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Please turn with me in your Bibles 
to Matthew 23. Matthew 23, I'll begin reading 
in verse 13. 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 won, you make him twice as 
much a son of hell as yourselves. Woe to you, blind guides, who 
say, whoever swears by the temple, it is nothing, but whoever swears 
by the gold of the temple, he is obliged to perform it. Fools 
and blind, for which is greater, the gold or the temple that sanctifies 
the gold? And whoever swears by the altar, 
it is nothing, Whoever swears by the gift that is on it, he 
is obliged to perform it. Fools and blind, for which is 
greater? The gift or 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 are 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 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 Berechiah, 
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 were 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. Let us pray. Our Father 
in heaven, we thank you for this Sabbath day. We thank you for 
the rest that you give us in Christ and for the rest you give 
us on this Lord's day. And we pray that all that we 
do today would redound to the praise and glory and honor of 
our great God. We ask that you would forgive 
us for our sins as we come now to Scripture. We pray that you 
would cleanse us in the blood of the Lamb. We pray for the 
ministry of the Holy Spirit, that we would understand our 
great prophet, the Lord Jesus Christ, as he speaks in this 
passage. As well, God, may we see its applicability here, but 
may we see its applicability in our own hearts and in our 
own lives. Grant us help and grace. Our 
Father, we do pray for your mercy to be had in the city of Orlando. We pray, Father, that you would 
comfort families who lost loved ones in this terrorist attack. 
We pray, God in heaven, that men in high places would be given 
wisdom on how best to rule and govern in such situations. We 
know, as Pastor Porter pointed out, you are sovereign in all 
things. You are the God of heaven and earth, and you are working 
out your purposes in this world. And we would pray that in your 
wrath you would remember mercy, that you would be pleased to 
do a good work through the preaching of the gospel throughout the 
earth today. May your word run swiftly, and may it be glorified, 
and may your kingdom of grace come. And may more and more people 
come to know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. And we pray 
that in His most blessed name. Amen. Well, we continue in Jesus' 
pronouncement of woes against the scribes and the Pharisees 
in the first century. We have 8. We're using the New 
King James or the King James Tradition that sees 8. If you 
have a different Bible version, it's probably in your margin, 
or it may be bracketed, specifically verse 14. Well, we have seen 
in the first place that these scribes and Pharisees closed 
the doors of the kingdom, in verse 13. We saw, secondly, they 
exploit widows and engage in pretentious prayers, verse 14. We saw that they are indeed missionaries 
for hell, verse 15. In the fourth place, they pervert 
oaths, verses 16 to 22. And last week we saw how they 
neglect weightier matters of the faith in verses 23 and 24. The next two are similar, but 
there are some subtle distinctions or differences. And as well, 
you see how they flow from this fifth woe, or the fifth woe that 
comes prior. They tithe, mint, anise, and 
cumin, but they neglect justice, mercy, and faith. On the heels 
of that, he condemns their externalism. He condemns the fact that they 
emphasize externals to the neglect of internals. That's the sixth 
woe. And then the seventh is they 
embody hypocrisy and lawlessness itself. So, as I said, there 
are two here that are very similar in nature. We're going to focus 
on verses 25 to 28, but there is a subtle distinction. In fact, 
the second one, the seventh woe rather, When they embody hypocrisy 
and lawlessness, Jesus says, it's not simply the case that 
they're like those cups that are filled with grime and dirt 
and muck on the inside, but in this second analogy when he speaks 
of these whitewashed tombs, they become contagious to others. 
and they affect others. And I think that helps us to 
understand, going into the Olivet Discourse, why Christ prophesied 
judgment to come upon Jerusalem, upon the Temple specifically. 
It's not just the religious leadership, but because of the religious 
leaders and because of the waywardness of Israel, they followed these 
men. They were not consistent with 
the truth of God's Word. They were not consistent with 
covenant faithfulness to the obligations that God had put 
on them and as a result they reap God's judgment vis-à-vis 
destruction in AD 70 by the Roman army. So this is backdrop and 
a helpful way to understand what the Olivet Discourse is concerning 
when we get to chapter 24. But note first, Woe number six. They emphasize externals in verses 
25 and 26. He says, 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. Now there's one of two ways we 
can understand this. Some interpreters think that 
Jesus is dealing literally. This was a real concern between 
Rabbi Hillel and his school and Rabbi Shema and his school. There 
was ritual purification, ritual washings. In fact, in chapter 
15, the religious leaders come to Jesus and they complain because 
His disciples eat with unwashed hands. Washing, not only hands, 
but bowls and dishes and cups and all those sorts of things 
had ritual application or ceremonial application. So some suggest 
that Jesus is weighing in on that particular controversy, 
and that He does side with Shammah, who said we need to clean both 
the inside and the outside of the cup. But then there's the 
metaphorical view. This is the one advanced by Calvin, 
and I agree with him. I don't believe Jesus is weighing 
in on this rabbinic debate concerning cups and dishes. He's using a 
metaphor. He's using an analogy. He is 
using a picture to show us what these men are really like, and 
the picture is obvious. I don't think any of you children 
have any difficulties understanding what Jesus says. Have you ever 
walked into your kitchen, and you've reached up into the cupboard, 
and you wanted to take out a glass for milk or water or some such 
beverage, and it looks all nice and bright and shiny on the outside, 
and you happen, wisely, to look on the inside, and you see that 
it's not fully clean. Well, that cup is not usable. 
