Latest / Reformed Thinking / The Peril of the Permeating Pollutant: Christ’s Warning Against the Leaven of Legalism and Liberalism (Matthew 16:5-12)

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The Peril of the Permeating Pollutant: Christ’s Warning Against the Leaven of Legalism and Liberalism (Matthew 16:5-12) · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome back to Reformed Thinking.
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I am thrilled you are joining us today for this deep dive.
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We have a very specific and weighty mission.
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We are going to conduct a rigorous examination of Matthew
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chapter 16, verses 5 through 12. Yes, and to accomplish this we
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are leaning on 2 staggering, highly detailed theological
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commentaries. They break down this passage
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with incredible precision. Right.
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Our goal today is to unpack Jesus's warning about the leaven
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of the Pharisees and Sadducees. We're going to examine how the
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disciples Panicked Bread level thinking in that small boat
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directly mirrors the functional atheism we often see in the
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modern church. We're taking a magnifying glass
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to the text. We want to understand the
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insidious nature of false doctrine and how a trivial
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logistical oversight on a boat turned into one of the most
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urgent theological warnings in the New Testament.
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That is great way to put it. To set the stage properly for
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you, the listener, we need to establish the theological
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framework that our source materials operate within.
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Both of the commentaries we are using today view this passage of
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Scripture through a strict Reformed theological lens.
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They adhere closely to the Westminster Confession of Faith.
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Throughout our discussion, you will hear us highlight themes
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that are central to Protestant Reformed theology.
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We will be looking at God's exhaustive Providence, meaning
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His absolute sovereign control over every single detail of
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creation and history. And we will look at the total
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sufficiency of Scripture. That means the Bible contains
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everything we need for salvation and life, requiring no additions
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from human tradition or secular philosophy.
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Crucially, we will also examine the doctrine of justification by
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free grace alone. This is the truth that we are
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saved by the finished work of Jesus Christ, not by our own
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moral achievement. The authors of our sources apply
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these doctrines directly to the text of Matthew 16.
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It makes it incredibly relevant for how we think today.
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OK, let's unpack this right out of the gate and connect it
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directly to you, the listener. Have you ever found yourself
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completely obsessing over a minor earthly lack?
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Maybe it is a financial stressor, A scheduling conflict,
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or a frustrating inconvenience at work.
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Oh, we all do that. We really do.
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And while you are hyper focused on that temporal problem, you
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completely missed a massive spiritual reality staring you
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right in the face. That is precisely what is
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happening to the disciples in this text.
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They are worried about a missed lunch while Jesus is warning
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them about a soul destroying theological poison.
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Just to set our parameters for today, we are here to synthesize
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the source material provided to us.
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We will give you a clear, thorough understanding of these
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specific texts without bringing in outside commentary.
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We are sticking strictly to the arguments and applications laid
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out by the authors of our curated sources.
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So let us set the narrative backdrop.
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We are looking at verses 5 and 6.
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Jesus and his disciples are crossing the Sea of Galilee.
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When they reached the other side, the disciples suddenly
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realized they forgot to bring any daily bread.
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It is a completely ordinary, trivial logistical oversight.
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Right. There is no Thunder, no
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lightning, no massive public controversy at this specific
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second. It is just a group of guys in a
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boat who forgot to pack a meal. They're likely exhausted,
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probably a little grumpy from the travel, and now their
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stomachs are growling. What is fascinating here is the
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striking contrast the text presents in this exact moment.
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You have hungry men worrying about an empty table, but Christ
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is worried about an infected soul.
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Jesus takes this intensely mundane moment of travel
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inconvenience and uses it to declare theological martial law.
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The sources point out that immediately prior to this boat
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ride, Jesus had a confrontation with the Pharisees and Sadducees
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who are demanding a sign from heaven.
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Yeah, Jesus refused to play their game.
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He pointed out their spiritual blindness.
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He noted that they could interpret the weather, but they
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could not interpret the signs of redemptive history.
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So Jesus is already dealing with the hard hearted unbelief of the
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religious establishment. When the disciples start
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stressing over the forgotten bread, Jesus cuts through their
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temporal anxiety with severe, urgent command.
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He does not offer a platitude. He issues a directive that
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forces them to look away from their empty hands and look at
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the state of their minds. It is like sitting in the car
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with a billionaire who just promised to pay off your entire
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mortgage and you're having a total panic attack because you
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cannot find 1/4 for the parking meter.
