If you would turn in your Bibles to the Gospel of Luke chapter 11. Luke chapter 11. Last time we began to look at verses 37 through 54 through the end of the chapter and will continue. Please follow along in your copy of God's Word. Luke 11, beginning in verse 37. Now when he had spoken, A Pharisee asked him to have lunch with him, and he went in and reclined at the table. When the Pharisee saw it, he was surprised that he had not first ceremonially washed before the meal. But the Lord said to him, now you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and the platter, but inside of you, you're full of robbery and wickedness. You foolish ones, did not he who made the outside make the inside also? But give that which is within as charity, and then all things are clean for you. Woe to you, Pharisees, for you pay tithe of mint and rue and every kind of garden herb, and yet disregard justice and the love of God. But these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others. Woe to you Pharisees, for you love the chief seats in the synagogues and the respectful greetings in the marketplace. Woe to you, for you are like concealed tombs and the people who walk over them are unaware of it. Verse 45, one of the lawyers said to him in reply, teacher, when you say this, you insult us too. But he said, woe to you lawyers as well, for you weigh men down with burdens hard to bear, while you yourselves will not even touch the burdens with one of your fingers. Woe to you, for you build the tombs of the prophets, and it was your fathers who killed them. So you are witnesses and approve the deeds of your fathers because it was they who killed them and you build their tombs. For this reason, also the wisdom of God said, I will send to them prophets and apostles and some of them they will kill and some they will persecute so that the blood of all the prophets shed since the foundation of the world may be charged against this generation. from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who was killed between the altar and the house of God. Yes, I tell you, it shall be charged against this generation. Woe to you lawyers, for you have taken away the key of knowledge. You yourselves did not enter and you hindered those who were entering. When he left there, the scribes and Pharisees, began to be very hostile and to question him closely on many subjects, plotting against him to catch him in something he might say. Let's bow our heads and ask God's blessing on the preaching of his word. Triune God of heaven, you have spoken to us in your infallible, inerrant word. This morning we would hear the voice of Christ. We pray that you speak to your people. That you sanctify us by the truth of your word. God, we pray that you draw sinners to repentance and faith in Christ Jesus. That you would build and strengthen your kingdom through the preaching of your word. We pray, Lord, that you'd hide the preacher behind the cross of Calvary. And we pray this in Christ's name and for his kingdom's sake. Amen. So we began last time looking through these verses and this interaction between Jesus and the scribes and Pharisees. We considered the error of these religious leaders. They denied the sufficiency of scripture by adding man-made rules to the Bible and holding those teachings of men as equal to the commands of God. Today we look more specifically as we dig back in at Jesus' pronouncement of woe upon these Pharisees, upon these scribes that are here called lawyers. Remember this pronouncement of woe should bring a gravity to our thinking. Be reminded, as we have read these verses again, of our Lord's willingness to enter into a social environment and go to a dinner and interact with these unbelievers. Remember, Christians, when we mix with the ungodly, with the children of this world, that we must follow our Lord's example of how we engage with them. Jesus was not participating in any sinful acts. Jesus was not, by His presence, condoning any sinful acts, and we must not He openly and directly spoke about God, about the things of God, without compromise. Even when he confronts the man who was his host, this man who had invited him, Jesus did not avoid conflict. But as this dinner and the rituals that were performed at this dinner in the Pharisees' house were in opposition and opposed God's word, Jesus intentionally called attention to the offense against the word of God. Before we get into the woes that Jesus spoke, let's take another look at the attributes, or at one of the attributes that these scribes and Pharisees display those who attended this dinner. Consider, if you will, the foolishness which accompanies their legalism, the foolishness that accompanies legalism. Just like the legalists of our day who add man-made burdens to the law of God, these Pharisees had done the same, adding to the law of God, and this ritualistic ceremonial hand-washing is just one example, and it serves here to represent the whole system of works that they had added to what God has given. And the foolishness of this legalism is this, that they considered Christ's neglect of their man-made directive to be something unholy before God. They counted Christ's disregard for their man-made statute to be some evidence of moral impurity. Remember, this is not hand washing to remove dirt and germs. This was a ritual cleansing designed and commanded by men, not by God. And now they somehow have assumed and believed that God will honor and will respect and will go along with them and recognize their false religion that they had created. We find this brand of Phariseeism. We find this kind of Pharisee is not extinct. They