WEBVTT

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 Our scripture reading on which the sermon will be based tonight is from Luke chapter 11.

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! Luke chapter 11, verses 37 through chapter 12, verse 3.

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! And the author of Luke writes these words,

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! While Jesus was speaking, a Pharisee asked him to dine with him. So he went in and he reclined at table.

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 The Pharisee was astonished to see that he did not first wash before dinner. And the Lord said to him,

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 now you Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you are full of greed

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 and wickedness. You fools! Did not he who made the outside make the inside also? But give his alms

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 those things that are within, and behold, everything is clean for you. But woe to you Pharisees, for you

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 tithe mint and rue and every herb and neglect justice and the love of God. These you ought to

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 have done without neglecting the others. Woe to you Pharisees, for you love the best seat in the

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 synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces. Woe to you, for you are like unmarked graves, and people

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 walk over them without knowing it. One of the lawyers answered him, teacher, in saying these things,

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 you insult us also. And he said, woe to you lawyers also, for you load people with burdens hard to bear,

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 and you yourselves do not touch the burdens with one of your fingers. Woe to you, for you build the

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 tombs of the prophets whom your fathers killed, so you are witnesses, and you consent to the deeds of

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 your fathers, for they killed them, and you build their tombs. Therefore also the wisdom of God said,

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 I will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill and persecute, so that the blood of all

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 the prophets shed from the foundation of the world may be charged against this generation. From the

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 blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who perished between the altar and the sanctuary, yes, I tell you,

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 it will be required of this generation. Woe to you lawyers, for you have taken away the key of knowledge.

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 You did not enter yourselves, and you hindered those who were entering. As he went away from there,

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 the scribes and the Pharisees began to press him hard and to provoke him to speak about many things,

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 lying in wait for him, to catch him in something he might say. In the meantime, when so many thousands of

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 the people had gathered together that they were trampling on one another, he began to say to his

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 disciples first, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. Nothing is covered up that will

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 not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. Therefore, whatever you have said in the dark shall

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 be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in private rooms shall be proclaimed on the housetops.

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 This is God's holy Word. As Corey said at the beginning, we're returning to Luke's gospel and

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 our series on the call to discipleship. I think this is our ninth sermon in this series.

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 It was John Milton in his famous work, Paradise Lost, who described hypocrisy as the only evil that

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 walks invisible except to God alone. And I think it's the concept of hypocrisy that dominates the verses

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 that lie before us tonight. You may have noticed in the opening verse of chapter 12 how Jesus warns his

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 own disciples, beware the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. But what is this hypocrisy of which

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 Jesus speaks? What is he referencing? And how is it a danger on the way of Christian discipleship?

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 I'm sure, as many of you are aware, heard many times before, that in the ancient Greco-Roman world,

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 the hypocrite was an actor, one who performed on stage, wore a mask. But play-acting is not always

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 confined to the theater stage. And so, the word hypocrite came to be used to refer to someone

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 guilty of playing a part, being inauthentic in their relationships and way of life. It referred

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 to a lack of integrity in both head and heart. So, hypocrisy, not just being guilty of saying one and

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 doing another. We often think of it that way. It conveys more a sense of misrepresentation,

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 a hiding of one's true self behind a mask, not just moral inconsistency. It's about a deep-seated

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 and deliberate pretense. It's to be guilty of misrepresenting who you really are, a form of

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 deception and lies. And these verses tonight constitute a devastating critique of hypocrisy amongst the

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 religious leaders of Jesus' day. And here, Jesus, in a strikingly direct manner, does not hold back

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 from confronting these dangers. This is not gentle Jesus, meek and mild. And that in itself should give

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 us a pause for thought. For the religious hypocrisy of which Jesus speaks here is not a trifling matter.

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 Hypocrisy may be a hidden, a quiet problem, but it's not an inconsequential one.

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 The way of Christian discipleship is the path to becoming more like Jesus Christ, more authentic

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 as a human being, more real, more integrated. But as Jesus reveals to us here, hypocrisy is a grave danger

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 on the way of true discipleship, and we must be on our guard against it. So, what I want to do is just

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 look at our text as we work our way through it under three headings. The first we find covering those

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 verses of chapter 11 from verse 37 to 41. And we have here the critique that Jesus offers.

