#103 Lu. 11:52 PICKETING THE DOORWAY TO HEAVEN Introduction: I am sure that you know what a picket line is in these modern times. A group of protesters will line up in front of some facility and try discourage others from entering that facility. Perhaps they are trying to hinder customers from doing business at a certain store. Or perhaps they are trying to hinder workers from entering a certain place of work. Usually picket lines are peaceful, but they do not always turn out that way. Usually they simply carry signs which voice their protest against the policies of the store or plant or whatever it they are picketing. They themselves do not enter and they try to hinder others from entering. This is, in effect, what Jesus accused the scribes and Pharisees of doing at the doorway of the kingdom of God. I. The lawyers and their knowledge of the law and the prophets of God V. 52, "Woe unto you, lawyers!..." It is especially worthy of note that Luke calls these men lawyers. In his account of the same event, Matthew calls them scribes and Pharisees. The term, Pharisee, tells about their religious preference. It tells that they were not Sadducees nor Herodians. The term, scribe, describes their work. The job of the scribes was to make handwritten copies of the Old Testament Scriptures. They also made copies of the traditions of the fathers pertaining to the scriptures. Since the fundamental part of the Old Testament is the law of Moses, the scribe is often called a lawyer because he was an expert in the writings of the law and the traditions pertaining to the law. It is also worthy of note that the chief purpose of the law of Moses was to give testimony of the coming of Jesus Christ as the Savior of men. The ten commandments, which were a summary of the whole law of Moses, were designed to show how impossible it is for any man who has inherited the sin nature from Adam to live without sin. Since no man keeps the ten commandments to perfection, then all men have sinned and all men need to repent and be forgiven. The blood sacrifices required by the law of Moses showed that without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sin. Somebody's blood is going to be required as punishment for the sin which is committed. Since the blood of the animals slain in the sacrifices required by law could not take away sin, it becomes obvious that they only picture the blood of the sacrifice that would be made which could take away sin. The prophets of old declared that the Messiah or the Christ would come and that He would be put to death on behalf of guilty sinners and that through His blood lost sinners could have all their sins forgiven. The law was never intended to save anybody. It was only intended to teach lost sinners that they need to be saved and to point them to the coming Christ who can save. In Galatians 2:21 the Apostle Paul said, "I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain." If men could have been saved by the law of Moses then it would not have been necessary for Jesus to die on the cross. In that case the law itself would never have required the animal sacrifices which pictured the death of Christ on the cross. If the men could be saved by keeping the law of Moses then the Old Testament prophets would never have prophesied about the Christ shedding His blood for the redemption of men. For instance, the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah would never have been written. If men could have been saved by keeping the law of Moses then it would not have been necessary for God to send His Son Jesus Christ to the cross. Paul further said in Galatians 3:11, "But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith." Paul quotes from Habakkuk 2:4 which states that the just shall live by faith." Thus we see that the Old Testament prophets, themselves, had declared that salvation does not come to anyone by keeping of law. Habakkuk said that salvation or everlasting life comes by faith and not by the keeping of the law. Now if there was anybody in the whole land of Israel who should know these things about the law of Moses it was these lawyers to whom Jesus spoke. They were the experts in the law of Moses. They knew what it said from start to finish. They, above all others of their day, should have known that salvation is not obtained by the keeping of the law. II. The rejection of the truth by the lawyers The problem was that these lawyers paid little attention to what the law itself said. Likewise they paid little attention to what the inspired prophets of God had said. What those lawyers really paid attention to were the traditions of the forefathers which gave a wrong interpretation of the law. Therefore even though the law itself taught that no man will be saved by the keeping of the law, but that the blood of the coming Christ would be the basis of forgiveness of sin, yet those lawyers proclaimed in no uncertain terms that one must keep the law to be saved. Even though the writings of the prophets, with which they were so familiar, said clearly that the coming Christ would be slain and that by His stripes we are