I Peter 2:5,9-11 “Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ…But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light: Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul.”
Matthew 27:6-7 “And the chief priests took the silver pieces, and said, It is not lawful for to put them into the treasury, because it is the price of blood. And they took counsel, and bought with them the potter’s field, to bury strangers in.” Here is a sad commentary on the state of the priesthood of ancient Israel. While the Prince of Babylon has used fierce persecution, and so he vents in his hatred toward the redeemed, he is also very astute and patient. The first persecution of the church beginning at Jerusalem did not destroy her, but rather promoted the spread of Christianity to regions beyond. Let us not forget the devil “walketh about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.” It is his nature to mar and destroy. “The thief cometh not but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy…” But we know through careful observation that what he has not been able to destroy outright, and we believe he relishes such destruction of life, albeit physical destruction when he is not able to destroy the soul, he attempts and with large success to destroy slowly by corrupting over time through the use of careful methodology until the seeds of corruption break forth and weave themselves like the weeds of the field into the very fabric of whole societies.
Let us ponder for a moment why the devil so spitefully seeks our ruin.
1) Because we are God’s delight, created to fellowship directly with God.
2) Because we were made in the image of God, which image the devil seeks to banish, just as he sought to usurp the Most High.
3) Because he knows his time is short to do the outworking of his corrupt nature, and finally and which is the focus of the message
4) Because we every believer is made partaker of the royal priesthood, and the rite of the ministry of reconciliation has been entrusted to us.
What a pathetic condition of religion among the Jews that we see before our eyes in this passage. We must not forget that the oracles of God were committed unto the Jewish people. Hear what our Lord says when speaking with the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s Well, “Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship; for salvation is of the Jews.” Jesus Christ the Jew did not come to abolish Judaism, but to lead His nation into the salvation for which He had prepared them through the Law and Prophets, the New Covenant, yea and not His nation only but to show the Jews that they as the chosen people were the gateway through which God would open up the doors of salvation to whomsoever will come. Paul states in his Epistle to the Romans, “What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision? Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God.”
Furthermore, Satan has intrinsically sought the destruction of the Jewish people from the days of their bondage in Egypt to the atrocities of Nazism to the present clashing of the Muslim nations in the Middle East and moreover the antagonism of the devilish Muslim faith in all nations toward the Chosen People. But when the devil would have destroyed the Jews in Egypt, through the edict of the Pharaoh that all male Jews born be euthanized, God sent a Moses. When Balak sought curses against the holy nation through the mouthpiece of the prophet Balaam, God changed his curses into words of blessings. Suffice it to say that what the devil was inept to destroy through whatever means, he wormed his way into the hearts of the religious leadership, and made the Divine Law to be nothing more than a lifeless code of rituals. What do we see in these men in the verses of our passage that is so striking?
I. FIRST, THEY WERE MORE INTERESTED IN MONEY THAN MINISTRY. That they hastily gathered up the thirty pieces of silver from the temple floor as Judas in his bewildered state is leaving their presence is not to their credit. There is no offer to help this fellow for whom they openly show their contempt. Jesus rightly stated regarding them,
“The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat: All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not. For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.”
And in the same chapter Jesus rebukes them,
“Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.”
It was a chief complaint for generations among the Jews that the ministers were there to serve themselves and their own carnal ends rather than to stand in the stead as mediators of the Law with yearnings for ministry among the people.
Application:
This observation is not so far removed from our day, where multitudes who fill both our pulpits and pews have set their affections upon the filthy lucre of this world! Let us not forget the declaration of Scripture that “the love of money is the root of all evil”. And Paul goes on to say, “which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.”
Is it nothing to you who seek the riches of this world that men constantly toil on the sea of strife, while you stay within the safe confines of the ark of grace never reaching out to minister to them who sink in despair?
[TITANIC ILLUSTRATION—LIFE BOATS]
Does it not move your heart and enlarge your vision to behold the thousands of precious souls placed within your very reach? And yet because we value mammon over men’s souls, we go on unaffected, with an air of justification that we are not responsible to reach the very ones who fill our streets and schools. Oh, foolish heart!
