It may be that some of you, like the folks at our church, are looking for good, simple Bible study material. Well, I recognized this need at home several years ago, and I began at Romans chapter 1, verse 1. And using the great commentaries, Dr. Gill, Matthew Poole, Matthew Henry, Haldane, Arthur Pink, all of these writers, I put together some Bible study material going verse by verse, verse by verse, each verse. And this was what I had in mind, to find out what that verse is saying, what it means, and to put it in everyday language, simple one, two, and three-syllable words, so that the average person could understand, at least in their head. And I wrote these Bible-class commentaries. There's six volumes here, each book in the New Testament, each epistle, Romans, 1st and 2nd Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, on down to the book of Jude. The revelation is not here. Romans, 3rd Jude. And it's verse-by-verse study. And these commentaries are literally all over the world now. They're in four languages and are now being translated in Russian And 10,000 sets of these commentaries will be printed in the next few months in Moscow and distributed to the churches there. Because people all over the world have recognized the need of simple Bible-class commentaries, verse-by-verse, in the language of the people. If you want this set of commentaries, send $10. That's what it cost us to... We order them from England. That's where they're printed. And we'll mail them to you. Also, I have the Book of John. Verse by verse, this is $3. Order the Gospel of John, verse by verse, for $3, or the Bible class commentaries, and we'll mail them to you. And I believe they'll be a blessing to you. My reason for doing this years ago, I did not write these commentaries intending to publish them at all. They were just written for our church, for our people, for our Bible classes. And the people in England got the manuscripts and asked for the permission to publish them. And they've been published now in Portuguese and French and Spanish and English and now in Russian. And they're literally all over the world. The Philippines, Brazil, Australia, France, Africa. They're all over the world. Several schools are using them. In Mexico and in Africa, preacher schools are using this material because it's so that in language they can understand. I want to speak to you on the subject form or faith. Now remember that title, form. Ceremony, ritualism, form. Or faith. Which? I'm reading from Matthew 23, verse 12. Our Lord said, Whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased. And he that shall humble himself shall be exalted. Now, my message today is going to begin on a negative note. I don't like that. I don't like negative preaching. I know you don't care for it, and I'm sorry, but it just must begin that way. It must begin on a negative note, and I'll tell you why. If you'll notice, if you'll read the 23rd chapter of Matthew, that whole chapter, the entire 23rd chapter of Matthew is given to one thing, our Lord rebuking Rebuking the religious leaders. He calls them hypocrites All kind of things he says about them through this whole chapter the religious leaders of that day Whose entire religious lives were made up of form? Ceremony legalism and self-righteousness and through this whole chapter Our Lord literally cuts these men to ribbons All these verses, 30 or 40 verses, he just deals with these religious hypocrites. And I'll tell you what he says about them. He says about seven things, seven distinct charges he brings against these religious leaders. Now, you listen to what he said to them, and you see if it doesn't fit most situations in this day, most religious situations. These charges brought against these Pharisees Sadducees he called them hypocrites religious leaders It'll fit today in verse in verse Two and three our Lord says this about him. He says they say But they don't do it They bind grievous burdens about the necks of their heroes But they themselves don't do these things they preach one thing and do something else they preach to you sacrifice, but they don't sacrifice and They preach to you give, but they don't give. They preach to you faithfulness, but they're not faithful. They preach faith, and they live in the flesh. He said, they say, but they don't do it. That's the first charge brought against them. And then secondly, in verse 5, he says this about them. He says, they do their works to be seen of men. They love the praise and glory of the chief seats. They want to sit on the chief seats. And then he says, they love to be called impressive names. They like to be called master. They like to be called rabbi. They like to be called reverend. They like to be called doctor. They love these impressive names. They'll even go to school so they can earn certain degrees to be called by that name. And they pray and they fast and they give to be seen of men. They do their praying on the street corner and publicly. They do very little privately. They do practically nothing privately. They do everything to be seen of men. And then verse 14, listen. And they devour widows' houses, and for a pretense they make long prayers. Widows' houses. They devour widows' houses. Widows' savings. Widows' storehouses. They devour these things. Someone told me recently that most of the support for these religious hucksters and telethons and religious con men on television, most of their support, you know where it comes from? It comes from older women. One woman had sent her entire estate, her husband left her to