Listening to the words of that
song reminded me of the fact that this thing called time is
very brief, and then eternity. And what a blessed thing that
is. I've entitled the message, Leviticus. The kingdom of God being set
up in a man can be compared to a woman taking leaven or yeast
and putting it in three measures of meal, ground up wheat. And the yeast works its way through
the meal. It permeates, it diffuses through
the meal until all of it is leavened. It rises and you have yeast bread. And the Lord uses this beautiful
and simple illustration to compare what the kingdom of heaven is
like. No part of the meal is unaffected
by the leaven. It's all leavened. And that's
what happens when the kingdom of God is set up in a man's heart. And this is a beautiful and a
simple comparison. Now, interestingly, when we think
of leaven, first of all, we generally think of a bad thing, because
after all, during the Passover, leaven was to be purged out.
And we have all kinds of warnings in the New Testament regarding
this thing of leaven. Leaven quite often is bad in
the scriptures, and this shows how sin and false doctrine can
corrupt a man or a church through and through. And this does in
fact happen, but it's not what the Lord is teaching. But I want
to make some comments about this thing of leaven before we get
to what the Lord meant. Leaven in the scriptures quite
often is used to illustrate the corrupting influences in scripture. Paul said to the
Galatians, know ye not that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? If you put one work in the system
of grace, you make it all of works. It's either all of grace or all
of works, and there's no in between. The Lord spake of the leaven
of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. All of their religion was an
act. It was hypocrisy. And if you
start out wrong, All your religion is no more
than an act. It's hypocrisy. It's trying to
present yourself in a certain way, trying to please other people
and living up to certain standards that are not even real. You're acting them out. Beware
of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. If you start
out wrong, you'll end up being nothing more than an actor. And
when you say, what do you mean by starting off wrong? Well,
I'd like to say this. If you're wrong on the fall,
you're wrong on it all. How do you begin? Paul warned the Corinthians of
the leaven of malice and wickedness. Indeed, sin and false doctrine
have a permeating influence. Once you open up to evil influence,
whether in doctrine or practice, it permeates everything. There's no escaping from that. Evil communications, evil relationships,
corrupt good manners, and it affects everything. It affects
your mind. It affects your will. It affects
your affections. It affects how you see things.
One spark can start a mighty fire. Sin and false doctrine
are aptly compared to leaven throughout the scriptures, but
That doesn't always mean that leaven is a bad thing. You know,
Christ is called a lion, isn't he? And the devil is called a
lion. Same word used in two different
ways, and leaven can certainly be used in two different ways.
Christ is called a thief. He comes as a thief in the night,
and the devil is called a thief. There, the exact same word is
used in a good sense and in a bad sense, and leaven can certainly
be used in a good sense and a bad sense. Now, I don't think it
even makes sense while most people that I read on this passage of
scripture, they talk about this as being a bad thing. It's leaven,
the corrupting influences and how it can just permeate an individual
or a church and what all will happen as a result. But to me,
it doesn't even make sense to compare the kingdom of God to
leaven in an evil sense. Leaven is the work of the invincible,
irresistible word of God when it's put in the heart of a man. It's the kingdom of God being
set up in a man. Now, we know when I say that,
leaven, you take meal and you grind it. The leaven will be
unaffected if the meal is not first ground. God breaks the
heart. He shatters the heart so that
the word of the gospel will come in and permeate and affect. Now that doesn't mean that Once the leaven of God's grace
and the leaven of the Word of God comes in your heart, you
just keep getting better and keep getting holier. And you
keep, it just makes you better and better and better till you're
not a sinner anymore. That's not so at all. If that's what
it means, I'm not saved and you're not saved, if that's what it means.
But that's not what it means. It's not talking about leaven
being placed in where you keep getting better and better and
better. Now, what does it mean? The woman
represents the Spirit of God. The meal is the heart ground
up, therefore able to receive the leaven. If it's not ground
up, what effect will the yeast have? Nothing. It has to be ground
up. And the leaven is the Word of
God. The leaven is the grace of God.
The leaven is the gospel. The leaven is the kingdom of
God set up in the heart of a man. Now, the meal. The meal simply
receives. It doesn't do anything to get
the yeast. It simply receives. It was previously ground up,
and if it wasn't previously ground up, it couldn't receive. You
know, the Lord prepared your heart to receive the gospel.
He did something for you to enable you to receive the gospel. You
would have never received it if the Lord didn't prepare your
heart to receive it. That meal is ground up and it
doesn't do anything to get it. The woman hides it within the
meal. This is the work of God's grace.
