The Root of The Matter

I want to read here from this
19th chapter of Job and let's begin here with the 21st verse
and read through the end of the chapter. Job chapter 19 beginning
with verse 21. Now Job here is answering Bilbao
who has on two occasions He was just in the 18th chapter and
back in the 8th chapter he accused Job of being a hypocrite. He's accused him of being a hypocrite.
We know that Job was a man who was tried of God, greatly tried
by God and his friends. We know that they, from Job's
trials and his afflictions, They made inferences that the reason
was because Job was a hypocrite. This is the reason why God was
dealing with him as he was. Because God would not help a
wicked man. God would not help a hypocrite.
And that the hand of the Lord would never help a hypocrite.
And therefore this is the reason why Job was in the fix he was
in and why he was having all the trouble he was having and
why he couldn't get any deliverance. It's because he was a hypocrite.
Now I want us to read here this text and listen carefully as
we read. Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O ye my friends,
for the hand of the Lord hath touched me. Why do you persecute
me as God and are not satisfied with my flesh? O that my words
were now written, O that they were printed in a book, that
they were graven with an iron pen, and led in the rock forever. For I know that my Redeemer liveth,
and that he shall stand in the latter day upon the earth. And
though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh I
shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall
behold in one another, though my reins be consumed within me. But ye should say, why persecute
we him Seeing the root of the matter is found in me. Be afraid of the sword, for wrath
bringeth the punishments of the sword, that ye may know there
is a judgment." Now I suppose this morning that the text primarily
is the last part of verse 28. I want to talk about the root
of the matter being found in us. The root of the matter being
found in us. Job says, why persecute we him,
you ought to say, seeing the root of the matter is found in
me. I believe that the root of the matter, the real crux of
the matter, the real root of salvation was found in Job. And I really believe that sometimes
this root possibly is concealed and possibly that it's not Noticeable,
a lot of times people become confused that are trying to interpret
our situations as they view the outward. And they wonder about
our experience with God, like Job's three friends wondered
about his experience with God. But we know that Job had the
root to the matter in him. He had the root to the matter
in him. He was truly a child of God.
He truly belonged to God. He truly was not a hypocrite. And so the inference here that
Job's three friends made when they looked upon his losses,
looked upon his crosses, looked upon the difficulties that he
had in his life, the great struggles that he had in his life was that
you're utterly dried up, Job, you're utterly dried up like
a tree that doesn't have any root left. a fence post and put
it in the most fertile ground, and you can even pour water around
it every day if you want to, and that fence post will never
grow. It'll never grow because it's just a piece of wood. It's
a piece of dead wood. And it has no root. And it has
no root. And so that's what they accused
Job. In verse 16 of the 18th chapter, his roots shall be dried
up. That's the roots of the hypocrite. Beneath and above shall his branch
be cut off. So they said, Job, you're utterly
dried up. All of your prosperity is gone,
and therefore our conclusion is, and Bill Dagg the wise, my
conclusion is, having viewed your life, having looked you
over, you are a hypocrite. There is nothing, the root of
the matter is not in you. Well, Job, he sets out to tell
them, verse 21, or he sets out to ask them to have pity upon
him. He said, have pity upon me. Have pity upon me, O you
my friends. Have pity upon me. You judge
me harshly, you judge me here, and your judgment is not a true
judgment. He says, for the hand of God hath touched me. The hand
of God hath put me in this situation. The hand of God hath afflicted
me. God hath tried me. God hath tested me. God hath
caused these things to come. The Lord hath given, and the
Lord hath taken away. As Job said in another place,
blessed be the name of the Lord. The hand of the Lord hath touched
me. Why do you persecute me? as God. Why are you also, why
is your hand against me? Why is your words against me?
And are not satisfied with my flesh. You're not satisfied with
myself being in the condition I'm in, with things having come
to the place they have. You're not satisfied with that,
but you want to add insult to injury. You want to make it worse
than it is. And so then Job comes to utter
this great proclamation. And he says all that my words
were now written, he says all that my words were now written
because they have tremendous, tremendous importance. These
words need to be written. These words need to be preserved.
He says all that they were printed in a book, that these things
were printed in a book because they are of tremendous value
and they will be of value to many, many after me. that they
were printed in a book, meaning that they would have perpetuation, that they would
be before men and women forever, that they were raven with an
iron pen and lead in the rock forever, that there was somebody
that would take a huge slab of marble and that they would carve
out in the marble the letters of these things that I'm saying,
the words that I'm saying, and then pour lead in in the writing
so that it will stay and be preserved and it will be washed out so
that it will be there permanently. He says this. This is what he
wants written in a book. This is what he wants carved
in the rock and lit there forever. He says, For I know that my Redeemer
liveth, and that he shall stand in the latter day upon the earth.
And though after my skin warms destroy this body, yet in life
my flesh shall I see God, whom I shall see for myself, and mine
eyes shall behold and not another, though my reins be consumed within
me." And then he says, seeing that this is my testimony, seeing
that this is what I believe, seeing that this is my whole
life and my whole heart is wrapped up in this matter, seeing that
this is the case, he said, but you should say, why persecute
we him? There's no need to persecute
this man, why should we persecute him? Because the root of the
matter, Job says, is found in me. The root of the matter is
found in me, therefore why do you persecute me? Now I'm convinced,
after reading the testimony here, of course I was convinced of
it before, when I read the first chapter of the book of Job, that
Job was the child of God. that he truly was a child of
God. I didn't have to go very far in the book of Job to realize
that he was indeed a God-fearing man, a man that hated evil, a
man whose heart truly had been touched and affected by God's
grace, God's amazing grace. And I didn't have to wait until
I got to this chapter, but after reading the testimony of Job
here, in verse 25 and 26, after reading this testimony and 27,
I'm convinced here that the root of the matter is certainly found
in Job. that certainly Job had in him
eternal life. Certainly he was a child of God.
