Beware of the Three Sorts of Leaven

How is it that ye do not understand that I spake it not to you concerning bread that ye should be aware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees? Verse 12, so we’re looking at verse six tonight and verse 12. Then understood they how that he bade them not beware of the leaven of bread but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.

All right, let’s pray together and then we’ll look at Matthew 13. Thank you Lord for the opportunity to meet again together and for the assurance that where two or three are gathered together, there you will be in the midst. And Lord, we trust you, though we know that now you are invisible to us. One day you will come, we will see you visibly. But now we trust in your promise that you are here present with us, not only in us but among us, as we meet together as the saints of God.

We once again want to commit the time to you where we are studying your word and let it be profitable to us. Help us to grow by it as we look at the scriptures and see what you have spoken in Jesus’ name, amen. All right, Matthew 13. The reason I wanna read Matthew 13 is that what we’re covering tonight, we covered not too very long ago, actually in, let’s see, July 13th.

We had an afternoon service. I look back in the record and July 13th, we covered this same passage in the Matthew 13. But I wanna go ahead and read it again because it is actually just one verse. It’s in the midst of the parables, of course, and it overlaps a little bit with what we want to talk about tonight, but not entirely. So I wanna kind of build off of what I said in Matthew 13 in verse number 33.

Another parable spake he unto them. The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till the whole was leaven. Now you’ll remember that when we looked at this verse, we kind of paired it with the parable of the, I just lost my train of thought here, the parable in verse 31 and 32, which is the mustard seed.

And the idea here is that the lump, that is the dough, is unleavened because of course that’s the picture, that’s the symbology from the Old Testament. Of course the Jews had developed or had developed a negative view of leaven due to the fact that during the feast of unleavened bread and Passover, they would have put it out. So it was considered to be, not that they couldn’t eat bread that was leavened, but it had a negative connotation as far as in prophecy and things like that and their laws.

And so we saw that in this parable, the woman took the leaven and the Bible says she hid it in three measures of meal. And then of course that leaven spread. And we saw how that the leaven represents a certain kind of evil, that it starts small and then it spreads throughout the lump and it corrupts the entire thing, though it starts small. And so we saw that.

So go back if you would to Matthew 16 and we’re gonna build off of that because we did talk about the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees in July. And we also referenced chapter 16, which is what we’re looking at in detail, more detail tonight. So Matthew 13 has the first mention of leaven in the New Testament and the first mention in Matthew. And then what we’re looking at tonight is the second mention of leaven in the Bible.

So you have this idea of leaven, or rather in Matthew. You have this idea of leaven is symbolic of corruption. And the lump refers to the people of God and the idea is corruption is spreading through the people of God. And we looked at all kinds of references, especially in the epistles where Paul talks about and he foretells that as we approach the coming of the Lord, so Christianity, we saw it in scripture where Christianity will become more and more corrupted with false teachers and false doctrine.

And so that’s what the Lord tells us is going to happen within the church. I hate that term, but you know what I mean when I say that, within Christendom. And that’s actually what we observe happening. And so here though, there’s a little bit more detail and I wanna look at a few other verses based upon this. Look at verse number six again. The Bible says, and Jesus said unto them, take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.

So notice there are two groups mentioned here. You have the Pharisees, the leaven of the Pharisees, and you also have the leaven of the Sadducees. Then in verse 12, then understood they how that he bade them not beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees. So you got two categories, but when we refer to leaven, we’re talking about doctrine.

Now don’t misunderstand. Doctrine, although it includes the things that are written on a doctrinal statement, that is not the sum total of doctrine. Doctrine includes a body of faith that we believe, truths that we hold as scripturally accurate, yes. But doctrine also includes any kind of teaching. It’s just a word that means teaching. It’s sometimes translated the same way, teaching and doctrine. The idea is something that someone teaches.

And so what you have here is you kinda wanna pull back the Lord is referring to the characteristic elements and features that were taught by the Pharisees and that were taught by the Sadducees. And there’s one other group. So I wanna put forth to you that there’s three categories of leaven. Now we did cover this in July, but we’re gonna dig a little bit deeper. There are three categories of leaven in scripture used in this symbolic way, this corruption, this false or erroneous doctrine.