It's hidden where it works mysteriously. secretly and powerfully and it
continues to permeate until there's nothing left but leavened dough. Leavened is a living organism. It's a living organism that permeates
everything. Now what do I mean by that? Or
what does the Lord mean by that? Because this is the illustration
he gives to show the kingdom of God set up in the heart of
a sinner. Leaven permeates everything. The heart is the whole man. The heart is the understanding.
The heart is the affections, what you're moved by, what you
love, what grips you. Your will is your desire. It's
what you choose. It's what you want. Now, when
God places the gospel in the heart, it affects, first of all,
the understanding. I understand right now, I understand. Now, when I say understand, I
don't understand anything completely. I mean, we get a glimpse of the
truth, but I understand intellectually that the righteousness of Jesus
Christ is my personal righteousness before God. Do you understand
that? Do you understand that His righteousness
really is the only righteousness you have? But not only do I understand
that, It makes me rejoice. It moves my heart. I love His
righteousness, being my righteousness before God. That's my affections. But not only are my affections
stirred up by this glorious truth, but this is what I desire. This
is my will. Would you rather be saved by
Christ's righteousness or your own righteousness? That's not
hard to answer that question. My desire is that I might be
saved by the very righteousness of Christ so that his righteousness
is the only righteousness I know anything about. And I love that. Now this is true with regard
to every truth. I understand that salvation is
all of grace. I understand that every aspect
of my salvation from eternal election to final glorification
and everything in between is all by God's grace. I understand
that. Sometimes I forget it. That's
when I lose my assurance. But I understand it. And I know
that everything God does for me is by grace. But not only
do I understand that, I love that. It moves my heart. I'm so thankful that salvation
is all by the grace of God. And not only do I love that,
that's the way I want it. I don't want salvation to have
anything to do with my works. I want it to be all of his grace.
I understand that God gets all the glory in salvation. I understand
that. Not only do I understand it,
I love it. I love Him giving all the glory
and none going to man. I love that. Not only do I love
that, that's the way I want it to be. Not unto us, the psalmist
said, not unto us, but into thy name give glory. That's the very
desire of the believer. I understand. I understand that
the only hope that I have is that Christ died for me. Do you understand that? I understand
that my only way of being in heaven is Christ dying for me. That's why I so thoroughly dislike
the doctrine that Christ died for everybody and some of those
people that he died for might wind up in hell. That takes away
my only hope. My only hope is that Christ died
for me. But not only do I understand
that as best as I can, I love that. That when he said it is
finished, my salvation was accomplished. And not only do I love this,
I want it to be. You see, this grace, this leaven,
it hits my understanding, it hits my affections, it hits my
will. There's no part that is not affected. You see, this has something to
do with receiving the love of the truth. Paul spoke of those
who receive not the love of the truth that they might be saved.
Now, it's one thing to give a sin to the truth. It's another thing
to receive the love of the truth. Do you love the way God saves
sinners? Do you love the character of God? Do you love the attributes
of God? I'm not asking you how much you love. I want you to
forget yourself for just a moment. Do you love that God is sovereign? That He's in absolute control
of everything and everybody? And that He's the cause of causes,
the first cause behind all things? Do you love His holiness and
His absolute justice? Do you love His power? Do you
love His wisdom? The way He's made a way to be
just and justify the ungodly. Do you love His eternal nature? How He never began to be. He's always been. I am that I
am. Do you love His immutability?
The fact that He cannot change and will not change. Oh, all
of His excellent attributes. We love who He is. We love His
way of salvation. Give me the whole counsel of
God. Don't leave anything out. We love everything about how
He saves for His glory. Now, this leaven, leavens its
way through the whole lump. There's no part of Him that our
understanding, affections, or will fails to receive. And you
can't help but notice in this, I'm just going to say what I
see, and I don't quite understand this, but it's so. You can't
help but see that this is a gradual process. There's a period of
time that passes by until the whole is leavened. Now, do I understand that? Not
really, but I experienced it. Now there's a sense, and this
is very true, there's a sense in which I was saved, I was completely
saved, lacking nothing before time began in the Lord Jesus
Christ. And the scripture says you are
complete in Him. This is not a gradual process.
