Could the way we practice our faith be unintentionally turning others away? This episode delves into the stark warnings that Jesus issued to the religious elites of his time, the scribes and Pharisees, and draws parallels to the forms of hypocrisy that might be creeping into modern Christianity. We're taking a hard look at the inconsistencies in our own spiritual lives, challenging the facade of faith that some may hold, and inviting a heartfelt transformation rooted in the genuine repentance that Jesus calls for.
Step inside the mind of the Pharisee - a place where legalism reigns and grace is often overshadowed by man-made rules. Here, we explore how their actions, despite a veneer of piety, obstructed the path to the kingdom of heaven. This episode encourages you to examine whether your actions are lightening or adding to the burdens of those around you, reflecting on the crucial balance between obedience to God and the freedom found in the grace that defines our faith.
Finally, let's talk about the elephant in the room, the one thing that's easier to spot in others than in ourselves: hypocrisy. This episode doesn't shy away from the tough questions. Are our own lives mirroring the transformation we preach? We'll address the perils of judging others without introspection and the importance of aligning our public personas with our private convictions. Join us as we seek to live authentically, embracing vulnerability and the liberating grace that comes with true repentance and forgiveness.
Could the way we practice our faith be unintentionally turning others away? This episode delves into the stark warnings that Jesus issued to the religious elites of his time, the scribes and Pharisees, and draws parallels to the forms of hypocrisy that might be creeping into modern Christianity. We're taking a hard look at the inconsistencies in our own spiritual lives, challenging the facade of faith that some may hold, and inviting a heartfelt transformation rooted in the genuine repentance that Jesus calls for.
Step inside the mind of the Pharisee - a place where legalism reigns and grace is often overshadowed by man-made rules. Here, we explore how their actions, despite a veneer of piety, obstructed the path to the kingdom of heaven. This episode encourages you to examine whether your actions are lightening or adding to the burdens of those around you, reflecting on the crucial balance between obedience to God and the freedom found in the grace that defines our faith.
Finally, let's talk about the elephant in the room, the one thing that's easier to spot in others than in ourselves: hypocrisy. This episode doesn't shy away from the tough questions. Are our own lives mirroring the transformation we preach? We'll address the perils of judging others without introspection and the importance of aligning our public personas with our private convictions. Join us as we seek to live authentically, embracing vulnerability and the liberating grace that comes with true repentance and forgiveness.
The following resource is brought to you by Real Life Community Church in Richmond, Kentucky. We hope you're both challenged and encouraged by this message from Pastor Chris May.
Speaker 2:So, if you have your Bibles, we're continuing our journey through the Book of Matthew. God willing, we will finish up chapter 23 today, moving and scooting. I tell you what Last week we looked at chapter 23, verses 1 through 12, and so today again, we're going to look at those final verses. And the entire chapter, as I mentioned last week, is about the hypocrisy of Israel's leaders. So this is the last public discourse of Jesus Christ that he would give before his crucifixion. I think it's worth listening to amen. So he's talking to this crowd of people, which consist of just a normal crowd of pious Jews who are hungry for God. With them are the twelve disciples, and then you actually have the scribes and Pharisees in this crowd, and Jesus man, he's given it to them. He pulls no punches Like how many? No meek and mild Jesus. He's also a roaring lion, amen You've got to have. If you want Jesus, you've got to understand. He's both things right. He's balanced in that. But his words today, though, they seem harsh and perhaps they are in a sense, they're spoken out of love, because you know what, if we really love someone, we will tell them the truth, particularly when it might save their life, and so you ought to thank Jesus that he is truthful and that he is willing to speak the truth in love. He is willing to speak the hard truths about the kingdom of God.
