Now if you will, turn in your
Bibles to Matthew 23, verses 1 and 2. The tight message that
I'm going to bring to you is one in which we must exercise
particular care. especially concerning the attitude
in which we present the message. I want the message tonight to
be a searching message, but I don't want it to be a message which
is preached in the attitude of, you search yourself. I want it
to be to me. I want it to be a message in
which I search my heart. And while I'm searching my heart
as I read the word of God and bring these thoughts that God
has laid on my heart, perhaps the Holy Spirit will lead you
to examine yours. And while I examine my experience
and my relationship with Christ and my interest in the Lord,
maybe the Holy Spirit will give you the grace to examine your
experience and your interest in the Savior. And Matthew chapter
23 verse 1, the Lord Jesus Christ spake to the disciples and he
said, the scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat. Now one question
here as we begin the message. Who were the scribes and the
Pharisees? Who were the scribes and the
Pharisees? Now practically everything he
said in Matthew 23, he said of the Pharisees. The scribes and
Pharisees, who were they? Well first of all, I know this
about them. I know that they were the deeply
religious people of their day. They didn't run the taverns.
They didn't operate the stores. They didn't work in the factories.
They were the deeply religious people of their day. They were
theologians. They were the teachers of the
scriptures. If you went down to the temple
and found someone ministering about the temple, he would probably
be a scribe or a Pharisee. They were moral men. They were
men who abided outwardly by the law of God. They were men who
went about to establish in the community and in the city a good
report, a pious testimony. And these men were very, very
especially careful to impress other people with their religion
and with their righteousness. I know that much about the Pharisees. For it was the Pharisees, turn
to John chapter 8, it was the Pharisees who brought Christ,
who brought to Christ the woman found in adultery and demanded
her punishment. It was the Pharisees who brought
this woman, in John chapter 8. It said, verse 1, that Jesus
went unto the Mount of Olives, and early in the morning He came
again to the temple, and all the people came unto Him, and
He sat down and talked And while he was here sitting down teaching
the people, the scribes and the Pharisees brought unto him a
woman taken in adultery. And when they had set her in
the midst, they said unto him, Master, this woman was taken
in adultery in the very act. Now Moses in the law commanded
us that such should be stoned. What sayest thou? These were
the Pharisees. These were the deeply pious religious
men who brought to Jesus the woman found in adultery. And then it was the Pharisees
who came to Christ and wanted to know which was the greatest
commandment. These men were students of the
scriptures. They sat around and studied the
scriptures and they came to the Lord Jesus Christ and they asked
him, Master, which is the greatest commandment? We've been having
a discussion about the commandments of God, and we want you to tell
us which commandment you believe is the most important and the
greatest commandment. It was the Pharisees who condemned
the Lord Jesus Christ for picking corn on the Sabbath day. One
day the master and his disciples were going through a cornfield,
and they were hungry. And the master picked the corn
and gave it to his disciples, and these Pharisees were quick
to condemn him for doing something on the Sabbath day on their Sunday,
their day of worship, which were forbidden in the law. They even
condemned Christ for healing a man on the Sabbath day. They condemned Christ for associating
with sinful people. They saw the Lord Jesus Christ
eating with publicans and sinners, and they said to his disciples,
Why does your master associate with publicans and sinners? Why
does he eat with these people? I couldn't help being amused
one time when I heard about a church nearly splitting over the fact
that the pastor and some more people went into a place and
ate lunch where they served beer. I thought, here we've got the
modern Pharisee, you know. The Lord Jesus Christ was down
here eating with publicans and sinners, and the Pharisees said,
why does he associate with those people? Why is he found in company
with those people? He ought to be up here in the
temple associating with us. He ought not be down there eating
with those people. And then it was the Pharisees
who condemned the Lord Jesus Christ for eating without washing
his hands. They were careful people. They
were devout people. They were deeply religious people. The Pharisees were. It was the
Pharisees, men back then, wore robes. And one of the signs of
a religious man was a blue border, I believe this is correct, down
at the bottom of his robe. and that meant he agreed with
and adhered to the law of God. It may have been just on the
robes of the teachers of scripture or the rulers of the synagogue,
but this blue border on the bottom of the robe meant he adhered
to the law of God. Well, these Pharisees wore big
broad the borders on the bottom of their garments, they wore
them all the way up to their knees. They wanted everybody
to know that they agreed with the law of God. They made broad
their phylacteries and enlarged the borders of their garments.
