Warning Against the Leaven of False Teaching

Review of the Pharisees' Aggressive Approach and Jesus' Decisive Response

0:03 This sermon was preached on Sunday morning, February 9th, 1986, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey.

0:15 As we return to our studies in the Gospel of Mark this morning, we find ourselves once more in the eighth chapter of Mark's Gospel, Mark chapter 8. And will you follow, please, as I read verses 11 through 21 of this chapter. Mark 8 and verse 11. And the Pharisees came forth and began to question with him, seeking of him a sign from heaven, trying or tempting him.

0:52 And he sighed deeply in his spirit and said, Why does this generation seek a sign? Truly I say unto you, there shall no sign be given unto this generation. And he left them. And again.

1:10 Then entering into the boat, departed to the other side, and they forgot to take bread. And they had not in the boat with them more than one loaf or one bread cake. And he charged them, saying, Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod. And they reasoned one with another, saying, We have no bread.

1:39 And Jesus, perceiving it, said, Why do you reason, because you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive, neither understand? Have you your heart hardened? Having eyes, do you see not?

1:58 And having ears, do you hear not? And do you not remember? When I broke the five loaves among the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces, did you take up? They say unto him, Twelve.

2:18 And when the seven among the four thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up? And they said unto him, Seven. And he said unto them, Do you not yet understand?

2:37 Let us plead now that God by the Holy Spirit will do for us what these disciples so obviously need, namely a work of illumination with reference to the word and the works of Jesus. Let us pray.

2:57 Our Father, we thank you that we can come again this morning to your holy and infallible word in the full and unreserved confidence that the sum of your word is truth. We thank you that we do not come hoping to find a little crumb here or there amidst the rancid and the rotting thoughts of men and fables. But we thank you that we come to that which you have likened unto wholesome food, unto pure milk for babes and strong, wholesome meat for mature men and women. We thank you, O Lord, that we may come in the confidence that applying our minds to this work, to this portion of your word, we are applying our minds to that which you have chosen to be the instrument of both imparting and sustaining spiritual life. O may the Holy Spirit so attend our study and the proclamation of your word that salvation and sanctification may come as the Spirit illuminates our minds to understand the words of Jesus. O Lord, grant us our heart's desire. We plead through Christ, our living Lord.

4:26 Amen.

4:33 Now, three Lord's Days ago, we considered together the incident recorded in verses 11 through 13 of the eighth chapter of Mark. And in the examination of that passage, we noted, first of all, the aggressive approach of the Pharisees to our Lord as recorded in verse 11. It was an approach suffused with their hostile attitude. They come aggressively to pick a bone with Him.

5:04 They come to question Him, to engage Him in discussion and debate. And they come with this focused desire upon an illegitimate demand for a heavenly sign. And they did so out of this horrible motive of attempting to ensnare Him. Then in verses 12 and 13, we considered the decisive response of our Lord to this aggressive approach of the Pharisees.

5:36 We found together that His first recorded response was emotional. He sighed deeply. Then He gave a verbal response, telling them that no such sign in the heavens would be given to that generation. And then the passage concludes with His saying, His physical response.

5:57 And that response was nothing less than an abrupt abandonment of these people. And He left them. And that's a strong word. It speaks and has bound up in it the whole idea of the repulsiveness of their unbelief and of their arrogance which causes the Lord Jesus to turn heel and to leave them with His disciples enter again into the boat and depart from the western shore of the Sea of Galilee over to the eastern shore.

Circumstances Surrounding Jesus' Warning

6:34 Now without the background of verses 11 through 13 and the previously recorded incident in the earlier verses of chapter 8, we will not be able to understand verses 14 through 21. Verses 11 through 13 form the very natural definition of the transition into the circumstances described in verse 14. Now as we approach the portion, it will become clear to us, I trust, that the focus or central issue in verses 14 to 21 is the warning of Jesus issued in verse 15. Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod. And so the organizing principle in our study of the passage is this central issue of the warning of Jesus. Note with me then, first of all, in verse 14, the circumstances surrounding the warning of Jesus. The circumstances surrounding the warning of Jesus.

7:47 According to verse 13, as I have reminded you in our brief review, Jesus, in company with his disciples, made an abrupt departure from the western shore of the Sea of Galilee under the pressure of the repelling power of the unbelief and skepticism of the Pharisees and also the Sadducees, according to Matthew. And so he goes across the lake from the more populated areas on the western shore to the less populated or lesser populated areas on the eastern shore and he gives no heavenly sign to satisfy the demand of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. Now obviously, in their hasty departure, the disciples forgot to lay up a sufficient supply of their staple food, these small pancake-like, chapati-like loaves of bread. Verse 14, and they, that is the disciples, forgot to take bread. Now whether while crossing the lake or upon their arrival at the other side, they became aware of their forgetfulness and they discover that they brought no adequate supply of bread cakes coming into an area,

