As I said earlier, false religion's
been around a long time. Satan's infected humanity with
doubt and unbelief toward God, leaving every one of us completely
blind spiritually since the garden. By Genesis
4, two religions had emerged, the religion of Cain and the
religion of Abel. And there's only ever really
been two religions, the religion of Cain or the religion of Abel. And Abel's religion has stood
the same since. It stands wholly and solely on
the Lord Jesus Christ, God's gracious provision. And Cain's
rests on men's wisdom and works, no matter what form it's taken. ever since. It's only ever been works or
grace. It's only ever been God's sovereignty
or man's wisdom. So what happened in Genesis 4?
Cain killed Abel. He was jealous. Nothing's changed. The New Testament's
filled with warnings about false religion and about those that
promote such things. John says in 1 John 4, try or
test the spirits. I'll just read it to you. I'll
read some of it to you. 1 John 4 says, Beloved, believe
not every spirit, But try the spirits, whether they are of
God." And he tells us why. Because many false prophets have
gone out into the world. Hereby I know ye the Spirit of
God. Every spirit that confesses that
Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God. And every spirit
that confesses not that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh
is not of God. And this is the spirit of Antichrist,
whereof ye have heard that it should come, and even now already
is it in the world." How do we test? That's what a man says
about the Lord Jesus Christ coming in the flesh. It's about what
he says about who he was, what he achieved, what he taught.
Now there's other warnings. Paul warns us in 2 Corinthians
11 of the spirit of Antichrist. They transform themselves. And the Lord warns us in Matthew
6 to take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees,
the lies of false religion. We dealt with it a few weeks
back. And just before we start Matthew
23, we need to realize that in Matthew 22, the Sadducees had
approached the Lord and he silenced them. He silenced them with his
gospel. He is the gospel. And then the
Pharisees came and he silenced them. He is the gospel and it
silences men's mouths. And after it silenced man's fleshly
challenges and defeated the attacks of the Pharisees, then Christ,
who is our gospel, now turns in Matthew 23 to speak a very
strong warning to the multitude and to his disciples. So he has
people amongst this multitude, He's speaking to his church and
he's warning his church and he's still warning us today. These are words for believers
only, words for our edification, words of warning, words of instruction. They're words of guidance to
us. They are the word of life to
us. See Matthew 23 is quite an extensive
description and it's a warning about the religion of the flesh.
All flesh except our Lord Jesus Christ. He was born of a virgin
with a body prepared for him. All Adam's children. And as with
all scriptures, there's many profoundly deep things to be
said here in Matthew 23, and we just don't have time for them
today. But what I would like us to do, if the Lord would allow,
is to read through the chapter and consider six dangerous characteristics
that the Lord gives us that are common to all that would promote
law as a way to live before our holy God. So I'm hoping that
this very clear and simple description of the religion of flesh would
also remind us of the Pharisee that lives in each of us and
how he attacks the gospel from within us. And I also hope that the Lord
allows us to keep John's words at the forefront of our mind.
Try the spirits regarding what they say about salvation, what
they say about the provision of our father in heaven, what
they say about the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. So we'll
just get right in on it. We'll start reading from the
first and here's the first characteristic. that the Lord exposes, these
men have no love of God. They have a heart issue. See,
there's actually been no work of the Holy Spirit in them. So then after the Pharisees had
been silenced, then spoke Jesus. And who did he speak to? He spoke
to the multitude and to his disciples. He spoke to his people amongst
the crowds. And he spoke saying, the scribes
and pharisees sit in Moses' seat, they represent the law. They're
responsible for leading the people of God, responsible for being
faithful in regard to the truth. All therefore, whatsoever they
bid you observe, that observe and do. You see, the law is right. It's proper. We don't ever discourage
good works, good behaviour, but it's more than that, isn't it?
The nation Israel, they subjected themselves to the law in pride
and arrogance in Exodus 9, and that ends their covenant of works.
But it illustrates the fall of all of us in Adam and the nature
in each one of us ever since. He goes on, but do
not ye after their works, for they say and they do not do. For they bind heavy burdens grievous
to be born and lay them on men's shoulders. And now listen to
this, but they themselves will not move them with one of their
fingers. We can't ever fulfil the law
perfectly. It was given in Genesis 3, that
flaming sword, to prevent men from entering in their own strength
and their own wisdom. It is impossible for sinners
to keep the law. But the point here is, look at
these men again, they will not. This is purposeful rebellion. because they just haven't met
God in saving grace. They haven't been convinced of
sin. They haven't been convinced of righteousness and judgment. So they have no love for God.
