Jeff Durbin: Putting on a Show

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Hey everybody, I'm Pastor Jeff Durbin with Apologia Church. I want to thank you all so much for watching the content right here on Apologia Studios channel.

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What you're about to watch is a sermon, a message from Apologia Church's worship service. And again, I want to thank you all so much for watching, for liking, for commenting, for sharing the sermon itself.

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We truly believe that it's important for the Christian church to have an engagement in the public square with the

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Word of God. So we thank you so much for partnering with us to send this out across the world. I just wanted to say something before you actually watch this, and that is that I'm not your pastor.

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Though I'd love to be, I am not your pastor. And it's very important as you're watching this, you know that it's

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God's design for individual Christians to be part of a local Christian church under the care of qualified, faithful, biblical elders.

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And so as much as we love all of you watching these sermons and we're thankful to God that God uses them to bless you, to encourage you,

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That is vitally important and actually a biblical command. And so as much as again as we love for your participation, your partnership, and we are so thankful to God that he's using these in your lives, we want to encourage you to get plugged into a local church.

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You can partner with us. And I want to say one last word about that. Do make sure that none of your giving and partnership towards Apologia Church interferes with your giving, your worship, your tithes, your offerings to a local body of believers in your area.

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So thank you again so much for watching these and sharing them. God bless you. All right, brothers and sisters, if you would open your

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Bibles to the gospel according to Matthew. Gospel according to Matthew chapter 23.

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So as you guys get there, again, I've been announcing for so long, people are probably tired of hearing me say it, but Matthew is bringing us to a climax, to the end of the story that not just he is giving but also the

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Old Testament. We all are very familiar with that last week, right? End game, right?

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No? Okay. All right. So that was a three -hour movie. This one's been going on for much longer and it's a better story, right?

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But Matthew is not creating a novelty. That's what's critical to get here.

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And if you guys can capture that right now, I've said it so many times, it's going to make so much beautiful sense in terms of Matthew's story and then even today pulling from the book of Revelation itself.

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This is not a novelty. This is not some new thing. And we're familiar with novelties, right?

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In history. Even local, popular religious beliefs, local around us.

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Novelties, right? Like, hey, we didn't see this coming and here's this new revelation in 1830 published and, hey, look, there's a full restoration here and you didn't know all this stuff before, but here's a novelty dropped into history.

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We have over the last 200 years just on this continent, lots of different religious groups and beliefs that have popped up that are just that.

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They're novelties dropped into history. Matthew is not arguing that way. The New Testament doesn't come to us in the way of novelty, something new and different, but in terms of attachment to the old.

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This is a continuation of that same story. And there are elements to what you're going to see here in Matthew 23 and 24 in terms of what

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Jesus promises to them in terms of great tribulation upon them, the destruction of their temple, that wasn't a novelty.

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That's critical to get to. Hang on to that piece. It's big. If you're big into end times stuff, eschatology, and that's a popular thing, it always has been, understand that point and you'll make sense of the great tribulation in Jesus.

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It's not a novelty. It was what was expected. This moment of Jesus in Jerusalem flipping tables and condemning and confronting them and coming in with this covenant lawsuit and then promising the destruction of their temple and all these things to fall upon them and their generation, it was not a novelty.

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It was expected, long anticipated, and now it's right before us as a matter of historic record.

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So if you would, go to your Bibles, Matthew 23. We're going to start in verse 1.

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Hear now the words of the living and the true God. Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples,

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The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses' seat, so do and observe whatever they tell you, but not the works they do, for they preach but do not practice.

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They tie up heavy burdens hard to bear and lay them on people's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger.

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They do all their deeds to be seen by others, for they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long, and they love the place of honor at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces and being called

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Rabbi by others. But you are not to be called Rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brothers.

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And call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father who is in heaven.

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Neither be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Messiah. The greatest among you shall be your servant.

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Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.

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Thus far is the reading of God's holy and inspired word. Let's pray as a church and ask God to bless this. Father, we ask,

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Lord, as we open your holy word, Lord, that you would bless us, teach us. Lord, do surgery today.

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I can't do it, Lord, I can't. Lord, you know my own failings, and you know,

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Lord, my own inability, Lord, to communicate your truth in a way that only you really can.

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And so as we touch this moment, Lord, Lord Jesus, you had so much to say in this indictment upon the covenant people.

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This was your indictment. This was your lawsuit. And so I'm pleading with you,

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God, now by your spirit, would you please convict us and challenge us here?

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You hate this. You hate the false relationship with you.

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You hate the pretending. You hate hypocrisy. So please, Lord, do surgery on us today.

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Expose our hypocrisy and our pretending. And I pray that you would cause me to decrease, Christ to increase, and I pray that you'd get me out of the way, that it would not be my words but yours.

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Please, you, by your spirit, teach today. In Jesus' name, amen. Did you hear that?

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Matthew 23. This is now, watch, big moment in history. In redemptive history, this is a significant moment.

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It's huge. Matthew's telling a story, and he's leading you up to this point, right?

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Jesus' birth, connection to the Old Testament, he has the royal right to the throne of God.

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This isn't, again, a novelty. You have Matthew then pulling from Old Testament texts, and he's saying, well, that was really

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Jesus. It was all pointing to Jesus all along, right? Like God's people fleeing to Egypt.

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Oh, that was really telling you the story about Jesus. He was there the whole time. It's really about him.

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Matthew brings you to Matthew 3, where you have John the Baptist. Oh, wait a second. We were expecting him too.

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The forerunner that was going to precede the Messiah himself. Malachi 3. The forerunner comes, and then the

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Lord himself, the Lord whom you seek, comes to his temple, and he brings salvation and what?

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Got it. There you go. Salvation and judgment. That's Malachi 3. It's the last book in your

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Old Testament, and then that little white piece of paper, and then Matthew begins. That's the intertestamental period.

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Long time there, but Malachi is that last book we have there, and what do we see? You have the forerunner himself, and then the

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Lord himself, whom you seek, comes to his temple, and Jesus is doing that right here, and he brings salvation and what?

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Judgment, and it's right in front of us, and Matthew says, Matthew 3, John the

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Baptist comes in. First words out of his mouth is, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

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If you're new, kingdom of heaven, don't think about heaven out there. It's synonymous with kingdom of God.

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What is kingdom of heaven? It's the kingdom of God. What is the kingdom of God? It's the rule of God in this world.

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We need to stop thinking otherworldly when we think about kingdom of heaven, because that is not the

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Old Testament or Jewish concept of the rule of God. It had to do with the Messiah himself ruling over heaven and earth itself, and John the

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Baptist says, that rule of God that we've been waiting for, Messiah himself to come and rule the world with his people, that is at hand.

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It's at the fingertip reach, and now he has the religious leaders, the same ones Jesus is in conflict with here, and John the

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Baptist says to them, You brood of vipers, who warns you to flee from the wrath about to come?

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Do you get the word there? Mellow in the Greek is about to come. John the Baptist is saying, who warns you to flee from the wrath about to come?

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His winnowing fork is in his hand, the axe is already laid at the root of the trees. Did you catch it?

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John the Baptist is Matthew's lead -in to Matthew 23 and Matthew 24.

