please open your email to number 202 in times like this 202 In times like these, you need a Savior. In times like these, you need an anchor. Be very sure, be very sure, your anchor holds and grips the This rock is Jesus, yes he's the one. This rock is Jesus, the only one. Be very sure, be very sure, your anchor holds and grip the solid rock. In times like these, Read a Bible in times like these, moving a tidal, be very sure, be very sure, your anchor holds and grips the solid rock, this rock is Jesus, This rock is Jesus, the only one. Be very sure, be very sure, your anchor holds and grips the solid rock. In times like these, I have a Savior. In times like these, I have an I'm very sure, I'm very sure My anchor holds and grips the solid rock This rock is Jesus, this is the one This rock is Jesus, the only one I'm very sure, I'm very sure Our Heavenly Father, we are thankful that we can be sure that we are anchored to that solid rock. We're thankful for thy word, which tells us of Jesus Christ, explains that he is the only Savior, that he is the rock, the rock upon which we need to build. He's the rock from which the water flowed in the Old Testament. And he is the one that we can trust to provide and direct us in our daily lives if we know his salvation. We do pray for each one that's joined us this morning. We pray that each one would set aside those things that would hinder them from hearing from thee today. that they would want to give this time to the study of thy word and to the singing of hymns that glorify thy name. So bless our time together here, we pray that thy will be accomplished in Jesus' name, amen. And over to 280, 280, moment by moment. Number 280. Dying with Jesus by the drunken mind Living with Jesus, a new life divine Looking to Jesus, the glory that shines Moment by moment, O Lord, I am I give in His love. Moment by moment I fly from above, looking to Jesus, the glory that shines. Moment by moment, O Lord, I Never a trial that he is not there Never a burden that he does not bear Never a sorrow that he does not share Moment by moment I'm under his care Moment by moment I give in His love Moment by moment I fly from above Looking to Jesus, the glory that shines Moment by moment, O Lord, I am Thine Never a heartache and never a groan Never a tear drop and never a moon Never a danger but there on the throne Moment by moment he thinks of his own Moment by moment, I'm given His love. Moment by moment, I fly from above. Looking to Jesus, the glory that shines. Moment by moment, O Lord, I am Thine. that he does not feel never a sickness that he cannot heal moments by moments in As my Savior abides with me still Moments by moments I've given His love Moments by moments I fly from above Looking to Jesus, the glory that shines Moment by moment, O Lord, I am Thine. And over to 455. 455. In my heart there rings a melody. Number 455. I have a song that Jesus gave me. It was sent from heaven above. There never was a sweeter melody. In my heart there rings a melody, there rings a melody with heaven's harmony. In my heart there rings a melody, there rings a melody of love. I love that Christ who died on Calvary, for he was my saints. He put within my heart a melody And I know it's there to stay In my heart there rings a melody There rings a melody with heaven's harmony In my heart there rings a melody There rings a melody of love to be my endless theme in glory with the angels I will sing to be a song with glorious harmony when the chords of heaven ring in my heart there rings a melody there rings a melody with heaven's harmony Take your Bibles and turn to Luke chapter 11. Luke chapter 11, we're gonna be reading there verses 37 to 54 of that passage. Stand please for the reading of God's word. Luke chapter 11, beginning there at verse 37. And as he spake, a certain Pharisee besought him to dine with him, and he went in, and sat down to meet. And when the Pharisees saw it, he marveled that he had not first washed before dinner. And the Lord said unto him, Now do ye Pharisees may clean the outside of the cup and the platter, but your inward part is full of ravening and wickedness. Ye fools, Did not he that made that which is without make that which is within also? But rather give alms of such things as ye have, and behold, all things are clean unto you. But woe unto you, Pharisees, for ye tithe mint and rue and all manner of herbs, and pass over judgment and the love of God. These ought ye to have done, and not leave the other undone. Woe unto you, Pharisees, for ye love the uppermost seats in the synagogues and greetings in the markets. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for ye are as graves which appear not, and the men that walk over them are not aware of them. Then answered one of the lawyers and said unto him, Master, thus saying, thou reproachest us also. And he said, woe unto you also, ye lawyers, for ye laid men with burdens grievous to be born, and ye yourselves touch not the burdens with one of your fingers. Woe unto you, for ye build the sepulchres of the prophets, and your fathers killed them. Truly ye bear witness that ye allow the deeds of your fathers, for they indeed killed them, and ye build their sepulchres. Therefore also said the wisdom of God, I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they shall slay and persecute. that the blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation, from the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, which perished between the altar and the temple. Verily I say unto you, it shall be required of this generation. Woe unto you, lawyers, for ye have taken away the key of knowledge. Ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered. And as he said these things unto them, the scribes and the Pharisees began to urge him vehemently and to provoke him to speak of many things, laying weight for him and seeking to catch something out of his mouth. that they might accuse him. Our Heavenly Father, we're thankful this morning that we have thy word. Thankful that we can read thy word and study it and thankful that we can be warned of the Pharisee, Pharisaical thinking that is quite common today where people build their own religion and then hold others in account according to their religion rather than the truth. We pray that we would allow thy truth to bear fruit in our hearts and lives and that we could be a help to others to know the truth as well. Pray for anyone listening that's not saved, that has their own standard of righteousness, that they would want to be humbled today and broken to turn to thee in repentance and know thy forgiveness and truth and have thy peace in their hearts. May thy will be accomplished in this service, we pray in Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated. Title of the message this morning is Outward Versus Inward Purity. Outward Versus Inward Purity. This week I saw a headline of a preacher in California who takes a position in some areas, a good position in regard to Israel. He loves to get on the platform. He apparently has a fairly large following, but he likes to get on the platform with other speakers who support Israel. The problem with this preacher is that he is a deceiver. He doesn't know the truth, he loves CCM music, and he loves the worship teams. He likes to dress in a cool manner so that he will fit in with the ungodly crowd. And he gains attention through his speaking, especially because he does take a position in support of Israel, so therefore he gets that crowd to approve of him. But in his, the headline that I saw this week about this man is he was warning about other false teachers like Kenneth Copeland and Paula White. Kenneth Copeland is a false teacher, there's no doubt about it. So is Paula White. Both of them are headed for hell. But so is this man from everything that he teaches. Just because he speaks in support of Israel and yet denies holiness, denies separation, doesn't make him a good man. But that's the kind of people that draw a crowd today. The world and the ungodly world and the secular religious people They don't want someone to teach the truth. They want someone who will conform to the standards of the world, just like the Pharisees did in our text. So the first thing we're going to look at here is the Lord versus the Pharisee. You notice in verse 37 that this Pharisee is trying to make himself look good in the eyes of the people. The Pharisees had set themselves up as the religious leaders for the Jews. And they also liked to be popular with the Romans. Remember that Israel at this time is under Roman occupation. Romans are in charge. But the Roman government had given the Pharisees the liberty to control the Jews with their doctrines. And the Pharisees understood, as we see from the time of Jesus' crucifixion, the Pharisees understood there were certain things they could not do. They needed permission from the Romans in order to crucify Jesus. They could not put someone to death. The Romans didn't mind putting people to death. They didn't care if it was just because Pilate knew that The chief priests had made up lies regarding Jesus. They were jealous of him. And he didn't care. He signed the death warrant for Jesus anyway. So here in our text, the Pharisee, this particular Pharisee is not named, but he invited Jesus to come and dine with him. He's inviting him to come to his house and have a meal with him. Generally speaking, If you're willing to go and sit down for a meal with someone, you have some kind of a relationship with that person. There's some kind of agreement between you. You don't usually sit down to eat with an enemy. You don't usually sit down to eat with someone who attacks you. But this Pharisee here who hates Jesus, but he's inviting him to his house because he wants to be, he wants a bigger audience. He wants a bigger group of people that will approve of him. So he already has many followers, but he wants to have other people like the disciples think that he's a good person. And so he's a typical politician who makes a position and he puts his finger to the wind to see what position he can hold that will draw the most people in. And currently, right now, in Alberta, there's a by-election being held because there's a, the leader of the Conservative Party lost his seat in Ottawa, and he wants to stay on as leader, so he has to have a seat. And so a politician in Alberta gave up his seat so that this leader could run there. If democracy was really a good thing, that leader would be out because he lost his seat. He wouldn't go somewhere else and try to gain a seat there. It just proves again the fraudulent nature of Canadian politics. You can lose in one place. You don't even live in the other place, but you go and you run there. Maybe he's got lots of money and maybe he bought a house there, who knows? But he doesn't belong in that region. He didn't grow up there. He doesn't know what goes on there. But that's the nature of politics. It's only designed to try to get power. Doesn't care about people, just looking for power. And so this Pharisee in verse 38, it tells us he marveled