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 While Jesus was speaking, a Pharisee asked him to dine with him. He went in and reclined at table. The

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 Pharisee was astonished, surprised to see that he did not first wash before dinner. So, we find Jesus

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 here who often ate with tax collectors and sinners, dining at the home of a certain Pharisee. And the

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 Pharisees were a kind of religious group, very committed to living in a holy and righteous manner

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 before God. But Jesus' behavior at the meal sparks a conflict with his host and his religious piety.

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 For Jesus, instead of engaging in the practice of ritual washing before eating, it goes straight to

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 recline at the table. And his host is quite taken aback by Jesus' behavior. He's astonished. He appears

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 shocked at Jesus' table manners or lack thereof. The Pharisees and the religious culture that they had

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 developed around them required ritual washing before eating at table. This was what was expected of a

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 faithful Jew. And these acts of ceremonial washing required by the Pharisees were a way of publicly

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 displaying one's displaying one's religious commitment, a badge of religious piety, a way of showing to

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 others, to the community, how serious you were about the things of God. The Pharisees were absolutely

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 scrupulous in such matters. However, here in this man's home, Jesus completely ignores this tradition.

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 And part of the reason for that was, of course, that these washing rituals were not found in the law.

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 They were an addition and an unwelcome one at that. And though reclining at his table was the one man on

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 earth with clean hands and a pure heart, his host is astounded at Jesus' lack of religious etiquette.

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 And his response doesn't go unnoticed. You'll see there, verse 31, the Lord said to him,

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 now you Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you're full of greed and

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 wickedness. You fools! Did he who made the outside not make the inside also? But give his arms those

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 things that are within, and behold, everything is clean for you. Jesus goes straight for the jugular.

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 He doesn't hold back in showing this man the error of his way of thinking. So concerned were the

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 Pharisees with these external outward appearances that they failed to consider that true religion is

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 always a matter of the heart. It involves both the internal and the external. And so obsessed had

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 they become with how things looked and appeared to other people that they had neglected how things

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 looked before God. Yes, on the outside, they looked very clean, very religious, very spiritual.

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 But on the inside, their hearts were full of greed and wickedness. They were good at cleaning the

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 outside of the dish, but they had ignored the inside, which was caked with all sorts of muck and filth.

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 Their whole religious outlook was actually fatally flawed. It was folly, foolishness. For despite

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 all their ceremonial ablutions, their hearts were left unchanged, unwashed, unclean. The dirty stain of

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 their greed and wickedness remained untouched for all their washing. They were serving and pleasing

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 themselves themselves and not God. The Pharisees had distorted God's revelation of Himself in Scripture.

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 Sinclair Ferguson writes this, the character of our piety stems from how we view God. Small views of God and

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 His grace produce small hearts and spiritual confinement. And that was the Pharisees. Another theologian,

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 Mike Reeves, comments this, the Pharisees were as they were and acted as they did because they denied the

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 gospel. Their mercilessness, love of applause, and trust in themselves all flowed from a refusal to

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 listen to Scripture. A refusal to receive a righteousness not their own, and a refusal to see their need for a new heart.

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 Their character was a manifestation of their theology. You see, a good moral scrub-up and a lick of

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 religious paint is never enough. Superficial and cosmetic remedies abound in this world, and they are all doomed to fail.

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 Religion is not enough. Washing the outside of the cup is not enough. The appearance of morality is not enough,

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 because it's a new heart that is required. We need more than a moral bath. We need grace.

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 We need the gospel. We need Jesus Christ Himself. And beware of settling for anything less than Him.

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 Focus on externals alone is a real danger.

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 I used to think that everyone who carried a Bible, who called themselves an evangelical,

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 must be a good Christian, must be a good Christian. Well, almost 40 years in the ministry have opened

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 my eyes. Hypocrisy. The kind that likes to have all the right language, all the right phrases,

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 has all the right books on the bookshelf, even stickers, badges proclaiming,

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 Jesus as Lord. Gives every outward indication of devoutness and moral integrity, but whose heart you

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 come to discover remains absolutely unchanged. Nothing but a cesspool of filth.

