The Anti-Model of Spiritual Leadership

He says, Only one is your leader. That's Christ.

Earlier He said, One is your teacher. That's probably the Holy Spirit. Verse 9, He says, Don't call anybody on earth Father, for one's your Father. You've got the whole Trinity there.

The Spirit is your teacher. God is your Father. Christ is your leader. All you are is brothers. Don't get an elevated view of yourself. Welcome to Grace to You with John MacArthur.

I'm your host, Phil Johnson. It's said you can't become a saint by comparing yourself with a sinner. In other words, the only comparison that matters is how you compare with the highest of all standards, Jesus Christ.

Still, that doesn't mean there's nothing to be learned, that there's no benefit to be gained by looking at those who set a bad example. John MacArthur considers that point today on Grace to You as he continues his study titled, Heaven's Heroes. Today he turns his attention from the great examples of faith in the Bible and looks at some bad examples, what he calls the anti-models of spiritual leadership.

And with that, here is John with a lesson. I want to draw your attention to Matthew chapter 23. We have been dealing with three models of spiritual leadership, Paul, Timothy, and Epaphroditus.

Philippians chapter 2 gives us these three men as illustrations of those who in humility and without complaint in difficult circumstances worked out their salvation in effective service to Jesus Christ. In contrast to that, as if set apart in bold relief, I want to share with you from this chapter the anti-model of spiritual leadership, what a spiritual leader is not. Now it is obvious that there have always been false prophets, false preachers, false teachers, false leaders, false shepherds, even false Christs as we read about in the New Testament. But of all of the portions of Scripture that deal with these false teachers, none is more poignant, none is more direct, none puts them in clearer focus, and none is more penetratingly full of judgment than Matthew 23. And these words seem to be the strongest, harshest, most direct and comprehensive diatribe against false teachers in the Scripture and that may well be of course because they were spoken by our Lord against the greatest assault that hell had ever amassed, namely the three-year assault on the ministry of Jesus Christ. It may well be that this was the greatest assault of false doctrine and false teaching to this point in the world's history. Certainly this is the greatest denunciation of false teachers in Scripture.

Now I want to give you a little bit of the background. It is the Passover season. Jesus will soon be at the cross in just a matter of days. He has gone into the temple. In the temple He has entered into conflict with the religious leaders, namely the scribes and the Pharisees. The Pharisees were the legalistic sect of Jews who believed in salvation by works. They were fundamental legalists. Within the Pharisees was a group known as the scribes who were the experts in the law.

They were Pharisaical law experts. They had devised an apostate, Judaistic system in which salvation was gained by one's own self-righteous achievements. It is to them that Jesus brings this message. It is His final public sermon that He ever preached. The rest of His conversations are with the disciples from this point on. He gives this message in the temple where He has been in an ongoing conflict with them. He has given parables that speak of their judgment.

Now He is direct. He gives the message in the hearing of the scribes and the Pharisees because after all it is directed at them. But He also gives it in the hearing of the crowd, the multitude, because it acts as a warning to them to turn from these false leaders. Furthermore, He gives it in the hearing of the disciples because they are to be the true teachers to whom the people must turn. So the disciples are there, the crowd is there, the scribes and the Pharisees are there as well. In verse 1 then says, Jesus spoke to the multitudes and to His disciples saying, the scribes and the Pharisees. And at that point we'll stop long enough to say He directs the message to the scribes and Pharisees in the sense that they are the subject while there is a much larger audience. This is a judgment on them, but more than that it is a warning to the rest of the crowd, but more than that it is a call to that warned crowd to follow His disciples who are the bearers of truth and righteousness. Now basically He focuses on two things, their character and their condemnation. And I submit to you that we have here both a guide for the recognition of false teachers as well as a standard in the negative sense of what a true and faithful servant of God should be like. Let's look first of all at their character.

And as I said, we'll not have time to dig into all the details. We'll move rather rapidly, but I'll give you six marks of false spiritual leaders that will be a guide for you today as much as they were then. Number one, false spiritual leaders, false preachers and teachers lack authenticity.

They lack authenticity. Verse 2 says, the scribes and the Pharisees have seated themselves in the seat of Moses or the chair of Moses. Each synagogue had a special seat or a chair, the chair of Moses. It was a chair occupied by the legal authority on the law. Now the point that I want you to notice in verse 2 is the scribes and the Pharisees have seated themselves in the chair of Moses. The point is they put themselves there. There's no call of God here.

There's no authenticity. They are self-appointed usurpers who took the place of authority and tried to keep everybody that threatened that authority out of that place. All you have to do is read into the gospels a little while and you find that the Pharisees became immediately violently hostile to Jesus Christ.

