The Wrong Way To Shine Our Lights

Introduction

Good morning. If you will open in your Bibles to Matthew chapter 5. Matthew chapter 5, beginning in verse 13. As you turn there, I can’t help but notice that the front rows are empty. I have to work on spitting less, I guess. Only my wife is braving the front, and those who are unfortunate enough to sit with her. In Matthew chapter 5 and verse 13, Jesus says, You are the salt of the earth. But if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet. You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house.

Verse 16, in the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. Now there are many times and in many ways and many different conversations, we say, make sure you shine your light. Make sure that your light is shining. Go somewhere and be a light in the world of darkness. In Philippians chapter 2, that same idea is made that the people, the time of Paul’s letter, and even today, we live in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, so we need to let our light shine before others. And we hear a lot of lessons on what does that mean? It means be a good example. It means be like Jesus.

It means do good things so people will see the goodness. In verse 16, Jesus tells the real reason to be a light. You see it in verse 16. Why do we let our light shine before others? So that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. The purpose of shining our light is so that others may see God in us and glorify him as the eternal Father that he is and always will be. That’s very different from Matthew chapter 23. This morning, rather than focusing on the right way to shine our light, that is follow the example of the Bible, do what Jesus said, do what God has revealed. I want to look at an example of people who had a unique opportunity to spread God’s word, to teach God’s word.

Yes, in this case the old law. But I want to look at the Pharisees in Matthew chapter 23. And if you have a marker, go ahead and drop it there. We’re going to be there the majority of the morning. But in Matthew chapter 23, Jesus really takes the scribes and the Pharisees to task, because they were religious leaders of their day, particularly those that were in his crosshairs, you might say. In Matthew chapter 23, you note the problem, but as we read these first several verses, remember chapter 5 and verse 16. Why do we let our light shine before others? So that they may see our good works and do what? Glorify our Father who is in heaven. The purpose of shining our light is to glorify God.

1. They Preach but Do Not Practice

In Matthew chapter 23, though, in verse 1 beginning, Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, the scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat. So do and observe whatever 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 feast 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 we see here from the first twelve verses of Matthew chapter twenty three that the Pharisees were not shining their light. They had a unique opportunity. Do you see that in verse 2? The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat. In fact, in verse 3, Jesus even says, So do and observe whatever they tell you. We don’t like to think of the Pharisees that way, if we’re honest. We think of the Pharisees as these people who were wrong.

They were hard-line religious conservatives, and they started making up their own doctrine. That’s something we’ll address in a moment. And we think about all the flaws of the Pharisees all the time they rejected Jesus. They tried to trick Jesus, and we say, why would Jesus say, in the first three verses here, do what they tell you to do. Well, he does add an important caveat that helps us understand. What was that caveat? Yes, do what they teach you, but do not do what? The works they do, for they preach but do not practice. They wouldn’t practice what they preach. That’s the way we’d say that. We want us to have anyone who teaches us the Bible, anyone who teaches us something at work, on the job, or even in our family lives, to do what they’re saying.

Don’t be hypocritical about it. Preach what you practice. That idea of practice is so important. But the Pharisees had dropped that. In fact, in verse 4, not only were they not even making a pretense of this, in verse 4, what did they do? They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear. They lay them on people’s shoulders, not theirs, their constituents, you might say. But they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger. Why do they act? Why do they do the religious things that they do? Is it so that others may see their good works and glorify God? Look at verse 5. It says the opposite of that. In verse 5, they do all their deeds to be seen by others. One example, they make the coats of their of their garments, they make their phylacteries broad, the special garments, and their fringes long.

And what do they love in verse 6? They love the place of honor at feasts. They love being in the limelight. They love the best seats in the synagogues. They love the attention in verse 7. They love the greetings in the marketplaces and being called rabbi and teacher by others. We know that the Pharisees were clearly not the right example here. And the problem is as Jesus illustrated in verse 11 and 12. In verse 11, here was the problem.

Whoever humbles himself will be exalted. That is not normal wisdom. When it comes to shining our light, we don’t often think, make sure that you kind of fit into the background. We kind of think of shining your light as this is your star chance. You’re going to stand out. People are going to see you. And that’s true. That’s what Jesus said in chapter 5. But there’s a risk here, and as we study the Pharisees, we have to see that their wrong way of shining their life was tied in a wrong focus. Rather than glorifying God, they wanted what? Themselves to be glorified. In verse 12, Jesus has a warning for them. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled. That is by God, the God who created us.