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 And the real test of our faith, says Jesus, is what is going on in the inside, where no one else can see.

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 Is the house really clean? Or like the Pharisees of old, have we just swept the dirt under the carpet,

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 painted a shiny veneer over the rotten timbers of our true selves? What is going on inside?

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 In our hearts is a critical issue. The critique Jesus offers.

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 And then secondly here, from verse 42 to 54, really the main section here, we have the woes Jesus

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 pronounces. The critique He offers, and then the woes He pronounces. And again, Jesus, you'll notice,

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 really holds nothing back. As He sets His sights on these religious leaders, He pronounces a series of

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 six woes on their malformed spirituality. He begins in verses 42 to 44 by speaking to the Pharisees

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 before moving on to include the lawyers. He's not referring to solicitors or anything like that.

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 Those who are experts in interpreting and teaching the law. And the woes Jesus declares are a kind of

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 announcement of judgment. The word conveys a sense of sadness or grief. It's the word mourners would

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 cry over a coffin. And in the Old Testament, serve to call as a call to repentance and for people to change

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 their ways. And I think that's how we're to understand Jesus' words here. He's not just damning those

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 religious leaders. He's imploring them to recognize their foolishness and to repent before they feel the

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 blast of God's judgment. Let's look at these woes one by one. We'll be relatively brief.

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 Woe to you Pharisees, verse 42. You tithe mint and rue every herb and neglect justice and the love of God.

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 Those you ought to have done without neglecting the others. So, Jesus begins this expose by speaking

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 about tithing, setting aside of a tenth of one's income for the Lord and for His work, something commanded

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 in the law of Moses, Deuteronomy 14. But by Jesus' day, the Pharisees had, I suppose, expanded this principle

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 of tithing to cover all sorts of things, even the herbs that they grew in the garden. And tithing is a good

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 practice, one that Jesus commends to us. But He points out here that it is not to be scrupulously

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 followed at the expense of other more weighty items. The Pharisees' detailed, strict obedience had, in fact,

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 become a cover for ignoring far weightier aspects of God's law. They made much of these little rules that

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 they were easily within their reach, and all the while distracting attention from the big rules,

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 if you like, that they couldn't or wouldn't keep. And that focus on legalistic details is often a way

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 that people seek to avoid feelings of guilt or to avoid or evade repentance. The human heart likes to

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 focus on laws, things that it can obey with ease and solve, as it were, a troubled conscience. I may not

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 love my neighbor, but at least I read my Bible every day. I may lack integrity in my business practices,

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 but I always say grace at mealtimes. I may be a liar and a gossip, but hey, I never miss the Lord's

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 Supper. The human heart will sometimes go to inordinate lengths to avoid facing up to its own

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 sin and rebellion against God. And don't you realize, says Jesus, God doesn't want you to miss the wood for

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 the trees. No matter how neatly marked your Bible, how precisely scheduled your quiet time is, do not

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 forget that justice and love are the weighty matters you must not ignore. Woe to you Pharisees. You love the

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 best seats in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces. Verse 43, we know that the Pharisees

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 took delight in public applause. They laid great sort of emphasis on their position in the community,

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 their status. They had to have the best seats. They had to be seen elsewhere in the Gospels. Jesus indicates

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 that their prayers were attention-seeking. They greeted one another ostentatiously with great flourishes.

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 Their charitable giving was made with, you know, with trumpets blowing. When they fasted, they made sure

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 that everyone knew what they were doing. Their whole religion was performed according to Jesus for the

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 praise of the praise of men rather than God. Living for the praise of other people is a subtle trap

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 that ensnares many. The crowd gives us the reason to pull on the mask, and how easily we can find

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 ourselves driven, really, by what others think and say, rather than by what God thinks and God says.

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 Woe to you, you're like unmarked graves, verse 44. People walk over them without knowing it.

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 Have contact with a corpse was ritually defiling for a Jew, so cemeteries were very clearly marked.

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 Tombs would be whitewashed to make them stand out. Unmarked graves represented a religious hazard.

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 And Jesus says, this is what you Pharisees have become. You look innocent enough, but you're leading

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 people astray. You're defiling others. You're leading them not to God, you're leading them away from God.