We like to appreciate the reality that the entirety of the cup 
must be clean before I put my delicate lips on it. So you see, 
Jesus uses a metaphor or an analogy or a word picture to illustrate 
something of their emphasis on the externals to the neglect 
of the internals. Davies and Allison explain it 
in these words. The two verses, rather, speak 
of the scribes and Pharisees metaphorically, as though they 
were dirty cups and dishes. The text concerns not utensils, 
but people who are clean on the outside, righteous to all appearances, 
but impure on the inside. So it's a very simple, very common, 
very obvious analogy or metaphor that our Lord uses. The meaning 
of it is clear. They are outwardly good. They 
outwardly look ceremonially pure. They outwardly look like they're 
doing all things well. It's very similar to the previous... 
Whoa, you tied the mint and the anise in the common. As far as 
a man sitting in a worship service is concerned, you're doing the 
right thing. But the man sitting in the worship 
service watching you or observing you doesn't realize you neglect 
justice, mercy, and faith. The same emphasis is here. You 
busy yourself with the outside. You busy yourself with cleaning 
the external. You busy yourself making sure 
that it's all good to the appearance of men, because that's their 
concern. They want to look good before 
men. They don't care one whit about God. They are inwardly 
defiled or they are morally impure. Again, Davies and Allison, I 
think, nail it here. They say the saying carries forward 
a theme found in the Sermon on the Mount. What does Jesus speak 
to in the Sermon on the Mount? Jesus speaks to the comprehensive 
character of God's law. You know, we are tempted or inclined 
to say, well, I've never actually committed adultery, so therefore 
I'm off the hook. I've never actually committed 
the crime of murder, so therefore I'm off the hook. What does Jesus 
do? Jesus doesn't argue from the 
external to the internal. He argues from the internal to 
the external. Davies and Allison. The same carries forward a theme 
found in the Sermon on the Mount. Their anger and internal disposition 
is said to be the root of murder, an external act. And lust, another 
internal disposition, is made out to be the cause of adultery, 
another external act. Thus, the focus for moral reformation 
must be on the heart. No, I don't think it takes much 
to see the modern or contemporary or individual application of 
such a condemnation. As I said, Jesus is showing the 
bankruptcy of the religious leaders and the nation as a whole, showing 
they are ripe for the judgment of God Most High that will come 
upon them in history through the Roman armies. This is a result 
of their covenantal unfaithfulness, and it was promised in Deuteronomy 
28 that when they sinned against Yahweh, they would be visited 
with wrath from on high. But there is an individual application 
here. How many of us are found out 
in such a passage like these? We busy ourselves to clean the 
external, but there's been no moral reformation. There's been 
no heart change. We're not born again. You cannot 
make an orange tree an orange tree by simply fastening oranges 
to an apple tree. You don't just decorate the outside 
of a wretched man and call him a Christian. You don't just show 
up at church and carry a Bible and do the right things and think 
that somehow you are commended to God by your activity. Jesus' illustration, Jesus' metaphor, 
Jesus' statement here is obviously applicable to each and every 
one of us. You are like these cups and dishes. You are those who are busy and 
are diligent to make sure you cleanse the outside, but the 
inside is dirty. Ryle says they set outward purity 
and decency above inward sanctification and purity of heart. As long 
as everything looks good on the outside, things are fine. As 
long as I'm in the right place at the right time, things are 
fine. As long as I surround myself with the right accoutrements, 
then everything is fine. Brethren, that is not fine. If 
your heart is not right with God, if you are not in Christ, 
if you do not hear the words of Matthew 11, 28, where the 
gracious Savior, as Pastor Cam said, in the context of divine 
sovereignty, says unto you, Come! Come to me, all you who are weary 
and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Some want to say, well, 
I don't know if I'm part of the decree or part of the predestinating 
plan. Come is Christ's words to you. You say, well, I'm not 
sure. Come, and you will find out that 
He is a gracious Savior. And in line with John 6.37, all 
that the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes 
to me I will certainly not cast out. You see, that's the place 
where Reformation begins. It wasn't Geneva. It's in the 
human heart of man. You can see the consistency of 
Jesus all throughout these woes, because this is not a foreign 
concept. Remember the Shema, Deuteronomy 
6. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you 
shall love the Lord your God with what? Your external compliance? Your attendance at the synagogue? 
Your washing of the... No, with all your heart, with 
all your soul, with all your strength. You need to give yourselves, 
by God's grace, wholly to the God of grace. It's not enough 
to say the outside of the cup is clean, but the inside is filthy 
and disgusting and dirty. Matthew Henry makes this observation, 
and that we are really which we are inwardly. And that we 
are really which we are inwardly. God looks upon the heart. Now, later we're going to investigate. 
This doesn't mean you need to leave the outside of the cup 
dirty. Just like Jesus says, with reference to tithing, you 
ought not to have neglected this, but you need to do the others 
as well. See, this passage or these passages teach us it is 
the internal and the external. We're a people of excess. It's 
all about my heart. It doesn't matter what I look 
like. It doesn't matter how I function. It doesn't matter what I engage 
in. So we embrace a form of what's called practical antinomianism. 
I'll do whatever it is I want because Jesus loves me. So I 
can look like a wretch, I can act like a wretch, I can be like 
a wretch, and everything is cool. No, God does actually say the 
outside of the cup has to be clean too. Jesus does actually 
say you need to tithe the mint and the anise and the cumin without 
neglecting the weightier matters of the law, justice, mercy and 
faith. The connection with the preceding law ought to be obvious. And now notice, what is specifically? 