2. You Shut the Kingdom of Heaven

And the good news is the last part of that whoever humbles himself will be exalted. That is by the same God. So which one am I? As we consider this morning several different woes to the Pharisees and scribes that Jesus outlines here for us. Consider, do I fit into any of these camps? And if so, am I so wrongly shining my light in that way? Consider the first in verse 13. 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. 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.

And in verse 6 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 proselite, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves. Now, as you consider these people who sat on Moses’ seat in verse 2, and Jesus said, To observe what they have commanded you in verse 3, these were religious teachers. They knew the law, certainly the scribes and the Pharisees, as so designated by Jesus here were those who particularly knew what the law of God was. In fact, they were heavily involved in part of their everyday work, you might say, was teaching, revealing what is the will of God for his chosen people, the Jews. And yet the problem was in verse 13, rather than opening the doors to the kingdom of heaven, the very opposite was so.

You shut the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces, for you neither enter yourselves, nor thou allow those who would go in to enter. They have shut off the kingdom of heaven. How do they do that? Matthew chapter 15 gives us one of those for instances. In Matthew chapter 15, we see their poor leadership here, their poor stewardship of the law of God. In Matthew chapter 15, you’d have these same, the same group in verse 1, the Pharisees and the Scribes. And they came to Jesus from Jerusalem, and they have a big problem in verse 2. They caught Jesus, they caught his disciples, they’re going to get them. In verse 2, they say, Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat.

They got Jesus and the disciples, right? Jesus has an answer in verse 3. He answered them. And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? For God commanded honor your father and your mother, and whoever reviles father or mother must surely die. But you say, if anyone tells his father or his mother what you would have gained from this, it’s 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. Now the whole naming bunch is there. Pharisees, scribes, verse 7, 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 us doctrine the commandments of men.

How was it that as Matthew 23 in verse 13 states that they shut off the kingdom of heaven, that they kept those people who would have entered from entering? They taught a different message. Their message wasn’t Jesus focused on the prophecy of Jesus coming, because they denied the Messiah. Further and worse yet, even while they were living and they were under the law of Moses, what were they guilty of doing in verse 2? They do not wash their hands when they eat. They’re mad at the disciples because that first part of verse 2, they broke the tradition of the elders. And in so doing, in verse 7, Jesus calls them hypocrites. In verse 8, he says, their hearts are from far from me, and in verse 9, they worship me in vain.

Why? Teaching as doctrines, the commandments of men. We need to make sure that if our light is shining the way Jesus has expected us to and outlined us to, if we’re going to show God as glorified, we don’t teach our version of the gospel message. We don’t teach the laws that are important to us, the things that we get to emphasize, the things we find important. We teach Christ and Christ crucified. We teach what the Bible teaches. It is that simple. And yet you’re going to see the same type of flaw creep back up as we keep going. In verse 14, you saw, what was their problem in Matthew chapter 23? In Matthew chapter 23, perhaps it’s hard, perhaps it’s in a small reading at the bottom of your page, and we’ll look at a passage where it’s not like that.

But in verse 14, read again, 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. Again, think about how this multiple disciplines are being meted out by our Father, by Jesus here. He’s saying, You will receive a greater condemnation. But when you look at Mark chapter 12, you really see this more plainly put. You don’t have to look in the margin of your Bible to understand this. In Mark chapter 12, turn there with me and see this passage, how it works together. It’s Mark’s telling of this exact warning. And in Mark chapter 12 and verse 38. In Jesus’ teaching, he’s saying, Beware of the scribes. Why? They like to walk around in long robes and like the greetings in the marketplaces and have the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at feast.

Verse 40, they devour widows’ houses, and for a pretense make long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation. Again, there’s that punishment being meted out by Jesus. Yes, he’s warning of the punishment to come from the Father. They had no absolute abuse of their authority. They used their position to take advantage of those who in that culture were among the most needy, the most at risk, the widows. And worse yet, how did they do that? Making long prayers. What does Mark say in verse 40? How why did they make these long prayers? They devours widows’ houses, and for a pretense, they make long prayers. To cover their tracks, if you will, to make it seem like they love God, and this is about God, when rather it was about self.

