UNLEAVENED BREAD - DAY 7

Fred Coulter - April 3, 2002

And greetings, brethren. This is the last day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and at sundown tonight you can have some leavened bread. One of the things I’ve always tried to do is go out and have a hamburger that night after sunset. It’s perfectly legal and fine. Because as you know during the Feast of Unleavened Bread leaven is a type of sin. Now as we will see when we come to Pentecost, leaven is not always a type of sin, but leaven can also picture something else. But we’ll save that for Pentecost.

Now, let’s come to Leviticus 23. And we know all the holy days here in Leviticus 23. And the thing that is important to understand is this: is that these are the feasts of God. And even though the Jews claim them for themselves, they don’t belong to the Jews. They did not originate them. They did not invent them. God gave them to all the twelve tribes of the children of Israel. And so it’s important for us to realize that whatever we have in the Bible, brethren, these are the words of God. And if God would come down and talk to us today, He would tell us exactly the same thing that we have here. So this is why it has been written and preserved for us, so that we may be able to understand God’s way.

So let’s begin right here in Leviticus 23:1. “And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, Concerning the feasts of the LORD,…” God is the one Who owns these. God is the one Who created them. God is the one Who sanctified them. God is the one Who has made them holy. “…Which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations,…” And this means “appointed times”. These are appointed times that God has given us to come before Him. And He starts out the holy days by saying “…proclaim to be holy convocations, even these are My feasts” (Lev. 23:1-2).

Then He begins with the Sabbath. “Six days shall work be done: but the seventh day is the sabbath of rest, an holy convocation; ye shall do no work therein: it is the sabbath of the LORD in all your dwellings” (vs. 3). Now, we keep the Sabbath week by week. And it is very important that we do. And the reason why it’s so important that we do is because we fellowship with God the Father and Jesus Christ on the Sabbath day in a special way that we do not have any other day of the week, with the exception of the holy days, as the annual holy days come to us. And so, with this then, God does a special function with His Holy Spirit and with His word, that if we come to Him in prayer and study, and come together as brethren to fellowship together and learn of His way, then we have a spiritual blessing. And always remember this: that we need the Sabbath every week. Every seven days, because spiritual knowledge does not stay in a carnal mind, and it must be renewed. It must be built up. And so this is why we have the Sabbath every week.

Then, verse 4, “These are the feasts of the LORD, even holy convocations, which ye shall proclaim in their seasons. In the fourteenth day of the first month at even is the LORD’S passover. And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread…” And we’ve been eating unleavened bread every day. Today is the last day of it. Verse 7, the first day is a holy convocation, do no servile work, make an offering made by fire unto the LORD. And, “…the seventh day is an holy convocation: ye shall do not servile work therein” (vs. 4-8).

Now, on all of the holy days we always take up an offering. And remember, as we have pointed out, by taking up an offering and bringing it to God, you are honoring God. And you are showing Him by the things that He has given to you that you give back to Him, that you understand that everything that you have has come from God. And so at this time we’ll go ahead and pause and we’ll take up the offering.

(Pause)

And as we know, brethren, every one of the holy days beginning with the Passover, has a great significance in the plan of God. Not only as we have seen in the Old Testament beginning with Abraham, and then down to the children of Israel, and then down to the New Testament church. And God does specific things. And there are memorials of these days in the Old Testament, and I am sure that there will be a future fulfillment of these things for us as we come down toward the end of the age, because these days are days that God has set.

Now, with the children of Israel, this last day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread has had great importance. And there’s great lessons for us. Because after they left Egypt with a high hand and were marching out and going toward Mt. Sinai, God brought them down along side the Red Sea. And He deliberately entrapped them between the mountains, the Red Sea, and then Pharaoh. And Pharaoh and all of his host and chariots and armies came after them. Now if we look at Pharaoh as a type of Satan, and if we look at all of his armies as a type of the demons, then we can see a spiritual parallel for us. And we can see that this day has great significance because if we are matched up alone against Satan and his demons, just like the children of Israel…if they would have been matched up with Pharaoh and his soldiers, not having any arms, not having any defense, they would have been slaughtered. An easy picking for them. And that’s what Pharaoh thought, so he went after them. And so when they saw Pharaoh coming they began to waver in their faith. They began to waver in their belief with God. And as a matter of fact, they really reverted back to their old carnal ways. Of course they were carnal because they were never converted. But let’s look at the attitude that they had here. Let’s come to Exodus 14:10 and see the account that took place on the last day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread when God brought the children of Israel out of Egypt.

