I believe Brother Obi told me
that he was in Danville this morning. Okay. Everybody's running
all over the place. It's hard to keep up. But yeah,
Brother Obi's in Danville, so let's remember him and the brethren
there. I put in the bulletin that I'm
having a minor procedure and I'm getting texts and calls and
everybody checking on me. I'm having a tooth pulled. I
got to have a dental implant. It's not that big of a deal,
but they're putting, you know, putting me under for it and I
got a this and that. So Brother Luke is going to bring
the message Wednesday night for us. Let's remember him. All right,
let's have a word of prayer. Our high and holy Heavenly Father,
Lord, we come to you this morning so Thankful for another day that
we can gather in your name and worship you, Lord. We've come
into this house to gather in your name and worship you. And we pray, Lord, that you would
enable us to do that. We deeply beg of you, Lord, that
you will enable our hearts to truly bow and sing your praises,
Lord. We pray that you will look upon
us and speak to us. We deeply beg of you for your
presence in this building and in our hearts, Lord, among us.
Would you please be with us today? We pray that you will bless the
word everywhere it's preached this morning. Lord, be with every
man who stands. We beg of this every time we
call on you, Lord. We pray for the men who must
stand and declare your truth. Give them the strength and the
ability to declare it plainly, Lord. And we pray that you'll
be with every one of your sheep. We know that you will, but we,
We beg that you might be with your people and cause them to
truly hear from you. Lord, bless your word. Be with
our teachers right now and give them a word for our children.
Please bless them, Lord. Have mercy on them. Have mercy
on this city, Lord. We beg of you if you would be
willing to send a revival. We just deeply beg of you to
send a revival if you would be willing. Lord, bless the gospel
and cause men and women to bow to it and believe it. We ask
all of these things, Lord, in Christ's name, amen. Turn with me to Matthew 23. Matthew 23. It has been a little
while since we've been in Matthew. So I want to remind you of two
things before we begin reading. And I want to say that this Bible
study and the message in a moment, they are going to be a part one
and a part two. of what's being said right here
in Matthew 23. I have not titled them in that
way. But that's what this is going
to be. And if anyone hears this in the
future, I want them to know that there is a message coming right
after this Bible study that is a companion message to what we're
gonna look at. And I've done it this way because
so much woe and condemnation is mentioned right here, and
it's coming directly from our Lord, directly from the Lord
Himself. And I want to be true to His
Word. I thought about this. And we're
about to read this and see this. And first and foremost, I want
to be true to his word. Our Lord is saying this. And
I want to declare to you exactly what he has said, because it
is such a critical word at such a critical moment. And there's so much of it. I'm
just, it's going to take all of our time in this Bible study
for me to just declare these verses to you. Now, the last time we were here,
we made it up to verse 12, and I want to read those verses again,
and then we'll pick up with verse 13. But let me remind you of
these two things. Number one, this is just days
before our Lord will go to the cross. Days before. He is spending this last week
in Jerusalem preaching to men and women. That's how he spent
the last week before the cross. He would go into Jerusalem each
day and he would preach to men and women. That's the first thing
I want to remind us of. The second thing is this, this is his last
message to the multitudes. This is his final word to this
world before his death. Everything that he has to say
after this is directly to his disciples. This is his last word
to this world and his last word to this world is a very stark
word. He is directing it to false religion,
namely preachers of false religion, but also followers, hearers,
believers of false religion. He calls all of them hypocrites. That means actor. It means fake. That's what it means. That's
what religion is. It's fake. but his word to them is woe to
you. That's his word, woe to you. Now let's read this together
and I pray he'll reveal to us what he's saying here. Verse
one, Matthew 23, verse one. Then spake Jesus to the multitude
and to his disciples saying, the scribes and the Pharisees
sit in Moses' seat, the seat of the law. It's all about the
law. All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe
and do. Our Lord did not come to put
away the law. That's critical for God's people
to realize. Our Lord did not come to put
away the law. He did not come to destroy the
law. He came to fulfill the law and
to put away and destroy the sin of his people against that law.
So the commandment will always be, whatever the law requires,
do it. It'll always be that. The beauty
of the gospel is, because we couldn't do it, Christ did it
for us. That's the glory of the gospel.
