In Matthew chapter 23, beginning
at verse 1, it says, Christ then spake Jesus to the multitude
and to his disciples. There's his audience, the multitudes
that followed him. He's here in Jerusalem now. And it says in verse 2, saying,
the scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat. So we know
what his subject is going to be for quite a bit of time through
this chapter, as he had always been faithful to tell the truth,
even at the expense of bringing forth the hatred and the persecution
that the lost religious leaders of the people had determined
to bring upon him. They'd already determined that
they want this man, Jesus of Nazareth, out of the way. They
want him dead. They'd already determined that.
And so here he is in the seat of their religion, and their
religion was one of self-righteousness and legalism. And that's why
I called this lesson, titled this lesson, The Burden of Legalism. because it is a burden that no
sinner can bear. And the problem is is that by
nature we think we can bear that burden. And we'll think that
until God reveals Himself and reveals ourselves in the degree
of our fall in Adam, our spiritual death, our depravity, and the
fact that no sinner can work a righteousness that equals the
demands of God's law and justice. But that's exactly what the Pharisees
and the scribes were trying to do. They were trying to establish
their own righteousness before God. And that's an impossibility. That's a denial of the glory
of God. That's a denial of Christ. Because
the glory of God is wrapped up in the fact that he saves sinners
based upon a righteousness of his own making through the person
and work of Christ. And if you want to read a summation,
I think the best summation, two scriptures, and there's more
than this now, but there's two scriptures that I believe are
a summation of the religion of the lost religious Jews. And
it applies to all lost religionists. And one of them is Luke chapter
18, nine through 12, in the parable of the Pharisee and the publican. When you listen to the words
of the Pharisee there, he says, I thank God I'm not like other
men. And then he goes in, he says,
I do this, I fast twice a week, I give tithes and offerings,
I do this. And he says, and I'm not like
that old publican that everybody knows is lost. Everybody knows
those publicans were sinners. They were cheaters. They were
traitors. And he said, I'm not like that. And I always want
to caution people now, when he's boasting, and that's what he's
doing, understand that his first three words that came out of
his mouth is, I thank God. And that's the way people are
today in lost religion. ignorance. You know, they say
that they're saved or they're made righteous by something God
enables them to do. And they think that covers them
and they call it grace. But see, we're not saved based
on anything God enables us to do. We're saved solely based
upon what Christ has done. And that's a big difference.
That's the difference between legalism and grace. Grace reigns
through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. Now, that's not to say that when
we're saved by the grace of God and we're born again by the Spirit,
we're not enabled to do things we could not do before. We are.
We're enabled to approach God at the throne of grace. We're
enabled to pray acceptably. We're able to bring forth good
works as God works them in us, which we were not able to do
before, but that's not the basis of our salvation and that is
not our righteousness before God. The basis of our salvation and
our righteousness before God is Christ crucified and risen
from the dead, period. And so when that Pharisee prayed
that way. Another scripture, this is not
the second one I've got listed here, but look at Matthew 7,
21 through 23. They said, we preached in your
name. In other words, they were preaching
in their own name. They were preaching in his name,
but they were denying his name. Haven't we done many wonderful
works? Haven't we cast out demons? All of that. And he said, depart
from me you that work iniquity. Why is that iniquity? Because
it doesn't measure up to the perfection of righteousness that
can only be found in Christ. But the second passage is Romans
9.31 through 10.3, and you can read that. You've read it before,
where he says that Israel sought after righteousness, but they
did not attain it because they sought it by works of the law
and not by faith. What is it to seek righteousness
by faith? It's to seek righteousness by
the person and work of Christ. I'm gonna be talking about that
in the message this morning, about real faith. A faith that
is real in the sight of God. Not just in the sight of men
and women, but in the sight of God. So you understand, the scribes,
they were the masters of the law. They were the interpreters
of the law. They were the commentators. the
law and the Pharisees they were the workers of the law and he
says here they sit in Moses's seat this I've got in your lesson
this was evidently an expression used to refer to the seat at
which most the most prominent Pharisee or scribe would sit
in the meetings in the synagogue and they call that Moses's seat
And of course the idea there, he's gonna show you, they love
to sit in the most prominent seats. They wanna be seen of
men. They want the testimony and the judgment of men concerning
them. And so they claim to be followers
of Moses and the law. And they claim to teach what
Moses taught. And if you'll look over, one
of the passages that I've got written here, or cited here,
is John chapter five. And that's really important because
Christ confronted them with that. You remember in John chapter
five and verse 39, he says, search the scriptures. Now, the tense
of the verb there in the original language is like a recognition. It says, you do search the scriptures.
