The NXR Podcast - THE SERMON - Hypocrisy： The Chief Sin of the Pharisees

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00:00:46.740 the reading of God's word. Our text for today is the gospel according to Matthew chapter six,

00:00:52.560 verses 19 through 24. Again that's the gospel according to Matthew chapter 6 verses 19 through

00:00:57.780 24. We are continuing our series through the gospel of Matthew. If you were with us last week

00:01:02.700 we paused for a sermon in relation to Christmas but we also used the gospel of Matthew in order

00:01:09.920 to accomplish that. Today we continue our series. I'm going to read our text in its entirety. When

00:01:15.160 I finish reading the text I'm going to say this is the word of the Lord at which point I would

00:01:18.740 appreciate very much if you would respond by saying thanks be to god again one final time our

00:01:23.640 text is the gospel according to matthew chapter 6 verses 19 through 24 the bible says this do not

00:01:30.080 lay up for yourselves treasure on earth where moth and rust destroy and thieves break in and steal

00:01:36.700 but lay up for yourselves treasure in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves

00:01:44.100 do not break in and steal for where your treasure is there your heart will be also the eye is the

00:01:51.260 lamp of the body if your eye is healthy your whole body will be full of light but if your eye is bad

00:01:58.780 your whole body will be full of darkness if then the light in you is darkness how great is that

00:02:06.760 darkness no one can serve two masters for he either will hate the one and love the other

00:02:13.860 or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other you cannot serve god and money this is the

00:02:22.140 word of the lord all right please be seated we'll go ahead and dive right in i've been utilizing

00:02:28.700 primarily for this series matthew henry late great puritan commentator his commentary has been

00:02:35.340 helpful thus far through the gospel according to Matthew in relation to our text today and kind of

00:02:41.840 from the outset in further outlining the problem as Christ puts it as he sees it with the religious

00:02:51.520 Jewish rulers of that day Matthew Henry says the following worldliness is as common and as fatal

00:03:01.740 a symptom of hypocrisy as any other for by no sin can satan have a sure and faster hold of the soul

00:03:12.460 under the cloak of a visible and passable profession of religion than by this and therefore

00:03:21.560 Christ having warned us against coveting the praise of men he now proceeds next to warn us

00:03:29.560 against coveting the wealth of the world lest we be as the hypocrites are and do as they do

00:03:37.180 the fundamental error they are guilty of is this that they choose the world for their reward

00:03:46.400 reward what we've been seeing again and again throughout the gospel according to matthew

00:03:52.120 especially in the sermon on the mount that is matthew chapter 5 6 and soon to be chapter 7

00:03:58.140 is that the fundamental problem, as I've said again and again, of the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the lawyers, the scribes,

00:04:06.360 all the religious rulers of Christ's day, the fundamental problem that Christ says,

00:04:12.880 the chief principal word that he uses to describe this crowd is hypocrisy. 0.99

00:04:21.100 Hypocrisy.

00:04:21.780 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.

00:04:41.140 When they describe the religious rulers of Jesus' day, modern evangelicals, what they often will say is that they were legalists.

00:04:51.780 You've heard me articulate this point again and again.

00:04:55.080 And so then, what do American modern Christians seek to avoid at all cost? 0.86

00:05:01.140 What do we indict as the most severe and terrible immoral charge that anyone could ever be guilty of? 0.95

00:05:13.280 Well, being a Pharisee. 0.73

00:05:15.160 And what is that?

00:05:16.400 Being a legalist.

00:05:17.600 In other words, because legalism has often been hijacked and given a definition that legalism was never meant to have.

00:05:26.780 It's improperly defined.

00:05:29.180 In other words, what many American Christians today say is this.

00:05:33.220 The worst thing that you could possibly do is care a great deal about the holiness of God and seek to obey him.

00:05:39.960 that's pretty much where we're at as the american church today in modern times

00:05:48.080 if you really get down to it whether it be from the pulpit with the pastor or whether it be

00:05:54.960 the congregants and just your average christian that's pretty much what it comes down to again 0.90

00:06:00.260 and again and again is that everyone is terrified of being what they perceive to be a pharisee

00:06:10.680 and for them in their mind what is a pharisee a legalist and for them what is legalism well

00:06:16.780 legalism is being diligent any diligence vigilance whatsoever any discipline whatsoever

00:06:27.160 applied toward the aim of obeying the law of God.

00:06:34.440 In other words, you could say, at least at some degree,

00:06:40.580 and I would argue a great degree,

00:06:42.680 that many modern American Christians,

00:06:45.940 they think that the worst thing a Christian can do

00:06:48.360 is try to be a Christian.

00:06:52.640 That's pretty much, if you're wondering, where are we at?

00:06:55.180 Where's the discourse? Where have we landed?

00:06:56.880 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?

