The sermon by Jason Dohm, titled 'Woe to You, Hypocrites!' examines Matthew 23, focusing on Jesus' rebuke of the scribes and Pharisees. It highlights the eight woes Jesus pronounces against them, emphasizing their hypocrisy and how they obstruct others from entering the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus' tone in this chapter is contrasted with His usual demeanor of patience and mercy, showing His vehement opposition to false teachings and hypocrisy. The sermon also draws parallels between the woes of Matthew 23 and the Beatitudes of Matthew 5, illustrating the qualities of true versus false Christians. It underscores Jesus as a prophetic voice, akin to Old Testament prophets, announcing God's judgment. The sermon challenges listeners to reflect on their own lives, to recognize any hypocrisy, and to genuinely live out their faith without pretense, emphasizing that salvation comes through faith alone, and not through works.

Good morning. Matthew 23, 13 through 15. But woe to you, scribes and phalluses, hypocrites, for you shout out 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 traveled land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you may him two eyes as much as some of hell as yourself." Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I cry out today, open our hearts.

You know who we are. You know our hearts. We are wicked. Help us to hear, to open our hearts to your war. Change our lives.

Change our hipoket and help us to be a good son of you. I pray for your power today. You're the only one who can change our hearts, can open and close our hearts. I pray for Pastor Jason Dung. You fire upon him and speak us through him.

Bless every heart today and we praise your name. You are holy, holy of holies. In Jesus' name, amen. So This is our second week in chapter 23. And chapter 23 comes out of a long period of interchange between Jesus and men who have risen up to oppose Him.

And there's been a series of questions that have been asked of Jesus with the purpose of discrediting Him. But far from accomplishing that purpose, Jesus is able, with the perfect answer, to turn this on His enemies and actually discredit His enemies. And then at the end of chapter 22 he's been able to ask a question of his own that really highlights his identity and gets to the heart of the matter. How can David call the Messiah his son? And so he's laboring with these men even as he's rebuking them.

Now in chapter 23, we see in chapter 23 verse 1 that the audience has changed. The audience for a long time now has been his opponents. And now the audience is different than that. The audience is the multitudes and his disciples. And he begins chapter 23 by essentially saying, Don't you dare think that you don't have to obey just because your leaders and your teachers are hypocrites.

None of you are exempt from obeying God just because those who preach don't practice what they preach. And now, we're beginning a unique section where Jesus is going to pronounce eight different woes on the scribes and the Pharisees, on the leaders, the teachers of the Jews. And there's actually going to be four different sermons on these woes. So this is the first installment of four sermons on the woes. In these woes, what we have is a direct attack on the teaching and the actions and the heart motivations of the men who have been teaching and leading Israel.

So it's Jesus' full frontal attack on the teachings of the scribes and Pharisees, and on their actions, and on the motivations that He sees in their hearts. Before we dive right into the verse by verse exposition, I want to make five observations about the whole section, about this whole section of Jesus pronouncing the woes. Here are those observations. Number one, observe how much Jesus despises hypocrisy. If you don't come out of these four sermons with this, then you have not been paying attention.

You've missed the point of the section. Jesus Christ despises hypocrisy. Jesus is on a lifelong mission of mercy. And we've seen a little of this from Jesus, but on balance, what we've seen up to chapter 23 in the Gospels is the patience of Jesus Christ, the mercy of Jesus Christ, the tenderness of Jesus Christ. So it's a little bit jolting to get here And hear what Jesus is saying because He has been so patient.

With those who have even a semblance of humility, Jesus is so patient. He's so tender. He's so gentle. And yet, when he gets here, he is speaking in such a very different way. Even with the disciples, who haven't been all that humble, who have been arguing about who gets to be at the right hand, and arguing over titles and positions, even with them, the tone of his rebukes has been very different than what we encounter in chapter 23.

So that's number one. Observe how much Jesus despises hypocrisy. This is hypocrisy. Number two, observe how direct, how forceful, how blunt Jesus is when He's confronted by men who are advancing a false Gospel. Have you ever seen anyone be this direct before?

This forceful? This blunt? But when Jesus has before Him Men who are advancing a false Gospel, He shifts into a completely different gear. And it's the kind of fearlessness that fighting off wolves requires. This is what we see in chapter 23.

