Todd's Road Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Niver. We are located at 4137 Todd's
Road, two miles outside of Manowar Boulevard. Sunday services are
at 10.30 a.m. and 6 p.m. Bible study is at
9.45 a.m. Wednesday services are at 7 p.m. Nursery is provided for all services.
For more information, visit our website at toddsroadgracechurch.com.
Now here's our pastor, Todd Nybert. My text for this morning is found
in Matthew chapter 23, verse 23. I've entitled this message,
The Wavier Matters of the Law. And when I read my text, I believe
you will understand why I gave this message this title. The
Lord says in verse 23 of Matthew chapter 23, woe unto you, scribes
and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you pay tithe of mint, and anise,
and cumin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law,
judgment, mercy, and faith. These ought you to have done
and not to leave the other undone. You pay tithes, you're exact
in your tithe paying, but you've left out what is really important. the weightier matters of the
law, which he calls judgment, mercy, and faith. Now, the Lord was to be crucified
in just a few days, and he knew that. His time had come. And the scribes and the Pharisees,
the conservative fundamentalists of his day, wanted him dead early
on. At the very beginning of his
public ministry, they took counsel how they might destroy him. But
in Matthew 23, he preaches a message that pretty much made them know
he's got to go. In this passage of Scripture,
He says concerning them at the first of this chapter, they say
and do not, speaking of the scribes and Pharisees, they say and do
not, they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be born and lay
them on men's shoulders, but they themselves will not move
them with one of their fingers. They're quick to tell everybody
else what to do and what they should do and what they must
do, but they themselves do not do it themselves. They say, here's
what you need to do, but they don't do it. And then he says,
all their works they do to be seen of men. They're not concerned
about what God sees. They want to put an appearance
out for men to impress them with the religiosity. He says they
make broad their phylacteries and enlarge the borders of their
garments and love the uppermost rooms at feasts and chief seats
in the synagogue. They want to be recognized. And
they love titles. He says, they love greetings
in the market and to be called of men, rabbi, rabbi. They love
titles. They love to be recognized as
reverend. Kills me when a preacher calls
himself a reverend. Holy and reverend is thy name.
The name of God, but to call a man reverend, someone to be
revered, doctor, pastor, all the different titles men love. And so you can be sure that the
Pharisees were galled the way he introduced this message. And in this message, he calls
them hypocrites, children of hell, blind guides, fools and
blind, fool of extortion and excess, hypocrisy and iniquity,
whitewashed graves full of dead men's bones. That's strong language. And he ends up this message with
these words, verse 33 of chapter 23, you serpents, you generation
of vipers, how can you escape the damnation of hell? Now, when's the last time you
heard a preacher preach a message like that? The strong language
he used toward these religious people. And in this message,
he gives eight different woes. And you would be profited by
looking over the entire 23rd chapter to look at these woes
he pronounces against the scribes and Pharisees. But I want to
confine ourselves to verse 23, woe unto you." And when the Lord
says, woe, that means woe. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites. You know what a hypocrite is?
It's an actor. If you talked about the actors back in the
days of the Greeks, you call them hypocrites. It wasn't a
name necessarily derogatory at that time, that's just what they
called the actors. But if you're a hypocrite, that
means you're not real, you're acting, and that's what he calls
these religious leaders. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites, for you pay tithe of mint and anise and cumin. You're very exact about your
tithing, and you have omitted the wavier, the more important
matters of the law. Judgment, mercy, and faith. Now these ought you to have done
and not to leave the other undone. Now, I find this interesting. Most of the passages or most
of the sermons that are brought upon this particular verse of
scripture are used to prove that you ought to tithe. When the
Lord said, these ought ye to have done, as far as the tithing,
you were very exact in your tithing, these ought ye to have done and
not left the other undone. Now, does the New Testament teach
tithing? No. The New Testament teaches
giving. Tithing is paying a bill. Tithing is under the Old Testament
law. You are required to tithe. The New Testament teaches giving. Every man according as he purposes
in his heart, so let him give. not grudgingly or of necessity,
for God loveth the cheerful giver." The Scripture says we are to
give as God prospered us. And I know this, if we, most
many of us, if we would give as God prospered us, we'd be
giving more than a tithe. I think of these men, I guarantee
you, they didn't give a penny above the 10%. They were so exact
with this law, I've given 10%. The Lord says, under the Old
Testament economy, you should have done that, but you shouldn't
have left the other undone, passing over, omitting judgment, mercy,
and faith. I see some very important things
from this statement. First of all, there are some
things more important than others. Judgment, mercy, and faith was
more important than tithing. There are some things in the
Bible that are more important than others. I thought of when
Martha and Mary were fixing the Lord a meal and Martha was doing
everything and she was getting frustrated because she saw Mary
sitting at the feet of the master and hearing his word. And she
said, don't you care that she's not helping me? She was upset.
