Herbert W Armstrong

   So I've been thinking about this particular day for quite some time. I thought about Friday the 13th. I've forgotten to call that what fictaphobia or something or what I would be speaking on. And as we came down to it today, well, I had already thought about speaking about a subject that has to do with the news media, the advertisement media, as far as what's all around us, as far as what that has to do with the way we think and the struggle that we have in putting out leavening and even the roles we play and the personality problems that we have and the deep seated mental, emotional, and spiritual problems we have. But it has to do with that and hopefully in conjunction with the Days of Unleavened Bread, help us to focus on that in a way that perhaps for the rest of the year will be more successful in being unleavened not only during the 7 days but also the rest of the year.

   Turn to Exodus, the 13th chapter. I'd like to mention something it's here and maybe I'll just say this if possible. I realize I still have a problem with talking too fast. That's leavening. So like a machine gun sometimes probably like I'm speaking Yiddish. But I'm trying not to do that, but it might be better if you would maybe not turn to every scripture, maybe write them down and maybe try to get the overall gist of the sermon and pray for the guy speaking and maybe things will turn out better. So I'm trying not to just flip you back and forth and you wonder which way are we going, like at a tennis court.

   So chapter 14 of Exodus beginning in. And I said that before chapter 13. 13 is right here before me. I keep saying 14. Chapter 13 beginning in verse 5 Exodus 13:5), "And it shall come to pass when the Lord shall bring you into the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Hivites, the Jebruuccites, which he swore unto your fathers to give you a land flowing with milk and honey, that you shall keep this service in this month. 7 days shall you eat unleavened bread, and in the 7th day shall be a feast to the Eternal. Unleavened bread shall be eaten 7 days. And there shall be no leaven bread be seen with you, neither all the Neither shall there be leavening seen with you in your quarters. And you shall show your son in that day, your sons and your daughters saying this is the thing that was done because of that which the Lord did unto me when we came forth out of Egypt. And it shall be for a sign unto you upon your hand and for a memorial between your eyes that the Lord's law may be in your mouth, for with a strong hand hath the Eternal brought you out of Egypt."

   So the Days of Unleavened Bread have the purpose of teaching us to recognize that the Lord's law might be in our mouth. Now what does that have to do with the other holy days? I'll briefly go over that to show you where it fits in and why it's as important as it is, that the Sabbath points us back to God as Creator. It also points us forward that it is like the 7000 millennial year, as we understand it, to the, the coming of the millennium. But God who created all things also has a law. A law of righteousness that must be abided by. And if it is not abided by, then sin is committed. And of course, as you know, the wages of sin is death.

   So then as we leave the Sabbath recognizing that God is Creator and we come and recognize we have to keep the law and we realize all have sinned and nobody has not been without it, then we recognize that we need a Savior. So God has the holy days, the Passover, the only sacrifice you will accept as the atonement for man, as you heard on the Passover night. But many people stop there. When they recognize and have accepted Jesus Christ as their personal savior, then they don't realize that as their sins have been forgiven, there is more that we have to do. And that more means we don't only have to have our sins forgiven, we have to put them out. We have to search for them, and we have to get rid of them. And hence the Days of Unleavened Bread.

   God is not just playing games with us to have us search around our houses for leavening. Tell us to be mindful of that ice cream, you know, sandwich that there's leavening in it and the rest of that, but he wants us to recognize as easy as it is to eat something at a time when you know you shouldn't. So easy as it is that easy to do things we shouldn't do. And then as we become conscious of that, then we begin to put things out because it doesn't just happen by road or by accident to us we're aware of it. So God says that my law is the guideline that you must use in order to put sin out. And it is so important that even though whatever it was 1487 B.C. when Israel came out of Egypt, they observed the Days of Unleavened Bread originally, but he says, I will have you, as I had told them to observe it once every year to remind you that sin after they have been forgiven must be searched out and put out.

   Now, what is God trying to show us as far as ancient Israel is concerned? Turn to the 10th chapter of I Corinthians. The 10th chapter of I Corinthians and recognize that the Bible is dual. And duality, as you know, there's the heavenly Jerusalem, there's the earthly Jerusalem, there's the 1st Adam and the 2nd Adam. There's the first coming of Christ, the second coming of Christ. There is the first Eve and the 2nd eve and there's the first death and the second death. There is a physical, you might say, um, as we want to find, uh, Egypt, and there is a spiritual Egypt. So God says we are not in physical Egypt. But we are in spiritual Egypt. And therefore, the example of what occurred with Israel at that time is an example to you and I as to what we ought to be thinking and doing at this time in order to fulfill the anti-type of which that was only a type, chapter 10 of I Corinthians and verse 1 (I Corinthians 10:1).

   He says, "Moreover, brethren, I would not that you should be ignorant how that our fathers were under the cloud and all passed through the sea, and they were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. And did all eat the same. Notice spiritual meat." He didn't just say basically the quail. "And did all drink the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual rock," there was a physical rock that was with them, but it also represented the rock, as you know, Jesus Christ. "They drank of that spiritual rock that followed them and that rock was Christ. But with many of them, God was not well pleased, for they were overthrown in the physical wilderness." But then naturally, if there was a physical wilderness, there must be a spiritual wilderness, and that is this life in which we are living.

   Verse 6 is very important. "Now, these things that occurred to them were our examples to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted." So as we go through the Days of Unleavened Bread and you hear the sermons and you go through your Bible study, recognize that there are certain things that occurred to them that are specifically recorded for us to learn lessons from that we do not do the same things that they did. But that the things that got the right result, that we do the things that those as Caleb and Joshua, the son of Jefui and Moses and the rest, do the things they did, but don't do the things that they and Cora and Ayra and the others did.

   Verse 7, "Neither be you idolaters, as some of them, as it was written, the people sat down to eat and to drink and rose up to play. Neither let us commit fornication or porneia," which is not only premarital sex, but any type of sensual sexual act. "As some of them committed and fell in one day 3 in 20,000." I did want to elaborate on that later on, that one day 3 in 20,000 fell, but all told 32,000 people died as a result of that act of fornication, which was instigated by Balaam, the prophet of Thor. "Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them tempted and were destroyed of serpents. Neither murmur ye, as some of them murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer."

   Now here is a compliment to verse 6, verse 11. "Now all these things happened unto them, for examples, and they are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the ages have come." So it didn't only happen for them. Those things happen that we with the spirit of God might understand how to apply it spiritually today so that we can know what is the will of the Eternal. He says, "Wherefore let him or her who thinks that they stand, let them take heed lest they fall."

   Of course I don't want to paint a picture that's too drab, so we may as well read verse 13. He said, "There's no temptation or trial taking you, but such as is common to man. But God is faithful who will not allow you to be tempted above that which you are able. But with the temptation we'll also provide a way of escape that you may be able to bear it." So he says things may seem to be kind of closing in on us, he says, but God is aware of how much we can bear, and it is his job to see that we are not, as the saying goes, bent out of shape. So then as the pressure comes and the lessons are to be learned, don't think God has gone way off someplace and he doesn't really know what we're going through.

   Well, God has shown that there would be things that would occur in the last days as well. And if you'll turn to Ezekiel 8, this is just one brief scripture referring to the holiday that's going to be observed tomorrow. Ezekiel the 8th chapter. But of course, as we all were coming into the church and began to recognize how much God did give us through His church, one of the first ones among others that really remained in my mind was the fact as to how we can observe something and read it and follow it, not even know what we're doing. And the word Easter is no place in the Bible except in the King James Version in Acts 12 chapter and verse 4 (Acts 12:4), and then they even have in the margin though it shouldn't even be there. But many people say that he took Peter and put him between 4 quarter of soldiers, intending after Easter to bring him out. But it should have been after Passover.

