 Chapter 23 of Matthew, we're looking at verses 13 through 33, and so what we'll do is I'll begin reading here in Matthew chapter 23 at verse 13. I'll read to verse 22 and we'll get into our study. Matthew chapter 13, or rather 23, verses 13 through 33. So let's begin reading in Matthew 23 verse 13. Jesus says, but woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men, for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in. Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you devour widows' houses, and for a pretense make long prayers. Therefore you will receive greater condemnation. Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he's won you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves. Woe to you blind guides who say whoever swears by the temple it is nothing, but whoever swears by the gold of the temple he's obliged to perform it, fools and blind, for which is greater the gold or the temple that sanctifies the gold, and whoever swears by the altar it is nothing, but whoever swears by the gift that is on it he is obliged to perform it, fools and blind, for which is greater the gift or the altar that sanctifies the gift. Therefore he who swears by the altar swears by it and by all things on it. He who swears by the temple swears by it and by him who dwells in it, and he who swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by him who sits on it. In chapter 23, Jesus began to preach his final public message, and as we were together last time we saw that in the first twelve verses he spoke to the multitudes as well as his disciples. Now when you look at multitudes, the multitudes speak of the people who are listening to him, but not necessarily saved. I mention to you that Jesus's popularity had grown among many people, and we need to remember that not every person who heard him actually was committed to him. Now there were some who simply appreciated that he was saying what needed to be said, and there are others who simply appreciated the way he spoke and found him attractive. Like it says in Mark 737, the common people heard him gladly. And so as is true, whenever the word goes out there will be those who are hearing it with an ear of faith saying, I want to know these things so that I can live by them, and then there are others who simply may appreciate what's being said or may have this internal recognition that the things that are being said are valuable to be said. Not necessarily that I'm going to embrace or act on those things, but I do agree with what I'm hearing. There are quite a many people like that during the time of Christ as they are the same today. Early in the history of Israel, God spoke concerning these kinds of listeners, the people who say, I appreciate what you're saying and how you say it. When you look in the Old Testament, there's a prophet by the name of Ezekiel. And in Ezekiel chapter 33, verses 31 and 32, the Lord God is speaking to this prophet, and this is what God says to him. God said to Ezekiel, they come to you as people do. They sit before you as my people. They hear your words, but they do not do them. For with their mouth, they show much love, but their hearts pursue their own gain. Indeed, you are to them as a very lovely song of one who has a pleasant voice and can play well on an instrument, for they hear your words, but they do not do them. See, there's always been people who appreciate what's being said. They even speak. He says in that same passage, they're speaking about you on the street and on the corners, and they say, come and hear the man of God. And then God goes on to say, and they come and they sit before you as people do. And they're acting as if they're my people, but they're not mine because they hear and they do not do. You see, great crowds came. They heard God's word from someone who was faithfully proclaiming it. And even as God is telling Ezekiel, they took pleasure in the voice and the eloquence, the beauty of the words. They enjoyed the delivery, the words that were chosen, the manner in which he was speaking. It's interesting how in Ezekiel 33, verse 32, how it says there that Ezekiel's words were like a very lovely song. And that I find fascinating because when I was preparing the study, I was looking at various translations of that one word, lovely. And I found that the word lovely meant something that I hadn't really noticed. And so I did some research on it just to make sure that what I'm saying to you is correct. And when he says, when God says to him, indeed you are to them as a very lovely song of one who has a pleasant voice. The word lovely there actually has, it can be actually translated by the word sensual. You are a very sensual song is what God is saying. In other words, that means that it appealed to them as what would be called a lover's song. In other words, it appealed to them on a physical level, but not on the spiritual level. And there are many songs, even to this day, that are called worship songs. And some of you don't, I should say this quickly, because I make assumptions that I am probably wrong in doing. Some of you don't realize that what you know today as contemporary Christian music and what we know today as Maranatha type music or whatever contemporary Christian actually came about through Calvary Chapel Ministries. Maybe you don't know