-Transcript-
00:36 Thanks for joining me. Great to be back here today at the cafe. Today we’re in part two of a three-part message on the weightier things that the Pharisees were ignoring that Jesus implored them to value and to take hold of.
00:50 And we’re picking up here in the first part the weightier issue would be judgment. This is out of Matthew 23:23. Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you pay tithe of mint and anise and cumin and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith.
01:06 These ought ye to have done and not to leave the other undone. And so we see through this scripture that the Pharisees were omitting the weightier matters.
01:15 And we were talking about judgment and the idea that judgment is very important to the Lord and that He is the judge and that we are justified by our faith in Him alone and not by anything that we have done.
01:30 And that when Jesus Christ died for us, then we’re saved and then that sin debt is no longer on us. And so then we can live freely in Christ. But then we are now imputed the righteousness of Christ.
01:43 And so when God sees us, He doesn’t see our sin. He sees the righteousness of Christ. Amen.
01:46 That’s why it’s so important to believe in Jesus. That’s why He’s the only way to the Father. He’s the only way to heaven.
01:51 He’s the only way to eternal security, is by believing in Jesus Christ. It’s by grace alone through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone. So we escape that judgment.
02:01 We are given new life by the grace and mercy of God. And then we learn a few other things about judgment in Scripture. God’s the judge.
02:09 Romans 12:19. Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves. What does it mean to avenge yourself? That means that get back at somebody.
02:16 But rather, give place unto wrath. For it is written, vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord. God is the one that gets the vengeance.
02:22 We must defer it to Him, not take it into our own hands. How often do we try to take it into our own hands? Sadly, too often. But He is the one that will repay.
02:35 And so we realize that judgment is His. When we realize that, we stop trying to be the judge. The Pharisees were trying to judge the people by the letter of the law and by adding to the law.
02:47 They would say, you can’t make a fire on the Sabbath, but you could hire someone that’s not a Jew to make a fire, and that’s okay. And all this crazy stuff, they were adding to it and setting people up to fail.
02:53 But yet, God’s long suffering with His judgment and expects us to act the same.
02:56 Isaiah 30:18, And therefore will the Lord wait, that He may be gracious unto you, and therefore will He be exalted, that He may have mercy upon you. For the Lord is a God of judgment. Blessed are they that wait for Him.
03:12 Oh, how long did God wait for you to be saved? Oh, you know how long He waited for me? You know how deep in the sin I was before Lord saved me?
03:17 Do you know how much problems that I cause for myself that God could have said, this one is just a too far off, I’ll let him go? But He didn’t. He was long-suffering. And one day, praise the Lord, He saved my soul.
03:32 Amen. And I’ve never been the same. Amen.
03:38 If you had told me as a child that one day I’d grow up and I’d be a preacher and I’d give my life to Christ, and my life, my day-to-day life would be serving the Lord and living for the Lord, I’d say, you’re crazy. I’m a mess. I’m a menace.
03:48 Yet He saved me. Amen. He was long-suffering with me.
03:51 Maybe He’s been long-suffering with you. I bet He has. So what does that mean for us when it comes to judgment? It means that we have to be long-suffering with others.
03:59 That we have to forgive, not seven times, but seven times seven, or 77, or 700, or 7,000. We need to forgive. It doesn’t mean get into abusive situations and so forth, but it means to forgive in your heart.
04:09 You know, God should be exalted for His long-suffering nature. We should exalt Him. And we should do that not just in our words, in our heart, but in our deeds, by being long-suffering with others.
04:21 Now another aspect of God’s judgment, it’s perfect. He shows us where to put our energy and charity. Isaiah 1:17, learn to do well, seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.
04:35 This is judgment and justice in God’s eyes. He spells it out for us in Isaiah 1:17. We need to learn to do well.
04:41 That means follow the commandments. We need to help the needy, help the oppressed, help the orphans, help the widows. God shows us where His heart is.
04:49 Where is His heart? It’s with the poor needy people. And I believe that is what fired up Jesus so much about the Pharisees, is they were abusing the poor needy people, and they were throwing God’s name onto what they were doing, as if it was accurate, as if it was Corbin. And that’s what made Him so mad, I believe.
