John 7, it's going to be our last sermon on this topic of legalism. Jesus through the land of legalism. Legalism, legalistic religion, is superficial. True religion brings upon a spiritual transformation on the inside of people. Legalism compels people to try to clean themselves up on the outside while neglecting the transformation on the inside. Legalistic religion judges spirituality on the basis of externals. You're godly if you dress the right way, keep the right traditions, make the appropriate show before others, Consequently, legalistic religion, Jesus said, is like a nicely decorated, what? A nicely decorated grave with beauty on the outside, but death and corruption on the inside. That's hypocritical legalistic religion. Legalistic religion, we've learned, is also heartless. Whereas true religion is meant to produce a people who are their brother's keeper, Legalism leads men to neglect their brother in the name of keeping their religion. Piles rigorous rules and expectations upon others without care for their struggles, without cares for their heartaches, without cares for their limitations. Legalistic religion is also authoritarian. Whereas genuine religion is liberating, legalism is heavy-handed. It's a heavy-handed religion with a continual emphasis on judgment and criticism and wrath. Some of the most frequently used tools in the legalist toolbox we've learned are what? Fear, guilt, and condemnation. It's an authoritarian religion which seeks to bring its adherents into fearful submission. Legalistic religion is also blind. Whereas true religion seeks God's will with humility, legalism is so securely ensconced within his own echo chamber that is blind to God's will and ignorant to its own errors. It's devoid of a genuine desire to know God's will because it's so determined that it's right that it remains blind to the truth even when it's right in front of its face. Lastly, legalistic religion is praise-seeking. Whereas true religion fears God and seeks His praise, legalism has traded praise from God for praise from men. Likewise, it's traded a fear of God for a fear of man. It loves praise, recognition, and accolades from others. And Jesus says, consequently then, it sacrifices any future reward from God. They have their reward. Is that harsh? Does that sound harsh? Well, how about this? Legalistic religion is superficial, ostentatious, pretentious, heartless, harsh, arrogant, judgmental, hypocritical, closed-minded, ignorant, oppressive, self-serving, and vain. Is that too much? According to Matthew 11 verse 28, Jesus came into a context in which individuals were oppressed by that type of religion, and so he came and said, come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden. Heavy laden with what? Well, elsewhere he said to the Pharisees that you tie heavy burdens upon the backs of others that they can't bear, and you don't even try to move it with a finger. That's the burden, that's what they're heavy laden with, legalistic religion. And he says, come to me and I'll give you rest from that legalistic religion. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, he says, for I'm gentle and lowly in heart and you will find rest for your souls. I'm not harsh, I'm not condemning, I'm not domineering like your leaders. I'm gentle and I'm lowly and you will find rest, not rigor. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Jesus came in His incarnation, He came at a time when people were burdened with legalistic religion, and came to liberate them, and we can say also, even today, Jesus is inviting you, if you are under the oppression of legalistic religion, to actually find rest for your soul. You might not be under the oppression of some legalistic system, but maybe your conception of Christianity in your own mind is legalistic in nature, and what Christ is saying is, come out from under that and find rest for your soul. Well, as harsh as our assessment of legalistic religion has been thus far, good news, we're not done yet. Three more points this morning. This morning we're going to return to John 7. We're going to see three related characteristics of legalistic religion. We're going to see these in the Pharisees. Here they are. We're going to see that legalistic religion is pridefully sectarian. We're going to learn some good words this morning. Pridefully sectarian. dangerously fanatical, and mercilessly dogmatic. Let's read John 7 verse 14 through 24. About the middle of the feast, Jesus went up into the temple and began teaching. The Jews therefore marveled, saying, How is it that this man has learning when he has never studied? So Jesus answered them, my teaching is not mine, but is his who sent me. If anyone's will is to do God's will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority. The one who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory, but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and in him there is no falsehood. Has not Moses given you the law? Yet none of you keeps the law. Why do you seek to kill me? The crowd answered, you have a demon. Who's seeking to kill you? Jesus answered them, I did one work, and you all marvel at it. Moses gave you circumcision, not that it is from Moses, but from the fathers, and you circumcise a man on the Sabbath. If on the Sabbath a man receives circumcision, so that the law of Moses may not be broken, are you angry with me because on the Sabbath I made a man's whole body well? Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment. Up to this point, Jesus has been carrying out the majority of his ministry in Galilee. the countryside to the north. He's visited Jerusalem two times prior, and the last time he was in Jerusalem, he healed a man. The man was paralyzed. He'd been paralyzed for 38 years. You can imagine all the things that accompany being paralyzed for 38 years, socially, religiously, and so on. Here's a man who was, remember, by the pool of Bethsaida, and Jesus says, hey, stand up, you're healed, take up your bed and walk. Absolutely amazing act of miraculous mercy on the behalf of Jesus for this man who was suffering. Well, the fact that Jesus first of all healed on the Sabbath, and then actually, and this is wonderful because I think Christ is purposely provoking the hypocritical Pharisees, right? Because he didn't just heal, he tells the man, and take up your bed. And they say, who told you to take up your bed? You know, that's purposeful. Jesus is calling them out for their hypocrisy. So last time he was in Jerusalem, he healed this man who had been paralyzed for 38 years. And as a consequence, The Pharisees, the Jewish leaders, since then have been seeking opportunity to kill Christ, or to at least conspire to figure out how they can kill Christ. So when he arrives in Jerusalem at this time, he goes to the temple in the middle of the feast, he begins teaching at a time when the hostility of the religious leaders has already peaked. We find as the account unfolds, is that although those leaders sought to expose Jesus as an uneducated, self-seeking, demon-possessed charlatan worthy of death, He uses the occasion to expose them as judgmentally sectarian and dangerously fanatical and mercilessly dogmatic. And so, let's look at the first one of those. Legalistic religion is pridefully sectarian. Where do we see this in our text? Verse 15. The Jews therefore marveled, saying, how is it that this man is learning when he has never studied? What's going on here may not seem obvious at first, but if Jesus was a trained rabbi, if he had theological training, they should have been able to look at him and say, oh, he's a disciple of Rabbi so-and-so. But he stands up and he teaches with apparently theological training, and they're recognizing he's not one of us. He's not the students, he's not the disciple of any recognized rabbi that we know of. If he were part of any of the acceptable schools, we would know of it. And so what's their consequence? He is outside of our stream of tradition, therefore he must be rejected. To be sectarian is to have a group identity shaped by peculiar beliefs or a peculiar emphasis upon particular beliefs with a broad skepticism towards anyone outside of your group and a narrow view of who should be counted as orthodox. And that's exactly what they are doing to Jesus. To the sectarian, their group has the only right view. All others are in error. Their determination that everyone else is in error is what justifies a rigid separatism. Because separatism has become a fundamental mark of their identity, they just never stop separating. Sectarians form splinter groups from splinter groups from splinter groups. They do it on the basis of ever more rigid standards as to what passes as acceptable beliefs. The consequence of this is that the sectarians end up creating an increasingly odd subculture. Now, I don't want to be too harsh here, but maybe you have this experience. Maybe you've attended some church, and you've walked in, and immediately there seems to be an odd subculture. Not just by the words that you hear, hey brother, hey sister. Not just by, you know, observing the Lord's table, things like this. Not just by singing hymns, but a lot of externals. Clothing, for instance, perhaps. An odd subculture, where you get the vibe that if I were to join or to follow their Christ, I also would have to take upon myself the adornments of their odd subculture. That's a sign of sectarianism, an odd sub-subculture developed within a separatist church. As a consequence of all of this, their group or their church becomes elitist. We are the only ones who carry on this way. We are the only ones who have this right, and everyone out there is wrong. We are the special ones. We are the ones who have a corner on the truth, right? Everyone else is lesser or potentially an error. We are the only ones that God approves of. Everyone else is on the outs, right? To the Pharisees here, Jesus wasn't one of them. He's not one of them. And so to them, Jesus was nothing. Jesus understands the pridefully sectarian nature of these who are criticizing him. And so he calls them out for it in verse 19. Look what he says. Has not Moses given you the law, yet none of you keeps the law? Why do you seek to kill me? Why is he bringing up Moses? A couple of reasons. First of all, John 9, 28, there's a man who is healed of blindness. The Pharisees kind of corner him. They're interrogating him as to who did this. And in John 9, 28, this blind man, you got to admire his boldness, he says to them, why are you asking me all these questions? Do you want to become his disciple too? And they respond and say, it says they reviled him saying, you are his disciple. We are disciples of Moses. We're the chosen ones. We belong to Moses. You're his disciple. Wow. This was a cutting insult from the Jews to this man. They're smug and they're arrogant about their group identity. And they're denigrating towards the blind man. Jesus knows the pride they hold in their identification with Moses. So he calls them out for it. Yeah, Moses has given you the law. Yes, you are part of the Jewish people, okay. But you know what's more important than having been given the law? Keeping the law. You know what's more important than your group identity? The status of your individual heart, as we're going to see. I mean, this is bold here. He's saying to them, you don't keep the law while he's teaching in the middle of a feast where they're observing the law. We'll explain that in a little bit. But what's the immediate proof that he gives them that they don't keep the law? Has not Moses given you the law, yet none of you keeps it? Why do you seek to kill me? You're so proud