Characteristics of Pharisees - 3 — Zac Poonen

Let Your Spirit rest upon us. It is the Spirit that gives life. The flesh profits nothing. Lord, teach us to live in the Spirit, to be led by the Spirit in all things in our life. Father, have mercy upon us, we pray.

Open our eyes and refresh us and strengthen us through Your Word. We pray for a spirit of prophecy. We pray for the Spirit to rest upon us mightily in this time bringing life and light. We trust You. We lean upon You.

We know those who trust in You will never be disappointed. That anyone here who is trusting the Holy Spirit to give him life this morning will not be disappointed. We believe that. Thank You, Father, in Jesus' name.

Amen. Okay, we're going to continue with our study on characteristics of Pharisees. In the last two sessions we covered 33 characteristics. Some of them are similar to others, but yet there can be some aspect that we see in one which we don't see in the other.

So we need to see, focus on them, and these are things that we need to meditate on when we go back so that we can think more and look at our own life. I want to say one word of warning. When you listen to this, remember, God gives us His Word to give us light on ourselves.

Not to find out the Phariseeism in somebody else, because if you do that, you'll be the biggest Pharisee of all. But if you can see the Phariseeism in yourself, then you won't be a Pharisee. So we turn to number 34, signs and marks of a Pharisee.

Fear of Human Opinion

A Pharisee fears the opinions of people. Matthew Chapter 21, verse 26, he's afraid of what people will say about him. Particularly people in his own group. The Pharisees were not afraid of what the Romans and the Greeks and the Gentiles say, but people in his own group.

What will people in my church say about me if I do this? That means they are not free from the opinions of people. I believe that many, many elder brothers do things and say things because they are concerned about what will people in my church say about me if it is like this.

Many people want their children to behave properly, not for the glory of God, but because they are concerned about their own testimony in the church. What will people in the church say about me if my children are like this and they pick all types of silly rules on their children and make it difficult for their children for their own honor?

I remember an incident in my own life about more than 17 years ago when my eldest son was finished school and he had applied for college and he got admission into IIT here in India and also to a college in the United States.

I said, well, son, which do you want to go for? He said, well, dad, I would like to go to a college in the US because they have given me a full scholarship. I said, fine. So he was so surprised that I would allow him to go.

I said, why are you surprised? He said, what will people in the church say that Zak Poonen sent his son to the United States? I mean, it is a little more common now, but 17 years ago it was a strange thing to do because even a lot of elder brothers in those days believed it was a sin to go to the Gulf or to the US or something like that.

People have gone there themselves later, but those days they were Pharisees or the Pharisees who thought these things were sin. So I told him, that will only test whether I am free from the opinions of people.

That is all. And I am free. I can assure you that. I could not care less what anybody thinks. I am not going to let my children live according to the rules that Pharisees around me have made. I am going to let them grow up in liberty.

I believed that 17 years ago. I believe it today. Many of us, we lose our children because we are concerned about the opinions of people. I am not talking about sinful things. It is not a sinful thing to go to the US.

Even if 25 elders think it is a sinful thing, that is their business. You wait till their children get an opportunity to go, they will send their children. But when it is somebody else's children, they will make rules.

These are the Pharisees or the Pharisees. And I want to say to all of you, don't, please don't let your children suffer because of the stupid Phariseeism of some elders around you, who make rules for your children which they will never make for their own.

Remember that. Let them judge you. Die to their opinion. I am crucified with Christ is the central verse of Galatians, which is the great book on freedom from the law. And the center of that message on freedom from the law in Galatians is, I am crucified with Christ.

I am free not only from Christ, he says in Galatians 6 .14, I am crucified to the world. And I want to read that verse to you in this paraphrase, Galatians 6 .14 says like this. For my part, I am going to boast about nothing but the cross of our master Jesus Christ.

I am not going to boast about that my children don't go to the US or that your daughter doesn't wear ornaments. These are not the things. I am going to boast in the cross of our master Jesus Christ. Because of that cross, I have been crucified in relation to the world.

I have been set free. Listen to this. I have been set free from the stifling atmosphere of pleasing other people. This pleasing other people is a stifling atmosphere. It's like a room full of bad air and you want to get out and get out into the open.