Certainly he was not just a Christian outwardly. He was certainly not
one who outwardly professed and showed something outwardly that
it was not inward. Job had a real indoor experience. He was truly a born-again child
of God. He knew the Lord. Now this morning,
I want to talk a little bit about this root of the matter being
in us. You know, we hear so much in our day and time and see so
much, and we are confronted with a great deal of hypocrites. And
we are confronted with a lot of people that are interested
only in the outward show and they only want to impress somebody
outwardly that they are something in the realm of the spiritual.
They want to impress somebody that they have something that
maybe that other people don't have. But beloved, the thing
that I'm concerned about is do we have the root of the matter
in us? That's the thing I'm concerned about. And in my preaching to
you, I want to be honest with you. And I want this morning,
if I can, to arouse your attention to this. I want you to, this
morning, if you can, to stir up your own heart this morning
and ask yourself the question, is the root of the matter found
in me? I mean, is it really in me, and
do I really know the Lord? Is my soul really a soul that
is knit to God in Christ? Do I really, am I really saved? Do I really know the Lord? Is
the root of the matter in me, or is there just leaves? And
is there just, well, is there just some outward, possibly some
outward evidences maybe that I've been leaning on and trusting
in and that I've been looking to that convinces me that I am
something which possibly the Lord will someday or other commend
and that he will receive me on the basis of what I appear to
be outwardly. Well, what you appear to be outwardly
I suppose is important. I suppose it is. But what you
are inwardly is a great deal more important. I recognize that
what a man is inwardly is what's going to determine whether or
not he goes to heaven or whether he goes to hell. What a man is
inwardly. Whether or not the root of the
matter is in him or not. Now what is the root of the matter?
Well I believe that there are certainly, the Bible doesn't
leave us to wonder about what the root of the matter is. What
the root of the matter is. Do we really know the Lord? Are
we in Christ or are we not? Well, what is the root of the
matter? Well, I believe there is some essential doctrine and
there certainly is some essential experience that we have to have
if the root of the matter is in us. I understand that no man
when he's converted, at least I don't know of anybody that
was, no man is a theologian when he's converted. And there's not
very many theologians even that I know of among the Lord's people,
there's a few. But I want you to understand
this, that I'm not talking here, that a man's not saying that
a man's got to know everything the Bible teaches to have the
root of the matter in him, but there are some essential Doctrines
of the Word of God that are very important to the understanding
of what the true root of the matter is. And unless we understand
these doctrines as a church and as a people, we certainly are
never going to understand what we're talking about when we're
talking about having the root of the matter in us. But I want
to say emphatically this morning that Jesus Christ is the root
of the matter. Now when Job here is talking
here in these verses where he said, for I know that my Redeemer
liveth, he certainly here appoints us with the fact that Christ
emphatically is the root of the matter. Now I believe that the
doctrine of the Trinity, it's not necessary that a man believe
in the doctrine of election to be saved. It's not necessary
for a man to believe in the doctrine of election to be saved. Let
me be understood on that. I know that there are many people
who I believe are saved people who do not yet, who have not
been able to come to a clear mind and come to a clear understanding
of the doctrine of God's elective grace. They do not understand
that, and certainly this is an important doctrine. Calvinistic
view of God's elective grace is very important and I certainly
would fight a man over it because I believe it wholeheartedly.
I believe that every child of God ought to believe that because
the Bible teaches it so clearly. And then there's the other doctrine
of the perseverance of the saints. That there are many people I
think that have had trouble through the years coming to a clear mind
about God preserving His people. But I do think that there are
some people that are saved that don't understand that salvation
is an eternal work. It's an everlasting work. And
that God has done this work. And that He said, I give unto
them eternal life, they shall never perish. They're not able
to enter into the assurance of that. They're not able to receive
it. Their heart is not able somehow or other to cast off their fears
and to grasp firmly to the work of salvation being all of grace
and all of God and that it is an eternal work. And so I say
that these things are not essential to being converted, to being
saved. A man don't have to believe all those things because he's
not able to believe many of those things until after God has taught
him and led him step by step through the scriptures and taught
his heart. But brethren, there are some things that we must
believe in order to be saved. And one is that we've got to
believe in the triune God. We've got to believe in the Trinity. We've got to believe in God the
Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. We believe that
God the Father, beloved, is that master planner who mapped out
and planned the work of salvation. All of the love that drew Salvation's
plan, that love was in God the Father. It was in God the Father.
And we know that God the Son, God the Son is the Savior of
sinners. We believe that Jesus Christ
is God. Let me put that out here clearly
to you. that we believe that God's Son,
the Lord Jesus Christ, that He's the only begotten of the Father,
that He is God's true Son, that He was as much God as He was
man, much man as He was God, but that if He was not God, He
could not be our Savior, He couldn't save me, He couldn't save you.
Jesus Christ was God. And this is the root of the matter.
You must believe in the Triune God. You must believe in the
Father, the Son, And then the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit
is the author of the word of God. The Holy Spirit is that
one who comes and does the converting work, the regenerating work in
the heart. And so these, this is essential. But Christ emphatically, I want
to just focus your attention on him. Because the Father has,
and the Holy Ghost has. The Father has honored the Son.
The Father has honored the Son. He sent him into this world to
be the Savior of his people. He covenanted. He made a covenant
with Christ. He made Him to be the covenant
of His people. Jesus Christ is the elect of
God the Father, the chosen. He's the Father's servant. And
the Holy Spirit said that He will take the things of Christ
and show them unto us. The Holy Spirit said that He
would glorify Christ by exalting Christ, honoring Christ, holding
up Christ, lifting Him up. And so I before you this morning
would do the same. The Father would have me to do
so. The Father would have me to exalt His Son. And He would
have you to honor Christ even as He has honored Christ. And
in order that you might do that, then we must this morning lift
Him up before you and we must exalt Him before you as being
the root of this matter of salvation. I like what John Newton had to
say about this. He said, what think ye of Christ?
