The Pharisaical Church of Christ

Introduction

Say the Lord hath made, amen. What a pleasure it is to be with fellow saints, fellow Christians, fellow children of God, and to worship God and praise Him this morning. If you will, open your Bibles to Matthew chapter 23. Matthew chapter 23, and if you will, leave a marker there if you have one, or maybe a pencil that might be found on the pew back in front of you. Because we’re going to be in this text for a while and for the majority of this morning. But before we begin, I’d like to perhaps open with an illustration of something that we all understand at least a little bit about. When I was growing up, Cayley, my sister and I were sometimes asked to clean the house.

And generally speaking, that wasn’t one of my favorite chores, nor was it one of my sisters. But I’ll tell you, we had one really common response to being asked to clean the house, and it was often something along the lines of, who’s coming over? There’s some laughter, because we understand the sentiment. Whether your kids have asked you that or you ask your parents that, what’s really behind that question is the knowledge of experience that says, we clean up the house when people come over. Have you ever thought about why we do that? Certainly there’s nothing wrong with a clean house, and many of us have a clean house before people come over. But we like to take extra special care when people come over. Why? Well, because people are going to find out something about us.

They’re going to say, this is how they live. They live neat and tidy, or their house is a mess. Or their lawn was not mowed in like at least a week and a half. Oh, the horror. And we think to ourselves, we have to put on the best public space. Why? We don’t like being exposed. As one sitcom character said in response to cleaning the house, let’s stop the charade. And his point being, let’s just be as we are. But if you notice in Matthew chapter 23, we notice Jesus is doing something that’s far more personal than going into their homes and far more personal than exposing their daily habits. He’s exposing them for who they really were. He was exposing the Pharisees and the scribes for their dead spiritual condition.

Notice in the reading beginning in verse 1. Then Jesus said to the crowds and his disciples, the scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat. So do and observe what they tell you, but not the works they do. For they preach but do not practice. They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger. They do all their deeds to be seen by others, for they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long, and they love the place of honor at these, and the best seats in the synagogues, and greetings in the marketplaces, and being called rabbi by others. But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brothers, and call no man your father on earth, for you have one father who is in heaven.

Neither be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Christ. The greatest among you shall be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted. And thus Jesus has set the stage for his furrow, thorough, excuse me, exposing of the Pharisees. But notice who he’s speaking to. Note verse 1 very carefully. And Jesus says to the crowds and his two and to his disciples, the scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat, and then he goes on to address their behavior, their characteristics, their teachings, even in this chapter. He’s talking to the people about who these Pharisees and the scribes actually were. But on the surface, we all know who they were, don’t we? We know that they were the religious leaders.

These were people who knew the law. They taught the law. They claimed to love the law. And if you notice, all of these benefits that they took advantage of, notice in verse 6. And they loved the place of honor at feast and the best seats in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces and being called rabbi by others. You know what those seats and those honors were a byproduct of, don’t you? Of being religious leaders. They were using their position and their authority and their leadership for their own selfish benefit. And Christ exposes them for that. But notice, as we pick up in verse 13, he goes on to a series of woes to the Pharisees and to the scribes, oftentimes even calling them hypocrites. And we understand as we look back at verse 3 how they were hypocritical.

What is he telling the crowds and the disciples about them? So do and observe what they tell you, but not the works they do. Why? For they preach, but do not practice. And that is the stage of this chapter. These Pharisees and the scribes, they knew the law. They taught the law. They claimed to love the law. But they did not practice it. Instead, they burdened other people. They took away from parts of the law, as we see. They added to the law, and since it’s as we will see. But this morning, I’m less concerned with the Pharisees, and more concerned perhaps about those of us here. You see, the Pharisees represented leadership in a religious organization, a group of people. And sometimes I’m left to wonder are we members of individually and as a collective, a Pharisaic church of Christ.

And the only way to know that is just like to do with how we determine if we’re a son of God. We examine what God has said about it. Let’s examine what Jesus says about the Pharisees and see if we are Pharisaical or if we are truly Christians. Notice beginning in verse 13. Consider. But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you shut the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. For you devour widows’ houses, and for a pretense you make long prayers. Therefore you will receive the greater condemnation. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte.

1. You Shut the Kingdom of Heaven in People’s Faces

And when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves. As you see, he’s not holding anything back. Jesus is going right for the throat. But focus on verse 13 and consider our leadership. Consider the leadership of the Pharisees here. What does he call them out for? You shut the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. You neither enter yourselves nor allow those who enter to go in. I hope you recognize what a strong teaching this is. Think about that with me. He’s telling the Pharisees that they will what? Not enter the kingdom of heaven, and worse yet than that, they’re keeping other people from doing the same. Isn’t that what verse 13 shows us? You shut the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces.

How would they do that? How are these Pharisees, even being religious leaders, how are they responsible for what somebody else does? As Christians, we like to say that all the time, don’t we? We say, well, I’m not responsible for what brother or sister does, or what the mailman who comes by my house every day who I talk with does. It’s his life. It’s his choices. And that’s right to a degree. We can’t impose free will on anyone, just like God has chosen not to force us to his will either. We all have free will, but there is something we can do. And it starts with two important factors. One of them is the most important man who has ever lived, and that is Jesus the Christ.

What is one way that they shut the kingdom of heaven on people’s faces? They denied Jesus as Christ. Obviously, if you deny Christ, you cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven as Jesus is the way. He is the truth, he is the life. No one comes to the Father except through me, Jesus says. So we know that obviously, if you take away Jesus from the equation, we have no hope. We have no salvation. But you see, they took it a step further. And while I think many of us would have good leadership in leading people to Christ, let us examine what Jesus talks about these people in Matthew chapter 15. Notice how he describes them in another place in the Gospel of Matthew. Look with me beginning in verse 3 of Matthew chapter 15.

Notice in verse 1 he’s talking to the Pharisees and the scribes, and in verse 3 he says, And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? For God commanded, honor your father and mother, and whoever reviles father and mother must surely die. But you say, if anyone tells his father or his mother, what you would have gained from me is given to God. He need not honor his father. So for the sake of your tradition, you have made void the word of God. You hypocrites. Well did Isaiah prophesy of you when he said, This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. In vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines, the commandments of men.

I’d like to key in on verse 5. Look again with there. Remember, what we’re trying to examine is how did the Pharisees shut up the kingdom of heaven to those who they were teaching, to those who they were around? I think we find the answer here. But you say, if anyone tells his father or his mother, what you would have gained from me is given to God, he need not honor his father. So for the sake of your tradition, you have made void the word of God. We’re going to talk about tradition a little bit later as we move forward and as Jesus continues to expose the Pharisees in several different aspects. But notice what the charge of that was. You make void the word of God.

They have canceled it out. How did they do that? They elevated their traditions, the tradition of men over the commandments of God. And so, by doing that, when they went and taught people, how do you think that they taught them? How do you think they instructed them? Do you think they taught them just about God and they left out their traditions that were so important to them? No. It’s one college football announcer says, not so fast, my friend. They would have definitely included their traditions, their ideas, their thoughts. What’s the problem with that? It’s about them, their or I and me. And with our leadership and our walk of Christ, we need to not be teaching what the church of Christ does or what South Bumbee does.

We need to teach what belonging to Christ means. You see, why do we call ourselves, why do we have on the sign out there church of Christ? It is the church that is in subjection to Christ. It is a collection of Christians who submit to the will of him. And that’s what the Pharisees were missing in both a very blatant way in denying Jesus as deity and his position as the Son of God and by teaching their traditions. And you see, we may claim Jesus is the Son of God, but there’s more to it. We cannot make void the commandments of God. And there’s multiple ways to do that. And as we’re living and as we’re teaching people, let’s teach them about Christ. Let’s teach them about how our sins can be forgiven.

