The Way - A Little Leaven

[0:00] Thank you for choosing to listen to today's message by Rev. Dr. David Entry. We know you will be blessed as you seek and serve God. We believe that this message will stir up a desire for more of God even as you listen.

[0:13] Be blessed. Amen. In the previous teaching, we've been having some great times in the truth of God's Word. And I read from 2 Timothy 2.

[0:25] And I actually spoke about, I said five words. If you remember, I spoke about five words. And then I want to recap from there briefly so we can move on. In 2 Timothy 2, verse 14, it says that, Of these put them in remembrance, charging them before the Lord that they strive not about words to no profit.

[0:48] So, words of strife. And what is the impact of words of strife? To the subverting of the hearers. So, words of strife.

[0:59] Strife, which Satan is behind, subverts here. So, words of strife. Then, verse 16 says that, Bashan, profane and vain babblins for the increase unto ungodliness.

[1:10] So, profane and vain, empty, useless babblins, chatter. They increase more and more unto ungodliness. So, the second type of words is profane or profane and vain or useless or empty, chatter or babblins.

[1:30] What's the impact? They increase unto ungodliness. And the third type of words is, Their words will eat as doth canker. That's King James. Which, in the NIV, we saw that it says, They will eat like gangrene.

[1:43] So, these words spread. So, cancer spreads. If one particular area of the body is diseased, And it's cancerous or gangrenous, And it's not tackled immediately, It begins to spread to the whole body.

[1:59] And guess what the impact is? The body dies. It's the spreading of malicious or malignant melanoma That affected the entire body.

[2:13] So, it spreads gangrene. So, these words must be tackled immediately. Other than that, they spread. And when they spread, What Bible says that the impact is, The impact of words that spread like gangrene is, In verse 18, They overthrow the faith of some.

[2:32] So, it's faith overthrowing words. They spread like gangrene. And then the final one I spoke about, The last one, The negative words that we should watch out for, Is verse 23, Which are foolish and unlearned questions.

[2:46] It said, Avoid foolish and unlearned questions. Why? Knowing that they, Gender strife, They bring contentions and unnecessary strife, Tension amongst, Within the church.

[2:57] So, we have to avoid that. So, we have the strife, Words of strife. Then the words, Verse 16, The profane, And verse 16 is the profane and vain babbling.

[3:16] So, words that are profane, That communicate profane and vain babbling. And then verse 17, Words that spread like gangrene. And then verse 23, Words of arguments, Of foolish and unlearned, Unreasonable arguments.

[3:34] It says that all these words, Satan, Verse 26, That Satan is behind it, And taking people captive. And so, Then, How do you counteract this? You counteract it, It says, Verse 25 says that, In meekness, Instructing those who oppose themselves.

[3:51] If God peradventure will give them, So, you have to instruct, Right? In meekness, We instruct. So, the word of truth, Instructs those who oppose themselves. Just, If God peradventure will give them repentance, To the acknowledging of the truth.

[4:07] So, this instruction, Ends up bringing acknowledgement of the truth. If you remember, Titus chapter 1, Verse 1, And Paul, A servant, A born servant of God, And an apostle of Jesus Christ, According to the faith of God's elect, And to the acknowledging of the truth, That accords with godliness.

[4:26] So, To the acknowledgement of the truth. Here, It says that, That peradventure, If God grant them repentance, To the acknowledging of the truth. See?

[4:36] Acknowledging. So, Acknowledging, Recognizing the truth, Oh, That this is truth, Is so important. And that is what God uses to rescue people. So, A preacher, And a Christian, Truth must be found in our mouth.

[4:50] In verse 15, It said, Steady to show yourself approved unto God. Alright, That word steady is not about like researching. NIV uses the word, Be diligent.

[5:01] I think New King James uses, Uses, Be diligent. New King James also uses, New King James also says that, Be diligent to present yourself approved unto God.

[5:12] So, It takes a certain level of seriousness and effort, To present yourself approved unto God. A workman that is not, A workman that does not need to be ashamed, Rightly dividing the word of truth.

[5:25] So, Is the word of truth we are talking about. And the word of truth was just, What do you do with the word of truth? It must be rightly divided. It must be accurately handled.

[5:36] So, Rightly dividing the word of truth is like, It must be unfold carefully, And skillfully, Or properly. So, It's easy to be, To have the word of truth, And wrongly divide it.

[5:50] And the wrongful dividing of the word of truth, Is what creates the ground, For the enemy to attack, Within the church. And once the church is weak, The church won't be able to impact, Have a positive impact, On society, And on community, On people, And be the church that God has meant the church to be.

[6:10] And so, In 1 Timothy, Chapter 3, I like that text. 1 Timothy, Chapter 3, Verse 15, It says that, But if I tarry long, That thou mayest know, How thou ought to behave thyself, Where in the house of God, And what did he say about the house of God?

[6:27] In the house of God, In the house of God, Which is the church of the living God. So, The house of God is the church. He said, You must, I'm writing this, So that if I tarry, You will know, How you should behave yourself, In the house of God, Which is the church of the living God.

[6:44] And what did he say again, About the church of the living God? He said, This church of the living God, Is the pillar, And the ground, Of the truth. This is so important. Hallelujah. He said, The church of the living God, Is the pillar.

[6:57] Pillar supports a structure. He didn't say, The church is the truth. But the church is the pillar. The bull rock. Bull rock. The bastion of the truth.

[7:07] That is what holds the truth. The church is there, To uphold the truth. Hallelujah. And Bible says that, It's not just the bastion of the truth, But it's the ground.

[7:19] The church is the pillar. So that you know how to preach yourself, Or handle yourself, Behave yourself in the house of God, Which is the church of the living God. The pillar and the ground of the truth.

[7:31] Without the church, There's no platform for the truth of God's word, Or for the truth of God, To prevail amongst humanity, Or within humanity.

