Weightier Matters

Q: What does the Bible say about hypocrisy in religion?

The Bible warns against hypocrisy, emphasizing that true religion must center on Christ and His teachings. Hypocrisy in religion is a serious concern addressed in Scripture, particularly as seen in the example of the Pharisees. Jesus rebuked these religious leaders for their outward piety, which masked their inward corruption. In Matthew 23, Christ calls them hypocrites, exposing their love of public recognition and superficial acts of righteousness while neglecting the weightier matters of the law, such as justice, mercy, and faith. True worship, grounded in the person and work of Jesus Christ, focuses on inner sincerity rather than mere outward displays of religiosity. To avoid hypocrisy, believers are called to evaluate their motivations and ensure their practices are rooted in genuine devotion to Christ rather than mere tradition.

Q: Why is Christ central to the Christian faith?

Christ is central because He embodies the fullness of God and is the only means of salvation. Jesus Christ is the epicenter of the Christian faith because He is the revelation of God in human flesh. The preacher emphasizes that to understand what to believe, how to act, and who God is, one must study Jesus Christ. In Colossians 2:9, it states, 'For in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.' This means that all wisdom, knowledge, and the way to God come through Him. Furthermore, Christ’s sacrificial death and resurrection provide the only means for redemption and reconciliation with God. Therefore, His character, teachings, and sacrifice are indispensable for true worship and understanding of divine grace.

Q: How do we know grace is sovereign?

Grace is sovereign because it is bestowed by God's will, not based on human action or merit. Sovereign grace is a key tenet of Reformed theology, emphasizing that salvation is entirely the work of God. As stated in Ephesians 2:8-9, 'For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.' This underscores that grace is unearned and comes solely from God's will. The doctrine asserts that God chooses whom He will save based on His purposes and not on any foreseen merit or response from individuals. It highlights His mercy and authority, reinforcing that salvation is a gift, revealing the depth of God's love and sovereignty over creation.

Q: What does the Bible say about the weightier matters of the law?

The weightier matters of the law include justice, mercy, and faith, as emphasized by Christ in Matthew 23. In Matthew 23:23, Jesus criticizes the Pharisees for focusing on minor details of the law while neglecting its most important aspects, which are justice, mercy, and faith. He underscores that these weightier matters are foundational to the practice of true religion. The emphasis on loving God and others, as seen in the greatest commandment, should guide a believer’s actions and beliefs. Therefore, genuine Christian practice involves prioritizing these core principles of love and mercy over merely adhering to religious rituals or traditions. This serves to remind believers that the essence of the law is an expression of God’s character, which should reflect in their lives.

