Paul said, therefore see we have
such hope. We use great plainness of speech. Paul was a very educated man. He was a brilliant man. Humanly speaking, the greatest
theologian that ever lived. And yet, he said, I don't preach
the cross with transplacable words of man's wisdom. If that's
the cross of Christ, it would be made no effect. That is high-sounding
oratory. He could have. He could have
spoken in a lofty language, but he didn't. Very plain speech. As did our Lord. That's where
Paul got that. Our Lord spoke in a very plain
language, simple, perilous, mostly one and two and three syllable
words at most. Yet, so wise and imprudent, I
couldn't understand what he was saying. Well, this should be
a very instructive message. Our Lord was accosted by the
religious leaders everywhere He went. Everywhere He went,
religious leaders confronted Him, and He dealt
very firmly with them. Our Lord didn't have much good
to say to religious people. You know that? He dealt very
hardly, seemingly very harshly with them, because He knew men.
He knew them. And he, like John the Baptist, told, called them what they were. He said, you remember John, he
had a crowd before him and he called them fighters. But what would happen if you
stood in front of a crowd of people and they called everybody
a bunch of snakes? Well, John was God's true creature,
and that's what he did. Our Lord said before Pharisees,
you want to read it yourself sometime, Matthew 23. And he
said, oh, scribes, Pharisees, hypocrites. He called them hypocrites every
time. He dealt very firmly with them, warned his disciples about
them. And that's what this is about.
He's warning his disciples about the Pharisees. Things are no
different now. In fact, things are worse. There
are more people on this planet, more religion, more religious
people. Therefore, more Pharisees. And you're confronted with these
very same people daily, are you not? Well, verses 10 and 11,
now let's look at it. Right after he fed the 4,000,
verse 10, straightaway he entered into a ship with his disciple.
So he got back in the ship. I couldn't help but think that,
you remember, you studied with me the stories of them. They
took two different ship journeys by ship across the water and
each time they ran into a storm and peril. I couldn't help but
think that they got back in the ship again and they thought,
what's going to happen this time? Well, let's hope they had some
faith this time. The Lord upbraided them for forgiving
so soon. He entered into a ship with his
disciples and came into the parts of Dalvin, Lutheran. That's where Mary Magdalene was
from, where that is. Verse 11, and the Pharisees came
forth. Just as soon as he landed, the
Pharisees came forth. They heard he was coming, I suppose,
and began to look at what the Pharisees did. They began to
question with him, seeking of him a sign from heaven, tempting
him, or testing him, putting him to the test. Now, Pharisees,
let me remind you who the Pharisees were. These were the religious
leaders, very orthodox. They lived very, very strict
moral lives, very strict separated lives. They wore all of the orthodox
Jewish garb, the beards and all of it. They thought themselves to be
Levitical Christians, and so they dressed like that. very
moral, at least outwardly, but very ignorant and very lost. Very lost. Highest language does
not make you a child of God. As a matter of fact, that pretty
much makes you suspect. If your language is not pretty
normal, and pious outward appearance
makes you such a factitious. That's the way these Pharisees
were. Our Lord's disciples were just plain ordinary men, as was
He. As was He. Every time the Pharisees
said something about Him, they said, well He, look at Him, He's
just, He's just a carpenter. But the Pharisees, though, they
wanted everybody to know that they were religious. They were
living today, they were that bumper sticker. Phylacteries,
you know, the phylacteries that they made broad, they're phylacteries. That's what our Lord said they
liked to make broad, they're phylacteries. A lot of titles,
and those would be seen praying on the street corner and all
that. Does all that sound familiar? Well, these phylacteries that
they wore, were actual Scripture verses. They had memorized many
Scripture verses, and the more Scripture verses they memorized,
they would put these Scripture verses, I don't know what they
used to put them on, scrolls, paper, something, and put them
in little containers and wear them on their wrists or on their
forehead. And according to how these Scripture
verses used, They memorized was how big your phylactery was. If they were living today, they
would have bumper stickers all over the back of their car. T-shirts, crosses, you know,
all that stuff. Look at that. Look at how religious
I am. Well, anyway, there's the parachute. Horrible, but lost. Someone once said, the more you
have to have on the outside, the less you have on the inside. Well, they came, now look at
what Pharisees do. They, it says they questioned
with him, they were seeking a sign from heaven and they were putting
him to the test. They were questioning him, but
if you recall, remember some of the questions that they asked
him? Remember? If a man was married, or a woman,
a woman was married, and her husband died, and she married
him, and her husband died, and married him, married him seven
times, in the resurrection, who would be her husband? Well, that's
really important and really vital questions they were asking. Or
taxes, should we pay taxes to Jesus? Questions. No questions of any
scriptural nature. No questions as to the character
of God, salvation of things, Bible. Seeking signs from heaven, tempting
him, making, tempting him Putting him to the test. Now, this is
God in human flesh. The Lord Jesus Christ is God
in human flesh. They're tempting God. In other
words, they're making demands of God. That's what they did.
