The Glorying of Leaven — Carter Conlon

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Good morning to all of our visitors today. I trust that you've already experienced the life of Christ that is in this house and believe that God will touch you in an increasingly special way before this day is finished.

Conquering Strong Cities Through God's Power

Now, the Holy Spirit spoke to us at the beginning of 2003 about coming to challenge and to conquer strong cities. Now, strong cities are those areas that are found in all of our lives that are just so deeply embedded in us for whatever reason that it is impossible for these areas to be changed or conquered apart from the prevailing power of God coming and doing it for us.

And the Lord said, if you have an open heart, I'm going to come. I'm going to conquer very strong cities and there's going to be an incredible freedom that comes because of this. Times Square Church was founded on a foundation of truth.

It was founded essentially on that scripture that says, whosoever falls on this stone, of course, that stone being Christ, shall be broken. And I remember being here when the brokenness that had come into God's people had reached, as it is, its fulfillment.

And the end result of God's people being in agreement with his estimation, as it is, of their spiritual condition, is an incredible outbreak of joy, the joy that you and I experience when we meet together in this house.

I was here actually when it began to really break out, an incredible joy, when the entire congregation began to leap up and down in the air, beginning to realize that God not only provided our redemption through his son, Jesus Christ, but he provided the power to live the Christian life.

But you have to want the redemption before you can have the power. You have to want to be free before freedom comes. We have to agree with God. The Bible says clearly that we're to agree with our adversary while we walk in the way, lest we be cast into prison.

And you understand that there are times when we're not walking in truth, that truth becomes our adversary. And God said, if truth becomes your adversary, agree very quickly, because if you don't, you'll be cast into a horrible prison.

And, of course, that prison is a place of self-righteousness, self-made righteousness. Nobody wants to live there. If you're an honest Christian, you don't want to live there. There's no joy there. It's hard.

It's dry. It's a finger pointing place, because the only way you can maintain your righteousness is to point at everyone else's faults around you. It's a terrible, horrible prison. And there are seasons and times when the Holy Spirit must come back and do a work again in his people.

And I believe that we are entering into one of those seasons here at Times Square Church. These are difficult messages to preach, difficult to live. But God in his grace will both allow me to speak this message this morning and allow you to hear it.

And I would promise you today that if you'll open your heart, the end result of what seems to be grievous is joy. The end result is a breaking of shackles. It's a putting off of all disguises. Nothing more horrible than being a Christian and have to walk into the house of God in disguise.

Who do we think we're fooling anyway? I mean, we fool the people beside us, but not God. I mean, this is all about Jesus Christ. It's about the all-seeing one who created us and knew our hearts before we even formed in our mother's womb.

He knows the thought you're about to think right before you even thought this thought you're thinking. Now he knew what you were going to think. There's nothing hidden from him. And so we see the absolute foolishness of any spiritual disguise that is really a stronghold that has never been conquered by the love and the power of God.

So I wanted to share that as a foundation for what I'm about to speak today and what I believe the Holy Spirit is going to be going after in the in the next little while here at Times Square Church. Let's pray together.

Father, I thank you for the anointing of the Holy Spirit. I thank you that you love this church. You love us all. You love us so much that as a father, you will chasten us if necessary. You will come after the things that we are beginning to embrace that will choke the testimony of your life out of us because you care.

And Lord, we're coming to your throne today because we know this. We all know that we have failed. In ourselves, we've all fallen short of the glory of God. But you have made provision for our redemption and you've made provision for our victory.

And so, Lord, it's in this light that we come to your word today. We don't come to be condemned. We come to be convicted. We come, oh God, to have the light of your heart and to shine in every area where we have failed of the grace that you have freely given to us.

Lord God, we ask that you would give us the ability to hear, the ability to put off the old nature. And Jesus, that you would be glorified in us. Be glorified in this church. Be glorified in us corporately as a church body and also individually as Christians.

Let the life and the light of Christ be the only thing that emanates from us from this day until you return to take us home. Jesus, thank you for great grace today. I need great grace and we need great grace to hear.

