Matthew pt. 54 - Too Much or Not Enough

Matthew chapter 15. Kaden, can you shut that door,

Matthew 15 · chapter mention

buddy? Thank you.

This is some time after, but we don't know how much time after.

It could be the very next day. So remember, we just heard about

John the Baptist. It's been weeks for you and I,

but this is all just been, you know, 48 hours or so for Jesus.

Just hears about John the Baptist, gets a way to pray.

Everybody says, hey, we're here too.

He ministers to and cares for everybody, sends his disciples

away, joins them, walks on the water and now gets over into

gassinaret, crosses over to the other side, heals the sick and

gassinaret ministers to those people And now here we come.

Is it the next day? Is it the next week?

We're not sure, but it's sometime after now in chapter 15

verse one, Then the Pharisees and the scribes came to Jesus

from Jerusalem and said why do your disciples break the

tradition of the elders for they do not wash their hands when

they eat. He answered them and why do?

You break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition.

For God commanded honor your father and mother, and whoever

reviles father and mother must surely die.

But you say if anyone others honors, if anyone tells his

father and mother, oh what you, what you would have gained from

me has been given to God, then he need not honor his father.

So for the sake of your tradition, you have made void

the word of God. You hypocrites, well did Isaiah

prophecy of you when he said this People honors me with their

lips, but their heart is far from me.

In vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the

commandments of men. God, we thank you that you are

going to open our hearts this morning and that Your word is

going to go and do exactly what you sent it to do.

We know Your word will accomplish everything you

intended for it to accomplish. We know Your word will cut to

the heart and we receive it right now.

God, we receive the surgery of the Spirit.

We, we, we're thankful for the sword of the Spirit.

That's why your flock has gathered, because they are

hungry to receive from You. Knowing that the Good Shepherd

will care for his people, knowing that he will see to

their knees, knowing that he will give them all that they

need. God protect us from the

extremes, protect us from the errors of the scribes, protect

us from the errors of the Pharisees, protect us from the

errors of our own flesh. The only thing the the things we

would do in our own minds to create clever, clever answers

for our disobedience and help us to walk more closely with you in

Jesus name, Amen. You're going to see again what

you've seen many times before. I continue to point it out to

you the fact that Jesus doesn't back down from conflict.

Why do you do that Pastor Jay? Are you trying to overemphasize

and take us to the other ditch? Not at all.

It's just that I understand the the moment, the culture and the

time that we live in similar to the fact that we talk about we

have to fight where the fight is.

We have to clarify things that are often neglected.

So a point that's often neglected.

You'll find me often emphasizing when we see it, when we see it

pointed out in the text, I'll say, hey, notice again the

perspective that we that many of us had of Jesus is all he did

was like pick up baby birds and fix their broken wing and carry

them around for days and, and pat children on the head and

just sweet, sweet, sweet Jesus. And that's the only picture we

have of him. Well, does he do that?

Well, not the bird part. He cares about everything, but

more importantly, he cares about people.

So we see him tender when he needs to be tender and we we

emphasize it appropriately. But when we see him being not

tender, or what I've often said is him going nuclear, then we

point that out as well. And we say, let's just say the

obvious thing here. Let's just say what's obviously

being said. This is unacceptable social

behavior, what you're seeing from Jesus right now.

So Jesus isn't backing down from conflict.

And keep in mind the scribes and the Pharisees, they've come from

Jerusalem Ticket Center at they've traveled about 90 miles.

So there's a lot going on here. The holier you are, the closer

you live to Jerusalem. And if you live in Jerusalem,

then of course, you're the holiest of all.

So the scribes and the Pharisees, they're in Jerusalem

their daily, their lives, their livelihood, their profession is

the Scriptures. So they're always known, they're

always seen in and around Jerusalem.

They've got all their presentation that we've talked

about. We've talked about their

falseness or we've talked about them taking what the Lord said.

And he always intended things to get down to people's hearts so

that they would be lived out with obvious and natural

application. But the Pharisees focus on

exclusively the external presentation.

Should your faith have an external presentation?

Yes, a million times yes. But the false person, the

prideful person, focuses on the external application.

Without the presence of the heart motivation, there's no

fuel in the. Tank.

But they just put an awesome paint job on the car and they go

look at that thing. There's no engine in there,

There's nothing in it. That's a Lamborghini, but it

can't go anywhere. But look how awesome it looks.

So this is the problem. We are supposed to make

application with our faith. We are supposed to look like

something. Loving God with all your heart,

soul, mind and strength. We'll find.

Many, many, many applications. It will impact the way you sit

down and eat your breakfast. It will sit down.

It will impact the way you lie down in your bed.

What's that supposed to mean? Is there some rule I'm

following? No, Dear St.

My point is, when you really love God, you'll really love His

Word, and you'll find a life and a heart filled of gratitude and

it finds all kinds of expression To love and to worship will

always be tied to the scriptures.

Always come back to the word of God.

So the Pharisees are these big famous ministers.

These are the guest ministers. They've come from Jerusalem.

Maybe it was a caravan, maybe they walked, probably horseback,

maybe Chariots. The scribes and the Pharisees

have come to little Olga center at on the Sea.

What a privilege, what an incredible honor.

The scribes, the Pharisees, the Rabbis are here.

We're going to go see them. This is exciting.

The people consider it would have been honored and excited

for this visit. We've already had the powerful

prophet come who's healed everybody.

So there's revival going on right now.

Already Jesus is teaching, Jesus is preaching.

Jesus healed everybody. But now the scribes and the

Pharisees too, Man, it's Christmas.

We got all of our favorite people here together.

Well, why did the? Scribes and the Pharisees come.

