Looking for Loopholes

Modern Day Pharisees Looking for Loopholes Matthew 23:16-22 Pastor Pat Damiani July 7, 2019 NOTE: This is a manuscript, and not a transcript of this message. The actual presentation of the message differed from the manuscript through the leading of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, it is possible, and even likely that there is material in this manuscript that was not included in the live presentation and that there was additional material in the live presentation that is not included in this manuscript. In March of 2015, in the state of Indiana, then governor Mike Pence signed a new law that limits the state’s ability to infringe on a person’s ability to practice his or her religion. Right after the law became effective, Bill Levin decided to try and take advantage of what he claimed was a loophole created by the law. Although marijuana, even medical marijuana, is not legal in any form in Indiana, Levin established the First Church of Cannabis which attempted to use the law to protect its right to use marijuana as a sacrament. Although the courts have consistently ruled against them so far, this case demonstrates the extent to which people will go to find loopholes in the law so that they can engage in activities that are otherwise illegal. This is undoubtedly one of the reasons that lawyers are held in such low regard in our culture, since they are perceived as always looking for loopholes in the law in order to get their clients off. Not surprisingly, lawyers consistently appear in lists of the most hated and disrespected professions. And also not surprisingly, they are also a frequent object for jokes. So I’m pretty sure that many of you can help me with the punch line for these jokes: What is the difference between a lawyer and a jellyfish? One is a spineless, poisonous blob. The other is a form of sea life. Why won’t sharks attack lawyers? Professional courtesy. . How can you tell a lawyer is lying? His lips are moving. How does a lawyer sleep? First he lies on one side, then he lies on the other. This morning we are going to look at Jesus’ rebuke of the Pharisees for their “lawyer-like” mentality, in which they were constantly looking for loopholes that would allow them to excuse their own sin, while still pointing out sin in the lives of others. While I believe that every message in this current series is important and applicable to us as a church and as individuals, my sense is that this may very well be the one mindset of the Pharisees that we are most likely to fall into. And it may also very well be the one we are least likely to recognize in our own lives. So before I remind you of the six ways to tell that you might be a “modern day Pharisee”, I’ve developed one more. Although I’m not going to preach a separate message on this one, we need to keep this in mind as we consider the other six. You might be a “modern day Pharisee” if… you claim that someone else is a Pharisee. My biggest fear, and this is true for me, too, is that we will listen to these messages and instead of using them to evaluate how we may have become “modern day Pharisees” in our own lives, our first thought will be to consider how these messages apply to other people we know. So especially this morning I want to challenge all of us to make sure that we apply what we’re learning personally to our own lives. So let’s pause for a moment to pray and ask God to help us do that before we continue. [Prayer] Before we look at this morning’s passage, let’s quickly remind ourselves of the six traits of a “modern day Pharisee” that we’re covering in this series. You might be a “modern day Pharisee” if… • You judge the Scriptures rather than being judged by them • You think you’re better than other Christians • You are more interested in making clones of yourself than disciples of Jesus • You look for loopholes in God’s Word in order to excuse your sin • You major in minors and minor in majors • You work harder at looking good than being good This morning, we’re going to focus on the fourth indication that you might be a “modern day Pharisee”: [Read Matthew 23:16-22] This is the third “woe” pronounced by Jesus against the scribes and Pharisees here in Matthew 23. Hopefully you’ll remember from last week that a woe is not a curse, but rather a warning that is given with a sense of deep grief. Interestingly, this is the only woe in this chapter where Jesus does not call these Jewish religious leaders “hypocrites”. Instead, three times in this passage, He calls them “blind”. They are: • blind guides • blind fools (literally “blind and fools” - the Greek word for “fools” is “moros” from which we get our English word “moron”.) • blind men (literally just “blind” – “men” is implied) This is not the first time that Jesus has described the scribes and Pharisees as blind. But the biggest problem, as we have already seen in this series, is that they didn’t know they were blind and so not only did they miss out on the kingdom of God, they were causing others to miss out on it as well. As Jesus had pointed out previously, they were “the blind leading the blind”: Then the disciples came and said to him, “Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying?” He answered, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be rooted up. Let them alone; they are blind guides. And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.” (Matthew 15:12–14 ESV) Even though we will see that the scribes and Pharisees are indeed hypocrites when it comes to their oaths, Jesus is more focused here on their spiritual blindness that both blinds them to their own sin and also ends up blinding those they are leading. We’ll once again use the same format we’ve employed throughout this series. We’ll first identify some characteristics that can help us to identify whether we have become “modern day Pharisees” and then we’ll discuss some Biblical remedies that will either prevent us from falling into that trap or help us get out if we already have. HOW TO TELL IF I’M A “MODERN DAY PHARISEE” 1. I develop systems to cover my sin This entire passage deals with a topic that is not very familiar to us, but which would have been well known in Jesus’ day. You have probably already noted the verb “swear” that appears throughout these verses. I’m sure you’ve already figured out the word is used differently here than we usually use it in our culture. It does not refer to