   So tomorrow people are going to be observing the festival or the holiday of Easter. So verse 13 of chapter 8 of Ezekiel (Ezekiel 13:8), he said unto me, "Turn you again and you shall see greater abominations than they do. Then he brought me into the door of the gate of the Lord's house where I was toward the north, and behold, there was, there were women there weeping for Tammuz. Then said he unto me, Have you seen this, old man, O son of man, turn you yet, and I, and you shall see greater abominations than these. And he brought me into the inner court of the Lord's house, and behold at the door of the temple of the Eternal between the porch and the altar, there were about 5 and 25 men with their backs toward the temple of the Eternal and their faces toward the east. And they worship the sun toward the east," not just a matter of what do you want to call it geography. There's only one time you can worship the sun in the east. That's in the morning. Because if it's in the evening, if you have your back and your face turned toward the east, the sun's over here and it's not over there, so they had to be worshiping the sun as it arises in the morning. And therefore this is the scripture that we take and understand as in ancient times recognizing the ancient idea of worshiping the sun in the morning and the Easter sunrise service.

   Now that's one thing, and of course, you know, geographically you can tell it had to be in the east when they worshiped it, but there's another, even the term Easter. Where it basically come from? It speaks of it as being an Anglo pagan goddess of spring, but that's not enough. There are also fertility rites that are involved with Easter. And when you think about the egg, as we talked about the spirit in man, and the egg is a symbol of life, and also a sex symbol, and also the rabbits are a symbol of reproduction, and you've heard the joke, if it is a joke, that the rabbits were running from the foxes and two of them were running and they finally stopped and said, should we keep on running or stop and outnumber them. It meant that they could reproduce just that fast.

   So then in this holiday, it is inculcated within their sex. The giver of life, as far as the source of life right in Easter. At this particular time when people are getting their minds on doing what? Dressing up, doing a whole lot of things that have to do with festivities and satisfying themselves, God is telling us to dress down and get rid of all that and get our minds on the intent of the day and not on the outward physical show.

   So then, excuse me, God shows here that in the last days, because things are going to be so difficult for people, if you turn to II Timothy 4. People will listen as long as they can understand and apply. But there is a saying that certainly extends itself to understand what happens after a long crisis. It says that in a crisis, people are drawn together, but in a prolonged crisis, people lose feeling for each other. So as people try to obey God, if they find it extremely difficult, if they don't understand why it's difficult, then they will eventually give up. Some give up and just blow away, others turn their ears to listen to other things.

   Chapter 4 (II Timothy 4:1), notice what he says to Timothy, "I charge you therefore, before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing in his kingdom, preach the word. The instant in season and out of season." Reprove, that could mean the holy days as well. "Reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine, for the time will come that they will no longer endure our doctrine. But after their own, and there's this word again, I hope to bring out lusts, desire, needs, shall they heap to themselves having itching ears, teachers having itching ears, and because of this, they shall turn away their ears from the truth. And when they turn away, they shall be turned unto fables."

   So Easter really is no more than a fable. The Mardi Gras that precedes the days of Lent, the thing of go on and just have a bash and do all you can do and drink all you can drink because you're going to have to fast for 40 days. This is man almost doing as some other religions do before the day of Atonement. They have a real big meal. And it's not really according to the spirit of the law, that's not the right effect. So he says that people will be turned away from the truth and shall be turned into fables.

   Now turn to John 17:17, and let's see what Christ says truth is. I think some of you already know this, so maybe we'll just mention some and keep on going. But he asked God the night before he was crucified as he prayed what we actually understand as the true Lord's Prayer to his Father. He said this about his disciples. He says, "Sanctify them." John 17:17, "Sanctify them through your truth." He says, "Your word is true." But it says in the last days, people with itching ears are going to turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned into fables in Egypt, I mean, or Israel, what am I say Egypt. Easter, I wonder where am I, so do I. Uh, Easter is one of those fables.

   Now, why is the truth so important? Why is it that God says that his law might be in our hearts? Why is it that he says that his identifying sign? Why should we concentrate so much on being unleavened, as Mr. Makaro was saying, and that means being without sin, which is impossible without knowing and studying God's law and His word. Turn to John the 8th chapter. And this is the reason why we need to put out sin and through study in the word of God and his law. Because as we, our ancestors of the Israelites were in Egypt. And they were slaves. So we today are slaves, but not geographically, not with walls and brick and mortar. We are slaves to something else, but there's also something that as Moses led them out of Egypt behind the cloud, then there's also someone and something that will lead us out of what we know today as spiritual Egypt. Let's see what that is.

   Chapter 8 and verse 30 of John (John 8:30). "As he spoke these words, many believed on him. Then Jesus said to those Jews that believed on him," which of itself is insufficient. "If you continue in my word. Then are you my disciples indeed, and then you shall know the truth. And the truth will set you free" from slavery. Now, of course, you know what we would say today, almost some of us the same as they did, so maybe we'll read the next verse. Then he said, he said the truth shall set you free, but notice what they say. "They answered him, We're Abraham's see, and we were never in bondage to any man. How say you that we shall be made free." They didn't even realize what he was talking about. He meant they were in slavery to something else, and God wants us at this time of the year to be set free from that slavery.

   Turn to Jeremiah the 6th chapter and we'll show you what it is, and I hope to get to the theme about the society around us, about the advertisement about the entertainment media and about the music and the philosophy and the art and the stage plays and the literature and everything else that's going on and how it keeps us slaves to this society which is spiritual Egypt.

   Jeremiah the 6th chapter and verse 19 (Jeremiah 6:19). Of course, many of us unknowingly have turned to fables. We've turned to listening to things, relying on other things that are not based on the truth of God. And as it says in the Bible, while they promised them liberty, they themselves are servants of corruption that a person can be telling you what they think and what you hope is going to be the message of deliverance, but it is not. We actually are more enraptured and more involved in the slavery than we were before, but here is the basic area here, Chapter 6 of Jeremiah, I think this is where it is.

   In verse 19, he said, "Here on earth, behold, I will bring evil upon this people, even the fruit of their thoughts," he said. "They have not hearkened unto my words, nor my law, but rejected it." So what God is showing us is that the barrier against Egyptian slavery is the law of God. To study that law, to know it, to internalize it assures us that we will never become slaves again. But if we do not do that, then though we do not geographically go across the Red Sea and back over to the Aegean Sea and up through North Africa or whatever it is and get back into geographical Egypt, we are sitting in Egypt spiritually because we are slaves where we are. But God says the truth will set us free, but because it is difficult to be understood sometimes, people turn their ears to things that really don't make sense.

   And I think of all the things, it is a matter of mathematics that will show a person who does not even have God's spirit. That the resurrection could not have been on Sunday and the death on Good Friday is that Christ says that there's no other sign I will show you except that the Son of Man shall be 3 days and 3 nights in the grave, as Jonah was in the heart of the belly of the fish, and there's no way for you to get 3 days and 3 nights from Friday sunset to Sunday morning. No way. But some people will hear that it will jog their mind and because we want what we want, or because we're so drugged, so sleepy, so desirous to have our own ways, so much like dead fish going down the stream that we ignore the fact that you know that makes sense. It's not 3 days and 3 nights. But we are, as we will read later on, asleep as a society, and we're drunken, and a drunken individual doesn't even know he's being beaten. That's kind of the way the society is.

   So then God says you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free. Now breaking the 10 Commandments, you might say is the 10 steps back into mental slavery. Keeping them in the spirit is the 10 steps on toward the kingdom of God and the family of God, but to break them is 10 steps back into slavery. God shows us here that in I Timothy, maybe we'll read that I Timothy one, we better go on. And I was surprised when I first read it in the Bible and couldn't even understand it because it seemed to be contradictory, but it really is not. It is actually saying what occurs and why the law was made to warn people not to be this way, to warn us.

   Chapter 1 of I Timothy says, "Knowing this," verse 9 (I Timothy 1:9). "That the law is not made for the righteous." He said that the Lord's law might be in your mouth, but that law is not necessarily for us. It is to warn who? "But for the lawless and the disobedient, for the ungodly and for the sinners, for the sinners. For ungodly and profane, for murderers, for fathers, murders of fathers and murders of mothers, for whoremongers, for those that defile themselves with mankind, for men stealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contradic sound doctrine."

