Let's turn with me to the twenty-third
chapter of the book of Matthew. I've entitled this message, The
weightier matters of the law. The weightier matters of the
law. Verse twenty-three. 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 ye to have and not
to leave the other undone. Ye blind guides which strain
at a gnat, and swallow a camel." Now, I request that you would
pray for me as I try to bring this message, that I might preach
the gospel, preach the mind of the Spirit from this passage
of And I would request that you pray for yourself, that the Lord
would give you hearing ears. Pray that he give me a word and
that he give you ears to hear regarding this subject of the
weightier matters of the law. Now, this is a part of the Lord's
scathing denunciation. of the scribes and the Pharisees,
and this was the sermon that sealed his death. Now, I would like for us to read
this entire chapter. I'm not going to really comment
on it, but this verse of Scripture is a part of this message of
our Lord to the scribes and Pharisees. And this infuriated them to the
point that they said, we've had it with him no more. You know,
it amazes me the way the Lord talks in this. I mean, he says,
you snakes. You generation of vipers, you
hypocrites, you blind guides. That's strong language, isn't
it? And notice what our Lord says to these people. Let's read
this chapter together. Matthew chapter 23. Then spake
Jesus to the multitude and to his disciples, saying, The scribes
and the Pharisees said in Moses' feet, All therefore, whatsoever
they bid you observe, that observe and do, but 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 them with one of their fingers. But
all their works they do for to be seen of men. They make broad
their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their garments.
And they love the uppermost rooms of the feasts, and the chief
seats in the synagogues, and greetings in the markets, and
to be called with men, Rabbi, Rabbi. But be not ye called Rabbi,
for one is your master, even Christ, and all ye are brethren. And call no man your father upon
the earth, for one is your father which is in heaven. Neither be
ye called masters, for one is your master, even Christ. But
he that is greatest among you shall be your servant, and whosoever
shall exalt himself shall be abased, and he that shall humble
himself shall be exalted. But woe unto you scribes and
Pharisees, hypocrites, for you shut up the kingdom of heaven
against men. For you neither go in yourselves, neither suffer
ye them that are entering to go in. Woe unto you, scribes
and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows' houses,
and for a pretense make long prayer. Therefore you shall receive
the greater damnation. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites! For you compass sea and land
to make one proselyte, and when he's made you, make him twofold
more the child of hell than yourselves. Woe unto you, you blind guides,
which say, Whosoever shall swear by the temple, it's nothing,
you're not bound to keep your promise, but whosoever shall
swear by the gold of the temple, the gift you give, he's a debtor.
You fools and blind, for whether it's greater, the gold or the
temple that sanctifyeth the gold. And whosoever shall swear by
the altar, it's nothing, but whosoever swears by the gift
that's upon it, he's guilty. You fools and blind, for whether
it's greater, the gift or the altar that sanctifyeth the gift.
Whoso therefore shall swear by the altar, sweareth by it, and
all things thereon. And whoso shall swear by the
temple, sweareth by it, and by him that dwelleth therein. And
he that shall swear by heaven, sweareth by the throne of God,
and by him that sitteth thereon. 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 ye to have done,
and not left the other undone. You blind guides would strain
it in that, and swallow a camel. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites! For you may clean the outside
of the cup and of the platter, but within they're full of extortion
and excess. Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse
first that which is within the cup and the platter, that the
outside of them may be clean also. Woe unto you, scribes and
Pharisees, hypocrites, for you are like widened sepulchers,
which indeed appear beautiful outward, but within are full
of dead men's bones and of all uncleanness. Even so, you also
outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within you're full of
hypocrisy and iniquity. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites, because you build the tombs of the prophets and
garnish the sepulchres of the righteous and say, if we'd been
in the days of our fathers, we wouldn't have been partakers
with him in the blood of the prophets. Wherefore, ye be witnesses unto
yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets.
Fill ye up then to measure of your fathers, you serpents, you
generation of vipers. How can you escape the damnation
of hell? Wherefore, behold, I send unto
you prophets and wise men and scribes, and some of them you
shall kill and crucify, and some of them you shall scourge in
your synagogues and persecute them from city to city, that
upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from
the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, the son
of Berkeus, whom you slew between the temple and the altar. Verily
I say unto you, all these things shall come upon this generation.
