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[Music] you you you you you welcome to everyone it's good to be back in the house of our god you can turn to the prophet micah for our call to worship micah chapter four mike is one of the twelve minor prophets hosea joel amos obadiah jonah micah and micah four is very similar in nature and content to isaiah 2 both men prophesied at the same time so i'll read micah 4 beginning in verse 1 to verse 5. now it shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the lord's house shall be established on the top of the mountains and shall be exalted above the hills and people shall flow to it many nations shall come and say come and let us go up to the mountain of the lord to the house of the god of jacob he will teach us his ways and we shall walk in his paths for out of zion the law shall go forth and the word of the lord from jerusalem he shall judge between many peoples and rebuke strong nations afar off they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks nation shall not lift up sword against nation neither shall they learn war anymore but everyone shall sit under his vine and under his fig tree and no one shall make them afraid for the mouth of the lord of hosts is spoken for all people walk each in the name of his god but we will walk in the name of the lord our god forever and ever amen well please turn with me to psalm 121 psalm 121 a as in alpha and we'll stand as we sing together so oh is [Music] me amen let us pray our gracious father we thank you for this opportunity to gather again on this lord's day we come to you and acknowledge your majesty and your glory and your power we acknowledge as well your grace and your mercy and your loving kindness that you have so so wonderfully bestowed upon us in and through your son the lord jesus christ we rejoice that we have redemption through his blood we rejoice in that righteousness that you have given to us we rejoice in the presence and the power of the holy spirit in our lives and we pray god in heaven that you would receive our worship our praise and adoration tonight that as we come to the father through the son and the power of the holy spirit our minds would be drawn out our hearts would be let out to worship you in spirit and in truth we confess our sin and our transgression now we know lord god that your eye is too pure to approve of any any evil and we know god that our conduct has not been worthy of the gospel as it ought to be so we confess our transgression of your holy law our lack of conformity unto it we know we sin both by commission and omission but we know the power of the blood of jesus christ your son cleanses us from all sin so god wash us and purify us now and for those father who are still dead in their trespasses and sins we pray that you would awaken them by the presence of your spirit we pray father that you would show them their sin and their need for redemption through jesus christ our lord and may they see him as altogether lovely and chief among ten thousand and may they see him as sufficient to save to the uttermost and god may it be the case that sinners would believe on him tonight we ask for your blessing to be upon this local church we ask that you would grant grace to those among us that are not not well physically we ask that you look with favor upon them that though they have these challenges and these difficulties and these afflictions may they realize that what the apostle says is true for them that these momentary light afflictions give way to the exceeding weight of glory and may the thought of christ and may the reality of heaven to come be a great encouragement to each and every one of their hearts as well god we all come to you with spiritual trials and with great difficulties in terms of temptation and remaining sin and we know that you are the great physician so we pray that you would speak a word eat to each of our hearts that you would encourage us and strengthen us and fit us for battle in the coming week help us god not to forget to put on that whole armor of god realizing that we don't wrestle against flesh and blood but we wrestle against principalities and powers and forces of darkness and wickedness so god help us by conforming us more unto the image of your beloved son we pray for your blessing upon the saints in surrey thanking you for the work of christ there it's a great encouragement to not only hear but as well to see the additions to that local church we thank you as well for the faithfulness of our brother as he continues to labor week in and week out in proclaiming your truth there continue to bless mike and strengthen him and help him to be faithful in that congregation we pray for ryan tonight as he continues the ministry in vernon we ask god in heaven that you would bless that word for the encouragement and the building up of the saints there and god would you be pleased to do a work in that part of the world and grant us wisdom as as a church involved to be uh faithful to holy scripture in terms of men and god we just pray that ryan would be faithful in terms of his own study and growth and grace and god we pray that you would continue to equip him if this is your will we also thank you for the good report from dryden this afternoon we thank you that there were 27 people gathered together and we pray god in heaven that we'd hear good reports in the future we'd see the establishment of a faithful church there we pray god for that to take place all over this land for certainly that is the greatest need today is for faithful proclamation of the truth of the gospel of jesus christ our lord the fact is is that man is deceitful or his heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked and he needs to hear concerning the lamb of god who takes away the sin of the world so lord god raise up more faithful ministers of the gospel raise up and establish more faithful churches that will preach the gospel and god do this for your glory sake in this day and age we pray for awakening from on high we pray for revival among your people we pray that you would help us to continue to think your thoughts after you and lord god help us to be men and women of prayer and men and women committed to the word of the living and true god we know that christ has promised to build his church and the gates of haiti shall not prevail against it but in light of that it should cause us to be more active and more energetic and more zealous for this blessed cause and lord bless our brothers and our sisters who suffer in many ways in various countries in this world those who are being persecuted for their faith in our lord jesus christ remember the saints in this land those who have been targeted perhaps for for having worshiped services or preaching the gospel we just asked god in heaven that you would undertake on behalf of your saints and we are greatly encouraged by the reality that christ is on his throne and that all things are under his sovereign control and may this be that which does promote in us a stability and a security and that that resolve to persevere by your grace and for your glory thank you for