Jeff Durbin: The Arrival of Judgement

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Hey everybody, I'm Pastor Jeff Durbin with Apologia Church. I want to thank you all so much for watching the content right here on Apologia Studios channel.

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What you're about to watch is a sermon, a message from Apologia Church's worship service. And again, I want to thank you all so much for watching, for liking, for commenting, for sharing the sermon itself.

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So thank you again so much for watching these and sharing them. God bless you. All right. Gospel according to Matthew.

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Gospel according to Matthew chapter 23. Those of you who are new to the

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Bible, it's the first in the New Testament. Gospel according to Matthew chapter 23.

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So we're going to go into the text for today, give you a little bit of background, and then open it up.

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Gospel according to Matthew chapter 23, verse 1.

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Hear now the words of the living and the true God. Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, the scribes and the

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Pharisees sit on Moses' seat, so do and observe whatever they tell you, but not the works they do.

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For they preach, but do not practice. They tie up heavy burdens hard to bear and lay them on people's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger.

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They do all their deeds to be seen by others, for they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long.

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And they love the place of honor at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces and being called rabbi by others.

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As far as the reading of God's holy and inspired Word, let's pray together as this church. Father, I pray you please bless this time as we open your

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Word. Help us, Lord, as a church, Lord, to not merely be filled with knowledge.

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Help us to understand. Help us to, Lord, be transformed by your

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Spirit. I pray, Lord, if anyone in here, Lord, does not know you, I do pray for repentance, the gift of repentance and faith for them, that they would see,

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Lord Christ. Please, Father, draw your elect to yourself. And, Lord, I pray for those of us who know you,

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I pray that, Lord, these denunciations upon false religion would cut us.

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Please, Lord, expose our false religion.

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Expose, Lord, our hypocrisy, please. Lord, I'm just a mere man and I don't have the ability,

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Lord, to do what you by your Word and Spirit can do. And so that's what I ask for,

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Father. Please cause me to decrease, Christ to increase. Speak by your Spirit through your holy

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Word to your people today. Guard me from error and let everyone forget me and remember you.

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In Jesus' name, amen. So, what's today? Palm Sunday.

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So it's perfect timing for this series, right? The moment that we're in. Now, we were already there before, and if you guys have missed those messages,

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I encourage you to go back and to watch them, to listen to them. They are up on our YouTube channel. I don't want to belabor the point today, but we will touch across some of this so you can get the background of this moment where the

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Lord Jesus comes into this climax in the Gospel according to Matthew. And that's really what it is.

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I actually believe that if you miss this critical element, Matthew 24 can just be a playland.

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If you miss the fact that Matthew is bringing us in his Gospel, in his narrative, in his story, to a climax moment, then

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Matthew 24 becomes a playland. It becomes a playland for the eschatologically creative, those who like to be creative with their eschatology and their views of end times.

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Taking Matthew 24 out of its context of the story of Matthew and Mark, of course, and Luke and the synoptics, but taking it out of that amazing climax that really testifies to exactly who

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Jesus is. He's the Lord of the Covenant. He's God come in the flesh.

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He's coming now as Messiah, as promised, bringing two things, as promised from the old covenant.

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Messiah was coming, of course, to bring salvation, redemption. We know that. That's what we all talk about as Christians.

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He's coming to save his people from their sins and let's glory in that and let's not stop talking about it.

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However, the Old Testament did not just say the Messiah was coming in to bring salvation and eternal life and reconciliation and peace with God.

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He was also coming with judgments, salvation and judgments.

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We've gone over the prophecies from the Old Testament that explicitly say, in terms of timing, that when the

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Messiah comes, he's bringing both those things. It even nails down the detail of having the forerunner come first and then the

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Lord whom you seek is coming to his temple and he brings two things, purification, salvation and judgment on the covenant breakers.

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Matthew knows that story. This is a gospel with an emphasis towards the Jews who know their scriptures.

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Matthew's quoting it copiously and Matthew's now bringing the story along that narrative, not just his narrative, it's not just his story.

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This is God's story and Matthew's telling it through inspiration to this climax moment.

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Now, you remember we were in Matthew chapter 21. I'm just going to point you to that text there.

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Oh, sorry, actually, sorry, 19. Move back just a couple pages there. Matthew chapter 19 and verse 17, just a touch on this.

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Jesus now is foretelling his death. He's telling his disciples that he's going to die.

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He's going to be crucified. He's going to be raised. Now, of course, you know the story of how the disciples handled that.

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Jesus saying he's going to be killed and they're like, no, no, let it never be and Jesus confronts them for that. He's going to die for the sins of his people.

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Remember, salvation and judgment. And so he announces it, Matthew chapter 19, verse 17.

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He takes them aside and he tells them, here's where we're going, going to Jerusalem. So now the story is picking up now, going to Jerusalem.

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They're going to crucify me. He's going to be raised again. And then in Matthew chapter 21, it's this day,

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Palm Sunday, that we all talk about. Here we go. Jesus now goes to Jerusalem. And then, of course, we know the story of the cult.

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We know the story of the donkey. And Jesus now, of course, comes in. And what happens?

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People start laying down these palm leaves, right? He comes in now to Jerusalem.

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Here is the Messiah. And we have leaves being presented before Jesus. Now, of course, they're saying,

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Hosanna, Hosanna, Son of David. All this praise, all this glory in the

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Son of David. And here's your leaves, Lord. And Jesus comes in. And what's the first thing

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Matthew has here as he comes in? It comes into the cleansing of the temple, verse 12. Now, we talked about how that's the second cleansing of the temple, required by the law of God.

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First, you go to examine. If you come back a second time and still find that disease and corruption, then you take that house apart, stone off of stone.

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Jesus comes in now for that second cleansing of the temple. And he finds what?

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Disease, corruption. Here is the one who is Lord. He is

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Messiah. He's the Holy One of Israel. He is God in the flesh. He's coming now to examine his people.

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He comes to his temple as Malachi promised.

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And what's he find? Disease and corruption. And so, of course, there's controversy brewing here.

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Jesus now has this moment with the fig tree in verse 18. He's going to all these places, and now he's hungry.

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And he comes to the fig tree, and what's he find? Leaves, but no fruit. See what

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Matthew's doing? Coming to find fruit. What's he finding? Corruption. Coming to find fruit.

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What's he find? Only leaves. And, of course, you have this moment where Jesus curses the fig tree.

