Matthew chapter 23, verses 13 through 15. Let us now hear God's Word. But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men. For you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows' houses, and for a pretense make long prayers. Therefore you will receive greater condemnation. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word this morning. We have placed our hope in you and in your word. And so we ask that today as we hear your word, that you would renew and strengthen and grow that hope, that trust, that confidence in everything that your word says and in all that you have for us here. We ask your blessing now on this sermon for your glory and for our good. We pray in Jesus name. Amen. When I was a kid growing up, one of the most exciting movies was Superman. You watch that movie now and you think, wow, we've come a long way since Christopher Reeve was Superman on the silver screen. But Christopher Reeve and Superman were synonymous. If you asked who is Superman in the 1980s, someone might just say, Christopher Reeve is Superman. But he wasn't Superman. He was merely an actor. What was he doing as an actor? He was pretending. He had put on a Superman disguise, if you will, and the entire movie was built around trying to make you believe that this man actually was Superman. But on one level, it was all a bit of a deception. because he was merely an actor. He was merely playing a part. He was merely pretending to be someone that he was not. Now we're here in Matthew chapter 23, and on a much more important level, we have people who are pretending to be what they are not. They are actors. They are pretenders. They are hypocrites. Who are they? They are the scribes and the Pharisees. And Matthew chapter 23 contains Jesus' strong denunciations of these men. We began our study of Matthew chapter 23 with Jesus describing the scribes and the Pharisees. In the most recent portion where we've been here in this chapter, Jesus turned his attention to his disciples to exhort them not to be like these men. And now in the next big chunk of this chapter, we have Jesus pronouncing divine judgment upon the hypocrites who are the scribes and the Pharisees. We're going to look at this next portion here, verses 13 to 15 in two basic ways. Number one, Jesus pronounces woe upon these men. And then number two, he gives the reasons for it. He provides the reasons why he's pronouncing divine judgment upon them. So let's set the context again for where we are here. In our last study in verses 11 and 12, Jesus was focused on his disciples and teaching them about greatness in his kingdom. Very different, completely different from the scribes and the Pharisees and the kingdom that they presided over. Greatness in the kingdom of heaven was about service. He who is greatest among you shall be your servant. The disciples were not to seek to exalt themselves to some superior position and lord it over others. No, they were to take the lowly spot and be the servants of their brethren. Then Jesus gave us this memorable principle and truth in verse 12, whoever exalts himself will be humbled and he who humbles himself will be exalted. It's ironic, it's a paradox, but it is profoundly true. The people who seek to exalt themselves, self-promotion in various ways, and that's what the scribes and Pharisees were doing. They were seeking to promote or exalt themselves. They will be brought down, they will be humbled by God. All those, not just scribes and Pharisees, but every human being who takes the path of pride and self-exaltation will be yanked down to a humiliated position by God himself. The converse is also true, right? The one who humbles himself, the one who takes the low position, which is the honest and true position before God and others, is the one who ultimately will be exalted. And that last part is descriptive of true believers. What do true believers do? They are those who humble themselves and one day God will exalt them. Christ's focus now shifts away from his disciples, primarily, to the scribes and the Pharisees. So if you look back at verse eight, Jesus had shifted from describing the religion, the practice and the motives of these men to speak to his disciples. He says in verse eight, but you do not be called rabbi. Who's he talking to there? He's talking to the disciples now. In verse 13, Jesus shifts his attention to the scribes and the Pharisees. Verse 13, but woe to you, scribes and Pharisees. And this continues through the bulk of the rest of the chapter here. Jesus began with a description of these men. He turns to his disciples, tells them, don't be like them. And now he pronounces judgment upon them. This next major section of the chapter consists of a series of eight woes pronounced by Jesus upon the scribes and the Pharisees. We're gonna walk through each one of them. We'll group some of them together because they naturally go together. Some of them do. But we're gonna walk through each one in detail and think about what Jesus is saying here and what we have to learn from it. But let's begin with the pronouncement of woe. Jesus starts by pronouncing woe on these men. And the first question you have is what's a woe? What does that mean? If you want to know the Greek term, as I know you do, you do, don't you? uai, uai in Greek, uai, uai, uai, over and over again throughout this section. And we translate that into English as woe. What is that about? What does that mean? Well, woe could be used in different ways in the scriptures. It may be an expression of regret and sorrow and lament. You know, someone who's experienced a disaster might say, oh, woe is me. because I'm in this terrible predicament or this terrible place. It can also be, and I think this is the way Jesus is using it