95-71 – Wisdom Breakers – Beware of the Leaven

This sermon is Part 6 of the series "Wisdom Breakers" by Dr. Chuck Betters.

Wisdom Breakers is a study of the book of James. James tells us that as long as our faith is weak and if our faith is wavering, then we can never possess wisdom. When God calls us to fulfill his purpose, HE does not rescind that calling. Often times we can distracted or sidetracked with living out our mission. My identity in Christ is directly related to whether I understand what it means to be a bond servant of Jesus Christ. This is how James identifies himself in the opening of this book. Dr. Betters is about to explain that if we understand that our identity in Christ is that of bond servants to him, that is when we become a threat to the powers of Satan. Because then our identity is clear and we can serve the Lord to our fullest.

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Welcome to In His Grip with Dr. Chuck F. Betters, produced by Mark Inc. Ministries. Each In His Grip message is designed to help turn your hearts toward Jesus and equip you to walk by faith. Let's join Dr. Betters as he preaches today's message.

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Please take your Bibles and turn with me to two places. One is in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 16. The other is in the book of James, chapter 1. Let's look first of all at James chapter 1. We have been dealing in weeks past with the mature view of suffering. James chapter 1, verse 1. James, a servant of God, a bond slave of God, and that's where the mature view of suffering has to begin. By seeing ourselves as bond servants with no inherent rights, a proper view of ourselves, one that looks into the mirror and sees exactly what he is and who he is, a bondservant with no rights, no inherent rights, no inherent privileges, when we come to faith in Jesus Christ, we are grafted into the family of God. We are adopted as his sons and daughters. And only because of that adoption, only because of that act of grace and mercy where he grafts us in and adopts us into the family of God, do we have the right to be called sons and daughters of God? But the mature view of suffering always begins by seeing yourself and by remembering the rock from whence you were un and the hole from which you were digged, as we are told in the Old Testament. To the twelve tribes scattered among the nations. A diaspora group of Hebrew Christians, Jewish Christians who had been scattered by persecution all over the world, facing horrendous trials, horrendous suffering, terrible heartache, terrible pain, terrible grief. Then he makes this outstanding and somewhat questionable statement, at least if you were the first century reader who was experiencing this pain. Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds. Now that is a theme that runs through the New Testament. That suffering is to be experienced against the backdrop of joy. Now that is an oxymoron. To us, it doesn't make sense to say that suffering can bring about joy, that suffering is to be experienced in the context of joy. I had the privilege to minister to a conference of senior citizens, senior saints, they like to call themselves. What a great, great time I had with these folks. And hearing folks who have lived many, many years more than I have talking of some of the pain and heartache they have had to experience, story after story after story, and to hear the faithfulness of God in the midst of that kind of suffering. One woman in particular, I will never forget as long as I live. We were walking along the grounds, and another couple, a Mennonite pastor and his wife, stopped us. They wanted to introduce us to two other Mennonite women. Now, these were what we would call prototypical Mennonite women. They had the hair pieces on, they had the very conservative dress on, uh, they were elderly women, and uh they wanted the pastor and his wife wanted these two people, these two sisters, to meet me and my wife. And in the process of talking with them, I heard an incredible story. Last year, this woman lost two of her sons to AIDS. Both sons were hemophiliacs, and both sons died of AIDS as the result of receiving bad blood. That was last year. And in the course of the discussion, she proceeded to tell me of three others in her immediate family who also have died because of the AIDS virus received as the result of bad blood. Five people in this family died of AIDS as the result of being hemophiliacs, receiving bad blood. And this woman was telling us one story after another: five deaths. The thing that intrigued me the most, the thing that absolutely grabbed my heart the most, as her tears were welling up, and as she began to cry, there was a smile on her face, and she spoke of God's faithfulness even in the midst of all of that. That's joy. Joy is not the same as happiness. Joy transcends happiness. Joy experiences the peace of God, whether you're happy or unhappy. Joy goes beyond happiness, joy rests in someone, and that someone is Jesus Christ. We met another couple who spoke