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No fruit's ever going to come from you again. And then a moment where he tells his disciples to pray that imprecatory prayer by the mountain being cast into the sea.

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This is starting to amplify. This is serious conflict. This isn't the meek and mild Jesus of 21st century evangelicalism.

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That's your bro. This is Jesus, the Holy One of Israel. This is God himself coming to examine his people, finding leaves, no fruit.

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The profession of religion, but not the possession of it.

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That's what he's finding in his people. He's finding hypocrisy. He's finding the external appearance of a relationship with the living

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God, but not the heart. Where's the fruit? I see the profession. I see all the practice and religiosity, but where's the fruit?

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What are you coming up with? Where is it? God comes hungry for fruit. And what's he find with his people?

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Leaves. And now it's starting to get amplified more and more. He says he's coming to be crucified, and now we're starting to understand why.

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He's confronting the false religiosity of this first century community.

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All the profession of faith, but not the possession of it. All the externals. It looks really religious.

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It looks so Christian, but no real possession, no fruit. It's just profession.

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And, of course, in Jesus' conflict in chapter 21, verse 23, they're asking about what authority.

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And Jesus challenges them as to their question, and ultimately refutes them, presuppositionally,

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I might add. But then Jesus now starts to amplify it with the parable of the two sons, and then the parable of the tenants, and then the parable of the wedding feast.

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Now, what's interesting about these moments is that Jesus here is speaking now to these crowds of people.

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All the people he's talking about are hanging around. He's talking to the crowds, and yet there's the religious leaders right there.

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And what's he doing? He's talking about them. These are parables of judgment upon that generation.

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The powerful one, I think, is the parable of the tenants. And this is what we have to actually, I think, not miss, capture this.

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The parable of the tenants is a big one. Here Jesus talks about God sending people to get fruit, to get fruit.

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And what do they keep doing? They keep stoning one and beating one. And so God says, I'll send my son.

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And then he sends his son, like, oh, look, here's the heir. Let's kill him and take his inheritance.

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And then Jesus asks the obvious question. So what's the owner of the vineyard going to do when he finds out?

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And then they answer the question. They're going to destroy those.

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He'll destroy those miserable wretches and give it to others. And then Jesus, listen closely, he says this. Chapter 21, verse 43.

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Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits.

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Again, fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy. That is exactly what God said was going to take place.

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And now it's happening. Right in front of them, front and center, they are being exposed. And then Jesus actually gives them this particular promise in the parable of the wedding feast.

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You need to see it with your own eyes. Again, just to review today so we can catch up to the story. In the parable of the wedding feast, chapter 22, watch what

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Jesus promises them in verse 7. The king was angry and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.

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In the parable that he's telling them, the parables that he's telling them, God's going to take the kingdom of God away from you and give it to others who are producing its fruits.

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God's going to send his armies and destroy your city and set it on fire. You see this starting to happen at the climax, this moment.

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Jesus is coming with this covenant lawsuit. You'll see where he confronts them for the violation of the covenant, where he actually confronts them for their false religion.

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And of course we have now the questions. Now they're coming to Jesus in chapter 22 and they're asking him questions.

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Trying to trip him up. Questions about taxes. You have two crowds not really friendly with one another joining together to ask

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Jesus a question. And so they're asking him questions and asking him questions about greatest commandments.

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And then Jesus asks one of his own in chapter 22, verse 41, whose son is the

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Messiah. And he quotes the most quoted Bible verse in the

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New Testament from the Old Testament, Psalm 110, 1. Brothers and sisters, get to know it.

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Get to know it. Verse 44, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet.

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That's the mission of the Messiah. That's what God is doing with Jesus. Now here we are in chapter 23.

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Listen to the words. Listen. Listen to the words. This is so critical because, listen, we live in a time where if you are a

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Christian and you confront error in your culture, you're condemned. How dare you judge another for condemning?

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How dare you judge another for their practice? How dare you condemn something as untrue?

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How dare you say there's such a thing as ultimate truth, even as a Christian? How dare you do that?

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How dare you confront murder in your culture? How dare you confront homosexuality in your culture?

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It's something that we're not even allowed to do. If you do, then you're prideful.

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You're arrogant. You're just a religionist if you're confronting those sorts of things.

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If you speak harshly as a Christian today, people say, what would Jesus do?

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Huh? What's all this talk about sin and unrighteousness and injustice?

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What would Jesus do? You don't sound a lot like Jesus. Well, maybe not your Jesus. But this is the biblical

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Jesus. Here's how he talks. Listen. Verse 13 of chapter 23.

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But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you shut the kingdom of heaven in people's faces, for you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in.

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Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.

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Woe to you, blind guides who say, if anyone swears by the temple, it's nothing, but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he's bound by his oath.

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You blind fools, for which is greater, the gold of the temple that has made the gold sacred? And you say, if anyone swears by the altar, it's nothing, but if anyone swears by the gift that is on the altar, he's bound by his oath.

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You blind men, for which is greater, the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred? So whoever swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it, and whoever swears by the temple swears by it and by him who dwells in it, and whoever swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by him who sits upon it.

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Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. Verse 25, woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and indulgence.

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You blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and the plate that the outside also may be clean.

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Woe to you, listen to this one, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones and all uncleanness.

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So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

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This is serrated edge. This is Jesus cutting. Woe to you. By the way, how many woes are here, do you know?

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Seven. There's seven woes here. We're going to talk about that in a second. Seven woes.

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That's very much on purpose for Matthew. Seven woes. What's woe? That's calling down the judgment and the curse of God upon a people.

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Woe to you, calling people hypocrites, pretenders. You see, this is different, isn't it though?

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Because watch, here's what people do often. You'll read moments like this where people see Jesus talking, speaking with so much condemnation and fervor, and they go, well, that's how

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Jesus talks, so I guess that's how we're always supposed to talk. And so it's just constant, vitriol, violent speech.

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It's just mean -spiritedness. They interpreted it, okay, we just need to be mean to people. But you'll see that that's not actually how

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Jesus operates all the time. For example, if you compare this account of Jesus now coming into the temple complex and coming into this moment in Jerusalem where he's coming to actually bring this covenant lawsuit against these people to tell them about the impending judgment, if you compare this moment with Jesus, say, and the woman at the well, it's very different, isn't it?

