Hypocrisy

[Mike Fike] Good day. Nice to see everyone here. Certainly nice to be back in St. Petersburg, seeing some long-term dear friends – very special. We consider the St. Petersburg congregation very special to us. Our memories go back a long term – clear back to the mid 1970’s – so we always enjoy coming over and seeing everyone here.

I’d like to thank Mr. Correa for introducing my subject today. He turned to 1 Corinthians 2:16, where he quoted that we have the mind of Christ, and he referred to Philippians 2, and verse 5. Let’s go ahead and turn there – Philippians 2, and verse 5. He didn’t turn here, so we will. We will start reading in verse 5 – talking about  having the mind of Christ. It certainly is our goal. It was mentioned that the Days of Unleavened Bread are coming up shortly, and just over one month from now, we will have Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread. What should we be thinking about? What should be our mindset as we strive to have the mind of Christ?

Philippians 2:5 – Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.

We see all things were created through Christ and He was a great Being willing to humble Himself. Well, what was this mindset or this mind that He had? Let’s continue on reading.

V-6-7 – who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bond-servant, and coming in the likeness of men - coming here to serve us.

Well, what did He talk about? What did He teach when He came? He used different groups as examples for us. He mentioned different groups. There were different religious groups at that time. We see Essenes. We see Zealots. We see scribes, Pharisees and others. And sometimes He used these groups to teach lessons. How does this have anything to do with the Days of Unleavened Bread and the Passover season? When we see these lessons, we can often see Jesus relating these to leaven and the Days of Unleavened Bread. Jesus said, “I am the bread of life”, and what tremendous meaning that has for us. That should get our attention. “I am the bread of life.”

Let’s turn over to Matthew 16. And we are going to stay in the New Testament today, as far as turning to Scriptures. And we don’t have that many to turn to, so we are going to get our exercise turning to verses today – Matthew, chapter 16, and we’re going to read verse 6 – as we strive to see these lessons that He taught and how we should be striving to have His mind.

Matthew 16:6 – Then Jesus said to them, “Take heed and beware” – and we talked about these groups – “of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees.”

And if we continue down to verse 12:

V-12 – Then they understood that He did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadducees. So we see some of these groups that He is teaching lessons to.
Well, today we are going to examine: What is that leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees? We see the Gospels often refer to these Sadducees and Pharisees and we often see Jesus was in conflict with them. What are their differences and what were their similarities? And what were some of the teachings of these groups? We see the Pharisees. We see these scribes. The Sadducees and the Pharisees comprised the ruling class. They were the priesthood. They were the chief priests. There were many similarities, but there were also some differences. The ESV Study Bible states that “the scribes and the Pharisees, or the Sadducees were two different or distinct groups and there were some overlap between them. They were the professional interpreter experts on the Torah itself, but we see some differences there.” Let’s take a look at some of those differences.

Both the Sadducees and the Pharisees were religious parties in Jesus’ day. And they were criticized and were critical of Jesus – both. The Sadducees thought of themselves as being conservatives. They thought of themselves as being old believers – conservatives, traditionalists – and they accepted only the written law of Moses. So, if Moses didn’t write it, they didn’t believe it. So that sort of warped for some of their religious teachings. Many of the doctrines that they had were different then from the Pharisees, or even what Jesus taught. The Sadducees were aristocrats and they tended to be wealthy and held powerful positions. When we look at the Sadducees we see, because they only looked at the writings of Moses, they denied God’s involvement in everyday life. They didn’t believe in the resurrection. And it is an old saying, “If you want to know the difference between the Sadducees and the Pharisees, well, the Sadducees didn’t believe in the resurrection, so they were sad, you see.” (Laughter) So that is one way to remember that. They denied an after-life. They denied the existence of the spiritual world – angels, demons, that type of thing – because once again they only followed the writings of Moses. Let’s look at an example of that in Acts 23 – Acts, chapter 23, and verse 8.

Acts 23:8 – For Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, and no angel or spirit; but the Pharisees confess both.

