SERMON: GNATS AND CAMELS

HOW TO BE A BAD CHRISTIAN:GNATS AND CAMELS
Preached by Gregory W. Lee
27 May 2007

I. Introduction
-- turn in Bibles to Matthew 23

23. "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices--mint, dill and cummin. 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.
24. You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.

-- in his book, A Gentle Thunder, (Word, 1995, pp. 139-140) Max Lucado wrote about this man who was going on a trip and saw someone carrying a Bible -- “Are you a believer?” the first man asked the second -- “Yes,” he said excitedly
-- the first man knew you couldn't be too careful -- just because you carry a Bible and say you're a believer doesn't mean it's true -- so he continued to ask probing questions
-- “Virgin birth?” he asked.’ -- “I accept it.”
-- "Deity of Jesus?” -- “No doubt.”
-- “Death of Christ on the cross?” --“Absolutely.”
-- Could it be that he was actually face to face with a Christian? -- Perhaps. -- but, nonetheless, he continued his checklist.
-- “Status of man.” -- “Sinner in need of grace.” -- “ Definition of grace.” -- “God doing for man what man cannot do.
-- “Return of Christ.” -- “Imminent.”
-- “Bible?” -- “Inspired.” -- “The Church?” -- “The body of Christ.”
-- the first man started getting excited. -- “Conservative or liberal?” -- his fellow traveler was getting interested, too. -- “Conservative.” -- his heart began to beat faster.
-- “Heritage?” -- “Southern Congregationalist Holy Son of God Dispensationalist Triune Convention.” -- the first man was amazed -- that was his own heritage
-- “Branch?” -- “Pre-millennial, post-trib, noncharismatic, King James, one-cup communion.” -- the first man's eyes misted -- he had only one other question. -- “Is your pulpit wooden or fiberglass?" -- “Fiberglass,” the other man responded.
-- the first man withdrew his hand, stiffened his neck, and hissed back -- “Heretic.”

-- isn't it amazing how much attention we give to the little things that don't even matter? -- in this illustration from Max Lucado, these two men couldn't accept each other as believers just because of the type of pulpit they had in their church -- and while we all know that this illustration is a little far-fetched, it's not really that far-fetched
-- we've all heard about the churches that split over the color of the carpet -- or the people that left a church because someone didn't call when they were sick -- or any of a number of other small things that happen from day to day in the life of a church
-- and while we may laugh and joke about churches breaking up over the color of carpet, the sad thing is that it's true -- that churches do break up over stupid little stuff just like this day in and day out while at the same time they pay no attention to the major things of life
-- this morning we are continuing our series on how to be a bad Christian, using as our source text Matthew 23, where Jesus condemns the Pharisees and the teachers of the law for various problems in their lives
-- this morning, we find ourselves looking at the fifth way to be a bad Christian -- namely, to make big deals out of small things and to make small deals out of the big things

II. Scripture Lesson (Mt 23:23-24)
-- in these verses, we see Jesus condemning the Pharisees for doing just that -- if you would look back at verse 23 and let's look at these verses in a little more detail

23. "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices--mint, dill and cummin. 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.

-- keep in mind that when Jesus spoke these words to the Pharisees and the teachers of the law and His disciples, the nation of Israel was still following the law that had been handed down to them by God through Moses
-- the law was not the problem -- the law was good because it was given by God -- Paul makes that point clear in the books of Romans and Galatians -- in Romans 2:20, Paul writes that the law was the embodiment of knowledge and truth -- and in Romans 7:12, it says, "the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good" -- but it was not the law that saved
-- the purpose of the law was to point us to the Christ who would provide salvation -- in Romans 3:20, Paul says that it is through the law that we became conscious of sin -- it defined for us what transgression was so that we might recognize the sin in our life -- and it made us aware of our need for a Savior because we realized that we could never live up to the law's righteous demands
-- in Galatians 3:24 we read that this is why the law was given -- it was put in charge of us to lead us to Christ
-- as one scholar put it, the law "convinces us of our own insufficiency and in the end compels us to admit that the only thing that can save us is the grace of God, leading us to the cross and to the grace of Christ" (Barclay, 1976)
-- ever since the nation of Israel was given the law through Moses, it had been looking past the law to the Messiah who would come and fulfill the law -- it had been looking for the One who would enable the people to adhere fully to the righteous demands of the law

