Luke 11, we're going to try to
get through the end of this chapter, verses 37 through 54. It's impossible
to fully deal with one verse of what our Lord said, let alone
several. Verse 37, it says, "...as He
spake, a certain Pharisee besought Him to dine with Him, and He
went in and sat down to meet." When the Pharisees saw it, he
marveled that he had not first washed before dinner. Our Lord came into his house
and just sat down and started eating. I wonder if he prayed
before he started eating. He never quit praying. He just
didn't do it to be seen. Right? But he didn't wash his
hands and this Pharisee, the Pharisees were so fastidious,
is that the word? So thorough in washing. Matthew says they washed pots
and cups, they were just so diligent about that and so careful and
even maybe worried about it. And he marveled that, this Pharisee
marveled that the Lord did not wash Now, Pharisee, the name
means separatist, a religious separatist. In Isaiah 65 verse
5, the Lord said, through the prophet that some say, stand
by thyself, come not near me, for I am holier than thou. That was a Pharisee. You remember
the Pharisee in the temple? And the publican, you know, he
just said, I'm not like that publican. At one time, you heard this,
but somebody may haven't, I was a young believer and working
on the railroad and I saw a man reading the Bible and he was
in a very prominent place. He had a job to do, but he had
that Bible open there and he wanted people to see. reading
that Bible. And I went up to him, and I wasn't
being smart at it. I really wasn't. I was hoping
for an opportunity to speak to him. I said, what are you reading? He said, do you understand what
you read? Hoping that he might be like the eunuch, you know,
the Ethiopian eunuch. That's what Philip said to him.
Understandest what thou readest? And the eunuch in humility, he
said, how can I? I said, some man. He said, oh
man, and said, come up here and tell me what I'm reading. Well,
I said that to that fella. He huffed up like a cat, you
know, and he said, I'll have you know, he said, I'm a tongue-talking,
born-again, spirit-filled Christian. Now, he looked like the devil. That's what he looked like. I
went on to say, well, that's not what I asked you. I asked
you if you understood what you were reading. But these Pharisees, that's just
what they were. They thought they knew God, they
didn't know God. Paul knew Pharisees well, didn't he? He said, he
was one. I understand. He said, they love
the law, they think they keep the law. Well, in verse 39, the
Lord said unto him, Now do you Pharisees make clean the outside
of the cup and the platter, but your inward part is full of ravening
and wickedness. Ravening, you called them ravening
wolves one time, ready to pounce like a wolf on the weak and the sick. And
wickedness, wickedness, wickedness is many things. There's outward
immoral perverseness, which is wickedness. But perhaps the worst
kind of wickedness is hypocrisy and deceit and fraud in the name
of God. That's what the Lord, oh, He
hates that. Our Lord one time said that the
harlots and the publicans are going to go into heaven before
you do, to the Pharisees. He said it's going to be easier.
There's no degree of rewards, there's no rewards, period, in
heaven. The word rewards is not in the
Bible concerning heaven and salvation. Reward. But there are degrees
of punishment. in hell. Our Lord said that.
He said, be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah judgment than
some people, religious people. So, and the Lord is going to
pronounce six woes on these Pharisees. Woe, woe, woe, woe, woe, woe. Woe is a dire pronouncement or
judgment of dire judgment, condemnation, and wrath, six woes. In the Revelation, if we get
time, probably won't have time, there are three woes. And it
says one woe is past two woes, and the last woe, I'll go ahead
and tell you. The last woe, I think it's chapter
19, I got it written down. He said, Satan has come down
to this earth and said, woe unto the inhabitants of the earth.
He has a short time. And there's going to be, as it
were, hell on earth because of him. And we're in that time right
now. This is the last day. His little
sister, Brother Jellett, has been writing many articles on
that. He has such good insight. He
called them fools, verse 40. Fools. ignorant, deceived, deceitful,
fools, they fooled themselves. There's no greater fool than
one who fools himself, isn't it? Paul wrote about the last
days that evil men, seducers, wax worse and worse, deceiving
and being deceived. Boy, if you can deceive yourself, Now the Lord sees all, and this
is the Lord God who sees all, knows all, knows our thoughts.
