Everyone all together nice and strong, Jesus, lover of my soul, let me to thy bosom fly,
while the near waters roll, while the tempest still is high.
Hide me, O my Savior, hide, till the storm of life is past,
safe into the haven guide, O receive my soul at last.
O'er the refuge have I none, pangs my helpless soul on thee.
Leave, O leave me not alone, still support and comfort me.
O my trust on thee is stayed, O my help from me I bring.
Cover my defenseless head with the shadow of thy wing.
Thou, O Christ, art all I want, more than all in thee I find.
Raise the fallen, cheer the faint, kill the sick and lead the blind.
Just and holy is thy name.
I, O Christ, am new, vile and full of sin I am.
Thou art full of truth and grace.
Plant his grace with thee is found, grace to cover all my sin.
Let the healing streams abound, make and keep me pure within.
Thou of life the fountain art, freely let me take of thee.
Spring thou up within my heart, rise to all eternity.
Amen. Let's open our service with a word of prayer.
Father, thank you, God, Lord, for allowing us, God, to be here tonight, Lord, be gathered
together and hear your word preached unto us, God.
We thank you, Lord, for this church and our pastor, God, and your word, Lord.
We pray, God, that you would fill the pastor with your Holy Spirit, Lord, as he preaches
to us, God.
And we pray, God, that you would bless the service, Lord, help us, God, to be attentive
tonight, Lord, and apply that which we hear to our lives, God, and leave here differently
than when we came in, Lord.
We love you, God.
And it's in Jesus' name we pray, amen.
You may be seated.
Song number 10, near the cross, song number 10, near the cross, song number 10, everyone
together, all together, nice and strong.
Jesus, keep me near the cross, there a precious fountain, free to all a healing stream, flows
from Calvary's mountain, and the cross, and the cross be my glory ever, till my raptured
soul shall find rest beyond the river, near the cross a trembling soul, love and mercy
found me, there the bright and morning star sheds its beams around me, in the cross, in
the cross be my glory ever, till my raptured soul shall find rest beyond the river, near
the cross, O Lamb of God, bring its scenes before me, help me walk from day to day with
its shadows o'er me, in the cross, in the cross be my glory ever, till my raptured soul
shall find rest beyond the river, near the cross I'll watch and wait, trusting ever,
till I reach the golden strand just beyond the river, in the cross, in the cross,
be my glory ever, till my raptured soul shall find rest.
All right, great singing, just a few announcements here.
If you did not get a bulletin, go ahead and raise your hand and one of the ushers can get one for
you. Some important information on there. Of course, our Sunday morning service is at
1030 Sunday evening at 5 p.m. and then we have our Thursday night Bible study at 7 o'clock
and we are currently going through the book of Matthew, so good to have you here tonight.
During our midweek service, you see the soul winning times and teams and the list of expecting
mothers. I want to congratulate the Alla's. Miss Rhea had her baby, Andrea Alla, and so
congratulations to them. And if you'd like to be a blessing, you can see my wife for details
regarding sending them some meals or a gift card of some sort, but keep her in prayer. She
recovers as well as the baby. And then you see the important reminders there at the bottom
and the upcoming church events. Tomorrow is the homeschool field trip to Kidspace Children's
Museum. And so if you can meet there, it says 945, meet there at 945 because we're planning
all to go in at the same time. So please no stragglers, okay. Make sure if you're coming,
you're there promptly on time because at 945 is basically as soon as everyone gets there,
we're going to all go in. And so just keep that in mind. You have the address there. If you have
any questions outside of that, you can see my wife for more details. And of course, as I mentioned
before, the activity is free. And then also on Saturday, October 7th is the Lady's Prayer
Breakfast. Meet at the building at 10 a.m. If you'd like to be of help or have any questions
about that, you can see Ms. Chanel Gonzalez. She heads that up there. And then on Friday,
October 27th is the homeschool park day. And then at the end of October 29th, the fall program
begins. And we're going to start our fall program with a big push for visitors. And so typically,
we'd encourage the church to bring visitors throughout the program. But this time, we want
to encourage you to bring them on that day. And we're going to put out the point system on Sunday.
And so we're looking forward to a great fall program. Lordwin will see a lot of people saved,
a lot of new visitors, a lot of people integrated into the church. And of course, that will conclude
with our fall banquet, Thanksgiving banquet right before Thanksgiving. And so we're looking forward
to all that. One announcement that's not on here is that tomorrow, Pastor Anderson will be preaching
at Holdfast Baptist Church in Fresno with Pastor Brzezinski there. And so the van is going to be
heading up there. And so there's still three spaces left, if I'm not mistaken, right? Three.
And so if you want to go to them, you can talk to Brother Glenn. He's going to be driving the
van up there. And so you can see him for more details about that. And then of course,
the regular reminders there at the bottom. Please make sure you don't bring any food
or any type of drink except for water and coffee into the Maid Auditorium.
No loitering in the four-year fellowship hall during the preaching service. And please make
sure you silence your phones during the preaching so as to not be a distraction during the service.
Pull out your prayer sheet there. I'm going to just go over this briefly and then Brother
Huyck's going to come up and pray over the needs. The big thing that we got going on for our church,
if you can keep in prayer corporately, is of course the fall program, which is just a
big push for a lot of visitors, salvations, and just people to get just kind of assimilated into
the church. But also our missions trip that's coming up in November to Belize. We're going to
have a preaching service there. Pray for a couple of things. Number one, that we get a lot of people
saved in the neighboring city known as San Jose. We get a lot of people saved there. Two, a lot of
people saved also in the schools in San Ignacio. And three, that we have a great out, um, what's
the word I'm looking for? Out, a what? Outcome. I guess that's a good word. We'll use that one.
A great outcome for the preaching service. Because we're gonna have a preaching service in San
Ignacio. So hopefully a lot of the converts that we've won and kept in contact with will come on
that service and that'll be on a Sunday. And so I'll be preaching there. We rented out the space
already, keeping in contact with the converts. And so Lord willing would just see a lot of
Belizeans there. Obviously there's gonna be a lot of, uh, soul owners there because they're
flying out and people from our church. But we want to see a lot of people from Belize
join that service and then we'll see what the Lord does. And so please keep that in prayer.
And then also, um, that we finished this year strong as a church. Then you see just the regular,
uh, prayer requests there. Church family members of salvations, health requests there. Of course,
continue to pray for Miss Rhea and her, um, just for her to get better after having the baby. And
if you have any additional prayer requests, you can put that at the bottom and, uh, we'll make
sure that it gets there on there for the following week. All right. And that is it for the height.
Why don't you come on up and pray over these needs.
Please bow your heads and word of prayer. Father God, first and foremost, we thank you for our
salvation, dear Lord. Uh, we thank you for this church, dear God, and the wonderful brothers and
sisters you have given us. And we, um, we absolutely appreciate that, dear Lord, for a lot of us didn't
even have a church before First Works Baptist Church opened. And we ask for your favor, um,
on our lives, dear God, as individuals and as families. Um, and even as a church, dear God,
just please keep a hedge of protection over us and over our families and over our church.
