All right, let's look at Matthew
15. I've got to cover a lot of ground
this morning because here again, when you read the Gospels, I
think about this, the Gospels and the book of Acts, some of
the historical books of the Old Testament, there's a lot of verses
that's just simply telling us the history of things that happened.
And we always want to make a spiritual application because if the history,
especially of Christ's earthly ministry here on earth, if it
has no spiritual application, and that's not spiritualizing
as some people, you know, in other words, there are some people
who say, well, you're spiritualizing that as if that we're putting
something that's not there. And that's not the way it is.
There is a spiritual application to these things, and if there's
not a spiritual application, what good would it do us? What
good would it be there? For example, in the first set
of verses that I've got here, Matthew 15, 29 through 31, here
we find Christ once again healing all manner of sickness and infirmity. Look at verse 29, and Jesus departed
from thence and came nigh unto the Sea of Galilee, went up into
a mountain, sat down there, And great multitudes came unto him,
having with them those that were lame and blind, dumb and maimed,
and many others, and cast them down at Jesus' feet, and he healed
them." So we see the Son of God incarnate, the Messiah healing
physical ailments, physical infirmities. He had that power. He gave that
power to his disciples for the gifts of the ministry. And it
says in verse 31, in so much that the multitudes wondered
when they saw the dumb speak and the maimed to behold, the
lame to walk, the blind to see, and they glorified the God of
Israel. And that's the way it should
be. So here we have Christ, the great physician. Christ, the
great healer. And I love that what it says,
they glorified the God of Israel. They glorified him. If you recall in the book of
Acts, there were a few times when Paul and Barnabas and some
of the apostles went into a city and they healed someone. For
example, I was reading in Acts chapter 14 or 15, I think, last
week, where they went and they healed a man who had been lame,
paralyzed from birth. He never walked. Peter and I
mean Paul and Barnabas went in. They healed that man and the
first thing it says he leaped. The first step he took was a
jump. This is a man who never walked before in his life. Well the reaction of the crowd
there was to worship Paul and Barnabas and they used their
own Roman gods. They called Barnabas Jupiter
and Paul Mercury and wanted to worship him. And even the priest
of Jupiter, they wanted to sacrifice to Paul and Barnabas. Well, that's
not what we do. And Paul and Barnabas both said,
hey, no, we're just, we're men of like passions of you. We're
just sinners saved by grace. We're sinners like you, don't
worship us. And here, but to worship Christ,
that's the right thing to do. He was no sinner. He's God incarnate. manifest in the flesh and they
glorified the God of Israel because that's who He is. Now all of
this is a and spiritually how can you apply that? Well you
know Christ is our Great Physician, He healed us fully completely
from our sin which we had from birth, we couldn't walk from
birth spiritually, blind, Dumb, all of that, you know, our sin.
And Christ has healed us fully from that disease of sin by the
sacrifice of himself. And what do we do when we're
aware of that healing, when we're made aware? We glorify the God
of Israel. We don't glorify preachers. Well,
some people do, but true believers, we don't glorify the preacher.
And even if I did have the gift of healing, and I healed you
physically, you're not to glorify me, that gift comes from God. And that's salvation, all of
salvation is from God. And so we don't glory in men,
we glory in the cross. We glory in the Lord. I love
that passage in Philippians 3 and verse 3, I've got it cited there,
which I think is one of the most concise definitions of a true
believer. And that's where Paul wrote,
we are the circumcision. What he's talking about there
is the new birth. Circumcision of the heart. And that's of God. You know, that's not of us. We
don't birth ourselves again no more than we birthed ourselves
physically. That's something that happened
to us. God is the prime mover and the power and the goodness
of that. Through Christ, you must be born again. So we are
the circumcision which worship God in spirit. Some translations
capitalize that word spirit, in which case it would mean that
we worship God as we are guided and inspired and motivated by
the Holy Spirit. Some translations, like ours,
the King James Version, has a small s, which means our spirit, which
means we worship God sincerely in truth and from the heart.
Both can be true. And that's who we are because
we have a new heart. And then it says, we glory in
Christ Jesus. That word glory means to boast.
