it is written, the just shall live by faith. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth and unrighteousness. They have it, they just don't think it's right. Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them, for God hath showed it unto them. But you know, a purple and green, yellow egg doesn't tell you to repent. This is the question of the ages. People say all the time, what about the heathen that don't know? What about the people that never heard of Jesus Christ? You know there's a God who's right, and you're wrong, and because you don't like to be told you're wrong, you like the totem pole, or the egg, or the bunny, because the bunny's not going to tell you, repent, sinner. but God will tell you to repent. All right, because that which may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has showed it unto them. God put it there, God gave it to them, they know. Verse 20, for the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse. There's an almighty God that made the heavens and the earth and the sea and all that in them is, but I like this egg. because it don't tell me to repent. Verse number 20, so that they are without excuse. Everybody, when they stand before God, it's not like they're going to have a good reason. Verse 21, because that when they knew God, Going back to Job 34, 32. God shows you something. You say, I don't want that. What happens? You turn from light to darkness. That's how that works for everybody, in all places, in all times. If God gives you light, you say, I don't want that light. You go further into darkness. You don't get like, there's no alternate lights out there. Jesus Christ said, I am the light of the world. He that followeth me shall not dwell in darkness, but shall have the light of life. There's only one source of truth. There's only one source of light. It says, because that when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful. Not thank you God for the egg, but thank you egg for giving life. Like, come on, you think the egg gave life? People have been trying to make life from non-living matter for at least over a century. Unsuccessful. So if they made it, they would say, see, there's no God, we can make life. But wouldn't that just prove it took intelligent being to make life? Anyway, life came from God. They know that, they weren't thankful, so they became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and their eggs, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things. Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves, who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshiped and served the creature, more than the Creator who is blessed forever. Amen. Man, I'm telling you, I love the truth. We should all love the truth. God is so amazing. God is so great. He, after he made the heavens and the earth and the sea. You think, the sun, the moon, the stars that they're looking at and they're judging, well, when is the equinox and when is the solstice and how all the stars move over time. You think, the God that made that made you. And then you sinned against him. And what'd he do? He became man. Took upon himself a body of flesh. Came to this earth. Suffered and died for you. Suffered and died for me. Was buried, and three days and three nights later, rose from the dead. Praise be to God. Rose victorious over death. And, you know, somebody will say, well, Jesus Christ, you know, he died later in time, so what about all those people before him? Just consider this. Consider this for a moment. For thousands of years, human beings died, right? Since Cain and Abel, human beings have died. You don't call them, you don't text them, there's no email in heaven or hell. They're gone. You don't see them again. You don't talk to them again. So for thousands of years, mankind had walked with no hope and with no idea what lied beyond the grave. And then Jesus Christ comes into the world, dies for sins, rises from the dead, shows man there is hope beyond this life. The greatest thing that ever happened in the entire history of the human race is the resurrection of Jesus Christ. I could never let that be overshadowed by a desire to love the creature more than the creator. Or to love his heavens and his earth and the sun and the moon and the stars more than the one who made them. So I would just, I would encourage you this morning, love the truth. Stick with the truth. Man, the God that died for you, the God that made everything, He loves you, He gave you this. Look at the size of this book. I mean, look at it. There is so much in here that where in the world would we add something like 40 days of abstaining from sin just to go back and revel in it? He's given us so much. We ought to just give our lives back to Him. Praise the Lord. All right, let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for this day. God, thank you for sending your son to die in our place. Thank you for your word. Pray that you'd help us all, God, to love you and love it. Obey your word. We thank you in Jesus' name. Amen. He taught what I would have taught, but not as snarky. So that was helpful. If you would like to read the most interesting and the most boring book, it's amazing. You could write a book that is fascinating and extremely dull all at the same time. The Two Babylons is the book for you. It'll put you to sleep, and when you wake up, you'll want to read some more of it. And we have it in the library. Now, parents, grandparents. If you get saved, there can be a thousand things in your life that aren't right. Don't get offended, just correct them. And the reason that it's difficult for parents, grandparents to sell biblical Christianity to their children is so many times people take something away, but don't replace it with something better. You can't take away the joy of a basket full of candy if you don't have something better in your life to replace it with. If you're not excited about Jesus Christ, your kids just view Christianity as you've taken fun stuff away from them. So your Christianity has to be more fun and more exciting than the paganism that they get down at the public school on the holidays, and that's on you. I mean, if our Christianity is all, you can't, you can't, you can't, you can't. Colossians, touch not, taste not, handle not. Well, and we'll see that next hour. Well, that verse follows, Christ has paid for all our sins. So if you're not excited about Christ, then you're just adding one more level of, in Thessalonians, having turned to God from idols. If you just turn from idols but you didn't turn to anything, then there's just this big void in your life. And then so what do we do? Well, here's what we do. Every year at Christmas time and every year at Easter time, we know that the chances of people coming to church are better than any other time of the year. And so we don't go into the world and argue with them about their holidays. We go into the world and invite them to come to church. And the lesson you just heard is in a Sunday school hour to save people. And next Sunday, you'll hear a message from the Bible that if we have lost people here, we'll gear it their direction. So we don't, just use some common sense there. Oh, people just go to church Christmas and Easter. Then invite them to one where they can hear the truth instead of one where they're gonna drop eggs on them out of a helicopter. That sort of thing. And then one last thing. So you don't think there's anything good about Halloween and Easter and all that? I do. The week after, there's tons of candy half price in the grocery store. So we love the week after the holidays.