   So God says, and naturally it's almost redundant or not redundant, but to say that it's not for us it is for us, but he's just showing that once we are righteous in the kingdom of God, we don't have to bother so much about the law as far as we know it, but we surely had better be now because we're still in his flesh, we're still in spiritual Egypt, and we've got to come out of slavery.

   So God shows us that the law is not for the righteous. I'll turn to Romans, the first chapter. And I want to show you what occurs. And actually, the law of God is just sort of a microcosmic way of describing the whole word of God. So if we must know the law of God, then we must also know the word of God. But if we reject the word of God, if we let our ears be turned into fables, this chapter of all chapters in the Bible gives a chronicle as to just how progressively we retrogress all the way back into a mental state of slavery and a non-awareness that even the spirit in man is supposed to give a person. We even go back beyond what it was before truth ever came.

   So in Romans the first chapter, notice this, it's really amazing to look at it and look at the progressive stages that occur here. Now I did mention that Egypt or Easter is the pagan rite of fertility rites. It had to do with sex. It really does. It had to do with Baleism. It had to do with the sexual relationship. It had to do with the reproductive organs and all the rest, and God shows that the very being of an individual, especially our own identity, is involved in our sex. I don't know if you know that or not, that a child until it gets to a certain age doesn't really know whether it's a boy or a girl necessarily until it begins to examine the anatomy and begin to ask questions, which a lot of parents won't answer.

   But then as the age of puberty comes and as the progesterone and the other things begin to secrete into the body, then identity comes to a person. And if a guy begins to grow hair on his chest again, I jokingly say, you know, gargantua has it on his chest, and that doesn't mean necessarily anything, but as a girl begins to develop, then she begins to accept her identity as a female as opposed to a male. But even society is good today to keep you confused there. That you don't even know who you are, as Mr. Makurro was bringing out the other day, and we certainly must study God's word to the place where we can know who we are.

   So notice the retrogression, the regressive stages here. Chapter one of Romans (Romans 1:20-21), for the invisible things of God from the creation of the world reveal the the spiritual things. But God permits individuals to come to discover truth. And as they discover that truth, his spirit is inundating the world, it's broadcasting, and it'll lead a person to the place where the Holy Spirit can cause them to see that there's a purpose in life. But many people, when they come to that place, where they have to acknowledge that there is a God and that he has inspired His Bible, then they turn and they go back the other way. Let's see how.

   Verse 21 says, "Because of when they knew God, they glorified him not as God. Neither were thankful, but they became vain in their own human reasonings. And their foolish heart was darkened." So knowledge puffs up I Corinthians 8:1. "So professing themselves to be wise, they actually became fools and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into the image like unto corruptible man and birds and forfeited beasts and creeping things. Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lust of their own hearts to dishonor their own bodies between themselves."

   And I'd like to say that knowledge is necessary to come to this place, but not only knowledge is necessary, also affluence is necessary before people can totally degenerate mentally to the place where they're in grave danger of losing the effectiveness of the spirit and man that's in them. So you have to have a society where knowledge is increased. And you also have to have an availability, at least before your eyes, if not in your possession, of every physical thing anybody ever may want to have, just dancing back and forth before you just in one fantastic array.

   It says, "Who changed the truth of God into a lie and worshiped and saved the created served the created more than Creator who's blessed. Forever amen." So you can look at some nations actually worship certain animals. Now we do have the bald eagle here in the United States, and I guess that's because he's not baldheaded. I think it's because his head is silvery or white. But then in Babylon they had the lion and in Egypt they had the leopard, and there are other areas where they have other birds that they worship and actually they worshiped them as God. Many of those areas do. Instead of looking at God to find out what he looks like, he looks like us. And we look like him.

   "For this cause, God gave them all with the vile affection," you see it's getting worse. The more we reject God, the more we reject His law and his knowledge, then the more our tendencies degenerate. "God gave them over to vile affection for even their women." Later on, did change the natural use which to that which is against nature. "And likewise also leaving the natural the men. Leaving the natural use of the women burned in their lust one to another, men with men working that which is unseemly and receiving in themselves a recompense of their error which was me."

   Now this is speaking to people who had knowledge of it. There are a lot of people who are having a struggle who did not have any knowledge as to how they got that way, and I maintain, as I hope to show you later on, that 90 to 95% of the people who feel that they're having chronic sexual problems. It's mainly a mental schematic. It's a mental programming that's in their mind that is not an inherent thing as far as them having been born that way. But so many people feel that they won't tell you about it because they doubt their own again identity. They think if you knew what they were struggling with, you wouldn't listen to them, you would reject them. Therefore they struggle with that until they just maybe go away someplace in great grief and tears and just die because they don't understand what caused them to be that way and how they could be removed from it, and they can't look to us for the support in that state, those who really are struggling against it.

   So then he says here, "Receiving into themselves a recompense which is me. He says, and even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge," so the holy days tell us get back to the knowledge of God. Get back to that which will sanctify us, God's truth for thy word is true. Get back to that which sets us free from slavery. He says, "If you continue in my word, then you are my disciples indeed and you shall know the truth, the truth shall set you free. Since they did not like to retain God in their knowledge. God gave them over to a reprobate mind," so it's getting worse. "To do those things which are not convenient, being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, or pornea, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity, whisperers, backbiter, haters of God, despiteful, proud, bolsters, inventors of evil things. Disobedient to parents" when the word of God is not adhered to, when it's laughed at, when we think it isn't necessary, the government is necessary for any successful function of any organization is impugned and rejected.

   "Disobedient to parents without understanding covenant breakers." Nobody really sticks to their word in a sense. In the latter days, people will make agreements, marriage and otherwise, and they will duck and dodge as soon as they find some pressure. That maybe God is permitting that pressure to cause us to see something that we couldn't see otherwise. And sometimes we suffer silently when the pressure is upon us and we should come forth for help, we struggle with it. We try to hold it in and then we silently strangle and die, and nobody ever knows.

   "Affection without natural affection, implacable and merciful who knowing the judgment of God that those who do such things are worthy of death. Not only do them themselves, but have pleasure in other people who do them." So it can actually get to that place where people sanction each other's weaknesses because they don't understand that we are slaves and that it is the truth of God that is begin to be preached at the beginning of every holy year that would set us free if we would but lean on God and look to Him.

   God shows us in I Corinthians 5 and we maybe won't turn there because we better get going. I mean, keep on going. That a little leaven leavens the whole lump. Now, why do we put out leavening? Because God says even a little leavening leavens the whole long. And I've heard, and I'm not any baker at all, but even the spores that produce the fermentation of the yeast are in the air everywhere. That's just how prevalent it is, and God says just a little bit of it will puff you up. Therefore, he wants us to be aware that we cannot tolerate even the least thing knowingly and write it off as if it's of no importance.

   So then if we turn now to Luke the 17th chapter. And it says in there, and maybe we won't turn there, but it's Luke 17:26-30. It says as it was in the days of Noah, it is going to be that way again. That means in our day. So as you read about Noah, see what was going on, and you can tell what state of mind we're going to be in today. And he also says, as it was in the days of Lot. Even so shall I be in the coming of the Son of Man. What happened in the days of Lot? Remember such cities as Sodom and Gomorrah?

   He says they eat, they ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they build houses, they were married and given in marriage until Noah went in or until Lot was taken out of the city. That city has passed down through the generations of mankind a phrase, sodomy, sodomite. And you can look in your dictionary and I have some of those definitions here. But as every civilization starts off in its inception, struggles with transcendental goals, starts off with national pride and purpose of prioritizing, willing to sacrifice, willing to deny each other, and I mean themselves to achieve as the commodities and as the things which they desire in life begin to be more apparent and have more easy access to it, then starts the desire in the body to turn from that which is normal to that which is abnormal.

