All right, let's go to the lesson
here. The title of this lesson is Religion Without Christ is
Deadly. And that may seem like a strange
title. But the reason I titled it this
way, this set of scriptures that we're going, this episode in
the life of Christ, where he's dealing again with religious
people, sincere, religious, moral, pillars of the community, leaders
who claimed to believe the Bible, but they didn't. They twisted
the scripture. The Pharisees, you know, we talk
about the Sadducees, the Pharisees. We talk about the, what they
call the lawyers, but the scribes, and remember, they were lawyers
in the sense that they studied the law of Moses. And they were
supposed to be experts, they commented on it, they wrote commentaries
like that. And the Lord is dealing with
these, and these were the most adamant opposers and enemies
of Christ. The most religious. And in this
passage of scripture, we're taught one of the most fundamental truths
of gospel light, without which you can't really understand the
Bible. Without which you can't really understand the concept
of holiness and goodness and righteousness. Whenever God speaks
in his word of goodness, what does he say about us? There's
none good, no not one. You remember Christ when the
rich young man approached him and said, good master, not believing
that Jesus of Nazareth was God manifest in the flesh, which
he is. And this young man said, good master. And so Christ confronted
him with the concept, the standard of goodness that could only be
found in God. And he said, well, why do you call me good if you
don't believe that I'm God? Because God is the standard of
goodness and in comparison to that, none of us are good. Now
that doesn't mean we can't be religious or can't be moral in
the eyes of people, human beings, and looked up to in the community.
There's none righteous, no not one. That's the question of questions
in the Bible. How can a sinner be righteous
before God? We must, in order to live eternally
in glory, in communion and fellowship with the Father, we have to be
righteous. Well, what is that standard of
righteousness? How righteous do we have to be?
How can we become righteous? That's the question of questions.
Now, the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the scribes, they said, well,
keep the law. Do your best to keep the law.
And Christ came along and he said, that's not good enough,
fellas. That won't make it. You will always fall short of
that standard. And that's why he came to this
world. He said it at his baptism. when
he's told John, suffer to be so that we might fulfill all
righteousness. And he pictured that in his death,
burial, and resurrection in his own baptism. What does it take
for righteousness to be established? It takes the obedience unto death
of Christ. And anything less is sin, iniquity. And so these are the issues.
And so what he's teaching here, listen to what happens. Look
at verse 38. Then certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees
answered, saying, Master, we would see a sign from thee. We
want a sign. Now you know what the Bible says
about that. It says a wicked and adulterous
generation seeketh after a sign. Over in 1 Corinthians 1, when
he's talking about those who are in a state of perishing,
because they don't know the truth of the cross. The preaching of
the cross is foolishness to them. In other words, the preaching
of goodness and holiness and righteousness by the obedience
unto death of Christ, that's foolish. You gotta do something.
You gotta be good. At least you gotta try, and so
that's, the gospel's foolishness to them. Righteousness by another,
imputed righteousness is imputed nonsense to most of them. if
they even know what it is. And so they seek after a sign. Remember he said the Greeks,
they seek after wisdom, talking about worldly wisdom, philosophy,
human philosophy, human wisdom. And the Jews seek after a sign.
We want a sign. People today want a sign. And
so he said we would see a sign. What that tells you is this.
They will not accept the authority of God's word. That's what faith
is based on. How firm a foundation, ye saints
of the Lord, is laid for your faith in his word. It's not a sign. Signs can be
deceiving. But think about what they have
already seen. They'd already seen this person
do such marvelous things, miracles upon miracles, healed the sick,
cleansed the lepers. I've got it all listed here.
Cast out demons, fed thousands with just a few loaves and fishes,
raised the dead. And they say, well, we want to
see a sign. Now their request here was just
mere pretense. What they're saying here is this,
we're just not going to believe that you're the Messiah. You
don't say what we want to hear. If you were the Messiah, you
would come down here and pat us on the back and exalt us among
the people and say, well done, fellas. That's what you'd say
if you were the true Messiah, but that's not what he would
say, and that's not what he did say. So they deliberately closed
their eyes to the truth because they didn't want to be converted.