The first one, if you would look at Luke chapter 12, it’s already, it’s here as well, but Luke 12 gives us a little bit more information. This is a parallel passage to our text here tonight. Luke 12 verse one. Look at Luke 12, if you would, and verse one. The first one we’re gonna look at is the leaven of the Pharisees. Verse one says this, in the meantime, when there were gathered together an innumerable multitude of people, insomuch that they trod one upon another, he began to say unto his disciples, first of all, notice he’s speaking to his disciples here and also in Matthew 16.

He’s speaking to his disciples. At the end, I’m gonna come back to that, okay? But just keep that in mind. Here’s what he says, the Lord says, beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees. Now notice, he doesn’t mention Sadducees, he doesn’t mention anything else. He only mentions Pharisees and he defines it, which is hypocrisy. So when the Lord said, going back to Matthew 16, when the Lord says beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, he’s referring to a specific thing about the Pharisees.

Here’s what you have to understand. The Pharisees on paper were doctrinally sound. They would have checked all the boxes, until Christ came at least, they would have checked all the doctrinal boxes.

They believed in one God and they believed in the resurrection of the body and they believed in, they believed the scriptures as stated, they were literalists, they were, in a lot of ways, just like us. That’s why Paul, in Acts, after he became a believer, said, I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee. In other words, he’s not saying necessarily he completely aligns with the group.

What he’s saying is, I believe like they believe. And to a large degree, that’s what he believed. He was doctrinally a Pharisee. But when the Lord says this, he’s referring to a specific thing, which is hypocrisy. Hypocrisy. Now hypocrisy here, so the Lord’s telling us to beware, to beware of hypocrisy, which is the chief characteristic of the Pharisees. Hypocrisy is defined as the assuming of a false appearance of virtue or goodness.

Assuming a false appearance of virtue or goodness. Now, one feature, as we look at some things, we’ll look at another passage, keep this in mind. When it comes to the Pharisees, when it comes to hypocrisy, religious hypocrisy, which is what the Pharisees are known for, and let me pause here. Let me pause here and say, I know the word Pharisee has been misused so often. Has it not?

It has been. It’s become an adjective to now you’re being Phariseeical. Phariseeical. And often people have used it as an insult, which basically means your skirt is longer than mine, you’re a Pharisee. Your music is more conservative than mine, you’re a Pharisee. You don’t say these words or do these things, you’re a Pharisee. And that is, it has literally nothing to do with that whatsoever. Did you know a person can have high standards and not be hypocrite?

Can I say that again? Do all of you agree? I know you do. A person can have high standards and not be hypocrite. They can be just as sincere and honest and genuine. That’s not hypocrisy. But it’s the casting of the aspersion. It’s the assumption that a person that has high standards is faking. You see, that part, you know what that is? That is Phariseeism right there, and I’ll prove it to you.

I’ll prove it to you in just a minute. Because that is religious flavored slander. You know what that is? When someone says, well they only sing hymns, or whatever, I mean whatever the issue might be. Well they only sing hymns, or they have a skirt this long, or he only dresses like that, or whatever. They don’t go to this place, or whatever standard you want to take.

And they say, yeah, they’re just Pharisees. You know how, I mean, behind closed doors, you know, they, well hold on. A religious person is actually slandering the name of somebody who might be out of pure conscience, holding a particular position, that they hold sincerely toward the Lord, and are consistent. That’s not Phariseeism. That’s not what the Pharisees did at all. But yet, people are slandered like that.

Let me just give you a little bit of advice. We know that when it comes to personal decisions that each one of us has for standards, each one of us has a conscience before God, and we’re supposed to, as the people of God, each one of us who has the Spirit of God, is supposed to look at what God says, and then determine whether we do this, or that, or X, or Y, or Z.

You know, we have to make those decisions on an individual basis, and we are personally, individually responsible to God for that decision, right? So, knowing that, that means that not everybody is always going to be exactly the same in every way, right? And it is not the preacher’s job to dictate to everyone exactly where you’re supposed to go, and what you’re supposed to do all the time.

The preacher’s job is to preach the word, and try to apply it. Ultimately, though, it is our individual responsibility to take that and apply it to our individual decisions in our lives, right? So, when it comes to, that means that we’re going to have some differences, but as a good practice, let me encourage you to do this. If you meet with someone who has a higher standard than you, okay, all right, let me back up.

