Would you take your Bibles and turn once again, to Zechariah chapter seven. I want to continue where we left off several weeks ago in our verse-by-verse exposition of what is many times called, "the revelation of the Old Testament." And I've entitled my discourse to you this morning, "God's Hatred of Superficial Worship." And this is the theme of verses one through 14. Let me read the passage to you, Zechariah seven, beginning in verse one,

"In the fourth year of King Darius, the word of the LORD came to Zechariah on the fourth day of the ninth month, which is Chislev.

Now the town of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regemmelech and their men to seek the favor of the LORD,

speaking to the priests who belong to the house of the LORD of hosts and to the prophets, saying, 'Shall I weep in the fifth month and abstain, as I have done these many years?'

Then the word of the LORD of hosts came to me saying,

'Say to all the people of the land and to the priests, "When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months these 70 years, was it actually for Me that you fasted?

"When you eat and drink, do you not eat for yourselves and do you not drink for yourselves?

"Are not these the words which the LORD proclaimed by the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and prosperous, along with its cities around it, and the Negev and the foothills were inhabited?"'

​Then the word of the LORD came to Zechariah saying,  

'Thus has the LORD of hosts said, "Dispense true justice and practice kindness and compassion each to his brother;

"and do not oppress the widow or the orphan, the stranger or the poor; and do not devise evil in your hearts against one another."

'But they refused to pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder and stopped their ears from hearing.

'They made their hearts like flint so that they could not hear the law and the words which the LORD of hosts had sent by His Spirit through the former prophets; therefore great wrath came from the LORD of hosts.

'And just as He called and they would not listen, so they called and I would not listen,' says the LORD of hosts;

'but I scattered them with a storm wind among all the nations whom they have not known. Thus the land is desolated behind them, so that no one went back and forth, for they made the pleasant land desolate.'"

Dear friends, you must understand that God absolutely despises self-righteous, self-serving, self-centered, hypocritical, superficial worship. And when I speak of worship, I don't mean just what we do corporately on a Sunday morning. I mean what we do even in our own hearts, in the privacy of our own homes, or wherever we go before the Lord in communion. And you must understand that the Jewish people had turned superficial worship into an art form, and God saw this ritualistic worship as we might say, all sizzle and no steak; phony, an outward show, but no inward reality; meaningless, mechanical, empty worship. We see it today in various false religions. You'll see it with the religious attire. Sometimes it's gaudy, sometimes it's plain, kind of the spiritual uniform that people will wear to somehow show the world how spiritual they are or how separate from the world they are. In fact, you will see that there is a direct correlation between religious attire and apostasy and typically, the more gaudy the attire, the more apostate the system, because it speaks of some works righteousness type of salvation that is contrary to the gospel. We see superficial counterfeit worship in many of the fringe groups of evangelicalism; you see it especially in some of the extreme, charismatic Pentecostal movements, religious version of world wrestling, typically. As I say, everybody knows it's fake, but it's entertaining. People running around like they just got up from sitting on the mound of fire ants. You know, you've seen this type of thing before. It's so sad. And then you hear the ecstatic gibberish of the false prophets and the false prophetesses, and you know, they're putting on a show with those rhythmic gasps, you know, and the quivering voices and all of this type of thing. It's as obnoxious as a Pentecostal tambourine player to me. I cannot stand it.

And you see it in the Messianic fringe groups, those people who are obsessed with strict adherence to Old Covenant observances, feasts, c convocations, celebrations, Holy Days, Sabbath rules, diets. You see them with their prayer shawls and other religious best vestments, obsessed with keeping the law. Paul addressed this in Colossians, two beginning in verse 20,

"If you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, why, as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourselves to decrees such as,

'Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch!'

(which all refer to things destined to perish with use) - in accordance with the commandments and teachings of men?

These are matters which have, to be sure, the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body but are of no value against fleshly indulgence."

And if you've been around legalists before, as I have, you will see that there's no end to the rules they will concoct. And every time you think you're obeying all those rules, and you feel good about yourself, there’s a new one. Somehow, you've got to do something else to impress God and also provide for yourself the illusion of spirituality. Because, after all, I do this and I don't do that, etc.

