Christ Exposes Spiritual Hypocrites, Part 1 (Matthew Sermon 117)

Introduction

Hypocrisy, that’s the word that’s in front of me and in front of us this morning, hypocrisy, the wearing of the spiritual mask. It starts with pride, it starts with the desire to be praised and honored by other people. And it gives little thought to what God really thinks. Hypocrisy is concerned with external appearances, with a show of righteousness. Hypocrisy wears a mask and a costume, having learned religious jargon, having learned religious facial expressions, religious tones of voice and religious body language, it’s able to appear to most any audience as righteous.

Hypocrisy gets dressed for church every Sunday, polishes up the image and walks out on stage, and puts on a show. Conversations in the parking lot, in the church foyer, over coffee during Bible for Life. All of these handled with skill to hide the reality.

And what is the reality? Spiritual death, spiritual decay, enslavement to sin, to pride, and lust, and materialism, and pleasure. That’s the truth. And though that person knows the language of Christ and of the gospel, the reality, the power of godliness is starkly absent to the only audience it really matters, and that’s God. It’s one of the most painful works of a pastor, to expose a gospel hypocrite. Maybe one of the most difficult as well. But that’s a labor that’s in front of us, not just this week, but next week, for two weeks. We’re going to look at the issue of hypocrisy.

And the issue of spiritual hypocrisy, I think is one of the most deadly in the Christian life. It’s a counterfeit righteousness, that effectively blocks the sinner from receiving the true righteousness that Christ offers freely by faith. Contrasted with the actor is the true Christian, the true Christian cannot stand the sham, is deeply aware of the sin within, and wants the genuine remedy. Wants a genuine walk with Christ. And the greatest grief in the life of a true Christian is the gap between their life, and the true standard taught in the gospel, that’s the greatest grief in the heart of a true Christian. True Christians aren’t perfect, they don’t live the perfect standard that’s not the case at all. But they yearn for it, they hunger and thirst for it. But not so the hypocrite.

A true Christian is spiritually humble, broken-hearted meek and lowly, concerning his own condition and his own situation. The Beatitudes describe the true Christian well, “Blessed are the spiritual beggars, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. And blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.”

So this morning, we’re gonna take a painful walk through Matthew 23, one of the most devastating chapters in the Bible. You have Christ, the gentle Savior, launching missiles of judgment on the Scribes and Pharisees. We hear this repeated refrain, “Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites.” And as I mentioned last week, and I’ll keep reminding, the biggest mistake you can ever make when you come to a passage like this, is to assume that Christ is talking about someone else and aren’t you glad it isn’t you? That’s a big mistake you can ever make. No, a genuine Christian, is deeply concerned about hypocrisy.

One of the marks of true Christianity, is you take warning passages very seriously. You never blow them off, because you’re well aware of the sin within. You feel it, you know it, you’re wrestling, you’re fighting it every day by the power of the Spirit. And the warnings help you in your fight. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the warnings give you that strength to fight. So we don’t run from the warnings, we embrace them. We say, “You must be speaking to me, Lord.” And so as we hear Christ verbally undress the scribes and Pharisees and their wretched hypocrisy, if this passage should make us feel smug, and righteous, and say, “I’m sure glad I’m not like them,” then I do believe you’ve missed the point. Rather we should be taking our hearts to Christ and saying, “I want a genuine work of grace in my heart. I want a genuine walk with Christ, change me dear Jesus.”

II. Blackest Darkness Reserved for Them

Now also, as we come to Matthew 23, we’re not just coming to any kind of hypocrisy, we’re coming to a specific kind of hypocrisy, and that’s hypocrisy in spiritual leaders of the people of God. It’s a deadly dangerous form of hypocrisy, when spiritual leaders are hypocrites, and that’s what we’re dealing with here with the Scribes and Pharisees.

Satan’s Three Deadly Attacks

Now, I’ve said before, we need to be aware that Satan has three great, categorically, three great weapons that he uses on the people of God. Worldliness which is the allure of the world. Its enticements, its appeal, its sensual pleasures, its excitements, visual pleasures. Vanity Fair, and all of its enticements, the allure of the world that’s worldliness.

Secondly, there’s persecution, that’s the attack of the world. Rejections, insults, missed promotions, gossip, slander, shunning by cliques, all the way up to bitter pounding by hate-filled governments and religious zealots, imprisonment, riots, confiscation of property, torture and death, that’s persecution.

And then the third, false doctrine, false teaching. The perversion of right doctrine, by a subtle convincing counterfeit. An overemphasis of some truth until it becomes a falsehood. The infiltration of strange ideas, strange worship patterns, things that are contrary to the biblical conception of God, legalism on one side, license on the other. False doctrine.

The Greatest Danger: False Teaching

And of the three, the greatest as I’ve said before, is false teaching, Because it lingers to attack that thing which is said to be the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes, to the gospel. The gospel is doctrine, and false teaching attacks the doctrine and therefore cuts the tap root of spiritual life and the people.

The Greatest Condemnation: False Spiritual Leaders

And the greatest condemnation there is in the Bible, is for spiritual leaders, hypocritical spiritual leaders who are teaching false doctrine. 2 Peter 2:17, Peter says of them, “These men are springs without water and mists driven by a storm. Blackest darkness is reserved for them.” The Bible hints at the fact that there’s not all equal punishments in how there are different levels of condemnation. There are different levels of judgment and it seems that blackest darkness is reserved for false teachers. Hypocrites.

Scribes and Pharisees: A Hellish Combination of All Three Attacks

Now, as we’re looking at Matthew 23, we’re looking at the Scribes and Pharisees, or the teachers of law and the Pharisees. We see a hellish combination of all three attacks. We see worldliness in these men, worldliness, because they’re consumed with their earthly situation, they do spiritual things for earthly benefits, they’re very worldly. They’re concerned with earthly prestige and power and greetings, and marketplaces and titles of honor. Most important seats in the banquets and they’re materialistic too, in terms of they devour widows’ houses it says in Luke 20, they gobble them up and so they use their position to get money. I think they’re in charge of the sacrificial system in there and the money is just rolling in. And so there’s that materialism, worldliness.