00:07:09.120 What's our cholesterol?

00:07:10.420 What's it?

00:07:10.720 How are we doing? 0.86

00:07:12.860 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. 0.56

00:07:23.180 So how are we doing?

00:07:24.360 Not great.

00:07:26.020 Not great.

00:07:27.560 Not too good.

00:07:29.400 But notice, that's not what Jesus says.

00:07:32.740 All throughout the Gospel of Matthew,

00:07:34.940 if you said, well, it feels like, Joel,

00:07:36.620 there's some repetitive themes.

00:07:39.300 Uh-huh.

00:07:40.140 Yeah, the Bible is often repetitive,

00:07:42.480 especially one book of the Bible. 0.66

00:07:45.660 Jesus is making the same point

00:07:47.780 again and again and again.

00:07:49.900 Now, each time, he's further fleshing it out

00:07:52.840 and perhaps adding some new applications.

00:07:55.760 But the headline, the 30,000-foot view, the major theme is this.

00:08:04.520 Jesus is decrying, he's denouncing, he's indicting and accusing the religious rulers of his day for one primary failure.

00:08:17.040 One chief sin.

00:08:19.000 And it is the sin of hypocrisy. 1.00

00:08:22.720 Hypocrites. 1.00

00:08:23.320 the main problem with the Pharisees 1.00

00:08:27.120 was not legalism

00:08:29.120 and it certainly wasn't legalism

00:08:32.320 as defined by American Christians

00:08:35.740 in modern times

00:08:37.360 because American Christians in modern times

00:08:40.820 call everything legalism.

00:08:44.060 Everything.

00:08:46.160 The fact that you're in church right now

00:08:48.440 in between Christmas and New Year's

00:08:51.660 is going to be described by, I would argue, 0.62

00:08:58.600 the majority of Christians in America as legalism. 0.99

00:09:05.800 If you don't fill your home with Hollywood filth, 0.97

00:09:10.860 you're a legalist.

00:09:13.640 If your wife and daughters wear any kind of dress or skirt

00:09:19.780 that even comes close to the knee,

00:09:23.200 not even below, but just close to the knee,

00:09:25.520 legalist.

00:09:29.000 I mean, you don't have to,

00:09:32.120 if you offer to God

00:09:34.500 half, just half of the obedience 0.98

00:09:38.840 that every single serious Christian 0.94

00:09:42.620 in the world in every century 0.81

00:09:45.860 until 15 minutes ago offered to God,

00:09:48.800 you will be called and labeled a legalist.

00:09:53.500 Legalism is not our problem.

00:09:56.780 There is not an epidemic of legalism

00:09:59.880 in the Western church today.

00:10:03.300 That's not the problem.

00:10:06.000 And it wasn't the chief problem

00:10:08.360 in the day of Jesus either.

00:10:11.260 The thing that Jesus continues to denounce

00:10:14.700 is hypocrisy.

00:10:16.180 and at this point i i have to slightly disagree with matthew henry he says in this first line

00:10:26.700 worldliness is as common and as fatal a symptom of hypocrisy as any other i think it's the opposite

00:10:35.460 i don't think that worldliness and we'll define worldliness here in just a moment from the

00:10:42.060 scripture but i don't believe that worldliness is the symptom of hypocrisy i think that hypocrisy

00:10:49.560 is the cover for worldliness the reason the pharisees and the sadducees and the religious

00:10:56.820 rules the reason they were hypocrites is because they utilized hypocrisy in order to mask their

00:11:05.040 worldly desires and this is what jesus gets at in the sermon on the mount in our particular text

00:11:11.980 today matthew 6 19 through 24 he talks about the heart where your treasure is there your heart will

00:11:19.500 be also what is it that you trust and what is it that you treasure where do you place your hope

00:11:28.040 what is um the aim the focal point of all your heart's affections what is it that you love

00:11:40.460 more than anything else because your chief aim your chief desire that will then be

00:11:49.180 the the rudder the direction that guides all of your other actions that's what jesus is getting

00:11:58.380 at in this the latter half of our text today when he talks about the eye and the body he says if the

00:12:05.360 eye is good, then the whole body will be full of light. But if the eye is bad, then the whole body

00:12:12.780 will be filled with darkness. And if the whole body is filled with darkness, how great is that

00:12:17.220 darkness? This is what Christ is saying. So I'm going to skip forward and then I'll come back and

00:12:21.140 say a few more words about worldliness and hypocrisy. But to illustrate that, this element

00:12:27.420 of worldliness and then hypocrisy running cover for worldliness, not worldliness as a symptom of

00:12:33.100 hypocrisy but hypocrisy being the the cover play to justify worldliness in order to get back to

00:12:40.840 that point which i think is the primary point of our text today and really the primary point of

