It's the same thing, though, and I just hear the same response.
It's funny because it's like, I can just tell what people are going to say before they even
say it.
Now, if that isn't a sign of brainwashing, I don't know what is.
When you can just be like, I know what their next thing is going to be.
It's going to be, well, don't you know God is love?
Well, don't you know, oh, that sounds like a Pharisee.
You just hear these same things repeated over and over and over again.
And it's the same fallacies, too.
It's the same just lies and misunderstandings and not actually reading a scripture and just
believing it for what it says.
And instead, just listening to what some preacher says as opposed to what the Word of God says.
And these days, this entire chapter here in Matthew chapter 23 is pretty much dedicated
to the Pharisees.
So we're going to look at this in depth tonight and we're going to see, because Jesus is giving
a scathing rebuke to these Pharisees and he's really calling them out.
And he's calling them names and he's preaching really hard at these Pharisees.
And I want to get into this because, like I said, there's people who will call fundamentalist
Pharisees and it's really just because they haven't read their Bibles.
They don't understand who the Pharisees are at all.
And when we get into the rebukes that Jesus gives to the Pharisees, we're going to see
what is it that made a Pharisee, you know, a Pharisee.
Someone who's going to be denigrated, looked down upon in Christianity because they're
just a Pharisee.
Well, Jesus gives us all of the signs of who they were and what they were all about.
And as we read this, we're going to see this.
The number one problem as we get into this chapter with the Pharisees is that they were
hypocrites.
That is just reiterated over and over and over again throughout this chapter and I'm
not going to point it out every single time, but he says, woe unto you scribes, Pharisees,
hypocrites.
Woe unto you scribes, Pharisees, hypocrites.
He says hypocrites over and over and over again.
We're going to see it start off here that they are hypocrites.
Now, we ought not to be hypocrites in our Christian life, right?
Amen.
But you can't go calling someone a Pharisee if you have no idea how they live their life.
You only hear what they preach.
See, because people want to call me a hypocrite.
Oh, you hypocrite.
You hypocrite this.
You hypocrite that.
I don't know how many times I get called a hypocrite because I say, I believe in the
death penalty for homosexuality.
Oh, you hypocrite.
Well, wait, am I committing homosexuality and that's no.
That would make me a hypocrite.
Yeah, if I'm out there doing exactly the same thing that I'm preaching hard against and
oh, you can't go out and do this, that would be hypocrisy.
But when you're not doing that and you're actually following, that's not hypocrisy.
It's a big difference.
See, the Pharisees were these religious people who they didn't really care about the integrity
of God's Word.
They didn't really care about serving the Lord.
They cared about themselves and they had to say what they thought were the right things
and they would say things to people, but they wouldn't actually do them.
Let's look at the passage.
You don't have to take my word for it.
Verse number one here in Matthew 23, the Bible reads, Then spake Jesus to the multitude and
to his disciples, saying, The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat.
All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do.
So you're saying the Pharisees, they sit in Moses' seat.
Why?
Because they're of the tribe of Aaron, they're in the priesthood, but they're these Pharisees
that are sitting in Moses' seat.
So he's saying because they're in that position, you know, when they're bidding you to observe
something in the law, go ahead and observe it, but look at what he says.
But do not ye after their works, for they say and do not.
So the first thing that we see that he's rebuking about these Pharisees is that, yeah, they'll
get up, they'll read the law of Moses, they'll say, oh yeah, thou shalt not kill, thou shalt
not steal, and they'll go through and they'll read out of the law of Moses, but then they're
going and they're being crooks.
They're committing these sins, they're transgressing against God's law, and he's like, if you were
to follow these guys and actually do what they do, he's like, no, don't do any of that.
You can listen to what they're saying and do what they're saying out of the law, but
don't go and actually live like they're living.
But aren't we supposed to be examples?
I mean, don't we see the apostle Paul saying, hey, follow me as I follow Christ?
Don't we see people that are lifted up to be good examples unto the brethren that we
can actually follow?
So you can't just take, well, everybody's a sinner, so you can't, no, that's not true.
Everyone's a sinner, yes, but it doesn't mean you can't follow someone and try to pattern
your life and use other people as an example of how to live.
Obviously, Jesus Christ is the best example, but there's nothing wrong with looking to
men that are not hypocrites, that are living a godly, righteous life, that are living for
the Lord and saying, you know what, I'm going to try to pattern my life a little bit after
what they're doing because I can see that they're achieving a lot for God.
I can see that they're really sold out.
I can see that they are doing and not just saying.
And you know, when people do what they teach, when people walk the walk that they talk,
that has power in itself.
That is, I've mentioned this before, that is the power that I saw when I went into Faithful
Word Baptist Church, when it was just a tiny church meeting in Pastor Anderson's house.
That I can see a man that not only was he preaching the truth, but I saw him walk the walk.
I saw him go out and knock on the doors.
I saw the way that he was with his family.
I saw that what he allowed into his house.
I saw it firsthand and I said, wow, praise God, someone who actually believes his word.
Wow, that means something.
I'm going to listen to this guy.
I'm going to listen to what he has to say.
I'm going to listen to his teaching and preaching because it's not just a bunch of words to him.
It's not just religion to him.
It's not just something.
He wants to check off a box.
It's not just a position to fill.
Oh, I'm going to work today.
I'm going to pastor and I'm going to go home.
No, it's reality.
It's his life.
It's my life.
And hopefully it's your life too.