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 What about, if you're a Christian today, what about your own spiritual influence? Are we leading people to God

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 or away from Him? Is our influence a healthy one? Or is it just an exercise in exhibitionism?

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 The great saints of the past, I think, understood this well. Maureen McShane, it was, who once said,

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 what a man is on his knees before God, that he is, and no more. And that place of prayer is a key to

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 personal integrity, because we must build our lives not on the approval of others,

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 but on our relationship with God in Jesus Christ. Now, you would have thought that such a damning

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 triad of woes would be enough, but Jesus is spurred on to deliver three more. And this time, it's the

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 lawyers who come into his gun sights, as it were. One of the lawyers answered him, teacher, in saying

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 these things, you insult us as well. Indeed, I do, says Jesus. You lawyers are just as bad as the Pharisees.

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 In fact, you're worse. These men made their living by attention to the text of the Old Testament and

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 interpreting the moral requirements there. And so he says to them, woe to you lawyers also, verse 46,

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 you load people with burdens that are hard to bear. You yourselves do not touch the burdens with one of

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 your fingers. The lawyers had a teaching ministry, but their often man-made rules weighed people down

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 with burdens that they couldn't hope to carry. There were huge lists of do's and don'ts, not found in

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 Scripture. According to the Psalmist, the study of the Bible should be a delight. God's law and

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 particular, he said, was sweeter than honeycomb to the taste. But the lawyers had desiccated biblical

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 religion into a tedious catalog of thou shalt and thou shalt nots. Where the Bible offered mercy,

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 they offered rules. Where the Bible offered forgiveness, they offered more rules. Where the Bible offered grace,

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 they offered still more man-made rules. Their narrow-hearted teachings obscured God's grace

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 and His love for sinners. And I reflect that that is a danger for ministers and teachers of God's Word

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 still. It's all too easy for us to distort God's character, maybe not just in what we say,

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 but in the manner of our preaching. I know that is a danger for myself. Sinclair Ferguson, in his book,

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 The Whole Christ, a discussion of kind of the marrow controversy, was a sidebar that I'm not going to go

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 down tonight. But he talks there of a narrow heart polluting the atmosphere of biblical preaching.

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 And he writes this, when people are broken by sin, full of shame, feeling weak, conscious of failure,

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 ashamed of themselves and in need of counsel, they do not want to listen to preaching that fails to

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 connect them with the marrow of gospel grace and the Father of infinite love for sinners.

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 It's a gracious and loving Father they need to know.

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 Woe to you, for you build the tombs of the prophets whom your fathers killed,

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 so you are witnesses, and you consent to the deeds of your fathers, for they killed them,

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 and you build their tombs. Verses 47 and 48. The religious, Jewish religious establishment down

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 through the years had opposed and persecuted God's messengers, rejected the prophets, and instead

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 built tombs for them. Their fathers had claimed to know the truth, but had failed to recognize

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 true prophets. And now these lawyers couldn't recognize the greatest messenger and prophet of them all.

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 They couldn't recognize Jesus Himself. They opposed Him at every twist and turn. They sought to have Him

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 killed. Yes, Galilean peasants could recognize Him, and Roman centurions could see it, and blind beggars and

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 demon-possessed individuals could see it. But the lawyers and Pharisees would not see it.

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 And instead, they conspired to nail Him to a cross.

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 Therefore, also the wisdom of God said, I'll send them prophets, apostles, some of whom they will kill

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 and persecute, so that the blood of all the prophets shed from the foundation of the world may be charged

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 against this generation. From the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who perished between the altar

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 and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, it will be required of this generation. Abel and Zechariah really

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 stand symbolically from the A to Z of biblical martyrs. From the beginning of the Old Testament to its end,

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 people who spoke for God by their righteousness and by the divine authority of their words paid for it

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 with their lives. And Jesus here predicts ominously this generation will prove no different.

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 They will commit the final and most appalling act of sacrilege, crucifying the very Son of God Himself.

