Matthew 2024

Well, my name is Pete Woodcock.

I'm 1 of the pastors of the church here. Great to have you with us if you're if you're new. We're going through Matthews's gospel and we're coming to the end and we're coming to really exciting bits. We're gonna do the whole of chapter 23 tonight. So it'd be really good if you have a hard Bible, a real physical copy of the Bible, rather than just relying on it on here because I'm gonna, read the bits as we go through because it's a very, very long chapter.

Now you're you're you're lucky that you've got 1 of the shorter preachers in this church doing this whole chapter because it's extremely long and it could be a long time here as you see. So that's what we're gonna do. We're gonna take a, you know, a bit and then look at it. In in many ways, just as an introduction to this, that this is easy to preach on because all the illustrations are there and I hardly really have to say much other than read the passage and give it a title or point out some things. So in 1 sense, it's very easy.

In another sense, this is, you know, really hard. And you can't help feeling a hypocrite by even thinking that you could preach this. It's it's a it's a tough 1. For any of us. So there's some hard hitting stuff here, and I feel unable, and I hope you do at the end of it, and that's why, really, that's the punchline if if there is 1, it is that we need the lord Jesus Christ.

So let's pray. Father help us as we look at this passage together, we thank you that the lord Jesus came and spoke these words for our edification, and to help us to understand our need of Jesus. And so help us now, we pray in Jesus' name, amen. Now, we live in a world where appearances deceive. I think we know that.

Deep fakes. We have filters on all kinds of things. AI generated videos where where people appear to say things that they they never said. So it's very very hard to tell, what's real, and it's hard to to tell what's true, and it's increasingly hard if we're on social media. It's just very hard.

And the same thing happened spiritually. We have religious, deep fakers, people performing holiness, but hiding rot, rot underneath. And that's what Jesus saw in these pharisees. They look righteous, sounded holy, quoted scripture, but he called them you Hippocrats. To call someone a hypocrite is actually 1 of the worst insults, isn't it?

There's really not not many stronger insults than that. You hypocrite. No 1 really likes to be called that. Even if you know you've not been telling the truth or whatever, we don't like to be called a hypocrite. But Jesus is warning his followers and he's using this worst insult and he's warning his followers and the crowd that these pharisees and these teachers of the law are nothing but hypocrites.

Now it's interesting because last week we saw or the last, sort of few weeks back, we've seen Jesus in debate with these religious leaders, and they've come to trap him and all of that sort of stuff. And that ended, at the end of chapter 22. And now Jesus then speaks to the crowd. So I assume these pharisees are still there. And he's going to speak about them.

So no wonder they wanted to kill him by the end of the chapter. You Hippocrats. Hippocrit, as many of us will know, just simply means actor, really, someone who puts a performance on who puts a mask on. So it originally came from the Greeks where they the actor would wear a mask, a happy mask, a sad mask, and, that was the mask, but the the the real person was obviously behind the mask. And that's what hippo hypocrisy is.

It's it's a mask. It's a covering up from what you really are. It's a play acting. And Jesus here is prepared to say, no, I'll I'm very happy to present the Oscars for hypocrisy here. That's what I'm gonna do.

6 times, Jesus says, you Hippocrits. And then on top of that, there's a series of 7 woes that, he announces on aspects of hypocritical behavior. And the word woe carries with it, condemnation and judgment, but also sorrow and sadness extremely deep word, woe to you. It's sort of righteous anger, but righteous anger from a heart of love. And you'll see that illustrated right at the end of this this chapter.

When we get there. So chapter 23 then, this is Jesus' last public sermon before the cross. He he preaches to the to the disciples, but but this is his last public sermon. Listen to some of the words he uses. Hippocrits we've just seen.

Sons of hell, blind guides, fools, robbers, self indulgent, white washed tunes, snakes, vipers, murderers. I mean, this is some sermon. Yeah. This isn't politically correct. He's not doing this to win friends and influence people.

He's really going for it. So in this chapter, Jesus pulls off the religious mask and he says, this is what fake faith looks like. Now, he does that. To expose the frauds, the pharisees, absolutely. But he doesn't just do that so that we can look at them and see how awful they are.

It's written in the scriptures for us. So that we can see how many masks we put on, and are we prepared before the lord Jesus Christ to take those masks off? So it's for us. We're not just a point at the pharisees, although we do need to see what they're doing wrong, but we're to examine our own hearts. And also, of course, we're meant to be aware of the deep fakers because if we fall into the hands of them, they'll do us no good as he's gonna show.

So there's 7 aspects basically of hypocrisy here. They sort of, you know, intertwine and overlap and so forth, but let's just spell them out and see how they apply to us. So here's my first point then or rather Jesus' first point HIPicates preach without practicing. Hippicates preach without practicing. Look at verses 1 to 4.

Then Jesus said to the crowds and and to his disciples, the teachers of the law and the pharisees sit in Moses's seat. So you must be careful to do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do for they do not practice what they preach. They tie up heavy cumbersome loads and put them on other people's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them. It's an extraordinary expression there.

Not a finger to help anyone else. So these pharisees, they were great at making spiritual life hard. That's what they seemed to be about. They had hard rules for everyone, And those rules, Jesus is showing us, keep people outside of the kingdom, and they keep those people in a sense of failure and guilt. And that's a good place if you're gonna control people to have people in a sense of failure and guilt under you because you can control them then.

So it's 1 rule for us and 1 rule for them. That's the sort of attitude. That they seem to have here because they don't practice what they preach. Look if I was 4 again, it's just amazing. They tie up heavy cumbersome loads and put them on other people's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to to move them.

That they particularly aren't practicing what they preach in the sense of helping people. They weren't going to lift a finger. Nothing. No help. Now religion can be so much like this.

They make people think, you know, we're not acceptable to god unless we dot every eye that the group that we're in, dots cross every tee where possible that the group that we're in comply completely with their system of regulations, where the Bible offers mercy they offered rules. But the Bible offered forgiveness, they offered more rules. Where the Bible offered grace, they offered still more rules. They weren't really interested in people's spiritual or moral welfare. They're only interested in their own professional power base within the community.

They're the preachers and you do what we say. Not what we do. You do what we say. And if you don't, we won't lift a finger to help you. They make god an unbearable, unattractive burden maker.

The Bible should be our delight. The lord of the lord, in the old testament, is supposed to be sweeter than honeycomb to the taste. But their interpretation of the word is a burden and a weight and it weighs people down. Now where do we see this today then? Well, in all kinds of places, can't we?

We, you know, people quoting scriptures on social media. You get that pretending to be concerned about some kind of whatever it is. That they're concerned about, but in the church, they never lift a finger. Never lift a finger. Never lift a finger.

To help anyone. They're also concerned about big issues when it comes to the public arena putting Bible, never lift a finger. Or they're sitting back and criticizing, but not doing anything yourself. It's just the back venture. Just criticizing all the time.

But never doing anything, or using scripture to condemn others, but not really having a heart for them to come to the lord Jesus Christ and be forgiven. It's just using scripture as a weapon to show that you're better. Than them. Gotta be careful of this, haven't we? Social influencers.

They have all their filters on and all their masks, and their real life is a disaster. And they're only out to make money from your viewings. The whole council culture that condemns so quickly but never is out to help that person they condemn. This's just joy in condemning and no joy in lifting a hand to help. Those who love to make others feel guilty with no forgiveness, never show it showing the love of Christ.

I mean, you can see it, you know, in its horrific, sort of caricature cartoon version of it, but unfortunately, it is reality in the Taliban, can't you? If you read how they treat women, extraordinary, isn't it? They're not even allowed to go to the doctors now. They're not allowed to have any medication. And the way they treat women, making them dress in clothes that are just unreasonable in a hot country.

You know, it's it's horrific stuff, isn't it? But we need to see it in our own lives as well. So if you don't wanna be a hypocrite, practice what you preach. Practice what you preach. Be careful of preaching things and you have no intention to practice to help the people you're preaching to come to the lord Jesus Christ.