   Instead of eating to live, people eat to live, and the main purpose of everything begins to be lost. And then a person actually begins to pursue more exotic expressions, more exotic this, more uh titillating, titillating that, more exciting this. Everything is taught, it has to be more glitterous and more glamorous, and even after that, the more we reach for, the more we have to have. And God shows. And as people begin as a baby with a neutral mind and a balanced, I mean, a balanced approach, you might say to life, having the spirit in man with normal natural desires and needs. Before we get through in this society, our desires have gotten to be excessive. And they actually have been motivated by covetousness, and they've actually evolved into lust, and they actually set on fire the course of nature, and we are just about ignited as easily by something as a match ignites a tender dry forest and God recognizes that that is what occurs and I'll show you where that comes from so that we can be aware of it hopefully as we go on, but he says as it was in the day of Lot it's going to be before his son returns again.

   Now I have a few words here just to mention and not to engage in overkill here, but I don't know if you've ever recognized that as we start, and I didn't finish it as a baby with a normal wholesome attitude, before life ends, we can run the gamut and run all the way over to the extreme of lust and human desire and expression. And that seems to be that the ultimate pleasure in life is sexual. It seems to be. Now you might say, well, I don't like men, I don't like women, still same thing, that whatever it is, it's sort of a physical indulgence that seems to be the primary source or goal of a human being who is not being guided by their mind, but it introduces itself in what we eat. What we see, what we hear, you know, Solomon said the eye is not satisfied with hearing, seeing the ear with hearing.

   And he went on to show he tried everything to satisfy himself, but as he was doing that, he was igniting himself. To the extent that he got to the place where when you read the latter part of his life, he was blown away. And in his old age, after leaving for us Proverbs and the Song of Solomon and leaving for us Ecclesiastes, he was not with God anymore because that certain direction had eaten Solomon up as well as it would do us, but somehow he was, I guess some scientists experiment on themselves for the good of prosperity. So Solomon, maybe that's why God permitted that to happen. But in the end of his physical life, his heart was no more perfect with God.

   So then, as a result of that, you'll find that there's terms as lesbianism, homosexuality, sodomites, transsexual, transvestites. There are bisexual individuals. There are nymphomaniacs. We have a neurotic love, as Mr. Mulcaro mentioned. There's such a thing as kiddie porn, and you know that it's in the history that back in the first century that the people back then got so involved in sex that they actually begin to use little children and babies were taken to the various places and used sexually. You might wonder how. Well, you need to just think a little bit about the orifice and about the mouth, and the size of the mouth and all the rest of that. And so the things that we see today are not new, but it generally comes at the end and the demise of a society, that the society begins to be completely sensual.

   Now, another thing, and I did want to mention before I forget it. Also another thing that will occur in families is incest. And it gets to the place where the one who's doing it, mainly the father, I guess the mothers can be involved, the aunts and the uncles, they think this is my daughter, these are my children. When the society becomes hedonistic. Someone told me, I think it was John Duncan, I want to remember it. He says that human nature is the best defense lawyer that anybody could ever have, that we begin to justify what we do. We really do. And all of these things actually begin to occur. So then God shows us that there is a cultural influence that creates this during the Days of Unleavened Bread.

   Now we're coming out of Egypt, but remember he showed us that he will bring on us the fruit of our thoughts. Now where do our thoughts come from? Where do yours come from? See if you have enough courage, even young people here, to acknowledge it, or will you see to someone having itching ears, turn away your ears from the truth, and think that we will escape. No way. People used to be inside of citadels and walls and every other type of place that could be a geographical prison, but today we walk around with our prison with us. I've got mine with me, and I pray that Christ is tearing down the walls there.

   So there is a cultural influence and maybe some of you have never really realized, and I don't mean to bring this out in order to make you angry at people, but just to make us aware of it, that it has been recognized that the human need to satisfy the normal human needs has evolved into a science of marketing to cause people to buy products. It's almost as if the person doing it does not even care what he's done to the person after he has forced them to give him, and you might say rob them of their material goods. They are able to do that. Marketing of sex. And using human desire for pleasure and satisfaction has gotten to be a science, and we in this latter generation are steeped in it.

   See if you can recognize some of these things, but let's go to Revelation 17:1 first and see if we can understand it in the light of that. Revelation 17:1. And see if what's going to be produced by the revitalized Roman Empire. And how it's going to do what it's going to do to the world. Chapter 17 of Revelation, it says, "And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials. And talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither, and I will show you the judgment of the great whore." I wonder why do you call a church a whore? Why do you use a symbol? What relationship is there between a prostitute or a whore and a church and what human beings are doing? Well, hopefully we can get the picture.

   "Judgment of the great whore, which sits on many waters" in the Bible in the same chapter, verse 14 shows that those are on over, shows 15 shows that those are nations and tongues, "with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication." That's all fornication, that's kind of hard to see all the kings, do they go find her someplace? Well, symbolically they do, but literally it's done another way. So she, fornication and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.

   "So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness, and I saw a woman sit upon scarlet colored beasts filled with names, full of names of blasphemy, having 7 heads and 10 horns, and a woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colored decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness and of her fornication, and upon her head was a name written Babylon the Great Mystery Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth." And as you go on, you find that she causes the king to be drunk with the wine of fornication.

   Now what is that? I think over in chapter 18 you can read it sometime and you'll find it is maybe verse 11, maybe 1, "and the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn." Chapter 18, verse 11 (Revelation 18:11). "Over her, for no man buys her merchandise anymore, the merchandise of gold or silver of precious stones of pearls, and of linen and the purple and of silk and of scarlet and all fine wood and all manner of vessels of ivory and all manner of vessels of most precious wood and of brass and of iron and marble."

   Now what this actually shows is that even as a nation basically cannot become great unless it has a commodity to put on the foreign market so that there can be reciprocal trade. That the beast is going to find a way to cause craft to prosper and going to make merchandise available to many people. I don't know if you've seen this, and I'll just digress here a bit as it's being written in certain books, but even the Islamic countries, the Muhammedans, or the Muslims, they actually say that they question whether or not they want Western civilization's technology. They said, if it can come and we can maintain our family structure and our principles and our culture, we want it. He says, "But if Western advancement is going to bring to our nations, what it has brought to their nation, they say we do not want it."

   Now what has Western technology and advancement brought to our nation? It's brought TVs, automobiles, it's brought affluence, it's brought credit buying. It's brought clothing. It's brought, you can get a watch, you know, whatever it is, buy now, pay later, and I don't see that's wrong necessarily, but it either makes it available to those who can get it or it puts before the eyes of those who can't get it and creates a desire in them. And therefore everybody burns wanting more. And it even gets to be a status symbol that if you're a handsome guy, then everybody's gonna imitate you. If you got the measurements of, you know, 36, 45, whatever it is, and everybody's going to imitate you.

   And if you got the new car or the new suit or the new home or the double ovens or the duplex or whatever you want to call it, and you're strong and you've got your, you know, biceps and your laps and your bicentennials and all the rest, well then you are the one who people look and you actually worship that individual. Those things that I will show you become idols.

   Now let's see what part of the media in a sense is used. I have here sex and the need for human identity becomes a tool to influence people to pursue achievement or follow certain goals. Sex is used in that way. So let's look at it here just for an example, literature. There are books and they are called and I can't, I meant to get it as I left Ann Arbor and I didn't, but there's some love storybooks, they used to call them love storybooks years ago, but they're fictional. And there are some people who read those things as avidly as a starving person on a desert. But there is literature that keeps people thinking in a fable type of reasoning about love and about sex and about life, literature, or even about the individuals who are supposed to be macho and all the rest of that with these guys jump off of bridges and all that kind of nonsense, he'd break every vertebrae, you know, in his spine and everything else if he did all that.