using vulgar language, but rather means “to make a vow or an oath”. The idea here is that one would call upon God to affirm the truthfulness of something. But the problem is that the Pharisees had set up an elaborate system that they could use to determine which of their vows or oaths were binding and which were not. That way they could appear to be very pious by making all sorts of boastful promises that they never intended to keep. So they took advantage of the loopholes they had created within that system that would in effect excuse them not doing what they had promised to do. I suppose it would be similar to the current day practice of making a promise with your fingers crossed behind your back and then claiming you weren’t obligated to keep that promise. Essentially the Pharisees had taken God’s Word and twisted it in a way that would remove their accountability to God while at the same time holding others to a standard that they themselves were not bound to. By substituting their own traditions for the Scriptures, they had in effect created an officially ordained way to lie and to excuse their sin. Unfortunately such systems still exist today, both formally within religious institutions and more informally in our personal lives. For instance, the Roman Catholic Church engages in a practice called indulgences, which they claim can reduce or eliminate the earthly punishment for one’s sins. The website “Catholic Answers” gives this description of an indulgence: To gain any indulgence you must be a Catholic in order to be under the Church’s jurisdiction…To gain a partial indulgence, you must perform with a contrite heart the act to which the indulgence is attached. To gain a plenary indulgence you must perform the act with a contrite heart, plus you must go to confession (one confession may suffice for several plenary indulgences), receive Holy Communion, and pray for the pope’s intentions. There is actually a “Handbook of Indulgences” which describes the kinds of acts which may be performed as part of an indulgence – things like reading the Bible, reciting certain prescribed prayers or even making the sign of the cross. While such a practice does not necessarily cover up one’s sin, it undoubtedly minimizes the seriousness of sin because it promotes the idea that there is something I can do to limit the consequences and impact of my sin. While I doubt any of us here would subscribe to such a system, it is much more likely that we’ve developed our own, often even religious systems, that we use to either cover or minimize the significance of our sin. While I obviously can’t give you a complete list, let me share a few examples that might get you to consider how you might to that: • Maybe you fail to employ Biblical principles with your finances. Perhaps you cheat on your income taxes by not reporting all your income. Or maybe you have to borrow money because you’ve lived beyond your means and haven’t saved any money to cover emergencies or because you bought something you couldn’t afford. But you justify all that by claiming that you tithe meticulously on every penny of your income and that therefore God is obligated to bail you out of your financial problems. • I’ve shared this before, but I have run into people who are willing to intentionally engage in some behavior they know is sinful because they claim that God is obligated to forgive them for that sin if they just confess it to Him every time they sin. So for them, even the principle of God’s forgiveness becomes a system to justify or excuse their sin. • What about those who engage in Christian ministry of some kind and uses that as a system to justify the fact that they aren’t taking care of their own families? Jesus actually addressed that exact situation with the Pharisees in Mark 7 when he condemned them for taking the resources they should have used to take care of their parents and claiming that they were going to make an offering to God with that money. • Personally, I can even use my sermons as a system to cover up the sin in my own life. I’ve found that it’s real easy for me to think of all the other people that might need to hear one of my sermons and miss seeing the very sin that I’m preaching about in my own life. 2. My logic is messed up The scribes and Pharisees had come up with some logic defying rules to justify their lying and sinning. They claimed that if someone swore on the temple, then they were not obligated to keep that promise, but if they swore on the gold of the temple, the vow was binding. Likewise if someone swore on the altar it was not binding, but if they swore on the gift on the altar then they had to keep that vow. Jesus pointed out the utter absurdity of that kind of thinking by pointing out that it was the temple and the altar that gave value to the gold and the gift and not the other way around. Besides, Jesus pointed out, if you’re going to swear by anything that is associated with God – the temple, the altar or even heaven, you are essentially swearing by God Himself. So making the kind of distinctions that the Pharisees made was really nonsensical. When I have to resort to convoluted logic in order to justify or excuse my sin, then I’m probably a “modern day Pharisee”. As you would expect, it is pretty common for those who are not disciples of Jesus to try and twist the Scriptures to justify actions that the Scripture clearly define as sin. For instance, this week, I came across an article from the Freedom from Religion Foundation that actually tried to make a Biblical case for abortion that closed with these words: In fact, God is clearly pro-abortion. And it’s certainly not hard to find similar articles that twist Scripture to try and prove that God approves of homosexual marriage. I think most of us would probably recognize those kinds of overt attempts to twist Scripture to justify what God clearly considers to be sinful. But we’re probably a lot less likely to see the way we more subtly try to mold the Bible to justify our behavior. That often takes the form of just ignoring those passages that expose our sin. So if I’m struggling with sexual sin, for instance, I might just not read 1 Corinthians, where that topic is addressed frequently. If I’m a gossip, I might avoid Proverbs because it so frequently addresses how I can sin with my words. Another way we can twist the Scriptures to excuse our sin is to go through what I like to call Bible