It's good to see everyone here
today and good to be here. If you would, let's turn in our
Bibles to Matthew chapter 23. Matthew chapter 23. Now, my text is verse 23 of this chapter. Matthew 23,
23. Here, the Lord Jesus Christ is pronouncing woe. upon the religionist of his day,
the Pharisees and the scribes. He says in verse 23, woe unto
you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you pay tithe of mint and
anise and cumin and have omitted the weightier matters of the
law, judgment, mercy, and faith. That's the title of the message
this morning, judgment, mercy, and faith. He goes on, he says,
these ought you to have done, this judgment, mercy, and faith,
and not to leave the other undone. It was required for them to tithe
under the law of Moses. So he said, I'm not telling you
not to do that, but you really should have give attendance and
to this judgment, mercy, and faith. And then he says in verse
24, you blind guides which strain at a gnat and swallow a camel. Now, I mentioned this in our
Sunday school lesson this morning, but I wanna go back and show
you some background here, back and read some in the first part
of chapter 23. Look at verse one. The problem
that is existing here has to do, basically, with what we could
describe as self-righteous legalism. Self-righteous legalism. As opposed
to salvation, blessedness, by the grace of God in Christ. That's
the issue. Is salvation or any part of it
by the works of men, or is it totally, totally by the grace
of God in Christ? That's the basic problem here.
That's the issue. That's the conflict. The Bible
says in Romans chapter 11 that if salvation is by grace, then
it's not of works, else it is no more grace. And if it's by
works, then it's not of grace, else it is no more works. In
other words, you can't have both. And some people don't understand,
but they ask the question, well, where are works involved? Well,
the Bible teaches that, tells us. We could quote Ephesians
chapter two, for example. Most of you are very familiar
with that. Ephesians two and verse eight, where it says, for
by grace are you saved, or literally, by grace have you been saved.
through faith, and that not of yourselves, it's the gift of
God, not of works, lest any man should boast." Then in verse
10 it goes on to say this, it says, for we are his workmanship. In other words, a believer, and
honestly I believe that Ephesians chapter 2 is talking more of
the church collectively than it is individual believers, but
you have to include that because the church is made up of individual
believers, sinners saved by grace. But if you're a believer, if
you're a sinner saved by grace, then you're his workmanship.
You're not your own workmanship. You're not a self-made person.
You didn't save yourself by your efforts and your works. You're
his workmanship. You're the workmanship of God
by his power and goodness and grace. And then he goes on for
we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus. This is how
God saves His people. This is how He brings forth this
workmanship in Christ Jesus. And that has to do with Christ,
who is God in human flesh, God-man, very God of very God, very man
of very man without sin, who came to this earth to do this
work that was required of God to save His people from their
sins, to redeem us. And that's described all through
the Old Testament. And that's important here because
the scriptures that the scribes and the Pharisees read and studied
and interpreted and wrote commentaries on was the Old Testament, especially
the first five books of Moses. Well, Christ said, Moses wrote
of me. See, the Old Testament pointed sinners to Christ. And
so it's His work on the cross. shedding his blood as the complete
payment for all the sins of all of his people, his sheep, his
church. And Daniel described it in Daniel
chapter 9 verse 24 as making an end of sin, finishing the
transgression, making an end of sin, and bringing forth everlasting
righteousness. In other words, the righteousness
which I have that pleases God and gives me acceptance before
God and gives me blessing from God and eternally secures me
in God's favor is not my own. It's Christ. He gave it to me.
He worked it out. I didn't work it out. Now, if
you think you worked it out in any way, shape, form, or fashion
to any degree at any stage, then what does that make you? I'll
tell you exactly what it makes you. It makes you a legalist.
That's what a legalist is. And we'll see that in just a
moment. But this is the issue. So he says in Ephesians 2.10,
he says, we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus. And
then he says, unto good works. And that's a good translation
of that from the original. In other words, it's not because
of good works. It's not based on good works. It's unto good works. In other
words, the good works are the fruit and the result and the
effect. of that new creation, being God's
workmanship created in Christ Jesus, which God hath before
ordained that we should walk in them. So that's the issue
basically here in this matter. Now, as I mentioned this in the
Sunday school, the unbelieving self-righteous Jews, and I distinguish
them from the believing Jews because of the apostles and God
had a people out of that nation, they basically boasted in or
had confidence in three things that by which they sought to
prove themselves to be saved, to be children of God, to be
righteous. And I mentioned these. Number one was their physical
connection with Abraham. We're Abraham's children. We're
in that physical lineage with Abraham. And of course, the Lord
himself, and I always remember Matthew chapter three, you don't
have to turn there, where John the Baptist cut him off at the
path there, at the pass. You know, when he began to call
on the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the scribes to repent, he
told them, he said, well, don't say in your hearts that you're
Abraham's children, that'll do you no good. In other words,
just because you're a physical child of Abraham, physically
connected to him in that pedigree, that doesn't mean anything as
far as salvation goes. Doesn't mean anything as far
as righteousness goes. Doesn't mean anything as far
as forgiveness of sin goes. You see that? And so that does
you no good. And then the second thing that
they boasted, it was their circumcision. That was the initiation into
the old covenant and into the nation specifically. But that
would do you no good. Paul said, for in Christ Jesus,
neither circumcision nor uncircumcision availeth anything. It doesn't
mean anything. It will not save you. It will not make you righteous.
