Let's pray together. Father, we come now to your Word. Thank you for the book of Luke. It's been a tremendous blessing to us. We are thankful for our Lord Jesus Christ that we get to walk with in this book. And through the Spirit, as the realities of these truths come alive, in our inner man and are real to us even thousands of years later. The truth's here. We're thankful for that work of the Spirit to make Your Word alive and active today. Lord, we do recognize Your words are hard in this passage that if we didn't preach verse by verse and go through this book, we'd probably skip them. But we're not going to do that. So we need Your grace this morning to hear the words of Jesus that are very direct and maybe not politically correct, maybe are hard for all of us to hear. But we know that You love us, Lord, and these words are meant for our salvation and our growth. So, Holy Spirit, would You do that work, make us to be attentive to not put aside these important words of Christ, and that we would be changed into his image as we expound the text that you have left for us. Holy Spirit come, work in our lives, make us to be super interested and attentive to your words this morning. We ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen. some Hollywood actors are pretty convincing in their roles. In fact, they kind of get into it so much in preparation for their role that they almost become the people that they are acting about. But I want to make you know that they actually don't become them. They are not those people. They are only acting a part. They're good. Oh, they're good. But that's not who they are. They're actors. The word hypocrite actually is a word in the Greek text that is all about the idea of being a stage actor. That's what the word means. It means acting a part. Putting on an act. And some people are real good. Real good. But, it's not real. It's not who they are. It's a role that they play. In Luke chapter 11, Jesus is going to warn the Pharisees and the scribes that they're just acting apart. Yeah? Everyone else can't see it. To them, you're the best of the best, the religious leaders of the day. But, I can see it. And I'm about to call you on it. It's not who you are. And if there's any message in the book of Luke that we've seen, it's that true Christianity is real. And true Christianity starts from the inside. It starts in the heart. And it will manifest itself on the outside. In true Christianity, Christ Himself doesn't want part of you, He wants all of you. And anything short of this is play-acting, and we know it under the English word of hypocrisy. Now remember, the last passage we were in, in Luke chapter 11, I hope you're going there, Jesus was invited to, I think, a late breakfast by a very daring Pharisee who invited him over. Now, poor Jesus was outnumbered because there were a number of scribes and Pharisees gathered and reclining at the table that morning. Jesus is invited over and something strange happens. Jesus chooses not to wash his hands. And it really, really angers these legalists, these hypocrites. Let's read about it just to get the context from last time in verse 37 of Luke 11. 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 listen to these words, no more parables and light and darkness and trying to tell some stories about spirits. No, he's going to get very, very direct. Here's what he says. Now you Pharisees, clean the outside of the cup End of the platter, but inside of you, you are full of robbery and wickedness. Very direct. You look really good on the outside, but inside, all kinds of malice and evil, various kinds, and the biggest one of all for you, greed. Love of money is controlling you from the inside out. Now, I want you to see that Jesus is full of grace here because He gives all of us an antidote for hypocrisy. And we did this last week. He says, here's what you need to do if you're going to fight hypocrisy. You've got to remember your Creator, number one. He says, you foolish ones, did not He who made the outside make the inside also? He made all of you. He owns all of you. He gets all of you, cares about all of you. You don't just have to give Him the outside works. He wants your heart. He wants all of you. You've got to remember your Creator and it will kill hypocrisy. But if He owns all of you, that means He's got to get inside of you. He's got to get at your heart. He's got to soften your heart. And that's what Jesus says next. The only really cure for hypocrisy is regeneration of the heart. It's getting a new heart, which is what He talks about in verse 41. But give that which is within as charity or his alms, and then all things are clean for you. He's saying here's what you've got to do. You've got to give from the heart. You've got to have a brand new heart that has softened to love me and to love others. And out of that, yeah, give alms. I'm not saying not to give alms. Give alms. And then guess what? It's all clean. You've been cleaned from the inside out. And even then, the works that you do in giving alms will be what? They'll be clean. They'll be really what the Bible calls fruit of the Spirit of the living God. That is the answer. Remember your Creator. And go on to regeneration. But unfortunately for the scribes and the Pharisees, and unfortunately too, maybe some of us sitting here who are really