Beware the Modern Day Leaven

You know, there's a growing number who speak out against anyone who strives to follow the Bible. It seems that we are wackos if we're reading the Bible and trying to follow what Jesus Christ instructed and what is instructed elsewhere in the Bible. And I think more and more anyone who upholds the Bible is going to be pounded from this world on every side. You know, and a person can be, if they allow themselves, be intimidated if we allow ourselves to be affected by the world and what the world says. Because a Christian, I think, is going to become more and more isolated. I don't know if you have followed the story about this evangelical pastor by the name of Rob Bell, who wrote a book on the subject of hell. That's not the title of the book, but it's basically talking about how that people are not going to be cast into hell. I haven't read the book, by the way. I think it was prompted by somebody in his congregation that wrote him a note or something that said that Ghande is in hell. And anyway, that caused him to begin to study the subject of hell, and as a result, this book came out. But, you know, of course, with regard to the subject, you and I probably would agree with him a lot more than he would agree with us about that particular subject. But one thing I think is very interesting that this Rob Bell has said, and he's a very influential evangelical pastor, he says that he has felt for a long, long time that there is a redefinition of what a Christian is coming within Christian circles. In other words, they're going to redefine what a Christian is. I think he talks about how that some people like Ghande and other decent people in the world, they go to heaven. Of course, we would not agree with that. We don't believe anybody goes to heaven.

You know, the only one that went back to heaven was Jesus Christ who came down from heaven.

And, of course, we have other beliefs about the subject of hell or Gehenna as well. But I think the way that struck me when I read it, it was a Time Magazine article that I read over in Hawaii when I was there, that it's almost as though he's saying, basically, we can redefine Christianity any way we want. And why not? Because that isn't what Protestantism has done anyway.

It's redefined Christianity the way they want, the way they desire, and hence we have what we have today. You know, during Christ's ministry, Jesus was often confronted by the Pharisees and the Sadducees. And they often judged his actions quite blatantly sometimes. You know, there are several times where he judged, they judged Jesus Christ and what he did. They questioned why he ate with sinners. You know, you can read about that, of course, in the Gospels where they ask him, well, why do you eat with sinners? Those are known sinners. They accused his disciples of breaking the Sabbath and accused him of, in fact, breaking the Sabbath as well, because he healed on the Sabbath day. They accused his disciples of violating the traditions of the elders. And they test him by asking for a sign. Remember, he told them the only sign that would be given would be the sign of Jonah. That is, as Jonah would be in the heart of the great fish for three days and three nights, that that would, in fact, happen to Jesus Christ, that he would be, you know, in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights. And he said that an evil generation seeks after a sign. And so Jesus warned his disciples concerning these religious leaders and the way that they were. Remember, he said that they were blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, where do they fall? They fall into the ditch. And he warned his disciples to beware of their teaching and the things that they taught. And he described their doctrine or their teaching as being like leaven. You know, we're talking about leavening here during the days of unleavened bread. In other words, it's like yeast spores, which is used to cause the bread to rise. And in little leaven, as Paul said, spreads through the whole dough, the whole lump. And so the whole lump is leavened. So he warned them about the teachings of the scribes and the Pharisees. And he used this analogy of leaven to depict the contagious and pernicious teachings of these pharisees and these sageses.

Now, what did they believe that was so bad? You know, why did Jesus Christ compare it to leavening?

Let's take a look at that today in Matthew 16. Let's notice in verses 11 and 12 over here.

Notice what Jesus said because the disciples didn't understand what Jesus Christ meant by the leaven of the Pharisees and the sageses. And he said in verse 11, it says, How is it that you do not understand that I did not speak to you concerning bread? You know, they had their minds attached to bread alone. But Christ wasn't talking about bread at all, but beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and sageses. And then they understood that he did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine, or what that word means, the teachings of the Pharisees and the sageses. Well, what were the doctrines of the Pharisees and sageses that Jesus Christ was warning them about? What were those teachings that they instructed people about? And I want to also additionally ask the question, are there modern Pharisees and sagese counterparts that we need to be aware of today? You know, do we have Pharisaical and, you know, those doctrines or teachings today of the Pharisees and the sageses that are out here today in this world, in this modern time? In fact, the title of this sermon is Beware of Modern Day Leaven. Modern Day Leaven. I mentioned at the beginning about Rob Bell and some of the ideas that are beginning to filter out into the world and the society. Indeed, there are those teachings that are modern day leaven today that we have to be aware of.

You know, often when we think about the Pharisees, what do we think about? Self-righteousness, right? We think of self-righteousness. But that's not all Jesus Christ was warning about. You know, the Pharisees were arrogant. No question about that. The sageses were arrogant as well. You know, in Halley's Handbook and also the Encyclopedia Britannica 11th edition, I looked up Pharisees. I thought it was very interesting what was said about them. Who were the Pharisees? Well, they were a sect who likely originated in the 3rd century BC prior to the Maccabean wars when the Greeks sought to Hellenize the Jews. And so this is where the Pharisees came from. And there was a tendency of many Jews to accept Greek culture with their pagan customs along with it. And the Pharisaical sect was a reaction against that movement of people actually inculcating Greek culture into the Jewish religion. And so this is why the Pharisees came to the fore. And they sought to preserve their heritage and conformally to the law of Moses. The word Pharisee, by the way, is from the Hebrew, which is phara-saius, which means separatist. Separatists. You know, actually you get pretty political about this if you want to on the subject of the Pharisees. And they wanted to maintain the separateness of Israel from all the other nations of the earth. Nothing necessarily wrong with that. That goal that they had. And they were known for their strict observance of the law of Moses. That's how they were known in that way. Were they that way, though? Well, we'll see some things about it. And they also adopted the traditions of the elders, which were interpretations of the law that had been handed down orally from one generation to another. And it was put in written form in the second century AD. And it was called the Talmud. The Pharisees, particularly from the Maccabean times, exercised great political and ecclesiastical power over the people to bring this about. So they had power politically, you know, over the people. And during the time of Christ, they exercised chief leadership over the Sanhedrin. And the Sadducees were fewer in number, but also they had influence. They held some different ideas. But, you know, we have no stronger language, by the way, by Jesus Christ than what he said about the scribes and the Pharisees.

I think we need to note again what he said about them. Scribes were lawyers, by the way, of that time. And they copied the law and were respected by the people because they were supposed to know the very smallest matters of the law. And, you know, Christ said that they strained at a gnat and they swallowed a camel. I was going to say swallowed a cannibal. But they swallowed a camel. In other words, they committed worse sins because they strained at some things that were very insignificant. And they missed some mighty big points. Let's go to Mark 7. Mark 7. You know, in this time and age, we need to, I think, more than ever heed what Jesus Christ warns about. You know, we, of course, could also heed in terms of attitudes that people seem to have because of an attitude can make all the difference in the world, you know, as to what we do. But in Mark 7 in verse 1, it says, Then the Pharisees and some of the scribes came together to him, having come from Jerusalem.

And when they saw some of his disciples eat bread with defile, that is, with unwashed hands, they found fault. It was like they were always watching, you know. Some people, I guess, set themselves up as judges, and they're always watching what other people do.

But they don't watch what they do. They don't pay any attention to how they live.

But they're watching other people as to how they live. For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands in a special way holding the tradition of the elders. And when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other things which they have received and hold, like the washing of cups and pitchers and copper vessels and couches. And it says, then the Pharisees and the scribes ask him, why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders but eat bread with unwashed hands? You know, why do they do this? Now, some say that the disciples, you know, actually did wash their hands but not the way the tradition of the elders had dictated. Of course, some of the Pharisees, according to some of the information I've got, wash their hands up to their wrists. And I would say most of us probably do that when we wash our hands. But some say that they wash their hands all the way up to the elbow. And that Barnes says the Greek word here has to do with washing their hands or rubbing them with the fist. You know, I don't know how some people wash their hands but rubbing it with their fist. In any case, this wasn't, of course, commanded by God. We find no place in the Bible where God instructs us on how to wash our hands. He does instruct us in various places to be clean, doesn't he? Nothing wrong with that kind of thing. But remember, it was a tradition of the elders. Imagine something becoming so potent that it became almost law that you had to wash your hands a certain way. And Christ told them later, a little dirt from unwashed hands isn't going to defile you. You know, if it does, I think most of us would probably be dead.

Because I remember when I was a kid growing up, I used to eat rocks. I don't know if you did that ever. I think every little boy has got to stick some rocks in his mouth. And I was told that in order to become very good at elocution of words, it's good to put some marbles in your mouth, and try to pronounce words. I guess, in some cases, I should maybe cling to marbles a little better.

But I may have picked up a little something from that as well. But every little boy, again, sticks something in his mouth. But the body is designed so that it actually carries it out of the system because of the elementary system that we have that cleanses the body. In other words, the body is not toxic as a result of it, but rather it's expelled by the body. But Jesus Christ said that a little dirt is not going to defile you. But what does defile you, he said, is what comes out of a man.

And he talked about evil thoughts. He talked about adulteries and fornications.

You know, people conjuring these kind of things up and carrying through with them. Murders, I'm sure we could add hatred and wrath and anger, and thefts, thievery. He talked about pride as well, that people can have this huge, swelling pride, and that defiles a human being. I think, quite frankly, we've had this problem recently with some in the church. They've just got so much pride in themselves that they have every bit of confidence. You know, they don't seek any kind of counsel, but they just jump headlong over the cliff. And so also there's deceit. These are the things that will condemn a man. These are the things that will defile a man.

Let's go to Matthew chapter 15. Matthew chapter 15. Matthew 15 and verses 12 through 14 here.

And so these are the things that will tear a man up as far as God is concerned. These are the things that will affect him if he has these things coming out of him. You know, it's amazing, I think I told you one time about how we had a couple of teenagers down in Montgomery, Alabama years ago. And I'm sure they're grown men now, because it goes back probably 20 years ago.

But they were working for a pizza place. And anyway, what happened is the owner of the pizza place came back and he found that these boys had stolen from the freezer, stolen beer and other things. I'll give you one guess as to what they did not steal. Pork. And so he knew immediately who the boys were that had done it. But this is the way people think, though.