this church thank you for the brothers and sisters here thank you for this opportunity to gather together and lord bless us now we pray through jesus christ our lord amen well you can turn with me again in your hymn books to number 227 227 will stand as we sing together you you you well you can turn with me in your bibles to exodus chapter 37 for our scripture reading this evening exodus 37 remember we're in the construction phase of the tabernacle god gives detailed instructions to moses on the construction of the tabernacle and we have those instructions applied in the actual building of that structure that dwelling place where god would meet with his people and we'll read beginning in chapter 37 at verse 1. then bates allele made the ark of acacia wood two and a half cubits was its length a cubit and a half its width and a cubit and a half its height he overlaid it with pure gold inside and outside and made a molding of gold all around it and he cast for it four rings of gold to be set in its four corners two rings on one side and two rings on the other side of it he made poles of acacia wood and overlaid them with gold and he put the poles into the rings at the sides of the ark to bear the ark he also made the mercy seat of pure gold two and a half cubits was its length and a cubit and a half its width he made two cherubim of beaten gold he made them of one piece at the two ends of the mercy seat one cherub at one end on this side and the other cherub at the other end on that side he made the cherubim at the two ends of one piece with the mercy seat the cherubim spread out their wings above and covered the mercy seat with their wings they faced one another the faces of the cherubim were toward the mercy seat he made the table of acacia wood two cubits was its length a cubit its width and a cubit and a half its height and he overlaid it with pure gold and made a molding of gold all around it also he made a frame of a hand breadth all around it and made a molding of gold for the frame all around it and he cast for it four rings of gold and put the rings on the four corners that were in that were at its four legs the rings were close to the frame as holders for the poles to bear the table and he made the poles of acacia wood to bear the table and overlaid them with gold he made of pure gold the utensils which were on the table its dishes its cups its bowls and its pitchers for pouring he also made the lamp stand of pure gold of hammered work he made the lamp stand its shaft its branches its bowls its ornamental knobs and its flowers were of the same piece and six branches came out of its sides three branches of the lamp stand out of one side and three branches of the lampstand out of the other side these were the these were three bowls made like almond blossoms on one branch with an ornamental knob and a flower and three bowls made like almond blossoms on the other branch with an ornamental knob and a flower and so for the six branches coming out of the lampstand and on the lampstand itself were four bowls made like almond blossoms each with its ornamental knob and flower there was a knob under the first two branches of the same a knob under the second two branches of the same and a knob under the third two branches of the same according to the six branches extending from it their knobs and their branches were of one piece all of it was one hammered piece of pure gold and he made it seven lamps it's wick trimmers and it's trays of of pure gold of a talent of pure gold he made it with all its utensils he made the incense altar of acacia wood its length was a cubit and its width a cubit it was square and two cubits was its height uh its horns were of one piece with it and he overlaid it with pure gold its top its sides all around and its horns he also made for it a molding of gold all around it he made two rings of gold for it under its molding by its two corners on both sides as holders for the poles with which to bear it and he made the poles of acacia wood and overlaid them with gold he also made the holy anointing oil and the pure incense of sweet spices according to the work of the perfumer amen well let us pray our father we thank you for the word of god we thank you for these detailed regulations concerning your worship and this attention to this detail obeyed by these builders by moses by the children of israel we know lord god that man is not free to approach you in any way he sees fit but he must come as you command he must come in the manner and by the means that you've ordained and lord god we thank you that in this new covenant setting we are in the church of the lord jesus christ we have access to the father through the priesthood of jesus christ our lord and we come in the power of the holy spirit so that god is all in all in this place what a blessing and what a strengthening encouragement this is for each of our weary souls and we pray that we would worship you a right that we would glorify and honor you we thank you for the good report today from the honduras we thank you for john and margarita and we pray for them that you would continue to watch over them and that church there and we praise you that the gospel is going forth in that part of the world and we pray that many would come to know the savior as a result and we ask in the name of the lord jesus christ amen we can turn with me again in your hymn books to psalm 51 psalm 51 c as in charlie will sing stanzas 1 to 6. please stand [Music] oh watch me is is is is watch me is is me please oh you can turn in your bibles to matthew's gospel matthew chapter 23 god willing in september we'll start a book in our evening services the last several months have been a bit of a challenge so i thought this summer we just take a poke at a few different passages as we look to god's word so tonight i want to focus primarily on verses 23 and 24 in matthew 23 but i'll read beginning in verse 1. then jesus spoke to the multitudes and to his disciples saying the scribes and the pharisees sit in moses seat therefore whatever they tell you to observe that observe and do but do not do according to their works for they say and do not do for they bind heavy burdens hard to bear and lay them on men's shoulders but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers but all their works they do to be seen by men they make their phylacteries brought and enlarge the borders of their garments they love the best sea places at feasts the best seats in the synagogues greetings in the marketplaces and to be called by men rabbi rabbi but you do not be called rabbi for one is your teacher the christ and you are all brethren do not call anyone on earth your father for one is your father he who is in heaven and do not be called teachers for one is your teacher the christ but he who is greatest among you shall be your servant and whoever exalts himself will be humbled and he who humbles himself will be exalted but woe to you scribes and pharisees hypocrites for you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men for you neither go in yourselves nor do you allow those who are entering to go in woe to you scribes and