healed, yet those lawyers insisted that the keeping of the law is the only way to heaven. Oh, how important the inspired word of God is in getting to heaven. In Romans 10:17 the Apostle Paul said, "So then, faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God." The Old Testament scriptures, with which the lawyers were so familiar, declared clearly that salvation is not by the keeping of the law and that it is through the blood of the coming Christ. The Old Testament scripture even gave sufficient information to clearly identify Jesus of Nazareth as the Christ. If there was anybody in the whole land of Israel who should have been able to say with absolute certainty that Jesus is the Christ is was those lawyers. They knew the scriptures, but they willfully, deliberately laid aside the teachings of the Scriptures in preference for the uninspired traditions of the fathers. Jesus laid further charge against them. He said, "...for ye have taken away the key of knowledge..." How did they take away the key of knowledge? The key of knowledge is the inspired word of God. The key of knowledge, which reveals to unsaved man how to enter the kingdom of God is the holy Scriptures. But the lawyers, who knew the Scriptures, laid aside the teachings of the Scriptures and proclaimed the teachings of man instead. The Holy Scriptures even in the Old Testament teach that unsaved man does not get saved by keeping the law of Moses. They teach that God would send His Christ and that the blood of the Christ would be shed. They teach that the lost sinner can be saved by placing his faith in the Christ whose blood would be shed on the cross. But the lawyers, who were the most prominent teachers of the Scriptures in the whole land of Israel had taught the people the very opposite of what the Scriptures teach. They told the people that it was absolutely necessary for them to keep the law if they would go to heaven. They totally ignored the fact that is necessary for one to repent of his sins and they totally ignored the fact that forgiveness of sin and eternal life in God's kingdom comes by faith in the Christ rather than by the keeping of the law. Then when the Christ of God did come on the scene He spoke to them the truth of God and invited men to come to Him and be saved. But the lawyers denounced Him and raised up their voices to persuade men that Jesus is an imposter and not the Christ at all. The lawyers were the so-called experts in the law of Moses and they set themselves up as some super screening committee whose stamp of approval was necessary before one could officially be the Christ. They remind me of the ad on television. You've heard the woman say, "They don't say Hanes until I say it says Hanes." They had the idea that Jesus could not be the Christ unless they said He is the Christ. III. The lawyers and their failure to enter the kingdom of God and their hindrance of others who would enter "...ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered." Because these lawyers rejected the Christ whom God had sent to be the Savior of men, they themselves had not entered into the kingdom of God. In Matthew's account, he makes it clear that Jesus is talking about entering into the kingdom of God. He is talking about being saved. Because these lawyers rejected the only One who can save, they were not saved. They thought of themselves as being officers in God's kingdom, but they were not even in the kingdom. They were still lost and hell bound. That, in itself, was bad enough. It was bad enough that these men who so familiar with the word of God had rejected the teachings of God and had accepted instead the erroneous teachings their forefathers. They had placed the word of men above the word of God. It was bad enough for them to go stubbornly right on down the road to hell when God was offering to give them the chance to spend eternity in heaven. It was bad enough that they, themselves, were lost. But it was even worse that they were hindering other people from being saved. These lawyers--these scribes and Pharisees--were the most influential religious men in all the land of Israel. As a result of the great miracles that Jesus had done He had become very popular with the common people throughout the land. Some people had already recognized that He is indeed the Christ. They had trusted in Him as the Christ and they had already been saved by Him. Many others were on the verge of trusting Him. Hundred and thousands of people throughout the whole land of Israel were on the verge of trusting in Jesus as the Christ and if they would do so they would enter into the kingdom of God. The problem was that the masses of people were so accustomed to allowing the lawyers to do their thinking for them that when the lawyers let it be known that they had turned thumbs down on Jesus, the majority of people did likewise. They hindered the people of Israel by the hundreds and thousands from entering into the kingdom of God. They kept thousands upon thousands of people from being saved. Within a very short time they would persuade virtually the who nation to reject the idea that Jesus