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Bro. Bill Nichols
Verse one, wherefore laying aside all malice and all guile and hypocrisies and envies and all evil speakings. That's four words and one phrase. I'm not certain that any one of these words is any more important than the other, but I will tell you upfront that the Lord speaks a lot more of hypocrisies than he does of envies and evil speaking and guile and all the rest.
His most, he speaks the most about hypocrisies. But first, malice. The Greek for malice is kalkion, means wicked, ill will. It is the desire to inflict pain or to inflict harm or injury on our fellow men.
That's what malice is. The desire to inflict pain on our fellow men. Then we have guile, which comes from the Greek word nolon, which sometimes is translated deceit. It is deliberate dishonesty. It's falsehood.
Sometimes it's translated as craft and sometimes seduction, sometimes slander and sometimes treachery. In short, it's deliberate dishonesty. And then we come to hypocrisy. Hypocrisy is pretended piety and love.
It's pretending to be what you're not. It is a man with a double heart and a lying tongue. Jesus quoted Isaiah to the Pharisees as he described them as hypocrites. He did that in Matthew 15, seven. He hypocrites.
Well, did Isaiah prophesy of you saying, this people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth and honoreth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. But in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.
The Pharisees had forgotten or had purposely forgotten who the true master was. I've got another passage that I'm gonna read and it's rather long. It's in Matthew also, but it's Matthew 23. And I want you to consider the number of times that Jesus described the Pharisees and the scribes and call them what they are.
I'm sorry. How many times in this passage he calls the scribes and the Pharisees hypocrites? So here we go. Matthew 23, then spake Jesus to the multitude and said to his disciples. Now he spoke to the multitude and to his disciples.
Now in the multitude are some scribes and Pharisees. In the multitude, there are some people that are neither scribes nor Pharisees, neither believers nor unbelievers. They're just people that are curious about Jesus.
And then there's his disciples. So he's got a mixed group that he's talking about. And you'll notice that Jesus meant says no words. He says this, the scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses's seat. All that therefore whatsoever they bid you to observe, that observe and do.
So if they tell you what you are to do, do it, observe it and do it, but do not follow after their works. Whatsoever they bid you observe, that you observe and do, but do not after their works. For they say, and they do not.
For they bind heavy burdens and grievance to be born and lay them on men's shoulders. But they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers, but all of the works they do for to be seen of men.
So what they're doing is they're pretending to be pious. They're pretending to love God. They're pretending to be something they're not. That's the pretended piety that we're talking about. They make broad their flexilaries and enlarge the border of their garments.
And they love the uppermost rooms at the feast and the chief seats in the synagogue. And they greet and greetings in the market and to be call of men, rabbi, rabbi. They love the greetings in the market and they love to be called rabbi, rabbi.
Jesus goes on to say, but be ye not called rabbis. Now he's turning his attention to his disciples. But be ye not called rabbi, for one is your master, even Christ, and all ye are brethren. And call no man your father on the earth, for one is your father, which is in heaven.
Neither be ye called masters, for there is one, for one is your master, even Christ. But he that is the greatest among you shall be your servant. And whoever shall exalt himself shall be amazed. And he that humbles himself shall be exalted.
Now I read the first 12 verses and there was not a mention, an explicit mention of the word hypocrisy or hypocrite in that passage. But now we get to 13 and we begin to see the word pop up over and over and over.
He has talked in the first 12 verses about the actions of the hypocrites, but he's not called them by what they are. But now he will begin and he will offer an appraisal to what's going to happen to them.
He has already called them hypocrites already three times, but he hasn't explicitly used the word hypocrite. He says, you do what you do to be seen of men. You do what you, you're pretending to be something you're not.
He has called them hypocrites over and over again, but he has not used the word yet. You put burdens on them, but you're not going to carry them. You teach the doctrine of men and pretend that the doctrine of God.
Okay, verse 13, and here we go. 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 you them that are entering to go in.
They're hypocrites. Not only do they not enter the kingdom of God themselves, they don't allow their followers to. Verse 14, woe be unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you devour widows' houses and for a pretense make long prayers.
Thereof you shall receive the greater damnation. You're pretending to be something you're not and you will receive a greater damnation. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees. Every time he mentioned scribes and Pharisees, he follows it with the word 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. Woe unto you blind guides, he didn't call them hypocrites, but they're blind guides here, which say, whosoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing, but whoever shall swear by the gold of the temple, he is a debtor.