Persecution, we see that absolutely, they savagely attacked true religion. They fought Jesus every step of the way. Persecuted him on every step of the way, and they are the ones at this point, who are secretly plotting to have Jesus killed. And Jesus says, “This is what your future holds.” Right here in this chapter, verse 34. I won’t cover it today, but he says, “I’m sending you prophets and wise men and teachers. And some of them you will kill and crucify and others, you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town.” Persecution.

And then thirdly, false teaching, they taught a false teaching, false gospel of legalism and self-righteousness. Legalism is thinking that you can be in right standing with God by your obedience to God. That’s what legalism is. And so as you try to have a right standing with God, you look to your own obedience to God’s rules and God’s commands, that’s the essence of legalism. That’s what they taught. They had a meticulously careful system of reinterpretation of Moses’s laws, human traditions and all that, and they taught that you could be saved, by following their approach to religion.

And so these are the deadliest enemies of the gospel that the early church faced. The triple threat of worldliness, persecution and false doctrine. More than that Jesus’s denunciation of them in Matthew 23, exposes the hypocrisy of our own hearts. The fact that we ourselves are not what we ought to be, and we have our own outward shows of righteousness and our inward corruptions, and so that’s the work that’s in front of us here.

II. Overview of Christ’s Condemnation

The Bitterest of all Christ’s Teachings

Now, as we look at Matthew 23, we’re looking, as I said, at the bitterest of all of Christ’s teachings. He pulls no punches and therefore he’s hard to listen to in our tolerant age.

Our Day and Age: Toleration

This post-modern age of ours is an age of toleration. And we embrace that kind of toleration. Live and let live. So clear denunciation of other people for their spiritual lives and their doctrines is considered extremely rude and harsh and divisive and judgmental. But let’s never forget, the one who’s speaking these words here in Matthew 23 actually is the judge of all the earth. And so, if it seems judgemental, understand the one giving it has the right to judge. It says in John chapter 5 that “The Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son, even as they honor the Father.”

And later in the same Gospel, in Matthew 25, Jesus said this, “When the Son of Man comes in his glory and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory, and all the nations will be gathered before him. And he will separate the nations one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.” He’s gonna put the sheep on his right and he’s gonna put the goats on his left. And then, he’s going to pronounce over some eternal blessedness. And he’s gonna pronounce over others eternal condemnation. And he has the right to do it. That’s the one who’s speaking here in Matthew 23.

So what should happen in the hearts of some people, the Scribes and Pharisees, to hear the judge of all the earth say this, “You snakes, you brood of vipers, how will you escape being condemned to Hell?” That’s one of the most terrifying verses in the entire Bible. Think of who’s saying it. Asking what are you gonna do to get out of Hell? How are you going to escape?

Context

Now, the Gospel of Matthew, the context for this, the unifying theme of the Gospel of Matthew is the Kingdom of Heaven. And really, more specifically, if I can say it this way, Jesus as the King of the Kingdom of Heaven, that’s the unifying theme of the whole 28 chapters, the Kingdom of Heaven and Jesus as its King.

And so, from the very beginning, it starts with the genealogy proving Jesus’ right to be king. And then after the birth narratives, we have John the Baptist who is coming and saying, “Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.” And he testified that someone was coming after him, whose sandals he wasn’t worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire and his winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, he’ll gather up the wheat into his barn, but he’ll burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. That’s Jesus, the judge of all the earth coming in the name of the Kingdom of Heaven.

Then after Jesus faces Satan in the desert, fasting 40 days and 40 nights, and defeating him, he then begins to preach the exact same message that John the Baptist had been preaching: “Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.”

And then in the Sermon on the Mount, as I have already quoted the Beatitudes, we have an unfolding of the nature of the hearts of those that are in that kingdom, starting with the Beatitudes, but just going on beyond that. The nature of the kingdom is a kingdom of true heart righteousness, of heart religion, in which the righteousness of those who dwell there must surpass that of the Pharisees and scribes. It’s a true heart righteousness, in which we fight not only external crimes like murder, but the root of it, which is anger. Not just external sins like adultery, but the root of it, which is lust.

It looks right down into the heart, in which Jesus warns us, be careful not to do your acts of righteousness before men to be seen by them. Don’t put on a show, but do your acts of righteousness secretly, don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so you’re giving may be in secret. And when you pray, go into your rooms and close the door and pray to your Father who is unseen. And when you fast, put oil on your head, and wash your face, so that nobody knows you’re fasting, live secretly unto God. He’s the one who sees everything, have a heart religion. Have a heart righteousness.

Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all of these other things, food, clothing and shelter will be given to you. Don’t judge other people. Take the plank out of your eye, see your own sin first. See how plain it is, should be there, it’s right in front of your face, you should see it. And if you’re able to deal with that and honestly deal in a broken-hearted way, with your own sin, then you’ll be able to see clearly to help a speck out of a brother or sister’s eye. And beware of false prophets. Beware of false teachers. They come to you and sheep’s clothing, but inwardly, they are ferocious wolves.

The Sermon on the Mount, describes the Kingdom of Heaven, and from that point on, Jesus goes on to display the power of the Kingdom of Heaven. It’s not a matter of word only, but of power of transformation, of the forgiveness of sins of miracles done, sins to a paralyzed man. “Your sins are forgiven,” because he sees his faith. He can look right into the man’s heart and he can say, “Your sins are forgiven you.” Jesus read the minds of his enemies, the Scribes and Pharisees standing around, “This is blasphemy. Who can forgive sins but God alone?” Jesus knew their thoughts and said, “Which is easier to say: ‘your sins are forgiven,’ or to say ‘rise, and walk’? But so that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins.” And then he said to the paralyzed man, “Rise and walk,” and he got up and walked. That’s the power of the Kingdom of Heaven, forgiveness of sins, a genuine heart transformation.