You know, I can steal, I'm going to steal this and break that law, but I'm not going to eat pork. You know, this is the way human beings tend to feel. You know, then they get around and they reason with themselves, of course, very fatal reasoning if we expect to please God. But in verse 12 of Matthew chapter 15, and it says, then his disciples came to him and said to him, do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying? And he answered and said, every plant which my heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted. Let them alone, they are blind leaders of the blind, and if the blind lead the blind, both will fall in the ditch.

And so, brethren, you know, Jesus Christ looked at the Pharisees of his day and he looked upon them as being the blind. You know, I have a blind brother, and since he's five years old, he's been able to navigate. You know, he was able to navigate in our house without anybody helping him. You know, he didn't have a stick even.

You know, one of those white feeler sticks. In fact, he didn't have that for quite a while until he got up to be a teenager. But he's able to get along. He doesn't have his physical vision. But here Jesus said these people were blind. If the blind lead the blind, they both fall in the ditch. They don't know where they're going. They're groping again against the wall. And so Jesus Christ said, leave them alone. Let's go to verse three here in the same chapter.

And he answered and said to them, why do you also transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition? You know, here Christ was talking about the washing of hands again in verses one and two. But he says, why do you transgress the commandments of God because of your tradition? You know, it's like they're straining a gnat and swallowing a camel. In verse four, for God commanded saying, honor your father and your mother, and he who curses father or mother, let him be put to death.

Now that's pretty serious, isn't it? Be put to death if you curse your father and your mother. So God meant it, and we take care of our family. But you say, whoever says to his father or mother, whatever prophet you might have received from me, is a gift to God.

In other words, all you got to do is pronounce that it's a gift of God. In verse six, then he need not honor his father or mother, Jesus said, thus you have made the commandment of God of no effect by your tradition. And so you negated the law of God, he was telling them in this case.

Now, I think it's quite interesting here, you know, that in this case, Jesus Christ was pointing up to them, that look, you negate the law of God. You know, in the Book of Mark, I'm not going to go to the Book of Mark, but in the Book of Mark, the word that was used in reference to this procedure to avoid taking care of your mother and father was called Corbin. The word Corbin meant a gift. You make it a gift to God and you don't have that obligation. And they encouraged the people to promise their property and their assets, declaring it a gift or offering to God, even though some were neglecting their parents at old age.

And their rationale was that it was like a vow that had to be paid once it was declared. If you say you're going to do that, you can't take, you know, you can't take it and use it for another purpose. And you know what? The Pharisees allowed it. And why? Because it profited them.

It profited them. And that was what was so evil about it and so wrong. They could have said, wait a minute, there is the law of God. There is the commandment of God, but they didn't do that.

You know, I think that that's something that obviously, even today, we could be that way in the church, you know. I know sometimes I've told people in the church if they're going to make a donation to the church, where maybe they're giving their assets to the church or whatever, I always try to make sure. They say, well, wait a minute, have you taken care of your family?

I think that's a very important thing for an elder to do, because we don't want to be guilty of what the Pharisees did, you know, in giving all their assets to the church and not taking care of their family. In verse 7, he said, hypocrites, well did Isaiah prophesy about you, saying, these people draw near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. And in vain they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men. You know, these are the teachings that they had.

And, you know, it just is amazing again that this is what they did, these people that were strictly adhering to the law of God. Now, the thing about the Pharisees is they mostly taught the right things. They mostly taught the right things, but you know, their attitude and their motivation was often wrong. It was wrong. They taught to obey the fifth commandment. They did teach that, by the way, but they didn't uphold it because of their greed. You know, imagine teaching these things, and then when the time and opportunity comes to uphold it, you know, they do not uphold it. Chapter 16 in verse 3. Let's notice this.

Chapter 16 in verse 3, he says, in the morning it will be foul weather today, but the sky is red and threatening hypocrites. You know how to discern the face of the sky, but you cannot discern the signs of the time. So Jesus Christ, again, called them hypocrites.

And then in verse 4, he says, a wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign shall be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. And so, you know, God here through Jesus Christ labeled them hypocrites because they sought these signs. You know, I think certainly what they wanted to see Christ do is dance. You know, they played with a pipe, and He didn't dance for them. He didn't do what they wanted Him to do. Now, let's go over to chapter 23. Of all the chapters in the Bible that addresses the Pharisees, chapter 23 probably would win an award for using the word hypocrite the most and labeling the Pharisees because they were indeed that. In Matthew 23, verse 1 through 5, and it says, then Jesus spoke to the multitudes and to His disciples and saying, the scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses' seat. So Jesus did uphold the authority that the scribes and the Pharisees had. You know, they should have been the ones that people should look to. Of course, they had all kinds of problems that were quite interesting to look into if you ever get a chance to study about the Pharisees. You know, that when they fasted, they didn't fast the way we fast. They'd have a partial fast, or if they fasted all day, they slept all day, you know, many of the Pharisees. So they just didn't do things in the right way, in the right manner. But Jesus upheld their authority, and it says, therefore, whatever they tell you to observe, during the general teaching of the law, that observe and do.

But do not do according to their works, for they say and do not do. And so I think this certainly would be a leavening, wouldn't you, of the Pharisees as well. Not only the fact that even if they taught the truth, they didn't do it. And, you know, example, brethren, is one of the greatest teachers of all. You know, how much headway would you make as a mother and a father if, you know, you tried to teach your children and you set an example that was exactly opposite of what you told them to do?