This is the test. to try both your state and your
scheme. You cannot be right in the rest
unless you think rightly of him. John Newton, you remember, wrote
Amazing Grace. John Newton was a great sinner
before God saved him, and he was amazingly and marvelously
saved by the grace of God, and so he knew that a man must think
right of him Or he can never be right about the rest. You've
got to think right about the Lord Jesus. What make you the
Lord Jesus Christ? Well, Christ is emphatically
the root of the matter. The vicarious sacrifice of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Do we believe in the doctrine
of substitution? Do we believe in it? I believe
that a sinner, in order to know in his heart that he has the
root of the matter in him, That he must believe in the vicarious
sufferings of Christ. That means that the Lord Jesus
Christ suffered for him. He suffered for me, the sinner. He didn't suffer to save himself. He suffered for the sinner. Now substitution means that God
Almighty has laid upon Jesus Christ all that I was as a sinner. And that Christ took upon himself
my guilt and my sin. That he owned my obligation just
like a man who would marry a woman and the woman is in debt. The
man marries the woman and automatically her debts become his debts. And
he's obligated to pay those debts. And so when the Lord Jesus Christ
became, when his bride was given to him by the Father, and the
Lord Jesus Christ entered into covenant to save that bride,
he obligated himself for all of her obligations. All of her
obligations. And so every sin that I had,
the Lord Jesus Christ took upon himself. Now that means that
Christ became my substitute. He stood in my place. He poured
my sin in his own body on the tree. And then substitution further
means that not only did the Lord Jesus Christ obligate himself
and took upon himself my sin, but also that he took his righteousness
He took His righteousness and He gave it to me. That God gave
it to me. Now that's substitution. The
Father demanded that I be righteous or He would not have anything
to do with me. He demanded that I be perfect or He would have
nothing to do with me. He demanded that before I could
be saved and enter into heaven, I must have a perfect slate,
perfect righteousness. And so substitution, the vicarious
sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ gives me this righteousness,
it gives me this merit before God. And so in order that I know
what this root of the matter is, beloved, it's necessary that
I understand the vicarious sufferings of the Lord Jesus, that he died
in my room instead and in my place. Now, then further, I also
believe that the doctrine of justification by faith is most
necessarily, most necessarily to be understood in the heart. Now if a man, or as one old writer
said, if any bell doesn't ring sound on this, then it ought
to be melted down. And certainly it ought to be.
And if you this morning, in your heart, if you don't understand
that this great transaction that takes place when God saves a
man, when God saves a sinner, that it doesn't take place on
the basis of faith, then certainly this morning your bell doesn't
ring sound on this truth. How does a man become just before
God? How does a man, how does he become
clean? And how does he become just as
if he never sinned before God? Well the Bible is clear on it,
beloved. The Bible teaches us that is by faith. We know that
God doesn't justify freely on the basis of faith. We know that
according to what the scripture teaches, and if you can read
Romans 3 and Romans 4, And you see that, well let's turn there,
let me just read a couple of scriptures there in Romans 3
and in Romans 4. Let's look at it here. Scripture
can put it so much clearer than we can. Listen to verse 24 of
the third chapter. Being justified freely by his
grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom
God has set forth to be a satisfaction through faith in his blood, to
declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are
passed through the forbearance of God. To declare, I say at
this time, his righteousness that he might be just and the
justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. God is the, he remains
just, he saves on a basis whereby his holy law is honored, magnified,
and at the same time the sinner has his sins all forgiven. Now
God does not cease to be God, the holy God that is, when he
justifies the sinner. Because the scripture says that
he might be just, and the justifier, him which believeth in Jesus.
Where is boasting that it is excluded? By what law? Of works?
No, but by the law of faith. Therefore we conclude that a
man is justified. for righteousness. You want to
be righteous before God? Do you want to be righteous before
God? If you do, then you must believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. Now turn in your Bible to John
chapter 1, the gospel of John chapter 1, and listen as I read
this scripture. I'm saying to you that the doctrine
of justification by faith is essential to the understanding
of the root of the matter. That a man cannot have the root
of the matter in him, unless he believes in the vicarious
sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ, and that this transaction
that took place on Calvary, where our sins were laid on Christ,
and that Christ became all that the Father demanded we be, and
that was given to us, that this takes place on the basis of faith.
In John 1, I read beginning with verse But as many as received
Him, to them gave He the power of the authority to become the
sons of God, even to them that believe on His name. Even to
them that believe on His name. Do you want to be saved? Do you
want to be a child of God? Do you want your sins forgiven?
Do you want to be righteous before God? Beloved, listen, I do not
believe that there is such a thing as a man, a woman, boy or girl
who wants to be saved. and he wants to be righteous,
that wants to have the sins forgiven, who wants to come clean before
God, that God will not save. I promise you this morning that
if you want forgiveness, if you want salvation, if you want not
to die and perish and go to hell, that I'm saying to you this morning
that this is the work of God in your soul, This is the work
of God in you. This is not something that I've
done or something somebody else has done. This is the hand of
God in your heart. Do you want to miss hell? Do
you want to go to heaven? Do you want to glorify God by
believing upon his own son? And if you do, the scripture
says, Yet to those people that receive him, those people have
a heart that God has opened, like Lydia's heart in the book
of Acts. God opened her heart that she
attended to the things that Paul spoke unto her. And but as many
as received him, him, Christ, then to them he gave authority
to go out and publish abroad, we are sons of God. We are sons
of God. We are saved. The root of the
matter is in us. Why? Because Christ emphatically
is the root of the matter. And if you know Christ, and if
He's in you, I know, Job said, that my Redeemer liveth. I know
my Redeemer. Now he said, I know this. This
is not something that I presume, something that I think is so,
based upon what I heard one time or the other, but I know that
my Redeemer liveth. Now, he said that regardless
of what happens, I know that in my flesh I'm going to see
God. He said, I know this. I know it. Now listen, beloved,
you can be positive that you're a son of God, you're a child
of God, the root of the fattest in you, if you have received
the Lord Jesus Christ. Yea, if you believe on his name.
And to believe on his name means to believe on his person. to
believe on his person, to believe on him whom God said that he
was. This is eternal life that you
might believe on Jesus Christ. And then it says these were born,
not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will
of man, but of God, but of God. And you know, in talking about
this, I would like this morning if I could to just more or less
give you the scriptural view of a hypocrite. and try to show
you the difference between somebody who has the root of the matter,
somebody who believes and has received the Lord Jesus Christ
into their heart, somebody who has been born not of blood nor
of the will of the flesh, But somebody who's been born of God.
