Woes Against the Pharisees Part 3.

Opening:

Good-morning again Connection Church. I am so glad that you have decided to come and worship Christ with us. We have worshipped through singing, through prayer, through the learning of truths, and now we have an amazing opportunity. This may shock some of you, but we have been given a great gift. God has spoken to us through His Word and we now have the opportunity to read what has been spoken to us. We right now have the opportunity to read the Word of God. This is an incredible honor. Think about it, we have the opportunity to read what was written by the Apostles under direct inspiration of the Holy Spirit. We get to read what is theopneustos. We get to read what is breathed out by God. This is something that ought to drop our jaws to the floor.

Introduction of the Text:

So please, in great passion and reverence, let us move into a time of publicly reading God’s holy Word. We will be finishing Matthew 23 this week. We have been in this chapter the previous two weeks. Now we will be covering verses 25-39. This has been a heavy chapter. In this chapter, Christ is pronouncing woes against the Pharisees. Remember, a woe is a prophetic judgement oracle. It is a word from God that is pronouncing judgement. It is a pronouncement of doom and gloom, death and suffering. It is, in other words, not a fun thing to hear. However, it is an important thing to hear. We too often seek out only what we enjoy. This is one of the reasons we have so many immature Christians. We have so many pulpits that only preach soft fluff. We have so many Christians that seek out only what agrees with their emotional state. In other words, we have a massively large population in the church who worship their stomachs, not the one true God. Well, we will not be like that. We as a church do not shy away from the hard texts. We are a church that leans into the difficult and painful things. We recognize that a stiff rebuke grows maturity. We do not want to simply have a bunch of spiritual babies. We want to raise up mature multiplying disciples of Christ.

With this in mind, let us lean into the text. Let us read the Word of God. Please stand with me for the reading of God’s Word.

Reading of the Text:

“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 In this way, you also 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 So 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 will you escape the sentence of hell?34 “On account of this, behold, I am sending you prophets and wise men and scribes; some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will flog in your synagogues, and persecute from city to city,35 so that upon you may fall the guilt of all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar.36 Truly I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.

37 “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you did not want it.38 Behold, your house is being left to you desolate!39 For I say to you, from now on you will not see Me until you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’”

Behold, the Word of God. Let’s Pray.

Prayer:

Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for who you are. We want to lift high your name. We exist not to make much of our own names, but to glorify you. So this morning, we glorify you. You are worthy of all praise.

We pray that your Kingdom would come. Lord, we ask that you would build your church. We pray that the gospel would go out into all the earth. Specifically, build your kingdom here. Build this church. May people encounter the gospel and come to faith in you. May we be a witness to this area and may we see more and more people gathering together to worship you with us.

We pray that your will would be done in our lives. May we be obedient to you. I pray we would submit every area of our lives to you. May we hold nothing back. We are your people, help us to live like it.

Lord, we ask that you would meet our needs. We know that every good and perfect gift is from you. So we ask that you would provide for us. Provide for this church. Help us to meet all of our financial commitments. Also, we ask for provision for our personal lives. Give us food to eat and enough to live on.

Lord, we ask for forgiveness as we forgive those in our lives. Forgive our many sins. And Lord, please help us to forgive those who offend us. May we give what you have given us.

Now Lord, we pray as the ancient church prayed. Yours is the power and glory and dominion forever and ever, amen.

Review:

As we begin, let me review what we have covered so far. Chapter 23 contains likely the most harsh words Jesus spoke in His public ministry. Jesus is addressing the wickedness and hypocrisy of the Pharisees. Jesus is speaking these woes against these wicked and false teachers. Chapter 23 is one complete thought. It is one address given by Christ. Because it is one complete address, we have to understand it in light of the whole. We may be covering it in chunks, but we have to maintain the context. Two weeks ago we covered verses 1-12. This was Jesus’ introduction to His woes. In this, Jesus acknowledges the legitimate authority that the Pharisees have. However, despite the fact that these men sat in the chair of Moses, they were hypocrites. They did not practice what they preached. They sought out their own honor rather than the glory of God. They also sought to exalt themselves rather than serve others.