Saying, basically saying this, if you do this, then I believe. Show me a sign, I believe. If
you can answer my question right, I believe. If you'll do this
for me, then I'll accept you. That's how it may be. You don't put God to the test.
You don't tempt God. You don't make demands of God.
I hear people all the time doing that. If God was just this, then
I was that. You don't make bargains with
God like that. Men are beggars, not God. God's the king. We're the beggars
on the dumb hill. That's what the scriptures call
mankind. Beggars on the dumb hill. We're
the ones to be asking and begging the king. And say, Lord if you
will, I'm too I'm being too forward to ask
you, but I really and genuinely would like to know, and if you're
willing to answer me, then would you please reveal to me, from
your words, such and such. But you don't make demands. You don't make bargains with
God. No matter. He's tempting him. That's what
Pharisees do. And our Lord said, one, sigh deeply in spirit. And I'm
not trying to demonstrate that, Lord, at all, but you know when
you sigh deeply in spirit. You've done that. Not disappointment. I wrote him
up disappointed. He knows all the things from
the beginning. And when he asked this question, okay, why would
this generation speak out first time? Well, he knows why, but
he wrote this, he asked this, and he wrote this for our consideration,
okay? Whenever our Lord asks a question,
it's not for information. He knows all things. He asked
it so that we will ask it, so that we'll stop and consider.
Our Lord knows why we seek after a sign. He knows all men's hearts
and minds. All right? But He'll have us
consider, why did this generation seek after a sign? Verily, now
look at this, look very closely. We're going to learn something
about signs and wonders from the mouth of the Lord Himself.
Barely, and that is truly, whenever our Lord says barely, that means
truly, that means without a doubt, it's inarguable, irrefutable,
undeniable, this is the absolute truth. Barely, I say unto you,
this is Christ, this is God talking, I say unto you, there shall no
sign be given unto this generation. No signs. How many signs? No signs. No. What generation is talking
about? And when he was on there, no,
no, 2,000 years. You remember in Matthew 24, he
said, This generation shall not pass away, for all these things
be fulfilled. He's talking about everything
he talked about in Matthew 24 up to his time. That's 2,000
years. We have studied together basically 2,000-year generations,
from Adam to Moses, from Moses to Christ, from Christ to his
second son, 2,000-year generations. There shall no sign be given
unto this generation, no sign, none, zero. And he left them. Look at verse
13. And he left them. Who? The Pharisees. The Lord
left the Pharisees. The Lord doesn't dwell with the
Pharisees. He departed and entered into
the ship. Back to the ship again with his
disciples. Truly, our fellowships with the Father, with His Son,
and He with us. All right, let's think about
this for a minute. No sign should be given. Look at 2 Thessalonians
2. 2 Thessalonians 2. And I want
you to... You hear me quote this all the
time. I quote this verse all the time. 2 Thessalonians 2. I want you
to remember it well. I want you to mark it down for
your own use. 2 Thessalonians 2. The Apostle
Paul, as Peter said, Peter, in his last epistle, in the last
chapter, talked about our Lord's coming, second coming, and he
said, Paul, in all of his epistles, speak of these things. Speak
of these things, wrote these things. Did you remember Peter
Sagan, Paul wrote these things, he said, things hard to be understood,
didn't he? Things hard to be understood,
and he went on to say, which they that are unlearned and unstable
