Now, I've titled the lesson this
morning, What Religion Are You In? You know, man by nature is
very, very religious. It's not difficult at all to
find a religious person. But you know, scripture tells
us that most people are in false religion. Our Lord said in Matthew
7, verse 13, wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth
to destruction and many there be that go in there at. Many
are in that way. Our Lord went on in verse 14.
He said, straight is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth
unto life. And few there be that find that.
So there are few people, our Lord said, in the religion of
Christ and the religion of salvation that's Christ alone. That's why
the narrow is the way and straight is the gate because there's only
one way, the Lord Jesus Christ alone. But that wide way is the
religion of the Pharisees and I know why many are in it. Because
that way of religion is natural to all flesh. The religion of the Pharisees
is the religion of man's works. And there is nothing that the
flesh loves more than that. Thinking that there is a work
I can do that's supposed to please Almighty God and somehow obligate
him to do something for me. The narrow way is the religion
of Christ. That's a religion that declares Christ is all and
I'm nothing. I am nothing. Everything I do
is nothing. Christ is all. Christ is all in righteousness.
Christ is all in justification. He's all in salvation. He's all
in worship. Christ is all in acceptance with
the Father. Salvation, eternal life hangs
completely and entirely on Christ and Christ alone. Christ is all. Now I'm sure that most of us
here this morning, I know, matter of fact, I just know this is
true, that we would all say, we're pretty devout to our religion. We're pretty devout to our worship.
And that would be a true statement, wouldn't it, that we make. But
I would warn us, devotion is not salvation. Everyone in false
religion would say the same thing and they'd be making a true statement
too. They're very devout to their
false religion. Now I want you and me to know,
what religion are we in? Are we in the religion of the
Pharisees? Or are we in the religion of Christ? And I have five litmus
tests about this to give ourselves. And I want us right off the bat,
these are not five litmus tests for us to give somebody else,
trying to figure out somebody else, what religion they're in.
These are five litmus tests to give myself. Paul said, let a
man examine himself. Now let's examine ourselves and
our religion with these five litmus tests. Number one, the
religion of the Pharisees is to be critical. but the religion
of Christ is to be forgiven. Look at verse one, Mark chapter
seven. Then came together unto him the Pharisees and certain
other scribes which came from Jerusalem. And when they saw
some of his disciples eat bread with defiled, that is to
say with unwashing hands, they found fault. Now the Pharisees
made an art out of watching other people so that they could criticize
them. You know, they're not watching
other people to see, do they need anything? You know, is there
something I can do to help them? The Pharisees are far too self-centered
for that. They watched others so they could
see what they were doing wrong. And they could criticize them
for it. And you know, oh, they're doing something, us Pharisees,
we would never do that. Look what they're doing. how
wrong they are, how doctrinally wrong they are, how morally wrong
they are. And the reason they wanted to watch others and be
critical of others is so they feel better about themselves.
That's the long and the short of it. Now I'm not saying that
we're not to make judgments. Sometimes we have to make a judgment
about someone or something. They've done something wrong.
