if you would turn to Matthew
chapter 16 Matthew chapter 16 and I will
begin reading in verse 6 Matthew 16 verse 6 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 ye not yet understand, neither
remember the five loaves of the five thousand, 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 Sadducees? 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." I'm going to stop right there. Now, it is said in this day,
and actually in days past, You ought
not talk bad about people. My mother had a say. If you haven't
got anything good to say about someone, say nothing at all.
And she, for the most part, lived by that phrase. But if you knew her well enough,
you could tell how she felt about people by what she never talked
about. Because she wouldn't say anything
about it. But I agree partially with that
statement, with those statements. I certainly don't want to encourage
or give any idea that I approve of gossip. The tongue is an unruly
member and can cause great harm. But I do want to state this boldly
as I can. Our Lord, Jesus Christ, the Son
of God, He called a liar a liar. He spoke plainly. He spoke plainly. I know it's frowned upon to speak
ill of anyone's religion, but I will quote and expound upon
the words of our Lord Jesus Christ. Let the world think what it may.
It will anyway. But our Lord spent a good deal
of time relating to his disciples the errors of the religious world. False religion and false professors
of true religion. He spent a great deal of time
on both of those. So to ignore that or to gloss
over that is to shun a great deal of the Old Testament and
even the New Testament, Gospels and Epistles. And I don't want
to do that. And I've had this on my mind
for a little while and it finally came together. So now it's time. First statement in verse six
is that we have Jesus said unto them, these are the words of
the son of God, of God incarnate in the flesh. And the first thing
he says is, Take heed and beware. Now this is two different things.
I looked at take heed, literally it means to stare at. That's
what it literally means. It means to see with the eyes.
To perceive with the mind what you see with your eyes. To discern. Believers disciples of Christ
are not to go through this world with blinders on We are to see
those around us And we are to perceive those around us and
we are to make to discern some things oh And it comes up you know it
does Judge not lest ye be judged. Oh Shut up If y'all know what
that meant you wouldn't say it It does tell you, judge righteous
judgment. Wait a minute, judge not yet.
No. With what judgment you judge, that's what's going to be judged
under you. Judge righteous judgment. What? According to the scriptures.
According to the word of God. And if it doesn't have anything
to do with God, don't worry about it as far as that part goes. People are so head up now. And they call it, in some circles, let's just put
it that way, hate crimes. That's what they call. Now, when
they're talking about you, it's free speech. But when you talk
about somebody else, that's a hate crime. There's your definition,
if you want one. Because if you're disagreeing
with somebody, it's hate speech. That's the way this world is.
That's the way this world is. I agree full force. In America, you have the right
to worship any way you please. I do also. And by this book. is the way I choose by His grace
to worship God. And what this man said, the Son
of God said to take heed and beware of certain people. That's
what he says. That's what he says. Believers
and only believers have been given eyes that see ears that
hear and a heart that understands. This is the gift of God by the
Holy Spirit. We're not to go through this
world, like I said, with blinders on. We are to see and we are
to discern some things. No one else in the world has
this other than believers. Now, I will admit there are some
perceptive people out there, naturally. There are some who
see and write about and speak about the state and behavior
of men and they come very close to understanding but they still
miss the mark because they don't understand the source of the
problem. The source of the problem is that we are sinners by nature. We are to discern what and who
we are looking at. by what we see and what we hear
but he doesn't leave it there would just take heat he says
and beware that small conjunction and it's a connecting conjunction
not a separating one and this word beware means to
hold the mind to pay attention to and to be cautious about. Basically, be wary. Perceive, discern, and be wary. That's good instruction any time. Christ told us to pay attention
to some things. Christ told us to discern things. Why? Don't be ignorant. See, perceive, and be cautious. Jesus Christ was teaching here.
His disciples. He was teaching here. He explained
and expounded upon Old Testament scriptures at times, and He spoke
of Himself. Why? He's the Son of God. And
He spoke everything according to the will of the Father. Every
single bit of it the truth. Paul states throughout his epistles,
I would not have you to be ignorant. I would not, brethren, that ye
should be ignorant. I would not have you ignorant,
for we would not, brethren, have
you to be ignorant. Let's be clear. Paul is writing
to the brethren. He said it two or three different
times in those statements. Every time he wrote that he just want
you not to be ignorant. And Christ told us to take heed
and beware. We are not to be ignorant of
what is around us. Jesus Christ was speaking to
his disciples and no one else. We cannot help the ignorance
of the natural man. No one can, except God. The natural man is naturally
ignorant of the things of the Spirit of God. Neither can he
know them, for they are spiritually discerned. There's no way, but
we are to know some things. But here's the point. This is about those Christ has
chosen and called out. These are the ones who are to
take heed and beware. His words, the words of our Lord,
will go unheeded, misunderstood, distorted, abused, and lied about
by the world. We're to take heed and to beware
of that. The author and finisher of faith
does not leave his called out people ignorant. He teaches them
and they learn. Because our faith, the faith
of God's elect, is not a blind faith. No matter what anyone
tries to tell you. Because he is the one who opens
the understanding. And Jesus Christ here explains
to his disciples He explained to his disciples all the time
things he didn't explain to other people. It's given unto you to
know about the parable of the soul. He explained parables to
them after he just spoke them to the masses and did not explain. But here he states plainly, the
leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees. This is what he is telling his
disciples to take heed and beware of. Now I have to say this here
because it's in the Scriptures plainly. At this time when he
said this, Jesus' disciples totally missed this point. I love the honesty of the Scriptures. These men, under the inspiration
of the Holy Spirit, wrote this account down. And they told the truth about
how they missed what the Lord of Glory had just told them.