00:12:46.120 the whole sermon on the mount and arguably the first half of the gospel according to matthew

00:12:51.320 in order to make all those primary points let me first look at the latter half of our text and talk

00:12:57.620 about the eye and the body and light and darkness these kinds of things okay using another quote

00:13:05.560 this is towards the bottom of your notes if you have them another quote from Matthew Henry talking

00:13:09.240 about the eye he says this the eye that is the aims and intentions by the eye we set our end

00:13:17.700 before us so what he's saying is this remember when you're first learning how to drive a car

00:13:24.100 and one of the things that you were probably told by your dad or driving instructor whoever that was

00:13:29.840 is uh when you're first learning how to drive it's tempting to focus on all the things that

00:13:36.680 you're not supposed to run into all right that seems logical right it's tempting to you know

00:13:42.700 you're the first time you're merging on to you know the highway and and you're you know in a

00:13:48.560 lane let's say you're in the far left or the far right and there's a medium right right beside you

00:13:53.540 if you're a brand new driver

00:13:56.140 then you're probably

00:13:58.100 looking at this concrete

00:14:00.180 barrier two feet

00:14:02.000 away from the side of your vehicle

00:14:03.860 and you're

00:14:05.800 a lot of your thought process in that moment

00:14:08.240 is don't run into

00:14:10.160 the concrete wall, don't run into the concrete

00:14:12.380 wall, don't run into, and you're looking at the

00:14:14.300 wall and you're looking, but that's not actually

00:14:16.540 ironically, that's not particularly

00:14:18.480 helpful, what is

00:14:20.460 helpful is to

00:14:22.340 focus your eye not on the things to your left and your right that you're supposed to avoid

00:14:28.360 but to focus your eye further out and straight ahead the thing that you're actually aiming at

00:14:37.480 so when you're driving even if it's not the concrete barrier but just if it's the the lines

00:14:43.040 on the road the the best way to to drive is to look not at the line on the right or the line on

00:14:50.820 the left but in between the lines and further out to look up out ahead and in the center in the

00:15:01.300 middle straight ahead don't look at the things you're avoiding look at the thing that you're

00:15:07.320 aiming toward that's the point that Jesus is making when he talks about the eye the eye in

00:15:15.660 biblical terms is similar to the heart not similar in the way that it's defined but similar in the

00:15:22.260 sense that the heart is spoken of in scripture in at least three or four different ways the heart

00:15:30.440 one way that the heart is spoken of is that the heart is kind of the the center seat of a person

00:15:38.760 of the self in which the greatest affection or desire is seated. The heart is the center of

00:15:49.460 desire, the center of affection. Another way that the heart is spoken of is as the HQ,

00:16:00.860 view like like the headquarters the um the cockpit of a person that you could have a large plane and

00:16:08.840 there's all these different seats and then there's places to stowaway luggage below but a plane as

00:16:14.620 large as it is the cockpit by relation is relatively small but all the controls are located

00:16:22.960 there and the heart is spoken in biblical terms as the the chief seat of desire and affection

00:16:29.420 it's also spoken of as as the the steering wheel the place of directing the heart directs a person

00:16:37.080 and so too in biblical language the eye is spoken of in different capacities in different ways but

00:16:44.120 in the context of our passage today the eye is being spoken of as as a just kind of like the

00:16:52.540 heart in terms of the decision maker, the deciding factor. Well, the I is being spoken of in that

00:17:00.100 light in our text today. And in terms of decision, more particularly, more specifically, it's the I

00:17:08.580 is responsible for deciding on the chief aims or goals or destination of a person. That's the way

00:17:20.300 this term the eye is being used in our text today what is the eye it's the part of the person

00:17:27.840 that determines what is most important what are the goals what are the ambitions the aims

00:17:37.540 the destination okay so with that definition in mind because that is i think the right definition

00:17:43.640 of the eye at least in our context what our passage today with that established now let's

00:17:51.960 go back and look at the text this is now in verse 22 the eye is the lamp of the body

00:17:58.760 if your eye is good or healthy your whole body will be full of light but if your eye is bad

00:18:09.040 your whole body will be full of darkness what's being said is this if the eye is good aka

00:18:17.280 the eye has made a good and right decision determination of the end goal what it is

00:18:25.760 you're working toward then the body will all of its actions the movement of the hands and the arms

00:18:32.860 and the feet and the legs, every action of the body will be in service of the determination

00:18:40.740 of the eye. If the eye makes a good determination, the end goal, then the body will make good actions

00:18:50.080 and movements, steps toward that end goal. If my eye is good and therefore fixes itself

00:18:58.760 on those things which God considers to be good,

00:19:02.580 His glory,

00:19:04.640 then my body in my day-to-day life,

00:19:08.400 in my actions, in my words, my speech,

00:19:11.640 even my thoughts of my mind,

00:19:13.500 all these things will be good

00:19:15.980 because they're being oriented and directed

00:19:19.300 by the right chief end.