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That is a perfect analogy. The disciples are entirely
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consumed by the immediate physical lack, completely
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oblivious to the spiritual danger surrounding them.
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And this leads us to the specific words Jesus uses to
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snap them out of it. The text gives us a double
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imperative from Christ. He says watch and beware.
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The Greek phrase is horat Kai prosechete.
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Our sources breakdown the syntax of this command and it is
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gripping. This is not a casual suggestion
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to keep an eye out for something mildly annoying.
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The syntax here is crucial for understanding the weight of the
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command right? Yes.
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The verbs horite and prostitute are present active imperatives.
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I want to breakdown what that actually means for the listener.
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In Greek grammar, a present active imperative dictates a
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continuous ongoing action. So Jesus is not telling them to
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simply glance at the error, register its presence, and then
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move on with their day. He's commanding A continuous
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life or death vigilance. It's a perpetual state of being
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on guard. You do not just notice the false
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teaching, you actively guard your soul against it every
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single day. The grammar itself conveys that
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the threat is not temporary. It is a permanent feature of
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living in a fallen world surrounded by false religion.
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The disciples must cultivate a habit of unyielding spiritual
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discernment. They cannot afford to let their
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guard down for a single moment. So what does this all mean?
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When we look at the specific metaphor Jesus uses, The
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commentaries note a very deliberate word choice here.
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Jesus did not use the standard Greek word for teaching or
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instruction, which is DIDEC. He could have simply said beware
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of the teaching of the Pharisees, but he did not do.
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That instead he used the word zyme which translates to leaven.
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He says watch and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and
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Sadducees. Why would he choose that
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specific word over the standard word for instruction?
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If we connect this to the bigger picture of the Greco Roman in
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Jewish context, Zymer leaven was not viewed neutrally.
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Today we think of yeast is just a standard baking ingredient you
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buy in a neat little packet at the grocery store.
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It is harmless. But in the ancient world, leaven
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was a leftover piece of sourdough from a previous batch
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of bread. It was dough that had been
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allowed to sit and ferment. You would take that fermented
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rocking piece of dough and pinch it off into a fresh new batch of
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dough to make it rise. The ancient mind associated
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leaven with fermentation, corruption, and decay.
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It was a pollutant. By choosing the word Zyme,
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Christ is revealing the nature of false doctrine.
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It does not just sit alongside the truth, it infects it.
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It aggressively alters the chemical makeup of whatever it
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touches. And think about how that applies
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directly to you right now. The sources argue powerfully
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that theological error is a spiritual malignancy.
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It starts incredibly small. It is hidden.
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Initially you might not even perceive it as there, but it's
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very nature is to spread and rot the soul from the inside out.
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It never arrived arrives announcing itself is full blown
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heresy. It arrives as a slight
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adjustment to the truth. It is an emphasis slightly off
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center, a definition slightly blurred.
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It works patiently, inch by inch, until the whole loaf of
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your theology tastes completely different.
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That is the peril of the permeating pollutant.
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You cannot isolate Levin. Once it is in the dough, it
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touches everything. The moment you introduce a
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little bit of works righteousness or a little bit of
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rationalism into your doctrine, it ferments the whole batch.
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Now we need to look closely at the two specific groups Jesus
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names as the bakers of this corrupted bread, the Pharisees
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and the Sadducees. The text highlights that this
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was a highly unlikely alliance. To give some historical context,
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the Pharisees and Sadducees were a theological and political
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opposite. They despised each other.
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The Pharisees were the conservative populace who held
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strictly to the oral traditions. While the Sadducees were the
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aristocratic elite who controlled the temple and
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collaborated with the Roman government, yet they united for
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one single purpose. They wanted to test and oppose
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Jesus Christ. Jesus warns the disciples
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against the leaven of both groups simultaneously, which
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shows that spiritual corruption can come from entirely opposite
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ends of the religious spectrum. Can fall off the horse on the
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right side or the left side. Let's break down the Pharisaic
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leaven first. What was their specific
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theological error? The sources define the leaven of
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the Pharisees as the damning doctrine of legalism.
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This is a system of works, righteousness, external moralism
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and self justification. The Pharisees took the pure Word
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of God and added thousands of their own human traditions,
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rules and cleanliness codes to it.
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They measured a person's holiness by their visible
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outward performance rather than the state of their heart.
