I Am Holier Than Thou

Now, if you will, turn in your
Bibles to the book of Isaiah, chapter 65. Isaiah 65. Our text is verse 5, which declares,
they say, they say, the Lord is talking
about some religious people here. Stand by thyself, come not near
to me, for I am holier than thou." Now in the first few verses of
this chapter, Isaiah declares that Israel would be rejected. Because of their idolatry, because
of their wickedness, they would be rejected, and that the far-off
heathen would be brought into God's kingdom by God's sovereign,
redeeming grace. Now year after year, and we know
this from Old Testament scriptures, year after year, God dealt with
Egypt, or rather with Israel, with great patience. He had great
patience toward Israel. Though they were set upon idolatry
in one form or another, they would profess to worship with
their lips while their hearts were far from him. At other times
they would altogether reject Jehovah and run after other gods. He said, you worship Baal, you
worship Ashtaroth, you practice witchcraft, communion with the
dead, they practice sorcery and all manner of evil rituals. And
then in verse 5 of this 65th chapter, they fell into another
great and terrible evil, and that is the evil of self-righteousness. Now when our Lord Jesus came
into the world, the crying sin of Israel, the damning sin of
Israel, was the sin of self-righteousness. The Pharisees carried it to such
a ridiculous end that they reckoned that the touch of a common person
would defile and pollute their sacredness. They needed to wash
even after having walked the streets. Even in the temple of
prayer, the reason that the Pharisee stood off by himself was lest
he be defiled by the shadow of a sinner. They went about seeking
out people who had broken the law, that they might punish these
people. That's why they brought our Lord,
the woman found in adultery, that she might be stoned. They
sought her out, and they found her, and they brought her to
the Master that she might be stoned. And the whole spirit
of this evil is expressed in verse 5 of Isaiah 65. They say, Stand by thyself. Come not near to me, for I am
holier than thou." And then God says, these are smoke in my nose. That is, this is obnoxious to
me, like smoke in a man's nose. He could no more bear their self-righteousness
than he could bear their idolatry. This is a fire that burneth all
the day, a smoke in my nose. It's obnoxious to me, this attitude
of self-righteousness. Now this is our subject, and
I want to look at it from six different points and present
six things about self-righteousness. And if this evil sin lives in
my heart or in your heart, We pray that the Spirit of God might
do something about it today. First of all, self-righteousness,
this attitude, I am holier than thou, stand by thyself, come
not near to me, I am holier than thou, this self-righteousness
only comes in because a man has not truly received the gospel
of Christ. and faith in Christ cannot live
in the same heart. It's impossible. If a man is
a true believer in Christ, he will not be self-righteous, he
will be humble. The Lord sayeth such as be of
a contrite spirit, not a proud spirit. The Lord is known to
them of a broken heart, not a proud heart. Self-righteousness and
faith in Christ are diametrically opposed to one another. It's
an impossibility for a man to be in Christ and to have an attitude
that I am holier than thou. For these reasons, he who has
come to Christ for salvation has come to Christ as a sinner.
David said, My sins are ever before me. Wash me and I shall
be clean. in the temple cried, God be merciful
to me, the sinner. Paul said, Jesus Christ is coming
to the world to save sinners of whom I am the chief. He who
has come to Christ as a sinner continually comes to Christ as
a sinner, for he knows in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. And he's able to say with the
apostle, O wretched man that I am. Then he who has come to
Christ will not glory in himself, but he will glory in Christ,
for he knows who maketh thee to differ. What hast thou that
thou didst not receive? So if thou hast received it,
why do you glory, why do you boast as if you did not receive
it? Where is boasting? It is excluded. God forbid that I should glory
save in the cross of Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified
unto me, and I unto the world. Yes, the man who has come to
Christ has come to Christ as a sinner. The man who has come
to Christ comes continually as a sinner. The man who has come
to Christ abides at the feet of Christ as a sinner. And he who has come to Christ
and found in him his strength, his wisdom, his righteousness,
his sanctification, his redemption, finds no comfort in the forms
of religion. His comfort is in the person
of Christ. He finds no comfort in the ceremonies
of religion. He finds comfort in the person
of Christ. He finds no joy in his own works. He finds joy in the person of
Christ, and he says with a hymn writer, O to grace, how great
a debtor! Daily I'm constrained to be. Let thy goodness, like a fetter,
bind my wandering heart to thee. Prone to wonder, Lord, I feel
it. Prone to leave the God I love,
here's my heart, O take and seal it. Seal it. for thy courts above. Charles Spurgeon once said, The