00:19:23.740 That's why the Westminster Catechism,

00:19:26.340 it begins with the first question,

00:19:28.300 what is the chief end of man this isn't backwards it's not misplaced why are you talking about the

00:19:36.180 end in the beginning with the very first question well because the end determines the beginning

00:19:44.380 the end where we're going like i can't even this happens all the time with me and my wife my wife

00:19:53.460 is much better at directions than I am much better because I'm always thinking about something

00:20:00.500 and it's not it's not directions and so um my wife is often having to direct to me I'm driving

00:20:09.400 doing my job I'm driving okay there was a time early in our marriage where I was not driving

00:20:16.740 and I had to repent of that for being effeminate and I was like because I was like it's a motorized

00:20:24.560 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

00:20:29.260 with my wife you know putting a yoke around it's not like it doesn't require any physical exertion

00:20:33.560 the wife can drive and then I had some good men in my life say it's the principle the man drives

00:20:39.940 and part of it and I think it actually is a good principle I don't think it's arbitrary part of it

00:20:44.820 is taking responsibility for the state, the physical safety of the family. So it's not like

00:20:48.860 I'm not carrying the family on my back in a literal sense. So it's not the physical strength,

00:20:53.420 but it's the, um, but it is the physical and, um, not strength, but responsibility. Like if

00:21:00.460 something crazy happens, deer runs into the road. I want to be the guy who has to make that call

00:21:05.880 deer or kids. Cause I can make that call really well, really well. I've already thought about it.

00:21:11.980 got a plan we're we're headlining the deer the deer's gone and and and then you know if i can

00:21:19.640 we're putting the deer in the back of the van and taking it to maybe brad's house or something and

00:21:26.940 and we're going to try to get it processed and get you know get get our bang for for buck you

00:21:30.500 know because we're going to have to pay for the van but we get some free venison and uh and we'll 1.00

00:21:34.340 call it a day so anyways um but my point is my wife still she just i feel like i don't know she

00:21:41.220 just i don't know i don't know if it's like some kind of witchcraft and she just knows that you

00:21:45.240 know the stars and astrology and like she could be anywhere and she's like that's north and that's

00:21:49.780 west and you know and i'm like and and i'm um and i'm effeminate you know it's it's convicted

00:21:57.220 i'm like how do you know these things um i and i don't although my son who's two this is really

00:22:02.840 encouraging um and this sense i think he's he's following after the suit of his mother and praise

00:22:08.800 god um he he has like we'll just he'll be like this way there literally he knows he's been in

00:22:15.040 the car enough he'll know the way so before i even put on the turning signal and there's been

00:22:19.940 a couple times where it's not just him confirming the right direction but there's a couple times

00:22:24.820 where he's informing father of the right direction because he remembers it and i don't so anyways

00:22:30.040 all that being said here's the point here's the point the first thing when you're on a journey

00:22:34.900 when you're going somewhere the first thing that you have to determine is where are you going

00:22:38.940 where's the final destination and that final destination sets a all the way through y z

00:22:47.020 sets a through y and so when i'm pulling out of the driveway the first question that i i ask my

00:22:55.140 wife is left or right just out of the driveway just out of the driveway left or right and my

00:23:01.600 wife makes that determination by knowing the final destination, which sometimes I don't even 0.97

00:23:09.400 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

00:23:13.800 the van, and you know, and I don't even always know where we're going, but we're going somewhere,

00:23:19.420 and she knows where we're going, and it's her knowledge of where we're going, the final

00:23:24.920 destination that allows her to determine left or right out of the driveway in other words the very

00:23:32.360 first decision is determined and dictated by the last decision by the final decision that's what's

00:23:43.240 being said in the latter portion of our text verses 22 all the way to the end let me read it once more

00:23:51.480 22 and 23 the eye is the lamp of the body if your eye is healthy your whole body will be full of

00:23:59.000 light but if your eye is bad your whole body will be full of darkness if then the light in you is

00:24:06.540 darkness because you have a bad eye and the bad dark eye has now poisoned the whole body the whole

00:24:14.140 body is now darkness dark hands and dark arms and dark feet dark legs everything is blind everything

00:24:20.440 is poisoned everything is corrupted then how great is that darkness how great is it it is a

00:24:27.660 total darkness it is an all-encompassing darkness in other words what's being said is this you can't

00:24:36.140 have bad eyes but have a healthy body and you can't even have bad eyes and expect that the bad

00:24:43.460 eye would pollute and corrupt only certain portions of your body but that at least some

00:24:49.840 portion of your body might still be preserved and remain healthy. No, if the eye is bad, then every

00:24:56.080 part of the body will follow suit. And in this context, what is the eye? What is its chief

00:25:02.960 function? The eye is the instrument that decides the final destination, where the person is going.

