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“YE DO ERR” Matthew 22.29 EXPOSITION: 1. I would like to take a bit of a different approach to sermonizing this morning than I usually do. What I propose to do during our exposition time is follow the development of an issue that arose between the Lord Jesus Christ before His crucifixion and some men who opposed Him. 2. After we have followed the development the particular issue that the Savior and some of His enemies were in disagreement over during our exposition time we will stand and sing, after which we will go directly to my text for this morning, where I will make an application in my sermon to you here today who are unconverted. 3. Please recognize that we have only one Bible, not a different Bible written for each of us. The Bible was designed by God to benefit every man and every woman. But how is it possible for one Bible to benefit every man and every woman when each human being is unique and individual? 4. While it is true that each human being is a unique and different individual person, with no one else who has ever lived being exactly the same as you, there are some amazing similarities that we all have in common, and we are all afflicted with an identical condition called sin. 5. To illustrate: We all have a common origin. Not some pre-human female ape in Africa, our common ancestors were a man named Adam and a woman named Eve, who were created in God’s image and after His likeness, but who sinned and whose Fall has adversely affected every one of us, giving us a common nature. 6. To illustrate again: We all have common experiences. As a direct effect of Adam’s Fall and our common sinful nature “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” So, while you may sin in a slightly different way than the person next to you, your common experience resulting from our common nature is that you do commit sins, just as every other person commits sins. 7. To illustrate yet again: We all have a common end. Every man and every woman and every child will die. It is the fate of each of us. You have never met a person who has not died or will not eventually die. Some die suddenly, while others die gradually. Some die accidentally while others die from disease or by their own hand. But all die. It is man’s nature to die because of our sinfulness, therefore everyone will die, including you. “For the wages of sin is death.” But dying isn’t the end of it all. In a way, it’s just the beginning. 8. Turn now, please, to Matthew 22, where is recorded a conflict, a disagreement, between the Lord Jesus Christ and some of those who opposed Him. When you have located verse 23, please stand for the reading of God’s Word: 23 The same day came to him the Sadducees, which say that there is no resurrection, and asked him, 24 Saying, Master, Moses said, If a man die, having no children, his brother shall marry his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother. 25 Now there were with us seven brethren: and the first, when he had married a wife, deceased, and, having no issue, left his wife unto his brother: 26 Likewise the second also, and the third, unto the seventh. 27 And last of all the woman died also. 28 Therefore in the resurrection whose wife shall she be of the seven? for they all had her. 29 Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God. 30 For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven. 31 But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, 32 I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. 9. There are three things I would like to point out to you: 1A. First, THERE IS THE APPROACH OF THOSE WHO OPPOSED CHRIST This is almost self-explanatory, but let’s read verses 23-28 again: 23 The same day came to him the Sadducees, which say that there is no resurrection, and asked him, 24 Saying, Master, Moses said, If a man die, having no children, his brother shall marry his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother. 25 Now there were with us seven brethren: and the first, when he had married a wife, deceased, and, having no issue, left his wife unto his brother: 26 Likewise the second also, and the third, unto the seventh. 27 And last of all the woman died also. 28 Therefore in the resurrection whose wife shall she be of the seven? for they all had her. 1B. Our Lord’s antagonists were members of a small Jewish group called Sadducees. And though they denied the fact of the resurrection, which is clearly taught throughout the Bible, their kind also denied so much more than the resurrection. Matthew here refers to their denial of the resurrection only to point out that single issue they had chosen for their point of contention on that particular occasion. 2B. The Law of Moses encouraged but did not require a man to marry his brother’s widow in the event that he died without children. The Sadducees took this provision to the extreme of seven consecutive brothers marrying the same woman after each of her husbands died without siring children, and then asked who her husband would be in the resurrection after they had all died and were raised up. 3B. Of course, the Sadducees were not interested in this hypothetical woman’s situation in the afterlife. They had simply constructed the problem in the hopes that the Lord Jesus Christ would be embarrassed and the doctrine of the resurrection could be made to look silly and unsophisticated. 