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They believe they could earn their standing before God
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through their own moral achievements.
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They thought if they washed their cuffs properly and avoided
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the wrong people, they could obligate God to bless them.
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And this brings us right back to the Westminster Confession.
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The authors of our commentaries explicitly link this pharisaic
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leaven to a direct violation of Westminster Confession Chapter
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11, which covers the doctrine of justification.
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Chapter 11 clearly states that justification is an act of God's
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free grace alone, where He pardons all our sins and accepts
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us as righteous in His sight, not for anything wrought in US
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or done by us, but only for the perfect obedience and full
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satisfaction of Christ imputed to us and received by faith
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alone. Imputed righteousness means
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Christ's perfect record is credited to our account.
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The Pharisees rejected this entirely.
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They added human merit to the equation.
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They shifted the confidence of the Sinner away from God's mercy
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and placed it squarely on human effort.
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They wanted a system where they could take at least some of the
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credit for their own salvation. The sources do not just leave
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this in the 1st century either. They identify modern equivalents
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thriving today. According to the text, the
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leaven of the Pharisees is alive and well in what theologians
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call synergistic theology. In plain English, synergy just
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means working together. So this is the idea that
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salvation is a team effort. God does His part by offering
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grace, but you have to chip in with your own good works to
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finish the job and secure your justification.
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The sources point to Roman Catholicism as a primary example
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of this today. The authors also point to
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creeping Arminianism in Protestant churches.
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Arminianism, Simply put, is a theological framework that
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elevates human free will and downplays God's sovereign grace
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and salvation. The authors argue that this is a
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man centered theology that subtly tells sinners to clean
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themselves up first, suggesting that God's acceptance is
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conditional upon our performance.
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It replaces the savior with a checklist.
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It tells you to look at your own hands instead of looking at the
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cross now. Let us examine the other side of
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the coin, the Sagishian Levin. As I mentioned, the Sadducees
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represented the aristocratic political elite of the day.
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Their theological error was liberalism and rationalism.
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They were anti supernaturalists. They practice the skeptical
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reductionism, desiring cultural respectability above all else.
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They literally denied the existence of angels, spirits,
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and the bodily resurrection of the dead.
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They only accepted the first five books, the Old Testament,
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and even then they stripped away the supernatural edges of God's
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revelation to make it fit within the bounds of human reason.
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They wanted a religion that was entirely plausible, manageable,
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and comfortable for the ruling class.
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If a doctrine embarrassed them in front of their sophisticated
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Roman friends, they simply discarded it.
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And again, the sources connect this directly to the theological
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framework of the Reformation. The Seducion 11 is a direct
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attack on Westminster Confession Chapter 1 concerning the Holy
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Scripture. Chapter 1 affirms that the Bible
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is the supreme judge in all controversies of religion, and
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that it is entirely sufficient. The Sadducees subjected the
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divine text to the tribunal of human reason.
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If it did not make logical sense to their elite minds, they
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decided the text must be wrong. They placed their own intellect
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above the authority of God's spoken word.
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We must be careful to report impartially what the sources
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claim regarding the modern equivalents of this, said
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Houston, 11. We are not endorsing a political
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side here, just relaying the author's arguments.
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The authors argue that this specific type of anti
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supernatural rationalism is mirrored today in modern
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theological liberalism and evangelical critical
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scholarship. Critical scholarship often
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approaches the Bible with an inherent skepticism, assuming
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that miraculous events are myths added later by the church.
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Furthermore, the text specifically cites the invasion
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of secular philosophies such as critical race theory into the
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visible church as an example of this leaven.
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The argument presented by the sources is that these ideologies
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subtract from the sufficiency of God's Word.
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They claim these modern philosophies attempt to trim
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divine truth to fit the spirit of the age, demanding that the
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church rely on secular analytical tools rather than the
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plain teaching of Scripture. We are objectively conveying the
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arguments of the commentaries here, and their central thesis
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on this point is that any philosophy that forces the Bible
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to submit to modern cultural standards is functioning as the
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leaven of the Sadducees. It is demanding that the
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timeless Word of God bow down to the fleeting opinions of the
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current century. So what is the shared root of
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these two very different errors? The Pharisees add to the word.
