I invite you to turn to the Gospel of Mark, chapter 8. The Gospel of Mark, chapter 8. We'll start in verse 11. Mark 8, verse 11. May God bless the reading of His Word. And the Pharisees came forth and began to question with him, seeking of him a sign from heaven, tempting him. And he sighed deeply in his spirit, and saith, Why does this generation seek after a sign? Verily I say unto you, There shall no sign be given unto this generation. And he left them, and entering into the ship again departed to the other side. Now the disciples had forgotten to take bread, neither had they in the ship with them more than one loaf. And he charged them, saying, Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, and of the leaven of Herod. And they reasoned among themselves, saying, It is because we have no bread. And when Jesus knew it, he says unto them, Why reason ye, because ye have no bread? Perceive ye not yet, neither understand? Have ye your heart yet hardened? Having eyes, see ye not? And having ears, hear ye not? And do ye not remember? When I break the five loaves among five thousand, how many baskets full of fragments took ye up? And they said unto him, Twelve. And when the seven among 4,000, how many baskets full of fragments took ye up? And they said, seven. And he said unto them, how is it that you do not understand? Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this glorious day. We thank you for the glorious opportunity of worshiping you. We thank you for the great privilege of being saved. from our sins. Thank you for opening up our eyes, opening up our ears, changing our hearts so that we might be able to see and understand and love the Word of God. Thank you for showing us our Savior, our need of Him, giving us a love for Him, submitting to Him, His Lordship in our life. Oh, Father, our request is today that we might see more of Him, that we might listen to His words, that they might penetrate our hearts, and that it might continue to transform us, change us to be more like Him. Father, I pray that You would use Your Word mightily today in the lives of your people. Holy Spirit, we pray that you would give us the spirit of understanding, that you would apply these truths to our hearts. Father, we ask for our dear pastor that you'll bless him as he preaches the word at Shoal Creek. Father, use him, fill him with your spirit, anoint him to preach the gospel, and may it be a blessing to those people there. Father, we ask that you would be with us now. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen. I want to title this, Beware of Pride, and as a longer definition, longer title, Beware of the Sinful Doctrines of Men. and beware of forgetting the works of God. Beware of pride, beware of the sinful doctrines of men, and beware of forgetting the works of God. Before we start getting into this text, I do want to go over, have you turn with me over to Matthew 16. Because we find in Matthew 16, the companion text to this, and there's some things that we'll reference from Matthew that Mark doesn't have in his account. And there's things in Mark that Matthew doesn't have in his account. Isn't it wonderful that God gave us multiple accounts? So we can see different things. We need that because we're hard of heart. Thick-headed, we need to be told different things in different times in different ways, so it'll sink in. Matthew 16 starting in verse 1, the Pharisees also with the Sadducees came and tempting desired him that he would show them a sign from heaven. And he answered and said unto them, when it is evening, ye say, it will be fair weather, for the sky is red. And in the morning, it will be foul weather today, for the sky is red and lowering. O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky, but ye cannot discern the signs of the times. A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and there shall no sign be given unto it but the sign of the prophet Jonah. And he left them and departed. And when his disciples were come to the other side, they had forgotten to take bread. Then Jesus said unto them, Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees. And they reasoned among themselves, saying, It is because we have taken no bread, Which, when Jesus perceived, he said unto them, O ye of little faith, why reason ye among yourselves, because ye have brought no bread? Do ye not yet understand, neither remember the five loaves of the five thousand, and how many baskets ye took up? Neither the seven loaves of the four thousand, and how many baskets ye took up? How is it that ye do not understand that I spake it not unto you concerning bread? that ye should beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees. Then understood they how that he bade them not beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. So this morning I'd like to look at the leaven of the Pharisees and others. Number two, the forgetfulness of the disciples. And then I would like to look at how we must be aware of this forgetfulness of the works of God and how that we must be aware of this leaven. And then I want us to look lastly at Jesus as our example and some practical applications. So first of all, this leaven the Pharisees, make sure we're back in the Gospel of Mark chapter 