Salvation is not a gradual process in that sense. I was saved in
the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. I was saved when
Christ died on the cross. I was completely saved when Christ
died on the cross. When He said it is finished,
I was perfected in the very sight of God by one offering. He hath
perfected forever them that are sanctified. I was saved when
I believed. I was justified, completely justified,
cleared of all guilt. I was completely saved then.
I don't get more holy, but it's also true. Now is our salvation
nearer than when we believed. As long as I still sin, I'm not
plumb saved. I won't be plumb saved till I'm
completely without sin, perfectly conformed to the image of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And how we look forward to that.
that last song we sung where sin and sense molest no more
and I thought I can't wait to be in that place where sin and
sense molest me no more because they do molest me now and I'm
looking forward to getting out of that but we have this promise
he that hath begun a good work in you will perform it This is
God's promise. There's a very real sense in
which we're completely saved, and there's also a sense in which
we're a work in progress. Both of those things are true.
But you know, Paul pointed out, he says, you've been saved, you're
being saved, and you will be saved. Now this leaven of God's
grace works its way into the heart. and it hits every area
and it cannot be stopped. And this leaven affects every
area of our life. We don't compartmentalize. We
don't say, well, this area is not affected, though this area
is. No, it affects every area of our life. If the grace of
God is in my heart permeating through everything, what's going
to affect me as a parent? I'm going to want to raise my
children in the fear and admonition of the Lord. I'm going to want
them to know the Lord. It affects me as a Child, I want
to honor my parents. I want to do what's right. It
affects me as an employee. I want to work to the glory of
God. I want to honor Him in what I do. I want to honor the gospel
in what I do. It affects me as an employer.
I want the people who work for me to know they're working for
someone who loves Christ and treats them in such a way that
honors the gospel. It affects every area. of a believer. It affects me as a husband. I
want to dwell with Lynn according to knowledge and give honor to
her as into the weaker vessel. It affects the wife. She wants
to be a good wife for the glory of Christ. She wants to submit
herself to her husband in the fear of the Lord. I want to be
obedient to all God says in his word. It affects everything. There is no area of our life
that is unaffected by the Word of God. Now, in this process
of leavening, I don't know how it all works. I Googled it and
still don't understand it. You know, I mean, that's one
of the good things about Google. I can get information I would
have never had. But when the yeast is placed
in the meal, the whole thing becomes yeast bread. That's what
happens. It leavens into the whole is
leavened. Now, what does that mean? First, turn with me to 1 Corinthians
chapter 1. Verse 30. But of him are you in Christ
Jesus. Now this is the place of every
believer. They are in Christ Jesus. Just the way Noah was
in the ark and he was completely safe. Just the way the children
of Israel were in the house with the blood over the door. And
God said, when I see the blood, I will pass over you. You're
in Christ. That's the only place of safety
in Christ. How'd you get there? Of Him.
Are you in Christ Jesus? If you're in Christ Jesus, God
put you there and you've been in Him eternally. Now, do I understand
that? No. Do I believe it? Absolutely.
Absolutely. As a matter of fact, when we
get out of this thing of time and we go into heaven, you know,
we're going to know, I don't understand this, but we're going
to know we've always been in Christ. It's not going to be like eternal
life began when we entered heaven. We're going to find out we've
always been in the Lord Jesus Christ. Isn't that glorious?
Of Him are you in Christ Jesus. What a wonderful place to be.
Accepted in the Beloved. Of Him are you in Christ Jesus,
who of God is made unto us. wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. Now here's what it is to have
the leaven making you the whole lump. Christ doesn't make you
righteous. He is your righteousness. You're one with him. Christ doesn't
make you holy. He is your holiness. You're one with him. He's made
unto us redemption. He's made unto us wisdom. He's
made unto us all these things. So we're just like Him. As He
is, so are we in this world right now. Now that's what has to be
leavened all the way through to the whole is leavened. Hebrews 2.11 says, both he that
sanctifies and they who are sanctified are all of one for the which
cause he's not ashamed to call them brethren. Now what that
means is I'm so much one with Christ that as he is, this is
what 1 John 4.17 says, as he is. So are we in this world right
now. Now, the leaven's done its work.
However Christ is, he's holy, he's beautiful to the Father,
he's perfectly accepted, he's altogether righteous. Me too. I am in him, whatever he is,
I am in him. Turn with me to 2 Corinthians
chapter 10. Here's the process of leaven. Verse 3, for though we walk in
the flesh, and we do, we do not war after the flesh. For the
weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God,
to the pulling down of strongholds, casting down imaginations, and
every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge
of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. Every thought I have through
this leavening process of grace is brought into captivity to
the obedience of Christ. Now, I used to look at that and
think, well, every thought's brought into obedience to Christ.