Why? Because Jesus' teaching threatened their authority. The first sermon recorded in the gospels, Matthew 5 to 7, the Sermon on the Mount, they responded by saying that He spoke as one having what? Authority. All spiritual leaders are always self-appointed experts. They are not called by God. They are not anointed by God. They are not properly trained. They are not properly ordained within the community of those who hold the Word of God precious and live by biblical truth.

They are not accountable. They exist in a self-appointed identification. It is what Jeremiah said when he said they go but they were not sent. They preach but God did not give them the message. So all those who say they are the spokesmen of God must be carefully examined to see if they are gifted of God, called of God, faithful to the Word of God, empowered by the Spirit of God so that there is authenticity. I mean, let's face it. The religious charlatans in our culture are absolutely pandemic.

They're every place. Anybody who wants to can pop onto the scene, become a self-appointed prophet, say whatever he wants and get a following. But the true Shepherd, the true Pastor is authentic, called by God, gifted by God, confirmed by the church, godly in character, faithful to the Word.

Secondly, they are indicted in regard to their character not only because they lacked authenticity but they lacked simplicity. This is alluded to in verse 3. It says, Therefore all that they tell you do and observe.

Now why does He say that? Why does Jesus say, Do what they tell you? Because He is speaking in reference to the chair of Moses. If they are sitting in the chair of Moses and articulating the law of God, then do what they say.

Do what they say. The implication of that is that when anyone speaks the Word of God, he speaks as the true minister of God should speak. And the truth of God even in the mouth of a false prophet is no less the truth, right? The Word of God in the mouth of a liar is no less the Word of God. And so he is simply saying that the Word of God is the message, the Word of God is the issue, and even they, if they speak the Word of God, speak truth that you must do.

The problem was, of course, that they didn't limit it to that. They would speak the law of Moses. They would take the chair of Moses and speak the Word of God.

In the synagogue they would read the Word of God. The problem was they lacked simplicity. They had gone way beyond the Word of God. It is said that the Pharisees alone had 50 volumes of man-made regulations in addition to the revelation of the Old Testament.

They lacked simplicity. They did not stay with the Word of God and only the Word of God. For them it was not sola scriptura. The religious leaders of Israel were not unlike many today who add to the Word of God their visions, their traditions, their revelations that exceed the Word of God. I heard a false teacher on the television two days ago and he was telling the people that he had received a new Word from God. And that Word from God is that no Christian should ever, ever die accidentally by disease.

You should never die at any point in time until you will to die. Well, that certainly is not biblical, but you've got about 3,000 people saying, oh, yes. There is in the life and ministry of a true spiritual leader a simplicity in that his content is confined to the Word of God.

Basic. Third thing that they lacked. They lacked integrity. Please note verse 3 again. Do not do according to their deeds, for they say and do not do. They lack integrity. They say but they don't do. In other words, he says when they sit in the chair of Moses and they speak Mosaic truth, do what they say. When they speak the law of God, do what they say. But don't do what they do because even when they say the truth, they don't do it. They have no integrity. That's a very basic issue. False leaders are always corrupt on the inside.

Always. Read carefully 2 Peter chapter 2. Read carefully Jude's epistle. There are monumental statements in there about their internal corruption. The point is no matter what they say, that's what they are. That's what they are.

They are full of masked vice. They may maintain a theatrical goodness, but not a real one because they have no internal restraint against the flesh. They may spout God's truth once in a while like the clock that isn't working is still right twice a day.

So you need to be very discerning. So they lack authenticity. They have no call from God. They lack simplicity. They are not confined to the Word of God. They lack integrity. They do not live what they call other people to do.

Fourthly, they lack sympathy. Please notice verse 4. They tie up heavy loads and lay them on men's shoulders, but they themselves are unwilling to move them with so much as a finger. They load up the burdens.

The picture here is of a man who has unmercifully loaded his beast of burden with assorted loads on his back. And the Pharisees and the scribes were like this. They were bringing people under a tremendous pile of rules and regulations and impossible demands, leaving them hopelessly loaded down, hopelessly guilty, without deliverance, no way to find comfort, and of course the heaviest load of all was a works righteousness system. Friends, anybody in a false religion, anybody under a false teacher who is trying to work his way to salvation has an unbearable load that is piled on him by the false leaders. It also notes in verse 4, they will not move.

The word is actually remove. They will not remove the burden. No sympathy, no care, no love. They are heartless. They are abusive. They use people. They manipulate people. They keep people under a tremendous load of guilt. You know, people are just gullible for that.

It's amazing, but that gullibility isn't new. Do you remember 2 Corinthians 11, 20? Paul here is talking about true and false prophets, deceitful workers who disguise themselves as apostles of Christ. The context is right on. He says in verse 13, these are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. Then in verse 20, he says this, you bear with anyone if he enslaves you, if he devours you, if he takes advantage of you, if he exalts himself, if he hits you in the face. Isn't it amazing?