of their mother who had ten children, six of whom died within a seven-year period. This woman lost six children in seven years, and then when the toll was taken within that immediate family, 14 people died within that time frame. Now, they spoke of their mother as they would walk by her bedroom and they would hear her wailing in her bedroom. They would hear her just pouring out her heart before God in her bedroom. But then they spoke again of God's faithfulness, the joy of the Lord, the faithfulness of God. You know, what are you going through this morning? What are you experiencing this morning? The question we need to ask ourselves is: if in the midst of that we don't have joy, what's wrong? What's missing? If we cannot endure what the scriptures seem to tell us is part and parcel to being a believer, that is the joy of the Lord in the midst of affliction, then what's missing? What's the missing ingredient? Clearly, James is going to tell us what it is. He says we need to face our trials of many kinds because you know, verse 3, that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete. In other words, that word complete, by the way, means receiving all that you were allotted for. All that you were intended for. To experience the peace of God that passes all understanding, to be restored into that union of intimacy with Christ that we were created to have, but have never experienced because of the fall. That's the goal. The goal of suffering is our immaturity and our completeness, not lacking anything. But then he says in typical James fashion, verse 5, but if you lack wisdom, now there's the key. That's why many of us do not have the joy of the Lord. Because we lack wisdom. Now, wisdom, that Greek word for wisdom, sophros, is an interesting word because it speaks of our response to the trials and the sufferings that we have to endure. In fact, I have defined for you wisdom this way: the knowledge of how to regulate my relationship to God and to respond in a godly manner, especially when God interrupts my life or allows some sort of oppressive suffering and pain that I do not understand, so that I learn how to view my suffering from God's perspective. You know, when we went there and ministered to these folks, I told them at the last meeting, they ministered to us more than we ministered to them. I'm looking at gray-haired people, wrinkled faces, been through the test of time, been through the battles, been to the battle lines and back many times, speaking of God's faithfulness, God's faithfulness, trusting God, believing God, in simple childlike faith. And I could only say in my own spirit, Lord, when I'm that old, I hope that I can have that same kind of trust, that same kind of confidence. The problem is we lack wisdom. Now, we have been talking about some of the wisdom breakers, some of the things that are hindrances to the flow of wisdom. We fail to see God's perspective because we allow certain principles to take root in our lives, principles that need to be uprooted and laid out on the table and dealt with. Now, let me list quickly for you what we've already discussed, just as a matter of review. Wisdom breaker number one, we say, this pain is too great. God, you lied to us when you said you would not allow us to receive any more than we could bear. We say the pain is too great, we're too focused on the pain, less focused on God, we fail to see that the pain is a megaphone for change. That God is using the pain to announce to us that there is a change in our heart that needs to occur and an intimacy with Him that needs to develop. Wisdom says, Lord, in this pain, I want to see the change that you are calling me to make in my life. How do I respond to pain? Number two, our disciplines are too inconsistent. We don't study the word, we don't have a spirit of prayer. We pick it up here, we pick it up there, we read it here, we read it there, we mope around with the scriptures, we just fiddle through the Bible and act like it's not really the word of God. We treat it as though it's just another document. We don't see the Bible as alive and vibrant, we don't see prayer as an instrument through which we can commune with God, and scripture is the instrument through which God communes with us. The communication is broken off. How can we ever have God's perspective if there's no communication? The disciplines are too inconsistent. Thirdly, we talked about the ruptured relationship with God due to unconfessed sin. There's something in my life that I refuse to give over. Some sin, some secret sin perhaps, some sin that others have pointed out to me that I refuse to hear. Other Christians have walked up to me and said, Brother, sister, I've got a problem. I see something in your life, I see an inconsistency, and my wife tries to tell me, my husband tries to tell me, my children try to tell me there are inconsistencies in my spiritual walk that give birth to sin in my life. I leave it unconfessed, and I say, No, that's just the way I am, that's just the way I'm going to be. And we refuse to lay those sins before the Lord. Number