Why did you Todd's Road Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Nyberg. We are located at 4137 Todd's
Road, two miles outside of Manowar Boulevard. Sunday services are
at 1030 a.m. and 6 p.m. Bible study is at
945 a.m. Wednesday services are at 7 p.m. Nursery is provided for all services.
For more information, visit our website at toddsroadgracechurch.com.
Now here's our pastor, Todd Nyberg. In the 23rd chapter of Matthew
we have the last address of our Lord to the multitude. Now after
this he would speak to his disciples, but this is just a couple of
days before his death. And this is his message to the
scribes and the Pharisees when he's warning the people about
the scribes and the Pharisees. And this is the message that
sealed the deal with regard to the Pharisees regarding the Lord
Jesus. He's got to be put to death.
This was his last message to the multitudes. And he was also
speaking to his disciples Verse 1 says, Then spake Jesus to the
multitude and to his disciples, and he is warning them about
the religion of the Pharisees. Now the Pharisees represent all
works religion. The word Pharisee means a separated
one. The Pharisees believed that something
they did separated them from other men. It was their works
that made the difference. And there are only two kinds
of religion. the religion of works, and the religion of grace. The Pharisees represent the religion
of works. And in this passage of scripture,
seven times the Lord calls them hypocrites. Three times he calls
them blind guides. And he said, thou blind Pharisee. He calls them whitewashed sepulchers. He calls them children of hell. And he ends this message in verse
33, ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can you escape
the damnation of hell? Now, this is the most scathing
denunciation of human religion that you'll find anywhere in
the scriptures by our Lord Jesus. You know, he had nothing good
to say about the Pharisees. Never did. Now, he was so compassionate
towards sinners, but he had nothing good to say about the Pharisees,
the representatives of human religion. Now, what I want us
to do is look at what he said because he describes exactly
what false religion is made of. And you can look at the antithesis
of these things, the polar opposites, and you can find what true religion
really is. Now, the first accusation he
makes against the Pharisees is found in verse 3, they say and
do not. Here is the first mark of the
religion of the Pharisees, they say and do not. They tell you what you need to
do. but they don't do it themselves. Verse four says, they bind heavy
burdens and grievous to be born and lay them on men's shoulders,
all kinds of rules and regulations, but they themselves will not
move them with one of their fingers. They talk about all these things
you need to do, but it's nothing but hypocrisy because they do
not do any of those things they tell you you need to do. That's
the sign of pharisaical religion. And then he says in verse 5,
here's the second thing, all their works they do to be seen
of men. They want to impress the flesh. They want you to be impressed
with them and all their works they do to be seen of men. He goes on to say, they make
broad their phylacteries and enlarge the borders of their
garments, religious clothing, religious dress. They want you
to see how holy they are by the way they dress and the things
they wear. And he says, they love the uppermost
rooms at feasts and the chief seats in the synagogues and greetings
in the markets and to be called of men, rabbi, rabbi. They want
the high opinion of men and all their works they do to be seen
of men. Now if you're doing what you're
doing to impress men and to please men, you are of the religion
of the Pharisees. The Lord says in verse 12 to
these same people, whosoever shall exalt himself shall be
abased and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted. The religion of the Pharisees
is about the exaltation of self. Now if What you believe gives
you any credit at all in salvation, right down to free will. If you
believe the reason you're saved is because of your free will,
because you chose this and somebody else didn't. you're exalting
self. And that's always what is behind
the religion of the Pharisees, self-exaltation. Look what he
says in verse 13, he says, Now here's the grievous thing about
false religion, no one in false religion enters the kingdom of
heaven. They may be religious, they may
be moral, but they will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven. You see,
Christ is the only way someone enters the Kingdom of Heaven.
He said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to
the Father but by me. And anytime you have men in false
religion, works religion, salvation, in some way dependent upon what
they do, they will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven. And then
he says in verse 14, woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites,
for you devour widows' houses, and for a pretense, for a show,
make long prayer. Therefore you shall receive the
greater damnation. Now in this pretense, this long
prayer, they're impressing people, and they devour Now what does
that mean? What they are doing, they are
doing for personal gain. Their religion has something
to do with getting something from you. You know your average
TV preacher that tries to ask for support and so on, you know
who his main supporter is? Widows. Widows are the ones who
send in money. You know any time you hear a
preacher asking for support, write it down, he's not real.
But these fellows for a pretense they make these long prayers
to impress people and what they are doing is devouring widows'
houses trying to take. And the Lord says they shall
receive the greater damnation. And then in verse 15 He says,
"'Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you compass sea
and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, you make
him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.'" Now what's
the main emphasis of religion? growing, gaining converts, gaining
proselytes. And the Lord said, you compass
sea and land to make one proselyte, one convert and when you've got
him you make him two-fold more the child of hell than yourselves.