But verse three, he said, all therefore whatsoever they bid
you observe, that observe and do, but do not ye after their
works, for they say and do not. For they bind heavy burdens and
grievous to be born and lay them on men's shoulders, but they
themselves will not move them with one of their fingers. But
all their works they do for to be seen of men. They make broad
their phylacteries and enlarge the borders of their garments.
You remember that's those little boxes they wore on their arm
and on their head and they put prayers in there that they could
pull them out and memorize them and they kept getting bigger
and bigger. They enlarged the borders of
their garments. They were told to put a blue thread through
the bottom of their garment as a reminder, you know, of all
of the commandments of God. And they started making these
big trains out of him. Oh man, he really remembers the
commandments of God. Verse six, they loved the uppermost
rooms at feasts and the chief seats in the synagogues and greetings
in the markets and to be called of men, rabbi, rabbi. But being
not ye called rabbi, for one is your master, even Christ,
and all ye are brethren, and call no man your father upon
this earth. And again, that's not, he's not
talking about dad, he's talking about as a religious leader. Call no man your father upon
earth, for one is your father, which is in heaven. How is it
that all of these so-called priests have missed these verses? All
of these rabbis and priests, how is that? It's amazing, isn't it? Verse
10, neither be ye called masters for one is your master, even
Christ, but he that is greatest among you shall be your servant. Who is greatest among us? Jesus
Christ is the father's glorious servant who came to accomplish
the work. That's what a servant does. A
servant is the one who does the work. And he came to accomplish
the work that was laid on him, the work of shedding his blood
and saving his people from their sins. He came and he accomplished
that work and therefore he's the greatest. He is the greatest. Verse 12, and whosoever shall
exalt himself shall be abased and he that shall humble himself
shall be exalted. No man ever humbled himself like
the God man did. It's so glorious. His humility
is so glorious. He humbled himself from glory. He humbled himself in the earth. He humbled himself to the earth
and then he humbled himself in the earth among men. He humbled himself to the bearing
of the guilt of his people, the humiliation, the shame. I bear,
and you all know this, I've told you plenty of times now, I bear
so much guilt over my sin. I do. I've lived 47 years now,
and a whole bunch of sin has happened in 47 years. And I can't imagine if all my sin
was brought out before all of you. I can't imagine. But that's what happened to Jesus
Christ. My sin was laid on him, impressed into him, and he was
touched with the feeling of it. The same feeling that I have
over my sin, Jesus Christ felt the feeling that I feel. And
it was all laid out in the open. In Acts chapter eight says, in
his humiliation. That's humbling. That is him
humbling himself. I mean, we're talking about the
one on the throne, stood before the throne. He humbled himself
to the bearing of the guilt of his people, their humiliation
and all their shame. He humbled himself to the punishment
and the penalty of the cross. He humbled himself to the death
of the grave. And that's why he is exalted.
That's why he is exalted far above everything. God the Father
highly exalted him, but so do we. For that very reason, we
exalt him, saying, thank you, Lord, for saving us from all
that. We exalt him. Now look at verse 13. He said,
but woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you
shut up the kingdom of heaven against men, For you neither
go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to
go in. He said, to the liars of false
religion, woe unto you because you shut up Christ to men and
women. The kingdom of heaven is at hand
right now in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he said,
you won't enter in. And you will not suffer anyone
else to enter in. Somebody comes to you and says,
well, what about election? I, you know, I see God. Oh, don't
listen to that. Don't have anything to do with
that. What about Christ paying the debt of his people in full?
No, no, sir. Don't, uh, don't you touch that?
Don't go there. He said to them at another time,
you will not come to me that you might have life. You will
not come to me that you might have life. And right here he's
saying you do everything in your power to make it so that nobody
else comes to me that they might have life. Thank God the power
is not in wicked man's hands. Thank God. All the power belongs
to Jesus Christ alone. Verse 14, he said, woe unto you,
scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you devour widows' houses. And they do. Our Lord could not
paint a clearer picture of false religion. They stand up in pulpits,
they get on TV, and they say, if you want to plant your seed
in God's garden, and if you want to lay your foundation in, you
know, God's kingdom, foundation of your house in God's kingdom.
