Luke 11:42-44

Luke chapter 11, reading verses 42 through 44. But woe unto you Pharisees, for you tied mint and rue and all manner herbs, and Passover judgment and the love of God. These ought ye to have ye to have done and not to leave the other undone. Woe unto you Pharisees, for you love the uppermost seats in the synagogues and greetings in the markets. Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for ye are as graves which appear not, and men that walk over them are not aware of them. May God bless to us his sacred and holy word this morning. In any great forest, you have some white large trees, huge trees, and they tower above all the rest. They appear to be the strongest and the most mature. However, lagers, when they come in, rarely will cut those. trees down. They’ll cut the smaller trees down and they’ll leave them alone. You might look at it and say, well, why wouldn’t they cut the bigger trees because they have two or three times more lumber than some of the smaller trees? Well, the reason they’re bypassed is that often the huge trees are rotten on the inside. Perhaps raccoons or owls or something has made a nest in them. and because of their hollowness, they’re easily blown down when a windstorm comes and they’re not good for making wood. I think in a way this is a good picture of the hypocrite. He appears to be very religious on the outside, but the truth of the matter is the hypocrite is rotten on the inside. And in reality, that is the truth of the matter. about them. Now Jesus in our text is denouncing the Pharisees as hypocrites. He does so here in the home of his host who has asked him to dinner, as verse 37 indicates to us. In Matthew 23, which Russell read this morning, he uses similar language to publicly denounce the scribes and the Pharisees. Here, it’s a more private setting. In Matthew 23, it seems to be in a temple area, area where there was a lot of people around. But what Jesus says here applies really to religious hypocrites in every age, not just in his day. When Jesus says, woe unto you Pharisees, That word woe indicates that the wrath of God is hanging over them. A study of the book of Revelation, that word, whoa, you know, the three woes that are mentioned and so forth. These are devastating plagues. They’re going to fall. So God is not pleased with religious hypocrites. And Christ describes here for us some of the characteristics of a religious hypocrite that we should consider for ourselves this morning. And the first is this. You find hypocrites make a big deal of small duties while neglecting the weightier matters of the law. Verse 42. He says here, but woe unto you Pharisees, for you tithe mint and rue in all manner of herbs and pass over judgment and the love of God. These ought ye to have done and not to leave the other undone. Now, you’ll notice there is a focus here on exactness in some very small matters. When it can’t be a focus here on exactness. came to ties. The Pharisees were ever so careful. Even when it came to the tiny seeds of various herbs, they made sure that God got his tenth and counted them out. The mint and rue and all manner of herbs. Roo is a shrub, a shruby plant with yellow flowers. It’s usually raised for medicinal purposes, medical purposes and it’s just a small herb. Leviticus 27 verses 30, the 34 says this. In all the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the tree is the lords. It’s holy under the Lord. If a man will at all redeem ought of his tithe, he shall add there to the fifth part thereof. And concerning the tithe of the herd or the flock even of whatsoever passes under the rod, the tenth shall be holy under the Lord. He shall not search whether it shall be good or bad. Neither shall he change it. and if he change it at all, then both it and the change thereof shall be holy. And it shall not be redeemed. These are the commandments. which the Lord commanded Moses for the children of Israel in Mount Sinai. Now, by this meticulousness about their tithe, down to the little seeds, they were trying to gain for themselves, the Pharisees, a reputation as those who are very meticulous about keeping God’s law. They’re strict observers. They foolishly thought that by their meticulous tithes, to gain the favor of men and earn, I think, their way to heaven in some fashion. And thus the Pharisee, who goes into the temple and prays, in the parable of the publican and the Pharisee, says that he hives all of all that I possess. He boasted about that. And so the Pharisees were not content. with the tithe of their crops and their herds and their flocks and their fruit evil when it came to garden herbs. Even when it came to the smallest ones, they counted those out that were not specifically mentioned in by the law. But the Pharisees wished to be seen as those who went the extra mile when it came to tithing. So it is with religious hypocrites. They focus on the externals of God’s law that they might appear righteous before men. Everything they do, whether it is alms, whether it is prayer, whether it is fasting, Christ says they do it to be seen