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00:00:01 today's scripture reading is taken from the book of Matthews Chapter 23: 1-36 then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples the teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in the Moses seat so you must be careful to do everything they tell you but do not do what they do for they do not practice what they preach they tie up heavy cumbersome loads and put them on other people's shoulders but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them everything they do is done for people to see they make their feries wide and the
00:00:36 tassels on their garments long they love the place of honor at Banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues they love to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces and to be called Rabbi by others but you are not to be called Rabbi for you have one teacher and you are all brothers and do not call anyone on earth a father for you have one father and he is in Heaven nor are you to be called instructors for you have one instructor the Messiah the greatest among you will be your servant for those who exalt
00:01:10 themselves will be humbled and those who humble themselves will be exalted well to you the teachers of the law and Pharisees you Hypocrites you shut the door of the Kingdom of Heaven in people's faces you yourself do not enter nor will you let those who enter who are trying to wo to you you teachers of the law and Pharisee you Hypocrites you travel over land and sea to win a single convert and when you have succeeded you make them twice as much of a child of hell as you are wo to you blind guides you say if
00:01:44 anyone swears by the temple it means nothing but when any anyone who swears by the gold of the temple is bound by that oath you blind fools which is greater the gold or the temple that makes the gold sacred you also say if anyone swears by the altar it means nothing but anyone who swears by the gift on the altar is bound by that oath you blind man which is greater the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred therefore anyone who swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it and anyone who swears by the temple
00:02:21 swears by it and by the one who dwells in it and anyone who swears by Heaven swears by God's throne and by the one who sits on it wo to you teachers of the law and Pharisee you Hypocrites you give a tenth of your spices mint dill and cumin but you have neglected the more important matters of the law Justice mercy and faithfulness you should have practiced the latter without neglecting the former you blind guides you strain out a net but swallow a camel wo to you teachers of the law and Pharisee you Hypocrites
00:02:57 you clean the outside of the cup and dish but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence blind Pharisee first clean inside the cup and Dish and then the outside also will be clean woe to you teachers of the law and Pharisees you Hypocrites you are like whitewashed tombs which looks beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of bones of the dead and everything unclean in the same way on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness
00:03:31 wo to you teachers of the law and Pharisees you Hypocrites you build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous and you say if we had lived in the days of our ancestors we would not have taken part with them in the shedding of blood of the prophets so you testify against yourselves that you are the descendants of those who murdered the prophets go ahead then and complete what your ancestors started you snakes you brutal Vipers how will you escape being condemned to Hell therefore I am sending you prophets and
00:04:05 sages and teachers some of them you will kill and crucify others you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town and so upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on Earth from the righteous from the blood of the righteous Abel to the blood of Zachariah son of baraya whom you murdered between the temple and the altar truly I tell you all this will come come on this generation this is the word of God testing testing okay thank you very much uh Amanda for reading the
00:04:48 scriptures W this is a very long passage 36 verses okay so I'll try to finish before lunch okay no uh because it's such a long message is not possible to go through every verse uh but now I'll try to glean what we can learn uh from this uh 36 verses um before I start I I like to share a story with you okay um and this happened a long time ago know when I was in my early 30s when I was still living in Singapore we had no children there it was on a Sunday just like today and I was driving and rushing to church you
00:05:30 know because I was late you know like most of you I suspect we don't like to be late right not so much I think if we are honest uh that we want to you know be on time for God but because you know it's a little bit embarrassing when we are late you know people see late you know right hey Deacon of the church hey late right so I was really fling it right and I was you know speeding right driving faster than I should actually and then Upon a approaching the church you know I was stuck behind a car
00:06:04 that was driving so slowly it was driving at about 40 km an hour know and I couldn't pass it because you know it was quite busy in the road you know I was getting irritated and then when there was a moment that I could pass right I quickly swerve and then you know I went past I was irritated and so I you know To My Hood on right okay and you know a l our men right you know you're very egoistic we like to stare uh especially when it pass right so as I passed the car right I turned my head to the left right and there behold it was