You fools and blind, for whether is it greater, the gold or the temple that sanctifies the gold? And whosoever shall swear by the altar, it is nothing, but whosoever swears by the gift that is upon it, he is guilty.
You fools and blind, for whether is greater the gift or the altar that sanctifies the gift? Whosoever therefore shall swear by the altar, swears by it and by all the things thereon. And whosoever swear by the temple, swears by it and by him that dwelleth therein.
And he that shall swear by heaven, swears by the throne of God and by him that sitteth thereon. What they were engaged in is a method of pretending to be something they weren't. I will swear to you that what I say is true and I will swear to it on a stack of Bibles.
As if the Bible, if the stack of Bibles had more worthiness than the God that wrote it. If you swear on anything, you're swearing on the man that created it. And that's what he's telling them. Don't pretend to be something you're not.
Verse 23, back to the woes. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you pay tithe of mint and anise and cumin and have omitted the greater matters of the law. Oh, you know what the law is.
You know, it says give a 10th of all you have and you're very scrupulous to give a 10th of all that you have, a 10th of the mint, a 10th of your anise, a 10th of your cumin and you have forgotten the most important things, judgment, mercy and faith.
Things that you ought to have done. These ought you to have done and not leave the other undone. So do it all. Tithe the mint, that's fine, but also show judgment. Tithe anise, that's great, but also show mercy.
Tithe your cumin, that's good. But even better is have faith. You blind guides would strand in a net and swallow a camel. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you may clean the outside of a cup and a platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.
Now 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 likened to whited separators, which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but are full of dead man's bones and all uncleanliness.
Even so, you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but within are full of hypocrisy and iniquity. Woe unto you, blind 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 father, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.
Wherefore, you are witnesses unto yourself that you are the children of them which killed the prophets. Build ye up then the measure of your fathers. Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can you escape the damnation of hell?
Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, not sent, sin, he's going to send some more prophets, wise men and scribes. These are the ones that are in the future of the leaders. I will send you prophets and wise men and scribes, and some of them you shall kill.
And crucify, and some of them you shall 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 Cain unto the blood of Zacharias, the son of Bacchus, whom you slew between the temple and the altars.
Verily I say unto you, all these things shall come upon this generation. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killeth the prophets and stoneth them which are sent unto you, how often would I gather thy children together even as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and ye would not.
Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. For I say unto you, you shall not see me henceforth until you say, blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. So now we've gone malice, deceit, hypocrisy.
Now we got one more word and one more phrase, and we'll be through with the first one. Envy, envy is resentful discontent. Not only do you want what belongs to someone else, but you don't want them to have it.
It's more than just wishing you had something that somebody else had. It's that you wish you had it and they didn't. Envy, evil speaking, slander, backbiting, and lies. None of these activities, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, evil speaking, malice, none of these things should have any place in those who are born again.
Rather, in obedience to God's word, believers are to make a clear and decisive break with their past. These activities were in the past of all of us. In the past, all of us had times of malice and evil speaking and envy and hypocrisy.
And the one I left out, deceit. But now in obedience to the word of God, believers are to make a clear and decisive break with their past. And so now we're through with verse one. We've only got seven more verses to go.
As newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word, that they may grow thereby. Now, after the believers have cast out all of these impure desires and motives that we read about in verse one, then they need to feed on the wholesome spiritual food that produces growth.
The word sincere, unadulterated, pure is deliberately contrasted with the word deceit in verse one. God's word does not deceive. Neither should God's children. Christians should approach the word of God.
That is to say the scripture with clean hearts and minds and eager anticipation with a desire to grow spiritually, not a desire to prove a point or to find something in the scripture that only they know.
Their desire should be to grow spiritually. As you study the scripture, you should study it with clean hearts and minds, with eager anticipation, with a desire to grow spiritually. Verse three. If so be ye uptasted that the Lord is gracious.
That's a little awkward. And for Peter, it was just commonplace. This was a quotation from Psalms 34, verse eight, part of it. Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man that trusteth in him.
So if you trust in the Lord, you have in effect tasted that the Lord is gracious. Now, when does that happen? At salvation, all believers experience how gracious God is to those who trust him. Verse four.
And I'm gonna read four and five together because they almost demanded. To whom coming as unto a living stone, this allowed indeed of men, but chosen of God and precious. Ye also as living stones or lively stones are built up in a spiritual house.
A holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Now, there's something here that leads to something else that I feel like is worth a side venture. And that's this idea of a stone.
