The chapter that I'd like to focus on is right there in verse number 7 where the Bible reads,
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.
And what I want to preach about, of course, this morning is Easter Sunday on the calendar,
and that's what I want to preach about this morning, is Easter.
Go if you would to Acts chapter 12, because the word Easter is actually found in the Bible.
I'm not sure if you know that, but in Acts chapter number 12, the Bible mentions the word Easter.
It says in verse number 1,
Now about that time Herod the king stretched forth his hands to vex certain of the church,
and killed James the brother of John with the sword.
And because he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to take Peter also.
Then were the days of unleavened bread.
And when he had apprehended him, he put him in prison,
and delivered him to four quaternions of soldiers to keep him,
intending after Easter to bring him forth to the people.
Peter therefore was kept in prison,
but prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him.
And when Herod would have brought him forth, the same night Peter was sleeping between two soldiers,
bound to chains, and the keeper before the door kept the prison.
Now, this is of course the story where King Herod had killed James, and he wants to kill Peter.
So he lays hold of him and puts him in jail,
but the Bible says that because it was the days of unleavened bread,
he decided to wait until after Easter to bring him forth unto the people and have him killed.
But of course right before he's going to pull him out of that jail cell,
God sends a miracle where he sends an angel, and we're not going to go through the whole chapter,
but the angel comes in, loses his bonds, opens the door,
God put a deep sleep on the jailers, and Peter just waltzes right out of that jail.
It's one of the many jailbreaks of the Book of Acts, and so he gets out and goes free.
But the reason I want to point this out today is because there are a lot of people,
like for example the Jehovah's Witnesses, who think that it's wrong to celebrate holidays.
And especially they say it's wrong to celebrate Easter.
That's one of the ones that they'll bring up.
And it blows me away because of course the Jehovah's Witnesses are out in force.
They were just at my house a few days ago,
and everybody I know said that they got visited by the Jehovah's Witnesses over the last few weeks
because the Jehovah's Witnesses had their biggest push of the year at this time,
which is hypocrisy since they claim not to celebrate holidays,
yet they capitalize upon the Easter holiday to go out and spread their lies and trash.
And it's even more ironic because they don't believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ,
which is what we're celebrating Easter.
I'm going to come right back to this passage, but let me just hit on the Jehovah's Witnesses for a while.
Go to John chapter 10.
We'll come right back there. Keep your finger at Acts 12.
But look at John 10.
I just want to show how the Jehovah's Witnesses are preaching a false gospel and another doctrine.
It says in John 10, 15, it says,
As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father.
And I lay down my light for the sheep, this is Jesus talking,
and other sheep I have which are not of this fold,
them also I must bring.
And they shall hear my voice, and there shall be one fold and one shepherd.
Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again.
No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself.
I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again.
This commandment have I received of my Father.
Go back to John chapter 2.
So Jesus Christ said that he had the power not only to lay down his life for the sins of mankind,
but also he said, I have the power to take up my life once again.
Jesus Christ after that said, all power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.
And the lying Jehovah's false witnesses do not believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
And I'm going to prove that to you.
Look at John chapter 2.
It says in John chapter 2 verse 18,
Then answered the Jews and said unto them,
What sign showest thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these things?
Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.
Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple and building, and what thou reared up in three days?
But he spake of the temple of his body, when therefore he was risen from the dead.
His disciples remembered that he had said unto them,
And they believed the scripture and the word which Jesus said.
You see, Jesus Christ spake of the temple of his body,
And he said, Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.
The Jehovah's Witnesses do not believe in the bodily resurrection of Christ.
Here's what they say, well his body didn't rise.
They say his spirit just left his body.
Well the Bible says the body without the spirit is dead.
So wait a minute, they don't believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
They do not believe that his body was resurrected.
They just, well it's just a spiritual thing where his spirit left his body.
They don't believe in the resurrection of Christ.
And they say, well you know, Jehovah raised him up.
Well you know what, it says he was raised by the Father, but here he said he had the power to raise himself.
That's because Jesus said I and my Father are one, which they don't believe that either.
But it's amazing how they go out and they knock doors around Easter time.
And they say, oh I'm celebrating Easter's back, that's a pagan holiday.
And I've even heard Christians say that the word Easter, you know, comes from Ishtar and Asheroth and so forth.
But hold on a second now.
Wait a minute now, isn't the word Easter in the Bible?
And doesn't the Bible say every word of God is what?
Pure.
So you can't really say that Easter is a bad word if God used it in the Bible.
Now a lot of our words might have pagan origins because we are descended from a bunch of, you know,
Scandinavian northern people in England, you know, Saxon, Germanic tribes, you know,
if we're of English descent because this is an English Bible.
Obviously a lot of words come from a pagan Germanic culture, like the days of the week.
Thor's day, you know, Thor is the guy who throws lightning bolts, right?
Saturday, Sunday, moon day.
But you know what, you can't say, well it's wrong to call it Thursday because it's pagan.
You know, and people say that, but wait a minute, it's a Bible word.
It says Easter.
Now what is God referring to in Acts 12?
Go back to Acts 12.
What is God referring to when he says Easter here?