   But we have literature that we pursue. Now it's not wrong to read it, but if we're not careful, we are indulging ourselves and we are putting our idols in our minds so that the word of God seems to be something we're not even interested in anymore. What about the stage plays? And the different things that are on TV. You know that it's been proven, though many people think they set a TV to relax, but they put an electro, give you an electrocardiogram, take your blood pressure, give you an electroencephalogram check that whatever you see on TV that it will show that you are excited by the way that needle jumps, just sitting there in your own living room. You are affected by what you see on TV, whether you want to or not.

   And then there's one person, I think it's Cheryl Ladd, I've forgotten the name, I've forgotten exactly what it is, but her little girl. Though she's watching TV and her mother's on TV, her little girl gets panicky and kind of shook up and excited when she sees her mother in danger on TV. She doesn't even aware of the fact that all this is a movie. So that's how impressionable some of the things are that we're involved in.

   What about movies? Even when it goes down to such movies as you might say the devil movies. It was almost as if Satan, the devil himself couldn't do without involving using human beings and trying to pry on their weaknesses where you have Rosemary's baby. And the devil and Mrs. Jones. And beyond the door, and I didn't see the Exorcist movie, not that I'm necessarily that afraid to look at it, but no sense in doing something that isn’t necessary, but even that is involved in there, that sex, the ultimate enslavement of individuals which actually has set on fire all of their very being, it is used against us by individuals, and I think it's, well, I don't want to be naive about it. God knew they would do that. So I don't, you know, sound like I was born under a rock.

   What about the um music? Now many of the young people here, of course, older people. You think that the music is not a science, it is. And there is literature to prove it. And it is getting to the place, and I, I do regurgitate at this really, having been a musician, and again, I didn't play in the White House and all that. I played in some places that you probably didn't want to go. But yet I know that as I look at the top 10 and the top 20 today, maybe so many 7 out of 10 of them have a sexual connotation. And the words are feeding your mind. And the music and the melody, so it doesn't bother me.

   But what about this? When you go into a supermarket, you know that if they want you to walk at a certain pace, they will play slow music over the intercom. You know that if you're working in a factory that there's certain kind of music that they will play, they will not play you soft, sweet stereo music or you will not work fast enough. They have to play a music that will stimulate you to work that fast. You know that if you were in certain nations and you played their national anthem, that they'd be ready to go to war. Men have made a science as to how to use the things that we like and enjoy, and they use them to manipulate us and to make us pawns in the game. And all of us here have been subjects and all of us here are puppets, and we're certainly not the puppeteers.

   So even music, some of you just think through some of the songs. There's one out now, come, come and close the door or something. There used to be one called Jungle Fever. It sounds like a woman is having an orgasm. There's one about pillow talk, and then there was one, as much as I love the guy's music, Berry White. No relation to Henry White. But well he has a melodious voice, maybe so. But the guy's music got so far, but he said, well, look, I was singing this to my wife, but why did he publish it maybe with a million copies for everybody to listen to.

   So don't think that a little leaven doesn't leaven the whole lump. Don't be naive enough to think, well, I don't believe what you're saying, Mr. Maceo Hampton garbage, you know, throw it at him and whatever, you know, get rid of him, you will find out that what you listen to, you've heard the old phrase, show me what you read and the kind of friends you have, and I'll show you what kind of mind you have. Show me the music you listen to, and it's not wrong to listen and relax, but be aware what mood is that music putting you in? How are those words programming your mind? Now God says put out leaven, and I'll show you it's in the mind. It's not necessarily the physical like we used to do, be sure we're not out there observing Easter. It's sitting right here with us.

   So those are just a few. What about poetry? You know what poetry is? It's just a sort of a an aesthetic name for lyrics of of of words and songs that even the poetry can get to you if you're not careful. I don't know about, you know, Shakespeare and all that, some of those things sound like Proverbs and some of them probably will allow you to sleep, but clothing styles. What about art? There is no facet of our society that has not been studied to manipulate human beings to try to satisfy themselves with such phrases as you owe it to yourself or do yourself a favor and marvel of marvels, one man told me who works for a certain very prominent national corporation here that when they go to their national conventions on their expense account is a certain amount of money to pay for prostitutes. And they just accept that as a way of life. They really do. But that is what is happening to us.

   What about athletics? You know, you can read some of these books, but these guys have these muscles and I'm not talking to anybody who has them. I don't. And you know what they had in one very prominent book of a very nationally known weightlifter, naked women, that it seemed that there's an association between strength and naked women and sex. Right opener wasn't Playboy, it wasn't the rest of it was just a normal book.

   Now what about sports? Surely, good old sports is not involved, right? Well, if that be the case, what in the world they do with the Dallas Cowgirls? And I used to know the Cowgirls wore skirts. But that's not what they're wearing. A strong wind come along and they'll be in their birthday soon again. Of course I got a joke from one of the men here. I don't know if I can even tell it now. If I do, if you don't laugh, I'll tell you his name.

   Anyway, there were two older men. Well, really, the joke itself fits into the sermon. I see me justify it. There were two older men sitting very age sitting in an old person's home, and they were sitting there playing their cards and their checks. I don't know if they're like Abner or whoever, but there were so many older ladies that would like to get their attention, and these guys just wouldn't be moved, you know, they were more stayed in the Rock of Gibraltar. So I guess maybe say 80 or 85 years old, and I guess the ladies are about the same age. So then they said, how can we get these guys' attention?

   So one of the ladies said, "I know what I'll do. I've been reading the paper recently said, and just like they did at the awards, they're out in California, said I'm going to streak." So she said, "Well, go ahead and you shall prevail." So then the elderly lady, and then please forgive me if it's disrespectful I mean for it to be that way. So then she did her thing and she got in her birthday suit and she streaked through the room, and these guys kept on playing checkers, just glanced up from one kept on looking and one of the guys said, "Did you see what went through?" He said, "Yeah, I guess I did." He said, "Who was that?" Says, "I don't know who it was, but I think she needs to iron her clothes."

   Anyway, but there really, you see, to get attention we will do a lot of things to get attention, study the subject of nymphomania sometime. And you'll see that the girls that you think are in one bed and out the other, and are no more than just not elementary, but juvenile prostitutes. To them they fulfill the phrase boys give love to get sex, and girls give sex to get love they never had. If you look at it for what it may be, it doesn't sound quite so bad on the girl's part. It sounds that she missed something someplace and she's still running around all over the place trying to find it, but that is exactly what occurs when people reach out because there's something that they're missing at home that they're not able to get.

   Turn to Isaiah the 2nd chapter. And I'll show you, as we said about the whore, and the men shall be drunk with the wine of their fornication, that it's going to be merchandizing and making it available, but also challenges come with it. Opportunities come with it. Temptations come with it, and it eventually erodes and destroys the home for this reason because a home is a giving circumstance. It's not a 50/50. It's giving and sacrificing with no hope of return in so many cases. But yet when people are bent on satisfying themselves, you get to the place where you will only give if you get.

   Second, Thirdly, and this is the grave danger, you can get to the place where even if someone gives to you, you will not think you owe them anything. You are not obligated. You don't have any responsibility. You don't have to sacrifice or restrain yourself in any way because you owe it to me. It can get to be just that far and with a lot of our young people and in some of our marriages, it has gotten that place where no one can say anything to us because we feel that we deserve it. Of course, God shows that we will, if we don't repent, get what we deserve sometime, but it may not be what we expect to get.

   Chapter 8, and notice what God says we do the Moffett is plain and maybe I will add that if I can. Chapter 8 of Isaiah chapter 7 I mean verse 7 and verse 8 (Isaiah 7:7-8). He says, "Their land also is full of silver and gold, neither is there any end to their treasures. Their land is also full of horses. And neither is there any end to their chariots," and of course chariots always signify war potential. "Their land also is full of idols," and I'll show you where they are in a moment. "They worship the work of their own hands, that which their own fingers have made" in the Moffett it says, as Mr. Armstrong has quoted, they worship the things which their hands manufacture.