Not of the will of man, but of God. Somebody who's truly a child
of God and has the root of the matter in them. Turn in your
Bibles, if you will, to the 8th chapter of the book of Acts. Turn to Acts chapter 8. And listen,
if you will, carefully as I look at this. I believe there is an
essential doctrine, we've tried to set that forth, the doctrine
of the Trinity, the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, Christ emphatically
the root of this matter, and the doctrine of the vicarious
sufferings of the Lord Jesus, and the doctrine of justification
by faith. Now, there's also some essential
essential experience that I believe that a child of God has and somebody
who has this root of the matter. They're born of God. They're
born of God and they receive Christ in their heart and that
of course I believe is the first act of one who is born of God.
They have an open heart to Christ and a receptive heart toward
the Lord Jesus. But now here in Acts chapter
8 We read about a man who I believe was a hypocrite. I'm convinced
he was a hypocrite because he had not the work of God in him. And I want to show you this because,
like I said, I believe that we have a lot of people in our day
and time that are self-righteous people and they assume that they
have the root of the matters in them, but it's not in them.
All there is is some outward things going on. I know that
there are some people that have substituted some things outwardly
for the root of the matter. I know there are some people
that believe that if they observe the Sabbath, that that is a great
evidence and ought to be to everybody that they are children of God.
They're children of God. And then there are others who
say, well, you know, if I do outwardly what I ought to do
toward my neighbor, then I'll believe. And if I don't do certain
things, in other words, if I love my neighbors myself, and how
many times have I heard that? And every time I hear somebody
say that, I know that they're ignorant of what that means.
They do not know what it means. If a man's going to love his
neighbors himself, every time he buys himself a new automobile,
he'll have to buy his neighbors one. Every time he'd give his
wife some gift, he'd have to give his neighbor's wife a gift.
If a man's gonna love his neighbors himself, then he's gonna have
to treat his neighbors just like he treats himself and like he treats his
own family. Nobody knows what that means,
but Christ alone knows what that means. Now listen to me. There
are also other people that have the idea that there are certain
things that if they do not do as far as certain clothes that
you don't wear. And for example, there's a group of people out
where my son lives that they all dress, the men and I, they
all dress pretty much the same. They all wear the same kind of
little hat and all this and that. And the clothes, everybody's
got to wear the same kind of clothes. And they got to do this
the same, that the same, and just, you know, more or less
copy each other. And they believe that that possibly
is an evidence of salvation. Now these people, and you hear
me and you hear me well, these people that are outwardly, now
the Bible calls these people hypocrites. And I'll show you
out of Matthew 23 in just a moment. The Bible calls them hypocrites.
Now these people get up every morning and spit on the grace
of God before breakfast. They do. They do. Because what
they are outwardly is it. That's it. That's all that's
important to them. But the root of the matter is
not in them. It's not in them. And the thing I'm talking to
you about this morning is I want you to get mildly concerned about
whether the root of the matter is in you or whether or not you
just started observing this and stopped doing that and started
doing something else and you won't do this and you won't do
that and you think that's it. But that's not it. That's not
it. The root of the matter has got
to be in a man. Now listen to this. Here's this
man here, Simon was his name in verse 13. Philip had been
preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God and the name
of Jesus Christ, the person and character of Christ. And there
were many that were baptized, believed and were baptized in
verse 12. But then in verse 13, then Simon himself believed also.
And when he was baptized, he continued with Philip and he
wondered, beholding the miracles and the signs which were done.
And we find here that this Simon Now in a little while he was
so ignorant and he didn't have a heart work done in him, he
didn't have any indoor work done, I mean everything, he just went
through some motions, but he was truly not a child of God.
And so he offered the brethren money that they would give him
the ability to lay hands on men that they would receive the Holy
Ghost. Verse 18 and when Simon saw that through laying all of
the apostles hands the Holy Ghost was given he offered them money
saying give me also this power that on Whomsoever I lay hands
he may receive the Holy Ghost that Peter said unto him thy
money perish with thee Because thou hast thought that the gift
of God may be purchased with money Thou hast neither part
nor lot in this matter for thy heart is not right in the sight
of God thy heart is is not right in the sight of God. And I say
to you this morning that the thing we got to be concerned
about is the heart. Because in Jeremiah 17, 9 it says that the
heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.
Who can know it? The heart of man, that's where
man is in trouble, is in his heart. Now listen. Salvation
is a heart work. It is indeed a heart work. True
conviction is a heart work. It's a heart work. This business
of having the root of the matter in us means for us to have a
heart that is right with God. It means for Christ to be living
and dwelling in our hearts by faith. It means that our heart
has been changed. Well, the Lord has taken away
the stony heart and given us a heart of flesh. It means that
we have an ear to hear the word of God. It means that we have
a desire to love God and love his people. It means that we
have in us this principle. We've been made partakers of
the divine nature of God. Somebody says I'm godly. How
do you know you are? How do you know you are? Well,
I'm godly because I don't wear short sleeves shirts. I'm godly
because I do not listen to a television. I'm godly because my children,
and I was raised that way, don't you see? I was raised to believe
that if you didn't read the funny paper on Sunday, then you're
just religious and you're godly. My friend, let me tell you something
and settle it forever in your mind. Godliness has absolutely
nothing to do with what you do. It has nothing to do with what
you do. I want you to know this, because if you get the idea that
you can be godly, but what you do, then you're probably going
to end up in the lake of fire, burning with all the other hypocrites
that ever breathed the breath of life in this life. You're
going to end up there. Let me tell you something. Godliness
is to be made a partaker of the divine nature of God Almighty
in the soul. That's what godliness is. True
godliness is for God to come in you and to live in you. Now
it may, it will affect the way you live outwardly. But let me
tell you, the root of the matter's got to be in here. It's got to
be found in you, the root of the matter. And what comes outwardly,
listen, that's just, that's the effects of the root of the matter
being in you. But this business is starting
and I know so many people do that. They start on their children
when they're little and try to make them godly by the way they
keep them from this, keep them from that. Now I'm not criticizing
that. I'm just simply saying you better
be careful and make sure that your children understand that
the root of the matter's gotta be in here. It's gotta be found
in me. In me! Not outwardly, you know. Paul said we work out our salvation. But you can't work out a salvation
that's not in here. If the root of the battle is
not in here, you can't work it out. You're going to be a hypocrite.