But dear friends, none of us are immune from this. Ask yourself, why am I here today? Are you here today because this is just kind of what you do traditionally? Are you here today because this is a habit, this is an obligation, or perhaps you're lonely, and this is a place you can come to find friendship? In many cases, church has become nothing more than a religious social club for many people. It's not a place where people are passionate about coming and worshiping the Lord and hearing from him and submitting to his word because they're so overwhelmed by his goodness and grace in their life. There's a real danger to ritualistic church attendance, even in evangelicalism when it's not a sincere expression of your heart. So there's a danger here, and many professing Christians are, unfortunately, like some of the self-loathing transgender people. They are, they will identify as a Christian, but it's really only makebelieve. There's no real substance to it. Like those in Corinth that Paul addressed in Second Corinthians, 512, quote, "who boast in appearance and not in heart." You know, are you here because you're trying to impress God/ Are you here because somehow it eases your conscience knowing the wickedness that you've indulged in all throughout the week? Or are you here consistent with what God says in Isaiah 66:2, "to this one I will look..."  In other words, this is the type of person that gets my attention, the type of person I will bless; "To him who is humble and contrite of spirit and who trembles at My word." Does that characterize your heart? I hope it does.

The Apostle Paul came out of apostate Judaism, challenged the legalistic externalism and all of the rituals that had bled into the church, they were known as the Judaizers. And again, all ofthese things were done to somehow impress God and gain his favor. And because of this, he said in Philippians three, beginning in verse three, that he,

"...put no confidence in the flesh,

athough I myself might have confidence even in the flesh. If anyone else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh, I far more."

Then he says why,

"I was circumcised the eighth day, of the nation 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 the righteousness which is in the Law, found blameless.

But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ.

More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them but rubbish, so that I may gain Christ,

and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith."

Well, this issue of superficial, phony, ritualistic, legalistic worship is as ancient as mankind; one of Satan's great deceptions to get people to obey their fallen flesh and thwart the purposes of God in their heart and mind; and that's what this text is about this morning. I've broken it down into four categories that I hope will be helpful for you. We're going to see, first of all, the common assumption of ritualism. Secondly, the counterfeit nature of ritualism. Thirdly, the command to practice righteousness. And then finally, the catastrophe of willful self-deception. And it's certainly my goal this morning, and my sincere, heartfelt desire that this text will forever shape your heart towards genuine worship so that you can enjoy all that God has for those that he has saved by his grace.

Now let me give you the context here, because it's been a while since we've been in Zechariah, and this isn't exactly the type of book that most people spend time reading. But you may recall that God has given Zechariah, and these returning Jewish exiles, a number of visions - night visions - and the first five visions that he gave them, he said, were "gracious and comforting words," promises of of material and spiritual prosperity and blessing; magnificent promises that demonstrate the fulfillment of the Abrahamic and the Davidic and the new covenants and so forth; which again underscore the central role ethnic Israel will play in the end time drama.

And then the sixth vision he gives is one of terrifying judgment that will come upon the ungodly as he purges the earth prior to the establishment of his earthly kingdom.

And then you have the seventh vision that depicts God's predetermined plan to judge the nations of the world who have embraced all of Satan's deceptions. And then finally, on the eighth vision, God reveals his future judgment upon all of the nations. And this is followed in chapter six, verses nine through 15, by a fascinating historical event with profound prophetic symbolism pointing to the future coronation of the Lord Jesus Christ.

But now we come to chapter seven. Two years have elapsed since the apocalyptic visions that God gave Zechariah. So we're two years from all of that, and much of the walls of Jerusalem were still rubble. You could look around and see desolation as far as you could look. And many of the sections of the city were still in ruins, but private homes were being built. There was some life there in the city. You could begin to see that. And the temple was about half built, so the edifice of the temple is beginning to take shape. The people could see this. There's progress. You know what it's like if you're building a home or something, and for a long time it's just dirt, and then all of a sudden you begin to see something come to life. And that's what was going on here. In fact, in Ezra, chapter six and verse 15, we read that the temple project would be completed within another two years and three months. So there were emerging signs of prosperity, and thus God's blessing after 70 years being in exile.