ceremonies and duties and forms of religion will not make you
righteous any more than living beside a rich man will make you
rich. The forms and ceremonies of religion
will not make you righteous any more than eating the food of
the educated will make you wise. The forms and ceremonies of religion
will not make you righteous any more than wearing the name of
Samson will make you strong. Beware lest the name and the
ceremonies and the rituals, yea, even the means of grace satisfy
you while you never feed upon the body and the blood of the
Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. No, self-righteousness A holier-than-thou
attitude cannot live in a heart of faith. It cannot live where
the gospel of Christ reigns. It cannot live in the heart that
has been smitten and convicted and broken at the feet of the
Son of God. Now the second thing about self-righteousness,
and I want you to take your Bibles and turn to Matthew 23. The second
thing about it is this. You say, what is self-righteousness? First of all, it comes in only
because a man has not truly received the gospel of Christ. Self-righteousness
and Christ cannot reign together. Now, secondly, what is it? Self-righteousness,
according to our Master, is cleaning up the outside and neglecting
the inside. In Matthew 23, beginning with
verse 3, our Lord gives us the mark of Phariseeism, self-righteousness,
and hypocrisy. He says in verse 3 of Matthew
23, All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe
and do. But do not ye after their works,
for they say and do not. They say and they do not. They profess, they do not produce. It is an outward profession,
it is not an inward obedience. And then verse 5, And all their
works they do for to the seeing of men. That's self-righteousness. They do not these things to be
accepted of God. They do it to be seen of men.
They do it to be accepted of men. They do it to be praised
of men. It's an outward conformity to
rules, religion, and laws. And then verse 6, and they love,
or they delight in, the uppermost rooms at the feast. They love
the chief seats in the synagogue, the important offices. And they
love the greetings in the marketplaces. They love to be called of men,
Master, Master. They like these credentials,
this outward recognition. Verse 14, Woe unto you, scribes,
Pharisees, hypocrites, for you devour widows' houses, and for
a pretense you make long prayers. He stands in the temple to appear
religious unto men and prays long prayers. while at the same
time his business dealings are crooked. He's plotting and planning
in greed to take that which belongs to another. And then verse 23,
"'Woe unto you, scribes, Pharisees, hypocrites! You pay tithe of
mint and anise and cumin, and have omitted the weightier matters
of the law. This outward deed you do, but
you have omitted the inward requirements, judgment, mercy, faith. These
things ought ye to have done, the outward you ought to do,
but not to leave the inward undone. Verse 25, warned you scribes,
Pharisees, hypocrites, you may clean the outside of the cup
and the platter, but within you are full of extortion and excess. This is Phariseeism. It is an
outward show of religion for the benefit of the eyes of men. It was an outward demonstration
of piety. It is an outward demonstration
of obedience to God, while inwardly we're far from Him. An illustration
of this is in 1 Samuel, and I think one of the best in the Bible.
1 Samuel chapter 16. God had rejected Saul as king
of Israel, and he sent Samuel down to the house of Jesse to
anoint a new king. He didn't tell him who the king
would be, but he just told him to go down to the house of Jesse
and anoint a king, because he'd rejected Saul. So Samuel went
down to the house of Jesse, and Jesse had been notified that
he was coming. And Jesse had all his sons ready.
He had, I think, seven sons, but six of them he had in the
room waiting for the great prophet Samuel to come down and anoint
the new king of Israel. So the first, the oldest son
came forth first. And Samuel looked at him, and
verse 6 of 1 Samuel 16, "...it came to pass, when they were
come, he looked on Elab, and he said, Surely the Lord's anointed
is before him." He saw Elab was a tall, handsome, intelligent-looking,
well-groomed, fine-looking man. And Samuel thought, well, now
this must be the one. He looked at all the other fellows,
They didn't appeal to him too much. This fellow really appealed
to him. And God said to Samuel, now listen to 1 Samuel 16, 7. And the Lord said, Samuel, look
not on his countenance, that is, his outward appearance, nor
on the height of his stature, because I have refused him. For
the Lord seeth not as man seeth. How do we see? Well, we see a
man's coming to church and going through the ceremonies of religion,
his reading the Bible, his praying, his giving, his warm greetings,
his handshake, his smile on his face, his, oh, how I love Jesus,
his singing, his preaching. We see all these things. Surely
this man is the Lord's anointed. Surely this man belongs to God.
Surely this man has a real communion with God. That's what the people
said of the Pharisees. When the disciples came to the
Master, they said, you offended the Pharisees by what you said.