Now Exodus 14:10. “And when Pharaoh drew nigh, the children of Israel lifted up their eyes, and, behold, the Egyptians marched after them; and they were sore afraid: and the children of Israel cried out unto the LORD. And they said unto Moses,…” Now, they complained. The first thing you do is complain against the man. And they said, “…Because there were no graves in Egypt [meaning, wasn’t there enough room in Egypt for graves for all of us?], 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? For it had been better for us to serve the Egyptians, than that we should die in the wilderness” (Ex. 14:10-12). Now you know, Egypt is a type of the world. And lots of times when God calls us and we are confronted with difficulties and problems we may begin to think the same thing, because the world is nice and modern, and comfortable, and everything out there is available. And before God called you, you didn’t have any of these problems. And God began to deal with you, and you didn’t understand that when God began to deal with you there would come a day when you would have a problem, when you would have a difficulty, when you would have a trial, and you would have no resources, you would have no ability on your own to fight these problems or to overcome them. And you see, God has designed it this way because this is the way, then, we are tested in our faith. Because do we really believe in the good times, in the bad times, in the difficult times, and in the times when it looks like there is no way out, and there’s no answer. And it looks like that the calling of God may have even been a mistake. Just like the children of Israel, they were accusing God here, that “You took us out here and God, this must have been a mistake.”

Now, verse 13, “And Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not,…” This is the whole message for this day. And you need to understand something as we will see. The battles that we are fighting, we’re going to win. Every single one of them. Just like the children of Israel here. Everything was against them, except God was for them. And if God be for you, as we will see, there is nothing, there is no one that can be against you. Now I dare say none of us has had a problem as great as the children of Israel faced right there at the Red Sea. And how are they going to get across the Red Sea? Now Moses didn’t even know, but he knew this from all the miracles and powers and signs and wonders which we have already covered that were done in the land of Egypt to release them, including the Passover night when God slew the firstborn of all Egypt.

Moses knew that God would deliver them. So this is why he said, “…stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD,…” So there’s sometimes we need to stand still. That means, stop, stand still, don’t complain, and look to God for the salvation, for your deliverance from this problem. “…Which He will shew to you today: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen today, ye shall see them again no more for ever. The LORD shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace” (vs. 13-14). Now you see, if you go to God in faith and ask Him to fight this battle for you, it is too much for you, you are overwhelmed with it, and you have completely expended and exhausted all of your own resources and all of your own efforts, then you go to God and say, “God, this is Your battle. You need to fight this battle for us.” The Lord will fight for us. Now we have the things that we need to do too, as we will see.

Verse 15, “And the LORD said unto Moses, [Now why are you crying unto Me] Wherefore criest thou unto Me? speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward: but lift thou up thy rod, and stretch out thine hand over the sea, and divide it: and the children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea. And I, behold, I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians, and they shall follow them: and I will get Me honour upon Pharaoh, and upon all his host, upon his chariots, and upon his horsemen. And the Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD, when I have gotten Me honour upon Pharaoh, upon his chariots, and upon his horsemen” (vs. 15-18). So that’s what happened.

Moses held out his rod. The wind blew all that night, and blew the sea back and made a great wide swath for the children of Israel to go through. Not like the one that you see in “The Ten Commandments”, a little narrow channel. Because all the children of Israel crossed the Red Sea in mass, and did so in the morning watch. And it was so impressive that Pharaoh thought he could go in there and come after them. And he looked down there and there was the dry ground, so he said, “Charge on.” And he charged on and God closed the Red Sea over them. Caused them to drown in the Red Sea, and all of them died. Then there was a great victory song, as we find in Exodus 15. Marvelous victory song. God is the one Who won the battle. God is the one Who killed the enemy. And so we need to understand that’s what God will do for us.