And so they're wondering, is our season of mourning over, or do we need to keep doing this? So the people in Bethel sends a delegation to inquire of the priests and the prophets in Jerusalem to find an answer to this, and God gives the answer to their question through Zechariah, but it was not at all what they expected. Now I want you to notice the text here, verse one, "In the fourth year of King Darius." Remember, he's the pagan ruler of the Persian Empire who had decreed that they could return and that he was going to help build the temple and so forth. And it says that in that fourth year, "...the word of the LORD came to Zechariah on the fourth day of the ninth month, which is Chislev." By the way, that would correspond to the month of December.

"Now the town of Bethel..." Bethel in Hebrew. Beth is house, el is God, "House of God"; it's a small suburb about 12 miles north of Jerusalem. "The town of Bethel had sent Sharezer," which his name means Prince of the Treasury, "and Regemmelech," which means messenger of the King, "...and their men to seek the favor of the LORD." So they make this journey now about 12 miles into Jerusalem, "and speaking to the priests who belong to the house of the LORD of hosts, and to the prophets saying," and here's their big question, "'Shall I weep...'" Grammatically in the Hebrew, it's shall I continue to weep? And the context here is weep over the past tragedy of the fall of Jerusalem. "'Shall I continue to weep in the fifth month and abstain, as I have done these many years?'" Abstain; they would abstain from normal everyday activities, and they would fast and so forth.

And I might add that the fifth month was when the city of Jerusalem fell to Nebuchadnezzar. You read about that in Second Kings 25 and verse eight. So this brings us to the first point in my little outline for you, and that is the common assumption of ritualism. You see, they assumed that this traditional ritual was honoring to God. Shall we keep doing this? But really it betrayed just the mechanical nature of it; all the external mourning, the feigned humiliation. God could see all of this.

And I also did a little study, and I noticed that the only time God even remotely implied this kind of mourning was in connection with the Day of Atonement in Leviticus 23:27 he says, "You shall humble your souls and present an offering by fire to the Lord." But I mean, this is way beyond that type of thing. But there was no divine mandate you see to, as it says, "weep and abstain," which included fasting and refraining from normal practices during that fifth month.

Now I might add, there's nothing wrong with that, if it's a sincere expression of worship. But God knew that it wasn't. Moreover, this was an onerous tradition, and we can see that in that little phrase where he says, "...as I have done, these many years." Now, clearly this annual ritual was a man-made invention that they assumed was pleasing to God; and they thought that somehow it would impress him, and it would motivate him to bless them, to shower them with blessings, bring in the kingdom, all of these types of things. But their assumption was wrong, and yet it's typical of ritualists. You see superficial worship like religious rituals and traditions and ceremonies...when they are performed as an external religious act, and the motivation is to somehow impress God and kind of manipulate him - whenever that thing is done that is horribly offensive to the Lord our God. And that's the point of this whole text, and he's about to make that abundantly clear.

This brings us to the second point in the outline, the counterfeit nature of ritualism. Notice verse four, "Then the word of the LORD of hosts came to me saying, 'Say to all of the people of the land and to the priests, 'When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months these 70 years, was it actually for Me that you fasted?'"

I might add as a footnote, you wonder, what's this? This says the fifth and the seventh months. We know that they mourned on the seventh months the assassination of Gedaliah, who was the governor at the time, in Second Kings 25:25; he was the governor that Nebuchadnezzar had appointed, and evidently, he was killed by Ishmael, who wanted to be the king and so forth. So they're fasting that as well. Or they're mourning that, as well I should say.