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How does Jesus deal with the average sinner? Does he immediately go all in?

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Start calling her a whitewashed tomb? You know the account of the woman at the well, right?

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Tells her, right, the man you're married to now is not your husband. There's five other ones, right? And she's actually intrigued by Jesus and interested and brings all these people along.

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It's a different kind of situation. How come so many prostitutes and tax collectors, the riffraff of society, that drug church, wanted to hang out with Jesus?

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Because this wasn't the constant pattern of behavior. This is how Jesus dealt with hypocrites and false religion, people who were leading other people astray.

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He used a serrated edge. A serrated edge is necessary at times. For example, John the

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Baptist, in this very gospel, Matthew 3, what does he call the people that are hanging around?

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He calls them a brood of what? Who warns you to flee from the wrath about to come?

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Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. Right? He says the axe is already laid at the root of the trees.

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The winnowing fork is in his hands. That's judgment. It's right now. The teeth of that axe are already at the root of the trees.

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You guys need to repent, you brood of vipers. There's the serrated edge.

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There's John the Baptist dealing with the false religion of his day. And of course, we're familiar with this, aren't we, if we read our

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Bibles? We don't see prophets coming into a culture that's in sin, saying, hey, bro, you want to talk?

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They're actually confronting that sin biblically and with a serrated edge. I'll give you an example.

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Go with me here because these are important moments in terms of how do the prophets speak to covenant breakers.

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Go to Ezekiel 16, 26, just to see the familiarity with this language and these moments when

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God sends his prophets to the people of God, the covenant breakers, to see the serrated edge.

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Ezekiel 16, 26.

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I encourage you to read this entire passage later for you to feel for this language, this kind of device, this tool of the prophets of God.

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Here's what God says to his people. They were supposed to be his wife, his bride.

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He beautified her. He found her. He beautified her. He put a ring in her nose.

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He made her beautiful and amazing, brought her to himself. And then he says, and you went out and you played the harlot.

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He says in verse 26, you also played the whore with the Egyptians, your lustful neighbors, multiplying your whoring to provoke me to anger.

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There's a moment where God actually confronts his people and he says, you played the harlot.

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You're supposed to be my wife by covenant. I'm a husband to you. And you played the harlot.

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But you're different, he says, than other prostitutes, other harlots. They actually get paid for what they do.

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He says, but you went by the side of the road and you offered yourself up to people and you received nothing for what you did.

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He says, that's how you acted as my bride, as my wife. You played the whore, the harlot.

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That's how God talks about his people. Another example is Ezekiel 23, 19 through 20.

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Go read it later. It's the kind of serrated edge that God uses against his people. Just record it and go read it later.

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There's also another example, New Testament. I want you to see it in terms of the serrated edge and how God deals with covenant breakers and false religion.

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Jude, New Testament. Jude, only one chapter here. So starting in verse 3, he says,

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Beloved, though I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints, for certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people who pervert the grace of our

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God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. If you move down, you'll see in verse 11,

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Woe to them, for they walked in the way of Cain and abandoned themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam's error and perished in Korah's rebellion.

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These are hidden reefs at your love feasts as they feast with you without fear, shepherds feeding themselves, waterless clouds swept along by winds, fruitless trees in late autumn, twice dead, uprooted, wild waves of the sea casting up the foam of their own shame, wandering stars for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever.

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There's just an example in terms of a thematic thing. God does use the serrated edge when dealing with covenant breakers, with those who are propagating false religion, with the hypocrites.

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You see in this, of course, Matthew 23, the seven woes that Jesus brings against scribes, the

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Pharisees, the hypocrites, those who are leading people astray, seven woes.

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Well, in scripture, these things, when they happen, become symbolic, right?

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So where does seven appear first? Where does seven appear first?

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The creation week, right? Six days of creation and then the seventh day of rest.

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So we have seven in terms of fullness and completion. We also have in Proverbs 6, verses 16 through 19, the seven things that God hates.

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Seven becomes a very symbolic number. It carries weight with it. It carries understanding with it.

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And so Jesus comes in now to confront the covenant breakers and the false religion of His day.

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He's coming now to tell them about the soon destruction of their temple. Not one stone's gonna be left standing upon another.

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All the blood of the righteous is gonna be upon this generation,

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Jesus says. And He delivers His seven woes upon them. Woe to you is a way of calling down the curse of God.

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Now, there's another example in scripture. It's a peculiar one, actually, I think. And that's

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Isaiah chapter 6, famous section of scripture. This is the section where we have the holy, holy, holy.

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He's the thrice holy God. Isaiah gets this glimpse, this moment, and holy, holy, holy.

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And when Isaiah gets a glimpse of the holiness of God, his response is to say that he's becoming unraveled.

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He's coming apart at his seams. His response as a prophet of God would have been seen probably as the most righteous man in all of Israel.

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When he gets a glimpse of the holiness of God, his response is to call down the curse of God upon himself.

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What's he say? When he captures this moment, he says, woe is me.

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I'm undone. He's immediately aware of his own sinfulness. He says, I'm a man of unclean lips.

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And so that's Isaiah's response as the most righteous man in Israel in terms of his life and his ministry.

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And he says, woe is me. Here is Jesus now delivering the seven woes upon the leadership in his generation.

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Woe to you, woe to you, woe to you, woe to you. It's coming.

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Judgment is coming. Get ready. Turn away from your sin. Because judgment is coming.

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And they were just saying, olly, olly, oxen free. We're not listening. We're going to continue with our hypocrisy.

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We're going to continue with the pretending. And they didn't believe Jesus and his warnings. All the blood is going to be upon this generation.

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And you're going to see in a moment Jesus actually departs from the temple, turns his back, goes to the

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Mount of Olives. Same course that God took in the Old Testament before the destruction of that temple.

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And Jesus begins to tell them what's about to come upon that generation. But what does he call them?

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He calls them something that all of us ought to hate in ourselves. Let's be honest.

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Let's be honest. We all struggle with pretending. There's moments if we're honest with ourselves where we catch ourselves just pretending.

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And it's easy today, too, with social media, isn't it? Social media becomes your page, your representation of you, who you are, your life, right?

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And you have to put up, like, a beautiful face and nice pictures, and you have to give just sort of, like, a good impression of, this is what my life is like, right?

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And behind it, it's full, at times, with dead men's bones, if you're honest with yourselves, if I'm honest with myself.

