Woe’s Pronounced on Religious Veneer

Transcript

GRM 845
04/13/2003
Woes Pronounced on Religious Veneer
Matthew 23:1-39
Gil Rugh

I want to direct your attention to the gospel of Matthew. We talk about events of Palm Sunday, and they really begin the closing week of Jesus’ life on earth, a short week because He’ll be crucified before that week concludes. And then He will be gloriously raised from the dead, so on what we call Palm Sunday He rode into Jerusalem to the acclaim of the multitude and on the following Sunday we celebrate a glorious resurrection from the dead. It’s interesting to me in the few days that there are between His coming into Jerusalem as we noted in triumph and yet in tragedy as He wept over the city. There is some very intense teaching that takes place, and we can sometimes read these sections of the gospels where Jesus is speaking and teaching and fail to appreciate this is going on within days of His impending, agonizing death on the cross. He is well aware of that. But there is a focus on His representing the living God and proclaiming the truth that God sent Him to earth to make known to men.

I want to look in Matthew chapter 23. This is the last public discourse of Jesus Christ before the crucifixion. We have what is known as the Olivet Discourse in chapters 24 and 25 of Matthew, but that is given to His disciples. So, with chapter 23 we have the closing discourse of Christ given not only to His disciples, but you’ll note in chapter 23 verse 1, Jesus spoke to the multitudes and to His disciples. Interestingly this is one of the most, if not the most, severe teaching that Christ gave that is recorded for us. There is no loss of focus in the ministry that He has as the Messiah of Israel. He doesn’t lapse into any kind of sentimentality, but there is a focus on the issues that are at hand. We’re just going to overview this chapter and in the beginning of it He draws a contrast that must be there, warning His followers not to be like the religious leaders of the day. Then He comes with a ringing denunciation of the religious leaders of Israel, a stunning condemnation declaring that they are on their way to an eternal hell. Then He’ll conclude with really a lament over Jerusalem. What a tragedy it is that God has repeatedly reached out to this nation and this nation has just as repeatedly said no. So, they are left to their deserved judgment.

Jesus is speaking in verse 1, as we mentioned, to the multitudes and to His disciples. He speaks about the Scribes and Pharisees. You know the delicate approach of being careful not to say anything offensive was not part of Jesus’ life and ministry. As you are aware we as believers are to be gracious and kind and loving. It is not our intention to purposely try to offend people, but it is our calling to be proclaimers of truth. Jesus exemplifies this here and He points out the danger facing His followers from the various religious leaders. The Scribes, their office goes back at least to the days of Ezra, and they became the meticulous examiners of the Law. But then they went beyond the Law, and they broke down all the regulations of the Law and refined them and expanded them. So that it could be sure that you kept everything that Moses wrote they multiplied all the restrictions and all the laws. In fact, when the scribes were done their writings took 50 volumes of minutia, burdens that were piled upon the people. We talk about the burdens of the Mosaic Law, but the scribes just took all that had been written in Moses’ Law and went to seed on it and all they did was add burdens to the people. The Pharisees are a well-known religious group, they are conservative in that they believe the Old Testament. They try to apply what the scribes have written, so they went beyond even the Old Testament. You often find the Scribes and the Pharisees together. The Sadducees form the third group, but they are the liberals. Remember they don’t believe in the resurrection and so on, they don’t believe most of the Old Testament, just the five books of Moses, as we’ve talked about them on other occasions.

Well Jesus said the Scribes and Pharisees have seated themselves in the chair of Moses, therefore all that they tell you do and observe, but do not do according to their deeds for they say things and do not do them. It was the responsibility of the Scribes and the Pharisees to instruct the Jews in the Law of Moses and to that extent they were to be listened to and obeyed. The Word of God was the Word of God and as those who taught the Word of God to God’s people then they were to be obeyed. When it says that you do all that they tell you, there obviously are parameters on that. Back in chapter 15 verses 3-11 Jesus elaborated on some of the inconsistencies of the Scribes and Pharisees. But as their teaching from the seat of Moses as those declaring the truth revealed through Moses, they are to be obeyed. We need to be careful we don’t look at these men and decide since we see things in their lives that oughtn’t to be there, therefore we are free to disregard the truth. And so, Jesus tells His followers they are to obey the truth that God has revealed through Moses, particularly here, and in the Old Testament. But you don’t do according to their practice.