And, uh, we ask you to please bless the soul winning, dear God, that we may see many saved
for the sake of your kingdom, dear God. And, uh, we ask that you also bless the soul winning teams
and individuals on those teams, dear God, that they, um, get just plugged into a team and learn
how to, how to, um, win somebody to Christ. And even those that have not yet gone out, dear God,
we ask that you please just stir their hearts to realize that there are, um, lost out there, uh,
to go out and reach them and to, uh, win them to your kingdom, dear Lord. And we ask for also,
uh, just wisdom for the men, um, just to understand that we need more, uh, soul winning team captains
as the church grows. You just please stir the hearts of the men. Uh, we ask that you please
just bless us in our missions, dear God, and you open doors for us, such as you have for Belize.
And especially for Belize, we pray that you please go before us. And, um, even before
brother Ulysses and brother Maury head out there, just stir the hearts of the people, dear God.
Um, we pray for that country that, uh, it may be a light in that region and that, uh, we just may
have a potentially a church started over there and that would be a great, um, a great success,
dear God. Um, and we ask, uh, again for, um, a spiritual and numerical growth of the church
and, uh, every individual that starts coming to church, dear God, that they may get baptized and
just plugged in and join one of the teams. And, uh, we also ask for numerical growth that the
church just grows and eventually, uh, they get plugged into a team and they start reading their
Bibles, dear God, and serving you with their lives, dear Lord, for their sakes and the sake
of your kingdom, dear God. We ask for more laborers. We ask for new people and again,
for the, for them to get plugged into church quickly and that your spirit may be in them,
dear God, and they may be zealous and just continue in the Bible and continue, um, and
just form a, uh, a walk with you, dear Lord. And we pray for the leadership for, uh, we pray for
pastor, uh, especially in a hedge of protection around him and his family. And we pray for brother
Ulysses, our evangelist and hedge of protection around his family, dear God, and, uh, just the men
in the church. We pray for them, uh, and the ladies that they may guide the house well and
just follow their husbands. We pray for the pastors in training, dear God, that you may
please stir the hearts and the spirits of the men in church, uh, that they may desire this work,
dear God. It's a good work and good office to have. And we just ask you to please just be over
those and be with those men. Um, we pray for those in authority, dear God, whether it be in the state
or even in this country or in this world, dear God, that they may just leave us alone.
Um, we pray for just the individual requests of the church members, dear God,
uh, whether it be unsaved family members or, um, loved ones that are near death and need to be
saved, dear God. We know, uh, you can often work miracles in the life, lives of people,
and we trust that even you can these days for someone, for them to be reached, even, um,
even in their last days, dear God. And, uh, our unsaved families just please stir their hearts
and their spirits, and whether, uh, if it be through us that we just invite them to church,
if they, to church, if they don't listen to us, dear God, that they may come here and
just have one of our friends just wind up to Christ. And, uh, dear God, just, um, you know,
all of our needs, dear God, before we even pray them and before we even ask for them,
just be with us, be with First Works Baptist Church and just be with the rest of the, um,
uh, churches in the nation, dear God, and around the world. And we pray all these things in Jesus
all these things in Jesus' name. Amen.
All right, go ahead and open your song book up to song number five,
When I Survey the Wondrous Cross for our third song. Song number five, When I Survey the Wondrous
Cross. Everyone all together nice and strong. When I survey the wondrous cross
on which the friends of glory died, my richest gain I count but loss.
And for contempt on all my pride. Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast,
save in the death of Christ my God. All the vain things that charm me most,
I sacrifice them to His blood. See from His head, His hands, His feet.
Sorrow and love flow, mingle down. Did e'er such love and sorrow meet?
O'er thorns composed so rich a crown. Amen. Were the whole realm of nature mine
that were a present far too small. Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all.
Amen. At this time, the ushers will collect the offering. Tonight will be in Matthew, chapter
number 23.
Amen.
Good evening. We're in Matthew, chapter 23.
And the Bible reads, Then spake Jesus to His multitude and to His disciples, saying,
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, 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 market, and to be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi. But be not called Rabbi,
for one is your master, even Christ, and all ye are brethren, and call no man your father upon
the earth, for one is your father, which is in heaven. Neither be ye called masters, for one is
your master, even Christ. But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant, and whosoever
shall exalt himself shall be abased, and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted. But bow
unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men,
for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in.
We'll unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for ye devour widows' houses,
and for pretense make long prayers, therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation.
We'll unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte,
and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.
We'll unto you, ye blind guides, which say, whosoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing,
but whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple, he is a debtor. Ye fools and blind,
for whether is greater the gold or the temple that sanctified the gold, and whosoever shall
swear by the altar, it is nothing, but whosoever shall swear by the gift that is upon it, he is
guilty. Ye fools and blind, for whether is greater the gift or the altar that sanctified the gift,
whosoever therefore shall swear by the altar swereth by it, and by all things thereon.
And whosoever shall swear by the temple swereth by it, and by him that dwelleth therein. And he
that shall swear by heaven swereth by the throne of God, and by him that sitteth thereon. We'll
unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for we pay tithe of mint and anise and cumin,
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. Ye blind guides, which strain out
and gnat and swallow a camel, we'll unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for we may
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. We'll 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. We'll unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because ye build the
tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous, and say, If we had been in the
days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets,
wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which kill the prophets.
Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers, ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye
escape the damnation of hell? Wherefore behold, I sent unto you prophets and wise men and scribes,
and some of them ye shall kill and crucify, and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues,
and persecute them from city to city, that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the
earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zacharias, the son of Barakas, whom he
slew between the temple and the altar. Verily I say unto you, all these things shall come upon this
generation. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets and stonest them which are sent
unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathered
through chickens under her wings, and ye would not. Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.
For I say unto you, you shall not see me henceforth, you shall say, lest it is he that cometh in the
name of the Lord. That's right. Thank you, Heavenly Father, for every precious word in this Bible, dear
Lord. We thank you for preserving it for us. We thank you for our church, dear Lord. We thank you
for our pastor. Please bless him as he preaches your word unto us tonight. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Okay, amen. We're in Matthew chapter 23, and it's kind of a mini-series here about parables against
the Jews. The difference being is that in chapter 23, it's not a parable. It's an entire sermon
that Jesus preached against the Jews. Up until this point, we've been seeing a lot of parables
and analogies that he's been giving and stories that he's been telling, but they're obviously
condemning the Jews as a whole, but then he goes straight for the religious leaders of the day who
are essentially leading Israel astray, and it's referring to the Pharisees, the scribes, other
portions, calls them the lawyers, and so he goes straight after them, and this is where we see eight
entire woes that he gives unto the Pharisees. A woe is basically judgment upon them because of
a particular sin that they've committed or that they're doing, and so we're going to look at that
this evening. Now, this sermon here is not an isolated sermon. We see it's pretty lengthy here
in chapter 23, but then he actually preaches it again, okay, in Luke chapter 11. Now, the reason
I bring that up is because sometimes people are like, oh, you're preaching that sermon again?
