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They Didn’t Recognize the True Church’s Lord
Belgic Confession 29; Matthew 23:1-39
We’re in the section of the Belgic Confession that deals with the doctrine of the church. It’s a universal church - having always existed since God created man. And from one nation, it spread to all the earth. And it’s the duty of all to join this church, to be saved. But are so many different local churches - which one do we join? Article 29 of the Belgic Confession deals with the 3 marks of the true church. Essentially, they’re the pure preaching of the gospel, pure administration of the sacraments, and church discipline. If the gospel is preached rightly, unbelievers are saved and believers keep looking to Christ. And the church admits these believers and their children into her fold by baptism, and keeps believers looking to Christ by the Lord’s Supper - where they examine themselves and repent. Now, if any slipped in who aren’t truly saved, they’ll eventually expose themselves by living sinfully and impenitently. As such, they’re removed from the fold by church discipline. Why? Because believers are marked by faith in Christ alone. And this manifests itself in hatred for sin and love for holiness, love for God and neighbor, obedience to the Word, and self-denial. But unbelievers are marked by impenitence. They don’t recognize Christ as their Lord. That’s the same with the false church. There aren’t only false believers, but false churches.
And we’re told that it’s easy to distinguish the false church from the true church. We learn from the Belgic that the false church is power-hungry, man-centered, adds to or subtracts from the Word, and will not submit to Christ. In fact, she will persecute true believers and anyone that dares to rebuke her. And we see the false church in Jesus’ day. They didn’t recognize him as the Lord. We shall see 3 characteristics of theirs. Firstly, they didn’t preach the true gospel. Secondly, they attacked God’s people harshly. Thirdly, they regarded holy things with contempt.
Firstly, they didn’t preach the true gospel. Now, to be clear, the church has always existed since the beginning. In Heidelberg Lord’s Day 21, we confess “I believe that the Son of God, out of the whole human race, from the beginning of the world to its end, gathers, defends, and preserves for himself, by his Spirit and Word, in the unity of the true faith, a church chosen to everlasting life…” And since the beginning of the world there has also been a false church. There was Adam and Eve in the garden, but also Satan who added to and subtracted from God’s Word. While Abel offered up a blood offering, Cain offered up a false offering of good works. While Noah and family sought refuge in God’s ark, others refused to believe that gospel of salvation. When Moses went up to Sinai to receive the law given to a redeemed people, Aaron constructed a false god. This has been repeated throughout time. Even today, there are churches proclaiming to be Christian - like the Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and even the Roman Catholics - but they preach a gospel of works; different from a gospel of grace. And in Jesus’ day, there was Rabbinic Judaism - the religion of the Pharisees. They were a false church because they didn’t preach the true gospel, neither did they recognize Christ as the True Church’s Lord.
In verses 1-5, Jesus spoke to the multitude - which would’ve included the Pharisees and Scribes. These were the religious teachers and experts of the law - only it wasn’t the Law of Moses, but their interpretation of it. He said, “The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat: All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not.” We learn they had authority to teach - they sat in Moses’ seat - the pulpit in the synagogue. And from this seat the Scriptures would be read. Now, Jesus said that whatever was read from the seat, whatever was taught that rightly reflected Moses, the people were to obey. After all, the Scriptures speak forth the gospel. But the Pharisees twisted the Scriptures. In Matthew 15, Jesus said the Pharisees transgressed God’s commandments by their tradition. As verse 3 says, they were hypocrites - whatever they read, they didn’t do. Instead they followed their own traditions, after their false gospel.
Now, what tradition was this? It wasn’t the gospel of forgiveness. It was the bad news of doing more. Verse 4 says they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men’s shoulders. They were crushing the people with their invented religious demands of rules and regulations, traditions and rituals. They taught - if God is to accept you, you must do this or that, and don’t do this or that. Do it all, and God will be pleased. Don’t do it all, and God will be displeased. But this wasn’t merciful, it didn’t lighten the burden. How could they ever, how could any of us ever keep the law perfectly? And how could we ever keep the additional requirements of these men? But the true gospel is all about easing the burden of sin, not adding to it. To know we can look to Christ for forgiveness. “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart and you shall find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” But their false gospel increased the burden. They added more requirements. It wasn’t enough that thou shalt not work on the Sabbath Day. They defined rubbing grain between your hand to extract the kernel to eat, as winnowing, and thus work. They added more and more.