You kids, you go back to the kitchen, you pull out this cup, 
it says scribe or Pharisee, it's all clean, it's all gorgeous, 
it's all beautiful on the outside, and then when you look inside 
of it, you see dirt, you see grime, and you see filth. And 
what is it specifically that Jesus identifies in this particular 
passage? Extortion and self-indulgence. Extortion and excess. I wouldn't 
want to drink a cup that had a big dose of extortion and self-indulgence 
in it. These are bad things. This is 
what's in the heart of these scribes and the Pharisees. They 
say, wait a minute, extortion? Verse 14. What do they do? They exploit widows. You suspect 
that verse 14 is suspect in the tradition. It's in Mark, it's 
in Luke, in unquestionable passages. But verse 14 indicates to us 
that these men were filled with extortion. You say, what about 
self-indulgence? I thought the scribes and the 
Pharisees, they were the polished sort. They weren't into sex and 
immorality and all those sorts of things. Well, in the first 
place, I think that's arguable. But in the second place, one 
lexicon defines this self-indulgence as connected to extortion. It says that it is a lack of 
self-control which shows itself in an unrestrained desire for 
gain. R.T. Frantz says, the two terms 
together function as what's called a hyndaiades, and I'm not trying 
to confuse you. It means two words that mean 
the same thing. Two words that speak to the same 
thing. So Frantz says, the two terms 
together function as two words that say the same thing, denoting 
an unrestrained selfishness which rides roughshod over the rights 
and interests of others. For later in your study, you 
might compare Amos chapter 2, verses 6 to 8. You'll see the 
same sorts of things. Again, Jesus is doing nothing 
new in this passage. Jesus is prosecuting the covenant. 
Jesus is calling these sinners to account. Jesus is setting 
the stage for the prophecy in all of it. Jesus is going to 
pronounce judgment upon these covenant-breaking wretches, and 
one of the reasons why is that they busy themselves cleaning 
the outside of the cup and inside its extortion and self-indulgence. But before we leave this woe, 
you need to appreciate what Jesus does next with reference to this 
woe. Verse 26, blind Pharisee. First cleanse the inside of the 
cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also. In 
the first place, the obvious meaning is this. Take care of 
the inside, that'll take care of the outside. Right? Everybody 
get that? Take the extortion out, take 
the self-indulgence out, and the outside will hopefully follow 
suit. It's pretty common, pretty obvious, 
and I think it reflects a common and pretty obvious interpretation 
of the Old Testament. What does Yahweh say to Israel 
in Deuteronomy 10? Circumcise your hearts! He's 
saying do the book of Jeremiah as well. Where's the emphasis 
in Solomon's Proverbs? Trust in the Lord with all your 
what? Outward compliance? With all your heart. Do not lean 
on your own understanding, but in all your ways acknowledge 
Him, and He shall direct your paths. What about Solomon in 
Proverbs 4.23? Keep your own external compliance 
with all diligence. Keep your own heart. Jesus Christ 
is teaching something that everybody already knew. Religion, with 
reference to the true and living God, is a matter of the heart. Cleanse the inside of the cup, 
and then the outside will follow suit. But before we leave this 
point, note the mercy of our Lord. What is He doing here? 
Could it be He's giving them a call to repentance? Could it 
be that our Lord Jesus, before continuing in the condemnation, 
is making an appeal to anyone out there that's going to actually 
listen to Him? When He says to them, first cleanse the inside, 
perhaps He is intending that someone's going to say, how do 
I do that? What do you mean? What's the 
manner by which we seek cleansing? Christ, in his denunciations, 
in terms of his prophetic ministry, nevertheless tinges it with this 
prophetic compassion. You see that at the end when 
he laments over Jerusalem. Judgment is coming, to be sure. 
Judgment is going to be sharp, it's going to be decisive, it's 
going to be comprehensive, but Jesus doesn't approach it in 
some callous or careless manner, but he says, Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem! It affects him. It causes him 
to lament over this city, just like it caused Jeremiah when 
he penned the Lamentations, when he saw what had become of Jerusalem. 
He doesn't rejoice and say, well, you know, the sovereignty of 
God, the power of God, it's just the way it is. I mean, he rejoices 
in those things, but he laments over the city of Jerusalem. Well, Jesus is the same. Listen 
to what he says here. I hope you listen to that. I hope you're paying attention 
right now. I hope you understand that you 
may struggle with something that these scribes and Pharisees struggled 
with. As long as the outside looks good, everything's fine. 
As long as my wife doesn't suspect me, as long as my father doesn't 
suspect me, as long as that pastor doesn't ask me questions, or 
as long as those friends don't ask me what I really look at 
on my computer, as long as I am externally compliant, then everything 
is right. Listen to the word of our beloved 
Savior. First, cleanse the inside of 
the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also. You 
need to ask the question, if you haven't heard it plenty of 
times here, do you know the way to cleanse the inside? It's to 
believe the Gospel. It's to come to Christ. It's 
to listen to Matthew 8, 11, 28. It is to believe and repent and 
to turn to Him who alone has the power to save you from your 
sins. As always, John Gill is beautiful on this passage. He 
says, So the great concern of all men should be inward purity, 
that their hearts may be purified by faith in the blood of Christ, 
and sprinkled from an evil conscience by the same, that principles 
of grace and holiness be formed in them by the Spirit of God, 
and then their outward lives and conversations being influenced 
thereby will be honorable and agreeable to their professions. The inside of your cup is filthy 
right now. The inside of your cup is filled 
with extortion, or self-indulgence, or pornography, or disobedience 
to parents, or adultery, or murder, or lies, or idolatry, or blasphemy, 
or Sabbath-breaking, or insubordination to governing authority. If your 
heart is filled with those things, listen to the Word of Christ. 