2A. BUT THE APPROACH OF THOSE MEN WHO OPPOSED CHRIST DID REFLECT AN ATTITUDE 1B. Attitude does determine action. Behavior is dictated by belief. And though attitude and behavior are not exactly the same, they are interrelated. What I would like you to be mindful of is what had transpired that led up to this encounter. 2B. In Matthew 21.23 we see that the Master and His disciples are in Jerusalem, where the priests and elders challenged His authority to teach in the temple. But could they refute Him? No. Could they withstand His words? No. And had they not been afraid of the people they would have tried to take Him by force, Matthew 21.46. 3B. Then again, the Pharisees discussed how they might with the Herodians, discussing how they might with their sworn enemies, entangle Him in His Own words, Matthew 22.15-16! If He were to make one kind of mistake the Pharisees would charge Him with heresy and bring Him before the religious court of the Sanhedrin. But if He were to make another kind of mistake the Herodians would file criminal charges against Him to the Romans. Their plan didn’t work, Matthew 22.22, so they “left him, and went their way.” 4B. So, the priests failed to trip Him up. The Temple elders failed to trip Him up. The Pharisees failed to trip Him up, along with the Herodians. Why do you suppose the Sadducees have now challenged Him about the doctrine of the resurrection? 5B. Are they attempting to resolve a theological dispute? No. Are they seeking answers to the perplexing problems of life? No. Are they concerned about their own destinies and are looking for direction? No. Do they really want from Jesus anything? No. Then what are they doing and why? 6B. What they are attempting to do is easy to understand. Nothing complex about it. They want to catch the Lord Jesus Christ in His Own words. They want to embarrass Him and make Him look bad. Though the priests and elders and Pharisees and Herodians have thus far failed in their attempts, the Sadducees are convinced they are better, more sophisticated, smarter, holding to a stronger position. 7B. Why they attempted to do this is also pretty easy to understand, though it’s a bit more complex than what they were doing. At the core of it all they were simply wicked men who were enemies of God, therefore, they were also opposed to the Son of God. But what may have passed through their own minds is the fact that their lives had been pretty stable and ordered. Then Jesus comes along and disrupts everything, throwing their lives into a turmoil. In their own minds I think they opposed Him because they saw Him as a threat to the status quo, upsetting the regular way of doing and thinking. 8B. Thus, their attitude was one of obstinacy, stubbornness, a refusal to consider what Jesus had been saying and doing. They were proud and arrogant men who felt they needed nothing, who felt they lacked nothing, who felt they were in an excellent position to judge their own situations. Of course, they were wrong. 9B. My, how like most men these Sadducees showed themselves to be. Amen? “Leave me alone and let me go to Hell. Just don’t get me upset by showing me how erroneous my views of life and the hereafter are on the way.” Isn’t that about the way most people think? 3A. WHICH WAS WHY THEIR APPROACH AND THEIR ATTITUDE REQUIRED AN ANSWER & AN EXPLANATION 29 Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God. 30 For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven. 31 But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, 32 I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. 1B. The answer and the basic explanation Jesus gives is found in verse 29: “Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God.” The more detailed explanation is found in verses 30-32, which I have not the time to deal with this morning. 2B. Why did those men have the attitude toward the Lord Jesus Christ that they displayed? What would cause some resurrection denying men to publicly challenge someone Who had worked many miracles, Who had displayed incredible wisdom, and Who had exhibited a vast knowledge of God’s Word? 3B. They erred. Simple. They were wrong. Why is it so difficult for people, these days, to accept that some people, many people, most people, are just wrong? These men were just wrong, and Jesus told them that they were wrong. “Ye do err,” He said to them. You are wrong. Pointed. Direct. Honest. Correct. They were wrong. 4B. But why were they wrong? Things could get complicated here. And Jesus Himself could have gotten complicated. But instead He went straight to the presenting problem. He told them that they were mistaken because, first, they were ignorant of the Scriptures, and, second, because they did not know the power of God. They did not know the Bible and they did not know God’s power. CONCLUSION: 1. Now, the tendency when studying the Bible is to limit its application, to overlook its applicability to our own life’s situations, to assume that Bible is speaking to someone else. 2. Let us be careful to avoid that common mistake this morning. Let us recognize that God’s Word provides both understanding of every man’s condition and correction for every man’s condition. 3. You might think that the passage we’ve just looked at deals only with a group of men who lived long ago who denied, among other things, the resurrection, the doctrine that people will someday be raised from the dead by God to stand before Him in judgment. 