Eight Woes

We looked at Matthew 23 last time, and we're going to continue Matthew 22-23 today. So I've entitled this Christ's Fifth Discourse, and in this case it's Eight Woes. We're going to talk about eight woes that Christ brings out in Matthew 23. As I said last time, we covered Matthew 23, verses 1-12. We began by talking about God's standard of leadership in the church. God has a certain expectation of leaders, and that expectation hasn't changed.

It continues to this very day. And also, Christ talked about how His disciples are to relate to the religious leaders of a nation, and how they're to relate to each other. And we're all still in that process. In the section we're going to cover today, Christ addresses the religious leaders of that day. So He talks about them and certain things that they were not doing well. And we can say, well, He's just talking to them.

This has no meaning for me. But as you think about it, it does have meaning for all of us, because we can be guilty of the very things that the religious leadership was guilty of. And we want to learn the lessons that Christ is imparting to us, and then avoid where they fell short.

And we need God's help in order to do that. And interestingly, Christ gives the message here in Matthew 23, just a few days before the Passover. So He's giving this right before His final Passover, right before He was crucified. God said in the Old Testament that He would judge the wicked to their face. And here is the God of the Old Testament with these people confronting them and dimming them to their very face. And it is interesting what He has to say and the lessons that He's seeking to impart to them. And as I said, Christ spells out in the section we're going to cover today of Matthew 23, 8, Woes.

He pronounces 8 Woes on the religious leadership of the Jews, the scribes, and the Pharisees. So let's begin in Matthew 23, and let's look at verse 13. Matthew 23, and we'll begin in verse 13. It says, But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! So He calls them hypocrites, for you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men. For you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in. It's interesting.

They prevented others going in to the kingdom they weren't going in, and they prevented others. And it's interesting as you think about what Christ says here. You might keep your finger there in Matthew 23, and turn over to Luke 11 and look at verse 52. And chapter 11, verse 52. It says, Woe to you, lawyers, for you have taken away the key of knowledge. You did not enter in yourselves and those who were entering in you hindered.

You're not going in, and you actually hindered those others who were headed in that direction. It's a, and Luke gives us a parallel account. It's interesting that those who were entering the kingdom were hindered by these men. And when it talks about lawyers, it's talking about those who were the authoritative interpreters of the Mosaic law. They were trained in the law, and they were to teach the people of God the law. And when you look at Luke and you look at what he has to say about the scribes and Pharisees, those authoritative individuals, those authoritative individuals who interpret the law, he's quite condemning.

He's more condemning even than Matthew. These leaders rejected God's purpose for themselves by refusing John's baptism. And we'll look at that in a minute. Let's just continue in Luke 11 and look at a couple of verses here that help to bring this point of his condemnation of these leaders out. Let's look at verses 45 and 46. He says, Then one of the lawyers answered and said to him, Teacher, by saying these things, you reproach us also?

I mean, absolutely, I'm reproaching you by the way you guys are acting, and by the things that you are doing to try to hinder God's work. Verse 46, he says, Woe to you also, lawyers, for you loath men with burdens, hard to bear, and you yourselves do not touch the burdens with one of your fingers. So you come up with all these rules and regulations, supposedly from the oral law. You put them on the people of God, and you won't do them. And I think all of us get frustrated when people put rules and regulations on us, and then they don't do them.

They tell us things that we're supposed to be doing, and then they don't actually do them themselves.

It's hard to do it when those people telling you to do it don't do it.

And it doesn't mean you shouldn't do it, but it's harder to do when you know that that IRS agent isn't actually paying his taxes.

Oh, why should I? You're the guy that's coming out here to audit me. Let's look at verse 52. Verse 52 of Luke 11, it says, Woe to you, lawyers, for you have taken away the key of knowledge.

So that wasn't their job to take away the key of knowledge. They were to make that clear and to help point the people of God to that, and yet they were hindering these people.

And one other thing that's interesting in Luke 14, verse 3, it says, And Jesus answering spoke to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath? And they were adamantly opposed to healing on the Sabbath, and sought to condemn Christ for healing on the Sabbath, and confronted him over that a number of different times.

Jesus Christ said that they had taken away the key of knowledge.

And what does that mean?

What does it mean that they had taken away the key of knowledge?

Well, if you look in the Expositor's Bible commentary as an example, it says that they probably, the subject is knowledge, and it's probably the kingdom of God, which people were seeking to enter.

So, probably. They don't know for sure.

And so, you know, we would all, you know, what does that mean, the key of knowledge?

Can we answer that? Can we find the answer to that particular question? What is he referring to specifically versus just a guess? Probably. Well, I think we can. And then, one of the key principles of Bible study is the Bible interprets itself.

