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What Sorrow Awaits You…Hypocrites! | Matthew 23:23-33 | Part 5

Mat 23:23 “What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are careful to tithe even the tiniest income from your herb gardens, but you ignore the more important aspects of the law—justice, mercy, and faith. You should tithe, yes, but do not neglect the more important things.
Mat 23:24 Blind guides! You strain your water so you won’t accidentally swallow a gnat, but you swallow a camel!
Mat 23:25 “What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are so careful to clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside you are filthy—full of greed and self-indulgence!
Mat 23:26 You blind Pharisee! First wash the inside of the cup and the dish, and then the outside will become clean, too.
Mat 23:27 “What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs—beautiful on the outside but filled on the inside with dead people’s bones and all sorts of impurity.
Mat 23:28 Outwardly you look like righteous people, but inwardly your hearts are filled with hypocrisy and lawlessness.
Mat 23:29 “What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you build tombs for the prophets your ancestors killed, and you decorate the monuments of the godly people your ancestors destroyed.
Mat 23:30 Then you say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we would never have joined them in killing the prophets.’
Mat 23:31 “But in saying that, you testify against yourselves that you are indeed the descendants of those who murdered the prophets.
Mat 23:32 Go ahead and finish what your ancestors started.
Mat 23:33 Snakes! Sons of vipers! How will you escape the judgment of hell?

The more important aspects of the law

I had an experience not too long ago where the Holy Spirit impressed me to use one of the texts above to help a dear friend. Considering the temperature of the statements above, how do you think I might have approached this? After all, Jesus is very busy rebuking and chastising, not comforting.

My friend was struggling with being emotionally hurt by someone. They were wondering why people who profess to be Christians can seemingly do such damaging things to each other.

My friend is a Christian, one whom I think has a strong relationship with Jesus and I care for this person very much…but at this moment they were struggling. I felt a deep desire to help. I wanted to comfort and encourage…and the Holy Spirit led me to Matt 23:23. Mind you, I wanted to comfort my friend and as we are sitting in their living room the Holy Spirit impresses me to go to this verse and direct it “at” my friend.

Mat 23:23 ”What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are careful to tithe even the tiniest income from your herb gardens, but you ignore the more important aspects of the law—justice, mercy, and faith. You should tithe, yes, but do not neglect the more important things.

Imagine. Here I am wanting to comfort and consul my friend and I’m asked by Jesus to show them that they are being hypocritical. I must say that I was more than a little frightened to even bring it up, but I felt strongly impressed and so I did. I read the verse and then pointed out the fact that my friend  was  going through a process of developing a stronger relationship with Jesus – strengthening the bond – seeking to have His Mind; but then turning from that and holding onto anger and resentment and “ignoring the more important aspects of the law – justice, mercy, and faith.”

Dear readers. I was scared to do this. I didn’t want to hurt my friend and here I was rebuking her with the Word of God, albeit in a kind way. I was so sure that she would consider it a mean thing to say and then the hurt would only grow instead of heal. WHAT LITTLE FAITH I HAD!…even as I was doing the will of Jesus.

It turned into a beautiful Spirit filled moment. Instead of having a repellent effect it had a magnetic effect. I could see her struggling with the thoughts it brought up and then coming to the realization that she was “Forgiven Much!” How could she hold these feelings for someone else when Jesus was so willing to love her. She repented right then and we thanked God for His loving kind direction and it was as if a heavy weight had been lifted off of her shoulders. BEAUTIFUL!

Here’s the amazing part. I was used even in my unbelief. And, furthermore I started to contemplate my own feelings and actions. How am I like a Hypocrite? I started to realize that we can so easily become a hypocrite when we start to do outward things that make us look and feel holy…

  • Writing a Bible based blog (Doh!)
  • Doing more church activities
  • Spending more time in prayer
  • Teaching others about Jesus
  • Helping those in need

…but then neglect the inward changes, like forgiveness for those who have hurt us – mercy, justice, and faith. Too often, and I mean WAYYYY to often, we apply the weightier things of the law to other people, and never to ourselves.

Consider this. What is the state of Laodicea? They are blind and naked, yet they think they are rich and have need of nothing. Oh what miserable people we really are. When will we stop seeking to fix others…and start to clean the inside of the cup. When will we stop pointing to the sins of our neighbor and start to cleanse our own hearts? When will we drink the whitewash and let it purify the inside?

When will we stop killing the prophets…..?

Prayer:

Lord Father in Heaven,

Thank You so much for being willing to show me my own sin. Help me to consider the things that I must allow you to change and to stop looking to change others. I can only become truly useful to you as I become more about the real principle of Your law and not the outward appearance. Thank you for loving me that much!

Be with my children today. Protect them and forgive their sins. Cover them with Jesus’ robe of righteousness. Amen.