live on after his death, to a religious organization, and she was on welfare. There's social security checks they send to these preachers. And these preachers tell them, it takes a lot of money to support our program. It takes a lot of money to keep us in our great homes and driving our automobiles. And so we take from these poor little widows and we're going to pray for them. You send your money and we'll pray for you. Or we'll pray for you when you get sick and pray for your problems and pray for your trials. But you've got to send some money. You've got to buy a healing cloth or buy something, and we'll send it to you, and we'll pray for you. They devour widows' houses. And for pretense, they make long prayers. I'm telling you this. I mention these commentaries. They've been put in print, and they're now being published and translated to Russian. The money was raised for that translation without asking anybody for a dime. And I've told you this for 19 years on this television program. Don't ask for money. Don't beg for money. God's not a beggar. God's a king. And if he's in something, he'll support it. We have missionaries on the field. I go to the mission fields, all these things. This program is paid for, and we don't ask for a dime, and we don't beg for a nickel. I tell you, God will supply the needs and the means if the Lord is in something. And when men stand and beg and plead and cry for you to send money, don't do it. They devour widows' houses. And for a pretense, they make long prayers. Well, I told you it'd be negative, but it needs to be said. Our Lord said it. And then verse 15, He said, they compass sea and land to make converts, to make proselytes, And when they have made them, they're twofold more the child of hell than they are themselves. You see, the goal of these fellows, it was not to glorify God. Their goal was not to declare the Word of God. Their goal was not to honor and glorify Christ. It was to make converts. You see, they want to report great numbers. They want to report what they've done, what they've accomplished. And they want to build huge followings, and huge churches, and huge organizations. So they get a great crowd of people, and have them raise their hand, and make professions, and come down to the front, and they'll say, now you repeat after me. Say this prayer. And then you say, they can't save people. These people can't save themselves. The church can't save them. Salvation's of the Lord. Isn't that right? It's God that saves sinners. But these people make converts because they want to report numbers and success and build great followings and great churches. And then they say, now you've made your profession, you're saved, you write us and send us your name and your address and we'll keep flooding you with material and we'll tell you how to live and how to give and how to be faithful to our program and how to support us. And look at verse 23, the fifth charge. Our Lord says they pay tithes. Not just on the big things, on anise, cumin, herbs, the little things. They pay tithe. They're so particular to pay tithes on everything, to pay their tithes and keep their religious duties and days and ceremonies. But watch this. They neglect the weightier matters of God's Word, like judgment and mercy and faith. They spend their time talking about tithes. They spend their time talking about healings. They spend their time talking about Armageddon. They spend their time talking about ceremonies and laws. And they've neglected to deal with the matters of the heart, like judgment. How can God be just and justify the ungodly? What about judgment? It's appointed unto me and wants to die, and after that, the judgment. How am I going to fare in the judgment? How can my sins be pardoned? How can my sins be put away? How can I prepare for the judgment? What about mercy? The people in the days when our Lord walked this earth, they came to Him seeking mercy. Can mercy and truth meet together? Will God be merciful to me? Can I find mercy in the eyes of God? Mercy, I need mercy. The miserable need mercy. The guilty need grace. Sinners need salvation. Let's talk about mercy. And then faith. What about faith? Without faith, it's impossible to please God. Abraham believed God, which counted him for righteousness. When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on this earth? Faith. Oh, I tell you, after you've raised your hand and the preachers raised enough money and you've raised your attendance records, when are we going to talk about these weightier matters? Weightier matters. Our Lord said of these hypocrites in His day, they pay their tithes, they follow their programs, they have all these things just set in the right places, and they've neglected to deal with things, matters of the heart, weightier matters. Heavy matters of the Word of God, judgment, mercy, faith. Listen to verse 25, the sixth charge against them. He said, they make clean the outside of the cup and the platter, but within they're full of extortion and excess. You see this? They make clean, they're like whited tombstones. They appear beautiful on the outside, but on the inside they're full of dead men's bones. They're like the flowers on a grave. They appear beautiful to men, but they're full of extortion and excess. All these religious folks, they're against dancing, and they're against worldliness, and they're against drinking, and they're against smoking, and they're against adultery, and they're against abortion, and they're against sports, and they're against all these outward things, you know. And