If you would turn with me and your Bibles to Luke chapter 20. It's from Luke 20 verses 45 through 47. We take our sermon text this morning. Let's read these verses and begin. And in the hearing of all the peoples, he said to his disciples, beware of the scribes who like to walk around in long robes and love greetings in the marketplaces and the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at feasts who devour widows' houses and for a pretense make long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father God, we come to your word As for a meal, we hunger and thirst for righteousness. God, we long to know more of your son Jesus and his ways, to be counted among his people. We long that you would reveal Christ to us, that we might exalt him. We might have further reasons for loving him more or more intensely. God, that you would help us to know Jesus, that you would help us to be more and more obedient to your word, the word of Christ, that understanding the truth that it is in Jesus, that we would be more conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. God, we pray that you would help us to pursue religion and to grow in our religious devotion and obedience with sincerity rather than hypocrisy. We would be properly warned against being content with the appearance of godliness, devoid of power. We pray all of these things in Christ's name and for his glory, amen. In context here in Luke chapter 20, Jesus has been teaching in the temple, this is the week before his own crucifixion, and increasingly we've seen the hostility that Jesus faces to his teaching here in the temple. The authority of Jesus has been challenged. Jesus has begun by cleansing the temple. of some of the wicked practices of the hypocritical, they're truly worthless religious authorities, these religious experts, those who are leaders among the people of God, and rather than recognizing Jesus for who he was, as we see this does happen, even in the temple, in proximity to the temple at the beginning of Luke's gospel, whenever both Simeon and Anna, recognize Jesus. They're waiting for Him. They're expecting the Christ to come. They're studying the Old Testament scriptures and they're so sincere in their religious devotion and in their pursuit of God and in their expectation of the Christ who is to come that when He comes they recognize Jesus for who He is and they worship Him. And they give thanks to God that finally They were unable to see the Christ, but these religious leaders that Jesus challenges here in Luke 20, although they themselves are in a similar position to recognize the Christ, they're hanging around the temple precincts. They're well-studied in the Word of God, and yet they don't recognize Him, they challenge Him, and ultimately They reject him. Well, Jesus has been steadily challenging them, rebuking them, and starting in verse 27, he turns his attention to some of the Sadducees who deny there is a resurrection. And Jesus does an excellent job in handling that, in defending the Bible truth of the resurrection of the dead, such that we see here in verse 40 is that those who were rebuked no longer dared to ask him any question. And so Jesus is silencing his critics. In contrast to those who've been rebuked here, the Pharisees, who do believe there is a resurrection, in verse 39, some of the scribes, and you imagine the Pharisees as well, who hold the same beliefs as they, say, teacher, you've spoken well. They're willing to be complimentary of him, at least whenever he is making their party, their religious party, look good, their side of things. being defended and supported and so teacher you have spoken well well he will have none of it and he turns their his attention to them and begins to challenge them first of all in verses 41 through 44 and their failure to recognize him for who he is and and for failure to recognize Jesus as great David's greater son 45 on Jesus just offers the most devastating criticism and critique of these people. And in the hearing of all the people, he said to his disciples, beware of the scribes. Beware of these people who pretend to support me, to compliment me, to think well of me, but beware of them. Because it's all a show. All of this religion is a show. We're going to see that illustrated in the next chapter where Jesus commends a widow for her sacrificial generosity and then ultimately condemns the temple. And it's really not just the temple, but it's the entire complex. It's all of those who support the temple and who teach in it and who ought to be upholding this system of worship and religion. And he condemns them and foretells their destruction. Well, in verse 47, you notice these scribes are those who devour widows. They devour widows' houses. And then we see the widow whose house is devoured as she gives from not her overflowing wealth, but her lack. And from her poverty, she gave all that she had to live on. She was effectively devoured by these predatory religious figures. whose religion is only, again, it's a show. And there's a very strong warning to us, I think. And I want to begin in considering the truth that we find here by looking at Jesus' description of these men. And then we'll look at the duplicity of these men and finally the danger posed by these men. Let's begin with Jesus' description of these men. Jesus mentions here that these are men who like to walk around in long robes. We have several descriptions of them. They like to walk around in long robes, they love greetings in the marketplaces, and they love the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at feasts. The reason why Christ's disciples must beware the scribes, it begins with, and I think if we were to summarize all of this, it begins with their excessive self-regard. It begins with their excessive self-regard. That's how Jesus describes them. First of all, they were obsessed with their public perception. They walk around in long robes. They were obsessed with their public perception. And those who are hypocritical in religion or anything really, but especially as we're to look out for and we're warned against this hypocrisy when it shows up among