If you meet someone who has a lower standard than you, the tendency is to look down on that person. You know what, that’s not even Phariseeism. It’s not. It might be being overly critical, perhaps, in some cases. Some cases, you’re looking down because it’s wrong. You know, scripturally wrong. I want to look down at sin, don’t you?

Right? I mean, I’m sorry if that offends somebody, but I want to look down at sin. I don’t want to give honor to sin, right? But there are some times when someone has a different point of view than you do and a different standard than you do, and the tendency is to look down on them or be overly critical and judge them harshly and judge their motives or something like that.

I would caution you against that, right? The Bible describes us as if we’re going to have charity amongst one another, we need to assume the good. Okay, but look at the reverse because it doesn’t go just one way. What if someone has a higher standard than you? A lot of times, the assumption is, well, that person’s just a fake or that person’s just this or that person’s just that.

Well, that’s the same thing, just the reverse. Is it not? It is. But if you meet someone that has a higher standard than you, you don’t have to automatically assume that person’s a fake or that person’s anything like that. It doesn’t mean you have to necessarily agree at every point, but you can show them honor, right? You can show them honor and treat them as a brother and just let it be.

I don’t understand why, if you have a clear conscience before God about your personal beliefs, right? And the way you apply scripture in your personal life, then that makes it a lot easier not to get uptight when somebody else is a little bit different, right? I heard, who was it? It was Barack Obama. This is the first time I heard it. I’m sorry, I’m gonna quote Barack Obama in Choice Hills Baptist Church, okay, you ready?

He was referring to George W. Bush. Here’s what he said. He said, George is a man who is comfortable in his own skin. You know what? Now, I don’t know if George Bush, I don’t, I’m not, this is not endorsement of George Bush by any means, but that should be the way we are, that our conscience before the Lord is clear and we’re not uptight and sensitive about everything because somebody’s a little bit different, right?

Okay, so I got way off. Look at Matthew 23. Matthew 23. Of course, we know Matthew 23 is the great chapter that deals with the Pharisees, and we’re gonna get to 23 later, but when we talk about 11 of the Pharisees, the thing I want you to kinda keep in your mind, the thread as you read Matthew 23, which we will not read the whole thing, but the thread that I want you to pick up throughout is the key characteristic of the 11 of the Pharisees is religious or righteousness-flavored sin.

It’s not just worldly kinda let it all hang out carnality. It’s all of that, but with a veneer of religion or righteousness on top, that’s the key feature of the 11 of the Pharisees. So we’ll look at a few of the verses here to illustrate what I’m saying, but let me just give you a list of things as I was thinking about it, looking at the verses, the things that the scripture indicates and human beings demonstrate as the 11 of the Pharisees, the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy, having right doctrine, but wrong motivations.

That is hypocrisy, the 11 of the Pharisees, having right doctrine, but a wicked private life. Look at verse 25 of this chapter. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you may clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within are full of extortion and excess. That is a feature of Phariseism, of the doctrine of the 11 of Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. Another thing is sin with a veneer of righteousness.

Verse 27 describes that. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you are like unto whited sepulchers, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones and of all uncleanness. Sin with a veneer of righteousness.

Religious self-righteousness is another sample of that. We’ll get to that in a minute. In Philippians chapter three, I’ll show it to you. Another characteristic of this kind of hypocrisy, the 11 of the Pharisees, is doing the right thing, that is the outward, the external, doing the right thing with a nasty and wicked attitude. Saying the right thing, but then not doing that thing. You’ve learned the jargon to say it, but you don’t actually do it.

Verses two and three of this chapter indicate that. Another one is doing service to be seen of men. Verse number five. But all their works they do for to be seen of men. A desire to be praised, verse seven. And to receive greetings in the markets and to be called men, rabbi, rabbi.

Another characteristic of the doctrine of the Pharisees, the 11 of the Pharisees, is spiritual sounding, divisiveness, and schism. Verse 15, look at what it says. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte and when he is made ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves. You see, the extent to which they are willing to go to get somebody into their group.

Spiritual sounding divisiveness. Another one is religious flavored covetousness. Look at verse 14. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for ye devour widows’ houses and for a pretense make long prayer, therefore ye shall receive the greater condemnation. See that? They did it on the pretext of their religious work. Devouring widows’ houses, taking everything they have. Reminds me of TV preachers, to be honest with you. Seed offerings and all that junk.