there's things wrong with these outward things, but that's not man's problem. These outward things are the results of an inward problem. It's heart problem. It's soul problems. And I'll tell you about these folks that put all their emphasis on the outward. Our Lord says that they make clean the outside of the cup, but the inside they've neglected. The inside. Most of these people that are so pure and wholesome and holy on the outside are mean on the inside. They have a bad attitude and a bad spirit. They're full of envy and jealousy and lust and hatred. They can't even have a business meeting in the church without having a fight. But they don't believe in drinking. They don't believe in smoking. They don't believe in going to a ball game on Sunday. They got all these outward things all fixed up and cleaned up. But on the inside, they're full of shame and hypocrisy. and envy, and hatred, and malice. That's what our Lord says. Oh, listen to me, He said, clean up the inside that the outside might be clean. Straighten up the heart. Out of the heart the mouth speaks. It's not what a man puts in his mouth that defiles him. It's what comes out of his heart. Out of the heart proceeds evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, all these things. They come out of the heart. And I'll tell you, you can whitewash a sinner on the outside, get him to quit. Ever known vice. Get him to quit everything. If God doesn't give him a new heart and a new spirit and a new nature, he'll be the most wicked man in your town, because he's got an evil spirit. A right spirit will produce a right attitude, a right life, and a right walk. All right, here's the seventh charge, down in verse 29. He said these These hypocrites, these false prophets, they build and garnish the tombs of prophets, but they kill the preachers God sends to them. What's that talking about? Well, I'll tell you what it's saying. It's saying they brag on dead preachers and kill living preachers. They brag on these great men of the past, but the men who are preaching today what those men preached back then, they won't listen to them. They say, If we'd have been in the days of our fathers, we'd have never persecuted the prophets. And yet they were at that very moment rejecting Jesus Christ and his apostles, God's true prophet and God's apostles. You see, this has always been the case. This is man all the way down through the years. The Jews hated Moses. You know they did. They said, you brought us out here in the wilderness to starve. Why didn't you leave us in Egypt where we were happy? They hated Moses, but they bragged on Abraham. Abraham was dead. And then when Moses died, they bragged on Moses and killed Elisha and Isaiah and the prophets that lived in those times. And then after the Lord Jesus and his apostles came along, they hated the apostles and bragged on Elijah and Elisha and Isaiah. And then the apostles all were put to death and the reformers came along Martin Luther, John Calvin, Zwingli, all of these great preachers, and they hated them, and bragged on the apostles. And nowadays, they're bragging on the reformers again. They brag on John Calvin. They brag on Jonathan Edwards, Charles Spurgeon, John Bunyan, Martin Luther. Oh, these are great men. We keep their birthdays and visit their tombs, and yet I'm preaching the same thing they preach. I preach what Jonathan Edwards preached. I preach what William Carey preached, Judson, Spurgeon, Bunyan, Edwards, Luther. I preach what these men preach. Folks kill living preachers and brag on dead preachers. And the longer he's been dead, the more popular he is. You know Jonathan Edwards? You young people studied his sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, in high school. He was fired from his church. They dismissed him as pastor when he was alive. He left his church and went over and was president of Princeton University. But the religious people hated him. Charles Spurgeon, that everybody's bragging on today, he made this statement. Not a preacher in London of any reputation will have anything to do with me. John Bunyan, Pilgrim's Progress, everybody brags on Bunyan. Bunyan spent most of his time in the town of Bedford in jail. I visited the place where he was a young man, where he spent 12 years in prison. For what? For what he preached. For what he preached. But now he's popular. And the men who preached what he preached, they hated. Martin Luther? Martin Luther's famous today, but people had to hide him in the woodshed to keep the church from killing him when he was alive 500 years ago. Well, thank God we have his Word. Thank God we can listen and learn from these examples here, what our Lord said about these people here. Seven charges brought against these false religious people who had their religion in form only, in ceremony, in duties and deeds, and they avoided true faith, true worship. Let me give you, in bringing this message to a close, seven marks of true faith. Like our Lord has given seven charges against these religionists, let me give you seven marks of true faith. Now, here's the first one. You listen carefully to me. You might get the tape and study it later. But true faith, true worship of the living God arises out of a right knowledge of God. A right knowledge of God as He's revealed in the Scriptures. Now, my friends, God's not who you think He is. And God's not who men say that He is. And God is not what the religious people and the churches claim He is. God is who He is. God is who He says He is. God reveals Himself in creation. The heavens declare the