about your group identity. You have the law from Moses. Or you could say we're descendants even from Abraham. You're so proud about that. But in reality, there's no genuine obedience in your life. You're saying your ethnic or religious identity isn't enough. Again, he said the same thing elsewhere with those who claim to be descendants of Abraham. It's a big deal. Hey, we are Abraham's children. So what? God can raise up children of Abraham from rocks if he wanted to. What was more important than their group identity was the condition of their hearts. They said, we are disciples of Moses. Jesus says in John 7, if anyone's will is to do God's will, he will know whether the teaching is from God. In other words, it comes down to the individual, not the group. It wasn't just the Pharisees, though, who were guilty of sectarianism. Remember, even the disciples of John the Baptist were guilty of this. In John 3, John's disciples come running to him and say, Rabbi, he who is with you across the Jordan, that's Jesus, to whom you bore witness, look, he's baptizing and all are going to him. What does that sound like? That sounds like rivalry. That sounds almost like an attitude of competition. John, your disciples are being stolen. Everybody was coming to you, now they're all going to him. And what's John's response in John 3.27? A person cannot receive even one thing unless it's given him from heaven. He's saying that success, all those disciples going there, that's God-given. That's God-given. Don't look at that with the spirit of rivalry. Don't resent that success. Instead, praise God for it. What a lesson for us to learn. Have you ever looked at other churches and resented their growth? You talk to your fellow Christian and hear all the awesome things going on in their church and you're resented? Thinking with a rivalrous spirit instead of maybe a spirit of cooperation? Resentment over success instead of celebration? That type of attitude is pridefully sectarian. But you know, it wasn't just the Pharisees. It wasn't just John the Baptist's disciples who were guilty of sectarianism, because even Jesus' immediate disciples were guilty of it. Mark 9, 38. John said to Jesus, Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name. And look, we tried to stop him. We tried to stop him, because he was what? not following us. That's illegitimate. He's not part of our group. He's not allowed to do that. And what was Jesus' response? Don't stop him, for no one who does a mighty work in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me, for the one who is not against us is for us. Don't judge them by their association. Don't judge them by their group identity. Judge them by their fruit. If they're doing genuine works in my name, he says, then they're not to be opposed, but look at them as co-laborers. Interestingly, it doesn't appear that whoever this disciple was who was casting out demons in Jesus' name, or doing works, mighty works in his name, doesn't appear that he ever joins up with the disciples. They don't say, okay, well, that's fine that you undo that, but you gotta join us. That's not what happened. Jesus said, let them continue. And so, interestingly, you have the disciples of Jesus who are preaching the gospel, who are doing mighty works. You have this other individual who's apparently preaching the gospel and doing mighty works, and these two ministries were allowed to just coexist side by side. That's a lesson for us. The Pharisees in John 7 were pridefully sectarian. Jesus was from outside their group. He wasn't taught by any of their recognized rabbis. It was unclear whose disciple he actually was. They were disciples of Moses, he wasn't part of them, and so he was to be rejected and despised. So what do we learn? There are other Christians all around us who might not be part of our group, but who are equally part of the people of God. They may not be part of our particular denomination, but they are preaching an accurate gospel, and so we should count them not as enemies, but as co-laborers for Christ. They may not be part of our fellowship, but they are genuinely blessed by God, and so their success should be celebrated, not denigrated, not resented, and certainly no efforts to stop it, as Jesus' disciples offered. This is legalists who are pridefully sectarian. On the other hand, the healthy believer recognizes a wide swath of genuine believers. We're going to learn a little bit later about theological triage, how to determine what are primary doctrines and secondary and tertiary doctrines. And there is a wide swath of believers who may fall under different names, different denominations, and so on, who hold to the fundamentals of the faith that we should be able to recognize as genuine brothers and sisters in Christ and can cooperate with in many areas. Any church that preaches the genuine gospel, regardless of denomination, ought to be recognized as co-laborers. So, number one, legalistic religion is pridefully sectarian. Number two, legalistic religion is dangerously fanatical. because the legalist is absolutely convinced that he has a corner on the truth. And remember we learned earlier last week that the legalist has misconceptions as to the nature of God and to the nature of man, thinks that man has the ability to earn favor with God and then also sees God as condemnatory and wrathful and judgmental as his primary stance of character. Because the legalist is absolutely convinced he has a corner on the truth, and because he sees God as angry and condemnatory, he spreads and defends the truth with anger and condemnation. He can justify all sorts of divisive and destructive behavior in God's name. This goes far beyond legitimate zeal. This is dangerous. It's legalistic fanaticism. Where do we see that in our text? Well, back to verse 19. Has not Moses given you the