Beware of Modern Sadducees

Introduction: The Vital Warning of Jesus

0:06 This sermon was preached on Sunday morning, March 2nd, 1986, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Once again, will you turn with me, please, to the 8th chapter of Mark's Gospel, the Gospel of Mark and Chapter 8. Now, let us plead with God that by His Holy Spirit He will be pleased to instruct us and speak to us with clarity and with power out of His own infallible Word.

0:55 Our Father, we have confessed with the psalmist in the singing of this portion of the 119th Psalm that we need to be instructed by Your Word if we are to know the way of blessedness. Amen. We have also confessed that we desire to know Your Word, that we may practice it in dependence upon Your grace and in the strength of Your Spirit. Come then, O Lord, as once again we meditate upon the sober warnings of our Lord Jesus, that we may not treat them lightly or with unbelief, but that we may feel the sobriety of those warnings. And receiving them in faith, may seek to be obedient to the demands which they make upon us. Send Your Spirit upon the one who seeks to open and apply the Word, and upon every listener we ask through Christ our Lord. Amen.

2:05 Most of you who have more than a surface acquaintance with Scripture know that Psalm 19, is one of the psalms in which the Word of God is extolled, both with reference to its inherent worth, as well as its manifold functions. And in that psalm, David exclaims concerning the written precepts of God, Moreover, by them is thy servant warned, in keeping them there is great reward. Amen. He is blessing God, among other things, that in the precepts of God there are clear and needful warnings. And in heeding the warnings of God, there is a gracious reward from God. Well, in our consecutive expositions of the Gospel of Mark, we have come to one of the most vital warnings to be found anywhere in the recorded Bible.

3:20 One that is given to us during Mark 8 and verse 15. That warning is given to us in Mark 8 and verse 15, in which we read, and Jesus charged them, saying, Take heed.

3:49 Be alert. Beware. Be on your guard, with reference to the leaven, that is, the teaching of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod. And according to the parallel passage in Matthew, verse 39, stocks as follows.

Recap: Beware of Contemporary Pharisees (Roman Catholicism)

3:49 Verse 72, where God gives glad tidings told to the Pharisees about the living in faith. And the нек Fei will be gathered together and tecn., the Mary delighted, God would be led up in the house, and he tried to obtain the Daniel, his wife, his wife, to open the Mand��를 from the Lord. Matthew 16, 6 and verse 12, at this time he also warned them about the leaven or the teaching of the Sadducees as well. Now having expounded the entire passage in its obvious connection with verses 11 to 13, we then had occasion to make five basic observations upon the paragraph bounded by verses 14 and 21. Having done that, we return to the central issue among those five observations, namely the warning of Jesus with respect to the teaching of the scribes, I'm sorry, of the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and of Herod or the Herodians. We observe that Jesus' method in warning against the influence of the Pharisees was to warn them against the teaching of the Pharisees. He did not say against the influence of false teachers and their principles, precepts,

4:51 and practices was to embody the warning in concrete, specific, descriptive, designative terms. He did not say, beyond your guard, beware of the teaching of traditionalists, of externalists, of rationalists, of those sitting in the church, of those who are sitting in the church, of those Oh, that's right. those who have learned. He did not say, beyond your guard, beware of the teaching of traditionalists, of externalists, Given over to clericalism, he did not warn of these religious evils in the generic or the abstract, but he warns of the specific and the designated terms, Pharisee, Sadducee. After taking up some common objections to this method of our Lord, which was also the method of the apostles, we then proceeded to make a similar use of our Lord's warning. And last Lord's Day, I brought the first of three exhortations to you, the gathered people of God in this place. That warning was this, take heed.

6:13 People of God, take heed and beware of the leaven of the contemporary Pharisees. Hypocrisy, traditionalism, and externalism were the leading features of the teaching of the Pharisees. Then surely...

6:31 It was our observation last week, the Roman Catholic Church as a religious system is the most obvious and imposing and subtle manifestation of the leaven of the Pharisees. Now if you are here as a Roman Catholic or one sympathetic to Roman Catholicism, please do not pull down the shade in your mind and raise up a wall in your heart toward me, as though I were making some prejudiced, unfounded application of the principle. But I urge you rather secure the tape from last week, in which establishing official Roman Catholic doctrine out of her own official documents which state that doctrine, we saw what is an inevitable conclusion, or we reached what is an inevitable conclusion, that the reigning principle... The principles of Roman Catholicism stand in an almost uncanny parallelism to the reigning principles of the Pharisees.