We make a judgment about that. You parents better make a judgment
about who your kids should hang out with. You better make judgments
about that. But we don't have to be critical,
hypercritical. and haughty about it. Oh, I hate
that attitude. Just haughtiness and looking
down our nose at people. Now, you know, there's a difference
between making a judgment, knowing what's right and wrong, and being
haughty about it, being critical about it. You know, scripture
says, who are you to judge another man's servant? You know, to his
own master he standeth or followeth. But if you think about it, remember
the religion of the Pharisees is a works religion. A critical, haughty attitude
is the only thing works religion can produce. A critical, haughty,
holier-than-thou attitude. That's their religion. But the
religion of Christ is to be forgiving. Now the gospel of Christ. declares
that Almighty God forgives the sin of His people because the
Father punished His Son for the sin of His people. He made His
Son to be the substitute for the sin of His people so that
their sin could be forgiven. God forgives the sin of His people
because the blood of Christ took the sin of God's elect away. Made it to not exist. The sacrifice
of Christ made it so that there is no sin. that can be charged
to any of God's elect. Now since no sin can be charged
to them, they're forgiven. Now that's a doctrinal truth,
that's a doctrinal pillar and foundation of the gospel. There's
forgiveness of sin in the blood of Christ because he died as
our substitute. I mean, does anybody here believe
anything more strongly than you believe that? Hope in anything
more? It's the blood of Christ that cleanses us from our sin
and gives us forgiveness of our sin with the Father. Now, if
that doctrinal truth is in our heart, our attitude will reflect
it. Ephesians 4, verse 32, Paul gives
us this instruction. Be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted,
forgiving one another, Now, here's your motivation. Even as God,
for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you. Now, don't just say, oh,
I forgive somebody. Be kind, be tenderhearted about
it, be understanding about it. See, this thing is, it's a heart
matter. The believer has been given a forgiving heart. And unfortunately, sooner or
later, there's gonna come up a problem amongst us. There's
gonna come up, somebody does something wrong, somebody's feelings
are hurt, their feelings are hurt, whether somebody did something
wrong or whether they didn't really mean to for whatever reason,
our feelings are hurt and there's a problem. But that problem is
between two believers, sooner or later, they're gonna find
a way to forgive one another. Sooner or later they will, because
that's the new nature that God's given them. He's given them the
heart of forgiveness. They trust their soul. God would forgive their sin because
of the sacrifice of Christ. And that just is going to direct
our attitudes and our actions to be forgiving one to another.
And believers understand this. It is not hard for you to look
at me and find things to criticize and find things to pick at and
find things to be heard about. But we'd be a whole lot better
off if we spend our time looking for reasons to love our brethren. Sometimes our brethren, maybe
they get on our nerves a little bit. Look for a reason to love
them. Look for a reason to love them.
Look for a reason to serve them. rather than criticize them. We'd
be a whole lot better off if we spent our time that way. And
you know, if I want to find somebody to criticize, I have to look
no further than myself. I mean, I don't have to go very
far to find somebody to criticize. I mean, there are so many things
I see in myself to criticize because my sin is the worst. It really is. Look at Philippians
chapter two. I mean, how can I find time to
criticize that little bit of straw that's in your eye if I'm
considering the beam that's in my own eye? Philippians chapter
two. Now this is the gospel. This is the religion of Christ.
Philippians chapter two. If there be therefore any consolation
in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the
spirit, if any bowels and mercies, if God's put this thing in your
heart, Fulfill ye my joy that you be like-minded, having the
same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done
through strife or vainglory, but in lowliness of mind, let
each esteem other better than themselves. You and I are going
to get along just fine if I really do esteem you always better than
myself. I'm not going to criticize you if I esteem you better than
myself, and you're going to like me real good if I esteem you
better than myself. You really will. That's just
going to take care of all these problems that come up between
us. Let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every
man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Don't look out for yourself.
Look out for your brethren. Look for ways to love them and
serve them. That's the religion of Christ.
Because look what Paul says in verse five. Let this mind be
in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. You cannot preach salvation
in Christ Jesus. You cannot preach forgiveness
in Christ Jesus. You can't believe that and cling
to that and not be forgiving to others, can you? Well, unfortunately,
we find ways to do it, but it ought not be. It ought not be. Strive to be forgiving one to
another. All right, number two. The religion
of the Pharisees is justification by works. The religion of Christ
is justification by faith in Christ. Back in our text, Mark
7, verse 3. eat not, holding the tradition
of the elders. But when they come from the market,
except they wash, they eat not. And many other things there be,
which they have received to hold, as the washing of cups and pots
and brazen vessels and of tables. I mean, the Pharisees were always
washing their hands. Now, the reason that the Pharisees
were so critical are critical of others is because they're
self-righteous. They've made themselves righteous
by their works. or so they thought. But since
they think they made themselves righteous, they can look down
on other people who have not made themselves righteous. You
know, the Pharisees said, now what's the matter with you? I
mean, what's the matter with you? All you gotta do is do what
I do. All you gotta do is do what I
do and then you'll be as good as me. You will both be righteous. But if you can't do what I do,
well, you must not be as good as me. And I'm gonna be haughty
and look down my nose at you, you know, yay me and boo you.