So we see they were taking their teachings only from this limited amount of writings from Moses. The Pharisees took all of the law, and then they added to it. So we kind of see a little bit of a difference there.

Then Pharisees on the other hand were a lay-group. They were more representative of the common man versus what the Sadducees were. In addition to the writings of Moses, the Pharisees accepted as authority not only of writings of Moses, but the rest of the Old Testament at that time as well, as well as the traditions of the elders – or they added their own writings along with that. The Sadducees saw worship at the temple very important and that was their main focus of the law. The Pharisees believed that was only one small concept, or one small part of worshipping God – was the temple worship. And we see at the time of the destruction of the temple at AD 70, then we see because the temple was gone, now we see the Sadducees then fade away, and the Pharisees become very prominent. And contemporary Judaism, that we see today, comes from that lineage or that way of thinking – from the Pharisees then.

We see the Gospels abound with examples of the Pharisees treating traditions as equal to God’s word and these traditions are traditions that they made up themselves. However, they didn’t remain true to God’s word, in reference to other doctrines that were important. When we look at the Pharisees and the Sadducees, we see that they were opposing – or rivals – to each other, but they set aside their rivalry for one thing. And that was, they joined together in attacking Jesus. And we see them joining together and uniting to put Christ to death. Both groups were very powerful. Both claimed righteousness, but they lacked what was truly important.

How did they get their start? Where did this movement come from? If we go back through history, and much of what my thinking is, I wrap around the time frame around the different temples, so that I can kind of put it in some sort of perspective. Well, when we see Judah and the children of Israel coming back in the time of Ezra and Nehemiah, and rebuilding Zerubbabel’s temple, where the Babylonians had taken them into captivity, we see that everything was in disarray. There was no temple. Everything was destroyed in the 500 plus years before Christ.

There was no priesthood to perform sacrifices. There was no temple to perform sacrifices at, so they had to come up with a way that they felt that they could worship God without a temple, until things had gotten built back, and the wall on the city had all been built. So at this point, we see these groups starting to develop. And one of these was the Pharisees. They wanted to be absolutely sure that what they had been through – and they saw the history of the previous 70 years, where they had been taken into captivity by the Babylonians, and they knew why they had been taken into captivity – and they wanted to make sure that that would never happen again. They wanted to make sure that the old pagan customs wouldn’t creep back into their religious observances. And this was the background for the development of the Pharisees. It had a good motive but they took it in a wrong direction. They started interpreting God’s way along with other groups differently. And they came up with a system to try and prevent the people from falling back into that pagan worship.

You see, the word Pharisee means – the meaning of it is – to separate; someone not contaminated. So they wanted to separate themselves from all the people around them – the Romans, the Greeks, the pagan influences – and make sure that they didn’t go back into what had caused them to go into captivity. They thought in terms of right and wrong, but the problem was, it was their interpretation of right and wrong. It was their rules that they added to it. They chose what would be right and what would be wrong. And as time went on their rules of right and wrong being taught became more important. It was who rules – who is the ruler? The Pharisees ruled this and that. And this is what we see Jesus dealing with at the time that He came here – and so much about is written, that we are going to look at today.

They were hypocritical, because their worship didn’t match the proper worship of God that they were trying to protect. Maybe the idea started out right, but then they added all of these wrong rules and concepts to try and make sure that they didn’t fall back into paganism, and then those rules and concepts became more important than the actual godliness. We see Christ dealing with them over and over again, and we can learn from the lessons that are recorded here for us to apply in our lives. They made hundreds and hundreds of rules and regulations to keep themselves from sinning. And that in itself became their god. In so many ways, that was their god. That is what they worshipped – was their rules. They had an evil heart and they kept their rules. So where did they get these rules from? Themselves! Not God.

Luke 12 – we don’t need to turn there, but it states:

Luke 12:1 – “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees.” And it refers to it as hypocrisy.

