Okay, back to the bookmark, Matthew
chapter 23. Matthew chapter 23. I'm not going
to take a particular verse for a title like I normally do. I'm
going to use as a title for the message, the subject of our Lord's
preaching. The subject of our Lord's preaching
in the temple. And here's the subject of what
he is preaching to these people in the temple. Eight Woes Against
False Religion. He mentions that woe unto you,
woe unto you, eight times. Eight woes against false religion,
or we could give it this title, Eight Woes of Condemnation. Condemnation. Eight Great Woes
Against Self-Righteousness. Self-righteousness is a damning
sin. While the Lord Jesus Christ is
standing in the temple where the Pharisees taught the way
of salvation by the works of the law, and while he had the
ear of the people, he's in the temple here in a public way,
and while he had the ear of the people in a most public manner,
harshly denounced their teaching, publicly condemned them with
the most scathing and mocking words. Notice verse 1, Matthew
23, then spake Jesus to the multitude and to his disciples. And we
know that he's in the temple, This is his last public sermon
before he marches to the cross to die for our sins. This is
preached just a few days before the Lord lays down his life for
his people. Eight times he uses this expression,
woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees. Seven times he calls these self-righteous
religious people hypocrites. Twice he calls them blind fools. And lastly, he denounces and
calls them in verse 33, he says, you're a generation of snakes. You serpents, generation of vipers,
how can you escape the damnation of hell? Now, the Lord Jesus
Christ looks right into the heart of these Pharisees and exposes
their heart publicly. publicly before the people. Now,
why did the Lord choose such harsh language against them to
condemn them? You won't find any harsher words,
any truer words than the Lord preaches right here. Why does
he use such harsh language? Well, the glory of God was at
stake and the souls of the salvation of sinners was at stake. It is the truth that sets sinners
free. What is this solemn truth to
be learned from the words of our Lord Jesus Christ? Here's
the lesson. The doctrine of salvation by
the works of the law or by creature merit or man's righteousness
is an abomination in the sight of God. You think about that.
It's abomination in the sight of God. My pastor used to quote
this from another old preacher. who said, I'd rather stand before
God charged with murder than stand before God charged with
self-righteousness. Think about that now. Think about
that now. Our Lord said to those same people
in Luke 16, you are they which justify yourselves before men,
but God knows your heart. That which is highly esteemed
among men is an abomination in the sight of God. And Paul said,
if righteousness comes by the law, comes by what I do, Galatians
2.21, then Christ is dead and vain. Over there in Isaiah 65,
verse 5, there is a scripture that's most interesting. You've
heard the statement before about someone saying, well, he is holier
than thou. You've heard that statement?
That comes from Isaiah 65. Or they say, stand not thou near
to me, for I am holier than thou. And you know what the Lord says
about that? He says, all those who have that self-righteous
attitude, it's nothing but smoke in my nose, a fire that burns
all the day long. It stinks. It stinks. It stinks. Now I see a parallel
between the Lord's day and ours, don't you? He was surrounded
by the very religious crowd, yet they did not know the way
of true salvation in Christ, did they? They didn't know the
truth. Most religious, and we have much religion in our country,
don't we? One of the things I do when I
drive across the country, we like to take the back roads and
go through these little cities, but if you go through these little
cities, you see churches on every corner. We have churches everywhere,
church buildings everywhere. We have Bibles everywhere. Every
motel has a Bible. Go to the hospital, there's a
Bible there. Go to the jail, and I've not
been to one lately, but if you go to jail, there's probably
a Bible there too. We have religious music. We have
religious TV. I mean, there are stations. I
don't watch those stations, but there are religious stations
that just have preacher after preacher after preacher. I can't
watch that stuff because it's nauseating to me. We have religious
TV. We have preachers everywhere.