do wrest, that is twist, to their own destruction. Now these are
some of those things, hard to be understood, not easy to get
understand. Paul wrote often of our Lord's
second coming, of the end times. You know, his description of the latter days
in 1 Timothy chapter 4 and 2 Timothy chapter 3, of the perilous times,
1 Thessalonians. But here in 2 Thessalonians 2,
he talks about the last days. Now, you remember this. I'm not
going to go all the way through it. We don't have time. But you
remember he said in verse 2, starting up there, he said, verse
2, don't be so shaken in your mind or be troubled either by
spirit as preacher or by word nor by letter as though as if
it was from us, that is, some kind of People have been talking
about that, who founds the lost and is fully on that. The Book
of Moroni, or whatever. That's exactly what Paul's talking
about. Don't be troubled by some letter
as if it were from a...it's not. God preserved all the letters
of the apostles. As that day of Christ was at
hand. Now, that was written when? What Paul just wrote was written
1,940 years ago. And he said then, he said, don't
be shaken that the day of Christ is soon. Now, that's 1,940 years
ago. But now, it is soon now. All right, it is time. Now, read
on. He said, Let no man deceive you
by any means, for that day shall not come, but that is Christ's
return, except there come a falling away person. Falling away. People,
I don't read in this book anywhere where there's going to be a great
revival throughout the world. I don't read that. Did you read
that with me? A great falling away. Where do you fall away
from? The truth. That's what he said in 1 Timothy chapter
4, when the Spirit speaketh expressly that in the light of day, men
should depart from the faith, giving heed to this and that
and the other, seducing spirits, doctrine of the devil, and falling
away from the truth. Joel, when Joel talked about
he'll pour out his Spirit on sons and daughters, that was
when Christ came. That was when, immediately after
Christ came, Pentecost, the world was just flooded with, I mean,
people went out preaching the gospel. Was that great need for
labor or clothing? That's when the Lord said, pray
to the Lord of harvests. Harvest is plenty, but labor
is a few. Well, the Lord did, and he provided labor. It went
throughout all the world. Well, the whole world has been Now, nearly 2,000 years later,
it's waiting. You can hear it with me and look
with me at the progression of God's Word. Over there in the
Middle East and all those surrounding areas, and it moves over into
Europe, Germany. Martin Luther performed it over
into England, Spain, France. It moved across the ocean in
the United States. So the gospel has been everywhere.
All right, let's go on. Now, it says, And that man of
sin shall be relieved, the son of perdition, who opposes and
exalts himself above all that is called God and that is worshiped. Verse 7, A mystery of iniquity
doth already work, only he who now liveth, or that he is alive,
that's God. God is allowing it until he be
taken out of the way, and then shall that wicked be revealed
whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth and destroy
with the rightness of his coming, even him whose coming is that
of the working of Satan with all power and silence and lying
one of evil. Know this for a fact, that this is not talking about
any one man. See, the whole world is looking
for a one-man, so-called anti-Christ. When John plainly said, you remember
when John said, even now there are many anti-Christ. You remember
that? This man, this head, is a system. Like a beast. We studied this
in Revelation. This is the reason the world
can't recognize it. They're looking for some fellow with 666 on the
forehead. They're never going to find him.
