THE SERMON - Hypocrisy： The Chief Sin of the Pharisees
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Summary
In this sermon, Pastor Ken continues our series through the Gospel According to Matthew, focusing on the hypocrisy of the religious rulers of Jesus' day, the Pharisees, Sadducees, the Sadduces, the lawyers, the scribes, and the rest.
Transcript
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review yet, take a moment and help us achieve our goal. Amen. Please join me in standing for
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the reading of God's word. Our text for today is the gospel according to Matthew chapter six,
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verses 19 through 24. Again that's the gospel according to Matthew chapter 6 verses 19 through
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24. We are continuing our series through the gospel of Matthew. If you were with us last week
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we paused for a sermon in relation to Christmas but we also used the gospel of Matthew in order
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to accomplish that. Today we continue our series. I'm going to read our text in its entirety. When
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I finish reading the text I'm going to say this is the word of the Lord at which point I would
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appreciate very much if you would respond by saying thanks be to god again one final time our
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text is the gospel according to matthew chapter 6 verses 19 through 24 the bible says this do not
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lay up for yourselves treasure on earth where moth and rust destroy and thieves break in and steal
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but lay up for yourselves treasure in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves
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do not break in and steal for where your treasure is there your heart will be also the eye is the
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lamp of the body if your eye is healthy your whole body will be full of light but if your eye is bad
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your whole body will be full of darkness if then the light in you is darkness how great is that
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darkness no one can serve two masters for he either will hate the one and love the other
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or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other you cannot serve god and money this is the
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word of the lord all right please be seated we'll go ahead and dive right in i've been utilizing
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primarily for this series matthew henry late great puritan commentator his commentary has been
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helpful thus far through the gospel according to Matthew in relation to our text today and kind of
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from the outset in further outlining the problem as Christ puts it as he sees it with the religious
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Jewish rulers of that day Matthew Henry says the following worldliness is as common and as fatal
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a symptom of hypocrisy as any other for by no sin can satan have a sure and faster hold of the soul
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under the cloak of a visible and passable profession of religion than by this and therefore
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Christ having warned us against coveting the praise of men he now proceeds next to warn us
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against coveting the wealth of the world lest we be as the hypocrites are and do as they do
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the fundamental error they are guilty of is this that they choose the world for their reward
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reward what we've been seeing again and again throughout the gospel according to matthew
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especially in the sermon on the mount that is matthew chapter 5 6 and soon to be chapter 7
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is that the fundamental problem, as I've said again and again, of the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the lawyers, the scribes,
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all the religious rulers of Christ's day, the fundamental problem that Christ says,
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the chief principal word that he uses to describe this crowd is hypocrisy.
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And that's important for us to understand because it kind of flies in the face of the more modern, recent conception that many American evangelicals have when they try to articulate the problem with the religious rulers of Jesus' day.
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When they describe the religious rulers of Jesus' day, modern evangelicals, what they often will say is that they were legalists.
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You've heard me articulate this point again and again.
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And so then, what do American modern Christians seek to avoid at all cost?
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What do we indict as the most severe and terrible immoral charge that anyone could ever be guilty of?
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In other words, because legalism has often been hijacked and given a definition that legalism was never meant to have.
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In other words, what many American Christians today say is this.
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The worst thing that you could possibly do is care a great deal about the holiness of God and seek to obey him.
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that's pretty much where we're at as the american church today in modern times
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if you really get down to it whether it be from the pulpit with the pastor or whether it be
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the congregants and just your average christian that's pretty much what it comes down to again
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and again and again is that everyone is terrified of being what they perceive to be a pharisee
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and for them in their mind what is a pharisee a legalist and for them what is legalism well
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legalism is being diligent any diligence vigilance whatsoever any discipline whatsoever
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applied toward the aim of obeying the law of God.
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In other words, you could say, at least at some degree,
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they think that the worst thing a Christian can do
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That's pretty much, if you're wondering, where are we at?
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You know, if you're putting your fingers on the pulse of the American church, if you're doing a litmus test and trying, you know, if the American church was going to get a physical and see just, you know, where are our vital signs?
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Well, the accurate analysis would come back and say the American church has determined that the worst thing a Christian can do is seek to be a Christian.