Well, this is what the Pharisees and the scribes were doing. You know, how do you make somebody a convert? How do you make somebody a convert if you tell them to do one thing and you do another thing? So this was a leavening, brethren, of the Pharisees. It says, for they bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men's shoulders, but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers. So here we see again a leavening of the Pharisees. They teach it, they instruct it, but they wouldn't move it with one of their fingers, as it says here. They wouldn't do it. You know, this is a danger, brethren, for all of us here to tell people the truth, and yet we don't live it as God's people. And if somehow we begin to take on those attitudes about ourselves, we tell people about keeping the Sabbath and we don't keep the Sabbath. If we tell people about God's holy days and we don't observe the holy days, you know, these things, we tell people about them and we don't do them. How different are we than the Pharisees? Well, I don't think we're different at all to them. If we're that way, if we're not doing what we're supposed to do. And it says, but all their works they do to be seen by men. They make their flatries broad and enlarge the borders of their garments. There's another right there, brethren, a teaching of the Pharisees, a doctrine of, if you will, a teaching is really what that word means, of the Pharisees. They did things for show, for appearance before human beings.

You know, they weren't doing it to God. They were doing it for the aggrandizement of the people.

And they loved the broad flatries. Albert Barnes' notes on the Bible says, the word flattery comes from a word signifying to keep or preserve or guard. The name was given because flatries were worn as amulets or charms and were supposed to defend or preserve those who wore them from evil. In other words, you know, it was a protection from evil for the Pharisees.

Fringes, by the way, represented respect for the law. This was a physical outward show of respect for the law. Of course, now we do it, you know, inwardly, as we know the scriptures instruct us to do for God's law. And it says on the borders, this is what Albert Barnes notes, on the borders were longer fringes on their garments to show that they respected the law more than the common man. But of course, they did not. You know, maybe in a roundabout way they did. They respected the law in actually instructing it. But they didn't do it. They didn't live by the law of God. They did their works to be seen of men. And again, we can allow, brethren, that leavening to get in us, that kind of leavening is more dangerous than any kind of leavening, right there. If we say and we do not, that is the most damaging leavening that begins to affect us and can affect us in a very powerful way. It's almost like turning God's grace into license.

Now we can do that as Christians, turn God's grace into license. And you know, we need to again realize that the being that we need to be concerned about is not our brother who sits next to us, you know, at services, but God in heaven. That we need to think about what he expects of us and that God is judging us. But their vanity made them love the attention and they love the special treatment by others. And you know what? It blinded them. It blinded them. And they prevented others even from finding the way to the kingdom, by how they conducted themselves. And their pride and their vanity that was a part of it, you know, they purported to be people that were austere.

They set forth to people that they were strict observers, but they were nothing of the kind, according to what Jesus Christ has said here. In verse 6 going on, they loved the best places of feasts, the best seats in the synagogues, greetings in the marketplaces, and to be called by men, Rabbi, Rabbi. But you do not be called Rabbi, for one is your teacher, the Christ, and you are all, brethren. And so he told his disciples not to be called that. He says, do not call anyone on earth your father, for one is your father, he who is in heaven. And do not be called teachers, for one is your teacher, the Christ. And so Christ is that teacher. And you know, one of the things I think is very important, or was very important with the Pharisees and the scribes were titles. They wanted the titles. I think, frankly, in our previous association in the world tomorrow, the World White Church of God, I believe that title became too important.

You know, if you had the name evangelist as a part of you, it became a pride that was attached to it.

Or, you know, if you were a pastor, we used to talk about pastor-rank ministers and preaching elder rank, you know. And of course, some of the elders and ministers in the field used to say that rank stank, because often people didn't have the right attitudes, you know.

And I'm not saying that everybody was that way. I don't think everyone was that way, but there were those certainly that had that attitude. I know one individual that became an evangelist, he said, made it just on time. So he sort of apparently set out to be an evangelist and was ordained when he thought he would be, you know, ordained. So, you know, we need to not be like the Pharisees, be all concerned about showing to people that we're greater and miter than they are. You know, Jesus Christ made the statement here again that we're all basically the same. You know, each of us are in fact supposed to be servants of one another, no matter who we may be in the church. So we don't call anyone rabbi, we don't call anyone reverend, because only God is to be reverend and worship. Now in verse 13, it says, But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men, for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in.

Isn't that a thing to say about so-called servants? It's supposed to be the servants of the people, the leaders at this time. They were looking out for themselves and they prevented other people from being a part of the kingdom of God. And how were they doing that, brethren? Well, first of all, they were shutting off Jesus Christ. And second of all, they were rejecting God by their hypocrisy.

And again, how do you teach someone if your life is full of hypocrisy? In verse 14, woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you do devour widows' houses and for pretense, make long prayers. Therefore, you will receive greater condemnation. What a, you know, something to say, you devour widows' houses. Somebody who is helpless, you know, you take all they have and you make a pretense to make long prayers. So, brethren, each of us need to think about the fact of how we do things in the church. We don't do it to be ostentatious to people. Hopefully, when we hear prayer in the church, it's from that person's heart. It's not to show people how eloquent we are. You know, it's not to be someone who is, you might say, an orator standing up. We really, a person should not have to write anything down to do a prayer. Wouldn't you agree?

