Taken from Live Broadcast Service of Fellowship in Makassar
Peace and grace in the Lord Jesus Christ.
The theme is "Take heed and beware of the leaven."
Matthew 16:6
16:6 Then Jesus said to them, "Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees."
Jesus advises us to take heed and beware at least three times in the gospel according to Matthew as follows.
For example, there are six hundred three thousand and five hundred and fifty people from among the house of Israel who go out of Egypt, not including women and children, but there are only two people who can enter Canaan, namely Joshua and Caleb. The others are dead in the wilderness. Therefore, we have to watch, or else we become as the house of Israel.
We learn about to take heed and beware of the leaven.
There are two spiritual meanings of the leaven as follows:
Sin is something that is not in line with the Bible and the true teaching Word.
The consequence of having sin is as follows.
9:27 And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment,
Every fault must be accounted for after the life in the world.
Human will not live in the world forever because there are two kinds of end-line, namely bodily death and keeping living in the world until Jesus comes a second time. Afterwards, he will be judged and must account for all things in his life especially the sins.
There are at least five things that will be judged as follows.
Revelation 20:11-15
20:11. Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them.
20:12 And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books.
20:13 The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works.
20:14 Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.
20:15 And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.
It happens at the white throne
There are three kinds of book at the white throne as follows.
4:17 For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God?
4:18 Now "If the righteous one is scarcely saved, Where will the ungodly and the sinner appear?"
There will be no opportunity to finish our sins at the white throne. Therefore, it begins from now that we must take heed and beware of the leaven of sin. We must judge our own life many more to finish our sins. There will be no opportunity to judge our own life if we judge other people many more.
Revelation 1:15
1:15 His feet were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace, and His voice as the sound of many waters;
Jesus appears as the Judge to the house of God. The brass refers to the judgment.
Jesus appears as the Judge in these two things.
The result of being at Jesus’ feet is as follows.
Peace and grace in the Lord Jesus Christ.
The theme is "Take heed and beware of the leaven."
Matthew 16:6
16:6 Then Jesus said to them, "Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees."
Jesus advises us to take heed and beware at least three times in the gospel according to Matthew as follows.
- To watch and pray so that we do not enter into temptation.
Matthew 26:41
26:41 "Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak." - To take heed and beware of the leaven [Matthew 16:6].
- To watch to wait for Jesus’ second coming.
Matthew 24:42
24:42 "Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming.
For example, there are six hundred three thousand and five hundred and fifty people from among the house of Israel who go out of Egypt, not including women and children, but there are only two people who can enter Canaan, namely Joshua and Caleb. The others are dead in the wilderness. Therefore, we have to watch, or else we become as the house of Israel.
We learn about to take heed and beware of the leaven.
There are two spiritual meanings of the leaven as follows:
- sins,
- false teachings.
Sin is something that is not in line with the Bible and the true teaching Word.
The consequence of having sin is as follows.
- It makes us separated from God and other people.
Isaiah 59:1-2
59:1.Behold, the LORD’S hand is not shortened, That it cannot save; Nor His ear heavy, That it cannot hear.
59:2 But your iniquities have separated you from your God; And your sins have hidden His face from you, So that He will not hear.
It destroys the fellowship of the members of the body of Christ and the body and its Head.
Keeping the sins, God will not answer the prayer because it cannot be lifted up before Him and we will be dry in spirituality. Consequently, problems will never be solved and one lives in suffering and tears. - Death or forever perdition.
Romans 6:23
6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
9:27 And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment,
Every fault must be accounted for after the life in the world.
Human will not live in the world forever because there are two kinds of end-line, namely bodily death and keeping living in the world until Jesus comes a second time. Afterwards, he will be judged and must account for all things in his life especially the sins.
There are at least five things that will be judged as follows.
- Sinful deeds, namely wickedness and uncleanness.
2 Corinthians 5:10
5:10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.
Wickedness sin can happen through deeds that give other people disadvantage up to the peak, namely the love of money that makes one be bound of it. The consequence of the love of money is stinginess and greed. Having the stinginess, one cannot give. Being greedy, one seizes the possession of God, namely tithes and offerings. Moreover, he also seizes the possession of other people, for example with corruption, et cetera.
Uncleanness happens up to the peak, namely sins concerning eating-drinking, such as smoking, being drunk, and drugs abuse, and marrying-being given in marriage, namely sexual sins with all its kinds. - Idle word.
Matthew 12:35-36
12:35 "A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things.
12:36 "But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment.
It begins from lie, meaning making covenant with death.
Isaiah 28:15
28:15 Because you have said, "We have made a covenant with death, And with Sheol we are in agreement. When the overflowing scourge passes through, It will not come to us, For we have made lies our refuge, And under falsehood we have hidden ourselves."
It includes gossips and slanders. - The secrets of men or something hidden in heart.
Romans 2:16
2:16 in the day when God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel. - The judgment to other people.
Matthew 7:1-2
7:1. "Judge not, that you be not judged.
7:2 "For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. - All things we did not do.
Matthew 25:41-42, 45
25:41 "Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels:
25:42 ‘for I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink;
25:45 "Then He will answer them, saying, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’
Egoism is the characteristic of sin, namely not doing anything for the building of Christ’s body although God has stirred in heart. Meaning not giving and visiting the other members of Christ’s body who need physically and spiritually.
Revelation 20:11-15
20:11. Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them.
20:12 And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books.
20:13 The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works.
20:14 Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.
20:15 And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.
It happens at the white throne
There are three kinds of book at the white throne as follows.
- Books or the Bible (God’s Word) with sixty six books as the base to judge.