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But the headline, the 30,000-foot view, the major theme is this.
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Jesus is decrying, he's denouncing, he's indicting and accusing the religious rulers of his day for one primary failure.
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is going to be described by, I would argue,
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the majority of Christians in America as legalism.
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If you don't fill your home with Hollywood filth,
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If your wife and daughters wear any kind of dress or skirt
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and at this point i i have to slightly disagree with matthew henry he says in this first line
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worldliness is as common and as fatal a symptom of hypocrisy as any other i think it's the opposite
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i don't think that worldliness and we'll define worldliness here in just a moment from the
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scripture but i don't believe that worldliness is the symptom of hypocrisy i think that hypocrisy
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is the cover for worldliness the reason the pharisees and the sadducees and the religious
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rules the reason they were hypocrites is because they utilized hypocrisy in order to mask their
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worldly desires and this is what jesus gets at in the sermon on the mount in our particular text
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today matthew 6 19 through 24 he talks about the heart where your treasure is there your heart will
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be also what is it that you trust and what is it that you treasure where do you place your hope
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what is um the aim the focal point of all your heart's affections what is it that you love
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more than anything else because your chief aim your chief desire that will then be
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the the rudder the direction that guides all of your other actions that's what jesus is getting
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at in this the latter half of our text today when he talks about the eye and the body he says if the
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eye is good, then the whole body will be full of light. But if the eye is bad, then the whole body
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will be filled with darkness. And if the whole body is filled with darkness, how great is that
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darkness? This is what Christ is saying. So I'm going to skip forward and then I'll come back and
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say a few more words about worldliness and hypocrisy. But to illustrate that, this element
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of worldliness and then hypocrisy running cover for worldliness, not worldliness as a symptom of
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hypocrisy but hypocrisy being the the cover play to justify worldliness in order to get back to
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that point which i think is the primary point of our text today and really the primary point of
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the whole sermon on the mount and arguably the first half of the gospel according to matthew
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in order to make all those primary points let me first look at the latter half of our text and talk
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about the eye and the body and light and darkness these kinds of things okay using another quote
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this is towards the bottom of your notes if you have them another quote from Matthew Henry talking
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about the eye he says this the eye that is the aims and intentions by the eye we set our end
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before us so what he's saying is this remember when you're first learning how to drive a car
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and one of the things that you were probably told by your dad or driving instructor whoever that was
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is uh when you're first learning how to drive it's tempting to focus on all the things that
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you're not supposed to run into all right that seems logical right it's tempting to you know
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you're the first time you're merging on to you know the highway and and you're you know in a
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lane let's say you're in the far left or the far right and there's a medium right right beside you
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wall, don't run into, and you're looking at the
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wall and you're looking, but that's not actually
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focus your eye not on the things to your left and your right that you're supposed to avoid
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but to focus your eye further out and straight ahead the thing that you're actually aiming at
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so when you're driving even if it's not the concrete barrier but just if it's the the lines
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on the road the the best way to to drive is to look not at the line on the right or the line on
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the left but in between the lines and further out to look up out ahead and in the center in the
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middle straight ahead don't look at the things you're avoiding look at the thing that you're
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aiming toward that's the point that Jesus is making when he talks about the eye the eye in
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biblical terms is similar to the heart not similar in the way that it's defined but similar in the
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sense that the heart is spoken of in scripture in at least three or four different ways the heart
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one way that the heart is spoken of is that the heart is kind of the the center seat of a person
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of the self in which the greatest affection or desire is seated. The heart is the center of
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desire, the center of affection. Another way that the heart is spoken of is as the HQ,
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view like like the headquarters the um the cockpit of a person that you could have a large plane and
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there's all these different seats and then there's places to stowaway luggage below but a plane as
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large as it is the cockpit by relation is relatively small but all the controls are located
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there and the heart is spoken in biblical terms as the the chief seat of desire and affection
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it's also spoken of as as the the steering wheel the place of directing the heart directs a person
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and so too in biblical language the eye is spoken of in different capacities in different ways but
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in the context of our passage today the eye is being spoken of as as a just kind of like the
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heart in terms of the decision maker, the deciding factor. Well, the I is being spoken of in that
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light in our text today. And in terms of decision, more particularly, more specifically, it's the I
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is responsible for deciding on the chief aims or goals or destination of a person. That's the way
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this term the eye is being used in our text today what is the eye it's the part of the person
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that determines what is most important what are the goals what are the ambitions the aims
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the destination okay so with that definition in mind because that is i think the right definition