And what do they do? They tie up heavy loads and lay them on men’s shoulders but they themselves are unwilling to move them with so much as a finger. They make demands on the people, they made serving the living God a burden, wearisome, toilsome labor. All they did was add to the burdens of the people because the people couldn’t keep the Mosaic Law. The demands of perfection and righteousness they were not able to carry out. But the scribes and Pharisees just added to those burdens, and they delighted in burdening the people, crushing them down because that made the people more dependent on them. All they did was constantly remind the people they were failures. But they then lived above everybody, and they were unwilling even to use a finger to help lift the loads that they were pressing on people. I think it’s encouraging to read here, even unto the Mosaic Law, God never intended service to Him to be a wearisome burden. If that was true in the days when the Law of Moses ruled, how much more is it today in the law of grace, the day of grace, the law of Christ as we would refer to it.

In Matthew chapter 11 verses 28-30 Jesus said “come unto Me all ye who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of Me.” The burden He brings is not heavy. It was not His intention to weight us down; God’s intention was His people would walk in a living relationship with Him and enjoy that relationship, grow in that relationship. But the religious leaders made it a burden, and so Christ rebukes and condemns them and says His disciples ought not to do those things.

Verse 5, “they do all their deeds to be noticed by men, they broaden their phylacteries and lengthen the tassels of their garments.” The phylacteries, as you are aware, were those small, leather boxes. They bound them, you can still see them, some of the news in Israel, you go to Jerusalem, you go to the Wailing Wall, they wear them, and they are little boxes bound on their forehead and it has scripture. On the back of their hand, it’s worn because Deuteronomy 6 said what? You bind the Word of God on your forehead, you bind it on your hands. They failed to understand and appreciate the truth. God’s Word is to control our activities and our lives. They’ve reduced it to physical things. The same with the tassels on their garment. They added these tassels in light of Numbers chapter 15, Deuteronomy chapter 22. The tassels were to remind the people of the commandments of God, but everything turned to a total focus on the physical and so they lengthened the tassels, more attention drawn to them. What they want is all the attention. I’ve shared with you when we were in Israel, some of you have been there, and you’re at the Wailing Wall and they come out and many of them carrying on this display. They have the phylacteries on and they’re on the wall and they’re going in their prayers like this. Everybody’s attention being drawn to me. I am a spiritual man in prayer with the Word of God bound on me. Jesus tells His followers be careful. You’ll note religion always follows that progression of deteriorating to a matter of externals and form. We lose the life of a living relationship with God and that focus on Him and His work in our lives. Pretty soon it degenerates to just the form, and then it becomes what? A wearisome burden, just so much trouble, I’m just tired of doing it. That’s what had happened in Israel. They made it a burden and wearisome thing and the religious leaders made it just a matter of form. It was a way to elevate themselves and have honor, get recognition.

“They love the place of honor at banquets, the chief seats in the synagogues,” verse 6. Not so different from many religious leaders today, incidentally. They are the rich and the powerful, the influential. They parade around in special garments and are to be treated with reverence and awe as though they function on this level and everybody else functions here. They like the respectful greetings in the marketplaces, being called by men, rabbi, which means simply teacher. They want to be respected as the learned ones. Now Jesus says to them, this ought not to be true of you. Now that doesn’t mean there can’t be teachers, there aren’t people that we learn from. But we’re not creating levels here, in that sense. We are all sinners saved by grace and God gives different responsibilities to different ones. But even though we have different positions and different responsibilities we are all equal, the same in that sense, before the Lord—people that have been redeemed by His grace.

Jesus says in verse 8, “do not be called rabbi, for one is your teacher and you are all brothers.” We are not looking for ways to elevate and exalt ourselves. I John chapter 2 verse 27 says that “you do not need anyone to teach us, we have the Holy Spirit as our teacher.” That’s carrying it to the ultimate source of where teaching comes. I am one who is to be a teacher of the Word to the people of God, but we all have to recognize, and I have to keep that in mind as well. The ultimate teacher is the Holy Spirit. Without His work nothing is done through my talking, and so it would be true in any of our positions. There is not the elevating in that wrong sense, of exalting men and revering them and having them take to themselves positions of honor and glory.

