Lord and His Son. Well, we're going to continue our study in the Gospel of Luke. We've been away for a while, and I don't want to part too far away, so turn with me to Luke chapter 11. Luke chapter 11, and I know it doesn't concern Christmas, but it concerns Christ, and so any time we can have our minds and our hearts directed towards Christ is a good thing. And so we're going to continue through the Gospel of Luke, and we're going to begin in verse 37. If you're able and you found your place, stand with me for the reading of God's Word. This is Luke 11. We're going to look at verses 37 to 44. Now, when he had spoken, a Pharisee asked him to have a meal with him, and he went in and reclined at the table. When the Pharisee saw it, he marveled 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 of the platter, but inside of you, you are 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. But 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 best seat in the synagogues and the respectful greetings in the marketplaces. Woe to you, for you are like concealed tombs and the people who walk over them are unaware of it. Here ends the reading of God's word. Let's pray. Father, thank you. We thank you for your word that is direction, it is clarity. Thank you for your word that instructs us and directs us and at times even warns us. May we caution ourselves this morning as we consider holiness, as we consider our walking with you, as we consider hypocrisy. Lord, may the light shine brightly. May the mirror be clear and clean so that we might see ourselves according to your word. May you drive out all forms of hypocrisy and darkness and deception that lie within us. Lord, help us to see accurately ourselves as we look at this text. May your people be built up and encouraged May we have ears to hear and eyes to see the wonderful things that are found in your word. Help us now to be attentive. In Christ's name, amen. You can be seated. I am sure you've heard the idiom, face the music. Face the music. I wonder if, where did that idiom come from? Most times people think it refers to the pit orchestra in the theater. when the actor is literally facing the music. The music is down below, and it's beaming out at him. It's bellowing out at him. But how did it come to mean, facing the music, meaning to take responsibility, to be accountable? There's actually a story about a flute player who was a part of a royal orchestra that performed year round. an important role as they played at all the important royal events and festivities. They even played private concerts for the king. It was an incredible honor to be talented enough to be a member of this royal orchestra. It was a career that came with a generous salary and great esteem within the community. But this one particular flute player was a total imposter. He actually had zero musical training. Instead, he had used some of his political connections to gain a seat in the flute section of this royal orchestra. Whenever the orchestra would practice or play an event, perform, he would simply hold the flute up to his lips and pretend to be playing. But he couldn't keep this lie for long as suspicions began to grow. So one day, in an attempt by the king to expose him, The king announced that each member of the orchestra would be scheduled to come to the palace and perform a solo piece for the king. This imposter, who had faked it for so long, knew that he would be exposed in just a matter of days. He knew that his family would be shamed, and more than likely, he himself would be executed. He tried everything he could to prolong the day. He even played sick, but a royal physician appeared at his home and gave him an examination and gave him a clean bill of health. And so he had no other choice. He would be required to face the music, to be held accountable. So when the hour arrived for his solo, Instead of facing the shame and the exposure of his deception, he left. He abandoned the community and ran for his life. He didn't want to face the music. And this is where we get the idea of coming to be accountable or taking responsibility. And the royal flute player refused to accept the evidence of his life, that he was a fraud, that his playing was a facade, that he was an imposter, he was a fake, or what we might refer to as a hypocrite. Now in our text this morning, without realizing it, this Pharisee who invites Jesus to dine with him, he is about to be exposed along with those who were there in a way that he never saw coming. Jesus is going to cause these men to face the music, to come to the light. These men, after all, claim to be imitators of an elite form of Judaism. They claim to possess a genuine spirituality and to practice true piety, holiness of the highest order. But Jesus is about to demonstrate to them that they are hypocrites of the highest order. They're frauds. They are phonies. When this unnamed Pharisee in verse 37 asks Jesus to have a meal, he has no clue the darkness that Jesus has planned to expose in their own hearts. These religious leaders thought they were reclining for a brunch, but they had no idea what Jesus had planned to serve them. He was calling them to face the music, to come to the light, to see themselves as they truly are. I wonder sometimes as we've navigated our way through the Gospel of Luke and the recurring antagonism that the Pharisees and religious leaders showed to Jesus, the fact that he was known for being one who dined with sinners, dined with the outcasts. I wonder if they put it together that their very accusings of Jesus eating with sinners, that that was perhaps another thing that Jesus was exposing to them by accepting the invitation. After all, he did dine with sinners. Now, lest we think that this message is not for us, lest we