I probably would have been too. And the Lord answered her, Martha,
Martha, you're careful and troubled about many things, but one thing
is needful. and Mary hath chosen that good
part, sitting at his feet and hearing his word, and that shall
not be taken from her." There are some things that are more
important than others. He said to these Pharisees after
He said what he said in verse 23, you blind guides would strain
a gnat and swallow a camel. You major on minors and you minor
on what is really major and what is really important. Now, another
important principle we see from this passage of scripture is
that a false prophet is quite often identified not by what
he says, but what he omits, what he does not say. It may be that you agree with
everything he says, and you can see in the Bible everything he
says. But he didn't say that which was vital to preaching
the gospel. And we're not left to conjecture
as to what is vital in preaching the gospel, because the Lord
tells us. Judgment, mercy, and faith. Now there we have a summary
of the gospel. Judgment, mercy, and faith. Now the word judgment is always
used with regard to Judgment Day, when people are judged. And the gospel is about judgment. Now I think of When the Lord
appeared to Abraham in Genesis chapter 18, he was going to destroy
Sodom and Gomorrah. And when he told Abraham about
this, Abraham said, what if there's righteous people there? You're
not going to destroy the righteous with the wicked. Surely you're
not going to do that. Now, shall not the judge of the
earth do right? He knew God would do right. Now
in this, He demonstrated there's only two kinds of people in this
world, the righteous and the wicked. And you and I are in
one of those two camps, the righteous and the wicked. And every man
knows intuitively that God is a righteous judge who will reward
the righteous and punish the wicked. We know that intuitively. What we don't know intuitively
is that we're wicked. We think we're the righteous
and those other guys are wicked. I think this is interesting.
All the righteous believe themselves to be wicked. And all of the
wicked believe themselves to be righteous. But at any rate,
he understood that God would never punish the righteous with
the wicked, because the judge of the earth shall do right. Now, in Matthew chapter 20, we
have this parable, and I want to read this to you, and I want
you to listen very carefully. This is actually what inspired
this message when I was reading this parable. For the kingdom
of heaven is like unto a man that's in a householder, which
went out early in the morning to hire laborers into his vineyard.
You know the story. And when he had agreed with the
laborers for a penny a day, he sent them to his vineyard. Six
o'clock in the morning, he sent these men to work. And he went
out about the third hour, nine o'clock, and saw others standing
idle in the market, and said unto them, go ye also into the
vineyard, and whatsoever is right, whatsoever is perfectly just,
I will give you. And they went their way, and
again, he went out about the sixth hour, noon, ninth hour, 3 p.m.,
and did likewise, said the same thing, go out into the vineyard,
whatsoever is right, that I'll give you. Verse 6, about the
eleventh hour, 5 p.m., he went out and found others standing
idle, and saith unto them, Why stand ye here all the day idle?
They said unto him, Because no man hath hired us. He said, Go
also into the vineyard, and whatsoever is right, that shall you receive."
Now, some worked 12 hours. He gave them what is right. Some
only worked one hour. He promises, I'll give you that
which is right. Now, the way we would think,
well, he'll give some 12 hours pay and some one hour pay. That's
the way we'd think. Verse eight, so when evening
was come to the lord of the vineyard, saith unto his steward, call
the labors and give them their hire, beginning from the last
until the first. And when they came that were
hired about the 11th hour and had only worked one hour, they
received every man a penny. Same thing that the 12-hour workers
agreed to. But when the first came, They
supposed that they should have received more. And I'd make that
supposition, too. They supposed, hey, I work more,
I should be paid more. And they likewise received every
man a penny. And when they'd received it, they murmured against
the good man of the house, saying, these that have wrought but one
hour, and thou hast made them equal to us, which has borne
the burden and heat of the day. This is not fair, is what they're
saying. This is not right. But he answered one of them and
said, Friend, I do thee know wrong. Didst thou not agree with
me for a penny? Take that thine is and go thy
way, and I'll give unto this last even as unto thee. He gives
what is right. Now, how can that be? How can
that be right? Well, that can be only understood
in light of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. You know that
thief on the cross? He is given the same place in
heaven that the Apostle Paul or the Apostle Peter is given.