here, a pronouncement of judgment. This is Jesus' way of denouncing the scribes and the Pharisees and their practice. It reminded me of a Christmas carol. We've watched a Christmas carol since it's December. We watched an animated version of it, the novel by Charles Dickens. And in one scene in the movie, and you probably know the story, Scrooge is in his home and Jacob Marley, his old business partner, shows up. It's the ghost of Jacob Marley. And at a point, Jacob Marley just kind of stops paying attention and talking to Scrooge and just cries out, Oh, woe is me. Why? Because he'd lived this greedy, sinful life in which he had cared for no one but himself and now doomed for eternity to carry around these chains and think about regretfully the way that he had lived. Well, hopefully that gives you a flavor for what's going on here when Jesus says, whoa, whoa, whoa. to the scribes and the Pharisees. This should also sound like something from the Old Testament as well. The Old Testament prophets will often do this as well. They will say woe to the people of Israel for their sins or woe to the wicked. For example, Isaiah 10. Woe to those who decree unrighteous decrees, who write misfortune, which they have prescribed, to rob the needy of justice, and to take what is right from the poor of my people, that widows may be their prey, and that they may rob the fatherless." What does God say to such people through the prophet? He says, Woe be to you. Now, who is Jesus talking about here? Of course, He's talking about the scribes and the Pharisees. So this is repeated throughout this chapter. Now we have spent a good deal of time in the Gospel of Matthew. Hopefully by now you know who the scribes and the Pharisees were. So we won't rehash all of that, but just to reiterate just a small portion, the scribes are the professional scholars of the day, and the Pharisees are the traditionalists, the religious traditionalists of the day. And Jesus pronounces these woes upon them. Now there's an initial lesson in this for us. As we've said before, you may be tempted to read through this chapter or hear these sermons and think, well, I'm not that. I'm not a scribe. I'm not a Pharisee. So this really doesn't apply to me. It must be bad for them. But it's important that we sit up and pay attention to what Jesus is saying here, because Jesus is talking to the religious crowd. And not just any religious crowd, he's talking to the deeply devout religious crowd. He's not talking to atheists. He's not talking to the amoral or the agnostics. He is speaking to these men whose whole lives, their whole lives revolved around religion. So if you are a religious person, you need to sit up and pay attention. Jesus has something to say to you in this passage of scripture. Now, hopefully you are a truly religious person, meaning you're saved. You've been born again and you're a Christian. Hopefully that's what you are. But even as Christians, we can be tempted to and slide into false religious practice, false religious motivation. And so we need to hear what Jesus has to say here. Furthermore, we need to be precise and careful in how we interpret and understand what Jesus is doing here. What is Jesus doing? Is he condemning religion? Now you've been taught by a number of different people that religion is bad. Well, I'm using the word religion, not in a purely negative sense. Religion is simply how you relate to God and what things you do in and because of your relationship with God. Religion is not a bad word. It can be used badly. It can be corrupted, but religion in and of itself is not a bad thing provided it's the true religion. provided it's the Christian religion, provided it is the biblical religion. Now, there are lots of people who say, I don't wanna have anything to do with organized religion. You can find people here in Sanford, you could find enough of them to put them in a sack, two or three or four or five sacks. You can find plenty of people in Sanford who would say, nope, got nothing to do with organized religion. And guess what that means? They have nothing to do with the church, And frankly, nothing to do with Christ either. And they might read this and say, yeah, let them have it. Get them Jesus. I knew those religious people were bad. Is that what Jesus is doing? No, he's not letting the religious have it. He's letting those who have corrupted religion receive these woes, these pronouncements of judgment. This is not about religion per se. This is about false religion, which is the worst kind of all. This is about hypocritical religion, religion of pretense. Moreover, we need to deal with something else here. Sometimes people come to this chapter and think something like this. Wow, Jesus is really upset. He's kind of flying off the handle here. Did Jesus lose control and just finally get fed up and go on an angry tirade against the scribes and the Pharisees? Frankly, I'm surprised to hear professing Christian people talk that way, but they do. Did Jesus lose control here? Of course not. Jesus was the perfect model of self-control at all times, in all ways. Jesus didn't have a bad day here in chapter 23, and he just let loose on the scribes and Pharisees. Nor is it, wow, meek and gentle Jesus, just what happened? I don't know. I don't know what to do with chapter 23. No, it's not that. What is this? This is righteous judgment from the righteous one. That's what this is. What did we expect Jesus to do? Wink at the scribes and Pharisees? Give them a pass? Tell them, oh, well, you guys are corrupting the true faith. You've corrupted the people. But don't worry about it. We just want to be nice after all. No, this is righteous judgment from the Messiah. And it is exactly right. It is 100% pure and righteous. Every last bit of this from start to finish in chapter 23, nothing but pure unadulterated righteousness from Jesus. Jesus did not sin. He did not fly off the handle. He did not get sinfully angry or anything like that. Is Jesus angry? Yes, he is. But his anger is righteous and holy and pure always. 