Selective Morality

Introduction

He told me if I don’t quit on time, the bottom opens up. I think did I get it on? Get the mic on. Okay. I’m just delighted on behalf of Sue and I to be with you. We’ve have for some time anticipated eagerly the opportunity to come and be with you here at South Bumby to be with the Hark Riders who are dear, dear friends of ours. And uh I just got to tell you, it’s uh it’s it’s it’s a wonder that we got here. I was telling some a little earlier we were scheduled to fly out of Indianapolis at about 340, 350 yesterday afternoon. Uh they postponed our flight to 910. And so Sue and I got to spend a lot of time in the airport getting to know one another uh again.

So uh so I I don’t want to spend all that time talking about that. I’ll have more to say uh in a personal way during the uh during the time that we are together. And I I just want to say to you, if you will uh invite folks to come to this gospel meeting, I will assure you that I will do the very best I can to present what I am confident is the Word of God, and I will do it in such a way that you, if you invite someone, will not be ashamed and not feel embarrassed by having asked them to come and be a part uh of this gospel effort this week. So you you do what you can, and I promise you that I’ll be doing what I uh can to promote the uh the gospel of Jesus Christ and the expansion of his kingdom this week.

I want to begin this brief period that we have to gather this morning by revealing to you from the scripture, something that Jesus said in his confrontation with the Pharisees. All of us are familiar that very often Jesus had confrontations with the religious leaders of his day, in particular the Pharisees. But very often we’re not real sure as to why he had such personal confrontations with the Pharisees. And I believe in Matthew chapter 23, we sort of get a glimpse of what their problems were, or at least what many of their problems stemmed from. And we kind of get an idea then where they needed to be. But in Matthew chapter 23, and later, you know, on in the chapter, not necessarily at the very beginning, we find Jesus saying, beginning in verse 23 to the Pharisees, woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites.

1. You Pay Tithe of Mint, Anise and Cumin

For you pay tithe of Met Anis and Cuman and have neglected the weightier matters of the law, justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done without leaving the others undone, blind guides who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel. Now, I want you to notice, now Jesus is doing something here, and I’ve got a term for this that I want to highlight a little bit later in our in our study this morning. But I want you to notice what Jesus says. In the first place, he reminds them that they’re doing something that actually the Bible in Deuteronomy chapter 14 indicates that the Jews ought to be doing. And that is tithing. They ought to have been involved in tithing. Now, Jesus points out that you are tithing some, and really these are what we would just refer to today as spices, in order to just sort of accent the food a little bit.

But Jesus says, you tithe these spices. The spices of mint and anus and cumin. And as a matter of fact, if you look at what we have on the board here, and you sort of get an idea of just how small these particular seeds would have been. But I want you to get a picture of this. And so the Bible tells them that they were to tithe these seeds. They were to tithe these spices. But can you just picture what they were doing? You know, they lay these seeds out on a table, and they would count ten of them out, and they’d give one to God. Then they’d count ten out and they’d give another to God. And so this is what they were doing. Now Jesus said, you’re willing to do this.

2. The Weightier Matters: Justice, Mercy and Faith

You pay your tithe of these spices, but he said, you know what? In doing this, he says you have neglected some things. He says you’ve neglected what he considered to be the weightier matters of the law, such as justice and mercy and faith. Now we’re going to come back to this idea of a contrast in just a moment. But let’s highlight something that Jesus said he considers to be the weightier matters of the law. And I believe what Jesus is doing here is referencing something that is recorded in Micah chapter 6 and verse 8. In that passage, we find that he that is God has shown you, O man, what is good and what the Lord require of you, but to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

Now Jesus said, in looking at this in this great scheme of things, Jesus said, you know, there’s some things that you’re neglecting that are extremely important here. And he says these would involve justice. And you know, the idea of justice here, ladies and gentlemen, is the inward determination to behave honorably before God and before man. And you this is something that God elevates. This is something that God brings to the surface. And God says, you know what? This is very, very important. It reminds me of what the Proverb writer said in Proverbs chapter 21 and verse 3. He says, to do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to the Lord than listen to him than sacrifice. Now, God doesn’t say, you know, we’re pitting one against the other.

