Luke 11:52-54

Luke 11, beginning with verse 37, reading through verse 54, or focus on verses 52 to 54. And as he spake, a certain Pharisee besought him to dine with him, and he went in and sat down to meet. And when the Pharisee saw it, he marveled that he had not first washed before dinner. and the Lord said unto him, now do you Pharisees make clean the outside of the cup and platter, but your inward part is full of ravening and wickedness. He fools. Did not he that made that which is without, make that which is within also, but rather give alms of such things. things as you have, and behold, all things are clean unto you. But woe unto you, Pharisees, for you tied mint and rue and all manner of herbs and pass over judgment and the love of God. These ought ye to have done and not to leave the other undone. Woe unto you Pharisees, for you love the uppermost seats in the synagogues, and you greetings in the markets. Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. For ye are as graves which appear not, and the men that walk over them are not aware of them. Then answered one of the lawyers, said unto him, Master, thus saying thou reproaches us also. And he said, woe unto you also, ye lawyers, for you laid men with buries with burglings. burdens, grievous to be born, and ye yourselves, touch not the burdens with one of your fingers. Woe unto you, for you build the sepulchres of the prophets, and your fathers killed them. Truly, ye bear witness that ye allow the deeds of your fathers. They indeed killed them, and you build their sepulchers. Therefore also said, the wisdom of God. I will send them prophets and apostles. Some of them, they shall slay and persecute that the blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation. From the blood of Abel, under the blood of Zacharias, which perished between the altar and the temple. verily I say unto you it shall be required of this generation. But woe unto you lawyers, ye have taken away the key of knowledge. He entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered. And as he said these things unto them, the scribes and the Pharisees and the Pharisees began to urge him vehemently. and to provoke him to speak of many things, laying weight for him, seeking to catch something out of his mouth that they might accuse him. May God blessed to us his sacred and holy word this morning. There’s a famous ancient painting in which the artist depicted what seemed at a distance to be a holy friar. Now, a Roman Catholic monk was a friar who lived apart from society under a vile of poverty. And it appeared that the friar had a book before him, and his hands were crossed, it seemed, in devotion, and he looked like a godly man. However, this was so skillfully painted that when you got closer to the painting, you realized that you had been completely fooled. Even though his hands were clasped, he wasn’t praying, he was squeezing a lemon. And the bio, he didn’t have a Bible before him, but a bowl in which he was squeezing the juice of the lemon. Like manner, false teachers would like to appear as holy man, as right, and religious men. But upon closer inspection, we see that they are impostors. And believe me, Jesus gives them a close inspection here and proves that they are impostors. Often our society is swarming with these false teachers and false prophets and so forth. It’s almost as bad as the flies in Egypt during the plague. that we have so many. So we have here Jesus versus the scribes and the Pharisees laid out for us. Jesus has harshly been rebuking the Jewish religious leaders. The Pharisee who asked Jesus to come to dinner with him and his friends did not know what he was getting himself into. For Jesus completely exposes here, the scribes and the Pharisees as hypocrites and he doesn’t pull any punches. Our text provides the final charge against them and their reaction to it. My topic this morning is the opposition of false teachers we see from this text. Now, you have a most solemn charge against these false teachers in verse 6. 52 and probably the most damning of all the things that Jesus could say, woe unto you lawyers, we have taken away the key of knowledge. Ye entered not in yourselves and them that were entering in yourselves in them that were entering in, he hindered. Now, when we look at these false teachers, there are several things we could point out. And the first one I’ll point out is this. You do not faithfully expound the scriptures of your false teacher. A key in scripture in other places is a sign of authority. Usually stewards were given the keys to the household. They ran the whole household. the key became then an emblem of authority for a steward would have been in charge of everything in that house. He ruled over it. He would tell the workers what to do and convey the master’s plans or the master’s thoughts on what he wanted done. Unless you find God establishing Eliakim, the son of Hyukaiah, as steward in the house of David, and the key to the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder. So he shall open and none shall shut and shall shut and none shall open. But dently, this man was a type of Christ because in the book of Revelation, this phrase, this verse is quoted of the Lord himself. And so we find it he is the steward of God’s household. But here we have the idea of having the key, controlling things. Now Jesus is indicating that the lawyers in particular, because he mentions them, who were supposed to be the experts in the law of God, were supposed to understand it and spend their time studying it. And therefore should be the most knowledgeable about what is found in the law of God, word of God. They were God stewards, you see. They were supposed to give the people the message from God’s word. Here’s what God says. This is the will of God. The key of knowledge we could say is what is revealed in the Word of God, of which they, as I said, professed to be experts. And the meaning of the figurative language here seems to be this, that the scribes should have done everything they could that caused these people to understand the truth of the Old Testament scriptures. Their duty was to faithfully expound the scriptures, which clearly pointed to the truth of the coming Messiah, the Lord and Savior of his people. Remember how Jesus told his disciples. in Luke 24. 44. These are the words which I spake unto you while I was yet with you, that all things which must be fulfilled, all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses and in the prophets and in the Psalms concerning me. He’s saying all the Old Testament really relates to me. Scripture declares in Jeremiah 23, 23, 28. that ath my word, let him speak my word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat? Man’s ideas are chaff. God’s ideas are wheat that’s nourishing truth. It’s like bread made from wheat. Can’t do without it. The problem is these false teachers do not faithfully expound God’s word. They do not know divine truth, nor can they teach others. divine true. They were blind leaders of the blind. They didn’t know the way. And therefore they couldn’t help anybody else. And if the blind leave the blind, Jesus has told us, they’re both going to fall into the ditch. God calls false teachers as clouds without water in Jude 12. If we expect to get a refreshing rain from clouds. to be refreshed. And you remember Isaiah compares the Word of God to rain. And the thing is, we get showers of blessing when the Word of God is opened up to us, but they couldn’t refresh a thirsty soul. Because they didn’t know the Word of God and did not teach it. So you don’t faithfully expound the scriptures of your false teacher. You do not embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ if you are a false teacher. They didn’t enter into the kingdom of God themselves. You would expect those who took the time and spent all this time studying the scriptures would be led to Jesus Christ. But he is the chief subject of all scripture. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ that we might be justified by faith. But they missed it. Remember what Paul said about Timothy from a child. Thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith that is in Christ Jesus. Search the scriptures, Jesus told the religious leaders of his day. For in them you think, you have eternal life and they are the they which justify me. But these false teachers thought they could earn salvation by their own righteous acts, that they somehow could keep the law. And by keeping the law, they would earn favor with God for being ignorant of God’s righteousness. We read that they go about to establish their own righteousness. and have not submitted themselves under the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law to everyone that believeth. He’s the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believe. We need God’s righteousness. It’s not our own righteousness. So they opposed the gospel. They rejected Jesus Christ as the Messiah. They didn’t know that time was fulfilled and that the kingdom of God was at hand. So they denied the Holy One. They killed the just one. They killed the prince of life, as Acts 3, 14, and 15 indicates. My friends, those who trust in their own self-righteousness for salvation are always opposed to the truth of the gospel. Because you either have work salvation, or you have grace salvation. And God’s word teaches grace salvation. As Paul wrote in Galatians 221, I don’t frustrate the grace of God, but if righteousness came by the law, then Christ is dead and me. If we could earn our way, why did he have to die? Why did God have to send his son? God could have to say, well, just try a little harder. Keep the law. The third thing here is this. You hinder anyone who seeks to enter the kingdom of God if you’re a false teacher. Boy, and them that were entering in ye hindered. What a damning statement we find here. Matthew, in the same context here, or similar context, I should say. 2313. He says, you shut up the kingdom of heaven against amen. You shut it up. Lock the door. Turn the key. Very few Jewish religious leaders truly believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. And they did all they could to prevent anyone who showed an interest in the kingdom of God from embracing the gospel. Imagine