LUKE 11:45-54 WOE TO THE LEGALISTIC2012 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Luke 11:45-54 Woe To The Legalistic

00:00
Last week we...

00:15
Looked at the Pharisees and we looked at how Jesus was pronouncing woes to the Pharisees and we looked at it as woe to the religious, that those who are religious in their approach to God and that they replace relationship with God with rituals and rules and ceremonies that Jesus pronounced woe to them.

00:40
This morning as we continue on this portion, it's the continuation of that situation that we began studying last week. Now we're looking at the lawyers who really volunteer the rebuke of Jesus. And this morning I titled the message, Woe to the Legalistic. Last week was Woe to the Religious. This week it's Woe to the Legalistic.

01:05
Remember that the word woe is a pronouncement of judgment. And I would say that it's a pronouncement of judgment with sadness. That as Jesus is pronouncing the woe to the Pharisee, he's saying God is going to bring judgment upon you for your sinful heart, for your disobedience, for the way that you are because, well, you're not in right relationship with God.

01:32
And as we continue on now, he'll begin to pronounce woes to the lawyers. And as he pronounces a woe to the lawyer, he's saying, God is going to bring judgment upon you. You are not right with God. You are not right in the way that you deal with the people around you. And so it brings me great sadness to share with you that there is going to be judgment that God will pour out upon you.

01:59
Woe to the legalistic. We talked about religion last week as the keeping of rules and laws and ceremonies. As we consider legalism this morning, we could talk about there's many forms and practices

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Perhaps many definitions of what legalism is. But what Jesus specifically is addressing here, the form of legalism that he is addressing in this portion, is the enforcing of laws and rules and ceremonies upon other people.

02:33
And that's specifically what he's talking about. And so when we talk about legalism today and woe to the legalistic person, it's those who are applying and enforcing rules and ceremonies and laws upon other people around them. Last week we talked about religion and we saw that it was the contrast of relationship.

02:54
That Christianity is a relationship and not a religion. This week as we look at legalism, the contrast to legalism is fellowship.

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The contrast to what Jesus is talking about here and the way they're applying rules and laws upon the people, it's in direct contrast to the way that God has instructed us to fellowship together and to minister to one another. So it's religion versus relationship and legalism versus fellowship this morning. So there's four points here.

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That we can see, as Jesus says, woe to the legalistic for reasons why he pronounces this woe. And I'll also give, like last week, some warning signs to help us recognize when our hearts have followed theirs and have become legalistic in our approach to the people around us.

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So we start out in verse 45 and 46 with the first woe and the first point is that legalism burdens people. Legalism burdens people. Verse 45 says, Then one of the lawyers answered and said to him, Teacher, by saying these things you reproach us also.

04:14
So Jesus has been, at this point, pronouncing woes upon the Pharisees. That's what we studied last week. Woe to you, Pharisees. Woe to you, Pharisees. Woe to you, Pharisees. Now, a lawyer speaks up. The lawyer is there in the midst of the crowd, hearing the woes that are pronounced to the Pharisees. And he says, hey, you're reproaching us as well when you talk to the Pharisees in that way.

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Now, lawyers, what we think about lawyers today is not the same as the lawyer that this is referring to. We think of lawyers in a courtroom, you know, prosecuting cases, defending cases. We think of it in that context. But lawyers there in the Jewish culture, they were the experts in the law of God.

05:07
And so they would interpret and teach the Mosaic law, the law of Moses, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, those books of Moses. That was their expertise. And they were the experts in interpreting and teaching those books. They were the experts in teaching people and telling people how those laws apply to their life.

05:36
And so they would say, well, it says this, and here's what this means to you today. That was their role. They were the experts in the law, and they were teaching the people how to put it into practice. And so the lawyer speaks up, and he says, hey, you're rebuking the Pharisees for following all of these religious rituals, right?

05:57
And essentially he's saying, we're the ones who taught them. We're the ones who declared and interpreted and said, this is the way you're to follow those laws. So they're practicing what the lawyers told them to practice. And so when you say, woe to the Pharisees, you're rebuking us as well. Now the lawyer at this point is thinking, this must be a mistake, right, Jesus? I mean, surely you don't mean to speak against us because we're the experts in the law.

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And so he's saying, hey, you're reproaching us as well. He's really correcting Jesus and saying, you're kind of going too far here. But really what the lawyer is doing is volunteering and saying, hey, hey, pick me, pick me. Pronounce woes to me next. Because there's some serious issues with the lawyers of that day. Like a lawyer, it's hard for us to imagine that we are the problem.

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He's not bringing this up because he says, well, what's wrong in my life? I need to know because it's hard for us to imagine that. We're very good at excusing and justifying ourselves. But this morning as we look at this portion, I would challenge you to invite God to reveal any legalism that is within you. Don't just dismiss it and say, well, I'm not legalistic. I'm already set. So good message for other people.