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 Woe to you lawyers, you've taken away the key of knowledge. You did not enter yourselves. You hindered

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 those who were entering, verse 52. Jesus says that these experts in the law have locked the door of

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 the kingdom and thrown away the key. Instead of people encountering the saving knowledge of the gospel of

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 the kingdom, they have found instead only a kind of dead-end religion, one that's abandoned grace,

00:27:10.220 --> 00:27:17.019
 abandoned the good news. It's rejected and obscured the message of God's redeeming love,

00:27:17.839 --> 00:27:25.460
 a spiritual dead end of religious formalism. And so, it's little wonder that Jesus draws His disciples

00:27:25.460 --> 00:27:33.059
 away from the surging crowds in the verses that follow and warns them of the threat that popularity

00:27:33.059 --> 00:27:42.799
 and admiration from others can pose to the way of true discipleship. The critique Jesus offers,

00:27:42.940 --> 00:27:49.920
 the woes He pronounces, thirdly, finally here, as time disappears, the danger He highlights in verses

00:27:49.920 --> 00:27:57.480
 1 to 3 of chapter 12. When so many thousands of the people had gathered together, trampling one another,

00:27:57.960 --> 00:28:04.039
 He said to His disciples first, Beware the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. Nothing is

00:28:04.039 --> 00:28:10.080
 covered up that will not be revealed or hidden that will not be known. Whatever you've said in the dark

00:28:10.080 --> 00:28:17.200
 shall be heard in the light. What you've whispered in private rooms shall be proclaimed on the housetops.

00:28:17.200 --> 00:28:27.360
 Jesus warns here of the leaven of the Pharisees. The leaven, a piece of fermented dough, causes the

00:28:27.360 --> 00:28:36.220
 bread to rise when baked. That's an image often used in the Scriptures to describe the influence of sin.

00:28:37.180 --> 00:28:43.660
 It may appear something small and insignificant, but it has a dramatic influence on everything around it.

00:28:43.660 --> 00:28:50.580
 And here Jesus uses this metaphor to highlight the danger of hypocrisy. It may start as something

00:28:50.580 --> 00:28:57.519
 small. It may start as something insignificant, but it can soon grow to taint and color everything

00:28:57.519 --> 00:29:08.279
 in a person's life. I suppose over past years I've experienced the deep sadness of discovering

00:29:08.279 --> 00:29:18.460
 individuals, some of whom I was close to, or at least I thought I was, as being unmasked, as living a lie.

00:29:20.379 --> 00:29:27.720
 I don't know all that went on in their hearts and their lives, but what started as something

00:29:27.720 --> 00:29:36.360
 apparently small became so baked into their lives that it utterly consumed them?

00:29:38.980 --> 00:29:46.220
 It went to sometimes inordinate lengths to keep up the facade, to keep up appearances.

00:29:46.220 --> 00:29:56.079
 And friends, hypocrisy like any sin must be dealt with in a ruthless matter, because the spiritual

00:29:56.079 --> 00:30:02.660
 corruption it brings will not lie hidden forever. J.C. Ryle says this,

00:30:03.480 --> 00:30:12.700
 whatever we are in religion, let us never wear a cloak or a mask. There is nothing concealed,

00:30:12.700 --> 00:30:17.759
 says Jesus, that will not be disclosed, hidden, that will not be made known. What you've said in

00:30:17.759 --> 00:30:22.460
 the dark will be heard in the daylight. What you've whispered in the ear in the inner rooms

00:30:22.460 --> 00:30:30.220
 will be proclaimed from the rooftops. What a terrifying thought. The day is coming, he says,

00:30:30.340 --> 00:30:35.860
 when everything's going to be brought out into the light, when the truth will be exposed and revealed.

00:30:36.120 --> 00:30:42.200
 For all the world may indeed be a stage, but one day the curtain will fall on our performance.

00:30:42.700 --> 00:30:53.700
 Our masks will be removed. Our true selves revealed. People will see who and what we really are.