It will not bring forgiveness of sins. And the third thing
was they believed they kept the Law of Moses. Now look up at
verse 1 of Matthew 23. They believed they actually kept
the Law of Moses. But they didn't. They really,
their whole religious system was opposed to the Law of Moses.
Look at verse 1. He says, Then spake Jesus to
the multitude and to his disciples, saying, The scribes and the Pharisees
sit in Moses' seat. In other words, they claim to
be teachers of the Law of Moses, judges of the Law of Moses. He
says, verse three, all therefore whatsoever they bid you observe,
that observe and do. In other words, when they tell
you what Moses actually wrote, well, you're to do that. That
was the old covenant that was given to the nation Israel from
Mount Sinai and it lasted for about 1,500 years from Sinai
to the cross. And it said when Moses spoke,
he spoke as a prophet of God, And he was giving you God's word.
So when they speak Moses's word, but look at verse three, he says,
but do not ye after their works. Now here's where we get to their
perversion of the law of Moses. He said, for they say, and do
not. Now you remember, he said down
here in verse 23, woe when you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites
say one thing and do another. He says, for they say and do
not. Now, what is the nature of their hypocrisy? All right,
he describes it. He says in verse four, for they
bind heavy burdens and grievous to be born and lay them on men's
shoulders, but they themselves will not move them with one of
their fingers. In other words, they're telling
you to do something that they can't even do. And I'll tell
you what, I've just described most religion today in the world. They tell you to do something
that they can't even do. They think they can do it now.
You need to understand that. These Pharisees thought they
could do what they were telling the people who followed them
to do, but they couldn't. And it was a heavy burden. He
said, a burden that's grievous to be borne. And when I read
that verse, the immediate verse that came to my mind was Matthew
11, there in 28, where Christ said, come unto me all ye that
labor and are heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. There's rest
in Christ. So when you're involved in a
religion, I don't care what it calls itself, whether it calls
itself Christianity or whatever, If it binds you down and lays
heavy burdens on you in order to be saved or to maintain salvation,
then that identifies you with the scribes and the Pharisees
here. He says in verse five, look at this, he says, but all
their works they do for to be seen of men. Now, let me make
a distinction here. It's not that they just want
to display it before men in that sense. It's in the same vein
as Matthew chapter 6. Now, have you ever heard the
saying in religion that I'd rather see a sermon than hear one? You
ever heard that? That's what he's talking about.
Now, I'm going to tell you something. There is no argument that a true
believer, a sinner saved by grace, that that person's life and conduct
and attitude should display the grace of God. Now, there's no
argument there. If that's your problem, then
you've got a real problem. But that's not, see, we're not
arguing whether or not a Christian should live and act like a Christian.
Sure they should. But first of all, most people
don't even know what a Christian really is. That's one of the
problems. I've had people tell me, say,
well, you don't act like a Christian. Well, what do you think a Christian
is? But our lives and our conducts and our attitudes should display
the grace of God. No doubt about that. But what
he's talking about here is this notion that men have is that
I want the judgment of men on me. In other words, I want men
to look at me and judge me to be holy or righteous or saved. That's what he's saying. And
a lot of times you'll hear people quote Matthew chapter 5 verse
16 on that. Let your light so shine before
men that they may see your good works and glorify your father
which is in heaven. Now the light there is not our
good works. The light there is Christ and
the grace of God in Christ. The gospel. And what happens
there is that if we're in Christ, then we see that all our efforts
to obey him, they don't save us or make us righteous. They're
just acts of gratitude and thanksgiving to the praise of the glory of
God's grace. In other words, I don't want
you to look at me and see me and admire me. I want you to
glorify God. That's what that light is supposed
to do. I want you to know that if you
see me at any time in my life doing an act of kindness, that
that does not save me. That does not make me righteous.