We boast in Christ. My salvation, I know I'm saved
because of Christ. because of what he did as my
surety, my substitute, and my redeemer. So I glory in him and
have no confidence in the flesh. Isn't that good? So that's the
spiritual application of that. And to go by that without seeing
that, to me, is tragic. Without recognizing that, he
heals. You remember what he said of
himself? He said, the whole need not a physician, but those who
are sick with sin. I came not to call the righteous
to repentance, but sinners." If you're already righteous,
you don't need Christ. You don't need the great physician.
The Lord, what does the Bible say? He says, there's none righteous,
no, not one. We need the great physician.
Well, now the second set of verses, Matthew 15, 32 through 39, is
another episode of Christ feeding multitudes of people with just
a few loaves and fishes. And look at it, he says, then
Jesus called his disciples unto him and said, I have compassion
on the multitude because they continue with me now three days
and have nothing to eat and I will not send them away fasting lest
they faint in the way. The compassion of Christ upon
people. And of course, what compassion
do we see in God's purpose to save us from our sins? It's a
compassion that's unearned. We don't deserve it and we haven't
earned it. And he says in verse 33, and
his disciples saying, whence should we have so much bread
in the wilderness as to fill so great a multitude? Now, this
kind of seems strange because it was just a few days before
that he fed 5,000. And so did the disciples lose
sight of such a great miracle? Well, we don't know, but listen
to what it says in verse 34. Jesus saith unto them, how many
loaves have you? And they said, seven and a few
little fishes. He commanded the multitude to
sit down on the ground. And he took the seven loaves
and the fishes and gave thanks and break them and gave to his
disciples and the disciples to, and the disciples to the multitude.
And it says in verse 37 simply this. And they did all eat and
were filled. They did all eat and they all
filled. And they took up the broken meat or meal that was
left seven baskets full. And they that did eat were 4,000
men beside women and children. And he sent away the multitude
and took ship and came into the coast of Magdala. Magdalene,
which puts him back in Israel, not in the Gentile area, but
he's back in Israel now. Well, Christ feeding the multitude
is certainly, certainly we can think about how we who are made
hungry and thirsty spiritually are fed and fulfilled and quenched
by Christ and the word of God. Matthew 5 and verse 6, blessed
are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness. And that's
what the Holy Spirit does. He brings us to hunger and thirst
after righteousness because that's what we need to be saved. We're
sinners. We all fall short. And we need
a righteousness we can't produce. How are we going to have it?
How are we going to attain such a righteousness? Well, it's through
Christ, the water of life, and Christ, the bread of life. He
is our righteousness, and those who hunger and thirst after that
righteousness, that's a hunger and thirst spiritually that you've
been given by God, and he fills it as he drives us to Christ,
the Lord, our righteousness. And we continually feed upon
him. He is our water of life and our
bread of life, our whole salvation conditioned on him. And he did
everything that was necessary to give us all spiritual blessings
in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. So that's the spiritual
application of them. That's what we derive from, that's
what we think of when we see things like it. It's not just,
listen, what did Christ tell the woman at the well? He said,
if you drink of this physical water, you're gonna thirst again. So we know that any good meal
we have, or any cool drink of water that we have, we're gonna
need another one. We're gonna have to be fed again.
But Christ, the water of life and the bread of life is a continual,
continual filling. And yes, we do continue to hunger
after that, but it's continually filled. And there's gonna come
a time when that earthly water and earthly bread, not gonna
be anymore. But this is the water that's
everlasting and the bread everlasting. Well, we come to chapter 16,
and this is where I got the title of the message, Beware of False
Doctrine. Beware of false doctrine. It's
because of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. Now, you understand,
the Pharisees and the Sadducees were enemies. It's kind of like political parties
today. Democrats and Republicans, they're
enemies, basically. You know what I'm saying. I don't
mean, you may have some family members, people you love, who
are an opposite, but when you hear the news, it looks like
they're at war. But the Pharisees, the Pharisees
were the conservative moral majority of Israel. The Sadducees were
the liberals. who were more political. In fact,
the Sadducees had control of the temple and the political
issues. But they were enemies, but notice
what happened. They both come together based
upon their common hatred of this person, Jesus Christ. Look at
it, the Pharisees also with the Sadducees came. Tempting desired
him that he should show them a sign from heaven show us a
sign from heaven when I think about that He'd already shown him signs
from heaven hadn't he He healed the sick. He fed Multitudes with
just a few loaves and fishes he raised the dead. Oh He walked
on water now. Those are signs. Okay, and Verse
2 says he answered And he said unto them, when it's evening,
you say, when it's evening, you say, 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 lowering. O ye hypocrites,
you can discern the face of the sky, but you cannot discern the
signs of the times. Now what's he telling them? Well,
signs have already been there. But you know what? The natural
man will refuse to see those things that obviously point to
the deity, the messiahship, the salvation that comes to us by
God's grace in Christ. And that's what's happening here.