8 and verse 11, and the Pharisees came out and began to question him, began to dispute with him, seeking from him a sign from heaven testing him. So just remember that Jesus now has been gone. He has been gone with His disciples from Galilee for a while. Remember they left? Capernaum, and they went up north to the region of Tyre and Sidon, to a Gentile region. Jesus healed the Syrophoenician's daughter, cast out the demon from her, so they went up into that region and they came back down into the region of Decapolis, which was another Gentile region, and Jesus healed many there, he performed many miracles there, and we looked at last time, he performed another great miracle in feeding over 4,000 people with just a few loaves of bread and a few small fish. and how Jesus was teaching the disciples that we are going to serve and minister, and the gospel is going to go to the Gentiles, not only to the Jews. To the Jew first, but then also to the Gentile, to the Greeks, to the Sith, to the barbarians, and to the uttermost parts of the earth. And Jesus is just training his disciples who have this built-in loyalty this built-in pride for the Jewish nation. And they have this built-in despising, this built-in hatred for the Gentile nations, right? They call them what? Dogs. Right? Everyone else are dogs. Okay? Not cute little puppies, not the beautiful dogs that we, some of what we have today, but these were ugly, stinky, smelly, roaming around, the kind of dogs that they had. Almost like wolves. But Jesus is teaching and training His closest disciples that He came to be a light to the dogs. He came to save the dogs out of their dog pound. And so, he's teaching them that. Well, one of the reasons too why he left Capernaum was because, remember last time he was there? He just came full force to the Pharisees because they came to him and they said, look, your disciples are breaking our traditions. Why are your disciples breaking our traditions? Why are they not following the traditions of the elders by not washing their hands? And Jesus basically says, that's ridiculous, because you break the law of God. You're a hypocrite because, he says, you break the law of God when it's convenient for you. You'll break the traditions of the elders when it's convenient for you, but you want to point out someone else's breaking the tradition. And he says, look, it's not the not washing of hands or the washing of cups. It's not how much exactly you tithe of this or that. He says, it is the wicked heart, depraved by sin, that defiles you. And then he says, out of the sinful heart proceed all of these evil characteristics. And he basically is pointing the finger at them and says, you've got a defiled heart. You're hypocritical, you're legalistic, you're judgmental. Why? Because your heart is depraved, and those are the things that come out of a depraved heart. You hate me and you hate my disciples because you're filled with hate, because hate comes from a sinful heart. And that is what defiles a person. And you are defiled. And then he leaves. Right? Because what's going to happen if you tell somebody else, if you point out their sins, and you tell them how evil that they are, when they think that they're righteous, what's going to happen? They're going to be angry. And they were angry with Jesus on many occasions, right? They tried to capture Him. They tried to throw Him off of a cliff. They kicked Him out of their town. Even His own city, even his own town of Nazareth said, we don't want anything to do with you, get out of here. They tried to throw him off of a hill. People that are hard of heart, they don't like to be told the truth. And when the truth is told to them, it stirs up within them hatred and anger, and they despise whoever is telling them the truth. And so, you know, Jesus and His disciples have been gone for a while and the Pharisees have been looking for Him. And when they hear that Jesus, you know, leaves the area of Decapolis and that He sails over to this region of Dalmutha or Magdala, which isn't far from Capernaum, they come out in droves, they come out in full force, right? And they have been waiting for Jesus to come back. so that they can demand of Him what they want. We begin to see the leaven of the Pharisees, of the Sadducees, another group that we haven't talked much about. This group is worse than the Pharisees in the fact that they really don't believe in anything. They don't believe in the resurrection. They don't believe that the Messiah would come. They certainly don't believe Jesus is the Messiah. They don't believe in a spiritual kingdom. And they were a competing sect, a competing group with the Pharisees. They really didn't like each other, but here they have unified together in their hatred of Jesus Christ, because He has pointed out both of their wickedness. And so they've come together, and then you've got Herod and his followers called the Herodians. And remember, the Pharisees have already teamed up with the Herodians to try to find a way to kill Jesus Christ. And so here, you've got Jesus saying to the disciples, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, of the Sadducees, and of those of Herod, the Herodians. Matthew Henry, in the concise commentary on