No matter how many times or how many theologians how much they may wrangle about the meaning of the Lord's words in Matthew 16, Peter himself understood them. Do you remember what Jesus said in Matthew 16, verse 18?
I'll read it to you and you'll remember it. And I say also unto thee that thou art Peter and upon this rock, I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against that. Now that's what Peter was told by Jesus.
Jesus told Peter, I say also unto thee that thou art Peter and upon this rock, I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against. Many believe and many want to believe that the rock was Peter.
Upon this rock, you are Peter. Peter means a little rock, in case you don't remember. Peter means a little pebble. And Jesus didn't say exactly that. He said, you are a little rock, but upon this rock, I will build my church.
Peter knew better. Peter knew that he was not the rock. Peter knew what the rock really was. We know that as we read these two verses. He knew that the rock was Christ himself and that Christ himself was the living stone.
Look back at the beginning. To whom coming as unto a living stone. What's the living stone? The living stone is Jesus himself. Coming in the Greek means coming with the intent of staying. I might mention also, every believer is also a living stone and is made so by grace.
I'm gonna go back and read that again and you will see that. Verse four and part of verse five. To whom coming as unto a living stone, disallowed in need of men, but chosen by God and precious, ye also as lively stones are built up a spiritual house.
So, who's the living stone? The living stone is Jesus Christ. Who else is a living stone? The believers, all believers. Every believer is also a living stone. And how did you become a living stone? Only by the grace of God.
Now, coming in the Greek means to come with the intent of staying. The participle's tense and voice indicate that this coming is a personal, habitual approach. It is an intimate association of communion and fellowship between believers and their Lord.
The first step in practicing holiness is fellowship with Jesus Christ, the living stone. Peter is going to develop and explain the metaphor of this stone in the following verses, but right here in this verse, he says, this stone is living.
The stone that we're talking about, both stones, both the living stone, Jesus, as well as the smaller living stones. Lively, he did say lively, but they're living. Lively means they're living. If they weren't living, they wouldn't be lively.
Oh, absolutely. And how can you be actively alive? Being actively alive through the grace of Jesus in your fellowship with him. What he said was, this stone, the big stone, is living. It has life in itself and it gives life to others.
People may enter into a personal, vital relationship with this living stone. Now, more than just being a living stone, it's not just a metaphor, it is also a paradox. Christ is alive from the dead and he has a living relationship with saved humanity.
But more than just being a metaphor, it's a paradox. It emphasizes that Christ is the cornerstone and a stone of stumbling. Not only this, the living stone, Jesus, was rejected, but was chosen. It was rejected by the leaders, by the false leaders in Israel, but it was chosen by God.
Jesus Christ was God's precious and elect son. And he was ultimately authenticated through his resurrection from the dead. Acts 4, verse 5. This stone, or this is the stone, which was set at naught of you builders, which became the head of the corner.
Neither is there any salvation in any other, for there is none of the name under heaven given among men whereby we may be saved. So believers are identified with Christ, for he is the living stone. So they become like him, living stones.
As they become more and more like him, they are further conformed to his image and together they're being built into a spiritual house. So Jesus had told Peter in Matthew 16, 18, that on this rock, I will build my church and here in verses four and five, Peter has clearly identified Christ as the rock on which the church is built.
And the church is a collection of all the little pebbles just like Peter that have life in them because of their association with the living stone. Paul called the church a temple and a dwelling. Believers not only make up the church, but also serve in it, ministering as a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices.
All believers are priests. We have in Revelation one, and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness and the first begotten of the dead and the prince of the kings of the earth unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his father.
To him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. He has made us priests. All believers are priests and need no mediator other than Jesus Christ in order that they be able to approach God directly.
1 Timothy chapter two, verse five. For there is one God and one mediator between God and man, the man Jesus Christ, who gave himself for all to be testified in due time. Such a priestly service requires holiness.
1 Peter 1 15 told us, but as he which called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation, because it is written, be ye holy, for I am holy. And if you call upon the Father, who without respect to persons judges according to every man's work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear.
For as much as you know, you were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from your vain conversation received by traditions from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ as a lamb without blemish and without spot, who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was made manifest in these last times for you.
Who by him do you believe in God that raised him up from the dead and gave him glory that your faith and hope might be in God. Seeing you have purified your souls and obeying the truth through the spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that you love one another with pure heart permanently.
Praises to God and doing good to others are the spiritual sacrifices that please God. God is not pleased by money that will lay on the altar, but he's not pleased with all the other sacrifices that are made.