Now obviously anyone who preaches the Gospel desires to see people
saved. I wouldn't be on TV right now
if I didn't desire for people to come to a knowledge of the
Living God and to bow the knee to Christ and come to love Him.
But my purpose is not to see converts. My purpose is to tell
the truth. Paul said, Christ sent me not
to baptize, but to preach the gospel. That's my purpose. Now,
I want to see people saved. I don't want to act like I don't.
But if my purpose in preaching is to, quote, see people saved
and grow and so on, I will accommodate my message to meet that end.
Lord warns about these people who are always seeking to proselytize. And then He says in verse 16,
"'Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, you blind guides,
who say, Whosoever shall swear by the temple, it's nothing,
but whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple, he's
a debtor.'" Now He says if you make a vow according to the temple
you're not going to have to keep your vow. You're not under obligation
to keep it, but if you make a vow by the gold that's in the temple
then you have to keep your vow. And he says the same thing with
regard to the altar, and whosoever shall swell by the altar, verse
18, it's nothing but whosoever sweareth by the gift that's upon
the altar. He's guilty, you fools and blind, for whether is greater
the gift or the altar that sanctifies the gift." Now, obviously what
they were saying was wrong when they were talking about these
things. They were saying that sometimes you're bound to keep
your oath, sometimes you're bound to give your gift, and sometimes
you're free to not keep your oath or you're free not to give
your gift. And it's very interesting. They said if you only swear by
the temple, you're not bound. If you swear by the gold that's
in the temple, brought into the temple then you have to keep
your oath. If you swear by the altar you
are not bound to keep your oath, but if you swear upon the gift
that is on the altar you are bound to keep your oath. Now
that is dishonest obviously we have to always keep our oath.
But notice what the Lord says in verse 17 and 19, you fools
and blind for whether it is greater the gold or the temple that sanctifies
the gold, ye fools and blind, for whether it is greater the
gift or the altar that sanctifies the gift." They were putting
more importance on the gift than the altar. More importance on
the gold than the temple. The temple represents the Lord
Jesus Christ. The altar represents the sacrifice
of Christ. And the only way any gift can
be accepted is because of Christ, not because of the goodness of
the gift or the merit of the gift. Now, you say, well, how
does that translate today? What's the difference? Do you
know in most of what goes on under the name of Christianity,
there's more emphasis put on what you do than what Christ
has done? For instance, if I say that Jesus
Christ died for all men without exception, and some of those
men are saved and some of those men are lost, If I make that
claim, I'm saying that what men do is more important than the
sacrifice of Christ itself. I'm putting more emphasis on
man's gift than what Christ did. And that's what these men were
guilty of doing. He says in verse 23, Woe unto
you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and
anise and cumin, and have omitted left out the weightier matters
of the Law, judgment, mercy, and faith. These ought ye to
have done, and not to leave the other undone." Now here's what
these men were guilty of, they were guilty of leaving out what
needed to be said. It could be that everything they
said was true, but they left out what was critical of being
said. A false prophet quite often is
more identified by what he doesn't say than what he does say. What he said regarding these
people, you pay tithes and so on. He said, you ought to have
done this, but you shouldn't have left the other undone. They
may use words like mercy and faith and judgment, but they
give a different meaning to them than the Word of God gives them.
They leave out what they need to preach. And false religion
is a religion that's all on the outside. The Lord says in verse
25, Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you
may clean the outside of the cup of the platter, but within
you're full of extortion and excess. You look good on the
outside. You look moral and righteous on the outside, but the inside,
it's nothing but filth. He says, Thou blind Pharisee,
first cleanse first that which is within the cup and the platter,
that the outside may be clean also. Woe unto you, scribes and
Pharisees, hypocrites, for you are like whited sepulchers, which
indeed appear beautiful outward, but within are full of dead men's
bones. Even so, you outwardly appear
righteous unto men, but within you are full of hypocrisy and
iniquity. False religion is always about
the externals, what you look like to men, appearing righteous
to men. And then he finally says in verse
29, Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because
you build the tombs of the prophets, and you garnish the sepulchres
of the righteous, and say, if we had been in the days of our
fathers, we wouldn't have been partakers with them in the blood
of the prophets. Wherefore, you be witnesses unto yourself that
you are the children of them which killed the prophets. Here
is a mark of false religion. They brag on dead prophets and
they won't identify with living ones. I hear men today brag on
Spurgeon and Calvin and Luther but they wouldn't dare preach
what they preached. And you know it's easy to identify with a
dead preacher because they can't say anything to you. They'll
brag on dead preachers but have nothing to do with living prophets. And then the Lord ends this message
to them, ye serpents, you generation of vipers, How can you escape
the damnation of Hell?" Now those are such strong words but these
are the words of the Lord Jesus Christ as He identifies this
false religion. Now you can take the opposite
of these things and find out what true religion is, if that
is an acceptable word. What is true religion? What is
that which comes from God? What is that which is real? Well, first of all, in true religion,
you don't have people saying and doing not. Somebody that's true, if I tell
you to believe, I believe. If I tell you to repent, I repent. If I tell you to not look to
the works of the law, but to look to Christ alone, I'm not
looking to my works. I'm looking to Christ alone.