And they prayed on the streets. They'd stand on the street corner
and they'd pray long prayers. And they'd stand in the synagogue
in a very prominent place. making sure that they got in
a very prominent place to do their praying. But I'm telling
you this. Now you turn to Matthew 21, verse
31. Now those were the Pharisees. They were deeply religious people. They were theologians. They were
teachers of the scriptures. They ministered about the temple.
They were moral men. They went about to establish
a pious testimony and to impress others with their righteousness,
and they were quick to condemn anybody that didn't do things
exactly according to the letter of the law. And they were strict
in their judgment. They were ready to shed blood.
They were ready to stone people immediately who didn't obey every
jot and tittle of the law outwardly. And Christ said in Matthew 21,
31, He's talking here to the Pharisees and he said in the
last line, verily I say unto you, and this must have shocked
these men, the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom
of God before you. You know that would disturb a
Sunday morning crowd, wouldn't it? Wouldn't that disturb a Bible
conference or a preacher's meeting, maybe the ministerial association,
if the Lord Jesus Christ were permitted to speak to those men
and he were to stand up before them after having condemned their
false piety and would say to them, these drunkards and harlots
out here are going into heaven before you do? Here in Matthew 23, and that's
the reason, as I said, as I approached this message, it has to be approached
in the right attitude. We're handling dynamite here.
These are the words of our Lord. And we're talking about men who
were religious, and men who were strict, and men who were theologians,
and men who were law-abiding, devout religious people. And
we don't know men's hearts. Now Christ could. He could look
at these people. He knew their hearts. The Scripture
says God does not look on the outward countenance. He looks
on the heart. And the Lord Jesus Christ needed not that any man
should testify what's in man. He knows what's in a man. And
when he asked Peter, Do you love me? Peter said, Lord, you know
all things. You don't need to ask me that.
You know I love you. You know all things. And so when
Christ stood and looked over this group of Pharisees and scribes,
he could say the publicans and harlots will enter heaven before
you because he knew they weren't entering heaven. He knew that
they weren't saved. He knew that they weren't redeemed.
He knew that they weren't regenerated. But you and I don't know. I don't
know your heart. You don't know mine. And so therefore,
a message of this type has to be handled delicately. It has
to be handled in the wisdom of the Holy Spirit. And I'm not
the Lord. I do not know your heart. And
I hope that I know mine. The heart is deceitful and desperately
wicked. Who can know it? But I want us
to look at this. Now, six times in Matthew 23,
the Lord calls these men hypocrites. Hypocrites. These devout men,
these religious men, these moral men, these theologians, these
teachers of the Scripture, these temple worshippers, these Sabbath
keepers, and law observers, and he looks at them in verse 13,
and he said, Whoa unto you, scribes and Pharisees, you're hypocrites. Verse 14, he said, you're hypocrites. Verse 15, he said, you're hypocrites. Verse 23, he said, you're a hypocrite. Verse 25, he said, you're a hypocrite. Verse 29, he said, you're a hypocrite. Brethren, I tell you, I don't
want to be a hypocrite. It's not worth the price of my
soul to keep up a denomination on program or theological position
is not worth my soul. I'm sure it's not worth yours.