pharisees hypocrites for you devour widows houses and for pretense make long prayers therefore you will receive greater condemnation woe to you scribes and pharisees hypocrites for you travel land and sea to win one proselyte and when he is one you make him twice as much as son of hell as yourselves woe to you blind guides who say whoever swears by the temple that is nothing but whoever swears by the goal of the temple he is obliged to perform it fools and blind for which is greater the gold or the temple which that sanctifies the goal and whoever swears by the altar it is nothing but whoever swears by the gift that is on it he is obliged to perform it fools and blind for which is greater the gift of the altar that sanctifies the gift therefore he who swears by the altar swears by it and by all things on it he who swears by the temple swears by it and by him who dwells in it and he who swears by heaven swears by the throne of god and by him who sits on it 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 ought to have done without leaving the others undone blind guides who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel woe to you scribes and pharisees hypocrites for you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish but inside they're full of extortion and self-indulgence blind pharisee first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish that the outside of them may be clean also woe to you scribes and pharisees hypocrites for your all like white walk or you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly but inside are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness woe to you scribes and pharisees hypocrites because you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous and say if we had lived in the days of our fathers we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets therefore you are witnesses against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets fill up then the measure of your father's guilt serpents brood of vipers how can you escape the condemnation of hell therefore indeed i send you prophets wise men and scribes some of them you will kill and crucify and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth from the blood of righteous abel to the blood of zechariah son of barackiah whom you murdered between the temple and the altar assuredly i say to you all these things will come upon this generation o jerusalem jerusalem the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her how often i wanted to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings but you are not willing see your house is left to you desolate for i say to you you shall see me no more till you say blessed is he who comes in the name of the lord amen well let us pray our father we thank you for your word we pray now for the ministry of the spirit to help us as we look at these condemnations and the one in particular we ask god in heaven that we would uh take heed to the various things that jesus condemns and passages like these we know these were pharisees we know these were scribes we know that they were men who denied the the messiahship of jesus christ of nazareth but nevertheless these are tendencies that plagued the religious and we pray that you would guard our hearts grant us the holy spirit and help us to exercise that fruit of the spirit which is self-control so that we don't engage in the kinds of wickedness his wickedness that is denounced here and we ask this in the name and for the glory of our lord jesus christ amen well as we look at this particular section as i said we're going to look at verses 23 and 24 but it's always good to understand a passage in its context so jesus comes into jerusalem in matthew 21. we call that the triumphal entry that is the passion week and in the midst of that he engages in a series of confrontations with the religious leaders that starts in chapter 21 and it continues all the way through chapter 22. there's a series of disputes there's a series of back and forth exchanges where they're trying to show that jesus is a fake that jesus is a sham and jesus alternatively is showing that they are the fakes they are the shams they are the ones that are wrong well here in chapter 23 he moves from this sort of back and forth confrontation with the religious leaders to first announce or rather warn his disciples and the multitudes concerning the conduct of the religious leadership in israel at that time we see for instance how they say or he says do whatever they tell you to observe verse 3 that observant do but do not do according to their works for they say and do not do so insofar as they are accurately teaching the truth you need to obey that but don't follow their conduct because they are wretched and then beginning in verse 13 he engages in a series of eight woes there is a textual variant if you're using the esv or the nas or the niv you have seven woes so the new king james and the king james tradition has eight woes i think it balances out with the eight beatitudes in matthew chapter five and basically a woe is the opposite of a beatitude or a blessing in matthew chapter five jesus says blessed are the me for they shall inherit the earth blessed is the poor in spirit for they shall see god bless it is a wonderful pronouncement of goodness upon the people of god well woe is just the opposite so when jesus comes to deal with these religious leaders he pronounces a series of woe it is an interjection of pain distress and warning again it's just the opposite of blessing now i should tell you that some commentators stumble at matthew 23 they don't like gentle jesus meek and mild actually raising his voice and condemning people calling them vipers calling them hypocrites calling them uh things that uh things that we perhaps in our generation wouldn't say to those enemies of the gospel one man says it is the most unchristian chapter in matthew and another said it is the unloveliest chapter in the gospel now that is a complete misreading of this particular sac check look for instance at how jesus ends this prior to the olivet discourse where he's going to prophesy concerning the destruction of the temple in chapter 24 this section ends in verses 37 to 39 with lamentation he is the weeping prophet at that particular time jesus however doesn't shrink back from pronouncing woes and condemning those who are enemies of the cross of christ while you're thinking along this line i want to remind you of another weeping prophet his name was jeremiah and he definitely expressed grief over the nation of israel when they sinned and rejected yahweh but nevertheless the prophet jeremiah was able to pray thus give heat to me o lord and listen to the voice of those who contend with me shall evil be repaid for good for they have dug a pit for my life remember that i stood before you to speak good for them to turn away your wrath from them therefore deliver up their children to the famine and pour out their blood by the force of the sword let their wives become widows and bereaved of their children let their men be put to death their young men be slain by the sword in battle let a cry be