that. Maybe you don't know that. You know the dove that you see everywhere, the dove, that's called the Maranatha dove. Did you know that? The Maranatha dove was actually the trademark for Maranatha music. And that dove right there behind you that you see on all these cars and everything, that came through Calvary Chapel Ministries. You probably don't know that, but it did. And what happened, it was popularized and people started using it. That actually was the symbol for Maranatha music. Maranatha music was the first label that became well known that had Maranatha artists singing Christian contemporary songs. So Calvary Chapel actually introduced to the nation and into the world the worship that you have taken for granted for all of your spiritual life. That was something God used, Calvary Chapel. So sometimes I assume everybody knows that history. Perhaps you don't, and that's the history. And so I speak of somebody as somebody who was there when it began. I speak of somebody who experienced this firsthand as a 20-year-old young man. And so I know what I'm talking about when I say it. And sometimes people may not know that. I'm not saying that to try and pop myself up. I'm trying, why do you say I'm? No, I'm trying to just make a point. You see, to make a point. So we grew up with what was called contemporary Christian. It wasn't even called that. It was just called Christian music. And we would listen to songs that were written from the Psalms. We actually took the Psalms and put it to music. So the original songs that you would hear were actually verses. We called them praise songs. And they were verses that you found from Scripture. And we would sing Scripture songs. That's what it was. There were no such things as devil wards and number one Christian song. None of that. That's all the world creeping in. That's a world coming in and saying, oh, God likes this song more than that one because more people bought it. But that's not how it was. And so I'm saying all of that to say this. That when we began, you know, we were looked at as radicals because we actually had drums on the stage. We actually had electric guitars. And oh, you know, and I've said this recently, but it is true that the people were saying at that time they're writing against Calvary Ministries and against Pastor Chuck. And they were saying they're bringing in voodoo music into the church. And to this day, there are people who still say that about us. They're still saying that kind of thing about us. But here's the thing. When it first began, when we began to bring in the music and all of that, it was, they were praise songs that were just done in contemporary style in terms of the music we were listening to. But they were Scripture verses that we would use that were put to music. And the people were learning to memorize Scripture through that. And it's changed over the last several years so that many times, and this is not a complaint. It's an observation. It's not a criticism so much as saying, be careful. It has changed that the songs that at one time were about worship. Now, let me tell you something about the word worship. Worthy ship. That's where the worth ship. That's where the word worship comes from in English, worth ship. It speaks of intimacy. And when you speak of worship, you're not speaking just of singing a song. The literal connotation is an intimacy with God that has actually been pictured as a love that God has for you that is a very deep spiritual love. Why am I saying that? Because when God is speaking to Ezekiel, he says, you're like somebody who sings a sensual song. It appeals to the physical, but it is not changing them in their hearts. They come in, they sit before you like you're a rock star, like you're a performer. They're enjoying your concert, but they are not kissing my face in worship. They are not worshiping me. They sit before you as my people. They come as people do, and they sit before you as if they're my people, but they are not my people, for they hear and they do not do. And that's what the Lord is saying here. And so when you speak and concerning that, he's saying these great crowds have come, they've heard the word from somebody who has faithfully declared it, and they take pleasure in that voice, the eloquence, the beauty. They love the words that are spoken. You're like a lovely song to them. It's appealing, but it appeals on a physical level, not on a spiritual level. Someone said this. Ezekiel's voice and the music of it were appreciated, but not the substance of the message. They appreciated how the song message was presented, but they did not pay as much attention to its content as they did to how the message was given. They enjoyed the harmony of his voice, the eloquence of his speech, the clearness of words, and the dynamic power of his presentation. What they did not do is obey what was said. They were not open to the teaching and the preaching of the message, and were no more moved by his speech to repent from their sins anymore than had they simply spent an evening in a concert. That's what was taking place when Ezekiel was proclaiming this message. And somebody else said, the gospel is a lovely song indeed. It reveals the love of God and the love of Jesus. Often the voice of a gospel minister is a pleasant voice to those who understand it, but to