Our text this morning is in Mark's gospel. If you will take your Bibles and turn to Mark chapter seven, we will be looking at verses one through 13. Under the heading, confronting religious hypocrisy, let me read the texts to you. Mark seven beginning in verse one. "The Pharisees and some of the scribes gathered around Him when they had come from Jerusalem, and had seen that some of His disciples were eating their bread with impure hands, that is, unwashed. (For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they carefully wash their hands, thus observing the traditions of the elders. And when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they cleanse themselves. And there are many other things which they have received in order to observe, such as the washing of cups and pitchers and copper pots.) The Pharisees and the scribes asked Him, 'Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but ether bred with impure hands.' And He said to them, rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites. As it is written, 'This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far away from me. But in vain do they worship me teaching as doctrines, the precepts of men.' 'Neglecting the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men.' He was also saying to them, 'you are experts at setting aside the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition. For Moses said, 'Honor your father and your mother, and he who speaks evil of father or mother is to be put to death. But you say, If a man says to his father or his mother, whatever I have, that would help you is Corban (that is to say, given to God), you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or his mother, thus invalidating the Word of God by your tradition, which you have handed down. And you do many things, such as that.'"

Religious hypocrisy is spiritual, make believe. And it's prevalent in evangelicalism today. It is costume Christianity. It is being a Christian in name only. Hypocrisy is basically external acts that thrive on errant doctrines. And together they provide the illusion of spirituality for the hypocrite that is deceived by his or her own actions. And the scribes and the Pharisees were actually the poster children for phony, self righteous, religious externalism. But I must say we must all guard our own heart in light of these things. In fact, Charles Spurgeon said, quote, "Beware of no man, more than yourself, we carry our worst enemies within us." Indeed, dear friends, we must all be suspect of our spirituality. The heart is deceitful, it is desperately wicked, and we are hopelessly biased in our own favor. But Jesus warned of the danger of hypocrisy, especially within the church, within professing Christendom, especially in Matthew seven, "Enter through the narrow gate, for the gate is wide, and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it." Then he adds this, "for the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life and there are few who find it." In verse 15, and following he went on to say, "Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes, nor figs from thistles are they? So every good tree bears good fruit but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire so that you will know them by their fruits. Not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven. But he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and then your name, cast out demons and in your name, perform many miracles? And then I will declare to them, I never knew you, depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness."

Dear friends, self deception, and errant doctrine, work together to lead to hypocrisy. To pretend Christianity, to that Christianity, that's all sizzle, but no steak. I think of the tragic legacy of the flamboyant revivalist preacher, Charles Finney, he lived from 1792 to 1875, and he created the manipulative methods designed to get people to make a decision for Christ. Finney believed that human depravity is a voluntary condition, not that we're born with it, that is to say, "its continuance depends upon the choice of the human will," he said, "Let a man once decide for Christ and he will become a new man. So the evangelists is not simply to preach Christ and tell men of their duty to believe he has to help make that believing a reality by appointing some outward action to assist a change of will," end quote. He was the one that came up with the anxious bench and the altar calls, the practice of calling people up to a pretend altar and getting them to make a public decision for Christ and therefore having a visible display of regeneration. In fact, he said, quote, "God has found it necessary to take advantage of the excitability there is in mankind to produce powerful excitements among them before he can lead them to obey." Well, obviously, this method of evangelism is, is foreign to the gospel, the gospel that has no dependency upon man's will as much as it does God's sovereignty. And so often, that type of thing produces false converts. And that's much of what we have in evangelicalism today, sadly. In fact, in 1838, a man by the name of James Ivesfoot, a Presbyterian minister, who lived in that era and witnessefd the results of Finney's revival ministry, he wrote this quote, "during 10 years, hundreds and perhaps 1000s, were annually reported to be converted on all hands. But now it is admitted that Finney's real converts are comparatively few." It is declared even by himself that, quote, "the great body of them are a disgrace to religion." Now, there have been times in history where there has been a great outward outworking of the Holy Spirit of genuine revival, you think of what happened in Acts two. And that was the result of gospel preaching, and even the adherence to the great doctrines of grace that are part of the gospel message. There was another great outworking of the Holy Spirit in 1517 that ignited the Protestant Reformation. And then at about 1734 through 49, you have the Great Awakening and New England about 100 years later, you have a second Great Awakening. But there have been many, many counterfeit revivals, many of them and they continue on to this day ignited by false teachers. Think of the Pentecostal Azusa Street Revival in Los Angeles in 1906 through 1915, and then the Pentecostal Brownsville revival in 1995 through 2000. Maybe some of you remember that at the Brownsville Assembly of God and Pensacola, Florida, all of these things are shooting stars. They appear bright and glorious for a moment and then they disappear in the darkness from whence they came.