Even though they had been following Him. Even though they were with
Him. They are so honest in these accounts
of the Gospel, they will put down their own failures. There's no other religious writing
in the world that will do this sort of thing. You understand? This is the way it actually happened. They told on themselves all the
time. After God spoke to them, they
thought he was berating them for not bringing bread. The writer admitted his own error
here. This lets us know that these men who followed after
Christ didn't get everything until he explained it to him. Now, that's a comfort to me. Because there are times that
I read that I don't get things. I don't quite understand what
it's talking about, what it's speaking about, what I'm supposed
to be hearing, what I'm supposed to be seeing here. It's a comfort
to me to know that these men walked with Jesus and he spoke
to them and they didn't get it sometimes. And I want to tell you this.
Don't feel bad when you don't understand some things. Because you're not alone. All
of mankind is in that boat. And more specifically, I'm going
to tell you, all believers are in that boat. There are times
we don't understand the scriptures. There are certain scriptures
that you don't understand. And there will always be things
about God that you're not going to understand. About Jesus Christ
and about his spirit, the Holy Spirit, that we will not understand. However, don't be complacent. Because the scripture is given
to us to understand some things. The question is, do you want
to understand? Study the scriptures. Do you
want to understand? Ask someone, another believer. Because there are things that
somebody else may get that you don't get. But above all, ask
God, the Father, to give you the understanding of the scripture.
In that case, a particular scripture. And He will. I believe that wholeheartedly.
He's done it for me. Christ will open your understanding,
and it says it specifically in the the scriptures he opened
then opened he their understanding of the scriptures it won't be perfect but it will
be true because he is the answer and he has all the answers and
he gives lovingly willingly and freely to his people Because
it's not just Paul that wouldn't have you to be ignorant. He got
that from Christ, who taught him. Then he states in verse 11, 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 the Sadducees? He knew exactly why it was they
didn't understand. Our Lord God incarnate in the
flesh knew all men and didn't need anybody tell him what was
in man's heart or what man knew and didn't know. But guess what? Jesus was not letting them off
the hook. They should have understood. They should have understood. They should understand. We should
understand the scriptures. The problem is with us, as it
always is. We are to discern the words and
the message of Christ. We don't have to be wary of his
words, but we are to discern them. We are to perceive them.
We are to see them and be wary of what men say. Then it says, they understood
how that he bade them not beware of the leaven of bread, but of
the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees. The disciples figured out what
Christ was saying, using the word leaven, but referring to
the doctrine of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. I can almost see it. When they
say, oh, it's one of those, oh, that's what he meant. Oh. They understood when Christ explained
it to them. That's the only way you're going
to understand anything, is when He explains it. He opens your
understanding of the scriptures. This is how His disciples were
taught. This is how every disciple was
taught. The doctrine was what He was
warning them about. Take heed and beware of the doctrine
of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. See it with your eyes. Perceive
it. Pay attention to it and be cautious
about it. Be wary of what? Their doctrine. That's what it
says. Be wary of their doctrine. Now, first of all, I want to look
at the doctrine of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. I got a statement
here I copied from John Gill, and he states it plainly here.
The doctrines that the Pharisees taught were the commandments
and inventions of men. The traditions of the elders,
free will, and justification by the works of the law. That's
what John Gill said about it, and I got nothing bad to say
about that. This is what they did. But what I specifically
want to look at, or where I specifically want to look, is Matthew chapter
23. And beginning in verse 13. Well, just for Verse 2, Then
spake Jesus to the multitude and his disciples, saying, The
scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses's seat. All therefore whatsoever
they bid you to observe, that observe and do, but do ye not
after what there works? For they say, and do not. All their works is verse five,
but all their works they do for to be seen of men. They make
broad their phylacteries and enlarge the borders of their
garments, and love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief
seats in the synagogues, and greetings in the market, and
to be called of men Rabbi, Rabbi. Verse 13, but woe unto you, scribes
and Pharisees, Here's the word, hypocrites. Hypocrites. Seven times in this chapter,
he calls them hypocrites. I think he meant it. It's just
me, I'm beginning to suspect he meant it. Seven times in this
chapter. There are other places where
he calls them that. But seven times in this chapter, He calls
them hypocrites. Continuing in verse 13, for ye
shut up the kingdom of heaven against men, and neither go in
yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go
in. They try to put a gate on heaven
and the entrance into the kingdom. They wouldn't go in themselves.