Because if it's a Bible word, I can't see somebody getting angry at me for using the word Easter
when it's a biblical word.
You know, I can't comprehend that because the Bible says every word of God is pure.
What's he referring to?
Well, the context is clear.
At the end of verse 3, it says, then were the days of unleavened bread.
Now is that day singular or day plural?
Day plural.
Then were the days of unleavened bread.
And it says, and when he had apprehended him, he put him in prison and delivered him to four
quaternions of soldiers to keep him intending after Easter to bring him forth to the people.
Now some people will try to say, well that Easter's a different holiday.
That's a different pagan holiday.
That doesn't even make sense because then why is God bringing up the fact, hey, it was the days of unleavened bread
and that's why he's waiting till after Easter to bring him forth unto the people.
So you got to let the context interpret itself.
Not some historian, not somebody with some encyclopedia of the occult to tell you what it means.
Look, I'm reading the Bible right here.
I can see what it means.
And people will try to say that, you know, this is not talking about the Passover.
Because they say, well, the Passover is just that day itself.
Well, look at Luke 22 verse 1.
Luke 22 verse 1.
And while you're turning there, I'll read you from Ezekiel 45 21.
In Ezekiel 45 21, it says, in the first month, in the 14th day of the month, ye shall have the Passover,
comma, a feast of seven days, unleavened bread shall be eaten.
So in Ezekiel 45 21, the Bible calls the Passover a feast of seven days.
In 2 Chronicles 35 17, it says, and the children of Israel that were present kept the Passover at that time
and the feast of unleavened bread, seven days.
So sometimes in the Bible, the word Passover is just referring to the first day itself.
And then other times the word Passover is referring to the whole seven-day feast.
Okay, it says in, let's see, where did I return?
Luke 22.
Luke where?
Luke 22 1.
Luke 22 1, okay.
Yeah, it says right here, now the feast of unleavened bread, drew nigh, which is called the Passover.
That's the feast of seven days there.
And so why Easter?
Why does it say the word Easter?
Well, the word Easter is a word that basically refers to that whole week.
Whereas the Passover can refer to either one.
It can refer to either just the individual day, or it can refer to the whole week.
And all the previous Bible translations to the King James Bible, they actually use Easter throughout the Bible.
Like for example, William Tyndale, the Bishop Bible, and Isaiah the Bible.
They use Easter throughout the Bible, even in Exodus 12.
They just call the Passover Easter.
And then they use them interchangeably.
So it's not a pagan word.
It's a Bible word referring to the seven-day unleavened bread feast.
It's just like when they didn't want Jesus to be hanging on the cross during that seven-day period.
If you remember, they were sure to try to get him off the cross right before even, right before that feast began.
Because they didn't want to have a cursed person hanging on a tree during the feast.
And so that's exactly what's going on in Acts 12 here.
Now, look at 1 Corinthians 5 where we started this morning.
1 Corinthians chapter 5.
And you see, I'm not going to stand here and tell you that it's wrong to celebrate holidays.
I don't believe that.
I believe that God wants us to celebrate holidays.
He actually teaches.
He had all kinds of holidays in the Old Testament.
Now, we don't keep those holidays because those were a shadow of things to come.
The holidays in the Old Testament represented things that we no longer do.
They involve animal sacrifices that have been done away with.
Okay, look what it says in 1 Corinthians 5-7.
It says,
Purge out there for the old leaven that ye may be a new love, as ye are unleavened.
For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.
You say, wait a minute, Pastor Andrew.
Why would we celebrate Easter?
If Easter is that Passover week, you know, why would we celebrate that?
We're not Jews living in the Old Testament.
But wait a minute.
The Bible says that Jesus Christ is our Passover.
He has been sacrificed for us.
And look what it says in verse number 8.
Therefore, let us keep the peace.
Okay?
That's the celebrating of peace.
Not with old leavens.
Neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness,
but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
So basically, instead of in the Old Testament,
when they would sacrifice a Passover lamb,
and shed the blood, and so forth,
as a picture of Jesus Christ,
and then they would eat unleavened bread and drink the wine,
that basically was a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ,
who is our Passover, who's already been sacrificed.
And the unleavened bread was a picture of sincerity and truth.
So the Bible says that we in the New Testament,
we keep the feast not with the lamb that we slay.
That's Jesus.
And we keep the feast with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
Okay?
Which is the Word of God.
And so the bottom line is,
it's not wrong for us to celebrate
the event of Christ's death, burial, and resurrection,
and most notably, His resurrection.
Okay?
And that's what Easter is.
People will try to say that it's pagan or Catholic,
and, you know, basically, we live in the world, my friend.
And so, you know, everything is corrupt
that mankind has touched or had anything to do with.
And man has corrupted pretty much everything that's out there.
But we as Christians today can celebrate in sincerity and truth.
We can celebrate Easter.
We can celebrate our Passover,
which is the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ,
killed on the cross, buried, and risen again.
And so let's talk about that.
We already saw that Jesus Christ bodily and physically
rose again from the dead.
Go to 1 Corinthians 15.
1 Corinthians chapter 15.
Jesus Christ physically and bodily rose from the dead.