this passage of scripture, he starts out by saying this, obstinate unbelief will have something to say, though ever so unreasonable. Christ refused to answer their demand. If they will not be convinced, they shall not. Alas, what cause we have to lament for those around us who destroy themselves and others by their perverse and obstinate unbelief and enmity to the gospel. It should grieve our hearts when those who can clearly see and hear the truth of this word that they reject it, and that they hate it, and that they hate those who believe in it. How they treat them unfairly, how they treat them with injustice. Those that believe in this book, right? They call us names. This is the leaven of the Pharisees. This is the leaven of unbelievers. The Pharisees came out questioning Jesus, disputing, arguing with Jesus Christ. And Matthew tells us that they came out tempting Him, right? They want to trap Jesus. They want to be able to have something concrete that they can be able to take to the elders, that they can be able to take to the Sanhedrin, that they can take to the chief priest, right? And they can accuse Jesus of this crime so that therefore He can be put on trial and that He will be put to death as a blasphemer. As a man who they said was filled with the spirit of the devil. They had come to pick a fight. They didn't believe Jesus was the Messiah, and therefore, because they didn't believe He was the Messiah, and they did not accept Him as the Christ, the Son of God, what would be the conclusion by them? He is a blasphemer. He is a liar. He is a deceiver. They couldn't really see who Jesus was. He was blinded to them. They could hear Him, His voice. They could see Him with their eyes. But they didn't really know who He was. Why? Because their hearts were hardened. They had this leaven of sin. This leaven. Leaven is often times in the Bible. exemplified as sin. Because it's like sin in that just a little leaven, Paul says, just a little bit of yeast, right, in the lump. What does it do? It leavens the whole lump, right? Just a little bit of yeast causes the whole thing to rise and be puffed up. Just like a little bit of sin in our hearts causes us to be puffed up and filled with pride, filled with arrogance, filled with self-righteousness. And so here they come with their arrogance, with their pride, with their stubborn unbelief, with their hatred of Jesus Christ, And so Jesus would rightly say to His disciples, beware. Beware, take heed of the leaven. of these ungodly men. They wouldn't believe His miracles, even if He performed it right in front of their very eyes. Even if they had eyewitness testimony of over 20,000 people, right? 50,000, 100,000 people could give eyewitness testimony already of Jesus' absolute power without a doubt. No trickery, no behind-the-scenes stuff going on. Jesus just simply did this stuff that was unthinkable, unimaginable, and no one else could do unless they were filled with the power of God. But yet, they wouldn't believe, and they wouldn't accept it. Brothers and sisters, that is the leaven of sin. That is the result of sin in our hearts. It makes us that hard, it makes us that proud, that we won't accept the plain truth that's in front of us. We would rather believe a lie than we would the truth. We would rather be deceived than we would follow the truth. And so, unbelievers, they will not accept the truth, and therefore they try to justify their rejection of the truth. And they come up with ridiculous things like, well, if God is real, He should show up here. If God is real, He should show up here, and we should be able to see Him, and He should say, I'm God, and you know what, if God does that, then I'll believe in Him. That doesn't make any sense, right? because then he wouldn't be God, right? If God had to listen to your demands and do something you asked Him to do because you won't accept the plain truth in front of you, He wouldn't be God. So even asking Him that is ridiculous. And so, this question of the Pharisees and the Sadducees that Jesus give them a sign sign from heaven that he do something in front of them that that that he perform something in front of them that that will convince them as if everything that he had done already wasn't enough evidence they said you should give us a sign from heaven so that we'll know by what authority what power you do these things well we know that they wouldn't believe they wouldn't believe They wouldn't believe if Jesus turned in Casper the ghost and they saw it and then he turned back into a human being. They wouldn't believe it if he grew 50 feet tall in one second and then went back down to being a regular size human being. They wouldn't believe it if he did like Moses and put his hand into his cloak and then took it out and it was full of leprosy. Then he put it back in and took it out and it was completely whole. They wouldn't believe if he took a staff and laid it down on the ground and it turned into a snake. And then he picked it up again and it turned back into a staff. They wouldn't believe if he turned water into wine. They wouldn't believe if he walked on water. They wouldn't believe if he took five loaves and two fish and fed over 5,000 people. And then he fed again over 4,000 people. They