WWUTT 2393 Woe to You Pharisees (Luke 11:33-54)

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Jesus confronted the Pharisees and said woe to them, for they were twisting

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God's word and adding to it and placing heavy burdens upon the people, instead of doing as they should, helping the people, when we understand the text.

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This is when we understand the text, studying God's word to reach all the riches of full assurance in Christ.

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Find all our videos online at www .wutt .com, as well as links to follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

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Here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe Hughes. Thank you, Becky. In our study of the Gospel of Luke, we finish up chapter 11 today, a little bit bigger section to read here.

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So I'm going to start reading in verse 33 and go through verse 54. Hear the word of the

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Lord. No one after lighting a lamp puts it in a cellar or under a basket, but on a stand, so that those who enter may see the light.

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Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light, but when it is bad, your body is full of darkness.

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Therefore be careful lest the light in you be darkness. If then your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, it will be wholly bright, as when a lamp with its rays gives you light.

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While Jesus was speaking, a Pharisee asked him to dine with him, so he went in and reclined at table.

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The Pharisee was astonished to see that he did not first wash before dinner, and the

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Lord said to him, Now you Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness.

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You fools, did not he who made the outside make the inside also? But give as alms those things that are within, and behold, everything is clean for you.

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But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and every herb and neglect justice in the love of God.

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These you ought to have done without neglecting the others. Woe to you Pharisees! For you love the best seed in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces.

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Woe to you! For you are like unmarked graves, and people walk over them without knowing it.

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One of the lawyers answered him, Teacher, in saying these things, you insult us also.

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And he said, Woe to you lawyers also! For you load people with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves do not touch the burdens with one of your fingers.

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Woe to you! For you build the tombs of the prophets whom your fathers killed. So you are witnesses, and you consent to the deeds of your fathers, for they killed them, and you build their tombs.

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Therefore also the wisdom of God said, I will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill and persecute, so that the blood of all the prophets shed from the foundation of the world may be charged against this generation, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah who perished between the altar and the sanctuary.

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Yes, I tell you, it will be required of this generation. Woe to you lawyers!

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For you have taken away the key of knowledge. You did not enter yourselves, and you hindered those who were entering.

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As he went away from there, the scribes and the Pharisees began to press him hard and to provoke him to speak about many things, lying in wait for him to catch him in something he might say.

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So this is a familiar passage, and when we were reading something similar in Matthew's gospel, the woes, the seven woes that were issued to the scribes and Pharisees, that was given in Matthew 23.

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It was during the week that Jesus was going to the cross, according to Matthew. Now that's not to say that Luke and Matthew were confused on their timeline.

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This is just another occasion in which Jesus said those things, but saying it to another group of Pharisees.

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So Jesus issued those woes in Matthew 23 as well, but that was to the Pharisees in Jerusalem.

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They're only on their way to Jerusalem here. So it's not to say that those woes were only reserved for that specific time.

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There were other occasions when Jesus would have given those warnings to the Pharisees, other

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Pharisees that he would have encountered, and even the lawyers, who were the ones who dictated the law to the people, helped them understand and make decisions between people, things of that nature.

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So you have the Pharisees and the lawyers here that Jesus is rebuking. I find it hilarious that one of the lawyers goes, teacher, in saying these things, you insult us too.

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And then Jesus goes, woe to you lawyers, for you load people with burdens hard to bear.

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It was almost like Jesus was going, yeah, sorry, can't forget you. Woe to you lawyers.

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I say, sorry, on the sarcastic sense, not that Jesus was actually apologizing for anything. So first of all, before getting into these woes, in verses 33 to 36, we have

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Jesus talking about the light of the person, and be sure that the light that is in you is full of light.

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This is really a kind of a transition that's taking place here, because a lot of what Jesus said before this was being said to the people.

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A sign is not going to be given you from heaven, but only the sign of Jonah. That was what we read yesterday.

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And then before that, addressing those who accused him of casting out demons by the power of Beelzebul, or under the power of Satan, like Satan casting out

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Satan. Jesus rebuked those there. So he's been addressing the people, rebuking the people, instructing even to be sure that the light that is in you is actually light and not full of darkness.

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So we have kind of a transition between addressing the crowds and then addressing the Pharisees who are most definitely full of darkness.