[7:44] There's no grounds. There is no grounds. So if you want to attack the word of God, From having impact on our society, Get to the church, And silence the church.

[7:56] The issue here is, Brothers and sisters, Satan is not afraid of our services. He's afraid of the word of God, We know and we practice. The word of God we know, And practice and preach.

[8:09] It's important. Satan, In fact, Several times they came to try and listen to Jesus, To catch him in his words. Their problem with Jesus, Was not too much to do with his works, And his miracles.

[8:22] But their problem was with his words. In fact, In John chapter 6, He gave them bread, And they wanted to make him king. And he left them, And they looked for him, From verse 25 down, When he found them, He said, I know you are coming because you ate bread, But this bread you eat, Will pass away.

[8:41] I give you the bread, Your fathers ate bread, Our fathers ate bread in the wilderness, Manna in the wilderness, And they died. But he said, Your fathers ate, But then, The bread that God gives, Verse 32, The bread that God gives, Anyone who eats that bread, Lives forever.

[8:56] And he started from there, He started to teach them, How they should believe in him, And believing in him, Means they are receiving the bread, That God is giving from above. He equates himself to bread, He said, I am the bread of life, Verse 35, And verse 51 or so, I am the bread of life, He said, I am the bread that came from heaven, And he said, Unless you eat me, And the Bible says that, After he said this, They said in the verse 60 downwards, They said, This is 61 or so, This is a hard saying, Who can accept this?

[9:25] Their problem was with the message, This is a hard saying, The Bible says that, And from that day forward, Many of his disciples left him, And didn't follow him again, Why?

[9:35] It wasn't the good things he was doing, But it was the message, And Jesus says that, If you do not believe me for my works, Believe me for my works, So, The works come to endorse the message, It's not the other way around, So, So, If we marginalize the message of the church, And focus more on works, For people to see how good we are, How caring we are, How we are feeding the hungry, We are clothing the naked, We are, Those things are all good, But they are useless in the absence of our message, So, So, We send all these things, And our, When people see us, They shouldn't only identify us by good works, They must also identify the church by the message of the church, How do you know a church is a proper church, A church is a true church, Don't be moved by the music,

[10:37] Don't be moved by the settings, Don't be moved by how long it has been around, Don't be moved by the authority, And the influence it seems to have in society, Or the respect it has in society, Those things are not the measuring stick, Or the measuring standard of the quality of a church, Or authenticity of a church, Or the health of a church, It is the message that accords with godliness, Or the words of Christ, That is strong, And it is prevalent in the church, And it is the governing factor of everything they do, You come close to them, They'll be nice to you, But I bet you you hear a word from God, Or you hear the word of God from them, Everything about them is depicting the word of God, Which is the word of truth, And so the word of truth, It's what gives, Thank you Holy Spirit,

[11:39] The word of truth is what gives the church Its relevance and value, It's what gives the church solid and strong, That is another way, I think throughout these teachings, I've been given different terminologies, To signify or to reflect or represent the word of truth, So the word of truth is the same as the word, As the wholesome words, Is the same as healthy words, Is the same as sound doctrine, Alright, Most places in the Bible, Or in the New King James and King James, Is translated sound doctrine, So word of truth, Wholesome words, Healthy words, Sound doctrines, The words of Christ, Is also called the words of Christ, Is 1 Timothy chapter 6 here, Verse 3, Now that 6 verse 3 says, If any man teach otherwise, Now how do we, What is the medium through which we communicate the word of God?

[12:37] Teaching, Teaching is the aspect, Preaching and teaching, Alright, Preaching and teaching, Is the main medium, Through which the word of God is communicated, As I said the other time, According to Titus chapter 1, Verse 2 and 3, Okay, Verse 3 quickly, It says that, But has in due time manifested his word through preaching, So the word of God is manifested through preaching, That's why Jesus was always preaching and teaching, It creates the room for God's word to be manifested, I think Paul even puts it in Romans chapter 6, Verse 25, It says that, That God establishing you according to my gospel, So most, That's why he said, I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, The gospel of Christ is the message of the cross, Is the message of Christianity, So the gospel is not just, Come and receive Christ and be saved, The gospel is everything the church has to say, Everything the church has to say, About God and about the church, And about, Our message is called the gospel, The message of the church is called the gospel,

[13:39] So when you get born again, Even in church, What I'm doing is, I'm actually sharing the gospel, And so in 1 Timothy chapter 1, Verse 10, It says, For all mongers, For them that defile themselves with mankind, For men stealers, For liars, For prejudiced persons, If there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine, Watch this, Sound doctrine, Verse 11, According to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, I love that, The glorious gospel of the blessed God is also, So sound doctrine must accord with the glorious gospel of the blessed God, If any man teaches otherwise, Chapter 6, Verse 3, If any man teaches otherwise, And consent not to wholesome words, Even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, So it is the glorious gospel of the blessed God, It is also the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, It is also the word of truth, It is also wholesome words, It is also sound doctrine, Come on, So all these mean the same thing, And that is what defines the purity of a church,

[14:40] Now, If these things are missing in the church, Or if the word of truth is not taught constantly, Or taught, Or is not the main factor of a church, With time, The church begins to enter into degradation, Or the church begins to degrade, So churches that lose their fervency, It is not because the leaders were bad, But it's because the word of God, The word of truth, Was not giving central place, And other things, And it's easy, It's easy, My brothers and sisters, Christian brothers and sisters, It's easy for other things to gain credibility, Or gain central place, Or prominence, Or importance, In the church, Within believers, Outside the word, It's very easy, And this is how it goes, It's oh, We still believe in the word of God, But you know, That is just the word, Let's talk about this, So sometimes it can be music, Sometimes it can be style, Style, Our style, And even sometimes, The style of preaching,

