Todd's Road Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Nider. We are located at 4137 Todd's
Road, two miles outside of Mattawar Boulevard. Sunday services are
at 1030 a.m. and 6 p.m. Bible study is at
945 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 Nyberg. In Matthew 5, verse 20, the Lord
Jesus said to His disciples, For I say unto you, that except
your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes
and the Pharisees, you shall in no case enter into the kingdom
of heaven. I've entitled this message, The
Religion of the Scribes and the Pharisees. The Lord said to His
disciples, Accept your personal righteousness. And a believer's
personal righteousness is the righteousness of Christ. Understand
that. But He said, Accept your righteousness. Exceed the righteousness
of the scribes and the Pharisees. And if you have a King James
Version, you'll notice that when we read the term the righteousness
of the scribes and the Pharisees, the word righteousness is in
italics. This is one of the reasons I
love the King James Version. When a word is not in the original,
and they put it in the King James, they put it in italics. And the
word righteousness with regard to the scribes and Pharisees,
our Lord doesn't even use the word. This is what really inspired
this message. Accept your righteousness, succeed.
the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall in no
case, under no circumstances, enter the kingdom of heaven."
Now, what would the New Testament be without the scribes and the
Pharisees? Much of the content of the Gospels,
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, is the Lord speaking to and answering
this group of people called the Scribes and the Pharisees. Now, let me say this. The Scribes
and the Pharisees are not people just back from the old days in
New Testament times. They're very alive today. Let
me tell you two places you can always find a Scribe and a Pharisee. Pharisee means separated one.
Scribe was the students of the Scriptures. They were the interpreters
of the Scriptures and the enforcers of the Scriptures. The scribes
and the Pharisees. Now, let me give you two places
where you can always find a Pharisee. The first place is look within
your own heart. He's there. This is the religion of the natural
man. Let me tell you another place
you can find a Pharisee. Look at that person beside you.
He or she is one too. Everybody by nature is a scribe
and Pharisee. Everyone by nature fits this
description. This is human religion. It doesn't matter if I'm an atheist,
a Baptist, a Catholic, a Methodist, whatever, Islamic, Everybody
by nature is a Pharisee. That is the religion of the natural
man. Now, you've heard of the Sadducees and the Pharisees,
no doubt, if you've read the New Testament. The Sadducees
sought to allow Greek influences into the Jewish religion and
into the Jewish culture, and the Pharisees were opposed to
this. They wanted to keep everything pure, and the word Pharisee means
separated one. They believed that there was
something they did that separated them from others. There's something
they did that made them better than others. There's something
they did that made God accept them. A Pharisee is a separated
one. It's the religion of the natural
man. Now, the doctrine of the Pharisee
is found in the parable or the story of the publican and the
Pharisee in Luke chapter 18 beginning in verse 9. And he spake this
parable. unto certain which trusted in
themselves, that they were righteous." If you have any personal righteousness. You are a Pharisee. You're one of these separated
ones. And this is what everybody by
nature thinks. They think they're either righteous
or they at least have the potential to be righteous. If they play
their cards right, if they're in the right circumstances, I
may be a scoundrel now, but if I'm in the right environment,
I can be good. All you've got to do is believe
in free will and believe you have the ability to turn things
around and accept things and that'll make your state change.
That is the religion of a Pharisee. If you have any righteousness,
if you have any moral strength that you think could commend
you to God, you are a Pharisee. He spake this parable unto certain
which trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised
others. Always looking down their nose
at someone else. Always finding someone else who
they feel like they can be morally superior to. You see, a Pharisee's
righteousness doesn't come from the Scripture. It comes from
them comparing themselves to somebody else and they think
they're better. Let's go on reading. The Lord said two men went up
into the temple to pray. The one, a Pharisee. And the other, a publican. A
despised tax collector. the most hated man of those days. He was a dishonest man. A Pharisee,
a very moral, proud, religious, right-wing man, and a despicable
publican. Verse 11, the Pharisee stood
and prayed thus with himself. I love the way the Lord says
this. He didn't pray to God. He thought he was, but he prayed
thus with himself. You see, God does not hear or
accept the prayer of a Pharisee. Who is the Lord Jesus Christ
so adamantly opposed to throughout the Gospels? The Pharisees. How can you escape the damnation
of hell, he said to them. In Matthew chapter 23, seven
times he says, woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. The
prayer of the Pharisee is not heard. He prayed thus with himself. But let's look at his prayer.