00:06:38 another member of the church a sister who was also driving to church and instead and and instead of you know showing my face right it's Sly you know wave and my face immediately gave way to a smile of course my wife was beside me and she mocked ly laughed at me you know yeah you know and I knew exactly what she was thinking at that time obviously I mean I I've never felt so hypocritical you know uh at that moment all right well let's commit a time to the Lord before I done let's pray dear heavenly father as uh we
00:07:19 come to this passage of scripture Lord we commit this time to you and I pray Lord that Unworthy of vessel as I am I would be preaching your word Faithfully Lord may your word not return to you void but may accomplish all that you have purpose May our hearts and our lives be transformed I ask all this in Jesus name amen all right I've titled uh the sermon Pharisees the phase of hypocrisy and legalism I'm supposed to look this way yeah okay now first um so we're going to talk about you know hypocrisy legal legal ISM you know and
00:08:01 and basically fake religion okay in this very fascinating account of Jesus with the scribes and the Pharisees in Matthew 23 now first let's uh set the the scene okay now this is the final week of Jesus life on Earth and uh it has been a very hectic week right I try to is this moving okay now this this is uh the three points that I have the face of hypocrisy and legalism why are the Pharisees so dangerous and how to overcome hypocrisy and legalism all right now as I said before this is the final time that Jesus would come into
00:08:48 Jerusalem right before his Ultimate Death on the cross Jesus and his disciples had entered right the Sunday before in what we typically call Palm Sunday you know know he came in very triumphantly now Jesus was at the height of his popularity at the time you know because of all the Miracles that he had performed and also the teaching right that he had given to the crowd in fact in Matthew 7:28 you know it tells us that when Jesus finished his Sermon on the Mount the crowds were amazed at his teaching because he taught one who has
00:09:23 Authority and not as the teachers of the law right which is basically the scribes Jesus was actually making the religious leaders of that time look really bad now the the day before uh the account in Matthew 23 was actually a Monday you know and Jesus had driven all the merchants out of the temple okay so not only did he come into the city right proclaiming himself as or accepting the honor of the anointed one the king of Israel by cleaning out the temple he was exerting the fact that he was the high
00:09:59 priest okay and basically it was a very public demonstration okay of and or a pronouncement on the judgment on Israel and of course the following day on Tuesday in the morning he got up early and he went back to the temple again and on the way you will remember that he also cursed the vict Tre again this was a very public demonstration okay a symbolic gesture okay to announce to the public and to his disciples that the nation of Israel his leaders are lacking in spiritual fruits so basically Jesus was trying to tell the Jews that
00:10:42 you have an empty religion now in what would be his final public sermon here in Matthew chapter 23 uh you know in uh before that he taught three Parables right depicting how the nation of Israel had rejected God's invitation to his kingdom and how that privilege would now be given to the Gentiles we had gone through the parable of the two sons the vineyard and The Wedding Banquet now the scribes and the Pharisees and the seduces instead of responding to Jesus invitation they bended together to try to discredit
00:11:20 him now as you heard last week from Elder edan's sermon okay there was a great verbal debate between the religious leaders and Jesus and basically Jesus was running rings around them you know with his answers they sought to trap Jesus to discredit him but Jesus basically silence the scribes and the Pharisees so as we come to Matthew chapter 23 the scene is set in the temple courts and there are a lot of people in the temple you will remember that it is the week of the Passover so most people a lot of the Jews would have come into the
00:11:58 uh City all right uh in order to uh observe this uh very important day okay now the word Pharisees comes from the G Hebrew word kushim right meaning separated ones referring to one who is separated for a life of Purity okay so the Jews didn't want to have anything to do with the Gentiles now the Pharisees right is distinguished from uh the seduces right uh in that they are the ones who observe okay the Old Testament laws religiously the seduces were the wealthy Aristocrats of Jewish society and mainly
00:12:48 political in their ambition in contrast the Pharisees comes from all walks of life and they distinguished by their strict adherence to the law of Moses but they don't only believe uh in the penud right okay we call it the penud but the the Jews call it the Torah okay but they have a even greater regard regard for the oral Traditions okay of uh of Moses or what they believe to be uh Commandments right that is handed down now another overlapping group of religious leaders are called the scribes okay they are typically Pharisees and
00:13:27 sometimes referred to as the teacher of the law because they are the custodian of the law and responsible for interpreting and teaching them now you might call them uh the the theologians right of the day okay so the scribes and the Pharisees are the main focus here now how did this movement of the scribes and the Pharisees come about uh scholars believe that you know about 200 years before uh Christ's birth um you know the Jews were living under the uh uh rule of the Greeks okay so the Greeks culture is