We come at the end of Matthew’s gospel, the final week of Jesus’ life, Jesus makes his triumphal entry. They’re proclaiming him the Son of David, but they don’t understand who he is. They don’t know what he’s come to do. His enemies are angry at him. Jesus gets into one conflict with them after another, they demand to know by what right he cleanses the temple, and they deal with him at that level. And then Jesus tells parables concerning their wickedness and their sin, and then they come at him in chapter 22 with one tough question after another, and Jesus deals with them all.

And after all of that, this is Jesus’ final formal word to the Jewish nation, Matthew 23. That’s the context of these woes.

Overview

Who were the Scribes and Pharisees? We talked about them last time, the Pharisees were members of a religious sect, it was legalistic and he had worked its way into a position of power and authority and influence in Israel. Who thought that they were righteous because of how well they obeyed their version of the laws of Moses. And the scribes were professional copyists of the law, who therefore knew the law better than others, and were arrogant because of that and taught the same kinds of things that the Pharisees taught.

And in this chapter, we have a seven-fold woe. Seven times Jesus says, “Woe to you.” Seven times. Now, this is Jesus is taking on the office of a prophet here. There are three great offices in the Old Testament: prophet, priest and king, Jesus is the consummation of all three. And here he is the ultimate final prophet of God. The ultimate prophet of God. And he’s standing over Israel and Israel’s leaders pronouncing a seven-fold woe. The word woe is danger from a prophet. You’re in danger of condemnation. You’re in danger of judgment. It’s a prophetic word.

Isaiah used it frequently. Isaiah 3:11, “Woe to the wicked! Disaster is upon them! They’ll be paid back for what their hands have done.” In Isaiah 5, six times he uses the word “woe.” And then in chapter 6, he turns it on himself. “Woe is me” says Isaiah “I am ruined, for I’m a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.” He turns the word of woe in on himself. If you do that, in truth, you’re safe dear friends. You’re safe in Christ, because you realize you need a Savior and you run to the cross. You run to the blood shed on the cross for you. If you can say, “Woe is me” and then run to the cross, dear friends you’re safe.

So that’s what Jesus is doing, He’s proclaiming woe to them. And I really do believe it’s one final effort to save them. I think he’s reaching out, he’s just speaking words at this point. It’s just words, friends, it’s just words. But it’s not just words, is it? Those words held out the only hope of life for them, if they would just listen.

And we see Jesus probing their hearts, astonishing perceptiveness in this chapter. He knows what their motives are, he knows why they do what they do. How can he know us so well? Well, he is the one who searches hearts and minds, Revelations chapter 2. He reads your thoughts. I already talked to you about when they said this fellow is blaspheming.

I love that passage in Luke, where a Pharisee had him over and he’s eating and this sinful woman comes and touches him, and the man says in his heart, “If this man really were a prophet, he’d know what kind of woman is touching him, that she’s a sinner,” he was just thinking that thought. And the text says, “Jesus answered him and said, ‘Simon, I have something to say to you.’” That’s a bit eerie when you think about it. Jesus answered him, answered what? His thoughts, the thoughts of his heart.

Does Jesus know your heart? Yes. Does Jesus study your heart? Yes, he does. Is Jesus concerned with hypocrisy? Yes, he is. And the judgment, the Judgment Day, it says in 1 Corinthians 4:5, “He’s going to bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men’s hearts.” That’s what he does on Judgment Day. Romans 2:16 speaks of Judgment Day, as the day when God will judge men’s secrets through Jesus Christ. Hebrews 4:13 says, “Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight, everything’s uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give an account.” The safest thing you can do dear friends is just lay under that gaze of God now. Say, “Search me, know me, search my heart. Find if there’s anything wicked in me,” Psalm 139, “Lead me in the way everlasting.” That’s the safest thing you can do.

III. The Seven Woes

Woe for Shutting Seekers Out of Heaven

So let’s look at the first of these seven woes. We’re gonna finish next week, but let’s start with this one in verse 13. “Woe to you Scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the Kingdom of Heaven in men’s faces, you yourselves do not enter nor will you let those enter who are trying to.” Simply put, these men were spiritual leaders who led to hell. That’s really what Jesus is saying. “You yourselves do not enter the Kingdom of Heaven, you’re not going to Heaven, not as you are.” He calls them blind guides in verse 14. “If a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit.”

In another place again in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5:20, he makes it plain that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the Kingdom of Heaven. You must have a perfect righteousness, and that can only be given to you as a gift by faith, if you just trust in Jesus, He just gives you that righteousness as a gift.

But these men, they reduce the laws of God to a system of works established by the traditions of men. This system was overwhelming, it was comprehensive, but it was doable, just as long as you were a hypocrite. You can actually claim, “I’ve kept all of the laws of God from my youth, all of them.” And they missed the point of the law of God, the point of Sinai was to crush our self-confidence and get us to flee to Christ. That’s what the law is for, to crush our self-confidence and enable us to flee to Christ.

But these men were legalists, and they thought that if they could just keep their own traditions of the law, keep them as far as the outward human audience went anyway, then they would be right with God. Legalism fails before God, and that’s the only place that matters, isn’t it? Isn’t that the only thing that matters, whether God thinks you’re righteous or not, whether God accepts you or not? That’s the only thing that matters.

Legalism may soothe your conscience if you do well, it may make you feel proud, it might make you feel religious, might make you feel better than other people, it might be a little bit of a religious bump or high or something like that. May bring order to your life. It may enable you to achieve showy outward results, but inevitably, it will damn your soul. Because your righteousness must surpass that of the scribes and Pharisees, it must be perfect righteousness.

Now, there’s another way to understand this saying, “Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the Kingdom of Heaven in men’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you allow those to enter who are trying to.” These men had in effect made themselves judges of who was going to Heaven or not. And they were essentially dispensers of despair.