and they didn't want anybody else to go in. Verse 14, Woe unto you, scribes
and Pharisees, hypocrites, for ye devour widows' houses, and
for a pretense make long prayer. Therefore ye shall receive the
greater damnation. They pray to God while they devour
widows' houses. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites! For ye compass sea and land to
make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold
more the child of hell than yourselves." Hypocrites. The word hypocrite is defined
as an actor, a staged actor, or an actor under an assumed
I like that one. And in those days actors were
not held in high esteem. This is an insult. But this is
the words of Jesus Christ and it is an accurate depiction of
what these Pharisees and scribes were. And I in particular like
the word better, my word better, faker. They were faking it. They were faking their religion. They were playing church, if
you like. They were acting, not doing. They were pretending. And this
is what our Lord Jesus Christ is saying about them. And this
is what he's telling people, the disciples and us. Take heed
and beware of their doctrine why because they're pretending
They're pretending to know God. They're pretending to teach about
God. They're pretending To make long
prayer pretense That's what that means for pretense for fakery
for show to put on an act they're making long prayer, and all the
while they're devouring widows' houses. They're not taking care of the
ones they're to take care of. They don't enter in the kingdom
and they don't want anybody else to enter in. They'd hinder them
if they could. They can't, but they'd hinder
them if they could. Verse 23, woe unto you, scribes
and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you pay tithe of mint and anise
and cumin and have omitted the weightier matters of the law.
What have they omitted? Judgment, mercy, and faith. These ought you to have done
and not leave the other undone. judgment, mercy, and faith. Ye blind guides which strain
at a gnat and swallow a camel. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites! For ye may clean the outside
of the cup and the platter, but within they are full of extortion
and excess. Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse
first that which is within the cup and the platter, that the
outside of them may be clean also. Religious people are concerned
with the outward show. The outward appearance. The outward act. They don't understand
that the problem is within. That's where the problem is.
You can clean the outside up just as bright and shiny as you
want and the inside be, what is it? Get to it, dead men's
bones. Why? Because the building is
still a sepulcher. It's a crypt that Jesus Christ
is using in that example. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites, for you are like unto whited sepulchers, which
indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's
bones and of all uncleanness. The outside is not as important
as the inside. Because if the inside is clean,
the outside will show it. But there are so many people
who are concerned with the outward appearance and they are all around
us. They're all around us. But they
don't understand the problem is always been within man. And it's within me, not just
you. You understand? I'm not excluding
myself from any of this. But I've heard other people preach
like they don't ever have any problems, Mason. Like, my gosh,
you know, you should be as holy as I am. No, I'm hoping you're
a lot better than I am. The inside is what matters. I
said it a couple of weeks ago. So I don't say it wrong. Do you not understand that whatsoever
entereth in at the mouth goeth into the belly and is cast out
into the draught? But those things which proceed out of the mouth
come forth from the heart and they defile the man. Our defilement is built in. These Jews, these Pharisees,
these scribes, these fakers, these hypocrites weren't telling
that. They thought they were keeping
the law. They thought they were not defiled. Christ said, outwardly might
indeed appear beautiful, but within you're full of dead men's
bones and all uncleanness. Because even though you clean
it up, it's still a sepulcher. That's the metaphor. That's the
example. It's a place for dead things. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites, is verse 29. Why? Because ye build the tombs
of the prophets and garnish the sepulchers of the righteous.
And say, if we had been in the days of our fathers, we would
not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.
Wherefore, ye be witnesses unto yourselves, and ye are the children
of them which killed the prophets. I had a Methodist minister explain
to me one time. No, I'm sorry, a Lutheran minister
explained to me one time that once, if Martin Luther was alive
today, he could explain all the stuff that's in the Lutheran
church right now and their doctrine. Because, see, he didn't know
what we knew. That man ain't never read Martin Luther. You
read Martin Luther stuff, you read the bondage of the will,
Martin Luther knew exactly what he was talking about. The problems
within. They are all around us. There
are people who pay homage to Charles Haddon Spurgeon, but
they won't read some of his sermons. Some of his sermons, that free
will of slave was a heck of a sermon. You understand, they'll pay homage
to old dead guys. Why? Because old dead guys can't
talk back. That's exactly it. They'll honor
them with their lips. But their heart is far from where
those men's heart was. And that's what Christ is saying
here. You're the children of them that killed the prophets.