You know why? Because he had the same righteousness
they do. He was given what is right. He
had had his sins paid for by Christ. Excuse me. He'd had his sins paid for by
Christ. He'd been given Christ's righteousness. It was his personal
righteousness. And God gave him exactly what was right. And this
is what judgment is. Judgment, the judgment of the
cross. Do you realize that on Calvary's
tree, Christ was paying for sin. He was being judged. for sin,
the sins of God's elect became his sins. He took my sin and
my sorrow. He made it his very own. He bore
the burden to Calvary and suffered and died alone. It was a judgment. And now because of what he experienced
on Calvary's tree, every believer is given what is right. God has made a way to be just
and justify the ungodly. God has made a way to be totally
right. He said, I'll by no means clear
the guilty. If you're seen by God as guilty,
you will not be cleared. He's made a way to by no means
clear the guilty and yet be merciful and gracious and save and forgive. The gospel is a thing of judgment. For me to be judged, I'm going
to have to be given what's right. Well, what about your sin? My
sin's gone. It's been put away. Well, have
you kept God's law perfectly? Yes, I have. In the person of
my substitute, I have. And I stand before God without
guilt. That is the judgment of the gospel. Every one of God's people have
had their sins put away judgment. Now, I don't have statistical
evidence of this, but the great majority of preachers never deal
with how God can be just and justify the ungodly. It's probably
considered a dry doctrinal thing, but it's the very heart and soul
of the gospel. It is the declaration of the
character of God, this judgment. He's made a way to be just and
punish all sin, and yet save sinners for Christ's sake. That's
the very heart and soul of the gospel. That's the purpose of
the cross, the judgment of God. When he cried out, my God, my
God, why hast thou forsaken me? It's because God forsook him,
because he was made sin, and that's why God forsook him. Oh,
what judgment, and yet what mercy comes from that. And here's the
second point, judgment, mercy. You've omitted the weightier
matters of the law, judgment and mercy. Now, once judgment has been established,
there can be mercy. I've heard preachers say before,
God must be just, he may be merciful. No, God must be merciful because
that's who he is. He delights in mercy. I want you to listen to this
carefully. He delights in mercy. He delights in bestowing free,
sheer mercy on sinners for Christ's sake. That's who He is. You see,
He can be just. and yet be merciful." Now that
judgment is established, he can now show mercy. And the Lord says, you've omitted
this thing of mercy. Now, most preachers would say,
I preach the mercy of God. Not what the Bible teaches about
the mercy of God. The term is used, but the meaning
is not brought out. Judgment, mercy. There can be
no mercy until there's first judgment. And once judgment is
established, and God is just, and all sin is punished, now
he can have mercy. Now the only time anyone's really
interested in mercy is if they are guilty. If you're a sinner. If you're a sinner. Are you a
sinner? And your sin is all your fault. You can't blame somebody
else. It's all your fault. You sinned
against God, and you're guilty of breaking His holy law. You
don't become a sinner when you sin. You sin because you're already
a sinner. That's your nature. A sinner
by birth, a sinner by choice, a sinner by practice. You're
a sinner, and your sin's all your fault. You can't blame somebody
else. You can't blame God. You can't blame your circumstances.
You know, after the fall of Adam, first thing he did was blame
God for what took place. The woman that you gave me, she gave
me of the fruit and I did eat. The obvious implication, if you
wouldn't have given me this woman, this would have never taken place.