He said, God, I thank Thee that I'm not as other men are." He
didn't thank God for His mercy. He didn't thank God for His grace.
He didn't thank God for the sacrifice that the Lord offered up on Calvary's
tree that washed away the sins of His people. He said, I thank
Thee that I'm not as other men are. Indeed, He wasn't as the
man He's speaking of. He said, I'm not an extortioner. I'm not unjust. I'm not an adulterer
even as this publican. I fast twice in the week and
I give tithes of all that I possess." He compared himself to the publican
and thought, I look good. I'm not as other men are. He didn't have a clue as to what
it is to trust the righteousness of somebody else as his righteousness
before God. He didn't have a concept of what
it is to rest in the finished work of Christ. He just talked
about what He was. I thank you. He gave God the
credit. I thank you that I'm not as other men are. Verse 13, the publican, standing
afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven,
but smote upon his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me, the sinner."
All he had to say about himself was that he was the sinner. This man believed himself to
be the worst man to ever live. He was a sinner. Now look what
our Lord said regarding these two men. The Lord said, I tell
you, this man, this man who confessed he was nothing but sin, This
man went down to his house justified. How can he be justified when
he's a sinner? God justified him. You see, this is somebody
who God lifted the sins off of him and put them on his son.
And he took the righteousness of his son and put it upon this
man. Hence, this man was justified, cleared of all guilt because
he didn't have any guilt. I tell you, this man, this self-confessed
sinner, went down to his house justified rather than the other.
The Pharisee, the moral religious man, went down to his house in
his sins, condemned under the judgment of God, soon to be in
hell. This man went down to his house
justified rather than the other. Now, the first time we hear of
the Pharisee is when they came to John the Baptist to be baptized
of him. And John looked at them, and
he said, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from
the wrath that come? And then the next time we read
about them is in Matthew chapter 5, where the Lord said, Except
your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the scribes
and Pharisees, you shall in no case enter the kingdom of heaven. Now, what is the religion of
the scribes and Pharisees? We see how harsh the Lord was
with it. What is the religion of the scribes
and Pharisees? You know, the Lord saved the
Pharisee in order to expound the gospel. Paul the Apostle
said, I was a Pharisee of the Pharisees, the son of a Pharisee.
It's touching the law of Pharisee. That was the strictest sect of
the Jewish Hebrew religion. And the Lord saved a man like
Paul so he could expound the gospel of God's grace. Here's
the first mark of Pharisees' doctrine in Luke chapter 12,
verse 1. This is so important. In the
meantime, when there were gathered together an innumerable number
of people, insomuch that they trod one upon another, he began
to say unto them, first of all, beware ye of the leaven of the
Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. Now, here is the first mark of
the religion of the scribes and Pharisees. It's hypocrisy. Now, what is hypocrisy? The word
means an actor, an actor. The movie stars back then were
hypocrites. That's what they would have called
them, hypocrites, actors. The religion of the Pharisee
is all an act. You see, when that Pharisee was
saying, Lord, I thank you that I'm not as other men are. I'm
not an extortioner. I'm not an unjust. I'm not an
adulterer. The fact of the matter is, he was all those things he
said he wasn't. He was putting on an act. He was putting on
a show. It wasn't real. He committed all these things
in his heart, but yet he said, I don't do any of these things.
All he was doing was lying. All he was doing was acting.