You're just like your daddies. You're just like your father.
And he says, whoa unto you. You're faking it. You're paying
homage to Moses, but you don't understand Moses because Moses
wrote of me. And if you believe Moses, you'd
hear my word. That's what Christ told him.
Moses wrote of me. He saw my day. Abraham saw my
day. He was glad. He rejoiced. And he's still rejoicing. Beware of the doctrine of the
Pharisees, the religious. Now, the doctrine of the Sadducees, again, I wrote down what John
Gill said. It says, was that there was no resurrection of
the dead, nor angels, nor spirits. And I like that because he stole
it from the Apostle Paul, or Luke, actually. Because Luke
was writing about the Acts of Paul in the Book of Acts, and
he gave us a description of the Sadducees. This is Acts 23 and
verse 8. I'm just going to read it. For
the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, neither angel
nor spirit. But the Pharisees confess both. Now, to my knowledge and to my
thoughts, there isn't much to a religion that has no resurrection,
no angels, no spirit. And actually, I have a tendency to lump these
people in with the secular. Because the secular, people who
believe in science, people who believe in evolution, they have
a tendency to also go along the same line and say there was no
resurrection, there is no angel, there is no spirit. They don't
believe in any of that. Now these Sadducees were religious,
but their beliefs were along the lines of the secular, the
scientists. They claim to have no religion,
scientists, but they have a system of belief in science. And the scripture has a comment
on science. It says, Paul wrote to old Timothy,
keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane
and vain babblings and oppositions of science falsely so called.
Now, I do want to say I'm not against science, but I do also
want to say I can recognize speculative fiction when I hear it. I've
read a lot of it. I'm not against speculation as
long as it's called that. They call it the theory of evolution
but it actually scientifically doesn't qualify as a theory because
a theory has to be something that can be proved by the scientific
definition of it. It's a supposition of evolution. The other thing about speculation
I'm not against is I don't want people to ignore the facts when
they crop up. Someone wrote a remarkable thing
that I read one time, and I'm going to have to paraphrase it
because I looked for it and I couldn't find it. What he said was science
is not all bad, but sometimes we need to be delivered from
the conclusions of scientists or scientific men. The problem is not with the facts. The problem is never with the
facts. The problem is with men who interpret facts or make up
facts. I'm not against science, but
the denial of the resurrection, the denial of angels, or the
denial of the spirits is a denial of God who made all things. And that goes for a religious
denial or a scientific denial. Either way, it doesn't matter.
You're denying God. There is no difference. They
deny the Father, they deny the Son, and they deny the Spirit,
the Holy Spirit. Christ said to take heed and
beware their doctrine. Now the religious of our day
and the scientists of our day, the secular of our day, are no
different. I heard a woman say the other
day she's reading a book about a fellow who wrote a book He
wrote this book, and it's about Christianity for people who don't
like Christians. I'm sure the book is horrible.
I just gathered that. Then she went on to explain it
rather succinctly to the fact that, well, it follows the teaching
of Jesus, not the teaching of Paul. Well, Paul was a misogynist.
Paul hated women. I don't think so. I don't think
so. I'll start now. Paul knew Lydia, the seller of
purple. And Paul preached to women as
well as to men. Lydia got some of the disciples
out of prison and they lived in her house. I'm not gonna talk about Ananias
and Sapphira other people that Paul thanked God for Yes, I know Paul said let your
women keep silent in the church Well if the men were making noise
he wrote let the men keep silent in the church too Because everything
is supposed to be done in order Everything But people get it in their heads
that there's a difference between the doctrine of Christ and the
doctrine of Paul. There's not. There's not. They like John, the apostle of
love, but I tell you, they need to read his epistles first. So
this is the whole thing. People have all these great opinions.
They have no knowledge. of what the book actually says.
And they don't want it. They just want what they want.
They want their facts that they, as they know them and don't even,
I didn't even try to talk to them. It's just, there's no,
there's no help. There was no sense in it for
me. If they wanted to talk, I would, but they didn't. They want to
spout. And that's what this world is
doing right now all around us. It is spouting nonsense. It is spouting lies about God
and about Christ and about his spirit. It is spouting lies about
us. Anyone who believes what this
book says, take heed and beware of their
doctrine. Don't be ignorant of it. Don't make it your life's work
to try to destroy them or anything, because that ain't going to work
either. But be aware, be wary, take heed. Paul said, avoid such. Our Heavenly Father, I thank
you again this time, this place. Thank you, Lord, most of all,
for your Son, our Lord, who came and gave himself for us. and
saved us from our sins by His perfect life, perfect sacrifice,
perfect blood that was shed for the remission of sins. In His
name we pray. Amen.