This is your fault. Now, understand, we're not victims
in this thing of sin. When it's somebody else's fault,
I'm a victim. And if I'm a victim, I don't need mercy, I need justice,
don't I? I need somebody to give me what I should get. But if
I am guilty, guilty as charged, what I need is mercy. Mercy. What exactly is mercy? Well, it's what God gives you
when you positively do not deserve it. Now, in Romans 9, listen
to this scripture, Romans 9, beginning in verse 11, we read
these words. for the children, talking about
Jacob and Esau, being not yet born, neither having done any
good or evil that the purpose of God according to election
might stand, not of works. But of him that calleth it was
said unto her, the elder shall serve the younger. As it's written,
this is God speaking, Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated. That's God speaking. And the
Apostle Paul anticipates the objection men will make. Well,
what should we say there? Is there unrighteousness with
God? Is God unfair for loving one and hating the other? God
forbid. For he saith to Moses, I'll have
mercy on whom I will have mercy. I'll have compassion on whom
I will have compassion. So then it's not of him that
willeth nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. Now, if you're guilty, You have
no problem with God passing you by. You don't want him to, but
you can't charge him with injustice if you're guilty. If you say,
this is wrong, that means you're not guilty. You think God owes
you some kind of favor. But if you're guilty, nothing
but guilty before God, listen to me, The door of mercy is wide
open. God will have mercy on all who
come to Christ for mercy. Because justice and judgment
have been established. Sin's already punished. Righteousness
is already established. The righteousness of Christ.
And there's mercy for anybody who needs mercy. Would that be
you? You see, this is gospel preaching. mercy because justice has been
established. Now, he says, the weightier matters
of the law are judgment, mercy, and faith. You see, faith is
understanding something about judgment and mercy. When you
have faith, That means you're believing on Him. Listen to the
scripture, Romans 4, 5. To him that worketh not, but
believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted
for righteousness. Now here's what faith is. Faith
isn't believing you're saved. Faith isn't believing that Christ
died for your sins. Faith isn't believing that you're
one of the elect. Faith isn't believing that you've
been born again. Faith has nothing to do with
what you think about yourself. Faith has wholly to do with looking
to Christ only, not Christ and, Christ only, as the reason God
can justify you and still be just. You look to Him and what
He accomplished on Calvary's tree as your only ground of acceptance
before God. You don't look anywhere else.
Sirs, what must I do to be saved? Notice he didn't say, what must
I do to save myself? He said, what must I do to be
saved? And he said, believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. He didn't say believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and fill in the blank. He just said,
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, who he is. and what he did as
all that's needed to make you perfect before God, without guilt,
without sin, perfect and spotless. Now that's what faith is. You
believe in the judgment that was accomplished on Calvary's
tree, that Christ made the way for God to be just and justifier,
You believe that mercy comes through that, and you believe
the gospel. You have faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now, the ground of faith is the
Word of God. That's the only ground. Is this what God's Word
teaches? And the object of faith is Christ
himself. Paul said, I know whom. God,
I know what? I know whom I have believed,
and I am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I've
committed to Him against that day. I love the way the writer
to the Hebrews says, faith is the evidence of things not seen.
Now, I cannot see by looking at myself that I stand just before
God. I can't see by looking at myself
that I stand because of what Christ did for me, holy and unblameable
and unreprovable in His sight. What's the evidence that you
are, then, if you can't see it? Faith. I believe the gospel. I believe
that Christ actually accomplished salvation. I don't think salvation
is something he offers me, that it's up to me to accept it or
reject it. It's the complete accomplishment
of what our Lord did on the cross, the judgment that took place.
When he said, it is finished, salvation was accomplished. It's not offered, it's accomplished. I'm going to tell you something
about the forgiveness of sins. Most people think, well, you
need to do this, this, this, and this, and then your sins
will be forgiven. No, that's not the way it works. When you
believe the gospel, you find out that you've been forgiven
and your salvation began with the complete forgiveness of sins
through the judgment that took place on Calvary's tree when
Christ put away your sins. And that is why mercy is given
to you. It's not offered to you and up
to you to accept it or reject it. No, it's given to you for
Christ's sake. And that is what you believe. Now, these are the weightier
matters of the law. judgment, mercy, and faith. You know, the law was given to
teach us of judgment, mercy, and faith. May the Lord be my
teacher and your teacher. We have this message on DVD and
CD. If you call the church, write
or email, we'll send you a copy. This is Todd Nyberg praying that
God will be pleased to make himself known to you. That's our prayer.
Amen. To receive a copy of the sermon you have just heard, send
a request to todd.nyberg at gmail.com. Or you may write or call the
church at the information provided on the screen.