He sees all, outward and inward. We read that, we looked at that
in Psalm 139. Not a word in my mouth, not a
thought in my head, my down city, my upright, everything. He told
me. And in Psalm 138, you remember
he says, the proud he knows are far off. He knows them. He tells
them the fire's not far off. Now in Matthew, this is recorded
a little bit differently. He said they cleaned the outside
of the cup, but the inside's filthy. That's what he said in
Matthew. Look at verse 41. And this is
something difficult to understand what he says here. Verse 41,
he says to these Pharisees, give alms of such things as you have,
and behold, all things are clean unto you. Clean unto you doesn't
make you clean, but it just reveals that God has done a work in you. But here's, I think, what he's
saying, and I've read many men on it, but alms, the word alms
is not just giving tithes or money or gifts or whatever, but
it's acts of compassion, acts of mercy, things that need to
be done out of love and mercy and grace and compassion and
kindness. And our Lord said, if you truly
did what you did for the glory of God, with a heart for His
glory, and a heart for people, you wouldn't be worried about
touch not, taste not, handle not. You don't have to worry
about that. If your heart's clean anyway,
you're not going to abuse it. And that's what our Lord is saying.
He was talking to a woman at a well one time, and she was
a notorious woman, this woman at the well, John Ford. He was
talking to her. And the disciples, who were once
fishermen, rough, rough fishermen, you know, they came and they
marveled. They couldn't believe He was talking to her. He's pure. Our Lord was pure. Everything He did had a perfectly
pure motive, didn't it? He never lusted after a woman.
He looked on women as souls. If they belonged to him, they
were his sisters. He'd come, his bride, whom he'd
come to save, to rescue. But us, it's a good thing to
be discreet concerning us, because our motives are to be called
into question. But nevertheless, he says, unto the pure, through
the pure, all things are pure. You know what Paul wrote? Well,
he said, if you truly had a heart of love and compassion and did
what you did for the glory of God and the good of God's people,
you wouldn't be worried about how people perceive you, lust
of the eye. You wouldn't have a problem with
the outward. One time, the Lord shocked everybody, and it still
shocks people when you tell them. He turned to the people and said,
listen to me. There's not one thing you put in this mouth that
defiles you. You know, the Pharisee, touch
not, taste not, handle not. We still have a whole lot of
Pharisee around us and in us. And that just shocked everybody. He said, the sin is already in
there. I remember my dad saying one
time, he said, a drunk is not a drunkard because he drinks.
He's born a drunkard. The alcohol didn't make him a
drunkard. It was on the inside of him. Well, this is what our Lord is
saying. All right, look at verse 42.
"...Woe unto you Pharisees, you tithe, mint, and rue, and all
manner of herbs, and Passover judgment, and the love of God. These ought you to have done,
and not leave the other undone." Woe, he says, you tithe. Now,
the Lord just said, give on, didn't He? Give. He said, give
on. Here, he said, you tithe. They
were very careful tithers. In Matthews, it said they tithe
men, anise, and cumin, and everything. They were so careful about giving
10% of things that cost them nothing. Right? Things that cost them nothing.
Tithing really doesn't cost him 10%. Government takes more than
that. The Lord says give. What did he give? Everything. Himself. He who was rich did
what? For our sake became poor. That's
giving isn't it? Now the Lord did not condemn
tithing, but he told them you ought to give. They said, you
tithe. You tithe. And tithing was required. It's still under the law, but
yet not omitted. But giving, what is giving? Giving is out of love. You tithe
because you're supposed to. You tithe because the law is
required of you. Would you pay taxes if you didn't
have to? Would you? Would anybody? No. One time, my daughter was about
four or five years old. We went to the store. We gave
her some money to buy something. She went up to buy it and gave
her the money. And the lady said, that'll be
so-and-so and so much money. And she was old enough to see
it says $5. The lady said, but there's taxes. Hannah said, I
don't do taxes. I don't do taxes. We'll try that
and see what happens to it. Well, but giving is out of love,
isn't it? More in love with the cheerful
giver. Oh my, you love somebody, you
can't give them enough. You can't give them enough. It was Hacerus said to Hadassah,
that's Esther's name, Hadassah, That's our Hebrew now. He said
to Hadassah, Esther, he said, ask me, I'll give you the half
of my kingdom. That's your version. Out of love. Well, look at verse
42. He says, you ought to have done
these things, but not leave the other undone. That is, judgment
or discernment or dealings, good, fair dealings with other people. He condemned, all through the
scriptures, our Lord condemns those that were religious and
didn't do anything for others. The love of God, that is, show
the love of God and do what you do out of the love of God. All
right, verse 43. Woe unto you Pharisees! Woe unto
you Pharisees! You love the uppermost seats
in the synagogue and greetings in the market. Greetings in the
market. They loved the chief seats and
greetings. Why? Because they wanted people to
acknowledge them. Look at me. And they put on this
pretense of modesty and humility. What? Look at us. The German
Baptists. I'm going to tell it like it
is, okay? They practice foot washing. They're not washing
feet because their feet are dirty. If you want to take your shoes
off and somebody's going to wash your feet in front of everybody,
what would you do before you went there? You'd get a pedicure. It's not out of need. It's a show. Look, we're so humble. Or go to the hospital and empty
a bedpan. Go to their house and do that. And let nobody know
about it. Because the one who does know
is the only one that matters. Right? That is seeing of the
Lord. And commending. Not the other.
