Three Dangerous Leavens by Zac Poonen

the church is a place where we must have praise prayer and prophecy if God's house has praise and prayer and prophecy in the Holy Spirit then we are really balanced and when we have a time of praise like we had just now it's a good thing for us to ask ourselves that we have a good time or did our Father in heaven have a good time there's a lot of difference between praise and praise to God in a lot of churches what happens is praise and particularly when we sing songs we're very familiar with we don't think too much about the words and we're not conscious of Jesus in our midst you can sing thou art worthy and not be conscious of God like in one of those songs we sing when everything becomes like a shadow in the light of youth it's then that we really praise God I thought of that you know even this morning I said lord I want everything around me to be like a shadow not the shadow of people because you can be conscious of them maybe the shadow of trees or walls and things that can't hear what we're saying in our heart to God then our praise goes to God I believe there's very little of real praise and thanksgiving on Sundays around the world that really ascends to God part of the reason is people have got sin in their lives and God doesn't listen to them and the other reason is that we are more conscious of whether we are having a good time whether there's a nice beat to it and we can shake our heads or hips and clap our hands and things have not become shadows because we're not conscious of God when we pray we must be conscious of God and even when I stand here and preach I've sought to speak through the years increasingly conscious of the fact that Jesus is here listening to every word I say and I want to be sure that I'm saying what he wants me to say so I was thinking this morning of see prophecy is something that's meant to warn us about the danger that we face as a church that's why the most important gift in any church is the gift of prophecy not foretelling the future but something like that Old Testament example where you know the king of Syria or Aram would come to would plan a battle against Israel in the days of Elijah and he'd be discussing in confidence with all his generals out there in Syria and out here hundreds of miles away in Elijah's room God would show him what that King was planning not Kings a picture of the devil where is he going to attack God's people and Elijah would send a message to the king of Israel saying be careful enemy's coming here and like that the king protected the nation and then the king of Syria would plan some other point and again Elijah would know that is prophecy where we can warn God's people about dangers about places where the devil is seeking to attack them and where they can take heed those who have ears to hear not everybody will take heed because some are too proud to listen to the voice of prophecy where we can ignore them but those who are humble enough to hear a word from God they can be protected now we've seen that happen for so many years here in different situations and we praise the Lord so if I were to ask you what do you think is the greatest danger facing the church in India today or perhaps around the world it's pretty much the same or in our church we know there's been a lot of persecution in India over the last couple of years more than I've ever seen in my whole life people being killed for preaching the gospel but it's persecution the greatest danger if you read the history of the church the devil has come in two ways the Bible says the devil comes like in lion and he comes like a serpent and in the Garden of Eden the lion was there the serpent was there and the devil cleverest of all created beings chose the serpent not the lion he didn't come to scare easy she had a runaway he came with subtlety the Bible speaks about the devil coming as a roaring lion that's persecution the Bible also speaks of him as a serpent Paul says in 1 Peter 5 he speaks about him as a lion in 2nd Corinthians 11 he speaks of him as a serpent who can take us away from simple to Christ and I believe the great danger is not persecution if you read the history of the church in no time in history as persecution killed the church and the purest churches in the world today are in countries where there's persecution and the most worldly churches in the world today the countries where there's the maximum amount of wealth and no persecution so persecutions never succeeded in killing the church but deception has let me turn you to a verse in Matthew chapter 13 Jesus spoke about a woman who Matthew 13 verse 33 leaven is always a picture of something evil in Scripture it's never a picture of anything good and it says here about a woman that woman is Babylon which is corrupt Christendom and the parables Jesus spoke here when he speaks about the Kingdom of Heaven he's not speaking about the kingdom as it is in heaven but that outward expression of the kingdom of heaven on earth what we know is Christianity in the church and that's why you read about good fish and bad fish and tares and wheat and it's always a mixture or about good soil and bad soil it's always like that and here it's picture is a woman who took him hit 11 which he took and hid in three packs of flour until the whole thing was leavened so it's a very subtle way you know you put leaven into dough into wheat that's been made into dough you can't see it you look at it looks just like unleavened wheat but wait till it's put in the oven and you find its is Lebon it becomes bread a lot of hollow stuff inside and it's hidden and that's the work of the devil leaven put very subtly into the church everybody looks very holy on Sunday morning but there's a leaven that slowly can be working all said we're not ignorant of Satan's schemes and the spirit of prophecy is to