think, oh, Pharisees, that's During Jesus's time, those were those who viewed themselves as having true piety. They claimed to be something they were not. I would caution you. I would, again, encourage you to consider the headlines, even the recent headlines. People that we respect, admire, revere, view as being perhaps an elite group of Christians, men with names like Stephen Lawson, or Ravi Zacharias, or one of my favorite preachers of all time. I still think he was the greatest living preacher, Art Azurdia. Man, that guy could preach. And yet, each of these men lived as hypocrites for a long time. They never faced the music here. They preached and proclaimed. And there are others, unfortunately, claiming to live one way only to be proven to be living hypocritically, professing to be pious and holy and following Christ and calling us all to follow them as they follow Christ. And yet, secretly, they were living a double life. They weren't pious. They weren't holy. They were frauds. I've said this numerous times, but it bears repeating. We need to be reminded, all our heroes of the faith, especially those who aren't dead yet, right? The ones that are dead, you know how it ends, right? But all of our heroes of the faith, all of those that we have the propensity to maybe elevate to a status higher than we ought, they're men at best. They have clay feet. They will at times, maybe in minor ways, but they will live inconsistently to the teachings of Christ, inconsistently to their own preaching. Because as a preacher, I can tell you it is much easier to say it than it is to live it. They're very different things. Very different. We all are capable of duplicity. All of us. All of us are capable of this kind of hypocrisy if we don't come to the light. The truth is we all live inconsistently to our convictions, inconsistent to our worldview. That is a fallen human problem. And so when you hear the unbeliever often, and I've heard this, you Christians are all hypocrites. You've heard it, I'm sure. I would just encourage you, don't be so quick to deflect away from that. Come to the light. Maybe you could respond by simply saying, you know what? Let me just tell you, you're not completely wrong. I confess that my actions sometimes don't reflect my convictions. And here's the thing, Jesus isn't done with me. I have not claimed perfection. I am a sinner in need of his regular, ongoing mercy. All I'm confessing is that Christ died for me, and I am the chief of sinners. I am in need of his mercy and his grace, and I, like you, long for the day that I don't sin anymore, and I'm not inconsistent. I long for that day. That'd be a great way to respond to the charge, and then you can school them in what hypocrisy really is, right? Hypocrisy is claiming to be something that you're not. None of us here are claiming perfection, not this side of heaven. We long for the day of glorification when that anger and that impatience and that lust and all those things that we wrestle with and fight with is done. We long for that day as Christians. Yeah, there's going to be a time you'll catch me not being very neighborly or kind or maybe harsh to one of my kids or my wife. There are times, there are moments as Christians where we live inconsistently. You can maybe even after that conversation point them out to their own inconsistency. How do you live with any measure of joy when everything is meaningless? Your worldview is absent of God. You have no view, you have no categories for evil or good. How could you even say I'm hypocritical? I can create my own standards after all. We all live inconsistent, the atheist and the Christian. to what their worldview is. You just have to ask yourself, which is the better worldview? I'm gonna go with the Christian one. It's just better, ends better. It makes sense of who I am and what I experience in life. But I think as Christians, you know, with that accusation of y'all are hypocrites, you know, we wanna be quick to confess. That's a good thing. If you have a sensitive conscience or the spirit is, at you, we want to be quick as Christians to face the music. Because again, our call, our moral claim is not perfection. Christ is a perfect Savior. Look to Him. You know, as an elder, as a preacher, and we do this even more so with social media, we have these celebrity preachers, and it's a danger to them. It is. It's a danger to them. Listen, there's only one Good Shepherd. There's only one. It's not me. It's not John MacArthur or John Piper. We are men at best with clay feet. Now, they may be encouraging, and they are. Hope I am, right? But we're men. There is only one perfect Savior. We look to Him, right? We point you to Him. worship Him, elevate Him. Everyone else is a mere man. We need to be quick to confess that we are in need of divine mercy and divine pardon and divine grace and that our sins have been forgiven because of the life, death, burial and resurrection of Christ. And our text this morning in Luke 11 is a classic lesson on religious hypocrisy. It really is a classic lesson on what the human does with religion. Making our little boxes to check. Those little things that make us feel spiritual or holy. And usually it's the easiest things at the top of the list that we check off. It's the more difficult things that perhaps are never checked off. There is a propensity or a tendency towards hypocrisy in us all. And Jesus's sharpest words are reserved for the hypocrites of the religious establishment of Judaism. This is the same group that Jesus looks in the face as they proudly proclaim, we are children of Abraham. And he says, you are children of the devil. It's the reason they hated him. By the way, at the end of our text, in verse 53 and 54, what are they doing? They don't like these words. They don't