wouldn't believe if he said to a man who had been paralyzed his whole life, get up and walk. And he did it right away. So unbelievers ask for a sign, and Jesus doesn't have it, does he? Jesus, it says, he sighs. He sighed deeply in his spirit. Barnes says, his heart was deeply affected at their wickedness and hypocrisy. The word spirit here is taken as the seed of emotions, passions, and affections. He drew groans deeply from his breast. Don't ever think that unbelief and pride and sin, that it doesn't affect the heart of Christ, because it does. When he sees it here, it says that he sighs deeply. He's deeply moved in his emotions. But, he sees into their heart. He sees into their hypocrisy. And he says, no sign. Here in Mark, he says, no sign will be given. Matthew tells us that he said, no sign will be given except for the prophet Jonah. Which is not the sign that they wanted, right? God is coming in judgment upon you who do not believe. You who are wicked in your hearts. You who are hypocrites. You who are full of lusts but yet want to say everything's okay. Judgment is coming and you must repent or you will perish. James Fawcett Brown says, the language is very strong The word is very strong. He sighed deeply. These glimpses into the interior of the Redeemer's heart, in which our evangelist abounds, are more precious than rubies. The state of the Pharisaic heart, which prompted this desire for a fleshly son, it went to his very soul. And Jesus says, why does this generation ask for a son? So far he had fulfilled every single prophecy concerning the Messiah, right? He was born of a virgin. He was born in the city of Bethlehem, the city of David. He grew up in Nazareth. He was the light to the Gentiles, right? He went to Egypt. I've called my son out of Egypt. And on and on and on. Jesus fulfilled every Old Testament prophecy so far. And then He came with these signs and wonders that had been prophesied of Him. Right? But yet they're asking for a sign. Why does this generation ask for a sign? It's a rhetorical question. Jesus knows. Because their heart is hard. And He says that they were evil and adulterous. that spoke of their spiritual adultery because they had departed from God's Word. God's Word had clearly told them the truth and they had departed from it. Therefore they were spiritual adulterers. No sign will be given, not the sign that they wanted, they had the signs. It was standing right in front of them. So what is this What is this leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees and of the Herodians? Well, Matthew told us when they didn't understand what Jesus had asked about the bread, they thought he was talking about the fact that they had forgotten bread. Jesus, after he rebuked them for that, It says that they understood that He was asking them not about natural bread, but the leaven of the bread of the Pharisees and Sadducees and Herod, which was what? The leaven of doctrine, right? Their teaching, their beliefs, their practice. And there are many of these sinful practices that we could talk about, but I want to give you some real quick. These are clearly seen in every unbeliever's heart. This is the leaven that Jesus says we should be aware of, the disciples should be aware of. This was the leaven of sin, exemplified by most of the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Herodians. Number one, the leaven of pride. Pride is a root sin. Many other sins flow from the root sin of pride, right? Pride, unbelief, these are root sins. Many fruit sins come from these, but it started with them all about pride, right? Spiritual pride, national pride, pride in their commitments, pride in their efforts. Pride, pride, pride. And we know what the scriptures teach about pride. Pride goes before a fall, right? God resists the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. God hates the proud and arrogant look. Oh, but sin, brothers and sisters, it puffs up like leaven, like yeast. It puffs up and it infiltrates every part of our being, right, till we become filled with pride. Well, what does that lead to? The leaven of pride, number two, leads to the leaven of self-righteousness. One of the major things that we see in the Pharisees was their self-righteousness. They thought that they were righteous because of their keeping their keeping of the law, their strict observance of the law, and what they had added to that, their traditions that they added on to the law. We know from what Jesus taught that they considered their traditions on the same level with the Word of God. And so they ask Him things like, why does Jesus eat with sinners? Why does Jesus eat with tax collectors? Why does Jesus hang out with sinful people, harlots, prostitutes, beggars, lepers, on and on and on. These are the people Jesus was with most of the time. He wasn't with the religious elite. And yeah, so they ask Him that and Jesus says, I came not to call the righteous to repentance, but sinners, right? Those who think that they're righteous, he says, those that think they are whole, they don't need a physician. If you don't think you're sick, you're not going to call up the doctor and ask for any medicine, right? You think you're fine. You may have a terminal disease, but if