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Well, 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'd 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 broad, and enlarge the borders of their garments. 
They love the best 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 a 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 goal of the temple, he is obliged to perform it. Fools 
and blind, for which is greater, the goal or the temple 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 
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 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 take heed to the various things that Jesus condemns in 
passages like these. We know these were Pharisees. 
We know these were scribes. We know that they were men who 
denied the Messiahship of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. But nevertheless, 
these are tendencies that plague 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 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 chapter 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, whatever they tell you to observe, verse three, 
that observe and 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 meat, for they shall inherit the earth. 
Blessed is the poor in spirit, for they shall see God. Blessed 
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 
things that we perhaps in our generation wouldn't say to those 
enemies of the gospel. One man says it is the most un-Christian 
chapter in Matthew. And another said it is the unloveliest 
chapter in the gospel. Now that is a complete misreading 
of this particular section. Look, for instance, at how Jesus 
ends this. prior to all of that discourse 
where he's gonna 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 heed 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 
for 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 an 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 
chapter 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 a 
righteous emphasis on God's law. Jesus upbraids the enemies of 
the gospel. 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, woe number 
one, they close the doors of the kingdom, verse 13. Woe number 
two, they exploit widows and engage in pretentious 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 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 2730. 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 things. 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 Pharisee 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 onto 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 1 to 4, and our duty toward man 
are Commandments 5 to 10. 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 paid tithe of mint and anise 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 are 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 5 to 10. 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 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 anise and the cumin, they 
are nevertheless exploiting widows in their hardship and under duress, 
and they're building their own 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 nine. Chapter 
nine, 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 gonna 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 party killers, 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 chapter 23, when it talks about their phylacteries, 
a phylactery was a little box they wore on their arm or on 
their forehead, and they filled it with scripture verses. So 
they knew Hosea's success. 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 chapter 
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 anise and the cumin. On the other hand, they neglect 
the weightier matters of the law, justice, mercy, and faith. As R.T. 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 legalist and just like the modern day 
man who majors on the minors says, well, 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. 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 abdains 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, and to walk humbly with 
your God? You've got the second table references, 
to do justly and love mercy, and then the first table reference, 
to walk humbly with your God. Incidentally, Micah chapter six 
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 for 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 6. 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 to 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 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 denouncement, 
not just Micah 6, verse 8, but as well, Hosea 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 denouncement 
in Zechariah 7, 8 to 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, oh 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 anise and cumin and 
have neglected the weightier 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 done, 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 anise and the cumin. 
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 increase 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 R.T. 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 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 
gnat 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. 
Kelvin 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 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, anise, and 
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, gnat 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 
speck 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 of Baal and actually suggests that they're 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 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 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 than 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 burrow down that canyon so 
that you don't die. You see, the very language of 
blind guide suggests as much in terms of hyperbole. 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 sake. 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 verily 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 excuse me. For if God has given me humor, 
I mean to use it in his cause. Many a man has been caught and 
is here 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 engage in the minors. Don't major on the 
minors is different than get rid of the minors. You get that, 
right? Just because I say I like oranges 
doesn't mean I hate apples. The minors are minors 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 larger 
gamut framework, rather, of Christian ethics 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 any of 
God's precepts will have respect to them all. We're not supposed 
to pick and choose. As well, the minors may be obsessed 
over, now listen to this, the minors 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 minors 
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 altogether just 
like them. We heard about that in the reading 
from A.W. Pink this morning. God Most High 
condemns Israel in Psalm 50. You thought I was altogether 
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 thrown away by the side while we, you know, major on things 
like tithing mint and anise and cumin. 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 gnat 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. In 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 preacherese, preacher language, something that is unique 
to us. It's an idiosyncrasy. It comes 
from Judges 12, especially verses 5 to 6, teaching time. In verses 
5 to 6, the Gileadites seized the fords of the Jordan before 
the Ephraimites arrived. 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, Sibyleth, 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 Sibyleth. The point is, is that 
we have our Sibyleths, 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've 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. This says, I'm just waiting on 
the Lord. What do you mean? 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, one and 
two. Check 1 Thessalonians 4, three. 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, and I've observed it in 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 
like tithing is important, it is essential, it is crucial. 
But in terms of some of the idiosyncrasies 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 from those 
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 I 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 see the 
tendencies, perhaps in our own hearts, to major on minors, to 
minor on majors, to try and masked 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.