2. Devouring Widows’ Houses: A Misuse of Authority

Not about how we should have two songs, not the sermon as we learned at 9 a.m., but about opening prayer, and then another couple songs, and then the invitation in the morning. And then the sermon. You see, it’s not about these rigid structures that we put on things. Although they’re good, they can be helpful. But following Christ is necessary. Christ is our life. Not the elders of this church, not the deacons, not the preachers. No one in here can give life except Jesus. And so we need to follow him as such. But if you’ll notice in verse 14, he has another woe, a second woe for them. And for those of you who are using an English Standard Version or perhaps an NIV version, verse 14 may be found in your notes.

But lest you think it is unbiblical and I’m adding to the word of God, we’ll turn to a different passage in a moment that confirms this idea. But look with me in Matthew 23, and for those of you who have it, verse 14. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. For you devour widows’ houses, and for a pretense you make long prayers. Therefore you will receive the greater condemnation. I promise you we turn to another passage. Look at me in Mark chapter 12. In Mark chapter 12. Notice what Jesus is warning them of here. Mark chapter 12, beginning in verse 38. And in his teachings, he said, and tell me if this sounds familiar, beware of the scribes who like to walk around in long robes and like greetings in the marketplaces and have the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at feast who devour widows’ houses and for a pretense make long prayers.

They will receive the greater condemnation. See, it’s not just about not having Christ, it’s not just about shutting up the kingdom of heaven. It’s that if you are shut out from the kingdom of heaven, you will have the condemnation, and these people would have the greater condemnation. Why? In verse 14 of Matthew chapter 23. Why in Mark chapter 12? And if you’re also aware in your Bibles in Luke chapter 20, why is Jesus warned of this? It was a misuse of their authority. See, they weren’t just followers of God. These Pharisees and scribes, they were exalted leaders. In fact, that played into their pride and was part of their problem as Jesus exposes. But if you notice, they loved it. They craved the attention that comes with that.

Maybe you’ve been in a position before. Whereas a Christian, you’ve stood out. Maybe people have complimented your good work ethic. Or maybe maybe you just consider yourself a little bit better than the world because you say, oh, the world is so wicked. How do people go see those movies? How do they go and participate in these clubs? I’m at home. I read a book on Friday night. It might not be the word of God, but I’m not out there doing those things. I’m better than those people. You see, what we like is attention as people, and what the Pharisees did in Matthew chapter 23 and Mark chapter 12 is they would devour the widows in their houses. Well, what does that mean? It means they use their positions of authority to take advantage of them.

Except it gets worse. Look back at the text, whichever one you’re looking at, whether Luke 20, Mark 12, or Matthew 23, what’s the problem? They make a pretense with long prayers. They say, oh, this is in the name of God. Just pray with me. And as a position of authority, as a follower of God, they could say that, oh, oh, all that I’ve I’ve told you, it’s in the name of God. And here’s how. And you say a prayer, and bada bing, bada boom, it’s a following of God now, right? That’s not how it works. Notice, it’s worse yet that they did that. They covered their tracks by trying to claim religious exclamations for what they were doing. They tried to say, well, this is all okay because we prayed to God, right?

They abused their authority. In Matthew chapter 6, we understand how we truly should be helping people and the reasons for why we should. Notice in Matthew chapter 6, beginning in verse 2. Jesus says, Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret, and your father who sees in secret will rewards you. Aha. Here’s some application for us. You might not be in a position of leadership, but we are in a position as lights into the world, aren’t we?

Isn’t that our command in Matthew chapter 5? In verses 13 through 16, we’re to be salt to the earth, we’re to be light in the world of darkness. And yet, what does Jesus say about helping out those who are in need? Don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. What does that mean? It means do it because you love the Lord and because you love his servants. You recognize fellow souls on the same journey you’re on. Help people because you can. And because you love them. Not because you want a trumpet sounded sounding your praises, not because the whole congregation needs to know what brother and sister so-and-so has done for someone else this week, but because you love God. And you’ll see as we keep exposing the Pharisees, as we look at how Jesus does that, you’ll see it’s about a love of men rather than a love of God.

