Classic Christianity – Our Attitude Towards Legalism – Part 2 – 11-10-26
~ Matthew 23:23-24 — Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You pay tithes of mint, dill, and cumin. But you have disregarded the weightier matters of the law: justice, mercy, and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.
In this teaching, Bob George focuses on Jesus’ confrontation with the religious leaders in Matthew 22–23. He begins with Jesus’ teaching that the whole law and the prophets hinge on loving God and loving one’s neighbor. George says Jesus used this exchange to expose the gap between the leaders’ knowledge of religious law and the love it was meant to express. Classic Christianity – “Our Attitude Towards Legalism Part 2”
Bob then highlights Jesus’ warning not to imitate the Pharisees’ behavior: they placed heavy demands on others but did not help carry those burdens themselves. He connects this to religious performance and status-seeking, emphasizing Jesus’ teaching that greatness comes through serving others, not through titles, public recognition, or self-exaltation.
A central message is that legalism can obstruct people from trusting Christ by suggesting that God’s acceptance must be earned through good deeds. Bob contrasts that message with salvation by faith in Christ, presenting that human righteousness is insufficient and that people must rely on Christ rather than their own record.
The teaching also warns against prioritizing outward religious behavior while neglecting justice, mercy, and faithfulness. Jesus’ images of straining out a gnat while swallowing a camel, and of clean cups and whitewashed tombs, illustrate the mismatch between meticulous rule-keeping and an unchanged heart. Bob applies this to spiritual pride and the tendency to judge others more harshly than oneself.
Finally, Bob presents Jesus’ sharp rebukes as a form of truth-telling: exposing hypocrisy and sin can be an act of love when it points people toward reality and grace. The overall message is to reject self-righteousness, acknowledge sin honestly, and look to Christ—not religious performance—as the basis for acceptance and freedom.
Here are the Scripture passages Bob quoted, referenced, or clearly alluded to.
Main passages discussed:
- Matthew 22:34–46 — The greatest commandments, loving God and neighbor; Jesus’ question about how the Messiah can be David’s son and Lord.
- Deuteronomy 6:5 — Love God with all your heart, soul, and strength.
- Leviticus 19:18 — Love your neighbor as yourself.
- Psalm 110:1 — “The Lord said to my Lord…,” quoted in Jesus’ exchange about the Messiah.
- Matthew 23:1–12 — The teachers of the law and Pharisees, their hypocrisy and public displays of status, and Jesus’ teaching about humility and service.
- Matthew 23:13–36 — Jesus’ woes against the teachers of the law and Pharisees, including the warnings about blocking others from the kingdom, misplaced priorities, and outward righteousness. The teaching specifically develops the images in Matthew 23:23–28: tithing spices while neglecting justice, mercy, and faithfulness; straining out a gnat while swallowing a camel; and clean cups and whitewashed tombs.
Other quotations and verses alluded to:
John 9:6–16 — Jesus healing a blind man with mud, prompting dispute about healing on the Sabbath.
Romans 3:10, 23 — “There is none righteous” and “all have sinned.”
Isaiah 64:6 — Human deeds described as “filthy rags.”
Romans 6:23 — “The wages of sin is death.”
Hebrews 11:6 — “Without faith it is impossible to please God.”
2 Timothy 4:3 — A time when people seek teachers who will “tickle” their ears.
Mark 10:18 (also Luke 18:19) — Jesus’ response to being called “good teacher.”
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Pray to God:
Do you really want to know the WHOLE Truth of what is going on today?
Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. James 1:5
Lord Jesus, teach me the truth of the world today and give me the wisdom to know the truth and identify the lies of the devil. Thank you God.”