They shut the Kingdom of Heaven in men’s faces saying, “You will never go to Heaven, you have no hope.” They offered no hope to a prostitute. There’s no grace or mercy in their system. They offered no hope to a tax collector. They also offered no hope to an adulterer or adulteress. Disqualified, you’re out of the race. And I think for them, they’re probably happy about it, they’re in competition with these people, and the more unrighteous people that were around them, the more righteous they felt. They shut the Kingdom of Heaven in men’s faces. For people that were trying to enter, the scribes and Pharisees just ministered hopelessness, and they were bitter enemies of Christianity.

This is another way to look at it as well, when the true gospel started going forth, they got in the way of it, they impeded it, they tried to prevent people from coming to faith in Christ. You read the book of Acts, and we’ll talk more about this next week, but everywhere Paul went, there were these zealous Jews that were there trying to hinder the gospel, everywhere. They would travel to do it. It’s like, didn’t they have jobs, didn’t they have something to do with their time? Where is Paul going next, we’ll be there. Just to make trouble for him.

Paul talks about them in 1 Thessalonians 2, speaks of the Jews, I think he means people like the scribes and Pharisees, “who killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets and also drove us out. They displeased God and are hostile to all men in their effort to keep us from speaking to the Gentiles, so that they may be saved. And in this way, they heap up their sins to the limit the wrath of God has come upon them at last.” Shut the Kingdom of Heaven in men’s faces.

You know what I wanna do, I wanna open it wide. I wanna say what Jesus said, “Come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I’ll give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, said Jesus, for I’m humble and lowly in heart, and you’ll find rest for your souls.” Come to Jesus, Kingdom’s open wide. The curtain of the temple has been torn in two from top to bottom. The way is open. Come. And if today you hear his voice, don’t harden your heart, but just come to Jesus, Let him forgive your sins. It’s wide open.

Woe for Making Hellish Disciples

Second woe, verse 15, “Woe to you teachers of law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert. And when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of Hell as you are.” Continuing the previous themes, he just addresses their zeal here. Here it’s their zeal for converts. They exert themselves with great zeal to gather disciples after themselves.

I think it’s all a matter of pride. If you can have 20 disciples who follow your ways it makes you feel proud. And that was what was motivating them. A yearning for pride. And notice the level of their zeal, they travel over land and sea for a single convert. Back then travel was very difficult, laborious, dangerous. Getting on the Mediterranean Sea in a boat, you might have a shipwreck like Paul did. Very dangerous. But they’re willing to do anything, they’re willing to travel over land and sea, tremendous zeal.

So it is today, we’re surrounded by religionists who are more zealous than we are. Twenty-first century Islamic jihadists who will train body and mind for one thing, and that is death, for suicide, all for the glory of Allah. And their zeal greatly outstrips ours. But if any should follow their teachings, they will lead them to Hell. For it’s just yet another legalistic system is all it is, just another work system, a system of works righteousness, but their zeal is great.

Or how about the Mormons, many young Mormon people, young men and women, travel over land and sea, they get on airplanes, they go into dangerous and difficult places. I remember seeing them in Japan, they look the same in Japan that they do here. It’s always the same. I mean, the white shirt, the tie, you know, bike helmets, the backpacks. There’s a couple of Mormons. And they are there, they’re all over the world. 53,000 Mormon missionaries on the field right now, 5,000 Southern Baptist missionaries. Travel over land and sea to win a single convert. And then if they should make one, they make them twice as much a son of Hell as they are.

Or what about the Jehovah’s Witnesses? They go from door to door, knocking on doors, trying to win converts. And if they should ever win them to that false system, they would make them twice as much sons of Hell as they are. What this means is, under condemnation, they’ve not come to the true gospel.

So I say to you, zeal for evangelism is a good thing, it’s good to be a soul winner, amen. It’s good to sacrifice so that others can come to faith in Christ, but it won’t save your soul. The only thing that’s gonna save your soul is if you yourself come to Christ. And having been saved, then you can invite others.

Woe for Being Blind Guides

Thirdly, woe for being blind guides, look at Verses 16-22. “Woe to you, blind guides! You say, ‘If anyone swears by the temple, it means nothing. But if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.’ You blind fools! Which is greater, the gold or the temple that makes the gold sacred? You also say, ‘If anyone swears by the altar, it means nothing; but if anyone swears by the gift on it, he is bound by his oath.’ You blind men! Which is greater, the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred? Therefore he who swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it. And he who swears by the temple swears by it and by the one who dwells in it. And he who swears by Heaven swears by God’s throne, and by the one who sits on it.”

These men were blind guides, they had no idea where they were going. In John 9, Jesus speaks to the Pharisees after the healing of the man born physically blind. And he made this statement: “For judgment I have come into the world so that those who are blind may be able to see, and that those who see may become blind.” And the Pharisees said, “What? Are we blind too?” Jesus said, “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin, but now that you claim we can see, your guilt remains.” And so, they were spiritually blind.

Now, how is it displayed? Well, here it has to do with the issue of the swearing of oaths. This is very big in Judaism. Swearing of the oaths. “I swear by the temple of God that I’ll be in Jerusalem by the Passover, I swear by the temple of God.” Well, it turns out, if he said that, his oath meant nothing. You have to read the fine print here, it’s gotta do with fine print. These folks were lawyers, remember? They were legally-minded. You have to read the fine print. Such an oath is invalid. Now, if he had sworn by the gold of the temple to be in Jerusalem by the Passover, now that would be binding. Playing games, playing games. “If you swear by the altar, now it means nothing, but if you should happen to swear by the gift on the altar, now that oath is binding.”

Now Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount said, “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘do not break your oath, but keep the oaths you have made to the Lord.’ But I tell you, do not swear at all: either by Heaven, for it is God’s throne; or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great king. And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black. Simply let your ‘yes’ be ‘yes’ and your ‘no’ be ‘no’; or else you’ll be condemned.”