You take it. I mean, how amazing that you can literally be suckered by all of that, even to the point where if he hits you in the face, you take it. Incredible how people become spellbound under those who load them up with absolutely unbearable burdens of responsibility and guilt and manipulation, no compassion at all, none at all. They lack authenticity. They lack simplicity. They lack integrity. They lack sympathy. They use people. They abuse people. People are manipulated for their own goals and their own self-fulfilling ends.

Number 5, they lack spirituality. Verse 5 says, they do all their deeds to be noticed by men, for they broaden their phylacteries and lengthen the tassels of their garments. That's quite an interesting verse. Four times in the Old Testament the Jews are told to bind the law of God on their forehead and on their hand, four times. The Jews understood that. They understood that that was symbolic of having the law of God in your mind, that's thought, and having the law of God applied in your action, that's work, that's living. So having the law of God bound on your forehead meant to have it at the center of your thoughts.

Having it bound on your hand meant to have it at the core of your behavior. They all understood that. But about 400 B.C. some Jews decided that they needed to make that internal principle of the law of God in the mind and in the behavior an external act.

So about 400 B.C. they started building little boxes, covering them with black leather. In them they put four portions of Scripture, two out of Exodus chapter 2, two out of Deuteronomy chapter 2, tucked them in a little box, covered it with leather, strapped it on their head, and strapped it on their arm. Those are called phylacteries. Why do they do it?

Well, look what he says here. Not only do they do that on the outside, but this is interesting, they enlarge their phylacteries. They put a big box on their head. Why? So people will see how devout they are.

It's all externalism. And then they were also commanded in Numbers chapter 15 to put tassels on their robes. Why? So they would be singled out as God's people. Why did God do that? To keep them from mingling with the pagans. They were easily identifiable by the kind of robe they wore and they had the tassels. It was a symbol of their Jewishness, of their identity with the people of God, and of their commitment to the law of God. So now when they want to parade how committed to the law of God they are, they get great big tassels and great big boxes.

See how spiritual we are. They became, by the way, magical charms to keep away evil. And they taught that God even wore one on His head, amazingly enough.

This was sheer external show. They had no spirituality. You know what it says in Jude 19? They were devoid of the Holy Spirit. They were devoid of the Holy Spirit. They had not the Holy Spirit. They weren't spiritual. That's deadly because they had no way to restrain the flesh. They had no way to constrain their fallenness.

They had no way to control their sin. So you see these false spiritual leaders on big ego trips parading all their holiness, parading all their piosity on the outside, but the truth is the Spirit does not dwell on the inside. They are corrupt.

They are all those things that we read you a moment ago because they have no spirituality. It is all, as Galatians 6, 12 says, a fair show in the flesh. And one more virtue they lack, number six, they lack humility.

They lack humility. Number six, they loved the place of honor at banquets and the chief seats in the synagogues. The seats of honor were at the right and the left hand of the host. And they loved to be at the right and the left hand of the host. They were really into that.

I mean, even James and John got sucked into that deal, didn't they? Can we please sit on the right and left hand in the kingdom, they said to Jesus. This was typical of those who sought preeminence and prominence. They wanted to be on the right and the left hand of the guest. They wanted to be in the know. They were really looking for significance. Furthermore, they wanted to sit in the chief seats up front on the raised platform in the synagogue where they would sit and all the dignitaries would sit there and face the people.

That's what they chose. That's what they liked. They liked being elevated and being highly esteemed in the eyes of the people.

Then notice, would you please, this is very interesting, verse 7. They also loved respectful greetings in the marketplaces. They loved people to acknowledge them as dignitaries. They wanted honored titles. In fact, the rabbinical writings give an elaborate direction about how you're to greet a rabbi when you meet him.

There's all kinds of things you're supposed to say. And by the way, it says there to be treated superior to kings. Some of the Jewish writings that I've seen indicated that one time the academy of rabbis was having an argument with God and they had to select a very special rabbi to settle it. Now that is an exalted opinion of oneself when a rabbi has to resolve a conflict that God can't solve.

The Mishnah says, quote, it is more punishable to act against the words of the scribes than against the words of Scripture. So you get the idea of how they were elevated in their own minds. They had an inflated sense of their own importance. And here's what they liked. They loved being called by men, rabbi. They loved that.

What does that mean? You want to know what the Latin is? Docore, from which we get doctor. They liked being called doctor because that elevated them. That lifted them up. Your Excellency would be another way to translate that. You superior one, you.

You great one. They loved that. They sought that.

We still have people like that around. They seek that. They want to be sure that you don't miss that they're doctor someone or excellency someone or great one someone. But there's always been a propensity in a false leader to seek that glorification, that prominence.

That's why there's such a market in degree mills for easily gained titles of honor. Then notice what he says also. He says they loved to be called rabbi. Verse 8, but do not be called rabbi.