Question 1: Dominant Principles of the Sadducees

7:42 And we are warned by our Lord Jesus to take heed and to beware of the leaven of Pharisees, whether 1st century or 20th century. Now today I propose to complete the exposition and application of this warning by taking up the third. The second and the third strands of exhortation. Having exhorted you to take heed and beware of the leaven of the contemporary Pharisees, in the second place I now exhort you, take heed and beware of the leaven of contemporary Sadducees. Take heed and beware of the leaven, the teaching of contemporary, Sadducees. Now in opening up the exhortation I shall ask and then answer three questions. Number one.

8:44 What were the dominant religious principles and practices of the Sadducees according to Scripture? Well if you will turn to Matthew chapter 22 and verse 23, you will see that the answer to that question begins with this affirmation. They denied the resurrection. Of the body.

9:09 The Sadducees were a religious party or sect who denied the resurrection of the body. How do we know that? Matthew 22 and verse 23. On that day there came to him, that is to our Lord, Sadducees.

9:28 They that say resurrection. Now in language that cannot be misunderstood, it was one of the outstanding things, one of the most important religious tenets of the Sadducees, that the notion that the bodies of dead men that go into the graves, that are eaten by the wild beasts, that are eaten by sharks in the sea, or that disintegrate in their tombs, would ever be resurrected, reconstituted by the power of God at the last day. Flatly denied that any such experience awaited mankind in the future. There is no resurrection. Now the secular historian Josephus affirms that the Sadducees also denied the immortality or the undying nature of the soul. But since there is nothing in scripture to indicate that, and since we have no promise that a secular historian who had reason to be prejudiced against the Sadducees was speaking with true and actual truth, true and accurate reflection of reality, we cannot say that for certain. But this much is for certain according to the scriptures, they denied the resurrection of the body.

10:55 The second thing we know about their religious beliefs is found in Acts 23 and verse 8. The Sadducees not only denied the resurrection, Acts 23 and verse 8 informs us that they denied the existence of angels and of spirits. Acts 23 and verse 8. We can back up to verse 7.

11:23 And when he had so said, there arose a dissension between the Pharisees and Sadducees, and the assembly was divided. For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, almost a word-for-word repetition of Matthew 22, 23. But something else. Neither, nor, nor, neither.

11:57 But the resurrection had the visualization both of angels good, or evil. The third thing we know about their principles and practices is that they were closely allied with, if not element within, the priestly class in the day of our Lord. They were closely allied with the dominant element in the priest in the day of our Lord and also in the days of the apostles. Acts chapter 5 and verse 17. Acts chapter 5 and verse 17.

13:08 But the high priest rose up and all they that were,

13:15 parenthesis, which is close conjunction between the high priest and those that are closely associated with him, namely the sect of the Sadducees. And once again, when we go outside of the pages of Scripture, there is some very formation found, again in Josephus, the Jewish, historian, that indeed the whole priestly class was controlled by and perpetuated within the framework of the Sadducees. But we cannot go that far. We can go as far as Scripture allows us to go in saying that they were closely allied with, if not the dominant element in the priestly class. And then the fourth thing we know, going back to the Acts 23 passage is, that as a rule, they were at sword's points with the Pharisees over their doctrinal differences. Acts 23 and verse 7. If ever there's humor in Scripture, it's to be found in this passage.

14:32 Paul appears before the Sanhedrin. He's put on trial. All he does when they concentrate their attention upon him, to pounce upon him, he simply mentions resurrection. And before long, there's a free-for-all going on.

14:46 And I just love to imagine, imagine Paul standing on the sideline watching this thing go on. And when he had so said, that is, in his introduction he said, I'm a Pharisee, the son of Pharisees, touching the hope of resurrection of the dead, I'm called into question. And he couldn't even go from his introduction to his defense. All he said is, hope and resurrection of the dead.