heard from their houses when you bring a troop suddenly upon them for they have dug a pit to take me and hidden snares from my feet yet lord you know all their counsel which is against me to slay me provide no atonement for their iniquity nor blot out their sin from your sight but let them be overthrown before you deal thus with them in the time of your anger so the weeping prophet is not averse to praying and imprecatory prayer concerning the enemies of christ the imprecatory psalms of david are not unique to david but rather we see the prophet as well expressing that the christian life is complex at times on the one hand we weep with those or we rather mourn over those who persecute us and we pray to god to show mercy to that but obviously from the written revelation of god most high there are those seasons where the church must give place to wrath and that is done by praying the imprecatory psalms of david so back to matthew 23 this idea that it's uncharacteristic or it's unchristian for jesus to engage in this seems to me to be a sacrifice of justice and of righteousness and of an emphasis a righteous emphasis on god's law jesus upgrades the enemies of the gospel and uh and as i say we're not supposed to go out and be obnoxious and do that to everybody we meet but there is a time in our prayers where we give vent or place rather to the wrath of god by praying the psalms of david now let's get to this particular passage i just kind of had to get that off my chest so first of all look at the particular woes you have them there in verses 13 14 15 16 23 25 27 and 28 up to this point whoa number one they closed the doors of the kingdom verse 13. woe number two they exploit widows and engage in pretentious praying praying verse 14 woe number three they are missionaries for hell verse 15. woe number four they pervert oaths verses 16 to 22 and here woe number five they neglect weighty matters look at what jesus says woe to you scribes and pharisees hypocrites it is to engage in hypocrisy to do what these scribes and pharisees did with reference to god's law in the first place let us look at the condemnation pronounced by the lord note the emphasis of the scribes and the pharisees you pay tithe of mint and anise and cumin now with reference to this they had biblical warrant obviously god commanded tithing god commanded the people of god to bring cheerfully out of their their property out of the things that god had entrusted to them to bring it back to god not that god needs our stuff not that god needs our money not that god needs our finances but it is an expression of that third aspect in terms of guilt grace gratitude we express gratitude by the things we return to god in terms of sacrifice and so they had obviously biblical commandment to engage in this type of activity you pay tithe of mint and anise and cumin and with reference to tithing seeds you see that even in leviticus 27 30. and all the tithe of the land whether of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the tree is the lord's it is holy to the lord now these particular persons thought that materials that had been tithed were therefore pure and thus met the requirements for them to be able to eat they oftentimes even boasted in doing such thing remember that parable that jesus teaches in luke's gospel at luke chapter 18 two men went to the temple to pray one a pharisee and the other a tax collector well remember the pharisees stood and prayed thus with himself and essentially he says god thank you that i'm such a wonderful guy thank you that i'm so upright thank you that i'm so magnificent thank you that i am just about as perfect as a man can be in fact one of the things that he says i fast twice a week i give tithes of all that i possess and of course the publican couldn't even look up into heaven but he beat his breast and said god be merciful to me the sinner calvin speaks concerning these seeds so as to make a display of extraordinary zeal or piety or for piety at the least possible expense so they tithe mint anise and cumin but notice that they neglect the weightier matters of the law jesus teaches that there are weightier matters of the law the church would do well to listen and to pay attention to this not everything is as important as other things now i realize everything in the bible is absolutely crucial and you need to know it and understand it but with reference to how high the south wall surrounding the tabernacle was versus justification by faith alone i'm going to take more time trying to explain to you justification by faith alone than how high the south wall surrounding the tabernacle was now that doesn't mean we don't have to know those dimensions we certainly should and must but not necessarily unto our salvation notice they neglected the weightier matters of the law turn back for just a moment to chapter 22. you see this self-same distinction made by our lord jesus christ when he was questioned by a lawyer concerning the first commandment verse 34 and chapter 22 but when the pharisees heard that he had silenced the sadducees they gathered together then one of them a lawyer asked him a question testing him and saying teacher which is the great commandment in the law notice what jesus doesn't answer well they're all great commandments well of course they're all great commandments of course god's law is perfect in its entirety of course it has the brilliance and the luster and reflects the perfections of our majestic and glorious god but with reference to this particular question jesus makes a distinction he highlights the first and foremost and then he says the second is like it now with reference to these two the entirety of the decalogue hangs upon them our duty toward god is commandments one to four and our duty toward man are commandments five to ten and so these are summary statements loving the lord your god and loving your neighbor as yourself but there is a distinction between weightier matters of the law going back to matthew 23 he points out their emphasis in the first part of verse 23 for you pay tithe of mint and anas and cumin and have neglected the weightier matters of the law and now he shows us or rather he indicates for us what those particular weightier matters of the law are justice and mercy and faith justice and mercy and faith those are big ones if you're weighing out little tiny seeds to bring to the house of god by way of tithing but you've neglected justice you've neglected mercy and you've neglected faith then you might be at a low point in your life as i mentioned this morning if you steal a sacrifice to present to god almighty you've hit rock bottom if you're weighing out seeds in order to tithe and you neglect justice mercy and faith you've hit rock bottom as well now with reference to justice mercy and faith this particular triad or these three words are found elsewhere in the biblical revelation and i would suggest that in the first place justice and mercy refer to the second table of the law in other words justice and mercy have to do with commandments five to ten you've weighed out seeds but you don't care about other people in fact look at