Speaker 2:So last week Jesus began addressing the crowd, warning them of following hypocritical leaders. How many know that can be dangerous? And how many know that hypocritical leaders and false teachers today are everywhere? And we've got to guard, perhaps more than ever, because how many sermons from these people are available on podcast and YouTube, the Internet, the television? And following some of these so-called preachers can be deadly. You know it's so easy, isn't it? To be deceived and misled by slick-looking smooth talkers that use a little bit of Scripture. They look like, on the outside, godly leaders worth following, just like the Pharisees, but doing so could be deadly because they're leading people astray by the hundreds and thousands.
Speaker 2:So in verses 13 through 36, I'll try my best to cover these today Jesus turns from the crowd and he actually turns directly to the scribes and Pharisees and he pronounces seven woes Woe to you, woe to you, woe to you over and over and over. And that word woe, it's a kind of a word of judgment, it's a warning of impending judgment. And so today I want us to look at these woes that are pronounced over the Pharisees, but I want us to do something. Last week we looked at, how you know, we looked at the hypocrisy of religious leaders. But here's what I want us to do today I want us to look at ourselves, to search our own hearts in light of the scribes and Pharisees, hypocrisy, and, as I teach through this, there's two different groups of people that I have in mind, and you will listen to this here, this perhaps in different ways. The first group of people are you know, you look outwardly like Christians, you would profess to be a Christian, but you are deceiving others and perhaps you're even deceiving yourselves. Your heart does not match what you're doing on the outside. Let me just say this it is impossible for a true Christian we like to call those people real followers of Jesus it is impossible for a true Christian to be guilty of full blown pharisecical hypocrisy. And so, if that's you today, if you search your heart, you say wait, claim to be a Christian and I even do some Christian things, but my heart has not been transformed by the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, friend, I invite you to come truly to the Lord Jesus today and to repent. The second group of people I want to speak to and I would assume this would be most of us consist of true believers. Your hearts have been changed and you are truly in the kingdom of God, and I want us, though, as well, to look at this text. You could say self critically and see if we might be guilty of some level of hypocrisy, if you ever notice bits of hypocrisy creeping up in your life, I have.
Speaker 2:So when we think of hypocrisy, here's what we think of normally in our culture. We think of someone whose actions do not align with what they claim to believe, and I would say so. Let's call it inconsistency, right, and I would say that every one of us, at some level, are guilty at times of inconsistency. Like, let me just ask you, did anybody lose their temper this week? Okay, well, somebody raised their hand. As this is confession time, all right. Did anybody lust this week? You're not going to raise your hand for that one. Did anybody fail to pray this week? Like you say all the time, oh, prayer is important, but did you fail to pray this week? Did anybody neglect Bible study? Were you deceptive at all this week? That type of hypocrisy, inconsistency, that's easily identifiable, isn't it? But that's not what we see. It's not. That type of hypocrisy is as bad as that is. That's not what we see in the text today.
Speaker 2:There are other forms of hypocrisy, or, let's say, facets of hypocrisy that are not as evident, they're not as easy to spot, but you and I must guard from these aspects of hypocrisy as well. Here we go, five less clear facets of hypocrisy that we see in this text. Number one is this hypocrites barricade the kingdom. They barricade the kingdom. Look at verses 13 through 15 and Matthew 23. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, jesus says hypocrites, for you shut the kingdom of heaven in people's faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees. Hypocrites, for you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte or convert, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.
Speaker 2:The arrival of the kingdom and its king, king Jesus, it's the main theme of the book of Matthew. In Matthew, chapter four, matthew tells us, he gives us a summary of all that Jesus would teach. It says he went about preaching the good news of the kingdom. I mean, this is great news. The kingdom that Israel had so long awaited for God's saving reign in the world. It was here. It was being inaugurated in the Lord Jesus Christ. So, jesus, you could say it like this he brought the kingdom and he swung the door wide open for that kingdom and said oh, come in, come in, move out of the kingdom of darkness and into the kingdom of light, move out of the kingdom of this world and into the kingdom of God. What an invitation. You would think that all of Israel would rejoice, that all peoples would rejoice, and many did Not.