of men. So they have to blow the trumpet first. They have to pray their prayers out on the main street. When they fast, they have to disfigure their faces and so forth. So they take pains that they might appear righteous before men, but they’re not righteous before God. For here’s what the scripture says in Romans 10, 3, and 4. For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, in going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves on the righteous. of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. Our righteousness is based upon Christ and not our good works. So you focus on exactness and small matters. You neglect the essentials in religion. Now, Christ doesn’t condemn the Pharisees for being exact and paying times. He says, you ought to do it, have done this. Going the extra mile is okay. However, they neglected to do what was essential in religion. They passed over judgment and the love of God. Matthew 23, 23, he says, woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you pay tithe of mint and a niece and common have admitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith. There’s several things that they neglected. There’s a few more that are mentioned in Matthew. One thing is to pass over the love of God. Think about that a moment. What is the Great Commandment? Isn’t the love God with all our heart and our soul, our mind, and our strength? To pass that over, even if you tie of your little seeds, do you think that matters to God? Of course it does. And so they’re admitting the key factor here, the chief commandment. They passed over judgment or justice, doing what’s right between you and your neighbor, judging things properly. Judge not according to appearance, but a judge, righteous judgment. This, I think, flows out of loving your neighbor as yourself, with him. Faith., there’s no belief of the gospel message. No living by faith in the promise of the Savior to come that is proclaimed in the law of God. No trust in the promises of God. Perundas, was the gospel preached as well as unto them, Old Testament, Israel, especially those in the wilderness. But the word preach did not profit them not being mixed with faith. Them that heard it. Without faith, it is impossible to please God. And the Bible says that whatsoever is not a faith is sin. So if you don’t have faith, then everything you’re doing is still sinful in the eyes of God. Mercy. There’s no compassion. There’s no forgiving spirit. God declares that He desires mercy and not sacrifice or offered. No matter how great the sacrifices you bring, God prefers a heart full of mercy before them. So being exact about your tithing is nothing if your heart doesn’t love the Lord, if you lack faith, and if you don’t have mercy, and you’re unjust in your judgment of others. External obedience. the law means nothing if your heart isn’t right with God. How few seem to understand this? Do you think God is going to be pleased with your tithe, your sacrifice, your gift, your prayer if your heart is far from you? Do you think your wife would be happy to receive an expensive gift from you if she knew you didn’t love her? What makes you think God would? How foolish such thinking is. so you find hypocrites make a big deal out of small duties while neglecting the weightier matters of the law. We see secondly. You find hypocrites love to be first and foremost, verse 43, but woe unto you, Pharisees, for ye love the uppermost seats in the synagogue and greetings in the markets. Well, if you’re a fairisies, for ye love the uppermost seats in the synagogue and greetings in the markets. Pharisee, you love preeminence when it comes to worship. When it comes to the seat in the synagogue that you get, they want to be high up. They want to be looked upon in a special way. The Pharisees love to be exalted. Where God really deserves to be exalted alone in the place of worship, they wanted to be high and lifted up before men. and even God himself. You know, worship is the place where men should be humbled in a sense we’re all put on the same level because we’re all sinners in the eyes of God. Does not God declare that he resists the proud? That he gives grace to the humble? It was not the sitting in the most honorable places in the synagogue that Christ condemns, but the loving of suffering of someone. places. The coveting them, the scheming to be in them. Listen to the Apostle John. He said, I wrote under the church, but diatrophies, who loveth to have the preeminence among them, receiveeth us not. This man, deatrophies, exalted himself in the church so that he was the most prominent one in the church, whether he was the pastor or leading teacher or the church or ruler, whatever the case may be. And yet he’s so puffed up and so arrogant that he won’t even listen when an apostle of Christ writes in a letter telling the church what to do. It’s sad when the church becomes the place where people seek to be exalted and receive the honor of men. It’s a place where only God deserves it. serves to be honored. Because you are detracting from the honor due unto the