Fermented

Well, brethren, a number of years ago, my wife Shannon started down the path of a deep and dark addiction. It all started innocently enough with a batch of homemade sauerkraut. Normal. Innocent. We made Rubens with it. It was actually delicious. Even I got caught up in it for a time.

Made a batch of sauerkraut. Batter of fermentation crock. Little did I know that I was enabling something that would get significantly worse with time. After the sauerkraut, things took a turn. She made kimchi. The entire house smelled like rotting cabbage for a time.

And I drew a personal line in the sand. Sauerkraut was the furthest I was willing to go. But she, well, fermentation beckoned. Soon I started noticing that there were little jars with cheesecloth sitting all over the countertop with this cloudy white liquid dripping from them. And soon our refrigerator was full of kefir and yogurt. I would notice when I'd come home the oven light was on. Not the oven itself, just the light. And inside the oven was this pod of dairy goop covered in a towel.

And turning off the light was not allowed. No, no. Because the little babies couldn't grow in the cold. Soon there were jars of carrot sticks and pickles in the refrigerator. But one bite told the tale. They tasted sour. The carrots, the pickles, had been fermented, too, changing their nature.

Turns out that drippings from all those jars on the counter would lacto-ferment carrots and pickles into something very different. Sour carrots and pickles. She kept telling me how good it was for you. How your gut biome or something needed probiotics. And how that would help with digestion and nutrient absorption. I could tell the fermentation lobby had gotten to her, too. Not long after that, she met with one of the church members' wives, probably in a dark alley somewhere. And then suddenly there were these vials of this brownish liquid all over the house with a jellyfish-looking thing in the bottom of it.

She picked up something from that person, a pet, that she named Scoby. Seems weird to name a jellyfish after a cartoon dog, but hey, who am I to judge? No, she assured me it was Scoby, that it was a symbiotic community of bacteria and yeast that causes fermentation. That weirded me out even a little bit more. Like some kind of primordial ooze.

This goop made a drink that she would sip on regularly called kombucha. At her behest, I went ahead and tried it once. It tasted like an Arnold Palmer, if you made that Arnold Palmer with vinegar. One star would not drink again. Since that time, she's gone even further down the road. She's made kombucha jello, mixing that kombucha with beef gelatin to make this wiggly gelatinous version of this liquid treat.

Even going as far as putting mixed fruit into it, which admittedly did not help with the appetizing nature of it. She's even gotten the kids into it, them consuming kombucha jello with reckless abandon. One time, I came home to see my wife cleaning the ceiling in the kitchen. One of her batches of fruit kombucha had overfermented, and when she opened the container, she was keeping it in. It blew all over the ceiling, the walls, the counters, the appliances, and her.

So, my conclusion was that not only is it hazardous to your taste buds, it is also hazardous to your health, with the potential to explode at any time. Well, enough messing around. All joking aside, Shannon is really into fermentation. She's really into it. And the research does show huge health benefits from consuming fermented foods. It has been shown to increase immunity. It's been shown to increase nutrient absorption, digestive health, as it helps to regulate the very careful balance of bacteria within our digestive tracks, helping to strengthen the good bacteria and to help overpower the bad.

So, there are definitely some positives to fermented food. I'm saying all of what I just said, very tongue-in-cheek. Admittedly, I'm not a big key for a guy. I don't particularly care for lacto-fermented pickles or carrots, kimchi or kombucha, but I'm glad she likes it. I'm glad that she enjoys it. I'm glad that she likes to participate and to make these things. I won't touch kombucha jello personally, but that's more of a sensory thing for me, less of a taste thing. I just don't love jello in general. I don't mind homemade yogurt. I don't mind sauerkraut.

But where this real love of fermentation has worked out really well in my favor has been when she makes sourdough bread. Many of you are sourdough aficionados. Many of you know sourdough. I love sourdough. Out of all the different bread varietals, I would have to say it's my favorite. The flavor, that little hint of sourness, the consistency, kind of with those big bubbles, you really just cannot beat a piece of sourdough bread and toast. It's just delicious.

So there has been benefits to the path that she's found herself on. Periodically, she has maintained a sourdough start. She has gone through and kept it alive. That sourdough start only ever lasts one year at max because she pitches it every year going into the days of unleavened bread as God instructs us to do. Sourdough is an ancient process. Sourdough is an ancient process. Actually, as far back as 1500 BC, there is record of the Egyptians making sourdough bread. As far as 1500 BC. It's not hard to imagine how they came across the process. A flat bread is left out in the air, becomes contaminated by wild geese and bacteria. It produces a unique flavor and a lighter area of texture. As time went on, that process became more refined. Eventually, what we would consider now as sourdough bread was created. It's important for us to consider and recognize that when we talk about leavened bread in Egypt, we talk about these days of unleavened bread and what it is that God has instructed for us to put out. We're not talking about the little, tidy packets of yeast that you pick up at Winco. That's not what we're talking about. Now, is that a leavening agent? Do we put it out? Absolutely, because that's a modern leavening agent. But when we talk about it in the initial historical context that the Bible was written in, Fleischmann's yeast as a company didn't exist until 1868. Louis Pasteur didn't even isolate yeast as a causative agent for fermentation until 1857. Yeast is a modern construct in that sense, as we know it in its purest form. Prior to that period, people understood things fermented. Beer had been around for thousands of years. The Sumerians had made beer thousands and thousands of years ago. Sourdome, at least historically record-wise, sent the Egyptians.

But they didn't understand the mechanism. They didn't understand chemically what was going on behind it. Now, our modern breads today are leavened using pure, uncontaminated strands of pure, highly efficient yeast that come in nice little packages. You open that nice little package, put it in a little bit of warm water to reactivate the yeast, mix it into the dough, and you let that yeast do its work. Then what you get is a nice big, poofy loaf of bread like you see in the store.

You don't get any off flavors. You don't get any weird, sour taste in it whatsoever. You don't run the risk of contamination or bad bacterial growth. It's clean, it's bacteria-free, and puffed up just as people desire in bread. Some of you have done sourdough before. I know that there are a few. I think we've gotten sourdough starts, actually, from some of you in the past. So I know some of you do sourdough. You make a start. You keep that start going by feeding it periodically. Those of you that have done this for a long enough period of time, you know full well that a sourdough start can go bad. You know it can spoil. In fact, if you come out and that thing is pink, or it's kind of gooey brown, or it smells like roadkill, things have gone bad. You're not making bread with that one. Throw that one away. Start over. It's definitely not good. But it can spoil. In fact, it can spoil more than it already is. And that's what we need to keep in mind when we think about sourdough. Sourdough is already partially spoiled. That's the point. It's already partially contaminated. It's just contaminated within a safe and manageable level that will not make you sick.

But it can get bad. And it can go horribly, horribly wrong. So, scripturally, when we talk about leaven, we talk about leaven in this time of year, it's this kind of leaven that we're thinking about and that we're talking about contextually. So let's turn over to Exodus 12, verse 15, as we start here today, to again see this concept in its context. Exodus 12 and verse 15, if you'll turn over there, we'll see the instructions for the days of Unleavened Bread.

See, ultimately, these instructions that God gives Israel as to what they were supposed to do in context. Exodus 12, and we'll go ahead and we'll pick it up in verse 15. Exodus 12 and verse 15.

Exodus 12 and verse 15 says, 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. So we see God very specifically instruct the Israelites to put away the leaven from their homes. And that's a process that we undergo in the modern era of the church today. We go through our homes. We go through our property. We look under the back seat of our car. We look for where those kids managed to jam those little goldfish crackers, you know, as far in the back of that car as they possibly can. We look for every little nook and cranny. We look for all of those little bits of things that have leaven in them, or the things that will cause bread to rise or to puff up ultimately. Modern leaven products such as yeast, baking soda, baking powder, etc. But in those days, remember, leaven was not isolated to just those nice pure yeast isolates or chemicals. Bread in those days was leavened by small amounts of starter dough.

Small amounts of starter dough, just like sourdough is today. You take a little chunk out of the old batch, you mix it into the new batch, you add a bunch of flour, you add a bunch of other stuff, you feed it real good and let it do its thing, and then you reserve back some more the next time you do that. These starters that they used at that time were full of wild yeasts. They were full of bacteria such as acetobacter, which makes acetic acid or vinegar. They were full of lactobacillus, which created lactic acid, giving the bread its characteristic sourness, and every now and again other bacteria that would make you exceptionally sick, which is even a risk today, even in sourdough, if we're not careful with what it is that we're making. But it was this sourdough known at that time in the Hebrew as sior, it's H7603, which is the word that is used for leaven in Exodus 12, verse 15. When it says leaven in Exodus 12, verse 15, it is saying sour. It is saying sior in Hebrew that Israel was instructed to put away. Strong's Concordance describes sior as the following. It says it was a barm or a yeast cake, also swelling as by fermentation. It goes on to describe barm is the froth at the top of fermenting malt liquor. So if somebody's ever made beer, the froth, the krausen, as it's called, is known as barm. It's that little fluffy stuff at the top.

Crudence Concordance describes leaven or the word sior as a piece of dough that has been salted and soured in order to ferment and relish a mass of dough of bread. Smith's Bible dictionary states various substances were known to have fermenting qualities, but the ordinary leaven, know what they say here. The ordinary leaven consisted of a lump of old dough in a high state of fermentation, which was mixed into the mass of dough prepared for baking. It is this old leaven that the Apostle Paul references by way of analogy in 1 Corinthians 5. Let's go ahead and turn over to 1 Corinthians 5. 1 Corinthians 5, we recognize that there are numerous spiritual connections here, numerous spiritual symbolisms that go into these days. 1 Corinthians 5, we'll go ahead and pick it up in verses 6 and 7. In this particular passage, we're breaking into the context of a rebuke from the Apostle Paul to the brethren in Corinth. There was a member in their midst, there was an individual who was sinning in such a way that the Gentiles did not have a name for what it was that this individual was doing, and Paul makes the point to that congregation that they were puffed up about it.

They had allowed that sinful act to puff them up, so to speak. They hadn't mourned.

They were puffed up just like bread that was made with seor. 1 Corinthians 5, and we'll pick it up in verse 6. 1 Corinthians 5 and verse 6, it says, you're glorying. Speaking here to the congregation, he says, your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven, and if this were in the Hebrew, it would have been a little seor. Leaven's 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. Brethren, in the New Testament, they didn't have nice, tidy packets of Fleishman's yeast either. Remember, yeast didn't get even isolated until the late 1800s, as a causative agent. Fleishman's yeast didn't exist until that point in time. Yeast was not a thing, even in Greece. So what were they doing to leaven their bread at that time? Same exact thing they'd done for thousands of years before. They used seor. They used sourdough. They used starch, just like they had before, leaving them out, letting wild yeasts and wild things get in there and raise that dough. That bread during Paul's time would have been leavened in the same way, and it would not have been an analogy that would have been lost on the brethren and Corinth.