"So did you fast and mourn for me?" He's saying. When you were doing this, were you grieving for me and the way you have sinned against me? Were you grieving over your apostasy, your rebellion, your idolatry? Were you mourning over the way that you ignored me? Were you concerned about the reproach that you've brought to my name amongst the peoples? Were you mourning over your sin? Were you crying out for forgiveness or were all your rituals merely self-serving, self-centered, self-righteous acts of a of hypocrisy? That's why he says at the end of verse five, "'Was it actually for Me that you fasted?'"

Beloved, please understand, true fasting is the result of a heart that is so broken. I've been there. I'm sure you have too. The heart is so broken, you are so desperate for undeserved mercy and grace that you have no appetite. Sincere fasting is the natural response of a sincere heart, earnestly seeking the Lord. And that's what the Lord wanted from his people. But that's not what went on there.

I might add that the Lord addressed this, and through the prophet Jeremiah, in Jeremiah 29 beginning in verse 10,

"'Thus says the Lord, "When 70 years have been completed for Babylon, I will visit you and fulfill My good word to you, to bring you back to this place.

"For I know the plans that I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.

"Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.

"You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart,

"I will be found by you," declares the LORD, "and I will restore your fortunes and will gather you from all of the nations, from all the places where I have driven you," declares the LORD, "and I will bring you back to the place from where I sent you into exile."'"

Now I might add, many times this verse is used out of context with reference to how the Lord will bless the United States and so on and so forth. I hope you see that that is not at all the context here.

But back to the text here in Zechariah seven, and verse five, "'Was it actually for Me that you fasted?'" Verse six, "'"When you eat and drink, do you not eat for yourselves, and do you not drink for yourselves?"'" I mean, he's laying it on him here. He's exposing their hypocrisy. Their religious practices were merely acts of of self-righteous, self-serving rituals. Their celebratory feasts were designed to just fill their bellies. I mean, it was party time. It was all counterfeit worship, and they created a whole system of worship, frankly, to satisfy themselves in God's name. Talk about offensive to God and the power of self-deception. I fear, many people attend church for the same reasons. The Lord is asking, was there any thought of my glory in all of this? Was there anything in your heart that mourned over your own sin that caused all of this calamity? Was there any thought of self-abasement, of self-denial, of self-humiliation, of self-reflection in your rituals? Were you eating and drinking with a sense of reverential awe over the goodness that I have lavished upon you down through the years, and a desire to give me glory? Was that at your heart with all of this? No, I know it wasn't.

Paul addressed this in First Corinthians 10, verse 31, "Whether then you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all," what? "...to the glory of God." Colossians 3:17, "Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father."

Now God goes on to illustrate, you might say, the historical roots of this kind of depravity here in verse seven. "'Are not these the words which the LORD proclaimed by the former prophets...'" In other words, haven't you heard this before? "'When Jerusalem was inhabited and prosperous along with its cities around it, and the Negev and the foothills were inhabited?'" In other words, from north to south, the entire land. In the days of Solomon, the entire land flourished. Look at it now. Ruins as far as you can see, poverty, desolation. What happened? You rejected my word given to you through the prophets who confronted you about your hypocrisy, that led to apostasy, which led to judgment. So here we go again, and God is warning them.

You know, I'm always amazed to see how Satan can use religion, religious activity, to somehow deceive people into thinking they are pleasing God, when in fact, nothing could be further from the truth. You will recall Jesus reserved his most stinging rebukes for the scribes and the Pharisees, who, again, who had made this kind of thing an art form. Matthew 23 beginning in verse 27 we read what Jesus said to them.

"'Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which, on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness.

"'So you too, outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

"'Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous,

and say, "If we had been living in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partners with them in shedding the blood of the prophets."

​"'So you testify against yourselves that you were the sons of those who murdered the prophets.  

"'Fill up, then, the measure of the guilt of your fathers.

"'You serpents, you brood of vipers. How will you escape the sentence of hell?'"

The Apostle Paul likewise confronted the false teachers of his day and their followers in Second Timothy 3:5 he says that that you hold to, "..a form of godliness, although you have denied its power." Then he tells us, "...avoid such men as these."  It's just window dressing. Stay away from these people. Jude says the same thing, beginning in verse 12.

"These are the men who are hidden reefs in your love feasts when they feast with you without fear, caring for themselves; clouds without water, carried along by winds; autumn trees without fruit, doubly dead, uprooted;

wild waves of the sea, casting up their own shame like foam; wandering stars, for whom the black darkness has been reserved forever."

I've talked with people like this before. I've met with some of the most notorious false teachers, many of them that you would know, and I know what they're like. Their as phony as a $3 bill. And make no mistake beloved, self-serving hypocrisy will always result in self-serving lifestyles. But if you truly love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength, if it is sincere from the very core of your being, you will love your neighbor as yourself, and you will do it automatically. It will not be onerous to you. You can't help but do it because it's the Spirit of God working through you.

And this leads us now to the third point in the outline, the command to practice righteousness, God gets very specific here. This is immensely practical. "Then the word of the LORD came to Zechariah saying, 'Thus has the LORD of hosts said, "Dispense true justice and practice kindness and compassion each to his brother; do not oppress the widow or the orphan, the stranger or the poor, and do not devise evil in your hearts against one another."'" I want you to notice what he didn't say here. He didn't say start dressing more like this. Start doing this ritual more, start doing this ceremony more, act like this more in a religious way. No, it's real practical; practical ways of loving other people. And isn't it fascinating, and it should be no surprise, that God knows what's in the heart of men, including religious men and women. You see, insincere worship betrays a deceived heart. Failure to love God supremely, will inevitably result in a failure to love others. All you will do is somehow manipulate them to make you look good and feel good. Superficial worship produces superficial kindness and compassion, and superficial ritual produces self-serving justice, and that's what he's going to say here.

Think of what Jesus said in John 4:23, true worshipers will worship the Father, "'...in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.'" By the way, here, spirit speaks of the human spirit, not the Holy Spirit, and it underscores the internal, not the external; the core of the soul from which genuine worship must emanate. And the word "truth" here, in this context, refers to the truth of the incarnate Word of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, who became flesh and dwelt among us, the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth, John 11:4. He's speaking here of the truth of divine revelation found in Scripture, that is what must regulate our human spirit, not our emotions, but the truth of Scripture. You see, true worship is paying homage to God with an enlightened mind that is filled with the clear understanding of what God has said in his self-disclosure in his Word. And it's hearing this and living this with a humble heart; a heart that's overflowing with gratitude and with praise; that's what drives true, sincere worship. He says, "For such people, the Father seeks to be His worshipers." You see, all the glory of authentic worship goes to God who has made us the objects of his electing love and has drawn us unto himself. That is enough right there to just fall on your face and praise him for his undeserved love towards you. And had he not sought us, we would have never sought him. And because of his steadfast love, he continues to pursue us, not for salvation, but for sanctification, that he might conform us evermore into the likeness of Christ, his beloved Son, in whom we have been forever hidden.

That's why Paul would say in Philippians one six, "He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus." And how is he going to do that? By the power of his Spirit, through his Word. Folks, please understand, our worship is never pleasing to God unless it emanates from the very core of our innermost being and is based on the truth of who God is, as he has revealed himself in Scripture. And you will never understand that you will never see that, you will never bow before that, apart from the sanctifying work of the Spirit in your life. That's why the things of the Spirit to the natural man are foolishness and he cannot understand them. Jesus went on to say, "...and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.'" You see, there's no alternative here. This is non-negotiable. Your worship must be a valid expression of your innermost being. Now when you fake it, you may think you're impressing other people, and you might be, and you may even be deceiving yourselves thinking, well, I'm pretty good, I haven't missed church in a long time, but you're not fooling God.

