SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/11/2023 8:27 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
Introduction to Matthew 23:13-33
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
23:13-33
Message of the verses: “13 "But woe to you, scribes and
Pharisees, hypocrites, because you shut off the kingdom of heaven from men; for
you do not enter in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go
in. 14 "Woe to you,
scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you devour widows’ houses, even
while for a pretense you make long prayers; therefore you shall receive greater
condemnation. 15 “Woe
to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you travel about on
sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he becomes one, you make him twice
as much a son of hell as yourselves. 16 “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.’ 17 “You fools and blind men; which is more important, the
gold, or the temple that sanctified the gold? 18 “And, ‘Whoever swears by the
altar, that is nothing, but whoever swears by the offering upon it, he
is obligated.’ 19“You blind men, which is more important, the offering or the
altar that sanctifies the offering? 20 “Therefore he who swears by the altar,
swears both by the altar and by everything on it. 21 “And he who swears
by the temple, swears both by the temple and by Him who dwells within
it. 22 “And he who swears by heaven, swears both by the throne of God
and by Him who sits upon it. 23 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe
mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier provisions of the
law: justice and mercy and faithfulness; but these are the things you should
have done without neglecting the others. 24 “You blind guides, who strain out a
gnat and swallow a camel! 25 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the
outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside they are full of robbery and
self-indulgence. 26 “You blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and
of the dish, so that the outside of it may become clean also. 27 “Woe to you, scribes and
Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside
appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men’s bones and all
uncleanness. 28 “Even so you too outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly
you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. 29 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For
you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous, 30
and say, ‘If we had been living in the days of our fathers, we would not
have been partners with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ 31 “Consequently
you bear witness against yourselves, that you are sons of those who murdered
the prophets. 32 “Fill up then the measure of the guilt of your fathers.
33 "You serpents, you brood of vipers, how shall you escape the sentence
of hell?”
The first things that I want to say is that this
introduction will take a few days to go over, and I probably will not put all
of these verses on each SD where I write about the introduction.
I
did get a chance to listen to the first sermon on these verses by John
MacArthur yesterday, and hope to be able to listen to the next today as there
are more than one sermon on these verses.
These
are the harshest words that ever came out of the mouth of our Lord while He was
on earth, and of course those that he is speaking to, the scribes and the
Pharisees deserved what He was telling them.
There is seen in these verses eight “woes,” but one of them is in
italics which means that it was not in the earliest manuscripts, however they
are in both Luke and Mark so they have to be correct, but just not correct in
the book of Matthew. Perhaps a later
scribe saw that they were in Mark and Luke so he decided that they also
belonged here.
Let
me begin by quoting the very first paragraph from MacArthur’s introduction to
these verses: “Throughout its pages,
Scripture highly honors genuine spiritual leaders who rightly and faithfully
represent God and seek no self-glory.
God lifts up His true servants and presents them as examples for others
to follow and respect. The Christians of
Galatia must have greatly pleased God’s heart when they received the apostle
Paul as and angel of God, as Christ Jesus Himself’ (Gal. 4:14). Paul called upon the Philippian church to
receive Epaphroditus ‘in the Lord with all joy, and hold men like him in high
regard; because he came close to death for the work of Christ’ (Phil. 2:29-30). He implored the Thessalonians: ‘Appreciate
those who diligently labor among you, and have charge over you in the Lord and
give you instruction, and…esteem them highly in love because of their work’ (1
Thess. 5:12-13). He advised Timothy, ‘Let
the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those
who work hard at preaching and teaching’ (1 Tim. 5:17). The writer of Hebrews exhorts believers: ‘Obey
your leaders, and submit to them; for they keep watch over your souls, as those
who will give an account. Let them do
this with joy and not with grief, for this would be unprofitable for you’ (Heb.
13:17).
There
are opposites to this first paragraph that I just quoted which had many
Scripture references to it also found in the Scriptures as Scripture is more
condemned than the religious charlatan’s who teach and practice
falsehoods. One prime example of this is
found in the words of the Lord Jesus Christ found in John 8:44 which he says to
the Pharisees “"You are of your father the devil, and you want to
do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does
not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a
lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of
lies.”
MacArthur gives a story from the seventeenth-century
Puritan preacher Richard Baxter who wrote “Many a tailor can go in rags while
making costly clothes for others. Many a
cook may scarcely lick his fingers when he has prepared the most sumptuous
dishes for others to eat” (The reformed
Pastor [Portland Ore.: Multnomah, 1982], p. 28). Here is the point that Baxter seems to be
making. Many religious leaders supposedly offer spiritual provision for those
in their care but are themselves spiritually shabby and starving just like the
two examples Baxter gives in his writing.
This was true and continues to be true in both the Jewish leaders of
Jesus day and religious leaders ever since the church began.
In closing I will site an example from what is going
on in our state at this time from a so called preacher who when I heard what he
had to say made my blood boil. In our
state there are those who want to amend the construction in order to make it
legal to kill babies, abortion. This
preacher from a church in our state goes on a commercial and says that it is
okay for parents to choose for the woman to have an abortion. He was saying that God did not have a problem
with abortion. What he was saying that
God has no problems with parents killing the unborn. I guess that he would make a good Pharisee.
Lord
willing we will continue to look at this very long introduction in our next SD.
10/11/2023 9:05 AM
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