Speaker 2:The religious leaders, though. Jesus was not the Messiah they were looking for. And so what do they do? They would not enter. And then they have all these followers whom they are leading, who want to come into the kingdom of God. But the Pharisees barricade the kingdom, they shut the door, as Jesus says. Now, as Christians, I would hope that we are not shutting the door of the kingdom by denying Jesus. We would then not be Christians. Just to clarify that's what the Pharisees were doing. They were rejecting Jesus. But there's another way also that the Pharisees were shutting the door to the kingdom, and they were doing so by tightening the law of God. Look at verse 14. I'm sorry, that's not right. Yeah, verse four. Sorry, we're going to go back a little bit. By the way, if you have an ESV you'll notice verse 14 is missing in that translation. They had trouble counting Math is hard, right so that verse 14 is not found in the oldest manuscript, so that's why it goes from 13 to 15. So here it is, verse four.
Speaker 2:It says the Pharisees, the scribes and Pharisees, jesus says, tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and they lay them on people's shoulders but they themselves are not willing to move them with one finger. Through the years we've talked about this quite a lot. Those leaders had added and imposed unbearable rules to the scriptures. They have put them upon God's people and it has just over the years it weary the souls of the people of God. They never felt like they could measure up. And this is the backdrop for Jesus teaching here and for what he said in Matthew 11. Do you remember these words? Come to me, jesus says all you who are what Burdened heavy laden, and I'll give you rest, for I'm gentle and lowly at heart and you will find rest for your souls from my yoke is easy and my burden light. He's talking to this crowd of Jews who were given these unnecessary burdens to carry, and they were weary. And Jesus said oh, come to me, my yoke is easy, my burden light, I'll give you rest for your souls.
Speaker 2:The mantra of the Protestant Reformation Is that we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone in Christ alone. Now, while that is wonderfully true, how many believe that we're not saved by works? We're saved by what Christ has done, and it's a work of grace in our lives, not merit. That is wonderfully true, but as we think about that, we should never believe, then, that obedience to God is unimportant. No, works are important.
Speaker 2:As a matter of fact, the great reformer Martin Luther said this. He said we are saved through faith alone, but saving faith is never alone. And here's what I mean by that. We are not saved by works, we're not saved by obedience to God. But listen, when we are saved, when we're brought into the kingdom and we are transformed by the spirit of God, the works do not save us, but they serve as the evidence that we truly are saved. When we come in, the bent of our hearts becomes by God's grace to follow his law. He takes our hearts of stone and gives us these multiple hearts of clay. What a great God we serve. So we must encourage one another to follow the moral law of God. Is that true? We must spur one another on. The Bible says to good works.
Speaker 2:But could we be guilty, like the Pharisees, of adding our extra burdens, our own extra biblical convictions, imposing those upon other believers? We call that legalism. If you have some extra biblical convictions, you know some of you are bent towards some different things and they're good things and praise God that you want to serve God in that way. That's not legalism. When it becomes, legalism is when you take your extra biblical convictions and then you impose them on other people. You elevate them in a sense above the Scriptures. And so I say this in with grace and gentleness.
Speaker 2:But there are well meaning Christians who hypocritically preach the light burden of Christ, whose yoke is easy and burdens light, the one who gives rest, but then they put unbearable extra biblical rules concerning food or drink, or wearing lipstick, or going to the movies or dancing. They put those things on people. And so there are many Christians that I've met, particularly in this area, who have grown up in churches like that and they want nothing to do with God now because the burden was too heavy. Am I preaching? Have you met anybody like that, beloved? We must guard from that form of hypocrisy. The law of God is to love God and love neighbor. Is that not difficult enough without putting extra biblical rules on people? And if you've done that, listen, I know many of you you do it with great intention, man, just be careful, be careful.
Speaker 2:Second, so let's say it like this, so you could say, as it pertains to us, that one form of hypocrisy is tightening the law. Does that make sense? But the second form, interestingly, is the opposite. It is to loosen the law. Let me explain. Look at verses 16 through 22.