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First the warning, and then Jesus comes in his earthly ministry, and now Jesus is coming to Jerusalem.

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There is now going to be this moment where they crucify their own Messiah, but not before Jesus comes as the representative of the covenant lawsuit, where he is now confronting the covenant breakers for their false religion, for their disobedience to the covenant, and this is the moment where Jesus in Matthew 23 starts declaring,

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Woe to you! Woe to you! Woe to you! That's a big deal in biblical language and terminology.

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Woe to you is the way of calling down, specifically saying to God, God, curse these people.

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God, judge these people. God, condemn these people.

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You're familiar with it, aren't you, from the Old Testament, right? The woes, that's a big deal, calling down the curse of God.

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Now we don't like that in 21st century evangelicalism. We want to pretend like in the Psalms where you have imprecatory prayers against God's enemies, like God, judge my enemies.

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God, destroy my enemies. We want to pretend like the Psalms maybe aren't really there, right?

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Or the Psalms, maybe we shouldn't read those parts anymore because they're not nice like Jesus. Right?

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We've got the hippie surfer Jesus today that wouldn't dare call down a woe on somebody. We have

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Isaiah in the Old Testament. Isaiah in Isaiah 6, when he catches a glimpse of the holiness of God, what's he say?

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Woe to them? He says woe to who? Me! He gets a glimpse of God's holiness and his first response as the most righteous looking dude in all of Israel is to say, woe is me,

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God. Curse and judge me. I'm a man of unclean lips. I am coming apart at the seams.

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I'm unraveling in the light of your holiness and your goodness and your justice and your truth.

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That's Isaiah before the throne of God. He realizes his own unworthiness and now here we have the

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Messiah, the righteous one of Israel, standing now before the covenant breakers with this covenant lawsuit that was coming all along and he's saying woe to you and he does it how many times in Matthew's narrative?

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How many times? Little clue. Seven. Seven's a big deal in the

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Bible. We need to get to this too because we're doing the book of Revelation today. We always hear Christians today saying things like this.

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I interpret the Bible. I interpret the Bible literally. I interpret the

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Bible literally. It's literal interpretation. I'm gonna say this. Well, we need to interpret the Bible biblically and that is if we're interpreting a historical narrative, we interpret it as historical narrative but if we're interpreting a proverb, you have to interpret it as wisdom literature, as a proverb.

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If you're interpreting symbolic language, you have to interpret it symbolically. What is the meaning behind the symbolism?

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Well, God is big into symbolism. People say, no, he's not. He does things literally. Literally. Oh, really?

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Literally? Always? Literally? Really? What do we do every week when we come up here? What are we eating?

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The body and blood of Jesus. Literally? We couldn't be doing it literally.

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Why? Because there's an Old Testament law of God that applies today against cannibalism.

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You can't eat the flesh and drink the blood of a human being. It's an abomination in God's eyes.

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So what are we doing here when we come to this table every week? Jesus said, this is my body, this is my blood.

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What is that? Symbolic. And he equates the eating of his flesh and drinking of his blood with coming to him and believing in him.

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Also, we have another important symbol and ritual we do within the church, and that is that we die and we rise again.

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That's of course through faith in Jesus, joined him in his death and resurrection, but then we act it out here, right?

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And there's a symbolism of baptism, of dying and rising again. Symbolism is big to God.

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It's huge to God. It's all over our Bibles, the imagery and symbolism.

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It kicks us in the teeth in a way that literalism can't. I'll give you an example of what

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Matthew is doing here. When he says, woe to you, hypocrites, pretenders, woe to you, hypocrites, pretenders, woe to you, hypocrites, pretenders, he does it seven times,

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Matthew records. Why? Because we have at the very beginning of the Bible that symbol of seven set down for us as a pattern to understand completion, fullness, it's done.

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Right? And where's that symbol come from? The seven, where? Creation week, six days

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God works, seven day he rests and enjoys his labor, his work.

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So we have the creation week of seven. So that lays down now a pattern. It literally happened, yes, literally happened, but now it becomes a symbol, something that actually testifies to something always through it.

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And Jesus says, woe to you, seven times. This is Jesus coming, bringing the covenant lawsuits against these covenant breakers.

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Keep that in mind. Now, as we open up Matthew 23 today, this is, I'm so, if you can't tell, I'm very excited about today's message.

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In Matthew chapter 23, this is important to lay down, especially if we're just getting into this discussion.

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I wanna say this as a highlight. Please hear me on this, come with me on this, because the next couple of months, this is gonna become very, very big.

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If we do not understand the Old Testament promises of the

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Messiah's coming with salvation and judgment upon the covenant breakers, then

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Matthew 23 and Matthew 24 becomes an infinite playground for those who want to actually speculate on end times fiction.

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People oftentimes will go to Matthew chapter 24 and they will terrorize people with fear.

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Fear for the future, right? Have you ever heard the things like, hey, sun, moon, stars blotted out?

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Or you hear John Hagee more recently talking about the blood moon. The blood moon, right?

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And it's like the blood moon comes and goes and we're all looking at him saying, yes, and?

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Because you see, that's not how we're supposed to interpret it. The constant fear mongering over Matthew chapter 24 and the great tribulation.

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If we don't understand what the Old Testament said about what was coming in the

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Messiah's coming, it was not just about salvation from sin. It was also about judgment upon the covenant breakers.

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When you understand the Old Testament promises, Matthew 23 and 24 causes you to fall to your knees humble before Jesus confessing that He truly is the

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Messiah. He's what was expected. If we didn't see this, we would have reason to doubt.

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But of course, Jesus comes now in complete fulfillment. What's the context? We're not going to go over it all today.

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Go back and listen to the past messages. I'll just give you the touch on it. Old Testament promises. Read Malachi chapter 3.

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Malachi chapter 4. It promises forerunner. The Lord Himself comes to His temple.

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And then it says He brings salvation and what? I keep asking you to say it because I want you to hold that together in your minds.

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That is what was expected. And Matthew is making sure that you know that.

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Jesus fulfilled it. Malachi chapter 4 promises John the Baptist is coming. Elijah is coming.

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The one who calls people to repentance. And then this great and awesome stuff takes place in terms of judgment.

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Isaiah chapter 65. Write that down. It was a promise of what?

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God says to His covenant breakers He warns them about their breaking and violating His covenant.

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And then He says to them, My people are going to eat, but you're going to be hungry. My people are going to drink, but you're going to be thirsty.

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I'll call My people by a new name. And He's going to judge the covenant breakers.

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And lo and behold now, Matthew is bringing you now into that story. How? I want you to see it.

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Follow me now. You're in Matthew 23. Just move back to Matthew 20 so I can point you to it.

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Jesus in Matthew 20, 17. He says what? He's going to Jerusalem. They're going to kill Him.

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And then He's going to rise again. Now He goes into Jerusalem 21. It's a triumphal entry.

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What are they laying down before the Messiah? Leaves. What did He come looking for? Fruits.

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Now Jesus, after He comes into Jerusalem in fulfillment of the prophecies, coming on a donkey just like was promised, now

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He comes into the temple for the what cleansing? Second cleansing. John has a cleansing at the beginning of Jesus' ministry.

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The Synoptics have the cleansing at the end of His ministry. That's two temple cleansings. Hey, lo and behold, that's exactly what the law of God said had to happen.