15:09 And when he had so said, there arose a dissension between the Pharisees and Sadducees, and the assembly was divided.

15:17 So obviously then, there was a tremendous tension between the Sadducees and the Pharisees on doctrinal differences. Now anything else that we learn about them can only be tentatively held because this is about the extent of what Scripture tells us. Now why have I taken this time? For the simple reason that when Jesus said to his disciples, there on the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee, in preparation for their, their future ministry, and then gave as a deposit to the church for all generations this warning, Take heed, beware of the leaven, that is the teaching of the Sadducees.

16:02 He was giving a warning that had concreteness in terms of these facets of their perspectives and practices. He was warning them about the influence of a religious sect which denied the resurrection, of the body, denied the existence of angels and spirits, yet was closely allied with the priestly class, if not the dominant element of that class, generally in constant disagreement and tension with the Pharisees. Then can we summarize their religious principles and practices in the light of the biblical data? Well surely it is not an overstatement to describe it this way. In summary, the biblical witness is that the Sadducees were the rationalistic, supernaturalist, practical religionists of our Lord's day. They were religious in such as the central religious rituals in the temple may well have been controlled by the activity of the high priestly order. And yet in the midst,

17:27 they found denials that they cannot reasonably embrace or that which cannot be empirically proven, namely resurrection, the existence of angels, and some belief in the Old Testament and particularly the books of Moses. For when they come to contend with our Lord, as recorded in Matthew 22, they quote the legislation of Moses and the assumption is that they did have some kind, of at least surface acquaintance with and confession of allegiance to the Word of God as found in the Old Testament. By summarizing then, I believe you would agree with me in the light of the data, that if the leaven of the Pharisees was hypocrisy, traditionalism and externalism, then surely the leaven, the teaching, the practices and principles of the Sadducees, are to be understood in these words, skepticism, rationalism and clericalism.

Question 2: Contemporary Manifestation of Sadduceeism (Religious Liberalism)

18:46 Skepticism, rationalism and clericalism. Now, having raised and answered the question, what were the dominant religious principles and practices of the Sadducees, we come to question two. What is the most obvious pervasive manifestation of these principles and practices in our day? What is the most obvious pervasive manifestation of these principles and practices in our day?

19:23 We are to take to heart the warning of our Lord, the leaven, concerning the teaching, not only of Pharisees, but also of the Sadducees, Matthew 16, 6 and 12. Then surely our Lord expects us to exercise discernment. Who are the Sadducees, with whom we have contact, and whose teaching might act like leaven in the poisoning of our own souls and in the erosion of our own faith? Well surely, to my knowledge it is not to be found in any monolithic specific institution, as with the leaven of the Pharisees embodied in Romanism, but it is to be found in the denominations, the institutions and the individuals who would call themselves religious liberals. Religious liberalism. For does liberalism fill the outline drawn from Scripture? Liberalism with its outmatchment to the Scripture.

20:40 A rejection of any tradition as authoritative. But remember, the Sadducees rejected the traditionalism of the Pharisees. And yet, a religion with its scripture tradition that is shot through rationalism and clericalism. You see, the basic working principle in the so-called theology of liberalism, though I hate to prostitute the word theology by even using it in conjunction with liberalism, but the basic working principle is, if it is not reasonable, it is not feasible. If it is not reasonable, and what they mean by reasonable is this, if it does not meet of what to be reasonable, then it is not feasible. If it falls outside the realm of observation and scientific proof, then it is not within the realm. When you can bring an angel before me,

22:07 weigh him, measure him and touch him, prove him to exist, I shall accept on which I tap my hands. But you see, the canons of the religion of a Sadducee forbid accepting any tenet of faith or any tenet of their faith that is not reasonable, that does not fall out of the realm of observation and the so-called scientific method. And yet, jointism and rationalism, they go on and go far into things of religion and often are most prone to even have special clerical garb, turn collars and preaching robes. And they may even be found in the midst of the sectivism with its rationalism. In the midst of that great religiosity, there is a blatant cynicism and unbelief

23:31 with reference to all supernatural in the Bible. Now this is the benchmark. This is the standing kick of religious liberalism. It treats cynicism and unbelief everything that is distinctly supernatural in the Bible.