3. Twice as Much a Child of Hell: Our Teachings

And that is a problem because the minute the love of God has been taken out of the equation, you’ll see a whole host of problems that follow. You see, so far we’ve seen that they made void the traditions, the word of God with traditions of men. So so far, traditions have surpassed God. Now the praise of men has surpassed the value, the price that God offers us for doing what he says. But now read Matthew 23 and verse 15. And this one’s startling. Matthew chapter 23 and verse 15. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte. And when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves. Do we understand how great this condemnation is?

Jesus is condemning their proselytizing. You see that? He’s condemning the way they went about in their proselytizing. What does he have a big problem with? Note the text. Note what it says. You travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte. Well, aren’t we supposed to go into all the world and preach the gospel? Yes. Well, let’s keep reading. That can’t be the problem. And when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves. Who did this? They did. To who? The proselyte. It was their teachings. Do you notice in the book of Acts, in Acts chapter 8 and in Acts 16, we have all these examples of people coming to Christ. You know what the text often reveals, like with Philip and the eunuch?

And it’ll say, and Philip preached Jesus to him. The Pharisees didn’t teach Jesus. In fact, they rejected Jesus as Lord. But worse than that, they rejected God’s word in favor of their traditions. So when they converted someone, they didn’t convert them to Christ at all. They converted them to their Pharisee sect. Do you see the difference? This is very important. I’m going to make this drive this one home in just a moment. The Pharisees were religious leaders, absolutely. But when they converted people, they didn’t convert people to God. They converted people to the Pharisees. See, it feeds their ego, it feeds their system. And so I want to consider this morning our teachings. Raise your hand if you have ever thought about teaching someone the gospel.

If you’ve ever thought about it, raise your hand.

I’m going to stick out this one. If you have ever thought, I’m saying it now, so you should be thinking about it. Okay?

Magic, right? As you consider your teaching, what do we often think about? Oh, we’ve got to teach teach people about their sin. Oh, we’ve got to get them to stop going to those subs. Got to get them, especially if they’re in these other churches that use instrumental music, gotta stop them from that kind of thing. And maybe you thought about this one and I’m guilty of this one. Got to get them to those waters of baptism, don’t we? That’s where salvation is. Salvation’s in Christ. We need to be careful that when we teach people, we’re not teaching them to Church of Christ doctrine as it stands, but we’re teaching them the doctrine of Christ. You see, there’s a powerful difference in converting to a church or to an organization versus converting to Christ.

Christians go to heaven. Members of a church do not unless they’re Christians. Do you see that? Only Christians, only followers of Christ are saved because Jesus is the way. So do we make a conversion to the idea of not using instrumental music, which I find to be biblical? We have no authority for using instrumental music. But do we convert people on what we don’t do, or do we convert people on what Christ has done for them? You see, converting people is not about teaching them doctrine, it’s about teaching them Christ. We see that with the with the brothers in Acts who are doing the teaching. We see that that’s how it sticks. That’s how it stays. It doesn’t matter if people worship in this building. This building saves no one.

Christ saves everyone who calls on his name and does what he says. There’s a powerful difference between the two. And the minute we start fast-tracking the gospel to anything but straight to Christ and straight to God and loving him because he has first loved us, we have missed it. And the problem with that is, just like the problem that Jesus exposes in verse 15 of Matthew chapter 23, it is the problem of hypocrisy. We claim to be Christians and then we teach them to go to what? Our sect of Christianity. Problem with that is they haven’t been brought to Christ. They’ve been brought to my teachings, not Christ’s teaching. We have to allow the message of God to pour through through us. We have to have patience and love as Christ is patient and has loved us.