Now, I want you to notice four characteristics of righteous living that he gives us here. "'Thus has the LORD of hosts'" verse nine, "'said,'" first of all, "'"Dispense true justice."'" In other words, if you want my blessing, if you want to really honor me, you don't need to be doing all this mourning and fasting stuff. How about starting with rendering legal verdicts in the courts that are based on solid evidence without impartiality? How about, even in your own interaction with other people, judge others with a passion for justice, no falsehood, no spin, no dishonesty, no personal bias. And boy, aren't we used to that? I mean, every time you turn on the news, you just don't know what to believe. They'll take something that is true and they'll spin it in such a way to make it mean something that isn't even remotely what really happened. And boy, we can all do that even with one another, if we're not careful. I mean, you hear all of this stuff. We're so used to it. I won't even give you examples. My mind starts going, you know? I mean, you can go with COVID, January 6 insurrection. I mean, just go on and on and on with all the garbage that we're used to hearing. But the point is, we can do that ourselves.

In Micah 6:8 we read, "He has told you, O man, what is good and what does the Lord require of you?" Write this down, "...but to do justice, to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God." Notice the second characteristic of righteous living, he says, "'"and practice kindness."'" It could be translated "loving kindness." In other words, show mercy towards one another. That's the idea here. Be intentional with your benevolence. Treat others as God has treated you. Practice kindness and compassion. "Raḥam" in Hebrew, it comes from "rachem" in Hebrew, which means "womb," and apparently it's carrying the idea of having brotherly affection and feeling with like he would have towards a sibling that came from the same womb, or the kind of love that a mother would have towards her child; a term very similar, by the way, to the Greek term "love" in First Corinthians 13.

And of course, none of this is possible, apart from the miracle of regeneration, whereby the spirit causes us to be born again. And as a result of that, we will long to be an intimate communion with the lover of our soul. Again, that's the work of the Spirit when that's not there. There's something bad wrong with your profession of faith.

Notice a third characteristic in verse 10, "'"and do not oppress the widow or the orphan, the stranger or the poor."'" In other words, he's saying, do not take advantage of the most helpless, the most needy, the most vulnerable of society. And you know only the most seasoned hypocrite would do such a thing. If you claim to love the Lord your God, then be like him, one who, according to Deuteronomy 10, beginning in verse 18, "...executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and shows his love for the alien by giving him food and clothing. So show your love for the alien for you were aliens in the land of Egypt." Dear Christian God measures our love for him by how we reflect his character and his compassion toward the fatherless, toward the widow, toward the alien.

And I want you to notice the intentional, hands-on, personal, face to face aspect of the ministry. You know, it's so easy for Christians to write a check and let somebody else do the ministry. It's so easy to kind of sit back and feel good about yourself because you go to a church that are doing things for other people, even though you really don't have time for it, because you're so busy. You want to ask yourself, does this reflect the moral character of God, for me to be that way? Do you merely live for yourself? If you do, if you have no compassion, if you have no burden to help those who are vulnerable, who are needy, the orphan, the widow, and so forth, I can assure you that your worship is meaningless, your religion is fake, and your profession is without merit.

You know, it's easy to be a hearer of the word, right? But it's altogether something else to be a doer of the word. James underscores this truth in chapter one, verse 27, "Pure and undefiled religion, in the sight of our God and Father, is this, to visit orphans and widows in their distress." in other words, those living in a state of mental and physical and social and economic adversity. The elders of Calvary Bible Church are very burdened about this very thing. We feel like we need to do better. We have therefore partnered with a new ministry that you'll be hearing about, called Fathers in the Field. You can look up fathersinthefield.com and see more about it. It's an evangelistic and discipleship ministry to fatherless boys ages seven through 17, as well as their mothers. It's interesting. I have learned that there are 25 million fatherless children in the United States. About half of them are boys. There are 6000 fatherless boys that attempt suicide every day in the United States. 85% of percent of men in prison have been abandoned by their fathers. High school dropouts, teen pregnancies and suicide all correlate highly with abandonment. Gangs and drug cartels are made up predominantly with men who were abandoned and raised by single mothers. Folks, this is an epidemic in our country, and we must take seriously what God has asked us to do, and we've partnered with this organization, because they've got a very, very well-organized way of helping us do a better job in coming alongside of us with a church. And again, you'll hear more about this later.