So at core, a dishonest heart makes a read-the-fine-print oath, you know, crossing the fingers. I always wonder, where’d that come from? If you say something but you’re crossing your fingers behind your back, it really doesn’t count. Do you not understand? God created Heaven and earth by the word of his power, when God speaks it’s true. God is incapable of lying. There is a God in the universe, that’s Jesus’ point here. And he holds you to what you say, and if you start playing tricky games with your words and try to evade your promises, woe to you.

And so, Jesus reminds them of the temple and the one who dwells in it, that’s God. And he who swears by Heaven swears by God’s throne and by the one who sits on it. A true spiritual guide has eyes of faith, and everything he does is in the presence of God. And when you say something, God is listening to you, he hears what you say. And so, Jesus just sweeps away these tricky little word games that they were playing.

And next week, we’re gonna look at the last woes, the tithing of mint leaves, and neglecting justice, mercy and faithfulness. The fact that they externally look clean and actually inward, they’re full of corruption. And for honoring dead prophets while murdering the live ones. We’ll talk about that next week.

IV. Applications

Assess Your Own Heart

What application can we take from this? Well, start with this, just say, “Lord, I acknowledge that there is hypocrisy in my heart.” Now let me say something to you about this. There are two kinds of hypocrisy.

One is the hypocrisy that every single Christian feels when there’s this difference between what you espouse as a standard in the way you’re really living. Do you not feel that in your heart? And if you think you’re entirely free from that, you don’t know yourself and you don’t know the Word of God. But if you look at the word of God, and then you see your life and you see there’s a gap between him, that’s the hypocrisy that sanctification seeks to address. You’re trying to make that as small a gap as possible. The answer to that hypocrisy has come back again to the cross and say, “Lord, I am not living as I should. I want you to purge me, I want you to clean me, I want you to change me.”

But then there’s a different kind of hypocrisy, in which you present yourself to be a Christian and you really aren’t. And that one will condemn your soul to Hell. Now, next week I’m gonna talk about how can you tell the difference? We all see sin in our lives. How can I know whether I’m a gospel hypocrite? I’m gonna talk about that.

But let me say this one thing in closing. The mark of a genuine Christian is a yearning after righteousness inward and out, and the yearning to make your life conform to what Christ commands, whether anyone sees it or not. And so, Thomas Brooks said this, make this your prayer and let this all close. A genuine Christian says this, “Oh, that this ignorant heart were more enlightened! Oh, that this proud heart were just more humble! Oh, that this profane heart were just more holy! Oh, that this earthly heart were more heavenly! Oh, that this unbelieving heart was just more believing! Oh, that this angry heart was more humble! Oh, that this carnal heart was more spiritual! That this vain heart was more serious-minded! That this dull heart was more quickened! that this dead heart was more enlightened! Oh, that this lukewarm heart was more zealous for God and for Christ in the Gospel, and the great concerns of eternity!

These are only preliminary, unedited outlines and may differ from Andy’s final message.

Hypocrisy… the wearing of the Spiritual Mask… it starts with pride… a desire to be praised and honored by people;  it gives little thought to what God really thinks

Hypocrisy is concerned with external appearances… with a SHOW of righteousness

Hypocrisy wears a mask and a costume:  having learned religious jargon, having learned religious facial expressions and tones of voice and body language; it is able to APPEAR to most any audience as righteous…

Hypocrisy gets dressed for church every Sunday and polishes up the image and walks out on stage to put on a show;  conversations in the parking lot, in the church foyer, in the coffee and donuts part of Sunday School… all handled with skill, to HIDE the reality

And what is the reality?  Spiritual death… spiritual decay… enslavement to sin—to pride and lust and materialism and pleasure

Though the person knows the language of Christ and of the gospel, the reality, the power of godliness is starkly absent

It is one of the most painful works of a pastor to expose a gospel hypocrite, but that it the labor in front of us today

The issue of spiritual hypocrisy is one of the most deadly in the Christian life… it is a COUNTERFEIT righteousness that effectively blocks the sinner from receiving the TRUE RIGHTEOUSNESS Christ alone offers

Contrasted with the ACTOR who is a hypocrite is the true Christian… the true Christian cannot stand the sham, but is deeply aware of the sin within and wants the genuine remedy

The true Christian knows that Christianity is a matter of the HEART, and from the HEART flows all the outward deeds of the Christian religion

So the true Christian is spiritually humble… the Beatitudes describe the true Christian perfectly:

Matthew 5:3-8  “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.  ⁴ Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.  ⁵ Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.  ⁶ Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.  ⁷ Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.  ⁸ Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

This morning, we are going to take a painful walk through one of the most devastating chapters in the Bible… Christ, the Gentle Savior, launching ICBMs of judgment on the Scribes and Pharisees,

And we hear the repeated refrain:

Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites

The BIGGEST MISTAKE we can possibly make in reading this chapter is to assume Christ is speaking about SOMEONE ELSE and is in no way referring to US

A genuine Christian is DEEPLY CONCERNED about hypocrisy… our pride naturally pushes us to APPEAR more righteous than we really are in front of others

So as we hear Christ verbally UNDRESS the Scribes and Pharisees and their wretched hypocrisy, if this passage makes us feel smug and righteous, saying “I’m sure glad I’m not a hypocrite like THEM”, I do believe you’ve missed the point

Rather, we should be taking our hearts to Christ and saying, “I want a genuine work of grace in my heart, Lord… CHANGE ME, DEAR JESUS!!!”