There are two aspects to the resurrection of Christ.
Let me give them to you while you turn to 1 Corinthians 15.
In Acts chapter 231, the Bible says,
He, seeing this before, spake of the resurrection of Christ,
that his soul was not left in hell,
neither his flesh did seek corruption.
So we see two things going on here.
We see, first of all, the soul of Jesus Christ
not being left in hell, but rising again.
And then we also see the fact,
neither did his flesh seek corruption.
So Jesus Christ rose from the dead, not just spiritually.
He did rise spiritually, but he also rose physically.
He rose both, according to Acts 231,
and not according to the Jehovah's false witnesses.
But it says in 1 Corinthians 15,
this is the resurrection chapter.
Let's start reading in verse 42.
It says, so also is the resurrection of the dead.
It is sown in corruption.
It is raised in incorruption.
It is sown in dishonor.
It is raised in glory.
It is sown in weakness.
It is raised in power.
It is sown a natural body.
It is raised a spiritual body.
There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.
Jehovah's Witnesses will say,
oh, this is just two different bodies.
No, go down a little further,
he says our body will be changed
from a natural body into a spiritual body.
Let's keep reading.
It says in verse number 45,
and so it is written,
the first man Adam was a living soul.
The last Adam was made a quickening spirit.
Albeit that was not first which is spiritual,
but that which is natural,
and afterward that which is spiritual.
The first man is of the earth, earthy.
The second man is the Lord from heaven.
As is the earthy,
such are they also that are earthy.
And as is the heavenly,
such are they also that are heavenly.
And as we have borne the image of the earthy,
we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.
Now this I say, brethren,
that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God.
Neither does corruption inherit incorruption.
Behold, I show you a mystery.
We shall not all sleep,
but we shall all be what?
Changed in a moment,
in the twinkling of an eye,
at the last trump,
for the trump it shall sound,
and the dead shall be raised incorruptible,
and we shall be changed.
For this corruptible must put on incorruption,
and this mortal must put on immortality.
So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption,
and this mortal shall have put on immortality,
then shall be bought to pass the saying that is written,
death is swallowed up in victory.
O death, where is thy state?
O grave, where is thy victory?
I'll read you one more verse before I comment on this.
Philippians 3 21 says,
Who shall change our vile body,
that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body,
according to the working whereby he is able,
even to subdue all things unto himself.
You see, Jesus Christ, according to 1 Corinthians 15,
was the firstfruits of the resurrection.
And afterward at Christ's coming,
when the trumpet sounds,
we will be resurrected in the same way.
Now, the moment that you got saved,
go to Romans chapter six,
the moment that you got saved,
your spirit was resurrected.
The Bible says that our spirit was dead
in trespasses and sins.
But when we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
our spirit is quickened.
Our spirit is resurrected,
just like Jesus was resurrected from the dead.
But our body is still the same old simple body
that it was before we got saved.
The spirit's been resurrected.
The spirit's a brand new creature.
But we still have the old man.
I mean, physically, I'm the same as I was
before I got saved, so are you.
But someday at the first resurrection,
if we are alive and remain unto that day,
then we'll just be changed in a moment
and twinkling of an eye
from our natural body into a spiritual body,
from a body that's corrupt
to a body that's incorruptible
in the image of Jesus Christ,
without sin, without fault.
Now, those who are already dead at that time,
as Christians that are, quote, asleep in Jesus,
their soul and spirit's already in heaven.
I was clear on that.
To be absolute in the body is to be present with the Lord.
Paul said, I have a desire to depart
and to be with Christ.
But their body is asleep.
In the grave.
That body will be resurrected
and changed in a moment into a spiritual body.
That is still yet to come.
So until then, we have the flesh
and we have the spirit.
We have the old man, we have the new man.
Now, look at Romans 6.
This is a great chapter on the resurrection, kids.
As we think about and celebrate
the resurrection of Christ today,
obviously, it's the cornerstone of our salvation.
The Bible says that if thou shalt confess
with thy mouth the Lord Jesus
and shalt believe in thine heart
that God has raised him from the dead,
thou shalt be saved.
And again, the Jehovah's Witnesses aren't saved.
They don't believe that he rose.
And there's a lot of other things
that they believe that are wrong.
But in Romans 6 here,
we have a great chapter on the resurrection.
It says in verse 1,
What shall we say then?
Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?
God forbid.
Now, before we go any further,
we don't want to misunderstand here.
If we continue in sin, grace will abound.
Don't misread this.
Go back just a few verses.
Go to verse 20, Romans 5-20.
Moreover, the law entered that the offense might abound,
but where sin abounded,
grace did much more abound.
So if we continue in sin...
Well, you're not really saying
that you can be a devil.
That's not what I'm saying.
If we continue in sin, grace will abound.
But he's saying, should we do that?
Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?
Just because we can?
Just because we have eternal security?
Just because we know we have eternal life?
God forbid that we would just continue to live in sin.
How shall we that are dead to sin
live any longer than we are in?
Verse 3,
Know ye not that so many of us
as were baptized into Jesus Christ
were baptized into his death?
Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death,
that like as Christ was raised up from the dead
by the glory of the Father,
even so we also automatically will walk in the goodness of life.
Is that what it says? No.
It says, even so we also should walk in the goodness of life.
So what must we do to be saved?
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.
But should we let it stop there?
Should we live like the world lives?
Should we just continue in sin knowing that grace will abound?
God forbid we should follow the pattern
of Christ's resurrection
as a symbol of the fact that the old man needs to die
and that like as Christ was raised up from the dead
by the glory of the Father,
we also should walk in the goodness of life.
We don't have to to be saved.
We have to believe to be saved.
But we should walk in the goodness of life.
And by the way it starts with baptism.
You know if you've never been baptized
you have not taken the first step
toward walking in the goodness of life.
If you're here today and you've believed on Jesus Christ
you're saved but you haven't been baptized.
You know you have not taken the first step of obedience.
You're still saved but you haven't taken that first step of obedience.
God commands us Acts chapter 10
and says he commanded them to be baptized
in the name of the Lord Jesus.
God commands us to be baptized. Why?
Because baptism is a picture of something very important.
It's a picture of a turning point in your life
where you decide that you're going to walk in the goodness of life.
Where you're going to bury the old man.
You see the Bible says we are buried with him
by baptism in the dead, verse 4.
That like as Christ was raised up from the dead
by the glory of the Father.
Even so, we also should walk in the goodness of life.
For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death
we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection.
And you know it stands to reason if we haven't been planted
in the likeness of his death
we're probably not going to be living in the likeness of his resurrection either.
Because see that's a symbolism
when we're buried with him in baptism.
And that's why baptism is by immersion by the way.
Not sprinkling.
It doesn't say we're sprinkled with him.
It says we're buried with him by baptism into his death.
You got to go underwater.
You know that's a picture of the death,
burial and resurrection of Christ.
And you see if you don't take part in that,
if you don't get baptized
basically what you're saying to God is
I don't want to live in the goodness of life.
I don't want to obey you.
I don't want to follow your commandments.
I want to live the same way that I used to live.
And that's why baptism is an important step.
And it's the first step of many many steps
toward walking in the goodness of life.
But what you're saying when you get baptized
is you're basically picturing
first of all the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
But secondly you're picturing you know what
I want to bury the old man
and walk in the goodness of life.
The old Steven Anderson needs to die.
It's just like Paul said I die daily.
The old man has to die
so that we can live the resurrected life.
So that we can walk in the goodness of life.
So that we can live a life
that is after the pattern of the Lord Jesus Christ.
It says if we've been planted together
in the likeness of his death
we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection.
Verse 6,
Knowing this,
that our old man is crucified with him.
Talking about the old man, the flesh.
That the body of sin might be destroyed.
That henceforth we should not serve sin.
For he that is dead is free from sin.
Now if we be dead with Christ
we believe that we shall also live with him.
Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead
dieeth no more.
Death hath no more dominion over him.
For in that he died, he died unto sin once.
But in that he liveth, he liveth unto God.
Likewise,
Reckon ye also yourselves to be dead
indeed unto sin.
But alive unto God
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body.
That ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.
Neither yield ye your members
as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin.
But yield yourselves unto God
as those that are alive from the dead
and your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto God.
And so God's going on and on here
telling us,
begging us, imploring us,
saying, look, I know you're saved.
I know grace has saved you.
And that's what really was emphasized
in chapter 3 and 4 and 5 of Romans.
In chapter 3,
he said, being justified freely by his grace
through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
In Romans 4 and 5,
he said, but to him that worketh not
but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly.
His faith is counted for righteousness.
All throughout the book of Romans up to this point,
he said, it's a free gift over and over again in Romans 5.
It's a gift. It's free. It's by faith.
It's by grace.
Therefore, being justified by faith,
Romans 5-1, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
But then he gets to chapter 6 and says,
wait a minute,
you should change your life around, though.
You know, yeah, if you continue in sin,
grace is going to bounce.
But you know what?
You ought to, you should,
bury that old man,
mortify the flesh,
reckon yourself to be dead,
and walk in newness of life.
And don't use it as an excuse.
The grace of God is an excuse or a license to sin.
Don't use it as an occasion to the flesh
to fulfill the lusts that are up.
Keep reading. It says in verse number 14,
for sin shall not have dominion over you,
for you are not under the law but under grace.
And a lot of people will take this passage right here
and say, we're not under the law.
We're under grace.
So basically, anything goes.
And you'll try to show them,
hey, the Bible says this is a sin.
The Bible says this is wrong.
No, not under the law, under grace.
No rules.
And they'll try to say, well,
you know, maybe the Holy Spirit spoke to you about that,
but he hasn't really spoken to me about that.
And so what's wrong for you might not be wrong for me.
And what's right for you,
hey, Jesus said, if you love me, keep my commandments,
not my suggestions.
He said, if you love me, keep my commandments.
And so just because we're not under the law,
we're under grace, look at the next verse.
What then?
Verse 15, shall we sin?
Because we are not under the law but under grace?
God forbid.
So that's what some people are doing
because they say we're not under the law.
Now, somebody define sin for me.