others it is a voice and nothing else. They may be delighted with his performance, but not with his subject matter for they hear the words, but they do not obey them. And one of the things that I as a pastor and as a minister of the gospel, as somebody who's walked with the Lord for a good portion of my life, one of the things I get concerned about is that I see that that is common today in many church gatherings, where it is more of a value in terms of how it makes me feel rather than how it transforms me to be. The gospel is to transform us on the inside. And so Jesus is speaking here in Matthew and he's sharing some things to those who are listening. Notice that the multitudes need to become disciples or they're going to remain lost. You see, as Jesus was teaching his message centered on the danger of false teachers and he was specifically confronting their hypocrisy. He was warning against them. Last time we were together, we looked at, first we looked at verses two through seven. I referred to five qualities of a false teacher and I pointed out that they possess selfish ambition. They lack integrity. They lack compassion. They desire attention from man and they lack humility. When we looked at verses eight through twelve, I listed five traits of a genuine teacher. They do not yearn for special recognition. Jesus alone is their teacher and their allegiance is to him. The answer to God and not only to an earthly organization or system, they are not above others but are members of the body of Christ and they are content to simply and humbly serve the Lord and others. So as we arrive now at verse 13, Jesus is directing his comments to notice the scribes and the Pharisees and he's condemning the religious hypocrisy of the scribes and Pharisees. He has spoken to them as being hypocrites. These were the people who were only acting righteous but were not righteous from within. The word hypocrite is a Greek word that that was used to refer to actors. You had masks, comedy, and tragedy and the actor would put on a mask and he would play that part. And that's what is being spoken of here when he speaks of hypocrites, when he speaks of hypocrisies. And it's interesting to note that he saves his most scathing rebuke for those who are in religious authority. From verses 13 through 29, Jesus refers to them as hypocrites seven times. Somebody once said, of all things in the world that stink in the nostrils of men, hypocrisy is the worst. And he's pronouncing them under God's harshest judgment. Now eight times he pronounces woes on them. When he begins he says it very clearly. He says in verse 13, woe to you. Now to me this is kind of interesting. The word woe, where did we get that from? The word woe. All of us know the Hebrew word for woe. We just don't realize it. Perhaps we don't realize it. The word in Hebrew is oy, oy. So who here has ever heard the term oy vey? Well oy is the word. That's the word that's translated for us by the single English word woe. It's a passionate cry of sorrow, grief, despair, or dismay. And that's what he's having right now. So he's saying woe unto you. So he is, one, he says you're hypocrites. Two, he pronounces a woe. And three, he actually calls them names. Now think about that for a moment. Sweet Jesus, you know, carrying a little lamb with kind of a smile in his face. That doesn't register with some people. But he does, he does that here in chapter 23. Listen to the flattering way in which he speaks to them. He says you're hypocrites. You're sons of hell. You are blind guides. You are fools and blind. You are white washed tombs. You are serpents. You are a brood of vipers. Love you. See you next week. You know, I mean, what a, what a scathing rebuke that he's bringing on these. And yet he speaks in this way for a purpose. You know, there are those today who would say, man, Jesus was a hater. No, he did hate. He hated sin. And he hated what happened to those who were in bondage to it. Somebody also says, well, does this not violate his own command to love others? I mean, today we, we live in what we, we used to call it this. We used to call it sloppy agape. You know, where you just basically just make excuses for everybody's sin. You know, oh, don't judge them. Don't judge me. You know, there are guys today. I see it, you know, sometimes I see it on an MMA fighter. You have a tat and you'll say, only God can judge me as if that's something he ought to take pleasure in. You ought to think about that one for a minute. Yeah, God will judge you if you don't have a relationship with Christ. But the bottom line is that we have a lot of people who don't have discernment at all or the capacity to say, I love you enough to tell you the truth. And when Jesus was speaking, he was speaking the truth. You see, those who, who think that Jesus is violating his own command to love others simply aren't reading the Bible. They don't realize that in the Old Testament as well as the New, God very often would speak concerning the unfaithful shepherds and he would bring warnings to them. Ezekiel again in Ezekiel 34 verses 2 through 6 said, Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds, the leaders of Israel. Give them this message from the sovereign Lord. Destruction is certain for you shepherds who feed yourselves instead of your flocks. Shouldn't shepherds