00:25:11.540 The eye is the portion of a person that answers the question, what is the chief end of man?

00:25:23.220 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,

00:25:36.540 is, then the whole rest of the body will be oriented in that proper direction. The hands

00:25:44.800 will be doing good things. The feet will be going in a good direction. Everything will

00:25:52.100 be healthy if the eye is healthy. But the eye, if it is blind and dark, and it answers

00:26:02.440 that final question about the final destination and the chief end and the aim and the goal

00:26:08.560 incorrectly, then the whole body will be set going the wrong direction.

00:26:16.620 If you're driving and you type in the wrong address, that's your final destination, the

00:26:23.860 coordinates for where you're supposed to land, where you're supposed to end up, if you type

00:26:29.060 that in wrong then every other decision along the way all the way potentially all the way to the

00:26:36.160 first decision of pulling out of the driveway left or pulling out of the driveway right all of those

00:26:43.000 other decisions have the potential and the great likelihood of being wrong why because the last

00:26:52.860 decision was wrong the last decision was wrong so back to this quote with matthew henry the eye

00:27:00.520 that is the aims intentions the destination the final goal all that that's what is meant by the

00:27:11.420 eye if the eye by which we set our end before us and the mark that we shoot at the place that we go

00:27:21.680 to we keep that in view and direct our motion accordingly and if it's bad we're going to be in

00:27:28.660 trouble in everything we do in religion there is something or other that we have in our eye

00:27:36.100 now if our eye be good or pure healthy seeing clearly if we aim honestly if we fix right ends

00:27:45.960 If the destination is the right destination and we move rightly towards them,

00:27:51.480 if we aim purely and only at the glory of God and seek his honor and favor and direction all entirely to him,

00:28:00.720 then the eye is good, healthy, pure, full of light.

00:28:05.820 Paul's, the apostle Paul, his eye was good when he said to me to live is Christ.

00:28:13.740 and to die is gain.

00:28:18.180 Paul had the proper end in mind.

00:28:22.040 He had a good eye fixed on the ultimate and final good thing.

00:28:26.600 And if we be right here with the final determination,

00:28:32.420 then the whole body will be full of light.

00:28:34.740 That is to say, all the actions will be regular and gracious

00:28:39.700 and pleasing to God and comfortable

00:28:42.960 to ourselves because that which is pleasing to God, it brings him glory, is also that which is

00:28:50.740 good to man. It doesn't mean comfortable in every moment and the practical sense of comfort.

00:28:58.940 Life involves suffering. It involves challenges. It involves difficulty. But make no mistake,

00:29:05.680 that which God has determined to be morally right is not arbitrary. That determination on God's part

00:29:12.120 was not random. He determines things that are good because they ultimately extend from his good

00:29:18.740 character and nature. And that which aligns with God's goodness is also good for God's creatures.

00:29:27.060 God made the world. It's his world. God made mankind. You are his creature. And that which is

00:29:34.420 good according to him is that which brings him glory but also which brings us joy.

00:29:42.120 What will bring you joy is obedience to God.

00:29:46.100 In that sense, on the part of the Christian,

00:29:50.200 there's actually no such thing as a sacrifice.

00:29:55.060 Not in an ultimate sense.

00:29:58.060 Jesus is clear, the Bible is clear,

00:29:59.820 there is a cost to discipleship.

00:30:02.440 But even in the cost,

00:30:04.680 you're paying a cost in order to get something

00:30:07.040 of far greater value in return.

00:30:09.520 What is the cost of discipleship?

00:30:11.480 well it's a man let me just give an example this is strictly hypothetical it's you know

00:30:16.060 it's just off the top of my head but let's just imagine that a man went and sold everything that

00:30:21.460 he had in order to buy a field well that would be a cost of discipleship your full portfolio

00:30:31.640 liquidating every asset down to the used car even the furniture up on craigslist

00:30:41.180 let's be serious facebook marketplace all right maybe you can get a little bit more

00:30:47.880 more money but like here goes the house the 401k everything even the bitcoin

00:30:55.100 it's all gone i sacrifice for jesus

00:31:01.100 are you sure about that it's a cost yeah but when you liquidated every single asset you did so in

00:31:11.060 order to purchase something and what did you purchase a field and why did you purchase that

00:31:16.700 particular field because there's a treasure buried in that field your whole portfolio

00:31:25.220 the treasure which one has more value the whole point of the parable is that the guy gives up

00:31:34.520 everything he owns and in the minds of all his peers it looks like a sacrifice but in his mind

00:31:42.600 the very reason he's willing to do so is because it's no sacrifice at all it's the easiest decision

00:31:50.480 that he could possibly make all of his wealth and all of his possessions in comparison to what he's

00:31:58.180 getting is a drop in the bucket. It pales in comparison. Or another example, and just for the

00:32:05.000 record, in case you didn't get, I was being facetious. That's a parable in the Bible.

