Good evening, if you would turn
with me in your Bible to Luke chapter 20 and verse 45. Luke 20, 45. It says, then in
the audience of all the people, he, the Lord, said unto his disciples,
beware of the scribes, which desire to walk in long robes
and love greetings in the markets, and the highest seats in the
synagogues, and the chief rooms at feasts, which devour widows'
houses, and for a show make long prayers. The same shall receive
greater damnation." The Lord is saying, beware of the religious. Beware of the religious leaders,
those who preach and say they're speaking for God, but they're
not. And it said here, he did it in the audience of all the
people. Does that mean that those Sadducees mentioned in verse
27 in the context were there? Does it mean that those chief
priests and scribes mentioned in verse 19 were still there?
Without a doubt, the Lord was never shy about rebuking these
religious leaders to their face, right to their face. He called
all of the religious Jews, the scribes, the Pharisees, the Sadducees,
chief priests and elders, they loved their titles. He had a
title for them, for all of them, hypocrites, that's what he called
them. You pretend to be righteous,
but inside, where people can't see, you're corrupt and vile
and full of every evil. You pretend to speak for God,
but you don't say what God said. And like here in our text, he
utterly condemned them. He said to the Pharisees in John
8, 21, you're going to die in your sins because you believe
not on me. He didn't say, if you don't believe
on me, you're going, he told them you're going to hell. You're
going to die in your sins. And here's why, because you believe
not on me. He said there in our text, as
they stood there listening, he said to his disciples, the scribes,
they're not just going to hell. They're going to receive the
greater damnation. That means exceeding damnation. The only thing worse than a sinner
is a religious sinner. What if I named a major denomination? one of the major religious denominations,
and you know what they are, Methodist, Presbyterian, Baptist, Catholic,
all the denominations. What if I named one of them and
called one of them out and said, watch out for them, beware of
them. They are gonna bust hell wide
open. That probably wouldn't be a very popular thing to say.
Well, it wasn't popular for our Lord to say what he said. They
nailed him to a cross for it, ultimately. They hated everything
that he said, and it was the religious people. It wasn't atheists
that did that. It was the religious, just like
the ones today who say they speak for God, but they don't. They love to be seen of men.
They love to be enriched by men. They love themselves and not
the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord said, you don't want
to listen to them. And I say to you, you don't want to hear
them. You don't want to follow them.
You don't act like them, he said. Don't do anything like them.
Don't pray like them. Don't do anything like they do
and stay away from them. He didn't say argue with them
or try to convince them. Some might think that those who
teach false doctrine just need to be convinced. No, the Lord
said, stay away from them. In Matthew 15, 14, he said that. In fact, listen to the context
of that. Our Lord had just taught in that chapter concerning the
fallacy of the Jewish religion, the same people he's talking
to in our text are about, concerning eating with unwashing hands.
They taught that if you don't wash your hands before you eat,
it'll defile you. And of course, they taught all
kinds of things about eating certain things at certain times,
just like some religion does now. They taught that certain
things shouldn't be eaten at certain times and other things
should. And this is exactly what Paul was teaching concerning
in Colossians 2.16, where he said, let no man therefore judge
you in meat or in drink or in respect of in holy day or of
the new moon or of the Sabbath days, which are a shadow of things
to come, but the body is of Christ. Christ is the one that all the
shadows were pointing to. Our Lord taught here in Matthew
15 that what makes a person unclean and corrupt is not what goes
into his body, but what comes out of his heart. Out of the
heart, he said, proceed evil thoughts and murders and adulteries
and all manner of evil. In other words, your problem
is not what goes in your body, it's what comes out of you. your
problem it's not what you do it's what
you are it's not what you eat it's what you are and then listen to that's what
he was teaching in Matthew 15 and then listen to Matthew 15
12 then came his disciples and said unto him knowest thou that
the Pharisees were offended after they heard this the religious
Leaders, the religious, the ones who everybody looks up to and
goes to to hear from God, to hear what God said, to hear what
the Bible teaches, the authorities in religion of the day, they
were offended by what you said. And you know what the Lord said
to them? He answered and said, every plant which my heavenly
father hath not planted shall be rooted up. It doesn't matter
what they thought about it. And listen, he said this in the
next verse, let them alone. They be blind leaders of the
blind. And if the blind lead the blind,
both shall fall into the ditch. So our Lord, he warns against
false religion. I preached a message recently,
just a few messages a few days ago on religious evil. And that message was from the
book of Isaiah. This is the message of all of scripture. Beware of
Christless religion, godless religion, and do not cooperate
with them, don't have anything to do with them, do not contribute
to them, don't listen to them, don't follow them. No, we're
not going to be one big happy religious family. We're not.