hypocrites like I was for 27 years, knew the gospel in the head, but wanted my sin and wasn't willing to follow Christ, but put on a really good show. I almost got Christian Character of the Year Award my senior year at a Christian school. My buddy and I laughed about it. Really good play actor. He has words for us. He's not content just to say this and leave this topic. And I will also say this, if you're a Christian here and you care about this message, then you're worried about, am I one of these hypocrites or not? If you're that worried about it, that's a great sign. And secondly, we're all a mixed bag in this room. Every one of us has the leaven of hypocrisy that we need to be aware of as believers and need to watch out for it. And we're going to see ourselves here in this passage, even if we are a Christian. These are not my words. These are the words of Christ. Here's some direct words of judgment. Judgment from Christ. The gentle and lowly one speaks words of judgment. Before the second coming. But there's always an opportunity to repent. Let's read our text. Here's what we're going to unpack. Verses 42-44. Here we go. Put your seatbelt on. Verse 42, follow along. 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 chief seats 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. And then the lawyers, they're laying there too over breakfast, and one of the lawyers, that's the scholar, verse 45, said to him, Teacher, when you say this, you insult us too. So don't be thinking that this woe is a bunch of sorrow. In the heart of Christ, there's always sorrow mixed in His judgment, is there not? There is always warning. But He is pulling the gloves off. These are woes. This is a technical term. A technical term and a declaration of judgment. These declarations of judgment are used all throughout the Scriptures, especially the book of Isaiah, if you want to read about the woes. These are direct denunciations. And I think the most direct, at least we have recorded, ever spoken by our Lord Jesus Christ. He does this for the souls that were sitting around that breakfast. for their good. He does that for His own disciples who are going to get ear of this conversation. He does this for the crowds that He's about to address in chapter 12. But the Lord Jesus speaks these words, He speaks these words for us. And I want you to hear something. He doesn't speak this word for the next person right next to you that you think needs to hear this. He's speaking this to you, He's speaking this to me, and He's doing this for us. We need to meditate deeply on these things as Jesus dissects hypocrisy. If you're going to do something about hypocrisy here this morning, I'll raise my hand. How many of you want to deal with either hypocrisy for the first time and get saved, or deal with the remainder of his undwelling hypocrisy and become more like Jesus? Raise your hand. Do you want Him to work here? Then, if you're going to repent, which simply means letting God work, turning from hypocrisy, if you're going to repent of hypocrisy, we have to look deeply at the roots. of hypocrisy. We can't be external, ironically, about hypocrisy. It's all about the heart. We've got to get at the heart of it. We've got to cut it off at the knees if we're going to deal with hypocrisy. That's what Jesus does. He's going to do three woes to the Pharisees, and he's going to do three woes to the scholars. Three to the practitioners of religion, and three for the biblical scholars. And so yes, we're going to deal with pastors here. Yes, we're going to have to deal with false teaching the next couple of weeks. But Jesus clearly wants us to all beware the crowds, the disciples, to beware the leaven of the Pharisees. And so here we go. To look deeply at three aspects of hypocrisy that Jesus addressed in the lives of the Pharisees. Number one. The hallmark of hypocrisy. Here it is. Here is the hallmark of hypocrisy. Hypocrisy disregards the most important. It's what it does. Number one, this is the hallmark. It's always true of hypocrisy. It always disregards the most important. Verse 42. But woe to you, Pharisees. Imagine getting invited over for breakfast, you know, and then you woe them. Why? For, the word for is a reason. Why the judgment? Here it is. For you pay tithe of mint and rue, in 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." Clearly, the Old Testament speaks and commands tithing, donating. It's actually over a tenth, but for right now, a tenth of your material possessions in the Old Testament for the nation of Israel, the temple, right, and all of the services and the priestly leaders of the people. We see this in Deuteronomy 14, you see this in Leviticus 25, all over the place. Jesus is fine with tithing. What he's not fine with is that the Pharisees have gone beyond the law of Moses and are holding up their own tradition Their own rules and tradition, extra-biblical, above the law. And in fact, these were collected together. You should get online and read the Mishnah when you're really bored sometime. Read the Mishnah and read about these traditions. These commentaries, how they go above the law of God. The Mishnah talks a lot about tithes. And so what they would do, you know, the Pharisees, they're whipping together this breakfast meal for Jesus, the Pharisee at the house. And there He is. He's