May it please God to bless his
holy word as we read it together from the Gospel of Matthew, and
we'll read the first 12 verses in chapter 16. The Gospel of
Matthew, chapter 16, and we'll read the first 12 verses. The Pharisees also with the Sadducees
came and tempting desired him that he would show them a sign
from heaven. And he answered and said unto
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 lowering. O you hypocrites, you can discern
the face of the sky, but can you not discern the signs of
the times? 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. And he left them and departed.
When his disciples were come to the other side, they had forgotten
to take bread. Then Jesus said unto them, take
heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees. And they reasoned among themselves,
saying, it is because we have taken no bread. Which when Jesus
perceived, he said unto them, O ye of little faith, why reason
ye among yourselves? Because ye have brought no bread?
Do you not yet understand? Neither remember the five loaves
of the 5,000, and how many baskets ye took up? neither the seven
loaves of the four thousand, and how many baskets ye took
up? How is it that ye do not understand that I spake it not
to you concerning bread, that ye should beware of the leaven
of the Pharisees and of the Saviouces? Then understood they how that
he bade them not beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine
of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees. May the Lord bless the reading
of this word and now help us as we once again turn to the
epistles of Paul to the Galatians and chapter 5 and we'll read
verses 7 to 9. the epistle of Paul to the Galatians
in chapter 5 and reading verses 7 to 9. Ye did run well. Who did hinder you that ye should
not obey the truth? This persuasion cometh not of
him that calleth you. A little leaven leaveneth the
whole lump. Well, these words were written
by the Apostle, of course, to the Church of Galatia. And it was necessary that he
should write such words to them. But, of course, they don't just
apply to the Church of Galatia. I'm sure they have applied and
would apply and do apply to the whole Church of God. They are
really very searching and they are very solemn words that we
need to consider and we need to take them to heart. Because
the Apostle speaks in this way, he says, ye did run well. And that means, of course, that
when they began their true Christian profession, when the Lord had
called them by His grace, When the Lord had revealed himself
unto them as their Saviour, then they did run well. They commenced in the race. There is a race set before us. We're told there is. And in that
race, what are we to do? We are to be found looking unto
Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith. And so as we read
a word like this, you did run well, did we start off in our
Christian race in that way, looking unto Jesus, the one who is the
author, and the one who we trust and believe will be the finisher
of our faith? And if so, we now recognise the
truth that the apostle speaks when he says, who did hinder
you? What slowed us down in our race? What's been the problem? What's
been the situation? And it's very searching if you
and I look into our hearts to see whether we are still running
as fast as we did when the Lord first came and touched our hearts. When we perhaps, as it were in
a spiritual way, ran to read the Word of God, When we ran
to come and visit, to come to the Church of God, to meet with
the people of God, it was our great delight so to do. Do we
still do it with the same zeal? Did we pray then fervently, earnestly? Do we still pray now, fervently
or earnestly? Or have we been hindered in the
race? Well, are we still running? Perhaps we've slowed down to
perhaps just a jog. Perhaps we've slowed down even
more so that we're only walking. Perhaps we've slowed down even
more so we're virtually at a standstill. And perhaps we are at a standstill. And so here we have this word
that the Apostle is addressing these Galatians and telling them,
you did run well, who did hinder you? Now, in their situation,
of course, what had occurred, they had really returned to that
which the Jewish people had also turned back to, which was really
to follow a religion of works. They considered the act of circumcision
as an important act in their Christian life. And Paul, of
course, has been at pains to show them very clearly that this
was not so. And so he now presses it forward
so that they might understand it very clearly. You did run
well. Who did hinder you? Hinder you from what? That ye
should not obey the truth. Now how relevant that is for
all of us to consider. The truth of God. What a wonderful
thing it is. What a glorious truth it is. And really we can Assess it in
this way, perhaps in two thoughts, two considerations to see whether
we are following that way or whether we have been persuaded,
like the Apostle speaks here, this persuasion cometh not of
him that calleth you. You see, they've been persuaded
by the Jewish people to turn away from that good way and to
run the race. And now the apostle is asking
the question, this persuasion cometh not of him that calleth
you. It didn't come from the blessed Lord itself. It came
from the temptation of Satan, who would have them to slow down
and indeed to turn away from the glorious truth that is in
Christ. And therefore, the two questions
really that can be asked with respect to this, And the first
one is, does it make Christ central and glorify him? That is surely
a prime and principal question. Have we been persuaded to turn
away from such a great, blessed and important consideration? Is Christ still preeminent in
our affections? Are we still running well? Are
we still looking to Him? Or have we been hindered in our
profession? It's a great question. It's an
important question. And therefore, are we under some
influence which has turned us away? The devil is very cunning. He's very clever. My friends,
he would do all he can to detract us in the race that is set before
us, so that we find we are not running well, we've been hindered. So remember to ask this question,
does it make Christ central and glorify him? And if it doesn't,
then let us turn away from it, because it's not relevant. Let
us turn far away from it. Let us be found really desiring
to run this race. And then secondly, does it exalt
the grace of God over against the activity of men? Does it exalt the grace of God,
his free unmerited favour toward us? Do we desire to exalt his
name in what he's done for us and to praise God for it. Well,
these are very searching thoughts, and they're valuable thoughts,
because it's good if, therefore, the Lord applies these words
to our hearts, so perhaps we take stock of the situation that
we're in, to see whether we are still running well, or whether
we've been hindered from things in our lives. Friends, the devil
brings everything in our life, to try and hinder us in our race. And we're very susceptible to
listen to him, especially if it's something which is rather
nice and attracts our nature. Or something perhaps that we
think we can do which will enhance our Christian life by doing things
which will make us a better a person perhaps to look at in a natural
way. Well, clearly it is not so. We need to be found running still,
fast, the race that is set before us, realising there is an end
and that end is fast approaching to all of us. And we do want
to keep our eyes then on the end of that race, which of course
is glory at last. And then he goes on to say, a
little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. Well we read that part
of that chapter in the 16th of Matthew, which really indicates
very clearly that it doesn't take very much of an evil nature
to produce a lot of evil, a big change. And solemnly, somebody's
bad example can be as a little leaven, and that can fester and
it can swell, so that it can affect the whole lump. You might
say, what does that mean? It means this, a little evil
can affect the whole church. Very easy to follow a wrong way,
very easy to follow a way which isn't truly following the Blessed
Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. So we have these very able words
that the Apostle writes to the Galatians, and how necessary
they are for us tonight to realise the truth of them. You know the
Apostle, when he wrote to the Corinthians, he says this in
the first epistle of the 15th chapter and the second verse,
by which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached
unto you, unless ye have believed in vain." So if we have really
believed the truth of the Gospel, we've really been affected by
the preaching of the Word, what does the Apostle say? Keep it
in memory. Don't forget it. Don't go out
of the doors and forget what you've heard. Meditate upon it
and desire that you and I may be kept in that narrow way and
running indeed that race that is set before us, never failing
to look unto Jesus, that one who is the author and the finisher
of our faith.