the context the textual variant is found in verse 14. again if you're using a modern version outside the king james tradition you won't have verse 14. it's probably in a margin woe to you scribes and pharisees hypocrites for you devour widows houses and for a pretense make long prayers therefore you will receive greater condemnation what does that mean devour widows houses did they come under the cover of night and go in and raid these widows cupboards no they devoured widows houses by exploiting them and taking advantage of them when a woman's husband died she would seek assistance and she would seek a seek assistance with her ecclesiastical community and these sharks would seize upon this difficulty in her life and exploit her and so while they're tithing the mint and the anus and the co-men they are nevertheless exploiting widows in their hardship and under duress and they are building their own uh bank accounts in the process as well look at verse 25 woe to you scribes and pharisees hypocrites for you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish but inside they are full of what extortion and self-indulgence these were not innocent chaps when jesus calls them snakes when jesus calls them hypocrites when jesus condemns them it is absolutely positively on point he's not making this up this isn't rhetorical flourish this isn't just trying to make a point but he is actually underscoring the problem with the religious leadership in israel at the time of messiah as well notice their neglect of mercy broader look back at chapter 9 chapter 9 we see this lack of mercy when jesus receives sinners and eats with them matthew 9 verse 9 as jesus passed on from there he saw a man named matthew sitting at the tax office and he said to him follow me so he arose and followed him if you're not a believer here tonight if you're not a christian here tonight listen to jesus and do what he says that's the best thing i can tell you tonight listen to jesus and do what he says notice he says to matthew sitting in his tax office follow me matthew doesn't say oh no i'm going to wait for another 10 or 15 years jesus says follow me and matthew gets up and he follows him believe on the lord jesus christ and you shall be saved trust me that will make everything better in your life i guarantee you doesn't mean there'll be a boat in your driveway doesn't mean there'll be a new car in your garage doesn't mean your bank account will grow but it will mean that you have peace with god through our lord jesus christ and that is far more excellent than anything that this world has to offer so he says to matthew follow me so he arose and followed him now it happened as jesus sat at the table in the house that behold many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples see what matthew does matthew says i'm going to throw a feast because jesus saved me and i want to praise and glorify and worship him additionally i want my fellow tax collectors to hear this jesus i want them to be saved also i want them to hear this good news but notice the party you know the the the the party killers the the pharisees these guys could ruin anything notice in verse 11 and when the pharisees saw it they said to his disciples why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners when jesus heard that he said to them those who are well have no need of a physician but those who are sick in other words to whom else should i go doctors don't go healing the healthy but rather the doctors go after the sick where does the savior go does he go after the righteous no he goes after the sinner and then notice what he says in verse 13 but go and learn what this means i desire mercy and not sacrifice hosea 6 6. and what an affront for jesus to tell the religious leaders go and learn what this means well they knew hosea 6 6. when it says in the passage in matthew 5 uh chapter 23 when it talks about their phylacteries a phylactery was a little box they wore on their on their arm or on their forehead and they filled it with scripture verses so they knew hosea 6 6. so for jesus to say go and learn what this means they knew it cognitively they knew it at least to some degree in terms of words on a page but they didn't know it experientially they didn't understand that god does desire mercy and then he summarizes by saying for i did not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance so going back to matthew 23 i think when he says you've neglected the weightier matters of the law justice and mercy this is a second table comparison but he also says faith and herein i think he means a first table our duty to god to have no other gods before him to not make idols to not blaspheme his name to not desecrate or break his particular day they rejected the messiah himself so they were obviously lacking in faith they neglected justice and mercy relative to the people around them but they neglected faith relative to the god who had created them and who had called them in short what we have is that they were imbalanced in their obedience to the law that's their problem brethren i think it's patently obvious on the one hand they tithe the mint and the anus and the comet on the other hand they neglect the weightier matters of the law justice mercy and faith as rt france points out there is no suggestion that the scribes and pharisees were opposed in principle to justice in other words they didn't walk around saying we hate justice we hate mercy we hate faith just like the modern day legalists and just like the modern day man who majors on the minor says well i i hate justice mercy and faith he goes on to say the problem was that they did not devote the same care to working out the practical implications of these basic principles as they did to the minutia of tithing herbs you get that right tithing herbs is definitely called for because the old testament demands it but not to the neglect of justice mercy and faith it's sort of like those fellows in that parable of the good samaritan it's the religious men that pass on the other side it's sort of like when the pharisees and the scribes and the religious leaders deliver up jesus to pilate at his praetorium they don't want to enter into the praetorium because they don't want to be defiled for the passover you're actually violating the sixth commandment you're delivering up the only innocent man that has ever lived to be summarily executed by the civil government and you're concerned about ceremonial uncleanness in terms of the passover later on today you see this is not unique to them but it also obtains in religious people today we'll get to that in a bit later spurgeon says their hearts were not right in the sight of god therefore their minds were unbalanced because their hearts were not right before god therefore their minds were unbalanced now as i said there's background in micah chapter 6 verse 8 one of those passages in the old testament that a lot of christians know he has shown you o man what is good and what does the lord require of you but to do justly to love mercy love mercy and to walk humbly with your god you've got the second table references to love