   Now, what are these things that I'm saying or that we're saying that are affecting us and leavening us and that we may even turn our ears away from because we don't want you to want to recognize it. It's the things which our hands manufacture. Now, where is it that God shows that if it's not a physical idol, what is it? Where are these idols? Then if it's not a physical idol, I think it's Ezekiel is it Ezekiel 14, yes. The leavening that we have to put out, the things that we seek for today are spiritual things. And God wants us to recognize that anything regardless as to what it is, even our own life. That comes before God and causes us to refuse to obey God and submit to it, it is an idol. Whoever, whatever, wherever it is. Anything that stops us from obeying the law of God. From having no other God before him on the way down to the Sabbath and everything else is an idol, and God wants us to get rid of that thing.

   Chapter 14 of Ezekiel. The elders have come to him and they want advice. But here in verse 3, he says (Ezekiel 14:3-7), "Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their heart." Now the heart is just another name for mind or subconscious mind. "Set up their idols in their heart and they put the stumbling block of their iniquity before their face. Shall I be inquired of them," he says. And he goes on down to say verse 5 "that I may take the house of Israel here in their own heart because they are all estranged from me through their idols." They let other things take precedence over my word, their own physical needs.

   Sometimes it is really literally just human safety that we let get in the way of doing what God wants us to do. There’s chapter where is it? Same chapter verse 7, "For every one of the house of Israel, or of the stranger that sojourneth in Israel, which separates himself from me and setteth up his idols in his heart and putteth the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face and cometh to a prophet and inquire of him concerning me," God says, "I will answer that person." Because if a person has a physical problem, you can point it out easily, right? But if they have an emotional or mental hang up or idol, it's hard, you can't point it out. Sometimes it's hard for them to see. So God says I will talk to that person.

   You really want to look at the thing of Job and all the rest, you find God talked to Job by circumstances. He talked to Job through his affliction. He let Job's friends harangue Job, and God said they were wrong. He let Elihu show Job and Job didn't listen. Then God talked to Job himself because Job's problem wasn't a physical problem. And God lets us know that our problem is not physical. The leavening that is leavening a little little leavening our total lump is things that have to do with the things that involve our pursuits in life and our mental attitudes, and that attitude that I don't owe anybody anything anymore. I've got to get while the getting is good and satisfy myself and the devil will take the hindroads. So I guess he gets a lot of that from the way that we're talking today.

   So then the ultimate hidden persuader is sex. It has been said, and I'm not saying that every object that I'm about to mention is definitely sculptured for this reason, but it has been said that the eye of the needle of Cleopatra, which was an obelisk, that as they used to worship what was called phallic symbols. That people recognize where life came from. And they actually worshiped it to the extent that some of the obelisks in ancient history were put there specifically symbolizing the male member from which life comes, and it's possible that the statute or whatever it is, a monument of Washington in Washington DC, which is an obelisk, could be an ancient replica of something that occurred over there when they were worshiping the particular fertility rites and all the rest, that the whole country is going in that direction.

   I'm not saying that every church people and every church pointed window is that way, but don't negate the fact that it had an origin. And even maybe be Gothic or whatever kind of architecture, yet some of those things were done to keep people mindful of what they really felt was most important in life, and it was sort of a hedonistic way. Satisfy yourself and let everybody else do whatever they can do, even to the place where sex became such a prominent thing that they had vest your virgins in their temples who would go to bed with on bed, whatever you call it, in the pews, or whatever. They would actually have sex with the men in the temple, and I don't know if who wasn't. It must have been Eli's sons, whether that's what they were doing. But before they were just removed by God, that's exactly what they were doing. They were having sex with the women who came up to worship. Taking the sensual side of man and even injecting it into what is considered the worship of God. And God says, get it out of there, we must become unleavened.

   So God goes on to show that our idols are in our heart, and I did want to mention these three as we go on here, to show you how you can be in a sense persuaded without recognizing. I don't know, no one actually raise your hand. Many of you may have seen this Mohawk, Mohawk vodka. That is a sign. I know it's on Southfield Freeway. There's one over there I've seen at other places, but it is speaking about vodka. It's called Mohawk vodka, and there's a young woman lying down in blue jeans with a midriff and whatever she has to do with vodka, you might wonder, and the sign over it says ask for it. Now what is she doing on that billboard about vodka? And who is it that knows a little bit more about us than we know about ourselves?

   And that's not all. There's another one that says, feeling velvet. I don't know maybe you've seen that. Now they've changed it down there whether they heard somebody or Ralph Nader or somebody got to them, I don't know. But as you go down the Southfield freeway and you first get on I-94, it's on that it used to be in the factory over there. They had a baldheaded I can't even think of the detective on TV there for a while, but it used to be that this lady would be reclining, she'd be laying down with the appearance of having on a velvet dress. But there was a time when right up by her head there was the shape of a man's head showing up the shadow. That was actually infused with her dress with really a male image. And they've taken that down now, but she's still there feeling velvet. What does that have to do with selling alcohol?

   There are people who are studying the human mind to the place where there's nothing that you do in your pastime for entertainment has not become a science to them, and they know exactly what you want, maybe not what you need, and they are manipulating us and they are leavening us by the kilograms or whatever you want to call it, and we must be aware of that and especially I would certainly hasten to say music and entertainment. We certainly want to be aware of that, and that means any kind of music that is concerned.

   So then God goes on to show us that there is a way that problems have come into the world. Now, we want to get it as opposed to the time when the baby receives the spirit in man. It says the baby is neutral, having done neither good nor evil. But by the time we get to be adults and get older, things have changed, and the normal needs that a human being has have turned into excessive needs. And that is the way if you'll turn to II Peter 2. That is the way the problems have come into the world that have caused us instead of being able to give in the way that God's law says it's more blessed to give than to receive, we actually are deceived into getting and instead of us infusing ourselves into units of relationships, family, and the rest, getting pulls things apart as effectively as splitting the atom.

   And the whole society has us separated. Certain people crack certain jokes, others don't believe it. Certain people have certain songs. These people dance on it. These people don't dance on it. Certain people dress a certain way. This guy wears high waters and therefore he's a brunt of society. And you go on and on and we separate ourselves by every facet of that which this modern Babylon or Egypt projects to us. And we actually are not as close as we should be because we have not come out of spiritual Egypt in the way God wants us to.

   Chapter 1 of II Peter, he says, "Whereby chapter verse 4 (II Peter 1:4), are giving unto us, exceeding great and precious promises that by these promises of God we might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust." Now covetousness can be unlawful or excessive. It just means many times you may need something, but asking for something that's not yours. And there was a parable where a young man came to Christ and said, "Master, cause my brother to divide his inheritance with me." And I used to think, well, why doesn't he do it? If he got his inheritance, that's his brother, and then Christ says, "Oh man, who may be a ruin a divider over you? You want to tell his disciples, beware of covetousness." And I thought, what is Christ talking about? What he meant was that that was that man's inheritance. Now he may have corrected him for being selfish with it, but this guy who wanted it, to whom it did not belong with coveting wanting it.

   So God shows that covetousness can cause us to commit idolatry. Turn to Colossians, I think it is the 3rd chapter. And they are synonymous. And it has been said also that the Commandments, all of them can be broken by coveting. The one against idolatry, about the Sabbath, about having another go before God, about taking God's name in vain, about honoring parents, about adultery, sexual vices, about murder, lying, all of these can be broken as a result of coveting. Even though in the Bible it does say covet earnestly the best gifts.

   Let's see, where were the Colossians. I wanted to get to that. So in Colossians, it says here that coveting, and remember our idols are in our, in our hearts as God says. So Colossians 3. And verse what? Verse 5 (Colossians 3:5), he says, "Mortified, therefore, your on your members which are upon the earth, fornication or porneia, uncleanness, inordinate or illegal affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry." You see what has occurred, so much is put before us, and it is stimulated by a normal human need, but we have to recognize that would God permit us to pursue this thing? Is it right for me to do it? Is it justified or am I out of, should I exercise self-control?

