Here's our opening text for today,
Matthew 23 and verse 1 through 7. Actually, the whole chapter
we want to look at today, but it's too long to read. 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, that observe and do, but do not ye after their
works, for they say and do not. For they bind heavy burdens,
and grievous to be born, and lay them upon men's shoulders,
but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers. but all of their works they do
to be seen of men. They make broad their phylacteries,
and enlarge the borders of their garment, and love the uppermost
seats at feast, and the chief seats in the synagogue, and greetings
in the marketplace, and to be called of men Rabbi, Rabbi. We'll stop our reading there,
but we'll certainly look at it as we go along. I'd like to introduce
our subject today with this manner, and that is, by the time of the
coming of Christ, by the time of the incarnation of our Lord
and his ministry in the flesh among Judaism, Judaism had spawned
in that period of time several factions. I know not whether
to call them factions or to call them sects or parties or whatever
we might refer to them. but they had developed by that
time in Judaism when the Lord appeared among them. And these
are some of the ones that interacted the most violently with and against
our Lord as he taught and ministered in the public from place unto
place. Some mentioned in the Scripture
are the Pharisees, and more than 90 times we meet with the word
Pharisee or Pharisee in the Scripture, all of them but about 10 are
found in the four Gospels in the New Testament. And often
together, the scribes and the Pharisees are lumped together
in one group. Matthew 5, 20, Matthew 12, 38,
15 in one, and some 20 times it is so, the scribes and the
Pharisees were companions in their mischief against our Lord
and against his doctrine. And some then were called rabbi,
as we read in our text today. and that might be understood
to be a master or a teacher, rabbi, teacher as it were. Doctors are mentioned in Luke
chapter 2 and verse 46 and these also probably were teachers among
Israel and among the Jew. We had some called lawyers in
Matthew 22 and verse 35, probably not a civil lawyer or an attorney
as we think of them today, but one that was considered to be
skilled in the scripture and the teaching and the spread of
them. And scripture tells us that the
scribe and the Pharisees were the greatest pest to our Lord
during the ministry upon the earth. And in Matthew chapter
23 that we read, the Lord gives them a lengthy verbal tongue
lashing, and I mean a severe one. And this, whether we realize
it or not, was close to the end of our Lord's public ministry. And he'd had it with them, and
they'd opposed him all of the way, and here he turns upon them,
as it were, with a vengeance. But before we look at that, let's
get acquainted with some of the larger and the more prominent
sect or faction that were active in Judaism in New Testament time
that we read about in the Gospel. First of all, I'd like to mention
the Pharisees. for they are the pests of all
pets. When searching them, I found
little information, at least I did, on the origin of the movement. Even a little I found from Josephus,
the Jewish historian who wrote about such thing. But it is pretty
much agreed by commentators and scholars that they were active
as early as a century before the advent of our Lord in the
flesh. The name Pharisee seems to have
the meaning of separated one or one cut apart. or one cut
aside. They were the separatist in their
day, if we may refer to them as that. And some think that
they might have arisen out of an earlier movement called the
Hadassian Jews that were jealous for the law of Moses and for
the things of God and Judaism. And Ebbie Vine described them
this way, quote, their fundamental principle was complete separation
from everything that was non-Jewish and they were strictly the separatist
party among the Jew, unquote. They confessed the Old Testament
canon of the scripture. All of it they professed to be
the word of the Lord. They expected a Messiah. They believed in the appearance
of a Messiah that would come into the world. And they believed
in the immortal spirit and the soul of human being. And they believed in the resurrection
of the dead in Acts chapter 23 and verse 8. They were extremely
legalists and proud self-righteousness. And they considered our Lord
and His Apostle as antinomians, as violators of Moses' law, and
as an enemy of Moses. And as we will see later, they
were very full of sinful pride. They were extremely self-righteous