uh to do justly and love mercy and then the first table reference to walk humbly with your god incidentally micah chapter 6 is very similar to what we find going on in this particular passage micah 6 begins with the prophet calling upon the created order to serve as witnesses to the covenantal lawsuit that he sues with reference to israel he indicts them for the same sort of heartlessness he indicts them to the same sort of callousness he indicts them for the same sort of emptiness in their religious activity that the lord jesus christ is doing in this particular instance but it doesn't stop at micah chapter six again this is something prevalent in the old testament this was the purpose for abraham genesis 18 19 for i have known him in order that he may command his children and his household after him that they keep the way of the lord that's a first table concern to do righteousness and justice similar not exactly the same but certainly similar this was to be the pattern for israel deuteronomy 10 12-13 and now israel what does the lord your god require of you but to fear the lord your god to walk in all his ways and to love him to serve the lord your god to walk it uh to walk walk in all his ways and to love him with all your heart and all your soul and to keep the commandments of the lord and his statutes which i command you today for your good so with abraham with israel and then prophetic announcement not just micah chapter 6 verse 8 but as well hosea chapter 12 verse 6. so you by the help of your god return observe mercy and justice and wait on your god continually i'm pointing this out to show you that when you come to matthew 23 jesus ain't doing anything new jesus sounds exactly like the old covenant prophets dealing with the same sort of people they dealt with and he is using the same language he is using the same literary convention he is using the same sort of framework to indict them for their lawlessness and wretchedness there's a prophetic announcement in zechariah 7 8-10 then the word of the lord came to zechariah saying thus says the lord of hosts execute true justice show mercy and compassion everyone to his brother do not oppress the widow or the fatherless the alien or the poor let none of you plan evil in his heart against his brother and with micah 6 8 when it says he has shown you o man what is good never forget that context they had said with reference to the lord's indictment through the prophet micah something along these lines what does god want does he want thousands of burnt offerings shall we offer up our firstborn children shall we engage like the heathen and sacrifice our sons and so the prophet says you know the answer you know what's required of you you know what's always been in play don't give us that sort of lip service that you're going to try to appease the angry god in your own efforts and with your own methodology so what christ does in matthew 23 23 and 24 is absolutely consistent with the old testament prophets before him now notice secondly the qualification given by the lord so that's the pronouncement of condemnation woe to you scribes and pharisees hypocrites for you paid tithe of mint and and anise and and cumin and have neglected the way to your matters of the law justice and mercy and faith now note the qualification given by the lord these you ought to have done without leaving the others undone when he says these you ought to have gone he means the justice and the mercy and the faith these you ought to have done you ought to have really regarded those widows who came to you for assistance you ought to really regard even a samaritan or even a man that is broken and beaten and battered on the road that even a samaritan tends to you ought to have that kind of love for god and love for man that your conduct is consistent with that profession these you ought to have done but then notice what he goes on to say without leaving the others undone in other words he's not saying you don't need to tithe the mint and the anus and the government he's not saying that the tithing laws were wrong he's not saying that god was out of line back in the day telling you to actually give of your of your increase back to back to yahweh no he's not saying that these you ought to have done without leaving the other things undone in other words in the language of rt france what he objects to is this unbalanced piety which sets great store by these relatively insignificant rules but misses the things that really matter this is obvious isn't it i know it's hot i know it's late but give me a nod that you're following because again this is a condemnation of pharisaic practice in the first century too bad this pharisaic practice didn't die in the first century we have remnants of it in our own religious prac own religious practice in our own day now before we end and make some matters or some points of application look at the illustration provided by the lord in verse 24. so he gives the condemnation pronounces that he gives a qualification these you ought to have done without leaving the others undone and then he gives this illustration blind guides who strain out a net and swallow a camel now the straining refers to keeping gnats out of the wine obviously people who drink wine don't want to ingest gnats while they do so it's a very good rule it's a very good practice it's a very good thing as well the gnat was unclean according to leviticus 11 41 so the practice was right just like tithing you should do that it's a good thing now the camel was unclean leviticus 11 4 so that practice was wrong like neglecting justice mercy and faith look at what he says blind guides who strain out a gnat again good gnats are unclean but swallow a camel bad camels are unclean too you shouldn't want to ingest that you should try to strain out the camel along with the gnat so that you don't ingest either of which that are unclean so it works in terms of illustration with reference to his point davies and allison say the lesser things however useful or needful must never eclipse the greater calvin says it is evident that these hypocrites amuse themselves with such distinctions for while they pass by justice mercy and faith and even tear in pieces the whole law they are excessively rigid and severe in matters that are of no great importance and while in this way they pretend to kiss the feet of god they proudly spit in his face again we're not relegating we're not suggesting we're not saying that somehow tithing was bad and that law was bad and the command was bad again you need to see it in terms of comparative you need to see it in terms of comparative analysis if you spend energy and you spend time on a friday night in preparation for sabbath worship and you're weighing out mint anise and cumin and on the way to sabbath worship you walk by some poor guy that has been taken you know taken out by thugs you cross right around him and then you actually go to the temple or to the tabernacle and you present those herbs and you say i've done my religious duty as far as jesus is concerned you're a hypocrite you are a viper there is big problems in your heart if you tithe