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I'll make sure to pass it on to someone else, you know. No, no, no. Let God speak to you. Invite God to speak to you. Because like this lawyer, we always assume that it's really not about us. He's not meaning to reproach us. We're not the object of his correction because we've got things figured out. But we need some correction. And so pay attention here as we consider how legalism burdens people. Going on into verse 46.

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And he said, that's Jesus now,

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So the lawyer says, hey, you're reproaching us too. And Jesus says, that's right. Woe to you, lawyers. He said, you want some? Okay, here you go. Woe to you. This pronouncement of judgment with sadness. Hey, lawyers, you're not right either. You have some serious issues and you're going to experience the judgment of God unless you repent, unless you turn and get right with the Lord and correct your heart.

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Now what's the issue with the lawyers? Well, he's going to go through a few things, but the first one here, he says here in verse 46, you load men with burdens hard to bear. You load men with burdens. You're weighing them down. You're loading things on top of them. Burdens that are hard to bear.

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These lawyers were the experts in the law of Moses. Again, those first five books of the Bible, that was their expertise. But on top of those books of the Bible, on top of those writings in the law of Moses, they also had established what's known as the Talmud and the Mishnah. These are oral traditions. They were later written down, but they were the teachings of rabbis.

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And so these things were the, well, they were the explanation of the law of Moses originally, but they became the new law for the people under the leadership of these lawyers. And so in order to explain the law of Moses, the rabbis would, you know, teach, they would explain, they would give examples. This is how this applies. This is what it means. That kind of thing. Similar to what we do in a service.

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But then those things were compiled, they're put together, and then everybody is held to those with the same weight, sometimes even greater, than the actual law of Moses. And so the lawyers were not just sticking to what the scriptures said, but they were holding people together.

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They were laying on people the burden of following what all of these different rabbis said and their interpretation and the way that it was to be implied. Let me give you a couple examples. One of the biggest issues that you see Jesus come in conflict with them throughout his ministry is the issue of the Sabbath. And they had some interesting Sabbath laws. Now, if you go through the law of Moses...

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The specific things about the Sabbath, there's only a couple specific things. You're to do no customary work on the Sabbath was the instruction. You're not to kindle fire on the Sabbath. And that's about it. But they had developed on top of that all kinds of traditions. So they said, well, you're not allowed to carry things on the Sabbath. So if you pick something up, well, that's fine. But if you start walking with it, now you're carrying something.

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That's breaking the Sabbath. But they were also experts in getting around their own rules. So you can't do this no more. You can't pick up something and carry it. However, if you don't hold it with your hand, but you put it on the top of your hand, now you can, this isn't carrying it. I'm not breaking the Sabbath.

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Now nowhere in the scriptures does God say you can't carry anything. Nowhere in the scriptures does God say you can carry something as long as you put on the top of your hand. That's not what the law of Moses said, but that's what their tradition had built.

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And so you could carry things on the top of your hand. And so they, you know, put buckets, you know, on the top of their hand or, you know, things like that. You could carry it if you stuffed it in your shoe or in the hem of your garments, you know. And so you could carry it that way, but you couldn't hold something while you walked. It was not what God had said. It was their tradition, but that's what they held everybody to.

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And so it was a burden that was hard to bear. Another example is they had the standard of you could not travel more than 1,000 yards from your home on the Sabbath.

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But again, they were experts in getting around their own rules. And so they decided, well, if you tie a rope to your house and stretch that out, you know, the day before, not on the Sabbath, but stretch it out as far as the rope goes, well, that extends the boundary of your home. And so now you can go to that boundary and then 1,000 yards beyond that.

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Again, this is not what, nowhere in the law of Moses will you find that. Another way that they would get around this is they said, well, if you have some food that you place somewhere the day before, that's your lunch, you know, for the Sabbath, well then the boundary of your home is wherever that food is at. So you can travel to wherever you place the food the day before and then of course a thousand yards beyond that. This is all just stuff that they developed. It's tradition that

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perhaps you know for an individual these things were fine but it was not what god had said it was not meant to be loaded on as a burden to all of the people they had very strict rules about tying knots on the sabbath you're not allowed to tie a knot on the sabbath unless for ladies it was a girdle you could tie a knot in a girdle nothing else so if you needed to get water you

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Guess what they would use on the Sabbath? Well, let's put aside the rope for a little bit. Let's tie the knot in the girdle to let the bucket down to get water. Just silly things in our mind, but things that they kept people strictly accountable to. And you probably remember some of the accounts of Jesus coming into conflict with

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with the religious leaders of the day because, well, he healed on the Sabbath. His disciples, remember, grabbed some grain and plucked it because they were hungry. And that was, you know, forbidden in their traditions on the Sabbath. There was all of these things that they had built on top of what God said. And they had made it to be much more than God had intended.

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And so Jesus here is coming against them saying, you load men with burdens that are hard to bear. Now, in saying all of that, I do want to make sure it's clear. There are standards and they must be held to. We are accountable to what the scripture says. We cannot waver from those. The things that are clearly expressed and clearly written in the scriptures are standards for us.