Last week we covered the first four woes. Jesus said firstly that woe was upon them because they actively kept people from entering into the Kingdom of God. Secondly, while they were zealous to see people converted to what they believed, they converted these people to a false gospel and therefore made them worse sons of hell than the Pharisees themselves. Thirdly, the Pharisees had corrupted Scripture’s teaching about swearing oaths. They taught people that some oaths were breakable, while the truth of the matter was that God was the witness of all oaths and therefore, all oaths are sacred and to be kept. Finally, last week we saw the fourth oath. Jesus said that the Pharisees were zealous about tithing, a good thing, but they neglected the weighty matters of the Law of God; namely justice, mercy, and faithfulness.

Transition:

Now we are covering the fifth, sixth, and seventh woe that Jesus pronounced against the Pharisees. So let us start with the fifth and sixth woe.

The Fifth and Sixth Woe. Clean on the Outside, Dead on the Inside. V. 25-28

Explanation:

Why am I combining the fifth and sixth woe? Because they are that closely linked. Jesus is saying the same thing in two different ways. What is Jesus saying? Jesus is pronouncing judgement on the Pharisees because they were clean on the outside but disgusting and dead on the inside. He gives two examples.

First, Jesus says that the Pharisees are like someone who takes a dish and meticulously cleans the outside but leaves the inside filthy. Only Jesus can make a good illustration out of doing the dishes. We instantly see the ridiculousness of someone who would do this. Imagine washing the dishes after a meal and polishing in great detail the outside of the plates and bowls and cups. Then you put them away still covered in food chunks and residue. What is going to happen? That food will spoil and rot. Now picture taking those same dishes out, covered in mold and rotten food, and eating off of them. Clearly Jesus is making an obvious point in saying that if you wash the inside of the dishes, the outside will get cleaned. Which is more important, to focus on the inside or the outside? Clearly it is true that with both dirty dishes and our sinful hearts, it is better to focus on the inside.

Jesus then gives a second woe. He says the Pharisees were like the tombs around Israel. Whitewashed on the outside, but dead inside. Why were the tombs whitewashed? The ceremonial Law stated that contact with a corpse would make one unclean. You would have to go through ritualistic cleansing in order to be allowed to worship again. Because of this, it was the practice to whitewash the grave sites so that people would not accidentally stumble upon a tomb and be unclean. This was a practice to maintain obedience to God’s Law. There was nothing wrong with whitewashing the tombs of the dead. But it made a perfect illustration. Jesus said the Pharisees were just like this. They were clean on the outside but were dead and rotting corpses on the inside. Jesus said that they had the appearance of righteousness but inside they were full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

Illustration:

Argumentation:

The Pharisees had this wrong. They had the outside polished. They had scrubbed their outsides while their hearts were filthy. Their heart was like a dirty dish, covered in rotten, moldy food chunks. They had the outward appearance of righteousness, but inside they were repulsive and dead. This is clearly the difference between God’s viewpoint and man’s viewpoint. God sees the heart, while man can only see the outside. And the Pharisees had the outward down pat. They had fooled the people. But what God saw was not the outward whitewashed exterior, but the dead bones of rotting corpses.

And that is an interesting point. We must not pass up that Scripture describes salvation as being brought to life. We all were dead in our sin. We all were dead. The Holy Spirit came and brought us to life. This to me, and many before me, speaks of the fact that the Pharisees were pretending to be Spiritually alive, but they were in fact lost. The Pharisees were not saved. They were lost and still dead in their sins.