“Do not call anyone on earth your father, for one is your father, He who is in heaven.” Now again, the Bible teaches respect for our human fathers. Paul a couple of times uses the analogy, I Corinthians chapter 4 verse 15, I Timothy chapter 1 verse 2, that “he has been like a father.” But you don’t find Paul declaring a superior, elevated position in the sense of the arrogance that Jesus is talking about here. We recognize it’s the grace of God that saved us. As Paul said, “I am what I am by the grace of God, I am the chiefest of sinners saved by the grace of God, I was one who persecuted the church, and He saved me by His grace.” He’s dealing with these ideas of exalting ourselves and so creating different levels. There are people here, and then there are people here. He says do not be called leaders, for one is your leader, that is Christ. Again, there are positions established in the church, there are responsibilities given to different individuals. One of those hearing what Christ is saying is the man Peter who played such a dominant role through the early years of the church’s history, the opening chapters of the book of Acts and a unique apostle of God. But we all recognize Peter as a redeemed sinner like us. Even though there are different responsibilities given, these are not given to create different classes among God’s people, the upper class of God’s people who are more holy, more spiritual and closer to God than others because we are all priests. Any religion that would create classes of priests demonstrates the heresy of that group. Because all believers in Jesus Christ come what? With boldness before the throne of grace. I don’t need someone else to intercede on my behalf. Now I appreciate believers who intercede before the throne of grace for me, and we do pray for one another. But that’s different than saying I need to go to some special person because they had a special “in” with God that I don’t have. If they pray for me God will really listen to them. There are only two groups of people, those who belong to the living God and those who do not, those who have been redeemed by God and those who have not. We need to be careful about the artificial distinctions that create a wrong view. Soon we become entrenched in those and then we begin to think that way. You are all people, but I am the pastor. Well, I have the position of the pastor in this church, which makes me what? That gives me certain responsibilities I am obligated to carry out before the Lord. Does that give me a closer relationship to God than you? Does that make me more spiritual, more holy or closer to God than you? No. A reason that I could be proud that I am more important in the work of God than you? No, I am a redeemed sinner like you. You are a redeemed sinner like me. We do what we do by the grace of God as His servants.
“Jesus is condemning because as true spiritual life drains out, then the physical things become more important. The pomp and circumstance, the form becomes the center of what goes on, and soon religion is just that shell of form. That’s where Israel is, led by proud, arrogant men. Jesus reminds them in verse 11, the greatest among you shall be your servant. Whoever exalts himself shall be humbled, whoever humbles himself shall be exalted.” This is a repeated emphasis in the New Testament on our responsibility to serve one another. Doesn’t that help tremendously? We all battle with pride, even as the redeemed people. If we lose our focus that I am a servant pretty soon I am concerned with how much I am appreciated, whether I'm given important enough responsibilities, and on it goes. But if I say my calling is to be a servant, then whatever responsibilities I have they are carried out in that realm. My concern is to live humbly before the Lord, doing what He has called me to do.