Because here, Exodus 15:2, where it says “The LORD is my strength and song, and He is become my salvation: He is my God, and I will prepare Him an habitation; my father’s God, and I will exalt Him. The LORD is a man of war: the LORD is His name” (Ex. 15:2-3). Now what we need to do is also project forward and realize that likewise again, when Christ returns, He’s going to do the same thing to the beast and the false prophets and their armies. Well, we’re getting ahead of ourselves, a little ahead of the story here.

Now, let’s come here to Exodus 17 because there’s something that we have to do. God will fight for us, that is true. No question about it. God will intervene for us, but we have things that we need to do. Like it said there, stand still, see the salvation of the LORD, and tell the children of Israel to go forward. And that’s what we need to do.

Now Exodus 17, when they were getting close to Rephidim, then Amalek, one of the enemies of God, one of the hated enemies of God, came and fought against the children of Israel. Now let’s pick it up here, Exodus 17:8. “Then came Amalek, and fought with Israel in Rephidim. And Moses said unto Joshua, Choose us out men, and go out, fight with Amalek: tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in mine hand. So Joshua did as Moses had said to him, and fought with Amalek: and Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. And it came to pass, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed: and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed” (Ex. 17:8-11). Now here’s a type of God just intervening with our weaknesses. But it shows that we have things that we need to do. Moses had what he had to do. Joshua had what he had to do. The children of Israel had what they had to do, and so the long and short of it is, the way that they overcame the problem was that they rolled a big stone and put it under Moses hands so he could hold his hands up, and then Joshua prevailed.

Now let’s understand something here. Come down here to verse 14. After Amalek was defeated, we need to understand that we are going to fight Amalek again in every generation. When the Jews were in captivity in Persia, Agag, the man of Hammedatha, and Agag is one of the sons of Amalek. He wanted to destroy all of the Jews. Again, in the book of Esther, God had to intervene in a supernatural way to save Israel from Amalek.

Now notice, here’s what God said concerning Amalek. Verse 14, “And the LORD said unto Moses, Write this for a memorial in a book [and we’ve got it right here], and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua: for I will utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven.” Not all at once. Verse 16, after Moses built an altar, and called the place Jehovanissi. “For he said, Because the LORD hath sworn that the LORD will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.” Now also understand that Amalek was one of the sons of Esau. So we have this antagonism. We have these things going on. In the world today and for the New Testament these things have special significance for us. So I want you to go back, and I want you to read and study, and understand the things that happened to the children of Israel after they came out of Egypt. And the troubles that they had. And these are examples.

Let’s come to 1 Corinthians 10 and let’s see the significance of passing through the Red Sea on the last day of Unleavened Bread, and how it relates to us. And these things are written for our examples. And today we live in an age, and we live in a time when we are confronted with so many things. And it’s so easy for us to get into the attitude of complaining, get into the attitude of accusing God, get into the attitude because we don’t have it nice and easy-going all the time that somehow God is at fault.

Now here, 1 Corinthians 10:1. And Paul writes to the Corinthians in verse 1, “Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea [which was on the last day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread]; and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; and did all eat the same spiritual meat; and did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ” (1 Cor. 10:1-4). This shows an absolute scripture that Jesus Christ was the LORD God of the Old Testament. Now then, there are some people who today are saying, who have been in the church for decades, who now say that they are convinced that Jesus did not exist until He was conceived in the womb of the virgin Mary. Overthrowing all of the scriptures, Old Testament and New Testament, which show the truth of the nature of God. And here’s one. You can’t get around them. And that Rock was Christ.

