This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

Welcome back to our look at chapter 23 of the book of Matthew. This is day three
of our look through this chapter. We began yesterday a look at these seven woes
that Jesus shared and we're hearing in them seven warnings for the things that
can ruin our faith, that can weaken our faith.

Yesterday we talked about the warning of don't try to be an expert, be a fellow
struggler. Today we hear a second warning and the second woe. Let me read it for
you beginning in verse 15.

Woe to you teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You travel over
land and sea to win a single convert and when he becomes one, you make him twice
as much a son of hell as you are. Jesus is very clear here about these warnings.

And this second warning is don't rely on your own efforts. They were relying on
their own efforts and they put a lot of effort into their religion. They
traveled far to win even just one convert.

Very proud of themselves for all that they've done. But Jesus says for all your
effort you're worse off at the end than you were at the beginning. Your effort
is not, not only for nothing, your effort is causing things to become worse.

Hypocrisy is religious effort without life change. Religious effort apart from
faith, Jesus says it very clearly here, it is eternally destructive. It's not
just a neutral thing.

It is a destructive thing. Hypocrisy causes your efforts to be wasted, your life
to be wasted because you're putting yourself into it so much that people can
somehow look at you and think well maybe that's the way to get there. I get to
God based on my efforts, based on my goodness, which no one can get to God based
on their goodness.

Or I grow in Christ based on my efforts, based on my goodness. One of the things
you and I have to do to be healthy spiritually is we have to repent of our
religious effort and instead depend on the power of God. Rely on God's power.

God's power to save you, God's power to grow you, and God's power to use you.
First God's power to save you. You can't become a follower of Jesus, you can't
become a Christian based on your own effort.

I used to think you could. When I was growing up that's what I thought. But then
someone showed me the scripture and I got to know myself a little bit better.

And I realized I'm not good enough to be in God's good graces. Who could be? How
could that possibly happen?

I need God's power to save me and he will. And then God's power to grow you.
Some people they get saved by God's power then they think they're going to grow
in grace by their own power.

You can only grow in grace by God's power and then God's power to use you.
There's those who think well I'm going to grow spiritually, I'll get closer to
Jesus by my power but my ministry, my service, that's all my effort. The more
effort I put in the more God's going to bless it.

And you know what? You might put a lot of effort in and see some visible human
results but that's not what you're looking for. You're looking for eternal
results.

Those can only come from God's power. Now the truth is God has something for you
to do. He has something for you to do about your growth.

You read the scripture, you pray. God has something to do about your ministry.
You go and talk to people, you share with people, you put your heart and mind
and soul into it.

But don't let the fact that God has something for you to do make you think that
you're the one ultimately who is doing it. God created you. God made you to do
that thing and it's only through God's power that it's eternally significant.

So repent of religious effort and in its place rely on God's power. Now Jesus,
as he talks through these woes to the Pharisees, he's got a third one to share
with them. And this one has to do with the kinds of words that they use.

In verse 16 he says, "Woe to you blind guides! You say, 'If anyone swears by the
temple, it means nothing. But if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is
bound by his oath.

' You blind fools! Which is greater, the gold or the temple that makes the gold
sacred? You also say, 'If anyone swears by the altar, it means nothing.

But if anyone swears by the gift on it, he is bound by his oath. ' You blind
men! Which is greater, the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred?

Therefore he who swears by the altar swears by it and everything on it. And he
who swears by the temple swears by it and by the one who dwells in it. And he
who swears by heaven swears by God's throne and by the one who sits on it.

" The Pharisees were very fond of getting caught up in arguments over words. And
one of the warnings you see here that's very strong about living a life of faith
is don't get caught up in arguments over words. Hypocrisy is hiding behind the
technicalities.

And people who hide behind the technicalities will always get caught up in these
little arguments about words. You can swear by the temple. You can swear by the
gold in the temple.

It just has this silly feeling of cross my heart and hope to die and double
cross my heart and double hope to die. Very crazy kinds of promises. And Jesus
says, "What are you talking about?

You're hiding behind these words. You're using complicated words to cover clear
obedience. " Paul warns Timothy about this in the New Testament.

Don't get caught up in silly arguments because those who are caught up in silly
arguments are usually trying to hide from obedience. So repent of hiding behind
the technicalities. Hypocrites love to take words, get involved in arguments
about what those words mean, how to use those words, and through that, twist the
meaning of those words.

They'll do it towards you and they'll do it towards themselves. When they do it
towards you, they do it to try to trap you, just like they tried to trap Jesus.
They'd like to feel morally superior to you.

So you have to watch out for this in your life. When you start to twist words
and you use them towards others in a way that makes you feel morally superior to
them. When you find yourself always wanting to catch somebody else and doing
something wrong, when you find yourself wanting to say, "Oh, you said this, you
did this, I feel better than you.