So, sometimes we can look at some other passages and we can find an answer to the question.

And with this in mind, it had to be something the lawyers had taken away.

It also had to be something that prevented them and others entering the kingdom.

So, what might that be?

In searching this out, you find that in all four gospels, the word knowledge appears only twice.

It appears only twice. One is found in Luke 11.52, which we looked at. The other is also found in Luke, in Luke chapter 1.

So, let's go to Luke chapter 1 and see if in looking at what Luke has to say, we can better understand the key of knowledge.

Luke chapter 1.

We're going to be reading the words of the priest Zacharias, who is the father of John the Baptist. And John the Baptist, whether you know it or not, was from a priestly family. His father was from Aaron's line. He was a priest.

And John the Baptist was a priest.

But he never functioned as a priest in Israel, but he was from such a family. So, let's look at Luke chapter 1, beginning in verse 76.

There it says, And you, child, will be called the prophet of the highest, and you will go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways. So, you are to go before the Christ. You are to go before him and prepare the way for him.

It talks about John's function in Isaiah chapter 40 verse 3. And it especially hits his function in Malachi chapter 3 verse 1, which clearly links him with Elijah.

And as you look at John the Baptist, he had a function like of Elijah. He baptized in locations where Elijah was well known, and he also was dressed as Elijah dressed. He dressed in the way he did because he understood his function. And he went before the Christ to prepare the way for him.

So, Luke chapter 1 verse 77, it says, Through the tender mercy of our God, with which the days spring from on high, has visited us to give light to those who sit in darkness in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.

So, he's there and he is to guide them into the way of peace.

Here's the second place in the four Gospels where the word knowledge is mentioned. And he is going to prepare the way for Christ. And verse 77 says, To give knowledge of salvation to his people.

He is to give knowledge of salvation to his people by the remission of sin.

So, that was his function, to give knowledge of salvation.

That was one of his chief functions. And the part of that is that it relates to salvation. And how does that come about? By the remission of sin.

It comes about by the remission of sins, by sins being covered, by sins being removed. So, John would give knowledge of salvation, something that the Messiah would do so as well. And John would begin to give knowledge of salvation by the remission of sins. And surely salvation, the opportunity to live forever in the kingdom of God, is the most important knowledge we can have.

It seems to be the key to knowledge.

To understand that Christ came into this world, he laid down his life for all of us, and made it possible for our sins to be remitted, to be paid for, and for us to be reconciled to God.

It is the purpose of human life, why man was placed on the earth in the first place.

So this key of knowledge is about salvation, which is achieved through remission of sin.

Then John emphasized the need for repentance. Let's look at verses 29 and 30.

It says, And when all the people heard him, even the tax collectors justified God, having been baptized with the baptism of John.

So they recognized that they had sinned.

They recognized that they need to be reconciled to God, and their sins to be removed. And so they were baptized. Even the tax collectors were baptized by John.

But, verse 30, But the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the will of God for themselves, not having been baptized by him.

So the religious leadership refused to be baptized by John, even though most everyone else in the community was baptized.

And many acknowledged the need to be cleansed from sin, but the religious leadership would not acknowledge their own sin. They saw no need to be baptized by John.

They saw no need.

So these teachers of the law should have been first to respond to Jesus.

Matthew records many prophecies that Jesus fulfilled completely.

In Matthew's Gospel, up to this chapter, we find ten times that Matthew writes that something has been fulfilled that was written by the prophets.

And after this in Matthew's Gospel, five more fulfillments are found concerning Christ and the prophets.

So it's not that Christ was not obviously the Son of God, the promised Messiah.

And the thing is, the religious leaders saw it.

They saw what John did and rejected him, and they saw what Christ did and rejected him. It was obvious that Christ was the Messiah, but they rejected Him.

So Matthew's list of the things that fulfilled the prophets, and these gentlemen still rejected Jesus Christ in his teaching, even though it was obvious that Christ was the Messiah. Christ healed people right in front of them.

You know, the lame walked, the dumb spoke, the deaf could hear.

All these things took place right in front of them, and they rejected Him at every turn. He raised Lazarus from the dead. He cast out demons, and they denied that He was doing this in the name of God, accusing Him of casting out demons by bales above.

As you look at what Christ did and said, it was irrefutable.

He answered all their questions, and they couldn't answer His. Really, when you look at them, they were without excuse.

But sadly, to accept Jesus Christ, they had to humble themselves.

They had to admit that they were wrong.

And isn't that what repentance is all about? God is right, and we are wrong.

That's what it's all about.

And Luke tells us they refused to be baptized. They refused to repent of dead works. So all their efforts were spent in denouncing and denying Him to the people.

That's where their energy went.