And with his letters and his name, they're not going to find
him. You think Satan would be that stupid? We study those things. I don't
mean to dwell here too long, but the fact is, the beast is
like one big monstrous movement or system of anti-Christ doctrine. I wish I had time to go into
that. But it's a huge man-eating system, movement. It's all over
the world right now. It's all over the world, consuming
people. And the believers of the truth
have always been in the minority, and it's still that way. All
right, verse 9, it says, look at verse 9, it says, Him, you
notice that's in italics? Is it metallic to your body? That means it wasn't in the original. It. It, whose coming is after
the working, say, whatever this spirit, this antichrist, this
system, this beast, this great whore that Paul talks about that
everybody's in bed with. False religion. That's what it
is. Where men do set themselves up
as God, but man is greater than God. Well, it says, "...with
all power and signs and lying wonder," that's what I'm getting
at. See that? "...power and signs and lying wonder," read on, "...with
all deceivableness of unrighteousness, and then to perish." Who do these
things deceive? Our Lord said, or Paul said in
2 Corinthians 4, if our lusts will be hid, it's hidden in their
lusts. It's hidden in their lusts, and
then they perish. All deceivableness, that is,
they see the many ways of unrighteousness, both flesh and spirit, unrighteousness. Because, now look at this, verse
10, now this is important, this is the reason. Because they received
not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. They received
not the love of the truth. You remember Paul saying that
they turned away their ears from the truth, from the fables. He said they had itching ears,
speaking to themselves, teachers had itching ears. Turn away your
ears from the truth. What truth? God's love. All of God's love.
The truth of who God really is. The truth of what man really
is. The truth of what salvation really is. The truth of God's
holiness and God's justice. About all men know or think they
know about God now. Some big ol' sugar daddy that
loves everybody, and kind of standing over to the side, hoping
everything turns out alright. Don't have a clue about the God
of the Bible, and you can barely stand up and say what God's Word
says about itself, and get out of here. And salvation, and what man is,
is truth. They won't see the love of the
truth. And remember this, this is shocking, verse eleven, and
for this cause God shall send them strong delusion that they
should believe a lie. You see that? God sends the delusions,
strong delusions. Would you look real quickly at
Isaiah 66 with me? Isaiah 66. This is what Paul,
I believe, is referring to. Isaiah 66. Because there's nothing
new in the scriptures. Everything is about the mouth
of two or three witnesses. You have it quickly. Isaiah 66,
verse 4. Now, this is the Lord talking. But look at verse 2. He said,
All those things have my hand made, and all those things have
been, saith the Lord. But to this man would I look.
This is the person God is going to look to in mercy and grace
and salvation. He was poor and contrite spirit
and tremble at my word. Tremble at my word. Doesn't question,
back talk, make God approve, and tremble at his word. Read
on. Down to verse 4. I will choose
their delusions. Bring their fears upon them,
because when I called, none did answer. How's that? Through the
Word. It's God's Word. They won't hear it. When I spake,
they did not hear it. But they did evil before my eyes,
and chose bad, in which I delighted not. You hear the Word. Hear
the Word of the Lord, you that tremble at His Word, your brethren
that hate you. So, go back to 2 Thessalonians,
very quickly. So they receive not the love
of the truth, and God sends them strong delusion, that is, unbelievers, that they should believe a lie. That's amazing. Verse twelve, that they all might
be damned who believe not the truth. There it is again, to
have pleasure in unrighteousness. All right, now, go back to Mark,
chapter 8. Mark, chapter 8. So it says,
God sends strong delusions to these that perceive not the love
of truth, but to them that tremble at the word, he reveals the truth
to them, and they love it. They love the truth. Whatever
God says, God says, I elected the people. They love it. It's
God's Word. God said He predestinated the
people. They love it. They don't backtalk.
They don't argue. They love it. It's the truth. God said man
is dead and helpless. The salvations of the Lord completely
imputed righteousness. They love it. It's God's Word.
It's God's truth. They don't argue against it.