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The priest had to come first, examine the temple. He came back a second time. If he still found disease, what did he do?

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He took the house apart. Not one stone left upon another. Jesus comes in now, and what's happening?

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He's cleansing the temple. And then Jesus now, going from place to place, becomes hungry, looking for fruit, comes to the fig tree, a symbol of Israel, and what does

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He find on it? Leaves with no what? Fruit. No fruit. So Jesus does what to the fig tree?

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He curses it and says, let no fruit ever come from you again. And then

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Jesus now comes into the conflict with the religious leaders in His day. In Matthew 21, you have the parables.

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In 22, you have the response to the questions. Jesus has an epic parable, and I want you to catch it because it has everything to do with Matthew 24.

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Get this. If you understand the Old Testament context of the coming of the Messiah, and you understand what's happening right now in Jerusalem, and you listen to the parables, we would never put

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Matthew 24 future to us in terms of the Great Tribulation because you understand that it was meant for them.

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It's the context of their day. Not our day. Their day. Promises made specifically for their generation before they all die.

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The parable of the two sons. The parable of the tenants. The parable of the wedding feast.

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And here's the thing. What does it say in the parable of the tenants? Just the overview.

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What? God keeps sending people to go get fruit from the vineyard. And what do the tenants keep doing?

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They keep beating up and messing with everyone that God's sending. He can't get fruit from his own vineyard.

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And so God says, the owner of the vineyard says, I'll send my son. They'll respect my son.

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And then when he sends his son to the vineyard, what do they do? They go, oh, look, it's the heir.

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Yes, let's kill him. And then we can have his inheritance. And then Jesus says to them, he says, what's the owner of the vineyard going to do when he finds out they killed his son?

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And then they say, oh, he'll destroy those miserable wretches and he'll give the vineyard to somebody else who will give him the fruit.

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And Jesus says, it's you. That's right.

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He's going to give it to others who will actually give him the fruit in season. And then what happens now, they're like, he's talking about us.

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Is he talking about us? He's talking about us. It's like, yes, obviously, right? And then the wedding feast, he's like, he's sending people out.

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Come to the wedding feast. Come to the wedding feast. Come to the wedding feast. And then what happens? They don't come and they're invited.

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And then what happens? It says that God's going to send his armies to do what?

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To destroy their city. Are you seeing it? Cleansing. Want fruit.

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God's going to remove it from you and give it to others. You're invited, covenant people, come. You're not coming.

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God's sending his armies to destroy your city, to burn it down. And now they start challenging

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Jesus with these questions and he answers in the way only God can. You got to love his wisdom.

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Wisdom personified right there in Matthew 22 -23. Now, skip over to 23 now.

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Now, Jesus entered in Jerusalem. He cleansed the temple. He promises judgment. He gives them the indictments.

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Here in 23, he gives them the seven woes. This is leading to the promise of judgment.

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And I want you to see it with your own eyes. Everyone join me here. Look down at Matthew 23, starting in 34.

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Now, I know I'm skipping ahead, but it's for a reason to give us full context. Have you ever done this?

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Have you ever in, say, doing evangelism with Jehovah's Witnesses or doing evangelism with, say, our friend that comes out now every week, which was a huge blessing today.

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We gave her an umbrella and a chair and water and it was something that really blessed her,

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I think. It was a whole different attitude today. But have you ever talked to somebody that you're doing evangelism with and they start to quote the

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Bible and they proof -text it? They'll just grab a text out. They'll just sort of say, well, the

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Bible says this, right? Wives are to submit to their husbands. So women are second -class citizens, right?

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Men are more important than women. It's like, what? Like, what do you, because you proof -texted a role in terms of gender, submit to your husband, that you think that means the

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Bible teaches that women are second -class citizens or less valuable than men? If you read the story of the

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Bible, it puts men and women on exactly the same level. In the image of God, He created them.

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And it actually gives women rights and privileges and a position that false religion never does.

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But people proof -text. Or how about this one? You're talking to, say, the Latter -day Saints. It's big in our area, so let's talk about it.

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You say, you believe you can become a god one day. The Bible says, I'm the first and the last. Besides me, there is no god, only one god.

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And then the Mormon says, well, in 1 Corinthians 8, it says there be gods many and lords many.

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There is the danger of proof -texting. Why? Because if you actually read 1 Corinthians 8 in its context, above it and below it, it says, there is only one god.

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But as you read it in context, you realize that Paul is dealing with the pagan idolatry of his day, and he mentions there are many gods and many lords.

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So -called gods, right? False gods. Pagan idolatry. Has nothing to do with true gods.

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So there's the danger of proof -texting. So watch. As we go here into this section of Matthew 23 and 24, we need to understand

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Old Testament context and immediate context, and where are we going through here?

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And I want you to see it with your own eyes. Matthew 23, verse 34. Look where Jesus is going after he declares woes on them.

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It says this. Therefore I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will flog in your synagogues and persecute from town to town.

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So who does Jesus say is going to be responsible for killing his people? Who? Jerusalem.

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The leadership of Jerusalem. He's saying you are going to do this. And he says this.

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So that on you... On who? Them. So that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth and the blood of righteous

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Abel to the blood of Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar.

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Truly I say to you... Who is he talking to? You? 21st century

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Christians or Americans? Who is he talking to? Them. The leaders of Jerusalem of that time.

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He says, so I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.

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And here's what Jesus says. Oh, Jerusalem... Follow me on this. It's going to matter in a minute.

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So listen. Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it.

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How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing.

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See, your house is left to you desolate. For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say,

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Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. So who's responsible for killing God's people according to Jesus?

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Jerusalem. Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her.

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He says what about the house? See, your house is left to you desolate. Are you catching this?

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It's awesome. What did he just do with their house in the temple? What did he do? The temple cleansing.

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What did the priest have to do to the diseased house? Visit it once, visit it twice.

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If he still saw disease, that house became what? Desolate. Are you catching it now?

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Are you seeing the imagery now? Jesus is the true high priest. He's the high priest.

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He is the one who is the head of the covenant, and he comes in now to examine them, and he says, woe to you, woe to you, woe to you.

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Your house is being left to you desolate. That is the context.

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But who does Jesus accuse of killing God's people? Jerusalem, Jerusalem.

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Keep that in mind. Very, very important. Now, I want to point you to the text. Matthew 23, verse 1. Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, the scribes and the

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Pharisees, sit on Moses' seat, so do and observe whatever they tell you, but not the works they do.

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Not the works they do. For they preach, but do not practice.

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And he says this. Do and observe whatever they tell you, but not the works they do. This is really, really important in terms of Jesus dealing with the law of God.

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This is huge. It's important in our day. Why? Because we have many people today that would argue, I think, contrary to, of course, the teachings of the

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Bible, but also contrary to the church historically, that we need to disconnect the

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Old Testament law of God from the New Testament itself. You have popular preachers today making arguments that the law of God is not relevant in the life of the new covenant believer.

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People arguing against even the words of Jesus in Matthew 5 in the Sermon on the Mount, where he says, what about the law of God?

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In verses 17 -19, he says, do not even begin to think.

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Me namasete. Don't even let it into your mind that I've come to destroy the law or the prophets.