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And Jesus says, hypocrite! And this is actually a heavy word, hypokrite.

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The word there was a word used in the world of plays and acting. It's a word that denotes a person who is pretending they're an actor.

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And this word actually is powerful. Again, it has weight to it. In this day, when they were doing plays and acting, when you were going to see the stage and you were sitting there in the auditorium, people wore masks.

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They actually put physical masks on to play the part, their role. And so it was obvious, this person is pretending.

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They're play acting. They're just pretending. It's not really that person, because I see the mask.

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They're just acting. You're playing. You're pretending to play a role.

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And so what Jesus says to the religious leaders in His day is, that's you. You're wearing a mask.

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You're just pretending. It's not real. And Jesus is saying, I see the mask.

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You're not fooling me. I see the mask. I know that you're pretending. Woe to you, actor.

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Woe to you, pretender. This isn't real. The mask is obvious to Jesus, and so He says to them, woe to you.

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You're acting. You're pretending. It's just a show. You're doing this for others' entertainment, not for God.

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This is entertainment for others, for men, for women. This isn't anything that's for Him.

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It's just a show. No, you're doing this for your audience. Congratulations. So Jesus calls them an actor, a pretender.

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And of course, this is consistent with the heart of God. In 1 Samuel 16 .7, it's a popular verse.

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I hope you know it. For the Lord sees not as man sees. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the

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Lord looks at the heart. The Lord looks at the heart.

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It's amazing. Actually, it's perfect timing too. Today when we came in, of course, all of us want to love the woman who was outside protesting at our church, right?

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We want to go out there and reason with her and love her and lead her to the truth and point her to the truth. And so as I'm talking to her,

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I actually assume, based on what I've seen from her and heard from her, I assume that she was an atheist.

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I assume that she was an agnostic, that she didn't hold to a Christian worldview. And so I asked her, I said, are you an atheist?

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She said, no. I said, well, are you agnostic? She said, no, I'm a Christian. I'm a

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Christian. But it was interesting because as she was talking about how she was a Christian, she was also dissing and condemning the

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Bible. Then she started to mock the Bible as this 2 ,000 -old revelation that has problems with it and all these different things.

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See, here's a person who has an outward profession of faith and Jesus Christ says that I follow

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Jesus Christ, but everything coming out of her mouth was foul, was contradicting

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God's Word. All of it was an attack upon righteousness and justice. All of the external.

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What did we see outside today even? You saw the mask. You saw the pretender, the person who would make the profession of faith, but in their life and practice, you saw the heart wasn't in it.

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And how do you know? Because by their fruit, you shall know them. You can see what comes off of that tree and know this isn't a good tree.

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And Jesus confronts that in His day. This is a moment where Jesus comes in to the covenant breakers.

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It was anticipated. It was promised. And Jesus confronts them and brings this moment of covenant lawsuit.

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Confrontation. Judgment is arriving. Now just quickly in terms of understanding these biblical categories, there are at least two different ways you can look at covenant, two types of covenants.

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There's the covenant you see in Deuteronomy 28, for example, and that's the covenant where it goes both ways.

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God promises blessings and He promises cursings. So I'll bless you when you obey and I'll curse you when you disobey.

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That's a unique kind of covenant. And the old covenant is like that. The people of God are brought to God.

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He blesses them. He loves them. He pours Himself out for them. And then God brings them into this covenant and in Deuteronomy 28, you can see

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God says, I'll bless you if you obey. I'll curse you if you disobey. And I want you to see a couple things from that because they're going to come up here in the study of the first century and the

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Great Tribulation. So just go there quickly to Deuteronomy 28. This is actually a passage that presidents of the

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United States used to place their hands on when they were sworn into office.

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Interestingly. Give you an example. Take a look. Deuteronomy 28, verse 1.

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And if you faithfully obey the voice of the Lord your God, being careful to do all His commandments that I command you today, the

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Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth and all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you.

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If you obey the voice of the Lord your God, blessed shall you be in the city and blessed shall you be in the field.

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Blessed shall be the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground and the fruit of your cattle, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock.

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So you see God promising what? Blessings. Blessings for obedience.

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Be faithful, obey my commands, and I will bless you. But there's another part of this covenant.

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It's the type of covenant that it is. It also comes with curses for disobedience.

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And as an example, look at verse 15. But if you will not obey the voice of the

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Lord your God or be careful to do all His commandments and His statutes that I command you today, then all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you.

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Cursed shall you be in the city and cursed shall you be in the field. Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl.

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Cursed shall be the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock.

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Cursed shall you be when you come in and cursed shall you be when you go out.

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Turn over one page to 52. Verse 52. I want you to see this. One of the promises that God makes for disobedience.

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I want you to see this and just mark it down. Verse 52.

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Watch what God says. They shall besiege you in all your towns until your high and fortified walls in which you trusted come down throughout all your land.

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And they shall besiege you in all your towns throughout all your land which the Lord your God has given you.

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Listen closely. And you shall eat the fruit of your womb, the flesh of your sons and daughters whom the

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Lord your God has given you. Look at verse 55.

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So that he will not give to any of them any of the flesh of his children whom he is eating because he has nothing else left.

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Let's be honest. That's horrible. That's judgment. That's when God removes his restraining hand upon the evil of men and women, humans.

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One thing Dr. White has said a lot, Pastor James has said a lot, is we never really thank

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God enough for his restraining of men's evil, right? His restraining of men's evil.

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We're always shouting out to God when we see the evil, but we don't thank him enough for his restraining of the wickedness that's in people's hearts.

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And here's a moment where God is saying he's going to remove that restraining hand and he's going to allow people to see the evil that is truly abiding in people's hearts to the degree that they eat their own children.

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That's the kind of judgment that's going to fall. One thing I just wanted to note here in terms of this promise of cursing and judgment is

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Josephus was a person who witnessed the destruction of Jerusalem that Jesus prophesied.

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Jesus prophesied that within that generation that temple was going to fall. He promised judgment was coming.

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Josephus was a Jew in the first century, a Pharisee, actually, who was part of the army there.

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When they broke in, he actually hid under some bodies at one point. He was discovered, and he was actually allowed to write a history of the

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Jews. Well, he records what happened during the destruction of Jerusalem up to 70

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A .D., and one of the things that he mentions is that the famine had gotten so bad in the city and it was such an awful, awful time of judgment, he records that one woman was seen as boiling her own child and offering it to people as they passed by.

