In his sermon 'Woe to You Hypocrites,' Jason Dohm discusses Jesus' condemnation of the scribes and Pharisees as outlined in Matthew 23:13-15. The sermon emphasizes Jesus' disdain for hypocrisy and his forceful confrontation of the false gospel promoted by the religious leaders of the time. Dohm highlights how the woes pronounced by Jesus serve as a mirror image to the Beatitudes, illustrating the stark contrast between the characteristics of a true Christian and the actions of the Pharisees. He also draws parallels between Jesus' pronouncements and the Old Testament prophets' proclamations, emphasizing the gravity of the Pharisees' misleading teachings. The sermon calls for self-reflection among believers, urging them to examine their own lives for hypocrisy and to repent, aligning their actions with their professed faith. Dohm stresses the importance of understanding the true gospel of repentance and faith, as opposed to external righteousness, and encourages believers to seek God's guidance in eradicating hypocrisy from their lives.

Matthew 23 verses 13 through 15. Please follow along. 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 one you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves. Please pray with me. Heavenly Father, we so thank you for your word. Lord, we ask that you help us, Lord, to understand The words that you lay before us the words that you've given us to apply to our lives to understand How we should be directing ourselves every day Lord, please help us to present ourselves For your purposes Lord and for your glory. Please help Jason, Lord, as he's prepared, Lord, that you will help him clearly demonstrate, Lord, what these words are to us and how we should carry them out.

In Jesus' name, Amen. Amen. Title of the sermon this morning comes from something that is repeated three times in the text, woe to you hypocrites. So Jesus has just begun teaching the multitudes and his disciples. That's what it says in Matthew 23 verse 1.

So that's the audience. He began by telling them, don't you dare dismiss the word of God because it's come through hypocrites. Don't you dare think that you don't have to obey just because they don't practice what they preach. But now, having said that Jesus launches into a condemnation of the scribes and the Pharisees that is going to be comprised of eight different woes. So we have three verses this week, verse 13, verse 14, verse 15, and each verse starts the same way.

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. And after today there will be three more sermons that deal specifically with the woes that Jesus is pronouncing against these scribes and Pharisees. And it's a direct attack on the teachings, on the actions, and on the heart motivations of these men who are leading the people of Israel, who are teaching them the Word of God. It's an all out assault on the teachings and the actions and the heart motivations of these so-called leaders of the faith. Before we dive into the verse by verse exposition, I want to make five observations about this whole section where Jesus is pronouncing a condemnation on these men.

Five observations. Number one, Observe how much Jesus despises hypocrisy. If we come away from these four sermons and don't know more deeply than we've ever known how much of an abomination a cloak, wearing a mask, playing a game with religion, hypocrisy, cultivating a public reputation for one thing while what's in our hearts really being another thing. Jesus despises that. Jesus is on a lifelong mission to mercy.

When we think of the content of the Gospel, so much of it is devoted to His tenderness, His careful teaching of the people, his heart for the lost sheep of Israel. He looked out on the multitudes and he says, they are like sheep without a shepherd. They are scattered. He has such a heart for them and for anyone with any inkling of humility, he's been so gentle with them, he's been so patient with them, even with his disciples who haven't always been humble, who have fought over the seat at his right hand and desired the position of prominence. His rebukes of them have been so much milder than how he's going to rebuke the scribes and Pharisees in chapter 23.

So number one is to observe how much Jesus despises hypocrisy. Number two, observe how direct, how forceful, How blunt Jesus is when he confronts a false gospel. You'll never see Jesus more direct, more blunt, more forceful than he is when he's confronting people who are advancing a false gospel. This is the kind of fearlessness that is required to fight off wolves. This is what is happening in this text in all of Matthew 23.

Jesus has his shepherd's crook in hand and he is fighting off wolves. It takes this kind of courage, this kind of directness, this kind of forcefulness, this kind of bluntness, it's what a good shepherd does when he sees a wolf eating sheep. A good shepherd talks like this. A good shepherd doesn't mince words. A good shepherd is not concerned that people think he is not as quite proper and gentle as he ought to be.