And now we are familiar with the presumed revival at Asbury University in Wilmore Kentucky. They of course, they've chronicled a number of revivals on their campus ever since 1970. And there's other colleges that are claiming the same thing. Others trying to replicate that. And I was thinking about this and I know some of you wanted me to address this. And I thought I would briefly in the context of what we're studying here this morning. But at Asbury, you have a school that hosts speakers like Preston Sprinkle, who's on the advisory board of, Revoice, an organization that teaches gay Christianity and promotes gay celibate marriage and same sex relationships. And when you look at what happened at Asbury, I mean, you want to be honest, but you have to say my some strange things with all of that. There are reports of students posting messages on Twitter, about queer students leading in the revival services. One of them said, "day eight and my seminary friends are still leading worship." He went on to add in another tweet. "Did you know that POC, People of Color, women and queer students have been leading worship all eight days, both student bodies have lended themselves into being us towards the throne of God." Dr. Josh Buice, the founder and president of G three ministries, and the pastor of Praise Mill Baptist church made this observation, quote, "another individual published a video of supposed exorcism taking place in the middle of the auditorium. I couldn't help but notice how calm people strolled by when demons were supposedly screaming from inside the body of a person in the auditorium." And to those reports, the fact that false teachers like Todd Bentley, spent a few days there and was raving about his experience on social media media stating, quote, "the holy spirit lingers and you feel tangible waves of his presence," end quote. The Asbury movement appears to bear corrupt fruit on several levels. And then there is the group called the new evangelicals, which is an openly liberal organization that is really the epitome of the woke church. That organization posted a tweet that stated quote, "just met with an openly queer student who said ultimately, they have seen progress at the school over the past four years and believe this revival is planting seeds that will do more good than harm," end quote. Beloved, emotional emotionalism, bereft of truth is counterfeit worship. And false doctrine thrives on the emotions of the naive and the ignorant. Like cancer thrives on sugar. And unrestrained emotion built on deception is highly contagious. Look at the whole Black Lives Matter movement, for example. And many other movements like this that we see happening around the globe periodically. There are hundreds of these so called revivals, special outpourings of the Holy Spirit, so to speak, that happen all the time, especially in third world countries, where you have faith healers and prosperity preachers, bringing 1000s and 1000s of people into these these massive arenas and everybody gets saved, you know, 1000s of people getting saved. And then a few weeks later, the next guy comes and they get saved again. And then a little bit later, they get saved again, they're all hoping that God will somehow make them prosperous, and heal their diseases and so forth. And people crying, falling down, carrying on speaking gibberish. It's kind of a religious version of World Wrestling, you know, it's, everybody knows it's fake, but it's entertaining. And this stuff happens all the time.