What is sin according to the Bible?
Transgression of the law.
The Bible says sin is the transgression of the law,
1 John 3.
Sin is the transgression of the law.
Now, people have this really new cute definition for sin
that I've been hearing a lot lately.
And I hear this definition all over the place.
And it usually comes out of the mouth of, you know,
the famous preachers and the politicians
and all these people who don't really want
to come down hard on sin.
And they have this newfangled definition for sin.
Now, I'm fine with the Bible's definition.
Breaking God's law, right?
That's what sin is, transgressing the law.
God said to do something, you didn't do it, that's a sin.
God told you not to do something, you did it, you sinned.
You broke the law, you broke God's law.
Pretty simple, right?
But people have this other definition of sin
that's a little bit cuter and a little more fashionable
that they use.
And I heard Joel Osteen, you know, use this.
And I heard Mike Huckabee use this.
You know, these politicians and Southern Baptists
and, you know, TV evangelists,
they try to tone down what sin is.
And here's what they say.
Sin is just missing the mark.
They say sin is anything short of God's best for your life.
Or your teeth or whatever, you know.
So, you know, your best teeth now or your best life now
or whatever that book is called.
So, the bottom line is, they say sin is just missing
the mark of God's best for your life.
And where they get that from, you know,
they're twisting a scripture where the Bible says
for all of sin that comes short of the glory of God.
That just means because we've all sinned, we come short.
We don't measure up, we don't measure God's standards.
We can't attain unto his standards.
But they'll say, well, sin is just missing the mark
for your life.
So that people will say to them, you know,
is homosexuality a sin?
And they'll say, well, it's a sin,
but that just means it's just not the best thing
to be doing.
You know, it just misses the perfect mark.
And none of us is perfect, right?
You know, none of us is perfect.
You know, that's just not quite perfect, but hey.
No, you know what?
You're, you know, you didn't just, you know,
I think it's like a bow and arrow illustration
is what they try to say.
You know, no, you come short, you miss the mark,
you miss the bullseye.
You know, you're shooting at the wrong target.
You're a bull.
Okay, you didn't miss the mark.
You done shot, you know, you were holding the bull.
You're shooting at the wrong target.
You know, it's just that everybody wants to tone down sin
today and make it seem less bad.
Well, it's a sin, but no big deal.
You know, it's just short of God's best.
You're just, it's just not perfect.
You know, a horse is just not the best choice.
You know, choose the best answer, you know,
when you're taking a test.
And so this garbage is out there to try and say,
well, sin is just missing the mark.
Well, I like God's definition better.
You broke God's law.
You broke His command.
You broke a law throughout the Bible,
and there's serious consequences meted out upon this
to break God's laws.
There are two consequences.
The first consequence is, of course, hell.
The Bible says the wages of sin is death.
The soul that sineth in shall die.
There's a spiritual, eternal damnation on sinners.
But if they believe on Jesus Christ, they're saved.
That's all paid for through the atonement
of the blood of Jesus Christ, our pastor.
But then after we're saved, okay,
there are earthly consequences for our actions.
Just as we chasten and chastise our children,
God will punish us and chastise us on this earth
for the things that we do,
for the sins that we commit and so forth.
But you see, this is why this is so important
to have the right definition of sin.
What was the definition again?
The right definition of sin?
The transgression of the law.
Now with that in mind, let's look back at that verse.
Verse 15.
What then?
Shall we sin because we are not under the law
but under grace?
Now inserting the Bible's own definition,
what would that say?
What then?
Shall we break God's law
because we're not under the law but under grace?
Shall we transgress God's law
because we're not under the law but under grace?
God forbid.
So the Bible, when it says that we're not under the law,
is that saying that we can just transgress God's law?
No.
He says, shall we transgress that law?
No.
When he says we're not under the law but under grace,
that's in regard to our salvation.
That's just saying we're not saved by the law.
We're not under the curse of the law
because the Bible says,
Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law,
being made a curse for us.
As it is written,
cursed is everyone that is hanged upon a tree.
So when Jesus Christ was on the cross,
the Bible says, for he had made him to be sinned,
who knew no sin,
that we might be made the righteousness of God and him.
So when Jesus Christ hung on the cross,
he bore in his own body our transgressions,
our sins on the tree.
And so when Jesus Christ died on the cross,
he redeemed us from out from under the curse of the law
that said, cursed is he that continueeth not
in all these words to do them.
And all the people said, amen.
So the bottom line is,
we've been redeemed from being underneath
the penalty of our sin of hell
and the curse of death upon those who break God's laws.
We've all sinned.
We all deserve help.
But by believing on Christ,
we've been redeemed from out from under that.
But does that mean that it's okay
for us to just go out and break God's laws?
And say, well, they don't matter anymore
because we're living in the age of grace.
Let me tell you something.
The age of grace started when Abel went to heaven.
Abel didn't go to heaven by his own works.
Abel was a sinner.
But he went to heaven by grace.
Adam and Eve went to heaven by grace.
All the prophets of the Old Testament,
Moses, David, they went by grace, okay?
Not by their works,
because they were sinners just like I'm a sinner,
just like you're a sinner.