Remember Matthew, we'll see that over Matthew 13 in the kingdom
parables. They shut their eyes and close
their ears, close their eyes and shut their ears because they
don't, lest they be converted. Now what does that conversion
involve? It involves repentance of everything that they highly
esteemed and was proud of. You mean to tell me that these
things that I'm doing to get right with God, that they're
evil? They're done? I don't want that kind of religion.
I don't want to be converted. That's what that's saying. And
so they wouldn't affirm that Christ, that Jesus of Nazareth
was the promised Messiah. Well look at verse 39. He answered
and said unto them, an evil and adulterous generation seeketh
after a sign. In other words, the word of God's
not good enough. And if the word of God is not good enough for
you, that's evil. Whatever God says. And I've heard people say about
things that they don't wanna hear, they don't like to hear,
and sometimes you'll read it directly from scripture. Read Romans 9 to them, passages
like that. And that, oh, we gotta see a
sign. We gotta have a feeling. We gotta have an emotion. We
gotta see something in the clouds. We gotta see a vision. And those
things are so deceptive. Do you know those are the kinds
of things that Satan uses to deceive the world? And sent sometimes by God as
judgment. Think about it. Dreams and visions. Isaiah dealt with that when he
talked about wizards that peep. He said in Isaiah chapter eight,
what he's talking about is liars who see visions and dream dreams
and they tell their dream. Now God did use dreams sometimes
to manifest his truth. Daniel had the gift of interpreting
dreams. Joseph had that gift. But it
was all in line and in accordance with the word of God and the
gospel. Let me tell you something, any
religious experience or feeling or vision that anybody sees,
whatever it's in a dream or in their head, whatever, whether
it's a mass of them or just one individual, if it's not consistent
with the gospel of God's free and sovereign grace, of salvation
conditioned on Christ, based upon his blood and righteousness
alone, it's a lie. And that's why Isaiah said in
verse 20 of Isaiah, if they speak not according to this word, no
light in them. Mark it down. Well, the people
of our Lord's day were ungodly and unfaithful. And it was typical
of them to seek after a sign. That's how they were known, the
Jews, seek after a sign. But faith, God-given faith, comes
by hearing and hearing by the word of God. And we know that's
a revelation of the power of God in Christ. The gospel is
the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes. Jew
first and Greek also, for therein is the righteousness of God revealed
from faith to faith, as it is written, the just shall live
by faith. And that's how it comes. But you know what, and I've got
this in your lesson here, you know, talking about faith based
upon seeing things, seeing miracles. You know, the Lord said that
even eyewitnesses to his resurrection, that alone could not create faith.
And you remember when he told the story of the rich man and
Lazarus, and the rich man who went to hell, and he looked up
in his torment and he said, send Lazarus back to tell my brothers
so that they won't end up here where I am. And the Lord said,
though they see one raised from the dead, they will not believe.
Now that is a testimony to the depravity and obstinacy of man,
natural. Will not receive the things of
the Spirit of God. It takes the power of the Spirit
in invincible, irresistible grace to bring a sinner to see the
glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Well, look at verse 40. Or verse 39 again. He says, but he answered and
said unto them, an evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign,
and there shall no sign be given to it but the sign of the prophet
Jonah. Well now, what is that about?
Well, you know the story of Jonah. Everybody says Jonah and the
whale. Jonah and a great fish, probably a whale, but we don't
know. But look at verse 40, here he explains what he means by
this. For as Jonas, that's Jonah, was three days and three nights
in the whale's belly, there's the whale, so shall the son of
man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. Now
what's he talking about? He's talking about his own death,
burial, and resurrection. And I'll put in your lesson here
one thing that's I think very significant here is that the
Lord himself put his stamp of approval on the Old Testament
record of Joni. This wasn't just a myth or a
fable as some would try to have us believe today. This was a
real historical event. There was a prophet named Jonah.
He was commanded by God to go and preach in the place of Nineveh,
a very wicked place. He didn't want to go. He's called
the reluctant evangelist. And he started out to go somewhere
else, but God had other plans. when he caused the storm and
they threw him overboard and he was swallowed by a whale,
a great fish, and he was vomited up on the shore. And you know
the whole story of Jonah. We won't go into the whole thing.
But what Jonah did was a picture of Christ. And that's why he
says, look at verse 41, the men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment
with this generation and shall condemn it. The people of Nineveh
were brought to repentance through the preaching of Jonah the prophet.
They were brought to repentance. Now, what all that involves with
them, we don't know, but that's just what the Bible tells us.
They were brought to repentance. And it says, because they repented
at the preaching of Jonah, and we know all the prophets, what
did they do? Their message was God's grace in Christ, the promised
Messiah. It wasn't just straighten up
and fly right and God will save you because salvation has never
been by works. It's always been by grace, Old
Testament and new. Every Old Testament believer
was saved by grace and not by works. So they repented at the
preaching of Jonah. Well, what did Jonah preach?
He preached the gospel. And he learned himself firsthand
knowledge, salvations of the Lord. Salvation is not conditioned
on men and women, sinners. Conditioned on the promised Messiah
who is to come. And then Christ says, and behold,
a greater than Jonas is here. Now these men of Nineveh were
brought by God to repentance at the preaching of Jonah. They
didn't come of their own free will, as people say, because
that's not what the natural man does. Faith and repentance both
are the gift of God, and you all know that. And they were
brought to that repentance by God through the preaching of
Jonah, a prophet. Well, here, these Pharisees and
these scribes and these Sadducees, they're hearing the Son of God
himself preach. One greater than Jonah. And you
know who would have agreed with that? Jonah. Just like John the
Baptist. I'm not the Messiah. I can baptize
you in water, but there's one coming who'll baptize you in
fire. That's the power of the spirit
that brings a sinner to faith in Christ and repentance of dead
works. And when he says they shall condemn this generation,
he doesn't mean that they're the judges who pronounce condemnation. Those who are condemned, they
live and die in a state of condemnation. What he's saying is they'll testify
against you. And that's what that means. Just
like in a court of law. These who were brought to faith
in Christ and repentance of dead works, They'll testify against
those who refused. And I don't believe it's gonna
be like a courtroom scene and you're gonna be called up onto
a stand or anything like that. I believe it's just the declaration
of God that all who die in Christ, washed in his blood and clothed
in his righteousness, they're justified, they're glorified. And all who die without Christ,
they're condemned. Our only hope is to be found
in Christ, as Paul wrote. And then look at verse 42. Here he talks about the Queen
of the South. Now that's the Queen of Sheba. You remember
the Queen of Sheba, who came to Solomon? It's recorded over
in 1 Kings chapter 10. She had heard of the wisdom of
Solomon. And what did she do? She sought him out. And she came
to him. and she sat and listened to the
wisdom that God gave Solomon. It says in verse 42, the queen
of the south shall rise up in the judgment with this generation
and shall condemn. She's gonna testify against you.
Think about that. Now you do realize here that
the ones that he claims is gonna testify against the religious
Jews are Gentiles. That's the Ninevites. Queen of
Sheba, they're Gentiles. Ooh, think about that now, how
insulting that was to these Pharisees and these scribes. You mean to
tell me we're Jews, we're circumcised, we're the people of God. We're
children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and you mean to tell me
these rotten, filthy Gentiles are gonna testify against us?
And that's exactly what he means. Salvation by grace, or not at
all? Jew and Gentile. And it says,
for she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the
wisdom of Solomon, and behold, a greater than Solomon is here. Now, Solomon, Jonah, the Queen
of Sheba, the men and women of Nineveh, they all lived hundreds
of years before the Messiah, the promised Messiah actually
come. And now here he is standing here talking to the Jews, the
religious leaders, and they won't accept him. And what does that
tell us? Well, if left to ourselves, we'd
be just like him. Isn't that right? We'd be no
different. However we responded, if God
left us to ourselves, we'd be in a mess. Well, here's one greater
than Solomon. And you think about it, Solomon,
you know, the Lord testified of Solomon's great wisdom. You
remember that? Well, Christ is himself the very
embodiment of the wisdom of God. how God can be just and justify
the ungodly. Save sinners by his grace based
upon his righteousness alone, his righteousness imputed. And
the power of God to give life because righteousness demands
life. The spirit is life because of
righteousness. And here he is. Well, these last
verses, look at verse 43, he says, When the unclean spirit
is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest,
and findeth none. Then he saith, I will return
into my house from whence I came out. And when he's come, he findeth
it empty, swept, and garnished. It sounds like a parable, doesn't
it? But it's a story, it's an illustration.