You see, folks, this is what real worship is all about. In fact, the term "worship" in the Old Testament really carries the idea of service. Isaiah one, verse 17, "Learn to do good; seek justice, reprove the ruthless, defend the orphan, plead for the widow." And God exposed the hypocritical fasting and the phony repentance of of his covenant people in Isaiah 58 beginning in verse three, "'Why have we fasted and you do not see. Why have we humbled ourselves and You do not notice?'" In other words, they're asking God, I can't believe you're not impressed with all that we're doing here. What's going on?

"'Behold, on the day of your fast you find your desire and drive hard all your workers. Behold, you fast for contention and strife and to strike with a wicked fist. You do not fast like you do today, to make your voice heard on high.

"'Is it a fast like this which I choose, a day for a man to humble himself? Is it for bowing one's head like a reed and for spreading sackcloth and ashes as a bed? Will you call this a fast, even an acceptable day to the Lord?

"'Is this not the fast which I choose to loosen the bonds of wickedness, to undo the bands of the yoke and to let the oppressed go free and break every yoke?

"'Is it not to divide your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into the house; when you seek the naked, to cover him; and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?'"

Beloved, I fear that the sting of the lash falls on all of our backs here, certainly does on mine, and I want to do more to somehow honor the Lord in this area of ministry; we're all guilty of superficial worship. MacArthur said it well, quote, "The fast that God accepts as worship is not a hypocritical ritual, but a life of righteousness and self-sacrifice, characterized by love for Him and compassion for others." And I fear, far too many Christians forfeit the joy that the Lord would have for them simply because they are not suspect of their own spirituality. And as a result, they isolate themselves in the comfort of their own fabricated religious bubble and unwittingly quench the Spirit of God in their life and forfeit blessing and joy and peace and power and all of the fruits of the Spirit.

So the Lord speaks through Zechariah in our text, and he says, I'm not impressed with your empty, self-serving, self-righteous rituals and celebrations I want you to verse nine, "'Dispense true justice and practice kindness and compassion to each to his brother.'" In verse 10, "'and do not oppress the widow or the orphan, the stranger or the poor.'" And then finally, this is the fourth characteristic of righteousness, "'do not devise evil in your hearts against one another.'" And here he speaks of the secret, and often undiscernible, sins that hide in the dark recesses of our hearts; those arrogant biases, attitudes and grudges and jealousies and immoral fantasies and the venomous forms of covetousness that lay weight within our heart for an opportunity to manifest themselves. Ah, but aren't we effective in excusing all those things because of our superficial worship? Boy, this isn't the answer they expected, right? I mean, they just asked, "'Shall I weep in the fifth month and abstain, as I have done these many years?'" The Lord's laying it on them here.

So we've seen the common assumption of ritualism, the counterfeit nature of ritualism, the command to practice righteousness, and then finally, the catastrophe of willful deception. And beloved there's like a crescendo of exposure here leading up to this confrontation, and here, Zechariah reminds them of the hard-hearted rebellion of their pre-exilic ancestors, and the judgment that they brought upon themselves. Verse 11, "'But they refused to pay attention and turn a stubborn shoulder and stopped their ears from hearing.'" You see, this is speaking of obstinate, intractable rebellion against the will and the word of God. The "stubborn shoulder" here is an interesting figure of speech that speaks of an animal that's refusing to yield to the pressure of the yoke or of the harness and thus rejecting the authority over it.

Verse 12, "'They made their hearts like flint...'" in Hebrew, "šāmîr," it could be translated "diamond," "...so that they could not hear the law and the words which the LORD of hosts had sent by His Spirit through the former prophets...'"You see, the convicting work of the Spirit, even through the prophets, is something that they don't want to hear it, so they harden their heart against it. Once you harden your heart against God, he hardens it even more. That's what I fear for many of you that hear the Gospel week in and week out. You hear it all the time as you interact with the people of Calvary Bible Church, and you still refuse to repent; and there's going to be a point in time where God will finally just give you over to the consequences of your iniquity and you will perish in your sins. What a horrific thought. They deliberately rejected the truth - what they knew to be true - and because of that, it triggered the wrath of judicial hardening. Again, you reject the truth long enough, and God will reject you.

