I've got kind of a scary title
to this message. I've entitled this message, Legalistic
Antinomianism. And we have an example of that
in the passage of scripture before us. Legalistic antinomianism. Now somebody may think, well,
what do those terms mean? Well, legalism is defined as
an excessive adherence to the law. Salvation by law rather than
salvation by grace. No believer is a legalist and
yet his old nature is a legalist. Everybody in here. Antinomianism is anti-law, lawlessness. There is no law. I am free to
sin. Since salvation is by grace,
I am free to sin. Now, seemingly two opposite polarized
views wedded into one person. the legalistic antinomian. What does this monster look like? We don't have to look any further
than the mirror. The man who sees the specks in
his brother's eye, he can spot them out, and he holds him to
a stricter standard than he holds himself to, and yet is blind,
is unaware of the beams in his own eye. That man, that woman,
is a legalistic antinomian. Does that sound like anybody
you know? Can you ever clearly see many
specks in your brother's eye. You're worried about the conduct
of your brother. He's not measuring up. And you're unaware, you're
blind to the beams in your own eye. Now what I thought about
before I get into looking at this passage of scripture, I
couldn't help but think about Romans chapter two, verse one,
where Paul says, therefore, Thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever
thou art, the judgest. For you, the judgest, doest. Present tense, active voice. Not you used to, but whatever
you're judging your brother of, you are presently actively doing
the same thing. Now, somebody says, no, I'm not.
Well, do I believe God's word or you? I believe God's word. This is what we're all guilty
of. Now, the scribes and the Pharisees
embodied this legalistic antinomianism. They made this 90 mile trip from
Jerusalem to confront the Lord, spying him out, trying to find
fault in him. A 90-mile trip, that's a long
trip back then. Now, they were around a lot in
the first of the book of Mark, and they actually confronted
him on six different occasions in the first couple of chapters.
First, they said, you're doing, you're making a claim that only
God can make. You're saying you can forgive sins. You've got way too high an opinion
of yourself. And then, you're the friend of
publicans and sinners. Something's wrong with that picture.
You're friends with publicans and sinners. And then they said,
why don't your disciples fast? John's fast. The Pharisee's fast. Yours don't. There's some kind
of problem in your Self-denial. And then fourthly, they said,
your disciples break the Sabbath. And then they said, you've broken
the Sabbath by healing somebody on the Sabbath, that you've broken
the Sabbath. That's so ridiculous. And then they said, you cast
out demons by the prince of demons. And then they're not mentioned
in the time that elapses between chapters four and six, but now
they're back on the scene. Our old buddies, the Pharisees.
Now, I want you to remember, get this down, the Pharisees
are not those fellas back then. Everybody in this room and everybody
outside of this room, by nature, is a Pharisee. That's the natural
man's religion. It means separated one. Now,
the scribes were the interpreters of the law and the Pharisees
were the enforcers. of the law. So here they come. Verse one, Mark chapter seven,
then came together unto him the Pharisees and certain of the
scribes, which came from Jerusalem. They made this 90 mile trek. Verse two, and when they saw some of his
disciples eat bread with defiled That is to say with unwashing
hands, they found fault. Let's read verses three and four.
Here's Mark's comment on this. For the Pharisees and all the
Jews, except they wash their hands oft, eat not, holding the
tradition of the elders. And 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 or beds. They had all these strict
rules and regulations regarding washing. Now, this was their
tradition. They didn't find this in scripture. Now, there was a law in the Old
Testament with regard to the priest entering into the tabernacle. You remember? First, an animal
had to be slain at the brazen altar. Then they would go before
they could enter into the tabernacle, and they'd have to wash their
hands in the labor of water. Now, what that signifies, many
people say, well, that signifies your personal sanctification.
You know, I think, what do you mean by that? What do you mean
by that? Do you mean your personal sanctification
enables you to enter into the temple? What that washing represents
is the continual need of the cleansing blood of Christ at
all times. The blood of Jesus Christ, God's
Son, cleanseth us from all sin. Don't you need cleanse continually?