Well, scribes and Pharisees, they would travel because they

would want to make converts. They would travel to make

proselytes, which we're going to see in in chapter 23.

Like you think Jesus has gone nuclear before.

You think he's going nuclear here?

You wait till we get to chapter 23.

You want to see Jesus go off? You're going to see Jesus go

off. And he does it in Jerusalem and

he does it in front of everybody.

Like it's hard to, it's hard to give you the full social

implications of like what this would have meant.

We're just like, oh, he seemed kind of irritated that day.

Like he's, he's not just level 10, he's level 11.

He's breaking all the rules. Why?

Because he is God. Because he's he's breaking

man's. Rules who are in disobedience to

Him. So why have they?

Why have they travelled? Well, maybe to make converts

more likely. They've travelled specifically

because they heard where Jesus was, and now the more his

ministry grows, the more the ridicule increases.

That's a typical thing for anything that grows.

But these jokers are intent on discrediting him.

That's their focus, that's their motive, that's their motivation.

So the scribes, the Pharisees, they come to Jesus from

Jerusalem, and now they have their question in verse 2.

Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders?

For they do not wash their hands when they eat.

So who in the world are the scribes and the Pharisees?

Whenever we read our Old Testament, we don't see, we

don't see a lot about them. We don't see anything about

Pharisees. We don't when we see very little

about scribes. But then we've got this 400 year

period where the the rat, the last of the Old Testament was

written and in the beginning of the New Testament begins to be

written down. So what was happening in there?

Well, in that time the scribes and the Pharisees really built a

lot of momentum. And these were different groups

who had different originally, maybe potentially pure purposes

and what they were doing. The scribes were responsible for

writing down the scriptures, inscribing things.

They were writing the scriptures, copying the

scriptures. But eventually the scribes began

to be commentators and nitpickers of the scriptures.

So first of all, their job was to just, we're just to copy the

Scripture perfectly and that's our specialty.

But eventually they start to go, well, we're going to, we're

going to start to add to it. We're going to write a

commentary alongside of it. You got a good study Bible,

you've got the scripture and then underneath you've got the

study notes. Well, nothing wrong with that.

I think you should have good study Bibles.

They're very helpful resources. I want you to have commentaries

study all those things. Absolutely dig in.

But you know good and well, those study notes in your Bible

are not the Bible, right? That's a guy who's doing his

best, hopefully to love the Lord and to try and teach you and go,

hey, keep this in mind. And hey, keep that in mind.

Similar to your. Pastor, I speak.

For the Lord to his flock, Am I fallible?

Everybody say yes, yes. I've had to come into the pulpit

and apologize to you before. Maybe that'll happen again, I

don't know. But I make mistakes.

Men make mistakes. God's word is perfect.

God's word is flawless. There is no error.

It is perfectly inspired. It is perfectly infallible.

So the scribes though apparently, I don't know, maybe

they got bored with their job and said we're we're going to

start to add to it. The problem is the weight to

their study notes started to become equal to that of the word

of God. And they say, yeah, well, we, we

say this and these things, they all go together.

And over time it became more and more and more their their their

volumes become longer than the scriptures themselves.

The Pharisees, who are they? Well, Pharisee means separated

or separate ones. So that was their original

intention. The Pharisees were saying, we

want to be separate and holy. We've seen Israel mess this

thing up over and over and over. Dag on it.

We're going to get it right now. We're going to be a holy people

for the Lord. That's a good motive, right?

That's what you and I want. We want to be holy people.

We want to be set apart under the Lord and for his work.

But the Pharisees, they start off good, but their separation

eventually becomes a ridiculous and an absurd outward show.

What started off maybe with a few originally saying, let's be

holy, let's be humble before the Lord, Let's put some things in

place so that we really walk out a faithful, disciplined life for

Him. It eventually morphed into

something where all we're focused on is the external

presentation of holiness absent the internal part.

So these are the scribes and these are the Pharisees.

They pat each other on the back. They go around Jerusalem.

They say, aren't we great? And all the normal folks like

you and I go, they're so great, they're so awesome.

I could never love God like they do.

And Jesus hated that. He absolutely hated that.

And then we've got another group.

This is just just for your notes to keep in mind.

The Sadducees, they're not mentioned in this passage, but

these are more liberal. So the you could call the

Pharisees and the scribes more conservative.

The Sadducees much more liberal, not very religious.

They're much more concerned with social status.

They don't even believe in the resurrection.

They don't believe in the supernatural.

So lots more problems with them for other reasons.

But now what is our point back in verse 2?

Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders?

What is their question they're asking about hey?

When the scribes and the Pharisees, we've written volumes

and volumes and volumes for hundreds of years, Jesus, and

there's lots of things in that. Those are the traditions of the

elders that they're asking about.

Why do your disciples not? They're not asking why do your

disciples disobey the scriptures?

That's not their priority. They're asking why don't they do

what the study notes said To do that you absolutely have to do.

That's the question. Which is a it's a ridiculous

question. And of course it happens with

Jesus separately as well. Jesus doesn't wash his hands

before one of the meals, which again, he knew what he was

doing. Jesus is not worried about

breaking up the social construct of what everybody's used to.

He doesn't just go with the flow, nor is he dropping

grenades only to antagonize. His motive is to bring holiness.

His motive is to bring people closer to the Lord.

But there was this elaborate hand washing ceremony that was

written out. It was spelled out.

So you've probably even seen it. They even do this whenever you

see, if you watch an old, a movie that's showing biblical

stuff going on, you might see someone in a meal time that take

their hands like this and you bend your hands at the wrist and

the water is poured down from the fingers down to the wrists.

And then there's a specific way that they have to move their

hands. I don't know how to do it.

This looks something like this. There's a specific way that a

holy person would really wash their hands like this.