Not at all. So our Lord is warning the people,
his disciples, of the assignments. If you see an assignment, you
don't necessarily believe it. And some of these things that
are going on in all this Pentecostal and charismatic religion is happening. Most of it is bogus. They've
done some research, you know. They've done some research. into
these so-called miracles, you know, and it was treachery. But
not all of it. Some of it is actually taking
place. Some of it. No doubt some of
it is our brightest machine. But don't think for a minute
that God's in that. You say, well, what about March
16th? where the Lord said these signs will follow them that believe,
and so forth. That was the preachers of the
gospel. In the early days when the Bible was still being written,
people, the Bible wasn't fulfilled yet. The apostles were still
writing the scriptures that take up space. It doesn't say that. It doesn't say that. Take that
snake. It says if they be bitten by anything poisonous, it won't
harm them. That happened. Paul on the island
of Melita was bitten by a snake, and the natives saw that this
poisonous, deadly poisonous snake didn't kill him. And they said, the gods are with
us. And Paul quickly said, no, the gods aren't with us, but
God did send us. And he preached to them. They
listened to him. Because of his signs, all right, it opened the
way for the gospel. Don't need that anymore. Don't
need those things anymore. Why? We have the whole fulfilled
Scripture. This is what you put preachers
to the test by now. There are no signs. Our Lord said no signs, didn't
He? No signs. And those signs weren't
for the people to believe. You understand? The signs that
the apostles did, racism did, heathens did, and so forth, weren't
for the people to believe. That won't make anybody believe
anything. Faith done by hearing, hearing
by the Word of God. Those signs, like I said, were
just to validate those apostles at that time. And a few men,
77 men, remember, the Word would still be written. And the Lord
blessed them mightily. Because everybody didn't have
a Bible in their hands. How do we know who's from God back then? They say, how can a man do these
things and let God not be with him? At the time. No sign of the evil from heaven. No sign. No sign. So he warns us of silence. They forgot to take bread, and they only had one loaf between
them. Verses 15 and 16. And the Lord
charged them, saying, Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees
and of the leaven of Herod. And they reasoned among themselves,
saying, It's because we have no bread. In fact, we shouldn't
laugh, because we'd have done the same thing. And we do do
something similar. I'm going to show you tomorrow. Now, they should have brought
some more bread with them. They should have thought of that.
They really should have. You're supposed to be responsible,
do whatever. But they didn't. They just forgot. And they forgot, and they didn't
see a good reason. They were just taken up with
it. In our Lord's presence, you know,
they just forgot about everything. But they reasoned, and again,
reasoned among themselves. And here's the lesson here. If we reason, Among ourselves, it will generally
always be wrong. If human reasoning doesn't apply
to spiritual matters. Human reasoning. It doesn't apply
to spiritual matters. That's what Paul dealt with in
1 Corinthians 1 and 2 when he talks about the wisdom of this
world, human reasoning. And this is what the world likes
to do. And the disciples start, and we do it too. Well, what
about this? What about that? Well, look at this. Did you hear
this? Did you see that? Did you hear this? Why does this
happen? Why do you reason it? Brother Roy read Job 37 back
in the study tonight. And Elijah said twice, God's
ways are as fine as ours. Too great for us to understand.
We can't, by human reason, figure things out. Why did this happen? Why did that happen? Always because
of this. And the Lord, anyway, the Lord gently admonishes and
approves them for their ignorance, their unbelief, and their forgetfulness. Gently. them. Verse seventeen, when he knew
this, that is, they were reasoning among themselves. See, he knows
all that. He knows what they're thinking. And when he knew it,
when he perceived it, he said unto them, Why reason ye, because
ye have no bread? Perceive. Perceive ye not yet? Don't you? Don't you see yet? You need to understand, forget
what I'm understanding. Have your heart yet hardened? Have your eyes seen you not?
Have your ears heard you not? Do you not remember? You know, our Lord said, Beware
the leaven of the Pharisee. They should have known by now
that our Lord always taught them a spiritual lesson. Everything he said had a spiritual
lesson, a primary spiritual application. That's what this world misses. They look at the word and they
don't see the primary spiritual meaning of what it's saying. And they began to reason among
themselves. Well, it's because we didn't
do this, so we should have done that. Why didn't we do this?
We've done this and this and that. Verses 19 through 21, he
said, When I break the five loaves among five thousand, how many
baskets full of practice could get? They all went to twelve.