throw light on Satan's tactics by which he seeks to corrupt the church dilute its witness and adulterated and ultimately make it into a harlot and not the Bride of Christ so I want you to look at 3:11 but Jesus spoke about three leavens mark chapter 8 is the first one and I believe these are the greatest dangers facing our church any church today that can corrupt its wastes no witness and destroy its testimony mark chapter 8 verse 15 and Jesus gave orders to them to his disciples saying watch out when Jesus says watch out we better watch out beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod he spoke about two levin's there we look at the leaven of the Pharisees later but the leaven of Herod now you may have heard of the varices but what about the leaven of Herod what is the leaven of Herod let me show you he had a group of people who followed him call the Herodians I want to show you an example from mark chapter 6 just two chapters earlier you'll see what the leaven of Herod is the leaven of Herod does not infiltrate people who have no interest in coming to listen to God's Word in the church no it's not talking about out there unconverted worldly people in mark chapter 6 it says here in verse 20 after Herod had imprisoned John the Baptist it says Herod was afraid of John because he was a righteous and holy man and he kept him safe and when he heard him he was perplexed but he used to really enjoy listening to him isn't that interesting that Herod enjoyed listening to a fiery prophet of God do you enjoy listening to a fiery prophet of God you may be no better than Herod sometimes we can think when we love to listen to fiery messages on the internet or in a church we said boy I like to listen to that and we imagined we're spiritual this verse should bring us all down to earth Herod lists love to listen to one of the greatest preachers of all time John the Baptist I mean Herod was fed up of all the boring sermons of the Pharisees he had no interest in them just because we have no interest in listening to boring sermons it doesn't mean we're spiritual just because we love to listen to a prophet of God genuine prophet of God doesn't mean we're spiritual because it says two verses later after he finished listening to John the Baptist he went into his palace and he was watching salami the daughter of Herodias dancing that was his stepdaughter and I'm sure she was very skimpily dressed and he modest clothes and he liked to watch that too he could go straight from listening to the prophet of God to watching anna modestly dressed woman dancing the leaven of Herod is worldliness where a person can go Sunday morning and listen to a powerful message and during the week watch r-rated movies that's Herod and enjoy both of them just as much and probably spend more hours in a week watching r-rated movies then the one are they spent in sweet listening to a sermon but the imagined is spiritual Herod imagined that he was okay so there we see the leaven of Herod Jesus said watch out I want to watch her I hope you do that the leaven of Herod an external form of godliness which covers up a heart that is worldly that I don't deceive myself Satan aim is not to kill Christians because he knows that many more will be converted I mean he's seen that through the centuries he still does it in a few places but most places he corrupts the church with worldliness because it becomes ineffective like he came to Eve in the garden I want me talk of worldliness it's something in the mind worldliness is not external it is not seen in the type of car you drive or whether you have a car at all or the size of your house or the amount of your income or salary or wealth or it's not an agent none of these things not in your clothes it's in the mind the Bible says that in Romans 12:2 be not be renewed in your mind and don't be conformed to the world in your mind so conformity to the world is in our mind and it's in our attitude to the things that the world values when I value the same things that people in the world value I'm worldly however spiritual I may appear to be and I can conceal that my value system with a lot of religious language and full people accept a really godly man who will not be fooled that we're spiritual so we need to ask ourselves I mean in contrast to all this we see Jesus so if you want to avoid worldliness you need to ask yourself what is it the world values and this is in the mind and what is it that Jesus value and then examine myself and see whether my value system is according to the world or according to Jesus that's how I know whether I'm free from the leaven of Herod one of the main things that's valued by all worldly people from beggars to millionaires is money I've never never met a beggar who doesn't value money when there's no millionaire who doesn't value money he's got nothing to do with your income it's got to do with whether you were born of Adam and if I place the same value on money that the world places on it I'm Wally it doesn't mean we shouldn't earn Jesus earned he worked as a carpenter he had eight members in his home to support with his work bigger than family than most of us and he saved money as well I mean that's why he had a treasurer but you keep it in a bag or a bank it's a saving so there's nothing wrong and earning there's nothing wrong in saving and he used money for his necessities but what value did he place on it that's the point there's nothing wrong as I said in earning saving using but what value do you place on it determines whether the leaven of Herod this thing which is so important in the world that it has no power over us and the way you can find out is whether money is your servant or your master you know I see that in gold being under our feet in heaven on the streets is you learn to put it under your feet then you're the master over it heaven is made for