I'd like to bring the message
this morning from three different passages of scripture. And my
message will have four points. The first one is a troubled soul. And the reason the soul is troubled
is, do the Lord's words describe me? So that's the first point. Do the Lord's words describe
me? The second point will be a great
difference. Thirdly, if there's this difference,
then why do I feel this way? And then fourthly, victory in
the Lord Jesus Christ. So that's the outline for the
message. May the Lord bless us as we look
at his word. Look here, first of all, troubled
soul, do the Lord's words describe me? Matthew 23, verse 25. The Lord said, woe unto you,
scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you may clean the outside
of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion
and excess. Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse
first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside
of them may be clean also. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites, for you are like unto whited sepulchres, which
indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's
bones and all uncleanness. Even so, ye also outwardly appear
righteous unto man, but within you are full of hypocrisy and
of iniquity. So to those here who profess
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, as I do, we profess to be followers
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Have these words ever been troubling
to you? The words that I just said, have
they ever been troubling to you? I'll confess these words have
been troubling to me. I don't want the Lord Jesus to
ever say unto me, woe unto you. Could any worse words ever be
spoken that the Lord, the master would say unto us, woe unto you. But I felt before that these
words described me, the words in verse 27, even so you outwardly
appear righteous unto men, but within you're full of hypocrisy
and of inequity. I don't know if you've ever had
that struggle, but I have. And so that's the first point.
Do the Lord's words describe me? That's pretty fast on that first
point, right? Moving to the second point. I
want us to see a great difference. Just in case you're here this
morning, believer, and the words that I just read of the Lord
are troubling to you, I want you to see a great difference. It's very important when we study
God's word that we not take only a verse or two verses and not
see the whole context in which they're spoken and not see the
whole passage and everything that the Lord says here. If you
just took those two verses or three verses or four verses,
you might question, well, is the Lord speaking to me? But
if you look at this whole passage, you'll see, I believe, a great
difference. Notice verse number one of this
chapter, going back to verse number one, Matthew 23. Scripture says, Then spake Jesus
to the multitude and to the disciples, saying, The scribes and the Pharisees
sit in Moses' seat. All therefore, whatsoever they
bid you observe, that observe and do, but do not you 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. You see, I say you'll see a great
difference here, believer. The Pharisees, the scribes and
Pharisees, they acknowledged that the word of God, the commands
of God, were the commands of God, but they believed that they
only applied to other people. They didn't apply it to them.
These things were right and good for their neighbor, but not for
themselves. And I know, believer, you don't
feel that way. You do not feel that the words
of Christ, the words of God, the commands of God are just
for your neighbor. No, they're for us, they're for
me. And notice what's going on here,
verse five. 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 love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief
seats in the synagogues, and greetings in the markets. And
they'd love to be called of men rabbi, rabbi. That is, they'd
love to be called master, master. It actually means, it means master
teacher. Hey, they wanted glory, right? They wanted people to look up
to them. Believer, you don't want anyone
to look up to you, do you? Oh, that there was something
in me for someone to look up to, but I don't want people to
look up to me because there's nothing in me that people shouldn't
look up to. We say with the scripture, not
unto us, not unto us, but unto thy name be glory, right? We
want all the glory and all the praise to go to the Lord Jesus
Christ. Why? Because without him, we
have no hope. Without him, there's no way we
could ever be accepted of God. There's a huge difference here.
If you look at the whole passage, look at verse number 13. The Lord said, 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 do you suffer ye them that are entering in. You see,
believer, what do you want probably more than anything else in this
world? You want to know that you've
entered in through the straight gate. Don't you? You know, God's
taught you that there is only one way of acceptance with him.
And that way is the Lord Jesus Christ, that he's the way, the
truth and the life and that no man can come unto the father
but by him. And you want nothing more than
to know that you've entered in at that straight gate, that you
have indeed come to Christ, that you have indeed believed in him,
that you're trusting in him today for all your acceptance with
God. Right. That's that's what you want. Well, what the Lord,
the way the Lord described the Pharisees and the scribes here,
when he said woe unto them, he said they not only wouldn't enter
in, but they blocked others from entering in. They not only wouldn't
come to Christ, but they did their dead level best to keep
anyone else from ever coming to the Lord Jesus Christ. And
you know, you know that that doesn't describe you. Not if you're a believer, that
doesn't describe you. Now notice verse 15. The Lord goes on and says, What
do they want? They wanted to make people religious. Right.