It was about elevating self, profiting off the backs of those who are at most risk. And that certainly is not the right way to shine our light. And you certainly see a difference. In Matthew chapter 6, you see a difference in shining your light properly, praying to God with a proper motive, and those who did so in violation of what Jesus expected and what Jesus outlined for his disciples. Matthew chapter 6, beginning in verse 2, 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 reward you. And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites, for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly I say to you, they have received their reward. Keep in mind throughout all of this, no matter how many pretenses the Pharisees throw up, no matter how many good teachings they have and hypocritical actions they follow through with, God sees, God knows, and God has and will condemn them for these violations of his law. But as we think about what the purpose of the Pharisees’ praying was, we see in verse 5 of Matthew chapter 6, what did they do it for? They love that they can be seen by others.

And Jesus says they have their reward. We need to make sure when we worship God, when we take on the various elements of worship, and when we live out from day to day, we’re shining as lights to show God, not to kind of make a checklist, not to say, God, we’ve done these good things. Are you gonna let me into heaven now? Or God, if you get me through this hard time, I’m gonna do X, Y, Z for you. We’re bargaining with God. We need God for our everything. We owe him all. We cannot abuse our places of authority, and as Christians, people will look to us for our example. Let’s not be like the Pharisees. In verse 15, you read perhaps the most startling version of those several verses.

In Matthew chapter 23 and verse 15, note what Jesus concludes this tiny section with. He says, Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. 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 yourself. This is startling on all kinds of levels. The Pharisees were religious teachers. The Pharisees knew better. The Pharisees were bad, terrible people, as we like to think. Jesus is saying, Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees. You are hypocrites. You’re doing this, you’re doing that. Why are you doing that? You are violating my law. And yet in verse 15, it wasn’t just them that are going to face this problem. When they make a single proselyte, because of their teaching, because of their contortion and their twisting of the gospel, or at least of the law of Moses message, and the rejection of Jesus that would be to come, rejecting what would be the gospel message.

They made their followers twice as much a child of hell as themselves. How does that happen? Well, perhaps it’s like Matthew chapter 7 when Jesus warns of false teachers that come in. Because what happens? The false teachers come in, they look like good people, they look like sheep, they look like those who would fit in and do no harm. And yet the problem is if we deviate from God’s law, we deviate from God’s teachings, we not only set ourselves up for failure, but those who do no longer seek God. It’s sad to me, and it’s very, it’s it’s a cause of much concern that today on a morning like this, there are so many people out to worship God. And they’re doing so in violation of what that God expects of them.

There are so many people who are just taking the word of God and teaching false doctrines this morning. They’re teaching that you can be saved by saying things like the sinner’s prayer when Jesus made no such promise. When the plan of salvation was known by God from before the foundation of the world, he chose us in him, he chose us in Jesus the Christ, that we could be saved through belief, repentance, confession, and being baptized into that crucifixion and raised in the likeness of the resurrection with our Lord and Savior. That is what the gospel message is about. Hope, life that Jesus gives. Do we teach that message? Or do we convert people to kind of what we think are important? Different types of issues, different types of ideas.

We say, it’s very important that our church does this, it’s very important that our church does that. Do we think about what the Bible says, though? Because Jesus has no hobby horse. He has his inspired word. We teach it. We rightly divide the word of truth. Or we don’t. There is no middle ground. And so when I think about how is my light shining, I have to realize, first of all, I have to be doing what Jesus said. And secondly, when it comes to others, I better be very careful. This is the warning in James chapter 3, the passage about the tongue we so often think about. It’s prefaced in verse 1. We ought to be careful that everyone doesn’t become teachers, because we are held accountable for what we say and for what we do.

3. Woe to You, Blind Guides

Why? Because as what happened with the Pharisees in verse 15, if you make one single proselyte to this false, twisted religion, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourself. That’s a powerful warning and a consideration for us to study the word of God and to know it. Consider as we continue on, woe to the Pharisees in verse 16, beginning for being blind guides. In verse 16 of Matthew 23, 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? Whoever swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it. 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. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus made it clear, we are to let our yes be yes and our no be no. But Jesus says, not only are you misteaching, your teaching doesn’t even make sense. In 1 Peter chapter 4 and verse 11, we are to speak as with the oracles of God.