We are going to see that more as we go along. We see Jesus using this word hypocrisy in referring to the Pharisees and the Sadducees. This is a word that only Jesus used and only in the Gospels. And it means, an actor. It was a word that everyone knew, because they would go and see a play. And in the play, they would have a big mask on and a costume. So you had this actor up there, acting as someone in a play that wasn’t really themselves. So Jesus used that word – hypocrisy – as meaning, this actor.

As we approach the Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread, let’s review some of these teachings of Jesus as He teaches us about hypocrisy – that we ourselves can have in our lives also. It is a natural inclination. It’s human nature. So many times what’s behind it is pride, seeking power, seeking prestige.

If we go back to the book of Matthew – let’s turn there – to Matthew, chapter 6 – this is from the Sermon on the Mount – even though He doesn’t use the word Pharisees or Sadducees, this is who He is referring to – Matthew, chapter 6. We will start reading in verse 1, as He gives us guidance through His word here.

Matthew 6:1-4 – “Take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds before men, to be seen by them. Otherwise you have no reward from your Father in heaven.” Verse 2: “Therefore, when you do a charitable deed, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory from men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. But when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing” – so we see this hypocrisy here of those who are doing charitable deeds in front of other people – verse 4: “that your charitable deed may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will Himself reward you openly.”

So we see hypocrisy in reference to doing good or charitable deeds. If we continue on, we will see it in another light. Verse 5:

V-5 – “And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. This is their motivation here – to be seen by men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward.

So we have seen hypocrisy with doing good. Now we have seen people praying, in trying to look good. And as we continue on, let’s drop down to verse 16:

V-16-17 – “Moreover, when you fast, do not be like the hypocrites, with a sad countenance. For they disfigure their faces that they may appear to men to be fasting. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you do not appear to men to be fasting, but to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.

So they would fast to be seen of men. And certainly, they had to tell others, “Well, I am fasting today, and look what I am doing.” It was all about them – to be seen of men. Let’s continue on – chapter 7, verse 1 – one page over. We’ve looked at good deeds. We’ve looked at being a hypocrite when you pray. We’ve looked at being hypocritical when you fast.

Matthew 7:1 – “Judge not, that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye?” Hypocrisy, once again. “Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye,’ and look, a plank is in your own eye? Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”

Certainly we all have planks in our own eyes and that is what this is talking about – the hypocrisy of it – trying to solve your brother’s problem, when you yourself have problems. And we all do. We are all sinners. That is why Christ came to die for us.

It goes back to an attitude of pride. If we are a leader – and we are all leaders – everyone of us here is a leader – if a leader is not truly humble, we might have an attitude of being a Pharisee. We don’t need to turn there – I told you we would stay in the New Testament – but I am always amazed and proud to see a bumper sticker that quotes 2 Chronicles 7:14, which states:

2 Chronicles 7:14 – “If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” I often think about that when I look at our country in the shape that it is in now.

So what should we do? We should have that true repentance. So as we look ahead to the spring holy days, are we overly concerned about cleaning the cracks in our home? Are we digging around under the mats in the car? Are we sweeping under the baseboards and all of the rugs throughout our house, and not observing the spiritual meaning behind what we are observing? Here we are doing the physical things, but we totally miss what we actually should be learning from these days.

Do we have true repentance? Do we have true humility? Do we flee hypocrisy? Let’s turn over to – when we think about hypocrisy – there is a chapter in the book of Matthew – and if you want to keep a marker here at Matthew 23, we are going to go through what I will call the eight woes of Matthew 23 – dealing with hypocrisy as lessons that we could learn as we prepare for these days. Matthew 23, verses 1 through 12 are basically a summary of what the rest of the chapter is to talk about. So let’s look at verse 1 – Matthew, chapter 23:

Matthew 23:1-12 – Then Jesus spoke to the multitudes and to His disciples, saying: “The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. What does that mean? Well, when they had the temple there, as you came walking up to the temple, there would be a large raised stone seat there. And it was called Moses’ seat. And you would have a well respected person of the congregation there, who would be sitting in that seat. So people would come from all around with all of this respect asking him about this or that, or wanting advice on this subject. And here he was right there in front of the temple. And what Jesus was saying is, “You love to be sitting in that seat. You love this honor. You love to be raised up above every one.”