They wanted to bring them to their way of thinking. They wanted to make someone a
religious person. And the Lord said when they did,
they made him twofold the child of the devil than they were even
before. My friends, we have no desire
to make people religious, do we? We don't need to make people
religious. We're born religious. What we
need is we need for people to come to the Savior, to the Lord
Jesus Christ. I could care less whether someone's
religious. We need people to come to Christ,
the Savior. That's what we desire. And then
notice verse number 23. The Lord said, Woe unto you,
scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you pay tithe of man, and
of annas, and of common, and have omitted the weightier matters
of the law. Well, what are those? Judgment,
mercy, and faith. These ought you to have done
and not leave the other undone. Have you ever heard the saying
that someone's missing the forest for the trees? You ever heard
anybody say that? Missing the forest for the trees.
That's what the Lord tells the Pharisees here. You are missing
the forest for the trees. You know, it's truly remarkable
to me how the Lord Jesus Christ describes the law. Oh, that I had more sight. the way he describes the law,
he who gave the law. How does he describe the law?
Notice what it says here. He says, you shouldn't leave
these, well, you know, the trees, the smaller things, let's say,
and paying the tithes of your spices and all these things.
He didn't like condemn them for doing that, but they were missing
the forest for the trees. He said, you left undone the
important things. What the law really teaches,
and you notice what he says that that is. He says that the law
teaches judgment and mercy and faith. Judgment, that is justice. The law teaches that God is just
and that God requires you and I to be completely, perfectly
just. The law teaches that. But thank
God the law also teaches mercy. That's what the Lord said the
law teaches. It teaches mercy. That is compassion. The law taught mercy that though
God is just and must exact justice, he's also compassionate and merciful. In fact, that's how God described
himself to Moses. You know the verse where this
is how Jehovah described himself. He said, the Lord, The Lord God
merciful and gracious, long-suffering, abundant in goodness and truth,
keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression
and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty. You see,
the law, it taught judgment, mercy. It also taught faith. Faith, that is reliance upon
Jesus Christ, upon the Christ that was still to come. When
when those sacrifices were offered under the law, those who brought
those sacrifices, they were to see through those sacrifices,
pass those sacrifices to the Lamb of God that was going to
come into this world one day to truly put away sin. It taught
faith. Aren't you glad though you live
in this town when these things are so much more clearly taught
since the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ? But that's how
the lawgiver described the law with those three words. Now notice. Verses 23 through 24 here, read
them together. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites, for you pay tithe, the mint, and anise, and cumin,
and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment,
mercy, faith. These ought you to have done,
and not leave the other undone. You blind guides which strain
at a gnat. You blind guides would strain
at a gnat and swallow a camel. You know, as a believer, you
know more than anybody else just how much you struggle in this battle. Right? You know more than anybody else. You know the battle that we have. We're in a warfare. A warfare
with sin, a warfare against the flesh, a warfare with Satan. And you know that better than
anybody else about yourself. And so therefore, it makes you
cover a multitude of sins in others. Right, love covers a
multitude of sins. You know, you see one of your
brothers or sisters and they fall into sin. You're not gonna
strain at a nap. No, not when you know what you're
dealing with. Right? When you're swallowing
a camel, not going to strain at a gnat. You say, are you excusing
sin? No. No, but the believer knows
better than anybody else the struggles with sin. And so it
makes us merciful. It makes us kind. It makes us
compassionate towards others that are struggling just like
we are. They're no different. They're people of like passions
as we are, just like the prophets, just like the apostles, just
like the pastor, just like myself trying to stand up here and bring
God's word. It's a struggle, and so therefore,
but you see the Pharisees, oh, they would swallow a camel, and
they'd see the littlest thing in somebody, and they'd find
fault. You see, that's not the description of a Christian. I
got enough problems with myself. I have enough problems with myself
without trying to correct everybody else. The Lord Jesus will deal
with his people. He's the great shepherd of the
sheep. He doesn't need me to correct his people. He'll take
care of that. He'll take care of that. One other thing here, and I need
to move on to the second passage and the third point, but look
at verses 33 and 35. The Lord said, 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're going to 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, son of Barakias, whom you slew
between the temple and the altar." The last difference that I would
point out here, and why I know those words do not apply to you,
believer, that we read at the beginning, is that we honor,
we think very highly of those who bring God's word to us, don't
we? How beautiful, how beautiful
are the feet upon the mountains of those who bring to us the
gospel, the good news, the gospel of peace. We think highly of
those pastors, missionaries, preachers, evangelists, Sunday
school teachers, those who bring us God's word. But you see, what
did the Pharisees and scribes do? They persecuted those that
brought God's word. So that's, I hope that helps
everyone here. See, there's a big difference.