" Now sometimes you hear people say that, "You said this," and the person says,
"I didn't mean that. " And the person says, "Well, I don't care what you meant,
you still said this. " Then you know they're in trouble.

Then you know they're caught up in these arguments over words. They're not
listening to the person's heart, they're just looking for a way to feel morally
superior. You can see it, the words twisted that way when they're used towards
others, but then when it comes to using those words towards themselves, they
twist them the opposite way.

And they try to show how, even though they're doing something wrong, look, I
twist the words this way, it shows that I'm right. So here, I can swear by the
temple and still do something wrong. I didn't swear by the goal in the temple.

Or you might remember another place we studied that they could say, "I count
this money, korban. " They had a word that they would use and that means I don't
have to support my parents with it just because I waved this magic wand of a
word over it. And to them it made perfect sense because they involve themselves
in this technical argument so much that it became their life.

When you see yourself, when you see others constantly caught up in arguments
over the meaning of words, you recognize that you're in a place that's dangerous
to your faith, that's dangerous to your growth, that's dangerous to the life of
Christ in you. Don't get caught up in arguments over words. Instead, live the
simple truth that God's given you.

Live the simple truth of how to love other people, how to have faith, how to
have hope. Remember the words faith, hope, and love. When people start to get
caught up in arguments over words, remember the words faith, hope, and love.

Those are the things that are going to last. Those are the things to live in my
everyday life. Jesus says he's talking to the Pharisees, he has a fourth woe to
share with them.

It begins in verse 23. Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees. You
hypocrites.

You give a tenth of your spices, mint, dill, and cumin, but you've neglected the
more important matters of the law, justice, mercy, and faithfulness. You should
have practiced the latter without neglecting the former. You blind guides.

You strain out a gnat, but swallow a camel. Number four, fourth big warning here
is don't major on the minors. is doing the less important while neglecting the
most important.

And in this case, Jesus happens to talk about a habit, a spiritual habit, the
habit of tithing. Now, the habit of tithing is important. In fact, Jesus here
says it's important.

You should have practiced the latter. He doesn't say not to do it. He doesn't
say it's a harmful habit.

In fact, it's a good habit. He says you should be doing this. Whenever anybody
asks me, "Should I tithe or not?

" and they get caught up in arguments over words, Old Testament, New Testament,
I say, "Well, Jesus said you should do it. " And whenever I hear Jesus saying,
"You should do something," that's what I do. That's how I'm going to live.

But rather than focusing on tithing here, I want you to focus on the idea of the
habit. Habits, spiritual habits are meant to keep us growing. But apart from
commitment, apart from what those habits grow us to become, habits can become
empty religious rituals.

This has happened many, many times down through Christian history. A habit, a
good habit that started, a good habit of getting up, praying at the beginning of
the day becomes a ritual where you have to pray from this time to this time
every day, and it's emptied of any life. And Jesus says the way to do that is to
always be aware of what the habits are heading you towards.

First, keep the most important commandments. Repent of neglecting the former.
The most important commandments, we talked about it a few minutes ago, are you
love the Lord with all your heart and you love your neighbor as yourself.

You do those things that are the most important. This is why Jesus says here,
you're straining out a gnat, but you're swallowing a camel. He's talking about
in a drink, a little bit of gnat that's in it, and you take this time to slowly
use a strainer to get it out, finally I got it out, I used all my energy.

But at the same time, you're swallowing a camel, he says, you're not doing the
most important thing. You're not loving. Now, if you laughed a little bit at
that, the picture of somebody swallowing a camel, you're supposed to.

This is humor. Jesus is using humor here. Hebrew humor is always humor by
exaggeration.

He means this to laugh at this. And sometimes we need to laugh at ourselves. The
fact that I get so caught up in this little thing trying to do it right, but I
forgot to love God today.

I forgot to love people today. The fact that I get so caught up in making sure I
do this spiritual habit in just the right way, but I didn't take time to really
love the Lord with all my heart and love my neighbor as myself. The Lord knows
this.

He knows we can get caught up in majoring on the minors. And he says, instead of
that, major on the majors, major on the things that I've created you to do. So
let's pray right now that we do that today.

Lord, we pray that you help us today to major on the majors, faith, hope, and
love, being the people you want us to be, to not get caught up in silly
arguments, but instead to be the kind of people who live the truth that you've
given us to live, the truth of loving you and loving others. And Lord, today we
don't want to rely on our own efforts. We want to trust in your power.

So let me, let us be those people today. By your strength, Jesus. We need your
strength.

We ask for it. We ask for it in your name. Amen.

Well, tomorrow we're going to look at the final three ways to fight against the
things that can ruin your faith.