Confronting Error with Condemnation, Not Conversation B

Verse 15, whoa. Verse 16, whoa.

Twenty-three, twenty-five, pronouncing horrendous, horrific judgment on them. Verse 33, you brood of vipers, how shall you escape the sentence of hell? That's a condemnation, not a conversation. Welcome to Grace to You with John MacArthur.

I'm your host, Phil Johnson. J.C. Ryle said that Christians should keep the walls of separation as low as possible and shake hands over them as often as they can. Unity is certainly a priority for Christians, but the problem is, many churches today are doing away with walls that are essential, accepting people who teach a counterfeit gospel, and even elevating non-Christians to positions of leadership. So today on Grace to You, John MacArthur helps you know where to draw the lines as he looks at the bold stand Jesus took against false teachers. It's part of John's study called How to Talk to a Heretic.

And now with the lesson, here's John. Luke chapter 20 verses 45 through 47, let me establish them in your mind, follow as I read. Luke chapter 20 beginning at verse 45, and while all the people were listening, He said to the disciples, beware of the scribes who like to walk around in long robes and love respectful greetings in the marketplaces and chief seats in the synagogues and places of honor at banquets who devour widows' houses and for appearances' sake offer long prayers. These will receive greater condemnation...strong words, unmistakable words. Now let's look at the text. Three points, a caution, characterization, condemnation.

Let's look at the caution. Very simple, beware of the scribes...beware of the scribes. In Matthew's lengthy record of the Lord's denunciation, it is beware of the scribes and Pharisees. Scribes were Pharisees. Scribes were Pharisees. They were the Law experts. Not all Pharisees were scribes, but scribes were Pharisees.

There were non-scribal Pharisees, but scribes were Pharisees. They were the experts in the Law. They were the legalistic, self-righteous sect. In fact, the Jews had a saying, the saying went like this, Moses received the Law and gave it to Joshua, Joshua received the Law and gave it to the elders, the elders received the Law and gave it to the prophets, the prophets received the Law and gave it to the Pharisees and the scribes. They were the treasurers of the Law of God. They were the ones given the trust.

They were experts. They were the lawyers of Israel. Now remember, you've got a theocratic kingdom where all Law is viewed as God's Law, not just biblical Law but the Law of tradition, the Laws that had grown up through the years. All that composite of Law was viewed in a theocratic way.

It was all the Law of God. So those who knew the Law of God, interpreted the Law of God and applied the Law of God were the lawyers in Israel. They were not just giving Pharisees and rabbis and priests and others insight into the meaning of Scripture, they were also interpreting all the Law not only in its interpretation but in its application. They were the lawyers in Israel. They cared for all matters legal.

They were the dominant force in Judaism, not only religiously but socially. They handled all legal matters for people, property, estates, contracts, resolutions. All those things fell into the hands of these lawyers.

It was no different then than it is for us. All legal matters ultimately end up in the hands of lawyers. And so it did end up in the hands of the scribes. But from their viewpoint, everything was sacred and every adjudication that they rendered and every position that they took was in fact supposed to be a representation of God and what God willed, a stewardship, if you will, from God. Because they then were the agents of God, they carried with them tremendous weight and trust.

People had nowhere else to turn because there were no others than the scribes to handle all their matters. He warns everybody, both the crowd and the disciples, to beware. Prosekate apa, take heed, guard yourself against. How are you going to do that?

How are you going to do that? Because they are into everything. How are you going to extract yourself from this theocratic environment where everything falls into the lap of the scribes and they render their will on everything? The last thing that Jesus would say to them is, they're basically good guys, they have religious intentions, they have some spiritual insights, let's have a conversation with them. Push them away. Get away from them, like Jude 23 talks about.

You're going to get your garments stained or you're going to get burned if you get too close. Why are they such a threat? Because they are not godly. They do not know God. They do not have spiritual wisdom. They are destructive. They are agents of Satan sent to fight the purposes of God. Do you understand, and this is such a basic thing and I've said it many times through the years, false religion never restrains the flesh. So these people all operate like the worst of the unregenerate, except it isn't apparent on the surface. False religion can't subdue the wretched heart. That can only be subdued by regeneration.

That only happens by means of gospel truth. So they are always going to be one thing on the outside and something else on the inside. Beware of them. They are not godly. They don't have anything spiritually to offer.

They can't give you anything beneficial. They are destructive. They are deadly. They are dangerous. Don't get near them, you'll get singed, stained. Stay away. That's why Psalm 1, something as basic as Psalm 1 says this, the beginning of the Psalms, verse 21, blessed is the man who doesn't walk in the counsel of the wicked, who doesn't stand in the path of sinners and sit in the seat of scoffers.

