How to Avoid the Worst Woes in Life - Part 2
The Gospel of Matthew
Matthew 23:25-36
Sermon by Rick Crandall
(Prepared February 3, 2023)
BACKGROUND:
*In 1 John 4 the Bible tells us twice that "God is love." And thank God that's true! Our God is full of love, grace, and tender mercy for everyone in the world. Remember that in 1 Timothy 2:4-6 the Bible tells us that God "desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time."
*God loves all people. But our God is not a fluffy teddy bear. He is the God of love. But He is also the God of righteous wrath. One Sunday years ago, I preached about the wrath of God in the morning sermon.
*This was long before mobile phones. But most people had home phones, and our numbers were in the phonebook. Just after lunch that day, I got a call from a lady who had visited the church that morning. I didn't know the lady, and she was from out of town. But she was so upset about my sermon that she just had to call me up and tell me about it. She was pretty mad, and she said, "My God is not a God of wrath. He is a God of love. I tried to explain to her what the Bible says about God's wrath, but she didn't want to hear it.
*God's Word has a lot to say about His righteous wrath. The word "wrath" is found 198 times in the KJV Bible, and most of those times, it is talking about the righteous wrath of God. For example, Psalm 2:12 says this about the promised Messiah: "Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, And you perish in the way, When His wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him."
*Psalm 21:9-10 says this about the Messiah: "Your hand will find all Your enemies; Your right hand will find those who hate You. You shall make them as a fiery oven in the time of Your anger; The Lord shall swallow them up in His wrath, And the fire shall devour them."
*Then, in Matthew 3:7, when John the Baptist saw many of the evil Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, "Brood of vipers! Who has warned you to flee from the wrath to come?" And in Revelation 16:1, the Apostle John gave this testimony: "I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seven angels, Go your ways, and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth."
*Well, thank the Lord that Ezekiel 33:11 also says, "Say to them: 'As I live,' says the Lord GOD, 'I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For why should you die, O house of Israel?'"
*Also thank the Lord that 1 Thessalonians 5:9-10 tells all Christians: "God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him."
*Yes, God is love. But He is not a fluffy teddy bear. And here in Matthew 23, we see the strongest words of condemnation Jesus ever spoke during His ministry on earth. Jesus called these evil men "hypocrites" 8 different times. A. T. Robertson explained that "this hardest word from the lips of Jesus fell on those who were the religious leaders of the Jews. The Lord's verbal thunderbolts of wrath were deserved by the scribes and Pharisees, because of their vicious, hateful rejection of Christ, their corrupt distortions of God's Law, and the abuse of the people who suffered under their rule." (1)
*These scribes and Pharisees brought the Lord's condemnation on their own heads. And we need to be as far away from their hard-hearted ways as we can possibly be. Thank God, Jesus will help us avoid their horrible woes! Let's begin by listening to the Lord in Matthew 23:25-36.
MESSAGE:
*All of us are going to face woes in this world. There are always children at St. Jude Children's Hospital in Memphis. There are always cancer patients down at M. D. Anderson in Houston. And there are people planning funerals every day of the year.
*All of us are going to face woes in this world. All of us will go through times of pain, sadness, grief, and regret. But in today's Scripture, the Lord shows us how to avoid the worst woes of all.
*The scribes and Pharisees in these verses were considered to be the most religious people of that day, but Jesus spoke 8 woes of condemnation on their souls. Our English word "woe" is a strong exclamation of grief that comes from a serious affliction or misfortune. It expresses deep distress and misery. But William Barclay explained that "the original word for 'woe' here was hard to translate because it included both wrath and sorrow. There is righteous anger in the Lord's voice here, but it is the anger of a loving heart that was broken by the stubborn blindness of these evil leaders." (2)
*We need to run away from their hard-hearted ways. And the Lord will help us avoid the horrible woes in today's Scriptures. But please understand that though there are 4 points in this message, they are not "steps" to avoid these woes or anything like that. You see, it all goes back to Jesus. He is the only way to escape the worst woes.
1. BUT FIRST IN THESE VERSES: DON'T JUST CARE HOW YOU LOOK. -- CARE HOW YOU LIVE.
*The scribes and Pharisees were satisfied to look good before other people. But that's not good enough for God! Jesus doesn't want us to just look good. He wants us to be good. And in vs. 25-28, the Lord stressed the difference twice. Here Jesus said:
25. "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence.
26. Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also.
27. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness.
28. Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness."
*Five times in this chapter, the Lord told those wicked scribes and Pharisees that they were blind. They were blind enough to believe that their devotion to religious rituals would earn their way into the Kingdom of Heaven. Their religious performance was enough to fool the people. They even fooled themselves. But God wasn't fooled for a moment, because He sees us every minute of every day.
*Many Scriptures confirm this truth. For example, Psalm 33:13-15 says, "The LORD looks from heaven; He sees all the sons of men. From the place of His habitation He looks on all the inhabitants of the earth; He fashions their hearts individually; He considers all their works."
*God can see into our hearts. King David surely knew this truth. That's why he prayed this confession to the Lord in Psalm 69:5-6, "O God, You know my foolishness; And my sins are not hidden from You. Let not those who wait for You, O Lord GOD of hosts, be ashamed because of me; Let not those who seek You be confounded because of me, O God of Israel."
*Then in Romans 2:16, Paul talked about "the day when God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel." We may try to hide and cover up our sins, but God sees them all. As Hebrews 4:13 says, "There is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account."
*We must remember that God sees us all the time. He even sees the secret places of our souls, so we must make inward purity our priority. Don't just care how you look to other people. Care how you live. That's how to avoid the worst woes in life.
2. AND DON'T COMPARE YOURSELF TO OTHER PEOPLE. -- COMPARE YOURSELF TO GOD.
*This is the Lord's lesson for us in vs. 29-32 where Jesus said:
29. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous,
30. and say, 'If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.'
31. Therefore you are witnesses against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets.
32. Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers' guilt."
*The scribes and Pharisees thought they were holy. But they were headed to hell. They were trusting in their own goodness, thinking they were good enough, thinking they were better than other people. In vs. 30 they thought they were better than their ancestors. That's why they said, "If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets."
*The scribes and Pharisees thought they were better than everyone else. And it's easy for us to think the same thing. We must not be like the Pharisee in the parable Jesus told in Luke 18:9-14. There God's Word says:
9. Also He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others:
10. "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.
11. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, 'God, I thank You that I am not like other men extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector.
12. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.'
13. And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, 'God be merciful to me a sinner!'
14. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be abased, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.''
*Timothy Proctor explained that "many of the Pharisees were conceited, pompous people. Many of them were selfish, holier-than-thou, judgmental, legalistic, and mean-spirited. If you disagreed with their teachings, they would happily beat you, -- or even kill you, completely convinced that they were pleasing God.
*We can imagine this praying Pharisee swaggering through the temple courts, strutting like a peacock, looking for the perfect place to be seen by everyone else. This man didn't go to the temple to pray to God. He went to make a public announcement of his own goodness." (3)
*Many of these men had a bad case of spiritual pride. We can see it where "The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, 'God, I thank You that I am not like other men extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.'"
*"I, I, I, I, I..." -- This Pharisee had the prideful "I" disease. But the truth is that all of us can get lifted up with spiritual pride. All of us can fall into the trap of judging other people. That's why Paul gave this challenge to Christians in Romans 14:4, "Who are you to judge another's servant? To his own master he stands or falls. Indeed, he will be made to stand, for God is able to make him stand." In effect, Paul was saying, "Christians: Who do you think you are to be judging other believers?" But sometimes we do. It's one of the easiest spiritual traps to fall into.
*Kent Crockett told about a teacher who was teaching this parable to her Sunday School children. She was a very good teacher, and she explained how the self-righteous attitude of the Pharisee caused him to look down on the tax-collector. She said the Pharisee prayed, "God, I thank You that I'm not like other people," while the tax-collector said, "God, be merciful to me, a sinner."
*Everything seemed to go well until the closing prayer. Then one of the little boys started his prayer with these words: "God, I thank You that I'm not like that Pharisee." (4)
*It's easy for us to be self-righteous, full of pride, and blind to our own sin. But no matter how good we think we are, we are not good enough to deserve a place in Heaven. Of course, some people are a whole lot better than others, and a lot of people think they are better than others. But even if I was the best person in the whole world, that still wouldn't make me good enough to go to Heaven. That's because God's standard for getting into Heaven by good works is total perfection for my whole life! And nobody has ever lived up to that standard except Jesus Christ.
