Three Woes of Modern Christianity: A Call to Self-Examination

Well, amen.

Thank you, brother Caleb, for that song.

I'm just so thankful Jesus has been merciful to me.

If you're thankful as well for that, would you say amen?

Amen.

Well, if you have your Bibles tonight, turn to Matthew, chapter 23.

Matthew, chapter 23.

We'll begin reading in verse number 23 in here in just a moment.

I just want to thank pastor for allowing me the opportunity to preach tonight.

This is his pulpit, and I try not to take that lightly.

And it's an honor and a privilege to preach in front of you guys.

I came across this sermon actually studying for my Sunday school class.

And this is actually one of the lessons that we talked about.

And when I had found this lesson and I was starting to study and go over it, I found it to be very profound of the modern day that we live in.

If you look in verse number 23, it says, Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites.

This is Jesus speaking, by the way.

For ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cumin and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy and faith.

These ought ye to have done and not to leave the other undone.

Verse number 24, it says, Ye blind guides which strain at a gnat and swallow a camel.

Let's pray, and we'll continue reading here in a moment.

Lord, I pray that you would hide me behind your cross today, God, I pray that I would say every word that you would have me to say, Lord, I know this is not Noah Day's message, Lord.

This is your message, God, that you've given to me.

Lord, I pray that you would just speak the words that you'd have me to speak.

Lord, let me be your mouthpiece, Lord, hide me behind your cross.

In Jesus name I pray.

Amen.

Let me ask you something.

What would you do if Jesus walked in the back door?

I know what may have of us would have done.

We'd run and hug his neck, probably and fall flat on our face and worship him.

Right?

But let's think about this for a moment.

If Jesus walked in the back door tonight, what do you think he would say to us?

Looking at Heritage Baptist Church, what would be the first words to come out of his mouth?

I think it's a very scary thought, especially if we start thinking about, what do you think Jesus would say if he came into your house tonight?

What would he say about your home?

Maybe for you kids out there, what would Jesus say if he came to school, came into your classroom?

What would he say about you then?

What would Jesus say if he came into your work?

From you people who are adults, right?

What would he do if he walked into the office one day?

What would he say to you?

What would he have to say?

I find verses 23, and we'll see here in a moment.

Verses 23 through 32 is speaking about the modern day Christian.

Have you ever had a maybe growing up for Christmas, you've wanted the special toy, right?

And you were wishing for that all Christmas season.

It was on your Christmas list, right?

And you go to open it the first day or the Christmas morning, you open that box up and that toy is not exactly what it looks like on the packaging, right?

I think of these certain, like Nerf guns, right?

They show like the bullets just flying, the little rubber bullets, they fly, flying like 50ft, right?

And speed of light, right?

And when you go and shoot it, it just kind of is all it does, right?

And it's just like, this isn't quite what I was looking for.

This isn't.

Something's off here.

Maybe I'm not quite seeing this, right?

Maybe some of you have booked an Airbnb.

I know me and my wife have done this before.

We've booked an Airbnb before.

We were just staying away and we saw this Airbnb.

It was pretty cheap.

So we're like, hey, that looks pretty nice.

Let's just go stay there for one night and we'll get away, we'll get out of town for a little bit.

And lo and behold, when we get there, we pull up, we go inside, and it is not like what the pictures had shown on the Airbnb website, right?

You go and look at the bed sheets and there's stains all over it and there's bugs in the sink and grime and grits all in the shower.

It's just not a very pleasant thing, right?

On the outside, didn't look too bad.

It had a nice fresh coat of paint on it.

The door at least locked, right?

And as soon as you walk inside, you're like, man, this place is kind of filthy.

It's kind of disgusting in here.

And lo and behold, we did not stay at the Airbnb.

My wife would not let us, right?

So we got our money back and all that, right?

But if you look at those examples, and those are silly examples, if we really look into it, we may see our own lives in those situations.

Maybe on the outside we look good, but on the inside we don't.

And we're gonna see here In a moment of what Jesus has to say to the Pharisees.

And the Pharisees aren't just anybody, right?

They're not just Joe Blow across the street, right?

These are religious leaders, guys that knew more Bible than we probably do today, right?