And to this, I want to encourage you in one thing. A true Christian cannot truly be a Pharisee. Throughout the past two weeks I have challenged you to examine your hearts to see if you resemble a Pharisee. We will still do this, but please be encouraged. If you are a Christian, you cannot truly be a Pharisee. You see, you are alive. You may act like a Pharisee, but you cannot truly be one! Not true Christian can be a Pharisee because no true Christian is dead inside. We are made alive through the power of the Holy Spirit. We are brought to life. We are not whitewashed tombs! We are alive inside. This is encouraging. Another encouraging thought is that we do not wash ourselves. It is God who cleanses us. So we cannot be the filthy dishes either. We are scrubbed clean with the blood of Christ.

Application:

So how do we apply this? Do we now have no need to hold this passage up as a mirror? Do we now shrug this passage off and move on? By no means. I want you to be encouraged that you are made alive and cleansed in Christ, but we know we still sin. And in that sense, we must still look for sin in our lives. But we do this differently. You see, we are not dead. Jesus was pointing out that the Pharisees were sinful because they were dead. Their sin, while still evil, was consistent with who they truly were. When we sin, we are being inconsistent with who we are.

What do I mean? We are alive in Christ. We are justified. We are washed clean. So when we sin, we are being completely at odds with our new nature. This is why we must do away with any sin we see in ourselves. We are no longer dead. So why would we act like dead men? We should not! So in this sense, we must ask, do we prioritize the outward appearance or the inward reality? Do we spend time working on our outward appearance or the inward beauty of salvation? What do I mean practically?

Do we cake ourselves with spiritual makeup while neglecting the process of sanctification? Are we okay with sin in our heart just so long as people don’t see? That is a hard question. That one hurts. I think we all can see that tendency. I know I do. I don’t always prioritize killing the sin I struggle with that no one can see. We must put every sin in our lives to death. But we also know that this is a process. It is a lifelong process. And some sins are more deadly than others. But we have no excuse to leave some and focus only on others. So when push comes to shove, do you find yourself only really caring about the sin that people can see? As long as you give off the appearance of righteousness, do you not really worry about other sins?

This is where I fear we have lost a great deal of the mindset of the puritans. In our day, puritanism is almost a swear word. Practically, that word is almost always used in a negative way. But people don’t really know who the puritans were. Any true historian will admit that the puritans were fun loving people. They loved to sing, and gather, drink and eat together, and celebrate. As a majority, they were really fun people. So why are they hated? The Puritans were known for one thing above all. They were broken by their sin. They saw their own desire for sin, and it shattered their hearts. They were a people who were consumed with a desire to be rid of sin. They wanted to be holy. And because of this, history has unjustly labeled them as stuffy and religious.

I have even heard the puritans referred to as “Pharisees.” This is categorically wrong. By definition, this is a horrible label. Jesus described the Pharisees as being dead inside while pretending to be clean on the outside. The Puritans were the exact opposite of this. They were alive on the inside and wanted their outsides to match what was inside. While the Pharisees were beautiful tombs, the Puritans were royalty living in shacks. They desired their abodes to match the precious life that was inside.

I wish we were puritans. I wish we looked at the beautiful gift of salvation and tried to live our lives to the standard of new life. I wish we would look at the new life we have been given and valued it so much that we would not stop until our outsides matched our insides. So this is my challenge to you. Be a puritan. Look at the life God has given to your soul, and live it out. Start on the inside and then wash the outside. Love the salvation God has given you so much that you crush every sin, the visible and invisible ones.

How do you do this? You can’t do it alone. You do that by being connected here. The church is how this done. We strengthen each other. We challenge each other. We must be vulnerable with each other. Be part of this church. Be strengthened in Christ through His church.

Transition:

And now we are at the final woe. This is the seventh woe.

The Seventh Woe. Murderer’s of the Prophets. V. 29-31

Explanation:

Jesus says that the Pharisees claimed to honor the Prophets, but that they would have killed the Prophets just as their fathers did. Look with me again at verses 29-31. “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 So you bear witness against yourselves, that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets.”

You can almost picture the scene. The Pharisees would decorate and honor the tombs of the ancient Prophets. They would make long speeches, bemoaning the fact that they were not alive when the Prophets came. You can almost hear it. “I wish that I would have been alive when Jeremiah came and prophesied. I would not have done what our fathers did. They tormented and murdered him. I would have headed his warnings. I would have honored Jeremiah. Oh that I had been alive!” You can almost see the single tear streaking down the cheek at this. What a load of lies.