-- now the problem with the Pharisees is that they had begun to focus on the law as the means to holiness and righteousness -- they felt that if they could just keep the law and do everything to avoid breaking a command, then they would be considered holy by God
-- that was the reason why they added over 1,500 additional regulations to the law -- not just to burden down the people -- but to help make sure that everyone would keep the law perfectly
-- it was their zeal for the law that caused them to tithe on everything they had -- not only would they tithe on their income -- on the money they earned -- but they even tithed on the herbs that they grew in their garden to season their food
-- Jesus says here that they would literally measure out their spices -- their mint and their dill and their cumin -- and they would give 10% of their spices as an offering to the Lord
-- but, they were so focused on the minute details of the law, that they forgot the purpose and intention of the law -- to lead them to the Savior who would enable them to enter into a relationship with God -- to give them to power to truly love the Lord their God with all of their heart and mind and soul and to love their neighbor as themselves
-- Jesus calls the Pharisees and the teachers of the law "hypocrites" in this verse because they worried more about measuring out their spices than they did on the weightier issues of the law -- namely, justice, mercy, and faithfulness
-- as J. Vernon McGee writes, "it was these weighter matters of the law that would have brought these men to the person of Christ" -- in other words, one reason why the Pharisees and the Saduccees missed seeing Jesus as the Messiah when He came the first time was because they were too busy looking at the trees and missing the forest -- they were looking at the littlest jot and tittle of the law and didn't notice the One it was pointing to
-- Jesus agreed that it was important to tithe -- Malachi 3:8-10 points out that neglecting to tithe and to give from your firstfruits is robbing God -- but He condemned them for paying more attention to some parts of the law and not the others -- especially because they neglected the more important issues of justice and mercy and faithfulness

-- verse 24

24. You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.

-- as another example of how zealous the Pharisees were towards the law, they would strain their wine before drinking it so they would not swallow some insect that the law said was "unclean"
-- Jesus says that they would go to such great lengths as that to avoid breaking the law -- being careful to avoid small faults -- but yet they did not hesitate to commit the greatest sins -- lest we forget, it was the Pharisees who paid Judas to betray Jesus and who condemned an innocent man to death on the cross
-- they would keep the gnats out and swallow camels whole, thinking nothing of the hypocrisy of their actions
-- Jesus points out to them that they should not just focus on getting the small things right -- or the things they like to obey right -- but that they should give equal balance to all matters of the law -- both the small and the large -- both the gnat and the camel

III. Closing: Our Gnats and Camels
-- it sometimes amazes me just how much like the Pharisees we can be in our approach to church and to life as Christians
-- we've already talked about the extremes on this issue -- how some churches have split over matters of no importance -- like the color of carpet -- but do we do the same in our churches and in our lives? -- do we spend more of our time and focus on little things and less than we should on more important issues?
-- when you look at what we are called to do as a people and as the body of Christ -- we have five over-arching purposes -- to worship God -- to evangelize others -- to disciple people -- to minister to people in Christ's name -- and to fellowship with one another
-- do we spend more time in one of these areas than the others? -- for instance, do we spend more time and energy on getting ready for a covered dish dinner than we do on telling people about Christ?
-- a pastor in Florida recently wrote that "if you love potlucks more than Jesus, then you've got a problem" -- by focusing too much on things like this are we telling God that they are more important than Him?
-- do we spend more time and energy preparing a children's program at Christmas than we do in helping others mature in their faith?
-- do we focus too much internally on ourselves and on the church facilities at the expense of reaching out to others?
-- I think the answer is, "Yes" -- I think we all do this from time to time -- I know in my personal devotional life there are times when I get out of balance -- when I focus too much of my energy into one area of my Christian life while neglecting another
-- for instance, right now I have been focusing on my education and getting my assignments completed for Course of Study this summer and I have been neglecting my quiet time with God
-- the question to you this morning is what have we been neglecting in our churches and in our lives? -- what camels have we let slip by us while we've been straining gnats?
-- Jesus' message to the Pharisees in this passage was to live a balanced life -- to seek to be holy in all areas of their lives -- not just in one small area -- and not to focus on just one thing -- but to be holy and obedient in all areas
-- if we don't do this, we can easily end up like the men in our opening illustration -- letting a small thing like the type of material a pulpit is made out of separate us from fellowship with each other -- or like any number of other churches, who split over the color of carpet or vinyl siding versus painting the exterior or any of a thousand other things
-- our call this morning is to be balanced and to keep the important things first and foremost in our lives
-- with that in mind, we are going to join together this morning in Holy Communion -- to come together as one people with one mind and one Lord -- to confess our sins and all of those little things that we have allowed to keep us from living our lives fully for Christ -- and to come before Christ for cleansing and healing and renewing of our bodies and our minds and our spirits
-- I'm going to close in prayer, and then we'll sing the last hymn together as I prepare the table -- if anyone feels led to physically come before the Lord, the altar will be open as always for you to have a special time with Him as we close our service
-- Let us pray