I am set free from the stifling atmosphere of pleasing other people, fitting into the little patterns that they dictate for me. Many people sitting here are living for the opinions, not of the worldly people, not of people in other denominations, but what will people in your church say?

That proves you are a Pharisee. So, Matthew 21 .26 it says, they would not answer Jesus because they were afraid of the people. Again in verse 46 it says, when Jesus said something to them, they wanted to arrest him, but they were afraid of the people.

They were not afraid of the Romans, not people in other denominations, but their own group. What will people in my own group say? What will my fellow elders say? Listen, ask yourself what God will say.

Full stop and you will be free. If you add to that what will God say and what will Brother Zach say, you will be in abundance. I want to set you free. Some of your other elders may not set you free, but I would like to set you free.

You can be assured of one thing, I will not judge you. Even if all my fellow elders judge you, I give you my word, I will not judge you. You can send your child to the moon if you like, I will not judge you.

That's your business. Don't let somebody else run your life. Don't let somebody else mess up your children's future by trying to dictate rules to you. You wait and see if that person's child grows up what he does.

All his rules will change. These are the bunch of hypocrites and Pharisees of the Pharisees I have seen in our midst. If you live by their rules, you will destroy yourself. Because they don't follow those rules when it comes to their own children.

They are extremely partial to their own children. It's rare for me to see an elder brother who is completely free from partiality to his own family. I wish we had more of them. Maybe 5 of our elders are free from partiality to their own family.

I have seen repeated examples everywhere. So don't listen to them. I thank God I never bothered about any of their opinions right from day one. That's why I have been a free person. I want to encourage you to be free.

Love of Money and the Freedom of Christ

You dear parents, don't lose your children with all the silly legalistic rules that other people have made. Don't fear the opinions of people. Luke chapter 16 and verse 14. Number 35. A Pharisee loves money.

Now many people when they think of Phariseeism, they don't think of love of money as one of the characteristics of a Pharisee. But it is one of the clearest marks of a Pharisee. He will be so legalistic about so many silly little rules, but when it comes to money, he is an absolute lover of money.

Luke chapter 16, it says, Now the Pharisees who were lovers of money listened to what Jesus said and scoffed at him. What did they scoff at? When Jesus said in verse 13, You cannot love God and wealth.

You cannot serve God and wealth. Ah! They said, What nonsense. Look at us, we are serving God and money. They scoffed at him because they were lovers of money and they thought they could love God at the same time.

I want to say to you, if you miss out all the other 49 characteristics and you have escaped all 49, the Holy Spirit will catch you at this one and say, Here is the proof you are a Pharisee. Any one of these 50 characteristics will mark out a man as a Pharisee.

That is why we have preached as much against loving money as we have against judging people in the church through the years. It is not a new message. You cannot love God and love the things of this earth at the same time.

You can use the things of the earth. Do you know that God gave us things to use and people to love? But unfortunately the world, they love things and use people for their own advantage. That is the world.

They love things and use people. Jesus came to turn the world right side up and taught us to love people and use things. Use things to bless people. That is the greatest thing. It does not matter if you can deny yourself something so that somebody else can have it better.

That is how Jesus lived. I have seen one thing. Some of the biggest legalists in our churches and a lot of them are elder brothers, they love money like anything. How do I know? By their fruit you shall know them.

They stack up money but they are legalists when it comes to little little rules for other people. But they are fantastic lovers of money. They go after money wherever they can get more. They will even neglect their responsibilities in the church to make more money because their mind is always on that.

And they are Pharisees only towards other people. Making rules for other people. That is why I say to the general congregation, please don't just swallow everything your elder says. 95 of them I have discovered are legalists.

Don't follow their silly rules unless you want to mess up your own life. Come to the freedom in Christ and if you see 5 area where he is following Jesus, follow him in that area and forget all the other areas.

It is very very important. It is sad that it has to come to this but after so many years I am just sick and tired of all the legalism and the judgmentalism and the silly little rules that all types of people have made through the years which they have imposed on others.

Now I am not against their keeping it themselves. Yeah, so that is just another indication of Pharisees and we have spoken a lot about that. We don't want to continue on that. Number 36. Luke chapter 18 and verse 9.

Trusting in Personal Righteousness

He thanks God. A Pharisee thanks God that he is better than others. In Luke chapter 18 you know the story of the Pharisee and the tax collector. There are number of points we can see here. The first of all that he thanks God that he is better than others.