like to come to the light. And you might think, but wait a second, Jesus, these were religious people. They were devout. They were moral. They were scrupulous. They were people who revered the Old Testament, people who lived for ceremony, and they even monitored their own conduct very carefully. They spoke of God all the time, at least publicly. They had very strong religious convictions. You would think by that description that these would be Jesus's people, right? They'd be the most eager to repent, the most eager to believe, the most eager to trust Christ, the most eager to enter the kingdom, but it was just the opposite. They were the greatest antagonists. They were his biggest haters. These religious leaders had no interest in self-reflection. They had no interest in accountability. They had no interest of coming to the light. In their estimation, they had outdone themselves in the way of their ceremony and pomp and circumstance and ritual and function. Realize this, this invitation. that they have in verse 37 to Jesus. It was an entrapment. They had no intention of really caring what he had to say. They weren't listening with ears of faith. They were coming to have an opportunity to accuse him again if he would simply say something that we could use to get him killed. They had no intention, but Jesus flips the script. While they attempted an entrapment, Jesus entraps them. Jesus exposes their heart. You don't really have love for God. Not really. How could you? As Jesus says, you hate me. You reject the Son. You reject the very one you were promised. These Pharisees were blind guides. They have no knowledge of the truth. They have no genuine righteousness. They have no interest in real repentance. They're frauds. And Jesus is forcing them out of their safe little comfortable lair of self-pronounced righteousness. to expose their hearts. He is bringing the light. I am the light of the world. He's bringing the light to bear on them. And Jesus' confrontation exposes four defining characteristics of religious hypocrisy. I want to look at those this morning, four attributes of religious hypocrites. And rather than simply, because we know much about the Pharisees, we've heard much about them, their religious hypocrisy. Let us examine our own hearts, lest we be drifting towards hypocrisy. See, religious hypocrites, number one, and we see this in verses 37 to 41, they focus on externals. They focus on externals. If you want to fast track to hypocrisy, focus on external appearances rather than in internal attitudes and character. That's what we do. We do it by nature. Right? Think of it with preachers, right? He's a great orator. We like him. Right? He smiles. Right? That's why Joel Osteen is popular. He's got a great smile. Right? We gravitate to him. Naturally, we gravitate towards celebrities, but we know nothing of them. Like, we're shocked when we find out, like, an athlete abuses his spouse, or that someone like Michael Jordan had a gambling problem, right? Because all we see is their greatness from the externals. We don't know them internally. And then we start to hear things about them. We're like, wow, these guys aren't that great. Right? Whether it's a celebrity, a musician, an athlete, even our Christian celebrities. Right? We've got to be careful. We focus. Our hearts and our minds, they gravitate towards the externals. Look at verse 38. But when the Pharisees saw it, he marveled that he had not first ceremonially washed before the meal. Jesus doesn't wash his hands. And that is shocking to them, marveling to them even. Now, remember that word marvel. Jesus has caused them to marvel. Lots of people to marvel because of his ways. Whether it's his miracles or his teaching. And now, what he didn't do, he didn't follow through with religious ritual, religious tradition. This wasn't a matter of having dirty hands. You teach your kids before a meal, go and wash your hands, right? because their hands were in the dirt, their hands were here, it were there. No, that's not what this is about. This is a religious ritual. It wasn't hygiene. The word is actually the same word we use for baptized, immersed. And so either two things could be going on here. Either one, as they entered this residence, there were large stone jars with water that they could draw from to ceremonially wash their hands, to cleanse them. Or, in some cases, there were these ceremonial baths. You actually see these in excavations, archaeological excavations, all throughout Israel. It seems like everything, every time they dig something up, they dig up a Jewish ritual bath, right? And they would, there are steps going down and there are steps coming out, right? That's how it was. And so there was this time, whether it was for service or even here for meals, there seemed to have been an exaggerated kind of view of this ceremony. In fact, if you look at the Jewish Mishnah, 25% of it, these are all the Jewish oral traditions, 25% of the Mishnah has to do with purity. And we're not talking about purity as in, hey, keep my eyes pure, keep my ears pure, that we would think of purity. or a heart's pure, no, in terms of ceremonial rituals that you would do and when you would do them and why you would do them, whether you were clean or unclean because of something that you touched or you were too near to. If you've ever studied Islam, man, Muhammad and all of his guys, if you've ever been to a mosque, they go through incredible ritual in order to be clean from water. That includes how they wash their hands, behind their ears, you know, all this stuff. The Jews, not identical, but have something similar. And it was for a lot of things, not just their time of worship or prayer. And so the Pharisee, again, isn't shocked because Jesus has dirty hands. They're