feed their sheep? You drink the milk, wear the wool. Butch are the best animals. But you let your flocks starve. You have not taken care of the weak. You've not tended the sick or bound up the broken bones. You have not gone looking for those who have wandered away and are lost. Instead, you have ruled them with force and cruelty. So my sheep have been scattered without a shepherd. They are easy prey for any wild animal. They have wandered through the mountains and hills across the face of the earth yet no one has gone to search for them. In Jeremiah chapter 12 verse 10, many shepherds will ruin my vineyard and trample down my field. They will turn my pleasant field into a desolate wasteland. You see, throughout the history of redemption, the greatest threat to God's truth and God's work has been false prophets and teachers because they proposed to speak in his name. That is why the Lord's most scathing denunciations were reserved for the false teachers of Israel who claimed to speak and act for God, but were liars. And that's what Jesus is speaking about here in this passage, guys. These men were truly hypocrites. They lived for the honor and praise of people, but they didn't love them. And so he begins to speak to them and pronounce woes. Notice verse 13, Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men, for you neither go in yourselves nor do you allow those who are entering to go in. You are excluding men from God's kingdom as you yourselves also are. What you're doing is you're rejecting Jesus and you're influencing others to do the same. You see, true Christians influence people into the kingdom and not away from the kingdom. And there are people who in the name of God turn people away from God. And that's what Jesus is speaking about here. You shut up the kingdom of heaven against men, for you neither go in yourselves nor do you allow those who are entering to go in. There was a knock on the door at my house. I opened the door. The two people standing at the door, hello, we'd like to talk to you about the kingdom of God. And I say, well wonderful, come on in. And they sit down. And as they're speaking, they're seated in my front room on the couch. And one begins to speak. And they're representatives of the Jehovah's Witness Organization. And one begins to speak. So I ask a question of them. And the person next to her says, I'll answer that. So I turn to the person next to her. And I say, but I didn't ask you. I ask her. I'd like her to answer, if you don't mind. And I said, so, and I asked the question again. She goes, well, and then she turns and looks at this person next to her. And I, and so the person next to her begins to want to answer again. Some of you may or may not know this, but when Jehovah's Witnesses go door to door, what they have is a mentor and the person being mentored. And so the person being mentored is allowed to share. And then when a difficult question comes up, then the one mentoring is the one responsible to give the answer. Because in that way they're teaching them how to respond to questions that are being asked by people like myself. And I'm aware of that. And so I turn to this woman again, the second woman, and I say to her again, excuse me, I'm not speaking to you. I was asking her, what do you think about this? And then I ask a question and once again the other one interrupts. And I say to the other one, I'm really not speaking to you. I say, you see, I have to tell you something, maybe you don't realize this, this is my house. And if I asked somebody a question, I'd appreciate hearing the answer from them. Well, we can't. And now she's getting agitated. And so I said to the young woman being mentored, I said to her, is that the kind of religion you want to be part of? A religious faith that does not allow you to speak for yourself? A religious faith that gives to you replies that you parrot without even thinking about? Because what you are being is brainwashed. And you are being brainwashed by someone who doesn't know the truth themselves. And thus I warn you, flee from this, get right with Jesus Christ so you can have eternal life. Because as long as you stay with this woman here in her organization, you are lost. And somebody says, how harsh. No, that's what Jesus is speaking about. That's what he's saying. You're not going in yourself and you're hindering those who would. That's what he's speaking about. We see that in our modern day today where people are not entering in, but they are keeping others from going in also. So he says that's hypocrisy. A second thing found in verse 14, he says, What do you scribes and Pharisees hypocrites? For you devour widows houses and for a pretense, make long prayers. Therefore, you will receive greater condemnation. You devour widows houses and for a pretense, make long prayers. You fatten yourself off of lonely, generous women. They may have convinced widows to trust them to manage their funds and then defrauded them. Others say that they could have been acting as spiritual advisors. And when the widow would say, could you please pray for me? The more money you gave, the longer the prayer would be. So if you give me 50 bucks, I'll pray for 10 minutes. You give me 100 bucks, I'll pray for, you know, a half hour. You give me 500 bucks, I'll pray all day for you. It was that kind