such people and it's like fire you know fire is a very good thing a very good servant but a terrible master if you keep fire in its proper place it's very good for cooking warming the house when it's cold but if it burns up the house it's a master it's destroyed your house and it's something like that where money we say you go I'm gonna keep you in this proper place you're gonna be my servants you're not gonna run my life you're not gonna tell me go here go there go there cuz you can get money there are preachers who do that the reason why so many Christians today love money is because their leaders love money their preachers love money it's a sad thing it's true in every country very rare person you find in Christendom who is a preacher who doesn't love money very rare and if the leaders are like that it's like a school it's got all bad teachers what type of students are gonna come out of that school that's how it is so I don't blame the students I blame their teachers but the students have got the Bible with them so they don't have to listen to the teachers and be influenced by them they can see that the devil is controlling everything in the world with money and you see in India our education which is becomes which is such a good thing has become a money thing now people built colleges schools to make money and only the rich can get a good education medicine medical treatment which God intended to help the poor it's become a money-making racket in India and everywhere people want to be doctors to make money not to help the poor you see how the Devils infiltrate and I'm talking about Christians I'm not talking about the non-christians how this has become the controlling factor and they don't even realize their worldly they're not covering saying they're not telling lies and cheating and stealing but money is their master it's the thing that determines that makes what decisions they take I want to tell you if God does not determine the decisions you take what money determines the decisions you take you know who's your master and Jesus said you cannot serve two masters it was Jehovah and be all in the days of Elijah it's Christ and Mammon today you got to make your choice that's the leaven of Herod worldliness you see how it can come in so subtly I'll tell you from my own experience if you don't baffle it all the time you'll gradually get enslaved to it I've seen believers who are very faithful to it in their early days they first born again and they're really they had very little those days and it was easy to be free from the love of money then but the devil said I gotta destroy this guy's usefulness and most cases he destroys their usefulness by giving them more and they don't know how to handle it and they don't put God first anymore and money's begun to determine their decisions look at the number of pastors who choose a church because maybe I'll get a good income there or even Christians who are not in Christian work but we need enough to earn our living and I'm not saying there's anything wrong in earning a better salary I always say try and get the highest salary you can but is God first in your life would you compromise in your work situation to make a little money that's the leaven of Herod the other thing which is very powerful in the world which is universally true like money is sex illegitimate sex and that's legitimate sex that's only in marriage never outside I'm talking about illegitimate sex it's a tremendous force not only among young people not only among unmarried people among married people outside their marriage it's a tremendous force and if if that's something which I have not made my servant so leaven a worldliness again it's a very powerful force and I said as I said once before I asked the Lord once Lord why did you allow this desire to come up in a young boy when he's 12 or 13 years old when he can't get married for another 10 or 12 years why didn't you allow this desire to sort of rise up when he's 25 that up to the age of 25 is just like these innocent two-year-old boys and girls for not like that and the Lord said to me it's because I want them to conquer that desire before they get married I want to say to all of you young people fight it conquer it before you get married otherwise you may be enslaved to it even after you get married that's why we have so many divorces that's why you hear of pastors running over their secretaries or something like that and the amount of adultery and immorality there is among Christian leaders worldwide it's absolutely shocking it's such a tremendous force and if you don't make it your service and they're there again like with money it's a constant battle and there's only one way to avoid immorality the Bible says flee immorality it's not by facing up to and say hey I can conquer it's by running away you come into a situation where you feel your temptation about turn and run that's the only way if you don't do it that way I can prophesy without being a prophet that you will fall if you don't have that attitude the world has got ahold of you and you've got to fight it my brothers young men especially and married men - and that's so widespread now you know the number of people who write to me believers young people who say brother Zack I'm a slave to pornography and the olden days in India you had to go find someplace where they would sell holographic books you don't need that now you got the Internet and it's become a rampant among Christian workers married people is it your slave does your computer mouse control you as to what you click on how do you as a child of God say no I am the master here I'm not gonna let that computer mouse determine where I click and go on the computer it's a very powerful force in the world you got to face up to it and four sisters in the case of sisters this area is mostly it's not so much in their