You're preaching that topic again? But Jesus repeated sermons all the time, and in fact,
here in Matthew 23 and Luke 11, they're almost like identical things that he's saying, and
they're two different instances, okay, because here in Matthew chapter 23, he's speaking to
multitudes and to his disciples. In Luke chapter 11, a Pharisee actually invites him to eat at his
house. Jesus goes to his house to go eat at the Pharisee's house, and then he's going to start
eating, and the Pharisee says basically within himself like, oh, man, this guy's going to eat
with unwashing hands. He starts criticizing the Lord in his heart, and then that's like the straw
that broke the camel's back, because then right after that, Jesus just starts rebuking the Pharisee
in his own house, just kind of like ripping him to shreds and basically saying a lot of what we see
here in Matthew 23, and then the lawyers are like, you know, they're there as well in that house,
and they say something to the effect of, you know, oh, you're approaching us as well, and then he
just turns his attention to the lawyers and just starts rebuking the lawyers and going after them,
and so this is obviously something that was near and dear to the heart of the Lord,
because the wording is pretty much identical in Matthew 23 as it is in Luke chapter 11, and so
this is one of my justifications for preaching the same sermons over the years is that the Lord did
it as well, and sometimes people need reminders, amen? So here we see a lengthy sermon that he
preaches against the scribes and Pharisees. Of course, all those parables kind of lead up to
this point here. Look at verse number one. It says, then spake Jesus to the multitude and to
his disciples, saying the scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat. Now, what is this referring to?
Seat is referring to authority, so what he's implying here is that the Pharisees
and the scribes who are the religious leaders, they're essentially coming in the authority of
Moses, and to a certain extent, obviously that's true because of the fact that a lot of what we see
the Pharisees preaching is basically for people to adhere to the law of Moses, and obviously they
take it to an ungodly extent, as we see in the book of Acts, that people, if people are not
circumcised according to the law of Moses, they cannot be saved, right? So he says they're coming
in Moses' seat. They're coming with the authority of Moses. They're telling people to obey Moses,
but he says in verse number three, all therefore whatsoever they bid you observe,
that observe and do. Whatever they're preaching to you, if it's according to the law,
if it's what Moses said, do it, right? Even if they're self-righteous, pompous, arrogant,
false prophets, if they're actually saying something correct, at the end of the day,
you're obeying the law of Moses, you're not obeying the Pharisee personally, right?
He says, all therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do,
but do not ye after their works, for they say and do not. What is it saying? It's saying that
the Pharisees are major hypocrites, because whatever they preach to other people to do,
they're actually guilty of disobeying those same commands, okay? And why is that? Well,
it's because of the fact that they don't actually believe in Moses. And in fact, Jesus said,
if you would have believed me, you would have believed Moses, or if you would have believed
Moses, you would have believed me, he wrote of me. So nothing that Jesus is saying contradicts
what Moses said, and nothing that Moses said is contradicting what Jesus said. They are in
harmony one with another, Moses was a saved man who was inspired by God to pen the scriptures,
and so at the end of the day, you know, the Pharisees don't really agree with Moses,
because they don't agree with Jesus. So he says, you know, do what they tell you to do,
because they're obviously preaching from the Old Testament, but just don't follow after their
example, because their example is to say and they don't do, right? They're being hypocrites,
verse four says, they bind heavy burdens, and grievous to be born, and lay them on men's
shoulders, but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers. This is referring to
the fact that they, the Pharisees have a tendency to go outside of the parameters of God's guidelines
and word, and they add other things to the laws of God, right? They bind these really heavy burdens,
they add extra things to keeping the Sabbath, and all these extra biblical rules that are not
instituted by God, and here's the thing is that they tell people, you have to do this,
and they kind of teach it for a doctrine, they teach these commandments of man as though they
are doctrines, but here's the thing, they don't even keep those commandments. So even the
commandments that they're imposing upon the people to keep, that are outside of the guidelines of
God's word, they themselves are not even adhering to it, they're violated themselves. What does that
tell us? They don't really believe it, okay? They're just kind of binding heavy burdens,
they're laying them on men's shoulders, it says they themselves will not move them with one of
their fingers, and so what we see with the Pharisees is that they're very much hypocritical.
Now a lot of times, especially today, people will often call churches like ours, pastors who are of
like faith, Christians who are of like faith, they'll call us judgmental, or excuse me, they'll
call us Pharisees because we're judgmental, right? And they'll say, oh you're judging,
you're being a little Pharisee, right? How many of you have heard something like that? How many of
you have been called that? Like you're just being a Pharisee, you're just judgmental, you know?
They never call us scribes though, what's up with that? You know what I mean? They never say you're
a lawyer, they always say like, you're a Pharisee. Now what's the irony in that? The irony is this
is that Jesus is actually the one judging the Pharisees, right? So they're not necessarily
guilty of judging, they're guilty of hypocrisy, right? Because the Bible tells us that a righteous
man should be judging. He that is spiritual, the Bible says, judgeth all things. So Christianity
is not a religion absent of judgment, in fact, judgment is a virtue that Christians need to
learn. Why? Because of the fact that if a Christian rightly judges based upon God's word, they know
what is right and what's wrong, what is pleasing unto the Lord and what is not, and they can
discern between good and evil. In order to discern, another way of saying discerning,
they're able to judge them, right? And so judging is very much a part of the Christian life,
it's not Pharisaical. A Pharisee is someone who is a hypocrite, they judge others to do specific
things, yet they themselves are guilty of not accomplishing those specific tasks or following
through with those commandments, okay? He says in verse number five, why do they do this? But
all their works they do for to be seen of men. They make broader phylacteries and enlarge the
borders of their garments. This is referring to the fact that they're hyper spiritual. So the
first thing that we see is that they are hypocrites, okay? They don't necessarily
believe Moses, they're not following Moses, they don't even keep the commandments that they're
imposing upon Israel, they're hypocrites. But secondly, we see is that they're hyper spiritual.
Now, how do we know that? Well, because of the fact that whatever works they do accomplish,
they just make sure they do it in front of people, because they want people to see them
and essentially esteem them as being someone who is spiritual, someone who is righteous.
How do they do this? It says there, they make broader phylacteries and enlarge the borders
of their garments. Now, enlarging the borders of the garments is referring to wearing long robes.
And in fact, in Luke chapter 11, which is a parallel passage to this,
states that they love wearing long robes. So what is the uniform of a false prophet? A long robe,
okay? You kind of wonder why the priests of the Catholic Church don't really think about things
like this, or the deacons or the bishops. I mean, the Catholic Church is filled with dudes in
dresses. I mean, the Pope himself wears a dress. It's not a dress. Okay, he enlarges the borders
of his garments. Now, why do they do that? Because they want to seem as though there's someone really
important, someone really spiritual and holy. But at the end of the day, you know, Jesus wasn't
walking around enlarging the borders of his garments. He didn't walk around with long,
necessary robes or dresses as the Catholic Church likes to, you know, paint a picture of him of.