in their appraisal of themselves. In fact, we read, they trusted
in themselves that they were righteous. Luke chapter 18 and
verse 9. They trusted in themselves that
they were righteous, and the Lord said, despise others. They looked down upon all others
that were not like or after themselves. Now the other influential party
in Judaism were the Sadducees, probably spawned out of an earlier
movement known as the Hellenists in the history of the Jew. Some
have referred to them as the aristocrat. They were the aristocrat
among the Jew, the Sadducees were, and they usually or mostly
came from the upper class, or echelon, as we might say. And they were more political,
perhaps, than they were religious. They accepted, however, only
the first five books of the scripture as canonical, the books of Moses,
Genesis through Deuteronomy. And they were the majority and
had the majority on the Sanhedrin court. at that particular time
in the days of our Lord. And scripture clearly informs
us about them. that they denied the existence
of any spirit, of any soul, of any immortality in man, and of
any resurrection of the dead. At least four times it is stated
in the New Testament that they did not believe in the resurrection
of the dead. There in Matthew 22 and verse
23, Mark chapter 12, 18, Luke 20 and 27, and that passage in
the book of Acts chapter 23 and verse 8. Now before we go on,
these two major parties in our mind, before we go on, let's
make or consider a point, which is this. that though the Pharisees
and the Sadducees were the two major parties in Judaism when
the gospel began to be preached. first by Christ the Lord, and
then by the apostles and disciples of the Lord. Then a considerable
number of the Jews, Pharisees, Sadducees, and others, might
have looked upon this as a new sect, or new party, or new faction
in Judaism. and spawned by Jesus of Nazareth
and continued by those that continue to consider to be his minions,
that he is the apostle. Some called it a sect in Acts
chapter 28 and 22, which is the same word translated heresy in
other places in the scripture. In Acts 24 and verse 14, the way which they call heresy,
or literally, a sect. And in Acts 28 and 22, Paul is
asked by some Jewish hearers in the city of Rome to give his
opinion concerning this sect as it is in the King James, meaning,
of course, Christianity. They were talking about the Christian
movement. Since they knew that it was,
quote, everywhere spoken against. What they had heard was, everywhere
Christianity appeared, it was spoken again, and particularly
by the Jew, and they opposed it vociferously. They spoke against
what some called this way. Remember that in the scripture? This way, in Acts chapter 9,
And verse 2, any belonging to this way, Paul would arrest them
and cast them in prison. And in Acts chapter 19 and verse
9, some spoke evil of the way in hearing of the many that had
spoken evil about it. Acts 22 and verse 4 again is
the text. Now, thus what the inquirers
at Rome were telling Paul when he was there under arrest. And
they came to hear him as he was granted the liberty to preach
unto them. And they said, look, what we
are hearing is that this is everywhere spoken against. It is not being
well received. They are speaking against Christianity
and the Jews are opposing it. And that it was evil spoken of
after it appeared and the Jews heard the message of Christ and
the message of the Apostle. Now from that, that Christianity
was evil spoken of from the beginning. From that, let's learn a valuable
lesson, and that's this. Some things cannot be measured
by how many commend them, or speak well of them, or adhere
unto them, or how many who oppose them are condemned, no matter
who they are in name and reputation. A thing is not true or untrue
based upon the number that agree with it, or that espouse it,
or that believe it. But, returning to the passage
in Matthew, chapter 22 and 23, as the dissension between the
Lord and the Pharisees actually came to a head, and in Matthew
chapter 23, he severely condemned them and the way in which they
practiced their religion and called it, the religion of God. So jump back with me into chapter
22 just for a few minutes, where his enemies in chapter 22, the
enemies of the Lord made three recorded attempts here in this
chapter to befuddle the Lord, to tangle him, to trap him, to
catch him, in his word, in order that they might discredit him
in the presence and the hearing of the people. In Matthew 22
and 15, the Pharisees connived how to entrap the Lord in his
words. Matthew 22 and verse 35, one
asks him a question, tempting him, tempting him, trying to