23:54 The opening words of the Bible are done with a sneer. The historicity of Adam and Eve is looked upon with an even greater sneer. And then if one should indicate that he actually believes that there was a creature made by God called a serpent that actually spoke and became the mouthpiece of the devil, and there was a real temptation and a real truth resulting in a real fall, by now the sneer has turned into open laughter unless social politeness restrains the laughter outwardly. And right through the Old Testament, the miracle of a parted sea and a parted Jordan River, the miracle of manna from heaven, a disruption of the entire time system when God, the language of the book of Joshua, caused the suns to stand still on that day of battle. Everything that is distinctly supernatural in the religion of the Old Testament is rejected out. And you come into the New Testament, the concept that in Mary's womb there was conceived the eternal Word who took self a true humanity by means of supernatural conception by the power of the Holy Ghost

25:22 resulting in a virgin birth. The miracles of the Holy Spirit of Christ meet the sneer some far-fetched rationalistic explanation. The concept of the death of Jesus Christ under the anathema of His Father, substitutionary blood atonement to placate an act is looked upon as a slaughterhouse religion unworthy of the refined tastes of Christian hearts and minds. And to speak of His bodily resurrection from the dead that the same body that was carried into Joseph's tomb came forth on the third day throbbing with resurrection and everlasting life. And in that body the risen Lord ascended and sat down at the right hand of God so that somewhere in the universe of God there's a body if I could be transported there I could touch it. That meets the sneer. That meets the raised eyebrow.

26:28 That meets the condescending Christ. The question surely, you don't believe that stuff, do you? And to speak of regeneration by the Holy Spirit, to speak of the work of God giving to a man a nature and constituting him a new creation and carrying on His work until all will be consummated in the new heavens and the new earth and all unbelievers banished to a literal hell where there will be weeping and wailing. Are you going to deny it? Are you going to carry on? That's the question I'm sure that people would ask the Sadducees. Why bother with temples to some degree or another at a point where they thought they found in the face of Moses something that was an unanswerable objection

27:54 in the face of the doctrine of the resurrection. And that's the thing which they brought to the Lord Jesus as recorded in Matthew chapter 22. And so in our day with all rationalism and denial there is this professed attachment to the Bible and the visible church that is called as a society to deny what is not reason cannot be demonstrated by the scientific method has no exality. Keep all the rich machinery growing and going, floating and operating with simply going over denial again and again and again. How long can you keep something going by just feeding it with denial?

29:08 You've got to give people a cause. So what has modern Sadduceeism done? Because it has is of the very naturalism is of its very essence. Words of Genesis 1.1 and it doesn't leave us all the way on into Revelation chapter 22. Having rejected supernaturalism and having nothing left but a framework of some rituals and forms that in some way or another did from at least the terminology of the Bible. What can Sadducee do to keep his cause going? Careful.

30:05 Proclamation of an infallible word from God deposited in the Bible. He must replace indoctrination and evangelism based on religion. He's concerned psychologically comfortable since he does not believe in the doctrine of the fall of man and the totality of man's depravity and the redemptive realities of a supernatural savior providing a supernatural salvation applied by a supernatural agency the work of the Holy Ghost. ...religion, that is human psychology dressed up in religious terminology.

30:59 Hence, Robert Schiller's New Reformation which is nothing but secular psychology dressed up in his own book New Reformation. Read his book on the Beatitudes in which he psychologizes the Beatitudes in terms of all of the categories of thought extracted from pagan, godless, anti-supernaturalist humanistic thought about man and what he is and why he acts the way he acts. So what do you get in the modern Sadducee's pulpit? Oh, there may be a reading from the Bible Hymns may be sung that maintain some of the language of the Bible and you may have a Sadducee of the priestly class with his robe or his turntoller and his reverend in front of his name but in place of a proper and a forest platitude psychology some exhortations to social activism

32:25 that are supposed to be the expression of the, quote, Christian concern. Hence, not only the Dr. Robert Schuller's of our day, the reverend Jesse Jackson's and the Bishop Tutu's. What is the essence of their religion?

32:48 It's the religion of the Sadducee. Very clear. Would not give up their title bishop or reverend. That opens doors.