And I wouldn't call upon anybody to do something that I wouldn't
do, not in true religion. You don't have that. And then
in false religion, remember all they do, they do to be seen of
men? We don't do. If you and I are true, all we
care about is what the Lord thinks, what God thinks. We're not concerned
about what men think. We're concerned about what God
thinks. Is He pleased with what I'm saying? If He's pleased,
I know all of His people will be pleased, and I'm not worried
about anybody else. In true religion, you're only concerned with what
God says. with what will please God. Paul said in Galatians 1.10,
Do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? If
I yet please men, I should not be the servant of Christ. In
true religion we are concerned with what God sees. And then
true religion is always humble. It's always lowly. The Lord said,
Whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased. That's what
false religion does. And whosoever shall humble himself
shall be exalted. Now, what is it to humble yourself?
You know, if you're acting humble, that's what it is. It's an act.
True humility is a just estimate of self. You really believe you
are what you are by the grace of God. You say with Paul, I
am what I am by the grace of God. What am I? Well, first of
all, and I say this to my shame, I'm a sinner. I'm a sinner. Are you a sinner? Somebody says,
well, I make mistakes. No, I didn't ask that. Are you
a sinner? You see, it's only by the grace of God that you
can really know that you're a sinner. No one knows that they're real
sinners except those to whom God has revealed himself to.
It's only a side of him that causes you to know that you're
a sinner. But not only am I a sinner, I'm a justified sinner. And that's
by the grace of God. I'm a redeemed sinner. That's
by the grace of God. You humble yourself when you
say, I am what I am by the grace of God. You know, the Pharisee
said, God, I thank thee that I'm not as other men are. He
gave God the credit, but he said, my hope is that I'm not like
other men are. I'm giving you the credit, but look how different
I am. That's not what a believer says. I am what I am by the grace
of God. And then when the Lord said,
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you shut up the
kingdom of heaven against men. True religion opens up the kingdom
of heaven. True religion, the answer is
come to Christ as you are. Don't wait to get better. Don't
wait to quit some sin or start doing some good work. Don't wait
for anything. Come to Christ right now. Sinners, Jesus will receive. He's the friend of publicans
and sinners. He said, I'm the door. By me,
if any man enter, he'll be saved. I'm so thankful he identifies
himself as a door. What's a door for? A door is
to open up and let people in. And a door is to keep people
in. And a door is to shut out some
people, all people who try to enter by their works and don't
come the way of Christ. And a door opens up and lets
people in freedom. It opens up and lets people go.
Christ is the door. Through true religion you enter
the Kingdom of Heaven. hindered from coming in, you
enter the Kingdom of Heaven. And then he says in verse 14,
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, you devour widows'
houses, and for a pretense make long prayer. Now let me tell
you this, true religion is not in pretense. It's not a show. It's not trying to get something
from somebody, like these men trying to take what belonged
to the widows. It's not about personal gain. There are a couple
of phrases in the scripture that I love. One is unfeigned faith. That word unfeigned means non-hypocritical,
real, unfeigned. I really do believe that Jesus
Christ's righteousness is the only righteousness I have. I
really believe that because I'm a real sinner. I really believe
I'm a sinner and the only hope I have is the free grace of God. And we read this phrase, unfeigned
love, unfeigned love, unfaked love, unpretended love. Every
believer really loves God as He is. We love Him as He's revealed
in His Word, and we wouldn't change Him if we could. This
is not pretense. We really love His absolute sovereignty
because of who He is. We love His justice. We love
His holiness. We love His righteousness. We
love His immutability. We love His power. We love everything
about Him because of who He is. And this is real. This is not
faked. This is real. We don't make long
prayers to impress men. It troubles me. I know some people
think it's what they're supposed to do, but it always troubles
me when I see people bow their heads for prayer in a restaurant
and make everybody uncomfortable around them because they're doing
that and they're trying to show. And I think maybe sometimes they're
just trying to show people they're sincere. But the Lord says, when
you pray, enter your closet. It's not a thing to show anybody. And then he says in verse 15,
woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites for you come to see
in land to make one proselyte. And when he's made, you make
him twofold more the child of hell than yourself. Now, like
I said, I want to see people saved. I want that, but that's
not my purpose is to see people converted. My purpose is to tell
the truth, to preach the gospel and leave men alone and see what
God does with it. I'm not trying to save anybody. I can't. I can't save anybody. All I do is declare the truth
of God and wait and see what the Lord does with it. This is
not about proselytizing and trying to get big. If that's your desire,
you'll accommodate your message in order to reach that goal. God forbid that we do that, we're
not trying to fill the pews, we're trying to fill the pulpit
with the Word of God and God takes care of the rest. And then
when he spoke of this thing of sanctification, you fools and
blind, whether it's greater the gold or the temple that sanctifies
the gold, you fools and blind, whether it's greater the gift
or the altar that sanctifies the gift, I realize that the
only way I can be accepted, my person can be accepted, anything
I do can be accepted is wholly because of the sacrifice of the
Lord Jesus Christ, the person and work of Christ. I wouldn't
dare come into God's presence talking about something I've
done, or some gift I've given, or something I intend to do.