Again, we believe this epistle was written right around the days of unleavened bread, given all of the references that Paul makes to these days. We believe that this was definitely the timing of this particular letter, as he references it so often. But Paul is asking them, he says, do you not understand that a little bit of leaven, a little bit of starter from that original batch, and the whole lump becomes fermented? The whole lump becomes leavened as a result. That whole lump will become contaminated. It will become corrupted.

He says, get rid of the seor. Don't put a batch of old dough in with the new dough.

The Egyptians had been practicing and producing sourdough for years, thousands of years. They certainly would have taught the ancient Israelites how to make sourdough.

This would have been something that they would have learned. They may well have known before they got there, but there's a good chance the Israelites would have gotten their sourdough starts from Egypt during that fourth century's worth of time that they were there in Egypt.

Just like their sourdough starts, they got their customs, they got their idolatry, they got their sins from Egypt. The Israelites were slaves in that Egyptian system for the better part of four centuries, very much long enough for Egypt to become institutionalized within the people, for it to become part of them and for them to ultimately assimilate almost wholly to Egyptian society. So when Israel left Egypt, God drew a line in the sand and said, no more of Egypt is going to come with you. No more of Egypt is going to come with you. You're not going to leaven your new dough with old leaven. Leave it behind. God says, put it out, for I brought you out of Egypt. Don't bring that corrupting influence with you.

Don't bring your sins. Don't bring your idolatry. God says, put it out.

We recognize the metaphorical connection of leaven to sin, this connection kind of to this fermentation process and corruption or contamination, so to speak, that results when our old conduct is not put off. If you turn over to Ephesians 4, Ephesians 4, Ephesians 4 and verse 20, the apostle Paul writes, Ephesians 4 and verse 20, he says, But you have not so learned Christ, if indeed you have heard him and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus, that you put off, he says, concerning your former conduct, that you put off concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt, according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, verse 24, that you put on the new man which was created according to God in true righteousness and in holiness. The idea of corruption, this concept that we see here in the Greek word thero, according to Mounce's complete expository dictionary of Old and New Testament words, can be defined as to spoil, to ruin, corruption, to spoil, to ruin, in the sense of something being contaminated, something becoming contaminated, which leads to its destruction and leads to its ruin. It's that sense in which the word is used in this passage that the new man can become corrupt, can become spoiled, can become ruined by the conduct of the old man, if that old man is not put off. We recognize in our lives there is sin to put out, that there are attitudes to overcome, and ultimately it's those attitudes and those sins that can cause problems, not just for us, not just for those individuals who commit them, but for others. As we saw in 1 Corinthians 5, we saw the impact that it had on a congregation, we saw the impact that it had on families, and ultimately on our own relationship with God. Now within Scripture, there's a couple of things that Jesus Christ connects this idea of leaven to, very specific attitudes that are directly connected to this concept of leaven and to its corrupting influence. I'd like to take a look at those today.

As Christ identifies those to his disciples, what exactly does this leaven look like, and how can we heed this message? The title of the message today is Fermented, and it reaches at this idea that when we talk about leaven, we're talking about a fermentation process.

Now we recognize, and we mentioned this, I think it was last week, we talked briefly about this, you know, we don't throw out any beer that we might have in the house at that time. You certainly can. There's no reason you can't, I guess, in that sense, but it's not the Feast of Unleavened Beer, it's the Feast of Unleavened Bread. We recognize that's the context with which this is placed. So that doesn't mean anything in our home that's capable of fermentation is to be thrown away. That's not what I'm getting at here. What I'm getting at here is the corruptible influence that takes place in this process of fermentation. Let's go to Luke 12. Let's go to Luke 12 as we take a look at this. Fermentation is an interesting process. Ultimately, what we see is that the sugars that are inside of something are turned to peruvic acid. Peruvic acid can then take one of two pathways. It can produce lactate or lactic acid, which gives things this kind of characteristic sour flavor, or it can produce CO2 and ethanol, which is what they maximize when making wine, beer, spirits, etc. There's two different fermentation pathways that can take place.

But in both of those scenarios, the goal is bacterial growth. The goal is growth of whatever it may be, whether it's lactobacillus or whether it's fungus-like yeast. The goal is proliferation and ultimately production of these desired characteristics, which are there. That fermentation process is a certain contamination. It's a certain corruption in that sense. Luke 12 and verse 1, it says, in the meantime, when an innumerable multitude of people had gathered around so that they trampled one another, he began to say to his disciples, first of all—so Christ speaks to his disciples—he says, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees. And then Christ identifies, and he says, which is hypocrisy? Verse 2, for there is nothing covered that will not be revealed, nor hidden that will not be known. Therefore, whatever you have spoken in the dark will be heard in a light, and what you have spoken in the ear, in the inner rooms, will be proclaimed on the house tops.

You know what we have here in this passage? We have an incredible benefit. We're not left to wonder what it was Christ was talking about. He identifies it. Point blank. He says, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees. Which is this? He gives it to us. We don't have to guess at it. We don't have to somehow suss it out. We are able to know exactly what it is. The disciples did not have to sit there as they sat around that fire later that night, going, what was he saying?