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And so they were trying to trap him with that dumb question, and he just again annihilated them. And he said, “Upon these two commands hang the entirety of the law, folks.” When he says the law, he’s not talking about the 10 Commandments. He’s talking about the entire five books of Moses. He’s talking about all of the law, all of the ceremonial law, all of the rest of the law. Everything from Mount Sinai is called the law, and he said the whole law, and then the prophets is the rest of the teaching of the Old Testament. It’s like saying, “I want to tell you something.” The entire teaching of the Old Testament hinges upon those two things: love your neighbor as yourself, love your God with all your heart, mind, and soul. And so he set them in their place. You know why? Just deep down in their heart, said they. And love God, and for sure they didn’t love their neighbor. And so, while the Pharisees were gathered together, he said, like Jesus said, “Well, I think I’ll ask you a question. What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?” Here they were come to trap him. Says, “I’ll show you a trap.” Well, they said, “Oh, he’s the son of David.” Well, he said, “How is it then that David was speaking by the Spirit, calls him Lord? For he says, ‘The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand until you put your enemies under your feet.’ If then David calls him Lord, how can he be his son?” Well, no one could say a word in reply, and from that day on, no one dared to ask him any more questions. That was the end of the question. No more trying to trap Jesus. Then Jesus said to the crowd and to his disciples, “And folks, listen to this: the harshest words ever spoken by the Lord Jesus Christ was to the ligless, not to the sinners, but to the self-righteous and to the teachers of the law. Things anything different today? Not announce. You want to be a teacher of the law? Then listen to what Jesus has to say to you. Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, “The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat, so you must obey them and do everything they tell you.” Now, folks, in those days, and one of the reasons that you can see, especially as it relates to in Jerusalem at the end of Christ’s life, you’ll see that. But the Romans, even though they ruled over everything, knew that they would save themselves a ton of problems if they let the JUDEANs rule themselves under the leadership of the rabbis. They would keep them in much better shape than the Romans could. So the Romans in cahoots with the spiritual leaders of that day, and they were on speaking terms with each other. That’s why they could go in and tell them, “We’ve caught Jesus, or or let’s put him on trial.” And so the leadership of that day in cahoots with the Roman government was the controlling factor of everything. The reason for a priest was in order to be a representative from man to God in all things. A law without the punishment of the law is a worthless law, and so who’s going to execute that punishment? That’s what I was thinking when I was listening to that radio program the other day, lady. Who do you think is going to execute the punishment? You see, it’s one thing to teach the law; it’s another thing to teach the punishment of the law, because under the law, the wages of sin is death. Who’s going to carry that out? In those days, the adulteress was what stoned to death. Who ordered that? The rabbis. In other words, it was ordered. That is God’s law. How can you teach the law without the punishment of the law? Who’s going to carry that out? Who’s going to say stone her? So teachers of the law today are only teaching one thing and one thing only. That’s thus saith the law. What is thus saith the law if you don’t keep it? Where is that coming in? Why don’t you teach both of them if you’re going to teach one of them? You teachers of the law, hypocrites.
That’s what he’s calling us. So he said, “You listen to what God is saying here, folks. You must, so you must obey them and do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. They tie up heavy loads and put them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them. Everything they do is done for men to see. Does that sound familiar? Do it for men to see. Have a show. Make Christianity look good. Make it look acceptable, just like a radio station we’re talking about. Get some good old music. Quit the teaching; it’s not necessary. And in the end times, it says that all people are going to want to do is get their ears tickled. I don’t want to hear sound doctrine. I don’t want to hear teaching. Just make me feel good. Just make me feel good. And that’s what we’re in, folks: is a feel-good society. You don’t need to exercise faith with that. I don’t have to have faith in that. And without faith, it’s what impossible to please God. Without faith. So he’s saying, he’s saying to us that these people want to do everything so that people will see. This is done for men to see. That’s sad, isn’t it, folks? You think that’s unusual in today’s Christianity? Not announced. Not announced. That’s sad. Now listen to what he’s saying. They do things for men to see. They make their phylacteries wide and tassels under garments long. They love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seat in the synagogues. They love to be greeted in the marketplaces and to have men call them Rabbi, that’s still today the same. You go whether you go over to Israel or you go to Greece, you see these men walking around in their robes, don’t you? Just alighting and people coming up and saying rabbi. Of course, they wouldn’t know they were if they didn’t have robes on. Maybe that’s why they wear robes. Now here’s what he says: You are not to be called Rabbi, for you only have one master, and you are all brothers, and do not call anyone on earth father. That annihilates a bunch of people, for you have one Father, and He is in heaven, not down here. Nor are you to be called teacher, for you have one teacher, and that is the Christ. The greatest among you will be your servant. Well, that’s a blow. I want to get great so I can be served. No, no, no. It said you won’t be great. You’ll be your servant. For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted. Now we’re going to get seven woes here, folks, and they’re strong. He said, “Woe to you, teachers of the law, and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces. You yourself do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to. You are.” keeping through your own teaching people from entering into a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. You refuse to do it because of your pride, and you’re going to do everything in your power to keep people from doing it. How do you keep people from Christ? Tell them you got to earn to get there. That’s all. That if you do this and this and this, God will accept you. That’s someone that’s saying, if you think I’m going to accept Christ by faith, you’re nuts. If you think someone’s going to tell me that my deeds are as filthy rags, no way. I’ll tell you all about my deeds. Amy and I have a little waiter that waits on us a lot, and when we go out to for breakfast or something, and man, he is constantly from Greece, and he’s constantly telling us about his good deeds. He just wants praise so bad it’s unbelievable. Well, you tell him, hey, your deeds are as filthy rags. Why he’d have a heart attack. He thinks those deeds are going to get him to heaven. Well, I’d have to ask you the question: How many deeds would you have to do before you got there? And how many fewer deeds would you have to do to lose it?