What is it? I'm breaking the tradition of

the elders because I don't know what I'm doing.

And then after you've done that, now you bend your hands the

other way and the water drips down from the wrist, down the

fingers, and now you grab your towel.

There's a certain way you drive. Wow, holy.

If you really want to be holy, you would even do it between the

courses of your meals. So now we've had the first

course, and now wow, doesn't get much holier than that.

Or does it? Or is that just an outward show?

Man, I'm like, yeah, I'm sure. I mean, I make my boys wash

their hands before they eat, but is it that big of a deal?

The tradition of the elders. This is the oral tradition that

was created by the scribes and the Pharisees.

This is not scripture. Their commentaries were lengthy

and eventually they come to be held as equal to or greater than

the Scripture. So this is a real problem,

right? They made what what's called the

fences, the fences of the Pharisees.

So if in the middle of the table here we have the law of God, God

says this thing right here. That's it.

God says do it this way, don't do it that way.

That's what I say about it. I'm God.

The Pharisees say, well, if God says that we're going to be

extra holy, we're going to say you can't even do this.

We're going to put up a bigger perimeter around the thing to

keep you from ever getting close to it.

Hey, my Pharisee friend, I appreciate you wanting the Lord

to be obeyed, but we should just stick with what the Lord says.

You shouldn't put anything extra on people that the Lord didn't

put on them. And but the bigger problem was

that it was all done for pomp and circumstance.

It was done with prideful representation.

So they made fences to keep you from breaking the law.

But here's the big problem. You could still keep the letter

of the law and still be breaking the heart of the law.

The very thing that the law was trying to accomplish, which all

of the law was pointing to. And Jesus said, I can all be

summed up like this. Love your neighbor or love, love

the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength

and love your neighbor as yourself.

So when you love your neighbor as yourself, you put a railing

around your rooftop because you don't want any other little kids

to get up because a lot of times they go on rooftop.

But it was a law of God. You had to have the the a

railing around your roof. Wow, God.

So you have to put a railing on your roof.

So you like the government putting building codes on

everything that are excessive and ridiculous?

No, our government often overreaches.

But the Lord's motive was a love your neighbor law.

And it was saying you don't want your neighbors to fall off when

you're having a dinner party. You don't want some little kid

to fall off and die. It's a good law.

That's all. All should be.

That's all our government should be doing, by the way, is things

that are making sure that people are being loved well and cared

for well. That's what legislation is, the

purpose. We literally legislate morality.

Throw that out there for you. It's often said you can't

legislate morality. That is incorrect.

Morality is literally the only thing we legislate.

That is the whole purpose of the law is to legislate morality.

We are making objective decisions and we're saying that

is immoral. It's immoral.

For your plant. To pump all this toxic sludge

into the river, that's immoral. We've made that decision and now

we're going to legislate that morality, right?

It's immoral for you to drive 300 miles an hour down the

freeway. So we're going to make a law

that says you have to love your neighbor, and we're going to

legislate that morality. But the Pharisees, their fences

keep getting bigger and bigger and bigger.

And the problem was they weren't trying to keep the heart of the

law. They were only keeping the

letter. And they had clever ways around

it. This is what lawyers are all

about, right? It's the technicality.

It's the loophole, right? Good lawyer movies are fun

because they find like, the one little thing.

And I like that's how they won the whole case.

Why? Because the law only cares about

the law. That's it.

If it's the law, then that's it. The law only cares about the

law. And if you got a good lawyer,

you spend enough money and you get the right lawyer who goes,

well, I can make this do that and I can say.

Tada. And you kind of cobble this

thing together like, well, technically he got you.

So you lose when anyone with half a brain and one eye can

still see that this that that ruling was immoral.

All normal. People can look at that and go,

that's immoral, that whole case turned out wrong.

That's not right. Everybody knows it, everybody

can see it, the judge knows it. But the law, the law was

technically fulfilled and therefore we ended up with the

immoral ruling that we got. We missed the heart of the thing

because we got so good and clever with the law itself.

This is what the Pharisees and the scribes are, real good, real

sharp, real quick. That's what lawyers are all

about, technicalities, limitations and loopholes.

So the Pharisees and the scribes did two things with their

tradition. Listen to both of these.

The Pharisees, the scribes did to at least two things.

They would add commands to gods that would burden the people

more than God's Word did. That would be, that would be

where they do. That's too much.

You put too much on it. You added commands that the Lord

didn't give and you're burdening people.

That's too much. Or sometimes they would create

elaborate loopholes to avoid obedience to God's Word.

That's not enough. It's too much or it's not

enough. Those are the two common errors.

You and I do the exact same things.

It's easy to look at these guys and go, how could you?

But you and I have all kinds of clever little things that we do

as well. We're some pretty good lawyers,

right? Every parent knows that.

You got some good little lawyers in your house.

Like, did you do this? Well, let me explain.

I told you to clean your room. Well, actually you said, have

you cleaned your room? And then right, we get there

real good, real clever, real technical, all these children.

It's called flesh. I've got it.

You've got it. Well, the word of God says that.

Well, here's why. My it's actually different for

me. And, well, here's the way I

think about it. Careful, you're probably getting

ready to say something really stupid.

You're probably getting ready to do some justification.

Well, here's the way I look at it.

Are you saying we're not supposed to interpret?

We are. We have to.

It's what does it say and how do you read it?

So yes, we're going to talk about making application to the

scriptures and yet be careful and make sure that this thing is

right. This is the thing that we've got

to protect and make sure that this thing is right.

There's lots of freedom and application, lots of freedom and

application, but it's got to look like something.

It can't look like nothing. I love God.

What's that look like in your life?