We're flooded with religious books, religious music, religious
programs. And now we have the blessing
of the internet, YouTube videos. I mean, you can find a religious,
YouTube video, millions of them. This religion, that religion,
all kind of religion. Not much truth, but a lot of
religion. We have too much religion. We have too much religion and
too little true gospel preaching. Religion without truth is deadly.
damning to our soul. Religion apart from the true
Christ of God is mere, a mere refuge of lies. It's the mere
refuge of lies that one day God will expose in holy judgment. Religion without truth in Christ
and religion without true repentance toward a true sovereign God is
nothing but a falsehood that needs to be exposed. And that's
what the Lord is doing here. These folks weren't happy. when
they heard the words of the Lord Jesus Christ, because just in
a few days, they said, crucify him, kill him. And they did,
they did. True faith acknowledges the truth
of God, who God is, who we are, who salvation, salvation is in
a person. True faith always looks to the
Lord Jesus Christ. True repentance always acknowledges
the truth. Like true faith, it acknowledges
and loves the truth. And true repentance knows that
salvation is the gift of God, that salvation is of the Lord.
So let us listen to our Lord's preaching this morning and ask
the Lord to be our teacher and to show us the way of salvation
in the Lord Jesus Christ. You interested to hear what he
has to say? Here's the first thing, verse 13. Woe unto you,
scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. A hypocrite is one who is acting
out something. He's a play actor. Woe unto you
scribes. The scribes were the ones who
rewrote the scripture and passed it out publicly to everyone.
The Pharisees were the ones who enforced the laws. But he calls
them hypocrites. You shut up the kingdom of heaven
against men or you shut them out. Well, you neither go in
yourselves, neither suffer you them that are entering to go
in. You shut up the kingdom of God. You shut up the kingdom
of heaven against man. Now, no mere religious man or
organization or church can shut the doors of heaven. No mere
man can do that. Christ's kingdom's built upon
his blood and righteousness, and no man can stop that. He
said, I'll build my church in the gates of hell, shall not
prevail against it. We know that Christ is the door.
He said, I'm the door by me. If any man enter in, he shall
be saved. Yet these Pharisees tried the best they could. This
is exactly what the Pharisees tried to do by discrediting the
ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ and his apostles. How many times
did they call him a demon-possessed man, a wine-bibber, a gluttonous
man? Oh, by the way, did you know
he's a friend of sinners? My God, he is. Many in our day
will do their best to persuade sinners to stay clear of those
who preach sovereign grace, of those who preach salvation in
Christ alone, by grace alone, by faith alone, that's revealed
in the word of God alone, to the glory of God alone. As one
local preacher some years back got on the local radio program
and warned everybody in this congregation that they need to
immediately leave this ministry. turn their back on this preacher
and walk away. Why did he do that? He hated
what I was preaching, salvation by the sovereign grace of God. He told everybody that attended
this ministry to leave, and then he denounced me on the radio
so all could hear that I was a false prophet. Well, by God's
grace, I'm still here. By God's grace, I'm still preaching
the same gospel message. And oh, by the way, that man
is out of the ministry. They don't even know where he
is anymore. The second thing we see in verse 14, the Lord
condemned these religious hucksters for their abuse and self-serving
interest against the common people, verse 14. Woe unto you, scribes
and Pharisees and hypocrites, for you devour widows' houses. And for a pretense or for a big
show, you make long prayers, therefore you shall receive the
greater condemnation. The Lord condemned these religious
hucksters for their abuse and self-serving interest against
the common people. They prayed long prayers only
to defraud people of their money. And they prayed upon the widows
in that day. You know, preachers, especially
TV preachers, do the same thing. Most of their support comes from
poor widows. And they would rob and take every
penny they have that they might live in a mansion and fly in
a Learjet and drive the biggest car, have the biggest show. They prayed long prayers only
to defraud people of their money. You see, the love of money is
the root of evil. They only seek to enrich themselves
through the poverty of their followers. While true servants
of the Lord, the Lord's people, they don't enslave their hearers
or try to scam them. They are servants of the Lord
seeking his glory. on the front of our bulletin
for the last 30 plus years. There's a scripture verse there.