shocked or they're marveling because he's not following traditions. But these kinds of ceremonial washings were not commanded in the Old Testament. You have examples like in Exodus 30 where you have Aaron and his sons who need to wash their hands and their feet before they entered into the tabernacle to do priestly responsibilities. But the Pharisees' oral tradition kind of expands this custom of washing, this external show Right? To include not just the priests, but everyone. And not just when you're doing something holy, like going to the tabernacle, or the temple, or into the synagogue, but even before you eat a meal. The Pharisees, again, they wanted to be set apart in every way. They wanted to be distinct from the Gentiles. They were zealous for God's law, but they were so zealous that they added more laws and more ways to obey God than God himself did. We do this kind of stuff all the time, even in Christianity. You have something like modesty. That's a big man, especially in the homeschool world that I'm used to. There's lots of stuff about modesty. In the scriptures, they talk about modesty. They do, about being modestly dressed. But that's not enough. What do we do? We start defining what that means. We start defining what that means. It's external. You know, I've, you know, whether you're in homeschooling networks or whether you're used to like a fundamentalist church, you know, where ladies can only wear dresses. If they wear pants, that's, they can't do it, right? Or you have to, you know, subscribe. It's all these external kind of things. Their hair a certain way. Maybe no earrings or no makeup, right? That's all these external. That's kind of what was happening here. And realize that much of legalism, much of legalism hyper fixates on externals. And I would say this, I add this word, easy externals. That's easy. It's easy to get dressed. It's easy to have a little formula of what you have decided to be holy. It's hard to actually be holy. Right? To actually live a holy life. And that's what's happening here. They were focused on the externals, making sure you washed your hands ceremonially, properly. Or you tithe your herbs in your herb garden. But Jesus will later say to them, but you don't care about loving God? Or justice? Or mercy? to others. And so in our text, Jesus walks right past those stone jars or the ceremonial bath outside, and he sits down and he grabs a couple of dates in his hands. That's not in the text. And maybe he says, hey, is there some cream cheese with that? By the way, dates and cream cheese, you wrap that in bacon, that is glorious. Jews could not eat that, but we can. We're new covenant believers, right? Man, that is a glorious treat right there. Date, cream cheese, wrapped in bacon. You heard it here first. All right. But they marvel at that, right? They marvel. And Jesus then responds in verse 39. Now, you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but inside of you, the important part, you are full of robbery and wickedness. In other words, Jesus is saying, listen, even practically speaking, you clean the part that doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. You may have purified hands, right? But your hearts are wicked and defiled and filthy. And then he adds, you foolish ones, verse 40, did not he who made the outside make the inside also? Do you think God is only concerned with the outside? You can almost picture the guy who was actually passing Jesus the cream cheese for those dates dropping it in his lap as Jesus says these words of conviction. They seem harsh, perhaps, but Jesus was willing to insult this man to bring him face to face with his spiritual bankruptcy, for him to face the music. This was an appropriate illustration for Jesus to use at a meal. Any decent host would make certain that the parts where the food actually is would be clean, right? You've gone to a restaurant or whatever, and you look at the silverware, and you're like, oh, that did not make it through the dishwasher. Or the dish, and it's like, that's gross, right? And you send it back, rightly so, because the area that you're eating from, you want it to be clean, or the utensil that you're using, you want it to be clean. And Jesus say, you clean the outside, what does that do? I mean, it's a nice presentation, but inside it's all full of dirt and grime. You've not cleaned it. Again, spiritually speaking, the Pharisees were cleansing the outside with their focus on the externals, but they took no care to clean the inside. And again, that was completely inconsequential. It would have been okay even to have a little bit of dirt on the outside if it meant that the inside was clean. I mean, both are important. Despite their outward devotion to ritual and ceremony and tradition, they were corrupt inwardly, full of robbery. That has the idea of taking advantage of plundering. That's what these guys were known for. The Pharisees, they made it more difficult for people. They put more burdens on them. They offered no mercy. They gave no care to the outcasts. They brought no relief. They weren't generous. Verse 41 alludes to that very reality that they have no generosity. That's why he says, but give to that which is within as charity, then all things are clean for you. So you have to clean out, but you have no charity in your heart. These are the Ebenezer Scrooges of religion. They had no compassion, no care for the destitute. They saw themselves actually as better than them, separated from them. Jesus says, you have no pure heart. It's full of plundering wickedness. What an indictment. And when he calls them fools, he's not taking a shot at their intellectual prowess. He's simply saying in a proverbial sense, you fools, you know better than this. Wisdom would point you in a different