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And some might consider them burdens that are hard to bear, but that's contrary to the scriptures because it says in the scriptures that his commands are not burdensome. But we are held accountable to those standards in the scripture. What Jesus is addressing here is the addition of other things on top of what the Bible has actually said. Legalism adds to the clear instruction of God's word.

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That's what we're talking about today. The addition of those rules and regulations and ceremonies, those standards that are not written in the Word of God. And this is something that happens within churches. There are churches who develop these standards and lay on the people of their congregation standards that

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Well, God hasn't commanded this. The scriptures hasn't declared this. There are denominations that apply it to their churches. There are families that apply that. There's friends who apply it to one another. It happens to us individually. Legalism is a real issue, not just something for the lawyers back then, but today it's something that still exists. And it exists when we turn our likes into laws.

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When we turn our likes into laws, we're heading into legalism. Whenever I make a sandwich at home, I'm very particular. I get out the bread. I pay careful attention to how I pull it out of the bag. And then I lay it out.

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And then I put whatever things I'm going to put on it. Peanut butter and jelly, ham, whatever. I put it on there. But I make sure to keep track of the way that it came out of the loaf so that when I put it back together, the shape matches up. Right? Do you do that? You know, like if you put it the other way, then it's like you got this part sticking out. It's like it just doesn't fit. You got to take a bite of this weird bread. It doesn't, it's not the same. It's not right. It's got to match up.

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So whenever I make a sandwich, I'm very particular. You can ask my wife. I'm very particular. I make sure I keep track. If I put it in the toaster and gets, I got to study it. Okay, wait. No, that doesn't work. Flip it the other way. Okay, that's the way it's supposed to go. That's me. That's my standard for myself. But listen, when Kim brings me a sandwich, if the bread's facing the wrong way, I don't throw it on the ground and tell her to redo it.

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I don't hold other people to my standard. That's just my own peculiar thing. I recognize that. I say, okay, I don't mind being weird, but this is just... When I make the sandwich, that's the way that it is. If I'm at a restaurant and the bread doesn't line up, I don't throw a fit. I don't send it back. I just eat it because I know it's no big deal. It's my personal preference. It's not a law. But see, that's the issue. You and I as believers, we have personal preferences, right?

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The problem begins, and that's fine. You can have your own personal preferences. You can have your own high standards. You can have your own, you know, weird things. If you tie a rope to your house, you can go extra far on a Saturday or whatever. You can do that. You're free to do that. The problem is when you turn your like, your preference into a law. And that happens within the church. It happens with issues like alcohol. The Bible is very clear what it says about alcohol. But

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There's lots of debate and discussion about, you know, what's appropriate, what's allowed, what's the law for alcohol. There's lots of discussion within the church about movies. What movies is a Christian allowed to watch? What's the law? Or what about the TV shows, you know? And there's condemnation that is brought. There's burdens that are brought upon people for the things that they watch, which is

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Maybe based on preference and not the scriptures. There's burdens that are placed upon people. You're supposed to pray this way. You're supposed to pray for this amount of time. There was one that I heard about recently I thought was a little bit funny. The rule was you have to pray over a meal if it costs more than 50 cents or if you have to eat it with a fork.

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So I thought, you know, that's pretty consistent because we have a rule kind of amongst ourselves. Hey, you don't have to pray for the fries. You just eat the fries. And then, you know, when you get to the hamburger, well, then that's when you pray for the meal. Richard laughs because he knows that rule, right? It's like, you know, we just, it's a silly thing. It's not a law, you know. It's not meant to be enforced. It's just a standard that we've kind of arbitrarily applied.

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There's standards that are applied. You have to dress this way. You know, a real Christian, if you're really going to be spiritual, if you really want to honor the Lord when you come to church, you have to dress this way. You have to be like this. You have to talk this way. You have to eat this way. You have to worship this way. And on and on and on we could go. These are all things that are happening today within the church.

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Not necessarily within this church, but I would also say they're also happening within the church. We have our preferences and of course we would prefer if everybody would line up to our preferences. We want everybody else to follow the same things that we think are right. If we didn't think they were right, we would change our mind and we would do something different. So we say do these things, but the issue is when we say do these things, if you really want to be pleasing to God,

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If you really want to be spiritual, if you really want to be a Christian, then you have to follow this way. Do this thing that we've decided you should do. Jesus says, you load men with burdens that are hard to bear. Things that are added on to the clear instruction of the Word of God. He goes on to say, you yourselves do not touch the burdens with one of your fingers.