The religion of the Pharisee is that of acting. Now, if you
would read Matthew chapter 23, that is the message that our
Lord gave to the scribes and Pharisees where seven times he
said, woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. That is
the message that caused him to unite and get together and put
him to death. This was the message that infuriated
them so much. But I'm going to read a couple
of things out of this to give you some idea where this Pharisee
is coming from. Then spake Jesus to the multitude
and to the disciples, saying, The scribes and the Pharisees
set Moses' seat. Oh, therefore, whatsoever they
bid you observe, that observe and do. But do not ye after their
works For they say and do not. For they bind heavy burdens and
grievous to be born, and lay them on men's shoulders, but
they themselves will not move one of them with one of their
fingers." They have a different standard for themselves and everybody
else. That is the mark of the religion
of the scribe and Pharisee. A different standard for themselves
than somebody else. Oh, they'll put burdens on other
men. burdens, but they don't touch themselves. Look in verse
5. It says, But all their works
they do for to be seen of men. They make broad their phylacteries.
That means they put scriptures and scripture verses and quotes
on their garments and enlarge the borders of their garments.
And they love the uppermost rooms at the feasts and the chief seats
in the synagogues and greetings in the markets to be called of
men, Rabbi, Rabbi. Teacher, teacher. They love the
praise of men. They do what they do to be seen
of men. Now that is the religion of the
scribe and Pharisee. It's show. It's hypocrisy. It's doing what they do so men
can see. You know, the Lord said to them
at one point in John chapter 5, He said, how can you believe
which receive honor one of another, and seek not that honor that
cometh from God only? Now, in the religion of the Pharisees
and the scribes, scribes and Pharisees, however order you
want to say it, they claimed it was scriptural, but look what
the Lord said of their doctrine in Matthew chapter 15. He said,
but in vain they do worship me. Teaching for doctrines the commandments
of men. Their doctrine didn't really
have its foundation in the Scripture. There was never really a bowing
to God's Word. Their doctrine was their traditions,
the commandments of men, like how many steps you could take
on the Sabbath, or how often you had to wash your hands, and
all these different commandments they had. It was the doctrines
and commandments of men. There was no real respect and
reverence for the Word of God. It was not scriptural, and there
was not a true concept of sin in their doctrine. They thought
sin was in things. If I can avoid this and keep
from going to that place, I'll be saved. If I can keep from
taking this into my mouth or doing this thing, I'll be saved.
And they didn't understand that sin proceeds from the heart.
Look what our Lord said to them in this passage in Matthew chapter
15. He said, but those things which
proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart. They defile
the man. What comes out of your heart?
Not where you're at or what you're doing. For out of the heart proceeds
evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witnesses,
blasphemies. These are the things which defile
a man. And when our Lord told this to the Pharisees, they were
offended. The disciples then came as disciples and said to
him, knowest thou not that the Pharisees were offended after
they heard that saying? The Lord said, let him alone. They're blind leaders of the
blind, and they'll both fall into the ditch. Now, the Pharisee
was one who rejected the counsel of God against himself. In Luke
chapter 7, beginning in verse 29, we read, And all the people that heard
him, this was hearing the Lord preach, and the publicans justified
God, being baptized with the baptism of John. But the Pharisees
and the lawyers rejected the counsel of God against themselves. not being baptized of him. They
rejected what God said concerning them as being nothing but sinners.
They rejected it. They would not leave it. The religion of the Pharisees
is that of self-justification. Luke chapter 16, oh, they're
so good at justifying and commending themselves. Now, our Lord said
in verse 13, no servant can serve two masters. For either he'll
hate the one and love the other, or else he'll hold to the one
and despise the other. You can't serve God in mammon.
