When the disciples reached the other side, they had forgotten to bring any bread.  Jesus said to them, “Watch and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”  And they began discussing it among themselves, saying, “We brought no bread.”  But Jesus, aware of this, said, “O you of little faith, why are you discussing among yourselves the fact that you have no bread?  Do you not yet perceive? Do you not remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many baskets you gathered?  Or the seven loaves for the four thousand, and how many baskets you gathered?  How is it that you fail to understand that I did not speak about bread? Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”  Then they understood that he did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees. – Matthew 16:5-12 ESV

Warrior;

Beware of the LEAVEN of the Pharisees and Sadducees! Jesus overhears the disciples, HE KNOWS their hearts and He knows their concerns- and asks them why they are preoccupied with having something to eat. Do they not understand His miracles in providing for their immediate needs? Or is it that perhaps they have hardened hearts — that they have seen His truth and rejected it- as the Pharisees and Sadducees have? Jesus is calling us to REMEMBER HIM and what HE HAS DONE HITHER TO! When we forget the works of God, and distrust him- we should chide ourselves severely for it, as Christ does to his disciples here; “Am I thus without understanding? How is it that my heart is thus hardened?”

Leader, Herod, and his LIKE were generally men of no religion., The Pharisees demanded a sign from heaven; and Herod was long desirous to see some miracle wrought by Christ (Lu. 23:8); such as he should prescribe, so that the leaven of both was the same; they were unsatisfied with the signs they had and would have others of their own devising. Jesus was saying, ‘Did you NOT trust me to provide for your needs? Stop fretting about bread and have faith.’ We can fall into lapses of faith and begin to worry. Jesus’s rebuke of the disciples holds true for us when we begin to doubt His grace and goodness towards us. Just a smidgen of the leaven of the Pharisees and Herod suffices to transform what is good and useful into something bad and useless.

Conduit, UNBELIEF in Christ is the leaven of the Pharisees and Herod. UNBELIEF due to a HARD HEART. We harden our hearts by refusing to obey God on what we might consider a MINOR matter-we introduce leaven into our lives that can spread to other areas. It is imperative, therefore, that we regularly repent for our disobedience and seek to obey the Lord in ALL AREAS. R.C Sproul talks about a friend who asked, “What’s the big idea of the Christian life?” Sproul responded, “The big idea of the Christian life is ‘Coram Deo’. CORAM DEO refers to something that takes place in the presence of, or before the face of, God. It is to live one’s entire life in the PRESENCE of God, under the AUTHORITY of God, to the GLORY OF GOD. The Christian who compartmentalizes his or her life into two sections of the religious and the nonreligious has failed to grasp the big idea. The big idea is that all of life is religious or none of life is religious. To divide life between the religious and the nonreligious is itself a sacrilege. In Mark 9:14-29, the disciples could not heal a man’s demon possessed son and it caused a ruckus.  Jesus approached, and the Father begged Jesus for help!  When the disciples lacked Faith and Understanding the Father cried out to Jesus to help- IF HE COULD! “What do you mean, ‘If I can’?” Jesus asked. “Anything is possible if a person believes.” The father instantly cried out, “I do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief!” Father we sin against you with our UNBELIEF, forgive us and Help us with our unbelief!