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So they're loading all these burdens on people. And then Jesus says, and you don't even touch those burdens. What is he saying? Well, there's two ways to look at this. First, Jesus could be saying that they were not helping the people. So you're loading with burdens, but that you're not helping them carry the burdens. But more likely what Jesus is saying is that they were not following those own rules themselves. In Matthew chapter 23 says,

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It's really a parallel to what we're studying today. Jesus in Matthew 23 is addressing the Pharisees and the lawyers. And he tells the people, he says, therefore, whatever they, that's the religious leaders, whatever they tell you to observe, that observe and do, but do not do according to their works, for they say and do not do. So Jesus points out in Matthew chapter 23, they're telling you what to do,

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But they're not following that themselves. They're not obeying the commands that they're loading upon you that you find are burdensome and hard to bear. And so James Vernon McGee says, they were adding to the law, making it more difficult, but not attempting to follow it themselves.

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The Apostle Paul dealt with this as well in the book of Galatians chapter 6 verse 13 where he's addressing a church that is being affected by a legalistic false doctrine. He says, For not even those who are circumcised keep the law, but they desire to have you circumcised that they may boast in your flesh. People were coming into the church and saying, You've got to become Jews, so you've got to be circumcised. Trying to enforce the law is

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And Paul says, they don't even keep the law. And yet they're trying to enforce the law. And so there's a real issue with those who are legalistic. Jesus says, woe to the legalistic. Because you lay all of these laws upon people.

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You lay these things that's hard for them to bear. It brings condemnation. It pushes them away from God. But then you yourself aren't even obeying the law and the very standards that you're placing upon other people. So woe to the legalistic because legalism burdens people. So are you legalistic? Have you been caught up in this kind of legalism? Well, here's the warning sign.

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The way to know, one way to tell if you've been caught up in legalism is if you require more of people than the Bible does. What do you require of people? What do you require of your fellow believer? What do you require of your neighbor? The people that God has entrusted to you. What do you require? Again, there are standards.

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And it's not legalistic to hold to the standards of the word. To hold to the commands of scripture. That's not legalism. We are to be obedient and faithful and hold to the commands of scripture. But as it relates to those around us, are we then adding on top of that our own likes and preferences? Now for you, you might have some likes and preferences and they might be good things.

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They might even be good things for other people. But if it's not an express written command of God, it cannot be a law that we enforce on people around us. God may require of you personally much more than he requires of somebody else. That's often the case.

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That it's not a law. It's not, you know, the word says you have to do this or do that. But you as you're walking with God, God speaks to your heart. You have some personal convictions about things. And so you make some changes. You apply that to your life. And that's appropriate. You're responding as God speaks to your heart. You need to be doing that. But that doesn't mean that those same things you are to be applying to everybody around you.

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The Apostle Paul dealt with this in great detail in the book of 1 Corinthians chapters 8, 9, and 10. Talking about, you know, really personal preferences and convictions. He says in 1 Corinthians 10, 23, all things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful. All things are lawful for me, but not all things edify. So Paul says, look, I recognize all things are lawful. I have great freedom in Christ.

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not all of those things that I'm free to do are helpful to me in my pursuit of a relationship with God. And so he goes on to explain he limits himself in his freedoms because he wants to be built up. He wants to pursue that relationship with God and those things that God has spoken to him about. And so he voluntarily limits himself and

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And doesn't participate in everything that he's free to do. Again, there are standards. Those are clear. We need to hold to those. That's not legalism. But there's also much room for personal convictions. Personal preference. Response to what God speaks to your heart. And we need to be careful not to turn our likes into laws for other people. John Corson said he prays this prayer often. He says...

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Lord, don't allow me to burden anyone this day more heavily than they're already burdened. I like that heart. I think it mirrors the heart of Jesus. When Jesus said, come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. See, our job is not to lay burdens on people that God has not laid upon them.

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But our job is to come alongside. As Paul says in Galatians chapter 6, bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. As we talk about legalism versus fellowship, fellowship is coming alongside. Let me help you with your burdens, not let me add to you more condemnation, more burdens, more difficulty to make you feel like you could never approach God.

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That's not what we're to do at all. We're to help. Let me help you unload some of those things so that you can have that freedom and access to God that you need. So legalism burdens people. The second reason Jesus says, woe to the legalistic, we find in verses 47 through 51. And that is that legalism kills God's messengers.

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Legalism kills God's messengers. Verse 47. Jesus says, Again, it's a pronouncement of judgment with sadness. You're going to experience judgment. There's a serious issue here.

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Because you kill God's messengers. He says, you build the tombs of the prophets and your fathers killed them. Now Jesus is looking back over Israel's history and he's pointing out that the prophets have not been well received. To be called as a prophet to the nation of Israel, it was a dangerous call. Because the ministry of the prophets was to call the rebellious people to repentance.

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During the good times of Israel's history, there's not really a lot of prophetic ministry. Because the prophets were sent whenever the people were rebellious. Whenever they weren't listening to God.

