As it is written:
"Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” (1 Corinthians 5:6–8, NKJV)
Did you notice that we are commanded to KEEP the Feast of Passover and Unleavened Bread even as Christians? Did you also notice that with Messiah as our focus during the Feast, we are to practice keeping it with BOTH SINCERITY AND TRUTH, and NOT sincerity OR truth? Now, that is an extremely important distinction because in our day and age many Christians often go around believing that as long as they are sincere, well-meaning and well-intentioned, then God will not really care whether or not we are pursuing being scripturally accurate. Yes, sincerity is good but sincerity without being Scripturally true is still leavened. Likewise, pursuing Biblical accuracy without true sincerity is also leaven. We have to constantly practice forcibly evicting both biblical and doctrinal inaccuracy as well as evicting insincerity out of our lives if we are going to be keeping this feast properly. It takes practice, but that is the level to which we are called to live as true Christians.
Here are Some Game Changing Leaven-evicting Questions:
(In preparation for unleavened bread)
1. Do You consider the Written Scriptures (The Books of Genesis through Revelation) to be God's written Word to us? (2 Timothy 3:14-17; Deut. 8:2-3; John 17:172. Does God Lie? (Numbers 23:19; Psalm 33:10-11)
3. Do you consider Scripture to be authoritative? In other words, do you believe that Scripture contains legitimate instructions concerning what we should believe, and how we should live towards God and other people? (Psalm 19:7-14; 2 Peter 1:3-11)
4. Does Scripture contain promises for those who obey it, and consequences for those who disregard, or disobey it? (Exodus 20:1-6; Psalm 119:9; Ecclesiastes 12:13-14)
5. Do you accept that the promises and consequences identified in Scripture are true? (1 Samuel 15:29)?
6. Will God change His Word to agree with human beings, or do we need to submit to God and let him change us so that we will come into agreement with Him? (Ezekiel 36:25-27)
7. Does God's True Word contradict itself?- NO- (1 Cor 14:33; 2 Timothy 2:13).
8. Does God's Word Stand forever?- Yes (Isaiah 40:8; Isaiah 59:21 Psalm 119:142; 1 Peter 1.25)
9. Does God do anything without first revealing it to the prophets (Amos 3:7).
Today many well-meaning Christians emphatically refuse to honor and respect God's Sabbaths and HIS Appointed Festival Days. By long-standing human religious tradition, Christians routinely abandon what God considers to be holy and set apart for Himself, and instead they replace what God Commanded with obeying pagan Roman emperors and Roman Catholic popes. Christians typically do this in spite of the fact that it is directly forbidden in BOTH parts of the Testament of Scripture.
It is easily provable by studying history alongside Scripture that the practice of changing the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday, the practices of Christmas and the practices of Easter, along with Valentine's Day and Halloween harvest festivals which are so commonly accepted in almost every church today ALL have their origins and beginnings in the worship of false gods. The Festival days, the decorations, the mythologies, and even the names of these false deities are often unwittingly praised and practiced among Christians.
So when did it become okay to BREAK and to do the opposite of what God Commanded in order to copy pagan practices and bring them into the church? When did it become okay to DISOBEY what God commanded (Deuteronomy 12:1-4, 8, 29-32; Jeremiah 10:1-2; 1 Corinthians 10:1-6; 2 Corinthians 6:14-7:1), in order to keep what pagan Roman emperors and Roman Catholic popes have decreed?
Will God forsake His Own Words to agree with these human beings? Or should we submit to God and allow Him to change us, so that we will truly be in agreement with Him and HIS Words?
Some of you well-intentioned people will absolutely insist that Jesus Christ the Son of God and Messiah did away with those biblical requirements at the cross. Now, there is a list of problems with that doctrine which are as long as your arm. However, for the sake of time I will limit myself to discussing three of them.
First, to which prophet did God reveal it; that when the Messiah which He sent died, breaking His Commandments would then be okay? To which prophet did He reveal that after Messiah died it would then be okay and even blessed to disobey Him and to obey pagan Roman emperors and Roman Catholic popes instead of doing what God said? To which prophet did God reveal it that His Laws would be done away with after Messiah died? If God didn't reveal a coming change to His Servants the prophets, then God is not the one who authorized the change.
Second, God himself said that His Laws and His Words are ETERNAL, and will NOT change. (Look at the above questions and references). I know that we can all be deceived and we can all misunderstand things at times, but are you really and truly comfortable calling the Almighty Creator, and the God of your salvation a liar to His face?
Third, we are utterly dependent upon the reliability of God's ETERNAL WORD, and the Word Made Flesh, Yeshua the Messiah for our ETERNAL salvation, right? IF God's ETERNAL Words and ETERNAL Commandments can possibly be put away, abolished and done away with at the cross, then His Words are not eternal, are they? If God's Eternal Laws; If God's ETERNAL Commandments can be abolished and done away with, then on what basis do you believe your ETERNAL LIFE and your ETERNAL SALVATION to be safe and secure? Both ETERNAL things were declared and promised by the SAME God. So, if one can be done away with, then so can the other. We cannot attack God's ETERNAL Laws, without attacking our own ETERNAL salvation at the same time. Think about it.
Brother Michel Lankford
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