There's a big difference. So whatever the Lord's saying,
he's not saying that about you, child of God, here this morning. So let's move on to the third
point. If the Lord is not referring
to me, if he's not referring to you, believer, then why do
these words trouble us so much? If he's not speaking to me, he's
not saying, woe unto you, woe unto me, then why do these words
trouble us so much? Why do I feel that the words
in verse 25 through 28 actually describe me and my experience? I don't know if anybody else
feels that those words describe you and your experience. Why
do we, if he's not talking about us, then why do we feel this
way? That's my next point. And to answer that question,
would you turn to Romans chapter seven with me? Romans chapter seven. Some of
you, before I even called out this passage, knew. that that's
where I was gonna ask you to turn. The Romans chapter seven. You say, well, how did they know
that? Because you know that in this passage, Paul asked this
very same question. Not in the same words, but he
asked the very same question. Romans chapter seven. Look at
verse number 14. And I'll try to be more brief
in this passage here. Verse number 14 of Romans 7,
Paul said, For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal,
sold under sin. I'm carnal, sold under sin. This is what the apostle Paul
said about himself. One of the, in trying to prepare
for this message, one of the passages, in studying this passage,
I saw something that Martin Luther, Martin Luther said, and I thought
it was so good, and a commentary on this verse here. This is what
he said. He said, I am carnal, sold under
sin. What, Martin Luther, the great
leader of the Reformation? He said about himself, I am carnal,
sold under sin. He said that is proof of the
spiritual and wise man. He knows that he is carnal, and
he is displeased with himself. Indeed, he hates himself and
praises the law of God, which he recognizes. Why? Because he
is spiritual. But the proof of a foolish, carnal
man is this, that he regards himself as spiritual and is pleased
with himself. That's quite a statement, isn't
it? He said so much in those few
words there. What Paul says here is no different
than what he says in other passages of scripture. But let's look
down at verse number 15. Continuing here, verses 15 through
20. Paul said, for that which I do, I allow not. But what I would, that do I not. But what I hate, that I do. If then I do that which I would
not, I consent unto the law that it is good. Now then, it is no
more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me, for I know that
in me, has the Lord taught you this? Has he taught you this? For I know that in me, that is
in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing. For to will is present
with me, but how to perform that which is good, I find not. For the good that I would, I
do not, but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now, if I do
that, I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth
in me. You know, the words here, a good
commentary on these words, what are the words that he spoke in
Philippians when he said, for we are the circumcision, we are
the true Israel of God, who worship God in the spirit, and we rejoice
in Christ Jesus, You remember how he finished that? And have
no confidence in the flesh. That's a commentary on what he's
saying here. He talks about what he would,
what would we? We would worship Christ perfectly.
We would love him perfectly. We would follow him perfectly.
But what do we do? We fail. We fall. We sin. and therefore have no
confidence in the flesh. If that were not true, we would
have some reason to have confidence in the flesh. But we have no
confidence in the flesh. Why? Because we've proven to
ourselves, not only has God's word told us this, not only has
the spirit of God taught us this, but we've proven it to ourselves
that we have no reason to have any confidence in the flesh.
Now notice verse 21 through 23. Paul said, I find then a law
that when I would do good, evil's present with me. For I delight
in the law of God after the inward man, but I see another law in
my members, warring against the law of my mind and bringing me
into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members. You know, here quickly in these
verses, Paul speaks of the inward man, and then he speaks of the
law of sin, which is in my members. First of all, the inward man.
What's the inward man? You notice that in verse 22.
He says, for I delight in the law of God after the inward man. The inward man is described by
various terms in the scripture. It's the new man. It's the new
man. It's that principle of grace
that God and mercy and love and grace imparts in us at the new
birth. The new man. But when we're born
again and that new man is given to us, the old man is not eradicated. The old man has never made any
better. The old man has never made any weaker. The old man,
and that's what he describes in verse 23 as the law of sin,
which is in my members. You see, the thing we have to
remember is that our fall, when Adam fell in the garden and we
fell in him, our fall was not, we didn't just scrape our knees
or our elbows. No, man died spiritually. Just
as God said that we would. In the day that thou eatest,
thou shalt surely die. And we died spiritually. And
when we died spiritually, we lost all ability to ever, ever
do anything as we ought to do it. That's how great the fall
was. You say, well, that's not my
experience. Well, that's been my experience. And that was the Apostle Paul's
experience, as we've read here. You know, throughout his epistles,
Paul speaks of sin. I don't know if you noticed,
he speaks of sin a whole lot. I mean, a whole lot. And most
often, the way Paul describes sin is this. He describes it
as missing the mark. Missing the word most often that
is translated sin. It's missing the mark. And that
can be written over everything that I've ever tried to do for
the glory of God. Missing the mark. What's the
mark? God is the mark. And everything we try to do falls
short, right? Short of the glory of God. And
that's what Paul's describing here. And that's why, believer,
when we hear those words of the Lord, when he talks about being
inwardly, like a place where dead people's bones would be,
you say, is man really that bad? I know one man who's really that
bad. And I know another man that's
that bad, which was the Apostle Paul, because that's the way
he describes himself, always missing the mark. Does that mean
that we're as bad as we could possibly be? Outwardly, we could
do some worse things than we do, no doubt. But inwardly, we
could not be any worse than we are. Can it be described any worse,
the law of sin? Paul, what's in you by nature?