Luke 18 verse 9. He told this parable to some people who were trusted in themselves and he said in verse 11, God I thank you. Luke 18 verse 11. God I thank you that I am not like other people. Now he didn't say this.

You know it says here he prayed to himself. He was saying in his heart. None of us will openly stand up and say God I thank you I am not like people in that group and the other group because you lose your reputation for humility.

We all want a reputation for humility so much we will never say that in public. But in our heart we think oh thank God I am not like those other people who behave like that, who dress like that. You know you have heard me use this example.

Supposing a man comes home and his wife is absolutely angry and furious and yells at him and screams at him and he stands there like a holy man keeping quiet, doesn't lose his temper, quietly goes away and thinks in his heart Lord I thank you I am not like my wife who is losing her temper.

I have got victory over anger. You know your wife may be a million times better than you in God's eyes at that moment because she lost her temper and nobody can lose their temper and not be convicted about it.

Afterward she will repent. But you, you will never repent of your parasitism and she is more acceptable to God at that moment than you who think I thank God I have got victory. Yes you overcame anger, you got out of a ten foot pit called anger and you fell into a thousand foot pit called spiritual pride.

Is that victory? To come out of a ten foot pit, to fall into a thousand foot pit but your wife is still in the ten foot pit and you are in the thousand foot pit, who is better? I mean ask a kindergarten student, they will tell you who is better.

There is a lot of this. You know spiritual pride is like an onion. Have you tried peeling an onion? You take off one layer, you peel I have finished with the onion. Really? There is another layer underneath.

You take off that one, there is another one underneath. You take off that one, there is another one underneath. You have heard the story. If you haven't heard it, I must tell you. Most of you may have heard this, I have said it before.

The Sunday school teacher who taught the story of the Pharisee and the tax collector to people, to the children, he said, you know the Pharisee said, I thank God I am not like the tax collector. Isn't that bad children?

Thank God we are not like the Pharisee. And we laugh at that and say thank God we are not like the Sunday school teacher. It's an onion. Layer after layer after layer. You can't get to the bottom. Be honest.

I will tell you something I have discovered. There are two sins I will never be free from till Jesus comes. Pride and selfishness. It has become much thinner in my life, both those areas. But I have discovered lots and lots of areas in my life and I am determined before Jesus comes to make that onion as thin as possible.

Selfishness and pride. If you are working on it and you acknowledge it, there is hope for you. If you imagine that you are free from selfishness and pride, God have mercy on you. Please don't be an elder brother anywhere.

That's all I ask you. You will destroy your church. Okay, number 37. A Pharisee is one who trusts in his own righteousness. That means his own self-produced righteousness. Again Luke chapter 18 verse 9.

This parable is for those who trusted in themselves that they were righteous. Now there is a righteousness which is by faith. Which is a gift of God. And there is a righteousness which I can produce myself.

And the difference is this. The way to detect it is. The righteousness which you have produced by yourself, you will be proud of. The righteousness which you got as a gift, you will be thankful for but you will never be proud of it.

And I have used this example often. Supposing I say this is a book that I wrote. I can be proud of it. There is a temptation. Because I wrote it. But if I lift up a book here which somebody else wrote.

And say this is a great book. I am not even tempted to pride. Why? Because somebody else wrote it. It's that simple. So if you are proud of some good quality you have in your life. Maybe you are very generous or you are very humble or you are very prayerful.

Whatever it is. Some good quality you have and you are proud of it. Who wrote that? God or you? You wrote it. That's why you are proud of it. If somebody else wrote it, you can never be proud of it. If God had written that into your life, you cannot be proud of it.

Can you be proud? Can any of you be proud if you pass this book out to some other people? You never wrote it. You cannot be proud of what you did not write. You won't even be tempted. That shows how much of our righteousness is our own produced righteousness.

The test is are you proud of it? You know they trust in their own self-produced righteousness. A lot of what you call divine nature is not divine nature at all. If it were divine nature, you would be very humble about it.

For example, maybe you are a very hospitable person. You are very generous and hospitable to people in the church and you are quite conscious of it and you are proud of it. It is a human quality which you have, which God did not produce in you.

It is your own righteousness which stinks in God's eyes. Is hospitality a good thing? Sure. But not your hospitality. That stinks in God's eyes because you are proud of it. You look down on other people who don't have that hospitable nature that you have.