It's just a weapon. Secondly then, hypocrisy chases after status, not service. Look at verses 5 to 12. Everything they do is done for people to see. They make their falateries.

This is, I won't go into all of these details, but this is just sort of religious clothing. Okay? They make their falateries wide and their tassels on their garments long. They love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues. They love to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces and be called rabbi by others.

But you are not to be called rabbi for you have 1 teacher, and you are all brothers. And do not call anyone on earth father. For you have 1 father, and he is in heaven. Nor are you to be called instructors for you have 1 instructor, the Messiahest among you will be your servant for those who exalt themselves will be humbled and those who humble themselves will be exalted. Look what it says.

Everything they do is done for people to see. See that? On their own, they're atheists. Are they? When they're in front of people, they're godly.

And the pharisees, they love to have these titles. Now he's not saying here that they can't you can't have teachers in the church and stuff like that. We know from other parts of the bible that that's the case. Race, even actually, Paul calls himself father to Timothy. But what I think he's saying here is that if you're just after these titles, you'd, you know, and you these titles are the things that are putting you in throwing you in some way to have power over people, then we don't have that.

We're all brothers. We're all the same here as Christians. But these pharisees, these religious people, they love those titles, those they love wearing the religious fashions. They want to be noticed They're dictated by applause all the time. That's what they want.

They love to have the titles. They love to have people looking up to them and rely on them. They push their way to the top. They like the honor. They want center stage.

They want them spotlight on them. That's the important thing, and you see that in all the illustrations he gives. Now how do we see that today? Well, you have the influence of pastor who wears all the right clothes. Fact, if you look after the service, you can see what clothes he wore and you can go and buy those clothes yourself.

A very expensive cost. You have god and the personal branded Christians. Extraordinary. You have ones that can never be seen to be sitting under anyone else's ministry. You never see them sitting there listening to someone else.

They're always the 1 that have to be speaking. These people, you know, they'll get on multiple committees. They'll worm their way in on all kinds of platforms, and they'll do almost anything to get on those platforms. And they they're on multiple committees. I've seen many of this happen over my years.

They love the spotlight. They love the titles. They love the VIP seats. And most of us in some way fall into this in some way, don't we? If we if we're not chosen and someone else is chosen, we get a bit grumpy, don't we?

We're a bit more money. When he choose me? Why was he invited? And I wasn't. Why was she invited?

So we're all a bit like this, and but there's so much of this around I want to say. And there's a lot of it, unfortunately, within the Christian church, even in this country. People pushing the way. There are people on multiple committees. In the Christian.

Are you thinking, what what are you doing? What would you do all day? Just go to committees. And why are you on all of these committees? Well, because they're powerful places to be.

And everybody knows that you're on the committees, because now we have photos of everyone that's a trustee or on the committees so we can see who they are. Extraordinary stuff. And we get a little bit depressed if we're not invited. Our incomes aren't massaged. Very easy to fall into this status, not service stuff, isn't it?

And the religious world, as I say, is full of this. Think of all the clothings and the hats that go around in the religious world. It's extraordinary, isn't it? I was at Kingston University once and, I went to the seek society. They had a do where they were fighting with these knives.

It was extraordinary. I mean, I don't know how they got away with it, but there were extraordinary fighting. We're all surrounding in a big circle and seeing these brokes come with real knives and were smashing at each other and that, it was in an amazing event. But there was the top seek bloke there. Now I knew it was the top seek bloke because he had an enormous turban on.

I'd never seen anything like it. It seriously was this big. I don't know how his head could neck could hold it up. So I sidled up to him and said, you must be important because you've got a massive hat. You've got you've got a massive hat, and he sort of wobbled his head.

And say, yes, I'm the chief whatever he was of the of the whole of London. You know what? It's just ridiculous. The hats and gear that people have to wear to show that they're important or show that they're godly or something like that. Worship leaders, band leaders, where they have to always be on the lot at limelight always at the front.

