It is great to be here with all of you today.
We're so thankful for the presence of all that have made
an effort to be with us to worship God together in spirit.
And in truth, we have several of our number actually, quite a few
members of our congregation that are other places today.
They're up, north at the Memorial Day meeting or some are
out because they're ill. Perhaps others, traveling other
places. So I decided to deviate from the
series that I've started with you, and that is on the, I am
statements, the seven. I am statements.
That Jesus Jesus made as recorded in the Gospel of John.
We've already talked about Jesus saying, I am the bread of life.
I am the light of the world and I am the door next time.
Lord willing. We're going to talk on the
subject of when Jesus said I am the Good Shepherd.
So we'll deal with that next time.
What I wanted to do today though is I want to talk on some
passages that are found in the very last sermon that Jesus ever
preached. And it's found in Chapter 23 and
beginning there, in verse 23, Jesus says this woe to you
scribes and Pharisees Hypocrites for you, pay tithe of mint, and
anise, and cumin and have neglected, the weightier matters
of the law, Justice, and mercy, and Faith.
These, you want to have done without leaving the others
undone. Just a little bit of background
here, Jesus on the day of questioning, or the day of
Questions, perhaps, Scholars, tell us.
It could have very well been on Tuesday in the last week, in the
life of Jesus and Jesus is questioned by the Pharisees, by
the Sadducees. He's questioned by the
herodians, he's questioned by the scribes.
And the reason that they come to Jesus, to try to discredit him
is because if they can discredit Jesus in the eyes of the people,
then the people would be supportive of Jesus being
crucified and All they wanted to do.
But Jesus answers every one of their questions, and now it's
time for the Lord to preach and he preaches this sermon so long
ago. He begins by saying calling them
scribes and Pharisees and hypocrites.
Notice the first thing. He says, this is what he's going
to bring out. He said you pay tithe of mint
and anise and cumin. Now, what are those things?
You know, the word for I meant actually in the original.
It's translated from a Greek word.
That means sweet smelling. So we all know what meant smells
like these were kitchen spices. They were things that were added
to their food and so forth. And what he says is you give
tithe to MIT and it's, by the way is Dill.
It's a flavoring agent and human is also a flavoring agent to,
excuse me. And what he was saying is Saying
that these scribes and Pharisees and all of that they were paying
tithes to them. And what they would do is this
we're going to get to tithing in just a moment though because God
commanded a tithe and of the Old Testament, what they would do is
they took the command to tithe and they extended it to the idea
of even the kitchen spices, they would count out nine for me and
one for God, nine for me, and one for God.
And then cumin 9 for me. Me and one for God.
Now it's important that I make this point, I think it's really
not the point, whether they were giving a tithe of these kitchen
spices or not. What was Jesus was addressing
was their motive behind it? That was the point.
Let me notice with you to Old Testament passages in Leviticus
chapter 27 and verse 30. It says in all the tithe of the
land, whether of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the
tree. The Lord is the Lord's, another
passage to that's found its found in Deuteronomy 14 and 22.
You shall truly tithe all the increase of your grain that the
field produces year by year. All right God commanded that
they would give a tithe of the increase that was produced in
the field. Now let me ask you this.
If God did not mean and that's not the point.
But if he didn't mean about the kitchen spices is it wrong for
man to tithe or give from the kitchen spices?
Absolutely not. It is never wrong.
It is never wrong to give to God.
They would sort it out though, and they would be very well,
they would be very attentive to those even those kitchen spices.
One scholar said it this way, these men magnify the
insignificant and they minimized the essential.
All right, on the outside. Their expression, seems
honorable. They gave a tenth of what could
be counted. And I got to thinking about this
this morning. You know, I quit my father, a
lot. Some of you knew my father, my
father used to always say What would you do if you didn't get
credit? What would you do if no one was
there to give you the credit? It's kind of like this.
He would tell me about working out and stuff.
He said if you work out the eyes of your coaches just because
they're watching what good is that it's really not who you are
and they said the greatest things you will ever do our
behind the scenes when you don't get credit a Texas billionaire,
once said in the testimony of his life and what drove him in
his life, he said my father was a Salesman.