catch him in an era or a follow-up. Now let's look at those three
real quickly. Matthew 22, 15 through 22, the
Pharisees come, offer Christ a false flattery, try to entangle
him by asking him about the legality of paying taxes unto Caesar. You know, they hated that. They
hated to be under the thumb and the foot of Caesar and taxed
excessively. And so they throw the question
to our Lord. Is it legal, is it lawful to
pay taxes to Caesar or not? You know the story. He said,
show me a coin whose inscription is on it, Caesar, And our Lord
befuddled them by saying, render to Caesar the things that are
Caesar, that is the government, and to God the things that are
God's. And the second one is in Matthew
22. 23 through 33. And now the Sadducees take their
turn at our Lord using their denial of any resurrection of
the dead against such teaching as Daniel chapter 12 and 2 and
again in Job chapter 19 and 26. of a resurrection of the dead. And the Sadducees think they
have our Lord in a corner. They use the resurrection of
the dead and they give a very extreme example here using scripture
from Deuteronomy chapter 25 and verse 5. When a man married his brother's widow, and raised
up the name of the dead. And they tell the Lord of one
woman who married seven brothers, one after another, and they all
died. And so their question is this,
in the resurrection, That is, supposing there shall be one,
whose wife shall she be? For seven had her unto wife. And the Lord answered them, you
ignorant one, you know not the scripture. In the resurrection,
they don't marry or give in Mary. So he took them. And the third
one is in Matthew 22, 34 through 40, a Pharisee, which the scriptures
call a lawyer, a scholar, in the laws of Judaism, and he asked
our Lord this question, Master, which commandment is the greatest
in all of the law? Now there are a lot of laws,
many of them. Which is the greatest? And our
Lord without hesitation said, Love the Lord thy God with all
thy heart, all thy mind, all thy soul. And the second is like
unto it, love thy neighbor as thyself. Well, they did this
to tempt him, in verse 35, to test or to try, to expose him
to ridicule, show him up if he couldn't handle the question.
And so he did. But now, let's get into chapter
23. And the Lord's words concerning
the Pharisee and their practice of religion. Now verse 1 through
12, if you'll notice that as a prelude was spoken. not directly yet to the Pharisee,
but to the disciples and apostles and people that were gathered
there together, addressed to them, warning them against false
teachers and their teaching, such as the Pharisee and as the
scribe. Now the Lord conceded. They sit
in Moses' seat, a place of authority. They were teachers of the law.
Observe the right and proper doctrine that they give unto
you, but do not imitate their way, for they play the hypocrite,
and they do not practice what they preach. They require of
you what they will not give of themselves, and so do not imitate
them. Verse 5, let's notice. They are
glory hogs, as we might call them today. All they do, they
do to be seen and to be praised of men. That's their great intent
and their purpose. They, verse 5, wear long rolls
of scripture on their hands and on their head. These are called
phylacteries in the New Testament. And it might be they developed
from what we read back in Exodus 13 and 6 and Deuteronomy 6 and
8 to bind the word of God upon them and such like. And so the
old Pharisees carried it to the extreme. In verse 6 and 7, they
loved the head seats. in the synagogue and the feast
and the public places and such like. They loved to be recognized
when they went about out in public and treated with great respect. And they love for the people
to meet them in the marketplace and say, greetings, Rabbi, greetings. And those today wearing their
religious garb around that they might identify themselves, their
gowns, their robes, and dresses, and men in dresses and such like. And they love to be called, good
morning, Reverend. How is it fine day? Hello, Rabbi. Greetings, Father. Blessings,
Mother Superior, and that kind of stuff that we see even in
our day. But in verse 8, verse 9, and
verse 10, the Lord said this, don't be called rabbi, don't
be called father, don't be called master. for one in heaven is
all of those things to you. Now here is a warning against
the scribes and the Pharisee. Matthew 16 and 6, take heed and
beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees. Now by
leaven The Lord meant their doctrine or their teaching. Matthew 16
and verse 12 says so. In Mark 8 and 15, listen to this.