I would think it could come from their heart, especially if they're standing before God's people. But, you know, the Pharisees apparently liked the long prayers. You know, people maybe looked and said, boy, he really is righteous. You know, and yet Jesus Christ prayed very short prayers and did a resurrection on one of them when He resurrected Lazarus. He said a very short prayer, and God intervened. In verse 15, woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves. Think about that, brethren. You know, they went to great extents to make converts to the Jewish religion of the time, and Christ said they were twice the person of hell that they were when they received. They went to them. What a thing to say. In verse 16, woe to you blind guides who say, whoever swears by the temple, it is nothing, but whoever swears by the gold of the temple, he is obliged to perform it. He said fools and blind, for which is greater, the gold or the temple that sanctifies the gold? And whoever swears by the altar, it is nothing, but whoever swears by the gift that is on it, he is obliged to perform it.

Well, if you went there and you laid that gift down, you know, of course we know why that became a very much a commandment that was a tradition, is because of the money that was involved. It was greed based upon how they did things then. And he says, therefore, he who swears by the altar swears by it, and by all things on it. He who swears by the temple swears by it, and by him who dwells in it. And he who swears by heaven swears by the throne of God, and by him who sits on it. And so they again had these things that were silly distinctions, like those concerning what was a binding vow and what was not. Some of the distinctions that they had were ludicrous to Christ, and Christ called them hypocrites because of it. Verse 23, woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites for you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites for you pay tithe the mint and anise and come in, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law, justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done without leaving the others undone. And so here's a case where again they strain an anat and swallow the camel. They rejected or at least neglected the judgment, mercy and faith while they were haggling over what belonged to God and what belonged to them. You know, I think that the attitude, I think this shows, brethren, that we should have is if we're going to tithe, particularly we're going to tithe on teeth leaves, you know, grab a batch and say, I think this is about 10% and give it to God even if it's 20%, you know. So this is the way they were in verse 24. That's where Christ said, blind guides who strain in an anat and swallow a camel. You know, again, these were the things that they they basically mentored the people with, the things that people saw. These are the things that they were taught. You know, people again did probably things similar to them because of what they taught. And, you know, they did some things and they neglected other things. And in terms of tithing, Christ did not say that tithing was not necessary, but they shouldn't have left the other undone either. I had one person one time that was telling me that Jesus was saying in verse 23 that tithing wasn't important. Now, again, logic doesn't really carry through with that. I think the person that was saying that is they didn't want to pay tithes. That was the reason they said that, or that they didn't have to worry about that kind of thing. Well, I wonder, though, how they did with judgment, mercy, and faith. I imagine that was not necessarily something that they looked into carefully as to what they were supposed to do. Verse 29, woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous.

And it says, and say, if we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. Therefore, you are witnesses against yourself that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Now, Christ is saying you're just like they were.

Here you decorated, you decorate the prophets' tombs, and you're just like your fathers who killed the prophets. You know, they, of course, tried to kill Jesus Christ as well. And they also, we know, tried to impact the work of the disciples, tried to stop them from preaching in the name of Jesus Christ. And they did many, many other things. They were the decorators of the prophets' tombs, but Jesus said that what they have done is proven that they are the sons of those who killed the prophets. So, what other leaven or teachings do we have to watch today, brethren? You know, many people accuse those who stress the keeping of God's commandments as legalists or pharisaical.

I wonder if that's a good name to place on somebody that's a legalist.

You know, it probably is true that the Pharisees taught the strict adherence to the law of God, but it was not true that they lived it. It was not true that they, you know, were legalists in the sense of keeping it to the letter of the law. The words legalism or legalist are not found in the Bible, by the way. You're not going to ever find that in the Bible anyway. And often people use labels to denigrate those who believe in keeping the commandments. I know we were called legalists by our former association because we felt you should keep the Sabbath day. By the way, Jesus didn't fault the Pharisees for teaching the law strictly. He didn't fault them for that.

But he faulted them because they did not keep it strictly themselves. And they told everybody else to do that. That's not what God intended that people do. The Pharisees and tribes didn't keep the law strictly themselves. What did Christ find fault with them about? Number one, making the commandments of no effect by human tradition. And number two, for doing some commands and leaving others undone. And number three, hypocrisy. That's what Jesus Christ condemned his disciples about, brethren. If strict observance of God's commandments makes a person a legalist, then Jesus Christ was a legalist. Because he said, and he did, he lived by the laws of God. Now let's go to Matthew 5. Matthew chapter 5. Matthew 5. Like I say, when people use that word legalist or any similar term like that, they are denigrating people who keep the commandments. What's wrong with honoring your father and your mother? Nothing wrong with that, is there? What's wrong with having a day of peace and refrain from work on the Sabbath day? Nothing wrong with that at all. And of course, we could go through every one of the commandments. What's wrong about telling the truth, not lying? He could go through all of those commandments, and one could not find anything wrong with any commandment. That it's not out of order, because by living this way shows love to other people. You know, when we live this way as God's people, man commits adultery. He's harmed another man and harmed that woman, and not only their family, but he has also harmed his own family, his own children in the process and wife. Matthew 5 down to verse 17. He says, do not think I came to destroy the law or the prophets. You know, some people have the idea that the father gave this cruel, harsh laws in the Old Testament, and Jesus Christ was the son who came along to just do away with those laws. You know, kind of a rebellious son that was going to be different than his father. He says, don't think I've come to destroy the law or the prophets. I did not come to destroy, but to fulfill. Or as we know in the Greek, that means to magnify, to fill it up, to make it, in other words, full to the brim. And he says, for surely I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law, till all is fulfilled. And whoever, therefore, breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so. It says, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say to you that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. In other words, we know it's not just the keeping of the letter of the law, but also the spirit of the law. You know, God wants us to keep the intent of the law.