If I can, if I can digress for a bit more more on this, I think of what the Apostle Paul said in Titus two, beginning in verse 11, and we don't have this on the screen. He said, "For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men." Then he adds what's going to happen when true salvation comes, he says, "instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires, and to live sensibly and righteously and godly in this present age, looking for the blessed hope and the glory of the peering of the appearing of our great God and Savior Christ Jesus, who redeemed us from every lawless deed, and is purifying for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds." Beloved, when you see an outworking of the Holy Spirit, that's what you're going to see. Let me put it real clearly, if this is truly an outworking of the Holy Spirit, you're not going to hear people bragging about how homosexuals are leading worship, you're going to hear homosexuals repenting publicly for leading false worship. And you're going to see schools, you're going to see organizations take a stand for Christ, against all of this wickedness that is so pervasive, the whole LGBTQ w x, y, z, insanity that's out there, the woke insanity, you're going to see people standing up against that. And you're going to see homosexuals, and lesbians and transgender people and everything in between, say, my look what God has done in my heart, He has delivered me from the bondage of my sins, and you're going to see churches filling up with people who take a stand for Christ. Moreover, and you must hear this, if a real work of the Spirit happens, you're going to see the rest of the world become apoplectic with rage. Because what they're going to hear is a complete refutation of all of the things that they hold dear, because you must remember that the Spirit of God came to convict the world of sin, righteousness and judgment. He did not come to put on some big show. And he came to exalt the Lord Jesus Christ. And so when people truly come to saving faith in Christ, and if it's truly a work of the Spirit, what you're going to see are men and women, and boys and girls, broken over their sin, you're going to see people longing to know more of Christ, you're going to see a hunger for his word. You're going to see gospel preaching, you're going to see genuine repentance, you're going to see people hungry and thirsting for righteousness, you're going to see people mourning over their sin. And you're going to see people exalting Christ, while the rest of the world hurls insults at them. Because Jesus said, in Matthew 10 and verse 34, "I did not come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword." Now folks, when I see those types of things, then I will say, Praise God, there's a great work of the Spirit. But until I see that, don't waste my time. And I pray that there are some genuine things going on with this and others like it. But folks, we must be discerning because Satan is a master counterfeiter and hypocrisy continues to be prevalent all around the globe, and it has been down through redemptive history. I might also add that, you know, when Peter came before the people, in Acts two, he didn't say, you know, why don't we get some of our gay young men to come and bring their lutes, liars and psalteries and lead us in some worship songs and share testimonies. That's not what happened. Instead, he unleashed the gospel by the power of the Holy Spirit, and 1000s were saved. And that's what we long for and we look for. So we need to test the spirits. By the way, I want to also add, that the church is never called to speak to seek some special work of the Spirit, it's never called to, to somehow conjure up some kind of revival. Instead, what we see is God always uses the normal means of grace in his church to accomplish his purposes. And so like the farmer, what we do is we continue to plow the field and plant the seeds and trust God for the increased.

Well, the point with all of that is to say that religious externalism wears many, many disguises, and it's subjected to many deceptions. And the apostate leaders of Israel. And their followers were notorious hypocrites. They did not worship God with a sincere heart, with a love and a passion for him to live for His glory. They did not live to be obedient to him from the heart. In fact, knowing this from personal experience as well was divine revelation. King David said this to his son Solomon, when he passed the kingdom on to him. First Chronicles 28:9, he said, "As for you, my son Solomon, know the God of your father and serve Him with a whole heart and a willing mind, for the Lord searches all hearts and understands every intent of the thoughts. If you seek Him, He will let you find him. But if you forsake Him, He will reject you forever." And my friend, I must ask you, are you here today to worship the Lord with all of your heart? Or is this just kind of what you do on Sundays in the South? Because of Israel's heartless, religious externalism that led them to apostasy and eventually to judgment, God spoke through his prophet Joel, saying this in Joel two beginning in verse 12, "Yet even now declares the Lord returned to me with all your heart, and with fasting, weeping and mourning, and rend your heart and not your garments. Now return to the Lord your God for He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in loving kindness and relenting of evil." You see, God was not impressed with their external acts of sorrow, like rending their garments. He was interested in the attitude of the heart, and he sees each of our hearts. Even from ancient times, God's covenant people were fastidious at keeping the law at offering the right kind of sacrifices and keeping religious festivals and offering continual prayers that were nothing more than, than hollow words.

And it's for this reason that God spoke through his prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 29:13. "This people draw near with their words and honor me with their lip service, but they remove their hearts far from me. And the reverence for me consists of tradition, learned by rote." And that's what Jesus quotes in verses six and seven of our text, "This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far away from me, but in vain do they worship Me, teaching us doctrines the precepts of men." And think of all the garbage that is out there today, this whole movement for gay Christianity, for evangelicalism affirming abortion and women pastors and, and how soft they are on the prosperity cult, charlatans and sharing platforms with rank heretics. Sadly, most evangelicals today have had the discernment of an orangutan. And most pastors have the boldness of a fainting goat. It's absolutely pitiful. And that's what was going on in Jesus day. With the scribes and the Pharisees. People honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.