   So God Paul even said, if you turn to Romans 7:7. That he did not even really realize he was even breaking the law of God until he recognized one of the Commandments of God. That the law of God might be in our mouths as It was said in Exodus chapter. In verse 7, he says, "What shall we say that is a law of sin." He says, "God forbid." He said, "For I had not known sin, except there had been a law." Remember, there has to be a God, there has to be a law. He said, "Even though I knew it, for I had not known lust, except the law had said thou shalt not covet."

   So God warns us to be aware of what happens with the members of our body. Over in chapter 6, I think it is. Yes it is. Chapter 6 and verse 16 (Romans 6:16), he says, "No you not that to whom you yield yourself servants to obey. His servants you are to whom you obey, whether of sin unto death or of obedience and righteousness." Of another place it says that of whom a man has overcome, of the same as he brought in bondage, that whatever dominates our thinking and our mind is our idol. And God says you shall have no other God before me, and that's why he says teach your children. But sometimes we cannot teach something because we have not yet seen or are unwilling to see or we have turned our ears to fables and therefore our children are imitating what they see in us.

   So God shows us there that Paul said he would not have known lust except the the Lord had said thou shalt not covet. Now, God shows that not only we must eat unleavened bread at this time, but also we must be circumcised. Now thank God that doesn't mean literally. Although Abraham was, and there's several others, but it means that circumcision means something else. Let's see. If you will turn to what is it, Jeremiah 9. In verse 25, we'll see what he means about that circumcision and where we ought to be concentrating on as far as the leavening is concerned for these 7 days.

   Now I don't mean for this to be an arduous, boring, depressing task. It's not to mean that. So when a person is released from freedom, I mean, released from slavery, there's joy. When you really realize how much it has been demanding of us, it is really joy, but it doesn't mean you can't enjoy books, literature, music, art, whatever it is, the media entertainment, but the thing just means be careful how you enjoy it and be aware as to the motive that is behind it because we must recognize that a little leavening leavens a whole long chapter 9 and verse 24, I guess in 25, "But let him glorify glory in this that he knows me, so a person should glory in his own wisdom." Verse 25 (Jeremiah 9:25), "Behold the days come, say the Eternal, that I will punish all them that are circumcised with the uncircumcised. Egypt and Judah and Edom and the children of Ammon and Moab and all that are in the uttermost parts that dwell in the wilderness, for all of these nations are uncircumcised and all the house of Israel," he says, "are uncircumcised in heart."

   So what happens when we are living in a hedonistic society and when we find ourselves if someone tells us, look, maybe you're kind of bending things out of shape. You might be getting a little bit lacking in your self-control. Then comes in what's called projection. Because usually projection is just a fulfillment of Revelation 12:9, the accuser of the brethren is usually guilty of the same thing of which he accuses another. Now you can't explain that clinically. How do you explain the accused of the brothers usually guilty of the other. The mind entertains things and that's why these things about the advertisement on the billboards that they can catch something just that quickly before the eye, the eye can recognize you've seen it. Therefore, the eye of the mind entertains the meaning of a lot of these things.

   There is transferred to our conscious, subconscious mind feelings of guilt about certain things that we either have knowingly or unknowingly stumbled into. And that guilt says act, change, do something. But if we're not careful, it doesn't say who ought to act, or who ought to change, or who ought to do something. Therefore, the normal consequence is to point the finger at another person and say they need to change. That's exactly what it is.

   Now I can say we can be innocent in that, you know, you can say, well, you know, he's selfish. Or it can be the opposite. You can find someone who likes to be the belle of the ball and crack all the jokes and get all the attention, and there's a wallflower there. And so this wallflower makes them look all the more exaggerated. So then they say, look at that wet blanket. Why doesn't he or she leave? But they feel guilty about where they are, or they certainly are not willing to share the spotlight with another, you know, person who's trying to get all the attention. So instead of changing ourselves, we point the finger at another person and say they need to change, and that can be psychologically proven. And God says no, because there is a very stern scripture in the 13th chapter of Luke that speaks about those on whom the tower of Siloam fell or those whose blood pilot mixtures their sacrifices. He says, "Suppose you these were greater sinners more above all other men," he says, "I tell you, nay. But except you repent." He said "you are likewise perish because I am going to correct the circumcised with the uncircumcised." That's what he says. So he tells us to get to work on number one. And get to work on ourselves and realize that we've got a lot of work to do. We've got a lot of examining to do here in Chapter 10.

   Another part here if I can find it quickly for you in verse 10 (Jeremiah 10:10-11),. It says, "But the Lord is in is the true God. He is a living God and the everlasting King at the wrath of at his wrath of the earth shall tremble." He goes on to say in his indignation. Let's see, verse 11. "Thus shall you say unto them, the gods that have not made the heavens in the earth, even they shall perish from the earth and from under heaven." And that's not exactly all that I wanted there because I think I want, oh, wrong book, Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy the 10th chapter. I'm sorry. It speaks about circumcision here, something that was said to ancient Israel, but they didn't understand it because God had not given them the heart to understand it. But not only should we put out leavening at this time, we're supposed to renew the need and the awareness to be circumcised, but where are we circumcised? Who are the idols? They're in our mind.

   So here in chapter 10, in verse 10 of Deuteronomy (Deuteronomy 10:12-16). It says, "I stayed in the mount." Well, we better go on. Let's see, that's the one that I want. Yes, verse 12. "And now Israel, what does God require of you but to fear the Eternal to walk in His ways and to love him." So God says that's what we need to do. God's Bible is a roadmap, and he wants us to walk in that direction, even if we don't see all that we think we need to see at this time, but please don't turn to fables with itching ears of things that do not profit.

   Verse 16 of chapter 10 of Deuteronomy. "Circumcise therefore, the foreskin of your heart and be no more stiff neck." So God showed that the physical circumcision was just a type of the spiritual circumcision, but that spiritual circumcision is what is to be done at this time of the year in the mind. And as I said, if you really look at what society is doing to us and how it is dominating us and enslaving us and how these guys who are masters at psychology and advertisement, they are your masters in many cases. Some of the things they do to produce some of these records to sell a million copies would, would just flabbergast you. Even certain movies, they've studied that certain sounds frighten human beings. So in the movie, I think The Exorcist, they actually dubbed in sound of bees and a lot of other things, squealing hogs and all that, that a person who saw that movie, we get a sort of a state of anxiety and apprehension and fear, and they wouldn't even know why they are that way. The ones who studied it know what affects us.

   And yet instead of us cleaving to the church of God and where the truth of God is brethren, really, we are permitting ourselves to talk to each other, to fortify each other, to go outside and read other material, which is not wrong of itself, but it's wrong to put it in the place of the word of God. And all we're doing is worshiping the hand things with our hands manufacture and letting another human being stand in the place of God when the truth is here, whether we be young or whether we be old. And God has shown that it is bent on eventually causing people to become wholly sensual, that as it was in the days of Noah and in the days of Lot, we're going to see that increased, and that is actually occurring in the world, and many of God's people are struggling with those programming you might say, but many of them won't say that they need help because they're afraid if we knew we'd reject them.

   And as I said before, and I think it can be proven. That 90 to 95% of the people who are hung up in any way, whether a nymphomania, with a transvestism, whether bisexual, whether homosexuality, whatever it is, that is mainly a programming in the mind and the conditioning that occurred in their environment or in their home, because as I say, in most cases, a nymphomaniac is someone who lacked love, who lacked that attention when they needed it as they were younger, and all they do in their teen years or young adult years is running around trying to find and jumping in and out of every bed and she doesn't know that. And of course, a guy who takes advantage of it is worse than the skunk. Of course, the parent who doesn't understand it, who condemns, doesn't really realize that I'm partly responsible for the way that that child is doing. So God says that we should circumcise the foreskin of our hearts.