I love him in my heart. And what fruit would there be?

Oh, my heart is the fruit. No, you're full of it.

You're absolutely full of it. And by it I mean sin.

You're full of it and that's super dangerous.

I love my wife so much, man. What's that look like?

I just, I just love her so much in my heart.

That's it. That's all there is to it.

Like it doesn't have to look like anything.

Don't be legalistic. I know it needs to look like

something. So what are the scribes and

Pharisees do those two things? They either go too much or they

go not enough. Hey, God says this and we add on

top of it all this or they create the elaborate loopholes.

They don't go far enough and they in the heart of The thing

is not obeyed at all. So the technicals not obeyed.

Nor the heart is obeyed. And now they come peacocking and

presenting. You're welcome, You're blessed

today because we've come. We have such high standards.

That's the accusation that they're making.

Against the Lord of glory, we have higher standards than you

do. Oh, you're so stupid.

When are they going to learn? Maybe these guys haven't been

blown up by him yet. He's blown up some Pharisees.

Apparently they didn't tell their friends.

So this is what we got to work with for now.

So they're getting blown up, they're getting told they're

getting shown, but they come in Peacock.

And we've got these high standards, your disciples,

though, our disciples. Know how to eat holiness.

We even do it between courses because we because we're so

holy. But your disciples, they don't

wash their hands when they eat and Jesus calls them out.

He brings Razor. Sharp.

Accusation. He calls them hypocrites.

A hypocrite, you and I, we, we think of it, we, we have a

correct understanding of it. But at the time when he said

this, a hypocrite was an actor in a play, a person in a play.

At that time, they wouldn't have taken on characters the same way

that you and I do where you pretend they would put on a

mask. So you put on a happy mask or a

sad mask, and then you would deliver your lines in that play.

So an act, an actor, a hypocrite is someone who's false.

But it's, it's to clarify to the audience like, oh, that's the

sad person, that's the good guy, that's the bad guy.

There wasn't a lot of drama to go around it.

The mask accomplished a lot of it.

Jesus is calling them you actors, you fake people, you

fake Christians, you fake preachers, you fake whatever.

You got a mask on. You're putting on the proper

mask. Look at my religious mask.

Look at my Christian mask. Look at my loving mask.

But it's not. You're a hypocrite.

They wore the mask. They play the part Jesus saying

that the scribes and the Pharisees are just actors and

that their devotion to God is false and it is a mask for

something rotten inside. He's told them this before,

right? You whitewashed tombs, a

whitewashed tomb. So kids, they didn't always bury

everybody in the ground. Sometimes you could build like

this beautiful tomb and you could make it really ornate and

really decorative. And you could put, you could put

sculptures around it and you could put carvings into it.

And it really could be a beautiful piece of architecture.

And you go, wow, that's beautiful.

You know what's inside a dead body?

Something not so beautiful, right?

And Jesus calls them. And then they would whitewash

it. There was a way, there was a

certain chemical process they would use to make it even more

beautiful. They wash it white and it was

awesome. People go, wow, that was a

beautiful whitewashed tomb, Jesus goes.

You're a whitewashed tomb, beautiful on the outside and

full of dead men's bones. It looks awesome.

Yeah, and there's a dead body in there it.

Stinks. You want to go inside?

No, I don't want to go inside. Well, neither do I want to go in

your heart. But your outward presentation

looks so great, he continues to call this out over and over.

Jesus hates spiritual deception. He knows they're gonna center it

that day, and everywhere he goes, he knows that the local

blacksmith is there watching the Pharisee wash his hands.

Or do. Any of his other number of oral

traditions that don't come from God, and he knows that that

guy's condemning himself. A guy who maybe really loves

God, maybe actually loves the Old Testament, maybe is lovingly

looking forward to the Messiah to come, and he loves his wife

and his kids, and he's trying to follow God and he sees the

Pharisees in the. Scribes.

And he thinks I could never be a holy man.

And Jesus hates that. He hates it.

And he says no, no, no, hey everybody, they're hypocrites.

They're false. Don't listen to them.

Everybody puckered up. Everybody got real

uncomfortable. The air got sucked out of the

room if they were indoors and if they were outdoors, everybody

goes, Oh my goodness, what is happening right now?

He's not supposed to talk this way.

Nobody talks this way to the Pharisees.

They are the authority. It's them.

There's nobody above them. It's them.

There are religious leaders that we submit to.

They teach us how to be holy. And Jesus saying they're not

holy. Why?

Because. Jesus loves people, and because

Jesus. Loves his own word.

In his command, and he expects it to be obeyed with sincerity.

God is not prideful, so he has zero tolerance for pride in me.

God opposes the proud. He gives grace to the humble.

I don't want Jesus to put me on blast.

Then just be humble with Jesus and you'll receive the

tenderness that you that that we've always heard about.

But if there's pride, if there's hypocrisy, your blood's on your

own hands. You've done this.

I could never be that holy. Mr. Sweet and mild Jesus calls

out their sin publicly. Why?

Because their hypocrisy and their pride is public.

You go call Jesus out publicly. He'll answer publicly, but look

at his wisdom. Just bragging on him again.

Of course he uses this tactic where they say.

Why do they not do this? And he doesn't go.

Well, let me explain. I've told you this many times,

you need to be honest with yourself and recognize a dog and

a pig, a wolf and a snake. Jesus warned US against all of

those. Every non Christian's favorite

verse in the Bible. Remember it Judge not 97 one

judge not the whole rest of the chapter.

Literally teaches you how to judge accurately and how to

judge appropriately without hypocrisy.

Get the log out of my eye and now I can help my brother.

Now I can help my sister, but I am in.

I am supposed to help. You are supposed to help me.