I did a a tour, once, with a worship band. And the worship band would come come on and, they would sing their songs, and they love the spotlight, and then I would come on to preach, and they would be out the back, drinking, and laughing, and never under the word of god. They wouldn't listen to the word of god, and yet we'd just seen how holy they were. But they wanted the spotlight. And when you said that to them, are you not interested in hearing the word of god?

They were angry and didn't like it. Once I was taking I think some of you were there. An ordination at the USC church in in Bookham. And, it was what is what is his name? David David howe was, being ordained there, and I was the preacher and I was just the preacher, and I didn't understand any of their traditions, and I sat in the, I was invited to sit in the little room, before the service started for prayer.

And then a whole load of these sort of clergy people came in, all dressed up. And I'm I'm just sort of like this, and, sitting in the corner, and there was an argument amongst them about who was going to go last, and who was gonna go first out of the little door into this little chapel, not much bigger than this place? Who cared? What they did? And there was an argument going on.

And after it was getting heated, so I I just said, okay, look, I'll go last. To which everybody went silent and looked at me. And I didn't realize that to go last meant that you were the most important person. So when I heard that, I was gonna go first then. No.

You couldn't go first because the Bible goes first. Anyway, a whole load of nonsense about status and not service, beware when status is more important than service. The person Jesus loves is the person that quietly every week behind the scenes where there's no posts, no praise, no videos putting out chairs or just serving the coffee or tea or whatever. That's the 1 Jesus exalts. Thirdly, Hippocrits shut the door to god.

Look at verses 13 to 15, woe to you, teachers of the law, and pharisees, you hypocrites, you shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people's faces. You yourselves do not enter nor will you let those enter who are trying to woe to you teachers of the law and pharisees, you hypocrites. You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when you've succeeded, you make them twice as much a charter of hell as you are. It's straight speaking, isn't it? HIPocrits, they take away from god's truth and stop others hearing god's truth.

This is where the woes start. You got the 2 woes here. There's 7 woes in all remember. These religious leaders are not just lost. They're causing other people to loss, to to be lost.

They make converts but not converts to god or Christ, but to their system. To their way of doing things, and they make those converts twice as much a child as hell as they are. Wow. When we focus on rules, Instead of grace, we do the same. We make Christianity be a sort of club for the righteous instead of sinners saved by grace.

They've locked the door to the kingdom of god and thrown away the key. Searching souls that have come to them because they thought that they were spiritual people have had the door of god slammed in their face. Instead of the attractiveness of the Bible, there's only burdensome legalism or pointless liberalism, because you stop people hearing the Bible in 2 ways. You add to it or 3 ways, really, you add to it. Yeah.

And therefore people don't hear the word of god or you take away from it and therefore people don't hear the word of god or you distract about other things make other things so important. They don't hear the word of God. Instead of life changing encounter with the prophetic word, there's only conformity to the club. Instead of saving knowledge of the gospel of the kingdom, There's only this disillusioning dead end religious play acting. They're zealous, but to make their own disciples.

And in doing that, they're like bouncers on the door of grace. They stop people listening. Now, I think the point here, and this is worth getting, these people are zealous for you. You know, they they they're very zealous for you. They're so zealous that travel all over the place.

They're zealous. They travel over land and sea to win you, but not to Christ. To win you to themselves so they get another notch on their convert list. Now where do we see this today? Well, get it in the mormons, don't you?

I mean, you've gotta give it to them. They have 2 years, don't they? They have to give up. It's gonna be a Mormon and you have to go on a missionary. You know, that all of Mormons do that.

If you're a Jehovah's Witness, you gotta give it to them. They gotta do 10 hours a a month. Knocking on doors or they don't do that so much now or standing at at, stations and talking to people. 10 hours a month. You know, they're they're they're giving up a lot, aren't they?

Yeah. They're more zealous, aren't they often than Christians for souls? So they they seem very zealous, but they're leading people away from Christ. When I first became a Christian, I was in a meeting just down the road here, just at the end of the road in the big sort of dance hall me, room down there. I came up to a meeting there.