In your Bible. To Matthew 22,
Matthew. Chapter 22. I've made this statement several
times before. And it's still a good one. All the religion you will ever
need is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is all the religion
you will ever need. You want to know what to believe?
You believe Christ. Everything he said. Everything
he did. You want to know how to act?
Study Christ. Not a man, but Christ. You want to know what a true
Christian is? You study Jesus Christ. He's
Christ. To be a Christian, you study
him. You want to know where to go,
what to do, where not to go, what not to do? How to act? when not to do what you do, and
study the life, the person of Jesus Christ. You want to know
who God is? You want to know who God is, how you may know
God, someday get to God? Study Jesus Christ. He is God. You want to know what heaven
is like? Ask him who made it. Study Jesus Christ. He made it,
came from there, came down here, spoke to men, and he is back
there now to study Christ. Jesus Christ is all the religion
you will ever need. In him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead in a body, in a person. In him are hidden all
the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. You study Christ. Now, religion
may look good. Religion may look good. It may act good. No, we're all
in here religious. I'm religious. You must be religious. To be religious means to be devoted
to and be diligent and truly and sincerely believe from your
heart what you believe, or rather who. Everyone in here, I think,
makes some kind of profession of being religious. And we look
pretty good. I look at you, and you look at
me, and we look pretty good to one another, don't we? Don't
we? Stand. We look pretty good right
now, Sunday morning, all dressed up. We look pretty good. Some of you know your heart,
don't you? You can look as religious as you want to be, but you know
on the inside. It may look good, religion may
look good, it may act good, it may sound good, it may do good,
outwardly. But if there's no Christ in it, if Christ is not the center of
it, if he's not the reason for it, if that religion is not full
of him, his person and his work, his teachings, His character,
if it does not impart to that person the character of Christ,
it's as dead as a doornail. And you better not be in it.
You better not be religious if it has nothing to do with Christ. I read that article by Pastor
Joe Terrell in the Bulletin this morning. The most dangerous place
on earth to be a religious hypocrite. Religion without Christ is dead
as a doornail. But you know, religion without
Christ is taken up with anything and everything but Christ. Religion without Christ is taken
up with anything and everything but Christ. It asks all manner
of questions, religious questions, except the ones that matter.
It's full of all manner of questions, but not ones that matter. all
manner, but nothing that matters. It's the way with people now,
religious people today, religion today, asks a lot of questions. I get a lot of questions. Very
seldom do I get anything that matters, a question that matters.
How many? Generally it runs along the lines
of, that's the first question out of somebody's mouth, Look at chapter 22 with me. It
was no different back in our Lord's day. Look at verse 17. This group of religious fellows
called Pharisees. They were the most religious
men of the day. They were preachers. They were
scholars. They were Sunday school teachers. They were the religious people
of the day, the leaders And they came to Christ one day, verse
17, and they all listened to him. I'll be with a critical
ear. And they said in verse 17, they
had a question. Tell us, therefore, what thinkest
thou? And that right there tells me they
don't know who this is. They're just asking him his opinion. Or they'd bow down and say, Oh,
what do you say, Lord? What sayest thou? What thinkest
thou? Is it lawful to give tribute
unto Caesar or not? What about separation of church
and state, preacher? What do you think about that? Do you think they ought to allow
prayer in schools? Do you think religious organizations
ought to pay taxes? These are weighty matters. What
about politics? Can you be a Christian and be
a Democrat? You know, question. Verse 23.
The same day came them to Sadducee. Here's another group, another
religious group. You know, this could have been,
that could have been the Baptist first there, and now here along
come the Methodists. Sadducee, verse 23. And they
don't believe there's a resurrection. Verse 24, it said, Master, Teacher,
Moses said, If a man die having no children, his brother shall
marry his wife, and raise up seed unto him." Now, here is
a hypothetical situation, Mr. Jesus. If there were, say, seven
brethren, and the first one married a wife, and he died, and then
another one married, and he died, and another one, and another
one, and on down the line, and they all died, verse 27, and last of all, the
woman died also. Therefore, in the resurrection,
when they all get to heaven, you know how they're all going,
they're all good Christians. Everybody's going to heaven,
practically, and they'll all get to heaven, you know. Who's
going to be married to whom? What do you think of that? Wasn't
that a clever question? And boy, didn't he gall them
with his answer. Look at verse 29. Jesus answered
and said unto them, You do err. You don't know the scriptures.
Well, I know you read them. but you don't know them. I know
you can quote them, but you don't know them, nor the power of God. You don't know the scriptures,
you just know a few pet ones. A man said to me one time not
too long ago, he said, you know, sometimes I get a little bit
intimidated by in front of preachers and religious people because
I feel like they may know the scriptures, you know. No, they
don't. No, they don't, people. You'd be surprised how ignorant
people are of the scriptures. You'd be surprised how ignorant
preachers are of the scriptures, how very few scriptures they
actually know. They just know a few pet ones, just a few pet
ones. Take my word for it, they're
ignorant of the scriptures. And the power of God, he said,
you do not know the scriptures nor the power of God. You don't
know the God who is all-powerful, the sovereign God, the holy God.