Couple more. Leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy, has a characteristic of majoring on minors and minoring on majors. Matthew 23, verse 23, look what it says. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cumin and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith. These ought ye to have done and not to leave the other undone, which is not to say the minors don’t matter.

The minors matter, he says. Ye ought to have done the others too. That’s what he’s saying. However, the majors are major. They’re first, they’re a priority. That’s why the Lord says this. If we have a beam in our own eye, and we’re trying to pick out a moat out of another person’s eye, we need to cast the beam out of our own eye so we might see the moat that is in our brother’s eye.

The idea is the beam is a bigger matter than the moat. Not that the moat is not there or unimportant, but the beam is more important, right? That’s what this is saying. But hypocrisy is one that flips that around so that the big things, the major things, are minor in their view and don’t get emphasized. And then lastly, the Pharisees demonstrated their doctrine in their hostility towards sincere people.

That’s in verse 31. Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets. So whenever they meet, in hypocrisy, the leaven of the Pharisees, whenever they meet a person who is sincere, they are not friendly with that person. They are not friendly with that person. This is what I just summarized for you, certainly not exhaustively, but I just summarize the major characteristics that our Lord gave about the Pharisees.

This is the scriptural meaning of the doctrine of the Pharisees. The Lord says, beware. Beware to His disciples. He says, beware of this. Beware of this. The second one is the doctrine of the Sadducees. Look at if you would in Matthew 16 again. Matthew 16, verse number six. Just read it one more time. Then Jesus said unto them, take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.

Now, if you’ll hold your place here and go to Acts chapter 23 very quickly. Acts 23. This is Acts 23 verse eight. If you wanna note this verse, this is the go-to verse to explain what the sect of the Sadducees believed. The sect of the Sadducees was most closely associated with the priesthood in Israel at this time. Acts 23 verse eight, the Bible says this. For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, neither angel nor spirit, but the Pharisees confess both.

That’s what I meant when I said the Pharisees are right doctrinally, the Sadducees are not. So these two are the two things that the Sadducees are not. So these people don’t believe, they don’t really believe in the afterlife or the spiritual world at all, even though the Hebrew scriptures describe that. So what is the doctrine of the Sadducees that the Lord tells us to beware of? The doctrine of the Sadducees is false doctrine or false teaching that is contrary to scripture as far as our belief system, our belief system.

Here’s a few things that in contemporary theology would fall under that kind of belief system, where if these doctrines enter in among the disciples of Christ, damage is coming in its wake, for which the Lord tells us beware, beware. Because remember, beware of the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees. They didn’t believe exactly the same.

Any doctrine that denies the deity of Christ would fall under this category. Denial of Christ’s deity or questioning Christ’s deity or the nature of his existence, the nature of God. Questioning the Trinity is another good example of that. Goes along with that. That is a part of the doctrine of the Sadducees, a denial of scriptural truth or an altering of scriptural truth. A denial of or redefining of repentance as necessary for salvation.

And that’s become a common thing. How many of you have heard of Stephen Anderson? And one of the key things Stephen Anderson does besides leading people to pray sinner’s prayers just as fast as humanly possible is that he doesn’t deny repentance but he redefines it as basically going from unbelief to belief. But that’s not what the Bible says about repentance. Repentance deals with sin. It deals with our works and our attitude and our heart orientation toward our works.

But again, that’s someone who is tweaking the doctrine. Tweaking the doctrine. Not only that, the charismatic movement. What does that include? The charismatic movement includes, of course, the idea of unknown speaking in tongues, unknown tongues, but it also includes the gifts of healing. And it’s not that we’re against, it’s automatically goes, are you a cessationist? Some of you have heard of these things. Are you a cessationist?

But the issue is not whether God heals or not. The issue is whether what you are doing is God healing. That’s the question. If someone came and they literally, because here’s the idea. We have this idea that the people, the charismatics, what they’re doing is because they do the motion of they slay someone in the spirit or they wave their hands in a certain way or Benny Hinn waves his coat or whatever.

We have this idea that that’s in the Bible. Well, what’s in the Bible is Peter laid his hands on a person and prayed. Right? You know, you can do that.