Look over in Luke before we look at some things in the last part of this chapter. In Luke chapter 18, Luke chapter 18 you see something of the attitude that Jesus is addressing here. Arrogance and pride are a manifestation of rebellion against God, is it not? God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble. Here you see an example in the parable Jesus told in Luke 18 verse 9. “He told this parable to certain ones who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and viewed others with contempt.” You see the attitude He’s dealing with and the example of the one who trusted in himself that he was righteous and viewed others with contempt is a Pharisee here. “Two men went up to the temple, one a Pharisee and the other a tax-gatherer,” the scum of the earth, a low-life. “The Pharisee stood and was praying thus to himself, God, I thank you that I am not like other people, swindlers, unjust, adulterers, even like this tax-gatherer.” Look how religious he is. “I fast twice a week, I pay tithes of all I get.” The tax-gatherer is aware of his unworthy, sinful condition. “God be merciful to me the sinner.” It’s the tax-gatherer who returned home forgiven, the Pharisee nothing. You know this attitude, doesn’t it come how often even as God’s people and we find ourselves thinking, we see someone, and they are disgusting to us. How could they be such a sinner, how could they do such things? I don’t even like to be around such people. If I’m not careful I begin to think what? I am so much better than they are, I would never be a vile person like they are, I am so holy I don’t even want to be defiled by their presence. I’m not saying that we don’t find sometimes the activities of unbelievers’ offensive, there are certain things we don’t want to be around. But I want to be careful that I don’t cross that line. What am I? I am a sinner redeemed by grace. But for the grace of God, I would probably be more wretched and vile than they are. I mean you know we’re believers, but we sometimes get the idea you know there are sinners down here and those of us, we never did do the bad things. I never was an immoral thief and so I wasn’t as sinful as they are. Where does that come from? God said I was sinful enough to deserve an eternal hell, I was sinful enough to be His enemy. Can I parade around, I’m redeemed, I’m not a vile person like they are, I don’t even want to be around them. I don’t want to be a partaker of what they do, but you know the Master that we serve was known as what? A friend of sinners. He went and ate with them, and you know who it was who couldn’t believe it? The religious leaders. Don’t you know these are sinful people? If you’re really holy you don’t want them to touch you, if you’re really holy you’ll know that that’s not what defiles you and you are there to reach out. Jesus said He did not come to call the righteous, He came to call sinners.

Now as those who represent Him in the world it’s nice that we have our holy huddles and we all appreciate the reinforcement that comes from the fellowship of believers, but I’m glad somebody reached out from their holy huddle and brought me the gospel. I think somebody reached out from their holy huddle to some of you. I know you were not always such nice people. You know we were all sinners until God redeemed us by His grace. So that attitude that Jesus is condemning here is an attitude of people who have not understood the marvelous of God in redemption.

Having warned His followers in Matthew 23 of what they are not to be like, don’t be like these people, He turns to address those people with the most riveting condemnation you will find anywhere in the teaching of Christ. The only thing that parallels this is on the two occasions when Jesus physically drove out the money-changers from the temple. Here He pronounces seven woes, eight woes if you count verse 14, which is not in the better manuscripts of Matthew. But it is found in other gospels, so it’s not an issue of whether it’s a part of Scripture. The issue is, was it part of Matthew’s gospel as he originally wrote it. He brings stunning condemnation, and you’ll note the word woe that begins verse 13, verse 14, verse 15, verse 16, verse 23, verse 25, verse 27, verse 29. Woe, woe, woe. Condemnation on the religious people and particularly the religious leaders because they are an obstacle to God’s work. I was listening to a religious apostate who has become more acceptable among evangelicals today this morning as I was getting ready for church. What a travesty, what a tragedy, what an obstacle to men and women coming to know Jesus Christ. Jesus addresses the religious leaders of His day. He begins in verse 13 and we’re going to go quickly here, “woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites.” Now you’ll note who He is addressing, He’s addressing the best that we have, humanly speaking, at this time. These are the people who wouldn’t commit sexual immorality, that wouldn’t practice homosexuality let alone heterosexuality, who looked down on the paganism of the Romans and their practices, who stood for the Mosaic Law and far more. These at least you would say are the “good” people of the day, the moral people, humanly speaking, of the day. Now keep in mind if you were going to go through the Roman empire the Scribes and Pharisees would be about as good as you could find. If you looked at the practice you’d say well they may not be genuine but they’re good people, they sure keep the standards of the community high, they sure appreciate the importance of the family, they sure appreciate the need for morality, they sure, and one we go. You know what? Jesus never spoke of anyone like He speaks of these people. Woe to you Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. You are just playing role, you are play-acting, you’re pretending. You’ll note Jesus did not see this veneer of righteousness as something positive like we do when moralism begins to take over and even the people of God are comfortable with the moralism as they try to reform society rather than bring a message of redemption.

You are hypocrites because you shut off the kingdom of God from men. You do not enter yourselves, and you are not allowing those who are entering to go in. They become an obstacle. Look over in John chapter 9, John chapter 9 verse 22. We just have to break in here, but you’ll get the idea anyway. “His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews,” note this, “for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone should confess Him to be Christ they should be put out of the synagogue.” I mean that is a serious sentence. Cut you off from all social involvement, I mean you are ostracized. They are unwilling to believe the truth of the Messiah of Israel and they’re doing everything they can to keep people from Him. I was reading an article, I believe it is in this weekend’s paper, a statement by an apostate religious leader in our own city, the things he had said found acceptance in a group he was talking to. I thought of this man, what an obstacle to people coming to the truth, what an obstacle to people knowing the living God. Satan is brilliant, and we as God’s people need to be careful, we don’t become comfortable with moralism, religiosity. You know we’re just glad with the decadence that goes on that there are people that at least have standards. Well then, we need to come and read Matthew 23, what Jesus has to say about such people.