They don't have a love for his people. They don't understand
his law. Verse five, but all their works
they do to be seen of men. This is the heart of it. So if
you recognize any of these from your experiences, they make broad
their phrylacteries. That's a bag that carries scripture. And the idea was the bigger the
bag was, the more you appeared to know of scripture. And it still goes on today, doesn't
it? Look what else they do. They enlarge the borders of their
garments, their religious facade. They make it appear outwardly
more religious with their endeavors. They love the uppermost rooms
at feasts. They love to be elevated above
everyone else. And the chief seats in the synagogues. They like to be prominent in
the eyes of the congregation. And they love greetings in the
marketplace. They love the attention, the
desire, and the aspirations of men. And they love to be called
of men, Rabbi, Rabbi. They want to be seen as teachers
amongst the people, don't they? Now that describes every one
of us in our flesh. Let's just remember that first
and foremost. So I expect that believers, they
should recognize these characteristics. The Lord gives us a simple correction,
doesn't he? Verse 8, But be not ye called rabbi, for one is your
master, even Christ. He's our King. He's our Lord. And all ye all you, your brethren. We don't support clergy and laity. Every one of us are the same
before the Lord. We're all sinners needing a saviour. And call no man your father upon
the earth for one is your father which is in heaven. That's Father's
Day. He's not talking about our birth
parents. All men must eventually deal
directly with God himself, either on your own or in Christ. Needn't be called masters. Don't aspire to be teachers.
Aspire to lead others to the one true teacher. For one is
your master, even Christ. He's our King, He's our Lord. He deals with us personally,
directly, and internally. He's our teacher, He's our guide,
and He's our ruler. And we deal with Him directly.
You see, the false teachers have inverted the kingdom of God.
Look how it should be in verse 11. But he that is greatest among
you shall be your servant. These men weren't acting like
servants. It means slave. It's because of a work of God
in their hearts that they serve the souls of their brothers and
sisters. And whosoever shall exalt himself
shall be abased. That's a promise. And he that
shall humble himself shall be exalted. See, both the humbling
and the exalting will come from the hand of God. And it'll be done by the gospel. God deals with his people directly
and internally in the new covenant, not in the old covenant. In Jeremiah
31, he speaks of the new covenant. And in verse 34, he says, And
they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man
his brother, saying, Know the Lord. We know what know is, it's
intimate relationship. What the law taught was that
if you had to obey the law to be in relationship with God,
you had to obey the law to approach him. But this is a new covenant, for
they shall all know me. There's that intimacy again.
From the least of them to the greatest of them, saith the Lord. He deals with us individually
and personally. For I will forgive their iniquity
and I will remember their sin no more. And this he does in
his son. That's the wine of our gospel.
And he continues to do it in our life. Every believing child
of God is in perfect union directly with God in our Lord Jesus Christ. These men have put themselves
in the place of God. Manipulating his people for their
own gain of one sort or another. And the Lord here exposes both
their heart motives and their wicked manipulations. All right,
the second characteristic in verse 13 is that they're always
spiritually dangerous to us. No matter what you think, their
influence is soul-destroying. But while aren't you, scribes
and Pharisees, hypocrites? For you shut up the kingdom of
heaven against men. For you neither go in yourselves,
that's their unbelief, but look what comes next. Neither suffer
ye them that are entering to go in. They harass the saints. They persecute the saints. And it hasn't changed, has it?
Since Cain and Abel. And it's about jealousy. Now
it might not be by death, but it is spiritual death. that
they're threatening these people with. And they do it these days
by attacking the congregation, the members individually, and
the message. You know, it's as simple as bringing
the law to someone like they did in Galatians and causing
guilt in the inner man to weaken their faith. Does this sound
familiar? Well unto you, scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites, for you devour women's houses. Isaiah 55 says, ho, everyone
that thirsteth, come ye to the waters. And he that hath no money,
come ye buy and eat. Come, yea, come buy wine and
milk without money and without price. Free grace to sinners. But these people always seem
to require something of you, something you need to give or
something you need to do. And then it says, and for a pretense,
they make long prayer. A pretense is a fake, vain public
show. You see, they deceive the Lord's
people. Their prayers aren't heard. They're
not sincere. They're not genuine. They don't
love God. God hasn't worked in their heart.