[15:41] The man of God, You know, Usually there's a kind of aura, That comes with men of God, Modern day men of God, I mean, I'm not saying it's bad, So sometimes, Their focus is so much, On the man of God's style, The man of God, Whooping, And howling, Antics, And style of presentation, And so, Some of those things, Can sometimes, I'm not saying, Any of this is wrong, Music is not wrong, We need music, You can't have good fellowship, Without, Music comes to enhance, A good fellowship, It plays a role anyway, It plays a role in worship, It plays a role in fellowship, Christian fellowship, Now, But all those things, Our style, Our music, Our setting, Our way of doing things, Can take precedence,

[16:41] And can dwarf, Or stifle, Or eclipse, The place, The position of God's word, And it's very easy to happen, In, In, With, In genuineness, People are genuine, People don't have to be, Malicious, Or evil, Or, No, But certain, Text, You see, When the word of truth, Is not highly upheld, In a church, Among believers, In a congregation, Or in a, Wherever believers, God is, If the, The truth of God's word, Is not the, Cardinal, The central, Center of attraction, Or, The central principle, In our God dreams, In our activities, Satan then finds, A footstool easily, When the word of God is coming, Satan can't stand, So, Many people who don't like church, The church of God, Is not because they don't like the people, Because somebody, A family member can get born again, And suddenly, He becomes an object of hatred,

[17:43] Within the family, Because he's now a Christian, And it says he's a Christian, Not because he's, He has become a bad person, But when people don't like Christian, And don't like the church, It is the message of the church, That is actually, It's offensive, In its nature, Offensive to the fallen hearts, Apart from those, That are responding to God, So, Bible says that, The message we preach, It's, To those who are perishing, To those who are perishing, Is foolishness, But to those who are who say, Is the power of God, The same message, The same message, But, So the message saves, The message preserves, The word of truth, All the negative things, I spoke about, Negative, Different words, What different words can do, In the church, Like, The, The gangrenous words, Or, Cancer spreading words, The, The words of strife, The, The, The, The vein babblings, The words of vein babbling, All those things, Their impact, The negative impacts, God, Increasing godlessness, Subverting, Subverting the fate of people,

[18:45] Dreening hearers, And creating strife, All these which Satan uses, The, The negative words, Patterns of words, In the church, To bring, They can be dealt with, By, By the word of truth, The word of truth, Take care of a lot of things, Satan may have, Nuances, Or, Different means, And apparatus, Or, Systems through which, He attacks the church, But the, The church can defend itself, Through one means, Which is the word, The word, Even the quality, Of our prayers, Has to do with, The word understanding, Of the one praying, The prayer, So when I talk about, Word understanding, I'm talking about, How well a person, Knows god, Through his word, How well a person, Knows god, Through the word, Of god, That is what determines, The strength and the quality, Of your prayers, And so even for your prayers, To work, You must, It must, It must have, A working word, Where the word, It takes the word, To make prayer work, It takes the word content, To make prayer work, So it's very important,

[19:45] There, So as I said, All these things, The word of god, Can deal with it, So the word of god, Brings illumination, The, I mentioned the other time, The four eyes of the word, So eye, Eye, For india, Eye for indigo, So one, Is, It brings illumination, For, So darkness, Is the spell, The word too, The word brings inoculation, So satanic onslaught, Satanic infiltration, Is curtailed, Number three, The word brings, Incarceration, Satan's operations within us, As he has already known, That's the death, That gangrenous thing, What, What deals, Swallows the death up, Swallowing the death, Means you paralyze the devil, You render him impotent, Incarcerating, Or, In, In, In, In, Incapable, Right, So the word, Makes incapable, The words, Bring inoculation, The word, Brings illumination, And then finally, The word brings, Instructions for inclusion, Without being clearly, Instructed by the word, You cannot be included,

[20:46] Amongst God's people, It takes instructions, Through the word, By the word, Bible says, As we read earlier on, That you instruct them, So that by chance, If God will grant them repentance, To the acknowledgement, Of the truth, And so, The word of truth is important, And now, As I said, The word must be taught, Because, What the church has got, To give the world, Is the truth of God's word, Is the truth, Is the truth, Is the church, Is the pillar of the truth, Is the ground of the truth, We are the pillar of the truth, We are the ground, And so, Within us, We must, Our gatherings must be, We must gather around the truth, The doctrine, So he calls it doctrine, Now watch this, In 1 Timothy chapter 4, This is very interesting, 1 Timothy chapter 4 verse 1, It says that, Now the spirit, The spirit expressly, Or speaks expressly, That in the latter times, Some shall depart from the faith, And giving it to seducing spirits, And doctrines of devils, Did you see doctrines of devils,

[21:47] Teachings of devils, So Satan, And demons, Also bring teachings, And it says, Some will give it to that, Deceiving spirits, And teachings of devils, You won't see Satan, Looking strange, Coming to stand, But there are certain teachings, That are not in accordance, With godliness, There are teachings of devils, Satan hides behind it, And can use it, Now look at, 2 Timothy chapter 4, From verse 3, From verse 2 particularly, It says that, Preach, Verse 1, I charge you therefore, Before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, Who shall judge the quick, And the dead, At his appearing, And his kingdom, Preach the word, Be instant in season, Out of season, Reprove, Rebuke, Exalt, With all long suffering, And doctrine, Preach, He's talking to, He's talking to a pastor, He said, Preach the word, He's talking about the word of truth, Preach the word, Be instant in season, And out of season,

[22:47] Pastor, Reprove, Rebuke, And exhort, With all long suffering, Be ready to suffer long, Why did he say, Long suffering and doctrine, So stay on doctrine, And be ready for long, To suffer long, Stay on doctrine, Why?