Jesus is the Good Shepherd and He has staff in hand and He is fighting off wolves with all the forcefulness, all the directness, all the bluntness that the fighting of wolves requires. He's being the good shepherd. He's being the chief shepherd. Here in these woes, here in this chapter, Jesus is going to call the scribes and Pharisees hypocrites seven times. Hypocrites, hypocrites, hypocrites, hypocrites, hypocrites, hypocrites, hypocrites.

And He's going to call them blind guides two times. And He's going to call them fools and blind two times, and He's going to call them serpents, brood of vipers, once. Jesus is not mincing words. Jesus is not withholding anything that would be helpful as he teaches the multitudes and his disciples. Here's something that Calvin says that is really helpful.

And he's talking about his own time, but it sheds light on what Jesus is doing in chapter 23. Calvin says this, hence we may infer how cruel is the mildness of those who dislike our vehemence. Did you catch that? Calvin, in his day, the reformers, the men who were leading the Reformation, are raging against leaders in their time who are advancing a false gospel, just like Jesus is doing in Matthew 23. The reformers are raging against it because they know what's at stake, because they know that sheep are being eaten.

And yet, there are people in Calvin's day who are saying, Don't be that forceful. Don't be that direct. Don't be that blunt. Play nice, Calvin. Play nice, Luther.

And Calvin looks at that and he says, do you see how cruel the mildness that they're calling for is. When sheep are being eaten, and false prophets are devouring the flock, mildness is a cruelty. And Jesus is not cruel. Jesus is kind. And so He comes with the shepherd's staff.

Number three. Observe how the woes are a mirror image of the Beatitudes. Have you ever thought of that? Chapter 23 is a mirror image of what Jesus is saying in Matthew 5 in the Sermon on the Mount as He pronounces the things that God blesses. In the Beatitudes, we have eight Beatitudes.

Eight Blessed are the, followed by the quality. In the Beatitudes, we have the essential qualities of the Christian. We have the marks of a Christian set before us by Jesus Christ. And in Matthew 23, in the woes, we have the marks of a fake Christian, a false Christian, a counterfeit Christian. So Jesus has told us what it means to be a true member of the people of God, what God blesses, what God cultivates when He saves someone and gives them a new heart and begins to cultivate qualities in a person.

What does it look like? It looks like Matthew 5. It looks like the Beatitudes. Well, what does it look like when someone doesn't have a new heart, but they just talk the talk? They just take religion on their lips, but their hearts are far from God.

It looks like Matthew 23. Let's consider the Beatitudes. Blessed are the poor in spirit. Now think about the scribes and the Pharisees. We've been studying them for 23 chapters now.

Are the scribes and Pharisees poor in spirit? No. They're 180 degrees opposite that. They're self-exalting. They're not lowly in heart at all.

They're exalting themselves at every turn. Blessed are those who mourn. This is an essential quality for a Christian. This is a mark of a Christian, is that when they see the sin in their own hearts, it grieves them. When they see the effects of sin on the world, it grieves them.

Are the scribes and the Pharisees this way? No. They're self-righteous. They don't think that there's anything to grieve for at all because they see themselves as righteous. Blessed are the meek.

A true Christian, when you've been given a new heart and you're being changed by God, you're becoming meek. You're not protecting turf and making sure that no one ever encroaches on your sacred honor, but you have the glory of God in mind and His sacred honor in mind and it makes you meek. Are the scribes and Pharisees meek? No, they're self-seeking to the core. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.

The scribes and the Pharisees talk all the time about righteousness. They don't even know what it is. They are hungering and thirsting for righteousness. They're making up their own kind of righteousness. They don't even know what the righteousness of God is.

Blessed are those who are merciful. These are the most merciless men that you can ever encounter. Isn't that what we've been seeing in the first 23 chapters of Matthew? These merciless men always contradicting Jesus and trying to overthrow His ministry of mercy. We just saw it in the first text in Matthew 23.

They're those who bind up burdens heavy to bear and put them on the shoulders of men and they don't even lift a finger to help them bear these burdens. Blessed are the peacemakers. A Christian, an essential quality of a Christian is that they've been given a ministry of reconciliation and they're working, they're laboring, They're laying down their lives to reconcile God to man, so that once they've been reconciled to man, that there can then be peace among men. So peace among men always starts with peace with God. There is no peace among men if there's not peace with God first.