And so we never get this attitude that says,
well, just because I'm saved,
I'm just going to live how I want to live.
No, we should follow the example of Jesus Christ
and say, look, the old man is going to die.
I don't want to live after the old sinful ways of this world.
I don't want to live like an unsaved man,
although my flesh wants to go in that same direction of the unsaved.
Although my flesh, there's no good thing that dwells in it,
according to Romans 7, he's going to get into later.
There's no good thing in it.
The flesh warth against the spirit,
the spirit against the flesh.
These two are contrary, the one and the other,
so that you cannot do the things that you would.
Look, our flesh is going to pull us into living for sin.
That's why we've got to daily have a resurrection, as it were,
where we basically, you know,
we're already saved, but just figuratively speaking,
decide, you know what?
I'm going to walk in newness of life.
I'm going to reckon myself dead,
and I'm going to live a life that's pleasing to God.
I'm going to follow in his footsteps.
I'm going to be conformed into the image of Jesus Christ.
Now, none of us is going to be totally conformed to that image,
but that's what we strive toward.
We press toward the mark
for the prize of the high calling of God and the prize of Jesus.
We strive to live like Jesus Christ.
We strive to follow his words and his laws.
And remember, Jesus said,
think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets.
I came not to destroy, but to fulfill.
Christ is the fulfillment of the law,
not the destruction of the law.
We can't throw out the Old Testament.
Now, there are many things in the Old Testament
that were a figure for the time then present,
and the Bible specifically spells that out
in Romans and Galatians and the Hebrews.
He says certain things.
You know, the Passover's been changed.
We don't sacrifice a lamb.
Christ is our Passover.
We don't have a priesthood anymore,
the Levitical priesthood.
That's been changed to the priesthood of Melchizedek.
Jesus Christ is the high priest,
and every believer is a part of that royal priesthood,
according to the Bible.
God has made us kings and priests
unto God and our Father.
He washed us from our sins in his own blood.
The Sabbath day in the Old Testament
was a day of rest, a physical day of rest,
that the children of Israel had from Moses and forward
in the New Testament.
That is a picture of salvation,
the rest that we have in Christ Jesus,
not doing our own works,
but relying upon his resting from our own works
and putting our faith in Christ.
The Bible talks about in Genesis 9
that we can eat all things, all meats.
It said every animal that breathes, you can eat.
That's Genesis 9 when Noah got up there.
Thousands of years later, God told Abraham,
or not thousands of years later,
but hundreds of years later,
God told Abraham, or not Abraham, I'm sorry.
I'm losing my mind.
Moses, what's that guy's name?
With the tank of mammoths?
I'm just a Baptist pastor.
I don't know who Moses is.
But anyway, Moses,
you try getting up there in front of people,
but the bottom line is Moses,
Moses was told later.
He was given the law.
The Bible says the law came by Moses,
grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.
Later, that dyad was restricted
unto certain clean animals.
You know, before that,
God told them to eat every animal.
Okay.
Then, with Moses, there were certain animals.
Then in the New Testament,
the Bible makes it very clear
that every creature of God is good,
nothing to be refused.
And I don't know about you,
but I'm going home today
and having a ham dinner.
I mean, this is Easter.
Amen.
And you say,
why do you want to celebrate Easter?
Because I like ham a lot.
What is that?
Honey, what is that thing that we're having?
A smoked pork tenderloin.
It's a smoked pork tenderloin
and it's wrapped in puff pastry and everything.
And you're not going to let us come over?
No, you're not invited.
But you know, the bottom line is that,
you know, there were certain things
that were temporary.
And the Bible spells those out.
You know, He makes it real clear.
He explains what was temporary.
But that doesn't mean we just throw out the whole book.
You know, because there were a lot of moral laws.
Like, here's one, thou shalt not kill.
You know, we should probably still stick with that one, right?
Or how about this one,
thou shalt not commit adultery.
Or how about this one,
thou shalt not covet.
And you say,
well, wait a minute, Pastor Ashley.
Those are all repeated in the New Testament.
And we only live by stuff that's repeated in the New Testament.
Well, what about the one that says not to marry your sister?
Now that's not repeated in the New Testament.
I think we should abide.
Who thinks we should abide by that law?
What about the one that says
I shouldn't marry my mother-in-law?
Should we stick with that one?
Okay.
What, you know, and what about,
and there's tons of laws in the Old Testament
that we still would say we live by these
because they have to do with things that are just right and wrong.
They're not just a dietary thing.
They weren't just a symbolic thing.
They weren't just going to the tabernacle
and doing a washing or a meat offering
or a drink offering and so forth.
Those things are temporary.
Those things picture Christ,
the tabernacle, the temple, all those different ordinances.
But there are a lot of moral laws in the Old Testament.
There are a lot of warnings about sin.
There's a lot of preaching.
And Jesus said,
hey, I've come to do away with that stuff.
I came to save you from the punishment of that stuff?
But you should still be following my laws
and walking into some life.
Like, you'll show people all kinds of laws
in the Old Testament and they block at it.
Like, there's a law in the Old Testament that says,
thou shalt not print any marks upon thy body.