God doesn't hear their prayers. And so in their religion, they
deceive us. They misrepresent God and they
deceive His people, His children. Therefore, You shall receive,
and this is a promise, the greater damnation. James backs it up. He says, my brethren, be not
many masters, knowing that you shall receive the greater condemnation. Verse 15. Woe unto you, scribes
and Pharisees, hypocrites, for your compass, sea, and land,
they go to great lengths. And it happens today. Great evangelical
systems, they're always looking for followers. They use guilt,
manipulation, clever sales systems, pressure. Is any of this familiar? Why to make one proselyte, one
disciple? Not a disciple of God, a disciple
of their own. And when he is made, you make
him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves. We came
out of the garden deceived in Adam, but we did come with a
conscience, and it set us looking for a way to approach God. But now these people have peace
in their religion, where there is no peace, and they stop looking. So they're two-fold the child
of hell now. Listen to how Paul compares the
two ministries, 2 Corinthians 3 verse 5 to 9. The Pharisees
won't say that. Well, they might say it, but it's not true of them,
is it? This God who also hath made us,
this is God's word, able or effective ministers of the New Testament,
the New Covenant, not of the letter, which is the law. but
of the Spirit, for the letter kills, but the Spirit giveth
life. But if the ministration of death,
look at the progression here, the ministration of death, written
and engraved in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel
could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory
of his countenance, which glory was to be done away with, but
has its end in Christ for believers. How shall not the ministration
of the Spirit be rather or more glorious? For if the ministry
of condemnation, see it's not just physical death, it's spiritual
death. If the ministry of condemnation
be glory, much more does the ministration of righteousness
exceeding glory. How do we get righteousness?
It's not by the law, is it? We just heard it there. It's
by the ministry of the Holy Spirit. So there's some questions. Do
these people teach the gospel of life with God in Christ Jesus
alone? Or do they preach a system of
blueprints to approaching God in their own wisdom or work to
any degree? Do they esteem our holy God? Or, and this is the third characteristic,
do they diminish God before the people? Verse 16 says, Woe unto
you, you blind guides, which say, Whosoever shall swear by
the temple, it is nothing. They have no reference for the
temple. But whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple, he
is the debtor. See, that's where their priority
is, their own gain. You fools are blind, for whether
is greater the gold or the temple that sanctifies the gold. And they also say, and whosoever
shall swear by the altar, it is nothing. Again, irreverent.
But whosoever shall swear by the gift upon it, he is guilty. You see, again, their priority
is the gift. It's the gain. You fools and blind, for whether
is greater the gift or the altar that sanctifieth the gift. It's
simple. It's a simple argument, isn't
it? But what the Lord's doing is making it very simple but
he's showing a very important point. They've diminished the
importance, the holiness, the sovereignty, and the presence
of God in the midst of his people. And they've promoted a very subtle
but effective irreverence for God. And why do they do it? It's for their own gain. The Lord says in Matthew 6, 24,
No man can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one
and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise
the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. You can't serve God and be more
concerned with your own gain. Again, this is a promise from
God and it exposes the heart issue. The Lord gives us a simple
correction again. Who so therefore shall swear
by the altar, sweareth by it and by all things thereon. And who so shall swear by the
temple, sweareth by it and by him. that dwelleth therein. And he that shall swear by heaven
sweareth by the throne of God and by him that sitteth on it."
We have to remember the Lord's teaching us. He's teaching his
people, isn't he? He's restoring a right understanding
of our holy God to us, a most high God that actually sits above
all things and necessarily deserves our reverence and our fear. our
respect and our love. Angus has always said that to
elevate man, you must necessarily diminish God, like on a seesaw.
And that's exactly what those false teachers do. But it's not
the only thing they diminish. They also, and this is the fourth
characteristic, diminish the very gospel itself. You know, the whole of the law,
it actually points to the gospel even today. He says in verse
23, why aren't you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites? For you
pay tithe of mint and anise and cumin, they're all small, insignificant
peripherals and have omitted, left out, got rid of, The weightier
matters of the law. Look what the weightier matters
of the law, look what the purpose of the law actually is. Judgment, mercy, and faith. These you ought to have done
under their duty toward God and not leave the others undone.