I don't want to hear Christ say in that last day, when I say,
Lord, I preached and I did many wonderful works, I don't want
to hear him say, I never knew you. Now in Matthew 23, and I think
this will help us, Christ gives us eight marks of hypocrisy. There are eight marks here. As
I said, he's talking to these men, these religious people,
these devoutly religious people. These weren't half-hearted souls. This wasn't the Sunday morning
crowd. This was the Wednesday night prayer meeting bunch here.
These were the devout people. These were the people who kept
the rules and regulations and kept the laws and the ceremonies
and went about the rituals and the forms. These were the people
who kept religion alive in that day. These were the scribes and
Pharisees. These were the pastors. That's
who these men were. These were the deacons. These
were the elders. These were the religious leaders
of their days. These were the stewards. That's
who these men were. And Christ said they were hypocrites.
And he said the publicans and harlots would enter heaven before
they would. And he gives here, he gives us
eight marks of hypocrisy. He gives us eight characteristics
of an hypocrite. He gives us eight characteristics
of these men whom he called because he knew that they were hypocrites. And the first thing he says about
them is in verse three. He says in the last line, they
say, they say, but they do not. Their service is a lip service.
Their faith is a lip faith. Their love is a lip love. He
said, you call me Lord with your lips, but your hearts are far
from me. That's the first mark of hypocrisy,
is a lip service, a lip faith and a lip love. Or we love the
brethren. That's easy to say. It's quite
another thing to love the brethren. Oh, how I love Jesus. Isn't it
easy to sing? The melody makes it easy to sing.
Oh, how I love Jesus because he first loved me. That's so
easy to say. But Christ said, it's not in
your hearts. Your hearts are far from me.
And that's what these men were. They were lip worshipers. Christ
said, or the Lord said over here in Ezekiel chapter 33. I quoted
it this morning. It's a verse of scripture that
I have used so often in meetings when I'm out of town. In verse
31 of chapter 33, the Lord says, They come unto you, they come
to the church as the people cometh, and they sit before you as my
people, and they hear your words. There's nothing wrong with their
ears. but they won't do them. With their mouths they show much
love, but their hearts, their hearts goeth after covetousness,
their hearts goeth after pleasure, their hearts goeth after greed,
their hearts goeth after materialism, their hearts go after the things
of this world. With their lips they show much
love and much faith and much devotion, but it's not here. It's not here. And then the second
mark of hypocrisy which our Lord gives is in verse 5. Now verse
3 says they say, but they don't do. Oh, Paul said the fruit of
the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, meekness, faith,
humility. These are the things that are
of God. Not just in word, but in heart,
in experience. And then verse 5, here's the
second mark. He said, "...all their works
they do for to be seen of men." Now the hypocrite knows very
little of private prayer. He does his praying publicly.
The hypocrite knows very little of secret giving. His gifts are
given in a way that a good many people know what he did. His
alms and works of charity are generally done in the open, so
that everybody will be sure to know what he did. He knows very
little about secret giving. He knows very little about closet
worship. If he doesn't have an audience,
He does no spiritual work. If he doesn't have a recognition,
he makes no spiritual contribution. That's the hypocrite. Look at
Matthew 6, if you will. Here the Lord describes it in
Matthew 6. Now, that's the reason that in
our bulletin there is never any record of anything that anybody
gives in this church. There's never any recognition.
Some of you may give a dollar, some of you may give a thousand
dollars, but there won't be any recognition given to anybody
for anything. Because anything that's given,
motivated by a desire for recognition, would better to be kept. It does
the giver no good, and it does the receiver no good. There's
no recognition for service. There's not to be any. Our Lord
said in Matthew 6, take heed, be careful. This is the Master
speaking. Be careful that you don't do
your alms, and that's anything to do with righteousness. That's
your giving on Sunday. That's your charitable work. That's your works of love. That's your assistance that you
lend people. All of these things. Don't do
these things before men. to be seen of them, otherwise
you have no reward of your Father which is in heaven." Now here's
one thing that we have to watch. Suppose we give a gift, or we
do a work of charity for someone, and we do it secretly. And then
the days pass, and a little while later, about two or three weeks
or a month later, we just got to tell somebody we did it. It
just somehow got to come out. We've got to say, well, I'll
tell you, so and so was up, and I did such and thus. We've lost
the blessing right there. We're still doing it before men.