that Jesus hadn't first washed before dinner. So it doesn't tell us that the Pharisee offered Jesus a place to wash, but apparently there must've been some place there where the Pharisee could observe and Jesus didn't go wash up his hands before eating. And this, of course, to the Pharisee was a no-no. Now, in the Old Testament, God taught the priests that before the high priest could go into the holiest place, he needed to wash, change his clothes, and when he came out of there, he needed to wash and change his clothes again. And cleanliness is important. God is not against cleanliness. But the point that the Pharisee is trying to make here is ceremonial cleanliness. It's not that Jesus had just come from fixing a car or fixing a hoof on a camel or doing anything that was dirty. He just was walking and he was going to sit down to eat. but he hadn't washed his hands. Ceremonial washing. It wasn't that his hands were dirty. It wasn't that he had gone to the bathroom and not washed his hands. There are important times to wash our hands to keep from spreading disease. But that was not the case here. That was not the concern of this Pharisee. It wasn't a matter of healthiness. It was a matter of following Pharisaical rituals. So in verse 39, it tells us, And the Lord said unto him, Now do ye Pharisees may clean the outside of the cup and the platter, but your inward part is full of ravening and wickedness. So here's the problem. Jesus is exposing this Pharisee for what's really going on. He uses the example of utensils that we used to eat with, cups and platters. And the Pharisees, according to what Jesus is telling us here, were very concerned about the outward appearance. They wanted to make sure that the outside of that cup was clean, the outside of the platter was clean. But they didn't care what kind of material was used to make the cup in the first place. How clean was that clay that was being used to make that cup? How clean was the platter, the clay for the platter? That's the point. And the bigger point here is that the Pharisees were concerned with outward appearances. And so they were very concerned that Jesus would wash his hands before he would eat. But they weren't concerned about their own hearts, which were, like Jesus says, full of ravening and wickedness. This Pharisee didn't invite Jesus to his house because he wanted to learn from Jesus. He invited him to his house to try to expose him as a fraud. And we see that as we come to the end of this passage. There was no interest here in truth. It's good to invite a godly person into your house to have them in for a meal, and to ask questions. It's good. But you have to also want to learn. If you just want to pick them apart and just try to make yourself look better, that doesn't help. In verse 40, Jesus addresses the matter as it really is. He says, ye fools. Did not he that made that which is without make that which is within also? So again, we see here that Jesus gives us a much different example of how a godly person responds to others than what the world does. Jesus called this Pharisee and the others, he said, ye fools. He doesn't just say you fool. He's addressing a multiple of people here. And he calls them fools. Now the Bible tells us that a fool is someone who rejects God. And that's what this Pharisee is doing. So the point that Jesus is making here is, didn't the one who makes the outside make the inside too? So when it comes to us as people, didn't God make the skin on my hands? And didn't he make the meat that's underneath that skin? Didn't he make that too? The muscles that are there? Didn't he make my heart as well as the skin that covers my body? And the fact is, yes, he did. So I can look spiritual on the outside. I can put on my suit and tie. I can make sure that my suit is clean, I can make sure my pants are clean, that I don't have stinky socks on, and so on. But what about my heart? What's that like? And that's the point here, that Jesus is addressing the spiritual bankruptcy of these Pharisees as they invite him to this meal to try to make themselves look good in the eyes of the people. So in verse 41 it says there, but rather give alms of such things as ye have and behold all things are clean unto you. So Jesus is addressing the matter of the heart and now he's talking about alms which is generally material giving, things that you give. And this Pharisee, he's more concerned with outward appearances than he is with his heart. And so in verse 41, he's justifying, says, all things are clean unto you based on his corrupt judgment, not based on truth. Their lives were a mess, and there was nothing that they had to offer anyone that was of any value. Give alms of such things as ye have. They were expecting of people, they were expecting things of people that they didn't have. So Jesus is pointing out the hypocrisy of this Pharisee, pointing out the wrong judgment that he is involved in. And the second thing that we see here is a woe rather than flattery. So we've already seen that Jesus is not a secular psychologist. He doesn't care whether people like him or not. He cares about truth. So he's not going to whitewash, sin, just to get people to approve of him. He calls this Pharisee a fool. Now in verse 42, he says, but woe unto you, Pharisees. So he's dressing more than one. There must have been more than one at his house here. And he says, for ye tithe mint and rue and all manner of herbs and pass over judgment and the love of God. These ought you to have done and not to leave the other undone. Now, mint is