I was like, just a I was just to Christian. And a bloke had come I think he'd come I I can't remember what country come from, but he traveled a long way. And he spoke, not on Christ. He spoke on the gift of tongues, and we had a whole evening about tongues and how you must have tongues. And if you want to open the door to god, you need to speak in tongues.

I was a young Christian, and I wanted the door to god open. So I wanted to speak in tongues. And so he tried to get us all to speak in tongues, but it didn't work out. It didn't nothing happened to me. And so I was thinking I'm really thick, and and and god doesn't want to.

And he was saying if you really know god, you're speaking tongue, and he came and sat with me on the floor, just down the road here. And he said, now, what's your name? I said, Pete? And he said, I just breathe. I said, well, I am.

Now take a deep breath in, and then out. And I was like, whoa. And the tongues will come. The spirit of god will come upon you. And if he if he doesn't, then you're not saved.

The door of god isn't open for you. This was the impression of his giving. And then let your lips go. Nothing happened. I went home devastated.

I'm not a Christian. I'm not right with God. So much so that I started to invent it in my bed. Oh, because that's what it always sounds like. Oh, Shadrachne, and and I started to do that for a week and then thought this is This is crap.

This is just made up. It's not real. See, he over emphasized what he thought was a gift for everyone. He over emphasized that, and he thought he was a holy man. And he was shutting the door to god.

Be where? Be where? He didn't lead me to Christ. Fourthly, Hippocrits justify sin by religious loopholes. Look at verses 16 to 22.

I'm not gonna go into all of the things here, but you'll see it. 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 is bound by that 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 the altar, is bound by that oath. You blind men, which is greater the gift.

Or the altar that makes the gift sacred. Therefore, anyone who swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it, and anyone who swears by the temple swears by it and by the 1 who dwells in it. And anyone who swears by heaven swears by god's throne and by the 1 who sits on it. You see what they're doing. You don't have to go into all the detail, but you see what they're doing.

It's it's religious play acting. It's It's get out clauses. Isn't it? It's just get out clauses. They promise 1 thing, but they don't wanna fulfill the promise so they say that didn't mean anything.

Yeah? It's it's what I don't know whether people do it today, but in the playground, when I was a kid, if you wanted to lie, you're allowed to lie, get away with it. If you cross your fingers behind your backs, I mean, who wasn't? What's that about? Cross your fingers.

Yeah. I swear to you or do this. It's just it's just childish. These are religious elite. Saying 1 thing, I'm gonna do it, and no, I'm not gonna do it because I didn't swear by this or I didn't swear by that.

I did swear by that, but that doesn't mean anything. It's lying, and their blind guides, and blind guides are dangerous because blind guides guide the followers into the pit. And that's what he's saying. Now where do you see this today? Well, it happens when we sort of say, well, it technically wasn't a sin, or everybody does it anyway, or I didn't really mean it.

You know, it's amazing. It's getting out of responsibilities and commitments. How often do you do that? If you go back to the beginning of Matthews's possible, get your yes, yes, and your nobody, no. Speak honestly.

You know? That's what he's saying. And sins like gossip. They're not really big sins, aren't they? At least I'm not a murderer, as I stab you behind your back.

Or little lies or being rude to strangers or writing things on social media. Yeah. Well, I didn't really mean it. Well, why do you write it then? We adjust to sin instead of fleeing from it.

Get out clauses, playing lawyers with god. That's a dangerous game. I'm trying to give you illustrations of this. When I was in Tasmania, we had an elders meeting. Now they were they this church ran by 2 code books, the presbyterians, they love laws.

And if you could read the code book, you're a madman. But you know, they knew all the codes and we had quite some strong discussions with the elders and it was how are we going forward with that there there was a sort of mini revival and there were loads converted and it was how we were going forward. And we had an extra elders meeting on a Sunday evening after the evening service. And all the elders suddenly changed. They were on side.

It was phenomenal. I was just jumping with joy. And, me and the other minister, we're saying this is amazing. We're we're we're going ahead. They've all changed.