The Pharisees were full of it. And Jesus calls them out on it. You see, they were just like their fathers. In fact, the Pharisees had two prophets walk among them in their own day, and they wanted to have them both killed. They proved to be just like their fathers. John the Baptist was a prophet from God like Elijah. They hated him. They longed to see him die and they rejoiced when he did die. They had the prophet of all prophets in front of them. They had the Messiah who is the true Prophet. They rejected Him and were at that moment attempting to have Him killed. In a day or so they would lead the crowds in crying out “Crucify Him!” But they would pretend to be better than their fathers who murdered the prophets. They were just like them. They would have been first in line to kill the ancient prophets. Just like they would be the first in line to kill the apostolic prophets.

They stoned Stephen who prophesied to them. They were directly responsible for the deaths of several of the Apostles. These men were all full of lies. They claimed to love the prophets but the testimony of their lives prove them to be liars. Their hands were covered in blood.

Argumentation:

And one must wonder how this is to be applied to our day. I fear it is the same in our day. All Christians claim to love Christ. Most every Christian claims to have a love for the Scriptures which are the words of the Prophets. I will say here that all true Christians have a love for the Scriptures. But not all who claim to be Christians are Christians. Many will claim to love the Word of God, but would have been first in line to stone the Prophets. This is a bold statement, but it is true. How many professing Christians stop up their ears at the clear teaching of God’s Word? How many professing Christians seek out teachers and preachers who will tickle their ears?

Obviously the answer is many. I am not saying that every Christian does this. I am not saying that you personally do this. However, this is a massive problem in the church. I see it all the time. Do you want to know how to get people to come to your church? Don’t preach anything offensive. Stay away from cultural issues. Don’t preach against things. Instead, focus heavily on the love of God. Don’t use clear terms. Hide your meaning in vague phrases that people can apply their own meanings to. Why did Jesus come? Jesus came to give you victory! Don’t use the word sin. Instead, call it “mistakes” or use the term “messy.” Don’t say we are all sinners. Instead, say “we are all messy.” Focus on the fact that Jesus came to help clean up our mess. And above all, make the gospel about the person, not about the eternal glory of God. This is how you get people to come to your church.

Let me be very clear, people who actively preach in this way would have been shouting “crucify Him” with the crowds. There would have been articles in “The Gospel Coalition” claiming that the death of Jesus was tragic, but you can see where He went wrong. He used inflammatory language. He spoke too harshly against His critics, and that is just so not Christ-like. One of my chief fears is that the modern church is filled with people who swear up and down to love Christ, but when push comes to shove, they don’t even know who He is.

Application:

I fear that the church is filled with people who claim to love the Bible but deep down actively deny it’s teachings. In fact, in many churches, it isn’t even deep down. They deny the teachings of Scripture openly. They are like the Pharisees. And I fear, they are Pharisees. I fear they are lost, pretending to be saved. I tried to encourage you in the last two woes that a true Christian cannot be a Pharisee. This is true. But now hear my warning. The church is filled with Pharisees. It is filled with true Pharisees. The american church is filled with those who think they are righteous. They claim to love the prophets but they would have stoned them just like their fathers of old.

And this is my warning. Are you a Pharisee? And hear my question clearly. Are you a Pharisee? The rest of this text focuses more on the corporate nature of Pharisaism. Therefore, the rest of my sermon is dedicated to pronouncing judgement against Pharisees. If you are not saved, but you are pretending to be, you are a Pharisee. And these judgement are upon your head just as surely as they were upon the heads of the Pharisees of Jesus’ day. Repent while you can. Repent and be baptised! Flee from your sin. Hear the call of Christ. Hear the warning of Christ. I cannot see hearts. I cannot see what is in your heart. If you are clean on the outside, but your soul is dead, you must repent.