And anybody that would support Christ and would be positive toward Christ, what did they do? They put Him out of the synagogue.

And that was a threat that they held over the people. If you support this man, we'll put you out.

And they did.

So people were intimidated.

We know that the only way to enter the kingdom of God is through Jesus Christ.

Christ said to us that He is the way, the truth, and the life.

He also said, no one comes to me except the Father, draw Him.

And they had to come through Jesus Christ.

Peter said to the high priest and the Sanhedrin, nor is there salvation in any other.

Said this in Acts 4, verse 12, nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven, given among men by which we must be saved.

The only way of entry into the kingdom of God is through Jesus Christ.

He is the way, the truth, and the life.

And yet this is the one they are denying and trying to turn the people away from.

So God had given them the opportunity to have the Scriptures, to be able to study the Scriptures, to become familiar with the Scriptures.

And yet they would not yield to what the Scriptures told them. They would not yield to what was right before their very face, and they hindered other people from going in. They hindered other people from understanding the key of knowledge.

As it says, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in.

And the Greek in this passage indicates that some who were seeking to enter the kingdom of God were hindered from doing so.

And that's a pretty serious thing.

If you find somebody that's on their way to the kingdom of God, think the truths of God are registering with them. They're responding to the truths of God.

What does God say if you trip them up?

If you deter them from entering the kingdom?

I'll just quote this for you, and this is something that we covered in an earlier discourse in Matthew 18.

In verses 6 and 7 it says, Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck. And he were drowned in the depths of the sea.

Woe to the world because of offenses, for offenses must come, but woe to that man by whom those offenses come.

So Christ very clearly told them, if you deter people or thwart people or hinder people from entering the kingdom, they're on the path.

And you put stumbling blocks before them. You caused them to be hindered from entering into the kingdom. That's a most serious thing.

A most serious thing.

So Christ spells this out for them.

So it's very serious where he pronounces a woe on them. He says in verse 13, But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men.

Very serious.

And Jesus is telling them right up front, this is serious, and you're working very hard to keep people from entering. And you don't understand the magnitude of that.

Verse 14 says, moving on, chapter 23, verse 14, it says, woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you devour widows' houses, and for pretense make long prayers.

Therefore you will receive greater condemnation.

Interestingly, if you have an NIV version of the New Testament, you will not find this verse in there.

This verse is not part of the NIV.

So the more modern translations don't have this verse in there.

They only have seven of the eight woes.

But this verse is found in what we know is the majority text that is the basis of the King James Bible and the New King James Bible. And that's where you find the bulk of the Greek text that we feel we can look to and have confidence in and establish the scriptures that we have.

Jameson Fawcett Brown says on verse 14 that these individuals were taking advantage of the helpless condition of widows.

And you know, widows today are vulnerable, and there are people that pray upon them. And that was especially the case back in Christ's time.

And Christ is saying, you, the religious leadership, woe on you because you're taking advantage of widows.

The weak, the vulnerable. They can, and interestingly, they contrive to obtain possession of their property, while at the same time they're doing lengthy prayers and doing all of the things that need doing in order to make yourself look good and to make you look as if you're religious.

So they make long prayers and appear religious, but basically they're interested in cashing in, and taking advantage of widows. And Christ condemns them for that. That's not the approach that the religious leadership is to take, to find ways to take advantage of the weak and vulnerable, but that's what they were doing.

And very sad.

Verse 15, it says, Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is one you make him twice as much a son of hell or gehenna of the lake of fire as yourselves.

Historically, looking at what this verse says, the Jewish leaders of that day worked very hard to gain converts. But what did they seek to convert them to? Did they seek to convert them to the truths of the Bible?

No, they sought to convert them to Phariseeism, their brand of the scriptures, based upon the scriptures and the oral law. They wanted their converts to be instilled with the same legalistic view of God's law, and the additional burdens of the oral law.

And new converts are often more zealous than the teachers. They would seek to outdo the Pharisees to be more of a Pharisee than their teachers were. The Pharisees' teaching aligned them against the teaching of Jesus Christ, because Christ repeatedly told them where they were in error.

And they hated Him for it. Christ completely refuted what the Pharisees and the scribes had to say, condemning their approach, which was not biblical. It was, you know, if you have some Bible and a lot of human reasoning, you've missed the point. Having part of the truth is worthless. You know, if you look at one thing that I recognized when I was taking a class on Buddhism, believe it or not, there is some truth to Buddhism.