But people in the religion of the Pharisees, you know how they
justify themselves? By comparing themselves with
other sinners. When I was in college, there was a large intramural
program at Ohio State. And one of the things they had
was an under six basketball intramural thing. Well, you know, in that
under six, you had to be less than six feet to play in that
league. Well, if you're, you know, you compare yourself to
somebody else who's short, you know, you think you're pretty
tall. They also had a league that was, you had to be, you're
supposed to be really good in it. And Ohio State football players
had a team. They won every year. Those guys
are monsters. Now, if I compare myself to somebody
who's five foot six, I might feel pretty tall. I can compare
myself to six foot eight lineman who's 330 pounds, I feel pretty
small. It's just who I'm comparing myself
to. Well, the Pharisees aren't about comparing themselves to
the big tall guy. They're trying to find sinners to compare themselves
to, to make themselves feel better about themselves. And that's
what the washing of the hands was all about. You know, they're
not just washing their hands to get dirt and germs off of
them. This hand washing was a ceremony
where they thought they made themselves righteous by their
works. Oh, I'm righteous. I'm so righteous.
I'm so much more righteous than everybody else, but I've got
to go out in the world. I got to go out in the world
to the market to buy things. I've got to go, you know, see
people and shake hands or whatever else they do. So when I come
back home, I've got to wash. It's a ceremonial washing to
wash all the sin off me that people got on me out there in
the world. That's what they're doing. They're
saying the world's got all this sin on me. I don't have any,
but the world can put it all on me. So I've got to ceremonially
wash. They don't know what sin is and
they don't know where it comes from. Sin is not out there in
the world. Sin's in my heart. Sin comes
from my heart. Look at verse 20, this same chapter.
This is what the Lord said. That which cometh out of the
man, that defileth the man. For from within, out of the heart
of men proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murderers,
thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil
eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from
within and defile the man. I don't have to go out in the
world to get defiled. I carry it around with me in
that old heart, that old nature of Adam. You know, we see sin
manifest Outwardly, don't we? But sin's not an outward problem.
Sin's an inward problem. And you know what? Salvation
is not an outward thing either. Salvation is an inward thing.
It's a heart work. It's God giving a new heart.
Now I tell you, it's a good thing to wash our hands. You know,
we'd all be healthier if we kept our hands washed. That's one
of the first things our mamas taught us, wasn't it? Wash your
hands. This week, Jay and I had our 16-month-old grandson with
us, and I told him, I changed his diapers, now Papa's gotta
go wash his hands. And immediately, he started going like this. He
knows how to wash his hands. It's just an important thing.
We need to be healthy if we keep those germs off of our hands.
But don't take something that's good for you and turn it into
a religious thing. Don't take something that's good
for your body and turn it into a matter of righteousness. Do
you know where don't drink, don't smoke, and don't cuss come from?
I mean, people made that such a religious issue. You know why? Because there's women in the
church, and they're tired of their husband drinking up their
money, and using money to buy cigarettes, and sneaking up her
house with these cigarettes, and cussing, and she don't like
hearing it. So the preacher just made it a religious thing. Don't
drink, don't cuss, and don't smoke. If you drink, you can't
be saved. Touch not, taste not, handle not. That's exactly where
that came from. If you drink to excess, quit
it. If you smoke to excess, quit it. It's not good for you. It's
not good for your body. But don't make it a religious
thing. Don't make it a matter of righteousness. It's fleshly,
not spiritual. Now, believers know we cannot
be justified by what we do. Everything I do is sin. How can
that justify me? There is nothing I can do to
cleanse this flesh from my sin. I tell you what's got to be done
with this flesh. It's got to die and it's got to be buried
because it cannot be improved. It cannot be made sinless. If
my body is going to be made sinless, God's going to give me a new
one in the resurrection. That's the only time I'm going to have
a sinless flesh. Sinners are not justified by
what we do. We're justified by what Christ
did. Oh, that's what thrills the believer. I'm justified by Christ's obedience. I see my obedience is not worth
a plug nickel. I'm so glad to know that I can
be made justified by Christ's obedience for me. We're justified
by being washed in the blood of Christ. We're justified by
doing nothing. but trust in Christ. That's justification. Now believers still wash too,
don't we? We wash our feet. You know, the
Lord said, man goes down there and takes a bath and has to walk
back home. Well, he's washed, save his feet.