getting prepared. Cooking the meal. And He's on His little kitchen table there. And He's got His little rules above the Scripture. Where He's going to be really meticulous. He's going to line up the the mint, and the rue, and the garden herbs. These were used for cooking. Line them up. There's ten of them there. He's going to take his little razor blade and portion off nine of them. Give one to God. This is meticulous kind of stuff. One-tenth. And it seems so good. It seems so holy to be so calculated in the tithe down to the very last decimal point, as one has said. Now, it is good to give support to the work of the ministry. It's good to tithe and to try to follow God's Word. The lesson here is not to, great, I don't have to give anything to the work of the ministry. Yes, that's not the message. Jesus makes that clear. But these are the things you should have done. Go ahead, separate the mint out without neglecting the others. The problem is, is they disregard the justice and the love of God. They neglected the love for God. They neglected justice, biblical justice, love for others. They neglected, they didn't care about it. They disregarded it. They had no love of God in their hearts. They didn't. And they still did a lot of great things. They did not love God. And they did not love people. They didn't. So they're not tithing out of love for God. Out of thankfulness and gratitude. Thankfulness for their salvation. Oh, I want to give to God so that His Word can get out. I love Him. Thank You for first loving me, Lord. And it's out of that. No. They weren't doing that because they were saved. They were separating out the rue and the mint in order to get saved. In order to earn the love of God. Believe it or not. They were trying to do, do, do all this stuff to earn salvation. So they didn't tithe generously because they wanted to help the needy. They wanted to tithe generously so they could earn a standing before God and get a pat on the back from others about how holy they were. They wanted to look good before God and others. They had no love for God and others. They wanted to look good in front of God and others. Now, the Good Samaritan is in this context for a reason. Flip one page back, this is how the Bible works and why we go contextually. The Good Samaritan is there for a reason. Take a look at it in verse 25. The lawyer, a scribe by the way, verse 25 of Luke 10 stood up and put him to the test saying, Teacher, what shall I do? What shall I do to inherit eternal life? All this talk about, they just got to know, I got to do something. What do I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus goes after them and He says, what's written in the law? How does it read to you? Verse 27, and He answered, you shall what? Love the Lord your God with all your heart. And with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind, starts out with love for God, and love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus says, God's got to give you a new heart. You've got to have regeneration of your heart. You must be born again. Nicodemus, you're the teacher of Israel, and you didn't understand that you've got to have a new heart? From the Old Testament? You're THE teacher of Israel? You've got to have a new heart. So they're missing a love for God, and they're missing a love for people, biblical justice. It's all over the Old Testament. Let's just pick two. Amos 5 verse 15. Hate evil, love good, and establish justice in the gate, Perhaps the Lord God of hosts may be gracious to the remnant of Joseph. Or Micah 6.8, here's a famous one. He has told you, O man, what is good, and what does the Lord require of you, but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God. So out of love for God, and of love for others, because He has forgiven you, because He has given you His righteousness, because He has set His love upon you, because He has done this for you, you know what? Love to me, love to others. God actually commands me, I want to do it, I'm struggling with it, but I'm going to set aside some money to meet some needs, because I love these people. But no, the Pharisees would separate out a household herb, but according to the Good Samaritan parable, they would walk by a guy bleeding out on the side of the street. Because they might get defiled externally by touching him and his bloodiness. And Jesus says, I'm calling you on this. This is not real. This is hypocrisy. You neglect love for God and love for people. Now, we've been studying the book of Galatians in Bible studies, and I want you to take your Bibles and flip over there, keep your finger in Luke, but flip over to Galatians chapter 5. And you guys, Paul, Paul himself was a Pharisee. The Apostle Paul was saved out of this. So was Nicodemus. He was born again, I'm convinced of it, at the end. They came to know the Lord. They were set free from this. Paul had a pretty, his radar was up for hypocrisy. In fact, the Galatian heresy is a heresy of hypocrisy. It is work, work, work on the outside, on the outside, to try to earn a standing before God. Instead of saying, I can't earn a standing with God, I'm a broken sinner, I need Jesus to forgive me, to give me His righteousness, to give me a new heart. And that's why Paul writes about it in Galatians 5 verse 6. He says, let's talk about the externals. For in