you convince yourself you have nothing, you won't ever ask for help or get treatment. So Jesus says, they that think they're whole, they don't need a physician, but those that are sick, who understand their sickness, who understand their disease, So God hates self-righteousness. Isaiah would say, all our righteousness is but filthy rags. Thirdly, the leaven of hypocrisy, of acting like you're something when you are not. of putting on a part, right? Hypocrite comes from the word actor, or it's like an actor, right? Who is going above and beyond who he actually is. You know, you see these actors and you think, that's not real life. I mean, James Bond, Tom Cruise, and all the movies he plays in, right? No mere man can do these things, right? He's an actor, he's playing a part. He's what they would call a hypocrite. It's not who he really is in real life, right? Well, the Pharisees and Sadducees and the Herodians oftentimes, they were hypocrites, that they would say one thing to the people, to the masses, they would require of them these laws and regulations, but Jesus says, they wouldn't lift a finger to do good, right? He says, you would rather You would rather wash hands and wash cups and you would rather go through all these rigorous tithes of spices and herbs and all these things. He says, but if someone's sick or someone has an ox in the ditch on the Lord's Day, you won't lift a finger to help somebody who's in need. That's hypocrisy, isn't it? That's what pride leads to. I might talk about this a little bit later, but we've got to be careful even as Christians in our day and time about being hypocrites. You know we're often called that, right, by the ungodly. Oh, you're a bunch of hypocrites. You go to church, you say all these things, but then we see your life, how during the week you talk like unbelievers, you walk like unbelievers, you watch the same movies as unbelievers, you have the same language as unbelievers, you listen to the same music as unbelievers. A bunch of hypocrites. You say, oh, don't commit adultery, but half of Christians commit adultery. Well, part of that is because we are hypocrites. And we can be hypocrites. And especially in a day of social media, brothers and sisters, you can have a temptation on social media to be someone or to look like someone who you are not. Is that true? Have you ever seen someone on Facebook that you see throughout the week or you've seen every now and then and you say, that doesn't look like that person. I know them, that kind of doesn't look like them. Or they kind of don't talk like that. Or their kids aren't always that good. What are we doing on social media a lot of times? We're elevating ourselves. We're putting on a show. We want the praise of people, the praise of men. We're not true and honest and transparent a lot of times. I love it when I see that, by the way, when people are just real and transparent and they just show their weaknesses and they admit their weaknesses and their needs. But for a lot of us, unfortunately, a lot of times we just want to put on the best on social media. And we are hypocrites when we do that. if we're not balancing the good with the bad, if we're not showing both sides of the coin. If you're gonna show a picture of yourself that really doesn't look like you, say, hey, this is just, I'm just letting you know that I like the way that this looks and I altered it. There's filters, right? Let everybody know that this is possible. But then also, post a picture of yourself on a bad day. With a bad hair day, with a bad look. Be like, hey, this is me on a normal day. Hey, this is my kids on a normal day. They're acting up. They're disobeying. They got this bad grade in school. So, I say that in love that, and I say it to myself, we've got to be careful. Jesus says, beware of the leaven of hypocrisy. Number fourth, the leaven of legalism, which we have already discussed before, that saying that you've got to keep these rules and regulations to be holy, to be righteous before the Lord. What we decide is holiness. You've got to conform to that standard. Fear-based behavior modification. I think Matt Jones says, fear-based behavior modification. You're fearing and shaming others that aren't living up to your standard. Well, they were constantly doing that. So the leaven of legalism. Fifthly, we understand the leaven of unbelief. Just simply will not believe. You say, I will not believe, I will not accept. We'll get to that one in a little bit because there's some of that in us. Even after our hearts are changed, we believe in the Lord. Sometimes we struggle still with unbelief. We forget the works of God. Seventh, the leaven of traditionalism, which we've already looked at. They said, why aren't you obeying our traditions? Why are your disciples not obeying our traditions? And traditionalism is not that tradition is evil, it's that tradition is elevated to the level of God's word or above God's word. Where you say, we do this not because we've got two or three witnesses in the scriptures, but you say you do it because it's tradition. Number eight, the leaven of hate. They were always spewing hatred. Hatred for Jesus, hatred for his disciples, hatred for the people he was ministering to. Hate, hate, hate. Sin, brothers