What God Hates, Part 4

Matthew Porter: Welcome to Key Life. I'm Matthew Porter, executive producer for Key Life. All week we've been enjoying a sermon from Steve called What God Hates, a message given nearly 38 years ago and based on Matthew 23. So far, Jesus has called out obstructors of life, crushers of joy, dichotomizers of divinity, and magnifiers of superficiality. But there are yet three more types of person on that list and we'll meet those folks today. If you're enjoying this series, you can thank the supporters of the Vault project. Over the last several years, we've been busy digitizing hundreds of these timeless messages of grace and now they're available at KeyLife.org/Vault. That's V-A-U-L-T. We're adding more content every month, so there's always something new. By new, I mean old. More about the Vault later, but for right now, let's sit back and enjoy the conclusion of the sermon called What God Hates. Here's Steve.
Steve Brown: And then fifthly, you ought to be careful. Incidentally, this is coming over real strong because Jesus made it strong. Next week we're going to look at his lament over Jerusalem and we're going to see that these words of woe, and there are seven of them, were pronounced with great pathos and great compassion, but nevertheless, they are very strong. Note that God also hates emphasizers of externals. Matthew 23:25-26. "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cleanse the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside they're full of extortion and self-indulgence." When I was in Detroit, I was speaking with John Powell. We were both the speakers at this conference and he told a story about a king. I know I'm over. All of you who had those watches that went off, it doesn't mean a thing. I'm not going to go too long. I'm going to talk even faster, but stay with me. He talked about a king that didn't have any heirs and it didn't look like there were going to be any heirs, so he sent his servants out throughout the whole kingdom to find out somebody who could be king, who was without guile, who had compassion on the people. They found one young man and they told him what it was about and invited him for an audience with the king. He went out and took all of his savings and he bought the proper attire for being in court before the king. And then he made his way to the castle. On the way, there was a beggar on the side of the road. The beggar cried out for mercy. The young man felt so sorry for the beggar that he took off his new clothes and he gave his clothes to the beggar and then took the beggar's rags and made his way to the castle. When he got to the castle, the servants didn't even want to let him in because he certainly was not attired as one ought to be attired if one is going to stand before the throne. But nevertheless, they finally let him in. And when he got into the throne room, he looked up at the king and said, "You, you were the beggar." The king said, "That's true, and there was no other way that I could discern your heart." Folks, I know people who do everything right religiously and who are as dark as sin inside. I know people who say the liturgy, who say all the religious and spiritual things, and they are so far from the kingdom of God that you can't believe it. I know people who really mess it up on the outside and inside they have a heart for God like David, who really try but blow it every time, but inside they love God. I want you to know God loves them and he hates people who put it on the outside when it's not on the inside. I'll give you a principle. The religious things you do are not what make you religious; they are the outward manifestation of a reality that is already there. We do religious things because we belong to him; we don't do religious things in order to belong to him. Sixthly, I've got two more points. I'm going to talk fast. You ought to be careful because God not only gets ticked at obstructors of life, crushers of joy, dichotomizers of God, magnifiers of superficialities, and emphasizers of externals; God also hates changers of signs. Matthew 23:27-28. "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you're like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. Even so, you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness." Let me tell you what's going on here. The law said that if you touched anything that was dead or anything that had to do with the dead, you became unclean. So every spring, the tombs were painted white, whitewashed, so they would stand out, so if you were a pious religious person, you could avoid those tombs, not touch them, and thereby not become unclean. As Jesus was teaching, and he's a friend of mine, I know how it happened, he looked over and he saw whitewashed tombs and he thought to himself, "That is a perfect illustration." He's saying you have this signpost that says "I'm God's," but inside you're really not. Let me illustrate. When I was down, and incidentally, I lost my voice in Detroit and it's about to happen again, when we were down on Cape Cod, I got the elders of the church to buy carillon for the church. And I put a major sound system in the belfry of the church and turned that sucker up. The people were hearing it on their teeth throughout the village on Cape Cod. One man came banging on our door and said, "I am so expletive deleted about those bells. Every time I sit down to eat, I hear those expletive deleted bells. Would you do something about it?" Now we played them every day at 12:00 and 6:00, but the day he came by, I played them also at 10:00 that night. Anyway, one day at 12:00, I turned those things up where you could hear them down on the beach on Cape Cod, and two guys as soon as I turned them off came walking into the front of the church. Little jewel of a Cape Cod white, the kind you see on postcards, kind of church, that's the kind of church it was. They came walking into the church, both of them drunk. One of them began to cry and he said, "I don't even know why I'm here. I heard the bells and I came." I reached out to them and told them about Christ. Both of them ended up bowing their heads and receiving Christ into their lives. What if I had said, "You guys can't do that. You're getting sand on the carpet. Have you no more respect for God than to come into this church drunk? Who do you think you are?" What if I had done that? I tell you what I would have done. I would have advertised in the belfry something that was not in the church. I would have advertised in the belfry something that