Having reproved the hypocritical
elders of Israel, the Lord then turns and warns His disciples
privately. Matthew chapter 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 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? Neither the seven loaves
of the 4,000, and how many baskets you took up? How is it that you
do not understand that I spake it not to you concerning bread,
that you 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." Now the word doctrine means teaching. That's the simple definition.
It means teaching. The teaching of them. And you
can be taught in many ways. You can be taught by example.
We're told to to set an example, and we're told to look at those
who are the elders among you, that you have them as examples.
They are examples to you. And you can teach somebody through
preaching and teaching and that type of thing. And that's what
he's telling them, beware of the living of the Pharisees,
beware of their doctrine, of their teaching. Teaching is like
the leaven that you put in bread. You take flour and mix a little
shortening in it and put a little bit of water in it or milk and
buttermilk or something, stir it all up. It don't do anything. I've made them kind of biscuits.
They get about that high. Look like cookies. But you put
a little leaven in there and it's a whole different story.
Them things rise up, don't they? It makes a difference when it's
added To whatever it's added to, it has an effect on it. And when it finds its way into
the mind or heart of those who hear it, it has an effect. Well,
what were these doctrines? What were the doctrines of the
Pharisees and the Sadducees? Well, in general, they were mixed
with the ideas of men. Smart men. Brilliant men. Men well respected, like Gamaliel. like the Apostle Paul. They were
grooming him to be the next Gamaliel. Highly esteemed in Israel. These
were brilliant men and well-respected men. And they'd added things
over hundreds of years. They've added things. Highly
respected men in the house of Israel. They'd added things that
seemed right and good to them. Seemed like this ought to be
what's taught. It seemed right. Things that
seemed to symbolize or promote godliness. And over time, these
things were approved by the elders and taught as the doctrines of
Scripture. The washing of pots. You remember
how the Lord told them before when they came and accused Him.
And He said, now wait a minute, He said, you're teaching for
doctrines the commandments of men. You're not teaching for
doctrines the teaching of the Scriptures, but you've added
your own ideas. You've added what seemed right
to you, and you've added the traditions passed down by your
fathers. And you're not just teaching
those things, but you're teaching those things as doctrines of
God, and doctrines of the Scriptures. The washing of hands, and pots,
and many other things. Things like exempting children
from their responsibility for caring for their aging parents
and just all sorts of things like that. Well, what are some
of these philosophies and traditions that are taught in our day by
modern day Pharisees and Sadducees? Do we have those things being
taught today? Well, sure we do. Holidays. There are no more holy
days. We don't have holy days anymore.
Christ fulfilled the holy day. But we have holidays like Christmas
and Easter. The Christian Sabbath. That's
what they call Sunday. I defy you to look in the Scriptures
and find me any place in there where Sunday is even remotely
identified as the Sabbath day. You can't find it. It ain't in
there. Christ is our Sabbath. He's our Sabbath. And then denominationalism,
where did that come from? That's not taught in the Scriptures.
You can't go through the book of Acts or any of the epistles
in the New Testament and find anywhere where any apostle organized
all the churches in Asia, organized them all together and set ahead
somewhere and said, now we're going to have a high council
just like Israel. We're going to carry over those
old things. We're going to have a high council you know, a leader,
and then we're going to have denominations. We're going to
call it the Christian denomination. Or priesthood. Christ is our
high priest. He fulfilled all those things
of the priesthood. And dress codes, and uniforms,
and infant baptism, and holy water, and crossing of the hands. and all of that type of thing.
Walking down aisles. Changing of the elements of the
Lord's table. Who give anybody permission to
do that? Well, it just don't seem right
that as much as said on drunkenness and that type of thing in Scripture,
it just don't seem right that we ought to have wine in the
Lord's Supper. Well, He's the one who ordained
it. But see how that happens? See what I'm telling you? It
seems kind of right. We could just say this grape
juice does the same thing, but it don't do the same thing. It
don't picture the same thing. Sprinkling instead of immersion.
Speaking in tongues. Teaching that we should pray
for our right to claim things that we want. prayer beads, and
crosses, and charms, and altars, and mourning benches, and Christian
flags, and Christian politics, and on and on and on it goes.
And we laugh when we hear these things, but these things are
being taught and practiced the world over. And that's not even
to mention the more deadly of their doctrines. Free willism. That's a deadly doctrine. Legalism. ceremonialism, universalism. Most deadly of these doctrines
deals directly with the essential and fundamental doctrines of
salvation. The Pharisees taught that by
keeping the law of God, a person could achieve a righteous standing
before God. That is, you could get God's
attention. And he said, now look, look at
him. He's trying to do right. And
I'm going to bless him. And if he keeps on trying, I'm
going to bless him some more. And so on. And it's a progressive
thing. And the more you do, the closer
you think you are. They taught that by keeping the
law of God, a person could achieve a righteous standing before God.
And it's taught all over this country. Nearly every church
I've ever been in teaches this very doctrine to some degree.
Some more than others. But all of them in some degree.