And so they're laboring for that. These scribes and Pharisees aren't peacemakers. Jesus is going to accuse them in this text of keeping people from God. Not only are they not engaged in the ministry of reconciliation between God and man, they're separating God and man. They're laboring to put up obstacles between man and God.

Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake. The scribes and the Pharisees are the ones doing the persecuting. They're exactly the opposite of what Jesus describes as the essential marks of a Christian in Matthew 5. Number four. Observe how Jesus is speaking just like an Old Testament prophet.

If you closed your eyes and you didn't know that this was in the Gospel of Matthew and you didn't know who the speaker was, Where would you think this passage was? Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Malachi. One of those. Jesus is thundering forth, pronouncing The judgments of God just like an Old Testament prophet. Listen to Deuteronomy 18, verse 15.

This is Moses. The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like Me from your midst, from your brethren. Him you shall hear." All the way back to Moses, it was known that the Messiah would be a prophet. That the Messiah would be one who would come and announce the judgment of God. And this is exactly what Jesus is doing in Matthew 23.

Go read Isaiah 5. Go read Isaiah 5 this week. In Isaiah 5, God through Isaiah pronounces six woes and it reads so much like Matthew 23. In Isaiah 5, there's the condemnation of greed. There's the condemnation of false teaching.

There's the condemnation of hypocrisy, just like we're going to see as things unfold in the upcoming weeks in Matthew 23. Jesus sounds just like how God was delivering His Word through the prophet Isaiah. The Messiah has three offices. What are those offices? He's a prophet, he's a priest, he's a king, and at various times we've seen Him performing the functions of these three offices throughout this Gospel.

And right now in chapter 23, He is a prophet and He's thundering forth the judgments of God. Jesus said, I didn't come to destroy the law and the prophets, but to fulfill them. He's here as a prophet. Number five. Observe that Jesus is teaching the multitudes and His disciples.

Observe that Jesus is teaching the multitudes and His disciples. Observe that Jesus is teaching the multitudes and His disciples. Why would I include that here? Well, We shouldn't lose sight of it. The audience is spelled out in verse 1.

It says, having dealt with all these questions and asked a question of his own in chapter 22, that then he turns and his audience becomes the multitudes and His disciples. But in looking at the direct address, we would think maybe He was just in a room with the scribes and the Pharisees and it's one-on-one and they're His audience. No, the audience is still, though He is directly addressing the scribes and the Pharisees, His audience is still the multitudes and His disciples. So what is Jesus doing? He's making the multitudes without excuse.

He's making the multitudes without excuse. Having these leaders and teachers who preach but don't practice what they preach. He's making sure that they know that their teachers, their leaders are blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both fall into a ditch. He's making it plain that if they follow these men, they're headed into the ditch.

And hasn't He done this many other times in the Gospels? Beware the leaven. Beware the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees. Okay, let's go verse by verse. 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." Jesus condemns the scribes and the Pharisees as false teachers who shut men out of the Kingdom of Heaven. He's condemning them as false teachers who are erecting obstacles between God and men. Now, Does this mean that the scribes and the Pharisees stand condemned and everyone else is off the hook?

No. It doesn't mean that. Jesus isn't teaching that. In Ezekiel 33, God says that if He sets a watchman on the wall, when an enemy's coming and the watchman sees the enemy, if he blows the trumpet, if the people disregard and perish, then the watchman is delivered from the blood of the people because he's done his job. He saw the enemy and he blew the trumpet.

And the people perish for their own sins, having disregarded the alarm. But if the enemy's coming, and the watchman's sleeping, or the watchman doesn't blow the trumpet, and the people perish, that they'll perish in their own sins, but also the guilt of their blood will be upon the watchman because he didn't do his duty. So, it's not that Jesus is condemning the scribes and the Pharisees and everybody else is off the hook. But it is that they've been set on the wall by God as leaders, as teachers, and the trumpet's been put into their hand and they never blew the trumpet. An enemy is coming.

Judgment is coming. Sins will be accounted for. And these leaders and teachers have erected their own righteousness, not the righteousness of God. And they've comforted the people in their sins. And instead of calling for repentance, They've set forth a different kind of righteousness, and they stand condemned as a watchman who knew the enemy was coming and never blew the trumpet.