You blind guides, you strain at a gnat, they feel defiled
at a fly. and swallow a camel. They drink
iniquity like water all day. See, the false teachers concentrate
on minor peripheries of behaviour, etc. rather than on the purposes
of God in his law. And again, this is similar, it's
familiar, isn't it? The purpose of the law is to
humble us under the righteous judgment of God. There's the
first one there. It's to frustrate all our natural
endeavors, especially our religious ones, and to turn us to God For
mercy, there's a second one. And it's to cause us to look
away from our own wisdom and work, to look to God for all
things by faith. There's a third purpose of the
law. These men, bring us law as a way to attain
life in the presence of God. Galatians 3 makes a very plain
statement, asks a question to us, is the law then against the
promises of God? For God forbid, for if there'd
been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness
should have been by the law." Now that's a pretty plain statement,
isn't it? But the scripture hath concluded
all under sin, and it does it with a purpose, that the promise
by faith of Jesus Christ might be given. It's a grace gift to
them that believe. But before faith came, we were
kept under the law, shut up under the faith, which should afterwards
be revealed. Where of the law was our schoolmaster
to bring us unto Christ? And why? That we might be justified
by faith. We can never be justified by
law, by faith. These people that come to us
in the name of works or law keeping, they'll often seem very genuine,
mate, and they're very sincere. And yet according to God, they
have no regard for the truth. And this is why we try the spirits. And the fifth characteristic,
because they're outwardly deceiving. Again, that's a promise. It doesn't
matter how righteous they appear. If you've seen any of these other
characteristics in them, this is a promise from God. Verse
25, why unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites? For you
make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within
are full of extortion and excess. Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse
first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside
of them may be cleansed also. That's that gospel wine, isn't
it? That's the gospel that cleanses us inside, that's being purified
by faith. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites, for you are like unto whitened sepulchres, which
indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but are within full of dead men's
bones and all uncleanness. Just note the Lord's examples
there. They're simple examples, but they're eternally condemning
examples. But now he speaks just directly
to the Lord. Even so, you also outwardly appear
righteous to men. You are full of hypocrisy and
iniquity, full of lies and sin. Now, what a clear warning. You know what Jude says in verse
12? These are spots in our love feast of charity, that's our
church meetings. When they feast with you, feeding
themselves without fear, without reverence to God, They're clouds
without water, carried about by the winds. The water is the gospel, they
have no gospel. And they're carried about in
this world by the cares of the world. They're trees whose fruit
withereth without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots. They seem to represent the truth
of God, and yet they administer death to all affected by their
teachings. Again, this is a promise from
God. They're always appearing righteous. Such is the subtlety
of their father, Satan. You can read about it in 2 Corinthians
11. The false teachers, whether we
see it or not, are always and only working on their own facades. and they're always and only wanting
followers to esteem them. And that again is another promise
from God. The last characteristic that
the Lord warns us about here is these false teachers are enemies
of the church. They persecute gospel witnesses. Verse 29, why aren't you scribes
and Pharisees? Hypocrites, because you build
the tombs of the prophets and garnish the sepulchres of the
righteous and say, if we'd have been in the days of our fathers,
we would have not been partakers with them in the blood of the
prophets. It's no different today. People act like they're sincere
and they're reverent for God. And yet in their own behaviour,
they attempt to destroy harassing the witnesses. He says,
wherefore you be witnesses unto yourselves that you are the children
of them which kill the prophets. See, by their behaviour, by their
actions now, they show that just like their fathers of old, they're
trying to kill the testimony. Remember, we read Matthew 21,
the parable of the vineyard, just at the start. They wanted
to kill the son. They want to kill the heir of
heaven, and they want to kill all that are in him. Verse 32, fill up then
the measure of your fathers, you serpents, you generation
of vipers. These are the Lord's terms. These
are the children of Satan spreading his poisonous lie. How can you
escape the damnation of hell? While in and of ourselves, we're
weak and frail in this world, but our sovereign God has perfectly
measured and set perimeters on all of our sufferings. You can
read about it in 1 Corinthians 10, even the attacks of our enemies. All things work for our good,
even this Romans 8. The Church of God has always
been in perfect union with our Father in heaven, in our Lord
Jesus Christ. In him we stand before our Father
as one body. Any attack on any member of that
body is a direct attack on God himself. He says in Acts regarding
Saul's persecution, Saul, Saul, why persecuteth thou me? The enemies of God should be
very, very fearful about getting in between him and one of his
little ones. There will come a day when these
persecutors of God will meet him face to face and they will
give a final account of all their rebellion. And in that day, they'll
be judged. They'll be judged by the very
law they stand in. May God be gracious to them in
this life by his gospel before them. In Matthew 23, our Lord Jesus
Christ has exposed these persecutors of the church by revealing six
clear characteristics One, the ungenerate state of their heart.
Two, that they're spiritually dangerous to us. Three, they
diminish God before his people. Four, they diminish the gospel.
Five, they're outwardly deceiving. And six, they'll persecute God's
witnesses and his testimony. Now they're characteristics that
are common to all who would stand in opposition of God and his
gospel. They're also characteristics
of the old man of our own flesh. So every believing child of God
will recognize them in some way, even if we can't put a finger
on it. Perhaps we'll just won't hear the Lord's voice in it.
I pray that our great God would cause us both to recognise and
to ponder these very serious warnings from scripture and to
turn us again to himself in the midst of all that would oppose
that. Now we're going to take a break
and we'll just come back and finish the chapter because the
Lord finishes the chapter in the gospel.