*For all the rest of us, Isaiah 64:6 says, "All our righteous deeds are like filthy rags; we all fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away." Romans 3:10 tells us that "there is none righteous, no, not one." And Romans 3:23 adds that "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."
*May God help us see our own sinfulness, so we can be the people He wants us to be. Don't compare yourself to other people. Compare yourself to God That's how to avoid the worst woes in life.
3. AND DON'T BE CONDEMNED. -- BECOME A CHILD OF GOD.
*In Genesis 18:25, Abraham called the LORD "the Judge of all the earth." That's who Jesus Christ is. And in vs. 33, the Judge of all the earth shows us that these scribes and Pharisees were condemned. They were as lost as they could be, so Jesus cried out, "Serpents, brood of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of hell?"
*There Jesus asked the most important personal question for all eternity: "HOW CAN YOU ESCAPE THE CONDEMNATION OF HELL?" Church: There is only one way! By believing in Jesus Christ, by trusting in His sacrifice on the cross for our sins, and by trusting in His resurrection from the dead.
*Now, the risen Christ will give us the new spiritual birth of eternal life. And He will make us into children of God, if we will trust Him enough to receive Him as our Lord and Savior. John 1:11-13 explains how this happens. There the Bible says this about Jesus:
11. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him.
12. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the (power or authority or) right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name:
13. who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
*There the Bible is talking about believers being spiritually born again into the family of God. Years ago, I bumped into Trish Barmore and her little boy at Walmart. They are some of our old friends from McClendon. And the first thing out of that little boy's mouth was, "I got saved on my birthday!"
*I told him, "That's great. Now you have two birthdays on the same day." And he can always remember when he was born again, because when we believe in Jesus Christ, when we receive Him as our Lord and Savior, we receive God's gift of eternal life through a new, spiritual birth. This miraculous gift of a new birth is the only way people can be saved from God's condemnation. It is absolutely essential for salvation, and John 1:13 says believers are "born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God."
[1] THAT MEANS THE NEW BIRTH IS NOT BY HUMAN DESCENT.
*"It's "not by blood." Our parents may have brought us to church, but they could never bring us into the Kingdom of God. Only God Himself can do that. (5)
[2] THE NEW BIRTH IS NOT BY HUMAN DESCENT. -- AND IT'S NOT BY HUMAN DESIRE.
*It is not by "the will of the flesh." Suppose you wanted to be saved more than anything else in the world. The sad fact is that all the desire in the world is not enough to save our souls. The reason why is because even when we try our best to be good, we still can't measure up. We drop the ball. We trip up. We all fall short of the glory of God.
*You could be the best person in Louisiana, or the best person in the world. But that is not going to get you into Heaven, because again, Romans 3:23 tells us that we all fall short. George Whitefield declared: "What! Get to heaven on your own strength? Why, you might as well try to climb to the moon on a rope of sand!" When it comes to salvation, no one has ever been good enough! -- No one but Jesus Christ! God has to do the saving! (6)
[3] THIS NEW SPIRITUAL BIRTH IS NOT BY HUMAN DESIRE. -- AND IT'S NOT BY HUMAN DESIGN.
*It's not "by the will of man." People can come up with some pretty amazing plans, but no one could have ever come up with God's plan for the cross. And even if they did, they couldn't have carried it out. Only God the Son Jesus Christ could have lived a perfect life and provide the perfect sacrifice for our sins. Only Jesus could have risen again from the dead. And only He could give us the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name.
*When we believe in Jesus Christ, when we receive Him as our Lord and Savior, we truly are born again by God's Holy Spirit. And 2 Corinthians 5:17 tells us that, "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new." So, don't be condemned! Become a child of God by trusting in Jesus Christ. That's how we can avoid the worst woes of life.
4. AND DON'T REJECT GOD'S WORD. -- RECEIVE IT!
*Here in Matthew 23, the Lord clearly shows us that these scribes and Pharisees had rejected the truth of God's Word. And sadly, they would continue to reject the Scriptures. As Jesus said In vs. 34-36:
34. "Therefore, indeed, I send you prophets, wise men, and scribes: some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city,
35. that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.