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So the ideal is, you know, people are walking with God. They're continuing in a relationship with God. They're responding to his word. They're responding in that relationship as he speaks to their hearts. And so they're being corrected. They have their own connection with the Lord. And so the ministry of a prophet isn't really needed at that time, except for, you know, special things that God might be doing to build up and encourage or redirect or whatever. But for the most part, people are receiving from the Lord already, right?

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But it's when the nation takes the turn away from the Lord, and we're seeing this as we go through 2 Kings right now in the Bible in three years, that the people are turning away from God more and more, and so we're beginning to see more and more prophetic ministry because God is sending the prophets to call them to repentance. He even says that at the end of 2 Kings, that that's what the prophets were sent for, to call people back to repentance, to call them back to right relationship with God.

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Now here's the thing. Reaching out to people who are rebellious against God is not, well, it's not received with great admiration and open arms. It was a dangerous line of work. The messengers of God came.

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And Israel would kill them and persecute them and imprison them because they're rebellious against God. They don't want to hear correction. Who likes to hear correction? Especially when you're in rebellion against God. You don't want to hear correction. You don't get to tell me what to do. And so they came to Israel with the message of God, but Israel would persecute and put them to death. Now here, Jesus is saying, you guys are building and beautifying the tombs of the prophets and

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Thinking of yourselves, you know, as you paint the prophet's tomb. Oh man, if I was there in Isaiah's day, I would have received it. It would have been so great, you know, and we would have responded and there would have been revival if I had been there in Isaiah's day. But Jesus is saying, no, you guys are like teammates. Your fathers put them to death and you build the tombs. You're working together in this. Your hearts are not right in this.

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He says, you're testifying against yourself that you approve of your fathers. I like the way that the New Living Translation puts verse 48. It says, but in fact, you stand as witnesses who agree with what your ancestors did. They killed the prophets and you joined them in their crime by building the monuments. It's like you made an agreement. All right, ancestors, fathers, you put him to death. We'll give him a place to rest.

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That's what Jesus is saying. You guys are teammates. You've joined with them in your building and beautifying of these graves, these sepulchers. The commentator John Gill says, monuments honored those who put them to death more than those who died. They're honoring their fathers.

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Who are the ones who put their prophets to death. Verse 49. Therefore the wisdom of God also said, I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they will kill 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 to the blood of Zechariah, who perished between the altar and the temple, yes, I say to you, it shall be required of this generation.

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So God's saying, look, I'm sending them prophets and apostles. And God knows ahead of time, I know this is what's going to happen. They're going to be persecuted. Some of them will be killed. You might remember Stephen in the book of Acts chapter 7. As he's addressing the religious leaders. In Acts 7.52 he says, which of the prophets did your ancestors not persecute? You could look back at the history of Israel. Which of the prophets didn't experience persecution? They all did. Israel did.

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universally came against all of God's messengers that were sent to them. And so Jesus is saying, the blood of those messengers, those prophets, well, this generation is going to be accountable for it. He says, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah. From A to Z. Abel there in Genesis chapter 4 says,

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The first murder, right? Cain and Abel. And Cain puts Abel to death. His blood was shed. And then Zechariah. Now Zechariah, you can read about this in 2 Chronicles chapter 24. Where the prophet Zechariah is put to death. And 2 Chronicles 24 is the end of the Hebrew scriptures. Their books are in a little bit different order than our Old Testament. Same books, different order.

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And so he's looking at the first book, Genesis chapter 4 with Abel. He's looking at the last book, 2 Chronicles chapter 24 with Zechariah from A to Z, from beginning to end. All throughout, the messengers of God were persecuted and put to death. And so Jesus says it shall be required of this generation. You see, the prophets foretold of Christ.

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The prophets were there to call the people to repentance, but they were also pointing the people forward to the Savior that would come. And now he is here. And this generation, the generation Jesus is talking to, is the generation that will put him to death. So all this time, these prophets have come. They've been persecuted. They've been put to death. They were prophesying of the Savior. Now the Savior is here. This generation is going to put that Savior to death.

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Jesus is saying it's the culmination of all these things. They're going to be held accountable for all of these prophets, for all of these killings. It's a serious crime to put Jesus to death. It's worse than all the killing of the prophets combined because he's the one they spoke of. And so legalism kills God's messengers. Have you been caught up in legalism?

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Are you legalistic? Well, here's the warning sign. How you can recognize. One way to recognize if you've been caught up in this is you don't have people who can speak into your life. You can recognize. You can tell. Have I been caught up in legalism by considering who is able to speak into your life? Who do you allow to instruct you and teach you? Who has authority to

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And I don't mean just generally, you know, here I'm teaching, I'm giving general exhortation, but personally in your life, who has authority to come to you and say, you're not living right. You have some serious issues. You need to repent. Here's where you're out of line. Who has authority in your life? Who do you listen to? If you don't have anyone who can speak into your life, well, I would suggest to you, you've been caught up in legalism.

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Where people might try, but you put them to death. Or at least you put their suggestions or their comments to death with your own excuses and justifications for why you do what you do. And the way that you're able to get around what the Bible says. Who has authority? Who have you invited and allowed? Hey, you guys, you're allowed to speak into my life.