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What did God say as part of the covenant promises? If you obey,

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I'll bless you. If you disobey, I'll curse you. And this is what it's going to look like when I remove that hand.

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And that took place in the first century. There's another kind of covenant. I'm just going to say it quickly so you can go to it later.

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Genesis 15, a different kind of covenant. And this is the Abrahamic covenant. What kind of covenant is this?

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We know the famous part of that passage, right? Genesis 15 -6, Abraham believed

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God and it was counted to him as what? Righteousness. What did Abraham do?

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What did he do? All kinds of works of righteousness and good deeds and obedience, right?

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He was doing what? Well, he believed. Empty hand of faith.

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He believed God and God counted it to him as righteousness. And as you read that passage of Genesis 15, you see how

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God actually brings together this covenant of blessing with Abraham to bless his descendants.

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You have, of course, this tradition that they had where they would walk through the animals, the parted animals.

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It was a very graphic way to display covenants for people in that day.

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You had animals divided in half, there's blood there, and you would walk through these animals together and it's really a way of sort of announcing to one another, like, this is a serious thing we're promising for one another.

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We're both involved in this and let it be done to us what's done to these animals, right? It's a very serious kind of covenant.

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And in this moment, though, what happens to Abraham? God causes a deep sleep to fall on Abraham.

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So what part does Abraham play in this covenant? He's asleep!

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What did he do to receive righteousness and be counted, sorry, to be counted as righteous before God?

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What'd he do? Bleeds! And then when God makes this covenant, you have this tradition now happening with these animals.

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Now this deep sleep falls on Abraham and who goes through that? God. Swearing by himself,

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I'm gonna accomplish this. What's your role in this? Only blessing. Only goodness.

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Only blessing. Only from my hand. I'll accomplish all of this, Abraham. What are you?

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You're the recipient of grace and goodness from God. That's a different kind of covenant. But the covenant he makes with his people here,

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Deuteronomy 28, is there are two things that happen here. What? Blessing for obedience and curses for disobedience.

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Now Jesus comes now as the representative of that covenant. He comes in now with this covenant lawsuit condemning them and promising them judgment.

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That's what's happening before us here in Matthew 23. We've seen this example of false religion before in the

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Old Testament. We have plenty of examples of it, but just go refer to it. Isaiah chapter 1.

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Isaiah chapter 1. Go there quickly. Here's a moment where you have a similar example of this kind of disobedience and false religion.

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Isaiah chapter 1, verse 10. Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom. Give ears to the teaching of our

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God, you people of Gomorrah. By the way, that's obviously not a good thing. Right?

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It's not a good thing. You people of Gomorrah. What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices, says the

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Lord? I've had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well -fed beasts. I do not delight in the blood of bulls or of lambs or of goats.

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When you come to appear before me, who is required to view this trampling of my courts? Bring no more vain offerings, incenses and abomination to me, new moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations.

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I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates.

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They've become a burden to me. I am weary of bearing them. When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you.

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Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are full of blood. Wash yourselves.

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Make yourselves clean. Remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes. Here we are, listen.

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Cease to do evil. Learn to do good. Seek justice.

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Correct oppression. Bring justice to the fatherless.

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Plead the widow's cause. This famous one that's on paintings in every

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Christian bookstore. Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord. Though your sins are like scarlet, they should be as white as snow.

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Though they are red like crimson, they should become like wool. If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land. But if you refuse and rebel, you should be eaten by the sword.

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For the mouth of the Lord has spoken how the unfaithful city has become a whore. She who was full of justice, righteousness lodged in her, but now murderers.

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What's God saying to these religious people? Watch, here's the important element of this. Do not miss it, because it's thematic in terms of Old Testament or New Testament, but Jesus comes in to confront it in Matthew 23.

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What is that theme? The people of God, with all of the externals of righteousness and religion.

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What were they still doing in Isaiah chapter 1? What were they doing? Sacrificing animals.

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What were they doing? All of the marks of religion. What were they doing? Ready? Are you ready for this?

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They were singing the Psalms. They were singing the

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Psalms. They were singing worship music. You had people coming and singing worship music to Yahweh, doing the sacrifices, looking religious, calling themselves the people of God, and what does

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God say to them? It's all fake. Don't even do it. I don't even want to hear it. It is not appealing to me.

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I don't want this false religion. There's no use of the false religion. Don't do it.

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I don't want it. What's He say to them? Cease to do evil, learn to do good, and He says correct oppression, bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow's cause.

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God, let us reason together. Though your sins are as scarlet, they'll be white as snow. I'll wash this away.

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But what does God say? No more false religion. No more hypocrisy. No more pretending to have a relationship with God when there isn't really a relationship with God.

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By the way, brothers and sisters, can I just take a side step here just for a moment, just to talk about this? This is a challenging text to us personally as a local church.

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I just want you to hear from us. It's a challenging text to us personally. When we see God's response to the people of God here, that they have all the marks of religion, but they do not seek justice in the world around them.

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They do not correct oppression. They don't bring justice to the fatherless. They don't plead the widow's cause.

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That's something that actually challenges us as a church. That the people of God ought to actually be concerned with the people next to them.

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They ought to be concerned with the culture around them when they see the fatherless being oppressed.

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When they see injustice around them. However, we're not seeking to correct injustice for the sake of correcting injustice or for the trophies.

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We're seeking to correct those things and to cease doing evil and learn to do good for what purpose?

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To bring glory to God. To be pleasing to Him as His people.

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That's the call to the people of God. Now notice in chapter 23, where Matthew takes us.

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Now this is actually really cool. You might find this as interesting as me, but I think it is very, very interesting.

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Notice where Matthew takes us. He omits the story of the widow's might.

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You know that famous story? I don't know why I find this so interesting, but I really do. If you look in Mark chapter 12, verses 41 through 44, you can go there later if you like, or Luke 21 verses 1 through 4, there are parallel accounts in the synoptic gospels.

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What's synoptic mean? Seeing together. You can take the gospels and see them together where Matthew, Mark, and Luke will actually give you the same accounts, sometimes with more details, sometimes with more

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Gentile language than Matthew uses, but you can see them together and at times you'll have more of an expansion.

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At times one sees something is more important to talk about, one may leave something off, but in this moment here, you have this discourse in the synoptics, but Matthew leaves out the story of the widow.

