It is not that I did choose thee,
Lord, for Lord, that could not be. Yuba-Sutter Grace Church
would like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Rick
Warda. We currently meet at the Yuba
County Library, located at 303 2nd Street in downtown Marysville,
California, on the corner of 2nd and C Street. Weekly services
are held on Sunday at 11 a.m. at the library. For more information,
visit our website at ysgracechurch.com. Now here's our pastor, Rick Warda.
The scripture for our sermon today is Matthew 23, verses 1
through 3. Then spake Jesus to the multitude
and to his disciples, saying, The scribes and the Pharisees
sit in Moses' seat. All therefore whatsoever they
bid you observe, observe and do. but do not ye after their
works, for they say and do not." This was the last time Jesus
spoke to the multitudes before his death. He addressed the multitudes
and his disciples to guard them against the false religion that
was in the world in his day and throughout time. His purpose
was to expose false religion, to expose the lies we all naturally
believe, deadly lies. He exposes the false that he
might establish the truth to his people, not only then but
throughout time. He teaches the truth by stating
what is not true and by stating what is true. In so doing, he
feeds and protects his sheep. I have therefore entitled this
message, False Religion Unmasked, Truth Revealed. I would like
to consider three points in this message. First, the false religion
and hypocrisy that Jesus exposed and condemned. What the Pharisees
believed and practiced is common to all false religion. It is
present throughout history, not only in Jesus' day. Second, how
we are not saved, how we are not justified, how we are not
right before God. God tells us first how we are
not justified before Him and then He tells us how we are.
And third, I would like to consider how we are justified before God. Thankfully, God does not leave
his people in their sin and unbelief. Thankfully, he not only tells
us what is not true, not only tells us how men are not saved,
but he also tells us what is true. He tells us how sinners
truly are saved. First then, consider the false
religion and hypocrisy that Jesus exposed and condemned. Listen
again to what Jesus said in these three verses. Then spake Jesus
to the multitude and to his disciples, saying, The scribes and Pharisees
sit in Moses' seat. All therefore whatsoever they
bid you observe, that observe and do, but do not ye after their
works, for they say and do not. The message of these three verses
is this. Believe what Moses taught, but
do not believe the false doctrine of the Pharisees and do not practice
their false religion. The Pharisees occupied the God-ordained
position of teaching the truth that Moses taught. Jesus said,
All, therefore, whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe
and do. But do not ye after their works,
for they say, and do not. But the Pharisees did not believe
the truth that Moses taught. They knew what the scriptures
said, just as we might be familiar with the Bible, but they refused
the doctrine taught in the scripture. Jesus said in John 5, 46, Had
you believed Moses, you would have believed me, for he wrote
of me. The Pharisees did not believe
what Moses taught, because they did not believe Christ. Moses
taught about Christ. The Pharisees did not teach the
people what Moses taught, even though they sat in Moses' seat.
Therefore, the people were not to do what they did. Evil men
twist the scripture for their own advantage. Let me give you
several examples which are prominent in our day. Jehovah's Witnesses
retranslate the Bible in an attempt to remove all references that
teach that Jesus is God and that our salvation is by His blood
and righteousness alone. They deny the Trinity. They deny
that the Lord Jesus Christ is God manifest in the flesh. 1 Timothy 3.16 and John 1.14. They deny salvation by grace
alone. They deny that God justifies
sinners by the blood and righteousness of Christ alone. They deny the
necessity of the irresistible life-giving power of the Spirit
of God. They deny that He gives life
and faith to those God chose and gave to Christ in eternity,
those Christ redeemed by His precious blood. Jehovah's Witnesses
claim that they will be blessed by God because of their good
works. All religions essentially do
the same thing. Mormons add to and contradict
scripture. They deny there is one God. They
claim men become gods through persistent moral strivings. Mormons
claim their good works make a difference between them and others. Catholics
believe the same thing. Catholics claim the men in their
church have authority over scripture and determine what scripture
says. Catholics trust ceremonies such as baptism and communion
and feast days and prayers. They pray to dead saints, contrary
to scripture. They worship idols. They teach
that God justifies men by the grace which he works in them,
rather than the work of Christ performed for them outside of
their personal experience. But all modern evangelical churches
are essentially the same. Evangelical churches today have
several fatal errors. They teach a universal attempt
on God's part to save all men. They teach God loves everybody. They teach Jesus died for everybody. They teach the Spirit of God
offers eternal life to all men equally. And they teach that
man's act of faith, or the act of his will or his decision,
causes God to save him. Evangelical religions today,
such as Baptists, Pentecostals, Methodists, Nazarenes, Church
of Christ, Seventh-day Adventists, and many others, trust their
act of accepting Jesus. They look back to that time in
their life when they accepted Jesus or asked Jesus to come
into their heart. All such things are false religion. All of these trust their experience
as a reason why God will give them eternal life. And Reformed
Churches also hold many of these same errors. Reformed Churches
have two deadly errors. They teach that salvation is
what God does in response to man's act of believing. They
teach that God saves sinners when the sinner believes. They
teach that God justifies sinners through an act of faith on man's
part. And Reformed Churches teach that
men become holier by works that they do. Now, all of these errors
have a common theme. All false religions, whether
Muslim or Jewish or Catholic or Protestant, have one common
error. They all believe that God will
accept them based on something they do. They believe God will
save them when they exercise their free will. They believe
God will consider their works, or their faith, or the ceremonies
they keep, or their confessions, or their tears, or their spiritual
gifts. And in consideration of these
things that man does or is unable to do by God's grace, God will
accept them. Both Muslim and Jew believe God
will accept them by their works. Catholics believe God will justify
them because of the work of His grace in them. And Baptists believe
that God will justify them because they accept Jesus. Reformed churches
believe God will justify them when they exercise faith in Christ.