All you got to do is send all your money to me. And the ones
that usually fall for that are widows looking to a man. Sadly, it's the wrong man. These
TV evangelists, I cannot imagine the judgments that's coming to
them. I can't imagine it. They truly are giving people
a false hope. They are telling men and women
to put their hope in a place where there's no hope. They're
deceiving men and women in doing that. Verse 14, woe unto you
scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you devour widows' houses
and for a pretense make long prayer. Therefore you shall receive
the greater damnation. You stand out, you come down
front and pray and then it's on. Who can stay there the longest
and pray the longest? What he's saying is everything
you're doing is for your glory, not God's glory, your glory.
Verse 15, woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for
you compass sea and land to make one proselyte. And when he is
made, you make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves. He said, you'll start a crusade,
mission trip. If I had a dime for every time
somebody has contacted us here at this church wanting to know
if we want to take part in funding a mission trip, we're going to
go on a crusade to win souls, you know, we're going to do it
through this means or that means or whatever. He said, you will
compass sea and land to go make a disciple out of hell's idolatry. And when you do, and they believe
what you're telling them, not only do you bring condemnation
on yourself, but you bring condemnation on every soul that you bewitch.
Twofold the child of hell, verse 16. Woe unto you, you blind guides,
which say, whosoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing.
But whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple, he's
a debtor. He said, you're blind leaders of the blind. You're
only focused on money. And because of that, you make
up your own laws and your own commandments, and you disregard
the commandments of God. You'll pick up one and say, now
this one's critical, and then you'll throw another one away.
And that's what they do. Verse 17, you fools and blind,
for whether is greater the gold or the temple that sanctifieth
the gold? What part of God's commandment
is greater than another part? Verse 18, he said, you'll tell
people, whosoever shall swear by the altar, it is nothing,
but whosoever sweareth by the gift that is upon it, he is guilty. Ye fools and blind for whether
is greater the gift or the altar that sanctify the gift. I'll
go ahead and tell you that neither is greater because they are both
of infinite greatness and importance. Christ is the altar. Spiritually
speaking, all of this is pointing spiritually to Jesus Christ. Everything that is in the law
of God points us to Christ. Christ is the altar, that altar
in the temple of the law. Christ is the gift on the altar. Christ is the temple. Christ
is the offering of the temple, the value, the purity, the majesty,
the glory. Christ is all of it. It all points
to Christ. Verse 20. Whoso therefore shall
swear by the altar, sweareth by it and by all things thereon. And whoso shall swear by the
temple, sweareth by it and by him that dwelleth therein. And
he that shall swear by heaven, sweareth by the throne of God
and by him that sitteth thereon. If it's all Christ and we swear
by Christ, we're swearing by all of it. Verse 23. Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites, for you pay tithe of mint and anise and cumin and
have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy,
and faith. These ought you to have done
and not to leave the other undone. He said, you're not excused from
any of the commandments of God. But he said, because all of your
focus is on you fulfilling these commandments, you missed it. When all the focus is on us fulfilling
the commandments of God, we missed it. Verse 24, you blind guides
which strain at a gnat and swallow a camel. He said, you religious hypocrites,
you'll pick out one little insignificant thing and say, now that's a sin
that's never come to me. That's one you better stay away
from. I won't swallow that. You won't
find me swallowing that. They'll strain on it. Like something they just, they
can't swallow. I can't swallow that. And then they'll drink oceans
of iniquity like water. Alcohol's never touched my lips. No, sir. Yeah, but the pride of not drinking
it sure has. Now, we don't do anything on
Sunday. No, we rest on the Sabbath. Yeah, but you sure don't rest
on Jesus Christ, do you? Our Sabbath. Vile language has
never come out of this tongue. Yeah, but you sure do curse men
and women who vile language comes out of their tongue and the God that made them. Gabe, are you saying it's okay
to commit all this sin? No, I'm saying no one is excused. That's what I'm saying, no one
is excused. A person's never done all those
things, great, that person's still a sinner against God. Verse 25. Woe unto you, scribes
and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you may clean the outside of
the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion
and excess." He said that's the problem, within. That's your
condemnation, what is within? Verse 26, thou blind Pharisee,
cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the
outside of them may be clean also. Woe unto you, scribes and
Pharisees, hypocrites, for you are like unto whited sepulchres,
graves that have been painted white, which indeed appear beautiful
outward, but are within full of dead men's bones and of all
uncleanness. Even so, you also outwardly appear
righteous unto men, but within you are full of hypocrisy and
iniquity. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites, because you build the tombs of the prophets and
garnish the sepulchers of the righteous and say, if we had
been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers
with them in the blood of the prophets. Have you ever heard
somebody make the statement, if I had been alive back then,
I would have stopped them from crucifying the Lord. Have you
ever heard that? I know I've asked you that many times. It's amazing
to me that people say that. I physically heard it. You physically
heard people say that. Our Lord said right here, that
is a condemning Pharisee that says that, a condemned Pharisee
that says that. Oh, the ignorance and the arrogance. But for the grace of God, having
mercy on that soul, our Lord said, woe to that soul. Verse 31, wherefore you be witnesses
unto yourselves that you are the children of them which killed
the prophets. Fill ye up then the measure of
your fathers. Didn't our Lord say that the
sin would be continued to generation upon generation? Verse 33, you
serpents, you generation of vipers, how can you escape the damnation
of hell? How can you escape the damnation
of hell? How can a sinner like that escape
the damnation of hell? A sinner like this, how can a
sinner like this escape the damnation of hell? Here is how. It's by
the weighty matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith. Our Lord said, you're focused
on all this stuff and you've missed the weightier matters
of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith. We're gonna talk about
that in just a minute, but I'll go ahead and tell you that every
bit of that is in Christ. Every bit of that is in Jesus
Christ. It is in the blood and the cross
of Jesus Christ. Verse 34. Wherefore, behold,
I send unto you prophets and wise men and scribes, and some
of them you shall kill and crucify, and some of them shall you scourge
in your synagogues and persecute them from city to city, that
upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth from
the blood of righteous Abel, unto the blood of Zacharias,
son of Barakias, whom you slew between the temple and the altar. Verily I say unto you, all these
things shall come upon this generation. And it did. That's exactly what
they did to the apostles. He said, this is what you're
going to do to God's people. And they did. The apostles and the disciples
of that generation, and it has continued every generation thereafter. Verse 37, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem,
thou that killest the prophets and stonest them which are sent
unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together,
even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and you would
not. Behold, your house is left unto
you desolate. For I say unto you, you shall
not see me henceforth till you shall say. Blessed is he that
cometh in the name of the Lord. Verse 37, he said, O Jerusalem,
Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets and stonest them
which are sent unto thee. How often would I have gathered
thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens
under her wings, and you would not. Is he saying that he wanted
to save them, but they wouldn't let him? Is that what he's saying? Absolutely not. He is not saying,
I wanted to save you, but you just wouldn't let me save you.
Absolutely not. What he's saying is, you are
without excuse. You are without excuse. That's what he's saying. You
know, people hear of God's election and they think, well, that's
not fair. What if somebody wanted to come to him, but they weren't
elected, therefore they can't. That's not so. Outside of God's
election, no soul will. No soul will want to. If you
want to, then you're one of the elect. Come on. He's saying you're out without
excuse. You know, the condemnation is
on these false preachers that are preaching to these people.
But he said that's irrelevant. You will not come to me yourself. Woe to them for preaching idolatry,
woe to you for believing idolatry and loving the glory of your
own flesh more than the glory of God. To every soul in this
world outside of Christ, the message is woe. That's the only
message that there is. But to every soul that has been
placed in Christ, the message is, look at the end of verse
39, blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. Blessed
is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. That's what we're
gonna dwell on for our message here in just a minute. The only
place that the blessing can be found. It's in the name, it's
in the person, it's in the character of the one who came, Savior,
Messiah, God with us, Jesus Christ the Lord. He is our only hope
from all of this woe that is certain to come. He's our only
hope. May God cause us to look to him
in total faith and cry out to him alone for mercy. Amen.