The law of sin. The law of sin, carnal, sold
under sin. So, I need to get to the fourth
point. The good news. I've shared with
you some bad news. You say, I knew that already.
I didn't need to know the bad news. Well, sometimes we have
to hear the bad news before the good news is good news. There
is victory in the Lord Jesus Christ. There's victory in him. Notice here, Romans 7 verse 24. Paul said, Oh, wretched man. You ever felt that? Oh, wretched
man that I am. Who shall deliver me from the
body of this death? You know, the term here, wretched
man, what it's talking about, it's talking about someone who's
just weary out of continual conflicts. Just wearied. Wretched, oh wretched
man, oh wearied man. Weary of all this conflict with
sin. Weary with all the conflict with
the flesh. Who will deliver me from the
body of this death? Verse 25, I thank God. I thank
God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I
myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of
sin. You see, he was cast down but
not defeated. He had lost the battle, but not
the war. See, only by faith can someone
like Paul hear. Knowing what he knew about himself,
and the same thing is true of you, believer. Knowing what you
know about yourself, though. The only way you can rejoice,
the joy of the Lord is our strength. That's what the scripture says.
But the only way that we can have the joy of the Lord is by
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and the perfect savior, the one
through whom we're more than conquerors, through him who loved
us and gave himself for us. So for the third and last passage,
look over in Hebrews chapter 10, and I'll try to be very brief
here. Hebrews chapter 10. I could stop, but I don't want
to. I think this will be a blessing,
if the Lord will bless it to you. I think this will be such
a blessing. Hebrews chapter 10, in the context
of what we've looked at. Hebrews 10, verse number one.
Scripture says, for the law having a shadow of good things to come,
and not the very image of the things can never with those sacrifices
which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto
perfect. For then would they have not
ceased to have been offered? Because that the worshipers once
purged should have had no more conscience of sins, but in those
sacrifices there is remembrance again. You could say, remember,
it's again and again and again made of sins every year. For
it's not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should
take away sins. The only thing I'll say there
is that it's very clear that the sacrifices offered in the
Old Testament given in the Law of Moses never were able to take
away even one sin, much less take away all the sins of even
one sinner, much less be able to save one sinner, redeem one
sinner. It wasn't possible, because the
blood of bulls and goats cannot take away sin. Now notice verse
number five. Wherefore, because that's true,
wherefore, when he cometh into the world, who? The Son of God. The Christ, the Messiah, when
he cometh into the world, he's saying, sacrifice an offering
thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me. And burn
offerings and sacrifices for sins thou hast had no pleasure. Now, you say, well, how did God
not have any pleasure in those sacrifices? He's the one who
commanded that those sacrifices and offerings be offered. He
was. So when it says that he had no
pleasure in those things, he had pleasure in them and that
they were an act of obedience to his command. People were not,
it's not like he had pleasure in those that didn't follow his
command to offer those sacrifices. And he had pleasure in them as
they pictured the Lamb of God, his son, his darling son. He
had pleasure in them, but not pleasure in the fact of being
pleased with those so that he would justify one sinner or one
sin based on those sacrifices. You see, his justice and anger
towards sin could not be satisfied through the sacrifice of an animal. Why? Because we're the ones who've
sinned. It's not the animals, it's us.
It's man. It's man who has sinned and it's
man who must pay. That is just, that's justice,
and that's what God requires. But just, you know, this word
pleasure here, this word's translated pleased in other parts of the
scripture. He had no pleasure in those sacrifices
under the Old Testament, but he has all pleasure, he is pleased
perfectly with his son. At his baptism, you remember
what he said, this is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased,
in whom I have great pleasure. This is my beloved son. And you
remember on the Mount of Transfiguration? when the Lord was transfigured
before those three disciples, and Peter got caught up in the
moment. He said, Lord, it's good. It's good for us to be here.