In this chapter he is going to pronounce the scribes and Pharisees hypocrites seven times. In this chapter, he's going to call them blind guides two times. He's going to call them fools and blinds two more times. He's going to call them serpents, brood of vipers, once. He's not holding back in his tone, in his forcefulness, in his choice of vocabulary.

But it's all out there to be seen and to be heard. Calvin says this of this text, hence we may infer how cruel is the mildness of those who dislike our vehemence. How cruel is the mildness of those who dislike our vehemence. How cruel is the mildness of those who dislike our vehemence. Here's what Calvin's teaching.

At the time these leaders of the Reformation are locked in a battle of the leaders of the Church of Rome. They are raging against it like Jesus is raging against the scribes and Pharisees in Matthew 23. There were times in Calvin's day where people saw that and they didn't have an appetite for it. They said, you shouldn't talk like that. You shouldn't be so blunt.

You shouldn't be so forceful. Calvin looks at their mildness and their appeals to be gentler and he says, do you see how cruel that is? Do you see how cruel their mildness is that they would want us to mince words when we are faced with men who are advancing a false gospel? Jesus is the good shepherd, he is the best shepherd, he is the chief shepherd, and when Jesus is confronted with men who are advancing a false gospel, this is how he talks. This is how leaders in the Church of God talk when there is a false gospel being advanced.

Number three. Observe how the woes here in Matthew 23 are a mirror image of the Beatitudes in Chapter 5. Woe, woe, woe, woe, woe, woe, woe, woe, woe. In Chapter 23, nine woes. In chapter 5, Jesus is giving the essential qualities of a Christian.

It's the marks of a Christian. If you want to know what a Christian looks like and what the disposition of the heart of a Christian is you go to Matthew 5 and you look and you see what God blesses, what God cultivates in His people. And you find them there in the Beatitudes. And conversely, If you want to know what a false Christian looks like, what a counterfeit Christian looks like, you go to Matthew 23 and you see what Jesus is condemning in Matthew 23. Listen as a reminder of the Beatitudes.

Blessed are the poor in spirit. The scribes and Pharisees are anything but the poor in spirit. They're actually self-exalting. They're wanting to be called rabbi, rabbi, oh master, what should we do next master? They are desiring the places of position, not so the mark of a Christian.

Blessed are the foreign spirit. Blessed are those who mourn. These scribes and Pharisees are not mourning over their sin or the effects of sin in the world. They are actually self-righteous. They don't think there is anything to mourn over at all.

They think that they are righteous because of the works of the law. Blessed are the meek. A Christian, an essential mark of a Christian is that they are meek. They are not always protecting turf and on the defensive to make sure that their honor is never encroached upon these, scribes and Pharisees are self-seeking to the core. There is not a meek bone in their body.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. Now we've been studying the scribes and the Pharisees. Are they hungering and thirsting for righteousness? No! They've created their own righteousness.

They've set aside the righteousness of God and they've created their own righteousness, an external righteousness, a righteousness that can be achieved in their own strength. Blessed are those who are merciful. These are the most Merciless men who bind up burdens heavy to bear and place them on the shoulders of their disciples and they themselves won't lift a finger. Blessed are the peacemakers. It's an essential quality in a Christian that they are laboring, they are laying down their lives to make peace between God and men.

Christians have been given a ministry of reconciliation where we are laboring with our lost neighbors. Be reconciled with God. Repent so that then there can be peace between men. There is never any peace between men, real peace, true peace, biblical peace, unless there is first peace with God. So they are laboring towards that.

Jesus in this text is going to condemn the scribes and the Pharisees because they separate men from God with their false gospel. They slam the door of the Kingdom of Heaven in the face of the people who are Heeding their teaching. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake. They're doing the persecuting. They're doing the persecuting.