Verse 3: “Therefore whatever they tell you to observe, that observe and do, but do not do according to their works; for they say, and do not do. For they bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men’s shoulders” – once again, keeping in mind the Pharisees and all of the rules and requirements that they made for everyone – “but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.

Verse 5: “But all their works they do to be seen by men. Once again, that motivation – “I want to be seen by others. I want to look good. I want to be sitting in this seat. I want others to come to me and respect me,” is what they’re saying. They make their phylacteries broad and enlarge the borders of their garments. They love the best places at feasts, the best seats in the synagogues, greetings in the marketplaces – they loved to be important and they loved – to be called by men, ‘Rabbi, Rabbi’ – out in front of everyone. Oh, look! – “but you, do not be called ‘Rabbi’; for One is your Teacher, the Christ, and you are all brethren. That’s saying, “We are all in this together. We all have difficulties.”

Verse 9: “Do not call anyone on earth your father; for One is your Father, He who is in heaven. And do not be called teachers; for One is your Teacher, the Christ.

Verse 11: “But he who is greatest among you shall be your servant.” And what a tremendous lesson that is! “And whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.

We think of pride and how much trouble that pride gets us into. And much of the sin that we do is because of pride. Pride is the driving force behind that.

So let’s go ahead and look at this. We’ll start in – and I will call it, once again, eight woes. And verse 13 starts the first woe. And as we go through this we might reflect back on Philippians 2, where it states, “Let nothing be done through selfish ambition.” We had read earlier – a few verses later – Philippians 2, and verse 3:

Philippians 2:3 – “Let nothing be done through selfish ambition.”

Continuing on here in verse 13 – Matthew 23 – as we’ll read the first woe:

Matthew 23:13 – “but woe to you, scribes and Pharisees – once again – 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.

Do we shut up the kingdom for others? Do we make rules for other people as the Pharisees did, not allowing them to come into the kingdom or not? I reflect on an individual that I had a conversation with many, many years ago, and he had told me that he felt that by the power of his pen, he could put someone in God’s kingdom or take them out of God’s kingdom – a very powerful statement for an individual to make – that he was that proud. But when we think about it, sometimes we can set up rules for other people to get into God’s kingdom or not. Are we shutting up the kingdom for other people? They failed to recognize Jesus as the Messiah, but teach the road that the Messiah goes through them, not through Jesus – that the road to the kingdom went through them. They had to march to the beat of whatever they said – whatever rules that they made up.

Do we teach that our neighbor must agree with every nuance that we believe, or they are wrong if they don’t exactly see every verse the way we see? Do we shut up the kingdom for others? They would set up their own rules. They would say, “Well, you can only go so far on the Sabbath day” – so many steps – but if you dropped your coat, then you could go another step to pick up your coat – another step or two. So if they wanted to go further than what they had set these rules up for, then they would carry a coat along with them, and when it got to that point, they would drop their coat, so they could take another couple of steps, and then they would drop their coat again. They would say, “Well you can go only so many steps from your doorpost – from your house – on the Sabbath day.” So they would have the loose trim on their doorpost and when they left they would carry it with them. They would create all these rules that controlled others but they themselves didn’t even obey their rules. They worked around their own rules. Their own rules and their own regulations became a god in itself. That was their god.

What did the Pharisees do? They added guilt to others. They judged others for doing the things that they were doing. Do we sometimes justify ourselves and condemn others? Do we ever find ourselves in that attitude sometimes – because someone doesn’t do something or see something just the way that we do?

Romans, chapter 2. Let’s hold our place here in Matthew 23. Romans, chapter 2. What was Jesus talking about? Romans, chapter 2, verse1:

Romans 2:1-6 – Therefore you are inexcusable, O man, whoever you are who judge, for in whatever you judge another you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things. But we know that the judgment of God is according to truth against those who practice such things. Verse 3: And do you think this, O man, you who judge those practicing such things, and doing the same, that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you despise the riches of His goodness – what are those? – forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? But in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who “will render to each one according to his deeds” – very powerful statement.