“But with many of them God was not well pleased:…” And we have to say the same thing today. Look at what has happened to the church of God. Look at how it’s been scattered into so many, many different small groups. Now there’s a reason for it. God is testing us, God is trying us, God is proving us. God wants to know, “Do you love Me?” God wants to know, are you going to seek Him? God wants to know, are you going to depend upon Him? Are you going to have faith in Him? Are you going to trust Him? Do you love Him through all circumstances? Because you see, we are going to face our own Red Sea. And we are going to face our own Pharaoh, being Satan the devil and his demons. Now we’ll see that in a minute here.

So when these things come along, do we put ourselves in a position that God is not well pleased with us? You see, take all of the troubles, all of the difficulties as a challenge to come before God and let Him work it out. Let Him open the way. Let Him open the Red Sea in your own life so you can walk through on dry ground. But you have to come before God and many times just say, “God, I don’t know. I don’t have the way. This is too much for me. This is more than I can handle. Please just intervene, God, and do like You did for the children of Israel.” Claim the promise of God because of His name’s sake, and for His great reputation, and for what Christ has done for you. And you will get through these battles. You will overcome them. No question about it.

Now because God wasn’t well pleased with them, you go back and read all the rebellions that they had. We covered that in the series we did in the book of Hebrews. “…For they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things were our examples, to the intent that we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted. Neither be ye idolaters, as were some of them; as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play. Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand” (vs. 5-8). That was with the golden calf that they made. And what a horrendous example that was. And Aaron was to blame for leading them into that and giving in to the children of Israel for building their idols. And brethren, you know today we have not only just religious idols, but we have so many things that can become idols for us. So many things, in the world, in our lives, and all around us.

Now let’s understand something. When we come to the point of complaining, and coming to God and accusing Him, then we are tempting Christ. Now notice verse 9. “Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed of serpents.” Now what we need to understand is this: if God meant business with the children of Israel then, pray tell, does God also mean business today in a spiritual sense with us? But, of course. He has called us to the greatest calling, to the greatest thing that can be, and so we need to take these examples and learn from them.

“Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come. Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.” Now here’s a comfort. Here’s a promise. Here is something you can always rely upon and come to God and claim as His word of truth given to you so you won’t be overwhelmed with problems that are greater than you can handle, too much for you to bear, too much for you to shoulder and burden. Put them on Christ. Let Him work it out. Let Him open your Red Sea. Let Him give you the way of escape just like He did the children of Israel. Verse 13, “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful [remember that - God is faithful], Who will not suffer [allow] you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it” (vs. 11-13). And so there is the tremendous lesson for us as we see in this day and age.

Now the whole purpose of the gospel is to bring us out from underneath the world, and Satan the devil, and for us to overcome ourselves. Now let’s come to Acts 26:18, and Paul shows that this was his whole mission, the whole purpose of his ministry and teaching. Let’s come back to verse 15. This is when Saul was called before he was named Paul. And after he was struck down by the Lord… Now I said one time that God knocked him off his donkey. It doesn’t say he had a donkey, but nevertheless he fell to the ground, whether he was on a donkey or whether he was walking. And it doesn’t say there was a donkey, it doesn’t say there wasn’t a donkey, so to assume there was, it’s not wrong. To assume there wasn’t is not wrong. It doesn’t say. But nevertheless. “And I said, Who art thou, Lord? And He said, I am Jesus Whom thou persecutest.” Now understand this: whenever any of the brethren are persecuted it is persecution against Christ. Because each one of us have Christ in us. And if we are persecuted, Christ is persecuted. And so that’s why if these persecutions come upon us then we need to realize that they are also persecuting Christ. And Christ is not going to stand still for it.

Verse 16, “But rise, and stand upon thy feet: for I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister and a witness both of these things which thou hast seen, and of those things in the which I will appear unto thee;…” And he did. He spent over three years in the Arabian desert being taught directly of Christ. “…Delivering thee from the people, and from the Gentiles, unto whom now I send thee, to open their eyes,…” And that is a spiritual blessing that comes with preaching with the Spirit of God working and activating by the inspiring of the preaching, by the inspiring of the hearing, by the action of the Holy Spirit upon the hearers and the speakers. “…To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in Me” (vs. 16-18). And that’s the whole purpose of this day, to release us from the power of Satan the devil. But, Satan is not done coming after us. He will come after us again, and again, and again. Now we’ll see that.