There’s nothing to say you can’t do that. In fact, does James not tell us if a person is ill, they can call for the elders of the church, anoint them with oil, lay their hands on them and pray for them, right? I mean, that’s the thing. You can lay your hands on them and pray for them. That’s, but what we’re talking about is the gift of healing.

Okay? If you laid your hands on somebody and you prayed and that person who was verifiably sick prior and instantaneously and immediately and completely healed, I don’t have a problem with that. The problem is what’s being peddled in the charismatic movement is not that. There’s no way to verify what they were before and so there’s no way to verify if they’re actually healed. The whole thing is shrouded in mystery, right?

The whole thing is shrouded in mystery and that’s suspect and you go into, you have that, but those are the main things related to the charismatic movement. Now you have tongues. Tongues is the same thing. If the Lord gave you the ability to speak in a language, a human language that you didn’t already know or learn and you were able to share the gospel with somebody, praise the Lord.

I don’t have a problem with that. But what is being said about tongues is not tongues in the Bible, right? Having an eight-year-old girl, I saw one video where an eight-year-old girl is holding a microphone and all these people are like, almost like in a trance, like all these kids on this platform, this church are swaying weirdly. It was weird and this eight-year-old girl is repeating four or five syllables over and over and over and over and over.

It was just odd. That’s not biblical tongues, right? That’s not biblical tongues. So the point is that the charismatic movement, what it is known for is borrowing these phenomena in scripture and saying what they’re doing is that but not doing it in any way that is similar to scripture. That’s what’s happening. And so I don’t believe it. I think they’re misusing the word of God. They’re mishandling the word of God.

Now that does, okay, let me just clarify. It doesn’t necessarily mean that I think that God’s giving the gift of tongues to people on a regular basis. I’ve never met anybody who exercised that gift. But if anyone claimed that, then let’s hear it. Let’s hear it. I wanna hear you speak in another language that another human knows and then we’ll talk about it. But until that happens, I don’t wanna hear it.

I don’t wanna hear you speaking in tongues. I don’t wanna hear about it, right? I wish I had the gift of tongues when I went to Cambodia. All right, how about theistic evolution? That’s a very common thing. Some of the things you might not know, but some of these guys related to Charlie Kirk have in that conservative movement don’t believe in literal creation, six literal days of creation.

They allow for theistic evolution. They allow for theistic evolution. Error introduced from tradition, the use of icons or idols, that’s becoming a big thing these days. There’s a resurgence in the orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism. There is. It’s happening right now, especially on younger people. People are joining the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church with all of their associated idolatry. Even though it’s directly contrary to scripture, they’re just calling it something else, calling it aids in worship.

Representatives, right? That’s how it’s termed. It’s just a denial of scripture. Prayers to the saints, a denial of the personal return of Christ or the literal millennium. Teaching various teachings regarding roles for women. It goes back again to the charismatic movement. But that’s not the only place it’s found. A denial of the literal hell and eternal judgment, also called soul sleep. I just listed some out, some of these things, just trying to meditate on what kinds of things do we hear.

Listen, anything that challenges the clear teaching of scripture is the leaven of the Sadducees and it will harm the body of Christ. Now, I’ll get to how in just a minute. The third one is this. If you would look at Mark 8, Mark 8.

Mark 8, verse number 15. And he charged them saying, “’Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees.’” We’ve already covered that. “’And the leaven of Herod.’” So this is the third category of leaven. I’ll say this very, I’ll just mention. What are the characteristics of Herod we find in scripture? Some of these we’ve mentioned before. But you can sum it up as carnality. Just raw flesh.

Anything listed in Galatians chapter five about the works of the flesh, that’s Herod. That’s Herod, okay? Herod is known for carnality in all of its excesses, the love of money and the love of power.

All sorts of debased and degraded sexual sins. Adultery, we saw with Herod. Polygamy, fornication, licentiousness, unfaithfulness to one’s spouse. Sexual sins of all kinds. Just indulgence in general, right? That just overall indulgence. That was the characteristic of Herod. But also the use of alcohol, right? That’s debauchery and everything that’s associated with that.

Hatred, Herod. Did you know that one of the Herods had his own children murdered? His wives murdered, hatred. Just filled with hatred, paranoia. And also other things that are related to carnality in general, like divisions and strife, seditions, and all of those things that are listed in Galatians chapter five. Now all of those things, the Lord warns us. He says, beware, beware of the doctrine of Herod, the leaven of Herod.