Well, sadly, to give you a little historical historical background here, sadly, Israel's hypocritical, empty, kind of lifeless worship provided the context for the self righteous externalism of the scribes and the Pharisees. And a lot of that began back with the extra biblical regulations, the oral traditions, during the time of the Babylonian captivity and 605 BC through 535 BC. And that's what Jesus called in verse three, "the traditions of the elders." That's where a lot of that began. And, and this is what Jesus was contending with. And our text this morning, this, this legalistic, self righteous, rule keeping. To give you a summary, those oral traditions were recorded in the Mishnah. And that happened around the second century AD with the Jewish people, along with other other rabbinical teachings that they had like the Gamara. And when you put them all together, you have what's called the Talmud. And according to the Talmud, we see that God gave the law to Moses, and then Moses passed it on to other men and Israel. But in order to protect the people from violating the law, they began to build walls around the law with other extra biblical ideas and rules. And sadly, that wall of protection with all those extra biblical regulations that were supposedly going to protect the people, began to ensnare them and their religious hypocrisy. And those rabbinic rules actually undermined and obscured the law that they were trying to protect. And so over time, they weren't able to make a distinction between what God has said, and what the rabbinic traditions were saying. And so they really didn't understand how to interpret the Scriptures. And so this is the background now that we have here, and our texts before us, and I've divided it into three very simple categories. We're gonna see the Pharisaical ambush, the divine rebuke and the accusing illustration.

So notice this fascinating, fascinating story. First of all, the Pharisaical ambush. Here you see religious snobbery at its height. Verse one, "The Pharisees and some of the scribes gathered around Jesus when they had come from Jerusalem." Now they had probably been sent by the Sanhedrin, which was in Jerusalem being the Center for Jewish orthodoxy. And remember, now, the the Jewish leaders absolutely hated Jesus, because of his claims to deity, and how he exercised the divine prerogatives. Moreover, he did not respect their traditions. And if there's anything that will infuriate a legalist is don't respect something that they believe, especially regarding the Sabbath and the ceremonial cleansings and fasts, and all of those types of things. Legalists hate it when others don't abide by the rules. But hypocrites also hate anyone that intentionally or even unintentionally exposes their religious hypocrisy. And Jesus did this at every turn, not only with what he said, but with his character. I mean, stop and think about it. He was humble, they were arrogant. He was long suffering, they were rude, he was sincere, they saw his sincerity. And the people could also see the hypocrisy of the leaders. And his sympathy was a stark contrast to their cruelty. Jesus acted in the best interest of others, he acted to do the will of the Father. The Pharisees and the scribes acted for themselves. But they also hated Jesus because his approval ratings were much higher than theirs, right? Everybody was wanting to see Jesus and was ignoring them. So what happens is the Sanhedrin sends a hit squad, you might say, from headquarters to find reason to indict Jesus, and everyone in ministry knows that this type of thing is going to happen. I mean, I've had men digging their spurs into my life, as long as I've been a pastor. That's just kind of how it works. And you all know that as you try to serve Christ. But they wanted to kill Jesus from the very outset.

So verse two, "the scribes and Pharisees had seen that some of the disciples were eating their bread with impure hands, that is unwashed." And then you've got verses three and four a long parentheses, which was basically an explanation for Gentile readers. Remember, Mark's gospel is predominantly for Gentile readers. So we read "(For the Pharisees and all the Jews did not eat unless they carefully wash their hands thus observing the tradition of the elders and when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they cleanse themselves." By the way, the reason for that is if they accidentally brushed up against a Gentile they were defiled. So they had to cleanse themselves just in case they touched a Gentile. And it says, "and there are many other things which they have received in order to observe such as the washing of cups and pictures, and copper pots,)" and so forth. Then verse five, "the Pharisees and the scribes asked Jesus, 'Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat their bread with impure hands?'" In other words, don't you realize that spiritual people always act in compliance to the rules that have been handed down to them from generation to generation, including the ritualistic cleansing of the hands before a meal, along with many other things as we read, which they received in order to observe washing cups, pitchers, copper pots, etc.?