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You're allowed to challenge me on decisions and when I do dumb things. You need to call me and hold me accountable to what the Bible says. If you're not willing to be held accountable, you're caught up in legalism. It's a legalistic approach when you put God's messengers to death. I was listening to John Corson this week and he pointed out something I thought was interesting. He said, watch out if your only heroes of the faith are dead. He says, look, you need to be careful because

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If you are like these lawyers where you say, oh man, yeah, Spurgeon, oh great man of God, man, I wish I would have been there in his day. Yeah, people today, they don't know God, they don't know how to preach, they don't know how to give forth God's word. And so we honor and we listen to and we think, man, yeah, if I was under the ministry of Spurgeon, then I would have been a great Christian. But if there's no heroes of the faith for you today,

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If there's no people that you can look up to, that you can, you know, admire, that you can be encouraged by, if the only people that you will listen to are dead, you need to watch out. You've been caught up in the same mentality of these lawyers who thought, well, yeah, we would have listened to those prophets. But when the prophet himself, when Jesus Christ is there, they would not listen.

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We're very familiar with 2 Timothy chapter 4 verse 2, right? Where Paul tells Timothy, preach the word, be ready in season and out of season, convince, rebuke, and exhort with all longsuffering and teaching. We're familiar with that. We know that verse. We know many other verses like it. But what we forget so many times is, well, sometimes we're on the receiving end of that. It's not just you, convince and rebuke and exhort with all longsuffering and teaching.

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But we're on the other side of that too where we need to be convinced and rebuked and exhorted with all longsuffering and teaching. Fellowship goes both ways. We know the verse is about correction and we just never think that we need to be the receiving end of it. We always want to be the giving of correction. If there's no one who you're able to receive correction from, you're in a dangerous place and Jesus would say, woe to you.

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Proverbs 10, 17 says, He who keeps instruction is in the way of life, but he who refuses correction goes astray. And you can know, if you refuse correction, if there's not people who can speak into your life, you will go astray. So woe to the lawyers because, well, legalism burdens the people, legalism kills God's messengers, and thirdly,

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Woe to the legalistic because legalism hinders people's knowledge. Verse 52. He says, Woe to you lawyers for you have taken away the key of knowledge. You did not enter in yourselves and those who were entering in you hindered.

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So once again, Jesus says, whoa, it's a pronouncement of judgment with sadness. I'm sorry to tell you, you're going to experience the judgment of God because there's a serious issue in your life. You've taken away the key of knowledge. What is Jesus saying here? He says, you guys have placed yourself as the authority on the word of God.

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You've placed yourselves in such a way that you are the only ones who have the key to understand the scriptures. You are the experts. You're the ones who are trained. And so nobody else can understand what God has to say quite like you can. Remember in John chapter 9 when Jesus healed the man who had been born blind? And the religious leaders are all upset.

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They call him into question. They're asking him and he's kind of, you know, getting a little bit frustrated with it. You keep asking me about this, you know, what's going on? And they're coming back. They're kind of going back and forth a little bit. They call in his parents. It's a big deal. And they say, well, we don't know who this guy is. We don't know where he came from. Now, the guy who is healed points out to them. He says, look, it's never been heard of before that someone who is born blind has been healed. Right?

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Surely he must be from God. Surely he must be with the Lord. And the religious leaders, as he's kind of pushing back, you know, at what they're saying, accusing him of all kinds of things, he pushes back and he says, this must be from God. In John chapter 9 verse 34, the religious leaders answer and say to him, you were completely born in sins and are you teaching us? And they cast him out. This was their attitude. This was their mentality.

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They would look at you. They would look at me. Hey, you were born in your sin. Specifically, he was born in sin, they said, because he was born blind. But the point was, you don't have the right. You don't have the authority. You can't teach us. We're the experts in the law. We tell you what the word says. We tell you what God says. You don't know. You have to wait for us to tell you. You can't instruct us. You can't figure it out on your own. We have to tell you. You see, they've taken away the keys of knowledge.

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They said, no, you can't. You can't figure it out on your own. You can't hear from God on your own. We have to tell you what God says. And so the common people were not encouraged to interpret the scriptures or understand the scriptures. Now they were encouraged to memorize it, but then also memorize what we tell you that it means. Remember what we say you're supposed to do and how that applies to your life. They took away the keys.

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Saying you can't figure it out. You can't interpret it. You can't understand it. This is something that. Well it can happen today as well. Where normal people. Common people are not. Are not expected. Not encouraged. To dig into the word of God. And there's some who have that attitude. That well you don't have the training. You don't have the education. Honestly I could share. You know this is kind of strange to share as a pastor. But I'll share it anyways.

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I get intimidated a lot of times as I'm studying the scriptures and preparing to teach the scriptures because I know there's going to be people sitting here who very well could be more qualified than me to stand up and share the scriptures.