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of the eye at least in our context what our passage today with that established now let's
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go back and look at the text this is now in verse 22 the eye is the lamp of the body
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if your eye is good or healthy your whole body will be full of light but if your eye is bad
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your whole body will be full of darkness what's being said is this if the eye is good aka
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the eye has made a good and right decision determination of the end goal what it is
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you're working toward then the body will all of its actions the movement of the hands and the arms
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and the feet and the legs, every action of the body will be in service of the determination
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of the eye. If the eye makes a good determination, the end goal, then the body will make good actions
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and movements, steps toward that end goal. If my eye is good and therefore fixes itself
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on those things which God considers to be good,
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what is the chief end of man this isn't backwards it's not misplaced why are you talking about the
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end in the beginning with the very first question well because the end determines the beginning
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the end where we're going like i can't even this happens all the time with me and my wife my wife
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is much better at directions than I am much better because I'm always thinking about something
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and it's not it's not directions and so um my wife is often having to direct to me I'm driving
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doing my job I'm driving okay there was a time early in our marriage where I was not driving
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and I had to repent of that for being effeminate and I was like because I was like it's a motorized
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vehicle it's not like it's it's not like I'm it's not a horse and buggy and I'm replacing the horse
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with my wife you know putting a yoke around it's not like it doesn't require any physical exertion
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the wife can drive and then I had some good men in my life say it's the principle the man drives
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and part of it and I think it actually is a good principle I don't think it's arbitrary part of it
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is taking responsibility for the state, the physical safety of the family. So it's not like
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I'm not carrying the family on my back in a literal sense. So it's not the physical strength,
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but it's the, um, but it is the physical and, um, not strength, but responsibility. Like if
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something crazy happens, deer runs into the road. I want to be the guy who has to make that call
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deer or kids. Cause I can make that call really well, really well. I've already thought about it.
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got a plan we're we're headlining the deer the deer's gone and and and then you know if i can
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we're putting the deer in the back of the van and taking it to maybe brad's house or something and
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and we're going to try to get it processed and get you know get get our bang for for buck you
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know because we're going to have to pay for the van but we get some free venison and uh and we'll
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call it a day so anyways um but my point is my wife still she just i feel like i don't know she
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just i don't know i don't know if it's like some kind of witchcraft and she just knows that you
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know the stars and astrology and like she could be anywhere and she's like that's north and that's
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west and you know and i'm like and and i'm um and i'm effeminate you know it's it's convicted
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i'm like how do you know these things um i and i don't although my son who's two this is really
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encouraging um and this sense i think he's he's following after the suit of his mother and praise
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god um he he has like we'll just he'll be like this way there literally he knows he's been in
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the car enough he'll know the way so before i even put on the turning signal and there's been
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a couple times where it's not just him confirming the right direction but there's a couple times
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where he's informing father of the right direction because he remembers it and i don't so anyways
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all that being said here's the point here's the point the first thing when you're on a journey
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when you're going somewhere the first thing that you have to determine is where are you going
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where's the final destination and that final destination sets a all the way through y z
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sets a through y and so when i'm pulling out of the driveway the first question that i i ask my
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wife is left or right just out of the driveway just out of the driveway left or right and my
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wife makes that determination by knowing the final destination, which sometimes I don't even
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know that. I just, I knew that I needed to be in the van by a certain time, and here I am. I'm in
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the van, and you know, and I don't even always know where we're going, but we're going somewhere,
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and she knows where we're going, and it's her knowledge of where we're going, the final
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destination that allows her to determine left or right out of the driveway in other words the very
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first decision is determined and dictated by the last decision by the final decision that's what's
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being said in the latter portion of our text verses 22 all the way to the end let me read it once more
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22 and 23 the eye is the lamp of the body if your eye is healthy your whole body will be full of
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light but if your eye is bad your whole body will be full of darkness if then the light in you is
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darkness because you have a bad eye and the bad dark eye has now poisoned the whole body the whole
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body is now darkness dark hands and dark arms and dark feet dark legs everything is blind everything
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is poisoned everything is corrupted then how great is that darkness how great is it it is a
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total darkness it is an all-encompassing darkness in other words what's being said is this you can't
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have bad eyes but have a healthy body and you can't even have bad eyes and expect that the bad
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eye would pollute and corrupt only certain portions of your body but that at least some
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portion of your body might still be preserved and remain healthy. No, if the eye is bad, then every
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part of the body will follow suit. And in this context, what is the eye? What is its chief
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function? The eye is the instrument that decides the final destination, where the person is going.
