Sermon Tone Analysis

Announcements

Our door to door evangelism yesterday

Josh

Buddhist couple

Tyler

Brandon

Halie

kim

Caroline

Gary

Kadence

Day & Dillion

Naja

Shannon

Lindas family

Julie and Ray

Kylie

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

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.