Matthew 16. Take heed and beware. That is the title of the message. I was reading someone and they
made this statement. Warnings are as important as
promises. The warnings of God are as important
to us, God's children, as His promises are. I know that lost men and women
have no real interest in the teaching of the Scriptures, being
taught of God, But we do. We do. I want to be taught of
God. I don't want to learn something
that is wrong and then have to unlearn it.
How important it is that the one who teaches us,
that we listen to, is right. is right. That's why John said,
try the spirits. He's talking about all who stand
up and open the Bible and attempt to preach. He said,
try the spirits whether they are of God. Not everyone who
carries a Bible is of God. Not everyone who opens the Word
of God and claims to be called of God is of God. Not everyone. Satan is so subtle, he can make
his ministers ministers of righteousness, but it's self-righteousness.
It's not the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's self-righteousness. Now here we have the Pharisees
wanting a sign. How many signs does it take? Look at what they saw already.
You'd think seeing someone healed or the dead raged, you'd think
that would be enough. But it's never enough. It's never enough. Lost men and
women always want a sign. They want proof. Proof. God is not in the business of
proving who He is. He's not going to prove to us
who He is. God reveals who He is in His
Word, and that's enough. That's enough for every child
of God. His Word is enough. What He has
revealed of Himself in His Word is enough. We don't need signs. I'm not looking for a sign. The Bible was not written to
prove the existence of God. It was not written to prove the
existence of God. It is written that we might know
God in Jesus Christ, that we might come to know Him, that
He would reveal Himself to us through His Word, through the
preaching of His Word by His Spirit. That's why we have the
Word of God. Anyone who's looking for a sign is void of faith. Looking for a sign has absolutely
nothing to do with faith. And the Word of God says, the
just shall live by faith, not signs, not signs, faith. Faith by definition is believing
without seeing. You know, if I see something,
if I show you something, you don't need faith, you just need
a little intellect. But faith is seeing without believing.
David said, I would have fainted had I not believed to see the
goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Believing comes
before seeing. What it is, you take God at His
Word. And when we take God at His Word, that's when we begin
to see. I see. But until then, you don't. Not
until then. Now in verse 1 we see common
enemies coming together against the Lord Jesus Christ. The Pharisees
and the Sadducees could not stand each other. They could not stand
each other. People who have been enemies
for years will unite against the gospel. They will unite against
the Lord Jesus Christ. They could be, like here, the
Pharisees and Sadducees, the Pharisees were very strict, very
moral, and they had a strong belief in the resurrection. Well,
the Sadducees said, there's no resurrection, and their life
was not very moral. But, when they zeroed in on Christ,
they became friends, they come together. They put their differences
aside in order to attack. the Lord Jesus Christ. People who are at odds with each other in any religion,
when it comes to the gospel of the grace of God, they'll unite. They'll unite. And people who are just religious,
they want signs. They want signs, they want proof. You see the Pharisees and the
Sadducees ignoring what they had already seen. They saw him do miracles, miracles
that no other man had ever done. No other man spake like this
man. They watched him, they heard
him, they seen him in the synagogues and he would heal a man with
a withered hand and all these things. And then they got the
gall to come to him and say, show us a sign from heaven. And what they wanted was something
like, show us a sign from heaven, in other words, like the children in the wilderness,
they had manna from heaven. Look over in John chapter 6. Here's what they were wanting
in John chapter 6. In John chapter 6, look in verse 30. They said therefore unto him,
what sign showest thou then that we may see and believe? Totally contrary to faith, what
faith really is. But what sign do you show us
that we may see and believe? What does thou work? Our fathers
did eat manna in the desert, as it is written, he gave them
bread from heaven to eat. And Jesus said unto them, verily,
verily, I say to you, Moses didn't give you that bread. See, that's
wanting to say, now Moses gave us bread from heaven. Moses gave
us manna from heaven. Now what are you gonna do? What
can you do that's better than Moses? And he straightens them
out. He says, Moses didn't give you
that bread. Moses didn't have that kind of
power. My heavenly Father gave you the manna from heaven, and
my heavenly Father has given the true bread from heaven, which
is the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what they wanted to see.
They wanted to see, show us a sign from heaven. Prove to us that's
where you're from. Prove to us you have power in
heaven as well as on earth. Let me say this about signs.
Signs do not create faith. Signs do not create a new heart. Signs do not create love for
the truth. They don't do it. The Scripture
teaches us, faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God,
preaching, preaching the gospel. You remember that rich man who
lifted up his eyes in hell being in torment? He said, Father Abraham,
send somebody back to warn them about this place. And Abraham said to him, though
one rose from the dead, they'll not believe. He said, they have
Moses and the prophets. But that rich man's like, no,
whoa, send somebody back. from the dead and they'll believe."
No, he said, no, the one rose from the dead, they won't believe. Signs do not create faith, do
not create a new heart, do not create love for the truth. Faith
is the work of God. It's the work of God in the heart. Our Lord says to them, how is
it you can read the sky? You're all meteorologists. You
can read the sky, but you can't read the signs of the times.