desire to you know I don't know if sisters except abnormal ones go to pornographic sites in their case it's more to dress in a way that will attract men and you think that's only worldly those who do it know Christian girls married women who want to wear these tight fitting clothes to heighten the features of their body I'm shocked when I see married women to that what sort of stupid foolish example is is what they're giving to young girls and when they want to lower parts of that dress so that more of their body's exposed it is absolutely shameful when a child of God it's like that with you know different parts of it look at the dresses of women nowadays they say it's hot so I have no sleeves have you ever seen a man coming to church without heat and they say I got a lower this more because it's hot have you ever seen a man with a shirt open like this they gotta have a big open blouse at the back have you ever seen a man with a shirt cut out like that of the back or they say it's hot we must have our midriff exposed have you ever seen a man coming you the shirt up to here and don't they feel hot it's a lie of the devil it's because you want to expose your body the leaven of Herod has gotten to you you can call yourself a Christian and sing also sweetly eleven of Herod it's just a matter of time before it grows now I would say the young men don't marry such a girl she'll ruin you she'll spend all her all your money on our useless dresses people are afraid to speak about it I was listening to the message of a pastor the other day an American pastor we've got some copies of it which you can get when you leave I would encourage every father of girls and every young girl who wants to have some sense to get a copy of that and read it it's not written by some crazy conservative person from some jungle it's written by an American pastor from a modern city sex the third thing in the world which people want is power for others it's basically money sex and power politicians wanted business men wanted they want to crush out small businesses elders in churches want to have authority over others pastors want to have it all over the world people want to control others husbands want to control their wives wives want to control their husband's power people want power in the world power in the church its worldliness Jesus never sought it he never wanted to control anybody he never pushed people he said follow me he went ahead now behind saying come on move he went ahead and said follow me if you have years to here here you don't want to follow to you I'm always amazed by the number of people who he would invite to follow him and one fellow would say I've got to do this or I love my money too much in hello it's okay go he'd never go after them because he never wanted to push anybody it was always voluntary never wanted to control people I want to say to you husbands wives you want to control your spouse it's the leaven of Herod so worldliness the desire to control others he said well how can I be the head of my home as a husband show me where Jesus tried to push people and control others he was ahead in such a dignified way with such an outstanding example I'll tell you I've been a Christian 51 years Jesus never pushed me once in all these 51 years to do one single thing I know times when i disobeyed him he just wait for me to respond get rid of my stupidity that's the type of leadership he gave me that's why I'm devoted to him today and that's the type of husband I want to be and that's the type of husband you should be listen to this the desire to control I've seen elders who want to dominate others and I said lord I never in my life want to be like that I want to heal I want to work with people and if they disagree with me I said go ahead do it your way as soon as possible dear brothers and sisters that's the way Jesus otherwise is the leaven of Herod there's so much of it in the world so much of it in Christendom the leaven is spreading beware of it a desire for power we're to live earning our living but not allowing the spirit of worldliness to come into us I want to turn to the second eleven now eleven of the Sadducees it's in Matthew chapter 16 and verse six Jesus said watch out and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees now to understand the leaven of the Sadducees you know that passage where it says that the Sadducees came to Jesus and said to him you know a man had you know the story I don't need to turn to it a man had number of brothers and he died and then this the second brother married his wife according to the Jewish law then he died in the third one marry and so on and then it goes on to say the Sadducees were trying to tempt Jesus because they didn't believe in the resurrection they didn't believe in angels or spirits or any such thing and that's the leaven of the Sadducees unbelief unbelief from the clear teachings of Scripture and you see a lot of it in Christendom in the church that's the level of the Sadducees they couldn't believe in the supernatural they believed in God but they couldn't believe in the resurrection or miracles or things like that and you know it's possible dear brothers and sisters for you to be so theologically accurate in everything yeah I believe this this is drew Jesus died for the sins of the world and Jesus is the Son of God and I believe all that but I don't believe he can ever do a miracle I mean all those things like if there's a mounted in your way tell it to move and if you have faith it will move no no those things don't work today have you ever seen a mountain move it stood in the way of your doing the will of God I've seen it numerous times and if I didn't have faith I would be sitting behind those mountains today I believe a lot of believers are sitting behind mountains that should be getting out of their way God can do amazing things