Are we quick to judge others? Do we ever judge or feel someone is getting into the kingdom through us – by what we tell them – that they have to march to this beat? Instead of judging and condemning, are we doing good? We all have difficulties. We all have sins. And Christ died for all of us – each and everyone of us. Do we ever find ourselves being hypocritical in judging others? So we might ask, “What is truly in our heart?”

Let’s turn back to Matthew 23. We will go to the next woe. And that continues on in verse 14:

Matthew 23:14 – “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! – once again. For you devour widows’ houses, and for a pretense make long prayers. Therefore, you will receive greater condemnation.

Is God concerned about how long our prayers are? No, He is not. Is God concerned how pretty our prayers are? No, He’s not. Is He concerned about our rank? Not at all. He is concerned about what is in our heart.

You might think back – we don’t need to turn there – but in Luke 18, it talks about the Pharisee and the publican, where the publican looked up to God, and said, “God, forgive me, I am a sinner.” And his prayer – that short prayer – was more meaningful than the long, pretty prayer of the Pharisee.

Talking about devouring widows’ homes, do we take advantage of others? Do we take advantage of others? I am reminded of the example that someone was bragging about. And he was a leader in a denomination. I won’t mention the denomination. But he was talking about how he had bought this piece of real estate from one of the widows in the denomination – in the congregation there – and really he was taking advantage of that – taking advantage of the poor, taking advantage of his authority. And that goes on. Here he was someone in authority, but being a hypocrite by taking advantage of a poor widow.

Well, let’s move on to the next woe in verse 15, as we hold our place here.

V-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.

Wow! What a statement! When I look at this, to me, I kind of put a saying in it, thinking of a chicken gathering in all of her chicks – someone who must be in charge, must be the leader, and gathers in all of his following here. He is superficially zealous, but in doing so – in trying to make sure he is the leader, and the boss, and in charge – he is doing more harm than he does good.

We might think of the parable of the sower and the seed, where some of the seed fell on stony ground. And all of a sudden – very zealous – it comes right up. It rises up quickly, but also goes away very quickly when the sun beats down on it. This is talking about someone that has to be in charge. He is saying, “Follow me.”

What if someone has a different idea about something? We see examples of that in the Bible, such as meat offered to idols. What did Paul say? If that was a problem for someone, I wouldn’t eat meat any more. If that is a problem – if that’s all it is – he wouldn’t eat meat any more – meat offered to idols. So we all don’t think exactly the same on everything. We have our own brand of thinking, and many times, it is because of following men. “Follow me.” We have these people and they will come and say, “Follow me,” and gather up their chicks. That is what this is talking about here.

Verse 16 – the fourth woe, as we continue on:

V-16 – “Woe to you blind guides, who say, ‘Whoever swears by the temple, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the temple, he is obliged to perform it.’ Fools and blind! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that sanctifies the gold?” Verse 18: “And, ‘Whoever swears by the altar, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gift that is on it, he is obliged to perform it.’ Fools and blind! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that sanctifies the gift? Therefore he who swears by the altar, swears by it and by all things on it. He who swears by the temple, swears by it and by Him who dwells in it. And he who swears by heaven, swears by the throne of God and by Him who sits on it.”

Now what is all this talking about here – and all of this swearing? Well, it was considered the gold of the temple was more sacred than the temple itself. And this was a very common practice. They had set up this pecking order of what was more considered binding, as far as what they would swear on. Jesus was going through the things that the Pharisees had set up themselves as being more holy than other things. And if they swore on one thing it was considered binding, if they swore on something else it was considered not binding at all. And just like today, we see people swearing and using this as useless talk. We see that as part of everyday conversation.

The Expository Bible Commentary states:“Swearing by heaven and earth was not binding, nor was swearing by Jerusalem, though swearing towards Jerusalem was binding.”

