Just a Little Yeast
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· 7 viewsTurning a blind eye to even a little sin will ruin the Christian and by extension the church.
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Introduction
Introduction
Good evening a welcome back.
I hope that everyone has had a blessed Lord’s Day so far!
Tonight, we are going to be back in and we are going to be looking at some of the Scripture that we did not have time for this morning.
Specifically we are going to be looking at verses 6-8 and we are going to be talking about the subject of “Just a Little Yeast.”
And we are going to be continuing to talk about sin and the necessity of dealing with sin.
And tonight we are going to be focusing more on dealing with our own personal sin.
Because in the end, if we do not deal with our own personal sin it in essence has the impact of ruining the whole Church.
And this morning we also spent some time looking at and Jesus’ instructions to the people and this issue of personal sin.
Just as a reminder, reads . . .
1 “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2 For in the same way as you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. 3 “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 4 How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.
And I read these verses again because I want us to really hone in and focus on what Jesus is saying to us here.
Matthew 7:
3 “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 4 How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye?
Again, Jesus is calling us on the carpet for our own hypocritical attitude regarding sin.
We are always very quick to point out and try to deal with someone else’s sin, but we never want to focus on and deal with our own sin.
Jesus tells us that this is not how it should be.
Again, verses 5 . . .
5 You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.
Jesus is calling us, as Christians to deal with our own personal sin, knowing that if we would do this, then we would also be in a place where we could be of some help to someone else.
And like I said this morning, just think about IF everyone dealt with their own personal sin.
If we did then the problems would be solved.
HOWEVER, realistically we know and Jesus knew that people would not take care of their own sin, so Jesus tells us that those who will take care of their sin, can now be in a place where they can help others.
And as Christians we should do this.
And in our passage from this morning and tonight, we see Paul dealing with a situation very harshly because the Church has failed to deal with it.
Instead of dealing with the problem, Paul writes to the Church . . .
1 It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that does not occur even among pagans: A man has his father’s wife. 2 And you are proud! Shouldn’t you rather have been filled with grief and have put out of your fellowship the man who did this?
And what I want us to focus on here is their pride.
Instead of recognizing the sin and dealing with the sin, they are blinded by pride.
Instead of being concerned over the sin in this man’s life and the destructive hold it has on him, they are consumed with pride.
And our Bible tells us that . . .
18 Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.
And that it is . . .
19 Better to be lowly in spirit and among the oppressed than to share plunder with the proud.
And John also tells us that . . .
16 For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world. 17 The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives for ever.
1 John 2:
So this sense of pride is leading them down a path they do not need to go.
This pride is leading them down a road of sin and destruction.
And we may look at this and say, “hold on a minute . . . .the man is in trouble, but what does his sin have to do with the Church?”
And this is what we are going to be addressing and looking at here in .
Paul writes . . .
Scripture Focus
Scripture Focus
6 Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough? 7 Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. 8 Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with bread without yeast, the bread of sincerity and truth.
Your Boasting is Not Good
Your Boasting is Not Good
Again, Paul goes back to the boasting and the bragging and he concludes your boasting is not good!
And it really is not.
Like we talked about this morning, here they are out there boasting and bragging about everything and there is the rampant sin in their church that EVERYBODY knows about and NOBODY is doing anything about it.
No one in the community is taking them seriously and probably think they are just a bunch of hypocrites.
And we have the same problems that goes on in churches today.
They run around wasting a lot of time bragging about how great they are and they are ignoring the sin in their own congregation.
They are turning a blind eye to it.
They are accepting it.
They are sweeping it under the rug.
Hoping that if they boast enough people will not pay any attention to it or they will just overlook it.
It does not happen that way.
Also, what do people say and think about those who brag a lot?
We’ve all been around them.
Those people who are constantly bragging about something.
Just be honest, what do you really think about them?
Do you really want to be around them?
And when the Church is doing it it really isn’t any better.
But the reason they are bragging is because they want to distract from the real issue.
A little three letter word . . . S-I-N.
And they don’t want to deal with it.
So, Paul forces them to deal with it.
And we are all forced to deal with our own personal sin precisely because of what Paul say sin the second part of verse 6 . . .
6 Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough?
And he is using the analogy of bread.
For the Jews, their ceremonial bread was unleavened bread, meaning that it was made without yeast.
And what Paul is saying is that just a little bit of yeast will work its way in and ruin the whole batch of dough.
In order to be unleavened and fit for ceremonial purposes, the bread had to have ABSOLUTELY NO YEAST in it whatsoever.
Not even a little smidgen.
One little bit would taint it and they would have to throw it out and start over.
The same thing is true for sin, both in the church and our own personal sin.
In Ephesians, Paul gives us a description of the Church.
He writes . . .
25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, 27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.
Ephesians 5:
The Church is supposed to be holy.
The Church is supposed to be washed by the Word.
The Church is supposed to be radiant.
The Church is supposed to be without stain.
The Church is supposed to be without wrinkle.
They Church is supposed to be without blemish.
The Church is supposed to be blameless.
And if there is any sin found within the Church it cannot be any of these things.
Paul tells us that we are to . . .
1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.
We are to be living and holy sacrifices to God.
We are to be holy, washed by the Word, radiant, without stain, wrinkle, blemish and blameless, because WE ARE THE CHURCH.
And when there is sin dwelling within us then we are like the yeast in the bread, we are unclean and unfit for God’s use.
Does that mean that we are perfect?
No, but that does mean that we do our best each and every day to live for God and when God convicts us of something we repent and turn it over to God.
BUT when we are carrying around this prideful and boastful attitude, we are blind to our own sin.
And that blindness will lead to our own destruction.
Get Rid of the Old Yeast
Get Rid of the Old Yeast
Paul tells us that we should . . .
7 Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.
1 Corinthians 5:7
Turn it over to God and allow the Holy Spirit to deal with it.
Remember that . . .
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!
If we are claiming to be “in Christ,” or if we are claiming to be Christians then we have been made new.
We are not just a fancied up version of our old self.
No, the old has gone and the new has come!
So, that’s why Paul tells us to throw out the old and allow God to make us new.
Paul also tells us that . . .
Ephesians 4:22-
22 You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
THROW OUT THAT OLD SELF AND ALLOW GOD TO MAKE YOU NEW!
And deal with the sin that is within you.
That is in essence all Paul is saying here.
He finishes us this section . . .
8 Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with bread without yeast, the bread of sincerity and truth.
Altar Call
Altar Call
And I wonder tonight if anyone here is carrying any malice around.
Malice means “the intention or desire to do bad.”
Notice it doesn’t say the intention AND desire, but rather intention OR desire, meaning you could be intending to do bad or just desiring it.
And doing “bad” does not always mean slapping somebody across the face.
Doing “bad” can also mean doing anything God says not to do or not doing something God says to do.
James tells us . . .
17 Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins.
Are we doing this tonight?
We know what God has told us to do and we don’t do it.
We know what God has told us not to do but we do it anyway.
If we are then we fit the category and we need to allow the Holy Spirit to deal with that.
Because if we do not deal with the personal sin in our own lives, we will suffer and our church will suffer.
But ultimately it is a choice we have to make.
Two last verses to leave you with tonight . . .
1 Peter 4:1
17 For it is time for judgment to begin with the family of God; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God? 18 And, “If it is hard for the righteous to be saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?” 19 So then, those who suffer according to God’s will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good.
And . . .
2 Chronicles 7:14-
14 if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.
Are we willing to humble ourselves and pray?
Are we willing to seek God’s face?
Are we willing to deal with and turn from our own sin?
It is the only way, but we must be willing.