05:08 God help me. A similar verse, pure religion, undefiled, James 1:27, to help the fatherless and the widows. Amen.
05:14 Our church is living this out, and where we’re trying to go as a church, and we’re looking at moving our building into some kind of facility to minister full-time, in the ministry sense, on Wednesdays and Sundays and so forth, when we meet, to the children that don’t have their parents around.
05:28 And God knows our desire, and we’ve brought it before the church, and we’ve prayed on it, and we’re working with the necessary authorities, and hopefully one day we’ll be able to claim it true. And God will get all the glory.
05:38 I hope you hold me to it. Micah 6.8, He hath showed thee, O man, what is good, and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God. Do justice, that’s an action.
05:52 Love mercy, that’s an action. You know, do we love mercy, or do we want a pound of flesh? You got to think about that. Walk humbly, that’s an action.
06:00 The Pharisees, had they done that, they’d kept God’s Word as truth, and they wouldn’t have added to it. If they had shown mercy to those that fell short, as God has done many times, they would have been okay, I believe.
06:14 They’d walk humbly, they wouldn’t have looked for the chief seats in the synagogues, or the long prayers for the honor.
06:26 They wouldn’t have done those things. You see how they were opposite to God’s picture of justice and judgment? And that’s why Jesus says, you are not doing it, you’re omitting it. And secondly here, there’s mercy, charity, and kindness.
06:35 What is mercy and charity in the eyes of the Lord? Ephesians 2:4-5, Paul writes, “…but God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love, wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us, or madeus alive, together with Christ. By grace are you saved.” See, we’re made alive in Christ. It’s only by Jesus Christ.
06:56 That’s his love and mercy to us. This is giving us what we are not owed in a form of love that is charitable and sacrificial beyond comprehension. This is what God has done.
07:04 Do you know, I just, I see mercy all the time in the Bible. I think about mercy more and more in these last days. We must show mercy.
07:12 The Pharisees were not showing mercy. They were almost looking to have a gotcha moment on people, right? The word mercy is in the Bible over 250 times. Depends on which tool you use to look up how many times the word is in there, but it’s 250, 260, 300, 350, or it maybe depends on your translation.
07:28 But in the King James Bible, it’s in there at least 250 times. Now if you’re a student of the Bible, what does repetition mean?
07:33 It means that there’s a massive importance to God. Jesus uses this when he speaks verily, verily, saying, listen up, listen up.
07:43 And when God puts in mercy over 250 times in the Bible, that means it’s important to him. Oh, it’s so important to him. Oh, in fact, it’s listed as one of the weightier matters that the Pharisees were ignoring.
07:54 Mercy is his to give or to hold back, because again, he’s a righteous judge. Romans 9:18, therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.
08:02 God knows the hearts of men, and thus he may give to some and not to others.
08:09 But we are expected to show mercy in order to obtain it. So does that make sense? God is the one that can say, okay, this person is wicked to the core, and they’re gonna put on a wolf-in-sheep’s-clothing type of attitude, and they’re gonna act all good, but I know their heart, and I’m not gonna show them mercy. I’m gonna show them my righteous judgment.
08:29 But for us, we don’t know that. God’s the discerner of the heart, and God’s the judge. And so for us, what did God require of us is mercy.
08:36 We’re expected to show mercy to others. Matthew 5:7, blessed are the merciful, for theyshall obtain mercy.
08:43 Well, that reminds me of Matthew 6:14-15, for if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
09:11 But if you forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. So to understand God is merciful is to live it out with others. It’s an action step.
09:01 Again, there’s a lot of action steps in this message here. We have to forgive others and let God be the judge. So you said, well, Brother Clark, you don’t understand what so-and-so did to me.
09:10 No, I don’t. But what I do understand is, in your heart, you have to forgive him for God to forgive you. That is the program.
09:16 And I talk about it with family, friends, and the church, that it’s hard, and people joke about it, and they don’t like certain people, or they want to gossip, or they feel like they’ve been done wrong.
09:25 I said, you have to completely forgive them. It’s a very serious and weighty theological issue.
09:32 God is the judge, amen. He is the judge. Who do you need to forgive today? Pray about it, think on it, and then do something about it.
