Woes Against the Pharisees Part 2.

Pastor Jonathan Hansen

Matthew • Sermon • Submitted 2 years ago

Matthew 23:13–24

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Notes

Transcript

Opening:

Good morning again Connection Church. I am so glad you have come to worship God together with us. Gathering with the saints to hear the Word of God read and preached is a wonderful thing. We live in troubled times, but we are not left alone. We have hope. God has not been silent. He has spoken to us through His Word. We can take great comfort in reading and studying what God has said. Let us now go to God’s Word for instruction, guidance, and life.

Introduction of the Text:

If you have your Bible, please open with me to Matthew 23. If you do not have a Bible, the passage is included in your handout. I will be reading from the Legacy Standard Bible. We will be in verses 13-24. Last week we covered verses 1-12. I warned you last Sunday that this and chapter 24 are very heavy and dark passages. They challenge our understanding of who Jesus is. Jesus speaks His most harsh words in these chapters. Particularly in chapter 23, Jesus is speaking woes against the Pharisees. Remember, woes are a prophetic judgement from God. Last week we covered Jesus’ introduction to His woes. This morning we will be covering the first section of woes that Jesus pronounces. As I said last week, let us use these woes as a mirror to examine ourselves. Jesus spoke these things against the Pharisees specifically, but we must do some self examination, as well as some examination of our current church culture. Let us allow the Word of God to speak. We must humble ourselves before the Word of God and let it shape the church and our own lives.

With this in mind, I would ask the congregation to stand with me for the reading of God’s Word.

Reading of the Text:

“But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you shut off the kingdom of heaven from people; for you do not enter in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in.14 [Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you devour widows’ houses, and for a pretense you make long prayers; therefore you will receive greater condemnation.]15 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you travel around on sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.16 “Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘Whoever swears by the sanctuary, that is nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the sanctuary is obligated.’17 You fools and blind men! For which is more important, the gold or the sanctuary that sanctified the gold?18 And, ‘Whoever swears by the altar, that is nothing, but whoever swears by the offering on it, he is obligated.’19 You blind men, which is more important, the offering, or the altar that sanctifies the offering?20 Therefore, whoever swears by the altar, swears both by the altar and by everything on it.21 And whoever swears by the sanctuary, swears both by the sanctuary and by Him who dwells within it.22 And whoever swears by heaven, swears both by the throne of God and by Him who sits upon it.23 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier provisions of the Law: justice and mercy and faithfulness; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others.24 You blind guides, who strain out a gnat but swallow a camel!

Behold, the Word of God. Let’s Pray.

Prayer:

Dear heavenly Father, we come before you and ask for humility. May we approach your Word and let what you have said change us. So often we seek to change what you have said. Please help us to see your Word and let it change us.

We ask that you would give us discernment. May we be wise to see the sins in our own hearts and may we be wise to recognize and see false teachers in our day.

Lord, most of all, we ask that you would be glorified. May we seek your glory above our own. May we make much of your name. Please grow this church. May we reach those in need of the good news of the gospel in our community. We ask this in Jesus name. Amen.

Transition:

As we open, I will give a little recap.

Recap:

Chapter 23 is one complete thought. It flows directly into chapter 24. I prefer to cover a complete thought in one sermon. However, this chapter is dense and heavy. It would be incredibly hard to accurately cover the full chapter in one forty minute sermon. So we are covering one complete thought in several small chunks. We must not lose sight of the context. Jesus has been challenged by the Pharisees many times. They most recently have sought to entrap Him in trick questions. Jesus is now openly rebuking them to the crowds. Jesus opened by acknowledging the real authority the Pharisees held as teachers of the Law of God. He then explained that the Pharisees were hypocrites, heaping up burdens on others that they refused to carry. He condemned them for using religious imagery to make themselves look good rather than to worship God. Finally, in our last verses, Jesus condemned the Pharisees for seeking to exalt themselves rather than serve others.

Transition:

Now we are going to cover the first four woes Jesus issues against the Pharisees. The first woe Jesus gives is that the Pharisees were shutting off the Kingdom.