4. But you will see, after brother Isenberger comes to lead us as we sing, that at the root of it all the Sadducees weren’t much different than many people today who are not converted. Perhaps not much different than you. 5. Please stand at this time, as brother Isenberger comes to lead us. INTRODUCTION: 1. In Ecclesiastes 1.9, king Solomon correctly observed that “there is no new thing under the sun.” In the next verse he asked, “Is there any thing whereof it may be said, See, this is new?” 2. The whole point of Solomon’s statement, and the rhetorical question that follows, is that things don’t change. Human beings are all alike in certain respects, and there is therefore a certain predictability when it comes to dealing with human beings. 3. How many of you have met someone, or have observed someone, and have mused in your own mind about someone, “I’ve seen his kind before”? This is true in each of our experiences. 4. Because of the similarities that exist between human beings, even though we are unique individuals, our one God-given Bible is a valuable and reliable guide to human behavior, as well as a road map to a sinner’s salvation. That’s why “All Scripture,” which is given by inspiration of God, “is profitable.” 5. That said, look at Matthew 22.29, which is my text for this morning: “Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God.” 6. My remarks are directed to those of you here this morning who are not converted. I want to show you what similarities exist between you and those Sadducees who lived so long ago, and how you are not much different from them. 1A. First, LIKE THE SADDUCEES, YOU HAVE AN APPROACH TO JESUS CHRIST Notice that I did not say that you have come to Jesus Christ. Everyone who comes to Jesus is received by Jesus and is forgiven all his sins. But you have never come to Jesus. Like the Sadducees, you have only approached Him. Because of the infinite variations of each of our personal experiences I am dependent upon you to fill in the blanks from your own life that show how very much like the Sadducees you are. Consider how very much like their approach to the Lord Jesus Christ has been your approach to the Lord Jesus Christ. 1B. The Sadducees approached the Lord Jesus Christ with a series of hypothetical what-ifs. And haven’t you done the same? Come on, now. Admit it to yourself even if you’ll admit it to no one else. 1C. They conjured up some nonsense about a woman married to seven different brothers who each died without giving her a child. Then she dies, too, and they wonder whose wife she’ll be in the resurrection. What nonsense. 2C. Other men just like them engage in speculation, or vain jangling, or old wives’ tales, or the philosophies of men. But it’s all the same, really. Isn’t it? Wicked men’s attempts to distract themselves from a serious consideration of their sinfulness and their eternal destiny. 3C. You do the same thing. You may gripe about the hypocritical Christian you once knew. Perhaps you fasten onto the doctrine of election because it’s been irresponsibly waved in front of you by an immature believer. Or it could be that you’ve observed a child of God commit a sin. Well, guess what? Christians sin. 4C. Admit that you use something, anything, to keep from focusing on the real issue. And what is the real issue? The real issue is Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Savior of sinful men’s souls. Why don’t you deal with Him? But you don’t want to do that, do you? So you play games. 2B. Next, the Sadducees’ approach to Christ was based on an ignorance of Scripture. “Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures” 1C. And you do, too. You simply do not know what you are talking about when you voice your opposition to the Gospel, when you attempt to justify your reasons for not carefully considering Jesus Christ, when you explain to yourself why you do what you do. 2C. I promise you that every lost person has an error that has its root in a misunderstanding of the Bible, including you. You think you have more fun as a lost man than as a Christian? Wrong. You think you will fail as a Christian more than you fail as a lost man? Wrong. You think you’re too wicked to save? Wrong. You think God doesn’t care about you, care for you, and desire to see you saved? Wrong. You think you will come to Jesus and end up lost, defeated, disappointed, betrayed? Wrong. 3C. The Sadducees were wrong about one thing, because they didn’t know the Bible. You’re wrong about something else, but for the same reason. You don’t know what God’s Word says. For that reason you err. 3B. As well, like the Sadducees, your approach to Christ was based on an ignorance of God’s power 1C. The Sadducees couldn’t imagine how God could possibly bring back together the decayed and scattered remnants of a body dead for more than a thousand years. For you it may be a different dilemma that you can’t imagine a remedy for. 2C. Perhaps it’s evolution. Perhaps, you just can’t imagine how God could create the universe and everything that in it is in six days. Or maybe you just can’t reconcile in your mind how God is sovereign in predestinating those He foreknows to be conformed to the image of His Son, while at the same time able to invite whosoever will to come to Christ for salvation. 3C. But don’t you see? You, like the Sadducees, limit the power of God. God is infinitely powerful. His power is infinitely infinite and beyond the wildest imagination of any human being. And because you are ignorant of God’s power, as well as because you are ignorant of God’s Word, you do err, and you approach Christ in unbelief rather than come to Him by faith. 