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So Jesus makes that statement, no one after lighting a lamp puts it in a cellar or under a basket, but on a stand so that those who enter may see the light.

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Same sort of illustration Jesus gave in Matthew chapter five, but giving the application there that you let your good works shine before men so that they may know you by your good works and give glory to your father who is in heaven.

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Even though Jesus doesn't give that application here, it still has the same meaning.

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So be taught by the doctrines that God has provided through his son,

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Jesus here in what he's been teaching, the apostles that will be sent out and the prophets that have been sent as well.

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Listen to their teaching. Don't listen to the scribes and Pharisees who will tell you not to listen to the teaching of the prophets that have been sent by God.

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If your whole body is full of light, having no part in darkness, it will be wholly bright as when a lamp with its rays gives you light.

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So listen to the word of God and live according to that. And then your whole body will be full of light, the light of God's word.

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But then you have these Pharisees and lawyers who cloud God's word. They add to it, they twist it, they make up their own laws and stick it in there.

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Just about every definition that you can come up with for legalism and still be accurate to the word the

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Pharisees were doing. And so here in verse 37, while Jesus was speaking, a

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Pharisee asked him to dine with him. So he went and reclined at table. We've seen that before, a Pharisee asking

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Jesus to come to his house and Jesus will do so. But the Pharisee was astonished to see that Jesus did not first wash before dinner.

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Now, how do you like that? Would you want to go over to somebody's house as a guest and you don't wash your hands and suddenly they make a spectacle out of you before everybody else?

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Well, why didn't you wash your hands? Now, the way that the Pharisees translated this, washing your hands, this wasn't like make sure you have clean hands before dinner, get rid of all that dirt and grime and all that stuff.

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Mom better not see a single spot on those hands or dirt under those nails. You know, it wasn't anything like that, even though they were telling the people to wash their hands and make them spotless before eating their food, lest they defile themselves.

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But this wasn't for the same reason that we tell our kids to wash their hands today.

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If my children don't wash their hands, they're in trouble because I told them to wash their hands and they didn't.

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So what they're in trouble for is disobeying mom and dad. But here with the

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Pharisees, they have a different reason for why they're telling the people to wash their hands. It's because they had become so strict with the law that if you had even any dirt on your hands and you ate food, then you've defiled yourself.

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You defiled the food that you touched because you didn't wash your hands and you defiled yourself by then eating the food which has gone into your body and defiled you.

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So that's how that's why the Pharisees imposed this rule of washing your hands.

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They were tying that into spiritual cleanliness. If your hands are dirty, you're going to make yourself spiritually unclean.

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So this Pharisee makes a spectacle of Jesus and says, Hey, you didn't wash your hands before dinner.

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And Jesus said to him, now you Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness.

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It's like, okay, fine. Yeah, you guys are real good about washing your hands, but what's on the inside of you?

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You fools. Jesus says, verse 40, did not he who make the outside make the inside also, but give as alms those things that are within and behold, everything is clean for you.

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So they give their tithes, they give their offerings, they do that to look impressive to the people, maybe even thinking that our works will gain the favor of God.

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But Jesus says, did not he who make the outside make the inside also?

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So God who made your body has also made the inside of you, giving you your soul.

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So he's the one who governs over your body and soul, not you. You know, speaking to these

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Pharisees who are claiming to have some sort of jurisdiction over even the soul of a person.

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They don't have any claim over the soul. God is the one who's made the outside and the inside also.

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So give as alms those things that are within and behold, everything is clean for you.

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When you give unto the Lord, may it not be in the sight of all the people or to look impressive or even to think that the works that you do will gain the favor of God.

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Give those things which are within, give out of your heart, whatever you're giving is, may it be genuine.

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And even if it's, even if we're not talking about a material giving here, we remember the words of Romans 12, one in view of God's mercies, brethren present your bodies as living sacrifices unto the

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Lord, holy and acceptable to him. This is your spiritual act of worship. So giving as alms, those things that are within, it is living unto

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God with the whole person, the whole self. Yes, we should still give. There is a time and a place for giving unto the

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Lord as well. Money monetarily, buying gifts for somebody, caring for someone who is in need, whatever way that might manifest itself.