Christ Jesus, Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything. That's the outside stuff. It doesn't mean anything. You know what means something, he says? But faith. Working through love. Oh yeah, faith still works. Oh, there's still offerings to be brought. There's still alms to be given in Jesus' day. Is there? But it comes from a heart that has been set free by the power of God. Verse 13, Galatians 5, For you are called to freedom, brethren, only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. And then you can keep reading verse 14, but let's see if you know this. Everyone, I hope you're tracking with me. Listen to me. The whole law is summed up by one word. What is that word? Love. Verse 14, for the whole law is fulfilled in one word. In the statement, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Love is the primary thing. Love for God and love for neighbor kills hypocrisy. If you have no love for God, which means you'll have no true love for neighbor, then you are dead and dark on the inside, and you're play-acting. You're play-acting. Now, this is sad to me today. Because we're not exempt from hypocrisy. I hope you're getting this. This is for people who aren't saved yet. That they're trying to earn it. You need to realize you can't earn it. And you need Jesus to save you. And you need to come to Him and find life. And it can happen right now in this sermon. Just ask Him to save you. And turn from that hypocrisy. But this hypocrisy is for all of us. So you think about churches. You think about our church. What does hypocrisy do in the church when we are neglecting, first, a love for God, which leads to a love for our neighbor. Well, if you're not certain about it, verse 15, but if you bite and devour one another, take care you are not consumed by one another. Hypocrisy among believers will destroy this church. it will destroy this church. Brothers and sisters, love is the primary thing, not head knowledge. Love for God is the primary thing. Love for others. It comes from a heart that is renewed. Yes, Give offerings for the work of the ministry here, but God is looking at your heart. Let me just give you this as a test case, since we're talking tithing here. 2 Corinthians 9, verse 7. We've got it memorized, but now you can see it in light of hypocrisy. 2 Corinthians 9, verse 7. About giving. Each one must do just as he has purposed in his heart. Now, he says, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. Hypocrites always major on the minors. Always. The major issues of the heart, they reject. And so we need to ask ourselves the question, are we majoring on the minors? Davis, the preacher, good one, calls it reversing our priorities. It's having the love of Christ within us, but not fighting against and putting to death hypocrisy so that we're led to lack of love and disunity within gospel preaching churches is as awkward and shameful as being super good at trivial pursuit in front of your family on a Saturday night, but then you don't know how to get up in the morning on Monday morning and go to work and provide for your family and pay the gas bill. We may know theology around here. We may be able to debate the details. We may understand the Reformation doctrine. We love expository preaching. But if we are cultivating a love for God and a love for the souls of others, this is evidence of hypocrisy that is being unchallenged in our own hearts and in our own midst. And we need to work at it I mean, we're going to get into it next week. You thought this week is horrible. Oh, wait until next week. Deal with the scholars. The scribes and the Pharisees knew their Bible, Jesus said. I know you know your Bible. I know that in them you think you'll have eternal life in the Bible. But you're not willing to come to me. I mean, when you come to your brothers and sisters, when you come to your McShane Bible reading plan, I'm going to get nasty here. This is not a ripping on us because you know I like goatskin leather Bibles more than everyone in this room. Maybe. Maybe there's two that. Right. But we can love our Bible reading plans and our goatskin Bibles. We can check the box. We can get it done. But I'll tell you what it's about. It's about God's Word coming into our heart through the Spirit so that we might know the God of the Bible and love Him and love others. It's not about the knowledge of the book as much as it is what the Holy Spirit is doing that through us. in the Word of God. We've got to constantly focus on the majors around here and in our families. Loving God, knowing God, fellowship to God, and then out of the overflow, giving that away to others. And if we don't focus on that within this church, we're going to be an unloving church in this fellowship and in this community and the leaven of the Pharisees is going to spoil this lump of dough. A church that is not forgiving, that is not living in unity, that is not in humility, considering others better than themselves, all of that is just a definition of love, is manifesting the leaven of hypocrisy. So we need to ask ourselves, and I mean it, go home and ask this of yourself. In what ways, because we're all doing it, In what ways am I majoring on the minors? Am I really pursuing loving God from my heart and knowing Him more? Number two, the heart of hypocrisy. The heart of hypocrisy, verse 