00:30:54.600 --> 00:31:04.340
 We'll stand naked before a holy God. So, don't be fooled by God's patience. Sin and hypocrisy will

00:31:04.340 --> 00:31:11.059
 one day be judged. We will stand before God's judgment seat, says Paul, and all of us will give an

00:31:11.059 --> 00:31:20.960
 account of himself to God. Some of you may have heard of the Fastnacht celebrations. I think they're held

00:31:20.960 --> 00:31:28.419
 central Germany, I think perhaps in Switzerland. It takes place at the beginning of Lent on Shrove

00:31:28.419 --> 00:31:34.740
 Tuesday, a kind of carnival. Everyone dresses up, wears costumes and masks. And in some places,

00:31:34.740 --> 00:31:42.500
 it became an occasion for sensuality, debauchery, people hiding behind their masks, their disguises,

00:31:42.900 --> 00:31:50.440
 were able, you know, to throw caution to the wind. Unrecognized, unseen, they could behave as they so

00:31:50.440 --> 00:31:58.660
 pleased and not be discovered and found out. And the story goes that in one town where I think the

00:31:58.660 --> 00:32:06.380
 Salvation Army was evangelical, they placed signs and posters all over the town. These posters

00:32:06.380 --> 00:32:20.440
 contained just a few words. In German, apologies to Axel, Gott sieht hinter dein mask. God sees behind the mask.

00:32:20.440 --> 00:32:32.380
 One of the features of our individualistic world is that for many people, almost everything has been

00:32:32.380 --> 00:32:41.779
 reduced to a kind of an act. The scenes change, the actors change, the parts change, but we never leave

00:32:41.779 --> 00:32:49.259
 the stage. There's a mask for church and a mask for work, a mask for home, a mask for every situation.

00:32:50.720 --> 00:32:57.059
 Spend much of our lives reflecting back to others the images we think they want to see.

00:32:58.500 --> 00:33:07.579
 But our identity is not ultimately defined by ourselves or even by others. There is only one

00:33:07.579 --> 00:33:16.000
 relationship which can rightly claim to define our true identity. There is only one place where the

00:33:16.000 --> 00:33:23.119
 masks come off, where there is nothing concealed that isn't disclosed. And that is in a personal

00:33:23.119 --> 00:33:31.099
 relationship with the living God. And that is what Jesus offers to us in the gospel. That's the key to

00:33:31.099 --> 00:33:39.259
 the kind of spiritual integrity that Jesus is looking for. And deep down, we all long for. It's in this

00:33:39.259 --> 00:33:45.559
 personal relationship with God. And we are designed for that relationship. We are made for it.

00:33:47.480 --> 00:33:53.839
 In its absence, our self-consciousness floats around in a raging sea of lost identity,

00:33:53.839 --> 00:34:02.199
 because authenticity and reality are to be found only in Jesus Christ and in being clothed in His

00:34:02.199 --> 00:34:13.500
 righteousness. Only in Him can we discard our sinful inauthenticity. Only in Him can we become true

00:34:14.880 --> 00:34:16.119
 human beings.

00:34:16.119 --> 00:34:25.859
 Why are we to respond to Jesus' words here? Well, give up trying to prove ourselves something that

00:34:25.859 --> 00:34:35.279
 we're not by being honest before God, honest about ourselves, honest about our sin. The Christian life,

00:34:35.380 --> 00:34:44.019
 the disciples' life, is a life of constant confession and repentance. We must come to Christ. We must receive

00:34:44.019 --> 00:34:51.340
 His righteousness because only His righteousness will enable any of us to stand on the day of God's

00:34:51.340 --> 00:34:59.739
 judgment. And that righteousness comes to us by way of the cross, where the sinless one tasted judgment for

00:34:59.739 --> 00:35:09.739
 us. It comes to us as that old foundation of self-trust, self-confidence, self-righteousness is broken up,

00:35:09.739 --> 00:35:18.139
 and our lives find a new foundation. Not sand, but rock. Not lies, but truth. Not self, but Christ.

00:35:19.639 --> 00:35:23.299
 And that righteousness comes to us as a free gift of God's grace.

00:35:25.819 --> 00:35:34.139
 It's how we discover who we really are, because it's in Jesus that we discover a self to be true to.

00:35:34.139 --> 00:35:42.099
 The Pharisees were massively insecure.

00:35:44.500 --> 00:35:51.179
 Think of Luke 2nd volume, the book of Acts, and we read there of a Pharisee, don't we?