unbelief in the mighty power of God all anxiety and fear comes because of unbelief in the almighty power of God you have a problem who in the world doesn't have problems you say mine's a big one bigger than Almighty God this is the mistake the Israelites made when they came to Canaan the Giants were so tall and their God was so small it's not only like day they said we're like grasshoppers their God was like a grasshopper too and that's why God was angry with them say you treat me like a grasshopper before these giants you will never enter the land all 600,000 of you but two people Joshua and Caleb they looked at those giants and they looked at God and those giants became like grasshoppers God said you folks honored me you'll get into the land it's like that today two out of six hundred thousand believers are free from anxiety and fear how many believers have you seen who can testify that by the grace of God he's freed me from anxiety and fear isn't there a word which says be anxious for nothing shall I tell you what nothing means nothing it's exactly what it means be anxious for nothing Philippians 4:6 is it possible in the difficult world in which we live I think of our little children growing up today I see my little grandchildren I say boy they're gonna have a tougher time than I had when I brought up my children 40 30 40 years ago and I see many of you with little children the way the world is going don't you have some concerns I love that song which says this child can face uncertain days because he lives because he lives I can face tomorrow because the one who has tomorrow in his hands is Almighty the sadducees had unbelief there's a lot of unbelief in the church where you make your problems bigger than God but your doctrines are all right and you praise okay on Sunday morning she don't believe in the almighty power of God the picture of the Lord's given me many times and I like to remind myself of it and I've shared it with you perhaps more than once is of a little ant this small little ants see in the house you know carrying a grain of rice to their little hole wherever they live and if that ant could speak to me and say brothers I can you help me this Lord of rice is one grain of rice is pretty heavy I say there's no problem for me oh it's heavy you don't know what I'm asking you for I can take a bag of rice leave alone a grain of rice but it's a long distance it's about 30 meters 30 meters why are you talking I can take it 1 kilometer for you even though I'm 71 heavy that's the picture the Lord's given me me taking my wheat teeny-weeny problem to almighty God's in God can you handle this this guy is trying to trouble me I have this problem in the office I have this problem with my landlord or my in-laws or or my sickness or some other thing it's a little grain of rice I'm like an ant saying oh my God can you handle it he who runs the universe keeps the stars in place and makes the planets rotate in their orbits for thousands of years I'm asking him whether he can solve this and unbeliev just like the Sadducees in the old mighty power of God unbelief is also unbelief in the perfect love of God you know when God doesn't answer some prayer and you become a little upset or bitter you and God the devil comes and well God doesn't have time for you he's got a million things to take care of for you I say I'm very important to God because I'm his child he's my father he's my dad do you know God is your dad can you sit on his lap and say daddy I'm secure because you take care of all the problems I may face in the future you'll love me and even when I bungled up supposing your child breaks something in the house even if it's deliberately you know chillin can get angry and break something it never has a fear that my dad will kick me out of the house send me out of the streets but I see so many believers living under condemnation oh I slipped up I did it again I don't know whether God has any time for me I'm a hopeless case well it's good thing you're discovered you are a hopeless case you are I agree with you but God still loves you God still loves you he came for hopeless cases like me number one example and he changed me because he loved me that's the thing that changed me from an insecure young man the one who found security in the love of God in recognizing that he loved me as much as he loved Jesus that's free you remember what the Lord told Peter you're gonna deny me three times but I'm not gonna pray you won't deny me I'm gonna pray that after you deny me that's needed for you Peter YouTube you're too proud you need to be broken and I think only when you deny me three times you'll be broken permanently because you think too much of yourself right now so I'm not gonna pray you won't be you won't deny me I'll tell you a lot of things the Lord will not pray that doesn't happen to you it should happen to you because there's pride and he wants to break it and that's what prepared Peter for the day of Pentecost you know that on the day of Pentecost when he did that fantastic work of bringing 3,000 Jews to Christ in one day I don't know anybody in the history of humanity is about 3,000 years to Christ in one day it was a fantastic thing and they were filled with the Holy Spirit in one day boy he could have thought and people patted him on his back and said Peter you're a great guy he would always remember how he denied Jesus three times that break him breaking solid his pride problem forever he needed it so jesus never prayed that he would not deny it was his preparation for Pentecost but he said after you deny me and you hit rock bottom when you get there remember one thing I still love you God still loves you that's the meaning of don't lose your feet I prayed for you that your faith should not fail doesn't matter even if you deny me but don't lose your faith when you hit the bottom trust