Let’s come to Colossians 1 and let’s see how the apostle Paul wrote to the Colossians on the great calling of God. And it is God the Father Who has done this. Remember, the ones that God calls, God the Father Himself calls. So in answering the call, you are answering the call of God the Father. Now that’s a very humbling and a very awesome thing to contemplate. That the great ruler of the universe, God the Father Himself, has called you, has selected you, has given you the Holy Spirit, has delivered you from Satan the Devil, and is going to fight every one of your battles for you through Jesus Christ. And that He send His Son, Jesus Christ, to die in your stead.

Now let’s come to Colossians 1:12. “Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet…” That means qualified us. God the Father is the one Who qualifies us through Jesus Christ, with the power of His Spirit, by growing and overcoming. “…To be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness,…” That’s why brethren, don’t go back into the world. It may be glittering, but remember, the light that is in the world is darkness. And if that light in you be darkness, how great is the darkness indeed, because God has called us to light. God has called us to a great inheritance. To deliver us from all of these things, “…and hath translated [or that is, transferred us] us into the kingdom of His dear Son:…” (Col. 1:12-13). To where then the kingdom of God, the word of God, Christ, and God the Father rule in our lives, lead us and guide us, and direct us. We don’t belong to the world. Our citizenship is not here in this world. It is in God the Father, and Jesus Christ, and the saints of God. And when Christ returns then we will fight with Him in great power. Now the tools of our warfare today are spiritual. We have a greater battle, and we’ll see that.

Verse 14, “In Whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins: Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature (creation):…” That means the firstborn from the dead of everyone who’s going to be resurrected from the dead, Christ was first. Now notice, here’s what He did, “For by Him were all things created,…” There again, Christ was the creator. “…That are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by Him, and for Him:…” For God’s plan. Even Satan the devil has part in God’s plan to accomplish the will of God in our lives. Knowing that we have an enemy to fight, and knowing that through fighting this enemy we show our love, we show our faith, we show our loyalty, we show our reliance upon God, because Satan is there to come and trick us, and to come after us and to deceive us.

Verse 17, “And He is before all things, and by Him all things consist. And He is the head of the body, the church:…” And never forget that brethren, no man, no man is the head of the church of God. No man. Everyone who is a minister, or teacher, or preacher, or evangelist, or apostle should always point you to worship and serve God the Father and Jesus Christ. And those who are elders, to serve, and to teach, and to help. The whole purpose is to help you grow in faith, and knowledge, and understanding, and in your relationship with God the Father and Jesus Christ. We have seen what has happened with vast ecclesiastical empires. Not only within the church of God, but also in the world. God hates that kind of thing because God the Father Himself has personally called you, and He wants you to know that Christ is the head of the church.

“…Who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things He might have the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that in Him should all fulness dwell; and, having made peace through the blood of His cross, by Him to reconcile all things unto Himself; by Him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven. And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath He reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in His sight:…” (vs. 18-22) That’s the whole goal that God has for us. That’s the whole purpose of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, to be without sin, to come totally out of this world, out of the system of Satan the devil, and to be totally converted, to have Christ in us, so that at the resurrection we can join Christ.