By the way, if you see the splinter in there, you don't

want to log in yours. You're not just going.

Splinter. I remember when I used to have

splinters. But instead you're going, hey, I

see a little something I could help, I'd love to help.

And I go, yes, please help. I received that.

I'm thankful for that. This is all good, but Jesus

doesn't take the bait. Answer us this question.

Why don't you follow our tradition?

He goes, no, no, I'm not going to play your game.

I'm not going to come into your framework.

I'm not going to come into your perspective because it's broken.

It's faulty. People do this to you all the

time, Saints, people do this to you all the time.

There is no divorce between the truth of God and the love of

God. But but your culture will

constantly tell you that there is.

Why do you hate homosexuals, Adam?

Why do you, you know, why do you hate Muslims, bro?

Why do you hate women, man? No, no.

Answer me. Is it?

No, No. Answer me.

No, No, I'm reasonable. I'm being completely reasonable.

No, I would. I'm being so reasonable.

I would just love for you to answer.

And now what have I done? I've already given you a faulty.

Framework to start and Jesus goes no, no thank you, I'm not

playing. Why?

Because I know you're a dog and a pig is what?

Jesus. I'm not giving you my pearls.

I'm not giving my pearls. I do have pearls.

I will share them when it's appropriate and you don't get

them. Because if you share your pearls

with the dog and the pig, they'll devour them and then

they'll turn and attack you. And that was my motive from the

beginning. When I'm laid in it, when I

began with an accusation, that was my whole motive.

I've already made judgments have been made.

I've already had your trial. It's all finished now.

I just need you to give me anything to work with so that I

can use it against you. Why?

Because I'm a snake, I'm a wolf, I'm a pig, I'm a dog, you name

it. And Jesus going, I'm not taking

the bait with any of that. And then, of course, when you

don't answer my question, I go, yeah, yeah, you won't answer it.

There's the evidence. I don't need anything.

I already have evidence in my own heart against you.

I've built up a false case. Anything you say, do or don't do

will all be seen as evidence for my case.

Why? Because I'm a fool and because

I'm an idiot. And you should not give my

accusations the time of day. It's different from someone who

comes to you with humility and says, hey, brother, I got a

concern, man. Share it with you so that we can

walk in holiness to towards the Lord together.

Got something to bring to your attention?

Can we discuss it together? And you go, Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It might wound you because the the wounds of a friend are

faithful. A friend won't stab you in the

back. A friend will stab you right in

the stomach and go, why'd you do that?

Go. It's surgery.

I'm here to help you. Go.

OK, let's do it. Lord help me.

It's hard on the flesh. Yes, it is.

Get up on the altar again. Living sacrifice again and again

and again. That's what the altar is.

Church. It's a killing place.

This is what's required. I certainly need that over and

over and over again. He doesn't answer their

insincere question in the first category.

So notice I gave you those two categories.

Sometimes they go too far and other times they don't go far

enough. Notice the framework of their

first question. They come to him with a question

that goes too far. Why don't your disciples?

And it wasn't in the category of we want to skirt out of

something. It was the category of we do so

much extra. They come to him in the category

of look. Look at all the extra we do.

He answers them with an example of their second category that

they make a mistake in. You don't go far enough.

Hey, these guys, the hand washers over here, they go so

far, don't they? And the people are going, yeah.

And he goes. They don't go far enough is

their problem. And then he goes to a different

example where their oral tradition has negated the law of

God. They're pretending to make much

of the word of God because they're actually taking

scripture. In Leviticus, the priests had to

wash before they did a certain kind of sacrifice, but that was

it. It was just for the priest.

But they've said like, well, if the priest should do that, then

everyone should do this thing all the time.

And he's going, that's not, that's not, that's not what I

said. That's not what I said.

You're putting heavy burdens on everybody.

Like people can't even eat. And you're you're just building

burdens on people for your own prideful satisfaction.

If it was actually building holiness and people were doing

it with a heart of wisdom, then the Lord would have some

tolerance for it. You could put that in the

category of freedom you're free in.

Christ, Hey, I like to do it this way.

Hey, I like to pray 6 hours a day.

Praise the Lord, there's no law against that.

Love the Lord and pray 6 hours a day.

Everyone must pray 6 hours a day.

Hang on a second. That's different.

You, you just changed it. The first thing you were doing

out of your own loving devotion and the freedom you have in

Christ, which was good and beautiful, That was wonderful.

No condemnation for that. But then you said everybody must

do that thing, but that's not what God says.

So now you're putting a heavy burden on everybody, really just

for your own pride, because you're pretending that you are

the standard of holiness. No, my friend, No, my brother,

no, my sister, don't do that. Enjoy your six hours in prayer

and please pray for me. I hope you do, but but you can't

stick that on everybody. But holiness looks like

something. All of these things are true at

the same time. So he's not answering their

insincerity. He's taking us through

truthfully. But he answers them not

according to the question of their offenses that they make.

He goes after their second category of their godless

loopholes to reveal that their hearts are far from God.

Jesus sees all of the falseness and He knows it.

He knows it deceives people and he hates that.

So verse 3 and he answered them. And why do you?

He just answers a question with a question.

Why don't you guys wash their hands?

Why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your

tradition? Just asking.

Since we're all out, you're asking questions in front of

everybody. Today I have one for you.

The tradition mattered a lot to you.

I wonder why do you break God's law for your tradition?

That's called a mic drop moment. That's what the young folks will

call a sick burn. This is the razor's edge.

This is nuclear. Why do you guys?

I got a quick question too, Why do you guys put your tradition

above God's word? No, I'm all ears.

I'd love to hear. And now he gives his example.

Verse 4 For God commanded honor your father and mother, and

whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.