At least in the Old Testament speaking, these are the cream of the crop, as you would say, or what a lot of the men would say back then.

When looking at them, they look up to them, right?

And this is what Jesus has to say.

The first thing he says, woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites.

I like how right there in that verse in my KJV Bible, it has an exclamation point right there.

That means Jesus was like, hey, you hypocrites.

No, he was getting to the point going, you hypocrites.

I would be pretty scared of Jesus just talking to me that way, Just saying.

Let's continue reading here.

Let's see what happens here.

Verse number 25, it says, Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites.

For ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.

Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also.

Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites.

For ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones and of all uncleanness even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.

Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites.

Because ye build the tombs of the prophets and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous.

And say, if we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.

Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets.

Fill ye up then, the measure of your fathers.

I would like to talk to you tonight.

The three woes of a modern day Christian.

The three woes of a modern day Christian.

Number one.

Woe to the blind guides the blind guided Christians.

Right here in verse number 23 it says, Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites.

For ye pay tithe of mints and anise and cumin, and have omitted.

Sorry, have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith, these ought ye to have done and not to leave the other undone.

And it goes right here into verse 24.

It says, ye blind guides.

What Jesus is saying here is that these Pharisees, they got their act together.

Sure.

When they go into the synagogues and you see them doing their duties and they go and they find their mints in their garden, and they get the 10% of that mint and they place it on the altar, right?

And they go into the Annie's and they go into the cumin, and they get that 10% and they put it in there, that tithe, oh, so nicely.

Oh, they look so good.

They probably straighten their jacket a little bit as they walk past the peasants, I guess you could say.

But Jesus is calling them out, saying, hey, you're taking this a little bit too far.

You got the actions right, but the means behind it, you've got it messed up.

He says that you've omitted the weightier matters.

See, you've got it backwards.

The things that don't matter as much, you're putting emphasis on.

But the things that do matter, you're not putting emphasis on.

Jesus goes to say, the law, the judgment, the mercy and the faith, those are some heavier matters.

And they don't really pay attention much to it because they're too worried about what others see in them.

Right?

Is that not our modern day church today?

Going into churches, you may see those people that, oh, they're dressed just right for Sunday.

They got the right Sunday dress on, they got the right suit and tie on, their hair's done, their makeup's done, They've got their $10 bill they've brought to church, and they're gonna put in that offering plate and make sure when they pull it out of their wallet, they kind of come like this and they stick it in the offering plate, Right?

We've seen those people before.

I'm not one of those people.

Okay, I'm just kidding.

But we see that and then we see right here that the weightier things have been put aside.

The things that the Pharisees should have been concerned about, they are no longer concerned about.

In this day and age, we need to be very careful about how we do things here at Heritage Baptist Church, for one, but in our own lives, our own churches, because we.

Right, we can look so good on the outside, but the motive on the inside, not right.

And I'm guilty of it, too.

Coming into Sunday morning, I got my suit on.

I'm ready to go.

I carry my Bible I look like I know what I'm doing, right?

But then I had come in with some pretty sorry attitudes sometimes.

And I'm about to go preach to a bunch of children that want to hear from God's word.

And I have to check myself every time walking in these doors going, noah, is your heart in the right place?

Maybe you need to take a second.

These other things that may not matter so much, let's replace them with some more weightier matters.

This is one of the biggest problems in the churches in America today is that when we walk in the back door of our auditoriums, we look the part.

But as soon as someone that comes in that doesn't look the part, why do we look down on them?

Sure, they're sinners, sure they may not be living a life for God, but maybe we should be glad that they're here.

Maybe we should go and offer a helping hand.

Hey, how you doing, sir?

My name is Noah.

I see that this may be your first time here.

Can I help you with anything?

Can I be a blessing to you in any way?

What's happened to our churches in America today?

I've been to several churches that when you walk in the back door, everyone just kind of looks at you.

And I would check myself and make sure all my tithe's done and all that.

And I look around and go, why in the world has no one come to shake my hand?

You see, we could have it all put together on the outside, but on the inside of our churches, those waiter matters have been omitted.

When was the last time you've been sewing?

When was the last time you went and visited that person who was sick?

When was the last time you went to that brother, that sister who's having a going through a hard time?

And you don't have to say much.