First Woe, Shutting Off the Kingdom. v. 13

Explanation:

Jesus issues this first woe. He pronounces God’s wrath and judgement against the Pharisees for shutting off the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus says, “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you shut off the kingdom of heaven from people; for you do not enter in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in.”

First things first, Jesus calls the Pharisees “hypocrites.” But what is a hypocrite? The word hypocrite comes from a common Greek word meaning actor. The Pharisees were pretenders. They were actors, feigning righteousness. And this word has come to mean just that. A hypocrite is someone who pretends righteousness or religious holiness they do not have. They pretend to be something they are not. They pretend to have no sin where they have buckets of it. And this is an important point. I mentioned last week that the church is often accused of hypocrisy. But this accusation really is an undermining of basic Christian teaching. One cannot be a Christian without openly admitting that you are a sinner. The Church is made of people who have openly admitted that they are sinners. Now I am not saying that there are no hypocrites in the church. Clearly there are people who lie and claim to be better than they are. But what I am saying is that there is no place in the church for a hypocrite. Every Christian worship service and sermon ought to be so offensive to hypocrites that they get up and leave. What do I mean? The presentation of the gospel is this. You are so wretched in your sins that you have nothing good to bring. The gospel is that you were dead in your sins. Christ did all the work. Jonathan Edwards said famously that “the only thing we contribute to our salvation is the sin that made it necessary.” The gospel crushes pride, arrogance, and hypocrisy. The gospel is a stench to the self righteous, but a beautiful aroma to those who know their sin. May our services be so filled with the gospel that it drives the self righteous hypocrites mad.

Next, Jesus accuses the Pharisees of shutting off the Kingdom of Heaven. What does this mean? Well, the Pharisees knew the Law of God. They ought to have been the ones who recognized the Messiah. Jesus has repeatedly condemned them for their wilful ignorance regarding Him. They knew who the Messiah would be, but they were hardened in their hearts. They ought to have recognized John the Baptist. John the Baptist was the fulfilment of the prophesies claiming Elijah would return to proclaim the Messiah. And yet, the Pharisees rejected John and Jesus. They refused to see the truth. They were, as Jesus put it, Hypocrites. They pretended to submit to what God had said, but they openly opposed God the Son.

However, their sin was not just that they refused to submit to Christ, therefore refusing entry into the Kingdom. No, they also attempted to keep others from entering the Kingdom. They ought to have followed John’s example and pointed others to Christ. But they did not. It would have been better had they just stepped out of the way and let only their souls be damned. Instead, they actively attempted to keep others from entering the Kingdom. They tried to keep souls from salvation. This is wickedness. It is no wonder that God pronounced woe against them.

Transition:

However, regarding the second woe, you may notice a difference. Depending on what version you have, you may have verse 14 or not. Some versions include verse 14, likely in brackets, while others do not include it. This is because verse 14 is what is known as a textual variant.

“Second” Woe, A Textual Variant. v. 14

Explanation:

Some of you have heard me speak about textual variants in the past. What is a textual variant? Well, we do not have the original letter Matthew wrote to the churches. That has been lost to history. However, throughout history, Christians have been astute historians. Christians have preserved many ancient writings through the act of scribing copies. What does this mean? In the first century, likely within twenty years of Jesus’ death, the apostle Matthew, under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, wrote this account. He probably only wrote one copy. It was likely written for a specific church. That church however did not keep it to itself. Diligent men sat down with the original letter and made numerous copies. They then distributed the copies to other churches. Those churches did the same.

As one would expect, there were slight variations in the scribed copies. These variations are known as textual variants. Most often these variations are a change in punctuation. A period will begin to look like a comma. However, there are times where there is a more significant change. Some copies have extra phrases or words.

Illustration:

To some, this will bring into question the reliability of Scripture. Can we really trust documents that have any variation? To that question, I will give the best answer I have heard. Doctor James White, a phenomenal authority on textual variants, replied to that question this way. Imagine you are putting together a puzzle. Is it better to have too many pieces or not enough? clearly, it is best to have too many pieces. You can still put together the full picture, though you will have some left over pieces.