Lord, this place is you under the displeasure of the Lord. The Lord hates the proud look. You may gain prominence in the eyes of men, but it’s an abomination in the eyes of God. John 544 says, how can ye believe which receive honor one of another and seek not the honor that cometh from God only? So you love the Him? have the preeminent. You love the praise of men in everyday life, for you love greetings in the markets, he says. Now the Pharisees desired to be paid respect and complimented by the people in the public places such as the markets. They love to, and coveted to be given exalted titles such as rabbi or teacher. It’s expressive of the high honor. they thought was due onto them. And we see this happening a lot in Jesus’ day. These exalted titles would emphasize their authority, their superiority. Almost their infallibility, at least they thought, when it came to interpretation of the scriptures. But Jesus denounced this. It would be. not ye called, rabbi, for one is your master, even Christ, and you’re our brethren. Sure, we ought to show respect under the church teachers. It’s commendable. Obey them that have the rule over you and submit yourselves. But the usurping of Christ’s authority and lordship over the opinions and conduct of men cannot be tolerated and should not be tolerated. How sad to find that these religious teachers who love the praise of men more than the praise of God, who seek human honor above all else and are not serving God but exalting themselves. And it happens today too. So you find hypocrites love to be first and foremost. Thirdly, you find hypocrites carefully conceal their corruption from others. Verse 44, woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites for ye are as grades which appear not, and men that walk over them are not aware of them. You conceal your evil corruptions. A hypocrite is someone who pretends to be what he is not. In actuality, the word is connected with play acting, even wearing a mask. What he appears to be is quite difficult. different from reality. The Pharisees were particularly guilty of this. At this point, Jesus said, you are like under whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead man’s bones and of all uncleanness. Here in Luke, he says, the Pharisees are like hidden graves. There’s no marker. There’s no way to know that they’re graves and they’re covered over with grass. since such a grave is not visible, we could easily walk over it and become defiled. Religious hypocrites fool people in the thinking that they are righteous, but within they are full of sinful corruptions, and they aren’t fully conceal the wickedness by outward religious works. Once, at one point, Alexander the Great as a world conqueror, decided he was going to have to have. have his portrait painted, and he got one of the best painters around to paint his portrait. When the general requested the portrait be a full on-face portrait, the artist was filled with great concern, because on the one side of Alexander’s face was this long scar he got in battle. Studying his subject for some time, the artist sat Alexander down at a table, placed his elbow under his chin and had him cupped his chin with his hand. And then he carefully placed his fingers over his face so they covered the scar. So they could give him the whole frontal view, but you would never know that he had that scar. It was hidden. By the way, the carefully was arranged by the painter. Thus the hypocrite carefully conceals all his spiritual disfigurements so that you don’t know that he has them. Thus people are fooled into thinking these religious men are righteous and godly when in fact they are far from it. Now you corrupt others without them being aware of it. The men who walk over them are not aware of them. Now the Jews were very careful about ceremony. ceremonial pollution in contact with dead bodies. It would make you unclean, require special washing before you could even return to your home and society. Numbers 1916 says this. Whoever toucheth one that is slain with a sword in the open fields or a dead body or a bone of a man or a grave shall be uncleaned seven days. Seven days. Jesus is teaching that you are made unclean and defiled by your contact or contact with these religious hypocrites because they’re like hidden graves and you’re walking over and they’re becoming contaminate. Now, when he’s talking about contamination, he’s not talking about ceremonial on cleanness per se. But an act. actual sinful defilement. You don’t realize you’re being corrupted right away. It becomes evident later when you realize how far astray you’ve been led from the truth. False teachers, according to 2 Peter 2. While they promise their hearer is liberty, they themselves are servants of corruption. For of whom a man is overcome of the same as he brought into bondage. For after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus, Christ. They are again entangled therein and overcome the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. Following these false teachers corrupt you. You may not realize it at