So many people again think that, you know, that when Jesus Christ came and came to do away, He didn't come to do away. If anything, He came to make the law more binding on us. You know, if a man has to be concerned about what he thinks and not just what he does, that's more binding.

You know, God has gotten into our minds and our hearts, and you know, this is what we must do to have our righteousness exceed that of the scribes and the Pharisees. And we have to keep in mind also, brethren, that our righteousness, even at its best, still is not enough, because it takes Jesus Christ as His sacrifice. You know, we can live everything and do everything perfectly up until the coming of Christ, and it would not be enough unless we again embrace Jesus Christ as our Savior to wipe away the sins that we've committed and will commit, even though we may not want to. We may not want to commit sins. Like Paul said, the things I want to do, I don't do, you know, because of this human nature. You know, we make mistakes, don't we, just nearly every day.

And we have wrong thoughts probably every day or whenever. We all have them, again, wrong thoughts.

We slip up. We do things wrong in our lives, and we need, again, the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

You know, Christ expects His disciples to surpass the Pharisees in their righteousness.

And He called for His disciples to express their love for Him by keeping His commandments.

Let's notice over in chapter 14, I'm not going to go to verse 15, but there Jesus Christ said, if you love Me, keep My commandments. So Christ said, if you love Me, you're going to keep My commandments, if you care for Me, and have that love for Me, that abiding love for Me, you're going to keep My commandments. But let's go to John 14 and down to verse 21 and 24.

Here Jesus said, He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is He who loves Me, and He who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love Him and manifest Myself to Him. And also down in verse 24, He who does not love Me does not keep My words, and the words which you hear is not Mine, but the Father's who sent Me. And so if we really, truly love Jesus Christ, we're going to keep His Word. That is exactly, again, what we must be doing. And when the disciples went out preaching, brethren, that's what they preached. They preached about keeping the commandments of God.

I think that's so very clear in the Bible. In fact, when we come to the writings of the Apostle Paul, isn't that what he is preaching? That's what he's instructing. Just a quick verse over in 1 Corinthians 7 verse 19. Here it talks about 1 Corinthians 7 verse 19, circumcision is nothing. Imagine how that came across to the Jews. Circumcision is nothing.

And uncircumcision is nothing. But keeping the commandments of God is what matters.

And so Paul went out. He was teaching this, that we must keep the commandments of God. And in the last surviving Apostle John, let's notice over here in 1 John 5 what he says over here.

First John chapter 5 and verses 2 and 3 over here. Here John says, and again, he's the one that is the last surviving Apostle. By this, in John 5 verse 2, by this we know that we love the children of God when we love God and keep His commandments. And this is one of the verses, by the way, that all of us cut our teeth on when we first came into the church in verse 3 here. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments and His commandments are not burdensome. You know how the Protestants talk about how that, you know, the Sabbath and all of that was a burden?

And in the King James it says, they're not grievous. They're not grievous. They're not heavy for us. You know, if they're heavy for us and just such a burden, brethren, then why do we all have such big smiles at the Feast of Tabernacles? You know, if God's law is so heavy upon us, brethren, why do we keep keeping it? Because it's not heavy. It's good for us. It's what the world needs right now. This world that is so loaded down with so many heavy burdens needs the law of God more than anything else in the world. I mean, look at what is going on in the world that is around us. I mean, are we not living in surreal times? I mean, how much worse does it have to get for us to come to realize, brethren, that this world is going to come to an end as we know it? And the time is going to come when not only do we pray Thy kingdom come, but we're going to absolutely need Jesus Christ in order to pick up the pieces after what happens in the future from a prophetic standpoint. Now, what are the Pharisees of today like, brethren? What are the Pharisees of today like?

Pharisees of today, brethren, do away with the commandments and practice the tradition of men.

That's what they do today. They practice the keeping of pagan holidays. Easter is one of those. And Christmas, I saw a woman who had her car dressed up like a bunny rabbit coming down here. I don't think I've ever seen that before. But, you know, the same people that practice these pagan holidays also, I guess, believe that rabbits lay eggs and a whole lot of other stuff.

You know, you ever thought about how many pagan holidays, you know, teach things that are just totally off the wall? Unbelievable. And we, I say we, in the general sense of human beings, we teach this to our children, you know, and think it's for their good. You know, the Santa Claus goes to the North Pole. No, I think Santa Claus probably is going to come from anywhere. He's coming from Hawaii or someone like that. But we know he's a fictitious person.

Number two, the Pharisees of the day are hypocritical and teach, but they do not practice.