something that you use. You can have a mint tea, you can add it to your food to give it a different flavor, but it's not a main ingredient. You don't invite somebody over and say, let's have a mint salad. You might add some mint to your salad, but it's not the main ingredient. It's something that you use to enhance the flavor of what you have. And rue is another herb, tells us that in the passage. But it's a shrubby plant that grows about two feet tall, and it has medicinal values. So that's what the rue is. So Jesus says to this Pharisee or to these Pharisees, he says, ye tithe mint and rue and all manner of herbs. So they're using the smaller things of life. That's what they're tithing from. So again, you might have a mint plant in your garden, but you're gonna keep it as a small part of your garden. It's not a big part. You might have tomatoes in that garden. You might have potatoes. You might have beets. And if it's a farmer in his field, he might have a mint in the corner of the field, but his main crop is wheat or corn or something like that. Here, Jesus is pointing out that they're willing to tithe of the mint and the rue and the other herbs, but they're leaving the other things out. and he tells us what the other things are. So the problem is that the Pharisee here, the Pharisees are picking on little things rather than dealing with the bigger picture, just as they were talking about Jesus not washing his hands. You can go out into your garden And you can pull weeds, come in the house with dirty hands because you were pulling weeds. You can even fix your car, have grease on your hands. You could wipe it off onto a rag, but you've still got grease on your hands. And you could take and eat a sandwich, and it's not going to kill you. But if you were to stick your hands in some poop and eat that, that's a different story. So there are certain things that you can do that are not going to do you any real harm. And Jesus is pointing out here that these Pharisees, they're concerned about things that really don't matter, but they're leaving the things that matter out. They're not concerned about the things that matter. It says there, and pass over judgment and the love of God. So this Pharisee, he's judging Jesus, but not judging Jesus according to the law. He's not judging righteous judgment as John chapter seven talks about. He doesn't have the love of God in his heart. He's looking for a way to attack Jesus. He's not looking for a way to know Jesus. He's looking to attack Jesus. That's the problem. In verse 43, we have further warning. Woe unto you, Pharisees, for ye love the uppermost seats in the synagogues and greetings in the markets. So again, the Pharisees, they wanted to make sure that when they were in the synagogue, that they got to sit in the most important seats that there were. In a lot of churches, it used to be that there was a platform. So if you get invited to sit up on the platform, you're important. If you're just given a chair in the general floor, you're not as important. Now, in some churches, it's important to sit near the front. If you wanna be seen as someone that is recognized, you make sure that you sit near the front. If you sit near the back, well, you're not nearly as important. The Pharisees, they wanted to make sure that they had the uppermost seats. They wanted to make sure they were recognized in the synagogue. And they also wanted to be greeted in the markets. When they went shopping for their food, they wanted people to recognize them, to call out their name. They wanted to be seen as respected. Verse 44, Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye are as graves which appear not, and the men that walk over them are not aware of them." So generally, when you go into a cemetery, a grave is marked. In Canada, we buy a headstone. People will pay big money for that headstone. and they put it at the head of the grave. And generally a grave is about six feet long and two or two and a half feet wide. So generally speaking, you don't walk on the grave. You know that's where the body is buried. And out of respect, not that the body, the person is not there, they're not going to feel it. It's not going to hurt them if you step on their grave. But just out of respect, you don't step on the grave. You step around, you walk around. and it's generally known the size of it, so you walk around if you're in a cemetery looking at headstones, looking at who's buried here, when did they die, how long did they live, and so on. Here, Jesus says, these Pharisees, they were like people that go to the grave, and the grave, you can't see where it is, so they're walking on it, and they don't even know it. says there, men that walk over them are not aware of them. So again, the problem is they're walking in places out of ignorance. And the ignorance that Jesus is pointing out here is not that they could not know, but they chose not to know. They chose not to know who Jesus was, They chose not to know the importance of true biblical holiness. As we read in verse 42, they pass over judgment and the love of God. So these Pharisees, it wasn't that they could not know. It was that they had chosen not to know. They didn't want the truth. They weren't interested in the truth. Then in verse 45, we see that the lawyers get in on this. Then answered one of the lawyers and said unto him, Master, thus saying, thou reproachest us also. So the lawyers here now, they're offended. You see, again, Jesus is not concerned about politics. He wants people to love him. but he wants people to love