Now they had taken this and took it to this level Washing hands. They misapplied it and ran with
it. And here's what they did with
their tradition. They found fault. They were more concerned about
what they considered sin in other people than they were in themselves. So they found fault. You know, this is a dead giveaway
to a legalistic antinomian. I see faults in other people
and somehow I'm easier on myself. That's a legalistic antinomian. And I dare say anybody that's
a believer sees way too much of that in them right now. Holding
others to stringent laws and being very easy on myself. They wanted to find fault. In
this thing of finding fault, if you're around me at all, you
won't have any problem at all finding faults with me. I wish
it wasn't that way, but it is that way. You can find plenty
of faults, and I can find if that's what I'm wanting to do.
I can find plenty of faults with everybody in here. I mean, we're
faulty individuals, aren't we? We're weak, sinful. contradictory
in many ways, inconsistent individuals, beginning here. If you want to
look for faults, you can find them, but that's so contrary
to love, so contrary to grace. I think it's interesting when
people find fault with us, when people judge us, we don't only
judge them in return and see their faults, we're looking for
faults, aren't we? We're looking for reasons to criticize. When
we perceive, we're judged by anybody else. Oh my, we're gonna
come at it. And that's exactly what the Lord
meant when he said, judge not that you be not judged. If you
judge, you're gonna be judged harshly by that person you're
judging. And to find fault with the Lord,
though. They found fault with the Lord.
I mean, it's easy to find fault with me. It's easy to find fault
with any son of Adam. but these men found fault with
the Lord. And here's their accusation,
verse five. Then the Pharisees and scribes asked him, why walk
not thy disciples according to the tradition of the elders,
but eat with unwashing hands? Now, eating with unwashing hands
is a real big issue right now, isn't it? Like I said last week, every
time I stick my hand in a box to get something to eat, every
time. Have you washed your hands? Have
you washed your hands? I'm tired of washing my hands,
aren't you? I mean, I'm rubbing my hands raw, washing my hands.
You know, it's getting annoying. And I just, I guess it's that
important. But their issue with washing
hands didn't have anything to do with hygiene. It had to do
with what they thought external holiness was all about. This
is why they wanted their hands washed. It had something to do
with external holiness. And that's why, look down at
verse 14. And when he called all the people unto him, he said
unto them, hearken unto me, every one of you, and understand, there's
nothing from that a man that entering in can defile him. But
the things which come out of him, those are they that defile
the man. If any man have ears to hear,
let him hear. He's responding. to what these
men said about this tradition they'd come up with, with washing
hands. So he says in verse six, he answered and said unto them, well, hath Isaiah prophesied
of you hypocrites? As it's written, this people
honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. Howbeit 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 the washing of pots and cups and many other such like things. You do. Now, he answers their
objection to himself with the scripture. This is the only way
to answer anything. The Lord teaches you that. He
answered with the scripture. Now, when I think of this objection
they are having to the Lord and just laying aside clear teaching
of scripture in order to hold on to their traditions, were
struck with the contrast between simple and complex in this passage
of scripture. Did you notice how the Lord said,
many such things like do you? They got all kinds of traditions,
all kinds of man-made rules. Look what he says in verse six. Well, hath Isaiah prophesied
of you hypocrites, as it's written, this people honors me with their
lips, but their heart is far. for me. Now, I want to emphasize
where the Lord talks about me. He is salvation. Their heart was far from him. He is all of God's salvation. And I love the simplicity of
this. I just wanna be found in him. I wanna be with him. I wanna be near him. He is salvation. Now that's simple. What's the
scripture say? Christ is what? All. Now that's simple. Christ is all. Now he's only
all to you if you don't have anything else. If you have something
else, he's not all to you. But if he's all you got, if he's
all you plead, if he's the only place you want to be, that means
he's all to you. And he said, these people are
far from me. They got all kinds of complex
rules and regulations. Many such like things do ye,
the Lord said. Don't you love the simplicity
of Christ? You don't have to think of two
different things. The simplicity, the onlyness of Christ. I want to be not far away from
Him. He is salvation. Now, another
thing that we note in this passage of Scripture is contrasting sincerity
and hypocrisy. Look at the way the Lord talks
to these men. Well, hath Isaiah said of you? Hypocrites. Strong language.