the people of God and within the leadership among God's people and in the church. We have people who are obsessed with their public perception. And so a lot of what such a person does is carefully managing their public persona. and how they appeared in public and in the church. This is a danger for ministers. It's a danger for any leader in the church, any pastor or deacon or Sunday school teacher or anybody who has any kind of leadership or prominence in a church, but I think especially for ministers, and there's a real problem with pastor's kids. becoming disillusioned by the church. I was talking with someone, one of the former pastors here is going back into ministry and the church that he was going to serve called me to ask about him and they were aware that his children are not walking with the Lord and really are in rebellion. And this is sadly common. I mean, this is sadly all too frequent. You might expect a pastor, a minister's children to walk very closely with the Lord and to have all of the advantages of growing up in church and to having a pastor for their father. You'd think they would be closer, more knowledgeable. They'd have a greater likelihood of walking with the Lord in adulthood, of being converted. And yet, what we often see is children who, for different reasons, become somehow disillusioned by the church. And I think partly this is because the pastor is concerned with his public image. And so, you know, before the pastor enters church, there's a stern, gives his children a stern talking to, don't make me look bad. And if he doesn't say it in those exact words, that's the idea that's being communicated. Don't make me look bad. You be respectful. You be quiet. And it's all because these people have to respect me as a pastor and they can't respect me if I have unruly children. You've got to make me look good. And that's how many people talk to their children. And that is not just pastorism. Many Christians can do that. I want to look a certain way in church. Again, I may not explicitly think this way, but it's there. It's what is motivating the things that we say in our family life, or how we act, what we do, is this concern with how others perceive us. And so this is a mark. It's really a description of these men. They were obsessed with their public perception. They were obsessed with their popularity. We see here greetings in the marketplaces. It wasn't enough that they were perceived in a certain light, but they wanted to be well-liked, they wanted to be popular, that they liked when they go places for people to recognize them and to say hello, to greet them everywhere, so that they were a prominent person in their community because of their status in religion. We're not going to have, as Christians, as Christian leaders, we're not going to have any kind of status out in the world anymore because the world at large doesn't really think highly of Christians or churches or church leadership. So oftentimes whenever I'm having a conversation and someone asks me what I do for work and I say I'm a minister of the gospel, then that actually, I don't get a lot of praise or interest. I get the conversation becomes awkward and you can tell the person no longer wants to speak with me or finds it difficult to figure out how to talk to me now. And this is true of Christians as well. But it's within the church that we can pursue popularity. So we're obsessed with our public perception, concerned with our popularity. These people were anxious about their position. They desired the best seats in synagogues. And so this, what Jesus is warning against, which is embodied by these scribes, are people who are, they are concerned with their position. So some people are very hungry for position and for titles. And then, you know, one of the things that we've been talking about in our deacons meetings is we need to recognize new deacons. We need to have men who are not currently serving as deacons, but who are well qualified, who the church can recognize. And for different reasons, there are a lot of men who are qualified in almost every way or who are qualified but it may not be practical for us to make them deacons or what have you. And I have conversations with men and I say, you know, I'd like for you to consider being a deacon. And one of the responses that you can get from this kind of conversation is, I'd love to be a deacon. You know, make me a deacon. Or even before I even ask somebody, they say, is there any way I can become a deacon? I can recall certain people and sometimes they're basically unhinged. had people who come in, in week one they say, talk about leadership in the church. I said, I don't even know who you are, you know, and you want to be a leader in the church? How about just try coming back for week two and then we'll see how it goes from there, you know. But people can be very assertive in wanting to put their own names forward for leadership, but by and large the response I've gotten from men in our church is, Pastor, I'll do whatever you want me to do. But I'm totally content to serve in whatever ways you need me to serve without the title of deacon or without having to be in that role in an official capacity. Well that is the opposite of what we find here. Someone who needs to be recognized and they want a position in the church. And so there's this anxiety about position. And then finally, Jesus describes these men as being motivated by their pride. They sought the place of honor at feast. So these are different ways, this is sort of a multifaceted look at about a certain kind of person. And you can see that all of these characteristics are sort of overlapping and they're very similar, but they're concerned with getting the approval and the praise of others, really more so than seeking to please the Lord. It's oftentimes because of how other people can make this person feel about themselves. They want to be prominent. They want to be popular. They want to be perceived in a certain light. And so all of this is very external. It's very selfish. They themselves have an excessive self-regard, and they want others to think as highly of them as they