of thing. It was pain for praying. And he says this is wrong. This is hypocrisy. Somebody said they pray for as they pray on them and enrich themselves. Does this happen today? Is it possible to send somebody some money? So they will pray for you? Absolutely. I was watching, this was a while back now, I was watching a particular quote unquote Christian television program where the evangelist was saying, if you send me some money, we will send, God will answer. When you sow into our ministry, God will answer. And he said it's like a watermelon. If you take a watermelon seed and you plant it, it says, he said it produces a watermelon with many seeds. So if you plant a seed in this ministry, God will give to you watermelon seed blessings. And people still do that. To this day, in Jesus is saying, you are taking advantage of the most weak individuals in your society. You are using them in that way. And he says, you receive a greater condemnation because you're taking advantage of the most vulnerable people in our society. And therefore, you will receive greater judgment. In verse 15, he goes on, woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, one convert. And when he's won, you make him twice as much as son of hell is yourselves. You have incredible zeal. But you are useless in God's kingdom. You aggressively evangelize but into a worse hypocrisy than you possess yourself. Instead of setting them free, he says, you are ensnaring them into deeper bondage. And this again is a fruit of many calls. They tirelessly travel to share a tainted and ineffective message. We need to remember as Christians, and this sounds again so simplistic, but it's absolutely true. We need to remember that it's the gospel that sets the spiritual captive free. It's the gospel of Jesus Christ. In Romans 1.16, Paul said, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. It's a power of God to salvation for everyone who believes for the Jew first and also for the Greek. He said in 1 Corinthians 1.18, the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing. But to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. He said in verse 15, you make them twice the child of hell as you yourself are. They're doubly damned because of you. They become like you and they end up lost. Woe unto you. In verse 16, he goes on and says, woe to you, blind guides who say whoever swears by the temple, it's nothing. Whoever swears by the gold of the temple, he's obliged to perform it. Fools and blind. For which is greater the gold of the temple that sanctifies the gold, and whoever swears by the altar? It's nothing whoever swears by the gift that is on it. He's obliged to perform it. Fools and blind for which is greater as the gift or the altar that sanctifies the gift. Therefore, He who swears by the altar swears by it and by all things on it. He who swears by the temple swears by it and by him who dwells in it and he who swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by him who sits on it So he refers to the practice of solemnize solemnizing oaths through the temple altar in this even heaven And this is what he's saying. He's saying you have made the physical which was money and the animals for offering You have made the physical more binding than the spiritual And what that does is it displaces the integrity of the one making the vow with the material value of Gold you see when you made an oath The oath was made to God and they were to be kept as a matter of faith as well as integrity It's like what it says in numbers 30 verse 2 When a man makes a vow to the Lord it takes an oath to obligate himself by a pledge You must not break his word But must do everything he said or Ecclesiastes 5 verses 4 and 5 when you make a vow to God do not delay in fulfilling it He has no pleasure in fools fulfill your vow It is better not to vow than to make a vow and not fulfill it So he's speaking concerning the displacing of the spiritual with material and not valuing the one years you're making the vow to Then he says in verse 23 and 24 Woe to you scribes and Pharisees hypocrites For you pay tithe of mint and anise and coming and Neglected the way dear matters of the law justice and mercy and faith These you ought to have done without leaving the others undone Blind guides who strain out a gnat and you swallow a camel I have a couple of friends that I I see on a generally on a monthly basis One's name is Bill and the other's name is Bobby Bill and I go back Well, actually we were in kindergarten together It's hard to believe 20 years have passed We were in kindergarten together and I met Bobby when we were freshmen in high school, so I've known these guys most of my life and Long story made short Bill got right with the Lord after having walked away from God for many years and Bill and I and Bobby will meet generally monthly and They live in Orange County, and they'll drive out here. I'll set apart some time for them and Bill will bring two pages normally the two pages worth of questions and He will ask me questions For an hour and a half to two hours One question after another I've been mentoring him for several years now once a month And he'll bring the question here and you'll bring the question there and we spend some time then we get some lunch We always go to the same place to eat lunch and so we were