Argumentation:

This is the case with the textual variants we have of Scripture. We have the full puzzle. The problem is that we have some extra pieces. Of the textual variants that are not mere punctuation mistakes, the vast majority of the rest are additions from elsewhere in Scripture. This passage is the perfect example of this. Verse 14 does not belong here in this discourse. It is a quote from Mark 12:40 and Luke 20:47. It is not original to Matthew. The earliest manuscripts we have of Matthew do not include this verse.

So how did it get here? The answer is obvious. The scribes used to hand copy these manuscripts. One Scribe, long ago, was transcribing this account and noticed a similarity to the passage in Mark and Luke. Likely he made a note in the margins, quoting the passage from Mark and Luke. Somewhere down the line, another Scribe did not notice that the inclusion was a marginal note and included it in the text.

Why does this not destroy the cannon of Scripture? Well, back to our puzzle analogy. This is a duplicate piece. We have the full puzzle. We can see that this piece is a duplicate from the Mark portion of the puzzle. It may not belong to the Matthew section of the puzzle, but it in no way destroys the Matthew portion.

If I could just make one note in order to encourage you. We have thousands upon thousands of ancient manuscripts for the Bible. Many many full and partial manuscript for each book. There are constantly more and more being discovered by archaeologists. We may not have the originals, but we can trace some of the fragments we have to within single digit numbers from the originals. Historically, this is unheard of. No other historical text has a percentage of the documentation that the Bible has. The Bible is the single most reliable document in human history. It is obviously supernaturally preserved. It is utterly foolish for skeptics to attempt to question the legitimacy of the Bible as a historical text. What we have access to in our day is accurate to what was penned by the apostles. There is no doubt. One can reject the content of Scripture to their eternal doom, but one must be a fool to deny the authenticity of Scripture.

Now, with all that said, verse 14 does not belong in this account. It is true that the Pharisees devoured the widows houses. They were cruel to widows. They also attempted to puff themselves up and make themselves seem very religious by making long, public prayers. And if we ever cover Mark or Luke, we will cover this in depth. But for now, we will move on.

Transition:

The third woe, or more accurately, the second true woe of Matthew’s account is that the Pharisees were making sons of hell.

Second Woe, Making Sons of Hell. v. 15

Explanation:

Jesus says, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you travel around on sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.”

Again, in some sense, Jesus is complimenting part of the Pharisees efforts while condemning the other part of it. The Pharisees were very zealous when it came to evangelism. Likely this did not extend in great extent to gentiles, but the Pharisees sought to make converts to Pharisaism. They were hypocrites. But they were hypocrites who bought their own lies in some sense. They honestly believed their way was the best. How much did they believe this? Jesus tells us. They traveled all over land and sea in order to make one convert. This was in a day where travel was hard and time consuming. But this did not affect the Pharisees. They apparently did not care how far the journey was. Was their one person who could be converted? They would go.

In his commentary, R.C. Sproul makes to convicting point that Jesus warns us, “For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.” We must keep this in mind. The Pharisees were wicked, but one thing they got right was an eagerness to evangelize. We must share this eagerness while rejecting their failure.

And what was their failure? They were converting people to the wrong gospel. They were converting people to become sons of hell. They rejected the Kingdom of Heaven. They were not sons of God. So who’s sons were they? They were the children of Satan. You see, Scripture does not teach that all people are children of God. Only the saved are children of God. And the Pharisees were truly not children of God. So when they evangelized, they converted people. However, they converted people to their hellish doctrine. They did not make sons of God. They made sons of hell. And what is worse, is that Jesus says that their converts were worse than they were.

One who is lost in their own hellish doctrine is bad enough, but it is worse to lead others down the path of hell. James warns us that teachers will be held to more strict standard. This is the woe, the Pharisees taught others to be sons of hell, just as they were.

Transition:

The third woe against the Pharisees is that they were swearing blindly.

