Turn with me, if you would, to
Matthew chapter 15. Matthew chapter 15, we're continuing
our study through Matthew this morning. Let's read the first
nine verses together. Then came to Jesus scribes and
Pharisees, which were of Jerusalem saying, why do thy disciples
transgress the tradition of the elders? for they wash not their
hands when they eat bread. But he answered and said unto
them, why do you also transgress the commandment of God by your
tradition? For God commanded, saying, honor
thy father and mother, and he that curseth father or mother,
let him die the death. But you say, whosoever shall
say to his father or his mother, it is a gift, by whatsoever thou
mightest be profited by me, and honor not his father or his mother,
he shall be free. Thus have you made the commandment
of God of none effect by your tradition. Ye hypocrites, well
did Isaiah prophesy of you saying, This people draweth nigh unto
me with their mouth, and honoreth me with their lips, but their
heart is far from me. But in vain they do worship me,
teaching for doctrines the commandments of men." These scribes and Pharisees,
the scribes were the ones who transcribed the scriptures, the
pages were out, so they would constantly make new copies transcribing
the scripture. And the Pharisees were the one
who supposedly taught the scripture, the scribes and the Pharisees.
They were the religious leaders, the well-known religious leaders
in their day. We have well-known religious
leaders in our day, very well-known religious leaders. But just because
a man is a religious leader, even a well-known religious leader,
that does not mean that he is leading men and women in truth. We cannot assume that just because
a man is a religious leader, a pastor, a preacher, a teacher,
you know, somebody lets it be known, well, he's a pastor, and
everybody's like, oh, okay, well, he's a pastor, he's a preacher.
We cannot just assume that because a man is a leader, religious
leader, pastor, preacher, teacher, that he's leading men and women
in truth. We cannot do that. No matter
how famous they are. Especially when they're famous.
Especially when they're famous. There were false prophets in
our Lord's day. There are false prophets today.
Many false prophets today. Our Lord said, it's most of the
prophets. That's what our Lord said. It's
most of them, most of the preachers out there. That strikes great
fear into me. That does, that strikes great
fear into me. Dear Lord God, please don't let
me be one of them. I am sincere in that. Please
don't let me be one of them. If the Lord lets me go, if he
takes his hand off of me, I'll be at the top of the list. Please don't let me go, don't
let me be one of them, don't let us be one of them. Turn with
me to Matthew 7. Matthew 7 verse 13 says, enter ye in at the straight gate
For wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction,
and many there be which go in thereat. Because straight is
the gate, and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life, and
few there be that find it. Beware of false prophets, which
come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening
wolves. I have a center margin in my
Bible in verse 15 where it says, beware of false prophets. I have
a little M right there and in the center margin it gives six
or seven references right here that repeat the Lord's warning. It says Deuteronomy 13, Jeremiah
23, Mark 13, 2 Peter, 1 John. Let me just quote those to you,
okay? Just listen to these. Deuteronomy 13 says, if there
arises a prophet among you who is a dreamer of dreams, don't
listen to him. Do not listen to him. The whole
chapter of Jeremiah 23 is against false prophets. Woe be unto them,
it says. The Lord said, I didn't send
them, and they're not gonna profit my people at all. Don't listen
to them. In Mark 13, the Lord said, take
heed lest any man deceive you. He said, if it were possible,
even the very elect would be deceived. Thank God, if it were
possible, it's not. Second Peter 2 says there are
false prophets among the people and there will always be. And
they're going to bring in damnable heresies. First John 4 says,
Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits, whether
they are of God, because many false prophets are going out
into the world. Many, many. Our Lord right here
said, Beware of false prophets. Now how do we guard against that?
What makes a man to be a false prophet? How do we know that
a man is a false prophet? DEFINITION OF A FALSE PROPHET
AND THIS IS GOD'S CONDEMNATION ON THE FALSE PROPHET. VERSE 1,
GO WITH ME BACK TO MATTHEW 15, SORRY ABOUT THAT. MATTHEW 15,
VERSE 1 SAYS, THEN CAME TO JESUS SCRIBES AND
PHARISEES WHICH WERE OF JERUSALEM, SAYING, Why do thy disciples
transgress the tradition of the elders? For they wash not their
hands when they eat bread. But he answered and said unto
them, why do you also transgress the commandment of God by your
tradition? Verse four says, for God commanded. Verse five says, but you say,
you see that? What makes a man a false prophet?