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The Sadducees subtract from it. The Pharisees demand strict
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moralism. The Sadducees demand
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sophisticated plausibility. Yet both Levin's share a common,
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deadly route. They both reject the real
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biblical priced. Both systems demand that you
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trust yourself, either your own moral performance or your own
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intellectual reasoning over God's clear revelation.
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Both systems displace the authority of Christ and put
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human beings on the throne. This brings us to verses 7 and 8
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where we see the disciples reaction to Jesus's warning.
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This is where the tragic irony of the carnal mind is put on
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full display. Jesus has just delivered a
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weighty life or death spiritual warning about soul destroying
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doctrine. He has diagnosed the specific
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threats of their day. And what do the disciples do?
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They immediately turn inward and downward.
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They start whispering among themselves saying it is because
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we have taken no bread. They hear the word leaven and
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their minds instantly drop to the lowest possible earthly
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register. Their perception is entirely
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narrowed by their physical scarcity.
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OK, let's unpack the agony of the carnal mind here, because
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the Greek gives us a vivid picture of what is happening in
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that boat. The English translation says
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they were discussing or reasoning among themselves, but
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the Greek verb is dialogizanto. What does that specific word
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tell us about their state of mind?
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The verb dialogizanto is cast in the imperfect tense.
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The imperfect tense in Greek portrays A continuous, ongoing
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action in the past. This paints a picture of a
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prolonged, agonizing debate. They are not just making a
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passing comment to one another, they are locked in a stressful,
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continuous argument over their physical provisions.
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You could almost picture them pointing fingers, blaming each
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other for who forgot to bring the basket.
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They're sweating the details of their logistical failure.
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This is the very definition of spiritual dullness.
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They are sitting in a boat with the Creator of the universe,
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hearing Him speak eternal truths, but they are filtering
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His divine voice through the microscopic lens of their own
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temporal anxiety. Their lack of bread has become
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their entire hermeneutic. For our listeners who might not
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be familiar with that term, a hermeneutic is basically the
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lens or the decoder ring you use to view the world and interpret
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information. The disciples hermeneutic in
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this moment is complete scarcity.
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When your mind is dominated by earthly scarcity, you become
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incapable of spiritual comprehension.
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Everything Jesus says about theology is twisted by their
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brains into a commentary on their empty stomachs.
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It is a stunning display of human weakness.
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And Jesus intercepts this fleshly murmuring with a very
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sharp diagnostic rebuke. He does not coddle them.
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He says, oh, you have little faith.
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Why are you discussing among yourselves the fact that you
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have no bread? The Greek word for little faith
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here is oligopestoy. The sources make a crucial
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distinction here. Jesus is not insulting them for
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having 0 faith. He's not calling them complete
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unbelievers. Rather, it is a diagnosis of a
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faith that has been paralyzed by earthly circumstances.
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Their faith has shrunk because it is completely disconnected
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from the reality of who is sitting in the boat with them.
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This brings us to a massive application point made by the
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author's regarding functional atheism and modern pragmatism.
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The sources argue forcefully that the disciples panic.
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In this boat is the ancient seed of today's church pragmatism and
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the prosperity gospel. The disciples were acting like
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functional atheists. What that means is, even though
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they believed in God on paper, they were living in that
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specific moment as if God was entirely absent or impotent.
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They were relying entirely on their own earthly calculations
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to solve their problems. The text points out that many
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modern churches operate exactly like this today.
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They function more like corporate boardrooms than the
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spiritual hospitals. They become entirely fixated on
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the bread of the modern era, attendance numbers, building
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campaigns, financial metrics and seeker sensitive marketing
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strategies. They measure their success by
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visible earthly metrics rather than spiritual fidelity.
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Yes, the commentaries are very pointed here.
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They argue that while church leaders are agonizing over these
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physical, pragmatic metrics, worrying about whether the fog
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machine works or if the parking lot is paved, they remain
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utterly blind to the deadly leaven that is infiltrating
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their pulpits. The world dictates that success
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is built on cultural relevance, slick presentations, and keeping
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the religious consumer happy. But Christ declares that the
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true peril is doctrinal corruption.
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A church can be packed to the rafters with happy people, but
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if the leaven of legalism or liberalism is in the dough, the
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whole lump is corrected. The building could be pristine,
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the bank account could be full, but if the gospel is
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compromised, the church is spiritually starving.
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Jesus is trying to break them out of this bread level thinking
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before it destroys them. This leads us naturally into the
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remedy of sanctified memory found in verses 9 and 10.