Let me give you a little bit of background here from one of my favorite authors. Alfred Edersheim, In his book," The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah" was written back in 1883. If you don't have it in your library, you need to have it. Here's what he said about some of these dynamics. By the way, he was a Jewish convert to Christianity, brilliant scholar. He said this, "Now the Mosaic law requires certain ceremonial washings for priests, Leviticus 22, six through seven and so forth, but not for others even before eating." Then he went on to add this, "the purifications were so frequent, and care had to be taken that the water had not been used for other purposes or something falling into it that might discolor or defile it. Large vessels or jars were generally kept for that purpose. These might be of any material, although stone is especially mentioned. It was the practice to draw water out of these with what was called a natla, very often of glass, which must hold at least a quarter of a log, which is a measure equal to one and a half eggshells. For no less quantity than this might be used for the affusion, meaning the cleansing, he went on to add the water was poured on both hands, which must be free of anything covering them, such as gravel, mortar, etc. And the hands were lifted up so as to make the water run to the wrist in order to ensure that the whole hand was washed, and that the water polluted by the hand did not run down the fingers." By the way, if you've ever seen a surgeon scrubbing, you know that that's what they do, as well. Similarly, he went on to add, "each hand was rubbed with the other fist, provided the hand that rubbed had been affused, otherwise the rubbing might be done against the head, or even against a wall. But there was one point on which special stress was laid in the first affusion, which was all that originally was required when the hands were not Levitically defiled, the water had to run down to the wrist. If the water remained short of the wrist, the hands were not clean." By the way, aren't you thankful that we live under grace, rather than the law? Oh my word. John MacArthur adds this, "the Pharisees and scribes took their traditions very seriously, including handwashing. Some rabbis suggested that a demon named "shibta" sat on people's hands while they were sleeping. If the demon were not removed by ceremonial washing before eating, he would be transferred to the mouth and could enter the body. Other rabbis turned handwashing into a salvation issue. Add the Jerusalem Talmud, and the Jerusalem Talmud asserts, quote, 'whoever is firmly implanted in the land of Israel, who speaks the holy language, who eats his food and food and purity as required by handwashing rituals and recites the Shema morning and evening is assured of life in the world to come.'"

All right, so there you have it. So with this background, now, the Pharisees come to Jesus, why do you let your disciples do this? Why do your disciples not walk according to their Jewish tradition of the elders, but eat their bread with impure hands? So there we have the Pharisee vehicle ambush. All right, they were gunning for him. And now they found him and this moves us to our second little point. And that is the divine rebuke. And I want you to notice Jesus response. He did not try to find common ground to dialogue with them. He did not seek reproach. He did not in any way try to find a way to agree to disagree, but let's still continue to hold hands and sing kumbaya. Instead, he just let the light of divine truth shine directly on their wickedness. And it's interesting, too, that Jesus uses two Old Testament passages to do this. One is the one in Isaiah 29:13 and the other is an exodus 20 Verse 12, and similar texts, "Honor your father and your mother." So in other words, what Jesus is doing here is he's making a very compelling case based on reliable authorities, namely the law and the prophets. You see that the law and the prophets and he said to them, "Rightly did Isaiah prophesy of You hypocrites." The Greek term for hypocrite is hypokrites and it means a fraud, a deceiver, an actor, a pretender, a wolf in sheep's clothing that's pretending to be something that they are not. And he goes on to say "as it is written, This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far away from me, but in vain do they worship Me, teaching as doctrines, the precepts of men." Then he adds this "neglecting the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men." In other words, you ignore divine revelation, and you prefer instead to embrace the traditions of men. Inconceivable. And if you've ever been around legalists, you will see they've got a rule for everything. And it will drive you crazy. And it will drive them crazy if you don't obey their rules. And of course, the Judaizers in the early church were notorious for this type of thing. Verse nine, he was also saying to them, and here by the way, he uses irony, "You are experts at setting aside the commandment of God, in order to keep your tradition." In other words, you guys are real pros at nullifying God's commands, so that you can somehow uphold your own man made rules. Can't you imagine the look on the faces of the Pharisees and scribes as they're dealing with the Son of God.

