THOSE FUNDAMENTAL PHARISEES
MAY 29, 2012
(first published AUGUST 2, 1996) (David Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061, 866-295-4143, fbns@wayoflife.org)
Christians
who have unbending biblical convictions and are “strict” in their
approach to Christian living and separation from sin and error are often
labeled “Pharisees.”
Many of the Promise Keepers supporters who wrote in the 1990s to rebuke me for reproving their movement, called me a Pharisee.
Consider a couple of examples:
“I
wonder what makes Mr. Cloud so sure he’s right and everybody else is
wrong? Look at the Pharisees, Mr. Cloud, and then look in the mirror!”
“You’re
the best example I think I’ve ever seen of the Pharisee who sits at the
front of the synagogue giving thanks for not being a sinner like
everyone else.”
To
label a Bible-believing Christian who is passionate to honor Christ and
to obey God’s Word a Pharisee is a slander, because the error of
Phariseeism was not their zeal to obey the Scripture. They had no such
zeal. They were zealous, rather, to create their own religious system
and to exalt their own self-righteousness.
Though the term “Pharisee” is thrown around a lot today, particularly by the contemporary crowd, it must be defined biblically.
(1) Phariseeism is supplanting the Word of God with man-made tradition and thereby making the Word of God of none effect. “Ye
hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying, This people
draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips;
but their heart is far from me. But in vain they do worship me,
teaching for doctrines the commandments of men” (Mat. 15:7-9).
(2) Phariseeism is rejecting Jesus Christ. “Then
was brought unto him one possessed with a devil, blind, and dumb: and
he healed him, insomuch that the blind and dumb both spake and saw. And
all the people were amazed, and said, Is not this the son of David? But
when the Pharisees heard it, they said, This fellow doth not cast out
devils, but by Beelzebub the prince of the devils” (Mat. 12:22-24).
(3) Phariseeism is perverting the Gospel of the free grace of Christ into a work’s salvation. “Woe
unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and
land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold
more the child of hell than yourselves” (Mat. 23:15).
(4) Phariseeism is self-righteousness. “And
he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that
they were righteous, and despised others: Two men went up into the
temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. The
Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I
am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as
this publican. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I
possess” (Lk. 18:9-12).
(5) Phariseeism is the practice of religious hypocrisy. “In
the mean time, when there were gathered together an innumerable
multitude of people, insomuch that they trode one upon another, he began
to say unto his disciples first of all, Beware ye of the leaven of the
Pharisees, which is hypocrisy” (Lk. 12:1).
The Pharisees were at the forefront of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and of the persecution of the early Christians.
It is
a great error to label a Christ-loving, Bible-honoring,
grace-gospel-preaching, self-debasing, peace-loving Christian a
Pharisee.
Jesus’ anger at the Pharisees was not because they loved God’s Word and took it too seriously! It was not because they were careful to honor the details of God’s Word. Never did Jesus reprove them for such a thing.
Zeal for God’s Word is right. The following testimony expresses the very essence of true spirituality and godliness:
“Therefore I esteem all thy precepts concerning all things to be right; and I hate every false way” (Psalms 119:128).
Was
the Psalmist speaking here as a Pharisee? Of course not. It is spiritual
to esteem all of God’s precepts concerning all things to be right and
to hate everything that is contrary to God’s precepts. Note the emphasis
on ALL precepts and ALL things and EVERY false way. This is the very
strictest sort of Biblicist mindset, and it is held forth in the pages
of God’s Word as the correct mindset and attitude of the man who loves
God passionately.
Jesus
reproved the Pharisees for turning the law of Moses into a way of
salvation, which it was never intended to be, and for their hypocrisy
and for their lack of love and grace and compassion. Consider the
following reproof:
“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: these ought ye to have done, and not to
leave the other undone” (Matthew 23:23).
Jesus didn’t
say, “You Pharisees make far too much of tithing and other such things
in God’s law. You are much too zealous for God’s Word. Don’t you know
that God never intended you to take everything so strictly. Why don’t
you lighten up?”