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I have not come to destroy them, but to fulfill them. And he tells them that if you teach people to break even the least of these commandments, which commandments?

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The law of God. He says, you'll be called least in the kingdom of heaven. He says, but whoever does them and practices them, you'll be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

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Here's a moment, watch, where Jesus is dealing with those who are adding stuff to God's law. Listen, Jesus' problem isn't with the law of God.

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He fulfills it. He upholds the law of God. Jesus' problem was what man -made religion does to the law of God.

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They add things to the law of God and put weights and burdens on people's backs that they don't even bear themselves.

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Jesus' problem isn't with the law itself. And what does Jesus tell His followers to do in that day? He says, listen, do and observe whatever they tell you, because they're on Moses' seat.

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From what? Moses, the law of God. He says, but not the works they do.

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They tie up these burdens that aren't from God and they won't move them with their finger. It's a false dichotomy.

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When you separate God's law, His revelation of His own character and law in the

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Old Testament and the New Testament, you say we're under a new covenant law. What I would say to that is this.

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Come with me now. Let's just do this quickly. What are the two greatest commandments according to Jesus in the New Testament?

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Love God and love neighbor. Love God and love neighbor. Jesus says that those two commandments were the commandments upon which every law of God was given in the

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Old Testament. So what we need to say is this. If I'm still commanded to love God and love neighbor in the

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New Covenant, then you've just given me the entire law of God. Because all the law of God in the

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Old Testament was an expression of what it meant to love God and love your neighbor. Right? Amen?

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Yes? So Jesus calls us to obey that law. Now, look at 23, verse 4 now.

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They tie up heavy burdens hard to bear and lay them on people's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their fingers.

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What is Jesus condemning here? This is where I want to look at my own heart and my life.

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I do. Every time as your brother and pastor that I go to a text, I'm not looking at the text trying to think how do

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I bring it to the people of God. I'm looking at the text first to say how do

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I bring it to my own heart and my own life. What is God saying? And what's it say to me?

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And this ought to cut us deep. Because we can't simply say, well, we're Christians, we're saved.

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We don't ever fail in these areas. Have you ever been to a church or a communion where when you came in you had to sort of conform to a way that people looked or dressed or a way that people actually lived their own lives?

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You ever known a believer next to you who loved the Lord, but as soon as they got into your life they started trying to tell you to start adopting their practices and their principles?

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Things even like, well, I don't have a TV in my house. Why? Well, because TVs are of the devil, right?

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Making arguments like, you ever seen the smut on television today? All the evil stuff on television today?

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What's that TV doing in your house? Right? My personal practice is not to have a TV in my house, so you ought to not have that in your house as well.

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What are we doing? We're putting something that's not from God as a burden upon everybody else because it's my personal practice and my personal conviction.

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The challenge with the Pharisees and Sadducees is they were doing that from an authoritative position saying, this is the

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Torah, this is God's law, and because we represent that on Moses' seat, we found these other ways to actually expand the law of God and to make it even better, stronger, more obedient in ways that we can guarantee you will not violate the law of God.

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Right? So God says this. Watch. Honor the Sabbath. Keep it what? Holy.

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And so what did the Pharisees and Sadducees do? This is why they were Sadducee. They started adding things.

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That was a grenade. Okay. They start adding things to the law of God and in their mind, it's so righteous.

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Oh, it's so righteous. We just want to protect God's law. He says keep the Sabbath holy.

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So what'd they do? They start adding ways that you can break the Sabbath that aren't in the law of God and they've got the

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Sabbath police walking around on Sabbath going, hmm, is he doing that?

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That's kind of breaking the Sabbath. Hey, citation or whatever, like you're going to violate the Sabbath and start adding ways you can violate the

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Sabbath that have literally nothing to do with the Sabbath. And watch this.

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They're so religious. Oh, they're so religious. Man -made religion always finds a way to make it sound so good.

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A way to cook the books, so to speak, right? Like, hey, that's not in God's law. Not even close.

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You've added that stuff to God's law. That's not in God's law. And they go, well, you see, what

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I'm really trying to do is I'm trying to protect us from coming anywhere close to violating

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God's law, right? Just protect the law. Add stuff to sort of create some padding around the law.

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And what they were doing is just that. And Jesus says, they're sitting in Moses' seat, so you obey

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Moses' law, the law of God, but don't do what they do. They're adding stuff that's not from God.

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They're putting burdens on you that they won't even move with their own finger. Man -made religion loves to pretend.

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It loves to pretend. It loves for other people to see it. It wants the attention of others.

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And watch, listen. We are in a position today where we're actually in kind of a worse place than even they were.

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See, the heart of men and women, fallen people, sinful people is corrupt enough to always create undue burdens, to always twist and pervert the law of God, to always try to look very religious, very passionate about God.

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But we're in a dangerous spot today because we have something they didn't. What do we have? Platforms.

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Platforms. Social media. Platforms by which we put up a picture of ourselves.

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And I don't mean your profile picture. I mean the platform that represents you to the watching world.

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Right? And we oftentimes have to battle as believers who love the

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Lord from trying to make ourselves appear to be something that we're really not.

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Pretending like all is well when it's not. Hypocrisy. Pretending.

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When we first planted Apology at Church, we planted Apology at Church at a drug rehab. And one of the things we had to constantly say at the very beginning, some of you guys were there, you know we said it all the time.

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We said, when you walk through those doors, stop pretending. Don't come in here and pretend like all is well.

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I can't love you and serve you as your pastor and brother if you walk in here and you lie.

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If you come in here and you've been drinking and you've been struggling, you need to come in and confess that.

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I drank today. I drank last night. I just used. You're not going to get abused by us.

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We're going to point you to Jesus. We're going to point you to intimacy and freedom in Him. Come in here and tell the truth.

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So oftentimes, that would happen. People would come in. Listen, I've held more cocaine, ecstasy, oxycontin, and all the rest in my hand than I care to admit.

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Now, that's going to get cut up on the internet. People would come in and just put it in my hand.

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Because they'd say, I almost blew it today, Pastor Jeff. Here's the ecstasy. A bag of ecstasy in my hand.

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And I would just take them. We would do a little worship ritual where I'd say, praise God. And we would go together to the bathroom and we'd have a little worship ceremony where we threw it down the toilet and we worshipped

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God together. No more pretending. Don't lie. We also had our own handy -dandy breathalyzer, which

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Pastor Luke still has in his bag to this day, where if we thought people weren't being honest and they were pretending and not telling us the truth, we would walk up to them and say, hey, you been drinking today?

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No, Pastor Jeff. I haven't drank for at least a week. We'd go, fantastic. Blow into this. And then we'd get the honesty at times.

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They'd say, well, okay, it's only been 1640s, but, you know, only a little bit.

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We used to always tell, look, Jesus isn't impressed with your pretending. He's not impressed with your pretending and your religiosity.

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You want to know what the heart of Jesus is? Read Matthew 23 when he condemns the covenant breakers.

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What's Jesus say to our man -made religiosity? It's unimpressive to God.

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Listen, here's the crazy thing about man -made religion and all these rules and things that are outside the law of God, that we put on people.

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Ready? Here's the thing. It does nothing. Nothing.