Father, we thank you for it in Jesus' mighty name. First Corinthians chapter 5, please, in the New Testament. First Corinthians chapter 5. I'm going to go to read two verses of scripture. My message title is The Glorying of Leaven.

The Leaven of Sin and the Need for Sincerity

The Glorying of Leaven. First Corinthians chapter 5 verses 6 and 7. Remember last week we talked about Joshua and the children of Israel coming into the promised land. Winning a marvelous victory at Jericho only to be defeated by a little city called Ai.

It may have been small but it became a stronghold because in the army of Israel there was a hidden thing. And all of these things in the Old Testament the Bible tells us are shadows and types for us who are the church of Jesus Christ.

And sometimes what should be a little thing becomes a stronghold because there is something hidden somewhere. It might be in a remote corner of our conscience. It might be in a faraway place. We may not think it's even significant.

I remember sharing last week that Joshua, for example, looking out over the hundreds of thousands of people that were moving into the place of promise. And God sends them into defeat because in one tent, if you were looking out perhaps over a hillside, you'd have a hard time to even see that tent.

It was so insignificant, so far away. But in that one tent, hidden beneath it, was a deception as it is. And God said, because of this thing, I'm going to let you fall before this small and insignificant city so that all people everywhere will understand that the victory is won when there is a people who are sincere and upright.

When God spoke to Abraham and said, I'm going to bless you and I'm going to make you a blessing through all the earth. He said to Abraham, be perfect. The word perfect in the Hebrew is just be sincere and upright.

That's all God has ever asked of you and I. Be honest, in other words. Be honest with me. Let us come and meet face to face. Let's reason together. Thank God that when he finds a people who have that honest reasoning heart, that he can call something that we are reluctant to call what it is.

He can say, I've found something in a remote area of your conscience, your heart, your practice. And you've gotten so used to it that you don't think it's of any consequence. But I have allowed you this struggle.

I've allowed it to come into your life so that you will cry out to me and say, where is this and what is it that's causing the defeat? Remember, Joshua went down on his face and began to cry out and bemoan the fact that they were even brought into the place of promise.

And the Lord said to Joshua, get up. And he said, there's a reason why you are suffering a defeat. Now, it wasn't a catastrophic defeat anyway. It was the 36 men. Albeit that is tragic for 36 families to lose their father and husband.

But considering the tens of thousands of soldiers he had, it was not a catastrophic defeat. But nevertheless, it was a defeat. And this brought Joshua to the place of agreeing with God that when there is sin hidden in the camp, that the whole camp can be brought into defeat.

It only takes one area in our lives for the devil to get in. And once he gets in, it expands. It begins to affect the mind. It affects the attitude. It affects their actions. And even worse, it begins to justify itself with religious robes.

There's nothing that smells worse than a religious spirit in the house of God. It's a terrible thing if you've ever been in a place like that. 1 Corinthians 5, 6, Paul says, Your glorying is not good.

Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ, our Passover, is sacrificed for us. Now, Paul is saying in verse 6, Your rejoicing and boasting of Christ being your Savior and walking with you is not good.

And in the original text, what it says in the Greek New Testament is basically that it's not in balance. It's not complete. Paul says, You are coming together, Corinthian church, and you are raising your hands and you are declaring a testimony of Christ, but your rejoicing is out of balance.

There's an incompleteness in it. And he said, Now let me tell you why. In verse 7, of course, he tells him, he says, Purge out the old leaven. And the word for leaven is sin, which penetrates the daily life.

It's everything that disgraces the Christian and takes away from the new life that he's supposed to have in Christ. But Paul says, There's an old leaven in the middle of you. You are raising your hands.

And you see, Paul was concerned because there was a sin which was known to the people and it was not being dealt with. Now, in this particular case, there was a man, chapter 5, it says it's reportedly, verse 1, commonly that there's fornication among you.

And such fornication is not so much as even named among the Gentiles that one should have his father's wife. So here's a man, as it is living in a sexual, incestual relationship with his mother. And it's in the church.