glory of God. He reveals Himself in the heavens. God reveals Himself in His Word. God reveals His holiness in His law. And God reveals Himself in Christ Jesus. The Lord Jesus said, No man knoweth the Father, but the Son, he to whom the Son will reveal him. The Son declares Him. He said, I and my Father are one. God, who at sundry times and in different manners spake to our fathers, but the prophets, hath in these last days spoken to us by His Son. Now, do you want to know who God is? And you quit trying to fashion your God out of your imagination. or have the imagination of some eloquent preacher. And you go to the Word of God and find out who God is. God's sovereign, God's almighty, God's holy, God's just, God's gracious, God's merciful, God is love, God is God. Let God be God and every man a liar. Find out who He is. Because you're not going to get a right faith till you get a right God. That's just so. Secondly, true faith arises out of a right knowledge of myself. as I'm described in scripture. See, God made man in his own image, made him holy and upright, but man rebelled, sought out many inventions, and fell. By one man, sin entered this world, and death by sin, so death passed upon all men. And as a result of that one man, Adam's sin, Adam, the word means man, red earth, came from the earth, God made him from the dirt. And every man was made in him. We came from his loins. And being born of that fallen Adam, that fallen man, we're born fallen men. That's right. In sin, my mother conceived me. I was shapen in iniquity and brought forth speaking lies. The wicked are strained from the womb. As soon as they're born, speaking lies. Paul describes us in Romans 3. There's none righteous. There's none good. There's none that seeketh after God. There's none that understands. There's no difference. All of sin comes short of the glory of God. There isn't, listen to me, there isn't a just man on the earth who doeth good and sin is not. That's what scripture says. Now, we better quit bragging on this flesh, praising this flesh, and thinking God's going to show mercy and favor to this flesh like it is. Flesh and blood are not going to inherit the kingdom of God. We got to be made new creatures. And that brings me to the third thing. True faith is an understanding of the great things that God has done for us in Christ. Now, that's true faith. Not what I've done for God, what God's done for me in Christ. That's true faith. Before man failed, God provided a Redeemer. He was the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world. God set forth Christ in promise. He said the woman's seed's gonna bruise the serpent's head. God set forth Christ in picture in the Old Testament, the Ark. That's Christ lifting his people above the flood of judgment, the Passover lamb, the serpent, cities of refuge. Those are all pictures of Christ. God sent him into the world in the flesh, made of a woman, made under the law to redeem us who were born under the law. He said, this is my son. Hear him. God accepted his perfect life as our righteousness. God accepted his death as our atonement. God raised him from the dead as our justifier. God seated him and enthroned him in his right hand as our mediator and intercessor, and he'll return again and receive us to himself. True faith is an understanding of the great things God has done for us in our substitute, Christ Jesus. That's plain as I can make it. Fourthly, true faith is believing the gospel. Believe in the gospel, and by faith in Christ, having a good hope. What did Abraham find? Romans 4 said he found righteousness. Where did he find it? By what he did? No, by whom he believed. How? By faith or works? By faith alone. When was he justified? When he believed. Well, this wasn't written for his sake, but for us, to whom this righteousness shall be given, if we can believe. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. True faith produces a principle of love, love for Christ, and a full surrender to His Lordship. Now listen to me. You listen to what I'm saying. The whole religious world is talking about you accepting Jesus as your personal Savior. You won't find that in God's Word. You can do that 1,000 times and it won't change your relationship with God, accepting Jesus as your personal Savior. The issue between you and God today is not who is your personal Savior. The issue is who is your Lord, who owns you, who runs your life, who ruled you. God will be Lord or He won't be your Savior. That's right. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. The Scripture says, With the heart man believeth unto righteousness, with the mouth his confession is made unto salvation. By whom? Those who believe that Jesus Christ is Lord. God exalted him and gave him a name above every name, that the name of Jesus every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that he's what? Their personal Savior? No. Lord. Lord. True faith makes the goodness and love of God, to me, the model of my behavior toward others. And last, true faith presses on us three goals. Three goals. Total commitment to Christ. Total communion with Christ. and one day, total conformity to Christ Jesus. That's true faith. It's a hard work, and it's forever, and it's by the power of God, through the work of Christ, for the glory of God. Now, if you want this message on tape, form or faith, you write for it. Send $2, we'll mail it to you. Also, if you'd like to have the books, remember the book of John, you can have for $3, and the commentaries for $10. right for them. Until next week, may God bless you.