Third Woe, Swearing Blindly. v. 16-22

Explanation:

Perhaps this is the most confusing for us. But Jesus next says, “Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘Whoever swears by the sanctuary, that is nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the sanctuary is obligated.’17 You fools and blind men! For which is more important, the gold or the sanctuary that sanctified the gold?18 And, ‘Whoever swears by the altar, that is nothing, but whoever swears by the offering on it, he is obligated.’19 You blind men, which is more important, the offering, or the altar that sanctifies the offering?20 Therefore, whoever swears by the altar, swears both by the altar and by everything on it.21 And whoever swears by the sanctuary, swears both by the sanctuary and by Him who dwells within it.22 And whoever swears by heaven, swears both by the throne of God and by Him who sits upon it.”

This is confusing for us. But in order to understand it, we must understand the culture. In Jesus’ day, there was a horrible practice of making flippant oaths. People would constantly swear. And I do not mean the four letter kind you say when you stub your toe. They would swear oaths over anything. It is the equivalent of the people who make empty promises. I am sure you all have met people who back everything up with “I promise” but without any intention to keep it. However, this was even more serious. An oath is a sacred thing. An oath involves invoking something greater than you that is to hold you to your oath.

This was such a problem that the Pharisees had to deal with it. They had to come up with some way to keep the people from being so flippant with oaths. However, their plan was horrible. They failed to do the one thing we ought always to do. Consult the Scriptures. The Law of God contained commands on making oaths. Deuteronomy 6:13 says this, “Yahweh your God you shall fear; and Him you shall serve; and by His name you shall swear.” This may seem off to us, but we will get to that in just a bit. However, the point still stands that the Pharisees did not go to Scripture. What they did was devise different things to swear by.

This is what Jesus is calling out. The Pharisees told people that if they swore by the temple, they did not have to keep their oaths. But if they invoked the gold of the temple, then that was a binding oath. They told people that if they swore by the altar then their oath was not binding. But if they swore by the offering on the altar, then it was binding. The Pharisees justified lying. And worse, the Pharisees justified breaking solemn oaths. Oaths are serious matters. And when an oath is made, God is the witness. But the Pharisees would not allow oaths made before God, invoking the name of God. Even though that is what Deuteronomy commands. Why not?

Illustration:

The pharisees had instituted a religious idea that it was always blasphemous to utter the name of God. One must not say the name of God. If God’s name were to be spoken from a sinners mouth, it would be blasphemous. While it is true that many uses of the term “God” are used blasphemously, it is wrong to say that all of them are blasphemous. It is the same with the name of God. We can use it sinfully, but not every use is sinful. God told His name to Moses to be known by the people of Israel. They were to know it. They were to know that it was Yahweh that they served. Yahweh is the one true God. But the religious elites had taught wrongly that they were not to speak God’s name. It is a serious thing to say the name of God, but it is not to be forbidden. Blasphemy is using the name of God in an empty way. But it ought not be removed. God gave His name.

In fact, this practice is still common today. In most English translations, the name of God, YAHWEH, is translated as LORD in all capital letters. This is one reason I prefer to read the Legacy Standard Bible. It is an updated version of the NASB. The NASB was already my favorite translation, and the Legacy brought back the usage of YAHWEH in the place of LORD in the Old Testament. It removed a Pharisaical tradition.

Argumentation:

But the Pharisees had taken this too far. They had refused to make oaths with God as the witness. And foolishly, they thought that God was not the witness unless His name was invoked. But Jesus is pointing out that God is always the witness. That passage in Deuteronomy is not saying we can swear WITH God’s name. It is saying we swear by God’s name. It is saying that God is the witness of oaths. God is the ultimate enforcer of all oaths. A perfect example of this is the marriage oath. When we are married, we are making a lifelong oath before God and witnesses to be fully committed to our spouse. God is the witness and ultimate enforcer of this and all oaths.

This is a sobering thought. To flippantly make an oath you do not intend to keep is a sin akin to blasphemy. God is the witness of your oath. God will hold you responsible for breaking it before Him. This is why the sin of the Pharisees is so great. They enforced the idea that oaths could be meaningless. They were teaching people that their oath was nothing. But this is not true. Oaths are weighty. Oaths are to be held in solemn fear. They are not to be broken. The Pharisees condemned many into grace sin by their teaching. Woe unto them indeed.