first but then you realize that you realize that you’re worse off than where you were to start with. Woe unto you, scribes and fair as these hypocrites see and land to make one proselyte, but when he is made you make him twofold more the child have held in yourselves. Matthew 23. The Bible talks about these false teachers having eyes full of adultery, they cannot cease from sin, be galling, unstable souls. That’s what they do. So if you follow their doctrines, if you follow their practices, you will be defiled. You’ll be corrupted. It’s dangerous because they appear as angels of light, but really their servants of Satan. So you’re finding. hypocrites conceal their corruption from others. Let me close with a couple of thoughts this morning. And the first is this. The true Christian is not willfully or habitually neglectful of what God commands him to do. The basic principle is these things ought you to have done and not leave the other undone. We do all that God commands us to do. We don’t pick and choose. Now it’s true that nobody’s perfect and you as a believer will fail here or there. But we would should take the least commandment of God, as well as the greatest commandment of God, and realize that all those commandments need to be obeyed. You won’t be partial. As I said, you’re not going to be like Herod, who heard John gladly and did many things, but he wouldn’t obey the God in a key area because he took his brother’s wife. and when John told him that’s not lawful for you to do, he wasn’t about to give her back or break off the relationship. You will say with David I esteem all by precepts concerning all things to be right and I hate every false way. Secondly, pride and self-exaltation is contrary to the whole substance of the Christian faith. The Christian faith is based upon God’s grace to unworthy sinners. self-righteousness and self-exaltation God hates. God produces in you as a believer. Humility. Meekness. Gentleness. Love. He tells us we should think more highly of others than ourselves. God resist the proud. So why put yourself in opposition to God? God gives grace to the humble. He has showed the, oh man, what is good. what doth the law of the Lord require of thee but to do good, to do justly, to love mercy, to walk humbly with thy God, Micah 6.8. Listen, the Christian faith is all about finding grace in the eyes of God. It’s nothing about exulting ourselves by self-righteous works. Thirdly, the true Christian confesses his sin to obtain God’s forgiveness. The hypocrite goes to great lengths to conceal his sin. Whereas the Christian, in opposition to that, he realizes that he that he that coverth his sin shall not prosper, but who so confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy. So he confesses his sin to God and is found forgiven by the Lord. He anxiously confesses, knowing that God is faith, and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us of all our unrighteousness. If you know Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior of every reason then to go to the throne of God and confess all your sins. So here it is. Hippocrats concealed their sins. Christians confess their sins. What do you do? What do you do? That’s a good way to end this passage. Let’s close with a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, we before you this morning, and we are mindful that we in many ways can be hypocrites. We pray, Father, that you would forgive us for where we have been. Pray, Father, that any hypocrisy in us would be washed away and help us to walk uprightly before you as our God. Bless this passage to us this morning and strengthen us in the faith we pray. In Jesus’ name, we thank you. you. Amen. Now this morning we’re going to observe the Lord’s Supper and to that end, I invite you to turn with me to the book of Song of Solomon once again. Song of Solomon chapter 2. I want to read 6 through 9. Song of Solomon Chapter 2, 6 through 9. His left hand is under my head. His right hand doth embrace me. I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the rose and by the hines of the field that he stirred not up nor awake my love till he please the voice of my beloved behold he cometh leaping upon the mountain skipping upon the hills my beloved is like a row or a young heart behold he standeth behind our wall he looketh forth at the windows showing himself through the lattice Now prior to this, as we saw, the bride was in Christ’s arms, enjoying intimate fellowship with the Lord, as 6 and 7 tell us. Now the bride finds Christ at a distance, and the intimate fellowship has been broken. The distance felt, we said, is not in connection with our union with Christ, for Christ will never leave us nor forsake us. But you don’t feel as close to Christ, as you were before, somehow rather, that intimate fellowship has been disturbed. Your life is sort of a series of visits and withdrawals by Christ, revivals of grace, and sometimes drifting away from the Lord. Well, here you find the Lord seeking to draw you close to him once again. And he speaks to you. As we saw in our last