4. Blind Guides: Personal Opinion Has Run Amok

And we need to be careful that when we consider our leadership and uses of authority, that we stick with the teaching of Christ, because you know what? We may be teaching someone who takes our word as gold. And that’s what the people undoubtedly would have done. Those proselytes that the Pharisees made, they would have said, Oh, these are religious people. The scribes, they know the law better than anyone. If they say it, I should do it. Be careful about what we teach with these positions of authority. Consider reading with me in verse 16. Woe to you, blind guides, who say, if anyone swears by the temple, it is nothing. But if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath. You blind fools, for which is greater the gold or the temple that has made the gold sacred.

And you say, if anyone swears by the altar, it is nothing. But if anyone swears by the gift that is on the altar, he is bound by his oath. You blind men, for which is greater the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred. So whoever swears by the altar swears by it, and by everything on it. And whoever swears by the temple swears by it, and by him who dwells in it. And whoever swears by heaven, swears by the throne of God, and by him who sits upon it.

Is their personal opinion has run amok. And their personal opinion was wrong. Their personal opinion was sinful. It transgressed the commands of God. How could that happen? Do you say, how could these religious leaders and scribes miss it so badly? Because it was about their opinion. They started quibbling and they started saying, Well, this makes sense here, and if it makes sense to me here, and then it makes sense to me there, then I I can see how this happens. But notice the real teachings. Look with me in Matthew. Look with me in Matthew chapter 6. Excuse me, Matthew chapter 5. Notice in verse 33 of Matthew chapter 5, notice what Jesus says about oaths and swearing in Matthew chapter 5 and verse 33. Again, you have heard that it was said to those of old, you shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.

But I say to you, do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great king. And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. Let what you say be simply yes or no. Anything more than this comes from evil. So consider the teachings. Wrap your minds around Matthew 5, verse 33 to 37 again. And consider verse 34. Consider the rationale for what Jesus is saying. He says, do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, why? It is the throne of God. Or by the earth, why? For it is God’s footstool.

Or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great king. What’s the point? If you swear by something, it’s God’s. You’re not circumventing rules. You’re not tricking God. You haven’t found a loophole. Don’t make, don’t swear. Don’t make these oaths. Let your yes be yes and your no be no. Now let’s go back to Matthew 25. Now let’s look at their reasoning again. Notice what he calls them. It’s a description here. It illustrates their problem right off the bat. Woe to you, blind guides. They were leading them, and yet they were blind. They didn’t know the right path. If anyone swears by the temple, it is nothing. But if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, then he’s done something. Then he’s bound by the oath.

Verse 17, you blind fools. For which is greater, the gold or the temple that has made the gold sacred? And you say, if anyone swears by the altar, it is nothing. But if anyone swears by the gift that is on the altar, he is bound by his oath. Do you see how ridiculous men’s reasoning can get? Well, if you do it on the altar, that’s fine. If you do it on the gold on the altar, now that’s something. You’ve got to take that seriously. Or what about verse 16? If anyone swears by the temple, it’s nothing. If anyone swears by the gold of the temple, bound by that oath. What does Jesus teach? Don’t make these oaths. Be an honest person. Let your yes be yes, your no be no.

But don’t try to circumvent things and say that this isn’t of God, this isn’t sacred. It’s all from God. It’s all for God. It’s all about God. That’s both in our lifestyles and in our promises. He says, don’t swear. And these blind guides, the Pharisees, the scribes. They taught their opinion. And you know what the danger of opinion is? You can be wrong. I want to suggest something this morning that might be unpopular. I’m not suggesting any alternate timeline. I just want to throw this out there. You notice in Genesis chapter 1 and verse 1. It says, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth in the year 4,000 BC, right?

No. Hope you got that. It says, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. We don’t know what year it was made. You can track all the genealogies back, but let me tell you something. God could have made the earth at any stage in its development as he wanted, right? He had that power. Does anyone think he made Adam an infant? And Eve an infant? Maybe. We don’t know. But what we do know is that God created the heavens and the earth. So we’ve got to stop teaching our personal opinions as doctrine. If we teach that the world is four, six thousand years old and it’s wrong, people’s faith will be lost because we taught our opinion as doctrine and it’s not. What’s doctrine is that God created the heavens and the earth.