didn't die out with this generation. They still exist today and walk among us. And some of us who are sitting here this morning at times act just like this. We act as though something that we have created, that we have made, is equal to the word of God. As Americans, we equate sometimes being American with being Christian. Democrats, Republicans, do you think Jesus is part of your political party. We take our ideas, our social behaviors, our political involvements, and we equate those, make them spiritual, or say that they make us more spiritual. Sometimes we think of Jesus as being aligned with our ideas, with our thoughts. when they're just our ideas and our thoughts and our preferences. But Jesus points out the foolishness of these Pharisees. How foolish is it to think that their outward rituals or that our man-made ideas would cleanse our hearts. Their ritual was to cleanse the hands. How foolish would it be to think that their outward ritual, which cleansed the hands, would have any benefit to the heart that is dirty. Jesus uses as an illustration, as an example, the tableware that was right there in front of them as he refers to the cup and the plate. And it's a picture of this truth. When the Pharisees saw it, verse 38, he was surprised that he had not first ceremonially washed his hands before the meal. But the Lord said to him, now you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and the platter, but inside you are full of robbery and wickedness. We may consider that the example that Christ chose, this picture of a plate and a saucer of this dinnerware, are fragile items, easily broken. And perhaps this is to remind us of the fleeting nature of human life. As I say that and I look out and I see people of varying ages, I realize, because I remember being a young man, I realize that many of us think we are invincible, that many of us think that our death, that the end of our life is way down the road, it's so far away. But this example of a cup and a plate, we are reminded that just a drop from a very short distance, just a bump against a hard surface and these things are shattered. And in the same way, man's life is fragile and easily shattered. This should put us in an eternal mindset. knowing that for each and every one of us, our death and the day of reckoning is closer than we would like to think. Consider too that there's no indication here that the Pharisee, when he saw Jesus neglect this ritual and he was not approving, there's no indication that he spoke this disapproval out loud. That he spoke this disapproval, but that he just thought it. The Pharisee saw it, and Jesus said to him. That's what we read in the scripture. He saw, and Jesus said to him. We read in other passages in the gospel that Jesus knew their thoughts and we would do well to remember this. Perhaps this Pharisee thought that he could hold his disapproval of Christ, his ideas, his falseness, his error as a secret. Perhaps he thought that Jesus would not know, that God would not know. And don't we do this sometimes? We have a sinful thought, we have a root of bitterness, or we play the legalist or the hypocrite, and we pretend that God does not know, but he does know. Jesus here is pointing out the foolishness of legalism by reasoning that the inside of the dish The inside of the cup, the inside of the plate is the more important, the primary part. It's the main thing. Will God ignore inner corruption if you clean up the outside enough? No, isn't the maker of the outside also the maker of the inside? Bear in mind, primary principle thing is the inner man, the heart of man. Remember the words of our Lord to the prophet Samuel. He said, man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. Man looks at the outward appearance, the Lord looks at the heart. So fastings and self-imposed restrictions, postures and gestures before God, a bowed head, a solemn face, even a hearty amen said aloud. All these things are worthless if the heart is wrong. Empty externals call for the woe that is given here. men who draw near to God with their words, men who honor God with their lips, but their heart is far from Him, call for the woe of God in Isaiah. And here in Luke, this behavior of empty externals while your heart is far away, call for the woe of Christ. And friends, today, empty religious practice still calls. for the woe that is pronounced here. The question that you must ask yourself in any religious service, in any religious activity, and in your worship is this, where is my heart? So we consider the foolishness of legalism. Now we notice, verse 42, the inconsistency of the hypocrite Verse 42, but woe to you Pharisees, for you pay tithe of mint and rue and every kind of garden herb, yet disregard justice and the love of God. But these are things you should have done without neglecting the others. These Pharisees are paying extra close attention in one area of their piety. And in other areas, they're ignoring it completely. When it came to tithes, they paid. Their practice, it would be considered extreme. It would be considered scrupulous to the extreme. They were rigid. They were careful. They followed the law to the minutest detail. But these practices, which they did in such a strict manner, would be considered secondary, secondary practices. In Matthew's account, we read that Jesus referred to the other matters as weightier, which tells us these matters are secondary. So it's right for us to consider secondary matters, some things being more important. And the Pharisees were meticulous, but they were meticulous in secondary matters, but the weighty matters that Jesus speaks of here, justice and the love of God, they had completely ignored. Again, this is a common practice in our day. We have a tendency to stress secondary things. Those things that are secondary are often those things that can be seen by others. And sometimes we make those things out to be the most important matters. Just this week, someone said to me, speaking of their religious piety, I don't cuss, drink, smoke, chew, or go with girls that do. And this was to be an impressive display of religious piety, but there was no mention of things that should be primary, of a sincere heart for God, of loving the brethren, of not being prideful, of loving God's word. These Pharisees could have their meticulous tithing practices weighed, counted, considered by all, recorded and reported. People saw those things, but to do justice, to love mercy, to walk humbly with our God, who would know if you did those things? Their emphasis on the secondary matters actually fed their pride. Look at me, look at how wonderful I am when Christ says on the inside they were full of corruption. And this is the inconsistency of the hypocrite. Overdo the secondary to maintain a facade, but ignore the primary altogether. Hypocrites will always be marked with an unhealthy emphasis on the secondary externals and no importance on the prime internals. Church, let us be a people who keep an eye toward the Christian duties that should take place, a prime place, a first place, duties like love, meekness, spiritual mindedness, love for the brethren, love for and meditation on God's Word, mortification of sin, and these that our Lord mentions, justice and love for God. If we set our eyes on the secondary things and take those things out of their proper place and make them primary, we lose sight of the first things. Jesus is pointing out a fundamental defect here in religious practices which neglect principal matters of Christianity. So we could say the main thing here is to keep the main thing the main thing. To keep first things first and second things in their place. But in case we would go from one extreme to the other, I want to remind you that Jesus spoke of the primary and he spoke of the secondary in this passage. In verse 42, he says, these are the things you should have done, primary things, without neglecting the others, secondary things. The error of the Pharisee was to ignore the first things in favor of the second. But should we now ignore the secondary things altogether? Jesus says, do first things without neglecting the others. I think we can clearly see in this passage as it speaks of tithing, that tithing is a secondary thing. but many would like to abandon the idea of tithing altogether. And some have said, well, Jesus never mentioned tithing and he certainly never commanded tithing, but they must not have read these verses, this passage here and in Matthew, because I read without neglecting the other, without neglecting the other things, without neglecting the tithe. Now this is not a sermon on giving, but Jesus did deal with giving the subject in at least a passing fashion. We certainly should not set the tithe as a primary thing, and some try to do that. Some make that error. But we also should not neglect it either. This verse and this account in Matthew's gospel are an endorsement of the tithe by Jesus. These things you should have done without neglecting the others. Verse 43, woe to you Pharisees for you love the chief seats in the synagogue and respectful greetings in the marketplace. Here we see the shallowness of man pleasers. This woe is pronounced on the Pharisees for being power grabbers and seeking the approval of men rather than the approval of God. And then in verse 44, Jesus compares them to hidden graves. Woe to you for you're like concealed tombs and people walk over you and they're unaware of it. So see here the falseness of these hypocrites, like an unmarked grave which men may walk over and be completely unaware of the rottenness of the stench that lies under the surface. This is what Jesus speaks of. J.C. Ryle says, so these teachers of the Jews were inwardly full of corruption and uncleanness, and their deluded hearers had no conception. legalism, hypocrisy, people pleasing, and disgusting sin have often been found side by side. Let us beware, lest we find ourselves in these sins. Next, Jesus deals with the scribes. And in this example, we see the faithfulness of our Lord. He did not favor one group over another. Even though we hear in the language of these scribes, well, I know you're down on the Pharisees, but you can be pro-scribe. Jesus did not favor one group over another. He fearlessly, uncompromisingly rebuked sin in all equally. Some might think, especially in our day, that this sort of straightforward talk is unkind or unloving to rebuke sin. Some reason that fault finding or finding any kind of error, especially sin, and pointing it out is the worst kind of insult, the worst kind of disrespect that there could be But Jesus calls sin as it is. He calls things as they are. Now we have a saying, I call things like I see them. Jesus called things as they are. And we should know his word that we should call things as he sees them. Jesus does not call out their sin to be unloving, to be unkind. This is an act of mercy to point out their error. Jesus knows that a disease needs a cure. The one who is a true friend of sinners will not just smooth things over or nod along with sin. Jesus told these men the truth. Jesus, what a friend for sinners, told them the truth. Sinner, this morning, hear the words of Christ. Repent of your sin. Turn to him in faith. See here, as Jesus addresses the scribes, the great sin of preaching one thing and practicing another. The scribes put burdens on other men, but they were not willing, Jesus says, even to put a finger to lift that burden. There was always a strict rule for someone else. But when it came to them, there's some excuse, there's some loophole, there's some extenuating circumstance, some reason why they're not guilty. They didn't practice what they preached. And we all need to keep a watch for this sin. It creeps in, but especially Those who are or will be parents. Heads of your home. Teachers. Preachers. Children. Children with siblings. Children, when you have not obeyed your parents, when you've broken a rule in your home, is there always some reason that you're not guilty? Is there always some reason, some answer back, some excuse? When your brother or sister does it, throw the book at them. They should be held to the letter of the law. You're not practicing what you preach. Parents, do you do this with your children? Do you have rules for them that don't apply to you? Now, there are rules in a home that apply to the children that do not apply to the parents, and that is good and right. But there are some rules, let's call them commandments, that apply to all. So do you teach your children In this house, we will not lie. We will not bear false witness. But then when it's convenient. When it saves you time or effort or money. Do you lie? Do you instruct your children to not use the Lord's name in vain, but when you think they're not listening, you do the same? This kind of hypocrisy in parenting will frustrate and anger children in the home. And Jesus pronounces woe on these scribes who do the same, who do not practice what they preach. Now it's important for us to point out here, as we talk about practicing what you preach, that this is not a call for perfection. This is not to say that a parent cannot instruct their children in the law of God until they have perfectly mastered it in every point. It's not to say that. And don't even begin to think that a preacher who preaches the law of God has mastered it. But there is an honesty about our goal, there's an honesty about our direction, and there's an honesty about our failures and consistency as we seek to obey. Again, listen to J.C. Ryle. We have a right to expect some agreement between a man's words and a man's work. between his teaching and his doing, between his preaching and his practice. One thing is certain, no lessons produce such effects on men as those which the teacher illustrates by his own daily life. Happy is the man who can say with Paul, those things which you have heard and seen in me, do. That's from Philippians 4.9. That should be our goal. Those things which you have heard and seen in me do. Verse 47 speaks of the easy honor that these scribes give to the prophets. This cheap honor. We know how easy it is to pay respect, to honor a man of history, to honor people who are now dead. Because we can ignore so much. about that man. These scribes claimed to honor the prophets by building the tombs of the prophets, by building these memorials. But their lives, the lives that they were living, would have been condemned by the prophets. They honored the prophets outwardly, but they did not heed the prophets' advice and teaching. In honoring the prophets outwardly, they could feel better about themselves. They could boast, I am a man who honors the prophets of the Old Testament, while they completely ignore and hold to a different body of doctrine. I see this in our day. I think it's illustrated with Charles Haddon Spurgeon. Everyone wants to hold Charles Haddon Spurgeon as one of us. But many ignore his doctrine, ignore what he taught. Irrespective of how their ideas line up with him, they want him in their camp. This is what the scribes were doing with the prophets. Picking a few quotes that would make them sound prophet-friendly. Building a memorial, but ignoring the majority of their teaching. When the people saw the scribes' actions, that seemed to be, seemed to be respectful of these men of God. The people would assume the scribes too must be honorable men of God. But in reality, their love for the scribes, their honor for the scribes, I said scribes, their love for the prophets, their honor for the prophets was cheap and it was shallow. Jesus equates their treatment of the prophets to the fathers who killed them. Observe in the words of our Lord, the sureness of a day of judgment. In verse 50 to 51, he speaks there of the blood of the prophets from Abel to Zechariah being a charge against this generation. Their blood was required And we're confident that the blood of the prophets, the blood of those who have died for the cause of Christ through history will not be forgotten. God has not forgotten to avenge their deaths. There is a judgment day coming. And Christians, we should look forward to that judgment day, to that day of reckoning. There are many days in this life When we are frustrated. When it seems that evil prevails. When it seems that sinners prosper. That's not new for us. We read of this in the Psalms. But there are many days, Christians, when we are frustrated. But a day is coming. when all will be made clear, when God will bring all things to their intended end and all things will be right and God's providence God's works of providence, which now may seem confusing. Sometimes we don't know how to interpret them. Sometimes they're difficult for us to see or difficult for us to accept. Sometimes God's works of providence seem like to us a mess, but there's a day coming when we will see clearly when this tangled mess will be untangled and all things will be right. On that day, All things will be proven to have been worked by God for the good of those who love him and are called for his purpose. For God's people, every hurt will be healed. Every tear will be dried. And there will be a reckoning for every life given for the sake of Christ. Lastly, in verse 52, we read, Woe to you, lawyers, for you have taken away the key of knowledge. You yourselves did not enter and you hindered those who were entering. We learn here the grave sin of keeping others from God's truth. These scribes did not believe themselves and they hindered others. So we're reminded of the one who does not keep the law of God and teaches others to do so. It would be better that he had never been born. It would be better that a millstone be cast, be tied around his neck and cast into the depths of the sea and be drowned. Again, J.C. Ryle, the sin here denounced is awfully common. The guilt of it lies at far more doors than at first sight many are aware. It is the sin of the Romish priest who forbids the poor man to read his Bible. It is the sin of the unconverted Protestant minister who sneers at the idea of conversion. It's the sin of the ungodly, thoughtless husband who dislikes his wife becoming serious in religion. And to this we could add, It's the sin of the parents who teach their children to worship at the altar of some sort of ball or to worship at the altar of education or to worship at the altar of career. And neglect to teach them to worship God. All these. Who hinder others from God's truth, whether they act intentionally or unintentionally, purposefully, or almost by accident, they are bringing down on themselves the forceful woe of Christ. They are hindering others from entering into God's truth. Hear these woes and take this warning. Lord, we pray that the sins that we've seen here in your word. Would not be ours. Where we have already. Send in these ways. We ask forgiveness. Keep us, we pray from these. From these grievous acts. where we've sinned as children, where we've sinned as parents or teachers or pastors. We ask that you would pour out your grace and your mercy on our children, on our loved ones. Lord Jesus, we ask that you keep us from legalism and hypocrisy, that we would learn you, by your word and spirit. Father, we pray for those who live today in persecution, for the saints who suffer at the hands of political powers, all the way to the wife who is persecuted by her unbelieving husband. We ask for your deliverance from those who mistreat them. Who harm? And where you see fit. In your Providence to leave them in their circumstance. We ask for an extra measure of grace and mercy. To endure. We look with hope. To the end of all things. When all your enemies will be put under your feet. We long for that day. Even so, Lord Jesus come quickly. Amen. I invite our ushers to come forward for the distribution of the elements of the Lord's table. We're glad to see each and every one of you here to have so many friends and family and new friends and visitors with us this morning. We're glad that you have chosen to honor the Lord on the Lord's Day by worshiping with his people. This observance of the Lord's table is a great visible expression of our. Of our union with Christ. through His life, death, and resurrection, and of our unity with one another in Christ. And because it's such a wonderful observance, we hope that as many as are fit will partake and will share as the elements come by. But Scripture does place requirements on those who would come to be fit partakers. And these requirements we've summarized in a few points. First of all, that you are truly repentant and displeased with yourself because of your sin, confessing your sins to God. Secondly, that you have repented and then subsequently been baptized by immersion in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit for forgiveness of sin. Thirdly, that you believe that salvation is by God's grace alone for the sake of Christ's obedience and death and resurrection alone. And that this salvation is imputed to sinners through faith alone. That you desire to strengthen your faith by truly feeding on the body and the blood of Christ. that you are in right standing with the local church of which you are a member, and that you're not under church discipline. If you meet these requirements, we would welcome you to the table. As the elements pass by, you can receive them. If not, we would ask that you let the elements pass by you. And we ask that because of the gravity that is placed on this ordinance in first Corinthians. where we read this, whoever eats of the bread or drinks of the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. But a man must examine himself and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not judge the body rightly. For this reason many among you are weak and sick and a number have died. But if we judge ourselves rightly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged, we are disciplined by the Lord so that we will not be condemned along with the world. So we come to the Lord's table examining ourselves and not examining ourselves to find inherent value and worth, to find that we can come to the table on our own. We examine ourselves and we can rightly come when we see that we are resting in Christ. are relying on his life and death represented in this bread and this cup for our salvation. Heavenly Father, we pray that as we come to this table that we would find your grace, that this would be a means of grace, a sustenance and a nourishment for your people. And we pray this in the name of Jesus for your kingdom's sake. Amen.