Praise to God and doing good are the spiritual gifts, the spiritual sacrifices that please him. However, the living stones, that is you and I, should also offer ourselves as living sacrifices. Romans 12, one was gonna tell us, I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service and be not conformed to this world, but be you transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God, acceptable to God, through Jesus Christ.
Verse six, wherefore also it is contained in the scripture behold, I lay in Zion, a chief cornerstone, elect, precious, and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded. All right, here's the good side of it all.
This second quotation comes from Psalms 118, 22. The stone which the builders refused is become the headstone of the corner. He also used the same verse in his reference to his rejection by the chief priest and the Pharisees in Matthew 21.
I'll pick it up in verse 33. Here another parable. There was a certain household which had planted, householder, which had planted a vineyard and hedged it roundabout and dig the winepress in it and built a tower and let it out to husbandmen.
Now there's three things here I highlighted. Householder, vineyard, and husbandmen. Do you know who the householder was? Who is it speaking of? The householder is speaking of God. The vineyard is speaking of Israel and the husbandmen are the leaders, the spiritual leaders of Israel.
You can say scribes and Pharisees if you wish. And when the time of the fruit grew near, he sent his servants to the husbandmen that they might receive the fruits thereof. And the husbandmen took his servants and beat them, beat one and killed another and stoned another.
And again, he sent other servants, more than the first. And they did unto him likewise. So now he sent messengers and many of them, and what they have done is they have taken these messengers and beaten them and killed them.
But last of all, he sent unto him his son. Now I highlighted that. Who is his son? Who's that referring to? The householder was God. The vineyard was Israel. The husbandmen were the priests and Pharisees, prophets that he sent them.
And his son was Jesus. But last of all, he sent unto them his son, saying, they will reverence my son. But when the husbandmen saw the son, they said unto themselves, this is the heir. Come, let us kill him and let us seize on his inheritance.
And they caught him and they cast him out of the vineyard and slew him. When the Lord therefore of the vineyard cometh, what will he do to these husbandmen? And what did they say? They said, they say unto him, he will miserably destroy those wicked men and he will let out his vineyard to other husbandmen, which shall render him the fruits in their season.
Now, Jesus says this. Jesus said unto them, did you never read in the scriptures? He was referring the scribes and the Pharisees back to the scripture that they were supposed to be teaching Have you never read in the scriptures?
So now Jesus is gonna explain what he said in words that they understand. The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner. Now, why would they know that? They would know that because of the quotation in Psalms.
This is the Lord's doing and is marvelous in our eyes. Therefore say I unto you, the kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof. And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken.
And on whosoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder. And now we come back to the chief priest and Pharisees. And when the chief priest and Pharisees had heard his parables, they perceived that he spoke of them.
But when they sought to lay their hands on him, they feared the multitude because they took him for a prophet. Okay, back to Peter. Verse seven. Unto you therefore, which believe he is precious. I didn't read that well.
Unto you therefore, which believe he is precious. But unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner. Now these verses present a sharp contrast between those who believe and those who do not.
Jesus is precious, is of ultimate value to those who believe. But to those who have rejected Christ, they stumble because of their disobedience. Verse eight. And a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, even to them which stumble at the word being disobedient, were unto also they were appointed.
John MacArthur says this. To every human being, to every human being, Christ is either the means of salvation if they believe or the means of judgment if they reject the gospel. He is like, to those that do not believe, he is like a stone in the road that causes the traveler to fall.
Rejection of Jesus Christ is fatal and is connected with disobeying the message of God's word. To disobey the message is to reject it. To obey it is to believe. And all who do not receive Christ as their savior, they will one day face him as their judge.
Because of their sins, all disobedient believers are destined for a stumbling which will lead to an eternal condemnation. It says they were appointed. A couple of more verses. First Peter 4, 17. For the time has come that judgment must begin at the house of God.
And if it is first began at us, what shall be the end of them that obey not the gospel? And as obedient, and first Peter 1, 14, as obedient children, not fastening yourselves according to your former lust and your ignorance.
And then in Acts 6, 17, we have this. And the word of God increased and the number of disciples multitude in Jerusalem greatly and a great company of priests were obedient to the faith. And that's it.
Any comments or questions? And we are running close to being out of time. Okay, Brother Dave, I'm ready to be dismissed in just a second. Most gracious heavenly father, thank you for this day and thank you for all of our many gifts.
Thank you for allowing us to meet together in your presence, to worship you, to glorify you, to honor you, to praise you, to thank you. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.