He said, in heaven, nobody is married in heaven. A bunch of
ignoramuses. Nobody is married in heaven.
If you had read the scripture, you would see where it says,
in Christ there is no Jew or Gentile, no male or female. all
equal. If you read the scriptures and
knew the scriptures, you'd see where it said they'd all be made
like Christ. Questions, questions, lots of
questions. All right, verse 35. Another group came to him, verse
35, and one of them a lawyer. Here comes a lawyer, a theologian,
fresh out of School of Theology, and he asked him, tempting him.
He wasn't listening. He wasn't wanting to know anything.
He was tempting him. And that's what a lot of people
do when they ask you questions, don't they? They're not wanting
information. They want to tempt you. They
want to try you. They're waiting for you to get finished so they
can tell you what they think. Tempting him. Master, verse 36, I can
hear him talking now. They all talk this way. Master,
which is the great commandment in the law. You go to school to learn how
to say law. You know that? I didn't, I say law. That's from
Kentucky, sorry. But you go to school and you
learn how to say it right, law. What about the law? The decalogue. What about the law? What about
the Ten Commandments? What about the Sabbath day? We
worship on Saturday, and we make a whole denomination of it. You worship on Sunday. Your disciples,
you get together on Sunday. What about the law? What about
the Sabbath? After all these questions, verses
41 and 42, while the Pharisees were gathered together trying
to drum up some other useless questions, Christ asked them.
Now, here is a question. Y'all listen up, he says. Question of all questions. Question
to end all questions, isn't it? A question nobody's asking anymore,
is it? Never were asking it to begin
with. What do you think of the person and the work of Jesus
Christ? Do you know this will put an end to questions? This
will make those so-called Jehovah's Witnesses skedaddle out of your
front door. What do you think of Christ?
Is he God or is he not? Well, he can't save a flea if
he's not God. He couldn't save himself. Is
he Lord over salvation or not? Does he save anyone or not? Then
why is his name Jesus? Who is Jesus Christ? Huh? What did he do? Why did he come
here? Where is he now? These are questions we need to
ask, don't we? What does this mean to us? Do
we know this Christ? What does it mean to us? What
think ye of Christ? And I add this warning here.
You'd better think the way God thinks about Christ. You'd better
think the right way, the only way there is to think about Christ.
You'd better think about Christ the way this book says about
Christ. You'd better be worshiping the right Christ, hadn't we?
We'd better be worshiping the right Jesus Christ, or we've
got another. We'd better believe the gospel, or we've got another. And it says nobody answered.
Verse 46. Nobody was able to answer. They
didn't know him. Oh, they could tell you all about
the, you know, revelation seminar, and who's on the white. They
think they can. They tell you all about, you know, the heads
of the lions and the heads of the bear and the heads of the
lamb and so forth. They think they can. They got
some little Clever little answers figured out, don't they? But
let me ask you about your personal knowledge of and relationship
with and the character, the attributes of Jesus Christ. Tell me about
the attributes of Jesus Christ. One man told me on the phone,
Rick, not too long ago, he said, the attributes of God are important. Well, it says nobody answered
him a word after that, and neither does anybody ask him any more
questions after that. And then Christ, in chapter twenty-three, after all these questions about
Job, in chapter twenty-three, he gave the most scathing, revealing,
denouncing words. concerning religionists and those
who don't really know and worship the true and living God and his
Son. And he exposed hypocrisy unlike
anyone else can. You know, Jesus Christ, God Almighty
despises hypocrisy more than anything. In chapter 23, he exposes it
for everything it's worth. Back in chapter 21, Christ was
coming into town. Now, look at it with me. Chapter
21. Christ was coming into Jerusalem,
the great city of Jerusalem, to do his work. Now, think about
this. This is not just another man,
not just another prophet. This is God. in human flesh,
and he's coming into Jerusalem. He set his space steadfastly
toward Jerusalem. Why? He had a work to do. I mean, this was coming down
to the last chapter, coming down to the last fulfillments of that
divine covenants, ordered in all things and sure, and it had
to take place in Jerusalem on a hill called Golgotha. He had
an appointment with God, with sin, with the devil, and urinized
our souls at stake. And he was heading to Jerusalem,
coming into town with a purpose, with a mission. I tell you what, you know what
he was doing primarily? You know what the number one thing Jesus
Christ was doing when he came into Jerusalem? and hung on that
cross, and as a man his whole life, the number one thing he
did? Glorify God. Here is a man who is going to
worship God the way God ought to be worshiped, with a sacrifice,
a sinless one, coming in to worship God and offer up the greatest
sacrifice ever offered. Verse 2 says, He said unto his
disciples, Go into the village over against you, and get a coat,
an ass tied, and a coat with her. Loose them, and bring them
unto me." Go get a donkey and bring him to me. If the man asks
you, you tell him the Lord hath need of him. I like this. It's a sovereignty, isn't it?
Where you going with my donkey? The Lord needs it. Oh, he didn't even know the Lord.
That man probably didn't know the Lord. So he got on that donkey, and
they brought the ass, and put on them their clothes, and they
set him on. So he got on the donkey and rode
into town. In verse 10, and all the city
of Jerusalem, when he came in, all the city was moved, saying,
Well, who is this? All the people gathered around
him, the children, you know, crying, Hosanna in the marketplace
and so forth. Who is this? I can see them all
in their little cliques, you know. And you're over here standing,
Pharisees over here standing, Sadducees over here standing,
doctors and lawyers over here standing, the money changers,