First, cleanse! It's the means by which we are 
cleansed. I love the prophet Zechariah's 
answer. In that day there will be a fountain 
open for sin and uncleanness. In that day, the day of Messiah, 
the day of Jesus, the day of Christ, sinners plunge beneath 
that flood. Lose what? They lose all their 
guilty stains. The way of purification, the 
way of being right with God, the way of standing before the 
presence of the Thrice Holy One, is not by your external cleansing 
of the cup, it's by Christ's powerful blood to wash you, and 
to cleanse you, and to purge away sin. That's what you desperately 
need this morning. That's what you most desperately 
need before you stand before the King of Glory, to give an 
account of deeds done in the body, whether good or evil. Kids, 
listen to this. You saw that cup and you looked 
into it, you'd probably say, oh mom, you need to clean the 
cup. Exactly. Jesus says to the scribes and 
the Pharisees, you need to clean the cup. But the cleaning of 
the cup is different in this case. We don't take the cup and 
put it in the dishwasher. We don't take the cup and grab 
the soap cloth and wipe it down. See, we can't clean the inside 
of this cup. We can't make it right by our 
doings. We can't make it right by not 
doing those other things. The only way of rightness, the 
only way of cleansing, the only way of salvation is by grace 
alone, through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone. This is Paul's 
emphasis throughout his corpus, in whom we have redemption through 
his blood. Without the shedding of blood, 
Hebrews 9, there is no remission. It's the blood of the covenant. 
It's the blood of Jesus Christ. Look at the comparison in the 
Old Covenant. The ratification ceremony. What 
does Moses, the high priest, do with reference to the blood? 
They sprinkle the blood of the covenant upon the persons that 
are there. What does Jesus do on the night 
that He is betrayed? This cup is the cup of My blood. for the inauguration of the new 
covenant which is shed for many for the remission of sins. You 
know, some people say, you Christians are sick singing a hymn like 
188. There is a fount filled with 
blood, drawn from Emmanuel's veins, and sinners plunge beneath 
that flood, lose all their guilty stains. Could you imagine someone 
who had never had contact with Christianity hearing us sing 
that? Just put yourself in their shoes. I mean, most of us have 
been brought up in some sense connected to a church, or at 
least have heard some of the doctrine of Christianity. But 
imagine, you're a raw pagan, you know nothing. We're singing 
about the blood of Jesus in a happy sense. You might be tempted to 
scratch your head and say, what's wrong with those Christians? 
Do they got a screw loose somewhere? But we know without the shedding 
of blood there is no remission, and the blood of bulls and goats 
could never take away sin. They typified, they shadowed, 
they pointed forward to the Lamb of God, John 1.29, who takes 
away the sin of the world. Sinner, come! You need the inside 
of the cup cleansed, and the only means by which that cleansing 
will occur is in the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Don't discount this. Don't say, 
you know, I'll think about this another day. I'll think about 
this when I'm older. I'll think about this when I'm 
better. I'll think about... You need 
to think about this right now. There's no guarantee. You did 
probably hear about that shooting in Florida this morning. There's 
no guarantee that those persons were going to make it through 
the day. I mentioned it to my neighbor this morning. He said, 
it's getting scary even to go to the grocery store. There's 
no place safe. Say, Butler, you're trying to 
scare us. No, I'm not. I'm trying to remind you of something 
James said. What are you but a vapor? Your life is here for 
a moment and then it's gone. You young people, you're not 
eight foot tall and you're not bulletproof. Old people, you're 
not eight foot tall and you're not bulletproof. We all know 
that. I think the older people are quicker to acknowledge it, 
though. Of course, I can hardly get out of a chair anymore. Yes, 
I know I'm not eight foot tall and bulletproof. The point is, 
the inside of the cup needs to be clean. There's only one means 
by which that cleansing comes, and it's through the blood of 
the one who says this to his contemporaries. Say, why didn't 
those scribes and Pharisees repent? Why didn't those scribes and 
Pharisees ask him how? Why didn't those scribes and 
Pharisees flock to him? He was the one their Old Testament 
scriptures pointed to, obviously. Clearly, manifestly, it took 
some serious gymnastics, exegetical gymnastics, to evade the clear 
meaning of the Old Testament when it comes to Jesus Christ. 
Well, don't mock these scribes and Pharisees if you're going 
to leave today with that cup still unclean. If you're going 
to continue in your life with that cup still unclean. If you're 
going to continue to plug your ears and harden your heart and 
resist the overture of God's grace as it comes through the 
Christian gospel. Don't mock scribes and Pharisees 
when you are on their side. The cup is unclean, come to the 
one who cleans. Notice the next one. They embody 
hypocrisy and lawlessness in verses 27 and 28. Again, very 
much similar, but some distinction. Note the analogy used by Jesus. Verse 27, Woe to you, scribes 
and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you are like whitewashed tombs, 
which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full 
of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. This is, like the previous one, 
an analogy, a metaphor. Teaching, illustration. Remember, 
preaching ought to be interesting. Jesus uses the interesting statement. You're like a blind guide who 
strains out gnats and swallows camels. Preaching ought to connect 
with people. People ought to be able to sink 
their teeth into it. Well, this was a common known 
thing in this particular age. The old covenant scriptures forbade 
contact with dead bodies. You'll all understand that. In 
the book of Leviticus, twice in the book of Numbers, you were 
not supposed to touch a dead body. There were certain concessions 
to those very close to you, but the prohibition stood. You were 
not supposed to come into contact because that would render you 
ritually impure. You'd be ceremonially unclean. 