Speaker 2:Oh, do you blind guides who say if anyone swears by the temple, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he's bound by his oath? You blind fools, for which is greater, the gold or the temple that has made the gold sacred? And you say if anyone swears by the altar, it's nothing, but if anyone swears by the gift that's on the altar, he's bound by his own. You, blind man, for which is greater the gift of the altar, the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred. Anybody confused? So whoever swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it. And whoever swears by the temple swears by it and by him who dwells in it. And whoever swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by him who sits upon it. What's going on here? Like I'm asking because I know it was difficult, I had to sit with this.
Speaker 2:You know a little bit this week, but Titus 1 tells us, as well as the book of Hebrews and many other places in the Bible, that God is a God. Of what Truth? He is a God of truth. He is not a God that can lie. He is faithful to his promises. Amen. You can take what he says to the bank. He is a trustworthy God. And, by the way, he expects his people to follow suit. He just reads you Proverbs 12, 22 lying lips or an abomination to the Lord. But those who act faithfully are his delight.
Speaker 2:And so the Pharisees knew they were about the law of God and they knew the importance of telling the truth, especially when it came to making vows in oaths. But they created here a double standard for swearing oaths, listen so that they might legally avoid the truth when it did not serve their own self interest In this. Here's what they did. They loosened the law. According to their regulations, you could swear by the temple and that's nothing. So you'd be like you know, you make a promise, why swear to the temple? Right, we still make these kinds of oaths today. I mean, some do right, they say something, they swear. They say I swear to God. Or, if they're really serious, you know, I swear on my mom's grave. I'm just like, why would you say that? How would you say that? And so to swear by the temple was nothing, but then, but if you swore by the gold in the temple, that's something you had to, you had to obey or you had to keep your word. It's like when a kid, when you were a kid, anybody ever do this. You got caught in a lie but you said I didn't count, I had what my fingers crossed centers.
Speaker 2:That's what's going on here, and this form of hypocrisy excuse me, it looks for loopholes in the word. Let me tell you how I see this. Most often, when somebody is unhappy in their marriage but there's not adultery, here's what they come to me and they're trying to. They want me to validate their reason for leaving and they're going and they're trying to do gymnastics around the word. And there are other reasons that you know, two that I can think of that I believe are biblically grounded for divorce. But when those things are not there, there's this I don't know the spiritual gymnastics, biblical gymnastics that they're doing, trying to look for a loophole because they just want out. That's where I see it the most. But let me give you another example here. Before I do this, actually, let me just go here for a time's sake.
Speaker 2:What did Jesus say about Elson in the Sermon on the Mount? He said don't give them, just let your yes be yes and your no be no. How many know that we ought to be, as kingdom people, so trustworthy that we don't have to swear to God or swear on our mama's grave or whatever. We just say yes and people are inclined to believe us. We ought to be people of truth. So the Pharisees claim to love God, but they're hypocritical and that they're looking for these loopholes in order to suit their own needs. Let me just give you one more example of how I heard someone kind of loosen the law to make people feel more comfortable in their sin In 1 Corinthians 6, 9 through 11, I don't have time to read that, but you can study that later.
Speaker 2:It clearly says that those who practice sexual immorality that would include heterosexual sex outside of marriage, homosexuality, adultery, so on he says those who practice stealing or greed or drunkenness and a slew of other things, paul says these people will not enter the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God, do you believe that? And what the passage means? You say well, that sounds like salvation by works. It's like no. It's like no. When you come into kingdom. 1 John, chapter three, says this when you are truly saved, god's DNA is put in you and, though we will stumble, our hearts are not bent towards habitual sin. And so the point is here with Paul is that if you're living in habitual sexual morality or drunkenness or whatever the sin is, he says listen, you're not part of the kingdom. So it says and I want you to notice, those people will not inherit the kingdom of God.