00:14:03 what we call helenistic culture okay it was basically a very paganistic uh culture you know with a lot of debauchery right and I think you you would have heard uh uh previous sermons uh describing okay that kind of a paganistic environment okay the Greeks right had their Greek gods you know the pantheon okay right and at one time right they even uh you know violated right the Jewish temple by uh you know removing uh uh the auor and and putting the Greek gods right in the Jewish temple now after the death of Alexander
00:14:39 the Great in what is known as a meban Revolt okay if you study history okay um you know the Jews okay basically had enough all right so in order to preserve all right their Jewish identity and their way of life and their religious beliefs okay they had to revolt okay and this was about the only success Revolt that they had in recent times uh and you know so the majority of the the and and and because of you know paganistic and secular influence right um this group of uh uh people okay who later became the Pharisees right were
00:15:16 very adamant okay that they would not allow this secular influence right to penetrate their Jewish way of life so over the years not only during the Greek uh rule but also later on in the Roman rule okay uh they became the guardian okay of the law now hypocrisy comes from the Greek word uh hocus okay which is used to describe a stage actor in a Greek Theater in ancient Greece okay actors will use different masks okay in those days to portray different emotions and expressions okay before they speak their
00:15:55 lines um at that time okay uh you know this was very common you know uh and it wasn't a negative term but in time it has taken a negative connotation right to refer to a person who puts on a false appearance of virtue or religion a person who acts contradict contradictory right to his or her stated beliefs or feelings in other words today we will call him a or her a pretender okay it's very telling that Matthew uses the word 15 times in his Gospel of which seven times appears in this passage in Matthew
00:16:32 chapter 23 and each time the word that is being used is used by Jesus all right signifying how much our Lord dislike the hypocritical attitude now here's how hypocrisy right can play out in church hypocrisy right is when we call someone out of their of the sins but we don't see the same thing in us or we excuse ourselves but judge others more harshly so basically hypocrisy is about under judging ourselves and over judging other people let me give you a few examples you know sometimes we call somebody out on how much they drink
00:17:17 while we excuse ourselves for eating uncontrollably we criticize others for their foul mouth or their language but we excuse ourselves right when we lie or when we gossip we call out on others who check on their taxes but we have no issue right when we are stealing from the company by being late or by skying on a job and sometimes we tell a brother right that he had he has anger in his life but we fail to acknowledge that in our hearts we are har bring unforgiveness so it's very very subtle you know so basically hypocrisy is when
00:18:06 we are aware of the sins of others but we are blind to our own sins now I'm not saying that we shouldn't admonish one another of our sins but remember what our Lord taught us take out the plank in your eyes before you take out the speck of dust in your brothers or your sisters eyes not now the word legalism so far the time up the word legalism all right on the other hand is not found in the Bible now here's a definition by Pastor Chuck swindall he says legalism is an obsessive Conformity to an artificial
00:18:55 standard for the purpose of exalting oneself I think the operative word here is artificial it's a standard that we set for ourselves as man-made okay and not one that God actually requires notice it's not Conformity to God's standard okay but a set of rules and regulations okay that doesn't honor God but to elevate self is adding to God's word so that we can feel better about ourselves more than others so hypocrisy and legalism are the twin diseases that had infected the scribes and the Pharisees so let's dive into the passage
00:19:35 now and see what we can glean from it okay so there are three points basically you notice that the Pharisees value tradition over truth then Jesus said to the crowd and to his disciples okay the teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses seat so be careful to do everything they tell you but do not do what they do so basically the scribes and the Pharisees right have assume the position of Moses in the olden days right there will be a stone seat right in front of the synagogue whereby the rabbi would be
00:20:15 teaching okay and expounding on the law okay uh and this are and this seed right has been taken over by the scribes and the Pharisees now when Jesus say okay be care careful to do everything they tell you right it basically teaches us that the word of God okay is relevant no matter who teaches it and that we should be Faithfully following God's word but in this case Jesus quickly added right don't do what the Pharisees uh uh do because they don't practice what they preach they tie up heavy cumbersome
00:20:57 loads and put them on on other people's shoulders but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them now you see including the Ten Commandments the Jews have extended the system of law to some 613 different Commandments based on both the written as well as the oral traditions this cover the moral civil and ceremonial laws that basically cover all aspects of Jewish life ranging from the observance of the Sabbath to the sacrificial system to the dietary laws and to ceremonial cleansing and within each of these law
00:21:35 they are further elaborated into a set of dos and don'ts the point is this the original intention of the Pharisees were actually quite Noble okay in gradually adding more and more man-made rules to the original written laws they were trying to help the Jewish people understand and keep the law to obey God's commandment now I just Give an example just take the Sabbath laws for example okay you shall work six days and on the seventh day you shall rest from your work now maybe the reason why people are not keeping the Sabbath is