Don't assemble with them. From the caution comes the characterization. Here's how he characterizes them. Verse 46, they like to walk around in long robes, love respectful greetings in the marketplaces, chief seats in the synagogues, places of honor at banquets, who devour widows' houses and for appearance's sake offer long prayers.

Wow! All that sums up in one word, hypocrites. All people in false religion are hypocrites. They don't know God. They do not know God.

Can't get there except through Christ. Our Lord pulls no punches. The main element is that they are all spiritual phonies, they are all spiritual frauds. Now his audience would be very familiar with these kinds of things that they did.

Let's just work our way through, six of them. First they like to walk around in long robes, Greek word stale from which the old word stole comes, a robe to the ground. And they began to develop robes that were very different than other people's robes. They were robes that had certain little things on them, markings and fancy things.

They became unique and fancy and expensive robes that would identify them as the holy people. They lengthened the tassels on their robes, Matthew 23, 5 says. And that comes from the Old Testament. In the Old Testament, back in Numbers 15 verses 38 to 40, God had ordained that the Jews could put little tassels on the bottom of the robe. And it was a really wonderful little kind of symbol to remind them of the Law of God. Everywhere you go, you see that, it reminds you of the Law of God.

Jesus had them on His robe, according to Matthew 9.20. It was what they did. But the scribes and the Pharisees lengthened the tassels, not for the sake of a better memory of ice, but for the sake of ostentation, appearance.

They weren't trying to bring attention to God and His Word. They were trying to bring attention to themselves as if they were holy. It was a way to position themselves, to posture themselves to achieve what they wanted. And what they wanted was to get into the lives of the people and abuse and use the people for their own self-will. And so they wore special clothes.

Think about that. Every time I see somebody dressed in some ridiculous religious garment, parading around as if this is some indication of greater holiness. Instead of a little thing on the bottom of the robe to signify submission to God's Law, they had developed these kinds of robes that just brought status to them.

Still the way it is today, people wearing religious robes. Secondly, they loved respectful greetings in the marketplace. As they moved in and out of people in the daily life, public life, they expected to be addressed with titles of dignity. Back to Matthew 23 again, in that full treatment of Matthew 23 of our Lord's words about them, he does tell us the particular titles that they liked. It says in verse 7, they want to be called by men, rabbi. We'll use the English transliteration rabbi, meaning exalted teacher, excellency, most knowledgeable one, most wise.

It would be tantamount to, I suppose, calling someone doctor today. They were at the top. In fact, they were so exalted. If you were called rabbi, you were so exalted that in the Talmud, Sanhedrin 88 is the location in the Talmud, it says that it is more punishable to act against the words of a scribe than the words of Scripture. They wanted to be called excellency, elevated one, most knowledgeable one, exalted one.

That's what they saw. They also wanted to be called father. Verse 9, do not call anyone on earth your father for one is your father, he was in heaven.

Father meaning source. Not only are they exalted in their wisdom, but they are the source of spiritual life. They are the source of spiritual truth. They want to be father, progenerator, creator. So they want to wear fancy robes.

They want to take exalted, high and mighty, sanctimonious titles and they want to be called father as if they are the source of spiritual life. They want to be called leader. Verse 10, do not be called leaders for one is your leader that is Christ. Call yourself servant. They wanted to be leader.

That is the one who determines direction, the one who determines destiny, the one who sets the course. False teachers are never humble. They wear the façade of humility. But keep it in mind, if you reject the truth, that's the proudest thing you can do to set yourself against God and His Word, right? You reject the Bible, you reject the gospel, that's the ultimate act of pride.

False teachers are never humble. The proudest thing you can do is reject the Word of God, rebel against it, that's what they do. Then they want to be exalted by title and by garb. Thirdly, they love not only respectful greetings in the market places, same verb, they love chief seats in the synagogues.

They had elevated platforms in the front of the synagogue, important scribes, Pharisees would sit up on that elevated platform recognized as the experts in the Law, visiting scribes coming from their own place to another synagogue would expect to be ushered up to the elevated place. Starting to get the picture? Now you know why I am not called doctor, why I don't wear a robe and don't sit on the platform. It's just a small way to keep from any of this. And then fourthly, they love places of honor at banquets. Any kind of a special occasion, they want the place of honor which is next to the host. They want to be the center of attention, the most honored of all. This is what they're after, it's all about pride.