And this is absolutely not what the Pharisees were doing. In fact, they were arguing, they were quibbling over something that didn’t even logically follow within the law of God. You see in verse 16, just the first time Jesus says, Woe to you, blind guides. What are they debating? If anyone swears by the temple if nothing, if you swear by the gold of the temple, though, you better keep that. The problem is, first and foremost, Jesus says, You always keep your word if you’ll follow after me. Christians, people of God’s company, are honest and full of integrity. There is no exception to that rule. But then you think about what type of guide were they being? What type of law were they debating? Jesus says, What you’re saying doesn’t even follow.

What is the problem with what they were arguing in verse 17? For which is greater, the gold or the temple that has made the gold sacred? Jesus says, if you’re even going to draw a distinction, you’re drawing it poorly. You’re not even arguing right. The point is you’re missing what matters. There’s no exception. There’s no kind of loophole you can find. And we do that with the scriptures. We not only are we blind guides to others, but we kind of try to loophole and lawyer our way through the text. When God says, if you follow Jesus, you can come and be with me. If you reject him, I too will reject you. That’s the message of Jesus. That’s what God’s inspired word reveals to us. Will we choose him, choose life, or not?

No exceptions, no loopholes. And that makes me think again about my light. Am I really speaking like? Am I really living like? Jesus has commanded me. It’s pretty easy to look at the Pharisees. It’s pretty easy to say this was a vile group. Jesus even said they preach but do not practice. We’re not like them. We’re here at assembly at 9 o’clock. We’re nothing like them. And yet anytime we violate God’s will, when we try to find some way around doing what God has commanded, when we look the other way, like the priest and the Levite who passed the, who passed the man who was beaten on the road, the man that the good Samaritan would not pass. We are not being as Jesus has outlined.

4. Neglecting the Weightier Matters of the Law

And there is no excuse for that. And just like the Pharisees, we should know. We can know. And we do know what Jesus has commanded of us. Are we like the Pharisees? Are we blind guides? Not only blind ourselves, but guiding others as well. And I want to really key in on verse 23 and 24 as we move towards concluding, just a few more points this morning. In verse 23, woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. For you tithe mint and dill and cumen and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice, mercy, and faithfulness. These you ought to have done without neglecting the others. You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel. Not only is this a ridiculous message in verse 24, a ridiculous word picture that Jesus outlines here, but look carefully at verse 23.

I want to note first of all what Jesus does not say. In verse 23, when he says, you tithe mint and deal and cumin have neglected the weightier matters of the law, he does not say, those are unimportant, don’t keep those. Just make sure you show mercy, show love, show faithfulness. Anyone who does that will be saved, doesn’t matter what you do. That’s not what Jesus said. Note the concluding part of verse 23. These you ought to have done without neglecting the others. So when we take the whole picture of the words of Jesus, when we take the whole law of Moses as a together document that it was intended to be, what had they done? They had misplaced their priorities. I have to say, sometimes this is a struggle for me because I like to think about some things that we do well.

2 Timothy 2.15 talks about rightly dividing the word of truth, and as an individual and as a collective, we think about the things that we do well here. We make sure that we’re doing what God has said. We make sure we’re not doing what God has not said for us to do. And that’s important. Because as Jesus said, we need to do all that has been commanded, not neglecting any. But can we see that Jesus Himself decrees something that is of weightier matter? Justice, mercy, and faithfulness. It is appalling to me that in this country, at a time, politically, religiously, you name it, there are divides, and Christians are among the front lines of this evilness, of this slander, of this vial. That cannot be. As Christians, we need to be showing, oozing, shining a light of love, as God has shown us love and shown us what love is and what love does.

We need to be the first to show mercy as God has shown us mercy, and we should beg every day that God offer to us. We should be faithful and show faithfulness to a God who has never and will never turn his back on us without us first rejecting him. These are the weight or matters of the law, as Jesus has said. That doesn’t mean ignore other commandments. That doesn’t mean do what God has not decreed. But sometimes I think as a church, if we take it onto that level for a minute, we spend a lot of time talking about what we don’t do. We don’t support gymnasiums, we don’t have Easter egg hunts, we don’t have Christmas pageants. And that’s true because those aren’t found in the scripture.