So what happens in the first century, maybe it happened before 
that, but certainly it was practiced in Jesus' day, is that right 
before the Passover, in the month of Adar, they would whitewash 
the tombs. And they would whitewash the 
tombs so that the hapless pilgrims who come to Jerusalem wouldn't 
step on them. If it's a sin or it renders you 
ceremonially impure or unclean to touch a grave, it was a kindness 
for them to whitewash the graves so that persons who did not know 
the city wouldn't fall or wouldn't step on that and contract ritual 
impurity. The parallel in Luke 11.44 brings 
this out. Jesus says there, Woe to you, 
scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like graves which 
are not seen, and the men who walk over them are not aware 
of them. So you see, that validates or 
legitimizes the practice of whitewashing the tombs, so that the persons 
who don't know they're there, because they don't live in the 
city, will see them and will avoid ritual contamination. It's 
pretty obvious, pretty common. Now some have said, well he says 
they're beautiful, so that must not mean a typical grave, but 
it must mean the monuments that adorn the graves. No, I think 
all that the contrast needs is between the exterior of the grave 
and the interior of the grave. And the whitewash satisfies. 
It's beautiful compared to what's inside. So that's his analogy. Now notice application. Verse 
28, even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men but inside 
you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. You see, they, similarly 
with the cop, Clean on the outside, whitewashed on the outside, beautiful 
appearance on the outside, everything looks A-OK on the outside. I 
mean, just go back in the context a little bit. Verse 5, notice, 
all their works they do to be seen by men. They make their 
phylacteries broad and enlarge the borders of their garments. 
It's like that whitewashed tomb, they look good, don't they? When 
they're engaged in that sort of formality, that sort of religiosity, 
they look good. Verse 14, for a pretense, they 
make long prayers. Well, if you and I were watching 
them, we wouldn't know it was a pretense unless we had the 
divine commentary. We would see long prayers and 
be somewhat impressed. The outside of the tomb would 
look good. Notice in verse 23. You tie the mint of anise and 
cumin, but you've neglected the weightier matters of the law. 
Again, we wouldn't know the neglect. We would see the practice and 
we would be inclined to say the outside of the grave or tomb 
looks beautiful. It looks dazzling. Same thing 
with a cup. Until we further inspect the 
cup and the inside contents thereof, if we look at the outside of 
the cup, it looks beautiful. The appearance is good. In the same manner, these men, 
in terms of the metaphor of the tombs, look good. Now, I realize 
that Sunday may be a difficult day because it is a day of rest, 
but I don't think God says during the day of rest at church you 
should doze off or not pay attention. Maybe a bit earlier to bed on 
a Saturday night. I'm not trying to be a legalistic, 
fundamentalist wretch. I'm really not. But the Lord 
God is present here. Jesus Christ is in his church. 
I have to suspect that if we had conference with Justin Trudeau, 
we would do everything in our power to keep alive, to keep 
alert, to keep our eyes open, even when we don't have the fondest 
appreciation for his service. We're in the presence of the 
triune God, brethren. If the preaching is boring, pinch 
the inside of your leg and wake up, and then find a church that 
engages you. But if it's you, then wake up. 
Just wake up. We've got maybe 20 more minutes. 
It may seem like a drudgery, it may seem like an eternity, 
but I guarantee you it's not. lest the Lord of Glory comes 
in the next 20 minutes, you will be able to depart in safety and 
in peace and return to your homes, where hopefully you may get the 
rest that you desperately need. Again, not trying to be a fundamentalist, 
not trying to be a legalist, not trying to hurt your feelings 
by any stretch. But if God is in this place and 
we can't keep our eyes open, that reflects on what we think 
of Him. You don't want to do that. Now 
note what Jesus says. Even so, you also outwardly appear 
righteous to men, but inside you're full of hypocrisy and 
lawlessness. It's interesting, in this particular 
section, he's already condemned them for hypocrisy through and 
through. I mean, every woe smacks of hypocrisy. Not the woe, but the target of 
the woe is called a hypocrite. Jesus adds this statement, lawlessness. You've heard the word before. 
We call it antinomianism. If you say, what's antinomianism? 
It's lawlessness. Same thing. Anti-namas, anti-law. What do we normally suspect or 
think about the scribes and the Pharisees? They're the champions 
of law! No, they're antinomians. They're 
full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. So you know what? We think that 
the enemy of the antinomian is the legalist, and we think the 
enemy of the legalist is the antinomian. Those are common 
bedfellows, brethren. Their enemy is the law of God. 
These men are both legalistic and antinomian in one disgusting 
package, is what Jesus is saying. You look good on the outside. 
You're like the whitewashed tombs, but inside you're full of dead 
men's bones. You're full of corruption. You're 
full of decay. You're full of filth. You're 
full of worms. You're full of every bad thing. And vis-à-vis, that is hypocrisy 
and lawlessness. You look good, but this is the 
content of your hearts. It's a scary statement. Now, here's where it steps up 
the previous woe. Here's where there is a subtle 
distinction because it speaks to their effect upon others. 