think of themselves. So I think this is a pretty fair description of this kind of person. Well, not only does Jesus describe these men, but he describes the duplicity. We have a description here of these men, and we also have the duplicity of these men in verse 47. What ultimately is wrong with the description that's given in verse 46? Like the walking around in long robes. Is that wrong in and of itself? I mean, I wear a suit. Sometimes I wear a tie. Is it wrong for you to get dressed up? Would it be wrong for you to wear a tuxedo on Sunday mornings? Don't wear a tuxedo on Sunday mornings. That's not a thus saith the Lord. Is it wrong to dress well? Is it wrong to want others to appreciate the work you do? We all have, to a certain degree, we have that. What ultimately is wrong with the description that we're given? I think we see it in verse 47. They devour widows' houses. So for all of their religion, they're doing stuff that pleases them, not what pleases the Lord. The Lord is very clear, the kind of religion that he accepts, is a kind of religion that has regard for orphans and widows, those who are oppressed. It has a concern for injustice. It has a concern with pointing people to the Savior so that their greatest need can be remedied by the cross of Christ. They can have their sins forgiven and have a right relationship with the Lord so that they can themselves come into fellowship with God in the way that we have, and enjoy all of the blessings of salvation. So such a person is ultimately concerned with what concerns the Lord, desires to help others know him, not help other people recognize whatever is perceived as worthy in oneself. And yet these people, rather than being concerned with widows, they're willing to trounce on widows. They're willing to totally ignore and abandon these things that are very precious to the Lord if only it's a means of getting ahead themselves. And so you see the priorities are wrong in the most awful kinds of ways. And then we read here in verse 47 that for a pretense these men make long prayers. So here's really what we're getting to the crux of the matter. All that's been described is It is hypocrisy, duplicity. It's all a pretense. It's all a show. It's merely what I have to do to get you to think of me a certain way so that I can feed my excessive self-regard, not at all so that I can please the Lord. We ought to not care very much at all. Of course, if someone else thinks that we're in sin or we have some deficiency in Christian virtue or character, that ought to concern us. but not because we want them to think highly of us, because of what that says about our relationship with the Lord and hidden faults that we might have and unrepentant sin. So I do want to pay attention to the way that other people perceive me and what they think about me, but I have to make sure to check my heart that I'm concerned with these things for the right reasons. And ultimately, what ought to matter to each of us is the way the Lord perceives us. And the way that I preach or that I pray or that I minister or that even the way that I discharge my duties as a husband and father ought to ultimately be not to please you or my wife or my children, but to please the Lord with that. and secondarily to love you and to do what is a blessing and benefit to you. And what we don't hear there is a concern that the Lord served me, you serve me, that ultimately it's my desires that are primary. So we have this description of these men that Jesus gives and then we have what's really wrong with this is duplicity that's inherent in these men. But I want to camp out here finally on the danger that's posed by these men. If we follow in their example, if we're not careful to avoid their mistakes, and if religion for us, if it's possible that religion for us is just a formality, if it's just for a show, if it's just... And there are some people who, people can be this way. They can have an excessive self-regard, they can be concerned with with position and prominence and all these things, who are out in the world. But there are some people who, they just don't really, they don't have a taste for the things in the world, you know. They may not be really truly concerned with the glory of God, but they find the world distasteful, excessive. They don't like the depravity they find in the world. And so really they enjoy being in the church because, you ever listen to the Christian radio station? Sometimes they'll market themselves as being family-friendly. And that's sort of the main thrust of, that's how they, this is family-friendly, whatever the radio station is. Which is a little strange for a Christian radio station, that that would be the emphasis. I know that they want to say, well this is a radio station you can listen to with your family, not worry. That's fine. But it's not Christ-centered. It's not God-glorifying radio station. It's family-friendly. It's because there are many people that don't care about the Lord. They just want somewhere that's family-friendly. There are a lot of churches, large, mega churches, where the whole church is family-friendly. You can go there, the kids can have lots of fun around kids that probably don't curse, probably haven't been exposed to too much worldliness, and so it's a little safer environment than out there in the world itself. And people can be around those who are more conservative and slightly more concerned with basic morality. And again, nothing to do with the Lord, but just this is my environment. opposed to outright worldliness and I'm afraid this is for many people this is all that church is is you know I just like being in church I like that this is all very family-friendly and this is all very conservative and this is all very you know easy for me to make friends who are like-minded and just to enjoy time with people basically get impatient during worship services because the prayers go on for too long and I don't know what is going on in the preaching and I don't really want to grow though in my knowledge of the Word of God. I just want to get through that so I can go back to conversing with people who are like me. And