Beware of the leaven of Herod. Now if you would, go to Philippians chapter three. I want to show you this as we get to the end. Philippians three. All right, Philippians chapter three, verse number one. One. Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you to me indeed is not grievous, but for you it is safe. Here it is. Notice there’s three statements, all of which begin with the word beware.

Just like we have three kinds or categories of leaven that we’re supposed to beware of. Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision. Now here’s why I think these, how these attach to our three kinds of leaven. I don’t think it’s a coincidence. I think beware of dogs refers to Herod, the leaven of Herod, because dogs was a common reference to the Gentiles and Herod was a Gentile, right?

And all the carnality and licentiousness with which the scriptures often characterized the Gentiles, right? That’s how they’re, if you look at Ephesians chapter, chapter two as an example, when we did the will of the Gentiles and it talks about all the licentiousness and lasciviousness and all that fornication and things, that’s the doctrine of Herod. Then you have beware of evil workers, those who peddle false doctrines. That would be the Sadducees, the leaven of the Sadducees.

Those who are spreading things like the resurrection has passed or there is no resurrection or Jesus is not really God or there is not really a hell. Now, listen, I don’t say it, there’s people in my family who used to not believe that, who have adopted that, not my family here, but extended family, I don’t wanna get anybody scared. So I mean, it has, and not only that, but the people I’m referring to that are denying these core doctrines are telling other people in my family.

Now, how do you think that happens? Do you think that kind of thing happens in a church? You better believe it happens in a church. And the last one is beware of the concision. Now that might sound a little odd to you, but the concision is like a playoff of words. It’s not using the word circumcision, but it’s referring to circumcision. It’s using a word that refers to the Jews because they boasted in their circumcision, but uses a derogatory way to describe it.

The idea is that they thought that they were something special because of their circumcision, that’s the hypocrisy of the Pharisees. That’s what the Pharisees thought. You remember when to the Pharisees, John the Baptist said, you think you’re something special, I’m paraphrasing, you think you’re something special because you’re the children of Abraham? God is able to use stones to raise up children under Abraham. So all three of these I think are mentioned here.

Now if you would go back to Matthew chapter 16 and we’ll wrap it up, wrap it up, because I want to point out one more thing. Matthew 16 verse six.

There’s two words here that we need to look at. Matthew 16 verse six. Matthew 16 verse six. Then Jesus said unto them, take heed and beware. So I’m telling you, I don’t want us to look just as what is Jesus telling his disciples, I want you and I want to look at these verses and I want you to hear the words to you, the disciples of Christ.

Take heed and beware, Choice Hills Baptist Church, of the leaven of the Pharisees, the leaven of the Sadducees and the leaven of Herod. I want you to beware, just like the Lord is saying.

Take heed means to be, pay careful attention and observation to. That means you’ve got to have your eyes open. Beware means to be cautious, to be on one’s guard, to be wary, wary. Now listen to these verses. It’s just a list of verses I want to read them to you. These are verses in the New Testament in which the Lord says something similar to that.

Luke 17 three, take heed to yourselves. If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him. And if he repent, forgive him. Notice, take heed, pay attention. Acts 20 28, speaking to the elders of Ephesus, take heed therefore unto yourselves and to all the flock over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers to feed the church of God which he hath purchased with his own blood. To the elders the Lord says, pay attention, pay attention to yourselves, pay attention.

Ephesians 5 six, let no man deceive you with vain words. See that? Colossians 2 eight, beware, lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world and not after Christ. Beware. First Timothy 4 six, teen, take heed unto thyself and unto the doctrine continuing them. For in doing this thou shalt both save thyself and then that hear thee.

Second Peter 3 17, ye therefore beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware, lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked fall from your own steadfastness. Jude 3 says this, beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you and to exhort you that you should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.

And lastly, first John 4 one says this, beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God because many false prophets are gone out into the world. So here’s the exhortation, here’s the charge the Lord gives his disciples. Remember, you are his disciples. You are his disciples. And the Lord says to you and to me, he says, pay attention, take heed and be wary.

You know one thing we should not be, you should not be as a Christian, is naive and gullible. When it comes to really anything, but especially when it comes to spiritual matters, we should not be gullible. The Lord says take heed and be wary. He’s telling us not to be gullible. First John 4 one, believe not every spirit. That is a command that we are to be skeptical, a little bit at least skeptical of stuff.