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He leaves out the story of the widow, and I want to suggest that it's because Matthew's focus is on this covenant lord's sanctions that are coming, the coming destruction of the temple, and keep in mind, he is in the flow of an argument towards Matthew 24 and the promise of great tribulation and the destruction of the temple.

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So Mark and Luke actually have the story right inside here of the widow making the offering.

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Matthew doesn't mention it, not because it's not a good story or it's not important to the ministry of Jesus. I want to suggest that I think it's possible that Matthew left out the story of the widow, which

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Mark and Luke have, because Matthew is actually giving you a narrative of the

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Lord Jesus coming into Jerusalem, finding no fruit, cleansing the temple, confronting the leadership, giving the woes, and then now departing the temple to promise judgment.

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And so the emphasis now is on the woes and the condemnation and the lack of fruit and the curse that's coming.

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And so Matthew chooses to leave the story of the widow out, because ultimately, he's getting us somewhere of this climax of judgment on Jerusalem.

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Now let's go to the text 23 .1. This will be rather quick, because we've already addressed most of the issues here, but important.

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Matthew 23 .1. Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, the scribes and the

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Pharisees sit on Moses' seat, so do and observe whatever they tell you, but not the works that they do.

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This reference to Moses' seat. Who gave the law? Who delivered the law?

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Moses. So after Moses delivers the law of God, after Moses, everybody else is expanding and expounding upon the law of the

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Lord. They are sitting in what was called Moses' seat, and they were supposed to be explaining the law of God.

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There's even some evidence of a special seat that was in the synagogues that people would sit on to actually explain things from an official teaching authority,

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Moses' seat. Moses gave the law, but everybody else would have to just sit there and listen to the law that was explained from Moses' seat.

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Now it's interesting, because in Matthew 5 .1, as Jesus comes, in the

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Sermon on the Mount, the most popular sermon in the history of the world, truly, it says in Matthew 5 .1,

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when he gets there, he sits down to teach them. He sits down to explain the perfect law of God to them.

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He sits down to teach. Now I want to point out to you here that Jesus says, the scribes and the

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Pharisees sit on Moses' seat, so do and observe whatever they tell you, but not the works they do.

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I thought this was really powerful. This is Jesus talking about the efficacy of God's Word.

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The efficacy of God's Word. So do and observe whatever they tell you. They're giving you the law of the

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Lord, so do and observe whatever they tell you, but not the works that they do.

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So here's Jesus actually, I think, in a powerful way, explaining the efficacy, the sufficiency of God's Word, but he's actually telling them, but don't do what they actually do.

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Now this is actually a conflict that's seen often. You'll hear this a lot, by the way, in debate.

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People will say, oh, how do you know what's true? You've got like 25 or 30 ,000 different denominations of Christianity.

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By the way, that's completely false. It's not true that there are 25 ,000 or 20 ,000 denominations.

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That's not true at all. But people will say, well, how can you trust God's Word or trust Sola Scriptura or the efficacy of God's Word if you've got all these different Christians with all these different interpretations?

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I think Douglas Wilson answered that very powerfully in a debate with Dan Barker. He commented on that actual statement there, and he said, how about this?

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You take five Christians, put them into five different rooms with the same Bible, and they come out with five different answers.

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He said, where's the variable there? In the Christians or the Bibles? It's in the

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Christians, right? The problem isn't with the Word of God. It's with the people who are trying to interpret the

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Word of God. The problem isn't the efficacy or sufficiency of God's Word. It's in sinful people who handle it.

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Amen? So here's a moment where Jesus tells them they're sitting in Moses' seat, so he says to them, so do and observe whatever they tell you, but not the works that they do.

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The problem is with the sinners. It's not with God's own revelation. Now in Matthew 23, verse 4,

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Jesus says, They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger.

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They themselves are not willing to move them with their finger. They do all their deeds to be seen by others, for they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long.

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Heavy burdens. Like, for example, ever heard of the Mishnah? The Mishnah?

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They saw the Mishnah, or Jews have seen the Mishnah, as a fence around the law.

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Here's what they say. The law is so important. It's so holy and so good. Here's what we need to do.

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We need to put a fence around this law, right? Because it's so important that the people of God keep it.

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Let's put a fence around it and add other laws so we never even get close to climbing that fence and then disrupting the law and breaking it.

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So how do you do that? Obey the law by creating what? More laws to protect people from ever disobeying it.

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A fence around the law. So they added to the law burdens too hard to bear.

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So Sabbath keeping, right? Sabbath, keep it holy. Well, let's create some

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Sabbath police to go around and make sure that everyone's keeping it really, really holy. Let's add all these different ways that you actually have to keep the

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Sabbath and maintain it so we never actually don't keep the Sabbath holy. They would add laws and burdens to God's law.

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People today, listen, they mock the law of God today. Mock the law of God as too strict.

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You'll even have, and this is vital today, you'll even have Protestant denominations, Protestant ministers, popular

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Protestant ministers that capitalize on this argument.

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Oh, Jesus is all about grace. You see, that law of God from the Old Testament, that was just this harsh, sort of heavy -handed

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God. The law of God was just sort of this oppressive system. But Jesus has freed us from all that oppression of the law of God.

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What? The law is a reflection of God's own holy and righteous character. We're freed from that now?

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We're freed from the demand of God of justice and the culture round about us?

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In the Messiah now, God has no more demands of holiness and righteousness?

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Yes, Jesus has freed us from the curse of the law. We're no longer condemned.

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But how do we all of a sudden now have a view of the law of God as this oppressive and harsh and nasty thing?

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We have people capitalizing today on that basic premise. The law of God is simply oppressive.

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It is harsh. It is judgment. And Jesus frees us from all that. So we're free now to do whatever we wish.

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The Bible actually has a different story, amen? It says that in the Messiah, we're freed from the condemnation and guilt of our sin and shame, but we're also now free by the

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Spirit of God to actually obey God's law. Now we're filled with God's Spirit, given new hearts, and dwelt by Him to actually pursue

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Him and to love Him and to know Him and to walk freely with Him, hating our own sin, hating our own righteousness.

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That's the freedom that the children of God have. Now we have a new relationship with God. We're now free to love

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Him, no longer slaves to our sin, amen? That's a good story.

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That's the truth that Scripture gives us. But notice what Jesus says. Watch, this is huge. And I do pray as your brother and pastor that this blesses you.