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What Sorrow Awaits You…Blind Guides | Matthew 23:13-22 | Part 3

"...and then you turn that person into twice the child of hell you yourselves are!"

Mat 23:15  Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.

FROM Albert Barnes Notes on the Bible:

A proselyte is what we might call a convert today. It is someone who comes over from a foreign nation, religion, or sect to us – a convert. Among the Jews there were two kinds of proselytes:

1. “Proselytes of righteousness,” or those who wholly and fully embraced the Jewish religion, who were baptized, who were circumcised, and who conformed to all the rites of the Mosaic institutions.
2. “Proselytes of the gate,” or those who approved of the Jewish religion, renounced the pagan superstitions, and conformed to some of the rites of the Jews, but were not circumcised or baptized.

Twofold more the child of hell - That is, twice as bad. To be a child of hell was a Hebrew phrase, signifying to be deserving of hell, to be awfully wicked. The Jewish writers themselves say that the proselytes were “scabs of Israel,” and “hindered the coming of the Messiah” by their great wickedness. The Pharisees gained them either to swell their own numbers, or to make gain by extorting their money under various pretences; and when they had accomplished that, they took no pains to instruct them or to restrain them. They had renounced their superstition which had before somewhat restrained them, but the Pharisees had given them no religion in its place to restrain them, and they were consequently left to the full indulgence of their vices.

Well then! What bad people those Pharisees were…I mean come on! They went out and made a convert so they could add ‘em to the church membership list and then dropped ‘em like hot rocks and used ‘em for money and glory. Us Christians…we would never do anything like that..would we?

Cheap Grace, Love is Everything, Prosperity Gospel, New Age Religion and Dancing with Snakes…Oh My!

Christianity suffers today from the same problem the Pharisees had when spreading their religion…twisted truth based on a twisted understanding of the character of God. They twisted it in order to make it acceptable to the people they wished to “feed” off of. But we don’t do that…do we?

You can be part of any Christian based religion and be subject to misleading ideas, feel good motivational speakers, hypnotic music, messages of hope for a new car, grand schemes to build a stadium sized church, or small schemes to create a commune for those who wish to hide from the world.

  • You’ll be told that grace covers everything, even the sin you treasure, because God loves you so much that He just doesn’t care about that.
  • You’ll be convinced that if you can just love your fellow man a little more, God will love you back.
  • You’ll be assured that God is interested in the size of your bank account and what kind of car you drive, and when you have both in abundance you can be sure that God loves you.
  • You’ll feel good when you hummm sounds and connect with your ‘sssspiritual’ side. It will be God touching your heart and calling you good.
  • You’ll experience the joy of dancing with poisonous snakes, because when you survive you can know beyond the shadow of a doubt that your religious fervor is strong enough to please God.

None of us are immune to this contagious disease, unless…

“Unless what!?”, you say. “Now your gonna tell me what I have to do to be saved? What makes you more knowing than the rest of them?”

Yes, I am going to tell you what you need to do to gain a knowledge and understanding of the God you seek….here it is….

READ YOUR BIBLE. DAILY. PRAY. DAILY. ASK FOR GOD’S WISDOM. DAILY. SEEK HIM WITH ALL YOUR HEART SOUL AND MIND. DAILY.

“Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.” Mat 6:33

…and as a bonus offer! Today, one time only, I will tell you what NOT to do to be saved.

LISTEN TO MEN. JOIN A COMMUNE. HUMMMMMMMMMMMMMM. GIVE ALL YOUR MONEY TO A TV PREACHER. DANCE WITH SNAKES. LET YOUR BIBLE GET DUSTY. LISTEN TO MEN. GIVE YOUR HEART TO A CHURCH. JUMP UP AND DOWN TO THE BEAT OF THE MUSIC AND LET YOUR MIND EMPTY. LISTEN TO MEN. GIVE YOUR MIND TO ANOTHER MAN. GIVE YOUR HEART TO ANOTHER MAN.

Where you listening? I hope not..instead, I hope that you went to your Bible and sought the Lord on His terms.

Learn of Him from His Word. Let Him teach you. Let Him guide you. Let Him fill you. Let Him love you. Let Him save you…….now, stop listening to me and go get your bible.

Prayer:

Dear Lord,

As we spend time together I feel that instead of knowing You more I feel like I could never understand You enough. It is hard to face You. You are so Holy. You are so Good. My sin makes me turn from You…but I don’t want to. Forgive me Lord. Wash me clean and make me able to even just hold Your hand. Thank You for Jesus. Praise is Yours alone. Thank You for Your Grace and Your Love. Help me, on this beautiful Sabbath day to walk in Your presence. Fill me with the Holy Spirit and give me the Mind of Christ.

Thank You for all that You provide. I ask for wisdom today and strength for tomorrow and I ask for all these things in Jesus Name…Amen.

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