It says, we preach not ourselves, but Jesus Christ the Lord, and
ourselves your servant for Jesus' sake. The Lord himself came not
to be ministered unto, but to give his life a ransom for many. We are servants of the Lord as
we serve the Lord's people. We're not seeking fame and fortune. Thirdly, look at verse 15, woe
unto you scribes and Pharisees, for you compass sea and land,
sea and land, go across the sea and everywhere in the land to
make one proselyte, to make one convert. And when you have convinced
him to join up with you, you make him twofold more the child
of hell. than yourself. What? Condemnation. What condemnation? The Lord condemns
these Pharisees who are seeking and recruiting followers, seeking
to convert sinners to their pernicious ways rather than preaching the
truth of the gospel and leaving folks to the hands of Almighty
God to convert and to call. Now, there's nothing wrong with
apostatizing. There's nothing wrong with proselytizing.
Our Lord said go into all the world and preach the gospel to
every creature. In Matthew 28, the last few verses
of this book of Matthew, he said, no, that I have all power in
heaven or go therefore preaching the gospel, making disciples. So there's nothing wrong with
proselytizing and preaching the truth. The problem is, is when
you proselytize or go out and try to get converts with lies
of men rather than the truth. Now, I had a knock on my door
last night at 6.30. And of course, I got up and answered
the door. And when I looked out the door,
there was two young men standing there. And of course, I recognized
who they were right away because they had their little black badge
on their white shirt that said Elder Hall and Elder Jones. And I knew who they were. I knew
what they were trying to do. They were trying to apostatize
me or they're trying to convince me that Mormonism is right. They were Mormon missionaries.
They hit the wrong door because I grew up in the Mormon religion. And I wasn't unkind. I feel sorry
for these young men, because I know exactly where they are.
I was there for many years. I cut my teeth on works revision.
And I asked them where they're from. One was from South Jordan,
Utah, and the other from Orem, Utah. And I said, well, I grew
up in Kaysville, Utah. I said, I grew up a Mormon. I
said, I know all about you guys. And we had a quite frank conversation. And I had him pull out his Bible,
and I had him read. I said, turn to Matthew 23, verse
33. Read that verse to me. You serpents,
generation of vipers, how can you escape the damnation of hell?
I said, that's a description of Mormonism, Phariseeism. Well, it was interesting. Before they left, they told me,
I told them that I pastored the church here. And they said, well,
what time's your service on Wednesday night? We'd like to come to the
service. I said, well, 7 o'clock Wednesday night. I hope to see
you here. And they said, well, we'll be here. So if you see
a couple young men, they're 18, 19 years old. If you see them
show up here Wednesday night, they'll have their badge. They
can't take it off in public. And you'll know that we have
Mormons among us. God's able to save Mormons, too.
He saved this one. He can save any, can't he? Maybe. I don't know. I told those young
men, I said, the only reason you're here is because of God's
sovereign purpose and providence for me to tell you the truth.
It's horribly wrong to talk to folks to talk folks into making
a profession of faith, or to join the church just to have
a bigger congregation, or to brag on how big their church
is. Now, this is, when folks find
out I'm a pastor of a church, one of the first things they
ask me, and I've been asked this question many, many times, first
thing they ask me, how big is your church? How big is it? You know what I say? About 40 by 80. That's about
how big this building is and it hasn't grown one inch in the
last 38 years. They're interested in numbers.