Well, hath Isaiah prophesied of you hypocrites? Now, the hypocrite is the Greek
word for actor. That's all a hypocrite is, is
an actor. And what they would do, they
had different faces. Maybe one man would do the whole
act, and they'd have a smiling face to show happiness. They'd
have a frowning face. They'd have an angry face. And
they'd put on these masks to portray the character, and they'd
hide behind the masks. But they were only actors. None of it was real. Hypocrisy is acting. of piety, an act of religiosity. They're what you'd call pretend
sinners. They weren't real sinners. They didn't believe themselves
that way. They were pretend sinners. They'd take the title if it was
necessary. Their faith was an act. They
didn't really look to Christ only as everything in their salvation.
Their repentance was an act. Their mind had never been changed.
Everything was an act. make long their faces. They try
to appear before men to fast, and they make long their faces
so everybody could see. They love to pray publicly, kind
of like somebody praying in a restaurant today, getting down and praying.
Oh, that shows such religious courage. No, it shows hypocrisy.
That's what it is. It's an act. It's trying to present
something to somebody. There's more concern with the
traditions of men than the scriptures. Tradition is man-made rules,
teachings, and rituals. Whatever is not taught in the
Bible is man's tradition. Now let me repeat that. Whatever
is not taught in the Bible is man's tradition. And how much
value does man's tradition have? None. Absolutely positively no
value. Never be moved from the sufficiency
of scripture. What saith the scripture is our
only ground of faith and practice. Amen? We're not interested in
anything else. What saith the scripture? Look what the Lord says they
did in verse 13. You make the word of God of none
effect. through your tradition, which
you delivered and many such like things you do. And then the Lord says, well,
did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites? They honor me with their speech. Look in verse six. Hath Isaiah
prophesied of you hypocrites? As it's written, this people
unearth me with their lips. You know, the words that come
out of their lips are good words, biblical words, scriptural words,
words like grace, blood, faith, repentance, God's law, righteousness,
redemption. All kinds of good scriptural
words that are honoring to the Lord if they're understood. But
here's what these fellows did. They changed the meaning. They
didn't give the scriptural meaning to these words. And thus they
made everything they said nothing more than man's tradition. They gave different definitions. But look what it says. These
people honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. Now, what's your heart? Your heart's what you really
are. You know when you're all by yourself and nobody's looking
at you and you're all alone? That's who you really are. That's
your heart. The heart is the affections. The heart is the will. The heart
is the intellect. But what you are when nobody
can see you, that is what you are. Now, somebody's thinking,
uh-oh. Well, I understand that. Nobody wants to see it in front
of anybody. That's a horrible thing. But if you're a believer,
you also have a heart for the Lord. You worship him. You love
him. You want to honor him. And you're
that way when you're by yourself. Not when other people are watching,
but when you're by yourself. That's who you really are. Now,
these people, he said, their heart is far from me, a far distance
from me. Now, if all you have is an old
heart, and you're not given a new heart, here's God's description
of your heart. Far off. Jeremiah put it this
way. is deceitful above all things,
desperately wicked. Who can know it? You know, people
say, trust your heart. You better not follow your heart. You're in trouble if you do.
The heart is described in Genesis chapter 6, 5, and God saw the
wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination
of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Their heart is far from me. Verse 7, howbeit in vain, to
no purpose do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments
of Men. There's no true worship. Did Cain worship? When he came
into God's presence, bringing the sacrifice that God didn't
command? Was he worshiping God? No, he was showing utter disrespect
for God. He was bringing God down to his
level. There's no worship there. Now,
if I'm holding on to the doctrines of men. And every time the word
doctrines is used in the Bible, it's used with regard to false
doctrines. There's the doctrine of Christ.
There's the doctrine of God. But any time doctrines is in
the plural, it's wrong. It's the tradition of men. Verse eight, here's what you're
doing. For laying aside the commandment of God, hold the tradition of
men as the washing of pots and cups and many other such things
like do you and he said unto them full well you reject the
commandment of God that you may keep your own tradition you have
a fine way you're brilliant at being stupid that's what he's
saying you're brilliant at being stupid Full well, you reject
the commandment of God that you may keep your own tradition. You nullify the commandment of
God to keep your own tradition. Now he mentions the fifth commandment,
verse 10. For Moses said, honor thy father
and thy mother, and whoso curseth father or mother, let him die
the death. Now that's the fifth of the 10 commandments. Honor
your father and your mother. And if you don't do it, die the
death. Now, is he talking about some
little kid who disobeys? Well, that's worthy of death,
but that's not really what he's talking about. He's talking about
adults who do not take care of their parents. Adults who find a way to get
around taking care of their parents in need. That's what he's talking
about. Now, look what he says. Now, honor your father and mother,
whoso curseth father or mother, let him die the death, capital
punishment. But you say, if a man shall say
to his father or mother, it's Corbin, that is to say a gift
by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me, he shall be free,
and you suffer him no more to do aught for his father or his
mother. Now, what does Corbin mean? All my money, now I can spend
all I want, but when I die, all my money is going to the church.