I. Blackest Darkness Reserved for Them

A. Satan’s Three Deadly Attacks

1. Worldliness

The allure of the world, its temptations to fleshly pleasures—the allure of material prosperity, of positions of power, of sensual pleasures, of sexual excitement, of visual pleasure… the world, Vanity Fair, with its enticing corruptions, has a terribly deadening effect on our souls

2. Persecution

The attack of the world… rejection, insults, missed promotions, gossip, slander, shunning by cliques… all the way up to bitter pounding by hate-filled governments and religious zealots… imprisonments, riots, confiscation of property, torture, death

3. False Teaching

The perversion of right doctrine by a subtle convincing counterfeit… an overemphasis of some truth until it becomes a falsehood… the infiltration of strange ideas, strange worship patterns, counter-biblical conceptions of God… legalism or license

B. The Greatest Danger:  False Teaching

1. Of all these three, false teaching is consistently portrayed as the most dangerous

2. Why?  Because it alone affects the gospel message itself… and that gospel message is “the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes”

C. The Greatest Condemnation:  False Spiritual Leaders

1. Peter

2 Peter 2:17  These men are springs without water and mists driven by a storm. Blackest darkness is reserved for them.

Just pause and consider the import of these words:  the greatest possible wrath and punishment and curse from God in hell is reserved for false teachers!!  Hell does not have all the same levels of suffering, all the same levels of torment… there are worse levels of punishment than others… and BLACKEST DARKNESS is reserved for false teachers

2. Paul

Galatians 1:8-9  But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned!  ⁹ As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned!

D. Scribes and Pharisees:  A Hellish Combination of All Three Attacks

1. Worldliness:  They were consumed with materialism, their passion was for worldly power, pleasure, prestige

Matthew 23:25  full of greed and self-indulgence.

Luke 20:46-47  Beware of the teachers of the law. They like to walk around in flowing robes and love to be greeted in the marketplaces and have the most important seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at banquets.  ⁴⁷ They devour widows’ houses and for a show make lengthy prayers. Such men will be punished most severely.”

2. Persecution:  They attacked true prophets and apostles and teachers… and especially the Christ… and sought to put them to death

Matthew 23:34  I am sending you prophets and wise men and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify; others you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town.

3. False teaching:  they taught a false gospel of legalism and self-righteousness, that by following their meticulous interpretation of the Laws of Moses, one could be saved from sins and welcomed into heaven

Matthew 23:15-16  “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are.  ¹⁶ ¶ “Woe to you, blind guides!

These were the deadliest enemies of the gospel the early church could possibly face

But more than that, Jesus’ denunciation of them in Matthew 23 exposes the hypocrisy of our own hearts… our own outward shows of righteousness and inward corruptions

II. Overview of Christ’s Condemnation

A. The Bitterest of all Christ’s Teachings

1. An extending attack of the most astonishing bitterness

2. He pulls no punches, pours on the most shocking rhetoric

3. Though he had occasionally exposed these hypocrites before, there is nothing like this in all the gospels for its length and intensity

B. Our Day and Age:  Toleration

1. Postmodern America delights in “live and let live”

2. Clear denunciation of others for their spiritual lives and doctrines is considered extremely rude, divisive, harsh, judgmental

3. BUT let us never forget… the One who speaks these words is actually the Judge of all the Earth

John 5:22-23  the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son,  ²³ that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father.

Matthew 25:31-32  “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory.  ³² All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.

4. So, when the Judge of all the Earth speaks these words, how can anyone fail to tremble

Matthew 23:33  “You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell?”

C. Context

1. The Gospel of Matthew has one uniting theme:  The Kingdom of Heaven… or, more specifically, Jesus’ credentials as the KING of the Kingdom of Heaven

2. Therefore, Matthew begins with a genealogy, to prove Jesus’ lineage from both Abraham and David

3. Then Jesus brings forth John the Baptist, who proclaimed “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near!” and who testified that someone was coming after him who was greater than he was, whose sandals he was not worthy to untie

4. Then Jesus defeats Satan in the desert, fasting forty days and forty nights, and refuses to sin

5. Then Jesus begins His powerful ministry of miracles and proclaiming the same message as John, “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near!”

6. Then the Sermon on the Mount proclaims the true nature of the Kingdom of Heaven:  a Kingdom of righteousness, in which the righteousness of those who dwell there must surpass that of the Pharisees and Teachers of the Law;  a Kingdom of a TRUE, HEART righteousness, in which we fight not just external crimes like murder, but internal heart states like anger; not only do we hate adultery, but also the root cause of lust in the heart;  a Kingdom of Heaven in which the servants refuse to do their acts of righteousness to be seen by men and praised by men;  a lifestyle in which seeking first His Kingdom and His righteousness is everything;  a life free from prideful judgmentalism, in which we labor to take the plank out of our eye before trying to take the speck from a brother’s eye… a life shunning false spiritual leaders who are wolves in sheep’s clothing, who are known by their fruits

7. Matthew’s Gospel goes on from there to display the most extraordinary preaching and miracle-working ministry we can imagine… the only perfect man that every lived… there was NOTHING He could not do… he healed the sick, cleansed the lepers, drove out demons, fed the 5000,walked on water, stilled the storm, raised the dead; he taught many things in parables, which clearly depicted the spiritual nature of the Kingdom of Heaven

8. Final week of Jesus’ life:

a. Triumphal entry… riding on a donkey, He is acclaimed by all to be the Messiah, the Son of David

b. The cleansing of the Temple:  Jesus, filled with the zeal of God, makes a whip and drives out all the thieves who have turned the temple into a wicked marketplace

c. Jesus’ enemies, bitterly shocked by His attacks, go on the offensive themselves

i) They demand to know His credentials… by what authority He was cleansing the temple; by what authority He was teaching in the temple

ii) They make plots against Him;  terrified of the crowd on the one hand, terrified of the Romans on the other, they struggle to find some way, legally or illegally to have Jesus murdered

9. Matthew 22:  Jesus’ enemies organize and attack

a. First the Pharisees and Herodians ask about taxation… “Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not?”  The goal is to get Jesus in trouble with either the Romans or the crowd

b. Then the Sadducees ask about the resurrection

c. Then the teacher of the Law asks about the greatest commandment in the Law

d.  Now here in Matthew 23, Jesus goes on the attack

i) Three central roles in the OT:  PROPHET   PRIEST   KING

ii) Jesus here is the classic prophet, declaring the word WOE over their case

iii) OT prophets used this word WOE as a terrifying warning of impending judgment