All four of those things have to do with pride, elevation. It's what they seek. Religious leaders are after this, false religious leaders. Turns a corner with the fifth one, verse 47, who devour widows' houses.

Now what is this? First of all, let me just tell you, the word devour is a very strong word. There's a verb in the Greek, estheō. It means to consume or devour, or that's metaphoric, literally means to eat, the word for eating. But metaphorically, to devour or consume.

This is not estheō, this is katestheō. Always when you add the preposition at the beginning, you intensify the verb. This is to totally consume, to plunder, to eat up, hence devour in the strongest sense. They go after the most defenseless. Like the false teachers of whom Paul writes to Timothy, they go after silly women. They go after the unprotected and the weak. They devour widows' houses. Widows are the easiest ones to get to.

What do you mean? Well, first of all, widows were to be protected, right? Back in the Old Testament. Pure religion, says James, is to care for widows. Exodus 22, 22, Deuteronomy 10, 18, Malachi 3, 5 and other scriptures call upon the people of God to care for widows. God cares for widows. These scribes devour them.

How did they do that? Now keep in mind that they were the lawyers of the system. So when a woman who was a widow needed someone to protect her, she would turn to a lawyer with the idea that it would protect her home, her property, all of those things. Some interesting study has been done, some interesting research on the kind of behavior that was going on.

Here's just a brief look at it. First of all, they would take support, money for themselves from widows, although it was forbidden, knowledge without price...knowledge without price. That was the code of a true rabbi, certainly with regard to widows. They would disobey that and whatever wisdom they would give to widows, they would charge them and do so exorbitantly. What could a widow do? Secondly, they would cheat widows of their estate. By getting into the legal machinations under the guise that they would provide legal protection, they would literally begin to eat away the estate of that widow.

Thirdly, they would leech on and abuse hospitality, take advantage of available room, board, food. There are some stories about gluttony and excessive drinking, taking that from poor widows. Another way, by mismanaging the property of widows so that out of complete carelessness a widow was absolutely made destitute. One of their popular ones was to take money from older widows with deficient mental powers, take advantage of those who were unable to defend themselves mentally. And maybe the worst, they would accumulate debts. The widow would owe them and owe them and owe them and be unable to pay and so they would take the widows home as pledge for the debt and thus devour the house.

When the widow couldn't pay, they threw her out. That is why they are characterized in the words of Jesus, I'll read it to you again, Luke 11.39, you are full of robbery...you are full of robbery and wickedness. Or the words of Jesus in Luke 16...or the words of Luke, I should say, in Luke 16, 14, the Pharisees who were lovers of money, proud and greedy. That characterized them.

That's typical of false teachers. They do what they do for filthy lucre. They elevate themselves. They put on a facade of spirituality and they bilk the most helpless, defenseless people. Now there are lawyers that do that. Thank the Lord for Christian lawyers and lawyers with integrity who don't do that. But there are lawyers that do that. But you know something, there are evangelists that do that, false evangelists, false religious teachers take money out of people's pockets.

So false teachers are proud and greedy, not all to the same degree. And then six, for appearances sake, they offer long prayers. Nothing wrong with a long prayer.

Prayed a few myself. But something wrong with praying one for pretense, praying just to be seen. Remember Matthew 6, 5 and 6 where Jesus condemns that kind of praying in the Sermon on the Mount which was so characteristic of these false leaders?

He says this, when you pray, you are not to be as the hypocrites. They love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners in order to be seen by men. Spiritual frauds, spiritual phonies taking advantage of people. They do it under pretense. By the way, the word under pretense, interesting word, prophecy is the word. That which is put out in front to hide the true state of things, that's what it is. They hide the reality of what they are. It's a specious cloak that they wear, long prayers.

It's a game false teachers play. Again in Matthew chapter 23, the Lord describes this kind of hypocrisy. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, verse 25, hypocrites. You clean the outside of the cup and the dish inside, you're full of robbery and self-indulgence.

You blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and the dish that the outside of it may become clean also. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, you're like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful but inside are full of dead man's bones and all uncleanness. And even so, you too outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you're full of hypocrisy and lawlessness." Those are the most religious people in Israel. Jesus didn't have a conversation with the most religious in Israel. He issued a condemnation. That's why Matthew 23, again, as long as you're there, look at it. Verse 15, woe, that means damnation, cursing. Verse 16, woe, 23, 25, 27, 29, woe, woe, woe, woe, woe, pronouncing horrendous, horrific judgment on them. Verse 33, you serpents, you brood of vipers, how shall you escape the sentence of hell? That's a condemnation, not a conversation. Now let's go back to Luke and we see the last words of the chapter.