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Nothing for your relationship with God. Nothing for your intimacy with God. Not a thing.

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It doesn't make you righteous in God's eyes. It scores you no points with God. And more than that, watch, it angers

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God that you would lie and pretend to know Him and have a relationship with Him all the while it's all hypocrisy.

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It's all pretend. Here's the deal. You want to really know God? You need to know Christ. You want to really walk with God?

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This is the glory of it. If you know Jesus, this ought to settle your heart and bring you to peace. You want to have intimacy and a relationship with God?

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Here's the thing. What God wants is reality. He doesn't want the pretending at all.

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He doesn't want the show. He doesn't want the mask. He doesn't want the shell. He doesn't want the platform that gives a picture of yourself that's a complete and utter lie.

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You ought to come into this building together with the people of God being honest about who you are and what you're struggling with.

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That's what God calls us to. Not the pretending. Right? Not the pretending.

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Some of you know what I'm talking about, right? You've had all day where you're in a squabble with your wife or your husband.

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You've been prideful and nasty and argumentative and rude to the kids all the way here.

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It's screaming and yelling and beatings taking place. And you come into church and sort of get out of the car and you're like, praise the

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Lord. Praise God. Things are good. Christian family right here. Homeschooled.

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Right? It's all a lie. It's hypocrisy. Why are you pretending? You get nothing for that.

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Do you get that? Nothing. God is unimpressed. He's not receiving it and all things are well.

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And watch this. If we're pretending all the way in here together, then we don't even have the love and support of each other that we need to be encouraged and to grow together as the people of God.

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So here's the thing. Stop pretending. Why? Because Jesus hates our pretending.

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He hates our pretending and our lies. It's unimpressive to God. God hates false religion.

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The deeds to be seen by others. I'm not going to recap the whole thing, but read Matthew 6.

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We've talked about it many times. What's Jesus condemned there? It's the same people.

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It's the same practices. The hypocrites who like to go on the street corners to have everybody hear them pray with these long elaborate prayers and they want everyone to see them praying so well before God.

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Oh God, I can pray. Right? And Jesus is saying, the only person listening to you right now is your audience right there because you're not even talking to him.

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So Jesus says what? If you want to talk to God, go into your closet. Your father wants to hear you.

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He wants to really hear you. And he knows if you're pretending. He knows if you're praying so people hear you pray.

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And I've always mentioned this, and I hope this cuts all of us because it definitely cuts my heart.

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If your prayers sound more beautiful and erudite and long and passionate and lovely when you're praying with other

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Christians, something's wrong. Admit it. Admit it.

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If you pray better when other people are listening to you pray, can

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I be honest? I'm the Pharisee. I'm the pretender on the street corner who sounds so amazing.

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Think about the Lord's... This is real. This isn't fake. This isn't man -made religion. This is a real

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God in a real relationship. What, from the Lord's perspective, is happening when you've spent three days not even talking to Him, and then all of a sudden you get into a

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Bible study with Christians and you're like, Oh Lord, You are glorious and majestic and lifted up in all the earth.

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God's going, What? You haven't spoken to Me for days.

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It's been days. God's going, This is a lovely prayer, right? It's amazing.

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But it's not real. And Jesus has that condemnation in Matthew 3 for the very same people.

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Street corners, and they love to give, and so everyone sees them give. Look at everyone. Look what I'm giving. You see what I gave?

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Look at all the money that I gave. Did everyone catch that? Jesus says, Do you know what?

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Enjoy the reward because you just got it. All of that attention you just got, that was your reward.

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You get nothing from God. Why? Because this isn't fake. This isn't man -made religion. This isn't a fraud.

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This isn't pretend. This is a real God. It's a real relationship with a living and a holy and a true

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God. So stop pretending to pray. Stop pretending to give. Stop pretending to fast by messing up your appearance and going,

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Oh, I'm fasting before God. And everyone's like, Oh, look how spiritual this person is.

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They're always fasting, and they've got a deep walk with God. Jesus says,

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No. You just got your reward. What did you want? The attention of men? Well, congratulations.

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I hope, Congratulations. I hope that was worth it. So Jesus confronts them, but here's what

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I love. Are you ready? This is going to get awesome. Get ready. All right. So gee,

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I've thought for today, I was like, you know, I could spend a ton of time on this, but I think, you know, let's just do this because I think it's simple enough and concise.

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In R .T. Francis' commentary on the gospel according to Matthew, if you don't have that, I encourage you, it's a good one on Matthew.

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In R .T. Francis' commentary on Matthew, he has some comments here about the phylacteries and the things that they had that were broad and the fringes and all the rest.

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I thought, I'll read that. So here's what Jesus says. He says, They do all their deeds to be seen by others.

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Verse 5, For they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long. And they love the best place of honor at the feast and the best seats in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces.

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Okay, so what are those phylacteries? Right, like, oh, I got like a couple of those in my console,

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I think, right? Like, what is that? Well, here's what Francis says. A second charge against the scribes and Pharisees is that their religious practices were designed to win the approval of other people rather than that of God.

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These verses strongly recall chapter 6, which we talked about, where Jesus has already spoken to the preoccupation of the hypocrites.

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Phylacteries were the small leather boxes containing key texts from the law which were and are worn on the forehead and arm in literal fulfillment of Deuteronomy 6, verse 8 and 11, 18.

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They were presumably intended as a spiritual aid for the wearer, but they provided an opportunity for religious ostentation.

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Either the boxes themselves or the straps by which they were fastened could be made more conspicuous by making them broad.

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The fringes or the tassels on the corners of Jewish cloaks which were required by Numbers 15.

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In biblical times, they were worn on the ordinary outer garment as Jesus himself did. It's only in subsequent

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Judaism that the fringed shawl worn, especially for prayer, has developed. The fringes too were intended as spiritual visual aids, but to increase their length was an obvious way to draw attention to one's piety.

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The length was discussed in Jesus' day. The school of Shammai favoring longer tassels than that of Hillel.

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So here's the thing. Phylacteries, these boxes, texts of God's law. Does this sound familiar to you?

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On the head and hand. Catch it now. Grab hold of this and you're going to see something awesome in a minute.

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Head and hand. Head and hand. But they go literally, the law of God in a little box hanging off my head.

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First of all, how weird is that? Okay, let's say that. It's very weird, but they put it here so it's like a symbol of like head and hand.

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And where's that come from? Here, O Israel, the Lord our

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God, the Lord is one. Say it with me now.

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Shammah. Yisrael. Yahweh. Eloheinu.

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Yahweh. Echad. Deuteronomy 6, verse 4. Jesus says the first and greatest commandment here,

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O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. I'm going to read it to you. Deuteronomy 6, verse 4.

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And then 5. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul, with all your might. And these words, listen, that I command you today shall be on your heart.

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You shall teach them diligently to your children. You shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, and when you lie down and when you rise.

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You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes, on your forehead.

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You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. Every Jew wakes up, faithful Jews, saying this prayer, this saying.

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Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and might.

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And God says, let this be a sign on your hand and on your head.

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The Jews in Jesus' day went, all right, give me a box. And they would take a literal box and they'd make it nice and broad so that no one could miss it.

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First of all, if I had a small one on my head, I'm sure you'd see it. But they'd make it even bigger so everyone's like super impressed.