four, pride. Who is in control here? We are control freaks, aren't we? We want to be in control of our destiny, in control of our suffering. So if we can't explain it, and if we can't change it, and if we can't control it, pride says, then I'll take hold of my life in other areas. I will be the boss, I will be in control, I will not be a bond servant. I, I, I. And of course, that's the middle letter in the word pride, isn't it? Number five, a hardened heart that has refused to heed the call of God in their lives. Sometimes we receive instruction from the Lord, we receive a call from the Lord, we receive a direction from the Lord. Some of it's years ago. Something years ago, the Lord spoke to us years ago and said, I want you to go in this direction. And we left off and we let it go there. We said, No, Lord, I'm not going to do that. We maybe even sensed the call of God. Maybe God called us to the mission field, or God called us to the ministry, or God called us to wait rather than marry the wrong person. Or God called us to do this or that or the other thing, or maybe he spoke through a sermon or through someone else's teaching. Maybe the Spirit of God brought us to a point of commitment where we stood up and we said, Lord, I am now going to go in the direction you have called me to go. But then we stand up and we say, No. We may have said initially yes, but through the years we've wandered away, we've drifted off, and we expect to have wisdom. God says, wait a minute, we need to back up a little bit. I need to take you back here to the vow you made, the commitment you made. And I'm holding you to that vow. I'm holding you to that commitment. Number six, self-advancement in our pain. In other words, we have the wrong motive for suffering. We simply want to draw attention to ourselves rather than in our pain to bring glory to God. What is the chief end of man? The chief end of man, the catechism tells us, is to what? Glorify God and enjoy him forever. You agree with that? The chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever. Well, let me ask you, what is the chief end of God? The chief end of God is to glorify himself and to enjoy himself forever. Do you follow that? The chief end of God is to bring glory to his own name. And to enjoy that glory forever. Now, part of that glory is us. Part of that glory is me. God doesn't owe me his glory. I don't deserve the glory of God in my life. So even in the middle of that pain, my motivation should be to bring glory to God. Not glory to myself. God's purpose is to glorify his name. God's purpose is to enjoy God forever. He's God. We're peons. He's the Lord of the universe. We're creatures. You know what the word creature means or implies? If we're a creature, then someone has created us. It's like I've said before, it's a picture of this dry desert and this big elephant storming through the desert, and a little ant is sitting on his back. A little tiny ant. He turns around and he looks and he says, My my, look at all the dust I'm kicking up. Get the picture? That's what we do. We're the little ant. We get up on our little haunches before God and we say, My my, look at all the dust I'm kicking up. He says, Your purpose is to glorify me and to enjoy me forever. And our motivation is wrong. Then we talk seventhly about satanic oppression. There is a satanic oppression. Oftentimes we attribute to the devil many things that don't belong to him. We say, for example, when pain comes into our life, it has to be the devil. We say, for example, a tornado or a hurricane is of the devil, or an earthquake is of the devil, or natural disasters are of the devil. We look at all of these horrible things that happen with our climate, we say that's of the devil. We attribute more power to the devil than the devil rightfully deserves. But there is a dimension to satanic oppression that the Christian needs to be aware of. There are times when we are blocked from the flow of wisdom simply because we have not recognized our enemy and we are not equipped to do battle with him. And then, eighth, we've talked about lack of discipline in non-related areas of our lives spilling over into the area of concern. In other words, I'm concerned about problem A, but I have some sin problems over here with problem B, and they spill over because I've learned how to react in problem B a certain way, and I carry that over into problem A. And our lives are not clean before the Lord. Ninth, we've talked about the failure to take the long view of suffering. The failure to see that God is in control of the whole process of suffering from beginning to end, and that the many pieces in the middle, the many parts that make up that whole picture, are extremely important, and we must see the long or have the long view of suffering. And then we talked about loss of identity in Christ resulting in a failure to accurately comprehend the meaning of the abundant life. If you remember in that message, we talked about casual longings in our circumstances and critical longings in our relationships, and yet that crucial longing or that peace