What do you think he meant? He spells it out for them. He says exactly what he meant. He says, that leaven of the Pharisees that he's referencing in this passage in Luke 12, his hypocrisy.

And he goes on to talk about how there's nothing that's been covered that will not be revealed, nothing hidden that will not be known. That which has been spoken in the dark will be heard in the light, which you've spoken in the ear will be what has been whispered. He says, will be proclaimed upon the housetops. We recognize there's a certain accountability that comes with this life when we make our covenant to God and baptism. When we come before him and we commit to living this way of life, there is an accountability that we signed up for that comes with that. You know, when we characterize ourselves as a follower of Jesus Christ, we characterize ourselves as a disciple, we're expected to live in accordance with what we profess to believe in every aspect of our lives.

Every aspect of our lives, submitting our will to the teachings of our rabbi and his instructions.

In Luke 6 and verse 46, we won't turn there, but in Luke 6, actually we will turn there. Let's go ahead. Luke 6 verse 46, if you want to begin turning over there, we'll see a parallel scripture to the Sermon on the Mount. And Christ asks a very important question of the multitudes that are gathered and ultimately an important question to us as well. It's an important question to us as well. I tend to...this is a limitation, perhaps, of mine. I tend to read attitudes and feelings into words that are recorded in Scripture. So that's something I have to be careful of sometimes because I realize that's not great exegesis. You know, it's a situation where I'm reading more of my own feelings sometimes into things, so I have to recognize that. I don't know if this was said in the same way, but what this particular section always speaks to me on, those of you that have taught, you understand this, I have definitely said these same things with a certain degree of exasperation when I was teaching middle school, having that conversation with my students. Some years it felt like on a daily basis. I always got a kick out of it. I'd have kids that would come up and tell me, Mr. Light, you know what? You're my favorite teacher. Well, that's very sweet of you. You know, it's really sweet of you. But my response was always the same. Really? Because I feel like you don't do anything that I ask you to do, like anything. Anything at all. You have a really funny way of showing it, I guess, in that sense. But in Luke 6 verse 46, I see Christ expressing this kind of in the same way. And again, my own limitation of reading into Scripture. Luke 6 and verse 46, but why do you call me Lord, Lord, and do not do the things which I say? Can you see the potential exasperation in that phrase? It says there's a disconnect.

He says, you recognize that I am the Messiah. You recognize you know exactly who I am. You call me Lord, Lord. He says, if you recognize me as Lord, as Master, as Rabbi, why do you not do the things I say? It's a good question, and it's one that I hope we ask ourselves at times as we're coming into these spring holy days, as we're considering our lives, as we're considering where we measure up to the example of Jesus Christ, we measure up to what it is that He has called us to become. I hope this is a question that we ask ourselves at times. He goes on in verse 47. He says, whoever comes to me and hears my sayings and does them, I will show you whom He is like. Verse 48, He is like a man building a house who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently against that house and could not shake it, for it was founded on the rock. But he who heard and did nothing is like a man who built a house on the earth without a foundation. Because some of you were home builders. That would be what I would do. I would think I just built it right on the sand, right on the dirt. I wouldn't think about necessarily having the importance of that foundation. I'm not a builder. I don't think about those things. I'm not an engineer in that sense. He says it's like a person who built a house on the earth without a foundation against which the stream beat vehemently and immediately it fell. And the ruin of that house, he says, was great. The ruin of that house was great.

Christ here connects the importance not only of hearing, but also of doing, also of following through on what it is that we believe to be true so that when things get tough, and they do, and they will get tough, when life gets difficult, that we have that strength of foundation necessary to be able to navigate that trial. James 2, verses 14 to 16, kind of follows along with that concept. He says, what is it profit, my brethren? If someone says he has faith but does not have works, he says, can faith save him? If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, depart in peace, be warmed and filled, but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what is it profit? He says, thus, also faith by itself, if it does not have works, if it doesn't have that follow through, he says it's dead. Not dying, he says dead. Perished, expired. It's like that old Monty Python parrot bit. How many different words can we use for expired or dead, right, as he's banging the parrot on the counter? It's dead. It's gone. It's deceased. But someone will say, you have faith and I have works. He says, show me your faith without your works. He says, I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that there is one God. He says, you do well. He says, even the demons believe and tremble. So the importance of us following through on the things which we believe is scripturally established.

Belief is not simply belief in the classical sense of the term. It's not academic. It's not theoretical. It's not a theorel. It's not something that exists in our head.

He says, even Satan and the demons believe that God exists.

The difference is they don't follow through on that belief. They know for a fact he exists. He created them. They've walked in his presence. But they don't follow through. Instead, they rebelled against their creator. Sometimes in modern Christianity, what we see is an argument that takes place of why I believe in God's existence. That's enough. That's certainly enough. I can kind of live my life however I want because I believe. I have faith in God.

What we see in Scripture is that that requires follow-through. It requires action.

It requires repentance. It requires us to go through this life, continually shifting to line up and in alignment with the standards that God has provided us. So is this what Christ is getting at when he talks about the leaven of the Pharisees, just not following through on what we believe? Or is this something more insidious? Is this something more challenging? Let's go over to Matthew 23.