9:16 you'll remember, that was much less densely populated than the western shore. There were many cities and villages on the western shore where one could go and purchase needful food. But this was not true on the eastern shore. And so as they arrive on the other side, they are concerned about this matter of having no bread and upon scouring the boat they find that there is one little bread cake, the equivalent of one large pancake probably left over from perhaps even the previous miracle, of the multiplying of the loaves and the fishes, but certainly inadequate to feed 13 grown men for some possible period of days. Now it's in this setting that we must come to the words that form the central concern of the passage and make every effort to restructure in our minds that setting as it is given to us in verse 14. The Lord Jesus, silent, pensive, His own spirit still feeling on the one hand the sting of the arrogance of the Pharisees and the Sadducees, feeling something of that deep trauma that caused Him to sigh deeply in the presence

10:44 of their unbelief and skepticism. And one can only imagine as they arrive upon the shore and embark, disembark from the boat and begin to walk along the shore together, the Lord Jesus wrapped up in the thoughts of the incident recorded in verses 11 through 13. In His own mind and spirit reflecting upon this additional indictment of the religious climate, of the religious leaders of that day, demanding of Him a sign from heaven, tempting Him, coming to pick a bone with Him. Our Lord's spirit wrapped up in the great concerns of what happens when men come under the sway and power of decadent religion. He has seen it in some of its grossest manifestations just prior to leaving the western shore. While the Lord Jesus, in pensive silence, is allowing His own mind and spirit to feel the weight of those issues, the disciples are all shaken and agitated about a very practical concern, namely, they had forgotten to bring bread. And where will we get bread in this wilderness?

The Seriousness and Central Concern of Jesus' Warning

12:08 Where will we obtain sufficient bread cakes in order to feed our bellies? And in that set of circumstances, we now come, to the substance of the warning of Jesus in verse 15. And He charged them, saying, Take ye, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod. Now note two things about this warning of Jesus.

12:45 First of all, its seriousness, and then secondly, its central concern.

12:54 First of all, the seriousness of the warning of Jesus. And the seriousness is underscored, first of all, in the strong word used at the beginning of the verse. It tells us, and He charged them. He did not simply say to them, or the ordinary word for command, He commanded them, but He uses a word that could accurately be rendered, He gave them strict orders.

13:28 It was the word used in chapter 5 and verse 43. Chapter 5 and verse 43.

13:39 Sorry, verse... Yes, chapter 5 and verse 43.

13:44 And He charged them much that no man should know this. He strictly gave them orders. It was used again in chapter 7 and verse 36. And a form of the verb is used, an imperfect, which probably, though not necessarily in the context, but probably points to the fact that He did not simply charge them once.

14:13 It may have been a repeated charge. What we may have in the text is a distillation of a much more extensive, solemn, and repeated charge. So the seriousness, immediately is set before us in the text by the use of this verb, and He was charging them. But then the seriousness is further underscored by this connection of words translated in our Bibles, take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.

14:55 This is the utterance of double caution. Both words are present imperatives stressing attitudes and spiritual activities which ought to continue. The first verb calls for mental alertness, while the second calls them to look upon the object of their attention in order to avoid the danger it presents. Let me illustrate.

15:26 Here's an unfortunate biology test. A teacher who has a class immediately after lunch in college or high school. Everyone's tummy is full of food, and those of you who are in high school and have gone to college, you know what a difficult time that first class after lunch is, especially if the room is hot, and doubly so if you have a boring teacher. More than once in college, I used to count the heads that would drop in that course after lunch.

15:56 People would sit there, and all of a sudden, there'd be that tell-tale downward jerk, and then up again. Down they'd go. Now, here's a biology teacher who's about to engage in a very sensitive experiment or a chemistry teacher with the class, and concerned that no one bring harm to himself, the teacher says to this after-lunch class as they are about to embark upon this lab experiment together, now all of you, wake up! And pay close attention to what I am about to show you.

16:33 Now, you feel the force of that? Now, all of you, wake up! Give me your attention, and now concentrate all of your faculties upon that which I am to set before you. Now, that's precisely what Jesus did with the disciples.

16:48 You get the picture now. They're walking along the shore. They've just come out of the boat. The Lord Jesus is wrapped up in pensive silence, and deep concern of soul.

17:00 The disciples are carrying on their little conversation about the concerns that they have only this one bread cake, and they've forgotten to bring their bread with them. And Jesus turns and says, in a manner that they immediately knew was going to convey something very serious, because He strictly charged them. The tone of His voice, the look in His eye, made it evident that something of grave importance was forthcoming, and then He uses the double present imperative. Put all of your mental faculties together and concentrate them upon that which is about to come from My lips. And by so doing, our Lord underscored the seriousness of His warning. Now what was the central concern of that warning? It is just this.

17:58 It is to be heard. They are to be constantly alert and on their guard against being infected by the leaven-light influence of the teaching of the Pharisees and the Herodians. And according to Matthew 16.6, our Lord included at this time the Sadducees as well.

18:24 Now that, He uses the word leaven as a figure, a figure of speech for teaching is clearly established from Matthew 16 and verse 12. The parallel passage, Matthew 16.12, then understood they that He bade them not beware of the leaven of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees. So the central concern of this serious sober warning is very clear.

18:59 The Lord's warning is very clear. They are to be constantly alert and on their guard against the influence of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees and Herodians, which Jesus likens unto leaven or yeast. Now why does He use that imagery? Well, He had used it with them earlier in one of the parables.