And our Lord said to the disciples, except your righteousness exceed
theirs, you won't enter the kingdom of heaven. And that shocked the
disciples. And they said, well, if these
people aren't saved, these men who spend their time in the temple,
and who spend their time in the scriptures, and who spend their
time in the monasteries, and who spend their time pursuing
the things of religion, they're not saved. Who is saved? And
that's what Samuel is saying here. Well, the Lord's anointed
is here, and God said, don't you look on his outward countenance. That's how man sees, and that's
how man judges. Look at the next line. Man looketh
on the outward appearance, God looketh on the heart. And that's self-righteousness.
It's confined to the outward flesh. It's confined to the do's
and don'ts of laws. It's confined to the outward
appearance upon which men and women can see, can look. But
God Almighty does business not with the flesh, he does business
with the heart. With the heart man believeth
unto righteousness. They were put in their hearts,
the scripture said. With the heart, that's where
the business is done, that's where God dwells, that's where
God deals with his people, that's where God gives us a new heart. I'll give them a new heart, he
said. Not a new outward appearance,
not a new walk, a new heart. Now if the inside, look at verse
25 or 26, Thou blind Pharisee, Clint Matthew 23, 26. Cleanse first that which is within,
that the outside of them may be clean. Get a right relationship
with God, and that will give you a right relationship with
people. Get a right relationship with God, a right attitude in
your heart, and that'll give you a right relationship with
those outside. If things are right inside, if
there's a real communion with Christ, if there's a real possession
of the person of the Son of God, you don't need to hand people
rules and regulations now, then, You're a Christian, and this
is what you can do, and this is what you can't do. Now, tack
this up on the wall, so that every time a question comes up,
you know exactly what you can do and what you can't do. These
are your rules, your regulations. If Christ lives in you, he's
your regulator. If he reigns in your heart, he's
your king. He's your law. But self-righteousness is an
outward appearance. It's an outward duty. It's an
outward show. That's all it is. Now the third
thing about self-righteousness. Now listen to it. Go back to
the text. He says, I'm holier than thou. Don't come near me. You stay over there by yourself.
I'm holier than thou. Self-righteousness, thirdly,
is the greatest sin of all. You know why? Because self-righteousness,
this holier-than-thou attitude, this religiosity that's confined
to the outward flesh, that has not broken the heart, it produces
so many evils. It's like a great snake pit.
It's filled with all manner of evil. And I can show you that
now. Perhaps you don't see this, but now listen to it. I heard
a man say one time he'd rather be charged with murder than self-righteousness. And here's the reason. First
of all, self-righteousness is blasphemy. It is blasphemy. The Scripture says God is holy. But that old imposter called
self-righteousness comes up and says, I'm holy too. The Scripture
says there's none good but God. But here comes that old self-righteous
spirit. I'm good. The angels and the cherubims
cover their eyes and cover their ears and cover their mouths and
cry, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts! But this sneaking pretender
comes in and says, I'm holy too. That's blasphemy. The Word of
God declares, Holy and reverent is his name. Let all the earth
keep silence before him, but I'm holy too. Then self-righteousness is not
only blasphemy, it's idolatry. The man who counts himself to
be righteous in the sight of God by his own works, worships
himself. The object of his adoration is
his excellent self. He takes pride in himself, he
boasts of himself, he glories in himself, he's his own god.
He worships at the altar of personal ego. And then self-righteousness
calls God a liar. The Lord himself hath plainly
declared in his word, there's none righteous. And the holier
than thou man says, I am. God says, there's none that doeth
good. He says, I do. To this declaration of God that
there's none righteous, The self-righteous religious hypocrite gives a flat
contradiction. I am righteous. God says, all
have seen and come short of his glory. All we like sheep have
gone astray. Self-righteousness says, I'm
not going astray. I'm walking with the Lord. If
any man say he hath not seen, 1 John 1.10 says he makes God
alive. That's pretty serious. And then
self-righteousness is the worst sin because it hates and persecutes
others. Now listen to me. If you want to find a genuine
persecutor of true believers, don't go to the, don't go to
the prisons or to the gambling dens or to the places where the outwardly
guilty frequent and do their sins. If you want to find a genuine
persecutor, a hater, a true believer, you find you a self-righteous
man. There's no venom in the heart of the worst man against
true grace like the poison that lies in the hearts of a self-righteous
man." And the Apostle Paul is a clear illustration of this
fact. He said, concerning the law,
I was blameless. A Hebrew of Hebrews, a Pharisee
of Pharisees, but he said, I hated and I persecuted the way of grace
even unto death." It's not the drunks in this world
that hate salvation by grace alone. It's not the adulterers
and the thieves that hate that message. They know if they're
ever saved, God will have to save them. Those who hate the
sovereign grace of God and the mercy of God in the hands of
the Holy Spirit and free substitution by the death of Christ. The people
who hate that above all people are the religious people, the
self-righteous people. They hate it. They cannot stand
it. You find an old staggering drunk
and tell him, For sinners, salvation is not what you do for God, it's
what God does for you." He'll say, that's right, I know it. If I'm ever rescued from this
den of evil, God will have to save me. You find an adulteress
or an adulterer, a person living in open sin, and you say to that
person, your only hope is that God will look down and have mercy
on you and lift you by his grace and give his Spirit and his Son
to you. And they'll say, that's right, I know that. I'm hopeless
and helpless to do anything for myself. I'm the chief of sinners.