He was the greatest. Salesman in all the world to
him. And he said, you know what, my
father taught me and I've tried to live by that principle.
This Texas, billionaire said my father said, if you're willing
to give somebody else the credit you can conquer the world If you
just don't have to have the credit, these fastidious
Pharisees, they wanted the credit, all the things that can
be seen. How do I know that?
That's exactly what Jesus meant. When he talked about the
Pharisees it says they like to be seen in the synagogue.
They like long prayers that they're seen of men and Jesus
said they have their reward. In other words whatever pat on
the back that they get from the world, looking at them and
viewing them and giving them credit is all there.
To get there, getting nothing from the Father, the idea is the
motive behind it. Notice what he says here.
You're careful to give tithe of mint and anise, and cumin.
But what did you do wrong? You've neglected, the weightier
matters of the law and those weightier matters, are Justice,
mercy and Faith. You know, the term weightier is
the rabbinical term and it was passed down by rabbinic
tradition and what the Jews would do, is they based on
rabbinic tradition. They would consider certain
aspects of the the law more weightier than other matters of
the law. And what's interesting is Jesus,
is going to tell them what the weightier matters really are.
He uses their phrase. He uses their rabbinic term and
then he makes his point the Jews.
For example, believe that certain aspects of the Old Law
were more weightier than the others.
Like, for example circumcision, and by the way, that's why, when
the Judy izing teachers entered into the church, after the
church was established, they wanted to By aspect bind aspects
of the Old Law on them. What based upon their way to
your matters like circumcision? Here's another one.
Remember what the hated Jesus for.
How the he handled the Sabbath, you know why rabbinic tradition
taught that keeping the Sabbath was a weightier matter.
What Jesus is saying, is this your careful to give tithes of,
he's kitchen spices, but you're neglecting the weightier matters
of the law and Jesus says what they are.
They're Justice Mercy. And Faith.
You know, this is really powerful because Jesus doesn't
just grab this out of nowhere and they would have understood
this to, it's a parallel. What Jesus says, here about
Justice, mercy, and faith is a parallel to what's found in the
Book of Micah in the Old Testament, notice this Mike is 6
and verse 8 he has shown you o man what is good and what does
the Lord require of you? But To do justly, love, mercy,
and walk humbly with your God. You know, they were guilty of
being against all of that they were unjust.
They were unmerciful. They were unkind, they were
unforgiving, they were Unholy. They did not walk humbly with
their God, they walked by The Works of the law by their own
efforts. They walk by sight and had no
faith. They neglected truly the
weightier matters of the law. Now it's important that we
remember this too, sometimes, please get this sometimes, gue
people say, in interpreting, this passage is Jesus, doesn't
care at all about the details. He only cares about Justice,
mercy, and faith. And that's not what the Lord
said. Let's notice what the Lord
actually did say. These Justice mercy and Faith.
You ought to have done without leaving the others undone.
In other words, keep the Commandments, keep the details,
do they matter. Yes, they matter at the same
time. Keep Justice, mercy and Faith,
but weightier matters. In other words, don't be without
any of them. You know, I got to say sometimes
people. Sometimes people can go through
their life thinking that they've figured out what it means to
look like the kind of person that they should be by checking
the boxes off and going down the list.
And okay, I'm doing that, I'm doing that, I'm doing that.
And yet, they're awful to other people, unkind to other people.
It matters, folks. We need to understand that being
a member of the church is also being a Christian.
They ought to go hand-in-hand. Absolutely, when you spend time
on what it means to be a Christian and to be a member of
the church. It should be the exact same
thing. How we treat one another It's
not just a list, it's how God wants us to be as a Christian in
our life in the church should be the very same thing.
Sometimes people look at these passes and say you see we don't
have to obey anything. We just have to have those other
matters and that's not what Jesus said.
All right? So they should have kept the
weightier matters. They should have given attention
to the proper tithe and all of that.
And now, Jesus is going to give examples of what they're like.
blind guides who strain out a gnat and swallow the camel, you
know, the word strain It comes from a word that means to
filter. Now, the Old King James says it
like this, it says, who strain at a gnat but the new King James
really, I think is a better translation of it blind guides,
who strain out a gnat, because that's exactly what they did.