there just this last Thursday and when we went in we were seated and We're almost while we were wrapping up and it was time for us to leave when somebody came walking in and was standing at the At the cash register and apparently we're making a having a pickup for some food to go and And I was seated facing the cash register and I noticed That this this lady turned and looked in our direction And and I thought that she must be noticing how ugly Bill and Bobby are so And and it's a good thing She was getting food to go because she couldn't have sat and looked at them and eaten without getting real sick, but anyway as As she was doing that she looked another time and and I noticed and so she turns and she says hi Pastor David hi, how are you and I said well? I'm fine and she comes to our fellowship and she says may I pay for your lunch and I said no No, I already talked him into it, you know, so Bill was Bill was paying I said no, no, it's okay. Thank you for the offer. I really appreciate that and my friend Bill says you know, I've already taken care of it and She says no, I insist and it was very sweet. She kept no I really we kept on saying no no Thank you so much for your generosity and then Bill's I said to her I said this is these are my friends Bill and Bobby. She says oh, I've heard I've heard their names mentioned in church and I said yeah, these are my friends and and Bill says and you've heard this story Of how I vomited on David's face He says I'm the one who did it like he's proud of that like he's proud because when we were 16 years old we went to a Wong's market on front street in Norwalk and we stole six bottles of wine and We downed them got very drunk and I was we were arrested We were put in the Norwalk sheriff's substation there in Norwalk and I was so drunk I couldn't move and I was laying on the floor with my face directly looking at Bill as Bill was on a bench Yeah, and Bill Started to vomit and I was saying Stop it Bill and he's going I can't And a police officer a sheriff saw this taking place I still remember hearing him say guys are gonna see this And here they come So Bill has to say I'm the guy who barfed on his face. Yeah, he's so proud of that, right? I hate him so They're they're they're my friends and oh well years ago When I was 20 Bill had started going to a church called Calvary Chapel and He started inviting me to go. You all know the story. I'll make it brief. I Didn't want to go. I didn't want to go. It was the summer of 1970. I don't want to go to your church He finally he was so insistent to get him off my back. I go and I smoked some pot I drank some beer. I was barefoot. I was a hippie. I Expected to be kicked out. I walked in It was a small chapel that was built to hold about 300 There were people on the platform area all around the steps They were through the aisles. There were kids. They were all around my age And I walked in there and I sat down in that area and I sensed something that I'd never sensed before And I had been raised in a religious system. I had gone to church I was the one who used to make my mom go to church My mom didn't want to go to church. I would say to my mom take me to church when I was six seven eight nine ten years All I still have memories of sitting in a church pew with my body pressed against my mother and my head on her Shoulder because that was the only place I felt safe It's the only place I felt safe in the house of God. I Don't know why but that's a fact. I felt I Mean the house of God. I wasn't saved But I remember that It was just a secure place for me, but there was no spiritual It was just like a safe place and when I walked into this other little place and And The atmosphere Was different. I didn't know what it was that I was experiencing. I Didn't know what it was And I've shared this recently with you perhaps more than once I Didn't know until I got saved what it was and what it was was for the first time in my life in a church Anywhere really I felt love. I Experienced that this is There are hundreds of people here But there's something different. It was the love of God Listen when Jesus says you are so scrupulous and so You even go so far as to Tithe on your garden herbs But you have forgotten the way to your things the matters of the law that matters the justice the mercy the faith It's not it's not that they shouldn't be givers of course all believers ought to be givers That's not what he's saying. These are things that you do. You don't leave the others other things undone but the problem is is You have been emphasizing what's on the outside and not on what is on the inside You are blind guides you strain out a net you swallow a camel You're so scrupulous in the things of faith, but have forgotten to love to love people Your Pharisees the word Pharisee means separated one You don't know about justice because you're unjust. You don't know about mercy because you don't show it You don't know any of these things. You're not living by these things You're not walking in faith. They're walking by the law. You don't see that the law is pointing to a messiah What you do is you strain things out when they would drink very often they would they would put a Some kind of filter over the cup And because there were gnats that would fall into their drink And so they would some of them would