We accept one and reject the other. But God is saying, hey, you want to get some priorities here. He said, understand something. He said, understand that righteousness and justice is something that is more important to me even than sacrifices. So Jesus said to the Pharisees, now you’re neglecting some things that are of paramount importance to the Lord. Not just doing justice, but he says you are to love mercy. This is an internal love of tenderness. This is an internal love of compassion, being compassionate with others. And it reminds me of something Paul wrote in Ephesians 4 and verse 32, that we are to be tender hearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ has forgiven you. Now God said this is very important. It is important that not only you practice justice and righteousness, but that you practice mercy and forgiveness.

But then he also says that faith is important. And if you tie that with what Micah is saying, it’s the idea of walking humbly by faith with your God. Being faithful to God in all things, humbly submitting to God and his word in all things. Not just picking and choosing. Not just going like through a supermarket, so you know, I like this, but I’m not real fond of this. And so I’ll do this and I’ll reject this. Now, see, that’s what the Pharisees were doing. They were picking and they were choosing. We are, you know, Jesus, you know, uh, though he were a son, yet learned the obedience by the things which he suffered, and being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation. Hebrews chapter 5, verses 8 and 9 tells us by he became the author of eternal salvation to all those who obey him.

3. Straining Out a Gnat and Swallowing a Camel

And this is in all things. So now let’s notice the contrast here. Jesus says, you’re doing these things. You’re tithing these seeds, but he says, you know, you’re omitting some very important, even weightier matters of the law. And he says, you know what this is like? He said, this is like straining out a gnat and then swallowing a camel. You know what’s interesting? You know, gnat is an insect. Well, what’s interesting about this is insofar as the Jewish law was concerned, both were considered to be unclean. Leviticus chapter 11 and verse 4. Both of these were unclean. Now picture this. You know, when they’re maybe they’re straining their juice of the grape, and uh, you know, perhaps making wine. So they take this muslin cough and they would pour the juice through that, and it would just catch out every impurity, including these little tiny insects.

And they make sure they didn’t get it, you know, they don’t want any of that in there because they say, well, I’ll tell you why. These gnats are unclean. But Jesus said, Well, what you’re doing here in being very selective in what you obey. Jesus said, you know what it’s like? It’s like straining out these little gnats. And then at the same time taking a big gulp and drinking down a bigger unclean thing than anat. It’s swallowing a camel. Now, Jesus is not saying to these Pharisees that, well, you know what? Stop tithing this meant and the syncumen. And then start doing these weightier matters of the law. No, that’s not what Jesus is saying. Jesus is saying, these ought you to have done without leaving the others undone.

4. This Is Selective Morality

Now, while we recognize that this is hypocrisy, Jesus calls it hypocrisy. As a matter of fact, you look throughout Matthew chapter 23, and you’re going to find Jesus uses the term hypocrite on six or seven occasions. And that’s what it was. It was hypocrisy. But I refer to this as selective morality. You know, some time ago, if you get up close to me, you see that I’m wearing hearing aids. I do not apologize for that. I was teaching a young people’s class one time, a teenage class, and they got to ask me questions, and I got to answering those questions, and every time I answered a question, they’d laugh at me. And the reason they laughed at me is I wasn’t answering the questions that they asked.

I couldn’t hear.

My brother tells me the only time he has selective hearing is when he goes to the Bass Pro Shop. And then he says his phone rings and he can’t hear it. And it’s his wife called, where are you? But this is what this is, this is what these Pharisees were doing. It was selective morality. This is important. Morally we’ll do this. But morally we won’t do this. Because to them it wasn’t important. Now, now just stop and think for a moment. Is this something that we see about us today? Is there anything that we look at today that would be selective morality? Yes. Look at this guy. This guy’s out here protesting, you know, he wants clean air now. He wants you to drive a you go that you peddle so that you’ll not pollute the air.

And what’s he doing? Now, this is selective morality. This is important. This is not important. So I, you know, I will become my own judge as to what I deem to be important and what I deem to be essential. And I think about it insofar as our culture is concerned, the political and the religious climate of our culture. You know, you can take, uh you look at our culture today, and you can take those who would uh uh consider if you desecrated the Quran that this is a hate crime. But at the same time, you can have the attitude that I can desecrate the Bible and I can desecrate things that pertain to Christianity, and that becomes art. And if you, you know, if you do that insofar as the Quran is concerned, that’s a hate crime.

But see, what this is, ladies and gentlemen, whether we like it or not, is simply selective morality. Determining, you know, looking at things that would be comparable and deciding one is more important than the other. And then there’s this case. How many of you would know who a man by the name of Dan Cathy is? He is the founder of Chick-fil-A, and he came out in support of what we refer to as traditional marriage. That marriage is between a man and a woman. You know, those of us who understand the Bible, we say, well, duh, you know, that’s he who made them at the beginning, made them male and female and said for this cause a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife.

