Lessons of Unleavened Bread
(Sermon Notes) by Warren Zehrung 4/9/2020
Offertory Message
Title of the Offertory: “Rejoice in every good thing”
On this First Day of Unleavened Bread, we appear before our Creator and God. We have been given so much. We have been given everything that we have. Make your own list:
Life, sight, hearing – our very existence…, The list goes on and on…
The air that we breathe to sustain the life we’ve been given. The food on our table, the roof over our head, and the clothes on our back.
We have been given Knowledge of the Plan of God. Much more than these, we have been given our calling—making us a part of that Plan…
We have been given the Hope of eternal salvation—Eternal Life evermore in the Kingdom of God.
Exodus 23:15 Thou shalt keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread: (thou shalt eat unleavened bread seven days, as I commanded thee, in the time appointed of the month Abib; for in it thou came out from Egypt, and none shall appear before me empty.)
Why does God tell us, “None of you shall appear before me empty?”
Deuteronomy 26:1 And it shall be, when thou art come in unto the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance, and possess it, and dwell therein;
Deuteronomy 26:2 That thou shalt take of the first of all the fruit of the earth, which thou shalt bring of thy land that the LORD thy God giveth thee, and shalt put it in a [collection] basket, and shalt go unto the place which the LORD thy God shall choose to place His name there.
Here is a part of what today pictures:
Deuteronomy 26:8 And the LORD brought us forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand, and with an outstretched arm, and with great terribleness, and with signs, and with wonders:
Deuteronomy 26:9 And he hath brought us into this place and hath given us this land, even a land that flows with milk and honey.
Deuteronomy 26:10 And now, behold, I have brought the firstfruits of the land, which thou, O LORD, hast given me. And thou shalt set it before the LORD thy God, and worship before the LORD thy God:
Deuteronomy 26:11 And you shalt rejoice in every good thing which the LORD thy God has given unto you.
We will now pass the collection basket – as we listen to the special offertory music.
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Sermon
Lessons of Unleavened Bread
(Sermon Notes) by Warren Zehrung 4/9/2020
The Title of today’s sermon is Lessons of Unleavened Bread. Sickness and death, is, in the land! The Stay at Home order had been issued – it is a matter of life and death.
Stay at Home orders are nothing new to the people of God. Israel was ordered: “No one shall go outside of his house.” Let’s read it for ourselves… This takes place on the 14th day of the first month.
Exodus 12:22 And ye shall take a bunch of hyssop, and dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and strike the lintel and the two side posts with the blood that is in the basin; and none of you shall go out at the door of his house until the morning.
Exodus 12:23 For the LORD will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when he sees the blood upon the lintel, and on the two side posts, the LORD will pass over the door, and will not suffer the destroyer [the death angel] to come in unto your houses to smite you.
Exodus 12:27 That ye shall say, It is the sacrifice of the LORD’S Passover, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when he smote the Egyptians, and delivered our houses. And the people bowed the head and worshipped.
And today, just like in Egypt, there are thousands and thousands of dead people all throughout the land. Is it enough to cause people to ponder? Do they look to God and repent?
God tells us that He sends pandemics for the purpose of having mankind repent and turn to Him. Do we brethren look to God – or to a miracle pill, serum or vaccine? The Death Angel comes in a night that we think not…
A 70-year-old woman – a friend of my neighbor died this week of Coronavirus and comorbidity factors.
Matthew 24:44 Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man comes.
Exodus 12:34 And the people took their dough before it was leavened, their kneading troughs being bound up in their clothes upon their shoulders.
Exodus 12:35 And the children of Israel did according to the word of Moses; and they borrowed of the Egyptians jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment: [high hand]
Exodus 14:8 And the LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he pursued after the children of Israel: and the children of Israel went out with an high hand.
The Children of Israel had worked as slaves – without pay – for all those years – and God touched the heart of the Egyptians.
Exodus 12:36 And the LORD gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they [obtained] what they had coming. And they spoiled the Egyptians.
They bankrupted the Egyptian’s economy!