Don't you go around be calling doctor. Don't you go around being called excellency, great one, superior mind, great teacher. Hey, if you ever said anything true, you got it from your teacher, right? For one is your teacher and you are all brothers. There's the leveler, folks. We're all brothers.

There's the leveler. We can't seek anything more than that. Brother John, that's me, just brother. Now, I'm glad when people are nice and they grant a degree and I can understand the proper work in academia, the proper work in ministry that causes one to be carefully honored. And if the heart is right, that's not a problem. But if the heart is wrong, that's gas on the fire.

It's a heart issue. So he says don't be called rabbi. And I kind of think he may have been looking at the twelve at this point. And then he says, don't be called leaders. They love to be called leader. That's master, master. He says only one is your leader. That's Christ.

Earlier he said, one is your teacher. That's probably the Holy Spirit. Verse 9, he says, don't call anybody on earth father for one is your father. You got the whole Trinity there. The Spirit is your teacher. God is your father. Christ is your leader. All you are is brothers.

Don't get an elevated view of yourself. And don't go around demanding that everyone give you honor by calling you all these things. By the way, I just kind of passed by verse 9, don't call anyone on earth your father for one is your father who's in heaven. Don't call anyone father.

What does father mean? Source, source, source of life, source of spiritual life. There's only one source of spiritual life.

That's God the Father. There's only one true teacher and the only time I am ever a worthy teacher is when I teach you exactly what He taught in the Word. There's only one leader and that's Christ, not me.

And my leadership is useless if I'm not leading you into the will of Christ. So we're all leveled at this point, but they lacked humility. He goes to the disciples then in the final two verses and says, the greatest among you shall be your servant and whoever exalts himself shall be humbled and whoever humbles himself shall be exalted. Learn humility. Important reminders there from John MacArthur, Chancellor of the Masters University and Seminary. His current study here on Grace To You is titled Heaven's Heroes. John, as you spoke today about the marks of a false leader, some people may take that last point you raised about humility and think to themselves, well, it doesn't seem very humble to point out the flaws of someone in spiritual leadership.

So what about that? Does the act of discerning true leadership from false teaching somehow contradict the idea of humility? No, it can't possibly do that since Jesus himself criticized error, confronted people who didn't tell the truth, condemned them, and condemned them in no uncertain terms. Jesus was viciously judgmental on false spiritual leaders. The Pharisees and the Sadducees and the hypocrites.

I mean, his most scathing maldictions were heaped against religious strangers. It's a necessary element in discernment to be humble and also to recognize pride so that you can help people get past that. I want to mention something that might help you with this tension between being humble and being willing to confront somebody's pride. There's a booklet that I've put together called Developing Your Discernment.

It's free of charge to anyone who requests it. In this world of ever-changing satanic schemes that Christians need to navigate, you better have some discernment. And overcoming Satan's tactics means knowing how to properly use the spiritual defenses God has given you, and that requires a vital discipline, discernment. Developing your discernment offers clear biblical principles for cultivating discernment.

And you have to have it. If you're going to lead the church and know right from wrong, if you're going to confront sin, unbiblical teaching, if you're going to make judgments that are necessary to make, if you're going to identify things that are wrong, if you're going to oppose evil, you have to make judgments. You have to be discerning. It's not proud to do that. In fact, it's humble to do that.

You've humbled yourself enough to take a position that someone may be offended by, but you're willing to do that for the sake of the truth. The booklet is available. It's titled Developing Your Discernment.

And again, I'll say for a limited time, we'll send you one free of charge. Thirty-three pages, practical. Contact us today and request your copy of Developing Your Discernment, free to anyone who asks.

Thanks John and friend. This booklet will help you navigate your life by drawing a clear contrast between what's true and what's error, what's good and what's evil. Request your free copy of Developing Your Discernment when you get in touch with us today. You can email your request to letters at gty.org or drop a letter in the mail to Grace To You, Post Office Box 4000, Panorama City, CA 91412. You can also request your free copy of Developing Your Discernment when you call 800-55-GRACE.

Again, that's 800-55-GRACE. Or let us know you'd like a copy when you visit us at gty.org. And when you get in touch, be sure to tell us how John's series, Heaven's Heroes, is strengthening your relationship with Christ, or if his recent lessons on giving thanks help you live with more joy and gratitude. And if someone you know has come to faith in Christ through our verse-by-verse teaching, we'd love to hear all of those stories. Email us at this address, letters at gty.org, or you can send a note to Grace To You, P.O.

Box 4000, Panorama City, CA 91412. Now for John MacArthur and the entire staff here at Grace To You, I'm Phil Johnson with a question. There are standards for policing a community, but are there standards for policing the church? John helps you consider that tomorrow as he continues unleashing God's truth one verse at a time on Grace To You.