Annette by the way, was the smallest of all unclean things.
And what they would do is for example, they would would make
sure that they didn't eat the NAT Leviticus chapter 11 verse
42 says whatever crawls on its belly.
Whatever goes on all fours. And whatever has many feet among
all creeping things that creep on the earth.
These you shall not eat for. They are an Abomination.
Another Passage Leviticus 11 and verse 4.
Nevertheless, you shall not eat among those that chew the cud.
Nor those who have cloven hoofs the camel because it chews the
cud, but does not have cloven. Hooves is unclean to you.
This is what they would actually do, by the way, Jesus, is
telling them, you know, what you're doing.
You see the net You're avoiding the net.
But you're swallowing the camel. You're avoiding the smallest of
unclean days. But you're swallowing the
biggest. You're missing the point by
neglecting the weightier matters.
Actually, I read some stuff that was actually found in the talmud
and some other things have historians and Scholars have
written about what they would actually do and that's what they
would have understood. When Jesus says you strain out
the neck, what they would do is this When they would make wine,
or they would make a beverage, what they would do is they'd be
very careful to keep it pure and keep it clean.
In fact, what they would do is they would take a strainer
cloth, just perhaps a gnat flew in there.
They didn't know and all of a sudden it's in there, they don't
want to be guilty of eating one of those gnats.
So they would take a strainer cloth and they would place it
over the top. They would pour the beverage
through the strainer cloth and if there wasn't that, that was
in there, then that wouldn't get into the Drinking vessel, and
they could partake of it. They could drink it and not be
guilty of having something that was on claim.
That was straining out the net one.
Scholar said this. Do I thought this was rather
interesting, he said some fastidious Pharisees drank their
wine through clenched teeth in order to filter out any
impurities and then pick the nap out of their teeth.
Nah. I tried to picture what that
would have looked like some guy with this teacher like this
drinking a beverage. Making sure he didn't eat the
net, okay? You don't want to eat the net,
right? And then it gets into a flick it
out the teeth later. Okay.
That's what Jesus was referring to.
That's how fast it is from the standpoint of every detail.
They were but they missed the whole point.
In other words, you're afraid to eat the 10th meet mint, leave
but you're allowing in your life hypocrisy, dishonesty, cruelty,
and greed. That's what he says that.
When you neglect, the weightier matters of the law, you know
what you're doing, you're straining out the net but you're
swallowing a camel number two, the second example, describing
them, it's found in verse 25, woe to you scribes and Pharisees
Hypocrites, for you cleanse, the outside of the cup and dish, but
inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence.
Interesting, the word dish in the Greek is a very interesting
word, it's not just any ordinary.
Nari dish. It actually is translated as
fancy dish and just a little bit of background about that.
If there was some kind of a function, or some kind of a
party, or some engagement, and so forth, and people came
together, if there were all there eating and so forth.
When they would bring out this particular dish, everybody knew
that when you brought the fancy dish out that contained therein
were the Delicacies the special stuff.
Do you see what he's saying? He's saying on the outside,
you're appearing to be one way. You're appearing to be something
that you're not. And by the way, I know that the
word hypocrite is the most overused word in the English
language, when people refer to people that are religious, it
is, it's overused, it's abused and all of that.
But a hypocrite is what he's talking about now.
Scribes Pharisees Hypocrites. Why they're pretending to be
something. Thing that they're really not on
the outside there. Looking like this fancy dish is
going to bring the Delicacies, but on the inside now, it's
filthy. You're spending all of your time
washing, the outside of the cup, and the dish.
But the inside is full of extortion and excess one
scholar, said it like this. You have a Ministry that looks
Pious on the outside, but the whole thing is based on taking
advantage of other people, you use people, you make merchandise
out of people. And, you know, the real source
of impurity was there. Heart.
I know we spent a lot of time about the heartbeat, you know
why? Because the heart, one way or
the other is exactly the reason and the source of our Behavior,
that's the reason. Sometimes you can correct a
symptom but this it doesn't go away because you haven't
corrected the problem. You know, it's kind of like this
if you have pain I'll just use myself years ago.
I had a headache for 10 years. I had concussion problems and so
forth and I went to all kinds of doctors.