Numbers 33:3 And they departed from Rameses in the first month, on the fifteenth day of the first month; on the morrow after the Passover the children of Israel went out with an high hand [rich] in the sight of all the Egyptians.
Exodus 12:41 And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, even the selfsame day it came to pass, that all the hosts of the LORD went out from the land of Egypt.
Exodus 12:42 It is a night to be much observed unto the LORD for bringing them out from the land of Egypt:
…Because the LORD kept vigil that night to bring them out of Egypt, on this night all the Israelites are to keep vigil to honor the LORD for the generations to come.
Exodus 12:42 …this is that night of the LORD to be observed of all the children of Israel in their generations.
It’s meaning is The Night to be Much Replicated
The beginning of the First Day of Unleavened Bread (Leviticus 23:6) pinpoints an important time when very special things are accomplished on the “selfsame day” in order to lay emphasis on the great Plan of God.
Because of their great significance they should be studied by all who seek to understand the Plan of God:
1) The same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram (Genesis 15:18).
2) Israel went out of Egypt on the same exact night! (Deuteronomy 16:1).
3) Israel entered the Promised Land (Joshua 5:10-11).
4) Jesus was laid in the tomb (John 19:31, 42).
God tells us, “Do not forget this Day:”
Exodus 13:3 And Moses said unto the people, Remember this day, in which ye came out from Egypt, out of the house of bondage; for by strength of hand the LORD brought you out from this place: there shall no leavened bread be eaten.
Exodus 13:4 This day [TODAY – First Day of Unleavened Bread] came ye out in the month Abib.
There is an important, Lesson we must remember: We would still be in sin had not the LORD delivered us. Paul reminds us that we were all sinners in one thing or another:
1Corinthians 6:9…. Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,
1Corinthians 6:10 Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.
Ephesians 2:1 And you has He quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;
Ephesians 2:2 Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience:
Ephesians 2:3 Among whom also we all had our conduct in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.
1Corinthians 6:11 And such were some of you [If we say we’ve had no sin – we are liars.]: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified [made holy], but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.
Ephesians 2:4 But God [the Father], who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us,
Ephesians 2:5 Even when we were dead in trespasses and sins, has quickened [made us alive] us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)
Ephesians 2:6 And has raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: [not yet, but it is a done deal]
Ephesians 2:7 That in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.
2Corinthians 6:17 Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,
2Corinthians 6:18 And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.
I just saw where a tiger in the Bronx Zoo tested positive for COVID-19 – – Coronavirus transmission! Animal to human and human too, an animal transmission of virus… Who would have known???
Could the virus have come from the wet market in Wuhan, China? Wouldn’t God have warned us of such a thing? Animal to human infection – and transmission of the virus:
Leviticus 11:27 And whatsoever goes upon its paws, among all manner of beasts that go on all four, those are unclean unto you: whoso touches their carcass shall be unclean until the even.
Leviticus 11:8 Of their flesh shall ye not eat, and their carcass shall ye not touch; they are unclean to you.
The wet market in Wuhan has snakes, scorpions, horseshoe bats, monkeys, dogs, cats, rats, eels, catfish and every unclean thing.
Leviticus 11:10 And all that have not fins and scales in the seas, and in the rivers, of all that move in the waters, and of any living thing which is in the waters, they shall be an abomination unto you:
Spiritually, we battle to remove sin and bring ourselves into the submission and captivity of Jesus Christ. After we repent – we are no longer condemned. We are delivered through repentance. That is what this Feast of Unleavened Bread pictures.
Romans 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
Long ago we learned not to touch the unclean thing – first physically – and then more importantly Spiritually.
Romans 8:2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.
Jesus died for our sins – we no longer have to.
Romans 8:3 For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:
Romans 8:4 That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
Rom 8:5 For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.
Romans 8:6 For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
Galatians 5:13 For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.
Galatians 5:14 For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
Galatians 5:15 But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.
Galatians 5:16 This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.
Galatians 5:17 For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.
Today is the First Day of Unleavened Bread (Leviticus 23:6). Today pictures our coming completely out of Egypt—a type of sin. Paul explains how we are to put all sin out of our lives while we are putting on Jesus Christ. Jesus is the Unleavened Bread of sincerity and truth.