O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and
stonest them which are sent unto thee. How often would I have
gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens
under wings, and you would not. Behold, your house is left unto
you desolate. For I say unto you, you shall
not see me henceforth, till you shall say, Blessed is he that
cometh in the name of the Lord. Now, can you see where some folks
were greatly offended by this message, the things our Lord
said to these people? Now, let's look back at verse
23. This is our text. Woe unto you. And when the Lord says, woe.
That means woe. Woe unto you. Scribes and Pharisees. That's
the natural man's religion. You know, when he's speaking
to scribes and Pharisees, he's talking what we all are by nature.
This is man's natural religion. This is Baptist. This is Catholic.
This is Presbyterian. This is Protestant. This is man's
natural religion. Phariseeism. Woe unto you scribes
and Pharisees. Hypocrites. Actors. Every believer is aware of hypocrisy
in their life. Are you aware of hypocrisy in
your life? Presenting an image? And you know, sometimes it's
a good thing to present an image. Hold your finger there and turn
back to Matthew chapter 6. I want you to see this. Verse 16. Moreover, when you fast, be not
as the hypocrites of a sad countenance, for they disfigure their faces
that they may appear unto men to fast. It's obvious looking
at them they haven't had anything to eat. It's obvious looking
at them that they're very upset and oh, they're so burdened.
It's obvious. Verily I say unto you, they have
their reward, but thou and thou fastest. Maybe you're in trouble
and shame. And what does he say to do? Anoint
thy head and wash thy face, that thou appear not unto men to fast,
but unto thy father which is in secret. And thy father which
seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. Now there's a good
image to project, isn't it? Don't come all down and No, you
come with a washed face, even if you are down, even if you
are, you come with this washed face that you don't appear to
men to fast. That's good in that sense. But what our Lord is talking
about, go back to Matthew chapter 23. Here's what the Lord is talking
about. Verse two, the scribes and the
Pharisees said in Moses seat. All there whatsoever they bid
you observe, that observe and do, but do not after their works,
for they say, and they do not. They expect you to keep the law,
but they don't keep the law. They try to put rules on you
that they themselves don't keep because they're hypocrites. I love what Paul said in Romans
chapter 2, verse 1, when he says, Thou art inexcusable, O man,
whosoever thou art that judgest another. For thou that judgest,
doest the same things." Anything you look down your nose at anybody
about is pure hypocrisy because you do the same things. Somebody says, I don't. Boy,
you're a good hypocrite. You've really fooled yourself.
You're acting so good that you think you're real. He says, Woe unto you, scribes
and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you pay tithe of all these different
herbs, and he's not criticizing them for this. He goes on to
say this ought you to have done. You should have paid these tithes.
He's not criticizing him for this, but he says you shouldn't
have left the other undone. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites, for you pay tithes and so on, but you've omitted
the weightier matters of the law. Now, what this tells me
is that there are weightier matters of the law, weightier matters
of God's word. Now, everything God revealed
is important. And I wouldn't dare want to be
somebody to sit in judgment and say, well, this is important
and that's not because it's all important. If God revealed it,
it's all important. But it's also true that there
are weightier matters of the law, for instance, What is more
important for you to understand? Have God save sinners? Or the
difference between different views of eschatology? When Christ
will come back, like pre-millennial and post-millennial and all-millennial
and all those different views people have, what's more important?
What's weightier? I want to know, have God save
sinners? That's the weightier matters of the law. Now, notice
he says to these Pharisees, you've omitted You've left out, you've
passed over the weightier matters of the law. Now, I think this
is interesting. Pharisees represent my natural
religion, your natural religion. This is the Baptists. This is
the Catholics. This is the Presbyterians. You name any kind of denomination,
put your name in there. There it is. Phariseeism. That's
what we all are by nature. Now, what the Pharisee does is
he leaves out what's critical. And a false prophet, I say this,
I hope somebody will understand and hear what I'm saying. A false
prophet generally is most clearly identified by what he leaves
out. Not by what he says, but by what he leaves out. You hear
a free willer and you know he's a false prophet, there's nothing...