He wore regular garments. Here, it says that they make broad their phylacteries. And they,
of course, they wear those long robes. Now, phylacteries is referring to the fact that,
you know, you can see this today where Jews, they will have essentially a box on their forehead,
or on their arm that has all of like these Old Testament scriptures. Have you guys ever seen
them? They kind of strap them on their arm. And they use Deuteronomy chapter six as a justification
for that. Because Deuteronomy six talks about how they're supposed to be as front lids between
their eyes, supposed to be in their hearts, right? But not literally, right? It's referring to
spiritually, they're supposed to memorize the Word of God and read the Word of God. And it's supposed
to be in their hearts, not literally on their forehead. And it's so funny when you see Jews
with this on their foreheads, because it's like the Bible is so close to them, even before their
eyes, and they're still blind, they can't see it. It's like in the blind spot. Right? Like the
Bible's like right there. And yet they can't even see it. Why? Because according to the Bible,
the Jews are blind, like just every other unsafe person, probably even more so than every other
unsafe person. Because unto them were committed to the oracles of God, and they rejected it, etc.
So they like to do that because they want to essentially make it seem as though they're very
spiritual, and they're godly, and they're righteous. But this is all a show. It is them
being hyper spiritual. They're essentially compensating because they're actually really
wicked inside. And I remember I don't remember what trip to Belize it was. But I remember going
on a trip to Belize with some of the men, and there were Jews riding or flying on this plane,
they're about to get on this plane. And they kind of put on their phylacteries, and they're
gesticulating and doing the whole, you know, Shabbat, shebang or whatever they're doing.
Why are they doing that? Because they want everyone to think that they are super spiritual,
that they're really righteous, that they're God's chosen people, whereas Jesus Christ is condemning
them for that, because they're doing it to be seen of men. Okay. So they're hypocrites. They're
hyper spiritual. Let me just say this, obviously, false prophets today in 2023 can be guilty of
this. But you know, even saved Christians can be guilty of some of these things as well,
where they exert these qualities of being a hypocrite, they exert these qualities of being
hyper spiritual, they kind of put themselves forth as being something that they're not.
And they either have spiritual talk, or spiritual actions, they often kind of go overboard on
certain things, because they want the people around them to think that they're some holy one,
they're a righteous person. But you know, often the people who are guilty of that are babes in
Christ. Okay. And I think all of us to a certain extent might have experienced something like that
personally, where maybe we were a little hyper spiritual, you know, after a while, you just got
to grow up, okay, grow up, you mature, you humble yourself, you realize that, you know, that stuff
is nonsensical, it's childish to do. But you know, the Pharisees didn't grow out of that, because
they're just wicked people. And there is no living spirit in them. Therefore, they need to keep up a
facade as though they are spiritual, in order to gain the acclamations and the admirations of the
Israelites of that day, so they can continue to follow them. And so that's what verse number five
is talking about them, they do their works to be seen of men. Now, obviously, the Bible tells us,
let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father,
which is in heaven. That doesn't mean that we're supposed to do good works in order to be seen of
men. It's saying that our intention should be that our works would glorify God, that it would
cause people to glorify God, not glorify us. Right? Now, this is important because of the fact that,
you know, you might do a good work in the Lord, and you might succeed and do something great for
God. You know, if someone praises you for that, here's two things that you should do. Number one,
say thank you. Number two, reflect the praise. One of the best ways, best methods to stay humble
when you're doing great things for God and someone praises you for it, is you show gratitude,
but you also exert humility. In other words, let me give you an example. You know,
someone compliments you and says, man, you're doing a great job, you're winning a lot of souls,
say thank you. And you say, you know what, I have my team later to thank for that. They taught me
a lot of great things, and they taught me how to be a soul winner. I'm so thankful for brother
so and how to say these particular illustrations and use these particular verses. If it wasn't for
them, I wouldn't be here. And so, you know, that's a good way to essentially stay humble so you don't
become prideful because sometimes a temptation for younger Christians when they're doing great
things for God is to let it go to their head. Right? They become puffed up and arrogant. Then
they think that they're better than everyone else. And then, you know, then people stop liking them
and start finding them annoying. Okay? Because hyper spiritual people are very annoying
individuals. And so, you know, we need to make sure that we avoid the temptation to become
prideful and arrogant. The way we do that is we show gratitude and we reflect the praise
to God and to others. Right? You know, oh, you know, it's my mom and my dad that show me how
to soul winner. My mom and my dad or brother so and so, brother Maury, he taught me this illustration.
Brother Marcos, you know, he took me out for this amount of time. He taught me these verses.
And so, you know, that's why I succeeded in this area is because I've had people invest in my life.
I mean, you don't have to go through that whole spiel. I'm just saying, I'm just kind of giving
you some ideas here of how to reflect praise. And by the way, that's for anything. Right?
You know, if someone praises you in a certain area, don't say I know. Okay?
Hey, you're pretty good at that. I know.
I'm surprised you didn't know that. I'm surprised you didn't see that sooner or something. You know,
be humble, reflect the praise and show gratitude. And so and, you know, often, you know, a phrase
that I'll say sometimes just like praise God, you know, give give the praise to God, glorify God.
And so whereas the Pharisees here, they don't care about glorifying God. They're not humble.
They don't want to reflect the praise to anybody. They want to be seen of men. They want people to
esteem them. They want people to esteem them as being some some some great person. Look at verse
six. It says, and they love the uppermost rooms at feasts and the chief seats in the synagogues
and greetings in the markets and to be called the men Rabbi, Rabbi. So we see that they're hypocrites.
We see that they're hyper spiritual. And then number three is that they love the preeminence.
Okay. The high seats, they love to be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi, the uppermost rooms,
the chief seats. This literally does remind me of the Catholic Church,
because it's kind of how they treat the pope and the deacons and the bishops.
They kind of see them as these really important people who deserve these higher up seats or
whatever. And all this recognition, whereas in order to be great in the eyes of God,
you have to humble yourself, right? And then the Lord shall lift you up. Humble yourself in the
sight of the Lord and the Lord shall lift you up. He's going to magnify you before the people.
These men are magnifying themselves and they love to be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi.
He says in verse number eight, be not ye called a rabbi, for one is your master, even Christ,
and all ye are brethren, the Bible says. So let's read on here. Verse number nine,
and call no man father upon the earth, for one is your father, which is in heaven. Now,
what is the context here? The context is obviously referring to religious leadership.
Because, you know, I've said this to Catholics, because obviously this just really applies to
Catholics here. You know, does that mean your sons can't call you the father or something?
It's like the stupidest thing ever. Because in other portions of the Bible, we see
sons and daughters addressing their parents as father, mother. This is obviously in a
religious context that a religious leader should never have the title of father,
especially when he dresses like mama, right? He's not married. He, you know,
is probably a child molester, as most priests are. But we have a clear command here that says,
you should not call any man, and in its context, person of religious authority, father.