I'm not saying that you're completely ignoring them, but maybe we should be a little bit more caring about one another.

I'm so guilty of this.

I've omitted the weightier matters at times.

And I've put into the things that aren't as weighty, aren't as important.

And I've made them the most important thing.

Cause it makes me look like a better person.

And Jesus says this to us.

Ye blind guides, which strain at anatomy.

This is pretty hilarious.

Strain a net and swallow a camel.

Basically, Jesus went to these Pharisees.

He said, y'all have such a hard time with these things that other people do.

But that camel that you're swallowing, that's no problem.

That's Basically what Jesus said.

And it is a very funny situation because I felt like if I was one of the people standing in the crowd listening to Jesus yell at these Pharisees, I probably would have laughed.

But at the same time, I've been terrified because Jesus is not messing around here.

Society today has painted Jesus as.

Jesus is all just love.

And he's just all.

He loves me no matter what.

And yes, Jesus does love.

And God is love.

Don't get me wrong there.

But they have taken out that other half of God that he is righteous and.

And that he is judge as well.

And one day he comes back.

He doesn't come back as the Savior.

He comes back as the judge.

And guess what?

That way, that society has transformed Jesus in their minds.

It's now spreading into our churches across America.

And preachers are no longer standing up and preaching God's word, but they're motivational speakers, glorified motivational speakers.

I'm all for the love of Jesus.

I'm all for the painting of God's love properly.

But God is also a God of righteousness and a God of holiness.

We have to be careful in our own lives to not paint God as the genie in the bottle.

Verse number 25.

Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites.

For ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.

Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also.

This is awesome.

Two verses right here.

Jesus paints the perfect picture.

Here at my home, my job usually is my wife cooks most of the time, and I clean most of the time.

At least the dishes, right?

That was kind of the agreement that we made at home.

She cooks, I clean, I cook, I clean.

Okay?

That's just how it goes.

Right now, I'm just messing around, and she does clean the dishes at times, But I do it to.

I want to be a blessing to my wife.

And I'm not perfect, right?

But imagine if I went over to the sink after my wife was done cooking, and I grabbed that plate that we used or that pot or that pan that we used to make spaghetti, and I just took it, flipped it over and just cleaned the outside, went, oh, that's good enough, and just put it in the cabinet.

You would probably look at me like, did you forget your glasses somewhere?

Is this your first time doing this?

Right?

But guess what?

We do that in our very own lives.

And this is what the Pharisees were doing right here.

The outside of them, they looked good.

They dressed the part, they sounded the part.

When they prayed, it sounded like they were in the throne room of God.

But it was just full of so much emptiness.

It was full of that extortion and that excess, all the filth that's in their own lives.

They're so worried about the cleanliness of everyone else and how the way that they look on the outside, that they are neglecting what is inside.

My friend, tonight, if you have not put your faith and trust into Jesus, there's no way you can be clean on the inside.

If you have never put your full faith and trust into Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, you cannot be clean on the inside.

Now, on the flip side of that coin, let's say you are saved.

If we do not keep the sin within our lives within check, we become very dirty on the inside.

And it's so interesting what Jesus says here.

He says, we got the outside part right.

We look the part, we know the words to say, we know the way to act, right?

But on the inside, our heart's full of just sin and filth.

And we say, that's good enough, right?

We say, well, no one else knows.

So I guess it's not that big a deal.

The preacher didn't fully touch on my sin, so I guess I'm good, right?

My friend, get back in the Word of God.

Turn with me real fast to James.

James, chapter number one.

James, chapter number one.

I want us to see this real fast.

James, chapter number one.

I should have marked it down James chapter number one.

And look at verse number 22.

It says right here.

But be doers of the Word and.

And not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.

For if any be a hearer of the Word and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass.

For he beholded sorry for he beholdeth himself and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.

But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, that's the Word of God, and continueth therein.

He being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work.

This man shall be blessed in his deed.

You see, the Bible, James right here kind of explains it.

So this way, when you spend time in the Word of God, it is like looking in the mirror.

That is what it's like.

This Word of God right here doesn't focus on what you look like on the outside.

I've never found a verse in the Bible that says, make sure you shave every morning.

I've never found a verse in the Bible that says, make sure your makeup is done just right before you go to church.