Beware of the leaven, that is the doctrine and the teaching
of the Pharisee, and the leaven of Herod, he adds another. In Luke 12 and verse 1, beware
of the leaven, that is the doctrine or the teaching of the Pharisees,
listen, which is hypocrisy." Unquote. Play acting. It is put
on. It is showmanship. It is done
for show and not out of the heart. Now, in Matthew 15 and 3, the
Lord returned the charge against some Pharisees that they were
the transgressors. of the commandment of the Word
of God by putting their tradition in the place of the Word of God. Matthew 15, 7-9, Mark 7, and
verse 8. The words of Isaiah. chapter 29 and verse 13, a strong
rebuke to both generation of Jews, Isaiah's time and the Lord's
time. Quote, this people honor me with
their lips, but their heart is far from me. Their fear of me
is taught by the precept of men." So let's repeat Luke 12 and verse
1 and think upon it a spell. The full verse goes like this. In the meantime, when they were
gathered together, an innumerable multitude of people that they
trod upon one another, he began to say unto his disciples, first
of all, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy."
Unquote. There's the whole verse. Their
leaven is hypocrisy. What they put out is hypocrisy
to the high heaven. Their teaching and their doctrine. Now the opening words of the
verse. In the meantime, refer to the
last verses of chapter 11 and verse 53 through 54. We won't
go there. An overflow crowd, many of them
hostile unto the Lord. and Pharisees and the first words
were warning against them to his disciple and followers about
the Pharisee and about their teaching and their behavior. The Lord called it hypocrisy. Using the word hypocrisy, probably
because he had in mind both their teaching and their way of living. Their teaching and their life. Paul tells Timothy of some in
1 Timothy 4 and verse 2, who speak lies in hypocrisy. Now on that verse in Luke 12
and 1, I plagiarized the words and thoughts from John Gill that
I might share with us this morning. That the Pharisees' religion
was, said Gill, a false show of piety. a false show of godliness,
of religion, or of piety. It was, said Gill, in religion
only. It was all outward and all for
show, the show of men. It was not from an inward heart.
not from a renewed heart, not out of regeneration. It was not
a work of grace that was in them, it was hypocrisy. And we'll soon
see in Matthew chapter 23, and Gil does a good job showing how
the Lord likened the Pharisees' doctrine and manners onto leaven
again and again in the scripture. Remember what Paul said, a little
leaven leaveneth the whole lump? He said that twice in the New
Testament, 1 Corinthians 5 and 6 and in Galatians chapter 5
and verse 9. Because in time leaven, which
grandma would call sourdough or yeast or whatever, But in
time, mixed in, it infects the whole lump. It spreads itself
throughout the whole lump, and then it's all but impossible
to ever separate it again. It infects and corrupts the whole
people's principle and practices, and it puffs them up, swells
them up, like grandma's dough on the dough board, with pride. and a vain opinion of themself
and also from some others. And in Luke chapter 12, 2 and
3, the Lord reminds his own that every hidden thing will be revealed
and brought unto light. Now one of the great faults of
the Pharisees was their self-righteousness. how they practiced it and exhibited
it, and the Lord condemned it. They trusted in themselves, in
their Abrahamic ancestry, and in their observance of the law. Remember Paul. Saul was once
infected with this very deadly disease of self-righteousness,
for he had been a Pharisee in his former life, Acts chapter
26 and verse 5, and he said this, After the strictest sect of our
religion, I lived a Pharisee. And at that time, he considered
himself blameless before the law. Philippians chapter 3 and
verse 6. Before the law, blameless, he
said, when he was a Pharisee. But then, by God's appointment,
he had an encounter with the law, described in Romans chapter
7, and he saw himself at last in his true light, a great sinner
in the sight of God. Now consider the saying of the
Lord in Matthew 5 and verse 20, part of the Sermon upon the Mount. He said this, I say unto you,
except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the
scribes and the Pharisee, you shall in no wise enter into the
kingdom of heaven. Why, these were the most religious
men in the world. These were the most dedicated
people in Judaism, and yet The Lord said, except your righteousness
exceed theirs, you miss the kingdom of God altogether. These were