Speaker 2:Okay, but let me tell you how one preacher, very famous preacher, interpreted that text on television. While he did encourage and fairness people not to live that way, he insisted that it's okay if you have confessed Jesus and you consider yourself a Christian. If you live this way, it's okay, you're still the way he would say it is. You're gonna forfeit in this life the benefits of the kingdom, like peace and joy, but it's okay, don't worry, you're going to heaven. And here's his argument. He says Paul says here that you will not. If you live this way, you will not inherit the kingdom of God. He does not say the kingdom of heaven and he makes this distinction erroneously between the two to say that the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of God are two different things. They're not.
Speaker 2:In Matthew, matthew uses the phrase kingdom of heaven because the Jews were very Matthew's written for Jews and they were very careful about saying you know the name of God. So he would call it instead the kingdom of heaven. But it's the same thing To be in the kingdom of heaven is the same as being in the kingdom of God. It is to be saved, it is to be saved. And so what this pastor did in his erroneous message is he gave his church. He gave his church false assurance and said go live how you want, at least you'll get heaven. It's dangerous, it's damning. As far as I can see, their blood is on his hands. It's hypocritical to say you want to obey God but to look for loopholes in the word. I'll just leave it there. Number three I'm going to move quickly.
Speaker 2:Hypocrites, major in the minors and minor in the majors. Have you ever been guilty of this? Look at 23 and 24. What do you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you tithe, mint and deal and cumin. Is that how you say it? Cumin, okay. And you've neglected the way to your matters of the law, justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done. So I hope you brought your tithe of deal and mint and cumin today. You should have done without neglecting the others, you blind guides straining out a net and swallowing a camel.
Speaker 2:Now, according to Leviticus 27 and Deuteronomy 14, under the Old Testament law, the Israelites were to give a tenth the tithe of farm produce, which was a form of taxation. It went also to support the priests and then the poor. There was another tithe, given once every three years that would go to support the poor. It did not, however, required the tithing of herbs, like they were sitting in your kitchen window. They didn't have to tithe that, but these Pharisees did. They were so committed to following this law of tithing that they even gave of the most trivial plants or spices, let's say, in their kitchen.
Speaker 2:And so Jesus, wonderfully here, he says oh good job, you ought to keep doing those things. He says these things you ought to have done. But he says you should have done those things without neglecting what he calls the weightier matters of the law, namely justice and mercy and faithfulness. This is good, because as the church, we are to major in the majors and minor in the minors. So our monetary sacrificial giving how many know it really matters? We should give in that way, taking care of the church's grounds. Thank you for those of you who do that, that matters. Attending a small group matters, and I hope you're doing that, reading your Bible matters. But while we should be faithful to those disciplines and more, how many know that they don't mean much if they are not producing in us this desire for justice and mercy and faithfulness?
Speaker 2:As a matter of fact, at the end of this discourse, or actually in the next chapter, at the very end, jesus gives this parable of what is it? The sheet and the goats? Is that right? The sheet and the goat? And he separates. It's about the day of judgment and he says he'll put one on one hand, on one side and others on the other side of him, and it's the separation of the wheat and the tares, essentially, the truly saved and the unsaved. And on one side the saved, he says he's going to say welcome to my kingdom.
Speaker 2:Essentially, and here's why I'm welcoming you, because when I was thirsty you gave me drink. When I was hungry, you fed me. When I was naked, you clothed me. When I was in prison, you visited me. And the people are going to say Lord, when did we see you in those ways and give you drink and visit you? He said what, what you've done to the least of these, my brothers, you've done unto me. And then, on the other side, those who are ready to go into judgment, he'll say here's why you're going into judgment, because I was thirsty and you did not give me drink, hungry and you didn't feed me naked, you didn't clothe me in prison and you didn't visit me. Oh Jesus, when did we see you like that? We would have surely given to you what you've done to the least of these, my brethren. You've done it unto me.