Transition:

Jesus has finished the woes and now is pronouncing the judgement. What judgement? The judgement against the fullness of their evil.

The Fullness of Evil. V. 32-36

Explanation:

Jesus gives a command. he pronounces woe and then He says, “Fill up, then, the measure of the guilt of your fathers.” This is a terrifying command. Jesus commands them to fill the measure of guilt of their fathers. Their fathers murdered the prophets. Jesus is saying that these men will complete the work their fathers started. These men will finish out the evil their fathers had begun. This statement terrifies me. I cannot imagine hearing Christ say this. And if this were not bad enough He then asks them this, “You serpents, you brood of vipers, how will you escape the sentence of hell?” This ought to send shivers down your spine. Jesus is openly condemning these men to hell. The only word that comes to mind is hopeless. The wickedness of these men has promised them hell. The hardness of their hearts has promised they will be in hell. This is horrific.

Jesus then says that He is sending them prophets, and scribes, and wise men. Jesus says they will reject these men and kill them. These are the Apostles and the early church. These will be killed. And this is a hard truth. Jesus does not just say He knows this will happen. Jesus says He has a purpose for it. This is a direct reference to the Sovereign will of God. What is this purpose? The purpose is so that the physical judgement of all the shed blood would come upon these men. The Pharisees would face the punishment for the murder of every prophet. They would face the punishment for every death of innocence, from Abel to Zechariah. Jesus literally says that the blood will fall upon the Pharisees. He says that “truly… all these things will come upon this generation.”

Argumentation:

This is hard and horrific. This is more difficult than anything else we have covered so far. The first difficulty we must wrestle with is the fact that Jesus claims that He has a reason for the death of the faithful. What does this mean? It means that this is happening within the will of Christ. Jesus says that the faithful will be crucified, flogged, and persecuted. Why? So that punishment will fall on the Pharisees. The purpose is that God’s wrath and judgement will fall. This is heavy. But it is good.

How can this possibly be good? How can it possibly be good that the righteous be crucified, flogged, and persecuted? Those actions are not good. The judgement of God is good. And this again is difficult. If I were to say the mercy of God is blessed and good! I would likely get a few hearty “amen’s.” But it is a totally different reaction when I say the wrath and judgement of God is blessed and good. People don’t “amen” that. In fact, if I were to ask most Christians, “Is the judgement of God a good thing?” I imagine that many many people would say no. But what is the cross? The cross is the greatest symbol of judgement in human history! The cross is the direct image of how heinous sin is.

What do I mean? How horrific was your sin? Your sin was so horrific that God the Son had to suffer and die in order to atone for it. This is how vile sin is. Now let me ask you this, “Is the cross a good thing?” Obviously yes! Why? Why is the cross good? Many Christians are fundamentally wrong about this. Many Christians miss the mark by a mile when they answer this. Many Christians, including pastors, say that the cross is good because the cross saves sinners.

The salvation of sinners is a good outcome of the cross. But it is not why the cross is good. The cross is good because it glorifies God. Period. The Cross is fundamentally good because it glorifies God. That is why. We are not the chief end of the cross. To say that what makes the cross good is because it justifies me is to say that I am the chief end of the cross. To say that what makes the cross good is the fact that I am saved is to say the cross is about me! How dare we say the cross is about us. Yes we are saved because of the cross. And that is a wonderful things! But we are not the chief end of the cross. The cross is good because it glorifies God.

This is about how we define things, and we tend to define things so poorly. We don’t think about what we say. How dare anyone say the judgement of God is a bad thing. The judgement of God may be bad for sinners, but it is a glorious act. When God punishes evil, it glorifies Him. We have no right to say that God ought not judge. We celebrate human judges who punish evil. Or at least we used to. When a judge punishes a child molester, we view that as good. Why? Because it is good. It is good thing when a rapist faces the death penalty. That is righteous. It is righteous when a good judge judges evil.