what Spurgeon called, quote, the foremost of the world's religionists,
unquote, religious men in every way. And as Gill said, the Pharisees
were the strictest sect among the Jew, for outward religion
and outward righteousness, but it was all external and performed
formally. Just formal religion in hypocrisy. And as Isaiah 64 and verse 8,
we're all as an unclean thing. And our iniquity, like the wind,
has taken us away, and our righteousness is as filthy rags. Paul came to regard his pharisaical
righteousness as dung. Philippians 3.8, dung, garbage,
trash, refuge. All that he had trusted in before,
he now considered it as dung. The Pharisees or the righteousness
which the Pharisees claimed were by the works of the law and their
Abraham descendancy. But as Paul said in Romans 3
and 20, by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified in
his sight. Again, in Galatians 2.11 and
3.11, none are justified by the works of the law. The saving
righteousness, is the righteousness of faith. Philippians 3 and verse
9. That righteousness which is through
the faith of Christ. The righteousness which is of
God by faith said the Apostle. Now let's get back to Matthew
23 and verse 13 and following. Where having warned his disciples
very decisively, he turns now his attention to the Pharisee
and to their leaven. And in verse 1 and 12, he has
that warning. In verse 13, he sends his words
to the scribe, to the Pharisee, strong words they are from the
Lord, as strong as our Lord ever spake against any during his
ministry. And on several occasions, he
rebuked their corruption and their perversions of the law
and of the scripture and of the truth. But here, he condemns
their conduct, their hypocrisy in the practice of their religion. Well, let's look at it. He uses
the word, woe, eight times. in this passage of the scripture
in this chapter. They are 13, 14, 15, 16, 23,
25, 27, and verse 29. Speaking of the conduct and the
doom of those miserable imposters and the end that awaited them. Woe unto you! Woe unto you! In addition, he calls them hypocrites
some seven times in these verses of the scripture, basically in
the same verses that I just mentioned. Notice also, he calls them blind
guides in verse 16, fools and blind in verse 17 and verse 19,
Why did sepulchers, graves in verse 27, serpents, generation
of vipers in verse 33, as did John the Baptist call them that
in Matthew chapter 3 and verse 7. O generation of vipers, who
has warned you to flee from the wrath of God to come? Now these
words are strong and clear. A brood of vipers is what John
called it. A family of vipers. A progeny of vipers is what John
referred to them and so did the Lord. Matthew chapter 12 and
verse 34. The offspring of vipers, children
of vipers. the Lord called him, children
of that old serpent himself who visited our mother in the garden. The viper's bite is deadly, it
is full of poison, and the teaching of the Pharisee and the Sadducee
was full of deadly venom, deadly hypocrisy, and led their followers
into a ruinous deception who followed. Now let's look at their
sin condemned by our Lord in Matthew 23. The first sin condemned
is mentioned in verse 13. What did they do? They shut up
the kingdom of heaven against men. They neither went in themselves
nor did they suffer those that were entering to enter in. Luke
11 and 52 has it this way. You have taken away the key of
knowledge from those that would enter in to the kingdom of heaven. Giel took this to mean that they
denied the truth of Christ and the gospel. They denied Christ
to be the Messiah and his gospel to be true. Thus this they did
by prejudging the mind of the Jew against it, that they not
embrace the truth as it is in Christ, for they had not the
keys to heaven, they could not shut men out of the kingdom of
God, only God opens and shuts that, but they had perverted
the truth so that they prevented men from entering in. And they would go here and there
to make a proselyte. And yet, when he was made, he
was twofold more the child of hell than themself. In verse 16 through 19, The Lord
expressed the hypocritical and false teachings about oath, that
an oath in regard to the temple was nothing but that that in
the altar was different. And this they did because they
could gain by believing and by teaching this. In verse 23, while
they were scrupulous in their tithing into the treasury, even
going beyond what the law required in tithing, mint, anise, and
cumming, and yet giving tithes of all they possessed, but neglecting
the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith. In verse 25, a simile, they strained