His feet got dusty, he's got to wash his feet. Well, how does
the believer wash his feet? By hearing the gospel preached.
Hearing the gospel, that's a matter of the heart. It's not a matter
of the flesh, it's a matter of the heart. That's how we're justified.
It's by believing Christ, by believing his gospel. Alright,
number three. The religion of the Pharisees
is to be seen of men. And the religion of Christ is
to be seen of God. Now you know why the Pharisees
did all these ceremonial washings? It's because they wanted men
to see him do it. That's exactly why they did it.
Look back at Matthew chapter six. I know that's so, because
that's what the Lord tells us. Matthew chapter six. Verse one. Take heed that you do not your
own before men to be seen of them. Otherwise you have no reward
of your father, which is in heaven. Therefore, when thou doest thine
alms, any good deed, anything like, do not sound a trumpet
before these, the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the
streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you,
they have their reward. As soon as people see them doing
what they're doing, they got their reward. That's what they
were after. But you, when thou doest alms, let not thy left
hand know what thy right hand doeth. that thine alms may be
in secret, and thy father which seeth in secret himself shall
reward thee openly. And when thou prayest, thou shalt
not be as the hypocrites are. For they love to pray, standing
in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that
they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, they have
their reward. But thou, when thou prayest,
enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray
to thy Father which is in secret, and thy Father which seeth in
secret shall reward thee openly." Now, you know as well as I do
what the Lord's saying there. If we do what we do to be seen
of men and have men praise us, they will. They absolutely will.
Men are not hard to impress. They're not difficult to fool.
You want men to see and praise you, they will, but God won't.
Because God looks on the heart. Now, it's never wrong for us
to do the right thing. But your motivation matters.
Don't ever do the right thing because you want people to see
you doing the right thing. Motivation is so important. If
you do what you do as unto the Lord, for your conscience sake,
because you're doing it as unto the Lord, then you do it. Do
it. That's good. But if you do whatever it is
you do, so other people say, Oh, that's a good Christian person.
You know, Don't do it. I mean, don't do it. A good example
in our day is praying in a restaurant. I know a lot of people pray publicly
in a restaurant. We typically do not because we
don't want people to think of us as a Pharisee praying on the
street corner and whatnot. But if you want to pray and give
thanks, Absolutely do that. There's never
a wrong time to give thanks, is there? But if you want people
to see you praying out in public, so they see what a good Christian
you are, don't you do it. Don't you do it. God won't hear
it. You're praying to other men,
not to God. That's exactly what you're doing.
Brother Henry gave some of the best advice on this I have ever
heard. If you want the waitress to see
what a good Christian you are, leave her a real big tip. That's
private. That's done between you. She'll
get the idea. But Noel, in that same vein now,
Remember going back to this first thing about being critical. Now
you see somebody praying in a restaurant, you don't know them from Adam.
Don't start being critical. You don't know their heart. Don't
be critical about that. If you're with somebody, if you
sit down in a restaurant and they want to pray, now don't
be critical now, this is right off the bat. We don't want to
do something that puts a stumbling block in front of our brother,
especially a weaker brother or sister. You know, if you're with
someone, And they really do think that it's truly wrong to eat. No matter where you're eating,
whether it's in your kitchen or whether it's out in public, they
think it's so wrong to eat without giving thanks. I mean, it'd give
them indigestion. They'd be worrying about so much
if they ate without giving thanks, you know. Then do it. Bow your head and pray with them.