And if you were right up to the line and just won away, wouldn’t that be bad if you lost it with just one? Okay, Lord, just let me live one more day. I’ll do one more deed and get in. You see how stupid that stuff is, folks. And that’s why he said all of our deeds are as filthy rags. There is none righteous, no, not one, and there’s no one that’ll ever stand in the presence of God in His own righteousness. Nobody, none of us. There’s only one way we’ll ever enter into the kingdom of God, and that is by faith in the One who was righteous, and that’s not you and me, that’s Him. And so he says, “You keep people from that.” He said, “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much of a son of hell as you are.”. Are those nice words? You’d say, “Lord, you’re not being very politically correct in this deal.” Why does he say that? Again, what is your attitude toward legalism? Is it his, or is it your flesh’s? You see, the flesh likes legalism; the spirit hates it, and we have to come to grips with that. If I’ve got the mind of Christ, and if my attitude should be like that of Christ Jesus, then why shouldn’t my attitude toward these things be the same as His? And yet, are we tolerant of it? Well, of course we are. As a matter of fact, I’ve heard it so many times; it’s unbelievable. Well, a little legalism, a little grace, both of them. They’re both good. Little poison, little food, both good. Is your attitude toward legalism like Jesus, or is it like a Pharisee? Well, he goes in to say, “Woe to you, blind guides! You say if someone swears by the temple, it means nothing, but if anyone swears by the gold in the temple, while he’s bound by his oath, you blind fools. Which is greater, the gold or the temples that makes the gold sacred? You also say if anyone swears by the altar, it means nothing. But if anyone swears by the gift on it, why then he’s bound by that oath. You blind men, which is greater, the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred, and therefore he who swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it, and he who swears by the temple swears by it, and by the one who dwells in it, and he who swears by heaven swears by God’s throne and by the one who sits on it.
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Bob George 14:13
Number four, woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a 10th of your spices, mint, dill, and cumin, but you’ve neglected the more important matters of the law: justice, mercy, and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter without neglecting the former. You blind guides, you strain out a net, but you swallow a camel. You’re there straining at these nets. Remember how we talked about over in Israel the Shabbat elevator on Saturday when the Sabbath starts. Their Sabbath starts. You can’t work on the Sabbath, and if you’re in a hotel. And your room’s on the 15th floor, the 10th floor, wherever it might be. Why? How you going to get to it? Because punching a button would be construed as work. And so they came up with an idea on that, because the teachers of the law and the Pharisees determined that that would be work. Now you’re going to have a little difficulty finding elevator pushing in the Bible, punching buttons of an elevator, but they determined that was work, and so someone came up with an idea. On the on Shabbat, on the Sabbath, we will have an elevator that when you get on it, the weight of it will cause it to go up to the top floor, and then when it gets the top floor, it’ll then come down and stop at every floor automatically, and then you can get off without pushing a button. And so on the Sabbath, that’s how the Orthodox, that’s how they ride the elevator now. How they get in the room, God only knows. I don’t know how they do that, but I do know that elevator they do not push the button on. Straining out a net, swallowing a camel, probably mean as a hornet on the way up to the room, but that didn’t make any difference. I didn’t push the button. We’ve talked about before one of the laws where work on the Sabbath couldn spit, could spit on a rock, but not on the ground, because if you spit on the ground, that makes mud, and that’s work. And so you can’t spit on the Sabbath, not on the ground. Remember Jesus when he healed the blind man. What did he do? Spit where? on the ground. He didn’t even wait for the spit to make mud. He got down, made it himself, put it on the guy’s eyes. Do you think he needed to do that to heal him? Of course not. What was he doing? Driving the Pharisees crazy. Did they care that there was a man that was blind that could now see? No, you spit on the Sabbath, and what they want to do? Kill him. It’s okay to kill, just don’t spit. Straining at a net, swallowing a camel. Anything different today? Did you go to the prayer meeting Wednesday? You didn’t, huh? You are probably in some big trouble to have your quiet time? Can you imagine someone asking you if you had your quiet time if they hadn’t had theirs? Did you have your quiet time this morning? No, me neither. Feel like I’m going to these pastors’ conferences that we used to go to. How big’s your church? 10,000. How’s big yours? Five. 5000? No, five people. Can you imagine asking that question if you only had five people in your church? Asking someone how big theirs was? No, it’s only when you got one about 5000 yourself. You ask how big’s yours? Oh, only 100, huh? And you keep trying, brother. You better believe it. I said that information’s passed on. What is that, folks? Spiritual one-upmanship, doing things to be seen by man, any sincerity at any of that? There are no doubts of sincerity in any of it. It’s kicking field goals in the baptistry, and so he goes on to say another said you get down on this one says you tithe well that’s marvelous but do you have any justice or mercy or faithfulness number five woe to you teachers of the law and Pharisees you hypocrites you clean the outside of the cup and dish but inside they’re full of greed and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside will also be clean. What was he saying there? You guys got all this outward stuff that people see. Look. Good on the inside, man.