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The eye is the portion of a person that answers the question, what is the chief end of man?
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And if that question is answered properly because the eye is good and filled with light and can see clearly to clearly ascertain what the chief of man actually is,
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is, then the whole rest of the body will be oriented in that proper direction. The hands
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will be doing good things. The feet will be going in a good direction. Everything will
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be healthy if the eye is healthy. But the eye, if it is blind and dark, and it answers
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that final question about the final destination and the chief end and the aim and the goal
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incorrectly, then the whole body will be set going the wrong direction.
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If you're driving and you type in the wrong address, that's your final destination, the
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coordinates for where you're supposed to land, where you're supposed to end up, if you type
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that in wrong then every other decision along the way all the way potentially all the way to the
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first decision of pulling out of the driveway left or pulling out of the driveway right all of those
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other decisions have the potential and the great likelihood of being wrong why because the last
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decision was wrong the last decision was wrong so back to this quote with matthew henry the eye
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that is the aims intentions the destination the final goal all that that's what is meant by the
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eye if the eye by which we set our end before us and the mark that we shoot at the place that we go
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to we keep that in view and direct our motion accordingly and if it's bad we're going to be in
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trouble in everything we do in religion there is something or other that we have in our eye
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now if our eye be good or pure healthy seeing clearly if we aim honestly if we fix right ends
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If the destination is the right destination and we move rightly towards them,
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if we aim purely and only at the glory of God and seek his honor and favor and direction all entirely to him,
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then the eye is good, healthy, pure, full of light.
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Paul's, the apostle Paul, his eye was good when he said to me to live is Christ.
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He had a good eye fixed on the ultimate and final good thing.
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And if we be right here with the final determination,
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That is to say, all the actions will be regular and gracious
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to ourselves because that which is pleasing to God, it brings him glory, is also that which is
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good to man. It doesn't mean comfortable in every moment and the practical sense of comfort.
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Life involves suffering. It involves challenges. It involves difficulty. But make no mistake,
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that which God has determined to be morally right is not arbitrary. That determination on God's part
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was not random. He determines things that are good because they ultimately extend from his good
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character and nature. And that which aligns with God's goodness is also good for God's creatures.
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God made the world. It's his world. God made mankind. You are his creature. And that which is
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good according to him is that which brings him glory but also which brings us joy.
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well it's a man let me just give an example this is strictly hypothetical it's you know
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it's just off the top of my head but let's just imagine that a man went and sold everything that
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he had in order to buy a field well that would be a cost of discipleship your full portfolio
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liquidating every asset down to the used car even the furniture up on craigslist
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let's be serious facebook marketplace all right maybe you can get a little bit more
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more money but like here goes the house the 401k everything even the bitcoin
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are you sure about that it's a cost yeah but when you liquidated every single asset you did so in
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order to purchase something and what did you purchase a field and why did you purchase that
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particular field because there's a treasure buried in that field your whole portfolio
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the treasure which one has more value the whole point of the parable is that the guy gives up
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everything he owns and in the minds of all his peers it looks like a sacrifice but in his mind
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the very reason he's willing to do so is because it's no sacrifice at all it's the easiest decision
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that he could possibly make all of his wealth and all of his possessions in comparison to what he's
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getting is a drop in the bucket. It pales in comparison. Or another example, and just for the
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record, in case you didn't get, I was being facetious. That's a parable in the Bible.
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It's not a random example. It's literally the way that Jesus describes the Christian life.
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Another example that Jesus uses is the pearl of great price. Same thing. Willing to sell
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everything you have in order to purchase something that is of infinitely more value.
