There is little need to say anything with regard to the character of the scribes and of the Pharisees who are here denounced by the Lord. We may proceed to consider in the first instance, the necessity for such a warning as we have in the passage. Although the scribes and the Pharisees were those especially before the mind of the Lord Jesus when He gave this warning, the warning is given to the church of God for all times. The necessity for this warning arises first of all from the fact that man is proud; and, that the Lord is here directing His word against the sin of pride, is clearly brought out in verse 12: “And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased.” Pride does not hide itself even when man comes near to the holy things of God, although one might think that it would. It is evil enough to find pride among the men of the world for pride is an evil thing wherever it is found; but nowhere can pride be so obnoxious to the eye of the Lord as when it is found in connection with the affairs of His cause and kingdom. Because man is what he is; because man is basically sinful; because you and I are by nature under the power of the great evil spirit Satan who is proud as Lucifer, who is himself the very essence of pride as it is evident from Scripture that it is the sin of pride that brought Satan to fall from that eminence in which he was created; then, we are always in danger from pride. Even in the case of those sinners who are brought to a saving knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and have implanted within them the grace of God, pride is not absent. And such as are called to work in the service of the Lord and to the office of the ministry should remember that this evil is ready to manifest itself in the form of spiritual pride.
All forms of pride are vile but spiritual pride is most vile. “What hast thou,” the Apostle asked the Corinthians, “that thou hast not received?” When a man or a woman, a boy or a girl, boast because they are in the kingdom of God it surely is a sad state of affairs. Yet how much of that kind of pride lurks in our hearts. The pride particularly brought before us here is that which evidences itself in the Church of God amongst its rulers. This is no new thing in the Church of God. You can go back to the Old Testament and there you will find examples of this spirit in those who were connected with the affairs of God’s house. There is a warning given us in the example of Korah and Dathan and Abiram, which three rose up in the camp of Israel against Moses. These three thought themselves as near to God as Moses, and they were not afraid to speak against Moses the man of God; yet, you know how evident it was that nothing but the spirit of pride moved them in their rebellion.
When we come to the New Testament we do not need to pass by the twelve disciples of the Lord Jesus, in looking for a manifestation of this sin. Although they had with them the One who was meek and lowly, this did not hinder them revealing the contrary spirit. We read of two of them, on one occasion, James and John the sons of Zebedee, requesting that in the kingdom of the Lord they would sit the one on His right hand and the other on His left. They desired to be above their brethren. They craved a place of eminence. Later on in the history of the Lord Jesus and at a time when one would expect such thoughts to be far from their hearts, even at the time when their Lord and Master was about to be apprehended and tried and put to death, we find them thus. “And there was also a strife among them, which of them should be accounted the greatest.” Thus we see pride coming forth from those who were undoubtedly the children of God (Judas Iscariot excepted) and who were blessed with much grace, much understanding, much holiness, and much wisdom; and the Lord had to rebuke them for this evil. “And He said unto them, The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and they that exercise authority upon them are called benefactors, but ye shall not be so.”
In the Acts of the Apostles we do not find such clear references to this evil showing itself and this may be accounted for by the exceeding great measure of the Holy Spirit given to the early church, but before the close of the Word of God we find this spirit in the Church being checked by the Spirit of God.
Were we to trace the history of the church of God from the close of the canon of Scripture down to the present day, the same thing could be illustrated and, to some extent has been illustrated, by those well equipped to do so; so that the warning which the Saviour is giving us here belongs to ourselves and not to others — “Be not ye called Rabbi for one is your Master, even Christ.”
In the second place we would note the sinfulness of this condition, when those who rule in the church of God affect and desire titles of honour and places of eminence, in order to be above their brethren. They manifest the spirit of pride in having themselves called Rabbi and, the sinfulness of this is, that while they are thus seeking to exalt themselves, they are doing great dishonour to Him who is their Master, even Christ, who is not only their Master but the Master of God’s house. The things of the kingdom of God are not in the hands of any man, but in the hands of the Lord Himself and, inasmuch as any man seeks to be called Master he is taking away the eyes of his people from Christ. When the Lord was upon this earth, this is what took place. He was envied His rightful place in His own house. This is what we see taking place before our eyes today. Each one desires to be Master and to be reckoned as the authoritative voice in matters of religion. The position of the church today, to a very large extent, is as if Christ had never given His direction as to what He desires in His worship. This urge among men to have a place of eminence and to have that place that belongs to Christ, accounts for the fact that when problems arise concerning morality and concerning the worship of God, there is no answering by the church with an unequivocal voice, but men seek to set forth their individual opinions. In doing this they deny Christ His rightful place as Lord of His own house. One would think that the Church had been left without a Head, to find a way for herself. The people of the land are being left with this impression. One thing after another comes before the Government of the nation; one evil after another is demanding the sanction of law and, instead of the Church directing the Government to the rule of Christ in the Scriptures the Word of God is ignored in preference to man’s opinions. People are allowed to think that there is great dubiety about the moral issues of the day; whereas the truth is that Christ has given His direction about all these matters; there is no dubiety in the Word of God about the evil and sin of Abortion, about the duty of morality, and about the rightness of capital punishment for the sin of murder. There is no difficulty in these matters at all. The Master has spoken and the duty of the servants of the Master within the Church of God is to tell the people what the Master has said, but this love of eminence and love of position and love of the praise of men, has made the rulers of the church appear as if they had to discover for themselves the principles of conduct and, answer these great problems. In doing this the honour of Christ is taken away and we should beware of robbing Christ of His glory and honour, which He will not give to another.
Not only, however, is it the case that those that rule are guilty in this matter but those that are ruled. Congregations and individual people are guilty of making men their masters. When issues arise about any matter there is too much readiness among people to look to this minister or that minister and to let some minister decide for them what is right and what is wrong. Persons in such circumstances think it sufficient for a rule of behaviour that some minister approves of their behaviour; and the fact that some other minister may not approve is just another opinion which can be discarded or attributed to his ‘extremeness’. Thus the people act as if there was no Master, as if the Master of the house of God had not spoken in His Word as a criterion for them for all times. The people like this, although in doing so they are guilty of calling someone Rabbi. It is admitted that the people have a right to expect help from those that rule over them in the things of God. So here in this chapter the Saviour tells the people that they should have regard to the scribes and to the Pharisees in so far as they sat in Moses’ seat — that is in so far as they told expressly the law of God as given by Moses and the servants of God. People are not bound to follow any man’s opinion which cannot be proved from the Word of God. The rulers in the church are not seeking to be called ‘Master’ in such circumstances, when they try to lead and to guide their people according to the Word of God. What must be avoided is, that no private opinion of any man be followed as the rule of Christ.
The Word of God is a sufficient revelation for every age and for every condition, and, in particular, for 1969 with all its new problems and issues. In the realm of ethics, in the realm of morality and in the realm of day-to-day living, new problems come up, but we do not need to call men Rabbi. The Word of God has given the answer and that Word is to be listened to whether we like it or not, even when we would rather follow some man’s opinion which suits our carnal tastes better. How ready we are to seek refuge under some minister and under some name in the Theological world! When people do this they manifest that they are not seeking the mind of the Master and they are not asking themselves, is this a man’s private opinion or is it the mind of the Word of God? So it is when the church is divided on certain issues, the people are ever ready to join to one man or another. ‘I am of Paul, I am of Apollos, I am of Cephas’, is the attitude all too often in the church.
The duty of the church of God is to declare the mind of God to the people. This the true church is always seeking to do, basing their decisions on the Word. The Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland has, for example, given a ruling to its people on the keeping of the Lord’s Day, the Christian Sabbath. When you compare that view with the prevalent view among many who profess themselves to be evangelical and to be Christian you may be ready to question the matter. It may appear to you that the strict observance of that day as called for by the church, is only a matter of some men’s opinions. In other words, you may be ready to say that in this matter there are some men who would be called Rabbi. This is not so. The view of the church on the Sabbath is the view of the Master.
Now we pass on from the sinfulness of the attitude of calling men master, as seen in the dishonour it does to Christ, to the sinfulness which manifests itself in the harm that it causes among the brethren. We need not go back to the cases already raised this evening of Moses in his being opposed by Dathan, Korah and Abiram, although that should suffice. Even in the case where the Lord had to rebuke his own twelve disciples on account of their disputing which among them should be the greatest, we see what division it caused among these disciples. It made way for division; it made way for jealousy; it made way for hatred; it made way for envy; and it will be the same still where this spirit of seeking to be called chief or master prevails.
So far we have spoken on the positive side of the matter, on what evil follows this spirit, and now let us turn to view the subject from the negative side. We lose what is to be gained by having the spirit that we ought to have, even the spirit of humility and of esteeming others better than ourselves. We lose what is to be gained by acknowledging that we do have Christ as our One Master:— by acknowledging Christ as our Master, and believing that Christ is the Master and that Christ as the Master of His Church has left His Church with an infallible record, with a clear indication of His will on all matters bearing upon the salvation of man. He has left it on record as to how a man is saved; how a sinner is to come out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light. And it is not man’s opinion that you are to listen to when it comes to that! Yet there is a great deal of calling men master in this serious matter of one’s soul’s salvation. How solemn it is that any sinner should go to eternity resting his soul’s salvation upon the opinion of any minister. Therefore, rather search the Scriptures to be directed in this great matter. You are not to go to eternity thinking that although you might not satisfy some persons, or although you may not satisfy the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland, with regard to your experience of salvation, yet in other circles you would soon be regarded as a person that is born again and converted and saved. The young of our church should take great heed to this in a day when there is much mixing among varied Christian societies and among so-called ‘evangelical circles’, where the matter of conversion is made out to be something quite different than that which the Word of God makes it out to be. There is a danger that by mixing with persons of Arminian views on the matter of salvation that one will be ready to conclude himself or herself saved when it is not so. Christ has laid down for all time what it is that converts the soul of a dead sinner, even that it is the work of the Holy Spirit unaided by the sinner, and no minister nor group of persons calling themselves Christians shall ever change that. In a day when there is so much written in religious periodicals which makes for a superficial work in the minds and consciences of sinners, the danger is most real that sinners will go to eternity deceived. In following these vain opinions of men the sinner is losing the great blessing that belongs to the church of God, even that she has a Master who is ready to teach and Who is ready to give His Holy Spirit to them that ask Him.