Transition:

The fourth woe is one that contains a phrase that is still in common use today. Straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel.

Fourth Woe, Gnats and Camels. v. 23-24

Explanation:

This is a phrase I have heard used often. It means that you are majoring in the minors and minoring in the majors. It means you’re focused on the small and trivial things while ignoring the more important. And this is really what Jesus condemns the Pharisees on. Jesus says, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier provisions of the Law: justice and mercy and faithfulness; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others.24 You blind guides, who strain out a gnat but swallow a camel!”

The Pharisees were obsessive over the tithe. It is true that the people of God were commanded to tithe. That means they were to give ten percent to God. And yes, they were even commanded to give of some of their food. The Pharisees were scrupulous over this. One author said that it was the equivalent of if the Pharisees found a dime, they would make sure to give a penny into the tithe.

Again, we see Jesus commend the one thing the Pharisees did while condemning the other. Jesus even says in these verses that they should not neglect this. Jesus is not condemning the fact that the Pharisees tithed from their spices and greens. And yet again we must remember that Jesus said “For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.” We must commend the Pharisees where they are right. The tithe ought not to be neglected. Yet faithful giving is probably one of the most neglected things in the church. Yet it is a good thing commended by Christ. Tithing was not the Pharisees sin. No, Jesus said it was a smaller thing. It was the basic thing. The Pharisees mastered tithing to their credit. Their flaw was they missed the weighty things of the Law. We must ask if we have even mastered the small thing?

What were the major things the Pharisees neglected? Jesus says they neglect justice, mercy, and faithfulness. This is an echo of a summary of the Law given in Micah 6:8 “8 He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does YAHWEH require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” The Pharisees had mastered how to tithe, but they had missed the weightier matters. They did not need to stop what they had mastered, but they should have strove for the greater. Their net was small enough to catch a gnat. But they missed the camel. They got the light thing but missed the heavy. This is a scathing rebuke.

Transition:

These are the woes we are looking at this morning. We have seen what Jesus has said about the Pharisees. But now we must apply it.

Application:

Here is the uncomfortable part. But please do not check out. We must not hear these woes and leave simply saying, “wow, those Pharisees were bad.” We must do the work. We must be willing to lean into these hard verse. We must be willing to use them as a mirror and ask the hard question. We must self examine. We must let the Spirit of God convict us of our sin. And here is the first application. Are you a Pharisee?

Are You a Pharisee?

This is not comfortable. This is not easy. But it is vital we ask this. It is not fun to ask this question. But we grow more from hard things than we do from easy things. We grow from pain. Yes, we all love the blessing passages. But if we are truly honest with ourselves, we see the need of the woes. We grow from these hard passages. And we are not a church that shy’s away from difficulty. We lean into it. So let us walk into the hall of mirrors that is the application. This is a hall of mirrors where we must see if we fit into the shape of a Pharisee. Where we see resemblance, we repent. We come to the cross with our sin and find forgiveness.

So I must ask you. Do you shut off the Kingdom from others?

Do You Shut Off the Kingdom?

What is your witness? What is the witness of your life? Often, I fear that the witness of the church keeps people from the truth rather than point them to the truth. Does your life point people to Christ or to something else? This is a question that ought to always be before our eyes. We ought to always wrestle with this. I often wrestle with this. In my life, do I function more like John the Baptist or more like the Pharisees? Do I seek to point others to Christ or do I distract from Christ? This is not a question that is simply answered. This is something that we must constantly be wrestling with. When you are at work, are you acting as one who points to Christ? When you are at home with your family, are you pointing your children to Christ?

This is a very large area of problem in the church. One statistic I read says that 85% of children who grow up in a Christian home, going to church, abandon their faith after the first year of college. That is frightening. Think about that. That is a higher casualty rate than the beaches of Normandy. Would you send your children off to war with an 85% chance they would die? Yet we treat their Spiritual life as near worthless. How many parents fight to keep their children Physically safe? How many Christian parents fight to keep their children Spiritually safe? Would you send your kids to a school that boasted a 15% survival rate? Imagine that meeting. “welcome to School of Worldly Wisdom. We have extremely high standards for our education. Some years 20% of our kids survive to graduation!” You would run, dragging your children out of that place.

