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Just one verse is all it
takes to have a big spiritual spread to feast upon.
How many have ever made
homemade bread?What do you put
in the dough to make it rise?
Yeast.And what is the Bible
word for yeast?Leaven.It’s just another word for yeast.It is used to produce fermentation and it caused the dough to rise.
Here’s the common
interpretation of this parable, taught by a majority of churches and online:
The leaven is the gospel,
the woman is the church, and the meal or dough is the world.Logic says then that the leaven represents the expanding power of the
gospel in the world until the whole planet is eventually influenced.Just as the leaven overtakes the meal, so the gospel will overtake
the world.That is the common
interpretation…but there are several problems with that.
First of all, the Bible
does not teach that the whole world will be influenced by the gospel.Yes, we are to take the gospel everywhere, to every tribe and nation,
and we’re trying, but failing.
"Few there be that find it."
II Tim. 3 says that in the
last days perilous times shall come.That doesn’t sound like a spiritual awakening.The Bible says that just before Christ returns it will be ‘as it was
in the days of Noah.’That is
eating, drinking, and being merry.
How is 2012 similar to the
days of Noah?
1.Preoccupation with physical appetites.Everyone is always looking for new ways to please their flesh.
2.Disregard for the sanctity of marriage.It is viewed as disposable, or unnecessary.
3.Widespread violence.
Genesis 6:11 The earth also was corrupt before
God, and the earth was filled with violence.
Imagine if in the next
terrorist attack on US
soil it was 100,000 who died.
Would that be our biggest tragedy of all time?Did you know that our prisons today hold living convicted killers of
more than 100,000 Americans?
That’s twice the number killed in
Viet Nam!Did you know that more than 15,000 Americans are killed each year by
drunk drivers?Did you know that
more than 4,000 Americans are killed each year by illegal aliens?Add that all up and you’ve got another 200,000 Americans violently
killed just since Sept. 11th!We think of the attacks of that day as violent, but WE are a violent
nation in a world that is FILLED with violence!And this is to say nothing of our abortion holocaust.
4.Rampant illicit sex.
Genesis 6:5 And GOD saw that the wickedness of
man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the
thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
Mankind continues to find
new ways to express their perversion…and it’s all over TV, the internet, and
now on public display on college campuses and beaches, and every street
corner it seems, and it all begins in the wicked imagination and thoughts of
man!
The similarities between
the pre-flood world and 2012 are astounding.The Bible says that men shall wax worse and worse, not get better.We are spiraling downward, not evolving.It's not evolution, it's devolution, and the devil is in charge of
it!
The Bible speaks of a great
falling away, apostasy, just before Christ returns.Men will not endure sound doctrine…they will turn away their ears
from the truth and be turned unto fables [fairy tales like evolution, global
warming, US is in economic recovery!].Fables...that's 2012!
Here’s one reason to
rethink whether leaven is used in a positive way:
The world will not be
completely affected by the gospel until the millennial reign of Christ…His
kingdom come to earth.
Here’s an even better
reason to reject the common interpretation of this leaven being a good
thing:
Every other place in the
Bible in which leaven is used it symbolizes that which is evil.Here’s some references:
Luke 12:1—symbolizes hypocrisy, Matt. 16—symbolizes false doctrine, Matt.
22—symbolizes worldliness, I Cor. 5—symbolizes evil conduct, Gal.
5:9—symbolizes legalism.
This is why we use
unleavened bread in the Lord's Supper, because the fermentation process of
leavening is a picture of sin in the bread that is in turn a picture of the
body of Jesus.This same
fermentation process ruins the cup of the vine, which is why we use non
alcoholic juice to picture the blood of our sinless Jesus.Fermentation produces toxins...it's why drunkenness is called
intoxication, and why you throw up if you drink...your body is refunding
something which you shouldn't have introduced into it![remember Jesus' command to be a part of His supper!]
If leaven is suddenly good
in our text, that is not consistent w/ the rest of scripture.So what is the correct interpretation of the meal, the woman, and the
leaven?
A.The Meal
If you were a Jew in those
days and heard this parable, you would have caught the phrase, “3 measures
of meal.”It was a common
purchase.But when you hear that
some woman has hid leaven in the meal, you’d say, “what a dirty trick…what
an abominable woman!”Why?The key is the 3 measures of meal.That’s what you’d take to the temple as an act of worship.The OT book of Leviticus speaks of the meal offering, which was
typically made up of 3 measures of meal.They would grind up the meal very fine, then add oil and frankincense
and bake a cake.They would take
it to the priest in the temple where the fire of God would consume it…it was
a meal offering.
The finely ground meal
represented the even, sinless character of the Lord Jesus…w/ no lumps or
inconsistencies.What do you
think then that the oil would represent?The Holy Spirit!The
frankincense represented the sweet savor of His holy, priestly life, and the
fire stands for His sufferings on the cross.
