Serving God in Sincerity and in Truth

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Introduction

Text - Joshua 24.14; 1 Corinthians 5.7-8
Joshua 24:14 NKJV
14 “Now therefore, fear the Lord, serve Him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the River and in Egypt. Serve the Lord!
1 Corinthians 5:7–8 NKJV
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. 8 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.

Background

Joshua was encouraging Israel to serve God the right way in Canaan.
put away all the gods which their father served in Egypt
Joshua was also warning Israel about the service they will give to God
their service must be sincere and truthful
because God is jealous God
Joshua 24:19–20 NKJV
19 But Joshua said to the people, “You cannot serve the Lord, for He is a holy God. He is a jealous God; He will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins. 20 If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, then He will turn and do you harm and consume you, after He has done you good.”

The Main Idea

Many people are serving God just for the sake of service -
in order to appear religious
in order to identified as Christians
Overtime, Israel’s service to God have become superficial and trivial.
Key questions
How can we serve God in sincerity and in truth?
When does our service become insincere and untruthful?

Main Points

Unleavened Bread means “sincere and truthful”

1 Corinthians 5:8 NKJV
8 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.
Joshua 24:14 NKJV
14 “Now therefore, fear the Lord, serve Him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the River and in Egypt. Serve the Lord!
sincere means WITHOUT PRETENSE
you will serve God because it is what you desire in your heart
it is not showmanship
truthful means conforming to the what is right and true
you will serve God because it is the right thing to do
you understand there is no other God beside the LORD
Israel’s service has become superficial
Isaiah 1:11–15 NKJV
11 “To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to Me?” Says the Lord. “I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams And the fat of fed cattle. I do not delight in the blood of bulls, Or of lambs or goats. 12 “When you come to appear before Me, Who has required this from your hand, To trample My courts? 13 Bring no more futile sacrifices; Incense is an abomination to Me. The New Moons, the Sabbaths, and the calling of assemblies— I cannot endure iniquity and the sacred meeting. 14 Your New Moons and your appointed feasts My soul hates; They are a trouble to Me, I am weary of bearing them. 15 When you spread out your hands, I will hide My eyes from you; Even though you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood.
Still God showed them the right way of serving Him
Isaiah 1:16–20 NKJV
16 “Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; Put away the evil of your doings from before My eyes. Cease to do evil, 17 Learn to do good; Seek justice, Rebuke the oppressor; Defend the fatherless, Plead for the widow. 18 “Come now, and let us reason together,” Says the Lord, “Though your sins are like scarlet, They shall be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They shall be as wool. 19 If you are willing and obedient, You shall eat the good of the land; 20 But if you refuse and rebel, You shall be devoured by the sword”; For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.
Sincerity and Truth are the main requirements in the service of God

The Feast of unleavened bread

Paul compares the gathering of the saints to the feast of unleavened bread
1 Corinthians 5:6–8 NKJV
6 Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? 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. 8 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.
the Feast of Unleavened Bread was instituted by God
Exodus 12:1–8 NKJV
1 Now the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, 2 “This month shall be your beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you. 3 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. 4 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. 5 Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats. 6 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. 7 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. 8 Then they shall eat the flesh on that night; roasted in fire, with unleavened bread and with bitter herbs they shall eat it.
Passover was instituted on the time of Israel’s exodus from Egypt
Exodus 12:14–17 NKJV
14 ‘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. 15 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. 16 On the first day there shall be a holy convocation, and on the seventh day there shall be a holy convocation for you. No manner of work shall be done on them; but that which everyone must eat—that only may be prepared by you. 17 So you shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this same day I will have brought your armies out of the land of Egypt. Therefore you shall observe this day throughout your generations as an everlasting ordinance.
7 days in which Israel will not eat any bread with leaven
it is a memorial of Israel’s freedom from bondage through the passover lamb
The Feast of Unleavened Bread coincided with Christ’s sacrifice
He was the lamb who died to redeem God’s people from death
He died during the passover week
Because Jesus is our Passover Lamb, our gatherings should be -
a feast - a celebration, commemmorating the day of our freedom from bondage and deliverance from death!
a feast of unleavend bread - PURE, undefiled by the world and the flesh
a feast of SINCERITY AND TRUTH
sincere - without pretense; honest adn straightforward
truthful/faithful - conforms to what is right and true and therefore dependable/trustworthy
The Unleavened Bread was introduced and became part of other holy rituals