00:22:12 because it's too General and too vague know they they reason amongst themselves okay so how do you define what work is okay so the Pharisees right came up with 39 different categories of activities that are prohibited on the Sabbath and these things include uh things like planting plowing uh sewing weaving and so on and so forth okay now included in this prohibition right for example when we talk about planting and plowing okay is any preparation or Improvement of the land for agricultural use so for example if you unwittingly
00:22:51 right drag a chair across a field okay you'll be committing you'll be running file of of the law why because when you drag right the leg of the chair right will create a Farrow okay and that is considered as plowing okay on the Sabbath day you're not allowed to spit okay or accidentally pour water on a arable piece of land why because you will be seen as watering all right and preparing the ground for planting you know so they went into ridiculous length all right in order to observe the sabbath now uh many years ago when I was
00:23:28 living in Singapore I used to work for a Israeli company you know and uh some of my bosses were actually uh from Israel now the movement of the feris is what we call the uh uh rabic uh uh Judaism today okay and some of them practice it Okay I have a CFO okay who would never work over time right on Friday evenings okay because she had to rush back in order to observe the Sabbath and this is what she usually do okay uh you know she had to leave before Sunset why because she cannot uh Drive why because on the Sabbath right you're
00:24:11 not allowed to light a fire okay uh and if you drive okay the car engine is considered a combustion right that's like lighting a fire okay uh so she's prohibited to do that and she had to rush home right because if she didn't go home right in time before sunset you would have to walk the stick the stairs you know to go up why because on the Sabbath you are not allowed okay to use uh anything that consumes electricity right it's the same argument right because in order to generate electricity right uh you have to uh have
00:24:45 combustion right in order to uh turn the turbine you know I wonder how they handle it today now when they have electric car you know uh but she's allowed to light candles before Sundown okay because that's considered passive lighting once you get it going right and it lasts throughout the Sabbath it's okay so you can see what the Pharisees were trying to do they were taking the broad commands of scripture and trying to apply it in their everyday situation now that's not bad in itself is it after all
00:25:19 we are supposed to internalize the word of God and see how it applies to our lives but the problem comes though when we take our specific applic ation of a broad biblical principle and we univ universalize it all right and we make it binding okay on everyone else we seek to impose our adherence to a principle where in fact there's actually Liberties right within it so we ended up saying to others right if you don't do this or if you don't do that right you are wrong and worse still we are committing a sin
00:26:00 so I'm I think you some of you might have heard of this term worship Wars you know and and the way people worship right okay have split churches now if you think about it what is God's commandment for worship Thou shalt Worship in spirit and in truth okay that's a very broad command and within that there's a wide range of uh worship Styles and musical instruments that you can use but the moment we say that hey only we sing hymn and not contemporary songs only these particular instruments can be used know we don't
00:26:33 like the drums and only you know we don't raise our hands you know okay all right the moment we become dogmatic about this we are actually being F exical okay and if you do that you just might be a modern day Pharisee and this there are many examples to this you know I used to uh Worship in a church all right uh that is considered a fundamentalist Church you know I think some of you may have experience that a fundamentalist Church means it's only the King James version all right other Bible versions are you
00:27:13 know not up to par okay uh can only sing Christian songs H okay no uh other songs okay uh secular songs cannot go to movies cannot dance right so all this Amendment rules now another facet of uh hypoc uh hypocrisy and legalism right is that the Pharisees are more concerned about their outward status okay then they are inward sanctification everything it it says in verse uh five everything they do is done for people to see they make their lactor wide and the tassles on their garment long they love
00:28:02 the place of honor at Banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues they love to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces and to be called Rabbi by others well I think uh you know y didn't showed this Photograph uh last week all right a group of soldiers right wearing very funny uh uh you know uh stuff on their head and also on now this is not uh you know some special weapon that they have discovered okay all right it's basically a a box all right that they uh fix to their head and uh to their arm
00:28:37 all right in conformance to uh this command in Deuteronomy 6 okay uh this commands Commandments that I have given you today are to be on your hearts okay and in verse eight tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads so the Pharisees have taken this literally all right okay and put it on their head and on their uh uh arm now similarly okay in numbers 15:40 okay you will have these tesos to look at so that you will remember the commands of the Lord that you may obey them and not