What was the purpose for whitewashing the tomb? What was the reason 
why they slathered it with white paint? So that persons would 
not come into contact with the tomb and become ceremonially 
defiled. You see what Jesus is saying? 
You're like the cup that's filthy on the inside, to be sure, but 
you're also like the tomb that looks good on the outside and 
is filthy on the inside, but in this you affect other people. You contaminate others. You're 
like a tomb. When persons step on you, when 
persons touch you, when persons come into contact with you, it 
has an effect upon them. the way if a person were to touch 
a tomb. It would defile them. It would render them ceremonially 
impure. Persons who come in contact with 
this doctrine are rendered impure. They are defiled. They are affected. Davies and Allison, the scribes 
and Pharisees, although preoccupied with matters of purity, are themselves 
sources of impurity. I love the way Chamberlain describes 
this. He says this woe underscores 
the previous one. Again, I hope you see the similarities. Cups and tombs. This woe underscores 
the previous one. It also augments it, or adds 
to it, by implying that persons influenced by such teachers are 
at greater risk than persons made ceremonially impure from 
contact with tombs. That there is a spiritual uncleanness, 
even worse than that of a grave, and death far worse than that 
experienced by the dead, whose bones lie in the tombs. Contact 
with these scribes and Pharisees rendered you more than ceremonially 
impure. It was more than a ritual uncleanness. It consolidated you with this 
doctrine and ultimately would bring down the wrath and the 
fury and the judgment of God in the destruction of the city 
in A.D. 70. So you see, woes 6 and 7 
are similar. 7 seems to augment or advance 
the thought that these scribes and these Pharisees affect other 
people. Well, in conclusion, a few things 
and then we close. In the first place, we ought 
to consider, again, the Old Testament background. We see the emphasis 
on the external. We see it in the prototypical 
false worshiper, Cain. What happens when God respects 
Abel's offering but not Cain's? Cain gets angry. Why do you think 
Cain gets angry? Well, he doesn't have faith, 
and Abel had faith. That's what Hebrews 11 tells 
us. He most likely got angry because I did what I was supposed 
to do. I brought what I was supposed to do. Again, that's arguable 
in terms of the firstfruits of the land and whatnot. But probably 
in his heart. I satisfied the external. I did 
what you told me." And by the way, God had told them. Genesis 
4 tells us that at the end of days they come to offer sacrifice. Not the end of the age, but at 
the end of days. The end of the days of the week. 
They had watched God's pattern in the garden. Sabbath was from 
the beginning. It was made for man. Gavin Beers 
has recently said, it was made for man and we're still men. 
Ergo, Sabbath is for us. But you see, Cain does the external, 
and God has respect for Abel. Cain gets upset. He gets angry. 
Consider the nation as a whole, the nation of Israel. Just a 
few passages, Jeremiah 7, 8 to 11. I'm picking that because 
it's close to home here, because Jesus quotes that in Matthew 
chapter 21 at verse 13. Jeremiah 7, I'll just give a 
brief gloss on what's happening. They're in the temple. They're 
doing what they're supposed to be doing externally. But they've 
turned the house of God into a den of robbers. Consider Micah 
6. We reflected upon this last week 
when Jesus says, justice, mercy, and faith. He's not making up 
a new paradigm. This is Micah 6.8, reflecting 
the tradition before Micah 6.8. He has shown you, oh man, what 
the Lord requires. You know what God says. Your 
emphasis on externals, your emphasis on sacrifice, your emphasis on, 
what shall I bring to the Lord? No, you need to emphasize the 
matter of the heart. or consider the post-exilic community 
at the time of Malachi. You want to read an emphasis 
on the internal necessity of worship? Read Malachi chapter 
1 and 2. They're going through the motions, 
they're bringing sacrifices, they're walking to the temple, 
they're giving these things over to the priest. Yeah, but what's 
fundamentally flawed? They take the worst and they're 
flawed. Imagine, you go out on a Saturday morning to go to the 
temple or to the tabernacle and you look at your head of cattle 
and you say, what's the worst one? Because I want to bring 
that one to God. Are we like that? What's the 
worst I can possibly get away with? No, we don't couch it like 
that. What's the least I can do to 
please God? What's the bare minimum I need 
to believe to be a Christian? What's the bare minimum I need 
to give? You know, I preached or mentioned 
tithing last week. People that are scrupulous about, 
well, the Bible doesn't say ten percent. No, it probably says 
a lot more. At least get in the ballpark. But in Malachi's day, 
they're doing the external. They're complying with the outward. 
And not even to the case where, you know, let's find the mangiest, 
Johnny. Go to the back of the flock and 
grab that one that's crippled. We're going to bring him to God 
today, because he won't fetch us much at market. Or this particular 
family leaves, and they forget, and Johnny, on the way to the 
temple or tabernacle, says, Dad, we forgot an animal. Oh, we'll 
steal one from their backyard, and we'll present that to God. 
Does everybody see the folly in that? If you're stealing sacrifice, 
you've got big problems. Sacrifice implies, get this, 
sacrifice. Does sacrifice feel good? Is 
sacrifice pleasurable? Is sacrifice an emotional high? Sacrifice costs. That's why you 
take the best of your flock. You don't steal from the whoever's 
and take their animal to the temple. You see, they had the 
outward in play, but the inward was done. It was gone. It was 
hypocrisy and lawlessness. I've already mentioned the Old 
Testament background in terms of the emphasis on the internal. 