I know you read the Bible. Now we all know people who read
their Bibles today. I know people who study it. You
know, I went to a seminary where they studied Greek and Hebrew
and Aramaic, and they studied the Old Testament and the New
Testament, the history, all of it. I mean, they gave their lives
to that, just like the scribes and the Pharisee. And it says,
for in them, verse 39 of John 5, in them you think you have
eternal life. Well, that's true. There's eternal
life in this book here. This is the word of life, isn't
it? But it says, and they are they which testify of me. That's
what Christ said. Eternal life is in Christ. And
if you read the word from Genesis to Revelation, if you memorize
it from Genesis to Revelation, and you don't see the glory of
the person and work of Christ and his righteousness, there's
no eternal life. You've missed it. We were talking
about that last Wednesday night on the Zoom meeting that I attend
with Brother Richard Wormack. He was talking about the Song
of Solomon. And I believe the Song of Solomon is a picture,
a poetic description, ultimately, of the relationship between Christ
and his church. And I think there was maybe one
or somebody who kind of said, well, no, you just take it literally,
no. Song of Solomon is not a sex manual. It's not a practical manual marriage. Now that's not to say you can't
get some truth out of there that can apply to marriage, you sure
can. But if you don't read the Bible with a Christ-centered
view, you've missed eternal life. And that's what he's saying,
and he says in verse 40 of John 5, you will not come to me that
you might have life. Life is in him. Where there's
life, It's got to come from righteousness. Isn't that right? The body is
dead because of sin. Why are we getting old? Why do
we hurt? Why are we headed toward the
grave, the way of all flesh? Because of sin. How can we live
forever in perfect harmony with the Lord God of heaven? Righteousness. The body is dead because of sin.
The spirit is life because of righteousness. Where do we find
righteousness? Not in ourselves, not in the
church, in Christ. And anything else is false self-righteous
legalism. Now what is legalism? It's man
thinking salvation at some stage in some way to some degree is
conditioned on his performance, his law keeping, Efforts. That's legalism. Because when
you say salvation is conditioned on you, you've got to delineate
what are those conditions. Now, different denominations
have different conditions. We were talking about this earlier,
about baptism. You know, you've got the church,
the quote church of Christ, unquote, that's a misnomer, but that's
what they call themselves. They say you've got to be baptized
or you can't be saved. Well, that's legalism. And that's
why I was telling Brother Frank that all the commandments that
Christ gave us in the New Testament are under the umbrella of the
gospel. So that we know that no commandment
he gave for us is for us to make an effort to be saved by our
works. But it's always to obey him because
we are saved by the work of Christ. And anything less is legalism.
So he says here, he says in verse 41 of John 5, I receive not honor
from men, but I know you that you have not the love of God
in you. See, if you don't believe in and love Christ, you don't
have the love of God in you. I don't care how loving you are
towards your fellow man. I hope you are loving towards
your fellow man. I hope you are. I hope I am. But if you don't know Christ
and believe in him, you don't have the love of God in you.