We don't want to do a joint community Christmas cantata with you. We
don't want to participate in any way in your Christless, freewill,
blasphemous religion. Well, why do you say Christless,
Chris? You know, everybody, all those
denominations that you mentioned, they all believe in Christ. They
all mention Christ. They talk about Christ. They
call themselves Christians. Well, I'm glad you asked about
that. So did the Jews. They weren't called Christians
then, but if you asked a scribe, do you believe in Christ? Oh
yes, that's what all the Old Testament was about, was foretelling
the coming of the Messiah, the Christ. They believed in Christ. They would have said absolutely,
of course. The Jews as a religion today
are still looking for Christ. They claim to believe in the
Christ, but when he came where they were and stood right in
front of them, they opposed him in every way that they could.
That's religion today that says we're Christians, we're all just
Christian, we're all one big, no, you hate God's son. If somebody tells you who he
is from the scriptures, you despise him. And that was true, that's
true of the Jews. They said, oh yeah, we believe,
our hope is the Messiah, the Christ. And when the Christ came
and stood there in front of them, they hated him. They couldn't
stand to hear him talk. They mocked him, they ridiculed
him, they spit on him and ultimately nailed him to a cross. So just
because you're using the name of Christ and call yourself a
Christian doesn't mean you know the Son of God. Doesn't mean,
and that's exactly the kind of person that our Lord says, beware
of them, beware of them. Religion has not changed. They
don't call themselves Pharisees now, they call themselves Christian.
It's the same ones in many cases. They say that, but you tell them
who the Christ of the Bible is, and they'll throw you out of
their so-called church so fast, it'll make your head spin. If
the Lord came back to this earth today, the way that he came before,
which he will not. He's not going to come the same
way he came before. He's going to come in power, not in humility. He's going to come with authority
and in power. But if he did, religion would
treat him exactly the way they did then. Again, it wasn't the
atheist that constantly looked for a way to put the Son of God
out of business and finally crucified the Lord of glory. It was religion.
And it would be today if he came back. It would be the religion
of this day. Because it's exactly the same.
And if he said what he said then, they'd try to kill him again. And I'm here to say to you today
what our Lord said. Beware of them. Avoid them. They are wolves in sheep's clothing,
he said. Atheists aren't wearing a sheep
costume. They're not even trying to look
like sheep. He's not talking about them, is he? People who
are not religious at all, which there are very few of anyway,
most people are religious, just about everybody is in some way
or another, but those who aren't, they're not wearing sheep's clothing.
They don't wanna look like a sheep. Our Lord said, beware of those
wolves who look like, at least to other people, sheep. That's
who you gotta watch out for. Paul said this about them in
2 Timothy 3.5. having a form of godliness, but
denying the power thereof from such turn away. They deny the
power of God. Now think about that, that word
means ability or strength, or in some cases, authority. They
say this, God wants to save you, but he can't do it unless you
let him. You just denied the power of God. You know what God
says? God says, is my hand shortened
at all that it cannot redeem? Or have I no power to save? That's
what people say. And religious people say that.
He wants to save you, but he just can't do it unless you let
him. That's denying the power of God. He's God. If he wants to save somebody,
he'll save them. He didn't say in Romans chapter nine, I will
have mercy on whoever will let me. He said, I will have mercy
on whom I will have mercy. And whom I will, I will harden.
That's what he said. This is the first thing about
bewaring false religion. Beware of those who deny God's
power, his Godhood. This is how David defined his
God. When the heathen of his day questioned,
They said, where is your God? He said in Psalm 115, two, wherefore
should the heathen say, where is now their God? David said,
I'll answer that. Our God is in the heavens. Here's
how he's different. He hath done whatsoever he hath
pleased. That's who God is. If you deny
the power of God, you deny God. If you don't believe in a sovereign
God, you don't believe in God. Beware of a preacher who says
God wants to do something, but he can't. Beware of a preacher
who said God is trying to do this or that. God don't try to
do anything. He speaks, he said, and it's
done. He said, I purpose it, and I'll
also bring it to pass. And nobody can stop him. Beware
of a preacher who says that Christ died on a cross trying to save
everybody or to give everybody a chance to be saved. This is
to deny the power of God. Christ is God the Son, and if
he did not accomplish exactly what he died in order to accomplish,
then why did he say it's finished? Why did he say it's accomplished?
Why did he say in John 10, 11, I am the good shepherd, the good
shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. And in that same chapter,
the same religious Jews that are in our text tonight, took
issue with him about his teaching concerning his sheep and how
he saved them. And he said to them in verse
25 of that same chapter, Jesus answered them, I told you and
you believed not. The works that I do in my father's
name, they bear witness of me, but you believe not because you
are not of my sheep. He just said, I'm the good shepherd.