19:27 He said, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a woman who takes a little yeast and she hides it in her lump of dough until all is leavened. The imagery of yeast underscores two basic things. It underscores the secret influence, but the extensive and powerful influence of that commodity. As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 5, 6, a little leaven or yeast leavens the whole lump. Now, many of you children have been cheated from the kind of understanding of this that some of us received in our homes growing up. We used to have a bakery down the corner about a quarter of a mile from where we lived, and they used to get their yeast or their leaven in a huge tub. And when my mother was about to make her special bread that she was taught to make from her mother, one that contained all the water from the vegetables, when she'd cook carrots or beans or peas and the rest, she always saved the vegetable water. And that would go into the bread and oatmeal and other things. I mean, that bread was so full of good stuff, it would jump across the table on its own

20:44 strength. But she would say to me, Sonny, for that was my nickname, I want you to go down to the baker's and buy 10 cents worth of yeast. And the baker then would go in and with his knife, cut out a cube of yeast that would be about an inch and a half, two inch cube. And that was always enough that I could take off a little piece and eat it. I love that plain yeast. And then it never ceased to amaze me that after my mother put all the flour and all this other stuff together, she put the yeast in and she put that bread in the biggest pot we had and put it on top of one of the radiators. After a while, lo and behold, the stuff would just rise and would begin to billow over. And one of the things I used to love to do, she'd let me punch it down and knead it. And I'd go over and punch it. It would all go down.

21:31 And then we'd put it on the table with some flour and I'd work it and punch it and knock all the stuffings out of it. She'd plop it back in and lo and behold, what would happen? It would rise again. All from that little bit of yeast. It had power to insinuate its influence through that entire dough. And so leaven comes in the teaching of our Lord as an act illustration of the tremendous power of relationship. Religious thinking to insinuate itself into the minds and hearts of people and to influence the entirety of their being. So our Lord, in the central concern of his solemn warning, says to his disciples, pay attention. Be on your guard with reference to the teaching of the Pharisees and the teaching of Herod and

22:31 also of the Psalms. Now, what particularly did our Lord have in mind when he said, the teaching of the Pharisees and the teaching or the leaven of Herod and also of the Sadducees? Well, some of the commentators would limit it to the teaching of the Pharisees and the teaching or the leaven of Herod and also of the Leaven of Herod and also of the Sadducees. Well, some of the commentators would limit it only to the immediate context of verses 11 to 13. The Pharisees had come and were tempting Jesus, saying, the signs of your messianic identity previously done are not enough. Oh yes, you've raised the dead. You've opened the eyes of the blind, unstopped the ears of the deaf. You've straightened out the crooked limbs of the crippled. But you have not yet

Defining the Leaven of the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Herodians

23:29 made the sun and the moon jump over one another. You've not yet made the sun and the moon jump over one another. You've not done a great miracle in the skies, and until you do, we won't believe you are Messiah. So here was that arrogance, demanding of the Lord a sign that the Father never said would accompany Messiah's coming. And some would say that what our Lord is doing is warning his disciples about that particular attitude of skepticism and perhaps even including from chapter 7 something of the Pharisaic hypocrisy. And they would relate then to a similar warning in Luke 12 in verse 1, where Jesus says, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. But I believe that's altogether too limiting. And for these reasons, Jesus gives them two present imperatives. He charges them, saying, continually focus all of your attention on the Lord. And he says, beware of the leaven of the

24:33 Pharisees, and be on your guard against anything that is false teaching arising from the Pharisees, the Sadducees, or the Herodians. And in the light of the fact that he had already given some very clear exposure of their false religion, in the light of the fact that there would be subsequent revelations of what the leaven of these groups was, I believe we are warranted in saying that Jesus' warning is as broad as the revelation of Scripture concerning all of the deficiencies in the religious perspectives of the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the Herodians. Perhaps Hendrickson, among all the commentators that I've read, and I read no fewer than 20 in preparation for today's ministry, he perhaps comes clearest.

25:34 But when he suggests, and this is a little bit of my own wording woven into Hendrickson, that the Pharisees could be epitomized as those whose religion was dominated by traditionalism and externalism. Remember chapter 7? They're all upset that Jesus and his disciples don't keep the tradition of the fathers. They're all upset about external washings and external ceremonies.

26:03 The Pharisees were the teachers par excellence in how to keep the traditions of the fathers and how to be meticulously correct in external dimensions of religion. The Sadducees were marked by rationalism. They did not believe in the resurrection. They did not believe in the existence of spirits.

26:27 You remember they come later on, tempting Jesus. They're the ones who pose the question assertively. A certain man was married to a woman, and he died, and she married a brother. Seven married her in the resurrection. Whose wife shall they be? They did that because they didn't believe in a resurrection, and they thought they had logical inconsistencies that would make resurrection impossible.

26:47 So they were the rationalists of their day. And then the followers of Herod or the Herodians, Hendrickson suggests that they picture religion that is shot through with secularism. Just enough religion to keep the religion of the Pharisees. Keep you comfortable politically, but not enough to upset your moral patterns. For remember, it was Herod whose moral patterns are recorded earlier in Mark that led to the death of John the Baptist.