Now what exactly does woe mean? What exactly does woe mean? We don't use that very much. It has a couple of meanings in the New Testament. It's used in a couple of different ways.

The first way is this. Pour you because of what's about to happen. It's going to be really bad for you what's getting ready to happen. Here's an example. In the Gospels, Jesus says, woe to pregnant women and nursing women when the judgment comes to Jerusalem.

Now, that's not commentary on the guilt or innocence of pregnant women and nursing women. It just means that. Poor you on the day of judgment if you're pregnant or if you're nursing. It's going to be really bad. It's used in a second way as a strong condemnation, as a kind of judicial pronouncement.

We definitely see this here in Matthew 23. It is a condemnation of their conduct, their teaching, their motivations. It's a judicial pronouncement against these scribes and Pharisees. And then many times you see it's both. It's both.

And that is definitely what we have here as well. It is a judicial pronouncement, but this is going to roll right into Matthew 24, where Jesus is going to say, you see this temple? Not one stone will be left on top of the other. So you are condemned, and it's going to be really bad. The judgment of God is going to be really bad.

That's what woe means. It's bad enough that the scribes and Pharisees have rejected the Gospel for themselves. They stand condemned simply because they've rejected the Messiah that Jesus has sent to redeem His people. They rejected Jesus so they stand condemned. It's bad enough that they rejected the Gospel for themselves.

They haven't just done that. They've actively obstructed, aggressively and actively obstructed others from coming to Christ. They've done everything in their power to oppose Jesus, to discredit Jesus, to draw men away from Jesus after themselves. Listen to what Jesus says in Matthew 7 verse 13. Matthew 7 verse 13.

Enter by the narrow gate. Do you remember that text? Enter by the narrow gate. For wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. The scribes and the Pharisees have been acting like they tend a narrow gate, And that they're guarding the way to life.

That's not true. That's a lie. The scribes and the Pharisees have been guarding the widest gate of all. They've been guarding the way to destruction. And the Gospel that they've been offering is this, Do better, work harder, and God will accept you.

Do better, work harder, God will accept you. Friends, That is the wide gate. That's the gate that every Hindu teacher tends. That's the gate that every Muslim teacher tends. That's the gate that every cult leader tends.

That's the gate that every false teacher tends. Do better, work harder, God will accept you. And then they argue among themselves about what it means to do better and work harder. That's the only difference between the scribes and the Pharisees. And every other kind of religion, every other kind of false teaching, is the definition of what it means to do better and work harder.

You go to the doctor. He says, it's not bad, but you're going to have to do a couple of things. You need two aspirin and you're going to need a good night's sleep. So this is important don't ignore what I'm telling you stop by the pharmacy on the way home buy aspirin take two get a good night's sleep you'll be fine. You have cancer coursing through your body.

If they don't start radiation right away, if they don't start chemotherapy right away, if they don't do radical surgery right away, there is no hope for you. You won't last a month. But the doctor says, you'll be better in no time. Make sure to get aspirin on the way home. Make sure you get a good night's sleep.

And you don't even know that you're a walking dead man. This is what these scribes and Pharisees have done. Work a little harder, do a little better, and God will accept you. And cancer is coursing through their bodies. Jesus came to heal the sick, not the well.

He did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. And these scribes and Pharisees have been saying, you're almost there. You're almost good enough. In Luke 11, Luke 11 reads almost like Matthew 23. It would be easy to confuse because in Luke 11, Jesus pronounces six woes.

But there's not that much overlap. There's only about 50% overlap. And the circumstances are different. So they're different occasions. So Jesus has been pronouncing woes on other occasions also, at least in Luke 11.

Listen to Luke 11 verse 52. Something almost the same as verse 13 is said by Jesus, but He says it in a different way and it illuminates the meaning of verse 13. Luke 11 is 52. Woe to you lawyers, for you have taken away the key of knowledge. For you have taken away the key of knowledge.

You did not enter in yourselves, and those who were entering in, you hindered." So what was it about these scribes and Pharisees that had them taking away the key of knowledge so that they were hindering those who would enter the kingdom of heaven? What was it about their teaching and what was it about their example? Turn to Romans 9. Turn in your Bibles to Romans 9. In Romans 9, Paul talks about the fatal flaw in the Gospel of the scribes and Pharisees, in the Gospel that is running through the nation of Israel at the time of Jesus.

Romans 9, We're going to begin in verse 30 and then read through verse 5 to chapter 10. Romans 9 verse 30. What shall we say then? That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness of faith. But Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, has not attained to the law of righteousness.

Why? Because they did not seek it by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumbling stone. As it is written, Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and a rock of offense, and whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame. Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved.

For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For they, being ignorant of God's righteousness and seeking to establish their own righteousness have not submitted to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. For Moses writes about the righteousness which is of the law, the man who does those things shall live by them." Paul, out of the prophets, talks about the great stumbling stone that tripped up the scribes and the Pharisees and all who would be taught by them. And Jesus Christ was the stumbling stone.

They were happy enough to have the law and to make a game out of it and to make an external framework that could be done and managed. But when righteousness by faith was clearly taught to them and set before their eyes in the person and work of Jesus Christ, they stumbled. They wanted a righteousness from the law, but there is no righteousness from the law. And the Messiah that had been sent by God to redeem them, to redeem God's people. They stumbled over.

Matthew Henry says this, They were sworn enemies to the Gospel of Christ, and consequently to the salvation of the souls of men. When You are a sworn enemy to salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. You're the sworn enemy to the souls of man. And that's what the scribes and the Pharisees were. They had made themselves sworn enemies to the Redeemer that God had sent His people.

And so they became the sworn enemies of the souls of man. Repentance and faith is the core and essence of the Gospel. Salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. Repentance and faith is the core of the Gospel. Now, how to apply verse 13?

How to apply verse 13? Could it be that through your teaching or through your life, you've been an obstacle to people coming to Christ? Either through what you've taught or through what you've taught in your life that you've become an obstacle. You've hindered men from trusting Christ. Parents, every day our children are watching.

Every day. And the things that we're teaching, and the things that we're doing before their eyes, is either a blessing that points them to Christ or it's a curse and an obstacle. This is how we apply verse 13. You don't have to be a parent. Everyone's watching Christians.

To see what they say, to hear what they say, and to see how they live their lives. You're either a blessing to the watching world, pointing them towards Christ and salvation in Christ, or you're a curse that causes them to want nothing to do with the Good News. Verse 14. Back to our text. 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." In verse 14, Jesus condemns the scribes and the Pharisees as cheats, who cultivate a public reputation for godliness for their own dishonest gain. That's what verse 14 is all about. People who cultivate a public persona, a public reputation for godliness. And then once they've done it, they use it for their own dishonest gain. The Old Testament has a ton to say about widows.

Widows appear in the Old Testament 67 times. So it's a significant category in the Old Testament. You want the summary? Don't mess with widows. That's the summation of the Old Testament teaching on widows.

Don't mess with widows. In fact, Go out of your way to bless widows and help widows and protect widows and provide for widows. In the Kingdom of Heaven, in Jesus' Kingdom, the most vulnerable and the downtrodden are cared for. Widows don't worry in King Jesus' kingdom. Orphans don't worry in King Jesus' kingdom.

Because in His kingdom, the most vulnerable, the downtrodden, are protected and cared for, not preyed on. Listen to James, Jesus' brother in his epistle, James 1, 27. Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this, to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world. Aren't you glad we have a simple religion? Now, simple is not the same thing as easy.

Those are different things. But at least we can say we have a simple religion. We have two great commandments that sum up all the law and the prophets. Love God and love your neighbor. We have a great condition that tells us what we're supposed to do with these lives that God has given to us.

And now James has told us what should characterize our practice of religion. And he boils it down to two things. Keep yourself unspotted by the world. Don't become like the world. Don't be defiled by the world or be defiling like the world.

And care for the vulnerable and downtrodden. Visit orphans and widows in their trouble. Two things And long prayers to worm your way into the affections and trust of the vulnerable is not one of them, not surprisingly. And that's what's happening in verse 14. Men are worming their way into the affections and trust of the vulnerable, and then using that to defraud them.

Paul speaks of this in 2 Timothy chapter 3. In 2 Timothy chapter 3, the first part of verse 2, Paul says this, For men will be lovers of themselves, and then there's a list. But this is the first item on the list. This is the top of the list. He's talking about men who love themselves.

Men will be lovers of themselves. And then in verse 5, he says that these men who love themselves have a form of godliness but deny the power. And then he says in verse 6, For of this sort are those who creep into households and make captives of gullible women." This is what Jesus is talking about. He's talking about men who love themselves, who have a form of godliness, who have cultivated a public persona, gained a public reputation for godliness. And then they creep into households and prey on the most vulnerable.

This is what Jesus is talking about. They cultivate a reputation for godliness, and then they go after the most vulnerable. And so, When they do a charitable deed, they blow a trumpet. Boop, ba da boop. Good.

Being done over here. And when they pray, They pray at the corner of Main Street and 1st Street. High traffic areas. Praying here. And when they fast, they disfigure their faces and they sit down in sackcloth and ashes.

So you're sure to notice that they're very spiritual and they're fasting. This is Matthew 6. This goes right back to the Sermon on the Mount. We keep going back there every week. Such valuable teaching in the Sermon on the Mount.

Obviously Jesus is not condemning praying a lot. The condemnation is where Jesus says for a pretense make long prayers. For a pretense make long prayers. The Greek is literally under a color of long praying. So the connection in the Greek between the defrauding of widows, devouring their homes, and the pretense of long prayers, The connection is so close in the Greek.

Under a color of long praying. In other words, set up a flag, set up a banner of godliness, prayerfulness. And then, devour widow's houses under that banner. It's the language of a wolf. Devouring.

They're busy devouring. Also, like Matthew 6, where the false teacher is what? He's a wolf in sheep's clothing. That's exactly what Jesus is talking about. He's a wolf in sheep's clothing.

Every chance he gets, he's devouring the resources of the most vulnerable. In Luke 6 verse 12, Jesus continues all night in prayer. In 2 Thessalonians 5, verse 17, Paul exhorts us to pray without ceasing. Long prayers, friends, are not the problem. Pray all you like.

Pray all you like. Pray more than you ever have. But don't do it under a collar. Jesus says, therefore, therefore, because you pray fake prayers to help you defraud the vulnerable, because you do that, therefore you will receive a greater condemnation. Hypocrisy like the hypocrisy that Jesus is describing in detail in chapter 23 increases level of guilt.

It piles up guilt. These men, by engaging in hypocrisy that Jesus is describing in Matthew 23, are piling up guilt for themselves. Galatians 6 verse 7, do not be deceived, God is not mocked. For whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. This is it.

This is what hypocrites need to know. They need to know that they can fool their neighbor and they can pray on the vulnerable that they can never mock God. They can never fool God. When you sow hypocrisy, you reap extra condemnation, greater condemnation. How do we apply verse 14?

Have you ever cultivated a reputation for godliness and then used it? Have you ever been tempted to develop a public persona that you're godly, and then used it to get into or get out of something. Leveraged it to your own advantage. Verse 15. 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." In verse 15, Jesus condemns the scribes and the Pharisees as zealots who destroy those who convert to their false gospel. They've made a convert of their false gospel. Zealously They've made a convert of their false gospel. Zealously they've made a convert of their false gospel. And then they destroy their convert.

At the heart of this is their zeal to advance themselves. That's what they're doing with this false gospel. They are men who love themselves, just like 2 Timothy 3 says. They're men who love themselves with a form of godliness, but denying its power. And so, their service to the false gospel is really just a service to themselves.

And they're not content to play this game by themselves. In fact, the game that they're playing can't be played by themselves. They need others to play it because it's for themselves. It's for their own reputations, the praise of men. And so, they can't play by themselves.

You have to play too. Everyone else must play along. And clearly, this has a close relationship with verse 13, keeping others from entering the Kingdom of Heaven. But in this instance, it's one worse. They've got their own kingdom that they're drawing people into, and it's a kingdom of destruction.

So they go and they make a convert. They travel land and sea. They go to the ends of the earth to make this convert, and then they pretend that it's a good thing. This is the hypocrisy of verse 15. They act like Their zealous pursuit of converts is a good thing.

But what have they done? They've taken an enemy of God and made him or her into a self-righteous enemy of God. They've taken a heathen and made him or her a hypocrite. You're not better off when you go from heathen to hypocrite. You're worse off.