I lay down my life for my sheep. And then he said to these same
religious Jews, you don't believe me because you're not my sheep.
Listen to what he said next. My sheep hear my voice. You don't
believe me, but they do. They sure do. They believe me
and I know them and they follow me. and I give unto them eternal
life and they shall never perish. Everybody that the good shepherd
laid down his life for will never perish. That's why he laid down
his life for them, that they might have eternal life. And he said, nobody can pluck
them out of my hand. The Lord Jesus in Matthew chapter
nine said to a man that was sick of the palsy, Thy sins be forgiven
thee. I never get tired of thinking
about that. This man was laying on a bed, he was carried by his
friends or family that loved him. And I imagine everybody
was expecting when the Lord walked up to that bed that that man
was laying on paralyzed. They probably expected him to
say, rise up and walk. They knew about his healing power.
And here he was, and he did eventually say that, but first he said this,
your sins are forgiven. And immediately these same Jews,
why? Because they denied the power
of the Godhead, of God's son. They deny his authority in saving
whom he will, when he will. They took issue with it. And
he said in verse five of that chapter, where there is easier
to say thy sins be forgiven thee or to say arise and walk, but
that you may know that the son of man hath power on earth to
forgive sins. That's why I said it. So you
would know I have the power to forgive sins. If he wants to
forgive your sins, he'll forgive your sins. You don't have to
let him. He's going to do it. And you're
going to thank him forever for it. if he wants to. And then he said, rise, take
up your bed and walk. He did. But first he wanted everybody
there to know, and he wanted me to know by his grace. And
I want you to know, he does, if he's pleased to reveal it
to us now, he has the power to forgive sin. Beware of those
that deny the power. They have a form of godliness,
but they deny the power thereof. Beware of religion that denies
Christ that power. The Jesus of religion can't just
do that. He can't just pick and choose.
He can't just forgive somebody's sins and not forgive somebody
else's. You know what? It's not fair, they say. Everybody
deserves a chance to be saved. Really? You deserve something
from God? Are you sure you want what you
deserve from God? I tell you what you need is grace.
And His grace is free. It doesn't look for people that
deserve it. He doesn't have grace on people that do something for
Him. He has grace upon people and saves people from their sins
who don't deserve anything but hell from Him, but He saves them
anyway. Listen to me now, time is short. This book plainly declares, the
Bible, God's book, declares plainly that salvation is not by the
will of man. It's not by the efforts or the
works of man. He said in Romans 9, where we
quoted from a while ago, listen to the rest, to the next verse.
In 15, he said, as we quoted, he saith to Moses, I will have
mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on
whom I will have compassion, so then, It is not of him that
willeth. God having mercy on a sinner
is not according to their will, nor of him that runneth or striveth
or tries to please God by what they do, but of God that showeth
mercy. That's how a sinner's saved.
God just has mercy on him. To say that God wants to save,
or that Christ died for everybody, or that God has done all he can
do and salvation is up to you, is to deny the power of God in
salvation. And to deny his power is to glorify
man and not God. Our Lord Jesus said in our text,
they love to look and act holy. They love to be seen of men.
They want people to consider them holy, but they will receive
the greater damnation. And if you follow them, so will
you. That's why he says, beware. That's what beware means. You'll
go to hell with them if you believe what they say. To say God loves
everybody is to deny the power of God. Well, where do you get
that from, Chris? Well, let me ask you a question.
You mean to tell me that God loved Judas as much as he did
Simon Peter? He said of Judas, he was a devil
from the beginning. He knew about Judas and what
was gonna happen to him from the beginning. He said to Simon
Peter, he said this after Simon had said something terrible.
He said this, Satan hath desired thee, Simon, that he might sift
thee as wheat, but I've prayed for you. Did he pray for Judas
the same as he did Simon? Satan did sift Judas as wheat. He utterly just crushed him,
absolutely destroyed him. If he prayed for both men the
same, then what good is the prayer of Christ? What good is the intercession
of Christ? If he prayed for both of them
the same and one of them went to hell and one of them didn't,
Then what's the point of him praying? What's the point of
his intercession? And will Christ, think about this. People that
say, that deny the doctrine of election, the truth of God's
electing grace in Christ, how God saves by choosing sinners
and causing them to come to Christ. The Lord Jesus said, no man can
come to me except the Father which has sent me. Draw him to
me. That word draw means to take you from where you are and bring
you to where you need to be. And where you need to be is Christ.
That's how that happens. No man's coming in any other
way. That's clear in the word of God now. And people that deny
that, they say, well, the doctrine of election and all that, it's
too confusing. It's too complicated. I don't understand it. I'm calling
you on it. You're lying. It's not hard to
understand. God saves who he wants to save.