Then we had the, official elders meeting on the Monday. They were completely different. They denied everything they said on the Sunday. And I said, what's going on here? I said, no, that's not a real elders meeting.

Clause 1 0 3.984 says that when you have an extra elders meeting, it's not counted as an elders meeting. So you can say anything you like in that meeting, it doesn't matter because it doesn't count. This is the 1 that counts. So you can lie on the sabbath that you thought was a sabbath, can you? Oh, no.

It wasn't a lie. It didn't mean anything. It wasn't a real meeting. Do you see how people get around it by laws and rules? And it's extraordinary.

Watch out. You don't justify your sin by religious loopholes. Fifthly. Hippocrats major on the minors. They major on the minors.

This is a big thing today. I'm afraid. Look at verse 23 to 24. Woe to you teachers of the law and pharisees, you hypocrites. You give a tenth of your spices, mint, dill, come on.

But you have neglected the more important matters of the law, justice, mercy faithfulness. Well, I mean, to mint myself on you. Well, I mean, to justice, And I'm into faithfulness. Oh, no. I'm into coming.

Yeah. I'm more interested in deal than faithfulness. Who is deal anyway? But we had a deal once, didn't we? Anyway, but you have, you you have neglected the more important matters of law, justice, mercy, and faithfulness.

You should have practiced the latter without rejecting the former. You blind guides. And listen to this. You strain out a nap but swallow a camel. What a picture?

What a picture. You concentrate on the outward rather than the inward, and you concentrate on the small missing the whacking big things. You're missing love. You're worried about mint. How many leaves of mint?

Oh, 1 tenth. That's 1 leaf for me. 1 leaf. 10. Oh, no.

9. 1 for, 1 for god. Oh, come in. It's a bit there. Straining at gnats and swallowing a camel.

I mean, what an image? You've got these people, you know, with a a phenomenal fine strain pouring the water and see if there's a little gnat in there. Oh, no. No. I can't drink the gnat.

Oh, there's a camel. Are you idiots? New fools major on the minors. Yeah. Keep them the minors if you want, but don't miss the majors.

Legalism is always doing that sort of stuff. It always thinks it's so holy because it gave a tenth of deal to god. Look at me. I'm I'm minuscurly following god, but you don't do it out of love or faithfulness. You've concentrated on these minors and lift out the majors.

Legalism is a substitute for god, you see. It always is. It's a way of enabling us to feel good about ourselves. Look at all the mint I've given away. Without we're by by avoiding god.

We look at what we've done and think god will be happy with that, but we don't let god into our own hearts. We divert the all seeing god away from our bankrupt insides. Where do you see this today? Well, You see all kinds of things. Don't you?

People are arguing over theological trivia and not talking to each other because of small things. And some really good theologians and godly people, they suddenly argue over tiny little thing very small thing. You know, what what what should we do at this funeral or that funeral? Should we go to this? Should we go to that?

And suddenly there's a massive division. Rather than how do we work this out with love and faithfulness and goodness? People just arguing uncompassionately and sometimes unjustly putting others down. Andy Brilliant who used to used to be uh-uh with us here. He's now up in Chesterfield.

When he was at theological college, he was there for the first day and a couple of these weird brothers, sidled up to him and and said they don't even say it sort of properly. They said, what's your position on CT. What's your position on Cet? Now, Cet is a pretty horrible term, and it's a description of hell. It talks about conscious, everlasting torment.

Conscious everlasting torment. Now, to sidle up to someone that you've never met before and do it in such a sort of ridiculous way. Well, you know, it's not like do you like jammy dodgers? You know, it's what's your position on conscious everlasting torment? To treat hell like that is a disgrace, and you obviously don't understand it.

Legalism is when rules matter and traditions matter more than people. And little I know I know hell isn't a little bit of theology, but, you know, you're not majoring on how to get Christ to people. 60 minutes. Sorry. Hippocrits, fake the outside while rotting on the inside.