Question 3: Our Constant Duty Regarding Sadducee Teaching

33:03 That conjures up associations of God and truth and the Bible and religion. Things very noble and safe but at the foundation and supernatural about this revealed religion not blatantly and openly denied is practically denied in the totality of what they say and leave unsaid. Now then, having answered the two questions what were the fundamental principles and practices of the Sadducees? What is the contemporary manifestation of the eleven of the Sadducees? Now we come to the third question under this heading beware of the current contemporary eleven of the Sadducees and this is the question where it all comes home to your conscience. What is our constant duty with respect to their teaching? What is our constant duty with reference to the teaching of modern Sadducees who deny the supernatural?

34:20 Who say what is not reasonable is not feasible? Who make the so-called scientific method the measure of all reality and yet they violate it again and again? When in the name of common sense is a man ever going to get the bing-bang in a test two billions of years ago? Come on, let's be consistent!

34:38 The scientific method can only deal with materials and data that you can get your hands on here and now and bring it in the lab. The moment you get out of the laboratory you're a philosopher and call yourself what you are. But what is our duty? Listen to the words of Jesus.

34:59 They have lost nothing of their freshness and if you understand preaching, you will, if you are a believer, sit here this morning and believe these words have as much relevance coming off the page of Scripture as though the Lord Jesus were to come from that spot in the universe wherever He is in His glorified Person today. He's here by the Spirit, yes, but somewhere in His glorified Person He is there. If He were to come and speak and say the people of Trinity take heed of the Pharisees, and the leaven of the Sadducee, what would your duty be? Exactly what it is when you hear that word coming from the text of Scripture. For this is how Christ admonishes, how He nurtures, how He protects, how He manifests His loving care to His church. Moral His words are His servants' war. And in the keeping of them there is great reward.

36:08 Here's your duty. Beyond the alert, beyond your guard, of the teaching of modern Sadducees, avoid it! Avoid it! And let me be very specific.

36:22 The first time the slightest gray question begins to be etched in your mind over anything that is clearly revealed in this book, hear the word of Jesus. Beware of the leaven of the Sadducee. Beware of...

36:45 ...and heads, and begin to make it and be the determiner of what is true and what is not true.

37:10 The moment your spirit begins to move from any possible other than that of humble believing submission to all that God has said, simply Jesus beware. Beware leaven of the Sadducees. Beware leaven of the Sadducee. Beware of the sin and the sin of the soul and the sin of the heart and the sin of the heart and the sin of the mind and your spirit, which makes it like an echo of the book of Hebrews. Beware of the sin and the sin of the heart and the sin of your soul and the sin of your mind Because it falls outside the realm of your experience. A day is coming when you will understand by your experience what you refuse to believe. Think of the Sadducee.

38:21 The text of scripture says, they say, the day of our, the shout, the voice of the archangel, the trumpet all coalesce. And the dead are called out of their graves. Can you imagine the shock upon Aby's countenance? When raised from the dead, he mumbles as he comes out of his tomb.

38:58 There is no resurrection. There is no resurrection.

39:03 But he's resurrected, summoned to stand as he approaches the throne. And it's evident that it's a throne set for judgment. He says, ah, judgment. But alas, he is there in the judgment.

39:28 Through 2531, he sees upon the throne the son of man in his glory. He says, I cannot be. Maybe, maybe, correction, judgment, and judgment has come. But there must be something wrong with my resurrected eyes.

39:52 That looks like Jesus of Nazareth. That looks like the one that I came to and debated concerning the whole matter of resurrection. But he can't be alive.

40:12 Sadducee, he's going to be there upon his throne. And whether you believed it or not, you meet him now. And then the judge says, according to Revelation 21.8, to all the unbelieving, as well as the whoremongers and liars and adulterers and fornicators, depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire.

40:33 There shall be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. And the smoke of their torment shall go up forever and ever. And as he sinks into hell, Mr. A.B. Sadducee says, I don't believe in the immortality of the soul. I don't believe in the immortality of the soul. And for all eternity, in his groans and cries, he will be made to experience what he refused to believe. Because it fell outside the realm of his experience.

41:11 In that sense, every human being will ultimately be made a believer.