direction. You have no fear of God before your eyes, which, again, is the beginning of wisdom. Religiously, on the outside, you're close, but your hearts are far from me. And man, this is a caution to us all. It is far easier to talk and appear Christian than it actually is to be Christian. And by the way, I would say this just to the one who is prone to beat themselves with their guilt, right? There's some of you in here that are that way. Listen, when you mess up, it's simply coming to the Lord in repentance, right? You come to the Lord in repentance, you confess your sin. Right? That is Christian, to repent. So it's not a claim to, I need to do better. I need to be a better person, a better husband, a better wife, a better child, a better church member. It's no, it's, I see this in myself. Lord, help me. Help me. I confess, I need you. That is not hypocrisy. That's the faith. Right? And so don't beat yourself up. That's not what I'm talking about. Oh, I miss church again for the third time. You know, or whatever it might be. That's not what we're talking about here. You come to the Lord, you make a decision, Lord, this time I'm going to be in the word, I'm going to be in prayer, I'm going to fellowship with God's people, I'm going to, you know, whatever it might be, help me. Christians confess. So parents, I always think about this. Nobody knows me better than my kids and my wife. They know the real me. You see the facade, you see the external, right? It may be true. I hope it's true. Some of it is true, right? But you see the external. You just see me here. You don't see me in the home. And so my kids know me better than most, right? And that's not a claim to perfection because you could ask any one of my kids, do you have a perfect dad? They'd be like, yeah, right. No, no. Has your dad ever confessed that he's been wrong, that he was wrong? that he disciplined you wrong? Has he ever confessed that, you know, they'd be like, yeah, yeah, he's come to us and repented of stuff, right? Again, because that's the claim. We're not perfect, right? We're not. And so that's not what this is. So again, the externals, though, they make us appear to be a certain way. right? Our verbiage, the way we carry ourselves, maybe dress, right? And here's just a small example, right? So let's just picture, you know, we're a small church. We notice when you're a visitor. We see you come in. Let's see, you see this nicely groomed gentleman who walks through the sanctuary doors. He's got his calveskin leather legacy study Bible, or standard Bible, hot off the press. He's got this reformed looking beard, it's really cool. He's got a cool beard, well maintained, well oiled, right? He's got some Greek phrase or word that's tattooed on his arm, right? He walks in with his seven children, and they're all named after Protestant reformers. I'd like you to meet Knox. Here's Zwingli. Here's Calvin, right? And what is your conclusion from seeing that? Your conclusion, let's confess it, our conclusion, oh, what a great family. Here's this couple. They've got seven kids. They've got a really nice Bible. He's on fire for the Lord. You don't know that. Do you? How does he treat his wife? How does his wife feel? Does she feel valued and prized and loved? What about his kids? We know nothing. It's externals. And it's the thing we see. And so there is a caution. that we must be aware of. We've made all these conclusions about someone simply by their externals. I would say the opposite is also true. He's someone, they're disheveled, you know, they're awkward, right? They're one that you'd be like, well, normally I'll just keep walking, you know, they're that guy. You don't even know. You don't even know. You don't know what's going on in their heart. You don't know what's going on in their life. They could be here showing up because they're like, I've been under intense conviction and I've come here to find peace. And you'll miss it because you're looking at externals. There's scripture that talks about that too. So it goes in a lot of different directions, but it is our propensity towards the focus of externals. Be careful. Don't forget what the Lord said. Man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart. And this is what Jesus is saying about the Pharisees. You have this observable conduct that seems pleasant. You're full of wickedness. They made a big show of their long prayers or parading in to the tabernacle or giving financially only when it was visible to other people. The gospel and Christ and the Lord, he's concerned with the inside. You know, that's why the New Covenant promises what? A new what? Heart. That's the problem, isn't it? That's the problem. We need a regenerate heart. We need a heart that beats for God and not simply for self. So first, hypocrites focus, religious hypocrites focus on externals. In verses 42 to 44, Jesus now launches into a series, and next week we'll keep looking as he turns his gaze on the scholars of the law and pronounces three woes on them. But these are warnings. These are impending judgments. Cursed are you if you don't come to the light and see this. The path that you are headed, where there is no repentance, leads to God's judgment. That's what Jesus is telling them. 