And so Dan Cathy comes out and says, you know what? I accept that as a standard for marriage. A man and a woman. And you know what? The powers that be tried to destroy him financially and tried to destroy his character. Just simply because he expressed that. But then you take someone like Ellen DeGeneres, who is an avowed lesbian, who is in a in so-called marriage relationship or a relationship with a significant other, and she is awarded and she is heralded as someone who is brave and someone who is inclusive. Well, ladies and gentlemen, this is selective morality. And this is something that we are encountering on a regular basis. And those of us who would be sports fans, we understand that this is something that is prominent in the NFL.

You know, years ago when Tim Tebow, who came to fame right here in the state of Florida, you know, when he would take a knee and offer thanks to God. I’m not saying that God’s interested in football. But nevertheless, Tim Tebow was wanting to thank God for any success that he had. And he was vilified and almost driven out of the league. And then Colin Kaepernick, he can take a knee because he thinks that this is a racist, ungodly society or nation in which we live. And he is heralded and he’s put on the cover of Time magazine. This is selective morality. I think the greatest example of selective morality would be the preservation of baby seals. Let’s not do anything to destroy them. But we can destroy baby humans with abortion.

This is selective morality. It was kind of like I was hearing about a couple goes to KFC. And they’re going to go on a picnic. And so they go to KFC and they get a uh sort of like a picnic box of chicken and all the fixing you know. Well, what happened was very interesting. Because when the man went in to make his order, there was a mistake. There was something that occurred. The manager of that KFC was getting ready to go make a deposit of $2,000 at the bank. And so what he does, or what he did, he would take that deposit and he would put it in a to-go box so that when he left with it, if anyone was thinking about maybe trying to rob him, they wouldn’t realize that he had the money.

He just had a box of chicken. Well, what happened was when the man ordered his picnic box, they accidentally gave him the box with about $2,000 in it. So he goes off to, you know, he and the lady that’s with him, they go off down here to the park. You know, they’re going to have a little picnic, a little uh finger-licking good, you know, picnic down there, and he opens that box up, and lo and behold, there’s a lot of money in there. So you know what he does? He packs it up and he takes it back to KFC. And he goes in and he tells the guy, he said, Listen, somebody’s made a mistake here uh given me this money instead of my chicken, and I want to return this money because that’s the right thing to do.

And so the manager of the store says, Well, I’ll tell you what, let’s do. I’m gonna call the newspaper. This is something that is astounding. Most people would not have done this, and I want you to be honored for your honesty. And the man says, No. Don’t do that. Because he says, you know, I’m married, and the lady that I’m with is not my wife. And folks, that’s selective morality. Adultery’s okay, but stealing is not. This is selective morality. Now let me ask you something. I’ve kind of dealt with generalities here. What do you think about as far as believers are concerned? You know, you’re going to find that in the course of my presentation, there’s two things you need to know about me. Number one, I’m very passionate about what I believe and very passionate in the way that I deliver what I believe.

5. Is This Something We Often Have a Problem With?

As a matter of fact, you talked to my wife, she said, whatever J.R. does, he does it like he’s fighting a brush fire. And that’s the way that I do. But in the second place, you’re going to find that I try to be very practical, and I try to be very challenging. And so this is what I want to do. I’m not concerned with the selective morality necessarily that’s in the world. I’m concerned is this something that we often have a problem with? Selective morality. And to help us answer that question, I’m going to put up a few things on the screen behind me to challenge our thinking just a little bit. Let’s take this idea. We would condemn churches having food pantries. And that’s wrong.

There’s no question about that. There’s absolutely no authority for a local congregation to become a wholesale distributor insofar as a church pantry is concerned. And so we oppose that, and we want our preachers and we want our elders and we want others to make such an opposition to that. No. But at the same time, what do we do? Are we willing to recognize that James 127 addresses the fact that we are to visit the fatherless and the widows and their affliction? This is something that we’re to do. What am I doing? Am I just opposing something? Or am I, as Paul says in Galatians chapter 6 and verse 10, am I taking every opportunity that I have to help someone who is in need? Or am I like the priest and the uh and the Levite in the parable of the Good Samaritan?