You know what they did. They gave me these medicines to
help the pain. Didn't go away came right back
you know why didn't fix the problem?
Then a doctor, put me on some medication that I take as a
preventative manner. Our preventive measure, guess
what? No more headaches.
Fix the problem, fix the source, and not just the symptom.
So when we talk about people not putting the Lord first in their
life that is a symptom. That's a symptom, we talked
about and I'm not going to get on this subject but we talked
about attendance things don't get better because it's only a
symptom. It's a symptom of a greater
problem. Mmm, and that's the heart.
What Jesus was saying is your real great about polishing, the
outside, the problem is your rotten heart.
The problem is your heart on the inside.
If you fix the inside, the outside will be fixed.
Also, and, you know, I think this is really true, you know,
God looks at the heart. God cares about the heart.
He really does Jesus would say that too.
When he walked on the face of this Earth and his personal
Ministry said, you heard that it had been said and he would cook
something from the old law. But then Jesus say, but I say
unto you the motive means everything, the heart is the
source. Let me say something pretty
sobering to you. But I will tell you this.
We could be here today. And we could be going through
the motions of worship. We can make sure that every time
those doors are open. We are right here.
We are worshipping God, right? We're here.
Got it. Check me off.
It's possible to go through the motions, but your heart is far
from God. God knows, the heart and God
cares about the heart. And if your heart is out there
somewhere, it's only a matter of time before you will follow it.
I think people do exactly what they want to do.
I really do and many times, they do what they want to do and then
figure out ways after the fact that justify their decisions,
but you will go where your heart goes.
And you know what, I didn't say that Jesus did where your
treasure is. That's where your heart will be.
Also God cares about the heart, look at an Old Testament.
The passage now as found in first Samuel, 16 and 7 but the
Lord said to Samuel, do not look at this appearance or at his
physical stature, because I have refused him for the.
Lord does not see as a man sees, for a man.
Looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.
All right, then he says this. By the way, he begins with
scribes Pharisees Hypocrites over and over again.
I got to tell you this might be a very unpopular sermon today.
I'm so glad the Lord preached it.
He does it again in verse 26. Blind Pharisees Hypocrites.
Then he says what you should do instead of doing what you've
been doing and that is washing the outside not caring about the
inside first clinch, the inside of the cup and dish that the
outside of them may be clean. Also, I don't mean to
oversimplify and I hope I'm not insulting your intelligence but
we've all done dishes. We've all been washed dishes,
you can hold a cup out of the water and you could take a
sponge and clean the outside and it looks real good.
It could be filthy inside, it really can What Jesus says is,
that's what you're doing, what you should do, is wash the
inside. And notice when you wash the
inside, the outside takes care of itself.
You take the same cup. You submerge it.
In a sink full of soapy water. You clean the inside.
Aren't you? Also cleaning the outside?
That is submerged. In that soapy water.
The idea is fix the inside. The outside.
Will take care of itself. Then here's another description.
Another description of them in verse 27, woe to you scribes and
Pharisees Hypocrites. For you are like whitewashed
tombs which indeed appear, beautiful, beautiful outwardly,
but inside are full of dead, men's bones and all on
cleanliness. You're guilty of deception and
you contaminate people. This is actually a stinging
accusation folks. It's one of the most picturesque
Jesus gives new assistant about them.
He says then you're like whitewashed tombs.
What is that? It's a little background about
that. First of all, the idea is you
are continue are contaminating. Other people spiritually.
What are these Whited sepulchres or whitewashed tombs?
What they would do is Is they would take at the time, or after
the time of the rains and what they would do is, when the rainy
season was over, they would take lime powder.
They would mix it with water and they would wipe wash the tombs
and there was a reason for that. By the way, I remember, when I
came into the painting trade, 31 years ago, I remember that
whitewash cabinets were the big fat of the day and that was such
a fad. It was red oak cabinets with
white, Platinum stain. And we called that whitewash and
there, it actually would look kind of pink and then you'd like
written and lacquer with yellow and you just imagine what they
look like in 10 years, but that was a fad and that's what people
wanted whitewashed. Here was different.