The great evangelist and founder of the Salvation Army, William Booth, standing before the King of England, acknowledging the honor thus given to him to stand in the presence of an earthly king, but yet also perceiving the vast difference in focus between the king and himself said to his majesty, “Sir, some men’s passions are for silver and gold, but my passion is for men’s souls.”
The Bible records of Moses that he esteemed “the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward.” Moses thought it more worthy to lose all that he had in regards to earthly wealth to see the salvation of his people and their spiritual inheritance thus secured.
And do we not hear our Lord’s blessed words from the Sermon on the Mount:
“Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through hand steal:
But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:
For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”
It would seem in the rush to achieve that modern Christians fail to value the local church as the center of religious industry. Far too many have abandoned their pledge of loyalty to the House of God, choosing to pursue material possessions that will pass away.
SECOND, THEY WERE MORE CONCERNED ABOUT REPUTATION THAN REDEMPTION. Following on the heels of our first observation above, Jesus remarks furthermore in Matthew 23,
“But all their works they do for to be seen of men: they make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their garments, And love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues, And greetings in the markets, and to be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi.”
And
“Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess. Thou 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 ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.”
It is evident in their lives and demeanor that the very motive of their ministry was to attain the praise of men. Just as their master, the Devil, they do not seek the redemption of their national people. How different from the Apostle Paul’s own yearnings for the redemption of his people, evidenced in Romans,
“I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh: Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises; Whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen.”
Application:
And so it is today that we who now know the truth and have the great privilege of leading others to Christ, instead of seeking the redemption of men’s souls are much too busy in the pursuit of the praises of men. We want others to think well of us.
THIRD, THEY EXALTED RITUAL OVER RIGHTEOUSNESS.
Oh what fleshly pursuits of purity! Matthew 27:6 “And the chief priests took the silver pieces, and said, It is not lawful for to put them into the treasury, because it is the price of blood.” What good shall we say of these men, but yea, even among them though not wholly of them were there still abiding those of a nobler element such as Simeon, Nicodemus, and Gamaliel. Look at the tragedy of their solution. They pass altogether over their guilt associated with these thirty pieces of silver. No thought is rendered to a certain judgment that would certainly come upon each of them. And if they truly were blinded as to the person of Christ being their messiah, they certainly were not looking for Him to come.
Much discourse could be written as to how they should have been waiting in expectation for the coming of their King. That had scrutinized the words of the prophets to pinpoint the place of his birth, yet no man among them is found rushing to the hamlet of Bethlehem of Judea when the Magi declare to them news of the star. They knew the words of David and Isaiah concerning His sure sufferings, yea, even the purpose of the sufferings, but it is all summed up in the words of Caiaphas, “…it is expedient for us, that one man should die for the people, and the whole nation perish not.” Oh treacherous and wicked men to only see how they could rid themselves of any threat to their seat of authority, and yet be so concerned about the proper allocation of thirty pieces of silver. “We shall have things as they are!” is what they proclaim regardless of the rejection of the words of truth and righteousness that comes with such behavior.
And yet, it is sad to think that many hold to their man-made doctrines or even doctrines of devils in our generation at the expense of the righteousness that comes by faith in Christ, or worse yet, pervert the true doctrines of faith and grace, teaching a “free-to-sin-because-I’m-saved” philosophy, instead of a responsible grace of obedience and faith toward God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Corrupt and carnal men in ministry—Such is the bane of organized religion, when it is devoid of the Spirit that bringeth life. And unless we hold as our banner the Scriptures which are able to make us wise unto salvation as the foundation of our faith and conduct, our movements will fall into the snare of the Devil such as happened here among the Jewish priesthood and religious leadership, such as happened to the Catholic church, such as has happened to the Anglican Church, the Methodist Church, the Calvinistic church, and so on. The words of Jude ring in our ears as unto men clad for battle: “Earnestly contend for the faith once delivered unto the saints.” And yet, when the religious climate was in such peril, God chose that very time for Christ to come:
“Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world: But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.”
“Even so, come, Lord Jesus.”