It could be anything. It could be that you can sing better or play an instrument better or preach better or your church is better than somebody else's church. Oh, your church is growing. We were only 50 people when I came here as an elder.

Now we have 200. Oh, really? I wouldn't care two bits for those extra 150 people who came to your church because they are not probably disciples. If you are such an ungodly person, how can they be disciples?

Anything that you are proud of is your own. A book that you write, you are proud of. A book that somebody else wrote, you cannot be proud of. And if God produced something in you, you can never be proud of it.

If you are proud of it, it proves that you produced it. You sacrificed something for the Lord. Oh, you are so sacrificial. I'll tell you what, you haven't seen the sacrifice of Calvary. I don't believe I have sacrificed one single thing in my life for Jesus because I have seen the sacrifice of Calvary so clearly.

Can you see the stars when the sun is shining? Not even one star. And when the sacrifice of Calvary becomes as bright as the sun in your life, all your petty little sacrifices will disappear like the stars.

You won't be able to see them. If you can see them, what does it prove? When can you see the stars? In the darkness. If you can see your own sacrifices, in Jesus name I can tell you, you are in darkness.

Come into the light brother, sister. Your own self-produced righteousness proves you are a Pharisee. It's the opposite of faith. It's the opposite of that which glorifies God. Okay, another one. A Pharisee looks down on other people.

Contempt for Others and Spiritual Pride

The next thing it says here in Luke 18 verse 9 is, this is number 38, he views other people with contempt. It could be various reasons why we view other people with contempt. We learn to view other people with contempt from childhood.

For example, if you are brilliant, if you are very intelligent, and when you go to school, you come first in the class. Next examination, again you come first in the class. You are absolutely tops. You begin to view other people with contempt.

And if you have got a stupid father or a stupid mother who boosts you up to make you think that you are somebody, then you will be even worse. If your children are intelligent, make sure that you don't ruin them.

They are already battling with pride because they are coming first in the class. Don't ruin them even further by boasting about them, making them boast as little children. Make a rule that they will never talk about their results.

I made a rule like that for my children. They must never show their report card to anybody. They must never tell anybody their rank. Never show anybody the prizes they got. Never let anyone know what they have accomplished in any area in school, in sports or academics or anything.

Because I know what pride can do for my children. It will destroy them. God will not give them grace. They will not be able to fellowship with other ordinary brothers who don't come first in the class.

My brothers and sisters, many of us have ruined our children. They view others with contempt. They make fun of other people. You know this is a very common practice among children, to make fun of people who can't speak English like they can speak with this fantastic Bangalore accent.

Oh, that fellow has got a Malayali accent. What is that? You are a Pharisee. You can view others with contempt for anything. You are not so holy, no matter how well you know the scriptures. You view another person with contempt because he can't speak like you can.

Did you come out of your mother's womb speaking like that? And first of all, who said that your accent is supposed to be the best in heaven? You know what accent heaven appreciates? The accent of humility, that loves other people, that doesn't make other people feel small.

There are so many, many areas. I mean, we could spend a whole day talking about the way people view others with contempt. Looking down, God is almighty, it says in Job 36 .5, but he doesn't despise anybody.

The more you are like God, you will not despise anyone for their lack of intelligence or for anything in their house. Maybe you are a person who keeps your house spotlessly clean, everything in their proper place.

And you go to somebody else's house and you say, ah, may they keep their house. You are a Pharisee. And that person's house who is messy is a godly person. It doesn't look like that. It looks in the eyes of people that you who kept everything properly in your house is a godly person.

You are not. You'll get a tremendous surprise when Jesus comes. He'll call you, he'll dub you as a Pharisee of the Pharisees. I'm not saying you shouldn't keep your house properly. By all means keep your house neat and proper.

I'm saying don't despise others. I'm not saying you shouldn't come first in your class. I'm saying don't despise others. I'm not telling you to encourage your children to come last in the class. I'm telling you, tell them not to talk about it to other people.

I'm not saying you shouldn't be intelligent. Don't despise somebody who is not intelligent. I'm not saying you can't, you know, for example, we have sometimes people in our church who start a chorus in the worship time and completely off note.