36. Assuredly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation."
*Luke 11:49-51 reports Jesus saying, "Therefore the wisdom of God also said, 'I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they will kill and persecute,' that the blood of all the prophets which was shed from the foundation of the world may be required of this generation, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah who perished between the altar and the temple. Yes, I say to you, it shall be required of this generation."
*Adam's son Abel was the first godly prophet in the Old Testament who was murdered for his faith. Zechariah was the last. And Jesus said that the blood of them all would come on that generation. (Not that they would be held guilty for things they did not do, but that they had the same Christ-rejecting spirit of those other Old Testament murderers. And that the end result of that rebellion would fall on their generation.)
*Jesus was referring to the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple that would take place in a few decades. And the source of all that disaster was their stubborn disobedience of God. They stubbornly refused to believe that Jesus was the promised Messiah, even though He had already fulfilled hundreds of prophecies, and had worked countless miracles in their presence.
*They were also violently determined to destroy Jesus by any means necessary. And it all went back to the fact that they were rejecting God's Old Testament Word. I say this because the pre-incarnate Christ is all over the Old Testament for anyone who will take an honest look. That's why in John 5:39 Jesus told them to "Search the scriptures; for in them you think you have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me."
*Tragically, these scribes and Pharisees were lost forever, because they rejected the truth about Jesus. Please know that the Bible is the Word of God, and His Word alone has the power to save our souls by giving us the new spiritual birth of eternal life. This is why 1 Peter 1:23-25 tells Christians that we have "been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever, because 'All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of the grass. The grass withers, and its flower falls away, but the word of the Lord endures forever.' Now this is the word which by the gospel was preached to you."
*There is no way we can overestimate the power of the Bible. God's Word has the power to save our souls, give us the new spiritual birth of eternal life, and change our lives forever!
*Gaylord Kambarami told one of my favorite stories about the life-changing power of God's Word. Gaylord was the General Secretary of the Bible Society in Zimbabwe when he tried to give a New Testament to a very grouchy, hot-tempered man. The man gruffly said he would take the New Testament, but only so he could tear out the pages, roll them up, and use them to make cigarettes.
*Gaylord told the man, "I understand that, but at least promise to read the page of the New Testament before you smoke it." The man agreed and the two went their separate ways.
*Fifteen years later, the two men met at a Methodist convention in Zimbabwe. By that time, the Scripture-smoking atheist had trusted in Jesus and was a full-time evangelist! He told the people, "I smoked Matthew, and I smoked Mark, and I smoked Luke. But when I got to John 3:16, I couldn't smoke anymore! My life was changed from that moment." (7)
CONCLUSION:
*That Scripture-smoking man was saved by the miraculous power of God's Word. He was born-again by the miraculous power of the Bible. And most everybody here knows that John 3:16 says, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life."
*Have you done that? Have you believed in Jesus Christ? Have you received Him as your Lord and Savor? Have you escaped the worst woes of all? Put your trust in Jesus Christ. And call on the Lord to save you now, as we go back to God in prayer.
(1) Adapted from WORD PICTURES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT by Archibald Thomas (A. T.) Robertson - Published in 1930-1933 - Matthew 23:13 - Downloaded to e-Sword by Rick Meyers - Copyright 2021
(2) BARCLAY'S DAILY BIBLE STUDY SERIES - NEW TESTAMENT by William Barclay - Revised Edition - Copyright 1975 - First published by the Saint Andrew Press, Edinburgh, Scotland - The Westminster Press, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - "Shutting The Door" - Matthew 23:13 - https://bibleportal.com/commentary/section/william-barclay/scribes-and-pharisees-matthew-231-39
(3) Adapted from SermonCentral sermon "Who Do You Think You Are?" by Timothy Proctor - Luke 18:9-14
(4) MAKING TODAY COUNT FOR ETERNITY by Kent Crockett - Multnomah Publishers, Sisters, OR - 2001 - p. 130 - Source: Sermons.com email 03/21/2004
(5) This section adapted from SermonCentral sermon "The True Light" by Devin Hudson - John 1:6-13
(6) George Whitefield quotation - Source: www.thegracetabernacle.org/quotes
(7) American Bible Society Record, March 1990 - Source: Raymond McHenry - STORIES FOR PREACHERS AND TEACHERS