is the Christ. Without Him no man could be saved and thousands upon thousands of people died and went to hell because of the scribes and Pharisees, the lawyers. What is still worse is that for near two-thousand years virtually the whole nation of Israel has remained under their influence. For near two-thousand years the vast majority of that nation have continued to go to hell because those men have robbed them of the proper interpretation of the law of Moses and the prophetic writings of the Scriptures. Jesus said, "Woe unto you" and I think we find it hard to understand just how great their punishment will be. IV. Those today who hinder men from being saved But let us also beware of men today who hinder the lost from being saved. There are many highly influential men living in our world today who are hindering the lost from being saved. Some of these men are religious leaders, just as those lawyers were religious leaders. The great majority of religious leaders in the world today do not even pretend to believe in Jesus Christ. They do not even pretend to believe in any brand of Christianity. They do not even pretend to believe in the teachings of the Bible. The great majority of religious leaders today, like the Jewish lawyers of old, reject the whole idea that Jesus is the Christ, the Savior of men. And these are highly influential men. They hold the vast majority of people in the world under their thinking. The vast majority of the world's population today has totally rejected the idea that Jesus is the Christ and is the Savior of men. Most of them think that Christianity is evil and ought to erased off the face of the earth. That is why men like Iotola Komeni and Saddam Houssein have such strong a hold over the minds of their people. All their lives they have been taught to hate Christianity and to hate any nation that is tolerant toward Christianity. Think of the thousands--yea millions--in the non- Christian nations who are going to hell because of the influence of their religious leaders. Yet some of the leaders who are hindering men from being saved are not in the non-Christian nations. They right here in our own land and in other nations which are thought of as being Christian nations. There are many atheists right here in America, Madolyne O'Hare is but one of many. These atheistic leaders blind the minds of many people and cause them to reject the whole idea of Christianity. The whole Secular Humanist movement is made up of such atheists. The New Age leaders, likewise, are messengers of Satan right out of the pits of hell. They preach a Christ, but the Christ they preach is not the Christ of God. They say that Jesus is not the Christ. They say that Jesus failed. The Christ that they preach is one whom the Bible calls "the Anti-Christ." America is filled with all manner of cult religions which deny that one is saved by the grace of God through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Most of them deny outright that Jesus is the Christ. Those who do acknowledge that Jesus is Christ deny that salvation is obtained by placing one's faith in Jesus Christ. Even in mainstream Christianity there are many religious leaders who hinder men, women, boys and girls from being saved. They preach and teach that it is by good works that a man goes to heaven. They may acknowledge that Jesus is the Christ, but they deny that salvation is through faith in Him. They insist that it is by works that one will get to heaven. My task as a preacher is not to try to get rid of all the false teachers in the world who are hindering men from being saved. Jesus had the power get rid of them, but He didn't. I do not have the power to rid the world of these men and it would be foolish for me to try. My responsibility as a preacher and our responsibility as a church is to reach as many as we can and warn them not to be deceived by such men. Our job is to tell them about the real Christ who can save. Our job is to tell them about Jesus. Each unsaved person will have to make up his own mind whether or not to follow the false leaders down to the pits of hell or he will believe in Jesus Christ and be saved. Conclusion: If you know that you are a sinner in the sight of God and if you know that you are unsaved, then it is up to you to believe the words of God rather than the words of unsaved men. Jesus warned, Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish." The Bible says, "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved..." The Bible says, "For whosoever shall call on the Lord Jesus Christ shall be saved." Jesus said, "He that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out." The Bible says, "There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus..." But the responsibility for trusting in Jesus is laid right squarely on your own shoulders. Nobody in the world can keep you from trusting Jesus and being saved if you really want to be saved. Nobody can do it for you. You and you alone must make your own choice. What will it be? Will you choose to turn to Jesus Christ and be saved or will you follow somebody else into the fires of hell?