27:17 So putting it all together, what do we have? We have the warning of our Lord Jesus Christ. A most solemn warning to the disciples that they must be constantly on their guard against the influence. Of the teaching of the Pharisees, whose cardinal errors in religion were following tradition more than the word of God, being more concerned about externals than internals.

27:45 He warns them about being influenced by the religious errors of the Sadducees, the rationalists who did not accept the entirety of the Old Testament scriptures, who would make their judgment the bar of truth. They were the skeptics and the rationalists. And then there were the Herodians, those who had dabbled just enough in the religion of Palestine in order to make comfortable their political position, but not enough to make them uncomfortable in their sins. And Jesus is deeply concerned, lest his own disciples, through whom true religion would be propagated to the ends of the earth. For remember, this is the period of his concentrated training of the twelve. He is concerned that they in no way imbibe any little bit of the leaven of the false religion of Pharisee, Sadducee, or Herodian, but that they themselves experience and propagate nothing but the pure, heavenly religion of Jesus.

The Disciples' Superficial Understanding of the Warning

29:01 Now, having looked at the circumstances in which the warning was given, having considered the substance of the warning, now notice, thirdly, the superficial understanding of the warning by the disciples. Verse 16, the superficial understanding of the warning by the disciples. And? They reasoned, one with another, saying, We have no bread, or because we have no bread, there's a textual problem, but the reasoning and the heart of what that reasoning was is clear.

29:41 Although they had just come from several bristling encounters with these groups on the western shore, they totally missed the point. They put two and two together. The text says that Jesus' warning produced a discussion. It could mean an argument, focusing on one fact, that they forgot to bring an ample supply of bread cakes.

30:13 They reasoned, they discussed, maybe argued, could it be that they were standing there saying, It was your turn to see to the bread. Oh, no, it wasn't. Mine was last week. It was your turn, John.

30:25 Oh, no. You look back at, could it be? Could well be. They did things just as childish as that recorded in Scripture.

30:33 But they were reasoning, dialoguing, interacting with one another after they hear the warning of Jesus, and all of their interaction is focused on the fact that they have only one chapati, one pancake, one little roll of bread with them.

30:52 Possibly arguing who was at fault. Possibly, what did Jesus say? What did Jesus mean? Must we go and buy some bread?

31:00 But if we do, we must beware that we don't take any bread from the hand of a Pharisee or a Herodian. What is Jesus saying?

31:10 One of the commentators writes as follows. It is because we have no bread represents the spirit of their utterance perfectly. They dimly supposed he must mean that food received from the hand of his enemies was to be rejected because of the unrighteousness. It is because of the unrighteousness and unworthiness of those who might offer it.

31:30 If Pharisees and Herodians were so defiled, they were not fit persons for them to obtain food from. There is a childish naivete in their self-questioning which testifies to the absolute originality and truthfulness of the record, and so to the genuineness of the question that follows. A question that assumes the reality of the two previous miracles. They try to understand him, but this low and uncharacteristic, uncharacteristic meaning was all they could find as if he said, you'll have to have by bread and you must be careful from whom you buy it and had forbidden them to eat the bread of his enemies.

32:14 Horrible, tragic misunderstanding of the significance of the sober warning of Jesus. And in this superficial understanding, at least this much is clear. They were wrong. They were wrong in two areas.

32:33 They listened to the words of Jesus and interpreted them in a crass literalism which Jesus never intended. The minute they heard the word leaven, they thought bread. And the minute they thought bread, they thought earthly bread. That much is clear.

32:50 Jesus said, beware, watch out, be on your guard. Leaven, leaven equals bread. Bread equals something you buy. Bread equals something you eat.

33:00 And they never... They never thought beyond the literal connection between yeast and bread.

33:06 There was a crass literalism in the way they heard and interpreted the words of Jesus. And then secondly, there was a crippling unbelief. They assumed that whatever he's saying about bread, we're going to have to go and get some bread because we've only got one loaf. That's why later on Jesus said, don't you yet understand?

33:27 When there were thousands and just a few loaves, weren't they all fed? But you see...

33:32 Only in the midst of this crass literalism was this crippling unbelief. They're all worried in following Jesus, somehow we might go hungry. So it must be that Jesus is saying, I don't want you to go hungry, but in getting bread, don't come into defiling contact with these false teachers.

Jesus' Searching Interrogation of the Disciples

33:54 What a superficial understanding the disciples manifested. But the Bible is very honest about the faults of the servants of God. Now then, we come in the fourth place. To the searching interrogation of our Lord.

34:08 Verses 17 to 21.

34:13 The text begins, verse 17, And Jesus, perceiving or knowing itself, the Lord Jesus saw clean through their crass literalism. He saw their present state of unbelief, their total misconception of his sober warning, and in that perfect knowledge of them, he begins to apply some questions to their minds and to their consciences. And as we come to consider these verses, I must point out what most of the commentators are careful to observe. That this is the most concentrated, pointed, searching record of how our Lord dealt with his disciples to be found anywhere in the Gospels. There is no other incident recorded in Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John, where he is so intense and so relentless in probing the conscience with pointed questions. And as I've reflected upon the questions and tried to sort them out, I do not believe it is artificial to say that what we have is a general question which introduces the next set of rebuking questions which in turn culminate in the climactic question of verse 27, verse 31. First of all, the general question.