Whether men, and this one Christ said, doing it to be seen of
men, is not only when we actually do it, but at any time in the
future, that we have to bring it up. And let somebody know,
it's just this thing of secret alms and secret giving, it just
doesn't satisfy the flesh. The flesh has got to have a thank
you from somebody, because this thing is waiting on eternity
for thank you just a long time, isn't it? And the flesh just
loves to be pampered, it loves to be congratulated, it loves
to be bragged on. I know it. I'm living. I'm a
human being just like you are. And listen to this. When you
do your alms, don't sound a trumpet in front of you, as the hypocrites
do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory
of men. Verily I say unto you, they have
their reward when they get men's glory, when the glory is given.
That's it. They have no glory from the Father. They have no treasure in heaven.
When men brag on them, That's their reward. That's what they
were looking for anyway. That's what they wanted. But
when you do alms, don't let your left hand know what your right
hand doing. I'm going to tell you a little
secret. And this church gave a tremendously large offering
last Sunday to the missionary. It was a tremendous offering.
But I'm not going to put that in the bulletin. Because that
bulletin goes to over 120 preachers and churches all over the United
States. And I don't want, I'm thankful for what God has done
through you. I love you and I appreciate you.
You're the most generous people on earth. And you wonder why
these things are not in the bulletin. They're not going in the bulletin.
Because I don't want the church next door even to know what God's
done through this church. I want that to be your blessing
and my blessing because between us and the Lord. And it's not
going in there. And the missionaries, I asked
them, don't tell anybody what this church did. If you go to
another church and they give you a gift, you thank them, but
don't you tell them what 13th Street Baptist Church gave you.
Because what we want to do, what Christ said, it's our joy to
have a part in them. And then we haven't done anything.
Let's remember that. And that thine arms may be in
secret, and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall
reward thee openly. And listen to the next verse.
And when you pray, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are.
They love to pray standing in the synagogue and in the corner
of the streets that they may be seen of men. Public prayer. It's all right, but I'm telling
you the most important prayer that you can pray is secret prayer.
I'd rather have one prayer in secret than ten in public. I
believe a man or a woman or a young person can get better hold on
the horns of the altar of the throne of grace when he's alone
with God. That's the important time. And
if you don't cultivate secret prayer, there's something missing.
John Bunyan said he'd sooner expect a natural man to live
without breath as a Christian live without prayer, talking
to God. Somebody says, we don't have
enough prayer meetings here at the church. We have about all
I want to have. But I sure would love for you to have some prayer
meetings at home. I'd love for some folks to go into the closet
and shut the door, and into the bedroom and close the door, or
when you ladies are at home by yourself during the day, to pray
for each other, and to pray for me, and to pray for the people
of the church, and pray that God will bless. That is where
God blesses. It's secret. Anybody can meet
together and stand and pray, but I'll tell you, It's a lot
easier to go to church and pray than it is to go in the bedroom
and pray. You know that? That's right. How long has it
been since just you and the Lord have had a conversation without
somebody calling on you to pray publicly? How long has it been
since you've just dropped your head beside your bed and talked
to your Lord? That's where you'll talk to Him,
too. And Christ said these hypocrites, they do their works to be seen
of men. And then the next mark of hypocrisy
is this. They love the uppermost rooms
at feast. They love the chief seats in
the synagogue. You know what a preacher told
me one time? He said, if you want people to come to church
regularly, give them an office. Give them an office. Give them
a title. Yeah, that's exactly what the
Lord said right here. You give these old Pharisees
an office, you make one of them chairman of the board, you make
one of them Sunday school superintendent, you make one of them BTU director,
you make one of them president of WMS, you make one of them