Now, there were 2 things
you were not allowed to put into the meal as a Jew:honey or leaven.
No honey because that
represented natural sweetness, and Jesus’ sweetness was supernatural…divine,
not of this world.In other
words, He was not just a good person, but the Son of God.Don't try to improve upon who He is![many churches are doing that today, trying to bring Him down to the
world's level since the world isn't interested in coming to Him!]
No leaven because it’s
always a picture of sin in the Bible, and our Lord was sinless.
Leviticus 2:11 No meat offering, which ye shall
bring unto the LORD, shall be made with leaven: for ye shall burn no leaven,
nor any honey, in any offering of the LORD made by fire.
When a Jew heard Jesus say
that a woman bought 3 measures of meal and hid leaven in it, he immediately
knew it was an act of sabotage…an abomination.
The meal represents communion [with
God] in worship.
The law of first mention
says we should go to the first time this concept is mentioned and there we
will find keys and clues to understanding it.
Where is the first time in
scripture that we find 3 measures of meal?Genesis 18, where the Lord and 2 angels appear to Abraham, who
quickly told his wife, Sarah, to get 3 measures of meal, bakes cakes on the
hearth, and bring them to their guests.It’s all about worship and communion with God.And the last mention of 3 measures of meal is in Revelation when you
cannot buy it for any price...a reminder that communion w/ God is no longer
possible once the rapture has occurred.
What does the woman
represent?
B.The woman
I believe she stands for confusion in
worship.First of all, because the Bible always uses a woman to describe
something being wrong religiously.From OT to Revelation it is so…again, not politically correct, but
God’s point is made.
Another reason:in Mt. 13:33 it is done deliberately.It was no accident.It
was done w/ malice and premeditation.She ‘took’ leaven and put it there on purpose.
That’s the devil’s goal, to
poison true worship and taint the hearts of believers and befoul good
churches of God.He uses
formalism and ritualism in many churches.I’m thankful that we can let the Spirit of God lead, even if we have
to vary from our precious worship schedule.
“Many churches begin at 11
o’clock sharp and end at 12 o’clock dull!”
And Satan uses liberalism
and many other weapons to inject poison into true worship, including the
tool of distraction.Many
churches simply don’t have their eye on the ball, and are being led more by
our society than by the Scriptures!
We need to worship in
Spirit and in truth, and that means we must be on guard for what the devil
will try to sneak in on us.
The woman in our text not
only did what she did deliberately [the word ‘took’]., but also deceptively
[the word ‘hid’].
She didn’t ‘put’ it in the
meal…she ‘hid’ it in the meal.
Yet another good reason to reject that the leaven is the gospel…we don’t
sneak the gospel in, as many churches are trying to do.
Ill.—we
use to sneak medicine into our kids sometimes, in juice or pudding.My wife discovered she could put iron into our son’s oatmeal crème
pies and he was none the wiser…and there’s no telling what she’s cleverly
slipping into my food in her long term master plan!
No, we are up front with
the gospel.The truth shall set
men free!We don’t try to trick
people into getting saved or gimmick them into church attendance.Jesus always encouraged people to count the cost of following Him.
One man said, I’ll follow you
wherever you go.Jesus replied,
“Foxes have holes, birds have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay
his head.”In other words,
consider the cost of becoming my follower.He told another to let the dead bury their dead, and come and follow
me…and no man putting his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God!Count the cost.
New evangelicalism is
saying we need to entertain, water down our message, and slip in truth on
them somewhere along the way after they are hooked.But we aren’t to hide the gospel, we’re to preach it.
“Our job is not to make the
gospel appealing, but to make the gospel available!”
By the way, the first note
of the gospel is not a happy note…it is that all have sinned and come up
short!This is not good
news…there’s no good news until you face the bad news.
The woman stands for
confusion in worship, and the meal for communion in worship…
C.The Leaven
The leaven stands for corruption in
worship.
Matt. 16 shows us 3 types
of leaven to avoid as a church:
1.The leaven of the Pharisees, which is legalism.
16:6, 11-12They thought He was talking about bread…but he was talking about
doctrine, and theirs was legalism.They arranged their faith into a list of dos and don’ts.They made a critical mistake of outwardly conforming to the law, even
though they had inward corruption.
They made life miserable
for people as they went around like pious police checking up on everyone.For example, the OT spoke of being ceremonially clean before
partaking of food.The Pharisees
took that and embellished it to a ridiculous degree.They said, you have to wash your hands w/ half an eggshell of water,
poured over the fingers so that it would drip down off the elbow so many
times…and if you didn’t do it exactly as they described then you weren’t
ceremonially clean.They loved
to heap burdens on others, but they didn’t live right themselves.