The Grain Offering

Leviticus 2:4–6 NKJV
4 ‘And if you bring as an offering a grain offering baked in the oven, it shall be unleavened cakes of fine flour mixed with oil, or unleavened wafers anointed with oil. 5 But if your offering is a grain offering baked in a pan, it shall be of fine flour, unleavened, mixed with oil. 6 You shall break it in pieces and pour oil on it; it is a grain offering.
The grain offering shall be -
unleavened cakes of fine flour mixed with oil
unleavened wafer anointed with oil
unleavened
Leviticus 6:14–18 NKJV
14 ‘This is the law of the grain offering: The sons of Aaron shall offer it on the altar before the Lord. 15 He shall take from it his handful of the fine flour of the grain offering, with its oil, and all the frankincense which is on the grain offering, and shall burn it on the altar for a sweet aroma, as a memorial to the Lord. 16 And the remainder of it Aaron and his sons shall eat; with unleavened bread it shall be eaten in a holy place; in the court of the tabernacle of meeting they shall eat it. 17 It shall not be baked with leaven. I have given it as their portion of My offerings made by fire; it is most holy, like the sin offering and the trespass offering. 18 All the males among the children of Aaron may eat it. It shall be a statute forever in your generations concerning the offerings made by fire to the Lord. Everyone who touches them must be holy.’ ”
The grain offering becomes the unleavened bread in the tabernacle
to be eaten by the priesthood
to be eaten only iinside the holy place
to be eaten only by the males among the children of Aaron
The grain offer/unleavened bread represents the Word of God!
entrusted into the hand of the ministers of the word of God
pure and unadulterated Word of God
provided for and eaten in the house of God - the church
The feasts lasts for 7 days, representing the 7 Church Ages
holy assembly in the first day - apostolic age
holy assemby in the last day - end-time
Jesus was raised from the dead on the 8th day
after the church ages - there will be a resurrection of the saints!

Unleavened bread and the consecrecation of the priests

Leviticus 8:1–2 NKJV
1 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 2 “Take Aaron and his sons with him, and the garments, the anointing oil, a bull as the sin offering, two rams, and a basket of unleavened bread;
Leviticus 8:25–28 NKJV
25 Then he took the fat and the fat tail, all the fat that was on the entrails, the fatty lobe attached to the liver, the two kidneys and their fat, and the right thigh; 26 and from the basket of unleavened bread that was before the Lord he took one unleavened cake, a cake of bread anointed with oil, and one wafer, and put them on the fat and on the right thigh; 27 and he put all these in Aaron’s hands and in his sons’ hands, and waved them as a wave offering before the Lord. 28 Then Moses took them from their hands and burned them on the altar, on the burnt offering. They were consecration offerings for a sweet aroma. That was an offering made by fire to the Lord.
Leviticus 8:31–35 NKJV
31 And Moses said to Aaron and his sons, “Boil the flesh at the door of the tabernacle of meeting, and eat it there with the bread that is in the basket of consecration offerings, as I commanded, saying, ‘Aaron and his sons shall eat it.’ 32 What remains of the flesh and of the bread you shall burn with fire. 33 And you shall not go outside the door of the tabernacle of meeting for seven days, until the days of your consecration are ended. For seven days he shall consecrate you. 34 As he has done this day, so the Lord has commanded to do, to make atonement for you. 35 Therefore you shall stay at the door of the tabernacle of meeting day and night for seven days, and keep the charge of the Lord, so that you may not die; for so I have been commanded.”
At the consecration of the priests -
the unleavened bread is eaten and burned on the altar
eat unleavened bread with the meat (part of the sacrifice) for 7 days
will not go outside the tabernacle for 7 days until their consecration is finished
The consecration of the Aaron and his sons represent the consecration of
Jesus Christ, our High Priest in the New Testament, and
the saints, the royal priesthood under Jesus Christ
1 Peter 2:9–10 NKJV
9 But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; 10 who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.
Revelation 1:5–6 NKJV
5 and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth. To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, 6 and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
The seven days represent the 7 Church Ages -
where the true believers of God feed on the PURE WORD of God
the saints remain until end of the period
the time of consecration - the real work is in the kingdom of God
Revelation 5:9–10 NKJV
9 And they sang a new song, saying: “You are worthy to take the scroll, And to open its seals; For You were slain, And have redeemed us to God by Your blood Out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, 10 And have made us kings and priests to our God; And we shall reign on the earth.”
It means ministry out of sincere love
2 Corinthians 6:4–6 NKJV
4 But in all things we commend ourselves as ministers of God: in much patience, in tribulations, in needs, in distresses, 5 in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in sleeplessness, in fastings; 6 by purity, by knowledge, by longsuffering, by kindness, by the Holy Spirit, by sincere love,
It means without offense unto the day of Christ
Philippians 1:9–11 NKJV
9 And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment, 10 that you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ, 11 being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.
1 Peter 1:22–23 NKJV
22 Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart, 23 having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever,

Conclusion

God does not require fancy activities and presentations in our service.
All He requires is that we become like the unleavened bread - PURE.
Sincere - without pretense, comes from an honest heart
truthful - conforms to what is right and true before God
SONG - A Pure Heart
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