this, that, and the other, and they'll be there every service
because they love that title. They love position. They love
place. They love recognition. They'd
work hard for the kingdom of God if somebody's doing a little
bragging on them. They like, listen to the next
verse, they like to be called chairman. Mr. Chairman. They love to have an
office, they love to have a title, they like to have a name, but
Christ said you've got one father and one master and one Lord and
he's in glory. He's in glory. The mother of James and John
came to the Lord Jesus and said, Lord, let my son sit on one of
your right hand and the other on the left. When you come in
your kingdom, they want an office too. The Lord Jesus said, He
that is first shall be last, and he that is last shall be
first. It wouldn't surprise me to see the thief on the cross
on Christ's right hand. That's right. Somebody thinks,
well, Elijah will certainly be there, or Paul will certainly
be there. I don't know. I kind of think
maybe Mary Magdalene might, or the thief on the cross, or maybe
Zacchaeus, or maybe this woman in John 8. I don't know. But
I'll tell you that's a mark of hypocrisy and that's a mark of
a phony religious profession to desire and seek after position
and recognition. And then the next mark of hypocrisy,
verse 13. And brethren, I've run into this
more times than you think. Our Lord said in verse 13, Woe
unto you scribes and Pharisees, you shut up the kingdom of heaven
against men. Now these religious Pharisees,
now listen to me for a moment. These religious Pharisees love
ceremony. They love ritual. They love form. These religious Pharisees love
rules and laws and discipline. These religious Pharisees wear
the uniforms of religion. They promote programs, and they
promote organizations, and they love suppers, and they love feasts,
and they love weddings. They want all things to be centered
around what they call the church. but don't face them with the
truth of God concerning sin and salvation and the cross and eternal
life. They don't want that kind of
preaching. They want the kind of preaching
that promotes our denomination and our church, and our program,
and our people, but they don't want to be faced with that down-to-earth
truth of sin, and salvation, and the cross, and eternal life. They're not concerned with the
glory of God and salvation, and not only do they reject it themselves,
but they try to keep other people from hearing it. That's what
he said right here. they shut up the kingdom of heaven
against men. You know, one time when I was
pastor of the Pollard Baptist Church here in Ashland, there
was a family moved here from out of town, and the man worked
downtown in a business office. I think back then, 1951, 1952,
there were seven or eight Baptist churches in Ashland, and this
man went to work downtown in a business office, and there
was a Baptist Might have been a deacon, I don't know, but he
was a strong Baptist who worked in the office. And this new man
in town asked him, said, where would you suggest I go to church?
I'm a Baptist. Well, he said, I'd go anywhere
in town except out there where Mahan preaches. I wouldn't go
there. Just pick out any of the others you want to go to. It
doesn't matter. Just don't go to that one. And this man said,
well, I went home and told my wife. I said, you know, that's
where I'm going. I'm going to find out what there
is out there that he doesn't want me to hear. They don't care
if you preach ceremony, organization, competition, religious, ritualism,
foreign, anything. Just don't preach the cross. the offense of the cause. Don't
preach God as he is and man as he is and Christ who he is. That's a fact and you know it
and I know it. And Christ said that's a mark of a hypocrite.
He's not going to listen to the gospel and he doesn't want you
to. He's not going to listen to the
truth and he doesn't want you to listen to it. He's not going
to be stripped and he doesn't want you stripped. He's not going
to be humble, and he doesn't want you humble. He's not going
to come in the dust at the foot of the cross and look to the
blood of Christ, and he doesn't want anybody else there. But here's what they do, verse
15, and here's your fifth mark quickly. Here's what they do.
Christ said, Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites,
you compass sea and land, to make one proselyte. They spare
no expense. They spare no effort to land
a convert to their religious belief. It's not that they want
men brought to Christ. They want men brought to their
particular organization. And the proof of that is this.
