We commenced a few weeks ago a series of messages on the feasts which were celebrated in the life of the children of Israel. We looked a couple of weeks ago at the Feast of the Passover. This morning we're coming to the Feast of Unleavened Bread. So please open your Bibles to Exodus chapter 13, Exodus chapter 13. And we'll bow together just in a word of prayer. Our Father in heaven, we pray, Spirit of God, descend upon us. Breathe. upon us this morning. Sweep away lethargy. Sweep away weariness of the day. And we pray, Lord, that thou wouldst invigorate us through thy word, that even now that you would give to us a hunger, a hunger that after thee, even as the children of Israel, kept these feasts, and they feasted. Lord, help us to feast upon thy precious word, and we pray that you would strengthen us through thy word, and that you would lead us out with thyself. We think, Lord, of how there was such preparation required for this feast of unleavened bread, So we think of how we're gathering a little later around the table to remember thy death and resurrection. Lord, there is that preparation required there. And as the children of Israel prepared, Lord help us through thy word to prepare to sit around thy table and to feast upon thee even this morning. To that end, I ask thee for help. Lord help us, I pray. For Jesus' sake, I ask these things. Amen. Amen. Please turn in your Bibles to Exodus chapter 13, our text is found in Leviticus, but we will be referring to Exodus 13. I'll read just one verse in Leviticus 23, and we read there in the verse 6. And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread unto the Lord. Seven days ye must eat unleavened bread. When we come into the Word of God, we find that the spiritual life of the children of Israel was centered around a number of feasts. On the 14th day of the first month, they camped the feast of the Passover. On that day, the sun setting, they taking a lamb without blemish, they shedding its blood, they sprinkled it upon the doorposts of their homes. They then passing its flesh and innards through the flames, they feasted upon it. The very next day, which was the fifteenth day, they observed the feast of unleavened bread. They, preparing for this second feast, they washed and they scrubbed the walls, the ceilings, the floors of their homes. When they were convinced it was absolutely clean, they then gave several pieces of leaven or yeast to a child, he hiding it in the house. A new day finally breaking forth, the father taking a candle and a spoon, he began to search for those pieces of leaven. He eventually finding them, he then took them outside the house and there he destroyed them. Of course, leaven in the Bible speaks to us all sin. Paul urging the Corinthian believers to put away corruption, he said, purge out therefore the old leaven. And no sooner was the blood applied in the feast of the Passover than there was to be this discovery and a driving out of leaven. which speaks to us of sin. And surely it reminds us that salvation is not merely the end of an old life, but it is the beginning of a new life. The blood being applied, there must then be this immediate discovering and destroying of sin in our lives. Indeed, Lazarus coming forth from the grave, he was bound hand and foot by the grave clothes. Now he struggling to walk, the Lord said, Loosen him and let him go. And no sooner was Lazarus raised to the fullness of life than there was to be a putting off of the grave clothes, which speak to us of sin and speak to us of that which hinders us. You see, as night leads to day, so salvation leads to sanctification. We being saved, we are to be running from sin rather than running to sin. The great preacher Robert Murray McShane, who saw revival in his day, used to pray, Lord, make me as holy as it is possible for a saved sinner to be. And you see, salvation is but the beginning. Having been saved, there must then be that continuous searching of our lives, a searching for sin, a searching for that which is contrary to the word of God, a searching even for that which would hinder us in our walk with God. and having searched and found those things, the job is not done. But there must then be a taking of that thing and a destroying of it, a driving of it out of our lives. And I wonder, child of God, have you moved to this second feast? Yes, you can say that the blood has been applied to your heart, but have you moved to sanctification? Have you moved to this searching, this seeking to discover? and drives sin out of your life. And so I want this morning to draw your attention to this, the second feast, the Feast of Unleavened Bread. I want you to notice firstly the danger of the leaven. Of course, leaven was a type of yeast. It being mixed into the dough, it had a dramatic effect upon it. Notice here, it saturated the bread. Paul writing in the New Testament, he said in 1 Corinthians 5 verse 6, Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. And in Galatians chapter 5, we find him repeating this same truth yet again. In Bible times, the housewife taking dough, she breaking off a little piece of it, she placed it into a glass of water. and eventually souring or going off, she then mixed it into the next batch of dough. And rather than affecting just part of the dough, it's spreading, it permeated through the whole dough, and then so doing it, it changed its very character. And confirming this, Paul said, a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. You see, like leaven, sin cannot be contained in a part of our lives. It taking up residence, it then reproduces and reproduces and reproduces itself. In fact, the Lord, speaking to his disciples, he warned them in Luke 16 verse 10, he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much. He warned them that if they proved unjust in a small thing, that that small thing spreading, that they would eventually be proved unjust in many things. Way back in the book of Joshua we