that passes all understanding goes unmet. We have contentment in our circumstances or contentment in our relationships, but the crucial longing of the spirit, the crucial thirst of the soul, can only be met by going to the water of life, who is Jesus Christ. And then we began to talk about divided loyalty. Number 11, divided loyalty due to the presence of Pharisaic leaven. The leaven of the Pharisees. You see, the Pharisees were a status people. They were concerned about status, their position or their standing, how they were viewed by others. You know, whenever you're concerned about your image, whenever you're concerned about your status before others, you will always have a divided loyalty. You'll always have one foot over here in the spiritual camp seeking to glorify God, and another foot over here in the self-camp seeking to glorify yourself. You will always be concerned about what you look like and how you are portrayed. Now we took the word status and tried to build a little acronym for you to help you to understand what Pharisaic leaven is. The S in the word status stands for a sanctification that justifies. Divided people or people who are disloyal are always looking for a works-oriented religion. They are always looking for how good I can become in order to please God. Sanctification, in other words, what I become or the way in which I live will one day warrant me or justify me before God. I can become a certain person to please God. If I do this, this, this, and this, I will eventually be accepted by God. And in that message, we talked about some of the differences between the theology that says that sanctification breeds justification and the reformed perspective that speaks of justification by grace and faith alone, and that the sanctification follows. The T in that word status, as we're talking about divided loyalty, talks about traditions and religious practices that are devoid of purpose. The Pharisees were wonderful at this. They were traditionalists and they held firmly to religious practices. The problem was there's nothing wrong with tradition, there's nothing wrong with religious practice, but if you don't have any purpose in it, you've got a problem. One of the things I was intrigued about as I talked with the seniors, now, this is not in any way meant to be self-inflating or anything like that. You just have to trust my motive is pure in this. But many of them spoke to me of how dead their churches are. They said, We haven't heard preaching like this in 30, 40 years. One lady in particular, I remember she came up to me and she said, You know, you're so excited when you preach. She said, You actually believe it, don't you? And I said, Of course I believe it. She said, Well, I'm not sure our pastor does. And in speaking to them, I raised some questions about the changes that are occurring in our churches today, the churches that are growing and prospering. Churches that are expanding are change-oriented, risk-taking churches. And you know, I would think that in talking to groups like this, they would say, no, we don't want any change. We want to remain the same. And you know what I found? Just the opposite. Just the opposite. In fact, they want change. In fact, they spoke of days that they could remember when hellfire and brimstone was the norm. They spoke of days when the worship services were filled with vibrant singing and vibrant praise. They talked about the old camp meetings, the old evangelists that used to come in and the mourners' benches and all these other things where folks were brought into a living, vibrant relationship with the holy God. They said, What happened? Tradition and religious practice devoid of purpose is what happened. I hope we never become a church that simply holds worship services or preaches biblical messages without any purpose. If you came here this morning and your heart was not prepared to worship the living God, then it should be no surprise to you when you walk out of here that you're no different than when you walked in. I want to encounter the living God. These Pharisees miss the vitality of life in the Spirit. There is an excitement in encountering the living God. But see, we're more concerned about our status. Let me give you the A in the plan. Status, divided loyalty. Image is everything to a Pharisee. Image is everything to a Pharisee. Appearance. I need to control my behavior in public so as to ensure that what I am really like in private will never be seen. You get that? Gotta write that one down. That's important. I want to be seen in public in such a way and control my behavior in such a way so to ensure that I have a good enough mask up so that folks won't really know what I'm like privately. That's what a Pharisee is. Jesus called them whited sepulchres, no heart search, no repentance, nothing but self-advancement, pure and religious on the outside, but full of dead men's bones on the inside. That's what the Pharisees were. I've had to take some inventory lately in my life, forced to examine some issues of true spirituality and faith. You have your place there