that in it. Think about that. They hid divine truth, taught damning errors, excommunicated those who did trust in Christ from the synagogues. They corrupted the people by their own evil counsel and by their own evil example. Remember how Jesus had to correct their false interpretation. of the law and the sermon of the mouth. Ye have heard, but I say unto you. This is what you’ve been heard, you’ve been taught. It’s not the truth. This is the truth. These men malign Christ and they try to discourage people from listening to Jesus Christ. In the end, these people, the nation, was destroyed for lack of knowledge. We talked about last week on this generation is going to come the blood of all the martyrs from Abel all the way to Zacharias from the Old Testament. It was kept from the people by the Jewish leadership. You hinder anyone who seeks to enter the kingdom of God as a false teacher. Now let me make a couple of practical observations here. And the first is this. You should realize that taking the way, taking away the key of knowledge is a more common sin than most people realize. The guilt lies at far more doors than most people know. Now, clearly, we could easily condemn the Roman Catholic Church in this regard. They are blatant defenders in this. placing the Bible on their forbidden book list. By the way, even though they put it on years and centuries ago, they still have it on there. Forbidding their people to read the scriptures, remember they killed anybody who printed the scriptures in the common language of the people. I want to give you a little quote here from, Pope Pius, wrote that a Bible in the common language of the people was this. The most malignant of all inventions, a pest, the destruction of the faith, the greatest danger to souls, a new kind of tears sown by the enemy, an impious conspiracy of innovators, the ruin of our holy religion. Can you imagine that? My friends, let me say. this sin is not just confined to the Roman Catholic Church. There are many Protestants and perhaps others as well because they won’t teach the whole counsel of God. they hide from people divine truth. Purposely do not teach through the whole books of Bible so you never get everything. They cherry pick what they want you to hear. and by the way most of the time they actually take the text out of context and use it for purpose that was not originally intended they sneer at the whole idea of the need to be born they encourage simply living a moral life and you’ll be okay so eternal life they questioned the miraculous they denied us virgin birth Christ resurrection the feeding of the 5,000, the walking on water, the turning of the water into wine and all the rest of these miracles of scripture. They deny Christ vicarious death as a substitute for sinners on the cross. They hate the idea of blood atonement. It’s ridiculed. It’s denied. The doctrine of eternal hell is denied. The damnation of the ignorant, heathen, and foreign lands is denied. The need for holiness of light is denied. The need for mortification of sin is denied. Christ’s second coming often is denied. And so these false teachers never warn anyone that accept you repent, you’re going to perish in hell. The word repentance has been dropped from their vocabulary. But let me say this. Let me take this down one more level for us. It’s also the sin of the worldly-minded, called Christian parent. Who never has family devotions, who never teaches his or her children the ways of the Lord, you’re holding back the key of knowledge. You’ve taken away the key of knowledge from your children, and thus there’s no instruction in the way of salvation in Jesus Christ, and that is serious. So all of these, and one way or another are bringing down on their heads God’s judgment of woe. That woe is not just for the scribes and Pharisees. There are a lot of people that fit into this woe. My friends, we ought to pray we’ll never be guilty of this sin. You and I never discourage others if they have any serious thoughts about their souls, especially children who often have tender conscience. Let us take the time and show some patience and try to deal with them in their tender consciences. Because while they’re young, is the time to seek out the Creator. What exactly asks these tells us. May you never be a stumbling block to those around you in regard the reading the Word of God with regard to praying or having private devotions. May God enable you to encourage and help others who show any interest in the things of God. If you possess the key of knowledge, use it to instruct others in the way of salvation and righteousness. Let us not be reluctant to proclaim the gospel to those people we meet. Let us pray for boldness and wisdom because we want that we have the key of knowledge that use it if we can. Let’s try to be some kind of witness to those who do not have knowledge of the truth. God gave you that knowledge for a reason. And it wasn’t to keep it to yourself, but share it. So you have a most solemn charge here against false teachers. Let us not be guilty. of these. Let’s not get ourselves listed in here. Secondly, this morning, you have a description of