   So we have here as a person gets to the place where instead of learning to give, to sacrifice, to share, to work, to try to support without looking for a return, we get to the place where we think the world owes us something. You really can. A child can get to the place where they think their parents owe them everything they give them. It would never unilaterally, what is the word ex parte, if I use the right one that we heard in legal jargon. Never just go and say, "Mom, I did so and so, but I just appreciate the fact that that meal you cooked the other night really did taste good and I just felt I owed it to you. I really appreciate it." Never will they do that. I say never. I wish someone could tell me, yes, I do.

   But in like manner, we get on the adult level. And married partners do the same thing to each other. They're getting from each other. And if they can't get all the way down to the sexual relationship, well, then no, you know, no ticking, no pay, really. And it actually goes that far, but yet because of the struggle and because you don't realize we're all in the same bag, you try to keep it to yourself, and it gets worse and worse and worse until somebody blows a fuse, and it doesn't have to be that way. God's way is a way of giving. God tells us to recognize these Days of Unleavened Bread, to get back on the track and to begin to study the law of God and begin to live it in the home. And that this is a way to freedom.

   So Israel said that I'm innocent. I have that here and I won't need to turn to it, but maybe we'll turn to Romans the 2nd chapter before we get to the final scripture. In Romans the 2nd chapter. I used to fear this very greatly until I think I was made to understand it better. That it is not the punishment of God. The devastating thunder like sounds from heaven, the tremendous crises that come upon us and almost break our legs and our backs sometimes that makes us acknowledge God. A person has to recognize the goodness of God, that in these last days, people are going to be unthankful. And that's one of the only ways you'll recognize who God is and to what degree we should love Him, excuse me, because we have recognized how much he has done. And how much we owe him. And as David says, "What shall I render to the Eternal for all His goodness to me?" He says, "I'll take the cup of salvation." He says, "I will pay my vows to the Eternal, which my lips have spoken and my mouth has always uttered when I was in trouble." We can do a lot of promising when we're in trouble.

   But he says, "I owe it to God. I will praise Him because he has been wonderful to me. I am fearfully and wonderfully made," but in our society, it says it's going to be an unthankful society. People are not going to appreciate anything and therefore, here in chapter two of Romans (Romans 2:4), it says, "Or despises all the riches of his goodness and forbearance and long suffering, not knowing that it is the goodness of God that leads you to repentance." If a person cannot be thankful and appreciative, and extend mercy because blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy, then they can actually grieve and quench the Holy Spirit. If they are not able to let God's spirit show them how thankful and appreciative we are to be, because if you're thankful, and if we are appreciative, then we automatically feel obligated. But if we don't want to feel obligated, then we will not appreciate or be thankful for anything. Then we owe nobody anything, but everybody owes us we think.

   But God says no, it's not going to be that way, that he says we are bought with a price and we are not our own, and that's something to contemplate. You know, if you bought a new car, the price is today ridiculous, you know, about 2 or 3 times as much as it used to be, and if the man who sold you the car came down to your house the next door and knocked on the door and said, "Give me the keys. I'd like to go to work." You say, "Man, you're off your rocker, you know, all your cotton picking mind," the kids might say. But Christ brought us, according to the covenant we made Tuesday night, but you know, we tell him to give us the keys. I want to go here and I wanna go there. And he says, "No, you're bought with a price. You're not your own, you belong to me. I've got work for you to do." "Oh no, oh no," that was, that's a joke about that too. We don't have time to tell it. But God says "You are my bond slave, and I will send you where I want to send you and you will do what I want you to do because I have eternal life to offer you." So then be careful about I don't owe anybody anything. My parents, my husband, my wife, the church, anybody, they owe it to me and get what they're getting is good and then you get yours and you know, let that person take the hindmost.

   So then God shows us if you turn to Jeremiah 6:23. That as people are going to be observing Easter tomorrow and again I don't want to be, you know, criticizing them necessarily because I was also blinded once and I was also in ignorance. I don't know if I got up at 5 o'clock to go to sunrise service, but I know that on Easter I was struggling around trying to find some new threads like other people, all for a bunch of show, but all basically of the world's holidays are geared toward merchandizing. And Christmas is predicated on that, and they study us to get us to buy. And so you'll find kids, I saw them up there in Hudson, up there in the 8 Mile shopping center. Kids walking all over the place, buying clothes for what? God does not judge as men judge. For man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks on that heart where those idols are that ought to be circumcised and filled with his spirit.

   But there will be people struggling and tomorrow night, somebody will get the bill on Monday, and I wonder why did we ever do that. They really will. And of course, they get up out there in the morning and watch the sun, they don't even know why that is, but God has blessed us to know so we need to be very humbly thankful about it.

   Chapter 23, God shows that as there was an exodus when Israel came out of Egypt. There will be an exodus in the future, when the world is gonna have a chance to come out of spiritual Egypt. But God blesses us each year that after we make the covenant of having our sins forgiven, he says that's not enough. You have to get rid of them. Therefore you eat unleavened bread for 7 days and kind of enjoy it in a sense, recognize, oh boy, I almost made a mistake, you know why don't we start by McDonald's? "Oh no, can't do that," you know. "Well, what about ice cream? Can we eat that?" "Well, if you don't get one that has a cookie on the side of it," and you go on and on, you say, "Well, boy, you know I have to think about this thing." So God says, as you think about physical leavening, think about spiritual leavening, but watch society. Be balanced.

   Now, don't go and tell your kids when you hear some of these words, don't listen to them at all, because one of the worst things you can do with somebody who loves something is take it away from them totally without replacing it with something else. But at least listen to them. If you go back to 1930s, we had some songs back there, back when the crash the stockyard fell in 1929. I joked about the year I was born, maybe I caused it, someone would say, but back in 1929 when the stock market fell, there was a song that was produced by Billie Holiday or somebody called Gloomy Sunday.

   During those years and some of you were there and some of you were not there, and people listening to that song back in the 30s jumped out of the window and killed themselves by listening to gloomy Sunday. So it doesn't have to be 1979. It doesn't have to be, you know, acid rock. It can be Brahms, it can be Vogner. It can be Johann Sebastian Bach. It can be Rachmaninoff. It can be anybody if you're not careful, that bombed your mind out and gets you in a mood that is contrary to the spirit of God and enslave you. It really can. So let's don't point the finger at each other. Let's help each other get the balance. And thank God and rejoice in what's available for us.

   Chapter 23 here and verse 5 of Jeremiah (Jeremiah 23:5). "Behold the days cometh Eternal, that I will raise unto David a righteous branch and a king shall reign and prosper and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth in his days," and that's ahead of us, hopefully soon. "Judah shall be saved and Israel shall dwell safely, and this is his name whereby he shall be called the Lord our righteousness. Therefore, behold the days come sayeth Eternal, that they shall no more say the Lord lives which brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt. But the Eternal liveth which brought up and which led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country and from all the countries whither I have driven them, and they shall dwell in their own land," and it's going to be the beast power that's going to take us there. But yet it's going to be after a time of unbelievable prosperity and fantastic claims of priests and of freedom and proclaiming of liberty. And yet while people are being promised liberty, we are made slaves again.

   So let's recognize that we are in spiritual Egypt. Let's recognize that these 7 days we're to be thinking about the idols. We're to be thinking that God certainly shows that the things which we worship or the things which our hands manufactured, we're to be thinking about if we were not in an affluent nation, we probably wouldn't have to bother about that, but I'd rather be here than in some other area. But yet there are other underdeveloped nations would say, wait. If your prosperity is going to do to us what it did to you, you can keep it.

   So then God wants us to use the entertainment not entertainment media, but the communication media and all the rest of that to get the message to them that there is a kingdom of God coming and that we might stand if we wanted to say it with our hands stretched high as the Statue of Liberty and proclaim liberty throughout the world. Freedom from slavery to Egypt. But then we joyfully become the bond slaves of Jesus Christ, for he reiterates with us once again that we are bought with a price we are not our own. Therefore, as we are physically unleavened, let us become spiritually unleavened.