They always keep an accurate record of how many come. You've
got to have your records for bragging purposes, and I found
this out in this day, and you know it so, how many is more
important than how real. Isn't that right? Sure it's right.
How many we had, how many decisions, how many baptisms, how many members,
how many in Sunday school is more important. and how deep,
how real, or how precious. That's right. They compass sea
and land. They don't want men to hear the
true gospel. They don't want men prostrating
the dust at the cross. They don't want men looking to
Christ. But they'll spare no effort to
gain a proselyte to their organization. And Christ says here, they're
not without zeal. Somebody said one time, well,
you just don't have enough zeal. You don't have enough get up
and go. Well, these Pharisees had all you could want. Man,
they'd compass sea and land. They'd spare no effort. They'd
spare no expense. They're going out and get them,
going out in the highways and the hedges. Well, I'll tell you,
there's nothing more pitiful than a man out in the highways
and the hedges with no message. It's like a fellow going out
to feed people without food. and going out to clothe people
without anything to put on them. And then the next verse is verse
23. Here's the next mark of a hypocrite. Christ said, you Pharisees, you
hypocrites, you pay tithe on everything, even mint and anise
and cumin. These religious hypocrites are
usually strict tithers. They are strict church attenders,
and they're strict moralists. They deal in law, not in faith. They deal in justice, not in
mercy. They deal in condemnation, not
in forgiveness. That's what Christ said. Read
on. He said, You're careful to pay tithe, one-tenth of everything,
even the smallest thing, even the shaving lotion in the house,
and the perfume. and the little bits of wheat
and grain and barley and everything else. And you've omitted the
important things, judgment, mercy, and faith. Christ is saying you
shouldn't leave the tithing undone. You ought to do that. Nothing
wrong with a man giving one-tenth of his income to God's glory.
Old Brother Mews used to have the answer to tithing. Somebody
said, Brother Mews, you believe in tithing? He said, well, he
said, if you tithe, you're under law. If you don't, you're an
outlaw. That's about it. I like that.
I think the tithe is just a starting point. I think everything I've
got belongs to the Lord. I don't think just one-tenth
of my cattle and one-tenth of my money and one-tenth of my
possessions is His. I think it's all His. And I believe
on the first day of the week that every believer will lay
by and store as God or in proportion to the way God's blessed him.
And if he wants to start with a tenth, that's all right by
me. That's good starting point. But it all belongs to the Lord.
These Pharisees dealt in law, not in faith. They dealt in the
letter of the law, the justice of the law, not in mercy, not
in compassion. not in forgiveness. Christ sits
straining at a gnat and swallowing a camel, always ready to point
out other people's mistakes, and always ready to brag on their
good qualities. And then the next mark of the
hypocrite is in verse 25. Christ said, you scribes and
Pharisees, you make clean the outside of the cup. You make clean the outside of
the platter. Within, you're full of extortion
and excess. Their righteousness was an outward
righteousness. It consists in materialism. It
consists in meat and drinks and outward laws. The fruit of the
Spirit they knew nothing about. Meekness, faith, love, kindness,
these things were all foreign to them. He said, You are like
whited sepulchres, verse 27. You appear beautiful on the outside,
but on the inside you are full of dead men's bones. Outwardly,
verse 28, you appear righteous unto men, but within you're full
of hate, you're full of lust, you're full of pride, you're
full of envy, you're full of jealousy, you're full of all
these things that God considers hypocrisy and iniquity. And then
the last mark of the hypocrite is this, And you fellows that
have done a little studying, and you that have done a little
preaching, you'll recognize what I'm going to say here. Our Lord
said in verse 29, you find the hypocrite, and you'll find him
bragging on the prophets, building tombs and monuments and statues
to the prophets. You'll find him going out to
visit the sepulchers of those who lived in the past. Old Brother
Barnard said one time, they killed Moses while they bragged on Abraham. You see, Abraham was great. Abraham
was dead. And the people who lived during
the days of Moses, they hated Moses. That's right. And they
bragged on Abraham, because Abraham was dead. And then when Moses
died, they hated Christ and bragged on Moses. When the Lord Jesus
Christ was here, they hated him. They said, we have Moses. Well,
that gang, when Moses was here, they didn't want him. But after
he's dead and buried, they bragged on him. That's what Christ is
saying here. You build monuments to the prophets, and you garnish
the sepulchres of the righteous, the dead men. And you crucify
the living men who tell you the truth. And then when Christ died,
they killed the apostles and bragged on Christ. And then when the apostles died,
they braked on the reformers, braked on the apostles and killed
the reformers. John Calvin was one clear out
of Switzerland one time. John Knox, Huss, Luther. Luther had to be hid in a castle
for weeks and months one time to keep them from killing him.