The people are aware of it, but they've become, there's a coldness in the hearts of the people to sin. I don't know, maybe there was a point where the people would have been horrified. But along the way, there's always that leaven of the devil wanting to creep into the house of God.

Well, that's just the way things are. Well, our society is different today than they were back then. They were more righteous even before coming to God than we are today. And God understands all these struggles and all these intertwining excuses.

You see, folks, the problem is that nothing has ever changed. Man is just as sinful as he was in the Garden of Eden, just as absolutely deceptive, and God is still as holy. The power of God is still as real as it always was.

Man's intent of his heart to deceive God never changes. That's the greatest deception of all. I mean, we could speak about all kinds of deception, but imagine trying to deceive God. That is the ultimate foolishness that is found in the heart of man.

And this was going on, and Paul says to the church, he says, and you are puffed up, verse 2, chapter 5, verse 2, and you've not rather mourned that he that has done this deed might be taken away from among you.

Now, the word puffed up means you're proud. You're standing with so little concern for the death which is attached to you. That's an incredible thing. Paul says there's a death. Now, I know the tendency now for everybody is to look to the left and to the right and say, well, what's going on in Times Square Church?

It's not what's going on in Times Square Church, it's what's going on in you. It's what's going on in me. What have we brought into the house of God today that God says is death? And this death is attached to us, but we've become accustomed to it.

Oh, well, it's just here. It's always been here. It's going to be here. So God's I'm able to worship. So God must be accepting this thing. I do feel that tingly presence every time I come to Times Square Church.

So everything must be all right. I can lift my hands. I can sing the songs. I get excited. I jump up and down. And but Paul says, no, this is pride. You are exalting yourself above the knowledge of God.

You are coming into my house and you are making a declaration of worship that God says, I don't agree with it. It isn't true. It's not right. And Paul says, you've not rather mourned. In other words, you've not yearned that this would so dishonors Christ might be taken away from you.

Paul says, what what's happened in this particular instance? What's happened to the people that this kind of a thing can come and attach itself to the body? It attaches itself to the personality, to the body, to the practice of the body.

And I'm talking about everybody, everybody individually in the church of Jesus Christ now. And Paul says, how come you can come into the presence of God and go through the whole ritual of saying that Christ is your king?

How come you can lift your hands and say he's Lord, he's savior, he's everything and all to me and have this death in your midst and you're not mourning about it? Now, the Lord doesn't want us to have our heads hung down every time we come in over every little thing that we've struggled with throughout the week there.

Yes, there's an understanding that Christ is our righteousness. And if we do have a struggle failing in our lives, that he does provide the grace and the covering in the middle of that struggle. And he does provide the strength to overcome that struggle.

But Paul's not talking about the struggling Christian. This is a blatant sin that's been accepted in the midst of the people. And Paul says there should be a mourning. There should be a grief in your heart.

Say, oh, God, how could this be part of my life as a Christian? And why should it be there? For example, husbands that are mistreating your wives this morning and you're mistreating your children, you're verbally abusing the gifts that God has given you in your own house.

You should be mourning. You should not be lifting your hands and rejoicing if you have made an agreement with this death. Oh, yes, if you are believing God to set you free, then raise your hands and rejoice.

But if you are living in agreement with this and say, oh, well, that's the way I've always been. And that's the way I'm always going to be. Then everybody around me has to learn to live with my vicious temper.

Now, that's just the way I am. God understands it. I expect everyone else to around me to understand it. And Paul says, no, that's pride. That's exalting oneself against the knowledge of God. You should be mourning.

There should be something in your heart that causes you to weep and say, oh, Jesus, my life is such a disgrace in this area. It falls so short of the glory that you got from me. This is a city that I have an inability to conquer in my own strength.

Oh, Christ, come now and give me the victory. Oh, Jesus, if you've got to shame me before my family. God, do whatever you have to do, but give me the victory. And Paul says somewhere along the line, you've lost that cry.