and sisters, it stirs up hate. And that hatred, it spreads like yeast. It spreads like a wildfire. It just takes a little flame. It just takes one match being lit in the forest for the whole forest to be set aflame. And just one little hatred, one little despising, one little speaking evil of someone, it can create a forest fire of hate that only destroys and only brings down and only spreads wickedness. Number 9 and 11 of judgmentalism, true judgmentalism, which is, Judging someone else, Jesus says, before you ever look at yourself. Tim Challies wrote an article recently. He says, I am an expert at pointing out other people's sins. How about you? Are you an expert at pointing out everyone else's faults? Everyone else's shortcomings? But you never look within and you're not an expert on the sinful depravity in your own heart? That's judgmentalism, looking down on everybody else that doesn't measure up to you. Judging yourself by other people instead of judging yourself according to the standard of the Word and of Jesus Christ, the only perfect human being. And lastly, the leaven of division, because they were always trying to divide. Instead of uniting, instead of being one, Sin always leads to division. Why? Because it considers itself number one. And so it's always going to divide if somebody else tries to get number one. Division instead of unity. Bowing yourself down and saying others are more important than myself. I must decrease. He must increase. unifying, trying and endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bonds of peace. Pride, self-righteousness, hypocrisy, legalism, unbelief, injustice. I think I left out one, didn't I? Injustice. Traditionalism, hate, judgmentalism, division. This is the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees and of the Herodians. and of every unbeliever. And these sinful traits and characteristics and fruits can also be in your heart. But the good news is, the good news of the gospel is that we can overcome this leaven by the Spirit of God and by the truth of God's Word. We can get that leaven out. We can put that leaven to death, right? Number two, not only do we see in this text 11 of the Pharisees, but we also see the forgetfulness of the disciples. So they come to this place, the Pharisees come out, full force, demanding a sign, Jesus says no, and then he leaves them. Verse 13, and he left them, getting into the boat again, departed to the other side. Now the disciples had forgotten to take bread, and they did not have more than one loaf with them in the boat. That's pretty understandable. They just arrived to this place. Jesus gets off the boat. The Pharisees come. They start attacking Him. They aren't planning for this. And so they get back in the boat, and they're heading over to the other side, and they realize, hey, we haven't gotten enough food to last us for this journey. They didn't have more than one loaf with them in the boat. Well, that just simply wasn't going to be enough to make it by human standards. And so Jesus gets back on the boat. Jesus isn't thinking about food. He's not thinking about bread. He's not thinking about anything else except for He's just stirred up. His emotions have been moved by the unbelief and hatred of these groups against Him. And so the first thing that He says when He gets in the boat to the disciples is, He doesn't say, Hey, did you remember to get enough food for the journey? Hey, did you look at the weather forecast and make sure we're going to be okay when we're out here on the sea? No, the first thing that Jesus says when He gets on the boat is, take heed, beware, caution of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the Herodians. Jesus is always focused, laser focused on the spiritual more than He is the natural. One of the reasons that the disciples forget about the works of God, and one of the reasons why we forget sometimes in our lives about the works of God in the past, is that we too concentrate a lot of times more on the natural than the spiritual. Oh, when we get our eyes off of the Word, off of Christ, off of a kingdom mindset, and we get it on to just the here and the now, what's going on right in this moment, my small little circle around me, and everything revolves around that, we get like the disciples, and we forget about what God just did over and over and over and over again. And all we can see is the thing that's going on. All we can see is the obstacle. All we can see is the trial. All we can see is the difficulty. And we start to question. When Jesus says, beware of this leaven, all the disciples are thinking about is how they forgot to get enough bread, right? And they think, Jesus is talking about leaven. He's talking about bread. He must be upbraiding us. He must be disappointed in us. Maybe they even thought, you know, you wouldn't imagine that they thought this, but maybe they even thought, Jesus is worried that we don't have enough bread to make it. Well, we find out from Jesus' response that He wasn't pleased with them thinking this way. He wasn't pleased with the fact that they were missing the spiritual truth that He was trying to teach them. Instead, they were focusing on their worries and their problems and all things