You know, the Bible says
we should not print marks upon our body.
And yet, people today,
Christians will think it's okay to be tattooed.
Now, if you already have tattoos,
hey, you know what?
I'm not mad at you.
Obviously, you know, you did that in the past.
But don't go out and get another tattoo.
And if you're a young person,
you've never gotten a tattoo.
I don't have a tattoo.
You know, don't get a tattoo.
And don't think it's cool when you turn 18.
You know, I'm going to go get a tattoo.
I'm going to go get a tramp stamp.
You know, on my back or whatever.
Look, it's called that, you know, for a reason.
You know, and I'm not saying that you're a tramp
if you haven't,
but why are you trying to look like a tramp?
You know, and we ought not be conformed to this world.
We ought to be transformed.
And so if God said not to print any marks upon our body,
we ought not print marks upon our body.
The Bible warns all throughout the Old Testament
it's the dangers of drinking.
He says if you drink, your eyes will behold strange women.
Your mouth will utter perverse things.
He says don't drink.
Don't look upon the wine when it's red,
when it gives its color in the cup,
when it moves itself right.
Don't print marks upon your body.
He tells men not to put on a woman's garment.
He tells ladies not to wear that which pertains unto a man.
I don't think God has changed the position on cross-dressing.
I'm under grace, so I'm going to wear a dress.
You know, I'm going to be pretty in pink
because I'm saved by grace.
No, we ought to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ
and not conform to the worldly and sinful philosophies
that were surrounding us.
And so on this Easter Sunday,
we ought to stop and first of all
have a remembrance of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We ought to have a remembrance of the fact
that he lived a perfect life,
that he was tempted in all points like as we are,
yet without sin.
You ought to remember that today. Think about that.
Every time, I mean, he was hungry,
he was tired, he was thirsty,
he was in agony,
he became very heavy in the Garden of Gethsemane
and sweat and anguish
and poured out his heart begging the Father
to spare him from the shame of the cross
and from what he was about to do.
He was tempted in all points like as we are,
yet without sin.
He died on the cross, he was beaten,
he was spat upon,
and one thing the Bible emphasizes
is that he despised the shame.
He was mocked, he was spat upon, he was ridiculed,
and that was one of the hardest things for him to go through,
being God in the flesh,
to humble himself,
to receive such contradiction of sinners against himself,
the Bible says.
He went through all the shame,
all the mockery,
all the beating,
the physical pain and torture
of being whipped and beaten and smitten
and nailed to the cross.
The Bible says his soul went down into hell
for three days and three nights.
Three days later, he rose again from the dead
and we ought to stop and praise God
for our salvation
through the death, burial,
not through your good life,
not through getting baptized,
not through joining a church,
not because you quit this sin
or quit that sin or turn from your sins,
but the salvation that we have
through the death, burial, and resurrection
of Jesus Christ,
that's what we ought to be remembering today.
And we ought to look back and thank God
and thank our Lord Jesus Christ
for being obedient unto death,
even the death of the cross,
and for going through all that
for the joy that was set before it,
for the love that he had toward us.
We ought to be thankful of that.
We ought to be praising God
that he made it so easy for us to be saved
by doing all the hard part
and giving us the free gift of eternal life.
But then we shouldn't just let it stop there.
You know, as we chew the tenderloin,
the pork loin, you know, in our mouth,
yes, we ought to feel gratitude
and love for our Savior,
our Lord Jesus Christ, to die for us.
But not only that,
we ought to apply that to our life.
You know, instead of just having a knowledge
in our mind, wow, that was great,
thank you so much, Jesus Christ,
for doing that.
You know, we ought to translate that
to our own life and say, you know what?
I'm going to live out the resurrection in my life.
I'm going to be buried with him,
and I'm going to walk in newness of light.
You know, if you haven't been baptized,
that starts with being baptized.
But most of you that are here today,
I'm sure you've probably already been baptized
a long time ago.
You know, we're preaching to the saved here.
Most people here are saved.
We ought to walk and live in newness of light.
Newness.
That means you're different
than the old you.
That means you're different
than the world around you.
The Bible said he called us
to be a peculiar people.
We ought not be patterned after the world
and deformed the world.
We ought to be different.
And there ought to be a difference.
And people will say, well, if you get saved,
there's always going to be a big difference.
No, there should be a difference.
But you know, sadly, many Christians today
are saved.
They're living after the world.
There should be a difference,
but there's not just automatically,
I'm saved now.
You know, I'm going to church.
I'm reading my Bible.
Hey, you've got to pick up that cross
and follow Christ.
Must Jesus bear the cross alone
and all the world go free?
No, there's a cross for everyone
and there's a cross for me.
Must I be carried through the skies
on flowery beds of ease
while others fought to win the prize?
And sailed through bloody seas?
No, sir, I must fight if I'm to win
and increase my courage, Lord.
I'll bear the toil, endure the pain,
supported by Thy Word.
We ought to not just have a mental knowledge
today of the death, burial, and resurrection,
but we ought to take up our cross daily.
He said, if any man will come after me,
let him deny himself.
Deny the lust and the pleasure.
Deny your appetite.