They teach the Ten Commandments and say they're done away with. Have you ever heard a minister teach the Ten Commandments and then do away with them? I have.

It's like I've heard a minister preach the resurrection and then put the deceased in heaven at the same time. It's amazing. In fact, that's what happened to my mother, you know. When the minister gave the message, I thought, well, he's giving the right message here. He's talking about the resurrection. And when he was reading the Bible, he was all right. And I thought to myself, yeah, just stick with the script of what the Bible says. And then at the end, she was in heaven.

Of course, I knew that she was not. But this is what, again, the Pharisees do.

Next, they do things to be seen of men for vanity's sake.

You know, when somebody is not doing something out of obedience, what else can they be doing but doing it for vanity's sake?

Pharisees of today do not show people the way to the kingdom.

You know, they will not teach the true Jesus. They will not teach the true new covenant. They will not teach the true gospel. And they will not teach about what is the true spirit of God.

Next, brethren, religion is used for getting filthy lucre.

Just money is what is important. You know, they teach what they're told to teach, even if they don't believe it. And why do they do it? For the paycheck.

It's like a minister applying for a job, you know, was asked what his beliefs were. And he basically said he could teach anything they wanted.

That's for the paycheck, isn't it? And these days, by the way, a pastor of a large church can have a fairly good salary. 90,000, 100,000 is not unheard of, you know. And of course, some of these super-mega churches, the ministers are making hundreds of thousands of dollars.

And of course, the Pharisees of today, brethren, command what God has not commanded.

They command what God has not commanded. They give commands based on human reasoning.

And next, brethren, they stress some commands and they neglect others.

They stress love, but they ignore the laws of God. But you know, you can't know what love is unless you have the law of God. So this is what the Pharisees of our time do right now, brethren. And you don't have to be a Jew for this to be the case. You know, in fact, you could be a part of the church and teach these things too, God forbid. But people can be that way.

And again, I think we have some solid pastors and teachers and elders in the church right now, but I know that certainly it can be possible. And we have to always be on our guard.

You know, they deny the true Christ and do away with the law of God. And you know, these kind of ideas permeate throughout society. And you know, it can get into the church, can be in the church.

Watch what happens with this Rob Bell thing, because he's sort of walking in high cotton now. What else this man says? Of course, the evangelicals, some of them are about ready to kick him out of their particular group. But brethren, it's incessant that they keep pushing and pushing the edge of the envelope. You know, and pretty soon, they're the ones that define, just throw the Bible out and do what you want to do. You know, that's what they do anyway. But I mean, at least there are some things that they do adhere to. You know, there is a secular side, which leavens society as well. And I would say, if we were to compare in the Bible, a group of people that depict the secular side, it would be the Sadducees. They were the secular side. These were the intellectuals. You know, Christ said, beware of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. This is what Halley's handbook says, Bible handbook, page 411. The Sadducees, as a sect, are thought to have originated about the same time as the Pharisees. Being guided by secular considerations, they were in favor of adopting Greek customs. So they were the ones willing to accept the Greek customs. They took no part in the Maccabean struggle for their nation's liberty. They were a priestly clique. Though they were the religious officials of their nation, they were avowedly irreligious. They were not religious people. They were not numerous, but were wealthy and influential. And to a great extent, they controlled the Sanhedrin, even though they were rationalistic and worldly-minded. So these were worldly-minded type religious people, irreligious religious people. And you know, people can be that way. I noticed as our former association began to become that way, just more and more secular in its approach. Let's go to Acts chapter 5, and we see this going on in Acts 5. Just look at one verse over here, but in chapter 5 down in verse 17.

Here, this is a time, by the way, when they were going to imprison, throw in jail the apostles. It says, Then the high priests rose up, and all those who were with them, which is the sect of the Sadducees, and they were filled with indignation. Of course, they were very angry with the apostles. But notice here, the high priest rose up, and all those who were with him, which is the sect of the Sadducees. So in this case, the high priest, it looks like he was a Sadducee. He was in the upper echelons of the Sanhedrin. It shows, again, the power that they have. Now, they insisted only the laws found in the Pentateuch or Torah were binding. That's what they taught. And to their credit, they rejected the tradition of the elders. They did not accept the tradition of the elders.

Now, Paul, let's go over to Acts, I'm sorry, chapter 23, and look at what happened to Paul over in Acts 23. Paul, of course, was very aware of these sects, and he knew what they believed. Paul was taken before the Sanhedrin. In Acts 23, you can read again the complete story, but I'm going to break into it here. In Acts 23, verse 7 and 8, Paul was talking in this case.

In verse 6, it says, and when Paul perceived that one part was Sadducees and the other was Pharisees, he cried out in the council. He said, Men and brethren, I am a Pharisee, the son of the Pharisee, concerning hope and resurrection of the dead, that I am being judged. And when he had said this, a dissension arose between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and the assembly was divided. For Sadducees say there is no resurrection and no angel or spirit, but the Pharisees confessed both. And so if they couldn't rationalize something, if they couldn't do it by human reasoning, you might say they were the sort of the scientists of their day, at least from a religious standpoint, they didn't believe it. You know, they didn't believe, again, in angels. They didn't believe in these spiritual things because, again, it could not be something they could rationalize. They didn't believe in resurrection, so they didn't believe about life after death. So they had some of these ideas that were a part of them. But I think it really builds up to show something, brethren, about how people in our world and society can influence us to be unbelievers in the spiritual realm. You know, we can be like the scientists of our day, who have to test it in a laboratory before we believe it. Matthew 22 and verse 23. Let's notice this. And it says, And the same day the Sadducees who say there is no resurrection came to him and asked him, saying, Teacher, Moses said that if a man dies, having no children, his brother shall marry his wife and raise up offspring for his brother. Now there were with us seven brothers, and the first died after he had married, and having no offspring left his wife to his brother. Likewise, the second also, and the third, even to the seventh. And last of all, the woman died also.