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Jesus does not just pat them on the back and tell them to stop
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worrying. He does not offer a therapeutic
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technique to calm their anxiety or suggest they take some deep
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breaths. He asks the surgical piercing
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question. He says do you not remember?
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He forces them to look back at the historical proof of his
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provision. He demands that they engage
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their minds and recall the objective facts of what he has
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already accomplished. And he gives them very specific
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data points to work with. He highlights 2 massive miracles
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they personally witnessed and participated in.
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The Feeding of the 5000 and the Feeding of the 4000.
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He asked them to recall the specific numbers of baskets
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leftover. He says.
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Do you not remember the five loaves of the 5000 and how many
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baskets you gathered? Or the seven loaves of the 4000
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and how many baskets you gathered.
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The authors point out a really rich redemptive historical
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context here regarding these two specific miracles.
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This was not just Jesus doing the same magic trick twice.
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That is correct. The commentaries note a specific
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dispensational context at play here.
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When theologians use the term dispensational in this context,
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they are referring to the different phases of God's
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redemptive plan unfolding in history.
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The feeding of the 5000 occurred in a heavily Jewish context.
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It's symbolized Christ offering the Kingdom to the nation of
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Israel, showing himself as the true bread from heaven that
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their ancestors ate in the wilderness.
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The feeding of the 4000, however, took place in the
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Decapolis, which was a distinctively gentile region.
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By bringing both of these events to their minds, Christ is
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proving His absolute exhaustive sufficiency for both the Jew and
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the Gentile. He is showing that his provision
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knows no ethnic or geographical boundaries.
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He is the Lord over all peoples in all places.
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So what does this all mean for their theology?
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Right there in that boat, the sources Titus directly back to
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Westminster Confession chapter 5, which deals with God's
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exhaustive Providence. It states that God, the Great
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Creator of all things, does uphold, direct, dispose and
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govern all creatures, actions and things, from the greatest
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even to the least, by His most wise and holy Providence.
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Jesus is showing them that the God who multiplies bread out of
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thin air for massive crowds of both Jews and Gentiles is
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certainly capable of handling the lunch arrangements for 12
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guys in a boat. Their panic was completely
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irrational given the historical data they already possessed.
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They had the evidence, but they failed to use it.
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Introduces the concept of memory as a means of grace.
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This is a vital point for the listener.
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The sources stressed that spiritual maturity is not just
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about learning new information. It requires A sanctified memory.
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The disciples had the data. They literally carried the heavy
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baskets of leftover bread with their own hands.
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They felt the weight of the miraculous provision.
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But they failed to synthesize that data into their current
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crisis. They failed to apply past grace
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to a present problem. The text argues that forgetting
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grace breeds fear, but recalling grace breeds discernment.
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When you forget the provider, you will inevitably panning over
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the lack of bread, and when you forget the Savior, you become
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highly susceptible to swallowing the leaven of false teaching
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because you are looking for security in all the wrong
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places. You start looking for human
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solutions because you have forgotten the divine reality.
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I want to speak directly to you listening right now.
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How often do you act exactly like the disciples in the boat?
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You have a track record of God's faithful in your own life.
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You have seen Him provide, sustain and deliver you time and
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time again. More importantly, you have the
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written record of His promises in Scripture.
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You have the objective facts of the Gospel.
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Yet the moment a new stressor arrives, a bad medical report, a
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massive unexpected bill, a conflict in your family, you
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experience immediate spiritual amnesia.
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You revert to functional atheism, trying to calculate
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your way out of the problem on your own meager strength.
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Jesus is calling you to a disciplined remembrance.
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Recalling God's past mercies is the direct antidote to your
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present anxieties. You have to preach the gospel to
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yourself when the panic sets in. We see the result of Jesus
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forcing them to remember in verses 11 and 12.
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This is the breakthrough and the grateful obedience.
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We finally see the veil lifted from the disciples minds.
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Jesus asks them, How is it that you fail to understand that I
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did not speak about bread? Beware of the leaven of the
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Pharisees and Sadducees. He forces the issue until the
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light bulb comes on, and then the text says they understood
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that He did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread,
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but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.
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The Greek word here for understood is sinemi.
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It means bringing the pieces together, synthesizing the facts
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into a coherent spiritual reality.
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They finally decode the metaphor.
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They realize the leaven is doctrine.