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So there is certainly a place for us to buy and to give. But here,

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Jesus is very simply talking about living in holiness, presenting yourself to God, living in obedience to him.

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All the money that you could dump into the treasury box there in the temple will not save you.

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It has to be that you love the Lord, your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.

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If you're listening to the other podcast that I do, which is hear the word of the Lord, just straight

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Bible teaching, I finish up second Kings today or tomorrow, tomorrow is the finishing of second

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Kings. I've already recorded it, so I'm trying to remember on what day that falls. So the way that second

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Kings finishes up is with King Josiah. Remember the story of King Josiah? One of the men who worked in the temple and worked in his court found the book of the law, specifically the book of Deuteronomy in the temple, and then came and read it in the hearing of King Josiah.

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And he tore his clothes and wept because he realized through hearing the book of Deuteronomy, through hearing the law, he realized that Judah had not kept

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God's commandments and God's wrath was upon them. So they sought out a prophetess who told them

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God was not going to relent from his anger against Judah. He was certainly going to bring judgment upon them. But because Josiah individually was repentant before God, God would spare him the calamity that was about to come upon Judah and Josiah would sleep with his fathers in peace.

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But before that happened, before Josiah died and went to be with the Lord, he went ahead and purged the land.

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It was like the greatest sweeping legal revival that had happened in the history of Israel and Judah.

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He purged the land of all, every single idol worship, the high places, the

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Asherah, the priests that sacrificed even human sacrifices unto Moloch. Josiah had all these things destroyed, even putting those priests to death.

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He did all of this, but nonetheless, God still brought Judah into judgment, sending them into exile into Babylonian captivity.

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Why is it that though Josiah repented, God did not relent from his anger upon Judah?

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Because the king, he certainly felt convicted by the law. He certainly told everybody what it is that we needed to do to be in obedience to God.

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He even reinstituted the Passover. The Passover had not happened in hundreds of years in Judah.

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By the time that Josiah said, hey, now we're having a national holiday and we're all going to celebrate

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Passover. So Judah implemented, well, sorry, Josiah implemented all these things in Judah, but God was still going to bring judgment against them because even though there were these sweeping reforms, incredible legal reform going on in Judah, the hearts of the people had not really changed.

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They did what the king told them to do, but the people were still in rebellion against God because immediately when

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Josiah's son succeeds him and comes to the throne, the people just go back to doing the evil that they were doing before.

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So Jesus is saying here, give with a sincere heart. Don't be just looking great on the outside, but on the inside, you're full of death and darkness.

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Remember, the inside of you is darkness. How great is that darkness? You can't look great on the outside and then be dark on the inside.

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The whole person has to live in submission unto the Lord and give with that heart that is oriented toward God and his righteousness.

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With that heart, you give your good things and then those things will be pleasing to the

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Lord. If a person does wickedness or they conceal sin in their heart, they continue to walk in sinful ways and do not repent.

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But on the outside, you think they're a good godly person. Before the Lord, they're evil and no matter what good deeds they may be doing, if they're disingenuous, like they say,

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I'm doing this unto God, but really they're just doing it for themselves or to look impressive by those people around them.

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The judgment of God is rightly going to fall on such people. As Jesus goes on, woe to you

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Pharisees for you tithe mint and rue and every herb and neglect justice and the love of God.

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Now there was no requirement upon the Pharisees to tithe mint and rue and every herb.

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They just did that again to try to show themselves as holier than now. Look at all this stuff that I give.

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I give not only a 10th, but I give all this stuff too. And Jesus says, you neglect the justice and the love of God.

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So you're, you're tithing these things. You're giving unto God those things that God is not even demanding from you.

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What about helping the poor? What about those who need justice and you are not pleading on their behalf?

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What are you doing? Those are the things that you should really be doing, demonstrating the love of God to your neighbor.

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These you ought to have done, Jesus says, without neglecting the others. Verse 43, woe to you

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Pharisees for you love the best seed in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces.

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Woe to you for you are like unmarked graves and people walk over them without knowing it.

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So we have three woes in Matthew 23, seven woes, Luke chapter 11, the three woes that are given to the

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Pharisees. But even these three woes encompass the woes that Jesus gives in the temple later on.