Well, I'd like that, and in Christ I have that. But that's not what
it says. It says the obedience of Christ,
bringing every thought. Every thought I have has got
to be right here, the obedience of Christ is my obedience before
God. That's it. Every thought is to
be brought into captivity to that. Now that's the permeating
influence of the leaven of God's grace. Colossians chapter 3 verse
11 says, Christ is all. in all. Now there's someone where
the leavening has worked. He sees Christ as all. He sees
Christ as all to God. He sees Christ as all in the
Scriptures. He sees Christ as all in His salvation. Christ
is all. That is the product of the leavening
of God's grace. We are so much the same with
Christ through this leavening work that we answer to the same
name. This is the name wherewith he
shall be called, the Lord our righteousness. And this is the
name wherewith she shall be called, the Lord our righteousness. What's your name? The Lord our
righteousness. That is the name of every believer. Now, when this great work of
leavening is completed, every believer will realize the great
end of predestination. Whom he did foreknow, them he
also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son, that
he might be the firstborn among many brethren. David said, as for me, I'll behold
thy face in righteousness. I'll be satisfied when I awake
in thy likeness. Now, I want to give three scriptural
examples of the leavening work of the kingdom of God set up
in a man or woman's heart. First, turn with me to Acts chapter
16. Acts chapter 16. We have two examples in this
chapter. First, beginning in verse 14,
and a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple of the city
of Thyatira, which worshiped God, heard us. whose heart the
Lord opened." That's that meal being ground. And what happened? She attended unto the things
which were spoken of Paul. She listened to what he was saying,
and she believed the gospel. He preached the gospel to her.
And the Lord opened her heart, and she attended, and she believed. This is the work of God's grace
in her soul. Verse 15, and when she was baptized,
and her household, that's what happens when people hear the
gospel, they want to confess Christ and believers baptism.
She besought us saying, if you've judged me to be faithful to the
Lord, come into my house and abide there. And she constrained
us. Now this is the work of the leavening
of God's grace in the heart of a sinner. He grinds the mill,
he places the leaven in, and it just spreads and spreads and
spreads. Look in this same chapter in
verse 22. And the multitude rose up together
against them, Paul and Barnabas, and the magistrates ran off their
clothes and commanded to beat them. And when they laid many
stripes upon them, they cast them into prison, charging the
jailer to keep them safely, who having received such a charge,
thrust them into the inner prison and made their feet fast in the
stalks. And at midnight, Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises
unto God, and the prisoners heard them. I love to think about that.
You see, the leaven had already done his work in these man's
heart, hadn't it? They were in there with their feet fastened,
stalks in pain, been beaten in that filthy place. But what were
they doing? They were praying and singing
praises to God. You see the work of leaven in
their hearts. Verse 26, and suddenly, There was a great earthquake,
so that the foundations of the prison were shaken, and immediately
all the doors were opened and everyone's bands were loosed.
And the keeper of the prison, awaking out of his sleep and
seeing the prison doors open, he drew out his sword and would
have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners had been fled.
But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, Do thyself no harm, for
we are here. Then he called for a light. That's
what happens when God puts his leaven in somebody's heart. All
of a sudden they have light. He called for a light. And he
sprang in and came trembling and fell down before Paul and
Silas and brought them out and said, Sirs, what must I do to
be saved? You know, there's not a more
important question than that. This is when the leaven is placed
in the heart. I've heard people say, well,
that's He was coming on legal grounds. You're not supposed
to ask what you can do to be saved. That's ridiculous. This fellow
thought, I'm going to be damned. Tell me, what am I supposed to
do to be saved? And I love the answer. Verse 31, and they said, believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. You believe
on the Lord. He's the Lord. He's Jesus. He's the Savior. He's the Christ.
He's God's Christ. He's God's prophet. He's God's
priest. He's God's king. Believe on Him. Rely on Him. You'll be saved.
Oh, see the work of the leaven in this man's heart. He had been
a hardened jailkeeper and now he comes trembling. What must
I do to be saved? Verse 32, and they spake unto
him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house.
And he took them that same hour of the night, and washed their
stripes, and was baptized, he and his, all straightway. And
when he brought them into the house, he set meat before them,
and rejoiced, believing in God with all his house. Now, I love
the way the Lord, or Paul said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
and thou shalt be saved. And he believed in God. Same
thing, isn't it? He knew who Jesus Christ was.