35:39 And Jesus perceiving it said unto them, Why do you reason because you have no bread? There's the general question. Why are you sitting here having a bull session, having a dialogue, having a discussion about the whole issue that there's only one loaf of bread in the boat and somebody forgot to lay up a stock of bread sufficient for this trip across the lake? Why in the world are you all taken up with...

36:11 That's the general question that introduces now what I'm calling the rebuking questions. And there are four of them. Notice the first.

36:22 Do you not yet perceive, neither understand spiritual insight and spiritual perception? Question number one. Question number two in the way of rebuke. Has your conscience...

36:41 Has your collective heart been hardened? Look at the language. Have you your heart hardened?

36:52 Is your collective heart in a state of having been hardened and yet remaining in that state? Third question. Have your faculties of perception been negated and neutered? Having ears?

37:10 Don't you see? And having ears? Do you...

37:14 Do you not hear? Third probing question. Have your faculties of perception, ear and eye, been neutered? Has their capacity to function been negated?

37:28 Fourth question. Has your memory failed you? Do you not remember? Now put yourself on that shore.

37:37 And you've been all taken up with the fact that you've got only one little bread cake and somehow Jesus is warning you that as you go to get some bread, you're going to get some bread. You're going to get some more and you're laying out your scheme. He's complicated the whole thing by saying you now have to be selective in terms of who you get your bread from. And while their minds are all taken up with that, Jesus begins by first of all shattering the whole circle of their concern saying in that general question, why are you reasoning because you have no bread?

38:08 What's to do about bread, bread, bread, bread, bread?

38:14 When he shocks them with that question, then he begins to probe them like a skillful surgeon. Cutting down through the skin and then through the fascia and through the muscle. Avoiding nerves and cutting through the proper tissues and avoiding the vessels that should not be cut. The Lord, like a skillful surgeon, begins to operate upon their spiritual constitution.

38:40 Do you not yet have insight or understanding? Has your collective heart been hardened? Have your faculties of perception been neglected? Has your memory failed you?

38:52 And then that question leads to two incidents which memory should have stored and which memory obviously did store. When I broke the five loaves among the 5,000, how many little lunch baskets full of broken pieces did you take up? And memory served them well. They said unto him, Twelve!

39:12 And when the seven among the 4,000, how many hampers full of the broken pieces did you take up? And they said unto him, Seven! Their memories were functioning well. They remembered the numbers and they remembered the distinction.

39:29 They remembered the distinction in the very kinds of receptacles in which they gathered up the fragments.

39:37 By those probing questions and by underscoring the reality of those two incidents of feeding the multitudes, Jesus then leads to the climactic question in verse 21. And he said unto them, Do you not yet understand?

The Disciples' Eventual Understanding and the Meaning of the Warning

39:59 In other words, as I've cut deeply with the scalpel of my questions, as I have probed you with my word and stirred you to remembrance of certain realities in your recent past, do you still miss the import of my warning? Beware of the leaven of the scrotum! Scribes of the Pharisees, of the Herodians, Mark leaves the question unanswered. He leaves us to assume that surely they must by now have gotten the point.

40:32 But Matthew does not leave us in doubt. He tells us. And if you look at Matthew chapter 16, Matthew chapter 16, verse 12, Then an adverb of time at that point, then understood the tense of the verb which means, decisive. They came to an understanding that he bade them not beware of the leaven of bread, that is the leaven of physical earthly bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

41:15 Jesus' operation was a success. After he finished probing and probing and cutting with these questions, and then, in his climactic question says, Do you not yet understand? Matthew tells us, though they apparently were so ashamed that they gave no verbal response, they now came to an understanding that his warning had nothing to do with avoiding taking literal bread from these religious teachers. That would have been to violate his own teaching in chapter 7.

41:51 The defilement does not come from external contact with evil. He would have been establishing a new Phariseeism. They understood he was concerned about the false religious teaching that was embodied in Pharisee, Sadducee, and Herodian. So in summary then, we say as we complete the exposition, that by the searing searching questions, Jesus brings the disciples to perceive and understand the meaning of his teaching.

42:28 That is not his warning. Now they know that their great danger is not that of possibly being without bread in a desert place in attachment to their Lord. That's no danger. When they were in that situation before, he just multiplied bread and fish and fed them to the full.

42:48 No, as they are there on the eastern shore, having forgotten to bring physical bread, their danger is not starvation physically, but infinite hunger. But infection spiritually. And he warns them, be on your guard, be alert, be aware of the leaven that is the teaching of the scribes and of the Pharisees and of the Herodians. Well, that, my brothers and sisters, I believe is at least a responsible overview of what the passage teaches now.

Universal Principle: Religious Belief Determines Religious Experience

43:23 What does the passage say to you? What does it say to me? What is it intended to say to the church in every age? And here again, I find myself embarrassed by the richness of Scripture.