just little groups, factions and so forth. All of a sudden,
all this commotion comes in the Eastern Gate, and they all stop
what they're doing. All the businessmen drop their
business and say, And all these people are shouting and so forth.
Who is this? Who's that? Well, that's Jesus
of Nazareth. It's the prophet. It's the miracle
worker. It's this, it's that. Who is this? And I can hear one
man say, well, he can't be much, look at his donkey. Huh? He can't be much, look at what
he's riding on. He can't be much, look at his
congregation. Who is following him? A bunch
of fishermen. Can't be much, just a handful
of common people, a bunch of sinners. He comes riding into
town on this donkey. You know what the first thing
he did getting into Jerusalem? The most religious place on the
face of the earth. It would be like You know, you
could pick any city in the United States and it would be like Jerusalem.
Every city. Rocky Mount is no less religious
than Jerusalem. There's a so-called church on
every street corner. They name this Forty West, you
know, because there's forty churches on it. Count them, I guarantee you there's
forty on Route 40. I bet you there's more than that. Religious. center of religion,
everybody's religion, everybody's a good Christian. Well, here
comes the Christ, let's see. First thing he did, look at verse
12 and 13. He went into the temple of God.
Were he going to sit down with the Pharisee? What's he going
to do? Henry, what's he going to do?
He's going to sit down and, you know, unity, love the brethren,
and let's, you know, we all believe this way, you believe that way,
I'm a Methodist, I'm Baptists, Armenians, Calvinists, we can
get together, we can have a little worship service here. You know,
what did he do? He went into that temple, verse 12, and cast
out all that sold and bought in the temple and overthrew the
tables of the moneychangers. Kicked over tables. Grabbed people
by the hair of the head. Another scripture says that he
made a whip. I thought he was love. Don't
you know Jesus is love? Made him a whip. I mean a cat-and-mountain-tail,
buddy, with knots on the end of it. He walked in that temple with fire in his eyes, kicking tables over, didn't he? Yes, this is what happened here. Son, you go to meet and cry out
here. Got him a whip. Get out of here! Have you not read? No, you're
ignorant of the Scripture. You haven't read it. My Father's
house shall be called a house of prayer. You made it at the
end of thieves. Now, I think of that passage
of Scripture where it says, A zeal of mine house hath eaten me up. The Son of God came into his
house, God's house, a house where the glory of God
is supposed to be extolled and honored, and the character of
God, yes, the attributes of God matter, matter more than anything,
and love in the first one. Holiness is. Holiness is. That's the reason the Holy Son
of God came into his holy temple and wholly cleared it. Joe, he
cleared house. You know, this same Jesus is
coming back in like manner. Open the doors and the windows.
This same Jesus, not the one everybody calls my other. This
same one's coming back to his house and going to clear it. With his fan in his hand, the
Scripture says. Let's find out who's true and
who's not. He knows, but he's going to show it once and for
all, isn't he? I'll have you know I'm a good Christian. We'll
find out. For whoever's left standing is
who's God's people. Isn't that right? Think about this, people. The
Christ who was coming to town to offer up his body and his
blood for the remission of sin, the Christ was coming, and he
came in, and the people who were claiming to believe and worship
and follow and look for the Christ didn't know who he was. And they
were in there playing games of religion. Christ was in their
midst, and they were playing games. Christ was coming with
a sacrifice for sin, Christ was coming with his own precious
blood to shed for the remission of many, and they were selling
memberships to 700 Club. They were having a youth rally,
Joe. Christ was coming. They were counting the proceeds
from the Lord's acre sale. Christ, the only thing that mattered,
blood, righteousness, sin remitted. They were selling books and tapes
and T-shirts and going through theâ€”oh, he cleaned the house. One that they called love made
him a whip from clean house. He said, it's my house. You've
defiled it. And he's going to come back someday
and clean his universe out. He'll get you a copy of this
tape and you give it to every person you see. He said in John
4, 23, the time will come and it now is. that true worshipers
shall worship the Father in spirit, that is, from here, in sincerity,
from the heart, and in truth. There is only one way to worship
God, and it better be through the blood. If you don't have
blood, you're playing games. If you're not preaching the gospel,
you're playing games. If men and women are sitting
in a church house, so-called, and they're not worshiping Jesus
Christ and singing his praises, if they're doing anything, But
what has to do with a person in the work of Christ that plays
games? You can't worship God. God is not worshipped with our
hands, is he? He is worshipped from the heart
and in truth. You can't even speak his name
without blood, without the mention of blood, without the mention
of Christ. Prayer is an abomination. Songs
are an abomination. Right? Everything's an abomination
if it's not in the name, the person, and the work of Jesus
Christ. It says, "...the Father seeketh
such to worship him." And in the person of his Holy
Spirit, he's seeking out his sheep, real sheep, real needy sinners. Why are you
here this morning? Why am I here? I'll ask myself
the same question. Am I a needy sinner who needs
to hear the gospel? Am I sincerely wanting to know
something about God? Am I seeking the Lord? Am I coming
to worship God? Thank God. revealing marks of hypocrisy
that reveal, they expose once and for all this
thing of religious hypocrisy. Look at it with me. Verse 3,
the first one, he said, "...all therefore whatsoever they bid
you observe, that is, from the word of God, that is, observe
it and do it, but don't do what they do." Do not ye after their
works. They say and do not. Number one. They say and do not. All talk. Yes, all talk and no