God that he still loves you so you've made a mess of your life but he still loves you if you lost faith you've lost everything if you've made a mess of your life that's okay there's still hope for you but if after making a mess of your life you lose faith but that's eleven of the Sadducees and the devils just waiting at that time to fill you with eleven of the Sadducees unbelief God doesn't love you he didn't answer that prayer he allowed your child to die and he could have easily healed it well maybe God took away your child because he felt that child would grow up to live the devil and you'll thank God in eternity for taking away that child before he ever lived for the devil God's ways are mysterious but I know they're always in love and the third thing is coupled to what I just said you know unbelief in God's wisdom God's power God's love and unbelief in God's wisdom in other words I think I can plan my life better than God that's unbelief in God's wisdom I think that if I surrender completely to God say lord I only want your will in my life he'll mess up my life a lot of believers pee-peed like that I ask people are you willing to choose the profession God chooses for you and they're a bit scared you should say sure that's what I want do you say that or do you feel oh well if I surrender completely he'll tell me to get some third-rate useless job where I'll hardly be able to survive monetarily do you think so you believe he's a father he ask people are you willing to marry anybody whom God chooses for you oh I better not do that you pick up some ugly old girl from somewhere and ask me to marry her see such wrong concepts of God it's a lie of the devil and the spirit of prophecy shines a light upon these lies of the devil God is a loving father whose wisdom is perfect he will not give you Miss Universe to marry because she'll make a mess of your life and she probably run away with somebody after 1 year or so so he doesn't want you to ruin your life so he won't give you the prettiest girl in the world thank God but he'll give you someone who's pretty inwardly who's in inward beauty never fades through many years God is wise his wisdom is perfect and you you can have faith in that like you can know that your faith in that when you if you've surrendered completely to his will see Lord I'll do anything you tell me I'll marry the person you choose I'll choose the profession you choose I decide that when I was 20 150 years ago and I'm so thankful that I did because he made a better job of planning my life than I could have done it did I planted myself the leaven of the sadducees trust him trust his power trust his love and trust his wisdom and the third leaven Luke chapter 12 and verse 1 these are the things with which the devil seeking to corrupt the church this woman the bride of Satan the babylon seeking to corrupt putting these three measures of the leaven into these three measures of wheat the third 11 Luke 12 verse 1 he speaks beware of the leaven of the Pharisees which is hypocrisy now hypocrisy is just one of the marks of a Pharisee I mean if you've seen that book of mine called 50 marks of Pharisees you'll see there are at least 50 marks of Pharisees one of them is hypocrisy but what I want to speak about is particularly one mark of a Pharisee and that's legalism worldliness can destroy a church unbelief can destroy a church and legalism can destroy a church and these three things don't look very sinful you can be worldly without ever committing adultery without ever robbing a bank without ever slapping people on the face you can be unbelieving even though all your doctrines are correct and you can have legalism when your external life is look so good legalism and hypocrisy are pretty close to each other because legalists are always trying to show that they are better than they really are inside the legalism and hypocrisy go together legalized said those who you know are particular about little things Jesus you remember the time when Jesus is one mark of legalism is self-righteousness you remember when Jesus went to the Figtree looking for fruit he didn't find it he saw only leaves and cursed it it's got more than one meaning one meaning is human righteousness when Adam sinned he immediately took fig leaves fig leaves are for the largest leaves you can find and covered him with it honey he was a strict person you can't blame him because he didn't know he was the first human being but if you pluck off a leaf from a tree after some time would wither out I mean you know that but Adam didn't know it human righteousness trying to cover up our sin with a good external appearance Jesus cursed it he curses it today trying to cover ourselves with human righteousness and trying to impress people another life inside another life outside there's a lot of that and this is how the devil destroys the church you can have wonderful people singing and praising God but if the people sitting there or got a double life pretending to be more spiritual than they really are using language which is more spiritual than they really are that's the leaven of the Pharisees it's very closely attached to legalism the other thing is legal legalists are very proud and one of the stories is the one in Matthew chapter 20 where Jesus spoke about the laborers you know the story the folks who were hired at six o'clock in the morning in Matthew chapter 20 and they work 12 hours and then there were others that came at different times of the day then there was a group that came at 5 o'clock in the evening and worked for one hour and the difference between that group and all the others was all the others came on a contract you pay us so much we'll do this the last group came with no contract they came on the basis of grace others came on the basis of law you do this I'll do this people who do business with God you know I'll