mint anderson cumin but neglect justice mercy and faith you're not a good religious person you've got big challenges and big issues before we get into the practical application look again at verse 24. i want to draw out a point that i think the church needs to hear blind guides who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel the illustration was hyperbolic and even humorous it was hyperbolic and even humorous in aramaic nat and camel sound similar go back to matthew 7 to see something hyperbolic and even humorous matthew 7 verses 3 to 5. and why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye but do not consider the plank in your own eye or how can you say to your brother let me remove the speck from your eye and look a plank is in your own eye hypocrite first remove the plank from your own eye and then you will see clearly to remove the spec from your brother's eye had you been in attendance and you cracked a smile i don't think jesus would have mean mugged you i don't think he would have looked at you and said how dare you actually crack a smile any more than i think you would have been looked at with a mean mug by elijah when he challenges the prophets prophets of baal and actually suggests that their gods on the toilet you would have been slapping your knee laughing because it was a hyperbolic way to show the futility of idolatry turn over to matthew 19. hyperbole and even humor is employed here to make a particular point now i point this out no pun intended because there are certain pastors and preachers and divines among us that suggest that to ever use humor in the pulpit is a horrific abuse of the pulpit i have yet to find the passage in my bible where it says preach the word in as boring a manner as you can possibly dull it out preach the word in such a way that people can't wait for the sweet release of sleep preach it in such a way that they'd rather read a phone book than ever hear preaching of the scriptures brethren pastors men committed to preaching need to preach expositionally sound sermons that are exegetically good but they should labor to make it interesting you don't cook food so that it bores people out of their their minds you try to make it such that it's pleasant to the palate but there seems to be this class of men that see as their aim to put us all to sleep brethren if the bible puts us to sleep we're not understanding it the way we ought notice in matthew 19 matthew chapter 19 at verse 24 and again i say to you it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle then for a rich man to enter the kingdom of god again i point this out simply as an aside blind guides that two words is quite funny too blind guide has anybody ever been to the grand canyon have you ever gone down into the basin of the canyon have you chosen the guy who's got the dark sunglasses and the stick to be your guide no you would never pick that guy you would never choose that guy you want a guy who's got 20 20 vision you want a guy who's got manual dexterity you want a guy who's able to navigate the borough down that canyon so that you don't die you see the very language of blind guide suggests as much in terms of hyper hyperbola william williams was a contemporary and a companion of c.h spurgeon he said what a bubbling fountain of humor mr spurgeon had i'm not suggesting jokes for jokes say i'm not talking about pastors entering pulpits and say hey did you hear the one about the three guys that walked into the bar but william williams says what a bubbling fountain of humor mr spurgeon had i laughed more i very believe when in his company than during all the rest of my life besides he had the most fascinating gift of laughter and he had also the greatest ability for making all who heard him laugh with him when someone blamed him for saying humorous things in his sermons he said he would not blame me if he only knew how many of them i keep back and then spurgeon himself made this observation sometimes when i have said humorous thing in preaching i have not asked you to excu excuse me for if god has given me humor i mean to use it in his cause many a man has been caught and his ear arrested and his attention won by a quaint remark if anyone can prove it is a wickedness and not a natural faculty i will abandon it but it is a faculty of nature and it ought to be consecrated and used for the cause of christ again i'm not suggesting jesus was the joke teller jesus engaged in levity jesus engaged in jocularity but jesus engaged in hyperbole that at times was humorous in order to make points to show the folly and the futility of a man who would spend his friday night weighing out seeds all the while neglecting justice mercy and faith well in conclusion i would suggest in the first place there is this tendency among us to major on the minors that's what's in view here majoring on the minors i would suggest first the minors are not unimportant and they must be attended to right my argument isn't don't get don't engage in the miners don't major on the miners is different than get rid of the miners you you get that right just because i say i like oranges doesn't mean i hate apples the miners are miners and should not be obsessed over to the neglect of the majors in other words remember tithing mint anise and cumin in terms of the the larger gamut uh uh uh uh framework rather of christian ethics are are not as important as helping somebody that's been beaten up and is bleeding on the street third the majors and the minors must not be neglected but both should be practiced by the believer in other words we shouldn't just major on the minors and we shouldn't minor on the majors but we should appreciate both and seek by god's grace and the empowerment of the holy spirit to do what he calls us to matthew henry says sincere obedience is universal and he that from a right principle obeys uh any of god's precepts will have respect to them all we're not supposed to pick in jews as well the miners may be obsessed over now listen to this the miners may be obsessed over in order to mask the neglect of the majors in other words fastidious attention to the detail of tithing mint and anise and cumin somehow assuages the conscience of the man who's able to exploit and devour widows households the same might be true in our situation we might obsess about what we perceive to be the most important thing but in the grand scheme of things they might be minors and all the while we're neglecting justice mercy and faith winston's girlfriend in 1984 made this observation if you keep the small rules you can break the big rules and sometimes christians professing christians might engage in that i know of a man many many years ago that was in a church in southern california and he was outspokenly against any christian in any of the churches taking their families to disneyland disneyland was horrific disneyland was wretched disneyland was the worst it was the epitome of worldliness now you might be saying amen absolutely positively right my point is simply this the guy was a serial adulterer now whether you fall out with him in terms of disneyland with reference to his sort of