Sermon Tone Analysis

*More Than Skin Deep*

*Text: *Matthew 23:25-28 (NIV)

25 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites!

You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.

26 Blind Pharisee!

First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.

27 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites!

You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean.

28 In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.

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The greatest danger in religion is to look the part, but not have any real inward change.

Any religion that only affects the outside is useless.

There greatest illustration of this is Hollywood.

Actors play the part of a certain character and soon we come to identify them with the role they play.

We see an actor by the name of Ron Howard and all that comes to mind is the character of Opie Taylor from the Andy Griffith show, or Richie Cunningham from Happy days.

The actor plays a role and soon becomes so identified with that role that people can’t separate the person from the role.

The same goes true for those in religious matters.

People get so accustomed to playing a role that it becomes difficult for us, and even them sometimes, to tell the difference between the role they are playing and the person they actually are.

Just as actors make it their business to be someone they’re not, so do many in the church.

Some are sincere in their desire to change, but they find that after all the effort they put in to playing the part, they are not really changed on the inside.

The problem is that they try to change themselves instead of letting God change them.

They take God’s word as their script and try to apply it to themselves, but with little inward change.

The problem is in their application of God’s word.

They try to apply it themselves instead of letting God do it.

In our scripture today, Jesus confronts those who have made it their business to be religious, but have only made a superficial application of the law.

God desires to make a supernatural application of the law, so instead of playing the part, we will actually be what He intends on the inside.

Our religion has to be more than skin deep.

Have you tried to follow God’s word and found that it is powerless in your life?

We cannot be what God wants us to be with a superficial application of the law because it is ineffective.

We need a supernatural application of the law.

Let’s take a look at why a superficial application of the law is ineffective.

*I.                   **The Superficial Application of the Law is Ineffective Because: *

*A.

It is man-made.*

When the man tries to apply the law to himself or others it can not make any real change.

You cannot legislate morality.

Man has tried it for centuries and has met with failure time and time again.

Prohibition tried to stop the flow of liquor in this country, but it was ineffective.

Men continued to break the law, and finally, after millions of dollars spent trying to enforce it, prohibition had to admit defeat.

You can’t legislate morality.

***** There is a story told by Newsweek magazine that illustrates this truth.

According to Jewish tradition, the Torah existed in heaven before God created the world.

The parchment scrolls, containing the first five books of the Bible, are the most cherished objects in Jewish life.

Their value is not merely religious: Torahs cost from $10,000 to $20,000, since each must be hand-lettered by scribes, a process that takes at least a year.

Since January, 88 Torahs have been stolen from fourteen New York City synagogues; another 50 have vanished elsewhere in the nation.

To stem the thefts, a national computer registry, based on an identifying code stamped invisibly on the scrolls, will begin this month.

\\    Jewish authorities, in collaboration with Talmudic scholars, struggled to come up with a system that would not violate stringent religious laws governing the handling of the sacred scrolls.

Their ingenious solution uses no letters or numerals, which are forbidden, but an array of dots, which is visible only under infrared light and cannot be erased.

Investigators speculate that the scrolls are stolen for sale to unsuspecting congregations in Israel, South America or the southwestern United States.

Jewish community leaders believe they will be able to put the profiteers out of business if all U.S. congregations log their Torahs, and all potential buyers get on the 24-hour hot line to the Brooklyn-based Universal Torah Registry before putting down any cash.

No one, they are confident, would wittingly buy a stolen Torah.

After all, as Sgt.

Joseph Leake of the New York City Police Department's Bias Incident Investigating Unit puts it, "A Torah is the one item that's got to be kosher."

Writing the laws on paper does no good.

The law needs to be written on the heart.

A man-made law is only as strong as the desire it takes to overcome that law.

Man cannot change the desires that drive men to oppose the law; therefore the law cannot be enforced.

Change the desire, and the law will need no enforcement.

As long as man tries to make and enforce his own laws, he will meet with failure, because he cannot erase the desires that are behind the breaking of the law.

The crime rate gives testimony to this as more and more laws are passed, yet the crime rate continues to soar.

Not only is the superficial application of the law ineffective because it is a man-made application, but it is also ineffective because:* B. **It works from the outside in.*

Any law that works on exteriors only cannot be effective.

Too many church people are so concerned with appearances, but they forget that appearances are not everything.

Appearances can be deceiving.

M.

Scott Peck talks about those who try to live by outward appearances.

He calls them the “people of the lie.”  

***** Utterly dedicated to preserving their self-image of perfection, they are unceasingly engaged in the effort to maintain the appearance of moral purity.

They worry about this a great deal.

They are acutely sensitive to social norms and what others might think of them.

They dress well, go to work on time, pay the taxes, and outwardly seem to live lives that are above reproach.

The words "image," "appearance," and "outwardly" are crucial to understanding the morality of the evil.

While they seem to lack any motivation to be good, they intensely desire to appear good.

Their "goodness" is all on a level of pretense.

It is, in effect, a lie.

That is why they are the "people of the lie."

Actually, the lie is designed not so much to deceive others as to deceive themselves.

They cannot or will not tolerate the pain of self-reproach.

The Pharisees were concerned with the ritual of religion, but not the righteousness of religion.

Any holiness that is only surface holiness is not holiness at all, but is a lie.

The superficial application of the law is ineffective because it is man-made, and it tries to work from the outside in, and also because: *C.

It fosters hypocritical worship.

*Jesus condemns the hypocritical worship of the pharisees that has resulted from their superficial application of the law.

He says that they worship with their mouth, but not with their heart.

Their worship has become worthless in the sight of God. 

\\ *****A man sat down to supper with his family, saying grace, thanking God for the food, for the hands which prepared it, and for the source of all life.

But during the meal he complained about the freshness of the bread, the bitterness of the coffee and the sharpness of the cheese.

His young daughter questioned him, "Dad, do you think God heard the grace today?"

He answered confidently, "Of course."

Then she asked, "And do you think God heard what you said about the coffee, the cheese, and the bread?”

Not so confidently, he answered, "Why, yes, I believe so."

The little girl concluded, "Then which do you think God believed, Dad?"

The man was suddenly aware that his mealtime prayer had become rote, thoughtless habit rather than an attentive and honest conversation with God.

By not concentrating on that important conversation, he had left the door open to let hypocrisy sneak in.

How easy it is to rehearse practiced words and say a lie.

In fact, if the truth were known, there are probably more lies sung from the pews and the pages of the hymn book every Sunday than we would perhaps like to believe.

Making a surface application of the law is an open avenue for hypocrisy to sneak into worship.

The superficial application of the law is ineffective because it is man-made, and it works from the outside in, and it because it fosters hypocrisy in worship, but also because *D.

It stands in time looking back*.

It looks to what has been done in the past.

The Jews looked back on what God had done in the past.