But hear me parents. That is literally what is happening. We raise our children telling them about Jesus for a few hours a week while the World disciples them for over eight hours a day, five days a week. We must do better. Our children our dying and we are being Pharisees locking them off from the Kingdom through our indifference to the death of their souls. It would be better for them to have a physical death rate of 85% than for them to have a Spiritual death rate that high. If that statement offends you, then you do not understand hell. Better to suffer and die physically in horrific ways than to suffer one soul to hell. God help us. If only we actually loved our children.

Transition:

We ought to usher people into the Kingdom. We ought to have an eagerness to share the gospel. And this brings us to the second question we must ask. Do you make sons of the Kingdom or sons of Hell?

Do You Make Sons of the Kingdom or Sons of Hell?

This was a hard charge. Jesus accused the Pharisees of making worse sons of hell than they themselves were. And they did this eagerly. They were commendable for their eagerness, but they were eager for evil. And here again we must look into the mirror. Are we eager to make disciples? And is that eagerness for making true or false disciples? I fear that we are indifferent. Do we care about seeing people saved? Jesus said the Pharisees would travel over land and sea to make one disciple. Will we even go into our own community? They did that for one. There are roughly three thousand people in our town. How many of them are saved? How many are lost? Will we even go to that many? How many lost will it take before we think it is worth it to go and make disciples? How many lost souls make our effort worth it? For the Pharisees it was one.

We must match their zeal. Let it not be said of us that we were more wicked than the Pharisees. But when we make disciples, let us make true disciples. The Pharisees had zeal, but for the wrong thing. Zeal alone is worthless. This is where sound doctrine is so central. The Pharisees taught a false gospel. They made sons of hell. You have heard it said that bad theology hurts people. That is true. But let me say something that is truly true. Bad theology kills souls. Bad theology makes men into sons of hell. We must not have blind zeal. We must have a zeal for the truth. We must have a passion for the truth. Most people today don’t believe in truth. We live in a post-modern society. This is a worldview that denies the existence of truth. Let it not be said that we are this way. Let there be not even a hint of this found among us. We believe in the truth. The one we serve said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but through Me.” John 14:6. We must share THE truth.

We have the hope eternal. We have the truth that leads to life. Let us pair the zeal of the Pharisees with sound teaching. Let us boldly share the truth with those around us who are dying in the grip of sinful lies. And we will see that the light of truth bursts through lies and sets captives free. We must not live by lies. We are people of the Truth. We are set free.

Transition:

And this brings us to our next mirror in our hall of mirrors. Do you swear blindly?

Do You Swear Blindly?

Jesus was angry with the Pharisees because they taught people to break oaths. They taught the people to live by lies. This must never be true of us! As I said, we are people of the truth. Our oaths are made before God. There is no place for flippant promises and oaths among us. When we speak, we must speak truth. This must be true of our common words and of our oaths. Do you honor your marriage oath? Do you keep that? When you agree to things, are you honest? We are the redeemed. We are set free. We ought to be rid of flippant promises. We ought to be free of lies. We ought to e straight forward and honest. Do not let your words be flippant.

Transition:

And here we are at the final mirror of this passage. Do you strain out the gnat and swallow the camel?

Do You Strain Out the Gnat and Swallow a Camel?

Perhaps a more common way to express this is “do you major in the minors while minoring in the majors?” Is your focus on doing the small things while neglecting the larger things? We may be tempted to claim to do well in this one, but I believe if we are honest as we stare into this mirror we will begin to see the truth. We so often are eager to do the things that are easily visible signs of righteousness while neglecting the weighty things. We are eager to get small wins under our belt while neglecting the truly heavy things. May it not be so.

Jesus told the Pharisees that they ought to continue tithing while also doing the larger things. So it is with us. We ought to do the small and large things. Do not neglect to give. Support this church with your giving. But we must not think that is enough. It would be wrong to stop giving. Continue to give. But more than this, do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God. This speaks of a life of full commitment. Are you faithful to God with your whole being? Is your heart the Lord’s? Is your checkbook the Lord’s? Do not neglect one while doing the other. Do not think because you do the one, it is right to neglect the other.