in Matthew 16? Look with me at verse 5. Jesus said, When they went across, he had just fed 4,000. Prior to that, he had just fed 5,000. Miraculously, the disciples were part and parcel to that miracle. It says, now when they went across the lake, the disciples forgot to take bread. They discussed this among themselves and says, Is it because we didn't have or bring any bread? Aware of their discussion, Jesus asked, You of little faith, why are you talking among yourselves about having no bread? Do you still not understand? Don't you remember the five loaves for the five thousand? How many basketfuls did you gather? Or the seven loaves for the four thousand, and how many basketfuls did you gather? How is it you don't understand that I was not talking to you about bread? But be on your guard against the yeast or the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees. Verse 12. Then they understood that he was not telling them to guard against the yeast used in bread, but against the teaching of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. Appearance is so critical to a Pharisee. Appearance means you don't take inventory. You're constantly looking to someone else. You're constantly looking at what God needs to do in someone else's life. You see, if God gets a little too close, or if the preacher begins to meddle a little bit and begins to shake up the waters, what do we do? We harden the Halloween mask. Because image is everything. You know, you have to ask yourself a question. What is the selling price for your faith? That is, what if God asked you to give it up, would you tenaciously cling to? Your children? Your money? How about your image? What if God were to stand before you and said, I want you for my sake and my glory to give this up? Would you hold on to and say, no, Lord, I'm not gonna do it because it might affect my image? It might affect how other people view me. I want to hold on to those things that I can control so that my image is in my control, not yours. Appearance is everything, Lord, don't you understand? Is there a faith that says, wherever, whenever, whoever, whatever you desire for me, I will give up my comfort to advance the kingdom of God. I will give it up, I will give it up, I will give it up if it builds your kingdom. Do you have that kind of faith? You say yes. Yes, I do. Really? Well, let's get real fundamental here. Do you know what your spiritual gift is? Have you made any effort to discover or to discern what God has equipped you to do? Do you know what your gift is? You say, but wait a minute, I'll go wherever, whenever, whoever, whatever. You don't even know what your gift is. You don't even know what you're equipped to do. And you're not going to take the energy, you're not going to go through the exercise to sit down and figure it out. You say, yes, I'll do that. What involvement have you had in ministry? What have you done lately for God? What have you done lately to serve him in his church? When was the last time you ever shared your faith with somebody that was lost? When was the last time you ever prayed with somebody to trust Christ as their Savior? Maybe I'd ask that another way. When was the first time? Or have you ever? You say, what are you trying to do? Make me feel guilty? Yes. Yes, because you see, we need to feel guilty. We need to strip off the mask and say, now, Lord, I keep talking about my faith and what I trust in and what I believe in, but I haven't taken the necessary steps to discover my gift. I don't know what my niche is in the body of Christ. I don't even know who my oikos are. I don't even know who the extended family are. I don't even know who the people are you brought into my life. I haven't even prayed them through. I don't know who you want me to share my faith with. And if you have shown me, I've turned a deaf ear. There are no spiritual disciplines present. I don't read your scriptures. I don't pray. You see what I'm asking you to do? I'm saying, Lord, rip away all the spiritual barriers, rip them down, tear down the walls, tear down the facades, all those other things that I have built up with my human hands to protect my image. And boil me down to the man, to the woman you want me to be. Crack me, break me, mold me, shape me, whatever it takes, Lord, reduce me to nothing. Because that's what bond servants are. So that I may build the kingdom. What's it gonna take to rip it away? The self-examination I have been involved in recently is devastating. And in many regards, it took some severe tragedy in my life to rip certain things away from me. Real pain. We have image in how we worship. We have image. You know, don't ever say amen. We say, come on. You know, one woman told me recently in this congregation, she says, you know, there are times when I'm worshiping, I just want to raise my hands up to God. I said, Why don't you? Well, that's not proper. Proper according to who? Proper according to who? You say, Pastor, are you now encouraging everybody to raise their hand? I'm not a hand raiser, I'm an eye closer. I love to close my eyes and worship