Never found a verse.

Make sure that your clothes are just right, they're not too wrinkly.

Make sure they're just ironed.

Right?

I know these are silly illustrations, right?

But I've never found that in the Word of God.

But you know what God's Word says?

For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

You know, in our lives, it's just full of sin.

And Jesus wants to cleanse that, but he cannot cleanse it until we come to him.

We say, lord, I am like that cup that you described.

Clean on the outside, but full of filth and dirtiness on the inside.

May our prayer be tonight that God don't focus on what everyone else sees.

Focus on what you only see.

And God may show you some things in your life that maybe you don't even know that it's there.

Going back to our passage in Matthew 23, we saw first the woe of blind guides, the blind guided Christians.

We saw the woe of the unclean.

And going on the second part of this woe of the unclean, it says right here in verse number 28, it says, even so, ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.

Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you build the tombs of the prophets and garnish the sepulchers of righteousness.

Sorry, back up real fast to verse number 27.

It says, Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for ye are like unto white sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones and of all uncleanness.

You see, we look so beautiful on the outside.

We look so good to our fellow Christian, but we're just full of dead man's bones.

I've been to the tomb of the Unknown Soldier before.

If you ever have a chance to go, I encourage you to go.

It's a very humbling experience.

But that tomb of the Unknown Soldier is a very beautiful, very beautiful sepulcher.

It's a beautiful tomb.

When you look at the outside, you're like, whoa, this is amazing.

And they don't know who that guy was.

And they have a guard there that guards it day and night.

I got to see the.

When the guards come and they switch the guards, that's a really cool experience.

But on the inside of that sepulcher, inside that tomb, it's just dead man's bones.

Now, I do think we should honor the ones that have given their lives for our country.

I'm not saying anything like that, but I'm using that as an example of on the inside, we are just dead man's bones.

Let me ask you, is Jesus alive in you tonight?

Is he the forefront of your life?

Are you the.

The one in the driver's seat right now?

Because guess what?

God says when we're in the driver's seat, we're just dead men walking.

We're dead full of dead men's bones.

And it says right here, verse number 28, it says, even so, ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy, iniquity.

I would hate to live a life of just emptiness, nothing.

God has called us to do something greater in this world.

He's called us to be a witness to him, to live a life for him, a joyful life.

And we keep trying to take our lives back.

I do all, every single day.

I don't want to do what God wants me to do because I want to do what Noah wants to do.

And yet I have to go back and I look at this passage and I say, I can't let the dead man's bones win.

I can't be full of dead men's bones.

I want to be full of Jesus who's alive today.

We saw the woe to the blind guides and woe to the unclean in the dead bones.

And number three, woe to the self righteous.

Look, right now in verse number 29, it says, Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because ye build the tombs of the prophets and garnish the sepulchers of righteousness of righteous.

And say, if we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.

Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets.

You see, the biggest problem with the Pharisees, Jesus kind of builds up to this point right here.

He says, the biggest problem with you Pharisees is that you're so blind to how you actually look.

You're so self righteous about it that you're willing to stand here today and say that, oh, if we were back then, we wouldn't have argued against Moses or God.

We wouldn't have been the children of Israel complaining.

That's basically what they were saying.

We wouldn't have been partakers of that.

We're better than those guys.

We would have had the prophets backs.

Yeah.

And Jesus looks at him and says, you are the exact same people that killed him.

I think we have to be very careful with how we view the men of God sometimes.

I think we have to be very careful about how we view what the Bible says about certain things.

We can't take half measures with things.

We can't just see one side of the coin.

We have to look at the picture as a whole.

And too often we dwell on the little things, right?

We say, well at least I'm not that way, so I must be pretty good.

At least I'm not acting this way.

At least I'm not making that choice.

But yet we are and we don't even see it.

And it says right here in verse number 31, it says, wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets?

Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers.

What kind of legacy are you leaving behind in your home?

What kind of name are you leaving behind when you come home?

Fathers, mothers, do your children see a Christian or do they see a completely different person?

They see the mom and dad when they walk into the church building and it's a completely different person when they step foot through their own home.

I'm not here pointing out anyone tonight.

I'm preaching to myself.

I have to be careful of this.

But you know what doesn't cut it?