the maliciousness of false teachers in verses 53 and 54. And as he said these things under them, the scribes and the Pharisees began to urge vehemently and to provoke him to speak of many things laying weight for him and seeking to catch something out of his mouth that they might accuse him. You find false teachers cannot bear reproofs. You mentioned this previously, so I’ll be brief. The scribes and the Pharisees could not endure the cutting response because it struck home. Because it was true. They refused to own these things and to take them to heart. They harden their hearts. They refuse to repent. He that refuses reproof erreth. Proverbs 10, 17. My friend, you sin against your own soul when you don’t take a reproof. For heeding a faithful rebuke allows you to correct your faults to mend your ways. But these scribes and Pharisees have no intention of changing their ways. They want to hide this from the public, what Jesus is pointing out. This is ever the way with false teachers. They want to retain their self-righteousness and keep their sins hidden. Friends, it isn’t wise to put on a religious front of being righteous before men when God knows all about your hypocrisy. Rebuke a wise man who will love thee. Proverbs 9.8. but fools will hate you. And that’s just the case we have here. Let me note this. If we’re ever faithful reprovers of men’s sins, we’re going to have many enemies. They’re not going to like it. When you faith-free proclaim God’s word don’t expect to it to be always well received. You’re going to find very hostile responses to the gospel many times. You remember? remember when Stephen proclaimed God’s truth and rebuke the Jews for rejecting and crucifying Jesus Christ, the Messiah, they were furious at him. They didn’t repent of their sins. They had a burning hatred toward him. When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart. Oh, they were deeply convicted. But at the same time, they never on him with their teeth. They were viciously attacking him. They stopped their ears. They didn’t want to hear another word from him. And they ran upon him with one accord, drew him out of the city, and stoned him the death. All for telling them the truth and rebuking them for crucifering the Savior and not believing in the save. So you find false teachers cannot bear reproofs. Also, false teachers, maliciously plot to entrap you in your words that they might condemn you. Here’s the second thing these verses revealed to us. Being greatly provoked by Christ here, they ask him many ensnaring questions. They weren’t sincere. They were trying to entrap Christ in his words that they might have some way to condemn him and to justify themselves. I like what the psalmas said and probably a reflection of Christ himself. Every day they rest my words, all their thoughts are against me for evil. That sounds like the words of Christ to me. That sounds like Christ coming through on the Psalms there for us. That’s exactly what happened to Jesus Christ. They saw it an occasion to find fault with Christ to dig up some type of mischief against him. Enemies of God’s truth try to provoke you to say something or to do something which they can twist to their advantage. So they want to ruin your credibility. Let us study the Word of God so that we’re well armed against these people and Let’s be prepared to answer wisely even the thorny questions that are thrown at us because we’re going to get some thorny questions by the wicked. Being discreet and cautious in your language is important. Guard your temper and patiently patiently attempt to answer their hateful questions. choose your words carefully so that you do not do any harm to the cause of Christ follow Christ example for the scripture says in 1. Peter 221 consider him who endured the contradiction of sinners against himself but when he was reviled reviled not again when he suffered he threatened not but committed himself to him who judgeteth righteously or rightly you need to earnestly pray so do I for God’s assistance that God would say to watch over our mouths that God would keep the doors of our lips we might say things carefully that he give you a mouth and wisdom which all the adversary shall not be able to gainsay nor resist list, Luke 2115, about Christ, this said. So here you have a description of the maliciousness of false teachers. That ancient picture of a Roman Catholic monk was cleverly drawn. And when you drew closer, you saw hypocrisy, and he was just squeezing lemons into a bowl. That’s all he wasn’t. He wasn’t praying, and he didn’t have the bite. Bible opened before. Thus it is with false teachers on closer inspection, we begin to see they’re not who they say they are. They’re hypocrites. For they actually oppose the kingdom of God. And they attempt to keep others from entering the kingdom of God, holding back the key of knowledge. They maliciously attack those who would speak the truth and try to to catch you in your words. Thus we have how hard these people’s hearts were toward the Savior, toward the message of the gospel, toward the way of salvation. He’s tried to explain to them and they will not listen. Let’s close.