Religious Bakers

"Jesus said unto them, Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees" (Matthew 16:6). We are familiar with leaven which, when added to dough, causes expansion of the batter. It has an altering or transforming influence on the mixture, making it rise. When someone prepares bread, they don’t bake leaven alone – who in their right mind would eat that? Rather, a small amount of leaven must be added to dough, in a skillful way, and so a delicious product is created. When our Lord warned of "the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees," He was referring to their erroneous teaching. "How is it that ye do not understand that I spake it not to you concerning bread, that ye should beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees? Then understood they how that He bade them not beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees" (vv. 11-12). He was warning His disciples of the corrupt message of the leaders of Judaism. What did these religious bakers do? They subtly mixed a little error with Biblical truths. They did not openly deny the Word of God, for then their doctrine would not have been received, but they cleverly added a small amount of leaven to the gospel so that their unsuspecting hearers would receive the altered teachings.

Satan has many religious bakers today, and they are proficient in blending leaven with truth so as to make their false gospel palatable to the natural man. Rarely do they oppose the scriptures outright, else most would refuse their doctrine. What they do is blend a small amount of error with the Word of God. They talk about salvation by divine grace, but make salvation hinge upon man’s decision or works. They declare the sacrifice of Christ, but make the success of that sacrifice rest upon the belief or repentance of the sinner. They preach justification by faith, but make man’s faith to be the cause, the reason or the basis for justification, rather than the result, the effect, or the evidence of justification. They preach the necessity of the new birth by the Holy Spirit and then make the new birth to be the result of man’s free-will. In short, they always set forth the salvation of sinners as being dependent upon something man must contribute, rather than solely conditioned upon the blood and righteousness of Christ. How much leaven must be added by a religious baker to transform the true gospel into a false gospel? "A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump" (Galatians 5:9).

- by Jim Byrd, pastor of Thirteenth Street Baptist Church in Ashland, Kentucky, via the bulletin of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia, on May 10, 2020