D. Overview

1. Who were the “Scribes and Pharisees”??  We met them in last week’s sermon, but let me repeat it briefly:

a. The Pharisees were a sect of the Jews who were extremely conscientious about keeping every detail of the Law;  they believed that righteousness came from meticulously obeying every aspect of the Laws of Moses… and that they HAD obeyed every aspect

b. They taught a whole long list of traditions they had made up themselves based on the Law, and those traditions became MORE IMPORTANT than the Law itself… they believed they were SAVED by obeying those traditions

c. The “scribes” were responsible to copy the Law of Moses by hand; experts in the Law, they felt they were spiritually superior to everyone else

2. Matthew 23:  Jesus’ attack in a rhythmic cadence punctuated by one phrase over and over:

“Woe to you Scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites…!!”

Seven times in this one chapter, followed in every case by some specific aspect of their wickedness… the word WOE a word of prophetic JUDGMENT

Isaiah 3:11  Woe to the wicked! Disaster is upon them! They will be paid back for what their hands have done.

Isaiah 5… six times, the prophet proclaims “Woe” to people in Israel

Isaiah 5:20 Woe to those who call evil good and good evil,

Then amazingly adds the word to HIMSELF!!

Isaiah 6:5  “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty.”

Here Jesus proclaims a SEVEN-FOLD woe on the Scribes and Pharisees… the number seven may be significant… it is a number of prophetic perfection or completion… like Jesus is saying “YOU ARE COMPLETELY CONDEMNED!!!!”

Seven-fold woe!!!!!!

3. Astonishing perceptiveness… Jesus probes their hearts for the true condition of their hearts

Luke 16:15 He said to them, “You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of men, but God knows your hearts.

a. Again and again it is made clear that Jesus knows men’s hearts

Matthew 9:4 Knowing their thoughts, Jesus said, “Why do you entertain evil thoughts in your hearts?

Matthew 12:25 Jesus knew their thoughts

b. This is a heart exposure of these spiritual hypocrites

c. Hypocrites = actors, those who appear to be one thing but are not

d. At root is Jesus’ ability to know the true condition of every man’s heart… and it is clear that Judgment Day will be a matter of the HEART… the true motives of the HEART… what proceeds from the HEART

1 Corinthians 4:5  He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men’s hearts.

Romans 2:16  the day when God will judge men’s secrets through Jesus Christ

4. Jesus has “eyes of fire”… tremble before Him!!!

Revelation 1:14-15  His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire.  ¹⁵ His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters.

III. The Seven Woes

A. Woe for Shutting Seekers Out of Heaven

Vs. 13  “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.

1. Simply put… following them as spiritual leaders DID NOT LEAD to the Kingdom of Heaven

You yourselves do not enter…

a. Jesus calls them blind guides; He says to leave them

Matthew 15:14   Leave them; they are blind guides. If a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit.”

b. In another place, He makes it plain that their righteousness is insufficient to enter the Kingdom of Heaven

Matthew 5:20  I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.

c. They reduced the Laws of God to a system of works established by the traditions of men;  it was overwhelming and comprehensive, but it was doable (kind of, as long as you were willing to be a hypocrite)

d. AND it left the heart unchanged… the heart was unregenerate, and unrighteous

e. Thus they missed the point of the Law of God… it was designed to crush pride and make the sinner beg for mercy;  the Scribes and Pharisees reduced it to a religious machinery that was designed to produce pride for the successful and despair for the unsuccessful

2. Legalism fails BEFORE GOD

a. It may soothe your conscience

b. It may make you feel proud, religious, better than other people

c. It may bring order to your life and enable you to achieve very showy results

d. BUT it will inevitably damn your soul

3. There’s another way to understand this saying… that these men made themselves the JUDGES of who was going to heaven or not, who was righteous or not

a. They “Shut the Kingdom of Heaven in men’s faces” by saying “You will NEVER be acceptable to God… you are already forever disqualified”

b. They offer NO HOPE to a prostitute or a tax collector;  NO HOPE to a murder or a thief dying on the cross

c. There was NO GRACE in their system, and thus they shut the Kingdom of Heaven in men’s faces

4. For people who were TRYING TO ENTER, the Scribes and Pharisees were ministers of hopelessness;  they were also BITTER ENEMIES of Christianity… fighting it every step of the way

a. As a Pharisee, Saul of Tarsus was zealous in his persecution of the early church in the name of Judaism; obtaining letters from the chief priests to the synagogues in Damascus and travelling there to crush the Christian movement

b. So also, after Saul converted, the Jews were zealous in their efforts to stop Paul from preaching to the Gentiles

1 Thessalonians 2:14-16  the Jews,  ¹⁵ who killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets and also drove us out. They displease God and are hostile to all men  ¹⁶ in their effort to keep us from speaking to the Gentiles so that they may be saved. In this way they always heap up their sins to the limit. The wrath of God has come upon them at last.

5. Notice that again Jesus clearly warns them that they themselves are not entering, but are on the outside!!!  A clear warning to them to repent

B. Woe for Making Hellish Disciples

Vs. 15   “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are.