John 12:48
12:48 "He who rejects Me, and does not receive My words, has that which judges him––the word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day.
The Bible is the measure to judge righteously.
For example, King Solomon faces the problem of marriage and children and it can only be solved by using the sword of God’s Word. - Private book that contains the sins of human that have not been finished yet. One may not finish the sin because of keeping it, prestige and false teachings.
- The Book of Life that contains the names of the people who have finished the sins in the lifetime in the world.
There is an opportunity to finish our sins when we have not died and Jesus has not come a second time yet, so our name can be written in the Book of Life.
The way to finish sins is through confessing to God and other people as well as not repeating them after being forgiven.
Revelation 21:27
21:27 But there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles, or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life
Revelation 20:15
20:15 And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.
The names of the people who have not finished the sins in their lifetime in the world will not be written in the Book of Life. Consequently, they are cast into the lake of fire and brimstone to perish forever.
4:17 For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God?
4:18 Now "If the righteous one is scarcely saved, Where will the ungodly and the sinner appear?"
There will be no opportunity to finish our sins at the white throne. Therefore, it begins from now that we must take heed and beware of the leaven of sin. We must judge our own life many more to finish our sins. There will be no opportunity to judge our own life if we judge other people many more.
Revelation 1:15
1:15 His feet were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace, and His voice as the sound of many waters;
Jesus appears as the Judge to the house of God. The brass refers to the judgment.
Jesus appears as the Judge in these two things.
- His voice is as the sound of many waters.
It refers to the hard teaching Word or the Word which is sharper than any two-edged sword to judge us.
Paul divides the preaching of the Word to two groups as follows.- Gospel of salvation or milk [Ephesians 1:13].
It is the Word that preaches about Jesus’ first coming to die on the cross to save sinful men. It is also called Good Tiding [Proverbs 25:25]. - The light of the gospel of the glory of Christ or teaching Word or the Word which is sharper than any two-edged sword or solid food [2 Corinthians 4:3-4].
It preaches about Jesus’ second coming as the King of all kings or Heavenly Bridegroom to sanctify and perfect the Church to become as glorious as Jesus is so that we are worthy of welcoming His second coming.
The teaching Word is called Bride Tiding.
2 Timothy 4:1-2
4:1. I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom:
4:2 Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching.
The content is as follows.- Convincing or showing the hidden sins of God’s servants or congregation, so His presence will not be hidden anymore. There will be no God’s presence if there is sin. The sins must be shown to make us realize and confess them.
- Rebuking.
It makes us stop sinning to return to God. - Exhorting.
The advice of the Word of God is the guidance to make us live in righteousness and holiness.
It is also the solution from all our problems and the miracles happen.
1 Corinthians 14:3
14:3 But he who prophesies speaks edification and exhortation and comfort to men.
The teaching Word is able to comfort us when we are suffering and build our spirituality until we become mature spiritually to reach the oneness of the perfect body of Christ.
- Convincing or showing the hidden sins of God’s servants or congregation, so His presence will not be hidden anymore. There will be no God’s presence if there is sin. The sins must be shown to make us realize and confess them.
- Gospel of salvation or milk [Ephesians 1:13].
- His feet were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace.
It refers to the fire of suffering together with God.
1 Peter 4:1-2
4:1. Therefore, since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same mind, for he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin,
4:2 that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh for the lusts of men, but for the will of God.
God lets us experience the suffering in the flesh not to destroy us but to make us stop sinning and return to righteousness.
Suffering in the flesh, we get great opportunity to check or judge our own life with the sharpness of the Word of God. Confess the sin and do not repeat it when there is sin. On the contrary, keep on being in silence when there is no sin because it means the sprinkling of blood. There is God’s glory or shekinah glory behind the sprinkling of blood.
Let us now be corrected many more by the teaching Word continually until there is no sin anymore that can be judged at the white throne.
The result of being at Jesus’ feet is as follows.
- We get the stretching of the hand of Jesus, High Priest, with the power of preservation as well as the power of help miraculously to heal physical and spiritual diseases.
Matthew 15:29-30, 34-35
15:29. Jesus departed from there, skirted the Sea of Galilee, and went up on the mountain and sat down there.
15:30 Then great multitudes came to Him, having with them the lame, blind, mute, maimed, and many others; and they laid them down at Jesus’ feet, and He healed them.
15:34 Jesus said to them, "How many loaves do you have?" And they said, "Seven, and a few little fish."
15:35 So He commanded the multitude to sit down on the ground. - We get the stretching of the hand of the King with the power to destroy the death.
1 Corinthians 15:25-26
15:25 For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet.
15:26 The last enemy that will be destroyed is death.
We can be healed from sins and forgiven, meaning we defeat the sins.
Luke 7:37-38
7:37 And behold, a woman in the city who was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at the table in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster flask of fragrant oil,
7:38 and stood at His feet behind Him weeping; and she began to wash His feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head; and she kissed His feet and anointed them with the fragrant oil.
We can confess our sins with broken heart at Jesus’ feet and there will be the anointing of Holy Spirit to result in fragrance. Meaning we do not sin anymore because sinning means producing bad odor. It continues until someday we cannot sin anymore but be perfect as Jesus is. - We get the exalting power until we are on God’s throne when Jesus comes a second time.
Ezekiel 43:7
43:7. And He said to me, "Son of man, this is the place of My throne and the place of the soles of My feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel forever. No more shall the house of Israel defile My holy name, they nor their kings, by their harlotry or with the carcasses of their kings on their high places.
Revelation 22:3-4
22:3 And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him.
22:4 They shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads.
The proof of being on the throne of God is we only see God until we are quiet and peaceful.