09:38 Who can you show mercy to today? Pray about it, think on it, and do something about it.
09:44 What about someone that cannot repay you? Doesn’t necessarily deserve your mercy, that you can show mercy to. You know, that’s who we were. We didn’t deserve it.
09:54 We couldn’t repay Jesus, and yet he died for us. So let’s live this out with others. Someone stole from you.
10:03 Forgive them, because God, through Christ, forgave you. Someone plotted against you. Forgive them, because God, through Christ, forgave you.
10:11 Someone lied to you. Forgive them, because God, through Christ, forgave you. How about this? Someone cheated you.
10:17 Forgive them, because God, through Christ, forgave you. And notice this, that Christ himself was robbed, and plotted against, and lied to, and cheated, and yet he still offers forgiveness to the very people that did this to him, sinful mankind. That’s amazing.
10:31 Have you ever thought about it? It’s absolutely incredible. And now here we are on the last point, the last of the three weightier issues that Jesus had mentioned, and that is faith, or fidelity.
10:44 You know, what is faith in the eyes of the Lord? Hebrews 11:1. Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Faith is the only thing that we can do to be justified.
10:59 Our actions, our righteousness, the Bible says, is as filthy rags. Our actions, our good deeds without Christ, are an abomination to God. The only thing that we can do to be justified is believe.
11:10 Romans 5:1. Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Think about it. We can’t go back to the time of Jesus to see him die for us.
11:22 We can’t prove it in the sense that there’s physical evidence. So how do we obtain forgiveness of sins, the Holy Spirit, entry into God’s heaven, and peace? We must believe, and that’s it. That’s the only thing we can do to be saved.
11:35 Do you know, without faith, it’s impossible to please God. That’s Hebrews 11: 6. For we walk by faith and not by sight, 2 Corinthians 5:7. To walk with God, we need faith.
11:48 So we have to understand that the weightier issue of faith is important, and you say, well, Brother Clark, how does that relate to the Pharisees? How about this? They didn’t believe that he was who he said he was.
11:57 They didn’t have faith, and they believed that they were more important than they were, and so they took things in their own hands to pervert his word and stole from him, amen.
12:04 They perverted his word and made it, added to it, which is an abomination to God, and it made God look bad, and it hurt people. We must believe, and that’s all we can do.
12:12 Where do we see this in our lives today? The world is putting their hope and trust in man.
12:21 God says put your hope and trust in him and not your own heart or man. Our heart is deceitful. It can fool us and trick us.
12:26 Seek him by faith, for he is a rewarder of those that diligently seek him. So by faith, believe that he is who he says he is, and he’s a diligently seek him. That’s Bible right there.
12:38 What would the Pharisees have done if they had faith? They’d stop trying to trap Jesus and kill him. They’d start believing he is who he says he is. They’d stop trying to pervert God’s laws for their own name and glory.
12:47 They’d value truth over vanity. So what does this all come down to? God wants people to follow him and not to add or take away from his program for his people.
12:58 You know, what would cause someone to do this? To add to God’s program behind closed doors? To omit the way to your things? I mentioned it in the intro.
13:05 It’s pride. What does it mean to add to God’s doctrine? It perverts it and creates unattainable standards for some and it profits others.
13:14 And what we see here is that between this pride and this manipulation or perversion of God’s Word, we see the Pharisees creating a circumstance that angered the Lord greatly.
13:27 And it should advise us or instruct us on how to act and live. This was hurting the poor. This was hurting the needy.
13:34 When you research the Pharisees, they were approachable to the middle class. And you say, well, weren’t they priests? No, as I understand it, those were the Sadducees. The Sadducees were the priests.
13:44 The Pharisees were another group that were like the scribes and they were more approachable to the middle class or the everyday people, as you would call it.
13:52 And those people were going to the Pharisees for their doctrine. And we’ll have to pause here and pick up next episode, the conclusion here of this three-part series on the weightier things that Jesus told the Pharisees they were omitting.
14:06 Thank you so much for listening. I appreciate all your support. Continue to seek judgment, mercy, and faith.
14:13 Until next time, God bless. Amen. Take care.