The Dangers of Leaglism

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Our door to door evangelism yesterday

Josh

Buddhist couple

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VBS

We are looking at possibly doing a VBS at the end of July

I have spoken with Salem and they may join in with us so we can do it together

Scripture Reading:

Heb 4:1-7 “Therefore, let us fear if, while a promise remains of entering His rest, any one of you may seem to have come short of it. For indeed we have had good news preached to us, just as they also; but the word they heard did not profit them, because it was not united by faith in those who heard. For we who have believed enter that rest, just as He has said, “As I swore in My wrath, They shall not enter My rest,” although His works were finished from the foundation of the world. For He has said somewhere concerning the seventh day: “And God rested on the seventh day from all His works”; and again in this passage, “They shall not enter My rest.” Therefore, since it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly had good news preached to them failed to enter because of disobedience, He again fixes a certain day, “Today,” saying through David after so long a time just as has been said before, “Today if you hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts.”

Pastoral Prayer

Pray for the lost

Pray for transformation of our hearts

Pray for God presence in this place

Pray for God’s will to be revealed to us in relocating

Message

What is legalism? Simply put: Legalism is a dependance on obeying the laws rather than a personal relationship with Christ.

Legalism is when keeping the rules and regulations become an end in itself. The legalist isolates the law from the God who gave the Law. He is not so much seeking to obey God or honor Christ as he is seeking to obey the rules.

When legalism creeps into our hearts, we lose our love, our joy, our zeal for the Christian life, and any passion towards God. Our Christianity becomes a mechanical form of law-keeping instead of an intimate relationship With God. It goes from exciting to drudgery, from life giving to life draining.

Here is why legalism matters to us: It is a temptation lurking deep down inside of every one of us. Each of us has a natural human tendency to begin to rely upon the things we do to make us acceptable to God. And this is not an immediate change, it is a subtle drift that often goes unnoticed.

Jesus had more trouble with the Pharisees than perhaps anybody else, and they were the ones who were Bible-thumpers; they were the ones who were constantly quoting the Scriptures. They were the ones who fasted twice a week, who prayed regularly, and who all of Israel considered the closest to God. But yet they were the furthest from God because they were corrupted with legalism. They thought by following the OT Laws perfectly they would make themselves righteous

The OT Law consisted of hundreds of rules and regulations that revealed a supreme standard of holiness … a standard no human being could keep.

The Law was never intended to leave God’s people discouraged and in despair, but to first show them that they were sinners and then to lead them to a Savior who would not only pay the penalty for their sins and forgive their sins, but also give them power over sin and give them eternal life.

In other words, no one can keep the Law perfectly; therefore, no one can ever be saved by the Law! The requirement of the Law (perfection) shows us that we all need God’s mercy and grace, which is found in Jesus alone.

However, between the giving of the Law and the coming of Jesus, the religious leaders so distorted and mishandled the Law that it came to be viewed as the way to become righteous before God, making it a type of savior in and of itself

This morning I want to give you 4 dangers of legalism, And I want us to think about these and examine ourselves to see if we have any legalism hiding in our hearts:

A legalistic spirit judges people according to personal convictions rather than the Word of God

Matthew 12:1–2 NASB95

At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath, and His disciples became hungry and began to pick the heads of grain and eat. But when the Pharisees saw this, they said to Him, “Look, Your disciples do what is not lawful to do on a Sabbath.”

Explanation

The first thing that strikes me about this is what are the Pharisees doing in a grain field watching Jesus and His disciples. Do they not have anything better to do than to make sure He isn’t breaking any of the rules? This gives us an idea of what kind of people these guys were. And if you find yourself lurking in a corn field trying to catch someone breaking a rule, you might be a Pharisee.

Question: was Jesus or His disciples breaking the law?

What are the Sabbath rules:

Scripture has rules about what can and cannot be done on the Sabbath. Many of these are vague such as “do not travel” or “do not carry a load”.

So religious elites put together a set of 39 rules of what can and cannot be done on the Sabbath to keep from profaning this holy day.

Here are a few examples:

The Scripture said not to travel on the Sabbath

What defined travel?

The Pharisees defined this as walking about a 1,000 yards. Anything over that would be breaking the Sabbath.

The Scripture prohibiting carrying a load on the Sabbath

What was meant by carrying a load?

The Pharisees said if you carry a piece of clothing from one room into the next then it was carrying a load and breaking the Sabbath. So instead of carrying it, you could put it on and wear it which would not be breaking the Sabbath.