find Achan there beholding a goodly Babylonish garment and two hundred shekels of silver and beholding them he covering them and he permitting the little leaven of covenants to enter into his heart he then reached out his hand and he took those things and stealing those things You see, sin enters like a needle and it spreads like an oak. It grows and it grows until it corrupts the whole life. Many, many years ago, my thief coming to rob your house, he would always bring a little boy with him. And if the thief couldn't get through the front door, if he couldn't get through one of the windows, he then sent the little boy to go down the chimney. And the little boy coming down the chimney, he then opened the window or he opened the door and he let the thief enter in. And so it is with sin. That sin may seem small, that sin may seem very insignificant, but if you let it into your heart, if you let it into your life, it'll open up every door, and it'll let far, far greater sins enter in. Don't you know today from experience, you tell a lie, what happens? You have to tell another lie to cover it. And then you have to tell a bigger and a greater lie to cover that lie and on and on it goes. You begin to miss the house of God once and it's easier to miss it a second time and a third time until you're never there at all. Just as one rotten apple destroys the whole barrel. So believer, that sin, it may seem a small sin, it may seem an insignificant sin, it may seem so nigh small that it's not worthy even of your consideration. But listen, if you let that sin into your heart, And if you let it remain in your heart, it's like leaven or it's like yeast. It will grow and grow until it corrupts every part of your heart and corrupts every part of your life. Nothing is as dangerous as sin. And as such, we need to be guarding our lives. We need to be making sure that we don't let in not only the big sins, But we don't let in the small sins. The little leaven, it saturated the bread. More than that, it swole the bread. The head of the house preparing to keep the feast. We read there in Exodus verse seven. Unleavened bread shall be eaten seven days. And there shall no leavened bread be seen with thee. Neither shall there be leaven seen with thee in all thy quarters. Leaven being a type of yeast, it is like our baking powder. And in baking a loaf, you can put in the flour, you can put in the eggs, you can put in the milk, but if you forget to put in the baking powder, it will not rise. You see, the leaven being mixed with the dough, it fermenting, it creates thousands and thousands of small air pockets. And without changing the weight of the loaf, it swells it to many, many times its original size. In other words, it puffs it up. And sin, like leaven entering into the life, it not only pollutes the life, but it puffs up the life. It fills it with pride. Indeed, Paul rebuking the Corinthian believers, he describing their sin as leaven. He said in 1 Corinthians 5 verse 2, and ye are puffed up and have not rather mourned that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you. The sin mentioned here was the sin of incest. One of the members of the church in Carlin was living in an immoral relationship with his stepmother. And the members of the church, instead of mourning over his sin and rebuking his sin, they were rationalizing. And they were seeking to excuse his sin. And they tolerating sin within the ranks. Paul said it puffed them up. It filled them with pride. You see, sin not only decreases us in the eyes of God, but it increases us in our own eyes. It eventually lifts the heart up with pride. Emissary in one occasion was seeking to translate the word pride into the language of the people that he was working with. And no matter how hard he searched, he couldn't find one word to describe it. He finally used the words for the phrase, the ears being too far apart. In other words, an inflated head. And you know, that's what sin does. Sin entering into the heart, it inflates the head. It reminds me of the fellow who said, at least I don't have the problem of pride. His friend looking at him and smiling, he said, well, you have nothing to be proud of. And the man getting hot under the color, he said, well, I have as much to be proud of as you have. You see, my friend, pride is incipient in all of us. And if you don't deal with sin, if you don't deal with rebellion in your own heart, it will swell your head so that you don't see your sin and so that you might imagine that you're better than everyone else. Here were the Corinthians and there was obvious sin, sin in their hearts, but they couldn't see it. And that's what sin does, it'll swell your head. It'll make you to think that you are something that you are not. It'll blind your eyes so that you don't see even your sin. You see the danger of leaven, the danger of sin. But not only do we notice the danger of the leaven, but I want you to notice the discovery of the leaven. After evening prayers, on the night before the Passover, the head of each house initiated a search for leaven. In the Hebrew, it was known as bedekat hametz. You notice here the process specified. Moses relaying now the words of the Lord. He said in verse 7, on leaven bread shall be eaten seven days, and there shall be no leaven bread been seen with thee, neither shall there be leaven seen with thee in all thy quarters. In preparing for this feast, ten small pieces of leaven were hidden throughout the house, the head of the home eventually coming in from the fields, he brought with him a wooden spoon, a feather, and a piece of linen cloth. And because it was night, he also brought with him a candle. And it was only when the candle was lit and through its light that he was able to see those little pieces of leaven hidden beneath a bench or covered by curtains or somewhere else. And of course, the psalmist reminds us in Psalm 119 in the verse 105, thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. You