They put a board over here with numbers. Biggest crowd, biggest
money. Why do they do that? Doesn't
God know who's there? They do it to be seen of men,
don't they? True servants of the Lord are interested in the
sole salvation of sinners only by the means the Lord has ordained,
and that's the preaching of the gospel. We're not here playing
games. We're here preaching the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's ordained that to the salvation
of his people. We're determined as Paul to know
nothing among you but Jesus Christ and him crucified. Whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. That's true. On the name of the
Lord. But he writes this. How then
shall they call upon him in whom they've not heard? How shall
they hear without a preacher? How shall they call upon him
in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in
him of whom they've not heard? And how shall they preach except
they be sent of God? Sent of God. It pleased God by
the foolishness of preaching to call out his people. To call
out his people. Now here's the fourth thing,
verse 16 down through verse 22. Verse 16 down through 22. Woe unto you, blind guides, which
say, whosoever shall swear by the temple, well, that's nothing. But you say, whosoever shall
swear by the gold of the temple, he's guilty. They thought more
of the gold than the temple, didn't they? You fools and blind
guides, for whether it's greater the gold or the temple that sanctified
the gold. Whosoever shall swear by the
altar, it's nothing, they say. Whosoever is swerved by the gift
that's upon the altar, he's guilty. We are not redeemed with corruptible
things, silver and gold. You fools, fools, blind, whether
it's greater the gift or the altar. that sanctified the gift. Whoso therefore shall swear by
the altar, swears by it, and by all things thereon. Whosoever
shall swear by the temple, swears by it, and by him that dwelleth
therein. That's God who dwells in the
temple. And he that swears by heaven, swears by the throne
of God, and by him that sits on the throne. Now our Lord calls
these Pharisees here blind guides, and fools, fools, fools. They will bend and twist the
scripture to make it say what it does not mean, only to seek
their own honor and glory. Someone said to me years ago,
if you torture a scripture text long enough, you can make it
say anything you want. If you torture it long enough,
they tortured water baptism to make it to be salvation. And
some have even tortured what they call baptism for the dead.
Mormons do that. That's why they do the genealogy
to find out all their dead ancestors and they baptize them into their
kingdom. Tommy rot, that's all that is. If the blind follow
the blind, our Lord said they'll both wind up in the ditch, right? the ditch of eternal ruin. The
fool has said in his heart, there is no God. These Pharisees made
the people believe you could not worship God by faith. You
had to bring your gold or your gifts, which is greater, the
gold or the temple, the gift or the altar that sanctified
the gift, which is greater, the way of self-salvation or the
throne of God, the God of heaven, who sits upon the throne. You
see, the Lord Jesus Christ, he is our temple. He is our temple. He tabernacled among us. The
Lord Jesus Christ is our altar. That's what sets his sacrifice
apart, the altar of God. Christ crucified is our altar.
The altar sets the sacrifice apart. Christ sacrificed his
humanity on the altar of his deity. It's who he is. We have
an altar. That altar is Christ. The Lord
Jesus Christ is on the throne of grace. The Lord Jesus Christ
is on the throne of glory. And he said, come to me, come
to me. Let us therefore come boldly
unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find
grace to help in time of need. Our Lord doesn't quit there.
Look at verse 23. Walling to you scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites. No wonder they wanted to crucify
him. He slays them, doesn't he? You pay tithe of mint and anise
and cumin. You're so particular about your
tithing that every herb in the garden, you're going to make
sure you pay a certain amount according to the law. And you
have omitted the real issues, judgment, mercy, and faith. ought you to have done, not to
leave the other undone. These Pharisees made a big deal
about small things and neglected the most important matters. Look
what he says in verse 24, you blind guides would strain at
a gnat, but you swallow a camel. You
strain over those small little issues, but you just gulp down
big lies. like the religious folk of our
day. They take great pains and go to great lengths about insignificant
things, moral issues of the day, while they neglect the most important
issues of the gospel, the Lord Jesus Christ. He mentions three
vital things, judgment, That means how God can be just and
justify the ungodly. Judgment and righteousness, how
God can be just, just God and Savior. One of the oldest, most
important questions is asked in the Bible. in Job 25 is how
then can man be justified with God, or how can he be cleaned
as born of a woman? They say Job is the oldest book,
older than Genesis. How can man, who is a vile sinner,
be cleaned before God? Only in Christ, only through
the blood atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ. But they omitted
how God can be a just God and Savior. how he can be just and
the justifier. And they have omitted mercy.
They've turned mercy into merit. They've turned mercy into merit.
They merit mercy or they merit grace. Turn back here to Matthew
9 for just a minute, Matthew chapter 9. Remember the Pharisees
got, oh, they got so upset when God saved Matthew, the publican,
in Matthew 9, verse 9, and Jesus passed Passed forth from thence,
and he saw a man named Matthew sitting in the seat of customs.