The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God,
neither can he know them. And he tells them, you're better
weathermen than you are theologians. You say, well, we don't do that.
Well, have you ever, you all have heard the poem, red sky
at night, sailor's delight, red sky at morning, sailors take
one. That's where we get this from, that kind of thing. And
we look out and we try to predict the weather. Sometimes we're
wrong, sometimes we're right. But when it comes to seeing the
obvious signs of the son of God and the salvation that he freely
and fully provides for his people, Naturally speaking, we won't
see it. And these lost, you see, and they're not asking for these
signs for a right reason. They're trying to entrap him.
They're trying to catch him up so that they can discredit him.
That's what they want to do. They hated Christ so much that
even these enemies unite together in their common cause to destroy
Jesus of Nazareth. That's what happens. You know,
it's just like different denominations, and you think about this when
you talk about doctrine, false doctrine. Now, there are all
kinds of religious groups all over this city, and they disagree
in doctrine. Now, some of them agree in doctrine,
but they disagree. There's this group over here.
They claim that Jesus Christ is God, there's this group over
here, they say he's not God, he's just a good man, an extraordinary
man. There's this group over here,
they believe you gotta be baptized to be saved, water baptism. And
this group over here, they believe, no, that water baptism doesn't
save you, and they claim it's by grace. What is their grace? Well, usually
it has to do with man being the catalyst man making the difference,
God enabling you to be what you need to be in order for him to
accept you. That's not grace now, you know
that. But you've got this doctrine and that doctrine. And here's
the thing, they both cannot be right. Either one is right and the other's
wrong, or they're both wrong. And here's what you have to understand
about this. The doctrine that they believe,
if it is wrong, is it deadly doctrine? Is it bad enough? Now listen to what happens here.
Christ says in verse 4, He says, A wicked and adulterous generation
seeketh after a sign, And there shall no sign be given unto it,
but the sign of the prophet Jonas, that's Jonah, Jonah and the whale.
And the Bible, Christ didn't call it a whale. I've heard people
say, the Bible doesn't call it a whale, just a great fish. Well,
all right, I don't care, it's a big fish. And it says, and
he left them and departed. So you're not gonna be given
a sign. What's happening here? Well, in the miracles he performed,
he gave many signs of his deity, his messiahship, his power to
save, all of that. And it wasn't because they didn't
have enough evidence. Why didn't they believe it? Why
did they ask for more signs? It's because they didn't want
to believe. They were naturally blinded, I mean spiritually blinded,
by their own hearts, their own deception, their own depravity.
And they were blinded by Satan. 2 Corinthians 4 and verse 3 speaks
of those whose minds are blinded by the God of this world. And
they willfully refused to believe the truth because the truth didn't
fit with what they already believed. The truth, if they believed the
truth, they'd have to be brought to repentance, wouldn't they?
They'd have to deny what they believed up to that point and
call it dumb, idolatry, dead works, evil deeds. And they didn't
want to be converted. That's what Christ said in Matthew
11. They don't want that. They didn't
desire that because that gave them no room for glory. It only
glorified God. All their righteousness, filthy
rags. All their righteousness, dead
works. And they didn't want to submit
to the imputed righteousness of Christ, to that which he worked
out as our surety, our substitute and redeemer. So their wickedness
and their adultery, that spiritual sense that caused them to insist
on clinging to their own works and their own ways, their own
righteousness, their own wills. But the truth would move all
that away. and put it on the dung heap of
false religion. And so he says, well, the only
sign you're going to be given from here on is the sign of the
prophet Jonah. And you know what that means.
Talking about how Jonah was three days in the belly of the whale
and that he was regurgitated out, that's symbolic of the death,
the burial, and the resurrection of Christ. Christ was three days
and nights in the heart of the earth in his tomb. And then after
that, he emerged in resurrection. Righteousness established. All
of that, showing that all his people, they were justified before
God based upon the merits of the obedience unto death of Christ.