Speaker 2:Again, it's not that you're earning your way to salvation, you're not meriting your salvation by doing these things, but if your heart has been changed. The heart of God is a heart of giving, of blessing. He's a just God, he's a merciful God, he's a faithful God. And so if what we do in here is not producing fruit, for us to go and serve in the homeless ministry and to minister to the guy at the gas station who is looking for a bite to eat, if it's not going to the orphan in the widow, then our religion is useless. So let's do the things that we do here. Let's come to church faithfully, let's pray, but in doing these things let's not neglect the way to your matters of the law, namely justice and mercy and faithfulness. Are you with me? To do so would be hypocritical.
Speaker 2:Number four hypocrites care more about appearance than they do the heart versus 25 to 28. Woda, use scribes and Pharisees. Hypocrites for you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self indulgence. You blind Pharisee. First clean the inside of the cup and the plate that the outside also may be clean. Woda, you scribes and Pharisees. Hypocrites for you are like white washed tombs which outwardly appear beautiful, but within our full of dead people's bones and all uncleanliness. So you are outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.
Speaker 2:Ever been to a restaurant this happened to me not too long ago and maybe you went for breakfast or brunch and they sat down a coffee cup in front of you that's empty and, man, it looks pristine, it's shiny, and you're ready for that cup of coffee and you kind of they bring the coffee pot over and they're ready to pour it for you and you. When you move it over to where they can pour, you look down and it's like nasty on the inside. What do you do? Do you say here, go out, yeah, go and pour that. It's clean. On the outside it's like no, it's like get me another cup. And when this happened to me, I'm thinking I don't even know if I want to eat here anymore. You know how I am no, clean the inside of the cup.
Speaker 2:Well, the Pharisees they were guilty of. I mean, they looked good and pristine on the outside, the most pious, religious people you could find on the planet, but yet on the inside their hearts were far from God. They were like whitewashed tombs. They look good and beautiful on the outside, but on the inside they were spiritually dead, full of dead bones. Do you remember?
Speaker 2:Again on the Sermon on the Mount, jesus said oh, the Pharisees pray and they fast and they give to the needy. But he said don't do those things like them. He says your righteousness must exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees. And here's why because they're doing the right things for the wrong reasons. They want the applause of man. Now you can't again be guilty of full blown hypocrisy like that and be a Christian.
Speaker 2:But even as Christians at times I wonder if we're not guilty of some level of this that you're willing to pray in public, in your small group or on this platform, but you don't spend time in prayer at home. I always say don't do in public what you're not willing to do in private when it comes to the things of God. And I have to check my motive every week as I prepare a sermon. Am I preaching for the applause of men? Am I preaching to say, oh, look at me, look what I know about the Bible, we've all got a guard against this. Or am I here to make much of Jesus? And I hope the latter is true every week. So I pray Lord, search my heart. Every week, almost, I pray Lord, search my heart, because it's easy to follow God's commands on the outside while neglecting personal communion with Him.
Speaker 2:But, friends, the heart of the matter is the matter of the heart, a final way that the fifth and final mark of hypocrisy found in this passage is an awareness of faults in others, but a blindness to our own faults. How often are we guilty of this? 29-36,. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you build the tombs of prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous, saying if we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken part with them shedding the blood of the prophets. Thus you witness against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers. You serpents, you brood of vipers. How are you escaping escape being sentenced to hell? Therefore, I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will flog in your synagogues and persecute from town to town, so that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zachariah, the son of Barakiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar. Truly, I say to you. All these things will come upon this generation.
Speaker 2:So here's what's going on, quickly. These religious leaders maintain and adored these tombs, or you could say monuments of the prophets of old and past. Generations of Israelites were guilty of shedding the blood of some of those prophets. They rejected, you know, they didn't want to hear the messages of repentance. And so the Pharisees recognized this and they maintained these monuments of the righteous. And what they are preaching is listen, we're better than our forefathers Like. If we were alive in the days of those prophets, we would have never done what they done, what they did. Excuse me, but what are they about to do At this moment? They are looking for a way to kill, to murder, to crucify the prophet of prophets, the king of kings, the Lord of lords, the son of God himself. How easy is it to see the faults of everybody else and say I would never do that, but be blind to our own sin? Condemning someone else for cussing when we're full of gossip? Come on. Somebody. Condemning someone for drinking when we're gluttonous? Come on. Somebody Condemning someone for stealing while we show up to work late, leave early and waste time on the clock. So when we say, preach it.
Speaker 2:Charles Spurgeon and DL Moody were two of the. It's a humorous story. They're two of the greatest preachers of the 19th century and so this story is told of this encounter between the two. Apparently, moody went to London to meet for the first time Spurgeon, and so when Spurgeon answered the door, he did so with a cigar in his mouth. Dl Moody was appalled and he pointed at that cigar and he said how could you, a man of God, do that? And the story goes that Spurgeon looked at him. A moody was kind of a plump man, let's say. He touched his rather large bell and he said the same way, a man of God like you could do that, whoa.
Speaker 2:And I say all that to say in great, you know, in lightheartedness, to say guys, we have to guard from this, because it is so easy to judge everybody else but not see our own sin. What did Jesus say? Again, going back to the Sermon on the Mount Before you call out sin in somebody else's life, like as Christians we should do that to one another in love, like, if you see me some sin in my life, please I beg you call it out so I can repent. But Jesus says before you judge someone else, before you remove what he say, the twig in your brother's eye, first remove the log in yours. And so today, as I'm preaching on hypocrisy, some of you are going. Oh, I hope someone says listening, jan's going, bud. Yeah, bud's going, jan. Right, but guys, in all seriousness, here's what you do, here's what I encourage you to do, and I'm doing this myself.
Speaker 2:Lord, where is there hypocrisy in my own life? What is displeasing in my own heart to you? And so Jesus closes this sober warning of judgment with grace infused laments. Let me just read these final verses oh Jerusalem, jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it. Jesus says listen to these words. Often, what I have gathered your children together, as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you're not willing. See, your house has left you desolate, for I tell you, you will not see me again until you say blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
Speaker 2:These religious leaders could have had the kingdom that they so long for. They just would have repented of their hypocrisy. They were blind to their own self-righteousness. Again, I want to say one more time a true Christian cannot be guilty of this full blown pharise, a local hypocrisy. But if that's you today and you've the Lord has revealed to you you're not truly a Christian Because you're doing things on the outside that are not aligned with your heart. Would you come to Jesus today? His offer is for you coming to the kingdom.
Speaker 2:For those of us who are Christians, may we search our hearts for any sign of hypocrisy, because it really damages our fellowship with God and it's really hurtful to other people. As a matter of fact, six in 10 millennials do not go to church in America and the top reason they give for not going is because they see American Christians as hypocritical. May we rid ourselves of hypocrisy, may we repent and I would encourage you now to confess your sins as we prepare our heart for the Lord's table. Father, search our hearts, search my heart, and reveal to me and to all of us any level of hypocrisy, any sign of hypocrisy. Reveal to us any sin that we might confess those things before you now. Thank you that when we sin, that we have a faithful advocate with the Father, that we confess our sins, that you are faithful and just to forgive us and then to cleanse us. What a blessing to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Speaker 2:Maybe some of us, after hearing this message on hypocrisy, maybe we've recognized it in our lives and we feel dirty. But not only. We forgive us this morning if we confess and turn from those things. But, lord, you'll cleanse us. You take any shame, any guilt away. Thank you this morning that there's no condemnation in Jesus Christ. Help us, lord, to live for you all the days of our lives and may we truly what we do on the outside, may it truly flow from the heart and with these pray, these things in Jesus' good name, amen.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening. If you'd like to know more about how you can have a relationship with Jesus Christ, or if you have questions about our church, you can email us at infoatmyrealchurchorg. Real Life Community Church is located at 335 Glendon Avenue in Richmond, Kentucky. We invite you to join us for worship Sunday at 10.45 am or Wednesday at 7 pm. Visit us online at myrealchurchorg.