I think of the multitudes going to the house of God throughout this country today. Multitudes who are drunks. Multitudes living in adultery. Multitudes who are on the brink of divorce because of an inward, deep, embedded selfishness that's in the heart.

Multitudes that are taking drugs instead of turning to Jesus Christ. Multitudes living in fornication. And I could go on and on and on, coming into the house of God, singing the songs of Zion. But there's a problem with this.

And Paul says, how did this get to be that way in the house of God? He said, even Christ, in verse 7, our Passover is sacrificed for us. And Paul, I believe, is asking in a form of rhetorical question.

And it's something like this. He says, how shall we not be fully given to the one who fully gave himself for us, for our redemption? How is it that this is only a one-way relationship now in the Corinthian church?

How is it that Christ can come to this earth, God Almighty, in the flesh, give totally of himself to the last drop of blood and water on the cross on Calvary, and that we can come and give a partial, as it is, yielding of ourselves to the kingdom of God, and say, this is sufficient.

Paul says, no, this is not right. This is not right. This is a pride coming into the presence of God. Chapter 5 again, verse 8. He says, therefore, let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

Now, let's keep the feast, Paul says. Christ was sacrificed for us. It was a total giving of himself. Let's obey God. Now, Paul is referring to the Exodus feast. Most are familiar with that, where every family that was about to be released from the grip of Egypt, which, of course, represents the grip of Satan and the grip of darkness, was to eat a lamb in their home, but they were to eat it with unleavened bread.

Now, leaven in the Bible is yeast. It refers to fermentation. Leaven is used most often in the context of corruption. And Paul is saying, we are called, as they were, to ingest Christ. We are called not to have a Christ who is on the outside, that we kind of pick and choose what he says and say, well, I like that.

I'll agree with that. I'll incorporate that into my life. I don't like that. I'm not going there. No, he said, that's hypocrisy. That's leaven. We are to come to Christ, and we are to ingest him. Remember, he said to the crowd, he said, if you don't eat my body and drink my blood, you have no life in you.

You have no life. In other words, he said, it's the whole thing. If you want the redemption, you have to have the ingestion. You have to go to this book, and you have to eat it. In effect, it's got to become part of your life.

Christ in us, Paul says, of course, is the hope of glory. And we're to ingest Christ without hypocrisy. The angel of death was passing over even God's people. And he said, when I find the blood on the door, when I find people in that house eating the lamb, when I find unleavened bread, I pass over that house.

The Pharisees' Leaven: Hypocrisy, Pride, and Religious Performance

There's going to be nothing but deliverance and victory come to that people. Now, Luke chapter 12, if you'll go back there, Luke chapter 12, verse 1. Now, Jesus said something to the people. He said, in the meantime, when there were gathered together an innumerable multitude of people, insomuch that they trod upon one another, he began to say to his disciples, first of all, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.

There's nothing covered that shall not be revealed, and neither hid that shall not be known. In other words, he says to his disciples, listen, there's a day coming when everything that is hidden by religion is going to be made known.

And not only is it going to be made known, but listen to how it's going to be made known. Therefore, whatsoever has been spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light, and that which you have spoken in the ear in the closets shall be proclaimed upon the housetops.

In other words, it will be public knowledge. God said, whatever has been hidden behind it, I have to expose it for what it is. Eventually, some men's sins go before and some men's follow after. Jesus tells us to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.

The definition of hypocrisy is acting under a pretended part. Beware that you don't become an actor in the house of God. Incredible. An actor. There's a lot of actors in the house of God. They all scream at their families all the way to church.

The moment they walk in the back door, praise the Lord, how are you doing? God bless you. Did you have a good week? Playing the part, the curtain rises, and they're on the stage as it is. The moment they come in the door, and it's a different person.

The children look back and say, what happened to my father? Acting. You see, the Pharisees, Christ clearly put them before the x-ray machine as it is of God's eyes. And later on said, dear, I'll tell you exactly what you are.

And he explained to them in uncertain terms what exactly was going on inside of them. And he told the church, he's telling first his disciples, then the multitude, but first those that are closest to him.