But all false religion comes down to this. All false religion
believes man can do what God requires, whether an act of faith,
or act of will, or religious works. and they believe God will
accept them for it. All false religion believes and
teaches that God will accept a person and give them eternal
life by what he finds in them, even when they admit it must
be a work of his grace. But the gospel denies all that
false religion teaches and condemns those who teach it. Consider
the most widely taught error of evangelical churches today.
Almost every preacher and teacher today says that God loves everybody,
Christ died for everybody, the Spirit of God draws all men,
yet some men will go to hell and others will go to heaven
because they accepted Jesus or made a profession of faith. But
consider what this means. If God loves all men alike, if
He wills the salvation of all men, if Christ suffered and died
for the sins of all men, and if the Spirit of God draws all
men the same, yet if only some have eternal life, then who or
what makes the difference in man's salvation? What difference
did anything that God did make in man's salvation? If God chooses
all men alike, it could not have been the electing love and choice
of God the Father before the foundation of the world, for
most whom He chose die in their sins. And if Christ died for
all men alike, it could not be Christ's atoning work, because
most for whom He died will go to hell. And if the Spirit of
God draws all men alike, it could not be the drawing power of the
Spirit of God, because most reject Christ in unbelief. Therefore,
in false religion, it must be man who makes the difference.
In false religion, man gets the glory in his salvation. This
is the deadly lie promoted by Satan throughout time. When you
really get it down and draw the string tight in false religion,
it all ultimately comes down to what man does. In false religion,
man makes the difference. Do you see that this is a fatal
error? If man makes the difference,
who gets the glory? Man must have it, but nothing
could be further from the truth of scripture. Now consider the
second point, how God says men are not saved. The Bible starts
here. The first three chapters of Romans,
for example, establish how sinners are not saved. We are naturally
inclined to believe that we are saved by something that we do. But in God's amazing grace, he
has told us with unmistakable clarity that we are not saved
this way. He says that we are not made
right by what we do. We are not accepted by God because
we do our part. First consider Romans 3 verse
19 and 20. We know that what things soever
the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law, that every
mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before
God. Therefore, by the deeds of the
law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight, for by the law
is the knowledge of sin." Romans 3, verse 19 and 20. This scripture
establishes three vitally important facts. First, all men are guilty. Second, it is God's law that
finds them guilty. Third, by our own personal obedience,
no one will be declared just before God. No one will be found
righteous before God by what he does, not even if what he
does is only the smallest part in his salvation as the weakest
link in a chain. And consider this scripture in
Galatians chapter 2 verse 16. Knowing that a man is not justified
by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ,
even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified
by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law, for
by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. Three
times in this one verse, God says by the mouth of the Apostle
Paul, a man is not justified by the works of the law. Not
by the works of the law. By the works of the law shall
no flesh be justified. It is repeated three times. Therefore
it is undeniably clear that scripture says we are not, I repeat, not,
not justified before God, we are not righteous, we are not
accepted before Him by anything that we do. Our personal obedience
counts for nothing in our justification, in our salvation. We are not
saved by keeping the moral law of God. We are not saved by keeping
the ceremonial law. We are not saved by our personal
obedience to any of God's requirements. Don't you find this to immediately
raise your concerns? Or do you, as a guilty, helpless
sinner, long and hunger to know that this is the very truth of
God because you have no righteousness of your own? Real sinners love
to learn that they are saved by the sovereign will and eternal