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The first woe confronted their hypocrisy. They tithe all these things, but they don't care for the people that they have been appointed to their positions to care for.

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The second woe has to do with the places of importance that they love. So they have these positions not to serve the people, but to serve and edify themselves.

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And then the third woe was about the people that they affect with their false teaching.

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For Jesus says, woe to you for you are like unmarked graves and people walk over them without knowing it.

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So the Pharisees are leading people astray. The people may not be aware of it. So this is on the

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Pharisees for teaching falsely and leading astray the lost sheep of the house of Israel, the house of Judah.

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Verse 45, one of the lawyers answered him, teacher in saying these things, you insult us too.

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And Jesus goes, that's right. Woe to you lawyers for you load people with burdens hard to bear.

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And you yourselves do not touch them with even your little finger.

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Do not touch the burdens with one of your little fingers to load these burdens on people. You don't help them to bear them.

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Woe to you for you build the tombs of the prophets whom your fathers killed. So you are witnesses and you consent to the deeds of your fathers for they killed them and you built their tombs again, just talking about their hypocrisy.

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You build their tombs for what purpose? Not to honor them, but so you can kill them and fill those tombs with them.

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Why do they kill the prophets of God? Because as Jesus said in John chapter eight, you're of your father, the devil.

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He was a murderer from the beginning. Your will is to do your father's desires. In verse 52,

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Jesus said, woe to you lawyers for you have taken away the key of knowledge.

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You did not enter yourselves and you hindered those who were entering. So these lawyers are supposed to be really smart.

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They're supposed to know the law very well, but because they don't deal according to the law, they add their own laws.

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They change things, twist it, move it around. So therefore they hinder others who are entering the kingdom of God because of their own false teaching.

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You know, I'll get this all the time on videos all the time. You know, I may get this comment at least once a day on social media, but somebody saying something to me about being a

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Pharisee because I have directed them in what the Bible says.

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And they will say something like you should be dealing in mercy and instead you're holding to the letter of the law.

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Listen, the Pharisees were the ones who twisted God's word. They were the ones who added to God's word, twisted it, made it say what they wanted it to say, entered their own traditions.

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If I'm reading the Bible and I'm telling you to follow the Bible, I am nothing like the Pharisee or the lawyer here because they weren't telling people to follow

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God's rules. They were telling the people to follow their own rules. You follow the Pharisees rules.

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That's what you're supposed to do. So the one who is teaching the Bible and telling people, obey

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God, are not the ones who are being Pharisees. It's the one who changed

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God's word who are being Pharisees. That's usually who I'm calling out. When somebody says to me, you're acting just like a

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Pharisee, try to play the Pharisee card, try to gaslight you. I don't want to be a

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Pharisee. Whoa, goodness. I didn't realize I was acting like a Pharisee. I have no doubts with somebody calling me that because I know what

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God's word says, and I know I'm not being as what you say that I am.

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But if you're going to call me that, it could very well be that the person who's playing the Pharisee card could actually be the

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Pharisee. Nonetheless, we do need to be careful that we're not taking our own rules, maybe even our own disciplines.

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They could be disciplines that are important for us to follow so that we would remain on the path of righteousness.

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We got to be careful not to take those things and impose them on other people as if they were the commands of God.

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Our personal disciplines we impose on somebody else. We must know

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God's word and keep it. Remember, that's been right here in chapter 11 as we have read. As Jesus said back in verse 28, blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it.

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That's not the Pharisees. That's not the lawyers. But may we be those who are faithful to know the word of God, teach it to others, and do as it says.

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Heavenly Father, we thank you for what we've read here. And I pray, Lord, that if there is any sinful, wicked way in us, that we are boasting at ourselves or trying to impose our rules on somebody else, whatever it might happen to be.

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May we be convicted over those things. Turn from mishandling God's word and know how to rightly handle the word of truth.

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Thank you for giving us good teachers in our lives, that we may know the right way that we are to go according to your word.

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But even their teaching, we must measure according to scripture, knowing the scripture, and then testing all things by this word from the

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Lord. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. You've been listening to When We Understand the

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Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, Gabe will be going through a New Testament study.

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Then on Thursday, we look at an Old Testament book. On Friday, we take questions from the listeners and viewers.