Removing All Sin From the House*

As Passover approaches, it is the custom in Jewish households to carefully search for and remove all leaven from the house. The apostle Paul pointed out the connection between this Passover custom and our faith, between leaven and sin, as we will read. During this season in which Passover and Resurrection Sunday converge, each of us in the church should be examining our own lives for spiritual "leaven", and removing it: "Thou son of man, shew the house to the house of Israel, that they may be ashamed of their iniquities: and let them measure the pattern. And if they be ashamed of all that they have done, shew them the form of the house, and the fashion thereof, and the goings out thereof, and all the ordinances thereof, and all the forms thereof, and all the laws thereof: and write it in their sight, that they may keep the whole form thereof, and all the ordinances thereof, and do them. This is the law of the house; Upon the top of the mountain the whole limit thereof roundabout shall be most holy. Behold, this is the law of the house." (Ezek. 43:10-12). The prophet Isaiah also wrote about the house of God, that in the last days, "the mountain of the LORD's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow into it". The place of the house of God is established in the highest place. Jesus said that our light is not to be hidden under a bushel, but placed upon a lampstand and lifted up high, that all people may be drawn to it. Early in church history, the fathers of the church made the decision to separate the church from its Jewish foundation, which was a foundation that the LORD laid, not man. Ethnic and racial hatred had much to do with this decision, and as a result, the church is now put into the position of trying to re-establish truths that were lost, and dealing with falsehoods that replaced those truths. In Ezekiel's prophecy, the house of God must be shown the sins and iniquities within it, and conform themselves to the pattern of the house of God. In Romans, Paul wrote: "Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his (God's) sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all them that believe: for there is no difference: For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God; being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation (meaning the blood of sprinkling for the remission of sins) through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forebearance of God..." (Rom. 3:20-25). Written in these verses is the truth of the sin of all that by faith is covered by the sprinkling of the blood of Christ for all who believe. This is the Gospel message. All have sinned, but the grace and righteousness of God has been extended to us in the blood of sprinkling of His Son, Jesus. This is also the message of the Passover, as Paul explains: "Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us: Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth." (1 Cor. 5:6-8). Paul not only urges us to observe the Passover feast, but with the understanding of Christ as our Passover Lamb. He directly associates the practice of ridding the house of leaven with the ridding from our lives of sin. Isaiah also prophesied about the Messiah Who was slain like a lamb: "...he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth." (Isa. 53:7). This was done to Him because: "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all." (v. 6). None of us are righteous from our own efforts, but only by the sprinkling of Christ's sacrificial blood for us. Writing about straying from the words of Jesus, and from the doctrine which is according to godliness, Paul warned about words of arguments, strife and debate that come from pride. It is corrupt minds that produce perverse disputings, and the desire for riches, incorrectly associating riches with godliness. He mentions a problem for many in the church, and in the world: the love of money. He said, "For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows." (1 Tim. 6:3-10). Do we differentiate among men based upon their affluence or poverty, esteeming the rich over the poor? Money is not evil, but the love of money leads to all evil. We live in a time when wealth is hoarded and increased among a tiny few, while many are suffering terrible financial hardship, especially during the pandemic. Do we allow money to sway us from the doctrine of godliness, and to have a strong influence over our lives? This is the love of money. Jesus spoke to His disciples about many things that men would experience in the time before His return. These things were to be signs to us of His coming and the end of the age. Among these signs was racial and ethnic hatred - wars: nation (ethnos) against nation (ethnos), kingdom against kingdom. He also said that along with this, there it would be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes (Mt. 24:6-7). Ethnic and racial hatred and bias should not be allowed in the church, or in our hearts. Revelation tells us that the Kingdom of God is made up of people out of every nation, tribe, kindred and tongue. Acts 17:26 says that God made all nations of men on earth from one blood. Racial conflicts and issues have been in the news lately. What has been our personal reaction to them? Innocent people of various racial minorities have been assaulted and killed, but have we, in our hearts, reasoned them to have been guilty of something? The command of God is that the Gospel of grace through Christ is to be preached in all the world, unto all nations, not just to a preferred few (Mt. 24:14). It is time to search ourselves for the leaven of racism and remove it, for we too will be hated for no other reason than our faith in Christ (Mt. 24:9). Isaiah wrote the challenge of God to those who would consider themselves to be godly. This is what God was seeing in the hearts of His people: a vain religious appearance rather than authentic faith, understanding, and desire for Him, strife and debate, smiting with a fist of wickedness (Isa. 58:4). On the other hand, this is God's standard, and His expectations of us: to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, to let the oppressed go free, to break every yoke, to give bread to the hungry, to bring the homeless poor into our own homes, to cover the naked, to take awsy the pointing of an accusing finger at others, to stop speaking vain things (v. 6-7,9). If we will do these things, the LORD promises that His light and His glory will break forth upon us. "And the LORD shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought...thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not." (v. 8,11). Not only will we experience this, but we will affect future generations: "And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in." (v. 12). For those who remember His Sabbath, and keep it holy, doing His will..."they shall ride upon the high places of the earth" (v. 13-14). In the previous and continuing separation of the church from its Jewish foundation, we have lost the understanding of the Sabbath of the LORD, and we have changed it into something that no longer resembles the original powerful truth. It is yet another cost that came out of the sinful racial attitudes of our hearts. In more recent church history, a new church movement, founded out of a great spiritual revival in Azusa Street, Los Angeles, became divided based upon racial lines. The pastor of the Azusa Street church which first saw revival was a black man, William Seymour. His place of leadership in the movement was rejected by those who were white because of his race. Soon comes Passover and Resurrection Sunday. Search your heart for any and all leaven, even the hidden leaven, and remove it. It is an essential part of the Bride making herself ready (Rev. 19:7-8). *Based upon Dr. Kenneth E. Stevenson's 3/14/21 message to the church. To contact: Everlastingcovenant@ymail.com, or PO Box 154221, Waco, TX 76705 Look for us on Facebook, Twitter, and endtimesschool.com