Not even one degree of it. He says in verse 43, I am come
in my Father's name and you receive me not. Now we know that all
who do receive him are born of God. He says, if another shall come
in his own name, him you will receive. How can you believe
which receive honor one of another and seek not the honor that cometh
from God only? You see, my only concern in my
salvation is how does God think of me? You say, well how can
you know how God thinks of you? His word. But here's the last
two, verse 45. He says, do not think that I
will accuse you to the Father. There's one that accuseth you,
even Moses, in whom you trust. Now that's, they're boasting
the laws, what that's talking about. For had you believed Moses,
you would have believed me, for he wrote of me. But if you believe
not his writings, how shall you believe my words? So they sit
in Moses' seat, claiming to follow Moses and follow the law. That's
what that's talking about. But they didn't make it. They
followed after righteousness, but they didn't make it because
they sought it by law, by works of the law, and not by faith,
which leads a sinner to Christ and him alone. We'll go back
to Matthew 23. Now look at verse three. He says,
all therefore whatsoever they bid you observe. That observe and do. Now that
sounds strange, doesn't it? He says, but do not ye after
their works, for they say and do not. What's he talking about?
Do what they, all they tell you to. He's making a delineation
here. Believers under the old covenant
law were bound to keep that law, not to be saved now. The law
was never given for salvation. But they were under that law
to keep the rules and the regulations of that law, to be obedient unto
God. And so what he's saying here
is that when the Pharisees and the scribes tell you the truth
about the law of Moses and what to do, follow that. For example,
if they said keep the Passover, you're to keep the Passover.
That means you're to get a lamb and you're to slay the lamb just
like it was described back in the law of Moses. Why don't we
do that today? Because the commandment of God
is that's gone now, that's been abrogated by the fulfillment
that's in Christ and we have the reality and we don't need
the picture now. Now it's good to look back on
the picture because it just teaches us more of the glory of the reality.
We don't slay lambs today. I've told you the story about
Brother David Adkins. Before he heard the gospel, I
don't know what he was going through back then, but he got
so frustrated that he and his wife just determined, well, we're
gonna read through the Bible together. And so they started
in Genesis, and then they went up to Exodus, and he got to where
the Passover is, And he told his wife, he said, honey, he
said, it seems to me we ought to be out here slaying lambs.
Well, if you don't know Christ, that's really what you would
determine. We ought to be out here building
altars and slaying lambs, you know? And that next Sunday morning,
he turned on the TV, and Brother Henry Mahan was preaching on,
Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the world,
and preached Christ. And that's what drew him to 13th
Street. Well, see, those things that the law of Moses commanded,
they were commanded for a reason. And you know, that law was given,
number one, to expose their sinfulness and their need of salvation by
grace. And there were pictures of Christ
there, such as the Passover lamb, the tabernacle, the altar, and
all of that, the high priesthood, the Holy of Holies, the Ark of
the Covenant. And so all of that was put together.
But now that's been abrogated, it's been fulfilled by way, it's
been abolished by way of fulfillment. So he says, all therefore whatsoever
they bid you observe, that observe and do. Now that's not saying
listen to everything they say and follow them, but do not ye
after their works for they say and do not. They're hypocrites.
And plus the fact too, by the time we get to the New Testament,
They had added so many other laws aimed at giving them ways
out. They had loopholes whereby they
could look at themselves and say, now I've kept the law. And
they're hypocrites. So don't do after their works.
They claim that they kept the whole law, but they didn't. They
claim they were righteous, but they weren't. Remember before
he started the parable of the publican and the Pharisee, he
said he spoke that to those who claimed they were righteous and
despised others. And that's the way self-righteous
people are. Well, why do you claim to be righteous? Well,
I've done what I was required to do. Well, what are you required
to do? Well, that depends on what denomination you're in. Church of Christ says, well,
I believed and I got baptized. The Baptist, they'd say, well,
I believed. I'm going to talk about that this morning because
that belief, true faith, real faith is a gift from God. It
didn't come from you naturally. That's something that's foreign
to us until God reveals himself. In other words, he says, you
follow them when they point you in the word of God to the law
of Moses, but Don't do after their works. Look at verse four.