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. You're busy, you know, with the mint and the rue, all these garden herbs, but you neglect the weightier things. And that's our second point. Not only do they focus on the externals, they neglect weightier matters. They neglect weightier matters, and he tells us what those are. Justice, love of God, things that you should have done. Right? By the way, you read the prophets over and over again. You think I want your sacrifice? You think I want these external platitudes of religiosity? I want your heart. Rend your heart, not your garment. That's external. Break your heart. That's why we read it. We've been reading through Deuteronomy. Circumcise your hearts. That's the issue. That's the problem. You've neglected weightier matters. You've focused on the secondary. They would pay these Pharisees elaborate attention to all these inconsequential things, right? Those things that were easily accomplished, but in terms of significance, they had little. The tithe of garden herbs. Now again, in the scriptures, what they could go to, Deuteronomy 14, it does speak of tithing your grain, new wine, and oil. It also talks about tithing the firstborn of your herds and flocks. But what were they doing? They were hyper-exacting tithing. all the produce from what you sow," Deuteronomy 14, 22. And so they were going down to the nth degree, to even their herb garden. But they were neglecting the weightier things. Deuteronomy 10, when he tells them in verse 16 to circumcise their heart, he says to them, What does Yahweh your God ask from you? And then he proceeds to tell them. He tells them in the verses that follow, fear me, walk in my ways, love me, serve me with all of your heart and soul, keep my commandments. And then Moses says in verses 12, Yeah, verses 12 and 13, he says, And God executes justice for the orphan and the widow. He shows love for the sojourner by giving him food and clothing. And so the idea there is, Israelite, do that. Do that. Loving God, loving others, giving justice, providing, being generous. That's the summary of the law, right? Love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength, everything you got, and love others as you do yourself. And that's where justice and generosity and kindness come to bear, right? They knew what to do. They had it inscribed and scripturated. They memorized it. But listen, loving the Lord with all your heart, with everything you are, and loving your neighbor as yourself, that's hard. That's hard work. It truly does require the circumcision of your heart, a new heart. Because the Pharisees weren't defending the weak. They weren't protecting the poor, or welcoming the stranger, or helping the widow, or adopting orphans, or doing any of the other things that the Bible would refer to as being just or justice. I mean, I guess on the one hand, you could say counting out their mint leaves and giving one of every ten is tedious. It is a measure of dedication. But again, it completely misses the point. It's inconsequential. It doesn't matter. Listen, checking off boxes will always be easier than checking your heart attitude toward others. It will always be easier than evaluating your love for God. Go to church, check. Wear Sunday best, check. Put my $20 check in the offering box, check. Greet the same person I do every Sunday, check. Walk out of church feeling like I've done my part, check. Listen, that part, though I'm glad you're here and you're doing those things, right? Those are easy. That's the easy stuff. Being inconvenienced, that's hard, right? dealing with a congregant who, you know, finds themself in the need of encouragement. And so you need to change your schedule. Well, wait a second, I've got to, it's 11.45, we know he ain't gonna finish until 12.05, I gotta get lunch, I gotta get the week's groceries, I got laundry to do. No, the harder thing is, there's a brother or sister in need, I'm gonna meet it. I'm gonna rearrange my schedule. That's hard. Self-sacrificing, that's hard work. Or even you see a brother or sister in a financial crisis and so you give more, even if it's hard and painful. Taking in a child that's not yours biologically and making them your son or daughter by foster care or adoption, that's hard. That's hard. Welcoming the stranger into your home and being inconvenienced, it's hard. Loving God and His ways more than you love your own ways, that's hard. Being obedient to the Lord's commands and hating my sin, that's hard. Fighting against that sin and confessing it to the Lord, and when I trip up, getting back in the battle and fighting again, that's hard. Shepherding your children and disciplining them and training them in the fear and the admonition of the Lord, that's hard. Loving your spouse sacrificially and caring more for their needs, caring more to serve them than your own, that's hard. Right? Letting minor offenses slide off your back because you are attempting to follow 1 Peter. Right? Love covers a multitude of sin. Life isn't about me. Right? I am a servant of the Lord. So, yes, they've offended me yet again, but I'm going to cover that. Right? That's hard. The Pharisees were focused on all these minute details of their man-made regulations to the neglect of what God actually said. Right? It is far easier to pick on the way someone dresses at church, the kind of music that's being played. Why don't we have this? Why do we not play that? That's easy. I call that low-hanging fruit, brothers and sisters. How's your thought life? How are you treating your wife? That stuff matters. That stuff matters. That's what God calls you to. He has very little to say, other than, of course, in the Old Testament it does say, you know, these guys that were in the tabernacle, they were playing with excellence, you know, and those kinds of things. There's not a lot about singing in the New Testament, very little, actually. So again, we go after low hanging fruit. I do it, too. It's just a propensity of humanity. The more difficult one is where the light is shown in my own heart. And what the Lord requires of me from his word, that's more difficult. They gave their garden herb tithe, but they had no concern for those in need. They viewed themselves as stellar examples of religious piety. They were successful at following these small things. But again, why? Why were they so successful? Because they made the standard. It's like, we created the test, we took the test, and we graded it. We got an A! Right? I know some homeschoolers who do that. You know what I'm saying? Actually, I remember in fourth grade getting in trouble for something like that. But, you know, again, yeah, when we create our own standard of ease of what is religious and what is, you know, yeah, we come out with a stellar grade all of a sudden. But you've created your own standard of holiness, and that's what Jesus is saying. You've made your own standard of religious box checking. And it's all the easier stuff. What about the hard stuff? Put that on there. Put that next to it. Help me love my wife sacrificially today. Something that I do today that says to my wife or my husband, my spouse loves me. Man, that's hard. Now you're getting to the hard stuff. If you can't say amen, you can at least say ouch, right? That's what Vodibacham always says to do. That's good. Check your heart. It's easier to say, oh, those Pharisees. Man, am I loving God? Am I loving others? Am I minoring on things that don't matter? I got all these opinions about what instruments should be used or old hymns, contemporary songs, you know, whatever it might be. You know, I didn't really like worship this week. Well, listen, I hate to break it to you. If no one's ever told you this, it's not, we're not worshiping you. You aren't the object of our affection. Now we love you. We love you because Christ loves you. But we love Christ and any expression of love you receive is because of what Christ has shown us. We're not worshiping you. Again, check your heart. Are not the words driving you? The truth? Is the body being edified because we're singing the truth? Are our minds and our hearts driven heavenward? Godward? Christward? Man, then we're worshiping. We're reminding one another of the wonderful truths of scripture. That's worship. That's what we're called to do. Right? And so, I would just say this. Young people, just because it says thee in there, or thy, doesn't mean we shouldn't sing it. We should. And old people, drums will not hurt you. Okay? It won't. You know, you realize that the organ at one time was a new invention, and people had a hard time with it. You know? I'm glad we don't have an organ. I'm not a huge organ fan, but those are all preference things, man. They don't matter. Go home, be holy. Go home and follow what God has told you to do. That's hard. Keep the main thing the main thing. Because again, what do religious hypocrites do? What do they have a tendency? They focus on externals. They neglect the weightier matters. They focus on secondary matters, right? And then third, Religious hypocrites seek celebrity status. They seek celebrity status. Verse 43, woe to you Pharisees, for you love the best seat in the synagogues and the respectful greetings in the marketplace. Jesus is condemning their affections, how they crave status and recognition. They loved to have their egos stroked, whether in the synagogue or the marketplace. The Pharisees weren't concerned with the sheep of Israel and encouraging the sheep of Israel to follow the Lord faithfully. They were self-serving and egotistical, always jockeying for a better position. That's why they kept their hands pristine and their tithes precise. They wanted to be seen. They wanted to be noticed, they wanted to be revered as great. Jesus, or in Matthew, Jesus expands this in Matthew 23. He says this, they love the place of honor at banquets, and the best seats in the synagogues, and the respectful greetings in the marketplaces, and being called rabbi by men. Luke tells us that they loved priority seating in their local synagogue. These might have been seats that were elevated, separated from the congregation, maybe restricted for those of the highest status. They may have been a set of front row seats or maybe even seats that were elevated on the stage. Here the synagogue was intended to be a place for prayer and study of God's word and these leaders were using it for their own prestige. for their own status rather than to honor God. I remember, and you may have been in a church like this, but I remember when I was serving at a Southern Baptist church, and I was the youth pastor, I had to sit up front. Everyone else was like you, and I had to sit up front as the pastor was preaching. It was so awkward, I felt like, what am I doing here? It made sure I kept my eyes open, though, and was attentive and all of that, right? Because I didn't want to, but I felt weird. It's like, well, this is kind of strange. First time I served in Uganda, we were going to all of these Anglican churches and preaching, doing these seminars. And I remember they would have us on the stage when it was lunchtime. They'd put this nice table and they would bring us all these nice food. And then the people down there were eating something different. And I looked at Shannon and I was like, oh, this isn't right, man. I think there's scripture about this. I don't think we should be doing this. And he's like, yeah, it's so weird. And then some of the people, when you greet them, they'd be kissing your hands. And I'm like, whoa, that's not a normal greeting in Uganda. But it was that kind of stuff. They had an honor. And again, there's nothing wrong with honoring and showing respect. I know some people, they want their kids to say, well, make sure you call him Pastor Derek. Listen, that's fine if that's what you want to do, but my name's Derek. That's the name God gave me, or that my parents gave me, that God gave me. I'm just Derek. That's it, right? I mean, it's not, but these guys, it was all about that. New covenant believers, hey, we're all brothers. In fact, Jesus even