actually put a little filter a cloth over it and drink through the cloth The cloth just to strain out the potential for them to swallow a net because according to the law In Leviticus 11 23 it says all other flying insects that have four legs you are to regard as unclean And so they would sometimes strain it out sometimes they would actually wear these kinds of a mask over their face so that they would not You know swallow a flying insect. He says you're so scrupulous about that But you swallow camels You strain out the small things but you indulge yourselves in the worst things you're so Careful about the things that are on the outside and you don't care about the things That are on the inside notice what he says in verse 25. What do you scribes and Pharisees hypocrites? You cleanse the outside of the cup and dish inside. They are full of extortion and self-indulgence blind Pharisee First cleanse the inside of the cup and dish that the outside of them may be clean also Well, do you scribes and Pharisees hypocrites you are like whitewash tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly But inside are full of dead men's bones and all in cleanest even so You also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you're full of hypocrisy and lawlessness you take that cup and On the outside you look at it and it appears clean, but when you look inside of it. It's filled with with evil my my dad had a Ritual when I grew up and that was on the weekend when he was not working. He would stay in bed and and my mom would make some coffee and Especially Sunday my my mom would make him coffee and then she would bring him his cup of coffee And they had the newspaper and they'd read the newspaper in the room and my dad would drink his coffee That was his ritual for many years and when I grew to be a certain age My dad said to me son would you get me my coffee? And I was like wow, this is a This is wow. This is really an important thing bringing dad his coffee Because it to me it was it was like wow So mom said this is how your dad takes his coffee and I said great So I went in and I got this copy had a special cup that he had He my dad was in the Navy and so he had a cup he had brought from the Navy it was his special coffee cup and I put coffee in it and then I fixed it the way my mom said and Then I carried it like was a holy chalice of some sort You know and I still remember carrying it to make sure I didn't spill a drop of this coffee And I gave it to my dad and I'm waiting for his approval I'm waiting for my dad to take his drink and say oh son. Yes, you know, this is the best thing about waking up It's Folgers in my cup. I'm expecting something, you know, and he drinks it and he spits it out What did you give me and he hands me the cup well my mom the night before had taken you know a dishcloth or something and had put all of the Coffee grounds and stuff in it wrapped it up and had put it in the cup. I didn't check the inside So I just poured Yeah It looked clean It looked clean It did it really it looked clean But it wasn't and that's what Jesus is saying You look clean on the outside and people will see you from the outside Because man judges according to outer appearance right So if you're a believer Definitely, you've never had a tattoo in your life ever you don't have piercings Believers don't have piercings right Because Jesus didn't have piercings and we're like Jesus and Jesus had real short hair and A kind of real trim beard, you know I mean we we take the 21st century and we throw it on Jesus in the first century and we say that's what Christians Looked like back then, but that's not true. I felt more comfortable as a Christian as a hippie He wore sandals so did I he had long hair. So did I I'm like him I mean if you get caught up with that, that's what you're you're gonna end up the outside, right the outer appearance the outer appearance He says no you Pharisees are perfect at looking good but your hearts aren't Your hearts are not good Your hearts are evil and that's what he's saying He says cleanse verse 25 cleanse the outside of the cup and dish But the problem is inside you're full of extortion and self-indulgence And then he says in verse 26 cleanse the inside of the cup that the outside may be clean also Woe to you scribes and Pharisees hypocrites for you are like whitewashed tombs During this time of the season The tombs when you came into Jerusalem would be whitewashed Because this is the Passover many pilgrims would be entering in so they cleaned the outside tombs So when you would go in they were all whitewashed But he says on the outside they're whitewashed on the inside. They're filled with corruption They're filled with the things that ought not to be there dead men's bones in all matter of decay That was really a word of warning by the way for the pilgrims who were in Jerusalem to be aware That these Pharisees that they looked up so much to were spiritually contaminating any who came into contact with them you see in Numbers 19 verse 16 It says anyone out in the open who touches someone who has been killed with a sword or someone who has died a natural death Anyone who touches a human bone or grave will be unclean for seven days Jesus is basically saying to those who are admiring Pharisees You know in reality if you are connected with them