Not preaching God's Word. Not preaching God's Word. Preaching
a tradition of the elders. That means the previous generations. And not preaching God's Word. A man who does not preach God's
Word is not just off a little bit. He's a false prophet. You've heard so many times. I
cannot tell you how many times people have said, yeah, the man
I sit under, he doesn't have it all right. He doesn't preach
all the truth, but it's the best I can find. And I just, you know,
take the good and throw out the bad. You're sitting under a false
prophet, a little leaven leavens the whole lump. Preaching the tradition of the
elders and not preaching God's Word. Where religion has gone
wrong is it has brought man's tradition in and mixed it with
the Word of God. And the sad thing is over time
and over generations, men and women start to believe that their
tradition is God's Word. They've heard their parents and
their grandparents say, well, now the Bible says this when
it doesn't say that. And the only reason their parents
and grandparents say that it does is because their parents
and their parents, their grandparents said it did. Our Lord plainly
said, if a man or a woman errs, it's because he or she doesn't
know the scripture. If anybody tells you anything
and you don't know that verse, you tell them, where is it? Show
me that. Where is that in the scripture? Well, you know, God
wants everybody to be saved. Show me that in the scripture.
Well, you know, the Lord helps those who help themselves. Show
me that in the scripture. Where is that? Lord, teach us the scripture. Teach us your word. Isn't that
what we want to know? Lord, teach us your word. What
you've actually declared in your word. Now here was the error
of these particular scribes and Pharisees. Verse one says, then
came to Jesus scribes and Pharisees, which were of Jerusalem saying,
Why do the disciples transgress the tradition of the elders for
they wash not their hands when they eat bread? To put this as
simply as I can, there were different washings given in the scripture
for the purpose of worship. The high priest had to wash his
clothes, he had to wash his hands at different times and wash the
sacrifice itself at different times in the offering of the
sacrifice. There were different washings
given to the people for their cleanliness, for their well-being,
especially after they touched something vile and decaying like
a dead animal or something. They were commanded to wash.
Along with that there were laws of the land given and there were
traditions passed down like over in Mark's account. Mark chapter
7 tells us a washing of cups and pots and brass vessels and
tables and one of those traditions was washing your hands before
you eat. We still have that tradition. I still observe that tradition. I do. Now let me just say, number one,
there's nothing wrong with tradition. There's nothing wrong with tradition. Especially a tradition like that. Here's where the problem comes
in though. The religious leaders started adding their tradition
to what God required for righteousness. That's where the problem came
in. They started making their tradition to be a part of, a
component of, righteousness before God. They added it to what God
said He required to the point that they were saying, if you
don't wash your hands before you eat, you can't be saved because you won't be holy and
clean and pure in his sight. Now that's error. That's a false
declaration on God. That's what that is. That's a
false declaration on God, meaning that's a lie. That is a lie. I don't have any problem with
a man or a woman washing his or her hands before they eat. I don't have any problem with
that. I also don't have a problem with a man or a woman not washing
his or her hands before he or she eats. The reason is because
it's not a component of our righteousness before God. Not a component at
all. As a matter of fact, if we are
going to try to make it to be a component, we'd be better off
to not wash our hands. We'd be better off to not wash
our hands. If we think somehow in doing
that we are adding to the blood and righteousness of Christ for
our acceptance with God, we'd better stop washing our hands
before we eat. All we're doing is defiling ourselves. Here we are washing, thinking,
this is making me holier and cleaner and more acceptable to
God. And in the process, all we're doing is defiling ourselves. That's all we're doing. Now,
in the world and the mindset that we live in today, okay,
that was their mindset and their tradition and their laws and
religious ways back then in the world we live in today, the mindset
we live in today. We hear something like that and
we think that's silly. That's ridiculous. That's absolutely
ridiculous. Thinking unless you wash your
hands before you eat, God is not going to be happy with you.
How absurd. Uh huh. What about prayer? praying before you eat. Man has a way of ruining everything.
He does. Man has a way of bringing himself
into bondage over everything, even good things. Prayer is good. I'll go ahead and tell you, washing
your hands is good. Prayer is good. Prayer is of
God. We're commanded to pray. We desire
to pray. Don't you love praying to God? But if we believe that our prayer
is a component of what commends us to God, if we try to add our
prayer to Christ's righteousness, if we try to add our intercession
to Christ's intercession, to somehow make it to be a part,
a component of what commends us to God, then we had better
stop doing it. We'd better stop doing it. All
we're doing in that is honoring him with our lips when our hearts
are far from him. Isn't that what he said? I know that we've all been in
the situation where you're sitting down to eat and at a restaurant
with others who are religious and are horrified at the thought
of eating without praying first. I know we've all we've all been
there. I am all for being patient with
people and trying to not be an offense. The story is told of
a group of men who sat down to eat one time and Rolf Barnard
was one of them and he just started digging in and one of the men
said, brother, aren't you going to pray first? And Barnard said,
well, how do you know I didn't? You know, prayers of the heart.