God. In fact, I love to sit and hear you worship. That's what I do because I'm usually preaching. I like to worship too. And so sometimes I'll just sit there and I'll just listen to you sing. Some of you sing pretty bad, but I'll just listen to you sing. Image. Image. Image. And yet we'll go down to the big football game, won't we? We'll jump up and down and scream and yell. Kill the bomb! Kill the bomb! Kill the bomb! We're not at least a bit concerned about anybody sitting around us. And Jesus Christ is here, and we're afraid to raise our hand to God. If God leads you to do that, go for it. So restrictive. We're concerned about appearance and how we share our faith. We don't want to offend anybody. There's no cost. There's no price tag in sharing our faith. Maybe we need to be involved in something like this. Let me read something to you. Protestant churches are sprouting in Islamic Asian republics of the former Soviet Union. A church planted, I can't pronounce all these names, Uzbekistan four years ago has grown to 3,000 members. It attracts 700 to 800 people to each of four Sunday services, holds daily morning services, and has planted 55 other congregations, 22 of them in four neighboring counties. A Russian missionary, Slavik Radchuk, said, I was thrilled when I found them. I wept. He's with the Christian aid mission of Charlottesville, Virginia, an agency that supports Indigenous Christian workers. Radchuk revisited the region this year after traveling some 30,000 miles throughout the former Soviet Union during 1984 while planting a number of churches. Now here's the key about half of the new converts in these churches are former Muslims. As is 95% of the general population. Conversion to Christianity causes family strife and even family violence. My father, quote, received Jesus and I wanted to kill him, unquote, said a former Muslim who now assists his father in pastoring 250 people at three churches. They have planted five other churches in the country where some 400 people worship. And the article goes on and on and on to talk about the price tag of sharing their faith. You know what's intriguing to me? They're exploding. They're growing by leaps and bounds. We live in America. We live in free America. You can go on any street corner in any city, you can go down a city block in any of the major cities in our country, and you can probably count 30, 40, maybe even 50 church buildings that are dead. Our denominations are crumbling at the seams. We produce more Bibles and more tracts and more money for foreign missions than any other country on the face of the earth, and American Christianity is faltering it best. Why? Because you are concerned about your image. You're concerned about appearance. You don't have a burden for the lost. You're not concerned that they're dying and on their way to hell. It doesn't grieve you that people hate our God. There's no repentance. We're concerned about image. We're concerned about appearance. The T in status stands for truth busters. Pharisees are truth busters. What's a truth buster? One whose conscience is hardened to the truth. You can have the truth stare you in the face and somehow rationalize this is not true. Even when the truth stared at them, the truth, the way the truth and the life stared at them, they refused to embrace him because their consciences were in bondage. The greatest lie of this generation is the lie of the humanist who says there is a spark of deity in all of us. Just trust yourself. Discover your self-image. Discover your identity. You have this great human potential. That is the biggest lie that has been told our young people today. There is no spark of deity. The truth is we are depraved. The truth is we are bankrupt. The truth is we are coming apart spiritually, and there's no hope in us apart from Christ. The truth is God is sovereign, not man. The truth is Christianity is the only way. The truth is that Jesus is coming and there is a hell, that we are sinners and we are lost, and that we need a savior. We are tolerant of everything but the truth. And we are intolerant of all who tell us what the truth is. We protect our domain of perceived truth. We protect our value system. Dare any tell us that our value system is stained with the pus of satanic poison and we're outraged? You would be surprised at how many people are offended at some of the teaching I give concerning the liberal movement of quote-unquote Christianity. You'd be surprised at how many people aren't happy with me because I talk about liberalism and its destructive powers within denominations that were at one time the hotbeds of revival in our country. You'd be surprised. You'd be surprised at the heat that I take from the cults. And those who want to believe that there is one universal God who loves all men equally, that same God has provided many ways to salvation. That's not the truth. That's not the truth. And no matter if the truth stares us in the face and defies us, we refuse to listen. That's a Pharisee. We've become very hardened, haven't we? We're a very hardened people. How many children