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We've got like, I don't know, three or four graduates from the school of ministry. We have Jake who's attending the school of ministry. We have people with a lot more life experience. We've got Harvey. Not only did he graduate from school of ministry, but he's got the wisdom of Moses. I mean, it's just like there's better people for the task. I get intimidated.

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Often. I talk myself out of this role, this responsibility, often. And then the Lord has to talk me back into it. Because I don't have the qualifications. Yeah, I went to Bible college. I didn't quite finish. Yeah. I'm sorry. If you didn't know that, you're welcome to leave. The doors aren't locked, so go ahead. I didn't graduate. I bailed. Because I, well, I jumped into a sinful lifestyle. Well, that's not a good qualification. I mean, really, I just, I don't. But here's the thing.

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God doesn't set these standards. You have to have this many years of school and then you can understand my word. I'm really encouraged by the words of Warren Wiersbe. He says,

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Some of the best Bible teachers I have known in my own ministry were men and women who learned the truth of God's word on their knees and on the battlefield of life. They were spirit taught and not man taught. Those words encourage me. Also challenge me. I need to be hearing from the Lord. I need to be hearing from the Holy Spirit. But the same is true not just of pastors but of all believers. The keys of knowledge are not taken away.

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You need to hear from God in his word. It's not that only I can interpret it or only someone else. It's not that it's beyond your reach. Again, he says the most important things are a yielded heart and obedient will. That's what we need as we approach God in his word. Well, Jesus goes on to say, you did not enter in yourselves and those who were entering you hindered.

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It's interesting, huh? The lawyers are convinced. We're the ones who understand the scriptures. We know what it's about. You have to come to us and we'll tell you what the Bible says. Those who consider themselves the only authority on the word, Jesus says, they don't understand it themselves. They think they have the keys to knowledge, but they're clueless. But because they hold those keys, because they present it that way, they also hinder those who did know about God.

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Those who really did have a relationship with God. Legalism hinders people's knowledge. Holds people back. Because it says, you've got to come to me. You can't hear from God on your own. And so the warning sign then, how can you tell? Do you know? Are you legalistic? Have you been caught up in legalism? Well, the warning sign is, you don't encourage people to hear from God. You can be warned. You can watch out. If you don't encourage people to hear from God.

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This can creep in pretty easily and sometimes pretty subtly. Of course you're not going to stand up and say, hey, don't try to hear from God, come to me. Of course you're not going to do that. You know better than that. But it can creep in really easily if you've been around a while, you've seen lots of things happen, and so when people come with a situation, when they have a question, you've probably seen it before. And you can give the answer like that.

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You can give your thoughts. Well, here's what you need to do. Do all of these things. Because we've seen it. We've watched it take place. We've been there. But here's what happens when we do that. We teach people. So next time you have a problem, come to me. I'll give you the answers. Next time you have a question, come to me. I'll give you the answers. I know you understand a lot. You've learned lots of lessons. But that doesn't make you the authority for everyone else.

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Remember, there's also areas of conscience. Paul says in Romans 14, 5, One person esteems one day above another. Another esteems every day alike. Let each be fully convinced in his own mind. There's areas of conscience and personal conviction and ways that God wants to speak to a person individually. The best thing that you can do for anybody is to teach them how to hear from God on their own. When it comes to clear instruction of Scripture,

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You know, someone comes to you for counsel. I want to go, you know, move in with this other person. You know, we're not exactly divorced yet, but we really love each other. You know, what do you think I should do? Okay, well, there's clear scriptural instruction about that. So, you're free, you know. Share. This is what the Bible says. Look here. This is the verse. You can see it right here. Help them see it themselves. But then they say, well...

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I want to sell my home and move to Idaho and then travel the country and do mission work. Hey, I don't have the authority. I can't tell you. Alright, here's what God wants you to do. Do this and do that and do that and do that and do that. Larry, you've got to hear from God. You need to learn to hear His voice. You need to respond as He speaks to your heart. We can't just give people the answers that we think are appropriate. We need to encourage people to hear from God themselves.

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Well, finally, the fourth thing that happens here in the portion as we look at legalism in verse 53 and 54, we see that legalism seeks to catch people. Legalism seeks to catch people. Verse 53, And as he said these things to them, the scribes and the Pharisees began to assail him vehemently and to cross-examine him about many things, lying in wait for him and seeking to catch him in something he might say that they might accuse him.

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So the scribes and the Pharisees now, Jesus has finished pronouncing his woes and they come against him strongly. They are furious. They're getting ready to kill another prophet. It says that they assail him vehemently. These are strong words. They're coming at him with great fury, with anger, with wrath. They're cross-examining him about many things, asking questions, but not to get the answers, but to get ammunition. They're trying to trap him.

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They're asking him all kinds of things. Asking him trick questions. One after the other, after the other, after the other, after the other. So that they can try to catch him. It says in verse 54, lying in wait for him and seeking to catch him. Their goal, let's trick him. Let's trap him in something he says.