00:29:17 prostitute Yourself by chasing after the lust of your own hearts and eyes then you will remember to obey all my commands and will be consecrated to your God all right so the tesel are basically right uh uh knots right that they tied and you know hangs off at the end of the Rope okay in order to remind the Jews okay of their need to obey God's commandment today uh we have very elaborate okay uh religious outfit that people wear you see the problem problem is that the Pharisees and the scribes have
00:30:02 taken it literally but as New Covenant Christians what has the Lord taught us the Lord has taught us that he now resides in us we are his Temple and the law and the Commandments right that he's given us is already written in our hearts okay so does it matter what we wear so I do not know what all this means you know in terms of uh the elaborate vesture okay of the Pope um but this is a picture that was taken uh in 2013 right at the inauguration of Pope Francis uh the current pope okay um there were at least 200,000 people
00:30:52 present and to me this is probably the largest gathering all right which includes uh many HS of State okay uh largest gathering in order to celebrate and give honor to a religious person who is a man okay a living religious person so we have to be careful as Christians not to bound up our identities right on something that is external okay and this is exactly what the Pharisees have done the Pharisees right have tied up their uh their identity right with their offices with their rituals with their robes with
00:31:39 their uh outward appearance okay that they forget who should really be getting the honors in the same way I think it is easy for us you know to tie our identities and our self-esteem right with things that are based on our talents our skills accomplishments status financial resources and even our appearance now I'm not saying that some of these things may not be important or relevant but if our self-esteem if our selfworth all right is tied to these things okay we become uh prideful okay and then
00:32:21 before you know it it is easy for us to slip into self- worship which Dows our desire for God James 4:6 tells us that God opposes the proud but give grace to the humble if we only trust in our Earthly resources and abilities we will inevitably be left with a sense of worth based on Pride you know no matter how clever we are you know no matter how good we are at a particular Ministry at organizing Administration or even preaching or whatever okay Jesus told us you also when you have done everything you were
00:32:57 told to do you should say we are unworthy servants because why we have only done our duty now the third point I want to cover is that the Pharisees all right major on the minor okay they value what is insignificant right over what is really really important so in Tiding all right we read okay you give a tenth of your spices mint dill and cumin but you have neglected the more important matters of the law namely Justice mercy and faithfulness you strain out a net but you swallow a camel you see in piling the Pharisees
00:33:46 were so careful to go to the nth degree to be obedient yet they have neglected the weightier matters of the law all right Justice mercy and faithfulness the Pharisees distorted the emphasis of biblical righteousness in order to suit their own behavioral patterns of self-justification now it's not that Tiding is wrong okay but you see the purpose of the Pharisees right going to Great length in order to follow a commandment all right is so that they do actually what is easier to do and they neglect what is really hard
00:34:26 to do right things that concern Justice and mercy okay they do what is visibly easier so that they can avoid doing what is really important uh let me just give you an example okay all right today is Father's day all right so uh you wake up all right uh and then you your children come up to you you know and they say hey dad today is Father's Day right you know today is your uh you can give me a list of uh what you want like us to do help us help us to be better children for you all right because we love you that okay and so you
00:35:08 said oh wow you know oh I better take uh this opportunity right to uh you know get the better of my children right so he said oh yeah okay and then the children says okay we do it for a week all right so we are so generous oh wow why don't you uh start tomorrow and you cook me breakfast huh okay yeah okay all right I cook get breakfast and you bring my shoes okay to the door because I'm always in a hurry okay no problem all right um wow every now and then uh you know I'm supposed to take out the trash
00:35:39 now this week is your turn kids all right okay all right okay uh hey while you edit throw in I go watch my car okay oh okay yeah all right okay so you know he starts checking on all this list right and you were taking advantage right okay of it okay now then truly Monday comes along you know and you see your kids right wow you know religiously doing all the things that they have promised right okay wow they wake up they cook you breakfast check all right okay wow they go and wash the car all right check all right okay they bring
00:36:11 your shoes oh check okay all right so everything is done according to that list right and then Tuesday comes along and then it says hey boy can you please go and help your sister with the homework and all you know she's really struggling now then it's not in the list all right sorry you know I can't do it what and then another day all right come hey you know I haven't seen you for a while son why don't you sit down and have a chat with me all right oh dad you know I really don't have time right and it's by
00:36:46 the way not in the checklist all right okay but Dad can I use your car huh oh what you want to use my car you just refuse to do something that I just asked you to right yeah but but Dad look I've done all this for you all right surely all right it's nothing for you to let me your car and then suddenly you realize right the list is not about obeying you the list is not about loving you the list is about drawing up a boundary a set of boundary so he doesn't have to do the things that you really want him to do but these are the easy