And the Pharisees also who were covetous. You know, they would
make a big issue out of the keeping Sabbath and so on. But they didn't
make an issue out of covetousness because that's what they were
eaten up with, covetousness. They didn't know how to be satisfied
with what they had. Now, we ought to be satisfied
with what we have materially, but more than anything else in
this thing of coveting, a believer doesn't covet because he's satisfied
with Christ. There's nothing else to covet. In Christ, I have
all. There's nothing else to desire. And the Pharisees were
strangers to this. They derided Him. The Pharisees
who were covetous derided Him. And He said unto them, the Lord
said unto them, you are they which justify yourselves before
men. You always seek to justify and
vindicate yourself. You never come into God's presence
and plead guilty as charged. You justify yourselves before
men. You vindicate yourself. You won't
accept the responsibility of your own sin and what you are
before God. You justify yourselves before
men. The religion of the Pharisees
is a religion of loving little. Remember when the Lord said to
Simon the Pharisee, he gave him the parable of the two men, one
who owed 500 pence and the other 50 pence, and the man forgave
both of them. He said, which will love the
most? And the Pharisee said, well, I suppose the one who forgave
the most. He said, that's right. Who's
been forgiven much, loves much. Who's been forgiven little, loves
little. Now, I realize that religious
people like to talk about how much they've been forgiven in
the sense that, oh, I used to be a real scoundrel. I used to
take drugs. I used to be with men and women
and did all kinds of wicked things. But look at me now. It's almost
like that's some kind of powerful testimony. That's not what this
is talking about. A believer knows that every time
he breathes, he sins because of who he is. And he has been
forgiven much. And that's why he loves much.
But the Pharisee couldn't comprehend that. He thought he had been
forgiven little. The religion of the Pharisee
is a religion of intimidation. Religious intimidation, trying
to force things, no freedom in it. It's a religion of intimidation.
Verse 20 of John chapter 9 about the man's parents who were born
blind, his parents answered him and said, we know that this is
our son who was born blind, but by what means he now sees, we
know not, or who's opened his eyes, we know not. He's of age,
ask him, he'll speak for himself. These words spank his parents
because they feared the Jews. They were afraid of Him. They
were intimidated by Him. They tried to enforce their ways
on Him. There wasn't any liberty. There wasn't any freedom in their
religion. See, the Jews had already agreed that if any man did confess
that he was Christ, he'd be put out of the synagogue. In the
religion of the scribes and the Pharisees, there is no righteousness
in it. Our Lord said, except your righteousness
exceed the righteousness. Like I said, that word is in
italics. There is no righteousness in the religion of the scribes.
and the Pharisees. Now there we have it. It's the
religion of hypocrisy. It is based upon covetousness. It has a different standard for
self and others. It loves recognition. It's not scriptural. There's
no true grasp of sin. It's always self-justifying and
self-vindicating. It rejects the counsel of God.
It thinks it has little to be forgiven of. It's a religion
of intimidation. There's no freedom in it. It's
a religion of criticism. They criticized the Lord. They
murmured and said He's a friend of public sinners. They were
always criticizing. And who was the Lord most severe
with? The Pharisees. Scribes and Pharisees. He was the friend of sinners.
That's one of their charges against Him. He's the friend of publicans
and sinners. They didn't know they were singing His praise
when they made that statement. And humanly speaking, who is
the most responsible for the death of the Lord Jesus Christ?
The scribes and the Pharisees. Now let me say three things about
the religion of the scribes and the Pharisees. Number one, this
is the religion of the natural man. Baptist, Methodist, some
other religion. This is the religion of the natural
man. That's why religion is such an evil thing. That's the second
thing I want to say about it. It's evil. Oh, it's evil religion
before. Man's religion is evil. The third
thing I want to say about it is I see it in me. I see it so
clearly in me, this thing of being a Pharisee, and it's so
hypocritical. If God ever gives us light as
to who we are, we'll see this and we'll be offended with it.
Now, let me close by giving how the gospel is the direct opposite
of the religion of the scribes and the Pharisees. First, it's
not the religion of hypocrisy. You know, most people who take
the title sinner don't really believe they're sinners. Oh,
well, sir, I make mistakes. Sure, I'm human. I make mistakes.
I've done bad things. Maybe they feel bad about the
bad things they've done and feel guilty, but they don't really
believe they're a sinner before God. A sinner before God is someone
who all they do is sin. They cannot not sin. They can't
feel themselves superior to anybody, and they know they have no claims
on God. If God cast them off and sent
them to hell, he would be just and holy. That's what a sinner
knows. Not many people take that title. Oh, I do bad things. I'm
only human. I've made mistakes. I've even
done evil things. But that's not real. It's not real. You know, the
Bible speaks of unfeigned faith and unfeigned love. That means
unhypocritical. I really do believe that Christ
is my only righteousness before God. I really believe that, and
I'm relying only on Him. Being a sinner, He's the only
hope I have. I don't have any other hope.