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Here you have religious people adding to God's law burdens that they will not even move with their finger.

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Put a fence around the law. Add things so that people never dare disobey it. And they won't even do it themselves.

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And here comes Jesus now, who gives us His grace, His life,

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His love, and the power to actually keep His law. And here's what He says to His people.

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Matthew 11, 28 -30, same book. Come to Me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I'll give you rest.

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Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart.

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And you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.

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You see, that's what Jesus gives, not what these false religion propagators give.

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They give you all these different laws and things that God had nothing to do with. They say, obey these things and you'll be right with God.

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But they're not willing to do them. But what you get with Jesus, the true Messiah, is you get lightness, easy.

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You get rest for your soul. Now notice that Jesus has already confronted the leader's perversion of the law in the

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Sermon on the Mount. Jesus did that. We're not going to rehash that sermon series now. But Jesus has already confronted that generation's perversion of the law of God.

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In the modern context, how do we look at something like this? Jesus talking about people adding things to God's law.

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Things that they won't do themselves. They want to look a certain way. They want to actually appear to be religious.

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They want to look Christian. Well, we can struggle with this as Christians.

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Now, I'll give you an example of this. We don't struggle with this here. When I went to Bible college,

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I went to, and you have to say it like this, an independent fundamentalist separated Baptist church.

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Yeah. An independent fundamental separated Baptist church. Hey, Dr.

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White, I don't know if you remember this, but one time you were at Hank Henegraaff, and you were at a bookstore, and you were driving him around. I don't know if I ever told you this.

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And I remember that we didn't know each other very well at the time, but I heard that Hank was going to be here, and I went out to that bookstore, and you were there driving him around.

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And I remember that everything was all done, and I just wanted to ask you this question, because I was starting to actually be concerned with the church that I was at.

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It was a little heavy -handed, a little legalistic. And I remember I walked up to you. I said, hey, Dr. White, just a quick question.

01:00:04

I said, what do you think about independent fundamental Baptist churches? And you were like, um...

01:00:13

I remember it shocked you, because I was very, very clear to independent fundamental separated

01:00:19

Baptist churches. I think I shocked you, because you were on your way to get a hamburger or something. I was like, hey, excuse me, independent fundamental separated

01:00:25

Baptist churches? So I want to apologize for throwing that at you that day, but I was going to this independent fundamental separated

01:00:33

Baptist church, and you were told you need to make sure that you make that clear, that that's who we are, that's what we believe. I was going to Bible college there, and I was there for a long, long time.

01:00:42

I remember one day after school was over, school was out, everyone's essentially off campus, and I needed to study.

01:00:50

When you came to school, you had to wear a suit, you had to wear a tie, your hair had to be cut a certain way.

01:00:55

Well, school was over, everyone's off campus, so I needed to go to the library to study for class. And so I had a pair of jeans on, a pair of boots on,

01:01:04

I had a t -shirt on, maybe a jacket, and I go to study in the library.

01:01:10

So I'm in the library, and I'm studying, and one of the leaders of the school comes in, and he's got a very peculiar look on his face.

01:01:16

He's very serious. And he sits down, and he just looks like something that's really bothering him.

01:01:22

And so I say, hey, how are you doing? Yeah, I'm just studying, I'm just so excited, and I'm just trying to be pleasant and exchange pleasantries.

01:01:29

And I could tell the whole time, something's on his mind. He's just waiting for the right moment to say it to me. So he says, oh, yeah,

01:01:35

Jeff, we'd love to invite you out to go with us, and we're going to ride some bikes, and kind of, you know, ride some bikes through the mountains, do some trail stuff.

01:01:45

And I was like, oh, I don't really have a bike, but I'd love to go. He says, yeah, we'll make sure you get a bike. I said, oh, great.

01:01:50

He said, yeah, so it'll be next Wednesday, and we'd love to have you there with us. Now, mind you, this is summer classes in the desert.

01:01:58

All right, it's summertime. Classes are happening now. I'm taking summer school. But it's in the desert in Arizona, and we're going to ride bicycles on the trail.

01:02:06

Only Dr. White is actually crazy enough to do that now. But he's inviting me.

01:02:12

And so I'm like, I'd love to go. Never done it before. I'd love to go. He said, yes, but when you go with us, it's going to be important for you to actually wear a pair of dress pants.

01:02:27

You need to wear a white buttoned -up shirt. You need to have a tie. And he said, what you're wearing right now is entirely inappropriate for a

01:02:36

Christian to wear. And he says, and your hair. He said, your sideburns.

01:02:43

Now, this he would have passed out. He said, your sideburns, they're down to here.

01:02:52

That's just not acceptable for a follower of Christ. You need to not let them go below your earlobe.

01:02:58

And right now, yours are a little bit too far. Your hair is a little bit too long at the moment. He said, so it's really important that if you're going to represent

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Christ, that you change the way that you look, because it does not look like a godly follower of Jesus.

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And I remember that I felt, truth before God, I felt this weight come down on top of me.

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My heart was crushed. It was everything I could in that moment not to burst out in tears, because I really loved and respected this man.

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So he said, okay, great, so take care of all that, and then I'll see you next week. He stands up and walks out of the library, and I remember in that moment

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I realized I knew enough about the word of God that this wasn't from God.

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That wasn't in his word. That's not from his law. This isn't from Christ. And I remember in that moment,

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I thought about it. I started praying and talking to the

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Lord, and I felt all of that lift off of me. And I stood up.

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I put my stuff in my bags, backpack on. I walked out of that school, and I never went back.

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I left permanently. Never showed up again because of that moment, because I realized in that moment, here's an example in the modern context of people who profess faith in Jesus Christ.

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They still preach salvation was through faith alone and Christ alone. They said all of that. Justification's only through faith in Christ.

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It's not according to works, no law. But in even a Christian context, they were saying, however, to be really

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Christian, to be really obedient to the Lord, you have to obey these standards.

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Where'd those come from? Well, they're from us. But you need to obey them, or you're not a faithful Christian. So in the modern context, that is truly how we could take this law or this imposition of law upon God's people to oppress them.

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Just a last note here. When Jesus says to them, they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long.

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I'm gonna read to you this from France, R .T. Francis' commentary on Matthew. I thought it was wonderful. Listen closely.