choice of God who cannot lie, who cannot change, and who cannot
fail. Real sinners love to learn that
they are saved by what God provided and received from Christ alone. Real sinners love to know that
the Spirit of God will not fail to give them life because Christ,
who put away the sins of His people and established their
everlasting righteousness, sits on the throne of glory and sends
His own Spirit to give them life, irresistibly calling them to
Himself and giving them faith. Now, third, from scripture, we
want to understand what God says about how we are justified before
Him. Given that we are naturally inclined
to believe the lie of false religion, which says that we are justified
before God by something we do, that something we do causes God
to justify us, Given this evil propensity that's in us, and
given that God has said with unmistakable clarity that we
are not justified by anything we do, let us now consider exactly
what Scripture says about how God justifies sinners. First,
what does it mean to be justified? It is similar to how judges on
earth justify. They examine the evidence against
the accused, and then they declare their decision of guilty or not
guilty. When God justify, He declares
a sinner to be righteous in His eyes. But that sounds contradictory. How can God, who is holy, declare
a sinner to be righteous? Proverbs 17, 15 even says, He
that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the just,
even they both are an abomination to the Lord. How then can God
justify a sinner? Listen to Romans 3 verse 24. Being justified freely by His
grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Now this is scripture. This is
God's word. We know that we are not justified
by our works. we are not justified for anything
we do. How then does God justify? God
says, first, that He justifies sinners freely. That little word
freely means undeservedly. It means without any cause found
in us. Jesus used this word in John
15, verse 25. He said, they hated me without
cause. Without cause is the same word
translated freely in Romans 3, 24. There was no cause found
in Christ that justified man's hatred toward him. Man hated
him undeservedly, without any cause found in Christ. Man's
hatred arose from his own heart. But this is how God justifies
sinners. He justifies them without cause,
freely, undeservedly for anything found in them. We are sinners,
entirely undeserving. We are incapable of doing one
thing of all that God requires. Yet God justifies His people
without any cause found in them. He justifies them freely for
no cause in them, but only for causes found in Himself. And
in Romans 3.24, the second thing we see is that we are justified
freely by His grace. Now, scripture always sets grace
in contrast to man's work. Grace is always in opposition
to all that may be called man's. Grace excludes our works in salvation,
and work excludes God's grace. Romans 11 verse 6 says, If by
grace, then is it no more of works, otherwise grace is no
more grace. But if it be of works, then is
it no more of grace, otherwise work is no more work. Grace is
always given without any contribution from man. Grace is either grace
alone or it is not grace. Salvation must be all of grace,
because only salvation by grace credits God with everything in
salvation. Only grace gives God all the
glory, and God will have all the glory in salvation, or no
man will be saved. Salvation must be by grace alone,
because God's Word says, being justified freely by His grace. But thirdly, Romans 3.24 also
says we are justified through the redemption that is in Christ
Jesus. The redemption that is in Christ
Jesus is the ground of our justification. It is the only basis on which
God justifies sinners. How can God be just and justify
the ungodly? Or as Job said, how then can
man be justified with God? If my son were accused of a crime,
I might want the judge to declare him not guilty. But a crime,
once committed, cannot be undone. I cannot compensate justice. I cannot change the law. I cannot
influence the judge. I am inclined to be gracious
to my son. The judge may even be inclined
to be gracious to him. But neither I nor the judge are
able to justify the guilty. But God, out of his infinite
wisdom, found a way to be both just and justify the ungodly. He found no cause in the sinner
to be gracious. His law required perfect obedience. His justice demanded the sinner
be cursed. Yet in himself he determined
to be gracious. His grace moved him to provide
the only just grounds by which he could justify the ungodly.