And this moves us now to our third point, and that is the accusing illustration. And this is a scathing example of their wickedness. Verse 10, Jesus says, "For Moses said," By the way, let me stop there. In verse 13, we see that, that what Moses said, is considered to be the word of God. All right. So in other words, this is what God said through Moses, for Moses said, "Honor your father and your mother, and he who speaks evil of father or mother, is to be put to death." So in other words, he's reminding them that the inner heart attitude of a child is to honor their father and their mother, to love them, to respect them, to obey them joyfully, to regard them highly with a spirit of appreciation and consideration. And by the way, if a child did not do that, it was the death penalty. All right, so God was serious about this, Exodus 21:17, "he who curses his father and his mother shall surely be put to death." Now he's not speaking here of some momentary outburst of rage or anger that can happen, nor is this referring to the, you might say, the appropriate rebellion of a child because of unfair treatment where, where a parent is provoking a child to anger or that type of thing. But what this is referring to is, is the settled defiance and disrespect of parental authority that God has placed over them, and a desire to do harm to the parents. And such a level of, of rebellion, God knew, betrayed a heart so wicked, that such a son or daughter could not be tolerated, to exist within the covenant community, an evil that not only mocks God's authority, but one that can spread quickly, like a virus among other children, and produce an entire culture of defiance against God and parents. I mean think about our culture today, right? Think about the vast number of defiant children in our culture that just live in constant rebellion, especially in child centered homes where the children are allowed to do whatever they want. A complete violation of Proverbs 22:15, where God says "Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline will remove it far from him." I mean, think of our culture today, the idea of physically spanking a child is completely anathema. No wonder kids grew up to not respect authority. By the way, physical discipline is appropriate, under the right guidelines, and if there is one area where I would willingly defy the government, it's when it comes to you telling me how to raise my children, rather than me obeying what God says. And a child has to learn early, when they first start arching their back on the changing table. Unacceptable, you don't do that. And they learn that very quickly. But we live in a country in a culture where there's absolutely no fear of God, no discipline, Proverbs 29:15, "the rod and reproof give wisdom, but a child who gets his own way bring shame to his mother." Not only is this a grievous embarrassment to a mother and to a father, but that child will produce more and more moral decay within the family and within the community. Verse 16, goes on to say "when the wicked increase, transgression increases." Welcome to America right? "But the righteous will see their fall. Correct your son and he will give you comfort he will also delight your soul." In Proverbs 13 Verse 17 describes the fate of a parent hater. It says, "the eye that mocks a father and scorns a mother, the Ravens of the valley will pick it out and the Young Eagles will eat it." This is a picture of an unburied corpse. The point is, when you have a child that rejects parental authority, and discipline, that life will lead to the rejection of God's authority and discipline. And as a result, that child will be prone to physical violence and probably die a violent death, which will lead to the second death in an eternal hell.

Now, I digress for a moment just to make sure you understand the dynamics here of the these commands, but Jesus is using this now to expose their hypocrisy. The text says verse 10, "you were to honor your father and your mother. And he who speaks evil to father a mother has to be put to death." But you say, here we go. Here's the exposure. "If a man says to his father, his mother, whatever I have, that would help you as Corban, that is to say, given to God, you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or his mother, thus invalidating the Word of God by your tradition, which you have handed down and you do many things such as that." You see, the scribes and the Pharisees had concocted a very clever way of getting around the requirement that God has for honoring your parents, especially in their old age. And that clever way, was to just declare things to be Corban, which basically meant, oh, no, no, no, no. What I have is, is going to be offered to God, it's, it's a sacred gift for him, you I can't use this to help you. No, I can't do that. This is an offering set aside to him for religious use. And that way, you don't have to care for your parents, because you've dedicated it all to God. And this in their mind would presumably release the son or the daughter from the obligation of honoring their parents. I mean, this is Pharisaic sophistry at its highest. This is absolute wickedness. And yet this was customary. You see, not only was this a deliberate and detestable form of chicanery, but worse yet, the people that would do this would never give their money to God, they would keep it for themselves. So Jesus is exposing them, he is unmasking them. And I can only imagine what the look was on their faces. They probably just kind of had hung their heads down and gradually turned and walked away. Well, folks we must all examine our heart, right? We've got to be brutally honest with ourselves because the malignant cells of hypocrisy often remain concealed in the shadows of our own self deception. We have all kinds of ways of making the Scripture mean, and say things, that help us accomplish our agenda. And the most penetrating light of Scripture tends to be blocked by our own self deception. We've got to guard against that.