Jesus was saying, “Look how hypocritical they are!” How many times do we hear people even today doing the same thing in everyday conversations? “I swear by this,” or “I swear by that” becomes a very common part of conversation.

Let’s hold our place here and turn back to Matthew 5, as we look and see what Jesus was dealing with here. Matthew, chapter 5 – the Sermon on the Mount once again – verse 34:

Matthew 5:34-37 – “But I say to you, do not swear at all: neither by heaven, for it is God’s throne; nor by the earth, for it is His footstool; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. Nor shall you swear by your head, because you cannot make one hair white or black. But let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes’, and your ‘No’ ‘No.’ For whatever is more than these is from the evil one.

Barnes Notes – in reference to this – states, and I quote: “While the Jews professedly adhered to the law, they had introduced a number of oaths in common conversation, and oaths which they by no means considered to be binding.” And we might think about that today. “This is the abuse which Christ wished to correct. It was the practice of swearing in common conversation, and especially swearing by created things.” Barnes Notes goes on to say: "The people now use the very same sort of oaths that are mentioned and condemned by Jesus.” I was recently in a conversation with someone, and they made the comment, “Well, I swear on good and gracious,” and that was just part of their conversation. “The forms of cursing and swearing, however, are almost infinite, and fall on our pained ears all day long.” And it becomes, after a while, just normal talking for people.

Well, how important are our words and how important is our speech? And when we say these things, really, if we are not careful, we can find ourselves being hypocritical. By this loose conversation – the same thing that we hear today – we lose the seriousness of the conversation that led the Pharisees, and if we are not careful, us, to be hypocrites.

So let’s continue on to the fifth woe in Matthew 23 – Matthew 23, and we’ll read in verse 23:
Matthew 23:23 – “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!” – once again. “For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice, mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone.”

So clearly this proves that we should tithe. What is our attitude when we do – when we give an offering? Are we happy to give an offering or tithe? Are we happy to help someone in need? Many times we are, but are we also neglecting justice, mercy and faith? We must have these characteristics in our life and these are important attributes.

What is He talking about here by straining a gnat? And if any of you have ever made wine, what were they doing? They were all familiar with making wine, and it gives off a smell that might attract a gnat. So they were very, very careful to strain out their wine to make sure that they didn’t consume any part of something that was unclean. But what He is saying is, “Here you consume a camel, but you are straining at a gnat. And going through all of this effort, you’re a hypocrite!” That’s what He is talking about here. He called them blind guides. What is behind it all? Our attitude. What is our attitude?

From the booklet The New Covenant – Does It Abolish God’s Law – I quote: “The Pharisees were looked up to as those who had attained the very pinnacle of personal righteousness, and the common people supposed that such heights of spirituality were far beyond their reach. But Jesus asserted that the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees wasn’t enough to entitle them to enter the Kingdom of God, about which He spoke! What hope then, did others have?”it states.

Well, let’s take a brief look at these three items – the weightier matters of the law. If we look at each one:

Justice. Vine’s Expository Dictionary tells us it is: the state of being right or of right conduct.

Unger’s Bible Dictionary states – and I quote: “Justice is not only respect for the rights of one’s fellow man as of life, property and reputation, in the broader sense, it includes the proper recognition of man’s duty towards God. Man in his relation to man is to reflect the justice or righteousness of God. Justice to others: This has to do with giving them all of their due; treating others justly or fairly; keeping our promises; being honest; treating others right; being a blessing to someone else.”

Do we have that mindset of being just or honest?

If we move on to mercy, mercy is defined by compassion, kindness, goodwill, piety.

Vine’s Expository Dictionary – once again: “you feel sympathy with the misery of another and especially sympathy manifested in acts.” So, not only just feeling it, but doing something for someone. “Believers are to feel and exhibit compassion,” it states.

Sometimes, when someone is going through problems, they don’t need us to try and solve their problems for them – just to show them compassion and encouragement – be there for them – a word of kindness, a word of compassion, encouragement. Are we quick to talk about others when they are not around or are we quick to be kind? This includes forgiveness. It includes tenderness to those who are at fault – who have, maybe, wronged us. We might think of the fruits of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, self-control, long-suffering, kindness, gentleness.