So they're giving this paradox to Christ, and it says, Therefore in the resurrection, whose wife of the seven will she be? For they all had her. And Jesus answered and said, You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God. And he said, For in the resurrection they neither marry or are given in marriage, but are like angels of God in heaven. But concerning the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what is spoken to you by God, saying, I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. And when the multitudes heard this, they were astonished at his teaching.

And so here Jesus Christ was showing them again about the resurrection. They did not believe in the resurrection. You know, they did not know the Scriptures, which is often the case, brethren, of people today who are religious. Ever notice that? About people that just don't know the Bible.

You know, they didn't know the Pentateuch. I mean, if you can't figure out what's in the Pentateuch in the first five books of the Bible, and it's your profession, as it were, you really, again, are up a crick without a paddle if you don't know that. So they denied, brethren, the power of God, like many do today, who are heavily influenced by human reasoning. They thought if something could not be comprehended, it must not be so.

Well, God, can we comprehend God? I think we're a little bit... it's a little difficult to comprehend fully God, isn't it? You know, God, of course, is all-knowing. He's omniscient. He's omnipresent. How does He do that? I don't know how He does that. God has all of the superlatives that you would say about anyone. You know, I was thinking about this last night, about God. If we were looking for the best athlete in the universe, who would it be?

God. God the Father. We're looking for the best musician in the world. Who would it be? God.

Tell me what thing does any human being do in their life that God is not the best at everything?

And you know, when I began to think along that line and praying to God and so forth, I said, oh, God, You are to be praised above all because of how great You are.

So what do we watch, brethren, in terms of modern-day Sadducees today?

Well, brethren, those who are tuned into the world and society, those who turn to, you know, what the world is doing, and that is turning science into religion, brethren, that is modern-day Sadducee-type thinking. Science becomes a God.

And it's like, brethren, people can get caught up in saving the environment. It becomes a religion.

And, you know, it can be like a leavening that can get inside of us and multiply and grow, and pretty soon it leavens the whole lump. You know, we believe, by the way, in not destroying the environment in the church, but we don't want to make a religion out of it. Because God did not call us to preach the gospel of the environment. No, God called us to preach the gospel of the kingdom of God. So we do not believe that science has all the answers. In fact, science has very few of the answers. And they have none of the answers when it comes to life after death. They have none of the answers when it comes to the future of what God is doing in His kingdom. You know, another thing to watch in terms of what is a modern-day Sadducee today is some loud voices in society only embrace part of the Bible and reject parts of the Bible.

Next, brethren, some today who teach not to take the Bible literally. Everything's allegory. Everything's a little story. It doesn't really apply to us, you know, just a nice little story.

Sometimes they read the Bible from front to back, and it's all a bunch of literature, like Shakespeare or something. In fact, they would probably attach more value to Shakespeare, you know, than they would the Bible, I would think.

Also, brethren, those who teach the Bible doesn't have the words of Jesus are modern-day Sadducees. You see, if you can't test it, you know, if somehow we don't have evidence of it, then it must not be the words of Jesus.

Next, brethren, those who doubt the miracles of the Bible and deny the power of God. In other words, any miracle that took place in the Bible can be explained scientifically. It's all in here, you know, and you can prove it scientifically. No miracles. When Christ gave sight to people, there has to be a scientific explanation of that.

Finally, brethren, those who undermine the Bible and the deity of Jesus Christ are the modern-day Sadducees. You know, Christ contended, brethren, with the Pharisees on one extreme, there are attitudes about, you know, they did have self-righteous attitudes about themselves, and they were the people that separated and wanted to be separate from anybody else.

Then you have the Sadducees who were the worldly ones. They were the worldly ones.

And, you know, the Sadducees followed only human reasoning. And so, I think, brethren, what it does show, one thing it shows in what Jesus Christ says here, is the importance of balance in a Christian's life. Importance of balance in a Christian life. You see, this is leaven that it's out there. It's in the world. And I give you some of these examples because I know people that have been impacted by these things. And maybe you do, too. But I know people have been impacted by this leaven. And maybe sometimes they are people that are so familiar with this, they've read the stories here about the scribes and the Pharisees a hundred times, and they don't get the point. They don't understand. So, brethren, there is leavening in our day we need to be wary of because their ideas spread like leavening in the world and society that is out there. And this is why Jesus said and had recorded for our instruction, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees.

His intent, brethren, is that we would learn lessons and we could apply them to our lives today. So, brethren, let's not just be aware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees, as Jesus Christ spoke about them in the first century, but let's be aware of the leaven of our modern times that we live in.