In Matthew 23, Jesus asks three questions, that will all come into one. In studying them, we are going to visit a lot of different places, starting with an earlier question NOT asked by Jesus...
Mat 3:7 But seeing many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he (John the Baptist) said to them, O generation of vipers, who has warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
Mat 3:8 Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance;
Mat 3:9 and do not think to say within yourselves, We have Abraham as our father. For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones.
Mat 3:10 And now also, the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bring forth good fruit is cut down and cast into the fire.
Now, look at the difference Jesus puts in His question...
Mat 23:33 Serpents! Offspring of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of hell?
Three years have gone by; three years of first John, then Jesus, giving them warning. Three years in which no "fruits worthy of repentance" have gone forth. Something John McArthur said today sticks with me: Jesus spent those three years showing them what heaven on earth would be like: He ended diseases, defeated death, fed them with miraculous food, drove off demons, granted forgiveness- and for the elite of Jewish religion, nothing changed. As He works His way to this condemnation, He spells out to the Pharisees just what they are accused of:
- Hypocrisy
Mat 23:3 Therefore whatever they tell you to observe, observe and do. But do not do according to their works; for they say, and do not do.
One thing we need to make perfectly clear- this is not directed at NON-believers, but those who CLAIM they believe, yet they are not changed in the heart and soul.
- Appearance
Mat 23:5 But they do all their works in order to be seen of men... Mat 23:12 And whoever shall exalt himself shall be abased, and he who shall humble himself shall be exalted.
How do you not humble yourself before Almighty God? That's not seeking to serve God, that's seeking to BE God, just as Satan did...
Isa 14:12 How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!
Isa 14:13 For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:
Isa 14:14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.
Isa 14:15 Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.
- False teaching based on works
Mat 23:13 But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of Heaven against men. For you neither go in, nor do you allow those entering to go in.
This hits not only Jews who shut out Isaiah 53, but Mormons who live by the false Book of Mormon, and Catholics who misinterpret 2 Peter 1:20 to mean that only men with 'special dispensation' can tell us what the Bible means.
-Covering greed with false faith
Mat 23:14 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows' houses, and pray at length as a pretense. Therefore you shall receive the greater condemnation.
Men like Jim Bakker, who in times past preached of all the good things giving to HIS ministry would do, while using the money to build himself an empire. Or Creflo Dollar, who recently confessed to "misinterpreting" the scriptures that he used to claim that his followers HAD to tithe to his church. To his credit, he recently told his followers to take ALL his books on the subject and throw them away.
- Concentrating on teaching ritual
Mat 23:15 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you compass sea and the dry land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, you make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.
For the rabbis of the day, a proselyte had to be 'clipped and dipped'; that is, circumcised and baptised into following all the proper rituals. Thus, they were worse off than the Pharisees, for at least they KNEW the Word, even if they ignored it; all the proselyte had was ritual.
-Searching out the "loopholes " in the Law
Mat 23:16 Woe to you, blind guides, saying, Whoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing; but whoever shall swear by the gold of the temple, he is a debtor.
Mat 23:17 Fools and blind! For which is greater, the gold, or the temple that sanctifies the gold?
Mat 23:18 And, Whoever shall swear by the altar, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gift that is on it, he is a debtor!
Mat 23:19 Fools and blind! For which is greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifies the gift?
In this, they are making THEIR part in the service of God to be more important that GOD'S part. Jesus admonishes them to look behind the ritual to the MEANING it is supposed to represent.
- Nit picking the Law
Mat 23:23 "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.
And this is their basic flaw- they stop at the LETTER of the Law, and do not go any farther. Because the letter of the Law can be manipulated to their benefit. But Jesus here takes them to two prophetic passages- both of them, ironically, 6:6s- to show them the INTENT of the Law:
Hos 6:6 For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.
Mic 6:6 "With what shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old?
Mic 6:7 Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?"
Mic 6:8 He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
Catch that first bold part? THEY HAVE BEEN TOLD what is good....
- Not living the walk
Mat 23:27 "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones and all uncleanness.
Mat 23:28 So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.
The heart of this is that their entire basis for their 'religious appearance' is keeping clean of all these outside things that might defile them, while their hearts are the very definition of all they claim to be clean of. Their are too many examples of this to even pin it to one denomination, one pastor or priest. We all fail. But do we fail and humbly go back, seeking forgiveness? Or just put on a show?
- Believing themselves to be better
Mat 23:29 "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous,
Mat 23:30 saying, 'If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.'
Mat 23:31 Thus you witness against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets.
Mat 23:32 Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers.
"At least I'm not as bad as Hitler/Dahmer/Putin, etc, etc." By comparing yourself to others, you are saying you are COMPARABLE. If you are comparable, then you are 'guilty by association'.
This is the part YOU need to draw from this. There is a choice of how you will be judged- and you WILL be judged. The one way, you lay your works, your appearance, against others, and hope to come out better. God's reply to that is:
Isa 64:6 But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.
I just got a shock looking this up- a literal, in words of today, translation of "filthy rags" would be, forgive the phrasing, "used Kotex". Literally covered in blood of shame. The other way to be judged, then, is to be covered by the blood of redemption- the blood of Christ. Which would YOU depend on? The Pharisees depended on the first- and the result was this:
Mat 23:34 Therefore I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will flog in your synagogues and persecute from town to town,
Mat 23:35 so that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of innocent Abel to the blood of Zechariah the son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar.
Mat 23:36 Truly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.
"If you break a law, you are guilty of ALL the law"- James 2:10
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