And now all over Germany, Luther's greatest religious leader ever
lived. When he was on this earth, they chased him, hounded him,
dogged his trail all over Germany. Nearly drove him out of his mind,
trying to kill him. But now he's a national hero.
His statues all over Germany, to Luther, all over England,
their statues to Spurgeon. And when Spurgeon lived, they
pictured ugly pictures of him on the front page of the papers.
And finally had to leave the Baptist Union. They didn't want
him. But he's a hero today because he's dead. And they brag, they
observe Reformation Day. The Lutherans and the Presbyterians
and the Baptists and all these people are observing Reformation
Day. Bragging on these dead men. And
I preach the same thing these men preach. In fact, I know it's
not beneath my dignity to preach their sermons. Just exactly what
they preach. And there are other preachers
who are preaching it too. Oh, if we just had Luther here, well,
they didn't hear him when they had him. You just had to put
up with Henry, because Luther ain't here. Now, when I'm dead
and buried, I'll be famous. You wait and see. But here's the thing. I want
to give you one other scripture, and I'll close. Turn to Luke
chapter 7. This is hypocrisy in Luke chapter 7. They brag
on the the dead and crucify the living. But in Luke chapter 7,
verse 30, now listen to it. Here is the whole thing. Here
is the whole thing. Verse 30 of Luke 7, But the Pharisees
and the lawyers rejected the counsel of God against themselves,
that's the whole thing. I've given you eight marks of
hypocrisy. I've given you eight marks of
religious phariseeism. I've given you eight marks of
a man who professes to know God who doesn't know it. But here's
the whole thing right here in a nutshell. The man who doesn't
know God is a man who rejects God's counsel about himself. That's the whole thing. Christ
said, I came to save the lost. I came not to call the righteous,
but sinners. I came not to heal the well,
but the sick. I came not to call those that
are found, but those that are lost. I came not to clothe those
that are already covered, but to clothe the naked. I came to
raise the dead. I came to give sight to the blind.
I came to fill the hungry and thirsty. And these men rejected
the counsel of God concerning themselves. And when a man does
that, he's open to any error or any manner of deception. If
he cannot bow at the feet of Christ and say, Lord, it's true
what you say about me, I'm a dog. But even the dogs eat the crumbs
that fall from the master's table. And I'd be much obliged if you'd
let some crumbs fall down here from me. Our Father, help us
to search these hearts of ours. O God, that we might have a saving
interest in Christ, that we may be stripped and broken and humbled
at thy feet, that we may become as nothing, that we may be exalted
in due time, that we may become hungry, that we may be fed, and
poor, that we may be rich, and lost, that we may be found. and
dead that we may be raised, and blind that we might receive sight. Show us what we are, and O God,
help us never to reject the counsel of God concerning ourselves,
or the counsel of God concerning our substitute, the Lord Jesus
Christ. He is our hope, He is our refuge,
His blood maketh atonement for our soul. We are nothing, and
have nothing, and never shall be anything. except as it's given
to us through the merits of Him who loved us and died for us
on the cross. Keep us at Calvary. We ask for
Christ's sake. Amen.