There are often times where I'll give thanks to the Lord silently
in my own heart. There are many times I don't.
I'm just being honest with you. But I know that we've all been
in this position where as though it's law, religious law. Wait, wait a minute, wait a minute.
We're not going to eat without praying first, are we? I am all
for being patient and trying to not be an offense. I don't
want to be an offense to people. But if all we're going to do
in that moment is be seen of men and heard of men, every now and then you'll find
somebody in a restaurant who's literally praying as loud as
he can. If that's our goal, I'm telling
you, we better not do it. We just better not do it. And man's flesh has a way of
ruining everything, even every good thing. Let me give you just
a few more examples of this. Baptism is a good thing. God commanded it of his people.
We desire it. But if we're going to try to
add that to the washing of the blood of Christ, if we're going
to try to make baptism to be a component of our forgiveness
with God, we'd better hold off a minute until the Lord reveals
otherwise to us. The Lord's table. That is a beautiful
ordinance and a beautiful picture that's been given to us to show
what has been accomplished for us in the substitution and death
of our Lord. But if in taking it we're going
to make it a component of our holiness and a component of our
redemption, not discerning the Lord's body alone, what He did
and accomplished alone to be our holy acceptance and redemption,
then we'd better not partake of it. All we're doing is eating
and drinking damnation to our souls. That's all we're doing.
If we're going to try to add our anything to His, don't do
it. Just don't do it. Our Lord right
here is condemning them in their giving. Giving to the Lord. Giving is
a good thing. God has commanded us to give. We desire to give. But our Lord
said in verse three, you are transgressing the commandment
of God in how you're doing it. Verse three, he said, he answered
and said unto them, why do you also transgress the commandment
of God by your tradition? For God commanded, saying, honor
thy father and mother, and he that curseth father or mother,
let him die the death. But you say, whosoever shall
say to his father or his mother, it's a gift. By whatsoever thou
mightest be profited by me, you know, give and it'll be given
unto you and honor not his father or his mother. He shall be free.
Thus have you made the commandment of God of none effect by your
tradition. God said, honor your father and
your mother in their old age. That's what he means, take care
of them. That's what he means. Take care of them, provide for
their needs as they've done for you all these years. It's your
turn now to take care of them. But under the bondage of man's
works, you say, this is the Lord speaking, you're telling your
father and your mother, I can't take care of you because I have
to give this money to the church. I have to. Or God's not gonna
be pleased with me. This is what man came up with. Mark's account called it Corbin. They said, you know, they told
him now these religious leaders told these men and these people,
as long as you give the money to the church, okay, you're supposed
to take care of your parents. But as long as you give the money
to the church, it's okay. You don't have to take care of
your parents. You can just tell them I had to do this and you
can feel good in your conscience that I did what was right by
God and it'll save you a little money because then you won't
have to give to the church and take care of your parents. You
know, you can just kill two birds with one stone. He said, I'm
not pleased. You're making up your own commandments.
You're not obeying mine. in truth, in the heart, in sincerity. Verse seven, ye hypocrites, well
did Isaiah prophesy of you, saying, this people draweth nigh unto
me with their mouth, and honoreth me with their lips, but their
heart is far from me. But in vain they do worship me,
teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. Oh, how common that is
now. That is the standard of religion
now. That is the standard of religion,
teaching for doctrines the commandments of men, rejecting the commandments
of God, and teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. When
it comes to our salvation, the commandments of men play no part
in it, none whatsoever. It doesn't matter who the man
is or what he has said. No part. The doctrines and opinions
of men will only lead us to error and condemnation. It must be
God's Word only. It must be the commandment of
God's Word only. And what has God written in His
Word concerning our salvation and our acceptance and our forgiveness
and holiness and righteousness and redemption with Him? What
has He said? What's His answer? Christ alone. Christ alone. It is Christ alone. There is nothing wrong with washing. I would appreciate it if we all
did. There is nothing wrong with prayer. Pray without ceasing. There's
nothing wrong. If our Lord instituted baptism
in His table, these are good, good things. as long as we don't
try to add them to the righteous, holy, finished work of the Lord
Jesus Christ alone. We don't add anything. We don't
take anything from His finished work. We don't add anything to
His finished work. When we teach Christ alone, we're
teaching the doctrine of God. When we worship Christ alone,
our worship is not in vain. When it's Christ alone, really,
when it's Christ alone, our hearts are as near to God as they can
possibly be. He said, your hearts are far
from me. When it's Christ alone, our hearts are as near to God
as they can possibly be. Here's our prayer. Lord, keep
us right there. Keep us right there. Martin Luther
said, my warrant is the word of God. Nothing else is worth
believing. Lord, keep us right there. Right
there. Teach us your word and keep us
right there. All right. You're dismissed.