41:20 Oh, you dear young people, surrounded with the skepticism and the arrogance of a pseudo-intellectualism in the humanistic educational framework you're in. Don't for a moment allow that sweet, lovely, persuasive and apparently nice teacher. Sure, male or female, who would begin to cause the slightest question about one word, sentence, found in...

41:55 If anything comes from their lips that causes you the slightest bit of question about what you've heard from this book and seen with your own eyes in this book, oh, that the words of Jesus will come to you, Sally, John, Harry, Pete, Mary, beware against the leaven of the Sadducee, skeptic people, why do... Let your conscience answer, let your conscience answer, what do I have to get? You don't pay the bills, my salary's not extracted from your offerings,

42:57 I don't need your approval to have a sense of worth and identity, I'm a 52-year-old man, with a wife who, living with me... For 30 years approves of me, and three grown children who love me and approve...

43:10 None of the modern Sadducees to make you a skeptic and a rationalist, and then in your skepticism and rationalism, because of your upbringing you could never totally turn your back on the church, so your instincts and your breeding make you gravitate to churches where they maintain some semblance of connection with the Bible, they may even say the... The Lord's Prayer and the Apostles' Creed, and sing the good old hymn,

43:57 but Sadducee is a supernatural reality of creation, ex nihilo, out of nothing, by the word of God's power, the preacher doesn't tell you that when Adam fell, you fell, that you're utterly ruined by the fall, he doesn't say that all the mighty redemptive miracles in the ultimate point in the miraculous salvation, of the coming Messiah, you'd have to attend for 20 years, before you'd even get the slightest notion, that the Bible contained the record of a miracle that ought to be trusted, oh dear children, hear me, I trust I'm not making a prophetic description about some of you,

The Slippery Slope of Doubting Scripture

44:52 beware of the Sadducee, like the very steps that lead to hell, for that's what they are, he that believes not, shall be dead, the unbeliever, along with the whoremongers, and the idolaters, shall be cast into the lake of fire, and dear people of God, the application to us is very clear, that we in our life together remember, the denominations, and schools, and seminaries, that once bristled with biblical religion, that is, biblical supernaturalism, the opposite of skepticism, rationalism, that once had men of God, whether they wore a gown or a collar, was indebted, was indifferent within the collar, and under the gown,

46:08 nor in the body, from biblical religion, Sadduceeism, who started with doubting the deity of Christ, started with doubting the virgin birth, who started with doubting of the central issues of saving work,

46:34 the first few chapters of Genesis, when, and when you begin, questioning what seem to be, the outer perimeters of the Christian faith, saying, they can be relinquished, without relinquishing the heart, I remind you, Almighty God, who revealed the Christian faith, put the heart, the soul, the ears, and the last piece of hair, all together, as one living organism, and you start cutting off the ear, and it won't be long before you'll stick a knife in the heart, and if we could resurrect today, men who lived in the 19th century, who began to flirt with the German Rations, and took over the schools of higher learning,

47:33 and many of the leading young theologians were sent there, for their advanced theological training, and came back, and for so-called its, of higher criticism, you of them announced to the world, if my principles are adopted in a hundred years, the denomination of which I am apart, will be nothing but a society of Sadducees, but that's exactly what's happened, exactly what's happened, and you mark my word, , and mark my word, If the time ever comes when this pulpit or anyone made to replace it, if we knock it to pieces,

48:19 if the time ever comes when this pulpit does not bristle with unashamed biblical supernaturalism, that is, believing the Bible and all that it says about the world and about God and man and sin and grace, mine will not have started when somebody marched up into this pulpit and said, Jesus Christ was never conceived of a virgin. It won't start there. It will start with a gray question mark on something that seems to be way off the perimeter of the Christian faith. Oh, you young people, listen to that, and you be discerning.

48:56 And when somebody begins to say, now I love Christ, Christ conceived in the womb of the virgin, Christ in his sinless life, substitutionary death, and brings you into the orbit of his affections. However, in recent days, as I have reflected upon, I have begun to wonder if perhaps that, when you hear that kind of thing, that kind of language, you pray God to remember this admonition. Beware!

49:26 And then get in the system of this place until over a period of years, this will be a synagogue of Satan. This place will be a synagogue of Satan.

49:39 Beware. Beware!