And he saith unto him, follow me. Now here's a man that was
a vile sinner, a publican, a tax collector. And he said, follow
me. And he rode and followed him.
And it came to pass that Jesus sat at meat in the house. Behold,
many, many publicans and sinners came, and they sat down with
him and his disciples. And the Pharisees saw it at the
same crowd. The self-righteous, they saw
it. And they said unto his disciples, why eateth your master with publicans
and sinners? And the Lord heard that and said
unto them, they that behold need not a physician, but those who
are sick. Go ye, but go ye and learn what that meaneth. I will have mercy and not sacrifice. I'm not come to call the righteous,
but sinners to repent it. The Lord will have mercy, not
sacrifice. He doesn't require a sacrifice
from us to obtain salvation. Salvation is of the Lord's mercy. He delights to show mercy to
sinners. Moses asked the Lord, show me
your glory. Remember, Exodus 33 said, I will
have mercy on whom I will have mercy. I will have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. But they omitted judgment and
righteousness. They've omitted God's sovereign
mercy on sinners. And they have omitted faith. Faith, faith. Without faith,
it's impossible to please God. Without faith, it's impossible
to please God. It is of faith, Paul writes in
Romans 4 verse 16, it is a faith that it might be by grace to
the end, the promise might be sure to all the seed, all the
seed. It is a faith that it might be
by grace. Faith is the precious gift of
God to us. Saving faith that's given of
God always looks to the Lord Jesus Christ for all, all of
salvation being justified by faith. we have peace with God
through our Lord Jesus Christ. Now look at verse 25. Verse 25 and following. The Lord
condemned them for all their outward show. Woe unto you, scribes
and Pharisees and hypocrites, for you make clean, excuse me,
the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within you're
full of extortion and excess. Notice, outside and inside. Thou
blind Pharisees, cleanse first that which is within the cup
and platter, that the outside may be clean also. The Lord condemned
them for their outward show of religion and for no inward work
in the heart. We know that salvation is a heart
work, is a heart work. Bad habits are not our problem. We're born with a bad heart,
a wicked heart, a deceitful heart, and the Lord must cleanse that
which is within the heart. Turn back to Matthew, Matthew
chapter 15. Bad habits are not our problem.
We have a bad heart. God must make us, give us a new
heart. Turn to Matthew 15. Look at verse
7, you hypocrites, well did Isaiah prophesy of you, saying, as people
draw nigh to me with their mouth, they honor me with their lips,
but the heart, the heart is far from me. But in vain they do
worship me, teaching for doctrines and commandments of men. Wow. Their heart, they had a heart
problem, a heart problem. These folks had all the outward
reformation, but they had no inward conviction of heart. no
inward regeneration of heart. Only God can give us a new heart. Only God can make us new creatures
in Christ. Only God can make us to believe
and love the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the work
of God that you believe on Him whom He has sent. Only God can
cleanse us from all sin and make us righteous in Christ. You remember the story of Saul
of Tarsus? Saul of Tarsus was a Pharisee
of Pharisees, he called himself. He said, concerning and touching
the law, he said, I was blameless. Saul of Tarsus was one of these
religious, lost, blind Pharisees until the Lord was pleased to
reveal the gospel to him and made him the Apostle Paul. If
God saved one Pharisee, he can save another. If God saved one
Mormon, he can save another by his grace. Verse 27 and 28. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites, for you liken to a whited sepulchre. You know
what a whited sepulchre is? A sepulchre is a grave or a vault. You go to the cemetery, here's
a vault above ground. It's shining, it's white, it's
beautiful. And you look at it and you see
the dates and the names and all those things. Outwardly, it looks
good, doesn't it? But what's inside? Dead man's
bone. Rotting, stinking, filthy dead
man's bones. And that's what he's saying here.