43. Woe to you Pharisees, for you love the chief seats in the synagogues and the respectful greetings in the marketplaces. So he's done with majoring on the minors. Now he gets, okay, what is driving this? You know what's driving? You know what the irony is here? The heart of hypocrisy. Yes, it's an H, and I like that, but it's about the heart. You know what the irony is? Hypocrisy flows from love. Love of the praise of men. Love of the pat on the back. It all flows from love. Choose your loves. Choose your idols or choose your Christ. But hypocrisy flows from love too, from the heart. The chief seats, so now let's pick on the Pharisees a little bit. The chief seats were those seats near the front. And I want to be careful because I've got some of my favorite people in the world sitting in the front. I'm not saying you can't sit in the front of the church. And if you sit in the front of the church, no. The chief seats for the Pharisees were actually not facing me or the front. They were up on the stage facing the crowd so that everyone could look at them. That they're up there in the chief seats. And it's a place of power a place of prominence. And they loved that. They loved that. And they also loved respectful greetings. Reverend Pastor Dr. Rich. I joke with Bruce, I'm looking at him right now because sometimes he comes up and he teases me and he yanks on my suit coat after the sermon. I'm like, what are you doing? Do I have... He goes, just pulling on your tassels. They loved this greeting. They got warm fuzzies. The parallel passage in Matthew, they loved being called Rabbi. They loved being called Father. They loved being called Leader. They loved it. Hypocrites love. They love stuff. Unfortunately, they love popularity, power, and pats on the back. They love to be recognized. You know you are struggling in your life with some form of hypocrisy when you want to be noticed for spiritual service within the church. I mean, I'm not, look, I'm right with you here. Do I desire to be praised for a sermon? Do I desire to get some recognition for all of the... I'll just be nice, labors behind the scenes in ministry? Am I more concerned that in the sermon you're seeing God and being changed? That I must decrease and He must increase? Or do I... Or? Think about your service within the church. Is it coming from a heart of love for God, a love for the truth? What if you don't get credit for that idea? What if someone doesn't take your idea and run with it? What if you're struggling with comparison with others in ministry? And I'm telling you, these are all signs that at that moment we're craving too much. the praise of men. And so beneath, right? The sin beneath the three Ps is another P. At the very heart of hypocrisy is pride. It's the root of it. We've got to cut it off and cut it down at the root. And of course that pride will cause us to love the wrong things. I was so thrilled the other day when I received a text that said, I want to care about people and truly love them. I want to make sure that I don't just invest into the people where I can see a return from the relationships. I love that text. I was encouraged and convicted by that text. Because it's a request for prayer and help. And it's saying, look, I don't want to be a hypocrite. I want to be driven out of love for God and love for others. The hallmark of hypocrisy is disregarding what is most important, love for God and love for others. The heart of hypocrisy is instead of loving God and loving others, you love yourself and you love the praise of men. And yes, I still would like encouragement from time to time on the sermons. And yes, this doesn't mean we can't encourage each other or a bunch of hypocrites around here, so now we're going to be even more unloving. That is not the goal. There's a big difference between biblical encouragement and flattery so you can get something and look better on the outside. Please, encourage each other. Finally, the hallmark, the heart, and finally, and this is hard to preach, but I'm going to do it because it's in the text, the horror of hypocrisy. Hypocrisy conceals death. Hypocrisy conceals death, verse 44. Woe to you, for you are like concealed tombs, and the people who walk over them are unaware of it. So, Jesus is calling the Pharisees and the scribes dead. And of themselves, you are tombs. You've got skeletons and rot inside of your expensive casket, so to speak. So that's the first thing that he says, you're dead spiritually. You've got dead hearts. You're dead on the inside. You're dead in trespasses and sins. No, the Pharisees weren't struggling believers. Okay? They were unbelievers trying to earn their salvation by their own efforts. Thinking their family name as Jews and all their efforts and knowledge of the Bible would provide God enough evidence and righteousness that He would say, close enough, I'm letting you into my kingdom. You are the cream of the crop. Bravo! Come on in. They're false teachers with a false gospel. And they're deadly. works religion and hypocrisy when it comes from false teachers who are dead is absolutely deadly. And hypocrisy in the life of believers is deadly as well. Now, what is Jesus saying here? It's very interesting. Jesus is saying in that day the tombs had to be whitewashed so that you could see them. You're walking along in the grass