00:37:24 things to check off all of us Us in some ways are like this all right now if your kids do that to you how would you feel I'll tell you how you feel you feel like how God feels whenever we do this to him we all have our little checklist don't we all right we say Lord we done our Bible study we've done our Tiding we go regularly to church you know we've done all these things right okay on Sunday all right the rest of the time is mine or whenever we we we go through tough time all right we we need some uh uh you know we are
00:38:01 suffering we have an exam coming know for you students right what do we do we take out our list and say hey God remember H okay I've done all this for you all right so if we are not careful this is how we end up like the Pharisees so the Pharisees are the ones and we should be very mindful not to follow them to Value tradition over the truth with man-made laws we should be careful all right not to Value status over our inward San sanctification God doesn't look at our outward uh you know how how we look
00:38:44 outwardly but he's more concerned about our inward okay uh uh uh uh inward uh being okay because when we get our inward being right okay naturally that would be shown outwardly okay and for sure we should major on things that are important now why are the Pharisees so dangerous wow Jesus says in Matthew chapter 16:6 be careful okay be on your guard against the east of the Pharisees and the seduces now East is something that we use right in bread making you know it spreads right in order to make
00:39:25 the bread rise okay so East in this case is talking about influence okay Jesus is saying that you have to guard against all right hypocrisy and legalism because if you're not careful it will affect and slowly influence right the church now the church has always had its fair share of Pharisees Hypocrites and legalist and Jesus specifically warned us against all right them Jesus condemns the attitudes and the actions of the scribes and the Pharisees with the strongest of words now this is not the soft and gentle
00:40:09 Jesus that you know we mostly have in our mind he uses the strongest possible language Hypocrites fools blind guides snakes brute of vipers this is a Stern and tough Jesus who doesn't means his words to expose the false teachers of the day now in a day where we are you know supposed to be politically correct right and tolerant it is tempting for us as church leaders to keep silent in order to please men rather than to please God but you will remember Jesus and his attitude towards the false teachers okay whenever we are
00:40:50 tempted to stay keep quiet you would also remember right Paul confronting the false teachers uh in the Church uh in Galatians right Paul says that if anyone comes to you to preach another gospel let him be a curse and he repeated that statement twice all right in the first chapter of Galatians so it is my prayer that we in this church in FBC would always uphold all right the truth now woe is more of an expression than a word right woe to you okay you will remember Isaiah the prophet in Isaiah 6 when he had a vision of God's
00:41:33 Splendor and Holiness okay he shouted wo is me for I am undone and I'm a man of unclean lips it's kind of like the word alas okay and is often used in the pronouncement of grief sadness Affliction even guilt and judgment so in Isaiah's case he felt So Unworthy in the presence of the holy God that he actually pronounced judgment on himself woe is me for I'm undone now I just want to give you a quickly a couple of uh examples of false uh religion all right okay uh you know we are familiar with a lot of uh false teachers all
00:42:19 right in our time okay uh and I'm sure you can a lot of them have existed for a long time but this is fairly new okay uh and I think has come uh to our Shores especially with modern technology internet all right information is uh so accessible unfortunately uh while it is a good conduit for Truth uh technology is also a good conduit for fake news Okay so a lot of people right actually have uh can self- radicalize okay uh with something like the Hebrew Roots movement now this is a movement that was started by this
00:42:55 couple called Dean and Susan Willock okay uh and it's fairly recent and that's why you know I I want to highlight it because it's fairly new compared to some of the other uh uh movements um it started in the 1990s okay and their core beliefs are this okay that both the Old and New Testament Are Holy books okay by the way a lot of the people in the Hebrew Roots Ms do not call themselves as Christians okay uh neither do they call themselves as judaizers okay um they call themselves as followers they believe that salvation is
00:43:32 through Christ okay and that's where the danger is apostasy is often truth mixed with error is truth salvation by grace plus okay salvation is through Christ but not observing the Torah the first five books of Moses is sin they believe that the Greek text of the Bible is corrupted so if you are follower of the Hebrew rotes you are encouraged to learn the Hebrew language all right so that you can get to the source uh and then Believers must keep the Sabbath all right celebrate all the Jewish uh Feast okay seven of them right
00:44:16 and observe dietary laws that means they cannot eat pork all right and they have to go through I think kosha all right all the ceremonial washing before they can partake of the food now Christmas and Easter are forbidden right because they are considered as paganistic now what does the bible teach us well for sin shall no longer be your master because you are not under the law in Romans Paul tells us that we are as New Covenant Christians no longer under the law we have been released from the law