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Look how big that box is. I can't even see his face. Right? Just a guy walking around with like a bag on his face.

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Right? Excuse me. But that's what took place in Jesus' day.

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Broaden it. Make it big. Make it. But here's the deal. Is that supposed to be literal? Was God telling his people to literally walk around with bags on their heads with the law of God in them?

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No. You see, the head, the forehead, the head symbolized ownership.

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Who do you belong to? To take God's law and His sayings and put them on your head means that He owns you.

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Let it be a sign on your head. I'm owned by God. I belong to God.

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I'm His. He's mine. It's a sign on my head. And the hand in the

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Old Testament is a common symbol of the right hand. It symbolized your actions, your labor.

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There's a constant reference to the right hand. Your work. Your labor. What you do.

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Your occupation. So watch this. God says He's the only God. Love Him with heart, soul, mind, and strength.

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And do what? Let it be a sign on your head and your hands. Let everybody know that you're owned by God.

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Let everybody see that what you do in the world is in the Lord. It's according to His law and love for Him.

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It wasn't supposed to be literal. A sign on your head and hands.

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It was symbolic. Testimony to who you belong to and what you do is in the

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Lord. And Jesus says they got all these things on their heads and hands. Their cloaks. They expand it.

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Why? Because they just want attention. They just want attention. It's not really owned by God.

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It's not like their labor and their works are really done in God. Now, this is where it gets interesting.

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Deuteronomy chapter 6 is the head, the ownership, the hand, the hard work, and the labor symbolize what you do.

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Now, this is where it does get interesting. Now, I've touched on this before, but is this an isolated incident where this is taking place?

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Jesus coming to the covenant breakers, confronting them, condemning them.

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The imagery that's going on here, the head and the hands. Is that isolated or does that take place elsewhere?

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So what I want to point you to is what we've already done before, just to show you Ezekiel. Go to Ezekiel quickly,

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Old Testament. There's another moment where God has a confrontation with the covenant breakers. I need you to see this.

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And we've talked before about how this is a pretty significant condemnation from God about His people.

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Ezekiel chapter 16, God talks about, and this is huge, come back. Come back because this is huge.

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This is important and it's big in the whole story of the New Testament and Old Testament. What does

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God call His faithless bride under the old covenant? He calls her a harlot.

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Another way to say it is whore. Another way to say it is prostitute.

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Now why would God refer to His covenant people like that? Here's why. Jeremiah 31 .31,

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God says, Behold, I'm bringing a new covenant. He says, not like the one before, the one you broke, even though I was a husband to you, there's a new covenant.

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God calls Himself the husband of the wife. In Ezekiel 16,

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God goes through this recall of how He brought

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His wife to Him. Old covenant Israel. Verse 8, When I passed by you again and saw you, behold, you were at the age for love.

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And I spread the corner of My garment over you and covered your nakedness. I made a vow to you and entered into a covenant with you, declares the

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Lord God. And you became Mine. Then I bathed you with water and washed off your blood from you and anointed you with oil.

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I clothed you also with embroidered cloth and shod you with fine leather.

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I wrapped you... Watch, watch, watch. I wrapped you in fine linen and covered you with silk.

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Mark it down. Fine linen and covered you with silk. And I adorned you with ornaments and put bracelets on your wrists and a chain on your neck.

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And I put a ring on your nose and earrings in your ears and a beautiful crown on your head.

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Who's He talking to? Old covenant Israel. Right? I found you where you were at.

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And what did He do? He says, I beautified you. I made you My wife. I put all this jewelry on you.

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I put a crown on your head. I put fine linens and silk on My bride.

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You ate fine flour and honey and oil. You grew exceedingly beautiful and advanced to royalty. And your renowned...

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Watch. Went forth among the nations because of your beauty.

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For it was perfect through the splendor that I had bestowed on you, declares the

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Lord God. But, here it is, you trusted in your beauty and played the whore.

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Because of your renown and lavished your whorings on any passerby, your beauty became

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His. You took some of your garments and made for yourself colorful shrines and on them played the whore.

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The like has never been nor ever shall be. Now watch. Just read that later. I won't go into all of it today here, but God basically says to His wife,

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He says, I made you mine. I brought you in a covenant with Me. I put jewelry on you, even a nose ring.

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Can I just comment on that real fast? This is important. In terms of a side note, pastorally, in terms of cultural.

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You see people today putting burdens on people that are not from God in the name of Jesus.

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I've even seen people criticize people at our church because they've got facial piercing.

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Do you guys feel that? I got it.

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Here's what I'm gonna do. And I put a ring on your nose and earrings in your ears and a beautiful crown on your head.

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Read that there about the no.

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No. Let's move on.

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Everyone go back to Matthew, sorry. Matthew 23.

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Matthew 23. Old Testament.

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God calls His people somebody who turns away from His lawsuit.

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Someone who caps away, caps away for God's people.

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They turn away from the covenant. God says to His people, you were My covenant people.

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You turned away from Me. You became going away from the solid work before God.

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And God says, you've turned away now. You have now become a harlot.

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Now what Jesus does here in Matthew chapter 23, this is what's critical. I'm gonna make sure I get all this right for you guys.

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Old Testament, God says, you've fallen away. You've become those who in the

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Old Testament reference fall away from God. In Jesus' covenant lawsuit, God refers to the people here in Matthew chapter 23, and He says to the people there,

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He says that they knew God's law, but they were turning away from it.

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They were a part of the covenant lawsuit of God, but they were not upholding the law of God.

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They were calling themselves rabbis, but they're not behaving in a way that a rabbi was supposed to behave.

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Now what's important here is this. Jesus here is in reference to the old covenant itself, who fell away from God.

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They were once the whore there. Now Jesus confronts them who are upholding the covenant, they say, but they're falling away.

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But here's what gets powerful. In the New Testament itself, you have an incident in the book of Revelation.

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I want you to go to that text itself now so you can see it. Revelation chapter 17.

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Revelation chapter 17. Now as you all get there, this is really, really important. Capture this.

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I would encourage you all to read a book called Before Jerusalem Fell by a friend of ours,

59:46

Dr. Ken Gentry. Very important book in terms of the timing of the book of Revelation.

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When was it written? I would argue that the book of Revelation was written before 70 A .D.

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John, who actually wrote the book of Revelation, was, I think you can demonstrate this, he was actually brought into persecution by Nero.

01:00:08

Nero boiled John in a pot of oil. John didn't die. So Nero sends him into Patmos.

01:00:15

That's where he wrote the book of Revelation shortly before the destruction of Jerusalem. And it was there that the book of Revelation is written to actually describe what is soon to take place.

01:00:25

The soon judgment upon Jerusalem. And in the book of Revelation, chapter 17, you have the story of the great prostitute and the beast.

01:00:38

The great prostitute and the beast. Now as we get there, this is really, really important.

01:00:44

Now this is where it gets awesome. The book of Revelation is over 400 verses. Over half of those verses are direct quotations or allusions from the

01:00:57

Old Testament itself. So capture this. Over 400 verses and over half the book are direct quotations from the

01:01:05

Old Testament or allusions to Old Testament passages. So a lot of people could, technically according to today's standards, they could accuse

01:01:15

John, the writer of Revelation, of plagiarism because he's copying the

01:01:21

Old Testament to give us the book of Revelation. So we have to understand the Old Testament itself to understand what

01:01:27

John is saying in the book of Revelation. There's biblical imagery there. Biblical imagery.