So what is the purpose of the death of the apostles? That the fulness of the evil of the Pharisees would be fulfilled and that they would then face judgement. Amen and hallelujah. God deemed it good to turn their wickedness to His glory through judging them. If you really want to throw a wrench in your preconceived notion of what is righteous, you know who God used to punish these wicked Pharisees? God used the Romans. The Roman army came and slaughtered these evil men. So God used a wicked, pagan army to destroy the wicked Pharisees.

Application:

Why do I bring this up? I bring this up because it is demanded by the text, but I bring it up also to challenge you. How do you define good? How do you define evil? Do you agree with God’s definition of good or do you have your own? I hate to break it to you, but one of you is wrong. I’ll give you a hint; it isn’t God. Jesus says that He is sending prophets, wise men, and scribes to the Pharisees. Jesus sends them to the Pharisees so that the Pharisees might kill them. Why? So that the fulness of bloodshed would fall on the Pharisees and that they would bare the fulness of the earthly punishment for this blood.

The blood cries out, and God will answer that cry. That is the constant testimony of Scripture. Bloodshed is serious. And God will answer the cry of the blood. The blood of the prophets cried out and God was now answering that cry. The cry of justice was going to be answered. Now we must ask a pertinent question. How long will the blood of the unborn cry out before God answers? The blood of the prophets cried out and God poured out His judgement upon the Pharisees. How many babies have been murdered in our land? How many millions of gallons of blood cries out to God for justice? That cry will be answered. Judgement is coming. Amen and bless the Lord. For the judgement of God glorifies His name. May everyone in this land repent before He unleashes His judgement. The judgement of God is glorious, but it is definitively bad for those who fall under it. We ought to repent before God answers the cry for justice and wipes our land off the earth. He’s done it many times before.

Transition:

And this is really the center of the close of this chapter. Judgement did not just come against the Pharisees. It came against all whose hands were dripping with blood. It came against all who shared the guilt. It came against Jerusalem. The closing verses are Jesus’ lament over Jerusalem.

Lament Over Jerusalem. V. 37-39

Explanation:

Jesus says in verses 37-39 “37 “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you did not want it.38 Behold, your house is being left to you desolate!39 For I say to you, from now on you will not see Me until you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’”

It was not just the Pharisees who killed the prophets. Jerusalem was stained with the blood of the prophets. And the bill was coming due. Judgement was coming. They had one generation. Within forty years, Judgement would fall like the gavel of God.

Even though the judgement of God brings Him glory, we see something interesting. Jesus does not revel in it. It brings glory to God, but Jesus laments it. This is surprising. What does this mean? It means that God takes glory, not joy, from the death of the wicked. God is not sadistic. His desire is that judgement would not fall. But He is glorified when it does. This highlights the fact that God is sovereign but man is responsible. This is a mystery. God is in complete control. Nothing happens outside of His plan and will. But yet, man is responsible.

But take special notice of this. Who does Jesus desire to gather? Jerusalem? No. He says He wished to gather their children. What does this mean? It speaks to the generational nature of the failure of Jerusalem. We see this again and again in the Old Testament. God would punish Israel. Israel would repent. Israel would fail to teach their children. The children would grow up and fall back into sin. Then the cycle began again. One of, if not the chief failure of Israel was to disobey God in His commands to raise up faithful children. And here we see it again. God desired the faithfulness of their children. But Jerusalem sinned and the streets ran with the blood of the prophets. Soon, it would run with their blood because of their sin.

Application:

This is a dour passage. These verses leave us in the depths of the darkness of the judgement of God. If you are lost, this ought to leave you with the cry of “What must I do to be saved?” If you are saved, this ought to leave you with a sense of dread that we may be just like Israel. Sadly however, I fear we hear these passages and we treat them with indifference. That is a judgement against us. This is a hard passage to preach. I do not want you to leave feeling like i beat you up and accused you of being every negative thing in this passage. I know you. You are my sheep, and I do not believe that you are personally guilty of all of these things. But I also know the current state of church culture in America. So I do not want you to leave feeling beat up. But I also do not want you to leave without seriously examining these things. We especially must take an honest look at the state of the church as a whole in our nation.

I fear that our tenancy is to hear these verses and view them as words of judgement against a people who lived a long time ago. They do not bear weight against us. They were for the people back then. God does not do such things now. If we leave thinking that, we are fools and blind fools. We must not hear these verses in this way. We must hear these verses and weep for the church. If God did not spare Jerusalem, why would He spare us?! Do we think God is blind? Do we think God is sleeping? Hear me, God will not be mocked. The church in the United States is in grave danger.

What do I mean? Jerusalem faced death and destruction for it’s sin. Do we think we are somehow more protected here from God’s judgement than Israel? By no means. God had made numerous covenants with Israel as a nation. And when they broke them and disobeyed God’s Commands, they were punished. The United States of America is not the covenant people of God. America is not God’s chosen people. All true Christians are the true Israel. Paul makes that clear in Romans. But God also judges nations for their sin. So will God be more gracious to the U.S. than to Israel? Of course not. God help us if we do not repent of the innocent blood we have spilled. God help us if we don’t repent of our rampant sexual immorality. If we do not, we will surely be destroyed. Every person, from the president to the lowest peasant ought to cry out to God for mercy and forgiveness.

But what of the church? I do not mean the true Spiritual church. I mean the organization of the church. What of those who claim to be the people of God? A shockingly large amount of the church is complicit in this. How many churches are complicit in the flagrant sexual immorality of our culture? How many churches fly rainbow flags? How many churches ignore God’s commands and openly justify sin? The number is staggering. And of those who do not openly support these sins, even more are completely silent about it. This is a judgement on us. The churches of the west have failed to honor Christ.

The statement is true, you will have Christ or chaos. If Christ is not your King then you will have Chaos. Look around. We have chaos. Look at the state of the church. It is chaos. Why? Because the church has turned its back on Christ. We are ashamed of our Lord and He has turned us over. We have worshiped false gods and He has given us to them. We have bowed down to the god of woke-ness. We have bowed down to the god of always being nice. We have bowed down to the god of sexual immorality. We have bowed down to the god of pride. And Christ has given the church over to these false gods. Christ has turned us over to these false gods.

Closing:

Woe unto the modern day church who bow to all but Christ. Repent and bow to Christ. Kiss the Son lest He be angry. God did not spare Jerusalem. God will not spare us if we remain in our rebellious state. Bow to Christ. Worship Him alone. Repent of your sin. Repent for the kingdom of God is at hand. Christ is King. Bow to Him.

You may be wondering, why would I preach this? I am not accusing this particular church of this. We have clear statements in our belief statement against many of these things. So who cares what other churches do? Who cares what others who claim to the church say? And there is some truth to that question. In some ways, we ought not get hung up on some of the things that those who claim to be the church do. But here is why in general, I believe we must not be silent. First, Scripture tells us again and again to be on guard against false teachers. In fact, preachers are to warn the sheep against false teachers. In Titus, Paul commands pastors in this way. Titus 1:9-11 “9 holding fast the faithful word which is in accordance with the teaching, so that he will be able both to exhort in sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict. 10 For there are many rebellious men, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision, 11 who must be silenced because they are upsetting whole families, teaching things they should not teach for the sake of sordid gain.”

I am commanded to refute these men. If this does not settle it, even though it should, look at Jesus’ example. He does not say, “the Pharisees are doing this, but it doesn’t really matter because you aren’t Pharisees.” So, I recognize that you may not be contributing to the current wickedness of the church culture, but I still must warn you of it. The current state of many who claim to be the church is as bad as, if not worse than, the state of the pharisees in Jesus’ day. And judgement is coming. To the wicked, we call out “repent!” To the saved we call out, “live in the light.” Let’s pray.

Prayer:

Closing Doxology:

Closing Benediction:

From that time Jesus began to preach and say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Matthew 4:17