1Corinthians 5:6 A little leaven leavens the whole lump.
Yeast grows and grows exponentially.
1Corinthians 5:7 Purge out therefore the old leaven (sin), that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened [like today FDUB]. For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us:
1Corinthians 5:8 Therefore, let us keep the Feast [of Unleavened Bread], not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the Unleavened Bread of sincerity and truth.
The Feast of Unleavened Bread is a memorial of the Israelites’ hasty departure from Egypt (Exodus 12:39). Because of the oppression Israel suffered in Egypt, unleavened bread was also called the bread of affliction (Deuteronomy 16:3, Exodus 3:9). The Feast of Unleavened Bread follows Passover for seven days. The fifteenth day and the twenty-first day of the first month are Feast Days and are therefore Holy Convocations. God tells us:
Exodus 12:15 Seven days shall ye eat unleavened bread; even the first day ye shall put away leaven out of your houses: for whosoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel.
Exodus 12:16 And in the first day there shall be an Holy Convocation, and in the seventh day there shall be an Holy Convocation to you; no manner of work shall be done in them, save that which every man must eat, that only may be done of you.
Exodus 12:17 And ye shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread; for in this selfsame day have I brought your armies out of the land of Egypt: Therefore, shall ye observe this day in your generations by an ordinance forever.
Unleavened Bread pictures our coming out of sin – putting sin entirely out of our lives. Jesus Christ is our perfect example of a sinless life. By the gracious act of God, the “called out Church of God brethren” do not have sin imputed to them because they have renounced sin in repentance and accepted in faith the blood of Jesus Christ for forgiveness—and have the righteousness of Christ imputed to them. True Christians have been delivered from sin by Jesus Christ. Jesus is the Deliverer.
We had an ~100-year-old lady in the church, Frances Hall was her name, about 15 years ago who told me about her experiences in New Mexico, with the Spanish flu epidemic of 1918. She recalled how a wagon would come each day and pick up the bodies stacked at the roadside – of those who had the previous day. The pandemic was caused by an H1N1 virus with genes of avian origin. A bird, flu.
It has been estimated that 500 million people around the world contracted the disease and it killed 10% of them – at least 50 million people – making it the deadliest pandemic in modern history. Let’s talk about plagues and pandemics for just a moment:
Exodus Chapters 7 – 12 are about the plagues on Egypt. The plagues were ten calamities sent upon Egypt by God to sway Pharaoh to free the Israelitish slaves from the bondage and oppression they had endured in Egypt for 400 years.
Just a few weeks ago, with much of Australia engulfed in devastating wildfires, some of God’s people, with smoldering embers in their eyes and thick smoke in their lungs, pondered whether the end-time plagues had begun?
Today, with a number of world leaders testing positive, including the Prime Minister of the UK, Boris Johnson, hospitalized on oxygen and quarantined, and much of the world affected by the ubiquitous COVID-19 global pandemic growing rapidly worse, many are asking the same question. By the way, Boris Johnson’s health continues to improve in the hospital, Downing Street has said after the Prime Minister spent his third night in intensive care.
Have the end-time plagues begun? Men have always sought to know when the end of the world would come.
Matthew 24:3 As [Jesus] sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto Him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? And what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world? And Jesus answered and said unto them,
Matthew 24:7…Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and epidemics, and earthquakes, in various places.
Matthew 24:8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.
This Coronavirus is not the end – but the beginning. Despite the temporary run on grocer’s shelves, there are no famines, and stores are being rapidly replenished. Expect to see many more pandemics, tsunamis, earthquakes, and natural disasters. What then is going on everywhere?
The widespread Coronavirus has come as a shock to many – especially to a generation that believes everything should be free; a generation not used to, making sacrifices.