You know, we'll see the type of hypocrisy that Jesus Christ is referring to. The type of hypocrisy then is laid bare for us in Matthew 23. So let's go to Matthew 23 and we'll pick up the account in verse 1 with the type of hypocrisy that Christ is referencing here as he considers the leaven, quote-unquote, of the Pharisees. So Matthew 23 and we'll go ahead and we'll pick it up in verse 1. We'll see this is more than just not following through on what they were commanded. This is more than that. There's an attitude here. Actually, there's a dangerous attitude here. The disciples or that Christ did not want his disciples leavened with. An attitude here that he did not want transferred from the old batch of dough, so to speak, into the new batch of dough. Matthew 23 and verse 1 and we'll see how this particular hypocrisy is manifested. Matthew 23 and verse 1 says, then Jesus spoke to the multitudes and to his disciples saying, the scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat. Therefore, whatever they tell you to observe, that observe and do, but do not do according to their works. He says, for they say, and they do not do. You know, at that time in history, the Pharisees civilly, you know, civilly within within Israel, they did sit in the seat of Moses. They sat in the seat of Moses. They were the ones that had the authority at that time to bind and loose civil law in the Jewish system. Okay, so they were kind of a political party at that time. Christ tells the people do what they say, observe what they tell you to observe, but he says, don't, don't follow their example. He says, they don't want to talk. They don't want to talk. They pretend they're a certain way while they're really living another way. They're actors. He says they're hubricrates. They're hypocrites, wearing a mask. Their attitudes went way beyond not following what they were instructed.

In their situation, it was almost purposeful. It was almost purposeful. Look at verse four, Matthew 23 and verse four, it says they bind heavy burdens, hard to bear. They create these burdens. They bind these burdens lawful within the law that are hard to bear, and they lay them on men's shoulders. But it says they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.

But all their works, it says, they do to be seen by men. They make their flactories broad and enlarge the borders of their garments. So what we see here is that the good that they did, the various bits of good that they did, they did to be seen. They did it to be noticed. They did it to be picked out of the crowd, so to speak. It says they lacked compassion. They lacked understanding.

Ultimately, they lacked love for one another. He goes on in verse six, they love the best places at feasts, the best seats in the synagogues, greetings in the marketplace, and to be called by men, Rabbi. He says, But you do not be called Rabbi, for one is your teacher, the Christ.

And he says, And you are all brethren. Do not call anyone on earth your father, for one is your father, he who is in heaven. Do not be called teachers, for one is your teacher, the Christ. But he who is greatest among you shall be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. So we see the good works that they did. They did, in order to receive ultimately the recognition for it. They loved the title. They loved the position. They loved the accolades. They lacked true humility. And the service that was done was done publicly in order to be seen. But they didn't serve for the sake of loving their fellow man.

They did so so that others would see just how wonderful they were. Verse 13, 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.

woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you devour widows' houses, and for a pretense make long prayers. Therefore, it says, you will receive greater condemnation. It talks about how they would judge someone's outward appearance, yet they themselves would steal from widows. They would take advantage of those who were in need.

It says, when praying, they would make a huge pretense about it.

They would be out loud in the public square. They'd be out drawing the attention to themselves, not putting it on God. Matthew 6, verses 16 to 18. We won't turn there, but if you're taking notes, you can jot it down. It's another location where they describe the Pharisees' desire to be seen more specifically, their desire to be noticed. It says, what they would do is that they would blow the trumpet and sound the horn when they did a charitable deed. So they helped somebody out, and then, look at me! Look what I did! Come on, everyone, give me accolades!

Right? They would sound the trumpet and sound the horn when they did a charitable deed.

It says they would make large pretenses out of prayer. It says they would disfigure their faces to let everyone else know that they were fasting. Everything in this scenario was being done to be noticed. Everything was being done to keep up appearances. Matthew 23, verse 23, Christ says, woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you pay tithe of mint and anise and cumin, 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. He says, blind guides who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel. This is a rebuke and a half. This is really strong words, but deservedly so in this scenario. Pharisees had a tendency to exact incredible judgment in lighter matters. Things that really weren't as critical while leaving out some of the weightier, more critical matters of the law and leaving those things undone.

It's not that those smaller things didn't matter. It was that those smaller things were given so much more priority or precedent, I guess, in that sense, when there were so many other aspects that were being left undone. The idea here that God is giving is that both should be getting done. Both of these things should be taking place. And they weren't. Historically, we see the Pharisees crafted a religion of do's and don'ts, so their faith became very much do's and don'ts. They said up a number of what we might jokingly refer to or kind of parody-wise refer to as more 11th commandments. They added a whole laundry list of 11th commandments that were traditions of men and the elders that were elevated to a status of law in their eyes and which made them feel righteous when they kept them and others did not. And that is an attitude that is steeped in pride. That's an attitude that is steeped in pride. Brethren, if we're not careful, if we're not careful, we can pridefully set up and define our own personal standards and hold others to our standard, not necessarily the standard of Scripture. We can hold them to our standard, or we can even sometimes, if we're not careful, we can create our own man-made traditions that can be placed on the same pedestal as God's law. In our minds, we place them on the same pedestal as the law of God when they are not. We need to be very careful about that. Our tradition is bad. How? Traditions aren't bad. They're not. We have traditions in the churches of God today. One of our traditions is the blessing of little children, for example. It's a tradition. It's something that we've done on the second Sabbath after we return home from the Feast of Tabernacles, but it is not something that is commanded by God. It's not something very specifically commanded by God in that moment at that time. Anything wrong with it? No. No. Are we breaking God's law if we choose to do it the third Sabbath of the month or the first Sabbath of the month? No.