study, it’s a distinct. voice. It’s the voice of your Savior. No one is like it. It is a majestic voice, for it’s the voice of your king, and you are a subject of his kingdom. It is a powerful voice because it is the voice of God, like many mighty waters. It is a loving voice because it is the voice of your beloved. And now we see in verses 8 and 9 that your beloved, He comes to you. Christ overcomes all obstacles with ease. Whether they be hills, smaller obstacles or mountains, larger ones. Whatever separates you from Christ, whether it’s a lack of faith on your part, maybe it’s carnality, maybe it’s lukewarmness, maybe it’s backsliding, maybe it’s ingratitude, everything. there is overcome by your Lord with ease. He triumphantly overcomes these impediments. Like a row or a young heart, like a young, agile, graceful deer on a hill or a mountain jumping over, leaping over shrubbery, and rocks and any obstacle on his way, with ease. He bounds over the roughest heights. He seems to delight in doing so. Nothing can separate you from the love of Christ. Christ comes to you speedily, unexpectedly. Deer are an emblem of speediness. Aschahel was as light afoot as a wild row. Second Samuel 2.18. Some of David’s mighty men were as swift as rose upon the mountains. First Chronicles 12.8. So your heart is surprised here by the sudden and unexceptive. expected appearance of the Savior. Behold, it’s an amazing thing that he comes. Your heart is drawn to him. You’re stirred to repentance. And you welcome once again his intimate fellowship with you. As I was reading through George Burroughs book, you had one little paragraph. I thought it was very encouraging for us. Sometimes we might get down and think, well, there’s no hope of getting back to this intimate fellowship. And here’s what he said. I thought this was helpful. When church is long-thirsting for the revival of his work, have well-nigh fainted under the thought that their sins and unworthiness were so great as to exclude them, perhaps forever, from the blessing, he has been found among them as due from the Lord as the showers upon the grass that Terry, it’s a good. not for man nor waiteth for the sons of men, Micah Fivesome. We’re not worthy, but Christ comes anyhow. It overcomes our unworthiness. Your beloved comes to you. Your beloved gives you glimpses himself when he comes. In verse 9, the second part, we read that he standeth behind our wall, he looketh forth at the window, showeth himself through the lattice. earlier the bride’s book of our house in 117. Now he’s speaking of our wall, 2.9, both seem to refer to the church as the house of God. As the scripture tells us, whose house we are, if we hold fast the confidence and rejoicing of the hope firm until the end in Hebrews 3.6. As God’s assembly is portrayed as a house, as a wall, has windows, it has lattice. And in the book of Revelation, it has a door. Here in chapters 5 of the Song of Solomon, it has a door too. Ladis, here’s a strip of wood or sometimes metal that uses a partial blind for the window. Ladis. Bless Christ shows himself to you, you can get no sight of him. When he hith his face, who can behold him, Job 3429. But his gradual manifestations of himself, he gives glimpses of himself here, doesn’t he? And indicates his nearness, his eagerness to restore fellowship to you. Here I am, he’s saying. Song of Solomon, he knocks at the door. Revelation chapter 3. Verse 7. Behold, I stand at the door and knock, if any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him and will sup with you. with him and he with me. Yes, the church of Laodicea was lukewarm, but Christ wishes to rekindle their love. He wishes to restore intimate fellowship with them. He tells us, and verse 19, right before this, as many as I love, I rebuke and chase and be zealous, therefore repent. And he indicates to us his nearness. He’s at the door. He wants to sup with us. He expects to be admitted. So your beloved gives you glimpses of himself when he comes. Next time we’ll look at what he says to us, the loving things that he says to us. But let me conclude by saying this this morning. As the great shepherd, you see how Christ delights in seeking out his way. He’s always the one who takes the initiative, the restore fellowship. For thus sayeth the Lord God, behold, I, even I, will both search my sheep and seek them out as a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered. Ezekiel 34, 11, and 12. Secondly, don’t lose hope of recovery of intimate fellowship with Christ. There are no obstacles. I don’t care how big they are. how difficult they are, which prevent Christ from coming to you. He can easily overcome them. And this should lift up our heads. Lastly, doesn’t Christ give you glimpses of himself in connection with the Lord’s supper? Doesn’t he say do this in remembrance of me? Can you not see his desire to sup with you? Has he not indicated in the Lord’s supper as the good shepherd? lay down his life for your sake? You’re precious to him. He counts you precious. And let us remember that when we come to the table this morning.