And by the way, the place where you would look for this most this is where you would begin is what about your love for Christ? Do you have a sincere love for Christ? Is that manifested in your heart, in the privacy of your own closet? Can others say my, when I'm around this person I can see in here, the love of Christ. And you will know you have that if indeed he is the preoccupation of your mind. Because it is the apprehension of the glory and the greatness of the Lord Jesus Christ, that brings to us that soul satisfying joy of abiding in him. And folks, if that isn't there, all of your hymn singing and church going and all that other stuff is just externalism. I love what Thomas Brooks the great Puritan writer said in this regard. "The hypocrite," he said, "can never take up his full and everlasting rest, satisfaction and content in the person of Christ, in the merits of Christ, in the enjoyment of Christ alone. No hypocrite did ever long and mourn after the enjoyment of Christ as the best in all the world. No hypocrite did ever prize Christ for a sanctifier as well as the Savior. No hypocrite did ever look upon Christ, or long for Christ to deliver him from the power of his sins as much or as well as to deliver him from the wrath to come. No hypocrite can really love the person of Christ, or take the satisfaction in the person of Christ. The rays and beams of Christ's glory have never warmed his heart. He never knew what bosom communion with Christ meant. The hypocrite may love to be healed by Christ and to be pardoned by Christ, and to be saved by Christ and so forth. But he can never take any complacency in the person of Christ. His heart never seriously works after union with Christ. The love of a sincere Christian runs much out to the person of Christ. Heaven itself without Christ would be to such a soul but a poor thing, a low thing, a little thing and uncomfortable thing, an empty thing. It is the person of Christ, that is the sparkling diamond in the ring of glory."

Beloved, that's the stuff of genuine saving faith. At the dedication of the temple, Solomon, exhorted the nation of Israel to guard against externalism, to guard against hypocrisy, that will inevitably lead to apostasy. And he said this, "let your heart therefore be wholly devoted to the Lord". Holy means, what it means completely, not partially, but fully, not occasionally, not sporadically, but wholly "devoted to the Lord our God to walk in His statutes and to keep his commandments," as it says in First Kings 8:61. I trust that is the motto of your heart. The apostle Paul learned this well did he not on the road to Damascus? I mean, here was a fastidious lawkeeper, a Pharisee of the Pharisees, his confidence was in his own perceived self righteousness, Philippians three, verse four, we read, "If anyone else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh," Paul said, "I far more." And then he gives his bio, "Circumcised the eighth day of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews as to the law, a Pharisee, as to zeal, a persecutor of the church, as to the righteousness which is in the law, found blameless. But whatever things were gained to me those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be lost, in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I have suffered, the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish, so that I may gain Christ."

And again, as I read earlier, Matthew seven, one of the most chilling statements in the Bible is that "not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom." What a, what a dire warning to the masses of people who named the name of Christ. And what a horrifying climax to a life of self defense, self deception, where you pretended to be that which you are not. Therefore, one day you will stand before the Lord Jesus Christ as your judge, and your executioner not as your Savior and not as your Lord. The day when, according to Acts 10:42, "the one who has been appointed by God as Judge of the living and the dead." Namely, Christ will strip away all of those external robes of hypocrisy andd expose you for who you really are.

Well, Jesus frightening prediction should cause us all to examine our hearts as the Apostle Paul warned in Second Corinthians 13 Five and I close with this. "Test yourself to see if you are in the faith, examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourself that Jesus Christ is in you--Unless, indeed, you failed the test?" Let's pray together. Father, we thank you for the sobering words that causes us all to look do deep into our own heart. And I pray that if there be one here today that is just playing some Christian game, that by Your grace you will overwhelm them with such conviction that they will indeed repent and be saved this day. And help us all to guard our hearts against those things that would cause us to pretend to be that which we are not. Because we know in so doing we forfeit divine blessing and power in our life. So, Lord, we thank you for your saving grace. And we thank you for the power of Your word. May it do its glorious work and each of us today, I pray in Jesus name and for his sake. Amen.