I’m sorry to say that the
leaven of the Pharisees is still around today.“I’m spiritual because I don’t drink, smoke, or chew, or kiss girls
that do!”And you can come to
church 3 times a week and be as carnal as an old goat!
True spirituality doesn’t
work its way from the outside in, but from the inside out!Some of God’s creatures have an exoskeleton, unlike humans who have
an endoskeleton.“Lobster
Christians” have been injected w/ the leaven of the Pharisees…they have
their convictions on the outside, but they are cold, unkind, unloving, and
will pinch you w/ their lists of rules.
Convictions are fine to
have, but they should be like bones that you have on the inside.They hold you up, give you strength and support and your very shape,
but still allow you to be soft, gentle, and warm on the outside!
Galatians 5:9 A little leaven leaveneth the
whole lump.
What is the context here?Liberty in Christ vs. legalism.And here we find a balance to aspire unto.Even though we have liberty, if we use that liberty as an excuse
[occasion] to the flesh, it will go badly for us."Just a little nudity"
"Just a little drink""It's just
a little joke!"The devil tries
to get us to try just a little leaven, knowing it will take over and spread
like wildfire!
Song of Songs 2:15 Take us the foxes, the
little foxes, that spoil the vines...
Don’t misunderstand…I’m not
saying we should throw out our standards...we shouldn’t forget GOD’S lists
of dos and don’ts for us.Just
don’t go legalistic, allowing your attitude to be one of superiority to
everyone else.
“It’s the difference
between being inhibited by rules and inhabited by the rule-maker!”When the Spirit of God is in you, and fed, and predominant, the flesh
is suppressed and we can die to the flesh, and not want 'just a little' of
what the world has to offer!
[Joseph of OT]
2.The leaven of the Sadducees, which is just the opposite of the
Pharisees.The Pharisees added
to the Word of God a list of over 600 rules…but the Sadducees took away from
it.
Acts 23:8 For the Sadducees say that there is
no resurrection, neither angel, nor spirit: but the Pharisees confess both.
They were the liberals of
that day.We need to beware…and
may we always stand for the fundamentals of the faith.Today it’s hell, and literal fire that are under attack, or the
virgin birth, or was Jesus a phony, or is the ENTIRE Bible inspired?"Jesus never condemned homosexuality!"[heard that recently] May we never be guilty of explaining away Bible
truths, or allegorizing the miracles of the Bible, or the return of Christ,
or the tribulation and end of the world!
We live in a generation of
churches that are putting question marks where we should put exclamation
points!
Pray for me that I never
give in to the temptation to trim my message, and I’ll pray for you for the
same.Every week’s sermons
include something controversial and I’ll get letters from someone who read
it online, or once in a while a subscriber will unsubscribe in
protest…great, that must mean we’re doing something right if we’re not
pleasing everybody!
Let’s practice up on taking
our stand, because it’s not going to get easier in these last days.There’s coming a day if the Lord tarries that the government will say
I’m no longer allowed to preach against homosexuality.It’s already considered hate speech, and it’s happening in other
countries, and it’s coming our way.
3.The leaven of materialism.
Mark 8:15 And he charged them, saying, Take
heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, and of the leaven of
Herod.
His lifestyle was all about
wealth and material possessions.
And Christianity has made a major turn in recent years, and never more than
the last few years, to prosperity preaching and the social gospel of just
being happy and becoming a better and better person, and letting God bless
you more and more.It’s an all
positive message, w/ no stepping on toes allowed!
They have decided to go
that direction in their lives and in their churches, so they have to build
doctrine and manufacture scriptural support for it.They do all kinds of hermeneutical gymnastics trying to stretch the
Bible to say what they want it to say.
If God has blessed you
materially, enjoy it in the right balance.God has given us richly all things to enjoy.But true spirituality recognizes the best riches God has given to
them is not money and material things, but true riches that moth and rust
don’t touch.The key is, do you
own your possessions, or do they own you?!Do you control your finances for God’s glory, or do they control and
steer you and your life?And
what do you have that money can't buy and death can't take away?Those are true riches!
Some Christians would be
better off if they never could have afforded that vehicle, or that boat, or
that big screen, because of the way those things changed them and have
stealthily crept up and taken over!
Legalism-Liberalism-Materialism…the woman hid the leaven and eventually it
permeated all 3 measures of that dough!
Verse 33 of Matt. 13 is a
parable predicting the coming day when this whole world God created will be
affected by the leaven.Thank
God we won’t be here, the salt will be removed at the rapture before the
whole world goes to leaven in the great tribulation.
Until then, let’s join our
hands and hearts in standing against the coming day of judgment, and stand
guard against the woman’s clever concoction she attempts to hide away within
our presence.
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