Mercy is one of the attributes of God. When we go back and study the attributes of God, God is mercy. He is merciful to us.

And then the last one would be faith. And it is sometimes translated faithfulness. It is faithfulness not only to God, but to mankind also. It is being faithful or the action of faithfulness. Faith includes righteousness and its reliance on God in every aspect of our lives. It is obeying God. We obey because of faith. Without faith, our obedience is useless. Without obedience, our faith is useless. We can’t have one without the other. We can’t please God without having both.

So the Bible tells us that these are weightier matters or more important matters. Why is that? We see these through the character of God Himself. That is why they are more important – more weightier.

Vine’s Expository Dictionary states it this way: “Of the character of God; to be expressed in His people” – that’s us – “through His people.” These are matters of the heart – these important matters.

We see we can pay the tithe by going through the motions of counting out our money or whatever it is, and we could do that with a poor attitude. But to truly have justice, mercy and faith we must have a Godly attitude. We can feel good about ourselves because – fill in the blank – whatever it is we do – tithe, keep the Sabbath, keep the Holy Days, not eat unclean meats, and we might scrub all of the walls and clean in every crack for the Days of Unleavened Bread – but if we are taking advantage of someone, if we are not truly having justice, mercy and faith in our heart, we might be the worst scoundrel out there. We might be gossiping and talking about someone else. We might be putting someone down. And so, if we do, then we are missing the point – and that is Godly character – to develop that Godly character in ourselves. It is that character of God that our lives should reflect. God’s character never changes. His desire and His will for us doesn’t change and that’s why these are important matters – mercy, justice and faith. These are heart matters. It is God’s desire that we imitate His character.

From the church’s booklet, The New Covenant – Does It Abolish God’s Law? – once again: “In actual fact” – I quote – “there was a real problem with the righteousness of the Pharisees. The heart of the matter was that their righteousness was defective in that it was external only. They appeared to obey the law to those who observed them” – it is what they could see – “but they broke God's law inwardly, where it couldn't be seen by others.

Many times, as we have already mentioned, the driving force is pride – to be seen of men. That is the motivation. We see the Pharisees were proud that they were keepers of the law, so much that they added to them. And sometimes we could be focused on fringe things that we really loose sight of reality and what truly matters.

Christ was saying, “You think you are really good, because you follow the tiniest parts of the law,” but they were missing the big point. They had a high view of themselves and they were missing what was truly important.

So let’s continue on with the sixth woe here in Matthew 23, and we’ll see that in verse 25:

Matthew 23:25-26 – “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also.”

They were more concerned about what they were driving. “Look at the latest chariot I have. Look at this horse that I got.” They were more concerned about how their home looked – the show – everything about them – the show – how they were fasting, how they were tithing. Jesus was saying, “Start with the inside first” – our thoughts, our motivations our actions towards others, our caring. What is in our heart is more important than the outward physical washing of the outside of the cup. And that was the missing ingredient.

I am reminded of a long-term elder, who was in a car accident – just a small fender-bender – and nobody knew this – but he was totally not at fault. The other person was, but he went out of his way to help fix that other person’s car, even though he wasn’t at fault. He went out and bought a fender, put it on that other person’s car, because they couldn’t afford it – always serving others in ways that others wouldn’t even know would be done. A very positive example.

We see the Pharisees were washing the outside of the cup, concerned about what others would see as opposed to serving when others wouldn’t see. They were washing the outside of a filthy, despicable, proud cup on the inside. They were feeling good that they looked good on the outside, but they were despicable on the inside. If we are not careful, we can also follow these tendencies in our attitude – once again, attitudes of pride.

As we continue on, we will look at the seventh woe – verse 27 of Matthew 23.

V-27-28 – “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.”

So they were once again concerned about their outward appearance. Are we concerned about, and do we have a preoccupation on, how others look at us?