see, it is only by the light of the word of God that we can see the leaven hidden in our lives. Without it, we will not only be left in darkness, but we will remain defiled. Indeed, Job cried out in Job 42, verse five, I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eyes see thee. Wherefore, I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes. You see, what the storms in his life could not reveal, the scriptures did reveal. he hearing the word of God and seeing the Son of God, he suddenly beheld his own sinfulness. You see, the scriptures of truth are revelatory. They not only reveal to us Christ, but they reveal to us our own corruption. No wonder James, in his epistle, he described the word of God as a mirror. When you take a mirror and you look into a mirror, you don't see yourself as you think you are. but you see yourself as you really are. And why is it that some Christians sin? Some Christians live in rebellion, and their consciences don't seem to bother them. They just go on in their sin, and they imagine that all is well. It's because they never are in the Word of God. You see, the Bible is the candle. The Bible is the light. And as the candle there in the Old Testament lit up the home so that they could see the leaven that was hidden under a cupboard or behind a sink. So the Word of God is a light that reveals our lives so that we can see our sin. Of course, that's why many people don't read the Bible. Because it's a searchlight. It's a searchlight in their lives, and it reveals their sin. O hard believer, we need to be in this book. We need to be in the Word of God. If you rub shoulders only with the world, your sin will seem insignificant. But if you read the Word of God, it'll highlight the problems. It'll highlight those sins that are hidden. that are not perhaps that obvious. How we need to be in the book. We need to be in it constantly. Not only the prose says specified, but there was the period specified. Unlike the Passover, which lasted one day, we read verse 7. On leavened bread shall be eaten seven days. This feast was to last for seven days. Of course, seven in the Bible is the number of completion or the number of fullness. A week is made up of seven days. And in keeping this feast for seven days, surely he was indicating that this searching for and casting out of the leaven was to continue the whole week or the whole period of their lives. You see, the work of sanctification, unlike the work of justification, is a progressive work. It begins with salvation, and it doesn't end until glorification. In fact, John, speaking of the state of the believer, he said in 1 John 1 verse 10, if we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. And he reminded them that if they came to that place in their lives, that they felt they were perfect, that there was no sins, there were no faults in their lives. they were deceiving themselves. You see, the seeking out of the leaven of sin is not a passing employment, but rather is a permanent employment. It is to be ongoing. A man one day came to visit Charles Haddon Spurgeon. And as he came in and sat down, he began to boast to Spurgeon how that he had received the second blessing. And as a consequence, he said, Mr. Spurgeon, I am perfect. I haven't sinned for many years now in my life. Spurgeon nodded. And Spurgeon went, and he made a cup of tea for the man. And he brought the cup of tea out, and as he took it over to the man, his hand was a little shaky, and he purposely spilled the whole cup of boiling tea over the man. The man suddenly jumped up, and he began to give off in bad temper. And Spurgeon turned and said, Sir, where is your sanctification now? Someone has rightly said, the man who thinks he is perfect usually ends up to be a perfect nuisance. You see, no matter how far you've come in the Christian life, no matter how much sin that you have driven out, there are still sins. The old man, the old nature is still there. And believer, this is an ongoing work. We can never pat ourselves on the back. We can never say, I have arrived. But there needs to be that constant. constant searching of our hearts, that dealing with sin. No wonder the hymn writer wrote, Search me, O God, and know my heart today. You see, there needs to be this work of discovery. Just as the Israelite on that night took the lamp and searched the house to see if there was one little piece of leaven in the house. So we need to take the word of God and we need to search our lives. Not our neighbor's lives, but our own lives. Show me my transgression. Show me my sin. Show me, Lord, where I have failed. The danger of leaven, the discovery of the leaven. But I want you thirdly to notice the destroying of the leaven. They knowing its power to spread, they not only scoured every cupboard and boiled all of their cooking utensils, but they scraped out every crack in every wall. Notice it was a thorough work. Look at verse seven. On leavened bread shall be eaten seven days, and there shall no leavened bread be eaten with thee, neither shall there be leaven seen with thee in all thy quarters. In this feast, they finding a piece of leaven, they would carefully take it and they'd wrap it in a piece of linen cloth, and then they would take it outside. Lifting it up, he said, all kinds of leaven that are in my possession, which I have not observed nor removed, shall be null and counted as a dust of the earth. He then, rising the next morning and praying a similar prayer, He then burned the leaven. You see, they didn't rest. They didn't rest with the discovery of the leaven. They didn't rest until the leaven had been completely destroyed. And you see, believer, as well as discovering our sin, there needs to be a destroying of our sin, a putting of it to death. Indeed, the apostle Paul couldn't be clearer. He said in Romans 8, verse 13, for if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die. But if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. And