him because their heart is right with him. You see, we can't truly love God unless his love is in us. We can't have his love in us unless we are, first of all, saved. So that was the problem here. And so these lawyers now, they're listening to Jesus and they don't like what he's saying. They call him master, but they don't recognize him as a master. And so they're kind of scolding Jesus. You know what you're saying here, it's an offense to us too. So in verse 46, and he said, woe unto you also ye lawyers, for ye laid men with burdens grievous to be born, and ye yourselves touch not the burdens with one of your fingers. So that was the thing. Now we know lawyers are great for twisting words. Lawyers are generally liars. They can make long statements and say nothing. And they do that on purpose. The lawyer's main duty when he goes to court is to try to confuse the judge. He'll defend a murderer by trying to twist the language of the crown and saying, well, you said this, but it's not actually true because they twist the words a little bit to try to get their criminal off. So they'll defend a criminal and they twist the law to try to do it. And that was the problem here that Jesus addressed. They make burdens grievous to be born, but they won't dare touch them with their finger. So they made laws for the people that the people were supposed to follow, but these lawyers couldn't follow them themselves. In verse 47, woe unto you, for you build the sepulchers of the prophets and your fathers killed them. And in verse 48, Jesus points out, truly ye bear witness that ye allow the deeds of your fathers, for they indeed killed them, and ye build their sepulchres. So the lawyers here, the prophets in the Old Testament, we're going to see that further on, False prophets in the Old Testament killed the true prophets. They'd put them in prison, they'd accuse them of things and try to get rid of them. Didn't want them around. So the children here, the lawyers now, they're building the sepulchers. So they're building the places where these prophets were buried. By doing that, they proved their agreement with their fathers who had killed the prophets. That's what it's telling us here. So they were no better. They were agreeing with the murder of prophets, and they were building the sepulchres to bury them in. And generally a sepulchre, again, like a grave, it has a marker. So they're trying to make it seem as if they're respecting the sepulcher, the prophets, but if they respected them, they wouldn't agree to build the sepulchers because they would realize they were murdered. So Jesus is pointing out the hypocrisy here of the lawyers in their actions. They were no better than their forefathers. They were making life miserable and hard for the people, and they had nothing good to offer. So they needed to be exposed. And again, Jesus is not a politician. He doesn't care if ungodly people don't like what he has to say. He cares about their soul, and so should we. And that's why it's important to tell a Catholic the truth. That's why it's important to tell Eglesia Ni Cristo, the truth. Years ago, I was having services, our church was having services in a senior's home, and there was a Mormon in that senior's home. And he wanted to talk to me about what I believed, and he wanted to tell me what he believed. And as he started talking about his Mormon faith, I showed him from the Bible why it was wrong. And I told him, I said, you have got your religion from the devil. Joseph Smith was a false teacher. And I said that your path that you're on is going to take you straight to hell. Well, he took great offense to that. There was another person involved in our service at that time, and she took offense to what I said to that Mormon man. And so she talked to some of the men in the church and got the men in the church to agree with her, and that I was wrong, and that I shouldn't have warned this man that he was going the wrong way. That's very common today. People want to be politicians, and they want to make lost people feel good about themselves so that they can have them come and add to their numbers rather than seeing souls actually saved. But I'd rather tell a person the truth. Life is short, and by the time you get into a senior's home, you're in the last days of your life. You may have a few years left yet, but you don't have that long left. You're not 10 years old. You're not 20 years old. You're 65 or 70 or 75 or 80. And your life is certainly coming to an end. And if you don't know the Lord, you're in bad shape. So truth is more important than to be embraced by false believers. So the third thing that we see is that wisdom, the wisdom of God exposes the lie. In verse 49, it says, wherefore, or therefore, also said the wisdom of God, I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they shall slay and persecute. So this is the wisdom of God. God is not, as I mentioned already, he's not interested in appeasing sin. And so the wisdom of God, God sent prophets in the Old Testament. He sent the apostles in the New Testament. And we know Jeremiah was persecuted in the Old Testament. So were other prophets, as we're gonna see, Zacharias was murdered. The apostles were stoned for believing the truth and teaching the truth. And that's the wisdom of God. Why did God do that? He knew that the world wouldn't accept him. Why did he do that? Well, that's the wisdom of God. Truth is important. And then in verse 50, it says that the blood of all the prophets which was shed from the foundation of the world may be required of this generation. See, there's the challenge. God, in his wisdom, he sent prophets and apostles. The people like the Pharisees, the lawyers, the scribes, they decided they're going to kill them. They're going to silence the truth. And that's still the case today. People want to silence the truth. They want only nice words spoken. Tickle the ears. Don't tell the person the truth. Just tickle the ears. In verse 51, from the blood of Abel, well, we know who Abel is. That's the one that Cain killed. and he is listed here amongst the prophets, from the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zacharias. Zacharias, if you go in your Bibles to 2 Chronicles, we can read about Zacharias. 