All my money is going to the temple. I've earmarked every
penny that I die with to go to the church. Sorry, Mom. Sorry, Dad. Can't help you. That
money's been dedicated to God, and I'm gonna give it to God
after I'm dead. So I can't give you any, I can't
help you. Sorry, but this is for God's
glory that I'm doing this. I'm doing this for the glory
of the temple, the glory of on and on, this religious reason
to make void this commandment. Now here is a legalistic antinomian.
He holds other people to these real strict standards. You didn't
wash your hands! Shame on you! You're wrong! And yet he can take the holy
commandment of God and find a way to justify himself in breaking
that commandment and setting it aside altogether. Now that
is a legalistic antinomian. Verse 12. You suffer him no more
to do aught for his father or his mother, making the word of
God of none effect through your tradition, which you delivered,
and many such like things do you. Now, the legalistic antinomian
finds fault with the one who does not wash his hands and finds
a way to justify and vindicate himself to Find a loophole around
keeping the law and actually doing nothing more than breaking
it under the pretense of dedication to religion. Making the word
of God of none effect through their tradition. Now, the way
of self-vindication. You know anything about that?
I do. The way of self-justification. comes in so many different shapes
and forms. And brethren, can't you see the
danger in yourself with regard to this? Self-justification,
self-vindication. You know, every time I judge
somebody, do it a lot, ought not ever do it, but I do it a
lot. Every time I judge someone, seeing
the speck in their eyes and not seeing the beam in my own eyes. I am guilty of legalistic antinomianism. Another way to put it, I'm hard
on others and easy on myself. Putting others under a more difficult
and stringent standard An expectation that I do it for myself. The religion that makes us see
other people's sins more clearly than our own is legalistic antinomianism. And I have to say, to my shame,
guilty as charged. What a horrible thing. Guilty
as charged. Now, if I just left you here,
you'd be feeling pretty bad, wouldn't you? You'd probably
walk out of here dragging, because you know that there's so much
truth in this with regard to you. But you know, if you're
a believer, you're not a legalist, you look to Christ only right
now. and you're not an antinomian.
You never make an excuse for your sin or say it's okay. No
way. Now, we read in this passage
of scripture of the traditions of men and the commandment of
God. Now, the commandment of God,
well, you know, faith is a commandment. What must I do to be saved? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. That's a commandment. What must
we do that we might work the works of God? This is the work
of God, that you believe on him whom he hath sent. Repentance is a commandment.
God commands all men everywhere to repent, to change your mind.
I love the way David said, and I can't remember which Psalm,
Psalm 70 something, he said, I think it's Psalm 71, thou has
given commandment to save me. Well, I like that commandment,
don't you? Well, turn with me for a moment to 1 Timothy chapter
one. You know, honestly, as long as
I know how to be, when I look at the Pharisees, I don't think,
what horrible people. I think I see so much of myself
in them. This is the religion of the natural
man. They're not just folks that were
way back in the days of the Lord, but they're very alive today. But look here in 1 Timothy chapter
1. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
by the commandment of God our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ,
our hope. Well, he is our hope, isn't he?