Now here's what he's talking about. For they bind heavy burdens
and grieve us to be born. That's the burden of legalism.
And they lay them on men's shoulders. But they themselves will not
move them with one of their fingers. They won't even lift a finger
to ease that burden. Now why is that? Well, If you
put a burden of legalism on people and they buy into it, and which
we naturally will do, you've gotta hold on them. You'll keep
them now. You gotta hold on them. And that's
what they wanted. They wanted to keep the people
following them. That's one of the reasons they
hated Christ so much. Christ told them the truth about
the Pharisees and the scribes. He said they're blind leaders
of the blind, and you're gonna see in the next lessons here
in Matthew 23, woe unto them, woe unto them. What is woe? That's distress and sorrow. Remember he told them in Matthew
5 20, accept your righteousness, exceed the righteousness of the
scribes and the Pharisees, you will in no case enter the kingdom
of heaven. What they're teaching you will
not save you, will not get you into heaven. In fact, it gets
you farther away. You know that scripture over
here in verse 15 in Matthew 23, which we'll be getting to. Woe
unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. You know what, the
word hypocrisy comes from like an actor. You're playing a part
that's not really you. And he says, hypocrites, for
you encompass sea and land to make one proselyte, one convert,
and when he's made, you make him twofold more the child of
hell than yourselves. You think about all the missionary
efforts that false religion funds and is active in doing. And all
they're doing is what's described there in Matthew 23, 15, because
if you don't preach Christ and his righteousness imputed as
the only ground of salvation, all you're doing is leading people
to hell. Is that too harsh? The answer's
no. That's what Christ is telling
them there. Well, this legalism is a burden. By deeds of law
shall no flesh be justified. Now that means no exceptions.
There's not one person who has ever lived on earth since the
fall of Adam who could be righteous or justified, forgiven, based
upon their law keeping, based upon their works. And so legalists,
they never lift a finger to ease that burden because the guilt
keeps people dependent upon them. You think about that. You know that saying, there's
no rest for the wicked? That comes from Isaiah 57, I've
got it marked here. There's only rest in Christ.
And that's the point of this whole thing. Christ said, come
unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden under that burden
of the law, the burden of legalism, and I will give you rest. And
that rest is a gift. I'll give it to you. My yoke
is easy, my burden is light. Haven't you found that to be
the case? Now, does that give you an excuse to sin and to go
out and break the law? No. That inspires us in faith
that worketh by love. That inspires us to obedience.
Well, look at verse five. He says, but all their works
they do for to be seen of men, they make broad their phylacteries,
these phylacteries, I've got it in your lesson here. They
were things they put on their foreheads with verses of scripture
written on them. And then they'd enlarge the borders
of their garments so they could embroider scriptures and religious
sayings that all could see. But now, you remember Christ
dealt with this in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 6, verses
1 through 18. He talked about when you pray,
and when you fast, and when you give, don't give to be seen of
men. If you do that, you have your
reward. And so he made that clear. And I'm convinced this being
seen of men, I think it's really kind of related
to what people would say today. Something like, well, this is
my testimony. When they see me praying, or
when they see me giving, or when they see me fasting, That's my
testimony. Well, that's not true. Our testimony
is the witness of the gospel. If I see a person praying, how
do I know what God they're praying to? They may be praying to Buddha
or to Muhammad or to Mary, a false god. You see, the only way I
know is by their testimony. What do they believe about salvation
and the gospel and how God saves sinners, how God justifies the
ungodly? Where do they find righteousness?
You see what I'm saying? But the thing about it is is
that legalists are more concerned with what other people think
than they are with what God thinks. Because they'll reject God's
word, just like Christ told the Pharisees there, Moses will be
your judge. You claim to sit in his seat.