Turn with me to Luke chapter 23. We read in verse 32, And there were also two others,
malfactors, led with him to be put to death. And when they were
come to the place which is called Calvary, there they crucified
him and the malfactors, one on the right hand and the other
on the left. And we know from Matthew and Mark's account, both
of these men were cursing Christ and making fun of him and saying,
if thou be the Christ, Save yourself and save us, and come down from
the cross. They both had no love for Christ. Verse 39, And one
of the malefactors, which were hanged, railed on him, saying,
If thou be the Christ, save thyself and us. And we know that they
were both saying this, but all of a sudden one becomes strangely
silent, while the other cursed, He stopped cursing. Why? The leaven of the word of
God had entered his heart. And he rebukes his buddy, but
the other answering rebuked him. Saying, does not thou fear God? Seeing thou art in the same condemnation. And I don't have any doubt at
all. When he was saying, don't you
fear God? He's talking about that one hanging beside him on
a cross. You say, how could he have known
that? How could you know it? Revelation. He had revealed to
him who he was. This is the leaven of God's grace
working in the heart. Verse 41, and we indeed justly. Now this is what the leaven of
God's grace always does when it works in someone's heart.
It causes that person to justify God in whatever he does. We're
getting precisely what we deserve. We indeed justly. This is what we have coming.
We indeed justly. But look what he says next. He
says in verse 41, for we receive the due reward of our deeds,
but this man hath done nothing amiss. This man believed in the
absolute sinlessness of Jesus Christ. He knew that one hanging
on the cross had never sinned. Do you believe that about Jesus
Christ? Do you believe that when he lived the life he lived on
this earth, he never sinned? Verse 42, this is the leaven
of God's grace working in his heart. And he said unto Jesus,
Lord, he knew He was the Lord. Now that word Lord is not an
empty title. That means the absolute dictator. The one who controls everything. I'm sure that when people around
the cross heard him say Lord, they started laughing at him.
Can you believe he called this one seemingly so weak and getting
ready to die, forsaken by everybody, he called him Lord? Yes, he did.
Why? because the leaven of God's grace
was working its way through his heart, and he saw the absolute
lordship of Jesus Christ. He believed it. Now look what
he says next in verse 42. And he said unto Jesus, Lord,
remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. Now he knew
that the Lord Jesus Christ would not stay dead. But he would come
back as a mighty reigning king. He knew that. How? The leaven
of God's grace permeating his whole soul. And listen to his
plea. Lord, remember me. You know, that's my plea right
now. When you come back and everybody
sees you, who you really are, and you come back as a ruling,
reigning king in your glorious kingdom, oh Lord, remember me. Remember me in mercy, in favor,
in grace. Don't give me what I got coming.
Remember me. I love the Lord's words to him. Verse 43, And Jesus said unto
him, Verily I say unto thee, Today thou shalt be with me in
paradise. Now you look at the power of
the leaven of God's Word in the heart of a sinner. Look what
happened to that man. I mean, he believed Christ was God. He
believed he never sinned. He believed that he must be successful,
that he's coming back as a mighty reigning king, and he wouldn't
stay dead. He believed all this. How? You know, this is, this is what
one, somebody said this is the most amazing instance of faith
in all the Word of God, and I wouldn't deny that. But how did he believe? Same way you do. God put his
word in your heart, he broke it up and he took the meal of
his word by his spirit and placed it in your heart and it spreads
and permeates and you're like that thief. You're like that
woman whose heart the Lord opened. You're like that man who was
a jailer, a hardened jailer and God put the leaven of his grace
in your heart And you cried out, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And you heard, Believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. Isn't that a beautiful
illustration of how God's grace works? It's like yeast. Ground up meal. Woman hides it
there. It works secretly, powerfully,
invincibly, irresistibly. You see, you can't stop the work
of God. When He's at work, nothing can
hinder it. And it permeates the whole three
measures until all of it is leavened. It's called powerful grace, isn't
it? It's called all-powerful grace. Let's pray. Lord, we ask in Christ's name
that every one of us in this room might be the meal ground up by
your spirit and that you would place your word in our heart. and that it would permeate and
diffuse through and through till the whole is leavened. Lord, how we thank you for your
gospel. Lord, truly, with our hearts,
with our understanding, with our affections, with our will,
we delight in thy gospel. Now bless this message for your
glory and for our good. In Christ's blessed name we pray.