And it was also a false gospel of an outward religion for others to see, verse 5 - “But all their works they do for to be seen of men.” In Matthew 6, the Lord warned the people that they ought not to give their alms before men to be seen by them. They shouldn’t blow a trumpet. But this is what the Pharisees did. They’d come to the temple, and there were cubby holes to put their offerings. And they would have someone to blow the shofar to draw attention to their giving. The Lord also talked about not praying like they did, which was in the middle of the road for all to see. But here, what did Jesus say they did? They made broad their phylacteries and enlarged the hems of their garments. What’s this? In Exodus 13 and Deuteronomy 6, God told his people to place his commandments between their eyes and on their hands. Now, God’s people have always understood this symbolically - to have God’s Word dominate their thinking and actions. But the Pharisees took it literally and placed pieces of paper written with God’s law in boxes to tie on their heads and hands. These became superstitious charms to ward off evil. And while Numbers 15 did command God’s people to wear clothes with fringes to distinguish them from Canaanites - and Jesus wore those clothes (if you remember, the woman with the issue of blood grabbed hold of Jesus’ hem) - but the Pharisees made theirs wider to parade their devotion to God. This was their man-centered gospel.
And by so promoting this false gospel, we learn in verse 13, they prevented men from being saved - from entering the kingdom of heaven - and that they themselves couldn’t enter. Why? Theirs was a false gospel of works. Do more, instead of come to God for forgiveness because you can’t do. But they were very evangelistic. Verse 15, they’d travel land and sea to convert a person, and make him twice the child of hell than they were. How? Jesus, in verses 13-15 condemned the scribes and Pharisees, by calling them hypocrites. So their converts were greater hypocrites. Not only did the false gospel keep men from heaven, converts to this false gospel became twice as zealous, twice as hypocritical, and twice as condemned as the Pharisees. Why? The false gospel deceives - the only way people will feel better about themselves is to feed their selves - by doing more and parading their merit, but not denying themselves. And this leads people further from Christ - the only one who can save them from themselves. They were focusing so much on the outward, to fulfill the tiniest legalistic requirements - rather than the more important inward heart. Verse 23 - “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith.”
And if your religion is about self, you’ll attack those who try to point out your sin. Secondly, they attacked God’s people harshly. Article 29 of the Belgic says that a mark of the false church is that she will persecutes true believers and those who rebuke her. Church discipline is a mark of the true church - to remove those who say they’re believers but will not repent. That removal is m declarative - you declare that they’re not believers. But there’s unbiblical church discipline. And this is a mark of the false church. We learn in verse 27 that the Pharisees were unclean - like bones of dead men. Spiritually dead - outwardly righteous, but inwardly full of iniquity, verse 28. They built tombs for the prophets, verse 29. Wow! Distancing themselves from their ancestors who killed the prophets. Which prophets? Verse 35 named some of them - righteous Abel and Zechariah, son of Barachias, who was killed between the temple and the altar. Abel offered a better offering - showing that he trusted the gospel; but Cain was shamed because his good works gospel was shown to be false. Cain killed Abel. Zechariah preached against King Jehoash and the people for their rebellion against God in 2 Chronicles 24, and they stoned him. Hebrews 11:37 speaks about God’s people being stoned, sawn asunder, slain with the sword. Like Naboth who was faithful; Ahab’s pride was wounded and Jezebel had him stoned. By tradition, Isaiah was sawn asunder in the time of Manasseh for his righteous preaching.
But these Pharisees were no different. They’d do the same. In verse 33, Jesus called them vipers and serpents. They said one thing - we’re not like our fathers! - but they did the same like their fathers. The Lord said that they’d do the same to the prophets, wisemen, and scribes that he’d send to them. They’d kill and crucify them, even whipping them in their synagogues, persecuting them from city to city. They did this to Stephen at the temple. They did this to Paul and his friends, dragging them from the synagogue. Pre-converted Paul went city to city to drag Christians back to Jerusalem to stand trial. And it happened to him. Paul was chased out of Thessalonica by the Jews, who then followed him to Berea to continue persecuting him. All these things were done without trial - Stephen, Paul, etc. And of course, the one that they killed because he preached these woes against them was the Lord Jesus Christ. And they killed him because he exposed their outward religion, the absence of inward holiness. There was no trial - it was an unbiblical church discipline; it was a false church. They didn’t recognize the True Church’s Lord.
