We'll read a portion today in 1 Corinthians 5. It's in relation to the text that we will turn to in Galatians a little later. But reading here in 1 Corinthians 5, the first eight verses of this chapter. 1 Corinthians 5 and the verse number 1. It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, And such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father's wife. And ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you. For I verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit, have judged already as though I were present. concerning him that hath so done this deed, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together in my Spirit with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, to deliver such in one unto Satan, for the destruction of the flesh, that the Spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. Purge out, therefore, the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us. Therefore, let us keep the feast not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. And God will bless the reading of this His own Word, for His name's sake. Amen. Once again, we will bow together before the Lord and let us unite our hearts in prayer. Let's all seek God's face. And earnestly laying hold upon the Lord for His blessing and His power and His grace to be known here, even this day, as we wait before Him. Our gracious God and our loving Father in heaven, we thank Thee that again we are privileged to draw near to Thee, coming through Christ Jesus to seek Thee and to pray for Thy blessing and Thy power to rest upon our meeting now and upon the preaching of the Word. Bless us, we pray. Quieten our spirits. Remove all that would hinder and distract us. O Lord, draw Thy unto us, we ask. Grant thy mercy, thy grace and thy blessing even now. Hear and answer prayer, we pray in Jesus' name and for His sake and for His eternal glory. Amen. Turning to Galatians chapter 5, Galatians 5 and the verse number 7. Galatians 5 and the verse 7 through to verse 9. Let's read these three verses. Ye did run well, who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth. This persuasion cometh not of him that calleth you. A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. And it is essentially verse 9 that is our text today. A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. Now, early on in this study in Galatians, I pointed out to you that It is the sharpest, as far as tone is concerned, of all the letters that the Apostle Paul ever wrote. In fact, it is indicated by the observation that this letter does not contain one word of direct commendation toward the Galatian churches. for the simple reason that the apostle could not commend any deviation from the gospel, from the great truth of justification. Therefore, he does not commend them. But at the same time, here and there through the epistle, there are little tokens of the love that the apostle undoubtedly had for the believers in Galatia. And one of those indications of his love and his concern for those churches is found here in the opening words of verse 7 where we began to read in Galatians 5. It says, "...ye did run well." And you notice there that it's a reference back to the past. He takes them back to earlier days and he reminds them of their initial progress. in the things of God. And he's able to say, well, as far as that time is concerned, ye did run well, ye ran well, ye were going on with the Lord. And the metaphor that the apostle uses is, of course, that of running the race. It is the one that he employs a number of times. It has epistles. And here it's designed to have the Galatians think upon the good start that they had made at that time, and the progress that had marked their early spiritual experience. Well, you see, the momentum that they had built up, ye did run well, the momentum that they had built up then dissipated, and their progress in the gospel had come suddenly to a halt. Now the sense of the words here in verse 7, where it says, ye did run well, who did hinder you? The sense of the words there is that it came, as I say, to a very sudden halt. Their progress, their development, their interest in the things of the Lord suddenly came to a halt because of a certain hindrance. And that hindrance caused them, as we see here, to deviate from the truth. He says, who did hinder you that you should not obey the truth? And the truth there is the divinely revealed way of justification through faith alone in the Lord Jesus Christ. The word hinder in verse 7 is a word that literally means to cut into. And the idea is, taking the imagery here of the athlete running the race, The idea is of that person running down the track, making good headway, running at great speed, and suddenly something cuts in in front of that runner and causes him to go off the path or at least show the tendency to stumble and be tripped up and not keep on running. That's the idea in the word hinder. It's a word that signifies an attempt to stop the athlete from running or to divert him away altogether from the lane on which he must stay and on which he must run that race. And therefore, as far as the Galatians were concerned, an attempt had been made to divert them from the true gospel by someone, as it were, throwing a pseudo-gospel across their path. a hindrance of that kind, bringing into their minds, foisting upon their thinking an idea that was utterly foreign to the Word of God and to the cause of the Lord Jesus Christ. It was a message, you see, that they had heard. That's the hindrance. It appeared to be the gospel, but it was another gospel altogether. And therefore, in having been thrown off their path, They gave attention to this gospel, they were enticed by it, they were fascinated by it, and therefore they were hindered from