You claim to be following him. He'll be your judge. He'll judge
you lost, condemned, because your works all fall short of
the perfection of righteousness that can only be found in Christ.
And that's legalism. That's a burden. Oh, it's a heavy
burden. But why don't people realize
that? Because they don't know themselves. They don't know the
extent of their fallen Adam and their depravity and their spiritual
death. Look at verse six. Verse six
says, they loved the uppermost rooms at feast, the chief seats
in the synagogues. They loved that. They loved that
attention. What is he saying? There's pride
here. There's no humility. And it says, and greetings, verse
seven, the greetings in the markets, and to be called of men, rabbi,
rabbi, master, master. They love it when people recognize
them. It's, oh, look, brother so-and-so's
here. They're like that old false preacher
from New Orleans who had the 10 most wanted list. And he said
on a talk show, he said, if I can get these 10 people saved, I
can convert the world. Well, first of all, those 10
men that he had on his list, they're nobodies in God's sight. He's no respecter of men's purses.
And secondly, he can't convert any of them. He can't even convert
himself. He was unconverted himself. And certainly he couldn't convert
the world. Only God has the power of conversion. And God, read
1 Corinthians 1. He takes those who are not many
mighty, not many noble. God does not use the popularity
or influence of men to save sinners. Now that's right. You say, well,
he may use them to get somebody under the gospel. Well, we can
talk about that. But here's the point. Salvation
is to those who don't deserve it and cannot earn it. And it's
by the grace of God in Christ. Rabbi means master. They want
titles. the reverend doctor so and so
that kind of thing oh he's been to seminary he's got a degree
that kind of thing. Yeah you you've heard of you
have a degree in seminary called doctrine of divinity can doctor
of divinity can you imagine that being a doctor of divinity. They
used to tell a joke about about a reverend twiddle he was the
he was the reverend twiddle D. D. you know. So here he says, they love these
titles. That's their credential. I had a man up at 13th Street
one time who came in for a little while, and then he was going
to leave the church. His name was Chuck. And I said,
Chuck, where are you going? He said, I'm going to Southwestern Seminary
in Texas. I said, Southwestern Seminary?
I said, Chuck, that's a false gospel. He said, well, I just
need to get my credentials. I said, well, that's a heck of
a credential. I graduated from a false gospel seminary. But
he didn't see it that way, so of course he got mad. He was
a former Georgia football player. And you know what kind of people,
no. We're glad they won last night.
So master, master. And so he says in verse eight,
but be not ye called rabbi, for one is your master, even Christ,
and you're all brethren. We have one master. And that's
Christ, we have one Savior, one Lord, one righteousness. And
we're all equal brethren in the faith, all saved by the grace
of God. You know it didn't take any more
grace to save you than it did me. We're all brethren in Christ,
equal. And all these divisions that
impress men mean nothing. And so he says in verse nine,
and call no man your father upon earth. and for one is your father
which is in heaven, neither be ye called masters for one is
your master, even Christ. Now, you understand what he's
talking, he's not talking about our earthly fathers that we have
a physical relationship with. He's talking about when men address
like priest as father, father so and so, or the pope as holy
father, or any man that way, in a religious way that would
set him above common people and that's why only God has that
title. He's our master, he's it. And
so in verse 11 and 12 he said, but he that is greatest among
you shall be your servant and whosoever shall exalt himself
shall be abased and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.
That's a lesson that he taught many times and he repeats it
here. We're all sinners saved by grace,
all based upon the glorious person and the finished work of redemption
that Christ accomplished, his righteousness imputed alone,
and everything that he is to us, salvations of the Lord, and
it's the greatest contradiction for a sinner saved by grace to
seek the preeminence, to seek to be above everybody else. So those who exalt themselves,
they'll be brought down to condemnation, eternal condemnation. Those who
humble themselves, and we know that humility is a gift from
God, isn't it? That he brings us to by his grace
in Christ. Okay.