Do I just walk by on the other side? You know, could this be a problem of a little selective morality? Or what about this? I would never allow my children to participate in a religious music program at school. But while I would oppose such as that, and I should, I might be addicted to pornography. I might have downloaded movies on my computer. I may be addicted to gambling or prescription drugs or alcohol, which are works of the flesh, Galatians 5, verses 19 through 21, that tell me that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. And you know, is this selective morality? Am I deciding what’s important? Oh, it’s important that my children not participate in these unscriptural religious programs. But at the same time, I ignore my morality.

And divorce. We’ll talk about this in the Bible class a little bit later. I’m opposed to divorce. I, you know, I tell people, you know, divorce is against my religion. Divorce is something that I am opposed to. But, you know, at the same time that I you know, I reject divorce. I I may treat my wife with contempt, and I may become verbally abusive to her. I may withhold my love from her, even though I’m told to love her as God as Christ loves the church. And, you know, I may show unkindness at home. You know, but divorce is against my religion. I would never think of divorcing, but I am not living up to the commitment that I may. Is this not, ladies and gentlemen, selective morality?

Or I would never allow my son or my daughter to attend a dance, even the school prom. But I’ve never taken the time to talk to his girlfriend or talk to her boyfriend about loving and serving the Lord. This is important. This takes precedence over the other. You know, Paul says we need to make known to all men the gospel of Christ. Now, ladies and gentlemen, these we ought to have done without leaving the others undone. This is what Jesus is talking to the Pharisees about. Or we could look at a few more examples. I would never think of missing a called assembly of the church. And so while I’m here every time the doors are open, when I leave here, I display an out-of-control temper and an out of control tongue.

Peter says that I must be self-controlled. When Peter lists what we often refer to as virtues.

This is selective morality. I wouldn’t think of not teaching a Bible class. When the elders get up and say, hey, you know, we need Bible teachers for the next quarter. We need Bible teachers for next year. I would never think of not throwing my name in the hat. I want to teach the Bible. I would never think about being a part of a congregation where I wasn’t involved in teaching. That’s important. But then I go to a restaurant and I treat a server or I treat a cashier with verbal contempt. You know, I may go to a restaurant and order sweet tea and they bring me unsweet tea. Now, while I’m teaching a Bible class, I look at the server and I say something as profound and ungodly as, hey, what about sweet?

You cannot understand. You know, I’m practicing selective morality. And I believe the use of instruments of music and worship is sinful, but I will not sing. Or if I do sing, I will not sing with enthusiasm. Well, you know, I’m to sing with the spirit and the understanding. Is not this selective morality? I would always attend every service of a gospel meeting. But I’ve never once walked across the street and invited my neighbor. Or get on the phone and invited a friend to come to the gospel meeting. You know what? These are things that we ought to have done without leaving the others undone. That’s selective morality. Jesus said in Matthew chapter 5 and verse 20, I say to you, unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.

Conclusion

You know, there is to be no moral selectivity among the disciples of Christ. When Jesus used the word exceed, he’s not talking about quantity. He’s not talking about saying more prayers and longer prayers and reading your Bible more. He’s talking about quality.

You see, the Pharisees’ moral selectivity of right and wrong actually annulled or canceled the law. Jesus said, You’ve made the commandments of God of no effect. You see, they picked and they chose to obey what they believed to be important. Their faith, ladies and gentlemen, was defined by their selective obedience. That’s to be contrasted with our all-inclusive obedience, is to be a result of our faith in Christ. And without faith, it’s impossible to please him. For he that comes to God must believe that he is, and that he’s a rewarder of all those who diligently seek him. Their deeds were motivated by self-glorification to be seen by men. Our deeds, our obedience and our submission to the Lord is because of our love for him. And for our opportunity to glorify him.

We’re to involve ourselves, Matthew 5 and verse 16, in these good deeds, not to bring honor to us, not to tell people how religious we are. But we’re to do these things so that we can bring honor and glory to the one who saved us, to the Lord Jesus Christ. Let us not be selective in our morality. Would you join with me in a word of prayer, please? Our Father, we are so grateful to be your children. We’re so grateful, Heavenly Father, that you have provided us with the opportunity to bring glory to you and to lead men to know of you and love you and serve you. Thank you for the time that we were able to spend this morning in considering these few words from your word.

We pray, Heavenly Father, that our hearts were open and receptive to your truth. We thank you and we love you, Heavenly Father, and we ask your blessings to be with us not only at this time, but all the rest of our lives as we strive to serve you in full obedience. This we pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.