00:32:09.100 It's not a random example. It's literally the way that Jesus describes the Christian life.

00:32:13.460 Another example that Jesus uses is the pearl of great price. Same thing. Willing to sell

00:32:17.900 everything you have in order to purchase something that is of infinitely more value.

00:32:23.060 infinitely more value.

00:32:25.520 So there is a cost to discipleship.

00:32:27.720 But the only real and genuine terms,

00:32:31.680 the only bona fide sacrifice

00:32:33.480 that we really have

00:32:34.940 in this whole gospel narrative of Scripture

00:32:37.220 is on God's part, not man's.

00:32:41.200 The sacrifice is the blood of Jesus.

00:32:47.860 The sacrifice is not your commitment

00:32:50.420 to following Jesus.

00:32:53.060 The sacrifice is Jesus' commitment

00:32:56.080 at the cost of his own life

00:32:58.100 to save you from your sin.

00:33:01.480 That was the sacrifice.

00:33:02.860 And why can that be rightly described as a sacrifice?

00:33:08.160 Well, because the trade was God for you.

00:33:14.900 It's a sacrifice because, brothers and sisters,

00:33:17.900 that was a bad trade.

00:33:18.820 Jesus is worth more than you

00:33:24.460 his blood is far more precious than you

00:33:29.240 but God did it because even while we were yet sinners

00:33:34.520 God still loved us

00:33:36.800 he didn't die for us so that he could love us

00:33:41.520 he died for us so that we could be lovely

00:33:43.820 but he died for us to make us lovely

00:33:47.360 because we were already pre-loved.

00:33:50.740 But He did not love you because of your innate value

00:33:54.180 or because you were a good trade,

00:33:57.560 because you were more valuable than His Son.

00:34:03.100 No, He did it for His glory,

00:34:06.060 and He did it for your good.

00:34:09.700 He did it as an act of sacrificial love.

00:34:14.540 And our decision to follow God,

00:34:16.640 which, of course, in the macro, is a decision that God first makes.

00:34:21.460 We love because He first loved us.

00:34:24.180 God first has to cause us to be made spiritually alive

00:34:27.920 and give us spiritual eyes to see, spiritual ears to hear,

00:34:31.760 and new hearts that are softened and malleable and receptive to the things of God

00:34:36.080 that actually desire God.

00:34:38.080 No man makes this decision on his own.

00:34:39.960 But if God does that, and then we inevitably respond with love for God,

00:34:46.240 with new natures and new hearts

00:34:48.140 and we determine to follow after the things of God

00:34:52.720 and to take upon ourselves willingly

00:34:55.760 the cost of discipleship,

00:34:58.380 if we do all these things,

00:35:01.060 then it is a cost,

00:35:03.900 but it is not a sacrifice.

00:35:06.380 It can't ever rightly be described as a sacrifice

00:35:09.280 because everything we pay

00:35:11.580 ultimately pales in comparison

00:35:14.340 and to that which we eternally gain.

00:35:17.300 If you lose every dime,

00:35:20.400 but gain Christ,

00:35:22.700 then you've gained more.

00:35:25.700 If you lose wife or husband,

00:35:30.380 daughter or son, mother or father,

00:35:33.580 even family, but gain Christ,

00:35:36.000 then you've gained infinitely more.

00:35:40.960 And everything in our passage is about that.

00:35:44.340 It's about rightly determining the chief end of man, the ultimate aim, the true treasure of our hearts,

00:35:53.780 and having good eyes, the instrument described in our text for determining what that chief end of man is,

00:36:03.260 what that treasure actually should be, and then having set the final coordinates in place

00:36:11.100 by having a good eye to make that final determination

00:36:15.060 then everything else, every other part of the body

00:36:19.660 the daily decisions of life, the actions of our hands and feet

00:36:24.000 the words of our mouths, the thoughts of our minds

00:36:27.920 everything else will fall into place. It's a domino effect

00:36:31.960 everything else will follow suit. So how do I live good

00:36:37.140 tomorrow how do i make good decisions in the small things it's by first determining

00:36:44.520 the big thing not just the big things no i'm talking about numero uno the big one the ultimate

00:36:54.720 determination

00:36:56.060 determination

00:36:56.080 and that ultimate determination is ultimately this you can have all this work give me jesus

00:37:06.620 as for me in my house

00:37:12.520 we'll take Jesus

00:37:15.220 whom have I in heaven but you

00:37:22.160 and on earth there is none that I desire beside you

00:37:26.000 you are my portion and the strength of my heart forever

00:37:30.340 give me Jesus

00:37:33.000 others may be satisfied

00:37:37.400 with this or with that

00:37:40.700 but as for me I want Jesus

00:37:43.720 and the problem with others

00:37:47.320 is not that they aim too high

00:37:50.500 but ultimately that they have set their aim far too low

00:37:55.000 that they could be satisfied by worldly status

00:37:59.340 or worldly comforts

00:38:01.060 that they could be so easily contented in such petty things

00:38:07.720 that they have forfeited the greatest and most valuable possession

00:38:16.060 in all of the universe, and that is Jesus.