49:52 And Mike, that when I'm dead, you'll remember. Wait a minute, we heard!

Jesus' Method: Confronting Sadduceeism in Matthew 22

50:19 The issue right to its return to Matthew, Matthew 22.

50:34 And I believe it will be the part of wisdom to close on this note. And we'll just have to take another time. We'll deal with the Herodians. I'm not here to keep to a preaching schedule.

50:46 I'm here to deliver my soul as a shepherd of Christ's flock.

50:53 What did Jesus do when he had to deal with this crowd? Look at Matthew 22, verse 15. The Pharisees come, and they send along with them some of the young boys from the Herodians. They send unto him their disciples with the Herodians, saying, We know, look how it dripped, with feigned respect.

51:15 We know that you are true, and teach the way. We know the way of God in truth, and you care not for anyone. That is, you don't respect any man's face and alter what you say by your audience. You're taken up with delivering your soul of the truth.

51:28 You regard not the person of man. Ah, tell us, therefore, what do you think about this? Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar or not?

51:38 You see their hypocrisies, they come. Then in verse 23, on that same day there came to him Sadducees that say, There's no resurrection. And they asked him, saying, Teacher, Moses said, Now, we respect Moses. We believe the word of God.

51:52 But, you see, we have a problem. If the word of God is true, then resurrection can't be true. Moses said, If a man die, and then they set up this scenario, that in their minds they thought was really a logical impossibility. Now, how did Jesus answer them?

52:09 Notice how he answered them. Matthew 22, and verse 29. But Jesus answered and said unto them, You do err, you, why, nor.

52:31 Oh, wait a minute. Didn't they know the Scriptures? It was what they knew of the Scriptures that caused their problem. No, no.

52:37 Jesus was telling them. They didn't really know the Scriptures. They had a very selective surface acquaintance with the Scriptures that confirmed them in their prejudice. That's all.

52:49 You got it? They had a selective rival of their stochasticism, rationalism, and clericalism. And that's all they had. So what does Jesus do?

53:06 He says, You go astray because you really don't know the Scriptures. That is, You do not have a comprehensive, working, believing, obedient grasp upon the Scriptures.

53:28 And then he said, Secondly, You do not know. You have no experiential acquaintance with the mighty power of God. The reason you say there is no resurrection is because you're ignorant of the message of the Bible and you are unwise. Unbelieving and ignorant with respect to the power of God.

Two Great Preservatives Against Sadduceeism

53:50 Now, what are the two great preservatives against becoming a Sadducee?

53:57 A growing, hard, comprehensive acquaintance with the whole of the Bible.

54:11 Of the problem with Genesis. In the beginning, God created the world. Because if Almighty God could recreate a heart that natively loved sin like mine did and make it a heart that loves righteousness and loves Christ whom I've never seen and am prepared to live opens his mouth and spills out a few galaxies.

54:52 A nation is over. What's the big deal?

54:56 You know something of the power of God.

55:06 It's of redemption.

55:10 The resurrection of the body. But when you gather together the atoms of a body that have become part of someone's toenail. Listen, my friend. What kind of God are you talking about?

55:22 God made all the atoms in the first place. He can keep track of them for a billion years if he needs to. And in a moment of time, recall them all. All to the space without having one bit of sweat on his brow.

55:34 That's God!

55:48 As well as in love, in wisdom.

Practical Implications for Church Life

55:56 Hear the warning. Beware. Be on your guard.

56:02 Constantly keep your eyes open. Keep your antenna out and keep them polished and keep them moving. Just when you think you're locked into the waves of a Sadducee's unbelief coming from wonder, send signals out from another. Be constantly alert against the leaven of the soul.

56:25 And the greatest preservative is a constant, honest, earnest, comprehensive interaction with this whole book. Do you see why, publicly, we engage in the consecutive reading through the scriptures? Do you think that's a ritual we inherited? No, I never heard of it until we started it.

56:47 Then I found out it was in the old Scottish book of church order 400 years ago. That we want our religious life to be in constant touch with the whole of the Bible.

57:01 Why do we have to be in touch with the Bible? Why do we have to have consecutive expository preaching? You think that's easy for us as preachers? Many a time we come to a passage and say, oh, vices, they sit on the shelf for years and you don't use them.