law, yet none of you keeps the law? Why do you seek to kill me?" Really? These are the religious elites, and so quickly they resort to murder? Again, this is a bold assertion by Jesus. You don't keep the law. Well, all around them there's Jewish men and women who are building tents and camping in them for a week in order to observe a legitimate Old Testament prescription to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. How can you say that they don't keep the law? Is it possible to go through the motions and keep the law externally while also being called a breaker of the law internally? Yeah. Jesus' criticism was right on. These kept the ritual of religion, but neglected genuine heartfelt worship and care for the weak. They were like the northern kingdom of Israel in Amos 5, when Amos condemns them, when God condemns them through the prophet Amos. Listen to what it says in Amos 5 verse 21. This is God speaking. I hate. See? God is hateful and condemning. He just said it. He says, I hate. What does God hate? I hate, I despise your feasts. What feasts? The feasts that they invented? No, the feasts that God prescribed and that they were keeping. And God says, I hate those feasts. I hate, I despise your feasts, I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. And the peace offerings of your fattened animals, I will not look upon them. Take away from me the noise of your songs, to the melody of your harps, I will not listen. Why? Verse 24, but let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever flowing stream. You keep the outward ritual of religion, but you've neglected justice and righteousness? God is not one to be toyed with as if you can deceive him and say, see, we're keeping your feasts. See, we're keeping the rituals. Doesn't this please you? He says, I see your hearts. I see your hearts. Where's the justice? Where's the righteousness? Where's the mercy? Where's the compassion? Where's the love? Without all of those things, you've just hollowed out this genuine spirit-enabled religion that is meant to be a worship with your whole heart, and you've just kept the empty shell. Yeah, they had the feast, they had the music, they had the offerings. They were not righteous. They were not just. And a greater example than that is what Jesus says in verse 19 of our text. You're keeping a feast while you want to kill the Messiah. They're willing to break the law, break the sixth commandment by murdering Christ. And you say, well, they thought it was their religious duty because he's a blasphemer. That's true for some to a certain degree. But you see as the story unfolds, and you get to Matthew 26, that when it comes time for his trial, they actually start looking for people to give false testimony so they can kill Jesus. It wasn't about religious duty at that point. This was about, we just want him dead. Besides the Pharisees and the Sadducees, you know that there's another group of religious fanatics in the first century, known as the Zealots. The Zealots, also sometimes referred to as the Sicarii. The Sicarii were religious terrorists. Their name comes from the word for dagger. They would hide daggers in their robes and they would go in the midst of heavy crowds with their concealed daggers and they would find their targets and they would just stab them covertly and then slip away before anyone was the wiser. What was the motivation of the Sicarii? What was the motivation of the Zealots? Well, they had a fanatical take on their religion. They felt they had a God-given mandate to use any means necessary, listen, to overthrow the godless, oppressive government of Rome and to establish an independent Israel. They viewed their struggle with Rome as a struggle for the soul of the nation. They were nationalists who wanted to see Jewish customs and Jewish traditions and Jewish religious practices dominate the land. In their minds, they were religious freedom fighters, battling for the liberation of their land and against the demonic tyranny of Rome. Is that a spirit that only existed in the first century? Was that a spirit that only exists among Jews? Do we see any parallels today? Are there any Christians who have such a desire to see the nation return to Christian customs and traditions and morals that they're tempted to use ungodly means to see it happen? Are there Christians who see themselves as freedom fighters battling for liberation from a demonic and tyrannical government? Are there Christians who feel they have a divine mandate to wield the kingship of Jesus against the culture? Sadly, I think we are seeing the rise of that sort of dangerous fanaticism among some, some who falsely claim to be representing Jesus. When a people believe they have a divine mandate for retribution and revenge or revolt, they are dangerously fanatic. So beware of any religious or political movement which uses the name of Christ or Christ's kingship. Sorry, Candace Owens. One of you understands that, and that's just fine. Beware of any religious or political movement which uses the name of Christ or Christ's kingship to justify an attitude of domination or rebellion. Whereas the Pharisees were willing to use their religion as a guise for murder, and the Zechariah were able to justify their terroristic tactics in the name of establishing a kingdom, what does Jesus say about his disciples? Matthew 18 to Pilate. My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not of this world. Because Christ's kingdom is yet future, because He will establish His kingdom in His timing, using His methods, What has he called us to do in the meantime? In the meantime, he's called his believers to adopt his character of what? Meekness and gentleness and patience and long-suffering and love and forgiveness. We adopt the attitude of the meek Messiah following his example of his earthly ministry as we anticipate the day when he does return in power and authority to establish his kingdom and to put down all of his enemies. In the meantime, however, recognizing that that's his role and it's yet future, we adopt the meek and gentle spirit of Christ and seek to reach a lost and dying world with the gospel. Legalistic religion is dangerously fanatical. It raises man-made rules and traditions to the level of divine command and then feels justified in citing divine authority when demanding compliance or punishing rebellion. Jesus said to his disciples in John 16, they, he's talking about religious fanatics here, they will put you out of the synagogues. Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he's offering service to God. And they will do these things because they have not known the Father, nor me. People thinking they're serving God, they don't know God. They don't know God, but they think they're serving God. And how do they serve? With their religious fanaticism persecuting the genuine people of God. Dangerous, legalistic fanatics who think they're serving God while not even knowing them. This is a religion without God. Religion without God is dangerous. Religion without the Spirit is dangerous. The Apostle Paul was a man deceived by legalistic religion for a time. Consequently, what happened to Paul? What happened to Paul when he was Saul? He became a dangerous fanatic. When Paul wrote to the Galatians, he described his former life this way. For you have heard my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently, tried to destroy it, and I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people. So extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers. What did advancement in Judaism look like? That's what he says, I was advancing in Judaism. What did advancement in Judaism look like in Paul's day? What did it look like to be an extremely zealous Pharisee? What did it look like to have an unwavering commitment to Pharisaical tradition? It looked like persecution. It looked like violence. It looked like destruction. Persecution, violence, destruction against whom? The genuine people of God. Now God has mercy on Paul. He writes to Timothy, 1 Timothy 1.13, formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, insolent opponent, but I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief. To a certain degree, Paul was actually the victim of legalistic religion. There's a lot of young men who are the victims of legalistic religion. There's a lot of young men who are the victims of dogmatic fanaticism, even outside of the realm of Christianity. As a young man, Paul had zeal, zeal for God. It was an ignorant zeal, but it was a zeal nonetheless. The religion of his day told him that if he was zealous for God, then he should channel that zeal. How? Well, in dedication to the system. He learned the scriptures, studied the tradition, was quickly the head of the class. He surpassed his peers and still wanted more. He wanted an outlet for his zeal, some way to prove his dedication to God. And what did the legalistic system of the Pharisees tell him? Appropriate channel for your zeal, go persecute them. Violence, destruction against the church, that's the outlet for your zeal. Woe to the religions or denominations or sects that victimize zealous young men by deceiving them into channeling their religious fervor towards legalism. Why? Because these young men, in their ignorance, embrace the legalistic system with their whole being, thinking that it brings them closer to God. In reality, it just makes them dangerous fanatics. Is it really fair to call people with such zeal fanatics? I mean, after all, zeal is a good word. Are the fanatics not just those who are the true believers? The ones who are really following the faith? I mean, the ones that maybe if we weren't so lukewarm, we'd be more like them? I mean, because that's the accusation. You get the dogmatic, dangerous fanatics who are out there spouting their stuff, and they justify it by criticizing, I would say, genuine believers who have a properly biblical balance, criticizing them of being cowards and not being passionate enough about the faith. So, should we not just recognize that the fanatics are those who just have an extreme level of devotion? I don't think so. Here's a quote from Tim Keller in his book, The Reason for God. It says, think of people you consider fanatical. They're overbearing, self-righteous, opinionated, insensitive, and harsh. Why? It's not because they're too Christian, but because they are not Christian enough They're fanatically zealous and courageous, but they're not fanatically humble, sensitive, loving, empathetic, forgiving, or understanding, as Christ was. Because they think of Christianity as a self-improvement program, they emulate the Jesus of the whips in the temple, but not the Jesus who said, let him who is without sin cast the first stone. What strikes us as overly fanatical is actually a failure to be fully committed to Christ and his gospel. So legalistic religion is pridefully sectarian, is dangerously fanatical, and lastly, it's mercilessly dogmatic. To be dogmatic is to insist that your interpretation or your opinions really hold the status of absolute truth without considering that maybe, just maybe, you might be wrong. Or that maybe an alternative perspective that others might bring could be helpful at arriving at a more balanced understanding of the truth. Where do we see that in our texts? Well, I think in verse 20 through 24, Jesus answers, or I'm sorry, the crowd answered Jesus, accused him of being a demon. Said, who's seeking to kill you? By the way, later on, they're saying you're paranoid. What do you mean? Somebody's trying to kill you. It's just dropped down a few verses, and there's another group of people that look at Jesus and say, wait a second, is that the guy they're trying to kill? Yeah, they were trying to kill Jesus. Jesus answered them, I did one work, and you all marvel at it. Moses gave you circumcision, not that it was from Moses, but from the fathers, and you circumcised a man on the Sabbath. If on the Sabbath a man receives circumcision so that the law of Moses may not be broken, are you angry with me because on the Sabbath I made a man's whole body well? Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment." Now, again, The anger of this crowd, or the anger of the Jewish leadership of this time, stemmed from Jesus' healing of a man on the Sabbath, the last time he was in Jerusalem. In their mind, Jesus is a Sabbath-breaker and therefore worthy of death. After all, it seemed clear-cut, right? I mean, what? He healed on the Sabbath. Healing is a work. Working on the Sabbath is forbidden. Therefore, he's guilty. The penalty for Sabbath-breaking is death. So he must die. Plain as day, there we go, black and white, let's get to it. But, we might say to these Jews, have you considered every angle here? Are you sure there isn't maybe some necessary nuance that maybe you should entertain in assessing this situation? Are you sure you're striking the right biblical balance when you consider God's complete revelation? Are you sure there aren't multiple truths here? Are you sure there aren't multiple priorities that we're trying to balance or commands that we have to hold maybe intention here? Those who are dogmatic don't like terms like nuance or balance or tension. They like, black or white, maybe you've heard the fundamentalist preacher yelling from the pulpit, well, my Bible says. Okay, that is what your Bible says. What else does your Bible say? And how does what your Bible say here inform what the Bible says over here? Where is nuance? Where is balance? Where is tension? Jesus, interestingly here in this text, shows an area in which the Pharisees actually did exercise a kind of nuance and balance and understood the tension between certain biblical priorities. They did do that in some areas, but they weren't doing the same thing in regards to assessing his healing of the man on the Sabbath. The Jews had a law, the law of circumcision, which was legitimate. Every male child was to be circumcised on the eighth day. They also had the law of the Sabbath. They were to do no work on the Sabbath. So now we have a problem. What if a child is born and eight days after the child is born is a Sabbath? Well, he must be circumcised in order to keep the law. But it's a Sabbath, and to do work on the Sabbath is to break the law, and so we can't break the law in order to keep the law. So which law should we break? Is it really that hard of a question? Well, they figured it out actually. They reasoned that in such cases the command to circumcise was of greater importance than the law of keeping the Sabbath. Their reasoning was that circumcision was a religious duty and that a religious duty is permitted on the Sabbath. Further, circumcision in one sense was actually more of kind of like a healing or a purification because in their minds it's like making that young boy's body right. in the sight of God, and so it was permitted on the Sabbath. So they managed to do that, you know, like give credit where credit is due. They recognized a hierarchy of importance between or among the circumcision and the Sabbath. They actually were able to recognize nuance. However, when Jesus healed on the Sabbath, they didn't do that. They were so prejudiced against him, they just reverted to their dogmatism. The Sabbath was broken, he must die. Jesus' point here is that they should apply that same type of reasoning to the healing of the man on the Sabbath, as they did to circumcising a man on the Sabbath. His reasoning is this, whereas circumcision makes only part of a man's body well, his healing made an entire man well. If you're going to allow circumcision on the Sabbath, then certainly you should allow healing. Beyond this, whereas they saw circumcision as a religious duty, Jesus' implication is that mercy and love towards the suffering is also religious duty. God made this clear over and over again in the Old Testament, in texts with which the Pharisees should have been familiar. Hosea 6, verse 6, God says, For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings. But like Adam, they transgressed the covenant. There they dealt faithlessly with me, he says. According to God, through Hosea, steadfast love is better than sacrifice. Beyond this, the neglect of steadfast love, he says, is a transgression of the covenant. Interesting. Micah 6.8 says, He has told you, O man, what is good and what does Yahweh require of you but to do justice and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God. If we're talking about a hierarchy of importance here, we shouldn't just talk about which one takes precedence, Sabbath or circumcision. We should start talking about what comes first between the Sabbath and circumcision and mercy and kindness and justice. The nice thing is when we try to answer that question, we don't have to resort to human wisdom because God makes it very clear. Isaiah chapter one, verse 11, What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices, says Yahweh? I've had enough of burnt offerings, of rams, and of the fat of well-fed beasts. And again, these are the things that God prescribed and actually demanded of Israel. But He says, I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of goats. When you come to appear before me, who has required it of you, this trampling of my courts? Bring no more vain offerings. Incense is an abomination to me. New moon and, what does he say, Sabbath. New moon and Sabbath, and the calling of convocations. I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates. They