00:38:22.560 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,

00:38:29.820 and that determination is first and foremost

00:38:31.800 what will bring God the most glory

00:38:33.560 but secondly

00:38:34.380 what will bring me the most joy

00:38:37.540 and in

00:38:39.680 determining joy

00:38:41.220 there are two factors, two primary factors

00:38:43.760 that you should consider

00:38:44.840 one is what joy

00:38:47.680 is the highest

00:38:48.720 secondly

00:38:50.420 which joy has the longest

00:38:53.440 duration

00:38:54.380 what will be the maximum joy

00:38:57.740 that will sustain and continue for the maximum duration.

00:39:05.140 I want the most joy for the longest period of time.

00:39:10.100 In life, there are certain joys that are small but ongoing.

00:39:15.840 There are other joys that we would describe with words such as ecstasy

00:39:21.180 that are high joys but short-lived.

00:39:24.660 But there is one joy that is infinite in degree and eternal in duration.

00:39:36.380 And that should be our treasure.

00:39:40.500 And where your treasure is, your heart will be also.

00:39:45.020 The eye, if it's good, if it sees clearly, it will make the right calculation of the chief end, of the right treasure.

00:39:54.300 Highest value, longest duration, who is Christ.

00:39:58.940 And if the eye is good and makes that right determination,

00:40:04.120 then everything else about the person's life will be good.

00:40:08.460 When you sin, brothers and sisters, on a Tuesday afternoon,

00:40:13.920 it's because in that moment, you've lost sight of Christ.

00:40:20.560 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

00:40:31.340 are of more substance and more concern and more value than God's glory

00:40:39.900 and, ironically, your own eternal and infinite joy.

00:40:44.520 That's what ultimately has occurred.

00:40:46.700 it's not that it's not that you've made a wrong temporary decision despite making the right

00:40:55.340 final decision no you made the wrong temporary decision precisely because in that moment

00:41:01.500 you lost the wrong final decision the the final calculation was

00:41:08.980 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 0.94

00:42:05.100 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

00:42:16.360 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

00:42:37.140 the footnote.

00:42:41.240 You look

00:42:43.140 at something and you say,

00:42:45.920 it would be like,

00:42:47.360 again, using a doctor and using

00:42:48.980 health, physical health. That's the analogy,

00:42:51.320 the illustration in our text today

00:42:52.940 with the eye and the body. All these things.

00:42:55.100 It would be like

00:42:55.720 going to the doctor

00:42:58.200 and saying, you know,

00:43:00.860 I just, I'm

00:43:03.020 often out of breath.

00:43:06.040 My cholesterol

00:43:07.040 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 1.00

00:43:44.400 well i mean you should respond by saying you're an idiot and he could respond by saying well i 1.00

00:43:54.320 told you i'm a doctor right should have known it's a foregone conclusion at this point 1.00

00:43:59.560 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

00:44:27.960 worldliness now that one

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

00:44:38.680 big one worldliness now i said i would define

00:44:42.160 worldliness in biblical terms let me do that briefly

00:44:44.400 first john chapter 2 verse 15 through 17 multiple texts in scripture

00:44:48.520 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

00:45:01.560 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

00:45:11.980 the desires of the eyes and the boastful pride of life is not from the father but is from the world

00:45:18.840 and the world this perfectly correlates with our text Matthew 6 19 through 24 the world why is it

00:45:25.400 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

00:46:02.580 reasons why is because it's passing away or put in other terms back to our primary text Jesus

00:46:08.620 literally says when he's speaking about not not making wrong determinations of where to to allocate

00:46:15.860 your chief primary treasure.

00:46:18.120 What's one of the reasons that he gives

00:46:19.600 for not making worldly things your chief treasure?

00:46:23.220 Because moth eats it. 0.67

00:46:26.580 Rust corrodes it.

00:46:28.760 There are corruptions within

00:46:30.780 and thieves break in and steal.

00:46:36.260 Corruptions without.

00:46:38.380 There is no earthly treasure.

00:46:41.180 Again, do not conclude from this. 0.99

00:46:43.660 I should be a pietist.

00:46:44.700 I should be poor.