But you say. If anyone tells his father or

his mother what you would have gained from me is given to God,

then that person doesn't have to honor his father.

So for the sake of your. Tradition you may void the word

of God. So here's here's the other thing

that they did. So they made their hand washing

ceremony. We saw the priest had.

To do this thing one time and then we said everybody's got to

do this thing all the time. That's not what the some of the

Bible said. But now they've got this other

thing that they do. You're supposed to honor your

father and mother. Scripture doesn't give us a

million applications for that, does it?

It just says honor your father and mother.

Anyone who reviles father and mother should surely die.

Man, some a lot of strictness around this.

If you honor your father and mother, it's the first command

that comes with a promise is the 5th commandment that it'll go

well with you. You'll live long on the earth.

Praise God. Wow, there's there must be a lot

there. What does that look like?

Well, it looks like a lot of things.

There's a lot of things you and I can start making application

for a bare minimum. Would be that you care for your

father and mother in their old age.

What does that look? Like, well, again, welcome to

the category freedom, where the heart must always be submitted

to the Scripture. The heart of humans must always

be submitted to the word of God. But the Pharisees created this

clever thing. It's called Corbin.

Some of your Bibles might use that word.

So it was this practice where you could devote your resources.

Everybody look at me quote, devote your resources to the

Lord. And if your resources are

devoted to the Lord, you're no longer obligated to give them to

anyone else. So because of my cleverness and

I can go, I want to be so holy. I want to devote everything I

have to the Lord. And since it's devoted to the

Lord, obviously I can't give it to you.

You know, your family's hungry and needs food.

You give me a call. Hey, man, could can I borrow

some cash? I'm going to pay you back.

Oh, I would love to. Here's the only problem.

I've devoted my money to the Lord.

Oh, here's the other clever thing.

With this money that I've devoted to the Lord, it can stay

in my bank account at all times. And at any point I can choose to

use it. But it's devoted under the Lord,

and therefore you can't have access to it.

This is what these guys did to their own mothers.

This. If that's not a snake, I don't

know what is. So your own father and mother

have a need. Hey, son, your mom could really

use this. Hey, son, your dad can really

use it. Oh my.

Oh, my resources are devoted unto God.

They're a Corbin. Wow, our son is so holy, except

that he disobeys the word of God and the heart of Scripture and

what the Lord was after. So what does Jesus do?

What does he bring to the argument?

They're bringing tradition to the argument.

Jesus brings the Scripture. He says this is what the word of

God says for God commanded honor your father and your mother, but

you twist it. You give yourself an out.

You created a loophole that still who makes you look good

What who looks good at the end of this loophole?

The Pharisees again, supposedly. And all the common folk.

What are they supposed to do with this man?

His mom was really struggling. I see she's begging in the

streets now. But man, they're so holy.

Like now. Now the sheep are being misled

and they're being confused. They think that's holiness.

No, no, no. That's wickedness.

They will stand before him on that day and he will say, depart

from me. I never knew you, you worker of

iniquity. What's a worker of iniquity?

You lover of sin? What didn't I prophecy in your

name? Didn't I drive out demons in

your name? Depart from me.

I never knew you not I knew you and then I stopped knowing you.

I never knew you. That should put the fear of God

on us for what? For humility to make sure that

we don't have on a mask. You honor your father and

mother. That's important.

I want to why we have that command pointed out from Jesus

here. I want to talk about that for a

moment, and I also want to add on.

So you should honor your father and mother.

What's it look like? Well, it looks like a million

things and I'm not going to start to build you a list, but

I'm going to tell you honor looks like honor every day of

the week. That's what it looks like.

But I want to clarify something that could be misunderstood.

Sometimes honor is not the same thing as obedience.

So you don't honor your father and mother as adults in the same

way that you did when you were children.

So when your children and your parents household, that means

obedience, right? Say yes, Sir, this guy in the

front row. So honor means obedience when

you're in your parents household.

But when you're out of your parents household, honor doesn't

mean obedience in the same way. Oh, adult parents don't tell

adult children. Here's what to do and here's how

to do it. If they're doing that, that's

overreach and it's overstepping. Now, ideally that relationship

is super healthy and that we still defer to that wisdom and

we still make those phone calls and we still say, hey, mom, what

about hey, dad, how do you see this?

Hey, what do you think? Praise God, that's the beauty as

as that as that's brother, sister in Christ relationship

strengthens overtime. Still always honored his father

all the way to the end. Still always honored his mother

all the way to the end. What if I had a terrible mother?

What if I had a terrible father? Well, having access to your life

is not the same thing as them still being honored.

What's it look like? Well, I think it's got to look

different and I think wise godly, biblical counsel in your

life can help speak into that and say, hey, you know what, you

know, you know they did all these terrible things.

What does it look like? Well, first of all, always

forgiveness, no doubt non negotiable.

But does it mean we have to spend Thanksgiving and Christmas

together? Absolutely.

It doesn't mean that does not mean that.

Does it mean that you can send this text message on Father's

Day or Mother's Day or make this home again?

Lots of freedom, lots of wisdom needed.

But honor looks like something. Honor don't look like nothing.

Love looks like something. It don't look like nothing.

But adult children no longer obey adult parents or submit to

their authority. The dynamics of that

relationship are required to change because a man should

leave his father and mother and join his wife.

This is obviously true for the wife as well.

So we have separated and we have a new family, a new family that

we make our own decisions with. Now, again, in a healthy

circumstance, we're going to want to be with these people and

want to be with my parents and your parents and all those

things, and we want to honor, but we will not be manipulated.

This is a common practice that takes place.

I wanted to speak to it. Let's keep going.