Oh, God have mercy. But you find you a preacher.
or a deacon, or a Sunday school teacher, or a choir leader. You
find you're an official in the church, you find you're a person
that's been religious all their lives. You say, sinner, you're
hopeless, helpless, without strength, without hope, without God. If
God doesn't have mercy on you, you'll go to hell. I believe
everybody's got to change. I believe salvation is my decision
for Christ. It's totally up to my will. Huh? I know what I'm talking about.
The people that hate sovereign mercy are self-righteous people,
and they'll fight. They'll fight. And then self-righteousness
is the worst sin because it rejects the gospel and it makes light
of God's wisdom. Now, God's plan of redemption
is based on the fact that we're sinners. That's what it's based
on. Christ came to save sinners. He came to seek and to save the
lost. But self-righteousness says that
the death of Christ was a needless blunder. Now, the fourth thing about self-righteousness,
I want you to look back at the text a moment. In Isaiah 65,
look at verse 2. I've spread out my hands. God
says, "...all the day unto rebellious people which walk in a way that's
not good, after their own thoughts." Now, self-righteousness is the
fruit of a man's own thoughts. After their own thoughts. This
is the way. The way of self-righteousness
is the way that men walk, and it's after their own thoughts.
If a man thinks that he's holy, if he thinks that he's good,
if he thinks that he's righteous, he didn't learn it from the law
of God. He didn't get it there. Because
the law of God says, turn to Romans 3, listen to this. The
law of God says in Romans chapter 3, that there's none good, there's
none righteous, there's none that seeketh after God, then
look at verse 19. We know that what things wherever
the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law, that every
mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become what? Guilty. Guilty. That's what the
law says. So the man that thinks he's righteous,
he isn't learning from God's law. The law says guilty. All
right, secondly, the man that thinks he's righteous didn't
learn it from the Scriptures. Look at Isaiah 64, back to the
text, the chapter before the text, verse 6, Isaiah 64, 6. The Scripture says we are all,
we are all as an unclean thing. Now underscore this next line,
and all our righteousnesses are filthy rags. That's what Scripture
says. So this man that stands before
God and me and says, I'm righteous, stand thou by thyself, come not
near me, I'm holier than thou. He didn't learn that from the
law. The law tells him he's just guilty, that man is. just as
sinful as that man in the eyes of God. He didn't learn it from
the Scriptures, for the Scripture says, Your righteousnesses are
filthy rags, and we all do fade as the leaf. He didn't learn
it from the Scriptures. And then in the next place, he
didn't learn it from God's choice servants either. For Job said,
I hate myself. I repent in sackcloth and ashes. Isaiah said, I'm a sinful man,
woe is me, I'm a man of unclean lips. David said, my sins are
ever before me, against thee and thee only have I sinned.
Paul said, I'm less than the least of all the saints, I'm
the chief of sinners. Well, where did this man get
this high opinion? Right here it says, they walk
after their own thoughts. Here's where he got it. He got
it out of his own mind. He got it out of his own thoughts.
He got it out of his own imagination. He's standing by his own imagination. And the way of life in Isaiah
55, the Scripture says, Let a man forsake his thoughts and return
unto the Lord, for my thoughts are not your thoughts. You think
in the sight of God that you're pretty holy? Where did you get
that notion? You didn't get it from the law.
The law says you're guilty. You didn't get it from the scriptures.
The scripture says that even your attempts at worship this
morning, apart from the cleansing blood of Christ and the intercessory
work of Christ, are filthy rags. You didn't get it from these
men of God who walked with God, who knew God, who spoke for God. They all said, Where'd you get it? Where'd you
get this thought of your righteousness? Where'd you get this self-satisfaction? Where'd you get this idea that
you could look down on someone else and find fault with them
because you're holier than thou? Where did you get this conception?