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And why can that be rightly described as a sacrifice?
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It's a sacrifice because, brothers and sisters,
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but God did it because even while we were yet sinners
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But He did not love you because of your innate value
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which, of course, in the macro, is a decision that God first makes.
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God first has to cause us to be made spiritually alive
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and give us spiritual eyes to see, spiritual ears to hear,
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and new hearts that are softened and malleable and receptive to the things of God
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But if God does that, and then we inevitably respond with love for God,
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and we determine to follow after the things of God
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It can't ever rightly be described as a sacrifice
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It's about rightly determining the chief end of man, the ultimate aim, the true treasure of our hearts,
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and having good eyes, the instrument described in our text for determining what that chief end of man is,
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what that treasure actually should be, and then having set the final coordinates in place
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by having a good eye to make that final determination
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then everything else, every other part of the body
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the daily decisions of life, the actions of our hands and feet
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the words of our mouths, the thoughts of our minds
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everything else will fall into place. It's a domino effect
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everything else will follow suit. So how do I live good
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tomorrow how do i make good decisions in the small things it's by first determining
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the big thing not just the big things no i'm talking about numero uno the big one the ultimate
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and that ultimate determination is ultimately this you can have all this work give me jesus
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and on earth there is none that I desire beside you
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you are my portion and the strength of my heart forever
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but ultimately that they have set their aim far too low
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that they could be so easily contented in such petty things
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that they have forfeited the greatest and most valuable possession
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At the end of the day, a good eye is simply a person
00:38:26.360
who has the faculty of making a good determination,
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that will sustain and continue for the maximum duration.
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I want the most joy for the longest period of time.
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In life, there are certain joys that are small but ongoing.
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There are other joys that we would describe with words such as ecstasy
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But there is one joy that is infinite in degree and eternal in duration.
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And where your treasure is, your heart will be also.
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The eye, if it's good, if it sees clearly, it will make the right calculation of the chief end, of the right treasure.
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Highest value, longest duration, who is Christ.
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And if the eye is good and makes that right determination,
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then everything else about the person's life will be good.
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When you sin, brothers and sisters, on a Tuesday afternoon,
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it's because in that moment, you've lost sight of Christ.
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In that moment, you've lost sight of the final destination.
00:40:24.780
In that moment, you have determined that momentary pleasures that are fleeting in this world
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are of more substance and more concern and more value than God's glory
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and, ironically, your own eternal and infinite joy.
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it's not that it's not that you've made a wrong temporary decision despite making the right
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final decision no you made the wrong temporary decision precisely because in that moment
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you lost the wrong final decision the the final calculation was
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corrupted for a moment it was tweaked for a moment the the coordinates in the gps got switched for
00:41:19.620
a moment and so the the momentary decision you started to veer left when you should have been
00:41:24.520
veering right because because the final destination got shifted for a moment you stopped operating in
00:41:31.320
faith you stopped looking ahead you got distracted you made something else your chief aim your chief
00:41:45.320
desire so all that back to the pharisees will land the plane and be done
00:41:49.060
the problem with the pharisees is not legalism is legalism an actual thing is it a biblical term yes
00:41:56.100
it is, the American church is in zero danger of committing it. Zero. If a hundred years go by and
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everybody in the American church gets really serious about holiness and I happen to be still
00:42:09.940
alive, which I won't, but if I was, then I might preach a sermon or two against the dangers of