And I really do love the Lord Jesus Christ. I love His gospel.
I love His way of saving. It's unfeigned. It's not hypocritical. And the believer is harder on
himself than he is on others. He actually esteems others as
better than himself. And when something's going wrong,
he always looks to himself first. Am I the problem? He's not giving
himself a different standard than he gives others. He gives
himself the harder standard. A believer doesn't do what he
does to be seen of men. And anytime I see that and raising
up its ugly head in me, it makes me so ashamed. No, we want Christ
to get all the glory. And none goes to us. A believer
believes what the Lord said about sin. He knows his heart is the
problem. That's why he cries out with
David, creating me a clean heart. Out of my heart comes nothing
but sin. And I need a new heart for you to give me. A believer
doesn't care anything about man's traditions. He just wants to
know what the Word of God says. I don't want to hear human traditions. I could care less about man-made
religion and domination and doctrines and dogmas. I want to hear what
God actually says in His Word through the law and through the
testimony. If they speak not according to this, it's because
there's no light in them. All a believer wants to hear
is of the Lord Jesus Christ. A believer has learned not to
covet in this sense. The writer of the Hebrews said,
let your conversation be without covetousness and be content with
such things as you have. Now, regarding material things,
we all have plenty and we all want more. It's wicked. We live like kings, and we ought
to use what we have for the glory of God to help others. But that's
really not what's being spoken of when he's talking about let
your conversation be without cutthroats and be content with
such things as you have. If you're a believer, what do
you have? You have Christ. Scripture says He is all. If
you have all, there's nothing for you to covet. There's nothing
for you to have because you already have everything. You have His
righteousness. Well, how could you covet anything
else? You have His grace. You have His mercy. You have
His presence. You have the peace of God that
passes all understanding. What is there to covet? A believer
does not reject the counsel of God against himself. He agrees
with it. He confesses that he's sinned before God, that every
mouth may be stopped and all the world stand guilty before
God. A believer hates a religion of intimidation. We stand fast
in the liberty, the freedom where with Christ is made free. I don't
want to control people. I don't want to put my thumb
on people to think that I've done something in order to get them
to respond to me. That's evil. We love freedom, grace. A believer does not sit in judgment
upon the Lord. He justifies the Lord in whatever
He does. He doesn't reject the counsel of God. He doesn't criticize
God for what He does. He believes whatever God does
is right. He really believes God's right and I'm wrong and
whatever He says is right. We really believe that. We don't
sit in judgment. Somebody hears how God's elected some and passed
by others. They say, well, how could that
be fair? A believer knows fair would be him going to hell. He's
not going to sit in judgment on God. He knows that whatever
God does is just, right, holy, and true. A believer truly is
one who has been forgiven much. Oh, how I have been forgiven
much. However many sins, billions of
sins I've committed since I've been born. I was born in sin.
And I've been forgiven much. And by His grace, I love much. I love Him who's forgiven me
so much. I don't feel good about my love.
I wouldn't even commend it. But because I've been forgiven
much, oh, I love much. And here's the thing about the
Gospel. It actually makes somebody righteous. The Lord said, except
your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the scribes
and Pharisees. Well, the gospel does this. For He, God the Father,
hath made Him, the Lord Jesus Christ, to be sin for us. who
knew no sin, He knew no sin, that we, every believer, might
be made the very righteousness of God in Him. My sin became
His sin. That's why He died. His righteousness
becomes my righteousness. Indeed, my righteousness does
exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees. I have
the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, we have this
message on CD and DVD if you like. Email or call the church,
we'll send you a copy. This is Todd Knopper, turning
to God we'll be pleased to let Himself known
to you. That's our prayer. Amen. To request a copy of the sermon
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