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He says, phylacteries were the small leather boxes containing key texts from the law which were and are worn on the forehead and arm in literal fulfillment of Deuteronomy 6, 8, 11, 18.

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They were presumably intended as a spiritual aid for the wearer, but they provided an opportunity for religious ostentation.

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Either the boxes themselves or the straps by which they were fastened could be made more conspicuous by making them broad.

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The fringes are the tassels on the corners of Jewish cloaks which were required by Numbers 15, 38 through 39.

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In biblical times, they were worn on the ordinary outer garment as Jesus himself did.

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It is only in subsequent Judaism that the fringed shawl, worn especially for prayer, has developed.

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The fringes, too, were intended as spiritual, visual aids, but to increase their length was an obvious way to draw people's attention to one's piety.

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Their length was discussed in Jesus' day, the school of Shemai favoring longer tassels than that of Hillel.

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So there's an example of what Jesus is referring to there. It's an obvious attempt to grab everyone's attention about how spiritual you are.

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Now, by the way, we've been here before, too, haven't we? In Matthew 6, verses 1 through 18, it is one of the most convicting passages personally for me.

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This is where Jesus tells people about their giving, right? He tells people about the hypocrites, the people who are pretending.

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When they give, they're giving so that everybody sees them give. When they pray, they pray with these long prayers, loud prayers on street corners so that everyone sees them pray.

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Jesus says, when you pray, you go pray to your father who's in secret and he'll reward you openly. Jesus talks about those who fast so that people see them fasting.

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They make themselves, they mar their appearance so that everybody knows, oh, look at me, I'm fasting. Look how religious I am.

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Look how holy I am. How righteous I am. Look at my fasting. Jesus says, when you fast, don't let anyone know what's going on.

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Don't change your appearance. Do it because you're hungry for God. Here's Jesus confronting false religion's attempt to have an audience.

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And in this moment, Jesus says, even these guys with their clothing, they broaden these things, they expand them.

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Why? Because they want an audience. And Jesus confronts this here and elsewhere.

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And my question is this. Brothers and sisters, do you find yourselves in this passage?

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Be honest with yourself. Do you find yourself in this passage where you find yourself attempting to get an audience, playing the pretender?

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Do you find yourself boasting in your works? Are you subtly looking for the praise of others?

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When you're doing something spiritual, do you need attention for it? Are you trying your best to get the attention and praise of others?

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Or if you do something for the Lord, are you satisfied with nobody knowing ultimately about it except for the

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Lord? That's not to say, brothers and sisters, that there aren't opportunities we have today to communicate the

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Gospel on a larger scale, to communicate the Gospel to many more people. But the question is this.

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What's the intention of the heart? Is it for the praise of others? Or is it for the ultimate praise of God?

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Why do we do these things? You all know the stories, of course, of the Instagram Christians, right?

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Right? Like, they've got to have that perfect placement on the table, like their cup of coffee and their Bible and like a little rose or something, right?

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The Instagram chick, right? She's like, she's like, doing my morning devotionals. It's like her toes next to the

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Bible and like a cup of coffee or something, right? Like, look at how spiritual I am, guys.

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Look at how spiritual my experience is. Every morning, hey y 'all, just did my Bible devotionals and here's my stuff.

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Like, you know, like, why are we doing this? Are we like these first century hypocrites and pretenders?

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Like, we mock the Pharisees all the time because for us as Christians, post -New Testament, we see them at times, well, those are the bad guys.

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Those are the guys that came after Jesus. But know this. They were respected in this day. Josephus speaks so highly of the

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Pharisees and the scribes in that generation. They were, in many ways, revered. They were seen as the religiously devoted.

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Right? But Jesus goes after the heart. He doesn't care about the externals, the pretending, the person that looks religious.

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Think about it in your own life. Watch, this is huge. So challenging to me.

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Do you find yourself praying longer, more beautiful prayers when you're with other

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Christians? Stop and think about that for a second.

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Is your prayer life, when it's public, is it very beautiful and erudite and glorious?

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Is that your prayer life when people are listening? How come when there's a crowd, as Christians, we pray so well, but when

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I'm talking to God privately, it doesn't even sound like the same person? As a

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Christian, when we give, are we looking for the praise of others? I've even seen moments where there's big churches, and they actually have the people stand up and point them out who gave high dollar amounts to the new church project, the new building project, and everyone applauded.

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Do we want the praise of men or the praise of God? When Jesus comes in to confront the false religion of His day,

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He does it in such a way, watch this, and we're finished here, as you would anticipate God doing it.

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Not having anything to do with the false religion and all the pretending. If God were to walk among us, if He were to come down here from His throne and take on flesh and walk among us, we would anticipate

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Him cutting through all of the garbage and gobbledygook and dross and going right to the heart and saying,

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I see right through it. And it's all pretend. And I don't want it. We would anticipate that if God took on flesh,

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He would walk among us and He would confront all of our false religion, all of our false profession, all of our pretending and hypocrisy.

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And that, brothers and sisters, to me, is another tremendous, great, and awesome indication as to who

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Jesus Christ truly is. He is God in the flesh. He is the One that was promised because when

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He comes in, He is not satisfied with the externals, the pretending, all the additional things to make you look religious.

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What does God want? He looks at your heart. He wants you. A true and intimate relationship with the

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Lord. And what does God do in the Messiah now? What do we have now? Think about it. What do you have now?

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Something different. You have now, you and I and Jesus, new creations. What do you have now as a believer in Jesus Christ?

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What do you have? A new heart. Heart of stone removed. Heart of flesh placed there.

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What do you have now? The Spirit of God indwelling you, Ezekiel 36, causing you to observe

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God's statutes. That's what you have now because of the work of Christ, because of the

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New Covenant. It's a powerful testimony to who Jesus truly is and the gift that we all truly have in Him.

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My prayer as your brother and pastor is that we would repent of all of our attempts at gaining an audience in our relationship with Jesus Christ.

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And that we would repent of any part we would play in the false religion that is so common among men and women that is exemplified and demonstrated in the

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Pharisees and scribes. Let's pray. Father, please bless in Jesus' name this word that went out today.

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I pray with all my heart, God, that You would help us. Lord, help us to flee from the kind of false religion that we find in the

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Pharisees and Sadducees and scribes that are described in the New Testament. I pray that You would fill us,

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Lord, with a strong desire to seek intimacy with You and Your pleasure above all.