And praise be to him for doing that. God has given us everything. He’s given us so much to teach about. We should stick with the teachings. Because I can guarantee you, you could teach for a lifetime and not run out of the goodness of the Word of God to teach from. We got plenty to teach from in the Word to not have to leave it and to dare to put our salvation and the salvation of those who are teaching on my opinion, on my authority. That’s what Jesus is exposing the Pharisees and the scribes of here. And the danger is evident. Yeah, they were guides, but they were blind guides. They led them wrongly. An opinion may be correct, but an opinion may also be wrong.

5. Misplaced Priorities: The Weightier Matters of the Law

And who wants to wage their eternity on man’s opinion? I don’t want to be in that line. But notice in verse 23, Jesus continues Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you tithe mint and dill and cumin and have neglected the weightier matters of the law. Justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done without neglecting the others. You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel. Let’s consider our misplaced priorities. Do you notice that Jesus is not saying, please notice what he is not saying? He’s not saying avoid these facets of the law. In fact, he says the exact opposite at the end of verse 23. What does he say? These you ought to have done without neglecting the others.

You see, it all comes together. They didn’t have a right, just like we don’t have a right, to pick apart the word of God, but we also don’t have a right to say, this is more important and this is more important, and ignore the weightier matters of the law. If anything, elevate the matters, give more weight to the matters that deserve that weight, that scale of justice. But notice what Jesus says the real weightier matters of the law are justice and mercy and faithfulness. Well, what is it in opposition to? For you tithe mint and dill and cumin. Well, that’s important, isn’t it? The tithing. It was very important. In fact, the children of God in Israel, I guarantee you, would be held. If they did not do that, they would be held accountable.

But too often the Pharisees and the scribes neglected justice and mercy and faithfulness, and stringently trying to bind even the littlest of commands. Except not really on themselves, but on those who were listening to them. And that’s what Jesus calls out in verse 24. You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel. It’s kind of an absurd picture, isn’t it? But consider our misplaced priorities sometimes. You know, I think a lot of times when we describe, when I describe the church I’m going to, sometimes I’m tempted to tell a lot of what we don’t do. Aren’t you? Well, we don’t do this, and we certainly don’t have any of that because we don’t see that. And we oh, we definitely don’t do that. You’ve got to quit doing that if you’re going to come here.

I kind of wonder sometimes that people get the feeling of what do they do there? A church should be a place of worship and praise to God. Period. It should be a place where we come together and pray to him, where we sing songs of praise, teaching and admoshing one another. We should come to praise God to remember Christ and his great sacrifice, his death, burial, and resurrection in the Lord’s Supper. We should come to give back a portion that we have been blessed with by God. And we should do that because God asked us to. But you know what Christianity is really about? It’s about Christ. It’s about submitting our lives, leaving everything behind, and following him. And yeah, that means doing it the right way.

And that means doing all of it. But it means doing it all and keeping it all, especially about God’s grace. God’s mercy. God’s love. Sometimes topics scare us. We don’t like to hear certain things because we know how denominational error has kind of swung them out of proportion. We get nervous sometimes when the preacher stands up and starts talking about how wonderful the grace of God is and how it’s a free gift. I’m here to tell you the gift of God is grace, and it’s free. It is. Fact. But you know what? That doesn’t take away our responsibility to follow after Christ, to follow after God, and to do all that He says, to take advantage of God’s offer to us. We’ve got to be careful that we consider our priorities and make sure they’re in the same order that Christ are.

6. Our Inner Man and Our Outer Mask

Because if they’re not, we’re not following Christ correctly. And so now pick up the reading again in Matthew 23. Now we’re going to read verses 25 through 28. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. This morning I’d like to exhort us to consider our inner man and our outer mask.