My hope is that everything God requires of me, he looks to his
son for, everything. Unto Timothy, mine own son, in
the faith, grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and
Jesus Christ our Lord. As I besought thee to abide still
at Ephesus when I went into Macedonia, that thou mightest charge some
that they teach no other doctrine. You see, there's only one doctrine,
the doctrine of God. the doctrine of Christ, the doctrine
of grace. There's only one doctrine. Charge
some that they teach no other doctrine, neither give heed to
fables and endless genealogies which minister questions rather
than godly edifying which is in faith, so do. Now, the end,
the goal, the purpose, the aim, the reason of the commandment. Now, we're not talking about
traditions of men right now. We're talking about the commandment
of God. Remember, he said you rejected the commandment of God
that you might hold your own traditions. Well, what about
the commandment of God? It's the gospel. It's the word
of God. It's the Bible. Everything God says is God's
commandment, isn't it? If he says it, he doesn't give advice. The end of the commandment is
charity out of a pure heart and of a good conscience and a faith
unthinked, unhypocritical, not acting. Now let's consider those three
things real briefly. The end of the commandment, the
purpose, the goal, the aim of the commandment is charity out
of a, what kind of heart? Pure heart. Charity can't come
out of a defiled heart. No unbeliever can practice true
charity. This is the same heart that our
Lord spoke of when he said, blessed are the pure in heart. They shall see God. Now, this
pure heart is the heart that believes. This pure heart is
the heart that has charity, that loves God for who He is, that
loves God's people, that loves sinners enough to tell them the
gospel and preach the gospel to them. Now, this charity that
comes out of this pure heart, it doesn't have anything to do
with some man-made tradition. This is the new heart that God
gives in salvation. It's the heart that David was
crying for when he said, create in me a clean heart. Oh, God. This is that heart that
does not sin. I used to be so troubled when
it said, blessed, pure in heart, because I thought, well, my heart
was anything but pure. Surely it doesn't seem that way.
But let me remind you, this new heart, you've got the old heart
still there. You got two natures funneled
through one consciousness. And that can create a mess, I
realize that. But here's the purpose of the
commandment of the gospel. Charity, love for God as He is,
out of a pure heart. Now here's the second end of
the commandment. Look in verse five again. Now the end of the
commandment is a good conscience. A good conscience. I remember hearing a preacher
say, I never feel guilty. And I think I always feel guilty
all the time. There's never a time when I don't.
Somebody says, well, you probably have a reason to feel guilty.
Yeah, I agree. I agree. But the point is, somebody
says, well, I have a clear conscience. I've got a clear conscience.
No, you have a seared conscience. You have a conscience that doesn't
work. That's why you have this clear
conscience. What is this good conscience?
A good conscience is someone whose conscience has nothing
to feel guilty about. That's a good conscience. And
Peter called it the answer of a good conscience by the resurrection
of Jesus Christ from the dead. Now there's one thing that gives
me a good conscience, the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
He bore my sins, he put them away, he was raised from the
dead, and I don't have anything to feel guilty about. I've got
a good conscience. Now that's the end, that's the
goal, that's the purpose of the commandment, that people might
have a good conscience. It's the conscience that is a
result of justification. And then thirdly, the end of
the commandment is faith, I love this word unthaned. It means
unthanked. Unthanked. Now I'm not faking. The only hope I have is that
Jesus Christ died for me. That's not a fake. That's not
feigned. That's not me acting. It really
is my only hope that Jesus Christ put away my sin, gave me his
righteousness, and I stand before God without sin. Now, I'm not faking. All I have is Christ. I don't have anything else to
plead. I can't talk about any goodness in me, any personal
sanctification, any progress in holiness. All I have, all
I have is Jesus Christ. That's no fake. That's no fake. That's unfeigned. I know that
because I know He is all I have. I could say to you, because I
know it's the thing to say, but I know He is all I have. I don't have anything else to
bring but Christ Jesus alone. That's unfeigned. Now you have the Pharisees. They see everybody else's sins
and they totally don't see their own aggravated guilt. and breaking of the law. That
Corbyn, is there ever been anything more hypocritical than that?
Taking the law of God and finding a way to bypass it and say, I
don't have to help my parents because that money's dedicated
to the church. That's wicked to say the least. Hard on everybody else. This
is through their traditions, hard on everybody else, not keeping
their traditions, but totally blind to the beams in their own
eye. And then there's the commandment
of God, not the traditions of men, but the commandment of God. It has this end, charity out
of a pure heart, a good conscience, and faith unveiled. Let's pray together. Lord, how we thank you for your
word. And Lord, how we see in ourselves
a tendency to be hard on others and easy on ourselves. And we pray for forgiveness.
We pray for cleansing. We pray that you deliver us from
the traditions of men and seek only thy commandment. And Lord,
we ask in Christ's name that we might have this charity out
of a pure heart, a good conscience, and faith unfeigned. Bless the
Lord for Christ's sake, in his name we pray, amen.