00:46:45.860 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 0.54

00:47:17.700 you can be fat and lazy because those are two chief virtues of buddhism and if you want evidence 0.99

00:47:26.840 look at a statue of buddha okay so um so no don't do that don't use this sermon 0.93

00:47:33.900 to be a pietist. Pursue worldly resources. But for what aim? You're pursuing, right? So I'm going 0.68

00:47:45.440 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

00:48:02.720 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

00:48:15.020 whole thing is your chief end your final aim your ultimate desire let that be christ because that's

00:48:23.860 treasure that can't have any corruption from within, no rust, no moth, no decay, and there is

00:48:31.220 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

00:49:39.980 Yeah, everything can be shaken.

00:49:41.980 Banks can be shaken.

00:49:45.040 It's like, well, I won't invest in anything.

00:49:46.260 I'll just have cash.

00:49:47.720 That's an investment.

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.

00:50:02.260 You can invest in companies.

00:50:03.760 You can invest in currency.

00:50:07.000 Cash is an investment.

00:50:09.100 You're betting on the American dollar.

00:50:11.340 And that one, there's a lot of moth and a lot of rust.

00:50:15.640 That bad boy is shrinking fast.

00:50:19.780 Okay, so everything can be torn up.

00:50:21.820 That doesn't mean, so I'm going to be a do-nothing guy.

00:50:25.520 No.

00:50:26.880 There's another parable that talks about that guy.

00:50:30.600 Remember, the guy who takes the talent,

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 0.98

00:51:40.240 was this not that they were legalists they were hypocrites and they were hypocrites meaning 0.99

00:51:48.860 plain pretend pretending something that was not they were hypocrites because they were 0.99

00:51:55.980 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

00:52:50.360 to have a good reputation.

00:52:51.900 We should seek worldly treasures

00:52:53.740 in the earthly temporal sense,

00:52:55.700 all these things.

00:52:57.400 But the only question that matters is this.

00:53:00.540 Why?

00:53:01.580 To what end?

00:53:02.720 For what purpose?

00:53:04.240 For Christ.

00:53:05.740 For Christ. 0.96

00:53:06.960 The Pharisees were hypocrites 0.99

00:53:08.940 because their religious hypocrisy 1.00

00:53:12.540 was a veil that covered their worldly desires. 0.89

00:53:17.240 The chief sin of the Pharisees

00:53:19.920 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

00:53:35.960 or too much about honoring God.

00:53:37.560 That was not the problem with the Pharisees.

00:53:39.760 The problem with the Pharisees is that they did not care about those things at all.

00:53:43.840 Not that they cared for them too much.

00:53:46.080 They didn't 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

00:54:16.100 They would be putting on eye shadow

00:54:17.700 to look just a little bit more holy.

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, 0.98

00:54:35.060 do not announce it with trumpets like the hypocrites do. 0.95

00:54:37.320 They would literally be, I'm generous. 0.85

00:54:40.420 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 1.00

00:55:01.140 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

00:56:00.720 and then it will be gone.

00:56:03.840 And they have forfeited everything else.

00:56:06.380 Do not be like them.

00:56:10.140 And how does he end the passage?

00:56:12.600 You cannot serve.

00:56:14.660 Again, that's final destination language.

00:56:17.560 That's ultimate language.

00:56:20.200 End.

00:56:21.680 Chief end language.

00:56:23.200 You cannot serve, be slave of both God and money.

00:56:29.420 You can acquire money.

00:56:30.720 You can use money.

00:56:33.320 You cannot serve money.

00:56:36.480 To serve money is to position yourself as slave to money as God, as master.

00:56:46.020 That's what you can't do.

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. 0.99

00:56:59.920 It is you hypocrites. 0.99

00:57:04.220 And the hypocrisy, Shakespearean type of word, 0.99

00:57:07.740 play acting, wearing a mask on stage,

00:57:10.120 pretending to be someone else that you are not,

00:57:12.520 the hypocrisy was in service of worldliness.

00:57:17.620 Worldly desires, caring nothing for the things of God,

00:57:21.020 but only for temporary pleasure.

00:57:24.920 Worldliness was the problem.

00:57:27.180 Hypocrisy was the tool.

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.

00:57:40.020 So stop talking about it.

00:57:41.700 Let's pray.

00:57:42.260 Father, thank you for your word.

00:57:43.280 Bless it to your people.

00:57:44.260 Help us not to be worldly.

00:57:47.060 To be ambitious, yes.

00:57:49.880 But worldly, no.

00:57:51.820 Let our chief aim be Christ.

00:57:54.600 That he would be our treasure.

00:57:56.320 And that he would have our heart.

00:57:57.600 so that we would not, therefore, be tempted to be hypocrites

00:58:01.200 because we'd have nothing to hide.

00:58:03.500 We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

The NXR Podcast - December 29, 2024

THE SERMON - Hypocrisy： The Chief Sin of the Pharisees

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