gymnastics in order to explain away passages that are pretty clear in what they teach or to show why they don’t apply in my specific situation. So if I’m a disciple of Jesus and I want to marry an unbeliever, I’ll try to explain why 2 Corinthians 6:14, which warns against being unequally yoked, doesn’t apply to my situation. The general rule of thumb here is that the harder I have to work to prove that what I am doing is not sin, the greater the likelihood that my logic is messed up. 3. I avoid dealing with my sin The Pharisees were anxious and quick to point out and condemn the sins of others, but they weren’t willing to admit that they, too, were sinners who needed God’s grace and mercy. And If I develop systems to cover my sin or twist the Scriptures to try and explain away or justify or excuse my sin, I will naturally follow in their footsteps. I’m pretty sure that most everyone here this morning would acknowledge the fact that you are a sinner in need of God’s grace and mercy. But I also know that it is possible for all of us to forget the depth of that sin and the price that Jesus had to pay on the cross in order to make it possible for us to deal with that sin. It’s easy to fall into the trap of comparing ourselves to others and to think that our sin isn’t really all that serious. As I’ve mentioned before, if you find yourself spending less and less time confessing your sin before God, it’s probably not because you are sinning less, but rather because you have lost sight of the seriousness of your sin and the need to deal with it on a daily basis. It’s also possible for the church to be guilty in this area. We talked about this a bit last week, so I won’t belabor the point, but there are a lot of churches in our culture today who are guilty of minimizing the need for people to deal with their sin. In an effort to avoid offending anyone, they never mention the word “sin” or talk about the need for repentance. But the problem with that is that the gospel doesn’t make sense until we come face to face with the idea that we are sinners who deserve God’s wrath and that the only way to deal permanently with that sin is through faith in Jesus. His death on the cross is the only way that the penalty for our sin could ever be paid. THE REMEDY 1. Be a compulsive truth teller This principle applies both to what I tell myself and what I tell others. That means that first of all I need to be honest with myself when it comes to my own sin. When I try to cover up my sin, or ignore it or excuse it, I’m only lying to myself. I need to tell myself the truth about my sin by admitting and acknowledging that I am a sinner in need of God’s grace and mercy. Only then am I in a position to deal with that sin. I also need to be completely honest in my dealing with others. Jesus talked about that idea in the Sermon on the Mount: Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil. (Matthew 5:37 ESV) In other words, just tell the truth all the time and you won’t need to worry about swearing any kind of oath. And you won’t have to worry about remembering which story you told to whom. As disciples of Jesus, our word should be our bond. So we need to work hard not to lie, or even to exaggerate or say things that we don’t mean. And the best way to develop that kind of lifestyle is to begin by being honest in the little things. Tell the truth about how big the fish really was. Don’t post things on social media until you’ve taken time to verify that they are true. Admit when you don’t know something rather than trying to bluff your way out of it. 2. Repent To “repent” literally means “to change one’s mind”. But Biblical repentance, which is an indispensable part of the gospel, is the kind of mind change that also results in a change in behavior. When we sin, we need to repent. That begins with confessing our sin to God and asking for His forgiveness. And if our sin has harmed someone else, it means also asking for their forgiveness. When appropriate, it also means making things right or making restitution. And it often means putting into place some accountability so that I won’t allow that sin to become a lifestyle. 3. Make promises carefully Before I ever make a promise to anyone, I need to honestly consider whether I really intend to keep that promise. Here are just a few areas of our lives where we shouldn’t make promises we don’t intend to keep: • Don’t get married if you aren’t committed to carrying out your wedding vows. • Don’t borrow money unless you have the ability and the commitment to pay back every penny. • Don’t agree to take on a job or a task or a ministry unless you are completely committed to doing what is required to the best of your ability. • Don’t make promises to your children unless you intend to fulfill them. Every time we make a promise, we are not only making that promise to others, but we are making it in front of God. So we need to make sure we don’t do that carelessly or flippantly. I doubt that there is anyone here this morning who intentionally sets out to look for loopholes in order to excuse your sin. But, as I hope you’ve seen this morning, all of us are prone to do that unintentionally if we don’t actively take steps to guard against that. So as we close this morning, I’m going to ask everyone to spend a few minutes in prayer this morning. And here is how I want us all to pray: 1. Ask God to reveal any unconfessed sin in your life. One of the best ways to do that is to pray the words of the Psalmist: Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting! (Psalm 139:23–24 ESV) 2. Confess any sin that God reveals. 3. Commit to take any action that is needed to repent. That might include asking someone else for repentance, making restitution or taking other action to make things right, and/or establishing some accountability to help you not lapse into a lifestyle of sin. Discussion questions for Bible Roundtable 1. What are some of the dangers of labeling another person, especially a disciple of Jesus, as a “Pharisee”? 2. What are some clues that I might be creating some loopholes in order to excuse my sin? 3. What are some areas where we may have a tendency to be less than completely honest? What are some ways we can guard against those tendencies? 4. How would you deal with someone who has twisted the Scriptures in order to justify his or her sin? How would your approach differ based on whether or not that person is a disciple of Jesus?