On the consideration of how much is lost by this spirit of calling men master in as far as the brethren themselves are concerned, there is lost all that follows from ‘loving as brethren’.
When the Lord Jesus ascended up on high ‘He gave some apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers’; and the brethren are to recognise these differences, and it is only when the church accepts these differences that she reaps the benefits. We must realise that some have gifts for one thing and others have gifts in a different direction. The Lord gives the measure of gifts to each one as He sees shall be to the advantage of His Church upon earth. It must be acknowledged that certain persons have gifts above others. Therefore when it comes to setting persons over any business in connection with the Church our concern should be to see the person to whom Christ has given the required gifts and, not to seek places of eminence for ourselves or for others irrespective of their gifts.
The injunction of the Saviour states also that no man is to be called father for one is our Father which is in heaven — that is the Person of God the Father. This is most pertinent in connection with the salvation of a sinner. ‘Of His own will begat He us by the Word of His truth’.
Those who are to be born again are born ‘not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God’. Although there is a sense in which Paul refers to himself as a father in Christ, meaning that he was used by the Lord in the salvation of the person referred to: yet, if you are to be begotten into the family of God, you must call no man your father but look unto God the Father who alone can do this for you.
We come now in the third place to mention the warnings that the Lord gives against the sin we have been discussing. The warning is contained in the words, “Whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased.” If we perform the duties of religion to seek a place for self, we may for a little exalt ourselves, but the end will be that we shall be abased. This was most solemnly the portion of the scribes and Pharisees as we can see from the chapter where the Saviour warns them ‘How can ye escape the damnation of hell?’ Those who make a profession of religion and seek a place in the Church of God, out of love to self, shall have the same dreadful end, even the damnation of hell.
On the other side there is a promise of exaltation to those who will now abase themselves, ‘and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted’. The promise is made to those who will take the place that belongs to them as ignorant, lost sinners on their way to eternity. With all our knowledge and all our learning, if we possess it, we must be brought to acknowledge that we know nothing spiritually apart from the divine illumination. We must come to the Word of God as a little child. It is he that takes a low place before God, that truly humbles himself in the sight of God, that shall be exalted.
The Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is before us as an example of this very thing. He sets before us Himself. When the disciples were disputing which of them should be the greatest, the Lord Jesus told them that such rule as was among the world in the political sphere was not to be in His church. According to Dr Owen the Roman Catholic Church misinterpret this statement of Christ by saying that what Christ is warning them against is the unjust rule of the heathen rulers. That this is not the case is very clear from the word that the Lord Jesus uses to describe these very rulers; so far from their being tyrants of any kind or despotic in their rule, He calls them ‘benefactors’. There must be nothing of a ‘lordly spirit’ in those that rule in the Church of God. In another place, Christ said to His disciples ‘Ye call Me Master and Lord: and ye say well for so I am’. Look at Him who is the Master. He sought not to be ministered unto but to minister. He came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many. ‘If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another’s feet’. In other words, He was saying to them, I have already done myself that which I call you to do. I have grace to give you to enable you to walk in this humble way. The delight of the Master was to serve and this should be the delight of all who hold place in the Church of God. With such an attitude we would please the Master.
Christ is the Master and, as the Master, He it is to whom we shall all of us have to give our account. Each one of us, however gifted, however greatly used by the Lord, shall have to render our account to Him with respect to the manner of our ruling, as surely as those ruled by us must give their account, as to how they obeyed them that had the rule over them. We are not going to give our account to any man, for one is our Master, even Christ. To Him we must give answer for the views we held and followed in governing His Church. The people will not be able to lay the blame at their rulers. The Scribes and the Pharisees were leading the people of their day astray for eternity and, for this, as well as for all their other sins, they would perish for ever, but this would afford no cover or shelter for the people at the day of judgment who were willing to be led astray and refused to call Christ their Master. It will be no help to any sinner at the day of judgment to say that he followed the views of such and such a person or theologian of repute. At that day the great issue will be, was Christ our Master, or was it man? Christ as the Master has right to ask an account from those who serve in His Church. In view of that day let us pray to the Master to guide us in the affairs of His house that we be not found following man’s opinions, and that particularly, in regard to the salvation of the soul. How blessed they are who will be able to say at that day to the Master that they did what they did, they spoke as they spoke, they decided as they decided, because they were seeking to call no man Master, but to acknowledge the Lord as the Master.
May the Lord bless His Word.