And here's the reason why. Spiritually dead. They were spiritually dead. Every
sign of the Messiah's coming had been fulfilled. It had been
fulfilled. He's the fulfillment of it. Everything
the Messiah would do, He did. Look over in Luke chapter 4. In Luke chapter 4, look in verse 17. And there was delivered unto
him the book of the prophet Esaias, or Isaiah. And when he had opened
the book, he found the place where it was written, The Spirit
of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach
the gospel to the poor. He did that. He hath sent me
to heal the brokenhearted. He did that. to preach deliverance
to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set
at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year
of the Lord. And he closed the book, and he
gave it again to the minister, and sat down, and the eyes of
all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him." He fulfilled all the Scriptures
that wrote of him. He did all that was said the
Messiah would do. And they read this, now they
read this every week. That's like, it's no different
than people who sit under the gospel week after week after
week and they read the word of God and they walk away just as
dead as they came. And that's what they did, every
week. In fact, they would try to interpret
the scripture, the scribes, They set themselves up as the authority. And they didn't even know what
they were talking about. Isn't that sad? You know how dangerous
it is to sit under somebody that doesn't know what they're talking
about? That's dangerous. I don't know anything
probably more dangerous than sitting under someone that doesn't
know what they're talking about that's constantly lying. There's
nothing more dangerous than that. The blind leading the blind,
they both end up falling in the same ditch. That's why the whole message
is this. Beware of who you're listening
to. Beware of the teaching you are receiving. Take it to the
Word of God and make sure it's the Word of God. Don't just Swallow
it. You take it to the Word of God. And I say do that in everything.
Be careful with anything or anybody you listen to. Don't just swallow it. These guys read the scriptures
and they missed him when he came. But this is what happens. If
the Word of God comes in word only, you'll leave just like
you came. It must come in power like it
did to the Thessalonians. In power and in demonstration
of the Holy Spirit of God. The Gospel must come in power
and the Gospel must be revealed. I want you to look over in Luke
chapter 24. Luke chapter 24. Look in verse
16. Luke 24. Well, let me go back. Let me
go back to verse 13. And behold, two of them went
that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem,
about three score furlongs. And they talked together of all
these things which had happened. And it came to pass that while
they communed together in reason, Jesus Himself drew near and walked
with them. Now get this, he drew near, he
came up alongside of them, and he started walking with them.
But their eyes were holding that they should not, they didn't
know who he was. He's standing right there with
them. Walking with them, talking with them, and they didn't know
him. They didn't know him. Look over in verse 30. And it came to pass, as he sat
at meat with them, he walked with them all the way to this
place. They sat at meat with him, he took bread and blessed
it and gave it to them, and their eyes were opened, and they knew
him, and he vanished out of their sight. Until he opens your eyes, my
eyes, we will miss him. He was standing right here, you
won't even know who he is. Oh, how we need God to reveal
Himself to us, make Himself known to us, and not leave us alone.
Not leave us alone. And the Lord called them what
they were. And our Lord never tried to be
politically correct. That's why He made them mad.
He said, you are a wicked and adulterous generation. In a wicked
and adulterous generation, they seek after signs instead of believing
God. They're wicked because they don't
believe God. Is there anything more wicked than to call God
a liar? For God to give us His Word and
then put a big question mark on His Word? Is there anything
more wicked than that? Every sin known to man, and ones
that we don't know of, but every sin, you know where it starts
out at, where it starts? Unbelief. Unbelief is the mother
of every sin. And our Lord said to them, he
said, I'll give you a sign, all right, you're gonna give one
sign, you're gonna have one sign, and that's the sign of the prophet
Jonas. They knew the story. They knew that Jonah had went
down to Joppa, got on a ship, and there was a storm, and they
threw him overboard. In order for the people on that
ship to be saved, Jonah had to be thrown overboard into that
watery grave, and three days later, he came out of that watery
grave. And he said, and that's the sign
you're going to get. My death, burial, and resurrection.
That's it. And when he was risen from the
dead, they still didn't believe. They still didn't believe. They still didn't believe. And it says in verse four, this
is chilling. This is chilling. It says, he
left them. He left them. Listen, they didn't
even know it. They didn't perceive what just
happened. Because they're dead. They didn't
perceive what happened. The Lord of glory left them in
their sin, left them in their rebellion, left them in their
unbelief. Lord, don't leave us. Don't leave
us. Let me say this. Let me say this.
There comes a time when the door of grace is shut. Now God knows
that time. I don't know. I'm going to preach
every week to whoever shows up and tell you to look to the Lord
Jesus Christ. But you remember the ark? It says God shut the
door. And when he shut the door, everything,
everyone on the outside of that ark perished. 120 years. 120 years the gospel was preached. 120 years judgments coming. And then one day, one day, God
shut the door. And that was the end of it. And then he says, here's the
lesson, verse 6 through 12, but here's the lesson. Beware of
the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees, beware of the doctrine,
beware of the teachings of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. Don't believe everything you
hear. I reckon there's not any more danger In anything you and I can be
taught, and it be wrong, than the gospel. I mean, I could be
taught some things out here, you know, concerning this world,
or history, or whatever it is. It ain't gonna affect the eternal
destiny of my soul. But here, here, this has to do with life
and death. This has to do with eternity.