Deny what you want
and take up the cross and follow Him.
Follow Him and follow Him
living in newness of life.
Follow Him by keeping His commandments.
Follow Him by obeying His Word.
You're not following Him
when you're breaking His Word.
You're not following Him
down to the tattoo parlor.
You're not going to follow Him
down to the bar.
You're not going to follow Him
down to the sofa.
And if Jesus Christ
were physically on this earth right now,
as He once was 2,000 years ago,
you're not going to follow Him
to plop down on the couch
and watch a bunch of worldly TV.
A bunch of fornication,
a bunch of blasphemy,
a bunch of sodomy,
a bunch of filth.
You're not going to follow Him
into the casino.
You wouldn't follow,
oh, let's just follow Jesus everywhere he goes.
You know, when Jesus was
physically on this earth,
there were people that just
started following Him.
And He didn't even realize it.
Like one time Jesus was walking,
you know, because He was
a human being.
He had humanity.
And I preached about this
a few weeks ago.
Even though Jesus Christ
was 100% God,
He's also 100% man.
Jesus even said in Mark 13
that He did not know
the day or the hour
when He was coming back.
You know, because He was
veiled in flesh.
He was roped in humanity.
And Jesus was walking along
at one point,
and He just noticed
people following Him.
People, they didn't talk to Him.
They didn't say hi to Him.
He just looked,
and He just said,
what do you guys want?
And I'm paraphrasing,
but He said,
I think He said,
what seek ye?
You know, He said like,
can I help you?
And they just said,
Master, you know,
they said we want to see
where you dwell.
And He said, come and see.
You know, and they came
over to His place,
and that was when
He had a place.
Other times He said,
I don't even have a place
to lay my head.
But He had a place to live,
and they followed Him
down there,
and they went with Him.
You know, if Jesus Christ
were here today,
wouldn't you want to
follow Him?
I mean, if you saw Him
just walking,
you know, and you knew
it was Him,
man, you'd say,
hey, let's go follow Him.
And He walks into Harrah's.
Oh, that's where you dwell?
You're in the penthouse
at Harrah's casino?
You know, you think you're
going to follow Him
to a bar?
You think you're going to
follow Him to watch TV?
You know, I bet you'd
probably follow Him
not solely.
You'd probably follow Him
to church.
You'd probably follow Him
to preach.
You'd probably follow Him
to read His Bible.
You'd probably follow Him
to a wholesome sitting down
and eating a meal
and talking about
the things of God.
You know,
that's the life
that we need to follow today,
even though He's
not physically here.
He left us His example
that we should follow
in His steps,
and He left us
His Word today.
And so we should strive
to live like Jesus Christ.
And you know,
when you're breaking
those laws,
some of those morality laws
of the Old Testament
that you want to maybe
throw out,
when you throw that stuff out,
you know you're not
living a Christ-life walk.
You know Jesus Christ
wasn't down at the tattoo parlor.
And I'm, you know,
maybe I'm hard on that
as just an example.
Just one example
of things that people
try to throw out
and say like,
this doesn't matter.
You know,
and again,
not many people have tattoos.
Obviously, you know,
you can't change that.
And you know,
by the way,
you can't change that.
Some people think
you can just get a tattoo removed.
It's a lot harder than that.
People don't do a lot
to get it removed.
You know,
and I'm telling you,
you got to stop and think
before you do some of the things
you do in your life.
And obviously,
I'm not down on anybody
that I've done in the past
but I'm preaching to those
who have not yet
made that mistake.
Because it's so common.
It's the cool thing to do.
It's the fact.
You know,
and so it needs to be preached.
And it's not being preached
in some places unfortunately.
But the bottom line is,
we should walk
in the newness of life.
One day we'll be perfect
when we're in heaven.
One day we'll never sin again.
Won't that be great?
All of our thoughts
will be pure
when we get to heaven.
All of our actions
will be pure and right.
But you know what?
Until then,
we've got to fight
that battle every day.
But you know what?
Let's live a little bit
of heaven right now.
You know what's so great
about heaven
that there's no sin there.
That's what's so great
about it.
So the less sin
you have in your life now,
the more of heaven's life
you're going to live
right here and now.
Let's take Easter Sunday
as a chance to live
the resurrected life,
the walk in newness of life.
Let's bow your heads
and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much
for your Word, your God.
We thank you for your example.
We thank you for your death,
burial, and resurrection.
And as we celebrate that today,
help us to stop and ponder.
Today is a Passover week,
but we don't celebrate
with the unbelieving Jews.
We don't celebrate their Passover
with a lying doctrine,
but we celebrate it
knowing how Passover is.
He has a name,
the Lord Jesus Christ.
And so let us keep
the feast today,
not with the leaven
of malice and wickedness,
but with the unleavened bread
of sincerity and truth.
Help us to celebrate
the feast today
with sincerity and truth,
not wickedness, not sin.
Let's not go home
and watch a bunch of sin on TV
and talk a bunch of filth and sin.
That's not the feast
that we should be keeping.
Help us to keep a feast
that would honor
and glorify you today
and to sit down to that meal
and bless and thank you
for everything you've done for us.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.