For you like unto whited sepulchers, which indeed appear outwardly
beautiful, but within you're full of dead man's bone, all
uncleanness. Even so, also outwardly you appear
righteous unto men. But within your full hypocrisy
and iniquity, the Lord knows the heart. Look back at verse
5, Matthew 23, verse 5. He said, all the work they do
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 feast. and the chief seats in the synagogue. They do what they do to beseed
of men. That's what he's saying there. Real, true service unto
the Lord is motivated by love and gratitude, not fear of punishment
or promise of reward or to beseed of men. It's the love of Christ
that constrains us. Believers are seeking His glory,
not our own. Jeremiah writes this, thus saith
the Lord, let not the wise man glory in his wisdom. Let not
the mighty man glory in his might. Let not the rich man glory in
his riches, but he that glorieth, let him glory only in the Lord.
He that understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord, would
exercise loving kindness, righteousness, and judgment in the earth. These
things I delight, saith the Lord. Righteousness, judgment, there
it is again, isn't it? Lastly, but not least, verse
29 through verse 33, woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites,
because you build tombs, monuments to the prophets who have died
and garnish the sepulcher of the righteous and say, we've
been in the days of Moses, in the days of Abraham, in the days
of Isaiah and Jeremiah. We would not have been partakers
with them of the blood of the prophets. Wherefore, you be witnesses
unto yourselves that you are the children of them that killed
the prophets. Fill up then the measure of your
fathers. You are a generation, you serpents,
snakes, vipers, A generation of wicked men. How can you escape the damnation,
the damnation and judgment of God? Well, here's what they were
doing. They bragged on the dead prophets
and killed the living ones. When Moses was alive, they hated
him. When he was gone, they bragged
on him. When he died, they bragged on him. When the apostles preached
the gospel, they were hated of all men. and were killed, now
they brag on them, don't they? While they were living and preaching,
they hated Peter and John, put them in prison, killed them.
When the reformers came preaching the gospel, they were hated of
all men, Martin Luther, Calvin, they were hated of all men. But
now that they're dead, the religious people make monuments to them,
don't they? The Catholic Church has even acknowledged Martin
Luther was a great saint of God. While he was living, they sought
to kill him. They bragged on the dead prophets and they persecuted
the living prophets. That's the way of the flesh.
That's the way of the flesh. Persecute and hound and harass
the living ones. Brag on those who can't say anything
now. In closing, any hope for these
lost sinners? Any hope for sinners? Yeah, there's
hope. Christ is our hope. Christ is
our hope. How can we escape the damnation
of hell? It's much like the question Paul
asked in Hebrews 2 verse 3. How shall we escape if we neglect
so great salvation, which at first began to be spoken by the
prophets? Now be sure you hear this. I'm
almost done. A couple minutes. Be sure you hear this, there's
only one way of salvation, and that one way of salvation is
in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why I tried to emphasize
that those two young Mormon missionaries last night, I said repeatedly,
repeatedly, salvation's in a person, in a person, not in this church,
that church, or any other church. They say, well, we're the true
church. I said, you're the church of the Antichrist. Wow. There's only one way of salvation.
His blood. His blood cleanses us from all
our sin. His righteousness. I had this
young missionary read this verse. I said, you turn to Romans chapter
4 verse 6 and read that to me. Blessed is that man to whom the
Lord imputes righteousness without works, saying, blessed are they
whose iniquities are forgiven, whose transgressions are covered.
Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. What
does that mean? That means salvation is my grace.
That's what that means. More than 43 years of believing
the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and trying to preach the
gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ for the last 40 years, I'm convinced
in my heart more than ever that salvation is in the Lord, in
the Lord Jesus Christ. Don't look anywhere else. Look
to Christ. He said, look unto me and be
ye saved. I am God. Beside me there is no other.
The wages of sin is death. The gift of God is eternal life
through Jesus Christ our Lord. In Him dwells all the fullness
of God's head bodily and we are complete in Christ. Christ is
all and in all. Is there anything else? Salvation
is Christ. He is the Savior. He is the way
of salvation. As Peter and John said, neither
is there salvation in any other. There's no other name under heaven
given among men whereby we must be saved. It's only in Christ. Only in Christ.