[23:02] He said, Verse 3, He said, For the time will come, When they will not endure sound doctrine, Because people will not endure sound doctrine, You, The pastor, Must be ready, To suffer longer, Because, They may fight you, People will say all kinds of things, Against the one who stands on the word of God, Especially when people's hearts are not with God, It's not everybody, Who speaks against the word of God, And please, Listen to what I didn't say, I'm not supposing, That when people speak against you, That means, You are speaking the word of God, I'm not saying that, But what I'm saying is that, If you stay true to the word of God, You have opposition, Even from amongst us, Within the church, It is some people who may, There are people in church, Who are not Christians anyway, They are not Christians, Being in a church doesn't make you a Christian, It doesn't make you a Christian, Going to church doesn't make you a Christian, But when you are a Christian, You go to church, That's the other way, Going to church doesn't make you a Christian, But when you are a Christian, You go to church, So stop making noise and disturbing us, You have to go to church, I've been in church for, Before you were born,

[24:03] I've been in church for a long time, And I know all the stories about, It doesn't make you a Christian, So being in church doesn't make a person a Christian, But sometimes, People, Even who are already Christian, Because they have lost their bearing in God, They find it easy to attack other believers, Who particularly are staying sound in God's word, It's very important, When the, Some of the challenges that happened in the early church, Against the early church, Was from within, Different doctrines, And different teachings, And different philosophies, Were beginning to invade the church, And up to now, It's Satan's hot spot, It's Satan's favorite thing to use to invade the church, Now watch this, It says that, For the time is coming, The time is coming when, 2 Timothy chapter 4, Verse 3, For the time will come, When they will not endure sound doctrine, But after their own last, They shall heap to themselves, Teachers, So what are these teachers teaching?

[24:59] They are teaching things that people want to hear, Teaching the things that, Oh, People want to hear that, And they say, Oh yeah, I like this man, I like the way he talks, I really sometimes, I don't even want unbelievers, To say, Oh this man, I like his preaching, I like his preaching, On a constant, I always want to hear, If you keep hearing me, Something must happen to you, If you, I should be, Sound in, God's word, To the extent that, If you keep hearing me, Something godly will hit you, And you will begin to change, To affect you, Because Bible says, That the word of God, Is incorruptible, Once it hits your system, It says, My word, So shall my word be, That goes out of my mouth, It brings life, It will not return to me void, So I believe that, If people constantly, Anyone who exposes themselves, To the word of God, And the true word of God, The word of God, That accord, The word that accord, With godliness, The wholesome words, Wholesome words, Affect people wholesomely, Wholesome words, Affect people wholesomely, He says that,

[26:00] They will not endure sound doctrine, He said, But they will hit teachers, They will hit their, They have their own type of teachers, Who may be popular, May be famous, I'm not saying be popular, Means you're a bad teacher, That's not what I'm saying, But when people, The fact that people, Like everything you are saying, Does not mean, You are saying the right thing, That's how I put it, The other time, That sound, Sounding arguments, May not necessarily be sound, So the fact that something, Is sound sounding, Does not mean it is sound, So it says that, And they will turn their ears, Away from the truth, Can you imagine, They have got teachers, But they have turned their ears, Away from the truth, Teachers, So what are these teachers, What would these teachers be teaching, Before I go on to that, The things that are taught, Is what weakens the church, Now watch this, Title chapter 1 verse 9, Holding, Holding, Holding fast the faithful ways, As he, Has been taught, That he may be able,

[27:03] By sound doctrine, But to exhort, And convince the gainsayers, Very important, So it takes sound doctrine, To be able to have an impact, On people, In a positive way, To the glory of God, For there are many, Unruly and vain, Talkers and deceivers, Especially of the circumcision, Whose mouth, Must be stopped, How do you stop their mouth, Not by fighting them, But by, By giving yourself, Or holding fast, To faithful ways, Ways which you have been taught, And, That you may be able, To by sound doctrine, Exhort, And convince, Gainsayers, It takes sound doctrine, To stop the mouth, Of these gainsayers, To stop the mouth, For people, Pick the kind of, Teachings, Teachings that are, Invading the church, Now watch this, What weakens a church, Is, What strengthens, Or weakens a church, Is their teaching, So, What kind of teaching, Operates, Or is, It's not the pastor's, Personality, Please, Please, Please, Please, The pastor's, Personality, Is a vain thing,

[28:04] To build a church around, God, No, No, May God help us all, Pastors usually, May have wonderful personalities, And as part of the anointing, But it is not healthy, To build, A church, Or a Christian system, Around the personality, Of a person, Of a man, No, We must build it, Around the word of God, And around Christ, His person, And his works, That is what the church, Must be built around, And any church, That is built, Not around personality, But around, Christ, And his teachings, And the, Wholesome ways, Tend to last, It can stand, Any onslaught of hell, See, Satan can, The devil says that, I'll build my church, Thank you, Holy Spirit, I'm getting too animated, I will build my church, Matthew chapter, 16, Verse 18, I will build my, Church,

[29:04] Upon this rock, Will I build my church, And the gates of hell, Will not prevail against the church, Great, Demons, And the work of the devil, Is not the problem, It is when he fights from within, When he enters us, And pollutes our teaching, Churches die, Not because people don't attend, Churches die, Because of teachings, One of the, Three things that normally kill a church, Wrong teachings, When sin is accommodated, And compromising, Alright, So, Maybe it's not, The teaching may not be wrong, But there are compromises all around, Compromising, Whatever, So, Compromises, Sin, When sin is comfortable in the church, And sin comes to the church, The church is on its way dying, According to Revelation chapter 3, Verse 1, Verse 1, It said, You have a name, That you are alive, But you are dead, You are dead, Even though you have a name, That you are alive, You are lively, But you are dead, You are dead, Sin kills the church, Compromising kills the church,