You know, basically the problems we face are based upon selfishness, and so you have to get rid of self. And there's some truth to that. But how do you get rid of self? Well, by following the eightfold noble path, it means through your own ability and your strength. And what we do as Christians, we realize that self is a problem, and self leads to sin. But we also realize that the only way that we can overcome self is through Jesus Christ living in us. We're not going to do it through our own might and power. That's where humility comes in. We lay our lives before God and ask Him to work in us and to create in us a right heart and a right spirit. Quite often, the teachers seek to instill in their students their view and interpretation on subjects they were teaching.

You know, if you've ever gone to school, have any of you ever noticed that your teachers have certain views on things, certain prejudices? And they will seek to relay to you their prejudice, their point of view. And so basically they're creating people that just parrot what they believe or what they're teaching. Which, that's not what God wants you to do. He wants you to understand the truth, not what somebody wants you to believe about the truth. And, you know, such teachers who are teaching their particular views or prejudice, basically they're producing themselves. And if they're teaching you things that don't happen to be true, Christ described them this way. He said, when the blind leave the blind, blind, they both fall into the ditch.

You know, if you can't see and you're leading other people, well, both of you are going to fall into the ditch. The key here is that God's teachers are not to lead the people to follow them.

God's teachers are to teach people to follow God and His teachings.

So we are to point all of you, as a minister, we're to point all of you to grow to the stature and fullness of Jesus Christ. And, you know, as I teach you, it doesn't matter what my opinion is.

It doesn't matter. And I have opinions on things. And some are worth something, some aren't. Some you'll agree with, some aren't. You know, I like, I would love to have a red car. I like red cars, even though I may get pulled over more than other people as a result. I guess it's been found that people that drive red cars get pulled over more. But I like that. Do you have to buy a red car because I have one? No, you buy the color you want. It doesn't matter. But when it comes to the truth, it doesn't matter what my opinion is or what I think of it. It's what the Scriptures tell us and what we can draw out of the Scriptures and apply. That's why the Church has always taken the position, don't believe me, believe what God's Word says. And what I say as a minister, you need to take the sermon and you need to go to the Bible and say, is this true? Is this something that fits with the Scriptures?

That's the measure. That's the measure. Christ said, a disciple in Luke 6, verse 40, a disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone who is perfectly trained will be like his teacher. Thinking about that, who is our teacher? Who is our teacher? Our teacher is Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ is the standard and we're to be like him and to grow to his stature.

In Romans chapter 8, verse 29, it says, For whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. He wants you to grow to his stature. He wants you to come to understand and apply what he understood and applied.

And Paul, did Paul teach people to be like Paul? No, he didn't. You know what he told him? He said, Follow me as I follow Christ. And where I don't follow Christ, you should not follow me. So as you're looking at a teacher, you have to ask yourself, Is this teacher following Jesus Christ? Is this teacher adhering to the Bible?

Is he teaching me the truth? That's the measure. But that takes some work. Don't just listen to what somebody teaching you has to say. You need to say, Is this what the Bible says?

Because as you go to the Bible and you can see that that's what's taught there, that's what's brought out there, then you can say, I can live by this. This is the right path.

But you have to be familiar with the Scriptures in order to be able to evaluate what they're teaching. So the next section we'll move to begins in Matthew 23, verse 16.

It says, Woe to you blind guides who say, Whoever swears by the temple, it is nothing.

But whoever swears by the gold of the temple, he is obliged to perform it. And Christ said, Fools and blind, for which is greater the gold or the temple that sanctifies the gold? Verse 18, And whoever swears by the altar, it is nothing but whoever swears by the gift that is on it, he is obliged to perform it.

Fools and blind, for which is greater the gift or the altar that sanctifies the gift?

Therefore, he who swears by the altar swears by it, and all things on it.

And he who swears by the temple swears by it, and by him who dwells in it.

And he who swears by heaven swears by the throne of God, and by him who sits on it.

So they were trying to parse the Scriptures in a way that were going to be most lucrative to them.

And all of this was about their gain. It was not about teaching the people the truth.

So Christ brings out to swear by the temple it's nothing. What do you mean it's nothing? Isn't it where God dwells? And Christ made this point.

These verses are similar to Matthew chapter 5 verses 33 through 37. They tie in with them, and I'll just read them to you.

Verse 33 says, Again, you have heard that it was said of those of old, You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform your oaths to God.

But I say to you, do not swear at all, neither by heaven, for it is God's throne, nor by earth, for it is his footstool, nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great king, nor shall you swear by your head, because you cannot make one hair white or black.

But let your yes be yes, and your no know, for whatever is more than these is from the evil one.

So Christ was addressing the specious reasoning of the Pharisees.

They weren't really interested in the temple, but they were very interested in the gold of the temple. They're not really interested in the altar, but they're very interested in the gifts that are on the altar. Interestingly, the temple priest of Christ's day used convoluted reasoning, and the main concern for them was not keeping God's word, the commandment, you shall not bear false witness. Their focus was on the formula, so if you say it in a certain way, that's what's important. That's what's important, the formula.

They concluded one must keep his word if he mentions God's name in the statement, but you know what? If you didn't mention God's name in the statement, you didn't have to perform your oath.

You don't think God saw through that? I would say that that's probably a situation where God would not be mocked, and he really knows what's in your heart. He knows what's going on there.

So, Jesus Christ taught that the formula used was irrelevant. It was irrelevant.

Whenever you swear by involves God anyway. If you ever stop to think about whatever you swear by, God brought it into being. So if you swear by heaven, who brought that into being? If you swear by earth, who brought that into being? Or Jerusalem, or the temple, or one's own head? God brought all of those things into being. So to try to parse the words and find some loophole here is convoluted reasoning and destructive. You know, if divorce was permitted because of human hard-heartedness, swearing was permitted because of human deceitfulness. Servants of God are not to employ oaths. The word itself is reliable. So you don't have to swear. All you have to do is say yes. And because you are a Christian, and in what you are trying to do, or what you're trying to accomplish, or what you're promising, all you have to do is say yes because you are a Christian and you are answerable to God. And you realize that. So that yes is all that needs to be said. And if you can't fulfill it, you say no. And that's all you have to say.

Our yes should be yes, and our no should be no. And sadly, as you look at people making oaths, it usually reveals humanity's tendency towards the truth. And that's why we're talking about dishonesty and duplicity. One final point to think about here is it says, Swears by it and him who dwells in it. Speaking of the temple. Now, think about something interesting that you find there. In the new King James Version, there's a marginal note in chapter 23, verse 21. The majority text reads, dwelt. It reads dwelt, past tense. And also it's found in the alt three summary of the majority text, which says having dwelt in it. Again, past tense. And past tense, what does that matter if it's present tense or past tense? We'll see that at the end of the chapter. Jesus Christ says dwelt, which implies he no longer dwells there.

dwelt. He no longer dwells there. So we'll come back to this. But it's interesting to see that there. And it's in there and was translated in the past tense for a reason. Matthew 23, verse 23.

It says, woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you pay tithe of mint and anise and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law, justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done without leaving the others undone. Blind guides who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel. So what's he telling us here? If you were to summarize what Christ is saying, he's saying they were fussy about this insignificant things, but oblivious to the really important things. And sometimes we can get absorbed in that which is less important.

For instance, you know, as we come up to the days of unleavened bread, we can spend all of our time getting the leaven out of our house. And we are supposed to get the leaven out of our house.

But you know, there are people that spend a very long time getting the leaven out of their house.

And they don't stop to think, and really I didn't stop to think, but I realize it now, how many people living in Egypt when they were to get the leaven out had vacuum cleaners?

How many people had vacuum cleaners in Christ time? They didn't. So how did you get the leaven out? How did you get all those little crumbs out? You know, a lot of them had probably a dirt floor. So once it hit the dirt, it mixes in. And you may have had a broom, but how do you get it out of there?

So I'm not trying to minimize the need to remove the leaven, but what we need to realize is, okay, that needs to be done, but be balanced and don't go overboard with it because the paramount thing is to look at the leaven in our lives, which takes some time to evaluate our lives and see where we're at. The word justice here, translated justice in the New King James Version, is a word that we have to read in the New King James Version is creases, and it's most often translated judgment, not justice. It says justice, but, and you can translate it that way, but judgment is the better translation.

In the King James Version, it is translated that way 41 of 48 times, judgment. And in the New King James, it's translated justice three times and judgment 10 times in the Book of Matthew. The first use of the word creases in the New Testament is found in Matthew chapter 5 verses 21 and 22. There it's talking about murder, and it says, whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment.

You're in danger of the judgment. If you're angry with a brother without a cause, you're in danger of the judgment. If you call somebody raka, you're in danger of the counsel, not quite as serious a judgment. But if you call somebody a fool, you're in danger of the second death, the lake of fire, which is the ultimate judgment. So the best translation of what we see there is not justice, but judgment.

Judgment is the better translation. And as you go forward from here into chapters 24 and 25, the whole point of what Christ is talking about in those chapters is judgment. He's talking about judgment. Let's go to Hebrews chapter 10. Hebrews chapter 10 and look at verses 30 and 31. Hebrews chapter 10 verses 30 and 31.

Verse 30 says, For we know him who said, vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord. And again, the Lord will judge his people. God is going to judge his people. We all understand that we are being judged now, aren't we? Judgment is now upon the house of God. And verse 31 says, It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

He is going to judge us, and he is going to judge all humanity. And Paul is quoting from Deuteronomy chapter 32, where he talks about judgment. So Christ emphasized that God will judge his people, and therefore we should live with that in mind. We are being judged, and it's something we have to be aware of, we have to be reminded of. The scribes and Pharisees, the teachers of the law, did not tell the people of the coming judgment.

That was not something they emphasized to them at all. It's not something that was important to them. What were they emphasizing? They were emphasizing counting out all the little seeds, the mint, the anise, and the cumin. That's what was important to them. All these tiny seeds. We might say they were majoring in the minors. Counting out those seeds was something you should do, but that was a minor issue compared to judgment, mercy, and faith.

So we as the ministry are to explain the right application of God's laws and principles. So the people of God can be prepared for judgment. That's something we all have to keep in mind, that we are being judged.

There will be a day of reckoning. It's something not to scare everybody, but it's something that's important to keep in mind as you go about your day-to-day life. I am being judged. As you look at Revelation 20, which describes the last four Holy Days in God's Holy Day plan, it talks about the Great White Throne Judgment, doesn't it? And it talks about there will be a time of judgment on all these people that have never understood, that the Bible will be open to them, the Book of Life will be open to them, and they will be judged.

And then it goes on after that to talk about the final judgment, the judgment upon those who have refused to follow God's way of life. And it's something that we go through each year as we keep the Holy Days, because it's important for us to be mindful of God's judgment. You look at Ezekiel chapter 3. Let's go to Ezekiel chapter 3. Does judgment matter? Ezekiel chapter 3. Does judgment matter? Does God care? Look at what he tells Ezekiel here. Ezekiel 3, beginning in verse 16. It says, Now it came to pass at the end of seven days that the word of the Lord came to me, saying, Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel.

Therefore, hear a word from my mouth and give them warning from me. That's the job of the religious leadership. That was the job of the religious leadership in Christ's time, and it's still the job of the religious leadership to give warning from God to his people. Verse 18, When I say to the wicked, you shall surely die, and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way to save his life. That same wicked man shall die in his iniquity.

Yes, he's going to die because of his sin. But his blood I will require at your hand, because you saw that he was doing wickedly, and you did nothing about it. You did nothing about it. Verse 19, Yet if you warn the wicked, and he does not turn from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity, but you have delivered your soul, I'm not going to hold you accountable for it, because you warned him. You told him.

And trust me, one of the most popular jobs you have as a minister is telling people that they're doing what's wrong. It's always well received. Everybody says, thank you for telling me. I could be end up at the lake of fire. No, nobody says that. Typically, it's, you got the wrong guy, why are you talking to me? Well, you know, it's your job to tell them, even though it's difficult, because God holds you accountable. He says that in Hebrews 13. You are accountable for the congregation and how they do. I can't make you do it, but it's my job to try to teach you the truth, and hopefully you'll take to heart what's said and say, you know what, that applies to me. And you'll make the changes necessary. That's why we go through the Passover. And it talks about judgment. You judge yourself. You judge yourself, and that way your neighbor doesn't have to judge you. God doesn't have to judge you. You judge yourself. You measure yourself. So if we don't warn, then there is a God holds the religious leadership accountable, and the religious leadership in Christ time was failing. And when we cease to teach you the truth and bring up points that are important for you to be aware of in order that you can judge yourself, or if there is something going on that we become aware of that we talk to you directly, it's not personal. It's for your salvation.

And when we cease just preaching smooth things, everything is smooth and wonderful, we're done.

Organizationally, we're done. And we don't want to go down that path. So judgment is still coming.

It is still coming. And we must be mindful of the coming judgment, which we should also never forget, and know God's mercy. Remember it says judgment, and then it says mercy. And let's look at Exodus 34.

You know, sometimes God is seen as this really difficult, angry character that just revels in people suffering and being judged and burning. That's not God at all. Look at what he says in Exodus 34. And let's look at verses 4-7. So, he's talking about Moses' time, and Moses had gotten angry and had broken the two tablets. Now, if you had broken the two, you know, he threw them down and broke them. You know, God has written these out with his own finger, and you break them? And you've got to go back up on the mountain and tell God, you know, I broke the tablets. No, you didn't break the tablets. You threw them down and broke them. That's even worse. Thankfully, God is merciful. God didn't just say zap, and that's the end of it. That's not the way God is. Exodus 34, verse 4, it says, So he cut two tablets of stone like the first ones. Then Moses rose early. You notice God made him cut the two tablets. And rose early in the morning and went up the Mount Sinai, as the Lord had commanded him. And he took in his hand the two tablets of stone. This is after the time when they had been before the calf, and God, you know, all of that had taken place. He goes back up on the mountain. Now the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the name of the Lord. And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed the Lord, the Lord God, merciful.

The very first thing that he mentions is merciful, gracious, long-suffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin. By no means clearing the guilty. Yes, I am merciful, and I am gracious and willing to forgive, but there is a point where I'm going to hold you to account. It's not just a free ride. Visiting iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children's children to the third and fourth generation. So what did Moses do? So Moses made haste and bowed his head toward the earth and worshipped. So God is merciful, and being forgiven of our sins and comprehending God's mercy makes us merciful toward other people.

As we stop and think about, have I sinned? Yes. Have I sinned abundantly? Yes.

But God has been merciful to me. I do not deserve to be forgiven. And those people who have sinned against me, if you really were to hold judge them, they don't deserve it either. But you know what? God has been merciful to me, and that's the way I'm to be. I'm to be merciful to them. I'm to let it go. As James points out in chapter 2 of his epistle, he says, mercy triumphs over judgment.

Mercy triumphs over judgment. And we all need mercy, and we should all be extending mercy.

And the third thing it talks about there in chapter 23, verse 23, is faith.

So there's judgment, then there's mercy, and then you go forward in faith.

It's one of the weightier matters of the law. And what law are we talking about? Where is the law that tells us that we have to have faith? Think about the first commandment. It says, I am the Lord, your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, you shall have no other gods before me. He's the one that brought us out of Egypt, literally with the people of Israel and figuratively with all of us, brought us out of bondage in Egypt. And we are to look to him for everything. We're to come to trust and follow him. We are to be faithful to him, no other god but him. To be steadfast, to be steady, to be unswervingly loyal, will endure even though we suffer for our faith. And faith is fundamental to the Old Testament and the New. And interestingly, as you look at Hebrews 11, the faith chapter, every last one of those people mentioned there, they're all Old Testament characters. They're not New Testament characters, they're Old Testament characters, but they were faithful and are worthy of our emulation. Chapter 23, back to Matthew chapter 23 and verse 24. Here it calls him blind guides who strain out on that and swallow a camel.

Again, they're very meticulous about keeping things pure. So they would take the wine or whatever it was and they would strain it through cloth to get everything out to make sure there was nothing impure in it. And so they were very meticulous on that level, and yet Christ says, yeah, you're meticulous in that way, but when you look at what you're doing and the way you're living, you're swallowing the largest unclean thing that was common in the world at that time, a camel. You're worried about a gnat, and yet you're swallowing a camel by the way that you're living. You're hypocrites, you're hindering people from entering the kingdom. You're doing, you know, you're after the widow's mites and money and all of that. You are way off base, way off base. You don't see the bigger picture.

In chapter 23 verse 25, he goes on to say, Woe do you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!

For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee first cleaned the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also. So this is the sixth woe, and he says they're full of extortion and self-indulgence. So extortion, an interesting word, the part of that word that's tort, t-o-r-t, in extortion means to twist. It means to twist. That means to torture. So they've got you on the rack and they may be twisting your fingers or twisting you in some way. Torque. We twist something to put it on and to get it tight. And we have tortellini, the twisted pasta that we have.

And the x means out. Think of exhale or exeum or exit. The meaning? These leaders would find a way to twist out wealth for themselves and their friends. Find a way to extort, to twist out wealth.

And sadly, we have individuals who are in leadership positions to do that very thing today.

Self-indulgence is easily translated lack of self-control.

The scribes and Pharisees were solely focused on outward appearances, their dress, their rituals, their actions to appear righteous.

And they did not focus on what was going on in their hearts. As long as the external was good, they were good. They were good. So, you know, I thought it was interesting this year at the inauguration you had lots of prayers that were given. But, you know, prayers are external. It doesn't matter. You can offer up all the prayers you want, but how are you living? What are you doing in light of those prayers? Are you living in a way that adds up and promotes what you're saying in those prayers? As you look at God, the way that He evaluated David before His anointing by Samuel, what did He look at? You look at what was external. He looked at what was internal. He looked at His heart. And that's how God evaluates all of us. What's going on inside?

You may be physically clean, and you may appear to everybody to be clean, to be righteous in the way that you act. You know, so as somebody says something that might be, you know, you tell people, have a blessed day, or that doesn't mean anything. Is that how you really feel? That's, you know, you hear people say that, but do they really mean it? Do they understand its significance?

You know, God wants us to be clean outside and inside.

As Paul, who is a former Pharisee, a person who is very focused on the outside and keeping everything pristine on the outside, he said in Romans 12, don't be conformed to this world, but be transformed by what? By taking a bath daily? You know, be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Romans 12, verses 1 and 2. Matthew 23, verse 27. So, you know, as we think about this, we don't want to be just clean on the outside. We want to be clean on the inside. So, the way we appear on the outside is a reflection of our heart. Verse 27. Wilt you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites? For you are like whitewashed tombs, which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness.

Even so, you also appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. Now, why did they whitewash the tombs? Why did they wash them down and put this whitewash on them?

Well, they would do this every year at Passover time. And the reason was, as people would come up to Jerusalem, the tombs would be whitewashed, so everybody would know where the tombs were, and you wouldn't touch them or walk over them or anything like that, because then you would be defiled and you couldn't take the Passover. So they would whitewash them so that they could avoid being made ritually impure. And so the religious leaders on the outside appeared white, they appeared righteous. But on the inside, like a tomb, they were full of dead men's bones. So you can appear to people to be righteous. For many of us, we only see you at church.

So you come to church, oh, you're a Sabbath keeper, you're righteous. We could infer that, couldn't we? Or we should. But we don't see you from about five o'clock on until the next Sabbath about noon or one o'clock. So we don't know what you've done the rest of the week.

So we don't want to come and appear white, and then the rest of the week, you know, we live differently in a way that would not live up to God's standard. We want to be white on the outside and white on the inside. Verse 29, Matthew 23 verse 29.

Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous. And say, if we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. Therefore you are witnesses against yourselves, and you are the sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of your father's guilt. This is the eighth woe. And he's talking about monuments, and again, monuments are external things that people see. And so they were digging up the bones of the prophets and prominent men from the past, and they were building monuments to them. This was going on in Christ's time. And we'll actually talk about this as we get closer to the Passover sermon and PowerPoint to try to help to emphasize this to you. What they were doing is they were moving all the dead bodies outside the camp. And some of those people and some of those bodies were prominent, and they were building monuments to them.

And we'll talk about that in significance in the future. So they're building these, and it's interesting, they're building monuments to the prophets whom their ancestors killed. And saying, well, we wouldn't kill them. Is that true? Look at Christ's example.

Who were they trying to kill? Who did they hate? Who did they seek to discredit?

The greatest prophet of all! And they eventually did kill them, didn't they? So, building monuments doesn't make much difference unless it's a reflection of your heart.

And these individuals didn't get it. They worked against Christ in every way. They're building these ornate monuments, and yet they were dedicated to killing and thwarting Jesus Christ.

The last part of that verse, verse 32, says, "...fill up then the measure of your father's guilt." What does that mean? Fill up the measure of your father's guilt. It's an important phrase. And the idea behind the measure of sin is that God will only tolerate so much sin. God will only tolerate so much sin. Then, when the measure is full, God says, "...enough." And God steps in, and he responds in wrath. You can think of the example that dates back to the time of Abraham when God was entering into covenant with him in Genesis, chapter 15. And he said, I'm going to give you the land of Canaan, but I'm not going to give it to you now. I'm going to give it to you in the future. And why is it going to be in the future? Because the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet full or complete. They're going in the wrong direction, but I'm going to give them a chance to repent. I'm going to give them a chance to repent. I'm going to give them a chance to repent. 400 years is a lot of time to try to get your act together, and they never did. It got worse as time went along. So by the time Israel was coming out of Egypt, God was ready to give them the land of promise because the Amorites, their society, had become so filled with iniquity like that of Sodom and Gomorrah. Let's look at 1 Thessalonians, chapter 2. 1 Thessalonians, chapter 2. Final Scripture. 1 Thessalonians, chapter 2.

Let's start in verse 14. 1 Thessalonians 2, verse 14. For you, brethren, became intimateters of the churches of God, which are in Judea, in Christ Jesus. For you also suffered the same things from your own countrymen, just as you did from the Judeans, who killed both the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and have persecuted us. And they do not please God, and are contrary to all men, forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles, that they may be saved. So as always to fill up the measure of their sins. Notice he talks about filling up the measure of their sins.

But wrath has come upon them to the uttermost. So God's wrath builds up until he's had enough, and then he steps in. So at this time, when it comes to God's wrath being full, where are we? Where are we? Is God's wrath full? We don't know exactly. But what we do know is that we are going in the wrong direction. And I think we can see that. Christ pronounced eight woes in his time upon the religious leadership of his day. It's a warning. It's a warning that applied in that time.

It was a warning that all of the people of God could take heed and benefit from. And it is something that we can take heed and learn from as well, because God is judging us. And he is going to judge the world as well. So hopefully that gives you more insight into that portion of the book of Matthew in chapter 23. And what we're going to do is, on Bible study day, the first Sabbath in March, we'll finish this up. We're going to talk about something that relates to the Passover in the sermon. And then we'll talk about this in the Bible study and finish it up. So hopefully you found that profitable and it will be something that you can use in your own life.