at a gnat and swallowed down a camel. They removed a little
bitty speck out of their cup, swallowed down something as big
as a camel. A little speck and swallowed
a lump. And that was their hypocrisy. Just as they picked a speck,
said, brother, you got a speck in your eye. And the two before
were sticking out of their very own eye. They were very censorous. They were very critical. They
were very mean-spirited and they were bigots against other people
in their day. In Matthew 26 through 28, the
Lord uses a couple of picturesque but very clear metaphors to expose
the Pharisees' religion. First of all, he likened them
to a cup, a plate, or a dish. And inside it's clean and sparkling,
but outside there's caked on food and dirt and filth and bacteria
and such like. And he likened them to a cup,
same way. Clean, sparkling inside, but
outside full, outside clean but inside full of excess. I got it backward. Then you liken
them to a grave that is whitewashed, painted up outside, but what's
inside? Dead men's bones, corruption,
and death. And see the application in Matthew
23, 28, even as so do you Pharisees. Number one, you appear from outward
appearance to be righteous to other men. You appear to be righteous. They count you to be so. You're
known as a religious person far and wide, but in outward things
only. For inwardly you are full of
dead men's bone. Secondly, but not before God. For within is hypocrisy and iniquity. And some translate iniquity,
lawlessness. That's a good translation of
the word. And God looks on the heart. He
doesn't look on the outward. He looks upon the heart. 1 Samuel 16, 1 through 13. when selecting a king to replace
the first one. The prophet looked on the countenance
of those that passed by. Big, strong, impressive looking. Verse 7, the Lord sees not as
men see, for man looks only outward, but the Lord looks on the heart. First Chronicles 28 and 9, he
searches all hearts. Psalm 7 and 9, The righteous
God tries the heart and the reins. He looks inwardly. He knows our
thoughts afar off. He desires truth in the inward
part, as David said in his penitential prayer in Psalm chapter 51. So
true religion is not outward. It's not in do's and in don'ts. It's not in touch nots, taste
not, and handle not. It is in the hidden man of the
heart. The heart is made new. The Pharisees
put on an outward show of formality, going through the motion, exalting
themselves, looking down upon others. Over the years I've tried
in my mind to visualize that old Pharisee going about in Jerusalem,
loaded down with his phylacteries, his bands and boxes of scripture
on his arm and on his head. We can imagine his old contorted
face as he wanted to let people know that he was hungry from
his fasting, his hypocritical prayer standing on the street
corner and there in the temple, his ringing the bell and blowing
the trumpet before he dropped in his arms, making sure all
of the people saw. And yet they murdered the Son
of God. These are the people that led
the charge against the murder of the Lord. It's still religious
people today who are the greatest enemies of our Lord and our Savior. So, let's not be fooled by the
super-duper spiritual people that appear among us today. Like
the lady one time, we were in a Bible conference, the lady,
the preacher was in our house, and she was impressing us, telling
us how she had prayed that evening what the Lord would have her
fix for supper for her husband, thinking that to be very spiritual. Are there Pharisees today? in
the world, a Pharisee is one who thinks that they will be
saved by their works, by their morality, or by their keeping
of the law. They pronounce themselves a good
person, deserving of heaven. And that, my friend, is a Pharisee. Now I'm sad to say that we are
all hypocritical at times. We are all falling into hypocrisy
and, boy, it can spring up very quickly within us at times. We can play the hypocrite, even
Christians, and we do and we have. We have to be careful. We are Arminian when we're born,
I think. We're born as Arminian, and then
legalism drags us into legalism if we're not very careful. And
we will embrace it, and we'll trust in it. But remember this,
and I'm through. These receive the harshest condemnation
from our Lord's lips of any during the day of his ministry, from
the common people to the disciple to the political leaders and
the kings. These Pharisees received the
harshest condemnation from our Lord, and they were the most
religious of the bunch. That tells us something. Let
us be careful, therefore, that it is of the hidden man of the
heart. Well, there's the New Testament
Phariseeism.