there's a great danger in this because again all of that is a description, a further description of someone for whom it is true religion is just external. It's just a shell. It's just the outward trappings of what I'm really concerned about, which is just basically not spiritual. And that's very similar. It's of a piece cut from the same bolt of cloth as these men here. It's a pretense. And ultimately it is duplicitous and it leads nowhere except judgment. And that's what Jesus gets at here. The danger of this is, what could be the danger? of sending your children to a really great entertaining and basically family-friendly children's ministry and hanging out with moral people. What's the danger? Here's the danger. There's a warning here given to the disciples of Christ of the scribes And it's a call to avoid such men. And Jesus is saying here, beware, in other words, lest you fall into the same patterns of hypocritical religion. Beware, lest you even perhaps idolize these externally impressive and successful men. Beware, lest like them, you fall into, and did you notice the way that Jesus ends here, greater condemnation. It would actually be better for you never to have set foot in a church than to make a show of religion. It would be better for you to be out in the world in immorality and depravity in one sense. It wouldn't be better for you in terms of your earthly life. It actually is better for you to conform yourself to God's law, even just externally. It'll go better with you in this life, but it won't go better for you in eternity. because you'll be judged along with the rest of the world and the judgment will be greater for all of the advantages that you had being in a church where the gospel was preached, where you were pointed to Christ again and again and again. There's actually greater condemnation for those who pretend at religion, those who come to church but it's just not real. So I'm just warning you that if you're coming to church and it's not real in your heart, religion isn't a reality in your heart, but it's just something you do, somewhere you go, I'm warning you, you are worse off than the people in the world. As bad as they are, you're worse off because there's greater condemnation here. This is why, for example, and Jesus is specifically addressing those who teach, you know, scribes, those who are experts in God's Word and who teach it and have responsibility for teaching it. But this is why James says in James 3, 1, But do you see the principle here? With the greater advantages, the greater blessings and benefits you've had in terms of your knowledge, the revelation that you've had of religion. I mean if you've come to church for years, you've had so many opportunities. With those opportunities come a greater responsibility and to respond in an appropriate way and a greater accountability to do that. And much greater if you presume to teach. and then without the reality in your own heart to presume to lead God's people and be a guide to others, even though you yourself are blind, a blind guide. In 1 Samuel 16, verse 7, we read this. The Lord said to Samuel, the Lord sees not as man sees. Man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart. And here's where we really ultimately have to leave things. I can preach a message like this and warn you against hypocrisy in religion, warn you against the greater dangers of showing up to church but it just being a show. But I can't see your heart. And so we'll go on and we'll conclude our service this morning and then you can go on fooling everyone else in the church and yourself, perhaps. And I mean, I won't know, probably, unless you really begin to go off the rails. I mean, I won't know. You can keep your life straight and you can kind of keep things in line and you'll fool everyone. but you'll not fool God. Other people can't see your heart. They really can only judge you by the words you say, the credibility of your profession of faith, the consistency of your outward obedience to God's word, but they can't see your heart, know what's going on there. But the Bible makes very clear that the Lord looks on the heart. And that is ultimately what the Lord's concerned about. Get your heart right. Don't be so concerned with how other people view you or what your position is in the church or anything like that. Be concerned with how does the Lord view me right now, this morning. Am I right with him? Have I hardened my heart towards certain kinds of sin and am I unrepentant? Just really have a calloused conscience. and unwilling to even hear those promptings of God's Spirit which are telling me to get right with the Lord, to confess my sin and to begin praying in earnest and reestablishing my walk with God. We ought to heed this warning before it's too late and to turn to the one who sees our hearts, to confess our sins to him, to seek mercy, And the only name in which it's found, the name of Christ. Let's go to him in prayer. Father God, we thank you that you have made provision for us to be forgiven of all of our sins, even our religious sins. For every time that we have prayed in a prayer meeting, or given our opinion, or pointed someone to Jesus, when we ourselves were in sin, hardening our hearts to you. We're doing the things that we knew we were supposed to be doing, were commanded to do, but not from the heart. We ask your forgiveness, and we pray that for us, religion would be nothing if not sincere. God, that any insincere religion would just be totally foreign to this congregation, that we would rather not to be religious at all. than to be insincere in our religious devotion. Help us to be sincere. Help us to worship you and to obey you from the heart, with an eye to glorifying you and loving you. God, we pray that you would do this and expose our hypocrisy. We pray that we wouldn't be enabled to go on like this, although others can't see our hearts. We pray that you would expose, give people indications that there is something wrong They can challenge us and point us to Jesus. We pray that you would draw us nearer and nearer to Christ, that we might walk with Him. We pray this in His name, Amen.