We don’t have instruments of music because Ephesians chapter 5 and Colossians chapter 3 talk about singing and making melody in our heart to the Lord. It tells us what to sing, who to sing to, addressing one another and to the Lord. But I wonder eventually we start describing our church and we describe so many things that we don’t do. People have to be left wondering, what do you do there? We worship God. We praise God for his mercy. We thank him for his love. We practice on being more and more faithful to God, like the great heroes of the Old Testament were, like Abraham, Moses, and David. Were they flawed men? Absolutely. But if we’re to follow after Jesus, if we’re going to be proper guides, we’re going to have the right priorities.

And that doesn’t just mean do whatever God says. That means be a banner, be a light that shows this is what God’s love looks like. This is what mercy and forgiveness looks like. We won’t get caught up in this petty nonsense that happens. We won’t let our temporal situation change our mind and say, these people had it coming. This person deserves it. That’s not at all what a Christian is like. The Pharisees were caught up kind of keeping what you might say the most minute part of the law was, and keeping it stringently and binding another, saying, you can’t even be just a little bit off. All the while they were missing the important boat. Their priorities were wrong, and such the picture is, as Jesus says, they were straining out a gnat and in so doing, swallowing a camel.

5. Outward Deception and Internal Corruption

Consider with me a few final points in verse 25. Consider the outward deception and internal corruption of the Pharisees. In verse 25, 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. These people missed the boat. The Pharisees and scribes missed the boat entirely. What were they focused on in verse 27?

On the outward part, they appeared beautiful. But inside they were like whitewashed tombs. They were full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness. Full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. Do we kind of live like that sometimes? Do we go get around Christians and others and even around the world and we say, well, I’m not like that. I’ve got to make sure I’m seen well, and if I don’t come to come to the assembly, people are gonna be asking me where I’ve been, or when I get there, I’ve got to make sure I have my smile on and my hand out. Got to have my Bible lesson filled out because that’s what people expect. I’ve got to make sure I’m seen. We’ve missed the part. Do you remember all the way back in Matthew chapter 5 and verse 16?

Why are we to let our light so shine before others? So that they may see our good works and do what? Glorify our Father who is in heaven. The fundamental misunderstanding of the Pharisees is that glory belongs to God, not to them. And because of that, they were focused on how they were seen. Their outward appearance was deceptively beautiful, while the inside it was full of absolute and utter corruption. Do we run that risk? Do we have that problem? I feel like we spend a lot of time making sure we look good, not just on Sundays, but during the week. How much time do you spend on your clothing, picking it out and going to the store and finding some that makes you feel comfortable, makes you feel good, and makes you fit the circumstances of your job, of the assembly, of anything that you may be doing?

We spend a lot of time making sure the container is well taken care of. And I say the container, I’m talking about our body that houses our soul. What Jesus is telling the Pharisees here is you’ve missed the point. In verse 26, first clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean. Where is our focus? As Christians, it is our soul. Our soul is what is going to go on forever. Where do you want to be? Do you want to be with God or do you want to be apart from Him? We’ve got to take care of the inward man. I wonder if we spent half the time we do reading the Bible as we do going out and doing other things, what that would do to our inner man.

6. You Build the Tombs of the Prophets

Even if the outer man was not full of beauty. If the inside was beautiful, is that not the point of being a Christian? That we live Christ like, that we live as God has decreed? That we submit entirely to our God? If that’s the point, why do we live otherwise? And consider one final point with me this morning, beginning in verse 25. 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 shedding the blood of the prophets. Thus you witness against yourselves that you are sons of those who murder 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 of you 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 Barkiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar. Truly I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation. They comforted themselves by looking at others, looking at their past and saying, That’s not me. I don’t do that. I don’t have that problem. Problem is they did have that problem. They would have that problem.

And Jesus knew it. And Jesus told them they would be punished for that problem. What they do in verse 29 is on the outward again, you see all this adornment. You build the tombs of the prophets, you decorate the monuments of the righteous, and in verse 30, tell me if this isn’t a thought we have at least from time to time. If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would have not taken part with them in the shedding of blood. If I was one of the Israelites who saw the ten plagues of Moses, if I was one of the disciples who was around Jesus, I would not have forsake him and fled. If I saw the miracles of Jesus, I wouldn’t have turned my back on him, I wouldn’t have cared about being cast out of the synagogue.