And so they've taken people who are enemies of God and then through a false Gospel had made them think that they're reconciled to God. Does it get more hopeless than that? And isn't this what we see all around us? People who have been inoculated to the true Gospel who think that all is well with their souls. Here's a paraphrase of what Jesus says in verse 15.

Your sons of hell and your converts are worse. Your converts are twice as bad. Your sons of hell because your sons of the devil, who is a liar, who was a liar from the beginning. When he speaks, he lies. John 8, 44.

Their sons of their father the devil. And then they make their converts twice as bad. This is not uncommon actually for the converts of false teachers to become twice as bad as the false teacher. It's not unusual to see that. Paul Washer, at the Sufficiency of Scripture conference, gave a really helpful message.

And the anchor text for his message was this verse. You travel land and sea to make one convert, and then you turn him into twice the son of hell as yourselves. So he quotes this verse and then he asks the question, should American evangelicalism be exported or Quarantined? Should we send it overseas or should we bottle it up so people aren't cursed with this false gospel that's running in the church? It's a good question.

And when you look across the landscape of American evangelicalism, you'd have to say, it should be quarantined. By and large, it should be quarantined. A month ago, I was in Malawi. Christian nation. 80% Christians.

It's just like the South. Being in Malawi was just like being in North Carolina, Virginia, Florida, the South, where we're all Christians. Only without the repenting and the belief. We're Christians, minus repentance and faith. That's how it is in Malawi too.

And people think they're well, so they don't seek a physician. And we have exported that to them. In Malawi, of the 80%, the overwhelming majority are either Roman Catholic or their prosperity gospel Pentecostals. That's what you find there. That's your Christian nation.

And we've exported it to them. Jesus in Mark 1 verse 15 says, Repent and believe the Gospel. It's the first words of His public ministry. Repent and believe the Gospel. That's the Gospel.

Now, that's the Gospel at its core. And there are things to know about what it means to repent, and there are things to know about what it means to believe the Gospel. But at its core, when you boil all the water out of it, the nugget that you're left with is repent and believe the Gospel. Listen, there are many good and helpful and biblical things that pertain to the people of God. But don't confuse those things with the Gospel.

Did you hear me? There's a list a mile long of biblical things that are good, that are a blessing, that should be pursued by the people of God. But don't you dare confuse that list with the Gospel. Transforming the culture is important. But it flows from the Gospel.

It's not the Gospel. Family Reformation is important, but it flows from the Gospel. It's not the Gospel. Sanctification and holiness are important, but they flow from the Gospel. They're not the Gospel, and we can't afford to be even the least bit fuzzy or unclear about what the Gospel is, about how man is saved and then what ought to flow from that.

What flows from that when the Holy Spirit takes up resonance in a heart and begins to produce fruit. You've got to know what the root and the tree is, and you've got to know what the fruit is. You can't be talking about one like it's the other. What? Okay, applying verse 15.

Applying verse 15. First of all, do we have any cloudiness in our Gospel? Do we know what the Gospel is and what flows from the Gospel? And are we careful in how we communicate it with it so that we're not misunderstood? Secondly, what is the source of our zeal?

What's the source of our zeal? Do we like being seen? Or do we love God and do we care about the souls of our neighbor? Do we love our neighbor? What's the source of our zeal?

Hey, a lot of different motivations will send men over land and sea to make a prophylite. A lot of motivations will. But the motivation for the Great Commission is the Great Commandment and the Second. To love God with all the heart, with all the soul, with all the mind, and to love your neighbor as yourself. Okay, concluding remarks.

God has brought this church to these texts, to Matthew 23. He planned it this way. That we'd be here in this text on this Sunday, and in Matthew 23 for the next month. This is not happenstance. God brought us here now for His own purposes.

How many times have you been in church and you said, I can't believe this is what the sermon was on this week. This is exactly what I need. And it's happened to all of us a hundred times. I can't believe this is the text for this week. That's because God knows what He's doing.

God knows what He's doing. God knows exactly what message to bring to His people at what time. I don't think... Listen, I've been trained by God. I don't think there's any way that we're here by happenstance.

I believe that God has brought us here to deal with the hypocrisy in our hearts. And if all we do in the next four weeks is to wag our fingers at the scribes and Pharisees out there and find their counterparts in our culture out there. And we don't use it as the opportunity brought to us by God to examine our hearts and to see where we're hypocrites. We have wasted a month. God has brought us here, not so that we'll wag our fingers at the scribes and Pharisees out there, but so that we'll come to terms with hypocrisy in our own hearts.