00:35:52.759 --> 00:36:03.039
 Who, confronted by Jesus Christ, became a new person. Remember what Paul wrote of that transformation,

00:36:03.039 --> 00:36:12.199
 Philippians 3? I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus,

00:36:12.340 --> 00:36:20.440
 my Lord. I consider them rubbish that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness

00:36:20.440 --> 00:36:28.059
 of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness that

00:36:28.059 --> 00:36:37.059
 comes from God comes from God and is by faith. You see, what Paul lacked in himself, he found in Jesus

00:36:37.059 --> 00:36:46.380
 Christ. And friends, the good news here is that Jesus ate with Pharisees too. He came not just for the

00:36:46.380 --> 00:36:50.440
 wayward prodigals, he came for elder brothers as well.

00:36:50.440 --> 00:37:00.220
 Do you harbor hopes that your life, your goodness, your morality, your religion is in any way commending

00:37:00.220 --> 00:37:07.139
 yourself to God? Do you think your morality will in any way affect God's heart? Do you think God's favor

00:37:07.139 --> 00:37:13.500
 is related to your religious performance? Well, if you do, you have not understood the Bible.

00:37:13.500 --> 00:37:25.199
 You have not understood the gospel of God's amazing grace. You know, some of us have convinced

00:37:25.199 --> 00:37:30.639
 ourselves that we're good and we're righteous and we're loving, but we've never known the real God,

00:37:31.500 --> 00:37:37.159
 pleasure of life in His presence, never really enjoyed a relationship with Him.

00:37:37.159 --> 00:37:45.279
 Self-righteousness has kept us from the party. We've never joined in because we've never seen

00:37:45.279 --> 00:37:53.039
 ourselves as desperate moral failures in need of forgiveness and restoration. We think we're better

00:37:53.039 --> 00:38:04.699
 than that. Friends, you're not. Do not be content to be religious. Like the elder brother in Jesus' famous

00:38:04.699 --> 00:38:16.219
 story, some of us prefer to stand on the doorstep in our pride, look in from the outside to exclude ourselves.

00:38:17.579 --> 00:38:25.799
 And exclude ourselves we will. If we stay out of heaven, it will be because we have refused to step in.

00:38:26.039 --> 00:38:34.099
 It's because we've refused to take that step of faith, too proud to accept His grace.

00:38:34.699 --> 00:38:43.739
 Friends, tonight, leave your religion and your pride and your good works on the doorstep.

00:38:45.000 --> 00:38:50.519
 And step inside to a house where grace's sweet aroma pervades everything,

00:38:51.659 --> 00:38:57.019
 and the host has laid down His very lifeblood for you.

00:38:57.019 --> 00:39:04.759
 Step inside that house and discover your view of God utterly transformed,

00:39:07.179 --> 00:39:19.480
 enlarged, expanded. For here is the Son of God who loved you and gave Himself for you.

00:39:19.480 --> 00:39:21.519
 Let's pray together.

00:39:21.519 --> 00:39:21.619
 Amen.

00:39:21.619 --> 00:39:21.619


00:39:21.619 --> 00:39:21.619


00:39:21.619 --> 00:39:21.619


00:39:21.619 --> 00:39:21.619


00:39:27.019 --> 00:39:35.840
 Lord, you see us as we are, not as we like to think we are.

00:39:37.159 --> 00:39:47.820
 You see us in all our sin, in all our failure.

00:39:47.820 --> 00:39:52.059
 You see what others cannot see.

00:39:53.760 --> 00:39:57.180
 And yet in Jesus Christ, you love us.

00:39:57.820 --> 00:40:06.700
 And you invite us to come to you in faith, to lean on you alone.

00:40:06.699 --> 00:40:08.699
 Amen.

00:40:08.699 --> 00:40:10.659
 Not to trust ourselves.

00:40:10.659 --> 00:40:14.259
 Not to be curved in on ourselves.

00:40:14.259 --> 00:40:17.359
 Not to be obsessed with ourselves.

00:40:18.359 --> 00:40:24.899
 But to lose ourselves in you, the living and eternal God.

00:40:25.899 --> 00:40:29.500
 May that be true for us tonight, all of us in this room.

00:40:30.419 --> 00:40:31.559
 May your Spirit come.

00:40:31.559 --> 00:40:39.279
 may he renew us may he refresh us may he convict us may he bless us

00:40:39.279 --> 00:40:44.900
 and may he lead us to Jesus for we ask it in his name amen