Is that do as I say, not as I do.

That doesn't cut it anymore.

That kind of thinking, that kind of lessons being taught is what got us in this mess today.

Maybe that's why America is so backwards.

Maybe that's why our churches are becoming just more liberal.

It's just a pep rally.

Why have so many Christians nowadays stop going back to God's word and, and looking in the mirror and going, wow, I'm filthy and I want to get clean because I want to be that clean vessel for Jesus.

I want to be that witness for him.

And Jesus says right here in verse number 33, he says, Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?

I think that is one of the best lines to describe America today.

In our world today just full of vipers and snakes.

I wonder what Jesus would say coming in the back door of Herod's Baptist Church.

I would hope he would look around and he would say, wow, this is exactly what I started with my disciples.

This is what I intended to happen.

Or he'd come in and look around and say, woe unto you modern day Christians, hypocrites.

And I'm not preaching to you tonight, I'm preaching to myself, because I'm the biggest hypocrite in this room.

Even Paul said himself he's the chiefest among sinners.

Paul, the man who wrote over half the New Testament.

I can remember when I was working in the city of South Lake and I had turned my back on God a little bit.

I didn't show it on the outside, but I did a little bit on the inside.

And I found myself not acting how I should be acting.

I found myself not caring about the things of God.

And it scared me.

One day I said, whoa, I'm going down a path that I do not want to go down.

And thankfully, the Lord got ahold of me through His Word and his Spirit and he got ahold of my life.

And he said, noah, I called you to the ministry.

What are you doing working in South Lake?

And so I said, okay, Lord, I'll do what you want me to do.

I started working here.

I started cleaning the church.

Has life been easy?

No, life's still tough.

But the burden is light.

You see, if we finally just looked in the mirror, we would see ourselves as Pharisees.

We look so good on the outside.

We've played the part right.

We work properly in Fall Fest.

We do all the things for vbs.

We.

We help out at the Spring Flinger.

We sing in the choir.

Whatever it is, you look good.

What kind of motive are you putting behind it?

Are you actually living for Jesus?

Or is it just iniquity?

Is it just full of emptiness?

Turn with me to one more passage in Revelation, Revelation chapter chapter number three, and look at verse number 14.

It says, and unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans writes these things, saith the Amen.

The faithful and true witness the beginning of the creation of God.

I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot.

I would thou wert cold or hot.

So then, because thou art lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.

Verse number 17.

Because thou sayest, I am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing, and knowest not that thou art wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked.

God has just now given us a mirror right here.

Here's the biggest description of the modern day Christian.

They're not cold and they're not hot.

Just right here in the middle.

And if I'm God, I'm probably going, this is probably the most frustrating thing I've ever seen in my life because they can't choose one or the other.

They just want to be right here in the middle and it's just disgusting.

Modern day Christianity right there summed up, it's just lukewarm.

When was the last time you'd been on fire for God?

When was the last time you got excited about going to church, hearing from the preaching?

When was the last time you got alone and knelt on your knees and spent a time of prayer with God?

It may have not been about anything important, just talking with God.

He desires to have relationship with you.

He desires to fulfill a plan in your life.

He wants to use you, but he cannot use you if you are a lukewarm Christian and you are full of those dead man bones.

And he cannot use you if you are full of that dirty sin in your life.

Where is God in our nation tonight?

Where is God in our church?

You know what God would say?

I'm right here.

All you have to do is turn back towards me.

Every head bowed, every eyes closed as the musicians began to come.

I don't know where you are in life.

I don't know what you're going through.

But maybe, maybe it takes some time.

Maybe it's time to take some time to examine our own lives and say, Lord, am I full of iniquity?

Am I full of that uncleanness?

Am I full of those dead man's bones?

Lord, help me not to be a lukewarm Christian.

Use me and cleanse me.

Let's pray.

Lord, we want to thank you so much for the time that you've given us, Lord.

Thank you for this message that you've used to speak to me, Lord.

Lord, I am exactly what you described here to the Pharisees, Lord.

And Lord, I need you.

I need you to come in and cleanse my life, Lord.

Thank you Lord for this message.

I pray that it spoke to hearts, Lord, and please be the rest of our services.

In Jesus name I pray, Amen.