We see this, for example, in the New Testament, counterpart in Romans, one beginning in verse 18, "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who," now catch this, "suppress the truth and unrighteousness." They know it's true, they don't want to hear it, so they suppress it. It's like trying to keep a lid on it, "...because that which is known about God is evident within them, for God made it evident to them.'" They're made in the image of God; people can see the truth, just don't like it. And as a result, there's the wrath of divine abandonment. The text goes on to say they profess to be wise, but they became fools. And then in verse 24 and following, we read how that he gives them over individually as well as socially, as well as a nation, to a progression of judgment. First comes him giving them over to sordid immorality, which is a violation of God's moral order. And then once you start living in that, it moves to the second stage, shameless homosexuality, which is an inversion of God's created order. And then finally, he gives people over to a depraved mind; to a shocking depravity, which is a disposition of godless corruption that would cause people to actually think a man could become a woman, and vice versa, etc. In Second Timothy four, Paul addressed the same thing, beginning in verse three, "For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine." I don't want to hear that stuff. It's divisive. It doesn't agree with what I think God really is and how I think things need to be. I don't want to hear that. I'm not going to endure that. And it says, "...but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires." And then it says, "...and will turn away their ears from the truth, and will turn aside to myths." And when it says, "will turn away their ears," in the Greek grammar, it's in the active voice, which means there will be a deliberate rejection; an absolute conscious refusal to hear the truth, something that you will choose to do. But the next phrase is in the passive voice. It says, "they will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths." That's where the myths will overcome you without you realizing what is happening. You're going to wander into the myths without any awareness that you have forsaken the truth and embrace that which is a lie.

And as a result of that, we've got professing evangelicals today that believe that now we've got new apostles that receive special revelation from God. A myth. People that believe in women pastors and the social justice gospel and the prosperity gospel; you've got all of the charismatic chaos. Why do you think so many professing evangelicals are woke? Inconceivable. Why would professing evangelicals embrace the lunacy of the far left? Think of it this way. Why do the far-left Democrats abandon their...why don't they abandon their immoral, insane ideologies? It's like, you know, you've got these 80/20 agreements in the country. 80% are against the things that they're for. Why do they even embrace these things? And the answer is, they have turned away their ears from the truth, and because of that, God has judicially hardened their hearts, and they have turned aside unto myths.

Well, folks, this is what happened to the ancient Israelites. Verse 12. At the end we read, "'...therefore great wrath came from the LORD of hosts. And just as He called and they would not listen, so they called and I would not listen,' says the Lord of hosts, 'but I scattered them with a storm wind among all the nations whom they have not known. Thus the land is desolated behind them, so that no one went back and forth, for they made the pleasant land desolate.'" My, dear church family, what a warning this is to all of us. What a blessing to know that God warns us and calls us to repentant  faith and obedience. And I would challenge you, in closing this morning, to examine your own heart. God hates superficial worship. I mean, it's so abundantly clear in the passages that we've looked at, and there's so many others. And you want to ask yourself, when I come to church on Sunday morning, or when I get alone with God, and hopefully you do that. I mean, if you don't, you've got even a bigger problem. You know, if the only time you ever crack your bible is when you come to church on Sunday, there's something terribly wrong with your faith. But you want to ask yourself, when I do these things, am I doing it out of duty or out of desire? Ask the Lord to show you your sin, and he will do that. And as you become increasingly aware of your own sinfulness, in contrast to the mercy and grace that you will receive, or that you have received in Christ, that true conviction will produce genuine repentance, and genuine repentance will automatically produce sincere worship, because you will be so overwhelmed by the goodness and the grace of God that you can do no other. I trust that that is the passion of your heart. Let's pray together.

Father, thank you for the eternal truths of your word. Certainly, even this ancient text speaks so directly to each of us in this day, and I pray that by the power of your Spirit, we will all find areas in our life where we must repent so that we can indeed worship you in spirit and in truth. So we give it all to you for the glory of Christ, for it's in his name that I pray. Amen.