And again, the Catholic Church is very much guilty of this, where you have the, you know,
the priest, and they'll call them father, and they reserve this religious title to the priesthood of
the Catholic Church, but they're in direct violation of what Jesus Christ is saying here.
You know, and you say, well, then we should throw all titles in the Bible that are appropriate and
that are sanctioned by God for religious leaders, like pastor. And obviously bishop is a sanctioned
title as well, elder. And, you know, for the most part, there's nothing wrong with calling your
pastor bishop or elder. Unfortunately, though, false religions have hijacked those terms,
right? So now they carry with it a negative connotation, not to say that we can't take it
back, but, you know, I just don't have that preference to be referred to as bishop, I don't
know. Or because, you know, the Catholics use that. And then also, I don't want to be called elder,
because the Mormons have hijacked that as well, even though there's nothing about them that's
elder, elderly, they're twice dead, they're false prophets. It's often these two white dudes on
bikes with short sleeves, and one of them is called elder. It's just like, you know,
I don't have a problem with the title because it's biblical. But, you know, we call ourselves
pastors of those of us who are qualified to be pastors, because it obviously makes us distinct
in the day and age in which we live. There might be a church out there, though, that's a fundamental
Baptist church where the pastor is referred to as a bishop. And you know what, I would have no issue
with that because it is a biblical term. Elder is a biblical term. And in fact, even when we talk
about the office of a bishop, the office of a pastor, we will refer to pastors as being elders.
And it's a great title to use to describe a pastor because of the fact that it's not necessarily
referring to his age, although that is important, it's referring to the fact that he's spiritually
mature, okay? He's elderly, spiritually speaking, he can lead a congregation, he's married, he has
kids, he has spiritually perfected himself where he's complete enough that he can lead a church.
That's what elder actually means, okay? But not father. Now, obviously, there's instances in the
New Testament where even the Apostle Paul, for example, talks about how he's been a father
unto the believers and unto the converts. This doesn't mean that he wants them to call him
father. The reason he even states that is because of the fact that he essentially begot them
through the gospel. So if he's begetting people through the gospel, he's essentially saying,
I've fathered you, I begat you, and therefore, I'm instructing you spiritually, I'm your father.
But there's no example in the Bible in the New Testament where anybody called the Apostle Paul
father. So you say, why bring that up? Because I've had Catholics argue that as well. Because
they don't really know the Bible, they just Google what to answer fundamental Baptists who know the
Bible. So that comes up. Though you have many instructors in Christ, yet you have not many
fathers, the Bible says. That's what the Apostle Paul is saying. But it's interesting that they
want to pull up that verse, but we have plenty of letters that he wrote thereafter, plenty of
chapters thereafter, and not a single time does anybody refer to the Apostle Paul as father,
they actually call him brother Paul. Okay, evangelists, so on and so forth. And so
no spiritual religious authority should ever be addressed to as father. Why? Because one is your
father, even God the father, of course, which is in heaven. Verse number 10 says, neither be he
called masters, for one is your master, even Christ. And again, this is in this religious
context once again, because in the New Testament, you have the term master being used, and it's
synonymous with what? A boss. It gives instructions in the book of Ephesians and Colossians regarding
a servant and his relationship with his master, referring to his boss. Okay, now this is not to
say that you can just, I mean, if you want, I guess you could call your boss master, but
you don't necessarily have to. And by the way, Lord means boss as well.
And so there's nothing wrong with that in the context of just work, but in the context of
spiritual things, it's never right to call anybody Lord, call anybody master, call anybody father,
because these titles are designated for divinity, okay, for God himself. He says in verse number
11, but he that is greatest among you shall be your servant. So obviously he's giving these
examples here of what the Pharisees are doing because of the fact that they want to be exalted.
They want to have a high position in this religious society here, but God obviously
understands that people want to be exalted, right? They want honor. Every human being wants honor to
a certain extent. It's part of how he made us. The problem is, is that the Pharisees are going
about it the wrong way. The way you are exalted in the eyes of God is by being a servant.
Whereas in the eyes of the world, the way you become exalted is by stepping over people,
doing things unjustly, putting other people down, being a false prophet, wearing dresses,
saying that you're called master because you got your master's degree,
your master in divinity or something, which by the way, fundamental Baptists are also falling
into this trap as well. It literally says there not to be called master, and yet you have
fundamental Baptists that go to Bible colleges with the intention to get a master's in theology,
right? A master's degree. So you can be a master of Israel and not know anything.
I mean, isn't that what Nicodemus said? He had a master. He was a master of Israel. He said,
aren't thou a master of Israel and knowest not these things? Well, nothing's changed over the
last 2,000 years because you'll meet people who have a master's degree in theology and they still
don't know how to get saved. There are biblical terms, biblical titles that people could get
and men can get, obviously, that have honor, but at the end of the day, at its most fundamental
level is that you have to be a servant. So the way you're exalted in the eyes of God is by being
humble, by being a servant, and God will essentially magnify you in the eyes of others by doing so,
okay? So there's nothing wrong with wanting honor. There's nothing wrong with wanting to be exalted
or wanting God to bless you or even wanting others to recognize the deeds and the works that you've
done. Obviously, as Christians, what should constrain us is the love of God. So our number
one motive to serve God is not so we can get a pat on the back from others. Our number one reason
to serve God is we want to honor the Lord is because we love the Lord, right? The love of
Christ constrains us. We love the Lord with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, but obviously,
as human beings, it's nice to get a pat on the back every once in a while. Why? Because that
encourages us, right? When you have someone come to you and say, hey, you're doing a great job.
I'm really encouraged by your service. I'm really encouraged by your growth. God's using you in a
big way. That is encouraging. It is a blessing to hear those things. And so don't go the opposite
extreme and just never praise anybody. You know what I mean? If you see someone doing something
good and working hard, praise them for it, okay? We're not saying praise them as though you would
praise the Lord. We're talking about compliment them, encourage them. You're doing a really good
job with that. Man, God's using you in a big way. God's hand is on you. I just want to let you know
that I'm really proud of you. I'm really grateful that God's using you. I mean, that encourages
people because obviously, even though they're doing it for the Lord, it kind of gives them
a little push in the right direction to know I'm doing the right things because God's people are
obviously recognizing that God is using me and I'm thankful for that. And so, you know, it's
important to do that. But be a servant. Be humble. He says in verse 12, and whosoever shall exalt
himself shall be abased and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted. And so if you are the
type of person who wants to be exalted, but you're exalting yourself by boasting of your great works,
by just kind of putting it out there and just kind of fishing for compliments,
you're going to be abased. What does that mean? Someone's going to humble you
and tell you you suck and make you feel like you suck because you need to be humbled
and it's not going to feel very good. Whereas if you're a servant, you serve others, you put
others before yourself, you're a servant unto the Lord, you're serving others and you're humble
about it. You know, the supernatural result of that is that God magnifies you before the people
and you receive promotion spiritually, but you also even receive promotions physically,
whether in church or even at your job. Okay, so that's the formula there. Be a servant.