So in Matthew 5 we have these essential qualities of a Christian, the marks of a true Christian. As we look at these, item by item, we find that the scribes and the Pharisees in what we've observed during the course of the Gospels are exactly the opposite of all of these marks of a true Christian. And yet, Jesus paints a different picture in Matthew 23. He brings us the picture of the hypocrite. Hypocrite, hypocrite, hypocrite.

And He's painting the picture of those who have a form of godliness but deny its power, have the name of God on their lips, Lord, Lord, did we not, and yet they're full of lawlessness. Number four, observe how Jesus is speaking just like an Old Testament prophet. If you closed your eyes and you didn't know this was in a gospel, where would you say this was? You'd say it was in Isaiah or Jeremiah or Ezekiel or Malachi or, or, or. Jesus is speaking in Matthew 23 just like an Old Testament prophet.

In the Old Testament there are 72 different woes pronounced. So it's not a small, insignificant category in the Old Testament. You find woes being pronounced throughout the Old Testament, just like Jesus is pronouncing them in Matthew 23. Listen to Moses in Deuteronomy 18 verse 5. Deuteronomy 18 verse 5, Moses says, The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your midst, from your brethren, him you shall hear." Moses knew all the way at the beginning that the Messiah would be a prophet.

Here in Matthew 23, Jesus is on the scene and He is speaking just like a prophet. He is announcing the judgment of God just like a prophet does. In Isaiah 5, if we were to go and look at Isaiah 5, we'd see the prophet Isaiah pronouncing six woes in sequence. And it reads almost just like Matthew 23. It's a condemnation of greed, it's a condemnation of false teaching, and it is a condemnation of hypocrisy.

Isaiah 5 reads so much like Matthew 23. The Messiah has three offices. What are they? Prophet, Priest, King. And at various points we've seen Jesus in his ministry in the office of a prophet, here, in the office of a priest.

It's coming. In the office of a King as he is announcing, repent for what? Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Number five, Observe that Jesus is teaching the multitudes and his disciples. We could lose sight of this because He is calling out people by name, isn't he?

Woe to you, what? Scribes and Pharisees hypocrites. But the purpose of this is to teach his audience. It's not just for scribes and Pharisees. It's for the multitudes and his disciples.

He wants to render the multitudes to be without excuse. It's not an excuse that you have false teachers. I told you that they were hypocrites. Jesus has said, if the blind leads the blind, both fall into a ditch. And so he wants these people to know that these scribes and Pharisees, The crowds ought to know that the scribes and Pharisees are blind, and if you follow them, you are following them into the ditch.

He is teaching them, beware the leaven of the scribes and Pharisees. Now let's look at these verse by verse. Put your finger in Matthew 23 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." In verse 13, Jesus condemns them as false teachers who shut men out of the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus condemns them as false teachers who are shutting men out of the Kingdom of Heaven.

Does this let the multitudes off the hook? No. He's dealing with the scribes and Pharisees here. If we go to Ezekiel 33, we see that when a watchman is set on a wall, when the enemy is coming, If he blows his trumpet to warn the people, then even if they're overrun, he's innocent of the blood of the people. But if he doesn't blow the trumpet, he's guilty of the blood of the people.

Either way, the people are condemned for their own sins. So this isn't that they're false teachers and so they're condemned and everyone else is let off the hook. But it's that they've been stationed on the wall and when they see an enemy come, they have an obligation. Their souls before God to be innocent of the blood. They have to blow the trumpet when they see the enemy coming.

The reality is these leaders have come. An enemy is coming. The enemy is sin. They've advanced to a completely different kind of righteousness. They've never blown the trumpet to say, an enemy is coming, save yourselves.

Now what exactly is a woe? What is this? Do you use this at home? Jennifer, do you say, woe to you, Jeffrey? Woe to you.

He might not know what you meant by that. She might say that this week now, Jeffrey. So you better be on good behavior. Well it can mean a couple of different things. It's used a couple of different ways.