1. Continuing the previous theme, Jesus addresses their ZEAL FOR CONVERTS… they exert themselves with great zeal to gather disciples after themselves, but they cannot lead them to heaven

2. Notice the level of their zeal:  they travel over land and sea to win a single convert… few of us can match the religious zeal of legalists

a. At that time such travel would have been very dangerous and costly

b. In their legalism and zeal for their own spiritual achievement, these Pharisees were amazing

c. So it is today:

i) 21^st century Islamic jihadists train for years in the Koran and in terrorist tactics, then lay down their lives in a bloody offering to Allah

ii) Mormon young people give two years of their lives to travel to the ends of the earth to make converts for their cult… they deprive themselves of modern comforts and subject themselves to persecution and even death for the sake of a false religion concocted by Joseph Smith; the LDS church has 53,000 missionaries worldwide, compared to 5000 SBC missionaries

iii) Jehovah’s Witnesses spend hour after hour knocking on doors to win converts to their perverted system of legalism

3. The real tragedy:  THEY MAKE HIM TWICE AS MUCH A SON OF HELL AS THEY ARE

a. “Son of hell” = a person belonging to, worthy of, and bound for hell

b. Even worse, they have been TRAINED for this by the Pharisees

4. Zeal for evangelism is no certain mark of salvation

a. You can be a “soul-winner” and still wind up in hell

b. Our works don’t save us

C. Woe for Being Blind Guides

vs. 16-22  “Woe to you, blind guides! You say, ‘If anyone swears by the temple, it means nothing; but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.’  ¹⁷ You blind fools! Which is greater: the gold, or the temple that makes the gold sacred?  ¹⁸ You also say, ‘If anyone swears by the altar, it means nothing; but if anyone swears by the gift on it, he is bound by his oath.’  ¹⁹ You blind men! Which is greater: the gift, or the altar that makes the gift sacred?  ²⁰ Therefore, he who swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it.  ²¹ And he who swears by the temple swears by it and by the one who dwells in it.  ²² And he who swears by heaven swears by God’s throne and by the one who sits on it.

1. Already mentioned this title, “Blind guides”

2. They seek to guide people without the “light of the world”… they have no spiritual eyesight

3. After the healing of the blind man, the Pharisees and chief priests call him in and insult him and attack him, and eventually throw him out of the Jewish faith

4. Jesus attacked them for it

John 9:39-41  Jesus said, “For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.”  ⁴⁰ Some Pharisees who were with him heard him say this and asked, “What? Are we blind too?”  ⁴¹ Jesus said, “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains.

5. Their blindness displayed here:  swearing of oaths

a. “I swear by the temple of God that I will be in Jerusalem by the Passover”… it turns out that oath means nothing;  but if he had said “I swear by the gold of the temple”, now THAT oath is binding

b. The swearing of oaths is commonplace in Judaism… the rabbinic scholars had a whole system of rules and regulations about this practice… it amounted to the “fine print” of a verbal contract… a way to GET OUT of doing what you said you would do

c. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus discouraged the whole practice of swearing oaths

Matthew 5:33-37  “Again, you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not break your oath, but keep the oaths you have made to the Lord.’  ³⁴ But I tell you, Do not swear at all: either by heaven, for it is God’s throne;  ³⁵ or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King.  ³⁶ And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black.  ³⁷ Simply let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.

6. Central Flaw:  Blind to the God of Truth

a. At core, a dishonest heart makes a “read the fine print” oath… one who swears by something, and then later says “It isn’t valid because I didn’t swear the exact, verbally correct oath”

b. Jesus’ basic point:  God hold us to our promises, our commitments, our words…

c. AND human religious leaders should not play tricky little games with differences between the temple and the gold of the temple;  or the altar or the gift on the altar

d. The Pharisees were blind guides because they could not see that central reality of the universe:  there is a God in heaven who keeps ALL His promises and holds us to all our words

Matthew 23:21-22  he who swears by the temple swears by it and by the one who dwells in it.  ²² And he who swears by heaven swears by God’s throne and by the one who sits on it.

e. A true spiritual guide has eyes of faith, the eyes of his heart enlightened to see God as He really is… the God of truth who demands that we speak and live the truth as well

D. Woe for Inverting God’s Priorities:  Tithing Mint Leaves and Neglecting Justice, Mercy, Faithfulness (vs. 23-24)

E. Woe for External Cleanness But Internal Defilement (vs. 25-28)

F. Woe for Honoring Dead Prophets While Murdering Living Ones (vs. 29-32)

IV. Applications

A. Assess Your Own Heart

1. The Scribes and Pharisees were hypocrites… appearing godly and attractive on the outside, but truly corrupt inwardly

2. Everything they did was done for men to see

3. They loved the perks of spirituality without any of its true power

4. What about us???

5. The hypocritical heart is only concerned with the APPEARANCE of righteousness, not the reality

6. The true gospel heart CRIES OUT for inner purity

Matthew 5:6  Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

Matthew 5:8  Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

7. Thomas Brooks:

The hypocrite’s only care is to keep his outward life from defilement. But the sincere Christian’s care is mainly to keep his heart from defilement; for he very well knows,
that if he can but keep his heart clean—he shall with more ease keep his life clean. If the fountain is kept pure—the streams will run pure. The heart is the spring of all actions,
and therefore every action is as the spring is, from whence it flows; if the spring is good—the action is good which flows from it; if the spring is evil, the action is evil which flows
from it.

Hypocrites are all for the outside; they wash the platters and the cups, and beautify the tombs—like an adulteress whose care is to paint a fair face upon a foul heart.

But a sincere Christian, though he has a great concern for the well-ordering of his outward life—yet his main business and work is about his heart—

“Oh that this ignorant heart were but more enlightened!

Oh that this proud heart were but more humble!

Oh that this profane heart were but more holy!

Oh that this earthly heart were but more heavenly!

Oh that this unbelieving heart were but more believing!

Oh that this passionate heart were but more meek!

Oh that this carnal heart were but more spiritual!

Oh that this vain heart were but more serious!

Oh that this dull heart were but more quickened!

Oh that this dead heart were but more enlivened!

Oh that this lukewarm heart were but more zealous for God, and Christ, and the gospel, and the great concerns of eternity!”

8. Is this the cry of your heart?  Then let Christ work these things in you!!

9. If this is not the cry of your fear, then FEAR the status of a Gospel Hypocrite… come to Christ and allow His blood to atone for your sins… the applause of the audience on how righteous we are will not help us at all on Judgment Day

10. Crave the REALITY, not the COUNTERFEIT