No. Of course not. The night to be much remembered. While is a night within Scripture, God stated as a night of solemn observance in Exodus 12, verse 42, keeping that evening portion of the days of unleavened bread, the night which Israel departed Egypt, the method by which we keep it in the church of God today, sitting down with other families, in the way that we do is largely traditional. Is that a bad thing? No. Not at all. Are there going to be some variations in the way that people do that? Yeah, of course. Is that wrong? No. So recognizing that where tradition is, where law is, and not trying to set up tradition at the same level as law is important. It's important for us to consider. And especially when we begin to define standards of how we are going to apply the law of God in our lives and then begin holding other people to that standard as though it is the law of God. That's when we need to be careful. That's when we need to stop and ask ourselves, is it Scripture or is it a standard or a tradition or a doctrine of man?

What is important with regards to these observances is that we are keeping vigil, that we are honoring, and that we are remembering. Ultimately remembering not just what God did for Israel physically so many years ago, but spiritually what He is doing for us as part of this commemoration of the days of my love and bread. Go ahead and leave a bookmark here for a moment. Go ahead and leave a bookmark here for a moment in Matthew 23. Let's go over to Matthew 16.

Matthew 16. Matthew 16, we're going to pick it up in verse 1 because we're going to see another thing, another attitude, so to speak, that kind of goes along the lines of what we've just discussed that was something that Christ addressed as also a leavened attitude, something that we need to be careful of as well. Matthew 16 in verse 1, then the Pharisees and Sadducees came and testing him, asked that he would show them a sign from heaven. He answered and said to them, When it is evening, you say it will be fair weather, for the sky is red, and in the morning it will be foul weather today, for the sky is red and threatening. He says, hypocrites, you know how to discern the faces of the sky, but you cannot discern the signs of the time. 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. He left them and he departed. So the Pharisees and Sadducees, just kind of a little bit of backdrop, were in conflict with one another politically for quite some time. In fact, much of the time that Christ was here on earth as a part of his earthly ministry, they were in conflict with one another. Think Democrats and Republicans. Okay, I mean, for lack of a better description, think Democrats and Republicans. Most of the time, they were fighting with each other. But when Christ showed up, they turned over a new leaf. Pharisees and the Sadducees now suddenly crossed the aisle and shook hands and were now working against Jesus Christ. They found a common threat. The enemy of my enemy is my friend. Isn't that how that phrase goes?

But he represented, Jesus Christ represented, a threat to their authority and to their power. And at the time, they put aside their differences and a bipartisan showing to tackle this new threat.

Christ states these words in Matthew 16 verses 2 through 4, and then he departs, crossing over the Sea of Galilee. His disciples follow, but they forgot the bread. Way to go, disciples. They forgot the bread. Matthew 16 verse 5. He says, Now when his disciples had come to the other side, they had forgotten to take bread. And then Jesus said to them, Take heed, and beware the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. They reasoned among themselves, saying, It's because we forgot the bread. It's because we've taken no bread, he says. But Jesus, being aware of it, said to them, O you of little faith, why do you reason among yourselves because you brought no bread? Do you not understand, or remember, the five loaves of the five thousand, and how many baskets you took up, nor the seven loaves of the four thousand, and how many large baskets you took up? Christ is like, We don't even need bread. It's not about the bread. It's not about the bread.

How is it you do not understand that I did not speak to you concerning bread, but to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees? Then they understood that he did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and the Sadducees.

Christ tells the disciples, This isn't about bread. This is not about bread. This leaven that I'm talking about, this leaven is not a physical leaven. Literally, it's metaphorical. He says, avoid their doctrines, avoid their teachings. Don't even allow a little of that dough to mix in to the new lump, because that old leaven, that leaven of malice and wickedness that we see described in 1 Corinthians 5 and verse 8, is going to breed malice and wickedness in the new lump as well.

Again, you put some sourdough start into a new piece of dough, and you begin to feed that thing. It takes off. It won't be long before it's throughout the entirety of the dough, and it's not like you can go in later and you can go, oh, there's that little bit of sourdough start. I'll just grab that lump out, because it mixes throughout the bread itself. Pharisees and Sadducees had a number of doctrines that were traditions of men that had been handed down as though they were law, and Christ told His disciples, if you're going to be My disciple, He said, follow Me. Follow Me? The Pharisees and Sadducees don't even go there. They don't even go there. Stay away from their teachings, stay away from the leavened attitudes of self-righteousness and hypocrisy. Let's go back to Matthew 23. How did you keep a bookmark there, a finger there, and finish out Christ's rebuke on the Pharisees? So we see that not only is it hypocrisy that He's referencing, He's also referencing as leaven, the traditions and teachings, traditions and doctrines, so to speak, of men, things that were apart from the law of God, but were being elevated to the level of the law of God. Matthew 23, we'll pick it up in verse 25.

He says, Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you cleanse the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside they're full of extortion and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you're like whitewashed tombs, which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. Even so, you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you're full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. Again, remember, when we're talking about the Pharisees and the Sadducees, exterior appearance was everything.

Exterior appearance was everything. What others saw was everything. In fact, they almost… Have you ever been to the fair and seen those guys that draw people's caricatures?