running the race and from going on with the Lord. Now, Paul refers to this hindrance in the form of a question. He says, who did hinder you? Then you should not obey the truth. This question doesn't refer to identity. In other words, who was it that actually hindered them? Because they knew fine well who it was as far as personalities are concerned. They knew the identity of their hinderers. But what the Apostle Paul wants them to think about is the character. of those who were hindering them. And often we form a question like this with that in mind. We can speak of someone or a situation and we're really saying when we ask the question, who did hinder you or something like that, we're really asking the question, have you given careful thought to the character of the individual or individuals who are troubling you or hindering you? Have you really thought about who they actually are? their identity, but their nature and their character. And that's what Paul is doing here when he asks this question. Because these were men who did not have the spiritual well-being of the Galatians at heart. A point is brought out then in verse 8. Look at verse 8. This persuasion, this hindrance, this ploy to deviate you and get you off the path and not follow Christ and not continue faithfully with your eye on Him. This persuasion, listen, cometh not of him that calleth you. Who's that? Who's the one who had called them? It wasn't Paul, it was the Lord. He's the one who had called them. And now there's another voice. There's another personality. There's another character. involved in the Galatians' lives and in the churches of Galatia, and he is endeavoring to deviate them and get them away from the path. And my friend, the person whom Paul is talking about here in these verses, who is hindering these churches, is none other than the devil himself. Oh yes, he is using men. But behind those men, and behind their teaching, and behind their ploys, and behind their schemes, there lurks the evil one. And of course, that's always the way it is. The architect of the hindrance of these churches is the devil himself. Notice here that the Apostle Paul tells the Galatians that this particular persuasion that is drawing them away from the truth did not have its source in the Lord. The Lord had called them, but has its source in Satan himself. That's the setting then that leads us right up to verse 9. Because while he identifies the hinderer of the Galatian churches, that is, Satan himself. He is then moved by the Holy Spirit to give further identification about the actual hindrance. And this is what he means then when he says in verse 9, a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. Here is the point. The new persuasion that the Galatians were giving ear to is likened to leaven. And therefore the impact of this persuasion, this dangerous heresy, was that of infecting and troubling and even almost destroying the entire spiritual life of the churches of Galatia. And there's how Paul puts it, a little leaven, leaven of the whole lump. What you're listening to has become a hindrance to your soul. It's become something that the devil's using to cut in on your path and get your mind away from Christ, and your mind away from the things of God, and especially from the doctrine of justification. And therefore, it's a leaven that's leavening the whole lump. That's why you have the words in verse 9. They seem to stand kind of On their own it will isolate it, you might imagine, until you start to read the surrounding verses. And therefore the persuasion mentioned in verse 8, is further identified in verse 9 as a leaven that is leavening the whole lump. I read 1 Corinthians 5 with you earlier, and as we go through this message today, we will turn to those verses in the process of bringing to you God's Word. But in 1 Corinthians 5, verse 6, you have the very same words. A little leaven, leaveneth the whole lump. Now that is a proverbial saying. Those words are in the form of a proverb, really. And through the book of God, through the Scriptures, doesn't the Lord often use proverbs as a means of warning His people or instructing His people and enlightening them? Yes, He does. The proverb is a special way that the Lord takes and He uses to bring home to our hearts a warning, a warning especially. And here it is, a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. I want to deal with that today as we come to this verse, as we progress in our study of Galatians. Galatians 5, this verse 9, a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. But first of all, we need to consider the particular property that leaven possesses. I'm sure everyone here today must know what leaven is. We would normally call it yeast. And it's that substance that causes fermentation and causes dough to rise in the process of baking. Now, I'm not a baker, but I know at least that's what yeast is. It causes the dough to rise. It causes the fermentation process and then the dough rises. But you see, leaven or yeast, whatever you want to call it, has a particular property. And that property is its ability to diffuse itself or spread itself throughout that in which it is placed. Turn to Matthew 13, because here we have our Lord Jesus Christ speaking in this matter that is the property of the leaven to diffuse itself And therefore, we return to no better place than where the Lord speaks. Matthew 13. And actually, we'll come to this verse a number of times, so you may want to keep it marked. Matthew 13, verse 33. Another parable speaking unto them, the kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took and hidden three measures of meal, listen, till the whole was leavened. Now those last words of that verse, till the whole was leavened, show us the property, this particular property that leaven possesses, its ability to diffuse itself and spread itself right through, as it is here, the meal in which it was placed. It has that property. And therefore, you will find that because leaven has that property, in the Scriptures, leaven is a symbol of the potential of either good or evil, to influence everything that it touches or that it contacts. Now, leaven itself is just a substance. And as the Lord uses the symbol of leaven in the Bible, He is not saying, of course, that leaven in itself is either good or evil. But He is saying that leaven's property or ability to diffuse itself is a symbol, and especially a symbol of evil. to diffuse itself and to spread. And if it's not checked, it will keep on spreading. It's that property of leaven that the Lord takes and that He uses in the Word of God to show to us how dangerous sin is, whatever that sin might be, and how it can spread and it can infect everything that it touches. So you will find, therefore, that in the Word of God, leaven is used as a symbol in order to bring home to our hearts how the potential for sin and for evil can spread so easily, how it can permeate and it can enter into everything that it touches. Look at Matthew 16 and verses 6 and 12, a couple of verses that show to us this fact again. And what we find here is that so much so is leaven's property employed in this sense, that is, in the sense of being a symbol of the potential of evil to spread itself, so much so is it used in that way in the Bible, that in many places the leaven itself becomes equivalent with evil and corruption. And this is what we find here in Matthew 16 verse 6. where the Lord says, Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees. Then we go down to verse 12, Then understood they how that he bade them beware not of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees. Here is the leaven in this case being used by the Lord So much so, as I say, as a symbol of evil, that it becomes equivalent of that evil. And here the example is the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees, which is a reference to their doctrine, to their teaching, to their error in that sense. But the ability of leaven to spread and to fuse itself is what is uppermost and must be uppermost in our minds as we look at the Scriptures where it speaks on these particular matters of corruption, sin, infecting the life, infecting the church, spreading itself. The Lord gives us this view of that situation by using the symbol of eleven. Now, the further thought here is this. It only takes a little leaven for this to happen. And that's why it says in our text here in verse 9, a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. And again, those who have ever used yeast or leaven will know that it's all you need, just a little, and you put it into the meal, into the flour, and it will work its way through the entire volume in which it has been placed. And this is how the Apostle Paul uses the symbol of leaven right here, and the particular property of leaven to diffuse itself. He's telling us it only requires a little leaven for the entire lump of dough to be leavened completely. And therefore he's saying to these churches, all that the devil needs to do is inject a little leaven into your thinking, into your life, into your practice, whatever the case might be, and if it's not checked, it will just keep on working. The word for little here is a word that is pronounced micros. And you will recognize that word right away because in English there are many words derived from it. And it simply means little. It's the opposite of the other Greek word megas. which is also taken into English, and you have many words that start with that particular Greek term. But in other words, the Lord is showing us here that something that is very small in volume or size has got great potential to diffuse itself and to spread itself and to cause tremendous damage. Now go to 1 Corinthians 5. And look with me here in that chapter at this same thought, the property of leaven, even just a little of it, whatever the case might be, whatever the sin might be that's in view, just a little is needed to do the damage, to cause the havoc and the harm. 1 Corinthians 5 verse 6. It says, "...your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?" The focus in this passage is on a certain sin. mentioned here in the opening verses. Without reading those verses again, it is a sin of an immoral kind. It is the sin of incest, actually. And the Corinthian church had allowed that sin to be tolerated in their midst and had not dealt with it. And the Apostle Paul says, listen, this sin that is Undoubtedly, at work among you, in the instance that he mentions here, is of such a nature that it's going to destroy. This sin will destroy the work of God. Because he says, listen, do you not know that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? Now what a warning that is to you and to me today, brethren and sisters. It does not take much sin for your testimony to be destroyed. Just a little leaven. Introduced. Tolerated. Then it diffuses itself. And it can destroy the entire testimony of the individual or the church, whatever the case might be. May I just stay with that thought for a moment or two before I move on here? Because I want to get into my main point as quickly as I can. But that thought of The potential that leaven has to spread or diffuse itself, and even just a little of it, is seen in other biblical examples concerning items that possess the same power, it seems, the same ability to infect everything else around them. And the particular example I want you to go to is in the book of James, chapter 3. James 3, and look at verse 5 to begin with. James 3, verse 5. Even so, the tongue is a little member. There is the same word, the word little. But notice what it says. Even so the tongue is a little member and boasteth great things. The tongue, just like the leaven, is not evil in itself. But the focus right here in James 3 is on its potential and its power. And in this particular context, The emphasis on the potential of the tongue to do damage if it's not kept under control. Look back to verse 2 of James 3. For in many things we'll fend all, and every Christian here will need to pay heed to that. There's not one of us who does not offend somehow or other with regard to our relationship with other people. In many things we offend all. If any man offend now, he focuses on the tongue. If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man and able also to bridle the whole body. The word perfect in the end of verse 2 means mature. Spiritually mature. And the apostle James is telling us here that if we have our tongues under control, then we have reached a level of being mature. Mature as persons. Mature in our walk with God. Mature in our relationship with each other. And this is a very, very searching test. A man who has his tongue under control, or what he says under control, in other words, is a man who has reached a great level of spiritual maturity. That's the teaching of these verses. If you look with me carefully here at this issue of control and what he says in verses 3 and 4, Behold, we put bits in the horses' mouths, that they may obey us, and we turn about their whole body. Behold also the ships, which though they be so great and are driven of fierce winds, yet are they turned about with a very small helm, whithersoever the governor listeth. The illustrations in verses 3 and 4 are illustrations of articles or objects with which we are all familiar. The bits that are put in a horse's mouth, the helm that turns the ship, the rudder. They're just small compared with the rest of, whether it's the horse or the ship, small little items. But James is saying here, they exert tremendous control. They can control the body of the horse, the bits in its mouth. Or the great ship out in the sea is controlled by that helm, by that rudder. Now look at verse 5, "...even so the tongue is a little member." He goes back to this. He's illustrated it now, and now he comes back to it. He says in verse 2, if you've got your tongue under control, you've reached a level of spiritual maturity. Because your tongue is only a little member, but it's a tremendous power, either for good or for evil. And then look at verse 5, part B. It says there, Behold how great a matter a little fire kindleth. The word matter in the end of verse 5 is actually the word for forest. I don't know why it sounds a bit that way as we have it here with the word matter. But the word literally means forest. So read it that way. Behold how great a forest, a little fire kindleth. There is a tremendous, a very vivid, a very searching application of James's point here. The tongue is just a little member. It's just like the leaven. Only a little leaven is required to do the damage. And here he's telling us that the tongue being just a small organ in our entire physical makeup has got tremendous power. And here's how he illustrates it. Behold how great a forest a little fire can lift. You and I are familiar with that kind of situation. We hear about it often in the news where a forest, a complete forest has been burned down because someone dropped a match or whatever the case might be. And before it is known what has really happened, the whole forest is in conflagration and is consumed. And James says, as he writes in this way, that's the power of the tongue. It only has to drop one word. Say something out of place. And there's a complete uproar, a conflagration, illustrating this point in another fashion of the property of a little thing to do so much damage. A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. But go back with me to Galatians 5. We look here at the property of the leaven, this particular property to diffuse itself Thereby the illustration is that a little error, a little sin can do so much harm. We need to look then at the process that leaven follows. For it says, a little leaven leaveneth. Now there is the leavening process firmly in view in those particular words. A little leaven leaveneth. There's the process. There is it diffusing itself throughout that which it is placed in, whatever it might be. And therefore, I want you to go right now again to Matthew 13. I said we would come back to that verse and look at it once more. Matthew 13 and verse 33. And read it with me again, because we saw how the verse speaks of this property. The little leaven in three measures of meal and the whole then being leavened. And if you read this parable, here you'll find in this instance, and this is one of the few instances actually in Scripture where leaven is used as a symbol of the diffusion of good. That which is right, that which is according to God. That's how it's used right here. Look at this verse. The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven which a woman took and hidden free measure of male to the whole was leaven. The kingdom of heaven. is like unto leaven. The focus here is on the kingdom of heaven, not the kingdom of Satan. This little parable is just one verse, depicts under the concept of the leavening process a number of things. For example, the spread of the church in the world. The kingdom of heaven is actually the church. And the Lord is saying here that the church started in a small way, just like a little leaven that God placed into this world, but it was placed there by divine decree and under divine power, and it began to diffuse itself and spread until the church of Jesus Christ has gone right across the face of the world. That is one interpretation of that verse. It also signifies the gospel itself. reaching into hearts and diffusing itself within souls, influencing countless numbers of people and nations of people across the face of the world. But in the third place, this little parable speaks as well of the grace of the gospel operating in the heart. And here is God's grace under view in the symbol of the leaven. Because all God has to do is drop just a little, as it were, of the leaven of the gospel into a human heart. And it starts to work there and to fuse itself until it takes over that life and controls that person and changes him or her and eventually brings that individual home to glory. All of these thoughts are found here in this parable where the leavening process is in view. But this is a very important thing. Because here we see not only the property of the leaven to diffuse itself, but we see the actual process as well in these kinds of Scriptures. The power for either good or evil working away. And remember something, it works away silently and unseen. You can't see leaven working. It's mingled in with the dough. You don't observe it. It's dropped in there. It's placed in there. And silently and invisibly it does its work. The leavening process goes on. And thank God that is true with regard to the Gospel. The Gospel leaven. The leaven of the Kingdom of God. The leaven of the spread of the Word throughout the nations. That is going on silently and invisibly, even as I speak. But as I said earlier, on the vast majority of occasions, Leaven is used as a symbol of the diffusion of wickedness and evil and sin. That's how the Lord, in the majority of cases that He uses leaven, actually employs it. In other words, the leavening process is of the very essence of sin. Sin has the ability to spread itself and diffuse itself It has got that awful, that tremendous power, and we see that in so many ways. Take, for example, the repercussions of Adam's sin. God said to Adam, placing him under that one individual test, that he was not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And Adam failed that test, and Adam sinned. The men and women think today of the fact that from that one single act of disobedience, think of all that came forth from it. Think of the fact that there is out of that one single act of disobedience the fall of all humanity. Think of the fact that there is also the corruption of man's nature, every man's nature, traces its corruption right back to that one single act of disobedience on the part of Adam, the fall of all humanity. the corruption of human nature, the guilt and the condemnation of every man before God, everything to do with sin, every part of sin, every facet of sin, every result of sin, every appearance of it, every demonstration of it. It's all traced back to the day when the little leaven leavened the whole lump. And from that single source, with all the rue and all the chaos, all the darkness that we see around us today. Turn to Mark 7 and notice there how the Lord describes the heart of man, how He speaks of human nature. And let us see from the Lord's words here that man's heart has been thoroughly leavened by sin and all stemming from one single transgression. Mark 7 and look at verse 21. It says there, even verse 20, that which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts. Look at the list here. Evil thoughts adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, faciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness, all these evil things come from within. A little leaven leavens a whole lump. All of those sins mentioned there are seen in terrible preponderance all around us in humanity, are they not? And where do they arise? Right within the human heart from the one seed, the one little particle of the leaven of man's sin. It has all come, and therefore the leavening process has gone on down through the ages of time. and throughout all of humanity. And you see, in the leavening process, as we think about it as a symbol of sin and evil spreading, think of this, that sin infects everything that it touches. Leaven only spreads through the flour, but here's the vital thing about leaven. It contributes its own nature to the flour or to the meal where it's placed. The dough into which the leaven is placed does not change the leaven. That's the vital thing. The dough doesn't change the leaven. The leaven changes the dough. And therefore we're taught so clearly that whenever sin came into the heart of man, sin spreads, sin corrupts, sin infects, sin is contagious. And no man can change that. No man is able to stem that. No man is able to bring that to a halt. Just as leaven puts its own nature into the very meal where it's placed, so the leaven of sin destroys and eats and infects, pollutes, no matter where it was found. Look at some examples. Turn to the Pentecost 13. And the verse number 2, Leviticus 13 verse 2, leprosy is spoken of here, and we're shown here another way in which the spread of sin can be illustrated. Leviticus 13 verse 2, it says, For a man shall have on the skin of his flesh a rising, a scab, or bright spot, and it be in the skin of his flesh, like the plague of leprosy, then he shall be brought on to Aaron the priest, or on to one of his sons the priest." And it goes on to tell us here of how the priest inspects the one who is brought to him. Then we go down to verse 8, "...and if the priest see that, behold, the scab spreadeth in the skin, then the priest shall pronounce him unclean." It is a leprosy. Here is the spread of sin in view again under the symbol of leprosy. And we're shown here that leprosy starts in a very small way, in a little way, as a rising or a scab or a bright spot. But it keeps on operating. It keeps on moving through the body until every part of the body is eaten up and destroyed by that awful disease of leprosy. And that's what the Lord means in Isaiah chapter 1 where He says in verse 6, from the sole of the foot even unto the head there's no soundness in it, but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores. There is the language that's borrowed from the Levitical description of the spread of leprosy. And when leprosy enters the body, though it only starts at a little spot, just a little scab, it can so work and so diffuse itself until the whole body is destroyed. Another example of the spreading of sin from just a little thing is over in Ecclesiastes chapter 10. Ecclesiastes chapter 10. And verse 1, and here's a very interesting illustration of how sin, once it starts, if it's not checked, if it goes on, it's going to spread, it's going to grow, it's going to keep on moving. Ecclesiastes 10 verse 1, dead flies cause the ointment of the apothecary to send forth a stinking savour. And here the illustration is that of the dead fly. The uncle of the apothecary, the man who is involved in the making up of ointments with their sweet smell, used for various purposes. And you have the jar of ointment, you can imagine the scene, and it's an ointment that's fragrant, it's got its own property to cause a savour and a fragrance that is fresh and that is going to cause the atmosphere just to be right. But something happens. A fly falls into it. It only takes one fly. And the fly dies, of course. And though it be but a little fly, as it falls into the ointment and it dies, the corruption starts. And rather than the ointment in that vessel checking the corruption, caused by the death of the fly, it's the other way around. The corruption that stems from the death of the fly filters its way right through the entire vessel of ointment, causing the corruption and the stench that then are in view here. And notice how Solomon applies this, "...so doth a little folly for him that is in reputation for wisdom and honor." It's a very searching statement. He's talking here, I want you to understand this, he's talking about himself. Solomon was the man who had a glorious and illustrious reputation for wisdom and honor. And what happened? A fly got into the ointment. See, Solomon wrote this book at the end of life's journey. He wrote it at the end of a path in the closing days of which he went wrong. And a fly fell into the ointment. And he says, he who had been so high in reputation for wisdom and honor It was then a man who became known for the folly that's mentioned here. It only took a little folly to destroy his testimony, take him down to the grave in that fashion. Solomon, of course, wasn't lost. My dear friend, there's an awful warning there for you and me. You and I need to be aware of the little flies that can fall into the ointment and bar the testimony that you have built up, that you have borne to this day. It just takes one sin for the whole thing to be destroyed. Therefore, you be aware of the process of whether it's leaven or leprosy or the fly in the ointment. We're being shown in all these cases how sin works. But one more, 2 Timothy 2, verse 17. 2 Timothy 2, verse 17. It says there, "...their word will eat as doth a canker, of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus." Here's now another figure used by Paul again, as it is here. that of the canker, and the word canker means gangrene. And it's a reference to that very disease of which we are familiar, the disease of gangrene. And gangrene, you see, starts just again in a little way, maybe a little spot, on the foot or the leg, but you see, as it embeds itself in the limb, it starts to eat and starts to destroy and it brings decay and it brings death. And here the apostle Paul takes that idea of gangrene and he applies it once more, as it is in this case, to false doctrine. And he shows us here that where false doctrine is entertained, it starts to eat like a gangrene until it destroys everything. The process, therefore, not only is illustrated by the leaven itself, the little leaven starting to leaven everything, make its way through, in fact all, but all these other examples as well, and the Bible is full of this. And I warn you again, you must check your own heart and check your own life, because just one little sin is all that's needed, and it's tolerated, and it's entertained and it's taken in and taken on board and it's not dealt with. I tell you friend, it can do such damage. Just a little leaven, leavening the whole lump. But then you say we must, in closing here, deal with the purging out of the leaven. Surely it's implied in our text Paul gives the warning, a little leaven, leaveneth the whole lump. And inferred in those words, there surely is the idea. Well, you've got to deal with the leaven. And that's what he's saying to these churches of Galatia. The little leaven, just a little bit of error on justification, he's telling these churches, it's going to destroy them. And therefore the inference is, it's got to be purged out. Now go to 1 Corinthians 5. I read that earlier, that passage, and as I've shown you since that, we have the same words here. It's a parallel passage. And look with me at verse 7 of 1 Corinthians 5. Here is the purging out of the leaven. "...Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us." The apostle is teaching here that the leaven of sin, in whatever way it appears, it must be purged out. And he gives a number of reasons why it must be purged out. It must be purged out because it's not agreeable with the believer's new nature. Look at verse 7 once more. 1 Corinthians 5. He says, purge out therefore the old leaven. And right there the term is a reference to the old sinful nature, the old sinful ways and works. that ye may be a new lump, listen, as ye are unleavened. Notice those last words of that clause. As ye are unleavened. And that language indicates that the believer is a new creature with a new principle of holiness in his heart. Which means that the leaven of sin is therefore incompatible with what the Christian actually is. Now, there is a reason why you and I need to deal with sin in our lives. Because sin is not in agreement with what the Lord has made us. He says, ye are unleavened. You've got a new nature, a new principle of holiness. Look at it. Ye are unleavened. That's what happened to the new birth. God put the unleavened bread of the gospel into your soul. I'll put it that way. He put the unleavened purity of grace into your heart. And sin and grace don't agree. And for a Christian to tolerate sin is therefore to take a course that is not in agreement with what the gospel has designed you to be and has brought you to be. But then you see, sin must be purged out as well, because it's not in agreement with the purpose of the Lord's death. Look at verse 7, the last part of it, where he says, For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us. Here's a second argument. The first one is, purge out the old leaven of sin, because that is not in keeping with what God has designed you to be. But purge out the old leaven, because sin is not in agreement with the purpose of the death of Jesus Christ. Notice how he says it here, even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us. Why does he refer to the Passover? Because on the night of the Passover, unleavened bread was used. The night of the Passover, down in Egypt, the Hebrews were required to purge out the leaven from their houses. And the apostle is applying that here, and he is saying that Christ is our Passover lamb, And the very death of Christ, what He has done for His people, is symbolized by the Lamb in Egypt dying. And therefore, the Lord here takes this all from Exodus, and He says, just as it was in the night when the Passover Lamb died, and there was no leaven in the homes of the Israelites because of the Passover ceremony, so Christ, your Passover, has died for you. And therefore, for the believer to hold on to sin is a contradiction of the purpose of the death of Jesus Christ. Now think about that very carefully, dear Christian. And may I ask you right now at the close of this service, is there some sin, some leaven, just maybe only a little one? Some sin. to which you're clinging. And it's leavening your whole life. It's infiltrating. It's eating away. It's corrupting. It's corroding. It's continually spreading its influence in your soul. And as you sit in this meeting right now, you know the leavening process is going on. Whatever it might be, whatever the sin might be, whatever the corruption might be, there's something in your life that needs to be purged out. Because it's destroying you. It's destroying your testimony. It's heating up your spiritual energy. It's leaving you cold and hard within yourself. is infected your whole spiritual experience. The Lord says to you today, purge it out. It has to go. If it's not checked, it will keep on working. It will keep on operating. Remember the property of leaven? It's ability to diffuse itself. And the process starts Just in a little way, and it keeps on working. And therefore, the Lord comes and He says, listen, it's got to be excised. It's got to be removed. And this is the marvelous thing about the gospel of Christ. It's the work of Christ, the gospel of Christ, that is able to deal with the leaven of sin. And if you're going to obey God and know His blessing in your life, then you need to take yourself to the only remedy that there is for that leaven that has come in. You need to take yourself to the Savior and look to Him to cleanse your heart, your soul, your mind, and do so every day. Because, O men and women, this leaven of corruption and this leavening process We are confronted by it always, day after day after day. And therefore there's need for a constant attendance upon Christ and His merit and the work of the cross, bringing our souls to the fountain open for sin and looking for the cleansing that we need and applying it to our hearts by faith in and through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. For a Christian to hold on to sin is a contradiction of what the Lord died to make you, and a contradiction of what the work of grace is designed to make you. Therefore, it must be purged out. And it's an ongoing battle. I've shown you today the meaning of this text. I haven't had a lot of time to start perhaps mentioning particular sins and so on in our lives that need to be dealt with. But I believe the Holy Spirit will do that. You and I, men and women, we need to take stock of our own hearts. We need to focus on our sins, not on somebody else's. We need to deal with ourselves. And then God will bless us. Let us bow together before the Lord as we come to the end of our study of these verses today. And may the Lord write His truth in our hearts. Bless it to each one of us for His own glory. Our Heavenly Father, we pray that The Holy Spirit of God would take His own Word and even this day use it in my life and in the life of every Christian here. Lord, help us to see the warning that the Word of God holds up to us and presents to us. Lord, help us this day to recognize the potential that sin always holds to corrupt and defile. Lord, help us, we pray, to deal with sin. through the victory of the cross and by the power of our Savior's death. Abide with us. Go with us today. As we close this meeting, may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Spirit be with every child of God, both this day and forever. In the Savior's name we pray. Amen.