00:44:55 so that we serve in the the new way of the spirit and not in the old way of the written code okay actually this is not new right Paul in Galatians confronted the same thing right you will remember that the church in galatia was infiltrated by judaizers right they basically told the Christians that hey if you don't circumcise right if you don't adopt the Jewish religion you cannot be a Christian okay and they put on them the yoke of having to follow all the mosaic laws all right including uh you know uh uh the dietary habits okay
00:45:36 and you will remember that the Apostle Peter right was suck into uh the the the scheme as well okay because when some judaizers right visited the uh anti okay he suddenly he was with the Gentile Christians okay partake and having enjoying all the Liberties right that he had as a Christian okay and suddenly when the judaizers came to anot he withdrew from the Gentiles okay and stopped right uh uh uh you know eating his bakut okay so basically uh and what did Paul say Paul do Paul confronted right
00:46:22 uh uh Peter and basically say all right when Peter came to anoid I opposed him to his face because he stood condemned these are very very harsh word that a fellow Elder okay say to another for before certain man came from James he used to eat with the Gentiles but when they arrived he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belong to the circumcision group the other Jews joined him in his h hypocrisy so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led
00:47:10 away the other thing that you know that has been doing I mean I mentioned Prosperity Gospel because this is something that has damaged right uh christiandom okay and continues to do so another group of false teachers that is very prevalent in our Christian landscape right are the prosperity uh gospel preachers okay preachers that promise health and wealth according to the degree of faith that you have okay you give and you give in order to receive receive more and more so that's the promise now in 2010 the Singapore
00:48:02 government started to investigate right City Harvest Church for financial impropriety okay and I'll tell you how it started okay it started right uh because um the church decided to buy okay Sant City okay and you know what was the price they were going to raise 310 million dollars Sing dollars in order to buy the convention hall okay and they put down a deposit right of 95 million Sing dollar and that was a red flag that you know instigated the government to okay checked on them um now it's very the funny thing is
00:48:45 that you know while he was being investigated know kongi right uh basically said wow you know he was under a lot of uh pressure you know under a lot of TR house okay so in one of the sermons shortly after the investigation took place okay in one of the sermons right this is what he said okay he claimed to have heard God's cried because of his sufferings and what he was going through okay listen for the first time in eight months he said God I heard him cry he heard God cry and he said my son Kong thank you thank you for
00:49:26 going through this I need you to go through this alone so that you and City Harvest Church can be the man and the ministry I call it to be I'm so sorry God apologizing to Kong okay but you need to go through this yourself to bring a change to your generation gongi and five others were eventually found guilty of criminal breach of trust he was sentenced to three and a half years jail but served only two and a half I think he got out in 2019 you know the criminal Bridge of trust was what when he used church funds
00:50:04 of 50 million in order to fund his wife singing career over in the US okay in what they call the crossover project and of course they embellish it right by saying know the crossover project is to all right preach the gospel so why are the faracy so dangerous why well very quickly my time is almost up they shut people's out of God's kingdom okay woe to you teachers of the law and Pharisees you Hypocrites you shut the door of the Kingdom of Heaven in people's faces so not only do they lead people
00:50:40 down the path of destructions at worst okay they make disciples who later become recruiters for the Devil the second reason I would give all right why the Pharisees are so dangerous is because they destroy people's life now depending on the version of the Bible that you have right you can have either Seven Wes or eight Wes okay uh there's a verse verse 14 right that is not in some of your version but there is a parallel passage in The Book of Mark and Book of Luke that basically uh record the same incident okay and and
00:51:17 this is what is said of the Pharisees in those passages they devour widows houses and for a show make lengthy prayers okay this men will be punished most secretly so basically all right it's all about money it's all about money it's all about how they pray on people who are vulnerable who are desperate either they are sick or they are without money or without a job all right and these people will pray on the vulnerability of people who are in desperate situation in order to make money out of them so not only do
00:51:52 they destroy their physical lives they also destroy their spiritual lives okay so in conclusion right how to avoid okay hypocrisy and legalism first of all acknowledge that exists and repent okay acknowledge that is exist first Peter 21 Peter wrote therefore read yourself of all males and all deceit hypocrisy envy and slander of every kind now if we are honest with ourselves there's hypocrisy in every one of us okay and Peter suddenly repented of his sin all right and that's why he was able to write in First Peter all right that