you're unclean Stay away from their doctrine and their lifestyle and then finally he says in verses 29 through 33 Woe to you scribes and Pharisees hypocrites Because you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous and say if we had lived in the days of our fathers We would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets therefore You are witnesses against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets Fill up then the measure of your father's guilt and then he closes this portion by saying serpents Brutal vipers How can you escape the condemnation of hell all of your? outward appearance Has not affected the heart all of your religiosity all of your external religious righteousness Has not changed your heart You know God's word teaches us that he will write his law upon the tablets of our hearts So that from the inside we will live out that which he has done God Promises by the power of his spirit and his word to create a new people Who will be known For the works of righteousness that are performed It isn't by works of righteousness which we've done It's according to his mercy that he saves us by the washing of regeneration the renewing of the Holy Spirit So it isn't because we've done good works But we do good works because we've been saved these Religious leaders whom Jesus is is saying our hypocrites actors Have made the outer appearance the most important thing That's why we need to be careful as believers today That we don't make instant Judgments on people who may not look like we think a Christian ought to look Man judges on the outer But God looks at the heart and what God wants to do is transform us from the heart But you know what? Even in our tradition, even we were Calvary chapels who ought to be aware of that. It's just part of who we are as a as a people Even so we still have people who get caught up with the outer appearance. I Still remember a young man who approached me years ago now many years ago now here in this fellowship a younger man My hair some of you weren't with us then My hair was down to the middle of my back. I mean I had hair that was all the way down to about right here That's how long my hair was you guys may not know that don't care, but I'll tell you anyway. I Had I had real long hair. Hey, I just got tired of cutting it is what happened So I had I had long hair, you know here when I would pastor and My hair is real thick and so I would take me 40 minutes to dry it and I finally got tired of that I said that's pretty much a waste of my time So that's when I started cutting my hair, but this young man approached me and said to me how happy he was that I had cut My hair because apparently he thought that when I had long hair. I wasn't as annoyed it is when I have short hair You know that and you know, I didn't get mad at him or anything like that I just thought what an interesting interesting Observation to make that we have moved and this is over 20 years ago We have moved back to that rigid self-righteous. It's the appearance that tells me whether they're saved God help us all God help us all, you know, you're not going to see me with any piercings, you know, I'm not one who can do that I can't even get shots I'm not into piercings You know, you're not going to see that with me, but I'm certainly not condemning those who do I Look at him and I say I bet that hurt. Oh, I bet that hurt I wouldn't do that. I bet that hurt in the tattoos and all of that stuff if people want tattoos I've told you this a thousand times, you know, they have those little tattoos on their back those ladies sometimes will have the little Tattoo and all of that. I've told you this They like that tattoo on their back little hummingbird How cute right it grows into a vulture then what then what are you gonna do and you're walking and it's How cute I'll say that to me sometimes some of you walk by and they've got kind of an outlandish look to him and I'll turn around I go how cute how cute, you know, there you go You know, whatever, you know Man looks at the outer appearance God looks at the heart Jesus was teaching the Pharisees something the church needs to know and to remember always and that is very simply this God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son That the only way for us to have eternal life is through Jesus Christ and there are people who refuse to come to Christ When they refuse to come to Jesus, they are basically signing their own Eternal judgment and Jesus is making it very clear when he said in verse 33 How can you escape the condemnation of hell if you reject the one who can rescue you? You are left to your own efforts You are left to yourself God loved us enough to send his son to rescue us But you want to save yourself you can't and because you're caught up with the outer You haven't had an inner transformation that comes through the power of the Spirit and by the word of God through the grace of God When you've received Christ as your Lord and Savior you're left You're left in your self-righteousness and we left in your self-righteousness has left you Condemned to eternal fire. That's what Jesus the most precious loving Savior Ever said he said it You cannot escape the condemnation of hell because you refuse the one who can save you from it God help us to not refuse what has been offered to us by him