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legalism. But I'm not going to do that because that's how we got here. Part of the reason that
00:42:29.440
we're off the rails is because every footnote becomes the headline and every headline is made
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is high you know i have this problem and that problem and all these different things and let's
00:43:12.780
say in this in this particular scenario the individual the patient weighs 500 pounds
00:43:19.800
and then the doctor you know says well i've noticed that you have um a suspicious looking
00:43:29.700
mole on your left shoulder and that's a serious concern i think we need to schedule you for
00:43:37.740
surgery right away we we hear what you're saying we really need to take care of this mole situation
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well i mean you should respond by saying you're an idiot and he could respond by saying well i
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told you i'm a doctor right should have known it's a foregone conclusion at this point
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in other words the main problem is the main problem and that's what needs to be cheated
00:44:07.040
or treated you need to lose some weight that's the issue not the mole on your left shoulder
00:44:12.320
you the thing that is endangering your very life is your weight
00:44:19.180
right now legalism is not the the primary danger for the american evangelical church
00:44:32.500
that's a contender there are a few i'm not saying it's the only one but it's a
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worldliness in biblical terms let me do that briefly
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first john chapter 2 verse 15 through 17 multiple texts in scripture
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define worldliness this is perhaps one of the most clear
00:44:51.480
do not love the world or the things in the world okay what is worldliness
00:44:56.080
it's to love the world and to break that down further with a little bit more specificity
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what are ways to love the world there's at least three primary ways if anyone loves the world
00:45:06.600
the love of the father is not in him for all that is in the world the desires of the flesh
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the desires of the eyes and the boastful pride of life is not from the father but is from the world
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and the world this perfectly correlates with our text Matthew 6 19 through 24 the world why is it
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a bad choice to focus on the world one of it is one of the reasons is because it is passing away
00:45:31.620
along with its desires but whoever does the will of god abides forever maximum joy in terms of
00:45:40.860
degree and maximum duration of joy it's eternal you want to make the best decision that first
00:45:49.360
and foremost brings God the most glory but secondarily does the most good for you produces
00:45:54.880
the highest degree of joy and the longest duration of joy then don't choose the world and one of the
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reasons why is because it's passing away or put in other terms back to our primary text Jesus
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literally says when he's speaking about not not making wrong determinations of where to to allocate
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for not making worldly things your chief treasure?
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because it's holy that might be what you're saying but let me just be clear what you mean is
00:46:52.360
i should be poor because it's holy no what you mean is i'd like to not work because i'm lazy
00:46:57.280
that's what you mean so don't fool yourself i'm i'm it's just i'm super spiritual you know guru
00:47:05.000
and i've really you know mastered zen and i don't call it that i've given it a christian term no
00:47:09.820
you're just you're just a buddhist who uses christian language and likes buddhism because
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you can be fat and lazy because those are two chief virtues of buddhism and if you want evidence
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look at a statue of buddha okay so um so no don't do that don't use this sermon
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to be a pietist. Pursue worldly resources. But for what aim? You're pursuing, right? So I'm going
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left out of the driveway. I'm going to buy a house instead of renting. But why? Because I'm going to
00:47:51.080
this final destination. I'm going to go right on this street, right? Where I'm starting my own
00:47:57.040
business and and i'm investing in in these investments but why because i'm ultimately
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going here see that that's the thing that that's the whole point of the text it's not to say
00:48:08.240
don't accrue worldly resources that meet worldly in the sense of temporal earthly resources the
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whole thing is your chief end your final aim your ultimate desire let that be christ because that's
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treasure that can't have any corruption from within, no rust, no moth, no decay, and there is
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zero corruption from without. No thief can break in and steal or destroy. Every other worldly
00:48:39.620
resource, it should, with a good sense of masculine Christian ambition, every good temporal earthly
00:48:47.220
resource should be rightly pursued. It should be. But it should not be the source of your
00:48:54.440
ultimate trust and treasure. Bitcoin. I like it. But quantum mechanics could eventually
00:49:10.620
hack bitcoin here's my point every single thing that people thought this is secure
00:49:17.440
this will never fall everything in this world has been or will be shaken so that that which
00:49:27.820
cannot be shaken might remain there's only one thing that can't be shaken and it's christ
00:49:34.380
that doesn't mean well i won't invest in anything because everything can be shaken
00:49:49.280
It's not money, cash, and then investment opportunities.
00:49:53.340
No, it's wealth, and then cash, the American dollar, is just one investment, and it's a poor one.
00:50:11.340
And that one, there's a lot of moth and a lot of rust.
00:50:21.820
That doesn't mean, so I'm going to be a do-nothing guy.
00:50:26.880
There's another parable that talks about that guy.