walk. Nancy, I know these people are,
they sound real pious in their religion, but believe They're
not walking like they're talking. They're not nearly as pious as
they put on. And you know, there's a lot of
talk of grace. Everybody talks of grace, don't they, Joe? They
talk of grace, but they hate real grace, sovereign grace,
distinguishing grace. God's grace, grace he bestows
on whom he will and withholds from whom he will. They don't
like that. They talk grace. They cheapen it. They make it
just a general offer of amnesty God throws out there, and whoever
approves upon it, whoever has got enough faith, whoever is
a good little boy or girl and believes on, then God accepts
that. That's not grace. That's not
grace. You talk of grace that men and
women hate. Grace is when God Almighty says,
I'm going to save a people. Now, that's grace. But he says,
I'm going to save whom I will. And it's not dependent upon your
works, not dependent upon your faith, not dependent on your
morality, and certainly it isn't dependent upon your religion
because it's full of hypocrisy. I'm going to do it for my name's
sake. I'm going to give grace. The wages you've earned is sin,
or the wages you've earned is death. The gift of God, the grace
of God is eternal life. I'm going to give it to you.
You didn't earn it. You don't deserve it. I'm going to give
it to you. And it's all going to be so that I get all the glory.
Some men don't like that. They don't like that. And talk of mercy. They talk
of mercy. They use the word, don't they?
Have you seen any guilty sinners? Have you seen anybody pounding
on their chest like that Republican in the temple? Have you seen
anybody in these revivals? Billy Graham revival and so forth,
pat beating on their chest, God be merciful. You ever heard that
once? God be merciful to me, the sinner. No. They say and don't do it. Talk about mercy, but they're
not asking for it. Talk about love, but they hate the God of
the Bible. Look at verse 5. Here's the second
point. Verse 5. He says, "...all their works
they do to be seen of men." Now, folks, this is Jesus Christ
preaching. It's not me. This is not Paul
Mahan standing up this morning. This is Jesus Christ speaking
here. He says, "...all they do to be seen of men." To be seen
of men. such as public prayer meetings. It's real relevant right now,
isn't it? Turn back to Matthew 6. Matthew 6. Say, preach, you ought not to
poke fun at people. I'm not doing it. Jesus Christ
is. And whatever he says, I'm going
to say it. He said, Be mighty careful. We
saw this, didn't we, in the Sermon on the Mount? We saw very clearly
that Christ said you need to avoid. the alms before men, to be seen
of them." Verse 5, when you pray, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites
are. They love to pray standing on
the courthouse steps. It doesn't say that. It's the
same thing. Yes, it does. In the synagogues and in the
corners of Main and Church Street, or That's why, why are they doing
it? They're calling on God, day of prayer. No, they're not. To be seen of men. When you pray, verse 6, get into
your closet. When you shut your door, pray
to thy Father which is in secret, and thy Father which seeth in
secret shall reward thee openly. Okay, let me prove this to you,
all right? Who do we want to see us praying
anyway? You say, what's wrong with people
seeing you pray? Well, number one, the Lord said don't do it.
But number two, let me ask, who do we want to see us praying? Men or God? Who do we want to hear us pray? Men? Oh, he's a good prayer for
God. Number three, then who are we
praying to? Men or God? Do you know you'll be seen and
you'll be heard by whoever you want to be seen and heard by? You'll be seen and you'll be
heard by whoever you want to see or hear you. Men, they'll
hear you, they'll see you. God, he'll hear you, he'll see
you. Now, there's a lot of talk about
taking prayer out of school today. Let me deal with the modern issues
a little bit. There's a lot of talk about praying.
Let me make this thing relevant. See, the Lord, they knew what
he was saying back then. And after I'm finished, there'll
be no doubt as to what he's saying to our generation. There's a
lot of talk about taking prayer out of schools today, isn't there? People, you can't take prayer
out of schools. Let's see you stop me from praying.
Come on. As strong as Stephen, try it. Now you can stop me from opening
my mouth and uttering something that you hear, but what is prayer
anyway? It's from the heart. It's from
the heart. Your children want to pray in
school? They can pray all day long, and nobody can stop them. Let me really shock some ears
here. I am totally in favor of doing
away with prayer in school. Let that get out on us. I am
totally in favor of doing away with prayer before ball games. If you do it in the true spirit
of Christianity, you'd pray that the other team would win. Right? Lord, don't let us win. We want
to look on things above. Let them win. When the ball comes
my way, I don't want it. I'm going to let him have it.
Let's get serious. Oh, we play that the Lord will
make us do our best to win. Chalk one up for us. Our team,
Lord's side, you know, Lord's. I'm in favor of taking, it's
a ritual. Take it out, there ain't no mention of the gospel,
ain't no mention of Christ in it. It's just a silly formality
to go through, and some guy that doesn't even know Christ would
regulate it, he'd lead it. Some preacher or some teacher
would be forced to say it, and she doesn't believe it, but it
would be regulated by the Board of Education, and she'd stand
up and let us bow our heads, and she's got hell in her heart.
And God ain't here, and he's spitting on it all. Oh, I'm getting hard, I know
that. The Lord said this. Jesus said this, yes! Loving
Jesus said this. I'm in favor of taking prayer
out of school beforeâ€”listen to this. My daughter is in a play right
now, a school play. The name of it is Oliver. Anybody
ever read the book Oliver? Seen the old story? You know
what it's about, don't you? It's set back in what, 16th, 17th
century England. I forget, over there in that
hell hole of England. The whole story, all it's about
is debauchery, crime, corruption, vagabond children on the streets,
oppressive masters, cruel torture of children, absolute violence