43:36 And I'm unashamed to say that as I sat at my desk this morning and raised my hands in prayer to God, trying to sort out what applications to make, my prayer was this, Lord Jesus, you are the great prophet of your church. You know the heart of every man, every woman, boy or girl, who's there this morning. Lord Jesus, you know what your people's lives are. You know what your people need most to hear today.

44:01 Lord, guide me in which applications to select, in which to reject, which to expand upon, which to touch lightly. And my prayer is that God, by the Holy Spirit, would indeed enable me so to bring before you those things which Christ, your prophet, knows you have most need of. Let us see first of all in this passage the fact that it understands, underscores a universal principle. This passage underscores a universal principle.

44:37 Its central issue was an earnest warning about the influence of specific manifestations of false religious thinking and practice. That's the central issue of the passage. Jesus says, Watch out! Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, and of the Gentiles.

44:58 And of the leaven of Herod. And He did it earnestly. Why? Here's the principle.

45:07 The reality and quality of religious experience is determined by the substance of religious belief. Now mark that down as a principle that runs from Genesis to Revelation on into heaven and down into the murky, horrible depths of hell itself. The reality and quality of religious experience is determined by the substance of religious belief. Why does Jesus so pensively and soberly say, in a serious, solemn charge, Take heed! Watch out for the teaching of Pharisee, Sadducee, Herodian! Because Jesus didn't believe the lie. It doesn't matter what you believe, just so long as you're sincere and it makes you a good person.

46:11 Jesus didn't believe that! Jesus believed that if these men were infected with the religious beliefs of Pharisee, Sadducee, and Herodian, it would affect religious experience. The whole notion that sincerity alone matters is false. It is truth that saves and sanctifies.

46:36 It is error that damns and defiles. Oh, my disciples, he says, beware. Not of defilement that comes from buying a few pancakes from a Pharisee, but beware of buying one gram of his notions about religion. His religion is all bound up in tradition and in externals.

47:01 He knows nothing of heart's submission to God's Word. He knows nothing of purity of heart. He knows nothing of heart-religion, heart-seeking, heart-mourning, heart-grieving. He's a white-wash sepulcher.

47:16 His religion is bound in his externals and in his devotedness to his traditions. Beware! Beware! Beware of his teaching.

47:26 Beware of the Sadducee, with his rationalism, with his jaundiced eye, with his screwed-up brow that will only believe what he can put in his soul. Beware of his so-called test-tube, improved scientifically. Beware of the teaching of Sadducee, of Herodian, and of Pharisee. Why?

47:49 Why? Because of this universal principle, the reality and quality of religious experience is determined by the substance of religious beliefs. That's why all vital Christianity is always vigorously doctrinal Christianity. Do you hear me?

Frightening Assumption: Vulnerability to Error Even in Christ's Presence

48:11 All vital Christianity is always vigorously. Then in the second place, note that the passage contains a frightening assumption. Not only underscores a universal principle, but contains a frightening assumption. Go back to the setting.

48:37 Here are twelve men in the immediate presence of God incarnate, the one to whom the Spirit was not given by measure. The one of whom it is said they wondered at the words of grace that proceeded out of his mouth. They are in the presence of truth incarnate who could say, I am the way, the truth, the life. No man comes to the Father but by me.

49:02 No man spake as he spake. They wondered. He spoke with authority, and not as the scribes and Pharisees. In that setting, think of it, in the presence of incarnate truth, the master teacher, the perfect embodiment of truth in life.

49:17 A life and demeanor and attitude surrounded by all of that influence. You mean they were vulnerable to the stinking, rotten religious principles of Pharisees, Sadducees and Herodians? You bet your boots they were. Because in them as in us, the religion of Pharisees, Sadducees and Herodians is nothing but the principle of sin come to full expression in religious categories.

49:50 And remaining sin in you and in me, as in them, has an affinity for the religion of the Pharisee, the religion of the Sadducee, and the religion of the Herodian. Do you see the frightening assumption that being in the immediate presence of Jesus was not a guarantee against being infected with the teaching of Pharisee, Sadducee, and Herodian? That's why he soberly charged them and warned them with two present imperatives. Keep your eyes open. Keep alert. Gaze continually. Be alert. Beware. Watch out.

50:39 The frightening assumption is that the most favorable circumstances to know and absorb truth do not negate the possibility of error's influence. The most favorable circumstances to know and absorb truth do not negate the possibility of error's influence. Now, do you know why some of us pour our guts out in preaching? Why we warn? Why we admonish? Why we expose error in the concrete, most favorable setting in which to know and absorb truth?

51:22 But it has no power to immunize you if you refuse to be watchful. If the presence of Jesus couldn't do it, nobody else can. I say the passage contains a frightening assumption. But then thirdly, the passage delineates a perpetual duty. The passage delineates a perpetual duty, and that duty laid upon the disciples and on us is twofold.

Perpetual Duty: Discerning and Watching Against Religious Error

51:50 Number one, to be discerning in the recognition of religious error and to be watchful against imbibing religious error. Do you see that? When Jesus said, beware, watch out, be on your guard. Be on your guard. Take heed of the leaven, the teaching of Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.