Now notice, there is a condition. And this is why the lesson for the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Verse 23, “If ye continue in the faith…” Now you see the children of Israel didn’t. When things were going good, they were fine. But when things got tough, they complained to God. And also, living in the age that we live in, we have so many distractions all around us. Never have we lived in an age when there are so many things competing for our attention. That’s why it’s so important that we focus in on the things that God has for us. Not just on Christ, but we need to focus in on the whole of the Bible. On growing and overcoming, on changing, on watching the prophecies that are taking place in the world, and all of these things. So this is conditional. “If you continue in the faith…” Now notice, “…grounded…” We are to be grounded in love, grounded in faith, grounded in belief, grounded in hope. “…And settled,…” Not like a wave being blown by the wind, but settled, stable. “…And be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature…”

Now let’s look at the battle that is facing us. And Satan the devil is right there to come back at us. Satan the devil is right there to bring in his ways, to bring in his wiles, to discourage us, to cause us troubles and difficulties. And he does it through circumstances in our lives, through other people, and yes many times, through us yielding to the thoughts and the wavelengths of Satan the devil. And we partake of his way, and of course, that’s exactly what Satan wants. The more he can get us to partake of his way, the more that he can try and lead us away from God.

Now let’s come here to Revelation 12. Now notice, he’s busy. He is active. He is working. And we know that there are times that he causes more problems for the church than at other times. And we know that in our personal lives there are times when we have more difficulties than at other times, but nevertheless we need to have our guard up always. And we need to recognize that Satan is there to come after us. Now notice, verse 9. “And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world:…” Now there are some people who say Satan is not deceiving the world. Well he is. He’s deceiving the world through every means that he can. Personally, by appearing to leaders and rulers as an angel of light. Using other people. Using media. Using the press. Using music. Using circumstances. He is there. Deceives the whole world. And there are some people, I even heard of one minister who’s supposed to be a minister in the church of God, who let’s his son read Harry Potter’s books on witchcraft.

Listen, if the scriptures say Satan is deceiving the whole world, that has got to be a conspiracy. And it’s going to be a conspiracy, and is, that will look so good to this world because they don’t love the truth. They love their lives. They love their stories. They love their own ways of doing things. And Satan is right there feeding them, feeding them, feeding them, feeding them. And they are the children of the devil because they are breaking the commandments of God and living lawless lives. It doesn’t matter if they appear religious. And so likewise, Satan is after us.

Now notice, notice what Satan is doing. “And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night” (vs. 10). Now that’s why brethren, daily prayer, and daily study, and daily overcoming is important because you have someone accusing you before God. And that’s why repentance is so important. That’s why overcoming is so important. And we’re going to see that we need to arm ourselves with this battle with Satan the devil.

Then it goes on showing what’s going to happen when Satan is going to persecute the church. And persecution, as we’ve already covered, is one of those things that Satan is going do. And we know that one of the things that is going to come, that is going to bring about persecution on all the people of God, and yea, many people who will then turn to God, will be the coming mark of the beast. And to use a Biblical phrase, lo, it is coming. And if you are not prepared, and if you are not willing to fight the battles now, you may not make it at that particular time.

Now let’s see some other things concerning the power of Satan the devil. Let’s come to 2 Corinthians 2. Satan has his devices. Satan appears righteous and good, and he loves to take up causes. Especially causes that are right. Especially causes that are good. As we will see, even Peter fell for that trap because Satan was right there with the apostles and Christ, on and off, sometimes in the person of Judas Iscariot. Sometimes just throwing thoughts into the minds of the disciples.

Now here, 2 Corinthians 2:10. Here’s one of the devices that Satan uses to trip up the saints on a point, which appears right and good. “To whom ye forgive any thing, I forgive also: for if I forgave any thing, to whom I forgave it, for your sakes forgave I it in the person of Christ; lest Satan should get an advantage of us…”, or over us. One of the things that Satan would love for you to do is to not forgive. I’ve already covered that. But you go back and listen to that tape again concerning getting along with each other and forgiving each other. Because if not, you give an entrance for Satan the devil for his thoughts. For notice the last part of verse 11, “…for we are not ignorant of his devices” (2 Cor. 2:10-11). And no, we have to be like General Patton when he met Rommel. He said, “Rommel, I read your book.” In other words, we don’t need to go into the depths of Satan the devil. But we need to know from the scriptures the devices that Satan uses, and the lack of forgiveness, which appears a good cause, is one of those. Just remember, do you want Christ to not forgive you? So that’s one of his devices. There are others we are going to look at in just a minute.