natural. So he first, he addresses their doubts and their concerns and their worries, right? First he does that. And second, in that, he's reminding them, no, I wasn't talking about bread. I was talking about the doctrines, the evil doctrines of unbelievers that you have to be aware of that can infiltrate your mind and heart. And that you should worry about that, you should fear that more than you are worried about if you have enough food. Because haven't you learned that if I know that you need something, that I can take care of it? If you're in a situation, I can get us out of it? And so, you know, the disciples are like us. They are a picture of us that we forget in the moment. We oftentimes forget in the moment of what God has done in the past. That He has always been faithful. That He has always provided. That He has always taken care of us. And that He always knows exactly what we're going through. And so we have to learn like the disciples did. What is he trying to teach us about ourselves? What is he trying to teach us about our hearts? About our devotion to him through this trial? Never questioning his goodness. Never questioning his lack of ability or power. but only trying to discern what his will is. Jesus says to the disciples, you're talking about bread? Some of you who are sports people, you remember when a reporter asked Allen Iverson about missing practice one day. He went on a rampage, and he says, we're talking about practice. We're not talking about a game. Right? We're not talking about a game. That's what's really important. He says, we're talking about practice. You're asking me about missing a practice? And he just kept saying it over and over again. We're talking about practice. And Jesus is saying, we're talking about bread. I'm trying to warn you about sin. in your heart. They reasoned with one another saying, we have no bread. And when Jesus knew it, Jesus knew all along. He says, why reason ye that ye have no bread? Why do you doubt? Why are you worried about that? When I'm trying to tell you something very important spiritual, you're worried about bread. Oh, and in case you forgot, I already fed 5,000 people, over 5,000 people, with five loaves and two fish, and I already fed over 4,000 people with even less than that. Oh, and by the way, how many baskets of leftovers did we have? Disciples, little faiths, forgetful of the works of God. And they had to admit it. They had to be reminded. Twelve. They had to say it. Twelve. One for every disciple. One for every one of you doubters and of little faith. One for every one of you that concentrate on what you don't have and the problem at hand instead of looking to the one who can get you through the problem and who can take care of you and trusting completely in Him. One for each of you. Oh, the other time, how many? Seven large baskets left over. I think it was seven loaves that time. Seven loaves. One for each loaf. So Jesus calmly and maybe yet still forcefully reminds His disciples of how He has taken care of them in the past and that they don't need to worry about those things. Jesus has already taught that. Don't worry as the Gentiles worry about what you're going to wear or what you're going to eat. He says all those things the Gentiles worry about, how can we not worry about them? They're important. Right? Our health's important. That we have clothing is important. Food is important, especially to Baptists. How can we not worry about those things? Because he says, I know what your needs are. And he says, I will give you exactly what you need if you seek me and my kingdom first in your life. So, the problem of worry might be settled by the fact that you're not seeking His kingdom. You're not seeking the King. You're not seeking His kingdom first in your life. Therefore, there is an improper balance in your life. You're worrying about those things. Instead, if you were worrying about how much time that you spend with the Lord, or worrying about helping people in need, or worrying about being in the church every time the doors are open, looking for opportunities in ministry, you wouldn't have time to worry about those other things. So sometimes we forget the works of God. And we have to be reminded as the disciples. So this is a point of encouragement and a point of application here. Whenever you go through a trial, whenever you're battling something, whenever there's a situation that comes up in your life that is life-altering, life-changing, I want to encourage you that the first, absolute first thing that you do is that you go back and you remember everything in your life where God has already given you the grace and the strength to make it through it. And He's already helped you all the way through. And He's always been faithful. He's never let you down. And I want that to be the first thing that you think about. And say, God, this is what you've done in the past. You've been faithful every single time. I do not doubt your goodness, your power, and that you have a purpose and a plan in this. First. Do that first. And then cry out to God. and say, I don't know how I'm going to make it through this, but I know that you will get me through. Sometimes we miss the point of trials and afflictions and pain and