I imagine they were hanging their heads by now. When it's seven
among four thousand, how many baskets full of crackers took
you?" They said, seven. He said, and then, how is it
that you do not understand? All right? Our Lord's teaching
several things. We're going to get back to this
level in just a minute. But they, they thought, well,
we don't have anywhere yet, and He's upbringing us, but not bringing
us where we're at. And he reminds them, did you
ever need bread before? Did I ever tell you to bring
bread? Did I tell you to bring bread? When did I ever tell you
to bring bread? Now all of a sudden. And I thought
about this, Barbara. Does a parent ever look to the
child and say, you going to provide food this time? Ever. Has a parent ever looked to the
child to provide for herself? No. I wasn't going to have you
turn to Matthew 6 where he said, take me a thought for what you
should eat or drink. Remember that? Or what you should wear.
And people, here, listen to this, listen to these statements. The
things that concern us the most should concern us the least. And the things which should concern
us the least, well, the things which concern us the least should
concern us the most. You catch that? The things which,
that concern us the most, that is, we worry about the next bill
being paid, and about food, and all of these things, our jobs.
I remember once he said, do birds, do birds go to work? Do the flowers
out there, do they stand and clothe themselves? Huh? He said, are you not worth
more, much more than a sparrow, or a flower, or a lily, or a
tree? Huh? Shall not your heavenly father take care of you? How long has he done it? Is he
going to now leave you alone? Now is he going to leave the
child within for itself? So the things that concern us
the most concern us the least. And the things which concern
us the least, we don't spend our days thinking too much about
really important things. Things that often concern us
the most. Did you catch that? I mean it
really did. But that's the way children are,
and our Lord has compassion. Our father, the psalm says, pitied
his children. The Lord pitied them for fearing
him. He remembered our prayer. But he does that prayer, doesn't
he? All right, what is this letter? So he taught them that. Why are
you concerned about bread? I've never asked you to bring
your own bread now. Why would I? And I'm not now
asking you. Don't worry about bread. It's been provided up to now. It's obvious. 95% of us in here have not missed
one meal. It's obvious. It's a lot of bread. So don't worry about that. Here's what he says, beware.
Here's what he's telling me. Verse 15. Take heed, beware the
leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod. The leaven,
now what is leaven? You ladies that do some baking,
you know what leaven is. It's yeast. Right? How much yeast does it take to
bake a loaf of bread? Just a little leaven will leaven
the whole lump. That's what our Lord said here,
just takes a little bit of leaven. Leaven was a very small substance. I eat it. And once you put it
in the mixture, in the dough, it became hidden and then was
mixed But it has great consequences in the end. A little leaven will
affect the whole outcome. Leaven the whole lump. What does
it cause the bread to do? What does leaven cause the bread
to do? And this is, our Lord wisely
used this. If you don't put leaven in bread,
what's it going to do? Nothing. It's gonna lay flat.
Unleavened bread, that leavened, unleavened bread that we eat,
it's flat, it's low-level. Put a little leaven in the dough
and it swells up. It swells and puffs up. Puffs up. What do you think leaven
is? People, let me ask you something.
What is it that characterizes this generation more than anything else? Pride. Paul said this in
Romans 3, I believe it was 18, 15, 18. He said there's no fear
of God before God. No fear. There's no coincidence
that that's the popular slogan today, no fear. It's written
all over people's shirts and trucks and cars, no fear. Fear
is always the beginning of wisdom. And since there's no fear, everybody's
so full of it, and religion is the worst. Everybody, religion,
religious people are absolutely brazen and cocksure themselves,
and they're absolutely obnoxious. Are they not that obnoxious,
that are meek and lowly? That's what the Scripture says.
God's people are meek and lowly, of a contrite, humble spirit. And that which characterizes
religion today is their in-your-face, proud, arrogant attitude. That's not it. It's full of leaven. The leaven of Pharisees. Our
Lord said this about Levin. Levin is this. Levin is three
things, all right? Levin is three things. I want
you all to understand. Levin, the Levin of the Pharisees,
was number one, justification by works of the law. Just a little bit of this legal
notion. Won't kill a person full of pride. Justification by works
of the law. The tradition of the elders. It's no coincidence that certain
legal people like to talk about elders a lot. It's been happening
a lot. That really struck me, Jeanette,
the tradition of elders. People are real concerned about
elder rule. What do the elders say? That
goes back to the Pharisees. That's the letter to the Pharisees.