was not in the church. Ladies and gentlemen, we do that all the time. I want you to know that the church is a sign. We're going to have people who have AIDS coming to this place. What are we going to do in our nursery when AIDS babies come? How are we going to deal with that? The elders are talking about it now and we don't have any option because we're advertising we're loving people. We'd better show it because God hates it when we don't. We're advertising that we care. We have people that come to this church that aren't very beautiful. What should you do about that? I tell you, we'd better make sure that what's going on in the church is what we advertise on the belfry because when we don't, throughout history, for instance, whenever there's been a plague, and AIDS is like that, whenever there's been a plague, the Christians have been the ones to go out and to make the difference because the pagans won't touch them. But we advertise something in the belfry, we'd better have it in the church, because when we don't, God hates it. And then one final point and very quickly: You ought to be careful because God not only hates obstructors of life, crushers of joy, dichotomizers of God, magnifiers of superficialities, emphasizers of externals, and changers of signs; God also hates deniers of truth. And I'm not going to take the time to read it, but Matthew 23:29-36, that long passage where they say you killed the prophets, and Jesus said, "I'm going to send some wise men and some scribes to you and you're going to do the same thing to them. You're going to hang them on crosses and scourge them and make fun of them." That's heavy. You know what Jesus is saying? He's saying that God speaks, and when God speaks, he often speaks through a person and you'd better have respect for that person. My mother said when all the television evangelists were doing their bad things, she said, "Now son, I don't want you saying bad stuff about them. I don't want you making fun of them." I have a couple of times because I'm not perfect, mother. But she made a point. She said, "I want you to be like Mr. Graham. I don't want you to go out and criticize everybody." What was she saying? She's saying you've got to be very careful because God's truth comes through imperfect people sometimes. You've got to be careful you don't kill them. But behind that is the rejection of the truth. Harry Reeder was here this week and he was at a Bible study I was teaching and Harry said he'd noticed that whenever something bad happens in our society, we look to the wrong place. AIDS, for instance. He said, "I'm not saying AIDS is a judgment on bad people, but it has something to do with God." Instead of looking to God and saying, "What is this all about?" we look for a vaccine. Our values are falling apart in our society. Instead of saying anything about God, we try to write a new curriculum. We have dishonesty rampant every place. What do we do? We try to get a new politician instead of looking to God. God is shouting at us. He's saying, "Listen, listen." And when we ignore, God hates that sort of thing. George Stadelbauer, who's a friend of mine up in Boca, tells a story about a man who was going ice fishing. He went out and cut a hole in the ice and was about to drop his line in and a voice said, "There are no fish in that hole." So he moved over about 10 yards, cut another hole, and a voice came and said, "There are no fish in that hole." So he went another place and cut another hole, got ready to drop his line, and a voice in an echo said, "There are no fish in that hole." He looked up at the sky and said, "Are you God?" The voice said, "No, I'm the rink announcer." If you think about that a minute, it'll hit you. We're like that. God's voice is very clear. If you want to hear him, you will. If you want to follow him, you'll know. If you want to be a servant, he will allow you to be his servant. But you can't ignore the truth as it's spoken either through his servants or directly through his word or to your heart, because that's one of the things that will tick God off. God's never had a generation without a witness to his truth. Jesus says that those witnesses are often killed and mocked and persecuted and ignored. People don't like to hear the truth. Listen to me, I've been a witness to his truth this morning. We're in the 20th century and we don't kill witnesses to truth anymore. We just say that's nice and we ignore it. But it's the same thing. You think about that.
Matthew Porter: Thank you, Steve. That wraps up the sermon we've been working our way through this week, a message from 1988 called What God Hates. As a reminder, if you enjoyed this sermon, it's part of an entire series on the book of Matthew that you can find right now at KeyLife.org/Vault. That's V-A-U-L-T. Be sure to stop by to learn more about the work we're doing to preserve these sermons. We have more than a thousand sermons available and you can access all of it for less than the cheapest tier of Netflix. Plus, we don't have any ads, just saying. Tomorrow, join us again for another episode of the nearly world-famous Friday Q&A with Steve and Pete. That's when they'll address this question among others: When is it okay to look for a new church? Well, if you've listened to this program for a while or our talk radio show, Steve Brown, Etc., you may have heard Steve refer to three free sins. It's a joke because thanks to Jesus' extraordinary sacrifice, all our sins are free. So where does that phrase come from? Well, it started in a popular book Steve wrote called Three Free Sins. Have you read it? If not, great news. When you donate $15 or more to Key Life, that book is our gift to you. Just call us right now at 1-800-KEY-LIFE. That's 1-800-539-5433. You can also email Steve at [email protected] to order that book or to mail your request, go to KeyLife.org/Contact to find our mailing addresses for the US and Canada. Again, the name of the book is Three Free Sins. And finally, before you go, if you're blessed by the work of Key Life, would you help share that blessing with others through your financial support? Giving is pretty easy. You can charge a gift on your credit card or include a gift in your envelope. Or you can gift safely and securely by text. Just pick up your phone and text KEYLIFE to 28950. That's KEYLIFE, one word or two, doesn't matter. Text that to 28950, then follow the instructions. Key Life is a member of ECFA in the States and 4C in Canada, and Key Life is a listener-supported production of Key Life Network.