Should I do acts of kindness? Of course I should. But that
does not save me or make me righteous and holy before God. That doesn't
earn salvation for me and that doesn't make it to where I deserve
salvation. I want you to look to Christ. I want you to look to Him alone.
That's the issue. So he says in verse five, but
all their works they do for to be seen of men, they make broad
their phylacteries and enlarge the borders of their garments.
What it is talking about their robes and they would sew things
into their robes, uh, uh, like scripture and sayings that people
could see and read. It's kind of like putting a bumper
sticker on your car today. I see him all over the place,
you know, You know, because I want you to know that I'm religious.
That's my witness, as people say. Well, that's not your witness.
You can't put your witness on a billboard or anything like
that. The witness is in the preaching
of the gospel that points sinners to Christ for all of salvation.
He says in verse six, they love the uppermost room at the feast
and the chief seats in the synagogues, and they like to be called rabbi.
Rabbi, that'd be the equivalent of being Dr. So-and-so, the Reverend
Dr. So-and-so today, you know, something like that. Well, you
get the picture here, all right? This is the issue. Now, they
thought they kept the law of Moses, but they didn't. Because,
let me show you this. Turn over to Romans chapter nine.
Now let me give you a summary of it from the scripture, what
the real problem was. And this is Paul bringing all
this to a conclusion. And he says in verse 31 of Romans
chapter 9, now look at that. He says, Israel, but Israel,
which followed after the law of righteousness. Now that's
the law of Moses because it was a law of righteousness. But,
listen to this, they hath not attained to the law of righteousness.
Now they didn't attain, they were trying to be righteous.
They were trying to make themselves righteous. But they didn't make
it, they didn't attain it. Why? Verse 32, that word wherefore,
that means why. Why didn't they not attain it?
Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were, by the
works of the law. They sought righteousness by
their works. Now that's the heavy burden that
they put upon people. And that's what they claimed
to accomplish, but they didn't. They were trying to inspire the
people through legalism. What? Righteousness by works. That's legalism. Works of the
law. And they were trying to get people
to keep the law in order to be righteous. They claimed to have
made it, but they didn't. They didn't attain it. Why? Because
they sought it not by faith, but as it were, by the works
of law. Now here's the question I want
you to consider here on this issue of judgment, mercy, and
faith. What is righteousness by faith? What is righteousness by faith?
Well, most people today would look at that and they say, well,
that means if you believe, you're righteous. Something like that.
And that's a confusing thing when they go that way. In other
words, you know, a lot of people, I even read a commentator one
time who made this statement, this was years ago. He said,
because we cannot keep the law, and we cannot, we're sinners,
for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. That
means we miss the mark. The mark is perfect righteousness. And we all miss that mark. We
cannot, by deeds of law shall no flesh be justified in God's
sight. Romans 3, 24, by the law is the
knowledge of sin. And this is something we were
talking about the other day, John, how it's an astounding thing. But
that whole history of God in the Old Testament and through
the law was given to show man his sinfulness and the impossibility
of attaining righteousness by works and to show us our need
of righteousness by God's grace in Christ. That's what it was
all about. I think, Peter, you said that's
where the cross is central. It's the central thing in God's
universe, in God's purpose, in eternity, you say, because the
only way I can be made righteous is through the cross, through
the blood of Christ. But he says here, they sought it not by faith. What is it to seek it by faith?
Now look at verse 32 again. He says, why? Because they sought
it not by faith, but as it were, by the works of the law. And
then he goes back to the Old Testament and he quotes from
a couple passages in the book of Isaiah, the prophet Isaiah,
Isaiah 8 and Isaiah 28. And he says, they stumbled at
that stumbling stone. They tripped over a stumbling
stone. Well, what is he talking about?
He's not talking about a literal rock, is he? No. He goes on,
verse 33, as it is written, behold, I lay in Zion. You see the word
S-I-O-N, sometimes you'll see it Z-I-O-N, Zion. It was a mountain
in Israel. And it's a type, it's a picture
of the church. And he says, I lay in Zion, a
stumbling stone and rock of offense, an offensive rock. and whosoever
believeth on him," now that stumbling stone is a person, a him, "...on
him shall not be ashamed." What is it to seek righteousness by
faith? It's to seek and find righteousness
in a person. And now go on to verse 1 of chapter
10. He says, "...brethren, my heart's
desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be
saved, for I bear them record that they have a zeal of God,
but not according to knowledge." They have a zeal of God, they're
religious. They're following after the law for righteousness,
they didn't make it, but they're doing that. And he says, for
they being ignorant of God's righteousness. Now, hold your
finger there at Romans 9 and look back at Matthew 23. Now
he says, you've neglected the weightier matters of the law.