He said, beware that this leaven of hypocrisy doesn't get into you. Beware that you don't get to a place in some area of your life where you become the great pretender on Sunday morning and Tuesday night and all around you.

I tell you, folks, there are many children who don't serve the Lord because of this. Because they see mom and dad or cousin or aunt or guardian, whatever it is. They see them do one thing in the house of God, but they know the reality is something else.

They watch their parents put on their costume in the house of the Lord and come in and do all the Christian thing and raise their hands and praise. But they know that there is a death at work in them.

They've embraced something of death and they're not mourning over it. There's no cry for change in that area of their lives. The children look at it and draw a conclusion that the whole thing is not real.

They say, well, I'm not interested in acting. I want the real thing or I want nothing. I'm not interested in becoming part of a Christian play on Sunday morning. He goes on to say in the same chapter, verse 8, he said, Therefore I say to you, whosoever shall confess me before men, him shall the Son of God confess before the angels of God.

Now, you have many, many people that say, well, Jesus is Lord. But you know that Scripture is interpreted by Scripture. For Christ himself said, not everyone that says, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of God.

Not ever. So there are people out there confessing Christ is Lord, but they're not going to go to heaven. When you look a little closer, we find that the definition of the word confess in the Greek New Testament is simply this.

It's to publicly acknowledge Christ and to celebrate in fact and in truth with public praises. Now, here's what he's saying. Whoever comes into my presence or whoever lives their Christian life and there is an aura as it is of true celebration because in fact and in truth I am in there and I am subduing every area of their life.

I am subduing all of their enemies. I am overthrowing kingdoms. There is radical change taking place in the temple of the Holy Ghost. I am in there overthrowing the tables, throwing out the money changers and the sellers of doves.

I'm driving them out of the temple. There is radical change going on. Well, they may not be what they hope to be yet, but they are not what they were the day before. There is a change and ever increasing change going on in their life.

And this is the confession. He's saying it's the Christian who comes in to my presence and lifts his hands and lifts her voice and is singing praises to God because of the victories that have been won.

Lifting their voice with praise to God because of the battle they're in. But there's a faith in their heart that says, I'm in a struggle. This is a strong city, but I know the outcome because I know my God.

This death will not attach to me. I will never make peace with it. I will never become complacent until this thing is gone. Until it's dead. Until it's out of my life. Hallelujah. This is the confession that Jesus Christ is talking about.

It's not just a confession. It's a celebration. Jesus himself said the Father is searching for people to worship him in spirit and in truth. That means that people who have ingested the truth of God and by the power of the spirit, the truth is becoming a reality in them.

That's true worship. It's change. It's a metamorphosis as it is from the old to the new. Putting away the old man and putting on by God's grace the new man which is created after true righteousness in Christ Jesus.

Thanks be to God for the incredible grace that he gives that he alone may accomplish this in us by faith. He said, but he that denies me before men shall be denied before the angels of God. Denied in the original text is to reject him either in the face of former relationship or better knowledge.

In other words, he said there are those who knew who I was or am. They knew about my power but even in the face of that knowledge chose to reject it. They've used me. The second definition is to gain say without further consideration of the object.

In other words, it means to use Christ to improves one position in life without regard to the true relationship that he requires with those who are his. And folks, listen to me. We're living in a generation of people who are using Christ in the house of God.

Using Christ for success. Using Christ for wealth. Using Christ for better self-esteem. Using Christ but no regard to the relationship that is required from those who are his. This amounts to nothing less than a denial of Jesus Christ.

It's a denial. Paul warned in the last days there are going to be people who have an incredible form of godliness. Their talk will be godly. Their dress will be godly. But their lives are a denial of the power of God to transform those who are his.

That's what it means. But they deny the power. They deny the power. Their lives are a denial of the power of God because they've made allegiances with death. They walk into the house of God and they've either made an allegiance because they feel the battle is too strong or they've made an allegiance because that's just the way they want to be.

And he said they shall be denied before the angels of God. And the context is denied future hope and redemption. Incredible. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. You see, covenant is a marvelous truth.