Here's the first way. Poor you because of what's about to happen. Poor you because of what's about to happen. Without respect at all to the innocence or guilt of the person that it's being spoken to. For instance, in the gospels, Jesus says, Woe to pregnant women, woe to nursing women, when the judgment of God comes.

That's not a statement about the innocent or guilt of pregnant women or nursing women when it comes. It's just saying it's going to be bad for you when what's about to come comes. Or it can be a strong condemnation. That's the second thing it can be. A strong condemnation, a kind of judicial pronouncement.

That's definitely here in this text. A strong condemnation, a kind of judicial pronouncement. Or thirdly, it can be both. We have that here. In the text you can tell it's a judicial pronouncement.

But then in chapter 24, he's getting ready to say how bad it's going to be when the judgment of God comes. When Not one stone of the temple is left on another. It's bad enough that they rejected the gospel themselves. But not only have they rejected the gospel for themselves, but they've actively obstructed everyone else in their charge. Listen to what Jesus says in Matthew 7 verse 13.

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. Now the scribes and the Pharisees have pretended that they are tending a narrow gate and that it's the way to life. But that's a lie. The scribes and the Pharisees have actually been tending the widest gate of all.

What gate is that? Do better. Work harder and God will accept you. Work harder and God will accept you. That's the widest gate that there is.

That's the gate that every Hindu teacher tends. That's the gate that every Muslim teacher tends. Do better, work harder, God will accept you. That's the gate that every cult tends and that every false teacher tends. It's like going to the doctor and he says, this isn't as bad as you that you're gonna have to do a couple of things You need to take some aspirin so pick up some aspirin on the way home, and you're gonna need a good night's sleep So make sure You pick up aspirin and take the aspirin.

You've got cancer surging through your body. If you don't start radiation, if you don't start chemotherapy, if there's not radical surgery done on you, right away there's no hope for you. Pick up some aspirin on the way home, make sure you get a good night's sleep. You'll be fine. And you're left thinking, it's just a few little things.

I'm almost better. And you don't even know that if something radical doesn't happen, you're dead in a month, and you're headed to Rite Aid for aspirin. Jesus came to heal the sick, not to heal the well. He did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. This is why the Pharisees and the scribes couldn't enter because it required repentance.

Not same direction harder, not same direction faster, but turn around. Turn around. If you keep going on this road, it's broad and it only leads to destruction. Turn around. In Luke 11, you might mistake it for Matthew 23, but because Jesus is pronouncing woes.

Here he pronounces eight woes, in Luke 11 he pronounces six, and there's a little bit of overlap, but it's only about half, and You can tell that it's not the same circumstances. In Luke 11, Jesus is pronouncing woes. He's done this before the last week of his life. He says something that's almost the same as verse 13, but it's got a little different angle on it and it helps us to understand verse 13. Listen to Luke 11 verse 52.

Woe to you lawyers, for you have taken away the key of knowledge. You've taken away the key of knowledge. You did not enter in yourselves and those who were entering in you hindered. You can see it sounds a lot like verse 13, but he's condemning them for taking away the key of knowledge. What exactly is the key of knowledge?

Turn to Romans 9. In Romans 9, Paul troubleshoots the faith of Israel at the time of Jesus. He troubleshoots it. He puts his finger on the fatal flaw. Romans 9.

Romans 9 will begin in verse 30 and then we will read into chapter 10 through verse 5. 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.

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. The Jews at the time of Christ, the fatal flaw was that they stumbled at Christ. It was a, do better, work harder, God will accept you. That's not saving faith.

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 faith alone, through grace alone, you are a sworn enemy to the souls of men. It drags the souls of It drags the souls of men to hell when you teach them to trust in themselves, to work harder, to do better. Salvation is by repentance and faith. That's it!