masking what was going on in his life disneyland was the big problem brethren beware that the miners being obsessed over are not done so in order to mask the neglect of the majors and then the flip side to majoring on the minors is minoring on the majors the church today needs to recover biblical trinitarianism the church today needs to return to nicaea the church today needs to understand what the bible teaches concerning who god is because a lot of professing christians out there have thrown up for themselves an idol someone that's all together just like them we heard about that in the reading from aw pink this morning god most high condemns israel in psalm 50 you thought i was all together just like you god made us in his image and ever since we've been trying to make him in our image the church today needs to major on some majors the trinity christology justification by faith are some suggestions that ought not to be uh thrown away by the side while we you know major on things like tithing mint and anise and kuma and then finally there is a warning for the church again the woes are directed against the scribes and pharisees but also serve as a warning spurgeon said this there are great or there are nat strainers among us still who apparently have no difficulty in swallowing a camel hump and all that is something we need to take to heart the first place we miss the point of the bible in order to support our idiosyncrasies this happens in cults we miss the point of the bible to support our idiosyncrasies we're not supposed to do that we're supposed to understand the storyline the plot the major turns with reference to the biblical story secondly we boast of our supposed acts of piety but don't treat people with justice and mercy great good these things you ought without leaving the others undone certainly go ahead and tithe but don't walk by some bleeding person on the street third we are obsessed with our shibboleths but oftentimes can't define justification by faith alone now if i were to ask you to raise your hand if you knew what a shibboleth was i'm sure there wouldn't be a lot of them shibboleth has come to be in preacher ease preacher language something that is unique to us it's an idiosyncrasy it comes from judges 12 especially verses five to six teaching time in verses five to six the gileadites sees the forwards of the jordan before the ephraimites arrive this is under the judgeship of jephthah and when any ephraimite who escaped said let me cross over the men of gilead would say to him are you an ephraimite if he said no then they would say to him then say shibboleth it's kind of like a fountain of springs and he would say sybileth for he could not pronounce it right then they would take him and kill him at the fords of the jordan there fell at that time 42 000 ephraimites now the point isn't we're going to kill people that can't say shibboleth the point is is that we have our shibboleths we have our preferences we have our idiosyncrasies but again we can't give a basic definition to what is justification that is an abuse relative to this particular passage we at times are like the hypocrites in chapter 23. notice preachers often say you because that's how preaching ought to be but when it's so obvious like this i got to throw myself in there with you i'm not prone i'm not immune i'm not the holy right reverend sir that never engages in this sort of stuff we like the hypocrites in chapter 23 are imbalanced in our approach to the christian life we're imbalanced we're supposed to be balanced we're supposed to understand the weightier matters of the law and the not as weightier matters of the law not so that we can dispense with them but so that we can give equal allegiance to those things that god has called us to as well there are those among us who wait on the lord to provide direction in our lives while neglecting the various passages which make his will for us abundantly clear it says i'm just waiting on the lord what do you mean that that i mean there should be a waiting on the lord i'm not running ahead of that providence is a reality but brethren the bible is pretty clear on what god's will is for us check romans 12 1-2 check first thessalonians 4 3 this is the will of god for you your sanctification that you abstain from sexual immorality you don't have to wait on the lord he's told you be sexually pure be faithful as well we think that if the church gets this one thing right then everything will be great that's just not realistic again as matthew henry says obedience is to be universal see we need to make sure that all of god's commands are given attention by all of god's people and then as well there is a tendency again i've observed it my own heart and i've observed it in 24 years of pastoral ministry to criticize others if they don't treat minor things in the exact same way that we do we want to write them off we want to distance ourselves we want to make sure that we don't get defiled by them now again i'm speaking more broadly i'm speaking more generally because a command a command like tithing is important it is essential it is crucial but in terms of some of the idiosyncrasies and involved in our religion we're not supposed to separate from people that we have different preferences with we're supposed to separate from heretics we're supposed to separate from trinity deniers we're supposed to separate from christ deniers we're supposed to separate from those who deny justification by faith alone not by not from those who who see things a little bit differently that are not the weightier matters of the law may god most high help us may god most high keep us and may god most high help us to navigate in this generation on the one hand making sure we do all that god calls us to do by the power of his spirit and on the other hand doing it in such a way as to give credence to the reality that there are in fact weightier matters of the law and we're not supposed to be imbalanced we're not supposed to be pharisaical we're not supposed to be super condemnatory of everybody and everyone who doesn't dot every eye and cross every t just like we do brethren that is simply obnoxious and we cannot maintain churchmanship with such a disposition may the lord most high free us by a positive understanding of his gospel of our salvation and may he grant us the spirit so that we may endeavor to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace well let us pray father we thank you for your word we thank you for the lord's direct teaching with reference to these scribes and these pharisees we as well lord god pray that you would help us to to see the tendencies perhaps in our own hearts to major on minors to minor on majors to try and mask behavior by fastidiousness to another piece of behavior grant us help and strength grant us that grace to appreciate the gospel of our salvation and fill each of us with your spirit and guide and direct us for your glory and for your honor and for the good of your church here your churches throughout this nation and throughout this world and we pray this in jesus name amen we'll close with a brief time of meditation you