2 Chronicles chapter 24. And in the beginning of chapter 24, verse one, it says, Joash was seven years old when he began to reign. And he reigned 40 years in Jerusalem. His mother's name also was Zibiah of Beersheba. And Joash did that which was right in the sight of the Lord all the days of Jehoiad the priest. And Jehoiada took for him two wives, and he begat sons and daughters." So Joash was just a boy, seven years old, when he becomes the king. If you read chapter 24, you find that Joash didn't know the Lord. He didn't walk in the fear of God. It says that he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord all the days of Jehoiada the priest. So Jehoiada the priest is the one who made him the king. Now Jehoiada the priest did wrong in verse three there in that he gave him two wives. One wife is all he should have had. But Jehoiada was the priest. But Jehoiada died just like we all do. Then we come to verse 20. And in verse 20, because of Joash's sin now, in verse 20 it says, and the Spirit of God came upon Zechariah, the son of Jehoiada the priest, which stood above the people and said unto them, thus saith God, why transgress ye the commandments of the Lord? that ye cannot prosper, because ye have forsaken the Lord, he hath also forsaken you. And they conspired against him and stoned him with stones at the commandment of the king in the court of the house of the Lord. Thus Joash the king." So there's no doubt who is the king, it's Joash. The same Joash you read about in chapter, in verse one. Thus Joash the king remembered not the kindness which Jehoiada his father had done to him, but slew his son. And when he died, he said, the Lord look upon it and require it. That's the Zacharias being spoken of by Jesus in our text. The blood of Zacharias, which perished between the altar and the temple. So Joash commanded Zacharias, spelled Zachariah in the Old Testament, commanded him to be murdered because he didn't like what he had to say. And Jesus says that the blood of Abel and the blood of Zacharias and all those in between is gonna be required of that generation of Pharisees and lawyers. Why? Because they had set themselves up as being religious authorities. They claimed to be living for God, and yet they were attacking Jesus. So in verse 52, woe unto you, lawyers, for ye have taken away the key of knowledge. So they had replaced the key of knowledge with their false laws. Ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered." So you could put the Pentecostals that we've been looking at on Friday night and going to look at again this Friday. You could put them in that category. You could put Kenneth Copeland there. You could put Paula White there. You could put Joseph Prince there. You could put many different people, put their name in there. They have taken away the key of knowledge. Now, what's the key of knowledge? The key of knowledge is truth. If you go in your Bibles, to 1 Corinthians chapter 2. 1 Corinthians chapter 2 and we see there Verse 12, now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God, that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. We've been given the spirit of God, that's the Holy Spirit, that's the saved person. He has the Holy Spirit indwelling him, and the purpose of that is that we might know, that's what understanding is, knowing something. Understanding the Word of God. We can't do that unless we have the Holy Spirit in us. So Kenneth Copeland, for instance, goes around and he preaches a spirit too. He calls him the Holy Spirit, but he's not the Holy Spirit. He's a devil spirit. Kenneth Copeland takes away the key of understanding from the people that follow him. They choose that. They're not innocent. but he takes that away from them and replaces it with a lie. So does Joseph Prince, so does the Catholic religion, so do many other groups. The Pentecostals do the same thing. They take away the key of understanding and they replace it with a lie. You should speak in tongues if you're saved. You should roll around the floor if you're saved. You should be slain in the spirit if you're saved. And on and on it goes. None of that is biblical. And so they are robbing the people, says in verse back in our text again, woe unto you lawyers, for ye have taken away the key of knowledge, ye entered not in yourselves. So these lawyers and Pharisees weren't interested in the truth, but they're not allowing others to enter either, because they're teaching false doctrine. So you see, if a person like, take Kenneth Copeland again, if he doesn't wanna believe the truth, that's his choice, he's going to hell for it. But it's even more dangerous for him because he's trying to keep many other people away from the truth as well. That's what the Pharisees and lawyers were doing. It wasn't enough for them to say, I don't believe it, but they were gonna keep others