An elderly gentleman from WWII days – an era long gone and mostly forgotten, wrote of today’s generation:
“They think sacrifice is not having coverage on their iPhone while they freely drive across the country. Today’s kids are selfish and spoiled. They are accustomed only to speed and convenience. In my generation, we looked out for and respected our elders. We helped out with single moms whose husbands were either at war or dead from war. Today’s kids rush into the store, buying everything they can… no concern for anyone but themselves. It’s shameful the way Americans behave these days. None of them deserve the sacrifices their granddads made.”
Brethren, here is what is taking place with this highly contagious Coronavirus disease.
America was prospering as never before with the Dow Jones Industrial Average index closing in on 30,000. But America’s greatness was not due to our righteousness, but that of our patriarch, Abraham (Genesis 12:2, 15:6). God tells us that national prosperity is contingent on obedience to Him:
Deuteronomy 28:1 It shall come to pass, if you shall hearken diligently unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe and to do all His Commandments which I command thee this day, that the LORD your God will set you on high above all nations of the earth:
God has certainly done that for a while! Because of God’s promises to Abraham – not because we deserve it—or did it ourselves. But now, today, God is sending His warnings as He always has. Will America, the United Kingdom and the rest of the descendants of ancient Israel heed God’s warnings? Biblical history reveals that most often, unrepentant Israel has to learn the hard way.
When they will not hear, God turns up the heat. Will the modern people of Israel heed God’s warning? Not yet, not hardly!
At the same time that God is sending a warning to return unto Him and His laws, the people’s House of Representatives attempted to add pro-abortion resources to the $2 trillion-plus Coronavirus relief package.
The killing of babies is so treacherous it never entered God’s mind. God said:
Jeremiah 19:5 … I never commanded it, nor spoke it, neither came it into my mind:
‘We the people of the United States’ have voted that we do not intend to repent. So, what is next? Make no mistake about it – we will get through this epidemic with the loss of a few 10s of thousands, but… The answer to what is coming next is that greater and more severe trials and epidemics are soon coming on our nations. God says:
Leviticus 26:18 And if ye will not yet for all [these plagues, epidemics and pandemics] hearken unto me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins.
Are we ready to go through this seven times more for our sins? Brethren, do you think, staying at home to avoid this virus is bad? Many are dying, but we have not begun to see anything yet – compared to what is coming after the Coronavirus—COVID-19.
Leviticus 26:23 If ye will not be reformed by me by these things, but will walk contrary unto me;
Leviticus 26:24 Then will I also walk contrary unto you, and will punish you yet seven times for your sins (Revelation 6:6-8).
Let’s read what is coming next after the Coronavirus in God’s own words:
Deuteronomy 7:15 And the LORD will take away from thee all sickness, and will put none of the evil diseases of Egypt, which you know, upon you; but will lay them upon all them that hate thee.
Deuteronomy 28: 15 But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day; that all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee:
Deuteronomy 28:16 Cursed shalt thou be in the city, and cursed shalt thou be in the field.
Deuteronomy 28:17 Cursed shall be thy basket and thy store.
Deuteronomy 28:18 Cursed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy land, the increase of thy cattle, and the flocks of thy sheep.
Deuteronomy 28:19 Cursed shalt thou be when thou come in, and cursed shalt thou be when thou go out.
Deuteronomy 28:20 The LORD shall send upon thee cursing, vexation, and rebuke, in all that thou set thine hand unto for to do, until thou be destroyed, and until thou perish quickly; because of the wickedness of thy doings, whereby thou hast forsaken me.
Deuteronomy 28:21 The LORD shall make the pestilence cleave unto thee, until he have consumed thee from off the land, whither you go to possess it.
Deuteronomy 28:22 The LORD shall smite thee with a consumption, and with a fever, and with an inflammation, and with an extreme burning, and with the sword, and with blasting, and with mildew; and they shall pursue thee until thou perish.
Deuteronomy 28:60 Moreover he will bring upon thee all the diseases of Egypt, which you were afraid of; and they shall cleave unto thee.
Brethren, we will get through this Coronavirus, but much worse is yet to come if our nations will not confess their sin and return unto God:
I’ve heard a few ministers – along with Vice President Mike Pence paraphrase parts of 2Chronicles 7:14.
2Chronicles 7:14 If my people, who are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn [repent] from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.