2A. AND, LIKE THE SADDUCEES IN YET ANOTHER WAY, YOUR APPROACH TO JESUS CHRIST REFLECTS AN ATTITUDE It’s an attitude that is quite typical of the lost. It’s an attitude that is no different now than was displayed by the Sadducees 2000 years ago. 1B. First, You Have Drawn Wrong Conclusions About Yourself 1C. You think you are right, but you’re wrong. You think you have judgment, but you are in error. You think you can see, yet you are blind. You think you are objective in analyzing things, yet your decisions about eternal things and your conclusions about spiritual things are based on feelings, not facts. 2C. You think things will turn out if you only do things your way, but Proverbs 16.25 trumpets against such foolishness by declaring, “There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.” 3C. Jesus said, “Ye do err.” Listen to those words, “Ye do err.” You cannot afford to be wrong, but “Ye do err.” So much is at stake, but “Ye do err.” It’s time, don’t you think, that you relied upon One Who has never made a mistake, not even one? 2B. Next, Like The Sadducees, You Are Wrong About Bible Truth 1C. Would you dispute this to anyone? Do you dare claim to know God’s Word and to understand the truths of the Bible? 2C. How can a man claim to understand the Bible, which speaks of the lake of fire, while he is so foolish that he will not flee to Christ for the forgiveness of his own sins? 3C. How can a man claim to understand God’s Word when he doesn’t even know how to get saved? “But I now how to be saved, pastor. If I will come to Christ He will save me.” 4C. True. Yet you will not come to Christ to be saved, so you don’t even know what coming to Christ is. If you did you would come to Christ now. How can you claim to understand God’s Word while not knowing something simple enough for a child to understand? 3B. Nor Do You, Like The Sadducees, Know The Power Of God 1C. If you knew the power of God you’d know His power to change wicked hearts and make them anew and inclined toward Him, including yours. 2C. If you knew the power of God you’d know His power to save to the uttermost those who come to Him by Christ, including you. 3C. If you knew the power of God you’d know His power to damn to Hell and to punish for ever more those who die without Christ, including you. 4C. If you knew the power of God you’d fear Him and not rest until you were reconciled to Him through faith in His blessed Son. 5C. So, you see, you’re not that much different from the Sadducees, after all. Ye do err, like them. You do not know the Scriptures any more than they did. And you are ignorant of the power of God, just as they were. 6C. Like them, you have an arrogance born of ignorance, a pride that’s revealed by the fact that you are at odds with God and not worried about it, rejecting His Son and not scared about it. Their issue was the resurrection, while yours is something else. They erred because of ignorance, and your error is much the same. 3A. SO, FINALLY, YOUR ATTITUDE REQUIRES AN ANSWER JUST AS THEIRS DID 1B. You are wrong about yourself, just as they were wrong about themselves. You can’t be right about anything that’s set against the Lord Jesus Christ. Why can’t you see that? There’s nothing about the Lord Jesus Christ that’s presently set against you, so why are you set against Him? He’s come to seek and to save that which is lost, so why do you resist Him, why do you oppose Him, why do you refuse Him? To be sure, considering Him upsets the apple cart and disturbs your notions about things. But it’s for your own good. If you continue on without Him you’ll burn for sure. Ye do err. 2B. Like them, you do not know the Scriptures. Perhaps you can recite certain facts, but you’ve no handle on the spirit of God’s truth. You run from His goodness and you hide from His deliverance. You oppose His kindness and you refuse His Son. You don’t understand that Scripture shows Him to be a merciful God, and kind. How can you possibly hope to gain by continuing on the course of life that you’re on that sets you so stubbornly against Him? 3B. And, finally, you’re ignorant of the power of God. Do you think you can escape God’s wrath? Do you think there won’t be room in Hell for you if you refuse Christ in the end? If His arm is not shortened that He cannot reach you to save you, do you think you’ll be able as a reprobate to hide from Him come judgment day? Do you think this One Who spoke the universe into existence can be escaped, that this One who threw the stars into the midnight sky will be so easily put off? CONCLUSION: 1. Ye do err if you think there is any advantage in remaining lost. Ye do err if you think there is any hope of gain in remaining lost. Ye do err if you think there is any benefit from refusing Christ. Ye do err if you think there is any loophole that you’ll find to enter heaven apart from coming to Christ. Ye do err if you think you can be God’s enemy and not be doomed in the end. Ye do err if you think sin will profit you and not damn your soul in the end. Ye do err if you think God will acquit you because you’ve found a hypocrite to blame for not getting saved. Ye do err if you think you have any control over the events of you life so that you need not at this moment come to Christ with humility, submitting to Him before all is lost. 2. Ye do err, ye do err, ye do err. And the only way to correct the error is to come to Christ. |