You know that one famous saying in Isaiah 64, 6 and 7, all our 
righteousnesses are like filthy garments in your sight. Think 
about that, brethren. Righteousnesses are like menstrual 
clots in the sight of a holy God. Why? Because they did the 
outward obligatory things. They went to the temple, they 
engaged in those rituals, but their hearts were not in it. 
The Old Testament background jives specifically with what 
Jesus is doing here in Matthew 23. As well, in the second place, 
in terms of a concluding thought, the first century application. 
I love what Ryle says, When such were the teachers, what must 
have been the miserable darkness of the taught? When such were 
the teachers, what must have been the miserable darkness of 
the taught? You need to listen to that. It's 
imperative upon the people of God to find people who can preach 
and teach the Word of God. Why do you think 1 Timothy 3 
is in the Bible? Why do you think the only gift mentioned in that 
list of qualifications, the rest of it is all virtue or grace 
or moral gift, there's one aspect that is highlighted by Paul in 
terms of the man's competence to do something. He must be apt 
to teach. Why? Because if he's not, however 
beautiful a human being he may be, however he may glowingly 
fulfill all those moral attributes or fill out all those moral virtues 
that are indicated there, the primary emphasis of the preaching 
and teaching ministry in the church is the preaching and the 
teaching ministry in the church. If the people of God are not 
taught the truth of God, then they will fall into the pit along 
with their blind leaders. What Ryle says can be extrapolated 
and applied to our current situation. When such were the teachers, 
what must have been the miserable darkness of the taught? In the 
third place, we ought to make some contemporary application. 
Again, 23 is a condemnation of the first century religious leaders, 
but it's a warning to the church. It's a warning to the Church 
of Jesus Christ. In the first place, we ought 
to consider the emphasis on external religion to the neglect of the 
internal. You need to ask yourself questions. Do I emphasize the 
external to the neglect of the internal? Do I make sure I'm 
in the right places? Do I make sure I say the right 
things? Do I make sure I go to the right events? Is your heart 
as far from God? Wasn't this the statement of 
God through the prophet Isaiah and imitated by our Lord Jesus? These people draw near to me 
with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. You may speak 
Christianese. You may be able to quote the 
fathers. You may be able to highlight 
our confession, but if you're not born again, If you're not 
a believer on the Lord Jesus Christ, you're in the same boat, 
these scribes and Pharisees. If you're busy to clean the outside, 
you're busy to whitewash the tomb, you're busy the externals 
and you neglect the internals, you're in the same shape as these 
scribes and Pharisees. As well, we need to understand 
the inconsistency between the external and internal. The Lord 
emphasizes the internal, but not to the neglect of the external. 
I already touched on this a little bit. Well, God saved me. I'm 
a believer in Jesus. So it doesn't matter if I go 
to church. It doesn't matter if I tithe. It doesn't matter 
if I obey God. It doesn't matter if I show up 
at church. It doesn't matter what I look 
like when I'm at church. I can just do whatever I want 
because I'm in Jesus. Well, Jesus says when you're 
in Jesus, the outside of the cup is going to be clean. You 
see, there is a... a remedial effect upon the external. I'm not suggesting that the moment 
you believe the gospel, you're going to look like a product 
of Bob Jones University. Your hair is going to be parted, 
you're going to have a pen in your pocket, you're going to 
have the tie, you're going to stand upright and everything. 
I'm not suggesting that. I am suggesting what we oftentimes 
forget, the doctrine of progressive sanctification. When somebody 
believes the gospel of the Lord Jesus, their external life starts 
to be cleaned up. they start to clean up. Because 
of the power of the Christian message, because of the transforming 
power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, because of the imputation 
of the passive and active obedience of Jesus Christ, because of what 
happens in us in justification, sanctification inevitably follows. The outside of the cup will be 
clean. It may be a while, there will 
be progress, and brethren, be very careful. If everybody doesn't 
pop out of the womb of salvation the way you popped out of the 
womb doesn't necessarily mean they're not saved. Progressive 
sanctification ought to be a means by which the people of God exercise 
charity to others. But progressive sanctification 
with reference to the individual ought to speak loudly. There 
needs to be progress in your Christian life. That outside 
of the cup ought to be transformed by the transforming power of 
Christ's Gospel. In other words, if you have been 
justified freely by His grace, God, the Holy Spirit, is at work 
in you both to will and to do according to His good pleasure. 
So you see, the two work together. It's not an either-or. Well, 
I'm internally justified, so I can live like a wretch. I'm 
internally justified so I can boast about my Christian liberty 
to everybody I want to hear me. I'm internally justified so I 
can, you know, wear a grass skirt to church because I'm in Jesus. 
No, not necessarily. The inside has an effect upon 
the outside, brethren. I hope you see that interplay. 