[30:07] And guess what, Wrong doctrine, Now, Sin and compromising, Are all functions, Of the type of teaching, Or lack of sound teaching, Or lack of healthy teaching, Or lack of wholesome ways, So, When wholesome ways lack, Then, Or when the teachings are not, The ways in the teaching, Are not central to the words of Christ, And according to the glorious gospel, Of the blessed God, And according, That accords with godliness, It's, Or, That, According to the acknowledgement of godliness, When that is getting missing, Or getting eclipsed, Or getting eroded, Then the church is on its way, Getting ready to die, How gangrene is going to spread, Very easily in the church, And so, Right from the beginning, The instruction to keep church going, Has always hinged, Or be based, Has always been based, Or has always been hinged, On the teachings in the church, The teachings in the church,

[31:09] It takes teachings to keep people healthy, When I talk about teaching, I'm not, As I said there, That I am not talking about, Communicating of facts, I'm talking about, Wholesome words that feeds people, Because, Satan can teach, But he can't feed, So, If the teaching is wholesome words, They don't only bring illumination, But they also bring feeding, They feed the spirit of man, They feed the spirit of the hearers, They feed, It's so important, So, We must give ourselves, To teachings that feed, In Revelation chapter 2, Bible spoke about, The church in fast, The churches that I mentioned, Church of Ephesus, They have lost their first love, And then church of Smyrna comes in, And church of Smyrna is a good church, The suffering church, They were persecuted, But they were faithful, Then right after, Because of the challenges, Then we have the church of Pergamos, Church of Pergamos, Because of challenges, Now begins to become worldly, Revelation chapter 2,

[32:09] Verse 14, It talks about, But I have a few things against you, You have some, That whole, The teaching of Balaam, The teaching of Balaam, Who taught, The teachings of Balaam, Who taught Balak, To put stumbling blocks, Before the sons of Israel, So they can, They might, Eat food sacrificed to idols, And commit sexual immoralities, The teaching, It was the teaching, That was producing the kind of sexual immorality, In the church, It's the teaching, It's the teaching, That sin that is growing the church, The teaching, The teaching, The teaching, The teaching, And then not just that, Then it says, Verse 15, Talk about, The teachings, You have accepted the teachings of the Nicolaitans, So first teaching, The teachings of Balaam, Second teaching, The teachings of the Nicolaitans, Third teaching in verse 20, But I have this against you, That is talking about, Down the church of Titeria, I have this against you, Against you, That you tolerate, You see, Compromising on the gospel, Compromising on the truth, Leads to tolerating what,

[33:11] It's not everything, That should be tolerable, Or tolerated by the church, It's not everything, Especially when it comes to teaching, We can't include everything, Now, Tolerated Jezebel, He said, For you tolerated, You have tolerated, That woman Jezebel, I'm reading from the, English standard version, You have tolerated, That woman Jezebel, Who calls herself, A prophetess, And is teaching, And seducing, My servant, To practice, Sexual immorality, Some things can happen, Certain types of sins, Can not easily happen, In the church, In, While certain teachings, Or, Certain kinds of sins, Can't happen, In the absence, Of certain teachings, Most of the degradation, Of church issues, Have to do with teachings, Teachings, The church remains strong, If the teaching, Remains wholesome, The church remains strong, If the doctrines, Remains sound,

[34:12] The quality, Of a pastor, Has everything to do, With the kind of teaching, Not, Not, Watch this, Not the, I'm not against, I believe in miracles, I pray, And for us, The answer is, I speak, Somebody's receiving a miracle now, Somebody's receiving a miracle, By the time this message is finished, Within an hour, Somebody's receiving a miracle, But, But the quality of a pastor, Or a man of God, Has not got to, Is not hinged, On the miracle, The person works, But is hinged, On the word, That God, In his mouth, The word, Oh, Some people say, I don't, You don't have to believe it, Like Jesus said, Disprove it, From God's word, The quality of a man of God, Has everything to do with, God's word, God's word, Hallelujah, God's word, He says, As I quoted the other time, The mouth of the priest, Shall keep knowledge, And the, Malachi, Malachi chapter 2 verse 7, And the people shall, Shall seek, The word of God from his mouth, Because he's a messenger of God, It's the mouth, He speak, He said, Thou shalt speak,

[35:13] And say, So the word of God, Is word, Where this should be found in mouth, Where, This book of the law, Shall not depart, Joshua chapter 1 verse 8, Shall not depart out of thy mouth, The word of God, He says, The word of faith, Which we preach, Romans chapter 10 verse 8, He says, What does he say?

[35:32] The word of faith, Which we preach, The word of, We preach it, And the word, The word that is coming out of, Our preaching, Is the word of faith, The quality of a man of God, Has everything to do, With the quality of the word of God, In his mouth, And now, Listen to you, The authority of a man of God, Has everything to do, With the authority, Behind the word he is speaking, So, God only backs his word, Jeremiah 1 verse 12, He said, I watch over my word, To perform, I haste my word, To perform it, His eyes are on his word, Speak the word, But thou, O man of God, In 1 Timothy chapter 5, Verse 17, It says that, Let the elders be counted, Worthy of double honor, Especially, Those who labor, In the word and doctrine, They are on another level, If you labor, In the word and doctrine, They are on another level, And so, My brothers and sisters, We have all been called, To be word people, Word Christians,

[36:33] Word based Christianity, Is what determines, The quality, And the purity, And the authenticity, Of your Christianity, If whatever you are practicing, Believing and pursuing, Can be, Can be, Supported by scripture, Please throw it away, Satan is using it against you, Forget about it, It doesn't matter how nice, It feels and sounds, It's not from God, Unless you can find it, In scripture, Praise God, They'll tell you, Oh man the Bible is, Oh that's that, Satan has always been speaking like that, Satan has always, Oh the Bible, Asian, It's been written many years, How can I just be living my life, Yes because you don't know God, You don't know, That's how Satan normally speaks, Satan is just, Has convinced you to mess you up, So the point here is that, Teachings, Teachings of Jezebel, And then the fourth type of teaching, Is the teaching, Verse 24 of Revelation chapter 2, Verse 24, Watch this, This is interesting, And I'll move out of there quickly, It says, It says, But to the rest of you, In Titeria, Who do not hold, This teaching,