I praise the Lord for them because they bring our, all our clever musicians down to earth. People who despise, aha, and they talk about it at home. That brother, that sister can't start a song properly and this great musician, expert, this Pharisee musician is glorying.

Those Pharisee musicians are the ones who destroy the church. And that poor brother or sister who can't sing a note properly, God loves him. He doesn't love you. He hates Pharisees. You're going to get big surprises when Christ comes again.

If you listen to what you hear in the church, you'll be saved. Otherwise you'll live and die a Pharisee. My brother, sister, cleanse yourself. Cleanse yourself. Cleanse yourself. See people as God sees them.

Don't ever despise another person for anything. What do you have that you did not receive? How can you glory over another person? Even understanding on God's word. You got it from God. Don't despise another person.

Okay. Verse number 39. Again in Luke 89. He exalts himself above others and is spiritually proud. The spirit of self-exaltation. It can be in conversation where I, all these things are linked but we want to look at them separately so that we see each clearly.

You know we can say things in our conversation that makes another person feel small. That's exalting yourself. I mean if you have accomplished something great for God, don't talk about it to other people to make them feel small.

I've seen, you know for example if you're in the midst of say some single sister who's getting older and not married, don't talk about the glories of married life to her. I mean are you crazy? Don't you have a sense of consideration?

That poor sister couldn't get married, don't talk about all those things. I mean a thoughtful Christian is very thoughtful about these things. Will I hurt that person or will I exalt myself? Most people are so inconsiderate.

Phariseeism makes a person totally inconsiderate to the feelings of other people. They don't think about what's that person thinking when I speak like this. Exalting yourself, boasting about what you have done or you're this or you're that or you're church or whatever it is.

Boasting in Religious Achievements

Spiritual pride. Let's go to number forty. We want to also split this up still further. A Pharisee boasts about his achievements. Lord I thank you that I fast twice a week, verse twelve. I pay tithes of all that I get.

I'm not a swindler, I'm not committed to adultery. He boasts about his accomplishments. Now I believe that great danger faces us when we give a testimony. Should we ever give a testimony? Of course. The Bible says we must proclaim what the Lord has done for us.

But not in a boastful spirit. To boast about our achievements or accomplishments is the mark of a Pharisee. It could be spiritual accomplishments. A lot of reports that people send from India to other countries are boasting that my organization is doing better than that other organization.

Or a pastor boasts that he's got so many thousand people in his church boasting about accomplishments. There must be zero of that in our life if we want to be free from Phariseeism. Yeah, there's a lot in that that we can think about in that particular passage.

And because of that, this Pharisee did not go to his home justified. It says there finally that the other sinner went to his house justified, verse fourteen, rather than the Pharisee. We cannot go home declared righteous by God.

If we have even a smell of these characteristics that I mentioned here, please meditate on them further. And number forty-one, John chapter eight. A Pharisee is one who accuses other people. John chapter eight and verses one to eleven is the story of the woman caught in adultery.

And it is true that according to the law of Moses, she was supposed to be stoned to death. And they wanted to catch Jesus and say, let's see what he does now. If they say, if Jesus says, yes, stone him to death, he will lose his reputation which he has built up as a very merciful, compassionate person.

Everybody will see he's a hard person. If he says, no, don't stone her to death, we can immediately prove this fellow is not keeping the law of Moses. It's what they call a catch -22 situation. You do this, you're wrong.

You do that, you're wrong. Heads I win, tails you lose. Both ways I'm going to win. But Jesus was in touch with the Father. They asked him a question, and he was writing on the ground and saying, Father, what should I say?

The Father said, just tell them one sentence, the Holy Spirit said. He who is without sin, cast a stone. He said that. Solved the problem. You know, when you listen to the Holy Spirit, you don't need to give a big sermon sometimes.

One sentence can shut the mouths of people. God can give us wisdom. If you're not a Pharisee, and if you don't want to accuse people, if you've got a spirit of compassion and mercy, even towards someone who is caught in adultery, leave alone accused of adultery, we can be so hard even against somebody who is accused of adultery without even verifying.

Here was a woman caught in adultery. Jesus was not a Pharisee. Is Jesus against adultery? Of course. But here we see a comparison of adultery on one side, the woman, and legalism on the other side, the Pharisees.

And here is the clearest scripture which proves that legalism is worse than adultery. Does Jesus condone adultery? No. That is a speck in a person's eye. But this legalism was a beam in the eyes of all these Pharisees.