You can't add one other thing to it. Salvation is by repentance and faith. Verse 14. Back to Matthew 23, verse 14. 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 them as cheats who cultivate a reputation of godliness for their own dishonest gain. That's what he's doing in verse 14. He's condemning them as cheats who cultivate a reputation, a public persona of godliness for their own dishonest gain.

The Old Testament has a ton to say about widows. It has so much to say about widows. Widows appear 67 times in the Old Testament. Here's your summary. Don't mess with widows.

Big category in the Old Testament, there's your faithful summary of don't mess with widows. In the Kingdom of Heaven, the most vulnerable and the downtrodden are elevated and cared for. That is the Kingdom of Heaven for you. In the Kingdom of Heaven, widows don't need to worry. Orphans don't need to worry.

Because the people of God know that To defraud a widow is to make war on God. The people of God know that. Anybody who knows the Old Testament knows that when you defraud a widow, you declared war on Almighty God. So widows are to be cared for, not prayed upon. And these scribes and Pharisees are praying upon them.

Listen to what James says. James, the brother of Jesus, 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 by the world. We don't have an easy faith, but we do have a simple faith. There are two great commandments that sum up all the law and the prophets. There's one great condition that tells us what we ought to be about.

And now here in James 1.27, He's told us the two irreducible things that should characterize our practice of religion. To keep ourselves unspotted by the world, to not be taken up with the ways of the Gentiles and to visit widows and orphans in their distress. Two things. And long prayers to worm your way into the position of trust is not one of them. And that's what's happening.

And that's what Jesus is condemning them for. Their long prayers just serve to get them into the hearts and trust of widows. And then they take advantage and defraud them. Paul speaks of this in 2 Timothy chapter 3. In 2 Timothy chapter 3 verse 2 begins this way, for men will be lovers of themselves.

That's what Jesus is talking about. Men who love themselves. The great commandments are to love God and to love your neighbor and these scribes and Pharisees love themselves. And then in 1 Timothy 3, that begins a long list of things they love and things they hate. But he's talking about a certain kind of men and he begins the list this way, for men will be lovers of themselves.

And then when you get down to verse 6, For of this sort are those who creep into households and make captives of gullible women. For of this sort are of those who creep, my paraphrase, slither, slither into households and make captives of gullible women. The most vulnerable, instead of caring for them, They defraud them. They look upon them as prey because they're weak. They cultivate a reputation of godliness by praying the longest, the most winsome prayers.

And meanwhile they're going after the most vulnerable. So they're blowing trumpets when they do their charitable deeds. I'm doing good over here. And They pray on the street corners, the intersection of traffic, corner of Main and first, that's where they pray. And it's all just cultivating a public persona, a public reputation for godliness.

They disfigure their faces when they're fasting. You remember all this from Matthew 6. It's the description of the hypocrite. It's the description of one who wears a mask and then turns around and changes the mask. All for their own advantage.

Their lovers are themselves and they're creeping into households and taking captive gullible women, the most vulnerable. Obviously this isn't a condemnation about praying for a long time. It's for a pretense they make long prayers. It's the pretense. Literally word for word here, the Greek is under a color of praying.

Under a color of long praying, that's the word for word Greek, under the color of long praying, we erect a banner of being religious, being godly, and then under that banner, he devours widow's houses. It's the language of a wolf. It's the language of a wolf that comes in and is devouring. It's the wolf in sheep's clothing, isn't it? Back to Matthew 6, it's the wolf in sheep's clothing.

It's the false teacher who puts up a banner, godliness here, and then operates under the reputation of godliness to defraud other people for their own gain. In Luke chapter 6 verse 12, Jesus continues all night in prayer. In 2 Thessalonians 5 verse 17, Paul exhorts us to pray without ceasing. Long prayers are not the problem here. It's the hypocritical heart that has set up a banner, a reputation of godliness, and then defrauds, takes advantage of the public reputation.

Then Jesus says, Therefore, because you pray, think prayers to help you defraud the vulnerable, Therefore you will receive a greater condemnation. Hypocrisy like this, like Jesus is describing in verse 14, increases the level of guilt. It piles up Guilt. 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. You can fool your neighbor, you can defraud the vulnerable, but you cannot mock God. You cannot, you will not mock God.

Whatever it is that you sow, you'll reap. And when you sow hypocrisy, when you sow defrauding to downtrodden, you'll reap. God is not mocked. 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 them as zealots who destroy those that they've converted to their false gospel.

He condemns them as zealots who destroy those who they've converted to their false gospel. At the heart of the zeal of these scribes and Pharisees is their zeal to advance a false gospel. That's why they're doing what they're doing. They're not content to play this game themselves. Everyone else has to play too.

And that's how it is with hypocrites who are advancing a false gospel. They don't just take themselves near. They take as many people with them as they possibly can. Clearly this has a close relationship to verse 13 where they are condemned for keeping others from entering. So they go and They make a convert and they pretend that they are doing good.

That's the hypocrisy in verse 15. They pretend that this zealous pursuit of converts is doing good, but it's not done from love for God. It's not done for love of the souls of their neighbor. It's done for love of themselves. That's why they're doing it, is because they love themselves, because they're serving themselves.

Now what have they really done? When they've traveled land and sea and exhausted themselves to make one convert, what have they done? They've taken an enemy of God and they've made him or her into a self-righteous enemy of God who somehow imagines that he or she has been reconciled to God. You realize how diabolical that is, how of the devil that is, to go and take an enemy of God and make them into a self-righteous enemy of God that thinks they are justified. Here's a paraphrase of what Jesus says, Your sons of hell and your converts are worse.

Your sons of hell, scribes and Pharisees, because your father, the devil, is the father of lies and your hypocrites, your sons of hell. And your converts are twice as bad. Paul Washer at the Sufficiency of Scripture conference a couple of years ago preached on international missions and he used this as his text and He asked the question, should American evangelicalism be exported or quarantined? Should the faith that American evangelicals on balance, on average, have to offer. Should that be taken over land and sea or should it be quarantined and shut up behind closed doors?

And He talked about how our missionaries are going out into foreign lands and they are taking easy believism, false conversions, the prosperity gospel. I am a month away of having seen this with my own two eyes. The prosperity gospel everywhere. A quote unquote Christian nation. Eighty percent of the population is quote unquote Christian.

And there are no converts. And there is no holiness. And there is no godliness. And there is no repentance. And there is no loving God.

But we're a Christian nation. It's like being in the South. Being in Malawi is like being in the South. We are all Christians here. We're all Christians here.

Many things are good and biblical and helpful for the people of God. Don't confuse those things with the Gospel. Did you hear me? Many things are good, biblical, proper, helpful, edifying for the people of God that You can teach straight from the scripture that are not the gospel. Don't confuse those things with the gospel.

Transforming culture is important. Transforming culture is a result of the gospel, it's not the gospel. Family reformation is important. Family reformation is a result of the gospel, It's not the gospel. Sanctification and holiness are important.

They're biblical, but they result from the gospel. They're not the gospel. Jesus said, Repent and believe the Gospel. That's Mark 1.15. The very first words of His ministry, Repent and believe the Gospel.

That's the Gospel. Now, there are some things wrapped up in believe the gospel that have to be spelled out so that someone can understand, but it is repentance and faith. It's repentance and believing that is the gospel. And so, any time we are fuzzy on the Gospel and what it means to be saved and what it takes to be saved, it is a massive disservice to our hearers. We need to be clear as a bell, clear as a crystal on what it is that saves a man and then what it is that flows from that salvation and never mix them in our preaching to the lost.

Finally in this verse we have to ask, what's the source of our zeal? Yes be zealous, But Paul has already addressed that in what we looked at in Romans 9. They have a zeal but it is a zeal without knowledge. That is the zeal of the scribe and the Pharisees that takes them to the ends of the earth to gain one convert. What is the source of our zeal?

Is it true love for God and true love for the souls of our neighbor? Or is it a desire to increase our own influence, our own standing? A few closing remarks on this section. God has brought this church to this text, Not so that we can wag our fingers at the hypocrites out there. God has us in this text on this Sunday as a part of His providential plan for us.

It's not coincidence that we're at this text at this time. God has brought us here. We're going to be here four sermons. And if they're not four weeks of intense self-evaluation, looking into our hearts and begging God to identify areas of hypocrisy and then making holy war on the things that God shows us, then they will have been wasted weeks. If we just caused us to be proud of ourselves, to pat ourselves on the back, that we're less hypocritical than those out there, then shame on us.

What a waste. God has brought us here so that we'll deal with the places in our hearts where the public persona, the public reputation that we've cultivated doesn't match what you think, doesn't match what you say to others, doesn't match what you do in secret. There's not a person, regenerate or unregenerate, who's listening, who this does not apply to. Paul, if he were here listening, he would know this applied to him because he found himself doing the things that he didn't want to do. And he found him not doing the things that he didn't want to do.

In the heart of every man and woman and child. This exists to a greater or lesser degree. There's hypocrisy. You have cultivated a public persona, a reputation among those who know you that's out of step with your thoughts, that's out of step with what you say to other people, that's out of step with what you do in secret. And God wants to put his finger on these and cause us to be so much less comfortable with our hypocrisy than we've been.

He wants to help us. He wants to treat us like sons. If you're a Christian, God wants to treat you like a son or a daughter and discipline you and cause there to be a merging between your public persona. The problem with hypocrisy isn't a profession of godliness. The problem with hypocrisy is the life that doesn't match.

So the exhortation isn't of course not to abandon a profession or reputation of godliness. The exhortation is to attack the discrepancy with your thought life, the discrepancy with what you do in secret, the discrepancy with what you say when your Christian friends aren't around. If we cry out for it, God will give it to us. He'll show us our hypocrisy. He'll open our eyes to it and He'll give us a greater sensitivity to it so we must cry out.

And when we cry out and when He identifies it, it's not a time to despair. It's a time to repent. It's a time to rejoice that God would treat us like sons and not like bastard children who are not His. And He would deal with us and help us to make progress in the faith. So when God shows you your hypocrisy and starts to squeeze you to change you, Flee to Christ.

This is our greatest moment. This is the time where we know that we only have one hope, and that's Christ. When God puts His finger on your hypocrisy, it teaches you that whether you've been walking with God for a day or a week or a year or a decade or two decades or three decades, that's me. I've been in the faith for three decades and I'm appalled at my hypocrisy. But you know what?

In a way, this causes you to rejoice because you know in a fresh way that you only had one hope on the day you were saved and you only have one hope today and it's not the works of the law, it's Christ. It's what he's purchased for us on the cross. J.C. Ryle gets the last word today. Whatever we are in religion, Let us resolve never to wear a cloak.

Let's make a holy pact with ourselves today. Let's make a holy pact among ourselves today that whatever we are in religion, we won't wear a cloak and pretend that we're something that we're not. Let's pray. Father, I thank you for these words that condemn me, I that shine a light into the dark places of my soul, where I pretend and hide. I thank you, O God, that you have treated me like a son this week.

You don't leave us alone. You continue to wallow in sin while we cultivate a public reputation of godliness. Thank you God, you are so kind. I pray God over these four weeks that we'll be considering these texts where you're condemning men. We wouldn't be condemned, but we'd be rejoicing.

You're treating us as a father and showing us things that you desire to remove so that we'd be conformed into the precious image of Christ. I pray that we would flee to the cross. I pray that we would rejoice in what you've done for us through Jesus Christ, that our hope is in Christ today like it was the day we got saved, that we would be full of the joy we had when we were first saved and set free from our sins. We thank you for Christ in Jesus' name, Amen.