Deceitful about, I mean, he's deceitful, but you know right
off the bat what he's saying. It's wrong. It's when somebody
comes in and just leaves stuff out. That's where they're dangerous.
They come closer to the truth. Now, these fellas omit. They
leave out the weightier matters of the law. And in this passage
of scripture, he tells us what the weightier matters of the
law are. Judgment. Mercy. And faith. And in that passage of scripture,
we open the service with, in Luke chapter 11, he says, judgment
and the love of God. So here are the four, this is
what the Savior says, are the four weightier matters of the
law. Judgment, mercy, faith, and the
love of God. Now, how in the world do you
go about omitting these things? What happens when someone omits
the weightier matters of the law? Now, the Lord goes on to
say in this next verse, he says, you blind God, which strain it
and that's something that's really not that important. You make
a big issue out of, but you swallow a camel, something that is. I
said that wrong, didn't I? When you strain it and that you
make it too much emphasis on something that's not important
and then you swallow a camel. Putting emphasis on something
that, not putting something, emphasis on something that is
important. Now the first thing he mentions is judgment. This
is the first weightier matter of the law. Judgment. Judgment. The word is crisis. Now is the crisis of this world. The word means to decide. To distinguish. To pass sentence. Let me show you the idea of the
word. Turn to Matthew chapter 25. This is the word that usually
refers to Judgment Day. Verse 31. When the Son of Man
shall come in his glory. And all the holy angels with
him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory, and before
him shall be gathered all nations, and he shall separate them one
from another, as a shepherd divided his sheep from the goats." Now
here we have judgment going on. Him making decisions, separating,
passing sentence. Here's a sheep, here's a goat. Judgment. How many times do we
read in the scripture of judgment day? And this is something to
think about. You know, everybody, and I love thinking about this,
everybody is going to stand before God in judgment. Nobody's going
to get out of this. Everybody in this room, everybody
outside of this room, everybody that ever lived, Great people,
supposedly an insignificant people, all people will stand before
God in judgment and they're going to be judged by him. And he's
utterly just. He's utterly impartial. He's
no respecter of persons, complete, impartial justice and judgment. Justice and judgment are the
habitation of thy throne. Look in John, Chapter three,
I want to I want to look at several scriptures real quickly where
this word is used. Judgment is sometimes translated
condemnation. Verse 19. And this is the condemnation,
that's the same word judgment, this is the judgment, this is
the condemnation that light is coming to the world, light as
to how God saves sinners by Christ, light as to how a sinner can
be justified. Through the blood and the work
of the Lord Jesus Christ, light is coming to the world. And watch
this. And men loved darkness rather
than light because their deeds were evil. Look in John chapter
5, verse 24. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me,
hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation."
That's the word, judgment. But it's passed from death unto
life. I'm not going to stand condemned.
I'm going to stand justified. Look in John chapter 7, verse
24. The Lord says, Judge not according
to appearance, according to the way things look. The fact of
the matter is, Don't believe anything you see. Judge not according
to appearance, but judge righteous judgment. There is such a thing. Look in John chapter 12, verse
31. Now is the judgment of this world. Now shall the prince of this
world be cast out. He's talking about the cross,
because he says, and if I if I be lifted up from the earth
will draw him into me. This, he said, signifying what
death he should die. Look in John, chapter 16. Verse
eight. And when he has come, he will
reprove, he will convince the world of sin, of righteousness
and of judgment, of sin because they believed on me, of righteousness
because I go to my father and you see me no more, of judgment
because of the prince of this world is judged. All judgment
took place on the cross. Now, we see how the Bible uses
this word. It's throughout the scriptures,
judgment. Now, here's my question. How do you go about omitting
this weightier matter? How do you go about leaving out
this weightier matter? Now, there's two ways you can
do it. First, by just not saying anything about it. Just leaving
it alone. Not saying it. We won't go there
as to what that means. We'll go on to something else
that's easier to understand. First, by leaving it out. Or
secondly, by taking the same word and changing the meaning. and thus leaving it out and passing
it by. Now, the false balance, the scripture
says, is an abomination to the Lord. But a just weight is His
delight. Now, God is so completely just
that if I leave out this judgment, I've left out who God is. Now,
here's how you use the word judgment and change the meaning. I've
got three ways here. I want you to listen real carefully. This
is very important. I want everybody to hear what I'm saying. How
is it that a preacher can use the word judgment and yet change
the meaning of it? Well, here's the first way. Anytime
a man preaches salvation by works in any form, anytime a man makes
salvation in some way dependent upon what you do. You see, the Bible forbids that. By grace have you saved. And
if you take some work that you're supposed to perform, here's what
the Bible says about my works and your works. What? Filthy
rags. That's God's testimony. And if
I say salvation is by works, I am saying that the holy God
can accept my filthy rags and I can be saved by filthy rags. And therefore, I pervert judgment. You see that? Salvation by works
is a perversion of judgment. Now, here's another way you can
pervert judgment. Remember, judgment is God's absolute
justice. God is just. No sin is going
to go unpunished. Here's another way you can pervert,
change judgment by teaching what is known as universal redemption. By saying that Jesus Christ died
for all people. By saying that he paid for the
sins of everybody. But salvation is up to what you
do with what he did. Now, that's a perversion of justice.