You sit down for a caricature and they draw it super fast, but what they do is they overemphasize aspects of yourself. So, if you have maybe larger than normal ears, you're going to have real big ears on the caricature. It's just going to be something that they catch whatever it is and they expand that thing. The Pharisees were like that, in some ways. They almost were caricatures of what God had instructed. What they took was these flakteries and they'd make them extremely broad. So, they'd take these flakteries and expand them. The tassels were elongated. Rather than just have moderately length tassels, it was like a game of who could get the longest tassels. We'd get longer and longer and longer until eventually these things are just out there. It was all about what could be seen.

Christ makes the point to those Pharisees. He said, I see you for what you really are.

He says, you're not hiding anything from Jesus Christ and from God the Father. He says, I see you for what you really are. He says, you're like a tomb full of decaying flesh. Which is quite the analogy, really. It's like, ouch! He says, pretty on the outside, but inside he says, you're unclean, full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. And he doesn't pull any punches. He doesn't pull any punches in this assessment of the Pharisees. You go through there and you're waiting for like, but here's one thing you do well. No, it's not there. It's not there. It was a solid rebuke.

So, as disciples of Christ, as followers of Jesus Christ, we can read these words and we can conclude that we have to be the genuine article. We have to be the real thing.

We have to take what it is that God has given us, the instructions that he has provided us, and do everything within our power to be able to keep those instructions, recognizing that we will fall short and that it is because we will fall short that Jesus Christ died for us.

We have to be the genuine article. We can't not say one thing and then do the other, make a good show on the outside, but inwardly be full of decaying flesh, so to speak. It's important to recognize, Romans 3, 23, as we come into this Passover season, it's important to recognize all sin and fall short of the glory of God. All sin and fall short of the glory of God. We all need the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Every last one of us needs the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. We need His blood shed on our behalf.

We need it. That's the whole point of this Passover season, is the need for that. There's a big difference between a person who recognizes their sin and is working to overcome it, someone who recognizes their sin and is working to overcome it, repenting before God, drawing near to Him and attempting, working against the struggles that they might have, and the Pharisees that Jesus Christ just outlined here. The Pharisee isn't even trying. The Pharisee, in their eyes, they're already perfect. There's nothing that has to change. No change is necessary. It's already figured out. I haven't sinned in years, the Pharisee says. I've kept them all. I've kept all the laws. Christ illustrates this attitude of pride and self-righteousness perfectly in Luke 18. Let's go over to Luke 18. Luke 18, we'll pick it up in verse 9.

Luke 18 and verse 9, we'll see another example of a spot in Scripture where we see a Pharisee interacting with others. We see the manner in which they interact. And I think it's sometimes important for us to stop and consider why certain things were recorded. You know, nothing that we see in Scripture is happenstance. It's not coincidence. It's not something where Christ goes, wow, this seems like a great story to tell. I guess I'll just tell this story right now.

All of what we see in Scripture is purposeful. It's all lessons that we can learn. It's all things that we can come through. Christ never at one point told a story that had no point whatsoever.

That's not why any of these things are recorded for us. They're there for a reason.

Down to the genealogies, down to the histories, it all has a purpose. It's all there for a reason. Luke 18 in verse 9. He speaks another parable, ultimately to those gathered here.

Luke 18 in verse 9, we'll go ahead and pick up. It says, Also he spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others. Verse 10 is the parable he tells. He says, Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed, thus with himself, God. He says, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust adulterers, or even as this tax collector.

I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that I possess.

Verse 13, The tax collector standing afar off would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner.

Christ goes on to say in verse 14, I tell you, this man went down to his house, justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. The public in here, this tax collector, recognizing his sin, he wouldn't even raise his eyes in that scenario. He stood far off, and he beat his breast, begging God for forgiveness. While the Pharisee in this example begins his prayer, thanking God that he wasn't like everyone else, he wasn't unjust, he wasn't an adulterer, he wasn't an extortioner, or this tax collector. Then he goes on to tell God about all the amazing things that he does, all the reasons why he should be justified loudly and before everyone else gathered. It lines right up with what Christ shows us regarding the attitude of the Pharisees throughout the remainder of Scripture. We see that. But Christ's point is, there's a big difference between overcoming and self-righteousness and pride. There's a big difference. Quite the gulf, if you see that example in Luke 18. Now, I will say it's very easy to look at Scripture, to see the examples of the Pharisees and point fingers. It's very easy to see the example of the Israelites in ancient Israel and point fingers. It's very, very easy to do. In the benefit of hindsight, being able to see all the places that they did things wrong, but pointing fingers would be pretty Pharisaical of us, wouldn't it? In that sense. I think if we're honest with ourselves, we've all been a Pharisee at time or two. We've all been there at time or two. At times when we've been overly judgmental, when we've been selfish, when we've been unloving, at times when we've held someone else up to a standard that we ourselves perhaps don't meet, at times where we've tooted our own horn, at times when we're self-righteous, hypocritical, prideful, it was pride that resulted in Lucifer's downfall. It was pride that caused Uzziah to sin against God. It was pride that was in the heart of so many of mankind's leaders throughout time. Humility has been a pretty rare character trait over the years. Humility is one that we don't always see. That attitude of pride comes so naturally to us as humans. Unfortunately, what we see is that as this age draws to a close, ultimately we see that it's prophesied to increase and, quite frankly, to become even more of an issue. I think if we look at the world around us today, we see that taking place.

I want to take you to a passage here in 2 Timothy. You want to turn to 2 Timothy 3.