here under 12? Raise your hand. Anybody here under 12? You parents might have to deal with something here in a minute. I'm very wary to read something like this, but I want you to just listen closely. Open our eyes and listen. The truth is staring us right in the face, and we refuse to listen. We are so hardened in our desire to please ourselves. A registered nurse who witnessed three partial birth abortions says it was the most horrifying experience of her life. This is all in a letter to her congressman. Brenda Schaefer of Franklin, Ohio, was working for a nursing agency in September of 1993 when she accepted a three-day assignment to the Women's Medical Center and Abortion Clinic in Dayton, Ohio. I was at that time, she says, very pro-choice and even told her two teenage daughters that if they got pregnant, she would make them have an abortion. She wrote this letter on July 9th to her congressman. One of the three late-term abortions that Schaefer saw involved a woman who was six months pregnant. As Martin Haskell, the doctor who runs the clinic, delivered the body and arms up to the neck, the baby's, quote, this is in her letter, little fingers were clasping together. He was kicking his feet. All the while his little head was still stuck inside. Haskell then, quote, took a pair of scissors and inserted them into the back of the baby's head. Then he opened the scissors up. Then he stuck the high-powered suction tube into the hole and sucked the baby's brains out. Haskell delivered the rest of the body and threw the baby in a pan along with the placenta and the instruments he'd used. I saw the baby move in the pan, she said. The baby, which had Down syndrome, had the most perfect angelic face I had ever seen. The two other partial birth abortions that Schaefer saw involved babies that had no defects. And that's the truth. Now, the generation today, the girls today, they know they're pregnant. In our generation, they didn't know for weeks later that they were pregnant, but they know now. And in that ultrasound, if you look very closely, you can see a heartbeat. Even before women knew they were pregnant, the heart's beating. That's the truth. But we don't want to hear it. We stop up our ears. We don't want to hear it. That's the truth. That's what we live with. You almost stand back and you say, Lord, how long? How long? You stands for unloving and bigoted. Pharisees are unloving and bigoted. They're bigoted racially. They were bigoted toward the Samaritans, they were bigoted toward the Gentiles. Do you know? The most segregated place in America and the most segregated time in America is 11 o'clock on Sunday mornings. And for a Christian to hold to racist views in any form, in any shape, to any degree, is an affront to the cross. I think we're going to be very, very surprised at how colorblind God is. We're socially unloving toward the poor, the needy, the sick. Oh, the Pharisees knew they were there. And the only way they ministered to them was in such a way that it drew attention to themselves. We're bigoted religiously. Toward Jesus and the prophets. The Pharisees were tremendously bigoted. You know, American evangelical Christianity today is one of the most jealous and envious places you ever want to be. You'd be surprised when pastors get together how envious and jealous they are of each other. I am saddened when I read of men who are resigning their pulpits because things are coming apart in their lives. The latest of which is Charles Stanley. Oh, we can jump in there and judge and condemn and what have you. But to see the great work that God is doing within touch ministries jeopardized by the very real imminent prospect of a divorce in his own home. To see his son Andy, who pastors one of the most thriving churches in the suburbs of Atlanta, resign his pulpit. To see these things happen, we ought to be praying for the protection of the pastors and spiritual leaders of our churches. Something, no sooner is that going to happen, you will see the Christians diving in with both feet condemning. You'll see them judging rather than grieving and praying. It amazes me how ugly we are sometimes, how self-absorbed we can become, especially when God tells us no and tells someone else yes. Like spoiled children who have never accepted a no from their parents, we attempt to treat God the same way. Then He not only disciplines us and at times nearly kills us to get our attention. Then we try to show the love of God to the unlovely, the light of God to those wallowing in darkness, the peace of God to the restless when all along we are unlovely and dark and faithless. Most of us have read about the conversion of Norma McCourvey, the one who was in the Roe v. Wade case, the one that brought abortion on demand as the law of the land. We see about now she's a Christian and all this other stuff. By the way, parenthetically, the worst thing in the world we could ever do to her is put her on the tour now. Let her go around sign books. But what intrigued me is reading her story of her conversion. If her conversion is genuine, do you know what