If I was in the wilderness and I was and didn’t have food or water, I wouldn’t have complained because I would have seen what God had done for me. Doesn’t that kind of sound like what we think as we study the Old Testament as we study the New Testament? What about comparing yourself to others? At least I’m not like that. I haven’t gone out and do done those things. I’m here every time. I do this for these people. Jesus says, we have a certain responsibility as those who not only are seeking to please him, but who have his will, who know what he is teaching. If we’re going to shine our light before others so that they see our good works and glorify our Father who is in heaven, we’re not going to be like the Pharisees who try to exalt self and even have that false exaltation start from the beginning in their mind.

Conclusion

In Luke chapter 6, if you turn with me to Luke chapter 6, I want to conclude with this passage this morning. Luke chapter 6, beginning in verse 43. Consider the root that is in us all. In Luke chapter 6 and verse 43. Jesus says, For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit. For each tree is known by its own fruit. For figs are not gathered from thorn bushes, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush. The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil. For out of the abundance of the heart, this mouth speaks. Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and do not do what I tell you?

Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like. He is like a man building a house who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it because it had been well built. But the one who hears and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the stream broke against it, immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great. Jesus says, if you hear and do my words, you will stand, you will get through this world, you will get through temptation. And we know from other passages, that is how our light will shine.

People will see there’s something different, there is something better, because there’s something about God in his followers. And it’s not just one little part, it’s our everything. Our light shines brightest when we shine like the one who gives the light. Who is the light when we shine like Jesus? When you consider one final point about the Pharisees as we studied in verses 29 through 36, about they said, we wouldn’t have persecuted the prophets. We wouldn’t have put them to death. Jesus says, not only would you have done that, you will be doing that. You are going to kill and perhaps even crucify those who are coming into this life. How dare you say otherwise? And as part of that, they would be punished. They would not escape condemnation.

They would not escape the fires of hell. I have to say, this is kind of a strong passage in Matthew chapter 23. And when I look at Luke chapter 6, even though there’s kind of a nice story here about a house that stands and a house that’s broken, it’s a lot easier for me to take in. But the truth is, Jesus took the Pharisees and scribes head on. He called them hypocrites over and over. He said, Woe to you, seven, eight times. And he said, Be careful, turn, you are in wickedness. And yet these were religious people. I have to say that I’m perhaps more likely going to be like the Pharisees who were religious, who knew the law and yet rejected Jesus than I would be many of the atheists or those who completely walked away.

Because in this country, we have the blessing of having God’s inspired word available to us. In this country, we have the ability to freely assemble and to study the Word of God. So we have no excuse on that front. The question is, what type of guides are we? Are we letting our light shine so that people may see and glorify God? Are we blind guides, leading others farther from our Father, making them twice as much a child of hell as ourselves? Consider how will I properly shine my light this week, trusting only in the grace, love, and mercy of Jesus our Lord. Will you go to God in prayer with me? Our dear God and most gracious and loving Heavenly Father, we’re so thankful to you for blessing us with yet another day that we can live here.

We’re thankful for all of the various roles and jobs and family and friends that you’ve blessed us with, and we’re thankful for this local body that meets and studies your will. We’re so thankful for the ability in this country and a special time at this time that we live in to be able to have your word so freely and readily available that we can seek it, that we can understand your will. And when the floods came, that our foundation will stand. Forgive us of when we do wrong, of when we preach but do not practice. Forgive us of when we have misplaced priorities or focus too much on the outer man rather than our soul that will live on forever. Help us to be dedicated to you.

Help us to entrust our entire lives to you. Please help us to be pleasing in your sight. As we offer our worship to you this morning, we pray that it’s in accordance with your will and a pleasing aroma to you. We pray that as we go to our Bible classes that we’ll study the Word of God, rightly dividing the Word of truth, not practicing any hobbies, but rather just focusing on understanding the whole counsel of God. Let us speak as with the oracles of God. Let us come to a greater understanding of your love and to show that also so that our lights will shine and others will glorify you. We pray all these things and thank you for sending Jesus to die on the cross for our sins.

In His name we do offer this prayer. Amen. We’re now dismissed to our Bible class, period.