Compared to adultery, even legalism, compared to legalism rather, even adultery is only a speck. If we can see that in this story, we'll be delivered from this judgmental spirit, this accusing spirit of other people.

You ask your own self, my brothers and sisters, how many times you have accused the brothers and sisters of things which are not even one millionth of adultery. Think of some of the things you have accused the brothers and sisters in your own church of and spoken about them and spoken about them and gone to somebody else's house and spoken about them and written about them and told about them and about them and about them.

It's not even one millionth of a speck. And every time you accuse, the beam in your eye is getting bigger and bigger and bigger. And you know the problem with having a beam in your eye is, you become blind.

Imagine if I had a beam here. What could I see? I've got two big beams in my eyes and I tell a brother, brother, I think there's a speck in your eye. Can you help me to take it out? You said, priest, don't touch me, brother.

With the beam in the eye, you may have messed up my eye completely. You think a man with a beam in an eye can be an eye doctor to remove specks? Even an eye doctor wears a magnifying glass to see that small speck.

And here you go with a beam in your eye. Jesus said, forget it. Leave him alone. He's okay. He's only got a beam. He's only committed adultery. She has only committed adultery. It's okay. What about you, fellas?

You are a million times worse because a beam is a million times bigger than a speck. The spirit of accusation. Why was Jesus so much against this? Because Jesus came from heaven and he knew who the accuser of the brethren was.

He had heard Satan accusing, accusing, accusing, accusing, accusing. Throughout, from man's history, from the beginning of man's history, Jesus heard this accuser, accuser, accuser, accuser, accuser coming to God, saying this about that person, this about that person, this about the other person.

Heard, heard, heard, heard, heard, and then he came to earth. And he saw some people having that spirit. He said, this is the devil again. He hated it. And do you think when he sees that spirit in you, he doesn't hate it?

It reminds him of Satan. Do you know the number of believers who remind Jesus of Satan? But the believers themselves don't seem to have any light on it. They can't see it. Why can't they see it? Because this beam blinds them.

They don't judge themselves. They judge others. I'll tell you something I have preached in this church for 30 years, for 29 years. If you want to progress spiritually, stop judging other people and judge yourself.

And people who heard me 25 years ago will remember that I said it even 25 years ago. Just finish with judging yourself and finish with judging others. Start judging yourself. Finish with judging other people completely and just concentrate.

Put your microscope on yourself and judge yourself. Full stop. And you say, what should I do after I judge myself? Judge yourself some more. After that, some more. When shall I stop? I'll tell you. When you have become completely like Jesus Christ.

Then you can stop. I permit you to stop once you have become completely like Christ. He who has this hope of the second coming of Christ purifies himself as he is pure. You say, well then how shall I correct other people?

I'll tell you. With mercy. With tremendous mercy. Just like Jesus. What did Jesus go and tell the woman caught in adultery? Did he say, ah adultery that's a small thing, forget it. Just go right ahead and keep doing it.

That's not what he said. He said, I don't condemn you sister, but don't ever do it again. That's mercy. He doesn't condone sin. Don't ever do it again. Supposing one of the Pharisees, why did the Pharisees all go away?

You know what they should have done? They should have come to Jesus and said, oh Lord, please forgive us. I get light on myself. I wish one of those Pharisees had come to Jesus and said, Lord, I now got such light that I'm worse than this woman caught in adultery.

I need your forgiveness more than that woman. Please have mercy on me. Not one of them came. Will one of you come to the Lord today, who've been accusing somebody, finding fault with somebody, finding fault with somebody else's children, never find fault with your own children, finding fault with somebody else's wife, never your own wife, finding fault with an elder brother, you don't judge yourself.

Will one of you get light today that you'll come pleading with Jesus, Lord, I see what an evil person I am. Instead, what do you do? Even if you get light, you may go casually to that person and say, ah, brother, I'm sorry.

He says, okay, forgive him. Ah, okay, I'm all right. You will repeat that sin a thousand times till you're broken. I've seen people who come to apologize to me. I don't see any brokenness in their life.

I forgive them. I forgive them even before they come and repent and apologize. But I'm sorry to say that very, very few people I have seen who are broken because of their judgmental attitude. Therefore, I know those people who apologize will again go back into the same old thing.