52:13 He's assuming that as a result of his instruction and his exposure of the false religious principles of these very groups, that his disciples would be discerning in the recognition of the error. And then not only would they be discerning, but they would be watchful against imbibing it in any of its forms. And oh, dear people of God, this delineation. The passage delineates our perpetual duty to be discerning in the recognition of religious error, not to be naive and say, well, if I love God and love the Bible, I'll go to heaven in a lovely bed of ease and everything will be all right.

52:53 No, it won't. Error is as insidious and subtle and powerful in its influence as is yeast in a lump of dough. Beware of it. Be on your guard against it.

53:07 This is why we... This is why we teach the confession in the adult class.

53:11 This is why we expound the scriptures consecutively. This is why we read the scriptures consecutively. This is why we try to soak your mind in the Bible. To do what?

53:22 To give you under God the ability to discern between truth and error. And often the distance between truth and error is not a great chasm such as you find on the southern to the northern rim of the Grand Canyon, but it's a razor's edge.

53:41 And what a duty is upon us, dear people of God, to be discerning in the recognition of religious error and then to be watchful against imbibing religious error. We can imbibe it so subtly in just a little bit. Once it begins to work its way out, it works how? Like leaven.

53:58 And just a little error deposited in a little corner of the rule, and it isn't long before the whole personality is infected with that error. Oh, may God help us to see our duty to linearity. The passage illustrates a vital law of the life of faith.

Vital Law of Faith: Reasoning from Past Proven Experience

54:23 The passage illustrates a vital law of the life of faith. Remember what Jesus does when he's trying to show them how silly it was for them to be worrying about earthly bread? He said in verse 19, When I broke the five loaves among the five thousand, how many baskets full did you take up? And they said, twelve.

54:46 And the seven among the four, how many did you take up? And they said, seven. Why is he going back and reminding them of those two historical incidents in which they were the Lord's table servers? They saw the bread multiplied in his hands, and they distributed it to the multitude sitting down upon the ground.

55:05 What does Jesus say? He's underscoring a law of the life of faith, and it's this. Faith reasons from past proven experience. Faith reasons of God's faithfulness and power to my present need for his faithfulness and power.

55:23 That's a law of the life of faith. Faith reasons from the past proven experiences of God's faithfulness and power to my present need of God's faithfulness and power. He says if only you were using your memories rightly, you wouldn't be sitting here having a big discussion over the whole issue. When you were in need before, one time in this very geographical area, did I let you go hungry?

55:56 Don't you remember my past faithfulness and power? And the first time one of the brethren says, well, what are we going to do? Only got one loaf. Shouldn't the rest of you have echoed in you unanimity?

56:09 Wait up, brother. Don't you remember? Don't you remember? When in our need we stood.

56:17 We stood before God, desperately needing an application of his power and his faithfulness. We saw that manifestation in the multiplying of the loaves and fishes. Look at the example of this in the life of David. There are many.

56:35 I can only give you one, but I just could not pass over this one because it's a story familiar to all of you, even the youngest. In 1 Samuel chapter 17, when David hears about this, there is this big hulk of a warrior named Goliath coming out every day and defying God in the armies of Jehovah. His soul is stirred within him. David wants to enter into the fray and take on this giant in the name of the Lord God of hosts.

57:09 And we read in 1 Samuel 17 that he did not meet with an altogether enthusiastic response from those who became aware of it. Verse 31. And when the words were heard which David spoke, And he sent for him, and David said to Saul, Let no man's heart fail because of him, that is, because of hulk Goliath. Thy servant will go and fight with this Philistine.

57:33 And Saul said to David, You're not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him. But notice, it doesn't say you're but a boy. It says you are but a youth. You're but a young man.

57:42 He a man of war from his youth. And David said unto Saul, Now notice how he reasons. Saul, you want to know why? I'm ready to go fight this guy.

57:51 I can take him on. You know why I'm convinced? I can take him on and beat him. I'll tell you why.

57:57 Not because of any confidence in myself. But I'm going to reason from past situations where I needed God's faithfulness and God's power and he did not fail me. Look. Your servant was keeping his father's sheep.

58:10 And when there came a lion or a bear and took a lamb out of the flock, I went out after him and smote him and delivered him out of his mouth. And when he rose against me, That is, I caught him by his beard and smote him and slew him. Oh, I love to think of what that was. Wouldn't you love to have been hiding in a bush to see David do that?

58:32 Some lion pounces upon one of David's sheep and starts to take off. And David goes after him, grabs him by the beard, says to him in Hebrew, Who in the world do you think you are taking one of my sheep? Yes. And he slew him.

58:48 Thy servant smote both the lion and the bear. When the bear roared, he raised his claws. And God's power and God's faithfulness did not fail me. I left him dead at my feet.

59:07 Now, he says, In the light of that, in the light of that, thy servant smote the lion and the bear, and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be one of them, seeing he's defied the armies of the living God. David said, The Lord delivered me out of the paw of the lion, out of the paw of the bear. He'll deliver me out of the hand of the Philistine. What was he doing?

59:29 Applying the law of faith. God's power, God's faithfulness in my time of need as a shepherd. That faithfulness will meet me when I stand before that giant. Let me go and take him on in the name of Jehovah.

59:43 Was that brashness? No, that was faith. Faith working by its own law established by God. And oh, dear people, how wonderfully this passage illustrates that law of faith.

59:56 This is where there was a breakdown in the perception of the disciples. Had they taken that law of faith, one of them would have said, Hey, fellas, we're on the wrong time. We don't know what those words of Jesus mean. Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and scribes.

60:10 But it can't mean anything about us getting bread. Because 5,000, 4,000, 12 baskets full, 7 hampers full. Here we got one loaf with 13. Man, we'll go back with a boat full.

60:27 Hallelujah. He must mean something else. Now let's get our heads together and try to figure it out. That would have been the law of faith at work.

60:36 And oh, dear people, we can't throw stones at them, can we? Who among us is ready to cast the first stone? In our need again and again, individually, domestically, as a church, we've cried to God to show His power and His faithfulness. And what has God done?

Comforting Truth: Christ's Patient Pastoral Care

60:56 He's come and met us again and again and again. And yet the next time we're in need, we act as though we never had one display of His faithfulness or His power. Oh, may God have mercy on us. And then finally, and on this note I close, the passage demonstrates a comforting truth.

61:19 The passage demonstrates a comforting truth. See, I don't see much comfort in there. I see exhortation. I see rebuke.

61:28 Oh, the comfort is this. And though the disciples, and here we don't have time to open it up, but the very disciples who manifested these characteristics of hardness of heart, spiritual blindness, spiritual deafness, those are the characteristics applied to apostate Israel. In apostate Israel, there was the dominion of spiritual blindness, dullness, and hardness of heart. In these disciples, it was a powerful acting of remaining sin.

62:03 But he uses the same terminology. All this terminology is soaked in the Old Testament, particularly Isaiah 6 and several other prophets. But what did Jesus do? The Bible says the bruised reed he will not break, and the smoking flax he will not quench.

62:19 He knows that these men had the root of the matter in them. And though his heart must have been pained at their crass literalism, at their terrible crippling unbelief, what did he do? He probed. He pressured.

62:35 He tried. He tried. He dealt with him until he nurtured that little dim wick of perception into a bright flame that soon as we shall see in the not-too-distant future breaks out in the confession, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. Oh, what a comforting truth that Jesus, by rebuke and patient pastoral care, brings the disciples through their blindness, to a place of spiritual perception.

63:12 And he is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Thank God for a Savior who, having brought us into the orbit of attachment to himself, is committed to nurture in us the very grace he has implanted against all of the power and influence of remaining sin. My unsaved friend, I pity you in your unconverted state. What a horrible thing not to have a Savior like this as your Savior.

63:49 Who is more blessed than one whom the Lord Jesus regards as his own wick, whom he is determined to light until it blazes with the glory of eternal brightness in his presence. And though at times that wick may flicker and seems like there's nothing but dirty smoke going up from it, it. He's going to tenderly nurture it until it burns brightly again. That's the imagery of the prophet Isaiah concerning Messiah. A dimly burning wick. He won't look at it and say, oh, that thing's sending forth nothing but stinky smoke. No, no, no, no. There was a stinky smoke of crass literalism and crippling unbelief coming out of those disciples' mouths and hearts. Jesus didn't extinguish the wick. He dealt with it until it became a burning, bright wick. And

64:39 these are the very ones who in a short time would turn the world upside down. What a comforting truth that that's our Savior. And if you don't know him, oh, my friend, all the misconceptions you have about him, turn from them. If you've been infected with the leaven of Pharisaic religion, thinking it's enough that you go through the ritual and the forms that your father and your mother and grandfather and grandmother, oh, yes, you were sprinkled and you were done and you were catechized.

65:09 And you were confirmed and all around. But your religion is that of Pharisaic leaven, mere tradition, mere journalism of a heart broken over sin, of a heart that beholds the glory of God in the face of Christ as a heart that pants for holiness. You know nothing. My friend, beware of that leaven. It'll damn you. Beware of the leaven of Sadducees, skeptics. I'm from Missouri. Show me. My friend, until you bend your proud mind, for God and his holy word, you'll never know the first thing about true and saving religion. Beware of the leaven of Herod. Just enough religion to make things politically and economically and socially comfortable, but never to disturb your lifestyle and your set of values and your goals and ambitions in your pocketbook. Beware of it, my unconverted friend. What you believe results in

66:09 life or damnation, and it's truth alone that's in your pocketbook. Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod. Let us pray. Our Father, we thank you for our Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you for his word.

66:51 Thank you for the word concerning himself. Thank you for the gift of the Spirit who has come to take of the things of Christ and to reveal them to us and to apply them with power. May he even now take the word expounded and the word applied and make that a saving, a sanctifying, a comforting, a rebuking word. Oh Lord, do for us what we cannot do for ourselves as we commit ourselves and the things of the world. Oh Lord, do for us what we cannot do for ourselves as we commit ourselves and the things of the world. May your blessing and grace rest upon us and enable us so to walk before you in the remainder of this day that when it draws to its close, our hearts will overflow with joy as together we exclaim that it has been good for us to be in the place of your dwelling this day. Amen.