100% of the time. Now, the reason why people react to Matthew 23 in this way, like, whoa, what's going on here? This isn't the Jesus I know. The reason why people react that way to this chapter sometimes is because they have a false picture of Jesus. They've got a picture of Jesus, yes, but it's the wrong one. It's not the true Jesus. If your picture of Jesus does not have Matthew 23 in it, there's something wrong with your picture. If your portrait of Jesus, so to speak, doesn't have wrath and righteous wrath, then you've only got part of the picture. The only picture of Christ which is valid is the biblical one. Not the one you invented, Not the one you think ought to be the case, not the one you would like to be the case. The only Jesus there is, is the Jesus of the Bible. You get your picture of who Jesus is, of what Jesus would do and what he would say and how he would talk from the scriptures. Not from contemporary culture or any other place. For example, Jesus, Uses a word over and over again in this passage of scripture. It's hypocrites. I Didn't count them, but there's a bunch of them here But that's not nice is it It's not nice to call somebody a hypocrite so Jesus must not being Being nice here. No, we've got the wrong perspective. We got the wrong viewpoint on the Lord Jesus Christ So we must make sure that we have the biblical picture, that we have a whole Christ from a whole Bible. In addition to that, please brethren, make sure that your picture of Jesus is not cherry picked from various places in the Bible. Well, Pastor Nick, I just like the loving Jesus. That's the picture I like. I like Jesus with the kids. That's the way I like to think of Jesus. I don't like to think of Jesus as denouncing scribes and Pharisees in public Well again, you got the wrong picture You can't have just a part of the Christ. You got to put the whole picture together from all of Scripture Okay So Jesus is pronouncing judgment. Why would he do that? What are the reasons for it now? Let's get into the the reasons for in these verses. Now, why would we say reasons? Why are we going there? Well, it's because of this little word that's in each one of these verses. Verse 13, but woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men. And we might say, because And you see it there in verse 14 as well as, woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you devour widows' houses. In verse 15, woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you travel land and sea to win one proselyte. So Jesus is explaining. He's giving the causes or the reasons behind his denunciations of them. And the first is a general one, and that is hypocrisy. Now, this is found in what he calls these men. And you see it repeated there in verses 13, 14 and 15 and throughout the chapter. But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. Who were these men? They were hypocrites. And Jesus denounces them for it. Now, Jesus has brought this up before. If you remember the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus described the religious practice of the hypocrites. He didn't specify them as scribes and Pharisees back then, but we know that that's who he was talking about. But he identifies them as hypocrites. That's problem number one. That is the main underlying issue with these men, their hypocrisy. Now, what does it mean to be a hypocrite? Well, that's why we started with actors. A hypocrite in the ancient world was an actor. He was a pretender. He was someone who put on a mask in order to pretend to be someone else. So hopefully that will help you think about what a hypocrite is. What are the scribes and Pharisees? They are pretenders. They pretend. To be these deeply spiritual men, these deeply pious men, but they are anything but that. They are merely pretenders to that. And it's like our actors in movies. Who are these people? They are not the people that they are portraying. And sometimes we can be deceived, right? Have you ever watched a film and felt really warm and fuzzy about that actor? And then you read a news report about that actor later on and you're like, whoa, but I thought they were, and you're just reminded of what you really should have known all along. This person is not that person. They're pretending to be someone else. Well, that's what the scribes and Pharisees were. They were hypocrites. And that is the overarching issue. from which all of these others proceed. For example, verse 13, Jesus says they close the kingdom against men. They like shut the door against people. They won't go in, they don't want others to go in either. Why do they do that? They do that because they're hypocrites. Or verse 14, they devour widow's houses and for a pretense make long prayers. Why do they pray for a really long time? Why are their prayers so lengthy? It's because of their hypocrisy. That's what's going on. So now the question remains to be pressed home to each one of us personally. Are you a hypocrite? In a solidly Christian congregation, there should be very few hypocrites. But in almost any church anywhere in America, there is undoubtedly a hypocrite there, or two or three or 10. And so it's my duty to ask you the question, are you a hypocrite? Are you pretending to be a Christian? Are you acting spiritually when certain people are around or when you come to church, but when you are alone in your own room, acting differently? Is that you, are you a hypocrite? When I was young, younger, I