We recognize that the prophesied last days, quote-unquote, if we want to use that term in that way, began at the time of the pouring out of the Holy Spirit on the believers gathered at Pentecost. In fact, a couple of 2000 years ago, Peter references it. He says that this is the last days. This book of Joel prophesied this pouring out of the Holy Spirit during that time, this miracle on the day of Pentecost that continues through today. In 2 Timothy 3, we're going to go ahead and pick it up in verse 1. 2 Timothy 3 and verse 1. What we'll see here is that in these last days, there are perilous times coming. There are perilous times coming.

2 Timothy 3, oops, not 1 Timothy 3. That's something else.

2 Timothy 3 and verse 1. It says, But know this, that in the last days, perilous times will come.

For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, prideful, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. It says, Having a form of godliness, but denying its power, and from such people turn away.

You know, we see it's been prophesied that men will be lovers of themselves, will be lovers of money, boasters, proud, disobedient, and the list goes on.

Frankly, many of the things that Christ admonished the Pharisees over, that these attitudes would be alive and well in the last days. And as we look at world around us, and frankly, these words were written to the Ekklesia as well, these attitudes are present today. In fact, the Church of Laodicea was characterized by their pride. They were characterized by their pride, by their feeling that they were better off than they really were. Revelation 3, you can turn over there if you'd like, Revelation 3, the Church of Laodicea was soundly rebuked for that pride. That was even later than the words that were written here to Timothy. That's another 30 years down the road, so to speak, when those words in Revelation were written. But the Church of Laodicea was soundly rebuked for their pride and for their lack of recognition of their true position, where they really were. Revelation 3, verse 17, says, Because you say I am rich, have become wealthy and have need of nothing.

So that was the attitude. I don't need God. I got everything I ever need. What do I need God for?

He says, Because you say these things, I'm rich, I become wealthy and have need of nothing.

But he says, But do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked.

He says, There's a difference here. There's an economy here in the perception of who you think you are and who you really are. Revelation 3, verse 18, says, I counsel you to buy from me gold, refined in the fire that you may be rich, white garments that you may be clothed, the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed, and anoint your eyes with eyesave that you may see. And why is God saying this to Laodicea? Why is he saying this to the church in the last days? He says, As many as I love, I rebuke and I chasten. Therefore, be zealous and repent. God sent this message to the church in Laodicea because he loved them.

He wanted them to be zealous. He wanted them to repent. Laodicea believed that they were rich. They believed that they didn't need God. They had incredible pride over their exports.

We've mentioned this before. They produced this incredibly dark black wool in that area that they protected. They would not let those goats or sheep or whatever they were at that time breed with anything outside of that area. That was theirs. That black wool was theirs.

They produced an eyesave that people came from world around to purchase.

They really felt like they were something.

Revelation 3, Christ hits on all these points of pride, takes them down a peg, tells them he's rebuking them because he loves them and encourages them to be zealous and to repent. Christ warned his disciples. He warned those who would follow him to beware of the leaven, to beware of the fermented corrupted dough of the Pharisees. He talks about these attitudes. In Scripture, we see that characterized as hypocrisy. We see it characterized as the doctrines of men taught as the law of God. We see it characterized by way of example as pride and self-righteousness. And it's these attitudes that Christ is admonishing his disciples, brethren, you and I, as Christ's disciples, as followers of Jesus Christ, indirectly through time, to avoid.

Just as old seor, just as old leaven in that lump of dough, sorry, let me keep saying those plosives right in that microphone, just as that old dough leavened a new lump of dough in that process of fermentation, fermentation that kind of controlled contamination, so to speak, and can be used year after year after year after year after year. There's some strains of sourdough that have been around for a hundred plus years. There are some strains of sourdough that have been going for that long at some of these big popular sourdough places. But what we see is that God in his infinite wisdom, in God's infinite wisdom, God commanded his people once per year to break that continuous streak, to not keep taking from the old and adding it to the new, but to stop and throw the old out completely, completely and totally, and to have that new lump be new and pure and unleavened, to start in that way through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on our behalf. These coming days of unleavened bread symbolize this important component of our faith. They symbolize this need for us to go forward, renewed in our commitment to God, with Christ's sacrifice applied on our behalf and our sins forgiven, exhibiting that unleavened attitude in our life, which should result from God's Spirit living in us. When you consider these attitudes that the Pharisees displayed, when you think about their hypocrisy, the self-righteousness, the doctrine that they elevated to the point of law, all of those things were rooted in pride. They were rooted in self-righteousness. They pridefully propped themselves up on this pedestal, boasted of their deeds before men, taught their own commandments, taught their own law, quote-unquote, as equivalent to the law of God. If a person is to become a disciple of Jesus Christ, as all of us are striving to be, pride and self-righteousness cannot be present in the dough.

It cannot be present in the dough. A prideful heart is not teachable. It's not malleable.

A prideful heart will not yield itself, will not submit to the rabbis' teachings.

Instead, a prideful heart believes its own interpretations are more valid, that it knows more. It's not humble. It's not trusting. And brethren, that leaven can, and will, leaven an entire batch. Leaven an entire batch.

So what is the solution that's been provided to God's people throughout history?

Paul recorded it in 1 Corinthians 5. Put out the old leaven, that you might become a new lump, a new batch of dough, unleavened, pure, sincere, and true, through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, our Passover. Hope you all have a very meaningful Passover. 10 days of Unleavened Bread.