We saw the caution and the characterization. Here's the condemnation. These will receive greater condemnation. The key is greater, not lesser because they're religious. The Lord isn't going to like them all of a sudden because they're religious, because they're good, because they're moral, because God loves all religions and all religions love God and Jesus loves all religions and all religions love Jesus.

This is wonderful, no? He pronounces on them a more severe damnation, greater, parisotron, it's a comparative, krima, judgment, parisotron, a far greater, an excessive, a more abundant, or if you will, an extraordinary condemnation, more than the usual. Religious people get a greater damnation, not a lesser one. Far from pleasing God somehow because they've lived up to whatever truth they had, they receive a greater condemnation, especially if they've trampled underfoot the blood of the covenant, counted it an unholy thing, Hebrews 10, 29 to 31, rejected Christ.

The idea is clear. If you're in the wrong religion, you're going to be condemned. If you're a purveyor of the wrong religion, you're going to receive a far greater suffering and damnation in hell.

They're dangerous, be warned. They're hypocrites, they're worthy of condemnation. Compassion?

Yes. Gospel? Give them the gospel. Pray for their salvation. Have a sad heart. But in the end, we have nothing to learn from false teachers and false religions and they must know that they are under sentence of divine condemnation.

They must know for their sake and the sake of those who need to be protected from them. You're listening to John MacArthur, Chancellor of the Masters University and Seminary, and the featured Bible teacher here on Grace To You. The title of his current study, How To Talk to a Heretic. Now, John, Jesus described himself as meek and lowly in heart, and yet from what we've seen in this study in the past three weeks, that doesn't exhaust the personality characteristics of Christ.

What would you hope listeners take away from this study that I think for a lot of people has been a rather surprising snapshot from the life of Christ? Well, his meek and lowly mentality had to do with he had nowhere to lay his head. Foxes have holes, the birds of the air have nests, the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head. He was a wandering vagabond essentially during the three years of his ministry. He basically had the clothes on his back. He didn't own anything.

We don't think he had any possessions of land or houses. His meekness and lowliness is, of course, because of his condescension because he is the true and eternal God, and he becomes a man. As Paul says to the Philippians, he comes all the way down, taking on the form of a man, all the way down from there to death, even the death on the cross.

So the meekness and lowliness is basically speaking of how he lowered himself, the kenosis, how he took the form of a man at the humblest level, dependent on others around him to even meet his basic needs. But when it came to the truth, there was not meekness and lowliness in the truth. There was the truth. And the truth is a force. The truth is a fire. The truth is a sword. The truth comes with power. So we've been looking at Jesus not so much in his humility as in his truthfulness, and that's where the confrontation came with the leaders of Israel, or for that matter with anybody who was propagating error.

We're bringing it to a close today. It's been a great series, How to Talk to a Heretic, learning from Jesus, taken out of Luke 19 and 20. What captured his attention? What got him fired up to confront these people?

In a word, religious corruption. And so the series How to Talk to a Heretic shows you how Jesus dealt with religious leaders who taught lies and deceit. And it helps you with facing the very same realities, because they're always around. How to Talk to a Heretic has been a great series. I'd love to have one in your hands.

You can download them at GTY.org on an MP3 file. Remember, the new book we've been telling you about just the past couple of weeks, Jesus Unleashed, perfect complement to the series we just finished. Yes, it is. And both the audio study and John's new book show you how to defend key biblical doctrines just like Jesus did. And frankly, it's never been more important to be able to stand up for God's word. So order How to Talk to a Heretic, the series, and the book Jesus Unleashed when you contact us today. Call our toll-free number, 800-55-GRACE, or shop online at GTY.org. If you'd like to watch the How to Talk to a Heretic study with your family or a small group, it's available on DVD. You can also purchase the audio series in CD. And like all of John's series, How to Talk to a Heretic is free to download at GTY.org. And remember, John's newest book called Jesus Unleashed, it's a perfect complement to the series we just finished. Call 800-55-GRACE or go to GTY.org to order your copy. And when you visit GTY.org, take advantage of the thousands of free resources there for you, including Grace Stream, which gives you all of John's teaching through the entire New Testament in a continuous loop. Fill your mind with biblical truth by listening to Grace Stream at GTY.org. Now for John MacArthur, I'm Phil Johnson, encouraging you to tune in when John looks at how you can honor the Lord and have true peace, no matter how hostile the culture gets toward Christ and God's word. That timely series is titled Faith Through the Fire. That series starts Monday, so be here for another 30 minutes of unleashing God's truth, one verse at a time, on Grace To You.