That's what you're going to be. And this man was a hypocrite
because his heart was not right in the sight of God. Turn back
to Matthew chapter 23 and look at this. Look at it here, this
is so clear here in this chapter. I begin with verse 25 here, where
the Lord Jesus said this, Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites, for you may clean the outside of the coven of the
platter, but within there are full of extortion and excess.
And so here the Lord Jesus here is dealing with these Pharisees,
the scribes and the Pharisees. Now these people were notorious
religious people. They tied the scriptures on them
and they read the scriptures and they prayed publicly and
they did everything outwardly to impressing people and they
were more religious than anybody you know. They were more religious. They observed the Sabbath. They
kept the Sabbath better than anybody I know. They were very
outward religious people. But the Lord Jesus, how could
he know these things? Well, he knew their hearts. Jesus
said, I need not that any man should testify of man, because
I know man. I know what's in him. I know
what is in man. I don't need somebody to come
tell me about the Pharisees and the scribes and these hypocrites,
because I know them. I know. And just like He knows
you. There's not anybody in this room
this morning that doesn't know your heart. He knows your heart. He knows your heart. Thou, God,
seest me. You know my heart. You know everything
about me. You know what's going on in here.
You know what this is all about, Lord. You know my heart. Well,
the Lord Jesus said, He said, Woe unto you. And He meant to
say there, Woe unto you because you're going to hell. Because
you don't have the matter. He said you make the clean the
outside of the cup. He wants the outside. I mean,
you make sure that nobody gets the wrong impression about you,
bud. You make sure that everybody thinks you're religious. You
make sure that everybody thinks you're okay. You make clean the
outside of the cup. And I want to emphasize the outside,
because that's what these religious folks are working on all the
time, the outside. They're interested in that. Now
then, he says, but inwardly, but within, that is where the
root of the matter ought to be. Within, you're full of extortion
and excess. Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse
first that which is within the cup and the platter. Now what
does he mean by that? He says that what you've got
to have is an indoor work. What you've got to become concerned
about is whether the root of the matter is within you or not.
You've got to become concerned about whether or not you've been
converted, whether you've been regenerated by God's Spirit, whether Christ
dwells in your heart of faith, whether Christ in you is your
hope of glory. I want to tell you what, I'll
become a great deal more at ease when I begin to see some of these
outwardly religious people stop spending so much time and become
so concerned about their outward appearance and what they're doing
outwardly that they stake so much hope upon and begin to make
more of Christ, more of Christ, less of what they are, less of
their religion and more of Christ. I'll become a little more hopeful
and I'll be a little bit more at ease. I want to tell you something. The root of the matter has got
to be inside. That's where it's got to be. And listen to what
Jesus says. Our blind Pharisee cleansed first that which is
within the cup and the platter that the outside of them may
be clean also. I do indeed believe that an end
would work. It gets an outward cleansing.
I believe that the effects of regeneration means that all things
passed away and all things do become new in the life. I do
believe and I've been preaching about it. I preach the sermon
on the jealousy of God. I preach the sermon about worldliness. I preach these things. I believe
that, beloved, the root of the matter is what I'm talking about
this morning. Our Lord Jesus said, but first, first, first,
first, cleanse the inside and that the outside of them may
be clean also. Listen further to what the Lord
Jesus said. Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for
you are like unto whited sepulchres, which in heat appear beautiful
outward, but are within full of dead men's bones and of all
uncleanness. Outwardly, if you appear beautiful,
this white is sepulchre." You know, the Lord Jesus made this
statement that I read over in the book of Acts here in chapter
23. And this really came home to me the other day. And I want
you to hear what Paul said. He was on trial here before the
council. And in the second verse, the
high priest Ananias commanded them that stood by him to smite
him on the mouth because of what Paul had said in verse 1. He
told him to smite him on the mouth. Then said Paul in verse
3 unto him, God shall smite thee, thou whited wall. God shall smite
thee, thou whitest wall. Now why did Paul say that? Why
did he say that? He said that because he knew
this man was a hypocrite. He knew that he just had a, that
he always was whitewashing the outside, but he knew that inwardly
he didn't love God. If he loved God, he'd be standing
where Paul was standing, wouldn't he? He'd be standing right there
with Paul, suffering abuse. For the sake of Christ and for
the gospel sake I mean if he was if he was a true Christian
And I'll tell you what you can you can see the true colors of
men when a man will not stand With somebody who stands for
the true gospel of Jesus Christ and preaches that gospel But
will stand off in his little religious nook and he'll stand
there, and he and he'll just keep right on you know professing
he's this and professing he's that but he'll not come near
somebody who has a spouse, Jesus Christ, who gives his all and
all to Christ, a man who wants to preach nothing but Jesus Christ.
We don't want nothing to do with that guy. We don't want nothing
to do with him. Stay off, stay off, stay off, and stay away
from that fella. He makes too much of Jesus. How
can you do that? How can you do that? I want to
tell you what, I'd like to see somebody make too much of Jesus
Christ. Somebody accused Henry Mahan
of making an idol out of Jesus Christ. And he said, I thank
God for that. And somebody's accused me of
that. He said, I've been trying to do that ever since I've been
in the ministry. And I'll tell you what, that's exactly what
it's about. We'd like to make an idol out of Jesus Christ because
he's God. He's God. Well, I'd like to get
everybody worshiping him, wouldn't you? I'd like to get everybody
just acknowledging him. I'd like to get people just bowing
before him. and observing his truth and wanting
his person to be in them, living in them. But now Paul said that,
you whited wall, you whited wall, because he knew they were hypocrites.
And so the Lord Jesus says here in verse 27, for you are likened
to whitish sepulchers, which indeed appear beautiful outward,
but are within full of dead men's bones and of all uncleanness.