Sort of seeing it before, but look at it verse 25, woe to you teachers of the law and the pharisees you hypocrites You clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside, they're full of greed and self indulgence, blind pharisees, first clean the inside of the cup and the dish, and then the out side also will be clean. Woe to you teachers of the law and pharisees, you hippocrits. You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside, but on the inside are full of bones of the dead and everything unclean. In the same way on the outside, you appear to people as righteous, but on the inside you're full of hypocrisy and wickedness. The images are very clear.

It's a clear thing that airbrushing their life They're photoshopping their life. They're polishing up their CVs. They've got AI versions of themselves out there and god's not fooled. They're whitewashed tombs. Tunes whitewashed looks very nice inside stinking dead bodies.

They're full of greed and self indulgence. That's why they're followers of god as it were. They are using god for their own greed. Now, we're in a nation that's obsessed with the outside, you know, what you drive, what you wear, what you how you smell, what's your kitchen like, what job you do, what clothes you wear, how you identify yourself. Hippocracies all about masking ourselves.

Where do you see this today. Well, followers of Jesus need to be reminded that religion can substitute and cover up our spiritual deadness. Is there life inside me is the question? Is there inner transformation? Is my heart being changed so that I desire Christ more than I desire this world and its pleasures and its admiration?

Is their love and affection for Christ at the root of my obedience? Is their love and affection for god's people wanting the best for them and not just to win an argument or look better? So I'm not just when someone says pray for me putting up an emoji of of hands and never praying. You know, do you do that? We need prayer for immediate hands go up like that, that little emoji.

You're never prayed in your life. You got no no concern about praying for them. Don't put that up unless you prayed. Pay first and then put it up, maybe. Be very careful of the outward.

Looks good. Oh, she's holy. She's got 5 little prayer hands. Yeah. Or posting up worship lyrics and coming and hating people at church.

Or showing up at church and never confessing sin. Well, it doesn't want performance. He wants transformation. Seventhly, let's move on. Hippocrats honor the truth without obeying it.

Verse 29 for 36. Woe to you teachers of the law and pharisees you hypocrites. You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous And you say if we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we would have, taken we would have not taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets. So we testify against you so you testify against yourselves. That you are descendants of those who murdered the prophets.

Go ahead then and complete what your ancestors have started. He knows that they're gonna kill him. You snakes, you brooder vipers, How will you escape being condemned to hell? C ET, I suppose. Therefore, I am sending you prophets and sages and teachers.

Some of them, you will kill and crucify. Others you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town. And so upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth from the blood of righteous able to the blood of Zechariah, son of Beresita Kaya whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. Truly I tell you, all this will come upon this generation. See outward honor of the truth outward honor of the prophets, but actually a rejection of them.

You know, honoring them, putting their words in beautifully bound books and nice gold trim around the edges, even reading them. Even reading them perhaps every every Sunday. Even the expressing, I just love the way Isaiah expresses himself, but he was sawn in 2. And Jesus is saying, you do that. You have this outward honor, you read them.

It's like lots of people, loads of people. Actually, most people love spurgeon today. They would not have loved him because they didn't love him in his day. Thousands loved him, but then he was rejected. And even his best friends turned against him.

And that's what killed him in the end. You know, because he was a radical preacher, and Jesus is saying that here's the a to zed of biblical martyrs and it really is an a to zed. It's able to Zechariah. They Abel was the first 1 and Zechariah was killed. It's a a to zed of martyrs.

We're always killing. We're always killing the prophets. We don't like the prophets. They speak to our hearts. They challenge us.

They tell us that we're white washed sepulchers. That's what that's what Zechariah did, isn't it? He was there at the temple as people were going to worship and read the prophets. And he was saying your White worship occurred, so they killed him. The king had him killed.

Yeah. That's what happens. Ab was just getting on with life and bringing the proper sacrifice and living for God and his brother hated it and killed him. That's what we do. That's what we do today.

We honor. We wear crosses and we wear Jesus shirts and we have things around our bracelets that say that we wanna do what Jesus does, but we don't wanna listen to his word. Tom and me were at the Christian Resources exhibition. Some years ago. I've told this story before, but it's just an amazing illustration.