57:21 You believe they're there. And many a time I've looked at a passage and said, oh God, I believe it's your word and it's unto edification, but how I can use it to edify your people next Lord's day is beyond me, God. I've said it many a time. And then after hours of laboring in prayer and suddenly the word breaks open.

57:40 And by eleven o'clock one is like a caged fire. And he cannot wait to come and declare what God...

57:47 Why are we committed to that? Because we don't want the leaven of the Sadducees to find any roots in this place. That's why...

57:55 That's why... ...the book of Psalms to open our worship and often the opening prayer is framed by that psalm. Why so often the pastoral prayer is permeated with what has come out of the consecutive reading? Do you have any idea why we do that? I'll tell you why.

58:20 God's word.

58:29 Under the discipline of His word. We want to think biblically. Biblically even in our highest moments of devotion. Why?

58:36 Because a people whose hearts and minds are saturated with a comprehensive believing interaction with the Bible will never become Sadducees.

58:48 That's why we've dismissed men from the academy who were acing the curriculum. But we didn't see this word molding their character. Those are the kind of men who make the greatest enemies of the cross of Christ. Who've got keen minds, have an interest in the Bible, but their primary interest is not to be molded by the Bible into Christ-like men.

59:12 They become the greatest enemies of God's truth. They become the modern Sadducees. That's why we dismiss them from the academy.

59:21 That's right. That's why we monitor the life as well as the head. Things are just done willy-nilly around here. No, no, my friends.

59:29 There's a reason. I'm pulling back the veil, letting you see why. That's why. Because if a Satan is a clever one, a competent one, and therefore he'll be the most dangerous kind, beware, beware of the leaven of the Sadducees.

The Power of God in Regeneration and Prayer

59:54 Constantly leaving family devotions. But then the second preventive Jesus said is what? We must know the power of God. We must know there must be an experiential acquaintance with the power.

60:21 One of those who wrought when he raised Christ from the dead is said to be parallel to the power wrought when a sinner is raised from the dead. Ephesians 1 flowing over into Ephesians 2. It's a beautiful structure. Paul says, I pray that you believers may know and among other things the power which was wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead and you when you were dead and he raised you and united you to Christ.

60:50 My friend, you know the power of God in regenerating grace and there's not a thing you read in the Bible that becomes a stumbling block to you as far as could God do it. There's no stumbling block. God can raise me from the death of my sin to union with his Son. Then he can make worlds into galaxies and spit them out by the dozens.

61:10 Then it won't cause immense sweat. That's why we pray. You wonder why? You say, why do we have these prayer meetings around here all the time?

61:17 Because God works and comes in power and the other walls of this place where we meet for our various religious exercises when they cease to be crucibles of divine. Before we'll begin to relinquish it, the two must be together. You do err not knowing the Scripture,

61:58 taking eternal realities and bringing them near until there are times when spiritual things seem so real, in our worship we're almost tempted to reach out, close our eyes, and hope that we might touch something that our fingers can feel. Has that been your experience? It's been mine. There are times in preaching when I almost half pray, Lord, take me home.

62:18 I feel I'm halfway there now.

62:22 Spiritual realities draw near as long as we're a people experiencing the real against becoming Sadducees. I'm sorry.

Final Exhortation and Prayer

62:50 So I leave you with the words of Jesus.

62:54 Take heed.

63:00 ...the manifestation of the leaven ...the manifestation of the leaven of the Sadducee. May God preserve us as we take heed. Constantly beware. Let us pray.

63:19 O our Father, we thank you for the word of our Savior, that word which your Spirit has brought to our hearts this morning. And O God, we plead that you will write it upon the fleshy tables of our hearts, that we may never, never forget until we're out of danger, even the moment of our entrance into your presence, this exhortation to beware, to take heed of the leaven of the Sadducees. For those, our Father, who are Sadducees, who have nothing but a rationalistic, skeptical, external religion, may what they've heard this morning make them thirsty, hungry, restless, until they know what the Bible really teaches and experience the power of God. The power of your grace. Hear then our prayer and seal the word to our prophet. We ask in Jesus' name.

64:21 Amen.