I’ve been spending time lately studying the Pharisees and thought you might enjoy some of the quotes I discovered:

From R.C. Sproul:  "It was the Pharisees who developed the doctrine of “salvation by separation.” They were practicing segregationists, believing holiness was achieved by avoiding contact with unclean sinners. No wonder they were scandalized by the behavior of Jesus who dealt with Samaritans, ate dinner with tax collectors, placed His hand upon lepers and ministered to harlots. Our Lord was accused of being a drunkard and a glutton, not because He was overweight or given to intemperance, but because frequented place where these things were common-place."

[Alan’s Note:  You’ll be interested to know that Sproul compared many local churches to the company of Pharisees active during Jesus’ time on earth.]

From Michael Horton (radio host, theology professor):  “To preach the Bible as 'the handbook for life,' or as the answer to every question, rather than as the revelation of Christ, is to turn the Bible into an entirely different book. This is how the Pharisees approached Scripture, as we can see clearly from the questions they asked Jesus. For the Pharisees, the Scriptures were a source of trivia for life's dilemmas. “

From Transforming Grace: Living Confidently in God’s Unfailing Love by Jerry Bridges: 
“We’ve gotten beyond the Galatian brand of legalism today. We haven’t resurrected circumcision as a requirement for salvation, and we’re clear that salvation is by grace through faith in Christ apart from the keeping of the law. Instead, we have developed another brand of legalism, a brand that is concerned, not with salvation, but with how we live the Christian life. I call this “evangelical legalism”…...Despite God’s call to be free and His earnest admonition to resist all efforts to curtail it, there is little emphasis in Christian circles today on the importance of Christian freedom. Just the opposite seems to be true. Instead of promoting freedom, we stress our rules of conformity. Instead of preaching living by grace, we preach living by performance. Instead of encouraging new believers to be conformed to Christ, we subtly insist that they be conformed to our particular style of Christian culture. We do not intend to do this and would earnestly deny we are. Yet that’s the “bottom line” effect of most of our emphases in Christian circles today……We are much more concerned about someone abusing his freedom then we are about his guarding it. We are more afraid of indulging the sinful nature then we are of falling into legalism. Yet legalism does indulge the sinful nature because it fosters self-righteousness and religious pride. It also diverts us from the real issues of the Christian life by focusing on externals and sometimes trivial rules……We build fences to keep ourselves from committing certain sins. Soon these fences – instead of the sins they were designed to guard against- become the issue. We elevate our rules to the level of God’s commandments."

From Tim Keller (“The Prodigal Sons”, a sermon on Luke 15):  “Why are tax collector types not as attracted to our churches as they were to Jesus?” ‘Is it because we are like the Pharisees?’

Also from the same sermon:

Signs you may be an elder brother

(1)  When things don’t go as you think they should, you get very angry. Why? Because they try to control God by their “goodness”.

(2)  A kind of mechanical, joyless obedience. Why? Because something other than God is the joy of your heart. We follow God for what we can get out of it.

(3)  You’re lousy at evangelism because you look down at younger brothers.

(4)  A lack of assurance of the Father’s love. “You never gave me a party…” This BTW, is related to a lack of intimacy in prayer. They have a lot of petitions but little intimacy.

(5)  Elder brothers hold grudges. The elder brother thinks HE would never do something like that.