And, it's hard to go around that exhibition without getting into trouble. And, we'd had enough trouble. And I said to Tom, let's just leave it out now. Let's just get out of this place. And a deliberately was genuinely trying to get out.

And there was a a lovely old lady, and said, would you would you would you would you would you like to take this picture of Jesus? And she had she literally had a pile this high of photocopy pictures of Jesus, and she was giving them out. And I was, oh, no. No. I I I I don't really want that.

Oh, no. No. Please take 1. And I said, no. Honestly, I don't know.

I don't want it. No. Please take 1. That's why I I don't even like it. I don't think Jesus was had blond haired blue eyes and was like that.

Oh, she said, I might have a darker 1 under here. And and and she tried tried to look for a darker 1. And in this, oh, no, no, no, no, no, and I went, but Tom, being the sort of person he was, stayed for the next round and started, quoting, Ohio passages to her, or or actually, really, it wasn't a Bible pack. It was just, it was just the parable. And she said, who said that?

And he said, Jesus said, I don't like it. I don't like it. And she said, well, that's what Jesus said. You're giving pictures of Jesus I don't like the Jesus you're talking about, but that's what he said. Go away you horrible young man, and he had to go away.

You can give pictures of Jesus out and hate him. Isn't that extraordinary? That's what they're doing. They're all saying they love Jesus. So, I think a few weeks ago, I was giving the illustration of Cambridge full of biblical references.

You can't walk through Cambridge without being reminded of the Bible everywhere. Adam and Eve Street, Jesus College, Mary Magdalen College or Mordellin or whatever they call it. You've got everywhere is Jesus Christ. Yeah. Eden Street.

It's amazing. We know all this, and we love the history, but we tame the dead. We don't wanna listen to them. So here's my eighth point, which has got 8 points. Look to the 1 who never wore a mask.

Because when you do this subject of hypocrisy, you say this to yourself. I said it to myself. And everybody that knew I was doing this talk said, well, we're all hypocrites, aren't we? Yeah. But I thought about that phrase.

It's an amazing phrase to cover up, isn't it? It's just like we're all hypocrites. It's like we're all sinners. Jesus spells out what Hippicrate is and it's ugly. And it's ugly.

And if I'm honest, it hits me and it slightly pulls the mask down and you see the ugly face underneath. It lifts the lid and the stink of sewage comes up. So what do I do? Look to the 1 who never wore a mask. Jesus.

Jesus didn't just teach this stuff. He totally lived an un hypocritical life. He didn't make burdens for others so that he looks good. He took our burdens. He took our burdens on the cross.

Jesus was not about personal status. Was he? He's the son of god that became the son of man, a servant, even under death. Jesus brought the word of god to people and opened the way to the father. He is the word.

He's the word become flesh. Jesus fulfilled the law to the smallest smallest amount, tiniest tiniest amount in order that we would be forgiven all of our failures. Jesus majored on the majors, not the minors. He went to people and brought them justice and forgiveness. Jesus didn't fool people and lead them astray at great cost.

He was the truth. Jesus fulfilled all the prophets and you can see how genuine he is right at the end. Look. Just look. Nearly done.

Verse 37. After he says all of this, this sermon This is his heart. His heart for saying this is not to condemn them. Do you see this? Do do you see this?

We don't just use the Bible to condemn people. This is his heart. After this sermon of all that I've just said, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you kill the prophets and stone those who sent you. How often I have longed to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings. And you were not willing.

Look, your house is left to you desolate. For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say blesses, is he who comes in the name of the lord. You come to the blessed 1. So what's the lessons today? Take off your masks.

Stop faking it. Ask God to help you take those masks off. Let's be real with Jesus. It's not a performance. We should be transformed more interested in transformation than performance.

And let's ask Jesus to forgive us and cleanse us and make us right with him through his precious blood. Father god help us strong stuff here, but we need to hear it because we need to know that we need you so much. And so we thank you for the lord Jesus Christ,