You, regenerate or unregenerate, you have cultivated a personal persona that is out of step with your thoughts, with your words sometimes, with what you do in secret. There's a discrepancy. There's a gap. There's a mismatch. You've cultivated a reputation for godliness.

When often your thoughts aren't godly, when often your words aren't godly, when often what you do in secret is not godly. And I have to. And I praise God that He's brought us to these texts so that we'll look at our hearts. Oh God, Don't leave us in our hypocrisy. How kind is it for God to bring us here to deal with these things?

We're being treated like sons and daughters, not like illegitimate children. Illegitimate children, God just leaves. He just leaves To destroy themselves. But sons and daughters, He disciplines because He loves them. God has brought us to Matthew 23 because He loves us.

And He's not just going to leave us to destroy ourselves. Do you know hypocrisy will destroy you? Hypocrisy is leaven and it grows and it spreads. And to the extent that you've left it alone and called the truce with hypocrisy in your heart, it is growing and it will destroy you. And God in His kindness has brought us this opportunity so that we'll wage a holy war in the power of the Spirit against the hypocrisy that we'll find there.

Oh, we'll find it. You cry out to God to show it to you, and He'll show it to you. And what will we do when God puts His finger on our hypocrisy? You either despair or you repent. Don't despair.

Consider God's kindness in bringing us here, His goodness, His love being demonstrated in bringing us here to deal with our hypocrisy. He's not doing this to destroy us. He's doing this to bring us to repentance, so that times of refreshing will come from the presence of the Lord. Here's something that happens when God puts His finger on hypocrisy. You remember that all you have is Christ, just like we sang this morning.

All you have is Christ. And you need Him today exactly the same as you needed Him on the day when you were saved. If You've been walking with Him for a day, or a week, or a year, or a decade, or two decades, or three decades. That's me. I've been part of the Kingdom of Heaven by God's grace for 30 years.

And when God puts His finger on my hypocrisy, it's so clear to me, I am as reliant on the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ as much today or more. At least more than I was aware of it on the day that I was saved. There's so much I didn't know on the day I was saved. And then God keeps revealing it to me. I guess I'm glad about that, but it makes me know it's His grace.

It's only His grace. After 30 years, I can say with more confidence than ever, It is His grace. It's the provision of Jesus Christ on the cross and only that. And yes, God has given me areas of progress over three decades, but that's His grace too. Having begun in the Spirit, will we then be sanctified and continue and the flesh may it never be?

That is a false Gospel. Let's let J.C. Ryle have the last word. Whatever we are in our religion, let us resolve never to wear a cloak. Whatever we are in our religion, let us resolve never to wear a cloak.

Whatever we are in our religion, Let us resolve never to wear a cloak. Brothers and sisters, let's make a holy pact today. A holy pact together that whatever we are together, whatever we are in this fellowship, In our religion, in our serving Christ, we will not wear a cloak. We will not pretend with one another and cultivate a reputation for godliness when there's a massive gap with what we think, with what we say, with what we do in secret. Let's pray.

Father, In our more honest moments, we see the gap between the reputation that we've cultivated and what we are when we're thinking or speaking or when we're alone. Father, forgive us. I thank You for Your mercy that You brought us face to face with our own hypocrisy. Oh God, bear down upon us. We pray, don't just begin the work, God.

Bring it to completion. I thank You for Your promise to do this, but I pray that Your Holy Spirit would come and fall upon us as a people to press upon us now. We don't want to be healed lightly. We don't want to say peace when there's no peace. We want to be healed by You, God.

We want You to put Your finger on our hypocrisy and cause us to flee to Christ and cause us to treasure Christ like We've never treasured Him. God, I pray for this. I beg You for this. We know what we are, God. We know that we've not walked worthy of the calling.

Father, come. Conform us into this precious image that we've seen week after week in the Gospel of Matthew. I thank You For the vision of Jesus Christ that has been before our eyes, come and conform us into this image we need. We need you. We need the work of the Holy Spirit to produce the fruits of the Spirit.

We repent. We want to confess our sins and forsake them. Help us God, in Jesus' name, Amen.