You got it out of your own wicked, evil thoughts. And God says, "...as a way that seemeth right
unto man, at the end thereof is destruction." Then the fifth thing about self-righteousness,
in the fifth place, it'll bar every person who's guilty of
it from any hope of salvation. God may save a drunk, but he'll
never save a self-righteous person. God may save a harlot, but he'll
never save a self-righteous man. Know what? God may save a murderer. God may save a traitor. God may
save even a kidnapper. God will never save a self-righteous
person for this reason. Number one, he has no conviction
of sin. Christ said, I come not to call
the righteous. I didn't even come to call him.
There's no calling for the self-righteous men. There's no invitation. There's
no gospel. There's no atonement. There's
no door. I come not to call the righteous.
I didn't even come to call you. I came to call sinners. Every
invitation in the Bible presupposes guilt. Every invitation in the
Bible lays down this condition. Though your sins be as scarlet,
I'll make them white as snow. If we confess our sins, he's
faithful and just to forgive us. Oh, every one that thirsteth,
come to the water. Ye that labor and are heavy laden,
I'll give you rest. Every one of them have a condition.
Naked, I'll clothe you. Blind, I'll give you sight. In
prison, I'll set you free. Captive, I'll deliver you. Self-righteous men have no conviction
of sin. Secondly, they'll never repent.
How can I repent if I have no sin? How can I mourn over guilt
of which I'm not aware? How can I confess sin that's
not there? Self-righteousness keeps us from
total dependence on Christ. When was it that the prodigal
son returned home? While he still had money in his
pocket? While he still had food to eat?
While he still had a bed in which to sleep? He returned home when
he was broke, hungry, tired, weary, naked, and hopeless. And that's when a man comes to
Christ, and that's the only time a man comes to Christ. All right, what's the cure for
self-righteousness, last of all? Look at verse 8 and 9. God says
this, Thus saith the Lord, As a new wine is found in the cluster,
and one says, Destroy it not, for blessings in it, so will
I do for my servant's sake, may not destroy them all. I will
bring forth a seed out of Jacob and out of Judah. Mine elect
shall inherit it." God's going to, here's the cure, for God
Almighty to smite us and to break us and to humble us and strip
us and do a work for us. He's going to have to do it,
though, because we by nature are proud creatures. We by nature
are haughty creatures. We by nature are arrogant creatures. We by nature love ourselves. And the only way in this world
that anything's going to be done for us is not the preacher. He
can't do it, and the church can't do it, and the Bible can't do
it, and the religious forms can't do it. God's going to have to
do it. God's going to have to make us an object of his Holy
Spirit's smiting work, slaying work, convicting work, humbling
work, stripping work. That's what's going to have to
happen. God's going to have to single us out. And the cure for self-righteousness
is to be empty of myself and filled with a great awareness
of God, total dependence on His sovereignty and His mercy. Lord,
do something for me. Do something for me. Verse 13, look at it, Therefore
thus saith the Lord God, My servants are going to eat but you're going
to be hungry. My servants shall drink, you
shall be thirsty. My servants shall rejoice, you
shall be ashamed. My servants shall sing for joy
of heart, but you shall cry for sorrow of heart, shall howl for
vexation of spirit. You shall leave your name for
a curse unto my chosen, for the Lord God shall slay thee, but
he'll call his servants by another name, by the name of Christ. Our Father, bless this word,
apply it to our hearts. Oh, smite us under the convicting
power of our Holy Spirit. Humble us under the great power
of thy word. Strip us, let us see, let us
get a glimpse into the vile, filthy, guilty, corrupt heart
that is ours by nature, by birth, by choice, by practice. Let us
see what we are. Let us see our sins in the light
of the word, not in the light of our own judgment. Let us see
our character in the light of thy holiness, not in the light
of our estimation of ourselves and
our thoughts of others. Let us judge ourselves, it would
be not judged. O God, give us a broken heart,
a contrite spirit. Humble us at thy feet. Though
I justify myself, my own mouth will condemn me. Though I wash
my hands in the strongest lye soap of human thoughts and efforts,
I'll still be corrupt in thy sight. Even my righteousnesses
are filthy rags. When I think I'm right, I'm wrong. reveal unto us what we are, that
we might see Him in His holiness and perfection and His righteousness,
and that we might be brought to receive Him and to trust Him
and to lean upon Him, the everlasting arms. In His name we pray. Amen.

I Am Holier Than Thou

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