become a burden to me. I'm weary of bearing them. When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you, even though you make many prayers. I will not listen. Your hands are full of blood. So what's the answer? Wash yourselves. Make yourselves clean. Remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes. Cease to do evil. Learn to do good. Seek justice. Correct oppression. Bring justice to the fatherless. Plead the widow's cause. You know what's more important than the Sabbath and the whole sacrificial and ritualistic system? Justice. You could even say social justice. Correcting oppression. Caring for the orphan and the widow. In other words, acts of mercy. Proverbs 21.3, to do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to Yahweh than sacrifice. So what about circumcision? So we see God says, you know what's greater than you keeping the Sabbath hypocritically? Actually go and do mercy. But what about circumcision? Well, Deuteronomy 10 verse 16, God says through Moses, circumcise therefore the foreskin of your hearts. That's an odd imagery. He says, "...and be no longer stubborn. For Yahweh your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe. He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing." So he says, "...love the sojourner therefore, for you are sojourners in the land of Egypt." The circumcision of the flesh symbolized something. It symbolized total consecration of God. a consecration which begins in the heart. That's why God could use that imagery of circumcise your heart. What he's saying is actually live out the spiritual reality that is symbolized by the outward act of circumcision. What would that look like according to verse 18 and 19 of Deuteronomy 10? It would look like living like God, who cares for the widow and the orphan and the traveler and the hungry and those who need clothes. In other words, acts of mercy. So, you know what's greater than the Sabbath? Perform acts of mercy. You know what's greater than circumcision? Actually living as one whose heart has been transformed, which is what circumcision was meant to symbolize, by doing acts of mercy. Nevertheless, if the Pharisees were able to determine that circumcision trumped the Sabbath, they should have been equally able to discern that mercy trumped them both. Instead, they determine that Jesus' miracles of mercy on the Sabbath deserve death. So legalistic religion is mercilessly dogmatic. It fails to understand nuance. It fails to understand balance. It fails to hold truths in tension when they need to be held in tension. Instead, it elevates external commands and ignores attitudes of the heart. We're going to close with this thought. If we are to avoid the error of dogmatism and that merciless dogmatism, we have to learn the discipline of distinguishing between those doctrines which are of first importance and those which are not. This is something which Al Mohler described as theological triage. Just like you might go to the emergency room and you think, I remember I sprained my ankle once, the really stupid thing that I did. I went down the stairs in our house and I kind of jumped off the second, third step from the bottom and there was a dumbbell on the ground and I stepped on that as I jumped down, twisted my ankle, heard a pop, swelled up immediately and I thought for sure it was broken. And so brought to the emergency room, going to triage there. And what happens? Well, a nurse comes and assesses you. Does a quick assessment trying to determine what? Well, how severe your case is, so that they can prioritize according to sense of urgency when you should be seen. Now, in my mind, I might think, my ankle is broken. I've got bones in there that are kind of moving independent of one another. It shouldn't be like that. Like, this is serious business. The nurse might look at it and say, well, You know, it could just be a sprain. You know, the guy coming in with the knife sticking out of his chest may be a higher priority even than your ankle, even if it is broken. That's triage. When it comes to theological triage, it's a matter of what? Recognizing what are first order doctrines. Those doctrines, those are the hills to die on. Those are those doctrines that we will defend with tooth and nail, and we will even at times separate over those doctrines, right? Those are first order doctrine. We gotta get it right, because if we get it wrong, we can be guilty of separating over minor differences, or over differences in minor doctrines on the one hand, or ignoring major doctrines, errors in major doctrines elsewhere. So we should recognize first-order doctrines as those who separate orthodoxy from heresy. First-order doctrines are what separate churches from cults. These are the doctrines which are essential to be believed if one is to be counted as a genuine believer. You know, deity of Christ, deity and humanity of Christ, the Trinity, the Atonement, the bodily resurrection, no room for compromise in any of these things. If you want to be a genuine believer, you have to hold to these truths. Second-order doctrines are those which don't define the gospel. If individuals have errors in these doctrines, it doesn't mean they're not believers. You know the dangerous or the mercilessly dogmatic person because they love to just dole out the term heresy. You're a heretic. You're a heretic. You're a heretic. Can't fellowship with you anymore. Second order issues. Christians holding differing views on church government, biblical offices, the sovereignty of God in salvation. We ought to be able to look at brothers and sisters who differ in these things and say, you're still a brother or sister. Now, these are those areas in which, yeah, we may end up in different denominations. because of different views on second-order issues. And frankly, I'm okay with denominations. We