No,
Jesus said they did well to take God’s Word strictly by honoring even
the details of tithing. What He hated was that they had missed the heart
and soul of the Law, which was judgment, mercy, and faith. The Law was
not given as a means to obtain righteousness; rather, it revealed God’s
extreme holiness and man’s fallenness and pointed to Christ as the
believing sinner’s justification (Rom. 3:19-24; Gal. 3:10-13, 24-25).
The Pharisees missed the heart of the Law which is to love God with all
one’s heart and to love one’s neighbor as oneself. The fact that they
were complicit in the death of the Son of God is clear evidence that
they did not love God.
Candidly,
there are a lot of fundamental Baptist preachers that I have little
respect for, but I don’t know of any full-blown fundamentalist
Pharisees. We believe too much in grace and delight too much in God’s
free righteousness. There is hypocrisy, though, and there is an element
of true legalism within the IFB movement. I have warned about this
often. (See, for example, my new free eBook THE TWO JACKS, which is available at the Way of Life web site, www.wayoflife.org.)
While
I can’t speak for everyone, I can speak for myself. And I don't preach
works for salvation and I don't preach works for sanctification.
Everything is by God's grace and His grace alone. That might not come
across in any one particular sermon, but it is clear in my thinking and
in the overall perspective of my ministry. As for hypocrisy, I don't
always live up to what I preach. Far from it, but I confess my sins to
God (and to man when the situation necessitates) and don't pretend to
any self-righteousness. I know at every moment that the only
righteousness I have that is acceptable to God is in Christ and in
Christ alone. That is not Phariseeism.
We
see in Matthew 23:23 that Christ did not rebuke the Pharisees for paying
attention to the less weighty things in the law. He rebuked them for
focusing on the lesser matters to the neglect of the weightier ones.
The
Bible-believing “fundamentalists” that I know do not neglect the
weightier matters of the New Testament faith. They aim, rather, to
follow Paul’s example and to give heed to “the whole counsel of God”
(Acts 20:27). They preach the virgin birth, blood atonement,
resurrection, and ascension of Christ and justification by grace and the
Trinity and the personality of the Holy Spirit and the other
“weightier” matters of the faith, but they also preach church discipline
(1 Cor. 5) and the restrictions upon the woman’s ministry (1 Tim. 2:12;
1 Cor. 14:34) and due order among men and women, which even touches on
their hair styles (1 Cor. 11:1-16) and other things that are less
weighty.
When a
Christian today preaches against pop music and Hollywood’s filth and
calls for modest dress, he is called a Pharisee, but the Bible demands a
very strict separation from the world, and this is not
Phariseeism; it is New Testament Christianity. Following are just some
of the commandments on this issue, and they are indeed commandments and
not suggestions.
“And
be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of
your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and
perfect, will of God” (Romans 12:2).
“Having
therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from
all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear
of God” (2 Corinthians 7:1).
“But
God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus
Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world”
(Galatians 6:14).
“And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them” (Ephesians 5:11).
“For
the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,
Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live
soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world” (Titus 2:11-12).
“Pure
religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the
fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted
from the world” (James 1:27).
“Ye
adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the
world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the
world is the enemy of God” (James 4:4).
“Dearly
beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly
lusts, which war against the soul” (1 Peter 2:11).
“Love
not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man
love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in
the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the
pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world
passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God
abideth for ever” (1 John 2:15-17).
“And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness” (1 John 5:19).
Separation
from the world by a born again, blood-washed, saved-by-grace-alone
believer is not Phariseeism. It is obedience to God and conformity to
His character and will.
The Pharisees were at the forefront of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and of the persecution of the early Christians.
It is
a great slander to label a Christ-loving, Bible-honoring,
grace-gospel-preaching, self-debasing, peace-loving Christian a
Pharisee.
The
modern Pharisee would be more akin to the Roman Catholic priest with his
sacramental gospel and his traditions exalted to the place of Scripture
and his long history of persecuting the saints. The ecumenical crowd
doesn’t call Catholic priests Pharisees, though. They don’t seem to be
concerned about all of the souls who have been led astray by these
contemporary Pharisees.
The
only men they seem to be concerned about are those dreadful old
“fundamentalists” with their strong Bible convictions and their refusal
to smile at error. Oh, those dreadful fundamentalist Pharisees!
Distributed by Way of Life Literature Inc.’s Fundamental Baptist
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