What's interesting about obedience is that any time there

is consistent obedience or application of the Word of God,

someone technically can always get you on the grounds of

legalism. Somebody can always find a way

to say legalism always, because the Scripture just said this.

It just said that and now you're saying, well, I'm going to apply

it this way. So, you know, to honor your

father and mother, you might have a conviction.

You said, man, I'm going to do it.

I'm going to do it this way. And someone goes that's.

Legalistic. And I'm going, it's not

legalistic. It's an application of the word

of God. It's how I want to honor my

parents. Well, I just think you're being

legal. What does it look like?

It's got to look like something. It can't look like nothing.

And again, what's the real test? The heart, the heart, the heart.

That is the thing, if you find yourself in your heart going on,

I'm really just trying to squirm out of something.

That's what the Pharisees did. That's thin ice.

You don't want to be there. So anytime there's consistent

obedience, someone can always cry legalism because application

of God's Word convicts us and hits US between the eyes.

It actually gets up in our business.

We are clever with the commands of God.

We excuse ourselves from obedience with all kinds of

mental gymnastics. I don't have to forgive them

because here's my rationale. Well, I don't have to give

generously because well, here's my rationale.

Well, I've got a unique situation.

We become lawyers again. We become the six year old who

goes well, you didn't say and I heard mommy say, but daddy, you

said and. Really.

Here's the conclusion I've come. To with all the evidence, I'm

just being very rational here. We can do the same thing with

the Scripture. Well, we say, well, I'm not

going to be legalistic. We say things like, well, I'm

fine with honor your father and mother until you make an

application that says I should care for my parents.

In their old. Age.

I'm fine with training up a child on the way.

He should go until you make the application.

Require me to be a present father who brings calm,

consistent consequences and I'm fine with Love your wife as

Christ loves the church and be gentle with her until you make

the application that says I need to crucify my temper or lead her

in prayer. I'm fine with, submit to and

respect your husband until you make the application that says I

can't tell him what to do or mother him.

Now you're just being legalistic.

I don't like any of your applications.

I don't want any of those applications.

You're being legalistic now because you made it look like

something. It's got to look like something.

So what do you do in those situations?

I ask the question, fine, how do you apply it?

It will surface everything. And sometimes maybe there's

legitimate answers there. And you say praise God, I

disagree. I'll go apply it differently.

But I, I think that you have some, some sincere applications

there. Praise God for that.

We can disagree. It's all right.

I'm OK, you're OK. We're all going to be OK, and

King Jesus is going to sort it out, that's for sure.

And that shouldn't make you go great.

That should make you go. Let me double check myself.

Maybe I should revisit again. It's got to look like something.

I don't like the way you apply that.

How do you apply it? Well, I don't.

I like my way of applying it better than your way of not

applying it. I think.

I think I'll go with mine. I'm just not.

Going to be some kind of Pharisee.

People always say that whenever there's holiness, whenever

there's holiness, whenever there's obedience to something,

we will. Oh be careful not to be a

Pharisee bro. Is that your risk?

Are you risking Pharisee ISM in your life my friend?

Or are you like actually just not?

Obeying anything, the Pharisees always squirm out of obedience.

We want to make sure that that's not what we're doing.

Jesus let's him have it fully in verse 7, you hypocrites.

Why? Because for the sake of your

tradition, you've made void the word of God for the comforts of

your flesh. You've disobeyed the scriptures

and you've taught others to do likewise.

In chapter 23, he's going to he's going to blast them and

he's going to say you'll search, you'll you'll cross land and see

to go make you a new convert. And when you finish with your

convert, you make them twice the devil of hell that you ever

were. He says it in Jerusalem in front

of everybody. He didn't know how to be nice.

He knew how to be good. You hypocrites, you mask

wearers, you false people, or in our context, false Christian.

Well, did Isaiah prophecy of you?

Oh, Isaiah prophesied about us. Yeah.

Let me tell you what passage applies to you.

Isaiah prophesied This people honors me with their lips, but

their heart is far from me. In vain do they worship me,

teaching as doctrines, the commandments of men, burning

accusations. Jesus goes to Scripture again.

That's what we see Jesus do over and over and over and over and

over and throughout Matthew. He's done that.

Jesus is constantly quoting the scriptures, quoting the

scriptures. What scriptures?

The Old Testament, the scriptures that they had, they

didn't have the New Testament yet, hadn't been written yet.

But he's constantly quoting the Old Testament.

It is written. It is written, it is said, oh,

that's pretty strict, isn't it? You better believe it.

And he's made and he makes the right application for it as

well. And he always clarifies that it

comes down to the heart. Remember what Jesus did earlier?

You've heard it said. Then he quotes the scripture.

He says, but I say, whoa, Lord, but there was a bit alarming.

It seems as though there's some some contradiction, Lord, no

contradiction. I'm further clarifying for you

the point because you guys got stuck on the letter of the law

and I'm giving you the spirit of the thing.

You heard it said don't commit adultery.

Let me clarify the point of this for everybody.

Don't even lust in your heart because that is what led to the

adultery. So the Pharisee would go.

I won't commit adultery. I will walk up to all these

places and stop short, but I won't do the thing.

Or I'll or I'll create loopholes, Jesus said.

Everything comes down to what's in here.

Which brings us to the goodness of God in the New Testament

message. Anyway, you need a new heart God

who can help me with all? This I'm just burdened.

The commands of God. They're heavy enough without

without Pharisees adding to them.

The commands of God are big enough without anybody else

piling them on top of me. The commands of God show me that

I can't do enough. I can't be enough.

And I am crushed under the law. The law destroys me and says

you're not enough. You put me against the law and

the law wins. And I am found lacking.

And Jesus says, I think you're finally ready for salvation.

I think you're finally ready. You're finally humbled enough to

know that you couldn't do it. The law is a.