Absolutely. Give thanks with them. You know
what? I've done that several times.
And you know, the food was still good and didn't poison me or
nothing. Don't put a stumbling, don't
be the reverse Pharisee and be so critical. And the point I'm
trying to make is this, the religion of the Pharisees focuses on the
outward. Let's quit focusing so much on
the outward. The believer knows God's worship
from the heart. Now every person in this room
knows that, God's worship from the heart. True religion is in
the heart. then we're not going to be critical
of people and all this other stuff, are we? 1 Samuel 16, verse
7 says this. The Lord seeth not as man seeth.
For man looketh on the outward appearance. That's as far as
we can look, the outward appearance. But God looketh on the heart.
Then let's pray God gives us a heart that's right with God.
Solomon said, Proverbs 23, verse 26. My son, Give me thine heart. Give me
your heart. Not just, don't be like that
son that told his father, yes, I've got working in your field,
but didn't do it. Give me your heart. Give me your
heart. Solomon said in Proverbs 4, verse
23, keep thine heart with all diligence. Not just your outward,
keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues
of life. The issues of life are not in
what we do, what we don't do. The issues of life are not fleshly
activities, they're in the heart. They're in the heart. The writers
of the Hebrews told us what? About circumcision. True circumcision
is not outward in the flesh, it's the giving of a new heart,
a new heart. And if we truly worship God from
the heart, the body will follow. but it's got to be in that order.
We worship God from the heart, believe God in the heart, love
God in the heart, trust God in the heart, and the body will
follow. All right, number four. The religion of the Pharisees
is to depart from the word of God. The religion of Christ is
a devotion to the word of God. Verse five says, then the Pharisees
and scribes asked him, why walk not thy disciples according to
the tradition of the elders? But he bread with unwashing hands.
Now skip down, we'll skip verse six, come back to that minute,
verse seven. Our Lord says, in vain do they worship me, teaching
for doctrines the commandments of men. For laying aside the
commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men as washing
of pots and cups and many other such like things that you do.
And he said unto them, full well, you reject the commandment of
God that you keep your own tradition. Now I bet you I know how this
happened, this washing and all this thing. Some man, who was
greatly respected by all the people, said, you know, it'd
be a good idea if we do this, that, or the other. It'd be a
good idea if we did this. Now, he knew there's no spiritual
significance to it whatsoever, but it'd just be a good thing
to do. This is the way I like doing
it. It seems like it works better for us. We'll do this. And it
was a good idea. But over time, it became a tradition
of men. Men exalted what that respected
man said and made it equal with the scripture and made it a commandment
of scripture. If you don't do it, we've been
doing it this way for years, and if you don't do it this way,
you're not saved. You don't know God, you're not
worshiping God. I bet you anything that's how that kind of stuff
happens. See, the religion of the Pharisees adds their traditions
to the scripture. I was shocked. I guess they still
do this, but the Southern Baptist convention, they have Sunday
school classes. I guess all everybody in the
Southern Baptist convention has the same Sunday school lesson
every Sunday. And it comes from a little book that they print
and they send out and tell everybody, teach this. They've replaced
the word of God with their little book. teaching their little book
instead of teaching the word of God. First, they make, they
just, they add their traditions to the scripture. Then they make
their traditions equal to the word of God. And then they throw
out the word of God altogether. Altogether. Look at verse 13.
Making the word of God of none effect through your traditions,
which you have delivered. And many such like things you
do. You make the word of God of none effect because you throw
it out. and teach your tradition. See, people can understand the
traditions of men. They can understand the little
book that some man writes and all these, whatever it is that
they put in it. But unless God gives you understanding,
unless God gives you faith, unless God gives you life, you can't
understand the word of God. So they throw it out and just
teach whatever it is they wanna teach, you know? That's the tradition
or the religion of the Pharisees. But the believer is addicted
to the word of God. The Word of God is our only foundation
of faith and practice. The believer says, you show me
that in the Word of God, and I'll believe it. I don't necessarily
understand it, but you show it to me in the Word of God, and
I'll believe it, because that's what faith does. You just never
go wrong believing the Word of God, following the Word of God.