You're going to tell me that Jesus Christ can pay for my sins
and I might wind up in hell anyway. You know what I say about that?
I say God is not just. If God can punish me for something,
my sins has already been punished and sent me to hell anyway. I
perverted justice. There's no justice there. I perverted
judgment. Just the teaching of universal
redemption is a perversion of justice and judgment. Now, the
first is teaching salvation by works. The second is teaching
universal redemption that Christ died for everybody. And the third. Would be stated. Like this, looking
at Christ's suffering as nothing more than a legal transfer. Now,
that's the way most people, most churches look. Churches is a
loose term, not religious organizations. They look at the death of Christ
as a legal transfer. My sins were legally charged
to him and he was punished for them because they legally became
his. But it goes no further than that.
Now, I don't claim. To understand this, but this
is very important for me to understand if that's the case, if Christ
was just charged with my sins and punished for my sins and
it goes no further than that, just a legal transfer. God's
not just the only way God can be just is if he punishes the
person for what they did. Now, my sin so truly became his
that when God punished him, he was given him exactly what he
deserved. And to loosen up on that, it's it's a pasted. If
my sins were merely pasted on him, but he remains the same,
then His righteousness is merely pasted on me, and I remain the
same. There's no justice in that. There's
no judgment in that. That's a perversion of justice.
That's a perversion of judgment. That's omitting the weightier
matters of all judgments. God is absolutely just. Justice and judgment are the
habitation of thy throne. Now, how this happened, I don't
claim to understand. I just believe. My sin so much
became His. that he became guilty of it.
Like that passage of scripture we looked at last week or the
week before, like he was wounded for our transgressions, that's
translated he was defiled. He was profaned. He was polluted. He was stained for our transgressions. Now that breaks my heart to think
of that. But that's exactly what took place on the cross when
God judged him. It's because he had it coming.
And anything short of that is a perversion of judgment. They've omitted the weightier
matters of the law of judgment. The next thing he says is mercy. Now, everybody uses the term
mercy. I believe in the mercy of God. Well, how do you omit?
How do you pervert what the Bible teaches regarding mercy? Well,
What's the Bible mean by mercy? Here's the best definition of
mercy. But God. You were dead in trespasses and
sins. You walked according to the prince of the power of the
air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience,
among whom we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of
our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and in the mind.
And we were by nature the children of wrath, just like everybody
else. But God, not but you, not but you turned around, not but
you repented, not but you turned over a new leaf. But God, who
is rich in mercy, For His great love wherewith He loved us, even
when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ.