suffering. They're actually not out of a God. They don't come from a God of disappointment A God who's disappointed in us and therefore He sends these trials into our life. Actually, it's the opposite. It's because He cares and because He wants to grow your faith and trust in Him and because He wants to refine the draws off of your heart that He allows these things to happen in your life because He loves you that much. And he loved the disciples that much that he was trying to warn them to beware of this sin of those around them that could influence them. And yet they were forgetting. They were forgetting that and they were concentrating on the natural. So, number three, we must be aware of this forgetfulness. How many times did Israel forget the Lord? We read it over and over and over again in the Old Testament. Israel forgets the Lord, forgets the Word of God, go their own ways, serve idols, and they have to suffer the consequences of that. Then God in His graciousness and His mercy and His love, He forgives them and He brings them back and He restores them, and He blesses them despite what they did. And for a time, they continually remember His goodness and His kindness, but then they forget the Lord again, and they have to go through the same thing. We must beware, brothers and sisters, of forgetting the goodness of the Lord. We must beware of concentrating too much on this earth and not enough on eternal things. We must be aware of this leaven in the world. Boy, it's all around us. The pride, the arrogance, the hate, the hypocrisy, the double standard. We could go on and on and on, right? The injustice that's going on around us. And we can be influenced by that. Jesus says to you today, take heed and beware of the sin in the world, the sin in your heart. And so we must be aware of this 11, number four. Number five, the cure for this, the cure for our sin problem, the cure for our worry problem, the cure for our forgetfulness, is to constantly be going back to this Word, reading about the truth in this Word, reading about the God that's revealed in this Word, reading about the Savior that's revealed in this Word, concentrating on who He is, learning more about Him, and how you can apply this book to your life. The more that we do that, I know from personal experience and you do too, the more that we do that, the less we have a problem with sin and worry and forgetfulness in our life. And that's what Jesus is teaching the disciples. And Elder Thomas, he spoke to us about this. Our fear doesn't need to be a fear of this world. Our fear doesn't need to be a fear of evil people. Our fear needs to be of the doctrines that they teach and how that they could affect us and our children and our future generations. Our fear needs to be of God Himself who is able to cast both body and soul into hell. Our fear needs to be in that We are concentrating not on the goodness and love of God, but we are concentrating and thinking that He is disappointed with us. So, fifthly, Jesus is our example. Think about that list. Think about those ten things. Jesus is the exact opposite, right? He is not proud. He is humble. He's not self-righteous. He's just righteous. He's not a hypocrite. He is full of truth and full of grace. Let God be true and every man a liar. And on and on and on you can go. And you can see that Jesus is the exact opposite of us. He is the exact opposite of sinful man. And He is the standard. He is the object of faith. And that's who we need to be looking at. Don't look at your president. Don't look at those in politics. Don't look at local government. Don't look at even your parents. Don't look at sinful men. Look at Jesus Christ, who is the perfect example of humility, and love, and justice, and righteousness, and holiness, and forgiveness, and on and on and on. Cast your eyes upon Jesus. Look full into His wonderful face, and the things of this earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace." So beware, brothers and sisters, take heed of the leaven of pride. Take heed of the evil doctrines of men that are around us. May they have no place. in our minds, in our hearts, in our speech. And they have no place in the church here. And if we see them, let us be true to point them out. Let us be true to repent of them. Let us be true to call them what they are and change and ask God to help us to change. So I don't know what everybody's going through. I know what some of you are going through. I don't know every sin that you're struggling with. I don't want to know every sin that you're struggling with. I want to pray for you. I want to be there to help you, to hold your hand. I want to be there to counsel you if you need counseling. But all I'm going to do, brothers and sisters, all Brady's going to do, is we're going to point you to this Word. We're going to share with you what we know out of this Word, and we're going to point you to the Lord Jesus Christ. And we're going to say, look unto Jesus, the author and finisher of your faith. Follow His example, who humbled Himself and became obedient even unto the death of the cross. So whatever you're going through, Jesus wants to remind you, look to Him. Look to Him. Take heed of the sin that can creep in and keep your eyes on Me.