“Woe to you Scribes and Pharisees,” back in Matthew 23:14, “you devour widows’ houses even while for a pretense you make long prayers. You will receive greater condemnation.” As I mentioned this is not in the better manuscripts of Matthew, but it is found in Mark 12:40, Luke 20:47, so it is Biblical truth. It may not have been written by Matthew here, may have been carried over in later manuscripts from the other gospels. The point is that these religious leaders are acting underhandedly. You know they always want to look good, but at heart they are just depraved sinners, never having been made new by the power of God. But they go through more form. We find this in what is going on in the Roman Catholic church, is that veneer. I recently read a book by a person who had gone through the process of divorce in the Roman Catholic church and then annulment, really, and the whole hoax of over 60,000 annulments given in the United States in the Roman Catholic church, a church that parades itself as being for marriage and the sanctity of marriage, and the whole hoax of this. It is unfolded and the veneer people go through. What a sham when we see the corrupt immorality goes through, but through it all we are the people of God. You see what is going on here, nothing is new, nothing has changed. The devil puts on a veneer, looks as good as he can with his people and deludes people.

“Woe to you,” verse 15, “Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. You travel about on sea and land to make one proselyte, one convert.” A proselyte was someone who became a full convert to Judaism, and the Jews would do anything to reach out and convert a Gentile, and a proselyte became a full convert, submitted to the Mosaic Law, submitted to circumcision, became a full-fledged convert to Judaism. You know what Jesus says? When he becomes a proselyte, “you make him twice as much the son of hell as yourself.” Is this pretty strong language? Woe to you hypocrites and you zealously go about to make converts and you know what you have when you’re done? Someone who is twice as much the convert of hell. I mean it probably cleaned up his life, he’s probably living as a better person than he lived, he’s probably quit practicing immorality and those vile sins. Jesus says he is worse off, “twice as much the convert of hell as you yourselves are.” We know what that is like. Anybody harder to reach than somebody who has been converted to a false religion? It’s worse. We say well at least they’re practicing religion, at least now they’ve got their family together, at least they have quit getting drunk, at least they’ve…….What do you mean? At least they’ll be more comfortable going to hell. Whoever said we help people by cleaning up the outside? That is Phariseeism. Well, it may not be the ultimate good, but it is good, isn’t it? Isn’t it better to live in a society where people aren’t immoral and don’t get drunk? Well, we’re not dealing with that kind of good, folks. In just what way is it good to go to hell? It’s easier to reach the low sinner than it is the self-righteous religious person.

“Woe to you blind guides who say whoever swears by the temple, that is nothing. But whoever swears by the gold of the temple he is obligated.” I mentioned Roman Catholic annulment and I just use them as an example because they are a clear example within Christendom today that we are all familiar with. All the gymnastics they go through for annulment, so that the Roman church can maintain authority on who is eligible for sacraments and forgiveness, and it is all a shell game. Just like the Jews did. Well, you take an oath, if your oath was on the basis of the temple, you are not fully obligated to that oath, but if your oath was here you are obligated. What kind of silliness is this? We’d say you think the Jews really went by this? “Whoever swears by the temple that is nothing, but whoever swears by the gold of the temple he is obligated.” How did people ever do that silliness? But how do almost a billion people go through the silliness that the church says well if you apply here and the right people in the church say oh yes you are free from all obligations, you were never really married even though these children will not…..I say does anybody ever believe this? Yes, because when you don’t have the truth of the Word of God and the liberating gospel of Jesus Christ you become bound by the rules of men. There is a fear, your eternal destiny. In the book I was reading one well-known member of a well-known family, if I mentioned his name, you would know him well, all he went through to get an annulment. Why? My second wife cannot partake of the sacraments if I don’t get this annulment. Well, you understand it doesn’t matter whether she partakes of those sacraments or not. It does to him because he thinks eternity is at stake, a going through ritual in form.