and corruption. Do you know what the drama teacher
wanted to do before they went out there for that little play? Pray. Let's pray that the Lord will
enable us to make debauchery real. This deserves to be made fun
of, doesn't it? Let's pray. Why? We've got to
go through our little ritual. I'm in favor of taking it out
of there. Take it out. The farther the better. Everybody's
got to mention God in everything they do, don't they? It's not
the God of the Bible. It's their little idol. Little
religious games to be seen of men. Look at this other thing the
Lord said. Number three, verses six through ten. He said, They
loved the uppermost rooms at the feasts. chief seats in the
synagogues, greetings in the marketplace, they love to be
called Reverend, Reverend. Don't be called Reverend. Psalm 113 says, Holy and Reverend
is his name. I'm not going to take the name
Jesus any more than I take the name Reverend. Right? This community can't understand. Everyone that calls me Reverend,
I quickly correct them. Don't call me Reverend. My name's
Paul. Holy and Reverend is his name. I don't care what the former
Reformers or Puritans did, if they held that name. They were
wrong. Holy and Reverend is his name. I'm not going to take his
name. That's his name. It belongs to him. Reverend means
all, respect, be in fear of, holy and high esteem. I don't
know if anybody deserves that title but Jesus Christ. As a matter of fact, most of
these fellows I see with a name in front of our camera in front. They love the chief seats and
the choir and the congregation, and I'm minister of music. I'm minister of the children.
I'm minister of the buses. I'm head of the committee of
the women's prayer breakfast. I didn't know that. I'm head
of the Missionary Society. I'm head of the Singles Club.
I've been divorced twelve times, but I'm head of the Singles Club.
I'm on the Board of the Deacons. I'm on the Visitation Committee.
I'm on the Youth Activity Committee. I'm on the Nursery Committee. Titles. Men love their titles,
don't they? They love their titles. I love recognition, don't I? Glad to see so-and-so here today. Here is Dr. Smith. Well, do you
all know who we have in our presence this morning? I wonder if God
knows who has come to grace his house this morning. Congratulate men and women for
being in God's hands. Thanking and recognizing people
for doing God so many favors. Oh, he's won so many to the Lord. Is this a stench in your nostrils?
Does this conjure up, does it bring bile out of your throat?
It does me. I really want to spit. I'm serious. It makes me want
to spit. What do you think it is to a
holy God, a thrice holy God, who did everything for them? Everything. Do you know how obnoxious
it is for your child to take credit and brag and boast and
get full of pride and all that when they owe everything to you?
This is an abomination to God Almighty. He said they love these
greetings and titles and so forth. Number four, verse 13, he says, "'Woe unto you, scribes
and Pharisees, you bunch of hypocrites, for you shut up the kingdom of
heaven against men, and you need to go in yourselves.'" Shut up
the kingdom against men. This is important. Listen to
me. Folks, this religious generation
hasn't seen men, have they, Brother Terry? They haven't seen men. Our God, Hebrews 12, 29, says,
Our God is a consuming fire. Would to God more preachers would
get mean and be disregarding of what people think about Disregard what the people want
to hear, and stand up and dare to boldly proclaim what God's
word says. Every word of it. Would the gods
more men would do that? He says they shut up the kingdom
against men. They don't believe God's word,
so they withhold it from them. We read that were you reading
with me in March seven he said that four times did you do you
read March seven when he said four times they reject the plain
teachings of God's word in favor of their tradition. Teaching for the commandments
of. God teaching the traditions of me like one man said that
young preacher of the gospel one time he said I don't care
he read Romans nine or something so I don't care If it says it
in God's word, it doesn't say it in our church creed. He said that, Dan. It was a church
committee, whether or not to hire or fire this young preacher. They said, I don't care if it's
in the word of God, but it's not in our church creed. Shut up the kingdom against man.
They don't worship a sovereign God and worship a sovereign Christ,
and they don't want you They reject grace and they want
you to reject it, too. Like somebody, my pastor, said
they ought to rename the church where he pastors to the O-Church. Good, you don't remember it.
I didn't see any faces light up. I've said this before. He
said they ought to rename this church to the O-Church. Why is
that? Because every time somebody asks
you where you go to church, They say, oh, there. Sovereign grace sticks out like
a sore thumb. It is a sore thumb. People like
to cut it off. Get it out of the midst of our
church unity. You're messing up our game. Oh, church. And they'll tell
you, go anywhere. They said this to a man one time.
A man moved into Asheville, Kentucky one time from out of town, and
he was asking one of his co-workers, he said, I'm new in town, I'd
like to know where to go to church. You know what he said? You know
what one of his workers said? He said, go anywhere but 13th
Street Baptist. Go anywhere but to O. Church. Anywhere. You know where he ended
up, Sharon? And he stayed there thirty years.
God will use that. The wrath of man will praise
him. Go anywhere but there. Where do you go to church? O. You better go to the O church.
Whatever this generation is worshiping and doing, you better avoid it.
You better go where the crowd is not going. Right? You better
believe what the masses are not believing. You better worship
the God, the unknown God, whom men ignorantly worship, like
Paul said They shut up the kingdom of God,
they shut up the kingdom, they don't go in and they shut it
up to others. They don't want you going in
either. They don't believe in a sovereign Christ, they don't
want you believing in Him either. I'm being just as plain
and forthright this morning as you could possibly be. Well,
this is what Jesus Christ says. When you say that, Terry, am