01:01:34

So, in the book of Revelation, there is this section here where John brings up the prostitute, the false religion.

01:01:45

In verse 1 it says this, Then one of the seven angels, who had the seven bulls, came and said to me,

01:01:51

Come, I will show you the judgment of the great prostitute who has seated on many waters, with whom the kings of the earth have committed sexual immorality, with the wine of whose sexual immorality the dwellers on earth have become drunk.

01:02:07

And he carried me away in the spirit into a wilderness. Pause. Help me.

01:02:13

Now this is where you can participate. Old Testament imagery and symbolism. Wilderness.

01:02:19

Wilderness. Wilderness. Wilderness. Does that sound familiar to anybody? Where's wilderness in the

01:02:25

Old Testament? What happened in the wilderness? Who was in the wilderness?

01:02:36

Israel. And what was Israel, the people of God, doing in the wilderness? What were they doing? Wandering. Why?

01:02:44

Because they were being disobedient. They were being obedient. So watch. That really happened in history.

01:02:51

But now what happened in history in terms of their wandering in the wilderness is now a symbol of their disobedience.

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They're not being obedient. Covenantally, faithfully. So now we have the wilderness as meaning something with imagery.

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And now John says, in the wilderness now, hey, there's a woman there in the wilderness.

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A prostitute in the wilderness. And I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was full of blasphemous names, and it had seven heads and ten horns.

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Well, if you think about John's timeline, he is captured by Nero. They try to kill the apostles.

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They boil him in a pot of oil. He doesn't die, so Nero sends him to Patmos there, into exile.

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He writes this down. Where is he at? What's going on in his day? Rome is in control.

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Rome is persecuting the saints. Rome was known as the Septimontium.

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Septimontium. It's on their coins. Septimontium meant the city of seven hills.

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Septimontium was seven hills, and Rome had ten imperial provinces.

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So now you've got a woman in the wilderness, and you've got a beast, and you've got seven heads, ten horns.

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The early Christians know what this is referring to. We're talking about Rome. And we've got this woman, this prostitute, drunk.

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And here's what it says. The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet and adorned with golden jewels and pearls, holding in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of her sexual immorality.

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Brothers and sisters, I challenge you to do this. Go read Ezekiel 16, and you'll see that the language that John is using here to describe the harlot is the same language that is said in Ezekiel 16 in terms of the woman who was wearing these jewels and all this stuff.

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And what is she wearing? Purple and scarlet. Oh, interesting.

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What color is purple and scarlet? Oh, nothing. Just the priest's colors. Just the priest's colors.

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So you have what's happening now. You've got, she's in the wilderness. She is riding a seven -headed, ten -horned beast.

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And what is she wearing? She's wearing all this stuff, all this jewelry. That sounds like Ezekiel 16.

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And what colors is she wearing? She's wearing the colors of the priesthood. Purple and scarlet.

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And what does she have in her hand? A cup full of abominations and impurities of her sexual immorality.

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And on her forehead was written the name of mystery,

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Babylon the Great, mother of prostitutes and of earth's abominations. And I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints and the blood of the martyrs of Jesus.

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So in John's vision of the whore of Babylon, we have the descriptions ultimately that point to Israel.

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She's wearing the priest's colors. She's riding Rome. They might be thinking, what's she doing riding

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Rome? Well, I don't know. Sounds sort of like a Jesus trial. What does

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Caesar, who's there representing Rome, say to the covenant people of Israel?

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He says what to them, do you remember? He says, shall I crucify your king?

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Here's the representative of Rome saying to the covenant people of God, shall I crucify your king?

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And they say what to Rome? We have no king but Caesar.

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Here is the harlot riding the seven -headed, ten -horned beast, the

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Septimontium with ten imperial provinces. Here's the harlot. Here's the whore of Babylon.

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By the way, Babylon, hmm. Who went to Babylon because of apostasy and sin?

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The covenant people of God went where? Babylon. Babylon becomes a symbol, because it really happened, of unfaithfulness for the people of God.

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God sent them into Babylon as judgment. Now John pulls those symbols together, says she's wearing all the purple and scarlet.

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She's got the jewelry. She's riding the seven -headed, ten -horned beast. She's got

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Babylon written on her forehead. By the way, what are we supposed to have on our forehead?

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God's law. What's she have on her forehead? Babylon. She's fallen into apostasy.

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And here's what it says. When I saw her, I marveled greatly. Verse 6. But the angel said to me,

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Why do you marvel? I'll tell you the mystery of the woman and of the beast that was and is not and is about to rise from the bottomless pit and go to destruction, and the dwellers on earth whose names have not been written in the book of life and the foundation of the world will marvel to see the beast because it was and is not and is to come.

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This calls for a mind with wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains on which this woman is seated.

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What was Rome called on those coins? The Septimontium, which means the city of seven hills.

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If you look at Roman coins from history, it says the Septimontium, the city of seven hills. And it says this.

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There are also seven kings, five of whom are fallen. One is.

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The other has not yet come and when he does come, he must remain only a little while. When John wrote this, who was emperor?

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Nero. Nero. Which line in the emperor's line was

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Nero as a matter of historical record? Number six. After Nero dies by the sword, which is precisely what the book of Revelation says is going to happen after 42 months of persecution of the

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Christians, which is what Nero did, it says that the beast is going to die by the sword. That's how Nero died.

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It even says his number is 666, which is Neron Kaiser, Nero Caesar.

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Yes, that's what it says. In the text here, it says five have fallen, one is, and the one who comes, he's going to actually be there a little while.

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After Nero was killed, it's a matter of historic record that the one who came after him was only emperor for a couple of months.

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That's exactly what Revelation predicts. But here's what it says. Now, keep moving down to verse 15.

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Here we go. Brothers and sisters, what happens shortly after John gave this revelation?

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When he describes the harlot, the same thing God called the covenant people in the Old Testament who turned away from Him.

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When he describes the harlot, he said Babylon's on her head and she's riding the seven -headed, ten -horned beast.

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Do you know what happened in the 60s? Rome turned on Israel. And they came and they surrounded the city

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Jerusalem, just like Jesus warned them, and then they backed away from the city.

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Do you know who the only people in history to escape were? The Christians. They fled to a town called

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Pella because Jesus warned them, when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, flee.

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Don't go back and get your coats. Flee. Get out of there. And then they did.

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Now, Rome came and re -sacked the city and what took place is that Rome burned the city to the ground.

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Josephus says the blood was pouring through the streets and John says here that the harlot is going to be riding the beast but the beast is going to turn on her, make her desolate, and burn her with fire.

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What happened within a few short years of John riding this? Exactly that.

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By 70 AD, the temple was taken apart. Not one stone was left standing upon another, exactly as Jesus promises.

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But here's the key thing I wanted to point to here. Here's a moment in Jesus' ministry where he picks up on the theme from the

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Old Testament about having God's law written on your head and in your hands.

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The symbolism that's engaged there. And you move to the book of Revelation and what do you find in the book of Revelation?