“Woe to you blind guides, you fools and blind men,” verse 17. Shows the ridiculousness of their system. People think oh you shouldn’t say these things, you shouldn’t offend people. You know I want to be like my master. Jesus is giving His last public discourse. You think He’d be talking about, you know, things that wouldn’t be offensive to people. You know he had a lot of points of contact with the Jewish leaders. Let’s talk about things we can agree on, let’s talk about what issues really are, bottom-line issues—heaven and hell, those who are going to go into the kingdom the Messiah will ultimately establish, and those who are going to go into an eternal hell. Let’s not play games, let me tell you where you are. As I’ve shared before, I cannot keep from offending the non-elect, and by God’s grace the elect are not offended. The truth of God draws the elect and it continually offends the non-elect. Jesus calls them again blind men; He shows the foolishness of their laws on oaths. I mean your yes should be yes, your no should be no, you word should matter. When you take an oath it’s not a matter of oh do you have it like the kids’ game, I had my fingers crossed, I had my feet crossed, it didn’t count. So, I could give you the idea I was agreeing to something, but I really wasn’t. I had my fingers crossed and we play these games under the guise of being spiritual, of having spiritual insight.

“Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites.” I mean I have to keep saying this, but I am amazed. Jesus is talking about the “goodest” people of the day. I mean we’re talking about a Roman Empire that we all think of as proverbial almost for its decadence, Roman emperors who were setting the standards for the level of filth and vileness that we don’t even like to talk about publicly. Jesus is selecting the Pharisees and Scribes for His most ringing denunciation. “Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, you tithe mint and dill and cumin and have neglected the weightier provisions of the law—justice, mercy, faithfulness. These are the things you should have done without neglecting the others. You blind guides, you strain out a gnat and swallow a camel.” Both the gnat and the camel are unclean animals according to the Law, and you’re concerned about the gnat, and you swallow a camel. You see what happens as people move more away, drift away from the truth of God and commitment to the living God, the more they can become concerned with the things that are not important and the less concerned they are with the things of greatest importance. Dare I say this is happening in the church of Jesus Christ today, where there is less emphasis on the serious dealing with the scriptures, and more dealing with things that I’m not saying we shouldn’t do, but they are not the matter of greatest importance. The people of God busy themselves with the dill, the mint and the cumin. There is a place, Jesus said you don’t neglect that, but you ought to focus on the main things. We need to learn lessons as the people of God. You know what happens as we lose our hold of God’s truth and the commitment, things become more superficial and pretty soon more and more unbelievers become part of the church, part of the evangelical world, things become more shaped by them, and we’re concerned more about these things. And the truth of God is pushed more and more to the fringe. When it is used and how it is used is not a concern, to be faithful to it as God gave it.

Verse 25, “Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. You clean the outside of the cup and the dish but inside they are full of robbery and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee first clean the inside of the cup and of the dish and then the outside of it may become clean.” You can see what we’re talking about here, the moralism. You know what moralism does, reforming movements, let’s clean people up, let’s get them to stop drinking, dress decently, get a haircut, brush their teeth and get a job and take care of their family. We’ve cleaned up the outside of the cup, we’ve made them look good. But Jesus said the issue is the heart. Matthew 7, “out of the heart come all the sinful things,” so clean up the inside first. You know what happens? The outside gets taken care of because out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. It’s out of the abundance of the heart that practice comes. People say oh you’re not concerned about abortion, you’re not concerned about this, you’re not concerned about that. I am. I’m so concerned I only want to deal with the heart of the matter that will stop it. You know what happens when a person is redeemed by God’s grace? “Old things pass away, behold new things come.” II Corinthians 5. “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature, a new creation.” No, I don’t have any time to try to reform the conduct of unregenerate people, and the church is not being called to a ministry of reformation but a ministry of redemption.