Be humble. Don't fish for compliments. Don't wear dresses, spiritually speaking, where you're just
trying to make yourself look like a godly person. Be a godly person.
Verse 13 says, but woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites,
for you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men, for ye neither go in yourselves,
neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in. So what does this tell us about the Pharisees?
So this is the first woe. The first thing we learn is that they're not saved.
Now there might be some Pharisees that were saved and for sure there are Pharisees that got saved
during the ministry of Jesus Christ, but in general they weren't saved. How do we know that?
Because it says there that they are not going into the kingdom of heaven. Now that's bad. Why?
Because they're the religious leaders and one person you expect to be saved is the leader.
Okay, and if the leader is not saved, then he shouldn't be a pastor. He shouldn't be, you know,
the religious leader. He should step down and become a student. So why do you say that? You
know, there's people out there who form a Pentecostal sometimes because most Pentecostals
are not saved. I know there's a lot. There might be some out there that are. Okay, I'm not trying
to paint them with a broad brush, but it's just fact. Okay, you might run into it. I like knowing
one Pentecostal that says he believes in one saved always saved and it's by faith in Christ
alone, but I don't know. They often add a lot of, you know, escape clauses. Okay, sometimes they
just pay lip service to the right doctrines and you're like, what if you commit suicide? Like,
oh, you lost your salvation. It's you walked away from God, you know. God's not going to walk away
from you. You gave the gift back and all this stupid rhetoric that they always spew out. But
let's say, you know, there's this Pentecostal pastor. Let me just let you know where I stand
on this. Let's say there's this Pentecostal pastor who is flapping his gums one week,
speaking in tongues. He's preaching Pentecostal doctrine. And then he comes to the same knowledge
of Jesus Christ. He understands by faith alone, one saved always saved, he gets saved.
First of all, praise God. That's good. But here's what that person should do. Step down.
Why? Because they're a day old. Just got saved and the natural man received not the things of
the Spirit of God. You're like, what if they've been pastoring for like 10 years or something?
You just expect for them to step down? Yes, because the Bible says that they shouldn't be
a novice. And anybody who's newly saved is a novice. Now, you know, it's out there.
And the reality is this is that I'm sure it's hard for them to want to step down
because they've just used to pastoring the church or whatever it may be,
even if they become a fundamental Baptist church.
But it's just not right, my friends. It doesn't meet the qualifications of a pastor.
And I know we live in a day and age of the Internet, where information can be consumed
in large quantities, vary in a very short period of time. You can listen to sermons on end every
single day. You basically got your sermon protein shake where you could consume 30 grams of
godliness and 30 grams and 40 grams and 50, 60 grams of just you just down it. Right. I mean,
that's the that's that's the luxury of protein shakes, in my opinion, is just get it down really
quick. Get that. What's that called? The bone broth protein. Get yourself a bone broth protein.
You get a lot of protein in really fast. You know, we live in that day and age.
But you know what? The pastor who just newly gets saved and then things that they can continue to
pasture. I want to ask that person, well, how can you continue to pasture if you just got saved?
Why, I believe some right things before, but you weren't saved.
You know, like Nicodemus, if he got saved. I know there's a big debate about that or whatever.
You know, if he got saved, you know, he should no longer be a religious leader.
Because the most basics of doctrine, the most basic doctrine fundamentally is salvation.
And so, you know, it's important that we establish that. And I know a lot of people out there on
internet in the land don't agree with me, but I don't care because I'm an independent fundamental
Baptist. And I paid my dues as a pastor. And one of the reasons I'm saying this is because
I had to pay those dues to become a pastor. And so, you know, the same should be said for others
as well. That they go through the ringer to become a pastor and not be a novice. And just all of a
sudden, oh yeah, I'm just King James only now. Oh yeah, I just got saved. Now I believe everything
correctly. Well, that's great. Amen. But you shouldn't be a pastor though. And you know,
I'm not against those people. I don't think they're evil people or wicked people.
You know, I'm not necessarily close friends with them, you know, and I won't treat them any less
or anything like that, but I do think it's wrong, you know, because it's just not right. And, you
know, we live in a day and age where a person could just remain a pastor and they're going to
get people into their church because people just need a church to go to. So, you know,
and here's the thing, people will say, oh, I can't believe, you know, but he just got saved,
such a good thing. Yeah, it's a great thing. I rejoice anytime someone gets saved,
even if it's a pastor. Okay. But here's the thing is that you can't be a pastor at least for
another, I don't know, seven years, maybe 10 years. In my opinion, you should step down and
give that job to someone else because basically you taught a congregation of people, you're
teaching the Bible for 10 years, but you didn't even understand the most basics of doctrine,
which is salvation. Let me get off that. So anyways, the Pharisees here,
they're not saved, but here's what makes them even worse. It says towards the latter in verse 13,
neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in. So aside from the fact that they're not saved,
they're trying to keep people from getting saved.
Now, herein lies the greatest and most nefarious quality of a false prophet
is not necessarily that they're not saved, it's when they try to keep others from getting saved.
Because obviously there's people out there that are just not saved.
And they might even think that they believe right and they believe the Bible,
but herein lies the problem is when they try to stop people from getting saved
and they know fully what the Bible says about salvation because it was preached to them
and they just want to hinder people from getting saved.
Now, this is something that the Pharisees were notorious for because even throughout the book
of Acts and later on after the ascension of Christ, the greatest enemy of the gospel of
the New Testament were the Pharisees, the Jews. They're the ones following the apostle Paul
and the disciples and all different regions and Greece and Thessalonica trying to stop them
from preaching the gospel. You know, the Bible says in 1 Thessalonians, I think it's chapter 2,
forbidding us to preach unto the Gentiles that they might be saved. So they would go and follow
the apostle Paul and the apostle Paul is just trying to get people saved and they're just
following them and they're just trying to persecute them and raise up an evil report
against them, raising up the base resort to create these railing accusations against the apostles of
Christ just to hinder them from getting saved. That's wicked. It's one thing to just not be
saved and think that you're right. It's another thing to actually go out of your way to try to
stop people from getting saved. Now this could be, we can give a lot of examples of how that
looks and I'm sure you've experienced this in your personal life when you've gone out sowing,
you know, a manager or something, I'm not saying they're false prophets, but that manager who's
trying to stop you from preaching the gospel is a wicked piece of crap. When he's just following
you around and trying to keep, you know, trying to stop you from knocking doors, they're trying
to hinder the gospel, that's wicked. But another example would just be Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses,
because they're going door to door preaching the false gospel, which basically means they're trying
to hinder people from going into the kingdom of God. And in fact, the parallel passage in
Luke chapter 11, when he's ripping the lawyers, he says you take away the key of knowledge
and, you know, he tells them you take away the key of knowledge, you're not going in yourself,
and then he says in those that were going in, ye hindered. So one is they try to stop people
from getting saved and then if people do get saved, then they just try to hinder those people
from just like growing in the Lord or going out and getting other people saved. I mean,
this is extremely wicked. It's they're the workers of iniquity. These people do exist.