No. I'm only accepted in the Beloved. I'm only viewed in the
Lord Jesus Christ, and that's the only hope I have. And then
he says in verse 23, Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!
You pay tithe to Menton and Isaac and Cuman, and you have omitted
the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith. These
ought ye to have done, and not let the other done. Now, if I'm
true, I preach the whole counsel of God. I don't leave anything
out. And that doesn't mean I can tell everything I know in one
sermon, although there's a sense in which I can, because Christ
is all I know. Christ and Him crucified, that is all I know.
But by His grace, I don't skip or hedge or leave out anything. Judgment. When Christ died, judgment
took place. All of those who do not believe
were condemned. All of those for whom He died
were saved. Judgment took place. If I'm saved,
God's giving me what I deserve because Christ took my sin and
put them away. And he took his righteousness
and gives it to me. And God's justice demands the
salvation of everybody Christ died for. Judgment. Mercy. A man can only be saved by the
sovereign mercy of God. It's not up to you. It's up to
him as to whether or not you'll be saved. You can't obligate
him to show you mercy. The leper understood that. He
said, Lord, if you will, you can make me clean. The only way
a sinner can be saved is through the sovereign mercy of God in
faith. Faith. The just shall live by
faith. There's no other way to live.
I can't live off my works. I can't live off my feelings.
The only way I can live is by faith in the Son of God. Paul
spoke of Christ who loved me and gave himself for me. I live,
yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life that I now
live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God,
who loved me and gave himself for me. And true religion, it
begins on the inside. It's when God gives a new heart. And it's always on the inside. And it'll come out on the outside.
But it begins on the inside when God gives a new heart and a new
spirit in the new birth. He gives that pure heart. He
does something for you on the inside. And it will be seen on
the outside. It's not just about cleaning
up the outside. It's something done on the inside. And then
he warned of them bragging on dead preachers and not having
anything to do with preachers who do preach the truth. Well,
true religion always identifies with those who believe and preach
the gospel. Birds of a feather flock together,
and I want to cast my lot in with all who preach the gospel,
who are a part of this thing called true religion. And then
finally, the Lord said to The Pharisees, you serpents, you
generation of vipers, how can you escape the damnation of hell?
There's no salvation in false religion. But if I'm in true
religion, I cannot be condemned. I cannot go to hell. You see, if I'm in true religion,
there's nothing to condemn me for. I'm justified. All my sin
has been put away. And the scripture actually says,
there is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.
I can't be condemned. I can't be damned. Now, if I
was left to myself, of course I could be. But having the very
righteousness of Christ, having the forgiveness of sins, Being
found in Christ, I cannot be damned. I must be saved if I'm
in true religion. I'm going to spend not eternity
in hell, but I'm going to spend eternity in heaven beholding
the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ and looking on his face. He said
in John 17, 24, Father, I will that they whom you have given
me be with me. where I am, that they may behold
my glory, for thou lovest me from the foundation of the earth."
Now, if you're in false religion, get out of it. Ask God to bring
you out of it. Ask him to do something for you.
And I say to you what Moses said to Hodab, his father-in-law. We are journeying to the place
of which the Lord said, I will give it you come with us we will
do the good for the Lord has spoken good concerning Israel
come with us I say to those in the false Come with us in the
true, and we will do the good. I'd like to invite you to services
this morning at the Todd's Road Grace Church. They begin at 10.30
this morning, 6 this evening, and we have services at 7 on
Wednesday evenings. We have this message on DVD and
CD. If you call the church, write
or email, we'll send you a copy. To request a copy of the sermon
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