But if we’re going to pay attention to the things that are trying to creep in among us, the disciples, remember? That’s who he’s talking to. If we’re gonna be skeptical, we’re gonna have to know about those things. We’re gonna have to be aware of them. Beware, right? And then we’re gonna have to be wary of them. Now remember the three categories. Hypocrisy. The Lord wants us to beware of hypocrisy.

The first person you need to be aware of with hypocrisy is of course yourself, right? It’s easy to blame another person for hypocrisy. But this disconnect between a person’s externals and internals, between their private life and their public life, right? And the religious veneer on things the Lord calls evil, the Lord said beware of that. That has no place among the disciples of Christ. It has no place among the disciples of Christ.

The Lord says watch out. The second one, the Pharisees, false doctrine, overt false doctrine. There are times when people show up at churches and start peddling and slowly disseminating error.

I don’t talk to you, I don’t talk to you, I don’t talk to you, I don’t talk, this is for all the disciples of Christ, but I wanna specifically talk to the men in this case. You men do not, ladies too, ladies too, because ladies sometimes have brought false doctrine in just like men have. But especially you men, giving your role as leaders in your families, you should be wary and you should be knowledgeable.

And you should know what the Bible says on a thing. So that when you hear something to the contrary, you not only recognize it and are aware of it, but you know how to combat it. That’s not just for the preachers, that’s for the disciples. That’s for the disciples. How are you gonna be aware if you don’t know? And that’s why you guys, there’s one thing I’ve learned, being a missionary in Cambodia is totally different than pastoring in the US, that’s so true.

One thing I’ve learned after being a pastor in the US is that the pastor of the church is the last one to hear everything. I don’t know why, I’m not faulting anybody, I’m just saying this is a feature of ministry, I guess, in the US or whatever, I don’t know. It is what it is.

But what that means is I don’t hear about stuff until it’s already taken its course. That means you all have got to know what you believe, why you believe it, and you’ve got to be wary and a little bit skeptical. The Lord tells us to, he commands us to, and to watch out and to pay attention.

And the third one is the leaven of Herod. You’ve got to watch out for immorality and sin and carnality in all of its various ugly forms as it tries to creep in, both in your own life first, but also as it creeps into the church and try your best to defuse that, try your best to deal with that. Yesterday we were going out, I’m sure David didn’t mind, because David just met the fellow, the fellow Chris that was here yesterday.

We were walking down to downtown Greenville and Chris was, I was just making conversation, trying to find out where he’s from, that kind of thing, and he told me he was from a church in Spartanburg County. I asked him how long he had been going to the church, he said, well, just about three years. And he offered this, I didn’t try to extract it. He said, well, I was going to a church prior to that, but the pastor got into, he said, some sort of problem in the flesh, carnality of some kind, but he explained it.

He said, there was a lady came into the church and there was a rendezvous. He actually like, not saw immorality in progress, but I mean, he walked into an odd situation himself, he told me.

That’s an example of how the doctrine of Herod creeps in and finds a place, whether it’s immorality and sexual sin like that, or an improper relationship between a man and a woman in the church who he’s not married to, or whether it be some sort of issue with money or covetousness or a desire for power, because that happens in, you know, the power struggles in church, right?

Or some sort of division or schism or hatred or whatever, anything related to the flesh. We gotta be aware, we gotta be wary of it, first in ourselves and then stand against it and seek to diffuse it or chase it away or confront it as the case might be. That’s the job of the disciples of Christ. And when the Lord says, watch out, he’s telling us to watch out because it is going to find its way among the disciples of Christ.

Remember, we are Christians, but we are not a people without enemies. The primary enemy being the devil. And he is looking for ways, hear me now, he is looking for ways to one by one pick off God’s people, wreck their life and destroy any opportunity they might have to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ. That’s what it’s about. He don’t care about us, he doesn’t care if we live or die, but he will do everything in his power to pick off the people of God, the saints of God one by one using false doctrine, using flesh, using hypocrisy and all the effects of that.

He’ll pick us off one by one so that we cannot lift up and glorify Christ in our life at all ever. This is why we have to be aware, to be aware of that. The Lord tells us to beware. Let’s pray it again.