And that resurrection, see, what a sign. What a signification
of the validity, the power of Jesus Christ. the Lord our righteousness. And you know after that happened
they didn't believe. What does that show us? Faith,
well let's put it this way, spiritual life, faith, repentance, all
of it is a sovereign gift of Almighty God. You remember when
Christ Talk to his disciples. I'm going to bring this up in
the message coming up in 11. When they asked him, why do you
speak in parables? And he said, because it's given
unto you to see these things. But to them, the Pharisees and
the Sadducees, it's not given. And that's why they didn't see.
It wasn't given. Well, look at verse 5 of Matthew
16. When his disciples were come to the other side, they had forgotten
to take bread. Then Jesus said to them, take
heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees."
Now, you know, most of the time, the leaven is a type or a picture
of sin. There's a few times that it's
not. There's one time that it talks about the spread of the
church, the spread of the church throughout the world. But you
know how leaven works. You put a little leaven in the
flour and mix it up. It spreads slowly and silently
through the whole lump of dough. It causes it to rise. And he
says, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.
How do we know this is talking about sin and false doctrine?
Because it's of the Pharisees and the Sadducees who were sinners
who believed false doctrine. And it says in verse seven, the
disciples reasoned among themselves saying, it is because we've taken
no bread. Their minds were still on earthly
things. And that's often the case. You
know, it's often the case with us. Sometimes, you know, we go
through problems and trials, have questions, and our minds
will normally go to earthly things, and God has to turn our minds
toward the heavenly. And that's what he does here.
He says in verse eight, which when Jesus perceived, he said
unto them, O ye of little faith. Now don't get too far down on
the disciples. There are times when our faith
is little, but thank God that little faith always looks to
a huge Christ, even little faith. Even little faith is the gift
of God. And he says, why reason you among yourselves because
you have brought no bread? Do you not understand, neither
remember the five loaves of the 5,000 and how many baskets you
took up? In other words, there's no problem
about physical bread and all that. Neither the seven loaves
of the 4,000 and how many baskets you took up. Don't you remember
this? It just happened. So verse 11, how is it that you
do not understand that I spoke not, yet not to you concerning
bread, that you be aware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of
the Sadducees. Then understood they how he bade
them not be aware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine,
the teachings of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees." Well,
what were they teaching? Well, you know, Paul described
it in Romans 9. They were teaching righteousness
by works of the law. Salvation conditioned on sinners
rather than on Christ alone. Righteousness, they measured
righteousness on that sliding scale, you know, not by the perfection
of righteousness in Christ. That was their deadly doctrine.
And that's the way we got to look at other people in our day.
When they preach false doctrine, is it deadly doctrine? That's
what the living of the scribes and the Pharisees, beware of
it. It's deadly. It's deadly to the soul. It's like a poison. You know,
you don't want to eat poison bread and drink poison water
or eat poison fish. And their doctrine is deadly.
Christ told them over in Matthew 23, He says, you go out into
the Gentile world to make converts so that they'll believe your
doctrine. And all you're doing is spreading your leaven, making
them two-fold more the children of hell than you are. Well, what
are they teaching? Somebody comes along and says,
well, we believe you've got to be baptized to be saved. Well, what
does that tell you? That tells you without baptism,
you're not saved. Well, if that's the case, then
salvation is by works. Isn't that right? I mean, how
else can you see that? It's deadly. Salvation, and I've
often told you about when you think about all false religion,
mainly two things, salvation, condition, in some way, at some
degree, in some stage, on sinners, and not on Christ and Him alone.
and measuring righteousness on that sliding scale. You know,
people have it in their minds now. They may not state it this
way. Well, I'm not perfect, but I'm not worthy of hell. I've never done anything to deserve
it. Oh, no, my friend. Unless we are found before God,
in that perfection that only Christ could make and work out
for us, his blood, his righteousness, we're all worthy and deserve
hell. And any religion, I don't care
what it calls itself, I don't care how it presents itself,
I don't care how sincere they are or how morally they appear
among people, How humble they appear among people. Any religion
that teaches otherwise than salvation, conditioned on Christ who fulfilled
all those conditions and secured the salvation of his people,
worked out a perfect righteousness by himself, the righteousness
of God, which God has laid to our charge and from which we
have life from the dead according to the power and the will and
the goodness of God, Any religion that teaches otherwise is deadly
doctrine. Beware of their leaven. Okay.