How? How did he do it? He made his
only begotten son a substitute for those he justified. Jesus
Christ is the Son of God. He gave his life, a ransom for
many, Matthew 20, verse 28. He redeemed them from the curse
that his own law required. The death of Christ enabled God
to be both just and the justifier of his people. Therefore, God
justifies by His grace through the redemption He provided and
which Christ accomplished by His death, and God received what
He accomplished for His people. Christ satisfied God's justice. Now, God's justice releases all
for whom Christ died from the debt of their sins, all for Christ's
sake. Ephesians 1 verse 7 and chapter
4 verse 32. Consider how the Apostle Paul
put it in Galatians 2 verse 16. Knowing that a man is not justified
by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ,
even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified
by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law. For
by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. I would
like to point out three things from this scripture. First, as
we have already established, no man is justified by the works
of the law. No man is right with God by what
he does. No man does or can do what God
requires. All have failed, and God's law
curses all of us. Three times God says, not, not,
not by the works of the law. I cannot be saved by my own personal
obedience. But the second point I would
like to make from this scripture, knowing that a man is not justified
by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ. Though no man is justified by
his own works, by his own personal obedience, yet we are justified
by the faith of Christ. But what does that mean? What
is the faith of Jesus Christ? Whatever it is, it must be the
reason, it must be the basis, the just ground on which God
can be just and justify ungodly sinners. Remember Romans 3.24
said that we are justified through the redemption that is in Christ
Jesus. Understand that redemption is
freedom obtained on the basis of a ransom paid. Let me repeat
that. Redemption is freedom obtained
on the basis of a ransom paid. God's law requires continuous
perfect obedience. It curses all for the smallest
failure. But by the redemption that is
in Christ Jesus, God, the judge of all, fulfilled his own law
in the obedience and suffering and death of his son. Romans
10, verse 4. He magnified His law. He made
it honorable, Isaiah 42, 21. Christ's obedience and sufferings
in death amount to full satisfaction and perfect fulfillment of all
God requires of all those He chose and ordained to eternal
life before the foundation of the world. Ephesians 1 verse
4 says, God the Father hath chosen us in Him before the foundation
of the world that we should be holy and without blame before
Him in love. God chose His people in Christ
to be holy and to be without blame. That is, He chose and
gave His people to Christ to justify them. He appointed Christ
to be their representative head and substitute. The Lord Jesus
perfectly fulfilled all of God's law in their place. He endured
the curse of the law and satisfied God's justice. He fulfilled the
obedience of the law and established there everlasting righteousness. Galatians 2.16 says that we are
not justified by the works of the law but by the faith of Jesus
Christ. But God often uses this expression,
the faith of the gospel, to mean the truth that is taught in the
gospel. Therefore, the phrase, the faith
of Christ, is the truth, how God saved his people to the glory
of God. The faith of Jesus Christ, by
which we are justified, is the truth revealed by God in Scripture
and declared in the Gospel. This is the truth that is witnessed
by the Law and the Prophets, and the truth which we believe. Contrary to what is almost universally
taught today, we are not justified by an act of our faith. We are not justified by an act
of our faith, nor are we justified by the work of God's grace in
us, no matter how loving and kind and giving and nice that
makes us. We know this with certainty for
several reasons. First, we're guilty. Second,
God says we're not justified by what we do. Third, God says
the just live by faith, and righteousness by our personal obedience is
contrary to faith. Fourth, both the law and the
prophets speak of the righteousness of God in Christ. And fifth,
faith neither satisfies God's law against sin nor fulfills
the obedience God's law requires. Faith is always imperfect. Faith
is a gift of God that He gives after we are given spiritual
life. Faith is temporary. It will not last forever. When
Christ returns, it will end in sight. Most importantly, if our
faith were the grounds of justification, then Christ's death would be
unnecessary, and His eternal achievements would be empty achievements. Therefore, we are not justified
by an act of our faith. Our faith in Christ is not the
faith of Jesus Christ spoken of in Galatians 2.16. Our faith
does not cause God to justify us, contrary to what is almost
universally taught today. No, it is not our act of faith
that justifies, but Christ, the one we believe, Let me repeat
that. It is not our act of faith that
justifies, but Christ, the one we believe. The obedience unto
death of Jesus Christ fulfilled God's law for righteousness.
Therefore, Christ, the object of our faith, is the one who
justifies. And this is what is meant by
the faith of Jesus Christ in Galatians 2.16 and Romans 3.21
and other places in scripture. This is vitally important. Jesus
told the people that because the Pharisees were in Moses'
seat, they were to do all that they said. But they were not
to do as the Pharisees did. Men take what is true and twist
it into a lie. They masquerade lies in the truth. They poison the pure water of
the gospel of God's grace with works. Faith as an act does not
justify, but the one God holds up to us in the gospel justifies,
not my act of faith. but the one faith believes, not
my faith, but Christ my Savior justifies." Galatians 2.16 says,
knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but
by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus
Christ that we might be justified by the faith of Christ. No, it
is not my act of faith that justifies, but it is Christ, the one I believe,
who justifies. We are justified through the
redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Our faith is the work
of the Spirit of Christ in our heart. He is the author and finisher
of faith. Galatians 5 says, we, through
the Spirit, do wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. It's
the work of the Spirit of God. Therefore, by God-given faith,
we wait for what Christ earned, believing the gospel over what
our eyes see. We believe in Christ not to procure
our justification before God, but we believe in Christ that
we might receive in our own conscience and enjoy the spiritual peace
and comfort which results from believing that He is all of our
righteousness, all of our justification before God. May God give us this
precious faith in Christ. You've just heard a sermon by
our pastor, Rick Warda. You may contact us by email or
by phone, or download a copy of this sermon by visiting our
website at YSGraceChurch.com.