“Woe to you Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites.” You know sometimes, you would like to bring (who should I say?), bring your Lutheran friends (forgive me Lutherans if you’re here), but all I said through the whole sermon, woe to you Lutherans, hypocrites; woe to you Lutherans, hypocrites; or woe to you Baptists, hypocrites. That’s what Jesus is doing. Here you have a crowd, last-time crowd, His last public discourse and this repeated refrain. “Woe to you hypocrites, woe to you Scribes and Pharisees,” verse 27, hypocrites. Now it is really getting bad because the Jews could appreciate defilement. You know if you touched a dead body or the bones of a dead person you were defiled. “You are like white-washed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful but inside they are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. Even so you too outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.” You are like a tomb, and you can paint the tomb, make it look good, but you know what is inside a tomb? Dead men’s bones. You Scribes and Pharisees you look good. Compared to the average Roman citizen, perhaps, you look great. Compared to the rulers like Herod’s family or the Roman emperor, you look like the saintliest saints. But you know what you really are? You are defiled, everything on the inside of you is wretched, you are just like a grave.

Then their condemnation in verse 29, “they adorn and build the tombs of the prophets.” What we always want to do is revere those of the past and not really be like them. You build the tombs of the prophets and what they’re really saying is oh we wouldn’t have persecuted the prophets like our fathers did, like our ancestors did. But you do. Verse 31, the end of verse 29 where they said they wouldn’t have shared in that, then verse 30, “you bear witness against yourselves. You’re the sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up the measure of your fathers. You serpents, you brood of vipers, how shall you escape the sentence of hell? Therefore, behold I am sending you prophets, wise men and scribes. Some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues, persecute from city to city, that upon you may fall the guilt of all the righteous blood on earth, from the righteous blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah will come upon this generation.” Isn’t it amazing how self-righteous they could be? Oh, we wouldn’t have been like our fathers and our ancestors that persecuted the prophets. They are about to execute the Son of God Himself. The next day or two they are going to nail Him to a cross. Proud that they would not be like the sinners of the past who persecuted the prophets, and they are going to execute the Son of God. Now we’ve studied the book of Acts. What did they do? They persecuted those that Christ sent to bear testimony. So, the righteousness is a veneer.

“Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her. How often I wanted to gather your children together the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling. Behold your house is being left to you desolate. I say to you from now on you will not see Me until you say blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.” That’s a quote from Psalm 18, which we referred to in our consideration of Matthew 21 in the Triumphal Entry, same Psalm quoted there. There’ll come a day in Israel’s future when Israel will be brought to its knees and redemption will come to the nation. That will be after the rapture of the church, after the 7-years’ tribulation. God’s program with Israel will be completed.

What a tragedy, they were unwilling. What a tragedy, we move through 2000 years of the church’s history. Remember what Paul wrote to Timothy? The time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, they won’t want sound teaching, but they’ll heap to themselves teachers having itching ears. Teachers will say the kind of things they want to hear. He’s talking about the church. How sad that we mimic the pattern that overtook the people of God, Israel, when they ended up abandoning their God but going through the form. The church of Jesus Christ needs to learn, needs to appreciate the necessity of maintaining a focus on the reality of it all. The issue is heaven and hell, the issue is the truth of God, and the most moral, upright, righteous people of this city are lost and on their way to hell without the salvation that comes through faith in Jesus Christ. May God forbid that we should ever get caught up in the moral reforms of the day. We are entrusted with the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ that will transform our hearts. God forbid that you should sit in this church and think because you have a veneer of righteousness that it makes you acceptable to God. If your heart has not been changed then you fool yourself as a hypocrite. You can fool others, but the only one who matters is the one who will be the judge of all men. May God grant us the courage to proclaim His truth, to honesty submit ourselves to the searchlight of His Word.

Let’s pray together. Thank you, Father, for your truth. Thank you that your Word is alive and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword. It pierces into the inner resources of our heart and soul. Thank you that the gospel is your power for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Gentile. Lord, thank you for calling us to yourself and the salvation that is found in Jesus Christ. Thank you for entrusting us with the glorious gospel. We have this treasure in earthen vessels so that all the glory for all that is accomplished may come to you. Lord give us a boldness in these days as we await the return of our Lord and Savior, to speak in love and kindness, in gentleness, understanding that at one time we, too, were lost and without hope in the world. We, too, were the vile enemies of the God that we now serve. God give us a boldness to confront men and women with truth and beg them in Christ’s stead to be reconciled to God. We pray in Christ’s name. Amen.