You can imagine what there is in a grave You come and the grass
has come up and it's green, the headstone's there and everything's
pretty all around, but you can imagine what's inside of that
tomb. Within, within, full of dead
men's bones and of all uncleanness. Even so, ye also outwardly appear
righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and
iniquity. Now the Lord here, verse 28,
just sums it all up. He tells them what he's been
talking about. He says, outwardly you appear righteous unto men,
but within you're full of hypocrisy and iniquity. Now brethren, beware. Beware if everybody thinks you're
religious. Beware. Beware if your brand
of religion is something that everybody says is a good thing. Beware. The religion of Jesus
Christ You must remember this, beloved, nobody cared for it. Nobody saw any beauty in Christ. But the Lord Jesus said about
these hypocrites, you indeed appear beautiful outward. But
there was no beauty in him that we should desire him. There was
nothing about Christ or his religion that anybody wanted anything
to do with but the elect, those to whom the arm of the Lord was
revealed. They loved Christ, embraced him, but nobody else
would. Nobody else would. But these
religious people appear beautiful outward. But within. Within. Well, I think you're getting
the point. That these people outwardly appeared righteous
unto men, but within they were full of hypocrisy and iniquity. Inside. Inside. And so the point
I'm making is this. Is that a man's got to be affected
and touched inside. He's got to have the root of
the matter in here. Got to have it in here. I want to, if I can,
make you all preachers of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I want
to make you preachers of the gospel. I believe then there's
some experiences that we've got to have. Let's turn back here
and think a little bit about this. I'm going to turn back
here to the book of Job, and I want us to think a little bit
about the experiences that we've got to have, because I believe
this is important. We've had the essential doctrine,
and I've described to you a hypocrite. I told you that there's somebody
that had something outwardly but they didn't have anything
inwardly. Now brethren, in an essential experience, I believe
this, I believe with all my heart, that an individual has got to
have true Holy Spirit conviction in his heart in order to understand
his depravity. He's got to have true Holy Spirit
conviction in his heart. And I believe this is where one
of the problems are, that people don't know how bad they are.
They do not know how bad they are. And I face this and I believe
that it's the truth. I'm telling you the truth. People
do not know how bad they are. It's one thing to know that vinegar
is sour. It's another thing to taste it.
It's one thing to know the truth of sin in your heart and it's
another thing to feel the bitterness of it in the heart. Here's an
individual, he says, well, I think I know what the preacher's talking
about. Brethren, you know, it's not so much what you think. Friend,
it's not so much what you think. Whether you know what I'm talking
about or not, I'm really interested in this, is whether or not God
Almighty gives you a true New Testament experience, and whether
you feel in your heart the bitterness of your sin, whether you feel
a conviction in your heart, that I'm a sinner against the Holy
God. We live in a day and time when
very few people think much about sin. There's so much of it. And
we've become so used to living around it and becoming involved
with it so much. And therefore, sin don't seem
to, you know, don't really shock us anymore. Nothing shocks anybody
anymore. But I want you to know this.
that sin is a damning thing. I want you to know that the only
way to know really what sin is, is to understand it from God's
viewpoint. To understand it from God's viewpoint.
If you're ever going to know what sin is, you're going to
have to take what God says about it to be true. What God says
about it to be true. And I do not believe that there's
many in our day and time that's had a true Holy Spirit work of
conviction in their hearts. I remember there in the book
of Acts when Peter preached on the day of Pentecost in chapter
2, in the book of Acts here, I remember what the brethren
said, or the folks said when they listened to him preach in
verse 37 of Acts 2. Now when they heard this, they
were pricked in their heart and said unto Peter and to the rest
of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do? What shall
we do? And I would like for those that
know what sin is this morning, in their hearts to cry out, men
and brethren, what shall we do? What shall we do? What am I going
to do? I've broken God's holy law. I'm a sinner against what
God, His own character. I've come short of His glory. I'm a sinner. I've stood in God's
face. I live in his world. I drink
his water and wear his clothes and eat his food. And I've lived
in his world and I would kill God if I could because my nature
is an enmity against God. I want to be God myself. I never
wanted anybody to tell me what to do. I want to be God myself. That's the awfulest thing that
I know this morning that I can tell you about in regards to
your sin. Your sin is this. You want to
be God. You don't want God to be God. You want to be God. And that
comes out in all of our lives at different times. But a lost
man says, I want to be God. The essence of sin is going into
the God business. That's what it is. That's the
essence of sin. A man says I want to be God and therefore I'll
kill God if I can get to it. I can't get to him to poison
his food. I can't get to him to put a butcher knife in his
back. But I would if I could because I don't want anybody
being God but me. I want to be God. Now you say
well preachy it's not that way with me. It is that way with
you, friend. You just don't understand it.
You just do not understand it. You're not wise enough and you
don't have enough light in your soul to understand what that
rebellion and that enmity that's in you by nature, what it really
means. You don't really understand it.
But whenever you begin to understand that what you want is for God
to die and to leave you alone and you want to live as you please
and live in sin and go your own way as long as you live, when
you begin to understand that, you're going to begin to understand
what sin is. Sin wants God to take a vacation and be gone as
long as I live. And them to be gone on the day
of judgment. And so I can just pass right
on through and so that everything will wind up rosy for me. I don't
want God interfering with my case. And that's exactly what
sin is. That's what it is. That's getting
down to the root of the matter. That's getting right down to
the root of the matter. And a man must understand his depravity.
This is the essential experience. If the root of the matter is
ever going to be in you, Christ ever going to be living in you,
you've got to understand your depravity and you've got to come
under a Holy Spirit conviction of your sin. You've got to know
what you are. What you are and what God says
you are. Or you're dead in sin. The Bible teaches that your very
nature is enmity against God. It's enmity against God. And
in order for you to be saved, there must be a heart work in
you. Like old Jeremiah Burr said,
there's got to be indoor work. An indoor work. You just remember
that. It's kind of like an old colored
fellow said to old Ralph Barton one time. He said, I've been
telling, he was in a college town down south someplace. He
was riding in an elevator and this old colored man was operating
the elevator. And he said to the old brother
Barton, he said, are you a preacher? He said, yes I am. Well he said,
I want to ask you a question. He said the question I want to
ask you is this, he said I've been hearing, he said these college
students talk around here and he said I've been to tell them,
I've been to tell them that if a man's saved he got something,
something's happened in here, something's happened in here.