They took lime powder. They mixed it with water and it
was kind of like paint and they would actually do this.
In fact, the mishnah said, on the 15th of Adar which is the
month of March, in Israel at that time, they would whitewash
these tombs and they did it for a number of reasons.
They would whitewash those caves and Limestone tombs where the
more prominent people were buried and they did that in
preparation of the Passover, people would be coming during
the time of the Passover. They'd be coming in the
Jerusalem and one historian said, you could look up to the
hillside in Jerusalem, and you can see Whited sepulchres or
whitewashed tombs dotting, the landscape of all of that.
Do you know why? Two reasons?
One, it looked great. On the outside and to so that
somebody coming into Jerusalem during the time of the Passover
would not inadvertently touch one of those Graves and become
unclean at the time of the Passover in Jerusalem.
That's why they did that. They would take that lime powder
and they would put it on those tombs.
What else would they do? I read that they actually took
and they would sometimes just cover the the whole tomb and
other times they would draw pictures of bones.
Telling people don't touch, and this is why in numbers 19 and
16. Whoever in the open field,
touches one who is slain by a sword, or who has died or a bone
of a man, or a grave shall be unclean.
Seven days. That was the reason.
Now, that's just history. But can you imagine being called
that? Can you imagine the Lord calling
you a whitewashed tomb? On the outside you appear,
beautiful clean. But on the inside, you're not
Inside, you are nothing, but Dead, Man's Bones, full of dead,
men's bones, and uncleanness. The graves appear beautiful on
the outside and I think to the idea is, he's telling them and
application here. He's telling them an application
that you're contaminating people because they see you as one
thing on the outside but you're not.
And I got to tell you. It's kind of like a false
teacher. It really is.
Have you ever stopped to consider the collateral damage
when somebody teaches error? I gotta clarify something to you
not talking about somebody that just misunderstands a passage
and teaches it and maybe they just missed the passage or they
didn't understand it thoroughly or fully.
When I talk about a false teacher, I'm talking about this,
I'm talking about somebody that rejects what the truth of the
Bible says and accepts an erroneous position, that's
that's inaccurate and teaches the erroneous position which is
inaccurate and does that to draw a party unto himself.
Called a false teacher, the Bible in the New Testament calls
that a heretic. Somebody, that is not genuine.
Somebody that's a false teacher is just like this contaminating,
those that come across. And what that's doing is this,
its leading them with collateral damage away from the truth.
When somebody decides to do that, it always has damaged.
Jesus says, though, the inside you are full of dead men's
bones, in Matthew chapter, 23 and verse 28.
The application here, even so you also outwardly appear
righteous unto men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and
lawlessness. Now then there's one more, so so
far Jesus says you're in. Neglecting the weightier matters
of the law. That's what he said, and he
describes them so far, three ways.
Number one, you strain out a gnat, but just well, the
Campbell number two, you wash the outside of the cup, but
inside, it's filthy and number three.
You're like, whitewashed tombs on the outside.
But inside, you're just what you are in, that is dead men's
bones, but there was something else, they were guilty of and
that was for attention pretending to be so much better
than everybody else. Have you ever stopped to
consider? Or how much God hates Pride. you
know, the Bible talks about Pride, pride goes before,
destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall.
That's what the Bible says. When Satan in the third of the
hosts of Heaven were cast out of heaven.
So long ago, it was because of sinful Pride, thinking yourself
to be better than somebody else. And Jesus is going to deal with
this very thing. God always hates Pride.
This is what he says in Matthew. 23, verses 29 and 30 woe to you
scribes and Pharisees Hypocrites because you build the tombs of
the prophets and Adorn The Monuments of the righteous.
And it right there, this was the practice of rebuilding tombs in
remembrance of past Heroes they actually did that.
One of the ones that had died and passed here, they would
rebuild the tomb. They make a monument to them,
Jesus deals with that very thing.
He says, you do this, by the way, you build the tombs of the
prophets and Adorn The Monuments of the righteous.
That's not the problem yet. Very common for them to do that.
In fact, Robertson said this. The tombs in the Kidron Valley.
That are now named in honor of Zechariah Absalom and
Jehoshaphat were all built at the time.
