Text: Matthew 23

Topic: How to have holiness without hypocrisy

Introduction:

• The evidence of holiness is not in how you dress or how you look, the evidence of holiness is in how you treat others.

• A holy person, first and foremost, loves.

• In Matthew 23 Jesus spoke the harshest words of his entire ministry, and they were directed at the Pharisees.

• Illustration: May explains the power of Jesus' anger with the Pharisees' hypocrisy by quoting William Barclay, who says that a quiet man's anger is more powerful than a brash man's rantings.

• What the Pharisees had created in the name of religion was light years away from the life of love that God had originally intended for his people to exemplify.

• Big Idea: We don't want to be religious hypocrites.

• If the primary function that your "religion" performs in your life is to reinforce the notion that you're better than other people, then you're missing the point.

• Matthew 23:5

• Exalting yourself is a sin.

• We let our ego get in the way of our holiness when we drop names.

• We let our ego get in the way of our holiness when we develop an attachment to titles.

• Matthew 23:23-24

• Jesus is saying that while tithing is good, there are more important aspects of the law that we should tend to.

• The point Jesus is making is that while you go to great lengths to be faithful in little areas, you're completely missing the mark in the big areas.

• Jesus said we should focus on justice, mercy, and faithfulness.

• James 1:27

Start with your heart.

• Matthew 23:25

• It's pointless to perform religious rituals when your life is filled with greed and self-indulgence.

• Greed and self-indulgence are the antithesis of justice, mercy, and faithfulness.

• The difference between self-focused or being others-focused is determined by who rules the kingdom of your heart.

• Ezekiel 36:26

Conclusion:

• Being spiritual, or being holy, is a matter of having a heart for God and a heart for others.

• The evidence of holiness is discovered in how you treat others.