Understanding the Root and Not the Symptoms*

Passover is twenty days away, and eight days later, is Resurrection Sunday. Seldom are these two important days so close together. The divine congruence of these two holy days this year, should cause the Church to prepare themselves in a special way. These days should bring to mind the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, and His resurrection from the dead. Much of what we see in the world today is very concerning. However, we need to understand that those things we are seeing are the symptoms of a much deeper root problem. That root problem is sin, and it applies to us all: "The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. Corrupt are they, and have done abominable iniquity: there is none that doeth good. God looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, that did seek God. Every one of them is gone back, they are altogether become filthy; there is none that doeth good, no, not one."(Ps. 53:1-3). Sin is not someone else's problem, but everyone's problem. The sin nature of man passed from Adam like a gene. If we deny it, we are not dealing with reality, we are only dealing with the symptoms. How deeply is sin imbedded in our nature? The prophet Jeremiah wrote: "Thus saith the LORD; cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the LORD...Blessed is the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is. For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters...her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit. The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who shall know it." (Jer. 17:5-9). Many in the Church have been trusting in politicians to cure the ills of society rather than the LORD. Many trust in pharmaceuticals to heal us of the latest deadly outbreak. We should keep in mind that the Greek word for sorcerer is pharmakeus. Our hearts convince us that our hope is in man rather than God. Our hearts deceivingly convince us that there is hope in self-help, rather than God. Scripture explains the division between heart and Spirit, and the respective results from each. "This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh...these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, forniction, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like...they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance,: against such there is no law. And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit..." (Gal. 5:15-25). Jesus came under criticism because He did not keep the traditions of men that had become more important to the people than the Word of God. However, the traditions of men would not keep them clean and undefiled. Jesus quoted Isaiah: "This people honoreth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men." (Mk. 7:5-9). Jesus continued, "Hearken unto me every one of you, and understand: There is nothing from without a man, that entering into him can defile him: but the things which come out of him, those are they that defile the man..." (v. 14-15). Even His own disciples did not understand this principle, and asked for an explanation. Jesus was surprised that they couldn't understand. He then explained, "That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: all these evil things come from within, and defile the man." (Mk. 7:20-23). As we read above in Jeremiah, Jesus said that it is from the evils of our own hearts that we are defiled. We often look at the outward appearance in judging whether we and others are righteous. However, Paul wrote that the outward appearance has no importance in the Spirit. The Jews valued physical circumcision as signifying their covenant with God. Paul said, however, "For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God." (Rom. 2:28-29). Paul went on to say that whether Jew or Gentile, all are under sin (Rom. 3:9). "As it is written", Paul said quoting the Psalm we read above, "There is none righteous, no not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God...There is none that doeth good, no, not one...There is no fear of God before their eyes." (v. 10-18). People who don't fear God will do anything. They will latch onto a lie, like Darwinism, as an excuse not to believe. However, this condition is not without remedy! Paul wrote, "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God. Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God...that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus." (v. 23-26). 1 John 1:8 says, "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." He then writes that if we walk in the light, as God IS light, with no darkness in Him, the blood of His Son, Jesus, will cleanse us of all sin (v. 7). If we confess our sins to Him, "he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." (v.9). For Jesus "is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world." (1 Jn. 2:2). That word used by both Paul and John regarding Jesus as the "propitiation", refers to the sprinkling of the atoning blood of the sacrifice by the high priest on the mercy seat of God. Passover is coming soon. Resurrection Sunday follows immediately after. As the Bride, we need to make ourselves ready. We need to deal with the root of the problem, and not just the outward symptoms. And the root of the problem is found within each of our own hearts. *Based upon Dr. Kenneth E. Stevenson's 3/7/21 message to the Church. To contact: Everlastingcovenant@ymail.com or P.O. Box 154221 You can also find us on Facebook, Twitter, and endtimesschool.com