Old Barnard said that's right, that's right, something's got
to happen in here and that's exactly what's A hard work done. It's an indoor work. An indoor
work. These people were preaching in
their heart. I read to you about it a while
ago. They were convicted in their heart. Don't you see? They had
this business of faith work. Faith. It's a hard work too. Philip. There in Acts chapter
8. Look at verse 37 when he was preaching to that unit. And I
want you to look at this. And Philip said, If thou believest
with all thine heart, with all thine heart. Forget about the
outward appearance. You say, preacher, I mean, I've
tried to put on a good, I've tried to make everything look
good. Well, forget about it. Forget about it. Listen, Philip
said, if thou believest with all thine heart. Thou believest
with all thine heart. Then, in the 16th chapter of
Acts, you recall we're the Philippian jailers. We don't use these verses
much. I guess maybe we lead them to
the R meanings, don't we? And here, this Philippian jailer,
Paul and Silas, you remember, had been singing praises to God
at midnight. There was a great earthquake,
and the keeper of the prison rushed in, and he said, Sirs,
verse 30, what must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. now shall be saved in thy house.
I want to show you that that definitely is a heart work. Turn to Romans chapter 10 and
let's look here. This definitely is a heart work. I want you to see it. I want
you to have the root of the matter in you. I want you to have the
root of the matter in you. God knows I'm not concerned about
anything else. The root of the matter. That's
what I want. If you get the root of the matter in you, I'm not
concerned about you. It's like a fellow said, love Jesus Christ
and live as you would. Live as you please. Love Christ
and live as you please. He's right. There ain't no man
that lives right except the man that loves Jesus Christ. You
start on the other end trying to get people to live right so
you can get them back down here finally somewhere between here
and the grave and try to get them saved. But no, no, no, no.
You got to start down there. And when they get right with
Christ and they love Christ and they believe in the Root of the
Matters in them, this ain't going to work out. Sooner or later
they'll make a few mistakes. God knows we all have. I don't
know anybody that hadn't, do you? Made a few mistakes. Made a few blunders. Paul made
a few of them, didn't he? How about old David, did he make
any blunders? Yes sir, he made a few of them. He's a man after
God. What about Abraham, did he ever make any blunders? How
about Noah, did he make any blunders? But he's a man who had the faith
of God in his heart. I tell you what, you just read
the word of God, but listen here in Romans 10, I'm talking about
faith being a hard work. That thou shalt confess in verse
9, with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart. That God hath raised him from
the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth
unto righteousness. How's a man gonna ever get righteous?
By with his heart believin' that God will give him the righteousness
of his own son. By believin' with his heart that
God will do that. The wages of sin is death. But the gift of
God is eternal life through Jesus Christ. The gift of God. For
with my heart man believeth unto righteousness." Now listen to
me, I want to ask you this question. And the thing we're all mildly
concerned about is being as righteous as God demands that we are, isn't
it? That's what I'm concerned about. Don't make any difference
to me whether religious people think I'm righteous enough or
not. I'm not really concerned about that. I couldn't care less
whether people think I'm as good as they want me to be or not.
I'm concerned about this. being as righteous as God wants
me to be. Let the Mennonites and anybody
else, any other iths that there is around spit on the grace of
God all they want to and say that the important thing is that
I wear the right clothes and I don't watch this and watch
that or read this or read something else. I say point on it all. I say the important thing is
this, that you believe in your heart unto righteousness. Because
you can't get righteous any other way. God won't accept righteousness
of your own doing. Paul said, O that I might be
found in him, not having a righteousness of my own which is after the
law. That righteousness which is of
the faith of Jesus Christ. That righteousness that a man
gets through believing on God's Son. Paul said, that's the way
I want to be found. That's the way I want to be found.
Well, I want to tell you what. When the last breath goes out
of this body, and you folks are trucking me down the road to
the cemetery, or out the road here to the cemetery, wherever
it is, there's one thing I want to be found in not having a righteousness
of my own, but having that righteousness which is by the faith of Jesus
Christ. That's what I want. That's all
I'm interested in. Well, Paul said, if you want
that, he said, with the heart man believeth unto righteousness,
and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. With
his mouth, he testifies, I have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ,
and I have believed unto righteousness, and I am righteous in the Lord
Jesus. With his holy garments on, sparkless
garments on, I'm as holy as the Holy One. I'm clean in Christ. I'm washed in his blood. I am
righteous because God's give me the righteousness of Christ,
and I'm as righteous as God is. As I stand here before you this
morning, and that's not blasphemy. That's not blasphemy. And I won't
tell you what, you'll never go to heaven until you're as righteous
as God is. Quit your little business you
got going on the side trying to keep the Sabbath, trying to
do this, trying to do something else. You don't have the root
of the matter in you. That's the problem. The root of the
matter. The root of the matter is Christ. Emphatically the root
of the matter is Christ. There is no other way to be righteous
except by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now brethren, sisters
this morning, I've tried to show you that old Job had the root
of the matter in him. Therefore he was greatly comforted.
And I'll just mention that and we'll leave it. He was greatly
comforted. He said, for I know that my Redeemer
liveth. Christ was dead. He was alive
and he was dead. Now he's alive forevermore. He's
seated at the right hand of God. He liveth. My Redeemer lives. I'm not saved by somebody that's
dead. I'm saved by somebody that died. He's alive now. And he's
seated at the right hand of God. He appeared to Paul, Saul of
Tarsus on the road to Damascus. He's alive. He's alive. Stephen looked up. There he was. He was alive. The Lord Jesus
is alive. He was seen of over 500 brethren
at once after he's resurrected from the dead. He's alive. He liveth. Job said, I know that
my Redeemer liveth. I know that he does. And that
he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth. And though
after my skin warms to destroy this body, I don't see any way
of getting away from that. Bound to happen. It's going to
die. Everyone of us is going to die.