So judgment, that means doing right things out of love to God. Showing the love of God. He's
ought to have done it. He said, whoa, and he loved the
uppermost seat. And greetings in the marketplace, titles, titles,
doctor, reverend, rabbi, bishop. They're not in the Bible, people.
They're just not in the Bible. I'm a stickler for this. They are not in the Bible. You
will not find profit in front of any man's name, capitalized.
You will not find it there. You won't find Apostle in front
of any man's name with a capital A in front of it. Hebrews 3 talks
about the Apostle, capital A, Jesus Christ. Reverend? This is Psalm 11, holy and reverend
is his name. Doctor? Oh, no man could possibly be called
Father. Father, let me read you something. I jotted this down. I'm just
looking at it again this morning. And I was in someone's house
one time, this young lady. She came here. And she was a staunch Catholic,
raised a Catholic. And on her wall, I saw this plaque.
And it just shocked me so much that I wrote it down word for
word. I had to write it down. It says, it had this official
seal of the Vatican. Here's what it said. The Holy
Father, John Paul, paternally imparts, that means the Father
imparts, his apostolic blessing to, it had her name, of course
it's a line, it's blank, because they sell these things. They
sell them. And she bought one. Put her name
on it. on the occasion of her birthday
as a pledge of heavenly favors. Now that is what Paul wrote about
sitting in the temple of God as God. And our Lord one time
said, call no man your father. You have one father. That doesn't
mean don't call your earthly father. All the prophets and
apostles, Elijah, well, they called their earthly fathers
father, out of respect. But these Pharisees, and they
love these titles. They love these titles. And our
Lord said, don't give them. Elihu. Remember young Elihu?
He says, I don't give flattering titles. He lied, he did. I believe like him, I just don't
do it. Well, let me go on. He said,
woe unto you, woe unto you. He loved these titles. Greetings
in the Marketplace. There's the Reverend. Let me
tell you one more story. Gabe, when he had the music store
downtown, Rocky Mountain, Hannah was working at the counter. And
a woman came in, no, it was either a man or a woman came in to make
an appointment for guitar lessons for her pastor, she called it,
her pastor. And she said, Pastor so-and-so
would like to, and Hannah said, well, what's his name, James? Tell James, you call him pastor. Hannah said, well, when can James
come in? She said this to him, call him
pastor. That ain't God's pastor, is it? They came to John, what's your
name, what's your credentials? He wouldn't even tell them his
name. Christ said he's the greatest man born of woman. Who are you? A voice. And that's somebody
you can listen to. He doesn't want his name known. He doesn't want titles. Holy
and Reverend is his name. He wants you to bow to and acknowledge
and call upon the Father, the Holy One, the Great Physician,
Doctor. Verse 44, Woe unto you scribes
and Pharisees. I've got to hurry. Hypocrites. You're like graves, which appear
not. The men that walk over them, they're not aware of. They're
dead. Dead. You ever been out in the
woods and walking through the woods or whatever, and you come
along a grave? There's a graveyard right beside
my house, and it's full of graves. Some say there's slave graves
in there, little stones, little rocks. And I've walked all over
them all the time, didn't know it. I don't think I would do
that out of respect. Not superstition, mind you, but
just out of respect, right? But I do it all the time. And
this is what the Lord said, that they're dead men, and you think
people don't know it. They're dead, not aware of it. Blind leaders are blind, and
blind people don't Suspect blind people. Verse 45. Then answered
one of the lawyers. One of the lawyers said to him,
Master? Teacher? He didn't mean this as my master,
my lord and master. He's not calling him that. Disciples
sometimes did, didn't they? Lord, master, master, meaning
you own me. And you're the one I look to
learn from. I'm your disciple and I want
to learn. I'm a little child. Teach me.
Not this fellow. Just, you know, they like titles
and they were trying to show that they give respect to Master.