and you can see, oh, there's a tomb. Because in Israel, if you walked over a grave, you defiled yourself. You became in contact with a dead body in that way. And so they went and watched the tomb. They were clearly marked. And Jesus is saying, you're not clearly marked. You're like unmarked tombs. People don't know how deadly you are. You're dragging people down into hell with you. You're defiling people and said, Jesus is, I can just see him. Jesus is just good. You're telling me that by not washing my hands I'm defiled? People walk, your ministry and the things you teach and your example are killing people. Defiling people. You're defilers. I'm not defiling by not washing my hands, that's nothing. coming into the contact of the false teaching of a religion of human achievement. Brothers and sisters, reject the religion of human achievement that says that you can clean yourself up on the outside, that you can believe, yes, but add your works to that and do and do and do on the outside and that you'll be right with God. It is absolutely a damning lie. You're waltzing over an unmarked tomb. It's defiling you forever. We need Jesus. We need a new heart. We need His perfect righteousness. We need His forgiveness. Do not follow their example. It's the blind leading the blind and we're both falling into an eternal ditch. Now, hypocrisy is dangerous. Listen to me. We've all been applying this. That's dangerous. The stuff you've been working through the last half hour, it's dangerous. It's deadly. It's defiling. Now, hypocrisy is defiling to your family, men. Men, hypocrisy is defiling to your family. Hypocrisy leads others to spiritual death. It's not cleaning the inside of the dish. The inside of the dish is full of bacteria, and your family's drinking from it. And your church is drinking from it. Pastors, listen to me. Elders, deacons, hypocrisy is damning. Love God or go home, Jeff. There's no game. It's spiritually defiling. To tell your kids one thing and then do another is not going to get us home. Pick on the men. It's true for all of us. Teenagers, college and career, fathers, mothers, people, show up on a Sunday morning, clean yourself up and then go joke around your friends and live like the devil. The other day is to live for yourself. It's spiritually defiling. to others around you. You might be dead unless you're being convicted. I mean dead. But I'll tell you what, you're dead and you're killing others. That's this verse. We've got to fight and put to death hypocrisy in order to focus on the heart. Because if we don't, we're infecting others. And we kill others by producing more hypocrites. More little hypocrites running around. What we think we're giving to everybody, you guys, is our externals. Ah, they're just going to see me serving in the nursery. They can't see my heart. Let me tell you, over time, what people will get from us is the stuff that comes from within. That's what they will sniff out. That's what will impact them is our heart. What we love is what is going to be given away. Pastors, deacons, Sunday school teachers, parents, Over time, the real deal is going to show. We'll get to that in chapter 12. We need to hear this today. Well, Jesus is only halfway done. I'm kind of kicking myself for not doing this all in one sermon because it's so hard to preach. But, come back next week. I hope we have some people left. Come back next week because it's really good. But I want to remind you here that Jesus begins these woes with the hope. He gives us hope. Are we struggling with pride and hypocrisy? What are we going to do about it? Work our way out of it? No. We're going to hope in God. We're going to go after Him more. We're going to rejoice in what He's done for us more. And if you don't have a heart that loves God and hates your own sin and has a taste for the things of God, but you kind of want to and you're kind of seeking it, but you find yours, then just come to Jesus today. Just bend the knee to Him today and ask, Lord, give me that heart. Forgive me of my sins. I need your righteousness. I'm tired of earning it. I can't do it. I'm tired of trying to put on a show for my parents and my pastors and everyone else. I'm exhausted of this works religion. I need Jesus and his work. If you would say that from the heart right now, you will be saved. Then you can join the struggle with the rest of us to rat out the rest of the hypocrisy that stays in, that is going to be leave over time. And so for the rest of us, The Academy Awards were last week, apparently. I didn't watch them. Apparently, there's the Best Actor Award. I'm telling you, they give plaques and stuff for that in the world. But in Christianity, it's not good to be the best actor. It's not. So what we need is we need the real deal. And what better way to close than to talk to the worst of the worst, the worst hypocrite who may have ever walked the face of the earth. And his name was Paul. Let's see what God did for him. Take your Bibles and we'll end here. Because I don't know about you, but I want the real deal and to be born again, if I'm not. And I want to have a deepening relationship and not a ritual runaround where I'm just exhausted trying to please everybody, including the Lord. Are you done with that? I want relationship. Cultivate that relationship. To do that, we need to look at the Pharisee