That's hard. I'll have mercy on whom I will have mercy. You
know what's hard to understand? When you start saying, well,
Christ died for everybody. He wants everybody to be saved.
That's confusing to me because I get to thinking about this.
Did he die for people that were already in hell the day he died? That's confusing to me. That
confuses me. You know what doesn't confuse
me? You know what's simple and clear? I lay down my life for
my sheep and they will never perish. That makes sense. I get that. But you say, well,
in your sentimental, everybody, you know, God's got to be fair.
If God's fair with us, we're all goners. We're all goners. But you say, well, that's too
complicated, you know, but we believe that he died for everybody.
Answer me that question then. Did he die for those that were
already in hell the day he died? Was he trying to save them? It's
confusing. It doesn't make any sense. Will
Christ love, listen, will he love with an everlasting love
Love enough, love a sinner enough to give his soul a ransom for
the soul of that sinner, and then let them perish forever
in order not to violate the almighty imagined free will of man? What
kind of love is that? What kind of love is that? If
you had the power to do something for one of your children, would
you do it? If they were in trouble, if you had the power, he's got
all power, he's got all power. If Christ loved Judas as much
as he did Simon Peter, then what does his love have to do with
salvation? Beware of those that teach that.
That's what our Lord is saying. Beware those who deny the power
of God and his Son. The Christ of the Bible may very
well violate your free will. He did that for Saul of Tarsus.
Saul of Tarsus was on his road to Damascus was the road to hell
for him. He was going to persecute the
believers of that day. He was going to put some of them
in jail and kill some of them. And the Lord Jesus Christ stopped
him in his tracks and shown his light upon him and said, I've
chosen you and you're gonna preach to the Gentiles for me. He may
very well violate your free will. And you know what? If he does,
you'll praise him forever for it. If he don't, you're a goner. Did Christ die in order to save
sinners that were already in hell? How can you say that he
died for everybody? The truth is so simple. It's
not complicated. It's very plain. Paul said, seeing
we have such a hope, we use great plainness of speech. There's
nothing complex about God being God and doing as he pleases.
There's nothing hard to understand about Christ dying for his people
and saving them. When we say the doctrine of limited
atonement, people say, well, that's too complicated. I don't
understand it. What's complicated is when you try to reconcile
that with what you thought. That's gonna get real complicated
because you can't reconcile the two. What you need to do is forget
about what you thought and hear what God said. I lay down my
life for my sheep and they're not ever gonna perish because
I did. And he said to these religious Jews, you don't believe me because
you're not my sheep. My sheep hear me and they follow
me. He said in another place, all
that the father giveth me shall come to me, all of them. And
him that cometh to me, I won't cast him out. You come to him
for mercy and you'll have mercy. I can guarantee you that. Now
this is the power of God. He chose his people in eternity,
and Christ purposed in eternity to redeem them. That's why he
said, I give my life for my sheep, and they'll never perish, and
that's why they're not gonna perish. Neither shall any man
pluck them out of my hand. Salvation is not up to you or
me, and thank God for that. It's up to him. Listen to what
Paul said in 1 Corinthians 1, and we'll close with this. First
Corinthians 121, for after that in the wisdom
of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the
foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. And now we
know what preaching, preaching is not trying to get sinners
to do something or make a decision for God. Paul said, we preach
Christ. We're just telling you who he
is and what he did. We preach him crucified. We tell you who
Christ is and what he accomplished on Calvary for his people. And
that's the power of God unto salvation. And he said this,
for the Jews require a sign and the Greeks seek after wisdom,
but we preach Christ crucified unto the Jews a stumbling block,
and unto the Greeks foolishness, but unto them which are called,
both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom
of God. Because the foolishness of God
is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
And listen to what he said next. For you see your calling, brethren,
how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not
many noble are called, but God hath chosen, God hath chosen,
God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the
wise. And God hath chosen the weak
things of the world to confound the things which are mighty.
and base things of the world, and things which are despised
hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to naught
the things that are, that no flesh should glory in his presence. But of him, of God, of his purpose,
of his power, Are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto
us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption,
that according as it is written, he that glorieth, let him glory
in the Lord. He said, beware of those scribes
because they go around glorying in the flesh. They like to be
seen. They wear religious clothes and they get that holy look on
their face and they love it when people eat that up. Let him that
glorieth glory in the Lord and acknowledge that sinners are
saved by his will, by his power, by his gospel, by his son. He saves whom he pleases and
the way he does it is by sending preachers that please God by
the foolishness of preaching the gospel of Christ to save
them that believe. May God by his grace cause us
to believe on his son and have everlasting life, amen.