she responded to more than anything else? Was the love of a godly pastor who was her avowed enemy. He was willing to get in there and love somebody who was unlovely. The last person on the face of this earth anyone in the pro-life movement would have expected to become a Christian would be her. But somebody was non-pharisaical and loving and cared enough to say, I love you in the name of Christ. Alright, let me finish up. S in the word status, stuck on themselves. Stuck on themselves. Remember that the high view of self begins with a very realistic view of the holiness of God and the depravity of man. That's why we're called bond slaves. A bond slave cannot be stuck on himself because he exists for the master. We guard our turf because we're stuck on ourselves. Turf takes on many forms. Are you guarding your turf this morning? You say, How do I know? Well, if some of the things that I have been saying here are convicting and you're rationalizing out the conviction you're guarding your turf. Ideas can become turf. I have certain ideas, and I'm locked into those ideas, and I'm not open to you saying to me that the Lord might have a better idea. I've got my own ideas, that's my turf. The way we handle conflict is our turf. You're wrong, I'm running, this is my turf, I don't want to hear any more about it. I'm stuck on myself, and I'm gonna handle the conflict because I'm stuck on myself. We say that's just the way I am, take it or leave it. Well, thank you, I'll leave it. Is that what you want God to say to you? Is that what you're saying to God? God, take it or leave it? Is that what you want? Do you really want that? Are you that stuck on yourself that you would say to God, take it or leave it? You know what he's going to say? Thank you very much. I leave it. And then you're on your own. And you try to live life in the Spirit, apart from the Spirit. See how far you get. Pride that refuses to say I'm sorry, pride that refuses to say I'm wrong, I'm stuck on myself. Now listen as I close. Jesus said, Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees. All of these things, status seekers, all of these things will breed a divided loyalty. And it will block the flow of wisdom every time. And when you need the perspective of God, it's just not going to be there. Just not going to be there. Leaven grows invisibly. It grows quietly. At first, just a little bit, and then the whole loaf is consumed. You see, Pharisees are concerned about their status. They're concerned about sanctification that justifies traditions and religious practices, appearance and image. They are truthbusters, they are unloving and bigoted, and they are stuck on themselves. But it always begins with a little bit of leaven. And then before you know it, the whole lump is leavened. Here's my question to you. As we begin to think about the role that the Spirit of God wants us to play in building his kingdom, are you a Pharisee? There are Christians who are Pharisees. Are you a Pharisee? Is there a divided loyalty? Can you honestly, legitimately say, I am firmly in the camp of the Lord Jesus Christ? Well, if you can't say that, then the first place to begin is repentance. You have to stand and say, I have a divided loyalty, and because of that, I must repent. I must believe that God is calling me to clean out the leaven. You know, the command of the Old Testament, when the Jews came to celebrate the Passover, they had to get rid of all the leaven in their house. They had to go through the cupboards, clean out the crumbs, the big pieces of leaven, the little pieces of leaven, the crumbs of the leaven, they had to get it all out. And they could not come and worship God until every single crumb of leaven had been removed from their house. And if leaven is symbolic of the sin that's breeding inside of us, the status seekers, the divided loyalists. The only way to extract it is to lay it before God and say, God, remove it. Otherwise, you can never expect the flow of the Spirit of God in your life. Would you stand and join hands with those around you as we close? Beware, the Bible says, of the leaven of the Pharisees. Oh God. As bond servants, status can never be important to us. As bond servants, we have no rights. Thank you for showing us that. And I pray for each man and each woman who's here. Oh Lord, would you meet them at their greatest point of need right now? I know this has been a tough message for them to hear. It's been a tough message to deliver. And yet I pray, oh Father, I pray that you will instruct them as only you can.

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Now may the grace of God, the love of our Lord and our Savior, Jesus the Christ, the very presence, person, and power of his Holy Spirit abide with each of you now until Christ comes again and forevermore.

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You have been listening to English featuring the preaching and teaching ministry of Dr. Jeff Letters, introduced by Mark and Fistrice. Mark Chief Street introduced to offer health and hurting people by 2050. We provide free resources.