Harsh taskmaster, There was plenty there from God's

commands. Forget the Pharisees, I'm

already a loser just when you stack me up against God's

commands. I need a savior.

I need a deliverer. I cannot deliver myself.

Scribes and the Pharisees taught self righteousness.

Here's what you can do to make you holy.

Jesus says nothing you can do can make you holy.

I'm going to make everybody holy.

Whoever calls upon my name, whoever comes to the cross in

humility, whoever confesses their sin, whoever repents from

their sin and follows me, you'll take care of the issue.

It's the engine on the inside. It's the fuel that you lack.

You actually don't love God. You don't know how much God

loves you. And when you have that

revelation, now all things can be applied with love and with

gratitude for the Lord. We have much freedom in Christ

and we're closing church. We have much freedom in Christ

and we have much room for application.

But when you and I are finished making our applications and you

should make application, read your Bible and say, Lord, what

might this look like for me? And ask other believers and ask

your pastor. That's Christian fellowship.

That's that's normal stuff. Hey, what this look like to

apply, man, I don't know. Good question.

Let's think on that together. Let's ask somebody else.

Let's ask that otherwise, brother, let's ask that

otherwise, sister, how, how might we make application here?

We have much freedom to make application.

But whenever we finish making our applications, we should make

we should ask 2 important questions.

Number one, is God's word actually being obeyed?

That's the simple assessment. First of all, did we even hit

the mark we were attempting to when we started?

How do we obey God's word there? I think we do it like this.

Does that actually OK, check God's word is obeyed.

Second question we should ask, is there an unnecessary

additional burden being? Created here that God didn't

intend. So those are the things we're

asking #1 is God actually being obeyed with the application that

I'm making? No, he's not.

OK, Well, then bad application. Throw it out right away.

He's got actually being obeyed. Yeah, it seems as though I think

so. OK second of all, do these seem

to be crushing an extra overwhelming burdens?

Are they, are they speaking to the spirit of the thing, or are

they just trying to hit the technical legal matter of the

thing? These are some wise questions

that you and I can start to ask ourselves.

And go now that that's going to take us to some good and safe

and fruitful places, can you see that that will actually take me

to some wholesome places where I'm going.

Yeah. Am I getting it perfect.

Well, I've got the Holy Spirit. You've got the Holy Spirit and

we have the word of God. That combined with a humble

heart, the rest is history. You're going to be so safe.

The word of God, the book of God is safe for the common man, for

the common woman to pick it up, for the common child to pick it

up, to read it, believe it. And with a humble heart, see,

take, make application. You'll arrive in a healthy

place. Everybody will not always agree

with one another on every single application.

But humble hearts will keep us safe and they'll keep us in deep

fellowship with one another, and they will still produce good

fruit. And God will be glorified.

Have you been acting without word practice while lacking

inward love? That's the question for you

Saints. Have you been acting without

word practice while lacking inward love?

If so, you can repent right now. Do you have the temptation to

build extra laws on top of God's laws, on top of God's commands?

Not just a healthy application that's a straight line

application, but to build things around it, to puff yourself up

for presentation purposes. That was the purpose.

That was the root of the of the issue with the Pharisees.

It's not that they love the word so much and they were just

trying to make application. It's not apples and oranges.

It's not apples and apples for you and I and the Pharisees.

Unless you're doing things for prides purpose.

If you're just trying to make application in your own life, by

all means let her RIP. Go, go, go, go, go.

It's going to be good until it's for presentation purposes.

Here's how I do it so that I can be seen doing it.

But if we're embracing any tradition or any habit, any

belief that doesn't obey God's word or adds unintended burden

to His Word, we should take that to Him for Him to reveal it, so

that a heart can be purified, that our mind can be renewed.

Oh, and we can walk in freedom, the relief of walking in

holiness. Jesus's burden is light.

His yoke is easy. There is a burden.

There is a yoke. It fits perfectly.

The yoke of the Pharisees will cut into you.

It's not built for you. Jesus custom built it and said,

this is where you're at. This is how I expect you to

live. Here's how I expect you to grow.

Here's what your next step of obedience looks like.

Heavenly Father, you love your people so much.

You sent your Son to save us, to rescue us from our sin.

And God, pride is a particular hideous thing.

We repent again together from our pride, from our

presentation, from falseness and from hypocrisy.

God, don't let us be actors who wear the mask.

God drive us into deep humility. Confession of sin, revival is

what they used to call that revival when sins would be

confessed, when when egos were just thrown away.

I don't care what it looks like. The self-righteous man goes to

pray and he's in there praying and there's a Sinner in there as

well. Self-righteous man says, God, I

thank you that I'm not like this man.

And the sinful man, mourning and weeping, beats his own chest and

says, God, forgive me a Sinner. Jesus said.

One of those men walked away justified that day.

One of those men went before God to brag about his own

righteousness. The other man went before God to

humble himself and seek forgiveness.

He did it publicly. Had he received much grace?

Justified, just as if he had never sinned.

God, you are so gracious and so merciful and so patient and so

kind. Thank you for the love that

you've shown us. I plead the blood of Jesus over

your people. I ask that you would fill them

with a supernatural wisdom and insight.

I ask that you would give them such a hunger and a humility for

Your Word. God make us the humble heart

who's not looking to present anything other than good fruit.

Not just good presentation, but good fruit.

Not we're not. We're not spray painting the

leaves of our tree green. We really have good health and

good fruit. Grow us, mature us.

Help us to make the application where we should.

And now the Lord bless you and keep you.

The Lord make his face Shinedown upon you, and be gracious to

you. The Lord lift up his countenance

upon you and give you great peace in Jesus name, Amen.