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UNLEAVENED BREAD - Day 7
Fred Coulter - April 14, 2001
Here we are at the end of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. A whole week
has gone by and without a Sabbath in between the two holy days it somehow
just seems a little different because having the Passover fall on the weekly
Sabbath comes at different times. As a matter of fact, we can have as
much as 20 years in between the occurrence of that. So this has gone
by just really fast, and I hope that it’s been a good feast for you.
Now let’s come back here to Exodus 12. Let’s understand something
very, very important. And remember this very important. The
meaning of the Passover for the Old Testament was that God passed over their
houses and spared their firstborn. The meaning of the Feast of
Unleavened Bread was the exodus coming out of Egypt. And because the
Jews today do not keep a 14th
Passover, they have totally lost the meaning of the Passover. And you
need to read in the Passover book that there is no Passover for those who
are exiled.
Now, let’s continue on here. Let’s come to Exodus 12 and let’s just
review the Feast of Unleavened Bread again. Verse 15, “Seven days
shall ye eat unleavened bread…” Well, after sundown tonight you can go
have your leavened bread. And I always go out and get a hamburger, so
that’s what I’m going to do when this day is over. See because only
during the Feast of Unleavened Bread is leaven a sin. There is even in
Matthew 13, which we will cover between now and Pentecost, where the Kingdom
of God is likened unto leaven. Now that has to be the good action of
leaven. So the bad action of leaven is during the Days of Unleavened
Bread. It pictures sin. And there is sin everywhere.
That’s why we have the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
Now notice, “…[In] Even the first day ye shall put away leaven out of your
houses: for whosoever eateth leavened bread from the first day until the
seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel” (Ex. 12:15). And
that means cut off from God. And that’s exactly what has happened to
those people in the Church of God that we have seen who have given up on the
Feast of Unleavened Bread and started eating leaven, started keeping Easter,
and all of those things. They have been cut off.
“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. 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 for ever” (vs. 16-17). Now as I
mentioned concerning the thing that I did before the Feast of Unleavened
Bread concerning the holy days. That if you just take the Bible you
cannot find in it anything having to do with Easter or Christmas or New
Years, or Halloween, or any of the pagan days that are of this world.
As a matter of fact, when you read the Bible you see them condemned every
turn, because you see all of those things become idolatry. You have
another god before you. You have the wrong days. And God is not
going to accept your good intentions. Good intentions do not have it
with God when God has given a command. Now you need to understand
that.
Now let’s come to Leviticus 23. Leviticus 23 repeats the same thing.
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.
In the first day ye shall have an holy convocation: ye shall do no servile
work therein. But ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the
LORD seven days [because when they were at the temple they had offerings all
seven days]: in the seventh day is
an holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work therein” (Lev.
23:6-8). Well we know that God commands us to bring an offering during
the Feast of Unleavened Bread. And we have always taken up an offering
on the first day of Unleavened Bread and on the last day of Unleavened Bread
because all of these are Sabbaths, all of these are holy days, and all of
them have offerings which are given on them.
Now today we don’t offer animal sacrifices. But I tell you what, if
you would get yourself a real good, first rate lamb or bullock, you’d be
into a lot of money. And so when they offered those offerings and they
were given to the priests, it represented a lot of work, it represented a
lot of time, and it represented a lot of effort for them to do so to be able
to offer these offerings. And so when it was too far for them to go
then they could turn the produce and the animals into money and then they
would keep the feast and then obviously then they would offer the money when
they got there. So we’ve gone through this many, many times concerning
taking up an offering, so at this time we’ll just go ahead and take a pause
and we’ll take up the offering for the last day of the Feast of Unleavened
Bread.
(Pause)
Now the reason that the Feast of Unleavened Bread is so important, when you
couple that with the Passover, is that only God can save you. Now we
have our part that we need to. We always do. And with that then
we need to couple that with what God can do. Now God had to lead them
out of the land of Egypt but they had to walk. God had to show them
where they were to go but they had to eat the unleavened bread. And
when we come to the last day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread there’s a
special meaning for it. Because it shows how that God will fight our
battles for us, and that how God alone can deliver us.
Now you know what happened. They left Egypt. They came out by
the Red Sea, and they were entrapped between the sea and the mountains and
Pharaoh came after them, and he was going to get back all of his slaves to
help him and to help the whole economy. You could imagine what would
happen to the economy with all the slaves gone. They weren’t able to
accomplish anything. And so they said, “Hey, how are we going to
function? So let’s go get them.” So they did. But here it
shows a lesson in human nature. And it also shows something, not only
just in human nature, but how that people really do not trust God the way
that they should. Now we can blame the Israelites and say that they
didn’t have the Holy Spirit, but how many of those that supposedly have the
Holy Spirit have not trusted God even in our day. And when the trials
come, which they will, and when they’re difficult, which they will be, then
we need to understand that God alone can deliver us from them. So
here’s an insurmountable problem. They’re stuck by the Red Sea and
here comes Pharaoh. And look at the temptation which happened to them.
Look at what happens when people see a trial.
Now notice Exodus 14:10. “And when Pharaoh drew nigh, the children of
Israel lifted up their eyes, and, behold, the Egyptians marched after them…”
And I’ll tell you what, when you come out of this world Satan comes after
you. So this is parallel in our lives. Think of the spiritual
parallels that come along with this. That Satan is after you once you
come out of the world. “…And they were sore afraid: and the children
of Israel cried out unto the LORD.” But how did they cry? They
didn’t say, “Oh God, we know You’re great, You’re powerful, You delivered us
from the hand of Pharaoh before. You killed all the firstborn of men
and beasts, and now we are just going to just stand here and we are going to
just know that You’re going to save us.”
Now, no, verse 11. “And they said unto Moses, Because there were
no graves in Egypt [in other words there’s plenty of room to bury dead
people in Egypt], hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness?
wherefore hast thou dealt thus with us, to carry us forth out of Egypt?
Is not this the word that we did tell thee in Egypt, saying, Let us
alone, that we may serve the Egyptians?” Now you see, second thoughts
on things changes the whole perspective, doesn’t it? Because when they
were in Egypt, and they were serving they were crying and moaning and
groaning and what did God say. He told Moses, “I’ve heard the cries
and sighs of the children of Israel, and I’m going to send you to deliver
them” (vs. 11-12). And when Moses came they were happy.
Especially when they started out on the exodus to leave, they left with a
high hand. And now here they are, just seven days later and they have
changed their minds because it wasn’t the way that they figured. And
the circumstances were not what they supposed.
“And Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still, and see the
salvation of the LORD…” And God is the only one that can save.
“…Which He will shew to you to day: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to
day, ye shall see them again no more for ever. The LORD shall fight
for you, and ye shall hold your peace” (vs. 13-14). In other words
don’t complain against God.
Verse 15, “And the LORD said unto Moses, Wherefore criest thou unto Me?
speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward…” So then you
know the rest of the story. Moses lifted up his rod, and God sent a
cloud to be on the back side of the children of Israel where it gave light
to the children of Israel and darkness to the Egyptians. And then all
that night an east wind came and blew, and blew the waters back and the
ground dried, the children of Israel walked across, and that happened on the
last day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. And then Pharaoh and his
armies went in there because it looks so great. Because that must have been
a real wide area where they went across. Because remember they just
walked across in a short time. It wasn’t a long strung out line. It
was like a big flanking movement and they just walked right across the Red
Sea. So Pharaoh looked to the right, and there was water standing up.
And he looked to the left way down there, and there’s the water standing up,
and he said, “Let’s go get them.” And he went in there and fell into
the mud and killed them all, drowned them all, destroyed all the enemy.
And then they had rejoicing that God was a man of war, that He fought for
them, that the victory was His. And even Miriam and all the women got
around and they were dancing with their timbrels and praising God. And
Moses was greatly exalted in the eyes of the people. The Lord was the
one who delivered them.
Now then, how long did it last? Now let’s come to Exodus 15:23 and
let’s see. “And when they came to Marah, they could not drink of the
waters of Marah, for they were
bitter: therefore the name of it was called Marah. And the people
murmured against Moses, saying, What shall we drink?” (Ex. 15:23-24).
Now you see they were faithless. And too many people who are supposed
to have faith, who are supposed to have the faith of Jesus Christ, are
faithless. Again they could have said, “Look what God has done.
Let’s go to Moses and let’s ask him to pray and ask God to heal the water.
And let’s all get on our knees before God and just entreat Him, because God
can do anything.” No, they murmured against Moses, saying, What shall
we drink?
“And he cried unto the LORD…” And of course Moses had a hard time
with the people, so it would give him a bad attitude sometimes and he would
go cry unto God. “…And the LORD shewed him a tree, which when
he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet: there He made for
them a statute and an ordinance, and there He proved them” (vs. 25). I
want you mark that word “proved them”, because that’s exactly what God is
doing to us today. And so ask the question: Am I passing the test or
not?
So He proved them. “And said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the
voice of the LORD thy God…” And there it is again. It always
starts out with the voice of the LORD your God. “…And wilt do that
which is right in His sight, and wilt give ear to His commandments, and keep
all His statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have
brought upon the Egyptians: for I am
the LORD that healeth thee. (vs. 26). Now this ties right in with
the Passover and Feast of Unleavened Bread.
Hold your place here and let’s go to Isaiah 53, because this is very
important in our relationship with God. We need to look to God for
healing, but also we saw where God said, “Cast the tree in”, so there are
some things where we have concerning the herbs given for the service of man.
Isaiah 53, let’s come and see the sacrifice of Christ. Now today there
is healing. We’ve had many, many people healed. And in a sense I
suppose we should have broadcast it abroad more that people have been
healed, but we’ve tried to keep it, don’t let your right hand know what your
left hand is doing. But never the less, God is the one who heals.
Christ is the one who bore the penalties. Christ is the one who took
upon Himself all the stripes.
Now let’s read it right here. Isaiah 53:3, “He is despised and
rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as
it were our faces from Him: He was despised, and we esteemed Him not.
Surely He hath borne our griefs [that is sicknesses and diseases] and
carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and
afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was
bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him [that
is so we can have peace with God]; and with His stripes we are healed” (Is.
53:3-5).
Now let’s stop and think about it brethren. It’s very important for
us to realize. We need to have faith and trust in God for healing.
Now there is a place of doctors, there is a place for the things that need
to be done that way. And at every level we can look to God and have
faith in God to help us, to direct us, to guide us and to do the things that
need to be done that are necessary. But the sacrifice of Christ is a
very important thing for us to understand in relationship to healing.
Now let’s look at something else here that’s very important. Verse 6,
“All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own
way…” Now as we did on the first day of Unleavened Bread, we are to
walk in the way of God. But here in the Church we have now, everyone’s
gone his own way. And I’ll bring out a few examples of those a little
later on, because we have many things that we need to fight against, and we
need to ask God to help us by the battles we need to fight, and to fight the
battle for us that He alone can do for us, you see. “…And the LORD
hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”
Now let’s come back here to Exodus 15. That’s why we have here that
everything that we do, brethren, is based upon faith in Christ, trust in
God, keeping His commandments, obeying His voice. And God says that He
will the one who heals us.
Now let’s come back to Exodus 16 and let’s see how long that lasted.
And the children of Israel again. So Exodus 16:1, “And they took their
journey from Elim, and all the congregation of the children of Israel came
unto the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the
fifteenth day of the second month after their departing out of the land of
Egypt. And the whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured
against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness” (Ex. 16:1-2). Now notice
their attitude. And lots of times these temptations will come to us.
Lots of times Satan will appeal to the flesh, he will appeal to the
weakness, he will appeal to the need.
“And the children of Israel said unto them, Would to God we had died by the
hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh pots…”
Boy, and I tell you what, we have so many flesh pots today. We have so
much, it’s amazing. “…And
when we did eat bread to the full…” You see, that’s why Jesus was
tempted by Satan the devil. And He turned him down. But how many
people have turned their back on God because of these same things. And
people say, “Well, God wouldn’t want you to suffer, would He?” How do
you know? Maybe He does. Maybe there are some lessons for you to
learn in suffering. Remember the apostle Paul said, “It’s through much
tribulation that we shall enter into the Kingdom of God.” And look
what he went through. And trials are for our good. They are the
trying of our faith so that it can be made perfect. But here they
failed this trial. “…We did eat bread to the full; for ye have brought
us forth into this wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with hunger” (vs.
3). Well now, God did let them go hungry for a specific reason.
We’ll see that a little later on.
Verse 4, “Then said the LORD unto Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from
heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every
day, that I may prove them…” Mark that word! That’s why you have
trials. That’s why you have difficulties. That God may prove
you. Do you believe Him or not? Notice, “…That I may prove them,
whether they will walk in My law, or no.” Then He gave the
instructions concerning the Sabbath. And the instructions were that on
the sixth day you bring in twice as much as you do every day, and it won’t
breed worms and stink. And you prepare it on the sixth day for the
seventh day. And you are not to go out and look for any on the seventh
day. But what happened? Some people went out to look for it on
the seventh day.
And what did God say, verse 28? “And the LORD said unto Moses, How
long refuse ye to keep My commandments and My laws?” Now let’s
understand something. Once you understand about a commandment of God
we are duty bound to do it. Is that not from the voice of God?
Yes, indeed. So we have it right here. Verse 29, “See, for that
the LORD hath given you the sabbath…” And many people don’t realize or
understand that the Sabbath is a gift of God. So that’s something.
Let’s come over here to chapter 17. Poor Moses. Can you imagine
Moses, 40 years putting up with all the sins and carnality of the children
of Israel? My, my. I tell you, I’m glad he had the job.
Not me.
Exodus 17:2, “Wherefore the people did chide with Moses, and said, Give us
water that we may drink. And Moses said unto them, why chide ye with
me? wherefore do ye tempt the LORD? And the people thirsted
there for water; and the people murmured against Moses, and said, Wherefore
is this that thou hast brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our
children and our cattle with thirst? And Moses cried out to the LORD…”
Moses had his trials too, didn’t he? I tell you what, there are trials
that ministers have that are far different than the trials that you have.
So here are some that Moses had. And he said, “What shall I do unto
this people? They be almost ready to stone me. And the LORD said
unto Moses, Go on before the people, and take with thee of the elders of
Israel; and thy rod, wherewith thou smotest the river [that is the red Sea],
take in thine hand, and go. Behold, I will stand before thee there
upon the rock in Horeb; and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come
water out of it, that the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight of
the elders of Israel. And he called the name of the place Massah, and
Meribah, because of the chiding of the children of Israel, and because they
tempted the LORD, saying, is the LORD among us, or not?” (Ex. 17:2-7).
I tell you, there’s God right there, pillar of cloud by day and you know the
fire by night.
Now we come over here to Exodus 20. Let’s begin here in verse 18.
And again the people didn’t want it God’s way. And even today, there
are people who are willing to listen to all kinds of doctrine as they go
blithering out looking for pasture other than what God has given to them.
Willing to accept anything. Willing to believe anything. But not
willing to believe God. They couldn’t stand the sound of God’s voice.
Now verse 18, “And all the people saw the thunderings, and the lightnings,
and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking: and when the people
saw it, they removed, and stood afar off. And they said unto
Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us,
lest we die.” Now notice verse 20 and mark this again. “And
Moses said unto the people, Fear not: for God is come to prove you, and that
His fear may be before your faces, that ye sin not” (Ex. 20:18-20).
Now all these trials are to prove us. And in order to get through
these trials and difficulties we need to have faith. All through the
testament we know we see that we have to have faith, and sometimes we need
to accept our circumstances as they come.
Now let’s come to Deuteronomy 8, and again I want you to notice that word
“prove”. Because you see, the truth is God is proving us through the
trials and circumstances that we go through. And if we look to God and
we trust Him, asking Him to help us and do so in faith then God will hear
us, God will answer us, God will bless us, God will fight our battles for
us, especially against Satan the devil. But there are certain battles,
that we will see, we have to fight ourselves.
Ok, now let’s come to Deuteronomy 8. This is rehearsing everything
that they did before they went into the promised land, and Moses’ final
sermon. Let’s begin here in verse 1. “All the commandments which I
command thee this day shall ye observe to do, that ye may live, and
multiply, and go in and possess the land which the LORD sware unto your
fathers. And thou shall remember all the way…” All the 40 years.
All the trials, all the suffering. And I want you to understand as
Paul wrote, all of these things are examples for us that we learn not to do
as they did. And so this is for us today. And the whole purpose
of everything that God is doing, for the trials that we go through, for the
battles that we have to fight, for the difficulties that we are confronted
with is for this purpose. And ours is for eternal life.
Verse 2, “And thou shalt remember all the way…” Now there it is as we
pointed out in the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, it is the way
of God or the way of the world. Now here’s the way of trial that they
had. “…Which the LORD thy God led thee these forty years in the
wilderness, to humble thee [that’s one reason why we go through it], and
to prove you…” And when God proves you what is He proving?
Notice, “…to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep
His commandments, or no.” And today it is whether you love the Lord
your God with all your heart, and mind, and soul, and being. That’s
what it is.
“And He humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger…” So there are
times when God puts us through trials and tests. “…And fed thee with
manna, which thou [didn’t understand] knewest not, neither did thy fathers
know; that He might make thee know…” Here is the whole lesson.
And this is New Testament as well as Old Testament. “…That man doth
not live by bread only, but by every word
that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live” (vs. 3). And
that’s the whole reason for it. Now we’ve got quite a few things that
we’ve need to fight.
Now let’s come to the New Testament and let’s understand what Christ is
saying here in Matthew 7 as it applies to us so that we can really get the
lesson. Now here in Matthew 7 we find something very interesting.
And let’s read it and let’s apply it. And let’s see how that the very
principles that we have learned and have been talking about from the Old
Testament apply here in the New Testament.
Now Matthew 7:24, “Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of Mine…”
Now is that the voice of the Lord? Yes. “…And [does] doeth
them…” The word “doeth” in the King James means “practices them”.
“…I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: and
the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon
that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.” Now it
says there “winds”. Let’s understand something here. These are
likened to the trials in life. These are also likened to the powers
and forces of Satan the devil. Remember what it says when the Church
is taken to a place of safety, that the dragon caused to come out of his
mouth a flood of water that he might destroy the woman. And God opened
the earth and helped the woman. So liken these to the attacks of Satan
the devil. Liken theses, the wind and the rain, and it beats upon the
house, you see. It says it beats. Now sometimes you feel like
you’ve been beaten upon. Well, the truth is you have been. For
what purpose? To prove you. To test you. To see whether
you love God with all your heart, and mind, and soul, and being or not.
So if you build it on a rock, which is Christ, and you love Him, and keep
His commandments, and do the things that are pleasing in His sight, you will
stand. You’ll not be driven around by every wind of doctrine.
Now notice verse 26. “And every one that heareth these sayings of
Mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built
his house upon the sand: and the rain descended, and the floods came, and
the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the
fall of it” (vs. 26-27). Let’s understand something brethren.
You have two choices in your trials, that you draw close to God and learn
from them. And you know one thing that’s really important is that if
you ask God for the faith and you ask God for the help, and strength, and
that you can understand them, when the trial is over you will understand.
Now, let’s come here to James 1 and see another parallel with water.
And this time it’s likened unto faith. James 1:1, “James, a servant of
God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered
abroad, greeting. My brethren, count it all joy…” And that’s
what we need to do because if we endure these things, and God is dealing
with us as sons, God is dealing with us as daughters, so there is the joy,
and after the trial and after the difficulty or after the correction, then
it brings forth the peaceable fruits of righteousness, which then result in
joy. “…Count it all joy when ye fall into [different] divers [trials]
temptations; knowing this, that the trying of your faith…” Meaning,
the proving. God is going to prove your faith. “…Worketh
patience.” That’s what it’s for. “But let patience have her
perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, [lacking] wanting nothing.
If any of you lack wisdom…” That is, on how to go through this trial,
or the purpose of the trial. And that’s how come we get into a lot of
troubles and difficulties that we have because we all do such foolish things
sometimes. “…Let him ask of God, that giveth to all men
liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him” (James 1:1-5).
Now let’s understand something. If you ask God for wisdom, or you’ve
asked God for faith, or if you ask God for love, don’t be too surprised that
the trial comes. Because that’s how you’re going to get it. For
example, if you say, “Oh God, give me understanding of love. Then you
get up off your knees and you feel real good. You know God is going to
answer the prayer, and bang you end up with a trial. You end up with a
fight with the boss at work, or maybe an argument with your husband, or your
wife, or your children. And you blow your stack and everything is a
mess. And you say, “Well, God I asked for love.” And He would
answer you, “I gave you a trial to see if you were going to practice it.”
You see, so everything that we go through from the point of view of God, is
not what it looks like in the circumstances as we see them. And that’s
what the children of Israel couldn’t understand. They only saw them
from their perspective, not having any faith in Christ.
Now verse 6, “But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that
wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.”
You know, tossed to and fro. And it’s amazing, when the water is still
it is amazing what just a little bit of action will do. I know when I
do my water therapy and I’m the only one in the pool, and there are times
when that happens, and it’s a big pool. It’s about 20 by 16, something
like that. And I get in there and I start doing my leg kicks and
things like this. Boy, after a while the water is, the whole pool is
just going like this. So you see that’s how quickly faith can be
disturbed.
Verse 7, “For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of
the Lord.” Because what happens when you act like the Israelites?
Verse 8, “A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.” And
that’s what’s happened with so many brethren. I’ll read just a little
bit here from some of the letters that I have and what has happened to some
of the brethren. What are the things that they are confronted with?
And we will go through and we will see how we need to handle it, we need to
cover it.
Let’s come back here to Ephesians 4, because you see we talked about the
water, now let’s talk about the wind. And there is a spiritual thing
that’s important. Who is the prince of the power of the air?
None other than Satan the devil. Who is the one that’s working in all
the children of disobedience? None other than Satan the devil.
And we have come out of that Egypt of this world, haven’t we? And
notice what he says here, verse 14. “That we henceforth be no
more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of
doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they
lie in wait to deceive;” And that will be there. And there are
so many things out there, it is unreal.
Now let’s look at the four things that we have to fight. And let’s
see how we need to overcome in every one of them.
First thing we need to fight is our own human nature - the old self.
Now let’s come back to Romans 7 and let’s see that we have an internal
battle. And this internal battle is because you have the Holy Spirit
of God. People in the world don’t experience this. People in the
world just live their lives and they have no consciousness of sin. Oh,
they may be sorry that they get in trouble but they have no consciousness of
sin. Now you see this is what’s so important for us to understand.
The first frontline battle is in the mind with the self and with human
nature. And the apostle Paul understood that. He understood that
the heart is deceitful above all things. He understood that the way of
man is not in him to direct his steps. He understood that there is a
way that seems right to a man but the ends thereof are the ways of death.
So he looked at himself in his struggle in overcoming. And all of us
go through this as long as we’re in the flesh and as long as we have the
Spirit of God there will be this struggle. But it is a struggle that
we are able to overcome and a struggle that we are able to fight, and a
struggle that we are able to be victorious in through Christ.
Now let’s read it here. Romans 7:14, “For we know that the law is
spiritual: but I am carnal, sold unto sin [that is of ourselves]. For
that which I do I allow not…” And we have these contradictions in our
motives, in our desires, and in the completion of our actions to do that.
“…For what I [desire] do, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.”
And then you end up saying, “Well, I hate myself for doing that,” right?
Yes, well that’s the time to go to repent. “If then I do that which I
[don’t want to do] would not, I consent unto the law that it is
good.” There is nothing wrong with the laws of God. It’s our
human nature. “Now then it is no more I that do it [you really don’t
want to do it], but sin that dwelleth in me” (Rom. 7:14-17). And the
human nature that we are fighting is the law of sin and death that every
human being has within their members.
Verse 18, “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good
thing…” You know, people in the world don’t understand that.
They are good people. They are righteous people. But it takes
the Spirit of God to convict you that in you, in me, in all human beings
dwells no good thing. That’s why Jesus didn’t commit Himself to any
man cause He knew what was in man. Now, continuing verse 18.
“…For to will [the desire] is present with me…” And everyone desires
to do good. “…But how to perform that which is good I find not.
For the good that I [desire to do] would I do not: but the evil which I
[don’t desire to do] would not, that I do. Now if I do that I [don’t
desire to do] would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth
in me” (vs. 18-20). And it is only the Holy Spirit of God which
exposes that sin, and that nature within you. That’s why we have this
struggle that goes on. That’s why we have a renewal of the covenant
every year at the Passover. That’s why we have the Feast of Unleavened
Bread every year, so that we know we’ve got to overcome sin, so that we know
that we have to put out the leaven and put in the unleavenedness of Christ.
Now verse 21. “I find then a law, that, which I would [desire to] do
good, evil is present with me.” And that happens. So what do you
do? We’ll see what to do here in just a little bit. It’s very
important for us to understand, you see.
He says in verse 22, “For I delight in the law of God after the inward
man.” Well, yes I do. All of us do. “But I see another law
in my members, warring against [me] the law of my mind…” That is the
law of sin and death. “…Warring against the law of my mind, and
bringing me into captivity to the law of sin [the wages of which is death]
which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me
from the body of this death?” That’s why only Christ can save you.
Just like standing at the Red Sea, the children of Israel couldn’t go across
unless God intervened and performed a miracle, so you cannot overcome unless
you use the Spirit of God. And you cannot overcome unless you do
things the way that God wants you to, but God in forgiving your sins and
placing you under His grace, has given you great confidence and hope that
you can overcome. He says, “I’m going to be saved through Jesus
Christ, our Lord.” “So then with the mind I myself serve the law of
God; but with the flesh the law of sin” (vs. 22-25).
Now, hold your place here and let’s come to 2 Corinthians 10, because this
gives us the tools and showing that there is a battle and how we need to do
this when we are confronted with these thoughts and things of overcoming
that we really need to change.
Now, 2 Corinthians 10:2. “But I beseech you, that I may not be
bold when I am present with that confidence, wherewith I think to be bold
against some, which think of us as if we walked according to the flesh.”
Now we’re not walking according to the flesh, but the Spirit. “For
though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh [showing this war
that is going on]: (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal,
but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)” (2 Cor.
10:2-4). And the strongholds are in the mind. And they have to be
brought down.
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