away from the truth as well. So then in verse 53, we see the true nature of these people, these religious leaders. And as he said these things unto them, the scribes and the Pharisees began to urge him vehemently. They're now turning their attention 100% against him. Now they're going to, it says there, and to provoke him to speak of many things. So they're going to ask all kinds of questions now to try to get Jesus to say something that they can trap him with. They're not interested in the truth. The Pharisee was never interested in truth when he invited Jesus into his house. He was looking for a way to justify himself. Jesus wouldn't do that. So since Jesus wouldn't justify the Pharisee, since Jesus wouldn't justify the lawyers, now they're going full out against him. Says verse 54, laying weight for him and seeking to catch something out of his mouth that they might accuse him. They're not interested in learning. They're not interested in seeing that, yes, they were hypocrites. They needed to change. They weren't interested in that. They didn't believe they were hypocrites. They didn't believe Jesus was sent from God. They were accusing him of casting out devils by Beelzebub. They didn't like him. He wouldn't accept their false religion. And you're going to find the same thing today. If you're going to be a true man of God, person who believes in God, you're not going to accept the charismatic doctrines. You're not going to accept the Catholic doctrines, the Mormons, and all the rest of it. You're not going to accept it. You're going to expose it. And as you expose it, you're going to find you're going to have enemies. People aren't gonna like that because the world in general, like the man I said earlier who was exposing Kenneth Copeland, they believe in a universal church. So you can believe all kinds of false doctrine but still be a part of the true church. I'd like someone to point out in the Bible how that's possible. Nevermind which man says it's possible, show me from the Bible that that's possible. Show me from the Bible that Jesus spoke with a forked tongue, that he says, yes, you should speak in tongues. Yes, you should expect all kinds of ungodly healings. Yes, you should expect to be slain in the spirit if you're truly on fire for the Lord. You should look for a second baptism. Show me that in the Bible. It's not there. So It's important. If we love people, as it says there in verse 42, pass over judgment and the love of God, if we truly love people with the love of God, we want them to know the truth. We don't want them to be crippled by lies. We want them to know the truth and to know their sins have been forgiven, to know they have a home in heaven, and not to be wasting time and energy chasing after lies. We want them to know the truth. And yes, there's a cost to doing that. The cost is a fraction of the cost of going to hell. I'd rather tell someone the truth and have that person upset with me than to be quiet and have that person go to hell. They may go to hell anyway, but I don't want to be guilty of endorsing them going to hell. That's because the love of God motivates the Christian to tell people the truth. We don't try to beat them over the head with it, but we want to help them to see you're going the wrong way. You need to turn around. And that's what it is. False religion is going 100% the wrong way. It's not close. The Pharisees weren't close. The lawyers weren't close. They were hypocrites. And Jesus exposed them and said, here's what you need to do. And they didn't like it. So it's important for us today to study the word of God, to be sure that we're saved, study the word of God, and make sure that we're more concerned with inward purity than outward show. There is a godly standard of righteousness and a way to walk and to demonstrate that we're separated from the world. That's important. But it's important that it comes from a heart that's been separated from the world through the new birth. Not just someone who's trying to copy certain aspects of what they think is true Christianity, but there's nothing to it in their heart. And that you soon find out with people who get excited about things for a little while and then they back off and they don't show up for meetings and so on. They show you who they really are, what's really in their heart. So we need to pray for people. We need to encourage people to consider the truth, but we also need to pray for one another for boldness, that we don't cave in. to the deception and the lies that are all around us, because people need to know the truth. And those of us that are saved have the privilege of helping people to know the truth. Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, we're thankful this morning for thy word, thankful for the care of the Lord Jesus Christ in coming to this earth to save sinners. And on his way to the cross, he continually taught the truth, exposed the lies so that people could see the difference. Even if they didn't want to choose right, they could see the difference. I pray that we today would want to help people to see the difference. And even if they don't choose the right, they might understand and might realize that they're guilty and they will stand before a just God and they will be found wanting. But we need to make sure that we give them every opportunity to change course, to turn to the truth and know God's, thy peace and thy forgiveness. May thy will be accomplished in each person that's listening Each one would know thy peace and blessing, we pray in Jesus' name, amen.