He says, you'll tithe mint and anise and cumin. Now you know
what mint is. Anise, some of you ladies who
cook, you may know what anise is, it's like dill. and cumin. We like cumin because we put
that in chili. What is he talking about? He's talking about herbs.
The smallest, most insignificant little things. And here's what
he's telling him. He says, you are so meticulous
in the details of your tithing. I mean, you'll even tithe the
kitchen spices. They weren't really required
to do that, but they did. Tithing was required under the
old covenant because that's how they supported the priesthood.
That's how they did it. But he says, you're so meticulous.
You remember in Luke chapter 18 where the Lord was teaching
the parable of the Pharisee and the publican and the Pharisee
said, I tithe of all that I, all my goods, everything, even
mint and anise and cumin, you're so meticulous in that. And that's
a good explanation of, I mean, that's a good example of legalism
and false religion. People are so meticulous about
little things that, as one old preacher said, they'll minor
on majors and major on minors. You'll do that. And then over
in verse 24, look at this. He said, you blind guides, you'll
strain at a gnat. You know what that refers to?
It refers to when they would get wine, they would strain that
wine through a strainer, even small enough to strain out a
gnat because they didn't want to swallow anything unclean.
That's how bad they were. But he said, you'll swallow a
camel. They didn't really swallow camels. But he's making a point
here. He's using hyperbole to make
a point. He's showing you're so meticulous to make sure that
you don't eat anything unclean, but everything you do and everything
you say and everything you swallow is unclean in the sight of God.
What's the problem? You've neglected, you've omitted
the weightier matters, the heavy, the real important things of
the law. Judgment. What's judgment? That's justice.
Now, somebody says, well, that refers to their civil courts
and how corrupt they were. Well, you know, that was true.
And you can read that in the Old Testament. I can take you
back and show you some examples where it talked about how their
judgments were perverted, how they took bribes, how they cheated. And then he talks about mercy.
What's mercy? That's just compassion for the
downtrodden and the poor. Back over here in Matthew 23,
listen to this one. Look up here in verse 14. He
says, woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you
devour widows' houses. You take advantage of widows.
He says, and pretense, make long prayer, therefore you shall receive
the greater damnation. They treated the poor wrongly,
they took advantage of widows and orphans, they did that. And
they did it under the guise of religion. Just like people today,
you can't turn on the TV without some false preacher asking you
to send them a check. And they do it under the pretense
of religion. And it's really not giving according
to the scripture, it's investing. You give this much and the Lord
will give back to you. It's like the stock market, except
they guarantee it and they just lie to you. But they'll have
their long prayers. Do it in the name of the Lord.
What was that country song? He said, send the money to God,
but make the check out to me. You know, that kind of thing.
And it's pitiful. And then he says, faith. You've
omitted faith. What is faith? Faith is simply
believing and doing what God says. Did God ever tell them
under the law of Moses to seek righteousness by their works?
And the answer is no. In fact, he forbid it. In fact,
he told them In John chapter 5 and verse 39, we read this
in the Sunday school, that he said, search the scriptures,
for in them you think you have eternal life, but they are they
which testify of me. He said, you brag about your
law keeping under Moses. He said, Moses will be your accuser.
He said, Moses wrote of me. Moses never in the law or in
any record of the law, Old Testament law, he never commanded or encouraged
any sinner in Israel to seek righteousness, salvation, forgiveness
by their works of the law. He never did. Moses pointed sinners
to Christ. Why was the law given? He says,
to expose our sin. to show us the impossibility
of salvation based on our works. to drive us to the promise of
the Messiah who was to come for salvation, for forgiveness through
his blood. That's why there was so much
bloodshed under that covenant in the ceremonial law. That blood
was a type of the blood of the Lamb of God, which beareth away
the sins of the world, sin of the world. God's people out of
every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation. You can't gain forgiveness for
your sins by sowing scripture into your phylactery, or by being
baptized, or by giving tithes of mint and anise and cumin.
There's only one way that a sinner can be forgiven of all his sins,
and that's by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. You know what? Moses believed that by the power
of the Holy Spirit, and he wrote of that. But you see, this was the issue
here. And you know, you think about it, when you talk about
their civil courts, now let me say this, go back to Romans 9
now, I want you to see this, Romans 10. In their civil courts,
their judgments among men in their civil courts, do you know
it was actually, it was to be a reflection of the character
of God. stemming from a real conviction
of God's standard of judgment and the only way a sinner could
be justified before God. That's so. That's so. God has a standard of judgment
upon which all men and women will stand before him. He records
it in Acts 1731, I quote it quite often, that God hath commanded
all men everywhere to repent because he hath appointed a day
in the which he will judge the world in righteousness. By that man whom he hath appointed,
not one you've chosen or I've chosen. What that means is, listen,
I mean, you know, people today in religion, they compare themselves
with other people and they come out smelling pretty good. But
see, this judgment of God in his high court is according to
righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained, in that he
hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him
from the dead." Who's he talking about? Christ. It's not that
I have to be as righteous as Winston Pannell, or Jim Casey,
or Robert Marginson. I have to be as righteous as
Christ. That's the standard. That's the plumb line. How's
that going to happen? Well, he goes to mercy. Now under
the old covenant in Israel, you know that law never gave them
a right to take advantage of any individual. It always made
provision for the poor, for the downtrodden, for the widows,
for the orphans. And one who was unmerciful without
compassion towards men is one who's not seen his own sinfulness
and experienced the mercy of God in Christ. Knowing that I am going to be
judged by God according to righteousness, what does that lead me to know
and to see and to admit? I need mercy. How about you? I need mercy. All the time. We had an elder up at 13th Street
who's passed away, but he, when he would think about the public
and who said, God be merciful to me, the sinner, he'd always
talk about how we're all mercy beggars. And that's what we are. I need mercy. If I ever, you
know, that's why Christ in the Sermon on the Mount, he said,
blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy. He's
not saying the way you earn mercy is to be merciful. That's impossible. He's just simply saying if you've
ever experienced the mercy of God in Christ, then you'll have
a heart for mercy. That's what he's saying. Where
am I gonna find mercy from God? At the mercy seat. Where's the
mercy seat? That's Christ and him crucified. And risen again. I need forgiveness. Listen, I'll tell you what. I
need forgiveness today as much as I ever needed. It'll never
stop. I'll never stop me. Where am
I going to find forgiveness in the mercy of God through the
blood of Christ? Where am I going to find righteousness?
At the mercy seat, Christ and him crucified and risen again. And then what about this thing
of faith? Well, look at Romans 10. He said in verse three, for
they being ignorant of God's righteousness, that's God's judgment,
God's justice, God's standard, and going about to establish
their own righteousness. Now there's legalism. If you're
trying to establish your own righteousness before God in order
to attain or maintain salvation, that's legalism. And that proves
you're ignorant of God's standard. The only way I'm going to attain
God's standard is by looking to Christ, who is God's standard. And he says, and have not submitted
themselves unto the righteousness of God. Well, how do you submit
to the righteousness of God? Well, look at verse four. For
Christ is the end of the law. Now, that word end there means
the fulfillment, the finishing, the completion of the law for
righteousness to everyone that believeth. You see, it's not
my believing that makes me righteous. It's Christ who makes me righteous,
and I believe in him. Look down at verse 10. He says,
For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with
the mouth confession is made unto salvation. Believe unto
righteousness. That's faith, faithfulness, following
God. This is the issue of salvation. This is the issue back here in
Matthew 23 now between salvation and being lost in our own works. Judgment. This is the issue of
judgment, right here. This is what they neglected,
what they didn't care about. Oh, they were so meticulous.
They wanted to tithe. Oh, I guarantee you, if you didn't
tithe that mint, cumin, and anise, you were a lost person to them. But what about judgment? What
about God's judgment of me? What about mercy? What about
faith? What about those things? Well,
you know, we're all just trying to get along. No, no, no. What about God's glory? There's
the issue. You think when you stand before
God that he's going to look down at you and say, now, did you
tie that mint and anise and cumin? Did you do that? No, it's going
to be an issue of something like this. What right and title do
you have to claim to be qualified to enter the kingdom of heaven,
to enter eternal life? What is your ground? What is
your title? Well, I tithe mint and anise
and cumin. Or I sang hymns, or I got baptized,
or I walked an aisle, or I did this or that or the other, or
I gave to the poor. Oh, no. Because you see, that'll
always fall short. It'll always fall short of the
standard of judgment and mercy and faith. Well, preacher, are
you saying that we shouldn't try to obey God as best we can?
Oh, no. I'm saying we should. But here's
the point. When it comes to obedience, when
it comes to repentance, when it comes to love, legalism will
not work. Now you can mark it down. It can accomplish a few things
for a little while, but ultimately it will not work. What will?
What is going to truly motivate and energize God's people to
obedience, to worship, to repentance? There's not but one thing. Knowing,
knowing this, being assured of this, that my sins have already
been judged completely in Christ. Knowing that God is merciful
to me in Christ. knowing and being assured that
He is my hope for all salvation, that I'm forgiven, I'm forgiven,
I'm forgiven through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ and
Him alone.