(1) In the mean time, when there were gathered together an innumerable multitude of people, insomuch that they trode one upon another, he began to say unto his disciples first of all, Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy: (2) For there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known. (3) Therefore whatsoever ye have spoken in darkness, shall be heard in the light; and that which ye have spoken in the ear in closets, shall be proclaimed upon the housetops. (4) And I say unto you my friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. (5) But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him, which after he hath killed, hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear him. (6) Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and not one of them is forgotten before God? (7) But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered: fear not therefore: ye are of more value than many sparrows. (8) Also I say unto you, Whosoever shall confess me before men, him shall the Son of man also confess before the angels of God: (9) But he that denieth me before men, shall be denied before the angels of God. (10) And whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but unto him that blasphemeth against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven. (11) And when they bring you unto the synagogues, and unto magistrates, and powers, take ye no thought how or what thing ye shall answer, or what ye shall say, (12) For the Holy Ghost shall teach you, in the same hour, what ye ought to say.
I cannot help remarking, upon the several discourses of Jesus, how very much his doctrine is directed against the Pharisees. Let any man gather, from the Gospels, the whole discourses of Jesus, and observe how large a part is spent in condemning that class of persons: and the reason is plain. No set of men whatever, no, not even the openly-profane, are as sworn foes to the full and finished salvation of Jesus as the Pharisees. For by setting up a righteousness of their own, or, what results from the same source, the unhumbled pride of human nature, in part they do, by so much lessen the vast importance of Christ and his redemption. Either the whole mass of men are dead in trespasses and sins, or they are not. If they are not, what need have they of a Savior? If they are, what an impudent attempt is it in the Pharisee, of any generation, to set himself up as a part-Savior! Pharisees, in the days of our Lord, were his most deadly foes; and Pharisees, in modern times, are the most deadly foes to his people. Our Lord's discourse, in those verses, very plain and simple as it is, seems to have been founded on the prospect he saw in his Church, what opposition his chosen ones would meet with, all the way through, from that class of people. Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocricy.