Sermon Tone Analysis

How to Avoid the Worst Woes in Life - Part 2

The Gospel of Matthew

Matthew 23:25-36

Sermon by Rick Crandall

(Prepared February 3, 2023)

BACKGROUND:

*In 1 John 4 the Bible tells us twice that "God is love."

And thank God that's true!

Our God is full of love, grace, and tender mercy for everyone in the world.

Remember that in 1 Timothy 2:4-6 the Bible tells us that God "desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time."

*God loves all people.

But our God is not a fluffy teddy bear.

He is the God of love.

But He is also the God of righteous wrath.

One Sunday years ago, I preached about the wrath of God in the morning sermon.

*This was long before mobile phones.

But most people had home phones, and our numbers were in the phonebook.

Just after lunch that day, I got a call from a lady who had visited the church that morning.

I didn't know the lady, and she was from out of town.

But she was so upset about my sermon that she just had to call me up and tell me about it.

She was pretty mad, and she said, "My God is not a God of wrath.

He is a God of love.

I tried to explain to her what the Bible says about God's wrath, but she didn't want to hear it.

*God's Word has a lot to say about His righteous wrath.

The word "wrath" is found 198 times in the KJV Bible, and most of those times, it is talking about the righteous wrath of God.

For example, Psalm 2:12 says this about the promised Messiah: "Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, And you perish in the way, When His wrath is kindled but a little.

Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him."

*Psalm 21:9-10 says this about the Messiah: "Your hand will find all Your enemies; Your right hand will find those who hate You.

You shall make them as a fiery oven in the time of Your anger; The Lord shall swallow them up in His wrath, And the fire shall devour them."

*Then, in Matthew 3:7, when John the Baptist saw many of the evil Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, "Brood of vipers!

Who has warned you to flee from the wrath to come?"

And in Revelation 16:1, the Apostle John gave this testimony: "I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seven angels, Go your ways, and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth."

*Well, thank the Lord that Ezekiel 33:11 also says, "Say to them: 'As I live,' says the Lord GOD, 'I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live.

Turn, turn from your evil ways!

For why should you die, O house of Israel?'"

*Also thank the Lord that 1 Thessalonians 5:9-10 tells all Christians: "God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him."

*Yes, God is love.

But He is not a fluffy teddy bear.

And here in Matthew 23, we see the strongest words of condemnation Jesus ever spoke during His ministry on earth.

Jesus called these evil men "hypocrites" 8 different times.

A. T. Robertson explained that "this hardest word from the lips of Jesus fell on those who were the religious leaders of the Jews.

The Lord's verbal thunderbolts of wrath were deserved by the scribes and Pharisees, because of their vicious, hateful rejection of Christ, their corrupt distortions of God's Law, and the abuse of the people who suffered under their rule."

(1)

*These scribes and Pharisees brought the Lord's condemnation on their own heads.

And we need to be as far away from their hard-hearted ways as we can possibly be.

Thank God, Jesus will help us avoid their horrible woes!

Let's begin by listening to the Lord in Matthew 23:25-36.

MESSAGE:

*All of us are going to face woes in this world.

There are always children at St. Jude Children's Hospital in Memphis.

There are always cancer patients down at M. D. Anderson in Houston.

And there are people planning funerals every day of the year.

*All of us are going to face woes in this world.

All of us will go through times of pain, sadness, grief, and regret.

But in today's Scripture, the Lord shows us how to avoid the worst woes of all.

*The scribes and Pharisees in these verses were considered to be the most religious people of that day, but Jesus spoke 8 woes of condemnation on their souls.

Our English word "woe" is a strong exclamation of grief that comes from a serious affliction or misfortune.

It expresses deep distress and misery.

But William Barclay explained that "the original word for 'woe' here was hard to translate because it included both wrath and sorrow.

There is righteous anger in the Lord's voice here, but it is the anger of a loving heart that was broken by the stubborn blindness of these evil leaders."

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*We need to run away from their hard-hearted ways.

And the Lord will help us avoid the horrible woes in today's Scriptures.

But please understand that though there are 4 points in this message, they are not "steps" to avoid these woes or anything like that.

You see, it all goes back to Jesus.

He is the only way to escape the worst woes.

1. BUT FIRST IN THESE VERSES: DON'T JUST CARE HOW YOU LOOK.

-- CARE HOW YOU LIVE.

*The scribes and Pharisees were satisfied to look good before other people.

But that's not good enough for God! Jesus doesn't want us to just look good.

He wants us to be good.

And in vs. 25-28, the Lord stressed the difference twice.

Here Jesus said:

25. "Woe to 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.

26.

Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also.

27.

Woe to 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.

28.

Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness."

*Five times in this chapter, the Lord told those wicked scribes and Pharisees that they were blind.

They were blind enough to believe that their devotion to religious rituals would earn their way into the Kingdom of Heaven.

Their religious performance was enough to fool the people.

They even fooled themselves.

But God wasn't fooled for a moment, because He sees us every minute of every day.

*Many Scriptures confirm this truth.

For example, Psalm 33:13-15 says, "The LORD looks from heaven; He sees all the sons of men.

From the place of His habitation He looks on all the inhabitants of the earth; He fashions their hearts individually; He considers all their works."

*God can see into our hearts.

King David surely knew this truth.

That's why he prayed this confession to the Lord in Psalm 69:5-6, "O God, You know my foolishness; And my sins are not hidden from You.

Let not those who wait for You, O Lord GOD of hosts, be ashamed because of me; Let not those who seek You be confounded because of me, O God of Israel."

*Then in Romans 2:16, Paul talked about "the day when God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel."

We may try to hide and cover up our sins, but God sees them all.

As Hebrews 4:13 says, "There is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account."

*We must remember that God sees us all the time.

He even sees the secret places of our souls, so we must make inward purity our priority.

Don't just care how you look to other people.

Care how you live.

That's how to avoid the worst woes in life.

2. AND DON'T COMPARE YOURSELF TO OTHER PEOPLE.

-- COMPARE YOURSELF TO GOD.