was a kid, we used to go to prayer meetings all the time. And my mom told me that she went to this one prayer meeting and there were these two boys there who were just, they're just awesome. They're just on fire for God. They love God. They were there at the prayer meeting. They're like participating and just wonderful. And so she wanted to get to know this family better and these boys better. And they came over one day and they came into my room. And we were there, you know, playing with something or messing with something. And they opened their mouths and began to talk. And I realized that their religion was a sham. That they had put on a show at the prayer meeting to impress the adults, but they really were not what they had represented themselves to be. And it was very clear in how they talked that that was the case. So again, are you a hypocrite? Now, if you are, there's still hope for you. There's still hope for you. On some level, all of us have hypocrisy in our lives, and Jesus has saved many a hypocritical sinner. And he can save you. He can forgive you. He can get your life matched up where your private life matches your public life more and more and more. Come to him today. Repent of that hypocrisy. Come to Jesus today. He will forgive you. He will save you and he'll transform you into a sincere person. There's hope for you while you're still breathing to repent of that hypocrisy and come to Christ in sincerity. Now the first woe that Jesus pronounces is due to the scribes and the Pharisees shutting people out of the kingdom, verse 13. But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, for you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men, for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in." Very simply, what is this about? This is about their determined opposition to the kingdom. Since the arrival of John the Baptist, and what did John the Baptist say? He said, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. They were against him. They would not believe him. They would not submit to his baptism of repentance. Jesus comes along. What does Jesus say? Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. What are the scribes and Pharisees doing? They are opposing Jesus at every step of the way. They are hostile to him, questioning him, challenging him. They refuse to respond in repentance and faith. In addition to that, as if that weren't bad enough, because they're the leaders of the people, they are actively seeking to prevent others from entering the kingdom by repenting and believing in Jesus. And that is the first reason why Jesus denounces these men. The kingdom has arrived. The king of the kingdom, the Messiah has come. And they are refusing to enter it and doing all they can to shut the door so that nobody else can get in there either. For example, you remember when Jesus healed the blind man in John nine. Jesus heals the blind man. They bring him up, haul him up before the group there for questioning. And then they want to speak to his parents. And they talked to his parents and his parents are afraid truth. Do you remember why? John 9, His parents said these things because they feared the Jews, for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone confessed that he was Christ, he would be put out of the synagogue. Excommunicated if you make a declaration of faith in Jesus Christ as the Messiah. So, the scribes and the Pharisees are guilty of a double sin. They refuse themselves to respond to Jesus and enter the kingdom and are actively preventing others from doing the same. And for that, Jesus pronounces judgment upon them. Unfortunately, we still have this today. We still have religious leaders today, cults, false religions, some various professing Christian circles who will not respond rightly to God and they seek to prevent others from responding rightly to God as well. What will happen to them? Same thing, same judgment, same woe that Jesus pronounced on these men will come to those today who do the same thing. The second woe is due to the scribes and Pharisees' treatment of widows and their pretense in prayer. There's a twofold problem here in the next one. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you devour widows' houses and for a pretense make long prayers. Therefore, you will receive greater condemnation. Now, the first thing we have to say is a textual note, a textual comment. If you have a translation other than the New King James or the King James, you may see this verse in brackets, or you may see this verse not there at all. It may not be in your English translation at all. Why is that? Well, again, it's because there's a difference in the underlying Greek manuscripts that are behind our various English translations. Now, it is not my intent to get into all of that today, but I will say that verse 14 is in the majority of Greek manuscripts. Although it is in some different spots in those manuscripts and we should acknowledge that. But there is no doubt that it is original and it's original to this discourse of Jesus, why? Because it is also found in Mark 1240 and Luke 2047 within the same context, okay? So if you don't have it in your English translation, you can keep your place here and you can look over at Mark 1240 or Luke 2047. Now, the first thing that Jesus pronounces woe upon them for is that they devour widows' houses. They consume the property of widows. I think this goes along with something Jesus says later in verse 25. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of, what's that next word, extortion. Extortion there has the idea of that which is taken by force. I think we ought to connect that to what Jesus says in verse 14. These are greedy men. They love money. We see that elsewhere in the gospel story. And in some way they were swindling widows out of their property, taking their property in some way, devouring widows' houses. We have a similar situation with some prosperity preachers who will fleece the faithful and enrich themselves. And we'll come on TV and say, you know, send me your gift of a hundred or a thousand dollars or what have you. And the widow is getting poorer and the dishonest preacher is getting richer. What shall we say to that? God hates that. That arouses God's wrath and his righteous indignation. And no wonder Jesus pronounces woe upon these men. Woe to you for devouring widow's houses. God cares about the widow. He cares about those who are in vulnerable positions, those who are poor and needy. And that's what the widow was in the first century and before. You read the Old Testament and time and time again, you see God's concern for widows. Isaiah 1, learn to do good, seek justice, rebuke the oppressor, defend the fatherless, plead for the widow. These men did the exact opposite of that. These men oppressed the widow and did what they could to enrich themselves at her expense. In addition to that, Notice what Jesus says next, and for a pretense, make long prayers. Pretense, you know what pretense is, right? You make it look one way, like you're doing one thing, but in actual fact, you're really doing something else. This word, pretense, is used in the book of Acts, when the sailors were trying to escape from the ship, and they make it look one way, when really, they're trying to escape, even though they shouldn't be. Same idea. So the idea here is that of religious deception. They pray long prayers, but these are merely a pretense. Now, Jesus has already dealt with the prayer life of the hypocrite in the Sermon on the Mount, but he comes back to it here again. What did they do in the Sermon on the Mount? Well, they went to the most prominent place. They went to the corners of the streets and in the synagogues, and there they pray. Why? Because they wanna be seen. And here they're praying long prayers. Why are they praying long prayers? Because they want to be recognized as pious, as devout. And that actually will help them devour widow's houses. It makes them look trustworthy, makes them look like true spiritual leaders and guides for the people. Does this mean that it's necessarily wrong to pray a long prayer? Or to pray for a long time? He said, well, I kind of wish it was. I kind of wish we'd shorten it up. Lunch, after all. No, it's not wrong to pray a long prayer. Nor is it wrong to pray a long time. Jesus prayed all night one time. That's not the issue. The issue is the pretense, right? It's not so much the length of the prayer as it is the pretense that's producing the long prayer. At the same time, there's a danger in long prayers, isn't there? There's a danger in not only wearying you, but doing so in order to appear in a certain way. In order to look like a certain thing to people and achieve some sort of spiritual status. Well, that's the problem with these men. How should we pray? Man, we should pray genuinely, sincerely, honestly, like we're talking to God, for we are. Whether that's short or long, however long the prayer is, pray sincerely. Pray from your heart. Pray truly. Not prayers of pretense. Lest you be like these men. But this woe is unique because in it, Jesus pronounces a further judgment upon these men. Look at the end of the verse now. Therefore, you will receive greater condemnation. Your judgment will be worse, will be more severe. Now we've already heard this from Jesus. Jesus has taught us degrees of punishment, degrees of judgment in various ways in the gospel of Matthew, but here we see it again. This is the reason why we believe, just to give you a piece of theology this morning, in addition to that which we've already given, why there'll be degrees of punishment in hell. Why there will be varying degrees of judgment on judgment day. It's because of things like this that we find Jesus saying in the gospel record. But these men condemnation, their judgment will be greater. It will be worse. It will be more severe. Why? Because they corrupted the true religion. They abused it. They used it for their own selfish ends. And if we do that, the same greater judgment will be ours as well. Boy, what great responsibility that puts on our shoulders. Did you know that God holds you accountable for being here and hearing His word over and over again, for knowing all that you know and not doing with it what we ought to do with it. Your judgment will be more stiff and severe than others who did not receive that. You say, what then should I do, Pastor Nick? You should get on your face and ask God to forgive you and help you use what he's given you, the knowledge, the gifts, the opportunities, rightly, so that you don't stand before God in shame one day for how you have squandered and used and abused the true religion. If we use religion as a cover, we'll receive a greater judgment too. The third woe here is due to the type of converts made by the scribes and Pharisees, verse 15. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you travel land and sea to win one proselyte. And when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves. First of all, what is this about? What's a proselyte? That's just another way of saying a convert. What were these men doing? Jesus says they were traversing land and sea to win one, to make one convert. What are they doing? They're engaged in proselytizing. Now, we would call the true form of this evangelism, seeking to bring the truth to others and win them and convert them to the truth. Well, guess what? The scribes and the Pharisees, they did that too. They didn't do it rightly or truly, but they were engaged in a good deal of work and effort to win others to Judaism and specifically their own particular brand of it. which we've already learned is marked by hypocrisy. That's what they are putting forth all this effort to do. What is the result? The result is someone who is twice as much a son of hell as the scribes and the Pharisees. Well, that's a strong language, isn't it? Hell is our English word. The Greek word is Geena. Gehenna was the trash dump in first century Israel where all the refuse and the trash was dumped and the fires were burning. Fires were burning there on a continual basis and it provided a picture of eternal punishment of the place we call hell. What does Jesus mean when he says you make these people twice as much a son of hell as yourself? It's Jesus' way of saying you make people who are fit for nothing more than eternal judgment and punishment. These converts you're making, their inheritance, what they're going to get because of what they're like is the fire of Gehenna, is the fire of eternal judgment. Strong words indeed. What do we learn from this last woe upon the scribes and Pharisees? We learn that it's not effort by itself, which makes the practice of evangelism or seeking to convert people right. It is not our goal simply to convert people. Now we can't control exactly what kind of person they become. That's ultimately in God's hands. However, if we don't teach them the truth and we don't set the right example before them, we should not be surprised when they end up looking like us or maybe even worse than us. And so what responsibility does that put on our shoulders? It puts on our shoulders the responsibility of making the right kinds of converts. of doing evangelism, discipleship in the right way, in the true way, and setting good examples before other people. Would you want someone to copy you and your practice of Christianity? You say, nope, wouldn't want that. After all, nobody's perfect, Pastor Nick. Please don't use that as an excuse for sin. for substandard Christianity that ought not be what it is. No, it's our responsibility to ensure that our example and our doctrine as we spread it is biblically faithful so that true and right converts are made. Now we have to clarify here as we did a moment ago, Jesus is not condemning the practice of making converts. There are some people who hate it. And they use that word proselytizing like a bad word. It's one of the worst things. It's Christians trying to shove their religion down other people's throats. That's how it's spun in a negative way. And someone might read this and be like, yeah, Jesus, let them have it. Let that crowd that's always trying to convert me, let them have it. Is that what Jesus is doing? Is Jesus denying the legitimacy of conversion or spreading the truth or seeking to win others to it? Of course not. You know better than that. What did Jesus tell his disciples to do? Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature, each and every one of us. And as a church, we ought to be engaged in the task of evangelism, in the task of bringing the gospel to other people. This is not being condemned here. It's the corruption of it that's being condemned. It's the false form of it that's being condemned. We've considered here today the abuse of religion by the scribes and the Pharisees. They were the worst sort of religious people. And you might say, yeah, I've met some of those people. You know, still one of the top reasons why people give for having nothing to do with the church is what? Hypocrisy. Just the other day, someone said it to me again. They don't go to church. Nothing to do with it. Why? Other people who've abused the faith, who've misused it. who corrupted it in some way by their example or their bad example. Unfortunately, we do have those kinds of people. In fact, however, we can all be the worst sorts of religious people at times, can't we? Have you ever acted hypocritically? Have you ever put on a mask? Sure you have. Even as genuine believers, we too can, at times, do religious things in the wrong ways and for the wrong reasons. May the words of Jesus today cause us to examine our hearts, repent of sin, and seek to be those who live out Christian truth in all the right ways. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, such strong words from our Lord Jesus Christ here. not unrighteous words. These are righteous words, true words, pure and holy words. These men deserve to be denounced and judged. And we don't want to distance ourselves from this. I pray we're not practicing hypocrites. And I hope that most of us here are not. But we realize, Lord, that in some ways we can We can do wrong things or we can do right things for wrong reasons. And so we ask your forgiveness for that. And we pray that you'd purify our hearts and our practice. Help us to follow Jesus Christ sincerely. May we be the pure in heart. May we pray, not out of pretense, but out of true piety. May we engage in the task of evangelism because we love you and we love other people and we love the gospel. May we, Lord, not by our example or our bad teaching, keep people out of the kingdom, but bring them into it. We ask, Lord, that you would purify us and help us to be more and more true disciples of Jesus Christ. Lord, I pray for the one here today. Maybe there is a hypocrite here today. And I ask that you would be merciful to them. I pray that you would convict them of sin, convict them of the sin of hypocrisy. Come to them today and humble them and draw them to Christ for salvation. Lord, we thank you for all that you've given us here. Please dismiss us now with your blessing, we pray in Jesus name. Amen. As you leave today, may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.