I taking this out of context? Look at verse 15, here's another
thing he said, verse 15, "'Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites! Compass, sea,' boy, this isn't
relevant, "'compass, sea, and land, to make one proselyte to
win one soul to Jesus. And when he is made, you make
him twofold more the child of hell than you are.'" And there, come on now, you really
think men are trying to win souls? They're counting heads. They're
counting heads. Do you know the Southern Baptist
Convention gets so much money and so much support for how many
people are baptized a month? You know that? It's so. Have
you been in Southern Baptist religion? You know it's so. They
report to the convention how many people are baptized that
month, how many of this, how many of that, and their support
is relevant. And it's the same way in every
other denomination. Same way. Look at verse 24, here's another
one. Verse 24, our Lord says, they're blind guides, they strain
at a gnat and swallow a camel. Strain at a gnat and swallow
a camel. Preach tithing. Preach tithing,
but want a discount in hotels and restaurants. You've got to
give every penny now unto the Lord. I'm a preacher, you give
me a discount? Strain into the gnat, swallow
a camel. Strain at the clearest, absolute clearest, plainest truth
from God's Word. Strain at it, chomp at the bit
at it, spit and huff and puff and carry on, reject it and gnash
your teeth at the plainest, simplest, clearest, most God-honoring truth
in the Scripture. strain at it, and swallow about
the most ridiculous thing ever to come down the pipe. I don't
care how big and how ridiculous, like a fellow standing up in
front of a whole crowd and blowing on them and everybody. Unbelievable. Benny Hinn, you seen that fellow?
In the masses. Swallow a camel and throw out
their money. Let's stand up and preach the
gospel." Why? I'm just telling you the truth.
Let's see what God's Word says about this. Turn to Romans 9.
No, don't go to Romans 9, they'll say. Don't go anywhere but there.
Or Ephesians 1. No, I forgot about that one.
Don't go there, either. Just let me tell you what God's
Word says. We don't want our heritage. Tell
us something ridiculous. We want to hear that. Somebody
will say that. Tell us something absurd. Strain into that and swallow
a camel. Come in God's name, they reject him. Come in his
own name, and it's so obvious he's trying to pay for his Mercedes,
but they don't care. They receive him anyway. Y'all think this is ridiculous.
You're sitting there going, it's so true. But people more successful
than you, smarter than you, doctors, lawyers, smarter in this world's
sense. They're not smart spiritually
like you are. You know they have the mind of
Christ. You understand all things. You're spiritual. But people
are a lot more successful and wise, according to this world,
and advanced and so forth, with much higher learning and so forth,
are swallowing camels left and right. Verse 25, He says, Woe unto you,
scribes, Pharisees, hypocrites, you make plain the outside of
the cup The flatter, when within, are full of extortion and excess. Like I said before, these ultra-pious
religionists are not nearly as holy as they appear today. If
you could go into their homes and the privacy of their homes, you'd find out. They are just
sinners just like you are. The Pope, if he took off his
clothes, you'd find out he's just a man. and a wrinkled old
one at that. Right? Take off this phony facade
of religion, and all you'll find is a sinner, a helpless, hopeless,
damned, doing, worthy of hell sinner. And unless God Almighty
has mercy and grace upon him, he's going to hell lickety-split
with his moral, pious look on his face. and his ecclesiastical
robe on his body. And finally, verse 29, he says,
Verse 29, They, woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites,
you build the tombs of the prophets, garnish the sepulchres of the
righteous. See, if we had been in the days of our fathers, we
wouldn't have partaken with them in the blood of the prophets.
They just killed the Son of God is all they did. The Prophet,
right. They bragged on the dead, and
killed the living. They bragged on Abraham, and
they withstood Moses. They bragged on Moses, and they
hated Christ. They bragged on the prophets,
and they hated the apostles. They bragged on the apostles,
and they hated the Reformers. And let me ask you this morning.
Me, little old me, I am not one whit different than John the
Baptist as far as you are concerned this morning. Do you brag on the reformers
and hate God's man today, the man who is speaking today? Ignore
the man of our day. Many people are guilty of this,
even believers are guilty of bragging on and upholding and
supporting the old, dead Reformers, while they don't pay any attention
to the Reformers of their day, the young Calvins and the young
Spurgeons and the young Bunyans and so forth. Let me sum it all up concerning
religionists, and I may have to continue this later. A major on minors and minor on
majors. He said in verse 23, back in
verse 23, he said, they have omitted the weightier matters. Caiti, the mint, and Annas and
Cummon have omitted the weightier matters of the law. Now I bet
you haven't looked at it like this, but this is the way it
is. They've omitted the weightier matters of the law. Judgment, mercy, and faith are
not concerning the law. That law is one is a category
in and by itself. They omitted the weightier matters
of the law. What are the weightier matters
of the law? One of the lawyers came to Christ one day and said,
What's the greatest of all the commandments? What's the greatest
of the law? What did he say? Number one. Number one. Love the Lord your God with all
your heart. And he said, Love your neighbor
as yourself. On these two hinge all the prophets and the commandments. But what's first, people? What
was the first one he gave? Love for God. They turn this
thing around today, don't they? They've got this thing around,
turned around. The weightier matter of the law
is love for God, first thing. Some can quote that, but they've
omitted it, haven't they? The weightier matters of all
the law, it hangs upon it. The first commandment, we need
to get the order right, is to love God. and our doctrine will