[37:34] Who have not learned, Who have not learned, What some call, The deep things of Satan, So, Teachings of Balaam, Teachings of the Nicolaitans, Teachings of Jezebel, And the deep things of Satan, These are different types of teachings, And so, A time is coming, When people will not endure sound doctrine, But will turn their ears, Away from the truth, From the, They actually, They actually, Turn their ears, And it can happen to you, And I, If we are not mindful, If we don't watch out, We have to watch out, Now, Finally, As I mentioned, The yeast, Let me teach, This will be an amazing thing, Teachings is, Teachings, Is, Depicted as yeast, In the Bible, So look at this, Oh, In, In, Where should I even go, Okay, Let's, Let's just go, Quickly to, First, Galatians, I'm already here in Galatians, So Galatians chapter 5, Hallelujah,

[38:35] Galatians chapter 5, Verse 9, Watch this, It says this, It says that, A little living, Living is the whole lamb, A little living, Living, Living is yeast, You put in bread, For it to grow, For it to swell, And become big, A little living, You don't need too much, A little, It doesn't have to be too many things, So just a little, Just a little, Satan has always been a master, Just introduce it a little, And it will, Leaven the whole bread, Now watch this, In first Corinthians, Chapter 7, Chapter 5, Verse 6, And, 7, And 8, First Corinthians, Chapter 5, Verse 6, 7, And 8, It says that, Your glory is not good, Know ye not that, A little living, Leaveneth the whole lamb, You are boasting, And there's someone, Who is sinning comfortably, And sin is growing, In your church, And you are boasting, Our church is big, He said, Don't you know, He said, Your glory is nothing, Because the little living, So now, Sometimes when living, Yeast is used in the Bible,

[39:35] It means, It's referring to sin, Other times, When it's used in the Bible, It's also, But let me finish, A little living, Living the whole, For even Christ, Sorry, Verse 7, But, But, Sorry, Purge out therefore, The old living, That ye may be a new lamb, As, As ye are unleavened, For even Christ, Christ our Passover, Is sacrificed for us, Verse 8, Therefore, Let us keep the feast, Not with old living, Neither with the living, Of malice, Or wickedness, But, Watch this, But with the unliving bread, Of what?

[40:13] Sincerity and truth, The word of truth, Is unliving bread, Sincerity is unliving bread, That makes me, That leads me to, One of the points, In Luke chapter 12, Verse, Verse 1, Luke chapter 12, Verse 1, The Bible says that, In the meantime, When they were gathered together, An innumerable multitude of people, Sorry, When they are gathered together, An innumerable multitude of people, In so much that, They, They trod on, Upon, They trod one upon another, He began to say unto his disciples, First of all, Beware of the living of the Pharisees, Which is hypocrisy, The Pharisees, They are living, Is, Not living, Living, I-L-I-V-E, It's leaven, Leaven, Leaven, Their yeast is hypocrisy, So, When he said, Beware of the Pharisees, The yeast of the Pharisees, That means, Beware of their hypocrisy, So the Pharisees, Are professional hypocrites,

[41:14] They are astute hypocrites, They are hypocrites, Par excellence, They are amazing, They are good at it, That's what you do, So when he says, You are being Pharisee, Means that you are hypocrite, Alright, So it says that they are living, And you remember, What I just read, In 1 Corinthians chapter 5, Verse 8, It said, Let's, Not with a living bread, But with a living bread, Of sincerity, Hypocrisy is opposed to sincerity, Sincerity and truth, Alright, So now, First of all, When we talk about living bread, Leaven, In the Bible, Leaven stands for, Um, Stands for sin, Also, Leaven amongst God's people, Stands for hypocrisy, And then the third one, Which is the most important thing, But before I read the third one, Look at Exodus chapter 13, Verse 7, Exodus chapter 13, Verse 7, Says that, Unleavened bread shall, Unleavened bread shall be eaten seven days, Unleavened, Not bread that has leavened, Bread that has not got leavened, Seven days, And there shall no be, There shall no living bread be seen with thee,

[42:18] Neither shall there be leaven seen with thee, In all thy quarters, Don't bring leaven around you, God said, The people of God must stay far from leaven, Must stay far from yeast, People, It shouldn't be seen amongst you, And so, Yeast is dangerous amongst God's people, And we see that Jesus warned his disciples, That beware of the living of the Pharisees, Matthew chapter 16, This is where I will be ending the message, And I need you to be a bit attentive here, Brothers and sisters, Watch this, Then Jesus said unto them, Take heed and beware of the living of the Pharisees, And the Sadducees, And what did he say?

[43:02] He said, And the, And so, And the risen, That's the disciples, The disciples risen among themselves, Saying, Is it because we have no bread? Which when Jesus perceived, He said unto them, O ye of little faith, Faith, Why raising ye among yourselves, Because ye have brought no bread?

[43:18] Do you not understand? Neither remember the five loaves of, Five loaves of the five thousand, And how many baskets you took, We have five loaves, We fed five thousand, We caught many, So bread is not the issue, When I said, Be careful, Verse six again, And Jesus said unto them, Take heed, Beware of the living of the Pharisees, Beware, We have to be careful, Of the, Not only Pharisees, Pharisees and the Sadducees, Then, So then he comes back to them, And says that, Verse eleven, So after I told them that bread is not what I'm talking about, Verse eleven says that, How is it that ye do not understand, That I speak, That I speak it not to you concerning bread, That ye may beware of the living of the Pharisees and the Sadducees, He said, I'm not talking about bread, I'm not talking about bread, Watch the verse twelve, This is a beautiful one, Then understood they, How that he bid them not to be, He bid them not to beware of the living of bread, But the doctrine of the Pharisees and the Sadducees,

[44:21] Doctrine is living, Doctrine, Teaching of the Pharisees, What did the Pharisees teach? Matthew chapter, This is who they were, In Matthew chapter 23, Verse thirteen, It talks about, For the hypocrites, The Pharisees, Verse fourteen, He said, The Pharisees were hypocrites, Verse fifteen, He said, All Pharisees, Ye hypocrite, Verse twenty-three, He said, Ye hypocrite, Pharisees, Ye hypocrite, Verse twenty-five, He said, Ye hypocrite, Verse twenty-seven, He said, Ye hypocrite, Verse twenty-nine, Pharisees, Ye hypocrite, So because they are hypocritical, everything, they operate in a system of hypocrisy.