may end up in different denominations, but we can recognize other denominations who hold to the same first-order doctrines and say they're brothers and sisters in Christ, even though we disagree on those second-order issues. And then there's third order issues, doctrines. These are those things represented here this morning. There's a difference of opinions when it comes to eschatology, for instance. When is Christ coming back? What's the millennial kingdom? Things like this. There's difference of opinions on these things. Should you drink alcohol or should you not drink alcohol? Difference of opinions. Doesn't really matter at the end of the day. They're matters of conscience, matters of Christian liberty. We can stay together in tight fellowship in the same community of believers and love one another even in the face of those differences. All sorts of problems ensue when we don't recognize that there is a hierarchy of doctrine. What happens is you end up separating from people even when they give maybe counsel you disagree with. You might even disinvite them from a preacher's conference when they give counsel to their church members over some of these issues. The problem with legalistic religion is that it is mercilessly dogmatic. So it views even opinions over third-order doctrines as reasons to reject others and to separate from them. In fact, it's a legalistic church that loves the third-order doctrine, third-order convictions. That's what they preach about all the time. They love to throw out there. Why? Because those are their distinctions. They've so separated and separated and separated from others that their culture becomes odd and strange, and they are marked by so many of these very peculiar and particular convictions in these third-order issues. So legalistic religion is mercilessly dogmatic. We said mercilessly because of all this wrangling over rules and whether or not they broke on the Sabbath, Jesus had broken the Sabbath. Who's lost in all of this? This poor guy who just got healed should have been celebrating with the guy, should have been rejoicing with him, yet they're wrangling over theology. And so in all this talk about doctrine and theology and deciding what's been broken here and what's been broken over there, they're completely ignoring and neglecting the man. Lost in the theological scuffle was mercy. I wonder how much mercy is neglected and how much justice is forsaken and how much love is withheld because Christians are too busy quibbling over doctrine and theology, which shouldn't rise to the level of those types of debates. How many Christians are so caught up in theological wranglings that they've forgotten there's a lost world all around us who needs us to extend to them love and mercy and compassion? Well, in conclusion, I know it's a longer sermon, so I appreciate your patience this morning. In conclusion, legalistic religion is pridefully sectarian, but followers of Jesus are called to be humbly unified. Legalistic religion is dangerously fanatical, but followers of Jesus are called to be lovingly devoted. Legalistic religion is mercilessly dogmatic, but followers of Jesus are called to be mercifully balanced. Legalistic religion is superficial, but followers of Jesus worship with their whole hearts by the Spirit on the inside. Legalistic religion is heartless, but followers of Jesus prove the genuineness of their faith by their love. Legalistic religion is authoritarian, but followers of Jesus lead with the spirit of humble service, never domineering over God's people. Legalistic religion is blind, but followers of Jesus are always growing in knowledge of God and God's will by his spirit. And lastly, legalistic religion is praise-seeking, but followers of Jesus seek to live lives which redound to the praise and glory of God, even if it means sacrificing the praise of men. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word. All this talk about dogmatism and blindness and judging others and elitism and so on, we recognize that we are not free from those temptations. There's areas certainly where we are guilty and we pray that you'd reveal those things to us and help us as a church to adopt these biblical attitudes that we saw this morning in scripture. We pray that you'll help us as a church to continue to grow, to advance in our knowledge of who you are and who Christ is and what our calling is as your people, help us to remain humble, help us to recognize other churches even within other denominations as our brothers and sisters in Christ, deliver us from a spirit of rivalry, competition, resentment, instead help us to have a wonderful love towards those who name the name of Christ. This morning, if there's any here who are struggling under a legalistic system, help them to see it. Help them to grow and to learn more and more what it means to find rest in Christ, to be delivered from the onerous burdens of legalistic religion. Maybe there's some who are self-deceived. They maybe have thought themselves to be followers of Jesus, but in reality, they've been the victims of a superficial religious system that is focused on the externals instead of the internals. I pray that these might come to genuine faith in Jesus, that they'd receive his spirit, and that they can be changed from the inside out. And then we pray for those this morning who might not be believers at all, maybe new to church. We just pray that you would help them to understand the gospel. They see Christ as the only Savior from their sin, and they trust Him and Him alone as Savior and Lord. You'd save these in that you would add them, whether to our church or to another church, where they can grow in the faith and experience the tender mercies of Jesus and protect them from the influence of legalistic religion. We thank you for all of this in the name of Jesus. Amen.