Justification by works of the law, tradition of the elders.
Number two, it's self-righteousness. And these go hand in hand. Self-righteousness. That is, a righteousness which
men produce. Our Lord spoke about the Pharisees
loving to be seen. Listen to this. He said this
in Matthew 6. He said all their works, they do, to be seen with
men. All their works they do to be
seen of me. Why do people pray, like to pray
in restaurants and on street corners and groups and all that?
Why? So that I know you're a good
Christian. That's self-knowledge. Our Lord
said this very plainly. He said, when you pray, He said
in His chapter, when you pray, You get in your closet and pray
to your Father which is in secret. He said, don't be like the Pharisees
who love to stand on street corners, literally, to be seen of men. Look at me, how spiritual I am. I had somebody say that one time. How's anybody going to know?
How's anybody going to know you're a Christian? You pray so people know you.
No, you don't pray. It's a sin. You don't pray so
people know. You pray to be heard by God. You pray, you don't want
anybody else to hear you. And if you can pray in a public
place with everybody watching you, and the dishes clattering
and all that, and without being conscious of all that, and just
shutting your mind off and all that, really pray to God from
the heart, you're a better man than I am. I can't. Our Lord plainly said, don't
do that. Didn't He? Don't do that. Don't
be like the Pharisees. They love to be seen. There's
only one person who'd want to hear you or to see you. Who's
that? God. And our Lord said, they
have their reward. Men see them, men hear them,
men brag on them. They have their reward. That's
what you're looking for. So righteous. And hypocrisy. Our Lord, this
is the legend of the Pharisees. Hypocrisy. What is hypocrisy? We get the modern-day word, actor,
from hypogryph, a Greek word. Meaning, a hypocrite is a person
who acts apart, acts like something they're not. Acts like something they're not,
put on a pieced smile, pieced speech, pieced clothing, acts
apart. They say and do not. Pretend to be what you're not.
Beware of that. Don't be a hypocrite. Beware
of that. Beware their doctrine. Beware
the doctrine of the Pharisees. It's legalism. Beware their practice. Don't do what they do. Beware
of being like them. Beware the leaven of the Pharisees. No, now listen to this, people.
Listen very carefully, all right? Listen very carefully. And I thought about this a long
time before I said it, but it's tough. And I don't, you know, the world
will call us hard and mean and negative. and there ought to
be love and all that. They said a strange thing about
Isaiah, Ezekiel, Jeroboam, Malachi, all of those men, none of them
said anything good to say about their family. Nothing. Nothing
good. They didn't go around telling
everybody how much God loved them. They went around blaspheming
their family. John did, the last of the Old
Testament prophets. Peter got up and said repent.
James, John, our Lord, the first words out of his mouth, pants. This thing missed. This world's
a mess. And chiefly because of a vision.
But the Pharisees were one group which the Lord had his disciples
show no concern for. The Pharisees were a group that
the Lord would have His disciples show no concern for. Remember
when He said, Leave them alone. Remember that? Leave them alone. The disciples kept coming back
to Christ and asking Him questions. The Pharisees were offended.
The Pharisees didn't like what you were saying. The Pharisees...
He said, Leave them alone! Didn't He? Leave them alone! They're wild leaders of the fire! He even had his disciples show
contempt in front of him. One Sabbath, Brother Henry, one
Sabbath he told his disciples, right in front of the Pharisees,
go pick that corn. There were the Pharisees that
kept the Sabbath taught in him, real scriptural. Seventh-day
Adventists. That's what they were. And he
had the disciples go pick corn. Right in front of me, go pick
that corn. We're going to eat corn on the
Sabbath. Don't wash your hands. Don't
worry about it. The Pharisees got furious. You're breaking the Sabbath. Our Lord had them children. See?