An unclean spirit leaves a person, But he's empty, he's swept, he's
garnished. Then goeth he, verse 45, then
goeth he and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked
than himself. And they enter in and dwell there.
And the last state of that man is worse than the first. He's
worse off. Now he's swept and he's garnished,
but he's empty. until evil spirits fill him."
And that number seven, that's the completeness of it. And even
it says, Even so shall it be also unto
this wicked generation. Now to understand what he's saying
here, I've got cited in your lesson Matthew 23 verse 15. Now this is what Christ later
on says to the Pharisees in Matthew 23, 15. It's in your lesson there. Listen to this verse because
this explains what he means by this. He says, woe unto you,
scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you compass sea and land
to make one proselyte. Now, what's a proselyte? That's
a convert. So they were going out in a missionary
way into the Gentile world to make converts to their religion. Come with us, believe what we
believe, and you'll be saved. You'll be right with God. Now,
what were they telling these Gentiles? Get busy, get circumcised,
you men. Get busy keeping the law for
righteousness. Well, look what he says in Matthew
23, 15. And when he is made, when you
get a Gentile convert to do what you tell him to do, you make
him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves. What a
statement. You're leading sinners to hell.
That's what he's saying. You're not leading them to God.
You're not leading them to heaven with your message. You're leading
them on the broad road that leads to destruction. And why is that? You know how the Jews looked
at the Gentiles. Now, you know the Gentiles, in
the Gentile world, you had all kinds of people, just like you
had them in the Jewish world, just like we have in our world
today. You have religious people, you have moral people, you have
law-abiding citizens, you have religious, sincere, dedicated,
then you have your scoundrels, just like we have today. But
the Jews looked at the Gentiles as all of them being scoundrels,
especially idolatry. So they go get them, and they
would use their false message of the law to sweep out and garnish
that idolatry as they saw it, and that immorality, and get
those Gentiles reformed, get them circumcised, get them under
the law of Moses, trying to keep the law to be saved. And then that's the seven other
spirits that come in and give them an assurance that they are
okay based upon their works. And they're worse off than they
were before. Because now they have a hope and an assurance,
but it's false. Now I know that in our lives
we've confronted people who have come from you might say, from
the scum of society to religion. I had a man stand right here
one time after a gospel preacher preached a message, and he told
me he knew he was saved when he put down the cigarettes. Well, he'd been swept and garnished.
But it was religion without Christ. And religion without Christ is
religion without truth. And religion without truth is
religion without grace. It's an outward reformation that
seals a sinner into a false profession, but there's no heart there as
far as a heart of grace, a new heart. There's no spirit, the
spirit of God. And that's what, it's a sinner,
he's been led astray, he's entrenched in false religious experiences
and professions, and he's much worse than he was before, even
in his immorality. I put in here, his sin is now
cloaked in a pretense of religion, an outward appearance of righteousness
and spirituality, unaccompanied by a renewed mind and heart with
no true God-given life, faith, or repentance." And think about
what people say that really just seals him into that. Everybody
tells him, I know you're saved. He's got the testimony of man.
You know what Christ said about the Pharisees? He says, you do
indeed appear righteous unto men, but inwardly, You're full
of dead men's bones, like an open grave. That's what he means
by this. Well, you say, well, shouldn't
people reform? Well, if they need reformation
in their lives, they do. But when we talk about salvation,
we're talking about a whole lot more than outward reformation. We're talking about regeneration
and conversion. We're talking about faith in
Christ and true repentance. Okay.