Grace, Holiness, and the Danger of Using Christ

The truth of the New Testament covenant shows us the grace, the incredible grace of God to forgive and the incredible power by faith to change. It's all God really. We come bankrupt. We have no resources.

We give our lives to him and we trust his words to us that he comes by the power of the Holy Spirit and performs it all that he might be glorified in us. Incredible, wonderful truth. But we must never take that truth and abuse that grace because the fear of the Lord is still the beginning of wisdom.

God says, yes, I'm extremely gracious, but I'm also holy. I'm also God of truth. And whatsoever is not of truth is not going to stand before me in the last day. And whosoever has professed my name, but their lives have denied the power that I give to those that are mine.

I will deny them before the angels of God in heaven. Incredible truth. Now go with me in the Old Testament to Daniel, please. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel. Daniel chapter 5. Now this is the end of the Babylonian kingdom.

There was a co-regent, a co-ruler over Babylon at this time and his name was Belshazzar. And he did something that brought about the end of his kingdom. We do well to take heed. Belshazzar, Daniel chapter 5, verse 1.

The king made a great feast to a thousand of his lords and drank wine before the thousand. And Belshazzar, while he tasted the wine, commanded to bring the golden and silver vessels, which his father Nebuchadnezzar, or his grandfather actually, had taken out of the temple.

Which was in Jerusalem, that the king and his princes and his wives and his concubines might drink therein. And they brought the golden vessels that were taken. Now this is out of Solomon's temple, from the house of God, which was at Jerusalem.

And the king and his princes and his wives and his concubines drank in them. And they drank wine and they praised the gods of gold, silver, brass, iron, wood and stone. In the same hour came forth fingers of a man's hand and wrote over against the candlestick upon the plaster of the wall of the king's palace.

And the king saw the part of the hand that wrote. Now there's a search in the New Testament called Ephesus. Where the Lord said, I know your works and I know what you've done and I know your labor and I know how you're born.

He said, but I have something against you. You've left your first love. Now in the context of what we're reading, we could say that leaving that first love. You remember when you first came to Christ?

And all we wanted was to be free. Paul, where there was a sense of victory, an ominous sense of victory, that the devil had finally seen his last. That his reign in our lives was over. It was finished.

He had been openly spoiled at Calvary. And we were going to be new creations in Christ. And that has to be the first love. It has to be. Now obviously there's a deeper context because we can say without any hesitation that Christ loved us before we loved him.

But in the context of that love, there's a freedom that comes to the Christian church. And now he says you're doing all these things but you've left your first love. And he said if you don't repent and understand from where you've fallen, I'm going to come and take your candlestick away.

Now that was the New Testament church of Ephesus. Here is Belshazzar and he is having a feast with the things of God. He's using the holy vessels for his own glory and his own gain. He has turned the worship of Christ into the worship of gold.

And the worship of silver and the worship of wood. The worship of things of the world as it is. Everything that the world says will make you happy and grant you fulfillment. Belshazzar has now changed the form of worship and he's using the holy things.

That's when the hand of God comes and writes on the wall right near the candlestick and said this is finished. It is over. Oh beloved, I believe right now the handwriting is on the wall for the whole faith and prosperity movement in the western world.

The handwriting of God is on the wall because they have taken the holy things of God and they have turned it into praise of gold and silver and wood and the work of men's hands. There comes a point where God says enough.

I've numbered your kingdom and I've finished it. It's over. Now Daniel came to Belshazzar and he said Belshazzar, you had a grandfather. He calls him a father but it's a type in a sense. They use that word for male lineage.

And he says Nebuchadnezzar knew because God dealt with him. And when his heart was lifted up and his mind hardened in pride, God took him off of his throne and they took his glory and he was driven out and he was made to understand that the most high God rules in the kingdom of men and he gives it to whomsoever he will.

Then in verse 22 he says, And you, his son, O Belshazzar, you've not humbled your heart, though you knew all of this. Belshazzar, you knew this. You were taught this. Your grandfather passed on this knowledge of God to you.