And then because all men are not equal in their devotions
and their consecration. All men are not equal in the
way they live their lives. Some men live their lives more
loosely than others. So there must be levels, then,
of acceptance. Because this man, he sacrificed
more. He goes to church every day.
He doesn't miss anything. He prays three times a day. He
gives tithes of all that he owns. So he must be really close. This
guy over here, he only goes a couple of times a week. Just reads his
Bible for 30 minutes. See, he's a little farther away.
You see what I mean? Now you've got levels. You've
got these levels. And you've got some men who are
just really close to the Lord. And then you've got some that's
in the middle and some way out there hanging on by a thread. Let me give you an example. Lot,
down in Sodom and Gomorrah. You know what the Lord called
him? That righteous man. Huh? Would you put him on the
same footing you would Abraham? God did. God did. Put him on the same footing.
Called him that righteous man. And then because it's variable
in their teaching, It makes it almost impossible to draw a line
as to who's saved and who isn't. And I'm not talking about who
the preacher thinks is saved and who isn't, but I mean yourself.
Where are you going to find that at? If there's levels, then I
might be saved and just hanging on by a thread, Nathan. Huh? How's a man going to know
if he's saved or lost? I tell you, every religion on
earth is infected with the living of self-righteousness. They all
in some way believe and teach that a man finds favor and approval
with God by things that he does. And the more he does, the closer
he draws, and the less he does, the farther away he strays. I'd like for you to turn with
me to Romans chapter 3. Romans chapter 3. In Romans 3, Paul deals with
the idea of traditional Phariseeism, legalism, and self-righteousness.
And he does it in the light of God's holiness and man's utter
depravity. And that's the only way that
you can see it for what it is. In Romans 3, Paul asks a question
that we all ought to ask ourselves when we begin to feel good about
something that we've done. We go visit a sick friend, or
we attend somebody's funeral that we knew, or something like
that, and boy, we really feel good. Make some kind of a notable contribution,
or have a good week for reading and devotion. And especially
when we look at others who didn't do these things, and in our minds say, boy, I'm
glad I'm not that way. Romans chapter 3 verse 9, he
said, What then? Now he's comparing the Jews who
had every advantage with the Gentiles who had nothing but
the light of creation and the light of conscience. And he said,
What then? Are we better than they because
we keep the Sabbath? Because we cared for our parents
and visited a sick friend, went to church, read our Bible, spent
a little time in prayer, paid our bills? Are we more holy and
righteous before God than our heathen friends who never darkened
the door of a church? Are we any more righteous or
holy than those heathens that worship snakes and birds and
cattle and creeping things? Are we, because of our high moral
standards, any better than the convicts down at the prison? Paul's already defined the character
of the heathen and his religious philosophies. And he's defined
the pretense, ignorance, and self-righteousness of the Pharisees. And for all their religious works
and law-keeping and high moral standards, he asks this vital
question, are we better than they? Now, I want you to listen. No. Ain't that what that says? No. That ain't complicated to understand.
No. Well, maybe in some way, no.
He said, in no wise. In no wise. For we had before
proved, both Jews and Gentiles, that they're all understand.
They're under the influence of it, the condemnation of it, the
power of it, and the effects of it. I hope you don't throw this aside.
I hope you don't just slough this off. Don't ignore the Word
of God. He said, as it is written, there's
none righteous. Well, how then are you going
to gain the approval of God with your righteousness if there's
none righteous? You see the futility of it? Now, certainly there were men
in the past who were called righteous men. Lot was called a righteous
man. But that righteousness was not
of himself or owing to anything he did. It was the imputed righteousness
of Christ given him on the merits of Christ by the grace of God.
The same way we have a righteousness. Now watch this, verse 11, Romans
chapter 3. There is none that understandeth.
There is none that seeketh after God. Now wait a minute. They are all talking about seeking
after God. They're all talking about their
righteousness. They're all talking about keeping
these laws and keeping these things. But he said, they're
not seeking me. There's none that seeketh after
God. They kept the law outwardly and
they walked a clean walk outwardly, but they did what they did to
be seen of men. I am not going to give you all
the Scriptures, but in Jude, verse 16, he says, "...their
mouth speaketh great swelling words, having men's persons in
admiration because of advantage." And then he says in verse 12,
"...they are all gone out of the way of grace." They are gone out of the way
of grace. If you just keep one law, let's
say like the Jews that came in. They said, okay, we believe this. We believe that Christ came. But we're just going to keep
circumcision. That's the only thing we're going to carry over.
Paul said, if you so much as be circumcised, Christ will profit
you nothing. Nothing. You can't mix law and
grace. It won't mix. Not at all. It's either all of grace or it's
all of works. They're all gone out of the way.
They've gone out of the way of grace, the way of peace, the
way of mercy, the way of Christ. Well, how many of them strayed?
Says all of them. Ain't that what that says? They're
all gone out of the way. They are together. Listen to
this. become unprofitable. A saved man's value is to manifest
the glory of his Savior and to manifest the glory of God in
his salvation. That's his only value. That's his only value. Other
than that, he's totally unprofitable. And to attempt to be anything
else is to become unprofitable. And then he says, listen to this,
there's none that doeth good. Oh, she's such a good woman.