They existed in the Lord's day, in the early days of the apostles, when they're starting the
churches there, and they exist today. Okay. And so I have no quarrels with rebuking a false prophet
when they come to my door, or if I just so happen to cross paths with them while I'm sowing, sowing,
you know, rip their faces off. Well, that's not very Christ-like. What do you mean? This is an
entire sermon. Matthew 23 is like, what would Jesus do? Matthew 23 is what Jesus would do.
Like, woe unto you Jehovah's Witnesses, ye false apostles. Woe unto you Mormons, you gay-looking
dudes. For you shut up the kingdom of heaven. You know, I'm not saying get physical with them,
even though I know there's a temptation to. Pastor Anderson and I, a couple years ago,
we devised a plan. We never carried through with it. We're just kind of fantasizing, you know.
And it was a plan that, you know, because, you know, Jehovah's Witnesses for a while
started getting lazy, and they still kind of did this, and they'll have like their little bookshelf,
right? And I said, you know what we should do is we should walk by one of those bookshelves
and act like we're just gonna like reach in to grab one and just trip and just fall over it,
right? And he's like, we should have oil on our hands. I'm like, oh, that's a good idea,
you know, just fall over. I'm like, oh, I'm sorry, and just grab all the material. Like,
here you go, and just motor oil all over their paraphernalia, you know what I mean?
And we literally devised this plan for like an hour. Like, what if we were just playing
catch football, and you catch it, and I just fall on the bookshelf and just destroy all
the material. We never fall through with it, but you know, a man can dream, you know?
But what I am saying is that, you know, obviously it takes a specific level of wickedness to
keep others from getting saved and then hinder people who are trying to get other people saved
from preaching the gospel, etc. He says in verse 14,
Won't you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you devour widows' houses and for a pretense make
long prayer. Therefore, ye shall receive the greater damnation. Now, a couple things we
could say about this. Number one is that they are notorious for taking advantage of the innocent.
When it says devour widows' houses, it's referring to the fact that there are wolves in sheep's
clothing. That's why it says devour, right? And when it's referring to the widows' houses,
based upon the characteristics of the Pharisees in the Bible, this has some sort of financial gain
behind it, okay? They are either extorting widows or, you know, they're getting unjust gain from
widows in some form or fashion, but probably it's referring to finances because they were
covetous people. They loved money, but then it says that for a pretense make long prayer.
Now, this goes along with the hyper spirituality. It says, what does pretense mean? Well, in Luke
chapter 20, I believe it is, when it talks about this, it states it in this way. It says,
and for a show make long prayers. This is referring, and by the way, let me just clarify
something here. Long prayer is not because they had a lot on their prayer list. It's not that
they had a lot of needs, okay? Long prayer means, based upon Matthew chapter 6, that they're using
vain repetition because they want people to think that they're just like, wow, these people are so
godly, so righteous, they're just praying so much, and they just look so godly, you know?
For a pretense make long prayer, they're using vain repetition, which, by the way, again,
Catholics, right, 50 Hail Marys, and 50 Our Fathers, and all these things,
there's just a vain repetition because they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking,
but it's all for a show. He says, therefore, ye shall receive the greater damnation.
Now, that's a very powerful statement right there because damnation is referring to hell,
and according to this verse, because these people are hyper-spiritual,
they're taking advantage of the innocent, they are godless people who are not saved and are
trying to keep people from getting saved, their hell is actually a lot hotter, so according to
the Bible, there is different levels of hell. Now, obviously, it doesn't matter because no matter
what part of hell you're in, you're just going to burn, but if I were to just guess,
I would say the closer you are to the core, the hotter it gets, so I'm assuming that Judas Iscariot
is probably like at the lowest hell, and then the Antichrist shall join him there one day as well,
and possibly, like, you know, a couple apartments up is where these Pharisees are going to go in
every false prophet, because according to the Bible, there's people who have the greater sin,
the greater damnation, a person who dies because they just don't get saved, you know, they don't
believe in the Lord, and they're not necessarily haters of God, they just didn't get saved,
they're going to go to hell, but you know what? Their hell is not going to be as hot as the false
prophet who led people astray, the Joel Osteen's of this world, the John MacArthur's of this world,
who, by the way, he might be taking a trip there from what it sounds like very soon,
and thank God for that, because that man has damned thousands and thousands and thousands
of people to hell by his false gospel. This guy literally has, like, survived multiple
fundamental Baptists who have preached against him. Like, I'm preaching against them,
but before me, Jack Howells, who's been in heaven for a while, I mean, he was live long enough that
even Jack Howells was preaching against him, is what I'm saying. He's a very old false prophet,
but recently he's gotten really sick, and he has a hard time preaching, and they have people
filling in for him, and so I think what's going on there is that he's treasuring up wrath against
the day of wrath, but you know what? A person like that will receive the greater damnation,
because he has made it his full-time job to preach a false gospel. It's not like he's just deceived.
He's made it. He gets paid. Listen to me. He gets paid to damn people to hell.
How wicked is that? He teaches others how to damn people to hell, because he has a Bible college,
the what's it called, master's college, where he teaches how to damn others to hell. He writes
books on how to damn people to hell. He has podcasts on how to damn people to hell.
He has a YouTube channel. I mean, any facet you can think of, he has all types of avenues where
with he teaches and damps people to hell. That person is going to receive the greater damnation,
for sure. I'm just showing you here that there's obviously a great punishment. There's a great
punishment for anybody who goes to hell, but there's just even a greater punishment for a
false prophet. It says in verse 15, won't you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you can
pass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, you make him twofold more a child of
hell than yourselves. So again, it goes along with the fact that they try to keep people from getting
saved. How do they do that? I mean, they're willing to go to different regions, come pass
land and sea, just to damn one person to hell. Now, how do we know that that's true? Well, because
aside from the fact that Jesus said it's true, when the apostle Paul went on his first missionary
trip to Cyprus, there was a child of the devil there. That's what the Bible refers to him as.
And this man was trying to keep the apostle Paul. He was a Jew, a sorcerer. He was trying
to keep the apostle Paul from winning people to the Lord. And then, of course, the apostle Paul
ends up blinding him. And it's a great story, but it just kind of shows us that like, yeah,
they are willing to do that. And today, especially, I mean, aren't there Amish missionaries now?
I mean, the Mormons, their entire lives are dedicated to saving up for their first missions
trip. Literally, from the time that they're little, they're literally saving up for the
moment that they can go into the mission field and just damn people to hell. They literally
learn languages perfectly so they can damn people to hell in different languages. I mean,
my sister-in-law who came from Cambodia, you know, I think I'm pretty sure it was her who told us
about these Mormon missionaries in Cambodia who speak fluent Khmer. They can preach in Khmer
and damn people in Khmer. I mean, that is super wicked.