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And this is something that they tried to do throughout Jesus's ministry. Remember the woman that was caught in adultery? John chapter 8. They throw her before the Lord. It's a trap. They're trying to trap Jesus. They don't care about the woman. They're trying to trick him. They're trying to trap him to get something to accuse him of. Remember the question about paying taxes? Luke chapter 20. Well, should we pay taxes to Caesar?

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It's a trick. It's a trap. They're trying to get something so that they can accuse him, so that they can put him to death. That's what it says at the end of verse 54, that they might accuse him. Their motivation is to accuse Jesus. They want legitimate reason to kill him. They want an excuse to put him to death. But even at Jesus's trial, they had a hard time finding anything to accuse him of.

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And they had to call forward all these false witnesses. And then even the false witnesses couldn't agree on their testimony. But they were trying desperately. They really wanted to bring an accusation against him. Have you been caught up in legalism? Legalism seeks to catch people. So the warning sign. You can know if you've been caught up in legalism if you try to catch people in sin. Do you try to catch people in sin? Do you set up scenarios? Try to catch them red-handed?

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Ha! I knew it. You're in sin. Gotcha. That you're looking to accuse people. Now, we've talked about already, there's a legitimate place for rebuke and correction. The goal for that is always restoration. But what is going on here is something far different than that. Their motivation is to accuse and condemn. There's plenty of people who think, you know, well, I've got the gift of discernment. It's a discernment ministry that God's given to me and I'm able to spot people in sin.

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Oh, yeah. Look at Phil right there. Oh, boy. Got some discernment about you, boy. That's not in the Bible. Do you know that? There's no gift of discernment. Try to find it. Try to find it. I remember working at Walmart. It was my first job, first real job, right? And so I was working at Walmart. I had a friend.

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And there was one time where there was a guy running across the parking lot and I had to run out and stop him. And I was like, oh, this was pretty exciting. I like that. Okay, yeah, yeah, maybe I'm interested. So he's telling me more about it. And so here's what they were training him to do. You know, he's going down the aisle and it's like this. Watching the shoppers. Sometimes on the floor, I'm like, okay, never mind. I don't want to be part of that.

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That's not interesting to me. So if you ever see a creepy guy at Walmart looking at you between the shelves, you're like, hey, I'm not stealing nothing, okay? Watch somebody else. They have him undercover. They're going around. Anyways, there's some people within the church that that's what they're doing. That's their heart. What's going on here? Are you in sin? I smell sin. It's not our job to find hidden sin. It's not.

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God is fully capable of bringing it to light. If you're trying to seek it out, you're trying to find it out, you're trying to catch people in sin, listen, if you like dealing with sin issues, you're not called to that. That's not your ministry. God hasn't called you to that.

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If you want to be called to that, consider this. Okay, the prophets that we've been talking about, they were sent by God to reveal sin and call people to repentance. If you want that ministry, you have to follow the standard. It was 100% accuracy. So one false accusation, you're a false prophet and we're to put you to death. So if you want that ministry, accept the standard and then go ahead and you can have it. Seriously, it's not our job to

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Find out what sin people are involved in. God will bring to light what he wants to bring to light. But sin is messy and those who have to deal with it don't want to deal with it because it destroys. It's terrible. It's destructive. But those who are legalistic, they love it. Try to catch people in sin. Try to point out. Ooh, look at you. I know what you did. I saw what you did. You messed up. And Jesus says, whoa, whoa.

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To the legalistic person. Because legalism burdens people. It kills God's messengers. It hinders people's knowledge. And it seeks to catch and accuse people. So as we talk about fellowship. Legalism is not it. But what is fellowship then? Just a quick quote here from Hebrews chapter 10. Here's the way that we ought to be. Let us consider one another. In order to store up love and good works.

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Not to uncover some sin that we can accuse, but to stir up. Consider one another, spend time praying for, thinking about, considering how can I stir up love in their life? How can I stir up good works and encourage them to do what God has called them to do?

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He goes on to say, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the day approaching. That we're to be exhorting, building up, you know, spurring one another on, encouraging them, helping them to accomplish God's best for them. That's what we're called to do. That's the opposite of legalism. It's grace. It's love. And that's how we're to minister to one another. Let's pray.

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So God, I pray that you would help us not to be legalistic in our approach to one another. Lord, that we wouldn't hold back, that we wouldn't condemn, that we wouldn't bring people into a place of condemnation where they feel that they can't approach you. But Lord, I pray that you would help us to stir up love and good works, to encourage, to build up, to bless that they'd be able to go forward in the fullness of your plan for them. And so Lord, if you're speaking to anybody and you've shown some elements of legalism,

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Lord, I pray that you'd bring us to repentance, that you would help us to call out to you. Lord, that you would change us, that we would learn to love one another as you have loved us. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of his word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.