00:52:34 we should all acknowledge it and do make one less hypocrite in the church as far as possible allow God's grace to transform us all right in Titus to uh 11 to2 for the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lust we should live soberly righteously and godly in the present age you see tradition rules dos and don'ts right will never change they they may change us for a while on the outward okay but they never but it will never be effective all right
00:53:21 to bring us to Holiness or godliness there needs to be an inward change and the inward change can only happen right by the grace of God we have to recognize all right that God's grace okay is sufficient to change us from the inside okay in order to teach us the ways of godliness okay and righteousness teaching us and motivating us all right that's what the verse says it's it's gone okay all right I've got last two points H build your self-esteem all right upon Christ okay let's learn a lesson from a
00:54:05 recovered Pharisee all right none other than the Apostle Paul okay uh I just quickly read and remember Paul's uh credentials okay he says I'm a Pharisee okay of Pharisees um and he's uh uh uh he has so much reasons right to be confidence in his flesh if anything is anyone else think he has reason to be confident in the flesh I have more circumcised on the eighth day of the people of Israel of The Tribe of Benjamin a Hebrew of Hebrews as to the law of Pharisee as to Zeal a persecutor of the church as to righteousness under the law
00:54:47 blameless but whatever gain I had I counted it as lost for the sake of Christ indeed I count everything as lost as dunk in some version all right as rubbish all right because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord for his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ so build your self-esteem right not based on your own personal achievement but upon what Christ has done for us and last but not least as Elder edian told us uh last
00:55:23 week remember the broad Commandments of God you see the broad Commandments of God right really has got no limits and that's why we are afraid we all have our checklist right so that we can boundaries right you know so that we don't have to heed God's broad Commandments right that has got a limitless claims on us love your God with all your heart with all your soul and with all your mind and that translates to loving God and loving the people around us let us pray dear heavenly father we thank you for your
00:56:04 word that warns us against hypocrisy and legalism Lord we confess our sins that in each one of us there one time or another hypocrisy in our life Lord help us to examine our hearts help me and help us all to not look at the lives of others before we look at our own lives search our hearts oh Lord that indeed we may be true to you may you remove hypocrisy and legalism in our lives for we ask all this in Jesus name amen thank you brother ulam for the word I don't know about you but you know the more I study God's word and the more
00:56:59 I hear sermons like this the more I feel so difficult to be a Christian cuz it's so easy to fall into sin right so easy to fall into temptation we are all human but at the same time while I acknowledge how easy it is for me to sin I also learn about God's grace and mercy and it's only because he loves us so much that we can come to know him that he allow us to come to have this relationship with him isn't that beautiful Church isn't that beautiful just as the song says I labor on in weakness and
00:57:45 rejoicing for in my need his power is displayed all the night has been worn and I shall overcome yet not I but through Christ Christ in me can I invite you to stand as we sing this song together what gift of Grace is Jesus My Redeemer there is no hope for heaven now to give he is my joy my righteousness and freedom my St F love my deep and boundless peace to this I hope my hope is only Jesus for my life is Holy bound to his oh how strange and divine I can sing all is mine yet not I but true Christ
00:58:56 [Music] T night is dark but I am not forsaken for by my side the savior he will stay I labor on in weakness and and rejoicing for in my need his power is display to this I hope my shepherd will defend me through the deepest valley he will lead oh the night has been W and I Shall Overcome death not I but true Christ in [Music] me no fate I Dre I know I am forgiv the future true the price it has been paid for Jesus BL and suffered for my paron and he was raised to overr the Grave to this I hope my sin has been
01:00:45 defeated Jesus now and ever is my oh the chains are Rel I can sing now I am free yet not I but true Christ in [Music] me oh we thank you Jesus only true Christ inness with every breath I long to follow Jesus for he has said that he will bring me home and day by day I know he will re until I stand with joy Before the Throne to this I hope my hope is only Jesus all the glory ever more to give when the rise is complete still my lips shall repeat yet Lord I the true chist in me to this I hope to this I hope my
01:02:12 hope is only Jesus all the glory ever for to here when the race is complete till my li shall repeat and go I the true Christ in [Music] name when the rise is complete still my li shall it yet Lord I but true Christ in me yet Lord die the true Christ in me [Music] yet not I but through Christ in me the Lord Jesus says come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I'm gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest for your souls
01:03:27 for my yoke is easy and my burden is light now if any of you wants to understand what Jesus is talking about here right come and approach one of us the elders all right or member of the church and if you want to do any of this that is shown on the screen please scan the QR code okay now receive the benediction now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think according to the power at work within us to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever
01:04:21 amen okay please be seated the service is now over thank you