[44:56] So they are saying one thing, but that's not what they believe and practice. They are saying it, what they are telling is not who they are and what they're for. So their teaching and philosophy is undergirded or is shrouded in hypocrisy.

[45:08] How about the Sadducees? The Sadducees in the book of Acts, Acts chapter 23, verse 8.

[45:19] Acts chapter 23, verse 8. This is how he puts it. He says that, For the Sadducees say there is no resurrection, neither angels nor spirits, but the Pharisees confess both.

[45:29] So the Sadducees, they don't believe in resurrection, angels or spirits. They don't believe in anything supernatural. All this prayer, prayer, it doesn't matter. All this power, power, it doesn't matter. That's the Sadducees talking. They don't believe.

[45:40] They are so liberals. They don't believe in anything. And so the Pharisees and the Sadducees, can you imagine Pharisees teaching you? He's so liberal. He will teach you away from the truth of God's word, which is, the word in itself is supernatural in nature.

[45:57] And God is a supernatural God. He's a God of miracles and power. On the other hand, the Sadducees, the Pharisees, they are hypocritical. They are teaching you, and when you expose yourself to their yeast, you become what God has not meant you to be.

[46:10] Now watch this. Matthew chapter 13, you will like this. So now, I've spoken about three things that yeast represents. One, sin. When the Bible talks about yeast among God's people, or leaven among God's people.

[46:22] Leaven stands for yeast. A little leaven destroys the whole thing, the whole lamb. So leaven stands for sin. Bible says in Hebrews chapter 12 from verse 13, amazing scripture, verse 15 particularly, talking about how we should not be like Esau.

[46:40] You know, we have to be careful about behavior and the things we accommodate, unless we be like Esau selling our best right. Behavior is important. And in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verse 33, he said, don't you know that evil communication, evil association, you open yourself to certain kind of company, and he says that it will corrupt good manners.

[47:00] So it's like yeast, yeast, yeast infecting you. So one, the yeast amongst God's people means sin. Number two, yeast among God's people means hypocrisy.

[47:11] Number three, yeast amongst God's people means teachings, wrong teachings, teachings that are infected. They may look okay, but it is not sound. It's not wholesome teaching.

[47:22] So watch this. Matthew chapter 33, verse. Chapter 13, verse 33 says that another parable speak he unto them. The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven.

[47:36] You see, leaven has appeared here again. Leaven, which a woman, a woman has appeared here. A woman took and hid in three measures of meal till the whole was leavened.

[47:51] What? This is interesting. He said the kingdom of God is like a woman, a leaven which a woman took and inserted the yeast in a lamb.

[48:02] The meal, the three, three, three, he said, inserted it into three measures of meal. The meal really stands for Christ. Who is our meal? He's our Passover. Who we eat. He said, they put in, instead of keeping the word, the way is.

[48:15] This woman, who is this woman? Normally in the Bible, there are certain particular depiction of some particular women that represent the people of God, corporate people of God.

[48:30] One, Eve was representing God's people. Another, so the woman, Eve, the second woman you can find that represent God's people is this woman I'm talking about. It stands for the church.

[48:43] And the third woman I'm talking, in the Bible is when Paul told the husband, husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her. That her, that church, that bride is the woman, all right, the corporate woman.

[48:56] And then the fourth woman is in Revelation chapter 12. It says that wonder appeared in heaven. A woman who was crowned with stars. And she was shining, clothed with the moon. And she gave birth.

[49:06] And there was a dragon who was waiting as soon as the child is born. As soon as any good thing, the quality Christians come out or we begin, the church begins to produce them. The devil was ready to crush them.

[49:17] My Bible says that he, they were, as soon as the child was born, the heaven took, it's like rapture. Raptured the strong part, the pure part of the woman, the man child into heaven.

[49:28] And then head hit the woman. God hit the woman. So that woman is talking about the church. It's a type of the church. And then we have the, that's the same woman as the halot, the mystery halot, mystery Babylon.

[49:42] So in Revelation chapter 17, verse 3 and 4, that halot is the same woman. Okay, so it's a woman. When I say the same woman, I mean the woman that represents a church, the church.

[49:55] Okay, so the church is reflected in scriptures as a woman, a particular type of woman. And then finally, in Revelation chapter 21, verse 2, it says that I saw the bride adorned for her husband.

[50:07] The new Jerusalem coming down as a bride. So the new Jerusalem is a type of a woman. It's like a bride adorned for her husband. In the verse 9, first, Revelation 21, verse 9, it says that the marriage of the lamb has come and his bride has made herself ready.

[50:23] In Revelation chapter 22, verse 17, it says that the spirit and the bride, the bride being the church, the spirit and the bride say, come. All right. So the bride in Revelation, which is the heavenly Jerusalem, is also depicted as a woman who is.

[50:37] So these five, Eve, the woman in Matthew chapter 13, 33, the woman in Ephesians chapter 5, that's the bride of Christ, and the woman in Revelation chapter 12, and the woman in Revelation chapter 21.

[50:51] All these women represent God's people. But this woman is like a church which has taken yeast and hidden the yeast. We have allowed some doctrine to come, and the Bible says that it pollutes the whole church.

[51:05] Let me read it again. Jesus said, another parable speak unto them, the kingdom of heaven is like unto living, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was living.