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His teaching. The physical bread was just a
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shadow. The substance of the warning was
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theological. The sources apply this
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breakthrough directly to ecclesiology, the doctrine of
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the Church, and specifically the role of church leadership.
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They outline a severe application for elders and
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office bearers. Teaching is never a neutral
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activity. It always has an effect on the
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listener. Therefore, elders must act as
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Watchmen on the wall. They are commanded to fiercely
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guard the flock against the subtle creeping entry of both
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the legalism of the Pharisees and the liberalism of the
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Sadducees. A local church can survive a
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lean pantry. It can survive a lack of funds,
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a broken air conditioner in the middle of summer, or a small
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congregation meeting in a gymnasium.
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But it will absolutely not survive a contaminated gospel.
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Doctoral purity is the hill to die on if the leadership allows
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the Levin to enter the dough, they are failing in their
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primary mandate. There is also a pointed personal
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application for the listener regarding daily habits.
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The commentaries urge you to ruthlessly evaluate what you are
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consuming on a daily basis. What books are you reading?
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What podcasts are you listening to?
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Who are the influencers shaping your worldview?
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The text posits a very clear chain of cause and effect.
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What you repeatedly hear becomes what you instinctively assume to
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be true, and what you instinctively assume dictates
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what you actually worship. If you are constantly ingesting
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the leaven of secular rationalism, or if you are
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absorbing performance based moralism from self help gurus,
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your theology will ferment, your mind will be altered, and your
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worship will be directed away from the true Christ and toward
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a false idol of your own making. You have to guard your intake.
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Here is where it gets incredibly striking as we bring all these
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theological threads together. At the cross, the ultimate
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provision is not physical bread, it is Christ himself.
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The commentaries do an amazing job of tying this temporal boat
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ride to the eternal reality of the atonement.
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I would love for you to explain how the sources tie this to the
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core of Reformed theology, specifically looking at the
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cross. The author synthesized the
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entire passage by pointing to the cross of Christ.
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Jesus is the true bread of heaven.
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He is the ultimate provision that satisfies the deepest
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hunger of the human soul. To heed his warning in this
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passage, we must completely abandoned the leaven of human
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works, the arrogant idea that we can earn our salvation by
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keeping the rules. We must also abandoned the
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leaven of rationalism, the prideful idea that we can submit
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God's eternal Word to our own finite intellect.
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Instead, we must rest entirely and exclusively on Christ's
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substitutionary death and perfect, sinless life.
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He lived the life we failed to live, keeping the law perfectly,
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and he died the death we deserve to die absorbing the wrath of
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God on the cross. That is the Gospel.
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Furthermore, the sources make a beautiful Sacramento connection
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here to the Lord's Supper. When believers come to the
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communion table, they are called to partake of the unleavened
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bread. This symbolizes the pure,
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sinless body of Christ. It is a visible, tangible call
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to purge the leaven of sin, malice, and false doctrine from
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our lives. Resting solely in our union with
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Christ, we leave the leaven of the world behind and feast on
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the pure truth of the Savior. Let's synthesize everything we
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have covered today as we wrap up this deep dive crisis.
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Miraculous historical provision renders all of our Earthly bread
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level panics completely irrational.
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The true threat to your soul is never an empty pantry.
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It is a leavened mine. By resting completely on God's
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exhaustive Providence and by fiercely guarding the purity and
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total sufficiency of the Word, believers are protected from the
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twin dangers of legalistic self righteousness on one side and
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rationalistic unbelief on the other.
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You do not need to figure it all out on your own, and you do not
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need to earn your way to heaven. You just need Christ.
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As we close, I want to leave you with a final thought to ponder.
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Drawn directly from the logic of our source material, we have
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established that the most dangerous Levin never announces
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itself is heresy. It arrives as a tiny, highly
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acceptable, almost imperceptible shift in our thinking.
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It feels reasonable. It feels culturally appropriate.
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So ask yourself, what small, seemingly harmless cultural
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assumptions have you already allowed to ferment in your own
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mind? What worldly ideas have quietly
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altered the recipe of your faith without you even noticing?
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That is a weighty question to carry with you throughout the
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week. Thank you so much for joining us
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for this deep dive into Matthew 16.
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We hope this rigorous examination of the Word has
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sharpened your discernment and pointed you directly to the
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absolute sufficiency of Christ. Keep reading, keep studying, and
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we will see you next time on Reformed thinking.