Now, listen. We should have wisdom. We need
to show wisdom and compassion. And John writes about, what is
John called? I didn't write it down. He said,
a heretic after the first and second admonition. That's Titus. Paul of Titus. A heretic after
the first and second admonition did what? Reject. In other words, you deal with
somebody that's unreligious, everybody today. You deal with
them, you try to deal with them in the Scripture, and they reject
what you're saying, and they don't, they turn it down, they
don't want to argue with you. All right, okay. Have compassion
with them. Maybe the Lord will open their
eyes. They're just ignorant. They're just blind, as you were.
You argued, probably. I know you did. Have compassion. Show some compassion. Like Paul
did say, maybe the more you have compassion, pull them out of
fire. But now after the second admonition,
he said, here they come again. And you deal with them. And they
don't want to argue. All they, leave them alone. And I don't know if I should
tell you to I don't know, but the Lord did. The Lord did. Believe
my heart. All right, what's the level of parity? Have you ever seen that
before, the level of parity? I've never read it. I've read
it, but I've never read it. You know what I'm saying. Let's
get right on it. The Lebanon of Herod. Now Herod, what this
is, and we don't have time to turn back there, but these are
the Sadducees. The Sadducees were another sect,
a group of men, who were to inherit in the government. They were. They didn't believe in the resurrection.
Remember, the Sadducee did not believe in the resurrection. But they were highly educated
intellectuals of the day. They were involved, greatly involved
in politics, social issues, what people like to call now secular
humanism. These fellas were real smart,
highly educated. These fellas thought, no, no,
it's not that inner religion that's going to save our societies. It's education. That's what's
going to save us. Look at me. Yeah, look at you. Don't even believe in God. Don't even believe in the resurrection. But Sadducees were educated intellectuals
involved in politics, social issues, humanism. Beware. Our Lord said, beware of that.
Now, what we've got today is a mixture of both. We've got
a mixture of both. We've got a mixture of both. Phariseeism and Sadduceeism. And if you remember, when they
all got together against Christ, they joined forces against the
truth and against Christ. They got in agreement with against
the truth. There was a big buzz when it
came to hating Christ and his disciples. And so it is with
Christ's true disciples, true believers. Be it somebody who's
really educated and all of that, or somebody who's really deeply
religious, it doesn't matter. They're all together in condemning
what you hear here. And what's more, they place us
here and forget the truth. Our Lord, so, in that whole thing
there, He's saying, beware, beware. Beware of signs, don't fall for
these signs. David said this, in Psalm 119
verse 18, he said, open, now here's the man after God came
home. David said, in praying to the
Lord, he said, open thou mine eyes that I might behold wondrous
things, not signs and visions. David never asked for a sign,
a vision. Our Lord said, An evil and adulterous
generation sits at their side. God's people said the word. This
is the most glorious and miraculous thing known to man. You know
it? And if God will open your eyes
to see it, you'll see this is it. The just shall live by faith,
not science. And where's faith come from?
Not science, but vision. Come here. If you fall for this
sign, you'll fall for this sign, you'll fall for this sign, and
so on. Look at this. Every wind of God is going to come along.
Every feather that comes down the pile. Every new thing. It'll be like mice in a prize
hunt. But not if you're grounded and
settled on the truth. You won't go after anybody but
Christ. You won't fall for anything but
at the feet of Christ. So our Lord said, don't. Don't
look for signs. Beware of signs. God sends strong
delusions. You look for things from God's
Word. And beware the legend of the
Pharisees, this self-righteousness, this justification by words,
and hypocrisy. Beware of that. This educated,
intellectual society that we live in, it's not helping us
one bit. Not one bit. Well, I hope that's been
helpful. Stand up. Our Lord, we thank
you for your word. It is, it hedges us, it hedges
us in, it keeps us. It's the word of your power.
Peter said we're kept by the power of God through faith, unabashed,
ready to be revealed for the last time. And you said yourself,
when some man comes, shall he find faith on the earth? Not
faith in signs and visions and wonders, but faith in Christ,
faith in your Word, the written Word, and we thank you for it. Make us true to it and plant
the truth in us. In Christ's name, we thank You
for Your Word, and ask Your blessing upon us. Amen.