That Jesus said this, Jesus was referring to the practice that
they did. But remember I said, They had
Pride. They thought they were better
than the others and this is what they said.
If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have
been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.
You see the hypocrisy? Let's build the monument.
For those Heroes of days. Gone by those prophets of old
and then if we were there, we would have done what they did.
We're much better than that, we're much holier than that.
We would have done that. That's not what we would have
done. We wouldn't have killed the
prophets as our fathers had done.
We would have even thought of doing something like that.
We're holier than that, we're better than that.
This is the ugly pretence of spiritual Pride, build monuments
to honor men in the past and then claim to be better.
Now, the Lord is going to fire a shot.
As we wrap up our thoughts, he's going to fire a shot.
I'm gonna tell you something. The Lord didn't fire shots over
the bow. This is a direct hit.
You want to talk about being direct?
Sometimes people don't want to be direct or sometimes people
resent. When somebody's direct we get
will direct your. This is what Jesus said
therefore you are witnesses against your selves that you are
the sons of those who murdered the prophets.
What's he saying is he's not beating around the bush.
What he's saying is like father like son you've just said, hey
look at these great prophets but we wouldn't have done what
they've done. No.
Like father like son, you're the same way.
Why is that? They're about to murder the
greatest Prophet the world ever knew that was Jesus Christ.
He's telling them. Not only are you like them?
They killed the prophets, but you're worse.
You're absolutely worse like father.
Like son. Here's another Direct Hit.
Here's a command. And if you're not careful, you
can fly right by right past this Jesus the word of God here is in
the tenths of a command. He says, fill up the word fill
up means do it fill up then the measure of your father's guilt.
In other words that's what you came to do.
Jesus is commanding them to get on with it to push his
crucifixion. Don't you see that?
Jesus was not the victim? Jesus was in control.
Jesus commands them to go ahead and do it.
You know why? Because Jesus knew it was God's
will that he would be sacrificed for the sins of the world and it
would be on a Roman cross. He would have to be lifted up
Old Testament, prophecies pointing toward that very event.
It had to happen. When Jesus in The Garden of
Gethsemane. Was praying to his father.
He said, father if it is possible, let this cup pass from
me. You've heard me say this before
the cup there is more than just the cup of suffering.
I think what was worse, was the very fact that the sins of the
world would be placed on perfect Jesus.
He would have to do it by himself and God's face would be
turned away. He would be by himself.
And that was the only time our Lord was ever alone on gothis,
brow on the cross dying for the sins of the world.
He despised the shame, he did, all of that, his Hebrews chapter
12 tells us, these were horrible things that he would have to
endure. That was God's will.
And I want you to know something if you're here today, take that
personally. Jesus died for your sins.
Personally, and for mine personally.
Jesus is telling them get it over with get on with it.
Jesus also said my life, no one takes.
No man takes my life. He said my life, I freely give
that's why on the cross. When Jesus was about to die, he
said, it's finished. I've done it, it's accomplished.
He bowed his head and gave up The Ghost, and that is that he
said into thy hands. I commend my spirit.
Jesus gave his life, but he knew they had to do their part.
So he says in a command Just do it.
Our Lord was totally in control, okay?
In closing what we learn, what do we learn from this?
In application. Number one, God always looks at
the heart, sometimes we look at the outside, that's all we look
at is the appearance, but God always looks at the heart.
Number two, if we fix the inside, we automatically fix the
outside. Let's fix the source and not the
symptom system takes care of itself.
Number three, don't appear beautiful on the outside but
inwardly be rotten like dead men's bones.
Be authentic, be an authentic Christian be the same on the
inside as you are. The outside and number 4.
Oh yes. Let's keep all.
The commands of God, the details do matter.
Keep all the commands of God, but don't neglect.
The weightier matters, which are Justice, mercy and Faith.
Keep it all. We thank you for listening to
our podcast, put on by the Church of Christ at 22:15 plans.
Road in Bakersfield, if you would like any additional
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correspondence, course by mail. Please email us at info at her
Church of Christ Bakersfield.com.
Our service times are on Sundays at 10:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. and
Wednesdays at 7:30 p.m. Please make plans to join us.
We would love for you to be our honored guest.