He said, how about we raise up three authors? It sounded like
a good idea to him. We'll raise one for Moses and
one for Elias and one for you. And you remember, out of that
thick cloud, God spoke and said, this is my beloved son. Hear
you him. Hear you him. There wasn't any
need for three authors. There's only one author that's
to be raised, and that's to the son, the darling son of God in
whom he's well pleased. Now notice. Going on here. He said, verse 7, then said I,
lo, I come, in the volume of the book it is written of me,
to do thy will, O God. Above, when he said, sacrifice
and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wouldst
not, neither hadst pleasure then, which are offered by the law.
Then said he, lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away
the first. that he may establish the second. He taketh away the first. The
Lord Jesus Christ, when he came, he came into this world to do
what? He came to do the will of God. And what is the will
of God? The will of God was that he,
in our place, in our stead, as our representative believers,
the representative of all the elect of God, that he would live
a perfect life of obedience, a holy life. He is the holy,
harmless, spotless Lamb of God. A holy life. I don't know if
you've ever thought about this, but every moment, every second
that the Lord Jesus was upon this earth, He did everything
He ever did for the glory of God. And you know, as He was
doing that, simultaneously, He did anything and everything He
ever did for our good. Why? Because what he was doing
wasn't for himself. He was honoring God because we
cannot honor God. He was pleasing God because in
ourselves we cannot please God. Right? He was living that life.
He didn't just come immediately and die that sacrifice. No, he
lived in our place. But the will of God was also
that he die in our place as well. The just for the unjust that
he might bring us unto God. He came to do the will of God. And so when he did that, what
did he do? He put away the first. Those sacrifices, there is no
need for shadows anymore, the real had come, that he may establish
the second. And let me try to finish here. Verse number 10, by the which
will we are sanctified. Notice, through the offering
of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And every priest standeth
daily ministering, and oftentimes the same sacrifices which can
never take away sins. But this man, after he had offered
one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of
God, from henceforth expect until his enemies be made his footstool.
For by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. Whereof the Holy Ghost also is
a witness to us for after that he had said before, this is the
covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith
the Lord. I'll put my laws in their hearts. That's the inward
man. And in their minds, will I write them and their sins and
their iniquities? Will I remember no more? That's
the carnal man. I'm going to remember the new
man that I'm going to put within him. and I'm gonna have no knowledge
of the old man, of the carnal man. Their sins, can we enter
into that? Their sins and their iniquities
will I remember no more. That's what God said. For those
who are in his covenant of grace, chosen in his precious son who
came into this world, their sins and their iniquities I'm going
to remember them no more. Now, where remission of these
is, there is no more offering for sin. There's no need. Sins
have been remitted. There's no need for another offering.
Having therefore, brethren, boldness, liberty, freedom to enter into
the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which
he hath consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say, his
flesh, and having a high priest over the house of God, let us
draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith Notice,
having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies
washed with pure water, let us hold fast the profession of our
faith without wavering. Why? Because he is faithful who
has promised. We are to hold fast because he
is faithful who has promised. And let us consider one another
to provoke unto love and to good works. You see, it's only as
we consider the Lamb of God, the perfect, perfect Lamb of
God, that we can have our evil consciences. You say, do you
have an evil conscience? Yes, I have an evil conscience
because I have an evil heart. You said, I thought you had a
new heart. I do. But I also have an evil heart.
I still have the flesh. I'm still carnal, sold under
sin, and I will be. till God delivers me from this
flesh into that day when we will see him face to face and be like
him. For we shall be like him, right,
when we see him as he is. So if those words trouble you,
look at the whole chapter. And then remember why you have
any hope in the first place, right? Why do we have any hope
in the first place? Oh, how sad to walk through this
world with no hope, no hope of acceptance with God, no hope
of life beyond this world, no hope of peace with God, no hope
of dropping this robe of flesh and this awful body of sin that
I carry around with me and one day to be totally free. of sin and unrighteousness and
of evil conscience. Won't that be wonderful? Not
to have an evil, feel that evil conscience. Lord, I've failed
again, I've failed again, I've failed again. Someday, someday
we'll drop this robe of flesh, believer, and that will be gone.
Our pastor said he'd like one time to bring a message on heaven,
what it is. There's a lot about what it's
not. Well, here's one thing that it is. It's a place where no
one has an evil conscience. And I'm looking forward to that.
May the Lord bless his word. Thank you.