Can you hear his voice? Master. He said, Teacher, thus
saying, thou reproachest us also. Can you hear him? Yes, he did. And I've had people
say to me, you were preaching right at me. Anybody say it? Yes, I was. One time somebody came after
the service was over and said to my dad, he said, you sure
stepped on my toes this morning. And my dad said, I missed. I
was aiming at your heart. You see, those who are poor and
have a contrite heart, Isaiah 66, tremble at his word They don't take offense to it.
They're not... Reproach? We're a reproach to
God. Everything about us is a reproach.
These Pharisees were a stitch in His nostrils. You reproach
us? Well, if you don't receive reproach,
you're not a child of God. If you're not convicted of sin,
that's the first thing the Holy Spirit does. Our Lord said in
John 16, you're convinced of sin. Righteousness and judgment. Now,
you're approaching us. Oh, my. My, my, my. Scripture says, rebuke a wise
man and he will love thee. But he that hateth reproof shall
die. Verse 46, He said, Woe unto you
lawyers. Woe unto you, you lay men with
burdens, grievous to be born. You yourselves touch not the
burden with one of your fingers. Lay heavy burden." Now, these
lawyers weren't civil lawyers. These were religious lawyers
under the law, the Mosaic Law, Levitical Law. These were the
fellows who practiced that law. And they did it for money. And he said, you lay heavy burdens. That's what the law is a heavy
burden in. Here's what the law says, and
this is what Paul said. He said, you that desire to be
under the law, you don't hear it. You don't hear it. If you
desire to be under it in any way, shape, form, or fashion,
if you desire to be under it as a covenant of work, to be
justified before God, you offend in one point. Guilty, all of
it. Forget it, you're guilty, one
point. That's what he said. Or as a rule of life, what laws
shall we take as a rule of our life? Which ones? You've got
to keep them all up. If you're a rule of law, you've
got to keep them all. We've got to go back to being Levites. Uh-huh. That's what the Amish did. That's
what the German Baptists are trying to do under Levitical
law, right? And they're miserable people.
And their leaders are buying these heavy burdens. And the
leaders are proud of it. The men are strut around like
roosters. You know, rooster or turkey.
Turkey, that's better. Long beard. That's a fact, isn't
it, Mac? A turkey, you bag a turkey, your
prize is that long beard. Well, if that didn't fit him. Can't say enough about that.
Our Lord did. He condemned it. We're going
to see Job. Job perhaps wore a beard. I don't
know about his hair or whatever, but when the Lord smote him,
he cut it all off. Cut it all off. All his glory. Oh, and you lawyers,
you're buying heavy burden. The law is a heavy burden. Anybody
that brings anybody under the law doesn't know the law, doesn't
know the Lord. It's another gospel. Galatians,
the whole book in Galatians is about that. It's another gospel.
Another gospel. And brethren, there are many
husbands that bring their wives under bondage. Well, they themselves
are not perfect. Our Lord knows. I've got so many
stories about that. I was guilty as a young man. Verse 47, woe unto you, he says,
you build the sepulchres of the prophets and your fathers killed
them. That is, you brag on the dead and kill the living. The Roman Catholics tried to
kill Martin Luther, didn't they? They tried to kill Martin Luther,
but they couldn't. He died an old man. What does
that tell you? The Lord kills. They wanted to
kill him. They tried to. They did kill
a lot of people. They did. They deny it today,
but they did. Many, many, many people. Blood.
Martyrs. Scriptures talks about it. They
tried to kill Martin Luther. You know what they did a few
years ago? They canonized him. Made him a saint. There are people today that venerate
and love my father that hate me. We preach the same. I'm his son. Oh well. Verse 48, truly you
bear witness, you allow the deeds of your fathers, they indeed
killed them and you build their sepulchers. He said, which of
the prophets did you not kill? Lord, anyone who tells the truth,
our Lord says, is going to be hated in every generation. And
all the prophets were killed except Elijah. The Lord took
him up. All the apostles were killed.
All of them were killed except John, but he was exiled. They
wanted to do away with him. I was going to have you turn
to Revelation 11 as a story of two witnesses, two olive trees,
two witnesses which represent the Word of God, the Law and
the Prophets, the Prophets and the Apostles. Okay? These two
witnesses. And it says they went through
the earth and people hated it. They hated it. And so they killed
them. And they rejoiced. The whole
world rejoiced over these dead prophets. Okay? And they were
dead for quite a while. That's the dark ages when there
was no word of God. And then they are resurrected.
through men like Martin Luther, Zwingli Huss, and those men.