Transition:

We must be willing to look at this passage and ask the hard questions. We must let the Spirit of God that dwells within all believers convict us. Let God speak to our heart. We must be willing to look at ourselves in the mirror of God’s Word. And if you see a resemblance between yourself and the Pharisees, I call you to repent. Turn away from your sin. Embrace the forgiveness of Christ found in the cross. But I also wish to see you protected. Jesus has warned the crowds of the Pharisees. He is warning them of the evil of the Pharisees. So also I warn you. Beware the Pharisees.

Beware of Pharisees.

Practice discernment. Beware of false teachers. You have been given a clear picture of the Pharisees from this text. Be discerning. Avoid them. Flee from those who teach as the Pharisees did. If you wish to know how to practically practice discernment. Please come to our study on Monday night. We will be addressing this in depth.

Closing: Repentance.

But again, Christians, I call you to repent. Do you see a Pharisaical heart within you? Turn from it. Reject that sin. There is forgiveness. The Christian life is one of constantly falling into the arms of Christ.

Do you remember the first time you really grasped the idea of forgiveness in Christ? Maybe you are like me and cannot pinpoint the first time. But do you remember a time where you were weighed down by sin? Do you recall the relief you found when you knew you were forgive by faith in Christ. I recall it well. Sin weighing me down like a weight sitting on my chest. I remember feeling hopeless many times. I remember seeing how corrupt I was. I remember thinking, “How could I ever be forgiven? I am wretched.” I remember feeling like I was too far gone. But here is the good news. The gospel is that we are sinful, hopeless, dead, wretched. But God, in His mercy has not left us hopeless. Christ came and lived the perfect life. He never broke God’s law. He never sinned. And He took the punishment for our sins. He did not deserve to suffer, but He suffered in my place. He did not deserve death, but He died in your place. And now there is complete forgiveness found in Him. What must be done to earn this forgiveness? You cannot earn it. You cannot work for it. Remember, you are dead in sin. But by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, you can be forgiven. By trusting in what Christ did for you, you are fully forgiven. You are made alive! Your sins are washed white as snow. You are no longer guilty! This is grace! You are no longer counted as sinful. The Righteousness of Christ has been given to you. Through faith alone, we are made alive. This is good news!

And if you are a brand new Christian or a veteran Christian, you are washed completely clean. No sin is held against you. You are clean. You are pure. I have good news. If your faith is not in your works, but in Christ, you are clean. You may see the failings of your life and feel weighed down, but have hope! If you are a Christian, you can walk away from that sin. You can confess it to Christ and walk away from it. You are dead to sin and alive to Christ. This does not mean that we will never sin. It means that we confess our sin and know we are forgiven.

Hear the hope we have. 1 John 1:8-10. “but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us.”

Do not claim to have no sin. Recognize the sin that you have. Confess that sin. Embrace the forgiveness of God through Christ’s death on your behalf. Live in the light.

Communion:

And this is what we celebrate. We are forgiven through Christ’s death and resurrection. And this is what we commemorate through communion. You may be asking why we are taking communion two weeks in a row? Why? Because this is a hard text. We are being brought face to face with our sin and failure. But I do not want you to leave believing that you, as a child of God are still in your sin. IF you are saved, you are washed clean. I want you to be reminded of the gospel over and over and over again. I want you to come face to face with your sin and then to come face to face with the truth that you are forgiven. Our sin is deep. The gospel is deeper still. Our sin is deep. The forgiveness of God is deeper still.

You are not saved by your works. You are not saved by what you do. You are saved by Christ’s work. I want you to sing that truth in our songs. I want you to learn that truth in the catechism. I want you to hear that truth in the text and the sermon. I want you to leave tasting that truth on your lips. You are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone! If you are a Christian, If your confession is that you are a sinner saved by Christ, I invite you come and taste of the truth of the gospel.

Prayer:

Pray thanking God that we are forgiven and made new in Christ.

Taking of Communion:

Closing Doxology:

Closing Benediction:

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