The reason for that is because they wouldn’t submit to the yoke of Christ. As the Lord Jesus said in verses 8-10, there’s only one master - Christ. But they loved to have preeminence - verse 6 - they love the uppermost rooms at feast, the chief seats in the synagogue, to be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi, verse 9 - to be called father. But there is only one master - Christ. But because they didn’t recognize the True Church’s Lord, the false church had him crucified. They didn’t accept his rebukes; not did they accept the true gospel. Self was far too important. But what’s the true gospel? Christ said in verse 11 about himself - he that is greatest among you, shall be your servant. He died for sinners. And sinners who humble themselves to take upon them his yoke, will be exalted. But these Pharisees didn’t want to. Why?
Because thirdly, they regarded holy things with contempt. They had no regard for true holiness. They had no problem with lying. Verses 16-22 have a very interesting context - about taking religious vows. Plenty of times, especially the Psalms, God’s people were called to go to the temple to pay their vows. Psalm 116:12-14 - “What shall I render unto the LORD for all his benefits toward me? I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the LORD. I will pay my vows unto the LORD now in the presence of all his people.” How do I show my thankfulness to God for his blessings? Especially for my salvation? By keeping my vows. By going to the temple, the symbol of the gospel, and continue to remember God.
But the Pharisees found ways to escape their vows. If they promised to do something by vowing on the temple, and their prayers came true, they didn’t have to keep it, because they only vowed on the temple. But if they vowed on the gold in the temple, and God answered their prayer, then they’d have to fulfill their vows. Likewise, if they vowed on the altar, they could break their promise. But if they swore on the sacrifice that was the altar, then they’d need to keep their promised. Based on a technicality, they could ignore their vows before God. The Lord’s argument was simple - is the gold in the temple is holy because it’s in the temple. When you swear on the altar, you swear on whatever is on the altar. Even if you swear by heaven, God is in heaven. They thought that since they were not swearing on God, that they could lie. But everything is connected back to God.
The temple was the place where God’s people were reminded of atonement. They couldn’t rightly participate in the sacrifices if they regarded sin in their heart. That’s why Jesus said that if you have something against your brother, leave your gift at the altar, then make right, and come back to offer it. But they treated the temple, the gospel, with disdain - they handled it, but went their merry way to sin. This is why on the day of Christ’s crucifixion, which was the Passover, the chief priests and Pharisees could see to his death by lying, even holding the kangaroo court at the temple, releasing a murderer in place of the Lord, manipulating and threatening Pilate; and then after his crucifixion, go and eat the Passover. They were a false church, not understanding the holy emblems of the gospel.
Dearly beloved, what has this sermon taught us? It’s taught us about the false church. It teaches a gospel of works and legalism, it is man-centered, it rejects the true gospel of forgiveness through Christ, it rejects the rebukes against sin of Christ, and persecutes Christ. But it also tells us what the True Church’s Lord did. He rebuked them - and articulated what was the true gospel - him giving his life for sinners. So that believers would always seek after God, treating holy things reverently, being pointed back to the gospel. And this is what we must always do if we are to be a true church - we must preach the gospel - that those who believe continue to chase after holiness. That they would treat the emblems of the gospel reverently, being nourished by the Supper. And when we do walk astray, to receive the rebukes of the Word gratefully. But we know that even in the visible church, there will be false believers. They treat the sacraments disdainfully and don’t use them to remember Christ nor walk according to the gospel. And they will reject the rebuke of Christ’s officers. Do not be surprised that even in our midst, there’ll be those who don’t recognize the True Church’s Lord. They’ll be easy to recognize if we have the eyes to discern. And no matter how the Lord calls to them, they won’t respond.
- They Didn’t Preach the True Gospel
- They Attacked God’s People Harshly
- They Regarded Holy Things with Contempt
* As a matter of courtesy please advise Rev. Mark Chen, if you plan to use this sermon in a worship service. Thank-you.
(c) Copyright 2024, Rev. Mark Chen
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