Oh, she ain't. Not before God. She may be good
compared to other women. I know a lot of people that are
good compared to somebody else, but she's not good before God.
The Scripture says there's none good but God. A man left in his fallen nature,
he's unprofitable. He's unprofitable to God and
he's unprofitable to others. He said, you come from sea and
land to make one proselyte like unto yourself. And when you've
made him, now listen, you've done him a little profit. No,
that ain't what that says. When you've made him, he's twofold
more the child of hell than you are. That's what it says. In Romans chapter 9, verse 22.
It said, God endures with much long-suffering these vessels
of wrath who are fit for nothing but destruction. There's none
that do it good, no, not one. And then he goes on to describe
something of their nature. Their throat, he said, is an
open grave. Their tongues spit out poison
like a venomous snake. Their mouth is full of cursing
and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed
blood. The way of peace they have not known, and there is
no fear of God before their eyes. Brethren, you don't hear things
of the Lord and then fly up into a temper tantrum before God. Now, if it is just something
a man said, you can get mad at me. Don't you get mad over the
Word of God. He said, let the potteries of
the earth strive with the potteries of the earth, but let not a man
strive with his maker. No fear of God before their eyes.
And I know this is a very dark and gloomy outlook on man, but
this is what he is. And this is what you are, and
it's what I am. Sinners. Now listen to what Paul
tells us in these next two verses. I have a reason for going through
and reading you these things, I want you to see this truth
of self-righteousness in the light of man's total depravity
and in the light of God's holiness and the perfection of His justice.
He said, now we know that what thing soever the law saith, it
saith to them who are under the law, that everybody who obeys
the law can reform himself. No, that ain't what that says. That is not what that says at
all. It says that every mouth may be stopped and all the world
become guilty before God. Verse 20, Therefore by the deeds
of the law, what is he talking about? He is talking about your
deeds. He is talking about your keeping the law. By the deeds
of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in his sight. For by the law, that is concerning
you and concerning me, by the law is the knowledge of sin. When you seek in the law to find
a righteousness, all you're going to find is the word guilty, guilty,
guilty. That's all you're going to find
there. Let me warn you, as our Lord
warned His disciples, beware the living of the Pharisees.
And then He said also of the Sadducees. Now, the Sadducees
did not believe in a resurrection. And there was a lot of things.
They were a smaller sect of the Jews, nowhere near as big as
the Pharisees. But the Sadducees, they didn't
believe in a resurrection. And the Sadducees also didn't
believe in spiritual beings. They believed, at least some
of them, that Herod was the Messiah. They were called Herodians. Herodians. And they believed that a man
like Herod may have been the Messiah. Well, their main doctrine,
though, the doctrine that our Lord is telling us to beware
of, is that they taught that there is no resurrection. Beware
of that. Is that important? Is the resurrection
important? Is it important to believe and
understand the resurrection? Well, in 1 Corinthians chapter
15, 1 through 4, Paul gives us a general summation of the gospel
he preached. And this is what he says. He
preached that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures
and was buried and rose again the third day according to the
Scriptures. That's what he preached. And
that's what he said to those Corinthians. He said, that's
what you told me you believed. Now, skip down to verse 12. And if you want to read the verses
in between, he goes on to say, how say some among you that there
is no resurrection? If I preached the resurrection
and that's what you confessed in baptism, why are you saying
now these Sadducees or this doctrine of the living of the Sadducees
had infiltrated that church at Corinth and now some of them
are saying there was no resurrection? They got infected by that living.
living of religion. But he says in verse 12, Now
if Christ be preached that He rose from the dead, how say some
among you that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there be
no resurrection of the dead, then is not Christ risen? And
if Christ be not risen, then our preaching is vain, and your
faith is in vain. And you and we, listen to this,
Paul said, If this is true, we're found false witnesses of
God, because we've testified of God that He raised up Christ,
whom He raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not. For
if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised. And if Christ
be not raised, your faith is in vain, and you're yet in your
sins. I'd say that's a pretty important
doctrine, wouldn't you? The preacher then is a heretic
if he preaches a resurrection and your faith is vain and you
are still in your sins. I say it is pretty important. They also which have fallen asleep,
those who have died in the faith, they are perished if there be
no resurrection. If in this life, verse 19, If
in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men
most miserable. Religion of Satan is like a political
campaign. It takes something and it waves
it, waves it, holds it up high. It takes something of honor and
integrity and real value in one hand and it holds it up here.
And the other hand that you're not looking at, they steal your
soul. Now, that's what religion does,
and that's why the Lord said, you beware of the leaven of the
Pharisees. You watch what they do and why
they do it. You pray for them. If the opportunity
comes up, you witness to them. If you can get them to sit still
long enough, preach to them. But don't you buy into their
doctrine. Don't you buy into their teaching.
Don't you try to justify what they say. They'll steal your
soul. They're merchandisers of men's
souls. That's what the scriptures say.