[51:21] So what does that mean? We have to be very careful about the doctrines we are allowing, the teachings we are allowing our church to be exposed to or ourselves to be exposed to. And you know what?

[51:32] We should have a lot of deliberations. The church leaders must have deliberations around doctrine so we can have the right doctrine. It's doctrine. It's pure doctrine that is in accordance with the glorious gospel of the blessed God.

[51:46] The doctrine that accords with the words of Jesus. The doctrine that accords with godliness. The doctrine that is in accordance with the acknowledgement of the truth.

[51:58] The doctrine that makes the church become the pillar and the grounds of the truth. That doctrine is what is called the word of truth and the way that puts us in the way of truth.

[52:10] That word of truth. Now, it is propagated or it is disseminated or it is communicated or it is revealed, it is transferred through teachings and preaching.

[52:23] So it's not only preaching from behind the pulpit, but that is the key one. However, every Christian must have something to say about, some wholesome words to say.

[52:33] So as I'm teaching these wholesome words, you are receiving the wholesome words. Don't take it raw. Just go back to the text. Check the scriptures, the things I'm referring to. Check them in the scriptures and apply your heart to them.

[52:46] Make sure what I'm saying is so in the scriptures. And then once you find out in the scriptures that this is what the scripture is saying within its context. I'm not saying that take it out of context. Because as I said the other time, it is very easy or not easy.

[52:58] But people, you can make the scripture say what you want it to say. There are a lot of people who are, I said they are asegeting. They are asegeting. They read into the scripture what the scripture is not saying.

[53:11] But we are supposed to read out of the scripture what it's saying. It's, oh, okay, this is what it means. This is what it means. But you can't do that if you don't, if you are not diligent in studies. That is why every Christian is mandatory and is incumbent on every Christian to have a very good relationship with your Bible.

[53:30] With your Bible. Every good Christian must have your own Bible. Have a Bible. Own a Bible. And if you can, own different versions for your studies.

[53:41] And own them. If you download them. Why do you have a phone? You have WhatsApp and you don't have Bible on your phone. What? A Christian like you? Oh, no, come on. I won't commend you for that.

[53:52] You have WhatsApp on your phone. You have other apps on your phone. But you don't have Bible on your phone. Oh, you are not a serious Christian. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.

[54:03] But I encourage you. Make sure you are a Bible addict. A Bible-believing Christian. A Bible and wholesome word-speaking Christian.

[54:14] So that when you speak, it's not living. You don't speak living. You speak wholesome. You speak sound. Because the sound words of God are in your heart. And you constantly keep feeding yourself over and over.

[54:27] I'm talking about the little living. Let's watch out for the little living. Let's watch out. Let's watch out against the little living. It might be little, but it can cause a lot of harm.

[54:39] Because it will live in the whole land. Churches suffer. Churches die. Churches decline. Not because people don't attend. Churches decline. Not because there is not a pastor.

[54:50] Churches decline. Because there is not a teacher. Any church. Any group of Christians who gather. Without making the word of God central. That gathering will not last.

[55:02] It is on its way out of history. Out of existence. It is going. Because Satan will clear you. He will sweep you out. That will not be our testimony.

[55:14] I pray that God help us to stay strong in this word. Keep growing in the word. The Bible says that grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Growing in grace.

[55:25] 2 Peter 3 verse 18. Growing in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. In Ephesians chapter 4. It says that verse 13. Until we all come to the stature of the fullness of Christ.

[55:38] To the knowledge of the stature and the stature of the fullness of Christ. To a perfect man. It gives apostles. It gives apostles. It gives apostles. It gives apostles. Ephesians chapter 4 verse 12. It gives some to the apostles.

[55:49] Some prophets. Some evangelists. Some pastors and teachers. For the equipping of the saints. For the work of the ministry. So we all come to the unity of faith.

[56:03] To the fullness of the stature of the Son. To the fullness of the stature of Christ. I think. Permit me to read it. I hope you wouldn't mind if I read it.

[56:15] I just tend to like to quote. Read it properly. It says that. So we all come to the unity of faith. And to the knowledge of the Son of God.

[56:27] And to the. To a perfect man. Unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. So we all come to the unity of faith. And to the knowledge of the Son of God.

[56:37] That is what the pastors, prophets, evangelists, teachers, apostles are given. To equip the saints. The word equip means. The Greek word is katatizo. That's where we get katechism from.

[56:49] Which means to mend. To teach. To equip. Bible says all scripture. Second Timothy chapter 3 verse 16. All scripture is given by the inspiration of God. And it is profitable for doctrine.

[57:00] For reproof. For corruption. Instruction. Righteousness. Verse 17. That the man of God will be thoroughly equipped. Thoroughly equipped. Equipped. That word equip there. Is the same thing. Ephesians chapter 3. Ephesians chapter 4.

[57:11] For the equipping of the saints. So you'll be equipped. It takes the word of God to equip. Equipped means to teach. To mend. And what I'm doing. I'm mending you. I'm teaching you. I'm issuing out the words. The words of truth.

[57:23] The word of truth to you. And I pray. That God help us all grow. In our knowledge of Christ. And be solid. In Christ. And in the church. And be so useful to God. In the church.

[57:34] And growing the church. And making impact in the church. And making impact in our world. I pray that grace. Will find and locate you. In Jesus mighty name. Remember.

[57:44] A little leaven. Leavens the whole lamp. A little leaven. Watch out for the little leaven. And feed on wholesome ways. Don't turn your ears away from truth.

[57:57] Give yourself to the truth. And you will do well in Christ. In Jesus mighty name. We thank God for using his servant. Reverend Dr. David Entry. To share this awesome word. If this message has blessed you in any way.

[58:10] Please spread the word by sharing it. And send us an email. To amen at karis.org Remember to stay connected with us. On Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Twitter. For regular updates.

[58:21] On what God is doing here. At Karis Ministries. Stay blessed.