I am reminded and think back to a person that I knew years and years ago. And everyone has a cell-phone with them now, but back at this time, no one had cellphones, and the latest craze was – of course, you had a pay phone on the corner, but it you had a car phone you were really somebody. And so this person didn’t have the money for a car phone, but if you would go out – and maybe some of you remember – you could buy what was called a phony. And it was an antenna that you could stick on to your car to make it look like you had a car phone. Well, this individual bought a phony. He went on to do others things in his life. He got a phony doctor degree, told other people that he was this, that. That was his life. If you have a phony, you are a phony. That’s the way it is.

I am also reminded of the French Riviera. When you are out at the beach, looking at the French Riviera, and the big status symbol was, or is, if you have a deck on your apartment up there, then you were really somebody. So what they would do, when you’re down at the beach, you could point up, and say, “Well, that is my apartment, the third one over, or whatever.” They would take – because they didn’t have the money to put this deck or balcony out there – they would paint a balcony on the outside of their apartment, complete with foliage and plants, and they could point back – “That’s my apartment there” – a phony. If you have a phony, you are a phony. That’s what Christ was teaching about. To be seen of others – is that our goal? To be seen of others? How good we can be?

Let’s continue on – our time is running out here – to the eighth woe in verse 29, Matthew 23:

V-29-32 – “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous, and say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.’ Therefore you are witnesses against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up then, the measure of your fathers’ guilt.”

Here it is stating they built tombs for the prophets. They built these big edifices to honor the prophets, but they didn’t follow the words of the prophets. As a matter of fact, their forefathers had killed the prophets. And their only real connection to the prophets was that their fathers had killed them. And their motivation was to impress other people, not to honor the prophets. That was their motivation. They built these big edifices, honoring themselves, actually. Did they honor the living prophets? No, they rejected them. And that’s what Jesus was teaching. We can’t fool God. God knows our heart. He knows who we truly are. We are not really putting up a facade as a mask or an actor to God. He knows us. God knows.

So when we look back on all of these woes, what do they all have in common?  We’ve touched on it already. We see an attitude of pride. We might contrast that with having the mind of Jesus. And what did He have? He had an attitude of humble service. We contrast these woes if we think back to the blessings of the Sermon on the Mount. We are not going to take the time to cover them, in Matthew 5 and 6. It talks about “blessed, or happy, are those that do these things.” We see the stark contrast between the two.

So what does it all lead to as we wrap this up? It leads to what is in our heart and what is our attitude. I heard a Grand Ole Opry star state – Ricky Skaggs – and I’ll quote: “God doesn’t raise up pride. He raises up humility.” Very profound.

Let’s turn over to Matthew 5, to our last verse here. This is from the Sermon on the Mount. We will not go through all of this, but we will read this one concluding scripture in verse 20 – Matthew 5, and verse 20 – as we put all of this together and think about the righteousness of the Pharisees.

Matthew 5:20 – “For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.

They kept the law perfectly – their own law – but they had evil in their heart. So why do we study? Why do we pray? Why do we sing as we did today? Why do we serve others? Are we craving the limelight? Are we doing it to be noticed? If we are self-important, if we are seeking importance, that might reflect on what truly our true attitude is.

What did the Pharisees do? They kept the people from seeing the true Savior – the true way, the true way of life – and they put stumbling blocks out there for others. Some only feel their self-worth if they put others down and step on them going up the ladder – speak negatively about others – but Jesus teaches us otherwise. The Pharisees did this with Jesus.

Well, today we’ve looked at one way to have the mind of Christ, as we started out. Do we have an attitude of cleaning in the cracks, but truly miss what is important inside the heart? So as we look ahead to the Days of Unleavened Bread, it is not just the crumbs in our home, but it is the crumbs in our lives that we should be looking at. Let’s remember who is the true Bread of life and as we go to that Days of Unleavened Bread, and we take that piece of bread, and we eat it, remember what that unleavened bread means to us. And we will finish up today where we started out: Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees.