And he charged them, saying, Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, and of the leaven of Herod.

Mark 8:15

Jesus gives a two-fold warning, to beware of two types of teaching.  While many have speculated as to what these are, Jesus says plainly what the leaven, or yeast, of the Pharisees is.

Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.

Luke 12:1 (portion)

This warning is like a warning to watch out for the “ditch on either side of the road”.  We have clearly identified the one error (which is an error in teaching or doctrine), which is hypocrisy.  This religious error stems from pride.  The Pharisees claimed to keep the law, to be righteous legalists, but as the encounter with the woman caught in adultery proved (John 8:1-11), none of them truly were.  For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.  Romans 3:23.  In claiming to be righteous, even though each one of them knew themselves not to be, they were “actors” (the real meaning of hypocrite).  While pretending to be righteous, they were each one of them filled with “dead men’s bones” (Matthew 23:27), just as we all are without Christ.

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I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.

John 10:10 (portion)

The beginning portion of this verse says that the thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.  Jesus said that He came not only that we might have life, but have it to the full!  The moment we begin to think that in some way, that this fullness of life has anything to do with this life, let us remember the apostle John’s words.

Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

1 John 2:15

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[The following is a letter I wrote to a friend, with a few edits for privacy]

Let me say this:  I appreciate your position, and I am not particularly in most of the camps that you might expect.

Summing it up, I hear about four main statements in your email.

First, there have been many different positions and view regarding holiness..  Which you cataloged quite well.

Second, you really don’t care which one is most doctrinally correct, but are sick of the compromise in your own heart and unless it can help with that, you’re not satisfied.   You said, “All I know right now is that I’m bound to sin and I don’t know how to get out”.

Third, You’re sick of the crap (scripturally, “dung”).  You want to know the experiential love, experiential forgiveness, and experiential cleanness of heart.  No more hypocrisy from yourself or others.  You want the real deal.

And, finally, the question of how to know anything arises.  “The only way I will know or anyone on this earth will know is if God shows us personally.”

I think some of these questions are proper place of a heart for your condition.  Let me remind you, however, truth is a person.

Let me present my Gospel, if you will…

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A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit.

Matthew 7:18

That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit (John 3:6).  The physical body and the physical soul are not evil creations.  In the beginning, God created them, and He called them good (Genesis 1:31).  Yet, fallen man is completely incapable of pleasing God on his own (Romans 3:11).  It takes Faith to please God (Hebrews 11:6), and this is given (Romans 12:3).

The life of the Christian is marked by ‘baptisms’ (plural, see Hebrews 6:1).  We are baptized (immersion, you go down into it) into Christ, and we are baptized (immersion, you come underneath it) into the Holy Spirit.  This was depicted in the wilderness by the Israelites being baptized into the Red sea (water baptism) and the cloud (the Holy Spirit) (1 Corinthians 10:2).

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Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.

Matthew 7:15

Everyone knows that false prophets come in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.  Cult watch pages abound with calling this or that minister a false prophet, and often simply serve to spark fear in everything of God.  Many of these are either completely cessationist (believing that all the miraculous power of God has ceased), or at least non-Spirit-filled.  They all generally deny basic doctrines such as speaking in other tongues (Acts 2:4) for the church today, and should generally be ignored (2 Timothy 3:5).  They do not enter the Kingdom themselves, and shut the door in the faces of those who are trying (Matthew 23:13).

What is the mark of a false prophet?  They present themselves as something they are not.  Moreover, Jesus called them ravenous.  Not every reference to “wolves” in the Bible is an evil reference.  When Jacob blessed his sons, he called his son Benjamin a ravenous wolf  as well (see Genesis 49:27 and surrounding chapter).

Jesus also cautioned about the yeast of the Pharisees, which in Luke 12:1 He identified as hypocrisy.

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Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’

Matthew 7:21-23

The Way is not power, it is faithfulness.  The path is not promotion, it is servant-hood.  The gift is not yours, it is theirs (2 Corinthians 1:6).  The road is not wide, it is narrow.

Jesus said plainly, unless you hate father, mother, sister, brother, children, spouse, even your own life, you cannot be His disciple (Luke 14:26).  He said quite distinctly that if you love someone else more than Him, you are not worthy of Him (Matthew 10:37).

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He spoke another parable to them, “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three pecks of flour until it was all leavened.”

Matthew 13:33

“It is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three pecks of flour until it was all leavened.”

Luke 13:21

Yeast is an invisible, yet active agent, acting and working throughout an otherwise inert lump of dough.  In various places in the Old Testament, it depicted the nature of evil within a body, either a single person or a group of people.  Hence, the phrase, “A little leaven leavens the whole lump” was used to indicate much the same thing that a phrase like “one bad apple spoils the bunch” does.

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