Latimer, Cramner, these men, the Lord used them as lights
and to write the word and translate the word and for people to have
the word. The entrance of thy word giveth light. So the dark
ages were dispelled and the word came back. In Revelation 11 it
says these prophets arose and they just, the earth still hated
them. And then finally, the Lord took him out, took him up to
heaven. It's over. When he takes away
the witnesses, it's over. And that's about to happen. Look
at verse 49. It says, therefore also said
the wisdom of God, I will send prophets and apostles and some
of them they shall slay and persecute that the blood of all the prophets
which was shed from the foundation of the world may be required
of this generation. From the blood of Abel unto the
blood of Zacharias. What was the first death over? Religion. First murder, human
blood shed was over religion. Abel's brother Cain liked his
works. He hated the gospel of free grace. He hated that. Abel told him,
Cain, if we get to God, if we get to heaven, it's going to
be by the blood of the Lamb. going to be by him being accepted
for a substitute, accepted for. Cain said, I don't believe that.
Surely God will accept the best that I can bring. Well, no, he
won't, Cain. No, he won't. He won't do it.
And God showed him. He didn't. He rejected him. And
Cain got mad. Who's he mad at? God. He can't
take it out on God, though, can he? What'd he do? He killed Abel. And that's what men do. They
hate those that tell the truth. It's not them they hate, it's
God. Can't get to God. They killed
all the prophets, killed the apostles. And if they were lawful,
they'd kill preachers today. It says, verse 52, we're going
to make it. Woe unto you lawyers, you've
taken away the key of knowledge. You entered not in yourselves,
and them that were entering in, you hindered. What's the key
of knowledge? That's right. There's a prophecy
that says, I'll lay on him the key of David. He's the one that
openeth and no man can shut. But if he shuts, no man can open. In other words, if I've got the
key, and I like having the key. I hate not having a key to my
house or the car. I hate for somebody else to have
the key. I just do. Don't you, Mike? If I want to
go in, you got the key? Honey, and she's dilly-dallying
around, give me a key. That's just me. Pride is what
that is, okay? Who has the keys to everything? Who owns everything? Who purposes,
decides? Decide's not a good word. God
doesn't decide things. He already purposed it for the
world again. Decide's not a good word. We use it. But who decides,
decided all things? Jesus Christ. No, no, they got
all his work from the beginning. He decided, he purposed who was
going to go into glory and who was going to be left out. That's
not fair. I want the key. I want to decide for myself.
Brother John, I don't. Do you? I don't want free will. I don't want it. No, no, no. I had that and I destroyed myself. I would have destroyed myself.
But God, He said, they don't believe Christ,
they don't preach Christ, they don't want anybody to believe
only on Christ and hear Him. Verse 53, He said these things
unto them, the scribes and Pharisees began to urge Him vehemently. Can you hear Him? Can you see
Him? Ask all manner of questions,
provoke Him. Oh, they were provoking Him all
right. Verse 54, this is so... The amazing
irony, the sad, the terrible, the fearful irony of this. Laying
wait for Him and seeking to catch something out of His mouth instead
of waiting on the word from the Lord and seeking the Lord. They were waiting to find something
wrong that He said and to seek something they could hold against
Him. You know, some people listen
to the preaching that way, that they might accuse him. Oh, my
brethren, we're the accused. That's why this all, this so-called,
this false religion that says, accept Jesus as your personal
Savior, that's just an absolute Worst abomination of all. That
makes God the one on trial. Christ the one up for acceptance.
Him standing out there and God hating, hell deserving, worthless,
ought to be killed, hell deserving sinners deciding whether they're
going to accept the judge? Deciding whether or not they're
going to let the judge grant them mercy? It's preposterous,
isn't it? It's blasphemy of the worst sort.
It's not error in doctrine, it's blasphemy. We're the accused. And you know what the law says
about us? Guilty as charged. Every one of us, starting with
this preacher. Every point. Guilty. And God ought to sin,
starting with me, to hell. But God is rich in what? Mercy. That's what we need. And
if we'll go to him, like those, remember those kings of old?
They said, we hear that the kings of Israel are merciful men. Do
you know what they did? They put ropes around their necks. And they went to the king and
said, this is what we, you have the right to do. This is what
we deserve. But we need mercy. All who know themselves to be
the accused and come to Christ and say, have mercy, go away
scot-free. Justified from all things. Not guilty. Not only that, he
takes them home with him. Isn't that good news? Okay, I
quit.