You see, in the Gospel, mercy's not at the end. Mercy's at the
beginning. You don't do things in order
to get mercy. God gives you mercy sovereignly. It's sovereign mercy. It's the
only kind of mercy there is. Now, how do I admit this? Well,
here's one way I admit it. I admit it when I deny responsibility
and I blame everything on God's sovereignty. I can't help it
that I'm a sinner. I was born that way. It's God's
fault, ultimately. That's the way we think. And
so I become a victim rather than guilty. And I, you know, if you're
a victim, you don't need mercy, do you? Not really. Victims don't
need mercy. I omit the mercy of God when
I make it a payment, when I deny God's sovereignty. You know,
some people, they hear that God has mercy on whom he will have
mercy. They say, how could that be fair? How could it be fair for
him to save one and pass by another? Well, what you're saying is,
is God owes you mercy when you think that way. But that's all
we say. And we omit mercy. We pass by
mercy. We change the meaning of the
word. And then he speaks of omitting
faith. The faith. What is faith? Faith
is believing God. God said it. I believe it. In Genesis chapter 15, verse
6. It says, Abraham believed God. God said to Abraham, you're
going to have all these descendants. Just look up at the sky. Can
you count the stars? No. So shall your descendants
be. Abraham believed God. He had no evidence that what
God said was going to come to pass. I mean, Sarah had already
gone through menopause. He was an old man. He couldn't
produce life, but Abraham believed God. He staggered not at the
promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving
glory to God, being fully persuaded that what God had promised, he
was able also to perform. That's what faith is. It's believing
God. Faith is reliance. It's not merely giving a sin.
I see the scripture teaches that. It's more than that. It's reliance.
1 John 4, 16, we have known and believed or relied upon the love
that God has to us. Now, here's what I'm relying
on. That God's love is in Christ. That's what I'm relying on. That
God's love is in Christ and therefore it's saving effectual love. I'm
relying on all that He loves. He saves. I'm relying on that. Now, when I omit faith, I make
faith out either to be less than what it is or more than what
it is. I make it less than what it is when I leave out this reliance
and just make it a cent, giving agreement to some facts. Y'all
see the Bible teaches that. I agree with that. Well, that's
not faith. Faith was a reliance. But I make it more than what
it is when I introduce the word and to it. We're saved by faith
and something else. Fill in the blank. That's omitting
this weightier matter of the law. And then in Luke chapter 11,
our Lord was speaking in a different time. He said, you've paid tithes
and so on, but you pass over judgment and the love of God. The love of God. I suppose that
there's nothing more perverted by this religious generation
than what they say regarding the love of God. This generation
of religious people have trivialized and passed over and made meaningless
the love of God by these blasphemous ideas they presented as. For
instance, God's love is unconditional. God's love is unconditional.
He can love you just as you are. What kind of God could love you
just as you are? Boy, there ain't much to that
God. If He could love you just as you are, He's not very holy,
is He? He's not very just. God's love
is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. If God loves you, it's because
you're in the Lord Jesus Christ and you bring out His love because
you're united to Christ. Just as He loves Christ, He loves
you. You see, anything short of that
is a blasphemous, unconditional love. It's foolishness. Here's
another blasphemous idea regarding the love of God. God loves all
men the same. He loves Jacob and Esau equally. He loves Peter and Judas equally.
Now, wait a minute. The Bible says in Romans 9, 13,
quoting from Malachi chapter 1, Jacob have I loved, but Esau
have I hated. God said that. Well, that means
he loved Esau less. Can God love less? What kind
of God can love less? You see, everybody God loves,
he saves and don't don't get tripped up on this thing. Well,
how could he hate Esau? I tell you what, as I can see
why he'd hate me. Can you can you see why he'd
cast you off apart from the Lord Jesus Christ? Well, of course
you can if you're a believer. I don't have to convince you
of that. You know it. So thank God he loved Jacob. The love
of God which is in Christ. Nothing shall separate us from
the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Now, this generation
that we live in, they pass by. They omit. They change the meaning of the
weightier matters of the law. Judgment. Mercy. Faith. and the love of God, and
I tremble at the thought of me and you doing that. May the Lord
deliver us from this horrible crime that our Lord laid to the
charge of the Pharisees' account. You pay tithes. These were Bible-believing
people. They believed the Bible was the
Word of God, and they'd fight for it. They were very religious. They were very moral. They had
all kinds of things going for them. But he said, you have omitted
the weightier matters of the law. Judgment. Mercy. Faith. And the love of God. May the
Lord enable us to sound forth a clear message in this generation
regarding judgment, mercy, faith, and the love of God. Let's pray.