The Scripture also forbid reaping or harvesting on the Sabbath.

We could imagine what this means as to harvesting a crop.

But in this account, we see that is what the Pharisees are claiming the disciples are doing. They plucked the head of grain, cleaned it, and ate it which constituted reaping according to their own personal convictions.

These men had become so narrowly focused on keeping the laws, that they had made their own laws and placed a higher value on heir laws than God’s laws!

Know this about the Pharisees, they really had good intentions. The whole practice of following rules so that they could keep the Scriptures was commendable. How many of us in here go to extreme measures and make up rules so that we to keep all of God’s Word?

But this what happens when our personal convictions are placed on everyone around us. We begin to judge others unlawfully according to what we think or believe rather than what God has said.

Bridge

Anyone ever heard this saying, “do not judge me?”. This is one of the most misquoted Scriptures in the Bible by the world and we do not have time to go into this today. But I do want you to know if we are casting judgement towards another brother based on anything other than the Word of God, then we are transgressing this command.

Amd if we are holding someone to Biblical standards who are not saved, we are transgressing this command. How can we expect someone to follow the Word of God if they have not been born by the Spirit of God?

This is why Paul said,

1 Cor 5:12-13 “For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Do you not judge those who are within the church? But those who are outside, God judges. Remove the wicked man from among yourselves.”

That is exactly what the Pharisees were doing here. They were holding the disciples and Jesus accountable to their personal convictions, instead of what the Word of God says.

Application

One way we become legalists? The same way the Pharisees did in this account. Judging what another does on Sunday.

It was the Sabbath and there were rules to be obeyed on the Sabbath. But they had made their own rules about the Sabbath and hen tried to hold everyone accountable to them.

Question: Do we honor the Sabbath today? Probably not. The Sabbath was on Saturday. The last day of the week. Christians have replaced the Sabbath with Sunday, the Lord’s Day, the first day of the week.

This is the day Jesus was resurrected.

It was the first two Sundays after the resurrection that Jesus met with the disciples in His glorified body.

‘The early church gathered on the first day of the week.

Jesus appeared to John on “The Lord’s Day” which was a Sunday.

But we do not follow the Scriptural rules for the Sabbath because have replaced it with the Lord’s Day.

And a common error of judgement made today is what another ChristIan is doing on the Lord’s Day that does not have any concrete rules about how we are to observe it!

Here is what happens:

I saw John out mowing his yard on Sunday afternoon

I heard that Linda cleaned out her attic Sunday afternoon

If we are holding people accountable to our personal convictions not based on Scripture it is sin. And we possess a legalistic spirit That needs to be addressed.

Legalism robs us of our compassion towards other people

Matthew 12:3–7 (NASB95)

But He said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he became hungry, he and his companions, how he entered the house of God, and they ate the consecrated bread, which was not lawful for him to eat nor for those with him, but for the priests alone? “Or have you not read in the Law, that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple break the Sabbath and are innocent? “But I say to you that something greater than the temple is here. “But if you had known what this means, ‘I desire compassion, and not a sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent.

Explanation

Notice how Jesus responds to the Pharisees claims against His disciples:

He uses David and His men as an example. When David was running from Saul He went into the temple and ate the showbread that was only to be eaten by the priests! And the Scripture never condemned David for His actions.

Point: if David broke the law and was not condemned, then surely the Son of David could break man’s traditions and not be condemned.

He uses the priests who broke the Sabbath because they had to “work” making sacrifices in the temple on the Sabbath. In fact their service was in obedience to the Law given by God.

Point: If it was ok for the priests obligated to the temple to break the Sabbath, then surely it was OK for the Lord of the Sabbath to break man’s traditions.

Then He gives us this point that we must not miss!

Jesus said, “I desire compassion and not sacrifice.”

This is the second time in this Gospel that Jesus has used this quote. What it means is Jesus would much rather us be people who have compassion towards other people than to carry out the religious practices.

Compassion is superior to religious practices! And if we are people who places a higher value on religious practices than we do compassion towards others then we have a legalistic heart.

Application

Let me give an example to illustrate:

What if someone who tithes faithfully to this church does not their money to the church one week. Her reason is she used it to meet a legitimate need in someone else’s life Saturday afternoon. She doesn’t have much money, and she would normally do this with her own money but her electric bill was so high from the 100* days that she used all her extra money to pay her light bill.