says they want to be called rabbis. You don't call anybody a rabbi. You're all brothers. That's interesting. That's interesting. But they love to be greeted with special respect, these elaborate greetings, right? The most grand reverend servant of the Lord, scholar of all things. I don't know. I don't know what they said, but it wasn't enough to be Bill or Joe or whoever it was. They wanted all of the the pomp and circumstance. And again, we have to be careful. Check your own heart. We're capable of such things, craving people to recognize our accomplishments, especially in the church context when it has to do with spiritual ones. We live in a very competitive culture, always comparing ourselves to others. We bring the same attitude into the church. We want people to notice what we're doing for the Lord. Even if we say we don't care for recognition, Secretly we glory in people's praise. Just be careful. Again, there's nothing wrong with being thanked. We ought to be thankful, people. You just got to be careful to watch your heart. We start to get resentful because we're not getting the recognition we think we should, right? And again, instead of You know, instead of coming to the light, we kind of get into that comparison vortex of self-justification. I'm just as gifted as so-and-so, why am I not? You know, fill in the blank. And again, just caution, because what is that really? It's pride. What is Jesus getting at with these? It's pride. The religious hypocrite cries out for and expects recognition and respect and honor. The servant simply sees his life and his service as a gift to be spent. That's it. And Paul, what did he refer to himself? I am a slave of Christ. No, you are the great apostle. No, I am a slave of Christ. That's all I am. I'm always moved by and convicted by what Paul told the Corinthian church in his second letter to them. Realize this, this is not the greatest church. Corinthian church, they may have been the thorn in Paul's flesh. I don't know. They were not easy. They called into question his apostleship. They called into question his teaching ability. Well, he's not that great, you know. John MacArthur is better, you know, or whatever it might be, right? I mean, that kind of stuff. And he says, He says about this church in his second letter, so this is after a lot of garbage has already happened to him. He says, I will most gladly spend and be fully spent for your souls. Man, that is what a shepherd, that's what a slave of Christ says. I will most gladly spend and be fully spent for your souls. Not one who wants a designated parking spot in the front of the church. I've seen that. I've actually walked by churches. It says pastor's parking space. I was like, that's strange. Or his photo emblazoned on the foyer wall. People did that as a joke. They kept putting my picture up in the foyer house. Don't do it. Please, or even worse, man, I see this at conferences all the time and I want us to have a petition go around. Get rid of the green room. If you are a pastor who goes around speaking, get rid of the green room with your particular drinks and snacks. That's where you go to hide from all the people. You don't interact with them. You're in a special room so you can go on stage and get off stage. That's a problem. That's a problem. This is exactly, that's the kind of celebrity status, man, get rid of that garbage. It doesn't belong in the kingdom of God. It just doesn't. That is dangerous, dangerous stuff. Jesus models for us. And don't worry, we're not going to get to the fourth part. I'm going to give that one next week. But Jesus modeled what shepherding was. He modeled it for these religious leaders. What does Jesus say? He says in John 10, the good shepherd, what does he do? His fingers aren't being kissed. He's not being whisked away to the the green room with his endless supply of Diet Coke, which would be actually great, and snacks. He's not going away from the people. Man, he is going to the people. He says, I'm the good shepherd and I what? I lay down my life for the sheep. Jesus is the model example. He even says in Mark 10, 45, for even the Son of Man did not come to be served. but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many. You wanna be Christ-like? Crucify your desire for status. Crucify it and just serve. Love people, serve people, care for people, be inconvenienced for people because Jesus was. We wanna follow the great shepherd That's who we want to model our lives after. We want to be spent in service for him and for others. Our honor and our recognition should matter very little. Listen, you can't elevate yourself and Christ at the same time. That's a challenging reality. We have to remind ourselves you can't do both. You can't do both. So, just in conclusion, let's be swift as Christians to face the music, to confess sin. Do it in your home, do it with one another. If you've sinned against someone, or you think you have, go to that person and make things right. Right? Ask the Lord to assist you in overcoming sin. Cast off the pride of our hearts that wants to view ourselves as kind of in the greatest of light. Look, we are His workmanship. That's a good word. You are not done. There is going to be a glorious version of you. That's not here, though. That's in process, friends. All of us. May the Lord continue his work of grace, grace of sanctification, and may we put ourselves in the right stream so that we can grow in grace. May the Lord help us to face the music and be met with his mercy, because we will be. You will be. Don't harden your heart. Don't stiffen your neck with your pride. Don't view yourself more highly than you ought. See yourself as viewed in the scriptures and run from any and every form of religious hypocrisy. May we be genuine and honest face