be regulated, our love to men will be regulated. The scripture
says faithful are the wounds of a friend, the kisses of an
enemy or deceiver. True love loves to tell the truth. True love for God loves God first. True love warns, true love admonishes,
true love seeks real and lasting good at the risk of being hated
and despised. True love is a servant for Christ's
sake, for the glory of God, true love. And in the weightier matters
of the law also, the other three tables of the first part of the
law, no other gods before me, no graven image, no graven image,
name not taken in vain, don't take my name in vain. Well, they've
sure omitted these, haven't sure omitted that, everybody's got
graven images. Yeah, they do. Crosses around
the neck, crosses in their ears, pictures of Jesus on the wall,
on the dashboard, what have you. Got his name, they take his name
in vain, got it on their bumper sticker. They've omitted the
weightier matters of the law, haven't they? No doubt about
it. The Sabbath, what about the Sabbath? What about the fourth
commandment, the Sabbath? What about it? Well, read Hebrews
4 sometime and tell me who that's talking about. Tell me who the
Sabbath is talking about, who the Sabbath is really concerning.
I'm not talking about a day at all. I'm not talking about a
day at all. I'm talking about sabbatism,
spiritual rest. And you won't find that in a
day. You won't find it on Sunday anymore, and you'll find it on
Saturday. You'll find it in Christ, Christ alone. And number two,
he says, they've omitted the weightier matters of judgment.
A lot of talk about the devil and what he's doing in there.
A lot of talk about the Antichrist. A lot of talk about how man is
taking God out of the schools and God out of the government.
Let me tell this generation, let me tell you, you ain't taking
God out of nowhere. He might take you out, but God
Almighty is still God. He's in control. Satan is on
a leash. The world has already been judged,
sentenced, and waiting execution. Judgment! Salvation is accomplished
for all of God's people, and it's only waiting the final bringing
in of the sons of God by the Holy Spirit of God. Every last
one of them is going to judgment. Mercy, he says. They've omitted
this word here, matter of mercy. There's a lot of talk today about
letting go and letting God in. A lot of talk today about deciding
for Jesus, a lot of talk about accepting a personal Savior,
a lot of talk about a God of love, and we ought to be talking
about how desperately men and women need mercy. Mercy at the
hands of an angry, offended, holy God. A God who is angry with the wicked,
a God who by no means clears the guilty, a God before whom
all men and women are guilty, no matter how pious they appear
to be. And it's sovereign mercy. he will have it on whom he will.
And then they omit this, finally, faith. Law, judgment, mercy,
and faith. You see it there? Chapter 23,
verse 23. Law, judgment, mercy, and faith. They say, Believe in Jesus. Now,
this is important. I've got to get this out. They
say, Believe in Jesus. Or belief what about him? Will
somebody tell me what I'm supposed to believe about Jesus? Belief
what? Well, that he came and died and
rose again. What good does that do me? The devil believes that.
Huh? The devil believes that he was
there. I wasn't even there, I can't even be sure of that. We'll believe
that he tried and failed, but then why should I? Believe what
about him? He tried, he failed. What is
there to believe? Well, believe he wants to and can't, unless
you let him. Why should I believe somebody
like that? I believe in myself. Right? I believe in myself. I'm
stronger than Jesus. Well, believe that he's done
all he can do. Well, then I don't need him anymore, do I? Huh? Believe on Jesus. But I tell
you what it is to believe on Jesus. It's to believe on and
bow before a holy, sovereign, successful Savior, and to throw
away our knowledge, our religion, our works of morality, our profession
of faith, our experience, and believe that Jesus Christ and
Jesus Christ alone can save man. He doesn't have to, but he alone
can, if he's willing. That's what it means to believe
on Jesus. and believe only his righteousness
is the one that God will accept, only his blood will take away
my sins. And he said, Now that's what
you ought to have done, and not left off the other. That's
what men ought to be asking. That's what people ought to be
taken up with. not leave off the other. There's
nothing wrong with praying, there's nothing wrong with going to church,
there's everything right with it. In all of these things, Christ
said, do whatever the word says you do, but don't omit the weightier
matters, for salvation is concerned. Don't be a hypocrite, don't go
through the motions, or woe is pronounced upon you. The scribes,
Pharisees and hypocrites. We've got more now than ever.
Our generation is full of them. I hope it's not me. We better
not be sitting here, either. I heard a man say this one time. Remember that Pharisee in the
temple? He said, I thank thee, O Lord,
that I am not like that publican. We better not be saying, in turn,
I thank thee, Lord, I'm not like that Pharisee. We better be examining ourselves. Why am I here, Lord? What am
I doing? What's this all about? What does Jesus Christ really
mean to me? Do I know him or do I not? Am I playing games?
Why am I here? To be seen? Seen by who? To be heard? Be heard by who?
What do I know about the gospel? What is the question? What think
ye of Christ? What about judgment? What about judgment, the law
of judgment, mercy and faith? Have I admitted these things?
I hope not. If I had, I'm just another Pharisee. Lord, deliver us from that. Stand, and I'll dismiss this
in prayer.

Weightier Matters

What does the Bible say about hypocrisy in religion?

Why is Christ central to the Christian faith?

How do we know grace is sovereign?

What does the Bible say about the weightier matters of the law?

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Weightier Matters

What does the Bible say about hypocrisy in religion?

Why is Christ central to the Christian faith?

How do we know grace is sovereign?

What does the Bible say about the weightier matters of the law?

Sermon Transcript

About Paul Mahan

Comments

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