Would God rather her use that tithe money to help that person out with a serious need, or tell that person no she must bring it to the church and pay her tithes? I think God would rather her show compassion to that person and meet their need.

When the world begins to see us as people who places a higher value on compassion than we do religion it will attract them to be a part of what we have. People are not look for a ritualistic gathering of believers! People want something real where true love in demonstrated in our everyday lives!

Be people who value compassion!

Be people who see needs over rituals!

Jesus healed a man on the Sabbath because He valued compassion over sacrifice.

Legalistic attitudes blind people to the wonderful things God is doing

Matthew 12:8–10 NASB95

“For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.” Departing from there, He went into their synagogue. And a man was there whose hand was withered. And they questioned Jesus, asking, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”—so that they might accuse Him.

Matthew 12:11–14 NASB95

And He said to them, “What man is there among you who has a sheep, and if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will he not take hold of it and lift it out? “How much more valuable then is a man than a sheep! So then, it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.” Then He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand!” He stretched it out, and it was restored to normal, like the other. But the Pharisees went out and conspired against Him, as to how they might destroy Him.

Explanation

Notice what Jesus does directly after this conversation. He goes into a Synagogue on the Sabbath, and sees a man with a withered hand. What a perfect opportunity to demonstrate what He had been teaching. Compassion over sacrifice! And without missing a beat Jesus heals the man and restores His hand to normal.

What is the response of the Pharisees? Anger, hatred, even plotting to kill Jesus.

Now keeping the Sabbath is the fourth command in the 10 Commandments, AND the 6th command is “you shall not commit murder”.

This gives us an idea of the hypocrisy of the Pharisees!

But despite this, they missed the miracle that God had done right in front of them. Only God can miraculously people. Only God can take a deformed man’s hand and make it completely normal again. So it was beyond evident that God was at work through Jesus. And instead of acknowledging it, and praising God for it, they planned to kill Him.

Bridge

When we become so fixated on what others are doing, we completely miss out on what God is doing. And when it is all about the rules, we become blinded to the supernatural things of God.

Legalism blinds us to wonderful things God is doing.

Application

I want you to know that God is working all around us. Just this week the ROE vs Wade federal abortion law was overturned. This law was gave the federal right to any woman to have an abortion. It was instituted in 1973 and was overturned this week putting all the power back into the hands of every state. And many states are saying they are going to ban abortion completely.

This is a huge victory for Christianity and a huge victory for our unborn children! Yet despite this great thing that God has done, many believers are so fixated on our denomination and the things happening in the SBC that they do not even recognize it.

Legalism blinds us to love. It blinds us to the great things God is doing. It enslaves us and sways us to think we are better than others because of the way that we believe or the convictions we hold that are not spelled out in Scripture.

Legalism keeps us from the promise of a good life

I want you to remember last week that we finished the message with this promise from Jesus:

Matthew 11:28–30 NASB95

“Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. “For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

This entire segment of Scripture is set up in contrast to that statement. Jesus promises easy, light burdens. Legalism places heavy yokes around our necks. Jesus promises rest for our souls, legalism steals our rest.

Everyone is looking for soul rest. That is why people come to church. They are searching for that deep inner peace that surpasses all understanding. They are searching for the hope that they can be sure when they die they will be accepted by God. They want to be right with God, everyone wants to be right with God!

But trying to obey the rules will never make us right with God. The religious practices that we do were implemented to enhance our relationship with God, not replace it.

Question: “What is the difference between legalism and biblical obedience?”

Answer: Legalism is conforming outwardly to God’s or man’s standard for righteous behavior while ignoring God’s standard for inward righteousness than can only come from God.

In legalism, the resource is self-effort—the motive is self-promotion. It results in pride and approaching God on the basis of your performance.

In obedience, the resource is the Spirit of God—the motive is to glorify God. Obedience results in humility and approaching God on the basis of Christ’s performance.

This is God’s promise for obedience: “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.” (Ezekiel 36:26–27)

And many people today who have never been saved see Christianity the same way these Pharisees did. They see a massive rules of do this and don’t do that And it overwhelms them and they say there is no way I can do. That may be for you, but it’s not for me.

Salvation can only come through the grace of God. And the way to that grace is to cry out to Him for mercy! Cry out to Jesus to save you from your sins and cleanse your soul. Ask God to save you and plead with Him to show you grace. Humble yourselves and turn from your sins. Take His yoke upon you and learn from HimFor only HE gives rest for the soul!

~PRAYER~