I hope you see Jesus' emphasis. He's not saying, just think about 
the inside and everything will be peachy king. No, tithe and 
uphold justice, mercy, and faith. First, clean the inside of the 
cup, and then the outside will be cleaned. You see, the emphasis 
is holistic, to use a weird word. As I was voicing it, it sounded 
pagan and neo-whatever to me. It's unfortunate. We've lost 
a lot of good words because weird people have co-opted them. Holistic, 
WH, the whole ism of something. In other words, God redeems you 
body and soul. Isn't this Paul's argument in 
1 Corinthians 6? I wonder if there was some of 
this in them. Well, you know, we've been justified. So it doesn't 
matter if we lay with prostitutes. Paul says, are you crazy? Don't 
you know you're joining Christ with that harlot? Well, we've 
been justified so we can eat great big steaks with our brethren 
who struggle and watch them squirm. Don't do that! Don't offend a 
brother for whom Jesus died. Paul says, I'd rather give up 
meat than offend someone. You see, the transforming power 
of Christ's gospel cleanses the inside of the cup, and it moves 
to the outside. Why is it that in other countries, 
people get this, but here in North America, man, what are 
you talking about? Again, I mentioned Mr. Kroll 
giving me the illustration about people that met in Haiti in 40-degree 
weather in a metal hut. I think, you know, man, that's 
commitment. And he says they're always wearing 
their finest Sunday clothes. You see pictures of that, right? 
Missionary reports. We all love that. We've got missionary 
reports. Look at the people in the third 
world, how they show up on Sunday at church. It's not like they 
just rolled out of bed and put on the worst thing they could 
find. I realize people are going to 
say on their way home today or at lunch, he was especially legalistic 
and fundamentalist today, wasn't he? No, I'm not. But I'm suggesting something 
that I think our generation has forgotten. If we believe in the 
triune God of the Bible, we'll show up at church on time. We'll 
show up at church. And we will be there in the presence 
of the great King. And that will so affect us that 
we will pray, God may our worship be acceptable to you. No, not 
us today. It's got to be me, my needs, 
my felt needs. Everything has to serve me. That's 
the way I... That's not what Paul says in 
Hebrews 12. We come to God in an acceptable 
manner. Guess who defines acceptable? It's the God to whom we come! 
He's the householder. He's the owner. He has the prerogatives. If He says, show up at 11, show 
up at 11. If He says, you're coming to 
meet a great king, understand, you're coming to meet a great 
king. If He says, tithe from your produce or tithe from your 
first fruits, cough it up! What problem of him as a great 
king do we in North America have a problem with? Probably the 
whole thing. And as well, we ought to be cautious and aware 
and guard against the twin sins of hypocrisy and lawlessness. I love the way Jesus indicts 
these antinomians for antinomianism. I get so sickened by people saying, 
the Pharisees, they had such a respect for the law. No, they didn't. It was an enemy 
to them. They hated God's law as much 
as anyone. You've got to get that in your 
head. Legalism and antinomianism are 
bedfellows and their common opponent is the law of God. It's not the 
case that antinomians and legalists fight with each other. I mean, 
they may shake it up a little bit once in a while, but they 
are joined together in their opposition to God's law. Paul 
says, we know the law is good if one uses it lawfully, 1 Timothy 
1.8. What's one of the lawful uses 
of the law that the church desperately needs to recover? The normative 
use. That means that God's law is 
the standard of conduct for God's people. The Spirit indwells us, 
the Spirit fills us, not so that we can willy-nilly engage or 
run around the field singing, born free, but so we can comply 
with the law of the living and true God. When Paul wants believers 
in Rome to love one another, where does he go? To the Law 
of God! This is a manifestation that 
you love your brother. You don't murder him, you don't 
lay with his wife, and you don't steal from him. May God Most 
High cause us to respond to the Lord Jesus in a way that is consistent 
with our Christian profession. He said, if you love me, you 
will keep my commandments. The whole idea is that the law 
shows us our sin. This is the pedagogical use. 
The law shows us our wickedness. The law shows us our evil and 
our vileness. And that use of the law needs 
to be thundered as well from pulpits. And once that law drives 
us to see ourselves rightly, it drives us, it shows us our 
need for Christ. It shows us our need for the 
cross. And by the grace of God, we believe 
in the Gospel of God. And then what does Jesus do? 
He points us to that law and says, Go, live, be free. Because that's true liberty, 
doing what God made you to do. So brethren, I hope and pray 
that we'll be on guard for these twin errors of hypocrisy and 
antinomianism, or lawlessness. And if you're not a believer 
here this morning, I just want to reiterate and re-encourage 
you to consider how that cup gets clean. How that cup gets 
clean. It's not through your own works, 
it's not through your own efforts, it's not through your own obedience, 
it's not through your own moral reform. That cup, called your 
heart, gets clean at the cross. It's an amazing thing we see 
in Scripture, especially in the book of Revelation. Those saints 
that come out of the tribulation, their garments are bright white 
because they've been washed in the blood of the Lamb. Isn't 
that paradoxical? You don't think of blood making 
something white, but it does. The blood of Jesus Christ, His 
Son, cleanses us from all sin. If you have not tasted and seen 
that He is good, By God's grace, may you today believe on him. Well, let us pray. Our Father 
in heaven, we thank you for your word. We thank you for our Lord 
Jesus Christ and the emphasis that he lays down in chapter 
23. I pray that you would cause us as your people to guard against 
hypocrisy and lawlessness. Cause us as your people to seek 
by grace to be faithful in those things you call us to. and may 
we realize and may we reflect upon the most essential thing, 
even our hearts, before the living and true God. We pray that you'd 
open hearts today for unbelievers, that you would cause there to 
be faith exercised in the Lord Jesus Christ. We don't appeal 
to men. I call men to believe and repent, but we know the powers 
of God. We know you make men willing in the day of your power, 
and we pray that you'd open their hearts and cause them to do that 
which is impossible with men, but is possible to you. Go with 
us now, we pray and we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.