You'll never go wrong following God's Word alone. All right,
last, and I want to avoid this fifth thing so desperately. The
religion of the Pharisees is just lip service to religion.
The religion of Christ is working from a grateful and thankful
heart. Verse six, our Lord answered
and said unto them, well hath Isaiah the prophet prophesied
of you hypocrites. As it's written, this people
honoreth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.
And then our Lord gives us an example in verse 10 of what he's
talking about. For Moses said, honor thy father
and thy mother, and whoso curseth father or mother, let him die
the death. But ye say, if a man shall say to his father or mother,
it is Corbin, that is to say a gift, by whatsoever you might
be profited by me, he shall be free, and you suffer him no more
to do off for his father or his mother. Now, the law of Moses
commands us to honor your father and mother. And I have no doubt
that the Pharisees always, at least publicly, gave lip service
to honoring their parents. I bet you they never one time,
at least publicly, cursed their parents. Bet you they never did.
But the Lord tells us you've done something worse. You've
refused to help your parents who are in need. Now Corbin,
when the Lord used that word Corbin, what that means is it's
money that a person has. Now it's in their possession,
it's in their bank account, it's buried in their backyard, whatever.
But they've dedicated it to the temple. I'm gonna give that to
the temple someday. Now they haven't given it yet. It's still
in their possession, but they've just earmarked it to be put in
offering. So their parents are in need.
They can't buy groceries, they can't buy medicine, they can't
pay the rent, whatever, their parents are in need. And that
Pharisee's son says, well, you know, I got the money, but I
can't give it to you. I've dedicated it to the temple.
I've already dedicated it to the temple. So I can't give it
to you. Sorry about your need. The Lord says that's worse than
cursing your parents. The Pharisees just found an excuse
that they made their tradition to override, to supersede the
Word of God and made themselves more wealthy by it. It is something
nobody ever comes up with a way to supersede the Word of God
to make them poorer or hurt themselves. It's always to hurt somebody
else, isn't it? It's always to enrich themselves. I mean, can
you think of anything more wicked than to cloak your wicked, selfish
desires in the scriptures, in religion? They didn't even wrap
it in religion. It's just their own tradition.
It was a religious tradition. The religion of the Pharisees,
it can only produce hypocrites. They know they're not the law
of God, they know they're not righteous. So the only thing
it can produce is lip service to loving God. It's lip service
to worshiping God. It's lip service to following
God. If you make your own self righteous by what you do, you're
not worshiping God, you're worshiping yourself. You know it, God does
too. It's a lip service. There's nothing coming from the
heart. But salvation is a heartwork. It's a heartwork. And that heartwork
will direct a believer's actions. A heart of faith, now that's
gonna produce good parents. A heart of faith will produce
good children. A heart of faith will produce faithful husbands
and loving wives. Faith in the heart will produce
a dedicated, hardworking employee. It absolutely will. Faith in
the heart will produce a kind and easy to get along with neighbor.
It can't do anything but. Roland Hill made this statement,
kind of famous statement. When a man comes to know the
Lord, even his dog and his cat and his farm animals are better
for it. Faith in the heart produces a person just easier to get along
with, a more conscientious person. But that outward recognition
That's not the goal of the believer. See, that's the difference between
the religion of the Pharisees and the religion of Christ. Outward
recognition is not the goal of the believer. Outward actions
are the result of grace in the heart. Now those are those five
litmus tests. And you're the only one who can
know if what your actions, the reason you do what you do, is
it to be seen of men or is it from a heart of grace? You're
the only one that can know that. I sure pray that you find is
from a heart of grace. All right, hope Lord bless that
to you.