But death is not a tragedy for the child of God. You're in Christ. You know Christ. Precious in
the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints. It's not
a tragedy for a child of God to die. It's a decree. It's a decree. God hath decreed. And whatever God hath decreed,
there can't be anything wrong with it. You're living in a body
that the very nature of your flesh is contrary to God. And
you ought to die. Your body ought to be put off.
Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. This corruptible
must put on incorruption. It must. It must. It must. You want to live in that body
you're in for eternity? Would you want to live in it?
My soul. When you get a little older,
you'll be ready to shuck it off. I'm sure by the time you're 70,
3 score and 10, you'll be ready to shuck her off. You'll say,
I've had enough of this. I want an incorruptible body.
This is God's decree. And listen to Job. He said, and
go after my skin worm to destroy this body. Get in my flesh. Shall
I see God? God's going to give me another
body. This corruptible must put on incorruption. And we're going
to have a body like unto the body of the Lord Jesus Christ.
It's going to be an incorruptible body. We're going to put it on.
We're going to put it on. Yet in my flesh shall I see God,
whom I shall see for myself. I'm going to see Christ. Well,
you know, there's a lot of things when we get to heaven we'd like
to see. I'd like to talk to Him. to the old pilgrims of the faith.
I hope to talk with the apostles, visit with them. I hope to see
the wonders of glory, the beauties of glory. I hope to talk with
some of the old apostles of the faith, the apostles, and then
the brethren, I should say the prophets and preachers of the
gospel that's lived out through the ages. I hope to see John
Bunyan and others. Whitfield and now you could just
go on and on couldn't you? You really could. But most of
all the psalm says I want to see Jesus more than anything.
Most of all I want to see him. Why do I want to see Jesus Christ?
Well I want to see Jesus Christ because if it hadn't been for
him I wouldn't get there. How is it with you? You say well
preacher I mean I believe that Christ is important. But you
know it's Christ plus. No it isn't Christ plus anything.
It's Christ alone. Christ alone. We're led to believe
it's Christ plus. But it's not. It's Jesus. A bare Jesus that takes men to
glory. Christ alone. So most of all
I want to see him because without him I wouldn't be there. And
I want to see him because he loved my soul enough to die for
me. He loved me so much that he would
rather die than that I not be in heaven. He would rather die
than I not be there. And if somebody would die so
that I could be there, most of all I'd want to see him, wouldn't
I? Wouldn't I? And that's exactly what he did.
He loved me so much that he'd rather die than I not be with
him throughout eternity. And anybody who wants my fellowship
for all eternity, bless God, while I can't understand it,
I can appreciate it enough to want to see him first of all,
and most of all, want to see him. So Job said, I shall see
for myself. Mine eyes shall behold, and not
another. Mine eyes shall behold. I'll
see him. I'll see him. And so, beloved,
this is a comfort. To have the root of the matter
in you is a comforting thing. It's a comforting thing. Now,
I want you to understand that this is a fixed thing. This is
a fixed thing. These roots, when a man has the
root of the matter in him, this root goes out and it taps in. to God himself, taps into Christ
himself, taps into the Holy Ghost, taps in to the living God, to
the living God. You know the God of the Bible
is, the Bible teaches this and I believe the best definition
of God that was ever given, Charles Hodges said the best definition
of God that was ever penned by man is this, God is spirit. God is spirit. God is eternal. He's infinite. He's unchangeable
in holiness, unchangeable in power, unchangeable in love,
unchangeable in goodness and truth and justice, unchangeable.
And I believe that those that know God They worship Him as
the God He is. And I was thinking about these
verses there in Philippians. I'm going to close here in just
a moment and let you go, but in Philippians 3 it says, Now here is the true circumcision.
Here's the true people of God. Here's people that have the root
of the matter in them. Here's people that's not hypocrites.
Here's people that's just not outwardly, you know, going around
trying to impress somebody, but people that are really got it
inside. Listen to this. We are the circumcision
which worship God in the spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and
have no confidence. in flesh. No confidence. No confidence. In other words,
I don't have any confidence in anything I can do in this body.
I can do a lot of things in this body, but I don't have no confidence
in it. I can attend divine worship,
but I don't have no confidence in that's going to get me to
heaven. Lots of people go to church and go to hell and be
in hell, I mean a second after they're dead they're going to
be in hell and they've been going to church all their lives. People
are baptized, going to hell, sprinkled and everything else.
That's not going to keep them out of hell. But listen to this,
a true child of God, somebody that has the root of the matter
in them is worshiping God in the spirit. They know that God
is spirit. And they worship God in truth,
that spirit. And they rejoice in Christ Jesus
like we have here this morning. And they have no confidence in
the flesh. None. No competence in the flesh. And why do they rejoice in Christ
Jesus? Simply trusting Christ? Why do they do that? Well in
Acts chapter 4 verse 12 we have the answer. Neither is there
salvation in any other. For there is none other name
under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. There's
no salvation in any other. That's why they rejoice in Christ.
Now, brethren, sister, I don't think anybody would find fault
with a man for making much of the Lord Jesus. I say this is
a fixed thing. These roots, they go down to God. They go down
to Christ. They go down to the Holy Spirit.
And they tap right in to Christ. It's a fixed thing. Now, something's
going to change. It ain't never going to change.
Never going to change. Christ is all in all. I want to leave the words of
this hymn. We sang this song this morning. Let me read these words. This
is the first. My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood
and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest
frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. On Christ the solid rock
I stand, all of the ground, all of the ground. Sabbath keeping,
law keeping, all of the ground. The long clothes, the long dresses,
what a man does or don't do, all of the ground is sinking
sand. All of the ground is sinking
sand. Do we have the root of the matter
in us? That's the question. Or do we just outwardly appear
beautiful, while inwardly we're full of iniquity, and all we
cling to is like a grave. Like a grave. How is it? Do we have the root of the matter?
With the heart, man believeth unto righteousness. Well, I want
to tell you this. I have done a lot of considering
A lot of thinking, a lot of meditating. And I believe you that God Almighty
has called me. And I've hesitated along the
line. I've been slow about it in some ways. I think I've preached
the grace of God. I think I've preached the truth.

The Root of The Matter

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The Root of The Matter

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