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You have all the imagery of the harlot who's wearing the priest's colors, who has, instead of God's law written on her head, she's got

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Babylon, which becomes a symbol of apostasy, of turning away from God.

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And what does it say about this woman? It says she's drunk with the blood of the saints and the martyrs of Jesus.

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Here's where we're ending today, guys. Go back to the beginning of the message from today. Remember, today we jumped a little bit ahead to Matthew 23.

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And what did Jesus say? What did Jesus say to Jerusalem? Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her.

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And upon you, all the blood of the righteous, it'll be this generation.

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Now we see in John's revelation where God actually brings that to fruition.

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Everything Jesus promised to the first century Jews, the covenant breakers, begins to get wrapped up and fulfilled in the book of Revelation itself.

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You have a consistent theme there. But notice, in both cases,

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Jesus is confronting them for their false religious practice of putting this sign on their head so that others would see them externally.

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And then in the book of Revelation, you have condemnation upon those who have a different thing written on their forehead.

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So the point is as we move through Jesus' condemnation in Matthew 23, I want to ask this question.

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When you hear Jesus condemning their false religion to the degree that in Matthew 23 he says this, verse 11,

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I want to ask you to consider along with me, as a follower of Christ who desires true intimacy with God, to consider what

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Jesus is saying there. Humble yourself. If you exalt yourself, you'll be humbled.

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If you humble yourself, you'll be exalted. Here's Jesus confronting people over the external picture of a relationship with God.

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And that flows throughout the New Testament itself to the degree that you actually have God judging these covenant breakers and their pretended religiosity.

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So what does Jesus show us in his ministry? If you want to have real intimacy with God, go to your closet.

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Stop trying to grab everyone's attention. It doesn't mean that we're only to pray in our closet. It's Jesus making a point about people who want attention for their religiosity.

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They want attention for their giving. They want attention for their fasting. They want to do things for the praise of others.

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It's all an external shell. It's putting on garments to look religious.

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Right? Royalty. Silk. Right? Purple and scarlet.

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I look so religious. Jesus is saying, you want to be exalted? Humble yourself.

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What's that look like? Jesus came to lay his life down for others. Not to be served, but to serve others and to lay his life down as a ransom for others.

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Jesus comes to the degree that his disciples are so used to the religiosity of his day that when

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Jesus comes in and he actually starts washing their feet, it breaks them down.

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He's God in the flesh. He's the Messiah. How's he washing my feet? And Jesus says, you want a real relationship with the

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Father? This is how you live. You humble yourself for others. You do things not for the praise of man, but for the praise of God.

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If you want God to delight in your life and your practice, then you do what you do for his praise and his glory.

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Not for the praise of others. Not for the accolades. Not for the title. Even that part where he says, call no one father.

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Jesus isn't saying, dads, your kids can't call you father any longer because you have heavenly father.

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He's talking about them. They wanted the special privilege of being called father. I'm your father.

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This does apply, by the way, to a famous modern religion that you know of. Yes, calling others spiritual leaders as fathers.

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That position. Jesus is saying, you have one father who's in heaven. You don't hand that out easily to others.

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Jesus is saying, stop with the appeals to appearance. Stop with the appeals to attention.

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You want real, divine intimacy with God? Let it come from the heart.

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Let it be real. Let it be for the glory of God. Now brothers and sisters, just consider for a moment now that last point there.

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I wanted to show you from the Old Testament that God has already used this language about the harlot, about the fake religion, about the fake covenant keeping.

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Now Jesus confronts the covenant breakers and in the book of Revelation, you see an example of the symbolism of first century

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Israel who's about to be judged by God, who has all this perverse stuff going on to the degree that she's even killing

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God's people. And God says, soon that beast is going to turn on her, make her desolate and burn her with fire.

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God is concerned with the truth. A true relationship with Him.

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So my question to us is this. Can we find ourselves in any way in the indictments that Jesus pours out upon the religious people in His generation?

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They would have professed a love for God. They would have professed a love for His truth. They would have said that they honor

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God, they love God, that their life is being poured out for God. But Jesus says this. It's hypocrisy. It's all pretend.

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It's not real. And it's not impressing God at all. So my question to you is this.

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How is your life similar to the life of first century

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Jews who felt like they had to put on a show for others?

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Let me ask you this. When you post something online, do you post it for the praise of God?

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Or do you post it for people to see you a certain way? To view you as spiritual?

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To see you a certain way? When you go to serve God on a mission, are you doing it between you and the

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Lord for His glory, for intimacy and delight in Him? Or are you going on that mission because you feel like people expect that of you?

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Because you want people to see you a certain way? Brothers and sisters, here's the glory of it.

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Can you just hear me in this last thing? This is so critical to me. I wanted to be able to communicate this in a way, and I pray that I can as your brother.

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The glory of this is this. Is that you and I are worshiping a true and living God. The real

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God. This isn't pretend. This isn't just mere religion.

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This isn't a code that you come into a group and you adopt and you follow a code. This is a true and living

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God. It's the real God, the true God, the actual God, the God you and I are all going to stand before one day.

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It's our Father. And this is the amazing thing to me, is that He is thoroughly unimpressed with my pretending.

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He's thoroughly unimpressed with it. He doesn't care. He doesn't long for it. He's not saying, go,

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Jeff, through the motions. That's all I care about. As long as you're going through the motions, we're good.

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No, God provides the way to peace with them, and then He says this, what I want with my people is the reality of love for me.

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The reality of a relationship between me and them. I don't want the fakeness.

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I don't want the pretending. Let's admit it. Man -made religion is content with pretending.

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Man -made religion is content with everybody looking at me going, oh, you're so spiritual.

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You're so holy and spiritual. Man -made religion wants the external so that everybody else comes and applauds.

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The reality is, this is the truth. And God is thoroughly unimpressed with my attempts to get the praise of man.

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So the challenge we have to actually bring to ourselves before God is this. My relationship with God, am

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I doing what I'm doing for the praise of others, or is it truly for the glory of God? Am I doing this for intimacy with God, or am

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I doing it so others watch me and applaud? Why am I doing what I'm doing? Because you can see that our

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Savior, when He comes to confront the covenant breakers, He confronts them on their pretending.

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Pretending. Pretending. Adding to His word. Pretending. Dressing themselves up in purple and scarlet and putting stuff on their heads and making things long so that everyone sees them and they go, oh, look how religious and how spiritual that person is.

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Jesus says, I'm unimpressed, and congratulations, you have your award.

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This is my hope before God, and I'm, personal confession here, I hope that I never stand before our

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Savior, ever, and hear Him say to me, you did that for them and not for me.

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I hope I can check my own heart and my own mind and my own words and my own actions. It was for God and His glory, and it had nothing to do with anybody watching.

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I pray that God challenges us on that now, that all of our works as a church are for the glory of God and not for our namesake or for our praise.

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May God change us as a church to never be like the harlot, the pretender.

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Let's pray. Father, I want to ask that You bless the words that went out today for the glory of Jesus.

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I pray that You would convict us even now of our pretending, of our expectation of praise of men and women.

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Lord, allow us to live the life, Lord Jesus, that You lived of a pursuit of real intimacy and obedience with the