he told them there was to be a mortifying, or as the word means, a putting to death of the deeds of the flesh. You see, rather than encouraging sin, there needs to be an exiling and an executing of sin, or putting them to death. Godly John Flavel said, it's easier to cry against 1,000 sins of others. than to kill one of your own. And it's our duty not to discover the sins of others, but it's our duty to discover our sins and discovering our sins than to destroy them. Sometimes people come and they say, preacher, you know this, I'm just warning you, I've got a bad temper. They discovered they've got a bad temper, but they're happy to live with a bad temper. Know what's to be destroyed? is to be put to death. And my friend, whatever that sin that is in your heart, in your life, you're not to be painting it, you're not to be decorating it, you're not to be tolerating it, you're to be taking it out and putting it to death. In Matthew 16, verse 11, we find the Lord there warning against the leaven of the Sadducees. The leaven of the Pharisees was false doctrine. You see, the Pharisees did not believe in resurrection. And you see, as well as casting out the leaven of deceit and the leaven of defilement, there needs to be a casting out of the leaven of doctrinal error. We live in a day when people say, doctrine doesn't matter. Well, it matters to God. And my friend, there needs to be not only a discovering of the leaven, whether it's the leaven of sin or the leaven of error, but there needs to be a destroying of it. Don't be content to acknowledge sin in your heart. But deal with it. Deal with it. That's a thorough work. Don't end till you put it to death. I think it was also a transforming work because look at verse 9. And it shall be for a sign unto thee upon thine hand and for a memorial between thine eyes that the Lord's law may be in thy mouth. Why the Jews taking these words literally they place philatelists or small leather cases on their foreheads that was not the meaning here they keeping the feast he was indicating that it would affect their hands or it would affect their service and it would affect their eyes and more than that it would affect their speech. You see, sanctification is real. It changes the life. It not only affects our speech and our service, but affects our sight. It will be seen in the way we speak. It'll be seen in the service that we do. It'll be seen in what we watch. Oh, believer, sanctification is visible. If we're sanctifying our lives, if we're dealing with sin in our lives, it'll be seen. It'll be seen in our lives. Oh, the danger of the leaven, the discovery of the leaven, the destroying of the leaven. Then lastly, I want you to notice briefly the deficiencies of the leaven. If they failed to put away the leaven, it would rob them rather than benefit them, as is seen in the days of Hezekiah and Josiah. But the casting out the leaven and keeping this feast it affected their prayers. Why? We read in 2 Chronicles 30, 27, and their voice was heard, and their prayer came up to his holy dwelling place, and they putting out the leaven. Their voice was heard in the courts of heaven. If our prayers are to be heard, then there needs to be a denying of the flesh. of putting away of sin. Andrew Murray, that great preacher said, our lives must be as holy as our prayers. And believer, if your prayers are going to be heard in heaven, if your prayers are going to bring an answer, there needs to be this work of sanctification. There needs to be that daily searching of your lives. And when God, through his word, puts a spotlight on something in your life, it needs to be dealt with. Otherwise, your prayers will not be heard. It also affected their praise, because in 2 Chronicles 30, 21, we read, Israel kept the Feast of Unleavened Bread seven days. with great gladness. Keeping the feast, there was great gladness, there was great joy. You see, holiness contrary to the notion of a modern society brings happiness. It causes our joy to multiply. Peter failed to sanctify his life. Peter failed to deal with unbelief. In denying his Lord, we find him in tears. We find him weeping with bitterness. David, failing to put out the leaven, the leaven of sin in his heart, he shed many, many tears. Why is it that some believers don't know the joy of Christ? It's because of sin. sin in their heart, sin that God has highlighted, sin that God has brought to their attention, but sin that they have not dealt with, they have not put away, they have not taken it out, they have not, my, destroyed it. And believe it, if your prayers are to be heard, if you're to know the joy of Christ in your life, then you need to move from the feast of the Passover, the blood having been, my, sprinkled upon your heart. There needs to be a keeping of this feast, a sanctifying of your heart, a sanctifying of your life. On the 15th day, They were to feast on unleavened bread. In other words, they were to feast on pure bread. O believer, what are you feasting your eyes? What are you feasting your mind? What are you feasting your heart upon? Are you feasting it upon corruption, wickedness, sin? Or are you feasting it upon that which is pure? Paul takes that up in the New Testament, whatsoever is pure. He lists a number of things. We're to be feasting on unleavened bread, that which is pure. And I wonder today, have you moved from the Passover? Are you feasting, having feasted upon Christ, are you searching your heart, dealing with sin, seeking to be as holy? as it is possible for a deemed sinner to be. Because I tell you, child of God, if you don't see your sin, that ungodly workmate will see it. That ungodly family member will see it. And it'll hinder them. Hinder them coming to Christ or hearing the word of God. There needs to be a dealing with sin in our hearts. and in our lives. May God help us to progress, having God under the blood, having feasted upon Christ, to deal with sin in our hearts and in our lives.