And it says there that once they can make those converts, they make them twofold more a child
of hell than themselves, meaning that they make them reprobates. Okay, look at verse 16.
This might be a two-part series. Woe unto you, ye blind guides, which say, Whosoever shall swear
by the temple, it is nothing. But whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple, he is a debtor.
Ye fools and blind, for whether is greater the gold or the temple to sanctify at the gold.
And whosoever shall swear by the altar, it is nothing. But whosoever
sweareth by the gift that is upon it, he is guilty. Now, this reminds me of something.
I'm going to give you an illustration of what this reminds me of. Because at the end of the day,
they don't care about the temple. They don't care about the altar. They care about the penalty that
someone gets if they swear by the altar and by the temple. Because what they really care about
is the money. So they have this just like unwritten rule that if someone swears by the
temple, it's like, oh, you got to pay something. You swear by the altar, oh, that's where the gift
is. Oh, you're going to have to give something for that. Now, this is what this reminds me of.
It reminds me of parking tickets, street sweepers, parking tickets. So what does it remind you of
that? Do you really think the city... Listen to me. Just listen to me for a minute. Do you really
think that they believe they're making society better by you not parking there? Do you really
think they're penalizing you because they're just like, oh, we're helping society become better by
not parking there? The street sweeper doesn't even do a good job when it cleans the street.
It's just two lines of wet spots.
I'm serious. I mean, can I get a witness?
It's a fact. The street server is just a large...
What's that hockey machine called? Zamboni, right? It's just a really large Zamboni
that makes it look like they're cleaning the street, but they're not.
And you say, well, then why do they have it? Because literally the city gets paid. The city
makes thousands, and I'm just throwing numbers out there, but I'm sure it's like hundreds of
thousands of dollars every year by you just destroying our city by parking on street sweeper
day because it doesn't improve anything. It's not because they really want to clean the street,
because if they did, I mean, they would do a better job. It's not because they're just
really concerned about the safety of whatever. It's because it brings in a lot of revenue
because people just forget about street sweeper day or they forget about, or they're just
negligent. They come home late at night, there's no parking, and they're like, I'm going to park
on this red real quick, and I'm going to see if I can get there in time before it comes or
something. And the city's banking that you forget. Because look folks, I mean, the tickets are like
70, $80. And you know what? The people who get the tickets are the ones who are always
getting the tickets. So obviously it doesn't work. It's not like impeding them from not doing it.
The city's banking on it. I'm just sharing my frustration. Not that I just recently got,
I didn't get a ticket recently or anything like that. But back in the day, I used to get a lot of
those. Because I used to live in downtown Long Beach, and there's just like no parking there.
And everywhere I used to close down the church, we were cleaning up, closing down, 11 o'clock, and we'd
get home, and just like no parking spot. So you're just driving around for like 40 minutes looking
for a parking spot. And finally, it was just like this corner. But you know, there's red there though,
you know what I mean? And it's just like, all right, this is the only place I can park. I would park it
there. And lo and behold, I get a ticket, you know. But you know, this is basically what the Pharisees
do. They don't care about the temple or the altar. They care about the money they get when you violate
that rule. So this shows us that where their heart is, their heart is not in making Israel better or
making them obedient to God's commands because they love the Lord. They are interested in extorting
people. Filthy lucre's sake. He says, verse 20, Whoso therefore shall swear by the altar,
swearth by it, and by all things thereon. Whoso shall swear by the temple, swearth by it, and by
him that dwelleth therein. And he that shall swear by heaven, swearth by the throne of God,
and by him that sitteth thereon. Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for ye pay
tithe of mint and anise and cumin, but have omitted the weight of your matters of the law,
judgment, mercy, faith. Listen to this. These ought ye to have done and not to leave the others
undone. So they're very, very much money oriented because they're obviously going to tithe.
But you know, they're not exercising judgment, mercy, and they're definitely not exercising
faith because they don't have faith. But notice that Jesus doesn't say, hey, what are you doing
tithing? That's Old Testament. He's like, you're tithing? We're not tithing. We're not tithers
here. And obviously they're still in the Old Testament. But nowhere does it say here that he
is saying that you shouldn't tithe. In fact, he says these ought ye to have done. You should tithe,
but don't leave the others undone. Essentially showing that there should be a balance of them,
right? But of course, the reason they're tithing is because again, they're money oriented. That's
what they think about. That's what they love. That's their master. So I'm going to stop right
there because I want to get into other portions right here that I want to spend more time on.
It's a really good chapter. So what's one thing we can learn about Matthew 23? Well, first and
foremost, one of the most important things is that God judges people. Jesus Christ judged Pharisees.
Judging people is not a quality of the Pharisees. Hypocrisy was a quality of the Pharisees.
And this just shows us that we need to be aware that people like this still exist today.
Don't have this mentality that, oh, that was back in the first century AD. That doesn't happen
today. No, evil men and seducers wax worse and worse. And the reason I say that, and obviously
not in our church, but a lot of churches are guilty of just kind of breezing over this,
not realizing that this is a real danger today of having people like this trying to infiltrate
churches, bring people back under the law, these Judaizers. And they're false prophets who are
trying to keep people from getting saved. Don't have this mentality of like, well,
I just think all people are just really good. And the people who are preaching a false gospel,
they're just deceived. Yeah, but the Bible says they're deceived and being deceived.
They're deceiving and being deceived, meaning that, yeah, they're deceived because they're
false prophets. But you know, they have no problem spreading that deception as well.
And so no mercy to the false prophet,
because they're going to receive the greater damnation. Okay.
And that's it. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for your word.
And Lord, help us as your people to be aware of these false prophets, Lord. And just as
you gave heed to the disciples and the people around about you in your day when you're here
on this earth, regarding the false prophets who are there, the scribes, Pharisees, lawyers,
Sadducees, Lord, I pray that you'd help us to have boldness as well and and have an eye for it.
We don't need to look for the nail just because we have a hammer. But we do need to recognize that
these people do exist. And it's important to give people the benefit of the doubt, but not be blind
towards the dangers of false prophets, even in our day, who do have the agenda of being hyper
spiritual, devouring widows houses, taking advantage of others and hindering the gospel.
And I pray that you'd help us to have that discernment. We love you. We thank you.
Pray these things in Jesus name. Amen.
I have one last song, song number 187. Jesus loves me.
Song 187. Jesus loves me. Everyone all together, nice and strong.
Jesus loves me. This I know. For the Bible tells me so. Little ones to Him belong.
They are weak, but He is strong. Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me.
The Bible tells me so. Jesus loves me. He who died. Heaven's gate to open wide.
He will wash away my sin. Let His little child come in. Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me.
Yes, Jesus loves me. The Bible tells me so. Jesus loves me. He will stay. Close beside me all the
way. Thou has bled and died for me. I will henceforth live for thee. Yes, Jesus loves me.
Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me. The Bible tells me so.
Amen. Wonderful singing. You are dismissed.