A Little Leaven

Greetings in the name of Jesus! This is Rob Haymes. This program is called 15 Minutes With Jesus. Today we’re going to talk about A Little Leaven. Let’s turn to 1Co 5:1-13, It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality as is not even named among the Gentiles—that a man has his father's wife. And you are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he who has done this deed might be taken away from among you. For I indeed, as absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged, as though I were present, him who has so done this deed; in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together, along with my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. I wrote to you in my epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral people. Yet I certainly did not mean with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother, who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner—not even to eat with such a person. For what have I to do with judging those also who are outside? Do you not judge those who are inside? But those who are outside God judges. Therefore put away from yourselves that evil person. Verse 6: Know you not that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?

Let’s turn to Exodus chapter 12, and read about the first Passover; Exo 12:1-15, Now the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, This month shall be your beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you. Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying: On the tenth of this month every man shall take for himself a lamb, according to the house of his father, a lamb for a household. And if the household is too small for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next to his house take it according to the number of the persons; according to each man's need you shall make your count for the lamb. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats. Now you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month. Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at twilight. And they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses where they eat it. Then they shall eat the flesh on that night; roasted in fire, with unleavened bread and with bitter herbs they shall eat it. Do not eat it raw, nor boiled at all with water, but roasted in fire—its head with its legs and its entrails. You shall let none of it remain until morning, and what remains of it until morning you shall burn with fire. And thus you shall eat it: with a belt on your waist, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. So you shall eat it in haste. It is the LORD's Passover. For I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night, and will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the LORD. Now the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you; and the plague shall not be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt. So this day shall be to you a memorial; and you shall keep it as a feast to the LORD throughout your generations. You shall keep it as a feast by an everlasting ordinance. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall remove leaven from your houses. For whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel. Verse 19: Seven days there shall no leaven be found in your houses. Let’s turn to 1 Cor 5 again, verse 7, Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. For even Christ, our Passover, is sacrificed for us; the spotless Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Therefore, because Christ is sacrificed for us, 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. Let’s turn to chapter 6, verse 9, Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.

It is upon us as elders in the body of Christ to stand up and purge out of our fellowships the leaven of malice and wickedness, and to build up the body of Christ in sincerity and truth; to deal with every person walking in sin, and if they will not repent, to put them out from among us. They must be put out until they repent with Godly sorrow for their sins, otherwise the leaven of sin will corrupt the entire body. If you are an elder, and you know there is sin in the house, and you won’t deal with it, you don’t love Christ, and you don’t love the people. The Apostle Paul told Timothy, in 2 Tim 4:2, …reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and doctrine. Jesus said, in Rev 3:19, As many as I love I rebuke and chasten, be zealous therefore and repent! Again, I want to remind us of what I just read in verse 9 of 1 Cor 6; know you not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God. In 1 John we read: Little children, let no man deceive you, he that does righteousness is righteous; he that practices righteousness is righteous. He that sins, or he that practices sin is of the devil. Don’t be deceived children. The inclusion of the world, and worldly, sinful people in the church, who will not repent, for the sake of filthy lucre, is a grievous sin against Christ and His church. The church is the pillar and ground of the truth; the place of fellowship with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ. The apostle John said in 1 John 1, Truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ. They are Holy, and we too should be holy. God said, Be you holy, for I am Holy; not holier than thou, but separated unto God, separated from that which is unclean; without spot, walking in the light, walking in the truth. If we say we have fellowship with the Lord and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth, John said. If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship, one with another, and the Blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sin. The leaven of self love, self indulgence, malice, and wickedness is darkness that must be exposed by the light of God’s Word through His true ministers in the church. Oh Lord, raise up true elders, raise up true ministers of your Gospel, Father, I pray, in this hour, that are not afraid of men, that are not after money, that are not seeking their own will, but they are pleasing you, seeking to do your will, Father, and they are strong in the Lord, and in the power of your might, speaking the truth, with signs following; I pray for it Father, right now! Raise up your church Lord! Restore your true church; the true body of Christ! Hallelujah! As I said, this darkness must be exposed by the light of God’s Word through His true ministers in the church as they are led by the Holy Spirit to do so. We must have love and courage to obey God and deal with wicked people in the church. Some will come to repentance. Others will refuse, and they must be put out of the church. Many churches are full of leaven because the leaders don’t want to deal with it. They are after filthy lucre, and they fear that if they do, they will offend some of their big donors.

Let’s go to 1 Pet 5:1-4 , The elders who are among you I exhort, I who am a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that will be revealed: Shepherd the flock of God which is among you, serving as overseers, not by compulsion but willingly, not for dishonest gain, or filthy lucre, but eagerly; nor as being lords over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock; and when the Chief Shepherd appears, and He is coming, you will receive the crown of glory that does not fade away. In the King James it says: Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind. 1 Pet 5:6, Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time. Micah 6:8, For what does the Lord require of you, but to do justly and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God. Many would say, Don’t judge! Which is true. We should not judge unjustly, based on our own understanding. But Jesus said, Judge righteous judgement. And I read earlier, the apostle Paul said, Do you not judge those that are within? We must judge sin and lies in the church by the Word of God and the Holy Spirit. 1 Cor 11:31&32, For if we would judge ourselves , we would not be judged, but when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world. If we will meet God’s conditions, He will do what He has promised. He doesn’t change, and He is not a respecter of persons. The righteous, the humble shall be exalted. Those who practice lawlessness, if they will not repent, shall be destroyed. If you love people, tell them the truth!

2 Pet 3:17&18, You therefore, beloved, since you know this beforehand, beware lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked; but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and forever. Amen. 2 Pet 3:9, The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. So if you are an elder, and you won’t deal with the leaven of malice and wickedness in your church, and you let it continue, you are responsible before God for the destruction that follows in people’s lives. We need true elders! 1 Pet 1:22, We must purify our souls by obeying the truth through the Spirit, unto unfeigned, true, genuine, love of the brethren, and we must love one another with a pure heart fervently. Lev 19:17, You shall not hate your brother in your heart: you shall in any wise rebuke your neighbor, and not suffer sin upon him. If you know that your brother or your sister is in sin, it is not love to ignore it and not deal with it. It is love to confront them in all humility, longsuffering, patience, gentleness, meekness; to confront them. Jesus said, again, As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Be zealous therefore and repent! Jesus said, in Mat 7:21-23, Not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name? And then I will declare to them, I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!