If you notice in verse 25 and 26, he’s getting after them for you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. They care a lot about making sure that on the outside they appear to be doing what’s right. But how much care are they doing to what is actually being done? And actually, what you find with a word there like greed is that it’s kind of dirty. It’s very dirty, in fact, on the inside. I’d like to consider this idea of the inner man and the outer mass, and I want everyone to look around for a moment. Everyone look around. I say this time and time again. I can see you when you’re not doing it, okay?

If you’ll look around. You see people dressed well, don’t you? You see people excited to be here, excited to be a Christian, excited to worship God, hopefully, turning in their Bibles, maybe, singing praises, looking up at the screen of the song leader to follow along and singing praises to God from the heart. We do that here. You know, I’ve got to tell you, our outer man in this congregation this morning looks fantastic, especially the preacher. But what are we really doing? You see, you may look fantastic. I may look great. That’s extreme sarcasm, by the way. But if I’m preaching to you all and I’m doing the exact opposite, I’m just as bad as the Pharisees and scribes. Why? Because you know what? The outer man isn’t what it’s all about.

It’s about the heart. It’s about a heart that seeks God. It’s about love. That doesn’t show on the outside. You can fake the outside. The inward is something that only you and God know. And make no mistake, God knows. And you see, as you look at Matthew chapter 23, and you look at the second portion of the text we read in verses 27 and 28, he says, For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. You can fool anyone. You can fool the whole world. You may even fool yourself, but you will not fool God. And the Pharisees and the scribes have gotten so caught up in their praise and how great they were, and how much they knew of the law that they left God in the process.

Conclusion

And without God and without Christ, we are nothing. We have no hope, and we will accomplish an amount to nothing that is sustained. God is our everything. And the minute we have replaced him with traditions of men, with outward praise, our opinion, or anything else, God has been moved from the spot at which he must be in our lives for us to live pleasing lives to him in following after Christ. And so as we finish this morning, I’d like us to consider your commitment to God. Consider our commitment to God. Read with me, the end of Matthew chapter 23 here. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous, saying, If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken part with them in the shedding of the blood of the prophets.

Thus you witness against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up then the measure of your fathers. You serpents, you brood of vipers. How are you to escape being sentenced to hell? Therefore I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will flog in your synagogues and persecute from town to town, so that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of the righteous Abel to the blood of Zachariah, the son of Barakekiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar. Truly I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation. I love verse 38, excuse me, verse 29 and 30, especially verse 30.

If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken part with them in the shedding of the blood of the prophets.

These are the people who crucified Christ. These religious leaders, they made it their duty, their purpose, to expose, to point out, and to make Jesus seem like a blasphemer, a liar, and a fraud, so that they could be exalted. Jesus threatened their livelihood, he threatened their elevation, he threatened the praise and their following of the people, and they would not stand for it. And what Jesus says to them is he says, Woe to you who do these things, who replace God. What is He telling them? You say you wouldn’t do that, but you have done that and you will continue to do it. I ask you this morning, how easy is it to say, I do not, I would never be like the Israelites. Can you believe them?

They just kept coming to God and leaving God, coming to God and leaving God. And we say, talk about the people around the time of Jesus. We say, how could they crucify him? He worked miracles. He was the Son of God. I wouldn’t do that. Consider your commitment to God this morning. What would Jesus say when he looks at the inward part of you? Would he say, Woe to you, who on the outside looks beautiful, who can say the right things, who can teach? Or would he see that you maybe don’t practice? And that the inside does not match that beautiful exterior. That outer mask is beautiful, but the inner man is quite hideous. Consider this morning how wonderful God is and how much love he has for all of us.

He loves you, and he loves us all, and he wants us to come to him. You can have that opportunity to be with him this morning. You can say, What a great and awesome God who took my sins away this morning. If you have any problems, if you have anything with which you wish to be helped in this congregation, come forward now as we stand and as we sing.