This has to do with my relationship with Christ. Everything else I can learn,
you know, if I missed it, I'll get along, it'll be alright.
But not if I miss Christ. Not if I miss Him. He said, beware
of their teaching. What was their doctrine? What
was their teaching? Well, first of all, justification by works.
They were justified by what they did. By the keeping of the law,
they considered themselves to be justified before God, not
what Jesus Christ did, but by what they did. By their keeping
of the law. Man's will over God's will. By
whose will are you saved? Of his own will begat he us with
the word of truth. Our will is to go after darkness. Christ said, listen, this is
important. Christ said, you will not come to me. Your whole problem,
he says, is your will. You will not come to me. That's
your problem. It's not that you can't, you
will not. You will not. You can't because
you will not. You will have nothing to do with
me. Darkness hates the light. Our Lord said, darkness will
not come to the light lest its deeds should be reproved. Man's will over God's will. I
used to believe that salvation, the end result of salvation was
me accepting Jesus as my personal Savior. That He went to the cross, He
died, and now It's up to me. I'm sure glad it's not that way.
I'm glad it's not that way. Nobody be saved. And here's another
thing they taught. We looked at this a few weeks
ago. Tradition over God's commandments. Gotta keep our traditions. Here's what happens. This is
why the Lord says, this is why he says, beware of the 11, the
teaching, the doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadducees. which
represent religion. Here's what happened, a little
leaven, a little air is introduced, and in time, the whole message
is changed. It's like leaven when you put
it in a meal, but then you're gonna make bread. Put a little
leaven in there, and before you know it, it takes over the dough. It takes the thing completely
over. It takes it over. It doesn't just stay in one lump
of it. It's not like you bite down on
it and you just bit down on a chunk of lemon. No, the whole thing
is lemon. That's why He's saying, beware because your message,
if you let a little error in before you know it, you don't
have the message no more. It's gone. You don't have the
message of grace. And Satan is subtle. He knows
that. You know, if we can just put
a little twist on it. Just a little, that don't sound
bad. If we leave the simplicity of
Christ and Him crucified, the message is gone. It's gone. History proves that a little
leaven, a little air left alone will take over. It'll take over. There was a time before Rupert
came here, the gospel wasn't being preached here, was it?
The gospel wasn't preached here, was it? Now listen, when the
split happened here, when it happened, how is it you kept
this building? Because it was established on
the gospel. In your bylaws, in the creed,
it was established on the gospel. But somewhere along the way,
It got changed. And it took a little time. And
then when you went to court, from what I understand, the lawyer
said, look, by what that church was established on is what that
man's preaching. And it's so subtle. It's so subtle. It happens so easily. It happens so easily. If you
don't watch it, you don't even recognize it. Look over here
in Revelation chapter 2. In verse 12. Let me see if I got it right.
Revelation 2, let me see here. And to the angel of the church
in Pergamos write, These things saith he which hath a sharp sword
with two edges. I know thy works, and where thou
dwellest, even where Satan's seat is. And thou holdest fast
my name, and hast not denied my faith, even in those days
wherein Antipas was my faithful martyr, who was slain among you
where Satan dwelleth. Now listen, but I have a few
things against you, because thou hast there them that hold the
doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to cast a stumbling stone
before the children of Israel to eat things sacrificed unto
idols and to commit fornication." You know what he's saying here? He's saying this, but I have
somewhat against you. You have some people there that
are teaching the doctrine of Balaam. You're putting up with
too much. He said, you've got some people
there that's teaching, promoting this thing of the doctrine of
Balaam who taught Balak to cast a stumbling block before the
children of Israel. He said, you need to deal with
this. And you need to cut that out because if you don't, This
is going to be gone. I'll come remove the candlestick.
I'll come remove the candlestick. And he said, well, that doesn't
sound too bad. Let me tell you what. Error is
error. Truth is truth. A lie is a lie. If you take a speck of a lie
and put it with truth, you don't have truth no more. You don't
have truth no more. You don't have mostly truth.
You don't have the truth. And this is why we've got to
be careful. We've got to pay attention, be taught of God,
listen, be instructed. You know, we came here this morning
to worship God as His family in spirit and truth, but we also
came here this morning to be taught. of God, to be taught
of God. And our Lord is telling these
men this, and they're like, oh, we forgot to bring bread. Can
you imagine? He's telling them this life,
this thing, this is a matter of life and death, and they're
thinking of bread. It's like, you know, you get
your mind above your belly. He said, oh, you have little
faith. Do you not remember how I took those lows and how all
the baskets we took up? Bread's not the issue here. Bread's
not the issue. Beware. Take heed and beware now. You
give real attention to what you hear in here and out there. And out there, you give real
attention to it, and you saturate yourself in the word of God.
Saturate yourself in the word of God. And pray the Lord keep you. Keep
you from error. All right.