00:50:32.460
an earthly temporal treasure, resource that the master gave him,
00:50:35.820
and because he doesn't want moth and rust and these kinds of things to destroy he wants to
00:50:41.080
make a good investment but he's scared because all the investments look bad stock market looks bad
00:50:47.460
think cryptocurrency is a scam don't like this don't like that so he buries it and he's the
00:50:54.980
good guy in the story no he's the guy who gets the sharpest rebuke you got to invest in something
00:51:01.920
you've got to do something you've got to accrue and work with something the solution is the final
00:51:08.680
aim what is it all for and if it is all for christ his glory and the good of his people
00:51:18.180
then which direction you pull out of the driveway you'll be okay which direction do i
00:51:26.500
turn on the next street you'll be okay it all flows downstream first determine the end
00:51:35.200
and the problem with the pharisees and the religious rulers of jesus day
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was this not that they were legalists they were hypocrites and they were hypocrites meaning
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plain pretend pretending something that was not they were hypocrites because they were
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worldly and what is worldliness as we already defined it's the lust of the eyes the lust of
00:52:01.320
the flesh and the boastful pride of life what is jesus been talking about in the sermon on the
00:52:05.520
mount the first thing that he's been talking about that we spent weeks on is the boastful pride of
00:52:11.020
life aka praise of men don't pray like the hypocrites the pharisees the sadducees on street
00:52:18.840
corners in order to be praised by men for i tell you the truth they have already received their
00:52:24.720
reward in full. In other words, that's it. They got a momentary, fleeting, worldly reward, and they
00:52:32.320
will have no eternal reward of maximum degree and eternal duration. They missed out on that
00:52:39.440
because their treasure was here on earth. Their ultimate treasure was on earth. Now, the Proverbs
00:52:45.900
speak about having a good reputation with men. That's not inherently a bad thing. We should seek
00:53:12.540
was a veil that covered their worldly desires.
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was that they actually loved the things of the world more than God.
00:53:25.800
The problem with the Pharisees was not that they were too religious.
00:53:29.740
The problem with the Pharisees is not that they were too legalistic,
00:53:33.060
that they cared too much about obedience to God
00:53:39.760
The problem with the Pharisees is that they did not care about those things at all.
00:53:48.340
they used the appearance the mere appearance of these religious endeavors as a veil to cloak
00:53:56.980
their true desire of heart what they actually cared about which was the world
00:54:03.140
the lust of the eyes the lust of the flesh and the boastful pride of life
00:54:08.180
when they fasted they would make themselves look gaunt so that everybody knew they were fasting
00:54:23.120
When they prayed, it would be long and loud and public.
00:54:28.040
When they gave, they literally would announce it with trumpets.
00:54:32.780
Jesus isn't even being hyperbolic when he said,
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do not announce it with trumpets like the hypocrites do.
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so all that we've been seeing in matthew chapter six is what lust of i'm sorry boastful pride of
00:54:48.340
life which is one of the three primary elements of worldliness and it's what the pharisees loved
00:54:53.340
their hypocrisy was just a veil to get what they loved they loved the praise of men the boastful
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pride of life now we're moving on to material not just praise of men man's approval boastful pride
00:55:07.060
of life, one of three elements of worldliness. Now Jesus is just shifting gears and talking about
00:55:11.180
the other two. Lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes. What would fall into those categories? I don't know.
00:55:18.240
Money, worldly things, comforts, money, wealth. The Pharisees love that. They don't use that as a
00:55:28.160
means to glorifying me because they ultimately love me. No, they actually love that. That is
00:55:34.180
their final destination. Their eye is bad. They typed in on the GPS. They're not just doing it
00:55:40.640
on the journey. They literally typed in as their final destination on the GPS, 20 years
00:55:45.540
of monetary wealth. And so that's what they'll get.
00:55:53.540
They set their sights not too high, but far too low. They'll get the reward. They'll get it in
00:56:23.200
You cannot serve, be slave of both God and money.
00:56:36.480
To serve money is to position yourself as slave to money as God, as master.
00:56:47.860
And that is precisely what the Jewish religious leaders in Jesus' day had done.
00:56:54.880
Jesus' indictment of the Pharisees is not you legalist.
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And the hypocrisy, Shakespearean type of word,
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pretending to be someone else that you are not,
00:57:17.620
Worldly desires, caring nothing for the things of God,
00:57:29.920
And legalism doesn't even make the top 100 problems.
00:57:36.500
And neither does it make the top 100 problems today in the American church.
00:57:57.600
so that we would not, therefore, be tempted to be hypocrites