of Pharisees. So turn to Philippians chapter 3. We'll end here. And in light of what Jesus has been saying, it will make more sense now. And I'll tell you, if when I read this, this is not you yet, don't be discouraged. God is a God of mercy if you knock and ask and seek for this, He will give it to you. He will save you. But for all of us, let's be reminded of the nature of true Christianity. Paul writes, verse 2, he doesn't like this false teaching much. Beware of the dogs. Oh, that's so nice, Paul. Beware of the dogs. Beware of the evil workers. Listen to this. Beware of the false circumcision. Then he turns to believers. For we are the true circumcision. Who worship, how? In the Spirit of God. And what do we do, brothers and sisters? In glory in Christ Jesus. We glory in Him. And how much confidence do we put in the flesh to get us home to heaven? How much does Paul say? Some? And put no confidence in the flesh. Now watch what he says. Paul's saying, although I myself might have confidence even in the flesh. I'm pretty good. Watch what Paul says. If anyone else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh, I far more. If anyone can save themselves, I could do it, hypothetically. Look what he says. Let me give you my list. I was circumcised on the eighth day of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, as to the law of Pharisee, as to zeal, a persecutor of the church, as to the righteousness which is in the law, found blameless. Look at verse 7. Whatever things were gained to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things. And count them but rubbish. That whole list, all the do's and don'ts, all the externalism, I count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ And look at verse 9. I'm done earning my righteousness. I need the righteousness of another and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ. The righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith. I need his righteousness that I, look at verse 10, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being conformed to his death in order that I may attain to the resurrection of the dead. That's what it looks like when a hypocrite comes to Jesus. The Pharisee of Pharisees, he puts all those works aside And he says, I need Jesus and His righteousness, and I want to know Him. That's a word for cultivating love. I want the fellowship of sufferings. Oh, fellowship, that's a word of love. I want to be conformed into His image. That's a word of love. And experience His power. These are the things that are major in the Christian life. Let's stop majoring on the minor. Let's major on relationship with God and others, sprung through the Spirit, lit up by the Word of Truth. And if you're a hypocrite like me, and if you're not, and don't think you are, let's talk afterwards. Then this is what you need to say. Something like this, Oh Lord, thank You for that day that you gave me a new heart. Thank you that I care about this at all. Thank you for cleansing my heart by faith. Thank you that my hypocrisy has been taken away upon the cross as far as the east is from the west. Lord, I want to be like you. Forgive me, Lord, for my fear. Forgive me for my anxiety. Forgive me for not confessing you before men. Forgive me for whispering in secret places. Lord, forgive me for my greed that causes me to freak out Help me to remember that I'm one of the little flock and You've chosen glad me to give me the kingdom. Forgive me for neglecting rest in You for ritual. Forgive me for neglecting presence and power with You for a pat on the back. Lord, You know that I love You. You know that I love You. Jesus comes at that campfire and He says, puts us back into service, and says, feed my sheep. Do you want to grow? You're going to need to be broken in our hypocrisy. Father, thank you for this Word. It was hard from the lips of Christ, and we learn more about how this deals and intersects with the Word of God next week. Thank you for the opportunity to hear Your Word. Oh Lord, we need it. It's not comfortable. I pray that You would do a work in us today. And Lord, I pray for my brothers and sisters who are struggling. We're all struggling and warring against our own sin. Struggling to love each other. And Lord, some of us have been given some significant trials too when we're just downcast. I pray, Lord, that they would lift their eyes to the hills and say, where shall my help come from? And may you remind them and remind me, my help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth. And Lord, would you encourage their hearts today? And Lord, help us to be our brother's keeper, to be our sister's keeper, to not say be warm and to be fed, but to encourage those who are struggling and hurting among us. Lord, I do pray for the Jasmine family as they travel, as they move out from our midst. We love them. We're thankful for the years that we've had with them. We know that we will stay in their lives. Would you bless them to be able to serve their family as they're away? And would you give them every needful grace to find a good solid church in which to grow? Bless them in every possible way, Lord. Lord, help us to confirm these truths with these songs as we look not to ourselves, But we look only to the finished work of Christ as our hope, and we ask these things in Jesus' name, amen.