pay you a kite you bless my life and my business it's all business or I'll do this for you they had a contract but the last group had no contract and that's why they got their reward first and they got the same amount as the people who worked for 12 hours and now you see the legalists Matthew chapter 20 they come to the master and complain I mean they got their wages which they agreed for but they said in verse 12 you have made them equal to us legalists do not like other believers to be equal to them they always want to be a little above others they say this guy came to the church really a couple of years ago I've been a senior member here for 25 years well he may be more spiritual than you are legalists lived by this attitude I'm better than that person that fellow came much later see seniority is in government service not in the church another thing I want to show you about legalists see Mark chapter 3 verse 2 legally some people who examine others very carefully to find some Fault in them some Fault in the length of the hair or the color of their dress or the shape of their dress or some little thing in whether they're wearing some earrings or jewelry or they're always they examine people very carefully had a very sharp eyes and very sharp ears to listen to all the gossip going around mark chapter 3 they were watching him very closely they even what Jesus very closely to see if they can find something to accuse him I want to ask you my brother sister just be honest with yourself do you observe other people carefully not to help them but to find something to talk about so when you go back from the church meeting did you see this you tell you what did you see this you tell your husband did you see this that's a mark of those who got the leaven of the Pharisees legalism your legalists they're not under grace and it's very difficult to have fellowship with such people are you a legalist you know that legalism is worse than adultery and the clearest example of it is John chapter 8 where you see the woman caught in adultery one side and all these legalistic Pharisees who got the verse from Deuteronomy or Exodus or wherever they got it that this woman should be stoned they got a scripture maybe they were watching her how do you catch a woman in the act of adultery unless you've been sort of snooping around and waiting and ah we got her caught in the act of adultery there's a verse in Jeremiah I want to it's a very interesting verse Jeremiah chapter 5 it says in verse 26 there are wicked people found among my people they watch like Fowler's lying in wait they set a trap you know people want to catch birds they don't make a noise that kept that trap there and hide in the bushes but these people are trying to catch men and women legal is to find something wrong that's why your life is so miserable brother sister that's why you're so defeated you'll never get victory in 100 years because victory comes to those who are under grace now that those are under law you see the reason now so here was these all these felons with their stones and their verses of Scripture and here is this woman and Jesus is in the middle the legalists and the adulteress you want to know whose sin was worse see the end of the story whose side Jesus took who did Jesus drive away and who did Jesus comfort he drove away all those legalists he didn't say don't stoner ya the Word of God says stoner but he was without sin stoner and I believe you and I were standing there some of those Pharisees would have picked up a stone because we don't know all about their life but they do this was Jesus they knew that if you have anybody picked up a stone Jesus would said hey shall I tell everybody what you all did oh no no no Lord I'm going and like that is the eldest went out first they all walked out and there was one man left who had not committed see only one who was qualified to throw stones Jesus but Jesus doesn't carry stones in his pockets he doesn't pick up stones he's not like believers watching watching watching I've been in meetings where I've seen preachers flinging verses at somebody there and somebody there it's like stone sometimes huge rocks three four verses to hit somebody on the head with Jesus wasn't like do you preach verses to your wife that said the lord wives submit to your husband's it's a rock he might as well take a rock and smash her head throw away your stones brothers sister Jesus doesn't have any legalism is worse than adultery she didn't haider since is nobody condemned you know I don't condemn you but your adultery is serious don't ever do it again he takes in seriously but she got forgiveness those legalist didn't and that can be the end of the story when Christ comes again so watch out beware of the leaven of worldliness the leaven of unbelief and the leaven of legalism sperits dear brothers and sisters the Bible says today if you hear his voice don't harden your heart because tomorrow the voice you hear so loudly in your heart today will not be so loud it'll be fainter and by the time a week is over you could easily forget it now is the day of salvation now is the time to respond and say Lord I really want to humble myself before you and respond to that specific area in my life or areas where you have spoken to me I don't want to sit here thinking I'm a senior person whom others cannot be equal to Lord deliver me from the deception into which the devil's made me fall wake me up before I get leaven completely bring me back to that first love I had Lord in the early days when I was not corrupted with these Levin's Heavenly Father help us each one we pray in jesus name amen you

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Keywords: Zac, Poonen, Revival, Repent, God, Sermons, Jesus, SermonIndex

Id: emKmJC86tmc

Length: 59min 46sec (3586 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 03 2010