You’re a mess. You’re an open grave. On another occasion, he called them. Now, folks, these were the religious leaders of the day. These weren’t just some little group of people out there. These were the religious leaders of the day. They were the ones that the whole Israeli people followed, looked up to, and listened intently to everything they said, and tried to live in obedience to it. And Jesus went right in the midst of that group and said, “You’re a bunch of hypocrites.” See, folks, when we hear that Jesus loves you, we would look at that and say, “Boy, that doesn’t sound like much love, does it?” But is it? Is it love to let people function in their stupidity and in their hypocrisy and leading people down primrose paths? That’s not love. That’s not love. He didn’t say because you’re a hypocrite that I’m going to kill you, going to beat you up. Said I’m just going to let you know what you are inside. I’m just going to tell you truth. That’s all. I’m being a truth teller to you is that unloving? I don’t think so. He called them blind guides. What does that mean? You can’t see, folks. Do you know how blind we are to our own to our own weaknesses? You know, we were driving in today, and somebody mean he went around us probably 8090 miles an hour, and I thought, sure hope he gets arrested. And Amy said, I hope he gets ticketed. Now the speed limit I think is 65. Now I couldn’t tell you the number of times I’ve gone 75, but a little breaking of the law is not bad. It’s just when you break it a bunch that you want to get a rest. Aren’t we that way? When someone else does breaks the law, brother, I want vengeance. When I break it, mercy, mercy is what I want. Aren that way? We are blind to ourselves. We’re blind to our own weaknesses, aren’t we? We don’t see ourselves. And folks, that is where the teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ, the grace of God. What does it do? It gets down under the skin. It gets under the surface of things, and shows us the way we are. You see, it’s good to know this is the way we are. It’s the only way we’re going to look at that and say, “This is a sham. This is a sham” And Lord Jesus, what’s truth? What’s reality? And so this is the most loving thing Jesus could do. It’s not pleasant to listen to, but it’s love. The sixth woe! Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees! You hypocrites! You’re like washed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside, but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside, you appear to people as righteous, but on the inside, you’re full of hypocrisy and wickedness. Is that true? You see, folks, when we walk around acting like we are holier than thou, and we walk around acting like, “Oh, I’m so righteous, I’m so good.” We’re hypocrites; they’re anybody good. When they came to Jesus and said, “Good teacher,” he said, “Don’t call me good unless you want to call me God, because only God is good.” So when we walk around acting like we’re just about ready to make our ascension into heaven, we’re hypocrites. When we walk around with that attitude, oh, I don’t know how they could do such a thing. Just give it time; God will show you. It’s amazing how circumstances will change. It’s amazing how conditional we are when it comes to our own sins. I had a pastor that used to just pound the top of his Bible down through the top of the pulpit, practically just crumbling it on the evils of divorce, and he preached that violently until his daughter got divorced. Never heard him preach it anymore. The evils of homosexuality. Till your son becomes a homosexual, and then you think, well, maybe, maybe he’s born that way. Maybe he’s got a chemical imbalance. You see how conditional we are. And folks, if we did not have this word of God that calls sin sin, He doesn’t call it emotional imbalance. He doesn’t call it the fact that you were born a certain way. He says no, it’s sin.
But all have sinned. You don’t have to feel bad. Just face reality. All of us have sinned. All of us have fallen short of the glory of God. There’s none righteous. No, not one. So you don’t have to deny your sin. You’ve got company, like the entire world. But don’t call something an alternate lifestyle when God calls it sin. If you ever want to be free, if you want to live in bondage to your own stupidity for the rest of your life, you call it anything you want to. But if you ever want to go free and turn to Him, you’ve got to call something what He calls it, and call it the same thing as He calls it, in order to be freed by what He says frees you. And so he’s saying to to us here that you’ve got all this stuff clean on the outside, but underneath the skin is where your heart is, and that’s what God is looking at. Number seven, woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous. And you say, if we had lived in the days of our forefathers, we would have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets. So you testify against yourself that you are the descendants of those who murdered the prophets.
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